The Groucho Letters: Letters from and to Groucho Marx - Hardcover

Groucho Marx

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671292706 ISBN 13: 9780671292706

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1967

Synopsis

No personage is too big, no nuance too small, no subject too far out for Grouchoâ s spontaneous, hilarious, and ferocious typewriter. He writes to comics, corporations, children, presidents, and even his daughterâ s boyfriend. Here is Groucho swapping photos with T. S. Eliot (â I had no idea you were so handsome!â ); advising his son on courting a rich dame (â Donâ t come out bluntly and say, â How much dough have you got?â That wouldnâ t be the Marxian wayâ ); crisply declining membership in a Hollywood club (â I donâ t care to belong to any social organization that will accept me as a memberâ ); reacting with utmost composure when informed that he has been made into a verb by James Joyce (â Thereâ s no reason why I shouldnâ t appear in Finnegans Wake. Iâ m certainly as bewildered about life as Joyce wasâ ); responding to a scandal sheet (â Gentleman: If you continue to publish slanderous pieces about me, I shall feel compelled to cancel my subscriptionâ ); describing himself to the Lunts (â I eat like a vulture. Unfortunately the resemblance doesnâ t end thereâ ); and much, much more. That mobile visage, that look of wild amazement, and that weaving cigar are wholly captured, bound but untamed, in The Groucho Letters.

About this title

About the Author:

As a member of the Marx Brothers, Julius (1895–1977), a.k.a. Groucho, enjoyed a sensational career on Broadway and in Hollywood with such comedy classics as Animal Crackers, Duck Soup, and A Night at the Opera . His solo career included work as a film actor, television game show emcee, and author of Groucho & Me , his autobiography.

Review:

"It is hard to keep from reading bits of this aloud to friends and relations. Groucho in letters is just as devastatingly witty as he was in the movies, to say nothing of other media."

-- Publishers Weekly

"...these letters are good reading, for out of the book Groucho emerges, eyebrows bounding, eyes rolling, cigar jauntily clamped between his teeth, the wisecracks coming a mile a minute. Even Calvin Coolidge might have smiled."

-- Book Week

"Written...with the impudence, irreverence and general lunacy that made Groucho the immortal wise guy of the American screen."

-- Newsweek

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1967
• ISBN 10: 0671292706
• ISBN 13: 9780671292706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 319