WIT'S END; DAYS AND NIGHTS OF THE ALGONQUIN ROUND TABLE

Reflecting America of the 1920s was the glittering group that regularly gathered at the Algonquin Round Table. Alexander Woollcott, a theater critic, was at its center, surrounded by the writers, actors, and socialites that came to be known as the smart set.

James R. Gaines traces the Round Table's ten central figures, how they came together and stayed together and how they dispersed. Under the bright legend and bon mots, Gaines finds darker currents: a consuming interesting press releases, loneliness and alcoholism, boundless egos. Most surprising, though, was the Round Table's often suffocating effect on the talent of its members.

Lavishly illustrated, 'Wit's End' is an engrossing portrait of our most famous literary circle and the age in which it flourished.

CONTENTS: 1) To War and Back: A Prologue 2) A Coincidence of Self-Interests 3) Raising On a Pair 4) Performing Seals and Flying Fish 5) Beyond the Red Velvet Cord 6) No good-Byes 7) After: An Epilogue