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The Groucho Letters: Letters from and to Groucho Marx
Author(s): Groucho Marx
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.7028092
EAN: 9780306806070
ISBN: 030680607X
Label: Da Capo Press
Language(s): English Original LanguageEnglish UnknownEnglish Published
List Price: $16.00
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Package Dimensions:
Height: 0.88"
Width: 5.39"
Length: 0.88"
Weight: 0.99 lbs.
Product Group: Book
Address: 1994-08-21
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Studio: Da Capo Press
Editorial Reviews
Product Description:
No personage is too big, no nuance too small, no subject too far out for Groucho’s spontaneous, hilarious, and ferocious typewriter. He writes to comics, corporations, children, presidents, and even his daughter’s boyfriend. Here is Groucho swapping photos with T. S. Eliot (”I had no idea you were so handsome!”); advising his son on courting a rich dame (”Don’t come out bluntly and say, ’How much dough have you got?’ That wouldn’t be the Marxian way”); crisply declining membership in a Hollywood club (”I don’t care to belong to any social organization that will accept me as a member”); reacting with utmost composure when informed that he has been made into a verb by James Joyce (”There’s no reason why I shouldn’t appear in Finnegans Wake. I’m certainly as bewildered about life as Joyce was”); responding to a scandal sheet (”Gentleman: If you continue to publish slanderous pieces about me, I shall feel compelled to cancel my subscription”); describing himself to the Lunts (”I eat like a vulture. Unfortunately the resemblance doesn’t end there”); 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.
Customer Reviews Average rating - 4.5
Rating - 4 Date: 2008-12-16
Content: It was not a favorite. I've Woody Allen stuff and the GL's may be great for a museum but does not create the "meat in comedy" I was looking for.
Summary: Groucho Marks Letterw
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-02-15
Content: This was my first "Amazon Experience". Like most potential Amazon users, I was a "nervous Nellie", however, I was pleasantly surprised by the efficient service and the quality of the goods I received. I feel confident to continue using Amazon, whenever the need arises.
Summary: Superior Service
Rating - 4 Date: 2003-10-04
Content: The biggest compliment I can give this collection is that reading it made me wish I wrote more letters and had more celebrities among my circle of potential letter-receivers. Of course, inherent laziness being what it is (and the fact that I have so far been frustrated in all such attempts to gain the favor of our nation's collection of celebrities), I'll have to be content reading Groucho's correspondence. And, as alternatives go, it's not bad at all.The book is divided into ten sections: "Movie Business", "Private Life", "Touching On Television", "Groucho and Other Men of Letters", "Grouchy", "Broadway and Hollywood", "For Publication", "Friends Abroad", "The Faintly Political Scene", and "Short Shrift". Of course, there's quite a lot of overlap involved; Groucho had a tendency to ramble, so there isn't a simple way to categorize each individual letter. There are many highlights and surprises. Groucho's communications with the Warner Brother's legal division over the title "A Night In Casablanca" is probably one of the better known exchanges in Hollywood, and deservedly so as it's utterly hilarious. (In short, Warner Brothers claimed that the title violated their copyrights; Marx replies with typical nonsense and wit, claiming, among other things, to have a prior claim on the word "Brothers".) In a letter that I found surprising, Groucho chides the President of the Chrysler Corporation, suggesting that the car company paying more attention to safety concerns would be in everyone's interests as well as saving thousands of lives a year. Groucho Marx as a precursor to Ralph Nader? Who would have guessed it? Groucho's public persona was that of a sarcastic and wisecracking character. Naturally, that personality comes through in his letters. A few passages do put some balance on that. While about 90% of the mentions of his daughter are jokes about her annoying him and absorbing his money in vast quantities, there remains a slight 10% where an almost sweet nature comes through. In a similar vein, he writes a heartfelt letter to Jerry Lewis (of all people), imploring him to take a good hard look at whether he really wants to split with his comedy partner, Dean Martin. To Groucho's credit, he writes a follow-up letter a few years later apologizing for his earlier advice. It's hard to describe the bulk of these letters without simply summarizing them, so I will stop doing so, and will confine myself to simply recommending the book. Groucho corresponded with a wild variety of people in his day, and some of the biggest laughs come for people you wouldn't expect to be quite so witty.
Summary: Not The Screwtape Letters
Rating - 5 Date: 2003-08-27
Content: Groucho's letters (to him and from him) are many in number, and the correspondents he had...wow! Famous authors, politicians, his family, and his numerous friends...it's a huge list, believe me, and the result is a book full of the many moods of Groucho Marx, and his correspondence with some of the most famous people in the world. Don't miss it!
Summary: A must-have for Groucho fans!
Rating - 5 Date: 2002-12-17
Content: I received this book after major surgery some years back and Groucho's wit really helped pick up my spirits and take my mind off of my body. This was one of the best gifts that I've ever received and I'm pleased to see that it's back in print. If you could have a dinner party and invite any historical figures that you wanted, wouldn't Groucho be on the list? This collection of his intimate correspondence is the next best thing.
Summary: This book will cure what ails you!
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