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I'd Hate Myself in the Morning
A Memoir
Ring Lardner, Jr.
October 2000
ISBN: 156025338X
In lively pages, a cast including Carole Lombard, Louis B. Mayer, Dalton Trumbo, Marlene Dietrich, Otto Preminger, Darryl F. Zanuck, Bertolt Brecht, Bert Lahr, Robert Altman and Muhammad Ali, accompanies Ring Lardner, Jr as he recalls the strange existence of a contract screenwriter in the vanished age of the studio system--an existence made stranger by membership in the Hollywood branch of the American Communist Party.
What readers are saying
"A scrupulous, compassionate cultural history of a surreal time."
--Patricia Bosworth, The New York Times Book Review
"If [the President-elect] can lay his hands on just one book besides the Bible before taking the oath of office, he could learn a lot about America from screenwriter and blacklistee Ring Lardner Jr.'s elegant new memoir, "I'd Hate Myself in the Morning.'"
--The San Francisco Chronicle
"...Lardner died in the arms of his daughter, Kate. 'He was OK,' she said. Lardner outlasted fanaticism and fear as a member of the Hollywood 10. He did not harbor hate nor seek recriminatioin. For him, the way to endure was to overcome."
--New York Newsday
"The only thing wrong with this book is that it's a memoir and not a full-blown autobiography. Lardner was a two-time Academy Award winner--he won the best original screenplay award for Woman of the Year and best adapted screenplay award for M*A*S*H--and a member of the "Hollywood Ten," the group of writers and directors who went to jail rather than name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In this book, he easily blends sketches of his famous father, which almost belie the popular notion of the man, with those of his student days in Moscow and anecdotes of his Hollywood and blacklist years. In fact, the book's title comes from his response to the infamous HUAC question: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? Lardner assesses his Communism and that of some of the others who also went to jail; he also places the testimony of still others in context (though by no means exonerating them). Lardner who died on 31 October (2000) at age 85, remained as opinionated as ever, offering his views on aging, the auteur theory of filmmaking, his colleagues' work, his own unproduced screenplays, and the revival of the religious right in America. In the best tradition of entertainment, this book leaves you wanting more, but sadly, it's the final fade-out for Ring.
--Frank Caso, American Library Association
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July 7 - November 2 | Across the United States
Deborah Stone, a Nation Books author, recently published her fourth book, The Samaritan's Dilemma. Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect calls it "a brilliant and persuasive statement of the case for organized compassion—not out of sentimentality but for the viability of society and our own self regard as a decent people." Listen to her on the radio and get a copy of the book signed at a bookstore on Stone's book tour. Find the schedule here.
August 25
| 6 pm
Bruce Mau Leads Green Symposium
(Denver, Colorado)
Institute Fellow Bruce Mau will lead the Green Constitutional Congress Symposium, which will cover a wide array of green-related topics. The symposium will take place at Buell Theater in Denver; it is produced by the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Colorado-Denver. The symposium is part of the larger event, Dialog:City at the DNC. For more information, click here.
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September 13
2008 ELECTION: What's Really at Stake?
(Cooper Union Auditorium, 30 Cooper Square, NYC)
Come listen to Institute Fellows Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill (also a Nation Books author of Blackwater) speak at a benefit for The Indypendent newspaper at Cooper Union Auditorium in New York City. Additional panelists to be announced; meet the speakers at a special pre-event reception. For more information and to reserve tickets, visit indypendent.org or call (212)-221-0521.
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