As We Are; 17 Conversations between the Americans and the Man from the London Sunday Times
Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1961. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. 282, [2] pages. Illustrations. DJ has several chips and tears. Inscribed and illustrated on the front free endpaper by Henry Brandon. The Inscription reads For an old admirer of Pietro Lepori. Henry Brandon. 20 March, 1961. Brandon also included an ink self-portrait (identified by photo comparison). Rare signed and illustrated. Oscar Henry Brandon CBE (9 March 1916 – 20 April 1993) was a Czech-born British journalist employed by The Sunday Times, who worked for most of his career in Washington. Brandon moved to London in 1939 and became a contributor to The Sunday Times. He then served in the posts of war correspondent from 1943 to 1945, Paris correspondent from 1945 to 1946, roving diplomatic correspondent from 1947 to 1949, and most notably, chief Washington correspondent from 1950 to 1983. In that role, he built friendships with prominent figures in US politics, including Henry Kissinger and John F. Kennedy. It was ordered by the US president, Richard Nixon, that Brandon's phone be wiretapped in 1969, as, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "the extent of his political knowledge was so well known". He was associate editor of The Sunday Times for 20 years, in parallel with his role in Washington, from 1963 to 1983. After retiring from The Sunday Times, he became a guest scholar in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution from 1983 until his death. He also spent time at both The New York Times and The Washington Star as a columnist. According to his colleague Phillip Knightley, it was "well known among the press pack" that Brandon worked for MI6. Henry Brandon, chief of the North American Bureau, Sunday Times of London, sought out seventeen outstanding, articulate Americans--and one equally qualified Englishman (Peter Ustinov, who by now belongs as much to the United States as to his native land)--to analyze America and the Americans. The result is that in this book, we get a picture of our present-day American civilization, as seen by a small and distinguished group of its best leaders. Among those interviewed are Frank Lloyd Wright, Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe, Walter Reuther, Margaret Mead, Leonard Bernstein, John F. Kennedy, Peter Ustinov, Ben Shahn, Edmund Wilson, Herblock, Reinhold Niebuhr, Richard Nixon, Walt Kelly, Norbert Wiener, Isidor I. Rabi, James Thurber and Wernher von Braun. Among the topics address are: Who are the Americans, Quest for Culture, Guggenheim fellowship, Criticism, Performing Arts, Modern Architecture, Political Cartoons, Religious Views, Humor, National Strength and Purpose, Workers, Automation, Literature, Rocketry, and International Competition. Condition: Good / Fair.
Keywords: Analysis of America and Americans, American Civilization, Art of Conversation, Interviews, Frank Lloyd Wright, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Walter Reuther, Margaret Mead, Leonard Bernstein, John F. Kennedy, Peter Ustinov, Ben Shahn, Edmund Wilson
[Book #79811]
Price: $450.00