So Long As You're Healthy; (Abee Gezundt)
New York, N.Y. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Hardcover. 314, [4] pages. DJ has wear, tears, soiling and chips; Includes Author's note, and short stories on While God Laughs; Swimming in the Ghetto; The Three Myths; Civil Rights and the Terror of the Deep; Language, the Library, and the Lost Vegetable Garden; National Soap Opera; The Agony of Lyndon B. Johnson; Yiddish Humor; Duet on Fifth Avenue; and More Complaints and Free Advice. The material in this book was from issues of the Carolina Israelite in 1962 through 1968. Harry Lewis Golden (May 6, 1902 – October 2, 1981) was an American writer and newspaper publisher. In 1941, he as a reporter for The Charlotte Observer, he wrote about and spoke out against racial segregation and the Jim Crow laws. From 1942 to 1968, Golden published The Carolina Israelite as a forum, not just for his political views but also observations and reminiscences of his boyhood in New York's Lower East Side. He traveled in 1960 to speak to Jews in West Germany and again to cover the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel for Life. Golden reportedly convinced a southern department store manager to put an "Out of Order" sign by the water fountain marked White; within three weeks all were drinking from the Colored-designated drinking fountain. Calvin Trillin devised the Harry Golden Rule, which states that "in present-day America it's very difficult, when commenting on events of the day, to invent something so bizarre that it might not actually come to pass while your piece is still on the presses." His books include three collections of essays from the Israelite and a biography of his friend, poet Carl Sandburg. Derives from a Kirkus review: This concoction of brief articles and commentary has more content than much of Golden's East-Side-boyhood reminiscences. After clearing the decks with his autobiography, the sage of the Carolinas addresses himself afresh to national ills and contemporary phenomena. Among the targets: militant dissidents; plastic politics; on-going bigotry and injustices to minorities. In one serious and thoughtful piece on lynching, Golden puts forth the suggestions that "As a nation we venerate many things, but law is not one of them." Among the inevitable armchair reminiscences, are comments on sexual mores; the movies; ethnic probes; the culinary arts (""Eggplant is a felon of the cuisine""). . . Und so weiter. . . . There is apt to be (as with Saroyan, another compulsive articulator of every personal pulsebeat) a certain amount of mellow pontificating, but in the main, when the issues are hot and deep and strike a nerve, Golden generally stays in the kitchen. Condition: Good / Good.
Keywords: Jewish Humor, Short Stories, Ghetto, Miser, Cassius, Alcoholics, Bribery, Yiddish, Poverty, Ed Cahill, Civil Rights, Tin Pan Alley, Anti-Semitism, Segregation, Gentiles, Censors, Theodore Roosevelt, Ralph McGill, Adam Clayton Powell, Marshall McLuhan
[Book #80267]
Price: $45.00