Nuts in May

by Cornelia Otis Skinner, Constantin Alajalov (illustrator)

Black-and-white illustrations. Most of book was originally published in New Yorker Magazine.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Essays, Biography

189 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Cornelia Otis Skinner was an American author and actress. Skinner was the daughter of the actor Otis Skinner and his wife Maud (Durbin) Skinner. After attending the all-girls' Ethel Walker School, and Bryn Mawr College (1918-1919) and studying theatre at the Sorbonne in Paris, she began her career on the stage in 1921. She appeared in several plays before embarking on a tour of the United States from 1926 to 1929 in a one-woman performance of short character sketches she herself wrote. She wrote numerous short humorous pieces for publications like The New Yorker. These pieces were eventually compiled into a series of books, including Nuts in May, Dithers and Jitters, Excuse It Please!, and The Ape In Me, among others.
With Emily Kimbrough, she wrote Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, a hilarious description of their European tour after college. Kimbrough and Skinner went to Hollywood to act as consultants on the film version of the book, which resulted in We Followed Our Hearts to Hollywood. Skinner was portrayed by Bethel Leslie in the shortlived 1950 television series 'The Girls,' based on Our Hearts Were Young and Gay.
In later years Skinner wrote Madame Sarah, a biography of Sarah Bernhardt, and Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals about the Belle Epoque.
She also appeared with Orson Welles on The Campbell Playhouse radio play of The Things We Have on May 26, 1939.

Reviews

[Ryan M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those treasure finds! A hilarious book/play that is well written and really an easy read, that will have you laughing out loud!

I had never heard of Cornelia Otis Skinner, until my daughter's acting troupe decided to do the play "Nuts in May." I spent that weekend reading the play and looking up Cornelia Otis Skinner and was dumbstruck that I had not heard of her before. I now have a new (old) author to add to my list! The only draw back is that much of Cornelia's writings are hard to find, but really well worth the hunt!

[Ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another forgotten gem from 1942 that should be read and remembered! If you love P.G. Wodehouse’s humor and writing style, this would be the perfect read for you. It is a collection of humorous essays about various aspects of the author’s life as a stage actress, as a mother, as a house buyer and more. They are all delightful and hilarious! Each page of the book is rife with funny descriptions and similes. I love it and highly recommend it!

[Stephanie Lucianovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Cornelia Otis Skinner's writing. I don't want to compare her to male writers, because that happens too much to female writers, but I read James Thurber years before I read Skinner and she's like a female Thurber.

Hilarious, with lots of laugh-out-loud moments. She wrote a handful of similar books -- mostly compilations of essays, some published in the New Yorker in the 40s/50s -- that are really hard to find. I have a stack from the library I'm slowly working through, but one of her easily findable books is "Their Hearts Were Young and Gay," which is a story of her trip to Europe with a college friend. Anyone who likes Betsy, Tacy, and Tib stories should read it.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

While on a trip a few years ago my friends and I stopped at a used bookstore. I was sitting on one of those step stools waiting impatiently for them to finish looking when i spotted the spine of an old book with a nude woman drawn on it. Of course I had to pull it out and look and I'm so thankful I did. This is one of the best books and funniest I have ever read. It's a book of humorous essays similar to Please Don't Eat The Daisy except these stories are from the 1920s and 1930s. They will have you laughing hysterically.

[Keri Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 4.5 star read, rounded up! Nuts in May is a delightful collection of humorous essays, originally published in The New Yorker from 1942 to 1950. I came across it whilst perusing book blogger Stuck in a Book's "50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About." My library had but one faded, ancient copy of it, and I don't think anyone had checked it out for decades. Some of the essays are funnier than others, so it wasn't a full 5 star for me, but the essays that were funny were truly full of hilarity! Cornelia Otis Skinner's sense of humor reminded me quite a bit of Shirley Jackson's humor in her non-fiction books. Some stand out chapters for me were:

"Ordeal for Sons," in which Cornelia visits her son at boarding school; unfortunately for her, he is completely mortified by her presence.

"Family Blessing," in which Cornelia and her parents, none of them actually Catholic and entirely ill-equipped for the event at hand, end up meeting the pope.

"Bag of Bones," in which Cornelia and her son find what they presume to be dinosaur bones and laboriously lug them to a museum.

"Opening Night," in which everybody else is more stressed than Cornelia before her opening night performance.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing book with pithy observations on being an actress, mother, and traveler. Skinner was a successful actress and has great stories about being roped in to doing a reading of an incredibly long and badly cast play about China, about dealing with people who come backstage after a show with nothing to say, and people who seem to be suffering more than the actress over an upcoming opening night. The essay on buying a house with the legion of lawyers, secretaries, and unidentified other serious people is hilarious and still so true. Skinner is able to poke fun at herself in a most enjoyable manner.

[Chrisanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some funny bits and some very not funny bits(among them ones about her son and the fiction piece which was very ... datedly racist).

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays.

[Christine McCann · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Amusing stories, but some were more amusing to me than others. A few felt padded out. Or, I suspect, they would be funnier if one could listen to C.O.S. reading them aloud!

[Birdie]

Insane of Cornelia to just casually drop halfway through an essay that her husband has a wooden leg? If I were her, that would be the first thing that I talk about, always.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

not as funny as I exprcted

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy reading Cornelia Otis Skinner's essays. I love her sense of humor and her eloquent voice.

[Mesembryanthemum · Rating 3 out of 5]

NO ISBN
Book ID: 10300007

[Jennifer Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the witty storytelling of Cornelia Otis Skinner and her dear friend, Emily Kimbrough.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actress and writer Cornelia Otis Skinner wrote humorous columns for several publications in the early part of the 20th century. The pieces collected in this book are mostly from The New Yorker. My favorites are “Ordeal for Sons” (an account of her visit to her young son at boarding school, where “he regards me with tolerance, embarrassment, and moments of profound shame,” proving that sons haven’t changed much over the years); “Actors Will Do Anything” (a hilarious account of the reading of a new play by the author and some friends – including Vincent Price – done as a favor for a friend); “Family Blessing” (in which the author and her parents have an audience with the Pope); and “Bag of Bones” (in which the author’s son finds some old bones while on vacation in Colorado and insists on lugging them home, believing them to be an ancient fossil find). Her writing never fails to make me smile!