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Enter, Conversing
Stated First Edition. A near fine copy in a very good dust jacket. Some dust spots on the edges of the book's upper page block. The dust jacket is heavily tanned at its spine and at the panels' margins. Diagonal, 1/2" closed tear at the front panel's lower right corner.
309 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1962
12 people want to read
About the author
Clifton Fadiman
223 books37 followersClifton Paul "Kip" Fadiman was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 21, 2024
According to Goodreads, I started this book more than 2 years ago. So it goes with books of essays and short stories: the sense of completion after each section makes it hard to come back when so many other books and stories beckon.
I bought this book many years before I started it—specifically sought it out, since it is out of print—and now can't recall what took me to it. I suspect it had something to do with his essays on teaching and education. There was a time when I was going down a lot of bibliographic rabbit holes in that area.
The essays on those subjects make up a minority of the content and are all housed at the end of the book. I (foolishly?) determined to wait until I made it all the way there sequentially before partaking of the essays that probably brought me to the book, like saving dessert for after dinner.
Clifton Fadiman is Anne Fadiman's father, the author of The Spirit Catches and You Fall Down. I only learned this because a friend was reading her memoir about her relationship with him while visiting me.
His writing is a relic of another era, and oozes with that particular kind of snobbishness that comes after decades of social climbing. There's a certain bombast and confidence to it that feels midcentury as well, and you begin to feel that the primary thing that distinguishes the contemporary era is all our hedging.
But what feels most anachronistic today is hard to put your finger on... The essays proceed in a way that no essay today would, and I only hit on why towards the end of the whole collection: the internet has entirely obviated his form. There is a fundamental assumption underlying every meandering reflection that they offer, likely, the reader's window on the wider world. The book was published in 1962, but many of the essays were first published in the 50s, when still nearly half the US population had no television in its home.
The book was published at an inflection point: by the time it came out, 90% of families had TVs, and a few years later, the majority would convert to a color-capable version. Fadiman was writing to an older crowd, swept up by those changes, but still turning to text to make sense of their world. We're so much more image- and video-dependent these days.
Fadiman comes across as stodgy, but deeply in love with the world.
I bought this book many years before I started it—specifically sought it out, since it is out of print—and now can't recall what took me to it. I suspect it had something to do with his essays on teaching and education. There was a time when I was going down a lot of bibliographic rabbit holes in that area.
The essays on those subjects make up a minority of the content and are all housed at the end of the book. I (foolishly?) determined to wait until I made it all the way there sequentially before partaking of the essays that probably brought me to the book, like saving dessert for after dinner.
Clifton Fadiman is Anne Fadiman's father, the author of The Spirit Catches and You Fall Down. I only learned this because a friend was reading her memoir about her relationship with him while visiting me.
His writing is a relic of another era, and oozes with that particular kind of snobbishness that comes after decades of social climbing. There's a certain bombast and confidence to it that feels midcentury as well, and you begin to feel that the primary thing that distinguishes the contemporary era is all our hedging.
But what feels most anachronistic today is hard to put your finger on... The essays proceed in a way that no essay today would, and I only hit on why towards the end of the whole collection: the internet has entirely obviated his form. There is a fundamental assumption underlying every meandering reflection that they offer, likely, the reader's window on the wider world. The book was published in 1962, but many of the essays were first published in the 50s, when still nearly half the US population had no television in its home.
The book was published at an inflection point: by the time it came out, 90% of families had TVs, and a few years later, the majority would convert to a color-capable version. Fadiman was writing to an older crowd, swept up by those changes, but still turning to text to make sense of their world. We're so much more image- and video-dependent these days.
Fadiman comes across as stodgy, but deeply in love with the world.
December 14, 2015
The topics Mr. Fadiman covers in the many essays that make up this book kept me reading to see what he would say next. I agree with him on the quality of literature. I also enjoyed the list of books for children. Enjoyable read!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews