Funny business : the legendary life and political satire of Art Buchwald

Author

Mike Hill

Call Number

• 921 B921H (CEN, OSH)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York : Random House, [2022]

Physical Description

xxv, 307 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Summary

"Before Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, and 'Doonesbury,' there was Art Buchwald. For more than fifty years, from 1950 to 2006, his Pulitzer Prize-winning column of political satire and biting wit made him one of the most widely read American humorists and a popular player in the Washington of Ethel and Ted Kennedy, Ben Bradlee, and Katharine Graham. Dean Acheson, former U.S. Secretary of State, called Buchwald the 'greatest satirist in the English language since Pope and Swift.' But there was another, more serious side to Art Buchwald. A childhood in foster homes taught him to see comedy as a refuge. Buchwald also struggled with depression, which he kept secret from the public for nearly thirty years. Funny Business shows how Art Buchwald became an American original. Like Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, and James Thurber, he satirized political scoundrels, lampooned the powerful and the pompous, and "worshipped the quicksand" that ten different Presidents of the United States walked on, as Buchwald said. The key to Buchwald's style of humor was to 'treat light subjects seriously and serious subjects lightly,' he once said. Over his life, he kept company with Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Ted Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, John Steinbeck, Irwin Shaw, William Styron, and Erma Bombeck. His fun-loving humor and legendary quips earned him interviews and correspondence with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, "Batman" (Adam West), and Robert Frost. Buchwald wrote about such historical events as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, Apollo 11, and Watergate; featured here are stories of Buchwald's non-stop political jabs and one-liners, known in his day as "Buchshots"--

Contents

• "Plastered in Paris" : early years and the comic charms of Paris (1948-1952)
• Raising the stature of ink : funny business at the Herald tribune (1953-1960)
• "Salinger's folly" and "bounties of the banned" : with the Kennedys on the New Frontier (1961-1963)
• Brumus, Batman and Buchwald "Buchshots" : a satirist in a mad, mad world
• the tumultuous 1960s
• Buchwald-at-large : a day in the life of a humorist
• The great Joe Mayflower feud : Buchwald on Broadway (1969-1970)
• "Cruise director on the titanic" : Buchwald in the Nixon years (1969-1974)
• Say amen, Art Buchwald, say amen : laughing through the Carter years (1976-1979)
• Joining the Hertz five star credit card club : goodbye Carter, hello Reagan (1980s)
• A satirist wins a Pulitzer, but loses his humidor (1982-1988)
• A matter of honor : Buchwald v. Hollywood
• act I (1982-1988)
• Drama in Department 52 : Buchwald v. Hollywood
• act II (1989-1995)
• Buchwald blues : years of laughter, years of sorrow (1991-1995)
• "There"s life in the boy yet" : Buchwald is back! (1997-2000)
• "I just don't want to die the same day as Castro" : the last glorious bit of laughter (2000-2007).