New York Days. - book reviews

National Review, Nov 29, 1993 by Jeffrey Hart

NO WRITER should submit to the influence of Thomas Wolfe an influence perhaps even more lethal than that of H.L. Mencken. In the shadow of the North Carolina windbag, Mr. Morris serves up a prose stuffed to the bursting point with multiple adjectives, an inflared prose full of paste gems and exaggerated nostalgia. Mr. Morris sees his editorship of Harper's magazine from 1967 to 1971 as a literary golden age when he pumped new life into the journal by recruiting contributors from among the best writers of the 1960s. He bathes his editorship in the golden glow of youth, chronicling the awe-inspiring achievements of the fabled Young Man from the Provinces who makes it big in Babylon. The problem here is that Mr. Morris is not only a mediocre writer himself but a poor judge of writing generally and much in danger of confusing Elaine's restaurant with the Mermaid Tavern. Most of his admired writers are less writers than celebrities. Mr. Morris thinks the Cowles corporation fired him because Harper's became too adventurous. The truth seems to be that circulation was his problem. One cannot begrudge Mr. Morris the fact that he had a ball as editor, but his book is an embarrassment.

JEFFREY HART

Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, by Maya Angelou (Random House, 141 pp., $17)