Variety (Jan 1949)

WrdnrgJay^ January S, 1949 Forty-third p^S^RS^nT Annivertary 271 ANYBODY GOT A PYRAMID? T ATE IN OCTOBER when we published ^ Billy Ro«e'« "Wine, Women and Word.," we bought several big ads in which we pointed , out that it was fast, frenetic and funny; Well, shortly after these ads appeared, the distinguished humorist, P. G. Wodehouse^ sent us the following letter: Nov 11,;i948 lletars Simon and Schuster 1230 Sixth Avenue Hew York Citj Oentleaen* 1 have read a number of reviews or WINE, WOMEN AND WORDS and I have aeen aome acres of advertisements, and I an not satisfied with either^ It aeema to ne that the reviewers have all approached the book In a splrtt'Of ■■■amused oondescenslon, - with a sort of .superior sflloker, as It were, as tf they were saying 'So old Billy has written : a book? Wellj well. You never know what*s going to happen these days, do you?'V treating it as If it were a bizarre attempt at a quaint sideshow by a Broadway Jack-lA-the-box who ought to be devoting himself to elephants and swimming girls. I suppose it was Inevitable • But why do you In your advert- •>lsements fall Into the sane trap and take the kidding, tbngue-lii'^the- -cheek angleT I have'now. read WINE, WOMEN AND WORDS three times, and I still adhere to tty original view that It la not a book to be condeseended to or treated as a Joke. It is an extraordinarily fine book, as Intlnate as Pepy* and as salty as Abe Martin, besldes^about twice as funny as anything alsa have read for a good many years* To me It seems that it hka everything, » ehari», wlt> wisdom, thrills and that electric quality whloli Billy calls X. Do please make those advertisements a llttl* atraighter, so that people will realize that this is not just a'Joke book but- something a good deal more Impbrtant. 'Will yer, Jlmt', as Sayles usqd to say to Dooley. If r were hot afraid of being pompous^ 1 would call WISE, WOMEN AND »VORDS ■ iioclal document and a real contribution to American literature. ^ Yours faithfully Next, The Saturday Review of Literature, in its December 4th issue, opined that Billy's opus "combines the narrative quality and barbed jape of Twain and Damon Runyon It and represents "the most widely esteemed, typically American humor of the 1940's.' And now comes the January Atlantic Monthly with these unminced words: "Billy Rose is God's gift in a dreary year, and his book, ^Wine, Women and Words,' the most refreshing slice of Manhattan we've had since Damon Runyon. He writes with a beautiful sense of timing, and with an impeccable ear for dialogue.' Okay, gentlemen, call off your dogs. We .thought we had done right by.our Bill—after all, we printed up his book as pretty as we knew how, threw in a 4ot of colored art by Salvador Dali, and ordered a first run of 30,000 cloth-bound ($3) and 100,000 paper- bound ($1) coiiies. In fairness to ourselves, we must point out that our ads must have im- pressed some folks because "W., W. and W." is now well up on all the bestseller lists; we're ready for a cloth reorder, and we've already taken delivery Ion an extra 50,000 copies of the paper-bound edition. However, we don't want to row with Mr. Wodehouse, The Saturday Review,.And The Atlantic Monthly, and if they think Mons. Rose's writings ought to be carved on the side of a pyramid, we're willing to go along with them. We stand ready to buy the necessary cold chisels and mallets, and hire a hundred members of the Stone-Cutters Uni6n. The only trouble is, we haven't got a pyramid.. Anybody gpt one handy? ] SIMON AND SCHUSTER, Publishers WINE, WOMEN, AND WORDS bySIlLniOSE