It was time, he thought, to settle once and for all the boundary between the civilized world and the barbarian world.

122 the Emperor Hadrian arrived at what is now the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to look at the farthest frontier of the Roman Empire. is a senior editor of the American Heritage Publishing Company. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.JOSEPH J. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. For Bemelmans was 'the man who came to cocktails'. (Line drawings-not seen.)Īn extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through.

An effective combination of eyeball observation, rich history, and sad acknowledgement of how poorly we have used still another national resource. And he's eloquent in his plea that the coastline be kept open to all instead of being fenced off and guarded, as over 90 percent of it already is.

Thorndike applauds the work of conservationists and shows what nature can do to an overbuilt shore-front, whether by the slow death of erosion or by the hammer blow of a Hurricane Hugo. Flagler, who built the railroad to the Florida Keys. The early explorers are all mentioned here- Champlain, Hudson, Verrazano, and many less famous-as are the planners and developers, from Robert Moses of New York to Henry M. Along the way, he visits the top of Manhattan's Twin Towers and Virginia's Chincoteague Island Maine lobstermen tell of mysterious winter fires in the houses of summer people and Coast Guard officers tell of rescuing boaters in the waters off the Virginia Capes. Thorndike's record of the journey-actually, several trips over a period of years-takes him down the coast from Maine to Key West. A well-written travelogue from a founding editor of American Heritage who drove the length of the East Coast with frequent stops to walk the beaches and talk with natives.

The Coast by Joseph J. Thorndike Jr.