HEAT LIGHTNING

8vo 8" - 9" tall; Ex-Library; 246 pages; Signed by Not signed; Ex-library. Blue hard covers wtih black spine wraps. Gold lettering on spine. Spine is straight, binding secure. Usual library marks, stamps and paste-downs present. Interior pages are clean and light aging. No dust jacket. HILDEGARDE DOLSON WRITES GOOD-NATURED, humorous stories that teeter on the brink of cuteness. Her newest goes over the edge but is still as amiable as her dozen other books. A primitive, if nonetheless cheering, idea is at its heart: complicated city folks are no match for simple country folks. Chester Humboldt decides it's not enough to be a millionaire; he wants to be a reform millionaire and get elected to public office, preferably high. He leaves Manhattan for a quiet Connecticut town as his new community because his aides advised him it was perfectas background and springboard: "old. Republican in a democratic way, and very photogenic." There he meets a cross-section of Yankee types, ranging from shrewd though sturdy. Chief among them are Prue Washburn, "a little bean-pot" of a lady from a good old family, and Cassie Murdoch, the young fresh-faced, guileless daughter of the local newspaper editor. With Prue's support, Cassie persuades the city fathers to put on a musical pageant to be composed and directed by her sometime boy friend, the local music teacher, Oliver Yates. The pageant will celebrate what Cassie, in the flush of youthful ardor, calls the old Revolutionary virtues. Well, everybody just gets goose pimples thinking about the old virtues, including Chester. He foots the bill, Cassie and Prue organize and research (what they find out is one of the funniest episodes) , Oliver settles down to his piano, and the whole darn (nobody says anything harsher) picturesque town comes to life. Now enter Alicia Thorne, a local girl who has made a dazzling success in Manhattan as playwright and actress, to offer her theatrical services to her old friend Prue. Oliver promptly fall sat Alicia's elegant feet and, though Alicia encourages and teases him, she is clearly intrigued by Chester. You have probably guessed how the story will end. Miss Dolson isnot, after all, a novelist but a writer of humorous books; half of those credited to her fall into the same category asthis one, a nice combination of sentiment and mockery light-heartedly skimming over a well-constructed plot with thorough going optimism. Here her breezy style has gone a bit skittish and self-conscious, which is a shame since ather best she is vigorously astringent -- Adele Z. Silver

Product Info

Publisher: Lippincott

Year: 1970

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

Seller Info

TheReadingWellBookstore

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Country: United States