Book Description
This popular collection contains 1000 entries, 75 photos, and a chronology of events.
Customer Reviews:
The Best of Will Rogers.......2007-01-06
Extremely entertaining and a good read. A must have for Will Rogers fans.
Customer Reviews:
Here's What I Think.......2007-03-05
I searched for what I thought would be the best biography out on Will Rogers and decided on this one, even though it seemed to lack information following his death. I read it, it's good and pretty complete----until Rogers dies. Then it just stops. There is no information given about the funeral--which I understand was absolutely enormous--35000 people in attendance. I like biographies to follow through with funeral and burial information, and Yagoda just drops it here. With all the researching these writers do on books, to go the extra step and give us this information wouldn't hurt. Very disappointed on this point. Yagoda lets us down here.
Lively and Insightful.......2003-02-05
I heartily recommend this book not only to those interested in Will Rogers but also anyone interested in the evolution of American popular culture. Yagoda does an excellent job of writing about the people and events shaping Will's life and work. He does not succumb to sentimentality (perhaps going overboard in trying to prove that Will was not perfect). My only regret is he could have researched Cherokee culture and history more thoroughly, which would have explained a great deal more about Will and his family. Otherwise, very compelling reading.
The best book on Will Rogers currently available.......2002-05-25
This is probably the best biography of Will Rogers currently available. It is comprehensive, insightful, well researched, and balanced. My only complaint with it is that it ends somewhat abruptly. Yagoda touches briefly on the legacy of Will Rogers after his death, but he could have said a great deal more. Rogers's death evoked profound mourning across the US and the rest of the world, and it would have been nice if he had focused a bit more on that. His analysis, however, of why Rogers gradually ceased to be what he was in his own time--arguably the most popular American who ever lived--is very helpful. I had always found his comparative demise to be quite perplexing, and Yagoda does a superb job of explaining this phenomenon.
One of the greatest virtues of the book is that it does not, like many books on Rogers, engage in hagiography. Will Rogers was a very good, compassionate, honest man. Any book on his will show that. He had his faults, but as presented by Yagoda, they do not diminish the man, whatever it may do to the myth. For instance, Yagoda insightfully points out that while Rogers was rightfully lauded for his wisdom and insight, his thought was marred by an inability to comprehend genuine evil. One is left wondering what Rogers's response to Hitler's behavior in the years just after Rogers's death, and what he would have been able to say about the moral complexities of the Second World War. On the other hand, I would very much have welcomed Rogers as a voice of reason during the days of the Communist Witch Hunts.
Anyone interested in Rogers is strongly encouraged to read this book. I would also like to recommend the first chapter in Lary May's THE BIG TOMORROW. This book is a study of the social dimensions of American cinema from the thirties through the fifties. The first and best chapter is about Will Rogers, and remains the best thing that I have read about Will Rogers. I strongly recommend both books.
very interesting.......1998-07-31
this is a great book, it has so much information on life in turn of the century America and vaudville. Also interesting stories of cowboys and indians in will rogers life.it drags alittle in places but for the most part is very enjoyable.
Good overview of Rogers.......1998-02-02
This book gives a good insight into Wills role as world traveler, vaudville comedian, wild west show star, the Ziegfield Follies, movie actor, reporter and familly man. The 20th Centurys Renisance Man
Book Description
Will Rogers was America. Part Cherokee Indian and former cowboy, he captivated audiences around the world with sparkling gems of wisdom cloaked in gentle and uproarious country wit and astonishing rope tricks. His colorful life recently inspired a commercially successful and critically acclaimed Broadway musical -- winner of 6 Tony Awards. His words are as entertaining, inspiring and revelant today as they ever were.
A simple, plain-spoken man, he was the voice of a nation during the '20s and '30s. Movie star, vaudeville headliner, radio commentator, his views and observations were syndicated daily and weekly in over 600 newspapers across the country.
Here is the essential Will Rogers -- the story of his remarkable career, from Oklahoma "cowpuncher" to international star . . . and the warm, knowing and hilarious philosophies of the man embodied the heart and soul of the nation.
Customer Reviews:
kept me reading.......2007-03-09
wish he was still around; maybe our government officials would read this & start to think for a change!!! well written
A solid introduction to a fascinating human being.......2002-03-17
Although this book neither as a biography nor as an anthology of the sayings and writings of Will Rogers explores its subject in any depth, this is a very solid introduction to one of the most fascinating individuals in American history. As a biography, Joseph Carter manages to give an excellent, if brief, summation of the major events in Rogers's life. The last part of the book collects a number of Rogers's better-known sayings. This section is a bit more disappointing, since most of the excerpts are presented somewhat out of the larger context. Sometimes, this doesn't matter. But having read some longer pieces by Rogers's, I find that it doesn't enable the reader to get an adequate feel for the kinds of concerns that Rogers had as a political and social thinker.
Rogers was a humorist, but concerns with political and social issues permeate his work. He was also an enormously complex thinker. Although there was a quaint simplicity and humility to the way Rogers expressed himself, he actually worked out a political position that wasn't entirely at home on either the Right or the Left side of the political spectrum. Although he was in most respects of liberal sympathies, he was almost libertarian in the way he yearned for a small central government that didn't intrude into the lives of everyday individuals. He was profoundly suspicious of big government. At the same, time, he was profoundly non-libertarian in being even more suspicious of big business and capitalism. His sympathies, however, were definitely populist.
Rogers was simultaneously one of the most popular stage performers, movie performers, radio personalities, and political writers of his day, and arguably one of the, if not THE, most popular Americans ever to have lived. This excellent volume will provide the neophyte with a good introduction to all these aspects of Rogers's life and career.
I do believe, however, that we desperately need a good, in-depth anthology of the writings of Will Rogers. I would love to see the Library of America bring out a volume dedicated to Will Rogers. Until they or someone else does this, I am afraid that Rogers will be remembered more as the author of pithy one-liners than as what he was: the most influential political commentator of his day.
Great book for reading-check it out!.......2001-10-18
Excellent reading book combining both a biography and familiar quotations--and writings--from America's best-loved cowboy humorist who lit up the film screen and the radio airwaves during the Roaring 20s and the New Deal 30s. This is a great book for reading--stop by a local bookstore and check it out!
Great book about a great man........1998-11-28
Every school library should have this book! Todays young people need to know about Will Rogers and this book tells it all in great style.
Author's Note.......1998-02-04
After working on Broadway with the producers of "The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue," Avon editor Mark Gompertz suggested I write this book. Lisa Considine was my inspired and inspiring editor. I divided the book one-half to biography and one-half to Will Rogers' own words. It has sold more than 82,000. Several newspapers and pundits gave it good reviews. Avon continues to print and stock the book. Beyond my position as director of the Will Rogers museum of Claremore, Oklahoma and the 400-acre 1879 birthplace and living history ranch near the tiny town of Oologah, I have spent most of my life as a newsman and speech writer. I invite comments about the book and will be happy to respond. If you buy the book and drop by the museum in Claremore, I generally am available to personalize your copy. The price offered here is the best bargain I have seen for the book. Thanks for your interest. Joseph H. Carter, Box 157 Claremore, Oklahoma 74018.
Book Description
Read by the most sophisticated audiences in the world, Will Rogers also spoke to and for the great normal majority. He tackled the most complex ideas and cut them down to size. A flying reporter, he traveled the world and wrote about events as if they were happening in the next country.
Since the Will Rogers Memorial opened in November 1938, many of the 25 million visitors to the shrine have asked for his "gags," his jokes or his "sayings." Thousands of other folks have written to ask what Rogers had to say on particular topics -what sage remarks he made on Hoover, taxes, the depression or Hollywood, among other things.
Choice bits of his wit and wisdom on many subjects fill the pages of this book. Selected by the Memorial staff members form collected writings of Will Rogers, the sayings will make you nod your head and say, "You know, he's right about that!"
You will want to repeat them to friends over coffee. You can use them to spice up a speech or column. Or to do your heart good as you chuckle to yourself on a long plane trip.
Customer Reviews:
Will Rogers Says.......2007-09-05
I have been a student and "fan" of Will Rogers for many years and this book of quotes truly captures the essence of the man that he was. Will was, indeed, a man for the times and he helped a struggling country maintain a smile and a bit of humanity during some truly difficult years.
Customer Reviews:
knowledge for fun.......2006-01-04
I have read every book in this series. They are entertaining and knowledgeable. I love reading them to my children now.
Book Description
Will Rogers captured the hearts of Americans with his thoughtful political humor; his dedication to country, family and friends; and his amazing ability to speak truth to life's fundamentals. In this delightful new biography, author Joseph Carter covers the details of Rogers's family history, the many milestones in his professional life, and America's fascination with this incredible figure. Rogers's famous quotes and quips are woven throughout the book, making it a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish.
Customer Reviews:
The Quotable Will Rogers.......2006-02-25
From Stevie Harrison, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
Please tell Mr. Carter that I got an A in American Literature class with my review of his book on sayings by Will Rogers. Both my parents enjoyed the book, and my teacher wants me to lend it to her.
Do you have his other books for sale? Is Mr. Carter writing another book?
Stevie Harrison and Rafael Calderòn.
Customer Reviews:
The Old West Remembered.......2003-10-30
This is a classic work of Western nonfiction by a Montana artist whose drawings and paintings helped create the iconography of the early cowboy of the open range. Also a storyteller, Russell wrote this collection of yarns and memories before his death, commemorating frontier life in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. It was published in 1927, with an introduction by Will Rogers in the form of a cowboy eulogy. The original edition featured more than 50 of Russell's illustrations, some of them in color.
Unlike the fairly rollicking account of Teddy Blue Abbott, his cowboy contemporary, Russell's book is a more melancholy view of what he remembers as the good old days. His stories are told in an ironic vernacular by an old-timer cowboy named Rawhide Rawlins. Many concern the adventures of cowboys; many also feature Native Americans, in the early years of the agencies (reservations), portrayed with some complexity of feelings, ranging from fear and distrust to respect. Some are outrageously tall tales. Some are spirited character sketches, capturing something of life on the rough, raw land before settlement and homesteading, the motorcar, and civilization - before the plow broke the prairie sod where buffalo and then cattle and cowboys ranged freely.
One of the finest pieces of Western writing occurs in the last chapter, "Longrope's Last Guard," which describes in vivid detail the experience of riding herd on a pitch dark night as the stillness is shattered by an electrical storm that stampedes the cattle and takes the life of one of the men. The burial of the dead cowboy on the open prairie and the subsequent disappearance of his grave is symbolic of the passing of the brief frontier era Russell's words and pictures embrace.
I recommend this book for its capturing of the historical cowboy as remembered by a man who was there and lived among them. As a companion volume, I also recommend Teddy Blue Abbott's "We Pointed Them North," a well-detailed and more light-hearted recollection of the same time and place.
Trails Plowed Under by Charlie Russell.......2001-11-17
This book is one of my top ten favorites. I bought my first copy in 1972 for my father who passed away a year later. I have re-read this book many times with increased pleasure each time. It not only has Charles Russell's drawings and paintings, it has some of the best short stories I have ever read. I've lived in the West pretty much all my life and the characters he portrays ring so true that you know he knew them. He not only knew them, he was able to capture their essence in a few words. I usually don't laugh out loud at what I'm reading, but many of these stories are just plain "laugh out loud" funny. Anyone who enjoys Cowboy Poetry needs to have this in their library. It's not poetry per se, but gives you the same Western flavor in its writing. Most of the stories can be read in 5 minutes or less. I give it a solid 10 out of 5 stars.
Word pictures from a master painter.......2001-01-05
Will Rogers said Charlie Russell wasn't "just another" cowboy artist, he wasn't "just another" anything. Though remembered mostly for his paintings, this book proves that Charlie Russell was a keen observer of human nature. This is a sentimental look back at a world that disappeared in Russell's lifetime. The stories will leave you nostalgic for a time you never knew.
Customer Reviews:
Very informative of the Will Rogers/Wiley Post accident.......1998-10-21
The authors have spent years researching Will Rogers. In this book, they provide insight into the friendship of Will Rogers and Wiley Post. A friendship which ended in their untimely death when their plane crashed in Alaska. The book tells the biography of Rogers and Post. Will Rogers has been writtten about and spoken of often. However, it is hard to find articles about Wiley Post. This was what I was seeking when I read the book, as Wiley and I descended from the same Post family. The book contained articles which I'd never heard before. Very well written and interesting.
FASCINATING INSIGHT INTO THE POST/ROGERS AIRCRASH IN BARROW.......1997-12-10
IF YOUR INTERESTS TEND TOWARD HISTORICAL FIGURES AND AVIATION, THIS IS AN INTENSELY INTERESTING BOOK. THIS IS NOT ANOTHER REHASH OF THE POST/ROGERS CRASH IN BARROW, BUT RATHER A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ALL THE PERSONALITIES AND HISTORY BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE CRASH AS WELL AS HOW THEY ALL TIED INTO THE TRAGEDY. THE AUTHOR BUILDS A FASCINATING, FACTUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACCIDENT AND A CONVINCING CASE AS TO WHY IT HAPPENED---AND IT'S NOT WHAT THE AUTHORITIES OF THE TIME WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE.
Customer Reviews:
Well Rounded View of Will Rogers.......2000-05-22
This is a wonderful book about Will Rogers from his wife's perspective. I feel I got to know more about Betty Blake Rogers, as well as getting more insight into her husband's character. It was quite interesting to get the family's view of life with Will. This book is a wonderful addition to my library of Will Rogers books, rounding out the public image from the other books, with a private viewpoint in this book.
Average customer rating:
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Will Rogers at the Ziegfeld Follies
Will Rogers
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
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NBC News Presents - The Story Of Will Rogers (Narrated By Bob Hope)
