Lately Thomas (1898–1977)

A look at a very different family. When Margaret Astor Ward Chanler died in 1875, she left an enormous fortune to her eight children. (A ninth died before reaching adulthood.) Connected by birth and money to the best and wealthiest families in America, the Astor orphans lived a wild, riotous life, unconstrained (for the most part) by conventional notions. Involved in everything from politics, to exploration and hunting, to art movements and nursing as a profession, the Chanlers brought tremendous energy to anything they did.… (altro)

1231. When Even Angels Wept: The Senator Joseph McCarthy Affair - A Story Without a Hero, by Lately Thomas (29 Jul 1973) This was an absorbing read, taking me back to the tumultuous days of my youth. When I started the book I assumed it would be heavily anti-McCarthy. I said to myself after reading the book: " Nobody has anything good to say about McCarthy these days, and of course I never had anything good to say about him ever. But this book is not anti-McCarthy. It makes an attempt to really analyze, but it relies on material available at the time--and substantively Joe comes out pretty well. The people Joe belabored worst did have a curious past, or at least some did, and it makes one wonder whether the type, now never harassed, has disappeared. The book is superficial in a way, and I would like to read a serious study of McCarthy, using all material now available." Reading this book was a simply absorbing re-entry to dear dead long gone days. It was read during the Watergate hearings--the biggest Congressional TV hearings since the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954.… (altro)