The Best of Ogden Nash

Product Details

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• ISBN13: 9781566637039

Description

More of Ogden Nash's poems have come to light, both in the voluminous Nash collection at the University of Texas at Austin, and in family letters and papers. So his daughters have once again produced The Best of Ogden Nash, the definitive Nash anthology. Some of these new poems reveal a darker side of the poet; others are full of fun. But all display the talent of the man whose verse entranced America--and a good part of the world--from the time of the Great Depression until his death in 1971. While earlier collections were organized chronologically, The Best is arranged by subject matter: the subjects of Nash's poems cannot always be identified by his titles, so fans of a particular poem will not have to search for it in vain.

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Customer Reviews

Great content; lousy formatting
This is a great selection of Nash's stuff, including a any number of items that were completely new to me. However, the formatting is awful. The book has been done as a series of images, which means that the Kindle type size adjustment key does nothing. Many pages are in such small type that a lot of people will find them unreadable or very burdensome to read. Being well into middle age and myopic from childhood, I had to take off my glasses and hold the Kindle about 6 inches from my nose. Not a pleasant reading experience.

2010-03-16 (Central North America) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 2

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O. Nash is still funny
Ogden Nash was read by many in the early 20th century and forgotten. He is still a funny poet who get his point across in verse. How wonderful if children could still quote from this unique American poet.

2010-01-23 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Fun Reading on any Page
What a fun collection. You can open it randomly to most any page and have a fun read. Some of the poems have aged better than others, but even those are a slice of history. I especially enjoy the ones about New York City. They are glimpses into how things used to be in my home town.

2009-10-25 | kayaking graphic designer (NYC, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Best of Ogden Nash
I was looking forward to the availability of Ogden Nash on the Kindle. The implementation is sadly lacking however in that the verses are a series of images of text rather than actual text. This does not allow for searching for a section of verse.

Even worse, the verse images display the text in different sizes from page to page and within the same page. Some of the images display text that proved too small to read comfortably. This renders an unacceptable percentage of the material unreadable. Amazon should pull this version from the Kindle store.

2009-06-17 (Tulsa, OK USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 1

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Fun Poetry
I had encountered Nash's poetry some years back and had an LP of The Carnival of the Animals poem read by Noel Coward with his special enunciation of all the words. Since then, I have been searching for a printed copy and this book does it for me. Nash's menagerie of animals is fun.

2009-03-16 | Movie affectionado (Indiana, USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Candy is Dandy: The Best of Ogden Nash

Description

A bumper volume of the best poems by a hugely funny and quotable writer.

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Customer Reviews

Poetic fun for all ages
Nash's verse blends sense and nonsense in a way that all makes sense--with odd observations, words made up or transformed just to make the rhyme scheme, and idiosyncratic metaphors and analogies. Read them aloud, to your parents, your children, your students, your teachers, your friends. You get the idea.

2006-08-12 (Lyons, CO United States) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Poetry as fun
Ogden Nash is a poet
But he doesn't noet

If you love lines that do not bother too much about archaic rules of spelling and poetry, and are out to have fun, then here is a world you cannot miss.

This book is best enjoyed read aloud, with a few friends, with a few drinks:-)

2006-02-28 | Churud.geo (Bangalore, India) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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fun
it is a fun read

2006-01-15 | chris (Glendale, AZ United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Poems Peppered with Puns
Being poem-illiterate, this book came by as a pleasant surprise to me.
This book is a collection of light, humurous poems. Most of the poems are about children, but there are poems on other subjects too, like marriage. Children rule the roost though.

Its the kind of book when you glance through your book rack, spot this book, pick it up to read just one poem, but can't put it down until you have re-read all the poems. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to sit back and enjoy a humurous poem peppered with puns. And if you dislike children, this book is written for you.

Its a book that you got to have on your shelf.

2005-08-09 | Sanyuja (Bangalore, India) | Helpful Votes: 13 | Rating: 5

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Why is this man so uncelebrated?
Nash's work is too often regarded as light and meaningless; admittedly some of the work is very much "of it's time" now, but it is largely rich, diverse, insightful and wonderfully clever.
The rhymes are complex and intriguing and form great volumes of biting social comment. They are deliciously constructed and achingly funny at times.
Yet he seems to be an almost forgotten "Children's" poet, even if this were the case, are not some writers for Children so good as to far exceed the virtues of those who write for adults?
Rhold Dahl, J K Rowlins, Lewis Carrol and E Nesbitt spring to mind, Nash needs also to be on that hallowed list.
He really should be regarded as an American National treasure!

2005-03-12 | S B H. (Leicester UK) | Helpful Votes: 21 | Rating: 5

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Ogden Nash's Zoo

Description

Rampant wit and humor abound in this new collection of Nash's best-loved verses about animals, delightfully illustrated by award-winning illustrator Etienne Delessert. 65 black-and-white illustrations.

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Customer Reviews

Ogden Nash's Zoo
Excellent addition to children's library. Will please animal lovers. The book has short verses for every letter of the alphabet. Great for expanding parents and kids vocabulary.

2010-04-09 | read every day (San Francisco, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Nash-ional best seller
At the risk of seeming rash
I recommend this book by Nash.
I haven't found a rhyme for Ogden,
Although I came close once when fogged-in.

By the way this book is NOT by Etienne Delessert, as listed above, although he is the illustrious illustrator.

2004-05-23 | Russ (Boston) | Helpful Votes: 15 | Rating: 5

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Nash-itize!
Ogden Nash is my favorite poet, and I probably like his poems on different animals the most. They're quicker. Quick poems are prefferred by me, because they don't take too long to read and I can sit and think about them, and even feel like reading them again. Here's one, and I didn't write it, Ogden Nash did:

The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid?

2004-03-20 (Higley, AZ) | Helpful Votes: 17 | Rating: 5

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My favorite bedtime read to my daughters.
I look forward to these verses again and again. Unlike most bedtime stories, you can set the length of reading time to your situation. the humor stimulates your imagination and makes you want to add verses. Just lots of fun!

1999-10-05 | Helpful Votes: 27 | Rating: 5

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DELIGHTFUL!
A collection of animal poems, for anyone who thinks animals are funny!

1999-01-31 | Helpful Votes: 14 | Rating: 5

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Selected Poetry of Ogden Nash

Description

The ultimate collection of verses by America's best-loved humorous author, culled from collections put together by Nash himself. Features Nash's unique rhymes, puns, and observations about everything under the sun.

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Customer Reviews

Dangerous Little Ditties
If you like this book, and the sweetly subversive worlds of George Booth, Ogden Nash or Shel Silverstein, then you should pick up Nick Bantock's (of Gryphon & Sabine fame), "Averse to Beasts," a book with cassette whose dangerous little ditties rival Nash's in their hilarity with a dose of arsenic.

2004-11-25 | invisibird (Westchester, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Terse Verse
Don't trash
Ogden Nash.
His words
ain't turds
His swirls
Are pearls.

2004-08-18 (Roslindale, MA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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Lacks indices of titles or first lines.
This book seems to contain all of Ogden Nash's best verses. But good luck finding them: there is no index of titles or first lines. With so many verses, many of them titled counter-intuitively, you will only find the verse you seek by sheer luck, if at all.

2004-01-16 (Berkeley, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 10 | Rating: 2

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Great work, poor copy editing
This is a completely enjoyable collection that keeps me smiling as I read. Unfortunately, it seems the proof reader relied on a computer's spell-checker program. It let him down.

The spelling errors surprised me. I guess I may have spotted an error or two in other books, but I seem to keep stumbling on them in this book. They're distracting and it seems almost sinful to have let them appear in this wonderful collection.

Mr. Nash's insight, humor and unique form are well represented here in the 650 rhymes, verses, lyrics and poems. They are grouped by general subject matter. Thumb through the contents and see what you're in the mood for. Nash will make you smile or even laugh out loud.

2003-12-11 | desmobob (Whitehall, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 4

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More clever than brilliant, but clever is good.
Ogden Nash should probably be considered more of a humorist than a poet. After all, he makes up words and sometimes totally disregards any sense of meter. Maybe "rhyming humorist" would be most accurate (even though there is some real poetry here, too). In my opinion, his strongest poems are his shortest. I particularly enjoy his poems about animals. Some of his humor seems a little dated and, unlike a previous reviewer, I found little here that, for me, was laugh-out-loud funny. One of my favorite poems in the book is actually a serious poem, "A Carol for Children". But, hey, if you want serious poetry, get some Emily Dickinson. Ogden Nash is good if you need a lighthearted chuckle.

2001-02-16 (Tulsa, OK USA) | Helpful Votes: 13 | Rating: 3

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Book of Ogden Nash

Description

Here, in one volume, are the most popular poems of one of the most popular poets of the twentieth century -- perhaps of the last twenty centuries. Delightfully nonsensical, they in fact make the best of sense, accomplishing what only real poetry can -- allowing the reader to discover what he didn't know he already knew or felt.

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Customer Reviews

The Poetic Humor Of Ogden Nash
I became acquainted with the writings of Ogden Nash while growing up in the 1960's. His brand of humorous poetic works amused me a great deal, and one of the reasons I started writing poetry during the 1970's. I had his book The best Of Ogden Nash but lost it sometime during one of our moves. When I began writing poetry again a few years back his book was one that I had to have in building my collection of books.

2009-10-24 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Clever, light-hearted poetry
I don't really enjoy reading poetry, and I don't suggest reading volumes of poetry at a time. I do, however, suggest reading this book of Ogden Nash, reading the poems individually instead of as a collection. Some may find his verse stupid, some simple, but I find it charming.

2000-08-03 | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 4

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A Genius of Comic Poetry
Often unheard of poet, Ogden Nash, serves as a reminder that poetry itself does not need to be mushy, polite or romantic. Or for that matter psychological, philisophical or religious. Nash's poetry, written from the early 20's to the late 50's is remark on the social niceties. A critique of the love-hate relationship of men and women. A funny peek into the lives of animals. And silly stories for the sake of being silly. The uniqueness in Nash's work is not the poetry itself, but his play with words. Its clear he does not take language seriously at all which allows him to mix and maneuver words to create new ones that will create a genuine laugh. Such as: "Well I have learned that life is something about which you can't conclude anything except that it is full of vicissitudes. And when you expect logic you only come across eccentricitudes." The other aspect of Nash's writing is his outlaw verse where, although things rhyme, the rythm is thown askew.

"I know that a year has rolled around once more

When I find myself thumbing a crisp new cigarette lighter just like the coven of other cigarette lighters strewn on a shelf in the garage along with the broken tire chains and the license plates for 1934."

Nash's work was surely ahead of its time and I am dleighted to have come across such remarkable work. I highly reccomend this, not just to poetry lovers, but also to those that appreciate language and humor.

2000-07-31 (San Diego, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 25 | Rating: 5

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Ogden Nash great book
This was an excellent book if u are in the dumps and want to laugh, I sure did, it pulled me out of my 12 year depression, after i read this book i decided to go after my life long dream of becoming...

2000-05-16 (Richmond, Indiana) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 4

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Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light Verse

Description

Candy / Is dandy / But liquor / Is quicker. These inimitable lines could only have been written by Ogden Nash, the American nonpareil of light verse and one of the more remarkable figures in American letters. His keen grasp of human nature and a unique style of verse made him, in the mid-twentieth century, the most widely read and frequently quoted poet of his time. For years, readers have longed for a biography to match Nash's charm, wit, and good nature; now we have it in Douglas Parker's absorbing life of the poet. Mr. Parker has had exclusive access to family letters and diaries, and permission to quote liberally from them and from Nash's poems. He has written a warm and inviting biography of the poet who reveled in whimsy and wordplay, but who was applauded by his more serious contemporaries.

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Customer Reviews

OK biography
OK biography of New Yorker poet Nash, famous for Candy/is Dandy/But liquor/is Quicker and other short poems of whimsy and poignant humor. Nash, of patrician lineage and noblesse oblige leanings, actually has family roots in Hillsborough, NC (I knew that was a snooty place), but for all that seems like a decent guy.

2008-10-23 (Raleigh, NC) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Nashville
Loved the book. Ogden Nash? Not so much. As a little boy I loved his verses and would browse through THE NEW YORKER slapping the pages from left to right to see if they were carrying a new Nash poem that week. Often as not, they were, then I'd be happy, crawling away toward my treehouse to memorize his goofy sense of humor and his sophisticated attitude towards marriage. I can see how, without Ogden Nash, there might never have been a Stephen Sondheim. Parker is his ideal biographer. Obviously he had a lot of assistance from Nash's two enigmatic daughters, Linell and Isabel, whose photographs make them look like two grave Snow Whites. And yet he is not afraid to call a spade a spade, and we get the picture that the mother of these two girls, Frances, was often a Xanthippe for reasons unknown.

It's great that Parker did so much work towards reconstructing Nash's other life as a Broadway lyricist, and I'm sure that his account of Nash's work with Kurt Weill and with Vernon Duke will never be excelled.

He doesn't really pay much attention to the Hollywood work, however, and I don't know if he even bothered screening the Jeanette MacDonald starrer THE FIREFLY (co-written with Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett), which is nothing short of excellent.

The story gets grim as Nash ages and his career takes a nosedive. You get to despise Roger Angell, Nash's editor at THE NEW YORKER, for being such an obseqious Uriah Heep, even when he's rejecting Nash's latest efforts. It's like he delights in kicking Nash's butt while kissing it at the same time. Nash seems aware of Angell's double nature, but doesn't really know what to do about it. THE NEW YORKER seems like a velvet trap--can't live without it, but it tears you to pieces inside. I also enjoyed reading the parodies or pastiches of Nash's verse that Parker has collected from all different sources, from Dorothy Parker to Scott Fitzgerald, everyone wanted a piece of the man.

To top it all off, Dorothy Lamour got upset with Nash and laid into him with both barrels, when he wrote a poem for her to read on the air that contained the word "conundrum." She thought it risque, perhaps confusing it with "condom," and refused to save her reputation. Furious, she lashed out, "If you don't think I know what that word means--and that I'll be fool enough to say it on the air--you're crazy! I wasn't born yesterday!" Nash wrote to Frances, "she's very pleasant but as dumb as you would imagine." (Not as bad as his opinion of poor Ginger Rogers: "coarse, painted, dyed.")

2006-05-28 (San Francisco, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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We Should Remember Nash
When I think of Ogden Nash, I think first of a poem I read in school a long time ago titled "The Purist." I have read it too many times to actually laugh out loud again, but I still smile when I read it. I become the kid I once was somehow, happy to hear the joke over and over again.

I think Ogden Nash brings back memories for many older Americans. When I was reading the new biography Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light Verse by Douglas M. Parker, while eating a sweet roll in Panera last week, an older man noticed. As he passed my table he said, "Ah, Ogden Nash, he was a wonderful man." I noticed the older man, who looked like a retired executive, having a look of competence and industry, was cleaning tables. Was he laid off by a corporation, replaced by someone young? Was he working at Panera because he was unable to find a management job in the new economy, which disvalues the older, experienced worker? Is Nash for him a link to a happier time, his time?

Nash has often been a bright spot in a dark time. He became popular for his humorous poetry during the Great Depression when his works began to appear regularly in The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines. Because he was never paid much for his poems, he had to write and sell a lot of them, which he continued to do into the 1960s, when changing tastes made his work harder to sell. By the time of his death in 1971, he had published over a thousand poems.

Nash did not only write poetry. He tried his hand as a book editor, magazine editor, screen writer, playwright, lyricist, and game show panelist. He was valued as an editor at Doubleday and other publishers, but the pay was poor and he left the profession to write fulltime. His efforts in Hollywood and on Broadway always started with lots of promise but usually fizzled. Radio and television appearances eventually paid fairly well, but poetry was his steady income.

Being a writer, he often worked from home. Unlike many men of his era, he seems to have spent much time with his two daughters. On several occasions, he was the primary parent as his wife took long European vacations. It may not have been difficult to do, as the family always had servants. His wife had her own money inherited from her "old family" Baltimore ancestors. She and Nash were always able to live the country club and martini life.

I think readers will enjoy learning how involved Nash was in the literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s. He knew Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, and many others. Douglas M. Parker also tells much about mid-twentieth century world of publishing. Fans of The New Yorker will especially want to read this book.

Some will enjoy the book for their own memories. There are many Nash verses scattered throughout the text.

Read "The Purist." The punch line ends with a word that rhymes with "smile."

2005-12-01 | ricklibrarian (Downers Grove, Illinois) | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 5

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Parker paints Nash in a fashion not smashin'
The philosopher poet, Ogden Nash,
Though born and wed to privilege,
was throughout his lifetime frightfully far from bogged in cash
(Or at least he so lamented).
Doug Parker says,
while assuring us his penury never quite prevented
Nash from keeping house or houses
Servant-staffed while traveling
in luxury with wife and kids and friends with kids and spouses.
Though his efforts yielded flops
In Hollywood and Broadway ventures,
rhymes he wrote for glossies and anthologies and his hops
Around the lecture circuit
(Which, though ruinous
To his fragile health, he never would quite shirk it)
Kept his ledger black enough.
Indeed, couplets comparing
the speed of bonbons versus bourbon and similar wacky stuff
(Like rhymes that ridiculed
A bluenosed "Ut" named Smoot
whose Senate stint by tariff acts and smiting smut was fueled)
Consistently kept Mr. Nash `n'
Fran `n' Lin `n' Isabel
(his wife and daughters) living in quite comfy fashion.
Nash's life was not a bore,
But Parker's grand obsession
With minutia made me often want to holler "Less is more!"
And, moreover, many others'
In the story, though tangential,
Had lives of greater interest were I to voice my `druthers.

:-)
- stanwhjr -

2005-11-02 | stanwhjr (MD USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 2

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This Book is a Real Treat
Many of us probably recognize Ogden Nash as the creator of humorous poetry, but he was a man of far greater accomplishments than might be generally known.In this biography, Doug Parker gives a very complete and fascinating overview of Nash and the diversity of his works, which included movie scripts and--much to my surprise--song lyrics. Parker relates his story in manageable sequences, interspersing just enough famous lines from Nash to lure the reader into wanting to read more of the man's work. One would think that Parker knew Nash personally because of the skillful manner in which he discreetly discusses the poet's health problems, his devotion to his family, his dislike of confrontation, and the entire span of his creative life.

It took an impressive amount of research to create this interesting account of Nash's life, and Parker made much use of Nash's personal letters. He does not overwhelm the reader with excessive detail, rather, he leaves the reader feeling like one who has enjoyed a great meal but has not overeaten, and who knows he can come back for seconds by reading more of Nash's work. This is an enjoyable and informative book that gives the reader a real appreciation for the talents of Ogden Nash.

2005-08-23 (Illinois) | Helpful Votes: 9 | Rating: 5

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