Milking The Moon A Southerner's Story Of Life On This Planet [Hardcover]

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITIC CIRCLE AWARD This sumptuous oral biography of Eugene Walter, the best-known man you've never heard of, is an eyewitness history of the heart of the last century-enlivened with personal glimpses of luminaries from William Faulkner and Martha Graham to Judy Garland and Leontyne Price-and a pitch-perfect addition to the Southern literary tradition that has critics cheering. In his 76 years, Eugene Walter ate of the ripened heart of life, to quote a letter from Isak Dinesen, one of his many illustrious friends. Walter savored the porch life of his native Mobile, Alabama, in the the l920s and '30s; stumbled into the Greenwich Village art scene in late-1940s New York; was a ubiquitous presence in Paris's expatriate caf? society in the 1950s (where he was part of the Paris Review at its inception); and later, in 1960s Rome, participated in the golden age of Italian cinema. He was somehow everywhere, bringing with him a unique and contagious spirit, putting his inimitable stamp on the cultural life of the twentieth century. Katherine Clark...has edited Eugene Walter's oral history into a book as amazing as the man himself. JONATHAN YARDLEY, WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD Milking the Moon has perfect pitch and flawlessly captures Eugene's pixilated wonderland of a life.... I love this book-and I couldn't put it down. PAT CONROY Surprising and serendipitous. NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Anecdotes so frothy they ought to be served with a paper parasol over crushed ice. PEOPLE A rare literary treat...the temptation is to wolf it down all at once, but it's much more satisfying to take your sweet time. The most unique oral history of the mid-twentieth century. TIMES-PICAYUNE (NEW ORLEANS) An exceptionally fun read. ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION