Fran Lebowitz
Metropolitan Life.
E. P. Dutton, 1978. "A Henry Robbins book". Second printing. 0525155627 xi/177 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6" x 8.75", is bound in gilt-lettered quarter black cloth and red paper-covered boards. Book displays light shelfwear, with previous owner's name at top of flyleaf. Interior is otherwise clean and bright. Dust jacket, with price of $8.50 on front flap, exhibits light shelfwear. Jacket, with photo of author on rear panel, is preserved in mylar cover.
"With the brilliance exhibited only by inspired curmudgeons, Fran Lebowitz takes on everything from conceptual art to mood jewelry, from self-awareness training to our pious love for the common house plant. For the perplexed urbanites, Miss Lebowitz sets down guidelines for a future populated by a more appealing breed of children; cites the cause of heterosexuality as overcrowding in artists' colonies; and reports on the New York Olympics, with gold medals in party going, dry-cleaning, and press agentry. For the scientific, she explains why good weather has a propensity to frequent better neighborhoods, and the connection between digital clocks and ruined youth. For the literate, she provides an exchange of letters between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in C. B. slang, and a vocational guide to the truly ambitious ("So you want to be the Pope"). And in her landmark essay, "Notes on Trick," she explores the new (or rather, unreported) social phenomenon of the Trick -- the brief romantic alignment between people of talent and/or accomplishment and their attractive inferiors, whom they take both in and out."