John Goodspeed
All Stories

A welcome encore
MY 30 YEARS IN BASEBALL. By John J. McGraw. University of Nebraska Press. Illustrated. Index. 273 pages. $12.95. THIS IS the second reprint of a book first published in 1923...

Dante’s look at Hell
THE INFERNO OF DANTE, a new verse translation by Robert Pinsky; illustrated by Michael Mazur. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 427 pages. $35. 5/8 HERE'S the perfect book to...

A trio for the tykes
THE GIFT of DRISCOLL LIPSCOMB. By Sara Yamaka. Simon & Schuster. Illustrated by Joung Un Kim. 32 pages. $15. THE GREAT BALL GAME: A MUSKOGEE STORY. "Retold" by Joseph Bruchac....

Short subjects
LATE SUMMER BREAK. By Ann B. Knox. Papier-Mache Press. 162 pages. Cloth $14. Paperback $9. ANN KNOX lives in Hancock, Maryland, teaches fiction writing at the Writer's Center in Washington,...

Charm City satire
THE CRAWLSPACE CONSPIRACY. By Thomas Keech. Baskerville Publishers. 328 pages. $22. WHAT! ANOTHER lawyer who thinks he can write fiction? Yes, but Thomas Keech, a Baltimorean and an assistant Maryland...

A serious look at some long-running funnies
A CENTURY OF WOMEN CARTOONISTS. By Trina Robbins. Kitchen Sink Press. Index. 184 pages. $16.95 (paperback). BARNEY GOOGLE AND SNUFFY SMITH: 75 YEARS OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND. By Brian Walker....

A primer on the ‘Sage of Baltimore’
MENCKEN: A LIFE. By Fred Hobson. Random House. Illustrated. 652 pages. $35. FRED C. HOBSON, a the University of North Carolina English professor and veteran southern writer and editor, really...

Good times on the home front
THE NORTH FIGHTS THE CIVIL WAR: THE HOME FRONT. By J. Matthew Gallman. Ivan R. Dee, Inc. 211 pages. $22.50. THE CONCLUSION of this well organized and readable study of...

A poignant look at a literary giant
REMEMBER LAUGHTER: A LIFE OF JAMES THURBER. By Neil A. Grauer. University of Nebraska Press. Illustrated. Index. 204 pages. $20. SOME OF the very best American prose is the work...

Plain folks made history, too
The Price of Nationhood: the American Revolution in Charles County. W.W. Norton and Co. 388 pages. $17. THIS BOOK has already drawn praise -- and deserves it -- foits unusual...