While Rome Burns Explained

While Rome Burns is a book collecting some of the 20th century American critic Alexander Woollcott's writings for the New Yorker^[1] and other magazines. The title is a reference to the popular legend that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned. The book was published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934. Vincent Starrett hailed it as one of the 52 "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century".^[2] Woollcott promoted the book on his radio show and his pointed critiques, quips, and asides gained enough of an audience to make it a bestseller.^[2] The New York Times reviewed it.^[3] The book includes accounts of his travels to Japan and Russia.^[4]

A sequel, Long, Long Ago, was published after Woollcott's death in 1943.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: WHILE ROME BURNS by Alexander Woollcott. www.kirkusreviews.com.
2. Wallace, David. "The Round Table". Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p. 168. .
3. Web site: Mr. Woollcott Runs On and On;. C. g. Poore. 4 March 1934. NYTimes.com.
4. Web site: Asia and the Americas. 24 December 2018. Google Books.
5. Web site: Vincent Starrett and the 1934 Baker Street Irregulars Dinner. Studies in Starrett.