Year’s Best 1965 in Books Review by Alan Pryce-Jones
Alan Pryce-Jones surveys 1965’s notable books across history, fiction, biography, and poetry. Key picks include Runciman’s Wall of Constantinople, Morison’s Oxford History, Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children, Porter’s Collected Stories, and Merrill’s The Diblos Notebook, with strong autobiographies and essays alongside two standout poetry volumes and Meyer-like lists of significant works. The tone blends praise and measured critique, noting both strengths and misses among authors such as Wilson, Murdoch, Gordimer, and O’Connor.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Katherine Anne Porter
Harcourt, Brace & World
John Nichols
McKay
Mack Thomas
Grove Press
Angus Wilson
Viking
Iris Murdoch
Nadine Gordimer
Flannery O’connor
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Marguerite Young
Miss Macintosh
Scribners
Diblos
Atheneum
James Merrill
Merrill
Peter Mathhiessen
Random House
James Leo Herlihy
Simon & Schuster
Best Sellers in 1964 and 1965 prominent titles
A list of notable book best sellers including Those Who Love by Michener, Airs Above the Ground by Stewart, Up the Down Staircase by Kaufman, Games People Play by Berne, A Gift of Prophecy by Montgomery, The Making of the President 1964 by White, and others such as Hotel, Kennedy, Vesi Can, and The Source.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Michener
Stone
Stewart
Kaufman Hotel
Harley
Piedmont
Virginia
Tri - City
Equity
Events Leading Up To The Cortedy
Autobiography by Hilert Nugent traces the Thurber Nugent collaboration on The Male Animal and Nugent’s career from child actor to playwright director and novelist. It covers success, family life, and battles with mental illness, presenting a candid, sometimes sardonic account of a life in American entertainment.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Hilert Nugent
Pars Bete Trident Press
Algonqquin Hotel
James Grover Thurber
Columbus
Ohio
Elliott Nugent
Dover
Ohio State
Kaufman
Hart
Lindsay
Crouse
Nugent
Elliott
Thurber
Great Race On Island The Duchess Says No
Frank O Rourke presents a comic caper on a California island where Katherine Porokin guards a unique handmade automobile. Wealthy collectors plot to seize the car, aided by Jason Smith and Butterick as schemes unfold. Katherine and neighbor Arne outwit the conspirators in a farcical tale of clever plot twists.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
O’rourke
California
Katherine Porokin
Katherine
Jason Smith
Butterick
Arne
Copley Show Draws Contrast From Early to English Masters
John Singleton Copley’s American portraits in his early career are contrasted with his later English period in a National Gallery of Art exhibit. The show, cataloged by Prof Jules David Brown of Yale, travels from Washington to New York and Boston, tracing his self taught beginnings to his brushstroke bravado in London and the decline of style. Brown notes the late colonial portraits capture presence and personality, while the English works often mimic British fashionable rhetoric and pomp.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York
John Singleton Copley
Boston
England
Copley
Winslow
Eakins
America
London
Jules David Brown
Yale
National Gallery of Art
Washington
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts
Watson
Earl of Chatham
George III
Schmaltz
Rembrandt
Brown
Care Of A Preacher Explores Ministerial Effectiveness
Dr. Owen Weatherly writes Help Your Minister To Do His Best based on over two decades as a pastor in Virginia and Pennsylvania. He argues churches waste ministers when treated as business, urging thoughtful preaching, proper church administration, and fair compensation. Weatherly cites his experiences, quotes Paul on foolishness of preaching, and notes his awards and academic credentials.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Owen Weatherly
Judson Press
High Point College
Weatherly
First Baptist Church
Philadelphia
New England
Dr. Weatherly
Birthday tribute concert features Shostakovich symphony
New York Philharmonic gave a Young People’s Concert titled A Birthday Tribute to Shostakovich under Leonard Bernstein. The program included his ninth Symphony with a noon preview and 2:36 pm performance, taped for CBS on January 5. A strong Piedmont arts push draws broad audiences.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein
Shostakovich
Portraits by Copley Span Colonial to English Phases
The article surveys Copley portraits from the late 1750s to the 1780s, noting likenesses of Mary and Elizabeth Royall, Epes Sargent, Mrs Thomas Boylston, Mrs Humphrey Devereux, and the Mifflins. It highlights about 125 works across colonial and English periods and praises his exact 1770s technique.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Copley
Mary
Elizabeth Royall
Epes Sargent
Rembrandt
Thomas Boylston
Humphrey Devereux
Thomas Mifflin
London
Augustus Brine
Daniel Deniion Rogers
Imagined Life The Best House In Stratford
Edward Fisher imagines Shakespeare in later years with Ben Jonson as ally and Hamnet in backstage life. The novel blends plausible incidents, Elizabethan detail, and Shakespeare’s dedication to craft as fame grows. It concludes Fisher’s trilogy while standing as an engaging standalone tale.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Stratford
Edward Fisher
Abeland Schuman
Fisher
Shakespeare
Ben Jonson
London
William
Ben
Hamnet
Also Mentioned on This Page
En Bevington
Charley Smith
Simon and Schuster
James Emmit McCalnley
Southern Methodist University Press
J. R. Ackerley
Tulip
Fleet
Lord Kinross
Ataturk
Morrow
Joan Haslip
Lonely Empress
World
Elizabeth of Austria
Arnold Whitridge
Rochambeau
Macmillan
Thomas
Sam Ward
Houghton Mifflin
Louise Hall Tharp
Jack
Little Brown
T. H. White
Putnam
United States
Lord Churchill
Coward McCann
Queen Victoria
Roger Fulford
Frederick
Edmund Wilson
Janet Flanner
Paris
W. H. Auden
House
Alan Pryce—Jones
L. J
Mina Perry) Ingram
Seborn Perry
Art Richardson
Ferrey
Plato
Turle
Hollywood
Bing Crosby
Connecticut
Maurice Dolbier
Frank
O'Rourke Morrow
Copier
Miles A. Smith
AP Arts
Watson and
The
Amoun Philharmonizy Hall
CBS Television
Enid A. Haupt
Seventeen Magazine
Lincoln Center Fund
Lincoln Center
William Schuman
Jean Sibelius
Sibelius
Helsinki Conservatory
Melnikoy
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