Description
Eagle Books (Harrisburg, PA), Published 1956. Hardcover, 167 pp.; 22 cm; First Edition.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
111
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Good condition with an Acceptable dust jacket. Grey cloth boards with red illustrated vignette to front and red spine lettering; light bumping and shelf wear to edges and corners, some nicking and fraying to cloth at corner tips and spine ends. Binding tight. Pages lightly aged, otherwise unmarked. Inscribed and signed by the author in ink on the front free endpaper, dated Frankfurt, Germany, 27 November 1957. Unclipped illustrated dust jacket (red, with White Rabbit and Pentagon cartoon) shows several chips and tears (1 inch or less), edge creasing, some color loss to edges and spine, and moderate overall shelf wear, aging and soiling. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover.Estes's first book; he later became a well-known Texas novelist. [From jacket flap] Winston didn't get into the Pentagon by following the White Rabbit, but he encountered there more fantasy than Alice did in Carroll's famous fairy tale. This is not a collection of jokes about the "Fun House on the Potomac" but a clever, satirical poking of fun at officialdom and its whimsical ways. Estes gives his observations straightfaced which, coupled with his delightful sense of humor and sharp appreciation of human foibles, provides chuckles on every page with downright belly-laughs on many. Winston says you can find any Government building in Washington by looking up its street address in the directory. But not the Pentagon. It isn't on any street, it's just THERE. He claims that to many the Pentagon is an aberration or state of mind. The tenderfoot entering Old Fivesides for the first time must feel somewhat as Alice did when she followed the White Rabbit down the long tunnel. Winston says of his own experience, "At one point my map showed two corridors making an uncomplicated intersection. But there were at least five corridors converging at that point, every one of them going off in opposite directions. What was worse, each of them was labeled TO SOUTH PARKING. There was an enlarged version of the map on the wall. At a particular point was the legend, YOU ARE HERE. That was the only visible thing I could accept as gospel truth." Estes has a few pointed comments on generals and their peculiarities which will be relished by all, even generals. And stuffed shirts are his particular meat. You will enjoy how he unstuffs them. Yet no one can take offense. The targets of his shafts will laugh with you at themselves. You need not have served in the Pentagon, or even have been there to enjoy this book, but of course denizens or ex-denizens of that labyrinth will particularly treasure it.