Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITIC CIRCLE AWARD This sumptuous oral biography of Eugene Walter the best-known man youve never heard of is an eyewitness history of the heart of the last centuryenlivened with personal glimpses of luminaries from William Faulkner and Martha Graham to Judy Garland and Leontyne Priceand a pitch-perfect addition to the Southern literary tradition that has critics cheering. In his 76 years Eugene Walter ate of the ripened heart of life to quote a letter from Isak Dinesen one of his many illustrious friends. Walter savored the porch life of his native Mobile Alabama in the the l920s and 30s; stumbled into the Greenwich Village art scene in late-1940s New York; was a ubiquitous presence in Pariss expatriate caf society in the 1950s (where he was part of the Paris Review at its inception); and later in 1960s Rome participated in the golden age of Italian cinema. He was somehow everywhere bringing with him a unique and contagious spirit putting his inimitable stamp on the cultural life of the twentieth century. Katherine Clarkhas edited Eugene Walters oral history into a book as amazing as the man himself. JONATHAN YARDLEY WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD Milking the Moon has perfect pitch and flawlessly captures Eugenes pixilated wonderland of a life. I love this bookand I couldnt put it down.PAT CONROY Surprising and serendipitous.NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Anecdotes so frothy they ought to be served with a paper parasol over crushed ice.PEOPLE A rare literary treatthe temptation is to wolf it down all at once but its much more satisfying to take your sweet time. The most unique oral history of the mid-twentieth century.TIMES-PICAYUNE (NEW ORLEANS) An exceptionally fun read.ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION