On Hold The Telephone Booth Indian A. J. Liebling New Yorker Book

This listing is for a softcover book, entitled The Telephone Booth Indian. The book was written by A. J. Liebling. The book has 148 pages, so it is not a thick book, but it's not a real thin book either. The book lists an original copyright date of 1942, as well as 1969, and 1990. This book is in excellent condition. It does not look like it has been read, or even opened much, if at all. There is some very minor wear to the book cover; there is very minor wear to the book corners, and some extremely minor wear to the outside top and bottom edges of the book, as well as some extremely minor scratching on the book surface.

Here is some information about the book:

Editorial Reviews
In its homage to America's most rakish hucksters, Broadway's "Library of Larceny" series reissues this collection of irreverent "low-life" pieces penned by Liebling, a mid-century fixture at the New Yorker renowned for his intimacy with con culture. Originally published in 1942, this sinewy compendium opens the door to the gritty underworld of grifters, showmen and hustlers from a bygone era of deadpan humor, decadent bonhomie and vigorous one-upmanship. With affectionate aplomb, Liebling introduces us to the colorful if unscrupulous denizens of Broadway's Jollity Building, whose names alone are reminiscent of Garbage Pail Kids: Paddy the Booster, Acid Test Ike, Lotsandlots, Judge Horumph, Count de Pennies and Marty the Clutch (so named for his "custom of mangling people's fingers when he shakes hands with them"). The "telephone booth Indians" moniker refers to promoters so pressed for cash that they must conduct their wheeling and dealing from one of the lobby's eight coin-box phone booths. While it's riveting to learn about the humble, hardscrabble beginnings of the Shubert (yes, as in theater) brothers, what's most memorable about this masterpiece is the nostalgia Liebling evokes in his reader for larger-than-life characters such as the sartorial peacock Roy Wilson Howard, a newsman whose self-control on the telephone Liebling irresistibly likens to that "of a fat woman waving away a tray of chocolate eclairs." With a foreword by critic and Low Life author Luc Sante.



Book Description
Often referred to as "Liebling low-life pieces," the essays in The Telephone Booth Indian boisterously celebrate raffishness. A. J. Liebling appreciated a good scam and knew how to cultivate the scammers. Telephone Booth Indians (entrepreneurs so impecunious that they conduct business from telephone booths in the lobbies of New York City office buildings) and a host of other petty nomads of Broadway-with names like Marty the Clutch and Count de Pennies-are the protagonists in this incomparable Liebling work. In The Telephone Booth Indian, A. J. Liebling proves just why he was the go-to man on New York lowlife and con culture; this is the master at the top of his form, uncovering scam after scam and writing about them with the wit and charisma that established him as one of the greatest journalists of his generation and one of New York's finest cultural chroniclers.

"Liebling remains the nonpareil." -Anthony Lewis


From the Inside Flap
A classic work on Broadway sharpers, grifters, and con men by the late, great New Yorker journalist A. J. Liebling.

Often referred to as "Liebling lowlife pieces," the essays in The Telephone Booth Indian boisterously celebrate raffishness. A. J. Liebling appreciated a good scam and knew how to cultivate the scammers. Telephone Booth Indians (entrepreneurs so impecunious that they conduct business from telephone booths in the lobbies of New York City office buildings) and a host of other petty nomads of Broadway-with names like Marty the Clutch and Count de Pennies-are the protagonists in this incomparable Liebling work. In The Telephone Booth Indian, Liebling proves just why he was the go-to man on New York lowlife and con culture; this is the master at the top of his form, uncovering scam after scam and writing about them with the wit and charisma that established him as one of the greatest journalists of his generation and one of New York's finest cultural chroniclers.