Notes on a Cowardly Lion

'This is a biography of the late Bert Lahr, that clown-comedian who played everything from burlesque to Aristophanes and Shakespeare, by his son, who is one of that rare species, an authentic theatre critic... John ahr is frank and objective about his father. He sees that Bert was wildly funny on the stage and unhappy off. He was a haphazard father, a selfish lover, a thoughtless husband (his wife cherished him), a hypochondriac and a ruthless "professional". The past becomes present in this biography, so that we come to know and understand the actor as clearly as the man. The book abounds in anecdotes that smack of the footlight world and its fascinating fauna. John ahr is an honourable as well as a talented writer on the theatre.'

Harold Clurman, Front Page, New York Times Book Review

'Endlessly fascinating, excellent... A work of literature, a work of history, a subtle psychological study.'

Richard Schickel, Harper's Magazine

'An always intelligent, often moving biography that shifts with impressive ease, depth, and clarity from a son writing about his father to a theatre critic and cultural historian analyzing a great comic and his time.'

Jules Feiffer

'A book-length love letter. To open it is to enter a life, to participate in a sensibility and, perhaps most important, to laugh. Uproariously.'

Stefan Kanfer, Life