America at last

The late author of The Once and Future King, sire of Camelot, came to the United States on a lecture tour shortly before his death. Accompanied by an eighteen-year-old chaperone-guide, affectionately obeyed and respected, he flew about the nation addressing school, university, civic groups (he very seldom alludes to the contents of his recitations.) He found Manhattan ""a small city in the horizontal... only enormous vertically,"" New Orleans ""the greatest town in America for gourmets,"" loved San Francisco, was awed with Utah--""out of the brain of Brigham Young."" America was indeed a foreign land--where everything over twenty-five years old seemed to count as an antique, where, ""in Long Island, fishermen can buy live worms from slot machines!"" Yet the discovery here is more on the part of the author than the American reader, who finds himself in the company of a pleasant gentleman with no major insights to impart. If one wishes a memento of the author, here it is, along with a fond remembrance that gives a perspective on his personality. --From Kirkus Reviews.