McPherson, Edward 1977(?)–

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McPherson, Edward 1977(?)–

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1977; married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat, Newmarket Press (New York, NY), 2005.

The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of Bridge, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Talk, New York Observer, New York Times Style, I.D., and Esopus.

SIDELIGHTS:

In Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat, Edward McPherson readdresses the life of silent film comedian Buster Keaton. A number of biographies have already been written about Keaton, but while many biographers have discussed the actor's troubled childhood in depth, McPherson is more interested in the genius of Keaton as a filmmaker. As Muriel Zagha commented in her Times Literary Supplement review, "McPherson distances himself from other biographers and film scholars who have variously interpreted Keaton's impassivity as the tragic mask of an abused child." Instead, the author asserts that the stony-faced expression Keaton assumed in his on-screen persona was worn purely for comedic effect. As a young stage performer, he had discovered that he got more laughs when he grossly understated his reaction to the pratfalls and other amusing stunts he performed. McPherson goes on to describe in detail Keaton's creative brilliance, his attention to factual detail, and the ups and downs of his career.

Library Journal writer Roy Liebman was disappointed that McPherson largely neglects Keaton's work in movies that had sound, adding that the author's attempts at "analyzing Keaton's genius" are "often trite and unconvincing." On the other hand, a Publishers Weekly reviewer asserted that McPherson "adroitly describe[s] the extraordinary visual lunacy Keaton produced on screen to achieve cinema art." As Zagha similarly wrote: "One particularly enjoyable part of McPherson's narrative is his vivid, often hilarious evocation of Keaton's early years" in what she concluded is an "informative new biography."

McPherson took the card game of bridge for his second nonfiction work, The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of Bridge, "a lively, somewhat haphazard new book," according to New Yorker critic David Owen. The book takes its name from an offensive move in bridge in which a player tries to force another into a discard that proves costly. The book is an examination of the history of bridge as well as its contemporary presence. McPherson points out that Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the railroad magnate, developed what is known as contract bridge in 1925, and that bridge as a card game also had its origins in the English game of whist. The author further notes that two men, Charles H. Goren and Ely Culbertson, helped popularize the game internationally in the 1930s and 1940s. McPherson relates his training at a Manhattan bridge club and the rubbers he plays with an 83-year-old friend, Tina, in this "lighthearted book," as a Publishers Weekly reviewer termed the work. Similarly, Booklist contributor David Pitt called the work an "entertaining book [that] takes us inside the sometimes-cutthroat world of a card game that can become a way of life for its devotees," and a Kirkus Reviews critic dubbed it a "lively and approachable field guide to the daunting challenges of contract bridge."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2007, David Pitt, review of The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of Bridge, p. 20.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2007, review of The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats.

Library Journal, May 15, 2005, Roy Liebman, review of Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat, p. 119.

New Yorker, September 17, 2007, David Owen, "Turning Tricks," p. 90.

Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2005, review of Buster Keaton, p. 44; May 7, 2007, review of The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats, p. 53.

Times Literary Supplement, October 28, 2004, Muriel Zagha, "Buster Keaton's Great Stone Face."