It’s always interesting to read through these old books/issues, but this one didn’t have any that really stood out as special for me. Among other things that were articles on Chateaubriand, Charlemagne, Audubon, Belly Dancing, Palladio, the end of Henry VIII’s life, and life in the USSR at the time, with editorial cartoons from the magazine Krokodil.

There is also an article on modern art by Robin Wraight that was interesting (‘What is Art Coming To?’) with these quotes (note Wraight was 53 when he wrote the article):
“The genuine artist does not strive to be original, he is original involuntarily. If he is young, his originality may well take a form that people of Miss Guggenheim’s generation, or of mine, find difficult to accept. Rather than accuse the artist of insincerity or of trying too hard, we should acknowledge that, if only because of his youth, he is probably nearer in spirit to the art of the future than we are.
Experience ought to have taught us that in the great technological age into which we are now being pushed, art will be at least as different from the art of Miss Guggenheim’s beloved old men – Picasso, Ernst, Miro – as theirs was from that of their grandfathers’ day.”

And this one; replace a few of the technical innovations (e.g. Television with Internet) and it’s true 50 years later:
“If this new world does not appeal to you, it is probably because you are too old. But if, as has been said, the clues to tomorrow’s culture lie in the cults of today, it will appeal to the next generation, the generation that has been brought up from birth on television and motor scooters, space travel and Cinemascope and big-beat music, for who silence is leaden and not to move is to be dead.”

These tidbits from ‘American Humor, 1966’ by William K. Zinsser were also amusing:
“There is almost no other way to contend with, say, the John Birch Society’s promise to Ronald Reagan that it would either support or attack his bid for Governor of California, whichever would do him the most good. Or the fact that dried calf-droppings from Lyndon Johnson’s ranch are now being sold in cellophane bags, for 98 cents, as ‘LBJ Land Chips.’” ( )