Reviews

Kipling's Cat is an Eric Hoffer Award Winner!

The Eric Hoffer Awards, established at the beginning of the 21st century, celebrate excellent writing and the independent spirit of small publishers. See the official list of winners here, or read a glowing review in the US Review of Books.

Advance Praise for Kipling's Cat

“This charming memoir … provides an insider’s guide to the vanishing world of blueblood Boston. Along the way, and perhaps even more affectingly, [the author] limns the pleasures and perils of adoring a parent who was as colorful and elusive as a butterfly.”
—George Howe Colt, author of The Big House, National Book Award Finalist

“A very moving book for somebody who, like me, had the privilege of collaborating with Jeffries Wyman; a fair and deep testimony about the intellect of an immensely important scientist and respected humanist.”
—Jean-Pierre Changeux, PhD, director of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at the Institut Pasteur

“A clear-eyed and fair-minded search for the essence of the father who was adventurous, exciting and an emotional escape artist. ‘Kipling’s Cat’ indeed.”
—Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize–winning nationally syndicated columnist

“A delightful, civilized, and totally captivating memoir.”
—Thomas H. O’Connor, Boston College Professor Emeritus and University Historian

“An insightful, engaging memoir of … a brilliant biochemist and a member of the ‘Oppenheimer Fraternity,’ a remarkable group of men and women who contributed so much to the advancement of science in the 20th century.”
—Martin J. Sherwin, co-author with Kai Bird of the Pulitzer Prize–winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

“Kipling’s Cat, a fascinating read, brought back memories of my poignant mid-1950s exposure to George Santayana’s The Last Puritan. Jeffries Wyman was the last ‘proper Bostonian’ to master science at its highest level!”
—James D. Watson, PhD, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and Nobel Prize winner

Kipling's Cat Reviews

Story Circle Book Reviews' Patricia Nordyke Pando says that Kipling's Cat "chronicles with apparent love and a clear eye the life of an exceptional man."

The US Review of Books reviews this "tale of class, time, and many places" that earned an honorable mention for the esteemed Eric Hoffer Award. In another review, reviewer Deborah Straw gives her take on Kipling's Cat.

Kirkus Discoveriessays that Anne "writes with forgiveness and a stiff upper lip, but it is abundantly evident that she was bereft, longing to be close to a man who possessed so many gifts but lacked the gift of intimacy. [...] The prose is crisp and clear, rhythmic and eloquent. … this portrait deftly brings a fascinating figure to life. This account of life with, and all too often without, a brilliant, difficult parent is a true pleasure."

Foreword Reviews calls Kipling's Cat "a studied portrayal and tender tribute" to the life of Jeffries Wyman, "A trailblazing eccentric and relentless traveler." Read the full review here.

Walter Gratzer, Professor Emeritus at King's College in London: "Wyman emerges from his daughter's narrative as a man of luminous intelligence and diverse talents ... [The book] is pleasantly written, compelling and often affecting. It is sumptuously illustrated with colour plates of [his] handsome watercolours, and with many photographs, including a striking image of Wyman, nude, perched on a rock, painting 'somewhere in Europe' ... One is left at the end of the story with the impression that the solitary thread which ran unbroken through Wyman's peculiar and varied life was an intense scientific curiosity."

Mark McGinty of The Boogle gives 4.5 out of 5 stars! Read the full review at Boogle's site.

Ruth Douillette of The Internet Review of Books gives her take on Kipling's Cat.