From 1954 to 1981, Irish-born Maeve Brennan wrote utterly delightful sketches for The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" column under the pen name "The Long-Winded Lady." Collected here are more than fifty such vignettes, capturing quirky snapshots of ordinary life in New York City of yesteryear. Brennan's unique perspective, quick wit, and dazzling style render the people and places she chronicled immediately recognizable and fascinating. Described as "an artist of the evanescent" (by Thomas Flanagan of the Washington Post) and "sharp-eyed as a sparrow for the crumbs of human event" (by John Updike), Maeve Brennan quickly endears herself as a beloved companion through her prose and you'll find yourself wanting to return again and again to the musings of The Long-Winded Lady! (CH)