STET, Damnit! The Misanthrope's Corner, 1991 to 2002

by Florence King

Florence King is back–in a big, hardcover book that will warm the cockles of every conservative, libertarian, and just-plain-cynical heart. STET, Damnit!: The Misanthrope’s Corner, 1991 to 2002 lets you relive and relish the unsurpassed prose of one of America’s most heralded writers. Word for word, no one punched with the force of Miss King’s clock-cleaning verbiage! During her National Review tenure, no one but no one better expressed what was on our minds, as Florence derided dunderheads, disemboweled sacred cows, trashed trends, and lampooned the lame-brained. For over a decade her wise words were the proverbial two-by-four that smacked upside the thick and dense heads of busybodies, chin-droolers, feel-gooders, store-greeters, plagiarists, teddy-bear memorializers, whiners, wanna-be victims, crisis-counseling apostles, and many more of society’s more annoying types. Now all that crackling prose, all that slashing, burning, vim, vigor, and verbal vinegar that made Florence King and “The Misanthrope’s Corner” a must-read has been collected — every single enjoyable, nincompoop-poohing word — in STET, Damnit! This handsome hardcover edition contains 524 pages of 200-proof pure-grain Florence, distilling every word from every column (including the typos we let slip through in the originals!) that the Mother of All Curmudgeons wrote for her revered National Review column. Florence’s back-page masterpieces still resound and reverberate — even a dozen years later, no matter how “dated” the topic, Miss King’s magic still dazzles. Her unorthodox and unexpected take on a sweeping array of subjects — politics, fads, court rulings, murderesses, scandals, recounts, you name it — remains crisp, fresh, insightful, intelligent, engaging, and always entertaining. The prose still snaps — and the terrible swift pen still slashes.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Essays, Politics

518 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Born in Washington, D.C. in 1936 to a bookish British father and a tomboy American mother, Florence King spent her childhood living with her parents, her maternal grandmother, and her grandmother's maid.

King showed talent in French, but unable to pursue it as a major at American University, she switched to a dual major of history and English. She attended the University of Mississippi for graduate school, but did not complete her M.A. degree after discovering she could make a living as a writer.

King, who lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia at the time of her death, retired in 2002, but resumed writing a monthly column for National Review in 2006. She died on January 6, 2016 at the age of 80.

Reviews

[Tom Wannamaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Florence King is my most favoritest National Review writer. Ever. She's funny, razor sharp, and takes no prisoners. This is the complete & unabridged collection of King's work from 1991 to 2002.

[Jonathan Kieran · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Florence King hadn’t been born, I would have not only invented her, I would have built her a temple.

[Jennifer Rohan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It doesn't get better than Florence King.