Live and Be Young

Truly this 1920 guidebook to maintaining a cheerful youthful outlook is full of helpful advice. Take this to heart: Rich people are nine times out of ten pleasanter kindlier better bred and less selfish than poor folk-they can afford to be; and they are more enjoyable playmates and steadier friends. But be careful: If you indulge your emotional nature too much you run the risk of becoming either a musician or possibly a poet. These are all right but not for normal people. A breathtaking artifact of an era not so bygone as it should be this is a laugh-out-loud hilarious-if unintentionally so-defense of privilege conformity vapidity and social discrimination. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Thompsons Drink and Be Sober. VANCE THOMPSON (1862-1925) is also the author of Eat and Grow Thin and The Ego Book.