Writers told tales of wordsmiths witty and woebegone at the latest installment of the City Winery-based literary series, House of Speakeasy.
“E. E. cummings: A Life” author Susan Cheever recounted how Cummings’ only daughter, Nancy Thayer, never knew the poet was her dad till she entered his social circle as a grown woman and “blurted out she was falling in love with him.” Cummings responded, “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that I was your father?”
Jeff Kinney, whose “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series has sold more than 58 million copies, recounted bizarre brushes with celebrity, including an offer from risqué Brazilian kids’-TV star Xuxa to team in a movie called “Super Xuxa vs. Satan II.”
The Post’s Michael Riedel told humorously bittersweet tales of flamboyant crime reporter-turned-critic Jacques le Sourd, including the time he and the Frenchman wandered into a Times Square drug bust and le Sourd implored a cop, “Cuff me, baby, cuff me!”
Composer Michael Friedman gave a historical tour of the American pop song on the piano.