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While Rome Burns is a book collecting some of the 20th century American critic Alexander Woollcott's writings for the New Yorker and other magazines. The title is a reference to the popular legend that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned. The book was published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934. Vincent Starrett hailed it as one of the 52 "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century". Woollcott promoted the book on his radio show and his pointed critiques, quips, and asides gained enough of an audience to make it a bestseller. The New York Times reviewed it. The book includes accounts of his travels to Japan and Russia.

A sequel, Long, Long Ago, was published after Woollcott's death in 1943.

References

1. "WHILE ROME BURNS by Alexander Woollcott" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
2. ^ Wallace, David. "The Round Table". Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7627-7010-6.
3. Poore, C. g (4 March 1934). "Mr. Woollcott Runs On and On;" – via NYTimes.com.
4. "Asia and the Americas". 24 December 2018 – via Google Books.
5. "Vincent Starrett and the 1934 Baker Street Irregulars Dinner". Studies in Starrett. 3 January 2015.

• 1934 non-fiction books
• American travel books
• Books of literary criticism
• Grosset & Dunlap books