While Rome Burns

{{Short description|1934 book by Alexander Woollcott}}{{Infobox book

| author = Alexander Woollcott

| pub_date = 1934

| publisher = Grosset & Dunlap

}}

{{italictitle}}

While Rome Burns is a book collecting some of the 20th century American critic Alexander Woollcott's writings for the New Yorker{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alexander-woollcott/while-rome-burns/|title=WHILE ROME BURNS by Alexander Woollcott|publisher=|via=www.kirkusreviews.com}} 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".Wallace, David. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ivN7BAAAQBAJ&dq=%22While+Rome+Burns%22+%22best+loved+books%22&pg=PA168 "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}}. 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/03/04/archives/mr-woollcott-runs-on-and-on-while-rome-burns-is-a-collection-of-his.html|title=Mr. Woollcott Runs On and On;|first=C. g|last=Poore|date=4 March 1934|publisher=|via=NYTimes.com}} The book includes accounts of his travels to Japan and Russia.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SxZZAAAAYAAJ&q=woollcott+while+rome+burns&pg=PA323|title=Asia and the Americas|date=24 December 2018|publisher=|via=Google Books}}

A sequel, Long, Long Ago, was published after Woollcott's death in 1943.{{cite web|url=http://www.vincentstarrett.com/blog/2014/12/24/vincent-starrett-and-the-1934-the-baker-street-irregulars-dinner|title=Vincent Starrett and the 1934 Baker Street Irregulars Dinner|website=Studies in Starrett|date=3 January 2015 }}