Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 June 1946 — Page 13
Navy
averaging betovertime and ge of the gun hip in time of
» armed guard to handle the f reasons. One war, when a 1, seamén had e undisciplined dn't have been Any ex-armed } you statistics able to use as
ersive elements enough so you s, whether an ed against you straining hand
come squatter r, with a badly rum that found ration for key igh despite the much of their
3 a sort of seaarsonal freedom arrived patriot n alternative to
nt of the mernt of the navy, des. But it's a are more than a navy-broken love each other
s Unit
. . signed to stop-
rom Communist ly. Incidentally, parties in those nationalist and
mpaigning for a nent did not let tions embarrass that the United , the reparations ed America or stern allies miliItaly. 3 quo in Europe greement to dised control comIt would not of r economic con-
ot be improved, ated if we make ations deliveries
made cannot be der to make the t our expense or
ed too much too holding the bag.
Now
elopment only a
ale to the U. S. plant at Geneva, 190 million. The | this the best of well-established Iron, once the
sen interested in nd was anxious this surplus war giant which has nce, all of which ked development
3. Steel offer for it was. »] case. All sales er a million doldepartment. The ep of the Geneva
poly.
ropoly RENCE to U. S. ome significance. ie big steel com=~ of railroad rates another example allroad, steel and
ty to reveal and ervened with the
Affairs
1 he said he was m the opposition
ant was that he should, at any his policy. n’'s foreign office s the support he opposition. For him and leftist left wing of the lionaries, pacifists » little knowledge standing Interests tly expressed the ries did must be
t numerous, it is ore a godsend for quarrel with the nking plaudits of 's would make a this lively episode inderlying British ptured. And still supposed that the chill and Ernest er's entrance into
jpposition and the 1 policies are very
hat Bevin's Euro-
ve broad, general
in Britain except
ose cheers. he 50
A Regular Wednesday THE FIRST READER
Maugham Tells
Of Machiavelli’ With a 16th Century Fascist
"THEN AND NOW." A novel. York, Doubleday. $2.50.
CRAFTY IN POLITICS boiled when he saw a woman
Feature of The Times By Harry Hansen Clever Tale s Encounter
Credh
lk
Discussing. great books . . . faculty sponsorship. Left to right:
By W. Somerset Maugham, New
was Machiavelli, and hardhe wanted, but in W. Somer-
set Maugham’s new novel about him, “Then and Now,” he still is the pupil of power politics and the victim in an ironic
comedy of seduction.
The tale, cleverly constructed but never coming to life,
reads in part like one of the less interesting episodes told by Boccaccio’s ladies in their quarantined palazzo, Converting the plot of Machlavelli’s play, Mandragola, to his own purposes, Mr. Maugham combines it skillfully with Machiavelli’s mission, as secretary of the Florentine republic, to Caesar Borgia at Imola | in 1502. : { Borgia is an astute leader, eager to unite the warring camps in Italy and drive the French out in the north, and Machiavelli goes to hear under what terms Florence can treat with him. Confident, self-reliant, dictatorial and ruthless, Caesar Borgia becomes to Machiavelll the embodiment of eentralized power, and he gets an opportunity to gather the impressions that were to erystalize in the primer of realistic politics, “The Prince.”
» » » WITH MACHIAVELLI who is 39, goes the son of a friend, Pietro, aged 18, A friendly fellow, with a good tenor voice and a modest demeanor. In Imola they are guests of one of Caesar Borgia's men, Bartolomeo, who finds Pietro related to him. Bartolomeo is a middle-aged braggart, with an attractive young wife, who has all the modesty, downcast eyes and skill at embroidery that invariably distinguish renaissance heroines before their fall.
Machiavelli learns that three marriages have left Bartolomeo without an heir; he contrives, therefore, to seduce the lady. Need I go on? The pattern is so familiar only a Shakespeare or a Maugham could have used it without mishap. If anyone could make a primer of politics readable; it should be Mr. Maugham. He has used as little history as he could, but even the little he tells is routine. foc 2 = = * THE CHARACTERS of Borgia and Machiavelli are consistent—the
first frank about his realistic rul-| ing; the latter honestly defending | Florence and not quite converted | to the Borgia ruthlessness.
It is interesting to note that Bor- anatomy laboratory full of rows of |
gia's declaration that the church must be saved by depriving it of temporal possessions shocks Machiavelli most. Borgia was the son of one of the popes. “You know better than anyone,” | says Borgia to Machiavelli, “that in a republic talent is suspect. A man attains high office becalise his mediocrity prevents him from being a menace to his associates.. That is why a democracy is ruled not by men who are most competent to rule it but by men whose insignifi- | cance can excite nobody's apprehension. “A prirce in my position is free to choose men to serve him for their ability. He need not give a post to a man who is incapable of filling it because he needs his influence or because he has a party behind him whose services must be. recognized. » td » HE FEARS no rival because he is above rivalry and so, instead of favoring mediocrity, which is the curse and bane of democracy, seeks out talent, energy, initiative and intelligence.” When Machiavelli later put these views into his book, he became the advocate of personal power... Mussolini was said to have learned much from him. But historians also credit Machiavelll with observing the necessity of organizing strong states out of the quarreling medieval communes. For better or for worse, he recorded
pron 00k
Father's Day Cards and
GIFTS
for his office for his home for his own *
To obtain any book reviewed | on this page, write or phone LI. 457M.
Sti soe
Neighborhood 4217 “College To ® 5539 E. Wash. Evenings ® 109 E. Wash.
many political . methods adopted long after his time. With that Mr, Maugham has no concern. He is interested solely in the Imola experience, where Niccolo Machiavelli proved himself less competent in love than in diplomacy.
New Mysteries For Addicts
"THE DEADLY PERCHERON."
By John Franklin Bardin. Dodd, Mead & Co. New York. $2.00.
"BITTER ENDING." By Alexander Irving. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $2.00.
By DONNA MIKELS THE AUTHORS of these two “who-dun-its” (and good ones at that) must have heeded the words of Raymond Chandler, master of rough-and-tough mysteries, to “get murder out of the vicar’s rose gardens and back to the guys who are really good at it.” In both offerings, there's all the bar-room banter and grim wisecracking that delights hardened mystery addicts. What's more, the guys who pulled off these jobs were “good at it.” » n » A YOUNG MAN wearing a red hibiscus in his hair and who confesses to having several leprechauns as business acquaintances enters a psychiatrist's office and starts “The Deadly Percheron” galloping off into a humdinger of a homicide offering. The psychiatrist's professional curiosity carries him into a whirlpool of horror and sadism, of which he eventually becomes a victim. There's a lot of good reading before the murders finally fit themselves into a pattern that leads to the villain. . ” ” ” “BITTER ENDING” has an! equally bizarre beginning. A mur-| {der in the middle of a college
bodies blows the lid off some campus scandals and turns a cynical] professor into a successful sleuth. The young professor slides in and
{out of romantic interludes just as
easily as the murderer slips in and out of his traps. When the police force is just about ready to pin the purders (naturally there's been another killing by this time) on our hero, he come up with a surprising and satisfactory solution.
Books
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Discussed By Study Group at Butler
part of the Great Books study group which has met regularly at Butler under Butler and Chicago university John Ruckelshaus, Edward F. Gallahue, Pierre F. Goodrich, Mrs. Goodrich and Mrs, The subject of this recent session was Adam Smith’s-*The Wealth of Nations,” with Chicago's Milton Mayer serving as chairman and moderator,
Kurt F. Pantzer,
‘MIGHTY FORTRESS — A Minister Finds Meaning Of His Calling
"A MIGHTY FORTRESS." A novel. By Le Grand Cannon Jr. New York, Henry Holt - & Co. $2.75.
By EMMA RIVERS MILNER Times Church Editor LE GRAND CANNON Jr. en-
snares the reader's interest in the
first chapters of “A Mighty For-| tress” with a skill many novelists well might envy. He writes with such directness and economy it isn't necessary to trudge through a quarter of his book before ‘it absorbs you. The illusion is wrought with the introduction of Abel and Minna in the] first few pages. As the novel opens, the two are | in their New England kitchen on a Saturday night in 1829. Abel is shaving in preparation for going to church next day. Now and then he exchanges intimate comments with Minna about their child soon | to be born,
» » ” AS THE PEELES reveal themselves in their talk, you become aware of their complete “oneness,” that unity of spirit which makes of any marriage a thing of beauty. In fact, you respond so wholeheartedly to the young farmer and his very young wife you are in no hurry to be diverted from their personal concerns. But it is Mr. Cannon's purpose to portray a preacher of their day and time and not to spin a whole tale about Abel and Minna. The preacher will be Ezekiel, their soy, familiarly known as “Zeke.” Once born, the next you hear of Zeke he is 12 and building the silo with the help of Joe, fugitive slave and his confidant. In a few more paragraphs Zeke is 15 and setting out as assistant to the colorful Watling, traveling evangelist, for a summer of meetings. a = 8 . AFTER GRADUATION from Andover Theological seminary, Zeke { becomes assistant minister at the | Twelfth Congregational church in Boston. In a remarkably short {time, through a remarakably Istrange set of circumstances involving the villain, McIntosh, he is {made minister of the large church. McIntosh’s unacknowledged daughter, Viola, and Zeke are married. For reasons you will discover, Zeke becomes a violent abolitionist. As suddenly as he was given the church, he finds himself dismissed and in need of another. The times were tense then in the United States with slavery a bone of contention and civil war threatening to divide the country.
|
| basically the same as that used in
(on the public lips from world war
‘Empire and Se
Holt & Co. $3.50.
of the 18th century wars.
on France, his speech formed what | could be viewed a pattern for Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's request for war against Germany 146 years later.
THE REASONS cited by Mr, Pitt | in his request were almost identical | to those set forth by Mr. Chamber- | lain in 1939, The strategy in the ensuing conflict, both land and naval, was
the war just past. The same politicking pervaded the diplomatic scene. Home front workers, from white collar executive to the man who carried a lunch | pail, composed the gredt-great-granddaddies of the epigrams still
II. The story of England's warfare with France, written against a background of contemporary life, “Empire and the Sea” covers the period from February, 1793, to October, 1805.
” ” » BECAUSE Napoleon I had little to do with England's grievances against France at the time, he is dealt with lightly. The book deals with the subject from an English point of view, a previous book by Mr. Pratt (Road to Empire), having already reflected the French viewpoint. Beginning with Pitt's request for declaration of war and the subsequent vote in favor of it, the beok follows the English navy through several “battles, none particularly decisive, up to Nelson's victory in the battle of the Nile—a shattering blow to Bonaparte. In graphic style, Mr. Pratt shows how closely the history of England was connected with the careers of Nelson nd ih
Of War Remains Same
"EMPIRE AND THE SEA." By Fletcher Pratt.
By DICK BERRY THERE 18 a striking similarity between the implications of war one or two centuries ago and war of today. but for the dates, places and arms, today's wars might be exact replicas “Empire and the Sea,” by Fletcher Pratt, is a book in point.
When William Pitt Jr, then premier of England, asked parliament in February, 1793, to declare war |
| English victory at Trafalgar, which
| beginning of the
|shame the book wasn't continued
a' — Pattern
New York, Henry
So little is changed that
many events on the English scene were misinterpreted. The book ends with the great | cost Nelson his life, but marked the ritish Empire, 1 successor to the English nation. It would unquestionably have been anti-climax, but it seems a
for another three months. Many readers will want to know what happened to Mr. Pitt. ” » . THE PREMIER died in January, 1806, the second year of his sec{ond term of office (1804-1806). Some {accounts attribute his death to the crushing blow of Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz two months earlier. The brisk pace of the book keeps a reader fascinated. It should not be asking too much to call for a sequel.
Depict Jewish Aid to Culture
"THE JEW IN AMERICAN LIFE." By James Waterman Wise. With a Preface by Eleanor Roosevelt, Sponsored by the Council Against Intolerance in America. New York, Julian Messner. . $1.25. THIS FINE collection of brieflycaptioned pictures gives a panoramic view of Jewish contributions to American culture. It shows how Jews, since Revolutionary times, have aided our progress in every line of endeavor, from farming to science, in. sports
HE TELLS of ie shortages of supplies, food and ships . . how| they finally led to mutinfes in the | English fleet . . . and almost destroyed the efforts of both Pitt and | Nelson in their struggle for Eng-| lish domination of the seas. Then there were the troubles with Ireland, the cut-throat politics and discontent on the home front. Added light is thrown on the latter by sections called “The Worm'’s Eye View.” writings, public and private,
These are taken from |‘he book should be especially useof | ful
and music. It depicts scores of
1ample, in John Dos Passos’ “The
'THE BIG NOISE'— Hoosier Gives Lowdown on
Radio Poseurs
"THE BIG NOISE." A novel. By Fielden Farrington. New York, Crown, $2.50,
SOME FICTION gains importance from subject-matter rather than from substance, Such writing is Fielden Parrington's “The Big Noise,” a novel concerned with radio's Land of Oz,
Not the first, and likely not the last, of a series of books dealing with climbers to the dizzy heights of big-time broadcasting, it is a good portrayal of a success-mad, double-crossing heel, Anse Grogan.
I
” ~ “ STARTING with Anse’s timid beginnings in radio in Terre Haute (Mr. Farrington, incidentally, is a Hoosier from Clinton), the -book traces Grogan's rapid rise to radio production and advertising. Anse's technique, despicable but effective, involves such charming tricks as whispering campaigns against men whose jobs he covets. He gets ahead, all right, but he eventually finds himself friendless and unloved, And it takes all his fortitude to try to reassure himself with a hollow laugh at those he deems less fortunate. » . . NOTHING startingly new about this sort of saga, which, as, for ex-
Big Money,” has been done with greater skill.
But Mr. Farrington's own years of experience in radio give him the kind of background that makes this novel worth reading. He shows you radio from the inside. He gives you fascinating glimpses of the alcoholic, ulcerplagued crew of eccentrics, poseurs and charlatans who infest big-time broadcasting. And he neatly draws distinctions
in his portraits between the sin-
the field and frauds like Anse Grogan.
{outstanding individuals in different | lines (Morgenthau, Baruch, Lilienthal, Berlin, Heifetz, Gershwin, i Einstein, to name only a few). . : WITHOUT Ling against hack- | neyed phrases of prejudice, this large, paper-bound book indirectly and tactfully corrects some ignorant errors, As an appended note suggests,
to educators. It includes a
minor actors on the scene, and are|list of suggested reading—authoriintended to show what the little tative, but not difficult or technical.
F. D. R. Secretary Writes of 'Boss'
From his 15th year, Zeke had displayed a great talent for public speaking and the ability to move an Simon & Schuster have completed | audience. What is more, as a arrangements for the publication of minister, he regularly visited the ill and unfortunate and asked very an intimate book about Franklin|jittie for himself, sometimes being D. Roosevelt by Grace Tully, for 17 actually hungry. Even so, the years the late President's secretary. deepest meaning of the calling of Tentatively entitled “FP. D. R.—|Christian minister does not seem
My Boss,” the book will concentrate to touch Zeke. |
almost entirely on the human side| nn of the man whom all his closest fel-| BUT HE is young, possessed of a low-workers loved to call “Theinormal amount of humility and Boss.” The book is scheduled for|more-than-average intelligence. Life publication late in 1946 or in 1947.|offers to teach him and he accepts Ne ——————————————— the challenge. - In the end, you see him steadily “growing into” a pasNew Novel Completed tor dedicated to religion and nl Laura Z. Hobson, author of “The |a husband falling in love with his Trespassers,” has just submitted to|wife. Oratory is still important, but Simon & Schuster the finished|in a secondary way. manuscript of her forthcoming| The final chapter harks back to novel, “Gentleman's Agreement.” |the charm of the first granting a Arthur Gordon, new editor of] | last satisfying glimpse of Abel and
man was thinking and doing. » » »
by foreigners, which explain how
OTHER sections entitled “Wrong | by the Council Against Intolerange. End of the Telescope” are writings|
“The Jew in American Life,” is the second publication sponsored
The first, “The Negro in American Life,” was produced in 1944.
liam Saroyan.
Adventures of Wesley Jackson,” writer. here is a disillusioning story of arm
It's not a tale that will keep you, thrilled and breathless. It will pro-
Cosmopolitan, has purchased the Minna. You rejoice with them now rights for first serialization of |because they are expecting a grand“Gentleman's “Agreement.” | child. :
voke your curiosity to see what hap-
| pens.
® = » WESLEY JACKSON was 19 and
generally satisfied with his life in| San Francisco when he was drafted into the army. He would have been satisfied to hang around the public library and look after his
father, who had « pension and a penchant for alcohol. But he recounts, “1 just moved along with everybody else and when the time came I went down to 444 Market street and got took into the army.’ Wesley didn't like the army, he didn't like the officers or anything about his new life. However, the urge to write a letter—not to his father, because he didn't know where he was; not to his mother, who had left his father years ago, but as a last resort- to a former Sunday school teacher—brought a| new interest. The Sunday school | teacher was dead but the pastor answered the letter and advised him to write. \ . # un = SUCCEEDING weeks “saw him moved from training camp to New York where he became a writer of camp scenarios, met a modern |
prectuve section. $2.30
woman and later was shipped back ‘style, with some vivid characteri- the Men Who Made the Constitu- | sation and sentimentalization over| tion.”
to Ohio.
Happiness Enters the Life Of an Unwilling Soldier
"THE ADVENTURES OF WESLEY JACKSON." New York, Harcourt, Brace. By MARC WAGGENER
IF YOU'RE fed up with the dashing heroes of war, turn to “The who became a soldier against his will and yet found through the army the girl of his dreams and success as a
In what might well be William Saroyan’s autobiography as a soldier,
A novel, $2.75.
By Wil-
| others, He explains that he has
» » | 8 P. 8. Now that Hollywood is doing a big business with the screen | |
portrayal of heels, Mr. Farrington's) novel should have excellent scenario possibilities. —H. B.
Publish Crime Anthology July |
Will Cuppy's anthology of true and fictional crime stories, “Murder Without Tears,” will be published July 1 by Sheridan House. Mr. Cuppy has included in his collection 28 crime stories by James Thurber, Stewart H. Holbrook, Carl Carmer, William Roughead and 18
tried to include stories in a lighter vein, omitting those which are “solemn, agonized, unduly philosopheal.”
Book-of-the-Month August Selection
The Book-of-the-Month club selection for August will be “Ine dependent People,” by Halldor Laxness, a novel of Icelandic folk published by Alfred A. Knopf. July selection of the club Is “Britannia Mews,” Margery Sharp's new novel (Little, Brown). The club's book-dividend for July and
y life away from the fighting front.
Writes of army life . . , William Saroyan,
cial wedding. Their idyll was interrupted when he was assigned to France after the invasion. His first real encounter with the war came when he and a friend were captured by the Germans. » n ” WESLEY'S picture of life in a German prison camp is a rosy one compared with the experiences of others who shared the horrors of Nazi prison camps. He is freed by the American advance and returns to London, finding his former home in ruins but Jill safe and carrying the child for whom he had yearned. The tale is told in Saroyan’s best
3 Pre Unsocial Socialist.”
has been termed by Christopher | Morley “a
|
There he continued his develop- | the perplexities with which Wesley |
ment as a writer and thoyght for 'a time he had met “The Girl!
he was later sent to London and
is beset. as a
The reader can take it) “gripe”
evading the difficulties of an offi. spent.
* Cad
againsy army life. ‘War. Experiences Told Transferred - back to New Mork, Or he can draw from it the more| Harrison Salisbury, foreign. news | Pleasing story of how-the disrup-|editor of United Press and .former fe found Jill, to whom he was tion of Wesley's life by war raised |chief of the U. P. bureau.in Russia, united in a cefemony staged by him above the level on which his|tells of his Russian experiences in| some of his friends as a means of| days might otherwise have been| “Russia on the Way," published k ’ Masuiilign,
| August will be George W. Stimp-
{son's “A Book About A Thousand | * | Things” (Harper).
Shaw Omnibus Due
Caxton House, New York publishers, anndunce the forthcoming publication July 26 of “The Selected Novels of Bernard Shaw.” Shaw, who will be 90 that date,
great novelist gone wrong." Hitherto inaccessible, save to collectors, Shaw's out-of-print [novels in the Caxton omnibus will include “The Irrational Knot,” “Cashel Byron's Profession” and
Bantam Reprints
Bantam Books reprints just re-|g3
ceived by The Times book page in-
clude Alexander Woolcott's “Long, | § Long Ago,” C. 8. Forester’s “The|§
Captain. from Connecticut,” A. A. Avery's “Anything for a Quiet Life” and a collection of Charles Addams’ cartoons, “Drawn and Quartered.”
Book Contract Signed
Oliver Carlson,
"Hearst! Lord of San Simeon; Forgotten Fathers: The Story of
/
cere, honest, intelligent workers in] the big-mouthed | 3
co-author with] Ernest Sutherland Bates of|° "hast signed a contract with Prentice-|’ Hall for a book to be entitled: “The| |
esterday by