Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 February 1947 — Page 14
———
Regular Weekly Feature of The Times] FIRST READER... By Harry Hansen 2 New British Books— Max Beerbo
M sohm on Radio, “Samuel Hoare on Franco
“ "MAINLY ON THE AIR." By Sir Max Beerbohm. New York, Al- “. fred A. Knopf, $2. i
COMPLACENT DICTATOR." By Sir Samuel Hoare. New York, © © Alfred A. Knopf, $3.50.
' MAX BEERBOHM, who t in a lifetime sunning himself at pal here a TT walk is. an event made his first broadon the subject of speed. in itself is not dangerous, for instance: “A cannona cannon is not in itself dangerous. It is dangerous be in the way of it. You would like to step out is no time rhaps it would
: i
w d
a: E i
: :
gr = g gs
g g g 3
g & & g
moments and of only showing his of you, but it/head when there was little chance fast.” of its being struck.” He cites as t around to| reasons why Spain did not go to that motorists, being in/war: The overwhelming opposition of predicament, should be|the Spanish people to war; the disan hour. {asters of the Italian army. in have taken up| Greece; the disputes with Germany all seems incom-iover division of the African loot, retiring writer of the French fleet and restoration of But here is the evi- Gibraltar to Spain. Combined with ly on the Air” com-ithis was Generalissino Franco's radio talks and siX|confidence that the allies would lose Max is now 74 and that, entering the war at the ut such honors are'jast moment, he could get what he pages. While it is| wanted without fighting. ve he was an associate At pest British diplomacy fought Beardsléy on the Yellow!gq delaying movement. What that the wonder|meant is explicitly portrayed by Sir Samuel. The endless protests and veiled threats, the adroit planting of suggestions, the long campaign ‘to get German agents hindered if not suppressed. Opposed to .the British was a small, quiet fat man. Sir Samuel believed that, like Hitler g and Mussolini, he had begun with a pose that later he believed was a gift from heaven. 2 » » IN ANALYZING the factors that made Franco dictator Sir Samuel speaks of the numerous upheavals that have troubled Spain. He says that in ‘the “06 months of the republic’s life, there were no less than 36 ministries” and for 86
sa ¥ :
1p §
gEE%,
i sg ig
gis
5
Ii ef
i h
i i &
0 Ep 8 Fi
:
4 > |
i
"PALISADE DRIVE"—From The
typography leave no barrier between his reader and him.” But Sir Max's best papers are in his older manner — “T. Fenning Dodworth” the portrait sketch of a public man who “has made so much out of so little,” and “Fenes-
abrogated every personal liberty. Anarchy and ‘massacres came “in the latter years of the regime.” The monarchists had no definite policy or leader but wanted peace instead. of excessive change. The church had been greatly weakened by spoliation ‘and many of the clergy wafited peace and security, | home again. Instead, Sou try to but when it allowed the Falange interests and attachments, resem to “exploit its rites and buildings bling, but not identical with, the for party demonstrations” and “un-| original ones. ; dertook to become censors of educa-{ And if your livelihood comes from tion for a totalitarian government,” New York, you may live, as Alice it cast its lot with reaction. Beal Parsons does, within what ‘ 5 = =» rugged bus-travelers term commutWHY THE GERMANS did not ing distance. ss the North RS A a SOR Arion aan thought “THE WORLD Around the Mounit headed for Italy or the Near|tsin,” a sequel to “The Mountain” East. is written from the vantage point When the North African opera-|0f Nyack, N. Y., up and across the tion began Great Britain and the Hudson from New York. The counUnited States sent formal an- UY up-there is picturesque and full nouncements to France. Sir Samuel of historical associations. And the quotes both. The British document Fiver, (really an estuary, as everyis a statement from his majesty’s| body knows), flows with seasonallygovernment, in the third person. changing moods through the spienThe American note is a personal|did valley. letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt] Mrs. Parsons’ new book is in part to “Dear Generalissimo Franco.” He, ® record of a literary pilgrim’s says he wants to tell “the compell-| Progress. Born in Rockford, Ill,
sons,
generation or more.
. |don Sullivan, in “Devil by the Tail,”
a lithograph by Carolyn S. Ashbrook of Merron Art school faculty.
pical Hudson valley’ view was sketched near Nyack, N. Y., scene of Alice Beal Parsons’ ‘The | World Around the Mountain.” Miss Ashbrook, who teaches children's classes at Herron Saturdays, |There did the lithograph in Edwin Fulwider's class in lithography last summer. = o # " » 5
'World Around the Mountain’ Is Pleas
Record of a Literary Pilgrim's Progres
months the law of public safety| "THE WORLD AROUND THE MOUNTAIN." New York, Dutton, $2.75.
By HENRY BUTLER FROM SMALL TOWN to New York to. small town. That has been one migratory course of writers and artists for a references and numerous digres- ; “The World Around the The end of the course is usually different from the beginning. In| Mountain,” which seems to start the title phrase of Thomas Wolfe's posthumous book, you can't go|OUt as a comparative study of New make yourself a new home with new
ing s
even retaining some of them un the eve of ‘world war II.
sions.
| salty, almost New England characuniversity, she lived in New York ters, is a melange of reminiscence in the post-world war I days when and reflevion, literary life centered about Green-| I THINK wich village and its “suburbs.” She'
eS
s =
apartment with another girl and her mother—typical 1920's design for living. And she went through the ordeal of holding down two Jobs, besides doing spare-time hackwriting, in order to combat then. current high cost of living. . = FJ » SO MUCH has happened since the early '20’s that it’s hard to realize how exciting that period was to small-towners who came to New York to live and work. Ideas were in the air—shocking, but refreshing by contrast with stuffy small-town notions. Europe was a powerful magnet which drew writ-
slummy Mine Hole section of Piermont, below Nyack, makes you want to know more about that region. You could do with more description
of the magazine-article thing exemplified in: “But today scepticism has invaded both religion and philosophy. Few educated, modern men attain the miraculous fusion and freeing of their latent capacities that alone can make them whole through either religious experience or phil-
sort of
}ing reasons that have forced me” 3nd a former student at Chicago
ers, artists and musicians from the |28°Phic contemplation.
By Alice Beal Par-jAmerican hinterland via New York,
All this background keeps emerging in Mrs. Parsons’ parenthetical
York and Nyack—the latter with its
Mr&. Par is at hia | WOT, Gordon nevertheless depends
and her mother shared an E. 8th st:| Pest when she has her eye on the
people or the scenery. Her brief| (whisky, gin, rum, brandy, sherry—| description of the incongruously|it makes little difference) he craves.
{more reporting, and a good deal less |
Does this)
-
ABOUT BOOKS—
Novel About
|Drunk Ledves
A Hangover
“DEVIL BY THE TAIL" A novel, By Langston Moffett. - Phila. delphia, Lippincott, $3.
havior,
from central characters in current novels about alcoholics and neurotics, : | It isn’t enough for the reader that through the writer's explanation he can understand all and is implicitly asked to forgive all. “Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner” is
an ‘excellent charitable maxim-— within limits,
- - *® =
IN SOME current fictional trends, the limits are stretched pretty far. How much sympathy, understanding and forgiveness are due Charles Jackson's Don Birnam (and I don't mean the ridiculously converted Don of censor-intimidated Hollywood)? Or, to put it differently, is Don any better off for the longsuffering patience of his relatives and friends? Y What the reader is often asked. to accept is the notion that Don Birnam, or Langston Moffett's Gor-
is a pretty much helpless and pitiable victim of circumstances— usually childhood circumstances. A harsh father, an over-indulgent mother; no wonder a guy takes to drink in later years. v w E J » IF HE becomes a heel, the fault Is childhood maladjustment, plus, Jof coursé, the alcohol which is his only escape from ceaseless psycho{logical pain. The picture needs correction. is a strong presumpition that drunks who are heels about money and property (Don Birnam or Gordon Sullivan) when they're drunk, are also heels in the same department when sober. They are borrowers, not lenders, and they tend to repay debts only to re-es-tablish credit. Gordon Sullivan, in Mr. Moffett’s {lurid chronicle of 20 years a-drink-ing, as a college freshman covets a coonskin coat. His puritanical, pinchpenny father indignantly refuses t&-buy him one. So when both parents are away, Gordon buys the coat on one of his mother’s charge accounts.
8 8 = 4 SOMEHOW, that detail sticks in {the mind more than instances of | ‘paternal browbeating. | | Husky and certainly capable of
jon a monthly allowance from his
{widowed mother to buy the alcohol
He has no compelling sense of re- | sponsibility towards his wife and {children. His long-standing idleness the has rationalized in terms of {his need for leisure in order to write or paint. — It’s a little hard, parenthetically, to take seriously the psychic torments of people who don’t have to {work for a living. You get to feelling about Gordon, as you do about {similar characters you've encoun- | tered, that the fundamental laziness {is just plain low-down. Maybe it's (understandable, but it's scarcely
i
i
x
NEUROSIS, narcosis, psychosis—: these and similar terms add up to ) | kind of halitosis-of individual be-
An unpleasant breath emanates
.
W
HERE'S EXAMPLE—Home chief. plant pathologist of the Washington, D, C. Built nearly walls supporting conventional fra house is still "in excellent condi House"). ssn
»
‘Houses of Rammed-Earth
Are Practical,
("THE RAMMED-EARTH HOUSE."
duction by the Hon. Clinton
ture. New York, Harper, $2.50, WOULD YOU LIKE to be able to
house for less than $5000?” That is one tentative and P. Merrill in° *The Rammed-
No necessarily brief review can
(give an adequate description of the
rammed-earth construction method. About all a review can do is call attention to Mr. Merrill's book, with its technical data and its bibliography, so that interested readers can pursue the subject further.
BRIEFLY, * rammed-earth con-
struction is an andienit method of
building walls by tamping layers of selected earth in specially-con-
!structed forms. Important factors
are:
Percentage of sand, clay and!
gravel in the earth used: . Percentage of dampness during tamping, and the care with which the tamping or ramming is done. What usually strains credulity and has in part retarded the progress in this country of rammedearth construction is the observable fact that a pile of earth will dissolve into mud under heavy rain. As Mr. Merrill points out, most of us, without knowing anything about bricks, assume that bricks are “by nature” stronger than rammed-
That's because we haven't tried the rammed-earth procedure. Revived and put to use back in de-
pression days, the simple, though |
ensikraniamig: Ap— rl rm -
of Dr. Harry Baker Humphrey, department of agriculture, near. 25 years ago,.with rammed-earth me 'second-story construction, the
tion.! (From “The Rammed-Earth
» . »
Inexpensive
By Anthony F. Merrill. Intra P. Anderson, secretary of agricul
build a “spacious three-bedroom
qualified promise extended by Anthon Earth House, books and articles on a little known ! cheap construction.
" latest of a long series o » though time-tested method o
physically strenuous building * tech. (nique passed all manner of tests by {the U. 8. bureau of standards and {other laboratories, !
. ” . WHEN day-labor was patheticall cheap, and when, especially in th South, there was desperate need foi low-cost housing, proponents o! rammed-earth had partial succe in a few developments, notably ne Birmingham, Ala. There is nothing “miraculous about the stréngth and durabilit of rammed - earth, Mr. Merril 'points out. It's a matter of wha: ‘are. sometimes called “colloids” o binding ingredients in seil, Carefu) thorough tamping will produc blocks - of earth that will harde 50 as to support amazingly hea weight. Anybody who has actuall experimented with ‘rammed-earth needn't bother with any more highy! falutin’ scientific explanation o what takes place. z : What's important is the adap ability and low cost of this build ing method. For durability, ir, Merrill cites a church near Sumte: :8. C, whose rammed-earth wall} “+ . have stood for more than i {century through several hurricane! |and, an earthquake,” among othe] | examples.
” FJ s | OUTMODED building codes an the explainable hostility of th building industry as a whole hav? hindered extensive rammed-es
"ventures. At present, the methof
POLITICAL ANALYST — Tris Coffin, formerly of The Times
of construction is scarcely feasibll ‘save in rural or outlying districts. But it should be of great intere to homeless veterans and othe housing-shortage victims, part larly those who can do & Mrge shs of the monotonous labor themselve and thus cut costs.
Lic
&
‘Army Group Names
Book-of-Month '“The War Reports of Gen. Mar' shall, Gen. Arnold and Adm. King,% to be published next Wednesday b
1933-1937), whose forthcoming ok on Washington politics, "Missouri Compromise,” will be published May 5 by Little,
CONCERNING SPAIN—Sir Samuel Hoare, author of ""Complacent Dictator,”
How the British by satisfying Some of Franco's economic wants, helped keep Spain from joining the axis in the war, is told in “Complacent Dictator,” by Sir Samuel Hoare, former ambassador to Spain. A highly readable account, it throws light on the methods of the Churchill government, the character of Generalissimo Franco and the conflicting forces in Spain. A most readable book and important historically. Bir Samuel pictures Generalissimo co as the “Brer Rabbit of Dictators,” who ' “had a way of
to send the mission and says “I am sending a powerful army.” It is signed: “Your sincere friend.”
Three Top Stars THE SATURDAY REVI
’ * I To M ake M Ir acle arriving late at local news
Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and interesting issue for Jan. 25. Bing Crosby are the public's three
OE unlegs for leading Toles In| university's music department. cle of the Bells. Pleading “The Cause of Native According to Prentice-Hall, pub-|Music,” Mr. Moore attacks the lishers of the best-selling Russell vicious complex of managerial and | Janney novel to be filmed by Jesse |COMmmercial influences which keeps! Lasky through RKO, the casting most serious American composers in choices are early results in a poll | the status of poor relations. being Jointly cenducted by the Mr. Moore's editorial, discussed at publishers and the producer. length in both Time and Newsweek for Jan. 27, should be carefully read Literary Club's by music-lovers who find program Program Ready
and recorded offerings repetitious and stereotyped. »n ” Francis H. Insley, secretary of| MUCH the same opinions are the Indianapolis Literary club, has voiced by Alfred Human, editor of announced the club's program for|Musical Digest, refreshingly insurFebruary. Penk Pobijesiion sponsored by Des . Speaker Monday evening will be advance Reis, Ip an Philip C. Lewis, on the topic, “A magazine’s February issue. The reStory of 32 Months,” with Charles lease, just received by The Times N. Smith programmed for Feb. 10 Book Page, quotes Mr. Human as on the topic, “Mild and Bitter.” charging that “managerial powers % Dan Hull will discuss “Gen- enthroned on the island of Manera ucation” Monday, Feb, 17, hattan maintain almos followed, Feh. 24, by Howard C. 8 bate
subjugation of the continent in Caldwell speaking on “Stone and musical matters.” Kimball,” ~
2 tJ » ” Mr, Insley has announced also] MR. HUMAN is further quoted as that there will be no ladies’ night
EW OF stands,
music, with a bliste:
Saturday Review Editorial
Blasts Taboo on U. S. Music
A good half of the issue is devoted to ring editorial by Douglas
LITERATURE,
which has a way of comes forth
with an exceptionally
music and books about
| there t we must go partial and |lolerable—at any rate, when edn met a a nd) re millions of industrious, wellrealize that our scepticism has intentioned people in the world]
| ture, Mr. Coffin writes about the
overleapt its mark.” = »” » THAT KIND of thing, in the vein of Harper's or the Atlantic about 20 years ago, seems oddly dated. Mrs. Parsons writes “The traveler who wishes really to sée the objects presented to his view must
st, Saddest Words
LISTS of three sweetest and three | saddest words are cited in the Janu- | ary Counterpoints, monthly chatter-| pamphlet of Cleveland’s World Publishing Co, “These were voted favorites as the three sweetest words in the English language, according to The Line: I love you Dinner is served All is forgiven Sleep ‘til noon Keep the change Here's that five “And the saddest: Buy me one Out of gas Dues not paid Funds not sufficient External use. only Rest in Peace.”
Finishes Story on Ukraine
Moore, head of Columbia | continually stop to rest his faculties | first place), is as spectacular a rec- —— of attention and to exercise his' ord of a drunkard’s progress as one
faculties of comprehension.” The reference to the obsolete “faculty” psychology, like Mrs. Parsons’ earnest wrestling with other abstractions, probably should have been edited more ruthlessly. But descriptive passages, vignettes of personalities and memories of Rockford, New York, France and elsewhere make “The World Around the Mountain” pleasant reading.
Writer Calls Paris "Brilliant City’ “Paris, utterly undamaged by the war, remains, beyond argument, the most brilliant visitor-city in the world.” 80 says Sydney Clark, author of a forthcoming travel book, “All the Best in France,” scheduled for publication March 25 by Dodd, Mead & Co. Mr. Clark, whose “All the Best in South America: West Coast,” was reviewed in The Times book page for Jan. 18, “paints an optimistic
[1-c further excuse material.
stating that Ameri - bobbing up with vigor at unexpected | in February. g erican music-lovers
are deeply concerned over the impending “invasion” of the West by Metropolitan Opera forces, A concluding quotation from Mr. Moore's “SRL” editorial is pertinent: “Do you eagerly anticipate the local season of opera? It is opera but it isn't remotely local. Whatever name it is called by it is largely packaged at the Metro~ politan Opera house which puts the label on the singer so that the provincial buyer may safely invest irfa ticket. You can't go wrong on the operas themselves, They are Just the same as they were when grandma was a girl, and American composers are strictly taboo.”
~
EXPERIENCE
In Real Estate Matters
Duell, Sloan, Pearce
Get. Publishers “Award
‘The Carey-Thomas award for the | best example of creative publishirig in 1946 ‘has been presented to Duell, (Sloan & Pearce for “The New + World,” Stefan Lorant's book of the first North American paintings. Established in 1942, the award is granted. by Publishers’
mis. . ; . ~~! CIRCLE TOWER | FR. 3174
nn
Prof. Clarence A. Manning of Columbia university has completed the final chapters of his comprehensive “Story of the Ukraine,” which the Philosophical Library of New York will bring out in the early spring. *
picture” of contemporary travel conditions in France, according to the publishers. Despite inflation and the black market, conditions “show a trend toward national recovery,” the publishers cite Mr. Clark as
MIRRORS
In stock and made to order We can furnish just about any type mirror or size. made to your order, ‘Over mantel or door mirrors installed.
. Lyman Bros., Inc. . 131 on the Cicle
Weekly, n book trade jour-
{who aren't getting enough to eat, | {let alone drink. i 2 8 = NOVELS about alcoholics may have a certain morbid fascination.
| i |
| and thereafter.
Brown & Co. Creator of '"Washington Report,” CBS radio fea-
Missouri compromise of 1946 He is the son of Mrs. Clarence E. Coffin, 3270 Winthrop ave.
| Certainly “Devil by the Tail,” con|cluding ‘with Gordon's finding a jcure in creative work (which was, {as doctors say, “indicated” in the
can imagine. The practically 100proof trip to Mexico is only one example. I doubt if such novels add any{thing valuable to popular knowledge [toncerning alcoholism. There {the possibility that they even do {some harm by giving those who are {bucking for the rank of Drunkard
t ® 8 =»
IT IS DOUBTLESS true that alcoholism if a symptom, not .a
Daphne du Maurier's Novel to Be Reprinted
novel
issued in the Sun Dial $1 reprint series,
is “The King's General” reached a total of over a million copies in print. It seems- likely. to outstrip
du Maurier’'s “Rebecca,” according to the publishers.
Daphne du Maurier’s best-selling of 1Tth-century romance, “The King’s General,” has just been
Within 60 days after publication,
he previous record made by Miss
Lippincott, has been named by th?
{Army Ordnance association as it {book of the month for April.
The publishers describe the volH ume as “the first book to presergs a complete official account of oul military, naval and air activitie, from the pre-Pearl Harbor periog to the final Japanese surrender.”
eosin amino t f as
BOOKS FOR BOYS!
Bowling for All $1.25¢ Make It Yourself____$1.00 Puzzle Parade | Daniel Boone : Bob, Son of Battle__$1.00¢ American Boy ; Adventures $1.00)
PENN-MARK BOOK SHOP)
46 N. Pern. Room 200 |
Send mail orders to ) P. 0. Box 55 Indianapolis 6 A¥
2 1 4 1
————
cause. The difficulty is in evaluating what alcoholism symptomizes. Is it a sensitive, mistreated, wellmeaning but frustrated personality, helpless through no fault of its own? Or is it a wilful self-centered per--sonality that has never learned, as most of us'learn through necessity, even the rudiments of socially required behavior? - All such fictional studies belong in a larger fictional framework. “Devil by the Tail” judiciously condensed, might make a part of a first-rate novel mainly concerned ' with more average behavior.
SEAR)
ROEBUCK AND CO
Indiana’s Most Popular
BOOK
DEPARTMENT * FICTION ® TRAVEL ® NON-FICTION © BIBLES ® CHILDREN'S = * COOK ® REFERENCES ~~ ® SHOP * DICTIONARIES ® ATLAS ® LATESTsMAGAZINES
Mail Orders oad Filled 3:
Tock *
BOOKWORM
reminds you:
"You can get any book reviewed on this page in Block's Lending Library or Bookshop."
Bogk Shop
LA
=P Foying
with an introduction by
EARL WILSON
A sparkling, pleasure-packed collection of delightfully unconventional stories, verses, and jokes by America’s top | bumorists, including Bennett Cerf, Ludwig Bemelmans, Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley. Appropriately illustrated. OVER 400 PAGES $2.50 at all bookstores -
WM. PENN PUBLISHING CORP,
-
221 Fourth Ave., New York 2, N.Y.
South Mezzanine
continue
For E Of W.
Act D
~ On WN
WASHI P.). — Pre day asked tinue his thority an powers fo requested e» to* allocate rials, and ¢ import of Sugar is th individual c directly. Mr. Trum for the mi: « shipping lin can settle whose vessel ing the war The powe! renewed wi March 31 u gress,
!
Li:
He asked "ONE: Ret import con! critically st the world. port-import oils, and in and meat p peas and b protein food TWO: Cg on. domestic grains and sugar, and authority o stance, perm on use of g THREE: control. ove rubber; ma fiber and cor and cinche quinine is rn FOUR: ¢/ cars which as domestic this countr FIVE: Al new “miracl SIX: Lin and tractors Mr. Trun nation to restrictions But he cont of the cont essary to tl of reconver: > Woulk
He said would pro public witl we must turely.” "He also n ,tinuation o help this -c national wu gations.” On the la man procle hostilities i This meant time powe
{Continue
Hoover Post-We
NEW YC Herbert Hq was en rol today on ! mission, This time methods of and Austri ican zones more food Basically, ermine he occupation their: prom their zones ories daily
TI
Amusement Eddie Ash Boots Ned Brooks Business .. Classified | Comics Crossword Editorials |, Fashions , Forum .... Meta Give: James Has | Hollywood In -Tridpls. Inside Ind, Douglas Lai Ruth Mille - Movies ... . NATIONALL Charley's Re