Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 August 1947 — Page 8

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(A Regular Weekly

Feature of The Times)

THE FIRST READER .

. By Harry Hansen

‘The Harder They Fall’ Gives Vivid Inside Story of Fixed Fight Racket

"THE HARDER THEY FALL." A novel. By Budd Schulberg. New

York, Random House, $3.

"WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE'S AMERICA." By Walter Johnson, New

York, Holt, $5.

IT'S A GOOD THING for the reputation of the United |

States that when novelists dish up characters who are crooks,

bigots, chislers and drunks,

biographers come’ along with

evidence that we have a fair share of decent, honest, con-

structive citizens. Brentano's today and picks u er They Fall, a yarn about the fixed fight racket; the patriotic book-seller can also

hand him William Allen White's America, by Walter Johnson, to

set him right about us.

Budd Schulberg is not eager to

expose the seamy side of the United States. He is merely pounding out a hardmelodramatic story about the way cheap crooks mislead the public and exploit fighters for the big gate receipts, But 1 don't see evidence of any indignation such as we find in the social eriticiam of

Sinclair Lewis, ‘

AS IN the case ot his earlfer tale about Hollywood, What Makes Sammy Run? Mr. Schulberg entertains hy showing the methods of a cheap exploiter. There isn't a character in the book who is not a crook, a& heel -or a sap, and the brief touch of remorse of the press

but kept his mouth shut, is ridiculous rather than tragic. But William Allen White's Amerthe - dally doings and comments of Bill White of Emporia through the decades of progressivism, 1s much more repre= sentative and more. wholesome reading. Incidentally it might profit the Gromykos and Molotovs more to translate this book into Russian than to hold up the Schulberg opus as representative of our degeneracy under capitalism. The Whites of the grass roots, hopeful, industrious, honest and confident of their democracy, are.the core of America. Budd Schulberg writes a cynical case history in The Harder They Fall, with some recognizable ring characters. Nick Latka, the promoter, buys an Argentine glant named Molina and boosts him into the big time. Molina is an illiterate, Overgrown baby.

+ If, for instance.

Trygve Lie walks into p Budd Schulberg’s The Hard-

who'd rather see their hoya get killed than make an honest living

knees, “In the old days, sir, it was a! rough game, but it had bomé character to it, some dignity. fancy percentages, no A ta business, just winner take all, may the best man win.” There is § touch of the ludicrous in the final accounting by| the promoter, When he breaks with his glant and Molina cries for .his money the bookkeeper figures out what the fighter has coming to him, After deducting $10,450 « for training, $14,075 for living, $17,225 for entertainment and $63.500 for cash advanced, the fighter has left $49.07. “Everything is in order, show these books says the bookkeeper,

to anybody,”

» ~ » IN SPITE of my boost for blog- | raphy I seem to be giving more space to Budd Schulberg's fight story than to Walter Johnson's William Allen White's America. (Holt, $5.) _ I suspect the blography, coming so soon after the Selected | Letters and several other books | about White will find a smaller] response. However, it deserves to! last, just as White's memory .deserves to be cherished, Mr. Johnson's book makes Mr. ‘White an intensely human, alert,

“HE DOESN'T hit hard enough to break an egg.” protests the press agent, “I'm telling you, this guy 1s

a lollypop.”

“you go out and plug Molina like you never plugged anything in your life,” replies Latka “Man Mountain Molina. The Giant of vhe Andes. -And leave the rest to me.’ Plugging Molina means mislead- |

ing the newspapers and the fight- |

0 ublic, while Latka buys hy a who take the count when Molina taps them on the arm. You have to strain your credulity to believe this part, for Mr, Schulperg makes Molina's progress al too easy. He does plant a doubting | Thomas or two among the newspa s| permen, but he has no feeling about the public in this gness. Why Se) public supports such fights, when

|

+ BIOGRAPHER —W alter Johnson author of "William Al-

len's America," man and an his story,

friendly individual,

biography of a

It is a chroni-

{ cle of what Mr. White did and said | From London, Sept. 2, 1939, to Hiro-

and should make progressiveminded Americans take heart, Mr. | White was always active in camfor

and boxers who've taken so many| dives they've got hinges In thelr|

I can | sters,”

3 8 8 i THROUGH his central character, «' |Charles Gabriel, ! lalways too scrupulous New York X {literary agent, Mr. Mealand shows { (us how writers are made.

\ |dour father,

era in American

hey are, is it knows dow Hooke ey that | PalEns social betterment, » study 3 fren for thrills that) greater security and wider opportunity, we: fool ourselves nlingly: He wrote forcibly all his life,

CHARLES, "he bartender “right | supporting decent conduct in busiacross the street from the Garden,” | ness and industry, better oppor- | still has memories of the great days tunities for labor and swatting Ku of pugilism, Money has ruined the klu and other bigotries whenever | game. “Too much money for the| they Appeared. managers, too much money for the | " =»

fighters. The people who come into] INTENSEL Y social, Mr.

White |

this place: Grifters, chiselers, two-| Was In constant contact with indi- |

amblers, bigtime managers, | vidual leaders. Thus heéwas strongWu . $ ns ly influenced by personality. But]

he did not let friendship affect his {views when principles were inLvolved. His views of Calvin Coolidge, Willlam McKinley, Herbert | Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Har|old Ickes and many others were not | one- sided nor affected by partisan- { ship, He was probably more liberal{minded at the end of his life than

EAR

ROEBUCK AND CO

| Kansas, he backed Mr.

Indiana’s Most Popular ?} | in 1896,

% A man as outspoken as Mr, White was cannot always be oracular. It in to Mr. Johnson's credit that he

gives space to Mr. White's mistakes DEPARTMENT

|in judgment (such as the charges {at Alfred E. Smith), But Mr. White !

McKinley |

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when, as an anti-Populist editor in |

* FICTION * TRAVEL | was always courageous and admitted ° {his errors when convinced by his * NON-FICTION BIBLES [friends. He probably had more e CHILDREN'S *e COOK | friends in public life than any other | i of his generation. ® REFERENCES” * SHOP rns o ATLAS "Mortal Hunger Read * DICTIONARIES | “Mortal Hunger,” by Racy | Wedeck, a novel based on the

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president c of the Art association of f Indianapolis.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TI

EARLY CHINESE POTTERY — A recent gift to Herron Art museum's collection | of early Chinese pottery is this black and white T'zu Chou ware set of pillow and ewer dating from the ‘12th century. The set is the gift of Mrs. James W. Fesler,

“¥

OFF THE CUFF—

|Editor Tells Of 20 Years

In Harness

"FAT MAN IN A PHONE + BOOTH: NOTES OFF A NEWSPAPERMAN'S C UFF." By Niver W. Beaman. Intrsduced by Clare Boothe Luca. Lhicago, Cloud, Inc., $2.50. APTER 20 years of newspaper experience, Niver Beaman took time out to write a book. “Fat Man in a Phone Booth” is a genial chronicle of the 20 years, mostly spent, in working for smallcity newspapers in Connecticut. For five years, Mr. Beaman was editor and general manager of Greenwich (Conn,) Time, a highly | praised suburban daily, and later editor of United Features Syndicate. ‘He now ‘is editor of Moose magazine, the publication of the fraternal order. . 0» # MR. BEAMAN’S book is unpretentious. That fact is greatly in its favor, although it may disappoint reader who expect a newspaper-

: Author Discloses Key Secrets of Writing In Novel, ‘Let Me Do the Talking’

ier ME DO THE: TALKING." A novel, By Richard Mealand. New York, Doubledayy $2.75. By HENRY BUTLER RICHARD MEALAND'S novel, “Let Me Do the Talking,” is more | | remarkable for its theme than for {its -artistic merit. In that, the book resembles Frederic Wakeman's “The Huckwhich revealed interesting but sordid things about radio advertising. Mr, ‘Mealand's field is literary {agencies and their clients. Bince the field is relatively new to most fiction readers, the novel should command attention. People imagine writing to be romantic, just as they imagine film acting or newspaper reporting to [be romantic. “I don't know what I want to do, but I think I'd like

RIBS AGENTS—Richard

to write” is a stock remark of . starry-eyed youngsters. Mr. Mea- Maeland, wiose novel, ‘Let Ms land”s novel does a thorough job o the Talking, satirizes lit-

erary agents and their client victims, Formerly story editor of Paramount Pictures, Mr. Mealand has had wide experience with the business side of writing.

of de-glamorizing the writing busi- | ness.

daring and not

When (18 In demand as a lecturer. With | Nathaniel Peck Jr. son of a bitter|@& little skillful pushing that costs |agent rival, comes to Gabriel for only the usual 10 per cent, he has {advice, he decides to make young | become a big-time personality. | Peck a success, just to annoy his 8. .n who has refused to ANOTHER venture in personality | take his son into the firm, manufacture is young Barbara Jean Young Nathaniel has looks and Mudge, dramatics student from charm, plus a background of edu- Galena, Hl. Gabriel, a bachelor wiio |cation in England. Gabriel feeds has hitherto kept away from emo{him the idea for a magazine article, tional entanglements that might {later to be expanded into book interfere with his business life of form, lambasting American educa-|scheming, lavish entertaining and tion by contrast with British edu- [frantic telephoning, at first takes a cation, Gabriel's staff ghost-writer|paternal interest in Barbara.

Jdashes off the article, and young| He renames her Brigit, gets her

Nathaniel] is all fixed. started on a career as a model of For when the article appears in|the Powers or Conover sort. He & national magazine, public response even dreams up ideas that will get pro and con is terrffic. Nathaniel! her into big-time radio. Before he

Dispatches Depict ar Horrors

“The New Yorker War Pieces: |

|shima, Aug. 6, 1945," selected and! larranged by the editors of the New Yorker, is announced for October publication by Reynal & Hitchcock. According to the publisher, “the book begins with Mollie Panter- | Downes’ quiet dispatch from London | ] lon the Sunday In September, 1939, 88 when the Bri.ish decided that Hit-| ler had gone. far enough. It cioses | with John Hersey's memorable report on the bombing of Hiroshima, [the final act In ANgust, 1945, that tang down the curtain on Japan.”

| \

New Career Book’

‘Covers Teaching “Four Young Teachers,” a novel by Genevieve Chase and the newest addition to Dodd, Mead's Career Book series for teen-agers, will be

U. HISTORIAN —Dr. Oscar O. Winther, associate professor of history at Indiana uni-

published Monday. versity, whose latest book, "The The - Career Book series now| Great Northwest: A History,” covers nearly 40 job fields, each| is announced for publication

volume having been written by an eminent member of his profession as a help to teen-agers in vocational choice, according to the pub- | lisher, > 7

‘The Goose’ $ Tale’ Author Identified

A news release from E. P. Dutton & Co. reveals the identity of Barnaby Dogbolt, whose satirical novel, “The Goose's Tale,” was reviewed in The Times Book Page Aug. 2. The author of “The Goose's Tale" | and an earlier book, “Eve's Second | Apple,” is Dr. Herbert Silvette, who 1 teaches at the University of Vir- | ginia medical school and lives on a mountain near Charlottesville, Va., in a house named Low Gear. |

‘Ten-and-Out' Out Soon

A new edition of “Ten-—and Out! The Complete Story of the Prize in America,” by Alexang Johnston, will be published Sept. i by Ives Washburn, Ine.

next month by Alfred A. Knopf. It is. a history of the Oregon country, now the states of Ore«gon, Washi ing? on and Idabio,

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man to have a whirlwind life of adventure and contacts with the great and near-great. As city editor of the Waterbury, Conn.,, American, Mr. Beaman helped that paper win its Pulitzer award for exposure of city graft. He doesn't over-stréss his own part in the achievement, even though the strain of checking innumerable facts and keeping the paper from goes wrong. There's trouble over |costly libel proceedings Dearly wore the sale of movie rights to Drew [him out. Dorfleld’s best-seller, “Tourmaline.” yu # Dorfield is Gabriel's highest-paying |. CLARE BOOTH LUCE, in her Inclient, whose agent's fees amount |troduction, has high praise for this to $20,000 a year, so he has to be |Journalist friend. She points out handled carefully. that he's not at all*the cynical or aggressive type often presented in movies about the press. Mr, Beaman is easy to read. What's more, he sounds like a good guy. Both general readers and fellow scribes should enjoy “Fat Man in a Phone Booth.”

‘Madonna’ Book

realizes it, he's fallen in love, and 50, apparently, has she, They plan a week-end together In the country. Ironically, that's just the week-end when everything

# » . ANOTHER client gets drunk and takes a poke at a policeman. He has to be personally bailed out and sobered up. The week-end is ruined. So is the romance, as it turns out. While Gabriel is subsequently busy, night and day, with long-distance calls about “Tourmaline” and other vexing matters, Brigit. and young Nathaniel get acquainted and beNethame) gs, aq Sale Due Soon Despite his brashness and his de-| “The World's Great Madonnas,” light in outwitting rivals, Gabriel | new anthology by Cynthia Pearl is not an unsympathetic character.|Maus, formerly of Indianapolis, Like Budd Schulberg’s Sammy, of | Will be published next’ Wednesday ‘What Makes Sammy Run,” he has| by Harper, a ‘residue of childhood inferiority] A companion volume to “Christ which drives him always to excel.|and the Fine Arts,” earlier antholHe must be successful, even if suc- |08Y compiled by Miss Maus, the new cess destroys his chances of [Pook is described as containing 114 happiness. full-page art reproductions with Atmosphere is important in a |interpretations, 239 poems, 60 novel. Mr. Mealand has caught{Stories and 62 hymns, carols, lullavery well the night club, hotel and |bies and folk songs centering in expensive restaurant environment |the life of the Madonna. of New York little big-shots— agents, best-selling authors, eastern |many years, Miss Maus was -the executives of film companies and |first national director of young others whose business prestige de-|people’s work for the United Chrismands costly, showy living. tian Missionary society.

. ” ” n AMONG Mr,” Mealand’'s sharplydrawn ‘characters, Jane Ipswich, a rival ‘agent who also teaches a short-story. course at New York university and occasionally gets a good client from among her students, stands out. Jane at one point attempts a double-cross by turning Gabriel's office staff against him. Book-agenting, it would seem, is as| 7

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full & doubtful ethics as other {fiercely competitive commission fields. | “Let Me Do the Talking” should have excellent movie possibilities,

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'Dark Passage’

Latest addition to World's Mo- | tion Picture editions is “Dark Pas-|; |sage,” a novel by David Goodis, to|} | be published Aug. 25 by Cleveland's ' World Publishing Co. A story. of terror and violence, the novel is the basis of the forthcomling film of the same name starring | Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Ba- | call,

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PARABLE — Philip Toynbee,

whose new novel, "Prothalamium," is described by Richard McLaughlin, writing in last week's Saturday. Review of Literature, as ''a parable for our

"Underground Story Due | }°" (Doubleday,

“Blessed Is the Match,” Marie | Syrkin's story of how European | Jews organized and fought Naziism, {will be published next Thursday by [Alfred A. Knopf. According to the publisher, the forthcoming book has been highly praised by Dr. Joshua Liebman and Ludwig Lewisohn.

land's famed classical scholar and translator, Gilbert Murray, is the son of Arnold Toynbee, whose” "A "Study of History’ (Oxford, $5) is a current best- - seller.

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For 92 years Butler University has met the responsibilities of higher education in a democracy.

Butler has educated young people | In the principles of good citizenship in a democracy. -_

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Butler has prepared young people to earn a better living in their chosen | profession. !

For Further Information, Write or

$2.50). | Mr. Toynbee, grandson of Eng- |

"FATHER AND THE ANGELS." » By William Naren: New York, Dutton, $2.75.

to. seem unreal

- Amb itious, aggressive or neurotic characters are easier to describe|

convincingly. There are more of them. And since most of us share their vices in one way or another, we can appreciate and applaud the descriptjons. - It takes rare sensitivity and liter-

able person seem credible, William Manners shows both qualities in “Father and the Angels.”

» - . HIS FATHER was a rabbl in Zanesville, O.,, a man interested

more in people than in things. The rabbi was trustful, a fact which sometimes enabled him to get people's personal or domestic diffi culties smoothed out, but occasionally resulted in his being swindled. His errors in judgment, however, never embittered him against his fellow human beings. That sturdiness of faith in humanity was probably his greatest’ quality. willlam Manners records the father-and-son relationship simply and movingly. The man always respected the boy, so that even when the boy was hopelessly wrong in his opinions, he was never made to feel like a fool. William's mother might be inclinéd toward saying, “Istold you s0,” but his father never was.

= ” ” EARLY IN LIFE, the boy recognized his father's great goodness, It was puzzling, sometimes irritating, since it seemed to defy common sense. Quietly and unintentionally, the father disarmed the boy's rebellion before it started. So the traditional father-son antagonism, which at best has sometimes sent sons away to sea or to the frontier, at worst made them eventually criminals, never developed: Aside from the father-son theme, there are remarkably fine passages of autobiography in “Father and

DEBUT—Dorothea Malm,

young magazine writer, whose

first novel, ''Pamela Foxe," will be published Aug. 25 by Pren-tice-Hall. Both Miss Malm and her sister, Frances Malm, have appeared frequently in national magazines. .

Midwest Books Scarce in 1947

country.” So says a round-up story on regional books in Publisher's Weekly, book-trade journel, for Aug. 2. John Bartlow Martin’s “Indiana:

BOON PEOPLE IN books are apt

“Books about the Middle West will be less numerous this fall than books about any other section of the |

ary skill top make a wholly admirs|’

_ SATURDAY, AUG. 16, 1047

Manners Does Skillful Job In ‘Father and the Angels’

Manners, whose the Angels” is an eloquent tribute to a man of rare kindhess and understanding.

the Angels” You get a clear pic ture of a youngster growing up in a shabby neighborhood, where one of the neighbors’ families had “babies who swore before they talked. They crawled. on the porch, their faces blackened with earth and jam. One said, ‘Dod ‘amn ‘00,’ to all passers-by. Ine discriminately, Even to father,” ” » » NEXT DOOR to the rabbis house was a fire station. “Father

gave the firemen sacramental wine.

at Passover time, but the way they handled it, fully fast.” There are descriptions of the writer’s mother, conservative, fussy; his elder brother, Sy, precocious, mischievous, cynical; fond of long: words; numerous characters, bad and indifferent, rabbi endeavored to help. The book is simple, direct, true and intensely moving. in the top rank of Tmatly reminiscences.

Children Like. - Reading Clubs

mer reading clubs sponsored

by. tffé Tadianapolis public Uorary

a proved. to ‘be very popular with children, ‘Miss Evelyn Sickels, super

visor of work with children, said today.

As of Aug. 1 there were 1647 chile

dren enrolled in 15 clubs at branch libraries. They have read a total of 7311 books, according to Mis§ Sicke els. © At the lose: of the summer vacae tion, certificates will be awarded to children who read at least eight books.

Fall Term Opening Aug. 25 to Sept. 2

Office open daily from 8:30 to 4:30 and until noon Sat~ urdays, also Monday and Thursday evenings, for information and registration. Competent, helpful counsellors are happy to assist in arranging courses, living accommodations, etc. This is the

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