Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 April 1948 — Page 8

Page PDF (9.03 MB)

Back to issue view

THE FIRST READER—By Harry Hansen

King's Row Is One of Worst

Small Towns Ever Created

By Authors of Fiction

"PARKIS MITCHELL OF KINGS ROW." A novel. By Henry and | New York, Simon & Schuster, $3.

Katherine Bellamann.

"THE GOLDEN HAWK." A novel. By Frank Yerby, New York,

Dial, $3.

"THE LEGEND OF THE MASTER: HENRY JAMES."

By Simon

Nowell-Smith. New York, Scribner, $3. ~~ KING'S ROW is one of the unhealthiest small towns ever laid out by a writer of fiction. ii. 1940 Henry Belle- - mann, after a long career in music, wrote “King’s Row,” a

sort of Spoon River in prose, filled with misfits, from in- |} growing grouches to abnormal behavior.

Far from being

revolted, a large slice of the American reading public rel-

ished it; Hollywood made a popular film out of its trans- . gressions and today, eight years after, “Parris Mitchell of

King's Row” is at hand to make us glad we don’t live in that lace # ’

The authorship of the novel is credited to Henry and Katherine + Bellamann, and in a circumstantial introduction, Mrs. Bellamann declares that she and her late husband jointly wrote his books and that {his represents his ideas. Parris Mitchell is a psychiatrist and therefore in a position to be consulted by his townspeo-

;

iE hi bi

§ nl

gE=

complicated than those in his

earlier books. ; Kit. Gerardo, French with a touch of Spanish, raids Spanish ships in the Caribbean in his Seaflower and cherishes revenge on Don Luis del Toro, who rules in Cartagena. x Kit is loved by'two women, the frail Bianca, wife of Don Luis, and the masterful Rouge, an Englishwoman who can handle a ship. Poor Kit suffers a prison flogging and the plot works up to the usual duel, this time with daggers, in the Gipsy manner. Frank Yerby writes a smooth, entertaining but. not a gripping story. . ” . HENRY JAMES’ diffidence, his groping for the right word, his dyspepsia, his carefully expressed wit and his polite ways, made him an interesting character to his friends. What he said at tea-time, what made him become a British citizen and what he thought of other authors, is almost as imt today as his novels, which have a limited audience. Latest evidence of the growing interest in James as a personality is “The d of the Master:

Legen the Henry James,” by an English-

man, Simon Nowell-Smith. The author reminds us that Henry James’ stock slumped dreadfully In his lifetime, and James once lamented, “I don’t sell 10 copies.” But a new generation of critics, “impersonal as surgeons,” concedes his great influence on hovel-writing. 80 Mr. Nowell-Smith to

from and observed Henry James . in

gether, with fine selectivity, many s ! »

action, and “delighted in his rémarks.

Henry ames hated Zola’s “vul-

garity” so much that when he de- ¥ {nounced him to a friend he stood still in the middle of the road to do it; “He could not spare breath for perambula

while

Ellen Terry and she refused it. “Perhaps she did not think the

proater

part suited to her,” said Mrs. Edmund Gosse. “Think? Think?” asked Henry James, “How could chattering hag think?” But James was never a success as a playwright,

the|the saga of a city, some with t/to be remembered with less than

for : my profession an bun ending.” ONCE HE: a play for

1 | |

ART TREASURE — The Pieta of Carlo Crivelli, ‘I5th-century Venetian painter, which is one of the 30 great paintings from New York's Metropolitan Museum now on view in Indiana University auditorium in Bloomington through May 15.

Dutton, $4.50, Book Editor of The Mer

small group of students.

fundamentally a formal study of less stuff so. often considered precious bl tistorians, but an investigation” into the lives and characters of the men and women 0 made this city on the fourth ckasaw Bluffs of the - sippl River. The students set al their chore with enthusiasm, and this book is the product. “It is more than a history, It is a series of vignettes of people,

on the bluff to the present . . . people who etched their names in

great honor to, themselves, some

If there is one thing about) “Memphis Down in Dixie” to make an impression upon the resident of the city, it is the fact that 80 much has gone on here since DeSoto came in 1541 about which

By PAUL FLOWERS IN THE EARLY 1930s, when Shields McIlwaine came to Southwestern at Memphis to become professor of English, he launched, among other projects, a creative writing program for a

. These students began research into Memphis history . . .

from the time of the first settiers|he does it so that there is never

all-out esteem. ’ J

‘Memphis Down in Dixie' Chronicles Early Life of City in Series of Vignettes

"MEMPHIS DOWN IN DIXIE." By Shields Mcllwaine. New York,

Commercial-Appeal

not generals and battles and the life-

Memphis people know nothing. One fascinating story after another, and so many of them are as fresh as this morning's dew, ¥ # ” » IT IS WITH the character of Memphis and its people, from the time the Spanish and French held] sway over this inland empire, that Shields McIlwaine deals, and

a dull moment. There is an engrossing account of the beginnings of the city as an English speaking settlement, with Andrew Jackson, Isaac Shelby, and Judge Overton prom in thé rness what was to become a metropolis, and the major trading center for a great Mississippi Delta land. There were unsavory land deals, and brutality in Jackson’s treatment of the Indians

A novel.

House; $3. THAT TERRIBLE scourge of

By George

¥ | potential danger. 3 It lurks in the cigaret that the careless motorisi tosses from a i | car as he drives through deep woods; it may be ignited at any time

i by a stroke of lightning that hits

with the feet w ! oie : . Jam not familiar with the me-|

chanics of decapitation, but have|!

always understood, from read-|| ings in French history, that it}:

takes a terrific blow to séver the

~ There is also an aged Catholic priest in the story. The ending is happy, and normal, which must be startling news for King's Row.

3 ® 8 = FRANK YERBY whose novels, “The Vixens” and “The Foxes of Harrow,” have attained great popular suceess, follows the traditional pattern of the "historical novel in his latest work, “The Golden Hawk.” The plot is less

LEGACY ~The Henry

late Bellamann, who left a legacy of

notes and plans for ''Parris Mitchell of Kings Row," now completed by his wife, Katherine Bellamann.

; CROSSWORD PUZZLE \

7 Answer te Previous Pussie : SLDINEY] JC AMP] Archbishop BATT IONS AET oN STEN Dbl Ell SIE] DUIMISIMORI ALIS) HORIZONTAL VERTICAL [AREICA ao JAHEIER (1,8 Pictured 1 Antiquated SSCL) 5ioNEY Cll i (ALT) OIL] archbishop, ~~ 2 Changes SIVELY] CAMP [EISINIES «The Rt. Rey, 3 Bind CL IEINEET IR [ill SIE, Msgr. ~= 4 Corded fabric Ta] | Tr 5 Preposition ~ SEISIENIT 14 Property 6 Surrender / [SIE ESE] recipient 7 Sharp

15 Robs. 8 Hops’ kilns wa 27 Papal triple 38 Green herbage 18 Pace \ « /9 Baronet (ab.) © crown 40 Twist into 17 Indentation “#10 Whirlwinds + 20 Plait ringlets 19 Petty quarrel 11 Pacific island ‘30 Onager 41 Onward

20 Symbol for ~~ 12 Beasts of \ selenium burden 21 Son of Seth 13 Compound (Bib) . ether 22 Myself 18 Negative, 23 Ireland 24Bury 26 Heavenly 28 Brads body 26 Lance 28 Fillip

30 Sacred bull 31 Sesame 82 Ocean 83 Depend 34 Hindu garment £6 Eveggreens’ 37 Pealed 391 am (contr.) 40 Wind

44 Tra it (ab) 45 Ceremony 48 Bring to © naught 49 Genus of . Shrubs

33 Italian seaport 42 Roman date 35 Resident 43 Vein physician of 46 Light brown hospital 47 Bitter vetch J6 He is the —=— 49 Belongs to it archbishop of 50 Also Washington, 52Eye (Scot) D.C. 54 Medical suffix

'Fire' Gives Reader Chance To ‘Live’ With Forest Rangers

i“ "FIRE."

Day and night rangers of the United States Forest Service

R. Stewart. New York, Random

the great forests, fire, is always a

the tallest pine.

watch for the suspicious curl-of smoke from lookout towers that dot the great forests, while firemen stand by their apparatus ready to respond to orders over the radio,

~ - » GEORGE R. STEWART, a professor of English in the University of California, sensed the drama in this situation, and brought it to book in his own inimitable way in “Fire,” the story of a forest fire in the Sierra Nevadas. . It is the finest exposition in print of what takes place during {a forest fire, There are many {good books on forest fires, but (Mr, Stewart's is a book of hu-

check stations after every thun-der-storm. Through Ranger Bartley's watchfulness, and Judith's apprehension, we become acquainted with the meaning of that grayish white smoke that curls up, 15 or 20 miles away. :

rd EJ ~ WE LEARN HOW the smoke is spotted from other towers. It is only a little thing at first, fed by a dry twig, or curtailed by damp nights. It could be completely obliterated by a thunderstorm. Or carried farther by a rabbit whose fur catches fire. It remains a small fire four days. Then a big alarm goes out

{man experiences, giving the readler a chance to live the whole catastrophe with the men who fight it.

» » o IT IS CALLED a novel because is uses imaginary characters, but actually it employs the documentary technique now favored- oy Hollywood. It follows the pattern laid down by Mr. Stewart when he wrote “Storm,” that original account of how a storm begins and develops into full fury on the Pacific Coast. Just as he gave the storm a personality, so Mr.” Stewart makes the forest fire a living thing to everyone associated with it, until eventually it takes the farm of a spitcat in the imagination of the forest rangers. Thus once again, Mr. Stewart proves that originality pays in writing. To get his information IMr. Stewart, so the publisher informe us, served as a lookout,

{rorme. . {had made these revisions, for to ; "| flew with parachutists and/orderly imagination does not per." , oilidy 0 \worked on fire lines, The Forest/mit of Intensity or exaggeration, SOMe readers, minor errors injure || ob- bjective 0Urses »

Wt faces and the endurance it (brings to battle. {

» » - { { THE BEGINNING fs muted, DI08T2Phy of Mr. Wallace by|

Tike a subdued roll on the kettle-| drums. The first observer is a| (girl, Judith Godey, who studies [the treetops from the windows of (a 60-foot steel tower on Cerro Gordo in the Ponderosa National Forest, Supervisor Jones (“They call me Slim”) in Suffolk had jurisdiction over a forest domain larger than the state of Rhode Island. Ponderosa pines, sugar pines, Jeffrey pines, red pines, hemlocks, and huge Douglas firs grew in that forest, : From her 14 by 14 glass house Judith saw thé lightning bolt that! (struck a tree miles away. “Light-| ning is the true Prometheus.” carrying the fire to earth. Forest | rangers watch lightning and

and fire fighters work to confine {the fire. They need reinforce{ments and an airplane drops {parachutists with apparatus and {food packages.

” » ” EVENTUALLY the whole area “blows up.” The fire rises to the tops of tall pines, whipped by the high gale. The radio in Sacra-

hurry in the emergency. Great trees fall to the ax as the Rangers clear a path. Men are in danger of their lives as the fire, now called the Spitcat, takes over an area with a perimeter of 25 miles. George R. Stewart is a man with a logical mind. His book can be read at a.sitting. Its information is precise. What it lacks in force it makes up in exposition. The subject might have made a more compelling drama if Mr

mento calls. for volunteers to internationally known headwaiter

throughout the Chottaw and Chickasaw countries, but Americans are not d to condemn their own leaders and ancestors for a ruthless sort of imperialism.

of Memphis during the Civil War, a city whose people were as much interested in trade as in fighting, and the naval battle fought within sight of the bluffs on which skyscrapers now stand. ' There is much about the unbelievable Captain Jim Lee, the river packet man . , . a wealth of anecdotes about life on the river. There is a story of the coming of big money, the Napoleon Hill saga; more about Archibald Knight and “Pappy” Hadden who presided over his court as if it were a minstrel show; and the lovable French chef whose food was famous during the gilded age, the John Gaston whose fortune posthumously helped create a great

He, rted hospital and dmarks of the city in 1948,

- # - HERE APPEARS the story of King Cotton and the mighty men who traded in the staple from a city they built into the world's greatest inland cotton market. There is a chapter on what Negroes have meant to Memphis. And finally there is an estimate of Edward H. Crump which says little about Memphis, its govern ment and ‘its political leader which has not been said many times before. haat ” » . MR. M¢ILWAINE devotes enough space to a few later. Memphis newsworthy characters; Richard Halliburton who sailed the seven seas to write travel books; Clarence Saunders, who parlayed a grocery store into a

and now is seeking to come back with a mechanical grocery; Lee Christmas who promoted revolutions in Latin America. “Memphis Down In Dixie” is the. third in Dutton’s “Society In America” series. The first was Cleveland Amory’s “The Proper Bostonians,”.and the second was “Washington Cavalcade’ by Charles Hurd. . It is unfortunate, then that Shields McIlwaine, writing his manuscript perhaps a decade ago without thorough revision to bring it up to date, allowed a succession of minor errors to creep into the text . . . spelling the name of Tennessee's Governor Blount as “Blunt”; calling the Harahan Bridge the only highway crossing between Cape Girardeau, Mo. and Louisiana; and alluding to Alonzo Locke,

at Hotel Peabody, in the present tense. Three spans cross the Mississippi between Memphis and Louisiana now, at Greenville, Vicksburg and Natchez, and 'Lonzo, who knew by name more celebrities probably than any other man in Memphis, died in the summer of 1947, long before “Memphis Down in Dixie” got out of manuscript form. Yet to cavil at the book be-

DISTINCT STYLE—

Latin Growth Traced by Plenn Book

By Abel Plenn. New York!§

even the most casual reader. The

There .is a fascinating account|

series of fortunes, then lost them|-

Cov WiLLEAN FrETIMA

ical pattern supplement: own observations. = i” ~ p THE AUTHOR'S COMMEN. TARIES, both usual prose-poetry

quality of the book. ; The book/itself is a fascina

literary panorama of the national

bian times. and a completely new approach, Mr. Plenn has humanized history to bring it within the scope of

book is by nb means a chore to read but is instead an

which punctuate the chronology of the lands to the south.

Wallace Gives His Platform

"TOWARD WORLD PEACE." By

Henry A. Wallace. New York, Reynal & Hitchcock; $1.75. By LARRY STILLERMAN

ness” and he has been damned as an out-and-out Red.

£ 4 » y

stumps for without hysteria,

fore a “live audience.” “Toward World Peace” is Mr. Wellace’s. platform for his New Party—the title he has placed upon. his. .p movement. Basically Mr. Wallace pleads for. an . understanding between Russia and the U. 8. as the initial step “toward world peace.”

» » » RUNNING PARALLEL to his pléa for Russian-U.S. harmony, Mr. Wallace urges a reaffirmation of American ideals internally, a denunciation of the “amoral al-

big press, and little government” which he charges is responsible for a majority. of the world's ills. Mr. Wallace, throughout the 121-page book, offers many proposals—some hard to énvision— for U. S8.-Russian harmony, to produce “one world” and a “belief in the unity of all mankind.” However, he says, “I am under no illusion that the misunderstandings of the past thirty years + +» can be quickly eliminated. But for the sake of my grandchildren, I want to start the job now, before it is too late. “I believe:. . . that the doctrine of the brotherhood of man . . the sacredness of the individual human soul is the essence of democracy, of old-fashioned Americanism and of modern progressivism,” he asserts. Mr. Wallace's book can be read in trips to and from work, it is that short. It is a political statement important in the light of Mr. Wallace's third party movement. ’

‘Raintree County’ Abridgement Printed

A 60-page abridgement of “Raintree County,” by the late Ross Lockridge Jr, heads the list of books abridged in the May issue of Omnibook. Other new books represented in the current issue are: “The Meaning of Treason,” by Rebecca West; “Came 2a Cavalier,” by Frances Parkinson Keyes, and “The Story of American Railroads,” by Stewart H. Holbrook.

SS ————————— Completes India Story Margaret Bourke-White now is finishing a firsthand text-and-

cause of a succession of minor errors would convey an erroneous impression of it as a whole. It is

{Stewart wrote with his feelings instead of his mind. But his

[Service can ask’ no ‘better testi-—H. H. monial than this story of the task!

Wallace Biography Due “Meet Henry Wallace,” a hew James Waterman Wise, is sched-

uled for late June publication by Boni & Gaer.

PREPARE NOW for Coming

Ask v0 see the famous

CAPITOL BOOK STORE|

208 N. Meridian St. Li-0408

Indianapolis, Ind. |

COLLEGE OUTLINE SERIES 1

bhi. tH

ithe overall | work.

value of a published

ows

li Choose From Largest Selection | wm § MENSA. | »

only to be wished that the author

{jj courses lead to definite objec- |

/J| Anderson, Kokomo, Lafayette,

| Fred W. Case, Principal

i | oo: N. Mcridian—(8t. Olair Bel |

photograph report on India, to be | published later in the year by {Simon & Schuster. mmo

tH f

{|| Here, you can concentrate, | specialize . . . progress according to your ability, application, | and previous education. All

tives . . . to pleasant, well- | paying positions, with futures | in keeping with your growth | and development. This is the |

~ Indiana Business College

of Indianapolis. The others are at Marion, Muncie, Logansport,

Columbus, Richmond, and Vincennes—all approved for G.I

astute and in-| formative, are presented in an un-|; style which|: serves to heighten the narrative |:

struggles confronting the “South-|’ ern Americas” since pre-Colum-|'

Through wise choice of material}

{A Things certainly aia * James Maresca. If heard a lot of disgruntled re-

liance” of “big money, big brass,|

LOVERS—With the titie: "Two ‘Lovers Under ‘an Umbrella,

this reproduction of a painting by Kitagawa Utamaro, 18th Cen.

($14 for six, $26 for 12 issues):

tury. Japanese artist, is one of numerous illustrations in Na. 20 of Graphis, interfational journal of graphic and applied art published in Zurich, Switzerlagd. The opulent magazine, with text and captions in English, French and German, is distributed in’ the United States by Dr. Charles Heitz, 16 W. 90th St, New York 24,'N, Y,

stand was just around the corner happen to

marks from taxicab drivers, all about having to drive in terrible traffic and how you get backache

running a cab, you haven't met James. He has other stories to

: REST BR AE et et WOR INSTANCE, there was the time he picked up a chick, “all of 22 maybe,” who hajled his cab at 86th and ' Broadway and wanted to go to the stage entrance ‘of the Roxy theater. She wasn't in a hurry, and said. “I take it easy going down Broadway, and all of .a sudden I can see. that she is undressing in my cab and trying to put on a dancing costume,” writes James. “Hey,” I bark, “Can’t you wait till ‘you get into the theater before your change?” “Stick to your driving, Bum,” she hands me, “and leave me alone. What are you, a Peeping Tom?” : “I don’t care to look at you, Sister, but you must realize that I may lose my license if a cop or hack inspector sées you. We aré right now in the heart of Times Square.” “Listen, Jerk,” she bites off at me, “I'll. be out of here in a minute if you just keep your big mouth shut, ...” ‘Well, that worked out all right.

James wasn’t arrested. But what

|puzzles me is how James reached Times: Square when ‘he * was

you have;

women,

Diary of New York Taxi Driver Will Leave You in Stitches

"MY FLAG IS DOWN: THE DIARY OF A NEW YORK TAXI DRIVER." By James Maresca. New York, Dutton, $2.50. A FEW MONTHS AGO 4 manuscript purporting to Be the Te- diary of a New York taxicab driver arrived at the office of E. P. “| Dutton & Co. The staff had a hilarious time. reading and thea asked for some evidence that its writer 80 James Maresca, License No. 3679, came

yas actually a driver. . It seemed that his from the Dutton office on Fourth a. » I GATHER from James’ reminiscences ‘that there are a great many lonely people. in New York who confide in cabdrivers. They have to tell their troubles te

cially on how to get along with women, which seems to be one of

ded one puzzled customer: p 4 ¢'s the way. I see it about hn, even these Broadway dolls. If the girl is nice I treat Rer rough because I realize she was sheltered and protected all her life, I know she is a good girl, so I order her to get me coffee’in a cafeteria. I don’t help her across the street, and when I want to pet I erush her tight and see if there’s any response. I use a bit of psychology, you see,

R 1 " » ON THE OTHER HAND, when I meet one of these good-time girls, I treat her with great respect. In a cafeteria I say, ‘Dear, can I get you something?” and I help her across the street. I treat the good girl bad and the bad girl good. “The sinful lady 1s always pushed around and ill-treated, so I am nice and respectful with her and she I always as the man that acted

with her like she was a lady. And the respectable girl wil always remember me as the only man to boss her around.” Be nice to a bad girl and bad to a good

headed for the Roxy from 86th St.

training. Interested persons! may contact the schools of! their respective preferences, or ||!

Central Business College

indiana Business College Wi

Book

Pecks

girl, that's the best thing you can do.” 2

+H. H.

Baby Week brings this litte book, which should be in a new mother's hands early, since it includes the best of medarn guidance from pre-natal to 6-year care, with formulae, training, first aid and development charts. An excellent gift.

2.75

shop, South Mezzanine

STORE HOURS: Monday through Saturday, 9:30 to §

somebody and he usually bends a § iwilling ear. James invariably gives advice when asked, espe-

bo £ i f :

‘Sta Offe

Mar ‘Secu con Not one Holl tin John Thursday Now the movie the more The lc starring § Van John Scudda } Combines i June Have Wednesda: The E: beging a n of outstan

AS AN

+ “Shoe Shi - War adole

Unanimous If yous Shag the 1 bably 1 Dur