Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 November 1948 — Page 8

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Escape Fiction

THE FIRST READER Tr by Robert W. Minton =

Label Hung

On Philip Wylie, Society's Harsh, Name-Calling Critic

“CRUNCH AND DES." By Philip Wylie. New York, Rinehart, $2.50.! “OUT OF THE SILENCE." By Patrick Mahony. New York, Storm!

Publishers, $2.50.

IF “CRUNCH AND DES” had been written by anyone but Philip Wylie, it would scarcely be worth a reviewer's

notice.

Not that these eight stories and a novelette about a couple of genial young men who run a fishing boat in|

Florida aren't pretty good as

slick fiction goes.

Mr. Wylie writes well and knows how to cofitrive a plot.

But so do dozens of other writers for popular magazines in which the adventures of skipper Crunch Adams and first mate Desperate Smith already have appeared. =

ported by supposedly reliable witnesses. There is the little Vennum girl who, following an epileptic fit, {took on the personality of Mary Roff, a child who had died years [before. For a year she lived with [the Roffs as their daughter before

SUCH fiction seldom deserves ;..oming Lurancy Vennum again.

to be preserved in book form. These are journalistic tales, to be read today in the Saturday Evening Post and forgotten tomorrow when you read something like them in Colliers. | But Mr. Wylie is special, by his own insistence. In “Generation of Vipers,” published six years ago, he made his bid as a serious critie of our society. He called that screed a sermon and he preached against the depraved values of modern American civilization. In a chapter entitled “Subjective Feudalism” he imagined what an historian might some day write about us: “A more brutal and degraded era can scarcely be imagined. . . . His America’s) knowledge of art would be nil. “But he could unwind an infinite number of the plots and describe the myriad tawdry characters of the illustrated newspapers ‘stuips,’ radio ‘serials’ magazine stories, moving talking pictures and other escape fictional devices with which he had glutted most of his free waking hours.” » . u HAVING TAKEN this dim view of the mediums of popular culture. Mr. Wylie then goes on to write the “Crunch and Des” stories, escape fictional devices if I've ever read any. They are characterized universally by happy endings. The heroes are little people, good. The villains either are rich or trying to get rich, Disastrous action always is culminated by some fortuitous twist to prevent a tragedy. For instance, Crunch is in a rowboat with a maniac who is trying to make up his mind whether to shoot him or carve Guess what? Des from the shore catches the maniac. in the face with a nasty old fishing plug. ‘Only is describing the Everg| a striking marlin does Mr, show signs of the serious pose he affected in “Generation of Vipers.” who suspected that there was more sound than fury there may care to see for themselves in “Crunch and Des” how unable Mr. Wylie is to heed his own preachment. He, too, belongs to this generation. - = s AT A PUBLIC showing of| Beata Beatrix, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s most famous painting, critic remarked that the portrait bore a curious resemblance to the painting of St. Agnes of the Intercession which he had seen in a museum in Bologna, Italy. Rossettl had never been to Italy and became haunted by a desire to see the painting made by an artist named Angiolieri, for the model

‘of Beata Beatrix was his own de-

parted wife, the passion of his

e. Due to ill health Rossetti never got to Italy, but years later his brother saw the painting of St. Agnes, who looked exactly like Rossetti’s wife. In the same gallery the brother found a-self portrait of the artist, Angiolieri. To his horror the painter was the very image of Rossetti! When Rossetti heard this he knew he had been right in his poem “Budden Light": “I have been here before, But when or how I cannot tell.” - - s THIS IS one of sixty incidents in “Out of the Silence” by Patrick Mahony, who has collected some startling evidence that is literally out of this world. Psychic phenomenon is his subject and he has run the gamut. Fqw of the stories concern so famous a man as Rossetti, but all are presented as actual events re-

Shmoo Talk

Shoo, creation of Al

The Sh app, author of “Li'l Abner" regular ‘comic feature of The Times, is the subject of Mr. Cor 's "The Life and Times

the Shmoo,” a book to be

by. Simon & ; 4

= s » THERE IS the school teacher who couldn't hold a job because she was unable to control her second self. It disturbed the students to see her in two different places at once. Mr. Mahony begins with the assumption that we can't know everything and wastes no time offering scientific explanations of supernatural events. For that reason it is hard to take seriously some of the stories dating back to the 17th century. But there| is no arguing with sincere people like those in the Dowding Circle in London, who could ascertain whether missing soldiers in the last war were dead or alive. Whether or not you can accept the veracity of such experiences you will enjoy reading them. 2 » . IF YOU are the kind of person who likes to mix formal Chippen-

furniture, you should read “Fashfons in Furnishings” (Whittlesey

a combination is in bad taste. Good taste is not inherited but acquired, according to the authors, Ruth W. Lee and Louise T. Bolender, and their book -certainly will help the neophyte homemaker acquire a feeling for what is right in furnishings. They tell you not only what styles of furniture can be mixed, but also how to arrange it in your room, what colofs go together and how to preserve your things from the ravages of time. Though at times the tone of the book indicates that it is written for aborigines who have never been in anything but a grass hut, the reader should forgive what is just overzealousness and be |grateful for this useful and hand|somely illustrated volume. ” » » “THE PATRONAGE of the arts,” says Alfred M. Frankf y editor of “Art of the Americas” (Art News Annual XVIII, $5), “has been gradually transferred from feudal nobility and the individual rich to the corporate entities of great business firms.”

This beautiful and unique book represents the patronage of International Business Machines, which has spent a fortune to collect well over 1000 paintings and other works of art of Latin and North America. The editors of Art News have selected 150 items from this collection and have presented it as a cultural history of the New World. The arrangement emphasizes the fact that art is the one common experience of all cultures. Through art the 20th century American meets the 10th century Mayan. : a. .9 8 NOR 18 THE meeting a casual

bian ‘aft upon’our own culture has been penetrating, although this particular volume does not present evidence thereof. The idea of such a book came fro the: late Frank Crowninshi€ld, whose intelligent foreword is included. The text is thorough in its presentation of the art of four periods —pre-Columbian, Colonial, Empire and Modern. The low price of $5 is made by the inclusion of over 50 pages of advertising in the back of the book. All in alla handsome volume.

‘Busy Busy People’

dale with Provincial American}

House, $5.95) and learn why such

Book

- NE

{ | .

| | |

——

A. A. Wyn, $5).

"CRUSADE IN EUROPE" Gen.

of a continent fortified 800 miles i It also was unique as a milit

leader. It has remained for the leader, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, to write the most significant record of the assault in his personal account of War II — “Crusade in Europe.” Within the 500 pages of the book is the inner story of modern . warfare as it : was waged not ¢ only by men and armor but by diplomacy and economic power. Gen. Eisenhower’s insight into the balance of these forces gives “Crusade in Europe” the stature of history, rather than a battle report.

Tex Lee

HE ILLUSTRATES one of the main historical realities of the war, hitherto passed over lightly by the writers of battle reports. For the first time in modern history, a coalition successfully defeated a powerful dictatorship by achieving the unity required to wage successful war. The French who like to compare Gen. Eisenhower to Napoleon tend to ignore the American's diplomatic triumph in keeping the coalition close knit in the field. «Crusade in Europe” reveals t kind of man Eisenhower was, The general portrays himself in his fears, his hopes and his reflections as a quiet, scholarly citizen of Kansas, fired by necessity rather than ambition. ” s .

AMONG THE generals of history, Gen. Eisenhower is unique. He had more power than Julius Caesar. He commanded a mightier force than Napoleon or Genghis Khan. He always made it ¢lear in his dealings with his men and with his often temperamental allies that he was an employee of the American people who could fire him if they didn't like the way he did his job. 7 .

As Gen. Eisenhower took command of the European Theater, he began the long diplomatic struggle to hold the coalition together in the field while integration on ithe political level was being

one.. The. influence of pre-Colum-|worked out in Washington and

London. He won over the French in Africa with skilful but firm diplomacy and whipped the wavering Colonial politicians into line. He relates the inner struggle in England over a decisive plan of offense which would cost the least lives, take the least time. 2 » s

HE DISCLOSES how he held out for the frontal assault on France against the insistence of Winston Churchill for an attack through Southeastern Europe. The differences were, fundamen-

tal. The Prime Minister was thinking somewhat in terms of British

Timely Novel "THE BUSY BUSY PEOPLE" A

novel. By Samuel Spewack. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, $3. “The Busy Busy People,” b Samuel Spewack, is as timely a novel as you could want. This former foreign correspondent, who later became prominent as a playwright, has written an amusing and exciting satire on diplomatic life in Moscow. A former correspondent in the Russian capital, . Mr. Spewack knows his background and his people and presents a vivid yarn of international red tape that at times burrows well below the surface of easy laughter to reality as startling as today’s headlines. This is Mr. Spewack’s first novel, but he tells his story easily and well, as only an experienced writer can. He was with the OWI in Moscow and London during the war.

S———————— More Information The 1949 Information Please Almanac, edited by John Kieran and published by Farrar, Straus, has been selected as the JanuaryFebruary dividend of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Early First Ladié¥ “The First First Ladies,” by Mary Ormsbee Whitton, an account of the women who held top national rank, from. Martha Washington to Mary Lincoln, will be published Nov. 29 by Hastings | House,

influence. The general was thinking in terms of striking the enemy where he lived and getting the war over with. On the continent, the general managed the coalition with tact land diplomacy. He had his hands !full with the temperamental De

lke Tells a Revealing Story In His 'Crusade in Europe’

War Il. New York, Doubleday, $5. By RICHARD LEWIS, Times City Editor

WE ARE still too close to World War II to appreciate the magnitude of D-Day. This assault from an island base upon the shores

of allies acted in concert under the supreme command of a single

This old engraving of a covered-wagon train-on the National Road is one of 300 illustrations in "Midwest Heritage," new volume by John Drury, author of "Historic Midwest Houses." (New York

Eisenhower's account of World

n depth was unequaled in history. ary operation wherein a coalition

D. Eisenhower writes a candid and complete report of-his war activities in "Crusade in Europe."

Gen. Dwight

Gaulle and the imperious Montgomery. When the coalition was physically split by the German Ar{dennes counter-offensive, the Commander-in-Chief had no hesitation in passing command of the northern segment to Gen. Montgomery until the end of the Battle of the Bulge restored unified command. ” s tJ AFTER VE-DAY, Gen. Eisenhower maintained balanced relations with the Soviet Marshal, Zhukov. The quadrapartite administration of Berlin ran smoothly, although the tensions which have led to cold war today existed then. Most of all, he won the confidence and respect of the American GI, the most critical soldier in the world. He drove miles through snow and rain in the dead of winter to visit lonely outposts and ask the men how the chow was. He worried about morale. He maintained the freest military press that ever existed. He overrode the brass hats when they tried to shackle it. ” 2 »

IN HIS PERSONAL history, Gén. Eisenhower objectively has sketched a significant fragment of world history. He refers to those who surrounded him in glowing terms. {One was Ernest R. (Tex) Lee of 5204 Crittenden Ave., a director of Indianapolis Morris Plan, who served on his staff. : Like others who surrounded Gen. Eisenhower, ‘Mr. Lee paid him tribute. He named his son Dwight D. after his ex-boss.

Appointed Editor Of 'World Almanac’

Harry Hansen, whose column, “The First Reader,” has been a regular feature. of The Times Book Page since February, 19486, has become editor of “The World Almanac.” Mr. Hansen, formerly literary] critic of the New York WorldTelegram, succeeds the late E. Eastman Irvine as editor of “The World Almanac,” also a ScrippsHoward publication.

Traveling Lecturer’

hii

Great Pleasure," Emily Kimbroug

One of Helen E. Hokinson's illustrations for "lt Gives Me

of a traveling lecturer, shows what the author often had to face

1 (Dodd, Mead, $2.75). {

s Plight

h's new book on the experiences

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Engraving Shows National Road Scene

{| occupation with the Polish people.

RAD

10 PRO

SATURDAY, NOV. 20, 1048 |

GRAMS

Asch Tells

Tales of Jews

"TALES OF MY PEOPLE." By Sholem Asch. New York; Putnam, $3. THE JEW has always been a tragic figure in world history, but never more so than today. Sholem Asch, the world’s foremost Yiddish “author, writes. of this tragedy with creative force and religious zeal. “Tales of My People” is a coMection of stories about Jews written over the last 40 years. It is-offered in commemoration of the Polish Jews exterminated by Hitler. Some of these little gems should live as long in memory as the atrocities of the concentration camp. . 8 8 THERE ARE 11 stories, including the novelette “The Little Town,” which won Mr. Asch recognition in 1908. At that time he was living in Poland. He has been in America since 1914, but he has continued to write in Yiddish and he has continued his pre-

“The Little Town” is a religious| folk song and an appropriate; opening for the book. It is like a vast mural of country life in old Poland. It is Jewish culture in microcosm. Here are Jews at peace enjoying a variety of pleasures, suffering the pain of having their village burned down, always mindful of God and proud of be-| ing Jews. ” ” » THE INDIGNITIES which Jews suffer in the succeeding stories written in recent years are the more horrible by their contrast to the good life of The Little Town.

gore il THIS EVENING : 1 (The Indianapolis Times is mot responsible for inaccuracies in program announcements esused by ists station changes) : Wik 1070 WIRE 1430 WISH 13 1 VE] YEU WERT WE ma. :00 | Football Rowadup Easy Doss If Platter Chatter Santa Claw 5 - - LI . Z - » . Saturday Sess 2 . - { :30 | Make Mine Music Ly Jordan Music i Remishcant Rhythm 5 - - - - Lassle : ” - 1 : Lg “a Number Allon Jeffries Speaking of Songs Music Nall 45 Momo from Lake Success ’ - 0. S. Marines Football Scores [ - - 30 Troe or False Football Scores Saturday Date wi 45 | Football Scoreboard rr News & Sports Harlla Brothers 100 | Gilbert Forbes Sewes Ouzie & Hariel ake Walton ~_ | Masic_for Dining O33 (vue tor Notary (Gane Saly ek Vo Fane hry ra as | + Alon Jofires . Music You Like 00 [aunty Far Twenty Guestions ellywood Siar Theater | iohany Felcher Music From Nolirwood 30 Sus Go fosed {Cmte Sos [Th Comoe (Dk rung Mek, For Sie 100. | Fooflight Echoes Gabriel Heater Wi Parade Gang Busters Boeck Grove Caodrel HEH “ - Hoosier Hit Parade * = " - «in 30°11 Pas Ta 3e Iyer Moo The Bes [Judy Canome What's My Nemol it Rl Dennis Day _ Whiz Qulz _ Rc 9: y Lo Lo :00 | Gilber! Forbes Gone Kelly Allen Jeffries News—Music pis 10: in Easy on Record Dance Band » - :30 | Football Roundup . Dancing Party eT. :45 | Barclay Allen Orchesira na. ” .--e ol 7:00 | Million $ Party Dance How fewr—Sporfsman Variely Hour Sign ON 113 no. -" NBC Orchestra 30 rao. . ue Roltial Trio “5 -. . The Smoothies—News na.

Wordless Speech

A wire-haired pooch begging is one of 85 line drawings by Diana Thorne for "Great Dog Stories," edited by Page Cooper, a recent Doubleday publication ($3.50).

Anya Seton Spins New England Yarn

"THE HEARTH AND EAGLE." A novel. By Anya Seton. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, $3.50.

Anya Seton is one of the better

There is Yitche-Meir, a para-| gon among Jews, with his beauti-| ful beard. 88 men hold a contest] to see who can pull the most hair) from his face, while he is forced| to repeat: “I am a Jewish pig.” | There is Rifka, the 12-year-old girl who leads 92 schoolmates in| prayer as they commit mass sui-| cide to avoid being raped by Ger-| man soldiers. There is Miraleh, most tragic of | all, a 5-year-old girl with beau-| tiful eyes, whom her mother has| kept hidden in concentration] camp with her. When she is discovered the directress has Miraleh’s eyes made into earrings. ” » ~ AFTER THE AMERICAN occupation the eyes are buried with a Jewish soldier and spirited to heaven, where the blind child awaits her sight. But so horrorstruck is she by what these eyes once saw she spurns them and they are embedded in the Holy Throne. “And there they shine with ‘a clear pure light for the eyes of all the Jewish children whose light was extinguished.” Mr. Asch, at 68, has every bit of his power which he displayed in his popular books “The Nazarene” and “The Apostle.” Never sentimental, never cheap, he writes sympathetically without producing a tract. His mood is one of fundamental sadness, but underneath it lies a faith in his people which comes from a faith in God. = 2 ” HE WRITES only one story of Palestine and two of America. But the setting is immaterial. Mr. Asch writes of and for Jews everywhere. The book was translated by Meyer Levin.

It's Good ‘Living’ “A Guide to Confident Living,” best-selling inspirational book by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, has gone into a sixth printing, according to Prentice-Hall, the publisher. Copies now in print total more than 61,000.

Publish Opinion Report

“What the English Think of Us,” a candid report on British opinion of American by: Fred Vanderschmidt, chief of Newsweek's London bureau, will be published next Wednesday -by McBride.

story-tellers of the present day and she spins another good yarn in “The Hearth and Eagle.” This is a tale of a New England coast town from the day

when following the sea was a!

livelihood, through 4 period when

a factory supported the town to its current status as a summer resort for wealthy visitors.. Hesper Honeywood is a heroine whom Miss Seton’s fans long will remember.

Book Relates

Massacres

"FIGHTING INDIANS OF THE WEST." By Martin F. Schmitt and Dee Brown. New York; Scribner, $10. THE FINAL chapter in the history of the American Indian as a really free man started just after the Civil War with the westward surge toward the Pacific. It is a cruel but historically inevitable story. Two young war veterans, Martin F. Schmitt, now curator of special collections of Oregon University, and Dee Brown, of the University of Illinois library staff, spent three years in collecting the material for “Fighting Indians of the West.” The result is an admirable pictorial history. = ” » * BRIEF interspersions of text accompany 270 photographs, sketches and paintings giving in the most graphic possible form the story of the stand qf the Indian from Red Cloud's battle at Ft. Phil Kearny, Wyo., in 1866, to the battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1890. There are pictures of Indian chiefs, scouts, soldiers, fields on which massacres have been perpetrated. s s » SOME OF the most horrible massacres, in which women and children were; killed deliberately, were the work of white men. To add interest to a really monumental work of its kind, the book has four end papers giving maps of the territory over which {the countless battles of the west were fought.

New Book On Opera

“The Opera Quiz Book,” edited |by Harold V. Milligan and Ger-

jaldine Souvaine, writers of the {“Opera Quiz,” intermission feature of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, will be published Nov. 29 by A. A. Wyn. The publication date has been synchronized with the opening of the Metropolitan Opera season.

Details Clutter

Home-Front Tale

"GUARD OF HONOR." A novel, By James Gould Cozens. New, York, Harcourt, Brace, $3.50. James Gould Cozzens, who is a solid if sometimes pedestrian novelist, has written a homes front version of one phase of World War II in Guard of Honor, This will appeal to men more than it will to women. Guard of Honor concerns three days of life at a Florida air base during September, 1943. The principal character is a young major general, Ira Beal, who is assigned to iron out the difficulties at the airfield. The Negrowhite racial problem, boudoir politics, and the touchy protocol of high Army brass are the chief ingredients of the book, which is fascinating at times and a bore at others. The boredom actually

is due to the author's meticulous detail of Army operations, which, of course, is a merit when viewed from any angle but that of enter« taining reading. y

Ri) RUINS

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DESPITE the local stag That's w music. Fabien S heard at 8 p. Murat. The: Jord David Hughes public concert morrow in Mer: 47th and Centr: Kenneth Abell, be the Men's 4 Ernst Hoffn serving this de: dianapolis Phill amateur group | in Caleb Mills substituting for musical directo: Ann Weeks, sor tone, as soloists

CAROL BR who has won ci with the Bostor will be heard in 28, in the Murat classical arias, | group of Negrt Second Christia

IN NEXT w eerts, Dr. Sevits sisted by Pianis Third Concerto Meanwhile, . gHding away ai seum. And To ers” radio show at 2:30 and 8:2