Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 April 1949 — Page 8

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Seeks to Discourage-|

's New Work:

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—-

Autho

Seks to ureoe The Wanta Writers "| WANTED TO WRITE." By Kenneth Roberts. New York, Doubleay, . .

By HENRY RUTLER

KENNETP ROBERTS starts his reminiscent volume, “I Wanted to Write,” with the statement that its sole pur-| .. pose is to discourage “wanta writers”.

-By “wanta writers,” Mr. Roberts says he means “the staggering number of would-be authors who seem to labor

under the delusion that I-know a routine, formula or -diet|

that in a half hour’s time will|

transform any aspiring young| Book Exp oses person who admires his own Card Sharps

letter-writing ability into a com-| petent and successful novelist Certainly an author who has. " worked as strenuously as Mr.| SCARNE ON CARDS. Roberts can tell the short-cut-to- y success dreamers a lot that may By HAROLD HARTLEY profit them. But’ without ques-| SOCIAL card playing can cost tioning the altruism of Mr. Rob- money. Business men who gather erts’ avowed purpose, I can'tifor a quiet game after a dinner, help thinking he could maké his|at conventions, or following a point in fewer pages. cocktail party probably wonder 8H {why one or two Individuals win

LUCKILY for his readers, Mr. Consistently. Roberts has included consider-| John Scarne, who reputedly able material not directly bear- saved GI's millions of dollars by ing onthe difficulties of writing ®XPosing the tricks of card sharps fiction. He does expand on the time, effort, reséarch, re-writing duite convincingly, in his and general mental anguish | Pook on all card games played for “Northwest Passage,” “Oliver| Money, bridge excepted. Wiswell,” “Lydia ~ Bailey” and| Mr. Scarne who once was en-

By John

Scarne. . New York. Crown, $5.1

their predecessors cost him. He includes copious quotations from his diaries—some, I think, needing trimming down, such as the long sequence on his trying to write while suffering from a skin _@allment; But he rounds out his book with a highly readable account of his apprenticeship as newspaper man, contributor of humorous items to the pre-Luce Life and feature writer for the late George H. Lorimer’s era of the Saturday Evening Post. : His chief mentor In novelwriting seems to have been Booth Tarkington, his . distinguished summer neighbor in Kennebunkport, Me. Mr. Tarkington, with characteristic generosity as well as enthusiasm -for talent, gave endless hours of time to helping ‘Mr. Roberts with ideas and revision suggestions. An elofluent tribute to Mr. Tarkington is Included in the appendix to the present book, There are excellegt passages on -Mr; Roberts’ early experience in newspaper writing in Boston and on his World War 1 career in

gaged by the late Arnold Rothstein seven nights In a row at $200 an hour to demonstrate his skill, says there are four kinds of gamblers: (1) the average man, or dub, who gets fleeced, (2) the card hustler who is a little better than average, but is honest, (3) the professional gambler who knows his percentages and gets rich on them, and (4) the cheat. He tells about them all. Vu, . . .

IN POKER, for instance, his rules are simple. He has three. One is “If you have nothing, get out,” Fhe second is “When you are beaten, get out.” And third, “When you've got 'em, bet ‘em hard.” He says the most money is lost by those who simply have. never taken “the trouble to learn -the

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Medieval German jousting is the subject of

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"_." THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES |

i - — Avis

quires Early Woodcut

hi this 15th Century woodcut, an illustration by Johann Heldenbuch," which was published in Strassburg. Colored by the artist

| with flat pink and tan washes, the woodcut is a recent purchase for the print collections of Herron

Art Museum.

Man's |

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‘and heats, gives the mer wna Mind Probed tie

"PEACE OF SOUL." By the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen. New York, Whittlesey House, $3. MUCH OF the world’s trouble today in the opinion of Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, can be traced to a “disease of disorder within” man by which he has “lost control of himself at the very moment when he has gained control over nature.” ; Msgr. Sheen is a ranking figure in the field of Catholic education, a well"Known radio speaker and a leading exponent of Catholic doctrine in America. His latest book, “Peace of Soul” is a scholarly examination of man's current emotional turmoil and the application of Christian -phiiosophy as a cure. Msgr. Sheen rejects the idea that modern man be brought back . to religion through traditional approaches. “It-is the point of this book,” he writes, “that we

arithmetic of poker, the percent-| ages, and how to weigh them, against the size of the pot. | He goes into gin rummy and!

must make a. start with modern man as he is, not as we should like to find. him. ecause our apologetic litera-

other forms of the rummy game ture has missed this point, it is| pointing out that year in and year about. fifty years behind the out the percentage player, if the times. It leaves the modern soil game is honest, must win. He cold, not because its arguments says there is no such thing as alare unconvincing, but because the bad hand and that all players, modern soul is too confused to

Army Intelligence on the futile Siberian expedition.

H . . HE WROTE magazine features to earn money for the leisure his elaborately-documented historical novels demanded. Like many anfither self-made and grimly selfven writer (Thomas Carlyle, for example), Mr. Roberts hated noise and interruptions. “I Wanted to Write’ is full of detailed complaints about airplanes,

-.power-mowers, golf-players,

shrieking children and unexpected guests who all but demanded his “valuable time in wddition to rounds of drinks, 5 » . =» He and Mrs. Roberts spent money they could ill afford buying or renting secluded homes, only to find distractions in each refuge, both in Maine and in Italy. While he was in the throes

the shuffle, based on the knowledge that the players, in making hands are continually throwing card patterns into. the pack. He tells how to shuffle (face .down) and break the patterns. The book, patterned after his fectures to the GI's, is profusely illustrated with the cheater's tricks for which He“ warns repeatedly all money players should be on guard. x ; It is our suspicion that th Scarne book will have appeal to

#gain in an honest game, get\grasp them.” about the same kinds of hands, P el ee 3 a.m me THE BOOK .a stron HE pays particular attention to attacks on the ts of Karl

Marx, and the ‘theory of the super-ego advapced by Sigmund Freud. Marx's blaming man’s frustration on economic bonds is part of the “greatest deception of today,” he writes. “It is not poverty that makes men quarrelsome and unhappy, as claim; it is an overfondness for the things’ that modfiey buys,” Sheen writes. z Freud he rejects, as not being

the Communists!

the creator of a new philosophy | but merely bringing to a climax

card players but will be read by the materialism of Schopenhauer, |

few, not because it {s not instrue-

tive for those who trickle their|Nietzsche, — Locke, Diderot and} pocket money away against un-| Voltaire, - Religion, not psycho-! surmountable odds, but because analysis, will bring peace .to!

{the hardest player-to beat in a men's minds, Msgr. Sheen claims. lcard game ‘is yourself. |

RADIO PRO

_ SATURDAY, APR. 23,1040

GRAMS .

Of 2 Scions

"THE DEVIL'S OWN DEAR SON."

A novel. By James Branch

$2.75.

By EMERSON PRICE Book Editor, the Cleveland Press TO A generation whose literary fare is largely sifted and predigested by book club judges—so as to prohibit the risk of cerebral congestion among readers— the announcement that the 50th work of James Branch Cabell has been published may mean very little. Nevertheless, many of my own generation must respond to the announcement with some excitement, if not with gratitude to the author for consistently bringing unblemished beauty out. of our language. For one reads Cabell with the conviction that if we are to find beauty in this world, we must cultivate a ca-| pacity for it by recognizing its vulgar substitutes. i ou 1 TITLE OF Cabell’'s new novel is “The Devil's Own Dear Son.” It is the last volume of a trilogy called “It Happened in Florida.” While I have no doubt most of the book supplements over the country will give this book moderate inside space, many of them

Cabell. New York: Farrar, Straus, :

"The Devil's Own Dear Son' Is James Cabell's 50th Work

45 years. For a great while, he enjoyed a small but highly disjeriminating group of followers. t was not until 1919 that this group was conspiciously expanded by unexpected and not very satisfactory means. . = x IN THAT year, one of his most important novels, “Jurgen,” appeared to meet, almost immediately, a charge that it was obscene. The charge was dismissed, of course, but it got noised about that here was a book providing some juicy moments. So the yahoos and pornographers rushed into the book shops to buy it. The disappointment of Cabell’s new readers was neither measured nor .recorded, but it is certain they did not find the four letter words which little boys scrawl on back yard fences; they did not find the words which little boys grown tall employ to deface the walls of public rest rooms, Instead. they found—and not infrequently — certain allusions to the more idiotic behavior of mankind. But these were so delicately and tactfully placed as to become highly civilized humor, and it is not likely that seekers after obscenity could understand them, What they also found, but

will then ize their own in-

of the latest historical novel over their front pages, quite as though its author amounted to something. James Branch Cabell has been an important part of the American literary scene for more than

Writes an Spenser

consistence by splattering reviews]

undergone

of a book, reading the morning| CR paper invariably started him off| .. spikes what he calls “the

Texas Is Scene

with a bad temper. From his Maine-influenced conservative standpoint, each new politico-eco-nomic scheme like the New Deal seemed poisonously stupid. Possibly his absorption in the vigorous and rugged Colonial past intensified his contempt for 20th-Century political and social behavior. And the laborious, painstaking work he put into his own writing made him repeatedly question opinions of critics. and

maturity of chances" witleh is al player's idea that he is “dlie” or Of N N ; a winning streak when he has a| ew- ove plain bunkum. Only suckers dou-| ble up when their luck is bad. | . . There is so much in the book| anapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, $3. no one can remember it all, but| TEXAS in the 'T0s was a ripthe few fundamentals probably snorting state where men were will benefit those who find them-'men and women were good) selves sitting with friends around women. A graphic picture of the| the table after a business session|era is presented in “Smoke Up the

novel. By Monte Barrett. Indi-

losing streak. This, he insists, 1s vg MOKE UP THE VALLEY." Alm

Dr.Rudolf Gottfried, assistant professor of English at Indiana

¢ ing manner.

jeanhaving been difficult and frritwv 20l@ While writing. He certainlyipublication in June a trinslation

CUTLASS EMPIRE." ‘A novel. By]

lete surprise. : Sat rid on. for his hatred : ars jod Plowitz, Shape

decisions of literary-award committees. In ‘so far as “I Wanted to Write” ‘is a picture of a personality, it shows Mr. Roberts as

simple. rules make it less expensive. {

Italy's N. | Novel

The Viking Press announces for

succeeds in showing beginners, of Vasco Pratofini's “A Tale of that writing is no cinch. He also, poor Lovers,” which has been a directly and Indirectly, shows gengational success in Italy, where what the annoyances and frus-ii; is the No. 1 postwar novel, ac-

rs, ©.% wtowrding to the yubliaer, Te ‘Books Amuse and Mason Spins i

Pirate Tale

F. Van Wyck Mason. New York, Doubleday, $3. | AT THE head of the best-sell- | 3 ing fiction list any day now will] be “Ciltlass Empire,” by the fam-| ous story. teller, F. Van Wyck | Mason. : . It's the story of Henry Morgan, | § the English buccaneer who beat the Spanish on their-land and sea in the Caribbean with his gang

of cut! ts,” Coraipiled of about : piracy, romance, , looting, rapine Benne i “Cu Empire” is] historial fiction at its best,

dren are shown here: “The Big

to relax. Mr. Scarne insists a few| f

the book, desighéd to tell a story and

Valley” a historical novel, by Monte Barrett. Its fast - moving pages are |crowded. with action -— six] [shooters, Indians, cattle rustlers land the general battle for -sur-| {vival on a crude frontier. | The central character is Grady | {§cott, Texas ranger and then out-| {law, whose love affairs supply the] {romantic and fictional interest. {Otherwise, the background is apparently authentic. |

Teach Tots

{Evansville and author .of “The

University, is the author of a new critical work ‘on’ Edmund

Spenser, "Spenser's Prose Works," a recent publication of the Johns Hopkins Press. The book is the first one-volume collection of all the prose writings: by the famed Elizabethan poet, author of "The Faerie Queen."

Wilson Writes

Of Hoosier Lincoln:

William E. Wilson, native of Wabash” and “Crescent City,” has written a new novel about the early years of Abraham Lincoln in southern Indiana. To be

[titled “Abe Lincoln of Pigeon]

Creek,” the. book will be pub-| {lished next fall by Whittlesey House.

‘Call It Treason" Tells About Spies

“Call. It Treason,” by George Howe, a novel about a young German who volunteered: to be dropped behind the lines as a spy for the American Army, will be published next fall by Viking. According to the publisher, it is based .on a real episode of the invasion and makes use of the actual techniques. of the U. 8. Army's secret service.

Two-of Capitol Publishing Company's novelty books for chil d shown hare: Clos Book," an a eck da. A . ; ) ots learn to tell time, with verses by Ben Ross |i through. ihe aned 32 and pictures by Erika; and "The Button Nose Book." by | like a dog whose nose buttons and un-

ot : . A 6

Commute by’ C&S Dixieliner Phone FRanklin 1554 Or Your Travel Agent . Ticket Office: 6 E. Market St.

(ToLEDO

could not recognize, was such

“THE MELODRAMATISTS." A novel. By Howard Nemerov. New: York, Random House, $3.

triarch, discovered the supreme joy of soaking in the bathtub, and following his refusal to remove himself from the scaldihg water, he was interned in a sani-

than his home. Harvard man Howard Nemerov then proceeds to show what happened to two of the scions of this decadent Charles River tribe in an intellectual first novel, “The Melodramatists.” Claire, the elder, takes to the Catholic Church with a fervor that at first surprises the clergy, but is later imposed upon by them. Susan, no spiritual type, learns the pjeasures of: love from a quack psychiatrist who calls himself Dr. Edmund Einman. The Boyne residence, unguided by a Brahmin hand, quickly takes on the atmosphere of a convent in competition with a seraglio, as Claire installs two Hungarian nuns who never wash or change their clothes, and Susan entertains Edmund, his friend John Averist and finally, Hogan, the butler, who has been blackmailing! her. ” » " WHAT. BEGAN as a plot imi-

tative of Evelyn Waugh finally

compelling sadness that its com position must rank in emotional appeal with great music.

s = =» THESE QUALITIES make

bell’s latest novel, a tale of one Diego de Arredondo Dodd, proprietor of the Bide-A-While Tourfst Home in St. Augustine, Fla. Cabell treats his aging hero: with the commendable tolerance of a man who knows what it is to be

young, and then to grow out of

youth without too. much to regret. For the most part, the story is concerned with Diego's visit in Hell, after making the alarming discovery that he is a son of the devil. He finds that Hell has a marked change since we last heard about it, and

{that the housing shortage has;

been met in an altogether amusThe princes of Hell, indeed, now have much more leisure than they had in the old days. In any case, Diego is forced, {unwillingly, ' to reconsider the {hellish adventures of his youth; to evaluate them once again. And when his father, the devil, offers to give him back his youth, Diego replies with decision: “I enjoyed my youth, sir. But once i¥ quite enough, as the saying runs. And 80 I decline to have back my youth...” Only the very young will regard Diego's decision as a remarkable one.

Novel ©

Illustrates

FLORISTS or Indianapolis, Ine.

themselves quite apparent in Ca-

deteriorates into one reminiscent cf Thorne Smith, as the house fills| with prostitutes and an orgy of gigantic proportions ensues. | __Most of the edge is taken off this sophisticated study of decay by tiresome intellectual conversation and comment. For example, when John Averist, who loves Susan, discovers she wants to marry Edmund, Mr. Nemerov muses: “What recondite hopes he had entertained of some obscure twist in the affair by which he might suddenly have been projected ‘as though automatically into success beyond the power of his own mismanagement to thwart] had now to disappear at once, and

“ |July gelection - of

{be replaced by mere vacancy.” He {means John was disappointed. Difficult as much of Mr. Néeme-| lrov’s prose is, itis obviously the) {work of a brilliant writer who has| not yet sufficiently disciplined) himself in the craft of fiction.| Unlike many" first novelists he |should improve as he goes along. | —R. W. M.

Book on ‘Isms’ | Native to U. S. |

In “Patterns of Anti-Demo-| cratic Thought,” to be: published] May 17 by Macmillan, David Spitz sums up anti-democratic thinking of the homemade Amer-| ican variety, rather than _foreign “isms.” : The author examines critically the ideas of - such writers as James Burnham, Lawrence Den-

ONE DAY in 1040 Nicholas| | Boyne, self-respecting Boston pa-|

tarium, a far more restful place|

Collect Essays

On America

{United States in many a year can

* [Clifton

Kermit Roosevelt examines Middle Eastern problems. in "Arabs, Oil and History," which Harper will publish Wednesday. Mr. Roosevelt has lectured all over the country on the subject, and particularly on Palestine.

"AMERICAN THEMES." By D. W. Brogan. New York, Harper, $3.50.

SOME OF the nicest things a foreigner has written about the

be found in “American Themes,” by D. W. Brogan. : The book is a collection of previously published essays on America by a Glasgow-born Cambridge professor who has made many

can who is proud of his country can fail to appreciate Brogan’'s belief that the U. 8. is a great democracy which is often misunderstood by other nations.

It is pleasant to read a foreigner’s finding that the American language is in many respects| superior to its English parent, | that Europeans could profit by! reading more American history| and that there is nothing especially sinister about a mechanical civilization.

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Today

TWENTY QUESTIONS—Actor Webb will match wits with the regular panel of experts,

+ WIBC 7 p. m.

HOLLYWOOD STAR THEA. TER—Ida Lupino will’ introduce film hopeful Keefe Brassell. . . . WIRE-WLW 7 p. m. SPIKE JONES—With Doodles Weaver and the City Slickers.... WFBM 7:30 p. m. DENNIS DAY — Dennis finds himself drafted as a witness in a libel suit against his own prospective mother-in-law. . . . WIREWLW 9 p. m.

BASEBALL — Indianapolis vs.

"| Milwaukee. . . . WISH 10 p. m.

Bill Mauldin Works on Saga

Bill Mauldin currently is at work on a manuscript which he

{describes as “a humorous account lin text and drawings of life in .

the farming, ranching and homesteading country of the Southwest, seen through the eyes of a small boy.” - Titled “Sort of a Saga,” the book .is on William Sloane Associates’ October list.

Traces Stalin's Rise Stalin's rise to power is traced by Isaac Deutscher in a book to be issued by Oxford University Press this fall, “Stalin: A Political Biography” is a portrait of Stalin and a panoramic view of Russian political history during the past 50 years.

BOOKS

PUBLISHERS REMAINDERS 10,000 NEW BOOKS VALUES UP TO $3.50

0 EA.

CAPITOL BOOK STORE

206 N. MERIDIAN ST. OPPOSITE POST OFFICE L1-0460

nis, Ralph Adams Cram, Madison Grant, E. M. Sait, George Santayana and Irving Babbitt. A young political scientist, Mr. Spitz now is teaching at Ohio State University,

Guild Picks Books

“Elephant Walk.” a new novel iby Robert ‘Standish, - just: pub{lished by Macmillan, will be the

the Literary |Guild. For its August selection,

{the Guild has Taylor Caldwell's! inewest uovel, |Last” (Scribner).

| [PTR TAR

Now... .its

“Let: Love Come)

Delicious Borden's ice cream { made with fresh frozen straw. | berries! Enjoy it often!

Feathered Friend |

HORIZONTAL VERTICAL 1 Depicted flying 1 Gibbon

| creature 2 Malt drink i 5S Wager 3 Corded fabric BIt is 3 we 4 Retainer bird 5 Of highest 12 On-the quality sheltered sidé 6 Symbol for 13 Before erbium 14 Assam | 7 Trisl silkworm 8 Serious 15 Rebuffs address | 17 Leather 9 British money thongs of account 19 Light touch . 10 Clamp

20 Diminutive of 11 Aeriform fuel 16 Musical note. 18 Toward i 21 With greater speed

Thomas 21 Destiny 24 Verbal | 28 Asseverate 29 Memorandum 30 Ocean 5 31 Size of shot

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Answer te Puzzle

22 Unwilling

42 "Emerald 23 Beverage Isle” 25 International 43 Inquires . language *“ 44:Spain (ab.) 26 Dress 45 Food fish 27 Epistle 46 Era 33 Container “#7 Observe 35 Compass point 49 Rodent 36 Redacted 50 Age 37 Themes 51 Indian weight 41 0f the thing 54 Behold!

‘Pear ~ Circu

Cole B Keysto

IN SIZ Circus, ope The te scheduled a Washingtor By-this May 2 th Named Des

MEANY announced, Ww Jnember Man tion, at 2:30 ceeds assigne rial Civic Th

On the un! New York I Bruno Walte Wednesday ir Purdue will Harlequin sh: Purdue Hall ¢ Alec Tem appear as so IU Symphon) {JU auditoriu repeat here tl appear at IU “Carmen,” T “Mignon” We

| UNDER 1 per cent of th the public. T' the Hall-of M Indianapolis

Shoppe, 120 N Meanwhile, I reservations box office in | Mr. Walt

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