Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 May 1949 — Page 8

"DICKENS: HiS CHARACTER,

Hesketh Pearson. New York, Harper, $4. . By ROBERT W. MINTON TO THINK of Dickens is to think of England, a specific England, full of buoyancy and optimism, typified by chubby coachmen, cheery hearths, wicked schoolmasters and kind paupers. Yet reading Hesketh Pearson's “Dickens, His Character, Comedy . & Career” I found myself thinking, “How American he was!” Indeed Mr. Pearson early remarks, “If he were alive today he would be the king of film writers, with Hollywood at his feet.” His books are British, but his life, his career were more typical ? of America than of England England never acclaimed him as America did in 1842, when deputations came 2000 miles to pay him their respect. | ® = » i

yn ON OY.

WHAT ENDEARED him so to the young republic? To the pub-|-lishers who pirated his work he was nothing short of a gold mine and how the entire country

him royalties!|

they should pay 2 Hey

That was sheer selfishness, said. | Mr. Pearson does not sugges why Americans read Dickens so avidly. It is my guess that Dick-| ens’ comic flavor was in perfect, accord with the iconoclastic spirit that swept over America during the Jacksonian era. This was the age in which the savage political cartoon developed, the forerunner of the comic strip. Dickens’ novels like-

x Dickens Woul Hollywood Writers if Alive, Author Says

COMEDY AND CAREER" By|

. {havior of some rather complex!

is ingenious. .

howled when Dickens suggested’ 4

d Top

|land. But I wonder if Scotland Yard superintendents, such as {Blount in this book, quiz suspects in a room full of suspects, permitting the gathering to pro-| test, conjecture, harry and in| general hinder the proceedings. The sleuth is a refreshing type, Nigei BStrangeways, literary scholar and a positive bear on murderers. He handles this one with a minimum of action and a maximum of reflection. All implausibilities aside, there is not enough excitement to sus-

tajn interest in the involved be-

personalities. As a poet, Mr. Blake may be a genius, but as a novelist the best I can call him

rron Exhibit

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

“RADIO PRO

THIS EVENING

SATURDAY, MAY 21,1949

GRAMS

(All Radio Programs on Central Daylight Time) :

"Workers" is the title of this oil by Orfeo display in the 42d annual Indiana artists’ exhibition at Herron Art Museum through June 5.

Via

“Ingenious” . . . Nicholas Blake, author of ''Head of a Traveler."

wise had the flavor of the comic strip. In England they came out in weekly or fortnightly periodicals. Their construction has the never ending breathlessness necessary to the continued story. The characters are, as has often «om said, caricatures (flat, not round, says E. M. Forster). : . 8 8 THIS IS not meant as a sneer. Dickens was a great writer, Even considered solely as a comic strip writer he was superb, writing not one strip but over a dozen. “But if America loved Dickens, . Dickens did not love America, and sald so in Martin Chuzslewit, a lampoon that was badly received in this country. Yet when he returned as a dying man in 1868 to give public readings from his books, his was the success of a movie star maeng a Jersonsl fi pearance tour. He made pounds from the trip, ha ‘Buccess! That is & key word

great comic actors of his day. He could run a newspaper, produce plays, take charge of anything that came his way.

- - » HE WAS a dynamic, headstrong man who acted without reflection. In later life these qualities got him into a domestic mess that did him no credit whatever. After 22 years and 10 children he and his wife ended a bad marriage. But mot quietly, There had been rumors of an affair with actress

honor bound to quell them, He took the worst course, publishin in his own paper a statement o his integrity. A second statement vilitying his wife and her family got into the New York Tribune. Dickens rebounded from scandal only to find that Ellen Ternan, who finally became his mistress, did mot love him. Perhaps this is why he drove himself, by too many exhausting public readings, to destruction at the age of 58. Mr. Pearson's Dickens is one of the most readable biographies in recent months. It is in general objective, but when he chooses to interpret Mr. Pearson can be both wise and witty. He avoids litérary criticism and only cautiously evaluates Dickens as one of England's half dozen great writers. » nu - I CAN SAY categorically that I don't like to read mystery stories. But in order to explain to all my mystery-reading friends just what there is about detective fiction that causes my gorge to rise, I read an occasional | mystery. . : | Exhibit A today is “Head of a Traveler,” by Nicholas Blake (Harper, $2.50), proclaimed on| the dust jacket as “a novel of suspense.” Mr. Blake is - ordinary hack. As C. Day Lewis, | his real name, he is one of Eng-| land's foremost poets. His prose style has a casual sophistication that helps to make plausible the implausible concoctions of his medium. | It is the implausibility of it all that gets me. I can’t begin to accept the premise that a man ol be decapitated “with a razor. And if I accepted that I still would | balk at the following: Janet Eaton, near whose home the body is found, sans head, suspects that her cretin dwarf servant (it develops that he is her son) knows where the head is. Now this dwarf is prone to imiade the mstion s of others. So : y an arty argument with a Terrance, a sculptress of the modern school, who be‘comes enraged at the suggestion that she can't sculp a realistic , She . n does a head

“AEE A 5

a. =

“BEULAH LAND." A novel. By

said, “are all well enough for a while, but then they grow up and git like everybody else.”

part Indian girl, and Askwani,

starting in 1851, from Crow Town, N. C, to Natchez, Council Grove and Tahlequah in the old Indian Territory which later was to be Oklahoma. In leisurely style the author of “Honey in the Horn” and “Harp of a Thousand Strings” slowly recreates forast, prairie, and plain; river, swamp, creek and spring site. The smell and look of the land come alive, and for 250 pages the story is a marvelous journey, stealing years

Ellen Ternan and Dickens felt|8T0 trary

two marriages, Askwan

manhood.

takes over. timeless picture changes into a hurried account of adult frustration, warfare, murder, and further westward movement. This speed

the trip. Ruhama and Askwani

worth no more of th attention. aid

Beulah Land’ s Fine Novel .

H. L. Davis. row, $3.

CHILDREN, Grandma Luttrell

New York, Mor-

Which is just what Ruhama,

new book.

many striking backwoods char-

A as Mr. Davis takes them on a meH.L.Davis. morable trip

n its passage, shaping Ruhama’s wth from an 11-year-old ‘‘con-

» - ”

THEN, somehow, the ‘‘story” What had been a

is somewhat disturbing after the flatboat and horse-cart tempo of

nt from emingly y-teller's the magic of understanding and creation of scene in the first part of “Beulah Land” are enough to make this an outstanding book. ,

Maier Novel

Delightful

suddenly are no diff “everybody else,” and

liam Maier. New York, Messner,

$3.

novel,

uhama and {provides us

Carr. Turns in Competent Job On Biography of Conan Doyle

“THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR|Holmes, and Conan Doyle fre-

quently threatened to kill him off and eventually did so, only to re-

raphy. . Mr.

Scribner, $3.

By EMERSON PRICE

“God's

that his efforts

Since the time

CONAN DOYLE." per, $3.50.

FEW MEN of letters have led

Carr

hit upon Sherlock Holmes in 1886

(When he was 10 years old, he flwas taken on a visit to Italy. He did not return to America until 10 years later in 1936. Upon returning, he made the unhappy discovery that he had forgotten his English, and that he would have to master the language anew. No one will read his novel and doubt ) rewarded, for the.work is not to be read lightly and set aside. Many of its dramatic scenes are likely to linger in the considerable period.

LJ » ” THE STORY is that of a small, town and its people in southern| Neverthless, De Liso is in full Italy. The town, called Aceto, control of his readers’ emotional rests helplessly upon a slipping|responses in this scene; he carries a|mountainside and 1s crawling/us beyond what is initially ludia Slowly toward a precipice. Nonejcrous and into the realm. of white boy raised can doubt that the town will one pathos. And he demonstrates this by Indians, do in|d8Y Plunge into the valley. (Isicapability many times. “Beulah Land,|this a symbol of the whole H. L. Davis, fine| modern world?)

mind for a

By John Dickson Carr. New York, Har-

taining, a novelist by desire and a humanist by instinct. He was

» girl into womanhood and also an outstanding athlete, a dis- before the first World War, he had { from a tinguished patriot, a detective in curious 13-year-old into hardihis own right, a military analyst and a crusader against injustice.

“The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” by John Dickson Carr is a competent if not brilliant biogis a prolific writer of detective stories himself, who writes also not only under his own name but the pen names of Carter Dickson and Carr Dickson. He has had access to Conan Doyle's private papers, heretofore beyond reach, and is thus able to lend a commendable intimacy to his biography. Conan Doyle was the son of a gifted though poor architect, an Irishman living in Scotland. Scholastic honors enabled him to get a degree in medicine from Edin. burgh University and he set up practice in Portsmouth. He was a good doctor but not a successful|its potency. one, because he was more devoted

ito writing. He could have had &|gcience and military affairs he|

To ily con-lwas a political conservative who

“PLEASURE ISLAND." By Wil Catholicism that gate was closed.

irich practice through family connections,

were

Novel with Italian Scene Has Faults, But Power Too

‘GOD'S THUMB DOWN." A novel. By Oscar De Liso. New York,

De Liso’s characters are alit seems to/most beyond counting, sprawl, it also has such power, they are tossed into the table in and it reflects such intelligent what seems a haphazard mansympathy, that one feels inclined to speak gently of its faults.

The climax comes when a band |of Communist-led partisans inis during these /vade and pillage the town. The Grandma Lut- Postwar years, the social and/basest of human impulses, withtrell {8 one of political destiny of the people out restriction, are reflected here. is not more certain than the|It is a night of rape, murder, lust destiny of the crawling town inland black hatred; a revolting -surround-/ Which they live, The author here scene, to be sure, but one you are "with a convincinginot likely to forget.

ve him again.

punng ih Boer War Conan e served as so full a life as Sir Arthur Conan Sater and an ¥ doctor = ihe Doyle, the creator of Sherlock government. “Some Military LesHolmes, He was a physician by|%0n8 of the War” was a shocking pamphlet, which proposed among other things that the cavalry be equipped with rifles.

ON TWO OCCASIONS Conan Doyle was responsible for reversing verdicts of guilty against innocent men, Mr, Carr says he introduced skiing as a tourist sport in Switzerland, though I'm inclined to doubt this. He participated in auto races in Europe and flew in airplanes. He never rode in a submarine, but he predicted

Although forward looking in

ner, they are so well realized that the reader comes to feel he is

The author's background is an|living in their isolated com-| ° unusual one, and it appears to munity. {be reflected here as a quality.! This feeling is strengthened :

when the author employs scenes irrelevant to plot in order that the customs of the place may become fixed in the reader's mind.| /

“ » ” FOR INSTANCE, he describes, at one point, a funeral procession in which a widow follows the body of her husbar” to his grave, As she moves slc highway, she recites a mournful dirge, in which appear the many virtues of her dead maté. But along with this, she acquaints the neighborhood - with his habits, and with the most intimate details of their marriage relationship.

y along the

Later, just

the audacity to suggest the men wear helmets and that sailors carry inflatable belts. His remarkable sense of chivalry ‘and Nonor led him to spurn an affair with Jean Leckie, a girl he came to love after his wife contracted tuberculosis. When his wife died he married Jean. There was nothing self-righteous about his code, it was simply what a British gentleman does.

and if|

Rosamend Marshall, author of the best-selling romances "Kitty" and "Duchess Hotspur," will autograph copies of her newest novel, "Celeste" (Prentice-Hall, $2.75) in L. S. Ayres & Co. book store Friday, May 27.

Publish New Yerby Novel

"PRIDE'S CASTLE." A novel. By

nationally known newspaperman who has roamed five continents for the last 20 years in search of news and its meaning, His remarkably rich background gives authority to his newest book,

to provide the average, middle-of-the-road American with de-

have made the average Ameri-

Stowe. New York, Knopf, $3. LELAND STOWE is an inter-

“Target: - You”, which attempts

fenses against extremists of both the left and the right. Both Communist and Fascist groups

can the target in a campaign to capture his mind and allegiance, Stowe says. “The fact” Stowe writes, “is this: in any industrialized nation where fear of communism (or even socialism) becomes a phobia a certain percentage of important industrialists and other capitalists will always support a Fascist dictatorial movement, without regard for the destruction of derhocracy and other peoples’ liberties.”

os » ” MR. STOWE says he is convinced ' that the Communists cannot seize . governmental, na-tion-wide power in the United States at any time in the next 25 years, unless the country should be thrown into.chaos by atomic war and destruction. On

the other hand, he believes that a “fascist-style dictatorship” may

Frank Yerby. New York, Dial, $3. By MILTON WIDDER A ROUBING, fast-moving, virile novel about the “robber barons” of post-Civil War days is the new Frank Yerby work, “Pride's Castle,” which had been published serially in Collier's. «The author of “The Faxes of Harrow" and “The Golden Hawk” follows the pattern of such novels about the railroad magnates who disregarded life, liberty and any kind of pursuit to make money; who cared nothing about the

lives of little people or even about the lives of friends and close relatives so long as they gain their own ends.

2 8 8 THE STREAKS of pure sentiment in the Vanderbilts and Goulds were slight and the hero of the Yerby book, Pride Dawson, was of the same mold. Hanging the thread of the novel on some historical facts, the framework of “Pride’s Castle” is strong on sex, on insatiable hunger for money and the power it brings, and some amazing feminine characters — such as Sharon

O'Neill, whom Pride loved, and Esther Stillworth, whom Pride married. Sharon is so sweet and pure and lovely that certainly she is pure fiction.

makes a worthy mate for Pride

moneyed success.

BUTLER U

Regular Summer Se Veterans' Semester

And Esther 30} callous and strong-willed that ide SIMMONS

Dawson who climbs over many lives to reach the pinnacle of

PLANNING SUMMER STUDY!

find a way of dominating the United States in the next 25

years—and possibly within 10 or| 12 years. |

Against the tolitarian crossfire from both left and right, Stowe says, can raises defenses by being against nationalism and the philosophy of “boom-and-bust,” and by being in favor of civil liberties, tolerance and a genuine world government. His book is provocative and thought-inspiring.

Publishing Date Set “Behind the Curtain,” John Gunther's picture of life in the Russian satellite countries, will be published June 15 by Harper & Bros. It is a Book-of-the-Month Club selection for July.

News Book by Orwell

“Nineteen Eighty-Four,” - the new novel by George Orwell, author of “Animal Farm,” to be published June 13 by Harcourt, Brace, has been chosen as a dual selection for July by the Book-of-the-Month Club.

LISTEN TO

MUSICAL MANHUNT WIBC

Every Sunday 1:30 fo 2:00 P. M. The Biggest Local Prize Show in (Indiano Sponsored by

| HOME APPLIANCE CO.

8360 N. Ilinois

|| Furniture & Appliance Co. ' 53-85

W. 84th

the average Ameri-|

{ |

Deventer, Florence Rinard, Herb Polesie and Bobby McGuire. Bill Slater will ask the questions . . .| WIBC 7 p. m. {

TER—Charles Boyer will introduce Lurene Tuttle in a dram titled “Death Trap.” ... WIR 7p. m.-WLW 8 p. m.

mour will double as a singer and actress as the guest of Spike and his music manglers. . .' 7:30 p. m.

BASEBALL—Luke Walton will announce the play-by-play be-|Spears. tween the Indians and the St. Paul Saints . . . WISH 8:30 and 9:30 p. m.

802 N. Meridian (8t. Clair Entrance) mE WIBM—9:15 A. M. Sun,

HOLLYWOOD STAR THEA-

SPIKE JONES—Dorothy La-

. WFBM

—TSWEN 1260 | WI 100% 1 WE 1310 - We (We WE 100 ing 3 VIS Lo Prockness Stakes Easy Doms ¥ Esse AY Lk University To. Make Mine Music Mood whrook Matinee | : iy J Ciiropractics EB indians Roel | Billboard | Honey Droamers i 115{ Time for Fun Band Hugh Herbert Bob Crosby fo Safety {Haris Bros, Winpicker Club Mids | 100(Gibert Forbes [Speedway Gossip Mashaftan Music [Luks Wallen : 2 po a Sra Arrow Musk Sux - Jacobs Speaks sg hi a Alien Jeffries Dick Jurgens Gens hoiry Show | Tweety Ooesfoms IFvood Stor Theater Pat hovel 30(Spike Jooos Show (Toke o Namber | Iruth or Cons Famous Jury Trials 00/ Gang Busiors Hoosier Hits _ Hit Parade _ Quiet Please 30) Fronkie Carle Orch. Guy Lombardo Jody Canons St. Pauk-Indpls. Sing 1t Again Country if Parade Donal Day _ National Barn Dance wi Moo! the Press Grand Old Opry (SI. Paul-lndphs. £00] bert Forbes Gow oy Wey Bir TET Good Musk How | Donals Dey _ - £15) Nationa! Guard Bol d Parly fia Yue Sand - - trond OF O91 4S) Garwood Von Orch. |Kolly Khbhowss | °° | ©” T7100, Million § Parfy [Record Party Final Home Edition | Variely Hour Sign Off fows-Peter fad ; wr Al i. . 0 NBC Orchestra Morten Downey a : : an. * > i Lonsle Mormas Quist) °° © Dance Orchestra n of Indianapolis, one of the canvases currently on 45 wy NBC Orchesira . - #” » 8 # = = me ® Here May 27 | Stowe Book On the Air Tod : ere May 27 ) n the Air loday Provocative TWENTY QUESTIONS—Sing- Herald News; and Lawrence o ing star Jessica Dragonette willl Spivack, editor, American Mer"TARGET: © YOU.” By - Leland|join the panel regulars Fred Van-|cury Magazine. . . . WIBC, 9:30

p. m.

Picnic Arranged = § By Purdue Center

Purdue Center will hold an allschool picnic for students, faculty, office workers and families to=morrow in Forrest Park at Noblesville. Baseball, horseshoes, miniature golf, croquet and badminton will be played, according to the com~ mittee in charge which includes

DENNIS DAY—Dennis decides

to become a boxer at the urging of his girl friend. His prospective father-in-law gives him his first lesson . . . ‘WIRE 9 p. m.-WLW 10 p. m.

MEET THE PRESS—Sen. Lev-

erett Saltonstall (R. Mass.) will be interviewed by Murray Davis, of the N. Y. World-Telegram; May Craig, of the Portland, Me.,

"You Are Promoted”

Preparation, industry, reliability and satisfactory serve ice provide the foundation for a successful career. With these qualifications, it is quite natural that the good news should soon come “You are promoted.” Merit finds its way upward. It demonstrates the great value of preparation, ambition, and interest. This is the...

Indians THEE rege

“of Indianapolis. The others are at Marion, Muncie, Logansport, Anderson, Kokomo, Lafayette, Columbus, Richmond and Vincennes— Ora E. Butz, President. Approved for G.I. Training. For Bulletin giving full particulars, get in touch with the point nearest you, or | Fred W. Case, Principal

| Ceniral Business College |

Indiana Business College Bldg

C. C. Cramer, E. H. Ernst, Anna Suter, Ervan Walton and Marion

IL: dIBIH LA:

QUIK. ©

Ne rE

FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSN

« Uvvnue NDIRNUPO

3 ” = 74 A A Religious Center With A Civic Circumference

ALL SOULS

ia 11 A. M. AT THE CHURCH

UNITARIAN cnvecn

14583 N. Alabama Street

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Dr. E. Burdette Backus Speaks on “Unitarian Contributions to American Religion”

Third of a Series

“Col. Bob Ingersoll, Victorian Humanist”

NIVERSITY

ssion June 14-Aug. 5 June 14-Aug. 26

ROGER HALYARD, an Eng- 3 merit, and a novel, before he

lish gentleman of the old school, | and his three lovely daughters) lived a tranquil, albeit sometime monotonous, life on Pleasure Is- | land in the Pacific. "i That is, they did until that day |

Seabees suddenly landed on their| tropical {sland paradise. The edu | cation of Roger Halyard and his three daughters in things Ameri-

ers, hands of Willlam Maler, His ‘Pleasure

Car! Rose.

Nobel Prize Winners

On September 15, Philosophical Library will publish works of three Nobel prize winners: ‘“Phenomena, Atoms and Molecules,” by Irving Langmuir; “Scientific Autobiography” by Max Planck; and a new edition of “The World

eas I See It” by Albert Einstein.

Wodehouse Book Due

works. P. G. Wodehouse has finished “The Mating Season.” Didier Publishers will issue it this summer, :

A new Jeeves novel is in the

at the age of 27. Conan Doyle, the medical scientist, not only invented a scientific detective, he invented much of the early technique of modern criminology. Holmes, for example, used plaster

of Paris to preserve footprints { when 1200 U. 8. Marines and 500 before any police department did.

BY 1801 CONAN DOYLE was famous and wealthy.

{given up medicine to write and can, from wolf-calls to bulldoz-had embarked on what he conmakes a gay tale in the sidered to be his best work, “The ! {White Company.” But the public Island” is made did not agree with him, although all the more delightful by the the book was generously received. chapter-heading illustrations by What was wanted was more

He had Doyle's literary output. Conan

Catholic.

Conan Doyle had no declining | |years. At 60 he began ‘lecturing {on spiritualism and continued to! |do so right up to his death 11 years later, * Mr. Carr has presented all the facts of Conan Doyle's life with-| {out embellishment or criticism. {He is completely partisan and {hence fails to evaluate Conan

Doyle was indeed a remarkable man and a remarkable writer, but | he wasn't quite the creative artist) Mr. Carr would have you think] him.—R. W. M. |

ARMSTRONG'S ASPHALT TILE

| | | |

(HU-13486)

Post-Summer Session Aug. 8-26

Study this summer at Butler University amid

the numerous cultural and recreational advantages of a large metropolitan center. phere of the tunity for study and relaxation.

The park-like atmosairview campus affords ample oppor-

Select a course of study from the varied offerings

of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Education, Business Administration, Pharmacy, and School of Religion. hours and most major fields offer both graduate undergraduate work.

Classes are scheduled at convenjent an

For complete information, write or call e Director, Summer Sessions.

| | | | | | |

Bird of Prey

HORIZONTAL VERTICAL 1,8 Depicted 1 Wading bird bird of prey 2 Allegiance 12 Fantasy 3 Little demon 13 Steeple 4 Symbol for 14 Ampere (ab.) caleium 15 Papal cape 5 Rounded 17 Expire protuberance 18 Symbol for 6 Unbleached sodium 7 Approach 19 British 8 Horsepower dependency , (ab.) in Asia 9 Assist 20 Township 10 Contort (ab.) 11 Retains 21 Shield 13 Ocean 24 College cheers 16 Long meter 286 East (Fr.) (ab.) 27 Poem 22 Isle 28 Musical note 29 Accomplish 30 Measure of area 31 Comparative suffix 32 Individual 33 Seine . 35 Concludes 36 Former Russian ruler 38 Egyptian sun god 39 Heathen 44 "Old Dominion State” (ab.) 45Ers 4 47 Steps over 8 fence 48 Permit 49 Caravansary 51 Breathe 53 Goddess of discord S41 sg suddenly on s prey

I Cas ' InC Answer to Previous Pusale Ls n FAL RL EE] BERING! hy ‘Fun, AIRITI TIAIVITIE IR] SE EER IC AS IEIA of $ ITIQVZAISIPLLIRIEIS VAD] | IEIL IAIN] 1O MIE — RIAITIE FIADIS] i “F oli THURS Tim] and insur EIR IL | NIE WIS] | It IRILICIE] ED] ]T] a SORTER | 2 ALT IE F711 IN RASTA £2 i HERAT El | ty for thi AIDIDILIEIS] ILIEIPIEIRIS] Wt or more 28 Looks fixedly a flexible 400 perf a band 25 Idolizes 420n the . : the mag 32 Donkey sheltered sid 34 Inn 43 Promontory CHAN 35 Expunge 46 Assam ler Bowl s 37 Scolded silkworm summer si 39 Greek letter 48 Prevaricatey scribe in ¢ 40 Near 50 While ing techni 41 Encircle with 52 Piece (ab.) The pa yet invent | borderline .. | barrassing a stunt ri much in re This ps at $2.40. ~gvailable. The C “Bees and Saturday. GIVEN ship fund Frederick be directe ~_relll playe « productior i. The “B 7 weterans Age Work pearing w +... Consy Ev : liam Bish ‘«.. Bishop, M The T i. , will | at 3 p. 1