The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-07-14

has anXiously been waiting for his
next. HarCourt, Brace and COM
pany have just published Stong's
latest, strangers Return" The
chief character is Grandpa Storr,
lovable ostogenarian. 1t is a
story of Iowa fields. OF course
YOU have read Stong's first pub
lshed novel, State Fair.
BY WALTER ID. HICKMAN.
ONCE reading Gladys Hasty Car
y rolls LAS the Earth Turns
feel that I have moved on a Maine
farm near to the Mark Shaw place
with the Ed Shaw and the George
Shaw farms some miles away.
am sure that | am acquainted
with every pot and pan in the Shaw
kitchen where Jen presided over the
stove in winter, spring, summer and
fall.
Day after day in all the seasons
as the earth turns l have sat down
at the table in the kitchen with the
ShaWs in the old Mark Shaw farm
house that never had a telephone
because Mark Just never got round
to putin it in.
I attended the wedding of Ed
Shaw and Margaret, a country
school teacher and a sister of Mil
Shaw, wife of George
| went to funerals with the ShaWs
and had a great George Washing
ton birthday dinner as we'll as boun-
tlful Thanksgiving and Christmas
feeds with the feet of all the Shaws
under the table with the exception
of Ralph who ran away from home
twelve years before and became an
aviator.
I stood with the Shaws and suf-
lered the silent grief of Mark as
he stood by the closed cedar casket
of his boy, Ralph, the aviator.
ID ALPH was killed in an airplane
IN accident, and when his father
heard the news, he said: You tel
them to send the boy home" And
then. You tell them, we're expect
ing of him
I was snowbound in the Mark
Shaw place for many weeks one
winter and l appreciated the great
strength of character of Jen. hel
loving and understanding attention
of every member of the family as
we'll as the Polish family. the Jan
owskis. who lived in a barn on bis
rundown farm and who were
termed foreigners by the neighbors
OF this family. Stan, the eldest
boy. was born of the soil but his
father and mother were of the city
pavements and the small apart
mentS. ~
1t was this true love of Stan fol-
the earth in all seasons which re-
suited in Jens beautiful and solid
romance with Stan.
And STAINS way of proposing was
so natural and so earthly that the
authors way of presenting it is a
masterpiece and one of the grandeSt
passages l have ever read.
I have seen the snow melt ano
spring come to the Shaw farms. Eo
had a system with his hay and cat
tie but everything was wrong al
Georges place. Everything at the
Mark Shaw place was human per-
lection.
l have seen the spring give way tC
the harvest of the summer and
have seen the fall turn the leaves tc
a deathly color and l welcomed win
ter once again.
DUT when winter came again
ID things had Changed-the Shaws
had changed and l left them on a
Christmas eve-all the Shaws with
the exception of Ralph, comfortably
tucked away in beds in Mark Shaw
big house.
And l parted with Mark Shaw as
he was looking at a row of stockings
hanging from a mantel-piece as he
dropped small coins in the we'll filled
stockings.
, AS the author tells you-"He had
done so every Christmas eve for
nearly thirty years now. 1t was his
part
This is the first novel of Miss
Carroll and it Immediately places
her among the leading writer's who
actually understands real people OF
the soil.
You will find no weakness in
character drawing You will find
stark realism. the glorious monotony
of life on a big Maine farm, the
solitude of winter with its security
to every farmer if the rules have
been followed in the other seasons.
las the Earth Turns" is never
melodrama. 1t is honest realism
1t is life recorded intelligently and
woven together into a beautiful
fabric.
AS far as I am concerned this
book is entitled to the Pulitzer prize
Last year I was for Phil Stong'S
state Fair but it didn't get it.
This Carroll book is as great and
powerful as The Good Earth. n
And 1t is as big. The story of the
earth is the same whether the peo-
pie live in China or on a big Maine
farm
feel that If YOU miss meeting the
Mark Shaw family. YOU have missed
one OF the most human experiences
Just TO read the first chapter is q
command to move right over in
Jen's kitchen in the Mark Shaw
house and stay there as the earth
turns from one season to another
AS the Earth Turns" is published
by the Macmillan Company and
sells for $3.50.