Evening star., 1937-02-20

an emotional optimism, just as his
predecessors at appraising one year
ago viewed with popular alarm. He
writes in a style which combines the
more recognizable points in earnest
salesmanship with inspirational evan
gelicism. He picks us up, dusts us
off, points down the road and says
cheerily, That's your way, America"
He even gives us an encouraging pat
on the back Well, well, we'll.
There is, of course, no reason why
any writer should not seize on a pop
ular trend to sell his wares, just as
there is no reason why any woman
should not enter baby derby if
baby derby exists. 1t is just matter
Of personal choice, and, If one may
use ravaged word, idealism-the
question of whether you feel that
something more than mere participa-
tion Is indicated in the activity by
which you identify yourself with life.
THAT WAS A TIME BY Harriet Gift
Castlen. New York: E. P. Dut-
ton Co.
THIS is the story of slave, told in
the slaves own words, as she re-
lated her life to Mrs. Castlen. She
was Nanny Lou, born in Africa, kid
naped to America and for a lifetime
faithful retainer of the family of one
Mars Jimmy" an Alabama planter.
She had reached maturity before the
Civil War, she lived through the hor-
rorS of the invasion and the poverty
Of the Reconstruction. She apparent
ly was the embodiment of all the vir-
tues attributed to the faithful slave
she loved her masters family, she
was self1essly devoted to their interests,
she was proud Of her bondage, she
was earthly wise and humorous. In
telling her own life she has told Just
what happened on the plantation and
her own reactions to the successive
eventS-births, courtships, marriages,
deaths. All were ahsorbingly interest
ing to her. as they concerned her be-
loved family.
In sum, the book would seem to be
the logical answer to Uncle Toms
Cabin" only that, like that work of
art, it makes use Of figures so we'll
assimilated into the national fund
Of humor and romance that they can
never seem quite real. It is impos-
sible to doubt Mrs. Castlen's Nanny
Lou. And yet, paradoxical or not, it
is equally impossible to believe in her.
She is so perfectly a type that she
seems out Of place anywhere in this
world except Hollywood.
NOT ALL RIVERS. BY Adriana Spa
doni Garden City: Doubleday,
Doran.
A LADY novelist writes here what
she evidently means to be seri-
GUS book. It is about young woman
with an active intellect who meets
life with a question in her eye. After
she has gone through the various
businesses of revolving from her fam
lily, putting herself through college
and falling in love with the wrong
man, she meets and falls in love with
the right man. A FLIP Of current in
terest in added to the aged material
by making him a lawyer interested
in labor troubles and strikes. 1t Is
all written with as great earnestness
as If it were original, and in the
style of a school girl who believes that
she has discovered some profound
truths about life.
BELOVED FRIEND. BY Catherine
Drinker Bowen and Barbara Won
Meek. New York: Random House.
THE anomalous romance between
Peter Tschaikowsky and Nadejda
Won Meek Is brought from obscurity
in a product Of the joint authorship
Of Catherine Drinker Bowen and Bar
bars Won Meek (great-granddaughter
Of Nadejda)-a history Of great
musician and his inspiration that is
free from too much musical terminol-
ogy and is straightforward in delivery.
Based principally on copies of many
of the vast numbers Of letters which
constituted the closest-in fact, only
contact between the famous composer
and his wealthy and noble patroness,
the book is q noteworthy biography.
It will be Of interest to Tschaikowsky
devoteeS because it Affords a eleaYer