Evening star., 1937-08-28

"The Seven Who Fled' by the Author of "The Asacs Is
Symbolic Drama of Degeneration Hatred Theme Runs
Through Federal Writer'S Project Anthology.

solvent. From this they move on to-
ward the vision OF the collectivist or
totalitarian state with a most en-
gaging frankness.
The work, which does not deal with
contemporary time, is for the most
part what is called "Americana"-
that is, 1t is excerpts from the Ian
guagc and lore of for your infotma-
tlon) the American people. This, the
publisher tells us, was collected for
the w. P. A. guide books.
The poetry is almost completely ter
rible. For the most part it is glib
berish. Honorable exceptions are the
work Of Lola Pergament, Helen
Neville, Elizabeth Cousins, Robert
Hayden, A. T. Rosen and Harry
Kemp. Through much of that verse
which is ineligible runs the same
theme Of class hatred and collectivism.
The pictures theme as above) seem
to the reviewer the best part Of the
book.
Among the prose selections, those by
Murray Goodwin, Eluard Luchell Nc
Daniel, Vardis Fisher, Jerre Mangione
and Donald Thompson seem to be the
most accomplished.
1t was a matter of some surprise
| names Of the contributors number OF
writer's who are certainly not relief
recipients-men who have recently
published successful books or who
have other occupations. Presumably
these cases are Of writer's who are in
directing positions not mere staff con-
tributors Yet 1t does raise the queS-
tion-are there no writer's in America
out of work who are capable to assume
direction of writing project? If not,
the implication Is not very f1attering
to the abilities Of the projects staff,
and one wonders just what conditions
have to be met in order that one may
| qualify as writer" for this under
| taking One must not be too good,
obviously, for then one would deserve
a staff job: but they are in the hands
Of successful men Of letters. How bad
| may one be? Just where Is the line
| drawn? One wonders
AS to the project itself, since the
reviewer has more than once been rude
to it, she may as well clarity her OBJ
! jections, seizing the present oppor-
tunity. They are as follows: That
there is no reason why writer's in need
should not have relief, as long as re-
lief is being distributed, but that there
is great question as to the merit and
usefulness Of the work which they
have been set to do. The guide book
series is essentially vulgar, an effort
to exploit our own qualities as Ameri-
cans and to professionalize and render
self conscious what little remnant of
our tradition has as yet escaped
mechaniZation. Nothing will kill it
| more surely than such an attitude to-
| ward it. The actual damage which
this project may do may not be great,
but it is symptom. And it is a
symptom that is costing quite neat
little sum, tooy And among those
Americans who are contemptibly SOL
vent enough to be paying for it there
are still some who are quaint enough
to be patriots, loving-With under
standing-the tradition which Is igno-
rantly being despoiled.
THE EVENING HERON. BY Philip
Freund. New York: Pilgrim House.
a YEAR or SO ago Mr.. Philip Freund
brought out volume of highly
talented short stories called The
Snow" In that book he exhibited
markedly individual quality an ex-
tremely subtle manner of understate-
ment capacity for implying worlds
beyond this world in an almost unan-
alyzable fashion. The present book, a
novel, makes further use of this talent,
but is not so impressive work, prob
ably because the bent of that talent is
too strongly toward brief effects. 1t
suffers in being applied to a full
length story.
Yet THE Evening Heron" has an
enchanting beauty still, limpid and
widespread. 1t is the story of fam
lily and the quiet but intense passions
which unite and divide its members.
They are Americans with a French
Canadian mixture. They are wealthy
and live, in beautiful isolation, on an
island in a Michigan lake.
The members are father, a daugh-
ter, niece and the niece's son. The
father and daughter are bound to-
gether by profound understanding.
The niece and her son, however are
wholly out of sympathy. The young
man is driven by quixotic motives to
marry a girl far beneath him-a SER
want. He brings her to the family
home and the cousin realizes then that
she loves him. The outcome is tragedy
for him and for his wife.
The realities OF each developing Sit
uation are made poignantly clear by
Mr.. Freunds method of relation, but
in his handling of the entire work he
Is disconnected and somewhat scat
tered. Still the book is an accom-
plished thing. The author remains
one distinctly to be kept in mind.
10000 AGAINST THE ARCTIC. By
H. P. Smolka. New York: William
Morrow.
THIS is q journalists exuberant and
highly interesting account of his
visit to Russia's great eastern empire
Siberia. AS he tells it, he was listen
ing to Prof. Otto Schmidt, the Arctic
explorer, tell what the Soviets were
doing in opening and developing that
forbidden country, and, feeling that
the account was too rosy, he chal-
lenged one Of the professors state
ments. The answer was for him to go
and see for himself Accordingly he
set out and made very thorough tour.
He crossed Siberia by plane, he Wis
ited many settlements, he visited
prison camps. he visited scientific out
posts, he talked to natives freely. He
was not asked to present his passport
once, he said, and no restrictions what
soeVer were placed upon his move
ments.
His account is radiantly enthu-
siastic. He sees people-the natives
OF Siberia-who for many centuries
I H.