Evening star., 1938-05-15
LITERARY FIELD is BRIEFLY SCANNED
Area alzd-Some Are andO
Personal in

whimsical of all. Is q poet who has
written long years ago under the name
Of Jean IAtour.
Across the channel in England is
a young poet named Mark Taylor.
Living in world Of causes (China and
Spain and all the rest), he finds
himself unable to reconcile his search
for inner contentment and his lack
Of evangelism. Then one rainy night
he comes upon a slim volume of verse.
It is by Jean Latour. This man (for
so he thought hints at truths which
are unknown to Mark. So Mark sets
out upon journey to find him, but
not before he begins q weird, hating
affair with q married woman, an
artist.
In Client Mark comes to the door
Of the author of the poems, who he
Is sure has the answer to his prob
lems-And 1t is true-there is an
affinity between the bird-like little old
lady and the frustrated young poet.
But 1t is purely matter Of the spirit.
What this woman Is able to give him
is "a way Of living the means
Of living, not with her, but with him.
SELF"
These are the last words Of the
book and there can be no harm in
telling them because they are its key.
The sensitive reader will have guessed
them long before he reaches the end.
This is the outline of the book,
but 1t no more expresses the quality
Of "The Single Hound" than the
word pastoral" expresses the sounds
of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony"
For this Is a poets novel and 1t is
more akin to poetry than to prose
The first section, introducing the
Three Owls, is SO lyrical it has the ef-
feet not only of sprightly verse, but
also Of gay music. This part OF it
is by far the most engaging. but the
writing throughout has a rare quality
Of rhythm and beauty.
THE Single Hound" let it be said.
will appeal to no more readers than
there are lovers of good poetry, but to
them 1t will be book to be treasured.
-E. T.
AMERICAN WINGS. BY Capt. Burr
Leyson. New York: E. p. Dutton
& Co.. Inc.
THIS Is a rather loosely jointed ef-
fort to cover in a single volume
the history of aviation in America,
the status of present development and
probable future trends, military and
civil.
The field is large and the treatment,
obviously, cannot be exhaustive. As
an outline the work Is of considerable
value. There are many photographs
OF the latest types of aircraft, from
the flies of the Army. Navy, Coast
Guard and civil sources and a chart
of the scheduled airways operations of
all airlines.
The style is informal chatty. fire.
quently lively. but is marred by a
plethora OF exclamation marks which
not only lose all their effect. but
become irritating. Sc.
THE LOST BATTALION BY Thomas
M. johnson and Fletcher Pratt.
New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co.
IT Is about time that someone re-
moved the veil of mystery and
legend surrounding the dark days Of
the Lost Battalion" At last the
tragic fate of Maj. Whittlesey's COM
mand becomes known after exhaustive
research among official American and
German war records and the men who
actually took part in the seige.
In presenting the circumstantial
causes and effects, which stand to
remain final, the co-authors have
here. at the same time surprising
pack Of drama which protrudes from
the revelatory continuity dealing with
the troops involved. They give you
the mud and death without the glory,
gallantry and CUTS without the heroics
while translating the Lost Battalion
myth into actuality
Blame-laying on the matter can now
comfortably be put aside-doubts OF
Maj. Whittlesey's integrity stifled. The
Americans were ordered mot to re-
treat" from their drive by the high
command and they were surrounded
in the Argonne by carefully plotted
German maneuver. Weak reserves
prevented their earlier rescue which,