Evening star., 1938-10-23
DEFEATISTS ARE CHALLENGED
Psychologist Declares Individuals Should Feel Responsibility for
Their Own Success Failure-Powerful Work
Dictatorships Written by Englishman.
there are other reasons too. It l
recommended-decidedly.

Lnere are Otner reasons TOO. 1t Is
recommended-decidedly.
BLACK Is MY TRUELovE's HAIR.
BY Elizabeth MADDOX Roberts. New
York: The Viking Press.
Miss Roberts gives us here one more
OF her intellectual romances of the
Kentucky hills. It bears a close re-
semblance to the previous work which
she has done on the subject-that is.
it is beautifully written, very small in
scope and cerebral in quality. In
deed, it has 50 mental a color-is so
"sicklied DER with the pale cast of
thought" at first reader may
feel that Miss Roberts hill country
is in reality the country of her own
brain. But when one penetrates the
thin, shining veil of her style and
mood one finds beneath a very gen.
uine reality. The world of the novel
Is true one. A reader simply has to
see it through Miss Roberts eyes.
1t is the tale Of young girl who
has an Inflated love affair which
might have been a complete disaster
for her, but Is not. She runs of from
her little home town to 20 with a
truck driver who promises to marry
her. He does not do so and she returns
to her home over his threat to kill her if
she does not remain faithful to him. A
year passes in which she readiusts
herself to her life. She finds a second
sWeetheart-a true one, this time-and
Is on the point of marrying him when
the driver comes back to keep his
deadly promise. His shot misses her.
however. and he repents and goes
away. And everything is right In the
girls existence once again.
The preoccupation Of the story is
with the girls fight against her fear
OF the driver and with her changed
position in her community. As said,
1t Is thin and mental but Miss Rob-
erts still writes fine lines. They are
eggshell fine. indeed. One feels that
II one breathes heartily on a page of
hers it might crumble.
DYNASTY OF DEATH. BY Taylor
Caldwell. New York: Charles
Scribners Sons.
This is long novel concerned with
family OF armaments makers. The
family is blended of two strains-the
Barbours. who come from England and
the Bouchards. who come from
France. They begin modestly and be-
come, in time, the greatest ornaments
makers in America. And, in their
armaments making, they sell guns to
any customer and keep an eye open for
probable wars and generally engage
IN those practices which have become
the subject of so much indignation
among pacifist reformers. That seems
to be the message of the book for
unquestionably, it is a book with a
message.
Apart from that, the pages are
chiefly filled up with vital statistics
about the family increases. The book
covers the period from the 1906 down
to the first rumbles of the Russo Jap
anese War and of course a lot of
babies con be born in that time. The
reviewer found the numerous accouch-
mentS confusing, but the lover of the
wide-branching family tree novel
should find Dynasty of Death" a
Joy. As said, its message il
that armaments makers make arma-
ments-in case you want to know.
MARLBOROUGH: HIS LIFE AND
TIMES. Vol. vi. BY Winston S.
Churchill. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons.
This. the final volume of Mr..
Churchill's brilliant biography of the
Duke Of Marlborough, begins with
the year 1708 ana carries on to Marl-
borough's death in 1922 It takes in
the last two campaigns made by the
Duke, his disgrace and his restitution,
and gives magnificently comprehen-
sive picture of the political movements
which so powerfully Influenced his
conduct. 1t is, indeed, detailed po-
litical history of the period and carries
on well the standard set by the preced-
ing volumes of the series.
The reviewer was particularly in
terested in the chapters which deal
with the peculation charge for in COM
mon history it has sometimes been
held up as an interesting contradiction
in Marlborough's character that he was
capable Of the utmost greatness of
mind in planning his campaigns, and
yet was not above stealing on his food
contracts. Indeed, Thackeray himself
repeats this Interpretation. Mr..
Churchill makes the charge a machi-
nation of the Dukes enemies and as
serts, with considerable documenta-
ton, that there was no more than
technical basis for it. He sees Marl-
borough as incorruptible, great
patriot, man who served England in
such way as to save her from dis
solution and whose devotion to his
country was not lessened by the in
gratitude with which the country
or its politicians-treated him. The
style Of the book is lofty and spirited
1t is an eminent piece of biographical
writing.
IMMORTAL MEMORY. BY John
Lindsey. New York: Liveright Corp
This is a biography Of Robert Burns
1t would hardly seem to be the best
that could be written about its splen-
did subject, but it is entirelH readable
Its weaknesses are in its inclination to
sentimentalize and to come between