The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-19
Bound To Be Read

THOSE who have wondered when A w. Somerset Maugham would translate his own vivid war experi- ences into a novel will find the answer in "The Hour Before the Dawn" Doubleday, Doran), his latest book and first full story of the new conflict.
 It is excellent Maugham, too, . story with many of the old Maug- ham tricks and characteristics, told with the sharp brilliance that is the hallmark of this British author.
 War had not yet come to Britain when Dora, an Austrian refugee. came to the Sussex countryside where General Henderson and his family had settled down to live as English gentlefolk on their estate, Graveny Holt.
 But the war came soon and it found the Generals son, Roger, in British Intelligence service, forced to spend increasingly more time away from May, his attractive wife. She, in his enforced neglect, nur- tured her affection for the estate agent, Richard Murray. Complicat- ing the family's position was Jirn,- who not only was conscientious obJector in a military family but had fallen deeply in love with the foreign girl.
 Rounding out the family were Mrs. Henderson, the mother adored by her husband and children; Jane, the 34 year . old daughter, who could hold her own in any robust crowd of men, and her husband, Ian Foster, man who served best as straight man for his wife's repartee.
 Some of Maugham's experiences he spent days on small boat in an angry sea when forced to flee France after her capitulation-crop out in his excellent descriptive ac- count of Rogers escape from France. The other characters are expertly drawn, but 1t is upon Dora ana Jim that Vaughan centers the force of his pen.
 THE American Revolution did not A spring full blown out of the Boston Tea Party and @ few brushes between the Redcoats and the colon- ial population.
 It was the explosion of forces which had been building up in the 13 colonies for years; the product of bitterness; of active, relentless patriots and revoluntionists.
 As good an insight as we are apt to get of these forces, of the temper of the times which led to l776 and of the little everyday details of life in colonial America is provided by Paul Revere and the World He Lived in" (Houghton-Miffin) by Esther Forbes.
 Using the famous American pa- triot as 6 focal point of her pie ture, Miss Forbes sketches broad canvas of the background of the American Revolution. She recreates the Boston of the late 17O0's-the British governors, with their usual incapacity for sensing the temper of the times, the Loyalist Storp groups and the hard core of pa- triots that centered around men like Revere and John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
 Revere, she makes plain, was a typical product of the 18th century =. versatile and interested in a dozen subjects. Like Franklin and Jefferson, his mind was 8 jack of many trades. He was not only an active worker and conspirator ii( the Revolution; he was a silver and copperSpith; he commanded artil- lery batteries in action; he built 6 powder mill,e and he cast church bells and ordinance. He even cast false teeth.
 E B. WHITE, long known for hi Ls contributions to the New York. CT, has finally collected his column! in book form-"One Mans Meat (FIarpers).
 It is a personal, running com. mentary of everything that pop into MT. Whites humorous mint and a thoroughly enjoyable thinl to read.
 He and Daniel Webster find com mon ground in their affiiction O summer catarrh"; in 6 letter, MT White tells Henry David Thoreal of the modern Walden: he exploit! the Worlds Fair, the ferris wheel the children's books, and Came cigarette people vs. hte nature O dogs.
 | TT IS pleasure to learn of thu ! despicable Courtney Barnes murder in You Can't Ignore Mur' der" (Putnam).
 Ruth and walter Teague, the co authors, have woven an exciting story, full of suspense, against background of an old New Jerse' farm.
 The story covers the weekend Q e house party. the guests of whicl are equally famous and interna : tionally known. All of the guest possessed adequate motives for tn murder, but, like all good lnysterie' the final outcome is 6 complete sur prise.
 MT. Teague, the famous indus trial designer, has added solnethinI new to hle accomplishments WAL