davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1945-03-04

victims. The new mood, however, is
a subtle trick. The German is
genuinely unhappy and finally takes
his own life, but his essential beast
illness is unchanged. Even in death
he is venemous. For he leaves a
note suggesting to his fellow Ger
mans that they accuse the Greeks
of his murder and make a whole
some disciplinary use of his self
destruction. Such is his fanaticism
that he would turn his own suicide
into a service for the Reich.
There is very little of what is
commonly called action in the story
It's technical achievement is that it
moves without moving, that it final
ly arrives at it's point after remain
ing almost static The great part OF
the volume is concerned simply with
creating the atmosphere of the
apartment - the cowed, silenced
stunned atmosphere of gentleness
confronted by brutality. The char
acters are not sharp, the scenes are
described instead of presented. There
is quality of arrested motion about
the whole work A sensitive reader
will see the skill which has gone
into making the effect. But one less
sentitive will be apt to ask himself
when something is going to happen
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Among
theAuthors
When HARNETT KANE'S "Dt

When HARNETT KANE'S Delta
Country" came out (Star review, No.
vember 12), the railway system was
not up to keeping an adequate flow
of the book pouring into New Or
leans. This was Mr.. Kane's home
town and an enormous autographing
party had to go on, sans books.
Now everything is arranged for
100000 editions of it for the armed
forces. J.. Kane always writes about
the locale in which he lives-Louis-
iana-and The Delta Country" was
his third and most successful book
The Louisiana Hayride" and The
Bayous of Louisiana" had a merry
life on their own and help appre-
ciably in supporting Mr.. Kane in
handsome fashion while he finishes
the manuscript for fourth, tenta-
lively titled The Plantations OF
Louisiana"-although he may change
its name if he likes before it is
printed.
STERLING NORTHS Midnight
and jeremiah" and Creased Light
ming" two books for children, sold
to Walt Disney this week for 40
minute featurettes.
ERIE STANLEY GARDNER has
broken his own record, with
4,9o3 ,685 copies of his mysteries SELL
ing in North America during 1914.
This was mere 10000 more than
the year before. although he set a
world record each year.
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Brief Reviews
AT HOME


How to Cook, by Marjorie Griffin
Garden City, A kitchen manual
which is intended as a guide to the
Interpretation of all recipes. Illus
trated.
It's Fun to Make 1t Yourself, by
Stacey Nancy. (Journal of Living
Publishing Corp) Directions for
making practically all the common
place home articles ano for some
not common. One thousand photo
graphs, charts, diagrams and draw
ingS.
Handbook of Drapery Patterns, by
Ina M. Germaine (McBride) Di-
rections for making 40 different
types of draperies. Diagrams.
AVIATION.
Young Americas Aviation Annual,
by David C. Cooke. (McBride.) The
current edition of this well-known
work.
CARTOONS.
Welcome Home! by Gregory
d'Alessio. fMcBride.) A Golfers
cartoonist offers small volume of
drawings, mainly on the return of
soldiers to civilian life.
HUMOR.
Feel Like Cad, by Sergt. Larry
Reynolds. (McBride.) A collection
of cartoons on the life of Butch the
Burglar, previously published in
Golfers.
THRILLERS AND MYSTERIES.
Cobwebs and Clues, by Ernestine
Malan and Alma K. Ledig. Crime
in a convalescent home. Good
routine.
Pause to Wonder, edited by Mar
jorie Fascher andeRolfe Humphries.
Julian Messner) Eighty-two stories
of the marvellous and strange, from
tn Venerable Bede to John Stein
beck. Worth having.
Evening star., 1945-03-04

that he has not deteriorated as a
workman. But he has changed
tremendously.
The book deals with Nazi brutality
in the narrow scope of the expert
ence of one Greek family. Instead
of showing us battalionS of innocent
hostages being murdered or whole
villages laid waste, it gives us just
four people-a father, a mother and
two young children-who suffer
from proximity to one German-a
major who is quartered in their
apartment. At first their miseries
are physical The German takes all
but one room for himself, he abuses
the children, forces the cultured
parents to give him menial service
and, aware that the starving Greeks
will eat whatever is left of his own
generous meals, takes care to give
the remains to the dog of friend
This goes on for months Then the
major visits Germany on leave and
comes back a seemingly changed
man.
German Beastiliness.
His own family has been destroyed
in an air raid, he tells his Greek
hosts. He has come to realize what
misery there is in war. He seems to
use gentleness and pity toward his
Evening star., 1945-03-04

up In considerable detail, despite It's
brevity, practical phases Of pro-
gram for handling the problem
Japan will be when defeated.
Regarding the Emperor, he says,
1T may be that 10 or 20 years after
the end Of the war the Japanese,
of their own accord, may overthrow
their imperial institution. It would
be far better If they should rid them-
selves Of it voluntarily following a
period Of tutelage in the democratic
ways than if they we're forcibly de-
prived of an Emperor at the time Of
their defeat and should seek instead
to restore the imperial dynasty when
the foreign supervision is with.
drawn"
Another and much more elaborate
volume on Japan, by Glenn Thomas
Trewartha, from the University OF
Wisconsin Press, treats the war from
an entirely different point of view.
which might be described as mate
rialistic. Two conflicting factors
have brought Japan along the path
she has followed in recent years,
first, a rapidly expanding population.
and, second, a dearth of many OF
the earths natural resources. Re-
modelling her entire economy within
relatively few years, this nation
of fishermen and small farmers be-
came an industrial power that in
evitably came in conflict with the
holders of the resources she needed.
Evening star., 1945-03-04
RAY Stonnord Baker Tells How Wilson
Life and Letters Came to Be Written

Do you remember, ne asked IN
his letter, the party given below
decks by the ships crew when the
leading lady" with hairy arms and
q rope wig kissed the President at
the end of the play?' Well. what
would have happened, after that
merry celebration, II the great ship
had gone DOWN."
Mr.. Baker then speculates on how
that tragedy might have changed
world history.
But American Chronicle" is far
from being a postscript to the de-
finitive Woodrow Wilson: Life and
Letters" the origin and writing o1
which Baker reveals in great detail
Rather it is the story Of a sensitive
mid Western American boy and his
reaction to the great social and po-
litical storms which swept this
country in the first two decades
Of the goth century.
Friendship With Wilson.
Through Mr.. Bakers eyes we see
Coxey's army moving on Washing
ton, the bloody Pullman strike In
Chicago, the rise of Eugene v
Debbs and Samuel Gompers as labor
leaders and the undertaking" cru
saders of the pre-World War era
We learn, too, of the authors de-
veloping friendship with Woodrow
Wilson and how the Life and Let
ters" came to be written.
The latter chapters of the book
are filled with arresting thumb-nai
sketches: Col. House, "the eager
secretary without profound respon-
sibility';; Clemenceau, serious fol
smaller immediate gains; Lloyc
George, "a poor third pleased
with every new compromise" ane
Orlando, IAN amiable southern Ital.
ian without depth or vision"
Many books can be called either
Informative of entertaining. Few
merit both adjectives. American
Chronicle" believe is one of thos'
| few.
Evening star., 1945-03-04

% .0U.J
For an author of a comparatively
limited output, Richard Wright has
won remarkable fame. His first
volume, short collection of stories,
Uncle Toms Children" brought
him wide attention and a Guggen-
helm Fellowship. His novel, Native
Son." won the Harper prize and
was made into a successful play.
Yet, for all the acclaim which has
attended him his stock of ideas so
far has been one. message of
racial issues. In this new book he
leaves the field of fiction and goes
into autobiography He tells us the
story of his boyhood and youth in
Mississippi and he produces the
most convicing thing yet to come
from him.
1t is>a story of horrors worse than
those with which Mr.. Wright loads
his Negro fictional heroes and yet,
writing of himself, he does a thing
which he has not done for the
characters of his creation-he dis
plays sense of life apart from
race issues. He lived his early years
in solely Negro environment; in
deed, he says, he was not aware of
white attitudes until he was in his
teens. But long before that he was
in rebellion.
He found Negro conventions,
superstitions and social mores in
tolerable before he came into con-
flict with white prejudice. He was
we'll injured to brutality before he
learned that the source of Negro
misery was white oppression. The
picture of the life in grandmother
home, where he suffered the most
wanton cruelty from his pious and
conforming elders. is not a picture
of race wrongs 1t is the old pic
ture of the incipient artist baited
by the Philistines in all societies.
Except that it was carried out on a
level of ignorance and poverty
which compels some extenpation,
the process could be the history of
hundred young white artists of a
dozen nationalities.
| But when he went from home into
the working world of the South
Mr.. Wright did meet race oppres-
sion in all its ugliness. And from
the experience he drew. as he says,
his "lifes passion" He was by
then obsessed with a sence of being
wronged and race prejudice was the
Evening star., 1945-03-04
AMERICAN CHRONICLE

By Ray Stdnndrd Baker
(Scribner'S)
Reviewed by JOSEPH H. BAIRD
Ray Stannard Bakers literary
career for the last two decades has
been so closely linked with the per-
sonality OF Woodrow Wilson that 1t
is difficult to think of the author
in any role other than that OF the
World War Presidents biographer
This volume is, fundamentally, the
story of Mr.. Baker himself. Yet In
the concluding chapters he throws
some new light on the tragic latter
days of Wilson.
One, story related by Mr.. Baker
deserves to rank as news, even
though it is Is years old. 1t involves
the personalities of both Wilson and
President Roosevelt.
When Wilson was returning from
Paris on the George Washington in
February, 1919, Mr.. Baker relates
he decided in midocean to land In
Boston rather than New York. The
night before the landing was a
stormy one and, the author says
the passage to Boston was unfa-
miliar to the ships officers. MIR
Baker arose next morning to find
the ship behind schedule and NOV
ing almost due south. 1t had lost Its
course earlier and gone northWaro
toward the rocks off Gloucester
Point.
On deck Mr.. Baker met President
Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, who had been familiar
since boyhood with the waters OH
Massachusetts,. The President TOLD
him, he relates, that I'VE had been
far too close to the rocks off Glou-
cester."
Might Have Changed History.
I'm writing to me in 1889" Mr.
Baker says, Mr.. Roosevelt added
touch to the well-remembered in
cidents of that fateful night when
as he said, we had the really mar
row escape near Gloucester Point:
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Faces in a Dusty Picture
By Gerald KerSh. (WhittleSe

By Gerald KerSh. (WhttleSey
House; So 1
Not since read the combat scenes
of Immortal Sergeant" have I
come on SO enthralling an account
of desert fighting as this book con-
tains. The thirst, the dust, the
flies, the heat, the exhaustion-all
those curses with which deserts af-
f1ict men are dealt with in this nov
elette with something like unbear-
able vividness. AS is also the mount
ing sense of suspense as a battle
moves toward its climax. For a
straight piece of combat fiction,
Faces in Dusty Picture" is a me-
morable performance
1t tells no more than how small
British Army, caught between the
sea and a large Germany Army,
saves itself by making forced
march inland and taking a strong
italian fort. The march is an agony.
1t is made at extreme speed and on
low water rations. 1t is strafed by
enemy planes and given the gratui-
tous handicap of dust storm. Men
fall and are left behind. Medical
supplies are, as usual, insufficient.
The mass movement and feeling is
brilliantly executed by the author S
device of shifting from thoughts of
one soldier to another, of showing,
as the title states, faces in a dusty
picture" Out of the scattered pieces
of individual suffering we get the
whole and get it unforgettably.
But the author disposes of the
actual battle very casually. The fort
ought to require terrible assault
for it is immensely strong. Yet it
falls, we are told, within few min
utes. OF course, it is an italian
fort. But the reader is apt to feel
that Mr.. Kersh is a little too real
istic on the point. For the sake OF
his art he really should have made
the FyetiPS fight
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Leyte Calling
BIZ 1t. LoSeph F.

By 1t. Joseph F. st. John, as
told to Ho1Uard Handleman.
Vanguard Press, $2j
Reviewed by J. K. VAN DENBURG.
The life of a guerrilla in the Phil
ippineS was not that of a swaSh-
buckling. devil-may- care bravo who
laughs in the face of an enemy
patrol and cuts loose with subma-
chine gun. According to 1t. st.
John it was lonely, disease ridden
dogs life. filled with fear and priva-
ton, in which rescue and return to
his homeland at first was only for
lorn hope.
1t. st. John lived on Leyte from
June, 1912, until its liberation last
October. Originally a ground crew.
man in bomber squadron he and
a few other Americans were ship
wrecked on Southern Leyte when
they fed Mindanao in the face of
the Jap advance.
The enemy never occupied the
southern part of the island in force.
But they soon learned of the pres
ence of the Americans and strong
patrols roamed the hills on their
trail. The Americans survived only
by the aid of loyal Filipinos-at
whose number and devotion the
author constantly marvels.
With salvaged radio parts and
later with equipment which reached
them through secret channels from
our forces far to the south the
Americans set up a ship-Spotting
service and reported enemy move
ments to our headquarters.
When the Leyte landings came
1t. st. John says it was like a
miracle. Rocket-launching assault
boats, the many different types of
landing craft, amphibious tanks and
trucks, the modern weapons carried
by our troops all were new. And
al proved their worth.
American Patrol Arrives.
1t. st. Johns guerrilla force kept
out of the way, following radio
orders, and finally, eight days after
invasion, an American patrol made
contact With the patrol was Mr..
Handleman, a war correspondent.
This book apparently was based on
interviews in the days which re-
manned before 1t. st. John was
shipped home.
1t is written in straightforward
style, all in the first person How
ever, the dialogue does not ring
quite true to this reviewers concep-
ton of how an excited liberated
guerrilla would talk. The sentences
are too self-consciously short. bear
ing too deep brand from the type
writer of q professional writer.
But the style does not dim an ex-
citing story of faithful soldiers
carrying on with the aid Of devoted
E1tpinos.
Evening star., 1945-03-04

VIII - Tie teCu- '"' ""'S'
nique of jungle fighting. They learned
it the expensive way, they learned it
by doing the things they should not
have done and paying the price, by
sending ill-equipped troops out to
follow defined trails, for instance,
where the Japs. well-fitted in jungle
gear slipped through the forests,
avoiding paths. But they did learn
it and so, when American aid finally
arrived, they were able to use it
effectively.
Even so, in Mr.. Whites view, the
victory was not United Nations
credit, but Japanese discredit. The
enemy made fatal error in trying
to occupy New Guinea by land in
stead of conquering it by air. Land
occupation required continued sup
ply and the supply line was too long
to be maintained. American naval
operations disrupted it beyond re-
pair. But had the Japs taken the
other course and pasted Port Mores-
by concentratedly from the air, the
resistance would have collapsed be-
fore American help could have got
ten there.
The book also differs with It's
predecessors on the nature of the
fighting which took place after aid
arrived There was no great rally
of the Australians and throwback of
the enemy, Mr.. White insists. There
was never any clear cut fighting at
any time, but only dim desperate
cropping of patrols against patrols
until finally the Japs gave out. The
misery of this blind murder is de-
picted in the volume with some
thing more than ordinary report
ing's vividness Mr.. White made two
long trips on foot into the jungle
himself and his account of them
leave no dreadful details to the
imagination. The book also contains
a section on the battle of Guadal-
canal which the author saw in part
as eye witness. MO. R.
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Reviewing I he New Books
GIenwoy Wescott
Breaks His Silence
With War Novel
APARTMENT IN ATHENS
By GlenUay Wescott. Harper;
S2.50.J
By Mny-Carfer Roberts

BY Mary-Carfer Roberts
The chief thing about this novel
Is that it marks Glenway Wescotts
return to the writing world. The
book itself is not any great shakes.
At least, it Is not to come from the
once spectacharly talented pen of
Its author 1t is a war novel and
one can say that it is literature. Its
merit, however, lies in its workman
ship-its structure and its polish
rather than in any more memorable
quality. 1t shows us NaZiS abusing
helpless citizens in an occupied
state and We all know that Nazis do
that and We know pretty much how
Mr.. Wescott paints the picture with
an artists brush, but he puts very
little in his canvas that is not COM
mon knowledge.
What has not been such common
knowledge is his own career these
past 10 years. He, fortunes child,
very model of the bright young
man of the 20s, disappeared from
the literary landscape back in 1927
after winning, as climax to a
meteroic rise to fame, the Harper
prize with his novel. THE Grand
mothers" There was a subsequent
collection of his short stories, but
when, few seasons ago, a novelette,,
"The Pilgrim Hawk" appeared
bearing his name, it was like voice
from the past. One said wonder
ingly, "Glenway Wescott! Where
has he been all this time?" A pre-
face to the work offered his own
explanation of his silence. He had
discovered, he said, very honestly,
that he had nothing significant to
say. The novelette,, a psychological
study of love, was fine piece of
work, but so slight that it could
hardly be taken as a resurgence of
the old Wescott brilliance. And
after it, the silence closed in again.
Wescott Has Changed.
The current book, therefore, raises
a question. Has Mr. Wescott car
ried on the great promise of his
youth? My answer would be that
he has reappeared in vein of quiet
and sure artistic competence, but
without his old imaginative force.
Apartment In Athens" shows us
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Trials and Sufferings of American
Internees ii, Sonto Tomas Prison

report, she Is able to give more in
a'sensitive description of Americans
in captivity and how they reacted
according to their different char
acters.
Her central figures are three girls.
One, Katharine, was sent by her
husband to the safety" of Manila
from a mine in the southern is
lands; she does not hear from him
again. The third evokes this phrase
from one of the men in Santo To-
mas: Il think a woman ought to
have more than just body"
Evening star., 1945-03-04

Mrs. Mydans' book gives you the
hunger of the prisoners. their bore
dom, their frustrated longings, their
reactions to the lack of privacy and
dignity in their crowded quarters.
There are people worth your ad-
miration - and shabby ones.
Through the meanness of one of
the shabbiest comes more tragedy.
Mrs. Mydans makes you realize
what it meant to those people when
the American troops finally came up
the street outside the gate bringing
freedom with them. For Katharine,
who felt her responsibilities to her
fellow prisoners and to her coun-
try, freedom meant freedom to
cry,"
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Blueprint for a New japanese Nation
After the Settinq Sun OF Defeat

WHAT TO DO WITH JAPAN
By Wiltrid Fleisher. Double
day, Doran; ST.
JAPAN, A PHYSICAL, CULTU-
RAJ AND REGIONAL GEOG-
RAPHY.
By Glenn Thomas Trewartha.
University OF Wisconsin Press,
So
By Ben II. Pearse.
The japanese people will prob
ably want and should be allowed to
keep the institution Of emperor. re-
gardless of what becomes of Hiro-
hito, but should be stripped of the
heavy industry which would permit
them to resume the present war
after their approaching inevitable
defeat.
The first phase of occupation of
the Japanese islands would be to
insure disarmament by the disman-
ting of dock yards, arsenals, NUM-
ton plants and Notifications and
the surrender of arms. The Sec
ond would look to the establishment
of a government which could ad-
minister the empire" stripped Of
its conquests of the last so years,
in a manner calculated to make it
useful member Of peaceful
society
These views in substance are those
of one of the best qualified observ-
ers on affairs in the Far East,
Wilfred Fleisher, former managing
editor of the Japan Advertiser, his
fathers newspaper before him, un-
til Japanese pressure forced aban-
donment of the enterprise in 1910,
and now the author of small,
readable book, What to Do With
Japan" about as timely as could be
when American forces are 750 miles
from Tokyo, despite predictions the
war will last another year or more.
Democratic Government.
There have been times in Japen's
modern, even in her current his
tory" Mr.. Fleisher said in an inter-
view, when she seemed inclning
toward the democratic concepts of
the Western World. Politically
there is a mass base for parlia-
mentary procedures which are the
basis of popular government. From
the '80s to the sos her electorate
was gradually broadened from one
of some 100000, based upon a high
property and financial qualification
to some 100000, based on male
suffrage for those over Is years OF
age. Her Iteracy rate is higher
than 80 per cent and the common
conception of the japanese as a
near-sighted, slavishly initiative
people has long since been dis
proved.
However, since the invasion of
Manchuria in 1881, the entire nation
has been dominated by a fanatical
group of militarists who have out
Nazied the Nazis in their control OF
every phase of japanese existence
Industrial Prospects.
| Mr.. Fleisher believes Japan must
be deprived of her conquests of the
past half century, but that she must
be permitted to retain her light
industry in order to permit her tt
live and feed herself in normal trade
with her neighbors. His book takes
Evening star., 1945-03-04
Green Armor
Ru OSnlar White.

By OSnldr White. morton, S3.J
Osmar White is an Australian
newspaperman. His book is his story
of the war on New Guinea as he,
with some originality, saw it. A
good many books have already re-
ported correspondents reactions to
that campaign and it has generally
been agreed that it was, as another
writer called it. "the toughest fight
ing in the world" Mr.. White does
not dispute that, but he disagrees
with most of his predecessors on
what actually happened.
A good part of his book is occu-
pied with the period which most
writer's have passed over-the period
before Gen. Macarthur took COM