Evening star., 1945-09-02
Among
the Authors
By Carolyn Coggins

An incident which would nave
been grist for Alexander Woollcotts
mill was that his own last will and
testament was illegal through an
oversight. AS a resident of Ver-
mont, his will required three sig
natures to make it binding. His lat
est carried only two. It was set
aside, allowing previous will. duly
signed by three witnesses, to dis
pose of his property.
Gerald Kersh, English author OF
Sergeant Nelson of the Guards" is
a winner at home, where he Is under
contract with MGM as well as his
publisher. The minute he arrived
in the United States he went to
Hollywood, made his own contract
with the United States Metro
Goldwyn for his Sergeant Nelson
of the. Guards" and-having con-
uuered the West-will visit New
York in early September.
X X u X
We have it straight from Michael
s. Mill himself-and he publishes
the book-that Straight, Place and
Show" will give the reliable lowdown
on how to beat the races" by bet
ting intelligently. Against our argu-
ment that the only way to beat them
Is to not bet, Robert Saunders Dowst
authored the book. Since some
thing like $4,000 100000 changed
hands on this pastime last year a
lot of racing fans ought to look
into 1t.
Except for an accident to Francis
Trevelyan Miller, the chief editor of
the History of World War H." the
book would have gone to press a
month before the war ended, max
ing close to 100000 copies out of
date before they got started. Be-
cause he was too i'll to be consulted,
the book was delayed so that now it
will appear october /, with the end
of the war included.
This is the third war Francis
Miller has recorded. The Photo
graphic History of the Civil War"
was his and so was History of the
World War;" which nobody both
cred to call World War I then be-
cause we were convinced there
wouldn't be any more.
The new book is monumental
undertaking with around 1,l00 pages
of narrative, pictures and maps
and with something like couple
hundred authorities contributing to
it. At first it was to be available
only through mail-order and local
distributors. One canny gentleman
out in Iowa said all right he would
send for his. The Winston Pub
fishing Co. were a bit surprised
to hear that what he was sending
was truck which would hold $4,000
pounds and he wanted it filled up
with copies of the History of World
War II"
Ella Winters book. Il Saw the
Russian People" will be out in early
November. She is known for her
magazine articles and as the widow
of Lincoln Steffens, but is actually
the wife of Donald Ogden Stewart.
We mention this to set our readers
right and also because Mr.. Stewart,
who is a scenario writer and play
wright, is doing the screen version
of Life With Father" The Stew
arts home is in California, but
while he is doing this bit they are
spending the summer in Cambridge,
Mass, perhaps for better atmosphere
! Two weeks ago we mentioned in
I this column that Anna, from Mar
garet Landon's Anna and the King
of SIAM" had talented grand
daughter in this part of the world.
We learned about her from man
who has found her fascinating dur
ing his entire adult life, but we
wanted to know more. We got more
from Author Margaret Landon who
saw our piece and had this to add:
II read your column in The
! Sunday Star this morning with
astonishment. If the man who
asked you about Anna and the
King of Siam and who said that
! he knew Annals grandmother
lives in New York be sure to tell
! him next time you see him that
Anna Harriet Fysche is also in
New York at the moment,
In June she came up from
Nassau and spent a week with
NE. She is still beautiful, though
no longer young, and wonder
full pianist. I had never met her
before and enjoyed doing so very
much, because she is without
doubt quite like her grandmother,
very high-sprited and charming.
She was one of the first victims
of the Nazis in Germany, and
! that is a story, too.
She was educated in Leipzig
and Berlin for a career as con-
cert pianist, married a famous
i German surgeon and made Ber-
j lin her home. In 1884 after the
i purges she was entertaining
group of American professors in
her home one evening She was
asked what she thought of the
4 government and replied without
}, hesitation that it was a gov
ernment of gangsters and muir
derers.' The next morning she
had a telephone call from the
i Gestapo. One of her American
! guests had gone directly from her
!, home to Gestapo headquarters to
u report on her remarks.
"She left Berlin within an hour
and fled to Italy. With her hus-
bands consent she secured
divorce in order to regain her
:. British nationality. She lived IN
u Vienna until the Nazis drove her
out and then in Nice. When
the Nazis swept into France she
j fled from there to Nassau, which
has been her home ever since"