Evening star., 1945-12-02

TT IS likely that the really great
books about the late war have
not been written yet. The liter
ature of the battlefield, penned
while the guns are roaring. has high
value in authenticity and sharpness
OF impression. But the picture is
jerky and kaleidoscope. Only time
can adjust the lens Of the authors
vision so that events and conditions
At into their true perspective and
the lasting values Of the scene are
brought to the fore.
II one excepts Henri Barbusse's s
"Under Fire" and such frankly
journalistic books as Sir Philip
Gibbs Now 1t Can Be Told" it is
dit1'cult to think of any top-rank
volumes about World War I that
came from the presses until at least
five years after the peace. Remar-
que's "All Quiet On the Western
Front" generally regarded as the
greatest novel of the war, was not
in print form until the mid -192Os.
Stallings' What Price Glory?" the
first Of the realistic school of Ameri-
can plays and books about the war,
was roughly contemporaneous with
it.
What is true of the war books Is
doubly valid when said OF those
dealing with the vast and complex
questions of the peace and the post
war world. All the poor author of
today can hope to do is to look
through glass darkly," hoping to
discern the vague and shadowy
shape Of things to come.
A Formidable List
When one goes over the formid-
able list of tones on peace and war
which have issued from the pub
fishers presses during the last year
he is apt to recall, with feeling
close to desperation, the doleful
plant found in Ecclesiastes: "Of
making many books there is no end;
and much study is a weariness of
the flesh"
Or he may, adjusting his sights
a bit nearer, remember Christopher
Morley's introduction to "Shandy-
gaff," where, after speculating
lengthily on his dedication. he ac-
cords the honor at last to the press
that produced it-"more sinned
against than SHINING"
On-fhe-Scene accounts
Yet, starting with the realization
that we have in the books of the
last year no modern counterparts
of Tolstoy's War and Peace" or, in
the political field, of Michiavelli's
THE Prince" we yet may uncover
some nuggets. Some of the on-the-
scene accounts of battle TEEN with
the raw stuff of courage and high
adventure. In the field of world
Chamberlin, Sumner Welles, Will
liam Ziff and others have blazed
trails into the jungle of political
problems which others may follow
and widen.
For the. purpose of simplification
and trying to bring some order out
of chaos, the books of 1945 on war
and peace may be divided roughly
into four categories: War adventure,
official military history, military
science and the general problem of
establishing a lasting peace. This
method of review may be somewhat
artificial and obviously there are
books that cross over such arbitrary
boundaries. But one must draw
lines of a sort or the result is utter
confusion.
War Adventure
Numerically. tales of war adven-
ture have dominated the book store
shelves this year-and there are
some good ones. AS a matter of
preference, I would put at
the top of the list for good writing.
pithy reporting and that vague
thing called atmosphere, two vol
umes by Robert j. Casey, veteran
war correspondent of the Chicago
Daily News. Although This Is