Evening star., 1947-12-07

Slulud11y VIGIL oPSae'
Would Make Carlyle
Turn in His Grave
All this may be reflection of de-
plorable standards on the part OF
the reading public. Whether 1t Is
or not, however, there it is. There
is no accounting for taste-a fact
that may explain why American
publishers, who are in the business
for money, have found it WORTH
while to produce number OF DO
graphical items calculated to make
Carlyle turn over in his grave.
Still, it is necessary to emphasize
that people are curious about people
especially about the celebrities, the
quick ones and the dead. Hence,
there Is nothing surprising about
the fact that we have had such
works this year as Octave Aubry's
"The Private Life of Napoleon"-a
kind of peeping Tom account OF the
Emperor's boudoir adventures; nor
is it surprising that we. have had
things like Eve Browns champagne
Cholly"-a basically useless portrait
of the late vain and petty Maury
Paul, the Hearst columnist, who
made a good living out of looking at
society" through keyhole.
Nevertheless, wholly apart from
the ones that are hard to justify, a
persuasive argument can be made
for the publication of biographical
books that will never set the world
on fire or inspire readers to seek the
heights. Such books, even if they
deal largely with trivia, can have
the virtue, sometimes, of helping to
illuminate an era or recapture in
print part of the era's flavor. If
not that, then at least they can be
harmlessly diverting, like Corinne
Grifhth's MY Life With the Red
SKINS" a pleasant little account of
the laughs she has had and the
pretty tears she has shed over our
local football heroes. Then, too, in
an age of recurrent world crisis and
almost excruciating economic and
political solemnity, there is some
thing to be said for immersing ones
self in oddities like "The Autobiog-
raphy of Yogi" by Paramhansa
Yogananda.
Throwing Light on
Our Past Times
Beyond that, continuing on the
plane of interesting but less than
great lives, certain biographies can
be important as contributions to a
fuller understanding of the his
torical, political, sociological or eco
nomic character of our own or past
times. For example, there is Julian
Dana's "A. p. Giannini, Giant of
the West"-a somewhat too-lauda-
tory story of one of the worlds big
gest bankers, but still a good study
of both a man and financial sys-
tenn. AS another example, we have
Russell Lords THE Wallaces of
Iowa"-a friendly but not idolatrous
portrait Of Henry and his forebears,
published before the former Vice
President began his war against our
foreign policy. There is also "The
Voice"-a social document of sorts
written by E. J. Kahn, jr., to try
to explain the joint phenomenon of
Frank Sinatra and the bobby
soxers. Another social document of
sorts is Richard H. Roveres Howe
& Hummel'-an excellent and lively
account of two fabulously crooked
New York lawyers in the dear, dead
days of the Tweed Ring.
The weightier personalities of the
past and present, of course, have
made up the bulk of the years
and autobiographies.
appears to have led the list,
with the following among the best
of the new books about him: j. C.
Randall's scholarly Lincoln the
Liberal Statesman, a must" for
students of the subject; Abraham
His Life Work and Charac-
ter" comprehensive anthology
edited by Edward Wagenknecht,
and The Lincoln Reader" a COL
lection of writings edited by Paul
M. Angle and designed to be espe-
cially useful to anybody uninitiated
in Lincon lore. Other outstanding
studies of past American Presidents
include Jefferson: War and Peace"
by Marie Kimball, and Wilson:
The Road to the White House." the
first volume-a topnotch one-in a
protected Series NV Arthur G T;~oh