davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24

Sister Martha, the kindly nun at
the hospital.
The framework of the story is
Chrissie's paper route, which takes
her to the homes of the more for
tunate people on the other side of
the lane. Each meeting reminds
her of some happening in her brief
past. Talking with the Morriseys,
she recollects the death of the only
dream she ever had, which was a
vision of the White Church, which
turned out to be only the name OF
suburb. She brings momentary
brightness into the day Of Mr.. Her.
lihy, the grocery clerk, who never
loved any woman but his mother.
Rebuffed by Mrs. Farrell, the SNUG
and shallow wife of a soldier over.
seas, who is rationalizing an extra
marital love affair, she recalls the
death of Neddy Kelly, who suffo-
Gated in the cinder pile where the
children go to dig every Saturday
to earn a few pennies. Each of
these episodes is crystallized into a
sharp vignette of character. Chris
sizes entrances and her speculations
link them all together.
In describing the life on Chrissie's
side of the lane, Miss Layerty spares
no rancid or narrowing details, but
she is always the novelist, never the
social worker. This realism is made
palatable by Chrissie's philosophical
acceptance of the only life she has
ever known, her great delight in its
scant joys, her faith in God and
man. There are moments of I'M
ashamed emotion to dampen the eye
of the most hardened reader, which
in less deft hands than Miss Law
erty's would have been howlingly
maudlin. "Liffey Lane" is as real
and moving as restrained writing
and sure understanding can make it.
1t is a compassionate study of an
appealing adolescent and an equally
powerful picture of the environment
which menaced but did not harm
her. Miss Laverty has written other
novels of the Irish in adversely, but
none better than this. ("Liffey
Lane" will be published on Wednes-
day.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24

Howe, the dandy and diamond
fancier, and Little Able" Hummel,
the indefatigible first-nighter, also
were the foremost divorce and the
atrical lawyers. One of their side
lines was breach-of-promise black
mail-"An invitation to call at the
Office of Howe & Hummel," the late
Arthur Train said, usually brought
the recipient running at full speed
and bathed in perspiration" The
firm was active for 80 years, until
District Attorney William Travers
Jerome had Hummel disbarred and
and the firm dissolved.
Mr.. Revere has produced an ex-
cellent book, and has succeeded
astonishingly well in re-creating the
two partners oddly-contrasting
characters and their rapscallion
methods. Reginald Marsh's illus
trations hit off the book perfectly,
and Judge James Garrett Wallace
in the introduction recalls the days
when eggs were Is cents a dozen and
cocktails two for a quarter.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24

knOWleQge can Quencn.
Chrissie, whose home is a con-
demned Dublin tenement, repre-
sents all that is best in Liffey Lane
and much of what is best in the
Irish. She is sensitive, imaginative
and passionately aware of the peo-
pie around her. She has a minister
ing hand and a restoring tongue.
She can lose herself in the troubles
of others to the forgetfulness of
her own. And the poor child needs
this woeful comfort, for at IA she
has shouldered burdens which would
stagger a less valiant spirit three
times her age.
An Agony of Guilt.
When we first meet Chrissie-and
we learn to know her completely in
the course of one day-she is toiling
under an agony of guilt, having be-
trayed one great love for the other.
To buy a chocolate roll for KERN,
the little illegitimate cousin whom
she has fiercely mothered from his
birth, she sells the jug lent her by
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Vance BourjoIy
Has Little to Say
THE END OF MY LIFE

BY Vance Bourjaily. Scribner's,
$2.75.)
A rather self-consciouSly bitter
picture of the impact of war on a
group of bright young contem-
poraries, The End of My Life;
serves to introduce to the reading
public the talent of Vance Bourjaily
Mr.. Bourjaily writes with a facility
that mounts to glibness; he has
mastered perfectly the verbal and
mental attitudes of his generation.
But for all the glitter, he seems to
have little to say. He describes in
convincing detail the Near East Or
gfes, sexual and alcoholic, of group
of young American ambulance
drivers, complete even to hashish
bender with boogie woogie accom-
paniment. His hero, Skinner Gait,
comes in time to lose his faith in
humanity. himself and his girl. I'm
questionably Mr.. Bourjaily can write
and he does so with a Hemingway
esque terseness that is sometimes
quite effective. But it all doesn't
add up to any Immediately deci-
pherable communication.
M. NEG.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24

William F. Howe and Abraham H.
Hummel, beyond dispute the
greatest criminal lawyers of their
day and quite possibly the greatest
in American history" were two of
New York's leading celebrities from
the 1S70s to the early 1900s. They
were so much a part of the New
York scene that the wiseacre in
variably responded to his drinking
companions Here's how" with
Here's Hummel."
In an expansion Of four New
Yorker articles, Richard H. Revere
tells the fabulous story of the .clas-
sic shysters" who founded the firm
of Howe & Hummel and had vir-
tual monopoly as legal counsel in
New York criminal actions. They
defended more than 1000 indicted
for murder or manslaughter. Brib-
cry Of witnesses and judges was
almost routine with the firm. 1t
was revealed that one Tweed Ring
Judge had received brides to spring
more than 200 Howe & Hummel
clients from prison.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24

professor of philosophy, the essay
subtitled "A Framework of Prin-
ciple"-does not depart materially
from the basic thesis of the COM
missions controversial report on "A
Free ard Responsible Press" This
report, which was published and
commented upon at length earlier IN
the year, offered several recommen-
dations-some of doubtful value, and
others more promising-to correct
the abuses to be found in news
papers, magazines, books, movies
and radio. The recommendations
included proposals for self-policing,
greater receptivity to minority ideas,
International activity by the Gov
eminent in areas inadequately COW
cred by private agencies and a non
governmental organization to serve
as a kind of watchdog over the
whole field of mass communication.
Prof. bookings book is primarily
a philosophical discourse on why
such proposals are to the point in
an age of vast and unprecedented
articulation. Modern technology
has made possible the transmission
and reception of words and images
on a scale and at a speed undreamed
of in past generations. But this is
by no means an unmixed blessing.
1t does not guarantee a new en-
lightenment; on the contrary, it
can lead to confusion and ignorance
of the first magnitude. An over
simplsfcation, a distortion, lie, can
be sent around the world as fast and
as convincingly as truth, and enor-
nous mischief can be done thereby.
Accordingly, in Hocking's Judgment,
the interests of national and inter-
national society demand that those
who manage and control the press
be subjected to restraints in keeping
with their grave responsibility.
What all this boils down to is that
the free press cannot be so free as
1t has been in the past. 1t needs
to govern itself more; 1t needs to
achieve a better balance in its
presentation of events; it needs to
work for a constant improvement of
its standards; it needs to pursue
truth with greater diligence, and it
needs to be prodded by nongovern-
mental outside influences, to the end
that its liberty will be misused as
little as possible. In arguing along
this line, Prof. Hooking has some
naive things to say about how things
are run in Russia, and he fails-as
the commission itself did in its
earlier report-to take proper note
of the significant and steady bet
terment of our newspapers during
the past 80 years. Nevertheless,
despite these and other shortcom-
ings, his book deserves the attention
of people active in the field of mass
communication. However wrong he
may be on some points, what he has
to say can be useful to the press as
a kind of cockleburr against COM
placency.
1t is worth nothing, moreover, that
Prof. Hooking writes in a graceful
philosophical vein, and OCCASION
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Lloyd Lewis
Sends Along
.ARunningStory
1T TAKES ALL KINDS
BY Lloyd Lewis. (Hdrcouft,
Brace & Co.. $3.50

1T TAKES ALL KINDS
BY Lloyd Lewis. (Harcouft,
Brace G. Co.. $3.50
Reviewed by
HENRY LYON
Mr.. Lewis has taken the trouble
to dig out and set down a large
number of interesting details about
the historical episodes in his latest
book of collected writings. These
finely chiseled pictures tower over
the lesser chapters, which, though
well done, cannot, because of their
very brevity, include MIR. Lewis
running-story style.
In newspaper parlance, a story Is
designated as running" when in
formation can be added as it &C.
ours, the editors knowing in advance
that they will not wish to condense
it for any reason. The adds" to
Cne running STORY, t1ey KNOW, WILL
continue to have merit and continue
to be vital to the complete story.
sMr. Lewis is a ,newspaperman-
was formerly managing editor OF
the Chicago Daily News. He states
his lead and then begins to unravel
ball of facts that never loses in
terest. This interest Is of the hui
man-interest type so often missing
in biography and history.
1t is easy to understand what Mrs.
Lewis meant when she said she
lost" her husband in the Civil
War. Mr.. Lewis has made an ex-
haustive study of the participants
or both sides in that struggle. He
has gone back to the childhood
backgrounds and West Point rec
ords of many of them.
I make no plea for the value of
these writings as history. I only
know he made the characters leap
from the pages and saw them IN
action,
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
California Castle
SHANTY PARADISE

BY Katherine Moore KingSbury.
(Cdrton Printers, Ltd.;; 49,
The factual story of a family'S
migration, under economic stress,
from cherished farm in Indiana
to an uncertainty in California, a
journey of struggle that finally
brought better times, is told pleas
antly. The authors husband,
Charles G. Kingsbury, has illus
trated the book with charming
sketches. The Kingsburvs and their
boy finally won a new home when
they made a decrepit shack in San
Francisco into habitable dwelling.
&C. B. j.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24

tried to teach was never so impor-
tant as how 7 taught it,"
Brief Golden Age" the final sec
ton of American Memoir" is the
story of Mr.. Canby's literary adven-
lures, "reminiscences alive with the
personalities of many writer's, edi-
tors and critics.
The book is written with a dis
arming simplicity which makes its
pungent observations more effective.
1t is easy to read, not because it
lacks depth-there is, on the con-
trary, mellow wisdom in it-but
because Mr.. Candy knows not only
how to teach and appraise writing,
but how to write.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Prof. Hocking's Views of a Free Press Are
Like CockIeburrs Against Comp|ocency
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Nv William Eroest Hooking


By William Ernest Hooking University of Chicago Press So
by WILLIAM H HARRISON.
Although privately financed Commission Freedom
interesting is the work of AS the
clear does not have the
support members BY and large how
they agreed on its substance.
William Ernest Hooking Harvads celebrated emeritus
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Warm, Vigorous
Pastoral Novel
THE NEIGHBORS

BY Virginia Sorensen. (Reynal
G. Hitchcock; So
This pastoral novel opens in
springtime, on note of high prom
Use for John Kels, who has left his
teaching job in Denver to begin a
new life with his sprawling brood
on sheep ranch in the Colorado
mountains. To John it is both es-
cape and Homecoming, but before
spring comes again he has repeated
his lifetime pattern of failure. An
articulate idealist, John inevitably
goads himself to ill-timed and dis
astrous action.
1t is, however, more than a story
Of Johns defeat. Mrs. Sorensen
has painted a warm and vigorous
picture of the happy hurly- burly
of the Kels' home life, which is
dramatically contrasted with the
tense and bitter household of the
Roes, their neighbors and unin-
tended rivals. To vindictive, OBJ
durate old Phineas Roe, the Kels'
acquisition of the ranch bordering
his own is an affront to a vision
of a Roe family empire in the
valley. He feeds his resentment on
petty tyrannies calculated to block
the friendship among the children
OF the two houses and the romance
which progresses waveringly be-
tween his daughter Cloie and the
Call, the eldest Kels boy, newly
home from overseas and promptly
tagged psychoneurotic by the
old man.
Changing Seasons.
The drama of THE Neighbours"
which unfolds against the changing
seasons, derives from the everyday
happenings of life lived close to
nature and the small matters which
count so large in a small community.
The most poignant moments of the
story come with the death of Marie,
Johns pet, a poetic adolescent who
falls victim to spotted fever. Its
best characterizations are of two
mature women: Paulie, Johns wife,
"a woman like a meadow" he calls
her, who is the eternal mother; and
Alice, Brad Roe's wife, who is the
cause of her husbands one rebellion
against his father. Their youthful
idyl died when Brad was blinded
and they were forced to return
home, where Alice's whole life be-
comes ceaseless effort to clear his
path, both spiritual and actual. IT
is tragic irony that Johns one
violent action should be mistakenly
directed against gentle Brad.
Full of breadth and vitality and a
mild earthiness, Mrs. Sorensen's
novel produces an effect of height
and space and clear mountain air.
But also, thanks to constantly
shifting point of view, and some
spots of diffuse writing, it loses
much power. Her third book. and
her first not to utilize the Mormon
scene which figured in "A Little
Lower Than the Angels" and ION
This STAR" 1.-The Neighbors' proves
that she is still one Of the more in
teresting novelists on the American
scene. M. MEG.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
The Tale of An
UnscrupuIous Wife
HEADLONG FROM HEAVEN
BY Michael Valbeck. I'M. S. Mill
Co.; s275.)
Reviewed by
NINA PEMBERTON,

There is probably no one more
INSCRIPTIONS in the world than an
INSCRIPTIONS woman. Wanda Bran
ken was just such a woman. She
had on her side not only love of
riches, of glamour and social posi-
ton, but also extreme beauty.
Before her marriage Wanda be-
longed to the poor but very arty set
in Cape Town. Her life belonged to
herself and to Adrian Willard,
whom she loved. That life came to
an end when Adrian forsook her
and married some one who was the
very antipathy of herself; some one
who was rich and nice So Wanda
just shuff1ed the cards and dealt
herself an ace, Mr.. Branken. Mr..
Branken, fat, ugly, twice her age.
had only two advantages; he had
an abundant and increasing
bank account and the tact to let
Wanda delve deeply into it. They
became lavish hosts and then Wan
da's play-acting involved couple
Of murders, with Mr.. Branken an
unwilling accomplice. Michael VAL
beck handles the denouement with
deft skill. He seems promising
new author.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
1t Happened in 1916

THE STORY OF OUR TIME, 1917
(The Grolier Society, Inc; 500
An easy to read, profusely illus
trated encyclopedia of what went
on during 1916. Numerous writers
and commentators have hand in
telling this story, terse but broad
in sociological emphasis. Domestic
and world affairs, sports, theater.
business, music, science, industry,
education are covered.-H. A. l..
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
You Can't Believe
The Dust Jacket
SPRING ON SD ST.
BY Dorothy Speare. (Rhinehart
g. Co.. $780,
Reviewed by
HARRY MACARTHUR.

Dorothy Speare's novel is not the
romantic affair its title might imply.
Rather it is a sort of minor-league
pal Joey"-the story of a young
woman of moderately high position
who takes up with a soda jerk.
They spend a happy week together
at a shabby beach cabin. They
return to town to mingle with her
cafe society friends who insult the
jerk. Finally, after the brilliant
prosecutor, who has been pushed
out of her apartment by the soda
jerk, tells the woman what she is,
she commits suicide.
This is highly touted on the dust
jacket as a psychological study of
great insight, leading one to suspect
that those notes on dust jackets
sometimes are biased. Ann Barclay
was -witted woman who
lacked discrimination and that's all.
Her sad story, however, may pos
sibly be relished by ca women
who have better sense than Ann
and are glad Of it, and (b) women
who have no better sense than she
and are glad of company in their
misery. Maybe a man shouldn't
try to fathom a novel about a
woman by a woman.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
They Had Only
Love dndCouroqe
For the Dark DAYS
THE BRIGHT PROMISE
BY Richard Sherman. little,
BroWn & Co.. $2.75./

BY Richard sherman. (Ltttte,
BroUn & Co., $2.75./
This novel is the story of young
couple courageous enough to marry
on March 4, 1888, nadir of the de-
preston and the day the banks
closed.
Amy and Lyle Ellery had nothing
with which to weather the economic
tempest. The new husband hadn't
even job, though the wife had;
their small balances were in closed
banks. But, with the few dollars in
their pocketbooks, they went ahead
and had their wedding.
The Ellerys moved into a tiny
apartment on the upper East Side
of New York. Lyle finally got a
small job. Later Lyle got his big
idea-a picture magazine, then I'M
tried. He found angels in the per-
sons of the fabulously wealthy Arch
ers, Roy and Laura. With Lyle as
editor, the magazine was quick
success.
q,
who seemed to run the magazine,
and she and Lyle argued constantly
over policies. Amy Ellery had her
suspicion, which her husband S
vehement denial assuaged, but
which later. turned out to be only
too justified. Then, since Lyle re-
fused to choose Laura in place of
his wife, he was fired. The eco
nomic struggle started all over. Lyle
had to work on a WPA writer's
project. Eventually Lyle and Amy
and their year-old son went to
Amy's home town, Ammon, Iowa,
where her father owned the county
paper. Amy's father persuaded Lyle
to take over the paper as editor
Lyle's success here led him back to
New York and another big job.
The story of THE Bright Promise
is told by Amy. And it's amazing
how persuasively Mr.. Sherman ex-
presses the woman's point of view.
It's a freshly turned story, some
times poignant, sometimes dramatic,
especially in the earlier pages.
The closing part seems to bog
down. This is largely panegyric to
President Roosevelt. When the Ell
lerys' boy Johnny gets infantile
paralysis and goes to Warm Springs
to recuperate and learn to walk, the
story becomes pretty heavy with
symbolism. 1t ends, with the death
of the President, in a somewhat
overwrought elegy.
Discounting the Roosevelt haters,
who can't endure a favorable refer
ence to the late President, more i'm
partial readers may think the book
strains too hard to prove its point.
THE Bright Promise is the Sep
TENDER selection of the Literary
Guild. C. B. j.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Harvard's celebrated emeritus

ally with considerable force, as when
he touches upon the amorality and
vulgarity of our times. The primary
responsibility for that, however, can
not be placed on the hayward ele-
ments of the press alone. the dis
ease has it's origin in something
much more basic-in the home, in
the school, in the church, in the in
tensely materialistic modern temper,
in mans own cheapened evaluation
of himself and of all things of the
spirit.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24

quand's work, 1.-THE Garretson
Chronicle" has solid quality which
may well make it one of the years
best novels.
Gerald Warner Brace has written
four novels with New England set
tings but he was born on Long
Island and grew up in the Hudson
River Valley. He comes from an
old Connecticut family and has
taught at six New England colleges
before taking his present posi- at
Boston University.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
ACurtoin Call
PETER ABELARD
BY Helen Waddell. Henry Holt
& Co.; 49,
Reviewed by
FRANCIS DOUGLAS.

This is new edition of Miss
book which was widely
read when it was published in
1888. It should be welcomed by
those who missed it then and by the
new generation of readers which has
come along in the intervening years.
The unusual flavor of the book
comes from a variety of condiments.
Tokyo-born Miss Waddel is the
of Irish missionaries. Her
interest in medieval Latin litera-
ture-she is an authority on the
doubt led her to the
teachings of the French theologian,
to the letters of Heloise
and to the famous love story which
has linked the two names for almost
a thousand years.
One assumes it is Miss Waddell's
Irish background which accounts
for the lyric character of the story.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Henry SeideI Candy in Superb Appraisal
OF His Rich and Varied Life i'm Letters
MEMOIR
BY Henry Seidel Candy. (Houghton Mi67in; So
Reviewed by CARTER BROOKE JONES'

No who is interested in the cultural trends and transitions in
this from 1890 to the
with which familiar literary
and
modestly examine and
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Meet Chrissie Doyle of Liffey Lane,
A Heroine to Melt the Hardest Heart
LIFFEY LANE
BY Maura Laverty (Longmans, Green; $780,
Reviewed BY MARY McGRORY

chrse Doyle is girl to break heart not made stone She
the heroine that kind of Brooklyn with
broguea lovely touching that full of hno and
humanity. Chie living testimony of life,
there underpeged children essential straight
of mind purity squaor degradation
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
THE LINCOLNs IN VIRGINIA.

by John w. Wayland. Mcclure
Printing Co.; $500 A story OF the
Lincoln family in Virginia. Illus
trated with photographs, maps and
plans.
THEY BUILDED BETTER THAN
THEY KNEW, by Julius Henry
Cohen. Julian Messner; $3.50 A
series of episodes out of the lives
of Americans prominent in indus
try, politics, the law, the arts.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Events of q Drastic Decade
UNPARALLELED in Our History
AMERICA IN OUR TIME, 1S96-1946
BY Dwight Lowell Dumond. Henry Holt & Co.; s475J
Reviewed by DONALD H MUGRIDGE,
FelIotp American Historu Lihrnru of Cnnnress

Prof Dumond published his Roosevelt Roosevelt The United
States in the Twentieth Century,, the field
history" brought
the election of 1885,
OF comparable designed eveabe
the general reader desiring perspective
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Reviewed by
ALLEN MOORE.

Most of this biography turned
novel belongs in the New Workers.
Rich, Beautiful Prose Department"
But just as Lafcadio Hearn was too
vital a person to be kept cooped up
in the straitjacket of convention, so
the plain facts of his life are too
fascinating to be spoiled by the
turgid prose of Prof. Wedeck. You
keep turning the pages from the
time you first meet the child Laf-
cadio on an island in the Ionian Sea,
where his father was an Irish Army
doctor and his mother Greek girl
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Depth and Bri||iunce in This Portrait
Of a Dissenting Young New Highlander

THE GARRETSON CHRONICLE
BY Gerald Warner Brace. Nv. W. Norton: 49,
Reviewed by CHARLES COVELL.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Revealing the Fabulous Shenonigons
Of a Noted Pair of Classic Shysters'
HOWE g. HUMMEL

BY Richard H. Revere. (Farrar Straus & Co.; s275J
Reviewed by JOHN W. HAYES
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-08-24
Lofcodio Heorn's
Restless Quest
For Happiness
NtVlCWCU Uy
HENRY LYON
MORTAL HUNGER

MORTAL HUNGER
A Novel Based on the Life OF
Lafcadio Hearn.
BY Harry E. Wedeck. (Sheridan
House; $780,
povicnod hy