Evening star., 1948-10-10
SondburgNoveI
Is Testimonial
7oAmerico
REMEMBRANCE ROCK
BY Carl Sandburg. (Harcourt
Brace b Co.; So
Reviewed by
MARY McGRORY.

Carl Sandburg, his fame doubly
secured by his Whitmanesque
poetry and his monumental BIZ
ography of Lincoln, has, at 70,
completed his first novel. 1t is
quite a book, not so much q
no"el, though. as gigantic testa-
nent of his pride in the American
heritage. and his faith in its people;
a prodigious folk ballad in praise
of patriotism.
Unconstrained by the disciplines
Of an unaccIstomed form, Mr.. Sand
burg is here both chronicler and
minstrel. He writes passages that
are sheer lyricism and often departs
from the main line Of his narrative
to sketch solidly historical back
ground. including the text of the
Mayflower Compact and a COM
plete passenger list of that historic
vessel. He arranges the opening
lines of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence in blank verse and ranges
freely and confidently over three
centuries of American history, be-
ginning with the seed of the Re
public in Scrooby England. and end
ing with a reafirmation of faith in
Washington on VI day.
Larger Than Life.
The people who walk through his
pageant of the founding and defense
of an ideal are larger than life. The
women who figure in three episodes
of national crisis are all s feet tall
high-minded, chestnut-haired and
light-footed. The men they love SO
deeply are a proud and independent
lot, religious. humorous and mad for
freedom. They talk history and
poetry, mindful of their part in
shaping the American dream. They
speak to each other in songs and
dances.
1t is their repeating resolved
and expectant faces that holds
Mr.. Sandburg's long and sometimes
repetitive story together. His book
Is really three novels in one,' three
studies in desperate times when
American freedom and unity were
menaced and prevailed. Mr.. Sand
burg re-creates superbly the temper
of each era, the daily life of the
people, their dress and food and
drink, the arguments on both sides
of contemporary issues, centering his
fact on romances made stormy by
djverOpnee of Oni0lOn
New World Theocracy.
His first heroine, Remember
6pong. is Pilgrim maid, fearful
of Satan, bound TO Plymouth by
every Nber Of a mettlesome spirit,
who falls in love with Resolved
Wayfare, a disciple of Roger Will
liams. Resolved fears Williams as
she fears Satan, for the founder OF
Rhode Island preached that forced
worship stinks in Gods nostrlis"
broke the hard crust Of theoc-
racy that is forming over the New
World. Their soul struggle is in
tense in that narrow, hard COM
munity.
And Marintha Whining of Con-
cord falls out with her lover. Rob-
ert Winshore, over his participation
in the Liberty Boy violences which
usher in the Revolution.
But it is when Mr.. Sandburg
comes nearer his own time and
writes about an era familiar to him
through his Lincoln research that
he is at his best. The section. The
Arch Holds" in which he describes
the gradual coming Of the Civil
War and its full horror, is the
most beautiful, graphic and stirring
in the book. Mlllicent Wimbler,
daughter of an abolitionist family
and native of the abolitionist COM
munity of New Era, Ill, is mar
ried to dashing Rodney Wayman. a
captain in the Confederate Army.
Mr.. Sandburg stays close to his
characters all through this episode,
and it has an earthly gayety, a
stark tragedy, suffused with humor,
vitality and compassion.
Some Is Magnificent.
The framework of Mr.. Sandburg's
massive 6OlllCe Is Idllel lIlliSy
one The stories of Remember,
Marintha and Millicent are written
by a former Supreme Court JUS
tice, Orville Brand Window, to COM
fort and guide his War-weary grand
son, a pilot in World War II, and
his beloved granddaughter in-laW,
The lofty mood of Remembrance
Rock" is difficult to maintain, but
Mr.. Sandburg, by dint of his rugged
style, his bursts of poetry and
his characterization has managed
quite well. In a wrist-straining VOL
ume of 1,067 pages, some pas
sages are magnificent, some mo-
notonous. He lightens its length
with such epigrams as "a baby is
Gods opinion that life should 60
on" While 1t is not always salts
factory as novel, Remembrance
Rock" Is wonderful way to learn
American history. 1t is unques-
tionably the most American book
. of the year.