Evening star., 1948-04-11

hlgn spirits were evidently reflected
In the famous magazine that "had
no respect for the respectable.
While he was himself a self-styled
scientific revolutionary" and a de-
fendant In several sedition trials. he
cheerfully solicited the financial
support Of such intrenched capital
lists as Mrs. o. H. P. Belmont and
E. w. Scripps. He makes no men
ton here of the theological changes
which have since led him to be-
come rowing editor of a quite diff
ferent magazine, the Readers Di-
gest. He Is concerned for the pres
ent with the conflict of puritan
heritage and hedonist inclinations.
Mr.. Eastman's picture of the
idyllic life he led during the sum-
mers of his youth and young man
hood IN the woodlands are full Of
nostalgia charm and some excellent
humorous evaluations of people.
The humor does not extend to him
self, however. And somehow his
evangelical paganism never seems
entirely convincing, even to him.
X X Y y
Formalized Memoirs.
1t Is quite bracing to turn from
Mr.. Eastnan's f1amboyantly emo
tional ramblings to the severely for
malized memoirs of Thomas Sugrue,
who has written several books him.
self and served as the "mouthpiece"
OF such celebrities as Startling of the
White House and Eddie Condor
owe Called 1t Music'). He Is re-
membered by New York newspaper
men as one of the best reporters that
city has ever known, and he has
maintained, throughout crippling
paralysis ailment, a pre-eminent po-
sition as poet, critic and radio COM
mentator.
The framework of this knowingly
honest record Of a soul-struggle is
series OF agonizing fever treatments
which he underwent in the late '3Os
In an effort to drive out the mysteri-
GUS germs which plagued him and
made him unable to walk. To make
the ordeal bearable, he imagined
that he was being questioned by the
clock which licked off the painful
minutes. Since he is Irish and fan
ciful, he invests this clock with
personality. 1t becomes the Pro-
fessor. derisive, quizzical sceptical,
unconvinced heckler of his spiritual
stock-taking. His memoirs are in
terrupted by mention OF the routine
and amusing speculations about the
modern world.
The device is a good one. Trial
by fire of the body is matched by
the trial by doubt of the soul. Mr..
Sugrue's dilemma was begun when
he was born an Irish Catholic in the
Yankee homeland of Connecticut
He grew up wanting to shake and
awaken and stimulate the church
down to its smallest altar boy" His
heritage and his religion made him
an alien In puritan land. He was
a mystic in a materialist, science
worshiping civilization, whose VI
sion Of Christianity was Jared by
the sight Of its practice. He sums
up succinctly his attitude toward the
church he never left: "It became a
massive organization, and its services
a demonstration of political and
communal solidarity rather than an
animation of Christ and the deter
minatton to initiate Him"
Joyous Reading.
While much Of the book is taken
up with discussions that are as
knotty and subtle as q medieval
argument on metaphysics it pro-
vides joyous reading on the hu-
man level. The "paranoia" of
the Irish-American has rarely been
so sharply or wildly defined. Mr..
Sugrue writes of the pleasures of
boyhood with a sense Of wonder that
makes many Of his passages sheerly
poetic. And he communicates all his
delight in his discovery Of the gentle,
cordial South (where he was vastly
amused to be considered a yam
keen in his golden student days
at Washington and Lee, where he
argued until his throat was dry and
read until he could hardly see.
Stranger In the Earth" is re-
markable document of survival and
a dramatic presentation of search
for God. It has humor. dignity and
fire, and although it Is a story Of
victory won over terrible odds, 1t
has no evidences of complacency
and self-pity. It Is one Of the most
unusual autobiography We have had
or are likely to have for some time;
In short, quite as admirable as the
man who wrote 1t. His people should
be proud Of him.