davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1949-09-25
Lady Mary Montogu Finds the Perfect
Bioqropher in Lewis Gibbs

speaking until they were fairly
married in case they began to
quarrel again."
During her husbands brief am
bassadorship in Turkey, Lady
Mary composed her immortal
embassy letters. She came home
to crusade for inoculation against
smallpox. Completely self-conf1-
dent, opinionated and sure Of her
worth. she became q great favorite
at the court of George II. After
her long European exile, which
she bore with characteristic spirit
and lack Of self-pity, she came
home to England to die when she
was past 70.
Mr.. Gibbs biography. like its
subject. is enormously entertain
ing. He writes a polished and
subtle prose which is perfectly
suited to the world of artif1ce and
elegance in which Lady Mary
moved SO surely. With her pas
sion for politics. her flair for epi-
grams and her unfailing eye for
human frailities. what a Washing
ton hostess she would have made!
Evening star., 1949-09-25
Crime and Mystery
By Miriom Ottenberq

might have run away with a man,
but Henry Gamadge, the amateur
sleuth, doubted it. Certainly, there
was a man involved, but only
Henry could figure out when Alice
ever had a chance to meet one.
Gamadge is a fine hand at deduct
ing-and needs to be to locate the
missing Alice and the mystery
man in he, life.
Call for Michael Silayne, by Brett
Halliday. Dodd, Mead e. Co.;
S2.50.)
Red Badge
Arthur Devlin, a pleasant in
surance executive, woke up with a
terrific hangover and frst-ciass
problem. What was he doing in
dirty clothes in a tenement with
a dead man under the bed when
he was supposed to be cruising the
Caribbean? 1t was up to Michael
Shayne to find out what really
happened in the two weeks
dropped out of Devlin's life, dur
ing which he apparently took a
life and a wife. This is routine
:Shayne stuff, complete with dope
peddling, blackmail and multiple
murder. That man seems to at
tract corpses.
Evening star., 1949-09-25
Another Soop Opero
Authoress Gets FIoyed
MIRROR, MIRROR

M1RhOR, MlRROR
ON THE WALL
BY Mona Kent. (Rhinehart e.
Co.; $3J
Maybe it's q little early to call
1t a trend, but here is the second
novel in a few months that hays
alive q woman writer of soap
operas. Last spring. in Legend of
a Lady" Robert Hardy Andrews,
dismsntled a mouselike, stony
hearted creator of cliff hangers"
Now the author of "Portia Faces
Life" paints lurid picture of
psychopathic liar who early in a
hard life learns the value Of hypoc-
risy, and puts 1t to work in spin
ming her scripts of selfless wives
and noble mothers. Destructive
and ungovernable as a prairie fire,
Dell Thornton drives her husband
to suicide, wrings out her lover
like an old dishrag and smoth-
ers her son in sinister affection,
all the while maintaining the re-
proachful, saccharine mien Of one
Of her heroines.
Recently published interviews
with Miss Kent reveals that this
represents kind Of spree on her
part. Forbidden by censorship
and audience reaction to show life
in its harsher terms on the air,
she has careened to the opposite
extreme, using strong language.
strong scenes and situations which
in a radio script would make the
FEC fall into a dead faint. Her
story moves with hectic inten-
sity and her prose is a rich pur-
pie in spots. The striking thing
about all this is that while her
heroine Is q witch whom no soap
manufacturer. would have near his
program, she is actually just a
heroine turned inside
out, and her story is just as i'm
plausibly motivated, just as strung
out as those of her bowdlerized
sisters at the microphone. She Is
as tiresomely evil as they are tire
somely virtuous.
Since this iss as indicated above.
the second novel about such a
ruinous radio writer this season.
we can't help wondering who the
real-life original is. M. Meg.
Evening star., 1949-09-25
Irish Spread On
By the TroweIfuI
THE THREE WISHES
OF JAMIE McRUIN

OF JAMIE McRUIN
BY Charles O'Neal. (Julian Mess
ner; $2.75J
Your response to this Chris
tophers Award winner will be
pretty much conditioned by your
feeling about Irish charm. It is
laid on by the shamrock-bedecked
trowelful in this bubbling narra-
tive of handsome dreamy young
Connacht man who is promised by
the Queen Of the Fairies the three
wishes nearest his heart: Travel, a
beautiful wife and a magic
tongued son. After he and his
cousin leave their own wake Cthey
are presumed drowne6 they jour-
ney to America, where they meet
a devout band of Irish horse
traders in Georgia. Jamie wins
the hand of their fairest daughter,
thereby gaining his second wish,
but alas. she gives him no son.
The burden of the story is Jamie's S
ill-natured attitude toward this
failure and his eventual accept
ance of a mute waif whom his wife
adopts. Fairly dripping with Irish
humor, tall tales, high emotion
and little people," "The Three
Wishes Of Jamie McRuin" will
satisfy you completely if your
taste runs along those lines.
IN, Meg.
Evening star., 1949-09-25
THE CRACK IN THE COLUMN
BY George Weller. random House; $3J

gone, the British Army moves in
The word has gone out that the
British are determined to restore
the monarchy and thus they are
not too welcome to EAM, the polit-
ical front of left and center parties
and its guerrilla army, ELIAS.
When the British bring in from
Egypt the Rimini brigade, a Greek
outfit which not only never has
fired shot against Italians or
Germans, but is ardently mon
archist and when the British
further inflame native feeling by
giving positions in the new govern
ment to known collaborationists
resentment smolders into violence.
1t was not, as Mr.. Weller tells
it, that most Greeks in the re-
+sistance wanted communism as
that those who undertook to re-
build Greece ignored them and
Moscow was quick to take advan-
tage Of this situation. The Amer
leans, meanwhile. paid the bill and
let the British run things until
they got ready to pull out. The.
fratricidal strife that resulted still
goes on in the mountains. though
it seems to be fading out at last. i.
Viewing "The Crack in the Col
umn" as novel, the first half is
much the better. The characters
are sharply alive and fascinating:
scenes and atmosphere are i'm
parted clearly. sometimes brilli-
antly. The second half is more
journalism than novel. 1t is re-
porting of a high order. And yet
so many new persons are brought
in, and there are so many vi
gnettes of stray happenings, that
the central story bogs down to an
extent and the narrative tends to
become merely cumulative.
Evening star., 1949-09-25
New Novel of Nobel Prize-Winning
Swiss Author Appears in English

The story purports to be
pieced-together biography of
Joseph Knecht. who became the
"magister ludi," or master of the
bead game. He started in the
schools as a gifted musician, and
gradually came to accept the game
as the highest synthesis of the
arts and of learning. But the
time came when Knecht saw
through the narrowness and iso-
lation of the Castalians, with their
hierarchy Of scholarship, their
aristrocracy of learning and their
lack Of any creative contribution
to the world. His place. he de-
cided, was back in the world, where
he could do some good with his
years of study and teaching. The
Castalians. he felt, had no more
opportunity for learning and
meditation than the Benedictine
monks. with whom he had spent
some time as a student. And the
province lacked what the monks
had-a faith that sustained them.
The magister's unprecedented de-
cision to resign his great honors
and leave CaStalia rocks the
province and brings the narrative
to a dramatic climax. -
Despite the philosophical mood
of the whole story, Mr.. Hesse's
skill as a novelist and his wide
understanding of people and their
problems keep it from dullness or
monotony. The translation by
Mtrvyn Savill undoubtedly is
an important factor in main
tanning and perhaps improv-
ing on the clarity with which
the original text must have been
written. The very German idea
of Castalia is expanded into more
universal humanity by Knecht's
rebellion.
Evening star., 1949-09-25

tions as in D. H. Lawrence. dis
please cher equally. I'm novels
the facts are nothing, the feeling
is everything" The writer's work
only begins when his research is
done. His job is to select, to con-
dense to simplify, structure
which writer's of historical novels
might do we'll to study. She pays
high praise to Stephen Crane for
his handling of detail. He esti-
mated it at its true worth-made
it serve his purpose and felt no
further responsibility for it.
Miss Gather charitab1y suggests
that we do not measure the COM
mercial novel-makers" by this lof-
ty yardstick. She regards them as
laborers who happen to work in
words. But when a writer has
Evening star., 1949-09-25

THE ADMIRABLE LADY MARY
BY Lewis Gibbs. (Willtan, Nor
roaD & Co.: 81
A wit who was forgiven much
for her beauty, a beautiful writer
scarcely published in her lifetime,
and a much-maligned woman,
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has
found the perfect biographer in
Lewis Gibbs. Sympathetic and
humorous, indulgent but not blind,
Mr.. Gibbs sees the great lady of
fashion and quality plain. sees her
great gifts and her shortcomings,
her vanities and her courage, her
spirit and her malice.
Lady Mary has lived for her
letters, which she frankly consid-
cred far superior to those of
Nine. De Sevigne. A child of her
age, she knew well that there
Evening star., 1949-09-25

courses. may, If they choose, join
a monastic order of culture which
shuts out the world and lives only
for study, research and contem-
plation. A key exercise Of this
scholarly province is known as the
bead game-a means of tracing
ideas to their sources by impro-
vising on and expanding themes OF
music or of philosophical phrases.
For instance. a few notes from a
fugue by Bach will be translated
in the course of play into math-
ematical formula or a concept OF
philosophy. with unlimited varia-
tions.
Evening star., 1949-09-25
No Substitute for Creative
Imagination, Says Villa Gather
r. ON WRITING. With q foreword by Stephen

VILLA GATHER ON WRITING With foreword by Stephen
Tenant (Atred A. Knopt; $2.25J
Reviewed by MARY McGRORY.
1t hard to think of contemporary writer better qualified
by achievement judgment other
Gather The standards which forth slim collection
letters mplacable applying
them But in her luminous
soutey Throughout these
Evening star., 1949-09-25

null A1AS ~ ~
and her ready Lady Mary Montaru.
tongue, she had fine eyes. 1t was
this combination of blessings
which led to her friendship with
the Queen Anne Wits and the in
timacy with Pope which ended in
a quarrel and called forth from
him such venom that her repu-
tation still Is that of a lady of
easy virtue.
How was it possible" Mr..
Gibbs asks, "for a virtuous wom-
an to be so confidently and sue
|cessfully represented as noto-
riously immoral?" He takes her
word for it that she ''liv'd
chaste," and to be sure there is
no evidence, beyond Pope's vilifi-
cations, to the contrary. Her
rashness, Mr.. Gibbs feels, was
entirely verbal. She was fatally
susceptible to flattery and utterly
incapable Of appreciating the
feelings of others. Moreover, she
relished gossip, so that when her
turn in the pillory of scandal
came, no mercy was shown her.
At any rate, some time afterward
she separated from her husband,
without adequate explanation,
and spent 20 years of her life in
exile, alone, on the continent.
4 There was Mr.. Wortley, Mon
tagu. a frugal member Of Parlia-
ment, who appears to best advan-
tage in Mr. Gibbs delightful re-
construction of their courtship.
Although Lady Mary had been
brought up Ito regard a love letter
as a crime" she corresponded
with Mr.. Wortley for four years.
It was really a protracted debate,
in which both parties sought to
foresee every eventuality of their
married life. When they finally
got to the point (after Lady Mary
had called the whole thing off a
dozen tines and arranged an
elopement, he suggested that "the
best thing would be to avoid
Evening star., 1949-09-25

GllC So4oAAAA1 Az
written dispassionately. The au-
thor lets the force of events rather
than his indignation and pity make
his points. But his conception is
fortnight and unsparing. The
daring and ingenuity of the under
ground during the Nazi occupation,
the sadistic but Intellectual re-
prisals of the Germans, the tram
scendent capacity of the British
to do the wrong thing at every
turn, the familiar manipulation Of
patriotic groups by Communist
minorities the whole story.
at once inspiring and disilluSion-
ing, heroic and sordid, is told.
Mr.. Weller begins his novel late
in the war when the pressure of
defeats elsewhere has forced the
Germans to begin withdrawing
from the Eastern Mediterranean.
While the Germans are slowly re-
firing from Greece, we see the
resistance movement in operation.
Then. with the Germans finally
Evening star., 1949-09-25
ANostoIgic Novel
OF the Shunuhuns
DAYS BEYOND RECALL

Ia y De 4OND RECALI
BY Roger B. Dooley. Bruce.
$780,
The category is "heart-warming"
or "noStalgic." This novel is both
perhaps too emphatically. It is
the story of the Shanahan clan,
their relatives and friends in Buf-
falo's Irish first ward from 1900
to the close of the First World
War. Mr.. Dooley writes with
sympathy and knowledge of the
middle-class Irish families he de-
picts. He also describes them
voluminously. The cast Of char
acters is so large that the reader
must pause frequently to identify
some third cousin or seldom
mentioned neighbor from the list
printed in front. It would be a
better novel If there were less
trivia about the lives under
scrutiny. &C. B. j.
Evening star., 1949-09-25

obvious reasons, we do not plan
to give our exact blocking calls
and we sincerely hope that you
will understand why"
Then he painstakingly explains
just how "43" works after the
quarterback calls it and the team
has swung out of the huddle. First.
the two tackles, who have about
2 seconds to size up the opposi-
ton defense setup. both call sig
mails for blocking assignments.
Since the play is to the right side,
the players listen only to the right
tackle. If he sees the hole is
clogged, he may call out, up two"
and the play would become as. :"
II the defense has shifted to the
play side. he might call out a code
word for Cancel" which would
cause the quarterback to shout
word for the opposite of the orig
inal play.
If this sounds a bit Confusing,
please consider the plight of the
poor tackles. In the old days, they
merely had to be big. Now they
have to be much bigger and think
fast as well.
Leahy is quote emphatic in say
ing he believes the reason many
coaches haven't done well with the
T is that they have looked on
plays like "43" as too elementary.
He thinks that in order to make
other plays work successfully from
this formation, it is essential that
the opponent always be tensed to
expect the quick opener. As q
clincher, he points out that Emil
Sitko, who has averaged better
than six yards q try for three sea-
sons, gained more than half that
yardage on the simple quick
opener.
Since taking is his pet topic,
Leahy devotes considerable space
to his quarterbacks, whom he calls
the 1T Masters" He unhesitat-
ingly picks Johnny Lujack. now Of
the Chicago Bears, as the great
est all-around football player he
ever coached. But he has a warm
spot In his heart for Angelo Ber-
telli. the quarterback who took
his coach of the hook when the
drastic move to install the r was
announced ut South Bend in l942.
Evening star., 1949-09-25

about the great events in which
she shared as the secretary to
whom confidential material was
intrusted. who took the dictation,
the words of which made her
"shiver." as she says, as she real
lied its import. but who kept her
counsel.
To one who knew the President,
it is clear that her memory and
her ear for words is excellent, and
her relation of conversations with
him, her report of what he said
under certain circumstances rings
absolutely true to the informal,
personal, human Roosevelt.
F. D. r. must have talked very
freely to his secretary, as indeed
nearly all modern executives do.
Her summary of what he really
thought in, his informal and cas-
ual way about some of the high
political officers of his admins
tration. and some of the leading
politicians, is interesting and i'm
portant to know for those who
want to Judge the historical acci-
dents which often led to basic
situations. Miss Tully's descrip-
ton of each accidental situation
is very convincing, such as the
description of the original note in
which Roosevelt said that he
would be willing to have either
Bill Douglas or Harry Truman
run as Vice President with him.
The note was later changed to
read either Harry Truman or Bill
Douglas, and, as Miss Tully says,
such slight things made such a
difference historically.
Many of the details which she
reveals are those that only a Sec
retary would think important, but
which prove fascinating to the
average reader. The details of
how presidential travel is arranged
and the care that has to be taken
Evening star., 1949-09-25

lQdtlOO. . II e
d | S m i S ses an
authors proteS-
tations of mon
u m e n t a | re-
search with the
fiat statement,
TOO much in
formation Of
ten. makes one
pompouS, and
t S r q t n e +
d e a d e n in g."
Catalogues of
furniture, as IN
BalZac, or OF
nllucical Serasa-
Evening star., 1949-09-25

8 u r v v e S ! n
q Euro p e a n
mountain prov
ince call e d
c a S t a i a de-
spite new wars
W hich have
brought anoth-
er Dark Age by
the year 2000
The Castalians
maintain elite
schools for the
educat on of
selected b VS.
who, If they
ronnIete he
Evening star., 1949-09-25

WnaC Sne saw,
knew and un-
d e r S t ood of
what was 60
ing on in the
mind, life and
responsible
of her boss.
T h e resulting
book is a faSci-
mating one, easy
to read, full of
color and pro-
viding a great
deal of real
historical in
q /
Evening star., 1949-09-25

percentage of these came from
coaches and players. However, the
Irish coach makes every effort to
make things clear to the layman,
and any fan with only an average
knowledge of football can get a
lot out of 1t.
In making out his case for the
r. Leahy begins by stating that,
In his opinion, the greatest ad-
vantage the formation has is that
the offensive center can be used
100 per cent as a blocker; he is
in the play before any other line
man because he knows exactly
when the ball Is going to be
snapped.
The Notre Dame wizard be-
comes only slightly more techni-
cal in his discussion of timing and
taking. Faking seems to be the
topic closest to his heart-the
backbone of the r, and nearly as
vital to success as the fundamen-
tai blocking and tackling. Leahy
puts it this way:
The Faking Back.
s "a thing that we always like to
see in our movies of games is that
the taxing back who does not
have the ball is being tackled.
Oftentimes during our 1947 sea-
son our left halfback, Terry Bren-
nan, 165-pounder from Milwaukee,
was hit very hard at the line of
scrimmage because he had exc
cuted a perfect fake that allowed
the ball carrier to get away to a
quick and unmolested start"
One Of the most interesting
chapters is that on the basic
quick-opener, "the bread and but
ter play" Of the Notre Dame boys
This play, "43" in the Leahy sys-
tenn, calls for the No. 4 back, the
right halfback, to go through the
No. 3 hole, off right guard. Leahy
says this play and 49," its oppo.
site-where the left halfback, No
?, goes off left guard-have gained
much more yardage than any
others.
Naturally, each Of these plays
has maze Of variations, so Notre
Dame fans should not be too con-
cerned about the old masters
barring too many secrets. At one
point, Leahy seems quite apolo-
eetic - he writes: For many
Evening star., 1949-09-25

to Athens soon
a t t e r they
W i t h drew and
watched civil
war engulf the
coun try. He
seems to have a
S y m p a thetic
u n derstanding
of Greek char
acters and a
firm grasp OF
the intricacieS
of Hellenic pol
itics.
THE Crack in
-.
Evening star., 1949-09-25

Is II a I q ly a
C h a racter in
the world more
despicable or
more liable to
universal ridi-
cule than that
of a learned
woman" Still
she au g h t
herself Latin
a n d r e q d
ON n | v orously
all her life. To
offset her in
n1,irinn ~ n
Evening star., 1949-09-25
MAGISTER LUDI

1N142Nl10 Z I1O 1OD4
BY Hermann Hesse. (Henry Holt
& Co.; S5.)
This latest novel by the Ger
man-born Swiss writer who won
the Nobel Prize three years ago
was published in Europe in 1945
and now is being offered English
readers for the first time. >
"Magister Ludi'' is an intellectual
novel-curious. esoteric and yet
strangely fascinating. It describes
a Utopian haven of learning which
Evening star., 1949-09-25

OF now IL was done ana who did 1t.
The personal quality of the rela-
tionships between the railroad
people who ran the train, the
porters and incorporating en-
ployes who served the train, the
President and his aides. the press
men. ETC., are all realistic.
Though 1t has long been GUS
tomary to say the strains of the
presidential job are very great, no
one but Miss Tully has been able
70 give such validity to what the
strain is. The tension present
when great decisions are being
made, when decisions that mean
life and death to thousands of
people are being ordered put into
effect, the suspense when the
waiting President and his close
associates (not his legal and Off
cial advisers) are waiting for re-
ports of what happened and how,
are all described here by one who
took part in the situation and
shared those tensions.
The strains and stresses to which
the Secret Service men were sub
jected come through. too, for they
did not always know each what
the other was doing. That was a
part of the security plan, and even
Col. Startling himself sat on the
deck of a fishing boat off the
Massachusetts, coast, dressed in a
set of clothes that resembled
Roosevelt's. so that boats passing
near could see him and their oc-
cupants report (as many did
that they had seen Roosevelt fish
ing off Cape Anne somewhere,
while only a very few. and not
always Secret Service men, knew
that he was at Arcadia. Miss Tully
tells with amused delight the fact
that Col. Startling himself didn't
know where Roosevelt was. and
after sitting patiently on the fish,
ing boat for several days. allow
ing himself to be identified as
Roosevelt by passing small craft,
he finally went ashore at Nahant
and sought out young John Roose-
felt in the deep conviction that
the President must be coming
soon. :,
That Roosevelt and all those
around him had a zest for life Is
clear in these informal descriptions
Of the unexpected situations which
they were called to bear. Roose-
velt's apologetic calling of his Sec
retary to ask if "she would mind
coming down" to take dictation at
z o'clock in the morning on the
day Of the German invasion of
Poland, his delight in the fact
that he surprised her when he
came ashore at Rockland, Me.
where she had gone to meet him
in a white straw hat with pink
roses and a pink veil, all show
him as a man who carried his
job not only with conviction but
with an appreciation Of all the
human aspects Of it.
This book wilN be read with
great care and a lot of marginal
by those historically
people who want light on
certain episodes in the Roosevelt
era, but it will be read by many
more with interest and pleasure
because of its informal and chatty
discussions not only of "the Boss"
himself but of the people and
events of the so-called New Deal
and the World War period. There
was no question but that the
author liked her boss and believed
in him and was loyal to him unto
death and that her affection forI
him goes beyond the grave. She
says, MY whole story is wound
around my loyalty to the boss and
make no apologies for applying
that yardstick in evaluating some
Of the personalities who moved I'M
and out of Washington in 12I
years." /