Evening star., 1952-11-23

NoA1ON AL OCOuuCC "a Vic AAo1ALS
cost Of production. The pre-
eminence Of playwrights who
are, in his opinion. political
sourpusses" such as Lillian He'll
man and Arthur Miller, has
made plays more preachy than
entertaining. No better in Mr..
McLaughlin's view are the "en-
fants terrible" es"-among whom
he counts Tennessee Williams,
Carson McCullers and Truman
Capote-who have contributed
only their nightmares and grow
ing pains to the contemporary
drama.
Early birds note: Already,
well in advance of publication,
the Government Printing Office
has received 10000 requests for
copies Of the new edition of
"Your Federal Income Tax"
Happy prospect: Arthur Miz-
ener. author of '"The Far Side
of Paradise" that extraordi-
narily acute and readable BIZ
ography of r. Scott Fitzgerald,
will speak at the Corcoran Gal
lery on the afternoon of De-
cember 7 at $3.50. The Institute
Of Contemporary Arts will spon-
sor Mr.. Mizener's lecture.
Lying in State
BY Stanton Griffis.
Doubleday & Co.; $375.)
From its facetious title down
to its gruffly patriotic farewell,
Mr.. Griffis' memoirs are those
of a self-made man who is con-
tent with what he has wrought.
Mr.. Griffis is one of the dying
class of fabulously successful
rugged ihdividualists who has
known all kinds of success.
The recollections. do not go
deep. The ex-Ambassador men
tions his son. but never the
sons mother, and just casually
includes q chance remark of Eva
Peron's that he has been twice
married and twice divorced.
This is the public man only.
Nor could it be called in any
sense an apology. Mr.. Griffis by
his own words is a man who did
whatever job came to hand, as
best he could, with no time for
prior reflection or reflective
aftermath. His criticisms are
peripheral and the most contro-
versial thing he says is that the
administration of the State De-
partment is top heavy and in
efficient. In foreign affairs. he
was the willing and shrewd SER
want, not the policymaker.
Mr.. Griffis' success-studded
career as an entrepreneur in
cludes investment banking, Mad
ison Square Garden, Brentano's
Bookshops, Paramount Pictures,
Red Cross and Arab relief and
ambassadorships to Poland,
Egypt, Argentina and Spain. He
has known the great of the world
from boxers to dictators, and has
made q point of getting along
) with all of them. For a min
ister's son. brought up in an
atmosphere Of plain living and
high thinking, he has gone
long way, and apparently en-
joyed every inch Of it.
Lying in State" Is a highly
readable study of diplomacy
without tears-at least for Mr..
Grifis. M. Meg.
Stephen Crane
Selected and edited by Robert
Wooster Stallman.
(Knopt; So
This volume. designed to con-
tain Cranes best novels, stories
and poems. is beyond much
doubt exactly what it purports
to be. It is a selection which has
long been needed. Previous
Crane anthologies-and there
have been only a couple-have
included some inferior work and
left out some of the young writ
er's most perceptive stories. Mr..
Stallman points out that in the
12-volume edition of Cranes
complete works, published in
1925 and costing $50. "his good
things got lost under an ava
lanche of rubbish"
Mr.. Stallman wants particu-
larly to show that Crane was
not a one-novel writer, that
he was more than the author Of
a classic, "The Red Badge Of
Courage" The critic feels, in
fact, that the short story. "The
Open Boat" is even more per-
feet art. This book contains,
besides "The Red Badge" two
other novels, Maggie: A Girl
of the Streets" and Georges
Mother" The finest stories are
here, including "The Bride
Comes to Yellow Sky" and THE
Blue Hotel" In addition to the
poems, a large number Of letters
are printed. Mr.. Stallman has
written a critical introduction
and predatory comments on
each of the sections into which
the book is divided.-C. B. j.