The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-06-03
Key Books
BY A. de I. cinsrs.

! (UNDER THE SEA WIND by
Rachel L. Carson, non-fiction, pub.
lished by Oxford University Press
New York City. 271 pp.)
This is a biography of birds who
fly, in the sea wind and creatures
who i've under the sea wind.
F..ssA.s2s , a black skinmer, Is
The hero of the first section of the
book called "F1ood Tide He flies
over a small island and the sea
surrounding 1t. And he meets all
sorts of sea creatures while he
goes. A water rat crafty with the
cunning of years and filled with the
lust for blood, had come down TO
the water along a path which his
feet and his thick tail had worn to
a smooth track through the grass. -
And he meets cells in net who
bite into the abdomens of the shad
with sharp teeth during the night.
and eat the roe and sometimes the
flesh as well, leaving only a bag
OF skin with an eel or two inside.
And as the tide goes from ebb to
flow, Rynchops follows the racing
water seward.
In the Spring Flight section birds
of shore and marsh fly northward
along ancestral airlanes, seeking
their nesting places. And when they
nest along the shore other sea crea-
lures meet the migrating birds.
Ghost crabs come out of their bur-
ros in the loose white sand. One
crouched behind a litter of sea
oats stubble, leaves of beach grass,
and pieces of sea lettuce. He was
watching for a beach flea.
g. Before the tide had risen
another hands breadth, a beach
flea crept out from under a green
frond of sea lettuce and leaped with
an agile flexing of its legs across
a stem of sea oats, as large to it
as fallen pine. The ghost crab
sprang like a bouncing cat and
seized the flea in his large crush
ing claw, or chela, and devoured 1t.
During the next hour he caught and
ate many of the beach hoppers.
stealing on silent feet from one
vantage point to another as he
Stalked his prey.
g. the ghost crab, still at his
hunting Of beach fleas, was alarm
ed by the turmoil of birds over
head, by the many racing shadows
that sped over the sand. By now
he was far from his own burrow.
When he saw the fisherman walk
ing across the beach he dashed
into the surf, preferring this refuge
to flight. But a large channel bass
was lurking near by, and in a
twinkling the crab was seized and
eaten. Later In the same day, the
bass was attacked by sharks and
what was left of it was cast up
by the tide into the sand. There
the beach fleas, scavengers of the
shore, swarmed over it and de-
voured it. -
In the Arctic Rendezvous sec.
ton the birds and animals meet
the snow death. All rules of survi.
val are obliterated in the soft snow.
And then the storm passes and
hunger il abroadl
About half way through the text
Scomber the Mackerel takes the
stage, and the author invites her
readers under the sea and the sea
wind. And then she goes on to show
US the harbor as the sea birds and
the fish know it, and the Indian
summer Of the sea.
Miss Carson has her "Sea A.
round Us" and this volume on cur
rent best seller lists. She we'll de-
serves to have them there. She
writes without sentimentality and
without minimizing the realities Of
existence and survival. Her picture
of creatures of the sea and sea
wind ranks with the best English
prose studies on nature.
| (MYSTERY FICTION THEORY
AND TECHNIQUE by Marie r.
RodeIl, non-fiction, published by
Hermitage House, New York City,
go pages.)
This book takes the reader OF
mystery stories behind the scenes
to watch their construction. All
bloody details of how a who-done-it
Is done are laid bare.
The author divides mystery fic.
ton into four categories the de.
tective story, the horror story, the
adventure mystery. and the char.
acter or literary mystery novel. He
devotes short chapters to an analy-
sis Of each Of these current elassi'
fieations. Then he points out that
the fact Of murder presupposes q
corpse, q murderer, a motive,
m cans. opportunity and a place.
Miss Rodell also goes thoroughly
into the all important corpse. She
diSsects il down 10 the broken
thumbnail. The amount of reader.
feeling permitted for the corpse Is
weighed. The disposition Of the
body is considered. Is the fact oil
death 10 be concealed? Is. the