Evening star., 1953-10-14

instance, CnaG your 1TlenQS AI
30 per cent pro. house, so per
cent con house. The former tell
you that you will be happy, the
latter that you are stark daft.
They are in accord on one
point, however. When they hear
you have bought house, they
all demand to know why. It
is this question that has in
spired the new saying, which is:
80 we will have room for
the collected works of George
Jean Nathan"
This leads into the ramifica-
tions of Mr.. Nathan'S effect
upon the national real estate
market which is an effect that
Mr.. Nathan himself probably
never considered. Nor Knopf,
his publisher. A conversation in
which you can use the sentence,
"Nor Knopf" is almost its own
justification. Brought of we'll
try it yourself - it impreSseS
both utterer and listener.
X X n
But, to get back to Mr.. Nathan.
He is a prodigious writer, as any
writer has to be, to force collec-
tors out of house and home.
He undoubtedly has written
more words, columns, magazine
articles and books, on the drama
than any one who ever lived.
There was evidence a couple Of
years ago that the tide Of Nathan
books on the theater had begun
TO ebb. This was implicit in his,
and Knopf's abandonment. Of the
Nathan "Theater Book Of the
Year"
The theater of that year, 1851
%, was not worth a book, Mr..
Nathan concluded, and his sigh
Of relief was no greater than
that Of his readers.
This. however, merely lulled
every one, Nathan, Knopf, and
the addicts into a false sense Of
security. What happened was a
book twice the size of the regu-
lar volume, this one called 1.-THE
World of George Jean Nathan"
This world of Nathan's is a big
one and only a big book would
cover it.
In order to give people
chance to read this, much Of it
extracted from earlier and more
condensed works, Nathan granted
his patrons rather a longer in
termission than usual.
Now, this intermission draws
to an end. Mr.. Nathan has an
other book, a little thinner than
the last but demanding of shelf
space. It is not a "Theater Book
OF the Year" Mr.. Nathan stands
pat on the 1952-53 season being
no more worthy on that score
than the one which preceded 1t.
He has found still a new dis
guiSe for this one. He calls it.
The Theater of the SOS" a col
lection OF fascinating fragments
OF Nathan reviews and opinions.
which will be in the bookstalls
next week in time for distrait
Christmas shoppers.
1t leaves man with no choice
Dut to get a larger place.
X X X X
It does something else. It
raises conjecture about Mr..
Nathan'S own relation to the
works Of George Jean Nathan.
He has lived for decades in a
moderate sized room in the Hotel
Royalton on West 44th street in
New York. The question is:
How? What does he do about
his endless own Books and the
apparently thousands of others
he receives and reads? Burn
them? Perish the thought.
Throw them at passerby in 44th
street? Perish that thought, too.
1t would seem that Mr.. Nathan
owes his followers an explana-
ton on this score. Another book
possibly. He can't go on forever
forcing people to move to find
space for his books while he sits
writing, decade after decade. in
o moderate sized Royalton room.
y \ r X
M1DWEEK MEMOS: An ex,llt-
ant wire from Loew's pubIiclst.
Jack Foxe, proclaimS that pros
psrity is just around the corner
-. The corner Of 14th and r
streets Where, he reports,
The Robe" is crossing S63, COO
weekly and "Mogambo down
10 street is Shattering Palace
r 'ordS with $4,000 It is
trL- that movie premieres are
invita tional affairs, In one de-
gree or another But those
sponsoring the opening Of "The