davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1953-02-22
The Singular Preference
BY Peter Quennell. Viking,

ny CGCA 0kuC4A4ACA1" ChCiCy,
For connoisseurs of literary
criticism, here is a collection
of 28 well-modulated, grace
fully written essays about
singular preferences" of many
obscure, and some famous lit
erary figures. Almost invari-
ably they open with an aphor-
ism. Example: "a snob is not
infrequently a human being
who, beneath the public pa
rade of one form of happiness,
attempts to conceal the grati-
f1cation he derives from an
other" Mr.. Quennell, like
Hopkins, delights in the
counter, original, spare,
strange" He prefers to study
people as they are revealed in
their memoirs. although he is
particularly Illuminating about
Defoe, who in MOL Flanders"
first gave expression to "the
passion for reSpectability."
When he studies the lions
1t is often in terms Of
their limitations as revealed
in minor works. One of the
most successful entries is an
appreciation of a sergeant of
Napoleon'S army who wrote
with a curious mixture of
nostalgia and horror of the re-
treat from Moscow. In time,
the essays go from the Eliza
bethan to the modern. The
fact that they are all of uni
form length detracts some
what. The felicitouS style
never falterS.
Evening star., 1953-02-22

go with her husband at the
owners urgent request. She
was the only human being in
existence who could cope with
his terrible temper. Many a
crewman on a whaler well
coined her tart interference.
BY far the most interesting
chapters relate to Jane Worth,
who suffered from seasickness
and inflicted her moods and
whimS on the whole crew of
the Gazelle. We see Jane
through the jaundiced eyes of
a young fourth mate, from
whom she once snatched a
lamp as he was writing. But
then one day he saw her bend
ing over a cradle holding two
dolls and he began to under
stand.
Womon Navigator
In contrast to the petulant
Jane. however, was the stall
wart Caroline Mayhem (an
ancestress of one of the
authors. Caroline nursed the
whole crew through smallpox
and when in the boiling wastes
of the Pacific her husband
was stricken, navigated the
ship. And Lucy Smith of the
Nautilus made a home of the
cramped captains cabin, with
her organ and her sewing
machine. Her daughter Laura,
a page of whose diary has
been included, learned her les
sons on the deck and her son
Prescott had a lovely sea-
going swing.
Whaling Wives" is sympa-
thetic and Illuminating side
light on the once great marine
industry. Henry Beetle Hough,
co-editor of the lively Vine
yard Gazette, has written in
his usual ripping style. His
collaboration, Emma Mayhem
Whiting, died before the book
was completed.
Evening star., 1953-02-22

- - WV pC'cV"
The web of intrigue is in
tricate and the suspense very
BODYBUILDING. Nor does it
explode in one of those salts
flying scenes where good people
and bad people confront each
other and one set is routed.
A few malicious items in the
paper, a little loose talk care
fully planted and it's all over.
The sombreness of the end
ing and the absence of her
usual slick cops-and-robbers
technique might make you
think that Miss Machines was
attempting a psychological
novel about a possessive hus-
band rather than an adventure
story. 1t hasn't quite the
depth for that, though.
The Washington scene is
nicely done. There is a pair
OF subordinate young lovers
who are sympathetic and the
dialogue is good. It's
transitional performance by
Miss Machines.
IN. MEG.
Evening star., 1953-02-22
Women's S Craft Show

A joint exhibition of two
women's craft groups from the
Washington area opened last
Sunday in the gallery of the
American Institute of Archi-
tects, 1735 New York avenue
NV, to remain through next
Sunday. The Cherry Tree De-
Signers are exhibiting original
silk screen and block print de-
signs for textiles, and the Ce-
ramic Guild of Bethesda is
displaying ceramic sculpture
and pottery.
The Cherry Tree Designers
organization is directed by
Lyn Egbert, long a faculty
member of the Abbott Art
School. Mrs. Egbert is a ver-
Satile print maker honored
last october with a solo ex-
hibition of wood and linoleum
block prints in the Division of
Graphic Arts gallery, Smith
sonian Building.
More than 40 exhibits Of
materials hand-printed by silk
screen or block printing meth
odS compose the Cherry Tree
display. The designs are in a
free-brush technique similar
in some ways to the Chinese or
Japanese approach; however.
the Cherry Tree Designers
show considerable variety in
the finished products.
The Ceramic Guild of Be-
thesda has a membership of
80. Audrey Hayden, a WE'LL
known Washington potter.
president of the Kiln Club a
few years ago. is the guilds
instructor in pottery.
Evening star., 1953-02-22
Biography of
Hitler Draws
Sharp Image
Hitler: A Study in Tyranny

Hitler: A Study in Tyranny
BY Alan Bullock.
(HGrper;; $6.)
Reviewed by Belmont Fories
At the peak of Nazi Ger
many's successes, Adolf Hit
ler's word was law over an
area comparable only with
Napoleon's greatest conquests.
His will, and his alone. de-
cided the fate of millions.
How did an obscure Aus
trian painter acquire such
power? Mr.. Bullock, an Ok
ford historian who was a BIC
correspondent during World
War II, has written this first
full biography of Hitler in his
search for an answer.
There is too much of the ir-
rational in Hitler to admit of
a fully rational explanation.
A man without roots, admit
ting no loyalties. his chief
asset, as Mr.. Bullock sees him,
was a lust for power unin-
hibited by any moral scruples
and an intuitive skill in han
ding men amounting almost
to political genius.
Hitler's ideas were entirely
unoriginal-the StOck-in-trade
Of the anti-Semitic and ma
tionalistic gutter-press of his
youthful days in Vienna. His
originality lay in his grasp of
how to create a mass move
ment as the basis for taking
over a modern state and re-
molding it to his own evil
design.
In Germany, Smarting under
it's defeat in World War I,
Hitler found a ready field for
his talents. The diScontentS
he exploited, his pursuit of un-
limited power. his exaltation Of
will over reason and conscience,
his assertion of an arrogant
racial superiority. his contempt
for the rights of others, all
have deep roots in German
history.
With a mixture of calcula-
tion and fanaticism, Hitler
cultivated the myth of Der
Fuehrer, the man with a mis-
sion. In the end, the victim
of his own propaganda, he at
tempted to drag Germany
down with him in a nihilistic
orgy of obstruction.
Mr.. Bullock's book is COM
prehenSive lit runs to 776
pages, yet highly readable. It
is based firmly on the record
secret German archives, the
voluminous Nuremberg trials
report, diaries. biographies,
even Nazi newsreels and re-
cordings of Hltler's speeches.
Evening star., 1953-02-22
! and Ny True Love

Deft as ever, Helen Mac
Innes sketches in the plight of
nice civilized people trying to
cope with ruthless totalitar-
ians. This time, they don't do
too well.
The setting is Washington,
the theme, the Communist
crossed love of beautiful Syl-
via Pleydell, wife of an icy
State Department official, and
Jan Brovic, a CzechoSlovakian
anti-Soviet who has maneu-
vered to be sent back to
Washington and Sylvia. Sylvia
believes Jan when he tells her
he has played along with the
Red conquerors of his coun-
try just long enough to reclaim
her love and to win freedom
for himself and his family.
But Payton Pleydell, who
tricked Sylvia into staying
with him once before and the
idiocy of the fellow travellers
who drift through his George
town home are more than a
match for the desperate lovers.
Evening star., 1953-02-22
Crime
By Miriom Gutenberg

Invisible Red. BY Maude
Parker. Rinehart & Co.;
$2.50.) /.
Was the long-missing Anne
Douglass a willing spy for the
Soviet or a helpless pawn in a
deadly game? American born.
she and her parents had been
behind the Iron Curtain ior
years and yet Russia was sus-
piciouSly willing to release her.
Anne'S own behavior taxed the
loyalty of those who loved her.
Secret plans, fellow travellers
and suspect refugees fit neatly
into this solid tale of counter
espionage.
Widows Mite. BY Elizabeth
Sanxay Holding. (Simon &
SchuSter; $2.50)
Inner Sanctunl.
Like damsels in distress in
variably do, lilly started ly-
ing the minute police asked
her a question. She had given
her rich cousin the sleeping
pill that turned out to be
lethal. but she wouldn't think
of telling the truth. Since the
other characters also lie, it's
a few days and one sudden
death later before the police
get it all Strengthened out.
The denouement is no more
satisfactory than the rest of it.
The Crimson Clue. BY
George Harmon Coke. CAL
fred A. Knopf, Inc; $2.50.)
Photographer Kent Muir
dock. hired to take candid
shots of a society wedding,
stumbleS over a corpse in an
upstairs closet. He takes a
picture of that, too, but film
and corpse disappear before he
gets around to confiding in the
police. A page from the brides
past obviously has something
to do with the missing corpse,
but family pride alone would
hardly account for all the may
hem. Blackmail and various
types of ambition figure prom
lnently in this slick Murdock
adventure.
Black Widow. BY Patrick Quen-
tin. (Simon & SchuSter; $2.5O)
Inner S0nctum.
Peter Duluth, theatrical pro-
ducer and ever-loving husband,
enters into a friendly relation
ship with a pixie-type young
lady who wants to write. When
she is found hanging from his
chandelier, the world-includ-
ing his wife and the police
rates him at least a philanderer
and. at most a murderer.
Evening star., 1953-02-22

The whaling wives who
went to sea with their hus-
bands needed all their cour-
age. Besides the ordinary
hazards of ocean life and
whale-chaSing, they faced
plague, mutiny and homesick-
ness. They bore their children
at the nearest port. among
strangers, sometimes attended
by filthy, frightening natives.
But all this to them counted
less than the separation
which might keep their hus-
bands away for as long as
four years.
From century -old letters and
journals Emma Mayhem
Whiting and Henry Beetle
Hough have pieced together a
fascinating and often moving
picture of the distaff side of
the most romantic era in
American sailing. The ladies,
except for Mary Carlin Cleave-
land, an Australian, we're
Yankees-and for the most
part the most intrepid that
this hardy, humorous matter
of-fact breed could produce.
Mrs. Cleaveland, it may be
noted, chose to brave the
Pacific rather than her formi-
dable Martha'S Vineyard
mother-in-law.
Bizorre Adventures
The adventures that these
RuthS underwent were often
times as bizarre as the treas
ures they brought back to their
Edgartown parlors from far
away ports. Abigail Jernegan
was the first white woman to
spend a night on Japanese
soil. Ethelinda Lewis, when
her husbands ship stuck fast
in the ice barrier of the Arctic,
was put off in frigid waters in
an open boat. Charity Norton,
who used to boast in her old
age Of having been around
Cape Horn six times, used to
Evening star., 1953-02-22


The title is derived from an
exchange in Pride and Pref
udice."
do you prefer reading to
cards?" said ne. THAT is
rather singular" M. MEG.
As Murderers. BY Craig Rice.
(Simon & Schuster; So
This is popular era for true
crime collections and Craig
Rice has produced one of the
blggest-at least in the number
of cases. Her As accounts of
murder the country over, in
Guiding the 1945 Corens case
in Bethesda, stick to the facts.
M. o.
Evening star., 1953-02-22

rigid caste system Of the re-
gion, kind to him. But he re-
fuses to take the stand. In
vain the expensive Memphis
lawyer engaged by Williams
white roommate at the East
ern college. pleads with him
to tell his story, whatever it
is. William has his reasons.
He knows, too, that nothing he
might say would make the
slightest difference. It is only
m the latter pages of his mar
rative that we get an inkling
of what happened, and then
not too clearly. perhaps be-
cause William himself has only
dim idea of why he was &C
cuSed.
Meanwhile, during this last
night. Williams agile mind
explores his whole life, the
things he has seen, the in
f1uences he has felt. He is
above maudlin self-pity. He
tries to read some meaning
into life and death. He pom
ders over PHILOSOPHERS he has
absorbed and is stirred by old
scenes and the strains of great
music that flow through his
memory.
Here, then, is no cheap ap-
peal to racial hatred, no vul-
gar parading of prejudice and
injustice. It is all implicit, but
the author has assumed he is
addressing readers of some in
telligence. There is no descent
to the obscene, so common in
contemporary realistic novels.
The writing often is moving.
At times there are long, in
volved, parenthetical sentences
reminiscent of william Faulk-
ner, but on the whole Mr.. Low
rey has written in his own way,
clearly if not too concisely.
Watch Night" is an. artistic
novel.
It is interesting to learn that
the author is a sixth-genera-
ton native of Mississippi, edu-
Gated at Mississippi State Col
lege, the University of Missis-
sippi and Yale. Another fact
about him is worth emphasiz-
ing-he is a white man.
Evening star., 1953-02-22
Book Manuscripts Invited

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Evening star., 1953-02-22
News of Artists and Exhibitions
George Washington University Has Second Annual
Exhibit of Woshinqtoniuno Including Rare Items

of Leonard Maurer's best work
is in his large one-man show
at the Corcoran. Neverthe-
less. I liked his Temple" in
a burning orange setting.
Kenneth Noland's intricate
arabesques with their mad
dening titles, should be worked
out in fabrics. Morris Louis
distractions look like exuber-
antly planned accidents. Laura
Douglas, too. shows abstrac-
tions, one of which, Sisters. /"
includes recognizable forms.
A single large stoneware
vase by Audrey Hayden reminds
visitors that the Workshop Art
Center also offers instruction
in ceramics.
Evening star., 1953-02-22

Merely to outline the theme
Of this striking first novel,
even to summarize the story,
would give an entirely wrong
impression.
1t would sound like a SenSa-
tional, Sordid chronicle, writ
ten to sell because it would
promise to indulge that long
ing for the morbid and the
shocking that turks somewhere
in every one. But the novel
is nothing of the sort. It's
theme is only a springboard.
Actually it is a philosophical
novel, written with clarity and
depth of feeling.
But here, with William Ed
wards telling his own story, is
the way the book opens: "It
is almost over now. When the
clock strikes 5, shortly after
daylight, I am going to die.
They are going to kill me. With
the lucky ones (Some unlucky
ones, too, perhapS) who have
managed to gain admission
sitting there looking on, they
will clamp electrodes to my
wrists and ankles, fasten a
black hood over my head so
that I cannot see; and while
the clock is striking they'll
throw a switch, and all the
force of a 50-kilowatt genera
tor will tear through me like a
bolt Of fire ID"
Gifted Youth
Then you learn that William
Edwards is a Negro and that
he has been convicted of a
crime worse, in the eyes Of his
fellow MiSSissippians, than
murder-rape. You soon find
out that this 23-year-old youth
has been to war and then gone
to an exclusive university in
New England, under the CT
bill, and has graduated; that
he is a very remarkable young
man, Intellectual, artistic. He
came home to the small town
that summer. for the first time
in years, to visit his mother,
who is cook for the Mayf1elds,
an important family. He in
tended to go to Chicago soon
to teach, Meanwhile, though
the MayfieldS we're nice to him
and a little proud of him, he
was still, as he knew, the son
of their servant, a. Negro in
Mississippi, and he put on no
airs. He helped his mother;
white aproned, he served
meals.
But now he stands con-
demned for attacking Louise
Mayfield, the 18-year-old
daughter Of the family he grew
up serving and respecting. She
has testified. Her story was, to
put it mildly, amazing. She told
the jury that the crime oc-
CURED while she and William
were walking in the woods
(nothing unusuaD, but this hap
pened a month before she re-
vealed it. She kept silent all
that time. Shame, she ex-
planned, and reluctance to see
William, who was almost part
of her family, executed, per-
haps lynched. The jury,
Scotch-IriSh Mississippians, be-
lieved Louise because she was
white and William was colored.
Aside from the girls pre-
posterouS story, you feel from
the first that William is inno-
cent. Obviously he is not the
sort Of boy who ever would do
such a thing, particularly to
a member of the family who
had always been, within the
Evening star., 1953-02-22
Seven Women

Seven Women
Paintings by seven woman
artists of the Washington area
are on view at the Dupont
Theater gallery through next
Sunday. All are familiar
through their frequent partici-
patton in group shows and
most of them have had solo
exhibitions here. Nevertheless,
it is interesting to see their
work together, although the
only pigeonhole in which they
all fit is that of gender.
Each artist is represented
with two or three paintings.
The range is from conservative
work by Winifred Noble of
Baltimore to distractions by
Sheila Cowan and Mary Or
wen. Miss Mobiles two paint
ings have theme contrast, one
depicting Baltimore rooftops,
seen from her studio window;
the other, February" being
simple landscape with leaf
less trees, patches of green in
dicating the faint promise Of
coming spring.
Barbara Burton's paintings
are the most feminine: Win
ter Sum-" STARS in the Tree
tops" and Growing Patterns"
all of them dealing with trees,
flowers, tapestry of foliage, all
handled with delicacy and
Sensitiveness and aspiring ver-
ticality.
Mary Snow, whose compre-
henSive retrospective exhibi-
ton is on view at the Colony,
is showing three at the Dupont,
the best of which lin my opin-
ion) Is THE Quarry" with it's
pyramidal shapes, vertical and
horizontal lines.
Sheila CoWan'S Train" a
semiabstraction, effec lively
conveys the feeling of speed.
Mary Orwen'S wv ashing
Dishes" also Semiabstract,
suggests the steamy haze some
of us feel envelopS us when
we are engaged in this bore
some chore.
I also liked Cora Lee Camp
bells harbor scene in simpli-
fed shapes and color scheme;
Margaret Keshishian'S little
still life and Norma Mazo's
industrious fishermen.
Evening star., 1953-02-22

GdC1l - u d y, GCOISC
Washington University holds
an exhibition honoring the
man whose name it bears.
This happy idea was inaugu-
rated last year with Portraits
of Interiors Associated With
President George Washington"
by Ruth Perkins Stafford. Now
the second of the series is on
view: Prints and paintings
from Mount Vernon, lent by
the Mount Vernon Ladies AS
Sociation. (Through February
Nearly go items are included.
Some were contemporary with
George Washington, the earliest
dated IT'S; others are con-
temporary with us, and the
majority cover the century and
a half between.
Every one who loves his own
home must love Mount Ver-
non, where George Washington
spent his happiest years. Ac-
quaintance with his diaries
and letters convinceS one that
no man sacrificed his home
more reluctantly than Wash
ington, for so many years. first
to win the Revolutionary War,
then to guide the infant
Nation.
Mount Vernon has intrigued
artists of every generation, and
its likeness in oils. water colorS
and prints compose half the
exhibition. Many of the prints
are familiar. Portraits of
Washington himself, by con-
temporary and later artists,
and genre pictures, comprise
the other half.
Not all of these items are
works of art, but all, one may
be sure, were done with en-
thusiasm, and many with af-
fection. A foremost. exhibit,
from the antiquarian stand
point, is a 64-by-69-inch en-
broidered portrait of Gen.
Washington, made by the
women of Flushing, N. Y,
about 1895. on loan from Yale
University to the Mount
Vernon Ladies' Association,
Esthetically speaking, this is a
misuse of materials. But it,
as we'll as all the other works
on view, bears witness to the
widespread admiration for
Washington in his own day,
and the continuing veneration
OF this great American whose
birth we celebrate today.
British Humor
"Tell me what a man laughs
at, and I'll tell you what he
lS," one may say, taking liber-
ties with a familiar aphorism,
The exhibition of drawings
from Punch. the 111-year-
ola British humor magazine.
on view at the Library of Con-
gress through March 13, should
prove an excellent gauge.
Punch'S humor is civilized
humor, and it is very, very
funny. These drawings will
elicit gentle, appreciative
laughs, not the loud outlaws
aroused in some people by
watching a prat fall or a we'll
aimed cuStard pie.
The people who laugh at
these drawings from Punch are
the same people who enjoy the
drawings in the New Yorker
and the Saturday Evening Post,
to mention but two of our own
publications which offer nu-
merous cartoons. The people
who laugh at Punch know
something about the state of
the world and what nations
and individuals think of each
other; they know something
about what customs we have
in common, about the nation
al British character, about in
terror decoration, about sports
and hobbies, about a host of
other things. In short, people
who laugh at Punch have a
fairly wide acquaintance with
our milieu.
Facts about this exhibition
have already been published
in the news columns. Actually,
one doesn't have to know any
Evening star., 1953-02-22
Exploits of Women
Who Went Whaling
Reviewed by Mory McGrory
Whaling Wives

BY Emma Mayhem Whiting and Henry Beetle Hough.
(HouQhton, MifIin Co; $780,
Evening star., 1953-02-22
Books in Review
Artistic First Novel Written
Around Sordid Criminal Case

Watch Night
BY Walter B. Lowrey. IScrtbner's; $500
Reviewed by corter Brooke Jones
Evening star., 1953-02-22
By Florence S. Berrymon

BY Florence ). berTymon
thing about it; all that is nee
essary is to go to the main
Library building, ground floor,
north gallery. and look at the
drawings. They make up a
lighthearted bundle from
Britain" that adds a note of
gayety in a harsh world, and
browns out for a little while
the loud recriminations which
regretfully are traded across
the Atlantic, by us and our
best friends.
Evening star., 1953-06-15
News Of Music
By Elena de Soyn

The sonata recital by Wallace
Mann, flutist, and Emerson
Meyers, pianist, in the Phillips
Gallery yesterday afternoon. was
the first time in years that Mr..
Mann gave himself a real oppor-
tunity to be heard in a combina-
ton worthy of his talent.
Screened by other instruments
in an orchestra or smaller en-
sembles he had remained in the
shadow too long. Such playing
as was heard yesterday lends
stature to the flute and reveals
it's full potentialities as a solo
instrument.
Christian Phillip Emmanuel
Bach's unaccompanied Sonata
in A Minor" served Mr.. Mann
as a perfect medium of express
Evening star., 1953-06-15
Mann Distinguishes Himself
In Recital at Phillips Gallery

sion. It brought into play the
purity Of his tone, his control of
nuance, his knowledge of form
and of phrasing, without which
a perfect performance on any
instrument is unthinkable. His
art was further demonstrated in
his playing with Mr.. Meyers of
Hindemith's and Piston's SON
atas for flute and piano.
In these Mr.. Meyers proved
himself an ideal collaboration. To
make the peculiar modern part
palatable and articulate requires
a great deal more than the
ability to play the notes. His
was not an easy assignment. Yet
he found a way of merging the
independent piano parts into
that Of the flute, and to blend
them Sympathetically with the
Evening star., 1953-06-15

latter in the expression Of moods.
There was a great deal more
to express in Hindemith's work
than in that of Piston whose
melodic line lacks the natural
ness and the unlimited expanse
of Hindemith. In addition to
the resources at his command
Hindemith had definitely some
thing to say. The artists caught
it and carried the message to the
audience. The work was received
with more than an ordinary
measure Of enthusiasm.
Bach's Sonata No. 1 in B
Minor" presented as an intro
ductory number, had all the
f1uency and solidity, as to en-
semble, of which two sterling