davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1961-12-24

States Government is so
vigilant. In one batch, we
got a Christmas card we had
mailed abroad returned for
insufficient postage and
a friendly, heartwarming
printed notice from the In
ternal Revenue Service in
forming us that If we didn't
fork over the $25.88 which
has been in dispute between
us. they would attach my
salary.
We cannot. Of course,
blame Mr.. Day. for this sort
of thing. 1t does produce a
rather forlorn feeling. how
ever, akin to that experienced
when having waited in the
rain for Is minutes for a
bus, one hoves into view,
only to be labelled, mot in
Service "
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Rich PostureIond for
The Lover of Words

ciful aSsonantal elaboration
Of SOCK a blow. influenced
by 'doxology,' regarded as
final" No history of the ex-
preston so long" is known.
This phrase, by the way,
shows that long, continuous
use does not necessarily make
a slang word a cliche, or in
any way Objectionable. In
testinal fortitude," on the
other hand, witty and strik-
ing. perhaps, at first, is made
an abomination by over
familiarity.
Cheese it," means "be
quiet" but previously &c.
1922 run away" In Chevy
Chase, D. C. &c. 1919 it
meant run away" and moth
ing else. The meaning Of
"so-so" you will find is not
well. fair to middling,"
Cheers" is "a colloquial ex-
preston of deep satisfaction
or friendly approval" Quite
true, but I have never heard
it except as a preamble to
whisky or similar blessings.
+ = y
Many words have an in
credible number of nom
standard meanings. Kick"
for example, has the follow
ing among many others (al-
though "kicker." something
that is valueless but retained
for the purpose of deception,
is not given: "the fashion,
vogue" "a sixpence," "a COM
plant" ito be lucky" ("have
the kick!D, ito castigate
severely" "to ask for money"
("kick for the boot"), ito die"
mot only kick the bucket"
but also "kick out~ DR.. Part
ridge gives ito die" as the
meaning of "kick up one's
heels" a curiosity for Ameri-
cans, to whom the term
m ans carefree frivolity.
death being indicated by
turn up ones toes" While
"kick in the pants" is noted,
the extremely common "kick
in" is missing. There are
dozens Of other infections
and meanings Of "kick."
That you sometimes cannot
find your favorite slang in
this dictionary shows only
how ephemeral and local pop
ular speech is, and in no way
discredits the book. The only
fault I have with DR.. Part
ridges dictionary. is that
there are relatively few ex-
amples of the actual use Of
the slang terms given. Since
use is even more impor-
tant than definition, in slang
as we'll. as standard English,
the dictionary, already very
fat, could we'll have been
twice the size.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Other Books of the Week in Brief Review

and Schuster: $4,000 If
you must gamble, this
major treatise gives you
every aspect of gambling
at games of chance and
skill. You'll have to fur
nish your own rabbits foot.
THE ART OF THINKING.
BY Dagobert D. Runes.
philosophical Library;
$2,750 An analytical ex-
animation of the role emo
tional elements play in the
formulation of logical
propositions.
MY DEAREST POLLY. BY
Frances Norton Mason.
Garrett and MaSsie;
So Letters of Chief JUS
tice John Marshall to his
Wife-1779-1831.
GOD HAD A DOG: The Folk
lore of the Dog. BY Maria
Leach. CRutgers; So The
life story of the dog from
many cultures all over the
world.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Toys and Tuxes

Looking on the bright side,
as one is obligated to do on
this week end, it could be
said that one side effect of
the book would be to give
the reader the feeling he is
never alone. The IRIS is al
ways with you. If you are a
tycoon. a truck driver or a
travelling salesman, if you are
at home or abroad, at work
or at play. they are there.
No one is too young or too
old. There is a section enti-
tied. IF Your Child Works
for You" 1t ends on the in
evitable note: THE child
must report the wages in his
income tax"
There is a foreword from
Mortimer NJ. CAplin, the
Commissioner of Internal
Evening star., 1961-12-24

the care of a hatcher Of
pearls.
Zhenya is acutely sensitive
to everything she experiences;
for the reader she becomes a
very part Of the life she ex-
periences. The bewilderment
and shame of puberty. the
Ural Mountains, the icy river
Kama, a factory-building,
which she sees one night
across the river and cares
little to know more about.
when everything was ex-
planned to her, life ceased to
be a poetic whim; it billowed
around her like a gloomy,
dark tale and becam e
hard, factual prose. /"
If Zhenya is interested in
life. Life, too. says Pasternak.
is interested in her: Life
let's but few people in on
what it is doing to them. -.
To ensure that no dead
branches remain in the soul
to hinder its growth, and
that man does not inject his
Stupidities into the creation
of his immortal being, many
things are provided to divert
his trivial curiosity from life.
which does not like to work
in his presence and avoids
his scrutiny in every possible
way. Among these diversions
are all genuine religions, all
generally accepted ideas and
all human prejudices, includ-
ing the most brilliant and in
teresting psychology"
Through these diversions Of
life Zhenya Luvers' immortal
being is created as concretely
and as completely as any liv-
ing character of modern fic-
ton.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Short Stories
By q Lyricist
SUCCESSFUL LOVE. By Del.

SUCCESSFUL LOVE. BY Del
more Schwartz. (Corinth;
$4.50.)
Any work of fiction by a
poet and critic of Delmore
Schwartz's stature is a well
come literary event. The
present collection is doubly
welcome, since few writer's
practice the elusive art of
short story writing as sue
cesSfully. The impact of in
nocence on the modern world
is the theme that runs
through these eight stories
and the author explores it
in varying moods: With Won
derful satire in the title
story and in "An American
. Fairy Tale; with humor
in "A Colossal Fortune;
with tenderness in THE
Gift" Even in his less
successful nom ents Mr..
Schwartz's penetration into
the problems of coping with
the Goth century is both re-
warding and reassuring.
r. H.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
GENERAL
YOUR RETIREMENT DOL

YOUR RETIREMENT DOL
LAR: An investment policy
for retired people. BY
Walter L. Miller. (Walker,
Evans & CogSwell, Charles
ton, S. c.; $4) Conserva-
tive and sound advice to
help older investors cope
with initiation without un-
due risk. Mr.. Miller, a
former executive officer of
the Commodity Exchange
Authority of the Agricul-
ture Department, and also
an official in the Com
merce Department, now
lives in Deland, Fla.
DICTIONARY OF AMERI-
CAN HISTORY. Supple
ment One, 1910 = 1860.
(Scribner's; $12.50O This
volume covers in alphabet
cal sequence the trends,
policies, events and ideas
over the last twenty years.
SCARNE'S MPLETE
GUIDE TO GAMBLING.
By John Scarne. (Simon
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Morris West
Masters Art
Of Suspense
DAUGHTER OF SCIENCE.

OAOOl EN- OF SCAENSE.
BY Morris L. West. Nor
row; $685.
A silent young woman re-
turns to her native village
after a long absence and
empties the contents of a
revolver into the Mayor.
High vengeance is the
daughter of deep silence"
says the superscription of the
book, and vengeance of a high
order is at stake. Sixteen
years earlier the dead man,
then a partisan leader, had
shot the girls mother as an
alleged traitor.
Anna Albertini's trial in
Siena becomes the catalyst
that unlockS violent reactions
in the family of Italy's most
renowned lawyer, DR.. Ascolini.
His Son-in-law and very
junior associate, Carlo Rienzi,
undertakes the girls defense
as a means of proving his
mettle both to his father-in-
law and to his chronically
unfaithful wife, Valeria. Into
this high-strung household
comes Peter Landon, a guest
who is. by profession, exactly
what the situation calls for
"a psychiatrist. BY the time
he has wound up his visit,
poor Peter could use one
himself.
Although the reader may
occasionally share the
doctors understandable urge
to see the last of his wacky
hosts. the story has its pc
culiar destinations and the
progress of the trial is eX-
citing drama. (The authors
adaptation for the stage is
currently running on Broad
Way.)
Mr.. West has come a long
way since an early novel
which solved the hero'S ro-
mantle problems in the last
chapter by killing off his
unwanted wife in a plane
crash. No convenient deus
ex machina solves anything
for the tortured Ascolini
household. least of all the
trial of Anna Albertini.
RUTH HUME.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Air Force Band
Top Bross Tells
Story Of His Team
THE BIG SERENADE. BY

Col. George S. Howard.
(The Instrumentalist Co.;
$4.95.O
It's one serenade after an
other as Col. Howard recalls
his experiences and tours as
leader of the United States
Air Force Band. 1t is one of
the great musical organiza =
tions Of the Nation, one of
four major service bands here
whose concerts on the Capitol
steps and at the Watergate
have become a summertime
tradition
Col. Howard has been with
the band since it began at
Boiling Field with only %
men in the year after Pearl
Harbor. The Air Force was
a part Of the Army and he
was only a captain. When
the war ended, he was pre-
vailed upon to forego return
ing to his old job as band
master and musical director
at Pennsylvania State Uni
versity and to remain on duty
with the Air Force.
Before long, the musical
aggregation grew to an 85-
piece symphonic band, also
operating as a 90-piece SYM
phony orchestra, a Gilman
drum and bugle corps, and a
25-voice glee club known as
the Singing Sergeants.
Col. Howard writes mostly
an anecdoted history of the
travels of the band on five
continents as rowing ambas-
sadors of good will. Oft-times
large and enthusiastic crowds
showed up for these con-
certS-as many as 100000 or
more at a time.
It's no wonder that critics,
diplomats and peoples
of many tongues have hailed
the work of Col. Howard and
the other service bands who
have made visiting tours.
One such diplomat said of
the Air Force Band: Il find
it practically impossible to
enviSion any other American
product which, when pre-
sented for the consideration
of foreign nationals, could
meet with such an over
whelming unanimity of &C
claim"
CHARLES McALEER.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
FICTION

THE MOON MAN. BY An
drew ]. Steiger. (Philoso-
phical Library; 5000 A
novel based on the problems
of human survival in the
world of today and the
future.
THE LISA BASTIAN. BY
James Wood. vanguard;
$3.50 A novel of espio-
mage at sea.
THE JOEY ADAMS JOKE
DICTIONARY. BY Joey
Adams. (Citadel; $4.95D
Jokes in alphabetical order
so if you want to say, "A
funny thing happened to
me on the way to the
office -" all you need do
is look under A for automo-
Dlle, l Tor Cra11lc, or y 1or
office.'
COMM UNIST REVOLU-
TIONARY WARFARE:
The Vietminh in Indo-
china. BY George K. Tan
ham. (Praeger; So A
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Another Poet
Turns to Fiction
THE LAST SUMMER. B,

THE LAST SUMMER. BY
Elizabeth Gum. Morton;
$3.950
Another poet, Elizabeth
Gum, turns her gifts of in
sight and imagery to the
uses of fiction. The story of
this first novel is deceptively
simple. The heroine, looking
Evening star., 1961-12-24

IOLCSu W IcCdIlI anu cry
have Sinned," in one of the
most blatant examples of
authoritarian thought-con-
troll since the Inquisition in
Inundated Calico.
The publication in English
Of one of Pasternak's earlier
novels, The Adolescence of
zhenya Luvers," will allay all
doubts, for it Is a work of
great power and extraordi-
nary pictorial evocation. The
broad canvas of Or. Zhi-
vago" disappears in favor of
the engraver's copperplate;
"Zhenya Luvers" is a very
short book, and its subject,
the awakening Of a 13-year-
old girl, though worked
out with great intricacy. is
simple and uncomplicated. 1t
was published in Russia in
1925.
The story of Zhenya, who
when the book opens, has
just passed from childhood to
adolescence, is told in a series
Of what Joyce called "epiph-
anies," short insights into
the physical world that for
mulate unique situations
sharply and accurately. Pas
ternak was primarily a poet,
not only an original creator
but also a translator of many
verse plays of Shakespeare,
Goethe. and Schiller. The
compactness and precision
of the poet carries over into
the work of the prose-writer.
Although the present trans
lation seems excellent, the
English reader is sad that he
Is denied the look and sound
of the original words, which
must have been selected with
Evening star., 1961-12-24
LATIN AMERICAN BOOKSHELF
Books Reflect Unrest
South of the Border

CUBA AND CASTRO. BY
Teresa Casuso. (Random
House, Inc; So
THE CUBAN STORY. BY
Herbert Matthews. George
Braziller, Inc; $4.50D
TRAGIC ISLAND. BY Irving
Peter Pflaum. prentice
Hall. Inc; $3.50
THE VOICE OF LATIN
AMERICA. BY William
Benton. CHarper & Broth
ers; $3.50
THE MAKING OF THE
GOOD NEIGHBOR POL
ICY. BY Bryce Wood.
columbia University Press;
$7.50D
President Kennedy's recent
trip South of the border and
our earlier discovery" that
all is not well in the land of
good neighbors are matched
by the bloSsoming number of
books about Latin America.
In one way or another they
all deal with the Cuban revo-
luton and the threat which
Fidel Castro and communism
pose to this turbulent hem
isphere.
One Of the most recent ad-
ditions is Teresa Casuso's
Cuba and Castro" (translated
from the Spanish by Elmer
GrosSberg) which is a highly
personalized account of Fidel
Castro-liberator and then
betrayer of Cuba. Miss Ca
suso writes from first-hand
experience. From 1856 when
she first met Castro in Mex
lean exile until her detection
from the Cuban delegation
at the United Nations in Oc-
tober, 1860. she was a trusted
member of the Castro en-
tourage.
In "The Cuban Story"
Herbert Matthews, contro-
verSial editorial writer and
correspondent of the New
York Times, defends what
ever part he played in bring
ing Fidel Castro to power.
While rightly pointing Out
many unpalatable truths
about previous United States
policy toward Cuba. Mr..
Matthews effort suffers from
two major defects:
First itN is overwritten
often repetitive. and obvious
~ suffers from too little
editing. and secondly Mr..
Matthews stern defense of
all he has written and said
about Fidel Castro and Cuba
leads to a tone of self
righteousness and arrogance
which alienates rather than
attracts the reader.
The Big Scoop
That having been said, let
1t also be said that Mr.. Mat
thews' basic thesis - once
Evening star., 1961-12-24
The Christmas Story

1t is, as we have said, not
a week end for reading. Still,
If anyone finds a quiet mo-
ment amid the festivities
there is for perusal a poign-
ant little book which exem-
plifies the spirit OF the
season. 1t is called "A MEN,
OR OF MARY ANN" by the
Dominican nuns who took
care of her. (Farrar, Straus
& Cudahy; $500 Flannery
O'Connor, the novelist of BIZ
zarre Southern life, edited
the "reminiscences of the sis
ters who watched over a child
who was brought to them
at the age Of 3, with six
months to live, and who dies
nine years later, having en-
riched and transformed the
lives Of the sisters and her
fellow patients at the Our
Lady of Perpetual Help Home
for mcurable Cancer.
Mary Ann was born a
Christian. She accepted pain,
sacrifice and suffering with
Christian fortitude. She loved
God and all his creatures.
Miss O'Connor, who resisted
the task of editing the manu-
script thrust upon her by the
sisters, points out that the
Dominican order was founded
by Rose, the daughter of Ma
thaniel Hawthorne, who
feared "the ice in his blood"
Mary Ann benefited from this
fear, and his daughters posi-
tive victory over it. They are,
Miss O'Connor points out, in
a direct line.
Stories Of pious children
tend to be false" she says.
Mary AIMS is not. 1t is like
the Christmas story itself,
triumphant.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
BOOKS IN REVIEW
Boris Posternok:
An Earlier Novel
BY DAY THORPE
Star Book Critic

THE ADOLESCENCE OF ZHENYA LUVERS novel by Boris
Pasternak Translated by Langnas CThe Philosophical
Library. Clothbound. $2.75 paperback, $1250
The political environment in which Dr. Zhivago made its
Englishlanguage appearance in 1858 people
wonder whether the appeal of the book entirely literary
or whether sympathy for and admiration Of the author
factors contributing to the novels The
become more less nsenstve to Russas bludgeon of
threats OF the largest bomb and perhaps mpeous to
counter for the largest bomb Shelters
but 1t is to credit that in this country there
universal resentment when artist hike PaSternak
Evening star., 1961-12-24
READING AND WRITING
New ak Book Dinns
Christmas Tree Liqhts
BY MARY McGRORY
Star staff Writer

1t really isn't much of week end for reading, for
writing either It's too late to send Christmas
cards. and too early for the Conscientious
start the thank-you notes.
The week end should perhaps not by without
sort Of salute to the Postmaster General j. Edward Day.
whose have carried the Christmas mail 1t will be hard
to back to the deliveries after the pamperngs
of the last few weeks The Sunday special particular
luxury although corruptng since the United
Evening star., 1961-12-24
TO BE REVIEWED

The following books will be re-
viewed on the Editorial Pose this
week:
MONDAY "christmos on the
American Frontier: 1900 1900" by
John {. Bouer. tcoxton Printers.)
WEDNEsDAY-"The History Of
Droodeostins in the United King
dom" by Aso Briggs. (oxford Uni
Versity Press.)
FRIDAY Stormy Possose: A
Personal History" by W. A. >Woy-
tinksy. Vanguard Press.)
Evening star., 1961-12-24

back from the vantage point
of hard-won adult wisdom,
relives the last summer of
her childhood, a holiday at
st. Tropez shadowed by her
own willful unpleasantness
and finally shattered by the
death of her father. Both the
unreason and the tragic re-
grets of adolescence are beau
tifully captured in these
backward glances of maturity.
R. HI.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
An Exciting
Adventure
In France
THE WAY TO THE LAM

1hE WAY ~ IHE Ian.
TERN. BY Audrey Erskine
Lindop. doubleday; $3.50
Nikita Khrushchev makes
pilgrimages to Lourdes more
often than humorous books
are written about the SAN
culinary French Revolution.
Yet, the prolific Miss Lindop
has managed a hilarious ac-
count of the adventures of
two merry Englishmen who
became entangled in the
Paris Of Marat and Robes
pierre at a time when heads
were rolling like summer
hailstones.
The essence Of her story is
that the masters of the gull
lotine, once they stopped
singing Ca Ira" and got or
ganized,, had themselves a
bureaucracy as immobilizing
as anything conceived by a
modern civil servant.
Along comes the handsome
scoundrel-hero, Roberts, a
strolling actor who has been
taught~ to pick pockets and
impersonate others by his
preceptor and manager,
Smith. This rascally pair flee
to France to escape the un-
lovely women who desire
them. as well as a murder
investigation, and Roberts
assumes two other identities.
AS the spirit moves him, he
is the ci-devant Vicomte de
Lambriere or the English
actor Anthony Buckland.
The Committee of General
Security wishes to decapitate
him as one entity and the
Committee of Public Safety
as the other. This adminiS-
trative tug of war between
the wearers of the tricolor
cockade keeps him alive for
the happy ending, as Miss
Erskine tells it, because each
committee feels obliged to
prove the other is wrong.
The plot thickens consid-
erably when Roberts lively
love life embroils him stimuli
taneously with his English
lady, a gamin he calls The
Puce and an aristocratic
nymp h ON aniac named
Marie-Clarice while he is be-
hind bars in a French prison.
His problems pale during
the mounting violence in
Paris as the Swiss guards are
massacred, the King and
Queen and countless others
are beheaded, the Tuileries
are degraded and the mobs
march many a guiltless one
off to be hanged on a street
lantern.
In the end, the engaging
hero makes a hair breadth
escape to England and the
reader finds him once again
an unwilling bridegroom-to-
be but plotting his next path
to freedom.
The work, a Book Of the
Month Club selection, is
carefully reSearched, exciting
and often side-splitting. 1t
may be just a little bit too
long.
JERRY OLEARY, IF.
Evening star., 1961-12-24
A DICTIONARY OF SLANG

A DICTIONARY OF SLANG
AND UNCONVENTIONAL
ENGLISH. New, Revised
and Enlarged Fifth Edition.
(By Eric Partridge. Mac
milan; $16.)
Since it first appeared in
1887. Partridge's Dictionary
Of Slang and Unconventional
English" has been the lead
ing book in its field and
one of the most delightful
pastures in which the lover
OF words can browse. 1t now
is published in a fifth edition,
enlarged by 100000 words,
with the main body of the
work and the supplement,
heretofore in two volumes,
combined in a single book of
1852 pages.
The title OF the dictionary
has always been slightly dis
turbing, making one wonder
what is the basic distinction
between slang" and "uncon-
ventional" English. DR.. Part
ridge does not discuss the
point in his preface; indeed,
the two terms are used there
as though they were syno-
nyms. What DR.. Partridge
means by slang is curious.
His basic definition, taken
from the Oxford English Die
tionary, is: "The special vo-
cabulary (e.g. can't of low,
illiterate, or disreputable per-
sons; low, illiterate Ian
guage."
It has been my personal OBJ
servation that those of my
friends who are low, illiterate
and disreputable are not par
ticularly set apart by their
use of slang. The illiterate
ones ordinarily express them
sleeves in flat, colorlesS, and
vulgar language, while those
who are merely low and dis
reputable avail themselves of
the riches of slang neither
more nor less frequently than
We tonier characters, redo
lent of the extremes of alti-
udosity and reSpectability. My
own definition of slang is
language never found in legal
documents and never used
by self-important function
aries, who say, for example,
quite unslangily: President
Kennedy will spell out the
details at a later date" when
they mean that the President
will give the details later, un-
less he decides that the whole
affair were better forgotten.
The dictionary is concerned
mainly with British and Aus
tralian slang, with American
divergences of meaning
noted, but original American
slang not treated so fully.
In my poring over the book,
/ came across more syno-
onyms for intoxication than
for any other single word, but
certainly the greatest single
class of entries pertains to
sexual and sociological in
decencies.
+
My ear is surprised to hear
that "chew the fat" means
to "grumble, resuscitate an
old grievance, argue end
leSSly"; that "klddo" Is "a
term Of address to a girl, or,
mostly by a father, to a
daughter of any age what:
Soever";; and that grin like
a Cheshire cat" is not from
Alice in Wonderland" but
from Thackeray. I have been
amused that in the lingo of
my s. year = old son the
word buster" signifies the
ultimate of dislike and con-
tempt; Partridge confirms the
usage, saying the term is
pejorative.
The derivation of sock
dologer" is charming-"a fan
Evening star., 1961-12-24
Literary reosure
In q Gift Set

THE ALEXANDRIA QUAR-
TET: Justine, Balthazar,
MOuntolive and Clea.
BY Lawrence Durrell.
(Dutton Paperbacks, 4
volumes boxed; $3.50
Mr.. Durrell's four nov
els are generally considered
one Of the brilliant liter
ary virtuoso accomplish
ments of our time. The
publication in a convenient
form is an important
event. The leadership of
the Quartet, at first con-
fined to connoisSeurs, is
growing big. Certainly no
one who makes any pre-
tense at keeping up with
the most important mod
ern writing can afford not
to know the Quartet.
f II