Evening star., 1962-04-15

years assume Lhe arIlSClc
shape and form of a novel.
In day when autobiography
rs universal and all too fire.
quently a therapeutic purge.
this one fills the reader with
wonder and sympathy be-
cause the writer looks at his
hero with the detached criti-
cal observation of a drama
tiSt and creates a fiction
rather than exudes a men,
oir.
George was born in 1905,
the son of a former house
maid who to the end of her
life wrote Il of being" for i
have been" and a father who
was variously a sailor, a tav-
ern-keeper. and a factory
laborer. The family was des-
perately poor. and not re-
markably adjusted. for the
husband was always gregar-
ious and often drunk, while
the mother had a certain
curiosity about her neighbors
but no interest in commun-
ing with them.
#
George grew up in one
little town after another in
Flint County. Wales, a nota-
bly, untroubled child-indeed,
seldom an unhappy one.
1t was a series of teachers,
not environment, family, or
heredity, that created George
Williams, and left him at the
brink of manhood, 81 years
old, when the autobiography
closes.
Many qualities give
George" its unique charac-
ter-none more than its un-
matched pedagogues. We
skip the sh adowy nuns
and an early contempt
ible domineering teacher
suddenly and forever put
down and away by Georges
father, and arrive at the first
of an unbroken chain of
teachers who. IS though gov
erned by one superior intelli-
gence. year after year made
the man not in their own but
the boys image.
y
A young pupil teacher in
the rudimentary elementary
school in the little village
noticed a certain distinction
in a theme Of the 10-year-
old George, and sent the
composition to the HolyWell
School, an institution entail
ing cash tuition, five miles
away. George got a scholar
ship, and walked to and from
school daily. (Yes, reader,
the boy had heard of Abra-
ham Lincoln.D At Holywell
he came in touch with Miss
Cooke, from whom he never
separated, for when they
were apart. he says, he wrote
her a weekly letter to the end
of her life. She was to be-
come the heroine of Mr.. Will
liam play, THE Corn Is
Green"
Sarah Cooke at the time
was 33, English, pince-nezzed,
pale without being wan.
sallow but not unhealthy;
'pallow' might have described
it." Strong without being
overbearing, opinionated d
without being dogmatic,
thorough without being pc
dantic, severe without being
inSenSitive. proper without
being narrow, a former of
men without being a de-
former of personality, she
saw the possibilities of the
young scholar and she knew
her job. She taught him Latin
and French and English;
two other women taught him
the rest of an extensive cur
riculum. From Miss Cooke he
learned organization. and not
to start a sentence with
"and" or but" unless YOU
are bent on it," Also, she
bought him good strong walk
ing shoes, and when his fam
lily moved to a more distant
town, she saw to it that he
had daily train fare.
George loved Miss Cooke
and he hated her.
He hated her because he
felt, once in a while, that be-
cause she had done so much
for him she owned him.
When he was Is. Miss Cooke,
at her own expense, sent
him, who had never been
eight miles from home. to
France for six months school,
ing. At the end Of the time
they met in Paris, and the
boy was irritated because she
was just a guide to the beau
ties of which she herself had
created the appreciation in
him.
y II n
In France, where Miss
= !