davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

Gould pasteurization a n d
homogenization lead the list.
The purpose Of pasteurization,
he says, is not the elimination
Of germs, but the delay of
Souring. The process has
no effect on the really
bad germs, which are con-
trolled by purity safeguards
set up by American agricul-
ture. But by preventing the
natural formation of bacteria,
pasteurization destroys much
Of the culinary value of milk
in cooking and has an i'll eff
feet on the butter, cream, and
Skim-milk made from it. But
termilk, as it is misnomered
today in American cities, can
be sold only to a public that
"also buys sulphured molas-
ses, smoke injected hams,
sliced bread, and bleached
flour" To those who have
vaguely wondered why it is
better to homogenize milk than
merely to shake the bottle,
Mr.. Gould explains that the
process is strictly an economic
device - a way to blend
skim-milk with butter brought
from another part of the coun-
try where there is a super
fluffy Of it.
Naturally, Mr.. Gould is en-
ragged at A m eric an store
bought bread, which only
Huckleberry Finn has ever
had a good word for. He says
angrily that you can buy it
only stale, and that its yeasty
aroma is not from the product
but from the paper wrapper
to which the scent is trans
ferred by being mixed with
the printers ink.
The title "MonStrous Deprav.
ity" will puzzle the reader.
The words are taken from a
long passage from Smollett's
"Humphry Clinker" VIII i c h
Mr.. Gould quotes as the cpl
graph of his book. But be-
cause of a typographical error
the words "monstrous deprav-
ity" we're dropped from the
SIN ollie tt passage, leaving
them defiant but unexplained
as a title.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

in plot for writer who de-
votes himself largely if not
entirely to fiction. What hap
pens in an 0'Hara story is
either stiff, mechanical, and
conventional. or else it is so
anonymous that the reader
suspects it to have been die
tated at top speed. The charm
of an 0'Hara story lies seldom
in the tale that is told, more
frequently in how people say
things (although the dialogue
is often as idioSyncratic as the
cut-and-dried re arks in
Gasoline Alley") and most
often in the nostalgia created
by a long line of Peerlesses,
Stanley Steamers, Wills-St.
Glars, Pierce-Arrows, and
ROlls-ROyceS.
- -
An example of 0'Hara at
his worst is Ninety Minutes
Away" 1t starts out with a
small town newspaper report
er who befriendS a prostitute
about to be booked in a police
station, continues through sew
eral interminable and virtual
ly unrelated episodes, and
ends abruptly. No one knows
why, for the talent that could
create this much nonsense
could add to it indefinitely.
The episodes are stuck togeth-
er with the mucilage of a
number of scenes from child
hood, and narrative prose like
this:
There were three weeks,
nearly four, of their well-kept
secret, a chieved by their
meeting only in her apart
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

available in English. It's chief
weakness is a rather 18th
century aroma of ethnocen-
trio biolOgic superiority which
presents prehistory as a fairly
steady march forward to
Victorian England. The facts,
which Mrs. Hawkes. records
faithfully but without proper
emphasis, do not support
such an attitude: With the
major exception of palace
hthic cave art and a few,
very late, notifications in
the making of stone tools,
the great cultural advances
of the Old Stone Age were
not made by our direct an
ceStors and were not made
by Homo Sapiens. Most stone
working techniques are of
African and pre-Sapiens orr
gin; fire is unqueStionably a
very ancient achievement of
the Pithecanthropi of China
(p.139), and most of the
other great advances of the
age such as cave-dwelIing,
skin-clothing, cooking of food,
compound tools, and (above
alb burial of their dead, the
first evidence of any recogni-
ton of mans spiritual nature,
came from Neanderthal man
or his relatives.
Not Compatible
Mrs. Hawkes. constant der
ogation of the Neanderthal as
grossly bestial, lacking inven-
tiveneSs, and probably lacking
language, is not compatible
with her subsequent, correct
statement (p.2O8) that the
Neanderthal was the earliest
of our predecessors troubled
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

he has read.
freedom to two authors: JAG
quetta Hawkes. deals with
prehiStory (down to 5000
B.C.) and Sir Leonard Wooley
covers the Bronze Age (from
5000 to 1900 B.C.).
The result is a volume
which is really two separate
books, each with its own
unity of style and outlook
and with a separate index,
but covering such a vast area
that no single writer could
be expected to write with
equal authority on all as
poets of it. This weakness
could have been overcome if
the supervisory experts had
been given some authority
over the content of this work,
but in the name of profess
Sional freedom the writers
were given complete indie
pendence to reject the sug-
geStionS of their expert su-
perviSion.
The Flaws
The result is a volume full
Of little known facts, but
poorly organized and with
constant evidence of personal
pre-conceptions, both in judg-
ments and in commissions.
Both parts are organized top
ically rather than chronology
ically, and in Wooley's part
there is such consequent con-
fusion that an amateur will
have great difficulty follow
ing events.
Mrs. Hawkes. part, on pre-
history, is sounder and more
complete than is Sir Leon
ards and is probably the
best general treatment now
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01
Books for Christmas Givino

Vanity Fair, war for the
United States Navy.
Even the marvellous abb
Stract designs, patterns based
on spilled matches or thumb
tacks or on light and shadow
through bifocals, were Great
ed on assignment, not as art,
never as the conscious effort
to solve the sweet mystery Of
life.
In Retrospect
We see again the great
theater forms and faces of
the Dos and '3Os, from Carlo
to Jimmy Savo. We see
the Duncans in Greece and
the Sandburgs in Illinois and
many Of the great and the
well known who passe
through New York. In every
case Steichen worked hard
and usually brilliantly at
creating a picture of the inner
quality of the subject. He fol-
lowed the same basic proce-
dure with Navy deckmen,
with skyscrapers and bridges,
with Mexican country people.
He goes beyond subject-mat-
ter in one sense because he
never forgets its importance.
The art Steichen reveals is
created in the intense effort
to find and record the es-
Sence of what appears before
the cameras.
ANIMAL WORLDS. By
MarStOn Bates. Random
House; SIS The fascination
that animal life holds for
most people can never be sat
iSfied. This book serves only
to whet this appetite. DR..
Bates introduces us to all the
forms of animal life known to
man and even prepares us
for the discovery of others,
burrowing animals beneath
the ocean floor for instance.
There are 254 illustrations in
GLIDING 100 in full color.
y 4 =
THE BOOK OF THE AMER
ICAN WEST. Edited by
Jay Monaghan. IN e ssner;
$3.50 through December "a,
$3.50 thereafter.) The COM
bined knowledge of 10 West
ern authorities brings togeth-
er an array Of historical fact
and legend about the West.
The illustrations, as well as a
detached portfolio Of six
prints, represent artists Of the
period.
=
ESQUIRE'S AMERICAN
AUTOS AND THEIR
MAKERS. Text by David ].
Wilkie. (Esquire-H a rper &
Row; $3.50 through January
1, SIS thereafter.) The drama
of the American automobile,
from the dawn of its history
to the future, unfolds before
the reader. The book is illus
trated with blueprintS, paint
Dings and photographs-Some
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

jumbles and omits all the his
tory and drama of this most
significant and dynamic pc
Rod of our past.
The words Achaean, Myce-
naean, Habiru, Joshua, and
many others which the ordi-
nary reader has a right to
find mentioned and discussed
are not to be found in the in
dex and are, not discussed in
the text itself.
The Bronze Age is far too
long and diverse to be treated
in a topical arrangement that
sets items from totally differ
ent societies separated by a
thousand or more years in
time side by side on the same
page just because they fall
mechanically into the same
organizational category.
CARROLL QUIGLEY.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01
A LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHY.
By Edward Steichen. (Dou-
bleday; $19.5O.)

bleday; Sl9.5OO
The master photographer of
our time shows why he is in
this superb collection Of 234
photographs from all periods
in a professional life full of
growth and achievement. He
also shows us once more the
changing image Of our century
as it looked through his lens.
Many of the individual pic
lures are classics, familiar
images to anyone interested
at all in photographs. But
their appearance here, in
chronological sequence from
1895 to the end Of the 195OS, is
both a resume of a great pro-
fesSional and a moving if Sc
lective memoir Of the century
so far.
He was and remains a pro-
fessional and that distinguishes
his work at once from those
efforts, still r occurring, to
create the art Of phOtogra-
ply" Steichen as a youth in
Milwaukee went through his
arty period and got it over.
He has related that he used to
spit on the lens and kick the
tripod to get an IMPRESSIONS
tic effect. This is the equiv
alent of today's spinning cam
eras aimed at reproducing abb
stract expresSionism on film.
The Real Beauty
But Steichen grew at once
beyond that. He learned that
the real beauty Of the camera
comes from its a bility to
mimic the sensitive eye look
ing at the world. His career
also demonstrates the great
advantage photographers
have in being, like the Renais-
Sance painters, employees of
somebody else, hired hands
expected to do job and
make a point, not free souls
looking for the meaning of life
in the lens.
Because, somewhat para
logically, the meaning of life
emerges through Steichen'S
lens precisely when he is a
hired hand, shooting fashion
for Vogue, the theater for
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01
Surveying Human Mind in Pre-History
PREHISTORY

PREHISTORY AND THE
BEGINNINGS OF CIVIL
ZATION. By Jacquetta
Hawkes. and Sir Leonard
WOOley. (Harper & Row;
$12.50.)
Since 1949 an international
commission of UNESCO has
been sponsoring "a history
Of the development of the
human mind" which will ap-
pear in six volumes. AS part
of the preparatory work, a
quarterly magazine, the
Journal of World History,
was founded in 1858 to pub
fish preliminary studies on
various aspects of the sub
ject. The problem of the re-
lationShip between a commit
tee of expert advisers and the
actual task of writing the
first volume was met, if not
solved, by giving complete
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

imitation antique language a
little firing, although compar-
atively speaking it is well
done-better than in Walter
Scott, for example: "The old
man said querulously, Here's
a wantipOle without 10 crowns
would marry a wench with
three beds and 700 florins!
Udal laughed. Call her to
bring me meat and drink.
Large words i'll fill an empty
stomach. But my distaste
for this style is only a per-
Sonal prejudice one that
SpoilS even Balzac'S "Droll
Tales" for me. The lover of
historical novels will find this
one superior to most that
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

never before published. The
classic auto" fan will 90
wild over this.
THE CRUEL SPORT. Text
and photos by Robert DAILY.
(Prentic e-Hall; $1O.) The
greater portion of this book Is
comprised of action photo
graphs effectively conveying
the spirit of the sports car
race. Robert Days text
might be enough to convert
the indifferent reader into a
car-racing fan.
r4f-'
CHINA PAINTING. By Dor
is W. Taylor and Anne Button
Hart. ivan NOStrand; $9.75.)
Mrs. Taylor's technique in
painting china is described
completely and comprehen-
Sively by Mrs. Hart with SIM
pie eaSy-tO-follow directions.
The more than 500 drawings
show in detail her method of
color application in various
designs. The writer's live in
the Washington area.
THE ROYAL BIRDS. BY
Lillian Grace Paca. (St. Mar
tin; $500 The royal birds,
as the British crown deSig-
mates the swans, were wor-
SHIPPED by the ancient
Greeks as Semidivine. The
author, who has previously
published four other books
about birds, describes each Of
the 10 species in the swan
amily interfering little
known incidents and details.
She has also included over 80
fine drawings of these grace
full birds. f
So - N
THE NATIONS OF ARR
ca. By Ben Wattenberg and
Ralph Lee Smith. (Hatt;
$lOD Arranged like an en-
cyclopedia, this book pro-
vides, in eaS-to-read form, a
basic understanding of the
African nations. There are %
chapters each dealing with a
separate country and each
including a map. It has over
300 photographs.
= y = l.r
IN SEARCH OF GREAT
NESS. Reflections Of Yousuf
Harsh. (Knopf; $5.95.) Yousuf
Harsh, one of the worlds
most gifted portrait photogra-
piers, writes about his life
and his profession. He tells Of
his boyhood in Armenia be-
fore moving to Quebec, his
first studio in Ottawa, his
trips to the United States and
eventually back to visit Eu-
rope. His list of Photographic
subjects reads like an inter-
national Who's Who. A few
portraits by the author are
printed in the book including
those of Winston Churchill,
Ernest Hemingway and Helen
Keller.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01
BOOKS IN REVIEW
O'Horo's Industry
Outdistonces Skill
By DAY THORPE
Star Beck Critic

THE HAT on THE BED Stories BY John O'Hara. RandOm
House; S595)
John 0Haras industry in supplying his admirers with
torrent of literature is admirable Few contemporaries
prolific he and few have the skill to maintain production
line that produces goods Of such quality Many believe
him to have unerng for dialogue and certainly his
conversations are the best aspect Of his style In the present
collection of "a stories written during the last two years Us
first appeared the New Yorker Show and the Saturday
Evening POST the most accomplished those that
character sketches the poorest those that rely incident
For Mr. OHara. it seems to me. is remarkably deficient
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

THE HISTORY OF PRO-
FESSIONAL FOOTBALL. BY
Harold (Spike) Claassen.
(Prentice-H a !; $12.5O.) The
Monday morning quarterback
will find this book, which con-
tainS the complete history of
professional t OF b a IL from
1895 to the present, both fas-
cinating and Informative. It
also contains photographs
dating from the first profess
sional team in Latrobe, Pa,
t0the World Championship
game Of 1862. Some Of them,
rare indeed.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

with metaphysical intuitions."
The personal bias which gave
rise to the earlier, incorrect
judgment provides a shaky
basis on which to erect an ac-
count, necessarily based on
inference, of prehistoric nom
material culture, Gu S t o m S,
and ideas, which make up a
major part of this work.
Sir Leonard's portion of this
volume is equally well in
formed but even more in
fluenced by pre-conceptionS.
He is fully aware that MeSo-
potamian civilization is ear
lier than Egyptian, yet he
persists in the old English
custom of always discussing
Egypt first. His first two
chapters are "The Bronze
Age" and 1.-THE Urbanization
of Society,"" Since the use of
bronze in Mesopotamia is at
least 1900 years earlier than
in Egypt, while cities were
several thousand years ear
ier, this practice leads to
confusion in presentation.
Wooley accepts (p.SSO) the
now well-established fact that
the original elements of civil
lization came to Egypt from
some eastern area in close
contact with Mesopotamia so
that his discussion of Egypt
before Mesopotamia confuses
his narration.
The personal nature of most
of Sir Leonard'S judgments
and omissions is evident. He
had no high opinion of the
Semites, and, in spite of pro-
tests from his experts,
(p.41D, attributes the decline
of "Sumerian civilization" t
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

ment and staying apart when
they were in the office. When
they made love they spoke of
love, but they avoided the
committal declarations an
plans. There was a continuing
passion that c arrie d them
from day to day and that ena-
bled them to postpone the
calmer declarations and long
range plans. His hours were
later than hers, and he would
60 to the flat and eat her din
ner and stay until she had left
in the morning. E" This, it
seems to me, could be called
non-writing.
On the other hand, the sto-
ries that depend not on Incl
dent but on the'creation of a
purely formal picture are
good, and Of these perhaps
the best is John Barton
Rosedale, Actors Actor" a
character sketch of a has
been matinee idol so wrapped
up in his role he plays year
after year for the members of
his club, for his wife, and for
the new and inexperienced
practitioners of show bust
ness, that he is unwilling or
unable to avail himself of a
personal opportunity which he
rightly thinks would be out-of-
c h aracter. If Mr.. 0'Hara
would prune his collections of
stories Of all but the best
they, generally speaking, are
the shortest-he would have a
book to match its authors
reputation.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01
Paul TiIIich
Design for
Perpetuity
THE ETERNAL NOW. By
Paul Tillich. CHARLES
Scrihnnr'S Some. 60 oEN


Paul TiIlich. CHARLES
Scribner's Sons; s2.95.)
On a public forum, Paul Til
lich's mission is to put popu-
lar man in touch with the cos
mos.
He is at that again in 1.-THE
Eternal Now" a collection of
sermons made between 1855
and 1868 in university and col
lege chapels.
This new anthology is
meant to be a companion to
two earlier collections, 1.-THE
Shaking of the Foundations"
and 1.-THE New Being"
Popular
Mr.. Tillich, now John Nu-
veen Professor of Theology at
the University of Chicago's
Divinity School, is probably
the most popular commenta-
tor on Christianity a m ong
Protestant readers.
That may be due to his
semantic inventiveness. He is
almost astonishingly free of
the compelling superstitions
of h allowed words and
phrases.
But it's more likely that a
doubling people anxiously so
Letting persuasion has found
that he m a k Re S such good
sense.
Intending
For example, in 1.-THE Eter-
nal Now" his design is to
make the tentative and fear
some span Of human life part
of an unending continuum
that is not altogether satisfy
ing but is profoundly mean
ingful.
This is not, however, an ar
rogant h u m a n S m. It is a
reasonable contentment that
comes of a breadth of vision
about what he calls "the hui
man predicament."
Neither mans smallneSs
nor his greatness emanates
from himself" Mr.. Tillich as
serts. There is something
above this contrast"
That something is the
eternal" 1t is the ultimate
that cuts into the life of a
man."
Eternal life," we are coun-
Seled, sis beyond past, pres
ent, and future: we come
from it, we live in its pres
ence, we return to it."
Challenger
Christian preachers will
find this work as disturbing
as they do his other, more diff
ficult efforts. Mr.. Tillich is a
vigorous challenger of pious
idiom and ancient pulpit rhet-
oric.
Not least Of the traditional
action" words of public SER
monizing that get an entirely
new meaning in Mr.. Tillich's
handling are "Sin" and sal
walton" The definitions he Of
ferS are not calculated to con-
vert. They are m e a mt to
teach, to see that piety does
not degenerate into diShones-
ty."
LYLE DENNISTON.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-12-01

concise and mastery example
of what the military jargon-
lists call a pre-briefing. They
should be read first, along
with the editors preface, ITO
Our Readers" which, curious
ly, is placed last in the issue.
I'VE should like" writes Mr..
Friar, leach number to con-
tain materials from Ancient,
Byzantine, Medieval, and
Modern Greece, covering ev-
cry aspect Of Grecian life
from the most mundane to the
most inspiring"
And revelatory.
Oldest Papyri
| did not know that the only
papyrus ever found in Greece
and probably the Oldest Of all
known papyri-a commentary
on Orphic theogony by an I'M
known author-was diScov-
cred near Thessalonike less
than two years ago. l did
not know that the earliest
papyruS Of Sappho's poems,
dated 300 years after her
death and not in her own
hand, was found at 0xyrhyn-
chus, the modern Behnesa in
Egypt. l did not know that
lie CorbuSierS studies Of N.Y.
konoS architecture have
considerably influenced
modern building design" l
did not know that "idiotes,"
the Greek ancestor Of our
word idiot" means "a per-
son taking no interest in the
affairs Of government" l did
not know but this para
graph could be endless.
The Tragic View
But l got no answers, nor
will you, from our Greek heri-
tage as revealed in-or out
of-the pages of "Greek
Heritage"
And that is, simply, because
Americas tragedy was not
tragic in the Greek sense.
The tragic view," whether
from the pen of AeSchyluS,
SophocleS, or EuripideS, is
that life is terrible but beauti-
full.
November in Dallas was
only terrible-terrible and
bestially stupid, tawdry, and
SenseleSS. The genesis Of Dali
las in November held nothing
so grand in dimension as the
mighty curse on the House of
Aureus, or the curse that de-
stroyed 0edipuS.
Furthermore, every hero Of
Greek tragedy had, in an 9TH
erwise strong character, a
tragic flaw"-uSually hubriS,
or "overweening pride" =
which pressed him implacably
on to his final fate of violent
death.
Certainly President Kenne-
dy's welding of his tremen-
dous executive power was
clasSically Greek by reason Of
his philosophy-in thought,
word, and deed-of "modera-
ton in everything" But there
was no tragic flaw-above all,
no trace of hubris-in a char
acter that was strong, mod
est, wise. and noble.
CHARLES COOKE.