ROY W. HOWARD SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPERS 230 PARK AVENUE NEW YORK 17

A i 15, 1955,

If the closing paragraph of y our review of errianSr 1.i book in the Times'i review section of Anril 10th asmeared as you wrote it, I think it was a low -unch and very Iuch out of character for' you, So far $ I know, no one has yet revised a technique whereby acn select is own father, fiowev r, I '1l venture te guess thwt amon his associ t e, inside or outside Scripps-ioward, Jack Howard ts record of runs earned will not suffer by cop risen with your own, Jack would strongly object to this letter for two reasons, one of them being that he probably does not give a d n ou your opinion, I do give a damn for two reasons, one of them being that I regret being dissolutioned by seeing this of the technique employed by So I ave 'lovelon regarded and respected as Sinciela friend,

Si.-'|.l',

W. U, Lawrence, sq., c/o bow York Times Bureau, Wiashington, D. C., U. ",A

bl c WS The' President reaxes durng a recess inan-At his weekly piess concern in ashngon E-~ Photogrepaa from "Meet M4 ter 5ihenower,"

t alscrity conference at Quantico, Va. hower faces questions from capital correspondents. At his farms in Gettysbusrg, P.. An Informal Portrait of the President at Work and at Play ETMISTER EISEN4HOWER. By other four, years in the White finds the White House "a hard tainingly of the junkets to Au- kind, and they maintain reader ertariman Smith. Illustrated. 308 House, the President wants fif- row for her to hoe." She is not gusta, to Palm Sgri se b interest atta hligh~l**int hee pg Anwforb Hrper g Bros. Moba.t m ke-addeanP *fanf'fnetheni,"fighting to is a side-splitting story about pannd putter, cook "she finds the, hours and the keep the ,.children from wear- the Presidential . method o SH0is the first fuill-length and play bridge to his heart's work, particularly during the ing out their eyes watching catching gp-asshoppers with his ~4bo~* bout Dwight D) Ei content without worrying about social season, definitely fatigu- television, will not be happy hat. senbewet since lie entered the being criticized the next day by ing." Mr Butler wasaroundly with one Smiith sidelight about In the chapter entatld Ei- WI~e House, and it is a very editorial writers and comtnenta- denounced by most of the Re- the Presidential family. He re- senhiower ad the Pressf Mr. resadable volume Indeed. It tors for. not devoting enough publican party for saying the ports that -the President and Smith reaches frieudlierd con- comes from the typewriter of time to the job. * ** He wants same thing the other day. Mrs. Eisenhower "frequently elusions about the President and the veteran United Press White to exit upright, smiling and have their evening meal brought his dealings with newsmen than Sosse correspondent who has under his own power with BEFORE he readhes this eon- to his study on trays and they would many of his colleagues been watehing them come and enough strength and vitality citislon, Mr. Smith gives .the dine while watching television.' in the White House press room. go since 1941. HIs name is left for golf and fishing." reder a highly en.tiig n The book Is highly spiced Indeed, Mr. Smilth himself talks Merriman Smith, but Mr. Eisen-- Like Paul M. Butler, the fral tato ntersiengt' with colorful incidents and an- differently than he writes, Per- howrsui~ trn i ito Democratic National Chairman fomlprri ftePeiet ecdotes about the President anid hap that Is natural for a prs- hMeruam ly trstino Mr. Smith thinks that Mrs. El (and his tafand acopny- his entourage. Most of the sto- asoiation man who is su- "Thi isthetor of hatsenhower's health mayr play a ing newsmen) at work and at ries are not new, because Mr. posed to be so objective that he h sne to thenetry ofsnhw-a big and decisive role in Mr. play under all sorts of circum- Smithe is not in the habit of has no feelings at all about a happnedtoenerl Esenow-Eisenhower's final decision as stances. He chronicles the cam- holding out on his regular em- President while in office. er when he became a mister," to whether he will run again. paign and the pre-Inaugural -ployer, The United Press. B~ut Evr fae ofte ls- Mr. Smith explains in his intro- He reports that the First Lady trip to Korea, and writes enter- they are the first collection of its Evwerypersoalty omtes uner- duction, "It is not an analysis scwruiy e reitcs hander of his political beliefs or ansrui.Heeptshate appraisal of his conduct of gov- President gets very mad when butean ts-ptato: Brtishd~ Realities in aFost-War peoprlduges hloehim-

l rfe mr dB t o RITAIN AND) THE TIDE OFWORDI luslons in the popular mind in live by a Briton of experience woare ucsfladiha Mr.mit leas wrongly to AFFAIRS. By Sir Oliver Frania. 71 Britain, it says so many things and ability. evdcdbythrcnlyi- the view ,that this' is not only pp. New York: Oxford University in such firm aand at' times Sir Oliver begins with a prin evninued gueth recntslyo the- als ise-hawer's firesidermt.He s 1.5 eloquent prose that I hope'that ciple with which I believe the- White House stag dinners. alevophs lts repoidtia con By DR EW MIDDLETON Sir Oliver's countrymen will majority 4o the British ,people Tongue in cheek, he observes: clsona som e lnth and HE long journey from read and be gratefuL agree: "Britain is going to con- Itwudbe unfair to say susi this wa:Queens ColgOfr, to The contents of this book tinue to be what she has been. tat he likes the company of "I am morally certin that Lobard Street in the City of first appeared as a series of a Great Power." He attacks kingoffnceadnutr he does not want to run again. London via the Ministry of talks, the Reith Lectures, given the idea that this can be take pureoy 'finause fdthidusard I feel it Is better than an even Supply in war and the British over the British Broadcasting for granted at home when It pudrebecasego. the belneaed bet that he will retreat to Get- Embassy in Washington in Corporation network last year. certainly is not taken for thadet atngs. wHredbelieve tysbrg [herhe wnsa peceha nt dulled the pe- The five lectures deal withdthe granted abroad. It Is the folk- ta famnhswre pt farm] and make his final stand ceptions or lessened the ob- realities of the post-war world, memory of the Britain of 1905, bcm rsdn fteFr on Seminar Ridgu where Rob- jectivity of Sir Oliver Franks. the relations between Britain the year Sir Oliver was born, Motor Company, head of the e e' ry.Cgnede, t focs I BianadTeTd f and the, Commonwealth, the the belief, strangely strong in Scripps-Howard newspapers ste E. he'Conederate frs Worl Britairs SirThelie has United States and Europe and many qarters, that the bases college president or an Arch- day Cvilf te teribear'givn hi contrmen sina- the connections between politi- of British greatness remain un- bishop, then certainly the man battle. tion report on themselves and cal aimis and economic strength. changed.,a a lton the bl, knows his "I beieve that more than an- the modern world. Since his Is What the book amounts to is Sir Oliver delivered these 1ec- field thoroughly $nd will be lit-

- a questing, restless mind, it is an exploration of the post-war tures to a mass audience, and crate and interesting. Mr. Lawrence, a member of reasonable to suppose that this world in which Britain must it is the British people rather This business of working The Time. Washington Bureau. does not represent Sir Oliver's than the Conservative Govern- your way up will come as quite frequently covers White House ultimate jud gments. But it Mr. Middleton is chief of T he a surprise to young Henry Ford pree conf erencees. strikes so hard at so many il- Times Londont bureau. (Continued on Paae 14) 'or young Jack Howard.

AP~il, us. us955 An Intimacy Of the South T ta*;s'"""~.~ TOrleans always sets out* And Beyond - ---h-l With Evi l ing the clues in a maze. They THE BRIDE OF THE INNISFALLEN were threading through the CHILDREN OF THE BLACK-HAIRED And Other Stories By Eudora narrow and one-way streets, PEOPLE. By Evan King. 435 pp. Welty. 207 pp. New York: Har- past the pale-violet bloom of New York:, Rinehart & Co. $5. coutt, Brace & Co. $3.50. tired squares, the brown ROBERT By PAYNE By FRANCES GAITHER steeples and statues. Past the OME time toward the middle WELTY'ShUDORA charace- balcony with the black mon- of the sixteenth century an ters-ro te tnorace key It the ain- unknown author of great power a "A, Im a woman as over a ballroom floor. and originality composed the that's been clear around the Pqst the grillwork and the novel which has been handed world in my rocking chair," lattice work to all the Iron down to us under the title of down to and including the -ron "Chin -'ing Mei." It is an as- tamed shrew who speaks every the front steps of bungalows tonishing work, at once Rabelal- salty syllable of "The Ponder ont stes of ae sian and highly moral, written Heart"-have till now been outlying. The Bride of the in impeccable muscular prose found no farther than a whoop with as monkish devotion to de- T and a holler from Jackson, or tail and so rich in incident that at farthest, Natchez or nicks there seems no reason why it burg, Miss. Yet; out of seven after mile, between these two should not continue far beyond ,, short stories here collected from sophisticated, certainly not in- its 1,600 pages. In this story The New Yorker, Harper's Ba- articulate, people; the flat, se- of Hls Men and his six wives zaar and other magazines, three, cret land; creatures oozing from the graces of Confucian moral- g which by page reckoning to- palmetto margins onto the ity are tossed overboard; in- gether account for more than highway; human signs late ap- stead there is a Buddhist com- half the book, concern journeys pearing in churchyard tombs set prehension of the enormity of in latitudes where unfamiliar with "zinnias * * * quite fresh, men's vices. In the end a necro- manners and idioms prevail. in fruit jars, like nice welcomes cancer conjures up, the ghost Miss Welty's talents, invested on bureaus"; the road's abrupt of Hsi Men. His fate is to be in these foreign ventures, have, end among shacks on pilings born again into some rich fam- however, suffered no adverse rooted in water hyacinths; a ily where he can continue to sea-change. boat landing; a shrimpers' bar cultivate his vices. This endless title story is about a girl and dance-hall, neon-lighted at repetition of vice is punishment - introduced simply as an dusk, where local folk drift in enough for his n American "leaving London with- after vespers and two spectral ,Evan King, well-known as the out her husband's knowledge"- strangers formally circle over adapter of Lau Shaw's "Rick- who basks anonymously in. the rough, loose planks to the shaw Boy," has evidently read warm Irish voices in the crowd- strains of a chorus in hearty deeply in that sixteenth-century ed compartment of a boat train patois, "Moi pa 1asinez ga." It novel. He describes his char- coursing west through the is all palpably real, yet eerie acters and swings them into rain - drenched English dark. After the girl's troubled whisk life in very 'much the same In "Going to Naples," Gabriella, pers while dancing, the odd pair way,giving them the same air rrorn the saacet 0raten aiv Aetkiw shetone lor' - ars" who hails from Buffalo 'and silently get in the car again to btequelaret Te -. .se. makes her animal spirits heard and, "going back, the ride was to be larger than life because and felt from stem to stern of wordless." we are brought so very close to Rthe little ship Pomona, has an "Circe," briefest of any he them. There are some writersRe a u e Li w o even larger supporting cast of is a pure cameo of an impure who describe their characters- BUZZARD. By Phil Stong 255 pp neighboring farm These last lively and voluble characters, goddess at home at her old ad- manently twenty feet away; the New York: Doubleday &Co $3.50- were stranded while looking for mostly, like herself, Italian by dress in Homer's demesne characters in Evan King's novel By VICTOR P. HAAS lost stock. descent. That leaves three for the Mis are close enough for us to see OT since his "State Fair" It was an explosive situation, "No Place for You, My sissippi chauvinist: "Kin," in . the pores in their skin and the N of 1932 has Phil Stong for Mercer and Jamieson had Love" factually shows two which a once-substantial, kindly hairs in their nostrils. come 'so close to recapturing long been feuding over prop- chance-met Northerners, visi- country house is desecrated by richly human appeal of that erty lines and Jamieson's son, tors in New Orleans, a man and a "common" woman; "The Since most of the minor the a Civil War tale war exceedingly un- memorable novel as in this Ernest, and the scheming Mrs. a girl, going for a drive down Burning," characters are ranted to shake all connoisseurs pleasant, the effect is to restore solid story of a week-end of Evelyn obviously had some re- into the bayou country upon Southeast Iowa lationship. While the tempera- a hot Sunday afternoon. But of its kind (bloodcurdling) ; and some of that intimacy with evil bitter storm in Ladies liter- in 1954. As in that earlier book, ture sank to 15 below and the the excursion, by necromancy, a beautiful idyl called which went out of English sees of Swift. Mr. Stong essays only a modest, snow piled to 26 inches the casts on the reader a peculiar, in Spring," wherein a child ature with the death transfigured in is not folksy flight but he brings it tension in the house mounted. hypnotic spell front start to fin- everyday things Unfortunately Mr. King perhaps miraculous, with his off with elan. 'Blizzard" prob. Old Jamieson proved that a ish : the uneasy silence, mile a sudden, quite so convincing downpour- "the Baptist church hero and heroine, Iron Lock and ably will set no literary bonfires blockhead can be a blockhead rose, the Second Lass, for though they but it will, I think, warm many under any conditions, the Sen- Mrs. Gaither is the author of getting red as a of life a reader's heart, ator proved once again that "Double Muscadine" and other movie house turning 'magne have had the breath sum bottle blue. poured into them, they are The blizzard struck on Feb- there's no fool like an old fool, novels of the South. sometimes unbelievably virtuous ruary 19 and we see it through his petulant daughter got her and seem to derive directly from the eyes of the people at Lin. comeuppance as did Mrs. Eve- the virtuous characters of Dick- wood Farm (which could be lyn, and Ernest and Celia finally ens, near Mr. Stong's native Keo- reached a long-delayed under- sauqua) and the eyes of the standing, On the periphery, 4 - HE main thread of the story stranded wayfarers who found Annabelle and Celia showed can be told simply. In 1927, refuge at Linwood Shrewd old how farm folk meet the ele- when the Kuomintang and the Jim Mercer owned the farm and ments when the R E A. Chinese Communists were in with him lived'Celia, an orphan; power lines are knocked out. uneasy alliance and preparing Annabelle, who had been "the In a way, Mr. Stong's "Bliz- " for the northern march from girl" for forty-two years, and zard is a bucolic version of Canton, a remote mountain vil- Smokey, the best hired hand in Henry Morton Robinson's 'The lages in the province of Shansi Iowa, who read Tom Paine and Great Snow" of 1947 Mr. Stong was being ruled by a handful got plastered on all holidays, has sure knowledge of how farm of feudal gentry who main- even "the anniversary of Mr. people react to a given set of- tained close contact with the Roosevelt's Bank Holiday" To circumstances as Mr; Robinson provincial governor, the power- them, the night the blzard had similar- knowledge of how ful secret societies and the vg hit, came a state Senator wgh city people react. In both books - lage necromancer, Third Im- his -eye on Wasftdngton, the the colossa] strength of the ele- mortal Maiden. This astonishing Senator's spoiledl daughter, his ments contrasts vividly with the woman - brooding continually brash young press agent, a minute and yet enormously - oer erincnseur an - mysterious Mrs. Evelyn, sour tough strength Of the humnan ovehr ncns ur -nhe Old Man Jamieson and his bit par-ticipants. If you are ea col-.''2 - Continued on Pagqe 20) ter war veteran son from a lector of people you will want to add Mr. Stong'as.They are,- ' Mr. Paynue is the author of Mr. Haas is book editor o perhaps, "types" but they are PktgahtiCqaW o9 aLau several books about Ohina. The Omaha Word-He-aM real.I have met them I a once-substantial, country home.