LEG MAN

By Edward McCray Thompson '32.E. P. Dutton Co., 1943; 187 pages; $2.00.

Every reporter dreams of the book he is going to write; many even have a manuscript kicking around, generally unfinished; some finish the manuscript but never can find a publisher; a few write the book and get a publisher. Ed Thompson '32 is one of the few.

And his book is an excellent one. Brief, succinct, biting sketches in which he gets the very distillate of the reporter's job and-life. And of the reporter's job he suggests in one half page short story: "Get out of this business before it is too late or that is the way you'll end upalone, sitting on a cheap chair, in the small room o£ a second-rate hotel, calling for a doctor who doesn't get there until you are dead." Thompson is now Branch Manager of the St. Louis Office of War Information.

Of his sixteen sketches I think the one I shall remember the longest is "The Dead Man," a piece of fine reporting, and a biting memorable bit of reality. Once in awhile there is an O. Henry touch, but more often there is the genuine Thompson touch, and this is when the thing really lives without any artificial breathing whatever. All fathers (and I am one) will live all over again the hours of the birth of his first child when he reads "The Birth." The reader will recall Mencken at his best when he reads "The Three Kings."

There is not a dull page in the whole book, and my one regret is that it isn't longer. All prospective reporters should memorize it. The average reader will gulp it up at a sitting.

Errata in Cotton Mather's Magnolia by George W. Robinson '94, a bound book of 64 pages, has been privately printed by the author. This book is exactly what the title suggests—errors that crept into the Magnalia when first printed in London in 1702. One reason for the many mistakes in the first edition is the fact that Mather himself never had a chance to read the proof of his book. Mr. Robinson had hoped to edit a new edition of the Magnalia, but finds it impossible to do so now, so gives us the benefit of his research in this volume of Errata.

British Policy and the Turkish ReformMovement—A Study in Anglo-Turkish Relations 1826-1853, by Frank Edgar Bailey '26, will be reviewed in a later issue of the MAGAZINE.

The Impact of Federal Taxes, by Roswell Magill 'l6 will be reviewed in a later issue of the MAGAZINE.