Hanover Browsing

BERNARD BRODIE has completely rewritten his successful laymen's guide to naval strategy, now called simply, A Guide to Naval Strategy (Princeton University Press). Maps, charts, and plates are all new. The general principles of strategy are about the same but the engineering data has been completely revised in the light of recent developments, and throughout the book there have been substituted new battle actions right up through the landings on Saipan and the coast of Normandy to illustrate the principles discussed.

This book has had a deserved success and 56,000 copies are now in print. For the average reader as well as for professional navy men.

Ranny Hobbs '3O sent me a copy of TheRebellion of Leo McGuire (Farrar & Rinehart, 1944) for which I am grateful as it is one of those books that, once begun, is hard to put down. The author, Clyde Brion Davis, is a Johnson, if you know what I mean (and you won't until you read the book), and he tells here the story of an honest burglar "and some respectable people whom you can't trust." A story of some "right guys" for "right guys." This means you.

A really fine story about a Liberator crew in the Pacific is H. D. Skidmore's Valley of the Sky (Houghton, Mifflin, 1944). Dos Passos says he found it immensely moving, "the first book I've read about our part in these wars that gave me a feeling of being written from the inside." The author knows of what he writes from experience and his story of a bomber crew is the real McCoy. Highly recommended. You'll probably recognize Tail Gunner Norris, Waist Gunner Poniatowski, Radio Operator Sheren, Captain Lawler (pilot); they are kids from just around the corner.

Joseph Stanley Pennell's The Historyof Rome Hanks has caused quite a stir. Many pro; many con. I'm one of the pros. Admitting his story is confused, often overwritten, the battle scenes tense with imagined dread, nevertheless it is a story full of vigor, of men of flesh and bones, and some of the scenes are unforgettable such as the description of Pickett's Charge. His insight into war is evidence of a first-class imagination. True, as Irving Babbitt might have said, he needs the bit more than the spur, but as a first novel it not only shows great promise, it fulfills it. I hope he takes Max Perkins' advice and I hope he isn't a one book man. RomeHanks is a book to own.

George Biddle's Artist at War (Viking, 1944) is the story of his experiences in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy as an artist war correspondent. Being an artist, he is a trained observer; add to this a civilized point of view, an excellent style, and a distinguished book is the result. He's an Ernie Pyle from the Century Club. Highly recommended.

Major James J. Anderson, Dartmouth's new Marine C. 0., loaned me his copy of Pacific Islands Year Book 1942 which gives detailed descriptions, with excellent of the battleground of the Pacific. I have no doubt that this is a difficult book to find, but your library (if you live near a good one) may have it or may be able to borrow it for you. For anyone who wants to follow his or her son's actions in the Pacific, it can't be beat. Also for arm chair strategists. It is published by Pacific Publications Pty. Ltd., Sydney, Australia, and sells for 1 a/6. (I believe an American edition of this (1944) is now available.)

Little, Brown has published the official Admiralty account of the British Mediterranean Fleet actions from 1939 to 1943: East of Malta, West of Suez. It is a model of brevity and a dramatic tale: a combination hard to beat when writing official histories.