Hanover Browsing
BILL RILEY '46, hockey captain, loaned me Saul K. Padover's one-volume life of Jefferson, published in 1942 by Harcourt. I found it intensely interesting not only because of Jefferson but also because of the obvious parallels between Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was the Reverend Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College and called the Congregational "Pope" of Connecticut, who wrote that if Jefferson were elected President in 1800 "we may see our wives and daughters the victims of legal prostitution; soberly dishonored; speciously polluted; the outcasts of delicacy and virtue, the loathing of God and man," etc. The vituperation hurled at our late President by such men as Mr. Flynn, and other Roosevelt haters, can be matched over and over again by the Hamiltonian Federalists toward Jefferson. For an understanding of the Roosevelt era I recommend this book. I would not, of course, push the parallel of Jefferson and Roosevelt too far, but certainly at times there is an astonishing similarity. Padover writes of Jefferson from birth (April 13, 1743) to death (July 4, 1826) as student, lawyer, rebel, legislator, governor, philosopher, ambassador, Secretary of State, VicePresident (under Adams), President, and finally as "sage of Monticello" from 1809 to 1826. A most interesting book, though not as exhaustive as the more recent life by Malone which I have not read.
Earl L. Bradsher's Nothing is Alien (Bruce Humphries) unexpectedly came my way. This book of poetry, honest and sincere as it is, is not good poetry. It ranges from the very bad (Rainbows) to the fairly good. Uneven is the word. There is one poem on New Hampshire, several war poems, and several fairly long narrative poems. It occasionally smells of the lamp, but is also at times redolent of the outdoors. His point of view is intelligent. He has the instincts of a poet but lacks the ability to write poetry. There are so many like him, and most of them have an appeal of a kind, as does Mr. Bradsher in this book.
If you happen to come across a first novel called A Star Called Wormwood by Martha Bacon (Random House, 1948), I think you will feel you have discovered a beautiful book. The scene is Italy in 1935; the Meredith children lost in the mountainous country of Carrara will remind you of the children in The Innocent Voyage- The meanings in this haunting story will be clear only to the imaginative. There is love and death, and flashes of beauty. I recommend it.
From England I got Glubb Pasha's Storyof the Arab Legion, the reading of which helped make clear some of today's headlines about Trans-Jordan and the whole Palestine question. He tries to dispel the idea that the Arabs are a backward race and points out that the Arab Empire of the eighth century was relatively more powerful than the British Empire is today, and that the Arab domination lasted longer than the time during which the British Empire has been in existence. In order to earn an intelligent point of view about Israel, I suggest that you read Philby's history of Arabia, the books on Arabia by Blunt, Doughty, Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark, etc. It is a most complicated subject, full of emotional dynamite. There are conflicting interests in oil, sympathy with the Jewish state mixed with comprehension of the Arab position, etc. The Middle East is no place for snap judgments, prejudices, or ignorance. This is even more true of other spheres in which we are now deeply involved. We can not afford to be stupid and leave our foreign affairs in the hands of a relatively few people whose names in many instances we do not even know. And always beware of the military mind.
If you were in the American Air Forces during the war you may enjoy reading (you must take it slowly) James Gould Cozzens Guard of Honor. The scene is an enormous air base in Florida with local and army politics, racial animosities, personal loyalties and enmities rampant. You will recognize a lot of people you know; somehow the uniform, especially among the brass, does not bring out the best qualities in human nature. On the contrary it focuses on the worst. Mr. Cozzens is a practised hand and does justice to his immense subject.
Most mountain climbers know of F. Spencer Chapman who made a great ascent of Chomolhari and described it well in Helvellyn to Himalaya. Now he has written a book which Compton Mackenzie places "in the very small top class of books" about the Second World War. This is called The Jungle is Neutral (Chatto and Windus, London, 1949) and tells of his adventures behind the Japanese lines in Malaya. He was compared by Wavell with the late Lawrence of Arabia "for sheer courage and endurance, physical and mental," though Wavell does not think this book is comparable to Seven Pillars. I am finding it "a terrific book."
Those interested in community histories, especially of Western New York, and in religious cults, will enjoy Frank J. Lankes' study: The Ebenezer Community of TrueInspiration, published by the author for distribution by Julius Bednarz, Gardenville, N. Y., scene of part of the story. He describes a German cult which emigrated to the Buffalo Creek Reservation in Erie County in 1842. There are drawings and maps; the story is well documented and is competently written.
