Hanover Browsing

ALL through the war I seemed to be reviewing books on the Army Air Force written by Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain. I am glad to see the partnership is still thriving in a book called A Man of His Own and Other DogStories, published by Whittlesey House. The most moving of all the stories, and there are fifteen of them, is the last, "Just a Dog," consisting of a letter written in 1940 to a man who accidentally, but none the less stupidly, killed Corey's dog. All dog stories tend to be sentimental and most of them are unashamedly so in this book, which will be welcomed by all dog lovers.

For Christmas an English friend sent me Iris Origo's The Last Attachment, a really fascinating revelation of Byron's last, and perhaps most genuine, love affair with Teresa Guiccioli. All students of Byron have known of this chapter in his life but the Marchesa Origo here presents a new portrait of the poet. It is new, as almost all of the book consists of hitherto unpublished material. There are 160 of his love letters to Teresa, and some of her answers to Byron, together with her account of his life in Italy. This is a work of first-class scholarship; it is interesting and belongs with the best work on Byron. My copy will stand beside Peter Quennel's Byron in Italy. Each complements the other.

The reputation of Elizabeth Coatsworth is firmly fixed as a poet and her most recent volume lends enchantment to what has gone before. The Creaking Stair is a handsome volume designed by W. A. Dwiggins and using a typeface designed by him (as yet unnamed) for the first time. The mood of these poems is Gothic for the most part; the language and rhythms are Miss Coatsworth's own and are memorable. What a picture, for instance, is evoked for all New Englanders especially by her poem "Poor Relation," the last two stanzas of which are: I use a crooked looking glass, I take what I am given to drink, but no one knows the thoughts that passoh, no one guesses what I think!

Somehow as I read this poem my whole childhood flashed before me, and long for- gotten episodes about people centering in Amesbury, Massachusetts, began to focus themselves. I like some of these poems better than many written by Emily Dickinson, a poet somewhat akin to Miss Coatsworth in mood and style.

The quality of contemporary detective fiction is, alas, deplorably low. As an addict, I recommend that others join me in going back and reading two topnotchers: Freeman Wills Crofts and R. Austin Freeman. You can begin with Crofts' The SeaMystery (1928) or Freeman's The Cat'sEye (1927). Then go on and read a dozen of the early ones you either have never read or have forgotten. They will prove to be a welcome relief from the present crop.

If you happen to need further evidence in understanding why Lenin and a couple of ex-waiters took over Russia in 1917, read A. Novikoff-Priboy's Tsushima (Knopf, 1937), a story of the destruction of the Russian fleet by Admiral Togo in the Japanese Sea in 1905. The Russians invited destruction. They went into the battle practically waving can openers; their morale couldn't have been lower nor the corruption of their government and leaders greater. Thirty-eight Russian ships were completely destroyed and gave the Japanese Navy reason to think that they might challenge the United States.

For an account of this challenge I can recommend the filth volume o£ Walter Karig's "Battle Report" called Victory inthe Pacific. If not as official as S. E. Morison's larger history, these volumes are most readable and on the whole a credit to their authors and publisher.

I happen to like to read about Arabia and if there are others like me I can recommend to them a new book, not yet published over here, called The Kingdom ofMelchior, about adventure in South-West Arabia, by The Master of Belhaven (Lt. Col. A. Hamilton). Pre-war exploration.

I also recommend to bird-lovers, and those who like to read about far-off places, a really fine book about birds in the Outer Hebrides, Island Going, by Robert Atkinson. The illustrations are excellent.

Let me know if I can advise you how to purchase books published in England.

A SMOKE ON THE TRAIL: A picture from the good old days, when there was plenty of snow for Carnival, and skiing wasn't downhill all the way.