Hanover Browsing
FATHER Joseph A. Pelletier, of Assumption College, Worcester, Mass., has written a most interesting, critical, and devotional book called The SunDanced at Fatima, which. tells of the apparitions seen (an angel and then the Virgin Mary) by three Portuguese children on October 13, 1917, when the sun danced at Fatima. So great was the faith of the people in the children's vision that a large church, the Chapel of Apparitions, now stands on the spot: Cova da Iria.
Interest in this remarkable book quickens when one reads in the October 29, 1951 number of Newsweek that Cardinal Tedeschini, papal legate, has announced: "Another person has seen this miracle ... our own Pontiff, Pius XII... (He) was able to gaze upon the activity of the sun. Under the hand of Mary, the sun .. . (transmitted) mute but eloquent messages to the Vicar of Christ." These manifestations the Pope had seen at 4 p.m. on the afternoons of October 20, 31, November 1 and 8, last year in the Vatican Gardens while gazing at the sun. Owing to extravagant newspaper reports the Vatican is now said to be quite cautious about the matter: It was up to Pius, if he so chose, to state what he actually saw." Pious Catholics and those who, with the late William James, are interested in all sorts of religious phenomena, will find Father Pelletier's book fascinating reading.
Remember Me, by Edward Meade, is a fine story o£ a Canadian soldier's war adventures from "Yellow Prairie, in Western Canada, across to England on a transport, through several London air raids, to D-Day and death among the Normandy hedgerows. Apparently this was first published by Faber in London in 1949, but the copy I saw was printed by a reprint house in Montreal. Recommended.
Hodding Carter's Southern Legacy (Louisiana State University Press) is a most revealing book about a progressive editor in Mississippi and the South, and though it may not enlighten many Southerners, it will certainly help the "demned Yankees" to understand better their Southern neighbors. There is printed in the book a song, new to me, about the late sainted William Jennings Bryan. It goes something like this:
"W. T. B. is dead, he died on Sabbath Day, So sweetly was the King asleep, his spirit passed away; He was at Dayton, Tennessee, defending our dear Lord, And as soon as his work on earth was done, he went to his reward. He fought the evolutionists, the infidels and fools, Who are trying to ruin the minds of our children in the schools, By teaching we came from monkeys and other things absurd, By denying the works of our Blessed Lord, and God's own Holy word."
Senator James A. Reed of Missouri once said: "A lobbyist is anyone who opposes legislation I want. A patriot is anyone who supports me." And, as the burglar said, there is something in that! Which serves to introduce an important book, TheLobbyists: The Art and Business of Influencing Law Makers, recently published by Little, Brown & Company.
Karl Schriftgiesser, the author, especially warns us against the lobby, supported by millions from big business, which is trying to abrogate the Atomic Energy Act. This most important Act was lobbied through Congress for the people and by the people to prevent forever the private control of atomic energy, which is of the people. Unless we are eternally vigilant, which the Crime Report indicates we are not, many millions will go to lobbies whose purpose it is to abrogate this- law. The lobbies, all of them, now and in the future, are your business. This is an important book which should be pondered.
Through the courtesy of Roger W. Straus Jr., I have an advance copy of what I think is Alberto Moravia's best novel: The Confprmist (Farrar Straus-and Young). It is a story of the rise and fall of a minor Fascist secret agent, and it proceeds lucidly and inevitably to its tragic conclusion. Moravia is extremely good in his descriptions of physical love, rare and garden variety, and this book is filled with uncanny understanding of Italian men and women. There is a finality about this book that marks it as a distinguished one. The translation is excellent, and I recommend this one highly.
In conclusion I would like to recommend a few books for Christmas. First, I think Douglas Southall Freeman's third and fourth volumes of his monumental (eight volumes in all are planned) life of George Washington (Scribners) would be appreciated by anyone, especially if the first two volumes went with it. Also Life'sPicture History of Western Man, a new copy of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the new 12-volume Everyman's Encyclopaedia (third edition), and finally the new Oxford Atlas. Merry Christmas.
