Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 14

OAKLAND TRIBUNE. SUNDAY, JUNE 111333 REVIEWS OF BOOKS AND GOSSIP OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO MAKE THEM CURRENT LITERARY OFFERINGS BY LEADING AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS' 2-3 John Steinbeck's Latest Tops List of 1939 Novels, In Reviewer's Estimation Careers of Boriapartes In U.S. Told I Inside Navy Life Related By Admiral By R. F. ARMKNECHT, Lieotenaat-Cemmander, C.E.C, United States Navy GANNETT I'- 1 I "Sea Duty, the Memo Ire of a Fighting Admiral" by Rear Ad' miral Yates Stirling, U.S retired, III staunch book, properly fitted out Its hull is soundly constructed from incidents in a noteworthy n' val career, the seams well caulked with anecdote.

The rigging is naval adventure, the cargo Navy information, and, for good, measure, there is a generous euppiy of ammunition In the magazine, destined for persons, peoples and policies which Admiral Stirling believes inimical to the Navy or to the National welfare. An articulate lot, our admirals. Primarily, this Is the result of our democracy, our treasured freedom of speech. Actually, of course, the Navy imposes a censorship where matters of National policy are concerned, and it cannot be denied that the Navy Department is apt to crack lown on. criticism, however honest and well intentioned, which does not happen to agree with the then prevailing departmental -way of thinking.

OFTEN IN TROUBLE I In his 48 yearsf. active service Admiral Stirling frequently ran X. a 1 of censorship regulations, Vritten and unwritten. Once he re This wood cut from "harvest," by Jean tiiono, is designed to give the Impression of clear and tonic beauty, warm with the scent of the damp, rich earth. i in i i imn Hi in 'mnmmm wnnwir iiumi Rear Admired Yateg Stirling, U.SJf., retired, who has written the story of hli Ifle at sea and ashore In "Sea Duty, the Memolri of a Fighting Admiral." A.P.

photograph. Another wood cut illustration from "Harvest," by Jean Glono, who writes of the close kinship between men and women and nature. Pirandello Bares Tenets of Philosophy in" Short Tales ceived an official letter of repri tnand; at other times he escaped formal discipline, but was subjected to more subtle punitive action, usu ally in the shape of assignment to an unpopular duty station. In the three years since his retirement, which' brought with it some relaxa tion of the censorship imposed upon active officers, he has, in various syndicated articles, trod on toes hitherto sacrosanct a how he has enjoyed it! Though he was frequently, under gunfire, in Cuba, in the Philippines, on the Yangtze, and had a notable brush with a sumbarine during the World it is still necessary to accept with reservations the "Fighting Admiral" subtitle if we are properly to appreciate the man. in spite of his effort to picture himself as a reddish-haired lad with a chip on his shoulder, in those stripling days in Baltimore, it is easy to see that it was not pugnacity which led him into the most interesting battles of his career.

Bather, it was the quality of venturesomeness. ON FATHER'S STAFF When the author had reached the rank of senior lieutenant, he served on his father's staff while the latter commanded the Asiatic Squadron. The necessity for playing the PO' lltlcal game if one would -obtain i position as chief of bureau or an important, fleet Command is accu rately presented." No Informed fleet person doubts the truth of this sit uation as the admiral describes It, but the general staff idea may not be the cure-au he predicts. MASSIE TRAGEDY One of the most difficult tasks of Admiral Stirling's career arose wnen, as commandant in Hawaii, he had to handle the Massie tragedy, The chapter devoted to this case will make unpleasant reading for those who insist that polyracial. Ori ental Hawaii is fit candidate for Statehood.

There are in the admiral's book many glimpses of famous people, One of these pictures Eleanor Roosevelt, then wife of the assistant secretary of the Navy, "radiantly enthusiastic" in sooty dungareea after climbing a battleship mast to wit nets a target practice. Another shows the Kaiser in a battle of wits with "Fighting Bob" Evans. The Kaiser had Inspected Evans ship, scrutinizing, each sailor, frequently asking a man's name. By careful se lection of racial type great majority of Teutonic surnames cropped up. At the end of the inspection the Kaiser turned to Evans and conv plimented him on his fine crewd "mostly German," Evans, hopping mad, said nothing, but called his orderly and whispered an order.

Shortly afterward a handsome and well-setup sailor appeared and sa- JL 'St 3 i IS By LEWIS When you come to summing up the books of 1939 you begin with John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," and then you take a long breath and wonder which of a dozen other books to set down next; for "The Grapes of Wrath" has the qua! ity of greatness to read it is an emotional experience. Burton Rascoe says it isn't so. He wrote a long dissenting! opinion in News Week, alleging that Stein beck's language wa not that which he, Rascoe, heard as a youth in Ok lahoma, and that the region of the Crazy Horse Mountains, north of the Arkansas River, where a study of the road maps seems to place the old" Joad Tarm, is not, properly speaking, a part of the Dust Bowl, He had other objections to the story. which might have been boiled down into four words: "I don't like it, There are no words in the critical vocabulary for which I have more respect; they go deeper than any of the formulations of criticism. By his likes and dislikes, not by the pat tern of words in which he expresses them, the critic is ultimately judged TOWERS OVER OTHERS I do like "The Grapes of Wrath and I could concede more faults than a dozen Rascoes could find in it and still feel that the book towers above the other novels of the year.

If you are shockable, some of the language will shock you; all I can reply to that is that I've heard it. It rings true. too; have listened to truck drivers in hamburger joints, and my impression is that Steinbeck's ver sion of their conversation offers but a faint and delicate suggestion of its physiological bouquet. I think that suggestion was an es sential part of Steinbeck's writing Job. Steinbeck has as good an ear for the rhythm of rough American speech as Hemingway, Cain, Caldwell or Weidman; the quality which distinguishes him from most other "tough" writers is that he is not afraid also to be tender.

He knows how closely toughness and tenderness live together. Call it- "sentimentality" if you like; it Is life. In Steinbeck's case it is also literature, TYPICAL ENDING Some have criticized the ending of the story. It is too sudden, they say, too deliberately startling. Possibly sq.

You will find the same kind or violent enoings to most of John Steinbeck's short stories. There is a kind of violence in the man's nature, in his outlook upon this world. It is a part of his indignation that a world he loves so much is as it is. "But the book is others say. So.

I suddosc. were Dos toievsky's novels, and Tolstoy's, and most of Dickens'; so, in some sense, are most books that live: propaganda for humanity. At any rate, "The Grapes of Wrath" stands at the top of my list of the books of 1939, and for me there is no other In its class; but there are a host of good novels. There is John Marauand's "Wick- ford Point," urbane and witty as was to De expected from the author of "The Late George Apley," though, I think, a more sprawling and less integrated book, lacking a clearlv defined perspective. 'SEASONED TIMBER' Dorothy Canfield's "Seasoned Timber" lingers in my mind as do few of the year's novels.

Perhaps it it not technically a very good novel. Dorothy Canfield weakened it by combining in one book a not very perspicacious story of a middle-aged man's love for a young girl with her brilliant picture of a Vermont community faced with a local issue of democracy vs. money, of anti-Semitism in a most smilingly innocent- Story Reveals Inner Secrets Of Boys' Clubs We've been hearing a good deal about boys' clubs these days but probably not as much as we should. Some of us do have a sketchy idea of what goes on in a boys' club and what Is accomplished, and some of us only have a hazy idea that it is a etub for boys and let It go at that. America is notorious for its crime problem, and much of that problem is laid at the door of juvenile delinquency.

Nearly every professional goes through the amateur ranks before becoming accomplished in his line. It sounds logical that if we can head him off before he reaches the amateur stage, he won't give, any trouble as a professional. Max Siegel's "Boys' Club" should naturally find Its principal appeal among boys. While the pure reader interest is centered there, the book may be well recommended to the parents too. They may learn something about their boys.

There are some cynics who may even say the book is mushy, sentimental claptrap In several of its parts. Very well. If mushy, sentimental claptrap can knock our juvenile delinquency problem into a cocked hat, let's have more of it. Siegel's book Is not a treatise; it's a story with a plot, and it's main object is to entertain. Club," by Max Sie- gel: Boston, Houghton Mifflin Com pany, Answer to Mystery The Great Merlinl is back again.

He turned up last year doing card tricks with one hand and solving mysteries with the other, in "Death From a Top Hat," to become Clayton Rawson's first fiction hero. He Is still a hero in "Footprints on the Ceiling." This time Merlin! solves mystery in the middle of New York's Eajt River. To the layman the name Bonaparte means spectacular conquest Waterloo and St Helena. It is peculiarly and particularly France. Yet the Boriapartes played an im portant role, or roles, in America and their names are written large in the Nation's history Dr.

C. E. Macartney, historian, and Gordon Dorrance, author and publisher, have compiled a history of "The Bonapartes in America" that reads more like fiction than history, so filled is it with amazing and exciting romance. It is declared to be the first published work to contain in a single volume all the available material of every member of the family who has lived in the United States or has been connected in any way with this, country. MUCH NEW MATERIAL Much of the material is entirely new.

The authors spent 10 years in gathering and verifying their facts, making special trips through France and Corsica, doing research in the British and French museums and studying family archives. In addition to the Bonapartes, there are chapters on the Murats in Florida, Marshal Ney in North Carolina, Napoleon and the Louisiana Purchase and a complete survey of American plots to rescue Napoleon from St Helena. In their order there are chapter on Jerome Bonaparte and his romance and marriage to Elizabeth Patterson; Charles J. Bonaparte of Baltimore; King Joseph Bonaparte at Philadelphia, Bordentown, New Persey, and Lake Bonaparte, New York; Prince and Princess Achille Murat of Florida; Napoleon III in New York City; Napoleon III in Mexico; the Napoleonic exiles in Alabama, Texas and the Champ d' Aisle, and Napoleon's son in California. WAS SAN FRANCISCAN The latter, John Gordon Bonaparte, authentically the natural son of the great soldier, lived in San Francisco and carried on his trade of watchmaker and jeweler, and la buried In the transbay city.

recounting the achievements and exploits of these Bonapartes the authors have written in a familiar, but not personal, style. Theirs is behind the scenes story, made of backstairs' gossip. They recognize the strength and the weaknesses of their characters, but do not seek to exaggerate' nor to minimize them, Rather they are concerned with pre senting them in a true perspective and they seem to have suceeded very well. Bonapartes in America," by C. E.

Macartney and Gordon Dor rance: New York, Dorrance Com pany, Inc, $3.) Film Capital Mvsterv Needs Reporters who are inclined to wander from their original newt theme are kept in bounds by copy readers who are cheerful exponents of the blue pencil of editing. It's a pity that some such group Is not maintained in the fiction field to keep young authors such as Jack Preston from running all over the place with the plots of novels such as "Heil Hollywood." Preston has a rather diverting story to tell of the inside workings of the film colony and is appar ently conversant with his subject he-is as unable to stick-to the original thought as he is to keep his tenses in order. The re sult is a literary mess. "Heil Holly wood" starts off with a suicide in which an unpleasant picture big wig so arranges his death that six men of prominence in the film world find themselves facing trial for murder on the flimsiest of evi dence. This might have made a story.

So might the yarn about the ambitious girl who had trouble getting places in Hollywood. So might the series of revenge iTOders. So, fi nally, might have been the anti- Jewish pogrom. But Preston insisted on weaving all "hese and more sub-plots and counter-plots into the story with confounding results. "Heil Hollywood" is a wearisome book that has little to commend it Hollywood," by Jack Pres ton: Chicago, Reilly and Lee, $2.50.) Authors Give Modeling Tips "Modeling for Amateurs" by Clif ford and Rosemary Ellis is the 20th publication in the "How to Do It" series, About as efficient a substi tute for a visit to the work-room as could be devised." The authors of this book who are teachers in modeling for be)th chil dren ana aauns explain eacn siep with an accompany illustration.

Toys, puppets and masks can be made by children of twisted wire, cut newspaper and paste. Clay modeling and its steps are fully explained and illustrated as well so matVinric nf pasting the COIDDleted for Amateurs," by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis: New York, The Studio Publications, $3.50.) mmm fmm ,1 wonder aieuin Hank Hyer has attained the statu of a major fiction detective and he'a at his best in Kurt Steel's new thriller, "Judas Incorporated." Thii is a mystery story with social implications, laid in a factory town where a labor war is seetnmg. There's only one murder to solve, second occurs but it's nothing, for Hyer's case was ironclad with ot without it looking form. More persuasively though less dramatically than "It Can't Happen Here," it presents the oasic issue of American democracy. I'd like to know whether most American communities, in Vermont or elsewhere, would face that issue as honestly, and emerge from it as soundly, as does "Clifford, Vermont" in Dorothy Canfield's novel.

It may be significant of something that no single Vermont newspaper ventured dissent from her findings. Dissent there must have been, even in rock-ribbed Vermont though I understand that when, before the book was published, Miss Canfield read the crucial chapter to an academic community in Vermont and called for a vote only two hands were raised in opposition to Timothy Hulme's stern program. One, I was told, belonged to the English wife of a local manufacturer; the other, to her house guest from New York. THINK ABOUT IT "You keep thinking about it." one reader said of "Seasoned Timber." When all the criticism ofform, structure and detail is forgotten, that is the criterion by which a book's per manence is determined: that people "keep thinking about it." The Grapes of Wrath," "Wick- ford Point" and "Seasoned Timber" were all included in a recent bestseller chart. So were Pearl Buck's 'The Patriot." Paul Wellman's "Ju bal Troop" and Margery Sharp's amusing "Harlequin Home," which for me, too, belong among the best of the season; but oh that best-seller list I miss Elizabeth Bowen's "Death of a Heart," one of the best-written books of the year; Archie Binns' story of the '49ers, "The Land Is Katharine Anna Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider." and Don Marquis' last story, which must be of his own Illinois boyhood, "Sons of the Puritan." RECALLS MARK TWAIN I think his publishers did Don Marquis a disservice in their too great loyalty to his text.

He had finished, when he died, one section of what was to have been a atout book and barely more than a chapter of the second section. As printed, tne dook is obviously unfinished and leaves the reader vaguely dissatis fied; but that first section, which could well stand by itself, is one of the finest small -town stories in American literature. It Is no exag geration to say that parts of it recall Mark Twain. As "The Grapes of Wrath" justly heads the best-seller lists in fiction so Nora Wain's "Reaching for, the Stars" properly leads in nonaction It is the friendliest, and most damn ing, picture of contemporary Ger many which has reached us the most convincing because of Miss Wain's obviously genuine affection for the land that Hitler's men have poisoned. OTHERS MENTIONED Oswald Garrison Villard's "Fight ing Years," William Lyon Phelps' Autobiography With Letters" and Edna Ferber's "A Peculiar Treasure" offer very different autobiographical side lights upon the recent American past, Ruth McKenney's "Indus trial Valley" paints one aspect of the present The Beards' "Midpassage" is an enormous canvas that tries to take it all in Bertram Wolfe's Diego Rivera" is the most colorful of the year's biographies The six volumes of "The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson" are a gold mine for those with time to mine in them.

The Letters of T. E. Lawrence" yield a different brand of nuggets. And if you cannot come to New York to see the play, Robert Sherwood's "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" is rarely readable. American Envoy Does Treatise On Argentina When Alexander Wllbourne Wed-dell, American Ambassador to Argentina, wrote "Introduction tq Argentina," Just published, he accomplished much toward cementing a more friendly feeling between the great republic of South America and the United States.

For the book, a most friendly sort of publication, is a complete guide for prospective visitors to Argentina and should prove to be a standard guide for the vast throngs of Americans who are yearly turning their attention in greater numbers to travel in South America. "Inttoductlori to Argentina" is more than a guide book, for in his official position the author was able to obtain a finer and closer' insight the thoughts and life of the people than could 'the ordinary writer. The result is a book of complete understanding and interest He analyzes the life of the country and forecasts for it a brilliant future. The book carries a foreword from President R. M.

Ortiz of Argentina, to whom it is dedicated. It also contains many fine photographs of the country, the people and their activities, public institutions, the big es-tancias or ranches, and scenic It also contains a pocket map of the republic. To any one anticipating a visit "Introduction to Argentina" will prove invaluable. to Argentina," by Alexander Wilbourne Weddell. New York.

The Greystone Press, $3.) News Stories Laurence Greene presents a review of big news during the 1920s which he chodSes to place under the picturesque title, "The Era of Wonderful Nonsense." The reader has a ringside seat in this book and seea 25 but headline stories unfold. 'Wise as a Goose1 Story Of Redwoods "Wise As a Goose," by Vernon Patterson, author 'of "All Giants Wear Yellow is a delightful romance of 'the Redwood lumber country and i 'book -thai promises to place this author definitely in the forefront of the present generation of American writers. It ll also the first book to be pro duced by the new Lymanhouse pub lishing of Los Angeles. "Wise As a Goose" Is considerably more than a romance of the lumbering country, It is also a compendium of the redwood lumbering industry, a business with which Patterson is thoroughly He has worked in the Redwood country, its mills and camps, and has encountered many of the adventures related In the story. When he depicts a dogger or chopper, a rigging puller or a timekeeper, he knows of what he writes for he, too, has filled those Jobs.

MASTER OF CHARACTER As a delineator of characters Pat' terson nas snown nimseii to be a master, creating men who breathe and live, who act and talk just as they do in real life. Some of the characters he has created in nis present dook should una a permanent place in American literary characters. Wise As a Goose" covers about every aspect of woods life. The author skillfully introduces tales of the old-day ox-team logging, stories of Paul Bunyan, and tales that have had their origin in our own California redwoods. Then he shows the modern methods of lumbering, the life of the man, intrigues and troubles with the "Wob-blies." His descriptions of strikes in the camps, of forest fires and roaring river floods are so vivid that it is an unimaginative reader Indeed who can not be thrilled.

KNOWS HIS PEOPLE Patterson, who is 40 years old. has been a woodsman, a hobo, a World War veteran and a wanderer. and so la able to bring first-hand color into his book. He knew his characters from actual contact, the lovable old ex-sailor and pug, Good- enough; Gus, the French chopper, Little Ruby; Ole, the river rat; Axel, the wise old Wobbly; Pink, the poetic sec ond character; and Ashton, who is almost a portrait of himself. And he delineates them as real living men.

The love element trgood and his women are as real as his men. The book also contains a glossary of lumberjack, wobbly and hobo terms. "Wise As a Goose" should be one of the outstanding present books. Chapter line drawings do much to enhance the work. "Wise As a Goose by Vernon Patterson: Los Angeles.

Lyman house, Publishers.) Happiness Quest For those who like their novels alty, sophisticated and studious, Countess Felicia Gizycka (whose mother is Eleanor Medill Patterson) has written her second, "Flower of omoxe. it is a story of love and citiesVienna and New York and of pre and post-World War days in which an American-Austrian girl strikes out for experience and finds the Quest for happiness and peace at long last within herself. -TWO. EVANS REPLY When a writer of renown passes the years of physical and emotional activity, the tales he tells often possess a qualitylacking in earlier works. The Sturm und Drang which are the inspiration and blood of the younger man are gone, and in their place is a mellow, full-bodied phil osophy which, though less exciting, is more lasting.

'The publishers do not say when the 19 short stories of Luigi Pirandello, collected under the title "The were but most of them seem to be the work of Pirandello's later years. They evoke a picture of an elderly man, a little weary, a little impatient but not angry with the self-importance of fellow humans, wryly telling tales born of his observation and experience. And because his experience stretches over many years, his ob servations carry a saltiness, a tenderness and an irony which a younger man could" not jompound with such exact balance between the emotions and the intellect. SICILIAN SETTING All of the tales in this book- some of them are merely sketches have Sicily as a background. Sicilians notoriously are passionate crea tures who love, fight and revenge themselves fierce 1 y.

Pirandello knows his Sicilian peasant, and with an irony gentle that it seems tender, ha exposes the simplicity and reasonableness of violent action. Take, for example, the story of Saru Argentu, who was on trial for cleaving his wife's head with a hatchet. In the courtroom, Argentu, who thinks this matter of justice is a waste of time, in a speech that is gem for its satiric appraisal of conventions, makes it clear that he would never have killed his wife if the countess had minded her own business. WIFE'S VISITOR He had known all along that Count Fiorica was a frequent visitor at his home during his absence in the field; the neighbors knew about it; his wife knew that he was not ignorant of what was going on, but as long as nothing was said about it there was no problem. But she, by making him an ob ject of scandal and ridicule, had left him no alternative but to kill his wife.

And because the truth, as Argentu saw it and expounded it was so reasonable, so simple, he lost the freedom which a plea of passion and momentary insanity would have brought JOYOUS AND BITTER With equal sympathy and under standing, Pirandello tells a story of Toni, lamplighter of Troni, who also was made an object of ridicule for blinking at his wife's numerous affairs. That he preferred the peace and dreaminess of his thoughts made no difference to his townsmen and one evening, goaded by their taunts, he rusHed home to kill her as was expected of was prevented not by lack of the discovery of a intruder but by the identity of the man. This is a joyous tale but also a bitter one. In "The Medals" Pirandello plumbs the nature of heroism. Sci- areme wore seven meaais on nis breast when the veterans of the Garibaldi wars marched through the town.

He was a gentle, little old man who had been in the battles with Garibaldi, had seen him and kissed his band, but Sciareme had been no soldier, and the medals were not his. Pirandello tells the pitiful tale of his exposure and of his final triumph. So masterfully does he weave the frail texture of this sentimental little story that a whole town and its tongue are brought to life. SON OFF TO WAR "War" is material of sterner stuff. Yet here, too, Pirandello uses a simple folk as the spokesmen of his philosophy.

To bring comfort to a poor woman in a train whose only son is going off to war, a fellow passenger who has lost a son on the battlefield pompously tells of his own conquest over sorrow. "Now if one dies young and happy," he says, "without having the ugly sides of life, the boredom of it, the the bitterness of disillusion what more can we ask for To the unworldly mother this was a new way of looking at the death of a child. In wonder and confusion she turned to the old man and asked him a simple question. "Then is your son really dead?" Under the surprising impact of that question a stoic vanished and a father faced the shattering effect of his loss. As was intimated before, there is more than story to these tales.

It is Pirandello, the philosopher, who is evaluating life and its importunate, demands upon humans, finding courage where the world sees cowardice, strength wliere only weakness is obvious, wisdom for ingenuousness. These afe subtle tales about simple folk. Juvenile Book Tells Story of Philippines Life In Lucy Herndon Crockett's book, "Lucio and His Nuong," the young hero, Lucio Mansalo was from the day of his birth, according to the prophecy of his Aunt 'Tina, destined to do great things. How this prediction came true is told delightfully by Miss Crockett. Most American children will be amazed to find that in the Province of Pangasinan, Philippine Islands, when a boy attains the age of six years he becomes a worker and as sumes certain duties in tne nouse-hold or on the farm.

On his sixth birthday Lucio became the master of the Mansalo nuong, a fierce widehorned cara-bao, that refused to pull the cart to market ori to plow in the fields. Lucio olved the problem of bringing the lazy, dangerous nuong out of the cool river and putting him to work, by using kindness instead of threats and abuse. Life as it is lived day by day by the Filipino farmers and fishermen, and, a visit to the fascinating and bewildering city of Manila to carry produce to market, is skillfully portrayed in extraordinary colorful drawings by the author. and His Nuong," by Lucy Herndon Crockett: New York, Henry Holt Company, (1) Vernon Patterson, author of "Wise at a Goose," a novel that hat for Its setting the Redwood lumber region. Fair Marvels Seen With Child Eyes Bobby and Betty, young travelers who are the subject of a series of Juvenile books, have found Treasure Island the one In the Bay, not Stevenson's to be a fascinating place.

Joseph Henry Jackson, the San Francisco literary critic and author, takes them there in "A Trip to the San Francisco Exposition With Bobby and Betty." In understanding manner, Jackson presents the wonders of the Fair through the eyes of the sister and brother, and the educational aspects of the Fair through the words of Father and Mother. The family gets about through the buildings and courts in whirlwind fashion, so that the book includes all the highlights of Treasure Island. A aeries of photogrsphs illustrate Bobby's and Betttfa Expo sition visit. Because of the time it takes to publish a book, the volume was based on pre-Fair plans, and it consequently talks in the past tense of some things that haven't happened yet, and probably won't hap- pen, Trip to the San Francisco Ex-position with Bobby and Betty," by Joseph Henry Jackson: New York, Robert M. McBride $2.) Richard Reports What would Benjamin Franklin say regarding the state of the Na- tion todayT John de Meyer essays flight into fantasy and appears wnn nis version of the of the an-awer in "Benjamin Franklin Calls on the President." In this little volume the shade of Poor Richard reports to Thomas Jefferson in a long letter on his surprises and consternation as he is introduced to the machine age, the Installment era and the New Deal, "Your Majesty," said Bob, "I want you to know Abel Davis, a full-blooded Gay Head Indian, the only American on board my ship." The book is significant In its faithful recording of the growth of a naval career.

Here, with unmistakable fidelity, we may learn an officer's reaction to command responsibility, to emergencies, to his ship's reputation, to parting with a happy ship, to 4he whole naval tradition. The first several pages, dealing with the author's youth, I found unconvincing. They appear to be romantically concocted in the vein of "The American Midshipman Series," a set of boys' books penned by Admiral Stirling 35 years ago. Once past these, however, the portrait is authentic; this Is indeed the skipper to whose ship I reported, fresh from the Naval Academy, nearly 18 years ago. Novel Peopled With Disabled Veterans Mlllen Brand writes in The Heroes" a grim account of what happens to the disabled veterans of jjst wars.

The ywere heroes, or they slyly referred to themselves, In those days when they tasted victory and their country was once rain safe for But what row? what about those men who iid lost a leg, an arm or had suffered other injury in battle? What was their function in life? Misfits-all of them, bereft of the ability or aptitude to- enjoy, a normal man's I'lcfimres. This, is the theme of Brand's fecond a noteworthy, successor to his first, Outward Room." "The Heroes finds its locale in a England soldiers' home for dis- wt veteran.