Corpus Christi Caller-Times from Corpus Christi, Texas • 32

-m rryv OOkT fl 1 WHOLE YEAR OF GOOD READING W-W- Best-Selling Fiction List Is a Good Yule Gift Guide House $-193) a stirring odyssey of a Jew's escape from the hostility bred In him for the Gentile world WITH TIME out lor a midsummer breatlirr they have been coming across this desk at the rale of lour a week liner Jan 1 and nature being kind tome of them already are out of mind and maybe out of print- Enough remain Die reviewer is happily startled to realize to make up a Christmas book shopping Hat pretty certain to meet Just about every kind of taste Into the files then for a look at the year's fiction the author of THE TALL DARK MAN Nevll THE RAINBOW AND THE ROSE (Morrow $395) the old master in form again with a tale about fliers and flying Forester's ADMIRAL IIORNBLOWKR IN THE WEST INDIES (Little Brown $1) another popular narrative artist with a sequence of stories about a now-famous character FIRST I-OVE AND OTHER SORROWS (Dial $350) nine more or less related stories by Harold Brodsky a highly promising newcomer THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS by Maria Dcrmout (Simon Schuster $375) one of die truly original hooks of the season a poetic evocation of legend and memory of the Dutch East Indies The funniest story of the year: Peler DeVries' TIIE MACKEREL PLAZA (Lit tic Brown $175) or a highflying non conformist pastor In Mr DcV's Avalon Conn Somewhere between fiction and fact: riUVATK by Lester Atwell (Simon Schuster $5) a fierce tender chronicle of an American regiment in World War II and A NEW ENGLAND GIRLHOOD by Nancy Hale (Little Brown $375) Two that went straight to the head of the best-seller list though their values as fiction were questioned In this column: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO by Boris Pasternak (Pantheon $5) and I-OUTA by Vladimir Nabokov (Putnam $5) Hutchens (CucinchU IMS Ntw York H-rId Triton Xne) moderns MOSES PRINCE OK EGYPT (Crown $395) Howard Fast's humanizing realistic story of the prophet when young SPLENDID IN ASHES by Josephine Pinckney (Viking $395) the late Charleston novelist's sprightly social com-edy or that city ANECDOTES OK DESTINY (Random House $375) mote stories by the unique Isak Dincscn And these ALL THAT WAS MORTAL by David Dempsey (Dutton $-193) a colorful three-generation story of the Illinois pralricland A FRIEND IN POWER (Scribner's $395) Carlos Baker's quietly powerful novel with a university campus as its setting Anne Chamberlain's THE DARKEST BOUGH (Bobbs-Mc rril $3) a taut little novel of love and terror by warding work HOME FROM THE IIIM by William Humphrey (Knopf $193) a Texas-et tragedy in a classic pattern Remain Gary's THE ROOTS OK HEAVEN (Simon Schuster $130) a subtly symbolic Cbnradian melodrama about men and elephants Robert Lewis Taylor's THE TRAVELS OK JAIMIE Mr-PIIKKTKRS (Doubleday $130) perhaps the best novel yet written about the 1819 Gold Rush romantic humorous and realistic THE GINGER MAN by Donleavy (McDowell Obolensky $395) a comic poignant amoral tale of a Yankee on the loose in Dublin: Jerome Weid-man's HIE ENEMY CAMP (Random Those for a start and also: Heinz' THE PROFESSIONAL (Harper $393) a topflight sports writer's quiet authoritative tale of a fighter on his way to a championship bout THE MAN WHO BROKE THINGS by John Brooks (Harper $195) about a Wall Street pirate who was something more than that THE GREENGAGE SUMMER by Rumcr God-den (Viking $350) a story of a group of children moving from innocence into an awareness of evil GATE TO THE SEA (Pantheon $275) by the English woman known simply as Rryhcr or a day In ancient Paestum with overtones for AMONG THE novels one rrader most valued were John O'Hara's FROM THE TERRACE (Random $693) his longest most complex and ultimately most re BEST SELLERS DBtnxnilks mul An it The weekly coast-to-coast survey by the Herald Tribune News Service shows the following books currently at die top of the best seller list: PAGE 14B SUNDAY DECEMBER 21 1958 Yours For The Reviews: Lore of South Texas Plus Pielui cs Novels The Asking Latest Ilooks At La Relaina Public Library FICTION DR ZHIVAGO Pasternak LOLITA Nabokov I FROM THE TERRACE O'Hara 4 AROUND THE WORLD WITH AUNTIE MAME Dennis KXODl'S Uris I THE UGLY AMERICAN Lcdcrer and Burdick 7 WOMEN AND THOMAS HARROW Marquand I ANATOMY OP A MURDER Traver I VICTORINE Keyes IE THE MOUNTAIN IS YOUNG Suyin South Texas hy a Folklorist WITH Ills PISTOL IN IIU HAND By Dr Amedeo University of Tessa Press A border ballad and its hero Gregorio Cortez familiar to South Texans are the subjects of this new book to be published Dec 29 upon a time there was no such thing as communism People Ignorantly toiled and saved hoping to Get Ahead like the heroes In Horatio books Frequently blinded hy sentimentality they left money to their Loved Ones When this was done on a large scale It led to the accumulation of huge fortunes which some harebrained member of the younger generation was sure to squander on public libraries and housing IT ALL STARTED WITH MARX Richard spoof of communism tells how Marx and the otlierx dedicated to ideals of liberty equality and hope to change everything Written in the vein of and All That" humor is sometimes a III He too grim for comfort For instance: three men (Malenkov Molotov and Kaganovich) were dropped from their high offices though not like some satellite leaders via their At that it is probably better to laugh with chattering teeth than not to laugh at all GESTURING WITH TRIGGER FINGER REESE EXPLAINS Charles Landis one of students hopes for an art career on release GENERAL AKU-AKU Heyerdahl ONLY IN AMERICA Golden THE MEMOIRS OF riELD MARSHAL MONTGOMERY i WEDEMEYER REPORTS! Wcdcmcyer BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP Boyington I KIDS SAY TIIE DARN-DEST THINGS! Llnklet-ter 7 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN ENGLISH 8 ON MY OWN Roosevelt TIIE THREE EDWARDS Costain 10 TIIE AFFLUENT WKT-ETY Galbraith MF XrwulNtnrt rMI Tlic Host in 1F1S A HOPELESS CASE The author ia a university folklorist Dr Ameriro Paredes assistant professor of English and former Brownsville newspaperman Paredes has combined a study of the ballad and its variants with an authentic biography of Cortez and a brief history of the South Texas region where Latin American and Anglo-American cultures overlap Cbrrido de Gregorio grew out of an incident that occurred June 12 1901 on a farm 10 miles west of Kenedy After a misunderstanding there was a gunfight between Cortez and Sheriff Morris of Karnes County and Morris was killed The chase capture and imprisonment of Cortez climax the story Dr Paredes collects folk songs and is himself an accomplished guitarist and folk singer While working in Brownsville as a newspaper reporter before World War II he also had a weekly radio program on which he played and sang some of them his own compositions He also writes fiction and has won prizes ($500 cash and $500 In books) for a novel (THE SHADOW) and short story collection (BORDER COUNTRY) lie teaches folklore and creative writing courses at the university Dr Paredes was born in Brownsville and worked on the Brownsville Herald from 1936 to 1913 when he entered the Army He was a political reporter for Stars and Stripes Army news-paper and covered the trials of To jo and his associates in Japan after World War II Paredes spent five years in the Far East (Japan China Korea) with the Army the Red Cross and as a civilian Army employe lie attended Brownsville Junior College (now Texas South-most College) before entering newspaper work and upon his return to Texas he resumed his higher education Coming to the University of Texas in 1950 he earned the bachelor of arts degree In 1951 master of arts in 1953 Rnd doctor of philosophy In 1956 lie began teaching English part-time in 1951 Paredes is married and has two sons Alan 7 and Vicente 4 PAPERBACKS Art Reforming Prison Inmate Stone walls do not a prison make nr not so much at least when the Inmates paint remembrance of Pfe on the outside Here's the story of what art did for a convicted killer and for the fellow prisoners he now teaches By AARON KIN FRANK Herald Tribune News Service BALLANTINE Books lists Dec 22 as the formal publication date of THE OLD COPPER COLLAR a story of Montana in the year 1899 by the irrepressible Dan Cushman Cushman has experienced the wrath of many critics who have said that be has no business writing books One opponent of the Cushman wit went so far as to recommend one of this writer's works as a graduation present if one happens to know somebody emerging from reform But the author of 8TAY AWAY JOE also has his firm adherents The Los Angeles News called THE OLD COPPER COLLAR the novel of the while the conservative Herald Tribune said pure burlesque full of fun Mr Cushman depicts doings around the turn of the century with great zest and accuracy" This latest novel from Cushman's pen concerns Bennett Montana's richest banker who sets his heart on winning a Senate seat in opposition to the wishes of the powerful Cobra Copper Co Nothing was too good for Bennett's future constituents: Whisky steak girls and campaign literature consisting of thousand dollar bills Whether or not you will fall for the hilarious the-nanigans in this novel you won't lose much at the 35 cent price for which the hook is being offered The hard cover version costs $3 MR PAGES History of Photos in Photos TIIE F1CTURE HISTORY OF rilOTOGRAPIIY fnsn the Earliest Beginnings to the Present Day By Teler Tollack Abrams $1750 NOBEL TRIZK WINNERS edited by Ludovid is a collection of biographies of some of the prize winners in literature and a science It is a pity that tile book Is restricted to the lives of only If of them most of them men whose biographies may readily be found elsewhere but it is only the in-rlusivoness of the volume that Is disappointing The sketches were done by recognized authorities some of whom have written full-length works on their subjects Thus the sketch of Kipling was written by Charles Carrington who has written the authorized biography of Kipling that of Thomas Mann by Edmond Vermeil professor of German at the Sorbonne Eight literary men and six scientists are Induded Explores New Books For Children at La Retama Public Library MERRY aiRISTMAS hnye end girls! There will be storytelling sessions in the Chil BY GEORGE SITTER LEY JEFFERSON CITY Mo (AP) Inside the forbidding walls of Missouri's state penitentiary an art class of prison Inmates works day after day painting pictures Its instructor is a life termer who once faced execution for two murders The course is fulltime The instructor and students paint or study all day every day Even in the evenings when they get a chance they paint Their work recalls scenes from before conviction or abstract stuff that may well reflect their desire for freedom Some paint nudes although there are no models available The instructor is 26-ycar-old Samuel Norbert Reese who spent three years awaiting execution in the state's gas chamber for two senseless killings in SL Louis seven years ago Instead the Missouri Supreme Court ordered new trials and he got off with two life terms Penitentiary Warden Nash says the wholesome effect of the art class on Reese is quite apparent While Reese was in death row he read avidly He found an inadequate outlet for hia bitterness in writing gloomy verse things like While Sitting in the Gas Even after he was released from death row Reese expended his energies for a while as an incorrigible uncooperative inmate the warden said Then he started dabbling with paints putting on ranyas and cardboard or sheets of paper the Ideas that beset him such as a perspective of an excavated tomb which he called "Pompeii" As he progressed his work rhangrd to lighter colors but with less traditional form He describes his work as a compilation of suggested and shadowy dren's Room during the holidays I will be there Tuesday at 10:30 am Do come down to hear the stories and stay to select some of the new books Vanquished Capitol MR DAVIS' RICHMOND By Stanley Kimmel Coward-McCann $750 An uncle of I Phelps Stokes in Paris over a century ago met Daguerre and came back to exclaim fondly to his father about man there who polishes a plate of metal so that when you look at it your likeness remains on The father replied: son if you are weak enough to believe such a thing you ought to have sense enough not to tell When Stokes told it in 1915 in his of Manhattan it wax already funny Now it Is ridiculous and the best proof of it at the moment Is this far-ranging book by Pollack1 We never hear any more the old yes but is it art? Indeed we find in these fascinating pages some reproductions which like some favorite great paintings have assumed a fixed place in our memories as if they were formative visual esthetic experiences As clear in your mind's eye as say a specific Rouault or a Picasso cubist canvas are such masterly portraits as Nadar's Daumier Carjat's Baudelaire and Morgan to mention only this one field of work Paris started it whether it was Niepce of Daguerre alone or as partners Atget followed them there were Hill Adamson and Julia Cameron In Britain But the United New York Chicago and many other ran point to a roster of splendid names whether we go back to Morse Brady and Eak-ins or note two who got their start in Farix Man Ray and Berenice Abbott or pick at random such names as Stieglitz Weston Adams Duncan Bourke-White You could like this book if you just read the text or if you just look at the pictures when you do both it can't be beat RUNAWAY RICKSHAW by Elizabeth Maitland Is the story of a little red rickshaw in China who took two little girls to the Botanic Gardens where they met some monkeys who caused a lot of trouble ALSO FEATURED this month hy Ballantine is GIFT (33 cents) ten stories for science fiction fans by Edmund Cooper This book has already been sent to members of Bal-lantine's Science-Fiction Preview Qub You can join by sending $4 In check or money order to Ballantine Books 101 Fifth Avenue New York City In return members receive 12 new science fiction works by such authors as Rad Bradbury John Wyndham Arthur Clarke and Lester del Rey These books are sent by direct mail in advance of official publication date Nash said one Reese painting looked to him like "a bunch Both the Democratic and Republican national organizations have grown to be so large and complex that now they are governed largely by committees PARTY COMMITTEES AND NATIONAL rOUTICS by Hugh A Bone describes their operations national committees House and Senate campaign committees and Senate policy committees taking the reader behind the scenes to observe their activities Bone gathered much of his material at first hand in 1954-55 when he was In Washington on a Ford Foundation fellowship and when he returned In 1956 during the presidential campaign At home Bone Is professor of American government and politics at the University of Washington and director of the Washington State North Idaho Gtizenshlp Gearing House snd windows maybe got freedom on his of doors -mind" Stanley Kimmel who turned out the handsome and eminently worthwhile story of Iincoln's now turns his attention to the Richmond of Jefferson Davis with results of somewhat lesser stature The fault is not Mr Kim-mel's His text is of a caliber with his previous an excellent and engrossing picture of the city and its people The limitations arise from the scarcity of Confederate photographs which would put gravy on the meat of the author's words There are obvious efforts to overcome the limitations Many of the illustration are sketches of battle scenes from Illustrated Weekly a northern publication Some of the best photographs were taken by Mathew Brady after fall There are sketches of battles like Shiloh and Wilson's Creek which were lar removed from Richmond Within the limitations of his material Kimmel has done extremely well Trice the AP Benjamin Elkin has given us another book for beginning readers in THE RIG JUMP AND OTHER STORIES Hie second grader can read these fairy stories for himself Zib Pauley Is the heroine ot KID SISTER by Margrrct Embry Her teenage sisters were horrified when she brought home a pet rat named Rosemary You will laugh at the amusing things that happened when Zib took Rosemary to school and she got out of her cage in the fifth grade room Older boys will especially enjoy 100 GREATEST SPORTS HEROES by Mac Davis It contains short biographies of Babe Ruth Joe Louis Ben Hogan Red Grange Babe Didrikson and ninty-five other famous sports figures CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD Is a beautifully illustrated book about the children of 22 different countries Thera is an excellent geographical sketch of each country and authentic pictures It is a very good source for information on the modern dress of children all over the world BUT NASH ALSO said Reese's altitude has sliown a heartening turn for the belter although "he's convinced that even with the outside interest shown in his art work it still will be a long time before he can get out of prison on perhaps 10 to 13 The outside interest has come from many places from Judge David Fitzgibbon of St Louis Court of Criminal Corrections from the Rev Charles Dismas Clark the self-styled "hoodlum of St Louis and from Edward Menges University City High School art teacher They and others sent Reese books on a wide range of subjects including art music and classical literature 1 Father Gark recalled that before the 1951 killings Reese ''was an animal In a cell at the (St Louis) city jail He had a piece of razor blade concealed In his teeth and would try to nick the guards when they came near Now Reese with help from visiting Instructors Is teaching the class (he basic principles of painting Last summer his students held their own exhibition in a St Louis gallrry with 83 paintings on display They sold enough to clear $800 and used every dime of to buy more and better art supplies A RECENT issue of Cosmopolitan magazine carried an article about the money today's authors make Iran subsidiary rights Paperback royalties were cited as responsible for a large chunk of many incomes Among the mentioned by Cosmopolitan were such paperback familiars as Herman Wouk Grace Mctaiious Sloan Wilson' Edna Ferber and Rod Sterling Cosmopolitan also listed Great Novels of Our most of which are out in cheap editions le BRAVE NEW WORLD AIL TIIE KING'S MEN THE HEART TK THE MATTER TIIE GRAPES OK WRATII BABBIT THE SUN ALSO RISES A PASSAGE TO INDIA The TLAGUE and USA Quite a cultural achievement for the paperback publishers wouldn't you say? O'Hara Makes His People Real FROM THE TERRACE By John O'Hara Random House IS Alfred and good as he lovingly calls slowly and in step they came in for the last time from the It was there at the California place leased from Jack Tom Smith that Alfred disclosed to her many details of his life and it ia there on page 891 of this 897-page novel that he brings to a petty whimper-like end a career of some public usefulness and private success This massive record of a rich American begins in 1894 In a town In eastern Pennsylvania scene of other O'Hara fiction when Samuel Eaton blows his factory whistle to announce the birth of son William But this eldest boy dies and the bluff father his paternal affection exhausted has none to spare for Alfred Sally and Constance who must depend for love and kindness on their mother Martha or on outsiders There is a great deal about school and college days banking manufacturing government work in wartime but the chief emphasis rests on the insistent pursuit of sex Sally and Constance have some inklings of illicit romance When Alfred isn't seeking sex it's seeking him And it's a sure thing one invariably catches tile other After preliminary love affairs a couple of deaths by accident and a murder and suicide break Alfred's tie with the past and he launches out In London with Betty then In New York and Philadelphia with Gemmie Mary and Natalie And of course this business all crisscrosses lechcrously Jimmy Roper loves Mary Lex Norton loves Gemmie Ben and Sterling love Natalie Lilting Mexican Poetry A Nightmare Trip For the Red Halers Two books purchased in response to demands of high school students are Estelle Friedman's DIGGING INTO YESTERDAY a history of archaeology and ROMAN IJFK a description of daily life in ancient Rome which depends on the findings of archaeology The first book ia a simply written account of some of the famous archaeological finds of the site of Troy Sir Arthur woik In Crete Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter In the Valley of the Kings as well as some of the more recent work In Mexico and Peru nor Is Biblical archaeology neglected DIGGING INTO YESTERDAY Is so simply done that it might be used with junior high or older elementary school children ROMAN LIFE Is the kind of thing high school students need for supplementary reading Roman costumes and customs the life of Roman society city versus country houses meals and nil the details that made up tlie Roman way of life are set forth Illustrations' are many and good This should be a very useful book port and critic Octavio Fax The translation is by playwright Samuel Beckett author of for THE TALL SIAN By A Harris Farrar Strans Cud-shy $350 A PEOPLE'S poetic tradition affords insight tor International understanding that Is necessary to round out the part truth of factual history That Indicates the purpose of the Latin Amerl- can Gassica Scries published by Indiana University Press In cooperation with the United Nr-tions Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Organization of American States It is also the theme of the excellent essay "Poetry and by Bowra author of "The Greek in a nrcfiuv to the second volume AN1IIOIOGY OK CAN rOETKY 1 This volume should be of particular interest to Texans as It reveals facets of the Mexican mind of which many are unaware this being the first such anthology in English The book includes a abort Interpretive history of Mexican poetry by ON THE STANDS now is a unique effort In non-profit hard rover and paperback publishing It is A PARENTS GUIDE TO CinLDRKN'S READING which has been issued simultaneously by Doubleday at $295 and by Pocket Books at 35 cents The publishers say that no profit will be realized from the sale of the book Any earnings will gp to the National Rook Committee which is in business only to encourage reading A PARENTS GUIDE waa compiled and edited by Nancy Larrick of Random House NOT INCLUDED Is the popular poetry of rorridos and canciones nor the intriguing pre-Columbian primitive poetry though a work on the latter la in progress It does cover the classical or central poetic tradition from 1521 to 1910 Contemporary poetry also must await another rnllcction The only living Mexican poet represented is Alfonso Reyes often credited with being also the best prose writer In the Spanish language today His nostalgic concludes the volume Lilting Spanish suffers in translation to English especially poetry But the meaning If not the music appears faithfully reproduced Tomme Call O'HARA SEEMS TO BE saying that whether this Is true of the richer classes as a whole In the case of this particular rich man he was ceaselessly a second-best son second-best in the business world second-best in the government nd petering out to second-best or less when peace came But O'Hara hands no bouquets to the poor as for Instance in his scorn of the self-made Rolhcrtncl And a part of the judgment the author passes on his hero consists in the way tlie hero fritters away his time and energy in sterile love afbilrs These are Alfred's most debilitating errors A National Book Award winner In fiction O'Hara is master of among other things the love affair and puts more beds and couches Into his pages than stoves sinks chairs and tables all together An Australian officer who has been training Koreans for risky probes behind Red lines decides he himself must command the next venture Harris Introduces us to three natives in Hie party men with more than enough reason to hate Communists and then the nighttime trip starts It sounds plausible and gets you thoroughly scared before over Jst i.