Tulsa World from Tulsa, Oklahoma • 108

ik wyy a story behind the writing of a first novel by Douglas airbairn which is reviewed else where on the book page today On July 17 1955 an unsolicited manuscript of about 15000 words arrived at the publishing office of Simon and Schuster with a note from the author saying: is the first part of a novel about a lonely American boy who believes it is his duty to rescue an equally lonely little rench a from ie rnlsery of her life in Cannes The A second part of the book is a description of how Man'll his plot is upset Let me know if you want to see Part In the office the first editorial report said: "This first half of an unsolicited novel strikes me as being the work of an extremely gifted They sent for the second part It arrived August 27 along with a note from an interested party apologizing for the delay in sending the second half and explaining that airbairn was forced to rewrite it from memory after a local typist had lost the original copy Not until the contract was signed did the publisher learn from airbairn that he even written until he got the letter asking for It Douglas airbairn himself is young not yet 30 He was born In Elmira attended Harvard where he was president of the Lampoon and since 1953 has spent much of his time working on yachts and marine expedition vessels visiting such storied spots as the Bahamas the Virgin and Canbary islands Capri and Monaco OR HTS "excepllonnl writing the National Day committee has named Random House author Joint "Literary ather of the for 1955 latest novel "Ten North rederick on the best seller list since its publication in November 1955 won the National Book Award for fiction for 1955 Among oilier prize winners in recent weeks nre Margaret Millar and Joseph Hayes who won Edgar Allen Toe awards given by the Mystery Writers of America The judges tapped Miss Millar's in ns the finest mystery novel of the year and Mr screen version of his novel Desperate Hours" as the best motion picture in the suspense category The 1955 Book Award of the Colonial Dames of America has been presented to Carl Brldenbaugh for his book in Revolt Urban Life in America 1743 177G" published by Knopf The award which carried with it a stipend of $250 was given recognition of a notable contribution to the perpetuation of the principles of the Republic of the United States of America" Last winner was Dumas Malone for his book Declaration of Sigurd Olson author of "The Singing Wilderness" was presented with the rancis Hutchinson Medal a national conservation award sponsored by the Garden Clubs of America in Colorado Springs recently David Karp author of "AU Honorable Men" has been awarded a 1Q56 Guggenheim ellowship for creative writing in fiction and his 'Kraft TV Theater program which he adapted from his earlier novel of the same title has won an Ohio State award PEOPLE say they understand your writing even after they read it two or three times What approach would you suggest for it four timesf answered William aulkner He was speaking to Jean Stein whose interview with him appeared two weeks ago in the Spring Issue of Paris Review Miss questions drew expansive replies from the Nobel Prize National Book Award winner resulting in an interview more revealing than the usual Interview with a novelist whose comments are ordinarily the soul of brevity aulkner did not spare himself none of his work has met his own standards he said and must be judged the basis of that one which caused me the most grief and anguish" He was talking about Sound and the accounted by many his greatest achievement He wrote the novel five times he said When Miss Stein asked about his writing for motion pictures aulkner topped his answers with the hilarious tale of his experience as a writer for one of the major studios that ended with the now legendary telegram from the studio is fired" IhrIMP BOAT ROMANCE By PEGGY RANDOLPH a Darkling by Clifford Irving (Putnam's $375) In this novel of lawless love and disillusionment we meet Joe Macfarlane a frustrated young man who has escaped to lorida where he is enormously who has left a factory in Pitts burgh Joe and Liz make a living on a shrimp boat and are getting along romantically as well as finan cially Mike Donnenfcld and Peter Reed two men with whom Joe had formed a close relationship in college come to lorida in sisting that Joe return to New York for his sister's wedding Barbie Macfarlane is marrying Pete but not because she loves him Liz encourages Joe to go back and face whatever it is he has been running away from while she remains in lorida operating their shrimp boat alone In New York Joe is reunited with letch an old college love and what develops between them is neither understandable or plausible When letch proposed but not marriage to Joe at first he gives her a feeble "no" ex plaining to her kindly that he is smitten with a girl named Liz In love with Liz But proximity proves stronger than purpose and Joe goes right on being a mixed up kid Clifford Irving Is the son of the well known cartoonist Jay Irving This is his first novel and while it shows a certain flamboyant gift for writing it leaves one with the Impression that for the present at least the author has very little to say Bruce Marshall Bruce "Girl in (Iloughton Mifflin) is a story in the same vein as his well known "The World the lesh and ather Around an idyllic romance between two youngsters during World War I in St An drews Scotland move a group of delightful Bruce Marshall char acters of all ages who make up the population of the town Eugene Burdick A I 51 A Theory or Power By HARTNETT Ninth by Eugene Burdick (Houghton Mifflin $395) This first novel with its back ground of political and academic California brand began ac cording to its author as a study of tlie trend in poli tics However during the several years of its writing an ambitious and ruthless character came alive in its pages and took over the story You may neither like nor respect Mike rccsmith but you will follow with keen interest Ids attempt to prove his formula for life that plus Hate equals rom his high school days through college war years in the Navy later in modern business and politics reesmith used friends and enemies alike to fur ther his ambitions Ills best friend and schoolmate Hank Moore his high school teacher Miss Bell his college sweet heart Connie Burton were all exploited by him as rentlessly he climbed towards his goal He played on the fears hates and ambitions of various seg ments of the political scene in a revelatory manner which will bring no cries of joy from these servants of the people The pe 'GAUDIEST AMERICAN By BOB PRICE "Sickles the by A Swanberg (Scribner $C) Daniel Sickles was gi says on the jacket of "Sickles statement The pronouncementwithout danger of stretching the truth to the breaking point How tills man could be so ig nored by biographers is as in credible as the character herein depicted We know of only one earlier attempt to tell his story in 1945 and that was marred by an adulatory approach Sickles was close to five presi dents As a congressman he killed the United States attorney for the District of Columbia on a Washington street As a Civil War general he was a storm center of controversy pivoting about his command of the Third Corps at Gettysburg As a diplomat he in sulted Queen Victoria of England and got involved in a love affair with the deposed Queen Isabella of Spain As a financier he led a coup which smashed Jay control of the Erie railroad As a politician he was both Republican and Democrat As a husband he regarded the ties of marriage as applying only Io the wife As a veteran soldier he posed and strutted Swanberg put in three years of work on this biography was worth the labor The author obviously feels deep affection for his subject reflect ing the magnetism which Sickles exerted upon all who knew him in his lifetime But Swanberg docs not permit affection to blind him to and they were many Ills mind "had a blind spot when it came to self Swanberg says He could see and take advan tage of but not his own had in wild abundance every quality of everything but a deep sense of responsibility He was the most spectacularly successful failure of the problem child for 94 years ludicst American of his day it the an under could have been "of any Mess Boy At Cannes By HENRY PAYNE "A by Douglas airbairn (Simon and Schuster $3) George ox was a mess boy on the yacht of a wealthy American George was 17 the yacht was anchored at Cannes off the rench Riviera and if George was lacking in years and money he was full of ideals Ideas and curosity His innocence and gal lantry to the are all the more poignant because of his youth As is to be expected he meets Christiane a lG year old rench girl engaged in the dubious position of bait for her waterfront cafe The resultant heroics on his part as he tries to rescue her and the charm of the very young constitute a story that is refresh ing because it is the obvious interesting because it is the un expected amusing because it has the salt of reality The author is a native of El mira and attended Har vard where he worked on the Hasty Pudding shows lie has had personal experience on various yachts shuttling from the Carib bean to the Mediterranean and so gives authentic background to this idyllic love affair of teen agers in an adult world His story is entertaining and the reader will adopt the gamin like Christiane as sincerely as he will trust the manliness of George ox ond Portrait Of Nantucket By IDA ASEL Man Of Many Sayings By IDA ASEL culiar set up of California cross filing almost permitted him to elect the governor of the state Ills power became so destructive a threat that it brought him to a climactic clash with his friend Moore who believed in good and rigid and who was to be haunted ever after with a question with out an answer I The author of this interesting Book of thc Month club choice is himself most interesting One feels the book must have been written in some measure in the light of his personal experience Two hitches in the Navy followed his high school and college educa tion gotten "the hard way" sec ond prize in an Henry contest a Houghton Mifflin scholarship Rhodes Scholarship stories in The New Yorker Colliers The Reporter Harpers and Argosy He is now professor of political theory at the University of Calif ornia The reader for one is waiting eagerly for his next novel CURRENT Best Sellers (Compiled by Weekly) ICTION The Last Hurrah Edwin Imperial Woman Pearl Buck Auntie Marne Patrick Dennis Ten North rederick Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor NONICTION The Search for Bridey Murphy Borey Bernstein A Night to Remember Walter Lord Gift rom the Sea Anne Mor row Lindbergh Arthritis and Common Sense Dan Dale Alexander The Scrolls rom the Dead Sea Edmund Wilsoit "Nantucket Landfall" by Dorothy A Blanchard (Dodd Mead $350) Thirty miles south of Cape Cod lies Nantucket Island only 15 miles long and five miles wide at its tldckest Strong salty winds ceaselessly blow across the Island There are low hills wide moors and long sandy beaches Wien young Boston became too crowded for Quakers they settled the Island bringing their sheep In the next century whaling became a flourishing industry The Quaker burying ground and the beautiful old homes from the days of whal ing wealth are quiet reminders of the past and objects of curiosity to the tourists who provide the main source of income today Miss Blanchard affectionately traces the history of Nantucket from its earliest settlement to its present position as a tourist fancy No story of an island is complete without some sea tales and she has some wonderful ones to of the whaling ship that was wrecked by a whale and the mutiny on the Globe The book is handsomely illu strated with drawings by William Barss So strong is the presence of the sea the crashing waves and the flashing light the cry of the bittern and the gusty wind that the reader lays the book aside hungry for a dish of cod Reviewing Toynbee A book of 400 pages consisting of 30 critical essays and reviews of Arnold Study by leading scholars and writers has made its appearance It is and edited by Ashley Montagu well known teacher writer and critic and Is issued bv Porter Sargent Publisher Boston Mass Rarely if ever before has an en tire book of this size been issued to bring together reviews of a single author's work "Confucius Ills Life and by Liu Wu Chi (Philo sophical Libray $375) The author sets himself the task of putting flesh and bones on the legendary figure of Mas ter and of illuminating the times in which he lived He has obviously done a good deal of research and his material is well authenticated but his man ner of presentation is much too heavy to achieve such a purpose Master or Confucius was born of an illustrious family (in other biographies we read his ancestry was not notable) around 550 rom an early age he was interested in music and rit ual He rose in his native state to the position of Prime Minister and for a time was able to put his moral ideas into force In creasingly latitudinarian inter ests of the ruler sent him and his followers into exile but he returned home after some years to teach literature and right con duct and to have his sayings written down for posterity by worshipful students The author describes the de clining feudal age in which Con fucius lived He describes his rich attire always with appropriate fur robes selected from a large and varied wardrobe his fas tidious eating habits his ex emplary conduct But the long ex pository prose passages are dull The author lacks the boldness to use his materials to make his subject come alive 'Montmartre' series "The Taste of Our which began with a group of monographs on famous artists then was expanded to in clude such studies of Great Art as Impres sionism has now broadened its scope witli a new group "amous Places as Seen by Great Paint which is the first volume 22 TULSA SUNDAY WORLD MAGAZINE.