r p i urr ...rr Eighty years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan booksbooksbooks 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1970 NIGHT EDITOR: ROB BIER Grab-bag suggestions I As opposed to mo book review sampling lection makes no p gleaning the season's' ther, it merely represe of grab-bag approach who are hard put to for left-handed oc aunts or other such misanthropes. THE ELEGANT AUCTIONEERS, st holiday by Wesley Towner, Hill & Wang, s, this se- $10.00. retense at This book serves as a case study "best." Ra- of conspicuous consumpion in ents a kind America. At the thump of the auc- for those tioneer's mallet all the jewels and find gifts glittering junk of aristocrats and togenarian robber barons is immediately charming transmuted i n t o cold c a s h. Whereas Towner seems to take ---R.W.C' great enjoyment in the process, others will feel only embarrass- ment, Where will you be when AFCEgoes on strike? For the Nostalgic AMERICA ADOPTS THE AUTO- MOBILE, 1895-1910, by.James J. Flink, MIT.Press, $12.50. Those wishing to take a trip back to a time when the horseless carriage was regarded more often as a means of salvation than a course of destruction, will find that James Flink offers just such a jaunt. This is not to say Flink is unaware of current problems, but rather that by turning to the popular press of the period the author is able to give insights into a period when (for a vast majority of Americans) the 'virgin' and the 'dynamo' could still be friends. Forty-six full-page illustrations substantiate his contentions. * * * DEAC MARTIN'S BOOK OF MU- SICAL AMERICANA, by Deac (C. T.) Martin, Prentice-Hall, $12.95. This free-wheeling musical au- tobiography is filled with ample doses of Deac Martin's own home- spun philosophy. To wit: "No need to be too perturbed or to go hay wire when we still have 'Up a Lazy River' and 'White Christmas,' and hundreds more just as good .,". And hundreds more, "just as good," are included for the read- er's sentimental delectation. * * * THE MOVIES, by Richard Grif- fith and Arthur Mayer, Simon and Schuster, $19.95. Late-show addicts will enjoy this updated version of the 1957 volume by the same title. The "up- dating" is frankly a disappoint- ment: other books deal more sub- stantively with contemporary cin- ema. On the other hand, the bulk of the book consists of hundreds of stills and text for the glamour that was once Hollywood - pre- 1957, that is. For the Anti-Establishmentarian ACADEMIC GAMESMANSHIP: HOW TO MAKE A PH.D. PAY, by Pierre van den Berghe, Abel- ard-Schuman, $4.95. Properly speaking, this volume is not so much for the anti-estab- lishmentarian as the establish- mentarian. But it may be used quite efficiently by forces of both camps. Those concerned with "making it" in academia as well as those concerned with reform- ing or destroying it altogether will find ammunition here. Dr. Ber- ghe's sympathies quite obviously lie with the latter group. * * * $ THE INTELLIGENCE ESTAB- LISHMENT, by Harry Howe Ran- som, Harvard University Press, $9.95. An authoritative inside view is presented of the CIA, FBI, De- partment of State, etc. The only drawback, one fears, is that the insider's viewpoint may be a bit too far inside. Dust jacket endorse- ments come not only from such "second consciousness" stand-bys as The New Republic and The New York Times Book Review but also (and one can only speculate) Air Force. Nonetheless, the book does provide the best factual account of a realm which is too often ne- glected by otherwise serious-mind- ed radicals. THE POLITICS OF UNREASON: RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN AMERICA, 1790-1970, by Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, Harper & Row, $12.50. This work represents no ordi- nary "search and destroy" mis- Sion. Rather, by combining his- torical analysis with contempor- ary insights, it provides an extra ordinarily thorough analysis of right-wing patterns and tactics WHEN STUDENTS come back to school next semester, they may be confront- ed by a "different" University. It is pos- sible that food will not be served In dorm cafeterias, the Union, the League, or the hospital. It is possible that 'University buildings will not be cleaned for days. It is, also possible that campus buses will no longer run. This may be the University we come back to if a contract settlement between the University and Local 2583 of the American Federation of S t a t e, Munici- pal, and County Employes (AFSOME) is not reached by their Dec. 31 deadline. Though the union may work without a contract well into the new term, if AFS- GME eventually decides to .s t r i k e, the University community will be faced with a decision. We must decide whether we will sup- port the workers and their demands, whether we will honor their picket lines, and whether we will refuse to scab if the University asks us to. Before deciding, students should study the arguments of both sides.. On the wage increase issue, the Uni- versity position seems dictated by its poor financial situation. The University has al- ready asked all departments to cut their. budgets by three per cent, and has fore-. casted a $150 increase in dorm rates next year with the possibility existing that the figure could go even higher. The Univer- sity has also been listed by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education as one of several universities facing "severe fi- nancial crises.'s To support the workers wage demands, from this point of view, is only to ask for higher housing and tuition rates. HOWEVER, the "severe financial crises" of the 2,700 service and maintenance employes at the University cannot be ig- nored. After enduring months of an in- flationary spiral, t h e union member is still working for the same wages he was getting two years ago. There has been no cost-of-living adjustment since that time. Editorial Staf MARTIN A. HIRSCHMAN, Editor STUART GANNES JUDY SARASOHN Editorial Director Managing Editor NADINE COHODAS ..... ....Feature Editor JIM NEUBACHER . Editorial Page Editor ROB BIER............AssociateManaging Editor LAURIE HARRIS - Arts Editor JUDY KAHN .. Personnel Director DANIEL ZWERDLrNG .. Magazine. Editor. ROBERT CONROW.Books Editor JIM JUDKIS....... .......Photography Editor EDITORIAL NIGHT EDITORS: Jim Beattie, Lindsay Chaney, Steve Koppman, Pat Mahoney, Rick Peroff, NIGHT EDITORS: Jim Beattie, Dave Chudwin, steve Koppman, Robert Kraftowitz, Larry Lempert, Lynn Weiner. DAY EDITORS: Rose Berstein, Mark Dillen, S a r a Fitzgerald, Art Lerner, Jim McFerson, Jonathan Miller, Hannah Morrison. Bob Schreiner, W. E. Sc~hrock. With an average wage of $2.69 an hour, (75 per cent of the union works at $2.90 an hour or less) a large number of union members are forced to take supplemen- tary steps to ensure that they can pro- vide for their families. For some workers, this means holding down two jobs, sometimes working 12 to 16 hours a day. For 70 per cent of the un- ion it means commuting to their j o b s from tpwns as far away as Detroit be- cause it is too expensive to live in Ann Arbor. For others it means getting food stamps from welfare agencies. It means going without new clothes or adequate medical attention in order to make ends meet. THERE ARE OTHER reasons the work- ers should be supported besides their great need for a substantial w a g e in- crease. Despite the importance of these workers to - the University, they lag far behind administrative and academic em- ployes in the benefits they receive. Their Blue Cross insurance plan is inadequate to meet their needs and is inferior to the one other University employes, especially the faculty, are now covered by. While va- cation and sick time stipulations are fair- ly flexible for non-union employes, the AFSCME member cannot claim doctor's appointments as sick time. The current contract also spells out an extremely awkward system for filing un- ion grievances which puts off the com- plaints of the workers for several months. THE DECISION to support the workers rests particularly on the shoulders of student workers in the dorms. If the un- ion decides to strike, these students could put great pressure on the University by not working; pressure which could lead to a settlement favorable to the union. These are the students, the kitchen help, the student janitors and busdrivers who must realize that w h e n their co- workers come to work, they have to pay for parking spaces out of their take-home pay. They should remember that while student employe uniforms are free, non- student workers must pay for both the uniforms and the cleaning of their work clothes. Student employes should also consider that their dorm-kitchen co-workers have to pay for their meals during their work- ing hours - even if they don't eat them. They should remember that what for them may be j u s t the money to go to Europe for the summer, is for their co- workers a livelihood. The outstanding characteristic of the AFSCME positions on strike issues is their modesty. The day is far in the f u t u r e when AFSCME will be making greedy de- mands for luxuries and fringes. Now they are dealing with the cold reality of mak- in a living wave anr1 nhtaininedirnity in America. The authors, whose credentials are clearly in order, display a peculiar (though seem- ingly necessary) insistence on footnotes and various satistical charts. * * * For the Psychic Investigator THE HUMANOIDS: A SURVEY OF WORLDWIDE REPORTS OF L A N D INGS OF UNCONVEN- TIONAL AERIAL OBJECTS AND THEIR OCCUPANTS, edited by Charles Bowen, Henry Regnery, $5.95. When the Air Force-sponsored Condon Committee set itself up at Colorado University in 1966 to in- vestigate flying saucers, a group of civilians got together to form their own investigating team. The Flying Saucer Review became their voicepiece with which they con- stantly bombarded the negative findings of the Condon Commit- tee with "positive" findings of their own. The Humanoids repre- sents the fruits of their endeav- ors. The accounts are unending, but the credibility often staggers even the most willing of imagina- tions. * * * THE SHADOW OF THE UN- KNOWN, by Coral E. Lorenzen, Signet, 75 cents. This is a bargain book at 75c, although it is'not worth much more. When Mrs. Lorenzen was in high school her teacher told her, "If you're curious, Coral - inquire!" And since then, that is what she's been doing wheth- er her particular subject hap- pens to be "Things from Out of Nowhere" or "Airborne Anom- alies" (these are sample chap- ter headings). This is interest- ing first-person detective work. For the 19th Century Anglophile MUDIE'S CIRCULATING LI- BRARY AND THE VICTORIAN NOVEL, by Guinevere L. Griest, Indiana University Press, $8.95. In the latter half of 19th Cen- tury England, three-decker novels were virtually as popular amongst a large part of the middle class ViSUUi The Mastery of Mary of Burgun- dy, George Braziller, $20.00. Peter McIntyre's West, Sunset Books, $19.50. Yasuichi Awakawa, Zen Painting, Kodansha, $15.00. Museum of Fine Arts Boston: Ori- ental Art, New York Graphic Society, $27.50. Georgia O'Keefe, Praeger, $18.50. By R. A. PERRY For past holiday giving, some of the finest art books were supplied by the publisher George Braziller, whose Hours of Catherine of Clev- es and The Tres Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry highlighted the seasons. Braziller has this year published another distinctive il- luminated manuscript, a fifteenth century Book of Hours by an un- known Flemish artist referred to by art historians as The Master of Mary of Burgandy. In this new of- fering, the 115 plates, in four col- ors plus gold, are small in close approximation to the original manuscript, and are faced by leg- ends written by J. J. G. Alexander who also provides a lengthy pre- face discussing the history and style of the manuscript. Although there is much in The Master of Mary of Burgundy man- uscript - numerous trompe r oel borders of flowers, birds, butter- flies, and jewels on gold ground, and of course dramatic tableaux in narrative panels - to titillate the connoisseur and to fascinate the art historian, I think that this new Braziller volume fails to 'come up to the standards of the previous, above mentioned, manuscripts on two counts. First of all, at least 57 of the 117 pages reproduced .are text pages with ornamented margins, an d while these ornamentations-both floral designs and brief hawking and tournament scenes - a r e mildly delightful, they are basi- cally repetitive and of minor in- terest compared to the fully il- luminated pages. In this respect, 'I From NO KNOWN SURVIVORS: DAVID LEVINE'S POLITICAL PLANK, a book of David Levine's caricatures with an introduc- tion by J. K. Galbraith, Gambit, $7.95. &i a * as three-decker hamburgers are in America today. The story of the rise of Mudie's is, in a sense, the story of the rise of the Vic- torian novel. George Eliot, Troll- ope, and Thackeray are but a few of the better-known (to say noth- ing of the lesser-known) who made their way to literary prominence via Mudie's Circulating Library. A subscription could be had at the going rate of a guinea a year., VICTORIAN STUDIES IN SCAR- LET: MURDERS AND MANNERS IN THE AGE OF VICTORIA, by Richard Atlick, Norton, $7.95. Besides those Victorians who read the three-decker novels, there were those who read the penny broadsheets. Or, perhaps more of- ten than we like to think, there were those who read both. Even more surprising, however, are English professors such as Rich- ard Altick who read both today. The first three chapters are de- voted to a professorial study of the Victorian delight in murder stories as a "social phenomenon.?' The remaining sixteen chapters show Mr. Altick's delight in retell' ing them. The last part is best- or, one should qualify, it is best if murders happen to be your par- ticular cup of tea. -0 Books for potters experiences, a Daniel Rhodes, STONEWARE AND PORCELAIN: THE ART OFHIGH-FIRED POTTERY. Chilton, $7.50. Daniel Rhodes, CLAY AND GLAZ- ES FOR THE POTTER, Chilton, $7.50. Daniel Rhodes, KILNS: DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND FIR- ING, Chilton, $10.00. By GINNY CONROW The potter today does not have an unusually wide selection of tru- ly good books. But it seems that the three Daniel Rhodes books - standing together or on their own -ofer the student or studio potter an excellent reference work, tech- nical guide, or inspiration. None of these three books is new. Each has been reprinted numerous times since publication. Stoneware and Porcelain: The Art ofeHigh-Fired Pottery is the most general of the three and most adequate for the newcomer to the craft. Highlighting the book is a portfolio of illustrations, with pot- tery ranging from T'ang dynasty to contemporary. Here, in pictorial form, Rhodes illustrates the con- tinuity between European and Or- iental tradition-which he defines in his opening chapters. He also stresses the influences and philo- sophies shaping contemporary high-fire ceramics, or to put it in other terms, those pots which are fired at a higher temperature to make them more durable. His chapters on clay and glazes underline his concern with the art of pottery-making, the individual- ity and vitality that make a pot beautiful. The new potter, the frustrated potter, or the searching potter can undoubtedly turn to the book not only for help and re- lief, but for inspiration. Daniel Rhodes' other two books serve mainly as technical guides. Clay and Glazes for the Potter may be initially overwhelming for tended usage -throwing, casting, modeling, or pressing - and body, stoneware, earthenware, or porce- lain. He discusses glazes in similar detail, beginning with the nature and types of glazes. After describ- ing the glaze materials, he ex- plains glaze calculations, origina- tion, usage and firing techniques. There can be no doubt that this book is indispensable for the ser- ious potter, or rather, that potter whose knowledge of sound techni- que makes spontaneity possible. Kilns: Design, Construction and tooled to copy the original yet hav- ing a plastic feel - has to be severely bent open in order to ap- preciate fully some of the pages. These may seem petty quibbles. in a book that offers much plea- sure, but I do believe that when one considers a book on art one must also consider the art of the book. Braziller's price does not preclude such thoughts. In what may be seen as an in- version of the values of flraziller's, little volume, Sunset Books have produced in Peter McIntyre's West an art book in which the book- making itself is of higher quality than its contents. McIntyre, a New Zealander, was .invited by Sunset to illustrate the sights of Amer- ica's old and new West. Fifty-six of Mr. McIntyre's oils and watsr- colors have been reproduced in six colors (most processes use only four) by Kyodo of Tokyo, and the plates have, the illusion of tac- tility and the sublety of coloration that marks the best Japanese printing. En face to the plates are line, charcoal, and ink wash draw- ings from the artist's sketchbooks, in addition to written commentar- ies. There is very little that could be called artistically exploratory in Mr. McIntyre's productions, ranging as they do from the mildly impressionistic to the clearly re- presentational. Technically they appear accomplished, but at no time does the artist transform the landscape into anything but cal- endar-style scenery, nor does sheer techniaue take one's .breath away," as in the case of Wyeth. Some of the pen-and-ink drawings are en- gaging, others merely busy. The text, written by Mr. McIntyre him- self, reads like a collection of banal postcards. Reasonably priced for the quality offered. Peter McIn- tyre's West is a good coffee-table book to give to friends who have never heard of Claes Oldenberg. What is a Zen painting: Is any painting by a Zen monk a "Zen naintirn" n can anaintina by a number of unfamiliar paintings from private Japanese collections that will enthrall anyone interest- ed in Japanese art. Sengai and Hakuin receive special attention, though older masters such as Sesshu and Chinese painters such as Liang K'ai and the ephemeral Mu Ch'i are included. Each of the 139 plates are briefly though often vacuously annotated (Sesson's use of line and composition "all sug- gest the masterpiece of a man liv- ing in seclusion") and a biograph- ical sketch of each painter is offered. Surprisingly, Kodansha; one of the world's finest publishers of beautiful art books, has here pre- sented poor plates that never cap- ture the contrast of rich black ink on white silk or paper, because the "backgrounds" are uniformly gray, Many paintings are thus deprived of their potential impact and their true beauty. Again, to contrast qualitymIn book-making, we have the most sumptuous tome, Museum of Fine Arts Boston: Oriental Art, a book distributed by the New York Graphic Society and printed by Kodansha at the highest level of color reproduction. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has undis- putedly the finest Asian art col- lection in this country and cura- tor Jan Fontein, along with Pra- tapaditya Pal, has chosen the fin- est Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese objects for Kodansha's lavish and exacting color repro- ductions. Considering that many of the illustrated masterpieces are better seen in this book than in the Boston Museum, where dark corners and reflecting cover glass too often frustrate viewing, this oversize volume is especially wel- come. My only quibble is that many 'of the fine Japanese cer- amics in the Morse Collection- kept in a dusty attic-have not been represented. Finally, Praeger has brought out a new volume on Georgia Keef' e.the nionger annesait. 0 4 t Operation offers both a how-to and a brief history of kiln mak- ing. This is the only - certainly the best - book specifically on kiln-building. While one chapter in Stoneware and Porcelain brief- ly describes the high-fire kiln, Kilns guides the reader through the process of building and under- standing his kiln. In fact, it is highly doubtful that very many potters today would dare under- take such an operation without a copy of Rhodes on hand. I