SUNDAY, DEC. 12, 1947
THE MICHIGAN DAIDY
__IN THE, WORLD OF BOOKS
FROST
RECOGNITION OF ROBERT I
FROST, Edited by Richard Thorn-
ton, Henry Holt and Co. $2.50.
By ELIZABETH ALLAN
Twenty-five years ago Robert Frost
published his first book. It is in cele-
bration of this anniversary that his
publishers have issued a volume con-
taining his first favorable reviews,
a number of sympathetic analyses of
his work and some friendly portraits
of the poet as man and artist. Th
impression that Recognition of Rob-
ert Frost leaves with the reader is that
a good many of Frost's contemporar-
ies think very highly of him. A critic
such as Louis Untermeyer and a
writer such as Christopher Morley pay
him tribute, along with C. Day Lewis,
Paul Engle and other of the younger
poets. In the face of all this ardent
appreciation it is somewhat startling
to discover that recognition was slow
in coming to Robert Frost. He was
an unknown poet for years. Only re-
cently have honor, fame and Pulitzer
prizes come to him.
The contributors to "Recognition of
Robert Frost" have a good many
somewhat puzzling things to say of
this poet who was born in San Fran-
cisco, grew up in 'New England, and
first found fame in a country not
his own. There are over 50 authors
represented. We learn that Frost
writes "farmer's poetry"; that his
poetry resembles the dialogues of
Plato; that he is a follower of the
English tradition; that he is a re-
gional poet, that he is an American
poet; that his work is the result of a
definite aesthetic theory, and that is
like "a man speaking." We also learn
Anniversary
Brings Edition
SOUTH
{
Mari Sandoz's Fir
Puzzling And
Celebrating His Recognition.
-- - -- Crop Of Short Stories;
the world of poetry is defined and F Of Shnd o i s
25th Anniversary ;evaluated sanely, appreciatively and From Land Of SLOGUM HOUSE, by Ma Sandoz;
convincingly. This essay is of inter- Cotton Little, Brown: $2.50.
est not only to lovers of Robert Frost, December is the month for catch-E
but also to anyone interested in mod-
ern literature. It should certainly be A SOUTHERN HARVEST-SHORT ing up with all those worthy books
-' read by the individual who is not STORIES By Southern Writers which were crowded to the wall by
."vyz familiar with Frost and who wishes Edited by Robert Penn Warren. the autumn flood of "literature."
Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston. $3.75.
to learn something about him. Such as the nervous, sometimes fe-
Taken as a whole, however, Recog- By ELLIOTT MARANISS vered "Slogum House," by Mari San-
nttion of Robert Frost is a book for Every writer in the South is either doz.
edlthtld rie oeoet.Uoubit denying or affirming the belief that It is difficult to "place" Miss San-
Frost has many old friends who will the only vital literature of that section doz's second book and first novel. It
be grateful for an account of the from the culture that reached its has in it the same qualities of truth,
abundant recognition he worked sol senergy and honest observation that
long to achieve. apotheosis in the plantations of the "Old Jules," the story of her father,
hr_________ ____ighre-Civil War, period. It is in the hlad. It deals, also, with western Ne-
light of this tradition that the entire bad.aitesas whenternd-
contemporary movement in Southern braska in the days when the land
literature must be examined, and it is was vibrating between two great mag-
-ON in the light of this tradition, too, that nates-the old, bad days; the new,
Mr. Warren's books must be analyzed. ad days. It has, too, a story which
The stories he has chosen, Mr. cannot help but attract any reason-'
Two New Books On A, able attentive reader.
Warren says in the introduction, are
Favorite Old not in his book because of their value But there are grievous faults as
Subject as social documents. They are there well. One of these is that the book I
t__ because they are representative of the lacks repose. It is fidgety much of
O work that is being done in that form the time, and many small implica-
ROBERT FROSTFrom the number of requests of by contemporary Southern writers tions. much unnecessary detail, pull
friends for "used" cookbooks, it seems and because they are good stories. the reader's attention about so that
that he is undisputedly the greatest likely that there is an increasing in- Mr. Warren's scrupulousness in in- he sometimes has none left for major
living American poet. This last state- terest in food nowadays-or perhaps eluding representatives of both - - -
ment, made by the editor in the pre- it's merely the good hostess' desire schools, however, merely accentuates tive in the writings of the realists
face, is irritatingly extravagant and to do something about the holidays their diversity, and, oddly enough, as it has been in those of Tate,
does disservice to a man who is, prob- besides the standard turkey, dress- seems to make strikingly apparent thei aseen n thse of te
ably, one of the greatest living Amer- ing and cranberry sauce. superiority of the Southern realists Southern past in relation to Southern
ican poets. The fact that Frost has Anyway, there have been some ex- over the esthetic agrarians, both as culture today is, in fact, a more living
received three Pulitzer prizes and cellent treatises on food lately, in- story-tellers and in the pervasive instrument in the hands of Wolfe,
Sandburg not one is more puzzling cluding a very nonchalant one by poetic quality which is manifested, in Faulkner and Caldwell, since they use
than conclusive. Helen Hilles, daughter of Arthur varying degrees, in all Southern writ- it to understand the present, which is
The most valuable essay in this an- Train. The title is "To The Queen's ing. the most important and vital use any
niversary volume, is Mark Van Dor- Taste" (Random; $2.50). The stories by Stark Young, Allan heritage can be put to.
en's The Permanenee Of Robert Mrs. Hilles comes right out into Tate, Andrew Nelson Lytle, Caroline
Frost. In it Frost's contribution to the open and admits that "'Situa- Gordon and Howell Vines are the fic- As short stories most of the selec-
tiens" exist. She admits, for ex- tionalized versions of the credo pro- tions in the book are good. They are
Saple, that neople's money runs claimed by the twelve Southern au- all, despite Mr. Warren's reservations,
scriptive phrases are so coarse they
st N ovel Proves distract rather than help the reader.
Slogum House is the tale of Gulla.
R a h r1id orn a river rat and attached by
Rath~er Fidgety- shtgner--oh"-
b htu marriage to the important
Slogums. Gulla's life is one fort;
events. It drags in "social" problems, working out of an inferiority complex.
as it were, rather than presents them She is determined to "prove she is
as inevitable features of the period somebody."
and the locality. At least two of the ~~~~~~~~~~ _~~~~_~~~_~~~~ _~ _
thin, and has some suggestions for thors who, under the leadership of
the harassed hostess who simply must John Crowe Ransom, the teacher and
have those people, but simply can't main source of inspiration and ideas
spend any money: These suggestions of the group, published a spirited bookI
are not means of using up soggy left- named "I'll Take My Stand," in which1
overs, either, and to be truthful some they called for a return to the culture
of them are not cheap enough to do of the Old South. Briefly, the ideas
this department much good. But, which they proclaimed then and
there are a lot of superb recipes, a which they have reiterated in the,
lot of .sound sense about wine and stories included in Mr. Warren's an-
what to do with it, and some very thology, stem from these premises:
gay and pleasant writing which may +the cultivation of the soil is the best
or may not appeal to the cook. of all occupations; life in ndieval3
o mayonotnapeaetoXthecook.Europe was good and offers an ex-1
A London chef named X.M. Bou- ample to follow; life in the Old South
lestin has likewise done something or- grew from the older European culture
iginal. He has written a cookbook'and was also good; finally, agrarian-
which is delivered in two volumes, ism and industrialism are opposed--
one (replete with general and often agrarianism has in the past, and
interesting facts about food) for the will in the future enable men to live
"lady of the house," and the other the best life, while industrialism can
containing- only recipes, this intended only make the quality of man's life
for the kitchen. The recipes are in worse than that of a slave.
both books of course, and are num- The further implications made by
bered to correspond. Thus the house- the agrarians, of whom Mr. Warren
holder may order by number and is himself the most prolific and pene-
safely. (The Finer Cooking; Oxford; Itrating, is that only the traditionalists
$5). !have any real and vital connection
Truth to tell, Boulestin's recipes ' with the past. Yet one has, but to
incline toward the elaborate. He read the stories in this book by Wil-
has the chef's viewpoint, which is liam Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Er-
that, everybody has hundreds of pots, skine Caldwell, Julia Peterkin and
plenty of servants to wash them, and John Peal Bishop to realize that tra-
all the time in the world. dition has been as important a mo-
Tbl es Are Turned . - Capital's
stories of social protest, and while this
alone does not make a story good or
bad, it is in this respect that the
inconsistencies and paradoxes of the
agrarian stand become apparent.
They declare that virtue is derived
from the soil but see no virtue in the
Negro or the poor white who are
closest to the soil. They dream
charming dreams of the Old South.
which' are only dreams, and which in
fact never had much reality.
But they are all agrarian esthete
and realist alike, men in search of
values and for that we can applaud,
for that is the most important con-
cern of man.
RAYMOND
ROY
PI-OTOGRAPb-IY
I
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-x-.-u -i--
Correspondents
Are
Interviewed
A study of the opinions of the men
who write the news that the Presi-
dent and Congress make, entitled
"The Washington Correspondents,"
has just been published by a young
writer working on a fellowship from
the Social Science Research Council
of New York. The writer, Leo C.
Rosten, spent 16 months collecting
materials. One hundred and twenty-
seven correspondents were consulted.'
Among the things Mr. Rosten
found out was that the New York
Times is considered the most re-
liable newspaper in America, whilel
the newspapers of the Hearst cir-I
cuit are rated the least so.
Eighty-six per cent of the corres-
pondents believe that "comparatively]
few" newspapers give significant ac-
BOOKS for
10 C!CHILDREN
Our §tock of Books and Games for Children is v
k' ~ilwith prices from 1IOc up. Do your shoppi
counts of basicneconomic conflicts.
About 22 per cent think rugged in-
dividualism is still the best economic
philosophy.
More than half of the group, which
constitutes the aristocracy of the
Fourth Estate in America, are in f a-
vor of a newspaper guild. About the
same proportion believe in the use of
the strike by journalists as a means
of adjusting grievances. The ma-
jority, however, do not believe in the
present Newspaper Guild, whose af-
filiation with the CIO the Washing-
ton delegation fought against at the
last Guild convention.
Only 37 per cent believe that a
newspaper guild would result in par-,
tial treatment of. union and labor
news, and less than half were of the
opinion that a guild would become
"too radical."
Most significant of all, perhaps, 67
per cent of the worldly Washington-
ians expressed the belief that the
publishers' cry of "freedom of the
press" is hypocrisy. This may savor
of the as-if-we-didn't-know-depart-
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and repute of the Capitol Hill corps,
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