THE MICHIGAN DAILY
WORLD
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'Sirocco' Shows Ralph Bates'
Best Writing, Reviewer Finds
SIROCCO, by Ralph Bates. 388 pp. co wind sweep across the Straits frol
Random House, New York. $2.50. the African deserts, and the Moors
come riding into Spain, driven on-
By H. M. PURDY ward by the Fascist officers. Andreu
The Spanish Invasion has inspired goes out to defend his beliefs, to main-
much literature, and almost without tain the decencies of life . . . While
exception the artists have been vig- he is distinctly an individual charac-
:rous partisans of the Spanish peo- ter, he is nevertheless symbolic of all
ple and their Republic. Ralph Bates, the brave, and at the very end the
an officer of the International Bri- story becomes a parable of our times.
gade, has added another book to that "The Yoke" is an attempt to under-
great list attesting the horism of de- stand the psychology of a fascist.
mnocracy's defenders. His book, Sir- Most Americans, with the execption
acco, is a collection of short stories, of types like the Rev. Charles Cough-
two of which, the title story and "43rd line are so bitterly anti-fascist that
Division," are long enough to be they cannot understand supporters
termed short novels. of this modern Black Plague except
Although Bates is an Englishman, in pathological terms. Bates, of
Spain has become a homeland for course, makes no such mistake. Care-
him, and he knows the country as in- fully he dissects Dr. Mercedes Lerma,
bimately as the people of whom he an aristocratic idealist, until she ar-
writes. His first two novels, Lean rives at her final despair, completely
Men and The Olive Field, also dealt horrified at the bloody consequences
with of her intellectual support of the In-
" ... that arid square, that frag- surgents. Important also is the por-
ment nipped off from hot Africa, trayal of the underground republican
soldered so ci'udely to inventive movement that exists in the three-
Europe . . ." quarters of Spain that is in the hands
Eis third novel, Rainbow Fish, told of the arrogant Italian conquerors.
;he story of a group of fishermen who The two long stories contain the
eventually perished in an insurance finest writing that Ralph Bates has
>lot, and marked a further develop ever done, and for that reason alone
nent in his beautiful English prose Sirocco should be in the possession
style. of everyone interested in contempor-
Sirocco is a very uneven volume. ary literature. But his technical abil-
A few of the war stories are bad, and ities are not the only reason for read-
Ex Libris
By JOSEPH GIES
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There are so many books on so
many things nowadays that practical-
ly every subject of any importance
seems to have been more than cov-
ered, one way and another. But un-
til recently, as far as I know, there
has been no popular treatment of
birth control. A thorough discussion
of this subject has appeared in the
Modern Age series, by Prof. Norman
E. Himes of the Colgate University
sociology department. I don't know
exactly what the law is regarding
distribution of birth control litera-
ture; there is a note attached to the
present book stating that it is for
nurses and doctors only. Obviously, it
will reach the general public if this
is the only precaution taken to pre-
vent its doing so, and this, it seems
to me, is a good thing.
Among important recent non-fic-
tion is a book by Amram Scheinfeld,
prepared with the assistance of Dr.
Morton D. Schweitzer of Cornell
University Medical College, Yeu and
Heredity. It is said to contain every-
thing known about the inheritance of
features, diseases, defects, intelli-
gence, crime, personality, sexual
characteristics and race differences,
in non-scientific language.
An outstanding series of new plays
is being published by Random House
Mann Coming To Detroit
Thomas Mann, who spoke in Ann
Arbor on the Oratorical Association
series last March, will make his only
appearance in this vicinity this year
when he appears in Masonic Audi-
torium, Detroit, at 8:15 p.m. next
Saturday. He will lecture on "The
Problem of Freedom," under the aus-
pices of the League for Human Rights.
The events occurring in Europe
during his lecture tour here last
spring and summer had a profound
influence on Dr. Mann's outlook.
They caused him to abandon plans
for returning to Europe and instead
to take out first citizenship papers in
the United States. He accepted a
chair in the humanities at Princeton
University and has taken up residence
there.
Tickets for the lecture are avail-
able through the mail at the office
of the League for Human Rights,
2302 David Stott Bldg., Detroit. They
are priced at 55 cents, $1.10, $1.65
and $2.20.
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ing his work. Bates, like Malraux, I this spring. Rocket to the Moon, by
has made his life an example of the1 Clifford Odets; The Gentle People, by
most advanced humanity: he is an Irwin Shaw; Kiss the Boys Goodbye,
artist in action, defending the liber-Iby Clare Boothe; On the Frontier, by
ties of the people, from whom his Auden and Isherwood; Pastor Hall
writing draws its powers. and Blind Man's muff, by Ernst Toll-
There is one moral principle that er; The White Steed, by Paul Vii-
sums up more good than any other, cent Carroll \and several others now
and that is freedom. Ralph Bates is on the New York or London stage,
a soldier and an artist in its service, will be available this month and next.
'Man Who Killed Lincoln' Fails
To Add Much Historical Data
FREE LECTURES
b
Johu Toren,
"The Future of American Youth"
Tuesday, March 7, 8:1 5 P.M.-
THE MAN WHO KILLED LINCOLN,
by Philip Van Doren Stern, Ran-
dom House, New York, $3.
By HARRY M. KELSEY
In the compilation of the material
for this volume, Mr. Stern had access
to various primary sources. These
included contemporary newspapers,
diaries and accounts, among them the
papers of the War Department relat-
ing to the Booth case, Booth's own
diary, stenographic report4 of the
Conspirators' Trial and of the Sur-
ratt Trial and original documents of
the Judge Advocate General's office.
From these he collected material
which was to make up a truly au-
thoritative volume on the murder of
Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes
Booth. But where, oh! where, Mr.
Stern, among any of these documents,
diaries and newspapers, did you dis-
cover the thoughts Booth had as he
lay paralyzed, unable to speak, un-
able to move, during the last hour
of his life, to which you devote three
pages of your supposedly authorita-
tive history?
It is hardly fair to condemn a man
for the type of book he has chosen
to write; rather should he be judged
on his ability to manage the type as
shown by the result. Mr. Stern has
chosen to treat the Booth-Lincoln
case psycho-analytically, delving into
the character of Booth in order to
discover what made him act as he did.
To produce this effect, Mr. Stern has
found it necessary, as any author in
a similar position would, to "fake"
certain speeches and thoughts of the
man.
There exists no such excuse, how-
ever, for such alterations in fact, or
such inventions, as the case may be,
as the part played in the conspiracy
by John Surratt, whic4 Stern admits
in his informative afterward has nev-
er been anywhere nearly definitely
established. The deeds attributed by
Stern to Surratt- could just as easily
have been credited to an unknown,
and Surratt's name attached to only
those acts known to have been per-
formed by him. It is somewhat dis-
concerting to take, something for
established fact, only to discover
in post-script that many of the de-
velopments set forth as fact are still
of a controversial nature, with well-
founded arguments to support both
sides. It would be better were the
conflicting stories given. in the text
as the plot progresses, for the con-
sideration of the reader.
In his over-eagerness to makehis
book a running account reading like
fiction, Mr. Stern seems to have lost
sight of the fact that he has an ob-
ligation to fulfill in the sincerity of
treatment of historical fact, Aside
from this, the book is well written.
Booth is vividly portrayed as the pa-
triotic Southerner, half-crazed with
the idea of freeing the losing Rebels
by placing the North in such confu-
sion and turmoil that the Confedera-
tion would be able to regain lost
ground; at the same time not taking
into consideration the fact that the
South was, with the surrender of
Lee at Appomattox, defeated, and
had neitfier the troops nor the money
to renew the struggle.
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"Theosophy and Modern Society"
Thursday, March 9, 4:15 P.M.
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"The Importance of
Living"
Saturday, March 11, 3:15 P.M.
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Michigan League
H H
To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood
of humanity, without distinction of race, creed,
sex, caste, or color.
The study of comparative religion, philosophy,
and science.
To investigate the hidden forces of nature and
the powers latent in man,
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
in AMERICA
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Christian Science Organization at the University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
announces a
FREE LECTURE
ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
ON by
PAUL STARK SEELEY, C.S.B.
PORTLAND, OREGON
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
at
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