TUE MtC lIGAN-DAILY
Mildred
Walker's
Third
Novel
Finished
Piece Of Writing
7
Dr. Norton's
Wife' Study
Of InCurable
Hyma Produces New Analysis
Of Christianity And Politics
. Li
Ex Libris
Former HopwoodWinner
Uses Scene On Campus
For Story's Background
DR. NORTON'S WIFE, by Mildred
Walker. Harcourt, Brace and Co.,
New York. $2.50
By JOSEPH GIES
This is Mildred Walker's third
novel, her second since she was
awarded a major Hopwood prize for
Fireweed in 1933. She is no longer in
the class of what are usually referred'
to as young authors; Dr. Norton's
Wife 's a mature piece of writing,
carefully and intelligently put to-
gether.
The book is about a women with an
incurable disease which is slowly ren-
dering her a complete paralytic, and
the phychological effects the disease,
has on her and her husband. It cani
readily be seen that this is a story)
with possibilities.
Mrs. Walker's treatment of it is
admirable. What she seems to have
succeeded in doing is to measure her
own capabilities very accurately and
fit her no el to them. She found she
needed only 269 pages to tell her
'story, and consequently limited her-
self to that number. A great novelist
would doubtless have treated the
same in twice the space, but so, I am
led to believe, would a poor one. In
other words, there may be room for
improvement in Mrs. Walker's book,,
but there i.n't much 'thatis unnec-
essary or inconsequential, and that,
I think, is the test of a good novel.
Sue Norton was formerly one of
those happy, hearty women who
thoroughly enjoy life- in all its as-
pects. Her marriage to Dan, a pro-
fessor in the medical school of a
scarcely disguised midwestern uni-
versity, had been highly successful.
They had been married nearly 20
years when her peculiar malady at-!
(By Albert F. Gilnore in the Chris- proof that, as democracy, with its
tian Science Monitor). acknowledged weaknesses, when hon-
CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS, by 'stly administered by an intelligent
Albert Hyma, Ph.D. J. B. Lippin- eo eithe best form of human
coaC.Nw ok 3 government yet devised; likewise
that, Christianity, when practically
The common saying that democ- applied, is the way to peace,
racy is on trial is finding a parallel righteousness, and salvation.
in the assertion, less common but Because of these obvious attacks
nonetheless audible, that Christianity upon both democracy and Chris-
itself is equally on trial. These chal- kianity today, Dr. Hyma, scholar,;
1enging statements arouse defenders Christian, and patriot, traces the re-
of both institutions, of democratic lation of Church and State from the
government and of Christendom, not 'eginnings of the Christian era to;
alone to deny the truthfulness of the the present, thus bringing vividly
assertion but better still to prove to present view the unending strug-
their falsity by example, by concrete gle to preserve the former, while pro-f
- moting the welfare of the populace
tacked her. As the disease progresses, through the propagation of the latter.
she gradually becomes aware, in spite Through the early centuries, the
of the pretended optimism of her Middle Ages, and to the present day.
husband, that there is no hope for the discussion is carried, a develop-
recovery. The mental torture she ment which should arouse its readers
experiences with the realization that to the dangers to democracy now im-
she can never again be anything but inent from ideologies that not alone
a living corpse, unable to control her substitute the will of an individual or
1movements or her speech, with her a group for the voice of the people,
paralysis enveloping her by inexor- but strike at the very foundation of
able degrees, is Mrs. Walker's chief Christianitj by promoting godless
accomplishment.t theories that smack strongly of pa-
Fine as the picture of Sue's suf- ganism. The material is exalted above
fering is, it is equalled by that of her the spiritual. In fact, spiritual wor-
husband's. Dan Norton is about 45, ship and welfare are deeply buried in
still young at heart, successful and a national selfishness which blinds
respected. His chief characteristic, the populace to all but the exalta-
carefully and subtly developed by the tion of state and race. The result, as
authbr, is a sober and intellectual Dr. Hyma makes clear, is a terrific
disease does not drive him either to assault upon democracy everywhere.
Ian emotional break-down or to one Especially in the American countries,
of the accepted forms of escapism. Central and South. is being carried
His problem is complicated as is on a bombardment of imported
Sue's, by the presence in the house brands of so-called liberalism and
Sues, y te pesece n te husehalf-baked political and religious
of Jean, Sue's younger sister, who theorie whi iand regs
constantly reminds both of them of theories which find lodgment in rest-
what Sue once 'was. less and receptive mnentalities.n th
what ue oce ws. IA situation is thrown upon the
There is a hint of deus ex machina screen of popular thought which
in the resolution of the plot, but the should be met and refuted by Church
episode which concludes the story is and State: the former, in a re-ex-
so skillfully and economically treated amination of the foundations of
that there should not be much dif- Christianity; the latter, by re-af-
ficulty with this, The conventionality firmiation of the builders who laid a
of the ending is also screened by the base of government in the solid foun-
fact that one or two rather obvious dation of well-being for all the peo-
and weak alternatives were avoided. ple, for high and low alike.
BY JOSEPH GIES
During vacation I received a com-
munication from Granville Hicksj
which should finish up the Gateway!
to History controversy. It is in the
form of a copy of a letter sent by
Professor Nevins to The New York
Times Book Supplement which runs
as follows:
'Alias The Pror
Proves 200 F
ALIAS THE PROMISED LAND, by
S. Gordon Gurwit, New York, John
H. Hopkins, Inc., New York. $2.50.1
There is a very nice binding on
Alias the Promised Land. It is blue,
stamped in gold, and at the top andj
bottom there are light blue decora-
tive borders. True the jacket il-
lustration is more like something I
once saw on an Anthony Trollope
novel than the symbolic land of
dreams it might have been intended
to represent, but there are some trees
in the right foreground, and one ex-
cuses amateurs much. It is my firm
opinion that everyone is entitled to
his own hobby. The illustration at
any rate does manage to catch some-
how the spirit of the book itself, with
"May I use your columns for a
statement and a correction? In
my recent volume "The Gateway
to History" I illustrated one point
by reference to "the writer on
John Reed who, glorifying him
as a staunch revolutionist, was
informed before publishing his
book of the existence of letters
that John Reed had written fron
Russia shortly be ore his death
expressing a keen disillusionment
with the Russian Revolution, and
who ignored them." As. source
for the statement in the text I
had (as I possess documentary
evidence to show) statements by
two writers and scholars of high
repute. One of them, a leading
literary critic and editor, pro-
fessed to know the holder of the
letters. But inquiry has satisfied
me that he was mistaken and
that the story bears no relation
to known facts. In later printings
the passage will suffer the fate
of DuMaurier's character Joe
Sibley in the later editors of
"Tribly"-it will be withdrawn.
"Very truly yours,
"Allan Nevns."
sonable facsimile thereof. The last
Sised Land' ages of the book are virgin ter-
rni s d La d' iritory, and will remain so unless
someone wants to borrow my copy
ages Too Long to make paper airplanes with.
Hard-soft Heroine
That's enough for the blurbs. Let's
its cloudy motif in the upper por- turn to the types who dominate the
tions, its' tall, ornate towers, and its 'canvas scenery of the piece itself.
rich, rich greens everywhere. Sue, daughter- of a vaudeville ma-
"This is the intensely provocative gician-card sharp, may be called the
story, swift, passionate, young, of and. then hard, and then soft, and
Sthree,modern pirates: A beautiful, then hard, and then soft. She is also
young golddigger, without a scruple, said to be very beautiful, and runs
a card sharp and a potential killer, a coffee shop in a small college town
who go in search of 'The Promised where the Colonel, her papa, holds
Land,'" runs the blurb inside the forth in the back room. "taking the
front cover. There are quite a few boys for a ride," as the New York
more commas in the statement than toughs would have it. The Colonel
I am accustomed to digesting in the himself poses as a gentleman author
course of one of my prosaic days, and doing things about the Civil War. To
I gag politely over the "intensely pro- add to the effect, and to ward off the
vocative story, swift, passionate" bit, questions of young intellectuals in
but with the word "young" used as a the college who might discover the
descriptive adjective here I have no fraud if they inquired too deeply into
quarrel. That represents the classic the ,extent of the old crook's knowl-
touch in the blurb. edge of the great-war-between-the-
A Slam At Cinema states, the Colonel affects handlebar
The blurb on the inside of the back moustaches, and speaks with a
cover concludes with, "You will, per- "Suth'n" accent. In the part I read,
haps, find humor here, and maybe he had already become one of the
tears; but certainly, you will find en- town's leading citizens, having fooled
tertainment as absorbing as the lat- the best of 'em. Maybe Gurwit is off
est screen production." There speaks in some small town this very minute
a publisher who doesn't like the cheating at cards, and posing as a
movies. Justifiable as the statement gentleman author. Maybe.
may be, he may wake up with a libel Bill Ware is supposed to be a tough
suit on his hands one of these days, egg, but Sue knows different. His
with Sam Goldwyn toeing the rub- father is in jail, sent there unjustly
ber and winding up. by the unscrupulous maneuverings of
If Mr. Gurwit was trying to be the father of Cal, the other main
funny when he wrote this book he q, man as far as Sue's emotional
flopped. The cliche is only really life is concerned,
funny when employed by a sure There they are. What happens to
hand at the game such as S. J. Perel- them after page 180, I don't know,
man, and from the 180 pages I read and needless to say I don't care.
I am prepared to say that Alias the Neither will you, reader, neither will
Promised Land would appeal only you.
to a mind like Perleman's or a rea- --Jav McCormick.
/
note: "In other words, Mr. Nevins
now acknowledges that, so far as he
knows, no such letters exist. The,
matter, as far as I am concerned, is
closed. (Signed) G.H."
s
r
S
f
The matter is also closed as far as
the Daily is concerned. From the cor-
respondence which has come into my
possession, I should judge that a
minimum of censure should be at-
tached to Professor Nevins for the
slander of Mr. Hicks. It seems to me
somewhat unfortunate that the real
culprits are not going to be brought
very vigorously to literary justice.
Ethics restrain Professor Nevins fLom
mentioning their names in his letter
to the Times, and as far as I know,
the name of only one of them (Ber-
nard DeVoto) has appeared in print
anywhere-in the Michigan Daily.
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At the end of the copy Mr.
has appended the following
Hick
brie
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