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Show i j J As National Library Week begins, a noted educator reminds us that books store the treasures of qur culture and that to understand our world we must understandlhafcuiture T -A- ssocjate-Vrale&sotjal-Liigusiu Barnard College, Columbia University useful wisdom , thought, and opinion. We go to St. Augustine's "Confessions" for the kind of that set a standard jiot only for autobiography but for literature, philosophy, anT theology for more than a thou- sand years, and still knows few equals. We turn searching B ut unless you know some of them, and know them fairly well, you will never come to know yourself fully, or the world around you. For example, what do these names mean to you Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Virgil, Cicero, Augustine, Dante, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Milton? Inscriptions on library walls? Orjust rich, beautiful names packed with associations, yet remote? . - IfHheyrenlyames4oyouJhen your, sense sense of the firm ; yoi of the past is not very You have been cheated present is .not very clear. of your full share of wisdom and have missed -- some deeply satisfying-experienee- s. What are the special insights of the men whose names loom so large on library walls? "Are they books in precisely the same areas as the self-hel- p that promise so much and deliver so little ? No, these deal with love and f nendsh1p7andi;he lusts of youth, and the torments of old age, with the suffering caused by war and the suffering that does hot cease with peace, with the urge .to aitrrandhesatisfactionsandtheinicultieaiQf religious WiefTheyHf ace the inevitability of pain arid of death, and suggest ways, either openly or, by. example, that we can meet both. The extraordinary perceptions-of-these-w- ise men do not come in neat little formulas. It would be a mistake to look for them that way. But there self-examinati- on OdysseyndWrgiln on married love in the case of Ulysses, the hero of the Greek epic, and upon love of country in that of Aeneas, hero of the Roman epic. There is no more entertaining examination of divine -- to the manyzlevekof human-an- d of that in Plato's "Symposium," a banquet-loa- d Fora-fulIer-awarenessfjyMtJ& tains, let me suggest two plays and two novels. Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" (1904). shows how amusingly and how pitifully so many of us spend our lives talking through, rather than to, each other. T. S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party" (1950) suggests some ways to a consoling peace, even for the unloving and the unlovable, and does so i n the handsomecadences of the JeadingEng; lish poet of our time. , Albert Camus's "The Plague" (1947) is an allegory of the Nazi occupa- to Cicero's little books long essays, really "On Friendship" and "On Old Age" for incalculable wisdom on both vital subjects. Dante's. "Divine Comedy" provides a lifetime's reading. There isn't a single type of human being missing: all the virtues and all the vices Shakespeare's 37 plays. Where can we begin? How about "Borneo and Juliet" forthe-folliesFyoung4o- ;f1 i : ' - Barry Lflanov ntsdtsbidiaxrditteris-hope- . The last volume, not exactly of our time, is Feodor Dbstoyevsky's "The Possessed" (1872). It is an incomparable examination of communists and communism. IFIs a prophetic book, written so long before the accession of the communists" in Russia, a profoundly discerning one, and a superb example of thTlanorbTwisdom contained in volumes of this kind. tistilHanother-reminder-of-th- eprodigious capacities of man and of the materials that can give you the full share of wisdom you need to appreciate your world and yourself. and "Antony and Cleopatra" for the follies of middle-aged love? . Ivy lP tion of France; though it deals with depressing ver But what about the TOas terpieces of our own time? In this age of sickness and health, of unequalled scientific achievement and un- - paralleled destruction. whariiaTeenheTeicord of the humanists? What books have we here? No time has debated its problems and sifted possible solutions more entertainingly or more usefully than ours. A fine span can be made of Bernard Shaw's "Man and Superman" (1903), TSTioistakinheessonsf-patienc- e ness, and determination that come from Homer's The first is an autobiography and a provocative introduction to the problems of the new century. The second is an UnolmimlybsoTbinhronicle--o- f events from the end of World War J to the' New Deal. The third may be the most balanced and compassionate examination of the problems of areever likely to get, at Southerners ihat-w- e least in the form of a novel. By BARRY ULANOV the so- called great books to be a cultured person. There isn't much sense in racing against time to read all the great poets, playwrights, novelists, philosophers Free Reading List Offered Thebooks describ eaJnAke above article are rl Boris PalteThakrsnfrDfrZhivago" (1958T7The se three works range across a remarkably exten- - c more sivlTOnk7of20thenturyr4;houghtand HwolaeWm person. Professor Ulanov has wks As much can be discovered again of America and Americans in "The Education of Henry Adams" (1907), John Dos Passos' massive trilo- to 1936). and Wil liam Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!" (1936). that will entertain, enlighten, and edify you. For your free copy of this list, just send a stamped, self addressed envelnne tn Ttnnh T.ist Familu Weekly, . P.O. Box 773,0, Chicago, - III Offer -- l?xplrWMaTWl'&2: COVER: Artist Homer Hill captures the spirit of our national pastime, which launches iW 1962 season this week. Making their bow well-round- ed April 8, 1962 LEONARD Sr DAVIDOW President and Publisher . WALTER C. DREYFUS Vice President PATRICK E. O'ROURKE Advertising Director MORTON FRANK Director of Publisher Relations Snd al advertising communications to Family Wkly, 133 N. Michigan Av., Chicago 'Addrtss altxommunlcatToW Family Wwkly, 60 E. 56th St., Ntw.York 22, N. Y. w wmM rm J"" w m mm ma a mm a mar aa " m Boord-aMdiJo- rs IRNEStVHEYNzditori2Cii? BEN KARTMAN Executive Editor ROBERT FITZGIB8QN "An5JoiS"Eitfor" MARGARET BELl FHIUIP Feature Editor OYKSTRA Art Director MELANIE DE PROFT Food Editor Rotalyn AbrVa va. Jokn HftrKmnnn - larrv KUin. Hal tandon, Jack Ryan; Pwr J. Oppfl1ieimr, Hollywood. 153 N. Michigan Av... Chicago I. III. All rightrvid. |