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Show ! r 2 ft The Salt i v mrrMi .ryv ake Tribune, Sunday, March ritrf tp T"wr"v-v- r 'f r vs, try 17 nn'y P'ir vvro r t fv y rlrrr,T y' 5, 1978 Phyllis McGinley: Leading literary light at U. By David L. Beck Assistant Sunday Editor g poet Phyllis McGinley, the Pulitzer one who died Feb. 22 in New York at the age of 72, was s light versifiers, of America celebrated most 'of the 'and one of the most popular. She received the Award on University of Utahs Distinguished Alumna received she same the 1961 in year Founders Day of her Pulitzer Prize for Times Three, a collection her verse from three decades. Bom in Ontario, Ore. in 1905, she was raised in the 12 when her father country around Iliff, Colo. She was mothers home her to returned died and the family Sacred Heart town, Ogden, Utah, where she attended School. and High Ogden Academy a At the University of Utah, she suppressed to a according for scholarship," natural appetite 1965. (She Time magazine cover article on June 18, told the Time interviewer that as a child in Colorado she read a great deal. I am probably the only person of left living who has read the entire works Bulwer-Lyttowhen 1 was 10 years old.) I knew I was bright, she told Time, but I also knew that in that period and in that environment brainy women were i.e., her Utah adolescence not appreciated. I made myself over into a giddy I didnt learn very much at Ogden, prom trotter 1 always wanted all my life: the but I had what society of people, friends, beaux. Prize-winnin- n ... She also had her writing. At six she wrote Sometimes in the evening When the sky is blue and pink, 1 love to lie in the hammock And think and think and think. At the University of Utah, writing under a pen name, she entered contests in poetry, short stories and essays and won all three two years in a row. William Patrick, the retired medical editor of The Salt Lake Tribune, was her editor on PEN, the university literary magazine, and remembers her as one of the principal contributors. She and Wally Stegner were, in my opinion, the leading literary lights to come out of the University of Utah, said Mr. Patrick. Mr. Patricks sister, Margaret, remembeis Phyllis McGinley as a very sweet, likeable girl when they were sorority sisters. One thing that she was doing at that time, she and Gladys Rich were writing songs together. Gladys wrote the music and Phyllis wrote the lyrics. Some of her songs are included in the Kappa Kappa Gamma songbook. She began selling poetry to New York magazines in the late 20s, and in 1929 moved there herself, taking a teaching job at a junior high school in New Rochelle. She resigned the position when her principal, who had spotted a McGinley poem in The New Yorker, expressed the hope that poetry would not interfere with teaching. She married Charles Bill Hayden in 1936. At the suggestion of New Yorker fiction editor, early in her career she ceased singing the same sad songs all lady poets sing, and began writing the light and amusing verse that made her famous. By 1961, when she was awarded the Pulitzer, she had written nine collections of verse, one book of . essays and 10 childrens books. Some of them sold very well: over 80,000 copies of The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley (1954), over 60,000 (by 1965) in hard cover alone of Times Three, over 100,000 of Sixpence in Your Shoe. Time wrote of her that she had become, perhaps to her own surprise, the literary protagonist of the point of view that the keeper of the home is the most important woman in the world, and she practiced what she preached by shopping, tending house and garden and cooking at her Connecticut home, as well all with the help and as raising her two daughters support of her husband. On two occasions Time printed a full page of her The Thunderer, poems, ranging from religion an amused and appreciative glance at Saint Jerome, Gods angry man, His crotchety scholar" to love Love is no lotus-islan- d endlessly Washed by a to art: summer ocean Jackson Pollock had a quaint Way of saying to his sibyl, "Shall I dribble? Should I paint?" And with never cn instant's quibble, Sibyl always answered, "Dribble." She was called a writer of light verse and her own if modest. appreciation of her work was realistic, Rereading my poetry the other night, she told of Time, I was amazed at the high level I my competence. I know every technical trick. But dont quite reach the plateau of the great poet, Eliot, there are poets whose genius is so Auden, Yeats could I weep over them. great But the same article quoted Auden himself, admiringly: Where do you place work like Popes Rape of the Lock? You could equally call it light verse or marvelous poetry. There is a certain way of writing which one calls light, but underneath it can carry a written on great depth of emotion. Thus her poem Julie: of her daughter, the model not that, not this ; Thirteen s anomalous wave that or laps a shore, Not folded bud, the chrysallis Or moth proverbial from Is the one age defeats the metaphor. Is not a town, like childhood, strongly u lied But easily surrounded; is no city. Nor, quitted once, can it be quite recal ed O Best Sellers Not even with pity. In addition to her Pulitzer Prize and the University of Utah Distinguished Alumna Award, she received the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame University in 1964, conferred annually to an outstanding American Catholic layman. She was also the holder of numerous honorary doctorates, including degrees from Wheaton, St. Marys, Marquette, Dartmouth, Boston College, Smith and St. Johns. Nw York Time Service Bated on report from more then 1400 bookstore fhrouptout the United States. Weeks on list ere not necetserily consecutive. seemed always Garff beyond (1812-1888- ), In Victoria u England with Lf' about 1870 rh,2lWind ' of the. nonsense writers. He made an art of .folly, and his verse has endured a, century. In Nonsense and Wonder, (Bran-- , dywine PressDutton, 244 pp., $12.95) a book grown out of a Ph.D. dissertation, the interpretsverses limericks, cartoons, and longer against the facts of Lears life, and at the same time, uses the poems to untangle the puzzles of that life. The author believes that there is more depth to Lear as a poet than appears on the frivolous surface of the verses. ; . j , begins his studv with an interesting short biography. Lear had a frsutrating and often unhappy life. A romantic wanderer, he was constantly , searching for an elusive something (Byrom calls it "the sublime) that Bryom 7. Friday. Leaking Out for Number Ringer. Coming into the Country, McPtwo TIM WonwVl Dm (or 35 Owe, n 8. 38 . 13 21 10. 19 20 7 Sued took, Motlov. Irnor SkUng, Oallwev. Krloo). (CocvrKjm) another story Sue bachelor on a southern villa far from England. This biographical section whets the appetite for more, but because of Byroms necessary condensing, the recounting of Lears 40 years of repeated journeys and homecomings gets a bit tedious. The book is carefully researched and documented. Byrom avoids the foggy manv scholarly dissertations Jd writeg prose, .3 literary terms Re useg gome to excess ms method is to divide the limericks and poems into subject groupings, including a discussion of the discrepancies between the word and the picture. Early in his book Byrom states that nonsense resists closed interpretations and that there are many arguments concerning their (the poems) meaning. In spite of these qualifications, he spends the rest of the book furthering his interpretations. And although we can agree that certain dark qualities linger beneath the absurdities of the verse (violence. lost love, humiliation, alienation, etc.), it seems that Byrom may be going a little too far when, for example, By Becky By John Leonard New York Times Writer The Human Factor, By Graham Greene: Simon and Schuster; 347 pp., $9.95. The Human Factor has an interesting plot and a number of promising ideas for characters. It is occasionally puckish. It talks about politics and pity. It trafficks in ideology and, of course, religion. It thinks about love. It doesnt work. Greene, I am sorry to say, has done a lazy job. We are introduced to Maurice Castle, an employee of the British Secret Service, working in London for the Subdivision on Eastern and Southern Africa. He is married to a black South African, and stepfather to her child. He rides bicycles and takes trains. He walks a dog be doesnt like. He drinks too much, in secret, because he has a secret: he is a double-agen- t, passing on Information to the Russians a Unit project Uncle Remus, a conspiracy on the part of the English, the Americans, the West Germans and the white South Africans to do bad things. He will be found out. by his employers with moldy peanuts (afiatoxin: kills the liver cells). His employers dont want to embarrass themselv?s in front of the Americans rith yet another trial of yet Kim Philby and all that. Castle another double-agen- t. The traitor will be murdered, feels rotten about it. While he doesn't-approv- e Why is Castle a double-agent- ? of communism in, say, Europe, a brave Communist in South Africa did manage to save the life of his wife, Sarah. As he tells Sarah, My mother told me that when I was a child I always gave away too much in a swap, but it wasnt too much for tlie man who had saved you from BOSS. He tries to limit his secret services to the dark continent. It is like being a little big pregnant, or a little bit Catholic. Greenes portraits of Davis, the failed romantic who is so unfortunate as to be Cartles rnllnmuip; of , (aintry, the lonely, honest British security officer, of Muller, the South African police chief with odd anribi valences; of Castle himself and of Buller, his dog, are fine. His portrait of Dr. Fercivul, the bureaucratic killer who talks all the time alxutt g is a cliche. His portrait of Sarah, the human factor in the gamesmanship of monoliths, is nonexistent. I mean, Sarah isnt there. We are told a few facts Epstein For the Los Angeles Times Rachel, The Rabbis By Silvia Tennen-bauMorrow; $8.95. i Far from being just the i story of another old woman trying to find Rachel is a herself, novel which illuminates the status- Wife, iZ -. There was an old man whose despair Induced him to purchase a hare : Whereon one fine day, he rode wholly away. Which partly assauged his despair. likens the nonsensical Mr. Yonghy Bonghy Bo to Ulysses sailing to the western seas or supposes that the Dong with the Luminous Nose is a phallic symbol. Is it too much to say that from the limericks come awe, illumination, or that they have the epiphany, transendental ability to take us into the darkness beyond (a quality Byrom compares favorably to the poems of Tennyson and Emily Dickinson)? Most readers would prefer to take the nonsense at face value. We can appreciate the sure technique of Lear in the the longer, often lyrical poems intricate meter and rhyme, the lan fun with well-round- guage, and tfte lightly satiric nature of the mock romantic ballads. We can respond to the paradoxical joy and sadness of such verses as The Pelican Chorus. But perhaps this is our limit with verse designed merely to make little folks merry. It seems then that Nonsense and Wonder has an audience limited to those interested in the Fife of Edward Lear or in nonsense verse as a genre. The general reader would do well to enjoy one of Lears several collections or maybe some of the more recent beautiful children's picture books of Lears poems and leave the dissection of life and limerick to the scholars. Genevieve De Hoyos, an associate professor of sociology at Brigham Young University, is the author of Feminism or Familism, published by the Northridge Publishing Co. of Provo, Utah (paper, 288 PP- about her, and she makes some remarks, but she is so casually rendered as to seem to belong to a newspaper story or a film magazine. Im prepared to believe that Castle is capable of love, and thankful that the older Greene gets the less he seems to regard sex as somehow degrading or an occasion for nausea, but at the very ce nter of this novel, where there should be passion, there is emptiness. And implausibility:Im not prepared to believe that the British Secret Service, having only two suspects, would on such flimsy evidence murder the wrong one without wondering at length about a man with a black South African wife and the various) blackmail possibilities that relationship suggests, (Nor am I prepared to believe that Castle, on not being able to locate his Russian overseer, would go into a Catholic Church and try to confess. Hes not supimsed to lx- a Catholic. Really, these are coldcuts left over from earlier Graham Greene novels. There is also, alas, some indifferent writing. A Englisham simply wouldn't say to Russian agent that for seven years I've kept my cool, and Im losing it now." Nor would he tell h.s wife, when the world collapses, Of course its not the end.' As long as we are alive well come together Is this "West Side again. Somehow. Somewhere. Story"? What would Scobie think, or Pinky, or the whisky priest? T7ie Human Factor is full of scraps, homilies, Flippancy was like a analogies, generalizations: A secret code of which he didn t possess the bonk ideal. an with common m has something prejudice survived Stalin like Roman Genuine Communists Catholics survived the Borgias. Stalin, Hungary and Czechoslovakia were a little like Hamburg, Dresden and Hiroshima. Once again, as in The Quiet we are American and Our Man in Havana, advised that innocence can lead to evil. This information no longer comes as a surprise. And once again a Greene character worries ahout a brown soul. Castle, in fact, takes stock as if in the suffering were a commodities market, rather spirit of n Edith Wharton, although everything j8 bloodier. If the State has no pity, and the Church is and sex is an idea Instead of a person, we, are left with the telephone. Or the reader. The reader is called upon to be a ministry, not of fear, but of mercy and grace. Castle, after all, meant well. I. because Greene, know this is impudent to say as Joseph such novels, to write John taught but lx Conrad taught Greene to write such novels Carre now does the same thing - $4.95). The book is described as a systematic comparison and evaluation of the solutions offered by three contemporary, dissatisfied, angry, rebellious groups of women. Feminism or Familism is said to be available in local bookstores, or from the publisher at P.O. Box 7519, University Station, Provo, Utah 84602. J business- - seeking, Study of feminism Greenes done a lazy job with The Human F actor trout-fishin- 42 4 Not just plagued him all his life. He died a lonely others. Lear led the ranks Thomas Byrom 24 I n nonsense books flourished not only in mnUS'; tttetes List On his reach, world For many years he traveler, ornithologist, landscape oil' was commissioned by the Earl of Derby painter, musician and the Derry Down as an illustrator of the animals and Derry of the limerick, found success birds in the Earls menagerie. Lear only writing nonsense books full of even gave drawing lessons to the curious little cartoons. Who cant re- Queen. His happiest times were spent member with fondness and a smile the entertaining the children of his friends. Owl and the Pussycat in the Unfortunately, physical and emotional boat, the outlandish hat of the Quangle problems, including depression, epilepWangle and the poor toeless Pobble? sy and an uncertain sexual identity pea-gree- Lett I. Ttw SHmartHtan, Tolkien. The Them Bird, McCullough. 3. BteedMne, Sheldon. 4. The Merue, Wambeugh. 5. Th MeneurihN Schoolboy, le Carre. 6. IMwNem, Bach. 7. The Werner's Room, French. I. The Immigrants, Fast. 9. Dreams Ole First, Robbins. 10. Beggerynan, Thnf, Shaw. including success as a serious painter. He was a friend of Tennyson and the For The Salt Lake Tribune Edward Lear NONFICTION The CsmaHto Book of Running, Fixx. Z All Things Wita and Wonderful, Harriot. 3. The Amityvlite Horror, Anson. 4 The Second Ring of Power, Castaneda. 5. Gnomes, Huygen, PoortvUet. 4 My Methor-M- y SeH, 1. FICTION TM Lear: Leader in the ranks of nonsense writers By Judy S. was one of the most celebrated Americas light versifiers. Phyllis McGinley, who died Feb. 22 at the age of of 72, Ballet West oriented members of a fashionably liberal Long Island Jewish congregation In the society Tennen-bau- m describes, everyone remains a certain ago? in his or her mind: 16, during the highlight of a high school sports career, perhaps; or maybe 22, having graduated from college and finally moved away from home. The alien- ated Rachel around 20, come an with remains about to artist, be- in love her husband Seymour and dreaming of their lives together but not yet forced to take on the responsibilities involved with her hu- sbands profession. Seymour expects her to function in the role of his wife no less automatically than she expects it of herself. The fact that he is a rabbi does not differentiate this couple it just from any other happens to be a circumstance with which the author (also a rabbis wife) was most familiar. Mall to: Ballet West Ticket Office P.O.Box 11336 Salt Luke City, Utah 84147 I I I I (801)322-163- 6 I I (Biramdl dDpemnimj I I I j B I I ' I j e r . R I I R THE B ELEGANT ETAGERE B 5 Chrome and Glass. 69" h. x 46 w. x 14" d. I B ONLY... 3314.95 Nuinc. Or let us help you Address design your own. Any size or shape. Ask us about it. (ity Duy B B B .State. I ti i hone B Tickets Meuse send me ul 8- - B . eaeh Total 8 B a Cheek for total union lit ot tlckets must enter. 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