Show t ttiJE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY 23 1936 Art and Literature IN THE FIELD OF MODERN WRITERS Authentic Voice Life and Puritanism Philosopher and ‘Novelist’ George Santayana’s “Novel’’ a Masterly Study of a Puritan’s Problems Reflective of ilis Own Philosophic Credo By E E HOLLIS THE LAST PURITAN Publishers By George Santayana Scribner’s Sons New York City The February Charles Book-of-the-Mo- ' Club Selection decades George Santayana has been widely FLEN for soas many a philosopher revered for his accomplishments during the many years in which he held open the doors of philosophy for the younger generations at Harvard university it is the occasion of some surprise to find his name attached to a book that is classed as fiction Mr Santayana has written “a memoir in the form of a novel” but critics are questioning its place in the category of the novel The book stands in a ffcgg by itself although it is bound to induce comparison with other important philosophical narratives as it will inevitably be the center of controversy ' One would not recommend “The Last Puritan’ to the casual fiction reader or those demanding that a novel be compact narrative its characters vividly and realistically projected “The Last Puritan” is so much more than a mere novel of plot and action it is a biographical study a “memoir” of New England life and culture in the 90s and examination of the “purification of Puritanism” and its defeat And it is written in that lucid exquisite prose for which Mr Santayana is distinguished seasoned with subtle wit and infused with irony Though the “novel” disregards plot and other characteristics expected to present Mr Santayana’s philosophy to dramatize argument it never becomes ponderous The objection may be brought that its characters most of them talk and think in a way that is not their own but Mr Santayana’s — he himself grants that they “speak the lingo natural to myself” — nevertheless they have definite personalities and achieve a reality m the mind Mr Santayana expressed some fear about managing “the love scenes” as the prologue says but after all there are love stories enough written and this was to be a “tale of sad life” There are love scenes to be sure and badly managed— but that is not linportant What is important is that he knows so thoroughly the way of thought and Oliver Alden in whom life symbolized in the sensitive conscience-ridde- n Puritanism reached its logical end Oliver deciding not to be a Puritan must remain one notwithstanding being and inflexibly himn race Oliver was burdened with a stern sense of self” Child of a duty all his life being troubled to decide where duty lay There was in him an element of “petrified conscience of moral cramp” from which he could not deliver himself People are prone to the error Mr Santayana says of supposing that puritanism has something to do with purity Oliver’s was a “hatred of all shams scorn of all mummeries a bitter merciless pleasure in the hard facts” an earnest passion for the truth Oliver was not fortunate in his parents Peter Alden escaping from Puritanism roamed the world in his yacht returning on occasions to the wife he had married as a matter of convenience as a sort of ballast Harriet whose portrait has perhaps ipore reality than any other of Santayana's characters is the rigid New Englander insufferably smug coldly selfish an unconscious hypocrite 8he had no knowledge of what a child needs she never gave Oliver love and hearty disapproval of Peter grew to hatred The sentimental German Irma hi governess is the one person from whom Oliver receives affection Sent to school “for moral and social reasons” he succeeds easily in his classes and in sports— having from his mother His “bigness and athleticism” and nothing else— but made few friends mind develops but his heart remains immature He is past 16 when he wakens to life when as he droops under the feeling of “something horribly unnecessary and unrighteous in the arrangements" of his world Peter takes him on his yacht Here his mind is stimulated by his father’s talk and he makes his first friend in the confident affable Jim Darnley his father’s “self-direct- thin-spu- puri-tanis- Economics Essay m captain and companion But finding the world a friendlier place Oliver learns too its miseries and deceptions For the first time he hears of his father’s weakness for drugs of his past exile because in a college initiation prank he had accidentally caused a man’s death And he comes to know the engaging Jim’s lack of moral fibre to realize that his father might become a victim of Jim’s desire for material profit Yet Oliver cannot turn against this friendship in after years when Jim is lost with his ship during the war it is Jim’s father who brings Oliver to idealization of the depth of his attachment for this man who had disillusioned him The one other who strongly influenced Oliver’s life is the cousin Mario half -- Italian gay witty charming a pagan spirit in sharpest contrast with the puritanic Oliver Mario is the sophisticate the hedonist who must make love to all women and whom women found lovable— as they couldn’t Oliver who had no understanding of them As Mario declares: “Women were rather He regarded all women as ladies more or less beautia difficulty to him He never discovered that all ladies ful kind privileged and troublesome are women" And Oliver’s affairs are abortive — Edith the young New York society too methodical and girl drawn to Oliver at first finds his rejects him for a successful young minister and the true English Rose Jim's sister and his first love to whom he turns again in the hideous war days realizes well that Oliver is not meant for marriage least of all with her who him back to the war has something of his own solitary frustrated yet only a little more unhappy seeing that love for him had been only a mirage of the mind It was never possible for Oliver to meet life spontaneously his critical faculty in abeyance It is not in the war that he dies but three days after the armistice in an accident— irony is the final note All of Oliver’s life is unfolded for us each part and each event in its significance and each of the characters surrounding him has special meaning in Mr Santayana’s picture It is a design of many parts involved and perplexing for the reader not at one with Mr Santayana’s philosophy Mr Santayana does not demand that everyone agree with his presentation' but after all when “life is over and the world has gone up in smoke what realities might the spirit in us still call its own without illusion save the form of those very illusions which have made up our story?” g spirit-and-sen- am grown sick on beauty bud and blade Beloved we have feasted! Let us I run On swift feet sade to the guarded pali- Drunk with the sharp fruit we have fed upon Open Winged-One- ! These avid ears await The iron "cadence of a closing gate Bettina Linn’s “Flea Circus” which Smith and Haas are bringing out in March is a fictional treatment of life dealcontemporary American city connected ing with disparate groups by current happenings i C linoleum Block Illustration from "Mexican Odyssey” by one of the - reader as the journal of a pair of old friends who desire one to share their experiences This gay and entertaining travel book makes no effort to probe into thJ politics of the country or deeply into its history It probably goes over ground that has been covered by others and its pictures of towns and churches cantinas and monasteries craft-towand fiestas will not bt new but it is so warmly sympathetic in its approach gets so close to the spirit of the country one gains the impression that it was all dashed off “on the spot” while enthusiasm was still fresh These young men however during six months in the country entered into the life of the natives as few visitors perhaps have done have seen much more than the usual tourist finds and caught the feeling of this “land of contrasts” They share for six weeks the studio home of the Japanese painter Tamijl Kitagawa at Taxco a mountain village and become almost “old residents" and seeking the untraveled roads they spend a period in the rural state of Michoacan learning a great deal about native customs from Lionel a Mexican cowboy A long sojourn at Ben Todd’s place at Pie de la Cuesta near the harbor of Acapulco gives them many unusual experiences Todd being an American whose business is hauling freight down the laghna from the jungle accompanying him on the boat up through the jungle canal for the ajonjoll the natives bring on oxcarts is an adventure not to be missed rmm fcMxr Puritan” is the book of the moment ? been done The argument is that Jefferson and Mussolini have pursued somewhat different paths to arrive at a common ordered government ac objective: cording to the best thought actuated from just and humane premises by a group of those most fit to govern When he tries to demonstrate his argument Mr Pound is forced to draw wild and Improbable comparisons not one of which comes within miles of For instance he makes plausibility the point that Jefferson’s whole philosophy of government was expressed in the phrase: “the best government is that which governs least” and then tries to deny that Fascism has clamped down upon the Italian people the harshest regimentation known among nations today And in respect to his admiration for Fascism what must one think of Pound’s assertion that Italy has taken the lead over the world in increased employment reduced hours of labor and the welfare of its workers in the face of the present imperialistic aggression which admittedly was undertaken as a measure of staving off a revolution among those same pampered workers? The book was written so the preface Informs us three years ago The amazing thing is that any man would allow to be published a work that he himself must now see is entirely refuted disproved and ridiculed by incontrovertible events Purblind however as Mr Pound appears to be even he senses something wrong with h's Fascist hero for he states in a pathetic "postscript of valedictory” "These things being so is it to be supposed that Mussolini has regen-- erated Italy merely for the sake of reinfecting her with the black death of the capitalist monetary syst'em?” Mystery and Adventure £JL FIVE FURIES OF LEANING LADDER By B M Bower Publishers Little Brown and Co Boston Not cattle rustling but the raiding of horse corrals is the matter that is stirring up trouble among the ranchers of the Little People Creek country in this B M Bower yarn of th modern west A bitter feud exista between the Lazy Diamond and Leaning Ladder at least those five Amazonian horsewomen— th oldeet but twenty— ty of th latter outfit hold a deadly with connected against anyone the Lazy Diamond— ae th young stranger who Introduces himself ae Dane Huston son of the Lazy Diamond’s owner learns to his chagrin But whateverLazy Diamond hands suspect they find it safer not to make remarks about the “Five Furies” where the taciturn Jack Ross their foreman can hear Dane Huston flding on to his own outfit after that fierce encounter with th "furies” whose order to leave the Leaning Ladder Is backed up with gun and quirts is bewildered by the cold reception Ross has for his employer’s son The cowboys taking their cue from the foreman hold aloof also from the newcomer When Ross immediately sends Dane who offers himself as a regular hand over to th It Is apparently Tomahawk round-u- p to get him out of the way— for what? Does Ross suspect the ulterior motive in Dane’s coming to the Lazy the Diamond which is to learn-wh- y ranch profits are falling off And Dane finding the Tomahawk people unfriendly learns that they suspect the Lazy Diamond of the rustling that is going on The story gets into action at once and moves through a swift sequence of events While Dane can't get Jean pf d hair off his mind the the animosity of this young woman eldest of the “Furies” is Increased when she finds him spying on the Leaning Ladder Yet all the young man learne brings suspicion closer home to this outfit and the course of his duty runs counter to romance The complicated affair provides a typical Bower tale THE POISON CROSS MYSTERY By Inez Haynes Irwin Publishers Harrison Smith and Robert Haas Inc New York City Again the exclusive social circle of Satuit the quiet little community out Cape Cod way is shaken to its foundation by a hideous crime and Chief of Police O'Brien has to wrestle with deep mystery Patrick never having had training as a detective always feels himself inadequate to cope with murder— if Malcolm Reid millionaire art oollector had to be murdered why couldn't he have been murdered at hlf New York place and not disturb Patrick’s bailiwick? But this young policeman has intelligence an eye for the significant in a welter of clues and he gets somewhere Besides Patrick does not disdain the aid of amateurs and 'young Eddie makes himself useful Malcolm Reid eligible bachelor had com down to his Satuit estate occupied! by his two uncles Richard thin and 111 and Hayward huge and robust on a flying visit— had he folBealowed the Intriguing trice Trent his secretary some said his mistress or had her disturbing arrival been meant to coincide with his? Raid gives a big afternoon party with all Satuit in attendance and the next morning his body la found stabbed to the heart with a knife from his own collection But a second knife is missing and it only required one for murder A wealthy young Communist turned gardener who wouldn’t say where he got his black eye a fading and silent spinster once Reid's secretary the widowed beauty Linda Light Reid's partner in a long ago Pans episode and whose amethyst Borgia cross oddly vanishes: the caddish Soule a philandering husband and former fiance of Beatrice the charming Beatrice herself are on Patrick’s Ji of suspects requiring much sorting of motives and sifting of clues before he discovers the meaning of a certain unlocked door Some of the things you have to puzzle about are: what is what beMyra Tingley’s came of Linda’s cross the identity of Malcolm's midnight callers the queer message Bill Simms carried in his pocket I Mr Irwin manipulates all the various threads of her plot with deftness and seems to know her litt community kindly arranging satisfactory romances for several at the end But while her solution of the puzzle comes with unexpectedness the motivation appears a bit flimsy hos-tlli- Between the jungle and the seaport with its varied life— even a "double for George Bernard Shaw striding down th street in what appeared to bo his underwear”— the authors find It difficult to tear themselves away hidden away But the craft-town- s among the mountains must be explored: Tixtla “a town where a philosopher might find refuge”: Chilapa “of h hills” Oaxaca where the they come upon the movie idol Jose Mojica who has cohtributed the foreword to "Mexican Odyssey”— and narrowly avoid the omnipresent Mrs Blodgett They make acquaintance with cantinas and historic" monuments buy more “s&rapes” than they need are wakened In the small hours to listen to the finest concert heard in Mexico team They play with a native soccer Revoget mixed up with the National lutionary Party’s convention "Daisy” plays them false out on the Chihuahuan plains miles from civilization and all in all they have an extraordinarily good time which one will enjoy vicariously Mr Difkinson enhances the narrative with his bold and dashing linoleum e and numerous blocks several smaller pieces blue-clot- Mahonri Young’s print “Corrals at Polacca” Is included in a group of art pieces recently acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art for its "permanent collection 36 works selected from its second biennial exhibition of contemporary American sculpture drawings and prints Other prints chosen were by such n artists as Peggy Bacon John E Costlgan Mabel Dwight Wanda Gag Stefan Hirsch Yasuo Kuniyoshi and fourteen more practitioner Index of American red-h&lr- ed honey-colore- well-know- 1 R whose "The Last Young Print Among Whitney Purchases — re ed By GEORGE DIXON SNELL JEFFERSON AND-OMUSSOLINL By Ezra Pound The Liveright Publishing Corporation New York City Ezra Pound calls this book “volitlon-ls- t economics” It might better be termed “confuslonist twaddle” One cannot help thinking Mr Pound should have gathered some inkling of the unapproachable inanity of what he has said in this book as well as the profound unimportance of it from the fact that forty publishers declined to have anything to do with it But as it is inconceivable that many will want to read it probably no great harm has J Santayana full-pag- i? Ill-Advis- George Design Projected As W P A Art To compile an Index of American Design is the venture now initiated by the works progress administration as a federal aid project By accurate documented black and whits and color drawings and photographs it Is purposed to make a pictorial record of America's decorative applied and folk arts particularly those objects whose character marks them as of distinctly American origin While the time available for completion of the project makes it necesome fields of ssary as for instance the great fiel of Indian arts and crafts the compilation will comprise such material as the Ironwork in Maryland and Louisiana New England's Shaker crafts Pennsylvania Dutch crafts indigneous ceramics of the Carolinas and Tennesn see crafts of the® southwest and other types The work will be confined to the period before the twentieth century In the field of domestic and household arts the material will include furniture interior decoration rugs textiles fabrics glassware ceramics copper brass silver and metalwork generally ornaments costumes' jewelry and other objects which through excellence of design and workmanship have enriched American life at various periods Designs in architecture such as the Colonial type of home schools and churches commercial and public other structures typically buildings American will be included In the work The purpose of the project is to record material of historical significance which stands in danger of being lost to gather a body of material which may form a basis fdr development of American design to make usable source-recorand to give employment to painters graphic artists photographers and commercial artists Calendar Poetry FOR YOUR WAGON By Thorpe Homer Publishers Poetry Publishers Philadelphia With the idea of making a “spiritual calendar” for every day in the year the author has devised and compiled 365 rhymed couplets based on the didactic and poetic portions of the Bible She has arranged these couplets in chart form making a small compact volume The result is an index of choice Biblical philosophic lore contrived to facilitate easy learning “by heart” In some instances in feeling around for her rhyme the poet has stumbled with the expression She can hardly be said to have improved upon the blunt logic of the Proverbs or the enraptured cadences of the Psalms But in the main Mrs Homer’s couplets are both cleverly phrased and as when she writes for January 19: Fear is the foe of all mankind Faith is the power to put it behind 22-2- 9 21-2- Curious Professors Curiosity to know what lay behind Herman Melville's comments on the subject led two southern California university professors to write “Puritans in the South Seas” described as “a simple narrative of the efforts of evangelical Puritans to Christianize the principal Polynesian islands” The two are Mary Isabel Fry and Louis B Wright who explain: "We were curious to know the effect produced when a group of earnest zealots representing a complex commercial civilization set out to impose their religious and social points of view upon a primitive people” 3 I Author Stern’s Visit G B Stern author of "The Matri- some weeks in New York is now in California working with Roland Young on a play she is doing for him She plans to return to New York after a visit in San Francisco for the appearance of her new book “Monogram” which MacMillan will publish March 17 “Monogram”' is an autobiographical volume amusing and full of keen comment arch” having spent thought-provoking- Luke 12: For February 24 she offers: No act of ours is small or great In mind alone we mold our fate 5 1st John 3: 3 Isa 45: Lucia Trent and Ralph Cheney have contributed a foreword to the book ' Spanish-America- ‘ STARS Alice r' ma-teri- al life-wo- On a Joyous Expedition South of the Mexican Border MEXICAN ODYSSEY By Heath Bowman and Stirling Dickinson Publisher Willett Clark and Company New York City Bo many book about Mexico have appeared thl last few years one might almost believe that every American visitor has felt compelled to eet down his impresslohs of this colorful lend and people However as It Is said that half of America crossed the border for a visit within the last two or three years one sees that some few have neglected to join the book writers Two young Chicagoans Princeton graduates one a painter the other a writer setting out In a battered car to tour the country have furnished an account of their adventures so delightfully informal that it appeals to ths Seems K LOCUST BLOSSOMS By Grace A Rogers BUCKWHEAT FIELDS AND BRUSH FENCES By Charles G Stater VERSES OF THE LITTLE DAYS By Francesca Carleton Blake Hawes THESE TWINKLING ACRES' By Edith MIrick Publisher The Kaleldo-grap-h Press Dallas Texas Here one finds a group of Kaleido-grap-h poets who have been published variously In the magazines of verse and other periodicals Taking up (each separately: Grace A Rogers has several poems that will appeal to child readers but there Is little In her collection for adults She shows a dangerous facility fot rhyme but her themes and expression are as commonplace as the "Locust Blossoms” of her title yet lacking the rich fragrance that makes one aware of them A greater reach of imagination is displayed in the small group of Charles G Stater’s verses though his technique is often faulty and his rhythms broken He is a West Virginian and his poem often are In tribute to his native state “Buckwheat Fields and Brush Fences” deals with varied themes but the writer has little that Is new to say Careful conning of the pages of th collected “Verses of the Little Days’’ uncovers a flash of true poetic feeling here and there among much that' is trite and valueless Francesca C B Hawes writes in varied moods wistful sentimental humorous enthusiastic and is often inclined to be didactic There is more than a little that creaks in her mechanics With “These Twinkling Acres” on finds a richer harvest There is an authentic note in Edith Mirick’s singing and one comes upon genuine rewards in her pages Her technique is competent her sonnets have a firm strength and her possession of a natural sense of rhythm is marked throughout Her melodic lines are studded with pleasing Images and if ths book as a whole conveys no Impression of striking Individuality nevertheless it affords most agreeable reading and much that will appeal as sincere emotional expression Ths majority of the poems ars In sonnet form with a few singing lyrics Included and almost all of them have been given awards prizes or honorable mention in poetry competitions and many thosen for reading at the Poetry Society of America “Challenge” is a sonnet sequence of power and the sequence "Window of Night” holds philoaophla content From "Valorous Harvest” we quote the first in this sequence of a rebellious Eve: There is no need O Serpent in th Grass To whisper of a staled exotic Eden Where the light hours burgeon blow and pass Like epent May petals Show me the forbidden Branches that sag beneath their ruddy load My covetous teeth which carve the narrow sluice To a dark core shall need no tempter’s goad Nor shall the lips which suck ths bitter Juice I Poet Ezra Pound’s In Varied Chorus — love-makin- ARTISTS’ COLONY ACTIVITIES IN UTAH ' The Bookaneer Sags Books Are Your “Silent Companions” S They are Vet books hand you want always when at anything them are but In them the greatest minds the best apeak thoughts of all 1 time t t |