Books and Arts in Democracy
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Collier MeyersonBooks and Arts in Democracy
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Collier MeyersonThe NATION
410
M A R G A R E T MARSHALL
Literary Edrtor of The Nation-brilliant
commentator, author of the series Columnists on Parade andco-author, with Mary
McCarthy, of Our Critics, Raght or Wrong.
I WELTANSCHAUUNG
in a democracy
crops, he feels, is llke childbirth,a groaning labor. In this
first novel by Horace Kramer the struggle of a man against
the poor marginal lands of one of the Dakotas-which one
is not made clear-is shown dramatically without any false
pathos. Steve Randall, 111, city-bred, sensitive, attacked the
stubbornearth which heinheritedand finally made it pay
him in live stock, after drought and fire and frost had proved
to him that wheat could not be forced to grow, and that old
Voorhees was right to disdain those who tried to raise bread
on meat land. But it was abltter struggle aggravated by
a wife who could not adapt herself and by the hostile natives.
The winters were so cold that the servant, Joe-who could
unravel a man llke a sock-had to take the new-born colts
to bed with him lest they freeze, and the summers were SO
wet that the Germans livlng in sod hovels were flooded out.
The passions of men and women were equally variable, but
Mrs. Moses, the beneficent hurricane, old Hendershot.
who fiercely raised raspbemes, and the farm girl, Trina, who
married Randallafter
hiswifesdefection
and brought
Grandpap as her champion dowry, all helped to shape the
dude. The book IS swiftly styled, f a d e but sure in it5
characterizatlon, and filled with a robust sympathy for both
the man and the thwarted, eager earth.
In [Link]
do asyoure told
-and the less you think the better off you are.
Books are dangerous.
In a democracy thought is needed. Democracy
calls for well-balanced, well-rounded acquaintance
with the social, political and cultural happenings of
the times.
Books freely written, freely published and freely
discussed arepart of Democracys Maginot Line.
BOOKS AND THE ARTS,edited by Margaret
Marshall-assisted by many of Americas leading
critics -maintains
the high standards of The
Nation in scholarly reviews of the important
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the department of great
help in their selection of those books which deserve
to be read.
BOOKS AND T H E ARTS presents a lively
view of the cultural scene: regular coverage of
books, the drama, the films, and music-including
records;essays on literary and culturalsubjects;
articles on the dance, architecture, and art.
The excellence of The Nations regular departments and features, plus its fearless editorial pages
and accuratereporting of the news, make The
Nati,on
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4-8-39
Miss Hepburn Pays Up
ISS KATHERINE HEPBURN is an actress who seems
to have reversed that order of procedure which is usual
In the theater If not In commercial transactions. She acquired
a reputatlon upon the smallest of down payments and then,
llke the honest debtor she is, set about the unpleasant business of earnlngthefameshe
alreadyenjoyed. There were
times when she seemed to others, as she certainly did to me,
a very bad risk indeed. There were also times when the dear
publicwasdlsposed
toadoptanattitude
unpleasantly like
that of an instalment collector who is just about to sue. But
at the Shubert Theater MISS Hepburn is now giving a performancewhich
comes pretty near to cancellng allher
accumulated arrears. She is exhibltlng a flexiblllty and variety
of which I, at least, hardly believed her capable, and if I
were inclined to be rlbald I should probably exclaim: Three
more payments, Mlss Hepburn, and the reputation is yours.
But The Philadelphla Story, as the play is called, is noteworthy for much more than the opportunity it presents to an
ambitlous actress. For one thmgtheTheaterGuild
has a
success at last-a play which would undoubtedly run a season
through If this were not,as it undoubtedlyis, the first of
April. What IS, however, still more Important is the fact
that here, at last, IS somethingwhlch looks very pleasantly
llke the comedy whlchitsauthor,
Phlllp Barry, was trying
to wrlte more than ten years ago in the days when he was
generally regarded as the ablest as well as the most promising
of our high-comedywriters. An audlence on pleasure bent
will probably find The Philadelphia Story polite fun rather
411
April 8, 1939
more than ordmarlly dellghtful for reasons not immediately
apparent But It has, I think, a flavor all Its own which distinguishes it slgnlficantly from any of the drawlng-room comedles It superficlally resembles.
Mr Barry has concocted a plot which involves the rnarltal
mlsadventures of thealmost too charmmg daughter of one
of the best of good families He has added a female photographer who goes In the company of a wrlter for a rnagazlne
not too heavlly dlsgursed underthe name of Derlra); and
thus he has produced a scenario which mlght easily serve as
the basis for a raucous farce nelther particularly orlgmal nor
particularly slgnificant. But one gets somethlng very dlfferenl
from whatthlsdescriptlonwould
suggest-an almost exquisltely dellcate treatment of sltuations and themes which
would tempt almost any other wrlter Into easy extravagance
The piece has, I suppose, at least two themes. One is con
cernedwlth
the daughter, superficlally spolled but fundamentally decent, who comes to her senses when three dlfferent
men let her see how a klnd of splritual prlde has made her
incapable of the kind of human relatlonshlp she really desires
The other theme, whlch runs just below the surface, involves
thesubtler aspects of that great truth whlch W. S . Gilbert
stated so bluntly when he announced that the neighborhood
of Seven Dlals had no monopoly on hearts that are pure and
f u r . But nelther of these themes IS, I thlnk, the main concern
of a play whch IS struggllng to lllustrate In terms of character
and sltuatlon what IS meant by such words, at once cold and
eluslve, a5 refinement and integrity and decency of soul. Any
attempt to define any one of them IS Ilkely, as M r Barry must
know from experience, to end In the prescrlptlon of a rigid
code or, by lmplicatlon at least, In glvlng a false Importance
to mere fashlon and the mores of a fashlonable class. T o me
I t has always seemed the great defect of his earller comedles
that the fine h e between decency and prigglshness and the
equallyfine llne between refinement of feelingand mere
famlllarity with what IS belng said and done this season was
not really drawn.I have, In fact, accused Mr. Barry of no:
making the distinctlon hlmself; but the failure was perhaps
a fallure not of feellng but of expresslon The Phlladelphla
Story seems to me to do successfully exactly what Hollday,
for example, fadedto accompllsh. Certam of Its characters
are nice people and certaln are not. But for once that
vulgar phrase seems to have a real meanlng
You may now take your choice between The Swing
Mlkado offered by the FederalTheater
andThe
Hot
Mikado more recently producedat
the Broadhurst. The
great vlrtue of the latter IS Blll Roblnson, who can stlll dance
miraculously eventhough the relatlon of hls performance to
Mr. Gllberts Ilbretto IS very remote indeed. In general The
Hot Mlkado is slicker and rather better sung than its predecessor, but it is also less hdariously a lark
JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH
~~
Next W e e k zn The Natzon
>,
THE STARS AND
STRIPES FOREVER
By Elliot Paul
LLIOT PAUL mlght have called this
of an Amernovel, TheLlfeandDeath
1can Town. It IS the story of a New England
.,
communlty, andwhathappened
when one
man tried to dommate it. A book that is VIOlent, disturbing, excltlng-and as American as
huckleberry pie or a foul tlp !
399 pages, $2.50
.
~
>
..
, ,
A liberal answers
the dictators!
DEMOCRACY
WORKS
By Arthur GarfieldHays
R. HAYS v~gorousand challeng~nganalysis of
our natlonal habits, hopes, strength and wedknesses raises-and answers-such questions as these.
Must
we
choose
between
Fasclsm
Communlsm and
Can democracy assure a better standdrd of
llving than dictdtorshlp?
Must we arm againstdictators
How can Income be Increas-d
W h o reallyrules us - we ourselves or
party bosses, lobbles and pressure groups
. i
This bookanswersthe
fears of those who despalr
of democracy-but I t showswhat w e must do to
make democracy safe for America 552 pages, $3 00
Spring Book Number
Articles, Poems, Revlews by Waldo Frank, W. B Yeats,
Robert Morss Lovett, Louis Kronenberger, Robert Dell,
Jonathan Daniels, Loulse Bogan, P. B. Rice, and others
>
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