Sandburg’s
'War Years’
Is Finished
Thirteen Years of
Research, Writing
Represented by
Manuscript
# _
After thirteen years of research,
Carl Sandburg' has just delivered
the complete manuscript of his
“Abraham Lincoln: The War
Years” to his publishers.
This completes Sandburg’s life
of Lincoln, the first two volumes
of which, “Abraham Lincoln: The
Prairie Years,” were published in
1926 and immediately assumed
their place as an authoritative and
classic biography of wide popular
appeal. “The Prairie Years” has
•* appeared in various editions and
selections from it are in many
school readers. The publishers esti
mate that over $11,000,000 has
been spent by the American public
for copies of “The Prairie Years.”
“The War Years” is at least five
times as long as “The Prairie
Tears.” The manuscript comprises
some 3800 pages, and the three vol
umes in which its publication is
contemplated will contain some
800 pages each, together with pro
fuse illustrations and a full index.
It is hoped that production of the
work will be completed in time for
publication next autumn.
It is not too much to say that,
following the publication of “The
War Years,” the reader need not
^ look elsewhere for any significant
piece of authentic and now known
Lincolniana except for verification.
In addition to this chronicle, the
work contains hundreds of bio
graphical and critical sketches of
the figures of the period. Many
chapters, such as the one on the
assassination of Lincoln, exemplify
great reporting of an historical
fact and prose writing of excep
tional distinction and power.
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The Emerald Reader’s Page
Editor: GLENN HASSELROOTH
Contributors:
Paul Deutschmann
Joan Jenness
Beginning: The Poet and
The Playwright/ the Story
Back in 1923 a verse play called “White Desert" was one of the
biggest flops of the season. It was an honest, strong-meated piece of
fare, filled with a deep insight into human frailties and strengths, but
the customers did not like it. Scenting pungently of Edith Wharton
and the age of Ethan Frame, it told of the trials of a North Dakota
farmer whose jealousy drove him to accuse his wife of infidelity, of
her reaction, as she was driven into the arms of a lover and finally
murdered by the husband who finds that his fears have materialized
America's Best Known Writer of Verse
Plays Was Once a Newspaper Man;
Before That, a Schoolmaster
By GLENN HASSELROOTH
because of his own distrust.
The play was reasonably well
motivated; it could not have been
called melodramatic, but New
Yorkres failed to be more than
vaguely interested. They found
nothing cheap or humorous about
the tale of North Dakota marital
troubles, but its tragic conse
quences failed to exalt them as the
playwright had hoped.
The dramatist who wrote “White
Desert" was Maxwell Anderson,
erstwhile school teacher and ex
newspaperman, who was trying to
get theater goers interested in;
plays written in verse. He was not
a success yet, but he had come a
long way from his days as the son
of a humble Pennsylvania parson.
Married in 1911
Anderson was born at Atlantic,
Pennsylvania, on December 15,
1888. Before he hardly knew how
to walk, his father had whisked
him and his family westward. The
Anderson family weathered vari
ous pastorates in Ohio, Iowa, and
finally North Dakota, where the
young Maxwell, at the age of 19,
entered the state university. He
got |hi|S bachelor’s degree there
and married Margaret Haskett in
the same year, 1911. He received
his master’s at Leland Stanford in
1914, soon was a member of the
English faculty there, and later at
Whittier college.
But this was not wnat ne want
ed. He wanted to write- -plays—•
in verse. Until he would he able
to get a firm foothold in the writ
ing game, he would have to make
a ltitle money; for a wife and
children do have to eat. They could
eat on the professor’s salary, but
there was not too much extra time
for Anderson to spend writing, so
they headed back to North Dakota.
The potential playwright had to
keep up some kind of regular writ
ing, even if it were gruelling journ
alism, so be obtained work on the
staff of the Grand Forks Herald.
Worked on Chronicle
But not for long. Soon he was
back in California, where he
worked successively on the San
Francisco Chronicle and the San
Francisco Call Bulletin. He made
: more money writing editorials than
he had teaching. Soon he began to
contribute articles and poems to
various magazine. The editors of
the New Republic took notice, and
it was not long before he was
writing on the magazine's staff.
With George O’Neil, Padraic
Colum, Genevieve Taggard, Frank
Hill, and others he helped found
The Measure. Back in newspaper
work once more, he wrote editor
ials for the New York Globe and
later the Morning World.
It was during his days on this
last-mentioned paper that Ander
son wrote “White Desert.” He was
J not badly discouraged and embit
| tered because of its failure, at least
i not far enough to make him give
j up. He returned to his “grind” on
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the World, much wiser, much surer
of dramatic technique: Much of
what he knew he had learned from
the leading man of “White Des
ert," that versatile actor-director
playwright, George Abbott, who
had a fine knowledge of thorough
theater-craft.
‘The Terror’ Flopped
Conversations on the merits and
faults of “White Desert" brought
about collaboration of a play, I
“Feud,” later called “The Terror”
when produced by John Golden.
It failed to add even the tiniest
sparkle to the bright lights of
Broadway.
Anderson stayed on with tha
World. There he became interested
in the World war experiences of
his co-worker, Laurence Stallings,
who was anxious to write of his
adventures. Stallings, having lost a
leg in the war, was tired of all the
pretty and phoney patriotism that
had been so fashionable since the
Armistice. The two decided to com
bine the true facts into a play.
What Price Hit?
When "What Price Glory?” pro
duced by Arthur Hopkins in the
Plymouth theater, opened in New
York the evening of September 3,
1024, the rumble of its gams echoed
far beyond the stately palisades of
the Hudson. Reverberations were
heard far and wide, not only be
cause it brought the stench of the
trenches right to the very noses
of the staid Manhattan crowds,
but because it broke down the re
strictions with which all the Puri
tanical nice-nellies had literally
bound and gagged the American
theater.
The cynical, wisecracking Cap
tain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt not
only called spades spades but hit
the war-makers and each other
over the head with them. But the
playgoers lived through it, just as
their British friends had lived
through the immortal “bloody”
that Mrs. Patrick Campbell had ex
| pressed in Shaw’s “Pygmalion,”
I and just as the same Americans a
| decade later were going to endure
the cursing and lechery of “To
bacco Road.” Not only the relig
ious groups attacked the profane
idiom in which the men of the
army [spoke, tan t the American
Legion complained that it was a
slander to the life of the American
soldier.
War the Villain
But Anderson and Stalling:;
were not worried. Their play had
become one of the outstanding hits
| of the twenties, they had unmasked
many of the frauds and fallacies of
the life "over there,’’ they had
made memorable characters out of
toughened blasphemers, who, in
spite of their oaths and unadmir
able traits, betrayed through their
rough veneer qualities that were
fundamentally generous, noble, and
tender.
1 he playwrights had shown up
war as the real villain of the piece.
Its outstanding good points were
two: 1) the revelation of the war
business; and 2i the breakdown of
the unwritten rules for stage
dialogue. In the words of Stark
Young, ‘“What Price Glory?’ had
established new standards of truth
in what had been a quibbling thea
ter." Most important of all, Ander
son was no longer a journalist, but
a playwright.
The Anderson-Stallings team
v/as to continue for two more
plays. “First Flight,” their second,
was an amusing but superficial
character study of the brash young
redhead, Andrew Jackson, who
courted with timidity but fought
his duels with audacious enthus
iasm. It had a great deal of "local
i color." and lasted as long as it did
[ only because New Yorker ■; thought
| its broad humor and backwoods
dialogue were "quaint."
(Editor’s note: This is the first
of a series of articles on Maxwell
1 Anderson which will be published
; on the Reader's page. The second
i ’••.ill appem nt yatmslcy
Oz—in Technicolor
Finished in Hollywood and now awaiting general release is the
filmization of an old childhood classic, ‘‘The Wizard of Oz.” Done in
vivid technicolor fashion, the picture will star such favorites as (left
to right) Jack Haley as the Tin Woodman, Hay Bolger as the Scare
crow, Judy Garland as Dorothy, and Bert Lnhr as the Cowardly Lion.
Tree of Liberty’ Proves
Vigorous Historical Novel
By PAUL DEUTSCHMANN
For those who appreciate their history but shudder at the thought
of dusty and pedagogical tomes, Elizabeth Page, in “The Tree of
Liberty," has written a book that will be applauded.
She has taken the turbulent revolutionary period, peopled it with
some characters of her imagination, associated them with the actual
leaders of those days, and fused the whole into an exciting and interest
ing novel.
The story traces the life of Matt Ploward, a Virginia frontiersman
planter ana statesman. Me is an
intimate of Jefferson, a political
opponent of Hamilton, a member
of Washington's staff, and closely
connected with almost every im
portant political event of the pe
riod from 1770-1810. Miss Page
presents a panorama of the times
with her accounts of the Howard
family, their personal and political
fortunes and misfortunes, and
their associations with other in
dividuals.
Theme of the book is the con
flict between freedom and privi
lege, personalized in Matt and his
wife Jane. Though at times tedious
through continuous repetition, the
conflict is a stirring one, and in
view of the present turbulent
times, an appropriate one.
Today, when the policies of the
fathers of America, the fundamen
tal principles of democracy, and a
strange new creed of “American
ism” are being discussed with vig
or and violence, it is interesting to
rediscover what men like Jeffer
son, Washington, Hamilton, and
others thought. Miss Page’s book,
while it lays no claim to being a
purely historical work, contains
many excerpts from the speeches,
letters, and writings of these char
acters. She has done a wonderful
job of setting her story in a realis
tic background -a task which
doubtless required many hours of
careful research.
To the reader of quickly-con
sumed mystery novels, it might be
said that the book is long and deep
- definitely not something to be
read in an evening. “Tree of Lib
erty” is an important book, one
which takes careful reading and
thoughtful consideration for full
appreciation.
The book will be greeted enthu
siastically by those who already
Guaranteed Finishing
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Oregon Paid
Compliment
By Villard
The University of Oregon has
been paid a handsome compli
ment by Oswald Garrison Vil
lard in his autobiography,
“Fighting Years,” published last
week.
Speaking of a visit on the I
University of Washington cam
pus, the liberal editor is re
minded of several gifts his fa
ther, Henry Villard, made in the
early days of the institution.
. . curiously enough,” he
writes, “the university has long
since forogtten this whereas the
University of Oregon always re
members with every evidence of
gratitude my father’s similarly
generous gifts to what has now
become a great university at
Eugene . .
Villard’s biography will be re
viewed in next week’s Reader’s
page.
enjoy history; ttiose who hesitate
before taking up chronologies will
find it an interesting substitute;
those who dislike the past will
leave it alone.
Clifford Odets’ Problems
Of Play Composition Told
In Discussion of Drama
Material for 'Till the Day I Die' Given
Playwright by Friend Who Had Smuggled
Letter, Information Out of Germany
Ity JOAN JEWESS
Material for the play "Till the Day I Die” was given to Clifford
Odets by a friend of his. who received the information in a letter which
was smuggled out of Germany. Although the plot of the play is con
fined to Germany and to German opinions the author does not lose
his Bronx technique of writing the action could easily have been
pictured in New York.
The majority of plays and novels written on this subject deal with
the persecution of the Jews, but
Odets ignores this phase of the
present German regime and cen
ters his violent protest on the Hit
ler Brown shirt activities against
communists. The two main char
acters, Carl and Ernest Tauzig, are
shown as two brothers who are
fighting together for the good of
the Communistic party in which
they believe but they prove to De
two entirely different personali
ties—one is selfish and bitter and
the other is kind and forgiving.
Odets presents Tillie as the girl
who leads the two brothers out
into the light by announcing that
she and Carl are about to be the
parents of a child born out of wed
lock. The author tries to put her
upon a pedestal and have the read
ers feel sorry for her, but I think
the days of quiet, hushed scenes
are over. The people of today en
joy the bloody gruesome facts.
"Golden Boy” has the most
forceful characters of all Odets’s
plays, I believe, because it shows
a young Italian boy, who is forced
to make a decision between being
a celebrated violinist some day or
being a prize fighter of renown.
Joe Bonaparte, the fighter, is used
to life in the Bronx and he yearns
for gaiety and money. So he eager
ly accepts Promotor Tom Moody's
offer to make him a “big-money"
fighter in spite of the fact that
his father has hopes of some day
hearing him acclaimed one of the
world's greatest violinists. Odets
shows Joe as a simple ambitious
boy with big ideas.
He falls in love with Lorna
Moon, Tom’s common law wife,
thhus bringing about a suicidal
ending for both Joe and' Lorna. Joe
realizes that his poor broken hands
could never again wield the bow of
his violin with deftness and that
his father’s broken heart could
never be mended. So in a fit of
madness he drives his Dusenberg
over the cliff. Odets’ treatment of
the characters’ actions and realis
tic attitudes is very commendable,
but the plot is a little worn.
In 1936 “Paradise Lost” gained
fan e cn Broadway. It is the story
of a Jewish family and it deals
with their financial situations, po
litical beliefs, variety of confusion
and their ultimate personal rela
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tionships. Seven people living in a
three-roomed tenement house flat
can present quite a scene of con
fusion and strife, Clare rules the
roost while Leo, her husband,
works hard in his clothing store,
but much harder on his schemes
I for winning money on the sweep
stakes, horse races, or any gam
bling adventure. Their son Ben is
the Adonis type with only high
school and college track records
and trophy cups to show.
His wife, Libby, can face depres
sion no longer, so she has an af
fair with Kewpie, a crooked gam
bler, and gains a few luxuries
which satisfies her greedy taste.
Julie is the youngest son and he
faces death at anytime as he suf
fers from sleeping sickness, but he
amuses himself by thinking over
each one of his family’s problems
and knowing that soon God will
lake him out of all this earthly
misery.
As a whole I thought that all of
Clifford Odets’ plays were forceful
and entertaining. His style of writ- j
ing is simple and fast moving with
little delay or loss of thought be
tween scenes. His themes are real
istic and appropos to the time.
All of Odets plays have a kosher
twang, and the characters’ craving
for money tends to make one be
lieve that the humanness of the
plays might be too realistic to be
subtle. Each character is a living
individual with well defined ideas
on life. No two characters ever
think or act alike: There is a sense
of duty to their religion on the part
of the Jewish players, but the oth
ers are cold and true to life with
the attitude that only the fittest
survive.
(The End)
Criticism of
E.M. Forster
In New Book
Rose Macauley
Gives Analysis
Of Novelist's
Life and Work
Rose Macauley's new book, “The
Writings of E. M. Forster,” is a
critical study of the life and work
of the celebrated English novelist
who has not written a novel since
“A Passage to India” appeared in
1924. Like so many others, Kis.s
Macauley wonders if E. M. Fors
ter will write another novel.
“If it should be another novel
of the contemporary scene, it would
be exciting. He might catch its
flickering aspect before the next
great cataclysm. I do not know if
there is anyone else now writing
who has just the right mirror to
catch all these shifting reflections,
public events and passions impact
ing on private, private distorted by
public . . . Never has such stabil
izing imagination as his been more
needed to focus and interpret the
human scene.”
In her concluding chapter, Miss
Macauley revives the old-fashioned
word, doxies. It has a welcome
sound to ears suffering from the
percussions of the new-fangled
word ideologies. E. M. Foster’s dox
ies are summed up us follows by
Miss Macauley:
“From certain root beliefs in
Morgan Forster, his political and
public views and sympathies natur
ally grow. He believes, for exam
ple, in the permanent value and
importance of human beings, and
perhaps of their relationships with
one another; he believes in cul
tures, that can understand and re
ceive beauty; and he believes in
freedom, intellectual, social, and
personal.”
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