SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1957
HERALD AND NEWS, KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON
Herald and News Book Reviews
Literary Highlights
RUSSIA SINCE 1917. By Fred
erick L. Schuman. Knopf.
For centuries the western mind
has been baffled and dismayed
by the mysteries of the Russian
soul.
Is Russia at last beginning the
change from a land of suspicion,
fear and hopeless regimentation
to a nation whose people are pre
pared to cope with a modern social
structure?
Schuman, an able historian and
expert on the mysteries of the
Russian personality, seems to think
the revolution is in process. He
presents a broad canvas of Rus
sian history from the time the
Mongol invasions imprinted their
indelible stamp on that nation's
curiously ambivalent personality.
His finding is that despite 40
years of repression under btalin,
there is hope for the Russians,
because Stalin had to educate the
Russians in order to industrialize
the country.
"Stalin's totalitarian police state
brought into being a community
that can no longer be governed
by the police methods of total
itarianism," Schuman writes. "In
sundry ways, not yet altogether
clear in 1957, the 'dead letters'
of the (Stalin) constitution of 1936
were in painful process of having
some breath of life infused into
their empty symbols. . . . The
Stalinist state, having in some
measure expiated for the crimes
committed in its name by educat
ing Russia, was in process, four
decades after 1017, of ceasing to
be a Stalinist state."
Schuman's book, a summation
of the events and causes behind
these significant changes, is a
valuable contribution to the mass
of literature on the mysteries of
Muscovy.
LONG WARM WEATHER
CYCLE AHEAD. By Hideo Nishio
ka. International Economic He-
search Bureau.
If you're fascinated by the
weather and who isn't? one o!
the most thorough projects in the
field is described in this book, sub
titled "History of Cold and
Warmth," by this scientist at To
kyo s Keio University.
Nishioka believes the world is
getting warmer, and that profound
changes in the way people live are
in the offing years away, but com
ing. He thinks he has discovered 700
year cycles of cold and warmth:
it was cold, he says, in the 38th
century B.C., the 31st. the 24th,
and so down to the 18th century
A.D. And it was warm in the
35th and 34th centuries, B.C.: the
28th and 27th; and so on in groups
of seven centuries to the 15th and
I6th A.D. The next warm peak,
he says, will be in the 22nd and
23rd centuries.
He buttresses his conclusions
with tree rings, the north and south
movement of sea lions, horse chest
nut trees and mounds of sea shells,
and the finding of ancient snow
goggles in climes now more tropi
cal. In North America, he notes that
Montreal now has the weather New
York was having in 1850: that the
northern limits of tufted titmice
and opposums have moved from
southern Iowa to northern Minne
sota: that water levels in the Great
Lakes nre rising.
He naturally writes mostly of
what he has found in Japan, and
the profusion of Japanese names
makes for hard reading a good
part of the time. But it you mas
ter this, you ore sure to find his
studies highly interesting.
THE I'NIJI'IET UKKMANS. By
Charles V. Thayer. Harper.
In IMS, Hans ami Sophie Scholl.
young brother and sister, passed
out anti-Hitler leaflets in Munich
and were beheaded for it.
This is about as far toward revo
lution as the Germans got, says
Thayer, who has known them al
most a quarter century thanks in
part to U.S. consular and embas
sy assignments.
He then explores other aspects
of the German character, the
pressures brought by friend and
foe to mold it, and tlie tradition
behind it on occasion clashing
with modern forces. Keeping al
ways in mind this rare couple
ready to die for liberty, he notes
more conservative or reactionary
manifestations:
The refusal to admit the Jews
were slaughtered, the persistence
of Nazi convictions, the willing
ness to flirt with Russia, the re
turn of the Krupps, the rebirth of
the army.
Thayer thinks American pulling
and hauling confused the Ger
mans, and cites Eisenhower's re
fusal to meet their generals when
hostilities ceased contrasted with
his gracious greeting to them
when we -wanted a new German
army. He also claims the care
fully drafted "unconditional sur
render" terms were lost by Bedell
Smith, who hated them, so that
only substitute documents were
available for signature at Rheims.
His not novel conclusions are
that Adenauer is at the moment
the key to the situation, and that
except for the burden of civil serv
ice, Bonn stands a better chance
than Weimar ever did.
THo's Life And Times Seen
With Objectivity In Biography
THE HERETIC: THE LIFE
AND TIMES OF JOSIP BROZ
TITOr By Fitzroy Maclean. Harp
cr. $5.95.
World War II produced few lead
ers about whom Americans voci
ferously hold such violent and such
contradictory opinions as Tito. Yet
the war was well along before we
heard of him at all and even then
we weren't sure of his name
Broz? Tito? Did he fight in Spain?
Was he a detested Communist?
Or one of the good Communists
we found it hard to distinguish
from democrats?
Mihajlovic and Cetnik we
spelled Milhailovich and Chetnik
those were almost the first
strange-sounding words to reach
us from beleaguered Yugoslavia.
The government had tried to par
ley with Hitler, the rash people
could not stomach the deal, and
Belgrade had been flattened mer
cilessly by bombers. Then in the
mountain retreats sprang up re
sistance bands. Even Churchill and
Roosevelt knew only of Mihajlovic
for he got the publicity, and that is
one of the points made by this au
thor, who has been acquainted with
Tito since the British parachuted
hun in for liaison with Tito s rag
ged, ill-equipped and conquering
Partisans. Americans first read a
defense of him in Louis Adamic.
Here is a full scale biography, ob
jective but friendly: Tito probably
wouldn I like rt in Belgrade nook
stores but he would not mind if
the West said no more against
him than this.
Early interested in social justice.
he was captured in World War I
by the Russians and saw some Bol
shevik activities. Back in his na
tive land in 1920. says Maclean, he
became a Zagreb Communist, but
a loyal, all-out Communist owing
allegiance to Moscow first and i u
goslavia second.
There are stirring accounts of
guerilla activities, of the deadly
feud with Mihajlovic, of the cru
cial bickering with both East and
West: and there's a fantastic close
up of Stalin being a jolly good
fellow. The break with Stalin came
when Tito publicly changed h i s
mind and decided he owed alle
giance first of all to Yugoslavia.
For all his posturing, his gaudy
uniforms, his bcmcdnled chest, the
bust of Napoleon on his desk. Tito
is a key figure in our world. We
liked him because he was a Com
munist, then disliked hum for it.
Current
Best Sellers
FICTION
BY LOVE POSSESSED, James
Gould Cozzens.
ON THE BEACH, Ncvil Shule.
PEYTON PLACE, Grace Me--
talious.
RALLY ROUND THE FLAG,
BOYS! Max Shulman.
THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG,
Richard Mason.
NONFICTION
"BARUCH: My own story, Ber
nard Baruch.
THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS,
Vance Packard.
THE NEW CLASS, Milovan
Djilas.
WHERE DID YOU GO? OUT.
WHAT DID YOU DO? NOTHING,
Robert Paul Smith.
THE DAY CHRIST DIED, Jim
Bishop.
THE COVER
The cover picture for this
week's Herald and News
Magazine Section of Klam
ath Basin Living was taken
by staff photographer Don
Kettler with a 4 x 5 Crown
Graphic camera set at f 20
and 100th of a second with
a K-2 yelllow fiCrer to bring
out the cloud effects.
He stands in the dead center of
the ideological enigma of our time
welcomed to the democratic camp
one day, welcomed by the Com
munist hierarchy the next, and
more than once he has outfoxed
us all.
He is not the most important
man alive, yet perhaps no man
alive is more important for us to
understand in our troubled mood
than this baffling figure, now
friend, now foe, now exasperating
middle-of-the-roader; and Maclean
explains him vividly.
Author
Of The Week
SIR FITZROY MACLEAN
author of "The Heretic:
The Life and Times of Josip
Broz-Tito," has had a ca
reer with more thrills than
come to most authors.-Born
in 1911, educated at Eton
and Cambridge, a member
of Parliament, he was called
by Churchill, who was then
planning to parachute him
into Yugoslavia for liaison
with the guerilla forces of
Tito, "a man of daring char
acter." In the diplomatic
service before the war and
a wide traveler, he law
combat with the Cameron
Highlanders.
I f
I Ht'ssjc. y
ML
Fall Lists To Offer
Variety Of Reading
By W. G. ROGERS
NEW YORK, Wl "Cornflake
Crusade," "North American Head
Hunting," The Call Girl, inc
Education of a Poker Player,"
"Motels, Hotels, Restaurants and
Bars," "Why We Behave Like
Americans," "Does Man Survive
nnnth " "ITv In T.ivp with n
Neurotic" these titles give you an
idea, Dut not reany an auequaic
one of the unlimited range of read
ing which the versatile and gener
ous publishers are making avail
able to you tnis tan.
The length of the lists seems to
indicate the choice is bigger than
ever and so does the staggering
. ...u:nu .1
numDer oi copies unuer wim-u ui-
rnHu thic mnnth n pritip's desk
begins to sag and threatens to
collapse.
Highlighting the lists are names
iiiilU uiUinli niTAfvr Mnlnl ic f 1V 1
inr, so familiar first names may
FRANCOISE SAGAN is
another prominent writer
who will have a new book
out this season. It will be
"Those Without Shadow."
lers, MaeLeish, Lerner, Agee, Sit
well (Rriith not nnp nf thp hrnth.
ers) and many others.
MANY AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
More artists than usual arp writ.
ing their autobiographies, or are
uemg wnuen aooui, or are ap
pearing in handsome picture
hnnlrc- Pinaccit Ptilln. C h b u n
Dali, Chagall, ' Rodin, ' Michelan
gelo.
Besides, snmrt liniicnntlv fina nt-t
books are promised : Rome, Venice,
Vienna, aouin America, the whole
wide wnrWt in nnllntinnc nt nWn.
records of Flemish art, American
an. in parucuiar you will want
to bear in mind "300 Years of
American Painting," a Time mag
azine project by Time editor Alex
ander Eliot. Frank Lloyd Wright
is doing "A Testament."
RinprnnhiAc anil anl.l.;H..nL:
o- I uuiuuiugi dllim
of a long list of leaders in various
fields, the living and the dead,
are upcoming also between now
uiiu u,risimas: James Whitcomb
Rilev. Rvrnn Pannu 17
laine, Steinbeck, Roger Williams.
oernara narucn the Margaret
Coit biography following the auto
biogranhv Wnit n;ena., n 1
Hilton, Branch Rickey, David Du
binsky. CIVIL WAR POPULAR
is tlie civil War your pet sub
ject? There will be "This Was
Andersonville," by John McElroy.
DO VOU InSP Eloan ,1
?! j.!!0010.?'"7 Thcn you must
... n.e .aneo liod," Howard
fasts storv of hi ,.,:,u
communism. Do you want to
r ".'e record of the Atlantic?
There is "Jubilee: loo years of
the Atlantic," edited by editor Ed
ward Weeks and Emily Flint. Are
you interested in history? There
wiu uv iias m world History.
How do you stand on Colin Wil
son? The author of the popular
The outsider loliows it up with
'Religion and the Rebel."
From the writers already men
tioned there are coming these
books: "Those Without Shadow,"
Francoise Sagan: "The Square
Root of Wonderful," Carson Mc
Cullers; "A B.," Archibald Mac-
AUTHOR Archibald Mae
Leish, will offer his new book
"J. B." for publication this
fall.
Leish; "America as a Civiliza
tion," Max Lerner; "A Death in
the Family," James Agee: "Eng
lish Eccentrics," Dame Edith Sit
well. . '
There also will be the much
touted "Not by Bread Alone," by
Vladimir Dudintsev, the Commu
nist who writes with hazardous
frankness about his land.
Other scheduled fiction is: "The
Violated," Vance Bourjaily; "The
Return .of Lady Brace," Nancy
Wilson Ross; "Maggie-Now," Bet
ty Smith; "Something About a Sol
dier," Mark Harris.
From Edwin O'Connor comes
"Benjy: A Ferocious Fairy Tale."
Ogden Nash will write about "The
Christmas That Almost Wasn't."
Civil War Book
Disputes Theory
HOW THE MERRIMAC WON.
By R. W. Daly. Crowell.
The judgment of history has
been that the famous encounter
between the Mcrrimac and Moni
tor in Hampton Roads in 1862 was
a drawn battle, with the long
range effects strictly favoring the
Union. Now, in this slender vol
ume, Daly endeavors to reverse
the judgment. He argues that the
strategic victory belonged to the
Merrimac and the Confederacy.
Daly is associate professor of
naval history at the U.S. Naval
Academy. He did not set out with
any preconceived notion but
reached his conclusions along tlie
path of his meticulous, arduous
research.
In the first place, Daly argues,
the Merrimac's potential was vast
ly overrated. Although its initial
strike at the Union fleet spread
terror along the Atlantic coast
from Washington to New York, he
demonstrates convincingly that the
Merrimac was too ponderous and
clumsy to venture into the open
sea. and never was intended fur
anything more than harbor de
fense. His main thesis is that the Mer
rimac destroyed Washington hopes
for a short war. It upset George
B. McClellan's original plan for a
swift strike at Richmond, with
transports landing his army just
one day's march from the Confed
erate capiUiL