Tragedy of a Preacher*

Tragedy of a Preacher*

THREE STEEPLES--LeRoy MacLeod-- Covici, Friede ($2.50).

Everybody admitted John Durken was a good man, a good farmer, had done a lot for the little rural community of Midland; but nobody liked him. He was closemouthed, closefisted, a hard worker, a hard master. He wanted to better Midland, give it a Methodist church, a bank, a grain elevator; but Midland did not want to be bettered, was not really sorry when one day the express train killed John Durken. Son Bruce came back from his Methodist college to be Midland's pastor. Better educated, more articulate a fanatic than his father, he raised more hell in Midland than old John had ever dreamed of or wanted.

Bruce and Myrtle had been engaged be fore he went away to college, but had quarreled because she did not want him to be a minister. Myrtle married her second choice. When she died in childbirth of her first baby, Bruce found they still loved each other, realized too late he might have saved her for himself. Too much a zealot for his easy-going townspeople, Bruce was soon unpopular, obviously doomed to failure. Besides, the town was too small for three churches, would never have had the third if it had not been for old John Durken. In trying to convert the only educated man in Midland, a blind man, an intelligent agnostic. Bruce's simple faith was shaken; but he would not admit it, went his narrow way more feverishly than ever. When he had succeeded in taking the joy out of Ab Carver's happy and occasionally lecherous life, Bruce cheered up. staked everything on Ab's imminent conversion. Then one morning Ab's body was found hanging in the barn: Bruce had driven his simple mind to suicide.

Next day, Bruce's own mind almost unhinged, his Christian faith quite gone, he announced to the blind man his conversion to the Truth of Nature, said he would go out and preach under the trees against all churches. But Midland was spared this final apotheosis. That night an idiot boy set fire to the Methodist church, then hid in a barn. The boy's mother, frantic, thought he was still in the burning building. Bruce plunged in to save the idiot and went to glory in the flames.

The Significance. LeRoy MacLeod considers he has written no diatribe against preachers, says: "I hope no one will find in Three Steeples the profession of my beliefs. ... I have . . . painted a landscape and some people--men and women reading the earth under the quandary of the sky." A long novel, many-charactered, Three Steeples gives a broad, detailed, sympathetic picture of the U. S. Middle-Western rural scene. It is serious, ambitious, not as drab as it sounds.

The Author. LeRoy MacLeod, once an adman like Sherwood Anderson, founded the advertising agency of Waters & MacLeod (Los Angeles), retired from it in 1929 to cultivate the thankless muse. Three Steeples is his first novel, but he has also written a book of verse, Driven, which called forth from his great & good friend Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols, English poet, the statement that MacLeod is "the only United States poet I have known with the 'Hardy' quality."

Poet's Wife

WORLD WITHOUT END--Helen Thomas --Harper ($2.50).**

Few poets' wives are fitted to write about their lately lyric husbands, but some do. Latest rusher-in is Helen Thomas, relict of the late Edward Thomas, who was killed at Arras in 1917. If you have a sweet tooth for idyllic romance you will chew on this with gusto; if not, World Without End may make your teeth a little edgy.

First part, titled As It Was, appeared under the initials "H. T." in 1927. found so many readers Mrs. Thomas decided to continue her story and avow her authorship. First & last a lovestory, it is outspoken to the breaking-point. Uncaustic Critic John Middleton Murry calls it "a love that was so utterly candid as it was utterly innocent."

She ("Jenny" in the story) was the daughter of a literary hacketeer, he ("David") the scion of a civil servant. Neither had money, both were excited about literature. Her mother disliked and distrusted David and his untrimmed locks, discouraged his steady advances toward her daughter. When Jenny's father died she took a job as governess, managed to see her lover occasionally. Since both disapproved of marriage they planned to live together secretly; but, strong on fancies, they were short on facts. "We were still very ignorant of sex, and only knew in a vague way through the reading of poetry how the human sexual act was performed." Nature took its course, however, and when Jenny found she was pregnant they decided to get married. David was still at Oxford when the first baby was born.

They had three children, a hard time all around; but Jenny was happy, except when David was in one of his "moods," or discovered some new female affinity. Then the War came. David enlisted in the Artists' Rifles, came home on his last leave. The story ends with the lovers' wrenching farewell on a foggy morning.

Everyone knows married life is intimate, but few ex-wives have ursula-parrotted their intimacies in public. Even if Publisher Harper had not told you World Without End was a true story it would leave a bad taste in your mouth, for you feel that Helen Thomas has reveled in this revelation.

The poetry of Philip Edward Thomas, little known in the U. S., is worth acquaintance. Friend and follower of U. S. Poet Robert Frost, he had begun to develop a voice of his own when Death came to him at 39.

Enemy Alien's Wife

MRS. FISCHER'S WAR--Henrietta Leslie --Houghton Mifflin ($2.50).

Janet might have taken her pick among several nice Englishmen, but instead she married Carl Fischer, an expatriate in London who preferred loneliness in England to Junker-ridden Germany. They were very happy; when their son John was born, their cup brimmed. In the summer of 1914 the Fischers were planning a holiday in the Harz Mountains. Then John sprained his ankle, had to stay at home. When the War started Carl & Janet were in Germany. On the train to Holland Carl's half-forgotten patriotism gave him dreadful qualms; just before they reached the frontier he gave himself up as a German citizen. That was the last Janet saw of him for a long time.

John could not forgive his father, and tried to make up for things by changing his name to "Fisher" and enlisting, though he was under age. Janet tried to do War work and was hounded out of one organization after another because of spy rumors. A few letters got through from Carl, then silence. By the time John got his commission and went to France Janet was afraid Carl was dead. One day in a dressing station John saw his father, unconscious, fearfully wounded. Janet, sure Carl was dying, tried to get permission to go to him, but she was rated as "enemy alien," was not allowed. The doctor saved Carl's life, at the cost of a leg, both eyes. Then John was hit.

When the War was over Janet brought what was left of Carl back to England and was happy to be his attendant. John had married a Canadian nurse and gone with her to Canada; he had never forgiven his father.

The Author. Henrietta Leslie shows herself no jingo, displays a lively and indignant sympathy for her heroine. An ardent internationalist, active in reconstruction work, she was recently decorated by the King of Bulgaria. She has written many a novel, two plays, a pageant. Thoughtful John Galsworthy has written an introduction to Mrs. Fischer's War. Says he: "It makes you think. Yes, it makes you think."

Listen to the Mocking-Blrd

THE OWL IN THE ATTIC--James Thurber--Harper ($2).*

BIRD LIFE AT THE POLE--Wolcott Gibbs --Morrow ($2).

U. S. humor, ornithologically considered, consists largely in giving somebody the bird: cuckoo, mocking-bird or pompous ostrich. Funnyman Thurber's is half-ostrich, half-cuckoo; Funnyman Gibbs's is all mocking-bird.

With an air of being just as bewildered about life as you are, James Thurber gives advice on peculiar pets, grammatical teasers. He tells in a wide-eyed way how Mr. Monroe was an open book to Mrs. Monroe though he fancied himself cleverly written. One of the puzzling problems in the "Pet Department": "My police dog has taken to acting very strange, on account of my father coming home from work every night for the past two years and saying to him, 'If you're a police dog, where's your badge?' after which he laughs (my father). . . ."

Are you worried about split infinitives? If such a sentence as ''Our object is to further cement trade relations" gives you pause, hark to Mr. Thurber: "My own way out of all this confusion would be simply to say 'Our object is to let trade relations ride,' that is, give them up, let them go." Should you say, "I feel bad" or ''I feel badly"? Says Thurber: "As a general thing, if the illness or pain really exists, and is acute, it is better to use the shorter word 'bad,' because it is more easily said and will bring assistance quicker."

Somebody was bound to start fun-poking at the late greatly ballyhooed Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Vaudevillian Fred Allen has already made Manhattan audiences laugh about it in Three's a Crowd, but Bird Life at the Pole is the first full-length parody. The story is supposed to have been told to Mr. Gibbs in a low hurried voice by Commander Christopher Robin, who was sent to the Antarctic as a news stunt by Publisher Herbst. When the expedition's ship, the Lizzie Borden, got to the Panama Canal, she was towed through by a Mr. Burton, swimming all the way with frequent rests (a dig at Playboy Richard Halliburton). The expedition had to take along so much impedimenta (such as grand pianos) because of testimonials to manufacturers that no room was left for navigating instruments. So when their airplane landed at the Pole they found it was the wrong one. They decided to say nothing about it, got their stereotyped Manhattan welcome just the same.

Funpokers James Thurber, Wolcott Gibbs, both young, both Manhattanites, both write for the Manhattan smartchart New Yorker.

*New books are news. Unless otherwise designated, all books reviewed in TIME were published within the fortnight. TIME readers may obtain any book of any U. S. publisher by sending check or money-order to cover regular retail price ($5 if price is unknown, change to be remitted) to Ben Boswell of TIME, 205 East 42nd St., New York City.

*Published Feb. 14.

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