Prize Sampler

NO SECOND SPRING--Janet Beith-- Stokes ($2.50). Next to the Nobel Prize ($39,942) the Stokes $20,000 award, open to novelists of all nations, was the plumpest plum on the literary tree this year. When Publisher Stokes dangled this golden fruit before the world's nose, more than 600 writers took a bite at it. As in a newspaper fairy tale, the unanimous choice of the judges was No Second Spring, first published novel of an unknown 28-year-old English girl. Some readers may think the book a queer selection for these days, but many may find in its stilted, sampler-like pattern an old-fashioned charm. Allison was many years younger than Hamish, her stalwart, fiery-souled preacher-husband. It had never occurred to her to doubt that she loved him: she had several children to prove it, and in Scotland in those times (early 19th Century) speculation about "love'' was not encouraged. But the hard winter trip to their new home discouraged her, and when they were settled in the little Highland fishing village she did not find it cheerful. The people were dourly suspicious and backslid into heathenry at the slightest excuse; the weather and the scenery were both melancholy. Hamish's days were excitingly full of preaching, coaxing, denunciation; Allison found time to wish there were something more. Then came Andrew, wandering artist, man-of-the-great-world, wounded veteran of Waterloo. Hamish and Allison both delighted in him; his visit lengthened on & on. Then Hamish had to go to London. Allison and Andrew, left alone, finally admitted they were in love; but Allison remembered her duty, sent him packing. Seventeen years later she saw him again, on the street in Edinburgh. But she hid in a doorway until he was safely by. The Author is a niece of "Ian Hay" (Major John Hay Beith) who wrote the War best-seller The First Hundred Thousand. After graduating from Cambridge's Girton College and teaching in a girl's school in Kent for several years, Authoress Beith has been living with her parents in Derbyshire, writing and discarding novels. Her family knew she liked to read Galsworthy, play lacrosse and tennis, but they never suspected she was a writer; when they read about her prize-winning feat in the newspapers they were struck all of a heap. Determined as well as secretive, Authoress Beith hurt the feelings of Publisher Stokes's press agent by refusing a formal presentation of her prize. Only thing she would say about her writing: that she took it up "to take my mind off other more boring subjects."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.