Crackers, Old-Style

LAMB IN HIS BOSOM--Caroline Miller-- Harper ($2). Many a prize-winning author might be proud to have written such a quiet, unpretentious little masterpiece as Lamb in His Bosom. After reading it, many who also read the Harper Prize Novel (The Fault of Angels, TIME, Aug. 28) may wonder why Lamb in His Bosom did not get the prize, may recall rumors that at least one of the judges (Dorothy Canfield. Sinclair Lewis, Harry Hansen) voted in its favor. Authoress Miller may miss the prize-money but Lamb in His Bosom can get along without any such endorsement: a good book needs no prize. The Carvers were Georgia crackers, pre-Civil War era. By "civilized" or "modern" standards, they were poor whites--but not trash. Their simple life was as hard, as complicated, as any city folks' ; the same things happened to them, with less dis guise. Cean was the first to get married; she went only a few miles away, to Lonzo's cabin. It was a happy marriage, but they never once said they loved each other. To Lonzo that would have been like blasphemy, and Cean was too shy. Most of their many children lived. Once, when Lonzo was away on his annual trip to the coast, a panther got into the cabin just after Cean had given birth; she had to get up and kill it with an axe. Cean's brother Lias fell in love with Margot. a girl at the coast who was no stranger to men. When he brought her defiantly home the family was troubled out made the best of things. Soon they were all sorry for Margot, for Lias's passion turned to hate; he beat her, fathered another woman's child, finally left for California. When nothing was heard of him for years he was declared legally dead, and Brother Jasper married Margot. Lonzo chopped his foot nearly off one day and died of blood-poisoning. Cean mourned him well and truly, later married a preacher. A letter came from Lias in California, full of cheerful talk about the presents he was soon bringing home. Margot and Jasper were horrified but there was nothing they could do but wait. But the Civil War came before Lias did, and swept the men away. Years later, Margot and Cean welcomed their old men home. Lias never came, he was safely dead. His cheerful letter had been a deathbed joke.

The Author's local color is her native tint. Her maternal great-grandfather went to southern Georgia as a ''New Light'' preacher, her grandfather built with his own hands the isolated little country church where all her family are buried. Georgia-born (1903) and bred, Authoress Miller got her schooling at Waycross High School, where she took more than an academic interest in English and in her English teacher (W. D. Miller), whom she married two months after graduation. Now she lives in Baxley, Ga., where her husband teaches school. She finds time to write while looking after a household that includes three small sons. Lamb in His Bosom is her first book.

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