Not to Seduce

Englishmen were offered a long vista last week. From London Bridge they could look through an open door and see the Statue of Liberty. This surrealist panorama, in eight colors, was the cover of the first issue of a brand-new digest-size monthly magazine called Transatlantic (price: one shilling). Its purpose: to give the British a candid, unpropagandized look at the U.S.

Editor of this hopeful publication is Geoffrey Crowther, who is also editor of the Economist (TIME, Aug. 30). To the 50,000 British readers which Transatlantic wants, Editor Crowther observes: "Transatlantic's hope is that it may help you to base your likes and dislikes on knowledge instead of on ignorance. . . . It is not an attempt to seduce you from your proper loyalties. . . . Will it look at America through rose-tinted spectacles? Certainly not. . . . Friendly candor is to be the keynote."

Angeled by London's rich, young Allen Lane, publisher of Penguin Books, Transatlantic is to have three continuing features: 1) a Crowther commentary on what is going on in the U.S.; 2) a Washington letter by the Christian Science Monitor's Roscoe Drummond; 3) "incidental notes on the state of the States" by U.S. Critic Carl Van Doren. The rest (save the advertising at -L-75 a page) is and will be an all-American contribution. The U.S. editorial staff is a "steering committee" headed by Author Margaret Leech (Reveille in Washington).

Transatlantic's 64-page debut fell short of the prospectus. Author Van Doren's discussion of his Dutch-English ancestry and why he is nonetheless American was more charming than illuminating. Ellsworth Huntington, Yale professor of geography, discussed What Geography Does To America with too much educational zeal and a faint flavor of patronage. Paul Gallico relieved this solemn though unponderous tone with a lightweight piece designed to prove that Americans love baseball because it is their one escape from female domination.

With application and time, Transatlantic should improve. No improvement is necessary, however, in the periodical's advertising: the first three issues are sold out.

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