May 1952
In This Issue
Explore the May 1952 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
The Atlantic Report on the World Today: Washington
London
The Russian People
A graduate of Annapolis who has also earned degrees from Nebraska Weslevan University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, VICE ADMIRAL LESLIE C. STEVENS, USN (Ret.), served in the Navy for thirty-six years and during that time combined two careers — one in the development of naval aviation and its carriers, and the other in foreign intelligence. A lifelong student of the Russian language, literature, and culture, he was Naval Attaché to Moscow from the summer of 1947 to the end of 1949. While in Russia he talked with Russians in all walks of life and, subject to the usual difficulties, traveled as far as central Siberia and Transcaucasia.
The New Isolationism
In the article which follows, ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, JR., National Vice Chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, raises a question which has been troubling many independent voters: Is Senator Taft an isolationist? Mr. Schlesinger, an Associate Professor of History at Harvard, is an Ohioan who grew up in an academic family which migrated from Ohio State University to the University of Iowa and finally to Harvard. His book, The Age of Jackson, which appeared after his return from the Army, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in American History for 1945. In 1949 he authored a credo for liberals in The Vital Center.
Seductio Ad Absurdum
CRARY MOORE is the pen name of a young Bostonian who writes us, “I grew up on a farm, surrounded by horses, beagles, and French verbs — no people though. Remedied that by coming out in New York. Three years at Vassar, time off for good behavior. Worked for a seaweed company in New York, ambled around Europe, and retreated, in good order, to Boston. I like it here.”
Canada
Tv Gold Rush
The “freeze" on, new television stations is scheduled to be lifted by the FCC this spring. TRUDIE OSBORNE tells us that as many as 2000 new stations may be allocated, and in view of their potential earnings, this sounds as if it might be a gold rush. The author was for two years a researcher with Time and for three years a syndicated feature writer with the Associated Press. She has gone to the top people in the FCC for the facts in this article and has had them checked by the editors of the leading television trade journals.
I Like to Be a Stranger
The most eminent philosopher in the Western world, GEORGE SANTAYANA has been living and writing for some years at the Convent of the Blue Nuns in Rome. His first work of philosophy, The Sense of Beauty, was published in 1896; his latest, Dominations and Powers, in 1951. In between he has been working on his memoirs, two volumes of which have already appeared — in part in the Atlantic — and from the third of which, In the Old World, we are happy to draw this independent chapter, written in Italy in 1942.
The Land the Old Ones Keep
The Law-Abiding
A free-lance writer non living in New York City, MARC BRANDEL has four novels to his credit the last two being The Barriers Between and The Choice. He was born in England thirty-three years ago, educated in France. Switzerland, and at Cambridge University, but has become so Americanized in his fourteen years in this country that this is the first story he has ever written with a European background.
The Exiles
The Race at Indianapolis
The 500-mile Memorial Day race on the Indianapolis Speedway is run each year at ever higher speeds. But in comparison with European road racing, KEN PURDY contends, track contests have contributed little to the advancement of design in production cars. Mr. Purdy is Editor of True and widely known for his writings on motor racing and high-performance automobiles. He is the author of the book The Kings of the Road, which will be published May 26 under the Atlantic-Little. Brown imprint.
A Ghost for Mark Twain
by BURGES JOHNSON
The Critic and the Commonplace
PIERRE EMMANUEL,himself a poet and a critic, is particularly aware of the problems of the critic. Mr. Emmanuel, who was born in 1916, is the author of some fifteen volumes of prose and verse; he taught mathematics and philosophy at a French lyeée but stepped out of academic dress to take an active part in the Resistance movement. He is now in charge of the English-language broadcasts of the French government radio station, Radiodiffusion Francaise.
The Peripatetic Reviewer
Reader's Choice
Caesar
Children of the Rainbow
Matisse
Accent on Living
Three-Count 'Em--Three
Some New Faces
Remnants
Secrets of the Library
The Diskeries' Dilemmas
Morning Song
