August 1953
In This Issue
Explore the August 1953 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
Byron and the Byronic
"Byron's thoughts, works, and character as a whole cannot be adequately summed up in the figure of a headlong lover in an open collar, whose fits of melancholy are a pose."
The Middle East
Australia
Letters to and From the Editor
Russian Assignment
A graduate of Annapolis, VICE ADMIRAL LESLIE C. STEVENS, USN (Ret.), served in the Navy for thirty-six years as a specialist in naval aviation and foreign intelligence. In 1917, while still in the Academy’, he began his study of Russian history. He learned to read and write the language and when, in 1917, he uas sent to Moscow as our naval attache, he was able, as few of our representatives are, to meet the Russians on their own terms. During his years of duty in the country, he talked to people in all walks of life, often under observation, but finding numerous opportunities for unsupervised conversations. From his continuous encounters with the Russian people, he has written a book, Russian Assignment, which will be published under our imprint in October and from which the Atlantic will draw several extended installments.
Freighters of the Future
On a visit to the West Coast, the Editor brought together ROBERT GROSS, the President of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, and WILLIAM WISTER HAINES,whose play about our heavy bombers, Command Decision, was a smash hit directly after the war. At this and ensuing meetings, following the lead of Mr. Gross, whose company has pioneered in air freight, the two projected the enormous possibilities for the foreseeable future when new, specially designed freighters would be carrying air cargoes at 4 cents a ton-mile. Here is how it can be done.
The Atlantic Report on the World Today: Washington
Outside the Law
An eminent Washington lawyer, ABE FORTASis outspokenly opposed to the invasion of judicial power by the legislative branch of the government. Mr. Fortas served on the Yale Law Faculty for five years; he left New Haven for Washington. where he was Under Secretary of the Interior from 1942 to 1946. Then with Thurman Arnold and Paul Porter he formed the firm, Arnold, Fortas & Porter. The article which follows is based upon a talk he made in a panel discussion sponsored by the American Law Institute.
Goodbye
Now
Faith or Fear
Noln’I Prize-winning novelist WILLIAM FAULKNER took special pride in delivering the Commencement Address at Cine Manor Junior College this past June, for among the graduating class teas his daughter Jill. As in his speech at Stockholm in 1949, when he accepted the Nobel Prize, Mr. Faulkner again strikes a note of faith and affirmation: “It is man’s high destiny and proof of his immortality too, that his is the choice between ending the world, effacing it from the long annal of time and space, and completing it.”
The Month of the Locust
JOSEPHINE JOHNSON is a native of Missouri whose first short story appeared in the Atlantic and who won the Pulitzer Prize with her beautifully descriptive novel, Now in November. Some time ago, she and her husband, Grant Cannon, bought three acres on the outskirts of Cincinnati and a majestic house a hundred and thirty years old. There were bats in the attic — uncounted thousands who did not wish to be dislodged; and that struggle Miss Johnson described in her memorable article, “Tenants of the House” (August, 1952). Now, in a series of fresh essays, she depicts the explorations which she and her children have carried out in the summer and early autumn.
Editor in Japan
Editor-in-Chief of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., HAROLD STRAUSS was in the Army from 1943 to 1916; learned Japanese in the Army Language School; and screed in Japan with SCAP until September. 1916. Last autumn he flew back to revisit the people he has come to admire. A graduate of Harvard. Class of 1928. Mr. Strauss subsequently became Production Director and Editor-in-Chief of Corici-Friede. He has written many articles about Japan in the hope of directing more American attention to the rich literature and art of that country.
Teacher in Japan
Last summer PERKY MILLER, Professor of American Literature at Harvard, was one of five college teachers a who were invited to conduct a seminar in American Studies at the l niversities of Tokyo and Hiroshima. The impressions which Mr. Miller brought back with him were not those of an expert on the Orient, but of a man especially sensitive to the interests and the dedication of scholars all over the world. Atlanlic readers will remember his provocative article “What Drove Me Crazy in Europe,”the account of his experiences lecturing on the Continent.
Aloft
BILL ADAMSwas a writer of the sea who endeared himself to Atlantic readers by his stories and by his autobiography, Ships and Women. He was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1879, and at the age of sixteen apprenticed himself as a sailor for a period of four years to C. E. DeWolf, shipmaster of Liverpool. During, those four years he rounded the Horn a half-dozen times and learned to know the sea and the beauty of the great sailing shifts. After some thirty years in sail, he came ashore in Dutch Flat, California. and there for twenty-five years he wrote the stories that won him national recognition. A short time before he went to the hospital for his final checkup, he sent this letter to the Editor of the Atlantic. It stands as his Hail and Farewell.
The Ring of Keys
The Muted Harp
From his Irish grandmother, JAMES REYNOLDS inherited u wonderful assortment of Irish ghost, stories, an intimate knowledge of Palladian architecture, and a sure touch with horses. Today he lives for part of the year in Virginia and for the winter months in New York City, and for the rest is on the wing gathering material for his novels, his short stories, and his volumes of travel. His illustrated volume, Fabulous Spain, has just come from the press, and his new novel, Haunt of Eagles, will be ready in the early autumn. Meantime, he is writing and sketching in Italy.
The Clamor for Protection
An interested and articulate party in the dispute over the American tariff, DAWID L. HURwood is the assistant manager of the Textile Division of Drake America Corporation, a New York import concern. His article is a plea for realism; he cats through American exaggeration to remind us that wool is an important factor in British economy and can play a leading part in building up British imports and in closing the dollar gap. He also reminds us that the woolen imports we receive from Britain, even were they increased, would still be only a trifling percentage of our total consumption.
Managing a Young Team
It takes nerve to dismantle a ball team of famous stars and rebuild it with youngsters. That has been the 1953 program of Lou BOUDREAU, manager of the Boston Red Sox, and midseason results seem to justify it. The youngest manager in major league history, Boudreau was the hard-hitting shortstop who took charge of the Cleveland Indians at age twenty-four after only two years in the majors. Now a veteran of thirty-six, he is looking to a pennant in 1955. if all goes well and the Yankees are willing.
The Peripatetic Reviewer
Books: The Editors Like
Reader's Choice
Learning Laughter
The Vermilion Gate
Lost Trails, Lost Cities
Accent on Living
The Perfect Bait
A notive of Missouri, and thereby entitled to tell tall stories, SCOTT CORBETT now makes his home among the bass fishermen on Cape Cod. If is newest book, We Chose Cape Cod, is scheduled for publication this month.
Map
Record Reviews
The Other Foot
As the most peripatetic of the Atlantic’s staff, EDWARD WEEKS has long hud an occupational interest in feet and footwear.
Kingfisher
Strictly From the Birds
WILLIAM E. WILSON, a native Hoosier and a Harvard graduate, is now Professor of English and Chairman of the Creative Writing Program at Indiana University. His most recent book, The Strangers, a novel, was published last year.
The Sea Horse
