September 1956
In This Issue
Explore the September 1956 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
Science and Industry
The Crisis in Teaching
New schools are being built, new classrooms — though not enough — will be ready for occupancy this fall; but to secure the teachers we need, we should have to enlist half of the total number of college graduates of last June. Obviously this is impossible, but it does illustrate the appalling shortage of trained teachers — a shortage which is not being lessened by the lethargy in Congress or the half measures of state legislatures. OSCAR HANDLIN, Professor of History at Harvard University and a Pulitzer Prize winner, discusses the emergency measures which are available. Can they BE undertaken without lessening still further the quality of those who teach?
Italian Communism, 1956
The downgrading of Stalin has precipitated a noticeable drift in Italian politics away from the Communist line and a spreading disillusion among intellectuals alma the chances of achieving social justice through Communism. This was so well expressed by a former Party member, PAOLO PAVOLINI,that a reader of the Atlantic,A. Frank Schwarz, an industrial engineer who was born in Milan and is now an American citizen, secured permission to translate Mr. Pavolini’s article, which originally appeared in Il Mondo, the Italian periodical published in Rome.
London
The Communist Approach to Burma
“The drift of the world is such,”wrote DAVID L. COHN in the Atlantic in June, 1946. “that unless it is arrested, nearly a billion people in the Orient and the Middle East may fall under effective Russian domination within foreseeable time.”Mr. Cohn was in Rangoon again this spring and came away with the chilling conclusion that we are losing Southeast Asia to the Communists faster than he thought possible. And it does not have to be.
Bella! Bella!
A Nova Scotian and the daughter of a clergyman, CONSTANCE TOMKINSON wasin her early twenties and eager to see the world. After she studied ballet with Martha Graham in New York City, she went abroad determined to pay her way’ by dancing. The techniques which she learned from Miss Graham did not altogether prepare her for the requirements of the Folies Bergère. but she “trouped" all over the Continent, and from her experiences has come a book of recollection, Les Girls, which will be published this month by Atlantic-Little, Brown. The following article is adapted from a chapter which describes Miss Tomkinson’s experiences in Italy.
The Word of Willow
The Meanest Man in Washington County
A Houston lawyer and a native Texan who served with distinction under Secretary of War Stimson, DILLON ANDERSON has returned to Washington to succeed Robert Cutler as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. On trains and on Sundays he amuses himself by writing a series of salty Texas narratives about two wanderers, Clint and Claudie, who fortunately do not take themselves or their victims too seriously. The stories have been collected in two volumes: I and Claudie (1951) and Claudie’s Kinfolks (1954).
How the Brain Works
“The brain,”writes GEORGE R. HARRISON,Dean of the School of Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “contains a hundred times as many nerve lines as the world’s entire telephone system. It is provided with automatic dialing throughout, and within limits it is self-repairing.”This article on the development of man’s intelligence is drawn from Dean Harrison’s new book, What Man May Be, soon to be published by Morrow.
A Pair of Hands
The Dollmaker
Novelist and short-story writer, NICCOLO TUCCI is a native of Florence who has been living in the United States since 1938 and who is now an American citizen. He has written articles about Itay for the Atlantic on his return visits to the old country, and he is presently working on two novels, one in English about an Indian family and one in Indian about some New Yorkers.
The Musician
The Illusion of Owning a Business
“Much has been said about the Horatio Alger type of young man, says FREDERICK W. COPELAND,who starts his own business and progresses to fame and wealth, but no one has commented on the thousands of young men who without special talents or capabilities have frittered away the years of early manhood starting their own businesses.”Mr. Copeland, after a successful career as a corporation president, moved to Southern California,where his activities as a management consultant have exposed him to literally hundreds of small enterprises from which he has drawn the conclusions expressed in this article.
A Word for Farewell
Apley, Wickford Point, and Fulham: My Early Struggles
Few readers will ever appreciate how much courage and self-confidence is required for a writer to change his course in midstream. When JOHN P. M ARQUAND in his early forties turned away from the Mr. Moto stories which had established his popularity in the Saturday Evening Post, and began to devote himself to a series of social satires about Boston and New Englanders, he did so despite the earnest advice of his literary agents. But the more he experimented with this new medium, the more he enjoyed it, and here is what happened to him as he wrote.
Max Beerbohm: A Lesson in Manners
Fith the passing of Max Beerhohm the world of English letters has lost an impeccable essayist, a cartoonist who was in a class by himself, a critic. a charming conversationalist. and a dandy whose manners made an unforgettable impression on tinyounger generation. So says EVELYN WAUGH in this affectionate reminiscence.
Atlantic Novel Contest for 1957
The Peripatetic Reviewer
Reader's Choice
The Turtle: For My Grandson
Elect the Healthiest!
Storm Warning
Record Reviews
Mexico. Ii
