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By Calder M. Pickett Professor of Journalism
AMERICAN HERITAGE, August 1961. $3.95.
Here is a particularly abundant issue of American Heritage. An essay by Bruce Catton on Civil War centennial celebrations, a scandalous story out of early Virginia history, a grim description of the volcano that destroyed St. Pierre in Martinique, an essay on American taste in art, and an excerpt from the new biography of William Randolph Hearst are among the articles.
Catton says something that George Anderson, KU professor of history, said eloquently a year ago at KU Editor's Day. Like Anderson, who spoke of the Kansas centennial, Catton notes that the meaning of the Civil War is being obscured in reenactments of battles, beard-growing contests, old-time music and borrowed costumes. He calls the centennial "a musical comedy which implies that the 600,000 deaths caused by the Civil War had no real meaning."
"It created one nation, destined for world leadership, . . . The War brought Negro slavery to an end. In its blind, brutal and all but unendurable expensive way, the War left us with no alternative to the task of creating, perfecting, and defending a one-class American citizenship."
"SHOULD WE RE-ENACT THE STARVING of the first prisoner of war, or New York's Draft riots, or Sherman's march to the sea? Obviously not. Rather the Centennial should remind us that the Civil War started a process which is still incomplete.
"Scandal At Bizarre" is an article by Francis Biddle that tells of Nancy Randolph, cousin of John Randolph of Roanoke. She was mixed up in a triangle that involved aristocracy and even brought testimony from the daughter of Jefferson. It is a nasty story and an engrossing one.
THE STORY OF THE ST. PIERRE DESTRUCTION is a novel one for American Heritage, for properly speaking it is not a story of the people of the United States. But it is graphic and horrifying, with a frightening photograph of St. Pierre that makes one recall newspaper photographs of Hiroshima.
How Americans have given their love and admiration to four paintings is the subject of another article. Not one of the paintings stands today as a work of significance, but each shows what people liked. They are Willard's "Spirit of '76," done for the Philadelphia centennial exposition in 1876; Millet's "Man with the Hoe," which inspired Markham's famous poem; Hovenden's "Breaking Home Ties," a tear-jerker still beloved of many Americans, and Chabas' "September Morn," which scandalized so many persons almost 50 years ago. The publication refers to the nude girl "as being just about the most modest young lady who ever hung her clothes on a hickory limb."
THE EXCERPT FROM THE HEARST BIOGRAPHY chiefly describes the publisher's liaison with Marion Davies, who died in September. Other articles of interest describe Tecumseh and his efforts to turn back white settlers, the comic opera raid by Confederates on St. Albans, Vt., Mark Twain's Whittier dinner speech of 1877, Catharine Beecher and her efforts to make housekeeping a science, the fabled evangelist Billy Sunday, steamboats of America's past, and a tour of Siberia by George Kennan in the 1880s.
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Thursday, October 5, 1961 University Daily Kansan
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The Rough Edge By Bill Mullins
NSA does not need to serve as an information agency on controversial subjects. Their own meetings will do fine.
We are wondering what the freshman who thinks the John Birch Society is a Communist organization would consider a conservative group.
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One of the most lucrative professions in the world right now should be that of tranquilizer salesman on the diplomatic route.
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Have you ever noticed what a damping effect their first exams have on the enthusiasm of the freshmen?
Former Presidents Eisenhower and Truman will meet next month in Kansas City. We will be waiting to hear what cute comments Harry has to make.
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French politics are a lot like a game of Russian roulette.
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