Friday, May 1, 1959
University Daily Kansan
... Books in Review
Page 3
By Jerry Knudson Instructor of Journalism
MANHATTAN TRANSFER, by John Dos Passos. Bantam, 50 cents.
In this kaleidoscopic view of life in New York City, novelist John Dos Passos continues to thresh out the problem so central to our society—conformity versus the individual. In his first successful novel, "Three Soldiers" (1921), Dos Passos called people in the organized social hierarchy "a lot of buckets in a row."
As Jimmy Herf, young newspaperman and central male figure in the book, exclaims. "Well, perhaps you can tell me why in this country nobody ever does anything. Nobody ever writes any music or starts any revolutions or falls in love. All anybody ever does is to get drunk and tell smutty stories. I think it's disgusting..."
The panoramic sweep of "Manhattan Transfer" (1925) places primary emphasis on the individual almost submerged by the cross-currents of the most highly urbanized center of America. The conglomeration of characters (whose fates sometimes seem miraculously intertwined) symbolize the growing fragmentation and paralysis of American life in the 1920s.
Herf runs the rather standard Dos Passos hurdles to wind up disillusioned but willing to try again. His idealism shattered at book's end, Jimmy Herf strikes out anew, hitchhiking West. "How fur ye going?" a truck driver asks. "I dunno... Pretty far," the young man replies.
50 GREAT SHORT STORIES, edited by Milton Crane. Bantam, 5 cents.
Thus another character deserts organized society at its most bewildering and brutal level—the impersonal warrens of New York City. "Manhattan Transfer" avoids the political controversy of "Adventures of a Young Man" or "Grand Design." But it maintains its place in the second rank of works by the author of the monumental "U.S.A."
Short story enthusiasts will find no special theory of the craft expounded here. The editor of this collection has not found it incongruous to bracket short stories by Carson McCullers and J. D. Salinger with those by Rudyard Kipling and Guy de Maupassant. Editor Crane submitted lists of 100 outstanding short stories of the last century to 500 professors of English, who returned their selections of the 50 "best."
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This anthology contains many of the old standbys—William Saroyan's "The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse," Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and W. Somerset Maugham's "A String of Beads"—but it also includes seldom published stories like Thomas Wolfe's "Only the Dead Know Brooklyn" and Irwin Shaw's "Main Currents of American Thought." A grab bag of tales, modestly priced at one cent each.
OEDIPUS THE KING, a new translation by Bernard M. W. Knox.
Pocket Library, 35 cents.
* *
Translator Knox, associate professor of classics at Yale University, calls this edition of Sophocles' most famous play an "acting version"—and with good cause.
This is a prose translation prepared for the color film of "Oedipus" performed in Greek tragedian style by the Shakespearean Festival Company of Canada. Knox has done a good job, except at times when his adherence to simplicity becomes condescending.
In the introduction he makes a strong point about dramatic irony in Greek tragedy. "The audience during the play is in fact in the position of the gods, and is able to see the struggles, hopes and fears of the characters against a background of the truth—past, present and future." No method of approach could greatly harm the dramatic power of "Oedipus," however, if the basic structure of the play is retained.
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The awards and those receiving them are: $500 Continental Oil Company scholarship in accounting to Sidney Morris, Ottawa junior; two Goodyear Scholarships of $500 each to Gary Carrico, Beloit, and Marion Fall. Burdett, both ijuniors.
Seven scholarship awards for the coming year were made at the Business Day dinner last night.
P. O. Box 311
Around The Campus
Business Day Awards to 7
Two $400 Elizabeth Hoyt Scholarships in business to Paul Willey, Caldwell junior, and John E. Mutti, who is transferring to KU from Northwest Missouri State College.
Maytag Scholarships in commerce for $200 to George C. Moore Jr.
Topeka junior, and the $150 Kansas Savings and Loan League Scholarship to John M. Reiff, Wichita sophomore.
Murphy to Address Chemical Engineers
Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy will be the featured speaker during the 40th annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers May 17 to 20 in Kansas City, Mo.
The Chancellor will speak on "Latin America—Problem or Possibility?" at a banquet to be held May 19.
Cadets to Be Cited At A-F Day, May 15
Clayton Krehbiel, associate professor of music history and choral music, will direct the University Chorus and the University Symphony orchestra in the performance.
The first performance in this area of Handel's oratorio "Solomon" will be presented at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in Hoch auditorium commemorating the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth.
Outstanding cadets in KU's Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC units will be honored during KU Armed Forces Dav services Mav 15.
Solloists from the School of Fine Arts faculty are Mrs. Miriam Hamilton, assistant professor of voice, soprano; Joseph F. Wilkins, professor of voice, tenor; and Reinhold Schmidt, professor of voice, bass-baritone.
Presentation of the awards will be made in a ceremony at Memorial Stadium that afternoon. In case of bad weather, the review will be in Allen Field House.
Handel's Birth Feted Sunday
The annual Air Force ROTC picnic will be held Sunday afternoon at Clinton Park.
AFROTC Picnic Sunday
Maj. Willard N. Christopher, assistant professor of naval science is project officer for the three military units.
Fine Arts Honors Iola High Orchestra
The Iola High School orchestra will be honored as the Kansas High School Orchestra of 1959, Thomas Gorton, dean of the School of Fine Arts, announced today.
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The orchestra will give a concert at 3 p.m., May 7, in the University Theater. Dale P. Creitz, director of instrumental music and co-ordinator of music in the Iola public schools, is the orchestra's conductor.
Wall Street Award Given
Donna M. Minear, Downs senior,
has been awarded the Wall Street
Journal achievement award in the
School of Business. She was presented
a silver medal and a year's
subscription to The Journal.
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