1934 - Literature

Literature

Nonfiction: Patterns of Culture by New York-born Columbia University social anthropologist Ruth (Fulton) Benedict, 47, breaks new ground. Benedict studied anthropology for the first time at age 32, enrolled at Columbia 2 years later to study under Franz Boas, and will replace Boas as head of the department upon his retirement in 1936 (see 1928; 1946); A System of Logistic by Akron, Ohio-born Harvard philosopher W. V. (Willard Van Orman) Quine, 26; Logische Syntax der Sprache by philosopher Rudolf Carnap, who moved to Prague in 1931 and will relocate next year to Chicago; The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Logik der Forschung) by Viennese philosopher Karl (Raimund) Popper, 32, who will teach in New Zealand from 1937 to 1945, when he will move to London; Western Civilization in the Near East (Die Europaeisirung des Orients) by Prague-born German historian Hans Kohn, 43, who was Middle East correspondent for Frankfurter Zeitung from 1925 until last year and now becomes a professor at Smith College, where he will remain until 1941; The Robber Barons: the Great American Capitalists, 1861-1901 by Brooklyn, N.Y.-born author Matthew Josephson, 35, who 6 years ago published an authoritative biography of Emile Zola; The Italian Problem in European Diplomacy: 1847-1849 by English journalist-historian A. J. P. (Alan John Pervicale) Taylor, 28; Leaves and Stones (Blätter und Steine) (essays) by Ernst Jünger; Lectures on Philosophy (Leçons de philosophie) by French philosopher and religious writer Simone Weil, 25, who works on farms and in factories to gain direct experience with working-class life when she is not teaching philosophy; The Perfect Salesman by humorist Stephen Leacock.

Fiction: Seven Gothic Tales by Danish novelist Isak Dinesen (Karen Dinesen, Baroness Blixen), 49, who married her cousin Bror Blixen in 1914 (although it was his twin brother whom she really loved), lived with him until 1921 on the British East African coffee plantation her parents purchased for them, contracted a virulent case of syphilis from him, underwent a long and embarrassing course of treatment, had a passionate affair with English hunter Denys Finch Hatton, whose plane crashed, and was forced to leave Africa after her plantation went bankrupt. Home again now in Denmark and divorced, she has written her book in English; The Master of Hestviken by Sigrid Undset includes her novels The Axe, The Snakepit, In the Wilderness, and The Son Avenger; And Quiet Flows the Don (Tikhii Don) by Mikhail Sholokhov, now 29, whose work about the Don Cossacks during the Great War and the Bolshevik revolution was serialized in Novyi Mir from 1928 to 1932 and will have sequels; I, Claudius by Robert Graves, whose Claudius the God and His Wife Messaline is also published; Burmese Days by George Orwell; Weymouth Sands by John Cowper Powys; The Bachelors (Les Celibataires) by Henri de Montherlant; Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose central character Dick Diver is modeled on former émigré Gerald Murphy, 46, a dilettante painter of some talent who returned to New York in 1932 to take over management of his late father's Mark Cross luggage and haberdashery shop but who lives chiefly on the inheritance of his wife, Sara, whose millionaire father, Frank B. Wiborg, died in 1930 (she has posed in the nude for Pablo Picasso); Appointment in Samarra by Pennsylvania-born New Yorker magazine writer John (Henry) O'Hara, 29; The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan by Chicago novelist James T. (Thomas) Farrell, 30, whose Young Lonigan appeared in 1932 and whose Judgment Day will appear next year to complete the depiction of a deteriorating Chicago and a brash, aimless blue-collar Chicagoan; Summer in Williamsburg by Brooklyn, N.Y., novelist Daniel Fuchs, 25; Call It Sleep by New York novelist Henry Roth, 28; The Ways of White Folks (stories) by Langston Hughes; I Can Get It for You Wholesale by New York novelist Jerome Weidman, 22, whose comic novel is about the garment district; Such Is My Beloved by Canadian novelist Morley Callaghan, 31; Seven Poor Men of Sydney and The Salzburg Tales by Australian novelist Christina Stead, 32; The Materassi Sisters (Sorelle Materassi) by Italian novelist Aldo Palezzeschi (Aldo Giurlani), 49; A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh; Goodbye, Mr. Chips (novella) by James Hilton; Holy Deadlock by A. P. Herbert who attacks the anomalies of Britain's divorce laws; Long Remember by Iowa-born novelist MacKinlay Kantor, 30, who takes his title from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1863; Daring Young Man (stories) by California-born short story writer William Saroyan, 26, whose lead story is "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze"; The Postman Always Rings Twice by Annapolis, Md.-born novelist James M. (Mallahan) Cain, 42; Lust for Life by California-born novelist Irving Stone, 32, is a fictionalized life of painter Vincent van Gogh; Jonah's Gourd Vine by Florida-born New York novelist Zora Hurston (née Neale), 43, who went through Barnard College on a scholarship, studied under anthropologist Franz Boas, and has worked as a secretary to novelist Fannie Hurst; Private Worlds by English novelist Phyllis Bottome, 50; What Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse; A Man Lay Dead by New Zealand-born mystery novelist Ngaio Marsh, 35, whose hero is Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard; The Nine Tailors: Changes Rung on an Old Theme in Two Short Touches and Two Full Peals by Dorothy L. Sayers; Fer-de-lance by Indiana-born detective novelist Rex (Todhunter) Stout, 48, who retired to France 7 years ago with $400,000 gained by selling an Educational Thrift System to bankers (the deposit program was designed for children). The Depression has affected him along with so many others but his overweight detective Nero Wolfe will more than replenish his fortunes; Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, whose new Hercule Poirot novel is published in the United States as Murder on the Calais Coach; The Trail of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer; The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.

Author-diplomat Brand Whitlock dies at Cannes May 24 at age 65.

Poetry: The Cantos (IV) by Ezra Pound; Variations on a Time Theme by Edwin Muir; The Master's Hammer (Le Marteau sans mâitre) by French poet René Char, 21; The Public Rose (La Rose publique) by Paul Eluard; The Unknown Friends (Les Amis inconnus) by Jules Supervielle; Poèmes by French-Canadian poet Alain Grandbois, 34; Wine From These Grapes by Edna St. Vincent Millay; On the Contrary by Oregon-born New York poet Phyllis McGinley, 29.

Juvenile: Mary Poppins by Australian-born English author P. (Pamela) Travers (originally Helen Lyndon Goff), 34, whose wonder-working English governess will appear in a series of books; Florian, the Emperor's Stallion by Felix Salten, whose Lipizzaner horse is reduced to pulling a cab after the Great War.