The Vanishing Virginian

ROBERT YANCEY, ‘Cap’n Bob’ Yancey of Lynchburg and the Virginia noblesse, was Commonwealth’s Attorney of Lynchburg for the thirty-four years that ended with 1929. As a prosecutor he was given to provoking dignified members of the bench with extravagantly fanciful oratory, incurring fines for contempt, and retorting that the court was guilty of contempt of justice. As a citizen, husband, and paterfamilias he was an egoist of irascible temper, untrammeled speech, and irresistible charm. (He once roared over the telephone at the manager of an express company that had held up a C.O.D. package of laundry: ‘Do you want me to have vermin?’) He had seven children and a town of 50,000 to appreciate, humor, and love him; also, fortunately for all concerned, an imperturbable wife. The daughter who wrote this book suppressed it for several years because ot its resemblance to Life with Father, which came out before she got it finished. The writing is not Clarence Day’s — whose would be? — but the character is as real, as preposterous, and at times as funny as any halfway responsive reader can bear.