October 1949
In This Issue
Explore the October 1949 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
Germany
Israel: Young Blood and Old
A ranking American artist who has had over fifty one-man exhibitions in Paris, Vienna, Rome, and America GEORGE BIDDLE went to Israel six months ago to watch and to draw the new state in action. Prior to that, he had been at Nuremberg following the trials and filling a portfolio with portraits of the leading figures; and prior to that, he had been a combat artist with our armies in Africa and Italy. But his visit to Israel, was one of the most deeply stirring experiences of his life, and these pages from his diary tell why.
Science and National Security
Serecy For five crucial years (1940-1945), L. A. DUBRIDGE was Director of the Radiation Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 1946 he has been President of the California Institute of Technology. In both capacities—first as a director of applied science and now as the head of one of our greatest centers for the development of pure science-he has had to contend with these three factors which are so often confused in fearful thinking: the freedom of the scientists, the safety of the nation, and the secrecy of armament. This article of his will help to clear the air.
Tito and Stalin
Author and editor, long expert in his knowledge of Central Europe and in particular of Jugoslavia, HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG paid an extended visit to that country in the spring of this year and there observed the effects of the schism between Tito and the Kremlin. He has returned to his post as editor of Foreign Affairs with constructive ideas as to how we should deal with Tito and with Jugoslavia.
The Tunnel of Love
A Houston, Texas, lawyer, DILLON ANDERSON in the June Atlantic embarked with “The Revival" on a series of short stories about two meandering Texans who live by their wits but don’t always win. This is the second in the series. Mr. Anderson says that, as a lawyer, his working time is spent largely in keeping other people out of trouble; that writing stories in his spare time helps to keep him out of trouble.
Greece
The Singing Dark
What We Do to British Exports
Markup The United States has been selling the United Kingdom three times as much as it buys from that country. But when, after the war, British exports to America began to rise, Englishmen were encouraged to hope that they could “close the gap ” by finding an increasing market for their goods on our side of the Atlantic. ALEX FAULKNER,the American correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, shows what American taxation and the snowballing of markups have done to destroy those hopes.
Young John Adams: Strike for Freedom
In Yankee from Olympus CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN showed us the decisiveness of that Great Dissenter, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. For the past three years she has been working on a comparable portrait of young John Adams, who was brought up to believe in British rights and British freedom and who in his thirties, from 1765 to 1775, worked to effect a new freedom on this side of the Atlantic. Those ten years were the most important, the most dynamic, of John Adams’s life. From the final section of Miss Bowen’s book, the Atlantic has selected five installments. The first showed us the Massachusetts delegation to the Continental Congress on the road to Philadelphia in August, 1774. This shows us “John Yankee’' in Carpenters’ Hall.
Day
Why Mistreat the Armed Forces?
Unsanitary housing, shacks without toilet facilities and running water, the choice of living in trailer slums or commuting 75 miles twice a day — here are some of the reasons why our Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel are finding home life impossible.AGNES E. MEYER has made an intensive study of the conditions under which we expect the members of our armed forces to live; and the social chaos which she found, makes the blood boil. Encouraged by the Atlantic, Mrs. Meyer, who is the wife of the Chairman of the Board of the Washington Post, is now carrying forward a series of investigations reaching to the roots of the American Community.
The Car That Balked
Artist and writer, PATRICK MORGAN teaches art at Phillips Academy, Andover. His painting time he divides between New England and Canada; he has had a number of one-man shows — the most recent, the exhibition of his paintings at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. This story is his fifth contribution to the Allantic and we take pride in the fact that “The Heifer” (July. 1948) has been reprinted in The Best American Short Stories, 1949.
Frisbie of the South Seas
Robert Dean Frisbie went to Tahiti in 1920, a young veteran of the First World War drawing a veteran’s disability pension because of his weak lungs. It was his intent to submerge himself in the slow, delightful current of the island life, just as it was his aspiration to write books of escape. But he was often at odds with himself and sometimes in difficulties with the white authorities. It was Frisbie’s good fortune to become fast friends with JAMES NORMAN HALL, and the friendship served him as a beacon in the dark days after the death of his native wife, Nga, when Frisbie found himself alone with the care of their children. A Fund is now being raised for the four Frisbie children, and to it Mr. Hall has contributed the royalties he received for this three-part serial. The Atlantic will be glad to forward the contributions of others who are in sympathy.
Parnassus Divided
Books and Men Poet and historian, PETER VIERECK was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry earlier this year, for his volume Terror snd Decorum. This summer he traveled through Europe on a Guggenheim Fellowship, completing his second book of verse. Scribner’s has just published his new booh of prose, Conservatism Revisited, which he calls “a cultural and political credo for the West.”Mr. Viereck holds the combined posts of Associate Professor of History at Mount Holyoke and Visiting Lecturer at Smith.
The Peripatetic Reviewer
Reader's Choice
W. C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes
The Vital Center
The Devil in Massachusetts
This Month
Britain
Since Isoline Left
High, Low, and Close
Saucy Diatribe
Lorelei of the Loire
Pizza
“In a world of ready-made food, packaged to be tossed together by amateurs, pizza stands apart—one dish, at least, which calls for time and skill.”
To a Scholiast
