August 1954
In This Issue
Explore the August 1954 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
Ox-Pull: Canaan Fair
Israel
Soviet Trade
The Lurking Camera
August Bank Holiday
Like our Labor Day weekend, August Hank Holiday for the British is celebrated with a universal exodus from city and village; by car, bicycle, motorcycle, am/ /m.s they make their way to the seacoasl, there to disport themselves in family picnics. The occasion was recaptured byDYLAN THOMAS in a boyhood recollection heard once over BBC. It is a little gem of an essay, and the Atlantic is proud to publish it in more permanent form.
The Illusion of Security
Each year the Atlantic takes its pick of the more notable commencement addresses, and this year we are proud to print the words spoken by GEORGE F. KENNAN to the seniors of Radcliffe College. A former ambassador, who spent many years in Russia, a former policy-maker of our Slate Department, Mr. Kennan knows full well the necessity of national security. He also knows the risks we run if we attempt to establish internal policing which parallels that of the police state.
The Candle
My Father as a Dealer
A Londoner who cherishes every vestige of the cockney, WOLF MANKOWITZgraduated from Cambridge University and in a six-year period has established himself as one of the leading dealers in Wedgwood. Now in his late twenties, he writes as he pleases, dividing his time between authoritative studies of the Portland vase, plays for the London theatre, and fiction. His two latest novels, Make Me an Offer and A Kid for Two Farthings, were chosen by the Atlantic Monthly Book Club and are now in process of being filmed, the second under the direction of Sir Carol Reed. This is the first of a series of contributions from Mr. Mankowitz.
Psychiatry and Spiritual Healing
In the July Atlantic we published a challenging paper, “A Psychiatrist’s Choice,” written by one of England’s most distinguished psychiatrists, the author of standard works in his field and a man who has won recognition as a teacher. Now, in his second paper, he discusses the relationship between physical methods of psychiatric treatment and some of the valuable techniques of spiritual healing. The name of the writer is withheld for reasons of medical ethics. It cannot be disclosed to inquirers, nor can personal questions of a professional nature be passed on to the author; but we shall be glad to publish the more pertinent comments in the Atlantic Repartee.
The Atlantic Report on the World Today: Washington
A Nice Cool Drink on the Porch
A graduate of Exeter and Harvard, RICHARD BISSELL knows our inland waterways — the Ohio,the Missouri,and the Mississippi (on all of which he holds a pilot’s license) —as well as Mark Twain knew them seventy-five years ago. From this river experience came the source material for his first novel, A Stretch on the River; his second, 7 1/2 Cents, the story of a strike in a pajama factory,has been converted into a highly successful musical comedy, The Pajama Game; and his third, High Water, will make its debut in September under the AtlanticLittle,Brown imprint.
The Rooster
Refilling Our Wells
Perhaps because he was reared on a farm in Utah. GRANT CANNON has never lost his love of the soil and his con - corn for the welfare of this growing country. During the war he served as a combat intelligence officer with the Fifth Air Force,and after his discharge he returned to Ohio to become Managing Editor of the Farm Quarterly and to continue his study of all aspects of Conservation. In the Vtlantic for last September he wrote of the new nitrogen fertilizers which have had such a stimulating effect. Now he addresses himself to one of the most precious of our natural assets — water — and how to maintain an unfailing supply.
The Gangsters of the Appian Way
NICCOLO TUCCI,who has been living in the United Slates since 1938 and who is now an American citizen, had the first look at his native land in fifteen years when he returned to Italy last spring. Much of what he saw appalled him. The “modernization” the desecration of the old monuments, the streamlining of roads as famous as the Appian Way, seem to him a betrayal of Italy’s great heritage. He learned that an Italian archaeologist, Antonio Coderna, was leading a movement in protest, and Mr. Tucci decided to carry the word to America. His first article, “The New Barbariansappeared in the June Atlantic.
Song
Dialogue in November
Night Song
Good Night and Almost Thirty
Circle of Breath
Americans as Students
Author of some fifteen volumes of prose and verse. PIERRE EMMANUELis in charge of the English-language broadcasts of the French government radio station, Radiodiffusion Française. Before the war he taught mathematics and philosophy at a Breach lycée. “In 1948,” he tells us, “a lecture tour carried me through a number of universities and colleges in the East and in the Middle West; beginning in 1951 I had the pleasure of teaching yearly at the Harvard Summer School. These brief incursions into academic life in America in no way entitle me to pass judgment on the educational system in the United States. In the following remarks T merely wish to underline certain aspects of my personal experience
Race Off Gloucester: A True Story
Son of New Bedford and heir of her best seafaring tradition, LLEWELLYN HOWLAND makes his anchorage at Padanaram.where, between cruises, he writes about shippers and ships,the islands off the rocky coast,and the fare which sailors thrive on. Atlantic readers who enjoyed his earlier stories — Clambake J Journey Cakes,and “Man of Iron,”which were eventually published in his book, Sou’west and By West of Cape Cod — will be eager to see his latest volume. Triptych, which is as savory as the best New England chowder.
John Sloan
Artist and author, WALTER PACH was born in New York City in 1883, studied at the New York School of Art and at the Academic Hanson in Paris, and in addition to his one-man shows has exhibited with the Independent Artists yearly since 1917. The biographer of Georges Seurat, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Van Gogh, and Ingres and the author of widely read studies on modern art. Mr. Pach now evaluates for Atlantic readers the life and work of John Sloan — his versatility, his dedication, his contribution to American art.
Breaking the Star Barrier
Only a half century after the first flights of the Wright brothers, U.S. Naval aviation has produced a giant rochet which attained a speed of neartv 5000 m.p.h. and an altitude of 158 miles. Animals have survived in good condition rochet ascents of 65 miles, and a piloted aircraft has traveled in level flight at 1600 m.p.h. — almost two and one-half limes the speed of sound. If the next half century brings comparable progress, many authorities expect that travel in outer span* will become a reality. A journalist of long experience in automotive and engineering subjects, LLOYD MALLAN recently gave up editorial work in order to devote his time to writing.
Man-Made Fires
During his fifty years as a professional forester, COLONEL. WILLIAM B. GREELEY, now Chairman of the Board of American Forest Products Industries, Inc., has played a leading part in arousing the American public to its present attitude of watchful conservation. Beginning in 1904 he worked in the United States Forest Service, stationed successively in the Southern Appalachians, New England, the Sequoia National Forest, and the Northern Rocky Mountain area. It was in Idaho that he witnessed one of the worst forest fires in American history, which swept thousands of acres and cost 85 lives.
The Peripatetic Reviewer
Books: The Editors Like
Reader's Choice
Accent on Living
A Man Called Id
EDWIN NEWMANwas formerly a State Department correspondent for the United Press, and is note in the London Bureau of the National Broadcasting Company.
The Nonsmoker
Best known for his lively book See Here, Private Hargrove, MARION HARGROVE was a widely traveled writer and editor for the Army during the war. He is now engaged in magazine work in New York.
Record Reviews
What's in a Name Plate?
ELINOR GOTTLDINQ SMITH lives in Searsdale, New York. She has hern a frequent contributor to these pages.
Laredo
Gift Horses
PEG BRACKENis the pseudonym of Mrs. Roderick Lull of Portland, Oregon. Her verse, articles, and short stories have appeared in many magazines.
Meals in Motion
Former literary editor of Punch, H. F. ELLIS is best knotrn to American readers for his incomparably funny book, The Vexations of A. J. Wentworth.
Maine Chanty
