3 comments about The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America.

1. I really enjoyed reading this biography of Isabel Paterson, mostly I suppose because she is a fellow traveler to me. An American living from 1886–1960, Paterson was a libertarian intellectual who lived mostly alone in a world which did not understand. She is best known today for her book about the source of America's greatness, The God of the Machine, but she was also a famous literary critic and a novelist. What makes Paterson special to me, her political values, will probably cause most people to dismiss her.
   
   Stephen Cox gives a good deal of information about the life, relationships, and character of this woman. But, as a bonus, along the way the reader also gets short introductions to many other important people who Paterson knew. These include Ayn Rand, Rose Wilder Lane, John Chamberlain, Leonard Read, William F. Buckley, Herbert Hoover, and many more. The interactions with Rand are especially interesting because Rand achieved surpassing fame as a novelist and movement leader. Rand admired and learned from Paterson, who was 19 years older. On many occasions they sat up and talked most of the night.
   
   The reader of this biography gets a good review of each of Paterson's novels, a few of which show characters much like Paterson herself. From having read a few of her novels, I would have guessed the author was considerate, polite, and feminine — a welcome contrast to Ayn Rand. But the reader of this biography learns that Paterson was routinely rude and ill mannered, and like Rand she broke off many relationships in cold ideological rejection.
   
   Probably this book should be called scholarly; it has lots of footnotes. It seems carefully edited and produced. I noticed only one typo.



2. Those who known the name Isabel Paterson probably know her from her outstanding 1943 work THE GOD OF THE MACHINE. That work, as Prof. Stephen Cox noted in his 1993 introduction, is "one of the few original theories of history that have been developed in America."
   
   Paterson was also a successful novelist and one of the most important columnists and book reviewers of her time. Her life also intersected with many of the most important thinkers in the libertarian and conservative individualist tradition, including Ayn Rand, Russell Kirk, Whittaker Chambers, William Buckley, and H. L. Mencken. Certainly Paterson deserves a full-scale biography and Prof. Cox has filled this gap with this admirable work.
   
   Paterson is also well known for her influence on Ayn Rand. Prof. Cox sheds new light on their relationship. Paterson was a compulsive reader, particularly in history and politics. Rand, on the other hand, appears to have read little in this area. Rand would talk to Paterson for hours at a time, and many of Rand's ideas flowed from what she learned from her. They were both strong-willed and difficult people and their relationship began to show strains when Rand accused Paterson of using some of her own ideas without credit. (Rand had an exaggerated sense of her own originality.) In 1948, Paterson said something offensive to Rand and their relationship came to an end. To Rand's credit, she continued to recommend THE GOD OF THE MACHINE.
   
   This book is something of a "life and times" biography of Paterson. There is much of interest concerning the politics of the time, the New York publishing scene, the nascent libertarian movement and the like. Unfortunately, only THE GOD OF THE MACHINE remains in print and it doesn't appear that an anthology of Paterson's non-fiction writing was ever produced. Hopefully Prof. Cox or someone else will remedy this situation.



3. In 1943, belief in what we today would call libertarianism was at its ebb. Collectivism, in the form of bolshevism, fascism or even the non-totalitarian movements of socialism and New Deal liberalism, seemed to be the order of the day. Individualist anarchist Albert Jay Nock was in such despair, that year he published his autobiography under the title Memoirs of a Superfluous Man.
   
   Yet also in 1943, a counterattack began in the guise of three books written by three different women. Two of those women, Ayn Rand and Rose Wilder Lane, are better remembered today, Rand as the founder of Objectivism and Lane as the editor (and possible author) of the Little House Series of books and of her own books of life on the frontier.
   
   But in terms of formulating the freedom philosophy, the third woman, Isabel Paterson, less well today, was probably the most important. Paterson was born in humble circumstances in the middle of Lake Huron. A Canadian by birth, her somewhat shiftless father moved several times along the American and Canadian west.
   
   Though she had little formal schooling, Paterson was a voracious reader and taught herself what she missed at school. Despite the lack of formal education, she ended up working in newspapers, initially along the west coast of the US and Canada (one of her bosses ended up as Prime Minster of Canada). By 1925, she was an editor for the influential "Books" supplement to the New York Herald Tribune, somewhat mischievously signing her "Bookworm" columns with the initials I.M.P. Along the way, she managed to write a few books of her own, briefly hold the altitude record for a woman in an airplane (though a passenger) and marry and quickly discard a husband (who she never seems to have divorced).
   
   Professor Cox really has a feel for his subject. He does lose some objectivity as he is quite taken in by her. But he is willing to show her negative points. Paterson comes across as intelligent and gifted, a self taught intellectual, but as someone who was difficult to get along with. She had a tendency to break friendships over ideological grounds. Yet she also found friendship with her immigrant neighbors.
   
   The book is well written and researched and while the last few chapters, detailing Paterson's retirement and decline in health drag a bi, it is understandable as her earlier life was so interesting. Paterson's importance in American political history cannot be understated. Paterson's 1943 book, "The God of the Machine" would help Rand formulate her philosophical system. Paterson also corresponded with Russell Kirk and worked for William F. Buckley. Those three, who would help shape the philosophical battles in post World War II America, each got something different from Paterson, and in turn, influenced American political discourse.
   
   So why is Paterson not well known? Professor Cox provides the answer - Paterson was "a committee of one". Rand had Objectivism, Lane had the Freedom School, Hayek and von Mises their academic activities, Friedman his web of like minded academics and the ear of presidents. Paterson had her column and her novels. Cox notes that she resisted calls to teach at the Freedom School, and she had a tendency to drop her friendships (such as breaking off relations with Rand and Lane).
   
   Cox's book rights a great wrong and hopefully puts Isabel Paterson back into prominence. Anyone interested in the roots of the modern conservative and libertarian movements should read it.

5 comments about Not So Wild a Dream.

1. The rarest of coming of age stories, one that deals not with the emotional struggles that adolescents face upon reaching social maturity, but instead a story of a generation and a nation (would that we Xers had a representative as articulate and thoughtful as Severeid) coming to terms with their ideological commitments and global responsibilities.



2. Well, yes, Eric Sevareid's autobiography to the year 1946 is a good read by a seasoned world observer. He grew up in the same North Dakota milieu as my father. I liked the part where he was advised not to enlist during World War II because he might find himself "...cranking a mimeograph machine in the public relations section of some Nebraska army camp for the next three years." Surely his contributions as a wartime news correspondent served in good stead.
   
   I'm not sure Sevareid thought much of women-he refers to an "honest whore" and "old crones." His wife is barely mentioned. Then again, he was a product of his time. Sevareid ends his book with, I guess, a plea for niceness and not bad war. As has been said, however, men love war. It is "...like lifting a corner of the Universe and taking a peek." We'll never top that.



3. One of the best books written by an American. Read it, and you will agree.
   
   The book was compared to "The Education of Henry Adams" when it was first published. I think Sevareid's book is much better. Ignorant of me? I hope not. I have read them both more than once, and Sevareid is the best.
   
   This is the book to read about America in the 20th Century. The depression, riding the rails, the incredible canoe trip Sevareid and his friend made, pre-war Europe and Nazi Germany.
   
   Then, the war. Sevareid saw it from Asia and Europe. He survived the crash of his C-46 crossing "the Hump," and returned to Europe to see the end of the war.
   
   You see the war as he saw it, and you read one remarkable story after another. Sevareid's account of the war is personal, on a personal level. He writes of people and events. the GI slogging through Italy, and the impressions left by encounters with the great and powerful.
   
   What a great book. He wrote thoughtfully and beautifully. His observations are remarkable. You feel America when you read his book. What a treat to have this book around. Just fabulous.



4. I ran into an old friend in the library stacks, an old CBS commentator pictured on the back of his book, "Not So Wild A Dream." For one who was always captivated by this worldly-wise soul, Eric Sevareid, pages into this memoir of his early years to manhood and full citizenship at the close of World War II I was in complete enthrallment. Like striking the richest vein of learning. Inside this "memoir" you wil find three adventures: the earliest taken by Sevareid and a companion by canoe and foot over 1300 miles of northwest waterways at age 17; then a railway tour of the U.S. in the thirties, filled with nuggets of whimsy and wisdom, leading to the outbreak of World War II,the final adventure spanning 4 continents, major Allied campaign areas while raising a family and meeting deadlines.All the captivating storytelling gifts man can struggle for are on display in this wonderful look at the Greatest Generation in the first half of the 20th Century by one of our very own. Compelling human drama, amazing quickly-drawn human sketches and thought-provoking commentary when normal words begin to fail are the seldom-realized resources of this journalist of the House of Murrow. For those who know that time and place only through Life or Time magazines, this will color in all the gaps with greater dimension. This is a treasure trove for aspiring writers of any level to read one who walked with Dickens, Gibbons, Herodotus, Churchill and Gertrude Stein at his side, the antidote for the TV jackanapes who serve us propaganda with no historical context under the banner of "headline news." Sevareid represents the elite of Murrow talent who were first in the service of truth, skeptical of those who wandered away from that path and had the integrity to caution those who thought otherwise.Henry Adams, another American, represents the patrician class; Sevareid, a classless original.



5. Eric Sevareid (1912 - 1992) was a third generation Norwegian-American born and raised in a small town in northern North Dakota. His book of memoirs Not So Wild a Dream, published in 1947, is mostly about an action-filled 15 year period from high school graduation in 1930 (age 17) to the end of World War II (age 32). During that time Sevareid professionally and personally went through a number of adventures that typify his "Greatest Generation" and events of the world at large.
   
   Sevareid was one of the pioneering "Morrow Boys", a team of radio journalists who filed daily radio journalistic pieces from Europe during the war. This allowed him to travel to many places and get up close to the front and fighting. Sevareid is at his best narrating his adventures, the book is episodic and some of the best include: Bombings in London during the Battle of Britain; the plane wreck while going over "the hump" into China; his experiences in Paris during the "phony war" and "Exodus"; the horrors of war on the Italian front; the D-Day invasion and subsequent Battle of the Rhine; the mutiny on-board a Liberty Ship in NY harbor. His accounts of the Great Depression, when he tramped around as a hobo on a train are really excellent, as is his description of a 2500 mile canoe trip, which is covered in more detail in his 1935 book Canoing with the Cree. These two books, written while still a young man, would be his most popular, and last real literary output - although he always considered himself a writer first, most of his later career was on television..
   
   Sevareid was known for writing "think pieces", for example in one transcript, aired late in the war to popular acclaim, he talks about the unknowability of the experience of combat for a soldier, the impossibility of words to describe the immediate and often irrational emotions and thoughts of a soldier. These "think pieces" became a trademark of his later in life as a TV reporter, and Not So Wild a Dream often goes off on a thinking tangent. If there is a theme to the book, Sevareid is seeking the essence and spirit of his time and generation, what we might call the "Zeitgeist", and he often comes very close to capturing the immediate feeling of change. It is why this book is so important as a primary source for documenting the times and his generation. One of the more profound moments for me is when he sees a change in his generations attitude towards war:
   
   "Our own men, whose cult was antimilitarism [in the 1930s students were highly anti-military], whose habit is to identify themselves merely as civilians in different cloths who detested soldiering, now subtly changed. There was a dash and verve about them that I had rarely observed before, and young boys would frankly say: "In Italy all i used to think about was going home. Now I kinda hate to quit before we get to Berlin." It was if they suddenly realized they were soldiers by profession, with the honest desire to complete this masterpiece of their skill down to the last detail."
   
   Sevareid is right, during WWII the American military went from a small and and unpopular enterprise to a large beast that to this day is a major force in American culture, the consequences of which Eisenhower predicted in his military-industrial complex speech. Another area Sevareid muses on is the waning power of Britain and the ascending power of the USA - which given the events post-Cold War and the "Rise of the Rest" of the world, also has a prophetic tone. To get an idea what the US will be like as it becomes less relevant in the world - with the rise of China, India and the rest - one only has to read Sevareid's account of the waning power of Britain in the last chapters of the book.

3 comments about A Crazy Occupation: Eyewitness to the Intifada.

1. Jamie Tarabay tells it as it is without the blandness commonly associated with autobiographies. You relive her experiences with her vivid descriptions of events and her desire to provide an objective an assessment as possible of the troubles around her. She takes you through the highs and lows of life as a reporter in a region many of us never understand. I learnt so much more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after reading this book. She explains it in a way that's uncomplicated and makes sense. And her adventures sound like fun, even if ducking bullets by hiding behind a car or hitching a ride with militia is a bit crazy. It's a very good read and I strongly recommend it.



2. Ever wonder what type of person, let alone a woman, wants to live in a war-torn area like Iraq so we can hear on the radio what's going on there? Jamie Tarabay epitomizes an incredibly brave group of people crucial to an open society like ours - reporters who put their lives at risk to inform us about the real conditions and people caught up in such grim circumstances. Jamie's clear-eyed descriptions of her real-time education in the complexities of the Middle East and the intractable Palestine-Israel conflict give the reader a more balanced appreciation of the underlying human and religious issues. I was hoping to learn more about what motivates sophisticated women (and men) reporters like Jamie and Christiane Amanpour to do this type of work. Jamie's book title promises to do this, but ultimately spends more time analyzing the other type of occupation involved. I'm very relieved to hear Jamie reporting for NPR from Baghdad in the New Year - I can continue to root for and care about her now that I know better who she is. Thank you and well done, Jamie!



3. This is an amazing read. Jamie Tarabay brings home what it's like to live in a war zone in a way few other reporters have in recent memory. The combination of personal details and experiences, along with touching and poignant descriptions of the tragedy of war make this book unique in its class.
   
   Refreshingly, the reporting is unbiased and fair, unlike most of the mass media reporting we all see on TV every night. Rather than focusing on good guys and bad guys, Jamie shows us that all sides in the Middle East conflict are made up of people who are very similar in so many ways, who all have fear, and anger, and who all bleed alike and die alike.
   
   After reading this book, not only will you have come to know and understand the crisis in the Middle East much more completely, but you will also have come to know and understand the working of a young, innocent and apparently fearless reporter putting her life on the line every day for the sake of the assignment. It's easy to become a big fan of this author very quickly, and one can only hope that she will follow up this work with a similar one based on her recent reporting from Iraq. Pulitzer-worthy.

1 comments about Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (California Legacy Book).

1. This book holds the premier position in my book collection. It is a book that looks at how a man's environment and passion for life forces him to separate the right from the wrong, sometimes at personal peril. From the quintessential muckraker to one of the original socialists, Steffens was an independent thinker who shares his mistakes, his disappointments, and his fundamental beliefs in rich and passionate prose. Thought by many to be the greatest autobiography ever written this book, as well as his famous "Shame of the Cities", are considered two of the New York Times' greatest 100 books of the 20th century. And rightfully so. Don't expect dry historical narrative. Rather, be ready to be given insight into turn of the twentieth century life and to be inspired by a man's struggles while exposing and understanding truth and power in every form.

5 comments about 52 McGs.: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Reporter Robert McG. Thomas.

1. An enjoyable collection of obituaries written my Robert McG. Thomas Jr. These short (2-3 page) obituaries will make you smile and wonder what would be written about yourself. Some of the people you will recognize, most you will not, but you'll gain an understanding and appreciation for their time on this planet.

   Recommended




2. When this book was first recommended to me by a friend, I must admit I was a little put off. A book of obituaries? Now there's a fun read! Although I know there are "die-hard" obit enthusiasts out there, I certainly don't count myself among them. All of this is leading to the further admission that I ordered the book with some trepidation. I needn't have worried. This book is an absolute joy. To say that it is well-written would be an understatement of Homeric proportions as Mr. Thomas had a subtle way with words that hints at Twain (I know! I know! They're "just" obituaries, but this gentleman could turn a phrase with the best of them!). Far from being ghoulish or depressing, these 52 McGs are fascinating celebrations of everyday extraordinary lives. Most importantly, each humorous account is filled with such warmth and respect that you don't get the feeling you're snickering at some poor dead guy "behind his back". 52 McGs falls into the category of "little discoveries that you can't wait to share with other people." Heartily recommended as an addition to your library or as a gift to anyone that enjoys highly skilled writing.



3. This was given to me as a present. I had never heard of the book before, and indeed, when I told people about it, I always got strange looks. But the 52 capsules of people's lives--not all of them well-known but they're people you should know about--are fascinating. Some personal favorites are the guy who invented the U.S. zip code and the founder of an AIDS group in a small town.



4. I have always loved obituaries. They are a guilty pleasure. To have a final, brief synopsis of a person's life is intimate, touching, and fascinating. Robert McG. Thomas' collection of New York Times obituaries, 52 McGs., is an interesting look at his best work. I found, however, that the book was a bit too brief to justify its $20 price tag.
   
   One of the nicest things about 52 McGs is that the obits here focus on obscure people who enjoyed, at most, 15 minutes of fame. You'll read about a fascinating set of people you've never heard of before. Some of the most-memorable portraits feature a Holocaust survivor who spent his life planting flowers in New York City, a 1950s hipster who was friends with the legendary Beats, and a foul-smelling man who traveled America's back roads with his goats. The book closes with Robert McG. Thomas' own New York Times obituary; this is a poignant, memorable close to the book.
   
   Thomas was also a very fine writer. In 52 McG's you find wit, tragedy, and (in especially large doses) irony. Though subtlety is increasingly rare in our world, you will have to pay attention while reading Thomas' work (or you will fail to appreciate fully some great material).
   
   My only real complaint about this book is that it is too brief. We learn in the introduction that McG wrote over 600 obits for the Times. But 52 McG's is a thin book with those 52 obits and fewer than 200 pages. I felt as though the publisher should have given me much more for $20.
   
   In the end, I do recommend 52 McG's. But I recommend that you look for it at your local library or used bookstore.



5. Certainly more wasteful books (in terms of unrecycled paper and deforestation, as well as intellectual inertia) have been published than 52 McGs, edited by Chris Calhoun, which is a collection of fifty-two of the supposedly most interesting, and well-written, of seven hundred or so obituaries published by a New York Times writer named Robert McGill Thomas, Jr. But even the vapid prose of such hacks as Elizabeth Wurtzel, Dave Eggers, Maya Angelou, Joyce Carol Oates, T.C. Boyle, and David Foster Wallace, can at least be defended by stating that there may have actually been an attempt at something creative going on, despite their repeated failures. This book, a 192 page paperback, put out in 2001, a year after Thomas himself died of cancer, by the Citadel Press, however, could not be more pointless, despite its grandiose subtitle: The Best Obituaries From Legendary New York Times Writer Robert McG. Thomas, Jr.
   Here is a sample of the `great stylings' from McG., in his obit titled Minnesota Fats, A Real Hustler With A Pool Cue, Is Dead:
   
   
   
   Although his frequent claim that he had never lost a game `when the cheese was on the table,' was more fabrication than exaggeration, according to his first wife, Mr. Wanderone [Fats' real name] was in fact a master hustler who tended to be just as good as he needed to be when he needed to be.
   
   
   
   Well, sorry, but if this is the sort of prose that makes one a `legend' to the New York Times, these days, I can state with certainty that the truly great journalist/writers of the past- Lardner, Mencken, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Oscar Wilde- have little to fear in regards to usurpation of their laurels with this work.
   
   Thus, it is not without some irony that I can state that the actually best written and most moving McG. in the book is the only one not written by McG., himself, but about his own death, and written by a Michael T. Kaufman. In it, we get a real sense of a man, not a hit and miss semi-satire, which was the deceased's forte. Clearly, this book was a labor of love, by Calhoun, who is identified merely as a fan of McG.'s (ok, a fan of obits, sheesh!) but it is simply not a joy to read, even for its handful of genuinely funny moments. In a sense, this book could be considered a McG. on the relevance of the modern publishing industry, which is so creatively and ethically bankrupt that it must spoon pabulum like this to readers too lethargic and narcotized to care that they are being insulted.
   
   The industry is survived by millions of disappointed readers still hoping for wit, enlightenment, and publishers who will choose to engage them as beings with a brain

1 comments about American Chica (Spanish Language edition).

1. Arana's memoir is poetic, colorful and powerful. The book is a moving account of Arana's childhood, split between Peru and Wyoming. She weaves father's rich Peruvian family history into the evolution of Peru and counters it with her American mother's reticence to abide by the rules of the Peruvian society. The reader is split between which society is better: family-centered traditional Peru or independent adventurous America. Arana delicately examines the two cultures in conflict through various relationships: her mother and grandmother disagree on how to raise children and treat husbands; her parents have different goals for the family and expectations of each other; and Marie's little friends, depending on what country she's in, seduce her into one culture while she struggles not to abandon the other. A sense of conflicted identity, pride in one's heritage, and confused loyalties is the result--all told while coming of age suspended between North and South America. Highly recommended.

4 comments about Song Man: A Melodic Adventure, or, My Single-Minded Approach to Songwriting.

1. Will Hodgkinson is an utterly charming guy - a first rate raconteur and a delight to hang with through this entertaining book.
   What first appears to be naught but a first person account of someone with little talent for and less of a clue to song writing, is actually a vessel for interviews with some of the best songwriters of the mid-late 20th Century. Some of the interviews are more revealing than others; some are revealing only of interviewee (Keith Richards, Ray Davies), some also of the songwriting craft (Andy Partridge, Andrew Lloyd Webber).
   That such luminaries agreed to meet and open up to Hodgkinson is evidence enough of his charm, but he charms us too, with a breezy, conversational style but also with his gall, naïveté (we don't even care if its put on or not), and affection for his friends and family (liberally laced throughout the book).
   I'm inspired to return the affection - in thanks for a couple of very pleasant evenings (the perfect book for a cross country or trans-Atlantic flight!) and surprising amount - albeit mostly superficially but, so what! - of insight into the craft of songwriting (a craft I've practiced myself). A most creative approach to the subject. Hodgkinson may not be able to write a song, but he most certainly can write a book!



2. Will Hodgkinson writes with a good sense of humor. Just like in his book, Guitar Man, he tells the story from the point-of-view of an ordinary guy trying to do something extraordinary for him. Great fun!



3. As a fan of Hodgkinsons excellent first book about learning the guitar, I was glad to find he'd lost none of his insight when graduating to something much tougher - writing a song that really touches people. On the way, he finds some of the funniest and most tragic people in the music industry. I thought the scene from Narcotics Anonymous with failed and desperate songwriter Lawrence (who I assume is an ex-star under a false name). Keef Richards agrees to help out as well, and you can't say fairer than that. Where Guitar Man was funny and self depreciating, Song Man is more about talent than skill - the mystery of what makes someone creative and how destructive that can be. Its made me listen to my favourite tunes in a compeletely different way.



4. One doesn't have to be a songwriter to appreciate Will Hodgkinson's odyssey. He does an admirable job of summing up the highs and lows of the creative process, regardless of genre. I thought _Song Man_ was particularly skilled at presenting the challenges of writing music in a way that doesn't require four years at a conservatory to appreciate.
   
   The interviews with a diverse range of musicians are amazing. It's not a surprise that most of their advice conflicts -- that seems to be one of the book's central themes -- but I heard plenty of observations by artists that were nothing like what I would have expected.
   
   And it's hilarious. I laughed out loud so often while reading _Song Man_ that people would stop me in public and ask about it. What a treat!

2 comments about KTLA's News at Ten: 60 Years with Stan Chambers.

1. A well known, loved, and respected
   TV Journalist here in the Los Angeles area.
   
   Have watched Stan most of his 60 year career,
   
   reading this book brought back a lot of memories.



2. I 've always wanted to be in broadcasting, but in the great scheme of things I was destined to get a job that was dependable and not interesting.
   
   Growing up in the midwest radio and TV stations were copying things that "big city" stations accomplished first...but on a smaller scale.
   
   One of those big city stations that did things on a grand scale was KTLA-TV. It was not the first experimental station in los Angeles, but it was the first commercial TV station west of the Mississippi River.
   
   A friend of mine whetted my appetite for KTLA by sending me a copy of the station's 40th Anniversary program back in 1987. I was floored by the things they did. Starting with on the spot news coverage for events that would last several hours, which in those days meant taking a big van with several cameras and associated video equipment out to a scene and showing the viewing public what was going on.
   
   KTLA recorded live entertainment TV programs on kinescope so that stations in other cities could have high quality programming. There was the live coverage of an atomic bomb test that was fed nationwide that would not have been coovered if not for ingenuity of the station's founder, Klause Landsberg.
   
   The phone company wanted several months to construct the relay, but Klause only had a few weeks. By studying topographical maps he found a way to microwave the TV signal to Los Angeles and the networks then carried the signal across the country. Granted, an atomic bomb test may not be your cup of tea, but the fact that a major problem was solved in a hurry was most interesting.
   
   The book, "KTLA's News at Ten: 60 years with Stan Chambers," covers the entire history of KTLA mainly because the author has been at the station since late 1947. It is a very good book, and a good addition to the other Stan Chambers book about KTLA printed ten years ago. The two books complement each other in that a lot of the same subjects are covered by vastly reworded.
   
   If you are as interested in broadcasting history as I am then this book is a must for your library. It's easy and pleasant to read and impossible to put down. (You can take that two ways: you'll want to read it cover to cover in one sitting and you'll never say anything bad about it.)
   
   I highly recommend this book and its predecessor. (DISCLAIMER: I receive no compensation to say that, nor do I have an interest in the book publisher.) The TV stations on the east coast may have similar stories and people to tell them, but my heart tells me these books are the very top. Everything else is a distant second.
   
   Happy reading.

4 comments about Hemingway on the China Front: His WWII Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn.

1. Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn met in Spain as they were covering the Spanish Civil War. They were married in 1940. In 1941 they accepted a mission at the request of the US Government to make a trip to China. They also agreed to write articles for various magazines on their trip.
   
   The Government official largely responsible for getting them to make this trip was Harry Dexter White, later identified as a Soviet agent. It is interesting in that Hemingway was visiting an area where the Chinese Communists were trying to take over the country.
   
   It was a rough trip. This was the time of the Japanese invasion of China, it was the time of Mao Tse-Tung and Chiang Kai-Shek. It was not the time or place to take a pleasure trip. This was also well past Hemingway's prime writing period as he was declining into depression and alcoholism.
   
   It was a hard trip on their marriage, and by the end of the trip the marriage was basically over althouch Martha Gellhorn held on for another few years before divorcing him (the only one of his wives to leave him).
   
   This is a well written, well researched book that covers a little known incident in World War II history.



2. This is a surprisingly good book. Peter Moriera apparently has no other books to his credit, nor is a literary scholar, yet nevertheless delivers a smooth brisk text that is fact-filled. It is carefully documented with honest, substantive footnotes that demonstrate original research. It is also just a good straight piece of storytelling about a fascinating adventure at an important juncture of modern history: while Hitler was attacking Britain, Japan was conquering the East, but before America was involved in either front.
   
   This would be a great reading experience whoever was at the center of it, but the writing team of Hemingway and Gellhorn offers the opportunity for drama and shrewd but carefully fair character study. Indeed all the principals including their Chinese interpreters, state department figures, Hemingway's drinking pals, Generalissimo and Mrs. Chiang Kai-Shek, Chou En-lai, are presented in fair, balanced, and fully rounded portaiture. The depiction of Hemingway and Gellhorn is a miracle of balance and fairness. The book does not take sides or have any agenda. It presents the strengths of each from an informed and sympathetic perspective, their respective flaws with realism and wry detatchment. Truth be told, by focusing on a fixed episode of Hemingway's life late 1940 through 41, Moreira is able to deliver one of the best portraits in life of Hemingway to date, superior indeed to many first person accounts. To those who may not have known Gellhorn's work as well, a reading of this book will only leave you wanting to see more.
   
   Finally, the subject matter is not just a lark like an Indiana Jones adventure. Moreira illustrates how the two writers were subtly enlisted on behalf of the Roosevelt administration both to get over and "spy" undercover as reporters, but also to deliver something of its message afterwards. How both Hemingway and Gellhorn managed to do that as each, in their own way, preserved a degree of integrity and truth-telling is the real underside of the iceberg here awainting discovery.



3. In a short book about a few months in the lives of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, Canadian journalist Peter Moreira has managed to give us a portrait of the two writers as they really were. Hemingway on the China Front shows us the pair at their journalistic peaks and valleys, their relationship at its most romantic and as it starts to disintegrate, and two individuals coping gracefully and not so gracefully under trying circumstances.
   
   Let's get this "spy" business out of the way. It's a good title and it may capture a few readers who'll think "I didn't know Hemingway was a spy!" Hemingway and Gellhorn were going to Asia (China, Burma, Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies) as journalists. It was no secret that they would be digging for information. They were both well-known war reporters, and would therefore be looking for war-related intelligence. Even if they hadn't already been famous, they would have stuck out in Asia like sore thumbs, Hemingway for his height and Gellhorn for being blond. Any undercover work was out of the question. Hemingway was asked by the U.S. Treasury Department to check of the transportation situation in China, to gauge how the money the U.S. was sending China was being spent. Gellhorn was a friend of the Roosevelts and was a regular White House visitor. While there's no evidence that she too was asked to check up on the Chinese, she could be expected to be debriefed when she returned to the States.
   
   Moreira tells a quick-paced story of two young and glamorous war reporters on a trip to exotic lands while the war is getting underway. They were newlyweds as well, although they'd been together for several years. While they jokingly referred to the trip as their honeymoon, the only parts of the trip that might have qualifed were the initial stop in Hawaii and their stay in Hong Kong. The rest of the trip reads like an endurance test. The conditions in China were filthy and crowded. It was a huge dose of culture shock for the pair, and they handled it in different ways. Hemingway stayed drunk as much as possible. Gellhorn was learning that living with an alcoholic could be exhilarating at its best and unbearable at its worst. Even after they broke up and she refused for the most part to talk or write of him, she admitted that the best times of her life were with Hemingway. And the worst.
   
   Moreira explains clearly the political situation in China and we're able to appreciate the dilemma that the writers faced in trying to support the U.S. allies represented by Chiang Kai-Shek and Chou En-Lai, while not ignoring the repressive regimes they controlled. They weren't entirely successful.
   
   Hemingway on the China Front, for all its attention to journalistic detail and scholarship, also has a large helping of entertaining stories. The two met some fascinating characters in Asia including Emily Hahn, several dashing American pilots, Chou En-Lai and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. And Moreira re-tells some of the best stories from Gellhorn's Travels With Myself and Another. It's great to find a new take on the lives of two people who've been written about so thoroughly.



4. This is an interesting study of two unbalanced personalities, Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, before and during their trip to the Far East from January to May of 1941. Hemingway was a very heavy drinker, at times abusive but capable of great charm, and Gellhorn, a true limousine liberal stamping out injustice and helping the poor, but totally unable to allow herself to come into contact with them.
   
   But do not be deceived. Hemingway did not "spy" on anyone, there was no "mission", and the US was not yet in World War II. The basis for the sub-title was that Hemingway reported separately (from his published reports) to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthal and Harry Dexter White. They recognized that Hemingway and Gellhorn might write pap and propaganda for the public (sounds like contemporary media reporters) but wanted to obtain a balanced assessment of the readiness of the Far East in case of a Japanese attack, and most particularly China which was gobbling up vast sums of US aid.
   
   The stories of Hemingway's drinking bouts and Gellhorn's obsession with cleanliness became wearisome. However, the depiction of China as a poor, filth-ridden country with a fascist government was nonpareil. The corrupt Chiang was more interested in fighting the communists than the Japanese, and the vast majority of US aid was not going into fighting Japanese aggression. The author makes this very clear, but there is little followup explaining why FDR continued his ruinous policies with respect to China until Japan was defeated literally without or in spite of Chinese help.
   
   Some of the author's errors will be jarring to an historian. For whatever reason, he seems to only very reluctantly concede that Harry Dexter White was a spy, and he leaves the case against the Canadian born Laughlin Currie (like the author) somewhat in doubt. This is incomprehensible for a writer in 2004. The publication of the Venona material in 1995 established for all time that White was a high-level Soviet agent who did almost irreparable harm to the US while leading the American delegation in setting up the IMF (one of the KGB's finest hours), and Currie was part of the Silvermaster ring under the code name "Page." One of his major coups was reporting to Stalin that FDR was willing to let the Soviet Union keep the half of Poland they conquered in 1939, and that he would pressure the London Polish exile government to make further concessions. (See Haynes & Klehr, "Venona" for details.) Following that, the betrayal of the Polish exiles and their army was a foregone conclusion. At any rate, these were the birds with whom Hemingway was flying.
   
   A small point is the editing. For example, author Moreira states that Hemingway committed suicide in 1961 and Gellhorn followed 27 years later with her own suicide in 1998. The author and his editors need a lesson in math.
   
   All in all this book is an interesting read concerning life in China and the British colonies in the Far East in early 1941. Hemingway and Gellhorn are flawed and complex characters worth in-depth studies, but one needs a strong stomach and substantial personal interest to deal with their idiosyncrasies. They fit the CBI (China-Burma-India) theater well, particularly the other name used for the CBI theater, "Constant Bickering Inside."

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