Word: authority
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Though it was written to get away from playwriting. Act One (Random House; $5) in a sense is still a play. It is a collection of fascinating characters whom the author parades before the footlights of his wit and warmth. There is first of all the character who dominated Moss Hart's poverty-ridden Bronx childhood: a grandfather, whom a casual neighbor might well have regarded as simply an embittered, ill-tempered old cigar maker, pathetically attached to his past friendship with the great labor leader, Sam Gompers. But in Moss Hart's telling, he becomes "an Everest...
...While Author Hart guides his characters through their scenes, he also manages some fascinating asides. There is Hart's quick test of tryout success (when a play is doing well, room service is always prompt, but when it is in trouble, the waiters are always late and the sandwiches soggy); there is Hart's law for the aspiring director (the less sure he is of himself, the tougher he must be with the cast). Hart knows how to interpret all the sounds made by an audience: the implications of their coughs, the degrees of their laughter, the intensity...
...paper, Sedov admitted to a Russian-speaking colleague that the reason was that British figures proved it erroneous. But when a British reporter asked for corroboration, Sedov offered three other explanations in quick succession : 1) there were too many papers already; 2) it would have been given if the author had been on hand; and 3) there were not enough Russian scientists present to discuss it. He chuckled merrily at each new alibi...
Adventure & Achievement. The question of Nobelity aside, Shanti Andia makes clear its author's standing as one of the top men of modern Spanish letters and also explains why Hemingway calls himself Baroja's disciple. In this novel the hero, Shanti, is a Basque sea captain who tells his own story, noting: "A strange existence is mine, and that of other wanderers. During one long epoch, all is adventure, events; and then, in another, there is nothing but commentary on past events." The combination of violent action and desperate search for the meaning of action marks every Hemingway...
...rewards were collected. Once, when a drunken Russian stumbled out of the compound and was shot, the competition to recover the body was so keen that eleven Chinese were picked off by snipers. Yet for a time it looked as if sheer weight of numbers might win out. and Author Fleming offers some interesting notes on the curious ways of people who expect to die-but hope to do so as ladies and gentlemen. In 110° heat, the Italian minister dressed for dinner each evening, and the wife of the U.S. minister disclosed that she expected to meet...