Word: novelists
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Died. Theodore Dreiser, 74, pachydermatous, persistent, humorless novelist; of a heart attack; in Hollywood, shortly after completing two novels, his first in over 20 years. A titan rather than a genius, Dreiser in his amoral, sardonic first novel (Sister Carrie, 1900) ended a genteel U.S. literary tradition, cleared the way for a brutal naturalism. His greatest and best-known work, An American Tragedy, a rough-hewn milestone in U.S. letters, emphasized society's responsibility for the acts of its members...
Divorced. James Ramsey Ullman, 38, mountain-climbing, best-selling novelist (The White Tower), onetime Broadway producer: by Ruth Fishman Ullman, after 15 years of marriage, two children; in Reno...
Died. Arthur Cheney Train, 70, novelist-creator of shrewd, lovable Yankee Lawyer Ephraim Tutt: after long illness; in Manhattan. Said Author Train ruefully: "As between Tutt and myself, Tutt will be remembered as the real person and I as the fictional character." Died. Moman Pruiett, 73, shaggy-browed Oklahoma criminal lawyer: of pneumonia; in Oklahoma City. Sent to jail for robbery at 18, he vowed "I'll open the doors of your damned prisons!" Later he became so expert at bringing tears to backwoods jurors' eyes (343 murder cases, 303 acquittals, no executions) that he was considered...
Most war-weary British veterans, dribbling back into civilian life that is still rigorously rationed and restricted, long for the cozily lighted window that means the unrestricted freedom and comfort of home. Through that lighted window John Boynton Priestley has tossed a well-aimed literary brick. Novelist Priestley (The Good Companions; Angel Pavement) is one of British Labor's most popular literary backers. In a brief (32-page), brusque, best-selling pamphlet entitled Letter to a Returning Serviceman, Priestley beseeches ex-Tommies to beware of their heart's desire-"the charmed cozy circle" of home life...
Priestley-now less & less a novelist, and more & more a pamphleteer-also admits that he sheds no tears for individual enterprise. "Modern man is essentially a communal and cooperating man. . . . We have no Leonardo da Vinci or Shakespeare. But we accomplish what would seem miracles to our forefathers ... by our new pooling of knowledge and our superb teamwork. When the American O.W.I. . . . showed us the film they had made about [TVA] . . . I felt as deeply moved as I would have been by a noble work...