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Harry Truman faced the cameras with the corners of his mouth turned down into his chin. Before him was the Defense Production Act handed up by Congress. There were no jolly Congressmen beaming over his shoulder waiting eagerly for a pen. As he snatched up a black and gold fountain pen, he mumbled loud enough for some reporters to hear: "The worst I ever had to sign." He scratched his signature, then brusquely cut off the photographers (toward ward whom he usually is friendly), saying that he had two telephone calls and a party waiting for him. The party...
...could be gayer than Chekhov in his gay moments, but his deeper, sadder convictions were never concealed for long. "For 25 years," he complained, "they tear a man to shreds, and then they come and present him with a quill pen made of aluminum." He had little faith in any triumph of human goodness. "In nature," he assured Bunin, "a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it's the other way round...
Cecil Beaton never got over his boyhood crushes on Miss Lily Elsie and photography. He pursued the latter with such relentlessness that he became one of the world's biggest clicks in fashion and society photography. Beaton's pen portrait of Beaton, like those he makes with his Rolleiflex, shows such a dazzle of limelight about the subject's head that at times he seems not merely Beatonized, but beatified. Nevertheless, his book is a charming tattletale about the semiprivate life of a sort of celluloid Cellini; and the tale is adorned with plenty of gossip about...
Several answered with enthusiastic, informative letters. Maurice de Vlaminck, Georges Rouault and Marc Chagall sent along some of their own writings. Andre Derain's reply was a collector's item, a beautiful letter apparently done with brush or drawing pen. The best came last, from Raoul Dufy, who wrote that he wanted to help and would like a favor in return. He asked Dalton to find a house for him to rent in Tucson, where he could go to treat his arthritis. Dalton got busy and, as requested, kept the news of the trip to himself...
...part-time pen-in-hand set was busy churning out autobiographies. Sculptor Jo Davidson promised a limited edition of 74 signed copies at $50 each. Violinist Yehudi Menuhin, 35, decided it was time to tell his life story; so did Louis Armstrong, Ezio Pinza and Jessica Dragonette. Even Bobo Rockefeller was giving the matter serious thought. Among those who have reached the working title stage: Choreographer Agnes de Mille (Dance to the Piper); Princess lleana of Rumania, great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria (I Live Again); Society-Columnist Cobina Wright (/ Never Grew Up); and Actress Charlotte Greenwood (Never Too Tall...