Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 18, 1967, Winnipeg, Manitoba Leisure Magazine Winnipeg free february 1967 books 15 a weekend review a poet in prose Dylan Thomas selected letters of Dylan Thomas edited by Constantine Fitz 417 Don a year or two ago Constantine Fitzgibbon attracted attention through his life of Dylan now he has come up with a selection of Thomass in the Jong run these May be of More value than the for one thing it is Thomas we have Fitz Gibbon contributes Only a Brief introduction and such explanatory notes Between letters As he deems necessary to their under in his introduction he explains the bases on which he has made his selection the letters include Only about half of what will be published one Day As the collected letters of Dylan and then Thomas takes we follow him through Many of the events and relationships in his life from 1931 to his death in we see him in his Early aspirations As writer and in his relationships with other writers and in his dealings with his David and in his analysis of himself both As poet and the whole makes interesting not just for its insights on Many aspects of the life of so remarkable a but because like Many other knew How to write prose when he wanted in some of the Early we sense that he is posing a this is something that vanishes As we read on and we become aware that we Are in the presence by Tom Saunders unpretentious Wisdom Home free by George 44 Don Good poets Are f u of but George Johnston is one of the most surprising individuals in Cana this beatnik Santa Claus will assure in Good that he knows Little about less about and nothing about and in his self deprecating prove to be one of the most rewarding professors of English in the he will Tell you that the problems of translating the sagas Are insoluble and produce modern versions that Awe the specialists and that Are Litera Ture in their own he will assure you that he Doest know anything about writing and publish stories and poems in the new the the the Canadian the Tamarack and so every Schoolboy can Tell you that the great Auk is flightless and extinct As is most real poetry for the average citizen but the cruising Auk Johnstons first collected was the most Artic most fun Niest Book of so called Light verse that had appeared for and it is now in its tilth printing a rare Fate for any Book of poems in our it was a splendid Auk flying across the the thousands of readers who enjoyed meeting the poor unmentionable aunt Yea less Elaine Mcgonigle o f Elaine in a felicitous by she comes in every Eye bending her Knees and tender Finger nails while the incalculable strings gather in whats hers to gather in by Walter sways of United and the other characters in that first volume and especially the Persona of the author will be delighted with the new Home years ago professor Chester Duncan characterized Auden As the Only modern poet whose work can walk in the Street without falling Flat on its a similar claim can be made for Johnstons the verse seems the diction the rhymes common the allusions far from and the moral Frame work the Low keyed ironies Are those of Ordinary not of the seminar or the take concluding stanzas from when summer evenings come across the tracks we spread ourselves with Bee Rand paperbacks Down comes powder on his to take his slut out smooching every Bliss is but a Little bit will do Edward has bad too and his slut has too Only to see the Hoo Marks in their eyes and hear them wheeze would make a fellow but these poems have their own aesthetic and in the night rambles about the summer visits 1o Farmer Elliotts Honey the antics of Lopey the gentle neuter we get insights into the Cycle of life and find making moral distinctions with sensitivity and we re examine attitudes 1o capital remembrance the responsibilities of political life and the sources of political in the Parade of human weakness and failure we catch glimpses of the nature of love and out of invigorating Candor comes Faith i Brood Over the creature i Ness of Earth this gibbous fifty years from my and feel her not on my yielded life but on my Cut out with a Stone the setting for Many of the poems is and anyone who has heard of the Dorion report or the Munsinger affair or Quenlin will learn much from the longest poem in the love in High u abounds in quotable bits the Little civil servants name was Gert she was so cute you knew she must be dirt the emergent qualities of com passion and respect that build up Are harder to illustrate with read the the concluding poem is bed Edna the dog is dead and so is min Smiths diet worked and now Hes thin Walter has left the Park fur his Loving wife better warm than Happy defines his toads Are asleep and so arc bugs and snakes millions of things Are asleep in the icy lakes Edwards asleep where Brown stalks fuss and wave and a Squirrel has planted Oaks beside his Home free is not easy to characterize but its and Wisdom Are very easy to in design and As Well As in this is a Beautiful Little of one who is a perfectionist in the use of not Only in poetry but in selected let in is not Only of Bio graphical interest it stand scrutiny As this judgment is based not on the style and Quality of writing alone not Only on the Choice of words and the Felicity with which Thomas is Able to express it is based on Content As there for in these 400plus letters which in Well if essays or sketches throwing Light not Only on Thomass own poetry but on his views on poetry in in them we see not Only the critical but the creative mind and at the whole is a deliberate and conscious expression of the thought and personality of the rounding out the picture is a Brief but helpful chronological supplied by to keep the letters in perspective with events of importance in Thomass but this is As far As As for More of Fitzgibbon we must turn to the which should be read in conjunction with the together they give us As Good a picture of the poet As we Are Likely to get until the balance of Thomass Cor Respondence is made Public out of consideration for persons now May not be for some the pocket Reader recent paperbacks include the last of Ike just by Andre Schwarzbart this is a reprint of the 1959 prix goncourt Winner in which the bitter tragedy of jewish exist ence is traced from medieval pogroms to based on an old legend which says that the world rests on the shoulders of 36 just Schwarzbart traces the lives of the Levy to whom god has granted one just Man in each until the last of the just is nothing but a whiff of smoke rising from the Chimney of an Auschwitz a deeply moving that May Well be the novel of the Century about the persecution of the on thin ice by Henry Jelink and Ann Pinchot this is the Story incredible but True of a czech family who escaped to Canada in 1948 to become outstanding citizens of the land of their it tells of a Mother and five children and their struggle for the Story reaches its Climax As it tells of Maria and Otto Jelinek returning to the town which was once their Home before the of their former winning the w o r 1 d s figure skating championship in on thin ice has had and should continue to have a special Appeal for selected writings the a a e r i c a edited and with an introduction by George Hochfield the american transcendental the most famous of whom was Are reputed to have provided the most rashes expression of that vision we have bad the american dream at its moment of greatest intensity and Here is a selection of their writings which will be welcomed by All who Are interested in the beginnings of a literature and culture that is distinctively a sensitive and engrossing gallery of against a setting of Canadian Prairies in Siire imposed on a background depicting the Complex growing Paini of is the Story of a Young David who has come to the land of his dreams Only to find himself enmeshed in the coils of the vivid setting is a Snow swept mid Emern Canadian City where the romantic Young Man is initiated into mature life by becoming involved with the two women in his landlords a situation climaxed by the necessity of making a decision Bel Sveen love and the John was Horn in South Africa but has spent Niroj of the past sixteen on the Canadian the locale of this second now at Doubleday ;