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The Green-Room


ISSUE:  Autumn 1938

On July 5, 1938, President Roosevelt focused attention once more on the South by referring to it as “Economic Problem No. 1.” Rut the South, says Jonathan Daniels in “Democracy Is Bread,” is more than | that, for he finds there “something strange, too native to be fascism, . . . breeding in the sun.” And this danger will remain, he believes, until the pressure of the unemployed upon the labor standards of the South can be lifted. Mr, Daniels is the editor of the Raleigh News and Observer, and | the author of the widely discussed “A Southerner Discovers the South,” which is reviewed in this number of the Virginia Quarterly.

In “Much Could Be Done,” Ernestine Evans offers the example of the use by the British of the “documentary film” in making a nation of people conscious of its common problems. Mm Evans has written for this magazine before; her most recent essay was “London Crumb Cake,” in the Summer 1938 number. She is a free-lance journalist and publisher’s representative.

The new movement in English poetry that began in tbe ‘thirties is characterized chiefly by its use of the principles of Marxism and Freudianism. In “New Leaders in English Poetry,” F. Cudworth Flint discusses the work of Stephen Spender and Wystan Auden, the two writers who most completely typify the interests and aims of their group. Mr. Flint, a native of Oregon, is a member of the English faculty of Dartmouth College. This is his first full-length essay to appear in the Quarterly. The quotations from Spender, Auden, and Day Lewis that appear in “New Leaders in English Poetry” are reprinted through the courtesy of Random House, Inc., New York.

The international crises that are centering world attention on Central Europe and the Far East can both be stated in terms of a struggle to retain or to seize hegemony in those areas. Albert Guerard, in “Can France Abdicate?”, discusses the feasibility of the renunciation by France of leadership and the responsibilities of a Great Power. Mr. Guerard has written for this magazine before; he is the father of Albert Guerard, Jr., another Quarterly contributor. He was born in Paris, educated in France and England. He is a member of the faculty of Leland Stanford University.

Like France, Japan is faced with the problem of fighting to retain leadership and control or of stepping down from her high position in the Orient. This is the problem that Paul Scheffer discusses in “Far Eastern Panorama.” Mr. Scheffer is a German newspaperman; he has been connected with the Berliner Tageblatt since 1916, and from 1934 to 1937 was editor-in-chief of that paper. For the rest of the time he has been a foreign correspondent in Europe, Asia, and America. He was in China and Japan in 1925, 1926, and again in 1937. At present he is in New York City. He is the author of “Seven Years in Soviet Russia.”

In “Peace in Our Time,” Robert C. Binkley discusses the question of the organization of Central Europe from the viewpoint of the pattern offered by the Holy Roman Empire, the last fragments of which were shattered by the aftermath of the World War. Mr. Binkley has been a frequent contributor of essays and book discussions to the Quarterly. He is professor of modern European history in Western Reserve University and the author of “Realism and Nationalism: 1852-1871.”

Lawrence Lee, who contributes “I Have Tasted This Land” to this issue, has had poetry published in the Virginia Quarterly since its earliest days. He is an Alabaman by birth, the author of “Summer Goes On” and “Monticello,” and the translator of “Rochambeau, Father and Son.” Mr. Lee has been a member of the French faculty of the University of Virginia since 1930, and he will be Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review for the next year.

Walter L. Myers has written a number of studies of the contemporary novel that have appeared in this magazine. “The Novel and the Past,” in this issue, is a discussion of the historical novel as we know it today. Mr, Myers is professor of English in the University of Pittsburgh, and the author of “The Later Realism.”

The recent publication by the Oxford University Press of Professor George W. Pierson’s “Tocqueville and Beaumont in America” has revived interest in Tocqueville’s classic “Democracy in America.” In “A Century after Tocqueville,” Matthew Josephson finds that much of Tocqueville’s report on the American scene still seems to be more pertinent than many recent books. Mr. Josephson is well know as the author of “The Politicos” and “The Robber Barons.” The quotations from Professor Pierson’s book in “A Century after Tocqueville” are used through the courtesy of the Oxford University Press.

Wallace Stegner will be remembered by readers of this magazine for his story, “Bugle Song,” in the last number. He won the Little, Brown novelette contest in 1937 with “Remembering Laughter.” Ben Belitt’s first volume of poems, “Five-Fold Mesh,” will be published this fall by Knopf. Archibald B. Shepperson is the author of “The Novel in Motley,” and a member of the advisory board of the Virginia Quarterly. Gerald W. Johnson is an editorial writer for the Baltimore Sun, and the author of “The Wasted Land,” a study of the South. Helen Hill is an economist in the Department of Agriculture. Clinch Calkins is Mrs. Mark Merrell, author of “Spy Overhead” and “Some Folks Won’t Work.” J. Fred Hippy is the author of a number of books dealing with Latin America. (). W. Kiegel teaches journalism in Washington and Lee University; he is an associate editor of Public Opinion Quarterly. Broadus Mitchell is professor of economics in Johns Hopkins University and the author of “A Preface to Economics.” diaries K. Davenport is a member of the philosophy faculty of the University of Virginia. William K. Dodd is the former ambassador to Germany and the author of a number of books on American history. James Southall Wilson was the first editor of the Virginia Quarterly; he is Dean of the Department of Graduate Studies in the University of Virginia.

With this issue, Lambert Davis, who has been Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review since 1935, retires from the editorship to become trade editor of the Bobbs-Merrill Company. The next issue of the magazine will appear under the direction of Lawrence Lee.

THE VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW

Edited by LAMBERT DAVIS

Advisory Editors

Hardy C. Dillard  Archibald B. SheppErson

Garrard Glenn  Carroll Mason Sparrow

John Calvin Metcale James Southall Wilson

The Virginia Quarterly Review is published at the University of Virginia: in March, June, September, and December. Subscription rates: $3.00 the year. Canadian, $3.25; Foreign, $3.50. Single copies, 75 cents. The Virginia Quarterly Review is indexed in The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature.

Contributions must be accompanied by postage for return and addressed to The Editor op the Virginia Quarterly Review, 1 West Range, University, Virginia. The University of Virginia and the Editors do not assume responsibility for the views expressed by contributors of articles.

All letters relative to advertising and other business matters should be addressed to The Business Manager.

PUBLICATION AND EDITORIAL OPPICE: 1 WEST RANGE UNIVERSITY, VIRGINIA

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