“NEW FRONTIERS: MAKES ITS DEBUT

PROGRESSIVE writers
and artists have a new med-
ium to bring their work be-.
fore a labor audience — an
audience from which, it is.
hoped, new writers and art-
ists will emerge and find the
opportunity for encourage-,
ment and development.

This week the first issue
of a new Canadian quarterly
magazine, New , Frontiers,
went on sale in this city, its
purpese stated in a brief mes.
sage inside the front cover.

“New Frontiers aims to
give the Canadian, people a
true and passionate picture
of their own character and
destiny. We will\ publish

e

New pares is launched —

stories, poems, songs, pic-
tures, and critical, historical
and scientific articles reveal-
ing the Canadian and world
Significance cI the  aspir-
ations of our people towards
a genuine democracy in
which alone they can find a
free, peaceful and plentiful
life, New. Frontiers will en-
courage our artijsts and
writers to turn to the real
lives and hopes, past and
present, cf the Canadian
people... 2? *

The first issue, opening
with Margaret Fairley’s “Our
Cultural Heritage,” is a
splendid beginning.

The ~ grating Peaancea
above, one of a number ap-
pearing in the issue, is by
Avrom, outstanding working
class artist, whose new folio
of drawings will be publish.
ed next month.

,

Editorial secretary of New
Frontiers is Margaret Fair-
ley, and two British Colum-
bia writers, Hal Griffin and
Tom McEwen, are among the
associate editors.

Copies of the new maga-
zine, which sells at 40 cents, ,
may be obtained at the Peo.
ples Cooperative Bookstore,
337 West Pender Street,
Vancouver, B.C. .

RANDOM NOTES

Publisher cancels oe

to issue Collier’s book

A MAJOR New York pub-
lisher has been forced to cancel
publication in book form of the
articles in Collier’s notorious

“third world war” issue; accord-
ing to the Nation. .

The Nation ‘States that “at
least three of the contributors
to the special issue, Edward R.
Murrow, Robert E. Sherwood
and Walter P. Reuther, recent-
ly notified the publisher that
they did not care to have their
articles included. In the mean-
‘time, something like a_rank-.
and-file protest movement had
ployees of the publishing house
developed among editorial em- }
to convince the firm, if possible,
‘that the book should not lbe
published.

“The attitude of the staff was

NEW ADDRESS —
9 EAST HASTINGS
Corner Carrall

I invite you to.
visit my new:
office. I hav
no connection
with any other
dental office.

Phone

TA. 5552
DR. R. LLEWELLYN

DOUGLAS

tion

noted, but what tipped the
scales against publication. was
the withdrawal of the three
leading contributors. Mr. Mur-
row, it is said, was largely in-
fluenced by the European view
of the special issue; Mr. Sher-
wood by the delayed reaction
of officials in Washington.

indicated in his letter to the
Nation. In any case, the book
will not ‘be published.”

* pies Se

ACCORDING TO an item ap-

pearing in the London News-

“The new Oxford
corrects the distor-
in Mercator’s projection
which enlarges Russia into such
terrifying proportions.”

Chronicle,
Atlas...

* set *

PEOPLE’S CHINA is publish-
ing a new fortnightly illustrat-
ed magazine in the English
language, China Reconstructs.
It “will chronicle the life of the
Chinese people in authoritative
articles, vivid features, repre-
sentative drawings, photographs
and charts. It will relate how
difficulties are overcome and
preblems solved. It will report
‘on our resurgent art, literature,
music, drama and cinema—on

works that. embody our best.

national traditions and our new
experiences.”

*

Mr. -
Reuther’s second thoughts

Capsule
Reviews

THE WELL

Highly contrived story in

which a “race riot”. is prevent-_

ed when Negro and white resi-
dents “unite to rescue a little
girl who falls down a well.
Despite weaknesses, in many
respects best of ‘Negro inter-

est” films to come out of Holly- —

‘wood.

THE BROWNING VERSION

‘Well - made, _ Wwell- acted but
socially insignificant | British
film dealing with trials of ped-

~ antic teacher. ‘Gentle: ‘ribbing of

English public school system.
Michael ‘Rea Igrave,

LULLABY ON BROADWAY
Doris Day, Gene Nelson. Ma-

chine-made musical in color.

Might send you to sleep.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Hollywood at last ‘breaks with
its stereotyped musical comedy
formula. Weak story ‘but excel-
lent dance numbers featuring
Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.

DETECTIVE STORY

Pseudo “realistic” story of a
hard-boiled ‘honest. detective
with a passionate hatred for all
criminals. .The plot frames
‘some scenes of shocking brutal-
ity, involves 'the anti-human ap-

proach ‘so conspicuous in Ace

in the Hole,
earlier vehicle.

Kirk Douglas’

. world”

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Howard Fast

defies gag,

publishes own ‘Spartacus’

YOU WILL NOT in all. like-
lihood find any reviews of
Spartacus in the book pages of
the commercial newspapers,
even though the author is a
well-known American novelist.

Howard Fast, a consummate
master in the field of 'the his-
torical novel with no Jess than
19 other published works to his
credit, was forced to yeaa
Spartacus himself.

The same reviewers who heap-
ed praise on Fast’s novels in
1943, ’44 and ’45, when they were
issued by “established” publish-
ers, will ignore this one. They
all have “policies” against re-
viewing books published by the”
author.

The same forces that sent

Fast to prison for ‘contempt’
of the U.S. Congress sought to
block the publication of Par:
tacus. .

Hence, the: very Subteation,
of the ‘book is a challenge to
the repression of our time.

One of the notable aspects of
Fast’s talent has always been
his ability to draw _ historical
parallels with subtle effective.
ness. Never has this talent been
applied more adroitly than in
telling the story of the Servile
War and the slave who shook
(Rome {to jits foundations 73.
years before the birth of Jesus.

Fast himself says candidly,

“If my opinion of my own work .

is of value, then I can say I
like ‘this best of all my ‘books.”

Angus Cameron, formerly ex-
ecutive editor of the Boston pub-
lishing firm of Little, Brown
and Company, who, when he
lost his job, had ‘the manu-

script of Spartacus thrown out —

along with him, has indicated
jhe agrees wiith Fast’s evalua-
tion.

Herbert Aptheker, a scholar
with an established regard for
the need to tell history in its
true proportion, says, “All Am-
erica is to ‘be congratulated
that it has produced a Howard
Fast and that he has given it
a weapon for freedom, in Spar-
tacus, worthy of its title.”

; x x x

GO TO A standard encyclo-
pedia and you will find an ac-
‘count under the name Sparta-
cus. The hint of the true story
is there, but only ‘the hint. The
Thracean slave and gladiator
who shook the foundations of a
whole society when he ‘led one
of history’s great struggles for
‘freedom could not expect jus-
tice from men who have made
a cult out of the distortion of
history. »

This is one of history’s great-

est and noblest chapters. Sev-
enty slaves, uncorrupt because
they were the totally dispossess-
ed, broke out of a_ training
school for gladiators, bolstered
their number to 90,000 and
fought the cohorts and the
legions of Rome to a standstill
for over three years in one
of the most amazing sagas of
all man’s struggle for freedom.

The “power -that ruled the
trembled before these
men and women.

‘of the men of Spartacus died
on the erucifix ‘jhe screamed,
“T will return, and I will be
millions.”
‘Fast has chosen, for very
good reasons that serve.to ac-

eat

And it is’
Significant that when the last

centuate ‘the parallels he seeks

to draw, to tell the story of

‘Spartacus in a technicality dif-

ficult but highly effective man-
ner—through a series of com-
plicated flashbacks.

The novel begins when a :
party of young patricians, en, .—
route from Rome to Capua
along the Appian Way just af-
‘ter the final defeat of the great
Servile Revolt, seek in their
way to probe the meaning of

the six thousand crucified

corpses of Spartacus’ men ‘that
line that famous highway.

Most of .the story is told

through ‘the eyes of the men

and women who marked the
‘transition of Rome from repub-
lic to empire—the general, Cras-
sus; the politician, Gracchus;
the fop, Caius; the aspiring
“young fogey,’”’ Cicero; the cyn-
ical young sister of Caius,
Helena.

Spartacus emerges first hand
from time ‘to time, as does his
wife, Varinia, and his great
lieutenants in the revolt, mse
notably David, the Jew. f

But, as Cameron points out
in a@ memo that urged Little
Brown ‘to publish “Spartacus,”
“—it is endlessly engaging and
most ingeniously ‘put ‘together.’’

* * *

IN A PERSONAL letter to
Fast, Cameron went further.

“But the thing about the ‘
telling that I like best is your
success, at last, in portraying

the inner contradictions not:
only of a time ‘but of the .
people in that time. When one
can come away from the read- ©
ing of this story ‘hating

_ Gracchus and Crassus and the
rest for what mney ‘stand for
and yet seeing the universal
‘possibilities of good in each
of them, then you have told
about life as it really is...

what I am trying to say
is that the form of the story,
the contradictions of the
characters and the picture of
Rome at the end of ‘the Re-
public all show an under-
standing that reality in each
- field is comprised of. two op-,
posing sides of 'the same coin.
“It seems to me ‘that while
losing none of your capacity
for indignation at and hatred
for the evil that men do, you
have added to this a larger
sense of compassion for ‘those ~ _
that do evil. The novel does.
not excuse these people, but
“it shows that each human ~
being thas the capacity for be- ©
ing something other than he
18.” .

f

That is Howard Fast in Spar-
tacus, obtainable in Vancouver
‘the People’s Cooperative
Bookstore, 337 West Pender
Street, price $2.75.

Yet, in a supreme commen-

-tary on the sickness of our own

society, Cameron writes in ‘his
memo to the publishers who
were about to fire him, “I
haven’t the slightest doubt but
that if this novel had any other
name on it than that of Howard
Fast, it would become a best
seller.”—-STEVE MURDOCK.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE len FEBRUARY 1, 1952 — PAGE 8