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Presents several letters to the editor of socio-political conditions in the U.S. Literary styles of several American writers; Features of the organization American Circle, a new instrument for revealing and giving expression to the thought of private citizens of this country; Features of the political campaigns of Republican and Democratic Party in the U.S.

Focuses on the search for symbols in Western art. Description of the medieval artifacts; Attempts to substitute personal devices for a continual reinterpretation of general symbols under the triple idiosyncratic styles; Definition of the present anarchy in art under the triple idiosyncratic styles of Cubism, Expressionism and Abstract Art; Method of recognizing the distinction between universal symbol and capricious device by visiting a medieval collection.

For contemporary art and its immediate nineteenth-century background, there is much duplication. Only architecture lags, both in popular surveys and monographs. The chief use of an art book, as opposed to viewing a work of art itself, is to make one look closer or deeper. This requires, ideally, as much energy as is needed to read a piano score. "Claude Monet," by William C. Seitz, is a beautiful book with 48 excellent laid-in color plates that goes far to rescue Monet from recent perils to which his fair name has been subjected in its abrupt and rapacious revival.

An enormous increasing number of art books, foreign and domestic, get themselves printed and sold. Many have color. Their tints and printing have less claim to accurate representation of the original work than any sounds for sale, to say nothing of stereophonic recordings. One of them is "A Guide to the Art Museums of New England," by S. Lane Faison. It is a perfect handbook, neat, compact and appetizing; complete maps with route-numbers, lists of additional places of interest and a good index. Another book is "Grunewald," by Nikolaus Pevsner and Michael Meier. The purpose of this book is to introduce the English-speaking public to one of the greatest masters of European painting.

Artist Igor Stravinsky wilt be seventy-five years old on June 17, 1957. This article has been written to celebrate that occasion. The core of genius is not easy to fix, even with the advantages of historical perspective. When a man is still creating compositions of unrelieved novelty, even after fifty years, it becomes more difficult. Hardest of all is to try to specify the quality of gifts which, while they have developed with relentless logic over the half-century, seem more akin to quicksilver than to the taken trunks with which it is more comfortable to associate absolute prestige. Stravinsky has never been captured by his myth or his critics. In his life, as in his art, he is a realist-possibly a lyric-realist, but with a working intelligence so devoid of self-deception that he repels the benevolent sunset which crowns other mellow careers. Stravinsky has done something else which perhaps only workers in other fields of the arts fully appreciate.

This article presents information on various literary developments which were brought about by the German aggression of France. An open contest for young writers was held on a weekly basis by a good literary paper. The subjects were "Portrait of a Collaborator Who Has Turned His Coat," and "Books Which Have Done Most Harm to France in the Last Four Years." Jean Bruller, whose "Silence of the Sea" remains the classic description of the pure French spiritual attitude toward the German triumph, now edits in the open his Editions de Minuit, which was the highwater mark of clandestine publishing. But it is taken as a sign of the present slackness of creative writing that his lists mainly include reprints.

The article presents various books on arts. Some of the books discussed are "Arrest and Movement," by H.A. Groenewegen; "French Painting Between the Past and the Present: Artists, Critics and Tradition (1840-70),"by Joseph C. Sloane; "Abstract Painting: Background and American Phase," by Thomas B. Hess; "The Painter's Eye," by Maurice Grosser; "Dictionary of the Arts," by Martin L. Wolf; "Art Has Many Faces: The Nature of Art Presented Visually," by Katherine Kuh; "French Cathedrals," by Jean Bony; "Romanesque Frescoes," by Edgar Waterman Anthony.

This article presents information about various books and periodicals. The periodical "Portfolio: A Magazine for the Graphic Arts," edited by George S. Rosenthal and Frank Zachary, surpasses Continental deluxe work in controlled exuberance, clarity of design and distinction in letterpress and illustration. Photography, typography, industrial graphics, calligraphy and textiles receive elaborate treatment. The book "Georgian Architecture," by A.E. Richardson, presents a brief, well-organized account of the rich background of much early American building, with an excellent coverage of unfamiliar Ireland and many remote and infrequently visited monuments in England.

The article comments on various art books. "World Architecture: A Pictorial History," is the book of the year, and of many years to come, for the layman who wishes to compare excellent two-color plans with photographic views of great buildings on the site, in the round and in relation to the social and economic conditions. Another book "Twentieth-Century Engineering," is the inexpensive catalogue of the stupendous exhibition to inaugurate the enlarged Museum of Modern Art. "Fare Thee Well," is a paste-up album of historic American hotels.

The death of someone such as actress Marilyn Monroe, who has given, everyone an intense pleasure, even if one never met her, amounts almost to the death of a personal friend. Extravagant claims need not be made for her capacities as the complete actress; she never had the chance to develop them. But as a classic comedienne of grace, delicacy and happy wonder, she certainly has had no peer since actress Billie Burke. Marilyn Monroe paralyzed production by demanding retakes; may- be she took sixty of a single scene and had them all printed. Maybe the sixtieth wasn't as good as the third. And maybe, at the same time, she had a conscience about the cash she was costing her partners and manipulators.

This article focuses on the Century 21 Exposition, the Seattle World's Fair which opens on April 21, 1962. The pressures which urged its birth are not unique to the Pacific Northwest, although the physical plant which these pressures have finally determined is unique in this nation at the present. The normal human obstructions of conservatism, apathy and the frictions of greed and envy, which made much of the early going difficult, are universal, but the success with which they have been overcome, and fairly rapidly, are unusual anywhere. But next October 1963, at the end of its World's Fair, Seattle will be about $85 million.

The article presents information about several art books of 1961. Some of the books are, "The Anatomy of Glory: Napoleon and His Guard. A Study in Leadership," by Anne S.K. Brown, "The Ship," by Bjorn Landstrom, "Ships and Seamen. A Pictorial History From the Vikings to the Present Day," by Christopher Lloyd, "Gold Strikes and Ghost Towns. A Photographic Tour Through the Historic Mining Camps and Ghost Towns of California, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana," by Todd Webb, "Tudor History of Painting in 1000 Color Reproductions. The Complete Story of Painting From Prehistoric Caves to Abstract Art," edited by Robert Maillard.