Among the Literati

Lewis Browne, one of the most successful of the popularizes of things Jewish, has written “How Odd of God,” subtitled “An Introduction to the Jew,” which Macmillan published on April 17. His publishers think that with the Jewish question occupying so much space in the public prints “How Odd of God” has a good chance of equaling in popularity the sales of “Stranger Than Fiction” and “This Believing World.”

The works of Marcel Proust, famous French and partly Jewish author, whose psychological novels have become world classics, will all be brought out in well printed an bound editions by Random House who announce that “Swann’s Way,” “The Past Recaptured,” “Guermantes Way,” “Sweet Cheat Gone,” “Within A Budding Grove,” “Cities of the Plains,” and “The Captive” are already available. The other Proust titles will be issued later in the season.

Bertram Wolfe, who supplied the text for Diego Rivera’s “Portrait of America,” which will be published in time to celebrate May Day, was once secretary of the Communist Party of America. He is now teaching at a private school and is head of the “New Workers’ School.” The Communist Party expelled Wolfe some years ago because he found flaws in the methods used by the party in appealing to Americans.

This certainly seems to be the season for freak books. Coward, McCann are issuing shortly a book devoted to midgets, how they live, think, their history, etc., while Long & Smith are preparing for publication a book devoted to Siamese Twins.

Rather amusing to find that “My First Two Thousand Years,” by George Sylvester Viereck and Paul Eldridge, which contains a fictionized account of the “Wandering Jew,” has been banned in Germany. Amusing because Viereck is one of the few American men of letters who has been heard to utter a few kind words for the Nazi regime. . . .

GOSSIP

Pearl Gross, a bright young newspaper woman who once worked for International News Service, is now writing for the picture companies in Hollywood. . . Julia Blanshard, of N. E. A. and wife of Commissioner of Accounts Paul Blanshard, is quite ill. . . . Jack Goodman and Albert Lowenthal are the “Rice” whose name appeared on that article in the Saturday Evening Post devoted to a discussion of fads in games. . . . The boys are now working on an article on “Best Sellers.” Samuel Rapport has been made trade book advertising manager of Harper & Bros. . . . Emanuel Eisenberg in addition to being press agent for “Men in White,” is handling publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. . . . The new Thomas Mann book called “Joseph and His Brothers” will be published by Knopf on June 6. . . . Book business has the jitters again. Things stopped almost completely right before Easter and have as yet failed to pick up. . . . Lewis Graham is the pseudonym of a Jewish fellow named Goldberg who once worked for a moving picture concern.