Books: Homespun Tale

THE WEATHER TREE—Maristan Chapman—Viking ($2.50).

"Folks talk a heap concerning progress, yet come to look at pictures of it and 'tis a mess." Maristan Chapman's Tennessee mountaineers think and speak throughout in such pithy proverbialisms. Their language is often outlandish—it takes a 62-word glossary to explain words like "bo-dacious," "fere." "hirpling," "survigrous,"' "smooch." These rough diamonds the author matrixes in a poetic style showing traces of T. F. Powys. J. M. Synge and the translators of the Holy Bible.

Thelma Lane lived...

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