Books: Ospreys and Semicolons

WINDSWEPT—Mary Ellen Chase—Macmlllan ($2.75).

Mary Ellen Chase is a well-beloved professor of English Literature at Smith College. One night, according to a campus story, when she was traveling in a lower berth, the man in the upper threw down a note reading "MADAM; Shall I come down?" Miss Chase, in describing the adventure, concluded: "Almost more than my terror at this moment was my horror at the monstrous use of the semicolon."

No such monstrosities, grammatical or otherwise, mar Windswept. It is an ideal book for the Christmas lists, a gift for mother and for young nieces who want to write. Its central...

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