Books: Downright Down-Easter

NORTHWEST PASSAGE—Kenneth Rob-erts—Doubleday, Doran ($2.75).

Nine years ago Kenneth Roberts was known to Saturday Evening Post readers as a crack correspondent, a downright, factual, lively reporter of events in the U. S., Europe, the Orient. But Kenneth Roberts was not content to be one of the best U. S. journalists. For years he had had an Idea, which crystallized into an Ambition. The Idea: that historians are mainly knaves or fools, have falsified the facts. The Ambition: to become America's best historical novelist. For years he had been "mousing around for something to...