"It is a good birthday present," said his longtime secretary-companion, Alan Searle. But it was hardly that. After a 21-month fight to disinherit his daughter, Lady John Hope, in favor of Searle, W. Somerset Maugham admitted that "all differences have been settled." They seem to have been settled in her favor. In addition to $280,000 cash for some already-sold paintings, the agreement grants her royalties from some Maugham books as well as majority interest in his $1,000,000 villa on the French Riviera. Estimated value of the package: $1,400,000. Deaf, partially blinded by cataracts, and plagued by a fading memory, the aging author ignored doctor's orders, traveled to nearby Monte Carlo for a 90th birthday lunch. But while he had "no wishes to make" on his last birthday, the dimmed old man now nightly implores Searle: "Pray that I don't wake in the morning."
Those nondrinking, nonsmoking folks were mighty impressive, and so was their militant talk about forcibly righting the racial wrongs inflicted on Negroes. Breaking training for his upcoming championship fight with Sonny Listen, Cassius Clay, 22, flew from Miami to New York for a meeting of the violently anti-white Black Muslims. Rumors have it that Clay's secretary-business manager is surnamed X, and he has previously expressed admiration for Muslim Kingpin Elijah Muhammad. "I won't say if I'm a member or not," continued Clay, forgoing the poetry this time. "All I know is that I'm black."
"Her achievements are not ascribable merely to the accident of birth, but to qualities which many women must cultivate today: perseverance, courage, intellectual concern." With that citation, Columbia University conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree on Queen Frederika of Greece, 46. And having thus started her private 17-day visit to the U.S., the charming, capable Queen and her daughter Princess Irene, 21, turned to shopping and socializing. With Sister Sophie married and Brother Constantine engaged, reporters wondered if Irene would soon head down the aisle. "No, no," smiled Frederika. "I must keep one for myself."
It looked as though he would be in town for quite a while, and so Jimmy Hoffa, 50, decided to throw the old weight around. Working out with bar bells in a Chattanooga, Tenn., Y.M.C.A., he started with relatively short, painless sessions. That, explained Instructor Bill Floyd, was because the hardheaded teamster boss was going a little soft in the gut. Hoffa will need all the exercise he can get. He's in Chattanooga for a federal trial (his fifth) on jury-tampering charges stemming from his fourth court appearance, and it promises to be a lively one. His attorneys have already said they will call a monumentally hostile witness for the defense—Old Hoffa Baiter Robert Kennedy.