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Biography. In 1943, only biography, once a profitable publishing torrent, became a trickle. Richard Aldington's The Duke ($3.75), a life of the Duke of Wellington, Henry Seidel Canby's Walt Whitman ($3.75), Maisie Ward's Gilbert Keith Chesterton ($4.50), Joseph Hone's W. B. Yeats ($4) topped the biography lists, chiefly for lack of competition. But there were four exciting autobiographies: the best-selling Burma Surgeon ($3), Dr. Gordon Seagrave's unself-conscious heroic record of a nervous, self-sacrificing medical missionary and his wife who retreated with General Stilwell in Burma; Connecticut Yankee ($5), ex-Governor Wilbur Cross's shrewd, rambling record of his rise from a clerk in a general store to dean of Yale Graduate School and four-time Democratic Governor of traditionally Republican Connecticut; Crusade for Pan-Europe ($3.50), Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi's lively account of his Austrian boyhood and his lifelong struggle to achieve Union Now among Europe's traditionally disunited, warring peoples; The Autobiography of a Curmudgeon ($3), Harold L. Ickes' fulgurous fable of his political career.
Poetry and Essays. In poetry, 1943's most notable event was the publication of Poet T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets ($2), religious poems which many critics considered the finest works of a distinguished lifetime and compared, for their rare quality of art distilled from mysticism, with the quartets of Beethoven. Poet Eliot also led the essayists with his A Choice of Kipling's Verse, With an Essay on Rudyard Kipling ($2.50). Poet Eliot's reappraisal of Kipling's verse as the work of a great Briton stirred up an indignant wing-rattling in the critics' pigeon-loft.
The Book. It was also the year in which U.S. readers bought so many Bibles that bookstores in Manhattan and elsewhere had to ration Bibles. Symptomatic of this new interest was the Modern Library's publication of the complete King James version of the Bible. In it was the most inspired and inspiring writing seen in 1943: the Biblical telling of the story that embodied man's greatest hope:
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.