SAC N III'R~NCISCO. CALIF HRONICL£ ••

KARCH 31, 1938

A Bookman's ... Notebool{

By JOSEPH HENRY JACKSON

LOVI BDE IS MY BAT. By WIUlam' Saroyan.

New Yen: Moclera Are Books, Inc.: 25 eenta.

~ I8 POSSmLE that thls department may han aeemed sniffy, sometimes 1n the past,

abou~ the atories, romance~, wh~t 1'- you llke to call them, that Wllllam Saro writes. It ao. tha.t hasn't been the inten n. The com­ment here on Saroyan's second collection of pieces, for example, was almply that it was more of the sarne, and that. .tt would be pleasant to 1e1 a younr man -~ ~h l'Mittlrka ts m0Y4.811 to~-· • Pefltla did miff)', It wasn't mean-& tlt'l: way, at any rate.

In Uae cue ot this new ...,Uecttali of "abort romances" (the term 111 Mr. ~n·a own> there ta ~~t the authOr~ m~ead. For one tiUJ', be baa a~--a®Oit' flrlt ttme In this aenee> the quaUrot aeleotion. Here are 21 pl.eces that do make a book. They are not related: I don't mean that. They do not hang together in any a.rbltrary sense at all. But they do come close to showing saroyan at his best, where ''The Daring Young Man," and "Inhale and Ex· hale," for lnatance, showed just all ot Saroyan, alam~ torether, strong, weak and middle

lfOUJld. • • • • f. YOU bave read Saroyan at all-&nd I don't aee hoW you can have eM&ped reading him-you'll

know the kind or thing he does. Perhaps his own description is !)est: he calls his plecea "a form of 1)1"018 naturally combining the elements of the story, the euay, the poem, the declamation, l)rophecy, 01'1l.tory and a. number of other things." That takes In a lot of ground, of course. Bu't If you think the author Ia covering too much ground, ju.'t try an experiment. Expose yourself to aome of these romances and see it they don't hit you where you 11\Je. They don't all hit you 1n the 11-me place, to be sure. Mr. Saroyan has no such 1nt~t.nt. But they do hit you. And that's what Saroyan wants them to do.

AJJ to apeclfic: stories-well, let's not pick !a.vorltes. I would lik&.t'o t.aY. though, that I can't. ::-emember read1nr anywhere a better piece of its kind than "Ever Fall In Love With a. Midget?" Or you mleht upertment with "Three, Four, Shut the Door''; there's r beauty for you. Not that I mean to slur the title piece, which has plenty, nor "You're Breaklnr My Heart" (which will remind you o! Hem1npay a touch, maybe) , nor "Ibe Genius," which Is Mr. Saroyan letting off steam at a target tl1&t needl & blaat <never mind if you don't let off ateam &t tvgeta), nor "Saturday Night,' 'in which the &utbor ahOWII you, in ll~tle, the essence of to­dqa Amer1.oa.--or eome of the essence, anyhow, Or,

· for tb&t matter, any ot the rest ot the 21 stories. They're all Saroyan, and they're all wot;th reacllng.

At r~ the price of the book, which ia done 1n paper Uke &11 Modem Age books, that 11'1 one of the best thl.np about it. Saroyan hlmsel! ls su1ficiently pleued to dedicate the collection "with affection and admiration to Modern Ale books. for encour­artn. tbe romance between life and letters bY re<ludDr tbe fee per atfalr from $2.50 to 23 cents.'' It's to be hoped that this romance between lite and letlterl will even become a tbree-aded design for ltvtDr, 1n which the puty ot the third part will be 1.- stout, capltallatlc pntleman in a aUk hat. bow­inc to the author and explalnlnr that hla name 1.s "Royalties."

Tennessean Nashvil l e Tenn

SUPERSTITION RULED the publication o! William Saroyan 's new book ot short stories, "Love. Here Is My Hat," which Modern Age B:loks will b'rlng out on Ma1·cb H. Originally. the pubUsbers Planned to include sixteen stories In tbs collection. but when the autbor l beard ot their selections be wrote an air mail letter protesting that sixteen was his unlucky number a?d th3t twenty-one was lucky tor / hun,· A+ ..a resUlt. 13aroyan had to

{ set to work and concoct five more stories to make the book lucky, ~

Standard !!a-:; Bedford Mass

,...,..

I Love, Here Is My Hat Will Include 21 Stories

There will be 21 stories in the volume of tales by Willam Saroyan which Modern Age Books will pub­lish under the title Love, Here Is My Hat, on March 14, instead of the 16 orginally planned ... When Sar­oya.n heard of the publisher's in­tenlion to include 16 stories in this collection be wrote an air mall let­ter protesting on the ground that the number 16 was very unlucky for him . . . 21 was much better he said. So 21 It is, and everybody is happy, including the publisher, who thinks the five new stories among the best of the lot. None ot the 21 has appeared before in book rorm.

Register NQW Haven Conn Marc h 1 1938

Willia111. Saroyan Passes Dis Hat

~~ove, Here Is My Hat" Is A Hilarious Collec­tion Of Short Stories -Tramp Newspaperman And Debutante - ~~college Square "- ~~House

Of Spies"- Children's Book

By GLADYS SOLOMON

W lTJLIAM SA.ROY AX is nne of. those authors who write bet­ter when drunk than sober. In "I,ove, Here Is 1\fy Hat'

he is punch drunk. H~> 1s hilarious. :l\faybe that's why he utters so many truths.

:\one of the shor t st ori~>" in this book would pass the scrutiny of Saturday Evenin~r Post editor:->. Saroyan kn_,ws it. "I 've still got to write rn~' first story for 'l'he Hat urday "Bvening Post," he says. ''l'n• still ~otto figure out how thp~· do it. ']'here JS a way, I know. I've stndied thP. stuff in the ma::ra1.ine carefully and I ]mow· there's a wny of doing it, bat 1 <'Rn 't figure it out yet. What you do is keep it far frotn ilmermost anti stl'ess chit-el1at; pt·eliminaries, too, all the JH·ef:tlory by-play. the travel toward the world."

We don't know why Saroyan want$f.~--===========~­to write !or the Saturday Evening Post. excep~ that it pays so well. Per-sonally, we're glad he doeSJl't. We think he's got something. We think bls sense of humor Is !lr.st t·a.te.

"Love, Here Is My Heart." costs 25 cents. It is one o! those paper­bound Modem Age books. It Is worth much more than a quarter. It's worth $2.50-even $3.00, and that's all you paid !or ''Gone With the Wind."

The stories are sbort.-some so short they a ren't st<.ries, but essays. In many respects they remind us or Gertrude Stein's writing, and o! stream-of -consciousness 11 tera t.ure. They remind us of Hemingway, too. They 5eem to indicate that Saroyan is still learning the rudiments of his cra!t. But they at e basically Saro­yan. They have his own deep sym­pathy !or the pathetic, the laugh­clown-laugh pity. the lovable humor Of Ordinary people.

There are many stories in this book that we liked-and some we didn't care for. Our favorite is "The Genius" which begins like this:

"Up at Izzy's one night a. young< genius 1n corduroy pants came up to me and said, I hear you're a. writer. I've got a. story that'll make a great movie, only I need somebody with ex­perience to write it !or me. I'd write it myself, only I've got to make a liv­ing working and when I get bhrough working I'm too tired to Wiite.

"I was a little drunk, but I'm never too drunk and never too busy to listen to a fe11ow-a.rt1st, and I said, Go ahead, tell me the lltory. It Jt's good I'll write it and we'll get Metro-Goldwyn-Marer to make a m ove out of it. What happe.ns ?"

We can't tell you what happens without quoting more than 500 words. and we'll have to write t<' the publishers to get special pertn.i.ssion for that. So go on out and buy a copy o! ··Love, Here Is My Hat.'' Only 25 cent,.

f-I::J isp va tlB.r 6-38

Author 's Su~erstltio~ 'rhere will be 21 stories ~~ _the

f tt.les by Wil\tam volume o 1 i h Modern Age ~~an ·uw lpCubllsn under the .DUV~ Wl M Hat " ~~leM~~~eitf:te!_Sd ol the is

·i ·nallY planned. • •. Whe~ 01 g1 d f tne publi!ijler s :~O:~~nh::~nc~ude 16 stories ~ this collection he ~ole an :he mail letter protestmg on6 as ground that the n~mbel' 121 :as verY unluckY for hirnid ' • So 21 it much better' be sa . . ·s and everybodY is happy, ~­~tuding the pubtlst:er, w o thinkS the five new stones among the beSt o[ the lot. Non~ of~~: 21 has appeaL-ed before m form.

N Y Her a l d T 1 March 12 1938 r bur

Willi(rm Saroyan You catch a glimpse of that tragedy 1n one of the best of William

Saroyan's latest collection of short stories: "Love, Here Is My Hat" (Modernage, 25 cents>.

"This loud-mouthed guy in the brown camel-hair coat," explains Mr. Saroyan, "wasn't really mean, he was drunk. He took a. sudden dislike to the small well dressed Filipino and began to order hlm around the waiting-room, telling him to get back, not to crowd up among the white people. • • • 'l told you to get back. Now get back. Go away back. I fought twenty-four months in France. I'm a real American. I don't want you sta~ding up here among white people. • • • You fellows are the best-dressed men in San Francisco, and you make your money washing dishes. You've got no right to wear such fine clothes.'"

It takes Mr. Saroyan just three pages to tell that story; he can pack whole books into three pages when his typewriter is well olled. It isn't, always. Sometimes It seems to run back over the same old lines which It typed a dozen and forty stories back. Some of the twenty-one stories in this book weren't worth printing at all. That d<k:;n't spoil the book.

I quoted Yeats in this column on Monday: ''I would alwaya sooner give the laurel to vigorous errors," the great Irishman said, "than to any orthodoxy not inspired.'' Mr. Saroyan writes, always, with an individual voice and accent. I could wish that he bad more strings to his bow, more tones to hiS voice. But there are so many writers who can write in so many different strains, all sounding precisely like scores o! other writers writing in the same strains; and so tew who have an accent all

1

their own. Among those few is Mr. Saroyan. Perhaps Mr. Seabrook, now that he has demonstrated that the wops

(tD01), from the Spanish gw:po, meaning a well dressed 'fellow, a laVish spender) and the Heinies and the Hunkies and the squareheads are all just 100 per cent first-name Americans, will go out and look into the Armenian colony around Fresno. It ma.y explain Mr. Saroyan, but I doubt it. When the Armenian colony produces another Saroyan, I'll be­u~ve it. Thus far. it has never been demonstrated that any one race or soil or system of education had a monopoly of literary genius. There are mysteries which cannot be explained either by heredity or environ­ment.

Ner1s Dayton 0

Second Series Of Stories ~.~,·r,~!.!:~~y~!T~~Wlll~y Saroyan

SArnyiUl (Modem Age Book.!!, lnc., .. 'lew I York ) .

"THE DARING YOUNG MAN" ha~~ written anolher small !

volume of short stol'ies, very mod­ern, rather amusing, eerved under a b•·eezy title and concealed by a fancy cover temini8eent of a comic '•alentine.

There ~~re, of course, outstanding stories and dull stories and a few almost brilliant stories included in

I this collection. Or, perhaps, they ~ren't stories at all- just pieces of

· Th·in« and thinking and Joving, dia­en!l'aged from the total panorama and ttansp011ed against the pages of a book. Saroyan need not worry about hil1 plots, for he has none.

At intc~vals lhe aulhor reminds the reader vaguely of Hemingway, which is unfortunate because only one writer has been really success­ful with that particular style, and be is Hemingway. Somehow, Hem­ingway can create vivid pictures and sensations by his almost mo­notonous manipulation of details, but from another pen this same technique produces a feeling of,

I "oh well, " ·hy bo.ther?"

The title story is one of the most. ironic and entertaining, exposing t.he futile gestures of eva11ion prac-ticed by lovers who at·e afraid to ' accept thinll's and refuse to admit their love. You and 1 and every rearler have experienced moods whkh respond pet'fectly to Saro­~·an'l' sketch, "I'll Smoke a Good , Ten Cent Cigar," and, if 1·ead at the propitious moment, the reader may j find 1t wholly satisfying. "Coffee \ and l'andwiches at Louie's" will l prompt a chuckle and then anothe1· one-it's honestly human, and the final line, after the two coffee drinke1·s have decided that they will do all of the usual thin~rs that l

1 other lovers do and will be equally as sappy, ]s rather good-"They got up together and bel!'an not

I giving it another thought."

Although one su11pecta that periodically Saroyan just walked away from the typewriter and left himeel! there writing, his sketches are worth reading for the occa­sional touches of keen humor, frankneas, insight into human

I weaknet~ses and the author's man­ner of tilting his chair back and lauJrhinJZ at a wol'ld full of silly people and tutility. E. H.

William Saroyan

••ew vrn~ans. 1.11., Jlmi'!I'·MCayun .. 1\Iarch 13, was

SECTIONtt ~

By Albert Goldstein t I F YOU are one of those who f~el that fJ

William Baroyan le not the up-and-coming 1toryteUer that be baa been touted In

some quarters, you muetD't overlook a cer­tain service be bas furnished to young writ­ert~, StiiJ unknown, Lrl'injt W~ ~ gr&dL

Eveo U Kr. Saroyan hal never written a alngle thin( that jolted the dllcrimlnating :reac!er, he hu llbown the uplriDg tale-makers that, as far as aelllng thelr product• Js con­cerned at least, everything they ever learned 1n the clas8room or from a clo8e acrutlny of "The World'a Great Short Storiea" was 80

much flubdub. What youthful Mr. Saroyan, author, already,

of approximately 1~ publiabed 1hort "stories," hu done la to fllng all of the textbooka out of the window, strike a writing attitude qUite hJs own, and record every lmpreaslon, Inci­dent and abstract idea that he considered worth recording, and thua proved, to the sat­Isfaction of his admlrera at any rate, that Poe, Maugham, Lardner, Bierce, Crane, Turgenev, et at., bad gone to a lot of unnecessary trou­ble to achieve their ends.

Run through Mr. Saroyan'a newest collec­tion o! piece!!, "Love, Here Ia My Hat" (Mod· em Age), to be releaaed tomorrow, and you find that there 18 not a atory-u 0. Henry, for exampe, underetood the term-In the lot. To be sure, there are some striking pictures here, some sensltJve conceptions, and Mr. Saro­yan's flair tor reporti~ coute.nporvy Amer­ican life 11 eotnpletely without the absurdity which sometime!! attaches Itself tn the tales of even the big wribng names.

One's quarrel with Mr. Saroyan ill not that he baa relused to stand In awe 'before the Ideals of hill predeceSIOrs, but merely that be baa sgnored, a little too cockily per­haps, that a purely realistic tnteri>retation oC experience does not neC1!saarily produce an artu1tlc achlen•ment, that completely snub­bing a conventional art Corm does not, In lt­lelf. tran.aCorm one into a great artist.

Nevertheless Mr. Saroyan's creative tactics Ahould give heart to his less auccess!ul broth­ers. He baa. lbrougb his work. suggested to them that the professors were pretty wrong about the 11hos t story, that even editort~ c be persuaded to rev('rtc their notions ot wbat the short story ought to be. And apart from this he has suggested to them that If the have the eye and the ear to accurately catch what Is going on around them, 8lld the facility for slapping It down on paper, they needn't give a whoop a bout I he fact that their tales have no beginnings, mh.ldles or end11,

WILLIAM SAROYAN •

N Y Times March 15 1938

Fair Price William Sa.roya.n's new book of abort stories•

is priced at a quarter of a dollar, and worth just about that. This im't a very polite thing to aay, and I'm sorry to say it because I admire much that Mr. Saroya.n has done in the past and even two or three pieces in the present collection. But moat of these twenty-odd short romances, 110

called, are simply tlat and ineffective. The title piece i1 amusing, likewise the next, called "Ever Fall in Love With a Midget?" Another, ''Ah Lite, Ah Peath, Ah Music, Ah France, Ah Every­thing," will bear a succession of readings, and Improves each time.

Ai for the rest, some are aU right, while othera make one wonder what Mr. Saroyan was thinking ot when he let them get into print. For the most banal dialogue of the year, "Cotfee and Sand­wiches at Louie's" surely takes the prize; it makes even aome of James T. F arrell's atoriea .seem good in comparison. Mr. Farrell, however, 11 a novelist and was never cut out to be a short­story writer, while the abort story is Mr. Saroyan'a ltock in trade. Even for the sake (and the spirit) of a witty dedication, he would have done just as well not to come to market with stock Uke this.

0 LOVB, HBRE IS MY H A.T. Bv William Su.rOJ14fl. 1~ JlG986. Modem Age. 25 csnt3.

Herald Boston Mass

93

Saroyan TrA~~ ... ~-. I L ~"':~~ n O\., 4..,o/~. ~

\ V .. ~!. q, "LOVE, RERE IS JU''i v> .§ · " .... ~ William Saroyan. Moll(. ~ Q-

Books. 25c. '1>..., ~

Love, here is Mr. Saroyan's )iE> ~ and Mr. Saroyan, h~re is our ha._. When it comes to the hat trick, Mr. Saroyan gets the felt !ez for neat under- and overstatement ot any­thing, everything or nothing. Like Jim Pemberton's boy Trigger, he covers a g.-eat deal ot ground venr easlly on the motorcycle of hls ei­!ortle.l;.S, startling, gripping, gripl.llg or sidesplitting verbiage.

But. as Gus the Gambler would say. they am•t no use tentng about this guy Saroyan. Those who read "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" kllOW what to expect. And they get 1t. Plent~·. So what more Is there Lo say, except maybe to agree with the author in thanking Modern Age Books !or bnnging such a hapha?.-ard, lackadaislc:tl. fantastic and ul­tra-realistic assortment of folk to our library table for the price of two shoe-shines (in Boston) and a bag o1 anuts.

Call San Francisco Calif

If you read Wllllam Saroyan's "Love, Be.re Is My Bat" (Modem Ace Books) please note what be aaya aboat bbnsell: "I am un­consciously load tn speech from ba vlnr been u newsboy • •• Appear to be mde, l'111car, conceited, Jporant and erazy. Am nat­urally poUte, discreet, bumble, tn­teJUrent, "ise and sane" •• • You will get the same Impression from tbe stories In the book. You may not haTe the sUrhtest Idea what some of them are about <the Bookwonrt; hasn't), but the best id them d.I reach your heart and start hidden tean coursing to your eyes. Be has humor, pity, imagination, anrer and joy in him and t hey tlbme out In bJs stories • Read "Tbe FWplno and the Drunkard" without anrer and sympathy - if you can. Bead "CoHee a n d Sandwiches at Louie's without feeUnr a rentle aUection for aU lovers-you can't. And read about tbe homely lew­Ish lad in ·~ar and Peace" with­out wishJDr to do somethlnr to help the poor kld-1 don't beUeve you ean •• • That's wby the Book­worm thinks Saroyan bas at­ness In him

Oat•

Traveler Boston, Mass.

MAR 1 91938

Saroyan Trapezes In Love's Tent

''LOVE, HE RE I S MY BAT," by William Saro:ran. Modem Are Books. 25e.

Love, here l.s Mr. Saroya.n's hat­and Mr. Saroyan, here is our hat. When It comes to the hat trick, Mr. Saroyan get:s the felt fez for neat under- and overstatement of any­thing, everything or nothing. Like Jim Pemberton's boy Trigger, he covers a rs.1ea.t deal of ground very easily on the motorcycle of his ef­fortless, startling, gripping. griping or sidesplitting verbiage.

But. as Gus the Gambler would say, they aln't no use telling about this guy Saroyan. Those who rea~ "The Man on the Flylng Trapeze know what to expect. And they get it. Plenty. Bo what more Is there to ay, except maybe to agree with the

11uthor in thanking Modem Age Hooks for bringing such a haphaz­ard l&ckadal.sical. !antastlc and ul­tra~reallsUc &MOrtment of folk to our library table for the price of two shoe-shines Cin Boston) and !- ba.g of peanuts.

Times Hartford Conn

Saroyan' s Stories lHumourous, Tragic! Or Very Queer LOVE HERE IS MY HAT and

Other Romances, by William I Saroyan. Modern Age Books. Twenty-five cents. · Reviewed by M.M.

There isn't the sEghtest doubt that Saroyan is one o! our great­est short story writers. But much of this collection cert.ainly doesn't come up to the standard he set by "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" or other stories thai; have made him fam­ous.

Sometimes, these bits sound as i1 he had turned on the phono­~raph and gone away and left it, reeling out yn.rds of meaning­less dialogue or monologue, .

But through them ail does run a robust love of life and an un­derstanding of and sympathy !or the underdog, expressed with a sa.tlre and sometinies with bit­terness that is the author's own.

: Saroyan lolows people. and is able, when he takes the trouble. to show what makes them tick, and how. by means of clean swift strokes that d!ssect them as i1 they were patients on an operat­ing table.

Of these stories, some are very funny, some are tragic, and some are just plain whacky.. They're all very short.

Some ot the best in this book seem to us to be "Ever Fall in Love With a. Midget?" "A Fam­ilY of three," "The Genius", and the story from which the book takes !!s title.

---~----

N Y Sun Mar ch 19 1938

Goofy Amusement LO~, HEB E I S MY HAT. By

William Saroyan. Modern Age Books, Inc. (25c.)

It Is hard to be Indifferent about William Saroyan. Either you Uke him or you don't, and you are llkel,y to be pretty positive, one way or the other. Even If you don't like him (and he has a definite value as an Irritant> the chances are you'll admit, though grlfdglng­ly, perhaps, that he does have something on the ball. One of the most irritating things about him 11 his bumptious co n c e 1 t which bounces from every line h e writes. He fe~ls that he's pretty good, and, darn tt, he really Is.

Saroya.n prefers to write about ~~!.~ure people: t he waltre!ls In a na.m'burgu1· joint, the guy with the ten-cent cigar, studying the raetng form In a corner cigar storl', the men of the streets-nd tho women too. He has a good ear for th~ talk that one hears from men over a. few beers In the cheap saloons but when that talk Is distilled lt com~s out pure Saroyan.

This new collection, then, Ia typi­cal of Saroyan. It Ia Saroyan In many moods: humorous, with a touch of da.fflneas; confused, won­dermg, a a t1 rIc a I and sometimes tender and gentle and strangely moving. Now he le phllosopWcal ~specla.lly about Jove, which he say~ IS all crazy. Now again be Indulges In kidding, even at his own ex­pense, one feels, as In the story or the chap who thought he had a. good Idea. !or a movie and unbur­d~?ed himself to the writing chap.

My grammel" ain't so hot " the teHow with the Idea confess~s.

Neither Ia mine," the writing chap l"epllea. "You don't have to worry about that. 'l'hat'll be part ot your style, part of your origi­nality. Unless I'm badly mistaken you are a genius." '

Properly speaking, these are not stories. They aro llttlo sketches about a variety of people. The title ~ketch, "Love, Here Is My Hat," IS among the best of the lot. Here Saroyan tells how a. fellow In love can't eat or sleep; how "love 18 absurd, always has been, always wlll 'be. · · · It's the only thing but It's absurd." Saroyan can b~ profoundly amusing when be wants to be. ~~-----....-l

The goofiest story or the whole ! bunch, though, bears the provoca· Uvo title, "Ever Fall In Love with a Midget?" It is the rambling monologue ot a fellow with a few beers under his belt, and it's good !or chuckles and several guffaws. • Saroyan'a style often Is a.s vari­able a.s his moods. Sometimes, one feels, be just sits down and playa on the typewriter, letting the words pour forth, even if, added up they don't make much sense. Some­times he is poetic and his words sing. Then, again, he can be sym­pathetic and tender, as when he tells the story of the jobless young man who is in lov~> with a waltress and who seeks the advice ot an anarchist, in "The La Salle Hotel in Chicago." Or when be depicts the loneliness of the young artist who returns to his home town and learns that he still Is homeless.

A:nyway, here It is, for better or for worse, it's Saroyan. For bis fans this book is recommended. It you like him, the book Ia worth far more than the two-'bits It aeJis for. The entertalnment provided In that goofiest of stories about tho midget Is worth more than that. MALCOLM JOHNSON.

Po-st-Enquirer Oakland cal

MAR • 9 .cnA

More Stories By Saroyan " Love. Hero Ia My Hat," b y W il· •writtr ~tnd tho rtadtr. He )>eN)Dlal< a

liam Saroyan. {Modern Ago 8ook o, sort or eracll.pot geniUI in d~M Ina. 25c.) and )Oil are lhfl dl,cernlnr; discoverer This Ia a collecUon or short storle.. ot aomethlns that suddenly bel»m ..

Some of thi'Ol are pu:r.zllng, ev•n, M· w&nn and real. wllderlntr:. Moat o! them are more ln othf'r word•. thla book 111 a I.'OI· than 11llghUY cockeyed. TbeY aren't leetlon oC William Raro)a.D abort like e oy other !!!hort 11torlU th&t atorlo!l. w01re e\ er wl'ltten. Sometlrnu )'Oil Th~r~ ere !l of them altotether. are convinced that either the man NobodY 11'111 like them all. k.lverY­who wrote them Is a tool, or that you bod;r will Ilk~ some of them, recog­are the fool and he is apooting you, nllle the truth and b~a.uty fla.&hinJ!' b"t anyway 1l Is amuRing. So you out ot thl'rR here and there. Most of l't'Od the next verY shol'l ahorl atory, these atorlee have a. California back­and you come upon 11omethln&' 1\0 l(l'OIInd, Although that doesn't mat­wl,f, ~ender t.nd r!lveallng that you ter much In ~al'oya..n alorlea. He is chan~te your tnlnd about I.Joth the concerned wlth lite, not al·enery.

J ournal Ui ns· on-Salem U C

Short Stones Are Collected

LO\'£ HERE 1 .!IHOAT ao ' lilT BAT AND O

l~. ~·::;~Af,t;E~o::.,w~:~~"": .::'~~ In 1936 th:S . ••·

us "The Darin~o~g author gave the Flying Tra ?,ung Man On ;hort stories f!;f:• a volume o! ing, amusing and ~r were shock­ery," the verdict d a rea~ discov­the .individual taste epf~dm~ upon

. Smce then he has oh he leader. lt.ls writings publishe:dinmany of i:mcs and book fo maga­rm.

RicllmOn•l. Vn, Tim DJ pntch March 20, 193

A LeHer To Saroyan On Work LOVE HERE IS MY HAT. BY

Wllli&m a.royan. Modem Ale Book!! 25c.

Revle~;ed by EODE TARJAN

r~nal Lett~r to Saroran Dear B\U,-1 cloll't IU\OW • I

mu,.t confess you've got me baf-fl<'d When your first book. ''l>.l~·ing Youne Man .... " came out. I heard the lnaL·Uculate cries of the lntelllgcntsla, and 1 went out and bouiht a copy. It wa~ all light stuff, Bill. It had a lot to lt. Too much In some places. But. It wall new. and be-ing new. I re. .. erved judgment on it. d

rhcn when } our " lnllale an Exhale" appeared 1 p1cked It up and 1 could not. lay It down :~:;11\n until l had !mJshrd 1!.. It wa~ that kind of a book for me. 1 thought It was terrific. I al­ternately laughed and wept. I loved 1t. At that time, Bill, l knew ,·ou were great. 1 e'en \H•nt ·around ICpelll.lng some or your philosophies to myself tunder mv breath of COUISe!) ·

Then yuur "Run u!Uie Chil­dren·· came-and left me cold. compared to t11e stuff you had done. 1 cou'dn't see it.

But then, BUl, there's some stuff in there that Is not, to say the least, so hot. There are one or two or three or four stories in there that you should never have

1

written. You know what I think, Bill. I think you're sort of getting away from that brotherhood or man idea of yours. You oughtn't do that, Bill. Not that I particularly favored it myself, but it got you where you are today, and you shouldn't abandon it.

But don't feel too badly over those one or two or three or four

I 6toriu, Blll. The book on a whole ls the best thing you've done since "Inhale and Exhale."

I At least this book proves one thing to me. It proves you're not getting 61eek and complacent, mak.inl!f a Jot ot money wr!tinr scenaries out there in Holly­'«'ood, the way they say you are. It proves that anyhow ...•

Democrat-Chro~icle Rochester N Y

27 1938

21 Short Sketches. .$ome Brilliant, Some Not

-- .-- --LOVE. HERE IS MY HAT, by

William Saroyan. Modem Ap Books Inc.. New York City. HS pages. 25 cents.

And now I've just lal~ dow~l '·Love Here Is MY Hat. It :; pretty all right, B\11, If you know what I mean. There o.re some fine pieces In this book. some of the stuff In It has everythiOi· Take for example. such things a.c;: :.Love Here Is MY Ita~." and "Ever fall In Love with a Mid~ get?" and "The La Salle J;~otel, and "Coffee and SandWIChes and "Three. Four, Shut the Door" and one or two othe~s. You can't beat them. Bill. Thrv·re really hne. The readlntt of tilose c:tories should be made compulsory. They're ~ Indis­pe-nsable as a Good Ftvt>-Cent • Cigar or a 7-cent loaf ot bread, or a lli-cenl movie. Every one should go through the experi­ences. It ought to be a law.

WILLIA.M SAROYA~ a a bright and sometimes blatant

young man whose penchant for discussing himself Is better known than it should be and whose writing is not 110 well known yet as It pt·obably will bP.

ProUtio-...&e a: ~..-.• -...-.w_."'-1 thus ol'ter11 his fourl.b boOk In a two-year period and It would probably have been a better presentation if be had let the contents of this mtrigwngty btl~ paper·b~k cook a ' little more alow!f.

It's a typical Saroyan collec­tion of abort stor1ea. ga.tbered from his impressions of life Wttb­

in the borders of t•ls country, especially tfle far weat. Signtfi­cant, too, the majority are Ia the first person because Saroyan does well wltb .. I."

And while Love, Here Ia Ky Hat is an intereating step in the ey-eer of a young author who baa proved himself, it I.e hardlY an important work either to him or to the reader. Saroyan ca.n and has done much better.

Tbeae %1 sketches stu wftll the titular work-and not a. very good work albeit It was bleaecl with ,a good name.....about ~young maD'a romance and move • through a series wblch some­times Ia dull, frequently ill wOC"dy, now and then Ia ponderous and occasionally f\ubea with genuine Saroyan brilliance.

Contrary to .hi8 own belief that be writes Uke nobody et.e, at various tlmee he seelllll to write like everybody else combined. There are tlmea when be Ia as alaDcY as aporU c:olumniat; at other momenta he writes of boya with almpllclty, c:ompreuion and teeUng vacu~Y reminiacent of Mark Twain; occasionally, be manage• a. smart piece of action which .sips like a ebort short prize story. In between he in­serts etorlea which read like long­winded exclamatione. We refer to Ah Life, Ah Death, Ah !lu.ie, All France, Ah Everything.

In the good moments of hia newt>sL collection, you find Saroyan on material which be has previously touched. Here again arc snapshots of the Alt­eyrla t·Amcrlcan newsboy of a western city and the boy 18 Saroyan; here are some of the queer characters with whom the author hu rubbed shoulders and dt·amallzed, auch a.s Gua the Gambler; here is an~ther defen.se of tbe downhodden in The FiU­plno and Tbe Drunkard and Three, Four, Shut the Door; here Is Saroyan wil Ia .Jim Pemberton and His Boy Triggu; tinally, tbe sympathetic nature or a rank:ing artist who pa1-a.des as a tough egg Ia here Ia War and Peace and a Lli.dy Named Caroline.

Hie 'Family of Three, a story near the end, has the reassuring ring of the convincing writer who penned Little Children. 1t like the others mentioned makes the wadlne- through ioLerior atoriea worth while. - .Jaek Burgan.

Appea l Memphis Tenn

M Sa roy an

His

L. 1 938

Displays Versatility

'Love, Here Is My Hat' Picture( Many Types

LOVE, HERE IS MY HAT. By WilliaJD Saroyan. Modern Age. 25 cents. The heart Is prosaically defined

as a "hollow, muscular organ which by contracting rhythmically keeps up the circulation of the blood."

Writers of fiction. however, have found the heart the most coJDplex of organs and the one which causes the disasters of romance and thus furnishes the inspiration to create. The by-products of the rhythmical contractiona of *he heart-namely, love and paaatOII­are the subject material of .cleve~, modern William Saroyan 1n h1s newest collection of short stories, ''Love, Here Is My Hat." And o!t goes his bat to love. the one thom In the bush of modern philosopby4

Saroyan, a young writer, Is pro~ lific In types, plots and In word style. Which 11ays a great deal ~or this young, zooming-to-popularity writer. He is the literary god~ child of Dos Passos and Heming­way. Although he does not possess the element of poetic vision of tbe former nor the starlmess ot tbe latter 'be nevertheleSI! has studied their 'design for writing and has sought to let his muse speak through such contemporary style. An example of this studied attempt is seen in "The Trains":

''Hello,'' the girl said. Then for some crazy reason, be

stretched out again and closed ~is eyes. With his eyes closed, he aa1d, "My name is Joe." And then just to be comical, he almost shouted, 'Tm a painter, a great painter.''

He sat up again and opened his eyes.

Now he was completely awake. In theme, tbis collection ot

short 11tbrles or Saroyan shows ~ow all types and classes are victims of the one common malady-heart trouble diagnosed as love. It makes softies of bard men andthlt :r~~· ens the intellects of e e • gentsia. In setting and characters his stories are a potpourri of American metropolitan life. Shar.P and vividly drawn, they are r~mt• niscen.t of newsreels of American life Rather than stories they be­co~e aketches of people ~ alt~ of the walks. His cbaractenza IOns range from such types as Sammy, the undersized, Inferior, poor

1, nteui

rotic Jew, to the intel ec ua, writer-bero In a "FamUy of Three. Which story, incidentally, is the beat of the lot and well worth anyone's time and thou~;ht. •

Herald Durham u c

1\D f). . ~Q

LOVE, JIEJtE 18 MY IIAT! Jiy Wli­Uam Saroyan. Modem Are Seal Books: N. Y. %5c. • William Saroyan, Casanova de­

luxe of Jettera and Jove, goes out of his way to m ake romance out to be a big steak in the title story of this new collection .. Love, Here Is My Hat!'' released in a 50,000 edition by the most enterprising publisher~ Of the day, Modern Age Books, makers of ttte Seal Books. To begin with, this is no reprint, but a new book.

That Saroyan is a wrtter of In terest is proven by his great va· r iety of character "Portrayals and each rings true. Even when he II into the stream of con.scious­

!e;! of a small child he d oes so .th ease insight and truth.

wl '· h' ·rt and be pas-Humor 18 18 gt hi sesses that fine ability of laugl ng

.th his characters at themse ves. T~ere is a Rabelaisian flavo

1rir

h s we !!how an inclinat on o ~f!s~~e' real American humor as Rabelaisian-but, e.t anY ra~ei a knowledge of the elements o ow comedy is his. kable books pub•

Several of the stories bave ap­peared in various magazines over a period of three or four years, and of course Story Magazine is one of them. There are twenty-one tales in this new collection, but the first one seems to set the toa. o.t *0 volume. "Wilen I woke up 1 didn' know what time it was, what day, or what city. • • • 1 knew I was feeling the same.

As to the remar f lished by the Modertn ~~o!bW~ , ox the lowly sum o · ... 1

''Love is a bsurd, always has been, !always will be. It's the on.J,y thing

but's absurd. It's too good for anybody but birds. . . . • I'm an American. Fun is !un, but I know the difference between good whole­some tun and love. I can't ny and I can't sing and I need honest-to­God nourishment. I've got to have rare roast beef once a day and when I'm in love I can't eat. .• :•

nd that Saroyan in petfect ll•.r e ~~d offered an appropriate dedifa· lion. With one word c~ange- or smugness' sake-! q~ote. . h af~

"This book Is dedl~ated v;_~t d . d dmiratton to •nO ern

fecbon an ~ for encou raging Age Books, nc., life and let~ the romandce lbegtw~:Ofee per affair ters by re uc n ta without from $2.50 dtomr!o::me of the making a e lady." HAZEL HOWARD. ~

Eagle La VI reace Mass ~pr 2 - 3b

The remaining st()ries are not ~bout Jov~ au. the way through, but 1t. collection IS titled in part: .. And Other Short Romances." This is something n~w for Saroyan, the supreme egoliterati of them aU. His dedication to this book is good, but too characteristic of his smart aleck -qerversions.

If you read William Saroyan's "Love, Here Is M:v Hat" please not what he says about himself : "I am unconsciously loud in speech from having been a newsboy . . . . Appear to be rude, vulgar, conceited, ignorant and crazy. A m naturally polite, discreet, humble, intelligent , wise and sane." . .. You will get the same impres­sion f rom the stories in the book. You may not have the slightest idea what some of them are about (the Browser hasn't), but the best of them will reach your heart and start hidden tears coursing to your eyes. He has humor, pity, imagination, anger and joy in him and they come out in his stories. Read "The Filipino and the Drunkard" with anger and sympathy- if you can. Read "Coffee and Sandwiches at Louie's'' without feeling a gentle affection for a]) lovers-you can't. And read about the homely Jewish lad in "War and Peace" without wishing to do something to help the poor kid- I don't believe you can . . . . That's why the. Browser thinks Saroyan has greatness in him. . _. _______ __,

Co".2rant Hartford Conn

LOVE, HERE IS MY HEART-By William Sa1·oyan; Modern Age Books, Inc, 155 East 44th Street, New York; $.25.

A conection of 21 short stories by Mr. Saroyan, just now a greatly ad· mlred writer in this field of tlction. The dedication of the volume to the publishers is a gem in the true Saroyan manner.

News Newark Ohio April 3 1938

U ' l'Ol tu-:,\n William ~ar· oyan·, ''Lo\e, liE're Is ~lv llat" plea;;e note "hat he . av's ab_out himself: "I am uncon~ :-c10usly loud in ;;peet·h from having heen a newsiXly •. Ap­pear to be rude, vulgar ron· rcited, ignorant and c't'a7.~'. Am naturally polite, disrreC'I; hum· ble, intelligent, w1se ;met l'ane." .. You will get the same im·

pres.;;ion from the :Hone!; in the IX?Ok. You rna~· not ha\ e the shghtP"l idea what :;ome of them are ahoul (the Rrow· ser hasn't), hut the hco:;t of them will reach your ht>;u·t and start hidden IP<Ir~ cours· ing to ~·our eyes. lie h<~s hu· mor,. pit?'· imagination, angt>r and JOY m him and 1 he:v rom<> out in hi~ stories. Read "ThP Filipino anct the Drunkard" without angC'r and sympat h.\' -1f ~·ou <'an. Read "Coffee and Randwkhe:; al Louie's" '\!II h· out fE'eling a gentle affection for all lovei~"-YOll ean 't. A nrl read about the homelv .lewi.;h lad in "\\'ar and f'ea(•e" "1th· out wishing to do somethlnli: to h<'lp the poor kirl -1 don't nelieve you t•an ... 'That's whv tbc> Rrow-:rr thinks SaroYan has gt·E.'atne~!; in him. •

• • • •

HERALD Miami Fla.

xo:r, C~\P .\T THE PRICE L 0\ E l!F.fll.; IS :11\" II \T b. A ~Yilllam Saro\ an. (·~Joder~

~f'. -·><'.) am in a P<'l'f'nnlal state or ama:>:('-

Wal:p apr 1 - 3&

Love Here Is My Hat , by Will iam Saroyan. -Modern Age Books Inc., New

York. 145 pp. $.25. ~ San Franciscans especially this

provocative little volume by Bill Saroyan should be interesting. At least half of the twenty-one sketches are peopled with imaginary local citiZens, noble or otherwise, and all appropriately react to their sur­roundings from Nob Hill to Izzy Gomez'.

But Love Here Is My Hat has ._~ more than that. At its peaks are a. pithy brilliance and understatement that rank with the best of Dos Passos or Hemingway. It doesn't appear often, to be sure, but when

..1t does there is no difficulty recog­nizing it. With a strong feeling for the proletariat, Saroyan neverthe· less beats no drUm for the United Front nor does be elevate his path· etic unfortunates to martyrdom at the expense of the System.

As a matter of fact there is a good deal of out and out satirical humor-perhaps travesty would be even a better word- between the covers. J im Pemberton and His Boy Trigger shakes a waggish finger at what has been a literary tradition here for over a decade, and You're Breaking My Heart , decidedly the New Yorker type, could easily have been signed James Thurber.

Saroyan, who by now has out­grown the term, "discovery", should be heard more often. It's difficult to tell what be would do best but from the varied display of talent be bas been demonstrating, anything from a novel 'to a three act farce would fall under his ab!llty.

Love Here Is My Hat, by the way, Is in a paper-covered edition being offered by Modern Age Books Inc. l'be price is twenty-five cents and 1 bargain at three Umes the amount.

-Stephen C. Monroe

State Jo..;:"nal Columbus 0

Newark News April 14 1938

"Love Here Is M Books> · Y Hat" CMOd William ~: new collection of st:r? Age ~ oyan-21 of tb rtes by

me of the items em in Hll pag6-' stories in an can hardly be · word Y conventional called

. , yet "" ..,eho sense of tb wtsecrackit t w, bac'< of the Clip e be found at"J" anner, there is usuaJJ and or tb east the gho t Y to of the dim renection or a s of a tragedy

e stories are comedy. Some simply must teach ~~lte ~eaningJesa, but probably Saroyan t ~ Wtde world fa that .so much that ha ee that one thing h Ia compl t PPen.s to hu e e ely insignltlcant. man beings

E-=

~ent adtlthe amount and qualit~ ~~ f' .rtta ng m;Hter '' hirh thts ub ~i;:r-;;:u;-;;;;;,;-;:;-::-;:=~:---:-~----~~----­~:~·~:,:. rc;;n))anv l~su!' . "At t~f''~ thin~ I v. r·ittt today a Corm C

th . . . ut ttw: I one time I think natural!,· combini;,g' the el o prosf' third g1·nth as far as literary form Ia ronrf'rtHi. e) arp ftt\'lng tilt' ra,h custo h ement." of

l10 mort> \'alut> than thl'\" . mer" t e ~tory, the ,.~~av the A quartet• Is pll'nt\"

10 pa\ Pr~'. tfhor. dl'<'lamation. propb(,rv orpOf'n~, thf'

eollecttnn by th dl I I I" ~ ntnnht>l' of othet· thiilg' s oaftmor.?. oav.~nd li(l,. :11r. Sat;oyane stress ngly pro- mvention.'' '

The puhllshr~~~ lltatr. 1 a l do not doubt that he v.Tote the atartccl wrilin~ .. · tht' third t l~td hC' ~ me ~on of thing as he writes 10. ,;ram mar ~choo 1 gl 3 e of ua~ t hou"'h I '·o ld h says: "1 ' '• ROC 1\lt·. Saro, an hl' ' It " \ \1 3VP rut it that "~ the same ~ort of "r e.~ the ~ame sort o thing 1

day as he mighL have \Hillen In t.h~

.\lust or hcse ,torle~ can onlv be de!!(·t·lbf'lf u; goofv. lC thet·e ·Is a m?re eltt~Jnt word meaning just 1 hJs_it is n~ ln my vocabularY. Some gorJiy thin,(~ 1\t"f' hllariou~. hi.tt these Rrt pt·ctty nParlly. Therf' i~ one

bJ'IOOI' hnltl!tlon or William Faulkner Y wa1 o£ variety. '

Q,.

j a> • '0

a

}:ere: ry--~e .rald San .Jose C~l if

.PP LOVE, HERE IS MY HAT

By William Snro)'lln

Re\·iewed by S. C. H.

Modern Age Books. Inc., or­ganized with the purpose or pub· lishing good books at small cost, has just issued a volume of short stories. by William Sat·oyan, author of "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Tl·apeze."

"Lovt>, llere Is l\1~· Bat" ls dedi<'ated to ModN'Il A1{e llool's with af(C('tion and admh·ation •·for encomaging the romance l>et ween life ami letters by re· tlut·ing the fee per affair from S2.:iG to 25 cent,..." In the case of this pm·Ueular book the price seems <'ntircly approptiote. Al­though the ' 'olume contoins sev· ct·al good short stories, olh<>t's ~re banal, inane. tri\'ial and flat 1\'ilh too little point to make a brief synopsis worth while. ~omc are com·ersations or par· ticularly tmintellig<'nt morons. H you happen to enjoy talking to people of this kind, these at•e tales for you.

Among the best of the stories ~re: "You't·e B i• e akin g 1\ly J-Ie:~rt." recording the thoughts and beha\'iot· of a homesick man. who has left New York aflet• a quarrel with his wife; "The La ~aile Hotel in Chicago," in whith an anarchist tells an em· ployed boy how to get a job as a hell boy; and "The Filipino and the Dnmkal'(i" in which an American bully drh·es a Filipino boy to frenzied desperation and tt·agedy. "Satul'day Night" is a conversation about dictator!'; and orher subjects in a Greek l'CS· talll·ant between a man and a git·i, a little drunk, who sip beer in kinship.

These stories are mostly quite bri('f and are written in a clipped, impressionistic style.

Modern Age Books, Inc.; 25 cents.

...

Observer Ral:::ich H c

Short Stories LOVE, HERE IS MY HAT. By Wil·

liam Saroyan. Modern Age Books, Inc., New York City; 154 pages. Price 25 cents.

And William Saroyan, for all your smug cynicism and your precious

1 little tales, here is my hat doffed to you because you are wide awake

• enough to see life around you and energetic enough to write about the lite you see around you and witty enough and terse enough to put life into what you wrlte aboul But it is, in a way, too bad that for all your awareness and for all your bright­ness and for all your wit you can't always perceive that two plus two equals four but only see the two added to two.

This inexpensive little volume is the latest collection ot short stories written by the handsome Assyrian who four or five years ago was fiat broke but kept madly writing in an ever-flowing, stream-of-conscious· ness sort of style and optimistically flooded editors' offices with manu· script after manuscript until almost within two months, he was famous-­just like that.

''Love, Here Is My Hat" is, con­trary to the titular implication, a well-balanced collection of Saro· yan's more recent short stories, in the modern conception of short story writing. Like his ''The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" and "ln· hale and Exhale." tl:tis group con­tains satire chiefly, but In doses of varying strengths.

His sarcasm becomes most potent in the ironical "Ah Life, Ah Death, Ah Music, Ah France, Ah Every­thing," more cf an essay on the gushing over-play of modern adver­tising than a short story.

"Gus the Gambler,'' the gambler ot faith who died at the age of 90 years, rated Mr. Saroyan's best at­tempt at character portrayal througfi the lips of a third person. Out of the collection "War and Peace," and "A Lady Named Caroline" are probably the most vividly to be remembered.

Saroyan writes with a swing in his prose and, at times. with his tongue in his cheek. In fact, if the young man didn't evidence so much cheek, he might be eoruidered a greater writer.

C. G.T. ------

Times Chattanooga Tenn

APR 2a 1Q~~

Money's Worth LOVE, HERE IS MY HAT. By William

Sarovan. 145 pp. New York: Mod­ern Age Books, Inc.

ONE ol the pleasanter pieces of publl.shlnl news of the year baa been the coura.seoua ef­forta ol the Modem Age Books to make avail-able, at a nominal sum, books of distinction. These efforts have not been without their literary reward; it Ia to be hoped that the publlshel'$ haw ha4 sufficient financial re­ward to encourage them to continue. Slnce the series has bad ceneraUy 801Dething of a proletarian fla.vor, it wu to be expected that tbe darinr young Mr. saroyan would be m-~ted to add !dl praf;~!f ll'' 5 r ticuiM H 2 li 8 un er" fiction. It

was aa amiable PI'OIII*!t. IIDCI A fl too INw! tba' he wa.s not able to lind m h1a :u.s box a better and more repreeent&Uft eolleetion Cit hie peculiar &&JeDta.

'l1loee who are lamllia;r wUh Saroyan'a abilttlea will find not more \ball three atoriea equal In value to his be.&t prevsou. work. " A l"amJly of Three" doeJ &boW that he is able to handle the complex arc.bltectook:a of atory building when he put.a hie mlDd to it, bUt most ot the other twmt7 item. (a respect for some sort of fOl'Dl in art preclude& the uae of tbe word abort-atory here) m the voJ­\UM show that. usually be Ia not of a mind to put his mind to it. Deaptte the artistic success of "The Wasteland" ac:hool o1. broken ima&'ist, who are at their beat always care­ful to have a t>Mlc symmetry beneath their apparent surface discord, there 11 a point at wblch formlessness becomea ehaoe; and Saroyan In this volume too often alta braably on that point. Hia independence ot spirit before <1onventJon 111 ~e. but the only test of the rightness of tbla independence 1a in the eflectivene.se of the result.1, and tbe results here are generally more dull than In­vigorating,

Por t.ho6e who aze not familial' with the staccato stories of Saroyan, lt milA be MJd that Saroyan at his ~ 11 WOl'tb mueh more than a quarter.

---CIKlU. A.Bal.NA THY.

.Journal l n ·:son \ii:::c

v 1 1Q18

jot It Down Len &ere Jt Mr Rat, lly 1\'lll~am

Aaroraa. M•••ra Ac~ B .. kt. Sow York %.\ reata.

u you haven't already bought it, jot it down on your next shopping list. Modern Age has published Saroyan's new book of short stories. and for 25 cents you can buy your­self an hour or two of vastly amusing and original enter­tainment.

Since his "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", published so hand­somely, Saroyan has had m~re to eat and he no longer wr1tes of th~se hungry days in 193.3. He has more time to !all m Jove, or watch others, to talk to screwy people in bars, and to think about children and families. .

His interest, though, is still ' people all sorts of them, the crac~ts and the romanticists and the defeated and William Saroyan. He is funny and tr~-gic and sentimental, but be s best when be's funny. The best and the lightest stories of this fine collection are the title story, ''Ever Fall in Love With a Midget?", ''You're Breaklng My Heart", and J "The Genius."

Don't miss it. - M. S. ------'

.io"i may .l -±- 2b

Love Should Hand Him Back His Hat

I

That daring young man is here 8181n. Thla Ume tbe only ftlUna comment to W11Uam Saro>:an'a lrre­PresaibUlty-w h J c b he expresses anew 1n "Love, Here 1:1 My Hat'' «Modem Age>-ls that Love should hand him back his hat and teU htm to accompany It out the door.

Here Is a collectlon ot 20-odd lJt­erary pieces which, because or the failings of the English language, must be described u abort storle.s. They are not. They are fragments. / scraps of conversation, germs of plou, soWoqules. When Saroyan lets them alone some of them are gOod; you get the authentic navor or hotel rooms, hamburger warons and cheap bars. But the daring young man Is not the let-alone kind, else be wouldn't be daring. It Is a. re!Jet to be able to ~~ay that Saroyan, having been given enough llterary rope, I ~eema at IIU!t to have made tradl­tlonal use of lt.

Times El Paso Tex

M~'f 2 9 1938 'i- II- ¥

It hardly seems to make sense. but the only thing the critics seem to be able to get unanimous about m con· sidering William Saroynn's new book of short stories. ""L've. Here Is My Hat," ts that the collection. is uneven; rn short. that some stortes are very good and som~ a.re nol But when it comes to ptckmg out which they are far from being in complete agreement. A story rated tops by one critic may be a dreadful warning to another. The funny thmg is that each ot these commentators is sure that. outside of the three or four or five stories they like .. the rest are poor stun. Another wrtter might be discouraged, but not Mr. Saroyan. They may love htm o.r hate

· him, but at least they don't 1g':!o~e him' "Love Here Is My Hat ts publlshed ' Modern Age, Inc. C25c).

JUN 1 9 1938

Chroni cle San Francisco Cal

JUL 2 31938

LOVE BEllE IS MY BAT. By WlWam Saroyan. Perhaps the best collection of the author"a abort pieces yet put in print. What you make of Saro­ran depencl<~ on you, of course, but he hu never dlsplaved his remarkable abllltles to better ad­vantage than here.

)To Review Mr. Saroyan or Not

]LOVE, HERE IS MY HAT. By I said, because Mr. Saroyan himself

Wllli.Bm_Saroyan. PubLisher, Mod- says they don't understand his work. ern ..Aie1roolcs, Inc., New York The reviewer might start with .Tim City. Pemberton and his boy Trigger, I When It comeR to reviewing a said; that's almost a story, I said,

book like this well I couldn't do and really quite Interesting, espe­that very well' I said. I only went elally the old man, I said, he's such through colleg~. I said, but that was a liar. But aren't we all? I sald.­some time ago when folks used auch 0. W. B. things as quotation marks and com· ------------:-~ mas and other little things to sort ot help out the reader. And moat writers then tried to write llbout something, and so I only learned to read things that said something-

But we must have a review of the book, It was sent to ua for review, the editor said.

Well, I said, one else to

(Wolllletli ..... Ill tta.-boot~_~lllild, thing about Mr. Saro:yan MD stories to the Saturday Evening Post. I understood that much, I said, because it comes out quite plain several times. But as for the rest, I couldn't very well review that, I said.

And I'll tell you why, I said. Most of the stories are about conversa· tions with men or ladies and they begin in the middle and end in the middle or a little way past the middle, and I don't know what the beginning was nor what the end might be. I'll admit It may be that my imagination is at fault, as I say, I always had helps In my reading, such as commas-well, he uses com­mas, too-and quotntion marks and sentences and not so mAny I saids and he saids, and so I just naturally don't know how to review a book like this; you'd have to get ROmeonc else to do that, someone who likes Mr. Saroyan's style, I said, but no one on the Saturday .c.~''ll!.!.!!lll.£..!1•J:~.l..~--

IIII'OstT n~ .. , Y~·!.) .,.:mt~ . .... ~~rsd.a)', ~ipt$llll;cr 1, 1~8

L------------------~----------~" 'l

Book Review Our Suggestion for the Book of the Week

by LORETTA SHAW

LOVE HERE IS MY HAT By William Saroyan. 145 pages. Yodern Age Boob. 25 cents.

Thia is a book of short stories by the author w.bo became such a sen­sation when his atory, The Daring

,- Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, was pub\iahad.

Saroyan Ia sore at life and cynical about love, and each of the 21 stories in this boOk ia on one or the other of his pet peeves. They lack humor and seem to be written with the in­tention of shocking the reader.

Each of bia atorie3 is an incident, without a becinning and without an end, something you might over bear on a street comer. His people lack characteriution, so that they are just puppetl speaking the words he puts In their mouths.

Three, Four, Shut the Door is the story of a lynch h ungry mob, and the law's inability to protect an in· nocent boy. His father was a white man and his mother colored, so the mob was after him. Johnny did not know that colored Sam Brooklyn w&J not hia real father, but every one else in town knew. They all knew why Jlr. Feaklns' wife killed herself, and why, nine years later, Jlr. Fea­kins set ftre to his bouse, and com­mitted suicide. And the mob was out after J ohnny Brooklyn. Glenn Lyle and his father, J udge Lyle helped the boy eecape.

A Family of Three is the study of three people and their individual re­actions to the same incident. The child, the man, and the woman, each sees the same thing in a different way.

In these two stories, Saroyan ap­proacbes an understanding of people and life ouUJide of those poor unfor­tunates with a misshapen idea of woman and love. These are the people about whom he writes in his other stories.

..

I

B ZW~r! Hese Is Mj' llat m•d Other Short Romallces.

1 y 119381amp aroy;m. N cw York: Modern Age Dooks nc., . . p. 14.>. 25 cents. •

b I'My mtere.st does not run to smart-aleckness; 1 still e lev~ a wnter should have something to sa bef r

he wntes. Perhaps, some day William s "TIY d ? e young " 'II 1 • ·• 1e anng ":ian, , WI earn a f CW basic facts about I' f . meanwh1le, lead me to q · 1 b . 1 e • away fro h' .., UICI, ess. ram-spun pasture:.

~ lm,. my only regret IS that ~Iodcrn A e Books, With their laudable idea to publish b k g twentv-five and lift h oo s at "p - .. book Y cents, s ould have considered this

uppy worth publishing. L. S.

J

- BAJl.."ll!UDC! ( J'.Y.) l-1?.\W u ujl"S<Ia)', Sep~b£r l, 1938

1 Book Review Our Sugl'eation for the Book of the Week

by LoRETTA SHAW

LOVE HERE IS MY HAT By William Sa!'QDn. 145 pages. lfodern Age Books. 25 cents.

Thb is a book of abort stories by the author who became such a sen­sation when his story, The Da.ring Young Man on the Flying Tl'&peze, was pqbltsbell.

Saroyan is sore at life and cynical about love, and each of the 21 stories in this book is on one or the other of his pet peeves. They lack humor and seem to be written with the in­tention of shocking the reader.

Each of his atorie.a is an incident, without a beginning and without an end, something you might overhear on a street comer. His people lack characterization, so that they are just puppets speaking the words he puts in their mouths.

Three, Four, Sbut the Door is the story of a lynch hungry mob, and the law's inability to protect an in­nocent boy. His father was a white man and his mother colored, so the mob was after him. .Johnny did not know that colored Sam Brooklyn waJ not his real father, but every one else in"tOwn knew. They all knew why Mr. Feakins' wife killed herself, and why, nine y•ra later, Mr. Fea­kins set fire to his house, and com­mitted suicide. A.nd the mob was out after Johnny Brooklyn. Glenn Lyle and hla fat:Jaer, Judge Lyle helped the boy escape.

A Family of Three is the study of three people and' their individual re­actions to the same incident. The child, the man, and the woman. each sees the same thing in a different way.

In these two stories, Saroyan ap­proaches an understanding of people and life outside of those poor unfor­tunates with a misshapen idea of woman and love. These are the people about whom he writes in his other stories.