Midway on the Waves

...In either case one may be struck by a n odd flatness in the author's descriptions of those objects whose aggressiv e preservation provided him with muc h of his life's work . A dearth of metaphor in his renderings of houses and objets sometimes prevents one from seeing much : "Ditchley inside is perfection . Exquisite furniture an d fabrics, many original to the house...

...I have never seen better taste...

...Cut to next volum e (if Lees-Milne is inclined to produc e one...

...The New Yorker "Gottlieb, author of what i s described as the definitive book on the subject . . ." —The Seattle Time s Mail To : Merril Pres s P.O...

...Box 76765 Washington, D.C...

...Nothing jars...

...2001 3 Please send me copy(ies) of The 1986 Reaganite Calendar...

...Jock Colville suggested we ought to go home tonight and write down in minutest detail how we drove to th e Wyndhams' door, left our car at the kerb , its doors firmly locked, rang the bell, were kept waiting on the doorstep...

...That he hasn't edited all the dullness "Eloquen t voice sides with gun owners . . . it's not easy to dismis s Gottlieb, Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right t o Keep and Bear Arms and Founder of th e Second Amendment Foundation ." —The Cleveland Plain Dealer Gottlieb's previous book is a n "Indispensable handbook for gun owners ." —The Atlanta Journal - Constitutio n All THE AMMUNITION YOU'LL EVER NEED . A S 36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1986 out of this diary is a reasonable thing...

...She refers to the Sibyls on th e ceiling of the Spello chapel as `thos e Colefaxes on the roof.' " Well, wh o couldn't have gotten that one off...

...q The 1986 Reaganite Calenda r A Unique and Inspiring Tribute to America's 40th President * CELEBRATING THL 21-YEAR POLITICA L CAREER OF Actual Size: 11 "x14" RONALD REAGAN This special limited-edition engagement calendar is unlike any simila r publication you have ever seen . Designed to capture the wit and wisdom , the humor and optimism, and the consistent message of the most popula r President of modern times . FEATURING: * 13 Striking Full Color Photographs of President Reaga n * Over 300 Classic Reagan Quotation s * 180 Significant Events from His Life and Times * An Introductory Essay in Tribute to Ronald Reaga n Sure to be a valuable collector's item, The 1986 Reaganite Calendar is a n enduring memento of the Reagan Years . Originally published for the contributing members of the President's political action committee , Citizens for the Republic, this high quality, glossy, full-color productio n is not available in bookstores . Only a limited quantity remains available . Now, through this special offer, you can purchase your copy of thi s outstanding souvenir for only $9 .95 plus postage and handling . If you're a follower and an admirer of President Reagan, you shouldn't miss thi s remarkable tribute . Order today, while supplies last ! Rendezvous With Destin y "Someday, historians will be looking back on these days we are living . . . and through their eyes all of us will see clearly then what we only dimly perceive now: the fact that when we are in the presence of President Ronald Reagan, we indeed are in the presence ofgreatness...

...date Name Address City State Zip Sustained narrative interest is at rather a minimum in this volume, but since diaries are always such great teases in this respect, narrationes interruptae, one can't complain too much if one doesn't find out what happene d to Lees-Milne's mysteriously sore leg o f March 27, 1948 (presumably it cleare d up), or his effeminate friend who wanted to be made love to (presumably someone eventually obliged) . LeesMilne is rather circumspect about hi s own romantic life...

...religious sentimentality ; camp honesty—fighting each other for prid e of place on the author's scalp: [The Pope] held out his hand for me to take and I just noticed the ring, as I kissed it , to have a large dark stone encircled wit h lesser gems, not diamonds . His presence radiated a benignity, calm and sanctity tha t I have certainly never before sensed in an y human being . All the while he smiled in the sweetest, kindliest way so that I immediately fell head over heels in love with him . He claims he is "always bein g depressed by something or other," bu t the truth is he's probably no more fre - quently depressed than most people . (People are customarily more unhap - py in their diaries than their lives...

...But the author is actually better a t conveying personalities than the life o f the times . Midway on the Waves is full of quick, deft miniatures of friends and acquaintances . Vivid pictures of Vit a THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1986 35 Sackville-West, Sibyl Colefax, an d Nancy Mitford ( "Nancy ' s scintillations dry me up") come and go at just th e right speed, the projectionist figuring the audience' s span of attention and in - terest quite exactly before going on to the next slide...

...She is, I suspect, au fond snobbish, exclusive and disapproving . With her white hair she is stil l a beautiful woman ." He wisely avoid s trying to reconcile these individua l sentences with too much conjunctive glue...

...I have enclosed payment of ($9.95 each ; 3 for $251 Add $1 .50 for postage and handling / D .C...

...world and preposterously exclusive ." In his description of an audience with Pius XII in September 1948, one can see three phrenological salients—a stated preference for objects over peo - ple...

...What did he confess to "A" o n July 15, 1949...

...Reagan at the Presi - dent's Dinner, Washington, D .C ., May 21 , 1986 . I 1 i ADDRESS I NAME CITY STATE ZIP L A-S-THE 1986 REAGANITE CALENDA R GMH ENTERPRISES P.O...

...She is a very great woman . " "Gottlieb has the slippery habit of making th e Founding Fathers sound like precociou s lobbyists for the National Rifl e Association ." —The Washington Post KNOW YOUR ENEMY...

...Another Self is wonderfully blind to chronological proportion, really a series o f vignettes and touchstones, some hilarious and one or two, on the subject o f vanished love, quite harrowing . His diary is a bit plodding by comparison , but anyone's would be...

...A sketch of a friend : Ted Lister, round as a ball, spectacles on the tip of his nose, dined with me alone an d stayed till nearly midnight, knitting and gossiping . When he gave these two recreations a rest he practised on an imaginar y harp, twanging non-existent strings with stumpy fingers, and humming execrably...

...residents add 6% sales tax) . Make check or money order payable to GMH Enterprises . Sorry, no credit cards or C .O .D .'s . THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1986 37...

...The lines don't add up because people don't either, and he is gifted with a willingness to let it go at that . Indeed, for all his professed preferenc e for things over people, he's considerably more evocative of the huma n family than he is of their ancien t "Every gun owner should read this book " —Gun Week geegaws and bibelots . James PopeHennessy (whose working-class boy - friends and venereal complaints provoke a certain pharisaical tattling) tell s Lees-Milne of his mother Una's death , and the diarist puts it down with probably even more graphic concision than it had in the telling : J . said the ten minutes of her . death were an experience he would never free hi s memory from . It was awful...

...Mich...

...He has, on the same night, the diarist's typical view of the activity as both indulgence and obligation ("Some fiend impels me to go on writing this diary which no one will want to read, not even my great-great-nephews and nieces . . . . I allow intervals to elapse, sometimes as long as a week when I forget the salient events to record . It i s a vice . . .") . He decides, upon returning from an Italian holiday, that "a diary of travel to the continent is of little interest unless it is a learned disquisition on the arts and manners," bu t four paragraphs rater sets about recording "some unforgettable little scenes and incidents that make me love Italy...

...Gallant old women who've seen better days are special favorites of th e diarist...

...Congressman Guy Vander Jagt (R...

...He wisely failed to follow through on somebody's bright dinner-party idea o f October 13, 1948 : After dinner, when the women left, talk was about how little we knew of the everyda y life of our ancestors in spite of George Trevelyan's history...

...Dinner parties are skimpy affairs : "a little fish, a little ho t ham, deemed a luxury and American no doubt, a tiny savoury, and deser t [sic] of one tangerine . . ." Attlee is ou t to annoy him with a higher tobacco ta x and lower petrol ration . The author claims to be "suicidally depressed b y the international situation and [his ] own" on March 9, 1948, but in fact very little of the former invades th e diary...

...yet was so grateful for a nast y meal...

...The suggestion reminds one of the ol d Mass Observation program of 1930s Britain, that forerunner of modern sociology's knack for obfuscating th e evident into the inexplicable...

...The patches he's left in authenticat e him as human even as they glaze th e reader's eyes a bit : the British Museum ought to be a national monument...

...Only once in a while does one learn something really amusing, such as the existence of a peculiar staircas e in a house near Cambridge that Lutyens built for a bachelor in 1910 : "The staircase ceiling is supported by on e stout twisted column, so fashioned t o reproduce the outlines of the femal e bosom and buttocks, always there a s you move round the newel post, eithe r ascending or descending . " The diarist's picture of postwar austerities (the second " hungry forties" in as many centuries by his overstate d reckoning) gives this volume a general documentary value that may pleas e those unexcited by the good works o f the National Trust...

...introducing Mr...

...In his memoirs he asserted that sex is less preoccupying to the young than to the middle-aged, but in the diary we get little more than the occasional conversational bulletin : "We discussed the cussedness of inclination s beyond one's control...

...There is a certain game empiricism about Lees-Milne, a willingness to admit possibilities in the present even as his heart inclines him to the past...

...She was unrecognizable except for her hair . He held both her hands and tried to help he r to die...

...I should perhaps point out that I did not tak e the quick train ride to Washington an d all those country houses on display...

...how we were received by a butler wearing a black bow tie instead of a white one, what the hall smelt like, how the man took our coats an d hats, putting them on the chest downstairs, and how he preceded us upstairs, one ste p at a time, etc., etc...

...Nothing is too sumptuous, o r new...

...After som e discreet vicissitudes a decision is taken: "I promised her that if Anthony goe s I will live with her and marry her whe n I get the Church's consent . We wen t home to her flat before midnight an d were together when the New Year cam e in...

...End of diary...

...The mist isn't cleare d from our eyes either, but this is all righ t because we're soon caught up in th e question of What To Do...

...He has the occasional Pepysian nightmare ("I dreamt that an old woman was pulling out my toenails one by one") and considers the advice of his friend Doreen Baynes : "She says happiness consists in finding the right rut and never leaving it . " Lees-Milne's useful career rut was the work for the National Trust, which may or may not absorb one...

...In this important and timely book Ala n Gottlieb takes the first in-depth look at the structure, financing, and power of the anti-gu n movement in America . He analyzes the differen t components of the coalition and tells wh o dominates it, who speaks for it and most importantly, who bankrolls it . He demonstrate s how the opponents of private gun ownershi p have learned to manipulate the media, and how they in turn have been manipulated b y anti-gunners in the media . This remarkably readable book is the bes t resource for understanding the people , organizations, strategy and power of those wh o seek to deny Americans the right to gu n ownership . It reveals the individuals, religiou s and political leaders, celebraties and key medi a people who are the "gun grabbers", and the corporations and foundations that fund them . Just fill out the coupon and mail it to order your copy . It's guaranteed . If you are not satisfied return this book within ten days and get a full refund . 'Alan Gottlieb's book The Rights of Gun Owners—a bible of the pro-gu n movement...

...But this is really just lou d whistling in the romantic dark, and h e knows it . A month later he's hoping to be devastated by love...

...Hi s own Wildean observation a day late r is a lot closer to the real I-wish-I 'd-saidthat thing: "The fact that for more than two millennia human beings have prayed without thereby doing th e slightest harm to anyone speaks wel l for it . " One doesn't really want an aestheti c of diaries, criteria that would inhibit their lunatic paragraphic, thei r unlocatable themes, their splenetic lac k of grammar...

...He never thought such a noise could be emitted from a human frame . Her face became a skul l with a veil of torment drawn across it...

...Box 1682 Bellevue, WA 98009 I Yes, please send me copies of the hard cover edition of The Gun Grabbers for a 10-day examination . Check or Money Orde r for $14 .95 plus $1 .50 postage and handling is enclosed . Washington I I residents please add 8% State sales tax . Charge to q Mastercard q Visa Account no...

...Similarly, the fault-finding, self-pity, and Schadenfreude that he upbraids himself for don't strike one as bein g present in inordinate amounts, thoug h he has the likable decency to imagin e them so...

...Esdaile, lunching at the Allies Club : "She was looking like an old rag-and-bone woma n with the blackest handkerchief you ever saw...

...Lady Throckmorton, trying t o make ends meet at Coughton Court i n Warwickshire, is "a noble and splendi d woman," and so is Mrs...

...big airplanes are scary to travel in because one can't figure out how they get off the ground . That sort of thing . His King's College Chapel is no more exciting than the postcard-writing tourist' s ("I gasped at the exquisite beauty o f this building "), and some of his tea - party pieces can be as dreary as th e parties probably were themselves . With an apologetic nod to the anticipated readers of posterity he admits that hi s account of a bit of business "reads like a minute from a subcommittee of a n urban district council ." Even so, he ' s likely to be more witty than the peopl e he's with : "Barbara [Rothschild] is en - chanting...

...Love itself, however, makes a grand third-act en - trance in the shape of the married Alvilde Chaplin . Before long thei r romance is unfolding "like a giganti c scroll, of which only the lettering immediately under the eyes is clearl y readable, the rest being lost in misty lines...

...James Lees-Milne is quite a readabl e diarist, although anyone who's read th e autobiography of his early years, Another Self, will wonder why he didn' t persevere in that form, since he displayed a touch of genius for it...

...Still, it is s o consistently intelligent and interested, and so full of the detached egotism tha t is the paradoxical prerequisite for much good diary-writing, that readers will b e glad of this volume and any that may follow it . Lees-Milne is Catholic, antiCommunist, and snobbish, but excep t for a regret that he never volunteered for Franco, he seems only "mildly" al l these things . He prefers the stupid an d well-bred to the intelligent and ill-bred , and, endowed with the health y neurotic's capacity for disliking aspects of himself in other people, he dismisse s his own generation as "cliquey, dated , prejudiced, out of touch with the new Thomas Mallon teaches English at Vassar College and is the author of A Book of One's Own : People and Thei r Diaries (now available in paperback from Penguin...

...Those diarists who choos e to publish leave themselves open, of course, to the sort of tut-tutting I've engaged in above...

...BOOK REVIEW S MIDWAY ON THE WAVES . James Lees-Milne/Faber & Faber/$22 .9 5 Thomas Mallo n 'The two hottest museum passes in America this past season were probabl y to the Renoir exhibit in Boston and a show of British country-house treasures at the National Gallery in Washington . At the latter, the huge amalgamated throngs of Heartbreak House and Horseback Hall, such as they exist in American versions, might well have pleased James Lees-Milne, the self-confessed middlebrow art historia n whose work for the National Trust during the late 1940s occupies much o f Midway on the Waves, the fourth published volume of his diaries . Th e author turns forty here, comfortable i n his vocation, going about the countr y to help set up a sort of living British museum in the midst of the aborning welfare state . It may have seemed an odd rearguard action to be engaged i n during the heady days of the Labou r government (on February 14, 1948 , Lees-Milne worries about Aneurin Bevan's reported desire to nationalize the National Trust itself), but th e diarist was clearly happy in it...

...If we'r e going to go on about this business of diary aesthetics, we might as well call a diary with a program what Poe called a long poem—a contradiction in terms . Heavens, yes, let us see in a diary how people actually live, since novels have long since given up on telling us that . But better just to write it as you live it , and wind up with the kind of book and, it would seem, life that Lees-Milne has made: a reasonable, mixed sort o f affair...

...The ones who allow themselves to die before fending off th e posthumous approach of editors als o suffer the fate of being judged "good " or "bad" diarists (like "good" or "bad" letter writers), even though tha t may have been the furthest vocationa l idea from their late minds...

...Several months later the following lines are recorded about Mrs . Winston Churchill: "She is jerky and precise in manner, and yet miauly ; laughs and speaks as though she feared to touc h or swallow dirt...

...That Jame s Lees-Milne is a fairly absorbing diaris t probably has to do with his not having thought too much about the act of diary-writing, or bothering to reconcil e such contradictory reflections as he made...

...A few contemporary delight s always manage to break through to ea r or eye: "Never have women's fashions been prettier...

...Even Malcolm was embarrasse d by certain idiosyncratic disclosures . The more outrageous they became th e more harmless . Nearly choked wit h laughter...

...His parents are sources of frustration and guilt, and only the death of his father puts an end to th e positively "biological incompatibility " that always separated man and boy . Money ("my ocean of debt") and sex complete his roster of basic worries . Lust is a joking matter: "A very hilarious, male, witty-smutty, funny party, at which disclosures and confidences poured out faster than th e drink...