BROMFIELD RETURNS TO THE SOIL OF OHIO
Teller, Walter Magnes
Bromfield Returns To The Soil Of Ohio In The Land He Finds Mans Salvation PLEASANT VALLEY, by Louis Bromfield. Harper & Brothers. $3. Reviewed by Walter Magnes Teller ALL the Louis Bromfields I...
...1 like especially a chapter called The Big House (A chapter to be skipped by those who have no interest in architecture...
...Reviewed by Walter Magnes Teller ALL the Louis Bromfields I know appear in Pleasant Valley but mostly it is the Louis I know best and like best, the vital, enthusiastic, youthful, and ge'nerous Louis who believes "that farming is the most honorable of professions and unquestionably a romantic and inspiring one...
...Whether his Friends of the Land can ever save the soil I do not know...
...If such moments never come to the Bromfields at Malabar Farm it may be owing at least in part to "a curious sense of obligation shared by all of us, almost a kind of superstition, I think, that we should share our good fortune in life with others...
...ON the existence of farm problems I guess we are all agreed...
...I doubt that any family was individually ever more decided and stubborn, in opinion and actions...
...And one thing more—"I have never believed in the superficial folly of Henry Wallace's program of scarcity," writes Louis...
...They are all good reading...
...Louis is an outstanding conservationist and there is plenty to be done in this field...
...Of course a lot of farmers don't believe any such thing...
...None of us . . . down to Ellen the youngest could be said to have a dovelike submissive personality...
...But they never farmed so how can they tell...
...During the closing days of the 1944 political campaign when the house was divided into two hostile camps, the opposing factions, save at mealtimes, virtually occupied two opposite ends of the house...
...Pleasant Valley is at least 3 books mixed into 1: a persona) history of farming in Ohio and a lifelong feeling for the soil...
...1 do not expect them to do it...
...And there is a sweet tolerance about this guy— ". . . we were a family of big people, big physically and rather big and loose and careless in our living...
...It was not simply the stubbornness and pigheadedness which concerns personal relationships...
...I advise the reader not to skip it because it is witty...
...Wallace still taking the rap alone for following out a program which was approved by every big farm organization at the time...
...There are few things more revealing than the houses in which people live...
...Wallace has never squealed, nor have any of the spokesmen for "the most honorable of professions" ever offered to shoulder their share of the blame...
...I think the job will be done by farmers and government provided the people send progressive men to the legislative halls...
...and a discussion of farm problems...
...We had to have room for physique, for personality and for spirit...
...Someday 1 hope to learn the name of the rhymer who was quoted in the Congressional Record to this effect: Some people say that there ain't no hell...
...How wonderful it must have been to give Louis hell for Bricker and then sit down to one of those mammoth breakfasts...
...That too called for a big house where dances could be held and meetings and picnics and reunions...
...It ran much deeper and much wider to questions of politics and international affairs...
...I hate to see Mr...
...I know on my own farm there have been moments when I understood fully what Henry David Thoreau meant when he said, "It makes little difference whether you are committed to a county jail or a farm...
...We had lived thus in France among our French neighbors and friends and we wanted to live that way in the midst of Ohio with a house which was also shared by all our neighbors and friends...
...a series of farm anecdotes and stories...
...And the stories you know are good because Louis can tell them...
Vol. 9 • May 1945 • No. 20
