Ghosts on the Roof: Selected Journalism of Whittaker Chambers, 1931-1959.Ghosts on the Roof: * We jumped the gun in last year's Special Spring-Summer Books Issue (June 2). Joseph Sobran Joseph Sobran (b. February 23 1946, Ypsilanti, Michigan) is an American journalist and writer, formerly with National Review and currently a syndicated columnist. Academic and professional career reviewed Ghosts on the Roof: Selected Journalism of Whittaker Chambers Jay Vivian (David Whittaker) Chambers (April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer, editor, Communist party member and spy for the Soviet Union who defected and became an outspoken opponent of communism. , 1931-1959, edited by Terry Teachout Terry Teachout (born 1956, Cape Girardeau, Missouri) is a critic, biographer and blogger. He is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, the music critic of Commentary (Regnery Gateway, 256 pp., $19.95), but the book has only just been published. In his review, Mr. Sobran wrote that this collection finally gives us Chambers without Hiss: "Most of these pieces belong to the Forties, the years between his defection from Communism and the controversy that ended his career as a journalist. His real career, in fact, lasted only a decade ..." The book includes pieces on "Joyce, Santayana, Kafka, and Charles Beard, light pieces on travel books and movies (Ninotchka, The Grapes of Wrath)," and, of course, the famous (or infamous, depending upon one's view of Ayn Rand Noun 1. Ayn Rand - United States writer (born in Russia) noted for her polemical novels and political conservativism (1905-1982) Rand ) NR review of Atlas Shrugged For the film, see . Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. It was Rand's last work of fiction before concentrating her writings exclusively on philosophy, politics and cultural criticism. . Mr. Sobran thought the famous Chambers gloom conspicuously missing in the Teachout selections. "The general tone is one of steady, mild good humor - never optimistic, to be sure, but more often wry than solemn. Knowing all the harm `new ideas' could do, Chambers was hospitable to them anyway, because in the modern world there is no turning back, and because he simply found them fascinating." |
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