Hero & Philander

A MODERN HERO--Louis Bromfield-- Stokes ($2.50). From John Dos Passos--or Miguel de Cervantes--or from the blue. Author Bromfield takes his method of telling his latest tale. As the stream of narrative encounters the leading characters, the stream is diverted until the story of each character is told. Though some characters do their womanly best to quiet the stream, the modernistic hero always breaks it into ripples, rapids, finally a plunging waterfall. Pierre Radier is the love child of Madame Azai's, a leopard-trainer traveling with a circus in the Middle West. Of his father, Moise, a Dusseldorf banker, Pierre knows nothing but what his mother tells him, but the restless ambition in his blood testifies that he is a chip off the old block. Though he is an accomplished performer under the tents, the circus life does not appeal to him. His mother forgets past troubles in drink; Pierre simultaneously forgets and anticipates his troubles by making love at large. His first serious affair is with Joanna Ryan, a simple country girl. Though their love is true, simple Joanna is not so simple as to tie up with the wandering circus boy. When she finds herself pregnant she marries a farmer, Elmer Croy, who loves her too much to mind premarital infidelity. Pierre travels on with his mother, gets a big-time job with Haines's Roman Circus as chariot rider, gladiator. In this capacity he fascinates Leah, a waning mistress of wealthy benefactors long deceased. Pierre and she take up together in Chicago. She holds him with her comfortable, wise charms, and with the money she can lend. At the sight of the world of wealth, Pierre's banker's blood begins to simmer. With Muller, a circus mechanic, he opens a bicycle shop. Soon Muller and he are fooling with automobiles. Their first model is bought by Financier Homer Flint, from Pentland where Joanna lives. Pierre goes into business under Homer's wing, marries his daughter Hazel for her fortune's sake. All goes well until, one day on the golf links, he sees his son Peter, Joanna's child. With Joanna's consent he sends Peter off to Eastern school and college. Pierre often goes East to see him, gets mixed up with Vampire Claire Benson, loses all his money in New York. Unhappy Hazel senses his infidelity; and finally she discovers that Peter is Pierre's son. When Peter is killed in an automobile accident Hazel exults and Pierre strikes her down. Returning to Leah, Pierre is arrested on her steps. Hazel is dead, and Pierre, wanted by many women, is now wanted by the Law. The Author. A white-haired boy to his publishers (his Early Autumn received the 1926 Pulitzer Prize) Author Bromfield's talent and reputation have flourished like a green bay tree, of which some others would like to share the fruits. To get a "better perspective" of his native U. S. A., he lives mostly in France (he is there, at Senlis. now). A reputed $100,000 cinema contract lured him in 1930 to Hollywood but he prematurely returned, agreeing with his wife that "it was a dream." With A Modern-Hero Bromfield's old and profitable contract with Publisher Stokes ends. When young Publishers John Farrar &; Stanley Rinehart bought out Hearst-owned Cosmopolitan Book Corp. in 1931, trade talk was that Author Bromfield had contracted with Cosmopolitan for his five next books at $60,000 each (TIME, Oct. 5). Over some such contract, probably at a figure nearer $25,000 but involving also serializing in Hearst's Cosmopolitan Magazine, Publishers Farrar &; Rinehart and Author Bromfield's lawyer still seem to be haggling. In oblique reference to the possible serializing of Bromfield, his old publishers say of his current offering: "This novel has not appeared in any periodical." Other Stokes-Bromfield books: The Green Bay Tree, Possession, A Good Woman, The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg, Twenty-Four Hours.

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