a few hours behind bars and was acquittednthe following year by the Court ofnAppeals. Yet the sympathetic reader isnmeant to feel that anything of the direstnsort could easily happen to Seeger. InnDunaway’s socialist “realistic” rendition,nSeeger is the Hero as Victim. Somenvictim, as his earthly riches and successesndemonstrate.nIt would be fitting if our Hero as Victimnwas a product of the school of hardnknocks and dirty socks, but that isn’t thencase. Seeger’s father was a professor ofnmusic at the University of California atnBerkeley before son Peter’s birth in 1919-nThe elder Seeger had what Dunawayncalls “a political conversion” on a briefntour of the San Joaquin Valley. CharlesnSeeger saw migrant workers and, fasternthan you can say IWW, he was firmly innthe arms of the left. His wife Constancenwasn’t far behind. Dunaway says shencalled herself a socialist. Her conversion isnsymptomatic of the types we’re dealingnwith: “she liked Norman Thomas becausenhe drove an old, cheap car.” SincenCharles Seeger the radical wasn’t asnpopular on campus as he was before beingnimbued with the inner light, he feltnhe had to get away. To do so, he bought an”gleaming, black Model T Ford.” Eventually,nCharles and Constance split up.nr ete’s education began in the 30’s.nHis father took him to his first May Daynparade in 1932, and he’s been walking innsuch parades in one form or another evernsince. As a junior high school student,nPete Seeger loved books about woodlandnadventures. One day he chanced uponnNew Russia’s Primer, “a Bolsheviknchildren’s book,” and it seems that hisnwhole life then fell into place. Therenwould be a forest-covered brave newnworld, and he’d be there, playing “mral,nworking-class music” on a banjo—oncenhe learned how.nLearning how wasn’t really at the topnof his list. Seeger attended Harvard andnDunaway makes a flattering comparisonnwith another Harvard alum, John Reed.nSeeger was initially a member of thenBanjo Club, but he dropped out to joinnthe Young Communist League. Thenbiography nearly dropped from mynhands when I read, “The YCL representedna good-natured extremism, advertisingnthemselves with appeals tonsports and clean fun.” This act ofnSeeger’s is key. At the time he was anneophyte banjo player. If being a musiciannwas the most important thing in hisnlife, it would seem that he would havenstuck to playing banjo with his peersnrather than having good, clean fiin betweennsessions with Lenin’s Imperialism.nBut Seeger planned to become a journalist,nundoubtedly to further the aims ofnthe YCL. Our hero’s plan failed. listennto Dunaway’s breathless and bitter descriptionnof Seeger’s attempts to get a jobnas a reporter: “he would call a paper innthe morning, take a subway to the editor’snoffice that afternoon, and findnthere was no job for him—all in the samenday.” Some persecution.nCollege life, no luck at finding a job:nnothing worked out for Seeger. But therenwas one constant, one thing that didn’tnlet him down: the Communist Party.nIn the MailnThe importance of the Party to his thinkingnis indicated by his reaction to the Hitler-StalinnPact. When Seeger heardnabout it, he was touring in the, hinterlands.nSays Dunaway, “He had a hardntime believing his ears. There was nonDaily Worker for guidance.” Thatnshrewd reaction helps explain his successfulnrise from the YCL into the ranks ofnthe CP. After Hitler reneged, the Partynand Seeger backed the war effort. Butnthis hero wasn’t bred actually to fight,nso he used “his father’s Washington contacts”nto get himself assigned to a divisionnwherein he could play his banjo.nWhile other soldiers were dying, Seegernwas cutting records on the side. Whennthe war was over, Seeger started a songpublishingncompany named People’snSongs. Once again he became confused:nhe didn’ t know whether to be a musiciannor to follow “his duty to political disciplinen.” His solution ?’ ‘To resolve his confusion,nSeeger again turned to the CommunistnParty.” Nothing like a littlenfreethinking by one who is hailed bynDunaway as a true son of liberty.nIn a Pig’s Eye by Piggiani; Epimetheus Press; New York. An offensive and disgusting novel, butnfunny at times, filled with well-aimed shots at liberal idiocies.nTbe Lives of the Greek Poets by Mary R. Lefkowitz; The Johns Hopkins University Press; Baltimore.nAn analysis of the reliability of existing biographies of several ancient Greek poets, includingnHomer, Sophocles and Euripides.nTie Stories atui Parah/es of Si-Tienby AduaPodgoiedd; Carleton University; Ottawa, Ontario,nCanada. A collection of brief stories by the Chinese writer, Si-Tien,nTJbe Status of the Humanities by John Arthos; Philosophical Library; New York. A commentarynon the current practices in the study of the humanities and the intrinsic value of such studies.nThe Achievement of William Styron (revised edition) edited by Robert K. Morris with IrvingnMalin; University of Georgia Press; Athens, Georgia. An analysis of Styron as a contemporarynSouthern writer and an examination of each of his books.nBetween the Hammer and the Anvilhy Stefan Korbonski; Hippocrene Books; New York. A collectionnof short stories based on the author’s experiences as head of the underground resistancenmovement in Poland during the nazi occupation.nThe Polish Underground State: A Guide to the Underground, 1939-194^ by Stefan Korbonski;nHippoaene Books; New York. A detailed history of the Polish underground organization, includingnfootnotes and indices, by the current chairman of the Assembly of Captive Nations andnholder of the Yad Vashem Medal of the Righteous conferred by the Israeli government.nnn•25nMay/June 198Sn