was, in his words, “versed in countryrnthings,” but he was not immersed, the impressionrngiven by Berry in his poetry andrnin biographical accounts. As a matter ofrnfact. Frost told me that he had hatedrndoing the chores and fled the country asrna working farmer as soon as he could,rnusing the countryside for the rest of hisrnlife as a storehouse of subjects andrnmetaphors. Even early on, he must havernrealized that the future did not belong tornthe small farms and that the artist mustrnperhaps satisfy himself with “a lover’srnquarrel with the world.”rnAs to the final import and impact ofrnthe book, I find Berry a kindred spirit. Irnbelieve in his agricultural, which is reallyrnalso a cultural, agenda: the tradifionalrnvalues of love of the land, marriage, family,rnethical behavior, etc. Alas, if it werernonly shared by America and the world, orrnimplied in the future. In “Horses,” a remarkablernpoem near the end of thernbook, he gives us a picture of himself as arnboy when horses were still used in farmingrnand he learned with delight “the otherrntongue / by which men spoke tornbeasts,” but by the time he had learnedrnthe older kind of farming,rnnew ways had changed the time.rnThe tractors came. The horsesrnstood in the fields, keepsakes,rngrew old and died. Or were soldrnfor dogmeat. Our minds receivedrnthe revolution of machines…rnNevertheless, coming to manhood, thernboy remembers and, almost in ecstasy,rnbegins to farm with a team-drawn plowrnon his difficult, sloping land: “A dance /rnis what this plodding is. /A song, whateverrnis said.”rnBut the tractors did come, and theyrnhave never left. This is the essential tragedyrnof Berry’s life encapsulated, and onernsees him as a special case, a unique kindrnof farmer-poet who may never comernalong again. His faith is a romantic, nostalgicrnvision with the startling differencernthat he has somehow put an invisiblernwall around that farm in Kentucky andrnlived his dreams. Bern,’ looks out of hisrnwindow and sees a great deal accuratelyrnand beautifully, but as to its implicationsrnfor actual, modern America, he seesrnwhat he wants to see. I am reminded ofrnFlaubert’s ironic commentary that hernhad always tried to live in an ivory tower,rnbut une maree de merde kept beating atrnthe walls, threatening to underminernthem. It is fine, noble, and appealing tornargue the cause of the farmers, but howrnmany of them can live the life of WendellrnBerry in a world that is more andrnmore awash in Flaubert’s oceanic invasion?rnStill, the farmer-poet in Kentuckyrnholds our attention and respect. “Lostrncauses” are never lost if they are good inrnthemselves. Berry’s basic devotion to thernearth could, and should, be followed inrnwhatever modest manifestation the individualrncan muster—a garden plot if needrnbe, where he, too, can feel “the currentrnflowing to him through the earth,” andrnimagine that the hand he thrusts in thernsoil is grasped in communion by thernhand of the earth.rnChades Edward Eaton’s 14th collectionrnof poetry, The Scout in Summer, is duernout shortly from Cornwall Books.rnA Pretense ofrnKnowledgernby Ralph de ToledanornThe Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionagernin America—The Stalin Erarnby Allen Weinstein andrnAlexander VassilievrnNew York: Random House;rn420 pp., $30.00rnIn recent years, there has been a spaternof valuable books on Soviet espionage,rnsubversion, and penetration of thernWest—books inspired or prompted byrnthe opening of Soviet secret files, thernpublication of the Venona interceptsrn(communications between Soviet agentsrnand Moscow), and the writings of formerrnKGB officials. Among these are StephenrnKoch’s Double Lives, John Costello’srnDeadly Illusions and Mask of Treachery,rnand the Harvey Klehr-John Haynes documentary.rnThe Secret World of AmericanrnCommunism, and its sequels. To thesernshould be added the documentation ofrnWhittaker Chambers’ epochal Witnessrnand lesser memoirs by other participantsrnin the greatest plot in history, buttressedrnby the reportorial works of dedicated historiansrnand journalists.rnInto this crowded but fascinating fieldrncomes Allen Weinstein’s The HauntedrnWood, the titie of which—paraphrasingrnDante’s selva oscura—seems to bringrndepth and insight to the account of Sovietrnperfidy. Professor Weinstein, though arnJohnny-Come-Lately in the field, wasrnpraised extravagantiy for Perjury, an excellentrnwrap-up of the Hiss case, whichrnhe began as a liberal defender of AlgerrnHiss and completed in the conviction ofrnthe man’s incontrovertible guilt. ThernHaunted Wood purports to be an overviewrnof the crowded world of Soviet espionage,rnfocusing on the assault upon thernWest which began when Feliks Dzerzhinskyrnorganized the Cheka (subsequentiyrnthe GPO, the NKVD, and thernKGB) and which was continued by thernRed Army’s GRU and Willie Muenzenberg’srnvast Gommunist Internationalrn(Comintern) apparat.rnWhen Perjury was written, the parametersrnof the Hiss case and its protagonistsrnhad been established, and Weinstein’srnprofessorial approach guaranteed that itrnwould be taken seriously even by thosernwho seemed to have sworn eternal fealtyrnto Alger Hiss. An account like ThernHaunted Wood, however, requires backgroundrnnot from research among thernarchives, library shelves, and newspaperrnclippings, but from an empathetical contactrnwith those who experienced the traumarnand dissociation of existence in thernGRU, the KGB, and/or the Comintern:rnThe complex psychological and ideologicalrndrives leading to participation in therncommunist netherworld are as importantrnas the factual documentation. Otherwise,rnwhat appears on the printed pagernis superficial and incomplete. ThoughrnAlexander Vassiliev, Professor Weinstein’srncollaborator, has brought to ThernHaunted Wood some of the archival factsrnbehind well-known cases, he has somehowrnfailed to preserve the juices. Arnbroad overview of the twists and turns ofrnSoviet policies and operations is also required,rnand a divorcement fi-om liberalrnshibboleths.rnWhen Professor Weinstein characterizesrnas “passivity” the Red Army’s wait onrnthe banks of the Vistula until the Nazisrnhad completed their slaughter of the Polishrnfreedom fighters in Warsaw, he betraysrneither callousness or gross ignorance.rnFor this delay was not “passivity”rnbut the result of Stalin’s deliberate determinationrnto destroy all elements whichrnwould have resisted the sovietization ofrnPoland. Yet “passivity” is indeed demonstratedrnby Professor Weinstein when hern32/CHRONICLESrnrnrn