'New Directions 13. Edited by James Laughlin. (Peter Owen. 30s.)
New Directions is now well established as an anthology of avant-garde writing, but this does not necessarily mean that all the writers are very new or even still alive. The aim of the series has always been to bring together new trends even if their " new- ness" has only just begun to fit into the picture. This volume, for instance, includes Francis Jamrnes and Max Jacob as well as young writers from America and England. Outstanding among the American contri- butors are Maude Hutchins and Abraham Klein, the Montreal writer, whose contro- versial study on James Joyce and Vico will interest any student of Ulysses. Many of the short stories are difficult to read ; - this may explain why both Harold K. Guinsburg and the editor write about American publishing problems in a way which should make British publishers ashamed of ever uttering a single complaint. From Europe comes some excellent writing by Jean Paulhan, a striking Meditation on War by J. B. Pick, and, probably the "newest " and most rewarding feature for most people, contri- butions by a group of Greek writers. These include Nikos Kanzantzakis, who com- posed an " Odyssey " of his own, starting where Homer left off and going on for three times as long. The poems by George Seferis and Nikos Gatsos are probably the best work in the volume. M. C.
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