DELILAH

"A BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN NAVAL

       ADVENTURE"

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The story about this book has several

interesting side tales, which book lovers 

will enjoy. Here is "side tale" #1---

Along about 1980 Time-Life Books made

available a set of re-published out-of-print

books. There were about twenty-five of these,

beautifully bound in nice hard maroon bindings,

with gold-printed spines.

Included among these incredible rare books,

(available again!) were Eastern Approaches,

Cider With Rosie, A Bell For Adano, As 

Summers Die, All Quiet On The Western

Front, Better Times Than These and the

title book above---Delilah.

I bought the whole set, a book at a time, and 

never regretted it. 

It may be that few people have ever heard of or 

read Delilah. I read it and loved it.

Its first fifty or sixty pages are a bit slow, but

as one reviewer has said: "The book in its

last seventy pages is so unputdownable!"

(I did see it once in paperback at a used book-

store, and bought it to give away.)

It is available from Amazon; here is an excerpt

of their review:

"The novel is in all ways extraordinary. The story,

which occurs on the eve of the first World War is that 

of a U.S. Navy destroyer on detached duty in the 

South Seas and of the men who serve in her.

In the tiny world of a destroyer, in a vast universe of

the sea, the officers and men of Delilah carry out their

orders heroically, according to the code of the fighting

man, to patrol their assigned area, to inspect remote 

islands, to show the flag, to carry out diplomatic missions,

and to prepare for the impending war."

And: "The book must be read slowly, for much of its

purpose is to describe the subtle relationships between

men at work, and considerable effort is given to character

and motivation. A solemn, strange, sometimes weirdly 

funny novel. Beautiful."

The author, Marcus Goodrich, was educated at Columbia.

He served in two wars. In World War One, he was assigned

to the U.S.S. Chauncey, a destroyer, which was sunk. Much 

of his background for Delilah, originally published in 1941, 

came from his experiences aboard Chauncey.

Goodrich was a Hollywood writer and married to Olivia de

Havilland for five years. He wrote the original story for the

well-known movie, It's a Wonderful Life.

Weary from two wars and tired of Hollywood, he moved

to Richmond and began working on the second half of 

Delilah, which would be book two, for the first ended with

the U.S. declaring war on Germany in 1917. 

He seemed to always feel pressured to finish book two, and

in fact, never did. He said he would burn the manuscript if

he didn't complete it. He died at age 93 in 1991.

Wrapping up this review---the final "side tale"---

I, in my second career, dealt with teachers and educators.

I had a book-knowledgeable junior high teacher who went

to the annual Albuquerque Library book sale where he 

bought books at fifty cents each, and a dollar for a whole

sack full. Note--as many sacks as he wanted! (On the

final day.)

           He added book shelves all across the back of his room,

           and filled them with good books, bought at bargain prices,

          for  his kids to borrow. He was hoping they would 

          become readers. George, we will call him, often

          brought me copies of books to keep for he had 

          accumulated multiple copies at cheap prices.

One day, George and I were talking, and he surprised 

me. "Have you ever read Delilah?" "Twice," I answered. 

"Well, it is a great book, and I have several copies; I was 

going to bring you one”, he said. 

He is the only person I ever knew who read 

Delilah.

"One of the most powerful American sea stories

since Moby Dick." (Amazon)

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BY MIL

5/08/14