This Scorching Earth (43 page)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Donald Richie is known to most Americans in Japan as a trenchant and devastatingly honest film critic for the Nippon Times, but he actually considers literature his first love and music his second, films coming in third. Born in Ohio in 1924, he first came to Japan in 1946 and until 1949 worked as film reviewer and feature writer for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. During this time he also began publishing in the Japanese press, and toward the end of his first stay in Japan his book Essays in Contemporary American Literature, Drama and Cinema was published in Japanese. Returning to America to complete a degree at Columbia University, he again came to Japan in 1953 and intends to make his home here. At present he lives in Tokyo, continues writing for a number of Japanese periodicals, and is working on a new novel. His writing has also appeared in Theatre Arts, New-Story, Sight and Sound, Saturday Review of Literature, and various of the "little magazines," together with numerous articles published in Japanese.

"Books to Span the East and West"

The Dwarf Pine,
by A. Irene Reiser. A tender, penetrating novel of love and family life in Japan. The author has lived in Japan for over thirty years and writes with rare understanding of the Japanese people. In many ways the book may be compared to Pearl Buck's
The Good Earth.

Ginza Go, Papa-san: The Adventures of a Texas "Admiral" in Geisha-land,
by Allan R. Bosworth. A rollicking collection of reminiscences concerning the Japanese adventures of one American naval officer with the gift of observation and anecdote. The author's infectious humor and love of people make this charming book ideal reading for anyone with an interest in the lighter side of Japan.

It's Better with Your Shoes Off,
by Anne Cleveland. Here are top-drawer cartoons—the thought-provoking, chuckle-arousing kind to be read again and again—which tell what it's really like to live in Japan, capturing in flashes of keen humor and artistic insight those delicate nuances too fleeting for the written word. A book for all who appreciate sophisticated, artistic cartoon humor at its meaningful, satirical best.

The Japanese Are Like That,
by Ichiro Kawasaki. A far cry from the purple prose of the starry-eyed Western visitor or the sterile style of the government gazette, this book is a down-to-earth scrutiny of the so-called "inscrutable" Japanese. Certain to provide the reader with new insights into little-known facets of Japan which few authors have cared or dared to treat so openly.

Library of Japanese Art.
A distinguished and important new series of pocket-sized art books which will cover all phases of Japanese art. Each volume contains 20 to 50 illustrations in full color, plus 15 to 20 in handsome double-tone process, plus valuable text and explanatory captions by an outstanding authority, at a price of only $1.00 each. Titles now or shortly available in English translation:
Hokusai, Sharaku, Hiroshige.

The Landscape Painting of China and Japan,
by Hugo Munsterberg. For the first time in English a full and lucid account of the remarkable art form which, as a distinct tradition in Oriental art, has come to be universally recognized as one of the greatest in the world. The author is Professor of Art History at International Christian University, Tokyo.

The Story Bag: A Collection of Korean Folk Tales,
by Kim So-un. Written with earthy wit and pathos, these favorite stories from Korea's past unveil the inevitable foibles of people everywhere and expose the human-like qualities of animals and the animal-like qualities of humans.

CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY: PUBLISHERS

28 South Main Street, Rutland, Vermont, U. S. A.
or
15 Edogawa-cho, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan