In the News

Two biographies* have again made news of George Washington (TIME, Oct. 25).

Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, historian at Harvard, does not ap- prove of either of them. Last week, during a speech in Boston, he picked up a copy of Mr. Hughes' book, said:

"Well, it is a book, and there is a lot of it, but it is very plain that the author doesn't know what he is talking about. It is full of slurs and snarls based on the internal consciousness of Rupert Hughes, and expressions of the way Hughes would have acted. "I found 297 statements in the book which are absolutely false; 111 which are extremely doubtful, and 165 paragraphs in which Hughes discusses a character which has never before been discovered as the evil genius behind Washington. That is Sally Fairfax. In fact, the book is written to give us a good dose of Sally Fairfax." Concerning the other book, Professor Hart said:

"W. E. Woodward, whoever he may be,/- shows the usual faults of a tyro. Apparently he thinks no one has ever appreciated Washington until he came along. The fatal difficulty is that he thinks he has made new discoveries."

*GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE HUMAN BEING & THE HERO, 1732-1762--Rupert Hughes --William Morrow & Co. ($4). GEORGE WASHINGTON : THE IMAGE AND THE MAN--W. E. Woodward-- Boni & Liveright ($4).

/-Mr. Woodward is a novelist; so is Mr. Hughes.