Books: Literary Life

London. Early this year beef-eating Yorkshireman John Boynton Priestley, author of best-selling novels (The Good Companions, Angel Pavement), several U. S. stage flops, one hit (Dangerous Corner), stood up to the almighty British Broadcasting Corp., calling it monopolistic and its programs a bore. Fortnight ago BBC commissioned a novel for serial broadcasting, 20 minutes every Sunday. Commissioned novelist: J. B. Priestley. The radio novel, Let the People Sing, was reported to be another cross-sectioning of British life like The Good Companions.

Hyde Park. Blurb of the week was written by Columnist Eleanor Roosevelt in her syndicated column, My Day. Blurbled she: "I read a book last night until 2:30 a. m. That doesn't happen very often to me. . . ." Sleep-murdering novel: Again the River (still in galley proofs), a story of floods and the people who fight them or get drowned in them. Author: Stella E. Morgan, a West Virginia housewife. Again the River is her first novel.