tee ener  BrOwN ee Bevis her LN 35 
only to travel on new Interstate 80 westward across Illinois, and Route 66 
from St. Louis to Chicago, to see the extent of “voluntary” standards.) 
Scores of state roadside councils across the nation have raised highway 
standards in their respective states. (Among other things we do not have 
in Illinois is a state roadside council.) It is up to the average citizen to 
make his voice heard on these issues. Remember the Society for Individual 
Responsibility. SIR! What roadside standards the U.S.A. will have will 
be determined in great measure by the degree that public opinion over- 
comes the massive uglifiers. 
NATURE CONSERVANCY OFFERS NEW SLIDE PROGRAM 
A 45-minute color program, describing the work of The Nature 
Conservancy in Illinois and consisting of 80 35-mm. color slides and an 
easy-to-read script, is currently available to clubs and groups for the price 
of the postage. It covers areas in the state that have been preserved or 
ought to be. Requests for the program package can be directed to the 
Illinois Chapter, The Nature Conservancy, c/o Mr. Cyrus Mark, 1900 
Dempster St., Evanston, Il]. 60204. 
a a a 
BOOK REVIEW 
SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY, by Edward Fuller. Random House, 
457 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022. 1966. $4.95. 
The whole philosophy behind this adventure, many times repeated, seems 
to be “that rural America is a good place to make a life but a poor place 
to make a living,” especially, we might add, for an inexperienced “city 
Slicker” or literary career man. The “Successful Calamity” seems to bear 
out the tenet that living close to nature seasons, matures, deepens, and 
disciplines ideas and lives, bringing out the best fruits of existence. 
City people are prone too often to dream of all the advantages and 
blessings of rural living without taking into account the hardships of 
drought, floods, head and cold, insects, disease, and other inconveniences. 
The Fullers bought 260 acres on the historic and beautiful shores of 
Lake Champlain in Vermont. 
The “Calamity” of the follies, fun and frolic, laughter and gallant 
adventures, with accompanying freeze-outs, hardships, financial losses and 
snow-bound experiences of this adventuresome New York family—which 
took to the country and was taken by it—is the type of story where 
literary people dream of sylvan retreat and euphoric pleasures of living 
close to nature without considering the physical toll which often obliterates 
the sweet isolation of taking to the woods and meadows in pursuit of all 
the Thoreauian pleasures. 
The four-year “Calamity” is a well-written, down-to-earth account 
which traces the bubonic bubble that hes hidden in all modern city 
literary people who are frustrated from the highly complex rat-race which 
today faces many people, but which few have the courage to actually 
experience. 
There is a certain feeling of sadness accompanying the detailed story 
which starts the hope in the reader that it might have ended successfully. 
=— ea. \Galbreath 
