Truman Books

Something NOT being disproven[sic] doesn't make it true. Example: You can't prove there isn't a tooth fairy.

This appears to be an unedited reprint of Bethurum's last published book, THE PEOPLE OF THE PLANET CLARION, which first appeared in 1970 shortly after his death. Bethurum was the second of the 1950s "contactees," curious characters who claimed to have met and talked with completely-human-appearing space aliens from other planets in our solar system. The first and best-known contactee was George Adamski, whom Bethurum seems to have been on fairly friendly terms with.

The first 44 pages are mainly an autobiography of Bethurum, and evoke a fairly interesting time in the early 20th Century history of a rural part of California. The text sounds as if it had been dictated by Bethurum to a tape recorder; alas, no one seems to have cared enough to ask him to elaborate in the many places where he lapses into unintelligibility. The next few chapters sort of orbit around the events of Bethurum's first book, ABOARD A FLYING SAUCER (1954), getting eventually to a space alien "commandment" of December 1955 for Bethrum to found a religious commune, the "Sanctuary of Thought."

The rest of the 139 pages are a random grab-bag of newspaper clippings plus a FAQ section about the planet Clarion and its people. I found it amusing that although "Tru" claimed to have chatted with the lovely Captain Aura Rhanes of Clarion nearly a dozen times, for substantial parts of an hour each time, the "information" about Clarion consists of a few isolated and generally incomprehensible sentences, already contained in ABOARD A FLYING SAUCER, repeated over and over. One gets the impression "Tru" and Aura spent most of their time together breathing heavily instead of conversing.

The 1950s contactees have generally been dismissed by those in the field of "ufoology" as harmless and often charming charlatans. Others have depicted them as evil tools of the CIA, who deliberately set out to convince the public of the inherent absurdity of any attempt to "study" flying saucers. It's only necessary to read the books of the contactees to see that essentially all of them were in fact motivated by deeply-held religious convictions (and most already led, or came ot lead, a religious cult), and that they were trying in their own way to bring simplistic, fundamentalist religious concepts into some kind of harmony with the science fiction/space travel ferment of the early 1950s.

I agree with all of the above posts. This book is totally devoid of Capote's talent and does not resemble any of his other prose. It is difficult for me to believe that Capote wrote this. Don't waste your money on this. Instead, borrow a copy for your library.

I am willing to put money down on this: Truman Capote did not write this text. He had published many short stories when this supposedly was written and had discovered his voice early on. This text is completely devoid of talent -- not a single potent description, no discernible craft, not a moment of vitality. I hope the opportunistic relative who published this crap made little or no money. It is so insulting and cruel to the memory of one of our greatest writers.

I'm afraid I can't be as generous as the reviewer below. This book's very existence is sickening to me, as a reminder that no writer's reputation, however great, is safe from the greed of dishonest relatives. Note that the same aunt who shopped this tripe around wrote a "biography" of her nephew ("Truman Capote"), full of racism, lies, and nauseating family gossip. This book is worse, though, if only because she put his name as author. My local library has at least five copies of this trash, yet not a single copy of "A Tree of Night" or other collections actually written by Capote. A downer in every way.

I found this book on special for 5 Australian dollars so I picked it up. I didn't get around to reading it for a little while but I should have never bothered in the first place for a few reasons.

The book is too focused on the american economy and had very little information which could be linked to Australia's economy.

From the first page it presented itself as a very bland read, giving barely any encouraging information for anyone wanting to expand on their finances. I stopped reading after the second chapter as it just had no appeal to me.

I do not recommend this book at all.

For a Finance Professor at NYU this book should be an embarrassment. It is not only poorly written, but dispenses absolutely no advice. The book has no appeal at all, and is merely a summary of the existing wealth holders. I mean who cares how much Mike Tyson earnt in 1997. This is hardly aspirational stuff. If wealth creation is the topic that a reader is pursuing I would strongly recommend Peter Drucker (Innovation and Entrepreneurship), which will give the reader a clear insight into why Americans have expanded their wealth, without the rhetoric. Another great book would be by Lester Thurow (Creating Wealth) who explains how wealth is created. As far as this book is concerned, spend your money elsewhere.

In his biography of President Harry S Truman, William Pemberton aims primarily to blame Turman and his administration for the Cold War.

This interpretation is highly flawed and dependent on a number of questionable characterizations and assumptions. He objects to any comparison of Hitler and Stalin, ignores and misrepresents various post-war actions by Stalin, and presents Truman's policies as beligerent, ideologically motivated attacks on a cooperative Soviet Union. His criticism of Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan grossly under-estimates the number of casualties the US would have sustained had Operation Olympic been implemented, and also exagerates the willingness of the Japanese to surrender. Pemberton's conclusion that the primary motive for the use of the atomic bomb was to intimidate the Soviets is aimed solely at supporting his theis that the Cold War was begun by the US and disregards all evidence to the contrary. However, aggresive behavior by the Soviets, such as their demands on Iran, are either not discussed or are misrepresented. The reader is never informed of the nature of Soviet demands on Iran. For Turkey, Soviet demands that their warships be allowed to pass through the Turkish Straits were reasonable, their demands for base rights along the Straits, and for territorial concessions in eastern Turkey, were expantionist. Pemberton, however, does not inform his readers of the expantionist demands. Along similar lines, Stalin's violations of the Yalta Declaration are condoned by Pemberton as a difference of interpretation between Washington and Moscow. Indeed, Pemberton writes, while denouncing Truman's calls for reforms in Soviet-dominated Central Europe, that

This is the first book by Truman Capote that I've read, and I can see that he is a good writer. The book is well written and evokes lovely images of place and time. However, the story is awful, and put me in a bad mood for the entire day. **SPOILER ALERT** The beginning of the story is fine, but in the end, the family completely abandons the old man, leaving him to live with strangers. They never go back to visit, not even after Grandma dies and Grandpa writes to say he's all alone, doesn't know what to do, and wishes he'd died too. They don't keep in touch, and a few short years later, their son has all but forgotten his grandfather. It is heart-wrenching, not heartwarming.

Don't expect the story in this study guide. It isn't there.