SO HELP ME GOD

by Felix Jackson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 1955

The ruinous results of guilt by association and implication, and the snowballing of a smear and slander campaign, this is the quod erat demonstrandum young Spencer Donovan makes- at the expense of his career and his closest associations, and it results in a tense and telling drama. A lawyer, Donovan had been unable to establish the 'innocence of an historian-lecturer- State Department adviser in a Senate subcommittee hearing before his suicide- and to show how easily a man can be destroyedwrites an anonymous letter of self-accusation to the Un-American Activities Committee, with only his closest friend, Larry Runt, as witness. In the days which follow, a Senator and a columnist brand him as a Communist and a traitor and he leaves the charges unanswered: he witnesses the disaffection of his friends- and the disintegration of his practice; the girl he is to marry withdraws, and Larry Hunt- now suspicious-disappears; and he finally faces the Senate Hearing he demands with only the faith of an older man, a young boy, and the woman who loves him... ""The right kind of a fool at the right moment""- Donovan's story illustrates an issue with confidence, presents it popularly, and is uncomfortably alert to the dangerous pressures of our time.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955

Categories: FICTION