8/8-8/14/48

8/8 Sunday Lost to Schinase. We both read the great first novel of Norman Mailer "The Naked and the Dead".

8/9 A Soviet teacher here was kidnapped by a band of White Russians upstate and rescued by Consul General Lamokin and two associates. A new 'spy' witness has appeared - Alex Koral. A meat boycott is starting. Nine T.W.U. heads were forced to quit the A.L.P. N.Y.C. newspaper typos won $9 per week raise. Rosika Schwimmer is dead at 70.

8/10 Left for farm again. Alex Koral, the 'mystery man' failed to add anything new to the spy scare refusing to talk to the UnAmerican Comm. The Senate hearings on the case have been halted due to Truman's "lack of cooperation".

8/11 There is a bow and arrow craze here. Both kids have them, Sylvia calling hers a bowdin arrow. I split chess games with Eugene while he romped over what competition he found at the farm. The "States Rights Americans" composed of Southern Democrat dissidents nominated Gov. Thurmond of S.C. for President and Gov. Wright of Mississippi for Vice Pres. It is based on white superiority.

I do remember the bow and arrow craze. I remember finding the proper size tree sapling, cutting it and scraping off the bark to make the bow. 

8/12 The kids draw in bed every morning until breakfast time. Duncan Lee, Ed Miller and William Ullman, leading gov't officials during the war who have been accused of being Soviet spies denied all at the hearings. 30,000 Negroes voted at the D.C. primary. Truman signed and criticized a weak housing bill. We picked blackberries for the first time. Previously it had been blueberries.

8/13 Sylvia looks rather comical since she has lost a front tooth.

8/14 Mrs. Kosenkina jumped out of a third story window of the Soviet Consulate. She is held by Amer. authorities. Apparently she has been held involuntarily by Soviet Consul Lamakin rather than rescued by him. She has no doubt been bribed by us to turn traitor. Lauchlin Currie, Frank Coe, Donald Hiss, Harry D. White and Dr. & Mrs. Gold continued the parade of accused spies who denied all. Right wingers in Dept. store unions joined employers in 'fighting the left' by demanding the latter file non-Comm. affidavits. Non-Danube states were excluded from the Danube Control Comm. Sylvia threw a fork at Eugene after an argument at the dinner table.