Nora Waln

Nearly forty years ago, NORA WALN, a young Quaker, passed through the battle lines of the warlords on her way to Mongolia, where, at the behest of a Swedish publisher, she wrote her first book, about Frans August Larson, Duke of Mongolia. Subsequently, in China, where she wrote her famous narrative THE HOUSE OF EXILE,and still later, in Hiller’s Germany, where she gathered the source material for REACHING FOR THE STARS, she traveled unafraid. This is the latest of her adventures, carried out after Khrushchev had built the Wall.

In 1921 NORA WALN, a Quaker brought up in the Grampian Hills of Pennsylvania, became the adopted daughter of an ancient family then dwelling in their large cantonment known as the House of Exile in Hopei Province.She lived within the family walls for more than two years, an experience which she recaptured in her oft-printed took, THE HOUSE OF EXILE, and during her days there she made friends with a blind ballad singer whose art and whose fate in Red China she now depicts.

NORA WALN, an American author and Quaker, went back to the Orient in September, 1947, after an absence of fifteen years. She made her headquarters in Tokyo, gathering material for her new book, Sliding Doors; she flew to Formosa and to Northern China, where she visited the House of Exile, the subject of her first book. The outbreak of war drew Miss Waln to Korea, and there she remained as a war correspondent until December, 1950. She has recently been lecturing in this country and, in the course of her travels, soliciting contributions for the Korean orphans she speaks of in this touching paper.

The college graduates and the young intellectuals of China are faced today with some terribly difficult decisions. No one knows this better than NORA WALN, author of The House of Exile and Reaching for the Stars, who has been living and writing in the Orient for the past two years. In her third Atlantic article she wrote of An-kuo, the young Chinese scholar who for a time took refuge in Japan but went home because he felt he was needed. In the following article Miss Waln reports the reaction of the Chinese people to the Communist conquest.

The college graduates and the young intellectuals of China are faced today with some terribly difficult decisions. No one knows this better than NORA WALN, the author of The House of Exile and Reaching for the Stars, who has been living and writing in the Orient for the past two years. This is the third Atlantic article drawn from her actual experiences, and for obvious reasons she was careful to disguise the identity of An-kuo, that young Chinese scholar who for a time took refuge in Japan.

Japan with her ancient heritage so different from ours is now poised on the threshold of democracy. Will she turn our way or Russia’s? NORA WALN, author of The House of Exile and Reaching for the Stars, has been living in Japan for the past two years. With her disarming Quaker spirit, she has penetrated farther than most Americans in her understanding of the uncertainty and the aspiration of the Japanese people. Her findings will come to us in the form of a regular monthly article. Last month she described the indoctrination and hostility with which the Japanese prisoners returned from Russia: next month she will speak of the schools and the young refugees from Communism to whom Japan has given sanctuary.

Japan with her (indent heritage so different from ours is non poised on the threshold of democracy. Will she turn our way or Russia’s? NORA WALN, author of The House of Exile and Beaching for the Stars, has been living m Japan for the past two years. II ith her disarming Quaker spirit, she has penetrated farther than most Americans in her understanding of the uncertainty and the aspiration of the Japanese people. Her findings will come to us in the form of a regular monthly article; next month she will tell of “The Grass Roots Revolution in Japan ami of how the wealthy Japanese family has responded to the reform.