Book Reviews : China Under Mao: Politics Takes Command. Edited by RODERICK MACFARQUHAR. A Selection of Articles from The China Quarterly. (Cambridge, Mass.: The M. I. T. Press, 1966. Pp. ix, 525.)

• Author: Hellmut Wilhelm
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296802100222
• Published date: 01 June 1968
• Date: 01 June 1968
• Subject Matter: Articles

352
The most significant information emerges in the almost daily exchange of
letters between Wilson and his future wife, Ellen Louise Axson, a correspondence
that comprises the bulk of this volume. Wilson appears as an extremely insecure
human being who repeatedly subjected himself to self-analysis (in his words, &dquo;an
absurdly sensitive creature&dquo; whose &dquo;salvation is in being loved&dquo;), while Ellen
materializes as an intelligent, considerate woman who sought to provide her future
husband with the assurances of love he so desperately needed. Clearly, Wilson was
dependent upon others and once confessed that &dquo;it would be impossible for me to
live alone, without home companionship....&dquo;
Yet there was another side of the relationship, a mutual passion expressed in
the exchange of locks of hair, in kissing one another’s letters, and in constant pro-
fessions of affection and devotion. To his &dquo;precious little bewitcher,&dquo; Wilson
confided that &dquo;it makes me tremble sometimes to recognize the strength of my own
passion,&dquo; and on another occasion he...