Introduction
It is rare indeed for the author of an overnight bestseller to return just a few short months later with another book that is obviously destined for the same fate. Pete's Mother by Bella Dietrich won that comparatively young authoress immediate fame and the unanimous acclaim of the literary critics. Miss Dietrich's extensive knowledge of modern psychiatric methods, added to her gifts for characterization and telling a fast-moving story, were eagerly welcomed by readers tired of pretentious fakery and turgid prose. Now, in The Professor's Bride, Miss Dietrich has done it again, in a novel the publishers of Dansk Blue Books sincerely feel is an even more stunning accomplishment than her first.
Even in these days of women's liberation, one does not expect a female writer to tackle such a complex and basically masculine subject as the changing structure of the United States Navy. Along with everything else, however, Miss Dietrich is a painstaking researcher; for several years, in fact, she was an award-winning newspaper reporter. Only a woman of her background could have gathered the background detail necessary for a work of this nature.
That the U.S. Navy is undergoing major changes will be surprising even to some of its own members, let alone the general reading public. But changing it is, and that change is far from limited to advances in technology and weaponry. Psychology and sociology enter this sphere, too, as they do every other area of modern life. While every armed service must preserve to some degree an overall caste system in order to continue to operate, even caste systems are subject to change and progress. No one would suggest that the lowest enlisted man should make major policy decisions, whether in war or peace. But the lowest enlisted men are human beings, and the prevailing trend is more and more to recognize this and to treat them as such.
Sexual tensions and frustrations obviously affect the lives of officers and enlisted men alike, even those assigned to the comparative tranquility and comfort of a Navy postgraudate school like the one which provides the setting for this novel. No one could be more aware of this than its hero, Carl Crandall, Ph.D., who wants to bring such up-to-date techniques as "off-site" encounter groups into general use to improve the psychological health of today's Navy. Unfortunately, his awareness is limited to the theoretical; and the difficulties of persuading the authorities to accept his ideas and plans plus a crushingly heavy work schedule have made him virtually blind to the problems and desires of his own wife, Maeve.
Maeve is an entirely normal, healthy young woman in every respect-except that she is totally frustrated by the lack of any attention, particularly sexual attention, from her husband. Like most frustrated people, she attempts to divert her burning energies into another channel. In this case, Maeve develops an interest in art, spends many hours a day painting... and thus in her turn begins to neglect her housework and her husband. Thus the well-known vicious circle has started to spin, and once it begins, it gathers momentum rapidly with every passing day. When other complicating factors, such as the Crandalls' nymphomaniacal neighbor, Betty, enter the picture, the situation really becomes explosive.
Into this complex and almost disastrous situation steps Admiral Sam Grandfield. Grandfield is a profoundly compelling figure, a man you will remember, and a character who could only be portrayed on stage or screen by an actor with the skill and authority of a George C. Scott. But, although he dominates those around him by his very presence and usually gets his own way in everything he does, he does not-as might have been expected -totally dominate the book. The structure Miss Dietrich has erected is too complex and intricately organized for any one figure to dominate. You will grow to know intimately every character in this book. You will admire some, and be repelled by others, but you will never for a moment doubt that they are all real people, with real passions and real problems.
But perhaps we, the publishers, have already said too much. Our natural pride makes us unusually enthusiastic over The Professor's Bride. Nothing we have said, however, can prepare you for the drama of the events that unfold on the following pages, and no amount of guessing will tell you exactly what to expect in the astonishing, but utterly logical, climax.
Read The Professor's Bride, and join the ever-expanding ranks of Bella Dietrich's loyal fans.
The Publishers