In "To See the Dream" Jessamyn West proves again that in addition to her almost incredible technical proficiency her writing is refreshingly and almost frighteningly perceptive.

In essence, this is the story of Miss West's writing of the screenplay of "The Friendly Persuasion," a motion picture based on her own novel of the same name….

The journal is the book, and it is real, obviously put down day by day, and not heavily rewritten. It retains, therefore, the freshness that only first thoughts can have; that it is beautifully written only proves that Miss West can get the right word, phrase or sentence structure, first crack out of the box; therefore she does not have to sacrifice immediacy for style by recasting her impressions in more literary fashion. Anyone who has ever tried journal-keeping can only be awed.

Like any record of a traveler's sojourn in an alien...