The book review digest, Volume 16, 1920
volume one rejoices in passages of real charm, the product of an alert
and sensitive imagination.”
+ =Freeman= 2:260 N 24 ’20 180w
=MORLEY, CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON.= Travels in Philadelphia. il *$1.50 (2c) McKay 917.48
20–5213
In his introduction to this collection of sketches, originally printed in the Evening Public Ledger, A. Edward Newton says: “Where else shall we find simplicity, the gayety, the kindly humor, and the charm of this gentle essayist? Who, other than Morley, could make a walk out Market street of interest and a source of fun?... Who, but he, could find in the commonplace, sordid, and depressing streets of our city, subjects for a sheaf of dainty little essays, as delightful as they are unique?” Some of the titles are: Little Italy; Meeting the gods for a dime; Trailing Mrs Trollope; The Ronaldson cemetery; Chestnut street from a fire escape; The recluse of Franklin square; Up the Wissahickon; The Whitman centennial; Anne Gilchrist’s house; Penn treaty park; At the mint; Madonnas of the curb; On the sightseeing bus; Putting the city to bed. The illustrations are from drawings by Frank H. Taylor.
* * * * *
“These articles combine a happy, not too studied description with pleasant humor into a congenial guide book to Philadelphia.”
+ =Booklist= 16:309 Je ’20
“The book is here for everybody to read and take pleasure in whether or not they have ever seen Philadelphia. Perhaps some day Mr Morley will come hither and give us a like book about Boston.” E. F. E.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 My 29 ’20 650w
+ =Cleveland= p76 Ag ’20 110w
“To an old Philadelphian the insight of Mr Christopher Morley is really wondrous.” M. F. Egan
+ =N Y Times= 25:284 My 30 ’20 550w
=MORLEY, LINDA H., and KIGHT, ADELAIDE C.= 2400 business books and guide to business literature. *$5 Wilson, H. W. 016
This is a revision of the work called “1600 business books,” compiled by Sarah B. Ball and published in 1916. It has been prepared by Linda H. Morley and Adelaide C. Kight of the Business branch of the Newark public library, under the direction of John Cotton Dana. “The sub-title ‘Guide to business literature’ is added to make it plain that the book is far more than a list of 2400 volumes. It is an index to the contents of those volumes; that is, it lists, in alphabetic order, under 2000 different headings, the subjects which are treated in these 2400 books. These headings are in addition to those entries which give the names of the writers of the 2400 books and in addition to the entries which give their titles.” (Introd.) The entries are arranged in one alphabet, with a publishers’ directory at the close.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:136 Ja ’21
=MORRIS, EDWIN BATEMAN.= Cresting wave. *$1.75 Penn
20–4440
“An American story of a young, successful, but unscrupulous, financier, giving a picture of society financial markets, and the conflict of business methods and the passion of love.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:349 Jl ’20
“Edwin Bateman Morris’s preceding novels have prepared us for moderately good tales from his pen, and ‘The cresting wave’ is no disappointment.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p10 My 1 ’20 160w
“The author here has taken a safe course in his novel of more than four hundred pages, and if he presents us with nothing especially new, at least he does no violence to no tradition and does not attempt to paint his hero in impossible colors.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:330 Je 20 ’20 400w
“‘The cresting wave’ is built upon one of the very oldest of ideas or morals: namely, that it is better to be decent than successful, better to serve than to grasp. Perhaps my gratitude to young William Spade for neither trying to write a novel nor spouting free verse nor hanging about cafes and studios in search of ‘life’ prejudices me unduly in his favor.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 2:393 Ap 17 ’20 250w
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a My 16 ’20 240w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p285 My 6 ’20 50w
=MORRIS, HARRISON SMITH.= Hannah Bye. *$1.75 Penn
20–7646
“The Quaker life and character is sketched in this simple and sweet story of Hannah Bye. The scene is in a Quaker community and the characters are varied. Here is Deborah Bye, cold, harsh, uncompromising, whose conscience forms her whole character and whose personality rather than her religion, forms her conscience. Her daughter, Hannah, the heroine of the story, is a far sweeter character and one which appeals strongly to the reader. Ruth Blake, her nearest friend, makes the acquaintance of a city visitor to the country, of whom Hannah warns her without success. The fall comes and Hannah, in her effort to keep and save Ruth, draws upon herself her mother’s anger. The peaceful home is shattered but Hannah in the end restores its peace.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“The story is restful, with here and there a dash of humor, but one which will appeal to all in its quiet delineation of character, which appears to be drawn from real life.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 O 13 ’20 150w
“Mr Morris’s descriptions of the country are sympathetic and reveal an artist’s eye; he has handled the Quaker jargon with some success, but not exhaustively or to the complete satisfaction of the insider. Any Quaker will, certainly, take exception to the hard, domineering character attributed to Hannah’s mother, Deborah Bye. The Quaker meeting for worship is also incongruous, and the dance and its sequel are inappropriately melodramatic.” W. W. Comfort
+ − =Nation= 111:621 D 1 ’20 500w
“The picture of a little rural community centered about the quaint meeting-house of the society of Friends is delightful.’”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 27 ’20 150w
=MORRISON, ALFRED JAMES.= East by west; essays in transportation. *$1.50 (3½c) Four seas co. 382
20–26869
“A commentary on the political framework within which the East India trade has been carried on from early times, starting with Babylon and ending very near Babylon.” (Subtitle) The book begins with the twentieth century before Christ describing the avenues of trade to and from Babylon, “formed by position for a seat of empire and commerce,” and falls into two parts, part one ending with Venice as the great commercial center in the fifteenth century. Part two begins with the trade ascendancy of Portugal, at the time of the discovery of America, and ends with the Bagdad railway and “The great transportation war.” An edition of the book was published by Sherman, French in 1917.
* * * * *
“The book was probably not designed and is certainly not adapted to fit the needs of a serious student, but may attract the casual reader by its rapid movement and informal style.”
+ =Am Hist R= 26:138 O ’20 150w
+ =Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20
+ =Cath World= 111:554 Jl ’20 140w
=Nation= 110:773 Je 5 ’20 220w
“Some of the remarks seem but remotely connected with the subject of transportation.”
+ − =Review= 3:626 D 22 ’20 380w
“The underlying causes which caused the movements of civilization are dealt with in a lively style, which is not often found in books of this kind.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ap 30 ’20 120w
=MORSE, EDWIN WILSON.= Life and letters of Hamilton Wright Mabie. il *$3 (3½c) Dodd
20–20980
A biography of a distinguished author, editor and lecturer, quoting liberally from his letters and from the letters written to him by others. There are chapters on: Ancestry, boyhood and youth; At Williams college in the ‘sixties; Recollections of Dr Mark Hopkins and Emerson; In the uncongenial law; On the staff of the Christian Union; Associate editor of the Christian Union; A memorable decade; Non-professional activities; Literary honors; The middle period; Ambassador of peace to Japan; The world war; The last year; Editor, author and lecturer; Character and personality. There is an index of names and places.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:153 Ja ’21
“Mr Morse’s ‘The life and letters of Hamilton W. Mabie’ is conceived and carried through in the spirit of its subject. It is clear, sympathetic, and convincing.” H: Van Dyke
+ =Bookm= 52:355 Ja ’21 1150w
“Mr Morse has performed his task excellently, with sufficient fulness and good judgment in selection of his material. The book is also well illustrated.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p9 N 27 ’20 160w
“The reviewer does not mean to suggest that Mr Morse’s volume is dull, but is far from exciting. The subject of it led an uneventful life, in the sense that there were few dramatic happenings in his life.”
+ − =N Y Times= p20 Ja 16 ’21 1950w
=R of Rs= 63:110 Ja ’21 90w
“Shows careful and sympathetic study of an influential American.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 23 ’21 600w
=MOSHER, MRS ANGE (MCKAY).= Spell of Brittany. il *$3 Duffield 914.4
20–21069
This volume by an American woman who had lived long in Brittany is devoted largely to its history, traditions and folklore. There are chapters on Madame de Sévigné; Folk-lore and Jeanne de Pontorson; Mont St Michel and its legends; St Malo and Chateaubriand; A folk song of St Malo; Dinard, Dinan and excursions; Félix de Lamennais; The legend and pardon of St Yves; Breton wedding; Brest and the adjacent islands; Audierne, and the legend of Ys; Saints and fairies; Nantes and Anne of Brittany, etc. Among the illustrations are reproductions of paintings. There is an index. The introduction by Anatole LeBraz is in the nature of a memorial to the author, who died in 1918.
* * * * *
“Good print and make-up.”
+ =Booklist= 17:151 Ja ’21
Reviewed by Margaret Ashmun
+ =Bookm= 52:345 D ’20 80w
“Exceedingly bright and fascinating are these chapters out of the life of a lovely woman who made the study of these people her avocation, if not her actual vocation.” E. J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p5 D 4 ’20 580w
+ =N Y Times= p22 D 12 ’20 270w
=R of Rs= 62:672 D ’20 50w
=MOTON, ROBERT RUSSA.= Finding a way out; an autobiography. *$2.50 (4½c) Doubleday
20–10075
In writing his story it was the hope of the author “that the telling of it would serve a useful purpose, especially at this time, in helping to a clearer understanding of the hopes and aspirations of my own people and the difficulties which they have overcome in making the progress of the last fifty years which has been so frequently described as ‘the most remarkable of any race in so short a time.’” (Preface) Contents: Out of Africa; On a Virginia plantation; Through reconstruction; Doing and learning; A touch of real life; Ending student days; Black, white, and red; With north and south; From Hampton to Tuskegee; At Tuskegee; War activities; Forward movements in the south; Index. The author succeeded Booker T. Washington as head of Tuskegee institute.
* * * * *
“This autobiography not only impresses one with the worth and dignity of its writer but charms and amuses the reader with the sense of humor and the sweetness which the author has carried with him.”
+ =Booklist= 16:344 Jl ’20
Reviewed by M. E. Bailey
+ =Bookm= 52:304 Ja ’21 110w
“If not so romantic as the autobiography of his predecessor, Dr Booker T. Washington nevertheless this story of the life of the present head of Tuskegee, is a document of vital interest. The chapters on From Hampton to Tuskegee and At Tuskegee are among the most important of Dr Moton’s autobiography.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 16 ’20 730w
Reviewed by M. W. Ovington
=Freeman= 1:500 Ag 4 ’20 800w
+ =Nation= 111:736 D 22 ’20 50w
“We wish that this volume might find its way into every public library in the United States and into every school and church library in the South.”
+ =Outlook= 125:467 Jl 7 ’20 280w
“His book deserves to be read on his own account, and also for the side lights that it throws upon negro conditions and problems.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:111 Jl ’20 100w
“It is easy to read and is highly informing and inspiring regarding the career of one of America’s outstanding figures in contemporary affairs. It is bound to be read, especially by those who enjoy an unusual autobiography.” F. P. Chisholm
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 26 ’20 500w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p712 N 4 ’20 520w
=MOTTELAY, PAUL FLEURY=, comp. Life and work of Sir Hiram Maxim; knight, chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, etc. il *$2 (4c) Lane
20–13086
Biographical facts are set forth in a foreword by the author. This is followed by an introduction by Lord Moulton. The body of the book is then devoted to the inventions of Sir Hiram Maxim, with chapters on: Electric lighting; Maxim automatic gun; Powders; Explosives; Erosion of guns; Fuzes; Gun for attacking Zeppelins; Lewis gun—Madsen gun; Flight of a projectile; Aerial navigation; etc. There are seven illustrations, appendixes and index.
* * * * *
=Ath= p604 My 7 ’20 700w
=Outlook= 125:715 Ag 25 ’20 60w
=Spec= 124:394 Mr 20 ’20 180w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p189 Mr 18 ’20 80w
=MOULTON, JOHN FLETCHER MOULTON, 1st baron.= Science and war. pa *80c (7½c) Putnam 509
(Eng ed 19–15830)
This small volume contains the Rede lecture for 1919, at Cambridge university. In beginning his enumeration of the debts the war owes to science Lord Moulton, without apparent ironical intent, points out that science made the war possible. He shows that the war represented “the results of the totality of scientific progress” from the beginning and then devotes himself to the more recent developments of science and invention that determined the character and extent of the war. In conclusion he warns that the next war may mean not only the end of civilization but the self-destruction of mankind.
* * * * *
=Ath= p786 Ag 22 ’19 340w
Reviewed by B: C. Gruenberg
=Nation= 111:104 Jl 24 ’20 160w
+ =Spec= 123:284 Ag 30 ’19 90w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p402 Jl 24 ’19 180w
=MOULTON, RICHARD GREEN=, ed. Modern reader’s Bible for schools; the New Testament. *$2.25 Macmillan 225
20–5983
“‘The modern reader’s Bible’ is not a new translation. It is the ordinary Bible (revised version), without alteration as to matter or wording, but printed in such a way as to bring out to the eye the full literary form and structure. This literary form and structure refers to such things as the difference between story, song, drama, discourse, essay: the distinction between verse and prose, together with the delicate variations of verse which make such a large part of the effect of poetry.” (Introd.) In addition to the general introduction each of the three parts, Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Revelation, has its special introduction. Some forty pages of notes are arranged at the end and there is an index “designed to give assistance in the more systematic reading of the New Testament.” There is also a frontispiece map.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:355 Jl ’20
“On the whole the book seems admirably adapted to the purpose intended—to provide a text of the New Testament with explanations adequate and truthful yet thoroughly adapted virginibus puerisque.”
+ =Nation= 111:305 S 11 ’20 200w
“Professor Moulton’s ‘Reader’s Bible,’ good as it is, does not please everyone because he varies the order of the canon, and because he adopts the revised version. However, we are glad to see his simplified edition of the New Testament. It is far easier to read than any ordinary Testament.”
+ =Spec= 125:540 O 23 ’20 170w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p637 S 30 ’20 120w
=MOWAT, ROBERT BALMAIN.= Henry V. il *$3.50 Houghton 942.04
“Henry V in his day was held to be the pattern of a chivalrous knight: round his name has centred the romance of medieval England; in his person Shakespeare found already expressed the glory of the Elizabethan age, the symbol of our national aspirations. The character of Henry V has many of the faults but all the virtues of his time; ... his kindness and good fellowship; his bravery and sense of justice; his unremitting industry; his piety.” (Chapter I) Among the contents are: The legendary and the real Henry; The French war; The conquest of Normandy; The treaty of Troyes; The work and character of Henry V. The book is illustrated and has an appendix, a bibliography and an index. An earlier edition of this work appeared in 1915.
* * * * *
=Ath= p668 My 21 ’20 1250w
“It is natural in such a biography rather to emphasize the heroic, and within the limits of his space Mr Mowat has given us a very readable and on the whole accurate history. But space would not permit the writer to add much that is new.” C. L. Kingsford
+ − =Eng Hist R= 35:453 Jl ’20 1100w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:419 N 3 ’20 500w
“Mr Mowat has written a good book, which should be widely read. He has very rightly relied in the main upon the chief French and English chronicles and biographies, and has avoided the tendency, rather too common just now, to pick out erudite and often irrelevant detail from half-read sources.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p182 Mr 15 ’20 1100w
=MUIR, EDWIN.= We moderns; enigmas and guesses. *$1.75 Knopf 192
20–26566
The volume is the fourth in the series of Free lance books, edited with introductions by H. L. Mencken. It is a book of aphorisms after the manner of Nietzsche and inspired by the philosophy of Nietzsche. They are animadversions on life and all the modern aspects of life as revealed in our art, literature, science, and religion; and are grouped under the headings: The old age; Original sin; What is modern? Art and literature; Creative love; The tragic view.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:7 O ’20
“There are lapses, superficialities, but on the whole this is criticism, of life and of literature, which must effect a change in one’s habits of thought.”
+ − =Dial= 69:102 Jl ’20 90w
“These aphorisms are utterly without the meretricious glitter of the common epigram; they are luminous with the sober light of truth. Like Pascal’s ‘Pensees’ the logic that underlies the book is, in its smaller scale, an unconstructed cathedral of thought: it demands a certain architectural intuition of the reader. One thing is certain: no utterances more tonic, more bracing have rent the sultry firmament of contemporary literature.”
+ =Freeman= 1:213 My 12 ’20 2150w
“He is, on the evidence of this little volume, a thinker not lightly to be passed by.”
+ =N Y Times= p8 O 31 ’20 850w
=MUMFORD, ALFRED ALEXANDER.= Manchester grammar school, 1515–1915; a regional study of the advancement of learning in Manchester since the reformation. il *$8.50 (*21s) Longmans 373
20–8869
“This volume has seventeen chapters with twenty-one appendixes of documents, tracing the history of the Manchester school for three hundred years. The author is more interested in the personal history of its benefactors, directors, masters, and graduates, than he is in detailed information regarding the school’s management, support, system of education, etc., at various periods. This is somewhat disappointing to the American student. On the other hand the volume is much more than a history of one school or even of the educational forces and agencies in Manchester. There is much of value on the educational and intellectual development of England in general, and comment on the larger factors of an economic, social, and religious character, which influenced the course of this development. The main thread of the story has to do with the struggle to democratize the school and to supplant the old classical curriculum with one which would more directly meet the new economic and social conditions ushered in by the industrial revolution. There are numerous illustrations of Manchester, the school and notables connected with it, and a good index.”—Am Hist R
* * * * *
“The book is a creditable piece of work, even if it does not measure up to the high standard of scholarship which other writers have set in their histories of similar schools.” M. W. Jernegan
+ − =Am Hist R= 26:127 O ’20 460w
“The last chapter of Dr Mumford’s book contains much valuable material. As he was for a long time medical examiner at the school, his testimony against military training in secondary schools is important. Other valuable expert testimony is that given in regard to the irregular development of the adolescent.” W. S. Hinchman
+ =Review= 2:523 My 15 ’20 1200w
=MUNDY, TALBOT.= Eye of Zeitoon. il *$2 Bobbs
20–4959
“Those who followed the fortunes of the four friends who traveled ‘The ivory trail’ will rejoice at the opportunity here afforded of meeting them once again and sharing the thrilling adventures which befell them because of ‘The eye of Zeitoon.’ This same ‘Eye of Zeitoon’ was not a precious stone of any kind, but a man named Kagig, an Armenian and a patriot, doing his best to save his countrymen from the Turks. Two women play important parts in the story—Gloria Vanderman, an American girl, resolute, strong-willed and fearless, able to handle a pistol or even a rifle in a moment of danger, and that effectively, and the mysterious Maga Jhaere, the wild, pagan, primitive half-gypsy, a veritable fiend at times, yet almost a child in her naïveté. She is interesting, but not so interesting as Kagig himself.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“‘The eye of Zeitoon’ shows a great advance on ‘The ivory trail,’ which we reviewed not long ago. It has more coherence, fewer horrors, and a descriptive quality which at times touches the point of brilliance.”
+ =Ath= p838 D 17 ’20 100w
=Booklist= 16:282 My ’20
“‘The eye of Zeitoon’ has most of the Kipling tricks and some of the Kipling virtues. As a yarn, it drags at times, its briskness of style being in odd contrast with the sluggish action.” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Bookm= 51:582 Jl ’20 210w
+ =Cleveland= p72 Ag ’20 50w
“Talbot Mundy would like to be a second Rudyard Kipling and he never will, but if you don’t insist on making invidious comparisons and if you like hot fighting you can find a lot of interest and excitement in this tale.”
+ − =Ind= 104:382 D 11 ’20 80w
“A dramatic, well-written and absorbing romance of high adventure.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:205 Ap 25 ’20 700w
Reviewed by Katharine Oliver
+ =Pub W= 97:993 Mr 20 ’20 320w
“A highly interesting element is the author’s portraiture of eastern characters.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 13 ’20 150w
“Mr Mundy strives valiantly after thrills and excitements, but scarcely succeeds in rising above the level of musical comedy.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p721 N 4 ’20 50w
=MUNDY, TALBOT.=[2] Told in the East. *$2 Bobbs
20–21184
“Two of the three stories in Talbot Mundy’s ‘Told in the East’ are of the proportions of novelets. They are based on dramatic incidents in the Indian mutiny. The third has a humorous trend but is withal a typical Mundy tale. The first of the trio, ‘Hookum, Hai’ has for its central figure Bill Brown, a stoical British sergeant, who, while assigned to an isolated outpost in command of a dozen men, is caught in the maelstrom of the initial uprising. A typical Mundy character—a loyal, aristocratic Rajput officer—is the hero of ‘For the salt he had eaten,’ the second story. ‘Machassan Ah,’ the final tale, relates the humorous experiences of two British bluejackets who go ashore at an Arabian port in pursuit of a native who proclaims himself an Englishman.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“None of the three tales published in the present volume is lacking in excitement; in fact, there is a little too much of it.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 D 31 ’20 100w
“Through the magic of these printed pages, we are transported to the India of the last century.”
+ =N Y Times= p24 D 26 ’20 670w
“The three stories will afford pleasure and entertainment.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p7a D 12 ’20 230w
=MUNK, JOSEPH AMASA.=[2] Southwest sketches. il *$3.50 Putnam 917.8
The book describes the mesa and desert country and the coast line of the Southwest geographically, geologically, climatologically and ethnographically. The healthfulness, beauty and rare fascination of the country are dwelt upon and the 133 illustrations give some idea of the scenery and the remains of pioneer and aboriginal life. The contents are: The mesa country; Land of the cliff dwellers; In Hopiland; The Flagstaff region; The petrified forests of Arizona; El Rito de los Frijoles; On the Arizona frontier; Passing of the Apache; Ranch reminiscences; Big irrigation projects; Southwest climate; Southern California.
* * * * *
+ =N Y Times= p14 Ja 2 ’21 910w
+ =R of Rs= 53:223 F ’21 70w
“A pleasantly informal travel book. Mr Munk evidently writes with thorough knowledge and shows an appreciative eye for the beauties and oddities of that country and its native people. Particularly fascinating is the description of the petrified forests of Arizona.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 18 ’21 420w
=MUNROE, JAMES PHINNEY.= Human factor in education. *$1.60 Macmillan 370.1
20–2741
“A volume defending vocational education and written by a vice-chairman of the Federal board for vocational education. The author tries to show that the old regime of twenty years and more ago was a flat failure in the scheme of education in the United States. There is strong intimation that much of the old system is still in force. He shows how the great world war has helped bring us to our senses in the matter of educating boys and girls in a many-sided way rather than in a narrow way as previously. (School R) “The book does not advocate, however, the separation of vocational from academic schools.” (Booklist)
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20
“The plea for reorganization of elementary and secondary education could hardly be put more forcibly than is here given. To the casual reader, however, there seems to be some overemphasis in places; but this only makes one think more carefully.”
+ − =School R= 28:390 My ’20 600w
=MURCHISON, CLAUDIUS TEMPLE.= Resale price maintenance. pa *$1.50 Longmans 338.5
19–17749
“Dr Murchison lays the foundation for discussion of price maintenance in the two chapters upon marketing: The organization of the market, and Irregularities of the present retailing system. The discussion of price maintenance is given in chapters five to eight.” (Am Econ R) “[Other subjects discussed are] the function of the retailer, and attempts to prevent price-cutting. Issued as Columbia university studies in history, economics, and public law.” (Brooklyn)
* * * * *
“A serious study such as this is to be commended even though it does not say the last word upon price maintenance.” H. R. Tosdal
+ − =Am Econ R= 10:120 Mr ’20 850w
=Brooklyn= 12:62 Ja ’20 30w
“The various forms of price maintenance and of price cutting are described in detail, and the arguments for and against both, as well as for the author’s own compromise position, are stated with lucidity. If the reader remains unconvinced, the reason lies in the fact that in actual life the problem of price determination is bound up with a variety of other problems of equal importance to the consumer.” B. L.
+ − =Survey= 43:202 N 29 ’19 320w
=MURDOCK, VICTOR.= China, the mysterious and marvellous. il *$2.50 Revell 915.1
20–20219
“Mr Murdock’s book is simply a narrative of a trip into China that took him rather far into the interior and away from the usual route of the tourist.” (Freeman) “He says, ‘Here is the history of the present volume. My brother in Wichita took the letters I had written and as they had been published in our paper, the Eagle, put them in the form they bear. Our idea was to let me give copies of it to particular friends.” (N Y Times)
* * * * *
“It is unfortunate, we think that Mr Murdock elected to write this story of his travels, not in English, but in journalese. Some three hundred pages of etymological ‘jazz’ places an undue strain on the reader’s literary nerves. And this is more the pity because the author can command good, plain English when he wants to.” Harold Kellock
+ − =Freeman= 2:188 N 3 ’20 620w
“The text is so frisky, the words so plain and slangy, comparisons so lacking, and the subject dealt with so personally, that I wondered at a publisher printing such a book with paper and labor so dear.” F: O’Brien
− =N Y Times= p7 S 5 ’20 3650w
+ =Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 50w
=MURRAY, ELSIE RIAEH, and SMITH, HENRIETTA BROWN.= Child under eight. (Modern educator’s lib.) *$1.90 (*6s) Longmans 372.2
(Eng ed E20–581)
“The book which comes from England with this title, ‘The child under eight,’ is a discussion of the kindergarten after the fashion that might have been found in an American book fifteen or twenty years ago. The titles of the various chapters indicate the temper of the writers. There are chapters entitled The world’s mine oyster, All the world’s a stage, Joy in making, In grassy places, etc. The book is not without some practical suggestions for work in the kindergarten, but in the main it is a defense of the kindergarten with some reference to modern movements in the treatment of little children.”—El School J
* * * * *
=El School J= 20:716 My ’20 170w
+ =Spec= 124:553 Ap 24 ’20 900w
=MURRAY, GILBERT.= Our great war and the great war of the ancient Greeks. (Creighton lecture, 1918) *$1.25 (13c) Seltzer 938
20–13139
A comparison between the Peloponnesian war and the great war in Europe. The war between Sparta and Athens was the greatest war the world had ever known. “Arising suddenly among civilized nations, accustomed to comparatively decent and halfhearted wars, it startled the world by its uncompromising ferocity.” And it ended in a peace that was no peace and was followed by other wars, the outcome of which was death to both combatants. Drawing on the historians and dramatists of the time the author sets forth a picture that shows many striking similarities to our modern experience. In conclusion he expresses a hope that in spite of the terrible evils growing out of the recent war, we may make use of the opportunity to build a better international life out of the ruin. The work is dated November 7, 1918.
* * * * *
=Nation= 111:252 Ag 28 ’20 350w
“Gilbert Murray’s translations are, as always, enjoyable, even though such words as ‘Niagara’ in the mouth of the Athenians make us a bit suspicious that other lively expressions also may be more Murray than Aristophanes.” J. W. Hughan
+ =Socialist R= 9:208 N ’20 220w
=MURRAY, JOHN.=[2] John Murray III, 1808–1892. il *$1.50 Knopf
(Eng ed 20–8871)
“John Murray III was the grandson of the John Murray (1745–93, originally MacMurray!) who founded the famous publishing house in November, 1768, and the son of John Murray, jr. (1778–1843), who is perhaps best remembered now as friend and publisher of Byron and as publisher of the Quarterly Review. Of John Murray III (1808–92) there was no account adequate at all, except mere facts in the Dictionary of national biography, until his son’s interesting article appeared in the Quarterly Review for January, 1919. The present little book consists of that article, revised and enlarged, followed by the father’s paper on the ‘Origin and history of Murray’s handbooks for travellers,’ and by some new letters to his family (1830–91), mainly describing vividly various travels abroad and at home.”—N Y Evening Post
* * * * *
“The letters are excellent reading, and we venture to ask for more, if more are to be had.”
+ =Ath= p76 Ja 16 ’20 300w
“Interesting because of his participation in literary events of real significance, such as Scott’s announcement of his authorship of ‘Waverly’ and the publication of the ‘Origin of species.’”
+ =Booklist= 17:153 Ja ’21
“One misses such anecdotes and illustrations of literary life as might have been expected from a publisher in close contact with great writers.”
+ − =Nation= 112:90 Ja 19 ’21 180w
“This is a very interesting and welcome little book.” L. L. MacKall
+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 D 4 ’20 1250w
“The memoir has the unusual fault of being too brief, but it does justice to its subject and adds a new and interesting chapter to the history of English publishing.”
+ =Spec= 122:81 Ja 17 ’20 1650w
=MUSCIO, BERNARD.= Lectures on industrial psychology. 2d ed, rev il *$3 Dutton 658.7
20–13083
“A book principally composed of a series of lectures given to general audiences at Sydney university.” (Survey) “These lectures discuss such topics as fatigue, muscle coördination, individual differences, scientific management, motion study, and other applications of psychology to the life of workers.” (R of Rs)
* * * * *
=Ath= p180 F 6 ’20 1250w
“Taken as a whole, Mr Muscio’s volume may be recommended particularly on account of its lucidity and common sense as providing what is probably the best short account yet published in this field. In certain places, however, these lectures are distinctly weak. The author sometimes betrays only a distant acquaintance with the statistical material of his subject. Another weakness of these lectures is their too great reliance on the anecdotal method.” P. S. Florence
+ − =Freeman= 2:117 O 13 ’20 600w
=R of Rs= 62:447 O ’20 30w
“There is no other book for the general reader that states the case for a scientific handling of the human factor in industry more clearly or more convincingly.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 44:638 Ag 16 ’20 280w
=MUZZEY, DAVID SAVILLE.= American history. il *$1.92 Ginn 973
20–10077
A prefatory note to this revised edition says, “Besides bringing the narrative down to the spring months of the year 1920, the author has entirely recast that part of the book following the Spanish war, and has made considerable changes in the preceding chapters. The changes are chiefly in the direction of added emphasis on social and economic factors in our history. New illustrative material has been added, the maps have been improved, and the bibliographical references brought down to date.” The work was first published in 1911.
* * * * *
+ =School R= 28:548 S ’20 340w
=MYERS, ANNA BALMER.= Patchwork; a story of the “plain people.” il *$1.75 (2c) Jacobs
20–5190
The “plain people” is what the religious sects, Mennonites, Amish, etc., in the Pennsylvania Dutch country are called. Phœbe Metz was a child of the “plain people” and this is her story from the time she was a quaint, unusually interesting and original little “Dutchie” of ten until she told David Eby that she would be his wife. She was fond of the world and its vanity, her golden curls and pretty clothes. She was frank about it; she could not be anything else but honest. And she had the courage, likewise, to go her own way, sorely as she grieved and shocked Aunt Maria. She went to Philadelphia to study music; tasted and loved the world’s glitter; saw some of its wickedness too; but when it came nigh to brushing the bloom off her youth, she escaped unscathed to her beloved country. There among the people and things that were a part of her very life she found herself, and when David returned from the war with but one leg, they both knew how much they had cared since they were children. There is much charm in the book’s local coloring.
* * * * *
“Entertaining but with less convincing dialect and background than Mrs Martin’s ‘Tillie.’”
+ − =Booklist= 16:349 Jl ’20
“There is a good deal of information about the ‘plain sects,’ their ways and speech and ideas, in this perfectly innocuous little story.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:321 Je 20 ’20 320w
=MYERS, FREDERIC WILLIAM HENRY.= Human personality and its survival of bodily death. *$4 Longmans 133.9
“This well-known work first appeared about sixteen years ago in two volumes, each of about seven hundred pages in length. The text is here materially condensed, and most of the appendices, which occupied about half each volume and contained examples of phenomena analysed in the text, are omitted. A short biographical sketch of Myers is included.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“As Myers’ theory develops to include more and more unusual phenomena it preserves its persuasiveness and elasticity: Myers’ patient skill is indeed the most attractive feature of the book.” J. W. N. S.
+ =Ath= p78 Ja 16 ’20 1300w
Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow
=Dial= 69:201 Ag ’20 1150w
+ =Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 140w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 20 ’20 650w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p719 D 4 ’19 60w
=MYERSON, ABRAHAM.=[2] Nervous housewife. *$2.25 (4½c) Little 616.8
20–21011
“Every practicing physician, every hospital clinic, finds her a problem, evoking pity, concern, exasperation, and despair.” (Introd. note) By examining the various causes and forms of nervousness in housewives, from merely deënergizing neurasthenia to highly pathological cases, from all points of view, the book seeks to stimulate the trend toward greater individualization in women, and to promote a more constructive and intelligent rebellion against old-established conditions and discontents. The book is indexed and the chapter headings are: The nature of “nervousness”; Types of housewife predisposed to nervousness; The housework and the home as factors in the neurosis; Reaction to the disagreeable; Poverty and its psychical results; The housewife and her husband; The housewife and her household conflicts; The symptoms as weapons against the husband; Histories of some severe cases; Other typical cases; Treatment of the individual cases; The future of woman, the home, and marriage.
* * * * *
“Written sympathetically and sensibly for the housewife herself to read.”
+ =Booklist= 17:144 Ja ’21
=Boston Transcript= p6 D 4 ’20 360w
“There is a note of pessimism about the book, despite its wholesomeness, that strikes a discordant chord here and there. But on the whole the book is sane, frank without being indelicate, wise, and fairly well-written.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p12 D 31 ’20 270w
N
=NALKOWSKA, SOFJA RYGIER.= Kobiety (women). il *$2 (3c) Putnam
21–492
This novel of Polish life has been translated from the Polish by Michael Henry Dziewicki. It takes the form of self-revelations of a beautiful, intellectual and self-centered girl—the transitional woman. Nothing matters to her but her own sensations, her own experiences. From the height of a coldly reasoning, logical intellect she surveys passion, coquettes with it, longs for it and, when it comes rejects it—from an inherited instinct of chastity. In the words of a rejected lover, she was: “A bundle of theories, of sentimental scepticism, of self-assurance.... A poor frightened bird always popping its head under its wing!” But then this particular lover was only a splendid specimen of physical perfection. At the end, discouraged and bewildered, Janka returns to her old professor, who had been sorely grieved when she had disappointed his hopes for her and had turned her back upon science. The confessions are in three parts: Ice-plains; “The garden of red flowers”; A canticle of love.
* * * * *
“Specifically a story of Polish life, this very unusual book reveals the secret springs of all human life. To read it after a long course of the mediocre, superficial writing through which a reviewer, in the course of his duty, must wade is like emerging from the subway and drawing pure air into the lungs. The translator has done excellent work and the Benda drawing is distinctive.”
+ =N Y Times= p25 O 24 ’20 380w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
=Review= 3:451 N 10 ’20 720w
“Considered in detail, it is a curious, sometimes brilliant, and often ludicrous work. We do not know whether the writer, for all her subtlety and power of detachment, is the least aware of what an absurd figure she has produced in Janka, this portentous type of modern youth. The book is indeed surprisingly uneven, subtle and extravagant, balanced and preposterous in turn.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p797 D 2 ’20 620w
=NAPIER, MARGARET.= Songs of the dead. *$1.50 Lane 821
20–17909
In his introduction to these poems Edward Garnett says of them that they are unlike anything else; that they are not a “normal” product; that they are a rough diamond from a matrix suggesting comparison with the author of “The marriage of heaven and hell”; that in the simplicity and intensity with which they banish from our sight everything extraneous, alien to their passion, they are a lesson in poetry; and that, with the conception that when we die we live on in the grave, in our memories, in our anguish, in our desires, they are a lesson in passionate feeling.
* * * * *
“They are poems of frustration, imperfect verbal equivalents of great spiritual experiences, greater in intention and conception than in realized execution. Miss Napier writes in free verse, in a curiously tortured style full of inversions (one has the feeling that she is trying to express, by the unnatural quality of the style, the more than normal intensity of her emotion).”
+ − =Ath= p527 Ap 16 ’20 160w
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 N 3 ’20 480w
=N Y Evening Post= p29 O 23 ’20 80w
=NATHAN, GEORGE JEAN, and MENCKEN, HENRY LOUIS.= American credo. *$1.75 Knopf 814
20–3354
One hundred and three of the one hundred and ninety-one pages of this “contribution toward the interpretation of the national mind” (Sub-title) are preface, excused by the authors on the ground “having read it, one need not read the book.” The authors’ contention is that “deep down in every man there is a body of congenital attitudes, a corpus of ineradicable doctrines and ways of thinking, that determines his reactions to his ideational environment.” While the preface consists of ratiocinations on these attitudes, doctrines and ways of thinking the book itself is a collection of maxims and traditional tenets that are supposed to make up the mental equipment of the ordinary man. The first one reads: “That the philoprogenitive instinct in rabbits is so intense that the alliance of two normally assiduous rabbits is productive of 265 offspring in one year.” Other examples are: “That Henry James never wrote a short sentence”; and “That German peasants are possessed of a profound knowledge of music.”
* * * * *
=Ath= p429 Mr 26 ’20 140w
=Ath= p574 Ap 30 ’20 1200w
+ =Booklist= 16:338 Jl ’20
“None but a captious critic could find fault with the fact that the authors’ preface occupies fully two-thirds of the book, for in that space the truth about America and its inhabitants is told as it has not been for some time.” G. M. H.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 Mr 10 ’20 480w
+ =Cleveland= p76 Ag ’20 60w
=Dial= 68:666 My ’20 80w
+ =R of Rs= 62:447 O ’20 10w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 Je 17 ’20 260w
“The stringing together of widely held fallacies does not constitute an ‘American credo’ any more than a collection of ‘want’ ads makes a job. It does not describe, explain or interpret anything. The authors themselves do not know American character, even in its major aspects, but only its ludicrous or despicable blemishes.”
− =Survey= 44:385 Je 12 ’20 140w
“On the whole we do not gather from this repertory of popular fallacies any very definite picture of American mentality. But one can get from the latter half, at any rate, which does great credit to the authors’ ingenuity, a good deal of entertainment.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p190 Mr 18 ’20 280w
=NATHAN, ROBERT.= Peter Kindred. *$2 (2c) Duffield
20–1889
The story of a boy’s school and college life, and his first contacts with the outer world. Peter’s father sends him to Phillips Exeter with the vague intention of giving him a gentleman’s education. The two years in this school are followed by four at Harvard and the story traces the quiet unsensational development of his mind and character. He makes friends, is converted to Carverism—the economic creed of a popular professor, and in his junior year meets Joan, a Radcliffe student. Peter and Joan are married the year after his graduation. They set up housekeeping in a New York tenement and work and play together and test out their theories of life. The story ends with the birth and death of their child.
* * * * *
“Unluckily there is not quite enough ‘to him’ to command and hold our interest and concern at the exacted pitch.” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Bookm= 51:343 My ’20 120w
− =Dial= 68:537 Ap ’20 50w
“The reader possessed of sufficient pertinacity to work his way through the first two hundred pages of ‘Peter Kindred’ will find in the last part of the book a realistic sketch of youthful theories and ideals at war with the economic facts of life.”
− + =N Y Times= 25:50 Ja 25 ’20 300w
“The story is well thought out and well written. Mr Nathan has put a great deal into his work and has taken it seriously. That in itself is more than can be said for many writers of current fiction.”
+ =Outlook= 124:479 Mr 17 ’20 240w
“The boy is a tolerably nice boy, and he does and thinks and says the things a tolerably nice boy would. We do not deny that he is true to fact. But what of it? Who cares? Since the author has failed to make us care about him as a person?” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Review= 2:392 Ap 17 ’20 900w
=NEALE, REGINALD EDGAR.= Electricity. il $1 Pitman 621.3
20–16269
“In this book the author attempts no more than a review of the general nature of electricity, the methods of producing it and the services to which it is applied.” (Preface) The book is illustrated with forty-five figures in the text. It is issued as one of Pitman’s common commodities and industries series.
* * * * *
“It is remarkable how complete and accurate is the information given. The reader is, however, hurried on unpleasantly fast, and is never allowed to pause where his interest is aroused.”
+ − =Nature= 105:804 Ag 26 ’20 230w
=NEIHARDT, JOHN GNEISENAU.=[2] Splendid wayfaring. il *$2.25 Macmillan 978
20–27591
“As a poet, picturing the savage adventure of the early days of the Yankee invasion of the plains and mountains, Mr Neihardt has already won his reputation: his theme is huge and his powers are not unworthy of it. In his new volume, a prose volume, he appears again in his chosen domain, now as an historian. The period taken is 1822 to 1831, the event is the career of Jedediah Smith, who in the eight years of his adventurous maturity was the first American leader to discover the central overland route to California—later the great immigrant and trade route—and to measure the length of the Pacific coast from Los Angeles to the Columbia.”—Bookm
* * * * *
“Mr Neihardt gives unity and verve to his volume by making Smith the central spirit: but it is in a truly epic mode that the story is conceived, and hence there could not be less than a picturesque emphasis upon the companions of the hero, among them Ashley and Henry, builders of the fur industry, and the trapper Hugh Glass who is the subject of one of Mr Neihardt’s best-known poems.” Hartley Alexander
+ =Bookm= 52:360 Ja ’21 580w
“All this is fascinating reading, suggesting the lurid tales, much sought and pored over, in boyhood, but while it is fascinating, it is history, history of the growth of the United States; as important as the occupation of the older states and the taking of the central portion of the present union.” J. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p2 N 24 ’20 570w
“This task has evidently been a labour of love, for Mr Neihardt has not felt impelled to follow the pattern of angular, unimaginative recital into which so many books of this kind fall.” L. B.
+ =Freeman= 2:478 Ja 26 ’21 180w
“A parallel work by, say McMaster, and called, say ‘Western exploration from 1822–1831,’ would have been a valuable contribution to the history of the West; but ‘The splendid wayfaring,’ as the title plainly shows, is more than that; it is an American prose epic, an absorbing tale of courage and endurance.” Walter Franzen
+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 D 4 ’20 520w
“Mr Neihardt has for the subject of this prose story one of the truly dramatic themes of American history.”
+ =R of Rs= 63:223 F ’21 110w
“Mr Neihardt has allowed himself a rather lofty flight in his opening paragraphs, where he links his tale up with that of the western progress of the Aryan races. In a number of other places a tendency to ornate language may be observed. But in other respects ‘The splendid wayfaring’ has compelling force.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 D 17 ’20 300w
“Mr Neihardt has succeeded in giving some epical quality to his heroes and painting, as he intended to do, the mood of their adventures.” M. C. C.
+ − =Survey= 45:578 Ja 15 ’21 240w
=NEKLIUDOV, ANATOLII VASIL’EVICH.=[2] Diplomatic reminiscences before and during the world war, 1911–1917; tr. from the French, by Alexandra Paget. *$8 Dutton
(Eng ed 20–10794)
“A Russian diplomat’s frank statement of what he learned as Minister to Bulgaria during the Balkan wars of 1912 and of 1913, supplemented by his observations during the world war, when he was serving as Minister to Sweden, and Ambassador to Spain. Writing in the firm conviction that all who took part in the tremendous events of those years now belong to ‘an irrevocable past,’ M. Nekliudov speaks as freely concerning his contemporaries as if they were actually dead.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
“M. Nekliudov, with his tears and his discontents, is not a very interesting person. The best part of his long book is the record of his ambassadorship in Sweden during the war, and in his comments on certain Russian statesmen such as Stürmer and Protopopoff he has something to say that is not without interest.”
− + =Ath= p205 Ag 13 ’20 270w
=R of Rs= 63:109 Ja ’21 90w
“The style is more than clear and studiously temperate: it is at times eloquent and pathetic, and throughout tinged with the philosophy natural to a cultured gentleman. The English of Alexandra Paget is so good that it must, we think, be ranked as a first-rate translation.”
+ =Sat R= 130:94 Jl 31 ’20 1000w
+ =Spec= 124:87 Jl 17 ’20 210w
“Having lost his emperor, his country and his sons, this former representative of a departed system sees no necessity to guard certain of those secrets which go to make up the mystery of diplomacy. In consequence of this break with the past which fate has forced upon him M. Nekliudov is interesting and informative.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p343 Je 3 ’20 1300w
=NEW= Decameron; second day. *$1.90 McBride
20–8740
The first volume was published last year. Like it this second volume is a collection of short stories by different authors, each story in keeping with the character of its narrator. Contents: Jim of Moloch’s bar, by Francis Carco: Bread upon the waters, by Michael Sadleir; The history of Andrew Niggs, by Basil Blackwell; The tool, by W. F. Harvey; The master-thief, by Dorothy L. Sayers; The affair of the Mulhaven baby, by M. Nightingale; The vase, by Camilla Doyle; “Once upon a time” by Bill Nobbs; A prayer perforce, by M. Storm Jameson; Salvator Street, by Sherard Vines.
* * * * *
“In spite of serious inequalities in the work, the total result is undoubtedly entertaining. In all the stories there is evidence of careful workmanship, a preoccupation with literary means which is highly satisfactory save when it aims at effect with too unchastened self-consciousness.” F. W. S.
+ =Ath= p172 Ag 6 ’20 520w
“Some of them are excellent, some rather poor and a few unequivocally dull. Heralded simply as ‘Salvator street’ comes the surprise of the book. In it Sherard Vines has succeeded in creating a character besides writing the best story of the volume.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 11 ’20 350w
“The idea of vocational guidance in the telling of tales is not altogether conducive to the best flights of the imagination. The obligation to relate the sort of story that a master-printer, a poet, or a psychic researcher would be apt to relate seems to have put a restraint upon most of the contributors.” L. B.
− =Freeman= 2:501 F 2 ’21 130w
“‘The new Decameron,’ to carry on its excellent plan, must be, like the ‘Canterbury tales’ which its general method recalls, more variously human in substance and in modulation. Their inventiveness in plot and ingenuity in structure are remarkable. But these are not high qualities in fiction. ‘The new Decameron’ needs not, indeed, cheerfulness, but sunlight; less smell of the charnel house and more of the earth.”
− + =Nation= 111:596 N 24 ’20 260w
“The structure of the book is cleverly contrived, and in reading it the fact that this is the work of several hands does not obtrude itself too violently. At its best the book is artistic, and it is always elegant. The remoteness, the wickedness, and the nervous dread of crudity dissociate the authors from the literary giants of past times. All the contributors give an impression of literary taste, and not one of them has generated a ‘human document.’”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p363 Je 10 ’20 550w
=NEWBOLT, SIR HENRY JOHN.=[2] Book of good hunting. il *$3.50 (*10s 6d) Longmans 799
20–18594
“Sir Henry Newbolt has put together many interesting stories about sport. Elephants, lions, and tigers come first: then there are chapters on deer-hunting and fox-hunting, with many extracts from Mr Masefield’s fine poem, ‘Reynard the fox,’ and a closing chapter on fishing. In his introductory chapter, ‘On the nature of sport,’ he states the arguments for and against sport, and insists very strongly on the value of true sportsmanship to the national character.”—Spec
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p649 N 12 ’20 500w
“Sir Henry Newbolt writes so pleasantly that he will attract readers of all ages.”
+ =Spec= 125:710 N 27 ’20 90w
“From a literary or sporting standpoint, the book is equally attractive.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 18 ’21 320w
“The instances of hunting experiences chosen by Sir Henry are admirably described, and compel the reader to share the excitement of the hunter. He brings out all the concomitants which differentiate sport from killing.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p825 D 9 ’20 950w
=NEWLAND, H. OSMAN.= Romance of modern commerce. il *$2 Lippincott 380
20–3902
“The book is, as described in its sub-title, a popular account of the production of a number of common commodities. It collects a mass of miscellaneous information about wheat and other cereals, tea, coffee and cocoa, rubber, tobacco, cotton, silk, wool, timber, paper, fruit and wine, cattle and leather, vegetable and mineral oils, furs and feathers, precious stones and metals.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“Informative and of varying interest. Could be used by upper grades and high schools.”
+ =Booklist= 17:55 N ’20
=Brooklyn= 12:126 My ’20 20w
=R of Rs= 62:448 O ’20 30w
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p748 D 11 ’19 150w
=NEWMAN, ERNEST.= Musical motley. *$1.50 Lane 780.4
20–1630
A series of papers by an English musical critic. Among the titles are: “L’enfant prodigue”; On instruments and their players; On musical surgery; Criticism by code; Futurist music; The best hundred scores.
* * * * *
“Mr Newman is a musician of the nineteenth century. This must not be taken to mean that he is an old-fashioned pedant who is out of touch with new developments. On the contrary, he is intensely interested in modern music and has no sentimental illusions about that of the past. Music is for him always a thing of the living present.” E: J. Dent
+ =Ath= p1010 O 10 ’19 900w
+ =Booklist= 16:232 Ap ’20
“Mr Newman is never dull, even when he is grave.” H: T. Finck
+ =Bookm= 51:169 Ap ’20 440w
“The chief attraction of Mr Newman’s book, besides its dry humor, is its lack of dogmatism and its corresponding illumination of speculative points.” M. H.
+ =New Repub= 22:168 Mr 31 ’20 520w
+ =R of Rs= 61:224 F ’20 80w
“He differs from a good many fashionable critics in his familiarity with the works of the ancients, and in testing the moderns by standards which these critics are either ignorant of, or refuse to accept. Perhaps the wisest and sanest passages in the book are those in which he differentiates the originality that counts from that which does not.”
+ =Spec= 123:542 O 25 ’19 1450w
“The book is always interesting, often gay, reading. The essays on the classics are apt, but do not go far enough; that on the grotesque is tentative, that on obituaries might have been omitted. We should have liked some more like ‘Originality in music’ and ‘Quotation,’ and that on Bishop Blougram in partibus, which are full of sound judgments delivered with a light touch.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p545 O 9 ’19 1300w
=NEWSHOLME, SIR ARTHUR.= Public health and insurance: American addresses. $2.50 Johns Hopkins 614
20–12817
“Sir Arthur Newsholme has for thirty-five years been an active figure in the public health profession of Great Britain and for eleven of those years has served as principal medical officer of the Local government board. In the fall of 1919 he came to the School of hygiene and public health of Johns Hopkins as lecturer on public health administration. The book just published is made up of addresses delivered to public audiences in the course of visits paid to various university and medical centers in America.” (Survey) “It is largely devoted to the present state of public health in England and to the progress in public health policy that has been realized within the last fifty years.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
* * * * *
“The sections which describe the wonderful progress made in dealing with tuberculosis and child welfare in England during the past few years will prove of absorbing interest to the specialist. There is hardly a chapter in the book, however, which should not be read by every social worker for its value as a contribution to the philosophy of social reform.” C.-E. A. Winslow
+ =Survey= 45:259 N 13 ’20 460w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p621 S 23 ’20 170w
=NEWTON, ALMA (MRS ALMA NEWTON ANDERSON).= Jewel in the sand. *$1.35 (6c) Duffield
20–1890
A beautiful girl, Cynthia, tells her story in detached episodes: how she left her barren, loveless New England home to come to New York and study music; how after her first success love came to her. The perfect soul union is marred by the man’s duality. She goes away, has more half mystic experience, becomes more and more spiritualized as she struggles with poverty and is at last rescued by the man who had always loved her unselfishly, had renounced her and had waited. He marries her and takes her home to the East.
* * * * *
“By dealing with life more realistically than she has yet done Alma Newton has deepened the effect of those unique spiritual qualities that have from the first distinguished her work.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:39 Ja 25 ’20 600w
=NEWTON, W. DOUGLAS.= Westward with the Prince of Wales. il *$2.50 (2½c) Appleton 917.1
20–17402
The author, as special correspondent, accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour through Canada and the United States and gives his impressions of the Prince, the cities and country through which they passed, and the receptions they received, in an entertaining chatty way.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p528 Ap 16 ’20 60w
“He has a distinctive and pleasing style. His volume is as good-humored an account of travels as has appeared for some time.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 1 ’20 280w
“He draws an intimate and charming portrait of the Prince, and furnishes at the same time, an entertaining view of Canada and some cities of the United States as they appear to an intelligent Englishman.”
+ =N Y Times= p14 D 5 ’20 1100w
+ =Outlook= 126:378 O 27 ’20 40w
=Review= 3:194 S 1 ’20 200w
“Gaily, vividly, even wittily, Mr Newton sets forth what he saw; unimportant and unpretentious as this record of a transcontinental journey across Canada is, it will inspire readers to go and do likewise. Mr Newton writes in a vein of amused appreciation.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 22 ’20 1600w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p244 Ap 15 ’20 160w
=NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION.= Newton chapel. $1.50 (2c) Am. Bapt. 252
20–8357
A selection from the chapel talks delivered during the year 1918–19 by members of the faculty of the Newton theological institution. The first is on The meaning of the New year, by President George E. Horr. Among those that follow are: How Jesus looked at men, by Winfred N. Donovan; The compelling power of Jesus’ personality, by Henry K. Rowe; Freedom and service, by James P. Berkeley; The inner life, by Samuel S. Curry; The joy of forgiveness, by Frederick L. Anderson; The spirit of expectation, by Richard M. Vaughan; James Russell Lowell and the preacher, by Woodman Bradbury. The chapel talks are supplemented by seven addresses at the conference of the Baptist leaders of New England.
* * * * *
“On the whole the talks are unified, interesting, and excellent examples of little sermons.”
+ =Bib World= 54:433 Jl ’20 200w
“The clergy expect the scientist, the historian, the statesman to stick to known facts, and then wonder why the church does not succeed better while the preacher is permitted to soar off into the realms of the imagination and preach as sacred truth that which finds its origin in theory and its expression in cant. Of course there are good things in the book, much sound advice, many godly admonitions, but it is proper to call attention to a dangerous method of preaching which succeeds in little else than furnishing ground for scepticism.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ag 6 ’20 300w
=NEXÖ, MARTIN ANDERSEN.= Ditte: girl alive! *$2 (2c) Holt
20–26759
This story, translated from the Danish, describes the life of poor fisherfolk and of the poorest of small farmers. It is the story of a little illegitimate girl left in the care of her grandparents, whose one joy in life she becomes. When her mother, a cold, selfish, cruel creature, now married to a rag-and-bone man and huckster, wants her as nurse for her other children, she does not hesitate to take her away from the blind, widowed grandmother. Ditte’s life is wretched, her only true friend her step-father, the jovial rag-and-bone man. She repays him by standing by him, through all his sorrows and afflictions, with indomitable good nature and courage, until she is forced to leave him to go into service.
* * * * *
“The loveliness in human nature and the evil also stand out in sharp relief against the simple, often sordid background. Will interest readers of ‘Pelle the conqueror.’”
+ =Booklist= 17:73 N ’20
“The Danish author has not been fortunate in the translation, however, which is uneven and lacking in idiomatic grace.” E. P.
+ − =Dial= 70:106 Ja ’21 60w
“With all the straitened cruelty of its events the story has a quality which is almost glamorous. The simple telling and lack of stress somehow give it breadth; it is full of the effect of open spaces. There are passages of great tenderness, and others of fresh gaiety and resilience. Then, too a primary perception of human forces lifts the story out of any narrow bondage.” C. M. Rourke
+ =Freeman= 2:213 N 10 ’20 420w
“The story scrupulously avoids an artificial symmetry of structure and follows, so far as possible, the rhythm of life. The firmness and simplicity of the style shine even through an inferior translation.”
+ =Nation= 111:303 S 11 ’20 600w
“The English version is a livid corpse, and the only function left for a reviewer who knows the original is that of coroner. In common honesty, Henry Holt & Co. should put on the title page of ‘Ditte: girl alive,’ ‘Mutilated from the Danish,’ and omit the name of the innocent author.” Signe Toksvig
− + =New Repub= 25:113 D 22 ’20 1300w
“The characters in the book are flesh-and-blood people and their drab, dreary lives are made very real.”
+ =N Y Times= p24 S 5 ’20 620w
=Outlook= 126:238 O 6 ’20 50w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 3:450 N 10 ’20 520w
=Spec= 125:744 D 4 ’20 30w
“The book deserves to be read. It is well-written, effective, and above all, bears the earmarks of truth.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a N 14 ’20 370w
“It is to be supposed that, as with ‘Pelle,’ this volume is but one of several dealing with the same characters, and that later Ditte will develop into womanhood. If that be so, Mr Nexö has made an interesting first movement, though it may be hoped that later ones may have the contrast of greater lightness; if this be all, then it can only be regarded as an unfinished fantasia.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p701 O 28 ’20 480w
=NICHOLS, ROBERT MALISE BOWYER.= Aurelia, and other poems. *$2 Dutton 821
20–15351
“The sequence of ‘Sonnets to Aurelia’ gives the story of a disappointed lover with his mistress whose falseness, though ugly, intensifies the helpless passion of the man. The form of the sonnet in which the poet tells his story is Shakspearean.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“Mr Nichols, like many of the minor Elizabethan lyrists, uses the fourteen lines of the sonnet simply for the sake of their sound, their rich baroque handsomeness of appearance. That is the principal and, to our mind, damning defect of his sonnets. They have no substance. The fountains are dry, the parched stone faces open their mouths to no purpose; we are at a loss to see why the monument was built.”
− =Ath= p765 Je 11 ’20 1200w
“Among Mr Nichols’s most potent qualities the quality of vision is the steadiest and strongest. Among the most recent English poets he is the richest in this endowment.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ’20 1200w
“The result is, to my taste, like a dish flavoured with nutmeg and cinnamon to which has been added a dash of tabasco sauce.” J: G. Fletcher
− =Freeman= 2:331 D 15 ’20 600w
“With some of the faults of youth, Mr Nichols has all of its virtues. He is adaptable, he is resourceful, he is restlessly eager to try new methods, to pour his soul into an unaccustomed vessel. He has force, eloquence, fire, and passion.”
+ − =Spec= 124:22 Jl 3 ’20 850w
* * * * *
“The conspicuous fault of ‘Aurelia’ is the insecurity of its style. Here is a series of quasi-Shakespearian sonnets, in which we have conceits without gracefulness, artifices aimed at intensifying rather than at easing the situations they describe—in brief a conscious author, magnifying an experience the content of which was meagre at the best in imitation of a spontaneous one the experience of which is too full to be contained.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p418 Jl 1 ’20 1000w
=NICHOLSON, MEREDITH.= Blacksheep! blacksheep! il *$1.75 Scribner
20–7287
“At a dinner in Washington the hero, one Archibald Bennett, whose income encourages his neurasthenia, sits next to a girl who tells him that no man whose life motto is ‘Safety first!’ is likely to have a very good time or escape a bored anaemia. Several days later the same Archie goes to Maine to look at a house for his sister, and the next thing he knows he has shot a man and is a fugitive from justice in the stolen car driven by the ‘governor’! After that you, together with the police forces of most of the states in the Union, are completely in the ‘governor’s’ power.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:314 Je ’20
=Cleveland= p72 Ag ’20 60w
“It is as breathlessly contrived and as diverting to follow as a crooked street in a mediaeval town, along which anything might happen.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:220 My 2 ’20 550w
“The tale furnishes pleasant diversion.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 6 ’20 480w
=NICHOLSON, WATSON.= Anthony Aston, stroller and adventurer. *$1.25 The author, South Haven, Mich.
20–19783
This brief monograph forms a footnote to stage history. Little has been known of Tony Aston, the author says, “save that he was a strolling player for many years, the author of an unsuccessful play and the much more important Brief supplement to Colley Cibber’s apology.” An autobiographical sketch which he happened upon in the British museum in 1914 has been made the basis of Mr Nicholson’s account. This sketch is appended, as is the “Brief supplement.”
* * * * *
“The reprint is welcome and every student interested in ancient Bohemias will be delighted to hear Aston tell, with complete disregard for syntax and in the authentic pot-house style of Ned Ward and the other blackguard wits, of his amazingly varied career.”
+ =Nation= 112:sup246 F 9 ’21 450w
“The student of the stage and society will find his career interesting for the light it throws upon the provincial and illegitimate stage of the time, concerning which practically nothing is known.” J. W. Krutch
+ =N Y Evening Post= p8 N 27 ’20 380w
=NICHOLSON, WATSON.= Historical sources of DeFoe’s Journal of the plague year. $2 Stratford co. 942.06
DeFoe’s “Journal of the plague year” which has hitherto been classified as fiction and has been accounted as a “masterpiece of the imagination” is here proven, by the aid of extracts from original documents in the Burney collection and manuscript room of the British museum, to be “a faithful record of historical facts, that it was so intended by the author and is as nearly correct as it was humanly possible to make it from the sources and time at his command.” The contents are: Originals and parallels of the stories in DeFoe’s Journal; The historical sources of the Journal; Errors in the Journal; Summary. The appendices consist of excerpts from the original sources of the Journal and from hitherto unpublished documents illustrative of the plague. There is a bibliography.
* * * * *
=Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 90w
=Spec= 124:834 Je 19 ’20 400w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 23 ’20 240w
“Dr Watson Nicholson’s book suffers a little from the researcher’s usual impatience with those who preceded him; a little more from his sometimes odd and slack English; more still from careless proof-reading. But those who are interested in DeFoe should read the book, because the author does more than work his case out closely.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p418 Jl 1 ’20 800w
=NICOLAY, HELEN.= Boys’ life of Lafayette. il *$1.60 (2½c) Harper
20–16920
The author writes of Lafayette as “a very gallant, inspiring figure uniting the old world with the new.” She tells her young readers in the preface: “This is no work of fiction. It is sober history; yet if the bare facts it tells were set forth without the connecting links, its preface might be made to look like the plot of a dime novel.” The book is illustrated and has an index.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:123 D ’20
“Even tho this is pure history, as the author declares, there is a deal of romance in the life of Lafayette to fascinate the young reader.”
+ =Lit D= p96 D 4 ’20 40w
=NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM.= Antichrist. (Free lance books) *$1.75 (5c) Knopf 230
20–4092
Mr Mencken has made a new translation of “The antichrist,” Nietzsche’s last work with the exception of his “Ecce homo.” The introduction states: “The present translation of ‘The antichrist’ is published by agreement with Dr Oscar Levy, editor of the English edition of Nietzsche. There are two earlier translations, one by Thomas Common and the other by Anthony M. Ludovici.... I began this new Englishing of the book, not in any hope of supplanting them, and surely not with any notion of meeting a great public need, but simply as a private amusement in troubled days. But as I got on with it I began to see ways of putting some flavour of Nietzsche’s peculiar style into the English, and so amusement turned into a more or less serious labour.” Mr Mencken’s introduction offers a critical interpretation of Nietzsche.
* * * * *
“Mr Mencken’s translation of Nietzsche’s last considerable work is lively and energetic, and his introduction is a happy example of his critical writing.”
+ =Ath= p557 Ap 23 ’20 130w
=Booklist= 17:85 N ’20
Reviewed by Preserved Smith
=Nation= 110:sup483 Ap 10 ’20 250w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p243 Ap 15 ’20 60w
=NIVEN, FREDERICK JOHN.= Tale that is told. *$1.90 (1½c) Doran
20–17825
The simple uneventful chronicle of a Scotch clergyman’s family, told in a leisurely manner. The father is a genial egotist who had preached to Queen Victoria at Balmoral and who never lets this fact be lost sight of. The story follows the course of the six children’s lives after his death, telling of their worldly success, business affairs, love affairs and marriages. For a time three of the brothers conduct a book store and circulating library, of which an amusing account is given.
* * * * *
+ − =Ath= p439 O 1 ’20 820w
“He takes such a ‘slice of life’ as might delight Mr Hugh Walpole, and he treats it quite in the manner of Mr Walpole, only—and it is an important difference—he lacks something of his vitality. The substance is more level, a level quality not due to restraint but to quality of vision.” D. L. M.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 O 20 ’20 700w
“The scenes in the library are especially good.”
+ =Cleveland= p105 D ’20 40w
“The novel as a whole reflects the commonplace lives of the vast majority of us, ‘such poor little figures struggling along in the jungle’ with considerable accuracy.”
+ =N Y Times= p18 N 14 ’20 850w
“I wish I could feel the glow that so many writing people seem to be feeling about Frederick Niven’s ‘A tale that is told.’ It is pleasant enough, human enough in its somewhat lacklustre fashion; but in the end not much more than ‘a long preparation for something that never happens.’”
+ − =Review= 4:57 Ja 19 ’21 640w
“The characters are unusually alive; it is a pity that they all lack charm. The book is well constructed; the author has distinct ability.”
+ − =Spec= 126:56 Ja 8 ’21 40w
“It is refreshing to come upon a man who can write both lightly and profoundly and who can mingle tenderness and humor without losing the force of either.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a N 14 ’20 380w
“It is not a story with a pattern, but there is a frame to it that gives it bounds and a focus that gives it coherence; there is sunlight in it—the pale northern sunlight of Scotland. The characterization is clear and the more pungent for its tolerance.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p633 S 30 ’20 470w
=NOGUCHI, YONÉ (MISS MORNING GLORY, pseud.).= Japanese hokkus. *$2 Four seas co. 895
20–20445
The hokku is the seventeen syllable poem of Japan which the author describes at some length in the preface. This preface is in itself a prose poem in its quaint English and with the vista it opens into the Japanese mind. The real value of the hokku, we are told, is not in what it expresses but how it expresses itself spiritually: not in its physical directness but in its psychological indirectness. It is “like a spider-thread laden with the white summer dews, swaying among the branches of a tree; ... that sway indeed, not the thread itself, is the beauty of our seventeen syllable poem.” Of the translating of the hokku the author says, it is like the attempt to bring down the spider-net and hang it up in another place. The epilogue is a reflection on the introduction of western civilization into Japan.
* * * * *
“‘Japanese hokkus’ is remarkable for at least two reasons; one, because its poems are of that sensitive and illusive loveliness that is rare in the realism of contemporary publications, and another because the book links the literature of the Orient and the Occident rather more than any other poet whom we recall.” K. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 2 ’20 1100w
“Whether it is because he is writing in a foreign language, or because English cannot have packed into it the associations of thousands of years and the treasure of half-forgotten philosophies, the Japanese poet fails to produce the effect achieved by Waley in his translations.” Babette Deutsch
+ − =Dial= 70:206 F ’21 230w
“To enjoy this present volume and to be deaf to Mr Walter de la Mare—or to Shakespeare’s songs, for that matter—is to enjoy the art page of the newspaper more than a visit to the originals in the art gallery.” Llewellyn Jones
− + =Freeman= 2:260 N 24 ’20 600w
+ =N Y Evening Post= p18 O 23 ’20 110w
=NOLEN, JOHN.= New ideals in the planning of cities, towns and villages. il $1 (3c) Am. city bureau, Tribune bldg., N.Y. 710
20–211
“The cities of the United States have not yet made many of those public improvements that are so essential to modern life, especially for the new era.... They have not yet applied in a businesslike and economical manner the methods characteristic of the modern city planning movement. Therefore the American city still suffers in many ways from haphazard, piecemeal and shortsighted procedure.” (Part 1) To show how these shortcomings are to be remedied, how the new civic spirit is growing, what has already been done and what is the promise of the future is the object of the book. Among the topics discussed in the first part are: Two main divisions of city planning; Specific needs of the smaller city; How to replan a city; How to get a city plan into action. Part 2 contains in part: The city planning movement; Local data as basis of city plan; Types of city plans; Elements of city plans; Professional training and experience; New towns and new standards; Public opinion and city planning progress.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:20 O ’20
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 11 ’20 220w
“We have never seen within such small compass a clearer description of the processes of town planning or of the principles that underlie good planning. A special merit of the book is that it reckons with the limitations and difficulties of the small town where at the present time such leadership as this is most needed and where examples taken from the costly improvement schemes of large cities are not helpful.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 43:592 F 14 ’20 320w
=NORRIS, KATHLEEN (THOMPSON) (MRS CHARLES GILMAN NORRIS).= Harriet and the piper. il *$1.90 (2c) Doubleday
20–13977
Harriet Fields had an emotional adventure when she was seventeen, and her romantic fancy was captured by Royal Blondin’s talk on Yogi philosophy, oriental religion and poetry. She even went through a bogus marriage ceremony with him when her youthful timorousness saved her from further disaster. Ten years later, when she is filling a position of trust, as companion to the wife of the rich Richard Carter and governess to his daughter Nina, Blondin crosses her path again holding their former relationship over her as a sword, to enlist her aid in the furtherance of his new schemes, i. e., marrying young Nina Carter and possessing himself of her fortune. It involves Harriet in many temptations. Twixt the overcoming of and yielding to them her character is clarified. After Mrs Carter’s elopement and sudden death, Harriet enters a marriage of convenience with Richard Carter, whom she secretly loves and admires and the wooing by the husband of his new wife forms part of the interest of the book.
* * * * *
“A lively and interesting story.”
+ − =Ath= p813 D 10 ’20 60w
=Booklist= 17:35 O ’20
“Well worn, even threadbare as her material is, Kathleen Norris has contrived to concoct from it a very pleasant little story, and one which holds the reader’s attention until the last half dozen chapters, when it begins to drag badly. It is smoothly written, and agreeable to read.”
+ − =N Y Times= p24 Ag 1 ’20 950w
“Readers who can put aside the insubstantial theme and the artificial dilemmas attributed to the principals, will find some entertainment in the flow of life and color through their vaguely troubled days.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 12 ’20 200w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p801 D 2 ’20 100w
=NORWOOD, GILBERT.=[2] Greek tragedy. $5 Luce, J: W. 882
(Eng ed 20–16119)
“The summaries and criticisms of the extant plays constitute the main body of the book, forty-eight pages being given to Æschylus, fifty-four to Sophocles, a hundred and forty-one to Euripides. The book, as the author says, ‘aims to cover the whole field of the Greek drama, both for the student and the general reader.’”—N Y Evening Post
* * * * *
“We think that, for Euripides, his present work is sound as well as interesting. When we turn to his treatment of Æschylus and Sophocles, we feel that in attempting to cover the whole ground, Mr Norwood has undertaken more than he is at present ready to perform.” J. T. Sheppard
+ − =Ath= p10 Jl 2 ’20 1250w
“It is certainly a convenience to have in one volume the literary criticism of the extant plays and the general history of Greek tragedy and the antiquities of the theatre, instead of looking for them in the two volumes of Haigh. In these subsidiary matters Professor Norwood’s scholarship though not independent is sufficient for his purpose. He still retains the British awe of any and all German scholarship and the British habit of ignoring American work.” Paul Shorly
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p6 D 31 ’20 1800w
“He writes throughout as an enthusiast, and illustrates his points by modern parallels which are always ingenious, and often happy. Reference might have been made to the modern performances of various plays, for the best way to understand any drama is to see it acted. The chapter on ‘Metre and rhythm’ at the end is an excellent idea well carried out.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:39 Jl 10 ’20 200w
=NOYES, ALFRED.= Beyond the desert; a tale of Death valley. *$1 (7½c) Stokes
20–18658
The story is symbolic of a soul losing itself in a desert of ideas before it emerges into the light of clear understanding. James Baxter, an I.W.W., is a prisoner in transport and escapes from a stalled train into Death valley in the Arizona desert. His hardships bring on delirium and in a trance he finds himself among a halted pioneer party of 1849. In exchanging notes on their respective civilizations with them he comes to see the error of his ways and when he is finally rescued he goes among his I.W.W. comrades to convince them also. He is successful with the crowd but the infuriated leaders kill him.
* * * * *
“Though Mr Noyes’s work is earnest and readable, we wish that so experienced a hand had not permitted polemics, poetics, and melodrama to crowd the same pages.”
+ − =N Y Evening= Post p10 O 30 ’20 230w
“The very qualities that one admires in such a poem as ‘The highwayman,’ depreciate when used in the prose form. It is possible that in verse the story would not seem so lacking in vitality. The descriptions of the desert are good; the style is fairly clear; and yet there is a quality of unreality, of dreaminess, of sentimentality.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 2 ’21 260w
=NOYES, ALFRED.= Collected poems. v 3 *$2.50 Stokes 821
A volume containing all of Mr Noyes’ poems written between October, 1913, and the present. With the two volumes published in 1913 it forms a complete edition of the poet’s verse to date. It comprises The Lord of Misrule and other poems; The wine-press; A Belgian Christmas eve; The new morning; The elfin artist and other poems.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:146 Ja ’21
“Mr Noyes possesses a delightful singing gift in his carefree moments—and can bore us almost to tears when the sense of his ‘message’ to the world descends upon him. When he turns to glamourous romantic ballads and to brief, sincere, intensely spiritual lyrics, such as ‘Paraclete,’ he is at his best.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p22 D 4 ’20 170w
“Whenever he writes sermons and dissertations and criticisms in verse he fails. Whenever he writes ballads he succeeds. However, there are a few other poems in this volume for which we should thank Mr Noyes, notably ‘Old gray squirrel,’ the pathetic ‘Court martial’ and ‘A victory dance.’”
+ − =N Y Times= p25 Ja 30 ’21 620w
=NOYES, ALFRED.= Elfin artist, and other poems. *$1.50 Stokes 821
20–17329
The elfin artist is the initial poem of this collection of verse written by the author since the spring of 1919. Some of the other poems are: Earth and her birds; Sea-distances; The inn of Apollo; The Sussex sailor; In southern California; The riddles of Merlin; The isle of memories; A ballad of the easier way; A Devonshire Christmas; Beautiful on the bough; The bride-ale; A sky song; A return from the air; A victory dance; The garden of peace; Four songs, after Verlaine.
* * * * *
“No Elizabethan could conceivably have written one of his poems. The conscious romanticism, the sentimentality, the imperialism expressed with a catch in the voice, the blurred, soft, unprecise language, the barrel-organ tunefulness—all these things, so characteristic of Mr Noyes, would have been impossible to an Elizabethan.”
− =Ath= p142 Jl 30 ’19 420w
+ =Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“So sharply do these poems recall the poet of ‘The barrel-organ’ that we wonder whether the recent neglect of Noyes was reasonable; surely, with such books as these, he will yet sing his way back into the hearts of English readers.” S: Roth
+ =Bookm= 52:361 D ’20 110w
“Not in any of what may be termed the petulant and irritable, spirited poems of this collection, striking as some may be for their frank and vehement qualities, is Mr Noyes’s reputation either sustained or enhanced. One may truly say that the poems that spring out of the Sussex scene, with their half-bucolic and traditional mood, alone retain the admiration of Mr Noyes’s readers.” W. S. B.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p9 S 18 ’20 1300w
“Their redeeming features are Mr Noyes’ ability to handle metre and the very evident pleasure he takes in writing. That pleasure is a quality quite lacking in many modern poets who write far better than Mr Noyes.”
+ − =Ind= 104:246 N 13 ’20 180w
“Mr Noyes continues to write his pleasant anachronisms and it must be admitted that he does them with the usual dexterity and mellifluousness that is so much a part of his charm. He does possess charm and no one will actually die of ennui while reading his lines. But readers could far better occupy themselves with other poets, for Mr Noyes brings nothing new to his readers, not even his thought.” H. S. Gorman
+ − =N Y Times= p22 D 26 ’20 680w
“‘The elfin artist’ is the product of the author’s mature lyric gift, rich in variety or form and theme, and offering an equal appeal to the emotions and to the mind.” Philip Tillinghast
+ =Pub W= 98:664 S 18 ’20 500w
“Mr Noyes continues to annoy the devotees of all the varieties of free verse by his ability to use rhyme, and to observe the rules of prosody.” E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:249 S 22 ’20 140w
“His gift to literature is twofold. He can write well himself and he can prevent others from writing badly.”
+ − =Spec= 124:729 My 29 ’20 700w
“With one or two exceptions, each of Mr Noyes’s poems is no better and no worse than any of the others. To study the volume is to get the impression of sameness, of easy fluidity, of lack both of thought and of labour. His simplicity is not the simplicity of compression and refinement. His responsiveness sweeps away his thought.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p381 Je 17 ’20 600w
+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:235 D ’20 50w
=NOYES, FRANCES NEWBOLD.= My A. E. F.; a hail and farewell. *$1 (12c) Stokes 940.373
20–11506
A book in the form of a familiar talk to A. E. F. boys by a girl who was a Y. M. C. A. worker in France. It is an appeal to them to remember the ideals they fought for, and to apply them in the new war “against selfishness and materialism and intolerance and hatred.” It is reprinted from McClure’s Magazine.
* * * * *
“A very fine and moving bit of writing is Miss Noyes’s little book, simple, comradely, full of memories, and wise with the wisdom of Eve. The book ought to be read by every man who served on the other side and also by every person at home who has ever said a slighting word about any of the phases of the welfare work for the army.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:11 Jl 11 ’20 1100w
=NUTT, HUBERT WILBUR.= Supervision of instruction. (Riverside textbooks in education) *$1.80 Houghton 371
20–10064
“The shifting, unprofessional character of the teaching body makes the provision for competent supervision of instruction not only desirable, but necessary.... The undertaking of training supervisors involves the setting-forth of the job or activities of supervision, and the organizing of the means by which supervisors can best be trained to perform their duties.” (Introd.) The book is, accordingly, an analytical discussion of the principles underlying class-room supervision, and the devices and technique which should and which should not be employed. It falls into two parts. Part 1, The job of supervision, is a general survey of supervising activities. Part II[or 2?—see above], Principles underlying the supervision of instruction, is divided into the following sections: Supervisory method; Devices of supervision; Technique of supervision. There is an index.
* * * * *
“The book is to be welcomed as one of the first serious and successful attempts to create a specific literature for supervisors.”
+ =El School J= 21:69 S ’20 450w
+ =School R= 28:551 S ’20 180w
=NYBURG, SIDNEY LAUER.= Gate of ivory. *$2.25 (1½c) Knopf
20–19577
This is the story of Allan Conway who loved a beautiful siren of a woman and loved her so well that he allowed himself to be saddled with her and her husband’s crime, in order to shield her and to become an outcast for her sake. The remarkable part of the story is that, as an outcast, he loved her still, that he did not become a cynic—although he did take to drink periodically—and that he was even happy in the dream life that he now lived with his Eleanor. This life he elaborated in every detail from the house he built for and the conversations he had with her even to their dream child. A Peter Ibbetson with a difference is this Allan Conway.
O
=O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD.= Prize stories, 1919. *$1.90 (1½c) Doubleday
20–8630
A volume published as a memorial to O. Henry and composed of the fifteen short stories which a committee of the Society of arts and sciences of New York city have decided on as the best short stories of 1919. Blanche Colton Williams writes the introduction. Contents: England to America, by Margaret Prescott Montague; “For they know not what they do,” by Wilbur Daniel Steele; They grind exceeding small, by Ben Ames Williams; On strike, by Albert Payson Terhune; The elephant remembers, by Edison Marshall; Turkey red, by Frances Gilchrist Wood; Five thousand dollars reward, by Melville Davisson Post; The blood of the dragon, by Thomas Grant Springer; “Humoresque,” by Fannie Hurst; The lubbeny kiss, by Louise Rice; The trial in Tom Belcher’s store, by Samuel A. Derieux; Porcelain cups, by James Branch Cabell; The high cost of conscience, by Beatrice Ravenel; The kitchen gods, by G. F. Alsop; April 25th, as usual, by Edna Ferber.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:119 D ’20
“One can only wish that more of such volumes might be issued, for many of our American writers are at their best in the short story. The ‘O. Henry memorial award’ volume of 1919 is a book well worth reading.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:319 Je 20 ’20 850w
+ − =Review= 3:132 Ag 11 ’20 140w
=OAKESMITH, JOHN.= Race and nationality; an inquiry into the origin and growth of patriotism. *$4 Stokes 320.1
19–16466
“As the result of an attempt to arrive at a lucid conception and precise definition of ‘a nationality,’ the author thinks that he has discovered the explanation of nationality ‘in what may be formally called the principle of “organic continuity of common interest”‘; and the constructive part of the book is devoted to the elucidation of this principle. The author considers that universal and lasting peace will be secured, not by ‘the sudden imposition of hastily manufactured machinery,’ but by the gradual extension of the above principle from national to international life.”—Ath
* * * * *
=Ath= p961 S 26 ’19 120w
Reviewed by F. J. Whiting
=Review= 1:705 D 27 ’19 1200w
=R of Rs= 61:336 Mr ’20 40w
Reviewed by I. C. Hannah
+ − =Survey= 43:504 Ja 31 ’20 360w
“This is a treatise of ability, displaying considerable knowledge of the literature of the subject.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p486 S 11 ’19 120w
“It would not be difficult to show that there are inconsistencies in the discussion and conclusions arrived at by Mr Oakesmith; inconsistencies traceable largely to his desire to do justice to the representatives of all shades of opinion. It may be more profitable than dwelling on such points to note one or two omissions from the volume, in particular the demands of what may be called pseudo-nationality; that form of it which is not the slow result of continuously operating influences, but is artificially created.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p600 O 30 ’19 1200w
=O’BRIEN, EDWARD JOSEPH HARRINGTON (ARTHUR MIDDLETON, pseud.).= Best short stories of 1919. *$2 (1½c) Small
The authors represented in this year’s volume are: G. F. Alsop; Sherwood Anderson; Edwina Stanton Babcock; Djuna Barnes; Frederick Orin Bartlett; Agnes Mary Brownell; Maxwell Struthers Burt; James Branch Cabell; Horace Fish; Susan Glaspell; Henry Goodman; Richard Matthew Hallet; Joseph Hergesheimer; Will E. Ingersoll; Calvin Johnston; Howard Mumford Jones; Ellen N. La Motte; Elias Lieberman; Mary Heaton Vorse, and Anzia Yezierski. The book contains also an introduction by Mr O’Brien, discussing points raised by Waldo Frank’s “Our America,” and the usual features of the Year book of the short story.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:314 Je ’20
“Of the twenty stories an indifferent half-dozen barely pass the average.... Sherwood Anderson’s ‘An awakening,’ and Joseph Hergesheimer’s ‘The Meeker ritual,’ have the distinction of subtlety and style, irrespective of theme. You feel about the other authors that each might with a little effort have written the other’s story, but these two of Anderson’s and Hergesheimer’s could only have been written by themselves.” W. S. B.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p10 Mr 27 ’20 650w
Reviewed by Doris Webb
=Pub W= 97:603 F 21 ’20 380w
“Mr O’Brien’s standards define themselves with precision, and a summary of his tests will serve as test for Mr O’Brien. He has no eye for style. The second point in literature to which Mr O’Brien is insensitive is tone. The third and final want is the sense of workmanship. Mr O’Brien, however, has qualities which are as incontestable as his limitations. He has a keen, if not infallible, sense, of the powerful in motive, the original and trenchant in conception. Mr O’Brien’s collection will be of service to those readers who are wise enough to grasp its limitations.”
+ − =Review= 2:463 My 1 ’20 520w
=O’BRIEN, GEORGE A. T.= Essay on mediaeval economic teaching. *$4.75 (*12s 6d) Longmans 330.9
20–20196
“Mr O’Brien passes in review the principal economic theories of the medieval schoolmen, not continuing the study farther than the beginning of the sixteenth century. In a concluding chapter he gives reasons for a favourable estimate of the medieval economic doctrine from the points of view of production, consumption and distribution.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“It is a truism (which unfortunately is rarely true) to say of a new book that it supplies a long felt want: but in the case of Dr O’Brien’s essay to say so would be strictly true. Mediæval economic theory has never before been discussed with the fullness it merited.”
+ =Cath World= 112:109 O ’20 480w
Reviewed by C: A. Beard
=Nation= 111:480 O 27 ’20 800w
“It is a work of learning and ability, concerned rather with the clear and concise presentation of doctrine than with the criticism of it.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p369 Je 10 ’20 110w
“The historian who peruses this book will put it down with mixed feelings of amusement over the wordy contest and of despair at the unfamiliarity the combatants display with the alphabet of historical science.”
− =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p466 Jl 22 ’20 1000W
=ODELL, GEORGE CLINTON DENSMORE.= Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving. 2v il *$12 Scribner 822.3
20–19676
“Professor Odell has undertaken to do for all Shakespeare’s plays, tragedies and comedies, histories and dramatic romances, what has hitherto been attempted for two of the tragedies only, in Miss Wood’s ‘Stage history of Richard III,’ and in Brereton’s rather sketchy account of the various performances of ‘Hamlet.’ He has organized his two volumes in eight chronological divisions: the age of Betterton (1660–1710); the age of Cibber (1710–1742); the age of Garrick (1742–1776); the age of Kemble (1776–1817); the leaderless age (1817–1837); The age of Macready (1837–1843); the age of Phelps and Charles Kean (1843–1879), and the age of Irving (1879–1902). Not only does he give us what is to a certain extent a history of the theatres of London, he also supplies us with what is almost (if not quite) a history of the superb evolution of the art of scene painting.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“Students should be grateful to Professor Odell for the painstaking manner in which he has traced the fate of Shakespeare on the English stage. Mr Odell has attacked the subject with freshness and zest. His enthusiasm never seems to flag.... Admire his work as I do, I am convinced that had Mr Odell been more thoroughly in sympathy with the new ‘unrest’ in the theater, he would have seen more clearly certain points relating the past with the present.” M. J. Moses
+ =Nation= 111:sup660 D 8 ’20 1400w
“No better medium than the work of Professor George C. D. Odell has thus far been provided to apprehend the gradual evolution of stage decoration, costume, and attention to historic accuracy.” H. H. Furness, jr
+ =N Y Evening Post= p6 D 4 ’20 1650w
“It is no dry-as-dust chronicle that he has here given us. It is a readable book that he proffers, a book abounding in apt anecdote, in illuminating quotation and in genial comment. Although the author has had to correct many blunders and many misstatements of many predecessors, he spares us the acrimony of controversy.” Brander Matthews
+ =N Y Times= p2 O 24 ’20 300w
=O’DONNELL, ELLIOT.= Menace of spiritualism. *$1.50 (3½c) Stokes 134
20–6366
The author of the book, himself an investigator in the field of psychic research and a believer in spontaneous manifestations of the spirits of the dead, condemns the practice of spiritualism, with its mediumistic invocations of spirits as a vice. Its dangers are many. From the point of view of orthodox Christianity it menaces faith and morality alike; from that of the medical profession it is injurious to health; from that of the greater number of most eminent scientists it is a sham; and from the point of view of common sense it is a hotch-potch of imbecility, gullibility, and roguery. Contents: Foreword by Father Bernard Vaughan; “Spiritualism”—what is it? How spiritualism tries to distort the Old Testament; Spiritualism and the New Testament; Spiritualism and the churches; The phenomenal side of spiritualism and its effect on the health; The danger of fraud of all kinds at séances.
* * * * *
“He delivers some shrewd blows, and in a popular manner sets forth a strong case against spiritualists and their operations.”
+ =Ath= p352 Mr 12 ’20 80w
+ =Cath World= 112:252 N ’20 40w
=N Y Times= 25:19 Jl 4 ’20 160w
“Such protests are welcome, however much they fall short of the sanction of a high consistency; it is hardly to be expected that a critic of Mr O’Donnell’s electric temper will find favor with those who see in psychical research a far wider menace and a subtler attack upon the fundamentals of sound thinking. Yet to part of the composite clientèle from which latter-day recruits for the occult are gathered, this earnest word of warning may prove helpful.” Joseph Jastrow
+ − =Review= 3:41 Jl 14 ’20 250w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 Je 1 ’20 400w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p143 F 26 ’20 80w
=O’DUFFY, EIMAR.= Wasted island. *$2 (1c) Dodd
20–16927
A story of Ireland and the Irish movement culminating in the Easter rebellion. Bernard Lascelles, son of a successful Dublin doctor, is brought up in ignorance of his country’s history. In fact it is part of his father’s purpose to keep him in ignorance, fearing that the boy may take after his uncle Christopher Reilly, who died fighting England on the side of the Boers. Bernard is sent to an English school, but in spite of his father’s efforts is drawn into the Nationalist and later into the Sinn Fein movements, a letter left by his uncle Christopher to be read on his twenty-first birthday proving the turning point in his life. A very different bringing up is that of Stephen Ward, whose father, a discouraged Fenian, hopes that his son may never wreck his life in the hopeless cause but does not deny him knowledge. Both young men oppose the Easter uprising but both are involved in it. Bernard is wrecked by it but Stephen escapes. “‘And now,’ said Michael Ward to his son, ‘now that everything has turned out as I told you it would, what do you mean to do?’ ‘I suppose,’ replied Stephen, ‘we must begin all over again.’”
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:159 Ja ’21
“The story is long and the plot complicated but it is well told and the interest is sustained to the close.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 D 11 ’20 350w
“Although, as an artistic piece of work, the book leaves much to be desired, its vigour and sincerity save it from the category of the mediocre.” L. M. R.
+ − =Freeman= 2:406 Ja 5 ’21 160w
“It is one-sided and its heroes are not very attractive characters, but it is interesting and informing.”
+ − =Ind= 104:244 N 13 ’20 90w
“Mr O’Duffy is refreshingly free from didacticism. He allows the facts to explain for themselves, and does not make any indictment in the bitter, devastating manner of Brinsley McNamara’s ‘The clanking of chains.’ Regarded as a human document this book should be of great interest and assistance to readers in America who want to understand the Ireland which confronts them in alarming headlines.” E. A. Boyd
+ =N Y Evening Post= p3 O 30 ’20 1300w
“The animus of the book as a whole is unmistakable. Hate for England rather than love for Ireland is the mainspring of this active ‘patriotism.’” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Review= 3:422 N 3 ’20 380w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p104 F 12 ’20 540w
=OEMLER, MRS MARIE (CONWAY).= Purple heights. *$2 (2c) Century
20–17411
The hero is Peter Devereaux Champneys, a boy of eleven when the story opens. The scene is South Carolina where Peter lives in a four-roomed cabin with his mother, who runs a sewing machine to keep herself and Peter alive. Peter, who is considered a dunce in school, spends all his odd moments making pictures. One day he sketches the Red admiral—the beautiful butterfly that alighted on the milkweed pod by the side of the road—and the Red admiral proves to be his good fairy. His mother dies and Peter brings himself up, with the aid of Emma Campbell, a faithful negress. An unknown uncle appears out of the West and offers to send Peter to Paris, and so anxious is Peter to get to Paris that he accepts the uncle’s strange terms, marriage with an unknown Nancy Simms. His first sight of Nancy Simms is disconcerting, for she is a red-haired virago, but he runs away to Paris immediately after the ceremony and forgets her. In Paris he becomes famous and in the meantime Nancy grows up to be a beautiful woman and all ends well.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:73 N ’20
“Excellent, forceful writing appears on the earlier pages. Soon the benevolent persons enter, one after another, and they reflect urban life. The naturalness and sincerity of the story lessen.” R. D. W.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 O 27 ’20 500w
“A new author, writing real literature, is Mrs Oemler.” Lilian Bell
+ =N Y Evening Post= p8 N 27 ’20 950w
“The author knows the South, and her understanding of the black man’s mind is demonstrated on nearly every page. ‘The purple heights’ is a worthy successor to Mrs Oemler’s first success, ‘Slippy McGee.’”
+ − =N Y Times= p23 O 24 ’20 600w
“When Peter grows up and goes to Paris and becomes famous the charm vanishes and interest lags. It is in her beginnings that the author is most successful.”
+ − =Pub W= 98:1192 O 16 ’20 200w
“Decidedly inferior to ‘Slippy McGee,’ but nevertheless an entertaining story, with some delightful passages describing the hero’s youth.”
+ − =Wis Lib Bul= 16:238 D ’20 30w
=OGILVIE, PAUL MORGAN.= International waterways. *$3 Macmillan 387
20–2670
“‘International waterways’ is a history of the development of maritime enterprise. It sets forth the efforts of certain nations to secure the exclusive enjoyment of the seas. The first part of Mr Ogilvie’s book concludes with a critical discussion of the question of the freedom of commercial navigation. Part II is composed of a reference manual, where is to be found a list of all the international inland waterways of the world, together with the treaties and laws governing the same.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
Reviewed by A. F. Hershey
+ − =Am Pol Sci R= 14:519 Ag ’20 700w
=Booklist= 16:300 Je ’20
“A valuable reference work. If there is any fault to be found with Mr Ogilvie’s work it is a fault perhaps inseparable from the breadth of the task and the limited size of the volume. The author has neither the time nor the space to pause for that wealth of illustration which the reader would like to demand. But he constantly cites his sources and the reader who is interested in more detailed study may turn to them.” G. H. C.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p9 My 29 ’20 850w
“The international lawyer, the historian, and the general student of modern problems will each be grateful to Mr Ogilvie for his helpful work.” M. W. Tyler
+ =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:161 S ’20 460w
“Mr Ogilvie’s thoughtful treatise is very timely.” L. J. B.
+ =Review= 2:603 Je 5 ’20 1350w
=R of Rs= 62:224 Ag ’20 60w
“A scholarly, well-written history.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ap 30 ’20 280w
+ =Survey= 44:352 Je 5 ’20 100w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p215 Ap 1 ’20 120w
“The bibliography of treaties is likely to be of much practical use in coming years and represents a great deal of most fruitful labour. The bibliography of works dealing with the subject, though not exhaustive, will be helpful. An excellent index concludes a very thorough piece of work.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p265 Ap 29 ’20 1600w
=O’HIGGINS, HARVEY JERROLD.= Secret springs. *$2 (3c) Harper 130
20–19287
The author outlines the system of a Dr X who has “largely uncovered the mechanism by which the mind affects health” and who has evolved this system of mental hygiene according to which he treats his patients and directs them to safeguard themselves. It is based on the Freudian theory of psychoanalysis from which Dr X deviates and upon which he enlarges to some extent by not emphasising the sex element with the same insistence. The contents consider suppressions: In love and marriage; In health; In childhood; In happiness and success; In Theodore Roosevelt; In character and conduct; In dreams; In religion.
* * * * *
“Mr O’Higgins is agreeably free of Freudian and sexual obsessions.”
+ =Nation= 111:694 D 15 ’20 50w
“It is a very cheerful book, not only because it escapes what the writer calls the ‘unspeakable’ abstruseness and laboratory gruesomeness of the expositions of Freud and his followers, but also because everybody gets cured.” Renee Darmstadter
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p8 D 31 ’20 400w
=O’KELLY, SEUMAS.= Golden barque; and The weaver’s grave. *$1.75 (4c) Putnam
The longest tale in this collection, “The weaver’s grave,” describes an ancient graveyard “Cloon na Morav,” the meadow of the dead. So ancient is it that to have a right of burial there amounts to a pedigree. It is only the weaver, newly dead, and one survivor, Malachi Roohan, the cooper, who still have that right. On two other ancient inhabitants of the town devolves the task of finding the weaver’s grave. It is a well-nigh hopeless quest, related with insight and weird humor. The rest of the book, under the heading “The golden barque” consists of: Michael and Mary; Hike and Calcutta; The haven; Billy the clown; The derelict; The man with the gift.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p31 Ja 2 ’20 130w
“Slight plots, delightful people and the characteristic Celtic humor.”
+ =Booklist= 17:159 Ja ’21
“‘The golden barque’ is so finely and purely Irish that it is doubtful whether a child could make the most of it. But these are tales with so much literary and poetic quality that it would be unfortunate not at least to give the child a chance.”
+ =Ind= 104:380 D 11 ’20 40w
“There is an indescribable charm in these two Irish stories, which is attributable to the manner in which they are told, rather than to any extraordinary merit in plot and action.”
+ =N Y Times= p19 N 7 ’20 460w
“I shall recall the book for the long sketch with which it begins, but which for obvious reasons is not the title-story: ‘The weaver’s grave,’ a comedy most limited in scene and accessory, but rich in content and perfect in form.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 3:422 N 3 ’20 190w
“His characters are new, not picked from the crowd but found here and there in Ireland with individuality stamped all over them. They are not very important characters, but such as they are they challenge attention.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 D 28 ’20 180w
“If all these little stories were as beautifully told as the first, the set would be a rare delight. They vary in merit, and usually fall when Mr O’Kelly relies on detail, to rise again when he opens his inner vision.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p677 N 20 ’19 230w
=OLCOTT, FRANCES JENKINS.= Story-telling ballads. il *$3 Houghton 821.08
20–21433
The anthology contains seventy-seven of the ancient ballads and narrative poems such as were sung by minstrels and recited by gaffers and gammers in days of old. They are intended for boys and girls from twelve to fifteen years of age, and contain “romances, hero-tales, faërie legends and adventures of knights and lovely damsels. They sing of proud and wicked folk, of gentle and loyal ones, of laidley worms, witches, mermaids with golden combs, sad maidens, glad ones and fearless lovers, mosstroopers, border-rievers, and kings in disguise.” (Foreword) There are four color-prints, and the appendix contains suggestions for teachers, a glossary and indexes of subjects, authors, titles and first lines. The contents are grouped under the headings: The salt blue seas; A-harrowing o’ the border; Brave hearts and proud; Lays o’ faërie; Lays o’ wonder; Merry gestes; Sad gestes; Pretty mays and knights so bold; For Halloween and midsummer eve; All under the greenwood tree; O’ pilgrimage and souls so strong.
* * * * *
“Miss Olcott has selected her ballads with good taste, and the indexes and glossary are excellent.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p20 D 4 ’20 100w
=OLCOTT, HARRIET MEAD.= Whirling king, and other French fairy tales. il *$1.50 Holt
20–16112
Ten fairy stories adapted from the French and illustrated in silhouette. The titles are: Prince Rainbow; Bleuette’s butterfly; The frozen heart; The elf-dog; The whirling king; The magic mirror; The queen’s treasure; The stupid princess; The flying wizard; The forest fairy.
=OLDMEADOW, ERNEST JAMES.= Coggin *$1.75 (1½c) Century
20–818
The meeting of two human spirits for mutual uplift, development and regeneration is the theme of the story. The Reverend Oswald Redding, rector of a fashionable Episcopal church in Bulford-on-Deme, discovers in little Harry Coggin, son of a rags-and-bone man, a prodigy in intellect and spirit. In awarding him a scholarship at the grammar school, he has thrown a bombshell into the society of notables and inflamed the class hatred of the lowly. The story records Harry’s brief and distressing career at the school and shows how his rare gifts and spirit pierce the crust of the rector’s conventional Christianity, turning him from the well-worn ruts of his career to find God along new paths. Harry in turn receives the courage, the incentive, the divine impulse for his genius, from the rector’s enveloping love.
* * * * *
“The clever, respectful little boy, in this bit of his life, is perhaps a less interesting study than the more substantial figure of the rector. The case of the misuse of endowments and charities is intelligently argued; but we cannot believe in the ‘conversion’ of the socialist house-painter, and the definition of agnosticism would not satisfy an intelligent schoolboy.”
+ − =Ath= p1274 N 28 ’19 100w
“This strange, extraordinarily attractive little personality is Mr Oldmeadow’s discovery, and from the moment we meet him talking to George Placker we are prepared to follow him anywhere he may like to take us. The novel as a whole lacks proportion. The closing scenes, with the rector for principal figure, are far too drawn out.” K. M.
+ − =Ath= p143 Ja 30 ’20 700w
“A quiet picture, very life-like, appealing to readers who do not demand much plot.”
+ =Booklist= 16:282 My ’20
“The story is the result of a literary craftsmanship worthy of notice.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p5 N 20 ’20 150w
“No doubt the book is to be classed as propaganda; but propaganda is seldom so engagingly presented. The book has faults, the more irritating because they could have been easily avoided had the author exerted himself a little more. Nevertheless, its vitality is deep-rooted and its appeal is wide.”
+ − =Cath World= 111:698 Ag ’20 510w
“The first of a trilogy evidently ambitious of being the English ‘Jean Christophe.’ Though of fine craftsmanship and possessing a certain unique charm, not on the same artistic plane.”
+ − =Cleveland= p42 Ap ’20 100w
“The story has charm and a warm subdued color and a savor of the earth and of old houses in forgotten sunshine.”
+ =Nation= 110:373 Mr 20 ’20 260w
“Coggin is, to tell the truth, a fearful prig, and the reader must have a patient way with priggish and humorless virtue to bear with him till the end of the present narrative. The story is told with a certain skill and polish; but it is not very clearly worth telling, for all that.”
− + =Review= 2:310 Mr 27 ’20 220w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p698 N 27 ’19 60w
=OLGIN, MOISSAYE JOSEPH.= Guide to Russian literature (1820–1917). $3 (3½c) Harcourt 891.7
20–7675
Because Russian literature reproduces the spiritual struggles of men and goes down to the very bottom of everyday existence to scrutinize the economic, the social and the political life of the country, its study becomes valuable not only as an art but as the surest road to the understanding of the Russian people and conditions. The author therefore has selected from the literary productions of the nineteenth and twentieth century only those which have value for the present either on account of their artistic qualities, or as representing some aspect of Russian life. The contents are in three chronological groups, each preceded by a general survey of the era. Part I—The growth of a national literature; Part II—The “modernists”; Part III—The recent tide. The book also contains a list of pronunciations of authors’ names, an appendix on juvenile literature in Russia, and an index.
* * * * *
“This might well be called an inspired booklist. It answers the question ‘What shall I read to understand Russian character and Russian life?’”
+ =Booklist= 16:306 Je ’20
“The grouping of the material in this rather ‘sketchy’ volume is somewhat inadequate. Authors whose influence was very small are at times given more attention and space than is seemly in comparison to those who are very characteristic and important both from the historical and psychological point of view.”
− + =Dial= 69:322 S ’20 120w
“It is fresh in its treatment, original in its scheme and far more intelligently comprehensive than any other available handbook.”
+ =Freeman= 1:262 My 26 ’20 700w
“Mr Olgin combines an initiate’s grasp of the political and social background of his country with an intense and catholic appreciation of its literature and his command of incisive and pictorial English might be envied by writers to whom the tongue is native.” Jacob Zeitlin
+ − =Nation= 111:327 S 18 ’20 240w
“The book is expressly not devised as a ‘history,’ yet the American reader or student of Russian literature will find it of much greater value as a history than any so-called history he can lay his hands on in English.” Clarendon Ross
+ =New Repub= 24:334 N 24 ’20 490w
“In view of the number of authors dealt with, it is only natural the individual sections should prove more or less uneven. Some are splendid; others are far from satisfactory. The work as a whole is an excellent production.”
+ − =N Y Times= p16 O 10 ’20 780w
“That quality of compactness which one demands in a handbook is not invariably adhered to.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ag 24 ’20 160w
“Mr Olgin has managed to convey an exceptionally colorful and rich picture of each of these writers, with a good deal of detail crowded into a small space.”
+ =World Tomorrow= 3:350 N ’20 340w
=OLIVER, MAUDE I. G.= First steps in the enjoyment of pictures. il *$1.50 (4c) Holt 750
20–4272
A book designed for boys and girls which may also be helpful to other beginners in picture study. The fifty-five illustrations show examples from American museums and art galleries, and are limited to the work of American painters. One aim of the book is “to furnish a background for the reading of descriptive books on art.” Consequently the author has taken pains to introduce all the accepted art terms and phrases and to make their meaning clear. Contents: Media (two chapters); Classification; Color; Draughtsmanship; Values; Perspective; Composition; Technique; Character; Conclusion—A glimpse into fairyland (a suggested pageant).
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:353 Jl ’20
=N Y Times= p25 S 5 ’20 40w
+ =Pub W= 97:606 F 21 ’20 70w
“Any boy or girl above the age of twelve may use this book to advantage and will find it interesting and suggestive as well as instructive.”
+ =R of Rs= 61:612 Je ’20 80w
=OLMSTEAD, FLORENCE.= Stafford’s Island. *$1.75 (2c) Scribner
20–9141
Clarissa Stafford had grown up a lonely child on a lonely island, off the Georgia coast, with her apathetic, hermit grandfather, Peter Stafford. Her loneliness had developed occult powers in her and she sometimes felt certain that she saw the reflection of a man in the mirror of the drawing room where the picture of her grandmother, whose namesake and image she was, hung over the fireplace. When Clarissa is twenty a young man is washed ashore in a storm who resembles the vision. It all comes out in the story how Henry Thorne is the grandson of the man who painted Clarissa Stafford, and how that accounts for the picture and then ran off with the older the mysterious affinity that draws the living young people irresistibly towards each other.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:314 Je ’20
“Miss Olmstead has, with appealing artistry, woven a fascinating love story.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:28 Jl 18 ’20 300w
=OMORI, ANNIE SHEPLEY, and KOCHI DOI=, trs. Diaries of court ladies of old Japan. il *$5 Houghton 895
21–128
An introduction to the book by Amy Lowell describes the time and environment in which the ladies of these diaries wrote and gives a biographical sketch of each of them. The time was the middle of the Heian period which lasted from 794 to 1186, when Japan was thoroughly civilized, even “a little overcivilized, a little too fined down and delicate” and when women occupied an advanced position—they were educated, allowed a share of inheritance and had their own houses. Much of the best literature of Japan has been written by women. A common characteristic of the diaries is delicacy, rare and exquisite taste and skill in poetic composition. The ladies are Sarashina, Murasaki Shikibu and Izumi Shikibu. The illustrations are from Japanese prints, some in color, and the appendix contains an Old Japanese calendar and a chronological table of events connected with the diaries.
* * * * *
“A delightful curiosity and an attractively made book.”
+ =Booklist= 17:149 Ja ’21
“The literary quality of the three diaries is extremely high. They would all be eminently readable if written only yesterday. Added to the joyment of their intrinsic merits is the fact that they present a faithful picture of the court life of the times as well as some singularly striking contrasts between three women of totally different temperaments.”
+ =N Y Times= p16 D 26 ’20 2050w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:558 D 8 ’20 60w
=O’NEILL, EUGENE GLADSTONE.= Beyond the horizon; a play in three acts. *$1.50 Boni & Liveright 812
20–8634
“The tragedy of the misfit. Robert Mayo, a young farm born dreamer who longs to travel ‘beyond the horizon,’ gives up going to sea when he finds out that Ruth Atkins loves him but refuses to sail with him. His brother Andrew, as well fitted to be a farmer as Robert is unfitted to be a farmer becomes a sailor. Robert marries Ruth, but they soon cease to love each other and Robert, wasted by tuberculosis, crawls out of the house to die ‘alone—in a ditch by the open road—watching the sun rise.’”—Wis Lib Bul
* * * * *
“A powerful, grim ironic tragedy.”
+ =Booklist= 16:338 Jl ’20
“Mr O’Neill is most successful with such primitive types as Ruth. When he approaches a complex nature like Robert’s, his presentation is weaker. ‘Beyond the horizon’ is a good drama. It might have been a great one but for two defects that create and sustain each other, namely the theatre-consciousness of the playwright, and the fact that he is a too anxious father to his brood.” Lola Ridge
+ − =New Repub= 25:173 Ja 5 ’21 980w
“The appeal of ‘Beyond the horizon’ is instantaneous, but lasting. Never is it reduced to cleverness; never does it compromise with the American audience. Its truth is too profound and too soul-stirring to carry in one eye a smile, in the other a tear.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 8 ’20 750w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:116 Je ’20 120w
=ONIONS, BERTA (RUCK) (MRS OLIVER ONIONS).= Bridge of kisses. il *$2 (2½c) Dodd
20–17083
A story as sentimental as its title. Josephine Dale becomes engaged to a very worthy young man, Hilary Sykes, but obviously the wrong man for her. She frankly admits to herself that she is only doing it to give her mother peace of mind about her future. A young bridge-builder comes into the neighborhood on an engineering project, and, as his mother and hers had been girlhood friends, she takes a friendly interest in him, and that interest finally prompts her to find a wife for him. Her efforts do not meet with signal success, since it is obvious to everyone but Joey herself that the bridge-builder was made for her and her alone. A happy ending is inevitable, and Mr Sykes is consoled with a more suitable mate, so all is well.
=ONIONS, BERTA (RUCK) (MRS OLIVER ONIONS).= Sweethearts unmet. il *$1.75 (2c) Dodd
19–18030
In the form of separate stories, confessions, so to speak, a young girl and a young man each in turn pours out the story of his and her life, of their longings, their love hunger and their ideals. They were meant for each other, they had dreamt and speculated about each other, but seemed actually destined to live lives apart till luck and chance brought them, when it was almost, but not quite, too late, into each other’s arms. On this the author philosophizes: many young people in the large cities who are meant for each other never meet and end by marrying the wrong one. Her remedy is, not social centres, or matrimonial bureaus but a more hearty, understanding welcome of young people in individual homes, the creation of an entirely new atmosphere for the possibilities and needs of youth.
* * * * *
“A sentimental, very light love story of the kind that will please young readers.”
+ =Booklist= 16:245 Ap ’20
“She proceeds to write the story, in her own pretty, quaint way, and a capital story it is—wholesome as a breath of spring.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:135 Mr 21 ’20 650w
=OPPENHEIM, EDWARD PHILLIPS.= Devil’s paw. il *$1.90 (3c) Little
20–16858
Miss Catherine Abbeway, the heroine of the story, is a wonderful woman. By birth half Russian and half English and an aristocrat, her sympathies are entirely with the oppressed and with labor. She belongs to a secret labor organization whose object it is to bring about an early peace with the Central powers. Of this organization or council all but two, and they the leaders, are honest men. The two are scoundrels in the pay of Germany. Catherine undertakes, at great personal risk, to intercept messages from alleged German socialists for the council. Julian Orden, son of a peer, and anonymous author of peace articles that are creating a stir, discovers her in the act and takes the documents from her. But, to protect her in a compromising situation, he proclaims her his fiancée. Later when, after some breathless days, Catherine has discovered the sinister plot of the pseudo labor leaders and has saved England and the Allies from disaster, the pretense becomes fact.
* * * * *
“One of his poorer stories.”
+ − =Booklist= 17:118 D ’20
“The novel is not without ingenuity, and contains one or two fairly dramatic scenes; but it is not so entertaining a story as ‘The great impersonation.’”
+ − =N Y Times= p25 O 3 ’20 550w
“‘The devil’s paw’ is far from being his best work.”
− =Outlook= 126:334 O 20 ’20 60w
“The story cannot be classed among the best that Mr Oppenheim has written, but will, nevertheless, stimulate a considerable degree of interest.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 3 ’20 180w
+ − =Wis Lib Bul= 16:238 D ’20 40w
=OPPENHEIM, EDWARD PHILLIPS.= Great impersonation. il *$1.75 (2c) Little
20–629
Baron Leopold von Ragastein had been educated in England, at Eton and Oxford. While there he had had a double in a school mate, Sir Everard Dominey. Later they meet again in a German colony in East Africa where von Ragastein is now military commander. The latter is a perfect type of German efficiency and fitness, while the other, with a growing drink habit upon him, is generally at outs with life. They exchange confidences and when the German receives sudden orders to go to England on a secret mission he resolves to go as Sir Everard Dominey after first making away with the real Sir Everard. There he faces many delicate situations, but all goes well and the tasks imposed by the German government grow with the impostor’s daring. When the war breaks out he out-does himself by enlisting in the Norfolk yeomanry and at the very end comes the startling disclosure that it is after all the real Sir Everard who had not been so drunk in Africa “but that he was able to pull himself up when the great incentive came.”
* * * * *
“A good Oppenheim book.”
+ =Booklist= 16:205 Mr ’20
“The story pursues its course, sometimes in a lively fashion and sometimes sluggishly, but always moving towards a goal of surprise that will doubtless astonish many a reader. Its characters have in them something less fairylike and more human than is customary with Mr Oppenheim.” E. F. E.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 Ja 7 ’20 1250w
=Ind= 102:66 Ap 10 ’20 240w
“‘The great impersonation’ is a very decided improvement on the productions which have recently been flowing from the excessively prolific pen of Mr E. Phillips Oppenheim. The main idea is a good one and many of the details are well managed.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:10 Ja 11 ’20 550w
“Mr Oppenheim certainly springs a genuine surprise upon his readers in the outcome of this story. Unfortunately, it is often the case that things that are novel and surprising are not very convincing, and that is true here.”
+ − =Outlook= 124:161 Ja 28 ’20 120w
Reviewed by Doris Webb
=Pub W= 96:1691 D 27 ’19 280w
“The plot is exceedingly ingenious.”
+ =Spec= 125:675 N 20 ’20 40w
“He taxes one’s credulity, however, in asking the acceptance of the Englishman’s magic rejuvenation and revolutionary alterations in character and habit.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p15a Ja 18 ’20 420w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p669 O 14 ’20 200w
=ORCZY, EMMUSKA (MRS MONTAGUE BARSTOW) baroness.= His Majesty’s well-beloved. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
19–19054
A quaintly told story of an English actor in the times of Charles II. John Honeywood, devoted to Thomas Betterton is permitted, in his capacity as friend and secretary, to see much of the intimate life of that famous actor. It is he, who, in the form of a beseeching letter to Mary Saunderson, formerly betrothed to Tom Betterton, tells of the latter’s strange, thwarted love and passion for a lady of nobility: the insults and outrage her family heap upon “the mountebank” who presumes to my lady’s affections; the bitter, relentless revenge Betterton slowly perfects and executes: and finally his utter renunciation to save the innocence of Lady Barbara, and to restore to her the man she loves, cleared from all dishonor. Throughout the narrative Honeywood pleads with Mistress Saunderson that Betterton’s love for Lady Barbara is naught but a wild infatuation, and that his feeling for herself is still pure and unsullied. Evidently he succeeds, for the final chapter chronicles the wedding of Thomas Betterton, actor, and Mary Joyce Saunderson.
* * * * *
“An interesting, wholesome adventure story.”
+ =Booklist= 16:245 Ap ’20
+ =Cleveland= p50 My ’20 100w
“The tale is picturesque and dramatic, with many an unexpected twist.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:128 Mr 21 ’20 500w
“Better written, we think, than this author’s ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ romances and equally stirring in plot.”
+ =Outlook= 125:125 My 19 ’20 20w
“The Baroness Orczy is an old hand at this kind of story, has the machinery under control and the lingo pat.” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Review= 2:463 My 1 ’20 150w
“It is a vivid tale, told with all the charm, color and romantic flavor characterizing Baroness Orczy’s novels.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 5 ’20 310w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p573 O 16 ’19 60w
=O’RIORDAN, CONAL O’CONNELL (NORREYS CONNELL, pseud.).= Adam of Dublin. *$2 Harcourt
20–20003
Adam was born in the gutter and began his career in life, at the age of seven, selling stale papers. When he came to a sudden realization of what that meant he went to pour out his heart in confession to Father Innocent Feeley and found his first and truest friend. He makes other friends too, for after Father Innocent’s intervention has secured for him an education for the priesthood, and after the good Father’s death occurred at a crisis in Adam’s school life that made his position there untenable, the queer old Frenchman in Adam’s lodging house, who was not a Frenchman at all but a German musician, took him under his wing and saw to it that he was freed from the clutches of the Jesuits. The book leaves young Adam—the incarnation of the romantic soul of Ireland—on the brink of a new and freer life, of which the reader is led to expect an account in another volume.
* * * * *
“Among so many dead novels it is a delight to hail one that is so rich in life.” K. M.
+ =Ath= p652 N 12 ’20 960w
+ =Booklist= 17:159 Ja ’21
“The story so far is noteworthy not so much because of its youthful hero, as for the effortless creation of the atmosphere of Irish life.” L. M. R.
+ − =Freeman= 2:478 Ja 26 ’21 100w
“Mr Conal O’Riordan has apparently embarked on a trilogy. However, Adam is an amusing child. One feels resigned to meeting him again.”
+ =Spec= 125:641 N 13 ’20 70w
“It is not a story of plot, nor can it be called one of ‘child psychology’; but it is carried through with an underlying humour and a resourcefulness free from all the usual devices of the novelist, which is not without its charm.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p637 S 30 ’20 200w
“The author feels acutely and deeply, both in joy and in pain. He has both quick sensitiveness and profound emotion, two qualities which do not always go together. We cannot at the moment recall any book that drags us so deep into the mire, yet keeps the light of love and hope so steadily shining throughout.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p683 O 21 ’20 560w
=ORTH, SAMUEL PETER.= Armies of labor; a chronicle of the organized wage-earners. (Chronicles of America ser.). il per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 331.87
19–19137
“As the subtitle suggests, this volume is a history of the labor movement as expressed through workers’ organizations, rather than of labor conditions. It touches only incidentally upon wages, hours of work, and other features of the labor contract at different periods, or upon the details of labor legislation. Within these limits it covers the field. The author cites mostly secondary sources. The volume is well indexed and contains bibliographical appendixes.”—Am Hist R
* * * * *
“It is readable, concise, and comprehensive.” V: S. Clark
+ =Am Hist R= 26:122 O ’20 290w
Reviewed by L. B. Shippee
+ =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:157 S ’20 310w
“In ‘The armies of labor’ Samuel P. Orth has written a book of great value.”
+ =N Y Times= p16 O 31 ’20 130w
=ORTH, SAMUEL PETER.= Our foreigners; a chronicle of Americans in the making. (Chronicles of America ser.) il per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 325.1
20–4766
“This book, by a professor of political science at Cornell university, is chiefly descriptive; and, owing to limitations of space, considerably condensed. The first two chapters cover the period prior to 1820; and the unique fourth chapter upon Utopias in America, describes the various communistic experiments. The negroes, Irish, Teutons, and Orientals each have a chapter to themselves; but all the more recent types of immigrants are mentioned, and are illustrated by cuts from photographs. Thirteen pages are devoted to the history of immigration legislation. A short bibliographical note is appended.”—Am Hist R
* * * * *
“In general the treatment is impartial. There is lacking a certain ethnological accent needed to bring out fundamental considerations.” P. F. Hall
+ − =Am Hist R= 25:749 Jl ’20 320w
+ =Cleveland= p91 S ’20 60w
“A better perspective would have brought out more sharply the cultural contributions of our foreigners, their political affiliations and influence, and the setting of our immigration legislation. Mr Orth writes well and with poise and discrimination, but he has added nothing to our knowledge. His book is for the general reader rather than the scholar.” G: M. Stephenson
+ − =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:174 S ’20 380w
“It may be said in fact that the many statistics with which ‘Our foreigners’ is enriched are admirable, and that the almost equally numerous opinions which scarify the work are for the most part violently prejudiced, wholly out of place, and not only false in deduction but entirely misleading in the theories to which they give rise.” E: H. Bierstadt
− + =New Repub= 24:302 N 17 ’20 1200w
+ =N Y Times= p16 O 31 ’20 130w
=St Louis= 18:98 Je ’20 20w
=OSBORNE, JAMES INSLEY.= Arthur Hugh Clough. *$2.25 (4½c) Houghton
20–12116
The author has written the life of Arthur Hugh Clough with special emphasis on his intellectual development and the growth of his powers as a poet. There are interesting references to his friendships with Emerson, Lowell, and others and to his sojourn in America. Contents: Childhood; At Rugby; As undergraduate; As fellow of Oriel; The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich; Amours de voyage; Dipsychus; Last years; Conclusion; Index.
* * * * *
“The investigation has not, perhaps, been as thorough as it is clearheaded.” F. W. S.
+ − =Ath= p268 F 27 ’20 1000w
+ =Booklist= 17:29 O ’20
Reviewed by J. W. Krutch
+ =Bookm= 51:687 Ag ’20 1050w
“Its one drawback is a peculiar style which changes back and forth between the past tense and the historical present.” E. F. E.
+ − |=Boston Transcript= p6 Je 26 ’20 1550w
“There is much in this study which the student of mid-Victorian poetry and intellectual life will find useful and suggestive. But Mr Osborne’s work has little charm of style, and fails to render Clough attractive to the reader.”
+ − =Cath World= 111:831 R ’20 60w
“Mr Lytton Strachey has already devoted a few acid paragraphs to ‘this earnest adolescent.’ But Mr Osborne is free from any such levity. To him Clough is neither the corpus vile nor the hero: he is the occasion none the less for some uncommonly adroit criticism.”
+ =Freeman= 1:427 Jl 14 ’20 1150w
“Mr Osborne’s temper, at least as it exhibits itself here, is almost too well suited to his subject. A heartier, less scrupulous treatment might have left more oxygen in the air at the really depressing end.” M. V. D.
+ − =Nation= 112:122 Ja 26 ’21 640w
Reviewed by B. R. Redman
=N Y Times= p11 O 3 ’20 1350w
“Mr Osborne’s book is a critique rather than a biography; suggestive, but not satisfying. He would have done better had he given us less of his own interpretations and more of Clough’s letters, leaving the reader to interpret their significance for himself.”
+ − =Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 100w
“The unimportant subject is exhaustively and exhaustingly studied. Nothing could exceed the pains with which we are told what a man who is not made interesting thought.”
+ − =Review= 3:655 D 29 ’20 120w
“If there is a defect in Mr Osborne’s book, it is that he seems less inclined to dwell on the positive qualities of Clough’s poetry than on its shortcomings. In a psychological and critical study of Clough’s life it is masterly; the analysis is searching, but there is sympathy as well as justice in the author’s intuition.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p153 Mr 4 ’20 1850w
=O’SHAUGHNESSY, EDITH LOUISE (COUES) (MRS NELSON O’SHAUGHNESSY).= Alsace in rust and gold. il *$2 (3½c) Harper 940.48
20–6294
The author says that from the rut and routine of war-work in Paris she was conveyed “as on a magic carpet, to the blue valleys and the rust and gold and jasper hills of Alsace, where the color is laid on thick, thick,” when she accompanied the French military mission during the thirteen historic days preceding the armistice. In this well-illustrated book she describes with “no polemics and no statistics” the picturesque aspect of the country. Contents: The journey there; All Saints’ day, November, 1918; Fête des morts, November, 1918; Thann and old Thann; The Ballon d’Alsace; La popote; The houses of the chanoinesses; Luncheon at Bitschwiller—the mission in residence at St-Amarin—Saint-Odile; The “field of lies” and Laimbach; The valley of the Thur; The re-Gallicizing of Alsace; The Hartmannswillerkopf; “Les crêtes”—“Déjeuner” at Camp Wagram—the Freundstein and its phantoms; Return to Masevaux; The vigil of the armistice; Dies gloriæ.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:25 O ’20
“‘Alsace in rust and gold’ has a quality of permanence that will make it readable ten, fifteen, twenty years hence. It should occupy an honored place on the shelf, marked ‘Travel’ in every well-regulated library.”
+ =Cath World= 111:689 Ag ’20 260w
+ =Nation= 110:773 Je 5 ’20 250w
+ =Outlook= 126:654 D 8 ’20 70w
“So long as she confines herself to impressions and sentiments the record flows smoothly, for Mrs O’Shaughnessy is a writer of quick perception and likely feeling. But from time to time there is a little attempt, unconscious perhaps, to parade the knowledge she has picked up in her long acquaintance with many lands and many men, and then even the most indulgent reader is roused to revolt.”
+ − =Review= 3:47 Jl 14 ’20 300w
=R of Rs= 61:558 My ’20 50w
“It is a book of charm, to be read leisurely. The account of the last few days of the war in this province, which was so vitally affected by the outcome of the conflict, adds something worth while to the volume of war literature.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Je 11 ’20 450w
=O’SHAUGHNESSY, EDITH LOUISE (COUES) (MRS NELSON O’SHAUGHNESSY).= Intimate pages of Mexican history. *$3 (3c) Doran 972
20–17983
“This book, concerning the four presidents of Mexico whom I have personally known, contains only what I have seen myself, or what, by word of mouth and eye in eye I have learned from those intimately connected with the men and events of which it speaks.” (Preface) As the wife of a diplomat the author combines intimate knowledge of Mexican conditions with her personal reminiscences. The four presidents are: Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Leon de la Barra, Francisco I. Madero, and Victoriano Huerta.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:108 D ’20
“This is the most delightful of Edith O’Shaughnessy’s books. It deserves the place of honor among books dealing with Mexico.” C. A. Crowell
+ =Bookm= 52:270 N ’20 680w
“It is an absorbing story, told in a masterly manner, by one who thoroughly comprehends it all and who is a master of English composition.” E. J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 9 ’20 1250w
“The book under discussion is decidedly worth while.”
+ =Cath World= 112:250 N ’20 230w
“She is a brilliant writer, with a free hand and an indifferent tread.”
+ =N Y Times= p18 O 24 ’20 2050w
“There is throughout the whole book an intimacy and warmth which, if it does no more, can scarcely fail to make one’s mind receptive of a broader point of view. Probably it will do more. It is not easy to see that Mrs O’Shaughnessy’s philosophy of Mexico, realistic to the point of cynicism, yet generous in feeling, is in any essential way wrong.”
+ =No Am= 212:716 N ’20 1000w
“The author has an advantage for which she owes thanks to no one but herself: a vivid and picturesque style which, reinforced by deep sincerity and an ardent enthusiasm, gives her narrative the glow of adventurous fiction. There is much in the latter chapters more spicy than reverential. But the author has a clear vision and her plain speaking makes for better understanding of Mexico.” Calvin Winter
+ =Pub W= 98:663 S 18 ’20 400w
=O’SHEA, PETER F.= Employees’ magazines; for factories, offices, and business organizations. il *$1.80 Wilson, H. W. 658
20–26978
A book on house organs as a factor in employment management. The foreword says, “The value of the printed word in organizing, educating and managing large groups of employees in industry is greater today than ever before.... The old paternalistic shop paper which reached down to pat a man on the shoulder is out of date. But the modern house magazine, alive, sincere, human and constructive, has tremendous opportunities, that have been greatly increased by the wide-spread growth in intelligence and interest among workmen the country over.” Contents: The employees’ magazine as an aid to management; Promoting cooperation by the house organ; Educational work of a house organ; How a house organ improves morale; Democracy of an employees’ magazine; Organization and getting material; Editorial methods and costs; A contractor’s employees’ magazine; Magazines for offices, stores, and sales organizations; Learning from other fields; Appendix: a brief list of good exchanges.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:100 D ’20
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 O 11 ’20 480w
=OSLER, SIR WILLIAM.= Old humanities and the new science. *$1.50 Houghton 375
20–7592
The book contains Sir William Osler’s inaugural address as president of the British classical association, which proved to be his last public utterance. It contains a memorial introduction by Dr Harvey Cushing setting forth the unusually high and many-sided achievements of the author as both scholar and man and describing in brief the organization and purpose of the Classical association. One of these purposes—the furthering of a closer cooperation between natural science and the humanities—accounts for the choosing of “one of the most eminent physicians in the world” as its president. Dr Osler is said to have been “a well-nigh perfect example” of this union and his address to have “embodied the whole spirit of this ideal.”
* * * * *
“It is a rare production, witty, learned, fraught with a high degree of inspiration, full of sympathy for the old humanities, filled with surprises in the portrayal of great classical writers.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 7 ’20 300w
“The conclusion is that an eminent medico, even with a generous dose of litteræ humaniores, is not qualified to lecture on mediævalism, philosophy and history.”
− =Cath World= 112:250 N ’20 330w
“It is a pregnant, witty and humane discussion of the interdependence of the two branches of learning. Osler reveals himself here as a physician of the line of Sir Thomas Browne and the scholar-philosophers of the renaissance.”
+ =Freeman= 1:358 Je 23 ’20 180w
+ =Nation= 111:192 Ag 14 ’20 340w
“As a whole this address of a man of science who was also a man of letters is delightful. It is scholarly, as became the place and the occasion, but it is never pedantic and it is never dull. Indeed, it is often playful.” Brander Matthews
+ =N Y Times= 25:263 My 23 ’20 1600w
“Wit and wisdom equally characterize this essay.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 My 13 ’20 250w
=OSTRANDER, ISABEL EGENTON (ROBERT ORR CHIPPERFIELD, DOUGLAS GRANT, pseuds.).= How many cards? *$2 (2c) McBride
20–19916
A murder in New York society forms the raison d’être for this detective story. Eugene Creveling is found dead in his library early one April morning. McCarthy, the ex-roundsman detective of previous stories, constitutes himself the chief investigator. He interviews the family, social and business friends and servants of the murdered man, and finds, as he says, “every last one of them bluffing and hedging and lying,” except the O’Rourkes, former friends of his in the old country, whose integrity he would swear by. He can’t understand what the others are all working for, but gradually their motives are uncovered, and altho they have a bearing on the character and habits of the dead man, the identity of the murderer remains still a mystery. Then in a flash the solution is revealed to McCarthy by a passing glimpse of a woman’s handwriting, the last woman in the world he would want to suspect. But thru an act of what he calls Providence she is not brought to justice, and after all perhaps Creveling got no more than he deserved for playing with a woman’s honor.
* * * * *
=N Y Times= p27 Ja 2 ’21 360w
=Springf’d Republican= p7a N 28 ’20 110w
=OSTRANDER, ISABEL EGENTON (ROBERT ORR CHIPPERFIELD, DOUGLAS GRANT, pseuds.).= Unseen hands. *$1.75 McBride
20–10735
“This story of Mr Chipperfield’s is placed before us as a mystery in which every member of a wealthy family seems to be menaced. The mother and the eldest son have each died under peculiar circumstances shortly before the opening of the story. We are instantly met with strange, murderous intention being disclosed in regard to the father and the second son. Such intimate knowledge of the family life is disclosed that we are forced to the conclusion that it is an ‘inside Job.’ The problem is to find the person with motive and means for such gradual but wholesale murder.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:35 O ’20
“It is an unlikely situation in twentieth-century America, but capable of being quite mystifying if handled dexterously. Mr Chipperfield guards his secret well. His situations are not always screwed up to the highest pitch, but he does succeed in rousing false conjectures and the general air of suspicion which successful detective fiction demands.”
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 7 ’20 380w
“Readers of detective tales will find this book of absorbing interest; the plot is well developed and the dénouement startling. Decidedly, Mr Chipperfield knows how to write a detective story. ‘Unseen hands’ is one of the best of its kind.”
+ =N Y Times= p29 Ag 15 ’20 350w
“The climax is not unexpected, yet possesses the elements of a surprise. The story is entertaining of its type.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p7a D 12 ’20 130w
=O’SULLIVAN, MRS DENIS.= Mr Dimock. *$2 (2½c) Lane
20–21190
Horace Dimock, a prosperous American business man and a notorious philanderer, spends much of his time in England with his English friends, the center of whom are Lady Freke and the widowed Crystal McClinton, sisters and of American birth. To Crystal he is even secretly married. As the story opens he is coming to England, at the appeal of the sisters, to rescue his ward, Daphne O’Brien, daughter of a former love, from the nunnery. He falls violently in love with Daphne at first sight. His ardor diverts her from her purpose, but she turns from him as soon as she learns of his treachery to Crystal, whom he now seeks to divorce. At the end we find him sans Crystal and Daphne, and reduced to the goodnatured tolerance of the friends who had once admired him. Much of international, post war interest and of the havoc of war plays in the story and Daphne, the would-be nun, becomes the happy wife of a wonderful young Serbian hero.
* * * * *
“There is workmanlike writing in the book and there are moments of some emotional power. We object to a certain romantic staginess of the war heroes.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p8 Ja 15 ’21 330w
=N Y Times= p24 D 26 ’20 400w
=OTTMAN, FORD CYRINDE.= J. Wilbur Chapman. *$2.50 Doubleday
20–12138
The biography of a distinguished and widely-known preacher written by a personal friend. “To write his life none among his friends was so well qualified as Dr Ottman,” says John F. Carson in his introduction. “In all his ministry Dr Ottman was his confidant, his companion in the home and on his world journeys, his friend and counsellor, a sharer of his joys and sorrows. Such intimacy supplies a biographer with materials for a sympathetic and revealing interpretation.” There are chapters on: Lineage; Environment; College and seminary; The Whitewater and the Hudson; Philadelphia and New York; A retrospect; Summer conferences; Evangelism; On the way to Australia; At home and abroad, etc., with a closing chapter on Personality. There is a frontispiece portrait.
* * * * *
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 4 ’20 300w
“With sympathetic approach and with due appreciation of Dr Chapman himself, one lays down the book with a feeling that Dr Ottman has fallen short of the possibilities in the case.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 5 ’20 580w
=OUR= unseen guest. *$2 (3c) Harper 134
20–3803
Philosophical discussions communicated to Joan and Darby, the anonymous authors of this book—by a young soldier who had recently died, or “graduated,” and was living and working “on the other side.” In the beginning this spirit gave proof of his identity, which the authors quite accidently found corroborated. The communications center about “quality of consciousness.” Our development is both qualitative and quantitative. At birth we are given quality of soul—which is definitely fixed—a rebirth of a certain quality of consciousness, which has been developing on the other side, into our human body. During our earth life, if we are true to our “quality,” we develop quantity of soul, which upon our “graduation” we bring as our contribution to the whole of consciousness on the other side. There are many rebirths, until the supreme consciousness is reached. Joan and Darby at first were very material skeptics, holding fast to the theories of subconsciousness, telepathy, etc., but in the end were quite convinced.
* * * * *
“In view of the unconvincing and emotional quality of many of the popular books upon psychical research, the readers of ‘Our unseen guest’ will be inclined to [say]—‘the best thing of the kind!’” Margaret Deland
+ =N Y Times= 25:4 Je 27 ’20 1250w
“Wordy nonsense as this is, it is more coherent because more modest than most of the revelations from the beyond; the evasion (in the vernacular bluff) is more transparent, less likely to produce the semblance of profundity by which the judgment is soothed to a blissful ignorance mistaken for knowledge.” Joseph Jastrow
+ − =Review= 3:43 Jl 14 ’20 350w
=OVERTON, GRANT MARTIN.= Mermaid. il *1.75 (2c) Doubleday
20–1891
A story of the sea and of sea-faring life seen from the coast and a coast-guard station. Captain Smiley and his crew have rescued a little girl of six, the only survivor of a wreck, and have called her Mermaid, from the ship’s name. With the captain as Dad and the crew as uncles she lives a life full of poetry and adventure. In spite of her name she grows into a sane and healthy womanhood, surrounded in her school days by boy friendships that later turn into love. From among these she chooses Guy Vanton the lonely poet boy, shadowed by a dark family history. In the course of the story several family histories of the old coast town are revealed and withal much human nature, some philosophy and the light of a new era is shown to lay old ghosts and to conquer old fears. Mermaid’s husband, Guy, pays for his conquest with his life, and Dick Hand, overstepping conventions with the courage of love, reaps his reward.
=OVINGTON, MARY WHITE.= Shadow. *$1.75 (2c) Harcourt
20–5123
A story of the race problem told with an effective restraint. The plot is unusual. A white baby, for family reasons, is left in a negro cabin, to be brought up as a negro child and until the age of nineteen, to believe herself of negro blood. Then a dying and repentent grandfather restores her to her name and position and she is free to cross the line into the white world. Realizing what her fate will be wherever her story is known, she chooses to lose herself in New York, earning a living in the garment trades. Here she finds herself on the edge of the labor movement, but she is never quite drawn into it. She remains outside the conflict. The call to action comes to her when the life of her dark brother, the playmate of her childhood, is endangered, and to save him from the fury of a lynching mob, enraged to the point of blood lust at thought of a negro who has laid his hand on a white woman’s arm, she again crosses the color line and falsely declares herself of negro birth. The story ends as it began, in the South, with Hertha entering the beautiful southern home of which she is to be mistress, but even within its protection, with her lover’s arm about her, she looks ahead and knows that “the shadow of man’s making” will always lie beside her path.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:314 Je ’20
“Miss Ovington has written a novel of keen interest. She has handled the story unfalteringly. She has shown the immense possibilities that lie in such a theme when treated truthfully and artistically. She treats her colored characters with the same attributes of nature and temperament as the whites, and in so doing opens up the way to the possibilities in the future of American fiction.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Je 2 ’20 2000w
“In no recent book has the American negro’s problem been more sympathetically treated than in ‘The shadow.’ She succeeds throughout in treating them as individuals rather than as racial types and does so with a simple and unselfconscious realism.” M. G.
+ =Freeman= 2:93 O 6 ’20 160w
“The execution is unexceptionable, but the people and the incidents lack concreteness. No doubt Miss Ovington has seen them in the flesh. But she has seen them as a sociologist rather than as an artist. But this will not trouble the average reader at all. And since in most of the novels he gets the characters are conventionalized into conformity with the demands of intolerance and hatred, one cannot but desire a wide popularity for this book in which the controlling spirit is one of humanity and of the civilized instincts.”
+ − =Nation= 110:558 Ap 24 ’20 160w
“There can be no doubt of Miss Ovington’s love and sympathy for the negroes. Each page is full of the burning resentment she feels for their wrongs, but one cannot help wondering what her real belief is with regard to the race.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p3 My 1 ’20 630w
“Miss Ovington’s book is well constructed and faultlessly written.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:25 Je 27 ’20 560w
“Incidentally, the race question is touched upon with sympathy toward all sides of the problem.”
+ =Outlook= 124:657 Ap 14 ’20 40w
“The story is written throughout with a deep sympathy for all the characters.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a Ag 29 ’20 240w
“Her black characters are drawn lovingly: for she seems to possess in rare combination that sympathetic affection which the southern white feels for the black when he ‘keeps his place’ together with comprehension of the aspiring mind and soul of the black race.” M. K. R.
+ =World Tomorrow= 3:287 S ’20 260w
=OWEN, ROBERT.= Life of Robert Owen. *$1.50 (1c) Knopf
20–26889
The book is the first of a series of economic reprints which form a new social economic section of the famous Bohn libraries. The volumes deal with the great writers and pioneers in the field of economics of whom Robert Owen was the first to grasp the meaning of the industrial revolution. The present volume has an introduction by M. Beer, a bibliography of the works of Owen, and an index.
+ =Ath= p784 Je 11 ’20 50w
=Booklist= 17:85 N ’20
“A comparison of Owen’s ‘Life’ with contemporary records will reveal a number of substantial discrepancies.” R: Roberts
+ − =Freeman= 2:187 N 3 ’20 850w
=OYEN, HENRY.= Plunderer. *$1.75 (3c) Doran
20–4782
Roger Payne, an energetic young northerner, buys a thousand acre tract of “prairie” land in Florida. When he goes down to look it over he finds that the quality of the land corresponds quite exactly to the agent’s description, but that it is covered with about two feet of water. With the aid of his friend Higgins, an engineer, he works out a plan for drainage, but finds that the physical difficulties are the least of his obstacles. One of the men in the company that sold him the land is Senator Fairclothe, but he soon learns that this statesman is only the catspaw for Garman, the real villain in the situation. The senator’s beautiful daughter is engaged to Garman, but there is love at first sight between her and Roger and the outcome of the tale, which abounds in scenes of brutality, is the winning of the girl as well as title to the reclaimed land.
* * * * *
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ =Bookm= 51:683 Jl ’20 290w
“The book is an adventure tale of good quality: and if the reader will overlook its lack of plausibility it will hold his attention to the end.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:134 Mr 21 ’20 300w
“The tale is exciting and adventurous.”
+ =Outlook= 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 20w
=Springf’d Republican= p13a My 2 ’20 200w
=OZAKI, YEI THEODORA.= Romances of old Japan. *$8.50 Brentano’s 895
“Madame Ozaki’s ‘romances’ are for the most part stories dealt with by the popular drama of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They are of two types, the sanguinary and the supernatural. The first corresponds to the earlier period of the Yedo popular stage and to the careers of the first three Danjūrōs, famous for their impersonations of ferocious warriors. In the present work ‘The quest of the sword,’ ‘The tragedy of Kesa’ and ‘The Sugawara tragedy’ belong to this type. The second type, represented in this book by ‘The spirit of the lantern,’ ‘The reincarnation of Tama,’ ‘The badger-haunted temple,’ etc., corresponds to the popularity of the great ghost-impersonator Matsusuke, who died c.1820.”—Ath
* * * * *
“These characteristic native idylls are charmingly translated.”
+ =Ath= p1170 N 7 ’19 70w
“It is not difficult to discover why Madame Ozaki’s material is drawn from the stage, and not from the classical literature of Japan. Her rendering of one or two poems in this book shows that she is imperfectly acquainted with the older language. Her style is that of cinema-libretti, a medium thoroughly suited to the nature of her material. Numerous illustrations by the contemporary artists Keishū and Hōsai add to the impression of modernity produced by the book. Might not it have been illustrated by old theatrical woodcuts?” A. D. W.
+ − =Ath= p1398 D 26 ’19 440w
“Mme Ozaki’s very readable tales gain by being associated with native pictures, though the artist seems to have been influenced by western painting.”
+ =Spec= 123:696 N 22 ’19 140w
“The illustrations are Japanese. None of them, we suppose, would be considered anything but negligible in Japan. But to the western eye there is hardly one which does not possess some of those qualities of grace, decision, and style which are seldom absent from the most trifling Japanese work.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p747 D 11 ’19 400w
P
=PACKARD, FRANK LUCIUS.= From now on. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
20–6
Dave Henderson, through environment a crook, steals one hundred thousand dollars, which unfortunately is coveted by other, more hardened crooks. Scarcely has he hidden his prize securely when he is hotly pursued. Caught and convicted, he serves five years in the “pen” patiently, for is not the reward worth while? Released, he is a marked man to both police and crook. Nevertheless, after hair-raising adventures, he at last holds in his hands the hundred thousand dollars, only to find he can no longer enjoy this stolen money. Association with an honest, great hearted gentleman and a girl who loves Dave, creates in him values other than material, and a desire for clean straight living. He accepts “God’s chance,” and together with the woman he loves, looks forward to an honest, decent, constructive life “from now on.”
* * * * *
“As a well-constructed, plausible and exciting story, ‘From now on’ deserves unstinted praise.” A. A. W.
+ =Boston Transcript= p10 Ja 31 ’20 300w
=N Y Times= 25:71 F 8 ’20 550w
=Springf’d Republican= p11a Mr 21 ’20 210w
=PACKARD, FRANK LUCIUS.= White Moll. *$1.75 (1½c) Doran
20–8628
The White Moll is the name Rhoda Gray has earned for herself in New York’s East side district by always playing on the square with its denizens. So Gypsy Nan, when dying in a slightly penitent frame of mind, entrusts her with the secret of a crime about to be committed. Rhoda tries to stop it, but is arrested, charged with committing it. She escapes but her career of charity as the White Moll is thus wrecked and she is forced for safety to disguise herself as Gypsy Nan in which rôle she finds herself in the midst of a criminal gang. She resolves to circumvent their schemes, and so plays the double part of Gypsy Nan, who is hand in glove with them, and the White Moll, their bitterest enemy and a fugitive from justice. Her part is hard, but her luck is good, and with the “Adventurer” as her ally she finally, after many exciting experiences, breaks up the gang and brings it to punishment. Then she makes the gratifying discovery that the Adventurer is not the thief she had thought him and that they had been working for the same ends.
* * * * *
“If a thrill on every page is any consideration, here you have it.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Bookm= 51:585 Jl ’20 140w
“As is usual in his stories of the underworld, Mr Packard’s tale is filled with exciting adventures. He has without doubt built a place for himself and his particular type of tale.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 17 ’20 300w
“There is no need for anyone to find life unexciting so long as there are men in the world with imaginations like Frank L. Packard’s.”
+ =Ind= 104:381 D 11 ’20 140w
“It is a clever, absorbing story, with a certain freshness in its theme.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:329 Je 20 ’20 480w
=Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 180w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:238 D ’20 50w
=PACKARD, WINTHROP.= Old Plymouth trails. il *$3 (4c) Small 917.4
20–26567
“He who would see Plymouth and the Pilgrim land about it as the Pilgrims saw it may do so. Nature holds grimly onto her own and sedulously heals the scars that man makes.... Plymouth is a manufacturing city, a residence town, a resort and a thriving business centre all in one ... but you have only to step out of town to find their very land all about you, traces of their occupancy, the very marks of their feet, worn in the earth itself.... Along the old Pilgrim trails you may step from modern culture and its acme of civilization through the pasture lands of the Pilgrims into glimpses of the forest primeval.” (Chapter I) A partial list of the contents is: Plymouth mayflowers; Nantucket in April; Footing it across the Cape; Along the salt marshes; Ghosts of the northeaster; White pine groves; The pasture in November; Coasting on Ponkapoag; Yule fires.
* * * * *
“Pleasant informal essay style with special appeal to the lover of the out-of-doors.”
+ =Booklist= 16:342 Jl ’20
Reviewed by W. A. Dyer
+ =Bookm= 52:126 O ’20 30w
+ =Cath World= 112:257 N ’20 160w
“As a prose technician, Mr Packard is, of course, inferior to W. H. Hudson, lacking both the English writer’s restraint and his sense of nervous rhythm. Yet he writes with great vividness at times, and his accuracy of observation is hardly less keen.” W. P. Eaton
+ − =Freeman= 2:117 O 13 ’20 900w
+ =N Y Times= 25:5 Jl 25 ’20 100w
+ =Outlook= 125:715 Ag 25 ’20 60w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 23 ’20 240w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:236 D ’20 70w
Reviewed by C. L. Skinner
+ =Yale R= n s 10:181 O ’20 750w
=PAGE, GERTRUDE (MRS GEORGE ALEXANDER DOBBIN).=[2] Paddy-the-next-best-thing. *$2 (2c) Stokes
20–18935
When Paddy Adair was born, her father had ardently wished for a boy, but as she grew up he had become quite contented with the “next-best-thing,” and Paddy, while longing herself to be a boy, had satisfied herself with being as hoydenish and wild as the “next-best-thing” could be. But for all that, she had a way with her with the opposite sex, a captivating Irish way which won and held the heart of Lawrence Blake, as her sister Eileen’s dreamy moods could never do. But Paddy, because she thought Eileen was breaking her heart over Lawrence’s defection, swore eternal hatred against him. Altho patience was far from natural to him, he cultivated it and in the end won out. The story in play form has had a successful run both in this country and England.
* * * * *
“As fiction of the very lightest sort this tale has its good points. Although over-played, its heroine, Paddy, is real and often behaves like a human sort.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p22 O 23 ’20 50w
“The author does not rely on plot for the appeal of her book. What she does is to offer a pleasing, polite, mildly amusing sketch of certain phases of life in Ireland, with nothing to remind one of Sinn Fein uprising and hunger strikes, and this work she has done with commendable skill.”
+ =N Y Times= p18 D 5 ’20 410w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 D 28 ’20 130w
=PAGE, KIRBY.=[2] Something more. *90c Assn. press 248
20–11091
The book, “a consideration of the vast, undeveloped resources of life” (Sub-title) is the first in the New generation series. It contains four essays enlarging respectively on the latent possibilities in God, in man, in Jesus Christ, in life—that are man’s for the searching. The last essay, Enemies of life, enumerates the negative factors, both material and spiritual, all rooted in ignorance, that keep man from entering into his true heritage.
* * * * *
“An invigorating book.”
+ =Bib World= 54:645 N ’20 120w
=PAGE, THOMAS NELSON.= Italy and the world war. *$5 Scribner 940.345
20–21941
Ambassador Page was in Italy during the entire period of the war and followed sympathetically the part played therein by the Italian people. He holds that the key to Italy’s relation to the war is to be found in her traditions, her history and in her geographical and economic situation. Accordingly the book falls into three parts: “The first is introductory and contains in outline the history of the Italian people in the long period when they were included in and bound under the Holy Roman empire. The second contains the story of their evolution, from the conception of their national consciousness on through the long and bitter struggle with the Austrian empire for their liberty down to the time when ... they developed into a new and united Italy.... The third part contains the story of the diplomatic struggle to establish herself in a position to which Italy considers herself entitled as a great power.” (Preface) The book has six maps, appendices, giving the texts of the armistice with Austria and of the pact of London, and an index.
* * * * *
“A much needed contribution to the political history of the war.”
+ =Booklist= 17:149 Ja ’21
“It is not impertinent to say that an experienced newspaper man, equipped with a good encyclopædia, a good atlas, and the newspaper files for the past five years, could produce an excellent replica of ‘Italy and the world war’ without having crossed the Atlantic. Mr Page had an opportunity to write a very remarkable pamphlet, and he wrote instead a hurried, congested, and unnecessary hotch-potch history of the war.” W: McFee
− =N Y Evening Post= p4 Ja 29 ’21 1400w
“It is to be regretted that the American public could not have had the benefit of this unequaled book months ago. Mr Page smashes beyond recovery many illusions which, during and after the war, militated against the character of Italy, her people, her statesmen.” Walter Littlefield
+ =N Y Times= p3 N 28 ’20 2500w
=R of Rs= 63:222 F ’21 130w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 D 4 ’20 80w
=PAGÉ, VICTOR WILFRED.= Automobile starting, lighting and ignition. 6th ed rev and enl il $3 Henley 629.2
20–9556
“Mr Pagé first explains the nature of electricity—how a current is produced—and then goes on to explain in general the systems used for ignition, starting and lighting. This is followed by a detailed explanation of the individual systems on various cars. Many illustrations and diagrams make this book easy to understand.” (R of Rs) “The sixth edition repeats the material of the second edition with the addition of eight new chapters on leading electrical ignition systems, design of electrical measuring instruments and use in testing, and wiring diagrams of popular cars.” (Booklist)
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:357 Jl ’20
=R of Rs= 62:336 S ’20 50w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p669 O 14 ’20 20w
=PAGÉ, VICTOR WILFRED.= Model T Ford car. rev and enl il $1.50 Henley 629.2
20–4100
“Victor W. Pagé’s ‘Model T Ford car’ has appeared in its new and enlarged 1920 edition. This edition should be even more popular than the earlier editions, as it contains information and instructions for the Fordson farm tractor and the F. A. lighting and starting system, as well as all the principles and parts of the Ford. Numerous illustrations and diagrams make the instructions and explanations easily understood by a novice.”—N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:291 My ’20
=N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes= 7:35 O 13 ’20 50w
=R of Rs= 62:336 S ’20 50w
=PAGÉ, VICTOR WILFRED=, ed. Motor boats and boat motors. il $3 Henley 623.8
20–11842
“Mr Pagé has compiled a volume full of interest to the novice as well as to the experienced motor-boat enthusiast. It covers fully the design, construction, operation, and repair of boats and motors in general, including full instructions, with working drawings, for building five boats from tested designs by A. Clark Leitch, naval architect. A chapter on seaplanes and flying-boat construction gives both theory and practical application.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:100 D ’20
“Clearly written and has nearly 400 exceptionally good illustrations. Anyone contemplating the purchase of a boat should be guided by the excellent advice given in the first chapter.”
+ =N Y P L New Tech Bks= p60 Jl ’20 80w
=R of Rs= 62:336 S ’20 70w
=PAGE, WILLIAM=, ed. Commerce and industry; with a preface by William Ashley. 2v il v 1 *$15 v 2 *$10 Dutton 330.9
(Eng ed 19–18954)
“In the twelve chapters that make up the main text of the first volume of this work, and the three appendices, an historical review of the economic conditions of the British empire for ninety-nine years, largely based upon parliamentary debates as reported by Hansard, is given. The second volume consists of statistical tables of the economic factors, such as population, taxation, imports and exports, production, finance, etc., in supplementation proof of the conditions as set forth in the text of the first volume. The subjects dealt with in the main portion of the work cover the Effects of war (1815 to 1820); Commercial reform (1820 to 1830); The reform Parliament (1830 to 1841); Repeal of the Corn laws (1841 to 1852); War and finance (1852 to 1859); Free trade (1859 to 1868); Retrenchment and reform (1869 to 1880); Organization (1880–1892); Foreign competition (1892 to 1900); The movement towards tariff reform (1900 to 1910); and Unrest (1910 to 1914). The three appendices discuss The Cabinet and Parliament, Ministries 1812 to 1912, and A chronicle of the British empire beyond the seas.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“The volume is a storehouse of facts for politicians and economists.”
+ =Ath= p745 Ag 15 ’19 1150w
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 S 29 ’20 720w
“Impartiality is a dominant quality of the work, as it ought to be.”
+ =Spec= 122:151 Ag 2 ’19 1050w
=PAGET, STEPHEN.= Sir Victor Horsley; a study of his life and work. il *$6 Harcourt
(Eng ed 19–18661)
“The life was well worth writing by so practised a biographer as Mr Stephen Paget of Sir Victor Horsley (1857–1916)—a surgeon of great distinction and a pioneer on the field of scientific medicine, a keen champion of temperance and woman suffrage, and a Liberal politician—who closed a great career by giving his life for his country in Mesopotamia, where he patriotically volunteered for service as medical consultant with the forces and where he died of heat stroke on July 16, 1916.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“Mr Paget has written in a calm, dispassionate manner without literary tricks or mannerisms.”
+ =Ath= p18 Ja 2 ’20 1900w
=Brooklyn= 12:132 My ’20 40w
“Admirable biography.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p9 O 30 ’20 240w
=Sat R= 128:513 N 29 ’19 700w
“No happier selection could have been made than that Mr Paget should become the biographer of Sir Victor Horsley. The author, a man of letters, also possesses the scientific and medical knowledge essential to the theme, and his enterprises in other fields of literature have preserved him from the besetting sins of the medical biographer who makes his book unduly technical, or even dull.”
+ =Spec= 122:894 D 27 ’19 1250w
“There is no doubt that this biography, in the full sense of an overworked word, is an ‘inspiring’ record of a man’s character and achievement; it is the more so because it is always straightforward and concrete, showing the man exactly as he was.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 17 ’20 1450w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p676 N 20 ’19 90w
“It is not too much to say that of the many services which this author has rendered to scientific medicine and surgery none is so important as his biography of Sir Victor Horsley.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p685 N 27 ’19 1650w
=PAINE, ALBERT BIGELOW.= Short life of Mark Twain. il *$2.50 Harper
20–18960
In answer to the demand for a short life of Mark Twain, Mr Paine, his official biographer, has prepared a condensed version of his longer work. The story is told in brief chapters and in simple language and is adapted for young people’s reading. There are eighteen illustrations.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:113 D ’20
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:237 D ’20 40w
=PAINE, RALPH DELAHAYE.= Corsair in the war zone. il *$4 Houghton 940.45
20–14468
At a critical time in the submarine campaign a number of American pleasure yachts volunteered for service as French coast patrols. Their amateur crews had little naval training, and these yachts were dubbed the “Suicide fleet,” but they performed heroic service and played an important rôle in the war. The Corsair of whose exploits the book gives an account, was owned by J. Pierpont Morgan. Contents: The call of duty overseas; “Lafayette, we are here!”; At sea with the Breton patrol; Tragedies and rescues; When the Antilles went down; Admiral Wilson comes to Brest; Smashed by a hurricane; The pleasant interlude at Lisbon; Uncle Sam’s bridge of ships; The Corsair stands by; In the radioroom; The long road home; Honorably discharged; The ship’s company. There is a map showing the Corsair’s wanderings in the war zone and numerous illustrations.
* * * * *
“The book is a welcome and valuable minor contribution to the history of the world war. The numerous and excellent illustrations greatly add to its attractiveness.” E: Breck
+ =Am Hist R= 26:371 Ja ’21 280w
=Booklist= 17:108 D ’20
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 25 ’20 600w
“The author has collected and selected his official and unofficial documents with praiseworthy skill, and the result is a swift-flowing narrative, written in an easy style, that will prove interesting to sailor and landsman alike.” B. R. Redman
+ =N Y Times= p16 Ag 29 ’20 3200w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 S 9 ’20 310w
=PAINE, RALPH DELAHAYE.= Fight for a free sea; a chronicle of the war of 1812. (Chronicles of America ser.) il per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 973.5
20–4767
“This volume is concerned with our War of 1812, the chief episodes of which are related by Ralph D. Paine under the title, ‘The fight for a free sea.’ The book has special chapters on Perry and Lake Erie, The navy on blue water, Matchless frigates and their duels, and Victory on Lake Champlain.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
Reviewed by D. R. Anderson
+ =Am Hist R= 26:112 O ’20 300w
“It is of Perry on Lake Erie, of Macdonough on Lake Champlain, of Captain Bainbridge and of Captain Isaac Hull that Mr Paine writes charmingly, gloriously. Their brilliant deeds arouse his instinct for the sea, his hero-worship of sea-faring men. With them this writer of delightful sea stories is at home.”
+ =Cath World= 112:390 D ’20 270w
“Mr Paine writes splendidly of the sea and of ships, as readers of his stories know, and this is a subject that lends itself especially to his talents.”
+ =N Y Times= p16 O 31 ’20 130w
=R of Rs= 62:223 Ag ’20 50w
=PAINE, RALPH DELAHAYE.= Ships across the sea. il *$1.90 (2½c) Houghton 940.45
20–7139
The author of these stories of the American navy in the great war has firsthand knowledge of the navy and the life on board ship, and his fiction breathes real life. The first story is one of jealousy between two petty officers over a wee Scotch lassie, a war orphan, who came on board on occasion of the sailors’ Christmas party. On Jim Cooney’s side it was something of a lark for he loved to bully simple minded Henry Turnbull. With Henry it was a matter of the heart. But when Henry is washed overboard Jim’s remorse inspires a Henry Turnbull fund, to be raised among the crew for the education and up-bringing of little Mary MacDonald. The stories are: The orphan and the battle-wagon; Ten fathoms down; Too scared to run; The quiet life; On a lee shore; The net result; The last shot; The silent service; The red sector.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:350 Jl ’20
“The sense of the sea and ships is vividly conveyed. ‘Ships across the sea’ gives an excellent idea of what it was like to be a sailor in the United States navy during the great war.”
+ |=N Y Times= 25:237 My 9 ’20 650w |=Wis Lib Bul= 16:195 N ’20 50w
=PALAMAS, KOSTÈS.= Life immovable. *$2 Harvard univ. press 889
19–19666
“A volume of translations is ‘Life immovable,’ from the modern Greek of Kostes Palamas by Professor Aristides Phoutrides, a former instructor at Harvard. Kostes Palamas, secretary to the University of Athens, was one of the first writers of contemporary Greece to gain recognition outside his own country, and Professor Phoutrides has the courage to call him ‘a new world-poet.’” (Bookm) “The translator furnishes a sketch of the poet and his work, and an analysis of the poems in this volume.” (Booklist)
* * * * *
“It is reasonable to suppose that the unsatisfactory effect of the book before us cannot be entirely attributed to the defects either of the poet or the translator. It is tiresome to read these poems, where images rise and clash and fade in confusion, and to feel that in the original there may have existed harmony and emotional coherence where we are now oppressed by meaningless glitter and noise. Our annoyance is accentuated by the translator’s harsh and clumsy rhythms, and by an insensitiveness to word-values in the language into which he is translating, exemplified by the title ‘Life immovable.’” F. W. S.
− =Ath= p140 Jl 30 ’19 760w
“Too much of the symbolic, philosophical and mythological enter these pages to invite interest from any but the scholarly thinker.”
+ =Booklist= 16:162 F ’20
Reviewed by H: A. Lappin
+ =Bookm= 51:214 Ap ’20 120w
“He deserves to be read widely beyond the confines of his own land and tongue; and Professor Phoutrides, with the Harvard press, deserves the cordial thanks of all lovers of life and letters for the present translation.” F. B. R. Hellems
+ =Class Philol= 15:205 Ap ’20 1600w
“His book, with its thoughtful, well-written introduction, will give much pleasure to the quiet lovers of the quiet poetry of meditation and sentiment.” Paul Shorey
+ =Review= 2:309 Mr 27 ’20 1200w
=PALMER, EDWIN JAMES, bp. of Bombay.= Great church awakes. *$2 Longmans 280
21–198
“The conception of ‘the great church’ which inspires this little volume may be described as a liberalized restatement of the traditional Anglo-Catholic position. In the first part of the work, called ‘Ideas,’ Dr Palmer insists strongly on the importance and force of the present desire for Christian unity, especially as it is manifested in India. The second section, entitled ‘Studies,’ is mainly devoted to the question of the Christian ministry. It opens with a careful study of the ‘Ministry in the primitive church.’”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
Reviewed by Lyman Abbott
+ =Outlook= 126:689 D 15 ’20 390w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p475 Jl 22 ’20 380w
=PANCHARD, EDOUARD.= Meats, poultry and game; with a preface by A. Louise Andrea. *$3 Dutton 641.5
20–2273
“The author of this volume is managing chef for the Hotel McAlpin, Waldorf-Astoria, Claridge, Café Savarin and Fifth avenue restaurant, New York, and Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia, and honorary lecturer, Columbia university. He gives much valuable information about the buying, cooking and serving of meat, poultry and game, and as the book is illustrated even the amateur can learn readily from it. Not the least desirable part of the volume is a collection of choice recipes.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
Reviewed by M. F. Egan
+ =Bookm= 52:30 S ’20 110w
“A book so simply and clearly planned and written that it must be a desirable acquisition.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ap 7 ’20 100w
“Part I is written very definitely and clearly but Part II, ‘A potpourri of recipes,’ would be rather difficult for an inexperienced cook to follow.” M. E. Dakin
+ =J Home Econ= 12:426 S ’20 60w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p13a My 2 ’20 140w
=PANYITY, LOUIS S.=[2] Prospecting for oil and gas. il *$3.25 Wiley 622.1
20–2108
“This brief treatment of a large subject is designed to meet the needs of the practical oilman and the general reader. More than half of the text is devoted to surveying methods and geology, including general cross-sections of important districts. The rest of the book covers even more briefly: scouting, methods of locating wells, drilling methods, ‘bringing in,’ gauging, and leasing. Samples of forms and contracts are shown. Good illustrations and a number of mathematical and technical tables.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
* * * * *
“Good book on a subject not heretofore well covered.”
+ =Booklist= 17:100 D ’20
“The first ten chapters of this book, comprising 134 pages in all, deal directly with the subject indicated by the title, and they are by far the most useful part of the volume. The remainder of the principal part of the book is disappointing. It attempts to cover so much that it covers nothing at all.”
+ − =Mining and Scientific Press= 120:554 Ap 10 ’20 210w
“It is undoubtedly an attractive and useful publication, which, by virtue of its clearness of diction, careful arrangement of subjectmatter, and freedom from ‘padding,’ should make an appeal to a very wide public.” H. B. Milner
+ =Nature= 106:625 Ja 13 ’21 580w
+ =N Y P L New Tech Bks= p35 Ap ’20 80w
=PARK, JOHN EDGAR.= Bad results of good habits and other lapses. *$1.50 (4½c) Houghton 814
20–7286
The contents of these essays all hinge on the distinction the author makes between two kinds of goodness; respectable goodness and adventurous goodness. It is the difference between a mummy and a living body. For the ten commandments he would substitute the golden rule, as including them all, and his parting words to the reader are: “Don’t be solemn. Don’t be staid and conventional. Get off your pedestal. Fool a little. Love much.” A partial list of the contents are: The disadvantages of being good; The folly of getting there; The world, the flesh, and the devil; What I would not that I do; Lies; The grammar of life; The secret of the moral training of children.
+ =Booklist= 16:306 Je ’20
“Altogether they are a very readable lot, and if most of them leave a moral truth behind, the reader will forget the preachment for the enjoying of his ideas.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 25 ’20 240w
+ =Cleveland= p85 S ’20 30w
“Mr Park’s relaxations avoid the too facile generalization which is the usual fault of the type. Yet they breathe a certain serene remoteness from dust and heat. In contrast with the good gigantic smile of Mark Twain, it lacks what closet wit must always lack, an earthly and living contact with men and women.”
+ − =Nation= 111:224 Ag 21 ’20 250w
=N Y Times= p15 O 10 ’20 80w
“It is bright, gay, and logically weak, with the useful knack of arraying a commonplace in the garb of a paradox.”
− + =Review= 3:133 Ag 11 ’20 290w
+ =St Louis= 18:248 O ’20 30w
“There is a vein of humor in Mr Park that makes him a delightful companion in print or in person.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Je 17 ’20 280w
=PARKER, CARLETON HUBBELL.= Casual laborer and other essays. *$1.75 (5½c) Harcourt 331
20–5645
This posthumous volume of essays by Professor Parker has an introduction by Mrs Cornelia Stratton Parker in which she points out the fundamental characteristics of her husband’s work, and through numerous quotations the importance in which he was held as one of the frontiersmen not along geographical but along economic lines. He was first in studying the labor problem from a psychological point of view. “What is the psychic balance sheet?” he asks. “It is a relation between a plastic, sensitive, easily degenerated nervous organism called ‘man’ and an environment. The product is human character. The labor problem is one of character-formation.” The essays are: Toward understanding labor unrest; The casual laborer; The I. W. W.; Motives in economic life. The appendix contains Professor Parker’s report on the Wheatland hop fields’ riot with a foreword by Mrs Parker. The second paper is reprinted from the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the third from the Atlantic Monthly.
* * * * *
=Am Econ R= 10:610 S ’20 80w
=Booklist= 16:263 My ’20
“In conclusion it may be said that the book is an interesting rather than a convincing one. The man really needs to be saved from his friends. The present book bears out the statement that when all is said and done, Professor Parker’s life was potential in promise and not in actual measurable performance.” G. M. J.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 Ap 7 ’20 1200w
“As his discussion stands and so far as it has been carried on it is so fragmentary and one-sided as to appear somewhat crude and far fetched.” Virgil Jordan
− =Dial= 69:96 Jl ’20 1150w
=Int J Ethics= 31:115 O ’20 130w
“In their present state the essays reveal a lack in the organization of his new ideas as well as a faulty perspective in the arrangement of his biological and psychological material. His purpose, however, is admirable, and has brought about an advance of the line he set upon, namely the study of human behavior, as such, where it assists in the understanding of economic conditions.” Florence Richardson
+ − =J Pol Econ= 28:622 Jl ’20 600w
“For the economist, the book is like one of those impressive events that make history. It marks the closing of a chapter.” H. A. Overstreet
+ =Nation= 111:455 O 20 ’20 950w
Reviewed by C: Merz
+ =New Repub= 22:424 My 26 ’20 1200w
“The book is a useful record of an industrious and brilliant investigator who seems also to have been an unusually inspiring teacher. It is not too much to say that no man who has anything worth writing about should be allowed to write so badly as Professor Parker seems to have done when left to himself.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:324 Je 20 ’20 700w
=R of Rs= 61:671 Je ’20 40w
=Springf’d Republican= p10 Ap 24 ’20 70w
“Those interested to know how this labor problem will be handled when those in authority have been educated will do well to read this delightful and illuminating book. It marks the road.” W: L. Chenery
+ =Survey= 45:26 O 2 ’20 540w
=PARKER, DEWITT HENRY.= Principles of æsthetics. *$2.50 (2½c) Silver 701
20–15459
The book has grown out of lectures to students at the University of Michigan but the author’s appeal is to all people who are interested in the intelligent appreciation of art. For his broader philosophy of art he declares himself indebted to the artists and philosophers of the period from Herder to Hegel, and among contemporaries to Croce and Lipps. Among the contents are: The analysis of the æsthetic experience; The problem of evil in æsthetics, and its solution through the tragic, pathetic, and comic; The standard of taste; The dominion of art over nature: painting, sculpture; Beauty in the industrial arts: architecture; The function of art: art and morality, art and religion; Bibliography.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:145 Ja ’21
=Boston Transcript= p5 O 23 ’20 480w
“For the beginner it is as satisfactory a work as has yet appeared.”
+ =Dial= 69:666 D ’20 50w
=PARKER, SIR GILBERT.= No defence. il *$2 Lippincott
20–17085
“The scene is laid first in Ireland at the close of the eighteenth century; and we are taken thence to the fleet at the time of the mutiny at the Nore, and later to Jamaica. The hero, Dyck Calhoun, is a young Irish gentleman, who falls innocently into disgrace. He becomes a common seaman and a mutineer; he escapes to Jamaica; and here he gradually achieves success, in spite of the persistent enmity of the governor, with whom he has fought a successful duel in his early days.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“The author seems well able to depict the English soldier and sailor of the day, but he knows nothing of the Irish soul or character.”
+ − =Cath World= 112:545 Ja ’21 230w
“To judge from internal evidence, ‘No defence’ was written simply and solely in order that it might eventually be turned into a motion picture, with little or no regard for literary excellence. From first to last, the book is carelessly written, and the tale is devoid of atmosphere, while the dialogue reveals very little effort to keep the speech of the different persons in character.”
− =N Y Times= p26 S 12 ’20 900w
“The book has dash, fire, and romance.”
+ =Outlook= 126:333 O 20 ’20 450w
“It lacks something both of the ardour and of the fundamental gravity which make romance completely valid; but it has an undeniable sincerity which makes it very much more readable than most such works.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p617 S 23 ’20 460w
=PARKER, SAMUEL CHESTER.= Methods of teaching in high schools. il $2 Ginn 373
20–6653
“The printing of a new edition of the ‘Methods of teaching in high schools’ has given the author an opportunity to make a number of slight but important revisions. Some of these are necessitated by new scientific investigations, while others are merely improvements in the examples or the phrasing. References have also been inserted to the supplementary volume, ‘Exercises for “Methods of teaching in high schools.”’... The fundamental organization, however, has nowhere been changed.” (Preface to revised edition)
=PARKS, LEIGHTON.= English ways and byways. *$1.75 (3c) Scribner 914.2
20–19160
In the form of letters John and Ruth Dobson, an American clergyman and his wife, on a motoring tour in England, talk pleasantly of their experiences, which include unconventional glimpses of England and the English and much about the vicissitudes of motoring. Among the chapters on England are: The great North road; The England of Fielding; An English interior; Rural England; Education; A by-election; Sheep-dogs; The black country; The county families; The boat-race; Vested interests; Church and state.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:111 D ’20
“All that is written is interesting and often it is amusing; but the wit is never biting, the story never cuts in the telling, and when all is told we really have gained a very agreeable idea of our English cousins.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 N 3 ’20 480w
“Add that both husband and wife are extremely clever with the pen, and rather impudent in their freedom of remark, and you have all the materials out of which Dr Leighton Parks has made as entertaining a little volume as one often meets with in these dull days.”
+ =Review= 3:563 D 8 ’20 280w
=PARRISH, RANDALL.= Mystery of the silver dagger. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
20–9714
Philip Severn, a secret service agent, is a collector of curios. An odd lacquer box in a New York shop attracts his attention and he buys it, altho all the proprietor can tell him is that it had been left in a hotel room and never claimed. After returning to his home he accidentally drops the box to the floor, unlooses a secret spring and picks up a folded bit of paper. But while the box itself was of undoubted antique origin, the paper is modern. It rouses Severn’s suspicion and he resolves to trace down the mystery at which it hints. His search leads him to Jersey City, a deserted factory building, a Polish saloon and a beautiful girl. The plot he uncovers involves a conspiracy against Chile, and the last bit of mystery cleared away is the relation of the beautiful girl to the band of plotters. After that comes the conventional ending.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:35 O ’20
“The plot is ingenious and the story has the fascination of swift action.”
+ =Cleveland= p51 My ’20 60w
“A lively enough yarn.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:128 Mr 21 ’20 320w
“A murder mystery skillfully handled.”
+ =Outlook= 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 20w
“Mr Parrish can always be depended upon for a breath-bating narrative.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ap 12 ’20 300w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p385 Je 17 ’20 100w
=PARRY, REGINALD ST JOHN.=[2] Pastoral epistles; with introduction, text and commentary. *$8 Macmillan 227
“The object of the author has been to inquire afresh into the critical and exegetical problems on which the question of the genuineness of I and II Timothy and Titus depends. The outcome is a vigorous defense of the Pauline authorship of all three letters.”—Bib World
* * * * *
“Without disparaging the conscientious work in these notes, we must say that so far as the object of the monograph is concerned, Dr Parry would have done better to omit the commentary altogether—it is not any advance on earlier English work—and to discuss the partition theories of the epistles, a branch of criticism which he passes by.”
+ − =Ath= p45 Jl 9 ’20 720w
“All that can be said in favor of this opinion is here brought together probably in as convincing a form as is possible. Yet the presentation does not carry full conviction, for it treats far too lightly the objections which have been urged by other scholars against Pauline authorship.”
+ − =Bib World= 54:649 N ’20 110w
=PARSONS, JOHN.= Tour through Indiana in 1840; ed. by Kate Milner Rabb. il *$3.55 McBride 917.72
20–19355
The book contains the diary of John Parsons of Petersburg, Virginia, giving an account of a trip by railroad, by stage coach and by steamboat, and an intimate picture of the life of the then near west, in its political, geographical and social and family aspects ending with a personal romance. The illustrations are from old prints and drawings and from photographs.
* * * * *
“There is a quaint and charming flavor in this diary.”
+ =Booklist= 17:113 D ’20
“The book is of particular value to those interested in Indiana and surrounding country and in the lives of the great and soon-to-be-great men and women of the time. As such it holds rank as an unusual historic document, and is a quaint picture of the politics and life of the day.”
+ =Bookm= 52:173 O ’20 270w
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 O 23 ’20 420w
“This book breathes the very spirit of the young West. It is a flowing and human story that takes one into the heart of the time it describes.”
+ =Outlook= 126:202 S 29 ’20 60w
“The love story that is dragged in does not add to the credibility of the tale. If the volume is not an authentic record of the journey it pretends to chronicle, the deception is inexcusable. This does not mean that the book is a waste of time. On the contrary, it is a triumph of accuracy and readability. It lifts the curtain upon a most interesting scene and shows us a fairly typical American commonwealth at a definite stage of development.”
+ − =Review= 3:481 N 17 ’20 260w
=R of Rs= 62:446 O ’20 100w
“An altogether entertaining book.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 31 ’20 760w
=PARSONS, SAM JONES.= Malleable cast iron. il *$3.50 Van Nostrand 672
In this second edition the author has “considered it advisable to revise the contents so as to include information concerning the more modern and scientific methods of production, thus bringing the book up to date and adding considerably to its practical value.” (Preface to the second edition) Two chapters are added on Mining by analysis and Measurement of temperature; there is also an addendum on Malleable cast steel.
* * * * *
“It is somewhat surprising that in a book which is evidently designed to assist the malleable-iron industry to more scientific methods of production there is no mention of the light thrown by the microscope on the structural changes which occur in the malleablising process; nor is there any reference to the mechanical properties of the various types of iron produced.”
+ − =Nature= 105:290 My 6 ’20 430w
=PARSONS, WILLIAM BARCLAY.= American engineers in France. il *$4 Appleton 940.373
20–16507
The motif of the book is the work of the nine regiments of American engineers, with one of which the author served. “In the writing, it has been necessary to touch on all the fields of engineer activity, because these regiments came in contact with every field, even if they did not invade each one, from constructing ports to digging and holding trenches, in all parts of France from the Atlantic to the Vosges, from the Mediterranean to Flanders. Consequently there results a brief outline of what all engineers did.” (Preface) The contents are in part: The new military engineer; America’s problem; Engineer organization; Ports; French railways; American railway operations in France; Relations with the French; Forestry; Water supply; Chemical engineers; Camouflage and other fields of engineering; Maps; Flash and sound ranging and search light detection; Artillery; Light railways; Roads; Trenches and trench warfare. There are full page illustrations, figures, maps and an index.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:109 D ’20
“He has covered the field in outline sufficient for the lay reader, and with an authority that will make this one of the lasting records of the war.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p13 O 30 ’20 140w
=R of Rs= 62:671 D ’20 170w
=PARTRIDGE, GEORGE EVERETT.= Psychology of nations; a contribution to the philosophy of history. *$2.50 Macmillan 901
19–19152
“This is a psychologist’s appeal for an understanding of what is fundamental in our national life and a warning against radical and superficial thinking; it was written during the closing months of the war and in the days that followed. The first part of the book is a study of the motives of war—an analysis of such motives in the light of the general principles of the development of society. The second part of the book is a study of the present situation as an educational problem, in which we have for the first time a problem of educating national consciousness as a whole, or the individuals of a nation with reference to a world-consciousness.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“Two chapters dealing with Internationalism and the School and two others on the Teaching of patriotism are especially sane and well-balanced and will be suggestive to teachers of American history who wish to base their influence for Americanization upon something less superficial than tradition and prejudice.” W: H. Allison
+ =Am Hist R= 25:740 Jl ’20 450w
Reviewed by C. G. Fenwick
=Am Pol Sci R= 14:340 My ’20 130w
“Part two, on education, offers many suggestions that should interest educators.”
+ =Booklist= 16:276 My ’20
=Boston Transcript= p7 Mr 13 ’20 420w
=Brooklyn= 12:95 Mr ’20 50w
“One’s total reaction to the book is emotional. It is impressive not as an argument or a scientific inquiry, but as a sermon. It is edifying rather than clarifying. One is swept along much as though one were reading a book of psalms; each sentence is an exhortation, and as one proceeds the exhortatory force accumulates until one ends in an ‘intoxication mood’ of edification. One can not emerge from the book without a feeling of enthusiasm for something which is critically important, but that something is intellectually elusive.” H. W. Schneider
+ − =J Philos= 17:441 Jl 29 ’20 3400w
Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow
+ =Nation= 112:185 F 2 ’21 840w
“Mr Partridge has given to the public a book which doubtless will be, as it deserves to be, widely read.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:144 Mr 28 ’20 650w
=R of Rs= 61:336 Mr ’20 30w
“The large value of his book—which really ought to be called ‘The education of nations’—is that it presents, compiled and digested, the theories of many men who have dealt with a broad complex of problems.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Je 22 ’20 280w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p258 Ap 22 ’20 150w
=PATCH, EDITH MARION.= Little gateway to science. il $1 Atlantic monthly press 595.7
20–9285
Nature stories for young children. The author calls them “hexapod stories,” for they are all about six-footed insects, butterflies, bees, grasshoppers and the like. The titles are: Van, the sleepy butterfly, who was awakened by a January thaw; Old Bumble; The strange house of Cecid Cido Domy; Poly, the Easter butterfly; Jumping Jack; Nata, the nymph; Lampy’s Fourth o’ July; Carol; Ann Gusti’s circus; Gryl, the little black minstrel; Luna’s Thanksgiving; Keti-Abbot, the littlest Christmas guest. A word to the teacher follows and there are notes, with references to other books. The pictures are by Robert J. Sim.
* * * * *
“They are simply told without any sentimentality or ‘writing down.’ Good for school libraries as well as public.”
+ =Booklist= 17:78 N ’20
=PATERSON, WILLIAM PATERSON, and RUSSELL, DAVID=, eds.[2] Power of prayer. *$4 Macmillan 217
20–15946
“In May, 1916, the Walker trust of the University of St Andrews offered certain prizes on ‘the meaning, the reality and the power of prayer, its place and value to the individual, to the church, and to the state, in the everyday affairs of life, in the healing of sickness and disease, in times of distress and national danger, and in relation to national ideals and to world-progress.’ In response to this offer one thousand six hundred and sixty-seven essays were received, coming from all quarters of the world and written in nineteen languages. The first prize was awarded to Rev. Samuel McComb, of Baltimore, Maryland, and is printed as the first paper following an interesting essay by Dr Paterson entitled ‘Prayer and the contemporary mind.’ Twenty other papers of varying length of different aspects of the subject are also printed.”—Bib World
* * * * *
“The quality of the essay by Dr McComb warrants the decision of the readers in his favor. This book is the most voluminous and satisfactory study of the subject that we know.”
+ =Bib World= 54:650 N ’20 320w
“Most appear to have read widely. They express themselves lucidly. They can give reasons, not unworthy of consideration, for the faith which is in them; though, with the exception of Canon McComb, no writer can be classed as a trained theologian of eminence. The volume has not, in consequence, the importance of the series of essays entitled ‘Concerning prayer,’ which Messrs Macmillan published a few years ago. The main value of the book consists in the light which it throws on the religious tendencies of the time.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p514 Ag 12 ’20 1400w
=PATON, STEWART.= Education in war and peace. *$1.50 Hoeber
20–3200
“In ‘Education in war and peace,’ the author makes an appeal for a united effort by physicians, psychologists, and educators to search out and develop appropriately the basic instincts and deep emotional undercurrents which have so much to do in shaping personality, determining character, and controlling conduct. The current tendency to try to ‘compensate for personal inadequacy in facing the real problems of life’ by various forms of ‘wishful thinking’ is examined and illustrated.”—Survey
* * * * *
+ − =Dial= 69:213 Ag ’20 90w
“His treatment is stimulating, and any educator or social worker may read the book with the hope of receiving immediate profit from it.” F. G. Bonser
+ =Survey= 44:494 Jl 3 ’20 270w
=PATRICK, DIANA.= Wider way. *$2 Dutton
20–11891
“Veronica Quening, with a dour and brutal market gardener (who is also a local preacher) for her father, but also with a devoted stepmother, entirely free from traditional stepmotherliness, is quite staggeringly fascinating, lovely, and magnetic. She has all our sympathy in her career as school teacher, as wife for a time—after another passionate love affair—of a German; and specially as friend of Lord Swathe, for there is evidently a kinship between the beautiful girl and the stately noble house. All ends well with Veronica.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“Harmless and pretty and silly.”
+ − =Ath= p258 F 20 ’20 80w
“Veronica, with her complexities, her ambitions, her mental and spiritual endowments, her surface froth and her profound depths, is a creation that would do credit to an older and more practiced hand. As a whole, the novel is an exceptionally good first book, which reveals a real gift for story telling and a marked faculty for producing the illusion of reality.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:31 Jl 11 ’20 550w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p290 F 5 ’20 110w
=PATRICK, GEORGE THOMAS WHITE.= Psychology of social reconstruction. *$2 Houghton 301
20–19443
In considering the dangers that threaten our present civilization—reversion to barbarism, decadence, ill-timed social reforms, et al.—the author maintains that he is not taking the usual attitude of either advocate or critic, but that of a student of ultimate values. He sees in our present awareness of social evils a hopeful sign, but insists on the inadequacy of all economic and political reforms that disregard the psychological and historical factors. No reform can endure whose psychological basis does not rest on human needs and does not conform to human nature. The three first chapters are devoted to the psychological factors in social reconstruction and the remaining four to: The psychology of work; Our centrifugal society; Social discipline; The next step in applied science. There is an index.
* * * * *
=Boston Transcript= p7 N 13 ’20 620w
=N Y Evening Post= p23 D 4 ’20 240w
“The book is eminently readable and deserves a wide response.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ja 20 ’21 160w
=PATTERSON, FRANCES TAYLOR.= Cinema craftsmanship. il *$2 Harcourt 808.2
20–17895
The author, who is instructor in photoplay composition in Columbia university, recognizes that the moving picture art is still in its infancy, but says that her motive for writing this book is faith in its future and a desire to help awaken the public to its possibilities. Contents: The art and the science; The plot; The characters; The setting; Adaptation; Scenario technique; Writing a synopsis for the photoplay market; Cinema comedy; The critical angle; The photoplay market. The scenario for the photoplay “Witchcraft” by Margaret Turnbull, awarded a prize offered by the Famous Players-Lasky company, is appended, together with bibliography and index.
* * * * *
“A model scenario and an excellent bibliography make the book a complete manual for all persons interested in photoplay writing.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p16 N 13 ’20 160w
=N Y Times= p25 N 7 ’20 90w
=PATTERSON, JOHN EDWARD.= Passage of the barque Sappho. *$2.50 Dutton
20–11150
“‘The passage of the barque Sappho’ portrays in minute detail the voyage of a sailing vessel from San Francisco around Cape Horn, homeward bound, to a British port. The author, J. E. Patterson, died before the book was published, and it was prepared for the press by his friend, C. E. Lawrence, who contributes a foreword. The narrative purports to be the work of two individuals, and is told in the first person. The joint contributions come from the two extremes of sea society—the cabin and the fo’castle. One is an officer and the other an ordinary seaman. When events are witnessed by both, it is from different points of view. The officer and sailor write alternately, and describe in detail all that went on above deck and in the forecastle during the long voyage. The story ends with shipwreck in the Sargasso sea.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
=Ath= p930 S 19 ’19 80w
“The style of the story, in so far as it may be detached from its substance, is (but for certain passages of description) homely enough, lacking in the ordinary ‘literary’ graces; but this in the end appears to be a part of virtue. Beside Conrad and Bullen my copy shall take its place with confidence.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Bookm= 51:79 Mr ’20 700w
“The book has a historical as well as a literary value. Mr Patterson proves by this posthumous novel his understanding of character as well as his ability to write an impressive description. Each officer and man of the Sappho is a distinct individual possessed of his own little traits and peculiarities—traits and peculiarities which the author’s leisurely method enables him fully to illustrate.”
+ =N Y Times= 24:767 D 21 ’19 650w
“Quite at variance with the usual nautical romance, the chronicle is free from intrigues and brutality. The book is rather long (and expensive) and is likely to prove a bit tiring to all save those interested in the subject of seafaring.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a Mr 28 ’20 420w
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p498 S 18 ’19 380w
=PAUL, EDEN, and PAUL, CEDAR.= Creative revolution. *$2 (*8s 6d) (4c) Seltzer 335
The authors subtitle their book “A study of communist ergatocracy,” using the newly coined word “ergatocracy” to signify workers’ rule. In the opening chapter they say, “This little volume has a twofold aim, theoretical and practical. In the theoretical field, we wish to effect an analysis of socialist trends and to attempt a synthesis of contemporary proletarian aims. In the sphere of practice we hope to intensify and to liberate the impulse towards a fresh creative effort.” Contents: Communist ergatocracy; Socialism through social solidarity; Socialism through the class struggle; The shop stewards’ movement; Historical significance of the great war; The Russian revolution; The third international; The dictatorship of the proletariat; The iron law of oligarchy; Socialism through parliament or soviet? Creative revolution; Freedom; Bibliography.
* * * * *
“Do the gifted authors realize that the atmosphere of a Marxian library varied by stimulating conversations with trade union leaders, is not the same as the atmosphere of a bloody revolution? Do they clearly realize the difference? Do they, in fact, know what they are talking about?”
− =Ath= p145 Jl 30 ’20 290w
Reviewed by A. C. Freeman
=N Y Call= p11 Ja 16 ’21 1400w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p386 Je 17 ’20 150w
− =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p413 Jl 1 ’20 1350w
“After so much has been written, camouflaged and in equivocal language, it is a pleasure to find a book so clear-cut, so incisive and so direct in its wording and in its thought. I still believe as firmly as ever that the principles of pacifism represent the most workable social philosophy. I am therefore at total variance with the authors in their interpretation of the lessons which the Russian revolution has taught. At the same time, I am glad to welcome their contribution because of the splendid effect which it will have in clarifying issues that have puzzled and baffled so many earnest souls during the past few months.” Scott Nearing
+ − =World Tomorrow= 4:60 F ’21 420w
=PAYNE, FANNY URSULA.= Plays and pageants of citizenship. il *$1.50 Harper 792.6
20–18670
A new book of plays by the author of “Plays and pageants of democracy,” and “Plays for anychild.” Contents: Dekanawida; The triumph of democracy; The spirit of New England; The soap-box orator; The victory of the good citizen; Old Tight-wad and the victory dwarf; Rich citizens; Humane citizens.
* * * * *
=Lit D= p99 D 4 ’20 60w
=PAYNE, GEORGE HENRY.= History of journalism in the United States. *$2.50 (2c) Appleton 071
20–10538
A short history of American journalism from the first newspaper to the present day, written by a man of wide newspaper experience. Among the early chapters are: Historic preparation for journalism; The first newspaper in America; The first journals and their editors; Philadelphia and the Bradfords; Printing in New York—the Zenger trial; Rise of the fourth estate; The assumption of political power; The “Boston Gazette” and Samuel Adams; Journalism and the Revolution; Adams and the alien and sedition laws. Other chapters cover the newspapers of the west, suffrage and slavery and the Civil war. Special chapters are also devoted to such great dailies as the Sun, the Herald and the Tribune. There are closing chapters on Editors of the new school; After-war problems and reform and The melodrama in the news. Interesting documents and statistics are given in appendices. There is a valuable bibliography of twenty-nine pages, followed by an index.
* * * * *
“The story is compact, but it moves to a lively tune, and is widely allusive. The personal human interest is widely kept in the foreground, and Mr Payne reveals a keen perception of the dramatic values of his subject.” C: H. Levermore
+ − =Am Hist R= 26:107 O ’20 850w
“Will be useful to students of journalism, but it will have an interest of its own to the general reader as it traces the growth of journalism with the development of democracy.”
+ =Booklist= 17:47 N ’20
Reviewed by H: L. West
=Bookm= 52:116 O ’20 950w
“A swiftly written and vigorously phrased volume.” D. C. Seitz
+ =Freeman= 2:452 Ja 19 ’21 600w
“It is hard to tell which impresses one most in reading this book—the author’s sincerity or his thoroughness. The book is very valuable and intensely interesting.” C. W. T.
+ =N Y Times= 25:6 Jl 11 ’20 3150w
+ =Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 80w
“He has done a creditable piece of work, amassed adequate material, used it with discrimination and an excellent sense of selection, has not forgotten that he had a ‘story’ to tell, and that one of the prime requisites of a story is that it shall be interesting.” E. G. L.
+ =Review= 3:232 S 15 ’20 750w
“Mr Payne’s history of American newspaper publication is well written and well proportioned. He has made the story interesting from beginning to end.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:222 Ag ’20 220w
“Mr Payne’s treatment of the press in the years before the Civil war is much the more satisfactory because, while involving little original research, it deals out information suggestively. The last part of the book is intelligent in general outlines, but is a brief and inadequate summary and seems less frank in comment. The appendices are somewhat haphazard.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 5 ’20 1100w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:232 D ’20 90w
=PEABODY, ROBERT SWAIN, and PEABODY, FRANCIS GREENWOOD.=[2] New England romance; the story of Ephraim and Mary Jane Peabody, 1807–1892. il *$2 Houghton
20–19929
“Aside from the interest it has of a faithful account by his sons of one of America’s earliest and most distinguished preachers, it possesses value as revealing the life and manner of a period. No conscious attempt has been made to do this, however, and whatever of history the reader may get comes to him as from between the lines and is therefore the more subtly impressed. The early eighties, prior to the Civil war, are revealed through the lives, ambitions, and struggles of the minister and his wife.”—N Y Evening Post
* * * * *
“A quaint book for lovers of New England.”
+ =Booklist= 17:113 D ’20
“Because of its very evident qualities of naturalness and sincerity this little volume should escape the limbo which awaits the major part of commemorative literature and be preserved among those works classed as human documents.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p8 N 6 ’20 160w
“Told with a simple and natural beauty of language fitting for such a theme. Incidentally it gives a graphic picture of revolutionary and pre-revolutionary days.”
+ =Outlook= 126:690 D 15 ’20 50w
+ =Survey= 45:329 N 27 ’20 180w
=PEAKE, C. M. A.= Eli of the downs. *$2 (2c) Doran
20–18768
The narrator of the story found Eli as an old man in his cottage, Beulah, on the downs, where he spends his last days carving fiddles, and surrounded by the few treasures he had garnered from his wanderings over the earth. He had always been a rare character, this shepherd, with a rich inner life. Early in life he had married a mate worthy of him, but it was a short happiness, and then the young widower took to wandering. For some eight years he followed the sea and saw many lands. Then it was surveying and ranching in Canada where an old Chinese cook instructed him in the wisdom of Confucius and Lao Tsu, but with failing health he turned his steps once more to England. At Beulah cottage, lonely to the last, but emanating a silent influence for good over the neighborhood, he ended his days in peace.
* * * * *
“The author cannot leave his characters to speak their mind, he must speak it for them, and even reinforce their statements with a kind of running commentary and explanatory notes which are very tiring to keep up with.” K. M.
− =Ath= p211 F 13 ’20 280w
=Cleveland= p105 D ’20 60w
“It is, on the whole, well written, and while not a particularly engrossing volume, neither is it a dull one.”
+ =N Y Times= p27 S 12 ’20 170w
“Apart from its idea, or animus, this is a narrative of sincere and fresh quality, varied in substance and by no means artless, though it agreeably lacks the art of the professional story-teller.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 3:349 O 20 ’20 300w
“‘Eli of the downs’ is more than a work of promise: Mr Peake tells the life-history of one who was ‘a shepherd at heart as well as by profession’ with a wealth of illuminating detail, with a love of his subject and an intimate knowledge of Wessex country life that combine to make the story memorable and delightful.”
+ =Spec= 124:314 Mr 6 ’20 430w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p301 My 13 ’20 460w
=PEARCE, FRANCIS BARROW.= Zanzibar; the island metropolis of eastern Africa. il *$12 Dutton 967
(Eng ed 20–8651)
“A very substantial work by the British resident in Zanzibar, embracing the history, politics, anthropology, resources, and archæology of the island.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p431 Mr 26 ’20 60w
“For a leisurely pursuit of odds and ends of knowledge, or for the scholar, geographer, historian, or student of Arab dominion I recommend his volume. No thrills, few laughs, but the book marches on in a pleasant and profitable path of facts and comment.” F: O’Brien
+ =N Y Times= 25:4 Jl 18 ’20 1200w
+ =Spec= 125:311 S 4 ’20 250w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p159 Mr 4 ’20 30w
“He has taken immense pains in the compilation of his book, he has ransacked the chronicles, consulted the retailers of legends, referred to modern authorities and drawn upon his own experiences to produce a well-constructed and agreeably written compendium of all that there is to be told of Zanzibar.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p165 Mr 11 ’20 1050w
=PEARL, BERTHA.= Sarah and her daughter. $2.25 (1½c) Seltzer
20–11892
The scene of the story opens on Henry street in the Ghetto and portrays the American Jew in every nuance of his racial peculiarities. The abject poverty and suffering, the breaking under suffering, the resiliency, the ethical slips in the fierce struggle for existence, the hysteria and nervous breakdowns, the seriousness and absence of a sense of humor and the fundamental goodness of heart that always has the last word to say, are all there and every type finds its place down to the tragic figure of the orthodox survivor of a dead religion. In Sarah and her daughter Minnie, the immigrant Jew and the first generation, with the resulting sad conflicts between parent and child, are represented.
* * * * *
“Not a pleasant story, but worth while as a sincere interpretation of a type of life which the author understands intimately.”
+ =Booklist= 17:159 Ja ’21
“As a story it is very little more than a string of episodes reported with pitiless minuteness. If ruthless and harrowing verisimilitude is of service to you, accept it in this book. Why the publishers should assert that it is a new thing, is not clear.” H. W. Boynton
− =Bookm= 52:69 S ’20 880w
“There is real emotional power in the author’s handling of her calamitous theme. She seems to lose subtlety at times because of her very sincerity; the book is in spots too wooden in its realism, and there is some careless workmanship. But the characterization is acute.” F. E. H.
+ − =Freeman= 1:407 Jl 7 ’20 300w
“There is no relief, even in the scenes between the young children, and we wonder if the story is not too photographically realistic, missing some worth or beauty under the bald surface.” L. W. M.
+ − =Grinnell R= 15:259 O ’20 420w
“A rather amorphous but by no means talentless book. Miss Pearl has a very keen and clear eye for the physical conditions of her people’s lives—both in the Ghetto and beyond it—and a genuine gift, despite her blunt and sprawling style, for rendering the atmosphere of bleak and homeless places. There is no reason why Miss Pearl should not do admirable work as she grows in self-discipline of both style and feeling, and acquires a cooler spirit and a more tempered surface.”
+ − =Nation= 110:730 My 29 ’20 320w
“It does more than present a partially new viewpoint of matters with which we are familiar, it brings a new range of material within our understanding. Here is an American book with a straightforward story, in the main well told and without sentimentalism.” R. V. A. S.
+ =New Repub= 23:343 Ag 18 ’20 520w
“Her descriptions are so true that one can’t help but feel that the story is equally as true.” Rose Karsner
+ =N Y Call= p10 My 30 ’20 500w
“It is a work that is noteworthy in American literature, suggesting Dickens and De Morgan modernized and Americanized.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:253 My 16 ’20 550w
“To the American reader who has previously known little or nothing about that life, it is like the brilliant illumination from the inside of a dark room.”
+ =N Y Times= p10 Ja 16 ’21 80w
“Whatever criticism may be offered lies in the possibility that even tenement existence is not always as barren of sunshine and joys of life as the author would have us believe. But that is not sufficiently outstanding to detract from the authentic interest of the story.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 25 ’20 360w
=PEARL, RAYMOND.=[2] Nation’s food. il *$3.50 Saunders 338
20–4023
“Mr Pearl was chief of the statistical division of the Food administration, and as such presents ‘unbiased statistical data rather than my own opinion as to their interpretation.’ The book is made up for the greater part of clear classifications and tables.”—Survey
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:95 D ’20
“With his usual thoroughness and breadth of view he has included in his inquiry so many ramifications that his investigation covers Europe also. It thus possesses extraordinary interest at the present time.” E. J. Russell
+ =Nature= 106:305 N 4 ’20 850w
“As a source book, this volume is warmly recommended.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 44:309 My 29 ’20 500w
=PEARSON, EDMUND LESTER.= Theodore Roosevelt. il *$1.75 (5c) Macmillan
20–16084
The book is one of the series of “True stories of great Americans,” and is a brief biography intended to catch the interest of boys. Contents: The boy who collected animals; In college; In politics; “Ranch life and the hunting trail”; Two defeats; Fighting office-seekers; Police commissioner; The rough rider; Governor of New York; President of the United States; The lion hunter; Europe and America; The bull moose; The explorer; The man; The great American; Illustrations.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:124 D ’20
“He has been unwise in trying to explain Roosevelt’s war-policies to the detriment of President Wilson, and to laud the efficiency of one party over another—especially in his capacity as writer for children who want the essential action of the man—Roosevelt—without the political struggles in which he was involved.”
+ − =Lit D= p90 D 4 ’20 150w
“One of the best short summaries of Roosevelt’s career that have yet appeared. The author’s treatment of the intimate, personal phases of his subject is especially felicitous.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p8 S 25 ’20 150w
“He has made excellent use of the new material about Mr Roosevelt which has been available since his death, and has brought out with skill and judgment the simplicity and singleness of Mr Roosevelt’s Americanism.”
+ =Outlook= 126:202 S 29 ’20 120w
“Mr Pearson has perhaps had more than ordinary success in confining his story to the essential features, keeping a good sense of proportion and never letting go the central thread of the narrative. His book is workmanlike as well as entertaining.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:447 O ’20 100w
“One cannot help feeling that the appeal would be stronger if the work were more graphic and less controversial and the author had seen fit to eliminate his attacks on the opponents of Roosevelt.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 17 ’20 200w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p800 D 2 ’20 20w
+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:237 D ’20 40w
=PECK, LORA B.= Stories for good children. il *$1.50 Little
20–18926
These fairy and folk tales are collected from all countries. Some of them are very ancient, being traced back to the home of the Aryan race and all are so simple in their make-up and telling that they are offered as an aid to reading. The countries represented in the choice are: Ireland, Scotland, England, India, China, Japan, Mexico, Persia, Russia.
=PEDLER, MARGARET.= House of dreams-come-true. *$1.75 (1½c) Doran
19–17179
Jean, though English, has never seen England until she is twenty. Then her father, a prey to wanderlust, packs her off to some friends of his, while he goes roaming the world. Just before she goes to England, Jean has one magical day with an anonymous young Englishman, and to her surprise and his apparent dismay when she arrives at Lady Anne’s home where she is to stay she finds the elder son of the house to be her unknown companion of Montavan. The magic still holds for both of them, but there are many barriers between them and many bitter hours before they finally enter their “house of dreams-come-true,” a house “not built of stones and mortar, but just—where love is.”
* * * * *
“Not ‘deep’ but entertaining.”
+ =Booklist= 17:35 O ’20
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 24 ’20 190w
“A fairly consistent and always readable book of fiction. The book, as a whole, is one that will give excellent entertainment, although it is impossible to assign it any important place in the contemporary output of fiction.”
+ =N Y Times= p24 Ag 1 ’20 430w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 5 ’20 130w
“A thoroughly readable story, though inclining somewhat to the sentimental.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p717 D 4 ’19 140w
=PEEL, GEORGIANA ADELAIDE (RUSSELL), lady.= Recollections; comp. by Ethel Peel. il *$5 Lane
20–12214
Lady Georgiana Peel, whose recollections are compiled in the present volume by her daughter, is the daughter of Sir John Russell and her recollections cover the period from the early forties to the present time. She was intimately acquainted with all the eminent people in Queen Victoria’s reign of whom she has recorded pleasant memories with many historical events of importance. The book is illustrated and has an index.
* * * * *
Reviewed by B. R. Redman
+ =N Y Times= p4 S 5 ’20 2800w
“It is mainly a picture of the most attractive side of English social life. It gives to the American reader a much more intimate acquaintance with that life than he could possibly attain by any introductions.”
+ =Outlook= 125:615 Ag 4 ’20 180w
“It is a kindly book, written by a gracious lady, giving a picture of an age that has passed away.”
+ =Sat R= 129:333 Ap 3 ’20 1050w
“Lady Georgiana Peel’s engaging book of recollections ought to attract readers of many and varied tastes. The book is attractive in its frank simplicity.”
+ =Spec= 124:389 Mr 20 ’20 1200w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p102 F 12 ’20 1350w
=PENDEXTER, HUGH.= Red belts. il *$1.50 (1½c) Doubleday
20–2261
The time in which the story is placed is 1784, when the quondam colonies had not yet acquired the consciousness of a consolidated group of states. The scene is west of the Alleghanies in what was to be the state of Tennessee but where, at the time of the story, the white settlers were still fighting for their existence against the surrounding Indians aided by renegade white plotters in the interests of Spain. It is a tale of love and adventure in which the hero John Sevier, “Chucky Jack,” a pioneer of Americanism performs gallant deeds of heroism and daring and not only saves his state for the Union but lovely Elsie Tonpit from brutal outlaws and for her lover Kirk Jackson, another true American.
* * * * *
“A stirring pioneer tale.”
+ =Booklist= 16:283 My ’20
“Taken on the whole, ‘Red belts’ is a good example of the real adventure story, with enough patriotic suggestion to render it of wholesome appeal.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:4 Mr 7 ’20 600w
=PENNELL, ELIZABETH (ROBINS) (MRS JOSEPH PENNELL) (N. N., pseud.), and PENNELL, JOSEPH.= Life of James McNeill Whistler. new and rev ed il *$6.50 Lippincott
“This is the revised sixth edition of the authorized biography of Whistler. Since the original publication in two volumes in 1908 the authors have been collecting and verifying documents, and have received numerous suggestions and statements of facts. The new edition, therefore, contains new materials in the text as well as new illustrations, which include more than one hundred reproductions of the artist’s works.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 Jl 21 ’20 640w
“The book, because of the treatment no less than because of the subject, is vastly entertaining.”
+ =Dial= 69:322 S ’20 60w
=Outlook= 125:715 Ag 25 ’20 50w
=R of Rs= 62:334 S ’20 100w
=PEPPER, CHARLES MELVILLE.= Life and times of Henry Gassaway Davis, 1823–1916. il *$4 (4½c) Century
20–4454
The life of “the grand old man” of West Virginia is marked by two phases, says the biographer: “the romance of railway building, the development of natural resources, the creation of industrial communities” is the one, “public service, political leadership, citizenship in its highest sense,” the other. His many-sided character and activities were unusual. He was intensely practical and was also a man of vision. A partial list of the contents follows: Ancestry and youth; Pioneer railway days; International American conferences; The Pan-American railway; Vice-presidential nomination and after; Benefactions and philanthropies; Famous contemporaries; Personal characteristics. There is an index and illustrations.
=PERCIVAL, MACIVER.= Glass collector; a guide to old English glass. (Collector’s ser.) il *$2.50 (4c) Dodd 738.2
A20–905
“The collector who has been in my mind when writing this book has not very much money to spare, and none to waste. He wants to get full value when he makes a purchase, and if a bargain comes his way so much the better.” (Preface) To guide such a collector to know which to choose and how to distinguish the old from the new, the real from the sham is the object of the book. After an introductory chapter on drinking glasses in England to the end of the seventeenth century and seven chapters on the various kinds of wine glasses the contents are: Cut glass; Engraved glasses; Curios; Bottles, decanters, flasks and jugs; Opaque and coloured glass; Frauds, fakes and foreigners; Foreign glass; Manufacturing and decorative processes; Prices; Bibliography; Glossary; Index.
* * * * *
“Will be helpful to the amateur since it is very well illustrated and contains hints on the detection of imitations.”
+ =Booklist= 16:335 Jl ’20
+ =Spec= 122:17 Ja 4 ’19 60w
=PERCIVAL, MACIVER.= Old English furniture and its surroundings. il *$7.50 Scribner 749
“The period Mr Percival covers in this work is from the restoration of the monarchy to the regency. This period he has divided into four sections: The restoration; The end of the 17th century and the early 18th; Early Georgian; Late Georgian. To each section he has given five chapters: Fittings and ornament decorations; Furniture; Upholstery, wall and floor coverings; Table appointments; Decorative adjuncts.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
=Int Studio= 72:164 D ’20 100w
“Mr Percival writes with unusual good sense. Moreover, he is firmly though not pedantically for unmixed style and speaks with authority. For the trained decorator, however, the book contains little that is actually new or in any way suggestive.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p12 N 27 ’20 150w
“If one can judge at all from some of the imposing Fifth avenue shops, people do enjoy living in period-houses, fitting up rooms in period-furniture, buying all manner of things antique. For these impassioned collectors, at least, Mr Percival’s book is unequivocally useful, being clearly written and having much practical information.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 D 9 ’20 330w
=PERCY, EUSTACE SUTHERLAND CAMPBELL, lord.= Responsibilities of the league. *$2 Doran 341.1
(Eng ed 20–5415)
“This is a book written in the interest of civilization. It is true that there have been civilizations, not altogether contemptible, without Christianity; and it is arguable that there may be civilizations hereafter not based on state sovereignty. But the author’s point is both true and indisputable that the revolution which threatens both of these institutions may drag all civilization with it unless a high intelligence commands and canalizes its forces. Lord Eustace considers the league of nations as the potential champion of the idea of the state and commonwealth, the possible medium by which we may come to the spirit of a united Christendom. That, no doubt, is his ideal: to set it off he offers a penetrating analysis of the past and makes the profound observation that the treaty of Versailles, which he does not defend, is the almost complete result of the two forces of nationalism and democracy.”—Dial
* * * * *
“I do not understand all of it nor agree with all I understand, but I am fain to mark its superior importance.” Sganarelle
+ =Dial= 68:799 Je ’20 1150w
“His book will provoke much dissent, but it has the supreme merit of making its readers think on the great problems that face the world.”
+ − =Spec= 124:16 Ja 3 ’20 1400w
“The book fairly bristles with provocative suggestions. The treatment of the basis and mainsprings of American foreign policy makes an American gasp with envy at their insight and sympathy.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5 Mr 29 ’20 800w
“A solution must answer the conditions of the problem proposed, and one has the feeling that Lord Eustace’s criticisms of recent policy do not always take account of that fact. But that is a matter of controversy. What is not a matter of controversy is the quality of Lord Eustace Percy’s book—its breadth of outlook, its richness of information, its penetrating candour, its analytic power, and, above all, its depth of conviction.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p780 D 25 ’19 650w
=PERCY, WILLIAM ALEXANDER.= In April once. *$1.50 Yale univ. press 811
20–15483
“Mr Percy’s book consists of a poetic drama in one act, about half a hundred lyrics, and a longish philosophical monologue entitled ‘An epistle from Corinth.’ The drama—‘In April once’—is a study of a renaissance youth, Guido, who sacrifices his life out of impetuous generosity that a leper and a jailer (though a very knightly jailer) might tempt death.”—Bookm
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:63 N ’20
“In his lyrics, Mr Percy tastes in some degree of the divine madness of Keats. Rare indeed is Mr Percy’s pure lyric gift: limpidity and strength of emotion and adequacy of art.” R. M. Weaver
+ =Bookm= 52:65 S ’20 400w
“He is by no means distinguished, and he is somewhat too fond of his literary good manners, but he has done some shapely, thoroughbred exercises in elegy and exultation.”
+ − =Nation= 112:86 Ja 19 ’21 80w
“His work proves imitative in many ways.”
+ − =N Y Times= p16 N 7 ’20 50w
“Finer than his ‘Sappho in Levkas,’ with all its promise, is ‘In April once.’ This volume has all the charm and freshness of the earlier book, with a deeper and more appealing view of the world.” E: B. Reed
+ =Yale R= n s 10:204 O ’20 150w
=PÉREZ DE AYALA, RAMÓN.= Prometheus: The fall of the house of Limón; Sunday sunlight. *$3 Dutton
20–12561
“Under the threefold title, ‘Prometheus: The fall of the house of Limón; Sunday sunlight,’ the E. P. Dutton company publishes three novelettes of Spanish life by Ramón Pérez de Ayala, which Alice P. Hubbard has turned into English. ‘Prometheus,’ a modern tale which parallels or parodies a Greek legend, deals sunnily with a man who, seeking for perfect offspring, becomes the father of an oaf and hunchback. ‘Limón’ is a murder tale. ‘Sunday sunlight’ is a tale of ravishers which recites horrors which recall and surpass ‘Titus Andronicus.’”—Review
* * * * *
“Those who enjoy artistry, intelligence and pages overflowing with the evidence of original and unique talent will welcome the book and will read it more than once.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:15 Jl 18 ’20 830w
“Señor de Ayala is all sprightliness and glow. He has a draughtsman eye, a colorist eye, an eye reminiscent of Gautier, and he scatters brilliancies with the prodigality of a man for whom splendor is the only warmth.”
+ =Review= 3:351 O 20 ’20 220w
=PERKINS, LUCY (FITCH) (MRS DWIGHT HEALD PERKINS).= Italian twins. il *$1.75 Houghton
20–15958
The Italian twins are Beppo and Beppina, who live in an old palace on the banks of the Arno. They are kidnapped by two vagabonds with a monkey and a performing bear and are made to sing and dance and entertain the country people and villagers. They are taken to Venice but finally make their escape and after more wandering adventures reach their home safely.
* * * * *
“Beautiful makeup and sketches.”
+ =Booklist= 17:78 N ’20
+ =Lit D= p94 D 4 ’20 160w
“One is always sorry when Mrs Perkins fails to reach her own high mark. But this incredible tale of the kidnapping of two little aristocrats shows no side of real Italian life.” M. H. B. Mussey
− + =Nation= 111:sup672 D 8 ’20 110w
“‘The Italian twins’ is a wholesome stimulating book for children between eight and thirteen to read and own.” E. R. Burt
+ =Pub W= 98:1201 O 16 ’20 300w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 N 18 ’20 200w
=PERKINS, LUCY (FITCH) (MRS DWIGHT HEALD PERKINS).= Scotch twins. il *$1.50 Houghton
19–18221
Jock and Jean are the hero and heroine of this story, with its scenes laid in Scotland. The pictures as in other books of the series are from drawings by the author.
* * * * *
“A good picture of national life and customs with a rather more dramatic plot than that of former volumes of the series.”
+ =Booklist= 16:176 F ’20
=Boston Transcript= p9 D 20 ’19 300w
“Jock and Jean have, perhaps, the most exciting and amusing adventures of any of the twins, but, as a small boy critic said, ‘They have an absent-minded way of using occasional Scottish words and then relapsing into plain American talk.’”
+ − =Nation= 109:780 D 13 ’19 140w
+ =Outlook= 124:29 Ja 7 ’20 40w
“‘The Scotch twins,’ Jock, the sleepy-head, and Jean, the canny little polisher and scrubber, are just as lovable as any of their predecessors. There is a nice little surprise, too, in the last chapter.”
+ =Pub W= 97:606 F 21 ’20 120w
“Anyone who has never before understood the claims of a clan will find this and other peculiarities of Scotch life thoroughly explained.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p12 D 19 ’19 100w
=PERRY, ALLEN MASON=, comp. Electrical aids to greater production. il *$2 McGraw 621.3
19–10529
“Based upon a series of articles in the Electrical World, of which the author is engineering editor. The best of practice, as developed by the war, is presented as a practical handbook, rather than as a text-book, full of suggestions for the installation, operation, and maintenance, as well as the problems of layout and control. The eight chapters cover: General power problems of industrial plants; Distribution, transformation, switching and protection; Motors, control, specific applications, troubles and remedies; Illumination, selection of equipment, economies, and specific applications; Electric furnaces, welding, etc.; Meters and measurements as applied to industries; Handling material in industrial plants with electric tractors; Outdoor substations.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:159 F ’20
=N Y P L New Tech Bks= p47 Jl ’19 120w
=Pratt= p20 Ja ’20 30w
=PERRY, BLISS.= Study of poetry. *$3.25 Houghton 808.1
20–9853
In attempting “to set forth in decent prose some of the strange potencies of verse” the author has given but little space to the epic and drama and has devoted himself more especially to the various forms of the lyric, which to him seems to hold the future of poetry. “The folk-epic is gone, the art-epic has been outstripped by prose fiction, and the drama needs a theatre. But the lyric needs only a poet, who can compose in any of its myriad forms.... Through it today, as never before in the history of civilization, the heart of a man can reach the heart of mankind.” Accordingly the book falls into two parts. Part I, Poetry in general, treats of poetry in retrospect, of the province of poetry and the poet, of rhythm and metre, rhyme, stanza and free verse. Part II, The lyric in particular, contains: The field of lyric poetry; Relationships and types of the lyric; Race, epoch and individual; The present status of the lyric. There are also Notes and illustrations, an appendix, a bibliography and an index.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“While it has a genuine interest for the creator and critical interpreter of poetry, its specific value is for that very large body of readers who are between these two groups.” W: S. Braithwaite
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 O 30 ’20 2100w
“The book is avowedly written with the classroom’s needs in view, as well as those of the inquiring general reader, and the former aim to some extent vitiates the author’s treatment by imposing too eclectic an ideal upon him. The book is a résumé of poetics rather than a personal confession.” Llewellyn Jones
+ − =Freeman= 2:235 N 17 ’20 1500w
“No critic since Matthew Arnold seems to us to have so positively as Mr Perry the capacity to make us see more clearly and think more accurately and sensibly about poetry and at the same time make the seeing and the thinking increase our enthusiasm for the vital things.” C. F. L.
+ =Grinnell R= 16:308 D ’20 640w
“In the long run his book is not simple enough. He will be useful to a certain kind of teacher; but he will move few students and he will enkindle no poets.” Mark Van Doren
− + =Nation= 112:sup241 F 9 ’21 120w
“The fault of the book is that it contains too many long quotations from other critics. But this very fault, in the present instance, makes the book a presentation of the best modern critical thought on the lyric. He will be a bold man who attempts to cover Professor Perry’s field for many years to come.” C. E. Andrews
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p5 O 23 ’20 1100w
“Professor Perry’s volume is suggestive and stimulating. It will be useful to the classroom teacher, to the solitary student and to the average reader, who will gain from it knowledge certain to increase his enjoyment of verse.” Brander Matthews
+ =N Y Times= p6 S 12 ’20 2000w
“He gives an unusually clear analysis, supported by rich and apt quotation, of the effects of poetry upon the reader. The value of his essay lies in its vivid ability to provide us with those moments of lucid understanding in which poetic experience is restored to us.” L. R. Morris
+ =Outlook= 126:377 O 27 ’20 400w
“He is first of all a collector, secondly, an assayer, thirdly, and a little less willingly, an arbiter, and, only incidentally and reluctantly, a reasoner or controversialist.” O. W. Firkins
+ − =Review= 3:501 N 24 ’20 2000w
=PERRY, LAWRENCE.= For the game’s sake. (Fair play ser.) il *$1.65 Scribner
20–15706
“Half a dozen tales, each having to do with some special form of athletics, make up Mr Lawrence Perry’s little volume entitled ‘For the game’s sake.’ The first tells of a football ‘star’ who, being also ‘The spoiled boy,’ broke training and misbehaved himself until the coach found it necessary to put him off the team. But there was a sensible and eloquent girl in the case, who brought the culprit to book in a manner which convinced him of the error of his ways. Another tale has to do with an international tennis tournament. Baseball of course is not neglected. Each of the tales presupposes a fairly close acquaintance on the reader’s part with that particular game with which it has to do.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
+ =N Y Times= p27 S 26 ’20 230w
“The book stands for clean playing in every sport. Each story works up thrillingly to a dramatic climax where victory comes by the narrowest of margins.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 31 ’20 200w
=PERRY, STELLA GEORGE (STERN) (MRS GEORGE HOUGH PERRY).= Palmetto. *$1.90 (1c) Stokes
20–15507
Palmetto, as a child of thirteen, runs away from the only parents she has ever known, but whom she instinctively feels are only foster parents. She finds a refuge in New Orleans with a kindly fisherman who adopts her and brings her up as his own daughter. Associated with him is David Cantrelle, a lad of good birth whose family is genuinely shocked at his choice of occupation. He loves Palmetto from the first, and when her heart awakens and responds to his, they become engaged. But his family objects to the match, on account of the mystery of her birth and she determines to show them she is worth while. So she goes to New York where she makes a conspicuous success as an actress. One of her southern admirers follows her there, makes ardent love to her and almost succeeds in replacing David in her heart. But she learns in time that her love for David is deeper than any Hartley can command. The mystery of her birth is eventually cleared up and she finds she has as good blood in her veins as either David or Hartley.
* * * * *
“The greatest defect in this romance of the bayou region of Louisiana is that it is somewhat overlong. Individual sentences and paragraphs are frequently overgrown with too rank a growth of adjectives.”
+ − =N Y Times= p20 D 5 ’20 500w
=PETERSON, SAMUEL.= Democracy and government. *$2 Knopf 321.8
20–104
According to the author’s initial assumption that “a government carries into effect ideas,” the book naturally falls into two parts: What persons should have the legal right to determine finally the ideas to be carried into effect; and in what manner the ideas to be carried into effect should be selected, and how they should be carried into effect. Accordingly part 1, The ruling power of the state, discusses the difference between autocracy, oligarchy and democracy as one of conditions rather than of law, and defines a democratic government as a government of the intelligent members of the ruling race. Part 2, The organization of the government, is an inquiry into how the ideas to be carried into effect may be selected as reliably and carried into effect as certainly and efficiently as possible. The contents under part 2 are: Governmental functions; Legislative organization; Administrative organization; Judicial organization; Direct legislation. There is an index.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20
+ =N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes= 7:39 O 20 ’20 60w
=Outlook= 126:558 N 24 ’20 180w
=R of Rs= 61:560 My ’20 50w
=R of Rs= 62:672 D ’20 30w
“A book which, while blazing no new paths, is well designed to assist the reader in forming a reasonably critical view of the state is Samuel Peterson’s ‘Democracy and government’ which treats fundamental political theories with knowledge of their historical importance, yet with hard-headed sociological insight. The author is always frank, and, while he has pronounced views of his own, he cannot be called a doctrinaire.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ap 13 ’20 400w
“His criticisms of the present governmental machinery are generally just, but the remedies suggested might prove to be worse than the disease. The book shows hard work and earnestness throughout, however, and should prove a valuable contribution to the literature on the subject.” A. G. Dehly
+ − =Survey= 44:307 My 29 ’20 200w
=PETRUCCI, RAPHAËL.= Chinese painters; a critical study; tr. by Frances Seaver; with a biographical note by Lawrence Binyon. il *$2 Brentano’s 759.9
20–7443
“The book comprises a comprehensive and yet compact study of painting in China. His survey takes us back to the dim ages long before the appearance of Buddhism in China, and then brings the reader to the present time.” (Outlook) “It explains briefly the principles of technique and then, as it sketches the historical evolution of painting, reveals its dominating philosophical idea, the search for abstract form. The author was an authority on oriental art. There are numerous pleasing reproductions, bibliography, index of painters and periods.” (Booklist)
* * * * *
“Concise and illuminating volume.”
+ =Booklist= 16:336 Jl ’20
“Happily the author writes for the general reader and the lover of art rather than for the elect; his treatment of a large theme shows the advantage of one who has a gift for luminous condensation.”
+ =Outlook= 125:541 Jl 21 ’20 170w
“For the uninitiated in these matters, ‘Chinese painters’ is a necessary education. For him who understands already the beauty of the masters of China, the book is valuable.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ag 26 ’20 280w
=PETTIGREW, RICHARD FRANKLIN.= Course of empire; introd. by Scott Nearing. il *$4.50 Boni & Liveright 815
20–12790
“The author of this volume held a seat in the United States senate during the ’90s of the last century. He was active in the senate at a turning point in the career of the nation, a period when the frontier was disappearing, when the great oligarchies of capital were organizing, and when the United States became a colonial power. In short, his public career is identical with the origin of imperialism in the United States. The book consists of a compilation of the speeches of ex-Senator Pettigrew in the senate on these imperialist policies as they were forming. They fall into three groups—those dealing with the annexation of the Hawaiian islands; those dealing with the conquest of the Philippines; and those dealing with the antagonism of the West to the banking and trust groups of the East. Accompanying the addresses which reveal a wide variety of information on the part of the author, are many documents of much historical value to the reader.”—N Y Call
* * * * *
“These speeches, both concerning Hawaiian affairs and those in the Philippines, are useful as a matter of record; they will be very valuable to the future historian, who desires to understand the obstacles encountered by the nation in its movement toward an expanded civilization and world power.” E. J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 O 13 ’20 660w
“The addresses show that the author during his public career had that capacity which is so rare in the men of a later generation who have served in Congress. His mind was always open, and he advanced with the progress of his time.” James Oneal
+ =N Y Call= p10 N 21 ’20 940w
“Although the book comprises a vivid study of the development of imperial policy in the United States it might better have been compressed into half the size for the benefit of the general reader. There are too many and too liberal quotations from Mr Pettigrew’s own speeches.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p6 D 27 ’20 570w
=PHELPS, EDITH M.=, comp. Selected articles on the American merchant marine. (Debaters’ handbook ser.) *$1.50 Wilson, H. W. 387
20–4721
To this second edition of a handbook published in 1916 nearly one hundred pages of reprinted matter have been added. This matter is designed to cover events since the publication of the first edition, including the assembling of a large merchant fleet and the question of its disposal, together with arguments for and against government ownership and operation. The bibliography has been enlarged and brought down to date, and the introduction and briefs have been rewritten.
* * * * *
=Ann Am Acad= 90:172 Jl ’20 40w
=Booklist= 16:291 My ’20
“A volume covering intelligently and with reasonable fulness the history and present status of the commercial fleet of the United States.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ap 30 ’20 280w
=PHELPS, EDITH M.=, ed. University debaters’ annual; constructive and rebuttal speeches delivered in debates of American colleges and universities during the college year, 1919–1920. v 6 *$2.25 Wilson, H. W.
808.5
Seven subjects of timely importance are included in this volume of the debaters’ annual: Government ownership and operation of coal mines; The Cummins plan for the control of railroads; Affiliation of teachers with the American federation of labor; Compulsory arbitration of railway labor disputes; Compulsory arbitration of labor disputes; The closed shop; Suppression of propaganda for the overthrow of the United States government (two debates). Each debate is accompanied by briefs and a selected bibliography. “The bibliographies have been compiled mostly by the editor, and are not limited to the material actually used in the debate, as their main purpose is helpfulness to the prospective debater.” (Preface) The volume is indexed.
=PHILLPOTTS, EDEN.= As the wind blows. *$1.50 Macmillan 821
20–18071
“Mr Phillpotts sings a good deal about his beloved Dartmoor, but he tells of other subjects, too—Gallipoli, the grave of Keats, etc.—and he has one descriptive piece from the jungle called ‘Tiger,’ and a longish blank verse poem staging Adam and Eve in Paradise.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“Of some of his pieces one has the impression that they were written as an exercise in verse. But in others a genuine inspiration is apparent. ‘The neolith’ and ‘Tiger’ contain fine things.”
+ − =Ath= p718 My 28 ’20 70w
“It is the reality of the atmosphere rather than the circumstance that gives Mr Phillpotts’s verse its individuality; the taste, smell, contour of locality, rather than the sharp and sudden force of either crisis or event in human action that gives the unique character to his rhythmic expression.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 24 ’20 1750w
“He writes in the great English tradition, but brings a note that is essentially his own at the same time.”
+ =N Y Times= p16 N 7 ’20 290w
“It is always difficult to analyse charm, but in this instance the effect of the attraction is that we are apt to like poems that have very palpable faults.”
+ − =Spec= 124:86 Jl 17 ’20 430w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p443 Jl 8 ’20 60w
=PHILLPOTTS, EDEN.= Evander. *$2 Macmillan
20–4895
“Evander is an apostle of plain living and high thinking in the early days when the gods of Olympus had not settled their respective rights in the hierarchy of worship and when marriage was still a rare thing among humble folk. Festus and Livia were perhaps the first among their neighbours to wed, under the auspices of Bacchus, while Evander, as the votary of Apollo, endeavours to convert her to the higher worship of his god. He succeeds for a time in gaining her allegiance, and she leaves her husband to follow him, but finds the mental atmosphere too rarefied for her, and finally returns to her home and husband, Bacchus being able to show his half-brother the unwisdom of vengeance on Festus.”—Sat R
* * * * *
“The delicate, bright atmosphere in which this enchanting book is bathed must be left for the reader to enjoy.” K. M.
+ =Ath= p15 Ja 2 ’20 650w
“The dialogue is full of witty and amiable satire of our own times, the barb being especially sharp for the ‘intelligentzia’ of all times.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Bookm= 51:340 My ’20 460w
“It is impossible to overlook the roguish satire upon social affairs of the present day that Mr Phillpotts has woven into his story. The very presence and name of Bacchus proves that he has reference to the immediate present in writing of the far-away past.” E. F. E.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 F 18 ’20 1600w
+ =Dial= 68:664 My ’20 80w
“The trouble with the book is the same as with all of Mr Phillpotts’s books—a lack of felicity which is not compensated for, as it is in the case of his master, Hardy, by a dour grandeur. ‘Evander’ particularly needed grace and there is none.”
− + =Nation= 110:304 Mr 6 ’20 400w
“The tale would, indeed, be worth reading merely for the grace and charm of its style, and its flexible, deft, and effective phrasing.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:89 F 15 ’20 900w
“A bit of irony impishly humorous, entirely delightful.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:190 Ap 18 ’20 20w
“The vein is one of mild social satire; the touch is light and easy; and here also is the charm of imagination and fancy.”
+ =Outlook= 124:430 Mr 10 ’20 80w
“We should like to congratulate the author on his success in a rather limited style of fiction. We can remember nothing in English at all equal to it since Dr Garnett’s ‘Twilight of the gods,’ while it has much in common with Anatole France in the satire of the foibles of the philosopher which lies at its root. It may be perceived we are giving Mr Phillpotts high praise.”
+ =Sat R= 129:40 Ja 10 ’20 150w
“A pretty, though often rather cheap, little story.”
+ − |=Spec= 123:822 D 13 ’19 100w
“Mr Phillpotts’s literary cunning makes an agreeable tale out of all this—picturesque and quietly humorous.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p697 N 27 ’19 100w
=PHILLPOTTS, EDEN.= Miser’s money. *$2 Macmillan
20–3882
“The characters [of this novel] are drawn with realism and subtlety. More especially that of David Mortimer, the hard-bitten old miser, whose cheese-paring, hatred of women, and cynical disbelief in everybody and everything are so cleverly defended that they almost capture the young soul of his nephew Barry Worth, who lives with him and works his farm. David leaves his money to Barry on condition that he doesn’t marry, the fact that Barry was ‘tokened’ to a buxom barmaid having been concealed from him. Barry is true to Marian; the will is void; and the money divided between the miser’s brother and two sisters. But the lawyer who handed the will to Barry delivered at the same time a bulky letter from David to be read in solitude. In that letter is contained the mystery, the heart of the matter which makes the novel.”—Sat R
* * * * *
“The characters are interesting and the story moves along pleasantly and very calmly. There is less humor than in some of the earlier work.”
+ =Booklist= 16:283 My ’20
“After all, Mr Phillpotts has said his say about human nature on Dartmoor, and he has little new to offer in type or situation. It is pleasant and comfortable to meet some more of his people now and then—and that is all.” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Bookm= 51:339 My ’20 520w
“The story as a whole is an excellent example of Mr Phillpotts’s style at its best.” E. F. E.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Mr 17 ’20 1200w
“The novel is beautifully written. All Mr Phillpotts’s readers know how fine are his descriptions of his dearly loved Dartmoor, though there are fewer of them in this his latest novel than in the majority of his Dartmoor books.”
+ =N Y Times= p116 Mr 14 ’20 1150w
“An excellent example of the author’s quiet, subtle, and humorous exposition of contrasted character.”
+ =Outlook= 124:657 Ap 14 ’20 100w
“It is as charming a novel, and as telling a picture of family life on ‘Dartymoor’ as we ever read, or as Mr Phillpotts has ever written. Worthy to rank with the best of his many delightful novels.”
+ =Sat R= 129:333 Ap 3 ’20 440w
“The different veins of his talent, tragic and humorous, are here fused with happy results. ‘Miser’s money’ shows him at his mellowest and best as artist and observer.”
+ =Spec= 125:215 Ag 14 ’20 530w
“The plot is simple and rather erratic, but taken as a whole the story displays that excellence of craftsmanship which long since placed the author in the forefront of his peculiar field.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p13a Ap 18 ’20 750w
“Mr Phillpotts keeps us almost too near to life. He presents us with one more faithful and consistent study of Dartmoor people, but of Dartmoor people principally in their heavier and less significant moments. The plot, though simple and pastoral, is a very good plot; but no plot could survive this flood of conversation.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p186 Mr 18 ’30 400w
=PHILLPOTTS, EDEN.=[2] West country pilgrimage. il *$9 Macmillan 914.2
“A by-product of Mr Phillpotts’s researches into the lore of Devonshire has been put together in a volume entitled ‘A west country pilgrimage,’ with sixteen illustrations in color by A. T. Benthall. Here he sketches in a series of sixteen essays the scenes of heath and river, of village and shore as they meet the eye of the traveller through or the sojourner in that corner of England.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“The book represents the happiest combining of language, printing, and art.” Margaret Ashmun
+ =Bookm= 52:344 D ’20 130w
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 30 ’20 260w
“Some of the water colors by A. T. Benthall are unusually fine, and they all display a decided originality of talent. To many, perhaps, the illustrations will seem preferable to the text, for they achieve their intended result with less effort.” B. R. Redman
+ − =N Y Times= p9 Ja 9 ’21 140w
“An attractive book for lovers of Devon and Cornwall.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p442 Jl 8 ’20 90w
=PICKARD, BERTRAM.= Reasonable revolution. *$1.25 Macmillan 336.2
(Eng ed 19–12869)
“A thin blue volume entitled ‘A reasonable revolution,’ filled with economic principles and suggestions, has just been brought out by Macmillan company. It is an ardent and eager defense of the state bonus for motherhood and national minimum income scheme as evolved by Dennis Milner, the head of the state bonus league of England. This book is written by Bertram Pickard, who has been a co-worker with Milner for some time.” (Springf’d Republican) “Briefly, the scheme is for a national appropriation of 20 per cent of all incomes, without consideration of other taxes or burdens on them; the resulting fund to be pooled and redistributed in such a way as to provide every individual and family with a national minimum sufficient to sustain national standards of comfort, health, education and other essentials of a full and efficient life.” (Survey)
* * * * *
=Ath= p570 Jl 4 ’19 50w
“Mr Pickard is thoroughly conversant with his subject, looks at it tirelessly from every point of view and appears to answer every possible question with which a careful student of economics might attack the scheme.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Mr 12 ’20 220w
=Survey= 43:194 N 29 ’19 440w
=PILLSBURY, WALTER BOWERS.= Psychology of nationality and internationalism. *$2.50 (3½c) Appleton 321
20–458
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
* * * * *
“The argument is well-reasoned throughout.” C. G. Fenwick
+ =Am Pol Sci R= 14:340 My ’20 90w
“Following upon much political disputation on nationality and internationality, it is very clarifying to follow this psychologist through his discussion of the mentality of nations.”
+ =Booklist= 16:190 Mr ’20
“His belief in the integrity of the national state does not take into account that growing regionalism which challenges the authority of the state at the same time that it denies the false unity of belligerent nationalism. And the temperate lucidity of the author’s psychological exposition does not equate his superficial examination of the historical groundwork of nationality and internationalism.”
− + =Dial= 68:404 Mr ’20 150w
“The reviewer found the most interesting chapter the one on Hate as a social force.” Ellsworth Faris
+ =Int J Ethics= 30:339 Ap ’20 330w
Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow
+ =Nation= 112:185 F 2 ’21 450w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a My 16 ’20 300w
“Dr Pillsbury’s chapter on Hate as a social force is very apposite and suggestive. The chapter on The nation and mob consciousness is an excellent criticism of LeBon’s group psychology. The chapter on Nationality and the League of nations is the least satisfactory.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p215 Ap 1 ’20 500w
=PINKERTON, MRS KATHRENE SUTHERLAND (GEDNEY), and PINKERTON, ROBERT EUGENE.= Long traverse. il *$1.50 (2c) Doubleday
20–12811
When Bruce Rochette comes into the northland he comes with a deadly hatred of the Hudson’s Bay Company and a determination to avenge his mother’s death which he holds the fur trading company responsible for. He wins the confidence of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s manager, Herbert Morley, and then uses every trick and stratagem at his command to establish a rival post at Fort Mystery. Everything is going well, until he meets Evelyn Morley, and falls in love with her. Judged by her absolute standards of right and wrong, his policy of all’s fair in war condemns him in his own eyes as well as hers. In an endeavor to straighten matters out, he very nearly loses his self respect, his girl, his job, and even his life. But finally everything is restored to him that is necessary for his happiness and Evelyn’s.
* * * * *
“A pleasantly written tale.”
+ =Booklist= 17:35 O ’20
=PINKERTON, MRS KATHRENE SUTHERLAND (GEDNEY), and PINKERTON, ROBERT EUGENE.= Penitentiary Post. il *$1.50 (2c) Doubleday
20–10313
A story of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Phil Boynton is sent to take charge of the fort known as Penitentiary Post, a place with an evil reputation. Behind him at Savant House, he leaves the girl he loves, knowing that John Wickson, the man who is sending him north, also loves her and is determined to win her, and half suspecting that personal motives were back of the appointment. At Penitentiary Post he finds himself fully occupied with the mystery of the “weeteego,” or evil spirit, that haunts it. His Indians desert the place in fear and the fur hunters refuse to come near it. Joyce Plummer, hearing tales of what he is undergoing, comes alone through the storm to find him, and Wickson follows. The three, who are forced to make common cause against hunger, come to an understanding, and the poor, crazed Indian who had watched his family die of starvation and is taking a weird revenge on the white man, meets his own fate.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:35 O ’20
=PINOCHET, TANCREDO.= Gulf of misunderstanding; or, North and South America as seen by each other. *$2.50 Boni & Liveright 917.3
20–17985
“This book first appeared serially in El Norte Americano. Mr Pinochet is a Chilean and the author of seven books on government and kindred subjects. He came to this country some years ago for the expressed object of learning to understand the United States that he might tell his countrymen about us. He has selected an entertaining manner of setting forth the views of the two Americas. He has made no attempt to make a story of his book, yet he has introduced two distinct characters. The first is a Latin-American man, who, being in the United States, writes letters to his wife at home about whatever interests him in this country. The woman is an American, a member of the censor’s department during the war. She reads the letters of the husband and in her turn writes an accompanying letter, discussing the same subject.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“The surprising thing about the book is that Mr Pinochet should so have entered into the United States point of view as to make one believe, while reading his instructive volume, that a native of this country had risen in its defense.”
+ =Bookm= 52:368 D ’20 300w
“The book should prove a link in the chain which should finally bind closer the two continents, so many of whose interests are the same.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 N 24 ’20 390w
“Both the imaginary writers are interesting and neither writes a page that one can go to sleep over.”
+ − =N Y Times= p7 Ja 9 ’21 1750w
“The book has a temporary flavor, being written before the adoption of the suffrage amendment and more recent events. But it will prove interesting to anyone who wishes to know how a highly intelligent ‘foreigner’ judges our country from the front it presents to him.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p7a D 26 ’20 290w
=PINSKI, DAVID.= Ten plays. *$2 Huebsch 892.4
20–9850
These ten one-act plays have been translated from the Yiddish by Isaac Goldberg. They depict the various weaknesses and passions of men: greed, selfishness, war hysteria, lust, war’s devastation, with at the end a dramatization of the Midrash legend. The titles are: The phonograph; The god of the newly rich wool merchant; A dollar; The cripples; The Inventor and the king’s daughter; Diplomacy; Little heroes; The beautiful nun; Poland—1919; The stranger.
* * * * *
“Plays which are often unpleasantly grim though not sordid. There is the same keen analysis of human nature as in earlier plays. The method is symbolic rather than literal, and sometimes the meaning is blurred.”
+ − =Booklist= 16:338 Jl ’20
“Brilliant but not always clear.”
+ − =Cleveland= p87 S ’20 20w
“There are few of his ‘Ten plays’ which can wholly escape the murkiness of inferior translation.” K. M.
+ − =Freeman= 1:548 Ag 18 ’20 450w
“Mr Pinski has become an unswerving symbolist. He has deliberately silenced the voice of nature that sounded so clearly in his earlier plays. He still cultivates the ironic anecdote in dramatic form but his mind is more fixed on the bare intention than on the stuff of life. His peculiar dangers are the fantastic and the obscure, and these make several of his plays ineffectual.”
+ − =Nation= 110:693 My 22 ’20 250w
“Pinski may lack certain graces, especially graces of lightness and saving humor. But passion and power he does not lack, whether he writes in one-act or three. No American dramatist today gives such an effect of surging vitality. It will be a great pity if he does not identify himself more closely with American life and write ultimately for English-speaking audiences direct.” W. P. Eaton
+ =N Y Call= p10 Jl 18 ’20 350w
“The shortest of the ten plays, ‘Cripples,’ is the strongest. Force, indeed, gnarled and ungainly, is characteristic of Mr Pinski’s drama at its best. This force, however, is accompanied by a heaviness of tread and a density of fibre which are prolific of trials for the sensitive reader.”
− + =Review= 3:133 Ag 11 ’20 320w
“Every play in the volume is readable, most of them are actable. It would, in fact, be safe to say that they would all be actable if they were in the hand of the players of the Jewish art theatre, who know as well as Pinski does how to make the quick transitions—native to the Jewish mind and heart—from tragedy to comedy, from irony to philippic, from joy to the depths of sorrow.”
+ =Theatre Arts Magazine= 4:225 Jl ’20 310w
=PITT, FRANCES.= Wild creatures of garden and hedgerow. il *$4 (7c) Dodd 590.4
20–27527
A collection of papers by an English naturalist, who says, “The following account of some of the commoner birds and beasts around us is written in the hope of interesting boys and girls, and some of the older people too if possible, in the wild life of garden, hedgerow, and field.” (Preface) Contents: Bats; The bank vole; Two common birds (blackbird and thrush); Shrews; Toads and frogs; The longtailed field mouse; ‘The little gentleman in the black velvet coat’; Thieves of the night; Some garden birds; The hedgehog; Three common reptiles; The short-tailed field vole. The illustrations are from photographs.
* * * * *
“Her first-hand records are set out in an easy unpretentious style, and on obscure points she makes suggestions as illuminating as they are modest.” E. B.
+ =Ath= p303 S 3 ’20 720w
+ =Booklist= 17:100 D ’20
“Miss Pitt’s book is beautifully printed and handsomely illustrated and is especially of value for the reading of young people, many of whom are glad to make friends with the living things of the world about them.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 11 ’20 400w
“Miss Pitt is to be congratulated on a book which takes its place in the first rank of works on field natural history. It is a personal record of clever, patient, and sympathetic observation.” J. A. T.
+ =Nature= 106:246 O 21 ’20 1700w
“The author’s work is not inspired or inspiring, but it is clean of sentimentality and of spurious nature philosophy, pleasant reading, and informative.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p29 O 23 ’20 130w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:376 O 27 ’20 50w
+ =Spec= 125:710 N 27 ’20 30w
“The photographs of the little creatures in their haunts are most cleverly taken.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p554 Ag 26 ’20 60w
“Even if they sometimes carry a rather too large conclusion, these histories of birds and beasts and creeping things are full of fine insight and the right enthusiasm.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p563 S 2 ’20 600w
=PLATT, AGNES.= Practical hints on playwriting. il *$1.50 (5c) Dodd 808.2
20–17152
A book of advice on writing for the professional stage. The author says “I do most fervently believe that the dry bones of stage technique can be taught—in fact, all my personal experience goes to prove this. I have been handling plays now for more years than I care to remember, and have found in case after case that a little technical adjustment will turn an unmarketable play into a commercial proposition.” Among the topics covered are: What the public want; Things that are essential in a good play; How to choose a plot; How to select and differentiate the characters; Humour; How to sell a play when finished; Casting and production. A glossary of stage terms comes at the end. The author is an English woman writing with London conditions in mind but most of her discussion is general in nature.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p384 Mr 19 ’20 50w
“A beginner, provided he were only a beginner with no idea of the drama, would do well to read this book.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p10 D 31 ’20 180w
=PLUMB, CHARLES SUMNER.= Types and breeds of farm animals. (Country life educ. ser.) rev ed il *$3.80 Ginn 636
20–8897
A revision of a work published in 1906. The new edition contains “a more detailed discussion relative to the great breeds, and considerable space is devoted to families of importance and to noted individuals. A large amount of new data has been collected relating to various phases of production, although it is a hopeless task to bring such records down to date.... The number of chapters remains the same, but several obsolete breeds have been omitted and other new and more important ones have been substituted. Maps and many illustrations have been added.” (Foreword)
* * * * *
“The book gives probably the best account published of modern farm animals and there are good illustrations. Another very interesting feature is the history of the families which the author has diligently worked out.” E. J. R.
+ =Nature= 106:659 Ja 20 ’21 210w
=POLLAK, GUSTAV.= International minds and the search for the restful. $1.50 Nation press 814
19–16675
The collection of essays in this book are gathered from articles contributed to the Evening Post and the Nation before the war. As the title indicates, they fall into two groups. The first group bears out the author’s claim “that intellect recognizes no distinctions of nationality, race, or religion.” He has selected a representative of each, from the literatures of Germany, Austria, France and America in the persons of Goethe, Grillparzer, Sainte-Beuve and Lowell and points out a certain similarity of attitude toward life and literature, of perception of the dignity of literary achievement, of keen-eyed observation and of a self-contained repose. The second group of essays is devoted to Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben, and his book on the “Hygiene of the soul” which of late years has achieved a new fame. One of the essays gives a resumé of the book. The titles of the essays are: Literature and patriotism; Goethe’s universal interests; Grillparzer’s originality; Sainte-Beuve’s unique position; Lowell: patriot and cosmopolitan; Permanent literary standards; Feuchtersleben the philosopher; The hygiene of the soul; Feuchtersleben’s aphorisms; Feuchtersleben’s influence.
=POLLARD, ALBERT FREDERICK.= Short history of the great war. *$3.25 Harcourt 940.3
20–26545
“Although several histories of the war have already appeared, only a few of them have been written by men who had an ante-war historical reputation. Dr Pollard is one of this small group. For many years he has held the chair of English history in the University of London, and is the author of numerous historical works, besides having served as assistant editor of the ‘Dictionary of national biography.’ His record of the war is chronologically complete, and includes the work of the peace conference.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
“Simply as an account of military events the volume leaves something to be desired, in spite however of what the book does not contain—and one cannot say everything in four hundred pages—the volume is well worth reading.” A. P. Scott
+ − =Am Hist R= 26:331 Ja ’21 470w
“An excellent feature of Professor Pollard’s evenly balanced and temperately written narrative is that it corrects several popular misapprehensions.”
+ =Ath= p431 Mr 26 ’20 260w
=Booklist= 16:309 Je ’20
“An excellent record of the facts, combined with a true representation of their relative importance. Some of his opinions will not be generally accepted, and he has a strong prejudice against the present prime minister. Original views will not, however, detract from the great and patriotic interest of the book. The style is vigorous and sometimes eloquent.” G. B. H.
+ =Eng Hist R= 35:477 Jl ’20 190w
“In contrast with some other writers on the subject, he has succeeded in being more historical than hysterical. Having mastered the sources, as far as they are available, he presents his conclusions with admirable impartiality. But his book is conclusive proof that the true history of the war will not be written in this generation.” Preserved Smith
+ − =Nation= 110:804 Je 12 ’20 800w
“It is written from the British rather than from the world’s point of view.” Walter Littlefield
+ − =N Y Times= p6 D 19 ’20 380w
“He has vision, he has perspective, and almost more, he has style. In reading this book, we are clearly conscious that a discriminating spirit of power and clearness is ever preserving a proper balance, and so resisting the temptation of overcoloring and undercoloring. Professor Pollard has written a capital book, packed with common sense; it will be hard to surpass it.”
+ =Review= 3:423 N 3 ’20 650w
“His book undoubtedly represents the best that English historical scholarship can do at this stage by way of outlining the five-years’ struggle.”
+ =R of Rs= 61:670 Je ’20 120w
“Professor Pollard’s lucid narrative and caustic comments are highly interesting. His very able and stimulating book deserves careful reading.”
+ =Spec= 124:355 Mr 13 ’20 200w
“Professor Pollard’s is a notable achievement; and he who has been looking for the one small volume which shall tell him what innumerable more bulky ones have failed to impart may be confidently recommended to purchase this short history. We cannot, however, invariably follow Professor Pollard in his military appreciations.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p133 F 26 ’20 1050w
=POLLEN, JOHN HUNGERFORD.= English Catholics in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1558 to 1580; a study of their politics, civil life and government. *$7.50 (*21s) Longmans 282
20–7672
“Father Pollen has written a history of the English Catholics under Elizabeth from the fall of the old church to the advent of the counter-reformation (1558–1580). He himself gives us the reasons of his beginning with the reign of Elizabeth; ‘Henry’s revolt is indeed the proper starting-point for a history of the reformation taken as a whole; but Elizabeth’s accession is better, if one is primarily considering the political and civil life of the post-reformation Catholics. Reform and counter-reform under Henry, Edward and Mary were transitory. The constructive work of each was immediately undone by their successor. But the work done by Queen Elizabeth, whether by Catholic or Protestant, lasted a long time. There have, of course, been many developments since, but they have proceeded on the lines then laid down. On the Catholic side the work of reorganization began almost immediately after the first crash, though it was only in the middle of the reign that the vitality and permanence of the new measures became evident.’”—Cath World
* * * * *
“The soundness of his assumptions, the critical value of his judgments, are certainly for us to consider. An internal history of Catholic organization such as Father Pollen might write would be exceptionally valuable, but this book does not contain it.” R. G. Usher
+ − =Am Hist R= 26:84 O ’20 1250w
+ =Cath World= 111:534 Jl ’20 1050w
“Father Pollen has written an interesting and scholarly work on a critical period of our island history. The book is written, on the whole, with tact and discrimination: the author holds the scales more evenly than most Catholic historians do between the warring creeds and factions.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:55 Ag 17 ’20 1200w
“His present volume is well documented with printed and unprinted material. He is somewhat sparing in his references to other scholars who have laboured in the same field.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p560 S 2 ’20 1400w
=POLLOCK, SIR FREDERICK.= League of nations. *$4 (*10s 6d) Macmillan 341.1
20–14891
“The author’s purpose is to give a practical exposition of the covenant of the League of nations, ‘with so much introduction as appears proper for enabling the reader to understand the conditions under which the League was formed and has to commence its work.’ The references to authentic documents and to other publications, which are given at the heads of some of the chapters, are of material assistance to the reader.”—Ath
* * * * *
=Ath= p462 Ap 2 ’20 130w
“A valuable reference and guide to further reading written for the layman.”
+ =Booklist= 17:55 N ’20
“The veteran jurist’s exposition of the text of the covenant is lucidity itself.”
+ =Spec= 124:215 F 14 ’20 180w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p39 Ja 15 ’20 330w
=POLLOCK, JOHN.=[2] Bolshevik adventure. *$2.50 Dutton 914.7
20–1771
“Mr Pollock was in Russia from 1915 to 1919, and his book pretends to be nothing more than a calm statement of facts as he saw them.” (Ath) “We gather that until the revolution of November, the author worked on the Red cross committee: when the others left the country, however, he stayed on, though he should have left with them. One day in the summer of 1918, he was told by a friend that the Red guards were in possession of his rooms at the hotel. From that date he lived under a disguise and an assumed name. He got employment as a producer of plays, and to attain membership in the second food category he joined the ‘Professional union of workers in theatrical undertakings.’ He worked in this capacity first at Moscow, and afterwards at Petrograd until January, 1919, when he decided to risk an attempt at escape into Finland.” (Sat R)
* * * * *
=Ath= p32 Ja 2 ’20 150w
“‘The entire upper class’ is Mr Pollock’s chief concern throughout his book. Everything else in Russia is anathema, to be damned in eternity. Especially the Jews. There are so many Jews in the ‘Bolshevik adventure’ that in reading the book one has the impression that Mr Pollock uses Russia as a misnomer for Jewry.” S. K.
− =Ath= p111 Ja 23 ’20 1250w
“The like of his book for misstatement, weakness of thought, and excited imagination is not to be found even among books on Russia.” Jacob Zeitlin
− =Nation= 112:20 Ja 5 ’21 240w
“This book should have been written in two parts, the first containing Chapters I to VI and the second Chapters VII, VIII, and IX. Then the first part should have been filed with the Minister of propaganda at London and pigeonholed in an asbestos-lined receptacle. This treatment would have left us with eighty pages of rather vivid narrative by an English eye-witness.”
− + =N Y Evening Post= p4 D 31 ’20 780w
“It is a pity that Mr Pollock’s style of writing is not better: some of the confusion of Russia appears to have crept into the construction of his sentences. Apart from such minor defects as these, the book is a magnificent and crushing indictment of the Bolsheviks by one who has lived under their misrule for nearly sixteen months. No other work on the subject has conjured up for us such a vivid picture of the loathsome misery and degradation to which communism can drag a country.”
+ =Sat R= 129:211 F 28 ’20 550w
“Where Mr Pollock tells his own story he does succeed in adding to the volume of evidence against them. But the other portions of the book, written in the early days of the bolshevik régime, are too violent and too superficial to be convincing.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p2 Ja 1 ’20 1050w
=POLLOCK, WALTER.= Hot bulb oil engines and suitable vessels. il *$10 Van Nostrand 621.4
(Eng ed 20–10619)
“The objects of this book are: (1) To popularise the engine, to explain what it has done and what it is capable of doing; (2) To enable those interested to appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of the various designs; (3) To facilitate the study, and add to the general knowledge of this form of prime mover and its application to vessels of various types.” (Chapter I) There are 369 illustrations and an index.
* * * * *
“The photographic reproductions and clear and carefully executed drawings are calculated to give sufficient detail without introducing unnecessary complexity.”
+ =Engineer= 129:225 F 27 ’20 380w
+ =N Y P L New Tech Bks= p32 Ap ’20 160w
=POOLE, ERNEST.= Blind. *$2.50 (2c) Macmillan
20–18299
The theme of this novel is stated in Chapter 1: “I am blind—but no blinder than is the mind of the world, these days. The long thin splinter of German steel which struck in behind my eyes did no more to me than the war has done to the vision of humanity.” Larry Hart, who tells the story, begins with his boyhood, describing the happy home life that his Aunt Amelia created for himself and his sister Lucy as well as for her own children in the old Connecticut homestead. After college he goes to New York as a journalist, lives in the slums with his friend, Steve McCrea, a doctor, has a part in the budding reform movements of the nineties, mixes with radicals, interests himself in strikes, writes plays, is swept into the enthusiasm of the Progressive movement and in 1914 goes to Berlin as correspondent. Later he goes to Russia to report the revolution and when America enters the war enlists, and, as the first chapter foretells, is blinded. In its closing chapters the book becomes largely a commentary on America’s part in the war, arriving at no definite point of view or conclusion.
* * * * *
“Little plot, but real people and much earnest seeking after truth.”
+ =Booklist= 17:73 N ’20
“On the whole, it is newspaper correspondence worked into the shape of a novel. The parts dealing with Russia immediately after the fall of the Czar are especially interesting.”
+ =Dial= 70:230 F ’21 100w
“The author is more than a seer of social progress; he has the sense for individuality which a novelist must possess. It suffers not because it is, in large part, about the war period, but, like its blind, hard-thinking hero, because of the war. It is like many an ex-soldier, just perceptibly shell-shocked. As a book it should have been restrained, cut down, cooled, simplified. But so should the war.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p4 O 23 ’20 900w
“‘Blind’ is just one more testimonial to the incompatibility as bookmates of art and argument, one more example of their mutually fatal effect upon each other. When ‘the will to convince’ comes in at the door, artistry flies out the window. Some of the descriptive writing in ‘Blind’ is excellent.”
− + =N Y Times= p24 O 31 ’20 800w
“It must not be thought that the novel is one of social propaganda alone. It has fictional vitality because of the variety and realism of its shifting scenes, the good and bad human qualities of its actors, its rapid movement, and its precision in description.” R. D. Townsend
+ =Outlook= 126:653 D 8 ’20 270w
“It seems incredible that so soon after a devastating war anyone could write so sane a book as ‘Blind.’ Best of all, it is a book that compels thought, without a shred of the sentimentality that so many novelists feel is a necessity in any successful novel recipe.” E. P. Wyckoff
+ =Pub W= 98:1191 O 16 ’20 260w
=POOLEY, ANDREW MELVILLE.= Japan’s foreign policies. *$3.50 Dodd 327
(Eng ed 20–12064)
The present volume was originally a part of a larger unpublished work. The chapters of that work dealing with Japan’s internal affairs were published in 1917 under the title “Japan at the cross roads” while the chapters dealing with Japan’s foreign affairs compose the present book. It records the rapid imperialistic developments in Japan and its Chinese policy and hints at the possibility of a war between America and Japan in the making. Contents: Japan and the Anglo-Japanese alliances; Japan’s real policy in China; The first revolution in China, 1911–12; The second revolution in China, 1912–13; Japan, America and Mexico, 1911–14; The twenty-one demands; Japan’s commercial expansion, 1914–18; Note.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:95 D ’20
=Boston Transcript= p4 N 6 ’20 750w
Reviewed by A. P. Danton
+ =N Y Evening Post= p3 D 31 ’20 1000w
Reviewed by W. W. Willoughby
=Review= 3:474 N 17 ’20 1300w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p386 Je 17 ’20 90w
“In the present work special knowledge is manifest, but its value is vitiated from the outset by the violence of the author’s unconcealed hostility. His book is a sweeping judgment, and, like all sweeping judgments, unjust. There is evidence of this kind of haste throughout the book, from the literary as well as from the critical point of view.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p462 Jl 22 ’20 1000w
Reviewed by W. R. Wheeler
=Yale R n s= 10:431 Ja ’21 340w
=POORE, IDA MARGARET (GRAVES) lady.= Rachel Fitzpatrick. *$1.75 (2c) Lane
20–11899
The heroine is an Irish girl who spends two years with wealthy relatives in London. The Fitzpatricks belong to the gentry but are very poor and gladly accept the offer that means two years of education for Rachel. At the end of the two years she goes to Germany. The war finds her there alone with her aunt’s German husband, who takes advantage of the situation to make love to her. She runs away and after many difficulties reaches Ireland. The course of the war and the Irish attitude are touched upon and the story ends with Rachel’s marriage to her sailor lover.
* * * * *
“The authoress’s naive Irish heroine is skilfully and naturally drawn.”
+ =Ath= p386 Mr 19 ’20 100w
“If there is a fault to be found with this story, it is that enough is not made of the big scenes in the life of the charming heroine. Yet, this does not, somehow, detract from the pleasure of the book, which is charmingly written in a style that is too rapidly passing. A good part of the pleasure derived from the story is due to its clever characterizations.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:27 Jl 25 ’20 550w
+ =Outlook= 125:615 Ag 4 ’20 30w
“A novel which is neither better nor worse than hundreds of others.”
+ − =Sat R= 129:455 My 15 ’20 140w
“What is perhaps the chief merit of quite a readable story is the pictures of Irish life and character, of which the author has an intimate knowledge.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p189 Mr 18 ’20 150w
=POPENOE, WILSON.= Manual of tropical and subtropical fruits. (Rural manuals) il *$5 Macmillan 634
20–15789
“The author is an expert, employed as agricultural explorer for the United States Department of agriculture. On his title page he announces his design of excluding the banana, the cocoanut, the pineapple, citrus fruits, the olive and the fig.... He begins with the avocado, which many people in the regions where it grows often call the avocado pear. He displays his scientific knowledge by giving first a botanical description of the avocado, its history and distribution, its composition and its uses.... The story of the avocado is followed with similar considerations of the mango, the date, the papaya and its relatives, the loquat, the guava and its intimates, the litchi, kaki, pomegranate, breadfruit and a great variety of other fruits of lesser fame, about which few of us have heard.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
=Boston Transcript= p6 N 24 ’20 300w
+ =N Y Evening Post= p27 O 23 ’20 320w
=Springf’d Republican= p7a D 26 ’20 60w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p800 D 2 ’20 100w
=PORTER, ELEANOR (HODGMAN) (MRS JOHN LYMAN PORTER) (ELEANOR STUART, pseud.).= Mary Marie. il *$1.90 (2½c) Houghton
20–8035
Her father had wanted to name her Mary, her mother Marie. Mary Marie was the compromise. But there had come a time when compromise seemed no longer possible, followed by separation and divorce. Mary Marie spends six months of the year with her father, six with her mother, and she tells about it in her diary. In one house she is Marie. In the other she tries to be Mary. But after awhile things get so mixed up she doesn’t know which she is, for she finds her mother trying to make her into a staid, dignified Mary, while her father seems to be encouraging the Marie side of her. And then she is the means of bringing the two together, and the book closes with a postscript that gives a glimpse of Mary Marie’s grown-up story.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:350 Jl ’20
“The book is very readable, and occasionally amusing.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 My 29 ’20 420w
+ =N Y Times= 25:26 Jl 4 ’20 600w
“The story falls short of what we expect from Miss Eleanor H. Porter.”
+ − =Spec= sup p782 D 3 ’20 60w
“Beneath the light tone of the narrative may be observed a serious moral. The frequent misfortunes of divorce, especially where there are children, are pointedly apparent here. But Mary Marie will be loved for herself alone, for her quaint observations, for her unspoiled character, and for her earnest efforts to understand life.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 11 ’20 600w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p637 S30 ’20 30w
=PORTER, HAROLD EVERETT (HOLWORTHY HALL, pseud.).= Egan. *$1.90 (2c) Dodd
20–15701
When Bronson Egan came back to Plainfield, Ohio, after four years of service in France, he found his status very different from what it had previously been. He went away the only son of a wealthy father, and practically engaged to one of the city’s most attractive girls. He came back to find his father dead, their business wrecked, and the girl reengaged to a stay-at-home. With characteristic determination he set himself to gain back what he had lost. It was not all plain sailing, however, for he had keen rivals in business as well as love. But he had staunch friends as well, and the end of the story finds him re-established in business on a firmer basis than before, and happy in the love of a girl who is more worthy of him than the fickle Mary.
* * * * *
“The business element is particularly well developed.”
+ =Booklist= 17:73 N ’20
“Aside from occasional lapses, Mr Hall’s style is well adapted to his material, which is in part new.” C. K. H.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 O 16 ’20 530w
“It is the substantial characterization which makes the book finally so satisfactory. Its fresh and rapid story-telling ought to win for it a large general audience.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p22 O 23 ’20 250w
“There is no letup in the interest, and the business element is especially well handled.”
+ =N Y Times= p27 S 12 ’20 240w
“The present story is worthy of praise especially for the consistency and humanness of young Egan. Perhaps the financial and business sides of the book are a little too much to the front, but, as a whole, the novel keeps the reader’s attention on the alert, and it includes some exceedingly good character depiction.”
+ =Outlook= 126:202 S 29 ’20 170w
“The novel exists for its narrative, which is neatly conceived and marks Mr Porter’s further growth in the art of story-telling. It flows along with agreeable humor, and the reader’s interest is sustained without recourse to theatricalities.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 24 ’20 580w
=PORTER, REBECCA NEWMAN.= Girl from Four Corners. il *$1.75 (2c) Holt
20–6861
A California story with scenes laid on a lonely ranch and in San Francisco. Margaret Garrison, disappointed in the man she loves, yields to Frederick Bayne’s sudden wooing and goes to live on his ranch in Mendocino county. The marriage is unhappy, but with fine courage she makes the best of it and trains her little daughter, Freda, to be true to the highest ideals. Most of the story has to do with the career of this daughter, who after her mother’s death goes to San Francisco where she passes thru many experiences, some of them tragic, and finally finds happiness and love.
* * * * *
“The story is entertainingly told, and toward the end a dramatic touch is thrown in.”
+ =N Y Times= p26 Ag 1 ’20 260w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 26 ’20 120w
=POST, MELVILLE DAVISSON.= Mystery at the Blue villa. *$1.75 (2c) Appleton
20–1695
Seventeen dramatic short stories by the author of “Uncle Abner.” The settings in these stories are selected from many fascinatingly remote, and also familiar places. In the title story the action takes place at Port Said, a refuge for human derelicts, “the devil’s halfway house,” where through cleverly playing upon a guilty man’s fear of the supernatural, a dying sculptor gets money enough to die in the way it pleases him. “The great legend,” narrated by a semi-French, semi-oriental gentleman sitting beside a fire made of bleached bones, on an undulating, moonlit desert of sand, takes us to the underworld of Paris. “The miller of Ostend” is a tale of Belgium. “The pacifist” is a story of the United States and a German spy. Other titles are: The laughter of Allah; The witch of the Lecca; The new administration; The Baron Starkheim.
* * * * *
“Though somewhat overdramatic and artificial, the plots are clever and interesting.”
+ − =Booklist= 16:246 Ap ’20
+ =Dial= 68:537 Ap ’20 40w
“The stories are well told and the people have much more character and individuality than is usual among inhabitants of mystery tales.”
+ =Ind= 103:322 S 11 ’20 140w
“They have variety and freshness, and, if occasionally overemphasized, they are never trite.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:191 Ap 18 ’20 40w
“In the matter of untangling a crime or running a mystery to its lair Melville Davisson Post can give even the immortal Holmes himself quite a brush. His latest collection in no way falls short of the Uncle Abner tales.” E. C. Webb
+ =Pub W= 96:1694 D 27 ’19 240w
“All have the merit of sustaining the reader’s interest up to an unexpected conclusion.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p442 Jl 8 ’20 50w
=POST, MELVILLE DAVISSON.= Sleuth of St James’s square. *$2 (3c) Appleton
20–18613
A book of mystery stories. There are sixteen in all, and in each of them Sir Henry Marquis, chief of the Criminal investigation department of Scotland yard, figures. He is not the Sherlock Holmes type of detective, for mystery and solution seem to run side by side, instead of being spread out like a pattern before him. Some of the tales Sir Henry reads from the diary of an ancestor. The titles are: The thing on the hearth; The reward; The lost lady; The cambered foot; The man in the green hat; The wrong sign; The fortune teller; The hole in the mahogany panel; The end of the road; The last adventure; American horses; The spread rails; The pumpkin coach; The yellow flower; A satire of the sea; The house by the loch. Many of the tales journey far afield from St James’s square for their setting. Some have already appeared in short story form in popular magazines.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:160 Ja ’21
“The stories are short, piquant and cleverly maneuvered, though the mechanism which moves the puppets is sometimes a bit too evident and there is great lack of originality in the gestures made by them either when they pause or start up again.” N. H. D.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 N 24 ’20 500w
“They are not only unusual in construction; they are very well written, and with but few exceptions, close with a twist which will surprise even the skilled and habitual reader.”
+ =N Y Times= p21 D 12 ’20 380w
“The author’s method is unusual and some of the tales are remarkably good.”
+ =Outlook= 126:600 D 1 ’20 50w
=Springf’d Republican= p7a N 28 ’20 130w
=POSTGATE, R. W.= Bolshevik theory. *$2 Dodd 335
The book is a sincere attempt to state what Bolshevism is and what it is not—to clear away “the atmosphere of a dog-fight which surrounds this subject.” (Introd.) The author claims for it that it is neither pro-bolshevik nor anti-bolshevik. “It is a mere exposition. It is true that a certain amount of intelligent sympathy is necessary for the understanding of a point of view. The marks of some such sympathy may be traced in this book. This is inevitable, for it is merely the reflection of the author’s belief that bolshevik theories are neither inhuman ... nor logically ridiculous.... If these assumptions are not correct, then Bolshevism is not worth considering.” (Introd.) The contents are: What is Bolshevism? Controversies; The dictatorship of the proletariat; On dictatorship; The two roads; The pedigree of Bolshevism; Extracts and comments; Syndicalism, Blanquism and Bolshevism; Karl Kautsky; Industrial pacifism; The soviet; The future of the soviet. There are appendices and a bibliographical note.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p441 O 1 ’20 190w
Reviewed by Jacob Zeitlin
=Nation= 112:20 Ja 5 ’21 210w
“R. W. Postgate has set forth in a clear and concise manner the facts about Bolshevism.”
+ =N Y Times= p25 Ja 2 ’21 220w
=Sat R= 130:463 D 4 ’20 140w
“His historical allusions are not to be depended upon. Many of the rest of Mr Postgate’s references to the Bolshevists, past and present, and to General Denikin and other anti-Bolshevists, are equally unreliable.”
− =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p430 Jl 8 ’20 1200w
=POTTER, MIRIAM CLARK.= Rhymes of a child’s world. il *$2 Four seas co. 811
A book of little verses for children. It is a collection of poems about the everyday things, child fancies, and lullabies. There are three groups of poems: In the house; Outdoors at play; Twilight songs. The illustrations are by Ruth Fuller Stevens. Many of the poems have appeared in the Youth’s Companion, St Nicholas and Little Folks.
* * * * *
“Such quaint imagery greatly appeals to the dreamy child. The illustrations by Ruth Fuller Stevens are especially charming and nicely adapted to the text.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p10 S 25 ’20 160w
“Deserves to be noted for its naturalness and fidelity to childish moods. It has a strong appeal to both old and young.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p12 O 20 ’20 70w
“Both verse and illustration have the subtle quality of imagination, even when their theme sounds realistic. These poems are amusing to children and well worth the attention of their elders.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 N 18 ’20 90w
=POUND, EZRA LOOMIS.= Instigations of Ezra Pound, together with an essay on the Chinese written character. *$3.50 Boni & Liveright 814
20–8532
“A collection of criticisms and essays, with an essay by Fenollosa on the Chinese written character, edited by Pound. There are short sketches of the modern French poets with quotations; a detailed appreciative criticism of Henry James and his works; another on Remy de Gourmont; a group including James Joyce, T. S. Eliot Wyndham Lewis, Lytton Strachey, the new poetry; essay by Jules Laforgue, an amusing commentary on Genesis, a discussion of Arnaut Daniel and some sharp raps at Greek translators, including Browning.”—Booklist
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:338 Jl ’20
“An important point, however, about Mr Pound’s critical writings, which has been generally neglected, is this: they do satisfy two very conspicuous demands of the American public; the demand for ‘constructive criticism,’ and the demand for ‘first rate school teaching.’” W. C. Blum
+ =Dial= 69:422 O ’20 900w
=Freeman= 1:334 Je 16 ’20 550w
“The ‘Instigations of Ezra Pound’ have this virtue—they badger and bully us out of a state of intellectual backwardness.” Padraic Colum
+ =New Repub= 25:52 D 8 ’20 650w
− =N Y Times= 25:293 Je 6 ’20 1300w
“Stimulating and provocative statements provide an intellectual shower bath.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 8 ’20 320w
=POWELL, CHARLES.= Poets in the nursery. *$1.50 Lane 827
20–19194
To this collection of parodies on well-known poets, John Drinkwater writes an introduction to the effect that although parodies are usually a defilement of poetry and contemptible, these never outrage our love of poetry but exercise it in a very friendly intimacy. Mr Powell, he says, invariably catches his subject’s external manner with easy precision, the underlying spiritual force never evades him and he measures himself successfully against the poet’s impulse as well as against its formal expression. While Mother Goose furnishes the subjects the poets are: G. K. Chesterton, John Masefield, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Alfred Noyes, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Newbolt, William Watson, Austin Dobson, W. B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, A. C. Swinburne, W. E. Henley, D. G. Rossetti, Walt Whitman, Omar Khayyám, Francis Thompson, Robert Browning, E. B. Browning, E. A. Poe, Alfred Tennyson.
* * * * *
“John Drinkwater’s introduction to ‘The poets in the nursery’ leads us to expect work of high distinction, and though we find traces of burlesque now and then, our expectations are realized.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 N 1 ’20 200w
=POWELL, E. ALEXANDER.= New frontiers of freedom, from the Alps to the Ægean. il *$2.50 (5c) Scribner 914.9
20–7665
The author has traveled by motor car and by sea “from the Alps to the Ægean, in Italy, Dalmatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Turkey, Rumania, Hungary and Serbia” and gives his impressions of what he saw in these countries during the year succeeding the armistice while they and their people were in a state of political flux. “To have seen millions of human beings transferred from sovereignty to sovereignty like cattle which have been sold—these are sights the like of which will probably not be seen again in our times or in those of our children” and, the author thinks, may serve to illustrate an important chapter in history. Contents: Across the redeemed lands; The borderland of Slav and Latin; The cemetery of four empires; Under the cross and the crescent; Will the sick man of Europe recover? What the peace-makers have done on the Danube; Making a nation to order. There are numerous illustrations from photographs.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:300 Je ’20
“Major Powell gives an excellent description of d’Annunzio. He has brought the same keenness of observation and ease of style to the other portraits in this volume, which range from picturesque peasants to exiled royalties. His treatment of the political situation in the countries he visited is marked by clarity and fairness.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:12 Jl 4 ’20 500w
“This narrative is spirited and colorful throughout.”
+ =R of Rs= 61:669 Je ’20 80w
“A book as interesting as it is instructive.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 31 ’20 250w
=POWELL, LYMAN PIERSON=, ed. Social unrest. 2v $2.50 Review of reviews co. 308
20–1056
“The two volumes entitled ‘The social unrest’ present the best current thought of leading authorities as now focussed on the industrial and social problems of the day. The opinions of President Wilson and ex-president Taft are set forth side by side with those of Karl Marx, Morris Hillquit and Sidney Webb. All schools of opinion have here at least the privilege of utterance. The material has been edited and coordinated by Dr Lyman P. Powell.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
=Ind= 103:319 S 11 ’20 60w
+ =Outlook= 124:336 F 25 ’20 60w
=R of Rs= 61:223 F ’20 200w
“We fear the editor’s somewhat hesitant attempt to link up these pieces into something looking like a methodically arranged whole has not been successful—at least we are unable to tell what the plan of that arrangement really is. But it is the collection itself that counts, and this is of great interest.” B. L.
+ − =Survey= 43:782 Mr 20 ’20 280w
=POWER, RHODA.= Under the Bolshevik reign of terror. *$2 McBride 947
20–2711
“A record of domestic experiences in a bourgeois household in Rostov, on the Don, during the old régime, the revolution, and the Bolshevik occupation.”—Brooklyn
=Boston Transcript= p8 N 22 ’19 500w
=Brooklyn= 12:71 Ja ’20 30w
“A lively and readable little book.”
+ =Cleveland= p104 S ’19 30w
“An intimate, readable account of Bolshevism is presented in this volume. The book is free from theorizing and statistics, but it tells of the practical effect of Bolshevism on people who lived through the first days of this sinister experiment.”
+ =N Y Times= 24:465 S 14 ’19 240w
“Miss Power has given us a series of vivid sketches. They are impressionistic and full of power, but they must not be accepted as descriptive of general conditions.”
+ − =Sat R= 128:204 Ag 30 ’19 120w
“An extremely vivid and interesting account of certain phases of the Russian revolution from the pen of an eye-witness. One would like to know how far this family, of the rich bourgeois type, was representative of its class. If there were many others like it, the appalling violence and bloodiness of the revolution cease to be matter of wonder.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p224 Ap 24 ’19 700w
=PRATT, JAMES BISSETT.= Religious consciousness; a psychological study. *$3.50 Macmillan 201
20–10634
“Professor Pratt’s point of view in the present volume is avowedly scientific. He aims to describe the religious consciousness as it presents itself for observation to the modern psychologist, that is to say, without any attempt to press behind phenomena into the realm of the unknown or the unknowable. An interesting feature of his treatment is a constant use of the results of recent questionnaires sent out to ascertain the present state of the religious consciousness among various classes of Americans. He has studied the forms of Protestantism in America. Roman Catholicism he has studied in Europe and at home. Finally, he has made his pilgrimage through India, Burma, and Ceylon, seeking initiation into the letter and the spirit of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism in mosque and shrine and temple, from peasants, teachers, priests, and holy men. The last five chapters of the book deal with mysticism.”—Nation
* * * * *
“‘The religious consciousness’ is a very good book. Dr Pratt knows his subject and he knows how to write about it. There is hardly a dull page in the nearly five hundred of this volume. Perhaps the most valuable quality of the book is its quiet sanity.” R. R.
+ =Freeman= 2:22 S 15 ’20 360w
“His account of phenomena is remarkably fresh and instructive; and it differs commendably from some of its predecessors in emphasizing rather normal than exceptional types of experience.” S. P. Sherman
+ =Nation= 111:506 N 3 ’20 1550w
Reviewed by G. E. Partridge
=N Y Times= p28 D 26 ’20 250w
=PRENTICE, SARTELL.= Padre. *$2 Dutton 940.476
19–13304
“[This book tells the] experiences of a Red cross hospital chaplain of the Dutch Reformed church, principally in Base hospital 101, at St Nazaire and in Evacuation hospital 13 where wounded were received straight from the battlefield. [It is] full of anecdotes revealing the bravery of individuals, and the gratitude of the French people toward Americans.”—Cleveland
* * * * *
=Cleveland= p16 F ’20 50w
“There is nothing particularly new in the narrative, although the fact that it comes first-hand from one who saw and lived the awful scenes he describes gives it a value of its own which cannot be gainsaid.”
+ =N Y Times= 24:516 O 5 ’19 500w
=PRICE, EDITH BALLINGER.= Silver Shoal light. il *$1.75 Century
20–16502
When Miss Joan Kirtland, who has left town very suddenly after a disagreement with Mr Robert Sinclair, finds that the Harbor View house cannot take her in, she is at a loss for a place to spend the night. Captain ‘Bijah Dawson comes to her aid and suggests that the light house people may take her in. As Captain ‘Bijah assured her, they are “cur’ous folks,” Jim and Elspeth Pemberley and their little son Garth, but their presence in this unusual situation is explained and Joan, who had meant to stay a night, then a week, remains all summer. Joan, who had thought she did not like children, is captivated by Garth and at the end of the summer learns that Mr Sinclair is his Uncle Bob. Jim Pemberley has aspirations toward the navy and there is a German spy episode in the story.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:78 N ’20
=PRICE, EDITH BALLINGER.= Us and the bottle man. il *$1.50 Century
20–14292
The story of three delightful children who play pirates and send out a message in a sealed bottle that brings a surprising answer and leads to a pleasantly mysterious correspondence. And then events take a serious turn. What had been play becomes reality and the “three poore mariners” become castaways indeed for the length of one dreadful night. Their rescuer is no less person than the Bottle man himself and a war-time romance is at the same time brought to a happy culmination.
* * * * *
“Although somewhat adult in point of view, the mystery and adventure will interest children from ten to twelve.”
+ =Booklist= 17:78 N ’20
=PRICE, JULIUS MENDES.= On the path of adventure. il *$3.50 (5½c) Lane 940.48
20–11661
The author was war-artist correspondent for the Illustrated London News. The present work is a record of his adventures in the early months of the war, before the existence of war correspondents had been “officially admitted.” The book, he says, “does not in any way claim to be an addition to the formidable array of books on the technical side of the war. It is, on the contrary, merely a narrative compiled from the notes in my diary of a period during the early days of the war when I was ‘out’ to get all the material I could.... As my wanderings were entirely within the zone of operations, it is obvious that the incidents I have described were always more or less connected with the theatre of the war—but they were happenings rather behind the scenes than on the actual battle-front.” The book is illustrated with drawings from the author’s sketch book.
* * * * *
=Ath= p1387 D 19 ’19 50w
“One of the few interesting but not sordid personal narratives.”
+ =Booklist= 17:66 N ’20
“Mr Price puts down his remarkable escapades and hairbreadth escapes as a sportsman and an artist. There is something beautifully impersonal in the style of his book. This makes of his book something unique in war annals, a book that is ‘beautifully and completely something,’ as Henry James might have said.” B. D.
+ =N Y Times= p21 Ag 29 ’20 750w
=Sat R= 129:191 F 21 ’20 750w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p698 N 27 ’19 50w
=PRICHARD, HESKETH VERNON HESKETH.= Sniping in France, with notes on the scientific training of scouts, observers, and snipers; with a foreword by General Lord Horne of Stirkoke. il *$5 Dutton 623.44
(Eng ed 20–12124)
“Major Hesketh-Prichard was of course, as a big game hunter, a natural sniper. He enjoyed sniping because it employed all his highly specialised hunter faculties to the full—sight, hearing, and all those analytical powers which hunters possess. His book is full of good stories. But what will make the book interesting to the soldier is the complete way in which Major Hesketh-Prichard manages to justify the art of sniping, and to show how intolerable it is to be opposed to a well-organised sniping side unless you can answer in kind. Major Hesketh-Prichard proves completely that it will always be worth while from the point of view of _moral_ to maintain an efficient body of specialist snipers.”—Spec
* * * * *
“Before the war the author was known as a sportsman, traveller, and athlete. It is his other vocation, that of writer, which helps him not merely to give us information, but to give it in a form enthralling as any detective story.”
+ =Ath= p816 Je 18 ’20 180w
“Written in a style that makes it pleasantly acceptable to the general reader.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p12 N 27 ’20 220w
“His book is fascinating in its records of romantic individual tales and of cunning camouflage which are intended for the general reader, but we trust that the military authorities will not on this account overlook it. Major Hesketh-Prichard has a contribution to make to military science.”
+ =Spec= 124:728 My 29 ’20 280w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p293 My 13 ’20 900w
=PRISONER of Pentonville=, by “Red Band.” *$1.50 Putnam 821
20–8220
Poems written while the author was confined in Pentonville prison in London, between September, 1917, and May, 1918. They are written in varying meters and on different themes. Many are addressed to his wife, one is written on receiving news of his mother’s death, others recall scenes from boyhood, and one that brings to mind “Reading gaol” is written the day of an execution. The concluding poems record his sentiments as release approaches and there is an epilogue written after regaining liberty. Joseph Fort Newton, formerly of the City Temple, London, now of the Church of the divine paternity, New York, writes a foreword.
* * * * *
“The emotional sincerity which constantly contrives to break through a crust of indifferent and often absurd verse makes this series of prison meditations a very interesting and moving human document.”
+ − =Ath= p495 Ap 9 ’20 80w
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 My 12 ’20 950w
=PRITCHARD, MYRON THOMAS, and OVINGTON, MARY WHITE=, comps. Upward path; with an introd. by Robert R. Moton. il *$1.35 Harcourt 810.8
20–16516
The foreword to this collection of readings for colored children says: “To the present time, there has been no collection of stories and poems by negro writers, which colored children could read with interest and pleasure and in which they could find a mirror of the traditions and aspirations of their race. Realizing this lack, the compilers have brought together poems, stories, sketches and addresses which bear eloquent testimony to the richness of the literary product of our negro writers.” All of the contributors to the volume are negroes, among them Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson and others who have made names in literature. In addition to these there are the less familiar names of negro educators, social workers, ministers and lawyers, and there is one explorer, Matthew Henson, who was with Peary at the Pole.
* * * * *
“The selections in it are ably chosen and present a great variety. But more important is the fact that it must accomplish its intent. For while giving pleasure, it will foster the love of tradition, and from the evidences of past accomplishment, an honest racial pride.” M. E. Bailey
+ =Bookm= 52:305 Ja ’21 140w
+ =Boston Transcript= p5 N 27 ’20 360w
“A collection of stories and poems by negroes—many of them very good. Perhaps whites can gain as much from it as can the blacks. The book would be suitable for junior high schools.”
+ =English J= 9:549 N ’20 60w
=Lit D= p94 D 4 ’20 170w
=PRYDE, ANTHONY.= Marqueray’s duel. *$2 (1½c) McBride
20–7060
Marqueray, to all appearances, was a globe-trotter and a sportsman. In truth he was a secret spy in the employ of the British foreign office. His knowledge stands him in good stead against a certain Lord Marchmont, a millionaire Jew, implicated in illicit transactions in South America. The latter has allowed a poor innocent Irish girl, in reality Lady Marchmont, to consider herself duped by him and to be a “fallen woman,” after he had turned her adrift. Phyllida is found and rescued by Marqueray and his friend and cousin, Aubrey West. A romance grows up between Phyllida and Marqueray, who naturally wants to horsewhip Marchmont and free his beloved entirely from his clutches. Before this can be done a political election and much intrigue, involving West, intervene. In the end Marqueray is wounded by a shot from Marchmont who himself succumbs to his vicious morphia habit. Some fine touches of friendship and loyalty among men make one of the features of the story.
* * * * *
“The story drags somewhat in places; but ... the book as a whole may be read with a fair amount of satisfaction.”
+ − =Ath= p414 My 30 ’19 120w
“Very good work. Readers who liked Stephen McKenna’s ‘Sonia’ will probably like this.”
+ =Booklist= 16:350 Jl ’20
“It is evidently Mr Pryde’s first novel, and it is far and above the majority of ‘first novels.’ He writes with a good deal of style, and his characterization is excellent to the least important actor on his London stage.” G. M. H.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 My 19 ’20 540w
“The book is exceedingly well written, with a steady succession of incidents, always logical and never loosening their hold on the interest. The book is a long one, but it never becomes tedious.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:329 Je 20 ’20 500w
Reviewed by Isabel Juergens
+ =Pub W= 97:1288 Ap 17 ’20 260w
“A very clever romance.”
+ =Sat R= 128:346 O 11 ’19 100w
“It is decidedly melodramatic, but the melodrama is well done.”
+ =Spec= 123:154 Ag 2 ’19 30w
“The author displays much ability for character portraiture. As a romanticist he is not so capable.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 27 ’20 650w
=PRZYBYSZEWSKI, STANISLAW.= Snow. *$1.50 Brown, N. L. 891.85
20–4039
“‘Snow,’ a play in four acts by Stanislaw Przybyszewski, translated into English by O. F. Theis, is a powerful production. A man and wife are living happily together. A brother comes in and falls in love with the wife. A woman friend comes in and the husband falls in love with her. Result—unfaithfulness and a double suicide.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“The types are not typical; they are primarily unconvincing. There is an intense and urgent attempt at drama which, were it only dramatic, would be Ibsen, even Wagner, in terms of men and not gods. The play is disappointing to read, because it does not grip; it is scarcely fitted for theatrical success, because it has insufficient sustained interest.”
− + =Boston Transcript= p6 Mr 31 ’20 220w
“The beautiful diction and Maeterlinckian charm of the Polish original, are somewhat lost in translation.”
+ − =Cleveland= p87 S ’20 50w
“‘Snow,’ which bears amusing internal evidence of its translation from a German original, is a characteristic phantasmagoria of the acutely hysterical. It is not without moments of sombre effectiveness. But action and passion are both, humanly speaking, in the void. The characters are haunted wraiths in an unrealized world who live and love and die equally without motivation.”
− + =Nation= 110:435 Ap 3 ’20 200w
“The tale is true to life and truthfully presented and commendable for artistic qualities, but uselessly nerve-racking for all that.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ap 8 ’20 100w
“Limitations of temperament may easily prevent a western reader from doing justice to characters who seem to him so morbid and neurotic, so pathologically introspective: nor can he see ‘Snow’ as a play for the western stage. Yet he must admit that the author shows at times profound psychological insight and can write occasional passages of power.”
+ − =Theatre Arts Magazine= 4:259 Jl ’20 230w
=PUMPELLY, RAPHAEL.=[2] Travels and adventures of Raphael Pumpelly; ed. by O. S. Rice. il *$1.75 Holt
20–22545
The book is an abridged edition of the author’s autobiography, “My reminiscences,” for young readers. As a mining engineer, geologist, archaeologist and explorer, the author’s experiences, which transpired on our western frontier in it’s heroic days, on the mountains of Corsica, in China, Japan and Siberia, were many and thrilling and those portions of the original work have been selected that are most interesting to the young with only so much editing as was required to make a connected story. Appropriate illustrations have been added.
* * * * *
+ =N Y Evening Post= p11 D 31 ’20 130w
=PURDAY, HERBERT FRANK P.= Diesel engine design. il *$7.50 Van Nostrand 621.43
(Eng ed 20–18166)
“This book is based on about twelve years’ experience of Diesel engines, mainly from the drawing-office point of view, and is intended to present an account of the main considerations which control the design of these engines. The author ventures to hope that, in addition to designers and draughtsmen, to whom such a book as this is most naturally addressed, there may be other classes of readers—for example, Diesel engine users and technical students—to whom the following pages may be of interest.” (Preface) Contents: First principles; Thermal efficiency; Exhaust, suction and scavenge; The principle of similitude; Crank-shafts; Flywheels; Framework; Cylinders and covers; Running gear; Fuel oil system; Air and exhaust system; Compressed air system; Valve gear; Index. There are 271 figure illustrations.
* * * * *
=N Y P L New Tech Bks= p32 Ap ’20 80w
=PUTNAM, GEORGE PALMER=, comp. Tabular views of universal history. il *$2.50 Putnam 902
19–16001
In this latest edition of the compilation the summary has been brought down to the peace conference in Paris; like former revisions, under the editorial supervision of George Haven Putnam. Two new maps are added showing the forfeited German colonies and Germany under the peace treaty, and there is a supplementary index covering events subsequent to August 1, 1914.
=PUTNAM, MRS NINA (WILCOX).=[2] It pays to smile. *$1.90 (2c) Doran
20–19578
Miss Freedom Talbot, of Boston ancestry and birth, is the narrator of the story, and shares honors with “Peaches” Pegg as the heroine. Her family fortunes being at a low ebb, she answers an advertisement inserted by the millionaire Pinto Pegg for a chaperone for his daughter. This combination of money and breeding Pinto hopes will result in culture for the daughter. Their course in refinement includes a trip to Europe and a stay in California, in the process of which Miss Freedom receives perhaps as broad an education as “Peaches” does. Romance and mystery enter their lives, but after an exciting course, true love runs smoothly at last.
* * * * *
“The story is perhaps very improbable, but not unreal.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p17 D 4 ’20 80w
“Except as a study of the Boston governess and Peaches, showing how each reacts on the other, there is little to note. When the author ventures to work out a ‘plot’ she is singularly unconvincing.”
+ − =N Y Times= p27 Ja 9 ’21 650w
+ =Outlook= 126:558 N 24 ’20 50w
“The early chapters describing the Talbot home on Chestnut street, Boston, are much the best of the book.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p7a D 26 ’20 140w
=PYLE, KATHARINE.=[2] Tales of wonder and magic. il *$2 (3c) Little
20–19078
This is the third volume of old-world fairy tales and folk lore translated, adapted and illustrated by the author. The stories are: White as snow, red as blood, and black as a raven’s wing—Irish; The wonderful ring—East Indian; The three sisters—Georgian; The golden horse, the moon lantern, and the beautiful princess—Swedish; The lady of the lake—Welsh; The beaver stick—American Indian; The enchanted waterfall—Japanese; Fair, brown, and trembling—Irish; The demon of the mountain—Transylvanian gipsy; The Lamia—Hindoo; The three doves—Czech; Mighty-arm and mighty-mouth—East Indian; The beautiful Melissa—Louisiana; The castle that stood on golden pillars—Danish; The twelve months—Czech.
Q
=QUENNELL, MARJORIE, and QUENNELL, CHARLES HENRY BOURNE.= History of everyday things in England. v 2 il *$4.50 (v 1 and 2 in one volume *$9) Scribner 914.2
(Eng ed 19–6495)
“The second volume of a history which applies real historical research to the making of children’s books. As in the first book the authors have described changes in building, furniture, dress, and games as ‘history in stone, wood, and fabrics.’ It is their desire to present work as a ‘joyous sort of business’ which shall give boys and girls the desire to take the pains with their labors which distinguished the craftsmen. Bibliography. Index.”—Booklist
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p127 Ja 23 ’20 90w
“Charming volume.”
+ =Booklist= 16:247 Ap ’20
“This second part is not nearly so good as its predecessor. Its authors have been spoilt by success, and the latter pages of the book in particular show, to put it mildly, signs of haste. The first chapter, on the sixteenth century, is the best.”
+ − =Sat R= 129:435 My 8 ’20 1150w
“The second part is as original and as fascinating as the first, and those who read the first will know that no higher praise can be given.”
+ =Spec= 124:145 Ja 31 ’20 1000w
=QUICKENS, QUARLES, pseud.=[2] English notes. $15 L. M. Thompson, 29 Broadway, N.Y. 817
20–6982
“In 1842, not long after the appearance of Charles Dickens’s irritating ‘American notes,’ there was published anonymously in Boston a work bearing for its title an obvious parody—‘English notes for very extensive circulation by Quarles Quickens.’ This book is now reprinted by Lewis M. Thompson of New York, with an introductory essay designed to prove that the person who hid under the pseudonym of ‘Quarles Quickens’ was Edgar Allan Poe. Joseph Jackson and George H. Sargent supply an introduction and notes, and the publisher has added two portraits of Poe.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“The book is valuable as a curiosity rather than as a masterpiece of Poe’s style.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 23 ’20 260w
“The truth is that the pamphlet is mostly dull, a ponderous parody. Its merit today is that it has served Mr Jackson for an excellent and entertaining piece of detective work. In its present form, with this foreword, ‘English notes’ must have a place on the shelves of every collector of Dickens or of Poe.”
+ − =Nation= 111:382 O 6 ’20 410w
=N Y Times= p9 Ag 1 ’20 2800w
“Unfortunately, the attribution of the work to Poe is sustained by neither internal nor external evidence.”
− =Springf’d Republican= p6 Jl 19 ’20 600w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p305 My 13 ’20 160w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p595 S 16 ’20 600w
=QUILLER-COUCH, SIR ARTHUR THOMAS (Q., pseud.).= On the art of reading. *$2.75 Putnam 028
20–16869
The spirit of the volume can perhaps best be illustrated by two extracts from the preface: “The real battle for English lies in our elementary schools, and in the training of our elementary teachers. It is there that the foundations of a sound national teaching in English will have to be laid, as it is there that a wrong trend will lead to incurable issues,” and “that a liberal education is not an appendage to be purchased by the few; that humanism is, rather, a quality which can, and should, condition all our teaching; which can, and should, be impressed as a character upon it all, from a poor child’s first lesson in reading up to a tutor’s last word to his pupil on the eve of a tripos.” Contents: Apprehension versus comprehension; Children’s reading; On reading for examinations; On a school of English; The value of Greek and Latin in English literature; On reading the Bible; On selection; On the use of masterpieces; Index.
* * * * *
“We find it as hard to conceive that undergraduates did not enjoy hearing these lectures on ‘The art of reading’ as that ‘Q’ did not enjoy delivering them. The elements of an ideal professor were always in him. To communicate a gusto, a vivid and thrilling delight in literature for its own sake, as a delectable duchy where no passport, save the fact of your own enjoyment, is required, is a gift given to few. ‘Q’ is among them.” J. M. M.
+ =Ath= p234 Ag 20 ’20 2000w
“Especially useful to elementary teachers.”
+ =Booklist= 17:147 Ja ’21
+ =Dial= 70:108 Ja ’21 50w
“As an advocate of books, I know of none so well equipped in perspective to give advice as Quiller-Couch; as a precepter, I have met with no one on whom the burden of his task has rested so lightly, so agreeably, so sympathetically, as on him. Out of the fullness of his enjoyment he speaks, and it is refreshing to observe how jealously he tries to rescue the books he loves from the palsied grasp of the pedagog.” M. J. Moses
+ =N Y Times= p5 Ja 2 ’21 2650w
“Original points of view, apt quotations, and genial play with the subject characterize the volume.”
+ =Outlook= 126:690 D 15 ’20 60w
=Sat R= 130:219 S 11 ’20 1500w
+ =Spec= 125:472 O 9 ’20 1050w
“The style is too discursive, there is too much quoting, some of the long sentences puzzle one on first reading. And yet what a professor of literature! Why do not all universities secure men like this King Edward VII professor?”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ja 6 ’21 570w
“Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in his lectures shows that he has the interests of the children and of the young men strongly at heart. His are not the accustomed utterances of the professor of literature at an ancient university. They are not in the great style nor, in their form, are they learned. They abound in irrelevances, with a touch of facetiousness that is often tiresome, and occasionally they breathe the unction of the pulpit rather than the gravity of the chair. The lectures were doubtless more effective in their delivery than in their printed form.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p557 S 2 ’20 3350w
R
=RADICE, SHEILA (JAMIESON) (MRS ALFRED HUTTON RADICE).= New children; talks with Dr Maria Montessori. *$1.50 (4c) Stokes 371.4
20–15392
The object of the book is to sketch in broad outline the Montessori system of teaching, for which and for Dr Montessori’s insight into child psychology, the author has a profound admiration. She holds that with a full recognition and adoption of the Montessori methods, the psycho-analyst’s vocation will be gone. Contents: Dr Montessori in England; Two Montessori schools; The Montessori apparatus; Dr Montessori herself; Dr Montessori as a lecturer; The ethical basis; The psychological basis; What is psychology? The psychology of the new-born; What is suggestion? What is music? Montessori and Bergson; Training for citizenship; Training for vision; Liberal education; A new theory of work; The education of the adolescent; The new children; The English nursery school; Appendices; Bibliography.
* * * * *
“In spite of a good deal of vague romanticism and loose writing the book leaves the impression that Dr Montessori herself is an unusually sane and sensible personality, who regards her own methods as not necessarily final.”
+ − =Review= 3:480 N 17 ’20 250w
“Her book is quite entertaining. It is also exceedingly combative. Like many of those who believe in Mme Montessori, she regards any criticism of the Dottoressa’s methods as almost blasphemous and quite wanton and unnecessary.”
+ − =Spec= 124:619 My 8 ’20 900w
“The book is fragmentary and, as the author herself admits, ‘somewhat hastily done.’ Since the range of topics is so wide, the argument is brief and sketchy, giving glimpses of vistas for possible exploration rather than settling the discussion.” A. E. Morey
+ − =Survey= 45:136 O 23 ’20 510w
=RADZIWILL, CATHERINE (RZEWUSKA), princess (COUNT PAUL VASSILI, pseud.).= Secrets of dethroned royalty. il *$3 (6c) Lane 920
20–9932
These secrets pertain to the love affairs of royal personages and the book is accordingly divided into three parts, Russia, Austria, and Germany. The author seems possessed of much intimate knowledge and the book is well illustrated.
* * * * *
=Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 4 ’20 350w
“There is not much, of course, in all this that is new, but some of the instances are not well known, and now and then the author throws a light upon familiar incidents that makes them more intelligible to the American reader.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:25 Jl 18 ’20 490w
=RAEBURN, HAROLD.= Mountaineering art. il *$3.75 Stokes 796
“In this volume an endeavour has been made to trace and indicate the broad principles of climbing and mountaineering, from ‘bouldering’ to the conquest of the highest summits of the earth. The book is the outcome of more than twenty years’ experience as a climbing leader in many parts of the Asio-European continent, and on almost every kind of rock, snow, and ice formation. In preparation for it, almost every published work on climbing and mountaineering, in English, and in the principal continental languages, has been consulted.” (Introd.) The book is in five sections: Mountaineering art; British mountaineering; Alpine mountaineering; For the lady mountaineer; General principles. The chapter on dress for women climbers is contributed by Ruth Raeburn. The work closes with a short list of books, glossary, and index.
* * * * *
“In general Mr Raeburn’s technical chapters are first-rate. His remarks on rock, snow and ice work are stamped by the seal of expert and up-to-date knowledge. Of exploration, bivouacs and camps he writes with the knowledge that many years of wandering in unexplored ranges have yielded him. On equipment he has also much to say which is new and needed saying. The book, as a whole, suffers a little from redundant chapters.” Arnold Lunn
+ − =Ath= p579 O 29 ’20 1050w
+ =Boston Transcript= p3 D 4 ’20 250w
“It is severely practical and written for use, not for entertainment. The numerous illustrations have all been chosen with regard to their instructional rather than their pictorial value. Mr Raeburn writes with conviction and refreshing candour.”
+ =Spec= 125:819 D 18 ’20 900w
“Apart from the instruction he gives to the novice, Mr Raeburn has done the mountaineering public a service by composing a work which sets forth the latest views on the best mode of ‘climbing and mountaineering.’”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p529 Ag 19 ’20 820w
=RAGOZIN, ZÉNAÏDE ALEXEÏEVNA=, ed. and tr. Little Russian masterpieces. 4v *$7.70; ea *$1.25 Putnam 891.7
20–18302
A collection of Russian stories brought together with the object of presenting American readers “with a selection which may not only prove acceptable in itself, but reveal to them some less familiar aspects of Russian thought and character.” There is an introduction, repeated in each of the four volumes, by S. N. Syromiatnikof, who also contributes biographical notes. There is one volume devoted to the work of Pushkin and Lermontof. Authors represented in the others are: Lesskof, Dombrovsky, Dostoyefsky, and Tolstoi; Saltykof-Stchedrin, Mamin-Sibiriak, Slutchefsky, Niedzwiecki, Uspensky and Helen Zeisinger; Staniukovitch and Korolenko.
* * * * *
“The stories that she presents are fresh, original, and full of dramatic incident. It is one of the most interesting collections ever got together. Her translation reads with exemplary smoothness and accuracy; she is a mistress of English style.” N. H. D.
+ =Boston Transcript= p5 N 13 ’20 500w
“That there are here many names not familiar to the casual reader of Russian literature is not among the least attractions of the collection.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 31 ’20 180w
=RAGSDALE, LULAH.= Next-besters. *$1.75 Scribner
20–11498
“Robert Lee Poindexter—‘The boss’—was of the old South, the courtly and sweet-natured master of the ancient and impoverished plantation of Cherokee in Mississippi. But Pat and Polly, the Misses Poindexter, were very modern, up-and-coming young people, who shouldered both hard work and responsibility and evolved an energetic philosophy, though Patricia was only twenty and Polly was just eighteen. The story of their work and responsibility, and of how their philosophy resulted in action is the story of ‘Next-besters.’”—N Y Times
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:73 N ’20
“A pretty and amusing little story that is always entertaining, and not without charm. Assuredly, ‘Next-besters’ is a pleasant piece of ‘light reading’ for a summer day.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:26 Jl 25 ’20 390w
“An excellent story for young people.”
+ =Outlook= 125:541 Jl 21 ’20 40w
=RAINE, WILLIAM MACLEOD.=[2] Big-town round-up. il *$2 (3c) Houghton
20–19181
This is the story of one of those bronzed, big-hearted westerners, whom fiction so often presents to us riding over the plains of Arizona. But in this novel, Clay Lindsay is functioning in the very heart of civilization, in no less a metropolis than New York city, but the traditional characteristics of the wild-west story are all here. There is the bad-man, Clay’s natural enemy, personified in Jerry Durand; there is the beautiful heroine, Beatrice Whitford; and there is the weak easterner, Clay’s rival in love, Clarendon Bromfield. All these and various minor characters play their accepted parts in the drama of romance and gun-play, with the inevitable happy ending for the deserving.
* * * * *
“Full of exciting situations, profanity and crude humor.”
+ − =Booklist= 17:160 Ja ’21
“They used to put these stories into paper covers with the luridest scene in red and yellow on the jacket. Now—but it’s Diamond Dick just the same, sandpapered a little, but otherwise not much changed.”
− =N Y Evening Post= p10 N 27 ’20 190w
“Mr Raine has written many another good story of the West, which he knows so well, but he will find it hard to beat this one.”
+ =N Y Times= p23 Ja 30 ’21 580w
“The story has ‘punch.’”
+ =Outlook= 126:558 N 24 ’20 30w
=RAINE, WILLIAM MACLEOD.= Oh, you Tex! il *$1.90 (2c) Houghton
20–6711
A story of the Texas Panhandle in the period following the Civil war. Jack Roberts, a line-rider for Clint Wadley, one of the big cattlemen, gets into trouble with Wadley’s son Rutherford and gives him a well-deserved trouncing. This is unfortunate, for Jack has just been promoted and is in love with Wadley’s daughter Ramona. A few hours after his dismissal, he enlists with the Texas Rangers. Rutherford Wadley, who has become involved with a band of cattle rustlers and outlaws, is shot by one of them. Suspicion falls on a young Mexican and to save him from a lynching mob, led by the real murderer, Jack puts up a brilliant bluff and risks his own life. His later adventures have to do with the pursuit and capture of the Dinsmore gang and the winning of Ramona.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:350 Jl ’20
=Cleveland= p72 Ag ’20 40w
“A fascinating story from beginning to end—in spite of its well-worn material.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:326 Je 20 ’20 700w
“An exciting, old-fashioned tale of the western cattle country.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p7a N 21 ’20 100w
=RAINSFORD, W. H.=[2] That girl March. *$1.50 (*8s 6d) (1c) Lane
20–20431
Curiosity draws Philip Gray to Blaisham. Some thirty years before, his mother, falling in love with the chapel minister, had defied her family, run away with her lover and been disowned in consequence. And now, father and mother dead, the son had returned to look on her old home. He does not reveal his identity and does not learn that his aunt, Lady Delwyn, has set her lawyers on his track, bent on reconciliation. In the meantime he meets and falls in love with Edith March, niece of one of the neighborhood farmers. The reconciliation with the aunt takes place, but in his new position Philip finds that his wooing does not proceed smoothly. However he has some of his mother’s spirit and “that girl March” stands in no awe of Lady Delweyn and it ends well.
* * * * *
“If this tale is representative of Mr Lane’s selection of first novels, that selection must be astonishingly excellent, for Mr Rainsford, or possibly Miss Rainsford, spins an enchanting yarn. The only fault of the novel is its length. Here and there, it drags a trifle.”
+ − =Boston Transcript= p7 D 4 ’20 240w
“This book is not cheap or unsuccessful in an ordinary sense. It is simply 366 pages with the book not there. One constantly apprehends cleverness, vividness—but gets not one clear visualization in much description.”
− =N Y Evening Post= p10 N 20 ’20 170w
=N Y Times= p26 Ja 2 ’21 330w
“‘W. H. Rainsford’ adopts a method that irresistibly recalls the seaside acrobat courting attention by means of ridiculous somersaults as a prelude to the display of more special powers. These affectations being suddenly discarded, to reappear only intermittently, it becomes possible to take a mild—a very mild—interest in the fortunes of Philip Gray.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p583 S 9 ’20 510w
=RAINSFORD, WALTER KERR.= From Upton to the Meuse with the Three hundred and seventh infantry. il *$2 (4c) Appleton 940.373
20–2288
The volume is a history of the 77th division and of the 307th regiment. This division Colonel J. R. R. Hannay in the introduction calls the cosmopolitan division of New York city, “New York’s own.” He also states that this division consisting of men unused to the sturdy activity of outdoor life conducted itself as the most perfectly trained and disciplined army in the world. The sketches and photographs in the book are of the best, the author being a graduate from the École des beaux arts, Paris, in 1911. Besides the introduction by Colonel Hannay, the foreword by General Alexander, and two poems by the author, the contents are: Camp Upton; With the British; Lorraine; The chateau du diable; Across the Vesle; Merval; Sheets and bandages; The forest of Argonne; The dépôt de machines; The surrounded battalion; Grand Pré; The advance to the Meuse; The home trail; Appendix.
* * * * *
“Very telling photographs and drawings which suggest a beauty which is the antithesis of war.”
+ =Booklist= 16:238 Ap ’20
+ =Boston Transcript= p11 Ap 24 ’20 850w
+ =Cath World= 112:116 O ’20 370w
+ =Outlook= 125:223 Je 2 ’20 200w
“Captain Rainsford has succeeded in making his narrative clear, expressive, and entertaining—thanks in good part to a never failing sense of humor. We must give credit, too, for his having provided the maps necessary to follow his narrative—a too unusual provision in books about the war.”
+ =Review= 2:464 My 1 ’20 460w
=R of Rs= 61:445 Ap ’20 170w
=RAMSAY, ROBERT E.= Effective house organs. il *$3.50 (3c) Appleton 659
20–2516
A book treating of “the principles and practice of editing and publishing successful house organs.” (Sub-title) Chapter one describes a house organ as “a small magazine or newspaper published once a month, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less, and made up wholly or in part of advertising from the house sending it out.” The treatise which is profusely illustrated with specimen pages of typical house organs, falls into three parts. “Part 1 lays down the underlying principles of editing and publishing house organs of all classes. Part 2 gives you the actual practice among successful house organs in applying principles previously laid down. Part 3 is made up of appendices containing valuable reference data on the general subject of house organs which may be of use to both student and practitioner.” There is an index.
* * * * *
“A book much needed by the amateur editor in business organizations.”
+ =Booklist= 16:228 Ap ’20
“His style is easy and readable.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 28 ’20 240w
“The book contains many interesting examples of how a sound knowledge of psychology is valuable in producing a successful house organ.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:296 Je 6 ’20 160w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p585 S 9 ’20 220w
=RAPEER, LOUIS WIN=, ed. Consolidated rural school. il *$3 Scribner 379.17
20–4557
This is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject and contains articles by leading specialists and successful workers in this field. Its object is to elucidate the general aim of the consolidated school: social efficiency, with its subordinate aims of vital, vocational, avocational, civic, moral efficiency. It shows how the new method fosters cooperation, and socialization, how children may be physically and mentally changed by suitable methods and how the consolidated school can furnish opportunity for a school farm, homes for teachers and a community centre. The first chapter, National and rural consolidation, and many of the subsequent chapters are by the editor, Louis W. Rapeer. Other chapters are: The American rural school, by Philander P. Claxton; Community organization and consolidation, by Warren H. Wilson; Rural economics and consolidation, by T. N. Carver; The growth of consolidation, and Transportation of pupils at public expense, by A. C. Monahan; A visit to a consolidated school, and The country girl and the consolidated school, by Katherine M. Cook; Methods and facts of consolidation, by W. S. Fogarty; The difficulties of consolidation, by L. J. Hanifan. The book is indexed and has a bibliography.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:14 O ’20
“The book is to be commended on its attempt to use the problem approach to the various topics.”
+ =El School J= 21:231 N ’20 450w
=School R= 28:796 D ’20 240w
=RASHDALL, HASTINGS.= Idea of atonement in Christian theology. (Bampton lectures, 1915) *$5.50 Macmillan 232.3
20–9571
“Mr Rashdall traces the history of the doctrine of the atonement down from its pre-Christian origins through the New Testament, and then by way of the Apostolic fathers, the Latin theology, the Schoolmen, and the Reformers down to modern times. His main interest lies in the controversy between the subjective and the objective types of atonement doctrines.”—Nation
* * * * *
− =Ath= p412 Mr 26 ’20 420w
“Even so competent and scholarly a discussion as this of Mr Rashdall’s carries with it a suggestion of belonging to a stage which we have left behind us. Those who are acquainted with Mr Rashdall’s work will find the sincerity and thoroughness of discussion which they have learned to expect from him.” R: Roberts
+ − =Nation= 110:624 My 8 ’20 750w
“This is one of the most important theological works that have appeared for more than a generation. Its quality is scientific.”
+ =Spec= 124:311 Mr 6 ’20 1750w
“It is probably the most important constructive treatise on systematic theology which has been published by an English divine during the present century. Parts of it will be found difficult by readers who are not experts in theology, for it deals with problems of great complexity. But it is both subtle and lucid; it is a unity and not patchwork; and, as compared with the reticence of some fairly recent work, it is remarkably outspoken.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p250 Ap 22 ’20 1550w
=RASKIN, PHILIP M.= Songs and dreams. *$1.25 Stratford co. 811
20–9428
In a foreword the author tells something of the conditions under which his poems have been written. He learned English after the age of nineteen, published his first book of verse in English, with an introduction by Israel Zangwill, in London in 1914, and has since come to New York where he now makes his home. The poems are in five groups: Love and longing; Autumn flowers; Echoes of exile; Chequered shadow; The dawn of a nation. Some of the poems in the third group, such as To free Russia (1917), The Torah and “No news” are racial in theme, but the one purely Jewish section of the book is the concluding one, devoted to the Zionist ideal.
* * * * *
“Despite Israel Zangwill’s opinion that ‘the best of Mr Raskin’s poems might have been written by Robert Browning,’ there is much in them that is merely ‘pretty work’—though the same thing might be said, heaven knows, of the famous Victorian poet. In fact, the first of this volume, dealing, as it does, with love, is fairly puerile. But toward the end of the volume we happen upon a collection of poems entitled ‘The dawn of a nation’ which contains one or two verses worth while. The one poem which makes the collection notable is that called ‘After the British declaration.’”
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ’20 380w
=RAVEN, CHARLES E.= Christian socialism, 1848–1854. *$6.50 Macmillan 335.7
“This work is based on the Donellan lectures delivered by the author, who is dean of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, at Trinity college, Dublin, in May, 1919. It traces the ‘Christian socialist’ movement from its origin in the reaction against the ‘laissez faire’ principles of the early 19th century to the apparent failure of the effects of Maurice, Neale and Ludlow in 1853, after the passing of Slaney’s act, which gave recognition to the cooperative movement. The concluding chapter deals with the ‘Foundation of the working men’s college’ after the breakdown of the earlier hopes of the Christian socialists.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“The volume as a whole is a genuine contribution to English economic history and will doubtless be received as such. Mr Raven would have been a little more convincing in some parts if he had been less profuse in praising his heroes and at the same time had shown more charity for Mrs Sidney Webb and other critics of the Christian Socialists.”
+ =Nation= 112:sup247 F 9 ’21 410w
“Mr Raven’s contribution to the history of economics is valuable, and has obviously entailed much research. But he does not go deeply enough into the philosophic and historic interrelation of things, such as the relation of socialism to liberalism, or to anarchism, or to naturalism and supernaturalism.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:397 N 13 ’20 1700w
+ − =Spec= 125:405 S 25 ’20 1300w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p538 Ag 19 ’20 100w
“Mr Raven has found a good subject for a book and has studied it industriously. The best part of his book is his account of the men who made the movement, especially of Ludlow, a man far less known than he deserves to be. But it is a pity that he tries to exalt his heroes by depreciating every one else.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p594 S 16 ’20 2100w
=RAYMOND, E. T.= All and sundry. *$2.25 (3½c) Holt 920
(Eng ed 20–6135)
The book consists of a collection of striking pen pictures of prominent contemporaries in politics and letters, as seen through a brilliant and witty man’s eyes. The author’s avowed object is to show the “accredited hero,” as he really is and not in the effulgence of a halo. Among the sketches are: President Wilson; Georges Clemenceau; John Burns; G. K. Chesterton; Sir Eric Geddes; Dean Inge; Rudyard Kipling; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Robert Smillie; Harold Begbie; Lord Robert Cecil.
* * * * *
=Ath= p31 Ja 2 ’20 60w
+ =Booklist= 16:344 Jl ’20
“The book is full of important facts brought together in an accessible form. But Mr Hutchinson has little penetration and suffers in any comparison that is drawn between his work, which may be admitted to be good, and the work which is entitled to be called excellent of some recent writers.” Theodore Maynard
+ − =Bookm= 51:682 Ag ’20 650w
“He is particularly good in his vivid sketches of John Burns, G. K. Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Smillie, and Lord Robert Cecil.”
+ =Freeman= 1:382 Je 30 ’20 150w
“The inside analyst should be in a class by himself, and generally is. Mr Raymond demonstrated that he was one of the leaders of that class in ‘Uncensored celebrities,’ and ‘All and sundry’ is merely the second volume.”
+ =N Y Times= p16 S 12 ’20 2200w
“His second volume of character sketches is a worthy companion of his first. No one will maintain that the portraits are all equally successful, that all are speaking likenesses.” Archibald MacMechan
+ =Review= 3:130 Ag 11 ’20 1450w
“Entertaining and chatty essays.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:112 Jl ’20 50w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 O 4 ’19 130w
“A mind full of ideas and a flowing pen are as exhilarating a combination as a wet sheet and a flowing sea. But they tend to run away with one. ‘All and sundry’ does—or do—not escape this danger. Nor does it altogether escape the contagion of war-time opinion. But it is a refreshing volume.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 1100w
“No man can seriously pretend that he is able to write with equal authority on the Prince of Wales, Marshal Foch, President Wilson, M. Clemenceau, the Bishop of London, Mr Hilaire Belloc, Sir Thomas Beecham, and Mr Frank Brangwyn—to take only a few names at random. Another unfortunate thing for Mr Raymond is that in his ‘Uncensored celebrities’ he had picked out the largest plums. However, even here Mr Raymond has his effective flashes, for he is a clever draughtsman with the pen, especially upon political subjects. There is real humour, as well as observation.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p729 D 11 ’19 950w
=RAYMOND, E. T.= Life of Arthur James Balfour. il *$3 Little
20–20922
“Most distinct as an individual, Mr Arthur James Balfour belongs to an easily recognisable type, represented both in England and France by a number of statesmen who owe their fame less to any specific performance than to the impression created by their intellectual brilliance.... He has always been credited with an indefinable superiority over his performances. They have been notable; but it is vaguely felt that the man is more notable still; in the midst of his greatest failures he was more interesting than other men in their most triumphant success. With others the “might-have-been” is a reproach: with men like Mr Balfour it is a tribute: they please in disappointing.” (Chapter I) The book is indexed.
* * * * *
“Wit, irony, detachment—these a writer must have if he is to ‘do’ Mr Balfour, and Mr Raymond has them. Why then does he leave us unsatisfied? At bottom, we think, because he does not bring the philosopher and the politician into any real relation.” S. W.
+ − =Ath= p808 D 10 ’20 1050w
+ =Booklist= 17:153 Ja ’21
“His book is not ‘A life’ in any vital sense; it being a mere enlargement of a ‘Who’s who’ entry, with a few comments and quotations thrown in. There are, to be sure, some bright and witty things in the book.” F. P. H.
− + =N Y Call= p8 Ja 9 ’21 520w
“Concise and serviceable biography.”
+ =R of Rs= 63:110 Ja ’21 110w
“Mr ‘Raymond’s’ biography of Mr Balfour is an entertaining book. He states the facts fairly, and his comments are lively and on the whole sympathetic. But the author is obviously conscious of difficulties.”
+ =Spec= 125:856 D 25 ’20 780w
“He has not, in spite of the claim put forward in the title, produced what is commonly understood by a biography. The study is, in the first place, limited to a single aspect of Mr Balfour’s many-sided personality, and, in the second place, objective; but to say that is, by no means, to deny that it is worth reading. Within its limitations, it is brilliantly clever.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p727 N 11 ’20 900w
=RAYMOND, GEORGE LANSING.=[2] Ethics and natural law. *$2 Putnam 171
20–11578
“Intuitionalism is restated and made to account for all our ethical judgments. Conscience is asserted to be the basis of obligation, and the whole ethical problem is treated on psychological basis, as a conflict of the desires of the mind and of the body. All the particular problems treated, among them courtship and marriage, social pleasures, commercial and business relations, government, are solved by the exhortation to keep the mind’s desires uppermost.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
=Springf’d Republican= p9a O 24 ’20 140w
“The student of ethics will considerably fortify his knowledge of the history of ethical thought by reading the book, especially the first twelve chapters.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p862 D 16 ’20 440w
=READE, WILLIAM HENRY VINCENT.= Revolt of labour against civilization. *$1 (*3s) Longmans 331
(Eng ed 20–9138)
“The author’s main thesis we shall best summarize in his own words:—‘Progress in civilization does always and everywhere manifest the working of a single and fundamental law—the greater the necessity of things, the smaller their importance.’ To pass on to the application of his thesis to the present situation, we find him in whole-hearted opposition to the ideal, as he conceives it, of Bolshevism, and the labour movement in general. In this he detects the main and imminent danger to civilization. The conflict between the Allies and the Germans was, he holds, of comparatively minor importance, not because he defends or justifies our enemies, but because he discovers no plain or clear-cut conflict of principle. The real danger he descries in the attempt, on the part of the so-called working-class, to evade or reverse his fundamental law of civilization, to make the satisfaction of the most primitive needs the only social activity of any value or deserving of any reward.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
=Ath= p1410 D 26 ’19 100w
Reviewed by H. J. Laski
=Nation= 110:594 My 1 ’20 200w
“Mr Reade has no specific remedy to propose: that indeed is a merit of his essay, which is intended to make the reader think furiously, and which achieves its purpose.”
+ =Spec= 123:735 N 29 ’19 200w
=Survey= 43:782 Mr 20 ’20 180w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p679 N 20 ’19 300w
“Mr Reade’s book is one that provokes to disagreement; but for all that, perhaps even because of it, it demands to be read. After all, mere assent or dissent matters little compared with the pleasure to be derived from contact with so vigorous and sincere an intellect, and though we may traverse every one of his conclusions, it is with the sense that Mr Reade is, at least in spirit, on the side of the angels.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p728 D 11 ’19 1350w
=READE, WINWOOD.= Martyrdom of man; with an introd. by F. Legge. *$2.50 Dutton 909
“This book was published in 1872. Its author’s first intention was to write on the part which Africa had played in the world’s story. But the conception grew under his hands until it became a full-fledged philosophy of history. His guiding principle of explanation is given in the last pages of the book. ‘I give to universal history a strange but true title—“The martyrdom of man.” In each generation the human race has been tortured that their children might profit by their woes.’ The successive stages in this painful upward struggle he designates as war, religion, liberty, and intellect, and to each of them he devotes a section of his book. But another stage is yet to be traversed: we must in the interests of right thinking rid ourselves forever of anthropomorphic religion. It was mainly owing to Reade’s attack on Christianity that his book was passed over in disdainful silence by so many. ‘The martyrdom of man’ has now reached its twenty-first edition.”—Review
* * * * *
“Everything is made simple and clear with a few bold strokes, and the multiplicity of the trees never obscures the woods. The lively style is an added stimulus to the reader, for the author possessed an undeniable talent for direct and forcible statement. When he becomes enthusiastic in his narrative he can revivify the past as tellingly as Macaulay, whom he resembles also in the crispness of his sentences.” W. K. Stewart
+ =Review= 2:629 Je 16 ’20 1000w 550w
=Springf’d Republican= p10 Mr 19 ’20
=RECOULY, RAYMOND.= Foch: the winner of the war. *$3 (4½c) Scribner
20–3252
This volume has been translated from the French by Mary Cadwalader Jones. The author has been closely associated with Marshal Foch as a brother-in-arms and in his estimation the co-ordinated military talent in the Allied leaders found its highest expression “in the keen intelligence and strategic genius of their generalissimo—Foch.” The account of Foch’s career in the great war is preceded by a short description of his family and earlier life. Contents: Some glimpses of Foch; His family and his career; His lectures at the Ecole de guerre; In command of the twentieth army corps; At the head of the ninth army; The pursuit and the check; The battle of Flanders; The French offensive of 1915; Verdun; The Somme; A visit to Foch; The change of command; Foch, generalissimo; The widening battle; Illustrations, maps, index.
* * * * *
“While Captain Recouly’s is not a very inspiring study of one of the few men of undoubted military genius in the late war, it does help the reader to some understanding of the man and to make clearer to him the battles fought by Foch.”
+ − =Ath= p273 Ag 27 ’20 230w
=Booklist= 16:241 Ap ’20
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Je 4 ’20 450w
=REED, EARL H.=[2] Tales of a vanishing river. il *$3 (5c) Lane
20–22228
The river was the Kankakee, near the southern end of Lake Michigan, and once the main confluent of the Illinois. Once it lapped its leisurely course with many ramifications through low marsh lands, teeming with natural beauty and bird life, the home of the Miami and Pottowattomie Indians. Now the Indians and the beauty and the birds are gone and a mighty ditch of straight-channelled course has drained away the marshes. The book is an attempt at the interpretation of the life along the river that has vanished and is illustrated with sketches by the author. The contents are: The vanishing river; The silver arrow; The brass bound box; The “Wether book” of Buck Granger’s grandfather; Tipton Posey’s store; Muskrat Hyatt’s redemption; The turkey club; The predicaments of Colonel Peets; His unlucky star.
* * * * *
“All have a rich flavor of newness, of freshness, of originality.” E. J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ja 15 ’21 620w
“When you establish yourself in front of a wood fire in an easy chair with an hour or two of leisure to look forward to, an excellent book to have at hand is ‘Tales of a vanishing river.’”
+ =Ind= 103:442 D 25 ’20 100w
“Mr Reed writes with a queer, mellow philosophy and humor and in a gently meandering style which seems to recapture something of the slow, placid course of the river whose loss he mourns.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 Ja 8 ’21 230w
“They are invariably quaint and whimsical. Perhaps the most diverting is ‘The “wether book” of Buck Granger’s grandfather.’ Like the companion volume on the dunes of Lake Michigan, this work is rather unusual in character and invariably entertaining.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 D 27 ’20 420w
=REES, ARTHUR JOHN.= Hand in the dark. *$2 (1½c) Lane
20–13345
A house party at an English country home is going on. The guests are at dinner when they are startled by a woman’s shriek of horror, followed by the report of a pistol. They flock upstairs, to find Mrs Heredith, a bride of three months, the victim of murder. The police start investigations which result in the arrest of Hazel Rath, the daughter of the housekeeper. Altho she pleads innocence there are many suspicious things in her conduct which she refuses to explain. Philip Heredith, husband of the murdered girl, does not believe her guilty, and hires a private detective, who suspects Captain Nepcote, a house guest at the time of the murder. Then, from an unexpected quarter, comes a clue to the actual criminal, who had planned his crime with such diabolical skill and cunning, aided by chance, that it was only by as strange a chance that he was ever discovered.
* * * * *
“A detective story above the average, though to some readers it will seem too long drawn out and to others too tragic.”
+ =Booklist= 17:160 Ja ’21
“The details are rather gruesome, but the plot is one of the best of the year.”
+ =Cleveland= p107 D ’20 40w
“Mr Rees has set before the reader a mystery whose blind and baffling qualities are likely to puzzle and lead astray the most astute and skillful of lovers of detective fiction. For the author writes well, with a good, forceful, interesting style, makes graphic and pleasing pictures of his background, and puts vitality and individuality into the delineation of his characters.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:26 Jl 25 ’20 620w
“The book is better written than the average crime tale.”
+ =Outlook= 125:647 Ag 11 ’20 50w
“In this detective story the murderer is really ingenious, and will not easily be discovered. Mr Rees has spent too much time at the beginning in picturing old-world details, and elsewhere by being ‘literary’ he delays the action of the story which is everything in a tale of this sort.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:525 D 25 ’20 130w
“Mr Rees spins us with deft entanglements another of his first-class mystery yarns.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p781 N 25 ’20 80w
=REES, BYRON JOHNSON=, ed. Modern American prose selections. $1 (1c) Harcourt 810.8
20–10539
A selection of some twenty examples of modern American prose. The compiler’s aim has been to bring together examples of “typical contemporary prose, in which writers who know whereof they write discuss certain present-day themes in readable fashion.” Among the selections are: Abraham Lincoln, by Theodore Roosevelt; American tradition, by Franklin K. Lane; Our future immigration policy, by Frederic C. Howe; A new relationship between capital and labor, by John D. Rockefeller, jr.; My uncle, by Alvin Johnson; When a man comes to himself, by Woodrow Wilson; The education of Henry Adams, by Carl Becker; The struggle for an education, by Booker T. Washington; Traveling afoot, by John Finley; Old boats, by Walter Prichard Eaton.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:147 Ja ’21
=REID, FORREST.= Pirates of the spring. *$1.90 (2c) Houghton
20–26325
The story is of a boy, Beach Traill, not clever at books, but of unusual integrity of character, and of his friends. They are all at the same school, three of them, and a fourth has recently been added as a sort of disturbing element. This fourth is Evans, a handsome, intellectual, timid lad, a bit off-caste socially, and somewhat lacking in manly spirit and upstanding courage. Troubles come, partly through bad influence, partly through irrepressible animal spirits, but the boys’ uprightness finds a way out. Beach wins out with his widowed mother and against a suitor of hers whom he detests. Beach and Miles fight it out in fierce battle which rivets their friendship. Palmer, the most clever, subtle and daring of the three, holds his own through his strong sense of justice, and it is in him that Beach eventually discovers, with an exuberant sense of happiness, his real friend.
* * * * *
=Ath= p338 Mr 12 ’20 500w
“There is no climax in the story, but only the flow of everyday happenings, no progress but the development of the boys’ characters; and the whole is told in a narrative of quiet beauty.”
+ =Booklist= 16:246 Ap ’20
“Lovers of boys will appreciate the sympathetic understanding of Mr Reid’s portraying. The story gives added pleasure in its descriptions of the countryside and is altogether an artistic delight.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ap 7 ’20 360w
“The narrative is of a singular though very quiet beauty—a beauty gained partly by the writer’s marvellous closeness to his subject, partly by his cool tenderness, partly by his sense of the almost pagan interpenetration of nature and the lives of his characters.”
+ =Nation= 110:305 Mr 6 ’20 260w
“‘Pirates of the spring’ is less a story than a study of character development during the troubled and turbulent years of adolescence, a study handled delicately and sympathetically; with much subtlety and many deft touches of humor. It is of course admirably written.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:148 Mr 28 ’20 400w
=Review= 2:310 Mr 27 ’20 500w
+ =Sat R= 130:40 Jl 10 ’20 100w
“One thinks of this book with Richard Pryce’s ‘Christopher,’ Hugh Walpole’s ‘Jeremy’ and E. F. Benson’s ‘David Blaize.’ But discriminating taste will accord a higher degree of artistry to Mr Reid’s work than to the efforts of these able delineators of adolescent boyhood. The mentality and philosophy of boyhood are an open book to Mr Reid.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Mr 21 ’20 600w
“The boys are boys, and not merely the mouthpieces of ideas.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p173 Mr 11 ’20 220w
=REIK, HENRY OTTRIDGE.=[2] Tour of America’s national parks. il *$4 Dutton 711
20–18059
“Colonel Reik’s book brings out the distinctive features of the greatest of these western parks. He shows that no two of them are alike, that each is worth seeing on its own account. While he has not attempted to write a guide book in the ordinary sense of the term, his chapters contain much of the kind of information that is sought in guide books and that will be found indispensable to anyone attempting a tour of the parks for the first time.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
+ =N Y Evening Post= p30 O 23 ’20 270w
Reviewed by B. R. Redman
+ =N Y Times= p9 Ja 9 ’21 100w
+ =R of Rs= 62:672 D ’20 160w
=REPINGTON, CHARLES À COURT.= First world war, 1914–1918. 2v *$12 Houghton 940.48
20–22246
“Colonel Repington in two stout volumes has recorded his ‘personal experience’ of the great war, and in so doing has given to the public the first of the great books of the war that is not simply military, political or diplomatic, but a combination of each that is focused on the personal activity and relationship of a single individual who was behind the scenes and in touch with almost every phase of the war. These pages of personal experiences during the war are a ‘contribution towards the elucidation of the truth so far as I was able to ascertain it at the time, and will, I hope, enable many to understand better the events of these memorable years,’ Colonel Repington declares. They are given from his diaries as he scrupulously kept them, recording the most trivial incidents innocently tucked away in some social engagement of chance meeting of soldiers, statesmen, journalists, or comments of the larger events which followed each other with such amazing rapidity.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“Colonel Repington is, in fact, so simple that we cannot take any interest in him. His views on the war, in any important sense, are negligible. The only portions of his diary of any interest are his items of political and military information and the light he throws on prominent personages connected with the war. For the rest, and except when his professional interests are awakened and he gives lists of troops and ‘wastage’ figures, the whole diary is at the gossip level.”
− + =Ath= p436 O 1 ’20 1250w
=Booklist= 17:149 Ja ’21
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 O 20 ’20 1150w
“Colonel Repington moves between a bloodbath and a stale spittoon, and is apparently prouder of dipping his pen in the latter than in the former.” Shane Leslie
− =Dial= 59:64 D ’20 1050w
“The book is a curiosity. We have not been able to find in it the slightest evidence that Col. Repington, viewing the supreme tragedy of secular history, was even remotely aware of its human implications. He could observe a world convulsed, and report upon it without compassion, without gravity, without understanding.” Lawrence Gilman
− =Freeman= 2:499 F 2 ’21 1800w
“As a diarist he is intimate and unaffected and racy and explicit like Pepys, and he is almost as disconcertingly complete.”
+ =Nation= 111:786 D 29 ’20 320w
“The self-assurance of Colonel Repington is to be noted. It is to that self-assurance, plus his vanity, that we owe this monumental book. But if we do not get too weary of his ‘practically no English articles are read and discussed except mine,’ we may find illumination—most of it unintentional—in his accounts of his work running to and fro between the generals, the politicians and the press.” F. H.
+ − =New Repub= 24:274 N 10 ’20 3500w
“He has produced an extraordinarily interesting gossip-book which will doubtless be widely read and extensively commented upon. It is apparent from the briefest characterization of this amazing book that it is on the delineation of society in the war that the readers will linger longest. It is one long indiscretion.” W. C. Abbott
− + =N Y Evening Post= p2 N 27 ’20 1350w
“To an American reader the chief criticism to be made of all these accounts of luncheons, dinners and concerts in the company of the rich and fashionable is that they are intolerably wearisome. Colonel Repington continually speaks of the play of wit in these high circles, but gives very few examples of it.”
+ − =N Y Times= p1 O 24 ’20 2400w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
=Review= 3:376 O 27 ’20 340w
“In short, his tendency to take his hostesses overseriously, apart from some waste of space, does little to impair the value of an enlightening book. His taste may be a bit at fault but rarely his judgment.”
+ =Review= 3:559 D 8 ’20 800w
“This is the best book on the war that has appeared, and we hope it is the last. Everybody is sick of the war, its horrors and its squabbles, and wants to forget it. The excellence of the book consists in its twofold claim on our attention. There is the exhaustive criticism of the conduct of the war by a military expert of European reputation: and there is the picture of manners in that section of society ruled by American women, drawn by one who lived in its favour.”
+ =Sat R= 130:260 S 25 ’20 1450w
“Go into a shady part of the garden, or better still, into a damp shrubbery and lift up some big flat stone. Underneath you will find a quantity of crawling creatures, disturbed by the light so suddenly let in upon them.... Such a garden adventure recurs irresistibly to the mind as one reads Colonel Repington’s diary of the war years.... As to the enlightenment which his book should bring in regard to the way in which public affairs are too often handled, as to the advantages of the lessons to be learnt, and finally as to the value of this first step in the reform which comes with knowledge, we have no doubt whatever.”
+ =Spec= 125:434 O 2 ’20 2900w
=REPPLIER, AGNES.= Points of friction. *$1.75 (4c) Houghton 814
20–19680
Essays reprinted from periodicals. Six have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, two in the Century, one in the Yale Review and one in the Nation. Contents: Living in history; Dead authors; Consolations of the conservative; The cheerful clan; The beloved sinner; The virtuous Victorian; Woman enthroned; The strayed prohibitionist; Money; Cruelty and humour.
* * * * *
“Keen and original, upholding recognized standards.”
+ =Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“I find myself liking best the essay on ‘Dead authors,’ because it gives us more of the humor we have come to look for in Miss Repplier’s presentment of human error. But I confess myself at a disadvantage in dealing with her: I have almost never found myself failing to agree with her on any essential point, and my appreciation is apt to take the form of gratitude for the distinguished expression of what would seem to civilized people to be obvious.” K. F. Gerould
+ =Bookm= 52:265 N ’20 290w
“Miss Repplier upholds many wholesome truths which in these days seem in danger of oblivion, and her ironic shaft pierces many a sham notion high in popular esteem. The noble art of the essay suffers at her hands neither diminution nor dishonor. ‘Points of friction’ is a stimulating and eminently readable book.”
+ =Cath World= 112:386 D ’20 680w
“A halfscore of the delightfully keen-witted and observant papers which Miss Repplier is kind enough to write from time to time for the enjoyment of appreciative readers. They are always welcome and invariably worth while.”
+ =Outlook= 126:470 N 10 ’20 50w
“It would not be amiss to call Miss Repplier the Chesterton of America. Both are Tories of a sort, lovers of the good things mankind has found by long toil and is now so childishly anxious to discard.”
+ =Review= 3:563 D 8 ’20 400w
“Miss Repplier’s essays are sound in workmanship and sound but not granitic in thought. Not often does finished and pungent phrasing serve merely as a covering for thin or tawdry ideas. Usually there is an edge to the thought, and it will be found suggestive to those who may not accept all its implications.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ja 10 ’21 680w
=REW, SIR ROBERT HENRY.= Food supplies in peace and war. *$2.25 (*6s 6d) Longmans 338
20–4724
“In this essay, Sir Henry Rew considers briefly the world’s supply and demand and the extent to which the United Kingdom met its own demands for food before and during the war, and then discusses the outlook now that the war is ended.... [He concludes] that the cries of ‘Famine!’ are wide of the mark, inasmuch as nature, upon which the recovery of agriculture mainly depends, never goes on strike. He thinks that after the harvest of 1921 Europe will be producing as much food as before. He evidently believes that the Germans are deliberately exaggerating their troubles. He defines the British nation’s interest in agriculture as two-fold—to secure the maximum quantity of food, and to maintain the maximum number of persons on the land. He points out that insurance against famine caused by war implies not only a large wheat crop, but also a large stock of cattle, since milk and fat are as necessary as bread. He concludes with a reminder of the importance of the human factor in agriculture and the necessity for a life of wider scope and variety in the villages.”—Spec
* * * * *
“A very sane and reasonable discussion of the food problem.” T. N. Carver
+ =Am Econ R= 10:590 S ’20 260w
“It is written in popular style and in this lies its real value.”
+ =Ann Am Acad= 90:173 Jl ’20 80w
“This book is not very big, but it is full of information and of sagacious comments on the facts set out for the reader’s benefit.”
+ =Ath= p428 Mr 26 ’20 160w
“Sir Henry Rew has the happy and unusual faculty of making statistics interesting. The book was badly needed, for it is highly important that the average man should realise the facts.” E. J. Russell
+ =Nature= 105:320 My 13 ’20 950w
+ =Spec= 124:464 Ap 3 ’20 250w
“The book is stimulating, authoritative and well worth reading.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 44:309 My 29 ’20 440w
=REYMONT, WLADYSLAW STANISLAW.=[2] Comédienne. *$2 (2c) Putnam
20–20943
The story is translated from the Polish by Edmund Obecny and relates the fate of a young actress. Janina Orlowski is driven from home by an insanely tyrannical father, whose choice of a husband she has refused. Her ambition is to become an actress and she goes to Warsaw and is taken on by a third-rate company. Her experiences there are a series of disillusionments, the actors she meets are not interested in art but are a sordid, coarse lot. She falls into dire poverty and on the verge of starvation and about to become a mother, she commits suicide.
* * * * *
“It is almost inconceivable that the novel has lost anything in translating, so delightfully lyric are the descriptions of the Polish countryside, so poignant the characterization, so diverting the dialogue.” W. T. R.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 4 ’20 770w
=REYNOLDS, GERTRUDE M. (ROBINS) (MRS LOUIS BAILLIE REYNOLDS).= Also Ran. *$1.90 (2c) Doran
20–19180
Jacynth Pennant had spent her early life away from her home, having been adopted as a baby by an aunt. When she returned to it as a young lady, she found an air of mystery enveloping everything. Her father, though affectionate, was unhappy and worried. The neighborhood had not ceased talking about the murder of Guy Warristoun some time before. His brother Ranulf was suspected of the murder, but acquitted upon the testimony of a chauffeur. Ran subsequently disappeared and had not been heard of since. Shortly after Jacynth’s return, he unexpectedly put in his appearance once more. When he persuaded Jacynth to marry him after a short acquaintance, her impelling motive of acceptance was that her father was under heavy obligations to him. He explained as his reason for asking her that he wanted to put it out of her power to marry his cousin Hector, a worthless fellow with whom she was half in love, and to whom, though his lawful heir, he did not wish to leave his property. His one biggest reason he did not give—he was in love with her. How she came to realize this, after doubt and heartache for both is the culmination of the story, and in the process of its development is revealed the true explanation of Guy’s death and the chauffeur’s part in it.
* * * * *
“Though not always convincing the story is wholesome and ingenious and will interest men or women.”
+ =Booklist= 17:160 Ja ’21
“The tale, although not very convincing and one in which it would be easy to pick holes, is ingenious and interesting.”
+ − =N Y Times= p25 O 3 ’20 400w
“The author makes a fairly interesting book with a happy ending to this rather hackneyed theme.”
+ − =Spec= 125:216 Ag 14 ’20 50w
=REYNOLDS, MYRA.= Learned lady in England, 1650–1760. il *$2.25 Houghton 396
20–26551
The book is one of the Vassar semi-centennial series, published in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Vassar college. Although it is specifically limited to the learned women in England in the period between 1650 and 1760, the first chapter is devoted to those before 1650, beginning with Juliana Barnes, who, although a nun, wrote a book on “hunting, hawking and fishing” in 1481. The outcome of the research is that in all ages “there have been individual women who by force of native endowment and through some favorable conjunction of circumstances, have risen into prominence in realms not ordinarily open to the women of their time,” but they have been isolated cases and “what was actually accomplished in the century before 1760 was a lavish sowing of seed, a steady infiltration of new ideas, a breaking up of old certainties as to woman’s place in domestic and civic life, and an accumulation of examples proving women capable of the most varied intellectual aptitudes and energies.” Contents: Learned ladies in England before 1650; Learned ladies in England from 1650–1670; Education; Miscellaneous books on women in social and intellectual life; Satiric representations of the learned lady in comedy; Summary; Bibliography; Index; and illustrations.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20
“It is an interesting and original piece of work and covers ground that has hardly been touched before.” Martha Plaisted
+ =Bookm= 51:689 Ag ’20 300w
Reviewed by C. M. Rourke
=Freeman= 2:68 S 29 ’20 1400w
Reviewed by Dorothy Brewster
=Nation= 111:sup419 O 13 ’20 800w
“Years of research must have been devoted to gathering materials for this illuminating treatise. The presentation is clear and orderly; nor is it anywhere swamped by the multitudinous and clear-cut detail.”
+ =Review= 4:18 Ja 5 ’21 400w
=RHEAD, GEORGE WOOLLISCROFT.= Earth- (5c) Dodd 738
(Eng ed 20–8046)
The author of this volume, we are told by H. W. Lewer in the foreword is a practical potter and, moreover, an artist and art examiner in pottery to the board of education. With his help, therefore, it is hoped that the collector will be enabled to discriminate between well authenticated examples and worthless specimens and probably forgeries. “The book covers the whole story of British earthenwares from those of the Slip and Salt glazed period, now more and more sought after, to the less coveted but still interesting specimens of the early nineteenth century.... The illustrations include many rare examples from well-known collections.” (Author’s preface) Among the contents are: Early British, mediæval and sixteenth century wares; Slip wares; English Delft wares; Wedgwood; Contemporaries and followers of Wedgwood; Lustred wares; The makers of image toys and chimney ornaments; Glossary of terms; Bibliography; Index.
* * * * *
“The subject of Mr Woolliscroft Rhead’s work is so enormous that we can hardly complain of inadequate treatment, but it is less well written than Mr Young’s [‘The silver and Sheffield plate collector’] and less likely to be useful. His spelling and phraseology are also sometimes at fault. It is further extremely inconvenient that the plates are not numbered, which makes reference to them a complicated matter.”
+ − =Sat R= 129:86 Ja 24 ’20 600w
“Mr Rhead, as an artist and a potter, writes of a subject which he knows, and young collectors will find some useful hints in his pages.”
+ =Spec= 123:698 N 22 ’19 120w
=RHEAD, LOUIS JOHN.= Fisherman’s lures and game-fish food. il *$4 (7c) Scribner 799
20–9836
A book intended as a companion volume to the author’s “Trout stream insects,” and like that work illustrated with pictures in color painted from living specimens. The author states: “This book has a two-fold object. First: to multiply largely all species of game-fish for the people’s use by a new method and a logical system of ‘feeding’ that will more rapidly attain a better result in the conservation of American fresh-water game-fishes.... Second: to vastly improve present angling conditions by introducing a new and entirely superior style of fishing with artificial nature lures in place of the live bait that is now being employed in ever-increasing quantities.” (Preface) The illustrations include pictures of live creatures that fish eat and of artificial nature lures; also chart plans to show feeding places. The book is indexed.
* * * * *
“Mr Rhead’s new volume is commended to Outlook anglers as a book which deserves a place in every library beside the writings of George La Branche and Dr Henshall.” H. T. Pulsifer
+ =Outlook= 125:614 Ag 4 ’20 2300w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 2 ’20 250w
=RHOADES, CORNELIA HARSEN (NINA RHOADES).= Four girls of forty years ago. (Brickhouse books) il *$1.50 (2½c) Lothrop
20–20005
A story for girls picturing the social life of New York in 1880. The four girls, Dulcie, Daisy, Maud and Mollie, live in an old house near Washington Square and spend their summers on the Hudson river at Tarrytown. They live with a stepgrandmother who enforces the rule that children should be seen and not heard, but there is an Uncle Stephen who comes from California and takes them to see “The pirates of Penzance,” and they have other good times. The news that their father is coming home from China bringing a stepmother fills them with consternation, but the dreaded stepmother proves to be their loved friend Miss Leslie and every one is left happy at the close.
=RHODES, HARRISON GARFIELD.= American towns and people. il *$3.50 (6c) McBride 917.3
20–20209
Papers that have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, touching lightly and with humor on the external aspects of certain American cities. There are six essays of this character: Why is a Bostonian? Who is a Philadelphian? What is a New Yorker? The portrait of Chicago; Washington, the cosmopolitan; Baltimore; and one other, Is there a West? devoted to California. To these are added: The hotel guest; The high kingdom of the movies; The American child; The society woman.
* * * * *
“Although there are serious moments and some penetrating analyses, the sketches are on the whole light and entertaining, not thorough studies.”
+ =Booklist= 17:151 Ja ’21
“Never is Mr Rhodes dull, never does brilliancy become an obsession with him, but his writings on American days and ways are of decided value.” G. M. H.
+ =Boston Transcript= p3 D 11 ’20 360w
“‘American towns and people’ has its classic prototype in Henry James’s ‘The American scene,’ but it is a version highly journalized and simplified, intended not so much to interpret as to amuse. In this doubtless quite as important capacity, it for the most part succeeds admirably, only at times seeming a little fatuous, a little too effusive, a bit bland perhaps.”
+ − =Dial= 70:231 F ’21 50w
“Generally speaking, Mr Rhodes only sees about one-third of his subject. He sees the Four hundred, but not what O. Henry called the Four million. The book is a credit to its publishers, and is beautifully illustrated. If it is one-sided or no-sided, it is at any rate written in a swift, bright style, illuminated by a keen sense of the comic.”
+ − =N Y Times= p8 D 5 ’20 1600w
“The unusually discriminating comment of this book is matched by exceptionally good pictures.”
+ =Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 30w
+ =R of Rs= 63:112 Ja ’21 50w
“To have discovered the individuality of some of our American cities and to have in so many little things shown exactly in what it consists, is no small achievement. So much for the social student’s appreciation of this book. As a piece of descriptive writing, its excellence is likely to appeal to a much wider circle.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 45:579 Ja 15 ’21 260w
=RHODES, HARRISON GARFIELD.=[2] High life: and other stories. *$2 (3c) McBride
20–17527
High life, the first and longest story, is an amusing skit picturing life in a colony of exiled royalty in Switzerland. The other stories are: The little miracle at Tlemcar; Fair daughter of a fairer mother; The importance of being Mrs Cooper; The sad case of Quag; Springtime; Vive l’Amerique! They have been copyrighted by the Curtis publishing company, Collier’s, the Ridgway company, the Metropolitan and Harper’s.
* * * * *
“It is all told with much grace, cleverness and conversation, realism, and with a Daudetesque humor. Mr Rhodes is a cosmopolitan, and he understands the art of the short story; only in two or three passages is his manner of writing open to any censure.” N. H. D.
+ =Boston Transcript= p1 D 11 ’20 450w
=RHODES, JAMES FORD.= History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley, 1877–1896. *$2.75 Macmillan 973.8
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
* * * * *
“Mr Rhodes’s new eighth volume is not a fair continuation of his memorable five volumes on the Civil war, or even of the sixth and seventh in which he gave a partial picture of the next dozen years. Its abbreviated scale of treatment affects both contents and manner of presentation. Rarely do the related facts in this volume appear to have meaning or to be parts of a coherent structure.... Stopping short of McKinley’s inauguration, he fails to show the foundations of the silver movement and the Populist party, with the result that his picture of the second Cleveland term lacks its background. Yet he fails also to explain the emergence of the tariff issue and the identification of the Republican party with it, although these facts are vital to the period of his choice. Mr Rhodes has probably not broadened his historical repute by this volume, but he has not ceased to be sagacious along the lines of his experience and attainment.” F: L. Paxson
+ − − =Am Hist R= 25:525 Ap ’20 1050w
“The author’s impartiality is little short of miraculous. South and North can read him on the Civil war without great irritation.”
+ =Ath= p273 Ag 27 ’20 150w
+ =Booklist= 16:200 Mr ’20
“If the most recent volume of the ‘History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley, 1877–96’ is of less importance than those which preceded it, this is not due to any shortcomings on the part of the author. Dr Rhodes shows the same robust good sense, severe impartiality, and scrupulous accuracy which have secured him his position among American historians.” H. E. E.
+ =Eng Hist R= 35:476 Jl ’20 130w
“This volume is of the same general character as the preceding volumes and with one possible exception, deserves to rank with them. While the style is not brilliant, it affords easy, sometimes even attractive reading. Yet, for all that, the student of our recent history will close the book with disappointment, a disappointment due to the feeling that the author has failed to show a discriminating sense of proportion. On the topics discussed the author, in most cases, can hardly be said to have touched the bottom. The treatment of industrial unrest falls far below chapter IV of his earlier work, dealing with slavery.” D: Y. Thomas
+ − =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:84 Je ’20 600w
“It seems invidious to speak in any tone of disparagement of a work of Mr James Ford Rhodes, who has given us the classic interpretation of our history from the compromise of 1850 to the close of the reconstruction period. And yet competent judges must feel grieved that the ‘History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley’ is added, as an eighth volume, to the classic seven. It is as thin as the lean kine that followed the seven fat ones in Pharoah’s dream.”
− + =Nation= 110:805 Je 12 ’20 350w
+ =Spec= 124:624 My 8 ’20 250w
“He has industry and a judicial temperament which, though not always quite unbiassed in regard to individuals enables him to survey contemporary politics without evidence of partisanship. He has, moreover, a lucid narrative style and a happy gift of choosing apt and trenchant phrases. Not all his authorities are first-rate; but he uses them nimbly. It is very much to be regretted that a book which represents so much sound labour and has so much permanent value, in the assistance which it will be to all future writers on this period, should be so marred by petty faults.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p448 Jl 15 ’20 1500w
=RICE, ALICE CALDWELL (HEGAN) (MRS CALE YOUNG RICE), and RICE, CALE YOUNG.= Turn about tales. il *$1.90 (8c) Century
20–16343
There are ten short stories in this book, five by Cale Young Rice, and five by his wife, Alice Hegan Rice, arranged alternately. Mrs Rice’s contribution includes Beulah; The nut; A partnership memory; Reprisal; and The hand on the sill; while Mr Rice’s are entitled Lowry; Francella; Archie’s relapse; Under new moons, and Aaron Harwood. Some of the stories have appeared in magazine form.
* * * * *
“This volume of stories should hold its own with any collection likely to be published this year. They cover a wide range of emotion, background, and subject, and are of high literary merit.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p9 S 25 ’20 170w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 23 ’21 150w
=RICHARDS, MRS CLARICE (ESTABROOK).=[2] Tenderfoot bride. il *$1.50 Revell
20–21005
“A cultured eastern woman with a delight in new things and a sense of humor describes events on a Wyoming ranch.” (Booklist) “When the ‘tenderfoot bride’ arrived it was still a lawless, pioneer land, with cattle, cowboys, and desperadoes. Then came a pastoral age: sheep and Mexican herders, followed by the farmer. Her record covers but sixteen years, yet the earlier phases are as extinct as the Pharaohs. She has caught them all in passing, and portrayed them to the life.” (Bookm)
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:118 D ’20
“She has given us more than a bit of current history, for one senses the writer’s personality,—a growth through the delights and trials of existence among elemental conditions to a broad vision of life and its responsibilities. Therein lies the rare charm of the book.”
+ =Bookm= 52:368 D ’20 140w
=RICHARDS, CLAUDE.= Man of tomorrow. new ed *$2 Crowell 174
“A discussion of vocational success with the boy of today.” (Sub-title) The author believes that there is special need of attention to vocational guidance today. “Following this great world war, civilization will take on an aspect of general reconstruction, and hence the man of the future will need an equipment that will fit him to take his place in a society with difficult problems to solve and big tasks to perform.” (Preface) The book is divided into seven parts: The need of vocational guidance; The importance of specializing; The need of a broad foundation; Choosing a vocation; Representative vocations; Avocations; General conditions of vocational success. An appendix contains a word to the counselor and there is an index. The author states that while the work is intended primarily for men there is little in it that does not apply equally to young women.
* * * * *
“An excellent vocational guide-book. Its tone is high and the little ethical teaching that it contains is safe and sound.”
+ =Cath World= 112:120 O ’20 220w
=RICHARDS, GRANT.=[2] Double life. *$1.75 (2c) Dodd
20–18767
Olivia Pemberton was the wife of a semi-commercial, therefore fairly successful novelist. She was all that a wife and mother should be until her two children were away at school, when she became bored and restless. Half apathetically she accompanied her husband to Newmarket one day where he went in quest of racing atmosphere for a new novel. It ended with a tentative, very small and haphazard bet on one of the horses. From now on Olivia secretly takes to reading sporting papers and making greater and greater ventures, even ordering a trainer to buy and train a horse for her. She goes thru all the stages of the gambling fever, sometimes on the verge of a breakdown. Twice her horse wins and when she is dreaming of the triple crown at the Derby with honored publicity to herself, her trainer informs her that the horse is broken down and will race no more. But with her winnings and the sale of the horse, she is enabled to accompany her confession to her husband with a goodly sum of money and her complete renunciation of gambling.
* * * * *
“The technical details will be found interesting even by neophytes, and the whole produces that effect of coherence and facility proper to a practised pen.”
+ =Ath= p80 Jl 16 ’20 120w
=N Y Evening Post= p10 N 6 ’20 120w
“The book will prove entertaining, but hardly more than that.”
+ − =N Y Times= p18 D 5 20 460w
“To put it bluntly, Mr Grant Richards is not an artist. ‘Double life’ has some power to please, partly because it conveys double the number of sensations enjoyed in the ordinary routine of life by that never realized type—the average, everyday person.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p401 Je 24 ’20 400w
=RICHARDS, MRS LAURA ELIZABETH (HOWE).= Honor Bright. il *$1.65 (3c) Page
20–17823
The story of an American girl’s school days in Switzerland. Honor is an orphan and the Pension Madeleine is the only home she knows. She speaks in the quaint French-English of her teachers and is very happy with her school-girl companions. While on an expedition into the mountain, she slips and sprains her ankle and is kept a prisoner in an Alpine cottage for a time. It is a delightful experience and Honor thereafter dreams of spending her life in the Alps, making cheese and tending goats. But an unknown cousin from America comes to take her away to a new and strange world.
=RICHARDSON, C. A.= Spiritual pluralism and recent philosophy. *$4.50 Putnam 192
(Eng ed 20–7073)
“Mr Richardson, a disciple of Professor James Ward, sets himself the task of elaborating, on purely metaphysical lines, the case for the ‘spiritual’ and theistic pluralism which formed the basis of his master’s ‘Realm of ends: pluralism and theism.’ Incidentally he undertakes to answer the neo-realists in general and Mr Bertrand Russell in particular. He accepts Mr Russell’s conclusions as valid with limits, i.e., the limits of reality considered as objective. But, Mr Richardson urges, Mr Russell and his school, with all their ingenuity, do not account for the subjective reference, whereas spiritual pluralists can account for it without detriment to the positive results of the neo-realists.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“The book is written with great care and much subtlety. There is, however, a tendency to rely too much on arguments from concepts, without due inquiry into their meaning and source. In general, I think the book would gain cogency through a larger use of empirical material.” D. H. Parker
+ − =J Philos= 17:611 O 21 ’20 1100w
=Nature= 105:773 Ag 19 ’20 70w
“To speak bluntly, Mr Richardson is excessively difficult reading, and some part of the fault lies with himself, and not with the subject. As a provisional guess, one would suggest that he has thought mainly about the general philosophic attributes of his universe, and has not sufficiently pondered, not only the position but the capacity and attributes of the individual who exists therein. This part of his work, it seems to us, he will not get right until he dips down more thoroughly into the grand question of consciousness.”
+ − =Sat R= 129:253 Mr 13 ’20 840w
“It is not easy to justify a pluralist metaphysic on intellectualist grounds, and one cannot help feeling that, as against Mr Russell on the one hand and Mr Bradley on the other, Mr Richardson is ‘playing the odd’ all the time. But he plays with spirit and no mean dialectic skill.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p15 Ja 8 ’20 580w
=RICHARDSON, DOROTHY M.= Interim. *$2 Knopf
20–9715
“Fifth in the long series of volumes published under the general title of ‘Pilgrimage,’ Miss Dorothy M. Richardson’s new novel, ‘Interim,’ continues the history of that young woman, Miriam Henderson. So closely connected with its predecessors as to be a part of them rather than a separate book, ‘Interim’ would probably be almost unintelligible to any one not possessed of a close acquaintance with the earlier books. When ‘The tunnel’ came to an end Miriam Henderson was apparently on the verge of leaving Mrs Bailey’s house, but we find her still living there when we meet her in ‘Interim,’ despite the coming of the boarders. Among these boarders there are several young physicians from Canada, and one of them, bearing the unattractive name of von Heber, supplies the suggestion of a plot, which is the only thing of the kind the book contains.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“She leaves us feeling, as before, that everything being of equal importance to her, it is impossible that everything should not be of equal unimportance.” K. M.
− =Ath= p48 Ja 9 ’20 150w
“We prefer our novels as novels, and not following the technique of Chinese chess explained by a politician in yachting terminology. There are pages and pages of drivel, too.” C. W.
− =N Y Call= p11 S 12 ’20 250w
“From no point of view could ‘Interim’ be called easy reading, and a method of sometimes almost ignoring punctuation and printing dialogue in solid pages does not tend to make it any the easier.”
− =N Y Times= 25:320 Je 20 ’20 550w
“There lies the secret of Miriam’s appeal. Nothing seems to escape her. She is never dull or unaware; she never ceases to live and to respond to stimulus. And thus life, seen through her eyes and felt through her emotions, comes to be an exciting business, and the world an infinite stretch of inexhaustible delights.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p766 D 18 ’19 750w
=RICHARDSON, NORVAL.= Pagan fire. *$1.75 (1½c) Scribner
20–21002
Anne Rennell was quite contented and happy as the wife of an American politician in Washington. Franklin Rennell, too, was contented as United States senator. He took his work seriously and was of the eternal-boy sort of type, honest and plodding without intellectual brilliance. The first disturbance came when political intrigue put the flea into Anne’s ear that she was cut out for an ambassador’s wife in Rome. Rome it must be, henceforth. Anne feels that she has a right to her own life and happiness and that Franklin’s career must give way to it. In Rome she blossoms out, the romance of it enters her blood and with it an infatuation for Prince Cimino. The latter ends with a night with the Prince at his castle in the Campagna. After that Anne has something to live down, which, the reader trusts, she will be able to do with the aid and the sacrifice of two devoted friends.
* * * * *
“The most human and most logical character in the book is that of Senator Lelong. The story is pleasantly told in the slow analytical style of the English novel.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 N 27 ’20 290w
“While Norval Richardson’s well-written novel ‘Pagan fire’ is far from uninteresting as a story, the greater part of its claim on the reader’s attention is derived from its quite fascinating setting.”
+ =N Y Times= p26 Ja 2 ’21 460w
“The interest of the novel is derived less from the actual story than from the glorious settings of the drama.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 23 ’21 170w
=RICKARD, L. (MRS VICTOR RICKARD).= Cathy Rossiter. *$1.75 (1c) Doran
20–772
Cathy Rossiter, by birth of the English aristocracy, was a modern woman who, without breaking her old ties, became interested in all sorts of progressive movements. Her personal charms make her a favorite in every circle from the aristocratic drawing room down to the half-starved strikers in Sabury road. Her most intimate friend is Dr Monica Henstock, a successful practitioner and her opposite in character and temperament. At her house she meets John Lorrimer who is about to propose to Monica when Cathy’s beauty and personality intrigue and side-track him. In time Cathy marries Lorrimer and through a complication of circumstances Monica’s and Lorrimer’s emotions and ethics both become befuddled and Cathy after an illness is locked up in an insane asylum on a flimsy pretext. Her experiences at the asylum and her rescue by some of her old friends make a thrilling tale.
* * * * *
“Mrs Victor Rickard has here achieved, without directing her energy towards any lofty or even wayward ambition, a marked success. The story is sheer melodrama from beginning to triumphant and happy end; but melodrama tempered with sound observation of character.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p697 N 27 ’19 340w
=RICKARD, THOMAS ARTHUR.= Technical writing. *$1.50 Wiley 808
20–7844
“Mr Rickard has served as editor of three leading mining periodicals and has written several well known professional works. He laments the carelessness shown by engineers in the preparation of reports and papers and has brought into this work the expansion of five lectures which he delivered in 1916 to engineering classes in the University of California. The many faults of composition and errors of vocabulary are discussed and illustrated by many examples of bad writing (with corrections) gleaned mainly from mining books and periodicals.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
* * * * *
“Mr Rickard’s exposition is vigorous and broad-minded.”
+ =Ath= p352 S 10 ’20 150w
“It is well worth discriminating perusal, the chapter on style being particularly good. Violations of present-day typographical orthodoxy mar nearly every page of his book. They suggest the amateur. They are not classic. Also, in a work of this sort, it is only reasonable to expect that the author will observe his own precepts.” W. N. P. R.
+ − =Engineering & Mining Journal= 109:1326 Je 12 ’20 780w
“The lay reader should also get much from the volume.”
+ =N Y P L New Tech Bks= p40 Ap ’20 100w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p587 S 9 ’20 80w
=RIDEAL, ERIC KEIGHTLEY.= Ozone. *$4 Van Nostrand 546.2
The author begins with the Early history of ozone and its general properties, and continues his treatment of the subject with chapters on: The natural occurrence of ozone: Chemical production; Thermal production; The electrolytic preparation of ozone; Production by ultraviolet radiation and by ionic collision; Production by means of the silent electric discharge; The catalytic decomposition of ozone; Industrial applications; Methods of detection and analysis. There are two indexes, to names and subjects. The author is professor of physical chemistry in the University of Illinois and the book is published as one of the series, A treatise on electro-chemistry, edited by Bertram Blount.
* * * * *
“The author deals with the whole fascinating subject in a manner which should appeal to most readers.”
+ =Engineer= 129:653 Je 25 ’20 300w
“The author has been distinctly successful in his effort to collect and correlate the various references to ozone which occur in chemical literature, and his monograph will be welcomed if only for that reason. In addition, it contains a valuable summary of what is known about ozone, and by indicating problems which remain to be solved should also serve to promote investigation.”
+ =Nature= 106:77 S 16 ’20 300w
=N Y P L New Tech Bks= p52 Jl ’20 120w
=RIDEOUT, HENRY MILNER.= Foot-path way. *$1.90 (2c) Duffield
20–6491
A story of the Far East. Dan Towers, the hero, is an American adventurer who has decided that it is time to go home. Fate brings him across the path of an old friend, Parimban, an Arabian merchant. Parimban is murdered and Towers is left with Leda, his friend’s beautiful young daughter, on his hands. He finds a refuge for her with a religious order and goes on his way, accepting the dangerous mission he had earlier made up his mind to refuse. He has many adventures, some in company with a religious fanatic, called Hury Seke, from his habit of writing gospel messages on walls and rocks, all beginning “Hury Seke Jehovah.” To others he is introduced by a gay young troubadour, Runa la Flèche. In the end the beautiful ward, who had once shown uncomfortable signs of falling in love with Towers, is more suitably mated with Runa.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:350 Jl ’20
“I turn the last page and lay down the book with the sense of having enjoyed a modest work of art instead of having been merely diverted by a pretentious bag of tricks. I like his story, but I like still more his way of telling it, his freedom from the slipshod smartness now fairly encouraged as normal by editors still getting pay-ore from the vein (or the tailings) of the Kipling-O. Henry tradition.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Bookm= 51:581 Jl ’20 380w
=Ind= 104:382 D 11 ’20 50w
“The tale is entertaining, swift-moving and romantic, and gives a colorful picture of adventurous lives.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:252 My 16 ’20 700w
“This is not of a genre that all novel readers care for, but those who do will find this book an excellent example of it, exciting and amusing.”
+ =Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 100w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 240w
=RIDGE, LOLA.=[2] Sun-up; and other poems. *$1.50 Huebsch 811
These are free verse, imagiste poems. In the group “Sun-up,” the poet sees the world through a child’s eyes and gives us glimpses of a child’s soul. All the poems express modernity, a free spirit and a turbulent world. They are grouped under the headings: Sun-up; Monologues; Windows; Secrets; Portraits; Sons of Belial; Reveille—the last group containing lines to Alexander Berkman, to Emma Goldman and to Larkin.
* * * * *
“No adult knows what little girls think about, but one is willing to believe that it is approximately what he finds here, where Freud rather than Plato is read back into the infant mind.” D. M.
+ =Nation= 112:sup244 F 9 ’21 340w
“The series of poems from which the book takes its name are vividly poignant renderings of the child-mind, intimate in their apperception and flaring forth in arresting magic and color at times. Her method is free verse, but it is a distinct free verse. It is the sudden throwing of vivid phrases before one that conjure up limitless thoughts.” H. S. Gorman
+ =N Y Times= p11 Ja 9 ’21 520w
=RIDSDALE, KNOWLES.= Gate of fulfillment. *$1.50 (4c) Putnam
20–6634
A story told in letters. Margaret Bevington, a very charming and brilliant widow, answers an unusual advertisement calling for a secretary for an invalid. The invalid, who is also a misogynist, sends her a caustic reply declining her services, but a correspondence develops out of the incident. Later, learning that the secretary he had preferred to her had proved incompetent, she applies in person under an assumed name and is engaged. She then leads a double life, as staid, prim Martha Pratt and as witty Margaret Bevington, and the misogynist finds himself falling in love with two women. The tonic good sense of one and the mental stimulus of the other do their work. He is restored to health to learn that the two characters who have meant so much to him combine into one person.
* * * * *
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ − =Bookm= 51:586 Jl ’20 200w
“This is a very commodious, even lazy, way of writing a book; and, unless the letters are uncommonly brilliant, the result is generally disappointing. In this case, however, Mr Ridsdale has turned out a worthwhile correspondence in developing an ingenious though rather slender plot. ‘The gate of fulfillment’ will be read with interest.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:31 Jl 18 ’20 300w
=Springf’d Republican= p11a S 26 ’20 160w
“It is a piquant situation, and some of its possibilities are well realized. But it wants a light, tactful, restrained treatment of which the author knows nothing. The letters of every one concerned are as fulsome, as precious, and as humourless as they can possibly be; and their prolix affectations become painfully tiresome long before the end is reached.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p458 Jl 15 ’20 150w
=RIHANI, AMEEN F.= Descent of bolshevism. $1 (9c) Stratford co. 335
20–6355
A small book written to prove that bolshevism is of oriental origin. The author goes back to fifth century Persia and has chapters on: Mazdak and Mazdakism; The Khawarij; The Karmathians; The Assassins; The Illuminati.
* * * * *
“Mr Rihani’s little book ends suddenly and without a satisfactory conclusion. His statements must be read with great caution.” N. H. D.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p10 My 15 ’20 560w
“He tells his stories roundly and underlines his morals blackly; but his essential facts are sound.”
+ =Review= 2:682 Je 30 ’20 200w
=RIHBANY, ABRAHAM MITRIE.=[2] Hidden treasure of Rasmola. il *$1.75 (5½c) Houghton
20–19674
This story of the digging for a treasure is a true story and a personal experience of the author’s. The scenes portrayed are real phases of the life of the common people of Syria and the people participating in the enterprise were real. The psychology, beliefs and mode of life of the people concerned are also depicted and the thrilling part of the story is that the treasure too, to all probabilities was real although it eluded the grasp of the diggers thru the machinations of a clever rogue.
=RINEHART, MARY (ROBERTS) (MRS STANLEY MARSHALL RINEHART).= Affinities. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
20–9275
A volume of short stories. The first is the story of a group of married people who decide on an affinity picnic, with husbands and wives left at home. The affair comes to grief and when the parties concerned learn that the other set of wives and husbands have been carrying out a similar idea there are mutual recriminations and forgivenesses. The other stories are in like vein. Contents: Affinities; The family friend; Clara’s little escapade; The borrowed house; Sauce for the gander. The stories were copyrighted by the Curtis Publishing Company and date from 1909 to 1915.
* * * * *
“Entertaining, but several readers say not up to her usual standard.”
+ − =Booklist= 17:36 O ’20
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 18 ’20 300w
“Delightful tales each with a snap at the end.”
+ =Cleveland= p71 Ag ’20 60w
“Mrs Rinehart always writes entertainingly and she tempers humor with rare human sympathy and common sense. These stories are just the thing for hammock reading on a lazy afternoon.”
+ =Ind= 103:53 Jl 10 ’20 80w
“Each one as unexpected and as amusing as the others, stories that keep you laughing and interested, stories full of the little absurdities of human nature and the queer tricks of fate.”
+ =Lit D= p97 S 4 ’20 3050w
“If laughter really does promote health, Mrs Rinehart should take her place among the great physicians of the age.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:295 Je 6 ’20 480w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 8 ’20 420w
“The studies of English life and manners would strike most English readers as imaginative, and it is hard to believe that life in America exactly tallies with the authoress’s description, though it may really be like this. Anyhow it makes cheerful reading.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p538 Ag 19 ’20 120w
=RINEHART, MARY (ROBERTS) (MRS STANLEY MARSHALL RINEHART).= Poor wise man. *$2 (1½c) Doran
20–17961
The time of the story is immediately after the war and the circumstances social unrest, strikes, plots, political campaigns, mobs, riots, bombs, wise vigilance on the part of the Department of justice and timely interferences of the American Legion. The romance is supplied by Lily Cardew, granddaughter of the richest man in town, just back from her war-work and much changed, and Willy Cameron, a poor drug clerk who had been Lily’s pal in camp and is one of nature’s noblemen. Soon after her return Lily is ensnared by the wiles of an arch anarchist and all-round fiend. She even marries him but at that very crisis is rescued by Willy. Many are the adventures and hairbreadth escapes of both before their final reward.
* * * * *
+ =Bookm= 52:252 N ’20 360w
“The story is well told, but our hearts are not touched by the romance of the impossible hero and heroine.”
+ − =Cath World= 112:554 Ja ’21 150w
“Mrs Rinehart gives us a very thrilling story, and a sense of disappointment with her method need not obscure the good points and readable character of this ‘novel with a purpose.’”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 D 31 ’20 200w
“The novel is alive and vigorous.”
+ =Outlook= 126:515 N 17 ’20 80w
“The book is exceedingly timely. It states the problem between labor and capital fairly and proves the futility of mob violence. And it states it in the lives of very actual people.” Katharine Oliver
+ =Pub W= 98:1193 O 16 ’20 300w
“A story well worth reading.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p801 D 2 ’20 120w
=RINEHART, MARY (ROBERTS) (MRS STANLEY MARSHALL RINEHART).=[2] Truce of God. il *$1.50 Doran
20–21966
In the days of chivalry and when the church had decreed a “truce of God,” from Thursday of every week until Monday morning, during which time all fighting must cease, a young French overlord had put away his wife because she had borne him no son and because, heirless, upon his death his estates would fall to his cousin and arch enemy, Philip of the Black Beard. That the lady took refuge with this same Philip, enraged Charles still more. But it came to pass on a Christmas day that the truce of God entered the heart of Charles when he came to the castle of Philip in search of his runaway little daughter, Clotilde. As he goes to the bedside of his wife to ask her forgiveness he finds that a son has indeed this day been born to him.
* * * * *
“The story is told interestingly and with effective simplicity, and successfully reproduces the mediæval atmosphere; but the author leaves the impression of having put an undue strain upon plausibility in order to reach a desired conclusion.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p18 D 4 ’20 220w
+ =N Y Times= p27 Ja 2 ’21 370w
=RIPLEY, GEORGE SHERMAN.= Games for boys. il *$1.60 Holt 790
20–21483
A collection of games for players of the adolescent and post adolescent age. The compiler says: “Properly played games develop courage, initiative, generosity, cooperation, cheerfulness, loyalty, obedience, alertness and sense of honor,” and in selecting the games he has based his choice on these qualities. Contents: Circle games; Opposed line games; Tag games; Quiet games; Miscellaneous games; Relay and other races; Stalking and scouting games; Camp stunts and water sports; Mimetic setting-up exercises; Contest and exhibition events; Camping notes.
* * * * *
+ =Ind= 104:378 D 11 ’20 80w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8a D 5 ’20 80w
=RISING, LAWRENCE.= She who was Helena Cass. *$1.90 (2c) Doran
20–17649
Jay Sefton, a rising young novelist, acted a novel when he constituted himself a secret detective to find Helena Cass, dead or alive. Three years previous, her mysterious disappearance had set two continents agog with rumors and surmises. Jay Sefton had once met her socially, been greatly impressed by her personality and now the fever of the search had entered his blood. In disconnected accounts the story pieces itself together, and clue follows upon clue, revealing the rich possibilities of an undisciplined impulsive young girl; her tragic side-step from the conventional path; her all but murder in a Spanish inn; her refuge in a convent; temporary return to a world that had known her; her second escape to the convent; her motherhood and her final discovery in a secluded rural retreat in Spain by Jay Sefton and his wooing of her.
* * * * *
“It’s well told, too, with a slightly French touch and an intriguing style.” S. M. R.
+ =Bookm= 52:370 D ’20 200w
“From the standpoint of style the book is decidedly jerky. It possesses many faults, many inconsistencies, but we are obliged to remember that the author has subordinated everything to the weaving and unraveling of his mystery. The first is ably done, and the second is accomplished with commendable ingenuity.” D. L. M.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 D 4 ’20 270w
“The novel is full of Latin color, some of the descriptive bits being powerfully photographic. All the characters are real and intensely individualized. The development of Helena Cass from a self-centred, selfish girl to a fine, broad, lovable character is a fine bit of psychological analysis.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p20 O 23 ’20 180w
“The book is full of Spanish color, and some of the descriptive passages are striking.”
+ =N Y Times= p19 N 28 ’20 140w
“The story is original, but its literary quality is not particularly good.”
+ − =Outlook= 126:378 O 27 ’20 110w
Reviewed by L. M. Robinson
=Pub W= 98:1196 O 16 ’20 320w
=RITCHIE, ANNE ISABELLA (THACKERAY) lady (MRS RICHMOND RITCHIE).= From friend to friend. *$2.50 Dutton
(Eng ed 20–8889)
“‘From friend to friend,’ a little volume of recollections by Thackeray’s daughter, Lady Ritchie, edited by her sister-in-law, Emily Ritchie, has just been published. Lady Ritchie met many of the most interesting people in England in the course of her long life, which covered the period from 1838 to 1919, and in this little book she has ranged far back into the past and given glimpses of her father, of Tennyson and his wife, of Mr and Mrs Browning, of Adelaide Kemble and many others. There are anecdotes of Thackeray in his younger days, when he was beginning to write and wishing rather to paint, and later on when he was in the full tide of literary production.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
=Ath= p126 Ja 23 ’20 40w
“If at times, in spite of its delicate artistry, the narrative grows a little prim, there is usually a twinkle of humour to light it up again before many lines are past. Our old-world hostess is too skilful to let us get dull.”
+ =Ath= p303 Mr 5 ’20 420w
=N Y Times= p15 S 12 ’20 60w
“This little volume is slight but pleasing.”
+ =Outlook= 125:125 My 19 ’20 80w
“It is more enjoyable than many books of reminiscence. Lady Ritchie abounds in good-humor.”
+ =Review= 2:522 My 15 ’20 200w
“Lady Ritchie interests and amuses us without falling either into the distortions of malice, or the sentimentally which dwells on the ‘dear old days,’ and leaves us as cold as if we were listening to a canting preacher.”
+ =Sat R= 129:189 F 21 ’20 750w
“Charming little book.”
+ =Spec= 124:54 Ja 10 ’20 140w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 My 1 ’20 120w
“Lady Ritchie knew what was interesting and what was not; she lived intensely in her memories, and she can take her readers to live in them with her.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p19 Ja 8 ’20 1100w
=RITCHIE, ROBERT WELLES.= Trails to Two Moons. il *$1.75 (3½c) Little
20–17007
The story is of the Wyoming cattle country at the time when the struggle for existence was on between the cattle rangers and the sheep-raising homesteaders. Little by little the latter were encroaching upon the former’s grazing lands. Three figures stand out in the tale, Zang Whistler, the cattle-thieving outlaw, Original Bill Blunt, inspector for the Stockman’s alliance, and Hilma Ring, a sheepherder’s daughter, a dazzling but heartless beauty. A lonely life of hardship and struggle had cut her off from all femininity and hardened her heart. It is the taming of this shrew that tempts both Zang and Original. Amid killings and rough horse-play, during which Hilma has her fill of terror, loneliness and despair, nursing her hatred for Original, the latter’s character and power finally subdue and awaken the woman in her. Even Zang, whose wild career is but an offshoot of his inherent integrity, receives Hilma’s recognition of his loyalty and devotion.
* * * * *
“The story possesses a sort of crude strength besides exciting incidents; its characters are fairly well individualized; its descriptions are vivid, and its fights colorful. However, we cannot say that the conversion of the heroine’s hate for the hero to love for him is convincing. The strings that pull the character hither and thither at this point of the story are altogether too evident.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p21 O 23 ’20 110w
“The story is ultra-romantic and the characters not essentially of flesh and blood—mere types and caricatures. But the setting in which the story occurs is painted so very vividly that it lends the air of reality to ‘Trails to Two Moons’ which the characters themselves and their vigorous actions lack.”
+ − =N Y Times= p25 D 26 ’20 320w
=ROBBINS, CLARENCE AARON (TOD ROBBINS).= Silent, white and beautiful; and other stories. *$1.90 (3c) Boni & Liveright
Short stories by an author who makes a specialty of the gruesome. Contents: Silent, white and beautiful; Who wants a green bottle? Wild Wullie, the waster; For art’s sake. There is a preface by Robert H. Davis.
* * * * *
“If these grotesque and morbid tales were just a bit better, they might even be great! But failing of greatness, they are so horrible as to be occasionally funny.”
− + =Bookm= 52:550 F ’21 100w
“The horror of the truth in daily life is greater than the horror Mr Robbins seeks in his imaginative and improbable wanderings among murderers and spirits.” R. D. W.
− =Boston Transcript= p8 Ja 29 ’21 350w
“Genuine horror requires a certain inner logic, a subtle plausibility not discoverable in these stories.” L. B.
− =Freeman= 2:358 D 22 ’20 170w
“There is no doubt that he has an eerie fancy, great fertility of invention, and not a little psychological insight. But he is unequal to the point of eccentricity. Two of his four narratives, ‘Wild Wullie, the waster,’ and ‘Who wants a green bottle,’ are simply inept. ‘Silent, white and beautiful,’ on the other hand, has an original and strangely vivid central idea.”
+ − =Nation= 111:596 N 24 ’20 230w
“Frankly tales of terror, built upon most improbable foundations, they would be revolting in the hands of a lesser artist.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p17 D 4 ’20 100w
“The author has dipped his pen in blood while steeping his literary ego in diablerie, and the outcome is a feast of melodrama and morbidity that leads logically to nightmare.”
− + =N Y Times= p27 Ja 2 ’21 420w
=ROBERTS, CECIL EDRIC MORNINGTON.= Poems. *$1.50 Stokes 821
20–1006
This collection of poems falls into three parts: Poems; The dark years; and Other poems. John Masefield writes a preface to the collection and says of the author: “When I think of the poems, I feel that he must be young; not young enough perhaps to have been carried away, or destroyed, by the recent great events, but young enough to see them clearly, to respond to them, and to realize that the tragedy of them has been the tragedy of the young, the blasting of the young, for the benefit and at the bidding of the old.... That, in the main, is the tragedy of Mr Roberts’ latest and best poems, in the volume here printed.” In another place he says of the poet: “He has a quick eye for characters, a lively sense of rhythm, and a fondness for people, which should make his future work as remarkable as his present promise.”
* * * * *
“Will be liked by those who enjoy conventional poetry touching on a note of sadness.”
+ =Booklist= 16:235 Ap ’20
“These labored verses move us not at all. The book is full of echoes and infelicitous imitations. The book, in short, is full of clichés of thought and phrase.” H: A. Lappin
− =Bookm= 51:213 Ap ’20 100w
“The experience which has made Mr Roberts ‘old’ to his friends, has by a curious paradox kept him gloriously young in his dreams and visions. These poems, even embedding such grim interludes as is represented by the ‘Charing cross’ poems, are the poems of youth; but of a youth who has been trebly stored with the ancient wisdom and ways of the world.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ja 24 ’20 2150w
“Delightful poems chiefly on Arcadian themes.”
+ |=Cleveland= p52 My ’20 60w
Reviewed by Mark Van Doren
=Nation= 111:sup415 O 13 ’20 60w
“It is not enough to be high-spirited, and warm-hearted, and quick-witted, and brave and sensitive—and this poet is all these. To feel splendidly is one thing, to shape the feeling another. Mr Roberts at present is apt to throw off his feeling into rhyme without due concentration, as though assuring us of his exuberance and bidding us be content with that.” J: Drinkwater
+ − =N Y Times= 25:240 My 9 ’20 380w
“The many lyric poems are a flower-garden in which the reader can spend a long time, and to which he will want to return. Mr Roberts writes gracefully and melodiously, and is never elaborate or artificial.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8a Ap 4 ’20 700w
=ROBERTS, RICHARD.= Unfinished program of democracy. *$2 Huebsch 321.8
(Eng ed 20–6572)
“‘The unfinished programme of democracy.’ by Dr Richard Roberts, readily divides itself into two parts: the first three chapters in which the author sets forth what he considers to be the causes of the present crisis in democracy, and the rest of the book in which he specifies in detail and supports with argument the measures and changes that would, in his view, fulfil the democratic ideal.” (Freeman). “The main lines of practical doctrine on which the discussion is conducted are—a national minimum and a secure standard of life universally enforced and provided for; the limitation of profits; the elimination of the ‘social parasite’; the economic independence of women; the abandonment of the dogma of ‘State sovereignty’ and the recognition in the organization of government of the geographical and the vocational unit; the growth of the spirit and practice of social fellowship; a democratic world knit by a federation of democratic nations.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
* * * * *
“Mr Roberts’s work is one to be read and inwardly digested.”
+ =Ath= p1048 O 17 ’19 130w
=Booklist= 17:142 Ja ’21
=Brooklyn= 12:125 My ’20 30w
“It is only the first part of the book, in which Dr Roberts states his social theory, that in the view of the writer of this note exposes itself to criticism.” T. M. Ave-Lallemant
+ − =Freeman= 1:428 Jl 14 ’20 1100w
=Ind= 103:319 S 11 ’20 30w
“The book is both refreshing and heartening and deserves a wide reading, not only for the soundness of its ideas but for the distinction and charm of its temper, and the vividness of its style.”
+ =Nation= 111:330 S 18 ’20 620w
“He writes with force and charm; and he gives evidence of wide reading and of serious reflection. But when he comes to chapter VII, ‘The organization of government,’ his hand fails him.” W. J. Ghent
+ − =Review= 3:316 O 13 ’20 300w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 F 7 ’20 60w
“It is a scholarly book by a man of vision.” A. J. Lien
+ =Survey= 45:73 O 9 ’20 180w
“One of the ablest of the ministers of the English Presbyterian church here discusses the social problem in a comprehensive and practical way, with a full appreciation of new conditions and new trends of thought.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p550 O 9 ’19 180w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:107 Je ’20 60w
=ROBEY, GEORGE.= My rest cure. il *$1.40 (4c) Stokes 827
19–13978
The author informs his readers that he is tired of being funny, that he has had a collapse and needs a complete rest, and he is going to tell about his holiday in the country in his natural serious and solemn manner. By the skin of his teeth he succeeds in escaping from home without his wife and the entire family. His haven of rest is the Sunrise Arms of Little Slocum. The dream and the reality of Little Slocum are not quite the same. He almost succumbs to the ministrations of the sewing-bee of Little Slocum mothers, but after a ten mile flight in pajamas and mackintosh and rubber boots he catches a train that takes him back to the city. The illustrations by John Hassall add to the solemnity of the book.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:246 Ap ’20
“It may be that Mr Robey converses too much about nothing in particular, it may be that his humor is not that of America; but various episodes in his book are excruciatingly funny.”
+ =Boston Transcript= Mr 13 ’20 350w
“We cannot say that we have been vastly exhilarated by ‘My rest cure.’”
− =Sat R= 128:160 Ag 16 ’19 340w
=ROBINSON, ALBERT GARDNER.= Old New England houses. il *$5 Scribner 728
20–16280
“‘Old New England houses’ has about one hundred sumptuously printed views, mostly of the type of plain, unpretentious small country houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which we roughly classify as ‘colonial,’ though quite a few of the more pretentious mansion type of house, such as were built by the wealthier merchants and shipmasters in the larger coast towns, are included. The subjects are selected from an artistic rather than an architectural or antiquarian viewpoint. The first few pages are given to an untechnical talk on the varied types and styles of houses and where one may hunt for them with reasonable chance of success, but the greater part of the book is devoted to the pictures of the houses themselves, an entire page being usually given to each print.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 S 29 ’20 280w
“The text of this book is slight, not wholly unsuggestive perhaps, but disappointing. The illustrations, however, are of positive interest.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p14 O 23 ’20 520w
Reviewed by W. B. Chase
+ =N Y Times= p2 S 12 ’20 2450w
+ =Outlook= 126:202 S 29 ’20 70w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:314 O 13 ’20 30w
“Like most books of the sort, ‘Old New England houses’ is more to be valued for its pictures than for its text. Here the text, however, is entirely adequate as a brief introduction to upward of a hundred photographs.”
+ =Review= 3:479 N 17 ’20 180w
“‘Old New England houses’ will be interesting and useful.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 3 ’20 260w
=ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON.= Lancelot. *$1.75 Seltzer 811
20–12049
“In ‘Lancelot’ Mr Robinson has continued the study of Camelot which he began three years ago in ‘Merlin.’” (Nation) “We open at the period in the Arthurian triangle when Lancelot, who has seen the grail, has determined to leave Camelot and Guinevere forever, and follow the lonely marsh-light that the knights hailed as the true gleam. Guinevere tempts him out of this. Arthur and his knights return, and find what the purblind king has shut his eyes to so long. Lancelot flees, and Guinevere is to be burnt at the stake. The greatest of the knights returns and rescues her, taking her to his castle of Joyous Gard; from which he later surrenders her. But the poison of the situation has raised up enemies in the king’s own household, especially his illegitimate son, Modred, and Lancelot, persuaded too late to go to the king’s aid, arrives after the battle in the north, in which king and bastard alike receive their death-wounds. He pays one final visit to Guinevere, habited as a nun, but still enough of her own self to listen to Lancelot’s belated plea that she rejoin him, and now enough of her new self to refuse it. Then the passion-wrecked knight rides away after that will-o-the-wisp whose presence men still vainly seek without themselves.” (N Y Call)
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:22 O ’20
“Any modern treatment of the Arthur material challenges comparison at once with some of the illustrious names in English literature: Tennyson, Swinburne, Arnold, and Morris, to mention only the best known. Mr Robinson’s ‘Lancelot’ is no misbegotten changeling in this notable company. The analysis is subtle, unsentimental, and contagiously sympathetic.” R. M. Weaver
+ =Bookm= 51:457 Je ’20 520w
“In this narrative Mr Robinson not only proves by reason of thought and substance his position as the greatest of all living American poets, but also by the supreme consciousness and evocation of beauty.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 Je 12 ’20 1350w
+ =Cleveland= p86 O ’20 80w
“The verse moves with dignity and attains at times even a detachable beauty, and yet the memorable lines are comparatively few—for this author.”
+ − =Dial= 69:103 Jl ’20 120w
“It has no pictorial exuberance. Scarcely a line could be quoted for self-sufficient imagery. For the rest, the beauty of the poem is a low-keyed, intense but quiet beauty of cadence and rhythm. Its matter speaks with restraint and with completion. Its power lies in the immanence of its people and their struggle with their fate.” C. M. Rourke
+ =Freeman= 2:164 O 27 ’20 550w
“The verse of ‘Lancelot’ is as athletic and spare as an Indian runner, though it walks not runs. At the same time, he varies his verse in admirable accord with situation and character. Since Browning there has been no finer dramatic dialogue in verse than that spoken by Lancelot and Guinevere and no apter characterization than the ironical talk of Gawaine. One must go out of verse, to George Meredith and Henry James, to find its match. But Mr Robinson has the advantage of verse.” C. V. D.
+ =Nation= 110:622 My 8 ’20 650w
“Edwin Arlington Robinson can say more in two lines than most poets can in several verses. His vision is somber; it is marked by an uncompromising consistency in the handling of eternal values.” H. S. Gorman
+ =New Repub= 23:259 Jl 28 ’20 1150w
“‘Lancelot’ is life, albeit a gray and grim vision of it. It is a great tale, greatly told. American poetry is richer for the aching disillusionment of Mr Robinson’s art.” Clement Wood
+ =N Y Call= p11 My 16 ’20 750w
“It has been well thought out, well felt and well made. This is not to say that it is a great poem, however, or that no important criticism can be brought against it. When he draws personality the lines are firm and flawless. But can he show us the color and texture of life, and make us feel the heat of it in those old days of myth and magic?” Marguerite Wilkinson
+ − =N Y Times= 25:170 Ap 11 ’20 1050w
“Its supreme beauty lies in its analysis of character and motive.”
+ =Outlook= 127:67 Ja 12 ’21 780w
“Mr Robinson’s ‘Lancelot’ is a finer achievement than his ‘Merlin.’ Splendidly imagined and unerringly wrought, this book reaffirms the conviction that Mr Robinson is today the most significant figure in American verse.” E: B. Reed
+ =Yale R n s= 10:205 O ’20 280w
=ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON.= Three taverns. *$1.50 Macmillan 811
20–15484
“Edwin Arlington Robinson’s new volume of miscellaneous poems, ‘The three taverns’ is likely to earn him—if he has not already earned—a reputation as the Henry James among poets. His fondness for portraying the complex facets of character in an oblique light and by means of inscrutable hints and sinuous innuendoes has led him to further workings of the vein of dramatic lyric opened four years ago by his famous ‘Ben Johnson entertains a man from Stratford.’ The present collection contains seven long poems of this sort, revealing in monolog or dialog a moment in the life of St Paul, Lazarus, Brown of Harper’s ferry, Hamilton, and real or imagined people of lesser note.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“‘The man against the sky’ indicated very clearly the place of the poet, it was very high—how high we had not the standards by which to measure. ‘The three taverns’ brings us much nearer to him, closer within the embrace of his sympathies, and, by the same law, lifts him much farther above us.” S: Roth
+ =Bookm= 52:361 D ’20 500w
“The substance of the longer poems in this book is more profoundly grounded in Mr Robinson’s philosophy of human nature and experience than in any of his other poems. Even in the shorter poems we find this power distilled until almost achingly the meanings break through a speech that is simplified to a bareness of figure or illusion. Take the poem ‘The mill’ and say if a tragedy could be so mercilessly told with the economy of speech by any other living poet.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 S 11 ’20 1850w
“Here is a great virtue that belongs peculiarly to Mr Robinson among American poets. His work is always packed with thought. ‘The three taverns’ is a big book and it grows with each reading. It is the work of lonely hours, of unfailing meditation, and of authentic genius, if such a thing may be admitted to exist in these troublous times.” H. S. Gorman
+ =Freeman= 2:186 N 3 ’20 1150w
“It is a sombre book, ‘The three taverns,’ sombre and polished to a high dark sheen, and the bitter tang of it remains in the memory after reading.” C. F. G.
+ =Grinnell R= 16:332 Ja ’21 340w
“Separate enough in themselves, they yet stand with respect to each other in a sort of pattern, like the monoliths of a Druid circle.... What holds them in the pattern is that tone of mingled wisdom and irony, that color of dignity touched with colloquial flexibility, that clear, hard, tender blank verse and those unforgettable eight-line stanzas and dramatic sonnets which go to make up one of the most scrupulous and valuable of living poets.” C. V. D.
+ =Nation= 111:453 O 20 ’20 1300w
“‘The three taverns’ is a finished product. It is a book such as only a master, touched with the authentic fire of genius, could make possible. Within its 120 pages is crystallized the best of modern American poetry. No European could find better introduction to American achievement in letters than through the poems that are contained in ‘Three taverns.’” H. S. Gorman
+ =N Y Times= p18 Ja 16 ’21 1250w
“Little of his old magic of intonation and rhythm is lacking from ‘The three taverns,’ even though the intellectual appeal overmasters at times the poetic.”
+ =Outlook= 127:67 Ja 12 ’21 680w
“Mr Robinson’s verse, as always, flows with limpid purity, but his quaintly compounded vocabulary and his intellectual penetration compel the closest attention to his pages. Readers who have the patience or the agility to follow Mr Robinson are not meanly rewarded.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p10 O 7 ’20 450w
=ROBINSON, EDWIN MEADE (TED ROBINSON, pseud.).= Piping and panning. *$1.75 Harcourt 811
20–16520
The author conducts a column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and this is a volume of his humorous newspaper verse. Among the titles are: To a lady; The lecture; The story of Ug; Things I despise; Things I like; Some Anglicisms; The drawbacks of humor; Love lyrics; We Olympians; The critic’s apology; In various keys; The typewriter’s song; Rural delights; Butter and eggs; The average man.
* * * * *
“Of its kind, Edwin Meade Robinson’s ‘Piping and panning’ is of a pleasant quality. No man may trifle with the muse day after day with impunity, but Mr Robinson has been able to command her support in a fair average of instances. His book discloses a nimble fancy, a facile dominion of vocabulary and verse forms, and a ready wit.” L. B.
+ − =Freeman= 2:190 N 3 ’20 160w
“Many of the verses, it is true, are occasional and uninspired; but the book is a wholly satisfactory one for the good things it has in abundance.” Clement Wood
+ − =N Y Call= p8 Ja 9 ’21 180w
=ROBINSON, ELIOT HARLOW.= Maid of Mirabelle. il *$1.75 (2c) Page
20–12599
A story of the last days of the war and the period immediately following. The scene is laid in a village of Lorraine. Here Daniel Steele, an American Friend who has come to France to do relief and reconstruction work, falls under the spell of Joan le Jeune, the maid of Mirabelle. When Daniel had left home he had taken with him the promise of his foster-sister Faith to be his wife on his return. But for a little time Joan makes him forget Faith, and Joan, to whom he brings the romance of strange lands, almost forgets her own soldier lover Jean. But when Jean is under suspicion she turns to him, and Daniel, too, recovering from a wound, finds his thoughts bound up in Faith and is ready to return to his own country leaving Joan to her happiness.
* * * * *
“Somewhat too sentimental in execution, but simple and pretty.”
+ − =Outlook= 126:67 S 8 ’20 20w
=ROCHE, ARTHUR SOMERS.= Uneasy street. il *$1.75 (2c) Cosmopolitan bk. corporation
20–2645
He was an impecunious clerk before the war, but won a commission and was swept into New York gilt-edged society by his millionaire chum after their discharge. He goes the pace and one night of it finds him in debt and in love and temptation staring him in the face in the form of a trunkful of money under his hotel bed. He falls for it, takes what he needs with intentions to refund, but is found out before that happy event can take place. Then his manhood reasserts itself, he returns the stolen money and makes a clean confession of his guilt to his employer, his chum’s father. He is forgiven and is reinstated in the good graces of his fiancée, his chum and gilt-edged society.
* * * * *
“In construction the present story is by far the best he has written.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ap 7 ’20 120w
“That the story is devoid of all plausibility will not detract from its interest to such readers as enjoy this sort of a book.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:120 Mr 14 ’20 220w
Reviewed by Joseph Mosher
=Pub W= 97:177 Ja 17 ’20 260w
=ROCHECHOUART, LOUIS VICTOR LÉON, comte de.=[2] Memoirs of the Count de Rochechouart; auth. tr. by Frances Jackson. *$5 Dutton
20–17881
“These memoirs are a first-class historical document of the period before and after the Napoleonic wars. The Count de Rochechouart was only a lad when the revolution broke out, and practically without money he made his way across Europe and took service with the Emperor of Russia, whom he served until 1814, when he was appointed to a military post under the restored Bourbons in Paris, and took a prominent part in the refounding of royalist France.”—Sat R
* * * * *
“His narrative is of absorbing interest, in itself: material enough for a dozen historical romances, told with vivacity, a wealth of illuminative anecdote. The version is faithful and admirably written, a valuable contribution to French and European history in our language.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p18 O 23 ’20 360w
“The Rochechouart memoirs become thin and unsatisfactory after the peace, and give few details of the new French society which Balzac was afterwards to describe so brilliantly; and with the count’s retirement into the country in 1822, they practically cease. But as they stand, they are a valuable contribution to a period of which we can never have too much information.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:340 O 23 ’20 630w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p648 O 7 ’20 950w
=ROE, A. S.= Chance and change in China. il *$3 (3c) Doran 915.1
20–11512
A book devoted not to political affairs but to the little alterations in custom that indicate social change and the influence of the outside world. Among the chapters are: The seductive city; The city of the river orchid; The black smoke [opium]; The dragon house; The gem-hill city; The serpent month; On the “river of broad sincerity”; The city of western peace; The pepper month; The contemptible one [woman]; A painted cake. The title given to this last chapter signifies “a thing that has come to nothing,” and refers to the republic, altho the author says, “Though to many the republic has become a ‘painted cake,’ some at least of the seeds scattered here and there in the days of its first youth have taken root.” There are many illustrations and an index.
* * * * *
“The accounts of travel and life in New China are fascinating, and Miss Roe’s book both promises and provides some rare hours of entertainment.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 21 ’20 400w
=Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 70w
“A varied and entertaining account of modern life in the Far East. It is by no means a serious book. Rather it appears to be a collection of more or less coherent reminiscences carried away by the author after traveling through parts of the country.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ag 13 ’20 280w
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p159 Mr 4 ’20 100w
“Her book does not lend itself to continuous reading, for it is both discursive and disjointed. Too retiring to weave a connecting thread out of the accidents that befell herself, too logical to put forward a reconciliation of contradictions that defy it, too honest to suggest a whole where she had seen but a small part, she leaves on the mind an idea of confusion—and that, perhaps, is the truest impression she could give of China at this period of chance and change.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p180 Mr 18 ’20 950w
=ROGET, FRANÇOIS ROGET.= Altitude and health. (Chadwick lib.) *$5 Dutton 612.27
(Eng ed SG20–68)
“Professor Roget, of Geneva, was invited by the Chadwick trustees to form one of their panel of lectures. The subject which he treats in the three lectures which he delivered for the Trust in 1914, and which are contained in this volume, has become, since the development of aviation, one of increasing importance; but the professor, though he does not ignore aviation, explores with great care and fullness the effect of altitude upon health and physique mainly from the point of view of the Alpine pedestrian climber and resident.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“The information contained in this book regarding climate appears on the whole to be accurate and reasonably complete. So much cannot be said regarding matters physiological. Whether on account of war prejudice or other cause a large mass of valuable German work is passed over almost in silence and even in the selections from English and American investigators the most important modern contribution is merely mentioned.” Yandell Henderson
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p8 O 30 ’20 1000w
“If, as undoubtedly is the case, there are still many people who dread the effects of unmitigated fresh air, and especially that of mountain resorts, these lectures should help to convert them to saner views.”
+ =Spec= 124:587 My 1 ’20 900w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p755 D 11 ’19 90w
=ROHMER, SAX, pseud. (ARTHUR SARSFIELD WARD).= Golden scorpion. *$1.75 (2c) McBride
20–7137
Mystery, magic and an element of indefinable horror enter into this story by the author of the Fu Manchu tales. Gaston Max, a famous Parisian detective, Inspector Dunbar of Scotland Yard, and Dr Keppel Stuart, an obscure London practitioner with an unusual knowledge of poisons, are all concerned in the case of the golden scorpion. For a time no one of them knows who or what the scorpion may be, altho this symbol is known in some way to be associated with a series of mysterious deaths in both London and Paris. Dr Stuart is drawn into the case when the beautiful and alluring Mlle Dorian comes to him as a patient. As in the author’s other stories there is a strong tinge of the oriental.
* * * * *
“A good mystery story.”
+ =Booklist= 17:75 N ’20
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
=Bookm= 51:582 Jl ’20 130w
+ =N Y Times= 25:22 Je 27 ’20 530w
Reviewed by Joseph Mosher
+ =Pub W= 97:1291 Ap 17 ’20 360w
=Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 20 ’20 220w
“It is a relief to have mystery and magic mixed up with good detective work after so great a glut of German espionage, and the reader will find the golden scorpion in a pleasing variety of unusual and unexpected situations.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p633 N 6 ’19 300w
=ROHMER, SAX, pseud. (ARTHUR SARSFIELD WARD).=[2] Green eyes of Bast. *$2 (2½c) McBride
20–18256
This story is of the unreal, and presupposes the existence of hybrid beings, half woman and half cat, born in Egypt in the month sacred to the goddess Bast. The fate of the individual or family upon which the enmity of such a being rests, may be imagined. The Coverly family in England is so marked, and one by one its members meet their deaths in various ghastly manners. To the police, who are naturally not in possession of the secret of the cat-woman, it is very mysterious. Altho they make many discoveries, what finally clears it all up is the confession of the Eurasian, Dr Damar Greefe, who had brought up the hybrid monstrosity in the interests of science. Though they are in league together, she finally masters him and the final tragedy is his death, for she eventually adds his murder to the already long list of fatalities of the story.
* * * * *
“Persons of experience know that, in shockers as in life, it is not the goal but the road there that matters, and their gratitude to the author will suffer no diminution because the villain’s explanatory discourse reveals some weak points in the construction of the story.”
+ − =Ath= p275 Ag 27 ’20 150w
+ − =N Y Times= p25 O 24 ’20 540w
“Mr Rohmer devotes himself to the production of atmosphere with his old skill.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p538 Ag 19 ’20 130w
=ROLLAND, ROMAIN.= Liluli. il *$2 Boni & Liveright 842
20–11590
“In ‘Liluli’ Romain Rolland has given to the world one of the most daring satires that have ever been written. Liluli is illusion, the ideal, the chimera, the eternal vamp of history. The time and place of the drama are fanciful. The stage is a ravine spanned by a footbridge. The human race is on the march—toward a mirage. There are peasants and intellectuals, diplomatists and socialists, satyrs and mountebanks, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, Truth and Opinion, the Gallipoulets and the Hurluberloches (who are at war), shopkeepers, peddlers and fettered brains. And Polichinello. He is the laughing brain. He is the eternal mocker. He believes in nothing and smiles at all things. He is the wisdom of folly. In the general crash on the bridge of the world, when the human race goes into the abyss, Polichinello goes with it. Everything collapses on him—the fighting people, furniture, crockery, poultry, stones, earth and the grand chorus of idealists. On top of the mess sits Liluli, her legs crossed, smiling and showing the tip of her tongue, her fore-finger to her nose.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:22 O ’20
“The play is a farce and a savage satire all in one. It is Aristophanic in its conception and working out, now bitter, now blatant, now indecent, and at times blasphemous. It would have been entirely possible to satirize hypocrisy and venality as playing potent parts in the stirring up of war without insulting religion and its God.”
− =Cath World= 112:408 D ’20 170w
“It is a strange and powerful book, this monstrous comedy of world-wide calamity. The logical necessity of the catastrophe, the inevitableness with which not only the vices, but even the virtues of her victims play into the hands of Liluli, make them susceptible to her lure, and hasten their doom, gives this weird farce the impressiveness of a Greek tragedy.” H. M. Evers
+ =Grinnell R= 15:258 O ’20 620w
“It is a pity that M. Rolland has chosen the now dominant symbolical forms for the embodiment of his fable. Never so much as today did art need to speak directly. ‘Liluli’ is beautiful and memorable. But its literary sophistication stands in the way of its broader effectiveness.” Ludwig Lewisohn
+ − =Nation= 111:18 Jl 3 ’20 370w
“Probably Rolland had in mind to write somewhat after the manner of Aristophanes. Certainly he has the necessary verve and gusto and satiric sting. But the Greek stuck to themes that could be represented on the stage. The Frenchman has tried to sweep all humanity into the scene, and the result is that you, the reader, have to create a brain theater for the work in order to realize its true values. It would have been far more effective for most people in some other form.”
+ − =N Y Call= p10 Jl 25 ’20 550w
“‘Liluli’ is a memorable book. It demolishes with great Rabelaisian and Aristophanic guffaws the ridiculous and anarchistic societies that we live in. The book is a bridge to a new world—still nebulous, not even yet a mirage.” B: de Casseres
+ =N Y Times= 25:2 Jl 11 ’20 860w
=Outlook= 125:467 Jl 7 ’20 30w
“‘Liluli’ is written in behalf of what is, or was or should be, a noble cause; it is written with an art and grace which should have fitted it to charm and to serve; yet its spirit and methods are such as to dispel that charm and to annul that service.”
− + =Review= 3:151 Ag 18 ’20 950w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 Ag 23 ’20 950w
“Perhaps Romain Rolland is scarcely of the race and lineage of the master satirists, and his ‘Liluli’ may not be the ideal satire for this crazy age; but Rolland shows many of their great traits, and ‘Liluli’ is so far the one outstanding satire of its time.”
+ =Theatre Arts Magazine= 4:348 O ’20 410w
“Here are all the arguments and experiences with which the pacifist is familiar incisively personified—not without a certain strong tang of a former literary age.”
+ =World Tomorrow= 3:351 N ’20 130w
=ROLT-WHEELER, FRANCIS WILLIAM.= Boy with the U.S. trappers. (U.S. service ser.) il *$1.50 (2c) Lothrop 639
19–17885
This unusually well illustrated volume follows the plan of the other books of the series in combining information with narrative. In telling the story of young Gavin Keary, from the time he is left alone to shift for himself till he is engaged as a trapper by the U.S. biological survey, the author manages to impart a great deal of information about the work of this branch of the government service, the conditions of modern trapping and the ways of wild animals.
* * * * *
“The average reader will find it interesting and boys will find it even thrilling.”
+ =Booklist= 16:208 Mr ’20
“It avoids the insipidity that goes with most boys’ books and is packed full of information about ranch life.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 D 20 ’19 100w
=ROOF, KATHARINE METCALF.=[2] Great demonstration. *$2 (3c) Appleton
20–19435
Roger Lessing and Terry Endicott are both in love with Lucretia Dale. She is in love with neither until on the eve of Terry’s departure for the war, she realizes that he has her heart. But report comes that he is dead, and half against her own will, she consents to marry though she cannot love Roger. Roger has always been a disciple of New thought, believing “What I desire, will come to me,” but even his desire for Lucretia’s love cannot bring it to him. Then Terry is miraculously returned to life from a German prison; and Roger’s desire for Lucretia’s love is intensified. From the creed of New thought he advances into more dangerous forms of eastern mysticism to gain his end until finally the power that he sought to use masters him, and he meets his death in his last effort to control Lucretia’s mind and love.
* * * * *
“It cannot be said that the psychic element in this novel is either interesting or convincing. On the other hand, the sketches of daily existence in the ‘studio’ are amusing and the general atmosphere of the story is pleasing.”
+ − =N Y Times= p24 Ja 16 ’21 430w
=ROOSEVELT, KERMIT.= Happy hunting-grounds. *$1.75 Scribner 799
20–19277
“In the opening chapter, the author gives an intimate picture of his father, as he remembers him in the rôle of companion during numerous hunting expeditions. There are numerous personal incidents and reminiscences. Other chapters have to do with hunting in America, including trips into Mexico. ‘Book collecting in South America’ recalls another purpose of a trip into a foreign land. At the end of the volume a sketch is given of Seth Bullock, his father’s friend, sometimes called the ‘last of the frontiersmen,’ a type celebrated and adored by Roosevelt.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:145 Ja ’21
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 30 ’20 420w
“The volume is interesting and well written throughout—Kermit Roosevelt has inherited his father’s knack of clear description and vigorous English.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p13 O 30 ’20 130w
+ =R of Rs= 62:669 D 20 140w
“Will be welcomed by the many admirers of the former president, those who admired him as a man, and not only as a political leader.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 O 19 ’20 190w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p843 D 9 ’20 150w
=ROPER, WILLIAM W.= Winning football. il *$2 (4½c) Dodd 797
20–17071
The author distinguishes between an old and a new way of playing football. The old way “was first and last a trial of speed and strength and weight and courage” in which cleverness was at a discount and mere pounds and inches at a premium. The new way is “thinking football,” for which the author claims every manly virtue and that it is “a splendid preparatory school for life.” Of this game the book proposes to set forth the underlying principles. Contents: Modern football a battle of wits; The spirit behind the team; The routine of early season practise; Every man in every play; A real quarter-back must have brains; Running the team; The kicking game; The schedule; The day of the big game; Illustrations.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:145 Ja ’21
“A readable unusually valuable book for any one who is coaching football.”
+ =Ind= 104:249 N 13 ’20 40w
“It is not only informational, but inspirational. The attitude throughout is that of the highminded amateur sportsman of the best type. For this reason, if for no other, it is a book that most men and all boys should read.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p11 N 6 ’20 210w
+ =N Y Times= p25 Ja 30 ’21 160w
=ROSE, JOSHUA.= Complete practical machinist. il $3 Baird 621.9
20–2274
In the twentieth, greatly enlarged edition of this work, the reader is introduced “to the machine tools in which the cutting tools are used, whereas in the earlier editions the cutting tools only were treated upon.” (Preface) The present edition has 432 illustrations. The work originally appeared in 1894.
=ROSEBORO, VIOLA.= Storms of youth. *$1.75 (2½c) Scribner
20–8273
Just before Perry Grantley left college, a faculty incident revealed to him in a flash what “a sporty thing” it would be to be a man. It clinched his decision to stay in the old home town and fight the political graft that had crept into the local government there. In the story we follow Perry’s crusade against the insidious corruption of the town and his personal vicissitudes in matters of the heart—how his unguarded marriage to a flower-like girl with an unborn soul resulted in early widowerhood and his final union with the playmate of his youth whom he had always loved. Incidentally a picture of small town life, its outstanding figures, with their normal, their sub- and super-normal qualities, unfolds itself, leaving the reader with the impression that life with its successes, its failures and its sorrows is all a part of “the beauty and wonder.”
* * * * *
“There is a very vivid picture of the life of the town from the beginning of the book. One must admire the author’s skill in visualizing these varied elements.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ’20 370w
“The characters are well realized, the situations are poignant, and the method of narration becomes progressively more coherent and telling.”
+ =Dial= 69:210 Ag ’20 100w
=N Y Times= 25:30 Jl 4 ’20 180w
“The book would be a better one if the end were reached a little sooner. The novel contains a good many characters, but the author keeps firm hold on each one of them, and their variety helps to give verisimilitude to this tale of love and politics in a small American town.”
+ =N Y Times= p29 Ag 15 ’20 700w
=Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 40w
“My feeling about the whole book is that it is too elaborate a mechanism, with a weakness at its vitals. Finally, we are reluctantly aware of the style as artful in its polish and saliency. We feel that the writer has labored well, but we feel that she has labored.” H. W. Boynton
− + =Review= 3:272 S 29 ’20 280w
=ROSENFELD, PAUL.= Musical portraits. *$2.50 (3c) Harcourt 780
20–8863
In these “interpretations of twenty modern composers” (Sub-title) the author characterizes the music of each and shows how each composer reflected the age in which he lived either in its entirety or in certain phases and according to the musician’s temperament. The composers are: Wagner; Strauss; Moussorgsky; Liszt; Berlioz; Franck; Debussy; Ravel; Borodin; Rimsky-Korsakoff; Rachmaninoff; Scriabine; Strawinsky; Mahler; Reger; Schoenberg; Sibelius; Loeffler; Ornstein; Bloch. The appendix consists of short biographical notes of each composer.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:304 Je ’20
“Mr Rosenfeld knows how to write. This fact alone would make him of the minority among those who write at and about music. His style is nervous, clear, ironical if not humorous, and he uses words with precision. A well-written, interesting, sincere, exasperating book. In other words, a book worth reading.” Deems Taylor
+ − =Dial= 69:313 S ’20 3150w
“Each is a sort of snapshot of the essential personality of a musician, and all taken together make up a gallery of modern composers so penetrating, vivid and trenchant that no reader is likely to forget them. The method used is the impressionist. Inevitably, the special pitfall of a method like Mr Rosenfeld’s is over-subjectivity and sentimentalism, with its resultant turgidity and tendency to ‘fine writing.’ Mr Rosenfeld’s first book of essays at once establishes him as one of the few writers on music able really to illuminate their subject.” D. G. Mason
+ − =Freeman= 1:332 Je 16 ’20 1600w
+ =Ind= 102:374 Je 12 ’20 190w
“Many of the fundamental ideas set forth have been voiced at one time or another by the more penetrating of European critics. Yet Mr Rosenfeld has displayed a marked faculty for reinvesting these ideas in fresh and striking habiliments, embroidering them with such originality and skill that they take a new aspect. The whole book, in fact, is an astounding exhibition of virtuoso writing.” Henrietta Straus
+ =Nation= 111:sup411 O 13 ’20 1550w
“For its many good qualities, this book is deserving of unstinted praise. For one thing, it is, I believe, the first noteworthy attempt to take an accurate and full-size measurement of the music makers of our day, and for another, the critical yard stick is applied by a hand equally as artistic as it is dexterous. The only annoyance I experienced in reading the book was due to a feeling that, in parts, many of the pages were overwritten.” Max Endicoff
+ − =N Y Call= p10 Jl 18 ’20 260w
“Mr Rosenfeld delights in vivid colors. At moments, to be sure, one sees a tendency to overdo this eloquence; to pass too suddenly from rhapsody to invective, and from praise to blame. But even with such faults—perhaps because of them—these ‘Twenty portraits’ are in their own field unique.” C: H: Meltzer
+ − =Review= 3:456 N 10 ’20 950w
“There is an abundance of subtlety, of ‘style,’ of smart theories that are more preoccupied with themselves and their inner consistency than with their subject-matter.”
− =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ag 31 ’20 380w
=ROSS, EDWARD ALSWORTH.= Principles of sociology. (Century social science ser.) *$4 Century 301
20–9364
“This is not merely another textbook in sociology but the exposition of a system of sociology which is the result of seventeen years of work. The work begins with a brief treatment of social population. In a limited but strong treatment of Social forces, Ross contends that social laws are not physical but psychical, following Ward in the theory that the social forces are human desires. Part III, on Social processes, contains the bulk of the book—480 pages. This is subdivided into thirty-eight chapters, including such subjects as association, domination, exploitation, opposition, stimulation, personal competition, adaptation, cooperation, stratification, gradation, commercialization, expansion, ossification, estrangement, individualization, liberation, and transformation. Under Social products are treated uniformities, standards, groups and institutions. The book closes with four chapters on sociological principles—anticipation, simulation, individualization and balance.”—Survey
* * * * *
“No one preparing to be a professional social scientist, whatever his particular division of labor, can afford to be ignorant of this book, or even only superficially acquainted with it. Henceforth the student of social science who has not assimilated it is undertrained. It is a luminous revelation of realities of the common life.” A. W. Small
+ =Am J Soc= 26:110 Jl ’20 1250w
+ =Booklist= 17:15 O ’20
“Mr Ross’s cardinal fault is lack of historical-mindedness. He accepts as absolute the standards found or conceived in his own social environment and seems generally incapable of a Kantian critique of their validity. Yet with all its defects ‘The principles of sociology’ remains a work of real utility. Though the author’s resolute determination not to think anything through may deter the philosophical student, the vast scope of the book with its wealth of illustrative material may commend it to the teacher of sociology.” R. H. Lowie
+ − =Nation= 111:sup418 O 13 ’20 1450w
“The tone of this book is generous and whole-souled and the reader is thereby predisposed from the outset. The style goes with the tone. It is generously expansive to the verge of breeziness. By reason of its qualities of tone, style, and the rest this book ought to be of use in colleges and to the general reader.” A. G. Keller
+ =N Y Evening Post= p10 O 23 ’20 1100w
“Few writers have the ability to present a subject in as interesting a manner as Ross. His style is pungent, clear and clean-cut.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 25 ’20 680w
“It is not only the most important sociological work of the past few months but without question the most important since the appearance of Todd’s ‘Theories of social progress,’ and possibly since Ward’s ‘Pure sociology.’ The book is not only a masterpiece as a scientific work but it is intensely interesting.” G. S. Dow
+ =Survey= 44:591 Ag 2 ’20 740w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:107 Je ’20 90w
=ROSS, SIR RONALD.=[2] Revels of Orsera. *$2.50 (2c) Dutton
21–665
This medieval romance purports to be based on some historical facts and on a manuscript by one Johannes Murinus, found in the library of the University at Bâle. The story is illustrative of the mystical conception that good and evil flow from the same source and are interchangeable and the result is a novel interpretation of dual personality. A proud mother of twins—one of whom is a deformed dwarf, albeit with a beautiful poetic spirit—thinks that by murdering him his spirit will enter into a corporeally beautiful demon, who obtrudes himself upon her in a dream, and thus make spirit and body one in beauty. She is correct in her first surmise but to her dismay, the body of the son also lives on with the spirit of the demon she has ousted. A second time she attempts to kill him in his new guise but only effects another exchange.
* * * * *
“It is written with a swash-buckling air, which reproduces with curious effectiveness the mediæval period in which it is laid.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p11 N 13 ’20 140w
“Always the reader feels that the volume is the result of a fullness of rare knowledge which enables its author to pick and choose as he lists, with the calm certainty that whatever he writes will bear the stamp not only of literary artistry, but of absolute originality.”
+ =N Y Times= p16 N 28 ’20 600w
“The author’s invention remains at a high level throughout the story, and it is not till near the end that the practised novel reader begins to suspect his secret, but his vocabulary every now and then becomes too modern for the atmosphere such a story imperatively demands.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:486 D 11 ’20 130w
“‘The revels of Orsera’ would claim admiration on its merits quite apart from the antecedents of the author. When they are taken into account it moves the critic to something like amazement. Regarded merely as a story, ‘The revels of Orsera’ is continuously exciting, prodigal of surprises and often genuinely if grotesquely humorous.”
+ =Spec= 125:280 Ag 28 ’20 480w
“It is an extraordinary story, in which most of the principal characters come to a bad end, for which the reader cannot honestly be very sorry. But there is one thing that he will have noticed by that time, which is that the descriptions of Alpine scenery and atmosphere, which can only be due to personal observation, stand out with a far brighter vividness then all the medieval fineries.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p383 Je 17 ’20 850w
=ROSS, VICTOR.= Evolution of the oil industry. il *$1.50 (5c) Doubleday 665
20–19271
Beginning with the first mention of “oil out of the flinty rock” in Deuteronomy and the ancients’ acquaintance with it in the earliest historical records, the book shows that petroleum is a comparatively new agent for the service of mankind and the latest of earth’s riches man has learned to adapt to his needs. The development of the industry is described from the boring of the first well in 1859 to the present time. The book is illustrated and the contents are: Petroleum in history and legend; What is petroleum? Dawn of America’s petroleum industry; Founder of the petroleum industry; Petroleum as a world industry; Locating the oil well; Drilling the oil well; Collecting and transporting crude: the pipe line; Refining and manufacturing petroleum products; Petroleum and other industries; Petroleum on the seven seas; Petroleum in the great war; America’s investment in petroleum; Petroleum in the future.
=ROTHERY, AGNES EDWARDS (MRS HARRY ROGERS PRATT) (AGNES EDWARDS, pseud.).= Old coast road from Boston to Plymouth. il *$2.50 (6½c) Houghton 974.4
20–26574
Beginning with a description of old Boston, by the way of a foreword, the author invites the reader to accompany her on a trip along the earliest of the great roads in New England, the old coast road, connecting Boston with Plymouth. We are asked to travel comfortably “picking up what bits of quaint lore and half-forgotten history we most easily may.” The trip is charmingly reminiscent—a pleasure trip into history and old traditions, as the table of contents reveals: Dorchester Heights and the old coast road; Milton and the Blue hills; Shipbuilding at Quincy; The romance of Weymouth; Ecclesiastical Hingham; Cohasset ledges and marshes; The Scituate shore; Marshfield, the home of Daniel Webster; Duxbury homes; Kingston and its manuscripts; Plymouth. The illustrations and chapter vignettes are by Louis H. Ruyl.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:342 Jl ’20
Reviewed by W. A. Dyer
+ =Bookm= 52:126 O ’20 60w
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 Je 5 ’20 300w
“A pleasant, friendly guide book. It is charmingly illustrated.”
+ =Ind= 104:242 N 13 ’20 50w
“If one would journey down the old coast road from Boston to Plymouth, he will do well to choose Agnes Edwards for his guide. He will find each stage of his journey possessed of an individual charm.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:5 Jl 25 ’20 1000w
“The pen-and-ink illustrations are unusually attractive.”
+ =Outlook= 125:467 Jl 7 ’20 50w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Jl 13 ’20 200w
=ROUTZAHN, MRS MARY BRAYTON (SWAIN).=[2] Traveling publicity campaigns. il *$1.50 Russell Sage foundation 374
20–12390
The book comes under the “Survey and exhibit series” edited by Shelby M. Harrison and gives a review of the educational activities carried on in recent years by means of modern transportation facilities, i.e. “the putting of exhibits, demonstrations, motion pictures and other campaigning equipment on railroad trains, trolley cars, and motor trucks so that they may tour a whole city, a country, or cross a continent.” (Editor’s preface) Contents: Purposes and advantages of traveling campaigns; How trains have been used in campaigning; Campaigning with motor vehicles; Advance publicity and organization; The message of the tour; Exhibit cars; The tour of the truck or train; Follow-up work; Appendix, bibliography, index and illustrations.
* * * * *
=Ann Am Acad= 93:226 Ja ’21 40w
“Home economics workers who are touching the extension work field will find this volume indispensable.” B. R. Andrews
+ =J Home Econ= 13:89 F ’21 220w
=ROWLAND, HENRY COTTRELL.= Duds. *$1.75 (2½c) Harper
20–1699
The story turns about the smuggling of war loot in the form of jewelry and antiques. The chief smuggler—a sufficiently bona fide dealer in the above articles, is ostensibly out to discover and expose the gang. He engages the wrong person to do his chief spying in Captain Phineas Plunkett, who finds out more than he is expected to. But Karakoff although the chief of the gang is not one of them and repudiates their methods. He has nothing to do with the gun play and clubbings and killings that go on in the story, throws the whole thing over when he realizes the dirty mess he has let himself in for and makes ample restitution for his loot. Of the two women of the story, Karakoff’s daughter Olga is a beautiful artless child, whose rescuer Phineas becomes on two occasions, and finally her lover. The other, a devil woman par excellence, looks like a fairy, wrestles like a pugilist, dares unspeakable things, poses as a secret service agent but is really a thief and a crook in league with the Apaches of Paris.
* * * * *
“Mr Rowland is no novice at story-writing and knows how to keep up an unflagging interest to the end. In Miss Melton he has introduced a singular character, and the situations are unusual and make exciting reading.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 F 25 ’20 300w
“The tale is cheerfully improbable, swift-moving, and very entertaining.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:71 F 8 ’20 400w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 1 ’20 280w
=ROWLAND, HENRY COTTRELL.= Peddler. il *$1.75 (2½c) Harper
20–15959
The somewhat erratic peddler of the title carried his miscellaneous stock of wares in and on an immense ex-army truck, so that his approach was invariably heralded by a clanging and banging of hardware. In this way he made his entry into the exclusive New England colony where the Kirkland family of four sons and a daughter was justly famous. To the same resort in less spectacular style came a small band of European crooks, who proceeded at once to work silently and effectively along their own original lines of robbery. Not until William Kirkland was accused of the thefts, did the peddler reveal the fact that he was there as a member of the secret police incognito. But when an attempt upon William’s life was made, the peddler was on hand to rescue him and to try to capture the criminals. Altho the result was not satisfactory to him, the others concerned seemed to be quite content, and the bonus which he claimed in the person of Diana Kirkland reconciled him to what he considered his failure. Some of the characters and some of the stolen jewelry figured previously in Mr Rowland’s novel “Duds.”
* * * * *
“Not much characterization, but brisk and interesting.”
+ − =Booklist= 17:118 D ’20
“It is a rattling tale, full of new complications and exciting incidents. The interest does not flag, the characters are sharply differentiated human beings, and not automata. It is an admirable mystery story.”
+ =N Y Times= p29 Ja 2 ’21 200w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p7a N 21 ’20 120w
=ROYCE, JOSIAH.= Lectures on modern idealism. *$3 Yale univ. press 141
20–7505
“The ground covered by the book is largely the same as the substance of Royce’s ‘Spirit of modern philosophy,’ but the treatment is wholly different, being as professedly technical as the earlier book was not. And, whether wisely or unwisely, the author has avoided repeating what is contained in the ordinary histories of philosophy by emphasizing the neglected aspects of the thinkers whose systems he expounds.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“Interesting as a pre-war study of German philosophy.”
+ =Booklist= 16:259 My ’20
Reviewed by Hartley Alexander
=Nation= 111:sup409 O 13 ’20 2600w
“Throughout, Royce’s accurate scholarship and gift of sympathetic interpretation are at their best, but nowhere more so than in the three lectures on Hegel’s ‘Phaenomenology of spirit.’” R. F. A. H.
+ =New Repub= 25:325 F 9 ’21 900w
“The initial presumption that we have a book here worthy of careful study is amply justified by the reading.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p13a Ap 18 ’20 1150w
=RUSH, THOMAS EDWARD.= Port of New York. il *$3.50 Doubleday 387
20–10357
The purpose of this book, by the surveyor of customs of the port of New York, is to make it easier for business men, officials, teachers and students, to understand New York harbor, and to estimate its importance for the city, the country, and the world. It tells its history from the very beginning and points out five agencies as responsible for its improvements: the cities within the port areas; New York and New Jersey state governments; the federal government; the projected bi-state unified port control; and extra governmental agencies voicing the public’s demands and needs. Many drawbacks and inefficiencies are pointed out and the fact emphasized that New York is “first and foremost a port.” Among the contents are: Birth, christening, and youth; Piracy and privateering abolished; Eternal vigilance against smugglers; Giant growth in commerce; Government far-sightedness and short-sightedness; The port awakening of New Jersey; Forts and fortifications; New York, the nation’s first air harbor; Advertising New York port’s nautical school; Immigration’s gateway to America; Bibliography and illustrations.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:15 O ’20
“The port of New York is deserving of a more comprehensive and more technical study of its processes than is provided by Thomas E. Rush. An adequate study of the port from the transportation or engineering point of view it emphatically is not.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 20 ’20 450w
=RUSSELL, BERTRAND ARTHUR WILLIAM.= Bolshevism: practice and theory. *$2 Harcourt 335
20–20991
A book containing the articles which appeared in the Nation together with new material. Bertrand Russell writes as a communist who finds much to criticize in the bolshevist method of putting communism into practice. He says: “A fundamental economic reconstruction, bringing with it very far-reaching changes in ways of thinking and feeling, in philosophy and art and private relations, seems absolutely necessary if industrialism is to become the servant of man instead of his master. In all this, I am at one with the Bolsheviks; politically, I criticize them only when their methods seem to involve a departure from their own ideals.” (Preface) The book is the outcome of a brief visit to Russia. Part 1, The present condition of Russia, has chapters on: What is hoped for Bolshevism; General characteristics; Lenin, Trotsky, and Gorky; Art and education (written by Mr Russell’s secretary, Miss D. W. Black); Daily life in Moscow; etc. Part 2, Bolshevik theory, is a criticism of the materialistic conception of history and other accepted doctrines, with chapters on: Why Russian communist has failed; and Conditions for the success of communism.
* * * * *
“We have found the most interesting part of Mr Russell’s book to be, on the whole, his analysis of the theory of Bolshevism.” J. W. N. S.
+ − =Ath= p695 N 19 ’20 780w
+ =Booklist= 17:142 Ja ’21
“A clear and convincing critique of Bolshevism as a social theory.” E: E. Paramore, jr.
+ =N Y Evening Post= p4 D 31 ’20 700w
“No such remarkable book as his ‘Bolshevism: practice and theory,’ has been published on this subject. Small as the volume is, only 192 pages, it is amazing how much he says.”
+ =N Y Times= p10 D 26 ’20 1400w
“Bertrand Russell is not a clear thinker. The chief value of this book lies in the fact that it is a condemnation of the spirit of Bolshevism by one whose prejudices for its avowed principles would naturally make him its apologist if not its defender.”
− + =Outlook= 126:767 D 29 ’20 180w
=Socialist R= 10:30 Ja ’21 120w
“Mr Bertrand Russell’s book is likely to remain the most damning criticism of Bolshevism, whether that strange delusion be considered as a faith or as a political institution. Although Mr Russell seems to us to be no more practical than a Russian Bolshevik, he is beyond doubt a brilliant philosopher, and often one cannot help finding fineness in his thought, even when he seems to us least to understand the ways of the ordinary man. Among the most interesting things in the book are the accounts of Mr Russell’s meetings with Lenin and Trotsky.”
+ − =Spec= 125:705 N 27 ’20 1900w
“Not the least interesting chapters are those on ‘Revolution and dictatorship’ and ‘Mechanism and the individual,’ in which Mr Russell reveals his own views as to the future industrial system which is to replace the present. Mr Russell himself is sanguine as to a new economic order emerging from the present chaos. But his grounds of faith are unconvincing.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p747 N 18 ’20 1200w
=RUSSELL, CHARLES EDWARD.= Story of the Nonpartisan league; a chapter in American evolution. il *$2 Harper 329
20–11024
Altho covering practically the same ground as Herbert E. Gaston’s “Nonpartisan league” this book goes more fully into the conditions out of which the league movement developed, bringing together much illustrative material and documentary evidence to show the workings of the system under which the farmer was exploited. The author says in beginning, “I have no idea that in the succeeding pages I can remove the fixed belief of the dwellers in cities that the farmer of America is becoming clog-footed with wealth, but it has occurred to me that a plain record of the tragic struggles of a large body of American farmers for bare justice and a chance to live ... might have some interest as a human as well as a social and political document of facts.” The part devoted to the rise and present organization of the league is correspondingly less complete than Mr Gaston’s, but the main facts are sketched. The book has been carefully indexed.
* * * * *
“Rather more interestingly and dramatically written than Gaston.”
+ =Booklist= 17:15 O ’20
“Admirable book.” W. H. C.
+ =Freeman= 2:282 D 29 ’20 480w
“The book should be viewed as a clever piece of journalism, effective but inaccurate. It has the earmarks of being scientific; it cites references: it affects a certain restraint in statement. Yet the critical reader will find its ‘citations’ ex parte, fragmentary, undated for the most part. The book is a good example of skilled juggling with half-truths. In short this book is not what it pretends to be—the facts about the Nonpartisan league.” J. E. Boyle
− =J Pol Econ= 28:705 O ’20 1400w
“While this book is not to be compared with the more intimate and comprehensive work by Mr Gaston, it is none the less a valuable account of a movement that has been much misrepresented in the public press.”
+ =Nation= 111:162 Ag 7 ’20 240w
“Mr Russell’s defense of the league’s attitude during the war is the best that can be put forward, and it is put forward by a sincere patriot who risked and suffered much for his loyalty. But the country has made up its mind on that point, and his defense, honest as it is, is unconvincing.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:16 Jl 18 ’20 3950w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 Jl 26 ’20 300w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:233 D ’20 60w
=RUSSELL, MRS FRANCES THERESA (PEET).= Satire in the Victorian novel. *$2.50 Macmillan 823
20–2031
“The author of this book is a professor at Leland Stanford junior university, and her interpretation of the satiric contributions to literature, offered by novelists of the Victorian epoch, has literary as well as scholastic value. Written primarily as a thesis, offered at Columbia university for the degree of doctor of philosophy, the author’s style bears necessarily unmistakable and potent signs of academic standards. The volume is divided into Premises, Methods, Objects and Conclusions. After giving to her readers the groundwork of her scheme, making certain that they understand the satiric motive, Professor Russell passes to the categorical stage in her exposition. She analyzes methods of satire, romantic, realistic, ironic. For this purpose she quotes from the writers of the period she is considering, writers such as Samuel Butler, Thomas Love Peacock, Meredith, Disraeli, Thackeray, Trollope and Dickens. She takes pains to show us how much ingenuity these men display in their methods of satiric attack and how their weapons vary, likewise their skill.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“A thoroughly competent and scholarly study.”
+ =Booklist= 17:22 O ’20
“What will interest the un-academic mind particularly in this treatise is the author’s personal contribution. She offers, sometimes with a charming unconsciousness, her philosophy of living; and more than one of her reflections has a satiric thrust which makes us realize that the talent for touching on the weaknesses of humanity with a deftly humorous hand did not die with the Victorians!” D. F. G.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Mr 17 ’20 600w
=Lit D= p126 Ap 17 ’20 950w
“She has a better talent for the abstract than for the concrete; her analyses are better than her discussions of actual examples. The reader learns much from her pages by gleaning over wide territory, but he drives behind an inexorable chauffeur who whirls him past alluring byways and leafy vistas. Names and ideas spin by like telephone poles. The author has a nice ear for the turn of a sentence, but she cannot train sentences to speak together.”
+ − =Nation= 111:50 Jl 10 ’20 250w
+ =N Y Times= p26 Ag 15 ’20 50w
“It is full of sustaining, gently amusing reading, and—most important—the reader will want to read it all. There is no waste.”
+ =Spec= 124:83 Jl 17 ’20 900w
“A certain rehabilitation of the Victorians is the chief service that Prof. Russell seems to have performed, often, seemingly, in spite of herself.” G: B. Dutton
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 30 ’21 1900w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p242 Ap 15 ’20 200w
=RUSSELL, RUTH.= What’s the matter with Ireland? *$1.75 Devin-Adair 914.5
20–13138
“Miss Russell has undertaken her theme objectively, in the best reportorial sense, and by sounding a number of disparate apostles—as widely dissimilar as De Valera, George Russell, Countess Markiewiecz and the Bishop of Killaloe—she manages to throw light upon all phases of the problem. The book opens with a chapter on statistics, which bring the present plight of the country into the foreground of the reader’s imagination, and with this accomplished, the author turns to the narration of incidents, and to the gleaning of opinions, which are set down with impartial emphasis.”—Freeman
* * * * *
“She succeeds in rousing our sympathy for the poor working girls of Dublin, and the other unfortunate people of the city and the bog-field. But when she takes up the political, she seems unable to do justice to her subject. There is no doubt Miss Russell’s intentions are good, but it is doubtful if such books as this will help Ireland’s cause.”
− + =Cath World= 112:396 D ’20 210w
“She wisely refrains from any ex cathedra dogmatism on her own account.” L. B.
+ =Freeman= 2:214 N 10 ’20 140w
=RUSSELL, THOMAS.= Commercial advertising. (Studies in economics and political science) *$2.50 Putnam 659
20–297
“Mr Russell is the president of the Incorporated society of advertisement consultants, and was sometime advertisement manager of the Times. He writes, therefore, with authority, and he deals fully with such themes as the economic justification of advertising, the functions and policy of advertising, the chief methods of advertising, and with advertising as a career.” (Ath) “The six lectures were delivered in the spring of this year at the London school of economics.” (Springf’d Republican)
* * * * *
“The book should be useful and suggestive to commercial men and others.”
+ =Ath= p929 S 19 ’19 70w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 F 7 ’20 400w
“The six lectures are not only worthy of their academic auspices but might well serve as models of modern academic exposition. They have the breadth and insight that is properly called philosophic, whatever the subject-matter may be, and the concreteness that makes a philosophic treatment glow with interest.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p510 S 25 ’19 900w
=RUTZEBECK, HJALMAR.= Alaska man’s luck. *$2 Boni & Liveright
20–26890
“The book is a unique autobiographical chronicle, told in the form of a diary, of the struggles of its author-hero to make a home for himself in the land of the snows. Hjalmar Rutzebeck, or Svend Norman, as he calls himself in his book, was born and raised in Denmark. He left school at the age of twelve and has had no further formal schooling since then. We first meet our twentieth century viking in Los Angeles, just after he had been honorably discharged from the United States army. With winning naïveté he tells us how he has fallen in love with Marian. When Svend learns that the northland is as dear to Marian as it is to him, he immediately sets out to make a stake there.... As Svend goes on from adventure to adventure he records them in his diary, and it is this diary, mailed to Marian piecemeal as he went along, that is reprinted in ‘Alaska man’s luck.’”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“Interesting specially to men or older boys.”
+ =Booklist= 17:74 N ’20
“It must be confessed that the tale is fascinating, in spite of, or perhaps because of its naïveté.” Margaret Ashmun
+ =Bookm= 52:344 D ’20 120w
“An extraordinary story.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ja 19 ’21 330w
“There is no self-consciousness in ‘Alaska man’s luck,’ nor is there any suggestion of a sophisticated striving to return to the simple and primitive.” L. M. R.
+ =Freeman= 2:454 Ja 19 ’21 110w
“For his first novel, Hjalmar Rutzebeck has wisely chosen a hero of his own race and temperament. He attains a consistent realism by letting Svend Norman’s diaries and letters tell their own story.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p20 O 23 ’20 220w
“The simplicity and directness with which the author tells his blood-stirring story, even the occasional crudities in his English, serve to enhance rather than mar the epic quality of his narrative.”
+ =N Y Times= p14 N 14 ’20 2250w
=RYAN, AGNES.= Whisper of fire. *$1.25 Four seas co. 811
19–18255
A series of poems arranged as: Wood, Kindling, Smoldering, Smoke, Blaze, Smoke again, Flame, Coals, Ashes. Altho they are loosely strung together the succession of verses tells the story of a woman’s love life.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:272 My ’20
“Several of the verses, notably ‘I wonder,’ are compact and vivid in imagery and spiritual message.”
+ =Cath World= 110:844 Mr ’20 40w
=Nation= 111:247 Ag 28 ’20 40w
“Each poem is a mere fragment in free verse, a chip off the old block of femininity. This will please readers of poetry of the hour. For the present vogue is fragmentary. Many of these poems are trivial and unimportant, but a few have the eloquence of reality.” Marguerite Wilkinson
+ − =N Y Times= 25:82 F 8 ’20 120w
=RYAN, JOHN AUGUSTINE.= Church and socialism; and other essays. (Social justice bks.) *$1.50 University press, Brookland, Washington, D.C. 304
20–221
“A collection of papers that have appeared in various publications during the past ten years. Only the first paper relates intimately to the title of the book. Other topics discussed are: A living wage; The legal minimum wage; Moral aspects of the labor union; The moral aspects of speculation; Birth control; and Woman suffrage.”—Am Econ R
* * * * *
=Am Econ R= 10:385 Je ’20 50w
“The essay, ‘False and true conceptions of welfare,’ is to our mind the most practical of the entire series.”
+ =Cath World= 111:392 Je ’20 280w
“They reveal a large acquaintance with economic and industrial problems. It would be beside the point to criticize these papers without remembering that they were written for Catholics. While we agree with many of Dr Ryan’s conclusions, we should find it difficult to subscribe to some of his premises and to submit to the intellectual limitations which follow.” R: Roberts
+ − =Nation= 110:266 F 28 ’20 280w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 D 13 ’19 90w
=RYAN, JOHN AUGUSTINE.= Living wage; with an introd. by R: T. Ely. *$2 Macmillan 331.2
20–1611
“A revised and abridged edition of a work that has had much influence in bringing about the enactment of minimum-wage laws and the acceptance of the principle that the laborer has a moral claim to at least a decent living wage. The author is a priest of the Roman Catholic church and a professor in the Catholic university of America.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
“It is agreeable to say that Dr Ryan argues the living wage question better than almost anybody else.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:267 My 23 ’20 550w
=R of Rs= 61:447 Ap ’20 60w
“Ethically it is far in advance of the thought of a generation ago, and many even now will find themselves unable to keep pace with it.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Je 22 ’20 100w
=RYAN, WILLIAM PATRICK.= Irish labor movement. (Modern Ireland in the making) *$2 Huebsch 331.09
(Eng ed 20–113)
In reviewing the history of Irish labor in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the author points out how the genius of the Irish people was submerged and its spirit broken by the enforced assimilation of a foreign social system, a foreign speech and a foreign character. However cruel and inhuman English dominion has proved itself to be, the struggle for freedom has been mental and spiritual as well as economic. “The breaking of the chains, the unloading of the degrading burdens that we know, will inevitably lead to the resurrection and the flowering of the workers’ deeper natures, now blunted and buried. Then they may be artists and creators.” Contents: Labor and the Gael; Land workers’ ordeals and deeds; William Thompson, Robert Owen and Ralahine; Our early trade unionism; The guilds and the unions; Illusive emancipation; O’Connell and tragi-comedy; Weavers and “lock-ups”; Lalor and lean years; In Davitt’s days; Connolly in the schools of labor; Connolly’s teaching—industrial unionism; Larkin’s youth in the depths; The rise of “Larkinism”; Up from slavery in Ulster; The struggle of 1913; The ultimate sacrifice; Towards the commonwealth; Authorities and sources.
* * * * *
=Ath= p412 My 30 ’19 70w
S
=SACKVILLE, MARGARET, lady.= Selected poems. *$2.50 Dutton 821
“Lady Margaret Sackville is a feminine version of the late Richard Middleton. Her themes are the themes of Middleton—the gay seasons, love and desire with their antithesis of crepuscular quiet, a selected Greek mythology, and the vaguely idealistic ‘dreams’ of the romantics.” (Ath) “She writes lyrics and short plays: her subjects are largely Greek, and, so far as effects of brightness and directness, of clear air and frank sunshine, are concerned, the atmosphere is Greek.” (Review)
* * * * *
“Out of her materials she makes a bright, easy poetry, which it would be unfair to subject to the test of frequent reading. It is only at rare intervals that something of more permanent quality, as, for example, ‘Invitation au repos,’ rises above the level of pleasant facility.”
+ − =Ath= p225 F 13 ’20 110w
“Lady Margaret Sackville is the possessor of charm. Original or powerful she may not be, but charm in itself is fortune.” O. W. Firkins
+ =Review= 3:318 O 13 ’20 330w
“Lady Margaret Sackville has suffered by reason of being Lady Margaret. The paths were made too easy for her. She set out with the true throat of the bird at dawn, but somehow somewhere the music went wrong. It is wrong now.”
− + =Sat R= 129:392 Ap 24 ’20 170w
“Pieces that give the effect of having been written as technical exercises, but which are not without charm.”
+ − =Spec= 124:429 Mr 27 ’20 30w
=SADLER, MICHAEL.= Anchor. *$1.75 (2½c) McBride
The interest of the story centers about Laddie Macallister, an over-sensitive, introspective young man whose self-questionings and doubtings make him feel hopelessly adrift and unstable for all his solid foundation of a clean and honest manhood. We meet him first as newspaper correspondent for an English paper in Paris; later as literary secretary for a radical London weekly. The anchor, the “something-firm-to-cling-to” which he craves he finds in Janet Tring, daughter of a country squire and a singularly well-poised, straightforward bit of young womanhood. It is the character-drawing rather than the plot that is significant in the story. Some of the other characters that stand out are Laddie’s father, the country parson, whose mellow wisdom and dependable love for his son are the latter’s safe armor; Dermot Gill, the very odd, very lovable and very radical Irishman, whose friendship Laddie picked up en route; Janet’s cousin, the militant suffragette, proud of her prison record; and the wily newspaper woman whose vindictive designs on Laddie rebound from Janet’s good sense.
* * * * *
“The sentimentality of such fiction lies in its slavish worship of youngness—the mere state and act of being young, of muddling through youth.” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Review= 2:489 My 8 ’20 900w
“The story is lacking in form and consistency; the latter half, which tells the love story, has the greater driving force. The character of Laddie is, within limits, fairly clear and truthful. Mr Sadler’s method is psychological, but not unduly so, and the story of the partial love affairs which accompany his great love is done with some originality and insight.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 13 ’20 480w
=SAFRONI-MIDDLETON, A.= South Sea foam. *$2 (2c) Doran 919.6
20–18944
In “the romantic adventures of a modern Don Quixote in the southern seas” (Sub-title) the author has attempted to capture and hold for all times, some of the earliest “poetic babblings” of the children of nature of the South Sea islands before, with the advent of the missionary, “island mythology and heathen legends were sponged off the map of existence.” He has attempted to see the mysteries of nature with the eyes of the primitive man and, in retelling the legends of some old Polynesian chiefs, to remain as faithful to primitive conceptions as is possible to a sophisticated mind. The contents give glimpses of the author’s own adventurous youth in following the call of the “true poetry of life” and some of his island reminiscences in: Fae Fae; The heathen’s garden of Eden; In old Fiji; Kasawayo and the serpent; O Le Langi the pagan poet; An old Marquesan queen; Charity organization of the South Seas.
* * * * *
=Ath= p1395 D 26 ’19 500w
“Not the least stimulating portions are those devoted to the sailing vessels in which the author has pursued his study of man and nature.” Margaret Ashmun
+ =Bookm= 52:343 D ’20 200w
+ =Boston Transcript= p5 O 6 ’20 350w
=Cleveland= p76 Ag ’20 70w
“The jerky transitions, the Bowdlerized legends, the tantalizing sequels that the author ‘can’t tell,’ the dialect never heard on land or sea, the author’s occasional verse ... contrive to trip the reader up time after time just as the magic joy of life is beckoning him farther into fairyland.”
− + =Nation= 111:786 D 29 ’20 260w
“Here is a chronicle of vagabonding among the isles of the South seas that sets him who has lived amid the cities of civilization to wondering whether or not he has squandered his life.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:301 Je 6 ’20 540w
“Much of the same delicate charm of fantasy which belongs to so many of the Hindu stories told us by F. W. Bain distinguishes, also, these tales of the isles in the far seas.”
+ =N Y Times= p26 S 12 ’20 380w
“It makes one long for Stevenson, who could be frank and downright enough, but never wrote with a leer.” E. L. Pearson
− =Review= 3:229 S 15 ’20 300w
“Mr Safroni-Middleton gives us a glimpse of true natural poetry that should appeal to the lover of life and beauty.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 17 ’20 300w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p709 D 4 ’19 320w
=ST JOHN, LARRY.= Practical fly fishing. (Outing handbooks) il *$1.25 Macmillan 799
20–3413
“As the title indicates, it is a treatise about luring the finny inhabitants of pond, lake or other watery area into human hands, through the medium of the ‘fly.’ There are numerous illustrations that will please and enlighten both the amateur and the ‘old-timer.’ There is a brief historical review of this form of fishing, while considerable space is given over to tackle, other chapters are given over to flies, reels, apparel, biological, preparatory and casting. The final chapter is entitled ‘strategy,’ and deals with methods of best making use of the tackle, reels, etc., previously described.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:269 My ’20
=R of Rs= 61:560 My ’20 80w
“The descriptions are written in simple direct form, and are easily understood and applied.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Mr 12 ’20 160w
=ST MARS, F.= Way of the wild (Eng title, Pinion and paw). il *$2 (2c) Stokes 590.4
20–100
Epics of the wild would truly characterize these tales of thrilling adventures of wild things in their own haunts. They are not natural history but stories of animals befitting their characters as men conceive them. Thus in “Gulo the indomitable” we see the wolverine—most hated of all the animals among themselves, with a character “that came straight from the devil,” and with brains “that only man, and no beast, ought to be trusted with”—and his ghoulish escapades. The weak and the powerful, the four-footed and the winged tribes, even the legless viper, engage our human sympathies for their fears, their passions, their struggles and their wiles. Contents: Gulo the indomitable; Blackie and co.; Under the yellow flag; Nine points of the law; Pharaoh; The cripple; “Set a thief”; The where is it? Lawless little love; The king’s son; The highwayman of the marsh; The furtive feud; The storm pirate; When nights were cold; Fate and the fearful; The eagles of Loch Royal; Ratel, V. C.; The day; Illustrations.
* * * * *
“Real art here, with the scientist’s passion for strict accuracy. It is a book for the whole family, a book to be kept and cherished and handed on to the children as they grow old enough to appreciate it.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
+ =N Y Times= p4 D 5 ’20 150w
=SAINT-SAËNS, CAMILLE.= Musical memories; tr. by Edwin Gile Rich. il *$3 Small 780.4
19–15405
“This book is virtually an autobiography, but the story of the author’s life is told briefly, so as to leave room for chapters on Rossini, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Viardot, Louis Gallet, Delsarte, Victor Hugo, which, however, are also more or less autobiographic, for these were among his friends. The English volume omits some of the chapters in the original French edition and changes the order of others.” (Bookm) “Contents: Memories of my childhood; The old conservatoire; Victor Hugo; The history of an opéra-comique; Louis Gallet; History and mythology in opera; Art for art’s sake; Popular science and art; Anarchy in music; The organ; Joseph Haydn and the ‘Seven words’; The Liszt centenary at Heidelberg (1912); Berlioz’s requiem; Pauline Viardot; Orphée; Delsarte; Seghers; Rossini; Jules Massenet; Meyerbeer; Jacques Offenbach; Their majesties; Musical painters.” (Pittsburgh)
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:80 D ’19
“It should be in every library.” H: T. Finck
+ =Bookm= 51:171 Ap ’20 250w
“Camille Saint-Saens is not only one of France’s greatest living composers but a musician who can write excellent and witty prose, and an erudite scholar who knows how to impart information without being pedantic.” Henrietta Strauss
+ =Nation= 111:75 Jl 17 ’20 320w
=Pittsburgh= 25:35 Ja ’20 70w
Reviewed by Lawrence Gilman
=Yale R= n s 9:872 Jl ’20 1100w
=SAINTSBURY, GEORGE.= Notes on a cellar-book. *$3 Macmillan 663
“Mr Saintsbury, it will be remembered, had proposed to write a history of wine; for sundry reasons he renounced his intention; and what he gives us in this small volume are ‘notes and reminiscences on the subject which may ... add a little to the literature of one of the three great joys of life.’” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “The body of the work is occupied by a history of Mr Saintsbury’s experiences in keeping a wine cellar; literally, as the title has it, the record of a cellar-book.” (Review)
* * * * *
“Here, then, is a book which few men, and no woman, could have written, full of knowledge that comes of experience, and is therefore, as a rule, useless to others—full of the ripe humour that characterizes all the best things of the world.” R. S.
+ =Ath= p301 S 3 ’20 800w
“A quaint and delightful chronicle it is, and as we have a right to expect from such a pen, interspersed with many an apt literary hint and suggestion.” Michael Monahan
+ =Review= 3:559 D 8 ’20 2150w
“Mr Saintsbury was prevented from carrying out his original intention of writing a history of wine, but he has done the next best thing in giving us this book.”
+ =Spec= 125:114 Jl 24 ’20 1900w
“No man could be less of a pedant. His erudition does not obtrude itself; it merely supplies suitably evocative expressions; the bubbles wink, and so does he. There is the very spirit of wine in the genial ferocity with which he denounces those who would deprive him of that good gift.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p436 Jl 8 ’20 1000w
=SAMPSON, EMMA SPEED.= Mammy’s white folks. il *$1.50 (2c) Reilly & Lee
20–4267
Dr Andy Wallace is a shy young doctor with no use for women folks when a baby girl is left on his doorstep. His negro Mammy persuades him to keep the child and he brings her up as his own daughter. The story tells of the happiness she brings to him, and of the happiness that comes to her when she grows to womanhood. Mammy has a large part in the story and the widow Richards and her daughter Lucile, who try to steal Esther’s privileges, are also factors, as is Dr Jim Dudley, the doctor’s assistant.
* * * * *
“A good wholesome story dominated by the motherly old negro’s philosophy.”
+ =Booklist= 17:36 O ’20
=SAMPTER, JESSIE ETHEL=, ed. Guide to Zionism. il $1.50 Zionist organization of Am. 296
20–8649
The book has grown out of an earlier publication, ‘A course in Zionism,’ now out of print. The present volume is more than twice the size of the first and presents as many more problems and facts concerning the Zionist movement. Its purpose is to serve not only for individual perusal but as a text-book for groups of students. Of its thirty-three chapters the first ten deal with Zionist theory, history and organization, the next ten with more specialized phases of the movement, and the last thirteen with Palestine. Each chapter is followed by a short bibliography and there are important appendices, a general bibliography, an index and illustrations.
=SANBORN, MARY FARLEY (MRS FRED C. SANBORN).= First valley. *$1.75 (2½c) Four seas co.
20–8860
A story of life after death. Tina, a pleasure-loving girl, killed in an automobile accident, is speeded to the other world in the swift car of Death, not knowing what is happening to her. She finds herself in the first valley of the life to come and valiantly sets herself to learn its ways. She makes friends with the Spade Man, who teaches her to cultivate her garden, and with Odo, the childlike poet, and she lends a helping hand to those who follow her to this new world, to St Leon, the university professor who bemoans his lost career, and to Helene, the beautiful woman whose worldly ideals have not been abandoned. The story ends with her passage to the second valley.
* * * * *
“A curiously interesting book.”
+ =Cleveland= p106 D ’20 20w
“It is a little book conceived in a spirit of singular purity and reverence, and almost faultlessly executed; without cant or sentimentalism or any forcing of the risky note.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 3:234 S 15 ’20 250w
=SANCHEZ, MRS NELLIE (VAN DE GRIFT).= Life of Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson. il *$2.25 (2½c) Scribner
20–3787
“Whoever reads this book from cover to cover will surely agree that no woman ever had a life of more varied experiences nor went through them all with a stauncher courage.” So writes Mrs Sanchez in the preface to this biography of her sister Fanny, wife of Robert Louis Stevenson. There are thirteen chapters: Ancestors; Early days in Indiana; On the Pacific slope; France, and the meeting at Grez; In California with Robert Louis Stevenson; Europe and the British Isles; Away to sunnier lands; The happy years in Samoa; The lonely days of widowhood; Back to California; Travels in Mexico and Europe; The last days at Santa Barbara. There are a number of portraits and other illustrations. Letters from Henry James and others are quoted and the book closes with an account of the services at Vailima in 1915 when the ashes of Mrs Stevenson were carried to her husband’s resting place on the summit of Mount Vaea.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p650 N 12 ’20 580w
“Well worth while, not only as an addition to Stevensoniana, but also as a picture of a very interesting woman.”
+ =Booklist= 16:241 Ap ’20
“To the Stevensonian, this book is a mine of delight. It sets down what has never before been sufficiently made clear, that Mrs Stevenson was, in her own way, as remarkable and as gifted as her husband.” Christopher Morley
+ =Bookm= 51:356 My ’20 850w
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Mr 3 ’20 2650w
+ =Cleveland= p73 Ag ’20 150w
“So interesting that one could wish it more extended. We are inclined to think the book better worth while than anything that has been printed about Stevenson since the Letters.’”
+ =Outlook= 124:431 Mr 10 ’20 150w
“This concise and vivid narrative reveals Mrs Stevenson clearly as the splendid woman she was, but it also reveals her, first and last, as the reason why the literary world today possesses some of the most highly valued of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 My 3 ’20 600w
“One might venture to say she has written a manly book. She has drawn the character of a frank and courageous woman with a straightforwardness that would surely have pleased its possessor.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p699 O 28 ’20 2000w
=SANDBURG, CARL.= Chicago race riots, July, 1919. pa 60c Harcourt 326
19–19136
“Reprinted from articles contributed at the time to a Chicago newspaper, Mr Sandburg’s description tallies with other authentic accounts of the origin and progress of the race riots. Though he acted merely as a reporter, the author evidently formed strong opinions of his own as to the most promising line of action to prevent the recurrence of this outrageous happening. Better housing, more and better industrial opportunities, and—immediately—a thorough federal investigation of the unsatisfactory race relationships that lead to race conflicts seem part of such a program.”—Survey
* * * * *
“A serious and intelligent investigation into conditions which made the race riots possible. A contribution to the solving of the negro problem in any section of the country.”
+ =Booklist= 16:154 F ’20
“The pamphlet is naturally less constructed, less pondered than Mr Seligmann’s careful thesis. But it has the advantage of its journalistic method, for by personal narrative and comment it makes vivid its statistics and analysis, and brings the general problem down to more specific terms.” M. E. Bailey
+ =Bookm= 52:303 Ja ’21 170w
“Everyone in this country who is interested in our sharpest national disgrace—our treatment of negro citizens ought to read this collection of articles. Especially every Chicagoan ought to read it.” E. F. Wyatt
+ =New Repub= 22:98 Mr 17 ’20 1750w
+ =Spec= 124:51 Jl 10 ’20 700w
+ =Survey= 43:408 Ja 10 ’20 100w
=SANDBURG, CARL.= Smoke and steel. *$2 Harcourt 811
20–17899
The sections of this new book of poems are called Smoke nights, People who must, Broken-face gargoyles, Playthings of the wind, Mist forms, Accomplished facts, Passports, Circles of doors, Haze, Panels. Some of the poems are reprinted from Poetry, the New Republic, Liberator, and other periodicals.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:63 N ’20
“‘Smoke and steel’ is both an epic of modern industrialism and a mighty pæan to modern beauty.” L: Untermeyer
+ =Bookm= 52:362 Ja ’21 360w
“Mr Sandburg has no sense of the past, no vision of the future, and so his reality is a little huddled bunch of dried-up aspects out of which have escaped the aspects of life about which he is so passionately concerned. This is a great pity, because I believe there is no poet in the country who has by nature the qualities of spirit which, if fused and blended in the proper alembic, would not make some of the loveliest and most convincing poems of our day.” W: S. Braithwaite
* + -|=Boston Transcript= p7 O 16 ’20 2050w
“Sandburg has lost (at least temporarily) the one and only thing which makes him great—the ability to determine when he has written something good. He now apparently believes that everything he writes is a poem. He imitates Gary, and turns his product out on a quantity basis.” Arthur Wilson
− =Dial= 70:80 Ja ’21 680w
“‘Smoke and steel’ is longer than either of the earlier volumes, and not so uniformly good. Over many pages, it must be admitted, Mr Sandburg has rather obviously repeated himself, has put himself through motions that were more profitable once than they are now. But the book as a whole has great fascination and pull. Technically, Mr Sandburg is as interesting as any poet alive.”
+ =Nation= 111:621 D 1 ’21 750w
“This new collection establishes what ‘Chicago poems’ only promised and ‘Cornhuskers’ plainly intimated. It proves that these states can now claim two living major poets: Sandburg and Frost.” L: Untermeyer
+ =New Repub= 25:86 D 15 ’20 1450w
“He is misty, rather than descriptive or truly evocative; he is the whole antithesis of the imagist demand for a sharply evoked image, if this is their demand; and, sometimes at least, it should be. We see the smoke, and miss the steel.” Clement Wood
− + =N Y Call= p6 Ja 9 ’21 600w
Reviewed by Babette Deutsch
+ =N Y Evening Post= p6 N 27 ’20 1150w
“Reading these poems gives me more of a patriotic emotion than ever ‘The star-spangled banner’ has been able to do. This is America, and Mr Sandburg loves her so much that suddenly we realize how much we love her, too. Either this is a very remarkable poet or he is nothing, for with the minors he clearly has no place. He has greatly dared, and I personally believe that posterity with its pruning hand will mount him high on the ladder of poetic achievement.” Amy Lowell
+ − =N Y Times= p7 O 24 ’20 2500w
“Mr Sandburg has introduced themes which have seldom, perhaps never, been treated before. There is an impressive display of energy in ‘Smoke and steel.’ His poems are true to a certain kind of life, they are undoubtedly American. They do succeed, then, in doing what they set out to do, but whether this in itself constitutes a high and right art is another question.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p816 D 9 ’20 1700w
=SANDERS, LLOYD CHARLES.= Patron and place-hunter; a study of George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe. il *$5 Lane
20–5659
George Bubb Dodington was a prominent political and social figure in the reigns of George I and George II on whom Lord Chesterfield bestowed the sobriquet of “blest coxcomb,” on account of his supreme conceit and ostentation, but who nevertheless had some compensating qualities of sincerity, capacity for friendship, and courage. His notorious diary has made him a historical figure and the present account of his life is a picture of the England of his day. Contents: Dodington’s ancestry; The youth of George Bubb; George Bubb, plenipotentiary; The seizure of Sardinia; Dodington and Walpole; Eastbury; A prince and a duke; From Walpole to Pelham; Frederick, Prince of Wales; La Trappe; Henry Pelham; The duke of Newcastle; Chaos; The end of the reign; Dodington’s last years. There are illustrations.
* * * * *
“Mr Lloyd Sanders puts with ease what the usual maker of research states heavily, and the confusions of politics for forty years up to 1762 become almost agreeable in his animated narrative.”
+ =Ath= p1285 D 5 ’19 1400w
“Casual references to Dodington abound in the political histories and studies of social life of the eighteenth century. It must have been a source of regret to those who study this period that no intimate material regarding Dodington has been procurable. Mr Sanders’s volume fulfills this want. Besides, a man that Robert Browning parlayed with for more than 300 lines is well worth attention.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:241 My 9 ’20 1350w
“If it be easier, as Mr Lytton Strachy assures us, to live a good life than to write one, Mr Lloyd Sanders deserves not only praise but gratitude for presenting us with his admirable monograph on Bubb Dodington. If we have a complaint to make of Mr Sanders it is that he repeats the common saying that Bubb was a wit, but gives us no specimens.”
+ =Sat R= 128:487 N 22 ’19 1150w
“A good biography of a second-rate man often throws more light on the period in which he lived than a biography of a great man, who is necessarily exceptional and abnormal. We should recommend any one interested in the early Georgian era to read Mr Lloyd Sanders’s witty and scholarly memoir of George Bubb Dodington, who was a typical eighteenth-century politician.”
+ =Spec= 123:660 N 15 ’19 1500w
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ja 24 ’20 150w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup p779 D 25 ’19)
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p632 N 6 ’19 80w
“Bubb’s biographer is not biassed in his favour. He makes a cold, exhaustive investigation of the career of a place-hunter when Walpole ruled the roost and every man had his price, and he is successful in every respect save one. He cannot make a picturesque ill-doer of his hero. His story constitutes not so much a page of eccentric biography as a quaint footlight to the rather squalid politics of George the Second.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p779 D 25 ’19 2150w
=SANDES, EDWARD WARREN CAULFEILD.=[2] In Kut and captivity with the Sixth Indian division. il *$10 Dutton (*24s Murray) 940.472
(Eng ed 20–656)
“Major Sandes has written an interesting book on the earlier phase of the war in Mesopotamia. Major Sandes was attached to the Sixth Indian division, under General Townshend, which formed the main portion of Sir John Nixon’s expeditionary force. He was in charge of the bridging train which followed the army up the Tigris. He describes the capture of Kurna, the rapid advance up to Amarah, the battle of Es Sin, where the Turks offered a strenuous resistance, the occupation of Kut, and the fatal advance upon Baghdad which ended at Ctesiphon. He gives a full narrative of the retreat, which was most skilfully conducted, and relates the history of the five months’ siege of Kut. After the surrender in April, 1916, he was taken to Asia Minor, and remained at Yozgad till Turkey capitulated a year ago.”—Spec
* * * * *
“It is likely to remain for some time a classic on the heroic stand of the Kut garrison and the awful sufferings they subsequently endured.” R. C. T.
+ =Ath= p912 S 19 ’19 1050w
“Depressing as it must needs be, the undauntable spirit which it shows, the endurance, simplicity, modesty, lift this book into the class of great siege narratives and give it high place among the first-hand records of great military disasters. And so, for all its unconscious concreteness and scattered masses of detail, it gives in the end that purging of the spirit which Aristotle assigned to high tragedy.”
+ =Review= 3:380 O 27 ’20 800w
“Major Sandes is rigidly objective; he sets down plain facts and leaves his readers to rely on their own imaginations. We are not sure, all the same, that his story of Kut is not rendered more remarkable by his resolute avoidance of fine writing.”
+ =Sat R= 128:343 O 11 ’19 950w
“The story of the siege of Kut is well told by Major Sandes.”
+ =Spec= 122:544 O 25 ’19 1400w
=SANDWICH, EDWARD GEORGE HENRY MONTAGUE=, 8th earl of. Memoirs of Edward, Earl of Sandwich, 1839–1916. il *$7 Dutton
(Eng ed 20–442)
“The ‘Memoirs of Edward, eighth earl of Sandwich, 1839–1916,’ have been edited by Mrs Steuart Erskine from the material which Lord Sandwich himself collected from old diaries with the object of publishing his autobiography. Besides the intimate pictures provided of society at home and abroad, of state visits to Berlin and St Petersburg, of missions to Fez, and travels in many lands, the story is told of his experiences in spiritual healing and other psychical phenomena which became his dominant interest towards the end of his life.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
=Ath= p1139 O 31 ’19 170w
=Boston Transcript= p9 Jl 12 ’19 80w
“Such material as is found in these selections from the diary not only furnish valuable matter for the historian, but it reveals the personality of the diarist, and thus makes very interesting and enjoyable reading for those who delight in following the movements, personal and social, of human beings.” F. W. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ag 28 ’20 850w
=Brooklyn= 12:133 My ’20 40w
“So varied a life clearly presented opportunities for an interesting book. We cannot say, however, that Mrs Steuart Erskine has been altogether fortunate in her materials. Lord Sandwich’s wit in conversation vanishes when he tries to commit it to paper. He intended to write his biography, but here we only get it in the raw, so to speak.”
+ − =Sat R= 128:367 O 18 ’19 750w
“The value of these memoirs lies in the picture they afford of a typical representative of a long-established order now apparently in the throes of dissolution.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p527 O 2 ’19 1050w
=SANGER, MARGARET H.=[2] Woman and the new race. *$2 (4½c) Brentano’s 176
20–15159
In his preface to this book Havelock Ellis says that its contents are already as familiar as A B C to the few who think, but to the millions and to the handful of superior persons whom the millions elect to rule them, they are not familiar, yet it is a matter of vital importance to the race that they should be. The reason why is clearly set forth in the book which is a plea for a free and voluntary motherhood. The chapters are: Woman’s error and her debt; Woman’s struggle for freedom; The material of the new race; Two classes of women; The wickedness of creating large families; Cries of despair; When should a woman avoid having children? Birth control—a parents’ problem or woman’s? Continence—is it practicable or desirable? Contraceptives or abortion? Are preventive means certain? Will birth control help the cause of labor? Battalions of unwanted babies the cause of war; Woman and the new morality; Legislating woman’s morals; Why not birth control clinics in America? Progress we have made; The goal.
* * * * *
=Freeman= 2:310 D 8 ’20 440w
“Calm, temperate, informed, sound, and winning book.”
+ =Nation= 111:597 N 24 ’20 400w
“While Mrs Sanger’s book contains nothing new to students of the subject, it is an excellent summary of the arguments for voluntary motherhood. In several instances, however, she overstates her case.” B. L.
+ − =Survey= 45:706 F 12 ’21 260w
=SANGER, WILLIAM CARY, jr.= Verse. *$1.50 Putnam 811
20–10004
The poems of this volume are arranged under the headings Tides of commerce (Verse of the railroad); The city of toil and dreams; Miscellaneous poems; With the armies of France; Additional war poems, 1918: In the land of the harvest. Most of the poems are reprinted from earlier volumes by the author and the original prefaces to these volumes appear in an appendix.
* * * * *
Reviewed by R. M. Weaver
=Bookm= 52:64 S ’20 40w
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 17 ’20 730w
=SANTAYANA, GEORGE.=[2] Character and opinion in the United States; with reminiscences of William James and Josiah Royce and academic life in America. *$3.50 Scribner 304
20–26993
“Mr Santayana, who was professor of philosophy at Harvard, has now come to live in Europe. In this book he looks back with intimate knowledge and complete detachment at the intellectual life which he has left. He is, he says, an American only by long association.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “The book is a keen, kindly analysis of American life, particularly of the more subtle mental attitudes. It seems to centralize around a conception of the American character as vigorous, hopeful, good, somewhat childish; hampered intellectually by conventional prohibitions and compulsions; and devoted to a liberty based on cooperation and the spirit of live and let live.” (Booklist)
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p724 N 26 ’20 1350w
+ =Booklist= 17:95 D ’20
“In ‘Character and opinion in the United States,’ Professor Santayana has written what one is inclined to believe will become the classic essays on William James and Josiah Royce.... What must he think of America? On the whole, his answer to this question is an extraordinarily kindly one. When he is most perceptive, he gives his generalizations amiably rather than scornfully.” Harold Stearns
+ =Freeman= 2:378 D 29 ’20 3450w
Reviewed by Alvin Johnson
=New Repub= 24:221 O 27 ’20 1600w
“A compelling, stimulating, and essentially a significant book. The book itself is a unique essay in interpretation, an attempt to evaluate American character under the play of the ideas which it has projected and by which, in turn, it has been influenced.” L. R. Morris
+ =Outlook= 126:729 D 22 ’20 2450w
“On the whole he is eminently fair, if not more than fair, in his judgments. It is another question whether there is much profit in such an attempt as he has made to analyze the temper of a people.”
+ − =Review= 3:625 D 22 ’20 400w
“Professor Santayana has written one of the most fascinating books imaginable.”
+ =Spec= 126:19 Ja 1 ’21 1500w
“The book is a very original one; indeed, the two chapters on William James and Josiah Royce belong to a new genre of literature. They are character-studies of philosophers, studies of the reaction between character and philosophy, which ought to be dull but are as amusing as if he were talking scandal about the manners and habits of fashionable ladies. His book is one of the best he has written.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p775 N 25 ’20 1850w
=SANTAYANA, GEORGE.= Little essays, drawn from the writings of the author by Logan Pearsall Smith, with the collaboration of the author. *$3 Scribner 814
20–26891
“Mr Pearsall Smith explains in his preface that this book owes its genesis to his habit of copying out such passages as particularly interested him in the writings of Santayana. He came to see, however, that these extracts ‘were bound up with, and dependent upon, a definite philosophy, a rational conception of the world and man’s allotted place in it, which gave them a unity of interest and an importance far beyond that of any mere utterances of miscellaneous appreciation—any mere “adventures of the soul.”’ He therefore persuaded Mr Santayana to arrange these extracts in such a way as to preserve their original connection as far as possible.”—Ath
* * * * *
“We confess that we are agreeably surprised at the result. The masterful and inclusive vision of the author of the ‘Life of reason’ appears here broken and disconnected, but not betrayed.” J. W. N. S.
+ =Ath= p143 Jl 30 ’19 1500w
“Contains a vast amount of interesting material distilled from profound scholarship and meditation.”
+ =Booklist= 17:49 N ’20
=Bookm= 52:368 Ja ’21 130w
“Any one who has a taste for short essays will find a good feast provided for him. While the essays can well hold their own as detached disquisitions on special subjects, they form a catena of thought which hangs logically together, exposing a rational philosophy. Indeed it has been said that George Santayana has imperiled the recognition of his philosophy by the fine robes in which he has consistently presented it.” Robert Bridges
+ =Dial= 69:534 N ’20 5000w
=Nation= 111:221 Ag 21 ’20 1300w
“A new immortal book.” P. L.
+ =New Repub= 25:321 F 9 ’21 2650w
“I believe that this publication will accomplish two things: it will establish Mr Santayana’s reputation as one of the foremost masters of English prose now living, and it will persuade many readers to buy the complete works from which these essays are drawn.” W: L. Phelps
+ =N Y Times= p8 Ag 22 ’20 3050w
“It is a notable book. Professor Santayana possesses charm of style; that merit must be accorded to him by his worst enemy, if enemy he has. His culture is broad, and his mind is discursive, touching in its range many points of metaphysics and art and literature and morals.”
+ =Review= 3:346 O 20 ’20 1350w
“Short though the pieces may be, they are, as a rule, brief only through extreme compression, and the great beauty of the style in which they are written links them together rather than divides them. Hidden in the book there lurks the exposition of a theory of life.”
+ =Spec= 124:239 Ag 21 ’20 800w
“Even if his philosophy does not satisfy us, we must enjoy his art. If we cannot believe that he tells us the truth about the nature of the universe, he tells us many incidental truths about the nature of man.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p573 S 9 ’20 2500w
=SARETT, LEW R.= Many many moons; a book of wilderness poems. *$1.50 Holt 811
20–6453
Of these poems on Indian themes the author says that they “are in no sense literal translations of original utterances of aboriginal song and council-talk; they are, rather, very free, broad interpretations ... in the light of Indian symbolism and mysticism, of the mythology and superstition involved, and of the attendant ceremonies.” (Preface) This is especially true of Parts I and III of the poems, and an appendix of expository comments has been added to make them clearer to the reader. Part II consists of nature poems giving the atmosphere of the Indian’s environment. The book has an introduction by Carl Sandburg and the three parts are: Flying moccasins; Lone fires; Chippewa monologues.
* * * * *
“A book of beautiful, rugged verse.”
+ =Booklist= 16:306 Je ’20
“Mr Sarett makes one understand the Indian. We understand the Indian in relation to his thoughts, moods, his customs, his legends, his symbolism, his natural mysticism. With the poet’s full equipment, he has psychologically become an Indian and thus his interpreter to the outside world. ‘Many many moons’ is a remarkable book!” W: S. Braithwaite
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 My 8 ’20 2300w
+ =Cleveland= p86 O ’20 50w
“Noise clearly is his forte; heap big Indian talk is his best line. The pale-face stanzas which attempt quieter and tenderer sorts of interpretation are vacant and over-facile in their faith.” M. V. D.
− + =Nation= 110:856 Je 26 ’20 120w
“He does not prettify the wilderness. Especially good are ‘The granite mountain’ and ‘God is at the anvil’ and ‘Of these four things I cannot write.’”
+ =N Y Times= 25:193 Ap 18 ’20 120w
“When Mr Sarett writes of nature he is writing with genuine feeling of something he really knows. He has been in the wilderness.” M. Wilkinson
+ =N Y Times= p18 Ag 8 ’20 290w
=SAROLEA, CHARLES.= Europe and the league of nations. *$2.50 Macmillan 341.1
“This book by Professor Sarolea of the University of Edinburgh is, as its title implies, devoted principally to the league of nations, although there are chapters of interest on other subjects. The author warmly supports the league as a panacea for the ailing world.” (N Y Times Mr 14) “He takes up a number of problems growing out of the treaty of peace and out of the league covenant such as The status of small nations within the covenant, America within the league, The trial of the kaiser, The future of Poland, Germany’s political reconstruction. The author expresses great dissatisfaction with the economic terms of the treaty.” (N Y Times Ap 18)
* * * * *
=N Y Times= 25:117 Mr 14 ’20 600w
=N Y Times= 25:196 Ap 18 ’20 120w
“Dr Sarolea’s book is excellent in temper and spirit, but its sentimental idealism is unrestrained by the realities of present-day politics.”
+ − =Sat R= 129:252 Mr 13 ’20 1300w
“‘Europe and the league of nations’ cannot be described as a weighty book, but it is fluently and brightly written.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p23 Ja 8 ’20 300w
=SASSOON, SIEGFRIED.= Picture-show. *$1.50 Dutton 821
20–3705
“The contents of the volume, in spite of its suggestive title, are not wholly given over to the sidelights, fevers and fantasms of modern warfare. Almost one third of the book is a record of those passages of love which verge from the physical to the metaphysical; reflections of an emotion that is half-celebrated, half-stifled.”—New Repub
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:235 Ap ’20
“Every last utterance of Siegfried Sassoon’s makes a farce out of the deeds of the romantic soldier-poet the world has worshipped during the last five years.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p11 Ap 24 ’20 1550w
Reviewed by Malcolm Cowley
=Dial= 68:621 My ’20 1600w
“He knows the secret of the clean pentameter, he is distinct and clever and casual; yet there exists no feelable personality behind his lines. It is not required that he have intellectual drive or spiritual mounting-power: it merely is required that he show some sort of intellectual edge and awareness. He does that nowhere in ‘Picture show.’” M. V. D.
− + =Nation= 110:855 Je 26 ’20 160w
“Now we have ‘Picture show,’ a vigorous answer to those who feared that Sassoon had ‘written himself out’ or had begun to burn away in his own fire. The same outrage and loathing of war is in the new poems but a darker restraint is here; an emotion remembered not so much in tranquility as in irony. One of the most rousing of his recent poems. Aftermath, might well be the title of this volume, so firmly does it balance and round off his trilogy.” L: Untermeyer
+ =New Repub= 22:37 Mr 3 ’20 950w
“There is a mass of the verse that is heavy and halting—far too large a mass for so small a book. More careful pruning hereafter will lift the worth of his collections amazingly.” Clement Wood
+ − =N Y Call= p10 Je 20 ’20 250w
“In this book Mr Sassoon describes warfare just as he did in his two earlier books. But the last lyric in ‘Picture-show,’ [Every one sang,] is, perhaps, the very loveliest of all the songs written to welcome peace.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:194 Ap 18 ’20 140w
“Mr Sassoon sometimes is as shaken in his expressions as in his emotion, and then he is apt to write as though art could not contain him. But every poet must learn that no man feels too deeply or too quickly to write well.... At its best here is a proud, tender poetry, indignant often but magnanimous always, the creation of a loving and aristocratic art.” J: Drinkwater
+ − =N Y Times= 25:235 My 9 ’20 1550w
“When it comes to sheer poetry, I find in Mr Sassoon but two outstanding merits, a feeling for phrase and a sense of the occult, both present in the degree which redeems verse from insignificance without lifting it to distinction.” O. W. Firkins
+ − =Review= 2:520 My 15 ’20 220w
=SAUNDERS, CHARLES FRANCIS.= Useful wild plants of the United States and Canada. il *$3 McBride 581.6
20–26546
The purpose of the book is to call attention to certain useful wild plants, growing in the woods, waters and open country of the United States, that have in the past formed an important element in the diet of the aborigines and that could be both interesting and useful to dwellers in rural districts, to campers, vacationists and nature students. It is copiously illustrated by photographs and line drawings and the contents are: Wild plants with edible tubers, bulbs or roots; Wild seeds of food value and how they have been utilized; The acorn as human food and some other wild nuts; Some little regarded wild fruits and berries; Wild plants with edible stems and leaves; Beverage plants of field and wood; Vegetable substitutes for soap; Some medicinal wildings worth knowing; Miscellaneous uses of wild plants; A cautionary chapter on certain poisonous plants; Regional index and general index.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:304 Je ’20
=SAUNDERS, MARSHALL.= Bonnie Prince Fetlar. *$2 (2½c) Doran
20–18408
The hero of this new story by the author of “Beautiful Joe” is a Shetland pony, and there are many other characters, both animal and human. The scene is a Canadian farm to which the pony and his master, a delicate boy with over-strung nerves, are sent. Neither likes the strange, wild country at first but in time both come to love it, the young master’s health is restored, he makes new friends with a family of six lively Canadian children and in the end the mother he had believed dead returns to him. All this story is told in the words of the pony.
* * * * *
“The author of ‘Beautiful Joe’ has written a horse story which friends of Beautiful Joe will be disappointed in. But after all, comparisons are unnecessary—and ‘Bonnie Prince Fetlar,’ left to itself, is an attractive book, full of incident and interest.”
+ − =Ind= 104:378 D 11 ’20 70w
=N Y Evening Post= p25 O 23 ’20 60w
“It is hardly necessary to say that here is an offering which any healthy boy or girl must enjoy, but to this it may be added that also it makes a strong appeal to grown-ups.”
+ =N Y Times= p23 D 12 ’20 270w
=SAVI, ETHEL WINIFRED.= When the blood burns. *$2 (1½c) Putnam
20–22037
Marcelle was a typist in a London office. Her beauty attracted her employer and his charming personality easily persuaded the inexperienced girl that she loved him; also—since he was married to a much older woman who would not hear of divorce—that it was right for her to go away with him to India. The monotony of the life there soon palled on David and he is glad, eventually, of the summons back to England. Marcelle, left behind, suffers untold miseries and excruciating experiences, and is finally rescued by the one friend who has stood by her from the first and who takes her home as his wife. The interesting feature of the story is its description of life in India.
* * * * *
=Ath= p698 N 19 ’20 150w
“It is a very old situation upon which E. W. Savi bases her story. She gives it no new twist, but she infuses into it so vital a sense of reality that it draws us and holds us keenly interested in its developments. She possesses the story-telling art in a very marked degree, and her story is full of both the beauty and strangeness of genuine romance.” D. L. M.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 S 29 ’20 2000w
“The author hero has been content to tell a plain, somewhat sordid, tale of illicit love, with its inevitable penalties, which has little more color than can be found in the records of the average divorce suit. None of the characters commands much sympathy. As a whole, the offering may be called just a passable novel.”
− + =N Y Times= p22 S 19 ’20 500w
“The scenes which pass in India are much the most interesting.”
+ =Spec= 125:782 D 11 ’20 50w
“The story has a certain sympathetic charm with a moral that cannot be missed.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 3 ’20 220w
“Despite a great deal of burning talk about love and passion, the story leaves one quite cold.”
− =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p686 O 21 ’20 120w
=SAWYER, RUTH (MRS ALBERT C. DURAND).= Leerie. il *$1.75 (2½c) Harper
20–13146
“Leerie” was what the patients at the “San” lovingly called their nurse Sheila O’Leary, and like Stevenson’s “Leerie,” she brought light into the lives of her charges as no other nurse could. Especially to Peter Brooks, she brought light which they both felt could never die out. Then just on the very eve of her marriage to him, she felt the call to go to France, and went. But she did not leave him behind for he too found his place over there. There, after her period of service which offered experiences both bitter and sweet, they were reunited, “glad they had both paid their utmost for the love and happiness that she knew was theirs now for all time.”
* * * * *
“Somewhat sentimentalized and improbable, but women and girls will like it.”
+ =Booklist= 17:74 N ’20
“The book contains the correct philosophy of life throughout, showing that happiness comes from making others happy, from giving freely.”
+ =Cath World= 112:408 D ’20 210w
“A vivacious story, with plenty of sentimental appeal and written with a good deal of cleverness and ingenuity, Ruth Sawyer’s new novel springs lightly out of the conventional lines of fiction and goes its own gait.”
+ =N Y Times= p28 Ag 15 ’20 400w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:196 N ’20 70w
=SAYLER, OLIVER M.= Russia white or red. il *$2.50 Little 947
19–18648
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:200 Mr ’20
“The author took with him his best gifts as critic—a quick eye, ready critical discernment, and an easy pen. He added to these gifts something of the historian’s grasp of the unity of events. The result is a quite unusual freshness and lucidity in the view we get of the Russian theatre.” T: H. Dickinson
+ =Bookm= 51:492 Je ’20 850w
“The value of his account is in its freedom from political interest. Without prejudice toward either white or red but with sympathy for the struggles and sufferings of both sides, he simply relates what he observed of the surface and common movement of things.”
+ =Nation= 110:597 My 1 ’20 200w
“‘Russia white or red’ is free of any taint of propaganda, and among a torrent of writings full of distorted pictures of revolutionary Russia, it stands out as a truthful and honest if by no means profound contribution.” M. J. Olgin
+ =New Repub= 22:426 My 26 ’20 2000w
“Altogether, the book reveals a sympathetic understanding of the Russian masses, and an appreciation of their yearnings for freedom and peace. It does not pretend, however, to be a serious treatise on the fundamental changes which have come about since the revolution.” Alexander Trachtenberg
+ =Socialist R= 8:250 Mr ’20 320w
“It is neither a complete record nor an interpretation of events, and will appeal primarily to those who may still be interested in getting the background of revolutionary events and vivid glimpses of daily living during the first months of the Bolshevist régime.” Reed Lewis
+ − =Survey= 44:53 Ap 3 ’20 100w
=SAYLER, OLIVER M.= Russian theatre under the revolution. il *$2.50 (3½c) Little 792
20–692
The author chose the winter of 1917–1918, while the Bolshevik revolution was in progress, for a study of the Russian theatre. It was a time when the theatre had not significantly survived either in England or France or even in neutral New York and war had revealed it as being only too clearly a luxury, a pastime and an industry. But the Russian theatre is one of profound introspection and inspiration. “Out of their sorrows the Russians have builded all their art. And in the days of their profoundest gloom, they return to it for the consolation which nothing else affords.” In Moscow and Petrograd, the author testifies, the modern theatre has been carried to its finest achievement. Among the contents are: Plays within a play; The world’s first theatre; The plays of Tchehoff at the Art theatre; From Turgenieff to Gorky at the Art theatre; The Russian ballet in its own home; The deeper roots of the Russian theatre; The Kamerny, a theatre of revolt; Meyerhold and the theatre theatrical; Yevreynoff and monodrama; Russian theories of the theatre. There are numerous illustrations and an index.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:194 Mr ’20
“Interesting and remarkable book. It is a valuable contribution to the literature of the theatre.” N. H. D.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 4 ’20 800w
=Cleveland= p32 Mr ’20 170w
“A book so eager, so cordial, so intelligent, so frankly the expression of a personal appetite that one would like to think of it as typical of a new dispensation.”
+ =Freeman= 1:70 Mr 31 ’20 280w
+ − =Nation= 110:596 My 1 ’20 1250w
“He seems overstimulated by the shock of strangeness and the pervading atmosphere of idealism and experiment so different from the atmosphere of Broadway. Nevertheless, his book is tonic for the knowledge it brings us of theatrical theories, experiments and striking achievements in a land which is far ahead of ours so far as the theater is concerned.” W. P. Eaton
+ − =N Y Call= p10 My 2 ’20 420w
“The author presents his material in such a way that not only will those interested in the theatre be attracted to it, but also those who are drawn to the puzzling topic of the Russian revolution.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:303 Je 6 ’20 500w
+ =Outlook= 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 60w
“His sincerity is unquestionable but his temper runs to hyperbole. In spite of all doubts and deductions, Mr Sayler’s book should be read by all students of contemporary drama. If it is not a striking history, it is a spirited and curious novel.”
+ − =Review= 2:259 Mr 13 ’20 420w
“A comprehensive and graphic account.” Reed Lewis
+ =Survey= 44:53 Ap 3 ’20 80w
“It cannot be recommended too highly when considered merely as a source of knowledge and inspiration to those who are organizing our theatre guilds, Greenwich Village theatres, arts and crafts playhouses, and other steps toward a native art theatre. The casual reader will find the chapters absorbing with a human appeal quite lacking in most books about the theatre; but the same reader will meet something of a jolt when he reaches the last chapter—for here are gathered in concentrated form (and often in darkly philosophical terms) the most recent of revolutionary theories of the stage. A handful of Americans will find these few chapters worth more than all the rest of the book together—worth more, too, than scores of the usual superficial books of criticism.”
+ =Theatre Arts Magazine= 4:173 Ap ’20 700w
=SCHAEFER, CLEMENS T.= Motor truck design and construction. il *$2.50 Van Nostrand 629.2
20–991
“This volume has been written to fill a pressing want; to give a practical discussion of the gasoline propelled commercial car of the present type, and to present this subject in the plainest possible manner by the use of numerous illustrations.” (Preface) A chapter on the general layout of the chassis is followed by chapters devoted to the various details, engine, cooling system, carburetion, ignition systems, etc. The illustrations number 292, consisting largely of figures in the text. There is an index.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:229 Ap ’20 (Reprinted from Pratt p21 Ja ’20)
=N Y P L New Tech Bks= p33 Ap ’20 100w
=Pratt= p21 Ja ’20 50w (Same as Quar List New Tech Bks O ’19)
=Quar List New Tech Bks= O ’19 50w
=SCHAUFFLER, ROBERT HAVEN.= Fiddler’s luck. *$1.90 (3½c) Houghton
20–9475
Being “the gay adventures of a musical amateur.” (Sub-title) The young son of a family in which the flute was hereditary finds a cello in the garret and sets about to teach himself. He is sent to a musical cousin for his education and returning, as a fairly well equipped fiddler, has a falling out with his puppy love, Priscilla, because her progress on the piano has not kept pace with his, and she plays an ear-splitting fortissimo for his accompaniment. After many musical vicissitudes in the army he comes unexpectedly on Priscilla in Paris. She no longer strums but is a finished pianist and the harmony is now complete.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:36 O ’20
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 30 ’20 1200w
“One of the most thoroly enjoyable books—whether you are a musician or not—that you have read in a long, long while.”
+ =Ind= 103:442 D 25 ’20 170w
=Lit D= p94 S 18 ’20 2750w
“‘Fiddler’s luck’ is full of love, laughter, music and good drink. It is worth a ton of best sellers and ‘serious studies’ in these melancholy days that are upon us.” B. De C.
+ =N Y Times= p22 Ag 8 ’20 800w
“‘Fiddler’s luck’ is a charming series of war sketches that Mr Schauffler tries to make impersonal, but his own engaging personality sparkles through the sketches.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Je 30 ’20 170w
“A cheerful vein of optimism is in evidence continually, and its influence on the reader will be anything but depressing.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 11 ’20 220w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:196 N ’20 120w
=SCHAUFFLER, ROBERT HAVEN.=[2] White comrade; and other poems. *$1.50 Houghton 811
20–19672
Poetry in many forms and in many moods is represented in this volume: the ballad, the ode, the lyric, the sonnet, thoughts of this life and of the beyond, of the country, of love and of war. They fall into four groups: Between two shores; Magic casements; Conflict; and Other poems.
* * * * *
“Out of all the book—and it contains much which repays reading and re-reading—there is nothing which more fully satisfies the high poetic mood than does the little poem called ‘Worship,’ as lovely and distinguished a bit of verse as Mr Schauffler has ever given us.” D. L. M.
+ =Boston Transcript= p3 D 18 ’20 520w
=SCHEM, LIDA CLARA (MARGARET BLAKE, pseud.).= Hyphen. 2v *$6 Dutton
20–17964
“The book is really a pamphlet masquerading as a novel, and it offers an analysis of the state of mind and fundamental character of the large German element in the United States, and also a vision of the ideal of American democracy as it appears to a thoroughly un-English observer. Her hero is presented as a personification of acquired Americanism. The son of a Prussian-American father and a Nihilist Russian princess, he is conceived as a synthesis. Brought up in a wholly German environment (Hoboken is thinly disguised as Anasquoit), the boy aspires to become a ‘real American.’ Curiously enough, and yet convincingly, he gets the strongest stimulus toward Americanism from a young Englishman. The war disillusions him as to German kultur, and he concludes that the only way out for those of German blood who truly aspire to Americanism is to ‘go and fight Germany.’”—Review
* * * * *
“The story is very rich in material, a novel to be read slowly and thoughtfully for it contains a wealth of contemporary opinion and criticism. It is a colossal work and yet it is human.” D. L. Mann
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ja 19 ’21 1200w
“Excellent in parts, it is dismally unsatisfactory as a whole; rich in promise, it is a triumph of frustration. The author, apparently, drew the plans for an imposing work of fiction, but as the business of construction proceeded she became so engrossed in ornamental details and features of dubious importance that she mislaid her drawings.” B. R. Redman
− + =Nation= 112:88 Ja 19 ’21 520w
“Complicated, and presenting many divergent points of view, the book is nevertheless full of repetitions. It impresses one as a kind of storehouse in which the author has stowed away a number of opinions on a number of subjects; the story merely provides a sort of makeshift for these opinions. There is no artistry shown in its construction.”
+ − =N Y Times= p22 O 31 ’20 1150w
“It is especially interesting to those who are concerned about the Americanization of immigrants, because it shows so clearly what the reactions of the newcomers are to the influences which begin to surround them almost as soon as they set foot in their new country.”
+ =N Y Times= p10 Ja 16 ’21 900w
“Regarded merely as fiction, ‘The hyphen’ would be of small moment. The book’s chief interest lies in its minute portrayal of many and variant types of German-Americans both before and during the war.”
+ − =Review= 3:506 N 24 ’20 540w
=SCHINZ, ALBERT.= French literature of the great war. *$3 (2c) Appleton 840.9
20–8608
The author distinguishes three periods in the war literature of France between 1914 and 1918. “The first was one of spontaneous, sudden and strongly emotional reaction, following immediately the first bewildering shock; the second, one of documentation on the causes of the war and on the war itself; and the third, a period of calm philosophical consideration of all that was involved in the gigantic struggle.” (Introd.) Although the lyric and satirical note predominated in the first period, memoir literature in the second, and philosophical essays and treatises in the third, no period can be said to have produced one type of literature to the exclusion of all others. The contents of the book fall into two parts, part 1 discussing in successive chapters the three periods and part 2 containing: Poetry of the war; The stage and the war; War-time fiction; Epilogue. The appendices contain a bibliography; documents relative to the war; and a catalogue, in alphabetical order, of some of the best war diaries and recollections. There is an index.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:23 O ’20
“The French literature of the late war is very adequately discussed by Professor Schinz. The chief defect of his treatise is a tinge of partisan feeling, somewhat out of place in work of this kind, and his attack of Romain Rolland is hardly just.” C. K. H.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p8 Je 19 ’20 300w
“A very interesting and scholarly account.”
+ =Cath World= 112:267 N ’20 280w
“The scholarly orderliness and completeness of Mr Albert Schinz’s ‘French literature in the great war’ contrast glaringly with its temper. He prefers polemics to poetry. Instead of writing the history of a literary movement which is memorable even if not great, he still is battering the Teutonic hordes with the familiar accumulation of civilian energy unspent on any other field.”
+ − =Nation= 110:861 Je 26 ’20 280w
“We consider the work, as a whole, timely and important. It must have been the labor of love, for no other motive could have produced a result so eminently satisfactory.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:13 Jl 18 ’20 950w
+ =Review= 3:110 Ag 4 ’20 400w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ag 12 ’20 650w
“He is quite prodigiously well read in French war literature. But unhappily there is hardly any criticism in the book, nothing profound, nothing illuminating, nothing very thoughtful even—except for a few passages—and none of those fortunate phrases by which the real critic ‘gets at’ the significance, the vitals, so to speak, of the work he is discussing.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p686 O 21 ’20 580w
=SCHLEITER, FREDERICK.= Religion and culture. *$2 Columbia univ. press 201
19–9320
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
* * * * *
“Dr Schleiter has given us a critique of method which not only challenges modern methods and theories but deliberately drives them all from the field, some more gently than others.... As a preparation for a methodology—a destruction of methods to make way for method—Dr Schleiter’s work deserves the serious attention of all workers in the field of origins, social and religious, and may well be the most significant work of recent years.” A. E. Haydon
+ =Am J Theol= 24:293 Ap ’20 850w
“On page after page the false assumptions, the blundering reasoning, and the erroneous conclusions that have hitherto characterized comparative religion are laid bare with a detachment of judgment and a wealth of erudition that make the book a model of criticism. Dr Schleiter has put out of action a good many of the heavy guns that were to batter the walls of the citadel of religion.”
+ =Cath World= 111:393 Je ’20 400w
“Dr Schleiter, though an acute critic, is not a lucid writer, and his work is critical rather than constructive.”
+ − =Nature= 105:451 Je 10 ’20 260w
“He deserves special credit for rescuing from obscurity the principle of convergence, i.e., the doctrine that like cultural results may evolve from unlike antecedents. However, it is the more original treatment of casuality that not only arrests attention but makes one hunger for more.” R. H. L.
+ − =New Repub= 21:364 F 18 ’20 600w
“The book is a signal illustration of two characteristic features of American thought—the tendency to concentrate on what authorities have written about a subject rather than on the subject itself, and the neglect to cultivate any grace or clarity of literary style.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p91 F 5 ’20 100w
=SCHMAUK, THEODORE EMANUEL.= How to teach in Sunday-school. (Teacher-training handbook) $1.50 (2c) United Lutheran publication house 268
20–3582
A book devoted to the art, the method, the material and the act of Sunday-school teaching. The author suggests that for a short and effective teacher-training course chapters 20–22 (comprising the discussion of the act of teaching) be used. For a more comprehensive course the sections devoted to method and material are suggested. The author is professor of pedagogy in the Theological seminary at Philadelphia and has had “twenty-five years’ experience in Sunday-school reconstruction.”
=SCHOFF, WILFRED HARVEY.=[2] Ship Tyre. il *$2 Longmans 224
20–18184
The dooms of the ship “Tyre” and of the “King of Tyre” as pronounced in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth chapters of the book of the prophet Ezekiel are here shown to be entirely symbolic and the material things mentioned to refer not to any real commerce but to matters of a political and religious significance. According to the sub-title, the ship “Tyre” is “a symbol of the fate of conquerors, as prophesied by Isaiah, Ezekiel and John and fulfilled at Nineveh, Babylon and Rome.” Contents: Introduction; The tabernacle; Division of spoil; The temple and palace; Ophir voyages: Profanation and pillage; Captivity; The ship “Tyre”; The prince of Tyre; The king of Tyre; Notes to the allegory; The second temple; The great city “Babylon”; The Holy City; The pomp and the trappings; Precious stones; The specifications compared; Date of the tradition; Appendix; Index.
* * * * *
+ =Boston Transcript= p3 N 27 ’20 420w
+ =N Y Times= p23 Ja 16 ’21 240w
=SCHOFIELD, ALFRED TAYLOR.= Modern spiritism. pa *$1.25 Blakiston 134
“Dr Schofield, a student for over thirty years of psychological problems, and a rather copious writer upon them, especially from the medical point of view, gives an instructive review of the history of spiritism, and of its modern developments, and discusses, with many examples from his own experience and with an open mind, the strange phenomena of ‘possession,’ ‘second sight,’ etc. His own position is that, while the facts of spiritism cannot all be explained by purely human agencies, communications with ‘spirits’ are certainly not with the disembodied spirits of the dead. He regards spiritism as practised today to be full of the gravest dangers, mental and spiritual, and to be definitely anti-Christian.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
=Ath= p93 Ja 16 ’20 60w
Reviewed by B: de Casseres
=N Y Times= 25:189 Ap 18 ’20 180w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p13 F 1 ’20 80w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup p783 D 25 ’19)
“The author’s argument is trenchantly expressed and is supported by evidence. But the fact that he has a religious belief of his own to uphold against the beliefs of the spiritists somewhat weakens his argument.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p9a Ag 29 ’20 750w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p783 D 25 ’19 120w
=SCHOFIELD, WILLIAM HENRY.= Mythical bards, and The life of William Wallace. (Harvard studies in comparative literature) *$3 Harvard univ. press 821.09
20–9501
“This is primarily a discussion of the authorship of the metrical fifteenth century life of the Scottish patriot (d. 1305), which is ascribed to ‘Blind Harry.’ Mr Schofield contends that ‘Blind Harry’ is a pseudonym, and that the biographer was no quiet scholar or amiable ecclesiastic like Barbour, but ‘a vigorous propagandist, a ferocious realpolitiker without principle when it was a question of Scotland’s place in the sun.’ The writer diverges from this problem to chapters on ‘Blind Harry and blind Homer,’ and on Conceptions of poesy which occupy the last two chapters.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“It is all readable enough and often not uninteresting: whether it proves anything must be left to the reader to decide.”
+ − =Ath= p761 D 3 ’20 450w
“Every page of it betrays the author’s enjoyment of an opportunity to build a huge structure of learning around—a soap bubble.”
− =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 21 ’20 950w
“In general, ‘Mythical bards’ is marked by the broad scholarship and the keen vision of literary problems which have always been the chief characteristics of the author’s work.” T. P. Cross
+ =Mod Philol= 18:53 Ag ’20 1200w
“Like most of Prof. Schofield’s books this shows originality as well as the result of deep research, with an undoubted power of holding the attention of the reader.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Je 30 ’20 120w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p706 O 28 ’20 100w
=SCHOLEFIELD, GUY HARDY.= Pacific, its past and future, and the policy of the great powers from the eighteenth century. il *$5.50 Scribner 990
(Eng ed 19–8578)
“Mr Scholefield, a New Zealander, adds materially to our knowledge. There is a growing tendency, on wholly right and sound lines, to treat of the vast Pacific ocean as a single unit. ‘The Pacific: its past and future’ is a short political history of the Pacific from the first days of European exploration and intrusion, excluding in the main the history of Australia and New Zealand, but by no means excluding their Pacific aspirations and policy. The appendices contain selections of the principal treaties and conventions relating to the Pacific, and a chronological table. The maps are adequate, the last being a map of the whole ocean.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“His book is illuminative and opportune.”
+ =Ath= p351 My 16 ’19 300w
+ =Booklist= 16:238 Ap ’20
“There are numerous books on the subject of the Pacific and its problems, but in none will be found so careful and discriminating an account of the past history as is here given. It is based mainly on the British parliamentary papers, and, though the author has strong views, he shows himself commendably free from exaggeration or prejudice.” H. E. E.
+ =Eng Hist R= 35:157 Ja ’20 240w
=Review= 3:254 S 22 ’20 400w
“Mr Scholefield’s narrative is well arranged and most interesting.”
+ =Spec= 123:219 Ag 16 ’19 180w
“Mr Scholefield has spared no pains in consulting the best sources of information, and gives chapter and verse for his authorities. In a book of 311 pages, excluding appendices, he has produced a clear, well-arranged, temperate and accurate account, which was wanted and will be used and valued.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p331 Je 19 ’19 1400w
=SCHOLL, FRANK B.= Automobile owner’s guide. il *$2.50 Appleton 629.2
20–14778
“The purpose of this book is to serve as a practical guide for those who own, operate, or contemplate purchasing an automobile. The contents cover the entire field that would be of value to the owner or chauffeur in making his own repairs.... Technical terms, tables and scales have been entirely eliminated.... Since there are many different makes of cars, motors, and equipment, the functional action of all is practically the same, therefore we use for illustration only those which are used by the majority of manufacturers.” (Preface) An introductory chapter gives the history of the gasoline engine and of early automobile construction. The parts of the automobile are then taken up chapter by chapter and a Ford supplement of sixty pages occupies an appendix. There are 154 illustrations and an index.
* * * * *
=N Y P L New Tech Bks= p61 Jl ’20 50w
+ =R of Rs= 62:336 S ’20 60w
=SCOTT, ARTHUR PEARSON.= Introduction to the peace treaties. *$2 (2½c) Univ. of Chicago press 940.314
20–7755
The book is an attempt at an altogether impartial statement of the causes leading to the war, and the treaties and peace conference resulting from it. The author states that he has no inside knowledge of what went on in Paris or of any unpublished documentary material, that he has relied largely on newspaper and magazine material, unsatisfactory as that may be, and that his object is to give his readers a clearer idea of what is going on in the world. “A considerable part of the book is taken up with a detailed summary of the treaty with Germany, including more or less extensive explanatory comments on many of its clauses,” (Preface) and an attempt has been made to summarize as fairly as possible the arguments on both sides. Contents: War causes and war aims; Peace plans and negotiations during the war; The peace conference; The framing of the treaty of Versailles; The supplementary treaties; The Austrian settlement; The Bulgarian settlement; Hungary; Elements of the Near-eastern settlement; Italy, the South Slavs, and the Adriatic; Public opinion and the settlement; References for additional reading; Index.
* * * * *
“Mr Scott’s book is an excellent illustration of the value of perspective combined with careful study of documents, as opposed to the impressions of first-hand observation. It seems to the reviewer that he has succeeded admirably in a difficult task.” C: Seymour
+ =Am Hist R= 26:137 O ’20 320w
“The author’s comments are discriminating, unbiassed, and always helpful.”
+ =Am Pol Sci R= 14:737 N ’20 100w
“A useful aid to the reader or voter who wishes to form intelligent opinions.”
+ =Booklist= 16:332 Jl ’20
+ =Ind= 103:187 Ag 14 ’20 100w
“Though the author escapes the criticism of partisanship to which Keynes, Dillon, Baker, and other commentators on the peace have been subjected, his book lacks the interest and color of theirs. A good many of the author’s comments upon treaty clauses might be questioned.” Quincy Wright
+ − =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:165 S ’20 480w
“A volume which may be especially commended to students and teachers.” W: MacDonald
+ =Nation= 111:247 Ag 28 ’20 100w
“Professor Scott’s ‘Introduction to the peace treaties’ should prove an invaluable volume to students of the great settlement. Not all of Mr Scott’s conclusions can be passed without challenge. For the most part, however, Mr Scott has done his work extremely well and it was work worth doing.” E. S. Corwin
+ − =Review= 3:70 Jl 21 ’20 280w
“If the question of treaty ratification is to be one of the leading issues of the coming presidential campaign, this book will prove an invaluable source of information.”
+ =R of Rs= 61:669 Je ’20 120w
=SCOTT, CATHARINE AMY DAWSON.= Rolling stone (Eng title, Against the grain). *$2 (2c) Knopf
20–13696
Harry King is an unusual boy. He is uncommonly well built and strong and active. He does his own thinking in his own way, has little use for books and the conventions, is direct and honest to a fault in his dealings with men and a little hard. But he saves a school-fellow’s life at the risk of his own. At an early age he runs away from school and sees a bit of the world and on his return learns a trade and becomes a practical engineer. But youth and strength lure him on: he becomes a foot-ball champion and a pugilist. When his family frowns upon such fame he goes to India. Returning, he enlists as a volunteer in the Boer war where his love of fair dealing leads to insubordination and he barely escapes the firing squad. Later on in New Zealand his experiences include women. He is not averse to making a fortune and plans for the future, but his innate restlessness plays with opportunities and at the age of thirty-five he is back in England, without a career and looked upon askance by his family. The reader leaves him possessed with a new craving for a settled life, a family and children of his own and haunted by the hazel eyes of a young widow.
* * * * *
“Mrs Dawson-Scott has created in Harry a notable character, though not a likeable one. Mrs Dawson-Scott has not the resource of style to fall back on, and her descriptive powers are not of the best. As it is written ‘The rolling stone’ is an excellent example of masculine psychology as seen by a woman. It is not an excellent portrait of a man.”
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 Je 2 ’20 420w
“If the book has no weaknesses neither has it passion or exaltation. If it is not absurd neither is it poignant, exotic, or brilliant. It moves steadily onward, never wandering; it is competent, well-fed, without beauty of conception or expression. It is realism without passion or accuracy.”
+ − =New Repub= 23:261 Jl 28 ’20 440w
“A minute and interesting study of character.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:70 F 8 ’20 950w
“In her latest work she has elected to adopt a masculine standpoint, and we feel that she is, as a result, less convincing.”
+ − =Sat R= 128:322 O 4 ’19 300w
“As Harry is interested merely in himself, he is not very interesting to other people. In fact, he proves himself real not by his doings—about which one is sceptical—but by boring the reader just as in real life he would have bored the people he met.”
− =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p514 S 25 ’19 600w
=SCOTT, EMMETT JAY.= Negro migration during the war; ed. by D: Kinley. *$1 Oxford; pa gratis Carnegie endowment for international peace 326.1
20–9134
In this volume of Preliminary economic studies issued by the Carnegie endowment for international peace, the movement of population among negroes during the war is handled by Emmett J. Scott, a member of that race and secretary-treasurer of Howard university. The introduction compares the recent migration with earlier movements of similar character. The chapters then take up: Causes of the migration; Stimulation of the movement; The spread of the movement; The call of the self-sufficient North; The draining of the black belt; Efforts to check the movement; Effects of the movement on the South; The situation in St Louis; Chicago and its environs; The situation at points in the middle West; The situation at points in the East; Remedies for relief by national organizations; Public opinion regarding the migration. There is a nine-page bibliography of books and periodicals, followed by an index.
* * * * *
+ =Cleveland= p91 S ’20 30w
“This monograph is a valuable addition to the limited number of carefully made studies of negro life. The oversight of data about the investigations and activities of several state governments, of the United States Shipping board and the Department of labor, needs correction in subsequent editions. Constructive suggestions would add to the utility of the study.” G: E. Haynes
+ − =Survey= 44:639 Ag 16 ’20 290w
=SCOTT, JAMES BROWN=, ed. Judicial settlement of controversies between states of the American union; an analysis of cases decided in the Supreme court of the United States. *$2.50 Oxford 353.9
20–6766
This volume of the Publications of the Carnegie endowment for international peace is a companion to the two volumes of cases which precede it. It has been prepared in the belief that the experience of the United States holds “a lesson for the world at large.” As the editor’s preface states: “The experience of the union of American states shows that a court of justice can be created for the society of nations, occupying a like position and rendering equal, if not greater, services, applying to the solution of controversies between its members ‘federal law, state law, and international law, as the exigencies of the particular case may demand.’” The volume is indexed.
* * * * *
Reviewed by J. P. Hall
+ =Am Hist R= 26:345 Ja ’21 1100w
“Dr Scott has rendered a most useful service in bringing this material into such form that men can readily lay their hands on it.”
+ =Am Pol Sci R= 14:167 F ’20 450w
“The absence of any classification enhances the uselessness of the volume. By abstracting from its setting the material he presents, Dr Scott offers a delusive palliative to a sick and suffering world. He would have done better had he done nothing.” T: R. Powell
− =Nation= 111:329 S 18 ’20 1000w
“A lucid and detailed analysis which may be read with interest by laymen.”
+ =Spec= 124:86 Ja 17 ’20 200w
=SCOTT, MARTIN J.= Credentials of Christianity. $1.50 (2½c) Kenedy 239
Father Scott, author of “God and myself,” “The hand of God,” etc., writes this book in the belief that “Christianity has not failed, but mankind has failed Christianity.” The one thing that can save the world from disaster is “the adoption in private and public life of the principles and spirit of Christianity.” Contents: Christianity the most startling innovation in the history of the world; Christianity’s need of the soundest credentials; A judicial examination of the credentials; The gospels as a historic document; The truth of the gospel facts; The resurrection; The establishment of Christianity; Christ Himself; Christ and the world; The world after Christ; Christianity and men of genius; The world restorer; Your verdict.
* * * * *
“The best pages are those that contrast pagan and Christian life—the world before Christ and after.”
+ =Cath World= 111:820 S ’20 390w
=SCOTT, SIR PERCY MORETON.= Fifty years in the royal navy. il *$6 (7c) Doran
20–205
These reminiscences were begun, the author states, after his retirement, by way of recreation and amusement, yet he hopes that they will show “how opposed the navy can be to necessary reforms, involving radical departures from traditional routine; the extent to which national interests may be injured owing to conservative forces within, and without, the public services; and what injury the country may suffer from politicians interfering in technical matters, which they necessarily do not understand.” (Preface) Contents: Entry into the navy; A cruise around the world; With the naval brigade in Egypt; H.M.S. Edinburgh and Whale island; H.M.S. Scylla and gunnery; How the 4.7–inch gun reached Ladysmith; Martial law in Durban; In the Far East; The Boxer rising; Gunnery on the China station; Wei-hai-wei and the cruise home; Gunnery muddle; Inspector of target practice; H.M.S. Good Hope with the channel fleet; An imperial mission; Vicissitudes of director firing; My retirement from the navy; War—back to work, 1914 and 1915; The defence of London against zeppelins; War reflections—1915–1917.
* * * * *
“This, book is a grave pronouncement by a distinguished expert in gunnery, and should receive the attention which it assuredly deserves.”
+ =Ath= p1274 N 28 ’19 440w
Reviewed by C. C. Gill
+ =Bookm= 51:274 My ’20 1450w
“Altho more sober and restrained in style, Sir Percy Scott’s book is quite as critical in substance as Lord Fisher’s.”
+ =Ind= 103:185 Ag 14 ’20 80w
“A work of value to anyone interested in the technique of naval gunnery.”
+ =N Y P L New Tech Bks= p17 Ja ’20 80w
+ =Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 200w
“Apart from opinion on professional matters, the narrative of these recollections is rather unequal. We get too much of ‘the mayor in proposing the toast of “our guests” referred,’ etc., and ‘in reply I said,’ etc.”
+ − =Sat R= 128:536 D 6 ’19 1000w
“We associate the name of Sir Percy Scott with naval gunnery. It is no surprise, then, to find that his memoirs are mainly devoted to this question. The book deserves careful reading, for the subject is of prime importance.”
+ =Spec= 123:694 N 22 ’19 1750w
“His book is to be carefully read, not without skipping over shrewish passages here and there, but with thought.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p639 N 13 ’19 2000w
+ =Yale R= n s 10:437 Ja ’21 880w
=SCOVILLE, SAMUEL, jr.= Blue pearl. il *$1.75 (3c) Century
20–17413
This story introduces all the characters of “Boy scouts in the wilderness.” Jim Donegan, the lumber king, offers to give the boys $50,000 if they will bring a blue pearl like the one Joe Couteau, the Indian boy, remembers to have seen in his childhood. Joe and Will Bright, the heroes of the earlier book, with two chosen companions, start on the quest. It takes them out to the Pacific coast and into the far north to the old home of Joe’s people, and after many adventures they return with the prize.
* * * * *
+ =Bookm= 52:262 N ’20 20w
=Lit D= p99 D 4 ’20 70w
Reviewed by Hildegarde Hawthorne
+ =N Y Times= p8 D 12 ’20 120w
“This is a story of some literary value.” H. L. Reed
+ =Springf’d Republican= p7a N 28 ’20 110w
=SCOVILLE, SAMUEL, jr.= Everyday adventures. il $3 (4c) Atlantic monthly press 590.4
20–19518
A book of nature essays, most of them describing personal adventures with birds or other forms of wild life. The photographs which illustrate the book are especially noteworthy. Contents: Everyday adventures; Zero birds; Snow stories; A runaway day; The raven’s nest; Hidden treasure; Bird’s-nesting; The treasure hunt; Orchid hunting; The marsh dwellers; The seven sleepers; Dragon’s blood. The papers are reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly, Yale Review, the Youth’s Companion, and other periodicals.
* * * * *
“In these papers he proves himself among the fortunate few who can be called interpreters of outdoor things.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ja 8 ’21 150w
+ =Review= 3:345 O 20 ’20 120w
+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:234 D ’20 40w
=SCHRIMSHAW, STEWART.=[2] Bricklaying in modern practice. il *$1.50 Macmillan 693.2
20–4712
“The author, who is Supervisor of apprenticeship for the state of Wisconsin, has written more inspiringly than his title suggests. He would have the artisan appreciate his possible opportunities in the erection of buildings that ‘shall reflect in their appearance the character of a substantial and refined people.’ The first chapter, largely historical, shows that lumber scarcity is leading to a wider use of brick and that opportunity is not lacking. Materials, tools and the outlines of practice are described. Estimating, safety and hygiene, economics, the bricklayers’ relation to the public, trade organizations, and apprenticeship are discussed in a way to interest the boy or young man who leans toward the trade. The ten pages descriptive of fire-place construction should appeal to many a lay reader. A good glossary.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
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+ =N Y P L New Tech Bks= p41 Ap ’20 120w
=Pratt= p19 O ’20 40w
=SEAMAN, AUGUSTA HUIELL (MRS ROBERT R. SEAMAN).= Crimson patch. il *$1.75 (4c) Century
20–14215
Mrs Seaman’s latest mystery story for girls involves a German spy plot. Patricia Meade is staying in a large hotel with her father, who is on a secret government mission. He can not disclose his business to her and she unwittingly allows an important paper to be stolen. Suspicion falls on Virginie de Vos, the little Belgian girl with whom Patricia has made friends. Patricia refuses to believe the girl guilty, and with the aid of Chet Jackson, the bell boy, sets out to find the missing paper. The two suspect one of the waiters, but he proves to be a friend in disguise. The paper is restored, the mystery of Virginie and her relation to her supposed aunt, Mme Vanderpoel is disclosed and happier days dawn for the little Belgian. The story has been running as a serial in St Nicholas.
=SECHRIST, FRANK KLEINFELTER.= Education and the general welfare; a text book of school law, hygiene and management. il *$1.60 Macmillan 370
20–4978
“Professor Sechrist has prepared a general introduction to the study of education. One of his early chapters deals with broad social facts such as illiteracy and Americanization of immigrant children. He also deals with the efforts of the federal government to subsidize education in the states and to promote the development of higher institutions. The third chapter treats the costs in the different states of conducting schools of various grades. The fourth chapter has to do with child labor, reviewing the legislation which has been attempted and the effects of this legislation. Following these introductory chapters there is a discussion of the material equipment of the school and the psychological characteristics of children. One chapter deals with the question why children are dull and reviews the medical facts which come out in inspections of school children. There are chapters of a psychological type and suggestions throughout of the possibilities of standardizing the work of the school in a scientific way.”—El School J
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“Of the many educational books recently published this is one of the best and deserves the attention of all teachers and school supervisors.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 Jl 10 ’20 110w
+ =El School= J 20:712 My ’20 400w
“By his title and subtitle Professor Sechrist describes a rather unusual combination of material, presented in a valuable way.”
+ =School R= 28:555 S ’20 170w
=SECRIST, HORACE.= Statistics in business: their analysis, charting and use. il *$1.75 McGraw 310
20–4489
“A concise, practical, and systematic treatment, more particularly for the use of business executives and students in schools of commerce.