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The Green Room


ISSUE:  Winter 1926


First we would make grateful acknowledgment for the reviews The Virginia Quarterly has received, and thank those in all parts of this country, and beyond, who have graciously written letters of appreciation.

Since his graduation from Princeton in 1905, Raymond Blaine Fosdick has packed more activities into two decades than most men do into a life-time. As a special student of police organization in Europe and America, he added to his reputation by the publication of two books, “European Police Systems” and “American Police Systems.” During the World War, he served as chairman of the commission in charge of Training Camp Activities, as special representa ­tive in France of the War Department, and later as civilian aide of General Pershing in France. After the war, he was for a time under secretary general of the League of Nations. Mr. Fosdick has been an independent and fearless fighter throughout his public life.

The reminiscent article on Eleonora Duse and her art is written by one who was acquainted with the woman as well as with the great actress. Arthur Symoxs is the English poet and stylist. His writings are too widely admired in this country, as in his own England, to need recital. His “Collected Poems” was published in 1901. When Gerald W. Johnson published his “Battling South” in a recent issue of Scribner’s he found himself in the midst of the battle. Letters flowed in to the magazine resenting his plain speaking. The truth is Mr. Johnson is a Southerner bred in the briar patch. Until recently a news ­paper editor in the South, he is now on the faculty of the University of North Carolina. His frank and able discus ­sions in magazines, North and South, have attracted wide attention. The author of the individual group of “Four Poems” is Lawrence Lee of the staff of “Sea Stories.” He has

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National Institute of Arts and Letters, has been a frequent contributor to magazines. His books include “The Call of the Sea,” “Under Rocking Skies” and a “Life of Paul Jones.”

The article, “Soviet Russia and the Powers,” was written in Russia and the consequent delay in its publication should be taken into account. None the less it presents a timely view of the European situation by a trained news ­paper man who is in the midst of it. Louis Fischer is an American correspondent in Moscow.

One wintry night when the snow banked high outside, a knock on what was not then an editorial door, drew the writer of this column to a meeting with a stranger who car ­ried a letter of introduction from a very dear friend. The name that was spoken was already familiar through an acquaintance with “Romantic Germany,” “Where Speech Ends” and the then just published volume of poems, “Scum o’ the Earth.” We learned from Robert Haven Schauf-fler that night some of the secrets of the charm the trail of which he discusses so delightfully. “Peter Pantheism” (Macmillan) and “The Poetry Cure” (Dodd, Mead), one a book of essays, the other an anthology, are to be published in the fall. Joseph Warren Beach is professor of English in the University of Minnesota. He is author, too, of “The Comic Spirit in George Meredith,” “The Technique of Thomas Hardy” and other studies in literature. The April Yale Review carried one of Mr. Beach’s recent essays. Louise Collier Willcox (Mrs. J. Westmore Willcox). formerly on the editorial staff of the North American Re ­view, is author and translator of many books. The review of “John Keats” was completed by John Erskine before Miss Lowell’s death. Mr. Erskine is professor in the Eng ­lish department of Columbia University, and a poet. Car ­roll Mason Sparrow, whose whimsical review essay

viii the VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW

“Mantles of Elijah” proves again that a scientist may write with a style, is professor of physics in the University of Virginia. Archibald Henderson is among other things the biographer of Shaw and professor at the University of North Carolina. F. Strixgfellow Barr of the history department of the University of Virginia is a writer of fre ­quent reviews and magazine articles. robert K. Gooch, like Mr. Barr a former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, is an as ­sociate professor of government in the University of Vir ­ginia. Abraham Bergi.und is associate professor in the Mclntire School of Commerce of the University of Vir ­ginia. Douglas Freeman, editor of the News-Leader, Richmond, Virginia, and president of the Southern His ­torical Society, is especially equipped for his review of Gen ­eral Maurice’s life of Lee; his own “Robert E. Lee” was dated 1922. He also edited the “Calendar of Confederate Papers” and “Lee’s Dispatches.”

The virginia quarterly review

Edited by JAMES SOUTHALL WILSON Advisory Editors Edwin A. Alderman  John Calvin Metcalf Albert Lefevre  Bruce Williams The Virginia Quarterly Review is published by the Univer ­sity of Virginia: in April, July, October, and January. Subscrip ­tion rates: $3.00 the year. Canadian, $3.25; Foreign, $3.50. Single copies, 75 cents. Contributions should be accompanied by postage for return and addressed to The Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, 8 West Lawn, University, Virginia. All letters relative to advertising and other business matters should be sent to Atcheson L. Hench, Business Manager PUBLICATION AND EDITORIAL OFFICE: 8 WEST LAWN, UNIVERSITY, VA.

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“Here’s a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal.”

The most recent book of Archibald Henderson, the bi ­ographer of George Bernard Shaw, is “Table-Talk of G. B. S.” His “Washington’s Southern Tour,” just published in a limited edition de luxe, is reviewed in this number of the Virginia Quarterly. “Henry Arthur Jones: Self-Re ­vealed” is the first of a series of dialogues with contempo ­rary dramatists projected by Mr. Henderson, through which he seeks to tell the secrets of dramatic technic as revealed by the dramatists themselves. Readers of The Virginia Quarterly Review will remember Mr. Henderson’s pa ­per in the April issue on “Civilization and Progress.” Other essays have been appearing in many of the leading Ameri ­can magazines within the current year. During the past session, he was active in his regular duties as professor at the University of North Carolina, but a fruitful year abroad had supplied him with interesting material for many papers. It was while in England on this leave that the conversations with Henry Arthur Jones occurred.

Author and editor of many books and articles, George McLean Harper of Princeton University is most widely known for his lives of Wordsworth and of Sainte-Beuve and his “Wordsworth’s French Daughter.” A large part of last year Professor Harper spent in Greece. “Mars’ Hill and the Parthenon” is one of several papers contrib ­uted to American and English magazines that grew out of the year’s travels in Europe. Mr. Harper’s successful recov ­ery of the knowledge of the interesting facts relating to the French daughter of William Wordsworth is one of the three most romantic adventures of American scholarship into English literary biography. The other two are the Shakespearian discoveries, including the signed deposition in the Mont joy suit, of Dr. Wallace, and the recent specvi the VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW

nant later days of the Old South with a fine and delicate poetic gift. His sonnet, “September in Virginia” is born of his boyhood days in Bedford County. Lawrence Lee, for-erly of Montgomery, Alabama and now writing in New York, is known to readers of the Virginia Quarterly through the group of poems published in the July number.

Since the publication of “Memoirs of a Midget” Walter de la Mare has become as widely recognized as a writer of beautiful prose fiction as he has long been as a poet. Mr. de la Mare visited America last winter and left here an im ­pression of a personality as individual as his writings. “The Three Sleeping Boys of Warwickshire” will form part of a new book announced by his publishers for fall publication. The new book will be somewhat in the vein of “The Rid ­dle,” Mr. de la Mare’s latest book of prose short-stories. In the opinion of many distinguished critics his prose writ ­ings alone place Mr. de la Mare among the half-dozen most important living writers of England.

A student of the English novel, Frederick P. Mayer is a member of the English staff of the University of Pitts ­burgh. “Progress and the Constitution” will be the title of the book by Newton D. Baker which Scribners will publish this fall, including the article printed in this number of the Virginia Quarterly. Its substance formed one of three lectures delivered last session on the William H. White Foundation at the University of Virginia. A student under Woodrow Wilson at Johns Hopkins University, John H. Latane was a close observer of the public life of the War President. Dr. Latane, who heads the department of history at his own university, has written authoritatively on American history and international rela-tions. “From Isolation to Leadership” is one of his most notable publicatians. Philip Alexander Bruce, the dis-

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tinguished Virginia historian, is author of the definitive “History of the University of Virginia.” Dr. Bruce’s most recent work is “Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State.” Edward Wagenknecht is a member of the fac ­ulty of the University of Washington. Allen W. Porter-field, professor in the University of West Virginia, is well-known for his writings on modern literature. Agnes Rothery will be remembered by readers of the Virginia Quarterly for her review in the April number. After a wide experience as reviewer, special writer, and editor, she now devotes herself to the writing of novels. “The House by the Wind-Mill” has recently been published in England. John Calvin MetcaLf is advisory editor of the Virginia Quarterly.

The virginia quarterly review

Edited by JAMES SOUTHALL WILSON Advisory Editors Edwin A. Alderman  John Calvin Metcalf Albert LeFevre  Bruce Williams The Virginia Quarterly Review is published by the Univer ­sity of Virginia: in April, July. October, and January. Subscrip ­tion rates: $3.00 the year. Canadian, $3.25; Foreign, $3.50. Single copies, 75 cents. Contributions should be accompanied by postage for return and addressed to The Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, 8 West Lawn, University, Virginia, All letters relative to advertising and other business matters should be sent to AtCHEsOn L. HencH, Managing Editor PUBLICATION AND EDITORIAL OFPICE: 8 WEST LAWN, UNIVERSITY, VA.

joke lest it shall have taken some of the magic out of the story. “Broomstraws” (Knopf), just published including “The Sleeping Boys,” is one of over half a dozen notable books to the making of which articles from the first three numbers of the Virginia Quarterly have contributed.

Another book of which a paper, “Bee and Blossom,” from the Quarterly forms a part is Dallas Lore Sharp’s “The Spirit of the Hive” (Harpers). “The Commander and the Birds” will likewise appear as a chapter in Mr. Sharp’s next book.

“Democracy—Whither Bound?” is a statement of Mr. Milton’s ideas as to the future of his party. George Fort Milton is the editor of the Chattanooga News. A young man, he has had newspaper experience on the Washington Times and the New York Tribune and as national director of publicity in the campaign for the McAdoo nomination in 1923-24. He has written for The Century, The Outlook, the Manchester Guardian and other publications.

Readers of the Virginia Quarterly will recall Anne Blackwell Payne as the author of the sonnet, “Released” in the July number. She is one of the youngest of American poets. The poems published in this new group make their own prophecy for the future.

Thousands of readers know Dr. Joseph Collins as author of “The Doctor Looks at Literature” and the more recent “The Doctor Looks at Biography.” He was a contributor of a paper on Anatole France to the April number of the Quarterly.

“A Fighting Modernist” will form a chapter in the forthcoming book on Thomas Cooper by Dumas Malone, to be published by the Yale Press.

“Men’s Women and Women’s Women” is a revelation of Clemence Dane, the playwright and novelist, in the role of essayist. Clemence Dane is the pen-name of Winifred Ashton, well-known as the author of the novels, “RegiThe Green Room (Continued from page iv) ment of Women” and “Legend,” and the plays, “A Bill of Divorcement” and “Will Shakespeare.”

George b. Logan is a Princeton man, now living in North Carolina. He is on the staff of “Social Forces.”

The poetry of George Sterling, now of San Francisco, California, is familiar to most readers of American verse. Of his nine or ten volumes of poetry “The Caged Eagle” and “Sails and Mirage” (A. M. Robertson) are representative of his maturer work.

“To the Soft South Wind” came from St. George’s, Bermuda, where Richard Butler Glaenzer now lives. Mr. Glaenzer is author of “Beggar and King” (Yale Press), “Literary Snapshots” (Brentano) and has contributed to nearly all the more important American magazines.

Miss Babette Deutsch is a poet and critic, whose vividly individual verse has appeared in The Yale Review, The Dial, and The New Republic. Her first volume “Banners” (Doran) won immediate recognition.

The initial number of The Quarterly printed four translations from the Chinese bv Witter Bynner. In this number Mr. Bynner is represented by original work. “Caravan” (Knopf) is Mr. Bynner’s new book of verse.

“Genius and Disaster” (Adelphi Co.) is the latest book by Jeannette Marks, author of “Revolution and Poetry.” Miss Marks is professor of English Literature at Mount Holyoke College, and besides her numerous magazine articles, there are seventeen volumes to her credit, representing poetry, criticism and fiction. “Willow Pollen” (Four Seas Co.) is her most recent volume of poetry.

The book of which “Don Quixote: a Modern Scripture” forms a part, “Virgin Spain,” will be issued in the spring. This is the first paper by Waldo Frank to be printed in The Quarterly. A colorful Spanish sketch by Mr. Frank will appear in an early number.

Among the reviewers of this issue F. Stringfellow

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