ISSUE: Autumn 1944
Artist at War, by George Riddle.
George Biddle spent a good part of 1943 in the African and Italian theatres of war, at first under the sponsorship of the War Department and later, after Congress withdrew the funds necessary for the continuation of an art program which had already sent out forty-two artists to twelve overseas fronts, under the sponsorship of Life magazine. Mr. Biddle has definite ideas regarding the place and function of the artist at war and he expresses these by word and hy line, clearly and poignantly in both ways. He believes, for example, that the record of war on paper should be more personal and individual than either the photographer or the correspondent is generally able to provide. He thinks that “there is global poetry in this war,” and from Tunisia to halfway up the Italian peninsula he devotes himself to recording it. War to him, too, is “a tremendous melting pot,” and his sketches indicate some of the ingredients. “Yes,” he writes, “I have seen plenty. But seeing is not enough. One must feci plenty, too.” That perhaps is the chief merit of “Artist at War.” It not only shows what Mr. Biddle saw; it also clearly reveals what he felt.
Viking $Sf)0
Mac Arthur and the War against Japan, by Frazier Hunt.
A famous military correspondent and radio commentator has written a timely and swiftly paced review of General Mae-Arthur’s movements during the three years following the calling to the colors of the Philippine Army under bis command in July, 1941, just as Japan was occupying Indo-China. The accuracy of the military analyses is attested in a preface by MacArthur’s military intelligence chief. Mr. Hunt shows how the gallant defense of the Philippines helped keep open supply lines of the South Pacific and prevented Japanese invasion of Australia. He describes MacArthur’s strategy and tactics in advancing back toward the Philippines by hitting the Japanese “where they ain’t” and by Navy and Marine teamwork in double encircle-
ments with a minimum loss of American* life. He docs not spare criticisms, Jj.-. rect nnd implied, of failures to give Mac-Arthur stronger support in men and! materiel. Scribner’s ##,50 j
Then There Was One, by Eugene Burns,”â–
During the first year of the war, the I aircraft carrier Enterprise and her gallant crew helped hold the long thin line> in the Pacific. This book is an apprccia-‘-’ tion of the part they played. However,1! history is not written in the heat of bat-tie, nnd what wc have here is rather ti newspaperman’s blow by blow account olii the carrier’s battle against the Japanese.)] While such writing is evanescent in ap-Jj peal, this hook about “the Enterprise should! be useful material to a future historian, or I to some biographer who may make herf the heroine of a book like “Delilah.” |i liar court, Brace $2M’:
i
Searchlight on Peace Plans, by Edith| Wynner and Georgia Lloyd. |
Here is a clear, useful summary of moreII than two hundred private and official pro-fj posnls for maintaining world peace. A | few important current documents are pre- ] sented in their entirety, but most of the I plans have been carefully extracted, for j the sake of brevity, according to type, j membership, organs of government, tram- j fers of jurisdiction, methods of cnforCfr| ment, and so forth. Unfortunately, somel of the recent plans which are not suffi-fl ciently specific to lend themselves readiljfl to this system of analysis have betlB omitted. Theoretical plans and thosefl actually put into operation—successful Ma otherwise—have been presented, with! greater attention to those developed since! 1914. The authors, who have had S0W « personal experience with campaigning!! for international organization, may befl credited with performing a painstakiogM and valuable service for the busy lap* man. An excellent introduction, cussing the major problems of interM-B tionnl organization, leaves no doubt thrfl they advocate a world federation liavinfjj powers directly over the individual- M Russia and the Peace, by Bernard Pares.
After a close association with Russia and Russian studies for over forty years, the author of these essays has a right to act as an interpreter for the new U. S. S. R. And because of this continuous association and affection, Sir Bernard Pares is able to give an historical background to the forces at work today while he conjectures as to the future. It is with perhaps too loving care and oversimplification that he portrays Russia for the Americans in order to dispel their fear of communism and passes lightly over the question of Russia’s attitude toward China and Germany after the war. But his enthusiasm for the people and his understanding of the vast changes in the country during the past twenty-five years, make this book helpful toward the establishment of friendship and exchange between two great nations.
Macmillan $2.60
People, Church, and State in Modern Russia, by Paul B. Anderson.
Most accounts of the position of the Church in Russia are fragmentary and highly charged with emotion, or endowed with wishful thinking. It is therefore refreshing to read a penetrating and scholarly historical analysis of the evolution of the relationship between the Russian people, their Church, and the Russian government over the past fifty years. Much light is also thrown on present trends in Russian thinking, a knowledge of which is essential to post-war co-operation. Mr. Anderson brings to his study an abundance of experience and understanding, acquired from his long acquaintance with the Russian people and association with the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. Macmillan $2.60
Shark’s Fins and Millet, by Ilona Ralf Sues.
Although Miss Sues returned from China in 1938, her book is timely because she discloses much that is in the main stream of Chinese politicnl life today. Employed by Madame Chiang Kai-shek, she was able to observe some of the inner workings of the Kuomintang govern-
lacxxviii
ment
ble is the description of her favorable lijjj pvessions of the communist Northwej Area, and the accounts of her convert tions with W. IT. Donald, Madam Chiang’s former adviser, Madame Su Yat-sen, and Tu Ytieh-sen, opium kiiij and notorious Shanghai underworld leader This book is distinguished journalist aside from the wealth of factual materia contained in it, because Miss Sues pulljl no punches and spares no sensitive feel ings. Little, Brown
China Looks Forward, by Sun Fo.
The best of current Chinese libera thinking is contained in this brief bool Sun Fo is president of the almost power less Legislative Yuan. But because h( is also the son of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founder and first president of the Chinese Rw public, his opinions carry weight and mai be freely expressed. Furthermore, he 111 unusually well acquainted with Wester civilization.
His views hold special interest fo| Americans because of bis criticism of China’s failure to evolve toward a demt racy under its present leadership. H| suggests realistic and forward-looking sol lutions to China’s post-war economic a « political problems, the. future of Korel and Jnpan, and China’s role in the post] war world. John Day ‘
The Voice of Norway, by Hnlvdan Koi and Sigmund Skard.
In this sketch of her history and liteti turc by two former professors in the Unl vcrsity of Oslo, Norway becomes vocl again. From Viking days to the Gerimj invasion sbe bns struggled for liberty v dcr the law. Recently a Norwcgia] journalist on a destroyer in the North reminded his fellow sailors: “We figl for oven more than a liberated Norwa; we fight for a free intellectual life in free fatherland.” Her songs are s of democratic ideals for which Norwegt patriots, as they sing, are dying. Hi literature from Edda and saga to 1 poems and prose of Wergeland, lb Bjornson, and Sigrid Undsct is instil with the heroic and free spirit of Hie t(
But most stimulating and vaW he description of her favorable Irl Nordic. No force can ultimately prevail against this inherited passion for individual liberty. “The Voice of Norway” is a timely volume in which the story of that land of a free people, temporarily enslaved, is authoritatively and appeal-ingly told. Columbia $8.60
Middle America, by Charles Morrow Wilson.
Thirty-seven million Americans live in the ten Middle American nations of Mexico, the six Central American republics, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Here is a broad picture of the conditions, social, economic, and hygienic, under which these people live and work. The most valuable part of this informative volume describes the manner in which Middle America, in successful response to emergency war-time demands, has replaced enemy-controlled Malaya, the Netherlands Indies, and the Philippines as the source of innumerable tropical products, many of them indispensable to our economy in war and peace: quinine, Manila hemp, rotcnone, tropical oils and spices, drugs, rubber, timbers, and bananas. Emphasizing the potentially great future development of this area, Mr. Wilson hopes that after the war we shall not return to the coolie labor and cartel domination of the Eastern tropics, but continue and expand the present close relations between Middle America and the United States, to our mutual economic, military, and cultural advantage.
Norton $8.60
Argentine Diary, by Ray Josephs.
Disagreeing with the optimistic Sumner Welles, the American correspondent Josephs is convinced that in the six months after June 4, 1943, Nazis and Argentine Nationalists established Fascism in Buenos Aires; in fact, he thinks he saw it happen. In the ominous diary form inseparable from democracy’s defeats in Europe and Asia, Josephs recounts the overthrow of the Castillo regime, the successive presidencies of Rawson and Ramirez, and the steady consolidation of power in Fascist and militarist hands engineered by the GOLF colonel’s clique
under the viciously ambitious Peron. Two impressions stand out: the inertia, or at best feeble resistance, of the pro-democratic elements in Argentina; and the very real possibility that the establishment in the Western Hemisphere of a spreading Fascist plague-spot has already lost us part of the peace. Random $$
German Radio Propaganda, by Ernst Kris and Hans Speier.
This report on how radio has been used by Nazi propagandists to present World War II to the German people grew out of a research project in totalitarian communication conducted at the New School of Social Research by the authors and their five associates. It shows how the war is seen through Nazi eyes and is told for German ears in broadcasts not audible in North America, and how Nazi propagandists have immunized the German people against ideas from the enemy world. In pointing out that propaganda will extend from war into peace, the authors voice the hope that the Allies will destroy the Nazi tradition and will explain to the German people how the democratic process has essentially contributed to the United Nations victory. Oxford $f
The Geography of the Peace, by Nicholas John Spykman.
This essay in American geopolitics, presenting in compact form the views on post-war security of the late author of “America’s Strategy in World Affairs” rejects isolationism as impossible and world organization for peace as impracticable. As in the past, national self-interest will make the post-war world go round; recognition of this is the majoi premise of realistic foreign policy. Geo-politically, this means that one of out paramount concerns in the future is to prevent consolidation in hostile hands of the strategic rimlands from which attack upon the United States can be launched, namely, coastal Europe, the Arabian and Middle Eastern desert land, and coastal Asia. Since British and Russian security depends on precisely the same geopolit* ical condition, collaboration of the three Great Powers in rimland policy will inure American safety and world peace.
Tlarcourt, Brace $2.75
the Super-Powers, by William T. R. Fox.
Since it is a generally accepted truism that no lasting peace can follow this war without at least effective co-operation between the United States, Great Britain, md the Soviet Union, it is very oppor-Inne to have available a careful examination of the essential conditions, difficulties, aid possibilities of such collaboration in terms of existing political realities. Concluding sections consider the relation between the three powers, the defeated countries, and the smaller states. Mr. Fox wrote under the auspices of the Yale Institute of International Studies. His conclusions are guardedly optimistic.
Harconrt, Brace $2
HISTORY
1 Basic History of the United States, by Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard.
When the Beards wrote their “History «f the United States” in 1921, Mary Beard had already written her “Woman’s fork in Municipalities” and had just published her “Short History of the American Labor Movement.” Charles Beard had already written a dozen volumes of European and American history. Since that date husband and wife have continued their independent and joint researches until they have come to occupy a place unique among American historians. This new volume is not a revision of the 1921 “History” and it is not a rehash of »hat has been done before; it is a newly conceived work growing out of almost Wf a century of close attention to the Mff materials of American history, ex-amined and re-examined in many lights Md from many angles, and above all ; magnificently readable.
New Home Library 69 cents
[ livelier Manifestoes of the Puritan licvo-; ‘”“on, edited by Don M. Wolfe.
j The Levellers were a small and often
I despised minority among the Puritan
, Wolutionists. They were keenly intcr-
. Bted in political reform, and the pro-
, Wuncements which they issued between
NEW VANDERBILT BOOKS
A Vanderbilt Miscellany 1919-1944
Edited by
RICHMOND CROOM BEATTY Decorated by Marion Junkin
A quarter century of Vanderbilt writing. Thirty-three authors — from widely known poets and critics like John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren, and Jesse Stuart to members of the Class of 1944 now in the Armed Forces. An essay describes the entire picture of the widely discussed creative and critical impulse which began with the Fugitive and Agrarian Movements.
“All in all, A Vanderbilt Miscellany is entitled to a permanent place in the library of every American sincerely interested in the growth of our national literature in our time.” — John T. Frederick in Chicago Sun $3.50
The Story of the Sacred Harp 1844-1944
by George Pullen Jackson
$1.00
Postwar Problems in Business, Education and Government
Papers presented in a conference at Vanderbilt University March 1-8, 1944
$1.50
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS
Nashville 4, Tennessee l(j4fi nnd l(j’M) contained all tlie essential elements of the political philosophy later developed and popularized by John Locke and his contemporaries. For this reason they arc of especial interest to American and British historians. Dr. Wolfe has not only made the text of these documents available, but his introduction of over a hundred pages constitutes an excellent history of the Leveller Movement.
Nelson $5
The Rise of the American Nation, 1780-182J„ by Francis Franklin.
“The present volume attempts to interpret the well-known facts of American national growth from 1789 to 1821 in the light of the Marxian theory. . . . it was my study of the writings of Marx and Kngcls which first opened my eyes to the grandeur of Thomas Jefferson as a world figure.” In these words the author has said practically all that needs to be said of his book. His treatment of Burr’s Conspiracy is typical. He relies mainly upon Bowers’ “Jefferson in Power” for his narrative, but instead of a treasonable plot carried on merely by Federalists against Republicans, the Conspiracy becomes a plot of bourgeois capitalists against the toiling masses.
International $%M0
From Despotism to Revolution, 1763-1780, by Leo Gcrshoy.
This volume, in the series entitled “The Rise of Modern Europe,” edited by Professor William L. Langer, treats of the era of the so-called “enlightened despots.” The impact of science and philosophy upon the archaic forms of government then dominant in Europe led the rulers to patronize learning and the arts, and to make some show of profiting by the enlightenment. Their halting efforts failed, and revolution followed. Avoiding overemphasis on details of national history, Professor Gcrshoy treats his subject from an inclusive, continental point of view, integrating complex political and social forces in a discriminating, scholarly man-
ner. A group of interesting contemporary illustrations is included. Harper
The Slru<)</le for American Freedom,h] Herbert M. Morais.
The title might suggest that this is a doctrinaire treatment of our early history. It is, however, a scholarly, readable, and well-balanced narrative, tracing the development of America from its European background to the beginning of Jefferson’s administration. By stressing imperial and intercolonial developments, the author accomplishes, in limited space, the difficult task of giving cohesion and direction to the history of the Thirteen Provinces. The point of view is definitely “leftist,” but the facts are not distorted in order to make a cise. International
America’s Maritime History, Its Back (/round, Development, Tradition, by Lieutenant A. C. Dcnison, USNR.
Despite the vast sweep of the ground —and water—covered in this thin volume, tin; author has presented, for tlie layman, a readable and instructive account of America’s maritime history. The work is based entirely upon secondary materials and makes no scholarly pretensions. Tbe informality of the presentation is illustrated by the fact that on one page whales arc referred to as “so beasts” and on the next as “fish,” but the author knows nnd loves his ships, especially the “clippers,” and he write* vividly of the part which they have played in our history. Putnam’s $M
Historical Atlas of the United Stalest) Clifford L. Lord and Elizabeth II. Lord.
This collection of over three hundred maps deals with the political, social, and economic history of America. Although some of the maps are too small to sho* clearly all that the authors arc trying to present, this is far and away the best atlas of American history available at its price. It includes many maps not carried tj any other atlas readily available, an excellent index, and some va limbic statistical tables, ffoft*
Wal Seid M in 1 influ Whi himi crat sue! hart the thoi cat con! He and can: cepl
Bor don
I not and Inti Fro ica schi BIOGRAPHY fc? AUTOBIOGRAPHY
fdfitee from Olympus; Justice Holmes tnd His Family, by Catherine Drinker Bowen.
This is one of the most entertaining of the books that have been written about Justice Holmes, but the reader should be warned that it is the family and the background that are best and most fully portrayed and not the Supreme Court Justice. It would be hard to find a better portrait of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and it is clear that Mrs. Bowen has worked hard on the father-son relationship. It is equally clear that Mrs. Bowen has done about all that can be done to give the wife of the Justice her proper place in the picture. Perhaps it is carping, when we have been given so much, to regret that the author didn’t do more with the man as lawyer and judge, but he was, after all, most important for his work as Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Little, Brown $3
Walt Whitman, an American, by Henry Seidel Canby.
Making much of Whitman’s early life in Brooklyn and Manhattan and of its influence on his writing, Mr. Canby sees Whitman as one who mystically identified himself with the robust, exultant democratic spirit of America. In part through such identification and in part through hard work as an artist, Whitman became the great American poet of his day. Although his book is primarily a biographical study, Mr. Canby makes space for considerable analysis of Whitman’s style. He has produced a warm, appreciative, and scholarly interpretation that neither caustically debunks nor uncritically accepts the standard Whitman legends.
Houghton Mifflin $3.76
Bom under Saturn, by Catherine Mac-donald Maclean.
This biography of William Hazlitt may not be the “final word” on that unhappy rod half-mad genius, but it is the most tatimate study of the man yet attempted. From those few childhood years in America with his Unitarian family, through his schooling at the Non-Conformist college
Sumner Welles’
THE TIME FOR DECISION
“It is the nearest approach to an official statement of America’s war and peace aims that has yet appeared.” — Quincy Howe, CBS
World News.
“Written by one of the best informed men of our time on the interrelations of Governments.” — Anne O’I-Iarb McConiwicK, N. Y. Times Book Review. $8.00
THE NEW NOVEL BY
Aldous Huxley
~~ TIME MUST HAVE A STOP
A brilliant and highly entertaining novel of today, certain to arouse much discussion. Its publication is a literary event of the first importance. $2.75
Woodrow Wilson
AS THE CAMERA SAW HIM THEN AND AS WE BEGIN TO SEE HIM TODAY
by Gerald W. Johnson
With the Collaboration of the Editor* of LOOK
The story of Wilson’s rise, triumph and defeat is told in a form that blends the qualities of entertainment, drama, historical exactness, with the excitement of history being made before one’s eyes. With 300 photographs. $2.00
HARPER & BROTHERS, 49 E. 33rd St., N.Y. 16 in London, Ids struggles there and in Paris to become a painter, his friendship with Lamb, Coleridge, and the other notable literary men of the day, his lecturing, periodical writing and controversies, the story is told with elaborate comment and much analytical probing. Haz-litt’s frenzied, unrewarded love for Sarah Walker (recorded in “Liber Amoris”), in contrast to his two cooler matrimonial ventures, is given considerable space. But his passion for liberty was more dominating than his devotion as a lover and infuses all his major works. Today we know Hazlitt chiefly as a master of the familiar essay and an acute literary critic, but Miss Maclean reveals him as closely related to Rousseau in sensibility, though superior to the Frenchman in sense and versatility. She has thoroughly explored all the Hazlitt sources and has produced an extraordinarily clear portrait. Her pictures of Lamb, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Crnbbc Robinson (she is a little hard on “Crabius”) are deftly done. Her language at times is good Carlylcsc with its apostrophes and ejaculations, and the record is liberally sprinkled with Shakcpcarcan quotations (note the title) and borrowings from Hazlitt’s contemporaries. Macmitlan $8.50
Charles Lamb and His Friends, by Will D. Howe.
If Charles Lamb should come into a roomful of his readers today, we should all rise up to meet him, as he once remarked of Shakespeare’s imagined entrance. And he would not seem a stranger, though more than a century dead. Each generation produces one or more biographies of this genial companion, gentle humorist, essayist, and letter-writer. Mr. Howe has done well to devote his longest chapter to Lamb as a letter-writer, one of the greatest of all time. His letters arc spontaneous and purposeless: he wrote neither for posterity nor antiquity, but for the. joy of the writing. “Gentle” he was in the finest sense of that high-born word. He is always called by his full name, and always with an affectionate connotation. Hardly less prominent in this latest story of his life is
Mary Lamb, that twin spirit who, as m other sister of a great writer, shares her brother’s fame, darkening his days wifl| tragic shadow and lighting them with sympathy and understanding. The friends of Charles Lamb include, of course, most of the prose writers of the day and many of the poets, notably Coleridge and Wordsworth. Lamb was also a poet, though a minor one, and his prose is saturated with sentiment and gilded with fancy, Mr. Howe has quoted extensively from letters and essays; here one finds the familiar passages, with appreciative comment. For lovers of Charles Lamb this latest account of him and his own London, though adding little to our prcviom knowledge, will prove a welcome review, and for those who know him only by name the volume will serve as a pleasing introduction. 11 abbs, Merrill
Cardinal of Spain, by Simon Harcourt-Smith.
Albcroni, in the first half of the eighteenth century, was one of those cleric-statesmen of whom Richelieu is the best known example. He was also a master cook without whose succulent Italian dishes nostalgic Elizabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain and policy-fashioner for her dim-witted Bourbon husband, King Phi V, could not endure her bleak exile. Entrusted with powers that made him tfct effective ruler of Spain, Albcroni exercised as dextrous a control over the highly-seasoned and seething cauldrons of ancien rime diplomacy, while within his mori bund realm he initiated wise reforms thai were to bear fruit under Carlos III ani in the nineteenth century. With unfailing wit and gusto and unobtrusive sckl arship, Mr. Ifarcourt-Smith traces lif progress in these several fields. Surer/ the blithe spirits of the Age of Reasoi would have welcomed this sprightly bool as gaily as the modem reader.
Knopf 0
Chiain/ Kai-shek, by If. IT. Chang.
If Dr. Chang hoped that his biograplj of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek win greater understanding and syrupy for China’s heroic re in the pies^
a’CIV struggle, ho probably will be disappointed. Because the book is often dull and wordy, it is not likely to be widely read. Those who labor through it will find continuous deviation into Chinese history and philosophy, a naive, uncritical adulation of Chiang, and short-tempered, illogical dismissal of the constructive criticisms of some of this country’s staunehest friends of China. Doubleday, Doran $8.50
Rise to Follow, by Albert Spalding.
Autobiographies and memoirs of musicians, particularly performers, appear with almost metronomic regularity. Usually, judged by any other standard than the gossipy nature of their anecdotes, they are poor stuff. Mr. Spalding’s book is a brilliant exception, for it is free from all the usual blemishes. The author’s literary style is almost a.s fine as his playing, he keeps himself discreetly in the background, and, lest he ever appear too much the hero, he seasons his exploits with a spice of gentle irony. Few performers have recounted their triumphs so modestly or made them so convincing. It is to be hoped that all performers (particularly opera singers) who aspire to write their memoirs will take this book as their model, or, if they cannot write themselves, will instruct their ghosts to do so. Henry Holt $8.50
Fourscore Years, by Ci. G. Coulton.
Professor Coulton is best known as an authority on medieval social and religious history and as a zealous champion of honest realism against sectarian or romantic distortion of the medieval period. As octogenarian nutobiographcr, he largely avoids professorial controversies to describe the earlier half of his life, as schoolboy and Cambridge student, as public school teacher and scholar-gypsy. Rich in scenes of rural and small-town England, and in amazingly fresh and detailed reminiscences of happy journeys abroad or of the great and rather less than great of the far-off Victorian academic world, these beautifully written pages arc as refreshing and enjoynblc « refuge from the present time of troubles â– is an air-conditioned room on a burning summer day. Macmillan $J,.50
NEW FALL BOOKS
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
By Am.ax R. Crite The familiar spiritual interpreted by 39 powerful yet sensitive pen-and-ink drawings imaginatively but reverently done by an outstanding young Negro artist. $3.00
I
KNTEKS THE MACHINE AGE
By Kto-Heno Sum
Translated by Hsiao-Tung Fki and Francis L. K. Hsu
An important book for those interested in the business development of China—a study of the effects of the transfer of peasants from farms to factories. $2.50
FREUD
MASTER AND FRIEND
By Hanks Sachs A subjective and personal psychological portrait of Freud describing his way of working and living, by the only living member of Freud’s intimate circle. $2.50
HERMAN MELVILLE
THE TRAGEDY OF MIND
By William Ei.lehy Sedgwick A remarkably sensitive study of the development of the thought of one of the most significant figures in American literature and interpretation of his work. October $3.50
A Century of Latin-American Thought
By W. Rex Chawfohd
An introduction to the great thinkers of Latin-America who have influenced the political and social thought of their countrymen. $3.50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge 38 Massachusetts Left Hand, Right Hand, by Sir Osbert Sitwcll.
vanished.” Play by play in “Shakes-penre and the Actors,” he gives a running
The world that Sir Osbert portrays t’on„,’cInton the principal parts and the (in this volume the world of his family ih% ^ ^ccn P1*^11 the
x . v unnitL’ ivl/ier tf rt tIntro e ___
and his childhood) will seem as fantastic and strange to most American readers as that in “Alice in Wonderland.” The central stage of this world is the great house Renishaw in Derbyshire, where Sitwclls have lived for more than three hundred years, although there are frequent shifts of scene to London and Scarborough. The leading characters are tlie earlier generations of his family on both sides, in retrospect, and, in actuality, his grandparents, his parents, and his brother and sister. Almost the whole of this book is devoted to the qualities of Left Hand— as he was born; some small portion to the destiny of Right Hand—as he began to mould it. Sir Osbert had, as he says, “the fortune to be born toward the sunset hour of one of the great periodic, calms of history.” The immune and charmed life that the golden few led then is recorded by him in a scries of lustrous chapters. The “old-fashioned and extravagant memories” that he emphasizes give this book of background nnd childhood great charm for the reader who looks with pleasure at “things far away and long ago.” The other promised volumes, dealing with youth and maturity and with a wider world, should hold even greater interest.
Atlantic-Little, Brown $8
LITERARY STUDIES
Shakespeare and the Actors: the Stayc Business in His Plays (1660-1905), by Arthur Colby Spraguc.
Often a spectator at a play by Shakespeare observes an actor repeating a “piece of business” that he has seen before, ns when Audrey trips in with Touchstone, eating an apple, and he wonders if some Elizabethan boy first ate the apple. In the case of Audrey, it began with a turnip and goes back at least as far as 1825, but Professor Sprague says that the oldest of the traditions of “As You Like. It” go back “only to a time long after any recollection of Elizabethan wnvs had
years. Most of the plays, he shows, were absent from the boards for a period too long for the Elizabethan traditions to he passed on. Not often could it be claimed, as it was for Hettcrton’s King in “Henry VIII,” that he was “Instructed in it hv Sir William (Davenant), who had it from old Mr. Lowen, that had his Instructions from Mr. Shakcspcar himself.” Professor Sprague has brought together the directions of many prompt-books, has searched through vast numbers of books, and gathered contemporary descriptions from the dramatic critics of many periodicals throughout the period of his research. The result is a valuable and full survey of the manner in which the plays have been acted from Restoration days to the beginning of our century. It is not an easy book to read continuously because the effect is much like a series of notes oil the individual plays. On the other hand, it is a most useful book for students of Shakespeare’s plays and for anyone interested in staging one of the plays, II should be sure of a place among the Icssei standard books of Shakespearean reference. Harvard $
Speakiny of Jane Austen, by Sheila Kaye-Smith and G. R. Stern.
In a series of gay, familiar essays, Misi Kaye-Smith and Miss Stem chat affectionately about the charms, the virtues, and (save the mark!) the vices of â– fane Austen. A reader not thoroughly conversant with the novels may be led to re-read them in self defence or may merely be bored by the casual and continual references to characters, events, and it numerable details which have slipped from his mind. Certainly, to get tbe greatest pleasure from these ardent f<fr essays, all of the novels should be wilhii easy reach, so that unknown or forgollH allusions may be tracked down without exasperation or delay. And probably wt even the most enthusiastic and expert “Jancitc” could answer all of the q# tions in the quiz near’ the end ofM
plf
w
IV
tb of
XCVl pleasant volume without reference to chapter and verse. Harper $2.75
fhe Liberal Mind of John Morley, by Warren Stacblcr.
Mr. Staebler oilers a thorough study of the intellectual and spiritual development of John Morley as editor of the Fortnightly Review, ns active politician and liberal, and as biographer and critic. lie succeeds in showing that much of his; subject’s thinking is still pertinent, and his scholarly fulness of detail should make (his a useful work, especially for students of nineteenth-century politics and journalism. The book suffers, however, because there is no clear and lingering delineation of the living character of Morley, and too condensed a treatment of his milieu.
Princeton for University of Cincinnati
Social Criticism in Popular Relief ions Literature of the Sixteenth Century, by Helen C. White.
Professor White succeeds in deepening and enriching our knowledge of Renaissance England by tracing the progressive development of English social thought on the commonwealth, church wealth, usury, and alms as it unfolds itself in the plethora of fertile and often neglected popular religious writings from “Piers Plowman” to the sermons, tracts, and satires of the reign of Elizabeth. Macmillan $8.50
The Life and Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, by Louis Trenehard More.
More succeeds in complementing his biography of Newton with an equally authoritative and readable life and critical estimate of “the Father of Chemistry,” chalking out, with bold and skillful strokes, Boyle’s significant position during an age of shifting standards in science, philosophy, and theology. Oxford $Jh50
Tftc Waste Land: Some Commentaries, Eric Mcsterton. Translated by Llewellyn Jones.
This compressed but lucid Swedish critique of Eliot’s poem may well be the i**t of its size in existence. The argument is advanced that Eliot sought “to state wholly his life’s experience without
DOUBLEDAY, DORAN Announces the
26th Annual Volume
of the
O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD
PRIZE STORIES OF 1944
Selected and Edited by HERSCHEL BRICKELL
Assisted by MURIEL FULLER
HERE is the cream of shorter fiction published this year—selected by the famous critic and former literary editor of the New York Evening Post. This edition contains a timely introduction by Mr. Brickeli along with pithy biographical sketches of the authors; and includes a list of those American magazines which Merc consulted in choosing the stories.
Griffith Deems Bessie Brouer Walter Vnn Tllburg Clark Elizabeth Eastman Morton Finemnn Berry Fleming Mnrjorie Hope Josephine W. Johnson Ruth Adams Knight George Loverldge Margaret Osbarn
Includes Stories by
J. F. Powers Marianne Roane
Gladys Sclimitt Mark Schorcr Irwin Shaw Alison Stuart E. M. Violett Christine Weston Wendell Wilcox Frank Ycrby Marguerite Young
$2.50
At your bookseller’s
DOUBLEDAY, DORAN
iVCVii emphasizing any one conflict or falsifying any clement,” and that his technique of “emotional ambivalence” is meant to reflect his generation’s mingled desire after and fear before life. The most valuable portions of tbe essay are those which explain how Eliot’s use of myth and literary allusion follows from his conception of tradition, “the eternal return.” Argus Book Shop $1M
It All Goes Together, by Erie Gill.
Eric Gill, sculptor and engraver, is too little known in America. Readers who met him through his “Autobiography” a few years ago—one of the truly fine pieces of autobiographical writing in English, incidentally—will welcome this new collection of essays on the theme so dear to his heart: “the evil that industrialism has done to the individual.” This volume is composed of twenty-three of his essays, all but two written during tbe last ten years of his life, twenty-eight , pages of illustrations, and a bibliography of his books. Devin-Adair $8 MO
Sir Max Beerbohm: Bibliographical Notes, by A. E. Gallatin.
In this monograph Mr. Gallatin has listed, with brief description, the first and . other editions of Sir Max Rcerhohm’s books and booklets, ten pages of caricatures, and articles by him and about him. From the Gallatin collection and that of the late John Quinn and of various libraries the compiler has made an impressive bibliography of the famous humorist, essayist, and playwright, who was a master of English style and also an accomplished caricaturist. In his “bints” to the cast of “The Happy Hypocrite” Beerbohm gently warned the players that caricature should always be “done with a sense of beauty, not less than with a sense of humour.” In Beerbohm himself the two “senses” arc happily fused. This artistically printed and scholarly bibliography will be welcomed by readers and students of Sir Max. Harvard $7MO
Shoulder, by Hodge.
given over to
The Header Robert Graves Half of this
over Your and Alan volume is
-nglisli prose, and the prin-writing, Al-
the peculiar qualities of ! the historv of prose styles, ciplcs of clear, unaffected though the authors perhaps state too many “principles” of prose and are occasionally obscure in explaining tliem this part of the hook is both illuminating and interesting, particularly to those who arc concerned with good writing, ‘flic remainder of the. volume reprints extracts from some thirty contemporary “writers and analyses them according to the principles set out earlier. The result is always stimulating, sometimes surprising and amusing, occasionally pedantic.
Macmillan U
FICTION
Joseph the Provider, by Thomas Mann.
In this last volume of the Joseph series, all the care and skill that Thomas Mann has lavished on the other parts arc equally apparent. The story is followed through to its ancient and hallowed ending. Nothing is omitted; added, and yet nothing might not be considered Bible story itself. Here illusion is produced that tcrs are actors in fancy dress, playing tie parts of ancient Egyptians and Clia deans, but actually people of this titue-a sort of Hamlet in modern dress in reverse. Their contemporaneousness thought and action is all the more strikin; against the consistent exoticism of Egyptian background. Although reader recognizes on every page the master novelist at work, completely in con trol of characters, action, and mood, lx may still find the book a little tedious and prefer sonic of Thomas Mann’s oi novels to the Joseph tetralogy, as ft »’l
Knopf #
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The History of Rome Hanks, by Josepl Stanley Rcnncll.
Lee Harrington goes searching for to ancestors in order to sec what stuff he” made of. His sources arc three narrator* who with much re petition and vt’M chronological order, start a story at ttV hloodv battle of Shiloh that ends will
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se’s birth. These narrators, the Rev. Wagnall, retired clergyman and erstwhile surgeon of the Iowa regiment, Uncle Pink Harrington from South Carolina who tells of Pickett’s charge, and grandfather Tom Beckham of a Philadelphia Quaker family who gocswcst to Kansas and mnr-ries Myra Hanks, emerge more clearly than the other characters, including the line figure of Rome Hanks. This is particularly true of the Rey. Wagnall who lives in a caboose Avhich smells of “coal-oil lamps, cheap tobacco, nnd an old man stench,” sharing his whiskey and reminiscences. Lee’s own life is fused into the story of his forbears in such a way that their strengths nnd weaknesses arc reflected in him. v Lt. Pcnnell is an excellent narrative writer with the ability to create vivid and lusty characters. There is a general tone of cynicism and melancholy which robs these characters of a final greatness and makes them frustrated people seeking a destiny they never find. Scribner’s $8.7n
Return of the Traveller, by Rex Warner.
At the moment of his death, a soldier in the present conflict, conscious of the violence around him, sees at the same lime a vision of such peace and beauty that he is compelled to return to earth to seek an explanation for his dying. In this search to discover the significance of living, the soldier comes across a party of sightseers in a cathedral, among whom are an English gentleman, a mother who has lost her son, a mechanic, a soldier who had fought in Spain, and a priest. While they give the best answers of which they arc capable, the soldier, through his timc-Icssness, is able to participate in past momentous scenes in their lives and thus to understand why they answer as they do. He realizes that they do not answer liis question satisfactorily,” but his faith in the worth of living is reaffirmed.
Lippincott $2
Lebanon, by Caroline Miller.
A swamp in Georgia’s lowlands in the cjirly nineteenth centuvv was Lebanon Eiirgnle’s school. Although she didn’t ‘earn to read and write, she became ndept at hunting and trapping, caring for her »ther nnd brother, and dreaming of the
“This brisk book about the post-bellum South will keep you rooted in your chair right through page 359.”
—CHICAGO SUN
Pills Petticoats and Plows
The Southern Country Store
By THOMAS D. CLARK
A unique picture of an old American institution reconstructed from the records of lite, stores themselves.
“An invariably fascinating chronicle . . â– There is sound cultural history here as well as emotion. As a painstaking record of one aspect of our folkways, eminently worth anyone’s time.” — Joseph Hkniiy Jackson, San Francisco Chronicle.
“The great value of the book is in its intimate detail . . . interesting . , . fascinating.” — N. V. Times Book Review.
“A fascinating record . . . It’s wonderful reading.” — Chicago Sun. Illustrated. $8.50
BOBBS-MERRILL
Indianapolis Indiana the unworldly Larry, indifferent to and conventional success, arc his erstwhile finnncec Isabel (who marries a Chicago business man, “a regular fellow”), her
day when her lover would appear. Unfortunately, when he did appear, he was already engaged. Out of her love and suffering, Lebanon emerged with a quiet,
spiritual strength. She married an elderly mother, and her art connoisseur uncle, who Frenchman and moved to find a new fron- arc happiest in the social whirl of Paris, tier life, filled with contrasts to the sim- The heroine’s uncle, Klliott Templeton,the plicity of her youth. It is a melodramatic friend of Mr. Maugham (the novelist is life of hardships and strange friendships, interlocutor throughout the book) is a great of the birth and death of a hunchbacked snob who, when dying in bis rich apart-
reptar define
baby, a smallpox epidemic, of imprisonment and release for Lebanon.
Doublcdai/, Doran $2M0
Blackbirds on the. Lawn, by Jane Morton.
There is an exciting quality in this book which is like the discovery of a new land by the traveler. Though it is a novel of Kentucky today, its treatment is as timeless as poetry, and Mrs. Morton’s prose has at times a lyric quality which makes one think of Elizabeth Mndox Roberts. While the book is disappointing as a whole because of structural defects and spottiness of treatment, the author is possessed of rare gifts of perception. Coward-McCann $2.60
Simonc, by Lion Feuchtwanger.
Joan of Arc lives again in the fancy and bravery of Simonc, a fifteen-year-old girl of modern France who refuses to submit to the Germans when her village accepts them. Her simple belief that her deed was right and her refusal to run away from its consequences add such stature to a warm and living character that her sacrifice suggests the story of France. Viking $2.60
ment on the Riviera, is reminded by Maugham that be. may find the company in heaven very mixed. “Relieve me, my dear fellow,” he replies, “there’ll be none of this damned equality in heaven.” The first half of the story is real enough, with Larry companionable and human, but as he becomes absorbed in the esoteric indoctrination of his Hindoo philosopher! he. seems more of a symbol than a man, Isabel is admirably drawn, the sensuouj woman who loved but could not understand the spiritual Larry and who found physical and domestic satisfaction in her somewhat commonplace, heavy husband, “The Razor’s Edge” was written in America, where the story begins and ends. It is not equal to “Of Human Bondage,” but for a man who “summed up” nil philosophy of life in a great book a fa years ago, this new volume shows no lessening of interest in life’s big and little ironies. Doublcdai/, Doran
ler 01
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The Razor’s Edge, by Somerset Maugham.
The search for a satisfying faith by a young American, aviator in World War I, is the central theme of Somerset Maugham’s latest novel. Starting in Chicago, tbe story develops in Paris, London, the Riviera, and India as the hero loafs and
reads and studies in his quest of the Abso- saints—especially those legends in whicli lute. Having attained n mystical faith, dragons were concerned. In the couW along with a simple healing power, from of that year Brother Peter collected maty his wise men of the East, Larry Darrell delightful saints’ tales and changed U returns to Paris and then to America where body and spirit from a rather soft, a”0-we leave him contentedly and obscurely gant, and self-sufficient young man, scoffoj holding a mechanic’s job. In contrast to at all legends nnd irritated by any W-
Once in Cornwall, by S, M. C.
“In the first place.” said Brother Peter, “there arc no such things as ons. . . .” But he could not prore according to the logic of the schoolmei that dragons did not exist. Brother Peter’s insistence on common sense raised such havoc in the medieval Cornish monastery to which he bad been sent as “i scourge in the salad” that, as a last «â– periment, ho was sent off to journey around Cornwall for a year, gathering from the folk the legends of Cornish
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ceptance of the fantastic to one who could define truth as “the likeness of a true thing” and declare that “it does not matter one jot whether these tales that I bave heard be facts or not, for they are pictures and parables of great and eternal truths, and therefore must be true lith the greatest and deepest truth.” Besides showing, not always convincingly, bow such a change came about, the author has produced a really interesting Cornish story book.
Longmans, Green $2
Spring Hawest, selected by Hudson Strode.
These stories, all but a few of which bave been published in well-known periodicals, are the WQrk of Professor Strode’s class in creative writing at the University of Alabama. In the sense that to educate is to draw out, to lead forth, this book is a triumph of teaching, for it is not to be supposed that the students of Alabama arc more gifted than the students of other states. The fact that the authors arc young may account for tbe singular lack of humor in their writing, but time will doubtless take care of this fault. Knopf $2.50
Croat-Section, a Collection of New American Writing, edited by Edwin Seaver.
Mr. Seaver introduces his collection by saying “in undertaking to edit ‘Cross-Section,’ my only conviction was that there was probably a lot of worthwhile writing around which for one. reason or another was not getting published, a number of young authors who deserved a hearing.” These fifty-one selections, novelettes, stories, poems, plays, were taken from a poup of manuscripts which numbered over a thousand. They do not, as the editor hoped, represent the forties, even though most of the names arc new, for the style and ideas are too much of the thirties. The most noteworthy writing in the collection is a good story called “My Wife the Witch,” by Ira Wolfert.
Fischer $8.60
GENERAL
u-rica, by I Iowa An educator and scholar of deserved
in America, by Howard Mumford
Jones.
AN IMPORTANT CONTEST FOR
AUTHORS
THE FOURTH THOMAS JEFFERSON SOUTHERN AWARD CONTEST
$2*>00 against royalties under regular contract for the best book manuscript 50,000 words or more by a Southern author. Open to all authors born in the South or who have resided in the South for at least five years. Contest closes Feb. 1, 1945.
Taps for Private Tussie
By Jessu Stuart (total sales over 400,000 copies) winner of the 1943 Thomas Jefferson Southern Award was the December (1943) .selection of the Book-of-t he-Month Club. The publisher sold digest rights to the Ladies Home Journal for one of the highest prices ever paid; second serial rights to more than 300 different publications; motion picture rights to M. G. M.; an Overseas Edition, etc.
Write for complete information. E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
300 Fourth Avenue New York 10?N. “.
note here collects his recent essays and addresses, which arc intended mainly to stimulate a wider interest in the study of the history of ideas in America. The author woidd like, to have them serve as propaganda for the establishment of American Civilization as a part of the curriculum of every university, for it is bis Emersonian conviction that such a study offers “a living core of interest around which the liberal college could once more be given a vital unity.” The six studies of American culture which make up the middle portion of Dr. Jones’s hook arc themselves excellent proofs of the fertility of a soil which has been too little cultivated. Harvard $8
Frontiers of American Culture, by James Truslow Adams.
This latest volume by the well-known historian is a popular account of adidt education in general from pioneer days to the present, with a forecast of its place in the postwar world. Mr. Adams shows that the earlier Americans got their education the hard way by living it, often without books or formal training. Gradually our cultural life, outside of college and university, developed through ly-ceums, clubs, forums, chautauquas, correspondence schools, and extension courses of various kinds. Most of these agencies will continue, with greater possibilities, after the war. Mr. Adams has written a very readable, suggestive volume, on adult education, liberally interpreted to include formal and informal instruction for those who missed school and college and those who wish to live and learn purposefully and rccreationally. The fact that Mr. Adams is a layman and not an educator makes his book more vital and generally cultural than thorough or accurate. ’ Scribner’s $2.50
The Humanities after the War, edited by Norman Focrster.
“Tbe object of this group of essays is to consider the proper place of the humanities in higher education after the war”.says Mr. Norman Focrster in his
prefatory note. The seven essays which make up this small volume include Abra- lF ham Flcxner’s Taylorian Lecture, “Tbjf Burden of Humanism,” delivered at 0* ^$v^ ford in 1928, Wendell L. Willkie’s Duke ft* University lecture, together with papeflV and addresses prepared during the pajij two years by Iloscoe Pound, Normal Focrster, Theodore Greene, William Mac-neile Dixon, and Gordon Keith Chalmerj,
Princeton
The Uses of Reason, by Arthur E. Murl phy.
This is a well-ordered, sound defense of reason against its current antagonists, and a clear exposition of the bases and tests that should guide all men in making moral and social decisions. Some of the traditional subject matter of logic and ethics is here re-worked with great skill into a pattern that most men can understand and apply. Macmillan #
The Aesthetic Process, by Bertram Morris, The. author’s point of view is that beauty can be understood only by grasping the process by which it comes into being and by knowing its place in human experience There is an “art-process” through which creation and appreciation comes about and is sustained, and there is an apprehended form as the result o the process. Morris considers the behold er’s way of taking an object, the acs thetic object itself, and judgments about art. In the end, beauty is held to hi “the expression of purpose in a sensuous medium,” nnd the activity involved is that of the. “satisfied imagination.”
Northwestern $
Profile by GasVu/ht, edited by Edg « W. Smith’.
In spite of global wars and peace plans, increasing attention has been devoted ii recent years to the challenging figure of Sherlock Holmes, even now, amid tk buzz-bombs, patriotically tending hi’ H sex bees. This report of investigate by some twoscore Baker Street * thusiasts throws much fresh light up*
(Continued in back advertising pages.)
R
* i
cit (Continued from front advertising pages.)
the life ami times so incompletely, if ably, portrayed in the immortal writings of Dr. John (or James?) Watson. All the contributions, even the blasphemous attempt to prove Watson a woman, are eminently readable; a few, like Major Leavitt’s study of Holmes and Annie Oakley, bear the stamp of greatness, The supreme Sherlock Holmes mystery is Holmes himself; we shall never comprehend him fully, but there is abundant and entertaining evidence here that the dogged quest continues.
Simon <$ Schuster $2.76
Sleuthing in the Stacks, by Rudolph Al-trocchi.
With hopes of sharing some of the fun he has had in research, a professor of Italian in the University of California offers some of the strange information which he has found in his literary sleuthing. This research has led him into many byways and to the examination of material ranging from “The Weaker Sex” to the “Ancestors of Tarzan.” The abandoned babies of literature provide an interesting subject for detective work. Tbe author has placed the footnotes at the end of the book where the reader may consult or ignore them according to his fancy. Harvard $8.50
‘The Letters of Alexander Woollcott, by Beatrice Kaufman and Joseph Hennessey.
These 400 pages of letters are only a small representation of the many that Woollcott wrote but they range from his childhood to a few days before his death. They give an intimate picture of his development, his enthusiasms, his likes and dislikes. For when Woollcott wrote a letter he poured the warmth of his personality and the depth of his sentiment— cither for or against—into it. One of the most rewarding sections is the group of letters from France during the First World War. The collection succeeds admirably and entertainingly in presenting the unique figure of Woollcott. There is a biographical introduction and a good index. Viking $8.50
Jacobowsky and the Colonel, by Fraiu Werfel.
It is good to have printed this excellent “comedy of a tragedy” in its first version which did not reach Broadway, for here may be enjoyed and studied the fol subtleties of the character of Jacobowsl as Franz Werfel first conceived him. As he escapes the Nazis, accompanied hy the haughty Polish colonel, who is caricatured but all too real, his charitable resourcefulness and his philosophizing give the same delight they do on the stngc. The war will probably not cause to be produced another such hearteninj and satisfying fable of tbe Jew wtw faces bis sad human plight wisely ami well. Viking $
lied Hoses for Me, by Sean O’Casey.
The same blending of robust realism and poetic beauty that make “The Plough and the Stars” and “Juno and the Par-cock” the sort of plays that can be indicated only by the word O’Casey are apart of the characteristics of “Red Roses h Me.” It is a play of modern Dublin and its hero, Ayamonn Brcydon, a lover o! Shakespeare and beauty, dies during I futile strike for tbe cause of the workers. There is a mystic touch to the play and not a little symbolism but its meaninp arc conveyed by suggestion more thanks overt development. If it has not the riclr ness of “The Plough and the Stars,”, is yet a piny of real distinction and ok that no one but Sean O’Casey could wrilt
Macmillan #
The Education of T. C. Milt, by Hujl Gray Lieber and Lillian It. Liebcr
The Licbers have a boundless, lyrjfl faith in modern science and mathematics reasoning, and they have outlined sciei-title morality with a ligbthcnrted si* plicity and clarity that are likely to proft entertainingly effective for “the c& bratcd man ‘in tbe street.” They arrit at each moral through a mathematiw example, a scheme employing no imagination, especially in the latter $ of the hook where the attempt is made*
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explain non-Euclidean geometry. The abundant drawings carry whimsicality too fir but occasionally illuminate and amuse.
Norton $2.60
Adventures in Symphonic Music, hy Ed-card Dowries.
Intermission commentaries prepared for radio concerts seldom hear the test of publication. The commentator works under the handicaps of time, limitation and the unknown intelligence level of his unseen audience. His remarks must be fragmentary or anecdotal, and prcsum-jblv he cannot indulge in serious analyses of the music lest his audience be bored. Under the circumstances, the commentator should think seriously before he rushes into print. Although the publishers claim that this book is designed for listeners, listeners will be disappointed. The experienced listener will learn nothing of importance, the inexperienced listener will learn even less from comments such as “A bold orchestral summersault opens the finale: a boisterous, explosive rondo” or “In the pretty little trio in the middle comes the only glimpse of sunshine we have in the whole symphony.” In the preface the author states, “All music tells a story. The story is about you.” If he really believes this, one wonders why he Ms not content to let the music speak (or itself. Farrar <y Rinchart, $2.50
White and Negro Spirituals, by George Pullen Jackson.
Mr. Jackson’s latest study of religious folk music in America may best be summed up by the titles of the two sections into which it is divided: “The whole story of American religious folk-song as the white people sang it,” nnd “The whole story of American religious folk-music as the Negroes sang it,” No one. is better able to recount this history than the author, nnd in the recounting he has made 8 valuable contribution to the history of American music. Those pnrts of’ the hook which seem most important arc the comparative list of tunes ns sung by Jhitcs and Negroes, the bibliography of British and American books containing religions folk-songs, and the chapter *lueh reaffirms the author’s belief that
e %ro songs are based upon religious
“Now, if we were only staying at
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evil songs of the whites. The book is as valuable to students of social history as it is to students of American music.
J, J. Augustin $5.60
Songs of American Folks, by Satis N. Coleman and Adolpli Brcgman.
This is a useful collection of forty-seven American “folk” songs arranged for solo voice with simple and effective piano accompaniments. A few of the songs are familiar, but many of them are not, and even the familiar ones are not among the best known of their type. The collection is consequently much more interesting than appears on a casual examination. The engraving of the music is clear and the print large enough to make singing around a piano feasible. Singers will appreciate the reasonable pitches at which the songs are set, and amateur accompanists will bless the arranger for saving them the necessity of transposing at sight. John Bay $2.85
Civilisation and Disease, by Henry E. Sigerist.
Dr. Sigerist’s btok is based on a scries of six lectures on the Evolution of Civilization which he delivered at Cornell in 19’tO. The true criterion of civilization is a society where the health and welfare of every individual is the concern of all of them, and human solidarity reaches beyond the boundaries of nationality, race, and creed. With this in mind, Dr. Sigerist has written an extremely interesting and well-executed bo.,*. Civilization as a factor in the genesis of disease, then disease in relation to human economics, social life, laws, history, religion, philosophy, science, literature, art, and music is considered. A final chapter entitled “Civilization against Disease” propounds Dr. Sigerist’s view that the sociology of medicine must keep pace with the technological advances already achieved.
Cornell $3.76
Miracles Ahead! by N. V. Carlisle and F. B. Latham.
Two American journalists with good imaginations venture some startling prophecies on “better living in the postwar world.” Prefabricated bouses ready to
be transported and put up to order, “fly. ing flivvers” for everybody, synthetic foods, and medical miracles will presumably make us happier and healthier. In this dream-world of a mechanized utopij which practical and conservative foil may regard as a fantastic nightmare, life will be so full of a number of things that there will not be one dull moment. Of this streamlined age the present volume is not a blueprint but a vision of scientific possibilities. And in the light of experience, who will say that the forecast may not be realized? Macmillan
The Heritage of Spain. An Introduction to Spanish Civilization, by Nicholson B. Adams.
This book suffers by attempting too much in its less than three hundred pages, It sacrifices adequate discussions of great figures and movements in order that it may catalogue a multitude of names less known. The many brief chapters and sections, glancing now at the history of Spain, now at her literature and her arts, do not cohere satisfactorily, and one is left with no memorable impression of the evolution of Spanish culture. Its value as a handbook, however, is greatly enhanced by serviceable bibliographies foi eacli chapter, a full index, and a lavish number of excellent photographs.
Holt 4
The Wake of the Prairie Schooner, by Irene D. Padcn.
In this book the author, a California woman, follows the several pioneering « peditions westward from Missouri to Ike Pacific. Guided by old wheel-ruts, half-buried wreckage, lonely graves, and local tradition, Mrs. Padcn, accompnnied l] her husband, son, and a medical friend, made nine trips over the old trails, preparation for writing this account ol the exploration and settlement of the ( « west, years of research in old diaries, let’ ters, and histories were fruitfully spent The result is a realistic record of India fights, privations, sickness, personal traf edy, and indomitable perseverance. The volume is a readable, travelogue of «’ pcrienccs and observations in the vAi lytic
ruin pia A ife hat Of me ific pe-iav
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4( the old prairie schooners across the plains nnd mountains before the railroads ipanned the continent in the sixties. Jased on authentic documents, this re-tanstruction of the early westward treks j, an engaging American saga. The eharacters and incidents arc real, and ionic of the things that happened arc itranger than fiction, fit themes for epic ind drama. Macmillan $3
Quebec: Historic Seaport, by Mazo de |i Roche.
The author of the Jalna novels turns historian to write tbe story of Quebec: for |he Seaport Series. Iter talents as a inter of fiction arc given full play as ihc tells how the seal of France was set mi Quebec when Jacques Cartier sailed from St. Malo in 1534; how Samuel de. Champlain, “the first man to love Canada,” founded the city on the Rock in 1(108;
> it grew under Frontcnae; was lost to the British by Montcalm; and bow it became the scene of a portentous conference in World War II. She sees Quebec, not as a quaint and picturesque relic of the past, but as a city of permanence, rooted not in commerce, conquest, or ambition, but in “the will to set the Cross on this Rock.” Quebec today may be confused, but “is steady as a rock in the resolve to preserve, the tradition of her ancient religion and language.”
Doublcdai), Doran $3.50
The House of Macmillan (IHJfi-W.ft), by Charles Morgan.
November 10, 1943, marked the one Wrcdth anniversary of the publication of the first book bearing the Macmillan imprint. This is a highly readable story »f the fortunes of the English house during the first century of its activities, a story that introduces a considerable number of nineteenth-century literary figures.
Macmillan $3
100 Great Years, by Thomas Ewing
Ilallnftlr
In New Orleans, in January, 1837, appeared a penny daily, the Picayune. “100 Great Years” is the history of this news-jjper written by one of its editors Inomas Rwing Dabncy. From out t »e long file comes the’ story of the
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George H.Newton ~cMnnager of a great port, its struggles against floods and yellow fever, its participation in wars both civil and national, and in the career of Huey Long; of a society gay and cultured, delighting in the French opera and the best literature, yet refusing to support a public school; of Creole traditions and customs, of crusades and clean-up campaigns, all as reported by the. Times-Picayune. From a century crowded with events, Mr. Dabncy has chosen those items which best show the economic and social development of New Orleans and its environs. Louisiana
The Gobi Desert, by Mildred Cable with Francesea French.
“Great journeys,” write the authors, “do not merely consist in passing over vast spaces, but owe their greatness more to the human intercourse nnd knowledge of fellow men which they involve, ft is this which makes them memorable.” It is this, too, which makes fascinating, though sometimes slightly tedious, reading of this account of journeys taken over the , vast spaces of tbe Gobi desert by three women missionaries. Carefully and sensitively they wenve their talc of the qualities of this ancient waste land: tbe old sand-ruined cities, where the winds still bring to light casual relics of the inhabitants of centuries past; tbe caravan routes, with their carefully spaced and guarded stages; the kinds and qualities of the people who live in the oases; the political forces at work, for good or evil, in this great inland region of limited but valued fruitfulness, The photographs that accompany the text are suggestive rather than revealing, but the frontispiece, a delicately colored picture of the Lake of tbe Crescent Moon, where this book was written, speaks clearly of the strange beauty and attractive power of the desert. ’ Macmillan $3 MO
The Land of Prester John, hy Elaine Sanceau.
In the fullness of time it was granted to the Iberians of the Renaissance to prove the contentions of medieval geography: the world was round; Marco Polo was not a prevaricator; the fahlcd
kingdom of a Muslim-fighting monarch of the East, Prester John, did exist, and in Ethiopia. This lively narrative ol Portuguese exploration and adventure in the Red Sea littoral and the Ethiopian plateau begins with the travails of those intrepid ambassadors, Pcro daCovilhaia, Duartc Galvao, Rodrigo de Lima, and the unhappy Ethiop, Matthew, who first established relations between the Lord of Lisbon and the Negus. There follows the saga of Dom Cristovao da Gamn, who battled successfully to save the weakening realm from Muslim conquest. Finally, Miss Sanceau recounts, somewhat too hastily, the vain efforts to Romanize the ancient Ethiopian Church and link the half-savage land with the West through inclusion in the Portuguese domains, then spreading vastly through three non-European continents. Knopf $S.1S
Anna and the King of Siam, by Margaret Lnndnn.
In 18(!2 Anna Leonowcns, a young English widow of twenty-eight, went to Bangkok as governess and English teacher in the harem of the King of Siam. For five years she precariously maintained her independence there, alternately touched by the gentleness of the people nnd horrified by their cruelty and brutality. vShe taught King Mongkut’s sixty-seven children and several of his wives and in addition acted ns secretary to the king. The laziness and irresponsibility of most ol her pupils and the king’s quick and incalculable, changes of mood mnde Anna’s position anything but an easy one. Her integrity and steadfastness, however made her five years there profitable, and her influence had much to do with the changes and reforms instigated by the next King of Siam. Prince Chulalongkorn, one of her pupils. Mrs. Landon has taken the two books written by Anna Leonowcns after she left Siam,’ “The English Governess at the Siamese Court” and “The Romance of the Harem,” and out of them and her own personal knowledge of Siam and research in Siamese histoij has woven an unusual and fascinating talc. Her work has been done will .smoothness and skill. John Dr »/$.fr
