Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1917 Books (continued 12)
Reading edition
+ Boston Transcript p8 Mr 28 ‘17 1100w
“With ‘Unrest’ labelled for America ‘Bridge of desire,’ Mr Warwick Deeping recently made a not very happy attempt to pin us down to our own world. There he deliberately threw over the romantic code to which, in his tales of old time, he had dutifully clung. ... He has returned to his machine. ... But the whole thing is a contrivance, rather cynically rigged up by an expert.”
— Nation 104:459 Ap 19 ‘17 400w
“Never, unless memory be at fault, has he given us a romance in which, with no abating of swift movement or of the number of thrilling episodes, the characters were at once so human and so likable as are the hero and heroine in this tale.”
+ N Y Times 22:94 Mr 18 ‘17 500w
Defenders of democracy; ed. by the Gift book committee of the Militia of mercy.[2] President’s ed il *$2.50 Lane 940.91 17-27863
This anthology of miscellaneous contributions has commendatory forewords by Woodrow Wilson, Lord Northcliffe, Theodore Roosevelt and others. Many countries besides our own are represented in the table of contents, among them Belgium, China, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, and Latin America. Among the American contributors are Charles W. Eliot, Mary Austin, Robert W. Chambers, Louis Untermeyer, Fannie Hurst, Amy Lowell, Myron T. Herrick and Amélie Rives. A frontispiece in color by Childe Hassam is one of the pictorial features. The proceeds from the sale of the book go to the aid of needy families of the men of the naval militia.
“Contains much of valuable information, many a stirring paragraph of description, appreciation, or narrative, and, not least surely, more than one challenge to thought.”
+ N Y Times 22:540 D 9 ‘17 950w
“There is something here to entertain every one, even if he opens the book with a prejudice against such collections.”
+ Outlook 118:32 Ja 2 ‘18 60w
DE GROOT, CORNELIA. When I was a girl in Holland. (Children of other lands books) il *75c (2½c) Lothrop 914.92 17-24724
The author of this book for American boys and girls was born in Deersum, a village in the province of Friesland, and there are a number of photographic illustrations showing scenes from this childhood home. She writes of; Our house; How we dressed; Our village school; Some of our games; Our holidays; Farm life; The kermis; Our canal-boats; On skates, etc. When she was twenty-one the author came to America and she now makes her home in California.
“A matter-of-fact account. It is none the less interesting and will give children about eleven or twelve some idea of actualities beyond picturesque wooden shoes and windmills.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:136 Ja ‘18
“The book bears the mark of genuine experience and faithful observation.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 N 10 ‘17 30w
“Altogether delightful. The illustrations from photographs are well chosen.”
+ Ind 92:448 D 1 ‘17 40w
“Her chapters descriptive of Holland are full of color and information, and her literary style is simple and direct.”
+ Lit D 55:54 D 8 ‘17 90w
N Y Times 22:389 O 7 ‘17 50w
“What a child saw and heard in Holland makes a particularly interesting narrative, and the book will be read by children and older people alike with pleasure.”
+ Outlook 117:100 S 19 ‘17 50w
+ Springf’d Republican p6 D 1 ‘17 110w
DEJEANS, ELIZABETH (JANES) (MRS SIDNEY BUDGETT). Tiger’s coat. il *$1.50 (1½c) Bobbs 17-7810
A Nebraska city gives this story its setting but the woman of mystery who is its central character has a background that includes Mexico, Paris and Belgium in the early days of the war. Driven out of the war-ridden countries she comes to Laclasse, presenting herself to Alexander MacAllister as his kinswoman and showing letters that support her story. But one doesn’t know how much of the story is to be believed, and one doesn’t know whether to like or dislike Marie. This is the interest that holds the story together, but it has other points deserving of notice, one of them its excellent character portrayal, another the author’s fairness in her attitude toward the German-Americans of the Middle West.
“A rather lifeless affair of good promise and of weak fulfilment. ... The story may be described as a series of anticlimaxes.”
— Dial 62:403 My 3 ‘17 110w
N Y Times 22:258 Jl 8 ‘17 180w
“The romance is well built up, and, on the whole, well written, though a trifle feverish in parts.”
+ — Outlook 115:668 Ap 11 ‘17 50w
“While the plot is of the stuff from which melodramas are made, the generally good character drawing gives the book substantiality.” R. D. Moore
Pub W 91:584 F 17 ‘17 400w
“The story, though not without vigor, is more romantic and less restrained than this author’s previous novel.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p17 Ap 1 ‘17 400w
DE KOVEN, ANNA (FARWELL) (MRS REGINALD DE KOVEN). Counts of Gruyère. il *$2 (6c) Duffield 949.4 17-93
The author has written the history of Gruyère, a town in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. In a prologue the “little castled city” is described. Then come the following chapters: Origin of the people; Influence of the church; Sovereignty of the House of Savoy; Foreign wars; The Burgundian wars (Count François I); The Burgundian wars (Count Louis); Struggle for succession; Religious reform; The fall of the House of Gruyère; Gruyère without its counts. There is a bibliography of three pages. The book is beautifully illustrated, with a frontispiece in color.
“Mrs de Koven has the instinct for historical narrative, together with a comprehension of the human side of the matter. She shows us how character and historical fact inter-act; she helps us to live in the times of which she writes.” R. M.
+ Boston Transcript p7 F 10 ‘17 450w
+ Ind 89:273 F 12 ‘17 60w
+ Lit D 54:770 Mr 17 ‘17 140w
“Mrs de Koven, who, in addition to her other literary work, established herself a few years ago as a biographical authority upon the life of John Paul Jones, gives fresh proof in this charming volume of her marked gifts as a historian.”
+ N Y Times 22:6 Ja 7 ‘17 450w
146“The story of the long reign of the Counts of Gruyère is most picturesque. In no other way do we get so clear a picture of feudalism in Switzerland or so graphic an interpretation of its spirit.”
+ R of Rs 55:217 F ‘17 110w
DELAFIELD, E. M. Zella sees herself. *$1.50 (2c) Knopf (Eng ed 17-24709)
Zella de Kervoyou, child of a French father and English mother, educated in a convent school, “from the time she is seven years old ... is constantly shifting her standards to conform to those of the particular environment in which she happens to find herself. The book is practically the story of the lies, the evasions, the hypocrisies, the heartaches which spring from Zella’s desire to be always charming, agreeable, superior.” (N Y Times)
“It has none of that shallow brilliancy, that self-conscious cleverness, that clap-trap humour, which marks in every age the work of the tribe of gentlemen (and ladies) who write with ease. It turns a clear, warm, smiling gaze on life and interprets it to us in the very act of making us, too, smile at it. That was Jane Austen’s white magic.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 46:489 D ‘17 550w
“It is a comedy of youth, in the sense in which Jane Austen’s stories may be so called. It has a certain analogy to what was probably also Miss Austen’s first effort, ‘Northanger abbey,’ and in its quiet precision of characterization and dialogue as well as in its well-nigh unerring satirical touch, it measurably suggests the great mistress of British fiction.”
+ Nation 105:515 N 8 ‘17 360w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ Nation 105:601 N 29 ‘17 90w
“This unusual and complex study of character is told with a lightness and mastery of touch and a delightful, pervasive humor not often met in the ordinary run of novels.”
+ N Y Times 22:380 O 7 ‘17 550w
“Miss Delafield has drawn her heroine with sympathetic understanding.”
+ Sat R 123:sup4 My 19 ‘17 230w
DE LA MARE, WALTER JOHN. Peacock pie. il *$2 Holt 821 (Eng ed 16-21123)
A book of rhymes for children, with illustrations by W. Heath Robinson. There are nonsense verses, romantic tales, and lovely lyrics. Up and down, Boys and girls, Three queer tales, Places and people, Beasts, Witches and fairies, Earth and air, and Songs, are the divisions of the book.
A L A Bkl 13:439 Jl ‘17
+ Ath p54 Ja ‘17 40w
“Yet even in his poems for children he is more than a poet for children. Each year-laden reader who can look through the magic casement of Mr de la Mare’s verses will see among the shadowy figures that flit about the moon-silvered lanes a tiny ghost that was once himself.” M. M. Frank
+ Bookm 46:89 S ‘17 950w
“Mr de la Mare is not an innovator, and his scope is not great; but within his scope he has no superior.” Conrad Aiken
+ Dial 63:150 Ag 30 ‘17 160w
“Mostly they are nothing more than the pleasing little fancies which Mr de la Mare can so well conjure out of faery, fashioned with that lyric felicity which is not the least notable attribute of all the Georgians whose names are worth recounting and of Mr de la Mare in special.” J. T. W.
+ New Repub 12:279 O 6 ‘17 450w
“Peacock pie was once a royal dish; this book is a royal dish.” Clement Wood
+ N Y Call p14 Je 24 ‘17 200w
“One might exhaust lists of adjectives and yet fail to bring the reader the flavor, the awe, the delight, the haunting terror of this collection of verse, ‘Peacock pie.’”
+ R of Rs 56:217 Ag ‘17 220w
“From cover to cover, the most captious critic may hardly find a poem that is not a joy to meet and to keep.”
+ Sat R 123:232 Mr 10 ‘17 950w
“In the years that have passed since Stevenson brought out his ‘Child’s garden of verses’ we have not seen a prettier book of rhymes for children than this. ... The poet, in this new edition, is fortunate in his sympathetic illustrator, Mr W. Heath Robinson, whose charming designs reflect by turns the gaiety and sentiment of the verses.”
+ Spec 118:21 Ja 6 ‘17 200w
“The poetry in these two little volumes is, perhaps, the purest poetry for children that has ever been made; Blake and Stevenson not forgotten.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p604 D 14 ‘16 850w
DELAND, LORIN FULLER. At the sign of the dollar, and other essays. *$1.25 (3c) Harper 304 17-8762
The title essay, a discussion of advertising and an appeal for more attention to human nature on the part of those engaged in business, is reprinted from Harper’s Magazine for March, 1917. Some of the other papers have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. The complete table of contents reads: At the sign of the dollar; Football at Harvard and at Yale as seen in 1910; Some have greatness thrust upon them; A plea for the theatrical manager; The Lawrence strike; a study; Concerning X107.
A L A Bkl 14:14 O ‘17
St Louis 15:183 Je ‘17
“Mr Deland’s study of the Harvard-Yale football situation is one of the most interesting things he has to offer, but it must have been written before Harvard’s string of successes in the last five years. Mr Deland makes it plain that he considers Walter Camp the genius of American football.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Je 25 ‘17 420w
DELANO, MRS EDITH (BARNARD). Tomorrow morning. il *$1.35 (2½c) Houghton 17-25434
This, “a chronicle of the new Eve and the same old Adam,” is the story of the married life of a young couple in the thirties, which, in spite of complications that threaten to make trouble between them, ends happily. Martha, the “new Eve,” devoted both to her children and to social work, discovers that although it is already in the affairs of men and women “tomorrow morning,” “the millennium is a long way off,” and so to keep the love of the “same old Adam,” she models her conduct for a time upon that of the “old Eve.”
A L A Bkl 14:130 Ja ‘18
“Martha is an attractive heroine, and little Cecily, whose passion for telling the truth made her a most disconcerting person to have about, a real and amusing child. The life of the little western city in which the action takes place is well portrayed, and the busy life of the modern woman neatly and sanely sketched.”
+ N Y Times 22:469 N 11 ‘17 370w
“A domestic comedy written with charm and humor.”
+ Outlook 117:510 N 28 ‘17 8w
“Quite aside from the message that it carries, Mrs Delano’s book is interesting for the skill with which she has managed her characters. The study of Bob Ramsey with his blundering, masculine ways, is particularly well done, Martha Ramsey, with her brilliant intellect, her self-control and her uncanny shrewdness, is a little overdrawn.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p17 N 11 ‘17 340w
DELL, ETHEL MAY. Hundredth chance. il *$1.50 (1c) Putnam 17-10669
The hero of Miss Dell’s latest story is a horse trainer and accustomed to work to win even if he sees only the “hundredth chance” of success. This is all that is his when he loves Maud Brian, the beautiful but penniless daughter 147of Sir Bernard Brian. But the marriage of her mother to a scoundrel and the dependence of her lame brother cause the girl to accept marriage with him on terms of her own choosing. An added obstacle to the trainer’s hopes is the appearance of Lord Saltash, his employer and the former fiancé of his wife. In spite of the heavy odds against him, his patience and devotion at last break down social differences and win him the deep affection of his wife.
“Readers of popular fiction will no doubt revel in the rough-diamond hero and the plausible villain, the atmosphere of the racing stable, etc.; but the whole has been much better done many times already, and if this sort of book did not continue to appear, classics might receive more attention.”
— Ath p311 Je ‘17 100w
“Once the major premise of her story is accepted there is nothing forced or unnatural in the situations themselves.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 S 26 ‘17 330w
“Her method proves that Victorianism is by no means played out, may indeed be rendered freshly effective by a slight tincture of modern ‘frankness’ in the treatment of sex. Her present heroine is the chill, snobbish little prude whom our fathers admired—at least in fiction.”
— Nation 105:16 Jl 5 ‘17 250w
“The chief criticism of the book lies, not in its conventional situation and artificial character treatment—for neither of these detract seriously from the simple enjoyment of it as an entertaining story—but in the undeniable and glaring fact that none of its people seem to know the most fundamental standards of behavior or of speech. They irritate and alienate where they should hold the novel reader’s sympathy.”
+ — N Y Times 22:202 My 20 ‘17 280w
“A strong and interesting story, developed with skill and good taste, and is by all odds the best the author has ever written.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Jl 8 ‘17 400w
“It is all a wonderfully exciting length of distressing misunderstandings, but we are up-borne throughout by the confident anticipation that Miss Dell will never balk us of a happy ending. ... There is equal certainty, too, that though often dealing with the most delicate and difficult situations Miss Dell will skim over the thin places without ever offending our taste.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p236 My 17 ‘17 400w
DELL, ETHEL MAY. Safety curtain, and other stories. il *$1.50 (1½c) Putnam 17-29862
The title story of the five in this volume introduces as the principals a man and woman quite out of the ordinary. He is a major in the Indian army—home on leave. She is an elf-like dancer. The safety-curtain that dropped behind her at a moment when the stage is aflame is symbolized by the act of the man whose rescuing of her marks the beginning of a new sensation—that of protection. How, in India whither she goes as a bride, her odd little nature expands in the warmth of the new influence; how ghosts of the past try to rob her of her happiness; and how the strength of the man overcame them is all told in spirited fashion. The other stories are: The experiment; Those who wait; The eleventh hour; The place of honour.
+ Ath p679 D ‘17 80w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p542 N 8 ‘17 150w
DELLENBAUGH, FREDERICK SAMUEL. George Armstrong Custer. (True stories of great Americans) il *50c (1c) Macmillan 17-1602
Elizabeth B. Custer, herself the author of one of the best known accounts of her husband’s campaigns, has written a preface to this book, commending it for its accuracy and fairness. The story of General Custer’s boyhood is told briefly and this is followed by a very full account of his services in the Civil war and on the plains.
“Written chiefly for young people by a man who knew the West of Custer’s day and was an early explorer of the Grand Canyon.”
+ Cleveland p83 Je ‘17 40w
+ Cleveland p127 N ‘17 30w
+ N Y Times 22:181 My 6 ‘17 60w
+ R of Rs 55:442 Ap ‘17 140w
“Gen. Custer’s biographer is a man who knew the West in Custer’s day and who had even less sympathy than honest Custer for the abuses of the Indian agencies where Indians and government were alike robbed by the most flagrant of grafters. ... It is a chapter of national dishonor that Mr Dellenbaugh relates. But the picture of Custer is always that of a hero.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Mr 6 ‘17 300w
DEL MAR, ALGERNON. Tube milling; a treatise on the practical application of the tube mill to metallurgical problems. il *$2 McGraw 622.7 17-13102
“The author states that in the preparation of ores for concentration, cyanidation, and flotation, intermediate grinding by conical and cylindrical tube mills will eventually supersede the work now largely done by stamps, rolls, and chilian mills. General principles are discussed and the construction and operation of the different types explained. Chapter 5 deals with the adaptability of wrought iron and alloy steels as materials of construction.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
Cleveland p110 S ‘17 20w
“Mr Del Mar’s book is worth placing in every mill-man’s library, where it will serve as a ready reference for the tube-mill operator.”
+ Engineering and Mining Journal 103:1083 Je 16 ‘17 100w
N Y P L New Tech Bks p18 Jl ‘17 70w
Pittsburgh 22:662 O ‘17 10w
DENCH, ERNEST ALFRED. Advertising by motion pictures. *$1.50 Standard pub. co. 659 16-25184
“The use of motion pictures as an advertising medium is not confined to any one business or profession. It is adapted to wholesale as well as to retail business. Moreover, it possesses unique ‘business-pulling’ properties. It has, however, like all methods, limitations. These as well as its far greater number of advantages, Mr Dench sets forth with admirable brevity and candor.”—Boston Transcript
A L A Bkl 13:295 Ap ‘17
“Extremely up-to-date book.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 Mr 31 ‘17 250w
“Despite a curious belief in the value of slang as a medium for imparting information and ideas, the subject is comprehensively and authoritatively treated.”
+ Ind 90:556 Je 23 ‘17 60w
N Y Br Lib News 4:59 Ap ‘17
Deportation of women and girls from Lille. *50c Doran 940.91 A17-371
A volume containing a translation of “the note addressed by the French government to the governments of neutral powers on the conduct of the German authorities toward the population of the French departments in the occupation of the enemy,” together with “extracts from other documents, annexed to the note, relating to German breaches of international law during 1914, 1915, 1916.” (Title-page) Both French and German documents are presented; also private letters. The title is inexact since the deportations included men and boys as well as women and girls.
A L A Bkl 13:395 Je ‘17
“The chief value of this collection lies in the fact that it presents original data with little or no comment. Unlike the many books which 148have been published on this phase of the war, it is not sensational but aims to be a plain statement of fact.”
+ Am Pol Sci R 11:363 My ‘17 150w
Cleveland p58 Ap ‘17 40w
“In the letters it is more than once stated that German officers and soldiers refused to carry out the deportation order and were confined for disobedience within the fortress of Lille.”
Ind 90:298 My 12 ‘17 50w
“The entire compilation comprises one of the most striking illustrations of the horrors of war that has yet been published.” J. W.
N Y Call p14 Mr 11 ‘17 330w
DE SÉLINCOURT, HUGH. Soldier of life. *$1.50 (1½c) Macmillan 17-2025
Outwardly this is a pathological study of a crippled soldier’s mental state, but, more deeply, it cuts down into human nature to reveal the eternal conflict between the great constructive force, love, and the destructive forces that find their final and supreme expression in war. This revelation comes to James Wood thru Corinna Combe, and it comes only after he has struggled against the menace of depression and threatened insanity, after he has failed to find consolation in a common-sense view of life, which urged marriage with a cheerful, trivial, common-sense sort of girl, or comfort in religion. War has been to him a horror and a desecration, and his sanity is saved only when, thru Corinna, he comes to understand its basic origin.
+ A L A Bkl 13:402 Je ‘17
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ — Bookm 45:96 Mr ‘17 400w
“It can scarcely hope to find a universal appeal, but will undoubtedly be of interest to those who enjoy the abnormal.” R. W.
+ — Boston Transcript p6 F 24 ‘17 300w
+ Ind 90:257 My 5 ‘17 70w
“Whatever weakness the book may have as a story, however, it throws raw light, in its picture of the moral and spiritual disintegration which war may bring to the unhappy warrior, upon a common horror which the belligerent world, waving its flags and chorusing its mottoes, chooses to leave in darkness.”
+ — Nation 104:369 Mr 29 ‘17 350w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Nation 104:404 Ap 5 ‘17 140w
“It will not be strange if Mr de Sélincourt’s book turns out to have been one of the most significant of all that come out of the war. ... It is the quintessence of war literature. ... It traces the delicate spiritual effects as no other book has yet succeeded in doing. ... You have only to compare it with Mr Britling to get the contrast of its fineness with Wells’s blowsiness of spirit, that utterly pedestrian and easy way in which the re-discoverer of God dresses up again the rumpled soul of middle-class Britain and sets her decently on parade again. ... Mr de Sélincourt, perhaps unconsciously, has done in the novel what Bertrand Russell is saying impersonally.” Randolph Bourne
+ New Repub 11:85 My 19 ‘17 1200w
“One cannot read it without being stirred to deeper thought and higher feeling.”
+ N Y Times 22:33 F 4 ‘17 500w
“From the very first, its dramatic and analytical power hold the reader’s attention and carry him thru the hero’s struggles with an interest seldom roused by such a subject. It is more plain human than abnormal. ... This is as deeply thoughtful a book as any the war has inspired, and one, besides, of beautiful texture and style.” E. P. Wyckoff
+ Pub W 91:587 F 17 ‘17 350w
“‘A soldier of life’ is a thoughtful—almost spiritual—study of the effect of war, and affords food for thought.”
+ Springf’d Republican p19 Mr 25 ‘17 460w
“Perhaps its differentia and its most notable merit are its success in expressing high and difficult matters in terms of a mere man and his human affairs, linked by a carefully forged chain of thought and incident to the complete ‘normality’ of the opening chapters.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p560 N 23 ‘16 560w
+ Wis Lib Bul 13:127 Ap ‘17 90w
DESSON, GEORGES.[2] Hostage in Germany; auth. tr. by Lee Holt. il *$1.50 Dutton 940.91 (Eng ed War17-84)
“A graphic account, by a distinguished French engineer, of his detention as a hostage in Germany for eleven months, with a number of his compatriots. The hardships and sufferings endured by the party were exceedingly severe. The pretext for the imprisonment was that some German subjects were alleged to have been ill-treated in Morocco. The illustrations show some of the places of confinement.”—Ath
“He records the suffering and misery of his experiences with the relieving brightness and humor that characterized him and his nine companions in their otherwise unendurable imprisonment.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:88 D ‘17
+ Ath p258 My ‘17 80w
Outlook 117:144 S 26 ‘17 40w
Pittsburgh 22:761 N ‘17 60w
DESTRÉE, JULES. Britain in arms (French title, L’effort britannique). *$1.50 (3c) Lane 940.91 17-25445
“M. Destrée—a Belgian writer who, during a stay of some months in Italy, came to the conclusion that England’s efforts in the war were not sufficiently realized by our Italian allies, and was thus led to lay the facts before them—has written a French version of ‘Cio che hanno fatto gli Inglesi.’ The translation, by Mr J. Lewis May, is now before us. How England, though anxious for peace, found herself involved in the war; her naval, military, financial, and industrial efforts; the union of kingdom and empire; and the reasons why our Allies should have confidence in England, are some of the topics to which M. Destrée addresses himself.” (Ath) The preface is by Georges Clemenceau.
A L A Bkl 14:88 D ‘17
+ Ath p475 S ‘17 100w
“If an Englishman had written this book we would regard it as a piece of self-satisfied laudation. Coming from a Frenchman, who has given the widespread patrol work of the British fleet and the astonishing development of the British army careful investigation, the book falls short of overpraise, but is singularly just.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 O 27 ‘17 280w
“The book, by the author’s confession, was hurriedly written; it is propagandist; but its laudable object is to fortify international confidence as ‘a preparation for the better days to come’; and it makes inspiring reading.”
+ Dial 63:594 D 6 ‘17 420w
R of Rs 56:549 N ‘17 30w
“M. Jules Destrée discovered a suspicion in Italy that England was not ‘pulling her weight’ in the war. It is a suspicion at which we have no right to be angry, for very similar suspicions of Italian slackness have sometimes been entertained in ill-informed circles in England; and this suspicion, in both cases, has been due to misapprehensions arising out of an excusable ignorance. ... He could have got a preface from no more appropriate author than M. Clemenceau, who has frequently insisted, in L’Homme Enchainé, that an estimate of our contribution to the war must take cognizance of work done in the factories as well as in the field.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p302 Je 28 ‘17 750w
DEWEY, JOHN, and others. Creative intelligence. *$2 (1½c) Holt 104 17-6640
Eight modern thinkers contribute papers to this volume. The subtitle “Essays in the pragmatic attitude,” indicates that the unity of the 149work is one of attitude rather than of conclusions. The first essay, by John Dewey, on The need for a recovery of philosophy, serves to introduce those that follow. It is a statement of the pragmatic purpose, to emancipate philosophy from its attachment to traditional problems. “What serious-minded men not engaged in the professional business of philosophy most want to know,” Professor Dewey says, “is what modifications and abandonments of intellectual inheritance are required by the newer industrial, political, and scientific movements.” The remaining essays are concerned with some of the specific applications of philosophy to present-day problems. They are: Reformation of logic, by Addison W. Moore; Intelligence and mathematics, by Harold Chapman Brown; Scientific method and individual thinker, by George H. Mead; Consciousness and psychology, by Boyd H. Bode; The phases of the economic interest, by Henry Waldgrave Stuart; The moral life and the construction of values and standards, by James Hayden Tufts; Value and existence in philosophy, art, and religion, by Horace M. Kallen.
“Some of the essays have appeared in the various philosophical journals.”
A L A Bkl 13:423 Jl ‘17
“To the general reader, perhaps the papers on ethics, by Professor Tufts, and economics, by Professor Stuart, will make the widest appeal, though all will enjoy the concluding paper by Dr Kallen.” R. C. Lodge
+ — Bellman 22:300 Mr 17 ‘17 470w
“The book is specially noteworthy for its importance as a contribution to American philosophic thought.” F. F. Kelly
+ — Bookm 45:181 Ap ‘17 580w
— Cath World 105:393 Je ‘17 480w
Cleveland p75 Je ‘17 40w
Reviewed by M. C. Otto
* Dial 62:348 Ap 19 ‘17 2450w
Reviewed by R. B. Perry
* Int J Ethics 28:115 O ‘17 3400w
N Y Times 22:141 Ap 15 ‘17 450w
Pittsburgh 22:328 Ap ‘17
Pratt p6 O ‘17 20w
Springf’d Republican p8 F 3 ‘17 30w
“There is not an abundance of good philosophy or good writing in this volume. The contributions of Profs. Dewey and Moore are not without interest as statements of method.”
– + Springf’d Republican p15 Ag 19 ‘17 200w
“‘Creative intelligence,’ in spite of its attractive title, is not a treatise for beginners in humanistic philosophy. Yet there are some who like to begin, as it were, at the top of the pyramid and work down—who like the intellectual tussle of difficult beginnings. To these, and to anyone familiar with the concepts of humanism, ‘Creative intelligence’ is to be recommended. ... In spite of these appreciative remarks, one cannot help sighing for that exposition at once vivid as lightning and picturesque as romance, which William James was always able to provide for anything he had to say.” J: Collier
+ — Survey 39:326 D 15 ‘17 600w
DE WINDT, HARRY. Russia as I know it. il *$3 Lippincott 914.7 18-1412
“The author was previously employed by the Russian government to investigate (for the benefit of English-speaking people) the Siberian exile system and reported not unfavorably on it. His findings caused controversy in the London press. His book deals mainly with European Russia, although there are separate and interesting chapters on Siberia, Darker Siberia, Frozen Asia, the Crimea, Finland, and last but not least, the Russian army. Mr De Windt also describes the characteristics and life of the Russian people.”—Springf’d Republican
“If Mr De Windt had made the most of his opportunities what splendid material he had ready to his hand! Instead, we are given a superficial account of men and manners, well flavoured with anecdotes of social life and morals, and strongly redolent of the countless excellent restaurants and menus the author was lucky enough to meet with.”
– + Ath p342 Jl ‘17 800w
+ Ath p364 Jl ‘17 50w
“Interesting as it is, the material shows every evidence of having been collated with less thought of homogeneity than of producing a book that would sell.”
– + Dial 63:526 N 22 ‘17 500w
+ N Y Times 22:579 D 30 ‘17 150w
“In telling what he has learned of the Russian character by long-continued observation Mr De Windt helps his readers to a clearer understanding of the problems and perplexities which the new Russia is facing at this moment.”
+ R of Rs 56:552 N ‘17 80w
“His book is no globe-trotter’s journal, but a considered view of the various facets of Russian life.”
+ Sat R 124:250 S 29 ‘17 320w
“We could wish that there had been less about Russia as a playground and more about her political, artistic, and intellectual qualities, but only one who knows Russia as a man of the world could have written this book, and it can therefore be safely recommended as valuable of its kind.”
+ — Spec 119:12 Jl 7 ‘17 1500w
“Although the author may be congratulated on having produced a readable work, one questions whether it has its permanent historical value.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p15 D 1 ‘17 230w
“He can tell as readable a story as anybody could wish to read.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p266 Je 7 ‘17 400w
DIBBLEE, GEORGE BINNEY. Germany’s economic position and England’s commercial and industrial policy after the war. *1s Heinemann, London
“This is one of the publications of the Central committee for national patriotic organizations. ... His analysis (to which the first four chapters are devoted) in headed paragraphs, of German industrial expansion, of the influence of the German government and character on industry, and the dangers of German aggression, is impartial and instructive. Mr Dibblee deals with our economic policy after the war in a cautious spirit. He foresees a tariff, but a strictly moderate one, and a moderate duty on corn. ... Among ‘internal measures of defence’ he urges the establishment of a foreign trade office and a system of licenses for employment, transfer of land, company promotion, export of raw material, &c.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“This very shrewd and able little book deserves attention.”
+ Spec 118:209 F 17 ‘17 380w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p638 D 28 ‘16 160w
DICK, JOHN HARRISON, ed. Garden guide; the amateur gardener’s handbook. il 75c; pa 50c De La Mare 710 17-11482
The publishers claim for this book a larger aim than that indicated by the title. They hope “through its medium to win thousands from crowded city homes to the free air of the open country.” Among the contributors are F. F. Rockwell, A. J. Loveless, and Charles Livingston Bull. The subjects taken up include: Planning the home grounds; Lawns and grass plots; Hedges and fences; Trees and shrubs; The rose garden; Among the hardy flowers; Annuals and biennials; Garden furniture; Fruit for the small garden; Vegetable garden; Pruning, etc. There are numerous illustrations, diagrams and tables.
“Its twenty-four chapters deal in a way easily understood with the many perplexing problems which confront the beginner and often the professional as well. A calendar of operations contains much useful information, while the chapters 150on garden furniture and accessories will be eagerly absorbed by the reader who is mechanically inclined.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 1 ‘17 140w
DICKINSON, ASA DON, and DICKINSON, HELEN WINSLOW, eds. Children’s book of patriotic stories; the spirit of ‘76. il *$1.25 (3c) Doubleday 17-25380
Among the stories selected for this volume are: Jabez Rockwell’s powderhorn, by Ralph D. Paine; Old Esther Dudley, by Nathaniel Hawthorne; The battle of Bunker’s Hill, by Washington Irving; The little fifer, by Helen M. Winslow; Paul Revere’s ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; A venture in 1777, by S. Weir Mitchell; The little minute-man, by H. G. Paine; Washington and the spy, by James Fenimore Cooper. For each story there is a brief introductory note and the table of contents indicates the stories suitable for older and for younger children.
“Good reference material for any children’s library.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:172 F ‘18
“A book confessedly more patriotic than historical, since the seeker of sober truth does not interpret the year ‘76 quite in the spirit of ‘76.” J: Walcott
— Bookm 46:496 D ‘17 60w
“These are good stories for the children of 1917 to read, both because they are good stories and because, later, the spirit of ‘76 and the spirit of ‘17 will have much in common.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 N 10 ‘17 30w
“The work of selection has been well done, and the book may be recommended for juvenile libraries, public or private.”
+ Cath World 106:551 Ja ‘18 100w
DICKINSON, GOLDSWORTHY LOWES. Choice before us. *$2 Dodd (*6s Allen & Unwin, London) 172.4 17-29207
“The author’s purpose is to describe briefly the prospect before the world if the armed international anarchy is to continue, and to be extended and exasperated, after the war. The origin of the war, and our participation in it, are not discussed; though the author is of opinion that we could do ‘no other.’ He seeks to analyse and discuss the presuppositions which underlie militarism, and arguing both that international war as it will be conducted in the future implies the ruin of civilisation, and that it is not ‘inevitable,’ he sketches the kind of reorganization that is both possible and essential if war is not to destroy mankind.” (Ath) “Mr Dickinson nurses the belief, not very strongly it seems to us, that wars may be prevented by a system of international leagues and international councils of conciliation. ... He is quite clear that internationalism can effect nothing unless all the great powers are members of the league. He says plainly that if Germany and Austria are to be left out of this league the thing is hopeless, and there is a vista of wars before us. He also argues with much force that if the Entente powers persist in waging an economic war against the Central European powers, then the economic must be followed by a military war.” (Sat R)
A L A Bkl 14:111 Ja ‘18
Ath p355 Jl ‘17 110w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 46:286 N ‘17 150w
+ Cleveland p131 D ‘17 60w
“With regard to militarism in England, Mr Lowes Dickinson lays undue stress on an entirely uninfluential and forgotten book by Captain Ross in his attempt to find evidences of militarism in countries other than Germany. The value of the book lies in its appeal to realities; its criticism of unreal standards and ideals.” M. J.
+ — Int J Ethics 28:287 Ja ‘18 330w
“On the whole, Mr Dickinson presents a strong case against the militarists. A valuable service performed by the author is his collection of scattered statements made by prominent representatives of the allied nations into a formidable body of militaristic doctrine. It is a dangerous plant in whatever soil it may be rooted.”
+ Nation 106:19 Ja 3 ‘18 520w
“All who respect clear thinking, large-hearted zeal, and generous common sense must respect his expression of his views.”
+ N Y Times 22:579 D 30 ‘17 1200w
“Every thinking man and woman should read Mr Dickinson’s book, which is a series of powerful arguments, written by a most accomplished disputant, in favour of a combined endeavour by the civilised world to put an end to war. There is, however, one indispensable condition to the success of Mr Dickinson’s ideas—international leagues must be in the hands of responsible statesmen, and not under the control of the secret societies or led by cosmopolitan anarchists.”
Sat R 124:129 Ag 18 ‘17 1050w
“We find these books exceedingly exasperating. ... Their theory of joint responsibility, with Germany as the worst sinner because the most completely militarized, ignores the whole history of Prussia as a predatory Power. ... Books like these should be read—for even in the worst of them there is much good sense—though their tone and the attitude of the writers towards the mass of their countrymen make the reading rather repulsive.”
Spec 119:189 Ag 25 ‘17 1200w
“The case against militarism—obvious militarism, and the militarism which stalks under the guise of imperialistic policy—has seldom been thought out with keener analysis and closer logic.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 D 25 ‘17 1150w
“His purpose is so manifestly good, his temper is so reasonable, he is so desirous to see things as they are that even those who differ from some of his conclusions, and the many others who miss in his volume a sense of true proportion, will listen attentively to his argument and agree with much of it. There are many pages in this volume which express admirably the opinions of calm, clear-thinking men as to the outlook and our duties as a nation. ... But the reader who lays down the volume with the sense that he has learned much from it, and who agrees that ‘there are in all countries traditions, interests, prejudices, and illusions making for war,’ may very likely think that there is a want of perspective in the treatment of the subject, and that certain facts, fit to be noted in season, are pushed into undue prominence.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p303 Je 28 ‘17 1800w
DICKINSON, THOMAS HERBERT. Contemporary drama of England. (Contemporary drama ser.) *$1.25 (2c) Little 822 17-7563
Beginning with a chapter on The early Victorian theatre, the author covers the whole field from the beginning of the second quarter of the nineteenth century to the present. The chapters following the first are: The decline of the romantic tradition; Adaptation and experiment; Toward a new English theatre; Dramatists of transition; Henry Arthur Jones; Arthur Wing Pinero; The busy nineties; New organization; George Bernard Shaw; Dramatists of the free theatre; The challenge of the future. There is a bibliographical appendix. The author is professor of English in the University of Wisconsin and author of “The case of American drama.”
A L A Bkl 14:14 O ‘17
“A book of quite extraordinary merit.” Clayton Hamilton
* + Bookm 45:538 Jl ‘17 470w
“In a comprehensive bibliographical appendix is given an index of English plays of the past eighty years, arranged alphabetically by authors, and a list of books and magazine articles on the drama.”
+ Boston Transcript p7 F 17 ‘17 750w
Pittsburgh 22:312 Ap ‘17
“The eleventh chapter, on the ‘Free theater,’ and the twelfth, which estimates the dramatic labors of Galsworthy, Hankin, Barrie, Craig, 151and Barker, will assist both the average theater-patron and the dramatic student in discerning the trend of modern plays and give them a better idea of the aims of modern stage producers.”
+ R of Rs 55:662 Je ‘17 100w
St Louis 15:182 Je ‘17
“Its historical information is interestingly presented, and it is much more meaty and detailed than many works of the kind. There are a few surprising mistakes. ... In interpretation and criticism Mr Dickinson, while sometimes shrewd and apt, is less satisfactory. He is frequently too abstract, and finespun in his characterizations. ... This is Mr Dickinson at his vaguest, and it would be unfair to judge the book by such instances of strained and pointless criticism. Yet one fears that these sentences are typical of the instruction which Drama league audiences and literary clubs are getting in this country.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p6 F 26 ‘17 400w
DICKINSON, THOMAS HERBERT. Insurgent theatre. *$1.25 (2½c) Huebsch 792 17-30696
A concise, comprehensive discussion of the artistic and practical sides of the non-commercial theatre. At the outset the point of agreement taken for granted is the conviction on the part of workers that the things of the old theatre must be destroyed and a new theatre be built up in its stead. Without censure against the older order, the writer confines himself to the struggle for the new theatre,—the purposes of those who have started out in revolt; its problems of financial support including experiments in subsidy; the responsibility of audiences to support a theatre intelligently; early experiments showing that the machinery was not ready to carry out the new enterprises; the little theatre; laws that affect management of theatres, for instance, laws against Sunday performances and child-labor; dramatic laboratories; the children’s theatre; some of the pioneers of the insurgent theatre, and a closing chapter on the “Art and outlook of the insurgent theatre.”
Reviewed by Algernon Tassin
Bookm 46:347 N ‘17 250w
“It is interesting to compare the attitudes of Professor Dickinson and Cheney. The two volumes make an admirable combination for the theaterlover. ... The question of subsidy, direct and through subscription audiences, is ably handled by Professor Dickinson, as is the relationship of the college to dramatics in the matter of experimentation.” L: Gardy
+ N Y Call p15 Ja 12 ‘18 250w
“The book is, perhaps, the most comprehensive exposition that has yet been made of what is generally known as the ‘modern movement.’”
+ N Y Times 22:578 D 30 ‘17 160w
+ R of Rs 57:108 Ja ‘18 110w
“Mr Dickinson is so familiar not only with the subject of the community theater, but also with the ordinary commercial enterprise and the lore and philosophy of the drama, that he has a background for understanding what he is talking about. No wild beliefs in the efficacy of new amateur theaters to build up a new social stratum in America tinge his views.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 D 6 ‘17 950w
“But this is more than a chronicle of the pioneers and their ventures; it is a clear, balanced and broadminded critique, helpful alike to the play-lover, the actor, the playwright and the producer. The responsibility of the audience is well-defined, the artistic devotion of those who are working out little theaters in town and country is keenly appreciated, and an encouraging outlook for the future is entertained.” M. H. B. Mussey
+ Survey 39:447 Ja 19 ‘18 310w
DICKSON, HARRIS. Unpopular history of the United States by Uncle Sam himself; as recorded in Uncle Sam’s own words. il *75c (3c) Stokes 355 17-25097
The manuscript of Upton’s “Military policy of the United States,” based on Civil war experience, lay filed and forgotten amongst millions of documents in the archives of the War department for twenty-five years. Then it saw the light. It was published by Mr Dickson. He says, “Every word that I have spoken here you will find in there; it has my official endorsement, printed on my presses, franked thru my mails, and sent free to my people. It’s true gospel, but folks say it doesn’t taste good.” Uncle Sam does the talking and he spares no forcible language to take the brag and bluster out of Americans who complaisantly think our war system is equal to the emergency of today. It is an arraignment of the volunteer service idea underlying military policy and a plea for universal, compulsory military service for both war and peace.
A L A Bkl 14:75 D ‘17
Cleveland p131 D ‘17 30w
“It is poorly written; the writer, making Uncle Sam the speaker, rips out regular gosh-ding stuff. But the facts are interesting. For one who thrills at military victories, and is ashamed of military defeats, this book is a bit of a tonic. But for one whose interest is in the welfare of the people of the nation, rather than their Prussian prowess, this work is but an interesting sidelight into national psychology.” W: M. Feigenbaum
+ — N Y Call p14 O 14 ‘17 500w
“The general effect of having these facts known to the people should be wholesome and in every way stimulating to patriotism and efficiency.”
+ R of Rs 57:104 Ja ‘18 70w
DIDEROT, DENIS. Early philosophical works; tr. and ed. by Margaret Jourdain. (Open court ser. of classics of science and philosophy) il *$1.25 (2½c) Open ct. 194
This little volume includes the “Philosophic thoughts,” the “Letter on the blind,” together with its “Addition,” and the “Letter on the deaf and dumb,” published with notes and an appendix. In the “Philosophic thoughts” Diderot “still figures as a deist.” The “Letter on the blind” treats both of the theory of vision and of the argument from design, while the “Letter on the deaf and dumb” deals largely with esthetics. The introduction of twenty-five pages is by the translator and editor.
“Diderot’s range is extraordinary, as within this small volume he breaks ground in ethics and aesthetics, in the criticism of religion and of art. ... The ‘Letter on the deaf and dumb’ is full of interesting speculations upon aesthetics, which Lessing afterwards turned to account, and the ‘Philosophic thoughts,’ burnt by the Parliament of Paris in 1746, has still its interest as a breviary of philosophic scepticism.”
+ Int J Ethics 27:538 Jl ‘17 220w
“The main philosophical point treated in the volume is the relation between mental development and sensuous endowment, a point on which some diversity of opinion is still maintained. His conclusion is that ‘the state of our organs and our senses has a great influence upon our metaphysics and our morality.’ ... To most modern psychologists Diderot’s principle will seem so manifestly true as scarcely to admit of discussion. Nevertheless, the principle has been called into question recently by the new realists, who argue that the human mind is in immediate contact with objective truth. For the confutation of such views Diderot’s acute observations upon a blind man and a deaf-mute of his acquaintance are not without value at the present time.”
Nature 99:343 Je 28 ‘17 230w
“This collection of Diderot’s ‘Early works’ is worthy to be studied in connection with Morley’s book on ‘Diderot and the Encyclopedists,’ but it will be found interesting for its religious and esthetic speculations by all readers of intellectual tastes.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 23 ‘17 170w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p136 Mr 22 ‘17 1250w
152DILNOT, FRANK. Lloyd George: the man and his story. il *$1 (2c) Harper 17-10671
The author has written of the career of the man who now rules England “with an absoluteness granted to no man, king or statesman, since the British became a nation,” as he himself has watched it. Among the chapters are: The village cobbler who helped the British empire; How Lloyd George became famous at twenty-five; Fighting the lone hand; The daredevil statesman; The first great task; How Lloyd George broke the House of lords; At home and in Downing Street; A champion of war; The alliance with Northcliffe; At high pressure; His inconsistencies; How he became prime minister; The future of Lloyd George. Lloyd George’s Lincoln day message is reprinted in an appendix.
A L A Bkl 14:23 O ‘17
“The book will well repay perusal.”
+ Ath p473 S ‘17 50w
“Mr Dilnot has given us, not a critical estimate of the great English leader, for that is, at a time when men feel rather than think, impossible, but a clear, journalistic, if you will, and sympathetic account of the man as he appears to a newspaper writer who has had an unusual opportunity for following his career and a capacity for its interpretation. He is frankly an enthusiastic believer in the man and his policies.” J. T. Gerould
Bellman 22:438 Ap 21 ‘17 700w
“Our thanks are due to Mr Dilnot for the most plausible picture yet given us of the most extraordinary man of the epoch.” G. I. Colbron
+ Bookm 45:415 Je ‘17 1900w
“Mr Dilnot has had first-hand acquaintance with British politics and political leaders for two or three decades, and he has written a substantial book on the dramatic contest over the Lloyd George budget of 1909. The present biography is a simple chronicle, highly laudatory, yet hardly more than the subject seems to demand.”
+ Dial 62:529 Je 14 ‘17 300w
“The Prime minister of the British empire has had a career so meteoric and possesses a personality so unusual that biographers are likely to swarm about his story for many a day. Mr Dilnot’s, which is one of the best thus far, is brief, less than 200 pages, but graphic, and aims less to give a conventional account of his life than to present a picture of him that will make understandable his character and career.”
+ N Y Times 22:140 Ap 15 ‘17 1100w
“Lloyd George will be chiefly known, we believe, as the friend of the poor, and this is the thread which runs through the volume, especially accentuated as to labor influence.”
+ Outlook 116:32 My 2 ‘17 220w
Pittsburgh 22:526 Je ‘17 50w
+ R of Rs 55:666 Je ‘17 50w
St Louis 15:186 Je ‘17
“He writes as a candid friend, and devotes a whole chapter to Mr Lloyd George’s ‘inconsistencies,’ but for all that he contrives to suggest that the history of England for the last ten years has centred in his hero. The future historian will, we think, take a different view.”
– + Spec 119:192 Ag 25 ‘17 120w
Springf’d Republican p17 My 6 ‘17 550w
DITCHFIELD, PETER HAMPSON. England of Shakespeare. il *$2 Dutton (*6s Methuen & co., London) 822.3 (Eng ed 17-17653)
“Mr Ditchfield has provided here a series of pen-sketches depicting in a popular and readable way the England that was Shakespeare’s, its religion, the court, the capital, the poet’s home, travelling, the great country-houses, the navy and army, agriculture and trade, dress, literature, and the drama, the people’s games and sports, the prevalent roguery, vagabondage, and punishments, and the current superstitions, such as beliefs in necromancy, astrology, and witchcraft. The book includes twelve illustrations.”—Ath
Ath p201 Ap ‘17 80w
+ Boston Transcript p7 Jl 7 ‘17 550w
“Every student of Shakespeare, and, indeed, every student of Elizabethan literature, should read this book. It contains much rare and curious information helpful for the interpretation of the literature of the time. We hope that the author, in a second edition, will expurge the offensive expression ‘papists’ which constantly disfigures the pages of his book, and substitute the true appellation ‘Catholic’ instead.”
+ — Cath World 106:396 D ‘17 410w
“The kindly country clergyman shows his real quality when he describes what he calls the country of ‘leafy Warwickshire,’ as typical of the rest of rural England in Shakespeare’s time. ‘The England of Shakespeare’ is a book that no lover of Shakespeare can afford not to read.”
+ N Y Times 22:318 Ag 26 ‘17 550w
“Making all due allowances for the exigencies of war time, we must still consider Mr Ditchfield curiously careless in small details. Any Latin scholar could make obvious emendations in the lines on p. 200, and there are several misquotations of passages and names that should be familiar as household words. His selections from representative views of the period are the strong point of his book.”
+ — Sat R 123:257 Mr 17 ‘17 1250w
“All the main facts are well known already. But Mr Ditchfield retells them with such enthusiasm and in a setting of such pleasant anecdote and quotation that they must make an appeal of freshness even to the mind saturated in seventeenth-century history.”
+ Spec 118:415 Ap 7 ‘17 1900w
“Especially graphic are the pen pictures which the author gives of the famous queen herself.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Jl 8 ‘17 250w
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p83 F 15 ‘17 100w
DIVER, MRS KATHERINE HELEN MAUD (MARSHALL). Unconquered; a romance. il *$1.50 (1½c) Putnam 17-23756
Mrs Diver has written in “Unconquered” a war novel of conventional type. It tells the story of Sir Mark Forsyth’s infatuation for Bel Alison, a selfish young beauty, his return from the war with an injured spine, the exit of the beauty from the scene and the entrance of Sheila Melrose, the sweet young girl who has always loved Sir Mark and who is his mother’s choice for him.
A L A Bkl 14:130 Ja ‘18
“As a love-story the book, despite its wordiness, should prove of interest to those who like their war literature flavoured with romance. As an indictment of democratic government it has too much the air of being wise after the event.”
– + Ath p596 N ‘17 90w
“Mrs Diver has done this part of her story especially well, for it requires skill to make so vivid and yet so restrained a drawing of those early war days.” D. L. M.
+ Boston Transcript p7 Ja 16 ‘18 1450w
Nation 106:95 Ja 24 ‘18 170w
“The novel is too long, and the latter part of its drags more than a little, but it is written with sincerity.”
+ N Y Times 22:468 N 11 ‘17 500w
“In spite of the thin motif, the book has merits. ... Moreover, in an age overgiven to revolt against anything which makes for a standard or for discipline, it is refreshing to find an advocate of ‘the brave old wisdom of acceptance’ as a philosophy of life.”
+ — Sat R 124:311 O 20 ‘17 280w
“As we read the book we live through once again those summer and autumn months of 1914. It is a true picture of the early phases of public opinion in regard to the war, as well as a good love-story.”
+ Spec 119:451 O 27 ‘17 750w
“The only touch of individuality anywhere is Bel’s pacifism. The other characters are just puppets trained to make a continual call upon 153the admiration of the reader. What is still more unfortunate is that Mrs Diver has bespattered her pages with serious discussion in the manner of the most commonplace leading articles of three years ago. ... We are treated by these solemn talkers to all the old truths which have now become truisms, and the old clichés which have become banalities.”
— The Times [London] Lit Sup p494 O 11 ‘17 250w
DIXON, ROYAL. Human side of birds. il *$1.60 (3½c) Stokes 598.2 17-29555
An original study of birds which characterizes them according to their activities. Some are artists, cliff-dwellers and mound-builders, policemen, dancers, athletes and musicians; while others are scavengers and street cleaners, aviators, fishermen, mimics, ventriloquists and actors. The bird court of justice and the bird beauty parlor also come in for a share of novel treatment. Mr Dixon says, “It should be remembered that birds have a life, a point of view, and a destiny of their own, and that our failure to comprehend them in no way justifies us in concluding that they are in every sense below us in the scale of existence. ... There are birds of as many shades of character and disposition as there are types of people. There are the gay, the sad; the sociable, the reserved; the trustful, the shy; the frank, the deceitful; the honest, the dishonest; the gentle, the violent; the peaceful, the quarrelsome; and so on. However, it should be emphasized that the prevailing note of birddom is one of happiness and good cheer.”
“Mr Dixon has a fertile imagination, but he also has a wide knowledge of nature and he is very enthusiastic.” N. H. D.
+ — Boston Transcript p3 D 15 ‘17 950w
“It contains much curious information, scientific and historic, and some that is neither, in a strict sense, but is none the less readable.”
+ Dial 63:537 N 22 ‘17 180w
“Colored plates and many photographs add to the attractiveness of the pleasantly chatty and at times quaintly imaginative papers.”
+ Ind 91:189 Ag 4 ‘17 30w
“It is a very interesting book and one which ought to open the eyes and sharpen the perceptions of most people to whom a tree is just a tree. The last chapter, on ‘Trees and civilization,’ is full of facts, eloquently presented, to show how great is the necessity that the human world and the tree world should co-operate for the good of civilization.”
+ N Y Times 22:289 Ag 5 ‘17 450w
“The book has a unique interest. The pictures are excellent.”
+ Outlook 117:577 D 5 ‘17 50w
+ Pratt p19 O ‘17 20w
DIXON, ROYAL, and FITCH, FRANKLYN EVERETT. Human side of trees; wonders of the tree world. il *$1.60 (4c) Stokes 582 17-10453
“Man is the highest form of animal life and the trees are the highest form of vegetable life. They have much in common,” say the authors of this book. It is a companion volume to “The human side of plants” and its purpose is “to present the trees as living, lovable personalities—working and playing in a world quite as real and vital as our own; and possessing many habits and attributes which we often imagine are exclusively human.” Among the chapters are: Trees that build cities; Trees with a personality; Tree physiology; Trees that are fashionable; Trees with a college education; Trees and their business methods. There are over thirty illustrations, some of them in color.
“The illustrations are good and facts are authentic, but scientists may take exception to the method of presentation.”
A L A Bkl 13:381 Je ‘17
+ Boston Transcript p6 Jl 3 ‘17 380w
N Y Br Lib News 5:76 My ‘17
+ Outlook 115:761 Ap 25 ‘17 30w
+ R of Rs 55:665 Je ‘17 230w
“The book is, of course, rather entertaining than scientific, but the devices which it employs are legitimate apart from their object in interesting the student in a further pursuit of the science of dendrology.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 My 4 ‘17 130w
DIXON, WILLIAM MACNEILE. British navy at war. il *75c (3c) Houghton 940.91 18-1524
The professor of English language and literature in the University of Glasgow has given a graphic account of the work of the British navy during the war. He considers The war at sea—New problems—German tactics; tells of The ocean battles—Coronel and the Falkland Isles; of the North sea battles—the Dogger Bank and Jutland; of the work of the Submarines; of Blockade and bombardment; pays a tribute to the Grand fleet and ends with a summary of What the British navy has done for the world. The author acknowledges his indebtedness to the correspondence columns of the Times and to the Cornhill and other magazines for a number of descriptive quotations.
“Before the United States entered the great war we heard now and then that question of unpardonable ignorance: ‘What is the British fleet doing?’ ... The author has with remarkable brevity and brilliancy told the real story of the British navy in the recent war. It thrills the reader, and it is as authentic as it is inspiring.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 15 ‘17 700w
“Every word of it makes interesting reading; and not a small part of the pleasure the book imparts, is due to the author’s clear and flowing style.”
+ Cath World 106:265 N ‘17 250w
+ Ind 92:301 N 10 ‘17 70w
“As a chronology of events it is of considerable value.” J. W.
+ N Y Call p14 S 9 ‘17 170w
N Y Call p14 S 16 ‘17 300w
+ Pittsburgh 22:681 O ‘17 20w
R of Rs 56:325 S ‘17 40w
“This is a handy little book for the general reader who finds it hard to keep in mind a connected account of British naval operations simply from reading the papers. But if one is looking for a critical analysis of these operations, one must turn elsewhere. As history it is simply a hymn of praise.” W: O. Stevens
– + Yale R n s 7:418 Ja ‘18 950w
DOBBS, ELLA VICTORIA. Illustrative handwork for elementary school subjects. il *$1.10 Macmillan 371.3 17-13974
This desk manual discusses “the use of sand tables, pictures, and construction work in developing a clear understanding of history, geography and literature.” (Ind) “There are about twenty selected projects in detail besides lists of projects carried out by fifth, sixth and seventh grades.” (School Arts Magazine)
+ Ind 91:294 Ag 25 ‘17 70w
N Y Br Lib News 4:103 Jl ‘17
“Every classroom teacher should have this manual on her desk.”
+ School Arts Magazine 17:44 S ‘17 120w
DODGE, HENRY IRVING. Skinner’s baby. *$1.25 (3c) Houghton 17-25433
The Skinners had distinctly “arrived” since the first dress-suit was bought but husband and wife are still dividing “fifty-fifty.” How would it be over the baby? Would he be Skinner’s or Honey’s? He was to be a “regular boy.” So much was agreed. And a “regular boy” must have “a clean mind, a stout heart, and a strong body.” Could they make him one by working together or must each do a separate part? It took some adjusting but in the end it was “fifty-fifty” still. For his mother taught him to pray while his father showed him the way to the old swimming-pool 154and to the use of the boxing-gloves. And together husband and wife solved the puzzles that will fall to the share of, if not every reader, at least to every reader’s neighbor.
A L A Bkl 14:131 Ja ‘18
“The little tale is amusing, and the account of Skinner’s dreams before the baby came at once funny and pathetic. Baby Skinner himself is no supernaturally virtuous cherub, but a sturdy youngster, energetic, inquisitive, and possessed of that appalling logic which some children wield, to the utter dismay of those who endeavor to cope with them.”
+ N Y Times 22:500 N 25 ‘17 210w
DODGE, LOUIS. Children of the desert. *$1.35 (2½c) Scribner 17-7927
This is the story of Harboro and Sylvia. Harboro was forty when he met Sylvia. He had led the adventurous life of a railroad man in the Southwest and in Mexico. He was solid and substantial, a very rock of firmness and integrity. Sylvia was—there is no other word for her—a light woman. Harboro married her, knowing nothing of her past, and the men who did know and the woman who suspected kept silent out of respect for Harboro. Out of such a situation tragedy must inevitably come. The amazing thing about the story is the appealing sweetness of Sylvia. As the author draws her character, it is impossible wholly to condemn her. The action is played out in two towns that face one another across the Rio Grande.
“Mr Dodge makes both the woman and the man wholly plausible, and it is obvious that he seeks to present them as the victims of an inexorable fate.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Mr 21 ‘17 350w
“A work of intense concentration and elimination. ... The author has shown in this latest novel an underlying strength and determination that ought to carry him a long way, and that should also lead him to overcome the looseness of writing that is such a blot upon his careful structure.”
+ — Dial 62:402 My 3 ‘17 330w
“The author of ‘Bonnie May’ has written another book. And a greater difference can scarcely be imagined than that which exists between Louis Dodge’s first published novel and this second book which has just appeared. ‘Children of the desert’ is a study of character and of a problem which has been studied before and which will probably be studied for many a long year to come; it is set in the crudity and the wildness of Mexican border life; it is profoundly simple; and it is sheer tragedy.”
+ N Y Times 22:83 Mr 11 ‘17 700w
“While it is remarkably restrained in tone, free from gunfire and all traces of flashiness, some of its vital features belong to melodrama, and its dénouement, tho tragic in Hardy’s second best manner, is brought about by a potently melodramatic device. On the one hand the book inspires serious comparisons; and on the other it makes one wonder whether it is justified beyond the furnishing of an evening’s excitement.” Joseph Mosher
Pub W 91:972 Mr 17 ‘17 500w
“Louis Dodge’s purpose in portraying the type of woman whose behavior is the central thread of ‘Children of the desert’ is not clear. Her portrayal proves nothing more valuable than it is possible for a human being to be without moral sense. Mr Dodge handles his theme with considerable skill, but his instinct to drown the novelist in the essayist will not down.”
– + Springf’d Republican p15 S 30 ‘17 220w
Domestic service, by an old servant; with a preface by Mrs George Wemyss. il *$1 (4½c) Houghton 647 17-24417
“This is not a manual of domestic service, but recollections, reflections, and advice to young servants by an old servant who has been in nineteen situations—nine in Scotland, and ten in England—covering a period of fifty-two years.” (Ath) “It gives a realistic picture of life as it is lived and thought about by the typical well-behaved, well-treated servant of the old school, rather prosily contented in the lot whereto God has called her, happy to be remembered in the blessings of a considerate master or mistress.” (Springf’d Republican)
“The ‘old servant’s’ account, which is carefully edited, is a pleasing record of good feeling on the side both of employers and employed.”
Ath p411 Ag ‘17 60w
“It is a delight to read this simple, moving record. There is emphasis in each chapter on the enduring value of loyalty in every walk of life.”
+ R of Rs 56:555 N ‘17 40w
“With all proper respect for the virtue of contentment there is genuine pathos in the sheeplike quality of the nameless author’s devotion to duty. The editor of the book has shown doubtful wisdom or kindness in leaving the author’s English at its original loose ends.”
Springf’d Republican p15 Jl 29 ‘17 160w
DOMINIAN, LEON. Frontiers of language and nationality in Europe. il *$3 Holt 940 17-15963
“This book is submitted as a study in applied geography. Its preparation grew out of a desire to trace the connection existing between linguistic areas in Europe and the subdivision of the continent into nations. The endeavor has been made to show that language exerts a strong formative influence on nationality because words express thoughts and ideals. But underlying the currents of national feeling, or of speech, is found the persistent action of the land, or geography. ... Upon these foundations, linguistic frontiers deserve recognition as the symbol of the divide between distinct sets of economic and social conditions.” (Preface) The author is a graduate of Robert college, Constantinople, and he has given particular attention to the Turkish situation because of its importance in the whole European entanglement. The book is an outgrowth of a series of articles written for the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. The several colored maps of the book have been prepared under the direction of the American geographical society, and Dr Madison Grant, its president, has written the introduction.
“Seems qualified to become a standard source of information on the topics in the field it covers.” C. D.
+ Am Econ R 7:841 D ‘17 60w
“A full linguistic atlas of Europe is a desideratum, and the author has come so near to supplying it that one regrets he did not go further and include many more of the available but scattered linguistic maps of different sections. In matters touching the character, history, and relationship of languages, there are not a few remarks which savor of uncritical popular philology, some merely naïve in expression, some positively erroneous. But these do not seriously affect the main purpose and value of the book.” C. D. Buck
+ — Am Hist R 23:171 O ‘17 900w
+ A L A Bkl 14:19 O ‘17
“When the author leaves the task of analysis to outline the application of what racial and linguistic conditions he considers the proper bases for boundary-making and their application to present-day political problems, his discussion becomes less convincing.” C. L. Jones
+ — Ann Am Acad 73:238 S ‘17 450w
Reviewed by Albert Schinz
+ Bookm 46:293 N ‘17 550w
“Excellent maps, showing in colors the distribution of peoples, and also showing-languages having political significance, greatly aid in presenting the results of the author’s study. ... In size, type, illustrations and mechanical work the book is excellent.” H. S. K.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 6 ‘17 450w
+ Cleveland p115 S ‘17 30w
“The author is decidedly at his best in treating of the racial situation in Turkey.”
+ Ind 91:265 Ag 18 ‘17 120w
155“The material here gathered is of great value to the student of history, diplomacy, and language, and this service does not depend upon the author’s theories and solutions.”
+ Lit D 55:43 O 13 ‘17 370w
“Mr Dominian is well-fitted to perform his task because of his familiarity with European languages, geography, and politics; and his work is a valuable contribution to that large mass of data, literary and otherwise, which undoubtedly will play an important part in the readjustment of national boundaries in Europe at the termination of the war.”
+ Nation 105:637 D 6 ‘17 850w
“Supplies a pressing need. In any circumstances the appearance of this book would have been an event of importance to scholars since it is by far the most competent work on the subject available in English. Just now its practical value is so great that it ought not to become a scholar’s monopoly.” A. J.
+ New Repub 11:337 Jl 21 ‘17 1050w
“The author deserves a special word of commendation for the impartial attitude of mind with which he has faced his facts and endeavored to give to each one its full significance.”
+ N Y Times 22:256 Jl 8 ‘17 430w
+ Outlook 116:451 Jl 18 ‘17 150w
Pittsburgh 22:760 N ‘17 50w
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Jl 15 ‘17 700w
“Anyone who thinks it will be quite easy to adjust boundaries after this war so as to insure stable equilibrium through any simple formula like ‘respect for the rights of small nationalities’ should read this careful and scholarly study.” K. H. Claghorn
+ Survey 38:553 S 22 ‘17 500w
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p599 D 6 ‘17 130w
“The book is full of learning interestingly expressed, cleverly arranged, and adequately illustrated with typical photographs and careful maps, in one of which he is at pains to leave uncoloured the uninhabited areas, a lesson in accuracy to be learned by many ethnographical cartographers. East of the Aegean, however, Mr Dominian’s work is more open to criticism than when he deals with Europe.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p611 D 13 ‘17 2000w
DONHAM, S. AGNES. Marketing and housework manual. il *$1.50 Little 640 17-31012
Here is offered the benefit of twenty years of study and experiment in scientific household management. The instruction covers the following phases of home activity: General rules for marketing; Marketing charts; Menu making; Menu and order sheets; How to select foods—what the body needs; Food inventory; The cellar and laundry; The kitchen and kitchen pantry; The dining room, pantry and dish washing; The dining room and table service; The living room; The chambers and bed making; The bathroom and storage closets; General cleaning—sweeping, dusting; To open and close a house; House inspections; Small repairs, plumbing troubles; The reading of gas and electric meters; Program of work; Household pests.
DORLAND, WILLIAM ALEXANDER NEWMAN.[2] Sum of feminine achievement. *$1.50 Stratford co. 396 17-24822
A critical and analytical study of woman’s contribution to the intellectual progress of the world. This is “the century of the women,” the writer avers, “The course of development of the education of women has been by cycles, and at the present time there appears to have been reached an unusual wave, sweeping on the movement with unusual force and energy.” The chapter headings suggest the scope of the volume: Genius and femininity; A galaxy of talent; The mentality of famous men and women compared; The achievements of women in youth and old age; The sum of feminine achievement; Woman’s contribution to science; The feminine side of art; Woman in literature; The intellectual correlation of the sexes. An alphabetical table is appended of the famous women of modern times.
Pittsburgh 22:765 N ‘17 80w
DORR, MRS RHETA (CHILDE).[2] Inside the Russian revolution. il *$1.50 (2c) Macmillan 947 17-31172
A clearly written, popular, first hand account of the dramatic happenings in Russia, during the past few months of revolution and upheaval. Liberal, democratic inclinations furnish the writer standards of measurement and criticism. She points out the underlying aims of the Bolsheviki or Maximalists and comments upon their unfitness for leadership. Among the events which she reviews are the July revolution, the striking activities of Mareea Botchkareva, the modern Joan d’Arc who commanded the Battalion of death, the treachery of Rasputin and his tragic death, the part that Anna Virubova played in the revolutionary drama, the passing of the Romanoffs and the leadership of Kerensky. The closing chapters consider Russia’s greatest needs—leadership, education, wholesome popular amusements, soda fountains—and venture a conjecture or two concerning what could happen in Russia next. At the moment when the Bolsheviki are attracting favorable notice many of Mrs Dorr’s statements and prophecies seem obsolete.
“Does not reflect the changed conditions.”
– + Boston Transcript p7 D 26 ‘17 240w
“An important book of the Russian situation and events leading to it.”
+ Ind 93:151 Ja 26 ‘18 30w
“It furnishes most excellent reading for the host of half-baked reformers who imagine that the world can be created anew overnight, and deserves a wide circulation both among these and among readers who take a saner point of view.”
+ Outlook 118:68 Ja 9 ‘18 100w
R of Rs 57:214 F ‘18 100w
“Vivid and most instructive narrative. Mrs Dorr’s book is an excellent piece of reporting.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 4 ‘18 730w
DORSEY, GEORGE AMOS. Young Low. *$1.50 (1c) Doran 17-18356
It is for the most part the life of an average young American under average conditions that the author describes. Young Low spends his boyhood and youth in a small town in Ohio. His home is the commonplace, middle-class home, his parents are not without understanding of boy nature, and his childhood is on the whole happy. Yet in two matters, religion and sex, the handicap of his early training remains with him for many years, if not for life. Much of the latter half of the story has to do with the agencies that were helpful in overcoming the effects of his narrow training in religion and his utter lack of training in regard to sex. The person who helped clarify his ideas on this question was Alexandra Lanflere. This woman, who stood in a relation to him that his early standards would have condemned, is represented as the best and finest influence that had come into his life.
“The publishers announce that ‘you have never read a book like this. You have never read so frank a revelation of a young man’s life—a boyhood and youth intensely American, both in ancestry and surroundings.’ This exaggerates matters a little, since we may recall a number of stories of recent years which approach this one in realism of setting and ‘frankness,’ not to say grossness, of detail. Part 1 of this book gives an uncommonly vivid picture of certain aspects of childhood and boyhood in a small Ohio community. We have already had such a picture, frank without grossness, in Mr Howells’s ‘A boy’s town,’ and the two pictures might well be compared as illustrating the difference between protestant and catholic methods of literary art.” H. W. Boynton
— Bookm 45:646 Ag ‘17 450w
156“There is nothing more remarkable in the story than the way in which the author gets under the mental attitude of Young Low and makes us see its naturalness and its inevitability.” D. L. M.
+ Boston Transcript p6 S 22 ‘17 850w
“It is unfortunate that the really excellent presentation of matter should be marred by a vast amount of modern Freudian dogma, which has not yet worked down to reasonable proportions.”
+ — Dial 63:163 Ag 30 ‘17 200w
“Here, for a recent American example, is the ‘Young Low’ of a ‘new’ writer who essays to be extremely American in the continental manner—or, it is more just to say, in the continental mood. It refreshingly lacks the Russo-Gallic accent which our bold young ‘realists’ so frequently affect. It has an excellent autobiographical style, free from bookishness on the one hand and from the conventionalized vernacular of the magazines on the other.”
– + Nation 105:177 Ag 16 ‘17 600w
“The story has the faults that are inherent in its method. ... Nevertheless, it is an interesting tale, written with vigor and sincerity and a wide and varied knowledge of American life. ... The author’s sense of character is stronger than his ability in its portrayal. ... He writes with plainness of language upon the sexual impulses, inhibitions, experiences, and knowledge of the boy, the adolescent, and the young man, but there is in all his pages no taint of the lascivious. ... Artistically the finest feature of the book is the sense of the urge of dynamic forces in American life, in both society in general and in the individual.”
+ N Y Times 22:230 Je 17 ‘17 750w
DOSTOEVSKII, FEDOR MIKHAILOVICH. Eternal husband, and other stories. (Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, v. 8) *$1.50 (1c) Macmillan 17-17080
Three stories newly translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett are included in this volume: The eternal husband; The double; A gentle spirit. In the first story a woman is characterized as “one of those women who are born to be unfaithful wives.” The woman herself is dead at the opening of the story, which thereafter has to do chiefly with a man who had once been her lover and his relations with her husband. The husband is he who is characterized in the title, a man who all his life is a husband and nothing more. He is the complementary type to the woman referred to.
“Confused, occasionally incoherent in style.”
— Cleveland p103 S ‘17 30w
“All of Dostoevsky’s qualities are in this latest volume, ‘The eternal husband.’ But so concentrated are they that the Dostoevsky novice would better begin with that poignant, but less extravagant, story, ‘The insulted and injured,’ or that epic of frustrated aspiration, ‘The brothers Karamazov.’ ... Such stories as in ‘The eternal husband’, however fantastic the problems of the soul, get deeply into us. We cannot ignore them, we cannot take them irresponsibly. We cannot read them for amusement, or even in detachment, as we can our classics. We forget our categories, our standards, our notions of human nature. All we feel is that we are tracing the current of life itself. ... If we are strong enough to hear him, this is the decisive force we need on our American creative outlook.” Randolph Bourne
+ Dial 63:24 Je 28 ‘17 1500w
“‘The eternal husband’ and ‘The double’ are over long, and loosely constructed. They are both excellent studies of the abnormal, as is usual Dostoevsky; but they possess one quality which is not at all usual with him, or indeed with any other Russian novelist—the quality of humor. An ironic and rather sneering humor, to be sure, but still undoubtedly humor.”
+ — Ind 93:150 Ja 26 ‘18 150w
+ R of Rs 56:102 Jl ‘17 150w
“The three long short-stories that make up this volume hardly rank with the best of Dostoevsky’s work—although they belong to the greatest period of his genius—but they are interesting as illustrating his methods. ... ‘The eternal husband’ is a powerful psychological study of a man of unpleasant type. ... The second story in the volume. ‘The double,’ is the least successful, but the last, ‘The gentle spirit,’ which deals with a man’s sensations after his wife’s death, is unforgettable.”
+ Sat R 123:343 Ap 14 ‘17 600w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p91 F 22 ‘17 1750w
“‘The double,’ was published the same year as ‘Poor folk,’ but not even Mrs Garnett and Dostoievski together can make it worth reading. ‘The eternal husband’ is a later work, and the exceedingly powerful close atones for much indifferent matter in the course of the story.” W: L. Phelps
– + Yale R n s 7:188 O ‘17 190w
DOSTOEVSKII, FEDOR MIKHAILOVICH. Gambler, and other stories; from the Russian by Constance Garnett. *$1.50 (lc) Macmillan
The ninth volume of Mrs Garnett’s translation of the works of Dostoevsky. It contains three stories, “The gambler,” “Poor people,” and “The landlady.” The title story follows the fortunes of a poor Russian tutor at a German resort where the roulette table furnished the main diversion—nay more, obsession. The best of him is his love of Polina. Under his eye she debases herself. Disillusionment leaves him easy prey for the fitful caprice of the roulette board. He is drawn into the vortex when the reader leaves him. “Poor people” portrays the struggles of folk of humble life. The story is told in a series of letters between an elderly clerk and a young girl who turns from him to marry a prosperous tradesman. The third tale, “The landlady,” tells the symbolic story of a luckless student who was baffled in liberating the girl he loved from the prison house that bound her.
+ Ind 93:151 Ja 26 ‘18 220w
“Had Dostoevsky never written anything else these stories would suffice to give him rank among the great writers. They are not ‘pleasant’ tales, they are tales of the kind described by the quotation which heads ‘Poor people,’ tales that ‘unearth all sorts of unpleasant things,’ and therefore the lovers of sugary fiction will do well to avoid them. But those who care for human nature and for the art of writing will find them distinctly fascinating.”
+ N Y Times 22:516 D 2 ‘17 1300w
“The first story in particular seems to us to have a sharpness and clearness of outline which is sometimes lacking in the author’s more elaborate works.”
+ Outlook 117:614 D 12 ‘17 80w
“Mrs Garnett is one of the two best translators from the Russian that live to-day, but even she cannot make ‘The gambler, and other stories’ anything but dull. It is at least pleasant to have in our hands a trustworthy and complete translation of the tales.”
– + Sat R 124:311 O 20 ‘17 70w
“‘The gambler’ is evidently based on a French model, and the humor is forced and metallic, as if the author were not really interested in his theme. The best story in the book is Dostoevsky’s first work, ‘Poor people.’”
– + Spec 119:359 O 6 ‘17 920w
“‘The gambler’ will throw a good deal of light upon the processes of the mind whose powers seem almost beyond analysis in such works as ‘The idiot’ and ‘The brothers Karamazov.’ If we call it second rate compared with these, we mean chiefly that it impresses us as a sketch flung off at tremendous and almost inarticulate speed by a writer of such abundant power that even into this trifle, this scribbled and dashed-off fragment, the fire of genius has been breathed.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p489 O 11 ‘17 1100w
157DOSTOEVSKII, FEDOR MIKHAILOVICH. Pages from the journal of an author; tr. by S. Koteliansky and J. Middleton Murry. (Modern Russian library) *$1.25 (5c) Luce, J: W. 891.7 (Eng ed 17-20968)
This book contains two selections. Of the first, “The dream of a queer fellow,” Mr Murry in his introduction says, “It is an epitome of the problems which tormented him.” With this dream allegory is included the speech on Pushkin, delivered on June 8, 1880 at the meeting of the Society of lovers of Russian literature, with additional notes.
Cleveland p64 My ‘17 70w
“The little story or essay of sombre intensity is a key to Dostoevsky’s works.” Nellie Poorman
Dial 62:481 My 31 ‘17 800w
“In the beatific vision described with such felicitous simplicity in ‘The dream of a queer fellow,’ the quintessence of Dostoevsky’s questionings, desolation, strivings and mental sufferings is revealed. One gets the strange feeling that he is telling truths beyond which there are no others.” D: Rosenstein
+ N Y Call p14 Jl 29 ‘17 2300w
DOTY, ALVAH HUNT. Good health; how to get it and how to keep it. il *$1.50 (2c) Appleton 613 17-19827
This book by the former health officer of the port of New York tells the layman, in simple terms, how to get well and how to keep well. “It has been the aim of the author to include in this book the essential and salient points in the construction of the body and function of its various parts; also to discuss public health problems, the maintenance of individual physical well-being, the means by which infectious diseases are transmitted and how they may be prevented, the importance of pure air, good water and nourishing food, as well as other matters connected with the subject of hygiene.” (Preface) The last chapter deals with “Prompt aid to the injured.”
“No better or more authoritative book of this sort has appeared. It is thorough in its treatment of the subject, accurate in its statements and considers with much detail every phase of the question. Dr Doty takes nothing for granted as to how much his readers may know already.”
+ N Y Times 22:541 D 9 ‘17 470w
R of Rs 56:555 N ‘17 50w
DOTY, MADELEINE ZABRISKIE. Short rations: an American woman in Germany, 1915-1916. il *$1.50 (3c) Century 940.91 17-8352
An account of two visits to the warring countries. “It is the story of what happens at home when men go to war,” says the author. She adds a significant paragraph in explanation of her title: “While the men at the front slaughter one another, at home the mothers and children, the sick, the aged, the prisoners, are starved spiritually, intellectually, and physically. Life becomes a fight for existence, a struggle for one’s self and not for humanity.” The first visit was made at the time of the Woman’s peace conference at The Hague. The second was made in 1916. Of particular interest is the account of the second visit to Germany.
“A popular and moving appeal for a speedy cessation of war.”
A L A Bkl 13:345 My ‘17
Ath p368 Jl ‘17 200w
Boston Transcript p7 Ap 4 ‘17 550w
“An emotional book, obviously overdrawn, but moving in the extreme.”
Cleveland p82 Je ‘17 70w
“By means of a very feminine degree of intuition, a journalistic sense of observation, a telegraphic style, and a purely American sense of humor, Miss Doty has achieved one of the most suggestive reports of conditions inside the German empire that it has been our fortune to see.”
+ Dial 62:484 My 31 ‘17 370w
“If Miss Doty had entered Germany less prejudiced against the government and the people and with some knowledge of the German language—she was entirely dependent upon interpreters—her book would have gained much in authority. At the same time her experiences are interesting, often exciting, and they are told with eagerness and zest.”
+ — Nation 105:129 Ag 2 ‘17 200w
“In spite of the false vividness and fore-shortening of reality that is at a premium in American newspaper offices, in spite of occasional ‘worked up’ sentimentalism and a rather cheap-jewelry style, in spite of trivialities fused with basic interpretations in a common amalgam, ‘Short rations’ is a moving book. Miss Doty has a real passion for life, the woman’s horror at wasted flesh and broken bodies.”
+ – — New Repub 10:sup3 Ap 21 ‘17 400w
“It is, so far as we know, the best account yet written by any woman on the subjects dealt with.” Joshua Wanhope
+ N Y Call p15 Ap 15 ‘17 350w
+ N Y Times 22:98 Mr 18 ‘17 380w
– + Spec 119:390 O 13 ‘17 80w
“Her views are not official. Therein lies their value. But the danger is that, moving largely among the people who have suffered most acutely from the war, she has given a one-sided picture. ... Miss Doty’s treatment of details is so incisive and vivid that the reader seems to share her experiences. Possibly in the long run her tone may strike one as slightly high-pitched.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p6 Mr 27 ‘17 1000w
“The present volume belongs to that category of books whose chief raison d’etre is the reluctance of many educated persons to throw away notes made during travel and copies of letters written home. ... Not knowing the German language well, Miss Doty got a good many false impressions, and hands on some hearsay of doubtful authenticity.” B. L.
— Survey 38:174 My 19 ‘17 280w
“She writes vivaciously, and observes shrewdly where minor matters are concerned; but her vision of the larger issues is sadly blurred by sentimental tears.”
– + The Times [London] Lit Sup p308 Je 28 ‘17 670w
DOUBLEDAY, NELTJE BLANCHAN (DE GRAFF) (MRS FRANK NELSON DOUBLEDAY) (NELTJE BLANCHAN, pseud.). Birds worth knowing. (Little nature lib.; Worth knowing ser.) il *$1.60 (2½c) Doubleday 598.2 17-13205
The author has made selections from four of her previous books, “Bird neighbors,” “Birds that hunt and are hunted,” “How to attract the birds,” and “Birds every child should know.” Her aim has been to include in this single volume the “birds most worth knowing.” There are forty-eight illustrations in color, provided by the National association of Audubon societies.
“The descriptive tables make the book more useful for bird study than ‘Birds every child should know,’ although, because the birds are grouped under families rather than colors, it has more worth as general interesting information than as an aid to identification. Illustrations are colored but are not as good as those of the other books. Color key and index.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:457 Jl ‘17
+ Ind 91:109 Jl 21 ‘17 60w
“There is a very interesting and informing introductory chapter on ‘What birds do for us,’ 158that tells concisely their many activities in insect destruction and their consequent commercial value to man.”
+ N Y Times 22:254 Jl 8 ‘17 140w
“Compact, but not skeletonized, condensation of a book that has already won its place.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Je 8 ‘17 110w
DOUBLEDAY, NELTJE BLANCHAN (DE GRAFF) (MRS FRANK NELSON DOUBLEDAY) (NELTJE BLANCHAN, pseud.). Wild flowers worth knowing. (Little nature lib.; Worth knowing ser.) il *$1.60 (2½c) Doubleday 580 17-13204
This volume of the Little nature library has been adapted from the author’s “Nature’s garden” by Asa Don Dickinson. The flowers are arranged in families, the nomenclature and classification of Gray’s “New manual of botany” as revised by Professors Robinson and Fernald, being used. There are over forty illustrations in color.
A L A Bkl 13:457 Jl ‘17
“Well printed, well illustrated, and admirably adapted for home and school use.”
+ Outlook 116:116 My 16 ‘17 30w
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Je 8 ‘17 110w
DOUBLEDAY, ROMAN. Green Tree mystery, il *$1.40 Appleton 17-24164
“Upon the body of a man found dead by the roadside is a notebook in which is written a confession that he has killed the deservedly unpopular rich man of the village. The search for an adequate motive opens up so many possibilities that the daughter of the murdered man employs a detective to discover the truth. The solution will come as a surprise to most readers.”—Cleveland
“The interest is well sustained.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:94 D ‘17
“A conventional detective story, following its tangled clues with indifference to anything but the pursuit in hand, and making a very pretty chase of it.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 46:342 N ‘17 30w
+ Cleveland p128 N ‘17 70w
“Its interest is largely due to the skill with which the author keeps the reader guessing as to the outcome.”
+ Dial 64:78 Ja 17 ‘18 30w
“The little tale is entertaining and sufficiently baffling.”
+ N Y Times 22:413 O 21 ‘17 250w
+ Springf’d Republican p13 D 30 ‘17 160w
DOVER, ALFRED T. Electric traction; a treatise on the application of electric power to tramways and railways. il *$5.50 Macmillan 621.3 17-19497