Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1917 Books (continued 14)
Reading edition
+ Bookm 46:607 Ja ‘18 130w
Boston Transcript p6 My 12 ‘17 650w
“The book is remarkable for its fairness and kindly tone.”
+ Cath World 105:824 S ‘17 200w
“The author’s analysis of the results of colonization is particularly illuminating in view of the present crisis in the provinces of the south, where Teutonic influences predominate.”
+ Dial 63:278 S 27 ‘17 350w
“The Brazilian point of view is given by much reference to native papers. Maps and excellent illustrations complete a valuable book.”
+ Ind 92:261 N 3 ‘17 70w
“Miss Elliott has a notable faculty for presenting closely condensed material in modest space and at the same time making it interesting. ... Miss Elliott’s book will increase the growing interest in South America. It is copiously illustrated from photographs.”
+ N Y Times 22:101 Mr 25 ‘17 700w
+ Outlook 116:161 My 23 ‘17 120w
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Je 1 ‘17 330w
+ Wis Lib Bul 13:184 Je ‘17 70w
ELLIS, HAVELOCK. Essays in war-time. *$1.50 (2½c) Houghton 575 (Eng ed 17-13565)
Mr Ellis calls these essays “further studies in the task of social hygiene.” Many of the subjects treated are those on which he has already written much and with which his name is chiefly associated, among them, War and eugenics; War and the birth-rate; Feminism and masculinism; The mental differences of men and women; The conquest of venereal disease; Eugenics and genius; Marriage and divorce; The meaning of the birth-rate; Civilisation and the birth-rate. In many but not all of these, the question of the effects of the war enters into the discussion.
“Readers not familiar with Havelock Ellis’ writings, especially his ‘Task of social hygiene,’ will find this a stimulating, although a somewhat choppy volume. To others the book will neither add to nor detract from Mr Ellis’ reputation as a keen and constructive critic of modern social problems. ... The essay on Birth control is eminently sane and well considered, and is, together with the proposal for the nationalization of medical service, the real contribution of the book.” A. B. Wolfe
+ Am Econ R 7:426 Je ‘17 130w
A L A Bkl 13:433 Jl ‘17
Reviewed by F. F. Kelly
+ Bookm 45:183 Ap ‘17 360w
“The sheaf of essays is bound by a continuity of interest and a consistency of point of view which may be described as a scientific radicalism, challenging the established beliefs when these rest upon tradition rather than upon cogent argument and experience.”
+ Dial 62:191 Mr 8 ‘17 230w
“The immediate urgency, as well as the profound intrinsic importance of the subjects of these ‘Essays’ should ensure them attention and discussion; and the writing is delightful in its subtlety and distinction, its wealth of suggestion and implication, and deep quiet humour. The three concluding articles on Birth-control and the close-packed little essay on ‘Marriage and divorce’ are particularly fine, in their characteristically unflinching and beautiful treatment of sexual subjects. ... The essays dealing with the war, though admirable in tone, are less clear and sure in touch than the rest.” F. W. S. Browne
+ Int J Ethics 27:406 Ap ‘17 200w
+ N Y Call p14 Mr 18 ‘17 300w
N Y Times 22:46 F 11 ‘17 700w
172“German theories that war is a ‘biological necessity’ have been demolished before now and what Mr Ellis has to say on this subject is neither original nor fresh. It has, however, the much greater merit of being sound and may be read with profit in this country. ... On various questions of eugenics and sexual morality Mr Ellis has much to say. ... While his views are often debatable, his purpose is ethical and not unduly individualistic.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 F 9 ‘17 600w
Reviewed by Bruno Lasker
+ Survey 38:288 Je 30 ‘17 850w
“‘War and the birth-rate’ is a disappointing study. ... The essay throws no clear light upon the momentous question of fact. ... In the essays on ‘Civilisation,’ ‘The birth-rate’ and ‘Birth control,’ Mr Havelock Ellis expounds his militant Malthusianism. We will only say of them that they dwell too much on a few aspects of a many-sided subject.”
– + The Times [London] Lit Sup p578 D 7 ‘16 850w
ELLIS, OLIN O., and GAREY, ENOCH BARTON. Plattsburg manual. il *$2 Century 355 17-10212
A work designed as a handbook for federal training camps. The authors are two officers in the United States army who acted as instructors in the Plattsburg training camp in 1916. Contents: General advice; Physical exercise; School of the soldier; School of the squad; School of the company; Fire superiority; The service of security; Attack and defense; General principles of target practice; Practice march or “hike”; Officers’ reserve corps. In addition there is a supplement with six chapters for “advance work.” The book is fully illustrated and is indexed.
“Simple directions, well illustrated.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:375 Je ‘17
“For officers and men, and for all citizens who would see just what learning to be a soldier means.”
Ind 90:127 Ap 14 ‘17 20w
“Preparatory manuals are more or less alike, in this if in no other respect, that they all have as their aim one and the same result. The road to this result is shortened by the employment in this book of illustrations showing not only the right, but also the wrong, way of doing certain things. Many of the diagrams, too, will prove helpful, and the text is clear, direct, and simple.”
+ Nation 104:636 My 24 ‘17 300w
+ N Y Br Lib News 4:67 My ‘17 110w
+ N Y P L New Tech Bks p14 Ap ‘17 160w
+ N Y Times 22:130 Ap 8 ‘17 190w
Pittsburgh 22:276 Ap ‘17
“One of the most timely publications of the spring. ... It is the most elementary and at the same time the most readable guide thru the intricate earlier stages of soldiering that we have seen. The 155 illustrations, mostly from photographs, are an important feature.” R. L.
+ Pub W 91:1326 Ap 21 ‘17 150w
St Louis 15:189 Je ‘17 20w
“The work was written primarily as a textbook for army training camps, but its usefulness has increased manifold since it was written.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 O 16 ‘17 180w
ELLMS, JOSEPH WILTON. Water purification. il *$5 McGraw 628.1 17-13569
“The book begins very logically with water in its relation to public health and comfort. Next, the various means of purification are discussed, and progress in filter construction—particularly, rapid sand filters—is described. The methods of storing and applying chemicals are treated, and there is a chapter on power-plant and miscellaneous equipment. The work also contains chapters relating to the cost of construction and operation of rapid sand filters, etc. ... In the appendix are twelve tables useful to operators of water-purification plants. ... A large part of the work is the result of the author’s own experience. The remainder consists of quotations from published articles, for which there are references, mostly American, at the end of each chapter. Much of the material is new, and the illustrations are modern. ... The use of the book would be greatly facilitated if the index were amplified.”—Engin News-Rec
“The author’s twenty-five years’ experience, beginning in the laboratory of the Massachusetts State board of health and extending through many years at the Louisville and Cincinnati water-works and elsewhere, has qualified him for his well-performed task of writing a treatise on water purification. ... As a whole, the book impresses one with sincerity of purpose and reliability of data. It will be of invaluable assistance to the designer and operator of water-purification plants.”
* + Engin News-Rec 79:129 Jl 19 ‘17 500w
“The arrangement of the descriptive matter in logical order, so that a clear idea may be had of each process as a whole as well as in its details, has been carried out very successfully, and the descriptions are full and clear without being profuse.”
+ Municipal Journal 42:805 Je 14 ‘17 380w
“The reading references at the chapter endings are especially noteworthy.”
+ N Y P L New Tech Bks p8 Jl ‘17 60w
ELLWOOD, CHARLES ABRAM. Introduction to social psychology. *$2 (2c) Appleton 301 17-11579
Society is defined by Professor Ellwood as “that form of collective life which is carried on by means of mental interaction.” It follows from this definition that the psychological element is fundamental in any study of social life. It is from this point of view that he approaches his subject in this book. Contents: Social psychology, its relations and methods; Organic evolution and social evolution; Human nature and human society; The nature of social unity [two chapters]; The nature of social continuity; Social change under normal conditions; Social change under abnormal conditions; Instinct and intelligence in the social life; Imitation and suggestion in the social life; Sympathy and consciousness of kind in the social life; Social order; Social progress; The nature of society.
“There is a catholicity about the author’s thinking that will be a wholesome corrective for one-sidedness in teacher or students; there is not only a willingness to see strength as well as weakness in divergent opinions but also a desire to gain the strength of each in some inclusive conception. The real limitation of the book for teaching purposes is its abstractness.” W. H. Heck
+ — Am Econ R 7:839 D ‘17 400w
“These chapters [chapters 4-8] are easily the best part of the volume and furnish an excellent presentation of social psychology proper. The third division, the remaining chapters, seem more like appendixes explaining and amplifying certain topics of the volume, but in themselves they form no unity and do not carry forward to a conclusion the main argument of the work.” J. Q. Dealey
+ — Am J Soc 23:255 S ‘17 450w
A L A Bkl 14:5 O ‘17
“In a study of the forces which unite society, Professor Ellwood has not overlooked consciousness of kind, or imitation, or sympathy, or any of the factors which have been put forward by certain writers as alone able to account for the cohesion of social groups. In his system he has made a niche into which each one of these forces finds its place. It is this broad-minded treatment of the subject which makes this volume so well fitted for the needs of the student in the social sciences who wishes a broad outlook upon this field.” W: B. Bailey
+ Am Pol Sci R 11:770 N ‘17 270w
“Throughout the author sanely holds that the intellect is the supreme instrument of adaptation 173in the social life; and as instruments the intellect and its ideas are the means by which social progress can be rationally planned.” Archibald Henderson
+ Bookm 46:276 N ‘17 250w
“Thoroughly adequate when judged by classroom standards, the volume can hardly be said to be notable. Yet it is generally unfair to criticize textbooks by the standards of notable contributions.”
+ Dial 63:167 Ag 30 ‘17 250w
“A simplification of Professor Ellwood’s Sociology in its psychological aspects.’”
Ind 91:108 Jl 21 ‘17 60w
“We can recall no other contemporary sociological work of the psychological order which makes a saner and clearer presentation of its case. The criticism here to be passed does not concern form or detail: it has to do with the general matter of leaning so heavily upon psychology. ... The pretensions of psychology, as here set forth or implied, make one think of the historian who claimed for history everything man had ever done on earth—astronomy, bacteriology, and all the rest.”
* + – Nation 106:68 Ja 17 ‘18 1200w
“A competent and scientific, but rather dull book.”
+ — New Repub 13:sup20 N 17 ‘17 140w
“It is written in a sedate, leisurely style, and luckily the author has not succumbed to the manner that has invaded even psychology of playing for the snappy phrase, the thrill of paradox.” F. M.
+ N Y Call p15 N 11 ‘17 280w
R of Rs 56:440 O ‘17 100w
St Louis 15:320 S ‘17 10w
“The book will repay careful reading. It is exact and careful of statement, and is in all ways a suggestive and constructive study of social psychology.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 My 31 ‘17 320w
“Professor Ellwood’s book, however, will remain rather for the special student of psychology and sociology than for the general reader.” M. M. Davis, jr.
+ — Survey 39:272 D 1 ‘17 400w
ELMER, MANUEL CONRAD. Technique of social surveys. *$1 World co., Lawrence, Kan. 309.1 17-18991
“This book devotes itself to two main questions: the kind of facts to be gathered in social surveys and the use to be made of them, the greater and more valuable part of the publication being devoted to the former. This includes discussions and questionnaires relating to a rather wide range of topics having to do with social welfare, the more important among them being population and vital statistics, educational agencies, recreation and amusement, industry and labor conditions, disease and health measures, housing, public utilities, transportation and storage, distribution of wealth, political organization, taxes, charities, courts, childcare, defectives, juvenile and adult crime, and religious activities.”—Survey
“The author has made his book thoroughly practical and it will be of distinct usefulness to those for whom it was written.”
+ Am Pol Sci R 11:792 N ‘17 90w
“While the book has the weakness of many others on the same subject, namely, its dwelling too briefly upon the purpose in and reasons for collecting the mass of facts called for, and of instructing too little in the interpretation and methods of using the facts, it nevertheless has suggestions for the surveyor and will be of use to individuals, clubs and other groups of citizens who wish, perhaps, not so much to make a survey as to become intelligent upon social conditions in their own community.” S. M. Harrison
+ — Survey 39:271 D 1 ‘17 320w
ELY, RICHARD THEODORE,[2] and others.[2] Foundations of national prosperity. *$2 Macmillan 338 17-30136
Four college professors, three of political economy, and one of geology, have collaborated in this work whose sub-title is “studies in the conservation of permanent national resources.” Part 1, by Professor Ely, deals with the more general aspects of the subject, bringing it particularly into relation to economic theory, and terminating with a consideration of conservation policies. In part 2 Prof. Ralph H. Hess discusses the relation of conservation to economic evolution and shows that each stage in economic evolution must have its own conservation policies. Part 3, by Prof. Charles K. Leith, deals with minerals which present peculiar problems in conservation. Part 4, contributed by Prof. Thomas Nixon Carver, deals with the human resources, for which natural resources exist.
“In part 4, Professor Carver approaches the subject from several new and unexpected angles.”
+ R of Rs 57:220 F ‘18 170w
“Prof. Carver has produced a clean and vigorous chapter, as has Prof. Leith. Their hard facts are balanced by the progressive theorizing of Prof. Ely and Prof. Hess. One cannot but feel that it would be more valuable as a treatise had its scope been confined to conservation in the directly material sense in which we use the term when we speak of conservation of natural resources.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 28 ‘18 530w
ELY, RICHARD THEODORE, and others. Outlines of economics. 3d rev ed *$2.10 Macmillan 330 16-19484
“The third edition of Professor Ely’s much used text is now available. The past eight years have been fruitful of changes in economic thought and in economic activity. It was to take account of these that the present revision was undertaken. This has involved the rewriting of many parts of the work. The discussion of underlying principles has been expanded; two chapters—on Business organization and on Economic activities of municipalities—have been omitted as such; one on Labor legislation has been added, and the sequence of others has been altered. All of these changes make for greater unity of treatment in a work that already showed distinctively serviceable qualities.”—Ann Am Acad
“The meager index of the second edition is very much enlarged and correspondingly more helpful. The ‘references’ appended to chapters have been revised and account taken of recent literature. But the lists of questions are often unchanged or are shortened. ... Final conclusions from reviewing this book are that the text while maintaining its identity has yet grown not in size only but in character and maturity; that it has been successful in including a vast amount of new material, in taking account of recent developments, and in thoroughly revising all sections. If not up to date today, it is as near being so as we can expect in these days of rapid development. Criticisms are due to the inclusion of controversial matter; to the attempt to be all inclusive; to a strain of revolutionary philosophy; and to the fact that the text is written from the standpoint of the subject and of scholarship rather than with an eye single to the student and the class-room.” C: E. Persons
* + Am Econ R 7:98 Mr ‘17 2050w
+ A L A Bkl 13:273 Mr ‘17
+ Ann Am Acad 70:326 Mr ‘17 90w
+ Nation 104:556 My 3 ‘17 270w
“It differs from the older editions in that its scope is much wider, and it includes, in addition to the theoretical considerations, a great deal of what goes under the name of applied economics. In this it resembles Professor Taussig’s work on the same subject published a few years ago. Both books mark the departure from the old college textbooks in economics, which dealt exclusively with theoretical considerations of the problems of production, distribution and exchange. ... The volume is well arranged for teaching purposes.” A. L. Trachtenberg
+ N Y Call p14 Mr 4 ‘17 600w
174“It is a sign of the times when such a standard and authoritative book as this requires such revision for its third edition that it was not possible to use the old type.”
+ N Y Times 21:488 N 12 ‘16 130w
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 7 ‘17 160w
EMBURY, AYMAR. Livable house—its plan and design. il *$2.50 Moffat 728.6 17-14400
“The book contains 100 photographs of different types of houses, together with many detail drawings of interior plans of the same, which demonstrate, as they are intended to do, that a high standard of architectural merit is possible in a small house when good taste and good judgment prevail.”—Springf’d Republican
“An interesting and suggestive ‘first book.’”
+ Cleveland p97 Jl ‘17 50w
“The book is both attractive and suggestive.”
+ Outlook 116:412 Jl 11 ‘17 80w
“Since the cost of building material and labor have advanced by leaps during the past year and a half, Mr Embury’s statements of cost prices require revision.”
+ Springf’d Republican p19 My 27 ‘17 350w
EMERSON, EDWARD WALDO. Henry Thoreau as remembered by a young friend. il *$1.25 (6½c) Houghton 17-19701
The author is a son of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau had the run of the Emerson house, and was to the children “the best kind of an older brother.” Twenty-seven years ago, Dr Emerson tells us, he was moved to write a lecture on Thoreau, because of “the want of knowledge and understanding, not only of his character, but of the events of his life,” and of “the false impressions given by accredited writers who really knew him hardly at all.” Lowell’s essay on Thoreau is mentioned as “having unhappily prejudiced many persons.” This book is the outgrowth of that early lecture, and is based, not only on Dr Emerson’s own youthful recollections, but on the recollections of the Concord people whom he, as a physician, has had the opportunity to know.
A L A Bkl 14:57 N ‘17
“Of Thoreau’s experience as a teacher, of his work in the pencil-making industry founded by his father, of his life in Concord and acquaintance with its people of greater and less celebrity and of no celebrity at all, we learn much in Dr Emerson’s few and unpretentious pages. ... They solve many puzzles about his life, his doings and his character.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 1 ‘17 1350w
“These illuminating glimpses of a strongly marked and splendidly independent but too often misunderstood personality are a welcome addition to the rather meagre literary product called forth by the Thoreau centennial. In this little book Thoreau the idealist stands justified for his refusal to devote the best years of his life to pencil-making and money-getting.”
+ Dial 63:401 O 25 ‘17 200w
“In these few pages we see the author of ‘Walden’ at his best and, we feel convinced, as he really was.”
+ Ind 91:476 S 22 ‘17 100w
“It is a long way from the stoical Thoreau of Emerson’s ‘Memoir’ to the ‘simple, gentle, friendly, and amusing’ Thoreau of his son’s ‘Henry Thoreau as remembered by a young friend.’ ... If the point of view is slightly distorted, at least there is compensation in the really winning personality that rises into life as we read these pages.”
+ — Nation 105:205 Ag 23 ‘17 300w
“A rather muddled sketch of Thoreau’s life, with a wealth of significant incidents that throw a more human halo about that rich personality.” Max Lustig
+ — N Y Call p14 Ag 26 ‘17 320w
+ Outlook 116:626 Ag 22 ‘17 80w
“Dr Emerson succeeds in demolishing common misconceptions of Thoreau as an idler, misanthropist, and rather inconsistent fanatic ... and demonstrates that he deserved the pretty general love and respect of the Old Concord with which this little book credits him.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 AS 16 ‘17 430w
EMERTON, EPHRAIM. Beginnings of modern Europe (1250-1450). maps $1.80 (1c) Ginn 940.4 17-25735
The period which is the subject of study in this volume is the transition period between the time when Europe was committed to feudalism and the Roman church, and that of the modern Europe of independent national states and religious toleration. The thread of the narrative aims to be the working out, consciously in literature and unconsciously thru social and political conflict, of the idea that individuals or bodies of men voluntarily united in a common interest might, if they pleased, speak and act for themselves. Slight emphasis is put upon theological aspects, political, social and intellectual movements being the main consideration. Contents: The principle of the modern state; The new empire; The new papacy; The rise of a middle class; The Italian republics to 1300; The Hundred years’ war; The age of the councils; The age of the despots in Italy; The renaissance in Italy; The northern renaissance.
Boston Transcript p8 N 21 ‘17 210w
“Nothing but praise can be said of this most admirable treatment of European history. Professor Emerton avoids the bizarre which is so tempting to some of the popular writers on medieval history and institutions, and he will be found a safe and sound guide thru a fascinating field.”
+ Educ R 54:529 D ‘17 70w
“If one is looking for a masterly treatment of the transition from mediaeval to modern times, such will be found in this book. His method involves a certain amount of repetition, which, by the way, is beneficial rather than detrimental in this case by showing the close interrelation of the historical movements considered. The book contains a number of valuable colored maps.”
+ School R 26:69 Ja ‘18 380w
EMPEY, ARTHUR GUY. “Over the top.” il *$1.50 (2c) Putnam 940.91 17-15575
An account of trench warfare “somewhere in France” by an American who served for a year and a half in the British army as bomber, machine gunner, etc., until he fell wounded and after four months in the American women’s war hospital in England, was discharged as physically unfit for further war service. Empey says: “I have tried to tell my experiences in the language of Tommy sitting on the fire step of a front-line trench on the Western Front—just as he would tell his mate next him what was happening at a different part of the line.” “Tommy’s dictionary of the trenches” (unofficial) fills the last thirty-five pages.
+ A L A Bkl 14:19 O ‘17
“Through it all there breathes the spirit of buoyancy and optimism that is characteristically American. It is all an unconscious piece of quite wonderful writing.”
+ Cath World 106:258 N ‘17 330w
+ Cleveland p101 S ‘17 70w
“For once the publisher’s urgent description does not exaggerate; for in this unpretentious volume is caught at last the soul of Tommy Atkins.”
+ Dial 63:114 Ag 16 ‘17 480w
“One of the very best soldier books of the war.”
+ Ind 91:184 Ag 4 ‘17 400w
+ Lit D 55:41 D 8 ‘17 190w
“There have been several such books, but this is different from them all and one feels that for the average fighting man, it is truer than the others. ... In no other book that has come from the front has there been so much of soldier humor. ... Prospective soldiers can learn here pretty nearly just what is awaiting them, in both incident and sensation.”
+ N Y Times 22:239 Je 24 ‘17 1000w
175“Many of our readers must have heard Captain Empey tell his war experiences from the platform. He writes exactly as he talks—clearly, incisively, in the language of the trenches.”
+ Outlook 116:489 Jl 25 ‘17 150w
Pittsburgh 22:681 O ‘17 10w
Pratt p39 O ‘17 10w
“Few personal records of service have given us so much genuine pleasure as this one—whether for the overflowing cheeriness and the simple intimacy and the keen humour of its style, or for the real feeling which beats all through it.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p639 D 20 ‘17 270w
Empire and the future. *75c Macmillan 325.3 17-15171
“A slim volume containing a series of lectures delivered in the University of London, King’s college. Mr Steel-Maitland contributes an introduction. Dr M. E. Sadler deals with ‘The universities and the war.’ Sir Charles Lucas treats of ‘Empire and democracy.’ The Master of Balliol discourses on ‘The people and the duties of empire.’ ‘Imperial administration’ is in the capable hands of Dr H. A. L. Fisher. Mr Philip Kerr is on his own ground, dealing with ‘Commonwealth and empire.’ The volume is fittingly closed by Mr G. R. Parkin’s address on ‘The duty of the empire to the world.’”—Ath
“There is no single work we would more strongly recommend to those interested in the future of the British commonwealth than this little volume. Indeed, we regard it as an excellent introduction to the study of the problems of imperial reconstruction. It contains no cut-and-dried schemes; its value lies rather in providing a background for schemes of reconstruction.”
+ Ath p88 F ‘17 700w
N Y Br Lib News 4:39 Mr ‘17
St Louis 15:314 S ‘17 10w
“From one important standpoint it is a book to be welcomed: it comes from men who are profoundly in earnest, and who wish to grow into the needs of a most difficult new time. Their desire is to educate themselves, as well as to help those who know less than they do. On the other hand, they do not yet know how to coax great subjects through the prejudices of uneducated middle-age. ... It is a book for political clubs and for university students. The subjects chosen are too widespread to be generally useful at the present moment.”
+ — Sat R 122:509 N 25 ‘16 1350w
Reviewed by the Earl of Cromer
+ Spec 117:656 N 25 ‘16 1600w
“These lectures are anything but academic. Throughout they are the live words of men who speak of great things to listeners as keenly interested as themselves.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p543 N 16 ‘16 1000w
Empty house. il *$1.40 (2½c) Macmillan 17-17515
“The theme of this novel is the need of sex-fulfilment for the American wife, through motherhood. The wife in evidence, who is her own witness and judge, has grown up, under the example of her own mother’s fate, in the fear of maternity. She dreads marriage for what it threatens, and will not marry until it is understood that she is to have no children. Between herself and her young husband exists a possible basis of friendship as well as that passionate relation which is to go through the inevitable phases. ‘The need of a world of men’ asserts itself for the husband: the wife is left to her own resources, her clothes, her bridge, her idle-restless occupations of the servanted and childless city-woman. Her husband remains her preoccupation, while his work more and more absorbs him. In her will to possess him, she begins to prey upon him; in the end, by her exactions and by her secret and disastrous interference with his career, she brings about his ruin and his death. And it is all traceable to that ‘over-sexed’ condition of the American woman which, according to the German scientist of the story, condemns her, in default of motherhood, to destroy her mate.”—Nation
“These people have the breath of life in them, are real as the action is real, however slightly both may be outlined.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 46:96 S ‘17 540w
“With her abstract theories of married life the writer of ‘The empty house’ gives us all food for discussion. But like many novels with a purpose it is totally one-sided. ... Were we to surmise concerning the writer of this novel we might say that she is herself unmarried. The days of her childhood are described convincingly, but the post-matrimonial discussions lack conviction and sincerity.” D. F. G.
– + Boston Transcript p6 Ag 1 ‘17 490w
“It is a vivacious story with an air of determination to speak out and tell the truth. What it tells is interesting. But after all it does not tell very much. The manner is sometimes irritating, if the reader is over-sensitive to literary manner. In trying to sound human and natural the author makes an unnecessary sacrifice of sentence-construction.” J: Macy
+ — Dial 63:113 Ag 16 ‘17 120w
“A special plea, if you like, but vigorously embodied in a tale well told.”
+ Nation 105:247 S 6 ‘17 310w
“We are almost tempted to say that it is many years since we have read anything so trivial published by a reputable house. ... The style is scrappy and lacking entirely in any literary qualities.” M. G. S.
— N Y Call p14 S 2 ‘17 250w
“Notwithstanding the irritating style and the wearying repetitions, the author contrives to put a good deal of emotional suspense and some dramatic situations into the story. But it really wasn’t necessary, for the convincingness of the tale, to make the teller of it seem quite such an uncurbed fool.”
— N Y Times 22:265 Jl 15 ‘17 730w
“An incisive yet moving study of feminine tendencies—some limited and morbid, others general and human. There is bitterness in the exposition of one type of American women, described by a foreign scientific observer.”
Outlook 116:556 Ag 8 ‘17 70w
ENDELL, FRITZ AUGUST GOTTFRIED. Old tavern signs; an excursion in the history of hospitality. il *$5 Houghton 394 16-24700
“Mr Endell confesses in his ‘Old tavern signs’ that his love of the subject is his only apology for his bold undertaking of writing about it. First it was the filigree quality and the beauty of the delicate tracery of the wrought-iron signs in the picturesque villages of southern Germany that attracted his attention; then their deep, symbolic significance exerted its influence more and more over his mind, and tempted him at last to follow their history back until he could discover its multifarious relations to the thought and feeling of earlier generations. ... Poetical and political signs are treated at length, and the English sign and its peculiarities are fully described. Not the least interesting part of the book are the pictures, some of them copies of old prints. The author has added a bibliography and index to make his work complete.”—Boston Transcript
+ Boston Transcript p8 D 27 ‘16 700w
“A notable book of a rather unusual kind, ... which the author himself lavishly illustrated with drawings of much quaintness and charm. ... The edition is limited to 550 copies.”
+ Dial 61:544 D 14 ‘16 130w
“If it were not for the date in the imprint and a few scattered allusions, one would almost swear that this book had been composed in the eighteenth century. It seems to be pervaded by the kindly, unworldly sentiment of the vanished Germany of little states, such as Thackeray hardly caricatured in Pumpernickel, and Stevenson made the scene of Prince Otto’s adventures. 176Over all is the atmosphere one feels in the illustrations to Hans Andersen. Nowhere is the modern, scientific spirit.”
+ Nation 104:372 Mr 29 ‘17 550w
N Y Br Lib News 4:15 Ja ‘17
“A book at once erudite and whimsical, entertaining in its style and illuminating in its account of the social life of former times.”
+ Pittsburgh 22:131 F ‘17 30w
ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS. Complaint of peace. *50c (2½c) Open ct. 172.4 17-14169
“This translation of the ‘Querela pacis’ of Erasmus is reprinted from a rare old English version. It is probably the 1802 reprint of the translation made by T. Paynell but published anonymously.” (Publishers’ preface) Erasmus, even in the sixteenth century, pictures Peace as seeking a refuge in vain with the common people, with kings, with scholars and with the religious. He dwells upon the incompatibility of war with Christianity, and argues that “there is scarcely any peace so unjust, but it is preferable, upon the whole, to the justest war,” but states that he is to be understood as speaking of the unjustifiable wars that Christians wage with Christians, and not of the purely defensive wars necessary to repel the violence of invaders.
“The essay is noteworthy as an appealing presentation of the arguments for peace.”
+ Ath p589 N ‘17 200w
“Every argument that has been advanced by the lovers of peace against militarism and its attendant horrors is cogently stated in this quaint document.”
+ R of Rs 56:331 S ‘17 100w
“This translation is welcome for other things than its abstract wisdom. It is welcome for its gentle irony and for the modulated richness of the English. The book would be admirable for reading in the schools.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 6 ‘17 1100w
“What Erasmus has to say is still not only readable, but worth reading. War is the most disastrous of human crimes and follies, and anything that helps us to understand that is good and useful. Provided that we also understand—what Erasmus only shows for one moment a glimpse of understanding—that it may be the most urgent of human duties.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p448 S 20 ‘17 1550w
ERICHSEN, ERICH. Forced to fight; the tale of a Schleswig Dane. *$1.25 (3c) McBride 940.91 (Eng ed 17-15580)
The author tells this story as it was told him by a young soldier returned from the war. “He told me,” says the author, “sometimes calmly and sometimes with excitement, about all those experiences that had whitened his hair and worn out his body, and made him an old man, though he had not yet completed his twenty-seventh year. I am telling his story as he told it to me. The words are mine but all that gives life to them, the moods and thoughts, the hopes and sufferings, the abasement of the soul and the horror of the mind—all these are his.” It is the terrible story of one who endured all of the horrors of war without any of the sustainment of a conviction of right. After the invasion of Belgium, in which he took part, the narrator was transferred to East Prussia, a region similarly devastated. The book is translated from the Danish by Ingeborg Lund.
+ A L A Bkl 14:19 O ‘17
Pratt p40 O ‘17 40w
ERVINE, ST JOHN GREER. Changing winds. *$1.60 (1c) Macmillan 17-9813
The mettle of the young men who are giving their lives in this war and the irretrievable loss suffered by any nation that goes to war are brought home by this novel. It is the story of four boys, friends from schooldays. It is a story filled with the joy and eagerness and tragic seriousness of youth, with its big ambitions and easy achievements and its plans for the reformation of the world. War does not enter into these plans. The war is something that happens; but it cuts across every other claim and takes the four, one after the other. The war is a calamity that breaks suddenly, but the Irish revolution which also enters into the story, gives warnings of its approach. There is hardly a phase of the complicated Irish problem that is not touched on in the course of the novel. Henry Quinn, one of the four, is Irish and it is to him that events are most closely related, but the most vital personality in the group is Gilbert Farlow, killed in Gallipoli. The book is dedicated to the memory of Rupert Brooke.
“One of the women and the sex interest she arouses will be disapproved of by some readers, though few such would read the book.”
A L A Bkl 13:449 Jl ‘17
“The character-drawing throughout is of a high standard, but the chief interest of the book lies in the discussions between the quartet of young men, which range over nearly all the questions of the day. ... the position of labour, the war, Irish affairs, including the rebellion, etc. ... The book will appeal mostly to the unsophisticated.”
+ — Ath p253 My ‘17 210w
“A story of uncommon range and power.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 45:411 Je ‘17 670w
“Despite Mr Ervine’s chaotic methods, despite his annoying habit of playing havoc with the passing of time, despite his rapid shifting backward and forward through the years and his consequent chronological disorder, despite the wordiness and trivial episodes in a story that for its full effect should be brisk and compact, he has written in ‘Changing winds’ a novel that demands attention and that is certain to arouse discussion. We do not regret its length and we do not hasten towards its end. ... Anyone who has read ‘Mr Britling sees it through’ will be eager for another view of the English attitude as reflected in Mr Ervine’s agile mind.” E. F. E.
+ — Boston Transcript p6 Ap 11 ‘17 1400w
“A monument of industry rather than talent. ... ‘Changing winds’ suggests the book of a writer who has attempted to immerse himself in his subject, but has not absorbed its implications. It is the work of a man who does not quite feel the life he portrays.”
— Dial 62:443 My 17 ‘17 180w
+ Ind 91:183 Ag 4 ‘17 200w
“An interpretation full of insight, and rich in human sympathy.”
+ Nation 104:601 My 17 ‘17 570w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ Nation 105:600 N 29 ‘17 130w
“So far, then, as Mr Ervine has allowed his discipleship to H. G. Wells to lead him into discussing universal military service, factory organization, machine industry, etc., he has been badly bamboozled. You have to be a Meredith or at any rate a Wells to overflow into these creative fictional discussions, and where Mr Ervine has attempted this he is tin painted to look like steel. ... The utilization of contemporary personages and contemporary events gives ‘Changing winds’ an excitingness that has a sort of suggestion of genius. There are certain tricks about the book, however, that impair this impression. ... Though not written in the first person, ‘Changing winds’ is hot from first-hand experience, an empiric version of reality.” F. H.
* + – New Repub 10:326 Ap 14 ‘17 2100w
“Mr Ervine’s new book is by all odds the biggest piece of work he has done.”
+ N Y Times 22:113 Ap 1 ‘17 550w
“The author has one pervading purpose, namely, to make his readers see Ireland and Irishmen as they are. ... The picture of the recent Irish revolution included in the story is admirably done, and is both touching and dramatic.”
+ Outlook 115:710 Ap 18 ‘17 140w
177“The title was taken from the sonnet, ‘The dead,’ by Rupert Brooke, to whom the author has dedicated the story.” M. A. S.
St Louis 15:184 Je ‘17 20w
“‘Changing winds’ may perhaps be not unfairly described as a set of variations on the theme of Mr St John Ervine’s book, ‘Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster movement,’ in which there was very little about Sir Edward Carson but a great deal about Ulstermen, young and old. ... The pictures of life in London are enlivened by some caustic portraits, under thin disguises, of well-known figures in the world of letters.”
+ Spec 118:567 My 19 ‘17 530w
“The most interesting modern Irish novel that we can remember. ... The Londoner and the Dubliner, particularly the former, will have no difficulty in recognizing numerous real people in the thinnest disguises, many of them hit off with amusing malice. ... The book is all youth and enthusiasm, and it is written by a man who obviously loves Ireland and loves England too. That is what makes it so good a presentation of the issue between the two countries.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p187 Ap 19 ‘17 600w
ESENWEIN, JOSEPH BERG. Writing for the magazines. *$1.50 Home correspondence school 808 16-26010
“The Writer’s library already contains books on short story writing, photo play writing, writing for vaudeville, verse writing and play writing. Its manifest object is the compiling of a series of helpful and practical textbooks which shall answer the numerous questions which writers want to ask and which no one has time to answer for them. Four things Mr Esenwein considers essential to success in writing—having something to say, knowing how different editors wish it said, knowing how to shape material and knowing the markets.”—Boston Transcript
A L A Bkl 13:161 Ja ‘17
+ Boston Transcript p8 F 28 ‘17 200w
“‘How to do it’ books are always slightly amusing, but in ‘Writing for the magazines’ J. B. Esenwein gives intelligent practical advice as to what the editor wants.”
+ Ind 90:517 Je 16 ‘17 30w
+ Lit D 54:569 Mr 3 ‘17 50w
Pittsburgh 22:56 Ja ‘17
ESENWEIN, JOSEPH BERG, and STOCKARD, MARIETTA. Children’s stories, and how to tell them. (Writer’s library) *$1.50 (2½c) Home correspondence school 372.6 18-781
Professor Esenwein is head of the literary faculty of the Home correspondence school, Springfield, Mass., and Miss Stockard is connected with the Wilson normal school, Washington, D.C. The authors attempt to give “a clear statement of the various methods used successfully by story-tellers,” and, from these methods, to deduce certain simple foundation-principles “so as to help the student of the art to understand the material he has to work with, the forms in which it may be cast, various successful methods of presentation, the limitations of his hearers, and the ends he is justified in seeking to gain.” (Foreword) All this is covered in the eleven chapters of part 1, each chapter being followed by “Suggestions for study and discussion.” Part 2 consists of “Fifty stories to tell to children.” These include among others animal, Bible, patriot, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and hero stories. Part 3 gives eight suggestive “Reading and reference lists,” such as “Source-books for the storyteller,” “Books on literary study and its value,” etc. A list of publishers’ addresses is given.
“Now, the important and joyous thing about this excellent new book is that it indicates a reiterated faith on the part of the authors and publishers that story telling is an important factor in life.”
+ Ind 92:444 D 1 ‘17 30w
St Louis 15:422 D ‘17 30w
ESSEN, LÉON VAN DER. Invasion and the war in Belgium; with a sketch of the diplomatic negotiations preceding the conflict. il *15s T. Fisher Unwin, London 940.91 (Eng ed 17-17104)
“‘Our aim,’ writes Professor van der Essen, ‘has been to give for the first time a connected account and a complete survey of all the events of the German invasion and of the war in Belgium from the attack on Liège till after the battle of the Yser. ... We have always referred to our sources to enable the reader to control our evidence.’ ... The account of the military operations is drawn chiefly from three sources—the official report of the Belgium general staff; a compilation by a Belgian officer entitled ‘Les pages de gloire de l’armée Belge’; and reprinted articles from the newspaper Le XXme. Siècle.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) The author was professor of history at the University of Louvain.
“The fullest and best account of the invasion of Belgium that we have yet seen. ... This book shows in detail what the Belgians did. ... The author gives a clear and dispassionate account of the siege and fall of Antwerp.”
+ Spec 118:675 Je 16 ‘17 270w
“The translation falls below the ordinary standard of translations from the French. It is about upon a level with them; but that level is not high. ... We must confess to some disappointment with the critical methods of the author. We cannot always share his confidence in his authorities. ... Professor van der Essen is also very loose in his reckoning of casualties. ... From a military point of view, therefore, we cannot regard this book as of any great value; and yet we welcome it and commend it heartily to the English reader.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p242 My 24 ‘17 1200w
EVANS, CARADOC. My people. 4th ed *$1.35 Duffield (Eng ed 16-20112)
“Mr Caradoc Evans’s tales have a comparatively novel setting as an addition to their many purely literary merits. ... The peasants of West Wales are the characters and the neighborhood centring around Capel Sion the scene of all these stories. ... Many of the tales in this volume are sketches, perhaps, rather than stories, but they are every one of them interesting. The quaint dialect is fascinating, the whole point of view of these people redolent of the soil of which they are practically a part.” (N Y Times) The first English edition appeared in 1915.
N Y Br Lib News 5:74 My ‘17
“This is not in any way what can be called a pleasant book. It is realism, grim and stark. Realism of that type one usually associates with Russian fiction. ... Yet because he is a genuine and not a pseudo realist, every here and there appears some individual through whose character there runs a thread of pure gold. ... The tales are not without touches of comedy.”
+ N Y Times 22:222 Je 10 ‘17 620w
Pittsburgh 21:483 N ‘16
EVERSLEY, GEORGE JOHN SHAW-LEFEVRE, 1st baron. Turkish empire: its growth and decay. il *$3 (2c) Dodd 949.6 (Eng ed 17-29198)
“In the course of his long life Lord Eversley has witnessed the greater part of the events which have resulted in the expulsion of the Turks. So far back as in 1855 and 1857, he spent some time at Constantinople, and travelled in Bulgaria and Greece, and later, in 1890 and 1895, he revisited these countries and was able to compare their condition with what he recollected from his former visits. In a single volume, in a compact and popular form, he has given not a complete history of the Turkish empire, but a description of the processes by which it was aggregated, under the first ten great sultans, and has since been in great part dismembered under their twenty-six degenerate successors. 178In the latter part of his volume, Lord Eversley has drawn from his own experience, and puts on record his conversations with Lord Stratford de Redcliffe and the Ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid.” (Publishers’ note) The book is divided into two parts: The growth of empire, and The decay of empire. There are three maps.
“Lord Eversley knows Turkey well, and is therefore able to write informatively upon the causes which led to the rise of that once great and flourishing nation, and to its subsequent decline and dismemberment. This is a book which should be widely read, especially at the present period.”
+ Ath p530 O ‘17 90w
“This very readable and interesting book was written to meet the need of a clear-cut historical interpretation of the forces of disintegration in Turkey. Intentionally of secular rather than academic appeal, it is not the result of independent research, but is based mainly on the great work of von Hammer, the German historian, although many other authorities have been drawn upon for new historical evidence.”
+ N Y Times 22:576 D 23 ‘17 550w
“Lord Eversley’s intention to be fair is evident on every page; but, knowing nothing personally of the Asiatic side of Turkey, he has given too much faith to English writers with a grudge against it, who in their turn have given too much faith to eastern Christian writers of a bygone age. Lord Eversley is fairer in his judgment of the Turks, it may be said at once, than any other British author of his standpoint.”
+ — Sat R 124:309 O 20 ‘17 1100w
+ Spec 119:716 D 15 ‘17 1100w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p467 S 27 ‘17 70w
“The Turk has been a failure, and Lord Eversley’s book enables the reader to review with comparative brevity the career of this idle apprentice among the nations. It is interesting and useful to have the main points of Ottoman history with some garnishment of picturesque or arresting detail set forth so handily as in the present volume, but the reader could wish that more attention had been given to the spelling of names and the identification of persons; nor should the capture of Athens and the subsequent strangling of Franco degli Acciajuoli, the last reigning Duke of Athens and Lord of Thebes, be represented as the destruction of the last spark of Greek independence.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p471 O 4 ‘17 1900w
EWERS, HANNS HEINZ. Edgar Allan Poe; tr. by Adèle Lewisohn. *60c (7c) Huebsch 17-2710
This essay on Poe is translated from the German. Its author was born in Düsseldorf in 1871 and he has, the translator tells us, lived in almost all the countries of the world. He spent some time in India, finding himself deeply in sympathy with its mysticism. The translator says, “At a time when Poe was comparatively little understood Ewers was his most sympathetic German interpreter. He is able to mirror the soul of Poe because they are intellectual kinsmen.”
Reviewed by H: B. Fuller
Dial 62:433 My 17 ‘17 1200w
“The swift, delicate, precise sentences give no sense of translation. ... Ewers’s enthusiastic study, rather his pean in praise of Poe, is a distinct contribution to our growing critical literature on the poet.”
+ Ind 89:115 Ja 15 ‘17 100w
— Nation 104:410 Ap 5 ‘17 220w
St Louis 15:119 Ap ‘17
“Only a German could allow a criticism of Poe to degenerate into a vitriolic attack upon everything English. This is just what happened to Hanns Heinz Ewer’s essay on Poe.”
— Springf’d Republican p15 Ag 5 ‘17 400w
F
FABRE, JEAN HENRI CASIMIR. Insect adventures; selections from Alexander Teixeira de Mattos’ translation of Fabre’s “Souvenirs entomologiques,” retold for young people by Louise Seymour Hasbrouck. il *$2 (3c) Dodd 595.7 17-31000
Fabre was a French school-teacher of whom an English critic said: “He is the wisest man, and the best read in the book of nature, of whom the centuries have left us any record.” Chapter seventeen of the volume gives an interesting sketch of his early years and incidentally shows what problems the French pedagogue had to meet back in the last century. The book makes a big appeal to the young imagination in such expressions as the caddis-worm “pirates,” the “insect submarines,” and the “spider’s telegraph wires.” His life stories of familiar insects will prove fascinating because he touches into life the human quality; because instead of ripping up an animal and turning it into an object of horror and pity in the dissecting room he studies it alive “under the blue sky to the song of the cicadas.”
“After reading what he has to say about the mysteries of the spider, we feel as we did after reading Maeterlinck’s incomparable ‘Life of the bee.’ His books should be received with the appreciation they deserve. They are written by a great lover of nature who happened to be a great scientist as well.”
+ Lit D 55:54 D 8 ‘17 140w
“Will give young people a new interest in the natural life around them.”
+ N Y Times 22:571 D 23 ‘17 50w
“The great virtue of Fabre as an author for children is that he teaches the habit of patient and precise observation. There should, then, be a welcome for ‘Insect adventures.’”
+ Springf’d Republican p15 D 1 ‘17 80w
FABRE, JEAN HENRI CASIMIR. Life of the grasshopper; tr. by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. *$1.50 (1½c) Dodd 595.7 17-9824
The translator says, “I have ventured in the present volume to gather together, under the somewhat loose and inaccurate title of ‘The life of the grasshopper,’ the essays scattered over the ‘Souvenirs entomologiques’ that treat of grasshoppers, crickets, locusts and such insects as the cicada, or cigale, the mantis and the cuckoo-spit, or, to adopt the author’s happier and more euphonious term, the foamy cicadella. They exhaust the number of the orthopterous and homopterous insects discussed by Henri Fabre.” Some of the chapters have appeared in a translation by Bernard Miall, published with the title “Social life in the insect world.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:336 My ‘17
+ Dial 63:214 S 13 ‘17 290w
“This volume attests his delicacy of observation, his humor of description, his unequaled and astonishing patience.”
+ Lit D 56:40 Ja 12 ‘18 90w
“It goes without saying that we have here, once more, all the sincerity, sagacity, keen sight and insight, and the ripe ‘human’ flavor that have already made a half-dozen volumes of Fabre popular in translation.”
* + Nation 105:155 Ag 9 ‘17 100w
“In this book, as always, Fabre’s interest centers in instinct; but here as elsewhere, in spite of the accumulation of accurately determined data, he makes no contribution to the solution of the problem of the essential nature of instinct. One loves Fabre for his inveterate aversion to the intricate panoply of modern scientific research, but one sees him as the last of his race.” E. S. S.
+ New Repub 12:165 S 8 ‘17 950w
+ Springf’d Republican p10 Ap 27 ‘17 220w
179FABRE, JEAN HENRI CASIMIR. Story-book of science. il *$2 (2c) Century 504 17-25300
This volume, translated from the nineteenth French edition by Florence Constable Bicknell, is one of a series of elementary science works written by the eminent French naturalist in the belief that the truths of nature could be made more interesting than fiction to young people. The translator says, “The identity of the ‘Uncle Paul,’ who ... plays the story-teller’s part, is not hard to guess; and the young people who gather about him to listen to his true stories ... are, without doubt, the author’s own children, in whose companionship he delighted and whose education he conducted with wise solicitude.” The stories are not limited to the insect life which engrossed so much of the author’s attention. The wonders of the rocks, the planets, the flowers and fruits and of the sea are disclosed to the children’s eager minds.
“Delightful for reading aloud as they will interest grown folk as well as some of the older boys and girls.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:100 D ‘17
Reviewed by J: Walcott
+ Bookm 46:497 D ‘17 110w
“The author’s wide grasp of scientific facts has been no barrier in making a book for young readers that endows these facts with the witchery of fairy lore.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 N 10 ‘17 30w
“It should prove an invaluable book for growing children: a book of reference in answering intelligently numerous and constant queries of childhood.”
+ Lit D 56:39 Ja 26 ‘18 190w
“Curiosity and the love of story are here blended in just proportions. Miss Bicknell has furnished a competent English translation and the Century company has done its share by publishing it on good paper in admirably clear type.”
+ New Repub 13:104 N 24 ‘17 170w
“We owe a debt of thanks to translator and publisher who have put into our hands in English words Fabre’s stories of sciences for children. For to his well-known charm of style and his knowledge, Fabre adds an understanding of the child’s mind.” Maud Thompson
+ N Y Call p15 N 11 ‘17 550w
FABRE D’OLIVET, ANTOINE, tr. Golden verses of Pythagoras; done into English by Nayán Louise Redfield. il *$3 (3½c) Putnam 182 17-9234
Fabre d’Olivet, an eighteenth century philosopher, translated the “Golden verses of Pythagoras” into French, with “a discourse upon the essence and form of poetry among the principal peoples of the earth” as a preface. He also wrote a more extended “Examination of the golden verses,” which was first published in 1813. For the present volume Miss Redfield has translated both these discourses, and she presents also, in addition to the Greek and French versions, an English translation of the “Golden verses.”
“In the ‘Golden verses of Pythagoras’ Fabre d’Olivet illustrates at the same time a philosophical insight which amounts to genius, and a self-centred frenzy of purpose which touches genius on the one hand and insanity on the other. The general effect of self-hypnosis is furthered by a fluency and warmth of style in the original which Miss Redfield admirably succeeds in retaining in her translation.” R. W.
Boston Transcript p9 Mr 31 ‘17 450w
“Fabre d’Olivet died in 1825. At no time have orthodox scholars taken him and his attempts to recover what is called the ancient wisdom seriously. His theories, however, have been popularized by M. Édouard Schurer in his cinematic survey of religions, ‘Les grands initiés,’ and have had considerable success.”
Dial 62:406 My 3 ‘17 340w
+ Lit D 55:38 N 3 ‘17 300w
— Nation 104:765 Je 28 ‘17 600w
N Y Br Lib News 4:78 My ‘17
“The translator has preserved a capable, selective vision and sympathetic understanding of the high content and beauty of the Pythagorean teachings.”
+ N Y Times 22:323 S 2 ‘17 450w
+ — Springf’d Republican p17 O 28 ‘17 350w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p570 N 22 ‘17 70w
FAIRBANKS, DOUGLAS. Laugh and live. il *$1 (3c) Britton pub. 174 17-13235
These nineteen essays in the vein of Pollyanna are by a popular star of the “movies,” who chats cheerfully on such topics as: Building up a personality; Cleanliness of body and mind; Physical and mental preparedness, etc.
+ Lit D 55:33 S 1 ‘17 50w
“Mr Fairbanks talks his honest heart out in this book. He takes you into his confidence, talks to you as man to man, quite like Billy Sunday chatting with God. ... Success is his god, a sleek, smiling fetish. He voices and radiates the desire of America. ... His is the quintessential creed of a society that perhaps nothing short of war and calamity can galvanize into a realization of the swollen hollowness of its egotism.”
— New Repub 12:113 Ag 25 ‘17 650w
“As for success, he sums it up: ‘We find that a sound body, a good mind, an honest purpose, and a lack of fear are the essential elements of success.’ That is a large order, certainly! But just as certainly it is sane and wholesome. That is where the merit of Mr Fairbanks’s book lies for his readers; he puts a tremendous amount of breeziness into excellent platitudes.”
+ N Y Times 22:382 O 7 ‘17 700w
FAIRCHILD, HENRY PRATT.[2] Outline of applied sociology. *$1.75 (2c) Macmillan 302 17-50
For descriptive note see Annual for 1916.
“The larger contribution of Professor Fairchild’s book to the textbook literature of sociology is in its clear presentation of the relationships between wages, working conditions, efficiency, housing, and the more specific aspects of the problem of living standards and social welfare. No other general textbook goes so fully into these matters, and yet they are not here discussed from a merely descriptive or analytical standpoint. Conclusions and implications are most carefully drawn from the data presented.” L. L. Bernard
+ Am Econ R 7:601 S ‘17 460w
“As to weaknesses, the reviewer finds only those which naturally might be expected to follow from the tremendous size of the task which the author has undertaken. It is a contribution to a comprehensive consideration of social life and progress on the part of the person who is beginning a scientific study of society.” E. S. Bogardus
+ Am J Soc 23:269 S ‘17 500w
“A fresh and independent treatment, developed in a scholarly yet popular way, and suggestive to students in connection with other books on the subject, though the theoretical background, to some critics, seems quite inadequate.”
+ — A L A Bkl 13:288 Ap ‘17
“The esthetic life is scantily treated. To the intellectual life are allotted barely two pages on education, while science, the most powerful intellectual force, is entirely ignored. Religion, by which the author seems to mean Christianity, is treated from the conventional, up-to-date Christian point of view. Much emphasis [is put] upon the abnormal and pathological aspects of social life. The principal defect of this book is that it utterly ignores biology and psychology.” Maurice Parmelee
– + Ann Am Acad 72:243 Jl ‘17 400w
+ Ind 91:137 Jl 28 ‘17 70w
“An excellent text for the college classroom. The student will find in it unevasive information or controverted questions, and a commonsense guidance at every turn. It is a book, nevertheless, that will make intellectual trouble. 180Every teacher that uses it will ask, and in his own way will answer, the question, whether the subject-matter here presented is in any proper sense sociology, either pure or applied.”
+ — Nation 105:272 S 6 ‘17 620w
“The style is simple, clear, and thoroughly readable.”
+ N Y Times 22:58 F 18 ‘17 250w
“His treatment of specific topics may be regarded as more summary than that of other writers in this field, but there is a compensating advantage in the emphasis placed upon the analysis and classification of social facts, each in its relation to a comprehensive whole.”
+ — R of Rs 55:443 Ap ‘17 160w
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Mr 16 ‘17 320w
“In ignoring the separate treatment of cross sections of human experience and action, and in compassing the sphere of man’s whole human environment, this text-book is distinctive. The book is noteworthy for its inclusion and very direct dealing with so many pressing phases of present social development. Its references and supplementary readings, together with a good index, add to its value.” Graham Taylor
+ Survey 38:573 S 29 ‘17 310w
FALES, JANE. Dressmaking; a manual for schools and colleges. il *$1.50 Scribner 646 17-1600
“Part 1 presents the development of costume from the standpoint of history and design. Part 2 considers the materials which are used in dressmaking, and discusses the economic value of various fibers and fabrics. Part 3 treats design and technique in pattern-making and dressmaking.”—School R
+ A L A Bkl 13:336 My ‘17 (Reprinted from Open Shelf, Cleveland)
“Contains more material on costume and on textile manufacture than Baldt’s ‘Clothing for women,’ and less instruction on the more elementary details of garment construction. Both books have much material on pattern drafting and the use of commercial paper patterns. An unusually complete bibliography and index add to the usefulness of the book.”
+ Cleveland p41 Mr ‘17 70w
“Will be valuable to home dressmakers as well as to class students.”
+ Ind 91:267 Ag 18 ‘17 60w
Pittsburgh 22:666 O ‘17 10w
Pratt p25 O ‘17 20w
“The author is director of the department of textiles and clothing in Teachers college, Columbia university.”
St Louis 15:113 Ap ‘17 16w
+ School Arts Magazine 16:356 Ap ‘17 100w
“The text is a distinct acquisition to the literature of home economics.”
+ School R 25:302 Ap ‘17 50w
FALL, DELOS. Science for beginners. (New-world science ser.) il $1.20 (1c) World bk. co. 502
A first book in general science intended for intermediate schools and junior high schools. It is based on the principle that, to gain the best results, the pupil must collect his own material and learn to draw his own conclusions. “The teacher is asked to keep in mind that the chief purpose of this book is not to give the pupils a large amount of information, but rather to introduce them to a method through the use of which they will acquire the habit of gaining information for themselves.” (Preface) The first chapter discusses Science and the scientific method; the second, What the young scientist must learn to do. These are followed by chapters on: Matter and its forms; Some properties of matter; Changes in matter; Oxygen: the active element; Hydrogen and its compounds; A study of water, etc. The author, now professor of chemistry in Albion college, was formerly state superintendent of public instruction in Michigan.
“The first half of this volume treats of elementary chemistry, the latter part of elementary physics. There is a smattering of biological material treated from the standpoint of chemistry. Chapter nineteen, on ‘The potato,’ is the only one with a title suggestive of living things. The book has many good features. It attempts drill in the scientific method of thinking, and some of the exercises are in problem form, though most of them are demonstrations of facts stated in the text and afford little opportunity for reflective thinking. The book impresses one as an attempt on the part of an enthusiastic chemist to pre-empt some time in the first year science for his favorite subject.”
+ – — School R 26:67 Ja ‘18 550w
Fall of the Romanoffs.[2] il *$5 Dutton 947 (Eng ed 18-540)
“This new volume, by the anonymous author of the remarkably opportune ‘Russian court memoirs, 1914-16,’ published last March on the morrow of the revolution, purports to show how the ex-Empress and Rasputin between them were responsible for the downfall of the autocracy.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “Believing that the weakness of the Czar and the evil influence of the Czarina made the downfall of the royal family inevitable, the writer still holds that a greater effort should have been made to avoid actual abdication, and that even if the Romanoffs themselves were banished a reformed monarchy would be the proper and wise form of government for Russia. ... The writer deplores the fall of Milukoff and laments the rise of the Social Democrats with Kerensky—although expressing admiration of that leader himself.” (N Y Times)
“Written frankly from the monarchist’s point of view, the book offers none the less most interesting information, and no little food for thought. The book devotes a good deal of space to the recital of superstitions, and it is impossible to avoid suspicion that the anonymous author is markedly prejudiced. No one could call the volume authoritative. But it is exceedingly interesting from beginning to end.”
+ — N Y Times 23:2 Ja 6 ‘18 1300w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p557 N 15 ‘17 130w
FALLON, JOHN TIERNAN, ed.[2] How to make concrete garden furniture and accessories. il *$1.50 (5c) McBride 693 17-17213
The preface traces the history of concrete as a building material, showing that its use dates from early antiquity. The seven chapters of the book are devoted to: The selection and testing of material; How to proportion and mix the materials; Making forms and placing the concrete; How to make garden walks, steps and other simple utilities; How to make sundials, benches and swimming pools; Bird baths, lanterns, pottery and water gardens; Making concrete garden frames and garden rollers. There are nineteen half-tone plates and numerous illustrations in the text.
“Deals in general with more elaborate construction than most other books on the subject.”
+ Pittsburgh 22:755 N ‘17 40w
FALLS, DE WITT CLINTON. Army and navy information. il *$1 Dutton 355 17-29353
The author, an officer of the New York national guard, has brought together information relating to the uniforms, organization, arms and equipment of the warring powers. The book is illustrated with six colored plates and thirty line cuts by the author.
+ A L A Bkl 14:112 Ja ‘18
“This timely and useful little reference book is something no one can afford to do without today.”
+ Cath World 106:555 Ja ‘18 40w
“As a handy reference, this book will be found serviceable to civilians as well as soldiers, and all those who write about the war.”
+ Ind 92:343 N 17 ‘17 50w
+ Quar List New Tech Bks Ja ‘18 50w
+ R of Rs 56:550 N ‘17 60w
181FANNING, CLARA ELIZABETH, comp. Selected articles on capital punishment. (Debaters’ handbook ser.) 3d and rev ed *$1.25 (1c) Wilson, H. W. 016.343 17-12266
This is the third edition of a debaters’ handbook published first in 1909. The second edition was issued in 1913. The explanatory note says, “The third edition varies from the second in two parts. The bibliography has had references inserted in all its divisions to bring it up to date. New pages have been added at the end of the book with selected articles grouped as general, affirmative and negative. Since the arguments have undergone no material change in three years, the chief service of this section is in making accessible several magazine articles and pamphlets not found in the average library.”
A L A Bkl 13:457 Jl ‘17
+ R of Rs 56:109 Jl ‘17 180w
+ Survey 38:361 Jl 21 ‘17 50w
FARIS, JOHN THOMSON. Old roads out of Philadelphia. il *$4 Lippincott 917.48 17-28890
“It would be hard to find anywhere in America roads richer in historical interest than those that lead out from Philadelphia, and John T. Faris in his book has told the story of them well. He takes his readers along the King’s highway to Wilmington, over the Baltimore turnpike, the Gulph road, the turnpikes to Westchester and Lancaster, the old Germantown road, the road to Bethlehem, the Ridge road to Perkiomen, the old York road, and that to Bristol and Trenton. On each one he tells about the famous historical events that happened along its way, the important men and women who have traversed it, points out the features of local interest both now and during former times, and mentions its beauties of landscape.” (N Y Times) “A photographer went with him on many of his journeys of exploration, providing the illustrations, one hundred and seventeen in number, which accompany the text.” (Lit D)
“So far as relates to the eleven roads and their surroundings, Mr Faris has done his work well. The writer of this review has lived in part of this territory since his boyhood and can testify to the substantial accuracy and, in general, the judiciousness of the selection of material for his descriptions.” I: Sharpless
+ Am Hist R 23:439 Ja ‘18 430w
A L A Bkl 14:91 D ‘17
+ Boston Transcript p8 N 7 ‘17 350w
“With much curious lore has the subject been enriched, showing diligence and no little original research in the treatment.”
+ Dial 63:528 N 22 ‘17 160w
“The book will add immensely to the pleasure and interest of Philadelphians who motor and walk in the neighborhood of their city, and it will have its appeal also for lovers of the historical and the picturesque everywhere.”
+ Lit D 55:41 D 8 ‘17 160w
+ N Y Times 22:482 N 18 ‘17 200w
+ Outlook 117:576 D 5 ‘17 40w
Pittsburgh 22:824 D ‘17 30w
“A good companion volume to Mr Lippincott’s book [’Early Philadelphia’].”
+ R of Rs 57:103 Ja ‘18 90w
“There are many pleasant discoveries for the traveler along these roads out of Philadelphia with Mr Faris as guide.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 O 7 ‘17 700w
FARMER, FRANK MALCOLM. Electrical measurements in practice. il *$4 McGraw 537.7 17-17201
“The author is the head of one of the best-known commercial testing staffs in the country, and throughout the book the topics are presented from the practical standpoint of the tester. Descriptions of instruments and methods of employment alternate.” (Engin News-Rec) “The book is divided into sixteen chapters dealing with the following subjects: Introductory, galvanometers, continuous emf. measurements, continuous-current measurements, alternating emf. measurements, alternating-current measurements, resistance reactance and impedance measurements, power measurements, energy measurements, maximum-demand instruments, inductance measurements, capacitance measurements, frequency and slip measurements, wave-form determinations, magnetic measurements, curve-drawing instruments.” (Elec World) The book has 230 illustrations and diagrams.
“Mr Farmer’s descriptions are concise and clear, but he does not compare the several methods of making any one of the numerous electrical measurements as fully as might be desired. The book will, however, be useful to anyone who has electrical testing to do, in furnishing him with several practical plans for making any desired measurement.”
+ — Electric Railway Journal 50:44 Jl 7 ‘17 140w
“This is an excellent and timely text and reference book on electrical measurements from the industrial viewpoint. There are various excellent treatises available on the principles and physical relations of electrical measurements, but there are very few which deal with electrical measurements as they have to be made in electrical engineering laboratories for the purposes of the industry. ... The treatment is clear, thorough, practical and up to date. The chapter on maximum demand instruments is particularly timely.”
+ Elec World 70:312 Ag 18 ‘17 140w
“The particular audience addressed by Mr Farmer is of course largely composed of electrical engineers. But his book is of considerable use in the libraries of a larger group of engineers, particularly those dealing with hydroelectric work, because ultimately the performance of their generating and transmission installations have to be tested by well-tried instruments and practices of the electrical test laboratory, more or less modified to suit field conditions. ... The sections on power and energy measurements and on maximum-demand and curve-drawing instruments are of conspicuous merit.”
+ Engin News-Rec 79:128 Jl 19 ‘17 130w
+ N Y P L New Tech Bks p7 Jl ‘17 60w
Pittsburgh 22:658 O ‘17
Pratt p22 O ‘17 40w
FARNOL, JEFFERY. Definite object; a romance of New York. il *$1.50 (1½c) Little 17-15972
Geoffrey Ravenslee was suffering from the boredom of too much money. Life offered him a variety of diversions but no definite object. A young amateur burglar, attempting to break into his house, brings the needed change. Geoffrey decides that instead of turning young Spike over to the authorities, he will accompany him to his home in lower New York and see something of life from another angle. He finds all that he has been looking for,—adventure, of course, and with it romance; for Spike, the would-be burglar, proves to be the adored younger brother of a very lovely sister.
A L A Bkl 14:26 O ‘17
+ — Ath p527 O ‘17 130w
“Nothing could be more unreal in the midst of realities than Mr Farnol’s latest novel. Although its scene is New York, although its characters are New Yorkers, although its time is the present, its atmosphere is the atmosphere of ‘The broad highway,’ ‘The amateur gentleman’ and ‘Beltane the smith.’ ... It need not, however, be imagined for an instant that ‘The definite object’ is any the less diverting because we cannot believe a word of it. ... But readers will not be disappointed, for they will find in it a romantic world of the same element and variety that have made the appealing charm of all his other novels.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 9 ‘17 1250w
“Some of the character drawing—the pompous butler Brimberly, the loquacious Old ‘Un, and the shrewish Mrs Ann Angelina Trapes—is as good as Dickens at his best.”
+ Cath World 105:837 S ‘17 160w
182
Ind 91:35 Jl 7 ‘17 40w
“Mr Farnol, his publishers inform us, knew the New York slum life at first hand, during the time of his obscure activities as a scene-painter, ere fame found him. One may say enough of this book, perhaps, in saying that it shows the sort of fidelity to detail and falsity of color and perspective which are still to be found upon the flies and backdrops of melodrama.”
— Nation 105:15 Jl 5 ‘17 330w
“The book is romance, not realism, and very delightful and entertaining romance, too, with plenty of incident, any amount of ardent lovemaking, more than one hairbreadth escape, and several fist fights of the most energetic, not to say violent character.”
+ N Y Times 22:213 Je 3 ‘17 750w
“Mr Farnol’s knowledge of New York slang is astonishingly accurate and up to date. Frankly, his characters would be more agreeable if they were not so voluble—one cannot see the story for the words. But Mr Farnol has a large following of readers, and they will find fun and action in this romance, despite this criticism.”
Outlook 116:198 My 30 ‘17 60w
Sat R 124:373 N 10 ‘17 400w
Springf’d Republican p13 Je 17 ‘17 400w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p430 S 6 ‘17 400w
FARRAR, GILBERT POWDERLY. Typography of advertisements that pay. il *$2.25 Appleton 659 17-18351
This book “discusses type and combinations of type, blank spaces in which cuts and text appear as islands or peninsulas, the various kinds of effective illustrations, serious and comic, and it reproduces dozens of more or less effective examples, ... distributed according to a general classification as the Forceful educational, the Passive educational, the Hand-lettered, the Poster, the Character and the Comic, the Small space, the Mail order and the Department store.”—Boston Transcript
“Takes up the mechanical side of advertising and goes into more detail than Sherbow’s ‘Making type work’ in that it discusses the picture and engraving side, hand lettering and borders. Has many more examples than Sherbow.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:45 N ‘17
“Mr Farrar’s book is admirably adapted to classroom work because of its good arrangement, well-chosen illustrations, and its simple manner of presenting technical material. A peculiar virtue of the book is that the type faces are placed in close relationship to the advertisements that employ them. An excellent chapter is that entitled Putting the advertisement together. The chapter on Making the message quick and sure is a most excellent treatment of the employment of types for the essential purpose of making clear what you have to say.” J. W. Piercy
+ Ann Am Acad 74:295 N ‘17 250w
“Full of excellent suggestions, wise advice, and practical help.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 8 ‘17 250w
Cleveland p112 S ‘17 10w
“There are few firms that could not improve their advertising—and their sales—by observing some of the principles of lettering and type set forth in this useful book.”
+ Ind 91:441 S 15 ‘17 120w
“This useful volume supplies a very definite need among advertising men and printers.” P. B.
+ St Louis 15:366 O ‘17 30w
FARRER, JAMES ANSON. Monarchy in politics. *$3 (3c) Dodd 942.07 (Eng ed 18-388)
“An impartial inquiry into the actual practical working of constitutional monarchy in England during the reigns of George III, George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria, as illustrated by the evidence of the letters, memoirs, diaries, and speeches of contemporary statesmen, and especially of the letters of those sovereigns themselves to their ministers, or others, in respect of the chief foreign and domestic problems of their reigns. The writer’s endeavour has been to glean from as wide a field as possible of the best contemporary sources the chief evidence that bears on the position of the crown in our system of government.” (Publisher’s note) A three-page bibliography of the chief works consulted is included in the front of the volume, following the table of contents.
+ A L A Bkl 14:113 Ja ‘18
+ Ath p671 D ‘17 360w
“Mr Farrer has demonstrated to foreign students of British government a fact which they are too prone to disregard, namely, that while the legal powers of the monarch may have dwindled down to almost nothing, the personal influence of a strong-willed sovereign may still prove to be a factor of great consequence. No student of modern European history or of English government can afford to overlook this volume.”
+ — Nation 106:93 Ja 24 ‘18 800w
“There are one or two inaccuracies of names and dates; but we can recommend the book to serious readers, who wish to examine historically the exercise of kingly power by the house of Hanover. The part of Mr Farrer’s book to which most readers will turn with greatest attention is his account of the intervention in politics of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.”
+ Sat R 124:483 D 15 ‘17 1550w
“Mr Farrer has chosen the method of telling an almost consecutive story out of the letters and memoirs of the chief actors, and done it with no little skill, for his book contains a quantity of information which, though not new, was well worth bringing together, while it is at the same time quite entertaining.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p548 N 15 ‘17 850w
FARRÈRE, CLAUDE, pseud. (CHARLES BARGONE). Man who killed; tr. by Magdalen C. Schuyler. *$1.50 Brentano’s 17-29736
“Pera, where the Orient apes European streets and shops and manners, ... and across the Golden Horn, Stamboul, its minarets and domes rising like white bubbles over the grass-grown Turkish cemeteries. In this curious setting is enacted the little drama, whose principal characters are a French military attaché, an English ‘Director of the Ottoman debt,’ his wife, his Scotch mistress, and a secretary of the Russian embassy. ... M. Farrère has written his narrative as though it were a group of notes from the journal of the attaché, the chief protagonist. ... His journal presents both his fascinating personal adventure and his reaction to the apparently placid and actually fermenting life about him.”—N Y Times
“M. Farrère has what so many of our contemporary writers lack—intellectual sophistication and good taste. Dramatic reserve, intelligent characterization, and an exotic background, painted with beauty and understanding, make a strange tale plausible and worth the reading.”
+ Dial 63:597 D 6 ‘17 180w
“The impressiveness of the story is created not so much by the plausibility of the situation as by a style which even translation does not destroy. The title alone seems unfortunate, for it might be the caption for any cheap thriller, but the novel is the work of a clever technician and a well-informed teller of tales.”
+ N Y Times 22:452 N 4 ‘17 350w
FAULKNER, HAROLD UNDERWOOD. Chartism and the churches; a study in democracy. (Columbia univ. studies in history, economics and public law) pa *$1.25 Longmans 16-25225
This work “is a study of the attitude of the churches to Chartism, and of the attitude of the Chartists toward the churches, particularly toward the Established Church of England, 183which in the early days of the Chartist movement was, as a national institution intended primarily for the service of the people, at its lowest ebb. ... Mr Faulkner’s book is a venture into a field that hitherto had been quite unexplored either by English or American writers.”—Ind
“The work reveals most extensive use of the voluminous literature of the subject, is interesting and free from bias. The indexing is inadequate. The chief defect of this study is in its failure to make connection with anti-ecclesiastic and anti-clerical influences which in the period preceding Chartism had come to be widespread through Owenism.” H. E. Mills
+ — Am Econ R 7:607 S ‘17 250w
“A book of which the full value is not stated when it has been said that it is an excellent, almost indispensable companion volume to those of Messrs Rosenblatt and Slosson. It is a distinct contribution also to the history of the Established church, the Roman Catholic church, and the Nonconformist or free churches of England and Scotland in the first ten or fifteen years of Queen Victoria’s reign. It deals with an aspect of organized Christianity in Great Britain which has been generally ignored by church historians, and scarcely mentioned by the general historians of the nineteenth century.” E: Porritt
+ Am Hist R 22:651 Ap ‘17 250w
“There can be no complete understanding of the unbroken success of the trade union movement, the coöperative movement, and the friendly societies movement in England, or even a full realization of the causes which have combined to give England the most politically independent and the best politically educated working-class of any country in the world, without some knowledge of the Chartist movement, of the type of men who were its leaders, and of the influences—political, social and industrial—that were bred of the long working-class agitation of the middle years of the nineteenth century.” E: Porritt
+ Am Pol Sci R 11:340 My ‘17 650w
“A book that is more than a contribution to political history. It is a book that has its value and its obvious lesson for organized Christianity in the United States and Canada as well as in England.” E: Porritt
+ Ind 89:232 F 5 ‘17 120w
J Pol Econ 25:635 Je ‘17 190w
“Gives a lively picture of the give-and-take of the free-thinking Chartists and the ultra-conservative middle-class churchmen. How the ‘Christian socialists’—Frederick Denison Maurice, Charles Kingsley, Archdeacon Hare, Thomas Hughes and their associates—put a sort of bridge over the chasm by encouraging popular education and practical philanthropy is interestingly told.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Jl 18 ‘17 220w
“It may confidently be asserted that no serious student of the social and economic history of Great Britain during the nineteenth century can afford to miss any one of these three books [on Chartism].” I. C. Hannah
+ Survey 38:288 Je 30 ‘17 200w
FAULKNER, HERBERT WALDRON. Mysteries of the flowers. il *$2 (4½c) Stokes 581 17-12041
In simple, untechnical language the author explains blossom structure, using the wild flowers of the eastern United States as his examples. The adaptation of structure to cross fertilization by means of insects is his central theme. There are chapters on: Pistillate flowers and staminate flowers; Perfect flowers; Floral mechanisms; Orchids; The wind and the flowers; Self-fertilised flowers; Effort and accomplishment; Seed sowing. The illustrations are from drawings and paintings by the author. A number of them are in color.
+ A L A Bkl 14:10 O ‘17
“His study is, however, deeper than merely botanical and presents the flowers as being living, breathing personalities, striving as do human beings to attain what is to each the ultimate of life. Through his sympathetic study and rare insight, we also see their ‘intimate daily life,’” F. B.
+ Boston Transcript p8 My 19 ‘17 600w
+ Ind 90:381 My 26 ‘17 130w
“It is the intimate relation between author and subject that attracts the reader in this vivified botany, which is as good for the lay reader as for the student and interesting to both.”
+ Lit D 56:42 Ja 12 ‘18 150w
“The ‘study’ is made so attractive, and the book is so thoroughly readable, that both children and grown folk will delight in the pages that have in them so much, not only of botanical lore, but of the actual vitality of the plants’ being.”
+ N Y Times 22:191 My 13 ‘17 80w
+ R of Rs 55:664 Je ‘17 90w
FAXON, FREDERICK WINTHROP, ed. Annual magazine subject-index, 1916; including as pt. 2, The dramatic index, 1916. *$8.50 Boston bk. 050
“This, the tenth volume of the Magazine subject-index, follows the same plan as the previous annuals, and furnishes a subject-index to the less common American and English periodicals.” (Preface) New periodicals added are: American-Irish Historical Society Journal; International Review of Missions; Trail and Timberline, and Biblical Review. The magazine index constitutes part 1 of the volume. Part 2 contains the Dramatic index for 1916, to which is added an appendix giving a list of Dramatic books and plays (in English) published during 1916.
FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN AMERICA. Library of Christian cooperation. 6v *$5; ea *$1 Missionary education movement 206 17-10987
The reports of the third quadrennial meeting of the Federal council of the churches of Christ in America, held in St Louis in December, 1916, are presented in these six volumes. Volume 1, The churches of Christ in council, prepared by Charles S. Macfarland, general secretary, is a general report, giving the official record of the proceedings of the Council. Volumes 2 and 3, prepared by Mr Macfarland and Sidney L. Gulick are devoted to The church and international relations, presenting the report of the Commission on peace and arbitration. The activities of the Commission on peace and arbitration, the independent peace activities of the constituent bodies and other religious groups, and the activities of the Church peace union and other cooperating bodies are covered, and volume 3 closes with discussions of The duty of the churches of America in the light of national and of world conditions. The subject of international problems is continued in volume 4, with the report of the Commission on relations with Japan. Volume 5 is devoted to Christian cooperation and world redemption and consists of the reports of several special committees. Volume 6, prepared by Henry H. Meyer, deals with Cooperation in Christian education.
“As a record of proceedings the volumes are cumbered with much matter which is of little interest to the ordinary reader, or even to the student of social and ecclesiastical movements. Volume 5 carries the largest measure of value to the ordinary Christian worker and the church.” A. W. Anthony
+ — Am J Theol 21:623 O ‘17 500w
A L A Bkl 13:423 Jl ‘17
“Any comparison of the relative importance of the books would be unfair, for each has its own remarkable value. As unique and significant as any is the report on Christian education. The set makes a permanent contribution to the history of American Christianity.”
+ Bib World 50:125 Ag ‘17 200w
“The fourth volume [on Japan] is a very able and frank discussion of a delicate question.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Jl 3 ‘17 330w
184“The second, third and fourth volumes contain a splendid summary of the peculiar problems facing the American church because of the war in Europe, and are a thrilling call to the proclamation of the gospel of peace.”
+ Ind 91:513 S 29 ‘17 240w
FENOLLOSA, ERNEST FRANCISCO, and POUND, EZRA LOOMIS. Noh; or, Accomplishment; a study of the classical stage of Japan. *$2.75 Knopf 895
This volume includes translations of fifteen examples of the “Noh” or classical drama of Japan, which arose in the fifteenth century of our era, came near to perishing at the revolution of 1868, and is now “the pride and pleasure of the cultivated element of Japan.” “In a prefatory note the English author states that the ‘vision and the plan’ are the late Ernest Fenollosa’s, that in the prose portion of the book he (Mr Ezra Pound) has ‘had but the part of literary executor,’ and that in the plays his work has been ‘that of translator who has found all the heavy work done for him, and who has had but the pleasure of arranging beauty into the words.’” (Ath) Mr Fenollosa, who served as Imperial commissioner of arts in Japan and was in close touch with Mr Umèwaka Minoru, the official hereditary master of Noh ceremonies in the Shogun’s household, contributes a concise essay on the origins and development of the Noh drama. “In the appendixes and elsewhere are numerous details concerning the care and selection of costumes, the masks used, and the like; and at the end of the book is an attempt to record some of the music of one of the plays.” (Ath)
Ath p100 F ‘17 250w
“Mr Pound, in his notes and comments, writes with his usual unceremonious directness. ... And as the volume is made by the Clarks, of Edinburgh, a ‘serious’ house, one notes, with gratification, an almost complete suppression of Mr Pound’s tendency toward typographical willfulnesses and eccentricities.” H: B. Fuller
Dial 63:209 S 13 ‘17 900w
N Y Br Lib News 4:135 S ‘17 50w
“When we have read ‘Noh; or, Accomplishment,’ our first feeling is that of gratitude to Ernest Fenollosa and Ezra Pound for bringing this remote but serious and beautiful art so close to us. On Fenollosa’s part it meant the devoted labor of more than twenty years. Ezra Pound has given a shorter term of labor, but he is one with Fenollosa in his loyalty to the spirit of ‘Noh.’”
+ N Y Times 22:576 D 23 ‘17 850w
Pittsburgh 22:747 N ‘17 100w
“A curious thing about the plays is their diction. We know not if it be because Mr Pound is steeped in the works of Maeterlinck, the school of Synge, and the poetry of Mr Yeats, but certain it is that in phraseology and dialogue they continually remind one of these authors. ... We in the West are not in a position, with the data available, to arrive at a full appreciation of ‘Noh.’ ... But we may gain some perception at least of the delicacy, the lofty idealism, and the noble hopefulness which are among the essential qualities of an art that, in Fenollosa’s words, ‘has been a purification of the Japanese soul for 400 years.’”
* Sat R 123:527 Je 9 ‘17 1350w
“Mr Pound describes the Japanese classical drama as in form approaching most nearly to the Greek plays. But it is, we think, a very slight resemblance, and certainly in spirit and expression it is peculiarly individual. There is about it a simplicity such as is to be found in a Hans Andersen fairy-tale, a wealth of imagery reminding us of the Celtic drama, and again a dignity of imagination which is like nothing so much as some of the work of the Hebrew poets. ... Mr Pound’s translation is admirable in most respects, but we wish that he did not show a tendency to be influenced by the vocabulary of the Celtic drama.”
+ — Spec 118:543 My 12 ‘17 750w
“The uninitiated foreigner is enabled by Mr Pound’s mastery of beautiful diction to appreciate the alternately wistful and proud appeal of these ghostly masterpieces. ... Two points of cardinal interest are emphasized and driven home by this vivacious rendering of archaic compositions—their intense humanity and their indifference to realism.”
* + The Times [London] Lit Sup p41 Ja 25 ‘17 1550w
FERBER, EDNA. Fanny herself. il *$1.40 (1½c) Stokes 17-25431
Fanny Brandeis, like Miss Ferber’s Emma McChesney, was a successful business woman. Her mother, Molly Brandeis, who, after her husband’s death, ran Brandeis’ Bazaar in the little middle western town of Winnebago, was also a good business woman, but she died of pneumonia, brought on by overwork, when Fanny was twenty-four. Then Fanny, swayed by “a bitter sorrow, and ambition, and resentment” made up her mind to crush out sympathy and unselfishness and the artistic impulse in herself, and to mold herself into “a hard, keen-eyed resolute woman, whose godhead was to be success, and to whom success would mean money and position.” She went to work in the Haynes-Cooper mail order house, where she made good, and in a few years was earning her $10,000. Then she had to choose between a still greater business success with Michael Fenger, former manager of the Haynes-Cooper concern, and a chance to develop her talent as a cartoonist and to marry Clarence Heyl, who had loved her for years, and who did not see the real values of life in terms of cash. Other characters are Father Fitzpatrick, the Catholic priest in Winnebago; Ella Monahan, buyer for the glove department of Haynes-Cooper; and Fanny’s brother, Theodore, the young violinist, to secure whose musical education Mrs Brandeis and her daughter had made such sacrifices. Emma McChesney also plays a very slight part in the story.