Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1917 Books (continued 29)
Reading edition
“Mr Mangold, whose word in social economy is authoritative, discusses [these problems] with rare dispassionateness.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 O 27 ‘17 150w
Pittsburgh 22:690 O ‘17 30w
St Louis 15:320 S ‘17 10w
“Those who study it will not only learn that ‘something must be done,’ but why it must be done and what can and should be done. Dr Mangold has performed a good service, both as a sociologist and as a Christian.” Oscar Leonard
+ Survey 39:148 N 10 ‘17 430w
MANIATES, BELLE KANARIS. Amarilly in love. il *$1.25 (2½c) Little 17-26657
This book is a sequel to “Amarilly of Clothes-Line alley.” “In Miss Maniates’s former story Amarilly helped to clean in a theatre, and was regularly engaged to keep in order the studio of Derry Phillips, artist, who took an interest in her and decided that she ought to be helped into better surroundings. But it was her energy and foresight and resource that ‘syndicated’ the family, so that every one earned something, and when they had pooled their earnings they were presently able to buy a little farm not too far from a town, and live in health and comfort and country plenty. There the reader finds them at the opening of this story. Amarilly, by the bounty of Derry Phillips, has been four years in college and is soon due to return home. A somewhat mysterious man has just bought the adjoining property, and the reader is for a time kept in doubt as to whether Amarilly is to be ‘in love’ with this man or with her benefactor, who is at work at his art in Paris.” (N Y Times)
A L A Bkl 14:27 O ‘17
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Bookm 46:340 N ‘17 100w
“Those who enjoyed reading of the adventures of ‘Amarilly of Clothes-Line alley’ will doubtless find pleasure in this ‘joyous record’ of her later experiences.”
Boston Transcript p6 Ag 22 ‘17 220w
“The story is a slight little thing, but it is gay and breezy.”
+ N Y Times 22:318 Ag 26 ‘17 450w
MANIATES, BELLE KANARIS. Our next-door neighbors. il *$1.35 (3½c) Little 17-7455
A family of amazingly ill-behaved children are the center of interest in this story. A childless couple who know very little of the habits of the children of the species, watch with apprehension the arrival of the Polydores. Their apprehensions are more than justified. Father and mother Polydore, one literary, the other scientific, have little time to devote to their offspring, and when the two go off suddenly on an expedition to Chile, the five boys are left in the care of the Wades, who very reluctantly find themselves won over by the naughty but engaging youngsters.
+ A L A Bkl 13:355 My ‘17
“An engaging little tale, having many of those qualities which made its predecessor, ‘Amarilly of Clothesline alley,’ so popular. It lacks, however, the former’s spontaneity.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 16 ‘17 260w
“A ghost story, a love story, and the story of an eccentric and moneyed uncle are all worked into the texture of the lightly woven material, which forms altogether an amusing fabrication.”
+ Dial 62:247 Mr 22 ‘17 110w
+ Ind 90:87 Ap 7 ‘17 40w
“The tale would be amusing if it had some tinge of possibility, but it is exaggerated out of all relation to real life. ... The vivacious style of the book makes it pleasant reading, however, if one does not try to fancy its young barbarians in the world of actuality.”
– + N Y Times 22:90 Mr 11 ‘17 150w
369“The children are not particularly attractive and the character portraiture generally is rather dim.”
— Springf’d Republican p19 Je 10 ‘17 170w
MANTZ, HAROLD ELMER. French criticism of American literature before 1850. (Columbia univ. studies in romance philology and literature) *$1.50 Columbia univ. press 810.4 17-12600
“In the following study an attempt is made to discover French opinion on the subject of American literature, from about the beginning of the nineteenth century to about the year 1850.” (Preface) In such early French criticism as exists the author finds a reflection of disappointment. The French had looked to the literature of the new republic for an expression of the ideals of liberty, and they found in it only an imitation of the traditions of English literature. French criticism thereafter ceased to notice American writers until Tocqueville wrote his “Démocratie en Amérique.” The quotations in the volume are in French, without translation.
“A graver defect in Mr Mantz’s study is that his ‘selection’ does not select some of the most important periodicals of the epoch. He has not included the famous Globe, that herald of cosmopolitan criticism, nor any authoritative newspaper of the class of the Journal des Débats. Some salient articles such as that of Balzac on Cooper (Revue Parisienne, 1840) receive no mention whatever.”
+ — Nation 105:608 N 29 ‘17 590w
“One or two first-rate minds hardly redeem the mediocrity and pretentiousness of much of the criticism which Mr Mantz reproduces here.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ap 30 ‘17 450w
MARBURG, THEODORE. League of nations. *50c (3c) Macmillan 341.1 17-29206
“This little book is a history of the movement in the United States to secure action by the United States and other nations, after this great world war, looking to the establishment of a League to enforce peace.” (Foreword) Mr Marburg was one of the originators of the movement and his purpose here is to describe the developments with which he has been connected. He calls his book “A chapter in the history of the movement,” and hopes to follow it later with a second volume. William H. Taft has written a foreword.
“A concise exposition of a movement toward the establishment of a durable world-at-peace. Its chief merit is its freedom from wordy explanations and extravagant forecasts, so common in many works on the subject.”
+ Boston Transcript p7 D 29 ‘17 160w
Cleveland p8 Ja ‘18 30w
“Little need be said about this work, as it is practically nothing more than a restatement of the familiar aims of the league and its progress since war was declared. It may be taken as authoritative by those who consider the matter as one of particular importance.” Joshua Wanhope
– + N Y Call p14 D 29 ‘17 340w
MARCOSSON, ISAAC FREDERICK. Leonard Wood, prophet of preparedness. il *75c (8c) Lane 17-10224
The foreword says, “The most effective way of presenting any cause is in human terms, and, if possible, through the medium of a personality that exemplifies the larger principles involved. There was no need of extended search for a subject. General Wood literally incarnated both the letter and the spirit of preparedness. ... The story of his life, therefore, is offered as a human document in evidence of the great cause to which he has dedicated his courage and his character.” The material of the book appeared in a magazine article in Everybody’s, March, 1917.
+ A L A Bkl 13:400 Je ‘17
+ Boston Transcript p6 My 16 ‘17 270w
“Can easily be read in an hour and is worth several.”
+ + Ind 90:215 Ap 28 ‘17 140w
“Although his book is written from the viewpoint of ardent admiration, Mr Marcosson has sufficiently restrained his enthusiasm to make his rapid survey of General Wood’s career a just and true appreciation of his service to the nation.”
+ N Y Times 22:121 Ap 1 ‘17 300w
+ Outlook 116:32 My 2 ‘17 200w
Pratt p49 O ‘17 10w
MARCOSSON, ISAAC FREDERICK. Rebirth of Russia. il *$1.25 (3½c) Lane 947 17-21674
The accomplished American journalist left London for Russia upon the news of the abdication of the Czar. He was greeted upon arrival as a representative of the new republic’s newest ally in the fight for freedom. The United States had gone to war with Germany between March 16 and April 7, while he travelled. In his first chapter, The long night, he tells of the pro-German forces in the Russian government which precipitated the revolution. The succeeding five chapters describe in vivid detail the scenes which were enacted while he was in England. These include the abdication of the Czar. Later he writes of what he himself saw and heard from such men as Kerensky, Prince Lvoff, etc., and tells of the labor unrest which followed the proclamation of the republic. The chapter on The revolution makers and the illustrations from photographs will be found of interest.
“Those who have followed these absorbing events in the press from day to day will be especially grateful for a more rationalized and consecutive account in book form than the daily press could possibly afford.” J. E. Conner
+ Am Hist R 23:435 Ja ‘18 460w
+ A L A Bkl 14:54 N ‘17
+ Ath p419 Ag ‘17 80w
Reviewed by Abraham Yarmolinsky
+ — Bookm 46:483 D ‘17 100w
+ Boston Transcript p7 Ag 18 ‘17 550w
“‘The revolution in Petrograd’ might have been a more descriptive title, for Mr Marcosson gives the impression that the most of the action went on in the capital, whereas we know that it had an empire-wide effect. As it stands ‘The rebirth of Russia’ neither measures up to the demands of that momentous event nor completely records it.”
– + Cath World 106:394 D ‘17 380w
“There will be more complete and adequate accounts of the revolution when time has permitted the sifting of facts and documents, but this pioneer work is like the Russian revolution itself, vivid, tumultuous, rapid, impressionistic.”
+ Ind 93:72 Ja 12 ‘18 280w
“But it is a pity that Mr Marcosson deals so slightly, and slightingly, with two outstanding items of universal interest: the Council of workmen’s and soldiers’ delegates gets rather shabby treatment from him; one can only gather that he does not approve of it. And Rasputin—that strange, mysterious man is passed over with a few adjectives. Of tremendous interest are the sketches of Lvoff, Milyukoff, and of Guchkoff, and the other members of the provisional government.”
+ — New Repub 13:56 N 10 ‘17 200w
“A first class piece of descriptive writing. The reader is taken through all the successive phases of the great overturn, down almost to the present time, and the narrative is, we think, one of the best pieces of work that Mr Marcosson has ever done.” J. W.
+ N Y Call p14 S 23 ‘17 380w
“His book is disappointing, for it shows little of the touch of the first hand observer. ... But it has the virtue of giving a succinct, comprehensive account of the great event, with its preludes and its consequences for a short time afterward.”
+ N Y Times 22:289 Ag 5 ‘17 1250w
370“An account somewhat summary in treatment, somewhat rhetorical in style, but informing and filled with significant or striking incidents.”
+ — No Am 206:798 N ‘17 590w
+ Outlook 117:65 S 12 ‘17 40w
“He does not dawdle over the sentimental aspects of the era, but loses none of its dramatic values.” E. P. Wyckoff
+ Pub W 92:812 S 15 ‘17 370w
R of Rs 56:325 S ‘17 70w
+ Springf’d Republican p6 S 6 ‘17 210w
“Until it is replaced by a more weighty and judicious history of the revolution—and that cannot be for many years—this little volume is a decidedly useful source of information on contemporary Russia.” B. L.
+ Survey 38:549 S 22 ‘17 170w
“Perhaps the most useful of Mr Marcosson’s chapters is that in which he gives us a sort of ‘Who’s who’ of the revolution. The names of many of the leaders are puzzlingly long, and the records of the greater number are familiar to few but their own countrymen.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p350 Jl 26 ‘17 600w
MARCOSSON, ISAAC FREDERICK. War after the war. il *$1.25 (1½c) Lane 382 17-6755
Trade rivalry after the war is the theme of this book. “Peace will be as great a shock as war,” writes the author. “Hence the need of preparedness to meet the inevitable conflict for universal trade. We—as a nation—are as unready for this emergency as we are to meet the clash of actual physical combat. Commercial preparedness is as vital to the national well being as the training for arms.” Contents: The coming war; England awake; American business in France; The new France; Saving for victory; The price of glory; The man Lloyd George; From pedlar to premier.
“He has gained his facts at first hand in Europe, and gives two keen character sketches, one of William Morris Hughes, prime minister of Australia and his contribution to England’s awakening, and one of Lloyd-George in action.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:377 Je ‘17
“Mr Marcosson wrote before the United States entered the war, and on the assumption that she would not be drawn in. But his major thesis is not notably affected by the change of circumstances. His argument is, on the whole, plausible. The danger of commercial isolation and decadence of the United States seems, however, exaggerated.”
+ — Dial 63:213 S 13 ‘17 450w
Ind 90:380 My 26 ‘17 180w
“It is a fair enough warning for America to organize and nationalize her export trade. Mr Marcosson does good service in dramatizing that warning. But he does a better service in his popular Sunday newspaper supplement style of exposition of the intricate financial machinery underlying the war.”
New Repub 10:302 Ap 7 ‘17 400w
“Those who may dissent from Mr Marcosson’s views in this particular will assent to praise of the piquancy with which he puts his position before the reader.”
N Y Times 22:217 Je 3 ‘17 1000w
+ R of Rs 55:551 My ‘17 50w
St Louis 15:137 My ‘17 20w
“Marcosson sounds a timely warning to the United States as to the commercial self-reliance.”
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Ja 13 ‘18 110w
“Mr Marcosson is most interesting when he deals with matters of finance, and it is significant that he renounces the theory of economic exhaustion which he previously held and is now convinced that ‘the extents to which financial credit can be expended in the countries at war seems to be almost without limit.’ that ‘man power—beef, not gold—will win.’” Nannie Young
Survey 38:360 Jl 21 ‘17 200w
“The most notable portion of the book is his frank criticism of American business organization and methods.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p179 Ap 12 ‘17 500w
MARGOLIS, MAX LEOPOLD. Story of Bible translations. il 75c Jewish pub. 221 17-16188
“The author confines his work to the translations of the Hebrew scriptures. ... Additional chapters reveal the inherent difficulties of Bible translation and enumerate the various agencies for the circulation of the Scriptures.”—R of Rs
“Professor Margolis tells his story interestingly, in an easy, flowing style; he writes in a judicial and moderate spirit, with an evident desire of fairness, and if he lays more stress than is usual upon the work of Jewish scholars, it is because his little book is intended chiefly for Jews and aims to give the Jewish point of view. ... He appears to be unacquainted with the claim, made by Cardinal Gasquet, of a Catholic origin for the first translation of the Bible into English; nor does he know, apparently, the influence of the Douay version upon the authorized King James. His whole chapter on the age of the reformation is too much influenced by the traditional Protestant view.”
+ — Cath World 106:117 O ‘17 200w
“Special emphasis is laid upon the work that has been done by Jewish scholars from the days of Saadya, Rashi and David Kimhi down to the present time.”
Ind 92:67 O 6 ‘17 50w
Pittsburgh 22:698 O ‘17 10w
R of Rs 56:330 S ‘17 110w
Marion, by the author of “Me.” il *$1.35 Watt
“Marion, one of the eleven children of an English artist settled in Hochelaga, the French quarter of Montreal, tells her own story. Endowed with beauty and brains, and not endowed with a single shred of discretion, nor with the apparently almost extinct quality that used to be known as womanly reserve, she fares forth into the world of Bohemia, to earn her bread as actress, artist’s assistant, model—any unconventional and hazardous thing that comes to hand. ... Marion passes through many compromising situations, thrilling adventures, hairbreadth escapes from both want and infamy.”—N Y Times
“That it is written with vivacity and skill needs not to be said to those who have enjoyed its predecessor. The dominant feeling, however, with which one closes the book is ‘the pity of it.’ ... The interest of the story is greatly enhanced by its profuse and unusually beautiful illustrations, every one of which has the rare merit of really illustrating the text.”
N Y Times 22:115 Ap 1 ‘17 350w
“The most interesting portions of her revelations tell of her sensations as a model and of her rather lurid experiences in studios. ... There is no pretense at style in the book and little humor, as the author has been chiefly occupied in presenting a human document.” F. M. Holly
Pub W 90:2071 D 9 ‘16 430w
MARKS, JEANNETTE AUGUSTUS. Three Welsh plays. *$1 Little 812 17-7561
The first of these plays, “The merry, merry cuckoo,” gives a tender and touching little picture of the sympathetic devotion between a married pair who have lived long years together. The remaining two, “The deacon’s hat” and “Welsh honeymoon,” are comedies. The first was published in the Dramatist, and in the Metropolitan, and the third in Smart Set. All have been played in various places thruout the country, in little theatres, by drama societies, etc. The author was awarded one of the first prizes of the Welsh national theatre in 1911. 371Application for permission to produce the plays should be made to the author, in care of the publishers.
+ A L A Bkl 13:342 My ‘17
“She will do surer work than this, but her dialogue has emotional shading and her effects are subtle.” Algernon Tassin
+ Bookm 46:349 N ‘17 90w
“They have been acted a number of times and proved their validity on the stage.”
+ Boston Transcript p13 Ap 7 ‘17 180w
“Such folk plays as these of Jeannette Marks give the touch of life the play world needs.” Frank Macdonald
+ N Y Call p15 Ap 8 ‘17 200w
“Only a very blind critic could fail to see the excellent human quality of the plays contained in this volume, and only a very cold one could withhold admiration. Charm these plays have in abundance. It is a simple charm compounded of genuine feeling, childlike thinking, and quaint unaffected expression. The localism of the plays is novel and taking; the dialect is used with discretion, and is manifestly the speech of the heart. ... They are delightful to read and perhaps dramatic enough to hold an audience.”
+ No Am 205:630 Ap ‘17 750w
“For sheer loveliness, humor, and the revealing of eternal wisdom through human nature, these plays easily surpass most of the one-act plays offered to the public.”
+ R of Rs 55:441 Ap ‘17 80w
+ Springf’d Republican p8 Ap 11 ‘17 400w
MARRIOTT, JOHN ARTHUR RANSOME. Eastern question; an historical study in European diplomacy. *$5.50 (3c) Oxford 949.6 17-15969
The author, who is a fellow of Worcester college, Oxford, states that he knows of no other book “identical in scope and purpose” with his own. He aims to give a “systematic and continuous account of the origin and development of the Eastern question.” “There is an introductory outline, then after a chapter on the geography of the Balkans and its influence on the politics of the Near East, the history of the Ottoman empire is narrated, giving much space to Napoleon and Greek independence, until the Crimean war. A very full chapter is devoted to this war. ... The last six chapters deal with contemporary history.” (Boston Transcript) The last chapter covers the years 1914-16. There are three appendices and nine maps, one of these being an ethnological map of the Balkan peninsula. A list of authorities is appended to each chapter. Some of the material has been utilized for articles recently contributed to various English magazines.
“The few blemishes detract little from the great positive value of the book, which like much of the work of Englishmen succeeds remarkably well in preserving the true historical spirit in a time of warlike passions.” A. H. Lybyer
+ — Am Hist R 23:390 Ja ‘18 700w
“The author has supplied a real need in English historical literature. It comes at a very opportune time. It is the work of a genuine scholar, learned and free from conscious bias.” F. W. C.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 8 ‘17 580w
+ Cath World 106:388 D ‘17 450w
“One of the most illuminating chapters in this invaluable book is that entitled ‘Physics and politics,’ and future negotiators may take to heart the suggestions made at p. 33 that any settlement of Balkan affairs must originate from within.” Ernest Satow
* + Eng Hist R 32:435 Jl ‘17 1450w
“A clear, scholarly, and accurate account of Balkan problems.”
+ N Y Times 22:345 S 16 ‘17 900w
“It is an able and scholarly book, such as we should expect from so well known a member of the Oxford school of modern history as Mr Marriott, and it brings together in an orderly narrative many episodes that lose their significance in the ordinary European histories.”
+ Spec 118:678 Je 16 ‘17 220w
“It is a very small book for so large a subject; and, though it probably contains as much as the ordinary reader is likely to digest, and that in a digestible form, it still leaves room for a work based on exhaustive research. Mr Marriott has earned our thanks by giving us, at the cost of no slight labour, a study which has long been needed and should certainly be widely read.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p267 Je 7 ‘17 2000w
MARSH, RICHARD. The beetle. *$1.50 (1c) Putnam 17-3888
The story is told in the first person by four of the characters, a London clerk, a scientist, a young society woman, and a detective, each of whom in turn gives his own version. The mystery is well sustained thruout the four narratives. There is an element of hypnosis in it, and one of oriental magic, in addition to the element of sheer physical horror, the horror one instinctively feels of creeping things.
“This is an absorbing narrative of fantastic horrors that should be read only by those of unimpaired nervous system and then preferably in broad daylight.”
Bellman 22:279 Mr 10 ‘17 170w
“Is it a purely critical affectation to feel that these books are not good because they lack reality, because they do not try to convey the impression of life, but are content to give an idea or to tell a story?... Is it a dry-as-dust pedantry that says the idea is good or the story is good, but that the book is not good from the critical standpoint? I think not,—naturally.” E: E. Hale
— Dial 62:146 F 22 ‘17 700w
“Mr Marsh does not know how to create character; his young chemist is especially unconvincing. The attempts at humor are clumsy indeed; Mr Marsh ought not to bother his head about providing comic relief. He has a powerful imagination and he knows how to tell a story, and these powers have enabled him to write a book guaranteed to give an hour’s excitement to every one healthy enough occasionally to enjoy horror.”
+ — N Y Times 22:52 F 11 ‘17 200w
Springf’d Republican p15 F 25 ‘17 350w
MARSHALL, ARCHIBALD. Abington abbey. *$1.50 (1½c) Dodd 17-25863
“‘Abington abbey’ details in 388 leisurely pages, how the family of George Grafton, banker, moves from his London home and settles in the newly purchased Abington abbey, a delightful old country place. ... Mr Grafton is a rich widower, with three beautiful daughters, and a son at school. These, with the ‘Dragon,’ the girls’ governess, constitute the family.” (N Y Times) “The story as a whole cannot be satisfactorily summarized, for, although its sequence is uninterrupted and its events hang together closely, its effects are almost wholly atmospheric.” (Boston Transcript)
+ A L A Bkl 14:132 Ja ‘18
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Bookm 46:490 D ‘17 470w
“It is an intimate revelation of the English temperament, the English tricks of thought, and the English way of living. ... Interwoven into the story is the personality of one of those clerical characters without whom no story of English life seems complete. ... And it is solely through the novelist’s account of this clergyman’s persistent interest in the affairs of his parishioners, of his determined intrusion into their home life, and of the quiet rebuffs that he met from the Graftons and others, that a humorous aspect is given to the novel.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p8 O 20 ‘17 1200w
Nation 106:94 Ja 24 ‘18 600w
“It is almost startling to come across a book, published in 1917, which, for all reflection it 372gives of the time in which it was written, might have come from the pen of Jane Austen or Anthony Trollope.”
+ N Y Times 22:412 O 21 ‘17 750w
MARSHALL, ARCHIBALD. Upsidonia. *$1.50 (3c) Dodd 17-26182
Upsidonia is not pictured as a utopia; it is merely a country where everything usual to us is turned upside down. The poor are more highly respected than the rich, servants give orders to masters, prisons are places of comfort and luxurious ease. The story is told by a young Englishman who inadvertently wanders into this strange country. His first act is to toss sixpence to a beggar, who turns out to be a person of power and influence. Amazing complications follow.
A L A Bkl 13:267 Mr ‘17
“The ingenuity of all this is unquestionable, its satiric import is at times easily discernible, but it is very obviously not the sort of fiction with which Mr Marshall is most thoroughly at home.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p8 Ja 31 ‘17 1200w
“No one who read that superb story ‘Watermeads,’ would suspect Mr Marshall of so commonplace a mind as is revealed in this thoroughly uninteresting story of a fictitious country. ... It is a barren tale of unpleasant people, without humor or originality or reason.”
— Dial 62:106 F 8 ‘17 150w
“A breezy, amusing story, cleverly told, although not always quite up to the possibilities of its theme.”
+ N Y Times 22:33 F 4 ‘17 550w
“Mr Marshall’s latest book would make a delightful short story; or it might well serve as the foundation for a more complicated fantasy. But in forcing it to the fashion of a six-shilling novel Mr Marshall has doomed it to failure. ... There are, here and there in the book, touches of humour of a far finer kind especially in the solemn footnotes regarding the politics, customs, and literature of Upsidonia.”
– + Spec 116:24 Ja 1 ‘16 220w
MARSHALL, HENRIETTA ELIZABETH.[2] This country of ours. il *$2.50 (1c) Doran 973 17-31892
This is an English writer’s story of the United States, told for young people. It follows “Our island story,” “A history of France” and other similar works by the author. The contents are arranged as follows: Stories of explorers and pioneers; Stories of Virginia; Stories of New England; Stories of the middle and southern colonies; Stories of the French in America; Stories of the struggle for liberty; Stories of the United States under the Constitution. This final section brings the story down to the present time. There are ten illustrations in color by A. C. Michael.
“The book appears to be in the main historically accurate. It is noticeable that while the days of discovery and colonization receive very thorough treatment, the period following the Civil war is put into about forty pages—a condensation which gives the reader the impression of being out of proportion in a work of 612 pages.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p13 D 30 ‘17 350w
MARTIN, EDWARD SANDFORD. Diary of a nation; the war and how we got into it. *$1.50 (1½c) Doubleday 940.91 17-28643
A brief record of the formation of American opinion for the student of the war who wishes to go back to the beginning of it and chronologically run thru the comment, from this side of the water, from August, 1914, to the time when the United States entered the conflict. The observations are selected from articles that appeared in Life and “are concerned with the war in Europe and with American politics as affected by it. By what processes of sympathy and indignation, thru what vicissitudes of diplomacy, delay and almost despair, we came after two years and a half to the breaking point with Germany, may be traced in a measure in the chapters.”
“Full of shrewd common sense.” C. H. P. Thurston
+ Bookm 46:289 N ‘17 40w
+ Cleveland p2 Ja ‘18 40w
+ Lit D 55:48 D 1 ‘17 230w
“In calling attention to this inspiriting and aptly named volume we may recall what we said of the previous reprint of articles from New York Life. They stand for a type of editorial comment for which there is no parallel in British journalism—unconventional, colloquial, but trenchant and often intensely serious though appearing in what is nominally a comic paper.”
+ Spec 119:648 D 1 ‘17 1700w
MARTIN, HELEN REIMENSNYDER (MRS FREDERIC C. MARTIN). Those Fitzenbergers. il *$1.35 (1½c) Doubleday 17-7923
Little Liddy Fitzenberger had led a strangely isolated life. For some reason, unknown to her, no one in Virginsburg would associate with “those Fitzenbergers.” Her father, glum and morose, never speaks to her, and between her stepmother and herself there is open dislike. Her only friend is Elmer Wagenhorst, and Elmer insists that their meetings must be kept secret. The coming of the new minister and his wife to Virginsburg makes a big difference in the life of Liddy, and the time comes when she and Elmer find their positions reversed.
+ A L A Bkl 13:356 My ‘17
+ Boston Transcript p6 My 2 ‘17 420w
“We hardly blame the Pennsylvania Dutch for their dislike of Mrs Martin, for she pictures them as stupid, mean, unforgiving and immoral. ... The humor of the story is irresistible.”
Cath World 105:267 My ‘17 120w
“All these are very real people. There is, however, a trace of bitterness in the author’s characterization that the book would be better without. There must be more than a little humor in such a settlement as Virginsburg There always is. Mrs Martin too rarely shows her ability to catch its gleam.”
+ — Dial 62:314 Ap 5 ‘17 280w
“The dialect is true to type, and the story holds the reader’s interest to the end.”
+ Ind 90:86 Ap 7 ‘17 100w
“Each new novel by Mrs Martin shows distinct progress in fictional art, and this one excels most of her other books in the vitality of its plot, the variety of its characterization, and the briskness and humor with which its action moves. Mrs Martin is developing especially in her handling of conversation.”
+ N Y Times 22:93 Mr 18 ‘17 400w
“The quaint talk is capitally rendered and the characterization is good; but the author in the latter part of the story yields to the temptation to make her now educated girl and boy talk too elegantly, while the plot becomes ridiculous.”
+ — Outlook 115:622 Ap 4 ‘17 50w
+ Wis Lib Bul 13:159 My ‘17 70w
MARVIN, FRANCIS SYDNEY, ed. Progress and history. *$3.75 Oxford 901 17-19164
“‘Progress and history’ is a series of essays arranged and edited by F. S. Marvin and published in 1916 and is a sequel to ‘The unity of western civilization,’ published the year before. It was originally a set of lectures given in Birmingham. Where the former collection aimed at a statical view of the permanent unifying factors that have held western civilization together, the present one exhibits a dynamical view of these forces in growth. The idea of progress covers the conception of increase of knowledge, increase of power, and ‘increase in our appreciation of the humanity of others. The first two thoughts, harmonized and directed by the third, may be taken to cover the whole field, and this volume to be merely a commentary upon them.’” (Nation) “The contributors 373are Mr L. P. Jacks. Mr Clutton Brock, Mr R. R. Marett, F. Melian Stawell, the Rev. H. J. Carlyle, Baron F. von Hügel, Mr A. E. Zimmern, Professor J. A. Smith, and the editor.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
“It must attract the attention of the educated public not only by the present actuality of its appeal, but by the good and often brilliant style of the writers, and generally by their known competence to deal with the several subjects that fall to the share of each. Unfortunately, as in most works written in indefinite combination, the unity of purpose becomes less clear in some parts of the book (generally speaking, perhaps, in this case after the fifth essay), and the result is a certain nebulosity, which is not inconsistent with suggestiveness.” Alice Gardner
+ Eng Hist R 32:302 Ap ‘17 950w
“In ‘Moral progress,’ Dr L. P. Jacks abandons the historical mode of treatment. He gives a keen analysis of the notion of progress and of the flattering assumption that we are progressing morally. His essay is pure gold throughout, and no analysis can do it justice. But anyone who believes the things he sees daily in his newspapers should read it about once a week for his sanity’s sake.” F. C. S. Schiller
+ Hibbert J 15:511 Ap ‘17 2300w
+ Int J Ethics 28:138 O ‘17 310w
+ Nation 104:559 My 3 ‘17 220w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p638 D 28 ‘16 90w
“Throughout the book there is a kindred aim, with excusable differences as to detail in certain problems. And this aim is idealistic, spiritual, with all possible stress laid upon the factor of betterment.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p3 Ja 4 ‘17 2300w
MASEFIELD, JOHN. Locked chest; and The sweeps of ninety-eight. *$1.25 Macmillan 822 16-21746
Two of John Masefield’s early plays, written in 1905 and 1906. They were brought out in a limited edition in 1916 and are now issued as one of the volumes of the regular edition of Mr Masefield’s works. “The locked chest” is based on one of the Norse tales in the Laxdaelasaga. “The sweeps of ninety-eight” is a play of the Irish rebellion of 1798.
“Written with a considerable amount of humor, and though little likely to add to Mr Masefield’s fame, the plays are thoroughly readable and capable of presentation.”
+ Dial 62:445 My 17 ‘17 180w
“Both are one-act plays, vivid, dramatic, and with sharply drawn characters. ... ‘The sweeps of ninety-eight’ is of another Irish insurrection, and has Irish humor in its grim comedy. But ‘The locked chest’ is tense with emotion and tragedy, its simple action revealing long years of life, and supprest, unrecognized passions. Such a play stands forth like a Rodin figure, stripped of all unessentials.”
+ Ind 90:34 Ap 2 ‘17 100w
“Mr Masefield’s reputation as dramatist will not be enhanced by these two one-act plays.”
— Nation 105:296 S 13 ‘17 400w
N Y Br Lib News 3:185 D ‘16
“If ‘The sweeps of ninety-eight’ was signed Douglas Hyde it would be thought that this distinguished poet and Gaelic scholar had gained a new intensity of feeling and sense of dramatic construction. Surely Dr Hyde never wrote anything more Irish than this play of Mr Masefield’s.”
+ N Y Times 22:142 Ap 15 ‘17 520w
Pratt p36 O ‘17 20w
St Louis 14:438 D ‘16
“The little plays are pleasant reading. Incidentally they should appeal to amateurs in search of short, lively, actable pieces.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ap 16 ‘17 190w
MASEFIELD, JOHN. Lollingdon Downs, and other poems. *$1.25 Macmillan 821 17-10980
“Mr Masefield’s new volume contains more than fifty sonnets, forming a long cycle, but broken by a few interludes, descriptive, allegorical, dramatic, narrative, or lyrical.” (Spec) “The volume also contains a long narrative poem, ‘The blacksmith,’ a strange piece of fantastic imagining, a brief little war play, ‘The frontier,’ and several other immaterial verses not without pictorial appeal.” (N Y Times)
Cleveland p121 N ‘17 80w
“This volume has a singular and intriguing unity, a unity broken up by interludes and by a succession of changes in the angle of approach, and in time and place. ... It is panoramic, rich in perspective—passing all the way from lyric and reflective sonnets to terse poetic dialogues and narrative lyric almost ugly in its bareness. It would be idle to pretend that Mr Masefield is a philosopher. He is not intellectual except in the sense that he is tortured by an intellectual issue; he is neither subtle nor profound. But he feels this issue intensely, and even more than usual he strikes music and beauty from it.” Conrad Aiken
* + Dial 63:55 Jl 19 ‘17 1100w
“In ‘Lollingdon downs’ we ask for food, and he shares with us—his hunger. A powerful dramatic sketch of a tremulous and tingling imperial ‘Frontier’ is the best performance in this brief and rather baffling work.” O. W. Firkins
– + Nation 106:90 Ja 24 ‘18 170w
“By this very reason of the depth of the author’s thinking, there is a possibility that the verses in ‘Lollingdon Downs’ may not have the wide reach of his other volumes. Mr Masefield’s work now is all intellect purged of the more human and earthly appeal; it addresses itself primarily to those who appreciate the metaphysical in its superabundant and alluring aspects.”
+ N Y Times 22:234 Je 17 ‘17 400w
“His present volume is at once a withdrawal and an advance. ... There is no single piece here so good as his lines on his mother printed in the ‘Oxford book of English mystical verse.’ But he has largely laid aside those scenes of violence couched in defiantly bad language which seemed to be his favourite matter a while since.”
+ Sat R 123:412 My 5 ‘17 1100w
“The subject-matter of the sonnets reminds us alternately of Lucretius and FitzGerald’s paraphrase of Omar Khayyám—though the treatment lacks the composure of the one or the serenity of the other—and we cannot resist the conclusion that the difficulties of the task have been increased by the form adopted.”
Spec 118:614 Je 2 ‘17 500w
MASEFIELD, JOHN. Lost endeavour. *$1.50 (2c) Macmillan A17-398
An adventure story of the seventeenth century. Charles Harding, a school boy walking home from Deptford with one of the masters, a Spaniard known as “Little Theo,” is waylaid and kidnapped and put aboard a vessel bound for Virginia where he is to be sold into slavery. His companion meets a like fate but for a time their ways are separate. One goes to a life of hardship in Virginia, one to romantic and desperate adventure in the West Indies. When the two meet again they unite in an effort to establish a kingdom on one of the islands. This is the “lost endeavour” of the title, but it is no less a thrilling adventure for all that. The English edition of this book was published by Nelson in 1910.
A L A Bkl 13:356 My ‘17
“The reader who could not warm to ‘Captain Margaret’ or to Masefield’s other experiments (too clearly experiments) in prose romance may find something more spontaneous and genuine here.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 45:312 My ‘17 450w
“John Masefield’s ‘Lost endeavour’ as a swashbuckling yarn is too poetic, too literary, for adolescents, and too lacking in all consideration 374that such a fact as woman’s existence might sometime conceivably enter into even the minds of pirates, for adults. Also, its Indians are too grotesque and its plot too plotless. But certain remarkable bits of characterization and certain flashes of pure poetry make it all as surely Masefield as any page of Kipling is surely Kipling.”
– + Ind 91:189 Ag 4 ‘17 80w
“Whatever advantage it may seek from costume and atmosphere is a minor affair; the narrative is well capable of standing on its own feet. ... The tale lacks the sort of ending to satisfy a boy’s heart—the Treasure Island ending; but whatever it loses thereby as a boy’s book it gains as a man’s book. It is very much that.”
+ Nation 104:460 Ap 19 ‘17 350w
“To have endued, as Mr Masefield has done, the threadbare romance of Aztec ruins and Indian magic with true romantic bigness and persuasiveness is a considerable triumph of the imagination. The chief quality of the thing—apart from its poetic realism as a sea story—is its extraordinary blending of the dreamlike with the actual. ... If this tale fails wholly to satisfy, its failure will not be due to any lack of power or artistry on Mr Masefield’s part, but to the reader’s feeling that a fictional power that is perhaps capable of producing results like those which Joseph Conrad achieves has been spent upon a rather flimsy theme.”
+ No Am 205:629 Ap ‘17 630w
“Masefield’s description of the old ship navigated by the pirates has the same vivid lyrical quality as his amazing description of a vessel in ‘Captain Margaret.’”
+ R of Rs 55:664 Je ‘17 110w
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Ap 8 ‘17 280w
MASEFIELD, JOHN.[2] Old front line. il *$1 (4c) Macmillan 940.91 17-27866
A description of “the old front line as it was when the battle of the Somme began.” It is written for days when the marks of the battlefield are gone, when “Centre Way, Peel Trench, Munster Alley, and these other paths to glory will be deep under the corn, and gleaners will sing at Dead Mule Corner.” The town of Albert is taken as the central point of reckoning distances. From Albert four roads lead to the battlefield of the Somme—one to Auchonvillers and Hébuterne, one to Authuille and Hamel, another to Pozières and a fourth to Fricourt and Maricourt. Mr Masefield locates the defenses of both the enemy and the Allies, going into details of boundaries, topography, places of greatest weakness and strength. To relieve the account of possible monotony there are poetic allusions to natural loveliness and dramatic references to the terror of the happenings along the Somme.
“A vivid piece of descriptive writing. It has the charm of a veteran’s reminiscence wherein the setting is hallowed by the action.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:161 F ‘18
“We could wish that Mr Masefield would visit the other scenes of momentous conflicts, and furnish the topographical data indispensable to a proper understanding of the military events.”
+ Ath p51 Ja ‘18 50w
“Nothing less than the endowment of poetic sensibility and the gift of a flexible style would have sufficed to make his narrative other than monotonous. But its interest is keen and continuous.”
+ N Y Times 22:581 D 30 ‘17 750w
“More than any other writer, Mr Masefield has given us the feeling of the curious blind world of the trench fighter.”
+ R of Rs 57:215 F ‘18 170w
“With its well-chosen photographs and trench map, this admirable little book will be of permanent value.”
+ Spec 119:770 D 29 ‘17 120w
“His book, it need hardly be said, is not an ordinary guide. Its design is to be useful, and there are, indeed, signs of the task: a certain forced quietness and contraction of the style, broken by outbreaks and pulsations of language as a duty is passed: business first, and then Dalilah. We could not miss these excursions, for Dalilah is beautiful though a temptress; but sometimes we remember that she was not true.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p3 Ja 3 ‘18 1200w
MASEFIELD, JOHN. Poems. *$1.60 Macmillan 821 A17-1381
The eighteen poems in this collection, which is published with the consent of Mr Masefield, were selected by Henry Seidel Canby, Frederick Erastus Pierce, and Willard Higley Durham, of the English department of the Sheffield scientific school, Yale university. The copyrights run from 1911 to 1916. Contents: A consecration; The everlasting mercy; Dauber; Biography; Cargoes; Sea fever; Spanish waters; An old song re-sung; The west wind; On Malvern hill; Fragments; Tewkesbury road; Sonnets; August, 1914.
“‘Dauber,’ ‘Biography,’ ‘Cargoes,’ ‘Fragments,’ ‘Tewkesbury road,’ ‘Spanish waters,’ ‘Sea fever,’ ‘The west wind’ and ‘An old song re-sung’ appeared in ‘Story of a round house’ (Booklist 9:330 Ap ‘13), ‘Consecration’ and ‘On Malvern hill’ appeared in ‘Salt water ballads’ (Booklist 10:314 Ap ‘14), ‘The everlasting mercy’ was published separately in 1912 by Macmillan at $1.25. All but one of the sonnets appeared in ‘Good Friday’ (Booklist 12:373 My ‘16).”
A L A Bkl 13:460 Jl ‘17
“From the wild, lawless, vulgar, often carelessly written narrative telling of the fight between Billy Myers and Saul Kane, to the last poem in the book, the elegiac stanzas of which, hinting at the changes brought about by the great war, are cast in the quiet dignity and mellifluous flow of Gray’s ‘Elegy,’ there is an immense advance in technique.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ja 12 ‘18 360w
Ind 92:62 O 6 ‘17 140w
“The ease of the procreation of books in our shifty era is illustrated in the selection from Mr Masefield’s poems. Apart from this useful glossary [a glossary of sea-terms], a clever student in an industrious afternoon, if he knew Masefield, could virtually have compiled this volume which has absorbed the convergent energies of three Ph.D.’s.” O. W. Firkins
— Nation 105:597 N 29 ‘17 110w
MASON, ALFRED EDWARD WOODLEY. Four corners of the world. *$1.50 (2c) Scribner 17-25588
This is a collection of twelve stories and one play, which have been copyrighted from 1909 to 1917. The play, “Under Bignor hill,” deals with the Roman occupation of England. Two stories, “One of them” and “Peiffer,” deal with the European war. Most of the others deal with murder, ghosts or suicide. “The crystal trench” tells how Mark Frobisher’s body was lost in a crevasse and how his wife saw the glacier yield it up after twenty-four years.
A L A Bkl 14:133 Ja ‘18
“They are very enjoyable, these stories; and if writers like Conrad, Thomas Burke, and H. G. Dwight had not projected into the short story a quality that gives it vitality and endurance, we should perhaps be fully content with the temporary satisfaction to be got from ‘The four corners.’ According to the standard created by these writers, Mr Mason’s work is flat. According to the standard of the average, it is most excellently good.”
+ — Dial 64:117 Ja 31 ‘18 190w
“England has no more ingenious or versatile tale-maker than the author of ‘The four corners of the world.’ We do not imply that Mr Mason’s work is feebly imitative, but it is derivative and representative and, rarely, individual, rather than ever really original. There are no dull or ill-written stories in this volume, and they should satisfy that very large constituency which responds to the short story as a clever contrivance.”
+ — Nation 105:694 D 20 ‘17 220w
375“All the stories are interesting and well written, even though no one of them is particularly remarkable.”
+ N Y Times 22:394 O 14 ‘17 650w
+ — Outlook 117:432 N 14 ‘17 10w
“Among the grim stories ‘North of the tropic of Capricorn’ is very successful; the tragedy is vivid because not too much is said. ... Among the longer stories ‘Green paint’ is a successful venture into the realms of an undefined South American republic, governed by the unscrupulous and plausible strong man.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p476 O 4 ‘17 550w
MASON, CHARLES FIELD. Complete handbook for the sanitary troops of the U.S. army and navy, and national guard and naval militia. 4th ed rev il *$4 Wood 355 17-5986
“The fourth edition is stated to have been carefully revised and brought up-to-date, with considerable new material relating to nursing and pharmacy. Describes the organization of the sanitary troops in post and field, briefly outlines human anatomy and physiology, gives instruction in first aid and nursing, mess management and cooking, materia medica, pharmacy, post and camp sanitation, riding, packing and driving, minor surgery, and clerical work. Part 9, dealing with the army regulations and the Manual of the medical department, has been completely rewritten to agree with the latest editions of these documents.” (N Y P L New Tech Bks) The work was first published in 1906 under the title “A complete handbook for the hospital corps.”
+ N Y P L New Tech Bks p15 Ap ‘17 80w
St Louis 15:328 S ‘17 10w
MASON, WILLIAM PITT. Water supply (considered principally from a sanitary standpoint). 4th ed rewritten il *$3.75 Wiley 628.1 16-24713
“For the present edition a large amount of the text has been entirely rewritten and suitable amount of new material added. The tables have been brought up to date and new photographs introduced. ... The chapter on Drinking water and disease has been strengthened by the addition of many pages devoted to typhoid fever. ... Newly developed methods of water purification, particularly processes aiming at disinfection, come in for consideration, as do certain newly found factors influencing natural purification in streams and stored waters. The use of chlorine ozone, ultra-violet light and copper sulphate receive attention. There is considerable discussion of various phases of the pollution of drinking water supplies and the care of watersheds.”—Science
A L A Bkl 13:460 Jl ‘17
Engin N 76:1181 D 21 ‘16 80w
+ Engin Rec 75:235 F 10 ‘17 150w
+ Nation 105:97 Jl 26 ‘17 800w
“Although this can not be called an exhaustive treatment of the subject it is one of the most interesting and suggestive treatises on water supplies published since the old book of the same title by Professor William Ripley Nichols, of the Massachusetts Institute of technology.” G: C. Whipple
+ Science n s 45:240 Mr 9 ‘17 250w
MASSEY, EDWARD. Plots and playwrights. *$1 Little 812 17-23583
This comedy was originally produced at the “47 workshop,” Harvard university, under the direction of Prof. George P. Baker. It was afterwards produced by the Washington Square players, at the Comedy theatre, New York city, in 1917. In the prologue, Caspar Gay, the “dollar dramatist,” looking for an inspiration for his new play, meets Joseph Hastings, writer of short stories, who undertakes to show him drama on every floor of an Eleventh street lodging house. The three scenes in part 1 give these three dramatic episodes. In part 2, Gay and Hastings meet again. Gay tells Hastings that he has only found material for drama, but that it is material which can be turned into “a big Broadway success.” Then follows a “burlesque of a crook play, in which the characters of the three episodes take the parts.”
MATHEWS, BASIL JOSEPH. Paul the dauntless, the course of a great adventure. il *$2 Revell 220.9 17-58
“This admirable story of the life of St Paul has for its basis an accurate presentation of all it is possible to know about the life of the great apostle. ... Taking as the skeleton of his story the scanty facts known of Paul’s life and journeyings, Mr Mathews himself followed in the footsteps of all his wanderings, studying the scenes, the people, the life, not only as they are at present but as history describes them to have been in the early years of the Christian era.”—N Y Times
“Written in a spirited style and abounds in picturesque descriptions of scenery and thrilling adventure. A large number of illustrations in color as well as in black and white from drawings and photographs add interest to a very delightful and stimulating book.”
+ Ind 89:117 Ja 15 ‘17 150w
N Y Br Lib News 3:188 D ‘16
“At once historically accurate and absorbingly interesting.”
+ N Y Times 22:36 F 4 ‘17 300w
“Well worth reading. The author has covered much of the ground traversed by St Paul in his wonderful journeys, and has profited by the researches of Sir W. Ramsay and Principal George Adam Smith and other scholars, so that though his narrative is cast in a popular form with a good many imaginary conversations, it is solidly based on facts.”
+ Spec 117:738 D 9 ‘16 60w
MATHEWS, MRS GERTRUDE (SINGLETON). Treasure. il *$2 (4c) Holt 918 17-9241
A story of gold hunting in Dutch Guiana. The author has set it down as nearly as possible in the words of the man whose adventures she relates. He is a mining engineer who confesses that his first interest is not in metals. It is his love for the primitive and the wild life of the bush that takes him into out-of-the-way places. In the adventures recorded in this book he left Paramaribo to go into the interior in search of a mythical lost mine. His pictures of the tropical forest and stories of his native companions, together with the revelation of the attractive personality of the narrator, make it an unusual book.
+ A L A Bkl 13:398 Je ‘17
“The life of the ‘bush’ is well portrayed by a nature lover and it is a pity that a somewhat unique coinage of words mars the style.”
+ — Ind 91:188 Ag 4 ‘17 50w
“It is exceedingly interesting on several counts. It is an out-and-out story of a search for gold. It is full of curious happenings, strange places. Its few characters are delightfully alive. And the personality of the man himself, his love for beautiful things, and his power to make the bush live in his picture of it, are all unusual and vastly worth reading about.”
+ N Y Times 22:326 S 2 ‘17 600w
MATHEWS, JOHN MABRY. Principles of American state administration. *$2.50 (1½c) Appleton 353.9 17-1515
A book based in part on college courses in state administration given at Princeton university and the University of Illinois and in part on researches carried on for the Efficiency and economy commission of Illinois. The author says, “No attempt has been made to describe exhaustively all of the multifarious activities and functions of the American states. ... The aim has been rather to select for description those services and functions which appear most to deserve attention, either because of their intrinsic importance or because of their 376suitability for illustrating the general principles of state administration.” Part 1, the introduction, discusses general principles; part 2 is devoted to The organization of the administration, with discussions of the duties and powers of the governor and other state officers; part 3 takes up The functions of the administration, including taxation, public health administration, etc. A conclusion considers the reorganization of state administration.
Am Econ R 7:419 Je ‘17 40w
+ A L A Bkl 14:7 O ‘17
“There is no single volume which brings together so much first-hand material concerning the structure and functions of the state executive departments. The facts are well-chosen and effectively presented. The treatment of the office of governor is especially detailed and judicious. The author necessarily treads frequently on controversial ground. His discussion of open questions is always suggestive, though it is not to be expected that the reader will accept all his conclusions.” A. N. Holcombe
+ Am Pol Sci R 11:346 My ‘17 630w
“This admirable description of the machinery and activity of state administration is the first separate treatment of the subject which has appeared. It sets a high standard for later works in this field. ... The author’s conclusions as to the modern tendencies in administration are sound and well reasoned. He offers also a goodly number of references for collateral reading and chooses these from works representing different standpoints. The reader is in this way given a broad view of state problems. There is a good concluding chapter on reorganization. ... The book deserves and should find a wide field of usefulness among the colleges and universities.” J. T. Young
+ Ann Am Acad 71:238 My ‘17 450w
Boston Transcript p8 Ja 31 ‘17 360w
Cleveland p54 Ap ‘17 130w
“The book is written in clear, non-technical language and should be of use, not only to students of state government, but also to delegates who this year and next will be engaged in drawing up new constitutions.”
+ Dial 63:71 Jl 19 ‘17 250w
“A noteworthy production.”
+ Engin News-Rec 78:151 Ap 19 ‘17 180w
Ind 90:252 My 5 ‘17 140w
N Y Br Lib News 4:39 Mr ‘17 70w
+ N Y Times 22:127 Ap 8 ‘17 240w
Pratt p9 Jl ‘17 30w
“The entire work will be found helpful to legislative committees and other bodies interested in making the executive arms of our states more efficient.”
+ R of Rs 55:444 Ap ‘17 100w
St Louis 15:109 Ap ‘17 10w
“One of the commendable features of the work is the simple and understandable style which the author uses in setting forth the organization of the executive branches.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 O 16 ‘17 320w
MATHEWS, SHAILER. Spiritual interpretation of history. *$1.50 Harvard univ. press 904 16-25174
“The William Belden Noble lectures in Harvard university for 1916 were delivered by Dean Shailer Mathews of the divinity school of the University of Chicago. His subject was ‘The spiritual interpretation of history.’ ... In the first lecture he considers views which more or less explicitly belittle or deny spiritual forces in history, and endeavors to show that they overlook or underestimate data for which a spiritual interpretation is demanded as a working hypothesis. In the remaining lectures up to the concluding one he attempts to show that a study not only of these data but of the historical process itself discovers a tendency which compels the recognition of spiritual forces, if not a spirit, in social development.”—Springf’d Republican
“The final lecture on the Spiritual opportunity in a period of reconstruction, though practically helpful, is less compelling than could be wished, and betrays the benumbing effect of trying to combine science and religion in one discussion.”
+ — Am Hist R 23:124 O ‘17 500w
“While the author surveys a large field in a small volume, the treatment is far from truncated. On the contrary, the style is lucid and attractive throughout; and the conclusions are based on an unusually rich and varied mastery of the field of human experience. The author shows fine justice and sanity in dealing with conflicting theories, each of which is given its due place in the synthesis of the whole.” J: E. Boodin
+ Am J Theol 21:624 O ‘17 1050w
A L A Bkl 13:308 Ap ‘17
Bib World 49:312 My ‘17 370w
“Professor Mathews’s rational tendency is a hybrid between Tennyson’s purpose which runs through the ages, and Spencer’s impersonal Unknown, Bergsons’s ‘élan vital,’ Hegel’s ‘weltgeist,’ and Lotze’s ‘purpose.’ The layman is merely confused by this metaphysical fog, while the theologian finds it too illusive to damn as heresy. But the man who is seeking an escape from the mechanistic conception of life and wishes to remain loyal to the scientific spirit of the time receives no genuine help from this doctrine.” V. T. Thayer
— Dial 63:200 S 13 ‘17 750w
“The well-balanced tone and insistence on practical efforts towards social ideals are commendable and ought to prove stimulating.” A. G.
+ — Eng Hist R 32:627 O ‘17 110w
“A valuable contribution toward the working out of a worthy philosophy of American life.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 Mr 28 ‘17 700w
“These interesting and timely lectures strikingly exemplify the author’s remarkable facility for brilliant generalization.” G. T.
+ Survey 39:327 D 15 ‘17 280w
MATHEWSON, CHRISTOPHER. Second base Sloan. il *$1.35 (2c) Dodd 17-13076
The scene of Mr Mathewson’s latest baseball story is a small town in Pennsylvania. Here Wayne Sloan, from Georgia, with his loyal friend, Junius Brutus Bartow Tasker, and his dog Sam, finds himself stranded. Wayne, who is now forced to make his way in the world, is handicapped by lack of training. Back home he had been brought up to be a gentleman. But he has pluck, and, much to the horror of his faithful colored friend, who has strict ideas as to social propriety, is ready to accept anything that offers. Finally June is established as bell-boy in a hotel and Wayne finds a position in a freight office. From playing ball with the men in the railroad yards, he advances to a place on a Y. M. C. A. team, and ultimately is offered an opening in professional baseball. The advisability of entering on this career is very carefully weighed before the step is taken.
Pratt p51 O ‘17
MATTHEWS, BRANDER. These many years. *$3 (2½c) Scribner 17-25853
In this volume, Brander Matthews, critic, playwright, and professor of dramatic literature in Columbia university, who says that he “was born contented as well as cheerful,” tells the story of his life of almost sixty-five years, setting down “only the pleasanter memories.” The first chapter, The point of view, gives us some interesting reflections on autobiography. Some other chapters are: New York in the early seventies; Parisian memories; Early London memories (two chapters); and Criticism and fiction. In the last-mentioned chapter, Prof. Matthews expounds the underlying principle of the art of book-reviewing. There is no index.
377
+ A L A Bkl 14:128 Ja ‘18
“I fear that the author of ‘These many years’ has succumbed occasionally to the fallacy of assuming that the general reader was prepared to contribute to the consideration of his pages an exercise of visual imagination which is not necessitated by the facts set down. But the book, as a whole, is highly satisfactory.” Clayton Hamilton
+ — Bookm 46:357 N ‘17 3000w
“Unending delight is to be found in every line of this delightful autobiography.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p10 O 13 ‘17 1400w
+ Cleveland p4 Ja ‘18 80w
“If the reader is envious of the author’s fortune in knowing so many men of distinction, at least he may be glad that the privilege fell to a man who could write so charmingly about them.”
+ Ind 93:42 Ja 5 ‘18 600w
“‘These many years’ is every bit worth while reading.”
+ Lit D 55:42 D 1 ‘17 680w
“Mr Matthews has never lost the enthusiasm, the impressionability, the precipitancy, or the occasional tenacity of youth. These characteristics give the stamp of individuality to his pages.” J. R. Towse
+ Nation 105:639 D 6 ‘17 1100w
“Our autobiographer is first of all an American, then a New Yorker, then a cosmopolitan, but he is all these, and charmingly and convincingly, but least winningly a New Yorker. All the more because I say this, I must add that the chapters on New York literature and its members are of such unique value as to constitute an incomparable contribution to our literary history. It is such as no one could have written except one who was part of it and saw it all, and who with his greater love of literature still makes us realize that in New York it has always been not the superior but subordinate of journalism. That is saying it too rankly, and yet not unjustly.” W: D. Howells
+ N Y Times 22:405 O 21 ‘17 2450w
Reviewed by Lyman Abbott
+ Outlook 117:640 D 19 ‘17 2200w
+ R of Rs 57:100 Ja ‘18 130w
“But the work is a worthy memorial of a useful literary career. It is modest and unpretending, and is redolent of that graciousness which the literary world of New York has now seemingly lost.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 D 9 ‘17 1150w
“Good reading for the young aspirant in authorship, both for content and style.”
+ Wis Lib Bul 14:31 Ja ‘18 100w
MAUPASSANT, HENRI RENÉ ALBERT GUY DE. Second odd number; thirteen tales. *$1.25 (3½c) Harper 17-13186
Contents: Tony; Decorated; The colonel’s idea; The jewels; Fear; Two friends; Relics of the past; A question of diplomacy; Mademoiselle Perle; The madman; The home-coming; Passion; Grave-walkers. “The opening sketch of this volume, called ‘Tony,’ is quite noisome, and can amuse only the lovers of horseplay. ... ‘Two friends’ and ‘The colonel’s idea’ vividly record events and feelings of the German war of 1870, but they might have been the events and feelings of the German war of the present, they fit so well the facts now occurring.” (Introd.) Ten of the tales were translated by Charles Henry White and three by Virginia Watson. The introduction is by William Dean Howells.
“The translation is spirited but too much in the United States idiom.”
+ — Cleveland p104 S ‘17 80w
“‘The second odd number’ is bound to cause some disappointment. ... Three or four of the stories now given—‘The jewels,’ ‘Grave-walkers,’ ‘Passion,’ perhaps ‘Decorated’—may have been excluded from the earlier list because of the greater reluctance to deal frankly with sex matters, but most of them were probably omitted for other reasons as well. ... Perhaps the tale that in proportion and restraint comes nearest to ‘The necklace,’ ‘The coward,’ and ‘A piece of string’ is ‘Two friends.’”
+ — Dial 63:74 Jl 19 ‘17 330w
“The present ‘Odd number,’ issued by the same publisher, has been made to match the original as to color and size and the design of its back. It has even an amiable and slightly perfunctory introduction by Mr Howells. But of the thirteen tales only two or three are worthy to be placed among that first thirteen. ‘Two friends,’ ‘Relics of the past,’ and ‘Mademoiselle Perle’ are touched with human sympathy; the rest have the acrid flavor, the brutal or fleering tone of the unfortunate genius who, not soon enough for his own comfort, found his own way out of a despicable world.”
+ — Nation 104:632 My 24 ‘17 320w
N Y Br Lib News 4:109 Jl ‘17 30w
Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 16 ‘17 130w
MAVOR, JAMES. Government telephones. *$1 Moffat 384 16-24693
“In ‘Government telephones’ Prof. James Mavor of the University of Toronto gives a history and critical examination of the experience of Manitoba, Canada, with the public ownership and operation of the telephone system of the province. The early development of the service was promoted by the Bell company, beginning about thirty-five years ago. The government purchase was made in 1908 and Prof. Mavor contends that his thorough examination of the government’s work shows indubitably that the public ownership has been a practical failure.”—Ind
“One cannot but wish that he had outlined something of a constructive program. Beyond indicating faith in regulation and private ownership, and condemning public ownership, in general terms, he does not point a way out. And the Manitoba which he pictures needs help.” H. B. Vanderblue
Am Econ R 7:406 Je ‘17 730w
A L A Bkl 13:377 Je ‘17
“In view of the fact that he cites only the figures most favorable to his contention, and neglects to mention the others, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that he is more interested in making out his case against public ownership than in making known the whole truth. In short the book as a whole, regarded as an argument against public ownership, is unconvincing; but it is not without value as a record of certain mistakes which governmental telephone administrations, like private companies, would do well to avoid.” A. N. Holcombe
Am Pol Sci R 11:357 My ‘17 820w
“The study of this one experiment should prove enlightening to all who are personally or academically interested in the problems of state ownership.”
Boston Transcript p8 My 19 ‘17 100w
Cleveland p70 My ‘17 20w
“Although notably one-sided, the general impression created by the book is that, measured by business standards, government telephones in Manitoba were a failure. Whether there were any compensating advantages, such as are alleged by many to result from operating a postal service at a loss, the method of the author is not of the sort to show.”
Engin News-Rec 78:361 My 17 ‘17 280w
“Strangely enough, the author holds that these defects cannot be eradicated. They are necessary accompaniments of government ownership! A surprising induction without confirmation.”
Ind 90:297 My 12 ‘17 130w
“While written in an admirable style and well arranged, the book fails fully to convince the analytical reader.” W. J. Donald
+ — J Pol Econ 25:954 N ‘17 490w
“Much has been written concerning the experiment of Manitoba in the public ownership of telephones, but Prof. James Mavor’s Government telephones’ is the most searching and 378complete analysis of the results. The confidence of the reader in the findings would be greater if it were not evident from several passages that the author on general principles is completely opposed to government conduct of industries.”
+ — Nation 105:268 S 6 ‘17 120w
R of Rs 55:220 F ‘17 80w
Springf’d Republican p15 Ja 28 ‘17 420w
MAXWELL, CHARLES ROBERT.[2] Observation of teaching. (Riverside educational monographs) *70c (3c) Houghton 371 17-25130
This manual, an outgrowth of the author’s work as supervisor of the training school of the Whitewater (Wis.) normal school, is designed “for the use of students in training, for the use of teachers who are desirous of analyzing the various elements in the teaching process, and for the use of other persons who are interested in the observation of teachers at work.” (Preface) Contents: The nature of the problem; The purpose of observation; The value of observation; The teacher; The pupils; The lesson procedure; The development lesson; The drill lesson; The review lesson; The lesson for appreciation; Questioning; Class management; The physical features of the schoolroom.
“This book will be of most service to the prospective teachers in our normal schools and schools of education. It will be helpful to the supervisor in that it analyzes the qualities of teaching and the important aspects of school procedure that ought to be uppermost in the mind of the supervisor in his observation work.” H. O. Rugg
+ El School J 18:317 D ‘17 220w
MAXWELL, CONSTANTIA. Short history of Ireland. *80c (2c) Stokes 941.5
A short history of Ireland dealing mainly with political events. The author’s purpose has been “to present a clear and impartial account of the chief features of Irish history,” and she has purposely left social and economic questions, and matters of mythology and literature out of her scheme. Contents: Early Ireland; The Norman invasion and settlement; The decline of English power and advance of the Celts; The Tudor conquest and the plantation of Ulster; The rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian settlement; The war of the revolution; Ireland under the old colonial system—the period of Protestant ascendancy; Ireland since the Union. The volume is provided with maps and plans. The author is lecturer in history in Trinity college, Dublin.
“A convenient, not very sympathetic, introductory manual.”
+ — Ind 91:188 Ag 4 ‘17 60w
“The author doubtless has marked opinions on the many problems which have faced Ireland since it became a homogeneous nation, but she keeps them religiously to herself. One of the great merits of this history of Ireland is its absolute fairmindedness.”
+ N Y Times 22:282 Jl 29 ‘17 500w
“Miss Maxwell’s book is, however, little more than a syllabus, and in such a work it is difficult to indicate the full meaning of every event. Again, too, her matter-of-factness becomes slightly arid.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p11 Ja 27 ‘18 90w
MAXWELL, WILLIAM MOREY. If I were twenty-one; tips from a business veteran. il *$1.25 (3½c) Lippincott 658 17-29211
If you were twenty-one again and had life before you what would you do? This question is answered for the youth of the land, out of the experience, long and successful, of a man who sees the human and humorous side of things as well as the serious and problematic. There is moderation in his counsel. He avoids extremes. He advises a young man not to become a specialist. He believes that the future will demand all-around business men. If he were twenty-one again he would do a great deal of reading, would take counsel of men who have made a failure of life and would approach a career gradually, not taking a salaried position under twenty-five. Contents: If I started again; Finding your place in life; Self-esteem and self-confidence; Getting a job; Handling men; Employing men; The dishonesty of honest men; The amateur ad. writer; Writing a business letter; Do figures lie?
“Because Mr Maxwell’s volume is amusing, that fact does not prevent it from containing many neat little truths.”
+ — Boston Transcript p8 D 8 ‘17 420w
“Almost every page gives amusing and instructive anecdotes from the author’s experience, and the style is quite remarkable for a man who does not profess an overfondness for the literature the professors say we must read if we would write well. One can quite honestly tell any young beginner in business to study this book, even if he has to pawn his coat to get it.” Frank Fitt
+ Pub W 92:1385 O 20 ‘17 400w
“His book is full of suggestions, not in the shape of formal advice, of which a superabundance has already found its way into books designed for young and inexperienced business men, but in crisp, humorous paragraphs, the nub of which is likely to stick in the mind.”
+ R of Rs 57:221 F ‘18 160w
MAY, MAX BENJAMIN. Isaac Mayer Wise. il *$2 (2½c) Putnam 17-6906
The subject of this biography is called the founder of American Judaism. When he came to America in 1846 he found the Jews scattered and unorganized. Their religious life was “an intolerable imitation of that which existed in the old ghettos of Europe.” It seemed to him that if Judaism was to survive in America “it would be necessary not only to Americanize the Jew, but also his Judaism.” He made this his life work. His biography has been written by his grandson, Max B. May, judge of the Court of common pleas, Hamilton county, Ohio. The author has allowed Dr Wise to speak for himself as much as possible, quoting from his writings in The Occident, The Israelite, and other papers.
A L A Bkl 13:312 Ap ‘17
“What is significant, what really stands out in the whole biography, is how definitively the reform movement in Judaism is a social and political movement and how little it is a genuinely religious movement.”
+ Dial 62:251 Mr 22 ‘17 250w
“For American Hebrews, especially those who belong to the ‘Reformed’ school, the biography of this distinguished leader by his grandson will have intense interest. ... For the Gentile, on the other hand, there is less to attract him, so absorbed is the interest in things Jewish. Moreover, the din of arms and clash of conflict, the reiteration of the word attack, are so incessant that he might rise from its perusal with prejudice either created or intensified”
Lit D 54:917 Mr 31 ‘17 130w
“Judge May has refrained, purposely, from discussing Dr Wise as theologian and writer. Yet, there was need for such a work as Judge May has written. It portrays chiefly the personal side of Dr Wise, his descent and ascent; it depicts the heroic struggle of his career. It is not written in a cold, critical tone, but with warmth, con amore; and in the case of a man who was above all a great personality, this, no doubt, is the best means of approach and appreciation. ... The attractive form of the book, with four portraits of Dr Wise, will add to the pleasure of reading it.” H. G. Enelow
+ N Y Times 21:565 D 24 ‘16 1950w
Pratt p49 O ‘17 40w
MAYO, KATHERINE. Justice to all. il *$2.50 (2½ c) Putnam 353.9 17-6231
The author has written an account of the Pennsylvania State police. This force is organized to promote state-wide order, to give sparsely settled country districts the same police 379protection as that provided in large cities. The author cites many instances of services of this kind, but by far the larger portion of her book is given to the activities of the State police in mining communities in time of labor disturbances. Her many quotations show that from its beginning the organization has had the support of the press and the opposition of organized labor. Theodore Roosevelt writes an introduction to the book.
+ A L A Bkl 13:291 Ap ‘17
Ath p465 S ‘17 800w
+ Boston Transcript p8 Ja 27 ‘17 950w
+ Ind 90:555 Je 23 ‘17 120w
“At present Pennsylvania alone has a State police (in her case the word constabulary is a misnomer); the story of its work, which has carried admiration wherever known, is here told with accuracy, detail, and color.”
+ Nation 104:187 F 15 ‘17 1350w
“Not once in the book is the workers’ side of the case brought to light. Not once is the legal right of self-defence upheld. Not once is the inalienable right to protect one’s home recognized.” F: P. Burdick
N Y Call p1 F 4 ‘17 2500w
“Her account is so humanly interesting because she has written—and written well and eloquently—out of full knowledge.”
+ N Y Times 22:30 Ja 28 ‘17 700w
“A narrative recording the exploits of disciplined efficiency is always fascinating. This one is particularly so; some of the chapters of the book are hero-stories and some are first-rate detective stories. The book is aimed at the general reader: it is interesting enough to be read purely for pleasure; and it should exert a considerable influence.”
+ No Am 205:472 Mr ‘17 400w
Pittsburgh 22:215 Mr ‘17 70w
“Numerous vivid accounts of engagements between the police and criminals are given. ... Other descriptions pertain to the chasing and capture of murderers, the breaking up of the vicious black-hand gangs which terrorized the mining sections, the ridding of the countryside from Sunday ‘keg parties’ that generally wound up in crime, the disruption of the anarchistic ‘I. W. W.s’ when that sect attempted to put out of existence the United mine workers’ union.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ap 9 ‘17 600w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p400 Ag 23 ‘17 1000w
MEAD, DANIEL WEBSTER. Contracts, specifications and engineering relations. il *$3 McGraw 620.03 16-20301
“A complete outline of professional conduct in engineering relations from hunting a ‘job’ to drawing a contract is set forth in this work for the benefit of the college student. The book, however, has a much wider application than educating the engineering student, since it would seem that others besides undergraduates could pursue further the study of engineering contract preparation with benefit to themselves and their clients. ... The work is a good summary of technical literature on this subject to date, and contains an extensive bibliography, including many references to articles in current engineering journals.”—Engin News-Rec
“Comprehensive text-book.”
+ Cleveland p110 S ‘17 20w
“So far as the subject of contract writing is concerned, the book is to be preferred to any work published in recent years.”
+ Engin News-Rec 78:364 My 17 ‘17 330w
Pittsburgh 22:459 My ‘17 30w (Reprinted from Electric Railway Journal p674 Ap 7 ‘17)
+ Pittsburgh 22:521 Je ‘17 40w
MEADE, ALWYNE. Modern gasworks practice; with an introductory note by Stanley H. Jones. il *$7.50 Van Nostrand 665.7 17-21116
The author states that since no general work of reference covering modern gasworks practice exists, he has attempted to remedy the deficiency. He says, “It must be realized at the outset that so far as the principles and practice of modern gas-making are concerned no single individual can lay claim to omniscience. ... No pains have, however, been spared to develop the book essentially on the ideas of the practical man, whilst every precaution has been taken to avoid inaccuracies. ... Nearly every chapter has been submitted for suggestions to an expert in the particular branch with which it deals.” Among the subjects covered are: The planning and laying out of gasworks; Foundations, gasworks’ buildings, etc.; The horizontal retort bench; The control of horizontal retort settings; Vertical retorts and chamber ovens; Refractory materials; The mechanical handling of materials; Electrical plant in gas works; Gas-making and other coals. The author is lecturer in gas engineering and allied subjects to the London county council.
MEANY, EDMOND STEPHEN, ed. Mount Rainier, a record of exploration. il *$2.50 (2½c) Macmillan 917.97 16-23519
A collection of historical and scientific papers bearing on Mount Rainier, or, as some of the authors prefer, Mount Tacoma. Edmond S. Meany, the editor, is professor of history in the University of Washington and president of the Mountaineers. The first paper is a reprint of Captain George Vancouver’s account of his discovery of the mountain in 1792. Other papers of historical interest are: First approach to the mountain, 1833, by William Fraser Tolmie; First recorded trip through Naches pass, 1841, by Lieut. Robert E. Johnson; Tacoma and the Indian legend of Hamitchou, by Theodore Winthrop; First attempted ascent, 1857, by Lieut. A. V. Kautz; First successful ascent, 1870, by General Hazard Stevens. Later papers deal with the rocks, glaciers, flora, etc.
A L A Bkl 14:22 O ‘17
“With admirable judgment all these reports and records of exploration and scientific study have been arranged chronologically. ... These collected papers, though written strictly from a scientific point of view, include much of popular interest. Especially attractive are the stories of the various successful ascents of the mountains.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 My 12 ‘17 230w
+ Dial 62:447 My 17 ‘17 170w
+ Lit D 54:1710 Je 2 ‘17 200w
Nation 105:18 Jl 5 ‘17 300w
“When it is remembered that Mount Rainier national park is visited annually by increasing thousands of tourists, the far-reaching interest in such a book as this will be readily appreciated.”
+ N Y Times 22:196 My 20 ‘17 400w
“Especially replete with information concerning the origin of place names in the Mount Rainier region.”
+ R of Rs 56:108 Jl ‘17 80w
“A volume of great interest and value to every lover of adventure, or student of history. At the end of the book is a complete and very valuable list of the flora of Mt Rainier.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 My 29 ‘17 280w
MEARS, MADGE. Candid courtship. *$1.40 (1½c) Lane 17-23340
“Joan Allison and Colin, her brother, who is a doctor, live in a boarding house. Another occupant, Stewart Austen, falls in love with Joan, and is refused when he proposes to marry her, on the ground of a bit of philandering he has committed in his youth, about which he tells her frankly. Colin, meanwhile, has succumbed to the friendliness of Val Carruthers, a tawdry, kindly light of love, married to a veterinary, who has been one of his patients. They decide to leave England together and, just as they are off, Colin leaves a note to this effect for his sister. Joan turns to Austen for help, they discover the couple’s destination, pursue them in a hired motor car, get lost in a fog and, after having been obliged to spend the night together in the car, they arrive early in the morning at a hotel—a most compromised pair. ... Austen offers 380to take all the blame for the episode, but Joan, whose viewpoint on the question has been reversed, refuses to do this and ends by proposing to him and being accepted.”—N Y Times
Ath p415 Ag ‘17 80w
“This is a very amusing little story and Miss Mears handles it for all the fun there is to be had. Her conversation is decidedly clever, her situations are funny, and her sense of comedy so good that she can make the most of her opportunities. Apparently she is well up on the thoughts and ideas of modern England—feminine England in particular—and the satire is as bright as it is good-natured.”
+ N Y Times 22:333 S 9 ‘17 500w
“The characters of both Colin and Austen, in different ways, lack the vigour and the knowledge which would have given balance to this careful study of young womanhood; they are figures not in a world of men but in a world of women.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p334 Jl 12 ‘17 770w
“Mechanical World” pocket diary and year book for 1917. il 40c Norman, Remington co. 621.08
“In this, the thirtieth annual issue, several new features have been introduced. In particular, attention is directed to the section on Steam and the steam engine, which has been very largely re-written. ... New tables have been introduced giving dimensions of piston rings, governors, etc. ... A new section on The heat treatment of steel has been introduced. ... Many new illustrations have been introduced, while the book generally has been subjected to a thorough revision.” (Preface)
Pittsburgh 22:342 Ap ‘17 50w
Power 45:333 Mr 6 ‘17 80w
MEEK, ALEXANDER. Migrations of fish. il *$4.50 Longmans 597 F17-152
“Mr Meek has written a scholarly and exhaustive work on the migration of fish. As the director of the well-known Dove marine laboratory at Cullercoats, he has a first-hand acquaintance with the subject.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “An introduction treats of tides, tidal and ocean currents, geological changes, nomenclature, and the literature of the general subject. Then follow thirty-two chapters dealing with various groups of fishes, from lampreys and sharks to toad-fish and anglers. Finally, we have twenty pages of general considerations and conclusions.” (Nation)
+ A L A Bkl 13:298 Ap ‘17
“Handling in masterly fashion a subject of intense scientific interest and of vital commercial importance, Alexander Meek has spared no effort to elucidate every phase of the matter and to make the most of our present knowledge. His arrangement is clear and concise.”
+ Nation 104:246 Mr 1 ‘17 410w
“Notwithstanding what we have criticised as faults of commission or omission in this substantial work, it is one which no one interested in fishery science or desirous of an up-to-date grasp of some of the phenomena underlying practical fishery questions can afford to overlook.”
+ Nature 99:81 Mr 29 ‘17 900w
“The director of the Cullercoats marine laboratory has put together in this solid and valuable book all that is known as to the migrations and distribution of fish, taken class by class.”
+ Spec 118:276 Mr 3 ‘17 100w
“A mine of information and will be of the greatest use to all who are engaged in researches into the marine food supply of the nation. It is well illustrated, well written, and, whilst doing justice to other workers, shows a competent degree of criticism. It also has what all good books should have—a thoroughly good index.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p570 N 30 ‘16 540w
MEEKER, JAMES EDWARD. Life and poetry of James Thomson (B. V.). il *$1.75 Yale univ. press 17-7035
“This little book will bring nothing new to students of Thomson’s work, but it may well prove a useful introduction for those not fortunate enough to have secured Salt’s biography of the poet. Mr Meeker disclaims any ambitious purpose; he has made a compendium, largely from the studies of Salt and Dobell, now become rare. He adopts a rigid chronological order in the discussion of the poems, which he uses as an interpretative commentary of the biography. He quotes generously from the poems, and has chosen characteristic extracts from the letters and the journal cited by Salt.”—Dial
“Mr Meeker’s book is clearly and entertainingly written; and he did well in his account of such a life as Thomson’s to adopt the method, as he tells us, of ‘using his poems and his prose chronologically as a key to his inner development.’”
+ Cath World 106:253 N ‘17 750w
Cleveland p120 N ‘17 110w
Dial 62:446 My 17 ‘17 250w
“Has the considerable merit of brevity and is written in a style perfectly clear though quite lacking in distinction. It brings out no new facts of the poet’s life, and, so far as mere biography goes, will not replace the works already published. Nor can it be said that the critical parts of Mr Meeker’s commentary rise much above the common-place.”
+ — Nation 104:373 Mr 29 ‘17 200w
“Despite the crudities of the book, the central figure stands out strongly, a figure strangely kin to our own Poe, and England’s dead youth, Chatterton; and as such it is worth while.”
+ — N Y Call p14 Ap 29 ‘17 140w
Pratt p49 O ‘17
“Of value for its appeal to general interest.”
+ Springf’d Republican p10 Ap 5 ‘17 200w
MEIGS, WILLIAM MONTGOMERY. Life of John Caldwell Calhoun. 2v il *$10 (3½c) Neale 17-24427
John C. Calhoun was born in 1782. He entered public life at an early age, coming into prominence in 1807 at the time of the “Leopard” and “Chesapeake” affair. He was a member of Congress during the War of 1812, and a strong advocate of relentless prosecution of the war. He became a dominant figure in the storm and stress period that followed, standing out staunchly against abolition and for states rights. His life all but spans the period between the Revolution and the Civil war, and any account of it must be a contribution to national history as well as to biography. The author has based his work on original sources, having access to many new letters and papers. Volume 2 contains the index.
“May be accepted as the long-desired complete and impartial life of the great nullifier.”
+ Am Pol Sci R 12:139 F ‘18 650w
+ Boston Transcript p8 N 10 ‘17 800w
“The powerful yet pathetic personality of Calhoun has never been so adequately portrayed as in the present biography. It is not only a history of the man, but one of his times.”
+ Outlook 117:476 N 21 ‘17 60w
“Mr Meigs is a Pennsylvanian, born since Calhoun’s death and free from the prejudices of the long period during which controversies in which the South Carolinian was identified divided public opinion in this country. His work as a biographer has been scholarly and thorough to a degree, and as a record of the public career of the South’s greatest statesman, this volume leaves little to be desired.”
+ R of Rs 57:100 Ja ‘18 120w
MEIKLE, WILMA. Towards a sane feminism. *$1.25 (4c) McBride 396 (Eng ed 17-21128)
Miss Meikle’s argument is “that a dependent class must become economically influential before it can hope for political power” (Dial), therefore women should enter commerce and 381business on a large scale. Feminist leaders, and militant suffragists in particular, come in for much criticism, yet the author believes that “without the nomadic life of the suffragists a mentally healthy womanhood could hardly have been evolved from the mentally anæmic ‘lady’ of the last generation.” Political enfranchisement, however, is far less important than “the reformation of the domestic relations of women, of their relation to their husbands, and their relation to their children and their work.” Political freedom will follow upon economic freedom. “Economic independence is vitally necessary for women in order that the full beauty of home life may be secured.” Other factors that will help to secure this are early marriages, less rigid marriage laws, and state aid in bringing up children. The fundamental, ultimate problem is the problem of sex. It must be solved “by attempting to balance the fiercest claims of the body with the mind’s ultimately stronger hunger for romance.”
“Written for England but applicable in many of its ideas to women anywhere. Thought provoking and to many, irritation-provoking.”
A L A Bkl 14:7 O ‘17
“There is a frankness throughout the book which leaves no unpleasant taste in the mouth even after the chapter in which sex is discussed.”
+ Ath p37 Ja ‘17 70w
“The author does not preach suffrage especially. Her attitude seems to be rather that of Lincoln toward abolition. If she can save women without getting a single vote she will do it. But she thinks that the vote will help her to gain her objects.” I. W. L.
Boston Transcript p7 Jl 18 ‘17 530w
“Miss Meikle’s sharp and witty criticism is directed neither against men nor against the unawakened woman, but against feminist leaders and types and trends themselves. ... The family’s sacredness is undermined by her idea that ‘motherhood is one of the most casual of all relations.’ ... Her book is immensely capable and provocative. It is so novel in its scathing wit and its high good humor of irreverence that I can imagine it taken with some resentment by the more studious American feminists. Fortunately the discussion is of England, and there is admiring comment on women’s social and public achievements in the United States.” Randolph Bourne
+ Dial 63:103 Ag 16 ‘17 450w
“The criticisms of the Pankhurst psychology, and the snobbish, pretentious fraud of the higher education for women at the older universities, are admirable and much to the point. The style is clear and terse, with a graphic pictorial quality, but Wilma Meikle should beware of facile antitheses and off-hand dogmatism. She often sacrifices accuracy to effect.” F. W. S. Browne
+ — Int J Ethics 27:406 Ap ‘17 150w
“One wonders much where Miss Meikle obtained all of her remarkable assortment of misinformation about affairs in the United States.”
+ — N Y Times 22:348 S 16 ‘17 180w
Pratt p17 O ‘17 20w
“Her plea for restricting the size of the family is distinctly unpatriotic in such times as these, and her sneers at religion and good breeding in a chapter on ‘The Break-up of the lady’ are in the worst possible taste.”
— Spec 117:sup686 D 2 ‘16 80w
MELISH, JOHN HOWARD. Franklin Spencer Spalding, man and bishop. il *$2.25 (2c) Macmillan 17-14393
Franklin Spencer Spalding, Bishop of Utah, died in 1914. This story of his life is written by the rector of Holy Trinity church, Brooklyn. The biography begins with an account of Frank Spalding’s boyhood. He was eight years old when his father was appointed missionary bishop of Colorado, and his early years were thus spent in surroundings similar to those which were to be the scenes of his manhood labors. Subsequent chapters are: Frank Spalding, Princeton ‘87; The choice of a profession; Theological student; Jarvis Hall days; The parish house; Spiritual growth; His approach to the social problem; Called to be a bishop; The church in Utah; Salt Lake City; Mormonism; Begging east and west; The church in the mining camp; The church and socialism; Man among men; Manoach.
+ Cleveland p115 S ‘17 60w
“In Mr Melish’s well told story of this earnest life we get no sectarianism and much discussion of the practical problems now before the church and before society, and much shrewd advice to the missionary.”
+ Ind 91:77 Jl 14 ‘17 70w
“A helpful book for college men considering the question of a life calling, for ministers affected with excessive prudence and laymen who do not appreciate the work of a true minister. Socialists will find the chapter on the church and socialism almost as illuminating, perhaps, as the average churchman.” L: A. Walker
+ N Y Call p14 Ag 12 ‘17 400w
+ Pittsburgh 22:744 N ‘17 40w
R of Rs 56:439 O ‘17 40w
“The story of his life and work which Mr Melish has put together will help to preserve his memory and will prove inspiring to all who labor in hard places. It is also worthy of consideration as an answer to the overworked argument that the Episcopal church, cares little for social righteousness and those who labor with their hands.”