Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1917 Books (continued 32)
Reading edition
Boston Transcript p6 Mr 17 ‘17 800w
Cleveland p58 Ap ‘17 70w
“His book, which has had the good fortune of finding a translator whose version reads like an English original, is indispensable to all who would form a concrete idea of the present working of the German mind, and it is a mine of information for everyone who wishes to gain an insight into the intricate problems of German economics and politics at the hand of a guide who has them at his fingers’ ends, and who is imbued with a living knowledge of German history.” Vindex
+ Dial 62:390 My 3 ‘17 2000w
“It should be read by all who want to see for themselves, rather than thru enemy glasses, just what Germany is striving for.”
+ Ind 90:592 Je 30 ‘17 1600w
“All the oratory and the enthusiasm that have marked his rise to his present position as one of the most-read political authors of Germany today have been brought by Herr Naumann to his present task.”
J Pol Econ 25:213 F ‘17 300w
“As a ‘formulation of current German thought’ the volume deserves the closest reading. And that reading will, by the way, illumine one of the Allies’ exprest conditions of peace—the partition of the Dual empire.”
+ Lit D 54:1430 My 12 ‘17 260w
“His book is really a long pamphlet summoning the people of middle Europe to union. It is argumentative, amiable, painfully tactful, shrewd, sentimental. It is skilful journalism, wheedling, exhorting, threatening, appealing to pride, to vanity, to historical tradition, to economic interest, to fear, to ambition. ... Naumann’s real effort is to establish the idea, rather than to solve the problem. ... The lesson for those of us who are, I think, justly suspicious of the mid-European project is fairly evident. Its most powerful support is external pressure. The more Central Europe is isolated and boycotted the easier will it be to create Mid-Europe.” W. L.
New Repub 9:357 Ja 27 ‘17 2650w
N Y Br Lib News 4:15 Ja ‘17
N Y Times 22:80 Mr 4 ‘17 450w
“It must be remembered that the economic questions inherent in the doctrine of ‘Central Europe’ come up automatically for some sort of settlement at the end of this year. Then the commercial treaties, not only between Germany and Austria-Hungary, but between Austria and Hungary, will lapse, and if there should merely be a continuance of the present arrangements so long as the war lasts there will nevertheless be indications of what the new economic policy is to be. ... It is not astonishing that Herr Naumann’s book should have made a deeper impression on Germany than any book of recent times. The author writes for everybody; he has enough learning and distinction to satisfy the well-educated and enough clearness and breeziness to attract the common mind. As an old Social Democrat, he understands how to make the most cunning kind of democratic appeal when he is in fact exalting Kaiserism.”
Spec 118:701 Je 23 ‘17 1250w
“The most famous book to which the war has given birth.”
Springf’d Republican p8 Mr 14 ‘17 1650w
Reviewed by Bruno Lasker
Survey 38:359 Jl 21 ‘17 1100w
“Naumann says that he conceived the plan of his book in April, 1915. Fortune favored him in the great eastern offensive that followed; and his book had its great vogue in the full flood of success against Russia which encouraged Berlin to lose no time in opening fiscal negotiations with Austria and Hungary, and even attempting to ‘solve’ the problem of Poland. The English reader who now sees the book for the first time should bear the conditions of its production in mind.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p375 Ag 10 ‘16 850w
Reviewed by W. C. Abbott
Yale R n s 6:892 Jl ‘17 120w
NEILL, ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND. Dominie dismissed. *$1.25 (3c) McBride 828 E17-785
A sequel to “A dominie’s log.” The school master whose original experiments in education were described in that book is dismissed from his position and a representative of the old type of teacher is put in his place. The dismissed dominie goes to work on a near-by farm and watches his successor break down all that he has built up. A small group of the children, however, cling to him, and there are many delightful out-of-school conversations recorded. The educational questions discussed are pertinent to the times. The author warns against the danger of over-emphasis on technical education after the war, and, in a conversation with an American visitor, comments on some of our educational experiments.
“We may justly complain of the careless statements, the false premises, the disputable facts which mar the argument. These help to make Mr Neill’s views on education and sociology unconvincing. All the same, the reader can count on an extremely agreeable picture of school life in a Scottish village, uncompromising in its attitude, but absolutely without malice; and a handbook on socialism into the bargain.” J. F. S.
Boston Transcript p6 My 29 ‘17 500w
+ Dial 63:408 O 25 ‘17 190w
“However we may dissent from many of the author’s opinions, he has written a most original and suggestive volume, filled with sayings racy and to the point: a humorous story as well as one packed with theories which make the reader ‘sit up.’”
N Y Times 22:250 Jl 1 ‘17 570w
NEILSON, WILLIAM ALLAN. Robert Burns: how to know him. il *$1.50 Bobbs 17-13543
Chapters on: Biography; Inheritance: language and literature; Burns and Scottish song; Satires and epistles; Descriptive and narrative poetry, make up this study of Burns. The author wisely recognizes that the best way to know Burns is to read him and quotes over one hundred of the poems. The author is professor of English at Harvard university.
+ A L A Bkl 14:50 N ‘17
“He gives us an interesting and truthful sketch of the poet’s life.”
+ Cath World 105:841 S ‘17 380w
+ Cleveland p126 N ‘17 70w
“William Allan Neilson has a trifle too much subtlety and coolness in his method to ‘do’ Burns, the romantic poet, drinker, and lover, with any great amount of enthusiasm; it is Burns the Scotchman whom he really warms to.”
+ — Dial 63:410 O 25 ‘17 110w
“William Allan Neilson, to judge just from his ‘Burns, how to know him,’ is, first of all, a man of breadth, and only secondly a digger in booklore. Humor of word, as well as humor in a critical sense and understanding of the poet’s and the man’s heart, pervades these well-printed pages. A first class practical idea is that of the glossary. Properly limited to just the really troublesome Scottish dialect 409words it runs along the margins, instead of being tucked away off somewhere in the back of the book.”
+ Ind 92:61 O 6 ‘17 510w
“Will delight every lover of poetry.”
+ Lit D 55:44 D 1 ‘17 210w
“It is certainly saying nothing against the book to say that the firm impression it makes is mainly produced by the poems, well chosen and well arranged and, with the marginal glossary, easily read. Their effect, however, is reinforced by a skilful, compact biography, a clear, thoroughly informed chapter on Burns’s language and his literary antecedents, a running commentary on the selections, and a critical summary.”
+ Nation 105:44 Jl 12 ‘17 400w
“An excellent introduction to Burns, giving a very sympathetic yet just view, both of the biographical and analytical sections.”
+ Wis Lib Bul 13:219 Jl ‘17 30w
“There is one perfectly obvious duty, a duty which cannot be too carefully performed, which Mr Neilson—like almost all his predecessors in the editing of Burns—has scanted. We refer to the elucidation of Burns’s dialect. Mr Neilson follows the method of the centenary edition of the poet. He gives fairly numerous glosses in the margin. He does this rather more freely than the centenary editors, and occasionally his gloss is more correct than theirs. Nevertheless he leaves a good deal undone which might easily have been done. The selections from Burns are very judiciously made, and give an exceptionally adequate idea of the poet’s quality and value.” H: B. Hinckley
+ — Yale R n s 7:220 O ‘17 650w
NEKRASOV, NIKOLAI ALEXEIEVICH. Who can be happy and free in Russia? tr. by Juliet M. Soskice; with an introd. by Dr D: Soskice. (World’s classics) *45c Oxford 891.7 17-23320
Nicholas Nekrassov was born in 1821 and died in 1877. In Russia he is called “the poet of the people’s sorrow” and in the introduction to this first English translation of his greatest work he is pronounced “the sole and rightful heir of his two great predecessors, Pushkin and Lermontov.” The prolog to the poem describes the meeting on the road of seven peasants who dispute over the question that forms the title, Who can be happy and free in Russia? One says only the priest, one says the landowner, another thinks the tsar’s chief adviser may be the happy man, while another declares that only the tsar himself has the right to freedom and happiness. To find the answer to their own question they wander about the country, and in the tale of their adventures we are given a picture of the tragedy and comedy, the sorrows and joys of Russian life.
“It will be very acceptable to English readers as the magnum opus of one of the foremost Russians of his time, ‘the poet of the people’s sorrow.’ The Oxford press deserves thanks for making such a work accessible at a price within the reach of every one.”
+ Ath p253 My ‘17 80w
“It is a veritable peasant Odyssey. ... In spite of the fact that the English version of the poem does not preserve the peculiar musical and stylistic quality of the original, the translator has made every lover of good literature her debtor.” Abraham Yarmolinsky
+ — Bookm 46:485 D ‘17 170w
“No one is likely to forget Nekrassov who reads Juliet M. Soskice’s translation, the first into English, of ‘Who can be happy and free in Russia?’ ... No extracts can give more than a hazy notion of the freshness and abundance of Nekrassov’s pictures of Russian life. The poor verse of the translation cannot spoil them.” P. L.
+ New Repub 11:163 Je 9 ‘17 1350w
“It differs sharply from all other national epics. ... It might be the joint product of the Russian parallels of Burns, Villon, Synge; it is native, kin to the earth, endemic. It is full of simple vices and virtues, problems and passions; and this very simplicity makes it universal and of eternal importance.”
+ N Y Call p15 Jl 15 ‘17 520w
“Mrs Soskice’s metrical version, mostly in an easy unrhymed measure, is fluent and readable. Dr Soskice prefixes a short Life of the poet—a picturesque and attractive figure.”
+ Spec 118:594 My 26 ‘17 60w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p180 Ap 12 ‘17 40w
“Nekrassov may now be claimed as chief and most beloved of Russian poets; popular and national, devotedly singing the sorrows and social wrongs of the humble multitude with such vigour and fire that his influence upon the youth of the last generation and of this is unbounded, and singing with such simplicity of concealed art that the poorest of schoolchildren learn page after page of him by heart.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p222 My 10 ‘17 2000w
“Full of vivid pictures of peasant life in village and country, this long poem, if taken in small doses, not more than a chapter at a time, is bound to produce a powerful impression.”
+ Yale R n s 7:188 O ‘17 70w
NEVINS, JOSEPH ALLAN. Illinois. (American college and university ser.) il *$2 (2c) Oxford 378 17-13973
“This is the first history of the University of Illinois, and the first volume on a state institution in Professor Krapp’s American college and university series.” (Nation) The author tells us in his preface that it has “seemed necessary to throw a much greater emphasis upon the record of the past than upon the tendencies or characteristics of the present, and that even in the four final chapters, nominally not historical at all, will be found much historical matter.” There are eight appendices.
“This book has a special significance only for those interested in the educational development of a middle western state. It contains more information than the other volumes in the series but lacks to a large degree the literary charm of most of its predecessors.”
+ — Boston Transcript p7 Je 9 ‘17 110w
“The book, pleasingly written, has also the more substantial merits of careful historical detail and a comprehensive grasp of its subject. It is a needed and useful contribution to our educational history.”
+ — Dial 63:530 N 22 ‘17 510w
“Portraying his alma mater with the insight of a son and the dispassionateness of a stranger, Mr Nevins has made a book, which, while of peculiar interest, no doubt, to Illinoisians, holds its subject steadily at the level of all who are concerned with higher public education. ... He seizes upon the development of the institution in relation to the state as the unique and commanding aspect of his subject, and he collects and arranges his material to illustrate it.”
+ Nation 105:226 Ag 30 ‘17 1200w
NEVINSON, CHRISTOPHER RICHARD WYNNE.[2] Modern war; paintings by C. R. W. Nevinson; with an essay by P. G: Konody. *$3.50 McBride 940.91 17-8608
Mr Nevinson interprets the war thru the medium of one of the newer forms of art. He has found it “impossible to express the scenic and mechanical spirit of this twentieth century war with the languishing or obsolete symbolism of mediaeval or classic art.” “As you look at these paintings of Nevinson’s you reach a very obvious conclusion about modern war, namely that the individual soldier does not exist. All the actors on the scene, the soldiers serving the machine guns, or marching on in endless columns, the wounded writhing in pain, are not men but mannikins, gaunt conventionalized creatures, veritable slaves to routine and machines. ... The subject, for 410instance, of the painting of the field hospital ‘La patrie’ is not so much wounded soldiers as it is gestures of agony.” (Masses)
“The only way to reflect this war truthfully in all its baleful manifestations, is to intellectualize it, to sublimate it, as it were, to transform its macabre into organized graphic representation. It is only through symbols that man can play with infinitudes. Just because he has attacked the problem in this way, C. R. W. Nevinson has been one of the first to react creatively to the reality of modern war.” Carl Zigrosser
+ + Masses 9:32 S ‘17 820w
“Mr Nevinson is a cubist, though, as we understand from the essay introducing him, a cubist who wears his cubes with a difference. For ourselves, we should not care if he were ten times more the child of the T-square than he is so long as he can produce pictures like those we are criticizing.”
+ Spec 118:367 Mr 24 ‘17 1050w
“His pictures are pictures not because they represent what he has seen, but because they give us ocular experience of his emotions.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p63 F 8 ‘17 900w
New manual of bayonet training and practical bayonet fighting. il *75c National military pub. co. 355
The publishers state that this little book is compiled from the regulations in force in the new armies of the Entente Allies, adopted at Plattsburg and other American camps. The first part “Bayonet training, 1916 (Provisional) gives reasons for and practical lessons in bayonet fighting.” The second part “Practical bayonet fighting” “does not purpose to be of assistance in training men for competition fighting, although it may be of some use for individual instruction, but it is hoped that it will be of service to officers and N. C. O.’s when training a squad or a company.” (Foreword)
A L A Bkl 14:113 Ja ‘18
N Y Times 22:379 O 7 ‘17 70w
NEW REPUBLIC. New Republic book; selections from the first hundred issues. $1.50 Republic pub. co., 421 W. 21st st., N.Y. 320.4 17-4463
“Sixty-seven of the best articles which have appeared in the New Republic for the last two years are brought together in this convenient and attractive volume. According to the preface, ‘it is a collaboration and makes no attempt at complete unanimity or logical consistency. It aims to give in compact and available form a sample of the liberal opinion in the United States as expressed from 1914 to 1916 at the suggestion of events.’”—Am Pol Sci R
“Bound in boards; will not last.”
A L A Bkl 13:333 My ‘17
“As an aid in developing a responsible, well-informed public opinion ‘The New Republic book’ should render considerable service.”
+ Am Pol Sci R 11:364 My ‘17 150w
Masses 9:28 Ap ‘16 1600w
“‘The New Republic book’ shows physically, a tendency to go to pieces under close examination. ... ‘Spiritually’ it exhibits as much coherence as could fairly be expected in a numerous group of men and women animated by a desire to destroy ‘the old crusted folkways’ and to break up ‘the cake of intellectual custom.’ ... Their jaunty attitude towards the past—it is never au revoir but always adios—produces an exhilarating impression of timeliness. One with less spacious faith in the promise of the future might say—the timeliness of sailors who, to profit by a spanking breeze, throw the cargo overboard.”
— Nation 104:410 Ap 5 ‘17 400w
“The solid political articles based on broadly democratic principles, and expressing a true aspiration after social progress and international security, have given a leading to many minds and became of much value in the recent political campaign. In the literary articles the paper has been less satisfactory.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p6 F 6 ‘17 250w
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY. COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED. Newark anniversary poems; winners in the poetry competition. $1.25 Gomme 811.08 17-23312
This volume is published under the auspices of the Committee of one hundred on the 250th anniversary celebration of the founding of the city of Newark, New Jersey, May to October, 1916. It includes introductory chapters on Newark, on “Early Puritan poetry,” on “Civic celebrations as a community force,” and “A plan for a national anthology of American poetry,” by Henry Wellington Wack, editor of the Newarker; the official “Celebration ode,” by Lyman Whitney Allen; the poetry of the Newark pageant and masque, by Thomas Wood Stevens; the thirteen Newark prize poems; and “Other Newark anniversary poems, grave and gay,” which appeared in the Newarker, the Committee’s official journal, published from November, 1915 to November, 1916, as a record of anniversary events. Appendices give biographies of prize winners, names of the Committee of one hundred, etc.
“The poetry included in this anthology of Newark is much above the average level of anniversary verse and forms a worthy tribute to the great city. Our chief criticism is that so many of the bards celebrant found it necessary to apologize for their task.”
+ Ind 92:68 O 6 ‘17 350w
“Competitions in the arts are noteworthy for the fact that little good work is produced by them. This rule was not broken in the Newark contest. Nine hundred entries were submitted, and of all those published in the collection at hand only one touches greatness. By a coincidence not often met with in competitions, this great poem was awarded first prize. We refer to Clement Woods’ ringing glorification, indictment and prophecy!” D: P. Berenberg
– + N Y Call p15 O 28 ‘17 460w
NEWBERRY, PERRY. Castaway Island. il *$1.75 (2c) Penn 17-23974
The Galapagos islands, cut by the equator, lie out from the coast of Equador. They have never had a native population, and altho the Panama canal has increased their value, they are still sparsely settled. The island on which Bob Trevlin and Jeffers Stimson are wrecked is quite uninhabited. Bob Trevlin is a young San Francisco boy who is about to take passage for home when he meets Stimson, a soldier of fortune. The two plan to travel together, but a tropical storm drives them out to sea. The island on which they are landed has no human inhabitants, but they find on it a strange collection of wild domestic animals, the descendants, they suppose, of the animals left by earlier colonists. Chickens, dogs, cows and horses are among these, and their re-domestication is one of the occupations of the two castaways. Their adventures on the island cover about six months and include very real perils.
“Brimful of exciting adventure.”
+ Outlook 117:510 N 28 ‘17 40w
“It is a story full of interest. Attractive illustrations by F. A. Anderson, some of them in color, add much to the book.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 D 21 ‘17 120w
NEWBOLT, SIR HENRY JOHN. Book of the happy warrior. il *$1.75 (2c) Longmans 18-300
The author has retold some of the old heroic tales for boys, with two final chapters linking the past with the present. Contents: The song of Roland; Richard Cœur de Lion; St Louis, king of France; Robin Hood; Bertrand du Guesclin and the Black prince; News from Poitiers, 1356; France v. Gentlemen of England; The Chevalier Bayard; The old English school; 411Chivalry of to-day. The illustrations by Henry J. Ford include a frontispiece and several colored plates.
“A book of scholarship and charm by a lover of the classics of chivalry.”
+ Ath sup p688 D ‘17 220w
+ Ath sup p694 D ‘17 60w
“Good reading, particularly in these days, a book from which older as well as younger readers may get a thrill, is ‘The book of the happy warrior.’”
+ N Y Times 22:466 N 11 ‘17 460w
“He has a fine sense of the chivalries of the past as well as the present. He spares no pains with his excellent prose; he shuns alike the modern preciosity which spoils the old stories and the slipshod sentimentality which distorts virtue, a word which in older days meant the essential qualities of manhood. The title of the book in itself is a specimen of his felicitous taste.”
+ Sat R 124:sup6 D 8 ‘17 540w
“Sir Henry Newbolt has written another excellent book for boys—and for their sisters too.”
+ Spec 119:sup473 N 3 ‘17 360w
“The stories are told in clear, simple language and as far as possible in that of the original chroniclers.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p609 D 13 ‘17 460w
NEWCOMER, ALPHONSO GERALD, and others, eds. Three centuries of American poetry and prose. *$1.75 Scott 810.8 17-24531
A book of selections intended to meet the same need as that filled by “Twelve centuries of English poetry and prose.” In their selection of poetry the aim of the editors has been “to place between the covers of a single volume the greater part of what will remain permanent in American poetry from its beginnings down to the end of the first great production period in American literature.” With regard to prose, so comprehensive an aim was out of the question, but the editors say, “Whenever possible we have used wholes; when this was not possible we have made selections that would show the author’s purpose in the whole, and have above all tried to avoid the scrappiness and ineffectiveness of mere fragments.” Historically American literature is divided into two periods: the Colonial period and the National period, the latter closing about 1890. Chronological table, Index to notes and glossary, and Index to authors, titles and first lines are provided at the close.
Outlook 117:387 N 7 ‘17 40w
NEWMAN, HORATIO HACKETT. Biology of twins (mammals). (Univ. of Chicago science ser.) il *$1.25 Univ. of Chicago press 575 17-11116
“Dr Newman has made a serious study of the problem of twins among mammals—especially armadillos, which have a way of producing multiple offspring as a regular thing. He has also gathered up the results of other people’s studies and has presented them in a very interesting way. ... Newman’s studies introduce several new factors into the speculations and interpretations of the problems. ... The bulk of the book is devoted to the armadillos, first because the author has made an extensive study of this group of animals, and second because these studies furnish the largest mass of direct evidence on the problems.”—Ind
“Brief, concise résumé of present knowledge.”
+ Cleveland p79 Je ‘17 6w
“The book is necessarily technical in parts, but the portions of concern to the general reader only can be read by a judicious skipper with great interest.”
+ Ind 92:69 O 6 ‘17 400w
“The essential points obtained by investigators to date have been placed in a single small volume where, appearing in a not too technical dress, they are readily and conveniently available, not to zoologists alone, but to the thinking public in general.” H. H. W.
+ Science n s 46:486 N 16 ‘17 1450w
+ Springf’d Republican p19 My 20 ‘17 190w
Newspaper press directory and advertisers’ guide; seventy-second annual issue, 1917. *2s Mitchell, London 072
“This directory contains particulars of every newspaper, magazine, review, and periodical published in the United Kingdom and the British Isles; the newspaper map of the United Kingdom; the press of the British dominions overseas, the Indian empire, the continent of Europe, America, and the Far East; and a directory of the class papers and periodicals. During the past twelve months 69 newspapers suspended publication in the British Isles, and 165 increased their price. In view of such changes as these, it will be evident that the seventy-second annual edition of Messrs Mitchell’s well-known and valuable work of reference must be particularly useful and important. The volume contains special articles dealing with the trend of the modern press, the legal year in its relation to the press, the commercial opportunities offered by the overseas dominions, and other topics.”—Ath
+ Ath p245 My ‘17 110w
“The old-established trade record is a guide to the world’s press that we have always found to be accurate.”
+ Spec 118:465 Ap 21 ‘17 110w
NEWTON, JOSEPH FORT. Ambassador; City Temple sermons. *$1 Revell 252 17-293
“Dr Newton’s call to the City Temple, London, from his pastorate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has called general attention to him as a preacher. This volume contains fifteen sermons, eleven of which were preached at the City Temple while he was visiting there, before his final call and acceptance. The remaining sermons were delivered in America. The dominant note in the sermons preached in England is Christian good-will. The subjects are concerned with the Christian life and doctrine in their general relations, emphasizing the fundamental problems of God and the relations of men to Christ.”—Bib World
“He does not make his sermons from the last book he has read, but great books often give him his suggestion and point of contact and the most telling illustrations of truth. He is a fine example of what noble literature, especially poetry, may do for the preacher. The sermons speak especially to cultivated minds, yet through their simplicity and naturalness and humanness they make the universal appeal. Here is their real power.” A. S. Hoyt
+ Am J Theol 21:475 Jl ‘17 900w
“Dr Newton has a message for the age. It is strongly put, but there are too many blemishes in its form.”
+ — Bib World 49:314 My ‘17 250w
“Though the sermons deal with different themes, they have a unity of spirit, as they have one passion and purpose, to make vivid the truth as it is in Jesus, deeper than all dogmas, larger than all creeds, equal to every emergency, whether in peace or war.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 Ja 24 ‘17 180w
+ Ind 90:381 My 26 ‘17 120w
N Y Br Lib News 4:108 Jl ‘17
“It is hard to discover in them just what appealed to the audience in that great center of English nonconformity. They are hardly original in conception and at times are very discursive, being chiefly distinguished by an ornate rhetoric which garnishes many platitudes.”
— Springf’d Republican p8 Ap 4 ‘17 90w
NEXÖ, MARTIN ANDERSEN. Pelle the conqueror: daybreak; tr. from the Danish by Jessie Muir. *$1.50 (2c) Holt 17-16731
For descriptive note see Annual for 1916.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 45:92 Mr ‘17 900w
412
+ Boston Transcript p8 F 14 ‘17 1250w
“There is a simplicity and a steady focusing of the main issues in ‘Pelle.’ There is also—and this is one of the most admirable qualities of the book—a right proportion between the personal and the social; the two strands are kept going back and forth and wrought firmly into a unified design. I except the last volume, and it is curious to see how the pressure of social fact squeezes out there much of the reality. In the last volume there is a suggestion of externality. ... Taken all in all, ‘Pelle’ is a fine achievement in democratic art, the most satisfying novel of the labor movement that I have read.” G: B. Donlin
+ Dial 62:309 Ap 5 ‘17 1650w
“To this final volume is appended a note about the author by Professor Jespersen of the University of Copenhagen. It seems that Nexö was very little known in Denmark when the first part of ‘Pelle the conqueror’ appeared, some ten years ago. He was a teacher in Copenhagen who had done a little travelling and a little writing—chiefly some short stories which a few people had recognized as exceptional. Copenhagen was the place of his birth (1869); its circumstances were of the humblest. ... Such a work of imagination as this, with its deep humor, its deep humanity, brings home to us, as nothing else can, the artificial nature of those boundaries which language and custom set between one race and another. It is a book for the world; one cannot lay it down without a sense of quickened emotion and enlarged vision.”
+ Nation 104:241 Mr 1 ‘17 1250w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Nation 104:404 Ap 5 ‘17 150w
“To Nexö there are no reticences; there is nothing clean or unclean. Brought up himself in the poorest quarters of Copenhagen, and working, like his own Pelle, as a shoemaker’s apprentice on the secluded island of Bornholm, he relives that elemental life through this book. There is in him something of the old Rabelaisian flavor, which we are now far too sophisticated to get pleasantly from that old literature. He brings to our sympathy that rich, earthy, immemorial strain of sex and hunger and primitive necessities, gives it a modern embodiment that is all charm and sincere feeling. ... Surely ‘Pelle’ is one of the great novels of the world.” Randolph Bourne
+ + New Repub 10:sup8 Ap 21 ‘17 1700w
“The book is international; it might have been written of Berlin, or Naples or London, or Calumet, as well as of Copenhagen. We can recall no American labor novel which begins to have its sweep and effectiveness; ‘The jungle,’ perhaps, comes closest, although it did not make the differentiation which this book (and the progress of industry) has made between the unskilled and the skilled laborer. It may be that we have the answer here at hand; the subject is being considered by all Socialists and labor leaders. Whether or not the future development of the strife follows the main outlines mapped out in this book, the story will have played its large part in the result.” Clement Wood
+ N Y Call p15 Ap 1 ‘17 670w
“Side by side with Pelle is the portrait of his wife Ellen, a portrait of charm, which has a certain intimate symbolism which Mr Andersen Nexö handles with grace; and around them are the children and the old librarian Brun who are conceived with something of that simplicity which we associate with another Andersen, and which is the more lovable for that.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p68 F 8 ‘17 800w
NICHOLSON, DANIEL HOWARD SINCLAIR, and LEE, A. H. E., eds. Oxford book of English mystical verse. *$2.50 Oxford 821.08 17-17649
“From Richard Rolle of Hampole to Mr Harold E. Goad some 150 poets are represented, the most prominent being Herbert, Crashaw, Traherne, Blake, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Whitman, Swinburne, Francis Thompson, A. E. Waite, and Bliss Carman.” (Ath) There is an index of authors and one of first lines.
Ath p101 F ‘17 50w
“‘The Oxford book of English mystical verse’ maintains the standards set by its predecessors. ... The distribution of the poems in point of time is interesting. Five-sixths of them—more than five-sixths, if we count Blake among the nineteenth century poets—are the product of that nineteenth century which its own prophets denounced as materialistic and skeptical beyond all previous epochs, of this twentieth century which, we were told before the war, was wholly given over to fads and superficiality. ... The most remarkable feature of most of the poems in this collection is their clarity. Their mystical quality is due to elevation of thought, not to woolly-mindedness.” J. DeL. Ferguson
+ Dial 63:207 S 13 ‘17 900w
“In spite of laxities, however, the novelty of the enterprise gives the book a real value.” O. W. Firkins
+ — Nation 105:597 N 29 ‘17 90w
“When we come to Matthew Arnold we find some variations from his proper text, due, perhaps, to slips in transcribing or to the use of earlier editions. Whatever the reason, we expect to find a great poet in the form which he chose to be remembered. ... The editors have a deficient sense of proportion: that is clear. Their volume, well over 600 pages, includes some examples unworthy of preservation in a first-rate anthology. It might have been a smaller one, more definitely mystic, or, in view of its wide scope, they might have gathered for their posy some lasting flowers which are not of yesterday.”
– + Sat R 123:186 F 24 ‘17 1350w
“It will delight every poetry-lover. ... It is the modern men whose work we are most interested to see. To us, at present, the unexpected mysticism of the man of the world, the man of letters, the man of action, the unbeliever, even the sinner, is of the deepest interest—because it is along mystic lines that the religious world is now feeling after assurance. ... But when we have drunk the new wine we turn back to Vaughan and Donne and Crashaw and George Herbert and Traherne, and say: ‘The old is better.’ We are, however, not the less grateful to Mr Nicholson and Mr Lee for giving us to drink of the new also.”
+ Spec 118:303 Mr 10 ‘17 1400w
“A book in which a hundred or so poems, not all mystical but all fine and true, the work of poets, are buried in a wilderness of respectable religious verse which is only sometimes mysticism and hardly ever poetry.”
– + The Times [London] Lit Sup p102 Mr 1 ‘17 900w
NICHOLSON, MEREDITH. Madness of May. il *$1 (5c) Scribner 17-11468
Billy Deering is in a tight place, very much worried about himself and his future, when a picturesque stranger, introducing himself as R. Hood, takes possession of him. Much against his will at first, thinking his companion is either an escaped lunatic or a crook, young Mr Deering accompanies the stranger on what turns out to be a series of fantastic adventures in which a girl who calls herself Pierrette plays a part.
“Appeared in Collier’s Weekly.”
A L A Bkl 13:450 Jl ‘17
“A story to be read by all honest lovers of romance in terms of whimsy.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 45:408 Je ‘17 260w
“It is so absolutely incredible that the perfectly plausible explanation of the whole situation in the end is positively irritating to the unsuspicious reader, who has not cared to come out of clouds.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 18 ‘17 150w
“It is just long enough to entertain a reader in the mood for a trifle that is not trash.”
+ Cath World 105:842 S ‘17 140w
413
+ Cleveland p104 S ‘17 70w
“A trifle of delicious quality—a confection, if you will, of the purest and soundest materials.”
+ Nation 104:580 My 10 ‘17 400w
“A dainty, fluffy bit of most irresponsible foolery.”
N Y Times 22:226 Je 10 ‘17 230w
+ Outlook 116:32 My 2 ‘17 30w
“It’s just pure fun, and one only wishes the story were longer.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 My 6 ‘17 200w
“Very light, improbable, and amusing.”
Wis Lib Bul 13:159 My ‘17 40w
NICHOLSON, MEREDITH. Reversible Santa Claus. il *$1 (6c) Houghton 17-28188
Billy the Hopper, ex-crook, is the hero of this Christmas story. The Hopper, now proprietor of a chicken farm, is leading a blameless life when temptation assails him in two-fold form. To make the matter worse, it is Christmas eve. One of his falls from grace results in the extraction of a bill-book from a fellow passenger’s pocket, an act of which he is heartily ashamed, for petty larceny is far below the level of his talents. The other slip is the stealing of an automobile. Out of this act grow complications. The machine has an occupant—a sleeping baby. It is while attempting to return the child to his parents that the Hopper is persuaded to play the part of a reversible Santa Claus, one who takes things away from people for their own good.
A L A Bkl 14:133 Ja ‘18
“It is burlesque, its quite impossible action moves swiftly; to see it pass once across the screen may divert an idle hour.”
+ — Boston Transcript p7 D 1 ‘17 320w
“‘A reversible Santa Claus,’ gives free scope to his humorous fancy. It would be preposterous if it did not concern a fairy world.”
+ Nation 105:540 N 15 ‘17 170w
“It is with relief that it is found to be a most diverting tale, its more or less necessary Yuletide cheer well mixed with real gayety and humor.”
+ N Y Times 22:518 D 2 ‘17 350w
“Original and amusing.”
+ Outlook 117:475 N 21 ‘17 20w
+ Springf’d Republican p17 N 25 ‘17 180w
“Will hardly answer to the demand for a Christmas story, and is perhaps not worth the small library’s purchase.”
– + Wis Lib Bul 14:32 Ja ‘18 50w
NICOLAS, RENÉ. Campaign diary of a French officer; tr. by Katharine Babbitt. *$1.25 (3½c) Houghton 940.91 17-10365
A diary covering three months of the war, from February to May, 1915. The author says, “When I visited America recently I came to realize the widespread interest in the European war shown by the citizens of the new world. ... The many questions I have been asked, and the earnest attention accorded to my accounts of the war, are my excuse for publishing this journal. ... Except for a few trifling omissions, this book reproduces exactly the notes I took at the front. ... The story is a true one, lived and lived intensely. In this fact lies the little merit the work may posses.”
A L A Bkl 13:445 Jl ‘17
“The book is of especial interest in comparison with the more off-hand accounts of Ian Hay and the member of ‘Kitchener’s mob.’”
+ Cleveland p101 S ‘17 90w
“His book is everywhere simple, frank, humane. ... One cannot suppose that M. Nicolas’s experience or his fortitude is at all unusual. Such daily horrors must be the very stuff of life to thousands. To read of them, thus calmly set down, is to realize once more what an adaptable creature man is and to be filled with wonder that the mere threat of hell should have tortured his imagination for ages.”
+ Dial 62:404 My 3 ‘17 350w
+ Ind 90:296 My 12 ‘17 120w
“He who would gain an idea, not only of what war means, but of what France means to those who love her, should read this book.”
+ Outlook 116:33 My 2 ‘17 90w
Pratt p41 O ‘17 10w
R of Rs 55:551 My ‘17 40w
St Louis 15:315 S ‘17 30w
“For vividness it would be hard to match this brief story of the front, because it is a genuine diary. ... The printed book is quite as realistically thrilling as if it bore the scars of the original.”
+ Springf’d Republican p19 My 20 ‘17 250w
NIEMEYER, NANNIE. Stories for the history hour; from Augustus to Rolf. *$1.25 (2c) Dodd
“These stories are written solely for the purpose of being told,” says the author in her preface. “They are not intended for children’s reading, but for teachers’ telling. ... These are stories which I wished to tell, and of which I could find no satisfactory version. ... I have avoided all stories of which numerous good versions exist.” The author is an English woman and the stories are planned to fit courses of study in Great Britain. The period from 50 B.C. to 900 A.D. is covered. Contents: Augustus; Onesimus; Trajan; Pliny; Cornelius; Alaric; Geneviève; Clovis; Columba; Cuthbert; Sturmi; Charles the Great; Charles and Alcuin; Ingiald; Eudes; Rolf. A list of authorities is given at the end.
“There is, fortunately, a growing movement in the direction of giving history a meaning and interest for children such as cannot be compassed by formal lectures and text-books. A good example of the kind of thing that is being done, and done successfully, is ‘Stories for the history hour.’” J: Walcott
+ Bookm 46:496 D ‘17 170w
NOBBS, GILBERT. On the right of the British line. il *$1.25 (2½c) Scribner 940.91 17-24723
Captain Nobbs was five weeks on the firing line on the Somme, four weeks mourned as dead, and three months a prisoner of war in Germany. He describes vividly how he planned the attack of his company under fire, brought his men into position, directed the charge, and fell, wounded in the head and blinded for life.
“One of the most moving of the personal accounts.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:162 F ‘18
Cleveland p1 Ja ‘18 70w
“This is not a great book. It is so unpretentious, indeed, that one wonders why one has finished it at a single sitting. But as a graphic, moving picture it will hold any reader.”
+ Dial 64:72 Ja 17 ‘18 240w
Pittsburgh 22:763 N ‘17 40w
“A simple and interesting personal narrative.” P. B.
+ St Louis 15:417 D ‘17 20w
NOBLE, EDWARD. Outposts of the fleet. *60c Houghton 17-17081
“That heroes of the merchant marine should, as a rule, receive but scant recognition seems very unjust to Mr Edward Noble. ... To the ordinary perils of the deep are now added the risks and the terrors of war, as is vividly brought out in such tales as ‘Torpedoed’ and ‘Homeward with grain,’ which, with seven other short pieces, make up the contents of the book. Most, if not all, of these sea-yarns have already seen the light in various British journals. ... They are new to American readers.”—Dial
“Nine graphic short stories which show a keen insight into the character of the British seaman and a wide knowledge of his life. Printed on very poor paper.”
+ — A L A Bkl 14:170 F ‘18
414“As full of the marine spirit as sea water is full of salt.”
+ Boston Transcript p7 Je 13 ‘17 300w
+ Dial 63:400 O 25 ‘17 150w
N Y Br Lib News 4:74 My ‘17 30w
R of Rs 55:669 Je ‘17 40w
Noontime messages in a college chapel. *$1.25 (4c) Pilgrim press 252 17-30764
Sixty-nine short addresses to young people by twenty-five well-known preachers of different denominations. The college is not named, but the preachers represented belong to Boston and its vicinity. Among them are: George H. Hodges, Charles F. Dole, Paul R. Frothingham, Daniel Evans, Samuel M. Crothers, and Raymond Calkins. The addresses are very brief and are in the nature of intimate talks.
“May be suggestive to ministers and leaders of religious organizations.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:149 F ‘18
“The thought itself, while sometimes brilliant and suggestive, is more often tame and commonplace.”
– + Boston Transcript p7 Ja 26 ‘18 110w
“All are characterized by freshness and insight.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 D 9 ‘17 90w
NORRIS, EDWIN MARK. Story of Princeton. il *$2 (3c) Little 378 17-28880
This story of Princeton has been written by the editor of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It is based on well-known sources, and aims, in addition to giving the essential historical facts, “to present and preserve some of the more characteristic traditions and anecdotes that through two centuries have gathered about the name of Princeton.” (Preface) Contents: When we lived under the king; Princeton’s part in the making of the nation; The reign of terror; Depression and reconstruction; The great awakening; The university. The illustrations are from drawings by Lester G. Hornby.
+ A L A Bkl 14:77 D ‘17
Cleveland p9 Ja ‘18 40w
Ind 92:262 N 3 ‘17 50w
“The book tells its story well. It is indexed, and the drawings are numerous and good.”
+ Lit D 56:39 Ja 12 ‘18 190w
“A worthy volume to set beside Arthur Stanwood Pier’s similar study of Harvard. The volume is for the undergraduate and the alumnus in business, not for the man who has a professional or otherwise strongly developed interest in higher education and academic history. It is simply a bright sketch, made possible by Professor Collins’s recent exhaustive book, and frank in its shortcomings.”
+ — Nation 105:642 D 6 ‘17 320w
“Mr Norris is particularly happy in depicting the great personalities among the presidents of bygone days.”
+ N Y Times 22:549 D 9 ‘17 320w
+ Outlook 117:519 N 28 ‘17 80w
R of Rs 57:221 F ‘18 40w
“The only defect of his entertaining sketch of the university’s history is a tendency to gloss over some of the ‘intellectual’ battles—if they were wholly intellectual—that were waged over questions of policy. ... Mr Norris’s book as a whole is pleasant and unpretentiously informing.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p17 O 28 ‘17 1050w
NORRIS, KATHLEEN (THOMPSON) (MRS CHARLES GILMAN NORRIS). Martie, the unconquered. il *$1.35 (1c) Doubleday 17-22088
Martie Monroe, a girl of strong individuality and much ambition, brought up in a little California town, escaped from her family who economically and socially were on the down-hill grade, by marrying Wallace Bannister, a third-class actor. The Bannisters went to New York, where a son was born. As Wallace was constantly away, and failed to support his wife, she took charge of the boarding-house in which she lived. After her husband’s death, she returned to California to live in the old homestead with her father, her sister Lydia and her son Teddy, and to work in the Monroe public library. After she had accepted an offer of marriage from Clifford Frost, a leading citizen of Monroe about twice her age, John Dryden, who had known and loved her in New York, followed her to California; but Martie, being a Catholic, refused to marry Dryden because he was a divorced man, and, breaking her engagement to Frost, returned to New York to work in the office of a magazine for which she had written some successful articles. Her career is contrasted with that of her sister Sally, who married a poor boy and had four children whom she brought up on an allowance made her by “Dr Ben,” an old physician who believed in the endowment of motherhood.
“Published in the Pictorial Review.”
A L A Bkl 14:27 O ‘17
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Bookm 46:340 N ‘17 80w
“To touch unobtrusively and incidentally upon moral questions of the hour has been Mrs Norris’s object in the writing of all her novels, and never has she succeeded so well as in ‘Martie the unconquered.’ ... As a novel with its basis the problem of woman, it will make its strongest appeal because it is not a problem novel. ... There is little of the polemic in it, except as life itself is polemic. It contains much of reality and truth as they are faced by a young woman who is unable to remain amid the placid conditions of her birth. And best of all it is free from the morbid sentimentality that has too frequently obtruded itself into Mrs Norris’s other novels.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 15 ‘17 1650w
“The book is readable, and much of it is well written; but it fails to carry out the author’s evident intention to picture the triumph of a dauntless spirit over adverse conditions.”
– + Cath World 106:555 Ja ‘18 160w
“The author’s handling of character and her power of rendering the details of village life are worthy of attention. The picture of Malcolm Monroe’s household, dominated by the suspicions of a petty tyrant, is an excellent bit of domestic comedy. Bonestell’s drugstore, where the young folk of Monroe gather for pink sodas; the library steps where they meet and shyly depart on Sunday afternoon walks; the drab existence of New York boarding-houses and flats; the dull reality of the mediocre actor’s days and nights,—these scenes and this youth are part of our American life and they are sketched with a skill that is really notable.”
+ Dial 63:220 S 13 ‘17 170w
“Kathleen Norris is suffering the inevitable penalty of over-prolific production. ... If her tricks of manner grow a bit hackneyed, the basic idea on which she works will bear a great deal of repetition.”
– + Ind 93:240 F 9 ‘18 160w
“Somehow, as has happened before in Mrs Norris’s work, the story which began so clearly and simply as a record of human experience is gradually enfolded and finally smothered outright in a fog of sheer sentimentalism.”
– + Nation 105:541 N 15 ‘17 110w
“It is encouraging to find in a story that is frankly the story of a popular romancer so much of the actualistic and veracious. Nor is the attack on our earlier romantic aura tradition confined wholly to the background. Mrs Norris’ heroine struggles through her loves and early love’s mistakes to her fulness of womanhood and achievement, and there is not even the condescension of a mating-finish.”
+ New Repub 12:252 S 29 ‘17 190w
“The best-drawn figure in the book is Martie’s father, a fine and consistent portrait. He stands out, in his bigoted egotism, as one living personality among many vague shadows.” Clement Wood
– + N Y Call p15 D 29 ‘17 180w
415“Mrs Norris’s portrayals of character are always graphic, even where they are slight and superficial. Martie is perhaps the most real and vital of all her gallery of feminine portraits.”
+ — N Y Times 22:286 Ag 5 ‘17 670w
“There is close depiction of a rather narrow range of character. The story in workmanship is equal to the author’s best previous writing.”
+ Outlook 116:660 Ag 29 ‘17 60w
“Martie must be regarded as one of Mrs Norris’s best characters.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p15 S 23 ‘17 550w
NORRIS, KATHLEEN (THOMPSON) (MRS CHARLES GILMAN NORRIS). Undertow. il *$1.25 (3c) Doubleday 17-11464
The story of a married pair who hold together thru adversity only to find themselves drawn apart when prosperity comes to them. Bert and Nancy marry on twenty-five dollars a week. With careful economy they keep well and happy in the little four room apartment. Children come one after the other and Bert’s salary keeps pace with the growing needs of the family. When they have attained real financial independence they move to a fashionable suburb. Here they are drawn into the gay, idle life of the place. They live beyond their means and worry about appearances, but they so far retain their common sense that they can look on the calamity that releases them as a bit of good fortune.
“Copyright by the Curtis publishing company under the title ‘Holly court.’”
+ A L A Bkl 13:405 Je ‘17
+ Cath World 105:554 Jl ‘17 90w
“Even the characters hardly live. They move vaguely across the screen in the all-too well-known progress of their lives. If Mrs Norris wishes to do any more moral tales, she must make them more vivid and alive or her readers will fly for relief to the latest detective story.”
— Dial 62:402 My 3 ‘17 130w
“This book is a lantern of warning set on a rock pile.”
+ Ind 90:298 My 12 ‘17 50w
Nation 104:736 Je 21 ‘17 280w
“One wonders, indeed, if the author is not playing her characters false, in this [suburban] phase of their development, for the sake of the story she is weaving and the moral she desires her readers to get out of it.”
+ — N Y Times 22:113 Ap 1 ‘17 400w
Reviewed by M. A. Hopkins
+ Pub W 91:969 Mr 17 ‘17 350w
“The story presents a sharp lesson in the useless extravagance so conspicuous in the American home. But the story is so well balanced that the moral is at no time unduly prominent. It is not long, but is well worth the reading.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 My 6 ‘17 300w
“Interesting despite the heavily-accentuated moral.”
+ Wis Lib Bul 13:159 My ‘17 60w
NORTHEND, MARY HARROD.[2] Memories of old Salem. il *$4 Moffat 974.4 17-27755
“This book, while written in the form of a romantic tale, is designed chiefly to carry the reader back to the days when Salem was in its glory, the days when its ships sailed the seven seas and brought riches and fame to the ancient port. Miss Northend’s story hangs upon the discovery of a packet of love-letters hidden in the frame of an old picture, and by means of the narrative she skilfully conveys the spirit and the setting of the past.”—Lit D
“In both text and picture Miss Northend emphasizes those striking qualities that make Salem one of the most interesting American towns. The great grandmother, in telling the story, recreates the past with all its glamour.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p8 D 19 ‘17 1200w
+ Lit D 55:46 D 8 ‘17 130w
“Mrs Northend ingeniously contrived a readable narrative in which to embody an immense amount of information. The illustrations alone will be a treasure for any one interested in the life and arts of early New England.”
+ N Y Times 23:4 Ja 6 ‘18 260w
“This volume is eminently attractive, both in its physical and pictorial form and in the curious information about old times and old things in Salem.”
+ Outlook 118:67 Ja 9 ‘18 70w
“Whether or not this narrative is all that could be desired as an account of colonial manners and customs is by no means certain. Some readers, at all events, would prefer a larger amount of research, and a smaller admixture of personal sentiment. The pictures, however, are the real raison d’etre of the volume.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p15 D 23 ‘17 330w
NORTHRUP, EDWIN FITCH. Laws of physical science; a reference book. *$2 Lippincott 530 17-13944
The author’s aim has been to compile a handbook containing a complete list of the general propositions or laws of science. He says, “We have chosen for a title, ‘Laws of physical science’ but many general propositions, theorems and mere statements of important facts have been included which perhaps, if strictly considered, could not be discriminated as laws. ... When such doubts existed, a policy of inclusion has been followed in preference to one of exclusion.” In all the book contains 480 general statements. These are classified into six groups: Mechanics; Hydrostatics, hydrodynamics and capillarity; Sound; Heat and physical chemistry; Electricity and magnetism; Light. Bibliography and index follow.
“The book is a valuable epitome, and should be of special service to students of physics, chemistry, and engineering.”
+ Ath p592 N ‘17 170w
“Dr Edwin P. Northrup of Princeton has done a very useful service in adding to existing reference books his ‘Laws of physical science.’”
+ Educ R 54:316 O ‘17 50w
“Students of engineering and the physical sciences have long needed a compact handbook of the established propositions of physical science. Dr Northrup has prepared just such a handbook. ... Each law is followed by one and in some cases by several references to easily accessible textbooks, standard treatises, etc., where detailed and systematic treatment is given of these propositions. This is not the least important contribution of the book.”
+ El School J 17:692 My ‘17 250w
“A judicious choice has been made from a large selection of authors, so that in each case the law might be given in its clearest and most exact form. The book is attractively got up.”
+ Nation 105:274 S 6 ‘17 70w
“In a book which so obviously fills a gap in our literature it is perhaps a little ungrateful to point out minor defects. The contrast between the thoroughness of the section devoted to current electricity and the incompleteness and lack of unity of some of the other sections is very marked.”
+ — Nature 100:265 D 6 ‘17 330w
N Y Br Lib News 4:76 My ‘17 10w
“Unique work of great value for quick reference. Wider in scope than title indicates.”
+ Pittsburgh 22:655 O ‘17 40w
“The demands of condensation have been met for the most part very successfully in statements which though compact are clear and correct. In a few instances, however, the statements should be revised. ... It is perhaps unfortunate that the author has chosen Rankine as his source for various thermodynamic statements, for with all his undoubted genius Rankine is not an easy guide to follow. ... But it is easy to be too critical; 416the author has successfully carried out his proposal and has done an important service.” A. L. Kimball
+ — Science n s 47:120 F 1 ‘18 700w
+ Springf’d Republican p10 My 18 ‘17 120w
NORTON, MRS JEANNETTE YOUNG. Mrs Norton’s cook-book; selecting, cooking, and serving for the home table. *$2.50 (1c) Putnam 641.5 17-11938
The author says, “I have tried to make this a cook book, pure and simple, avoiding all reference to, and rules of, chemistry, feeling that the pupils of the schools of domestic science have all such information. ... [and that] lay women would not ordinarily use such information if it were given.” A half dozen chapters of general information precede the chapters devoted to recipes. Special chapters are given to Invalid cookery, Nursery diet, Child cookery, Children’s parties, School luncheons, Camp cookery, etc.
“Recipes are concise but some of them are rather extravagant for the average housekeeper of these times. Would be a great help to tea shops, clubs, or even hotels. Good index.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:435 Jl ‘17
+ Ind 91:136 Jl 28 ‘17 40w
“Besides hundreds of recipes, there are chapters of general information most useful to the housekeeper.”
+ R of Rs 56:554 N ‘17 60w
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Je 24 ‘17 200w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p418 Ag 30 ‘17 50w
NORWAY, MARY LOUISA (GADSDEN) (MRS HAMILTON NORWAY). Sinn Fein rebellion as I saw it. il *2s Smith, Elder & co., London 941.5 (Eng ed A16-1424)
“The author is the wife of the Secretary for the Post office in Ireland, and in the letters here reprinted, which were written for family perusal, gives a good idea of the sudden terrors and anxieties of the rising. ‘H.’ at the beginning of the war, had obtained a military guard, armed, for the G. P. O. When the outbreak occurred it was there, but had no ammunition. It is a shocking story of folly and mismanagement. ... Evidence is offered of German assistance of the rebels.”—Sat R
“No literary merit is claimed for these letters, which were intended for family perusal only, but they convey a vivid idea of the events and the anxieties they aroused.”
+ Ath p485 O ‘16 60w
+ Pittsburgh 22:425 My ‘17 30w
St Louis 15:24 Ja ‘17
Sat R 122:232 S 2 ‘16 160w
“A perfectly plain, straightforward narrative.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p375 Ag 10 ‘16 800w
NOURSE, EDWIN GRISWOLD. Agricultural economics. (Materials for the study of economics) *$2.75 (1c) Univ. of Chicago press 338 16-23032
For descriptive note see Annual for 1916.
“Chapter 1, The emergence of the problem of agricultural economics, is disappointing. ... The best material on the history of American agriculture has not been utilized. ... The editor has kept well in the foreground the social aspect of such matters as the standard of living of the rural population and the defects of the labor force both in quality and quantity. In so doing he has justified his advocacy of the teaching of agricultural economics in every institution which aims to give a liberal education.” P. W. Bidwell
+ Am Econ R 7:387 Je ‘17 700w
“Should be a valuable help to teachers of undergraduate students, specially until the whole field is more fully developed. More complete and better edited than other books on this subject.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:245 Mr ‘17
“A more accurate title for this collection of valuable contributions would be ‘Source book of agricultural economics,’ since the author does not attempt to present what would commonly be looked upon as a textbook in the general principles of the subject.” J. L. C.
+ Ann Am Acad 74:300 N ‘17 120w
“A book significant at once of the trend of thought in this direction, and of the new technique of university instruction.”
+ Ind 89:421 Mr 5 ‘17 350w
“Where the problem under discussion is of a controversial nature, both sides of the case are carefully presented. But in some instances the author has failed to set forth important facts bearing upon his subject. That is, too little space has been given to certain topics. ... Professor Nourse has assembled some suggestive material. He has produced, as it were, a ‘comparative print’ which throws the searchlight of agricultural data on controversial points in economic theory—theory which has too often been developed without due regard for agricultural facts. In accomplishing his other aims he has not succeeded so well. His collection of materials can hardly be regarded as a first-class textbook. Nevertheless, it represents by far the best attempt that has yet been made to satisfy this need.” G: E. Putnam
+ — J Pol Econ 25:308 Mr ‘17 1050w
NOVIKOVA, OLGA ALEKSIEEVNA. Russian memories; with an introd. by Stephen Graham. il *$3.50 Dutton (Eng ed 16-22949)
“People whose memory goes back to the eastern crisis of 1876-78 are not likely to have forgotten Mme Olga Novikoff, or the part that she played in the struggle between the Disraelians and the Gladstonians of that day. A Russian lady, handsome and clever, well connected and well backed, she captivated Mr Gladstone, and enlisted in support of her cause men so diverse as Carlyle, Tyndall, and W. T. Stead. ... Her new book, rather vaguely called ‘Russian memories,’ is partly a sketch of her past political activities, and partly a survey of certain aspects of Russia during recent years, of her politics home and foreign, and of the immediate situation.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
A L A Bkl 14:23 O ‘17
“These reminiscences of a very notable woman, who has numbered among her friends Gladstone, Kinglake (’Eothen’), Carlyle, Froude, Tyndall, W. T. Stead, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Verestschagin, and ‘Mark Twain,’ are opportune in their appearance. ... The volume is provided with a good index.”
Ath p548 N ‘16 200w
“That much-abused person who is commonly referred to as the future historian will probably consider this lady the last Mohican of Russian monarchism.” Abraham Yarmolinsky.
– + Bookm 46:483 D ‘17 180w
“It is a sincere analysis of the relations between Russia and England as she has observed them during the last fifty years. And the personality shown in her writing is one of great intelligence and charm.” R. M.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 23 ‘17 630w
“The author has apparently spent little time on the ordered preparation of her book, but her manner of writing is invariably engaging and intelligent.”
+ — Dial 63:116 Ag 16 ‘17 420w
“Her ‘Russian memories’ contain little or nothing that is new or important. They suggest the garrulity and magnification of self which often goes with old age.”
— Nation 105:181 Ag 16 ‘17 180w
417“Rightly is her book called a book of ‘Memories’; though sprightly, amusing, and entertaining, it is emphatically a book of the past.”
+ N Y Times 22:221 Je 10 ‘17 580w
“What the author says concerning such of her own countrymen as Dostoevsky, Verestchagin, and Skobelev is of particular moment to the student of Russian life.”
+ Outlook 116:451 Jl 18 ‘17 150w
“As she is an uncompromising champion of the old political regime in Russia, some of her observations, as touching czarism and Siberia for example, seem not a little wide of the mark.”
Pittsburgh 22:405 My ‘17 60w
“The ‘Holy Russia’ of Madame Novikoff seems almost as remote from the Russia of Miliukoff and Kerensky as the England of George III and Lord North from the Britain of Lloyd George.”
R of Rs 56:101 Jl ‘17 100w
“A vivacious and sufficiently self-revealing record of the activities of the most energetic of the unofficial promoters of the Anglo-Russian entente.”
+ Spec 117:509 O 28 ‘16 1450w
“Its publication in England antedated the great days of March, so that it must not be grouped with the rapidly-augmenting library that owes its genesis to the revolution.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 Je 26 ‘17 670w
“This is not a very systematic book, nor is it easy to collect from it any consistent series of impressions. ... The later pages, it is true, deal with the present war, but many others go back a whole generation, so that, as there is no clear marking of the chronology, younger readers will be often perplexed as to the relative position of events.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p524 N 2 ‘16 670w
NOXON, FRANK WRIGHT. Are we capable of self-government? *$1.50 (2c) Harper 330.9 17-16073
The author considers the “national problems and policies affecting business, 1900-1916.” He “has not tried to answer the question which the title of the book propounds, but rather to review the nation’s recent legislative and bureaucratic strictures upon organized business, sometimes true to the fundamental principles of our government, sometimes ludicrously childish and inconsistent, yet, because the underlying purpose has been honest rather than vicious, making for general progress.” (Introd.) There is a chapter on “Backsliding in New England,” one on “The new era in railway regulation,” and one on “Organized labor and the law.” The introduction is by Harry A. Wheeler, first president of the Chamber of commerce of the United States.
Reviewed by L. E. Robinson
Bookm 46:268 N ‘17 450w
Boston Transcript p6 S 5 ‘17 600w
Ind 91:294 Ag 25 ‘17 100w
“The author’s study of the various movements will be of interest to Socialists in recalling some recent events. His conclusions will be found curious, for he often seems to go far in boldness of thought and utterance and to miss wholly underlying causes and actual social forces.” Frank Macdonald
– + N Y Call p14 Jl 29 ‘17 520w
“This economic interpretation of current affairs is stimulating in high degree. ... It is rather a book for men of business than students, and wherever women have the vote or wish to be qualified to vote or discuss men’s affairs with men, the book should have women readers.”
+ N Y Times 22:278 Jl 29 ‘17 1000w
“While the title of the book might indicate a pessimistic tendency, the author really shows that our form of government is favorable to the growth of those factors which may by proper cooperation produce the best results in both business and political life.”
R of Rs 56:441 O ‘17 100w
NOYES, ALFRED. Open boats. *50c (4½c) Stokes 940.91 17-13295
A book based on the narratives of those who have been sent out in open boats after the sinking of vessels by submarines. Mr Noyes has been at pains to gather together as many authentic records as possible. Contents: Open boats; Sea savagery; The unforeseen; A Prussian; Magnificoes and the dead. Two poems are printed by way of prolog and epilog.
+ A L A Bkl 14:20 O ‘17
“Mr Alfred Noyes touches a chord of response in his readers by his facility in rhythmic, picturesque utterance. This facility is often fatal to his excellence as a poet, but it adapts itself readily to the description of German frightfulness on the high seas, which is the subject of this little book of sketches.”
+ Dial 63:409 O 25 ‘17 130w
“The horror of submarine warfare is nowhere made more real than in these terse records, drawn from admiralty reports and from the accounts by survivors.”
Ind 90:311 My 19 ‘17 25w
Pratt p41 O ‘17 20w
“Mr Noyes has been out with the British trawlers and has personal knowledge of the sea perils that he describes.”
R of Rs 55:669 Je ‘17 50w
+ Spec 118:676 Je 16 ‘17 120w
Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 3 ‘17 260w
“We wish Mr Noyes would more often leave the nail driven in without making assurance doubly sure by hitting it on the head a dozen times more. He has had presumably access to documents that are not published in the press, but we cannot think that he has succeeded in letting the survivors tell their own desperate story in their own vivid and unvarnished style.”
– + The Times [London] Lit Sup p364 Ag 2 ‘17 400w
NYBURG, SIDNEY LAUER. Chosen people. *$1.40 (1½c) Lippincott 17-26391
Philip Graetz, a young rabbi, fresh from his studies, is called to minister to a wealthy Jewish congregation in Baltimore. Philip is an idealist, believing passionately in the unity of the Jewish people and in the power of the Hebrew religion to solve all problems. The wide gulf that exists between the people of his congregation and the poor Jews of the slums is brought home to him in a strike in the clothing trade, and the failure of “Jewish ethics” to solve the labor problem all but shatters his second ideal. Love brings a bitter experience to Philip too, for he learns to care deeply for a girl who is not of his own people, and is saved from sacrificing his chosen career only by her fine character and sense of values. An interesting character in the story is David Gordon, the self-made Russian-Jewish lawyer. He is a good foil for Philip, and the fact that they become friends promises well for the young dreamer’s future.
+ A L A Bkl 13:405 Je ‘17
“In a rough sense this may be called a Jewish ‘Inside of the cup.’” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 45:317 My ‘17 650w
“A somewhat formal, slightly chaotic and altogether serious story. ... Although Mr Nyburg’s style is extraordinarily verbose, although he emphasizes trifles and is inclined to lengthy discussions of incidents, it is undeniable that in ‘The chosen people’ he has written a novel of exceptional quality.” E. F. E.
+ — Boston Transcript p6 Mr 21 ‘17 950w
“I have seen few modern American stories so earnest, direct, free from palaver and sentimentality. ... The problems of the Jew in America are presented but not expounded.” J: Macy
+ Dial 62:358 Ap 19 ‘17 350w
“A book of notable sincerity and dignity, by a Jew who is proud of his race, and whose pride exacts much of that race; by an American 418also, who desires that American life may be strengthened and ennobled by her Jewish citizens.” H. W. Boynton
+ Nation 104:404 Ap 5 ‘17 130w
“In delightful and reassuring contrast [to Cahan’s ‘Rise of David Levinsky’] is Mr Nyburg’s ‘The chosen people.’” H. W. Boynton
+ Nation 105:600 N 29 ‘17 80w
“Refreshing, because it contains none of the conventional sentimentality about the Jew found in the average novel about him. ... Any one who is in the least familiar with Jews will not fail to recognize the prototypes of Arthur Kahn, the cultured ‘cash register’; ... and Dr Philip Graetz, the cultured rabbi of this most fashionable congregation in the city of Baltimore.” Harry Salpeter
+ N Y Call p15 Je 24 ‘17 650w
“A brilliant piece of work. ... From first to last the book is exceptionally interesting. Detailed as it is, it never drags.”
+ N Y Times 22:102 Mr 25 ‘17 800w
“He writes with a simplicity and directness that give the impression of one who speaks with authority.” M. K. Reely
+ Pub W 91:969 Mr 17 ‘17 550w
“Mr Nyburg has written a keenly intelligent story which often penetrates the hypocrisies of society and shatters the platitudes and poses of conspicuous types. He has not conquered a penchant for theatrical climaxes, but the story ranks among the most substantial of the season’s fiction.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Je 3 ‘17 500w
+ Wis Lib Bul 13:159 My ‘17 50w
NYROP, KRISTOFFER. Is war civilization? auth. tr. by H. G. Wright. *$1.25 (2½c) Dodd 940.91 (Eng ed 17-30069)
A collection of papers on the war by a professor of romance philosophy at the University of Copenhagen. They appear to have been written at different times, but have been arranged in a logical sequence to conform with a definite plan: “The general introduction is followed by four chapters dealing with the devastation in Belgium and northern France, after which, by a natural succession, there come the manifesto of the ninety-three and the replies to the same. War of necessity leads to annexation, which in its turn involves tyranny, and some of the questions connected with this are dealt with in the next three chapters. The movement of the irredentists in Italy proves to what an extent the suppression of nationality produces explosive matter and so Italy’s attitude to the war has been made the object of special investigation. Finally, in a few brief sections, I have endeavoured to throw some light on the relations between war and religion, and war and languages, whilst in the last chapter I have drawn attention to that civitas Dei for the establishment of which all mankind ought harmoniously to unite.” (Preface)
+ Ath p531 O ‘17 160w
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p407 Ag 23 ‘17 110w
“If there were nothing more in the volume than the extracts which Professor Nyrop gathers together from authors little known here, all showing the persistency and boundless arrogance of the modern German, the book would be useful.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p422 S 6 ‘17 500w
NYSTROM, PAUL HENRY. Retail store management. il $2 LaSalle extension univ. 658 17-6655
“This book is intended primarily as a textbook for students of the retailing process, and is general in character rather than descriptive of technical matters. The chief merchandising problems are presented clearly and concisely. The author realizes the need of giving to those engaged in retail business a broad view of the field, in order to counteract the narrowing tendencies of intensive routine work. The necessary theoretical matter is presented by means of illustrations taken from actual experiences of merchants. Reality without minute detail is the spirit of the work. Particular forms of retailing—chain stores, department stores, and so on—are not mentioned in the treatise. Location, organization, accounting, buying, sales, and pricing, the factors whose management means success or failure in any retail establishment, large or small, receive thorough treatment. House policies, especially with reference to direct dealings with customers and employees, are commented on. Several of the merchandising functions are illustrated by simple, well-organized charts, and a few carefully selected forms give hints of possible methods for controlling the work of the different functions.”—J Pol Econ
“‘Retail store management’ is closely related to the author’s other books, ‘Retail selling and store management’ (Appleton, 1914) and ‘The economics of retailing’ (Ronald press, 1915). Taken together, Dr Nystrom’s books constitute no small part of the recent useful literature of modern retailing. The Appleton text is bipartite and makes the three repetitive; the portions on store management should be transferred to the LaSalle text and the three texts would then have more or less exclusive fields.” R. B. Westerfield
+ Am Econ R 7:641 S ‘17 400w
“It is intensely matter-of-fact. And, in spite of its prosaic subject, it is interestingly written.” F. H. Hankins
+ Am J Soc 22:849 My ‘17 150w
+ J Pol Econ 25:640 Je ‘17 170w
“Dr Nystrom finds call for the course of instruction he lays down in ‘Retail store management’ in his conviction that a very large percentage of the three million and more Americans engaged in retail trade are incapable and inefficient. ... He strongly urges that everybody connected with retail trading should be fitted as well as possible for the work he is expected to perform. Study of Dr Nystrom’s book will tend to show the soundness of this view, while at the same time it will give a practical response to the need of knowledge and training the author so thoroughly demonstrates.”
+ N Y Times 22:130 Ap 8 ‘17 250w
O
OBERHOLTZER, ELLIS PAXSON. History of the United States since the Civil war. 5v v 1 *$3.50 (4½c) Macmillan 973.8 (17-28462)
v 1 1865-8.
The first of a five-volume work whose title suggests the scope. This installment begins immediately after the assassination of Lincoln in 1865 and covers three years to the impeachment of Johnson. The social, economic, political and commercial development of those years is interpreted in terms corresponding to this generation’s needs. The writer puts to the period questions that have never been asked before because they are questions that have grown out of the conditions of modern progress. General headings: President Johnson; The South after the war; Congress in control; The triumphant North; Beyond the Mississippi; The Indians; War upon the president; Mexico, Ireland and Alaska.
“It is a storehouse of detail; every page carries the evidence of comprehensive and discriminating research. The author holds a judicial restraint upon his own views. He is expert in searching for the events and the views of those sharing in the making of history. Like Mr Rhodes’s Mr Oberholtzer’s vision of American achievement embraces more than politics.” L. E. Robinson
+ Bookm 46:596 Ja ‘18 1150w
“Mr Oberholtzer writes with vigor and often with discrimination, in easy, flowing style, and he holds the attention of the reader with firmness.” E. J. C.
+ Boston Transcript p8 D 5 ‘17 450w
419“The strong points of the present volume are its remarkable portrayals of life and conditions; its weak ones are those which must become more apparent as the succeeding instalments come out. Indirect discourse, quotations from racy contemporary sources, pen pictures of eminent men, must hold the reader’s interest for a while; but five volumes of this tend to confuse and weary, and one begins to wonder what it is all about. After all the historian must be more than a reporter.”
+ — Nation 105:636 D 6 ‘17 1650w
“What makes the book especially interesting is the attention given to the more picturesque and less well known phases of our achievement.”
+ — N Y Times 22:531 D 2 ‘17 500w
“Some readers will not altogether like the leanings of this work as to political questions; some will think the historian’s sense of proportion somewhat defective; but no one can deny that the author makes the past live again.”
+ — Outlook 117:514 N 28 ‘17 80w
“Mr Oberholtzer has faithfully studied the abundant sources of information concerning this period and his copious footnotes constitutes a valuable bibliography.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 11 ‘18 700w
O’BRIEN, CHARLES. Food preparedness for the United States. *60c (4c) Little 940.91 17-17192
“In September, 1916, the author went to Germany to study economic conditions, particularly those regarding food supply. ... This book is designed to point out to the individual some of the factors involved and the lessons to be learned from the experiences of the European belligerents, particularly Germany ... who, in rationing her people according to her available supplies, has done so on a basis that was outlined by scientific nutrition experts.” (Author’s foreword)
Am Econ R 7:848 D ‘17 50w
“Brief but interesting and suggestive.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:46 N ‘17
“This little book should be sent broadcast over the land.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 1 ‘17 490w
Cleveland p119 N ‘17 50w
“Though much of the advice has been already followed in the passage of the Food bill and the work of the Food administration, and some of the information has already been made clear, the volume contains a great deal that is still interesting, practical, and valuable for us all.”
+ N Y Times 22:395 O 14 ‘17 150w
Pittsburgh 22:767 N ‘17 40w
+ R of Rs 56:213 Ag ‘17 190w
St Louis 15:358 O ‘17 20w
“He is weakest in his comment on applied scientific nutrition.” Bruno Lasker
+ — Survey 39:73 O 20 ‘17 570w
O’BRIEN, EDWARD JOSEPH HARRINGTON, ed. Best short stories of 1916, and the Yearbook of the American short story. *$1.50 (1c) Small
This is the second volume of Mr O’Brien’s short story annual. Again he has selected twenty stories which in his judgment represent the best short stories of the year. First place is given to Richard Matthews Hallet’s “Making port,” a story reprinted from Every Week. In addition to the twenty stories reprinted, the volume contains the “Roll of honor” for 1916, a critical summary of fifty-two stories of the year, the rating of the magazines on the basis of the number of distinctive stories published, etc. Mr O’Brien finds the outlook for the American short story hopeful. He says: “Our artists are beginning to think of life wholly in terms of the individual, and to substitute the warmth of the individual in place of the generalised and sentimentalised types to which our American public has been so whole-heartedly accustomed.”
A L A Bkl 13:343 My ‘17
Cath World 105:257 My ‘17 250w
“I am not sure that Mr Edward O’Brien’s ‘Best short stories of the year’ will not contribute their own share to the progressive decline of the short-story in America, for he is creating standards which a real criticism should resolutely reject.” M. M. Colum
— Dial 62:345 Ap 19 ‘17 1300w
“In spite of the most honest intention, it is impossible to take this sort of book seriously. The reprinting of twenty stories, the summarizing of fifty more, and the sober printing of a roll of honor—Baedekerized up to three stars—presupposes the existence of fixed canons of literary judgment beyond either the will or the power of humankind to achieve.”
— Nation 104:548 My 3 ‘17 200w
“Whether or not one may differ with Mr O’Brien about any particular story in the collection, there is no room for any question about the excellence and value and representative quality of the collection as a whole.”
+ N Y Times 22:82 Mr 11 ‘17 730w
“For the first time in my life I have read twenty successive stories and enjoyed every one.” M. A. Hopkins
+ Pub W 91:583 F 17 ‘17 450w
O’BRIEN, EDWARD JOSEPH HARRINGTON. White fountains; odes and lyrics. *$1 Small 811 17-11680
Mr O’Brien’s book of poetry is made up of two parts. The first contains two remarkable odes, “Flesh” and “Flower.” The second is a small collection of lyrics. In his odes, the poet has tried the experiment of adapting the form of the Gregorian plain chant to the demands of English verse.
“There has always been a quiet insistence about Mr O’Brien’s poetic work, which now confined within a volume, challenges the attention of all poetry lovers.” D. L. M.
+ Boston Transcript p8 F 28 ‘17 750w
+ Cleveland p65 My ‘17 90w
“The second ode is a mystic poem of serene beauty and deep significance. The first is more like Whitman’s ‘Children of Adam’ than anything else in American poetry which I have read, and it is marred by the same lack of humor, judgment, self-criticism. ... No more rarified and ethereal poetry is to be found than he has given us in the small group of lyrics at the end of his book. If, to the fine Celtic qualities already so clear in his verse, he could but add humour, restraint, poise, clarity—why then he would cease to be an Irish poet, and that is a thing not to be thought of.” Odell Shepard
+ — Dial 63:19 Je 28 ‘17 550w
“A number of very good short lyrics are included in the volume.”
+ Ind 91:135 Jl 28 ‘17 40w
“The two odes, ‘Flesh’ and ‘Flower’ have certain flashes of splendor and an effortless beauty. The type arrangement, or line structure, used by Mr O’Brien lessens the poetic value to the average reader.”
+ — R of Rs 56:217 Ag ‘17 130w
O’BRIEN, PETER O’BRIEN, baron. Reminiscences of the Right Hon. Lord O’Brien (of Kilfenora); ed. by his daughter Georgina O’Brien. *$2.50 Longmans 17-1646
“This book takes us over the long range from the Irish famine to the opening days of the great war. It introduces us to many personages who made history in those times. Queen Victoria, Gladstone, Earl Spencer, Monsignor Persico, Isaac Butt, Charles Stewart Parnell, and Lord Russell of Killowen, are some of the persons whom we meet in its pages. Those who are interested in Irish history come upon striking side-lights in the stirring period covered by Lord O’Brien’s life. ... His official conduct was characterized by great devotion to duty and courage in the midst of much unpopularity and numerous protests and threats. ... His career as prosecuting attorney for the crown brought him in later years the notable reward of appointment as lord chief justice for Ireland.”—Cath World
420
+ A L A Bkl 13:312 Ap ‘17
Boston Transcript p6 Ja 20 ‘17 350w
“The style of the book, the more considerable part of which is in the Judge’s own words—twenty-two chapters out of thirty-one—is marked by simplicity and directness. ... His daughter prepared the manuscript for publication, and added some chapters of her own which throw a new charm over the pages. ... A complete and useful index is given at the end of the volume.”
+ Cath World 104:692 F ‘17 300w
“It was a rather meagre record which Lord O’Brien left prepared at his death (in 1914), and its piecing out in this volume by his daughter adds little of real consequence. Politically, the most important part of the book is that relating to the Irish Invincibles. The pages are but rarely lighted up by Irish wit, though the reader is often told, somewhat exasperatingly, of amusing stories or clever reports which he is asked to take on faith.”
+ — Nation 104:81 Ja 18 ‘17 120w
“These reminiscences of Lord O’Brien are of the most importance for the years 1880 to 1888.”
+ Sat R 123:40 Ja 13 ‘17 1000w
“His reminiscences are pleasantly readable, and show why the Judge, with his humor and love of sport, was always popular in Ireland.”
+ Spec 117:sup610 N 18 ‘16 120w
“Even an enemy must be impressed by the kindliness and the honesty, the modesty and the courage, of the personality here revealed.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p511 O 26 ‘16 1050w
ODLING, WILLIAM. Technic of versification. *4s 6d Parker & co., Oxford 426.2
“The greater part of this book is a selection of mostly well-known verses, classified according to the rhythmic character of the excerpts, and preceded by thirty pages of introductory notes and illustrations. Following the preface is a short list of some early works on versification to be found in the Bodleian library.”—Ath
“To those without facilities for a study of the longer treatise upon the art of versification, the present volume should be useful. The extracts chosen range in date from 1400 to 1913. The book has neither an index nor a table of contents.”
+ — Ath p585 D ‘16 90w
“One can scarcely be grateful for the writer’s seeming ignorance of the literature of the subject, or his indifference to the conventional use of technical terms. ... The terminology is often interesting, but certainly as often questionable.”
— Nation 104:547 My 3 ‘17 400w
“Professor Odling’s scansion is not always convincing, but his systematic analysis of our poetic forms will interest a good many people.”
+ — Spec 117:660 N 25 ‘16 60w
OEMLER, MARIE CONWAY. Slippy McGee; sometimes known as the Butterfly man. *$1.35 (1c) Century 17-13219
Slippy McGee, the cleverest crook in America, making his getaway on a freight train, falls and is terribly mangled. When he awakens he finds himself in the parish house of a little South Carolina town, crippled for life. His one piece of luggage, his burglar’s kit, has disappeared, and he does not know till long afterwards when an emergency calls for it, that the parish priest has hidden it inside the statue of St Stanislaus in the church. Father De Rancé’s interest in butterflies and moths is the instrument that saves the soul of Slippy McGee. But it is little Mary Virginia who points the way, suggesting that the slender, supple hands, the hands of the cleverest cracksman in America, be employed in mounting specimens. Slippy McGee thereafter becomes the Butterfly man. Only once does he take on his old character, and then it is in the interest of this same Mary Virginia. After that one occurrence the cracksman’s tools go back into the keeping of St Stanislaus, to stay.
+ A L A Bkl 13:451 Jl ‘17
“However she may choose to employ these conventions of the story-romancer’s art, it is notable that Mrs Oemler, herself a southerner, takes a vigorous fling at more than one shibboleth, notably that hollow convention of colonel-ism and ‘southern chivalry’ which story-tellers have been wont to handle so tenderly.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 45:409 Je ‘17 350w
“One of the pleasant novels of the year.”
+ Ind 91:188 Ag 4 ‘17 60w
“A certain freshness and gusto rescue the story from melodramatic and sentimental fatuity, and render it acceptable in its kind.”
+ Nation 104:736 Je 21 ‘17 330w
“Unmarred by so much as a single touch of mawkishness or cant, the story is related with sincerity and charm.”
+ N Y Times 22:166 Ap 29 ‘17 500w
“In spite of melodrama the book is pleasant from beginning to end, and ‘Slippy McGee’ is a creation the reader does not forget.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Jl 1 ‘17 420w
Official register and directory of women’s clubs in America. v 19 il pa $2 H. M. Winslow. Shirley, Mass. 374.2
The preface states: “This is our nineteenth annual ‘Club register.’ The first appeared in 1898 and covered Massachusetts only. The next volume covered New England, and a little later we covered the whole country. ... This is the only directory in the world that covers all the federated clubs.” The text treats of the General federation of women’s clubs, listing officers, etc., then takes up clubs alphabetically by states and their cities giving the number of members and the name of the president of each club. The editor draws attention to the classified list of club lecturers and entertainers found at the end of the volume.
OGDEN, GEORGE WASHINGTON. Rustler of Wind River. il $1.30 (1½c) McClurg 17-10160
A fight between the cattle barons who had for years had control of the free ranges and the settlers who had come in to homestead the land is the basis of this story. To cover up the criminality of their proceedings, the cattle men had spread the rumor that the settlers were a band of rustlers and had branded Alan Macdonald, their leader, as a desperado and an outlaw. Saul Chadron had put a price on Macdonald’s head and his hired gunman was on the man’s trail. But at her first meeting with Macdonald, Frances Landcraft, daughter of the commander of the military post, knows that these tales are false, and she thereafter takes his part. Her judgment is vindicated, and the homesteaders’ cause is won.
+ A L A Bkl 14:98 D ‘17
“The characters hold together well and when the most original ones are presented together, as in the case of the leading cattle-baron and his murder-tool, the passage between them is strong in its conception and admirably phrased and described.”
+ — Boston Transcript p9 O 20 ‘17 210w
“A tale well worth the reading, not for its interest alone, but because of its historic value as a picture of the West in the days when might made right.”
+ N Y Times 22:218 Je 3 ‘17 160w
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Jl 15 ‘17 250w
OGDEN, HENRY ALEXANDER, comp. Our flag and our songs. il *60c Clode, E: J. 929.9 17-22075
A brief account of the origin and history of the United States flag, together with eighteen patriotic and other well-known songs, ranging from “The star-spangled banner” to “My old Kentucky home” and “When this cruel war is over.” The songs are credited to their authors.
421OGG, FREDERIC AUSTIN. Economic development of modern Europe. *$2.50 (1c) Macmillan 330.9 17-13473
Frederic Austin Ogg is associate professor of political science in the University of Wisconsin and author of “Social progress in contemporary Europe,” some chapters of which have been reproduced, with considerable modification, in the present volume. In deciding “what topics to include, and what space to allow to each, Professor Ogg followed these principles: to devote most of his attention to the nineteenth century, contenting himself with a summary sketch of preceding conditions; to omit from consideration the more technical aspects of economic history, such as public finance; and to confine himself in general to the history of three leading countries, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. ... Part 1. ‘Antecedents of nineteenth-century growth,’ occupies 114 pages. ... Part 2, ‘Agriculture, industry, and trade since 1815,’ pages 117-340, covers the development of production in the leading countries, with an added chapter on Russia; part 3, ‘Population and labour,’ pages 343-474, is devoted mainly to the organization and regulation of labor, and part 4, pages 477-641, treats of ‘Socialism and social insurance.’” (Am Econ R) There are bibliographies at the end of each chapter.
“He has read widely, uses his authorities with discrimination, selects and arranges his materials skilfully, and sets forth his product in good English. He is accurate. ... Altogether, his book offers the best survey known to the reviewer of the recent economic history of Europe.” Clive Day
+ — Am Econ R 7:608 S ‘17 580w
+ A L A Bkl 13:429 Jl ‘17
Reviewed by Edgar Dawson
+ Am Pol Sci R 12:151 F ‘18 250w
“The best single volume on the subject. ... Professor Ogg has depended for the most part upon secondary sources and most of these are written in English. ... In the chapter on Russia there is not a single reference to a German authority, although that is the chief source of information for one who does not read Russian. The bibliographies at the end of each chapter ... have not received the same careful attention which the author gave to the text, for there are not infrequent errors in titles, in spelling, etc.” E. L. Bogart