Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1917 Books (continued 6)
Reading edition
Reviewed by L. S. Hollingworth
+ Am J Soc 23:128 Jl ‘17 400w
A L A Bkl 14:39 N ‘17
“This brief but scientific account of special abilities and disabilities should be read especially by the practicing teacher and the school officer.” E. B. Woods
+ Am Pol Sci R 11:788 N ‘17 300w
“Apart from its title, which is altogether too general, this work may be unreservedly commended.”
+ Dial 63:411 O 25 ‘17 190w
Reviewed by A. T. Poffenberger
+ Educ 55:71 Ja ‘18 700w
“Public-school teachers will get something of benefit from the discussions of this book as well as those engaged in the technical work of mental examination.”
Pittsburgh 22:833 D ‘17 70w
+ El School J 18:70 S ‘17 750w
Pratt p11 Jl ‘17 30w
St Louis 15:139 My ‘17 10w
“The book is very carefully worked out; the conscientious accounts of the work by others are more than mere references, and the theoretical discussion and the actual case-records go clearly hand in hand. A careful study of this book gives one the comfort that instead of the usual mass of generalities dealt out in 67books on education we have at last solid ground for sensible and well directed constructive work.” Adolph Meyer, M.D.
+ Survey 38:372 Jl 28 ‘17 270w
BROOKE, HENRY BRIAN (KORONGO). Poems; with a foreword by M. P. Willcocks. il *$1.25 Lane 821 17-24096
“Captain Brian Brooke lost his life at Mametz, leading his men with unabated courage in spite of wounds. In British East Africa he had a great name as a hunter ... and readers of the foreword by Miss Willcocks will easily see what a splendid man he was. His life was a poem, but he did not write poetry. His verses are like those of Adam Lindsay Gordon, free-and-easy records of ‘The call of the wild,’ close communings with nature, tales of fine horses, lonely souls, and sinners going right at the end, and downright denunciation of some of the humbugs of civilisation.”—Sat R
“Brian Brooke lived poetry rather than wrote it. ... Judged by the critic’s standards, the verses are not poetry at all. ... The bulk of them first appeared in the Leader of South Africa and similar colonial papers. They are direct, sincere interpretations of pioneer life as he saw it, and they do for East Africa much what those of Robert Service have done for Alaska. Like Service’s they are largely narrative.” R. T. P.
+ — Boston Transcript p6 S 15 ‘17 760w
+ Sat R 123:412 My 5 ‘17 180w
“‘That ride,’ a race for the border between an illicit trader and a German whom he has taken unawares, is an exciting piece of direct narrative that may rival ‘How we beat the favourite’—its obvious source of inspiration. The Masai called Brooke ‘Korongo’ or ‘The Big Man’; his friends called him ‘The Boy’—a more fitting epithet, for it is long since we read any verse that was so full of the glorious vigour and recklessness of youth.”
+ Spec 118:616 Je 2 ‘17 170w
“In spite of the utter lack of literary craftsmanship—perhaps because of it to some extent—his rough ballads of African life are at times curiously impressive. ‘The song of the bamboos,’ for example, will always be remembered by those who have ever camped by a thicket.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p208 My 3 ‘17 670w
BROOKS, ALDEN. Fighting men. *$1.35 (2c) Scribner 17-21875
The author, who has been war correspondent and American ambulance driver, and is now an officer in the French artillery, uses the knowledge he has gained of the national characteristics of the fighting countries as a background for a series of short stories. Full of the horrors of war, the first interest of these tales is yet psychological. Contents: The Parisian; The Belgian; The Odyssey of three Slavs; The man from America; The Prussian; An Englishman. Some of the series were first published in Collier’s in 1916. “The man from America,” which appeared in the Century Magazine for July, 1917, describes that type of American to whom liberty was dearer than neutrality. He allowed no outsider to criticize his government but before April, 1917, he had died fighting with the Foreign legion of France. The intimate touches which the author gives bring these tales home to the reader as tragedy through which he is personally passing.
A L A Bkl 14:94 D ‘17
“They are the work of a writer who has felt (not pursued) the continental influence, and whose master is de Maupassant rather than ‘O. Henry.’ But they are the work of an American, and they have the direct and personal effect of honest work done at first hand.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 46:337 N ‘17 490w
“The red realism of war enters into the six short stories that make up this book.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 S 12 ‘17 170w
“To those who have found war too gloriously represented in fiction, to those who would like to know a few of the typical fighting men of the eastern and western fronts, shorn of their civilized demeanor and expressing in action the purely elemental impulses, we recommend ‘The fighting men.’”
+ Dial 63:282 S 27 ‘17 140w
+ Ind 92:536 D 15 ‘17 140w
“As a piece of writing ‘The fighting men’ is an uneven book. But for the most part it is graphic. And always it is horrible. The three stories, which take up the first half of the volume, are the best. ... ‘The Prussian’ is a terrible tale of war, like the others, but it seems less vivid, less real. As for ‘An Englishman,’ it is a morbid piece of fiction, false, maudlin, unwholesome.”
+ — NY Times 22:325 S 2 ‘17 550w
“The tale called ‘The Odyssey of three Slavs’ is one of the most powerful war stories we have seen.”
+ Outlook 117:100 S 19 ‘17 70w
“Gradually, however, the realization sinks in that they are something more profound and significant than mere printers’-ink pictures of phases of the great war—they are psychological studies executed with amazing dexterity, comprehension and simplicity of means, embodying, for the most part, in a single character the complex personality, the dominant racial spirit of each of the warring nations.” F: T. Cooper
+ Pub W 92:809 S 15 ‘17 900w
BROOKS, CHARLES STEPHEN. There’s pippins and cheese to come. il *$2 (5c) Yale univ. press 814 17-29242
“Journeys to Bagdad,” a book of reprinted papers published last year, won a place for the author in the regard of those who still cherish the essay as a form of literary diversion. There are twelve essays in the new volume, that which gives it the inviting title and the following: On buying old books; Any stick will do to beat a dog; Roads of morning; The man of Grub street comes from his garret; Now that spring is here; The friendly genii; Mr Pepys sits in the pit; To an unknown reader; A plague of all cowards; The asperities of the early British reviewers; The pursuit of fire. Some of these have appeared in the New Republic and the Yale Review.
“Whimsical, clever essays with a leisurely atmosphere, reminiscent of Lamb.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:119 Ja ‘18
“One of those books which cannot be recommended at all to many readers, but which can be recommended very highly to some. The worst that can be said of these twelve essays, from any point of view, is that they are a waste of time and energy, and fail to stimulate; they are often as futile as Edward Lear’s nonsense books, but at the same time almost as refreshing.” J. F. S.
+ — Boston Transcript p2 D 15 ‘17 400w
+ Cleveland p133 D ‘17 60w
“Rarely does one find a book so loaded with quiet humor, literary charm, ease of expression and delicate fancy.”
+ Ind 92:604 D 29 ‘17 80w
“He has nothing whatever that is new to communicate but his own personal gusto; and he even smacks his lips, as he employs the subjunctive mood, with an antique smack.”
+ Nation 106:44 Ja 10 ‘18 200w
“By all the known laws of style and thought Mr Brooks ought to have lived 100 years ago. The peculiar appeal of what he has to say comes from the fact that he is essentially archaic. He talks about the most modern things from an 18th or early 19th century point of view. ... Not the least entertaining feature of ‘Pippins and cheese’ is the skill with which Theodore Diedricksen, jr., has illustrated the pages.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 D 8 ‘17 1300w
68BROOKS, EUGENE CLYDE. Story of corn and the westward migration. il 75c (1c) Rand 633 16-23150
The author tells the story of corn from an interesting point of view, linking it up with the history of the westward movement of population in our country and the settlement and development of the Mississippi valley. The first chapters of the book are of a more general nature, treating of The struggle for food, Mythical stories of our food-giving plants, Food a factor in civilization, etc. The work is a companion volume to “The story of cotton,” and the two together, the author says, “should make a good course in elementary economic history for the last year of the grammar school or the first year of the high school.” The author is professor of education in Trinity college, Durham, N.C.
BROWER, HARRIETTE MOORE. Piano mastery; second series. il *$1.75 (3c) Stokes 786 17-25989
A second series of talks with pianists and teachers, including conferences with Hofmann, Godowsky, Grainger, Powell, Novaes, Hutcheson and others. In all, there are twenty-four interviews, each offering from a different angle, colored by a different personality, some big truth or truths about the development of piano art. The chapters will prove stimulating, inspiring and instructive to students.
“Not less interesting and valuable to the student and music lover than the first series.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:82 D ‘17
Pittsburgh 22:811 D ‘17 50w
BROWN, ALICE. Bromley neighborhood. il *$1.50 (1c) Macmillan 17-18592
“If a ‘neighborhood’ story can be said to have a heroine the outstanding, central figure of Miss Brown’s new novel is not either one of its young women ... but Mary Neale, middle-aged and mother of the two young men whose loves and ambitions, foibles and missteps furnish much of the skeleton of the story. ... But the Neales are only one of several families that inhabit the country neighborhood of Bromley, in New England, and all the others, the Greenes, the Brocks, the Gleasons, and their neighbors are pictured in the same detailed and graphic style, with little threads of quiet humor running through and the interaction of their individualities upon one another and the reaction of each to the environment form the story.”—N Y Times
+ A L A Bkl 14:25 O ‘17
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Bookm 46:95 S ‘17 700w
“It is a story of the spirit rather than of the flesh. ... In a story of New England life we expect to find the sort of New Englanders we meet there. But there are practically none of these in ‘Bromley neighborhood.’ Its people might have existed and their happenings might have come to pass anywhere in the wide world, but least of all in New England.” E. F. E.
– + Boston Transcript p6 Jl 18 ‘17 1400w
“The book is excellent in character drawing and has the plot material for several good short stories. As a long story, however, its construction breaks down.”
+ — Cleveland p103 S ‘17 80w
“Perhaps the men and women of Bromley neighborhood are a little too consistent, even for New England, where consistency is said to be so common a jewel as to pass unnoticed; perhaps Miss Brown is a shade unsympathetic toward those characters in whom the spirit of New England has shrunk and crystallized into something different. But on the whole, the people of Bromley neighborhood are real people with reactions that are, on the whole, true—deadly true.”
+ — Dial 63:280 S 27 ‘17 550w
“Surely one of the best American novels of the year.”
+ Ind 92:561 D 22 ‘17 300w
“Miss Brown burns with a clear flame of indignation against the mood of the American government and the American people during the first year of the war. She respects only those who refused to be bound by official neutrality, who saw where our part lay and tried to do it. And she sees the war as a great purifier and solvent. ... As for the story proper, the tangled love story of Hugh and Ben Neale and Ellen Brock and Grissie Gleason, it is, like all of Miss Brown’s longer narratives, plainly a fiction. The truth is, she cannot paint a full-length portrait of a man. The women of this story are truly characterized.”
+ — Nation 105:124 Ag 2 ‘17 520w
“Miss Brown’s virulent pro-ally bias can be excused. She is as much entitled to her opinion as one holding the reverse to his. But the artificiality of the whole plot, the excessive limitations of her characters, are not so excusable.” Clement Wood
– + N Y Call p14 Ag 26 ‘17 400w
“Miss Brown excels in this rich and glowing interpretation of New England character and temperament. Scarcely does she have her equal among writers of recent years. ... Once in a while she falls short in her interpretation into action, or rather, allows a character so to offend against probability as to rouse the reader to indignant protest. But when she does this it is because of her need of some crucial action in her plot and it usually takes the form of allowing one of her women characters to embark upon some adventure of sex that outrages all human probability. This new novel has just such a flaw in the sudden marriage of Ellen Brock.”
+ — N Y Times 22:255 Jl 8 ‘17 700w
“No novel by Alice Brown, not even ‘The prisoner,’ is more mature or richer in character depiction than ‘Bromley neighborhood.’ It would indeed be difficult to name any American novel of the year which is more thoroughly well worth reading.”
+ Outlook 116:626 Ag 22 ‘17 180w
Pittsburgh 22:649 O ‘17 20w
“A very fine novel, a better sermon on the recovery of the lost values of American citizenship.”
+ R of Rs 56:333 S ‘17 350w
“The work contains diverse elements—some richly truthful and others sentimentally romantic.”
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Ag 5 ‘17 550w
BROWN, ALICE. Road to Castaly, and later poems. *$1.50 Macmillan 811 17-7033
The earliest copyright date of the poems brought together in this book is 1893. It is in part a reprint of a small volume with the same title issued a number of years ago. Later poems have been added. Among these are a short poetic drama, “The immortal witnesses,” and a sonnet sequence, “The book of love.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:340 My ‘17
“The volume shows no lack of craftsmanship in the handling of a variety of poetic forms. ... It is the sincere and sometimes inspired singing of a poet. ... Her shorter poems are without exception her best.” R. T. P.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Mr 21 ‘17 1150w
“The distinction of Miss Alice Brown’s poetry is its originality; Miss Brown is remarkable for her power of finding new themes and of saying new things about old themes.”
+ Lit D 54:1999 Je 30 ‘17 700w
“Without classing Miss Brown among great or incisive poets, I can warmly commend ‘The road to Castaly.’ First of all, she has utterance, the plastic mouth. There is a perfect leafage of phrase, a sun-flecked and wind-tossed abundance, over which her fancy plays with what I can best describe as a hovering fondness. Again, her work is notable for the rarity of imperfections—itself a high rarity in current American verse of any grade.” O. W. Firkins
+ Nation 105:400 O 11 ‘17 240w
69
+ N Y Times 22:241 Je 24 ‘17 280w
“Originality, daring, delicacy—these are the qualities that mark this book of verse from beginning to end. ... Yet the mastery is not complete; a certain obscurity clouds many of the poems, and the fascinating series of sonnets called ‘The book of love,’ which one feels ought to be the author’s best work, is for this reason unsatisfying.”
+ No Am 205:809 My ‘17 320w
“One is accustomed to think of Alice Brown as the author of the prize play, ‘Children of earth,’ and as a successful short-story writer, rather than as a poet, but this book will not fail to convince her readers of her great natural gift for poetic expression. The poems in this collection are diverse of theme, thoughtful, and reverent of mood and strong with a certain dramatic propulsion.”
+ R of Rs 55:439 Ap ‘17 100w
+ Springf’d Republican p19 My 27 ‘17 380w
BROWN, CHARLES REYNOLDS. Master’s way; a study in the synoptic gospels. *$1.75 (1c) Pilgrim press 232 17-2209
A series of papers reprinted from the Congregationalist. The author says, “This is not a ‘Life of Christ.’ It contains a series of studies based upon the more significant actions and utterances of the Master as we find them reported in the synoptic gospels.” They are designed especially for those engaged in Sunday school work or leading Bible study classes. “They were not written for the critical scholar.” The author is dean of the School of religion at Yale university.
“Dr Brown has sufficient keenness of insight, freshness of statement, and real power of interpretation to make his collection of ‘lesson helps’ worth preservation in this permanent form. ... This is the work of a teacher.”
+ Bib World 50:50 Jl ‘17 300w
“Filled with a sympathy which finds in love’s boundlessness a hope for all mankind, this collection of Doctor Brown’s sermons comforts as well as inspires.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 O 31 ‘17 210w
“Delightful and full of suggestions.”
+ Ind 90:299 My 12 ‘17 60w
“To a remarkable degree it correlates the events and the ministry of Christ with present-day problems and needs. ... The best modern scholarship appears throughout the book. The author is very balanced in his judgments and presents both sides of the disputed questions.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 F 8 ‘17 150w
BROWN, DEMETRA (VAKA) (MRS KENNETH BROWN). Heart of the Balkans. *$1.50 (3½c) Houghton 914.97 17-14034
In these papers, some of them reprinted from the Delineator and the Century, the author describes a journey taken thru the Balkans in company with her brother. The date of these travels is not given, but they were probably taken in one of the interims of the first or second Balkan wars. The author was most interested, as she states, in the women of these countries. Contents: Wild Albania; Romantic Albania; Through the lands of the Black-mountaineers; The eagle and the sparrow; Servia, the undaunted; The gypsies of the Balkans; The Prussia of the Balkans; The sons of the Hellenes; Saloniki, the city of histories.
“She gives much information, shows the contrasts between the various peoples and has many original points of view.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:22 O ‘17
“The author is remarkably successful in grasping and presenting the diverse characteristics of these neighbor-peoples.”
+ Cleveland p115 S ‘17 50w
“It would make a poor guidebook indeed, but it is something better. Her word pictures of the physical appearance of each land are suggestive and touched with beauty.”
+ Dial 63:348 O 11 ‘17 190w
+ Ind 90:561 Je 23 ‘17 30w
+ Ind 91:78 Jl 14 ‘17 50w
“The author is a Greek, born in Constantinople, a woman who has studied both the political and racial characteristics of her country and who has also a style charmingly individual, picturesque, and a diction worthy of her native land.”
+ Lit D 55:42 O 13 ‘17 290w
+ Outlook 116:305 Je 20 ‘17 180w
Pittsburgh 22:674 O ‘17 50w
Pratt p46 O ‘17 20w
“Particularly valuable in this fascinating book is the presentation of the characteristics of the women of the various countries. If anyone wishes to get a vivid first-hand account of these countries in brief compass that is more engaging than most fiction, this little book to him can be recommended.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 29 ‘17 260w
BROWN, EDNA ADELAIDE. Spanish chest. il *$1.35 (2c) Lothrop 17-23755
This book for boys and girls, by an author who can always be depended on for a fresh and absorbing story, describes attractively scenes in the island of Jersey. Two English girls, thrown on their own resources, decide to let rooms to tourists and are fortunate in obtaining as their first lodgers a delightful American family. Edith the younger of the two English girls, immediately makes friends with Frances, the American, and Estelle, the older, is at once attracted to Mrs Thayne. The two American boys, Win and Roger, find interests to their liking, Win in historical research and Roger in outdoor adventure and exploration. The party make friends with the residents of an old manor house, associated with the stay of Charles II on the island, and are allowed to investigate its secret passage ways. The finding of the chest, once the possession of Prince Charley, is the culminating incident.
+ A L A Bkl 14:100 D ‘17
“It is not a love tale; it is not a story of adventure; it is not a story of mystery and ghosts, and yet these features are suggested, giving a distinct charm that makes it readable for older persons, as well as the younger generation.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 S 8 ‘17 100w
+ Ind 92:447 D 1 ‘17 60w
N Y Times 22:389 O 7 ‘17 50w
Outlook 117:100 S 19 ‘17 20w
“The Channel islands are unfamiliar ground to most American readers, and the peculiarities of Jersey in general, and of St Helier’s in particular, are well brought out by the author, and even the little colloquialisms that she introduces are worth noting.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 D 1 ‘17 160w
BROWN, GEORGE ROTHWELL. My country; a story of today. il *$1.35 (2½c) Small 17-23648
This is said to be the first novel to come out of our war with Germany. The plot and the way in which the story is developed recall Phillips Oppenheim. The hero, Wilhelm Hartmann, known as Billy, and his twin brother, Karl, are Prussians by birth, though their father has become a loyal American citizen. After the father’s death, Karl returns to Germany for his education and becomes thoroughly Prussianized, while Billy, through the influence of Prussians who hope to use him later, though he is ignorant of this at the time, is appointed to Annapolis and later promoted to a position of importance in the United States navy. The crucial point in the story comes when Billy, already obliged to pay the penalty of a dual nationality in suffering the distrust of his fellow officers, meets his twin brother, who has returned secretly by submarine as the official representative of the Kaiser and tells Billy that he is the Kaiser’s man, that he owes his appointment as assistant chief-of-staff to the commander-in-chief to Prussian influence and that it is his duty to save Germany by betraying the American navy. How 70Billy deals with his brother and how he saves and finally wins the girl he loves is ingeniously told.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 20 ‘17 480w
Cleveland p128 N ‘17 70w
“The story is a thrilling one and offers a serious idea or two besides.”
+ — Dial 63:220 S 13 ‘17 120w
+ N Y Times 22:243 Je 24 ‘17 330w
BROWN, HAROLD WARNER. Electrical equipment; its selection and arrangement, with special reference to factories, shops and industrial plants. il *$2 McGraw 621.3 17-5558
“The book supplements, and does not duplicate, existing recognized texts which describe electrical apparatus or present the principles of design and application or give various performance data. Its aim, in contrast, is to show how to apply principles and data elsewhere accessible.”—Engin News-Rec
A L A Bkl 14:44 N ‘17
Cleveland p93 Jl ‘17 20w
“Non-electrical men who have problems in the selection and use of electrical equipment put up to them, will welcome Mr Brown’s lectures.”
+ Engin News-Rec 78:363 My 17 ‘17 150w
N Y Br Lib News 4:59 Ap ‘17
“Unique in that it attacks the subject from the standpoint of the mechanical engineer. To facilitate study, data references are confined mainly to the ‘Standard’ and the ‘American’ handbooks, while Alexander Gray’s ‘Principles and practice of electrical engineering’ is depended upon for theory.”
+ N Y P L New Tech Bks p7 Ap ‘17 120w
“Primarily intended to guide college students in laying out their work and to assist mechanical and electrical engineers in selecting electrical equipment, and in this capacity it should find a wide field of usefulness.”
+ Pittsburgh 22:445 My ‘17 50w
“Helpful book, the first to deal definitely with this subject.”
+ Pittsburgh 22:517 Je ‘17 20w
“The tables given in the chapter on Motor applications are a very important part of the work.”
+ Power 45:400 Mr 20 ‘17 440w
Pratt p17 Jl ‘17 20w
“Author is connected with the engineering department of Cornell university.”
+ Quar List New Tech Bks Ap ‘17 160w
St Louis 15:174 Je ‘17 10w
BROWN, IVOR. Security. *$1.25 (1½c) Doran
The way of dons, the way of men, the way of women, and the way of the world are the four divisions of this novel. John Grant, an Oxford don at the opening of the story, is just beginning to find the peace and security of the life intolerable. His father’s death, which brings him a comfortable fortune, provides a way of escape. He goes to London to plunge into the world of men with a friend who is a champion of labor. But he is not built for the hazards and excitements of such an existence. He leaves it and marries, expecting to find in marriage the peace and security for which he again longs. But his wife also has married for security, and like himself she finds that it palls after a time. She tries a way of escape which, strangely enough, results in drawing the two, husband and wife, together in a mutual understanding.
“So far as the hero himself is concerned, we hope recognition of the fact will grow among readers that, like many well-intentioned capitalists, he is attempting to improve at one end the situation he is helping to create at the other. ... Security is certainly never attained, though if the hero had any real aim in life, perhaps it was that. A better title would have been ‘The slacker’s progress.’”
— Ath p126 Mr ‘16 550w
“‘A thoughtful and sincere piece of work.’”
+ Cleveland p33 Mr ‘17 60w
+ N Y Times 22:136 Ap 15 ‘17 360w
“The talk of the labour men is as good as the talk of the dons. ... Our conviction of the author’s knowledge begins to wane in ‘The way of women,’ and it evaporates rapidly in ‘The way of the world.’”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p70 F 10 ‘16 600w
BROWN, KATHARINE HOLLAND. Wages of honor, and other stories. il *$1.35 (2c) Scribner 17-24278
The stories in this book are divided into three groups, representing three geographical divisions of our continent. The four stories of the first group: The wages of honor; The master strategist; “Crabbed age and youth”; and Brewster blood have scenes laid in the east. Following these are three stories of the Mississippi country: The ragged edge of forty; Raw prose; Briarley’s real woman. The third group consists of three stories of Mexico: Billy Foster and the snow queen; Millicent, maker of history; On a brief text from Isaiah. With two exceptions the stories are reprinted from Scribner’s Magazine.
“Ten readable short stories. They all have a high moral tone.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:94 D ‘17
“Magazine readers are already well acquainted with the clean and dignified style characteristic of the author. There is nothing to offend and much to interest and provide pleasant reading in these three hundred pages.”
+ Cath World 106:413 D ‘17 80w
“Rather subtle and a little too slow for the average novel reader. The three stories of Mexico are interesting, especially the first, in letter form, and they present a new view of the Mexican peon.”
+ — Cleveland p128 N ‘17 50w
“They are all stories with happy endings, irrespective of the logic of the situation.”
+ — N Y Times 22:388 O 7 ‘17 160w
“A man cannot write a story of a sewing society that will convince women and a woman cannot write of violent masculine physical labor, in a way convincing to men. Thus, in ‘The ragged edge of forty,’ Miss Brown, though she has her technical details and a correct background, writes a story that leaves the masculine reader with the unsatisfied sense that she didn’t know what she was writing about. ‘Billy Foster and the snow queen’ has, in many ways, the greatest appeal in the book.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p15 Ja 13 ‘18 380w
BROWN, PHILIP MARSHALL. International realities. *$1.40 (3c) Scribner 341 17-3489
The author says, “Since the great war began I have been conscious, with many others, of the urgent necessity of a thorough reconstruction of the law of nations in accordance with the big facts of international life. I have set myself the task of endeavoring to ascertain the fundamental values in international relations. The method followed has been to select certain of the large problems of international relations and treat them as separate topics illustrating and elucidating some of the basic principles of international law.” Some of the papers are reprinted from the North American Review. Contents: International realities; Nationalism; The rights of states; The limitations of arbitration; International administration; Ignominious neutrality; The dangers of pacifism; Pan-Americanism; Democracy and diplomacy; The substitution of law for war.
A L A Bkl 14:5 O ‘17
“Though unduly obsessed by ‘realities,’—which is to say, existing phenomena—and unnecessarily patronising in tone toward the ‘emotion and sentiment’ of those who seek a more idealistic and visionary solution, it is nevertheless a valuable analysis of the bases of international law.” Nathaniel Pfeffer
+ — Bookm 45:198 Ap ‘17 230w
71“His book will serve to clear up some misunderstood points, but his personal predilections are apparent and his ‘common sense’ reduces all considerations to a somewhat materialistic basis. Much of this was written for magazines, and a part of it has a slight political-campaign flavor.”
+ — Cleveland p53 Ap ‘17 70w
“It is no dispassionate study as proved by such headings as Ignominious neutrality and Dangers of pacificism, but in pointing out the tasks immediately practical, especially in relation to South America, it is suggestive and inspiring.”
+ Ind 90:556 Je 23 ‘17 50w
“Professor Brown of Princeton, in writing of international relations and the ‘law’ that more or less guides and governs them, has the advantage of adding considerable experience in diplomacy to his professional study. He served as secretary of legation and as chargé in the Near East, especially at Constantinople, and as minister to Honduras.”
N Y Times 22:87 Mr 11 ‘17 700w
St Louis 15:133 My ‘17 10w
BROWN, WILLIAM ADAMS. Is Christianity practicable? lectures delivered in Japan. *$1.25 (4c) Scribner 261 16-23974
Dr Brown is Union seminary lecturer on Christianity in the Far East and the lectures that make up this book were delivered in Japan. The question that serves as title is considered with reference to the present war. The author’s answer is that Christianity has never been tried. It has been tried as an individual religion, but has never been applied to national or international problems. The responsibility for the war is laid to the fact that the leaders of all the so-called Christian nations have assumed the impracticability of Christianity. In this they have been sustained by public sentiment. The five chapters of the book are: The world crisis as challenge and as opportunity; The Christian interpretation of history; The Christian programme for humanity; The duty for to-morrow; What the church can do.
“A courageous, candid, and constructive book—courageous, because it consists of lectures in the Orient upon the most embarrassing question of Christian apologetics; candid and constructive, because without artificial or question-begging theological premises, and working only with real facts and ideals, the author has produced a clear and simple apologetic adapted to build up genuine Christian conviction.” E. W. Lyman
+ Am J Theol 21:467 Jl ‘17 860w
“These lectures were delivered in Japan, and ought to have a wholesome influence in counteracting the baleful effects of jingoism both in Japan and in America.”
+ Bib World 49:186 Mr ‘17 450w
N Y Times 22:436 O 28 ‘17 60w
+ Outlook 115:668 Ap 11 ‘17 200w
“The volume is a distinct contribution to the literature of social Christianity.” Graham Taylor
+ Survey 38:574 S 29 ‘17 360w
BROWN, WILLIAM ALDEN. Portland cement industry; with notes on physical testing. il *$3 Van Nostrand 666 (Eng ed 17-17970)
“A practical treatise on the building, equipping, and economical running of a Portland cement plant.” (Sub-title) A short introductory chapter and a historical sketch of the industry are followed by discussions of: Manufacture—raw materials; Design and construction of a modern Portland cement plant; The rotary kiln; Power plants; Costs and statistics, etc. The author is a member of the South Wales institute of engineers, and the book has been written to encourage the development of the Portland cement industry in Great Britain to meet the competition of Germany and the United States after the war.
“The book itself is a very good categorical description of the manufacture of portland cement, with special detailed reference to the individual parts making up the cement mill. More attention is paid to the factory itself and to raw materials than to chemical investigations, although there are six chapters on the technique of testing.”
+ Engin News-Rec 79:325 Ag 16 ‘17 130w
“The book before us is eminently practical, and deserves serious consideration because the author has had important American experience, and is now managing a large modern cement works in South Wales. Some notes on physical testing constitute a valuable feature.” J. A. A.
+ Nature 98:368 Ja 11 ‘17 260w
BROWNE, BELMORE. White blanket. il *$1.25 (2c) Putnam 17-31026
A sequel to “The quest of the golden valley.” George Draper and Fred Morgan, the two boys of that story, spend a winter in Alaska with George’s uncle, who is prospecting for gold. In addition to helping establish a valuable mining claim, the two boys have many adventures and brave great dangers. The author, who is an arctic explorer, is utilizing his experiences in the north in this series of books for boys. His familiarity with the country is further shown in the drawings he has made to illustrate the story.
“A first-class book with a background of reality.”
+ N Y Times 22:565 D 16 ‘17 110w
BROWNE, JOHN HUTTON BALFOUR. Recollections; literary and political. *10s 6d Constable & co., London
Mr Browne, a Scottish lawyer, author of “Forty years at the bar” and of many other volumes, is a brother of Sir James Crichton-Browne. He shows a strong bent towards philosophy and was for several years a reviewer of philosophical books for the magazines. His “Recollections” abound in anecdotes, many of them not new.
“His thumb-nail appreciations of politicians and others are sometimes acute, occasionally amusing, and in certain instances likely to be dissented from by many readers. ... Does not appear to have much sympathy with efforts at social reforms. ... On pp. 113-14 there are some references to the United States which it would have been better, we think, to delete. On p. 203 ‘Aubernon,’ in a copy of a letter from Lord Bramwell, should be Auberon.”
– + Ath p417 Ag ‘17 390w
“He has no doubt about his likes and dislikes, and expresses them with a frankness that leaves little to be desired, and deals some shrewd knocks at the idols of the present generation. ... These recollections give us a vivid picture of a shrewd, able, alert, and highly critical mind, keenly interested in many subjects outside the law.”
+ Spec 118:88 Jl 28 ‘17 1600w
“These recollections are such as might have been published by that busy, canny old gentleman Polonius, but for the hasty action of Hamlet. ... They are not legal, but political and literary—a record of unimportant elections lost; of writings that have been forgotten by the writer himself; and of sentiments that have nothing novel or striking to commend them.”
— The Times [London] Lit Sup p353 Jl 26 ‘17 900w
BROWNE, PORTER EMERSON. Someone and somebody. il *$1.35 (2½c) Bobbs 17-14136
“The collision of a Long Island railroad train with an automobile in which his two tight-fisted uncles are riding raises the hero from the status of book agent to millionaire. Notwithstanding that he is a college man, he is singularly ignorant of the usages of good society. But he is physically attractive and soon learns the ways of the world into which fortune pitches him. Coincidentally with his leap from poverty to affluence, the heroine’s position is reversed. ... One day, however, she discovers that the hero’s uncles had mulcted her father of his fortune. She marches directly to the young man and demands 72her money back. ... He consents. But before he is able to carry out his good intention, the news is brought to him that his confidential agent has ... absconded [with his fortune].” (Springf’d Republican) Both young people, however, contrive to outwit ill fortune, and the book ends happily.
“There is a keenness even under the froth in a story of the type of this present one, and we have the impression that under it all he is rather laughing at those who read it. ... He deliberately puts aside the serious mood, unless it be true that his very burlesquing is serious. He gives us every kind of a fictional misfortune and then ends his story by arbitrarily bringing all right again.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 20 ‘17 350w
“Perhaps Mr Browne’s experience as a playwright is responsible for the manner in which the situation develops. ... His pointed humor is very diverting, and although the romance does not always move voluntarily, there is no lack of lively interest throughout.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Jl 8 ‘17 320w
BROWNELL, WILLIAM CRARY. Standards. *$1 (4½c) Scribner 801 17-13754
The author discusses standards in art and literature. The tendency of the present day is to discard standards of all kinds, and to point out the dangers of such a course is part of Mr Brownell’s aim in this little book. There are seven chapters, dealing with: Measures of value; The public; Taste; The individual; The inner life; “Modern art”; The cause of art and letters.
A L A Bkl 14:14 O ‘17
“A brief monograph, admirable in its technique and apparently intended to supplement his concentrated little essay on criticism.”
+ Cleveland p89 Jl ‘17 80w
“A thin volume of masterly essays with a rich and widely varied vocabulary that well serves to project intellectual and art pyrotechnics.”
+ Ind 92:604 D 29 ‘17 70w
“There can never be too much of the refined and much-experienced criticism such as Mr W. C. Brownell’s essay on ‘Standards,’ which we all read in Scribner’s Magazine and are glad to have now as a book.”
+ Nation 105:152 Ag 9 ‘17 100w
“His pages sparkle with wit and wisdom in happy combination. The reader feels the sway of a loyal, candid, deeply self-respecting nature and of a mind disciplined by the study not only of what literature discloses of life, but of that still richer revelation which actual living brings to the soul that can receive it.”
+ N Y Times 22:200 My 20 ‘17 800w
Pratt p33 O ‘17 20w
BRUBAKER, HOWARD. Ranny, otherwise Randolph Harrington Dukes. il *$1.40 (2c) Harper 17-20177
“A tale of those activities which made him an important figure in his town, in his family—and in other families.” (Sub-title) The sixteen chapters about the doings of this representative American small boy, during the year when he was “eight-going-on-nine” are written from the adult point of view. They appeared originally in Harper’s Magazine.
+ A L A Bkl 14:25 O ‘17
Cleveland p128 N ‘17 30w
“Howard Brubaker has been a real boy, but more to the point, he has the faculty of making his readers boys again. ‘Ranny’ is excellent reading.”
+ Dial 63:354 O 11 ‘17 40w
+ — N Y Times 22:282 Jl 29 ‘17 370w
BRUCE, EDWIN MORRIS. Detection of the common food adulterants. 3d ed rev and enl *$1.25 Van Nostrand 614.3 17-31161
This third edition of a little volume published in 1907 “has been revised so that it contains the latest and best tests for the common food adulterants.” (Preface) Contents: Dairy products; Meat and eggs; Cereal products; Leavening materials; Canned and bottled vegetables; Fruits and fruit products; Flavoring extracts; Saccharine products; Spices; Vinegar; Fats and oils; Beverages. In addition to the general index, there is an index to authors and tests.
BRUCE, HENRY ADDINGTON BAYLEY. Handicaps of childhood. *$1.50 (3c) Dodd 136.7 17-29498
The author states that he has written this book “to amplify and supplement his ‘Psychology and parenthood.’” “Its general aim, accordingly, is to present additional evidence in support of the doctrine, that, in view of the discoveries of modern psychology with regard to individual development, the mental and moral training of children by their parents ought to be begun earlier, and be carried on more intensively, than is the rule at present. But whereas in ‘Psychology and parenthood’ the emphasis was chiefly on the importance of early mental training, the chief concern of the present book is to demonstrate the importance of early training in the moral sphere.” (Preface) Much of the material here presented has already appeared in the Century, Good Housekeeping, McClure’s, Harper’s Bazar, Every Week, and the Mother’s Magazine. The book includes chapters on Stammering, The only child, and Fairy tales that handicap. This latter points out the danger to many children of fairy tales that reek of brutality and gore.
“A work of manufacture rather than of literature, but none the less rather interesting reading for an hour or two and, if liberally seasoned with the salt of skepticism, perhaps not unprofitable reading for parents. The salt is needed for the author’s naïve acceptance of Freudian ‘discoveries’; apart from this prepossession, his suggestions are not lacking in sanity.”
+ — Nation 106:120 Ja 31 ‘18 100w
“Simple in expression and eminently readable, this discussion of child psychology is based on full knowledge and sound thinking.”
+ Outlook 117:654 D 19 ‘17 60w
BRUCE, WILLIAM CABELL. Benjamin Franklin, self-revealed. 2v *$6 (3c) Putnam 17-29818
A biographical and critical study of Franklin based largely on his own writings. All of the aids of modern scholarship have been employed to make the work accurate and exhaustive. It is the many-sided Franklin who stands revealed in these pages. The first volume inquires into Franklin’s moral standing and system, his religious beliefs, family relations, American, British and French friends, and estimates Franklin, the philanthropist and citizen; the second volume portrays his personal characteristics, looks at Franklin, the man of business, statesman, man of science and writer.
“The volumes throughout are distinguished by keen critical insight and by a deep understanding of human nature, added to which are a fine sense of proportion and a literary manner which renders the work eminently readable.” E. J. C.
+ Boston Transcript p8 N 21 ‘17 730w
“Here are two volumes which, with literary finish, careful accuracy, and critical insight, consider every side of this remarkable man. They abound in citations from Franklin’s writings, especially his private letters, and thus reveal his personality as no mere biographical pages could.”
+ Lit D 55:36 D 15 ‘17 340w
“It is detached, impersonal, detailed, and it discusses Franklin’s foibles and flaws on every side, in all their manifestations and in all their relations to his family, friends, and period.”
+ N Y Times 23:5 Ja 6 ‘18 650w
“An admirable piece of work—every page sparkling with the interest that attaches to a unique character.”
+ Outlook 117:574 D 5 ‘17 100w
73
+ R of Rs 57:100 Ja ‘18 110w
+ — Spec 120:61 Ja 19 ‘18 2050w
“The author belongs to that school of American writers on biography and history who have never taken to heart the maxim that the half is greater than the whole.”
– + The Times [London] Lit Sup p16 Ja 10 ‘18 1000w
BRUNNER, EDMUND DE SCHWEINITZ. New country church building. (Library of Christian progress) il 75c Missionary education movement 17-17093
“Edmund de S. Brunner, who has been successful in community leadership and who knows churches from every angle, including that of the pulpit, ... has packed into these 140 pages a comprehensive survey of architectural and spiritual needs. Eleven plans are submitted for country churches, incorporating in varying degree, from simple to elaborate, suggestive arrangements for Sunday-school rooms, boys’ and girls’ club rooms, gymnasium, etc.; and several other plans deal with parish houses or community buildings.” (Springf’d Republican) The Federal council’s commission on church and country life has indorsed Dr Brunner’s volume.
+ Ind 91:345 S 1 ‘17 40w
“While the volume is meant for country churches, it has much of value for town and city parishes.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 O 8 ‘17 350w
“It is not a technical book, but it should be valuable to the architect, though it is written for the country minister, the country layman and the rural social worker. The sketches and plans by James Grunert are most suggestive. Particularly interesting is the section by Mrs Brunner upon the kitchen.” S.
+ Survey 38:574 S 29 ‘17 200w
BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS. Heart to heart appeals. il *$1 Revell 308 17-12620
“These selections from the Bryan speeches and writings are varied and all-embracing. The topics include Government, Imperialism, Equal suffrage, The liquor question, Peace, Ideals, Labor, Trusts, and many more.”—Boston Transcript
“As one glances through the pages of this book it is bound to embody merely the fond and lingering memories of a man whose talents and political efforts have largely spelled failure.”
— Boston Transcript p6 My 23 ‘17 450w
Reviewed by H. M. Kallen
Dial 63:445 N 3 ‘17 580w
“They afford many glimpses of history, with side-lights revealing a personality widely recognized as dominant and picturesque.”
+ Lit D 55:33 S 1 ‘17 60w
N Y Br Lib News 4:88 Je ‘17 6w
Springf’d Republican p15 S 30 ‘17 100w
BRYANT, MRS LORINDA (MUNSON). American pictures and their painters. il *$3 (4c) Lane 759.1 17-16076
This work “is designed to provide a working basis for the appreciation of American art. To accomplish this I have attempted especially to trace the careers of the leaders in their respective eras—artists who even now are modern old masters. ... Naturally it is too early as yet to judge the younger artists correctly, consequently only a limited number are here represented; those are included who indicate the trend of thought in art to-day.” (Introd.) Beginning with a chapter on West, Copley, Peale and Trumbull, the author traces American painting down to the present day, closing with a chapter on Ultra-modern art. The book is illustrated with over 200 reproductions of paintings.
A L A Bkl 14:12 O ‘17
“The author has been responsible for a series of quite a half-dozen books embodying various phases of this subject, all of which have found readers. ... The work is broad and comprehensive, and the many illustrations are equally so, and add greatly to the interest of the work.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 23 ‘17 420w
“The author’s appreciations are characterized by both fairness and interest. The 230 illustrations are chosen with discrimination.”
+ Ind 91:514 S 29 ‘17 60w
“The illustrations afford only a fair idea of the pictures, for it must be confest that they are somewhat flat and leave much to the imagination.”
+ — Lit D 55:43 D 1 ‘17 300w
+ Outlook 116:488 Jl 25 ‘17 40w
“The text is delightfully written, with just enough chattiness to lift it out of the ruts of guide-books. One welcomes the chapter on ultra-modern art, inasmuch as upon the spirit of unrest manifest in it largely depends our artistic progress.”
+ R of Rs 56:219 Ag ‘17 100w
“One studies the volume rather hopelessly in the search of the key to the sequence of names. The pictures are so good that they might stand as the raison d’etre of the volume with the letterpress added as commentary.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p6 D 13 ‘17 350w
BRYCE, MRS CHARLES. Long spoon. *$1.40 (2c) Lane 17-23341
The title of this book is taken from the old proverb, “He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.” The scene is laid in Wales. The heroine, Thirza, has married Sir Hugo Averill as a means of support, only to discover that he is a brute with a partially unbalanced brain. Two men fall in love with Lady Averill: George Blount, who has rented Sir Hugo’s fishing, and Oswald Gerrard, Sir Hugo’s land agent. The story goes on to tell how Lady Averill resorts to necromancy to solve her difficulties, and what comes of it all in the end.
“Terse and full of action and sustained interest. ... To introduce necromancy in a novel is daring and difficult, for if the subject is not treated with great tact it so easily distorts and cheapens. Mrs Bryce has done her work cleverly.”
+ N Y Times 22:343 S 16 ‘17 160w
BRYCE, JAMES BRYCE, viscount. Some historical reflections on war, past and present. *1s Oxford 172.4
These essays are portions of two presidential addresses delivered to the British academy, June, 1915 and July, 1916. “Among the topics considered are the vast range and extent of the war, its immense influence upon neutral nations, the changes in the methods of war, the cost, the moral issues raised, the effect in each nation upon the whole body of the people, ... the shock given to the rules of international law, the chief causes of war in the past, the question whether international machinery can be contrived ‘calculated to reduce the strength of the forces that make for war and to strengthen those that make for peace.’ He indicates some of the difficulties to be surmounted, but believes that there is much to be hoped from the creation of ... an international mind, and of an international public opinion.” (Ath)
Ath p33 Ja ‘17 280w
“Lord Bryce’s two presidential addresses are deliberately written in a spirit of detachment. ... The second address contains some acute criticisms upon plans for a federation, or league of nations.” M. J.
+ Int J Ethics 27:538 Jl ‘17 110w
BRYCE, JAMES BRYCE, viscount. Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman empire, 1915-1916; documents presented to Viscount Grey. *$1 Putnam 956 17-2893
“The collection is made from a great variety of reliable sources including American consuls and missionaries, German travelers and missionaries, Danish Red cross workers, Swiss visitors, native teachers, pastors and other religious 74leaders. It is a terrible mass of conclusive evidence pointing to the perpetration of the foulest crime ever committed against a defenseless people.”—Ind
A L A Bkl 13:393 Je ‘17
Ind 90:437 Je 2 ‘17 200w
“If the reader is sickened by the dreadful reiteration of horrors, of torture and murder and mutilation, of outrage and burning, of the sufferings of starving women forced to march on under a blazing sun when the pains of labour were on them, let him not fail to read Mr Toynbee’s admirable historical retrospect of Armenia and his review of the antecedents and procedure of the deportation policy.”
Spec 118:105 Ja 27 ‘17 2100w
BRYCE, JAMES BRYCE, viscount, and others. Proposals for the prevention of future wars. *1s Allen & Unwin, London 341.1 (Eng ed 17-22062)
“This is a draft scheme for an international alliance to keep the peace. It differs from the League of nations society’s programme in not asking the Allies to enforce an arbitrator’s award, and from the programme of the American League to enforce peace in requiring the Allies to deal with aggression by a non-Ally as well as by one of their number.”—Spec
Ath p303 Je ‘17 90w
Int J Ethics 28:288 Ja ‘18 110w
Spec 118:705 Je 23 ‘17 60w
“The proposals are reasonably modest and admittedly deal only with a part of the problem. They are concerned only with international disputes and with the means of preventing international wars. ... They are sound enough so far as they go, but the motor will not move without its petrol; and it is the spirit which is difficult to obtain.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p313 Jl 5 ‘17 2300w
BRYCE, JAMES BRYCE, viscount, and others. War of democracy. *$2 (2c) Doubleday 940.91 17-8205
A collection of papers on the war from the standpoint of the Allies. Lord Bryce in his introduction says: “The present war differs from all that have gone before it not only in its vast scale and in the volume of misery it has brought upon the world, but also in the fact that it is a war of principles, and a war in which the permanent interests, not merely of the belligerent powers but of all nations, are involved as such interests were never involved before. ... This war of principles is a war not only for the vindication of international right, for the faith of treaties, for the protection of the innocent, but also for liberty.” Among those who contribute to the book are: Lord Haldane, Gilbert Murray, Arthur J. Balfour, G. M. Trevelyan, Viscount Grey of Falloden (Sir Edward Grey), and M. Maurice Barrès.
“Mr Balfour’s discussion of naval questions comes no nearer to our time than the summer of 1915, and this fact suggests the most obvious comment upon this whole volume. It is not keyed to the present moment. It meets no present vital need. The volume entitled ‘The war and democracy,’ which Messrs Seton-Watson, Wilson, Zimmern, and Greenwood published in 1915, is incomparably superior to this one.” C. H. Levermore
– + Am Hist R 23:170 O ‘17 470w
“A notable collection of articles, addresses, interviews, and documents.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:348 My ‘17
“Mr Fisher’s discussion of the value of small states is an historical analysis of permanent importance. ... The temper of the book is admirable in its moderation and its calm common sense. It is greatly to be hoped that this collection is only the first of a series which will winnow from the immense mass of pamphlets some, at any rate, of those which have more than a momentary importance.” H. J. Laski
+ Dial 62:473 My 31 ‘17 170w
+ Ind 90:556 Je 23 ‘17 70w
“‘The war of democracy’ was written for American consumption and was put together with the avowed purpose of influencing American opinion. As America made up its mind definitively at the very hour of the book’s publication, many of the articles, addresses, and interviews so carefully selected by the editor are rather belated. A few of the articles, however, are of permanent value.”
+ — Nation 105:227 Ag 30 ‘17 300w
N Y Br Lib News 4:58 Ap ‘17
“Perhaps the article which most needs to be read by Americans is the one on ‘Economic Germany,’ in which Henri Hauser discusses German industry as a factor making for war. For he lays bare developments, conditions, purposes that are as much a menace to the harmony and well-being of the world as is Prussian militarism.”
+ N Y Times 22:45 F 11 ‘17 650w
“Includes some of the great speeches of the war period.”
+ Ontario Library Review 1:114 My ‘17 30w
+ Pittsburgh 22:427 My ‘17 60w
+ Pratt p43 O ‘17 40w
R of Rs 55:445 Ap ‘17 70w
St Louis 15:106 Ap ‘17
BUBNOFF, I. V. Co-operative movement in Russia; its history, significance, and character. il $1.25 M. Fainberg, 309 Broadway, N.Y. (Co-operative printing society, Manchester, England) 334 17-30589
The author shows that cooperation has gained a firm footing among the Russian peasantry, and that the European war has given a prodigious stimulus to the movement. He begins with a sketch of agriculture from the abolition of serfdom in 1861, and tells of the help furnished the peasants by the zemstvos and by agricultural societies, whose work is mainly instructional while economic functions are discharged by the artels for production, consumers’ societies for distribution, and credit banks for finance. Consumers’ societies, we are told, between 1905 and 1917 have multiplied from 1,000 to 20,000 and credit and loan associations from 1,434 to 16,057.
“The book evidently contains authentic matter prepared by one thoroughly familiar with the subject at first hand.” Herman Kobbe
+ N Y Call p14 S 2 ‘17 180w
Spec 118:64 Jl 21 ‘17 70w
“Mr Bubnoff says nothing about the political or industrial side, but his account of the cooperative movement reveals so much capacity for organization, self-help, and practical action among the peasantry and industrial classes of Russia that current events become much more intelligible in the light of it. ... His book is a compact statement of facts with sufficient explanatory comment to make clear the character of cooperation in Russia and its various ramifications. It is a valuable addition to the library of cooperative literature.”
* + The Times [London] Lit Sup p291 Je 21 ‘17 950w
BUCHAN, JOHN. Battle of the Somme. il *$1.50 (2c) Doran (1s Nelson, London) 940.91 17-14221
The main purpose of the allied forces at the Somme, says the author, was “to exercise a steady and continued pressure on a certain section of the enemy’s front.” Subsidiary aims were to ease the pressure on Verdun and to prevent the transference of large bodies of German troops from the western to the eastern front. He gives a somewhat detailed account of the entire campaign, dividing it into four stages. The book is illustrated and well supplied with maps.
“Contains two appendixes: 1, Sir Douglas Haig’s second dispatch; 2, General Sixt von Armin’s report.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:442 Jl ‘17
75“A most lucid and instructive account with not a few fine touches; it is also marked by the admirable balance that places Mr Buchan above most war historians and chroniclers of these days.”
+ Ath p600 D ‘16 33w
“Mr Buchan’s book is a recital of the field moves of an army all told in a calm, clear way and without passion. Then at intervals it gathers up its momentum of dispassion, its inertia of facts, and in some supreme and succinct statement of fact carries the reader to a conclusion that creates emotion. It is his reticence that gives one additional confidence in the sequence of his facts.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Jl 25 ‘17 550w
“His style is simple narrative with the accent of true English restraint.”
+ New Repub 13:224 D 22 ‘17 270w
+ N Y Times 22:323 S 2 ‘17 220w
Pratt p39 O ‘17 10w
+ R of Rs 56:213 Ag ‘17 90w
“Written with the fervour and simple straight patriotism we expect from Mr Buchan. ... Here is the right blend of emotion and of sturdy common sense.”
+ + Sat R 122:556 D 9 ‘16 100w
“Its main concern is to give a semitechnical account, which he succeeds admirably in doing, thanks in great measure to the ample number of maps with which the book is supplied, and which appear at sufficiently frequent intervals to make the text entirely comprehensible. ... Mr Buchan’s qualifications for his task are attested by his recent appointment as director of publicity in Great Britain.”
+ Springf’d Republican p19 My 13 ‘17 450w
“This is a timely narrative, very well illustrated.”
+ + The Times [London] Lit Sup p562 N 23 ‘16 20w
BUCHAN, JOHN. Greenmantle. *$1.35 (1c) Doran 17-20424
Richard Hannay, hero of the author’s first novel, “The thirty-nine steps,” is made the central figure in this war story. Hannay, who has been made a major in England’s new army, is summoned to the foreign office and entrusted with an important mission. He is to investigate the sources of a “jehad” (holy war) said to be organizing in the East. With three companions he gets into Germany, and out again. He then goes to Constantinople, and there finds what he is seeking, the woman who is the chief agent in fomenting rebellion in India.
“An absorbing adventure story, not a series of ‘movie’ thrills but clean cut, sustained excitement.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:314 Ap ‘17
“Mr Buchan has given us another novel, not only of vivid interest, but one which visualizes certain phases of the world war as only a book of its kind can.” F. B.
+ Boston Transcript p7 F 24 ‘17 300w
“Although (or perhaps because) it is not a realistic war story, the book is a great favorite with convalescent readers at the base hospitals, and the fact that the author wrote it while in active service accounts for the vividness of some of its details.”
+ Cleveland p63 My ‘17 90w
“There is no instruction in the book. ... You will just be thrilled—as Cooper thrilled you with his Mohicans and Dumas with his Musketeers. You will arise refreshed from the contemplation of great exploits greatly performed. And next day’s business will seem the brighter because for one short evening you have held commune with the impossible.” H. J. L.
+ New Repub 11:60 My 12 ‘17 950w
“A story full of spirit and swing and high heroism. It is very much better than either of its author’s two previous novels, successful and interesting as were both those books.”
+ N Y Times 22:75 Mr 4 ‘17 450w
“This is the longest of the sensational romances that Mr Buchan has given us since the outbreak of the war. It is also the most exciting and in our opinion the best.”
+ Spec 117:555 N 4 ‘16 850w
+ Springf’d Republican p15 F 18 ‘17 250w
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p512 O 26 ‘16 500w
BUCHAN, JOHN.[2] Nelson’s history of the war; with preface by the Earl of Rosebery. v 14-17 maps ea *60c Nelson 940.91 (War15-86)
Volumes 1 to 13 were published in 1916. In volume 14 Mr Buchan “begins with General Townshend’s surrender, writes of the war in the Levant, of the Russian front, of the battle of Jutland, of Italy’s part, and ends on the second battle of Verdun.” (N Y Times) Volume 15 deals with Brussilov’s offensive and the intervention of Rumania. “The sixteenth volume is devoted entirely to the battle of the Somme. That great achievement is described in five chapters, the first of which is concerned with preliminaries. The appendixes contain Sir Douglas Haig’s second dispatch, and General Sixt von Armin’s report describing experiences of the 4th German corps during July, 1916.” (Ath) “The two main episodes of the seventeenth instalment are the brilliant opening and the disastrous sequel of Roumania’s campaign, and the heroic advance of the French at Verdun.” (Ath)
“Mr Buchan’s account of the great sea-fight is a masterpiece of clear and sober narrative.”
+ Ath p551 N ‘16 200w (Review of v 14)
+ Ath p316 Je ‘17 70w (Review of v 16)
“Lieut.-Col. Buchan continues, with the same mastery of detail and incisive style, to convert yesterday’s news into intelligible history. It would facilitate reference if the year, as well as the month and day, of the event recorded were printed oftener in the margin.”
+ — Ath p531 O ‘17 180w (Review of v 17)
“He handles the intricacies of the Balkans with the same quiet clearness that marks his treatment of the attacks on Verdun.”
+ N Y Times 22:18 Ja 21 ‘17 90w (Review of v 14)
“The most striking portion of the work is the lucid account of the battle of Jutland, which is described with an exemplary grasp of essentials. There are several diagrams.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 23 ‘17 (Review of v 14)
The Times [London] Lit Sup p419 Ag 30 ‘17 100w (Review of v 17)
BUCHAN, JOHN. Salute to adventurers. *$1.35 (1½c) Doran 17-26974
Altho the story opens in Scotland, its scene changes shortly to Virginia. Young Andrew Garvald goes out to the colonies to engage in trade. His business takes him far away from Jamestown and the tidewater, back into the interior of the country, where he learns more of true conditions than the governor or the young gallants of his train will believe. The sudden outbreak of the Indians does not come to him without warning, and because of this he is able to rescue Elspeth Blair and win the reward of which he had dreamed ever since his first meeting with the girl in Scotland years before.
“Good of its type, but not as good as ‘Greenmantle.’”
+ — A L A Bkl 14:130 Ja ‘18
“It is a colorful tale, this, with plenty of action and ingenuity and interest, but it does not rank for a moment with ‘Greenmantle,’ either in its characters, its setting, or its plot.”
+ — N Y Times 22:468 N 11 ‘17 550w
“With its strong Scotch flavor and its tang of hazardous events, the book smacks strongly of Stevenson. ... Unfortunately, Mr Buchan is open to the criticism of which most prolific writers are deserving. His historical facts and background are not accurate. ... But, after 76all, the story’s the thing, and inaccuracies of this sort are unimportant in so gripping and adventurous a yarn.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p15 Ja 13 ‘18 600w
BUCHANAN, FLORENCE. Home crafts of today and yesterday. (Harper’s home economics) il *$1 (2½c) Harper 640 17-16903
The author is instructor in handwork in the School of household science and arts, Pratt institute, Brooklyn. “The woman who longs to try something new but feels a bit vague about beginning will find [here] the what, the where, and the how for a variety of crafts. Emphasis is placed on the start rather than on detailing the technical processes, but enough of the latter is always given along with explanatory diagrams to guide a beginner through the piece of work.” (Preface) Linen, chair-caning, basket-planning, dyeing materials for and making rugs, weaving, painting and batik dyeing are among the subjects considered.
A L A Bkl 14:80 D ‘17
“Practical book for the home keeper who wishes suggestions for many kinds of handiwork.”
+ Cleveland p114 S ‘17 30w
N Y Times 22:521 D 2 ‘17 50w
Quar List New Tech Bks O ‘17 50w
St Louis 15:365 O ‘17 10w
BUCHANAN, JOHN YOUNG. Comptes rendus of observation and reasoning. il *$2.25 Putnam 504 (Eng ed 17-18064)
A collection of scientific papers. The author says, “As the title of this volume indicates, the book consists of ‘accounts rendered’ of work done at different times, in different places and on different subjects.” Among the subjects with dates of first publication are: Recent Antarctic exploration (1906); On ice and brines (1887); On steam and brines (1899); The size of the ice-grains in glaciers (1901); Ice and its natural history (1909); On the use of the globe in the study of crystallography (1895); Solar radiation (1901). Some of these are republished from the Proceedings of the Royal society, others from magazines and newspapers.
“Mr Buchanan is a believer in original research in the full significance of the words, including originality in methods and point of view, as well as in the subject dealt with. Unlike his former volume of collected oceanographical papers, this collection consists of a selection on many subjects, scientific and popular, several reproduced from the pages of Nature. ... The memoirs themselves form solid and informing reading for students; but they are rendered entertaining by the extraordinarily copious analytical table of contents, which occupies thirty pages.” H. R. M.
+ Nature 99:142 Ap 19 ‘17 800w
“A prospective reader who opens this book at the beginning will find a rather dull account of Antarctic exploration as it stood in 1905, with a reprint of chemical and physical notes for the use of explorers, which, however important for their particular purpose, are likely to bore the layman. If he then turns impatiently to the end, he will find some elementary remarks on such fundamental topics as the ‘power of Great Britain’ or the ‘House of commons,’ and he may then lay the book aside. But if he has the good luck to open it in the middle, he will probably turn over a good many pages with pleasure and profit; for Mr Buchanan has some interesting and important things to say on a fascinating topic, which makes it the more aggravating that they are presented in so unnecessarily unattractive a guise.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p173 Ap 12 ‘17 900w
BUCK, ALBERT HENRY. Growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800. il *$5 Yale univ. press 610.9 17-5568
“As Dr Buck has chronicled them, there are nine periods in the history of medicine. They are: Primitive medicine to be reckoned by thousands of years; the medicine of the East by which we possess only a fragmentary knowledge; the medicine of the classical period of antiquity; that of the Hippocratic writings which in Greece was the most flourishing period; the period during which the greatest intellectual activity was at Alexandria, Egypt; the medicine of Galen whose searching profoundly influenced the thought and practice of one whole civilized world of medicine up to our seventeenth century; the medicine of the middle ages; the medicine of the renaissance which brought adoption of dissection, the only effective method of studying anatomy; and modern medicine, in two periods, the first to about 1775. The second Dr Buck does not attempt to cover.” (Boston Transcript) “The author is consulting aural surgeon of the New York eye and ear infirmary.” (St Louis)
“Especially interesting are the chapters on Oriental medicine, The Arab renaissance, and The advance of surgery during medieval times.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:432 Jl ‘17 (Reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association 68:1650 Je ‘17)
+ Boston Transcript p6 My 9 ‘17 1500w
“The book is not intended for the student of medical history, but for the physician who wishes to become acquainted with the essential phases of that earlier medicine upon which his own theory and practice had been built.”
+ Nation 105:155 Ag 9 ‘17 220w
N Y Br Lib News 4:72 My ‘17
“Not overburdened with detail, but presents the important facts in an attractive manner.”
+ Pittsburgh 22:817 D ‘17 10w
St Louis 15:142 My ‘17 10w
“Throughout the volume the reader is impressed by the clearness of Prof. Buck’s expression and by the overwhelming mass of facts that have been interestingly assembled.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Ap 15 ‘17 1550w
“An interesting and thought-provoking volume is this, when the material might easily have been treated as technical and specialized. The history has a social message and this not for the doctor only, but for every one who watches with interest all progress of matters medical.” G. S.
+ Survey 39:327 D 15 ‘17 450w
“Dr Buck claims nothing which is not his own, and credit to authorities is honestly and fairly rendered, wherever due, without the encumbrance of footnotes. The book is printed in beautiful style.” F. H. Garrison
+ Yale R n s 7:205 O ‘17 1050w
BUCKROSE, J. E., pseud. (MRS ANNIE EDITH [FOSTER] JAMESON). Matchmakers. *$1.35 (1½c) Doran 16-21706
Peggy, daughter of the rector of Little Pendleton, is the heroine of this story of English village life. Little Pendleton doesn’t always approve of Peggy, but it has her best interests at heart and wants above all to see her make a good match. All the village stands back of the squire in his wooing, but Peggy takes the matter into her own hands, and altho the village is flouted in its aims it isn’t crestfallen. It turns squarely about and takes credit to itself for the success of Peggy’s marriage with young Charley Tremaine. Peggy’s father, the impractical rector, is made a very lovable figure, and the whole story is told with quiet humor.
A L A Bkl 13:266 Mr ‘17
+ Ath p479 O ‘16 60w
“Our greatest quarrel with the story lies in the arbitrary way in which the author has surmounted her difficulties in the end. It quite offends our sense of good story telling that with a good situation, instead of finding a way out of it, she should so arbitrarily go around it.”
+ — Boston Transcript p8 F 21 ‘17 450w
+ N Y Times 22:47 F 11 ‘17 300w
+ Spec 118:241 F 24 ‘17 30w
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Ap 8 ‘17 250w
77“A genial, placid portrayal of village life which never excites, but equally never bores and never offends.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p466 S 28 ‘16 70w
BULLARD, ARTHUR. Mobilising America. *50c (2½c) Macmillan 355.7 17-10363
The author, having spent much time in France and England during the war, had begun to collect data for a book on “How democracies mobilise.” Some of the main points on the subject are summarised in this small book. He says, “I am not considering the ethics of war, nor the advisability of our participation in the present struggle. I accept the fact that we have decided to fight and I try to show how the experiences of other democracies can teach us the way to do it efficiently.” (Preface) Contents: America goes to war; Democracies as fighting machines; The mobilisation of public opinion; The mobilisation of industry; The mobilisation of men; A programme.
“His book has the endorsement of a long list of prominent editors and authors, and of the conference committee of national preparedness.”
A L A Bkl 13:427 Jl ‘17
“This is a tiny volume, but it is worth the intelligent perusal of every American citizen. It is sane, thoughtful and constructive. It would be of particular value in any course in government given at our American colleges.” D. F. G.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 8 ‘17 370w
+ Cleveland p77 Je ‘17 50w
+ Ind 90:185 Ap 21 ‘17 30w
“One can only hope that the sanity and helpfulness of Mr Bullard’s fertile suggestions will not be lost in the maze of Washington officialdom.” H. S.
+ New Repub 11:166 Je 9 ‘17 950w
N Y Br Lib News 4:90 Je ‘17
+ N Y Times 22:130 Ap 8 ‘17 830w
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ap 10 ‘17 500w
“Offers many of the practical suggestions which have since come from the visiting French and English commissions as how best to mobilize and conduct the war.”
+ Wis Lib Bul 13:182 Je ‘17 50w
BULLITT, MRS ERNESTA DRINKER. Uncensored diary; from the central empires. *$1.25 (3c) Doubleday 940.91 17-10878
A diary written, the author says, for her great grandchildren, not for publication. She was in Germany with her husband, a newspaper correspondent, in the summer of 1916. A short trip to Belgium and one into Austria-Hungary are recorded in the diary, but it is concerned for the most part with her experiences in Germany. It forms one of the very small number of books which tell us anything of what is going on within the German empire. Informal interviews and conversations with important officials, among them Von Bissing and Zimmermann, are reported, but of no less interest are the accounts of what German women are doing. The book also throws some light on the methods by which Germany is attempting to conserve her child life during war.
+ A L A Bkl 13:394 Je ‘17
Boston Transcript p14 Ap 7 ‘17 680w
+ Dial 63:29 Je 28 ‘17 70w
“The book is markedly good on two counts: It is written with freshness, with cleverness and wholesomeness and real personal charm; and it has things of actual interest and importance to say.”
+ N Y Times 22:159 Ap 22 ‘17 350w
Outlook 116:75 My 9 ‘17 190w
Pittsburgh 22:528 Je ‘17 40w
R of Rs 55:551 My ‘17 80w
BULLOCK, EDNA DEAN, comp. Selected articles on single tax; 2d ed., rev. and enl. by Julia E. Johnsen. (Debaters’ handbook ser.) *$1.25 (1c) Wilson, H. W. 336.2 18-397
“Since the first publication of the Single tax handbook a fairly large bibliography on the subject has become available, references to which are included in this revised edition. The handbook is brought down to date by the inclusion of late reprints in the concluding pages, and by a revision and enlargement of the bibliography and brief.” (Explanatory note) The first edition, compiled by Edna D. Bullock, was published in 1914. The second edition has been prepared by Julia E. Johnsen.
BÜLOW, BERNHARD HEINRICH MARTIN KARL, fürst von. Imperial Germany; tr. by Marie A. Lewenz. new and rev ed il *$2 (2c) Dodd 943 (17-5549)
This book was first published in Germany as a section in an important general work compiled to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession of the Emperor William II. A revised edition was separately published in Germany in 1916. The first edition in English was reviewed in the Digest for 1914. “More than one-half of the letterpress of the original volume has been re-written, ... and the new passages are indicated by brackets. The introduction by Prince Bülow is entirely new, and so are the two chapters on Militarism and the chapter on the Social Democrats, and the latter part of the Conclusion.” (Publishers’ note) An illuminating foreword of twenty-eight pages is by J. W. Headlam, who speaks of the book as “largely a defence and apology of von Bülow’s own action during the years he had held office (1897-1909), and an exposition of the principles by which he had been guided.”
“One dollar cheaper than the first edition (Booklist 10:384 Je ‘14).”
A L A Bkl 13:456 Jl ‘17
Boston Transcript p6 Ag 22 ‘17 700w
“It is admirably translated. ... Written as it is by one who, with the single exception of the German emperor, is more responsible than any other man for the present catastrophe, it is little less than a public duty for everyone who wishes adequately to understand the present situation to read it. ... Prince Bülow’s whole conception of international relations is based upon the terrible chimera of the balance of power, and he obviously considers concerted European action of any kind a fantastic dream. ... Such was the attitude of Prince Bülow in 1913. The tragedy of this new edition is the fact that not even the terrible experience of the last three years has led him to modify a single conclusion.” H. J. Laski
+ Dial 63:16 Je 28 ‘17 1050w
New Repub 12:83 Ag 18 ‘17 160w
Reviewed by W. C. Abbott
Yale R n s 6:892 Jl ‘17 200w
BUNNER, HENRY CUYLER. Poems of H. C. Bunner. new ed il *$2 Scribner 811 17-24881
H. C. Bunner, former editor of Puck, died in 1896. Lately there has arisen a steady demand for his writings, which resulted in the publication, about a year ago, of a new edition of his stories, now followed by his collected poems. “In the present volume are included the contents of the two books of verse he published during his lifetime, ‘Airs from Arcady’ in 1884, and ‘Rowen’ in 1892, and also a selection from the ‘Ballads of the town’ (which he had been contributing to Puck for half-a-dozen years), together with a few of his later lyrics and the ... lines read before the Army of the Potomac at New London in 1895.” (Introd.)
“‘It is perhaps as a poet,’ writes Brander Matthews in his introduction to this edition, ‘that the author of “Airs from Arcady” is likely longest to be remembered; it is as a poet that he would have chosen to be cherished in men’s memories.’ And his verse met with the same good fortune that befell his fiction; it pleased both the critical and the uncritical. ... Bunner’s 78name stands for the light, delicate and whimsical. His work in prose and verse is alike beloved for its charm. ... Among the more serious poems is one, ‘Bismarck soliloquizes,’ which is a most fitting expression of men’s thoughts today; indeed, nothing more vigorous and condemning has been written by any contemporary poet on the iniquitous system of German autocracy than this poem of Bunner’s—written a quarter of a century ago.” W. S. B.
+ Boston Transcript p11 O 13 ‘17 1450w
“Great metrical accomplishment is in these poems. There is such variety in the themes as would be expected of the poet who is also a journalist. Invention often flies on humor’s wing. ... It is a happy sign that the present hour is willing to turn back for inspiration and fine and perfect examples of the lighter lyrical art to the day before yesterday.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 O 18 ‘17 650w
BUNNER, HENRY CUYLER. Stories. 2v il ea *$1.35 (2c) Scribner
v 1 17-13500
v 2 A17-392
Two volumes of the stories of H. C. Bunner were published last year. The addition of two more volumes makes complete a collection of his stories in four books of uniform make-up. The first of the new volumes contains “Short sixes” and The suburban sage; the second, More “Short sixes” and The runaway Browns.
“Good paper and binding, and wide margins.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:361 My ‘17
+ Nation 104:346 Mr 22 ‘17 330w
“All these gently satirical tales and the purely humorous ones are more worth while, incidentally, as mirrors of the past, but first and foremost as good short stories.” Doris Webb
+ Pub W 91:584 F 17 ‘17 500w
BURBANK, EMILY. Woman as decoration. il *$2.50 (6½c) Dodd 391 17-29164
A book on costume, illustrated with thirty-three plates. The foreword says that the book is intended as a sequel to “The art of interior decoration,” by Grace Wood and Emily Burbank. “Having assisted in setting the stage for woman, the next logical step is the consideration of woman herself, as an important factor in the decorative scheme of any setting,—the vital spark to animate all interior decoration, private or public. ... Contemporary woman’s costume is considered, not as fashion, but as decorative line and colour.” (Foreword) The book has been planned also to meet the demand for a handbook on costuming for fancy dress balls, etc. The scope of the illustrations ranges from studies of Greek vases to portraits of Mrs Vernon Castle.
“It expounds no philosophy of clothes—it is technical rather than philosophic—and it has no claim to being regarded as ‘literature’; and yet one feels that it should be recommended. It teaches the art of using an old weapon in a new cause.”
+ — Dial 63:530 N 22 ‘17 190w
Nation 105:612 N 29 ‘17 60w
N Y Br Lib News 4:182 D ‘17 90w
BURGESS, GELETT. Mrs Hope’s husband. il *$1 (4c) Century 17-23049
When Mrs Hope became a well-known novelist and was sought out by many clever people, her husband, an able lawyer, ceased to interest her. He regained her love and his own self-respect by courting her a second time, through letters, under an assumed name. The story is being dramatized by a well-known playwright.
A L A Bkl 14:59 N ‘17
+ Cleveland p128 N ‘17 70w
“A delightfully humorous comedy of manners and character.”
+ Dial 63:282 S 27 ‘17 100w
“High-class comedy, graceful, skillful, entertaining, and always clever. Its skillfulness is especially manifest in the artful legerdemain with which the author probes into the deeps of the human soul without seeming to be doing more than skimming over its surface.”
+ N Y Times 22:322 S 2 ‘17 550w
“Mr Burgess’s humor and satire are delightfully keen; but apart from this he tells a dramatic little tale that provokes a lively sympathy and interest throughout.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 O 7 ‘17 250w
BURKE, EDWARD. My wife. *$1.50 Dutton 17-23980
This book is the “autobiography of a middle-aged man. Although outsiders show a full appreciation of his wife’s looks and good qualities, he imagines that he cherishes a romantic passion for a flame of his boyhood, till the lady in question reappears on the scene after twenty years, and he finds himself disillusioned concerning her.”—Ath
“Clever and amusing.”
+ Ath p479 O ‘16 80w
“Mr Burke’s feeling for character is almost, if not wholly, as noteworthy as is his quality of humor in the handling of it.” D. L. M.
+ Boston Transcript p6 O 10 ‘17 1200w
Dial 64:78 Ja 17 ‘18 60w
“Mr Burke has turned out a humorous little story that makes excellent reading. Despite its war atmosphere, it is done in the spirit that ‘while the big things crash around us, the lives of those of us who are out of it go on much the same.’”
+ N Y Times 22:372 S 30 ‘17 250w
BURKE, THOMAS. Limehouse nights. *$1.50 (3c) McBride 17-22292
“Limehouse, that district down by the West and East India docks, is not a pleasant part of London, and there is nothing pleasant about any one of the fourteen stories in this volume, each of which has its scene laid in that region. Most of them are grim tales, tales of cruelty, bestiality, horror, and fear.” (N Y Times) Contents: The Chink and the child; The father of Yoto; Gracie Goodnight; The paw; The cue; Beryl, the Croucher and the rest of England; The sign of the lamp; Tai Fu and Pansy Greers; The bird; Gina of the Chinatown; The knight-errant; The gorilla and the girl; Ding-Dong-Dell; Old Joe.
“One of the most frankly and brutally realistic books that has appeared in our tongue in a long time. ... But such a description does not convey the whole truth. The fact is that Burke has cast a glamour over his pages that prevents his stories from being merely studies in the sordid and the morbid. He has seen things with sharp vision and he has etched them just as clearly. But somehow also he makes you feel that he has viewed life with pity and tenderness and loving comprehension.” Milton Bronner
+ Bookm 46:15 S ‘17 1750w
“Not pour les jeunes, these heart-rending stories of London’s Chinatown; but for the stalwart reader they are full of cleansing and noble pity and terror. ... Amid erotomaniacs, satyrs and sadists—and if the full meaning of those ghastly terms escapes you, be thankful—he seizes scraps of splendid courage, beauty and pathos. The poor little gifts of those eastern pavements are the undying memory of his book. ... If you dare to face the human heart as it really is, do not miss ‘Limehouse nights.’” C. D. M.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 18 ‘17 1150w
“Mr Burke’s passing repute comes from the tales of terror which the libraries were compelled to bar from their shelves; but to those who have some respect for the English tongue and for whom Walter Pater has not lived in vain, Mr Burke will always possess an attraction because he has written well his slight sketches of London life. ... These ‘Limehouse nights’ appeared in three of the most interesting periodicals of England: the English Review, Colour, and the New Witness.” G. V. Seldes
* + Dial 63:65 Jl 19 ‘17 2500w
79“He has made a new sensation in war-time England, avid of spicy diversions. Mr Bennett has praised his book, Mr Wells has lauded its ‘romantic force and beauty.’ ... There is no fresh note of inspiration here; at best, there is a fresh trick.”
– + Nation 105:317 S 20 ‘17 280w
“The stories are well told, and have their full share of that curious fascination which so often goes hand in hand with horror. And here and there comes a touch of beauty, a glimpse of real love, like a flower growing from a cranny in the rocks. ... ‘The paw’ [is] an intensely painful tale of a tortured child—almost too painful to read. ... Perhaps the best of all the tales in the volume, however, is ‘The bird,’ a powerful imaginative story, as grim and as brutal and as hideous as its fellows, but with a certain artistic quality which lifts it above them.”
N Y Times 22:303 Ag 19 ‘17 500w
“Taken as a whole, it is one of the books that would better not have been written.”
– + Outlook 117:64 S 12 ‘17 50w
Pittsburgh 22:748 N ‘17 60w
“The material was so unique that we quarrel with Mr Burke’s misuse of it. In place of the steady, equalized light which he should have thrown on that pestiferous spot off the West India Dock-road, he has been content for the most part with flashes of limelight and fireworks. ... ‘The paw’ is not a story, but a piece of brutal, horrifying, useless writing.”
— The Times [London] Lit Sup p464 S 28 ‘16 750w
BURLEIGH, LOUISE. Community theatre in theory and practice. il *$1.50 (4½c) Little 792 17-25292
A valuable book for students of modern drama which breathes the spirit of the new democracy. The writer in her first chapter quotes a statement of J. R. Seeley’s, “Three ties by which states are held together are community of race, community of religion, and community of interest.” In the course of a thoughtful examination she shows that in America today we have no community of either race or religion. She concludes that “for a unifying force we must find a living expression of a great common ideal: we must depend upon a community of interest: we must find an institution in which great and small can find expression.” The eleven chapters that follow enlarge upon the fitness of the community theatre to perform the desired service and the practical success so far achieved. Mr Percy MacKaye contributes a prefatory letter.
A L A Bkl 14:82 D ‘17
“‘The community theatre’ treats the drama earnestly and endearingly, though somewhat scrappily, from the point of view of its social qualities and the emotional needs of the community.” Algernon Tassin
+ — Bookm 46:347 N ‘17 130w
Pittsburgh 22:806 D ‘17 40w
R of Rs 57:108 Ja ‘18 130w
“Miss Burleigh has produced a rather dull work about an intrinsically keen subject. She fails to recognize the necessary spontaneity of the movement. But her earnestness and enthusiasm cannot fail to win the reader’s own sympathy.”
+ – Springf’d Republican p8 O 25 ‘17 1100w
BURNET, JOHN. Higher education and the war. *$1.50 Macmillan 378 (Eng ed 17-18365)
“In his ‘Higher education and the war’ Prof. John Burnet, now dean of the faculty of arts in the University of St Andrews, deals primarily with the conditions of education in Scotland, but his observations bear none the less on his own university, Oxford, and indeed on our American institutions, to which he makes frequent reference.” (Nation) “He states that most of his criticisms were published in 1913 and ‘are not, therefore, unduly influenced by the war.’ That they have been somewhat influenced thereby is thus admitted; this is the chief way the war comes in, for the work is mainly an appreciative account of the German system of higher education. As such it will be useful if only to show those people who are ignorant of the fact ... that this system is more completely based on the ‘humanities’ than that of any other country.” (Nature)
“The work of a master in small compass. Written with a delightful limpidity, in a spirit at once shrewd and idealistic, it is full of real knowledge and wise comment as to the working of higher education, not only in England and Scotland, but in Germany, in France, and in the United States.”
+ Ath p296 Je ‘17 1000w
“An important work for educators. ... The first chapter, on German kultur, should be interesting to many who are not concerned with higher education.”
+ Cleveland p108 S ‘17 40w
“This is a most thorough, sane, and scientific piece of work. ... This is the best work on education we have seen for a long time.” P. J.
+ Int J Ethics 28:289 Ja ‘18 100w
“Not the least valuable part of the treatise is the lucid description of the actual scheme of studies in the German higher schools and universities, and the impartial analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the system, with reference to the systems prevailing in Scotland and England. ... His arguments for the humanities, while neither narrow nor exaggerated, are extremely cogent.”
+ Nation 105:98 Jl 26 ‘17 240w
“Like most other humanists, Prof. Burnet holds that an education based upon the acquisition of knowledge which is of no value in after life is more useful than one based on knowledge which is of permanent value. ... Prof. Burnet’s contentions are not without such discrepancies as are inseparable from the pursuit of a weak line of argument.” E. A. Schäfer
– + Nature 99:361 Jl 5 ‘17 1500w
+ Spec 118:677 Je 16 ‘17 230w
“He shows a much more intimate knowledge of the details of the German system than do most writers. ... Perhaps the most valuable part of the book is to be found in the pages in which Professor Burnet shows that, however in appearance the Prussian gymnasium and other schools still continue on the old lines, the action of the Prussian state has really completely changed and warped the whole spirit.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p207 My 3 ‘17 2050w
BURNETT, FRANCES (HODGSON) (MRS STEPHEN TOWNESEND). White people. il *$1.20 (6c) Harper 17-5128
A little story that touches delicately on the supernatural and evidence of life after death. The heroine, who spends a lonely but happy childhood, in an old feudal castle in Scotland, has a gift of seeing things denied to others. She is grown up when she first learns that her “white people” are not visible to other eyes. To her, thru this power or gift, the dead are not dead, and because of this she is able to bring comfort to others. The story was published in Harper’s Magazine, December, 1916—January, 1917.
“Appeared in Harper’s Magazine.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:315 Ap ‘17
“Mrs Burnett has not hitherto done anything with so sustained a note of simplicity and sincerity; moreover, she has here employed the brevity that is the test as well as the achievement of art. By this means she has accomplished that rare result, genuine pathos. The delicate, touching beauty of the one love scene, and of the closing chapter, is not paralleled in any of her former writings and is not surpassed by anything in recent fiction.”
+ Cath World 105:405 Je ‘17 250w
“Mrs Burnett’s transcendentalism will probably appeal more to ‘new thinkers’ and the like than to those whose fancies range less 80freely. In any case one may enjoy its consistent setting, in the purple Scotch Highlands, and the manner of the author’s narration.”
+ Dial 62:314 Ap 5 ‘17 140w
+ Ind 90:299 My 12 ‘17 40w
+ Lit D 54:1087 Ap 14 ‘17 170w