Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1917 Books (continued 7)
Reading edition
“Mrs Burnett is always a sentimentalist, but in this instance develops a difficult theme with a fair measure of restraint.”
+ Nation 104:369 Mr 29 ‘17 200w
“A story, so simple, so natural, so humanly normal and sweet, that it must hold the reader by its sheer lovely closeness to the realities of ordinary life. Its background is exquisitely beautiful. Its theme is mystical. ... This challenge to the fear of death is a simple story of life.”
+ N Y Times 22:53 F 18 ‘17 500w
+ R of Rs 55:554 My ‘17 140w
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Mr 18 ‘17 220w
BURNS, CECIL DELISLE. Greek ideals; a study of social life. *$2 Macmillan (*5s G. Bell & sons, London) 938
“This book is mainly an attempt at an analysis of some Athenian ideals in the fifth century B. C. It is a brief, but lucid survey of Greek social life; of the Athenian religion; of the great festivals, such as the Anthesteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia, and Eleusinia; of the political ideals of Athens; of Greek moral standards; and of the ideals of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.”—Ath
Ath p313 Je ‘17 80w
“The chapter on Athenian religion is an illuminating piece of analysis. ... Mr Burns succeeds in making Greece live again, and this because he is alive himself. ... He is at his best in his criticism of Greek political thought.”
+ + — Ath p397 Ag ‘17 2000w
+ Int J Ethics 28:293 Ja ‘18 130w
“To one who is fairly familiar with Greek literature, and has read Mahaffy on Greek life and Frazer on ancient religions, the first part of the book offers nothing new. It has, indeed, the defect of being rather too diffuse for scholars while demanding a little too much from the reader unversed in Greek. ... With the eighth chapter the discussion acquires a keener interest and a surer appeal; for here a certain psychological acumen with which the author is rather unusually gifted comes strongly into play. The analysis of the Athenian thinker of ‘the old school’ is both just and humorously acute. ... In the main an excellent description and a somewhat penetrating analysis of Greek moral ideas, the book is occasionally marred by a certain looseness of statement.”
+ — No Am 206:311 Ag ‘17 1250w
“A discussion of Greek ideals, designed primarily for ordinary readers. It presupposes some acquaintance with Greek history and literature, but not necessarily a knowledge of the language. ... Mr Burns gives a lame excuse for his silence about the supreme artistic instinct of the Greeks. ... It is also a pity that he had not more space to deal with their religious contribution to the world’s inheritance. ... Further, he shows little sympathy with or understanding of Christian ideals, and is ready calmly to beg the most colossal questions. ... Then there are definite errors. ... Passages suggest that Mr Burns is not primarily a scholar, but a student of politics and morals in other fields who has interested himself in Greece. But they should not blind us to the merits of his book. He has covered much ground in a small compass. He is thoroughly alive himself, and treats Greece like the living force which it is. Most of what he says is indisputably true.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p292 Je 21 ‘17 1600w
BURNS, ROBERT. Sylvander and Clarinda; the love letters of Robert Burns and Agnes M’Lehose; ed. by Amelia J. Burr. il *$1.50 Doran 17-29797
A woman, shorn of illusions by a worthless husband, her brilliancy grown hard in the process, looks around for a lover “who will offer his passionate devotions at her shrine in the decent name of friendship which shall offend none of her benevolent friends. ... She wants a guest who will accommodate himself to the cramped quarters of her heart and warm them with Promethean fire.” Burns is the man she chooses and this volume brings together their letters extending over many years. The curious satisfaction which many readers find in the bared intimacies of literary folk shrivels before the larger privilege offered here of getting at Burns’s daily life, of seeing at work the quality of genius that gave the world some of its most human poetry.
“To read these letters is to be in the midst of a highly entertaining literary achievement as well as to be witness to a lively exhibition of the greatest of human passions. It is a deep and moving affair while it lasts, but little insight is necessary to discern its transitoriness. ... It must not be imagined that Cupid is their sole hero. In fact, they plunge more than once deeply into the labyrinths of philosophy and religion.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p6 N 10 ‘17 1700w
Nation 105:642 D 6 ‘17 40w
“The publishers deserve hearty thanks. The book is edited with care, knowledge, and sympathy, and furnished with an introduction that is an admirable biographical essay in itself.”
+ N Y Times 22:448 N 4 ‘17 800w
+ Springf’d Republican p11 Ja 27 ‘18 500w
BURR, AGNES RUSH. Russell H. Conwell and his work; one man’s interpretation of life. auth ed il *$1.35 (1½c) Winston 17-5422
The subject of this biography is widely known as preacher, lecturer and teacher. His is one of those romantic, and essentially American stories of success won against odds. He began life on a rocky New England farm, worked his way thru college, served in the Civil war, prepared himself for the ministry and entered on a life of service that has brought a large measure of success. Dr Conwell’s famous lecture, “Acres of diamonds” is reprinted in an appendix.
+ A L A Bkl 13:351 My ‘17
+ Boston Transcript p6 Mr 3 ‘17 650w
“No other man in America, perhaps, has touched individually and helpfully so many lives as has Russell H. Conwell.”
+ Lit D 54:1710 Je 2 ‘17 170w
“The story will inspire many a seeker after education and opportunity, inspire many a servant of humanity and stir the flagging spirits of those who faint by the way. It is a mine of material for illustration, anecdote and quotation.” L. A. Walker
+ N Y Call p14 Ap 15 ‘17 270w
+ N Y Times 22:533 D 2 ‘17 90w
St Louis 15:186 Je ‘17 10w
“As he is a sort of national institution, by virtue of his ubiquity on the lecture platform, the general public will be glad to know that an authorized biography has appeared.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 Ap 13 ‘17 520w
BURROUGHS, EDWARD ARTHUR. Fight for the future; with a foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury. *1s Nisbet, London
“This is a collection of seven papers of diverse origin and for the most part spoken to audiences of various character. They do not, therefore, present a logical sequence of thought, and there are repetitions of ideas or phrases. But they have a unity of purpose, and it is rather helped than hindered by the emphasis of repetition. The purpose is partly to give some help towards understanding the religious significance of the war, and partly to urge the practical claims of a movement, influentially supported by the leaders of different religious bodies, called ‘The league of spiritual warfare.’”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
Reviewed by Bishop Frodsham
+ Sat R 122:sup3 O 14 ‘16 600w
81“An Oxford churchman and scholar has in such a crisis as the present a very definite task before him; and Mr Burroughs is one of those who have done most to show the world what that task is.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p140 Mr 23 ‘16 1000w
BURROUGHS, EDWARD ARTHUR. Valley of decision. *$1.60 Longmans 940.91 17-15980
“The Rev. E. A. Burroughs, a thoroughgoing British patriot, presents what he calls ‘a plea for wholeness in thought and life.’ The author says the British people have been convicted through the lessons of the war of fragmentary and haphazard living, and stand in need of a philosophy of life. This philosophy he sees in the religion the British ‘have long professed and never yet practiced.’ His view is that the war has not disturbed the claims of Christ on the world, but has illustrated and reinforced them; all that remains to be done, he argues, is to acknowledge these claims and act accordingly.” N Y Times
N Y Times 22:88 Mr 11 ‘17 100w
+ Spec 118:46 Ja 13 ‘17 1250w
“This is a man who has devoted the enthusiasm of a well-stored mind and an evangelistic spirit to the task of helping and keeping in touch with men and officers—especially undergraduate officers—during their great ordeal at the front. ... Mr Burroughs has a message based on independent observation, and this gives him an ample right to be heard.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p572 N 30 ‘16 470w
BURTON, RICHARD EUGENE. Poems of earth’s meaning. *$1.25 Holt 811 17-18038
“A midsummer memory,” the elegy in memory of Arthur Upson, published by Edmund D. Brooks in 1910, is reprinted as the first number in this volume. It is perhaps Dr Burton’s most distinguished piece of work. Other poems, many reprinted from Harper’s Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Bellman, and other magazines complete the book. Among them are a number that justify the title given to the volume. Such are: The earth mother, Song of the open land, Spring fantasies, Aspects of autumn, etc.
“There is none of the pulsing unrest of the present in these poems, nor the disquieting struggle toward complete revelation which is found so often in the poetry of today. It brings us back quietly but unerringly to a realization of the strength and beauty of that which underlies the present and is the enduring link between the present and past and future. ... This collection of verse contains the best of Mr Burton’s poetic work during the last few years.” D. L. M.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 30 ‘17 1250w
Cleveland p120 N ‘17 140w
“Professor Burton holds his old course thru his latest volume. He is untouched by recent fantasies of verse form, neither is there here any poem born of the war. Sincere work there is with no straining for emotional or linguistic effect.”
+ Ind 92:262 N 3 ‘17 60w
“There is no appeal for popularity in ‘Poems of earth’s meaning,’ and no high poetic gifts, but a richness of thought foreign to most modern verse.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 S 20 ‘17 250w
BURY, HERBERT. Here and there in the war area. il *$1.40 (2c) Young ch. 940.91 17-18817
A collection of papers by the Bishop for North and Central Europe. The title is well chosen, as his duties have taken the author to many parts of the war zone. Contents: Our naval division in Holland; With the wounded; “Somewhere in France”; In the trenches and firing line; Has there been a spiritual revival? Prisoners of war; “Manfully”; How the permanent chaplains “carry on”; The way to Russia through Norway and Sweden; Russia’s two capitals; With the bishops, clergy, and people of Russia; “Our gallant Russian ally.”
“During his experiences as chaplain on and near the fighting lines in Holland and in France Bishop Bury found the good for which he sought. ... Without asserting it directly, the good bishop impresses the reader as believing that there has really been a great spiritual revival on the war front. ... On the German side, also, the spirit has been working, fostered by the German Student Christian federation.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 Mr 14 ‘17 220w
Pittsburgh 22:680 O ‘17 60w
“He writes very pleasantly, and, if we may judge from this book, has carried everywhere a saving common-sense, unbounded energy, and a cheerful disposition.”
+ Spec 118:239 F 24 ‘17 110w
“His general report on the treatment of prisoners on either side, which partakes of the spirit of optimism to which we have alluded, will repay study.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p539 N 9 ‘16 200w
BUTLER, ELLIS PARKER. Dominie Dean. il *$1.35 (2c) Revell 17-18164
“Ellis Parker Butler sympathetically recounts the large difficulties and small triumphs of Rev. David Dean in his lifelong service to a Presbyterian parish in a small Mississippi river town. It is the young minister’s first and only charge. ... Occasional dissensions within the church threaten his dismissal or enforced resignation, but he invariably triumphs in these contests. On one occasion he foregoes a call to a wider and more lucrative field in order to complete the self-imposed task of saving a young man addicted to drink. The story begins before the Civil war days, extends over several decades, and leaves the minister an old man, poor and neglected, but still possessing his childlike optimism and faith.”—Springf’d Republican
“Appeared in the Ladies Home Journal.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:25 O ‘17
“There is more than a touch of Mark Twain in its composition, without the spark that vitalizes Twain’s narrative.”
+ — Dial 63:74 Jl 19 ‘17 70w
+ Ind 91:108 Jl 21 ‘17 500w
“We feel the power of ‘Our Davy’ at home and in the church, and we resent the neglect and the lack of appreciation which he received, but the characters and events which go to make up the story have no vividness; they are neither real nor logically convincing.”
+ — Lit D 55:42 O 27 ‘17 200w
“Though Mr Butler’s people are by no means badly drawn, they are not sufficiently well drawn to carry a book of this type, a book which depends altogether upon characterization. Even David Dean himself, carefully as he has been studied, does not win as much as he should of the reader’s affection and sympathy.”
– + N Y Times 22:265 Jl 15 ‘17 300w
“The author makes Dean a lovable, appealing personality, and effectively brings out the injustice of leaving pastors to want in their old age after a lifetime of unselfish service to their congregations. It is a well-told and very interesting story.”
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Jl 29 ‘17 350w
BUTLER, NICHOLAS MURRAY. World in ferment. *$1.25 (3c) Scribner 940.91 17-21930
These seventeen “interpretations of the war for a new world” were delivered by the president of Columbia university between September 23, 1914 and June 6, 1917. They, therefore, follow the development of his thought during the years of the great war. In his introduction Dr Butler states: that this “is a war for a new international world and a war for a new intranational world. It is to be hoped that the new world will come to an understanding with itself about peace. ... Peace is not an ideal at all; it is a state attendant upon the achievement of an ideal. The ideal itself is human 82liberty, justice, and the honorable conduct of an orderly and humane society. Given this, a durable peace follows naturally as a matter of course.” Among the addresses are: Higher preparedness; Nationality and beyond; Is America drifting? The Russian revolution; The call to service; The international mind: how to develop it; A world in ferment. The book is indexed.
A L A Bkl 14:41 N ‘17
Reviewed by C. H. P. Thurston
+ Bookm 46:289 N ‘17 30w
Boston Transcript p6 Ag 29 ‘17 430w
“He takes refuge in general statements, for the more general your statements the more noble they may be made to seem. His volume, therefore, is interesting not for any interpretation of our time so much as for its revelation of an anachronism—the florid oratorical mind still at work in the years 1914-17.”
— Dial 64:30 Ja 3 ‘18 210w
Ind 91:512 S 29 ‘17 100w
“It is a tribute to President Butler’s essential statesmanship that these papers, delivered under such varying conditions, sustain as well as they do the test of reprinting. Few collections covering a like period contain so much that has proved true and wise, or, being still in the future, is still likely to justify the author.”
+ Lit D 55:39 O 13 ‘17 220w
“The president of Columbia has much skill in phrasing sententious platitudes, especially regarding the moral aspects of business or politics. We commend this volume of addresses to all who feel that they ought to take the world seriously, but who at the same time cannot bring themselves to think very deeply about it.”
— Nation 106:69 Ja 17 ‘18 570w
“President Butler seems enamored of this utopianism of language, by means of which the specific difficulties of a problem are resolved in an elaborate statement of the good effects which will inevitably flow from its perfect solution. In reading President Butler one aches for a specific, quantitative recommendation as one aches at a Debussy opera for a whole tone.”
— New Repub 12:251 S 29 ‘17 500w
“We have gone over these essays carefully, and, though we regret to return empty handed, we must sorrowfully admit that there does not seem to be anything very original or striking in any of them, though perhaps they may be regarded as good, sound, practical common sense, as that rather indefinable quantity is regarded today.” Joshua Wanhope
— NY Call p14 O 28 ‘17 460w
“His presentation and argument are very interesting. And his repeated warning to the American people that as they move forward in this new direction they must keep in mind their old ideals, is of the highest consequence. There are many suggestions and brief discussions of the means by which the movement of the nations toward closer and more harmonious co-operation can be encouraged and facilitated, so many, indeed, that this idea becomes, especially with reference to America’s part in that movement, the dominating note of the book.”
+ — N Y Times 22:301 Ag 19 ‘17 800w
“Without any shrinking from grim facts and without any flamboyance of emotional or self-laudatory patriotism, the author makes one see a better future for the world as something real and tangible and within reasonable expectation, and he sets forth the part that this country is to play in helping on the coming of a new and better order, with a clearness and sanity that makes national duty seem near and feasible and attractive.”
+ No Am 206:799 N ‘17 320w
+ Spec 119:329 S 29 ‘17 760w
“In these days when history is being made and remade in so short spaces of time, a book such as this soon loses whatever initial starting-point it may have adopted, simply for the reason that the events with which it deals are soon left in the background, displaced by newer developments.”
– + Springf’d Republican p19 O 14 ‘17 190w
BUTLER, SAMUEL. Notebooks, new ed *$2 Dutton 824
The book “gives the tang of Butler’s personality, and presents in fairly compact form his comment upon man, morality, memory and design, mind and matter, pictures, books, music, cash, religion, travel, truth, translation, etc. ... He recorded his observations; he tried their effect in conversation; he rewrote them; he drew upon his store for his published books; he collected and indexed them. After his death, his friend Henry Festing Jones sorted and rearranged and expurgated them, and brought them out in 1912. Dutton republishes the volume with a brief appreciative introduction by Francis Hackett.”—Nation
A L A Bkl 14:120 Ja ‘18
“It used to be a boyhood stunt to stand on your hands and see the world upside down. Butler knew the trick well and did a deal of walking on his hands through our world of conventions. His books are integrated visions of the world thus viewed—‘The way of all flesh,’ of marriage and the family; ‘Erewhon,’ of the daily life of the English-speaking world; ‘Life and habit’ and ‘Evolution, old and new,’ of Darwinism; ‘The fair haven,’ of Christianity. ... The ‘Note-books,’ is a museum of thoughts caught on the wing. ... To thinking men and women, providing they are not too old in spirit, Butler speaks with vital directness. Not that he formulates a philosophy or solves problems or teems with information. Exactly not that. One does not accumulate: one expands. One does not become a little Butler but a larger self.” M. C. Otto
+ Dial 63:106 Ag 16 ‘17 3100w
+ + — Nation 105:98 Jl 26 ‘17 400w
Pittsburgh 22:746 N ‘17 70w
R of Rs 56:104 Jl ‘17 230w
“Butler was the precursor of the critical and ironical reasoning to which religious and moral conceptions are subjected nowadays by writers of the type of Messrs Shaw and Wells. ... As an expression of personality, and pungent, individual thinking the ‘Notebooks’ continue to be worth reading, though the criticism of society, and in particular of the church, is much less effective than in ‘The way of all flesh.’”
+ — Springf’d Republican p19 My 27 ‘17 330w
BYNE, ARTHUR, and STAPLEY, MILDRED. Spanish architecture of the sixteenth century; general view of the Plateresque and Herrera styles. (Hispanic soc. of Am. Pub. no. 109) il *$7.50 (11c) Putnam 724 17-11801
Spanish renaissance or Plateresque architecture which forms the subject of this book is, the authors say, a distinct product from that “picturesque, semi-Moorish stucco architecture” of Andalusia which was introduced into Spanish America and which is now usually accepted as typically Spanish. The Plateresque style flourished chiefly in Castile and the purpose of this book is “to increase the appreciation of what was done in Castile, to point out its charm, and to give the student some idea of what awaits him in Spain.” The book is illustrated with eighty plates and one hundred and forty other pictures in the text.
“This book is stated to be the first to appear on renaissance architecture in Spain. The change from the Plateresque to a more frigid style under the chilling influence of Philip II is well described in chaps. 13 and 14, the latter including an interesting account and an impressive view of the vast and gloomy Escorial.”
+ Ath p360 Jl ‘17 150w
“The book is illustrated with eighty full-page plates and 140 text-illustrations and these, without the accompanying inscriptions, give an intimate notion of the richness of the churches, palaces, and houses of Spain. ... A good many Spanish terms are used but they are all 83explained and the book is filled with thrilling bits of history. It is a rare addition to the literature of architecture.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 6 ‘17 370w
“The book must take an honored place in every architectural library with any pretense to completeness. Not only does the volume contain more than two hundred illustrations, but many of these are carefully measured drawings, the value of which, to an architect, is greater than any photograph, however good. The text is historical as regards the style, biographical as regards its most famous practitioners, and critical in the discussion of the more famous buildings.” Claude Bragdon
+ Dial 63:17 Je 28 ‘17 1200w
“The discussion is not at all popular, indeed it is almost severely technical. The unprofessional reader requires at hand a dictionary of architectural terms to gain an adequate comprehension of the volume. ... The publishers have given us a volume worthy of their reputation, substantially bound in buckram. To own it is a pleasure; to comprehend it, a full recompense for the effort expended.”
+ Lit D 54:2006 Je 30 ‘17 270w
“Their work is a welcome addition to the literature of architecture in a sadly neglected field. The architect who has Prentice’s invaluable folio volume of plates and this excellent history to go with it, possesses the material for acquiring an intelligent appreciation of a most interesting phase of the history of the renaissance in western Europe.”
+ Nation 105:70 Jl 19 ‘17 900w
“Its pages are refreshing in their clear revelation of personal contact with the country and race, and of the intimate connection between these and the architecture.”
+ N Y Times 22:390 O 7 ‘17 500w
“A rich find for students of architecture.”
+ R of Rs 56:218 Ag ‘17 130w
* + The Times [London] Lit Sup p295 Je 21 ‘17 1400w
BYNNER, WITTER. Grenstone poems; a sequence. *$1.35 Stokes 811 17-25234
“Many a glimpse in Mr Bynner’s poems localizes the habitation of Grenstone up under the shadow of Mt. Monadnock, but the name symbolizes more than a place in the poet’s singing; it is the deification of experience finding love, losing its earthly presence, and gaining above all the indestructible sustenance and faith of realities beyond the world. This is the golden thread upon which all these lyrics are hung.”—Boston Transcript
“His love and joy and grief and faith are expressed with much delicacy and spirituality.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:85 D ‘17
“The mistake has been made that poets almost universally make, of putting in much that is ephemeral and irrelevant to the real soul of the book, thus obscuring that precious and intrinsic quality—personality. It is in an epigrammatic lyric, of a peculiar pith and pungency, and often informed with a whimsical humour, that Mr Bynner seems to me to be most wholly himself.” J. B. Rittenhouse
+ — Bookm 46:440 D ‘17 930w
“There is the suggestion here of a new Dante and a new Beatrice, in the poet’s relation to Celia. ... Nearly two hundred lyrics, touching upon an infinite variety of moods and subjects, more subtle and simply wrought, more instinct with genuine flashes of lyric beauty, subjective in the best traditional manner of English verse, than any collection produced since the present revival of poetry came into being.” W. S. B.
+ Boston Transcript p11 O 6 ‘17 780w
“Charming and delicate as the poems are, full of whim and fancy and loveliness, they are imbued above all with Bynner’s ordered passion for simplicity. It seems to me that he is sometimes almost mathematical in the development of his simplicity. He loves to strike poetic balances and make poetic classifications—almost to replace poetry by a lengthened epigram. My only wish is that he would content himself with being a very good and growing poet, instead of tending to preoccupy himself with a theory. His gift is sufficient, if he will permit it, to stand above theories.” Swinburne Hale
+ — Dial 64:23 Ja 3 ‘18 1450w
Ind 92:63 O 6 ‘17 50w
“A volume overflowing with lyric beauty. Pure and strong passion, a keen sense of melody, epigrammatic deftness of phrase—these are among Mr Bynner’s gifts.”
+ Lit D 55:32 N 3 ‘17 360w
“One of the most effective things in the arrangement is the way it builds up to the final ‘Behold the man’:
Behold the man alive in me,
Behold the man in you!
If there is God—am I not he?—
Shall I myself undo?
I have been awaiting long enough
Impossible gods, goodby!
I wait no more ... The way is rough—
But the god who climbs is I.
This last line is humanity’s motto today; and its author is one of the leading interpreters of the climbing.” Clement Wood
+ N Y Call p16 Ja 19 ‘18 530w
“Though he has failed in his main purpose, however, it is to be remarked that scattered here and there throughout the book are many charming lyrics quite in his usual satisfying manner. Of these, ‘Mercy,’ ‘An old elegy,’ and ‘The heart of gold’ are particularly fine.”
– + N Y Times 22:436 O 28 ‘17 550w
“He has not, to be sure, the depth of background of Edwin Arlington Robinson and some others. But he now proves himself a genuine poet of beauty”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 N 18 ‘17 400w
BYRNE, LAWRENCE, pseud. American ambassador. *$1.35 (1½c) Scribner 17-13818
The publishers say that the author of this novel is an American diplomatist who prefers to write under a pseudonym. The story is told in the first person by a young man who has just been engaged as private secretary to a newly appointed ambassador to one of the European courts. He begins his duties by falling promptly in love with the ambassador’s daughter. Kate Colborne, like her father, is wholesomely frank and American, but Mrs Colborne, her step-mother, is one of those Americans who crave social prestige and bow down before a title. An important cablegram from the State department at Washington is stolen from the ambassador’s desk. To save her father from possible ruin, Kate engages herself to Comte de Stanlau, the man who seems to hold his fate in his hands. The mystery of the lost cablegram is explained; the ambassador wins a triumph for himself and his country, and Kate’s affairs are settled happily for the young man who is telling the story. The background of the story is necessarily indefinite, as the European country concerned is not named.
A L A Bkl 14:26 O ‘17
“There is a love story running through the book which increases the excitement of its episodes and helps round out the plot. It is well written, and the fine picture it presents of an American diplomat should come at an opportune moment.” D. L. M.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 9 ‘17 950w
Cath World 105:842 S ‘17 70w
“‘You rarely see an American man who looks as if he had ancestors. We usually appear to have been made in a hurry.’ Thus Mr Lawrence Byrne sums up, unconsciously, the fault of his novel.”
— Dial 62:528 Je 14 ‘17 80w
“Comes down to a Zenda story with realistic touches. ... The American ambassador is the plain, blunt hustler from ‘back home,’ who drags at each remove a lengthening chain of ignorances and complacencies.”
Nation 105:16 Jl 5 ‘17 150w
84“We venture to assert that the writer who signs himself ‘Lawrence Byrne’ is personally familiar with the ways of embassies. ‘The American ambassador’ is written with a seemingly unconsidered mastery of small detail that gives the book background, charmingly.”
+ N Y Times 22:194 My 20 ‘17 480w
+ Springf’d Republican p17 Je 3 ‘17 350w
C
CABELL, JAMES BRANCH. Cream of the jest; a comedy of evasions. *$1.35 (3c) McBride 17-24970
Mr Cabell’s story will provide a new sensation for the satiated novel reader. The reader, however, must not be the matter-of-fact sort who has lost faith in human dreams. The pendulum of the story swings leisurely between the two existences of Felix Kennaston. In one, as Kennaston, with two motors and money in four banks, he lives a life that “his body is shuffling thru aimlessly.” While in this atmosphere of action and the commonplace, he bores himself and others, including a rather worldly minded, otherwise estimable wife. But as Horvendile, the hero of his own book, the dreamer, “he lives among such gallant circumstances as he had always hoped his real life might provide to-morrow.” As a part of his mental diversions, he abandons himself to “delicious and perilous frolics” with Etarre, the heroine of his book, who symbolizes the ageless, deathless ideal of woman. The delicacy of touch and the classic atmosphere of the dream episodes give charm and distinction to the tale.
“People who have a great respect for gas and none at all for moonshine, for whom half-shades are non-existent and dreams mere nonsense, will do well to pass it by.”
+ N Y Times 22:380 O 7 ‘17 400w
“Both for its originality and literary value the book is notable.”
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Ja 13 ‘18 380w
CABLE, BOYD, pseud. Grapes of wrath. il *$1.50 (3c) Dutton 17-13446
Altho Mr Cable’s story is based on the battle of the Somme, he warns the reader that it is not to be taken as an authentic historical account. He says, “My ambition was the much lesser one of describing as well as I could what a Big Push is like from the point of view of an ordinary average infantry private. ... I have tried to put into words merely the sort of story that might and could be told by thousands of our men to-day.” Four men, fellow soldiers and close friends, are the heroes of the tale. Three of them are Englishmen, drawn from different social ranks. One is an American.
A L A Bkl 13:448 Jl ‘17
+ Ath p204 Ap ‘17 80w
“The story is told in a vigorous, straightforward way without false sentiment or pretentious effort. That no one who starts it will be likely to set it down unfinished is sufficient comment on its worth.” R. W.
+ Boston Transcript p6 My 9 ‘17 430w
“As big as its theme and as moving.”
+ Cath World 105:551 Jl ‘17 250w
Dial 63:219 S 13 ‘17 340w
+ Ind 90:556 Je 23 ‘17 80w
“So does the great American hymn give title and summing up to this picture of the army of one of our allies, a picture etched with steel in lines of fire and blood and heroism unsurpassed. ‘Grapes of wrath’ is indeed a memorable book.”
+ N Y Times 22:158 Ap 22 ‘17 700w
Pittsburgh 22:528 Je ‘17 50w
Pratt p39 O ‘17 20w
+ R of Rs 55:669 Je ‘17 60w
+ Spec 118:341 Mr 17 ‘17 700w
“One who wishes to learn about war as it is fought will do well to read it, for no other among the host of war books explains this phase of it so well or even seeks to.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 Je 5 ‘17 300w
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p107 Mr 1 ‘17 120w
CADE, COULSON T. Dandelions. *$1.50 (1½c) Knopf 17-19507
“‘Dandelions’ is a first novel. A story of heredity, its thesis seems to be that education, no matter how excellent or how careful, is of little influence when opposed to the force of inherited qualities. The two principal characters in the book are a father and son; the father, Sir Harold Carne, makes idle love to the pretty daughter of the village innkeeper. Later he marries and has a legitimate son, whom we leave as, at about eighteen, he is taking his first step along the road trodden by his father.”—N Y Times
“It is a very singular story, with no trace of the characteristics of contemporary fiction. It might have been written in the days of Fielding, although fortunately it is of a reasonable length. The average reader of ‘best sellers’ and ‘glad’ books may turn from ‘Dandelions’ with signs of ennui. But its publisher as well as its author are to be sincerely congratulated. It has distinguished literary merit.”
+ — Boston Transcript p6 Ag 1 ‘17 400w
“There is charm and to spare in the pictures of English country life that are presented in dissolving succession. But the machinery of Mr Cade’s narrative rumbles and groans too audibly at too frequent intervals; the plot is superficial, even flimsy, and the characterization shallow.”
– + Dial 63:403 O 25 ‘17 180w
“A story of odd and vaguely reminiscent flavor—Peacockian, if we were to give it a name. Its quaint style, its sly humor, recall the author of ‘Headlong hall’ and ‘Gryll grange.’ It is all mildly amusing, and a trifle wicked, ending on a note of what on the whole deserves to be called malice rather than irony.”
Nation 105:149 Ag 9 ‘17 140w
“The descriptions of the English countryside are very much the best part of the book—far better than the dialogue, which is often ‘bookish’ rather than natural, or the story, which is not particularly interesting. This new writer is not without gifts, but he should learn to restrain his tendency to verbiage.”
– + N Y Times 22:266 Jl 15 ‘17 400w
“The one thing lacking in Mr Cade’s novel is a point of view. ... We are offered neither a moral idea nor a wholly consistent tale. Otherwise this is a well-written and amusing book. ... Mr Cade’s work will be worth watching. He can put colour into it without letting it get loud; he likes a dash of oddity, but keeps his people human.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p32 Ja 18 ‘17 600w
CADY, MRS BERTHA LOUISE (CHAPMAN), and CADY, VERNON MOSHER. Way life begins. (Serial pub. no. 85) il $1 Am. social hygiene assn. 570 17-4856
This introduction to sex education, intended for parents and teachers, regards nature study as the logical means of approach to the subject. Dr William Freeman Snow in his foreword, says that the book has been prepared to meet the demand for “a simple, scientifically accurate book on the subject of the way plant, animal, and human life begins, written in an interesting, non-technical way, and with adequate illustration.” The arrangement of material is shown by the table of contents: The deeper meaning of nature study; The lily; The moth; The fish; The frog; The chick; The rabbit; The child; Nature study and the personal problems of life. The book is illustrated with nine plates and other figures in the text.
“The last chapter on ‘Nature study and the personal problems of life’ is a sane summing up of the attitude the parent or teacher ought to take toward this important subject.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:335 My ‘17
+ Ind 89:559 Mr 26 ‘17 50w
85
Pratt p19 O ‘17 30w
“The tone is sweet and constructive—spiritual, in the finest sense of the word. One is pretty well justified in saying that while it is not the only useful and commendable book in its field, it is beyond any question the best.” J: P. Gavit
+ Survey 38:423 Ag 11 ‘17 500w
CAFFIN, CHARLES HENRY. How to study architecture. il *$3.50 (2½c) Dodd 720.9 17-24868
This book is an attempt, by an art critic, “to trace the evolution of architecture as the product and expression of successive phases of civilisation.” (Sub-title) Each chapter, or group of chapters, on the architecture of a period, is preceded by a chapter on the civilization of which it was a product. Book 1 is introductory; the remaining six books deal respectively with the pre-classic, classic, post-classic, Gothic, renaissance, and post-renaissance periods of architecture. There is a two-page bibliography, which follows the glossary and index. The book is illustrated with numerous plates.
“Each type is well illustrated.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:48 N ‘17
“A good handbook is a valuable and welcome addition to the understanding of a given art, and Mr Caffin’s work in this case is well done and has the virtue of being readable and not a bore. He is, from long practice, an essayist on this and similar themes who knows how to write and so spares us the ennui which is immemorially associated with works of reference. In his statement as to what has been done and is doing of late years in the United States, it would seem as if the treatment were a little sketchy, because it is centered in New York city.” R: Burton
+ — Bookm 46:479 D ‘17 450w
Dial 63:527 N 22 ‘17 500w
“The field covered is so wide ... that a certain congestion of statement was, perhaps, inevitable. ... By its inclusiveness and the abundance of its modern material it fills an empty place in the literature of its subject.”
+ — N Y Times 22:368 S 30 ‘17 190w
“To teachers and students the cohesion shown between art principles and their historical manifestations has particular value, and to readers generally the subject and its treatment provides the appeal of romance as well as instruction and an opportunity to develop critical appreciation.”
+ School Arts Magazine 17:274 F ‘18 310w
CAHAN, ABRAHAM. Rise of David Levinsky. *$1.60 (1c) Harper 17-23760
In this novel, a Russian Jew who came to America in 1885, at the age of twenty, tells his own story. About eighty pages deal with ghetto life in Russia, the rest of the action passes in America. Though he has been educated in a Talmudic seminary, David tries first to earn a living in New York as a peddler. Failing in this, he becomes an operator in a clothing factory, with the idea of earning enough money to put himself through the City college. An accident changes his dream and he starts out as a manufacturer in the business he has now learned. He steals designs, cheats the union and indulges in other dishonest business practices; but he makes his pile. The story of his relations with various women is given, and especially with the three he loved: Matilda, his first love; Dora, the wife of his friend, Max Margolis, and Anna Tevkin, socialist daughter of a Hebrew poet. David does not marry, and we leave him at the end of the story sensitive, sensual, desperately lonely, finding business “good sport,” but confessing that there is one thing which he craves and “which money cannot buy—happiness.” The story is marred by occasional vulgarities. The author is the editor-in-chief of the Jewish Daily Forward and is the author of “Yekl, a tale of the New York ghetto” and other works.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Bookm 46:338 N ‘17 100w
“As he approaches sixty, Mr Cahan gives us this solid, mature novel, into which are compacted the reflections of a lifetime. The vanity of great riches was never set forth with more searching sincerity. ... As a matter of biography, he is a child of Russian literature. And that is why his novel, written in faultless English, is a singular and solitary performance in American fiction.” J: Macy
+ Dial 63:521 N 22 ‘17 1750w
Nation 105:432 O 18 ‘17 500w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Nation 105:600 N 29 ‘17 150w
“One of the most impressive novels produced in America in many a day.” R. B.
+ New Repub 14:31 F 2 ‘18 650w
“The tale of Levinsky is, incidentally, the tale of the cloak industry in this country; of the methods by which a dominating personality achieves his financial success. But its revelations in this regard are as far from mere muckraking as are Cahan’s pictures of the cloak makers from mere propaganda. ... It is written with a clarity that is French, a chaste realism that is Russo-Yiddish, and a deep human insight that render it universal.” Isaac Goldberg
+ N Y Call p15 S 23 ‘17 700w
“No phase of modern life betrays the cheapness and shams of capitalistic culture more strikingly than does the literature of today. Happily, however, there are some few exceptions, and Cahan is one of these. His ‘Rise of David Levinsky’ is not a commodity, but a piece of art, full of life’s unvarnished truths.”
+ N Y Call p15 O 7 ‘17 1500w
“‘The rise of David Levinsky’ is not a pleasant book, nor is David himself an especially likeable or appealing individual. His very soul is stripped bare before us; we know him intimately, but it cannot be said that to know him is to love him. Yet he often excites our pity. ... The dominant quality in this novel is the effect it gives of being altogether real. Whether the scene be laid in the Russian ghetto or the big expensive hotel in the Catskills where rich Jews congregated, whether it is in the Division street factory or David’s fine place on Fifth avenue, this sense of reality is always present. ... In this story of ‘The rise’ of one individual is pictured the development of an entire class, as well as of what has become one of the great industries of the country.”
N Y Times 22:341 S 16 ‘17 1200w
“As a story for the story’s sake the novel is much less important than as a study of a people whose qualities and experiences are to be increasingly important in American life.”
+ Springf’d Republican p17 O 28 ‘17 550w
“Had the book been published anonymously, we might have taken it for a cruel caricature of a hated race by some anti-Semite. It will be taken by an already critical outer world as a picture of Jewish life in general. It really is not.” K. H. Claghorn
– + Survey 39:260 D 1 ‘17 350w
CALHOUN, ARTHUR WALLACE. Social history of the American family from colonial times to the present. 3v v 1 $5 Clark, A. H. 392.3 17-23329
“The first volume of ‘A social history of the American family’ devotes a chapter to sexual codes and customs in the European countries which furnished colonists to the new world and then traces their modification and development in the thirteen English colonies down to revolutionary times.” (Ind) “Three volumes are contemplated, the second bringing the history through the Civil war period; the third focussing its attention on the present generation.” (Cath World)
“In addition to the value of this material as social history, all of it makes the most interesting reading, and some of it is unsurpassed as the richest kind of humor.” F. W. C.
+ — Boston Transcript p11 N 28 ‘17 750w
“Dr Calhoun, despite his avowed intention not to exaggerate in this direction, does, we think, lay too much stress at times on the ‘economic interpretation’ of life. ... But on 86the whole, Dr Calhoun is clear-sighted and open-minded. He has, for instance, the courage to show what dire fruits the reformation and the loose moral teaching of Luther have borne to the world.”
+ — Cath World 106:263 N ‘17 350w
“The volume shows evidence of great research and contains a full bibliography.”
+ Ind 92:193 O 27 ‘17 60w
“The publishers have given an excellent page on attractive and substantial paper in a serviceable cover.”
+ Lit D 55:43 N 17 ‘17 500w
“American history is being rewritten by the scientific historians, and this volume is a valuable addition to the rich contributions that have been made in recent years.” James Oneal
+ N Y Call p15 N 11 ‘17 1100w
CALHOUN, DOROTHY DONNELL. Princess of Let’s Pretend. il *$1.50 Dutton 16-25148
“The first story is called ‘The story of the enchanted leg’; it tells how a fairy came to Gert van Vent and took charge of his wooden leg, thus bringing happiness to his daughter. ‘Damon and Pythias’ relates the old legend in terms of childhood. ‘The merry monarch’ makes a cobbler king for the day to the great amusement of the court. ... ‘The princess of Let’s Pretend’ contains several other stories, touching on a variety of subjects. Even a baseball story adorns the volume.”—N Y Times
“The illustrations are novel, being photographs chosen from moving picture films; but their realism will disappoint the childish imagination, which can far more aptly picture its own fairy world.”
+ — Cath World 105:556 Jl ‘17 60w
“A delightful collection of stories. They are simply told and sure of entertaining the little folk.”
+ N Y Times 22:224 Je 10 ‘17 170w
“Obviously intended for children from eight to ten or twelve.”
+ Springf’d Republican p19 My 13 ‘17 150w
CALKINS, GARY NATHAN. Biology. 2d ed rev and enl il $1.80 Holt 570 17-25304
“In the present edition, although there is no change in the method by which the subject of biology is developed, there are many changes in the text, some parts being condensed, others elaborated, in the interest of clearness. Apart from verbal improvements throughout the book, the most important alterations and additions have been made in connection with the subjects of fermentation and enzyme activities; the significance of conjugation; plants, the food of animals; photosynthesis; circulation in the earthworm; and immunity. Three figures in the first edition (numbers 6, 21, and 39) have been replaced by more instructive illustrations, and in all cases where necessary, the legends have been amplified. The glossary, which was introduced with the second printing of the first edition, is considerably enlarged, and a bibliography added.” (Preface to the second edition)
+ Educ R 55:79 Ja ‘18 30w
CALVERT, MRS AMELIA CATHERINE (SMITH), and CALVERT, PHILIP POWELL. Year of Costa Rican natural history. il *$3 Macmillan 508.728 17-6345
“The primary concern of the authors in visiting Costa Rica was a study of dragon flies with reference to their seasonal distribution. The book has little to say on that subject, however, because their investigations along that line are not completed. It is devoted mainly to the little republic itself. Describing the daily life in town and country, the authors always have a quick eye for its trees, plants, and animal and insect life.”—N Y Times
“It is abundantly illustrated and will interest tourists and students of general and commercial conditions. Bibliography (30p.).”
+ A L A Bkl 13:381 Je ‘17
“Here lies the drawback of the book; although so full of information, there are but few chapters to be enjoyed by the general reader, who, taking the detail, much of which is unavoidably technical, for granted, would relish some more comprehensive generalised descriptions as characteristic of the country.”
+ — Nature 100:323 D 27 ‘17 650w
N Y Br Lib News 4:59 Ap ‘17
“The result of their observations is set forth with a skill and all-embracing perception only possible to writers who are able to catalogue definitely in their minds what has come under their notice. It is all told in an impressive volume of 577 pages.”
+ N Y Times 22:196 My 20 ‘17 190w
Pittsburgh 22:655 O ‘17 30w
“The style in which this almost inexhaustible store of material has been presented renders the book readable throughout.”
+ R of Rs 56:216 Ag ‘17 330w
St Louis 15:140 My ‘17
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ap 2 ‘17 250w
Cambridge history of American literature. 3v v 1 *$3.50 (3c) Putnam 810.9 (17-30257)
v 1 Colonial and revolutionary literature; Early national literature: Part 1.
The Cambridge history of American literature, edited by William Peterfield Trent, of Columbia, John Erskine, of Columbia, Stuart P. Sherman, of the University of Illinois, and Carl Van Doren, headmaster of the Brearley school, will be complete in three volumes. Volume 1 covers Colonial and revolutionary literature and Early national literature, part 1, ending with a study of Emerson. The distinctive features of the work as a whole are enumerated by the editors: “(1) It is on a larger scale than any of its predecessors ...; (2) It is the first history of American literature composed with the collaboration of a numerous body of scholars from every section of the United States and from Canada; (3) It will provide for the first time an extensive bibliography for all periods and subjects treated; (4) It will be a survey of the life of the American people as expressed in their writings rather than a history of belles-lettres alone.” (Preface) As in the “Cambridge history of English literature,” the bibliographies, arranged at the close, are extensive.
Boston Transcript p8 N 17 ‘17 1200w
+ Boston Transcript p9 D 8 ‘17 730w
“A chapter on transcendentalism by Professor Goddard, of Swarthmore college, is one of the best pieces of work in the volume. ... Now that the foundations of the history are laid, perhaps the superstructure will exhibit a lighter and more attractive aspect. One would welcome a smaller measure of compilation and a larger manifestation of the critical and the appreciatory.”
+ — Dial 63:646 D 20 ‘17 340w
“Tho the chapters on Franklin and Emerson are very well done, perhaps the most delightful chapter in the whole volume is that on Washington Irving, by Major George Haven Putnam.”
+ Lit D 56:34 Ja 12 ‘18 380w
“A valuable, comprehensive, and from beginning to end a most interesting book. Emphasis must be laid upon the care and detail which the authors and editors have devoted to the early literature of our land. ‘The Cambridge History of American literature’ is a book of the utmost importance.”
+ + — N Y Times 22:497 N 25 ‘17 1500w
+ Outlook 117:653 D 19 ‘17 90w
+ R of Rs 57:216 F ‘18 170w
“The editors have plainly worked in harmony, and, what is more, they have plainly tried to harmonize the work of their contributors. In one or two of the chapters there is excessive individualism in the interpretation; and even a few foolish statements can be found. But, in the main, the contributors have worked upon a basis of facts and have sought to study the relations between facts. It is to be regretted 87where so much space is devoted to bibliographies, that they are less exhaustive than cooperative scholarship might make them.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p19 D 2 ‘17 1600w
Cambridge history of English literature; ed. by A. W: Ward and A. R. Waller. 14v v 13-14 ea *$2.75 (1½c) Putnam 820.9 (7-40854)
v 13-14 Nineteenth century.
The thirteenth volume continues the history of the nineteenth century, begun in volume 12. Among the studies contributed to the volume are: Carlyle, by J. G. Robertson; The Tennysons, by Herbert J. C. Grierson; Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, by Sir Henry Jones; The prosody of the nineteenth century, by George Saintsbury; Nineteenth-century drama, by Harold Child; Thackeray, by A. Hamilton Thompson; Dickens, by George Saintsbury; The Brontës, by A. A. Jack. Volume 14 completes the trilogy of the nineteenth century and brings the work as a whole to a close. It has chapters on: Philosophers; Historians, biographers and political orators; The growth of journalism; The literature of science; Anglo-Irish literature, etc. There is also a chapter by W. Murison on Changes in the language since Shakespeare’s time.
“Volume 14 has especially noteworthy articles on the growth of journalism and on literature in the English colonies.”
+ A L A Bkl 13:340 My ‘17 (Review of v 13 and 14)
“A grim and militant provincialism is the presiding spirit of the volumes. Only so can one explain the fact that Newman is mentioned only in scattered references and nowhere treated as the great master of prose that he was, that Meredith’s ‘Modern love’ is slurred over as unimportant, and that the treatment of Patmore’s later verse (’The toys,’ ‘Magna est veritas,’ etc.), of Henley, and of Pater is brief and grudging.” Ludwig Lewisohn
— Dial 62:473 My 31 ‘17 1700w (Review of v 13 and 14)
“Mr Robertson treats in too cursory and perfunctory a fashion the question of the historical value of Carlyle’s historical works, nor does the bibliography supply this lacuna. ... In any general survey of the progress of historical studies in England during the nineteenth century there are two facts which ought to be clearly stated and adequately emphasized, viz. the opening of the national archives to historians and the revival of the study of history in the universities. They are suggested and referred to, but not given sufficient importance. ... Instances might be noted in which the selection of one writer rather than another seems difficult to explain, but carping criticism of details is an ungrateful task, where in the main there is agreement.” L.
+ — Eng Hist R 32:447 Jl ‘17 850w (Review of v 13 and 14)
“The bibliographies in themselves form probably the most valuable book-record of the subject in print.”
+ Ind 90:215 Ap 28 ‘17 500w (Review of v 1-14)
“With such names as Robertson, Grierson, Saintsbury, and Jack, it can be assumed that the present volume reaches the high level normal to this authoritative series.”
+ Lit D 54:768 Mr 17 ‘17 250w (Review of v 13)
+ Lit D 54:1429 My 12 ‘17 280w (Review of v 14)
“But there is much more in the volume that will interest men of science than the single chapter which is specifically devoted to the literature of science. The whole volume is full of interest. A chapter on the changes in the language since the time of Shakespeare, by Mr W. Murison, may be commended to all those who are interested, as all of us ought to be, in the literary exposition of scientific work.”
+ — Nature 100:141 O 25 ‘17 1100w (Review of v 14)
+ N Y Times 22:97 Mr 18 ‘17 950w (Review of v 13 and 14)
“The editors have chosen for their collaborators writers who know how to be scholarly without being pedantic; and they have allowed a fair modicum of personal equation to pass the editorial pencil unchallenged. Nevertheless, one feels, more in some chapters than in others, a sense of restraint, as tho the critic had checked himself on the verge of giving expression to his full thought.” F: T. Cooper
+ Pub W 91:591 F 17 ‘17 750w (Review of v 13)
“It is a miscellany of both brilliant and careless workmanship, and its value will depend largely upon the individual reader’s interpretation of what is meant by history.”
+ — R of Rs 56:103 Jl ‘17 180w (Review of v 14)
St Louis 15:151 My ‘17 (Review of v 14)
“The chapters devoted to the literature of the Dominions from the freshness of their matter and their treatment, are among the most enthralling in the book.”
+ Sat R 123:438 My 12 ‘17 1650w (Review of v 13 and 14)
“Most of the contributors have taken pains to be accurate in their statements of fact even if their criticisms often provoke dissent. The very lengthy bibliographies add much to the value of the work for purposes of reference.”
+ Spec 118:210 F 17 ‘17 180w (Review of v 13 and 14)
“If the volume fails to make a unified impression, one is glad to take it for what it is—a collection of interesting and sometimes important papers by men well qualified to speak of their respective subjects. But the drawback of the method is not to be overlooked.”
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Ja 28 ‘17 1100w (Review of v 13)
“A newspaper man will relish the chapter on ‘The growth of journalism,’ by J. S. R. Phillips, editor of the Yorkshire Post, a model of condensation and good judgment. But the public as a whole may be more interested in the well-written and well-reasoned chapter on English-Canadian literature by Pelham Edgar, professor of English literature in Victoria college, University of Toronto.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Mr 19 ‘17 1350w (Review of v 13)
The Times [London] Lit Sup p10 Ja 4 ‘17 120w (Review of v 13 and 14)
“In conclusion we must regretfully congratulate Professor Robertson, Mr Hamilton Thompson, and Sir Adolphus Ward on being the only authors in this volume with a right sense of the historian’s responsibility; they alone have completed their own bibliographies. ‘G. A. B.,’ who is wholly or partly responsible for the rest, cannot be said to have attained a satisfactory level in the more difficult subjects.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p54 F 1 ‘17 1600w (Review of v 13)
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p78 F 15 ‘17 1650w (Review of v 14)
CAMMAERTS, ÉMILE. Through the iron bars (Two years of German occupation in Belgium). il *75c (3½c) Lane (Eng ed 6d) 940.91 17-22575
“It is the plain matter-of-fact story of Belgian life under German rule. ... The German occupation of Belgium may be roughly divided into two periods: Before the fall of Antwerp, when the German policy, in spite of its frightfulness, had not yet assumed its most ruthless and systematic character; and, after the fall of the great fortress, when the yoke of the conqueror weighed more heavily on the vanquished shoulders, and when the Belgian population, grim and resolute, began to struggle to preserve its honour and loyalty and to resist the ever increasing pressure of the enemy to bring it into complete submission and to use it as a tool against its own army and its own king. I am only concerned here with the second period. ... My heroes risk their lives, but they are not soldiers, merely prosaic ‘bourgeois’ and workmen. They have no weapon, they cannot fight. ... They can only oppose a stout heart, a loyal spirit, and an ironic smile to the 88persecutions to which they are subjected.” (Chapter 1) Seven cartoons by Louis Raemaekers are reproduced.
+ A L A Bkl 14:122 Ja ‘18
“In these pages we have vivid, searching descriptions of and protests against the unwarrantable vandalism of the Teuton soldiery. It is a sad document, illumined by fires of devoted heroism.”
+ Boston Transcript p9 D 1 ‘17 160w
“The evident restraint of passion is not its least virtue.”
+ Nation 105:672 D 13 ‘17 170w
Pittsburgh 22:826 D ‘17 20w
+ R of Rs 56:549 N ‘17 110w
“M. Cammaerts describes very clearly the successive phases of Belgium’s martyrdom under the rule of an enemy who has by turns attempted to cajole and to intimidate her. He says that the German pro-Flemish agitation has been a complete failure, as the Flemish-speaking Belgians saw through the enemy’s intrigue.”
+ Spec 118:616 Je 2 ‘17 70w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p203 Ap 26 ‘17 70w
CAMP, CHARLES WADSWORTH. Abandoned room. il *$1.35 (2c) Doubleday 17-29177
This story of two mysterious murders is by the author of the “House of fear.” These murders take place at “The Cedars” in a bedroom where many Blackburns have died reluctantly and which has been unused for a number of years. Who murdered Silas Blackburn and the detective, Howells? Was it Katherine Perrine, who lived with her uncle? Or Bobby Blackburn, that “damned waster,” his grandson? Or Carlos Paredes, Bobby’s Panamanian friend, who was always harping on the supernatural? The secret is well kept, and the solution of the mystery a most unexpected one.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Bookm 46:342 N ‘17 20w
“The author succeeds to an unusual degree in inducing in the reader that peculiar creepy feeling associated with deeds of darkness and the supernatural. Nevertheless, the characters are very human, present-day people and the romance of Bobby and Katherine lends a welcome touch of tenderness.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 D 26 ‘17 320w
“Mr Camp’s new mystery story is one of those tales which keep the reader on the alert, leading him on from one apparently inexplicable occurrence to another, and leave him in the end with a feeling of mingled disappointment and annoyance.”
+ — N Y Times 22:491 N 25 ‘17 220w
“Mr Camp makes such effective use of the supernatural manifestations that the reader has frequent attacks of goose flesh. The story is rather superior to the general run of its type, but the type is not distinguished.”
+ — Springf’d Republican p19 D 2 ‘17 250w
CAMP, CHARLES WADSWORTH. War’s dark frame. il *$1.35 (2½c) Dodd 940.91 17-15964
These impressions of life in France, Flanders, and England in wartime picture the home conditions of the man at the front as well as his life in the trenches. The author is a war correspondent whose tour apparently took place during the winter of 1916-17, and who was many times under shell fire.
A L A Bkl 14:52 N ‘17
“One notices the changed attitude in this book from the journalistic flippancy that used to be encountered in the earlier war-books. The continued strain is beginning to tell not only upon officers and men, but in the literature of the war. It is a serious business, which nevertheless has its virtues and its lighter sides. All are reflected with great fairness and sincerity by this thoroughly competent correspondent and author.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Je 30 ‘17 320w
“An account of the darker side of the war told with an economy of words which makes it singularly moving.”
+ Cleveland p101 S ‘17 60w
“His conversational way of mingling fact and fancy makes a decidedly readable, though light, book.”
+ Nation 105:181 Ag 16 ‘17 130w
“It is intimate touches that make the book unique, and which will probably cause it to become more popular than many another much more pretentious volume. The fourteen illustrations, all from photographs, have the added value of showing people as well as places.”
+ N Y Times 22:294 Ag 12 ‘17 500w
CAMPBELL, FRANCES (WEED) (MRS GEORGE CAMPBELL). Book of home nursing. il *$1.25 Dutton 610.7 17-21895
“A practical guide for the treatment of sickness in the home. ... While the subject matter is in the main such as would be found in any practical book dealing with the problems of sickness and nursing, there are included many original ideas in the care of patients that have been used with great success by Mrs Campbell.” (N Y Call) “The author is a trained nurse who writes out of the knowledge gained in actual experiences. One very useful chapter is called: How to keep well.” (R of Rs)
+ — N Y Call p15 O 28 ‘17 270w
“If you are intending to work in the war hospitals, this book will prove invaluable and serve as a solid foundation for specialized training.”
+ R of Rs 56:555 N ‘17 50w
“Writing in an easily readable style with now and then a little flash of humor, Mrs Campbell has brought together simple every day facts that should be of great value to one who, unused to the profession of nursing, is suddenly forced to think and plan for the comfort of an invalid.” J. E. Hitchcock
+ Survey 39:170 N 17 ‘17 230w
CAMPBELL, JAMES MANN. New thought Christianized. *$1 (3½c) Crowell 131 17-13828
This book discusses “the law of suggestion, fear and its antidotes, the folly of worry, repose and how to get it, health and religion, true optimism, the power of initiative, self-control versus divine control, the higher environment, etc.”—R of Rs
N Y Br Lib News 4:111 Jl ‘17
“These cults lack an essential element of Christianity. They affirm man’s self-sufficiency apart from God, of whom, man’s indispensable source of sufficiency, they affirm little or nothing.”
Outlook 116:451 Jl 18 ‘17 70w
“Dr Campbell is in agreement with Dr Dresser in fundamentals. ... This is an excellent book for the orthodox Christian who wants to come over into the New thought camp without the loss of one jot of his Christianity.”
+ R of Rs 56:106 Jl ‘17 140w
CAMPBELL, MAURICE VIELE. Rapid training of recruits. *$1 Stokes 355 17-29354
“A practical scheme for quick results in training the national army, based on the definite record of what has been actually accomplished in England. The aim is to give the recruit instructor in America cantonments a thoroughly tested plan for whipping his men into shape speedily. A typical day’s work is minutely outlined, lectures are suggested, in fact every detail necessary to an intensive program is fully treated. The book is as useful to the recruit himself as to his instructor.”—Publishers’ note
+ R of Rs 57:102 Ja ‘18 50w
89CANBY, HENRY SEIDEL; PIERCE, FREDERICK ERASTUS, and DURHAM, WILLARD HIGLEY. Facts, thought, and imagination. *$1.30 (1c) Macmillan 808 17-19155
A book on writing, prepared for the use of second year college students. It is assumed that the students have been taught “all they can absorb of unity, coherence and emphasis” and are now ready to write. Part one of the book consists of theoretical discussion and is made up of three chapters on writing: Facts, by Frederick Erastus Pierce; Thought, by Henry Seidel Canby; and Imagination in the service of thought, by Willard Higley Durham. “These essays,” the authors say, “not only give instructions for writing, but also, directly or by implication, suggest an abundance of subjects.” The remainder of the book is given up to selections, arranged in three groups to accompany the three chapters, and chosen from the work of modern writers. The authors are members of the department of English, of Sheffield scientific school, Yale university.
CANNAN, GILBERT. Mendel; a story of youth. *$1.50 (1c) Doran 16-23586
Mendel Kühler is a young Austrian Jew who grows up in the East End of London. He is the youngest child of his parents and the best loved, and his early leanings toward art are fostered, altho humble Jacob and Golda, intent only on getting on in the world, cannot understand them. The story is concerned with Mendel’s progress in art, his life in London’s Bohemia, his association with his artist friends and his love for Greta Morrison. He is a child of the city and he loves it, its squalor and filth and noise. As an artist he paints it, coming in time to adopt the new modern methods of treatment. Greta Morrison belongs to the country. Her delights are in deep woods and wet meadows. Their love is a conflict, but while the book leaves their story unfinished, it gives the impression that their need for one another must conquer all differences.
“Gilbert Cannan, in his new book, has hardly maintained the high standard that he has set for himself in some of his earlier work. There is too much of the flavor of George Moore, particularly of ‘Lewis Seymour,’ in it, and a good deal of Jean Christophe, and dish-water. ... It must be said, however, that the character drawing is fearless and generally consistent.”
– + Bellman 22:278 Mr 10 ‘17 250w
“There is a good deal of dinginess in the chronicle, the dinginess of egotism, of drink, and of sex.” H. W. Boynton
Bookm 45:204 Ap ‘17 650w
“Mr Cannan’s is so expert a hand at hard realism that we again and again regret his frequent excursions into the field of grotesque fantasy and violent eroticism. ... It must be obvious by this time to anyone who has followed Mr Cannan’s work as a novelist that he is obsessed by the idea that sex and nothing but sex should form the background of a novel. ... His entire atmosphere reeks with eroticism. ... And intermingled is a persistent jargon about art which gives us little knowledge of the subject and that fails to convince us of Mendel’s genius.” E. F. E.
– + Boston Transcript p6 F 17 ‘17 1400w
“The book is unreserved, but the naturalism is subordinated to the fine characterization of a Jew and an artist, and therein Cannan does for his genius what Theodore Dreiser fails to do for his; that is, he gets above the merely material plane and shows how lower values are transmuted into higher.”
+ Cleveland p87 Jl ‘17 120w
Reviewed by John Macy
Dial 62:357 Ap 19 ‘17 350w
“In long dissertations on art between Mendel, and Logan, and other art-students, we cannot forget that they were only callow youths with more enthusiasm than brains. In his ups and downs we get quite an insight into the ‘new art’ of Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne. ... The author is overstocked with material. ... He is too diffuse.”
– + Lit D 54:1088 Ap 14 ‘17 270w
“It is an exceedingly candid picture of life, and a remarkable portrayal of an interesting and significant character—the realest person that I have met in fiction for years. ... There is something new happening in fiction; and this is it.” F. D.
+ Masses 9:28 My ‘17 700w
“As usual, Mr Cannan has found plenty of spades here to be called by name, but we never suspect him of pursuing grossness for its own sake. The narrative is hardly a ‘story,’ it has no plot, and is most liberal of detail. It is, nevertheless, very artfully put together to an end far beyond that of naturalism in its raw phase—to the end of interpreting a human character in action upon a higher than animal plane.” H. W. Boynton
Nation 104:403 Ap 5 ‘17 150w
“One likes Mendel chiefly because it expresses valorously a sense of the primitive value of the fight that there is when one’s work and one’s love are made to use all the forces of one’s life. The book is not comfortable and acquiescent. It demands thoroughgoing and pugnacious protest. ... But one wishes Mr Cannan would write a little better. ... It tests one’s disposition toward Mendel to have its author give so little gratification to a taste for letters as a fine art.” Edith Borie
+ — New Repub 10:sup11 Ap 21 ‘17 950w
“A long step forward in fictional art has been taken by Gilbert Cannan in this new novel. He is best known to American readers as the translator of ‘Jean Christophe’ and as the author of ‘Old Mole,’ ‘Young Earnest,’ and ‘Three sons and a mother,’ as most of his long list of novels and plays have not been brought out in the United States.”
+ N Y Times 22:54 F 18 ‘17 600w
“The acrid savor of the Jewish race, their mounting egotism, their strange humility and ever-mastering desire for God, Cannan has pictured with sympathy and deep insight.”
+ R of Rs 56:556 N ‘17 200w
“‘Mendel’ is a fearless piece of work. It has grip and power, shrewd observation, and clear-cut thought. Sloppiness, sentiment and gush—the three distinguishing traits of so many modern novels—are absent. The writer knows what he wants to say and knows how to say it. Mr Cannan works close to life. His book is realism, but realism of the right kind.”
+ Sat R 122:628 D 30 ‘16 500w
“Besides theories on art, another preoccupation of Mr Cannan’s personages is sex. There is far too much talk about it; an exasperated consciousness of it pervades the book. ... So far we have said nothing of the honesty, the intelligence, the frequent and delightful pungency of the book. Mr Cannan has moments in which he lazily subsides into ineffective emphasis, or caricature, or cut-and-dried appreciations, and these moments are frequent enough to make ‘Mendel’ seem too long. But it almost continuously entertains, and we are not using the term in a trivial sense; it entertains because it provokes.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p499 O 19 ‘16 600w
CAPPEAU, MRS IDA MAY (JACK). Voyage to South America and Buenos Aires, the city beautiful. il $1.20 (4c) Sherman, French & co. 918 16-24332
A woman’s diary of a voyage to South America. On the voyage stops were made at Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, and brief glimpses of these cities are given. Most of the author’s time was spent in Buenos Aires and she writes with enthusiasm of the city and of the courtesy and kindness of its people.
“Only the fact that so few people find anything at all to say about South America makes Mrs Cappeau’s account appear of relative interest. ... A few of the photographs are excellent.”
+ — Boston Transcript p8 Ja 10 ‘17 70w
90CARBAUGH, HARVEY CLARENCE, ed. Human welfare work in Chicago. il *$1.50 (4c) McClurg 917.731 17-9261
The purpose of this book is to bring together information pertaining to the various activities in Chicago that come under the heading human welfare. These include music, art, education, philanthropy, etc. The editor is a member of the civil service board of South park commissioners; there is an introduction by John Barton Payne, president of the South park commissioners, and chapters are contributed to the book by other men directly engaged in special lines of work, among them Henry E. Legler, librarian of the public library. Contents: Art in Chicago; Chicago as a music center; The city’s public schools; The public library; Parks and boulevards; Public recreation; A summary of philanthropic work; Philanthropic work of religious organizations; Neighborhood work. There are a number of interesting illustrations.
+ A L A Bkl 13:427 Jl ‘17
Boston Transcript p6 My 9 ‘17 100w
Cleveland p108 S ‘17 40w
“It is not until one comes upon the full list of municipal activities, as in such a volume as the present, that the scope and significance of that future are possible of realization. ... The volume contains much statistical information and is amply illustrated.”
+ Dial 62:406 My 3 ‘17 190w
N Y Br Lib News 4:109 Jl ‘17 80w
Pittsburgh 22:675 O ‘17 60w
“A valuable handbook for those interested in gaining an idea of the varied activities which a modern city carries on for the benefits of its citizens.”
+ Pratt p10 O ‘17 40w
CARMICHAEL, MARY H., comp. Pioneer days. il *$1.25 (3c) Duffield 973 17-13393
The author has collected these stories of pioneer days in the Mississippi valley from early histories and from lives of frontiersmen and pioneers written by contemporaries. Contents: Josiah Hunt—the Indian fighter; Maniac defender—a story of the border; Providential interference; Tom Higgins rescuing his comrade; A romance of pioneer life; Ham Cass and his vow; Capture and escape of Alexander McConnell; Charles Hess; Captain Hubbell defending his boat; Pioneer boys; James Moore’s captivity; Lewis Wetzel’s scout. The illustrations are from old prints.
“A good library book for sixth grade.”
+ Ind 91:228 Ag 11 ‘17 40w
N Y Br Lib News 4:109 Jl ‘17 50w
“There might have been a more careful editing of the contents; one is led to infer that scissors and paste-brush were the only utensils in use.”
– + Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 31 ‘17 200w
CARNOVALE, LUIGI. Why Italy entered into the great war. il $2.50 Italian-American pub. co., 903 Michigan boulevard bldg., Chicago 940.91 17-21996
“The author, an Italian living in Chicago, writes this book to defend his country from the charges ... that Italy had been guilty of treachery in declaring void the treaty of the Triple alliance and that she entered the war first because she had been bought by English and French gold, and secondly because she was eager to acquire territory (Trieste and Trent) ‘which by hereditary divine right was the possession of the Hapsburgs.’” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “The first part deals with recent history—with the relations between Italy and Austria for the past century. ... The second part comprises a longer historical retrospect—one of two thousand years—and is designed to prove the essentially Italian character of the borderlands in dispute between the two countries. The third part gives an account of the diplomatic doings which immediately preceded the declaration of war—a complete and compact presentation of the actual documents. The fourth part gives the reasons which justified Italy in breaking with the Central powers and in joining France and England.” (Dial) The book is printed in two languages. “The English text fills the first three hundred pages, and the whole is then presented in Italian in the second half of the book.” (N Y Times)
A L A Bkl 14:52 N ‘17
“One feature of the book is a plate giving in facsimile the famous ‘Tavola Clesiana,’ a bronze tablet which was discovered at Cles, in mid-Tyrol, in 1869. This tablet contains a decree of the Emperor Claudius, A.D. 49, determining the essentially Italian character of the inhabitants of that region. ... Mr Carnovale, who has a reputation as a journalist both in Italy and America, is one of the younger school of radical reformers. He is against not only the papacy but also the house of Savoy; and against not only the house of Savoy but also the capitalistic forces which ... often take an undue part in originating and in furthering wars.”
+ Dial 63:212 S 13 ‘17 430w
“Readers who wish to preserve a judicial attitude will need to be on their guard against the author’s point of view. And one cannot refrain from marveling that so ardent a patriot should choose to live in a country of which he has such a low opinion as he expresses of America.”
— NY Times 22:382 O 17 ‘17 350w
St Louis 15:417 D ‘17 10w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p431 S 6 ‘17 150w
CARPENTER, FORD ASHMAN. Aviator and the Weather bureau. 2d ed il 25c; free to libraries San Diego chamber of commerce, San Diego, Cal. 629.1 17-25375
“This little booklet consists of a brief but comprehensive account of the history of aviation as it is associated with southern California and of a syllabus of lectures delivered at the War department school of aviation at San Diego on practical meteorology as applied to aviation. There is also an interesting narration of weather study from an aeroplane, including the details of the author’s first ascent, and, finally, an account of the present active coöperation between aviators and the United States Weather bureau.”—Nation
+ Nation 105:19 Jl 5 ‘17 170w
“Contains a considerable number of interesting illustrations.”
+ Nature 99:263 My 31 ‘17 60w
Pittsburgh 22:753 N ‘17 20w
CARPENTER, WILLIAM BOYD. Further pages of my life. il *$3.50 Scribner (*10s 6d Williams & Norgate, London) 17-14124
“The ways of man and the shortcomings of clergymen, the life of the rural vicarage and the personalities of several English leaders in letters, religion and affairs, are revealed by Dr W. Boyd Carpenter in a second volume of reminiscences. It is a companion to his ‘Some pages of my life,’ and it is written in the same informal, companionable and entertaining manner. Neither is it in any sense a biography, for Dr Carpenter is content merely to set down a few glimpses of life and people as he has encountered them during a long career of clerical activity. After having served as bishop of Ripon from 1884 to 1911, he is now sub-dean and canon of Westminster.”—Boston Transcript
Boston Transcript p7 Ap 25 ‘17 750w
“There are many good stories of all sorts—humorous, strange, and grim—in this variegated chronicle.”
+ Spec 117:704 D 2 ‘16 1850w
“Few people write a sequel to an autobiography which is more interesting and important than the first book. But this is the case with ‘Further pages of my life.’ ... Every clergyman should read the chapter on the bishop’s experiences with the clergy of his diocese. ... The book, as a whole, is delightful reading. ... Bishop Boyd Carpenter is able to tell 91things which have never before been revealed. This is especially true in his chapter on King Edward VII.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Jl 3 ‘17 570w
“A fascinating volume.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p558 N 23 ‘16 1000w
CARR, JOSEPH WILLIAM COMYNS. Ideals of painting. il *$2 (2c) Macmillan 759 17-8604
The purpose of this book is “to assist those students who desire to obtain a general view of the movement of painting from the time of Giotto to the present day; and to compare and contrast the spiritual ideals that have been pursued and perfected in the work of separate schools labouring under the dominating impulse supplied by individual genius.” The first two sections of the book deal with The ideals of Italy and Venice and the north. The remainder consists of chapters devoted respectively to the ideals of Flanders, Germany, Holland, Spain, France and England. There are a number of illustrations, and an index that seems to be complete.
“The illustrations are numerous and well chosen.”
+ A L A Bkl 14:12 O ‘17
Boston Transcript p7 Jl 11 ‘17 230w
“Well arranged material.”
+ Cleveland p97 Jl ‘17 40w
“There is any amount of interesting detail, comparison, analysis, and assertion; but no pattern of a theory of life, related in specific ways to the theories of life of the others, emerges for any one of these lands.”
– + Dial 63:115 Ag 16 ‘17 250w
Lit D 55:40 N 3 ‘17 100w
“Nearly everything he says is interesting, and his characterization of particular painters is often admirable. Of course, there are what must appear to another critic faults of proportion and of accent. His greatest critical weakness seems to us to be a lack of complete understanding of the possibilities of light and shade. The greatest drawback of Mr Carr’s book is his style. He is not master of the vivid phrase or the illuminating word. His wordiness and repetitiousness make hard reading, and it is to be feared that few readers will be sufficiently persevering to discover how much better his thought is than it sounds.”
* – + Nation 105:126 Ag 2 ‘17 800w
N Y Br Lib News 5:75 My ‘17 40w
“The present book reflects to a degree the crowding of thoughts and impressions arising in the presence of so multitudinous a subject, and it lacks distinction of proportion.”
– + N Y Times 22:334 S 9 ‘17 180w
“The text is set forth with the same charm as characterized the author’s previously most lately issued volume, ‘Coasting Bohemia.’”
+ Outlook 115:758 Ap 25 ‘17 110w
“Will give the veriest tyro in art the ability to appreciate and to criticise intelligently the paintings of the various schools.”
+ R of Rs 56:219 Ag ‘17 170w
“The history of art is now so specialized that to be adequately furnished at every point is scarcely possible to a single man. How can any one student know as much as Morelli or Mr Berenson about the Italians, as much as Dr Bredius or Dr de Groot about the Dutch, and as much as a dozen other experts about the French, German, Spanish, and English painters? Mr Carr would have replied that he made no such pretension. ... To sum up, we have found this book interesting and suggestive and based on a sound foundation of knowledge. It is a pity, however, that the proofs were not more carefully read.”
* + – The Times [London] Lit Sup p235 My 17 ‘17 1150w
CARRINGTON, FITZROY. Engravers and etchers. il $3 Art institute of Chicago 760
“This volume, with its 133 illustrations, embodies six lectures delivered under the auspices of the Scammon foundation at the Art institute of Chicago by the curator of prints at our own [Boston] art museum. The chapter titles will give an adequate idea of the ground covered: German engraving: from the beginning to Martin Schongauer; Italian engraving: the Florentines; German engraving: the master of the Amsterdam cabinet and Albrecht Dürer; Italian engraving: Mantegna to Marcantonio Raimondi; Some masters of portraiture; Landscape etching.”—Boston Transcript
“He scarcely touches on contemporary artists of the needle and burin, and he dwells lovingly on Dürer and Rembrandt. ... This necessarily limits the interest of the book principally to those that know little or nothing of these arts. Neither does he go into the technicalities of the processes engaged in them. His book is to be especially recommended to young amateurs. ... Most of the reproductions of the works of Schongauer, Mantegna, Raimondi, Nanteuil, Daubigny, Corot, Haden and other masters represented, are admirably clear and satisfactory.” N. H. D.
+ Boston Transcript p7 Jl 25 ‘17 520w
“The last lecture, dealing with landscape, is perhaps the best in its directness and unity, and the tribute to Dürer’s little-realized importance in this field is noted with pleasure by the reviewer. As to the illustrations, regrets concerning the havoc with lines played by the half-tone screen are of course unavoidable. And one may at least question whether the irritatingly glazed and malodorous paper used throughout the book is necessary. Mr Paff’s bibliographical lists, obviously not intended to be complete, are helpful.”
+ — Nation 105:299 S 13 ‘17 430w
“In its agreeable blending of technical discussion with discriminating feeling the book is an excellent aid to appreciation.”
+ Pittsburgh 22:811 D ‘17 50w
“For the needs of persons to whom engravings and etchings are an unexplored region of art there is no better book. It is beautifully printed and contains 133 well-executed illustrations.”
+ R of Rs 56:220 Ag ‘17 130w
CARROLL, ROBERT SPROUL. Mastery of nervousness based upon self reeducation. *$2 (3c) Macmillan 616 17-18704
Dr Carroll tells us that “nervous health is a mental state, not a physical condition,” although “physical disturbances play a large part in the production of nervousness.” For instance, food intemperance, which in America is “almost universal,” is “a larger factor in producing the damage which results in defective nervous offspring, than any other single cause.” The earlier chapters of the book take up various types of nervousness, discuss “eating errors” and “eating for efficiency,” and point out the benefits of work and play. Later chapters deal with mental and moral self-reeducation under such headings as: Tangled thoughts; Emotional tyranny; Clear thinking; Moulding the emotions; The fulfilment of self, etc. Dr Carroll believes that nervousness is to be mastered by diet, exercise and training of the will, rather than by drugs.
“A most helpful popular treatise.”
+ N Y Evening Post p6 O 13 ‘17 400w
“An abundance of useful information and wholesome advice is presented by Dr Carroll.”
+ N Y Times 22:521 D 2 ‘17 50w
+ Springf’d Republican p13 Ja 20 ‘18 170w
CASALIS, ALFRED EUGÈNE. For France and the faith. il *60c (3c) Assn. press 940.91 17-24722
This book is made up of fragments of letters written to relatives and intimate friends by Alfred Eugène Casalis who was born of missionary parents in South Africa, was a student in the theological seminary of Montauban, France, when the war broke out, volunteered and fell in battle at the age of nineteen. The letters are translated by W. E. Bristol. In an introductory 92page John R. Mott says: “The English edition has helped many a soldier of Britain to live his life and to fight his battles on the higher levels.”
A L A Bkl 14:88 D ‘17
CASTLE, AGNES (SWEETMAN) (MRS EGERTON CASTLE), and CASTLE, EGERTON. Wolf-lure. il *$1.50 Appleton 17-24204
“The strange, barbaric title of this latest adventure story by these popular authors amply suggests the wild, exotic scenes enacted about Castle Rozac of Guyenne, not long after the old French régime came to an abrupt downfall under the ‘Corsician upstart.’ The tale consists of the reminiscences of an elderly Englishman, who in youth wandered into this out-of-the-way part of France for the sake of historical study and research. The action, which is extravagant, though doubtless appropriate to the times and the setting, takes one into the midst of a passion-haunted castle, into the territory of a race of ruffians and counterfeiters, and even down to the subterranean caves in the back waters of the Tarne.”—N Y Times
“Romantic and rather long.”
+ — A L A Bkl 14:130 Ja ‘18
+ Ath p595 N ‘17 90w
“Needless to say of a work from these experienced hands, it is a vigorous and finished story of its kind.” H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 46:342 N ‘17 60w
“The color and romance of the story give us the Castles at their best; and the character of Louvecelle, the heroine, is touched with spirit and charm.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 O 3 ‘17 170w
“‘Wolf-lure’ is the work of specialists in their field. ... Having chosen their atmosphere, they breathe it easily; and they are seldom to be caught napping (there are a few modernisms in the dialogue of the present story) in matters of detail.”
+ Nation 105:487 N 1 ‘17 270w
“The story is surprisingly void of really ‘palpitating moments.’ This is due, perhaps, to a certain loquacity on the part of the narrator that detracts from the point and force of the tale.”
+ – N Y Times 22:381 O 7 ‘17 300w
“The story is not always quite probable, but it holds the reader’s attention closely.”
+ — Outlook 117:219 O 10 ‘17 40w
“We have no objection to fantastic invention in stories of this kind, but if they are put in an historic setting the setting should be true to history.”
— Sat R 124:353 N 3 ‘17 90w
+ Springf’d Republican p15 Ja 13 ‘18 230w
“The tale has many exciting moments; but these come in the latter half of the book, and it needs some perseverance to win through to them.”
+ — The Times [London] Lit Sup p507 O 18 ‘17 200w
CASTLE, WILLIAM ERNEST. Genetics and eugenics; a text-book for students of biology and a reference book for animal and plant breeders. il *$1.50 Harvard univ. press 575.6 16-25200
“The first part of Prof. W. E. Castle’s ‘Genetics and eugenics’ is devoted to the larger subject of genetics, especially in its relation to the theory of evolution, and the smaller second part is given over to the discussion of the ‘agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally.’ Most emphasis is laid, of course, upon the fundamental studies of Lamarck, Darwin, Weismann, and Mendel, but the very latest researches are also considered.”—Nation
“This is a welcome addition to the rapidly growing list of books which set forth the newer results and problems of biology and show their application to human life. Moreover, it is well illustrated. ... The volume will be of great interest and value to laymen as well as biologists; indeed, we may assume that the latter know the facts now.” Carl Kelsey
+ Ann Am Acad 73:244 S ‘17 310w
“The reader will find here a summary of the subject that will put him fairly in touch with the best of contemporary thought on such matters as the inheritance of acquired characters, biometry, the mutation theory, unit characters, sex-linked and other kinds of linked inheritance, inbreeding and crossbreeding. ... As regards human inheritance, Professor Castle agrees neither with Pearson, who denies Mendelianism, nor with Davenport and Plate, who are enthusiastic for unit characters, but adopts a more eclectic view.”
+ Nation 104:563 My 3 ‘17 300w
“Since the beginning of the present century, when genetic research passed from the province of the amateur to that of the professional, Prof. Castle has been recognized as one of the most active workers on these lines. A book embodying his outlook after years of teaching and research is sure of a welcome from all who are interested in these matters. ... The amount of ground covered involves a condensed treatment of many important questions, and though this need not be a drawback to the student whose reading is supplemented by lectures, it makes it rather a difficult book for the average reader. ... The treatment of eugenics is eminently sane.”
+ Nature 99:202 My 10 ‘17 650w
CASTLE, WILLIAM RICHARDS, Jr. Hawaii past and present. rev and enl ed il *$1.50 (3c) Dodd 919.69 17-5138
The first edition of this book was published in 1913. The addition of a chapter on The army and navy in Hawaii is the most noticeable change in the second edition. Other chapters have revisions, bringing them down to date.
A L A Bkl 13:362 My ‘17
“A descendant of the earliest white families to settle in the Hawaiian Islands, Mr Castle is well fitted by long acquaintance with the people and their life and customs to write sympathetically and intelligently concerning them.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 My 29 ‘17 210w
“A valuable book that purports to do a great deal and accomplishes it.”
+ Cath World 105:266 My ‘17 250w
N Y Times 22:396 O 14 ‘17 50w
St Louis 15:185 Je ‘17
CATT, MRS CARRIE (LANE) CHAPMAN, comp. Woman suffrage by federal constitutional amendment. (National suffrage library) $1.30 (8½c) National woman suffrage pub. co. 324.3 17-4988
This little book does not argue the question of woman suffrage. The justice, necessity and inevitability of suffrage for women are taken for granted. “The discussion is strictly confined to the reasons why an amendment to the federal constitution is the most appropriate method of dealing with the question.” Contents: Why the federal amendment? by Carrie Chapman Catt; State constitutional obstructions, by Mary Sumner Boyd; Election laws and referenda, by Carrie Chapman Catt; The story of the 1916 referenda, by Carrie Chapman Catt; Federal action and states rights, by Henry Wade Rogers; Objections to the federal amendment, by Carrie Chapman Catt.
A L A Bkl 13:375 Je ‘17
N Y Br Lib News 4:126 Ag ‘17 80w
CATT, HEINRICH ALEXANDER DE. Frederick the Great; the memoirs of his reader (1758-1760); tr. by F. S. Flint; with an introd. by Lord Rosebery. 2v il *$7.50 Houghton (Eng ed 17-11818)
“The translation constituting the bulk of these important volumes has been made from the French text published from the manuscript in the Prussian state archives. ... As reader and librarian to the king, with whom he was on terms of intimacy, Catt had ample opportunity 93of observing and becoming conversant with the sovereign’s character, and he recorded Frederick’s sayings as faithfully as Boswell noted down for posterity those of Johnson. The result is that Henri de Catt’s memoirs, though almost devoid of literary merit, have preserved for us a picture which it is scarcely too much to affirm gives a better idea of the man than does even Carlyle’s monumental work.”—Ath