Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 11)
Reading edition
“An admirable index completes a remarkable study of a period of early English history seldom discussed.” E. J. C.
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Boston Transcript p4 Ja 5 ’21 780w
R of Rs 63:111 Ja ’21 100w
DAVIES, ELLEN CHIVERS. Boy in Serbia. il *$1.50 (5c) Crowell 914.97
20–15466
The author of “Tales of Serbian life” has written this story to set forth some of the everyday manners and customs of Serbia. It is told in the first person by Milosav, who describes Simple village life, Playtime, First days at school, How St Sava’s day is kept, etc. There is a colored frontispiece with other illustrations from photographs.
“Charmingly simple, dignified and instructive and filled with a joyous appreciation of home and country.”
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Booklist 17:121 D ’20
“Rarely well told.” M. H. B. Mussey
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Nation 111:sup672 D 8 ’20 80w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p834 D 9 ’20 140w
DAVIES, ELLEN CHIVERS. Ward tales. (On active service ser.) *$1.25 (3c) Lane
20–10369
These tales from a military hospital by a V. A. D. show chiefly the humorous side and the comic happenings in surroundings so gruesome. There is just enough sadness in these pictures to give a background to the brighter moments in a nurse’s life. The tales are: In the ward kitchen; “Eye-wash”; A conference of the powers; Visiting day; After hours; The tale of a shirt; The night round; Going to the pictures.
“There is nothing of the grim or the harrowing, though there is an occasional touch of finely restrained pathos.”
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Booklist 16:347 Jl ’20
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Spec 124:765 Je 5 ’20 40w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p202 Mr 25 ’20 50w
DAVIES, GEORGE REGINALD. National evolution. (National social science ser.) *75c McClurg 301
20–1609
“This book traces the development of human societies through the stages of primitive culture, Christian civilization and modern capitalism; ends with a consideration of the best basis for national progress. The book is a condensation of social theories, the only original point being ‘an attempt to harmonize the cultural theory of history with the concrete workings of economic law.’ Chapter bibliographies.”—Booklist
“This brief, concise work is on the whole sound and constructive and will be of special value to the reader whose time is limited.” G. S. Dow
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Am J Soc 26:248 S ’20 240w
Booklist 16:261 My ’20
“‘National evolution’ is a distinct contribution to the National social science series.”
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Dial 68:540 Ap ’20 100w
“The forecasts of the author are reasonable and, on the whole, convincing.”
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Survey 44:351 Je 5 ’20 220w
DAVIESS, MARIA THOMPSON. Matrix. il *$1.75 (5c) Century
20–3881
The story is the romance of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, father and mother of Abraham Lincoln, put together by the author from legends and documentary evidence and woven into a work of fiction portraying pioneer life in the bluegrass valley of Kentucky, illumined by faith, love and courage. It throws a halo around the head of Lincoln’s mother and shows us his father as the first martyr to the cause of abolition.
Booklist 16:280 My ’20
“It is quite fitting that the story of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks should be written by an author who comes from the ‘blue grass country’ herself. She is able to bring to it that inherited tradition which is so difficult for an outsider to achieve.”
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Boston Transcript p4 My 12 ’20 360w
“The author occasionally lapses into primer-technique. A maturer style could have given form to a more enduring romance.”
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Dial 68:664 My ’20 50w
Nation 110:375 Mr 20 ’20 200w
“It has a certain stiffness, as if the task of weaving history and legend and surmise into a consistent and interesting story were a somewhat hampering business to the author. She has, however, succeeded in presenting a clear and evidently carefully drawn sketch of this particular period of American history.”
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N Y Times 25:160 Ap 4 ’20 280w
“It seems to us that the author has made the life of their community focus on these two young people almost too persistently, for whatever their foreordained place in history, they must have been to their neighbors ‘just folks.’ City dwellers who love the simple life will find a breathing space in this pioneer tale.” E. C. Webb
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Pub W 97:605 F 21 ’20 260w
“It is not the author’s fault if she has produced a pious memorial rather than a living portrait.” H. W. Boynton
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Review 2:462 My 1 ’20 130w
Springf’d Republican p11a S 26 ’20 190w
DAVIS, FRANKLYN PIERRE, ed.[2] Anthology of newspaper verse for 1919, and year book of newspaper poetry. $2.50 The author. Enid, Okla. 811.08
20–15478
“Franklyn Pierre Davis of Enid, Okla. carries the anthologizing tendency a step further by editing an ‘Anthology of newspaper verse for 1919 and year book of newspaper poetry.’ Selections are made from a list of papers nationwide in range, and include topical poems, light verse and serious poetry. The editor says: ‘I hope to be able to present annually the best of the verse published in the newspapers in a volume which may preserve for the future the real sentiment of the American people and the true ideals of American life.’”—Springf’d Republican
“If the fact be excepted that Mr Davis has done his job rather badly, one can have nothing but admiration for his endeavor. The idea is mentally invigorating and susceptible of many admirable procedures. It is the editor’s own fault that he has not carried it out in a sufficiently comprehensive manner.” H. S. Gorman
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Bookm 52:168 O ’20 500w
Springf’d Republican p8 N 16 ’20 140w
DAVIS, JAMES FRANCIS. Chinese label. il *$1.75 (2c) Little
20–6429
San Antonio is the scene of this smuggling story and Julian Napier is the special secret service agent sent down from Washington to catch the smugglers. Besides opium, he is on the lookout for two diamonds of great value. A Mexican, a Turk, several Chinese, a beautiful Armenian woman, a lovely American girl and her father, all are implicated in the plot. Clever team work between Napier and the Texas rangers results in the taking of one diamond, and the other is captured in a spectacular raid on the headquarters of the Chinese society which was also doing a big opium business. In this raid the poor dope fiend which the American girl’s father had become met his death like a man, leaving Ruth to be comforted by Julian.
Booklist 16:347 Jl ’20
“The whole affair is treated lightly, without pretense that it is anything more than an amusing yarn; and this is refreshing.” H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 51:582 Jl ’20 190w
Boston Transcript p9 My 8 ’20 320w
“It all runs logically and with a degree of reserve for which the reader is grateful. There would be opportunities for the writer to run amuck, as it were, if he would, but he is artist enough to understand that the best dramatic effect often can be attained by piquing the imagination rather than by laying on the crimson paint with a whitewash brush.”
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N Y Times 25:277 My 23 ’20 480w
Springf’d Republican p12 My 21 ’20 120w
DAVIS, MALCOLM W. Open gates to Russia. il *$2 (2½c) Harper 914.7
20–1610
The author pleads for fair dealing and friendliness and co-operation with Russia in the accomplishment of her great task of reconstruction, and the object of the book is to point out the practical ways and means by which mutually satisfactory relationship can be achieved between Russia and America. The book falls into four parts: The new importance of Russia; Russia’s immediate necessities; Russia’s enduring needs; The interest of Russia. “The first part is a consideration of the question of recent relationships and the attitudes which they have created. The second ... of the important opportunities in trade and industry. The third points out social opportunities, in which considerable opportunities for commercial enterprise are also involved. Finally, the last part is an answer to some American misconceptions of Russia and a description of the real Russia for Americans who wish to know her.” (Chapter 1: America’s attitude toward awakened Russia)
“It is intensely practical, and for that very reason has value at the moment beyond the larger number of books upon Russia.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ap 14 ’20 330w
“Business men who plan to expand their export trade will find these pages a mine of information. The conditions and needs are presented in detail, and valuable suggestions for the conduct of trade with Russia are given.”
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Cath World 111:536 Jl ’20 700w
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Cleveland p42 Ap ’20 60w
Reviewed by Jacob Zeitlin
Nation 110:400 Mr 27 ’20 160w
“It is gratifying to come across a book that is so clear in its recital of facts as the one Davis has given us. It is in all a volume worth reading.” Alvin Winston
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N Y Call p10 Mr 21 ’20 750w
“The five chapters under the general title, Russia’s enduring needs, are of great value, and of special interest is the one relating to The liberated influence of woman.”
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N Y Times 25:268 My 23 ’20 440w
“It will be perhaps especially suggestive to the American who contemplates opening business relations with Russia, but it is a valuable addition to the library of any layman interested in social, economic, and intellectual conditions in Russia today.”
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Outlook 124:336 F 25 ’20 80w
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R of Rs 61:446 Ap ’20 80w
“The volume is one that challenges our present individual indifference to the Russia of today and of the future.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a My 30 ’20 1100w
“It should not be neglected by anyone interested in commercial or other relationships with Russia.” Reed Lewis
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Survey 44:50 Ap 3 ’20 220w
DAVIS, NORAH. Other woman. *$1.75 (1c) Century
20–9140
In this story of dual personality a man, Langdom Kirven, after excessive fatigue and brain-fag, loses himself and consciousness, and wakes up in a hospital another man. In the morning he had said good-bye to his wife and little son and taken a train to New York. The new man is a crook and a criminal, albeit a genius. After seven years his one-time bosom friend and business partner, Spencer Ellis, finds him on a bench in the park, a down and out tramp. Ellis recognizes Kirven and implores him to return to his old life. But there is no memory in Kirven, now John Gorham, and Ellis is at last forced to believe that the external resemblance hides a strange personality. But he gives Gorham a chance to retrieve his fall in fortunes, which the latter does with bold and doubtful business methods. He also falls passionately in love with Naomi, Ellis’ cousin. One morning after another crisis, John Gorham has fled with all memory of himself and a bewildered Kirven awakens in the latter’s office. After this a succession of alternations follows, each one leaving the subject and his friends more bewildered and perplexed than ever. At last an eminent physician finds the way out. The split personality can be unified by a complete realization of the situation and henceforth Langdom Kirven can go through the remainder of his life whole, although cursed with a continuous memory.
“Somewhat melodramatic and rather long drawn out, but cleverly managed. Will appeal to those who read for plot interest.”
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Booklist 17:157 Ja ’21
“It is a difficult piece of work which is admirably well done.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p7 Ag 18 ’20 580w
“Miss Davis has handled her material very well indeed, with much ingenuity of invention and with commendable care in the working out of her great amount of detail and complication. The novel is a good piece of literary workmanship in construction and development.”
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N Y Times 25:321 Je 20 ’20 420w
DAVIS, PHILIP, and SCHWARTZ, BERTHA, comps. Immigration and Americanization. $4 (1½c) Ginn 325.7
20–4542
The book is a compilation of selected readings, on the title subject. It “aims to cover the field of immigration and Americanization from every possible point of view, subject to the limits of a single volume. It is particularly designed to meet the needs of high schools, colleges universities, and chautauquas, which have been frequently at a loss in recommending to the student, investigator, official, or general public a handbook on these twin topics.” (Preface) The selections have been arranged chronologically and include some of the most recent contributions on the subject from writers including Jane Addams, Edward Everett, Henry Cabot Lodge, Emily Greene Balch, Edward A. Steiner, E. A. Goldenweiser, Paul U. Kellogg, John Mitchell, Edward Alsworth Ross, Edward T. Devine, Lillian D. Wald, J. E. Milholland, Samuel Gompers, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin K. Lane, Louis D. Brandeis, Theodore Roosevelt. The contents are in two parts. In book 1 the selections are classified under: History; Causes; Characteristics; The new immigration; Effects; Immigration legislation. Book 2 contains: Americanization: policies and programs; Distribution; Education; Naturalization and citizenship; Americanism. There is an appendix, a bibliography and an index.
Booklist 17:51 N ’20
“The book should be of value to both the general reader and the special student.”
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Boston Transcript p11 My 22 ’20 200w
“The compilers have exercised diligence and judgment, but with a few exceptions the selections lack the ‘human touch.’ It would appear that an undue proportion of space is allotted to the new immigration, even admitting that from the standpoint of the present time and the Americanization worker greater emphasis is justifiable.” G: M. Stephenson
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Mississippi Valley Hist R 7:168 S ’20 720w
Survey 44:385 Je 12 ’20 100w
DAVIS, WILLIAM. Hosiery manufacture. (Pitman’s textile industries ser.) il *$3.50 Pitman 677
A British work designed to meet the rapid development of the knitted fabrics industry and to supply the demand of new firms for information. Contents: Development of the knitted fabric; Knitting and weaving compared; Latch needle knitting; Types of knitting yarns; Systems of numbering hosiery yarns; Calculations for folded knitting yarns; Bearded needle knitting; Setting of knitted fabrics; Various knitting yarns; Winding of hosiery yarns; Circular knitting; Colour in knitted goods; Colour harmony and contrast; Defects in fabrics. There are sixty-one illustrations and an index.
DAVIS, WILLIAM STEARNS. History of France; from the earliest times to the treaty of Versailles. il *$3.50 (2c) Houghton 944
19–19268
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
“Professor Davis has the knack of vivid and fluent narrative. The tale reads well and is interesting. The author makes the great figures of French history appear living.” C. H. C. Wright
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Am Hist R 26:313 Ja ’21 580w
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Booklist 61:163 F ’20
“An interesting feature of the story is that which tells of the relation of France to the crusades. There is an extremely interesting account of life in France in the feudal ages. The story of the revolution is told rapidly, but with great brilliancy. As a single volume history of France this must take its place in the foremost rank.” E. J. C.
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Boston Transcript p6 Ja 3 ’20 550w
“Though one can clearly discern the author’s purpose of presenting his facts fairly and with due justice to all, he has not perfectly understood the spirit and ideals that have made France. Early and mediæval France cannot be judged by the ideals of modern American Protestantism.”
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Cath World 111:256 My ’20 220w
“His limited space excludes detailed interpretation of separate events, and the author is also compelled to give only the most perfunctory notice to the economic phenomena which are associated with various stages of French history. On the political side, however, the work is reasonably complete, and Professor Davis shows an excellent sense of proportion in laying special stress upon what may be called the revolutionary era of French history.” W: H: Chamberlin
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Dial 68:255 F ’20 1500w
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Nation 111:109 Jl 24 ’20 300w
New Repub 23:207 Jl 14 ’20 1650w
“The book is much more than a mere history; it is a colorful romance, with a splendid nation as a background, and most of the characters cast in a heroic mold.”
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N Y Times 25:303 Je 6 ’20 420w
“The present volume is, so far as we know, the only truly comprehensive history of France. Aside from its comprehensiveness, the text has been clearly and compactly written by one who has an enviable knowledge of sources.”
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Outlook 124:431 Mr 10 ’20 80w
“Though very sympathetic to his subject, and though he often animadverts to the ravages of the Hun in the present when telling of the past, his tone is scholarly and his attitude sufficiently impartial. Mr Davis has added an excellent select bibliography. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing of French literature and art.”
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Review 2:285 Mr 20 ’20 280w
“This book becomes at once the standard single-volume history of France in the English language.”
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R of Rs 61:335 Mr ’20 100w
“Not the least attractive feature of the book is the excellent diction. Many of the illustrations are reproductions of rare prints and paintings, and they greatly enhance the value of the work, which is, indeed, a modern and trustworthy textbook.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a F 29 ’20 140w
DAW, ALBERT W., and DAW, ZACHARIAS W: Compressed air power. il *$7.50 Pitman 621.5
“A treatise on the development and transmission of power by compressed air for engineers and draughtsmen, and for students of applied science.” (Sub-title) “The compression, expansion, exhaust, and flow of air and gases are very fully dealt with, formulae deduced for making the necessary computations, and practical examples solved to assist those concerned in the design and use of compressed air plant and machines.” (Preface) The book has seventy-five illustrations, forty tables and numerous worked out examples, and is indexed. The authors are members of the Institution of mining and metallurgy [of Great Britain].
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N Y P L New Tech Bks p59 Jl ’20 190w
DAWSON, CONINGSBY WILLIAM. Little house. il *$1.50 (9c) Lane
20–16158
The little house tells its own story. It is a very old and empty little house, as it stands in “Dolls’ House Square” in London, and on the nights of air-raids and bombing, it is a very frightened little house. But it is not too frightened to give shelter to others who are afraid, too, and so one night when “the little lady who needed to be loved, but did not know it,” crept in, with her two little children, they are amply protected. And presently, “the wounded officer who wanted rest,” looking for a haven from the raid sought it too in the little house. Then the officer goes off to war, and the little lady comes to live in the house. After the armistice, the officer returns, and, again in the shelter of the little house, finds the rest he craves more than ever, and “the little lady” receives the love she needs. And the little house feels that its part in the romance has not been inconsiderable.
“By making the house in question narrate the scenes its walls have witnessed. Mr Coningsby Dawson has aimed, not too successfully, at imparting a Hans Andersen atmosphere to occurrences which have not much in common with the traditional material of fairy-tale.”
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Ath p892 D 31 ’20 140w
Booklist 17:157 Ja ’21
“A story which has a real Christmas flavor and which would warm the heart of anybody whatever is ‘The little house.’” Margaret Ashmun
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Bookm 52:342 D ’20 120w
“The story has a charm as elusive as the appealing quality that won so many followers for Maude Adams. It is as endearing as ‘Roaming in the gloaming’ or ‘Comin’ through the rye.’ In it sentiment keeps clear of sentimentality.”
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N Y Times p2 S 19 ’20 1000w
“‘The little house’ is really a Christmas story—and a very delightful and charming one. The fanciful manner in which the story is told by the old house in which the scenes take place is beautifully conceived and finely carried out.”
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Outlook 126:334 O 20 ’20 60w
“Mr Dawson has chosen a rather childish allegory as his method, although, after having read the book, one may look at a house with a slightly more human feeling of childish fancy. The redeeming feature of the book is the atmosphere of old London. Aside from these glimpses of old London, ‘The little house’ is hardly more than a sweet book for sweet people.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a O 17 ’20 330w
“For all its pretty sentiment (or, rather, because of it), the whole thing is a pure ‘machine,’ the working of which Mr Dawson has mastered under western influences.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p781 N 25 ’20 90w
DAWSON, EDGAR. Organized self-government. il *$1.40 Holt 353
20–10285
The object of this volume is to serve as a school text-book in teaching government, organized and political cooperation, the functions of government and the problems to be met by those who perform those functions. It is to arouse the child’s interest in government as a practical subject and to open his eyes to noticing its effects in the street, in the home, in the school. This latter purpose, more especially, is to be accomplished by the suggestions and questions at the end of each chapter. The contents are in five parts. Part I, Elements of self-government, shows how voluntary cooperation depends on parliamentary law, rules and legislation, rulers and officers, and a constitution. Part II, Self-government in cities, applies these elements to all the details of city government; Parts III and IV do the same for the states and the United States. Part V, Some general ideas about self-government, has chapters on: Socialism and capitalism; Parties and leaders; Organized government; and Real international law. In the appendix some of the accepted principles of political cooperation are discussed, i.e. the short ballot principle; civil service reform; the executive budget; the principle of responsible leadership; etc.
“The book is sure to take its place among the few best ones in its field.”
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School R 28:548 S ’20 530w
DAWSON, RICHARD. Red terror and green: the Sinn-Fein-bolshevist movement. *$2.50 Dutton 941.5
20–5381
“Mr Dawson builds his thesis that Sinn Fein is Bolshevism by quoting Sinn Fein leaders, and refers the reader to name, page, date of his authority. He goes back to the earliest attempts of Ireland to free herself from England, and traces the whole movement, the influences behind it and the work of the leaders who led, up to today, when the new (Irish) nationalism ‘starting with lofty ideals of national regeneration on the old lines of the ancient culture, begins to seek its inspirations from modern sources of unspeakable corruption.’”—Boston Transcript
Ath p496 Ap 9 ’20 100w
“Will not please those who take the opposite stand, but worth while as a well done presentation of the objections to Ireland’s attitude.”
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Booklist 17:24 O ’20
“As a polemical writer Mr Dawson is a comfort because his proofs are not of the unidentified sort so common in the mouths of platform orators. He does not employ vituperation as argument nor blackguarding as punctuation. ‘Red terror and green’ is a timely, excellent guide book to the present meaning and purpose of Sinn Fein.” W. R. B.
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Boston Transcript p6 Ap 14 ’20 1650w
“So evidently prepared from the standpoint of reactionery British interests as to become propaganda in its most palpable and, therefore, most useless form.”
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Cath World 112:550 Ja ’21 80w
Reviewed by Preserved Smith
Nation 110:768 Je 5 ’20 250w
N Y Times p1 Ag 1 ’20 750w
“The intrigues of Casement with the Germans make excellent material for building up a theory that Sinn Fein was part of a German plot, and in a world torn by Bolshevism it is plausible to suggest that Sinn Fein emissaries have been seeking to combine the forces of disorder at home with the agencies of disorder in other countries. But Mr Dawson will not easily convince those who know rural Ireland that its peasantry—now bitterly Sinn Fein—are now or were ever bolshevistic.” H. L. Stewart
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Review 2:601 Je 5 ’20 1150w
R of Rs 61:556 My ’20 80w
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Spec 124:388 Mr 20 ’20 1200w
“The reader will be impressed rather by the care with which the author has followed Irish events than by his insight into the psychic and temperamental change which has affected the Irish people during the period which he reviews.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p110 F 12 ’20 340w
DAWSON, WILLIAM JAMES.[2] Borrowdale tragedy. *$2 (2½c) Lane
20–19918
The tragedy of the title, altho the central incident of the book, is by no means its central theme. The tragedy is the death of old James Borrowdale, and the subsequent trial of his young wife Flora and her friend Cecil Twyfold for his murder, of which they are acquitted. The major part of the book, however, is taken up with the love of Cecil and Flora, its development while Flora was still bound and the reaction of the tragedy upon them. The expansion of their characters is along lines contrary to convention, as Cecil expresses it, they have taken the “downward path to salvation,” downward, that is, from the standards of material success that the world sets up. A plea for individual freedom, as opposed to the usages of conventional society, is really the keynote of the book.
“There is an undeniable simplicity in the writer’s style, a genial mellowness that in a tale like this is really extraordinary. There is hardly a writer today that could take the structure of this novel and its strong plea for individualism as opposed to social conventions, with its technically unhappy ending, and not make it despite brilliancy, a hard and cynical book. On the contrary Dr Dawson has written with deep humanness and charm. We have had the fortune to read few novels of the present season with such genuine delight.” S. L. C.
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Boston Transcript p8 D 1 ’20 420w
DAY, CLARENCE SHEPARD, jr. This simian world. il *$1.50 Knopf 817.
20–10010
Ours is a simian civilization. If we had not descended from the monkey what would our world be like from the point of view of extraterrestrial beings? If the ant and the bee, or the big cats, or the elephant or any of the other beasts had achieved the hegemony? Such whimsical questions with their conjectures were suggested by a Sunday afternoon Broadway crowd to the author and his friend Potter. The author’s illustrations are as amusing as his fancies.
“It was a good idea, and Mr Day has a real though immature gift of lightness in treating a solid subject. But his theme is really too big for his ninety pages, and although his thinking is honest and courageous it tends to become unsubstantial.”
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Ath p145 Jl 30 ’19 150w
“Aside from the amusing quality there is a basis of shrewd comment.”
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Booklist 17:21 O ’20
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Boston Transcript p4 O 6 ’20 270w
“No less complete and varied than his estimate of man is Mr Day’s expression of it: a natural blend of wisdom with lightness, humour with profundity, hope with art, economy with abundance, kindliness with malice. The quality that makes possible such alliances is the one most infrequently granted to mortals: Mr Day sees things as they are beneath accumulated centuries of appearances; he cannot, he will not be fooled.” Robert Littell
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Dial 69:197 Ag ’20 1300w
“Mr Clarence Day’s whimsicality is quite virile; it is the expression of a naturally ingenuous mind; ‘innocent’ in the Nietzschean sense and not incapable of a certain gentle philosophic malice.”
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Freeman 1:358 Je 23 ’20 280w
“The most amusing little essay of the year.”
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Ind 103:318 S 11 ’20 360w
Nation 111:76 Jl 17 ’20 500w
“It ought to interest any lively spirit because of its grace and reasonableness. And it ought to entrap and enlighten any slack soul who may pick it up in search for amusement. Amusing it unquestionably is, but a great deal more than amusing, to follow this grim parallel between the ways of apes and men.” R. T.
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New Repub 23:233 Jl 21 ’20 650w
“While his treatment of the subject is amusingly interesting, it is none the less a serious one. The whole essay is, in fact, a bitter arraignment of our present order of civilization.” Alvin Winston
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N Y Call p10 Ag 1 ’20 640w
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Review 3:306 O 13 ’20 1400w
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Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 22 ’20 500w
Survey 44:450 Je 26 ’20 200w
DAY, HOLMAN FRANCIS. All-wool Morrison. *$1.90 (2c) Harper
20–13700
Stewart Morrison has inherited St Ronan’s mill from his Scotch ancestors and is himself a canny Scotchman. In his absence and against his will he is elected mayor of the city of Marion and then things become lively. Within twenty-four hours and by sheer intimidation he beats the governor, the politicians and vested interests at their game of falsifying election returns and barring duly elected members from the legislature. He prevents the forming of a syndicate for stealing the state’s water-power. He teaches some bloody anarchists, athirst for martyrdom, what’s what by taking one of them across his knee and spanking him lustily before an admiring mob. He diverts a howling mob from the state house thus protecting the conspirators within while teaching them a wholesome lesson. And he wins his bride in the bargain. All within twenty-four hours.
Booklist 17:31 O ’20
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Boston Transcript p6 O 13 ’20 220w
“The fun of the book lies for the most part in this unity of time. A quality of the book is that its characters and happenings possess that delightfully feverish and slightly unreal aspect that things often acquire after dark.”
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N Y Times p10 O 17 ’20 420w
“Mr Day’s homely, racy humor goes some distance toward minimizing the glaring artificialities to which he resorts in stimulating the action of the narrative.”
+ − |Springf’d Republican p11a S 5 ’20 380w |Wis Lib Bul 16:193 N ’20 60w
DAY, JAMES ROSCOE.[2] My neighbor the workingman. *$2.50 Abingdon press 331.8
20–8266
“This book is an outspoken word for the capitalistic system and against the methods of organized labor. Chancellor Day has been speaking with strong conviction on the somewhat unpopular side of this controversy. He displays the abuses in the trades union. He calls the labor union ‘an artificial and unnaturally and illogically attached institution in our country, working not for the common good but to create conditions altogether possible and profitable to its own members without regard to how its act may bear upon business of construction and manufacture.’ Chancellor Day calls collective bargaining ‘meddling’ and says: ‘It is high time that the country pronounced with unmistakable law against strikes of all kinds. There should be no doubt left that strikes are crimes.’”—Bib World
“Full of ‘ginger’ and worthy of attention by everyone who is ready to consider both sides of the burning question of the day. He does not represent the honorable attitude in the contest that will finally make for peace. He is violent and bitter. He is absolutely unjust to the majority of the immigrants who land on our shores.”
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Bib World 54:647 N ’20 260w
Ind 103:320 S 11 ’20 60w
“The readers of this book will find in it much repetition and too much vehemence. It provides in places quite as much heat as light, and is not without a touch here and there of a rather narrow type of politics. There is not great use made in it of the mantle of sweet charity, and small allowance appears for those with whom the author disagrees. Yet with his attacks upon radicalism in its Red form we must sympathize.” W: C. Redfield
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N Y Times p9 D 5 ’20 2150w
“It would be difficult to find a volume more filled with hatred and misunderstanding than this product of the chancellor of Syracuse university.” W. L. C.
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Survey 44:417 Je 19 ’20 260w
DEALEY, JAMES QUAYLE.[2] Sociology: its development and applications. *$3 Appleton 301
20–20107
The book is an enlarged and revised edition of the author’s “Sociology” issued in 1909. It gives a survey of sociological development so that the student may have in fairly brief compass a general view of its rise and its relations to other sciences, a sketch of the development of social institutions, and a short discussion of social problems and of the factors to be considered in social progress. Its contents fall into three parts: Sociology and its kindred sciences; Society and its institutions; and Social progress. Some of the chapters are: The beginnings of social science; Sociology and biology; Sociology and psychology: Social behaviorism; Achievement and civilization; Civilization static and dynamic; Social gradations and genius; Society and the individual; The elimination of social evils; Racial factors in social progress; Economic factors in social progress; Educational factors in social progress. There is a bibliography and an index.
DEAN, BASHFORD. Helmets and body armor in modern warfare. il *$6 Yale univ. press 399
20–17513
“This book is one of the publications of the Committee on education of the Metropolitan museum of art, in which Dr Dean is curator of armour. It is an account of the various types of body protection used or experimented with by the nations engaged in the great war, with a brief historical survey of the development of armour in earlier times. As chairman of the Committee on helmets and body armour of the United States National research council the author had special opportunity for the study of his subject, not only in America but in the allied countries in Europe.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“Within his field of special knowledge he has touched and illuminated almost every phase of the art and craft of the armorer ancient or modern. Rarely indeed has such historical erudition as Mr Dean’s been applied to a theme so recent and in most respects so businesslike.”
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Nation 111:108 Jl 24 ’20 360w
“This volume is definitive in its field.” C. O. Kilnbusch
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N Y Times p6 Je 27 ’20 2550w
Springf’d Republican p8 Je 12 ’20 50w
“The practical treatment of the question makes the book a valuable contribution to military literature, apart from its historical and antiquarian interest.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p554 Ag 26 ’20 150w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p647 O 7 ’20 1150w
DEARMER, NANCY (KNOWLES) (MRS PERCY DEARMER). Fellowship of the picture. *$1.25 Dutton 134
20–17392
“Professor Dearmer states in an introduction that on July 31, 1919, at their country cottage, his wife felt impelled to sit down, and allow her hand to write automatically; after that she wrote regularly, being quite unaware of what she was writing. On September 10 Professor Dearmer, reading the script aloud to her, found that the book had reached its end. It came as from a man of high academic distinction who was killed in France in 1918, and who had already written contributions to religion and philosophy. ‘The fellowship of the picture’ claims to be a book which he had been anxious to write after the war. It is composed of thirty-six short chapters setting forth a religious philosophy of life and fellowship.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
Ath p108 Jl 23 ’20 340w
N Y Evening Post p26 O 23 ’20 120w
“There is no particular exhilaration in reading automatically penned platitudes than there is in the reading of the platitudes penned by ordinary beings.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a O 17 ’20 220w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p443 Jl 8 ’20 120w
DECKER, WILBUR F. Story of the engine; from lever to Liberty motor. il *$2 Scribner 621
20–6990
“This book tells about the first prime movers and traces the early history of the steam-engine. A chapter is devoted to each of the following subjects: Steam-boilers, furnaces and connections; reciprocating engines; the locomotive; the steam-turbine; measurements of power; gas-engines; gasoline engines; and oil-engines. ‘It is the aim of this book to show how man first learned to apply mechanical principles; to trace the gradual development of heat engines; to furnish accurate and reliable information regarding present-day types, and to prepare the way for possible later scientific studies.’ (Preface)”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
“Unusually readable, more accurate than the ordinary book of this type, and well supplied with diagrams.”
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Booklist 16:302 Je ’20
N Y P L New Tech Bks 5:32 Ap ’20 100w
St Louis 18:220 S ’20 40w
DE HAAS, J. ANTON. Business organization and administration. il $1.60 Gregg 658
20–9408
The book is intended for a high school textbook and is limited to a statement of the most essential facts of business practice, including the problems of labor management and payment of wages. At the end of each chapter are references to standard works, a list of study questions, and of test questions. Contents: The elements of business success; Business organization; The proprietorship of a business; Financing an enterprise; Financial institutions; Management; The wage question; The service department; Selecting the site; Planning the building; Purchasing; Marketing; Selling and advertising; Foreign trade; The technic of foreign trade.
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Booklist 17:98 D ’20
“While the volume has some drawbacks in its function, it has nevertheless a broader appeal. Many a professional man or woman ought to have a deeper knowledge of this subject. Professor De Haas’s work is admirably suited for his or her use.”
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N Y Evening Post p19 O 23 ’20 230w
“The book is written in a pleasing style and is well arranged. Its aim is to aid the teacher in awakening proper attitudes in the minds of the students. Teachers will find it helpful in this respect.”
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School R 29:75 Ja ’21 300w
DE KOVEN, ANNA (FARWELL) (MRS REGINALD DE KOVEN). Cloud of witnesses. *$2.50 Dutton 134
20–4626
“‘A cloud of witnesses’ is the title of a new book by Mrs Anna De Koven (the widow of the musical composer, Reginald De Koven). The messages, which largely constitute the book, are believed by Mrs De Koven to be from her sister, Mrs Chatfield Taylor, whose death occurred some two years since. Between the two sisters there was an unusually intense affection, and this ‘rapport’ is one of the most potent factors in any communication between the seen and the unseen. There is in New York a woman with abounding mediumistic gifts; a woman of society and culture, whose intelligent interest in the work is such that she gives much time to accredited sitters who seek her. She is known as ‘Mrs Vernon,’ which is not her real name. Mrs De Koven went to Mrs Vernon, an entire stranger, and with no possible clew to her identity. Messages from her sister came of such genuineness as to be unmistakable. Dr Hyslop contributes the introduction to this book.”—Springf’d Republican
“Deeply sincere, intimate, and instinct with refinement.”
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Booklist 17:137 Ja ’21
“Certainly, except to the most determined skeptic, there is much in the book to convince one of the action of supernormal intelligence.”
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Boston Transcript p4 Je 9 ’20 1050w
Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow
Dial 69:207 Ag ’20 140w
“Unfortunately for the sympathy every one must feel with this beautiful record of a sister’s affection, it is impossible to accept Mrs De Koven’s views of what is ‘evidential.’ As propaganda the book is only one more tale of credulity; but it has unusual value in being entirely free from the sordid crime of ghosts for revenue. Mrs Vernon receives no remuneration when she summons Mrs De Koven to hear a message from the dead.”
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N Y Times 25:230 My 2 ’20 600w
Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow
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Review 3:43 Jl 14 ’20 700w
Springf’d Republican p11a Ap 11 ’20 280w
DE LA MARE, WALTER JOHN. Collected poems, 1901–1918. 2v *$4 Holt 821
20–21987
Volume 1 contains Poems: 1906; The listeners: 1914; and Motley: 1919. Volume 2 is in two parts: Songs of childhood: 1901, and Peacock pie.
Reviewed by J. M. Murray
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Ath p466 O 8 ’20 750w
“Enough has been said to show Mr de la Mare’s attitude towards poetry and towards life. The question now arises whether this attitude is not somewhat too severely limited to make of him anything more than a delicate craftsman, a painter of miniatures, a carver of cherry-stones.” J: G. Fletcher
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Freeman 2:477 Ja 26 ’21 900w
“His artistic presence in our modern world is so surprising that we are tempted to doubt the certainty of it when his books are not in our hands. He is a delightful anachronism. Out of our tangle of violent and discordant colors he makes his white magic. Of Mr de la Mare’s poems for children it is difficult to speak moderately.” Marguerite Wilkinson
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N Y Times p16 D 19 ’20 1550w
“The poems are like silk threads which are individually fragile, but which, woven together, make a fabric of unmatched fineness and strength, and are capable of taking on the softest, clearest colours. Some of the poems for children are exceedingly successful.”
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Spec 125:571 O 30 ’20 500w
“Few of our poets have availed themselves of their privilege of prosodic freedom more delicately than Mr de la Mare. He has a musician’s ear; his rhythms have the clear articulation and unpredictable life-lines of the phrases in a musical theme. The course of his verse reminds us frequently of the fall of a feather launched upon still air and fluttering earthwards, tremulously in dips and eddies.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p657 O 14 ’20 3300w
DE LA MARE, WALTER JOHN. Rupert Brooke and the intellectual imagination. pa 75c Harcourt
20–1238
“It is the brilliant quality of Rupert Brooke’s passionate interest in life, his restless, exploring, examining intellect, that chiefly concerns Walter de la Mare in a lecture on Brooke first given before Rugby school a year ago, and now issued in booklet form. He suggests that poets are of two kinds: those who are similar to children in dreamy self-communion and absorption; and those who are similar to boys in their curious, restless, analytical interest in the world. Poets of the boyish or matter-of-fact imagination are intellectual, he says: they enjoy experience for itself. Poets of the childish or matter-of-fancy heart are visionary, mystical; they feed on dreams and enjoy experience as a symbol. He thinks that Brooke’s imagination was distinctly of the boyish kind.”—Bookm
Booklist 17:60 N ’20
“Those many who admire the peculiar mysticism and subtlety of Mr de la Mare’s reaction to the terms of experience will not be surprised that this essay of his seems the most valuable comment that has been made on the poet of the ‘flaming brains,’ the most romantic and appealing figure of youth and song that has crossed the horizon of these riddled years.” Christopher Morley
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Bookm 51:234 Ap ’20 650w
“An interesting and valuable contribution to poetic interpretation. It is a beautifully written piece of prose woven with subtle analysis and keen perceptions, the kind of spoken meditation which takes one back to the days of Pater and Symonds.” W. S. B.
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Boston Transcript p6 Mr 31 ’20 650w
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Cleveland p73 Ag ’20 80w
“Mr de la Mare does him a service by silencing the hysterical plaudits, and presenting with cool and exquisite certainty the more enduring aspects of Brooke’s spirit. Of this little book both Mr de la Mare and Brooke may well be proud.”
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Sat R 129:62 Ja 17 ’20 260w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p739 D 11 ’19 1350w
DELAND, MARGARET WADE (CAMPBELL) (MRS LORIN FULLER DELAND). Old Chester secret. il *$1.50 (6c) Harper
20–18606
When Miss Lydia Sampson promises to take Mary Smith’s child and keep the truth about his birth secret, she means to keep her word and does so in the face of Old Chester gossip. Later the proud grandfather, whose heart has been won by the boy, wants to adopt him but meek little Miss Lydia agrees only on the ground that he acknowledge the relationship. Still later when the weak parents also wish to go thru the formality of adoption she makes the same condition. When the mother is finally moved to make her confession the son casts her off as once she had cast him, but Dr Lavendar intervenes in her behalf, telling the boy that her soul has just been born.
“An exquisite bit of character work.”
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Booklist 17:115 D ’20
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 52:253 N ’20 70w
“With what truth and delicate artistry Mrs Deland handles the narrative of what happened to Johnny, his foster mother, and his parents, no one who is at all familiar with the other Old Chester tales will need to be told. Simple as is its plot, the story has the quality of suspense, never permitting the reader’s interest to flag.”
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N Y Times p19 N 14 ’20 550w
“The story is not entirely convincing, but the reader remains under the spell of the writer’s dramatic skill.”
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Springf’d Republican p7a D 12 ’20 800w
“It lacks the vitality of the earlier Old Chester stories and suggests that this vein is wearing thin.”
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Wis Lib Bul 16:237 D ’20 80w
DE LA PASTURE, EDMÉE ELIZABETH MONICA (E. M. DELAFIELD, pseud.). Tension. *$2.25 (3c) Macmillan
20–17523
The story revolves about the faculty and directors of a provincial commercial college. Lady Rossiter, wife of one of the directors, is an officious person who dispenses sweetness and light in theory and in practice spreads malicious gossip. An incident in the early life of Pauline Marchrose, who come to the college as superintendent, is so magnified that the girl is forced to resign her position. She has been greatly attracted to Mark Easter, a man of charming personality without force of character, and her leaving the college has all the elements of defeat with a shattered ideal added, but an unexpected turn is given to the story by Fairfax Fuller, principal of the college, and in Lady Rossiter’s opinion, a misogynist.
“A convincing personality but not a satisfying plot.”
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Booklist 17:115 D ’20
“The interplay between two temperaments is one of the most searching things in recent fiction. But, indeed, Miss Delafield is very rich in creative vigor.”
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Nation 111:568 N 17 ’20 410w
“The end is abrupt, and may be unsatisfactory to those who read ‘Tension’ for any other reason than to watch Miss Delafield pillory objectionable characters. This she does most competently to Lady Rossiter, to a simpering young authoress, and to two dreadful children, but the nice people, it must be admitted, leave very little impression.” S. T.
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New Repub 24:246 N 3 ’20 540w
“‘Tension’ has got scarcely anything to recommend it. The story may be life, but it is altogether too drab and uninteresting for fiction.”
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N Y Evening Post p22 O 23 ’20 140w
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Outlook 126:600 D 1 ’20 60w
“Miss Delafield presents her characters through their own words, and their speech is sustained self-revelation. Almost all of them are eccentric, and their eccentricities are expressed with something of Dickens’s inventiveness and humorous exaggeration. We have to smile or laugh whenever they open their mouths.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p401 Je 24 ’20 660w
DELL, ETHEL MAY. Tidal wave, and other stories. *$1.75 (2c) Putnam
19–5814
The first of this collection of short stories tells of the love of a big red-headed young giant of a fisherman for a lovely vision of a girl whose awakening to womanhood came to her in an overpowering passion for an artist. The latter’s love was for his art to which he would have unscrupulously sacrificed the girl. A catastrophe which would have cost them both their lives but for the timely intervention of the red giant, taught the girl through much sorrow the difference between the love that stands like a rock and the passion that sweeps by like a tidal wave. The stories of the collection are: The tidal wave; The magic circle; The looker-on; The second fiddle; The woman of his dream; The return game.
“Six tales with well drawn characters which rather compensate for the melodramatic features of the book.”
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Booklist 16:312 Je ’20
“Of the six short stories contained in this volume, ‘The looker-on’ is perhaps the least stereotyped.”
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N Y Times 25:4 Mr 7 ’20 300w
Reviewed by Christine McAllister
Pub W 97:604 F 21 ’20 300w
DELL, ETHEL MAY. Top of the world. *$2 (1½c) Putnam
20–13065
Sylvia Ingleton is a very miserable girl when her father brings home a stepmother, who proves so domineering and hard that Sylvia realizes her happiness is ruined unless she gets away. So she goes out to her fiancé in South Africa, a fiancé whom she has known only by correspondence for the last five years. Upon her arrival there, Guy fails her, but his cousin Burke steps into his place, and when Sylvia realizes she cannot count on Guy, she consents to marry Burke. The remainder of the story is taken up with the struggle between her old dying love for Guy, and the new love which springs up in her heart for Burke, which at first she fights against and denies. In the end it conquers her, however, but not before she and Guy and Burke have gone through many bitter waters.
“The amazing thing about the Dell fiction is that it is so good of its kind. There is almost no sensual appeal in it, and very little of anything that is revolting. As full of sob stuff as Florence Barclay’s immortal works, it has still a virile fibre. The South African descriptions are excellent. Much of the subsidiary character work is distinctly good.”
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Boston Transcript p7 N 24 ’20 390w
“That’s the kind of a story it is—lingering madness long drawn out—562 pages of mawkishness.”
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N Y Times p28 Ja 2 ’21 470w
“Almost alone in a tired world, Miss Dell continues to sound the clarion note of melodrama. Taken by themselves Miss Dell’s heroes are rather tedious.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p385 Je 17 ’20 140w
DELL, FLOYD. Moon-calf. *$2.25 Knopf
20–19503
A biographical novel relating the childhood, adolescence and young manhood of Felix Fay. He was the youngest of a somewhat misfit family—his father’s early turbulence ending in failure and his brothers’ artistic proclivities in resigned adaptations to the necessities of life. Only in the dreamer Felix, because life was so unreal to him and his dreams so real, was there enough persistence to make some of the dreams materialize—after a fashion. The reader accompanies him through school life with its unquenchable thirst for reading, his religious development, his loneliness and poetic aspirations, his economic struggles and his acquaintance with socialism, his adolescent longings with their culmination in a love episode and his early career as a journalist.
“A subtle character study accomplished by narrated episodes rather than detailed analyses. Some readers will object to this on moral grounds. Probably not for the small library.”
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Booklist 17:157 Ja ’21
Reviewed by R. C. Benchley
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Bookm 52:559 F ’21 380w
“We realize how very close Floyd Dell has got to the heart and ideals of America in this portrayal of the family glorifying of Felix’s education.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p11 D 1 ’20 1000w
“‘Moon-calf,’ as it stands, has the importance of showing how serious and how well-composed an American novel can be without losing caste. It is an effective compromise, in manner between the school of observation and the school of technique.” E. P.
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Dial 70:106 Ja ’21 90w
“Mr Dell’s first novel, in short, shows us that a well-equipped intelligence and a new perception have been brought to bear on the particular instance of the sensitive soul, the particular instance that lies at the heart of all our questioning, and that the endless circle of sensitive souls and terrifying American towns is broken at last.” Lucian Cary
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Freeman 2:403 Ja 5 ’21 500w
“Any lover of fine fiction must rejoice in the surfaces of Floyd Dell’s first novel much as a cabinet-maker does when he rubs his fingers along a planed board or an old gardener when he turns a cool, firm, ruddy apple over and over in his hand. The style of ‘Moon-calf’ will arouse despair in the discerning. Colloquial and flexible, it is also dignified as only a natural simplicity can make it.” C. V. D.
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Nation 111:sup670 D 8 ’20 580w
“One must have a good deal of fluid romanticism to be able to revel in Felix Fay. In his struggle toward reality there is a good deal of vivid and sympathetic narrative, and one feels that his plight as an imaginative youth is honestly understood. But is it generous or engaging imagination? And is it associated with intelligence? The subsequent development of Felix Fay may say yes, but so far he is mainly an exactingly hungry and under-fed literary ego.” F. H.
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New Repub 25:49 D 8 ’20 1250w
“His words develop a dull and unpenetrative edge while his form is not at all illuminative. One is lost in a meandering of incident which has been given no significance by any concerted impulse, any synthetic grasp of the subject, any consistent overtone or generality.” Kenneth Burke
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N Y Evening Post p3 D 31 ’20 1150w
“So skillfully has the author drawn his poignant portrait of a sensitive idealist in conflict with a hostile, workaday world that the reader will soon cease to think of Felix as a character in a novel. Rather, he will think that he is the novelist himself dressed in the incognito of a few imaginary experiences.”
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N Y Times p20 D 12 ’20 1100w
“It is written by a man who thinks for readers who think. It is addressed to those persons who want to know what makes us what we are.” M. A. Hopkins
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Pub W 98:1885 D 18 ’20 300w
“A story told with ease and restraint. There is no animated showman in the foreground to divert us with his witticisms. The action, quiet and leisurely though it is, steadily unfolds itself by means of certain persons who are and mean something to us, without our effort.” H. W. Boynton
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Review 3:623 D 22 ’20 280w
DELL, ROBERT EDWARD. My second country (France). *$2 Lane 914.4
20–8528
The author’s qualifications for talking about France and the French people rest on the facts that France has been the home of his choice for over twelve years, that he has lived intimately with the people in their own homes, and that his friends are of various classes and opinions, including the proletariat and the rural folk, and that the more he saw of them the more he loved them. The object of the book is to draw attention to certain defects in French institutions and methods, to show that the political situation gives signs of nearing the end of a régime and is full of glaring fundamental inconsistencies; and that in other than political respects, also, France is behind the times and in need of drastic changes. Contents: The French character; Problems of reconstruction; The administrative and political systems; The discredit of parliament and its causes; Results of the revolution; Small property and its results; Socialism, syndicalism and state capitalism; Back to Voltaire; Index.
“When we leave actual people, and come to institutions, the political system, banking, railways, religion, etc., Mr Dell displays all the peculiar excellences of his type. His analysis is acute, modern and thoroughly interesting.” J, W. N. S.
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Ath p178 F 6 ’20 1050w
Booklist 17:26 O ’20
“His book is a bitter attack upon France, her people and her institutions. Where are the ‘fondness’ and the ‘sympathy’ that the author claims in his introduction?”
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Boston Transcript p6 Je 30 ’20 500w
Cleveland p90 O ’20 40w
“A book of real illumination, one wonders whether any one will really like it.”
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Dial 69:666 D ’20 90w
“I know of no recent book which gives a better picture of the French people as they really are, both of their lovable and unpleasant qualities, nor of the economic and political and intellectual life of present day France than that by Mr Robert Dell, ‘My second country.’” Harold Stearns
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Freeman 1:595 S 1 ’20 2050w
“Mr Dell writes of the French people with sympathy and affection, but does not allow those feelings to color his judgment or subdue his criticism.” B. U. Burke
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Nation 111:103 Jl 24 ’20 1150w
R of Rs 62:223 Ag ’20 40w
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Spec 124:281 F 28 ’20 200w
“The book contains a great amount of concrete information, such as we require when trying to understand a foreign country. In fact, the whole book is valuable if the reader allows for the author’s bias. The account of radical political movements is particularly good.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 Je 15 ’20 450w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p94 F 12 ’20 850w
DENNETT, TYLER.[2] Better world. *$1.50 Doran
20–8457
“In brief the contention of this book is that we must have a better world; that the proposed League of nations is far from the effective agency to produce it, although it is a long step in the direction indicated; that the Christian religion has in it the power to create the convictions and popular demands which alone will guarantee any organization of a better world or bring into being more just and democratic programs than the one now under such discussion.”—Bib World
Bib World 54:652 N ’20 260w
“Mr Dennett is always worth reading because of the wealth of his personal experience and the freshness with which he presents his facts. In the present case, unfortunately, his endeavor to make out a good case for American mission work has led him to exaggerate certain tendencies and to argue at times illogically.” B. L.
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Survey 44:540 Jl 17 ’20 300w
DENSMORE, HIRAM DELOS. General botany for universities and colleges. il *$2.96 Ginn 580
20–5036
The book is intended for use in universities and colleges and is an outgrowth of the author’s long experience in giving introductory courses in botany to students. “The author’s aim in writing the book has been to furnish the student with clear statements, properly related, of the essential biological facts and principles which should be included in a first course in college botany or plant biology.” (Preface) Emphasis is placed throughout the book on the plant as a “living, active organism, comparable to animals and with similar general physiological life functions.” The contents fall into three parts of which the first is subdivided into the sections: Plants and the environment; Cell structure and anatomy; Physiology; Reproduction. Part 2, dealing with the morphology, life histories, and evolution of the main plant groups, contains: The algæ; The fungi; Bryophytes (Liverworts and mosses); Pteridophytes (ferns, equiseta, and club mosses); Gymnosperms; Angiosperms (dicotyledons). Part 3, Representative families and species of the spring flora, is intended to serve as an introduction to field work and contains: Descriptive terms; Trees, shrubs, and forests; Herbaceous and woody dicotyledons; Monocotyledons; Plant associations. There is an index.
DESCHANEL, PAUL EUGENE LOUIS. Gambetta. *$4.50 (3½c) Dodd
(Eng ed 20–11835)
It was Gambetta, says the author, president of the French republic, “who launched me on the life of politics” and it is from a certain sense of gratitude that the book was written. “I disregarded all panegyrics, all pamphlets, all legends, whether flattering or not: I sought the truth alone—and no homage could be greater.... In this book, only one passion is to be found: the passion for France.” (Foreword) The contents are in four parts: Before the war (1838–1870); The war (1870–1871); The national assembly and the establishment of the republic (1871–1875); The early stages of the parliamentary republic (1876–1882). There is a bibliography and an index.
“This volume is full-blooded and vital in every chapter and in every paragraph. It is no fulsome panegyric, no noisy advertisement, but a balanced and critical, a knowing and a sympathetic portrait. There is here no hushing-up of mistakes and contradictions but also no over-emphasis of them.” C: D. Hazen
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Am Hist R 25:491 Ap ’20 740w
Ath p381 Mr 19 ’20 1000w
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Boston Transcript p7 S 25 ’20 740w
“Ex-President Deschanel writes with the blend of lucidity and enthusiasm characteristic of the best French political literature.”
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Ind 104:383 D 11 ’20 50w
“Apart from a few questionable statements apropos of Germany and Alsace-Lorraine, the book is substantially what it would have been if written before 1914—that is to say, an admirably well-informed, well-constructed, and convincing account of the public life of Gambetta and of the political history of the times in which he played his part.” Carl Becker
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Nation 110:sup479 Ap 10 ’20 1050w
“There was plenty of room for such a full, intimate, and appreciative biography as this by M. Deschanel, who is well qualified, temperamentally, to interpret his great leader. He does so with a Gallic exuberance, a gesticulatory eloquence that is not suited to the theme, but also he preserves a balance of judgment that saves the book from being mere laudation, and he has painstakingly examined his documents.” H. L. Pangborn
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N Y Evening Post p6 O 23 ’20 880w
“The anonymous translator has evidently a bilingual gift of great precision and scope, but his rendering should be carefully reviewed with the original in order to correct several mistakes, all of which, however, appear to be careless omissions or verbal distractions due to hasty writing.” Walter Littlefield
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N Y Times p6 O 17 ’20 2100w
“On all this human personal side of his subject M. Deschanel’s book is as rich as on the political.”
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Sat R 130:12 Jl 3 ’20 1100w
“The work of the anonymous translator is extremely well done.”
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Spec 125:244 Ag 21 ’20 450w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p262 Ap 29 ’20 2050w
DESMOND, SHAW. Passion. *$2 Scribner
20–7288
“The title may be a little misleading. Mr Desmond’s story deals with ‘the nervous, combative passion of the end of the nineteenth century,’ and particularly with the conflict between big business, the passion to get, and art, the passion to create. A good deal of effort is spent on the depiction of big business in London at the turn of the century, and particularly of one Mandrill, the embodiment of its spirit.”—N Y Times
“‘Passion’ fails for the reason that so many of these novels of confession fail. Our curiosity about human beings, our longing to know the story of their lives springs from the desire to ‘place’ them, to see them in their relation to life as we know it. But Mr Shaw Desmond and his fellows are under the illusion that they must isolate the subject and play perpetual showman.” K. M.
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Ath p671 My 21 ’20 700w
“It is a novel without even novelty to redeem it. Its bravery is bombastic, its stupidity heroic, its mediocrity passionate, its passion impotent.”
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Dial 69:211 Ag ’20 40w
“Mr Desmond tries to crowd all the modern forces into his conflict, and frequently neutralizes his effects by the nicety with which one violence is banged against another. His picture of London life, in its meannesses and poverty, has touches of Dickens, and touches, also, of the Dickens sentimentality. His purposes grow weak through sheer over-analysis.” L. B.
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Freeman 1:526 Ag 11 ’20 180w
“We know of no exacter study of childhood and adolescence nor of any less steeped in traditional idealisms. Young Tempest at home and at school is immensely genuine and instructive. After that the fine veracity of the book breaks down.”
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Nation 110:659 My 15 ’20 300w
“The hero’s revolt against finance of the most frenzied character is plausible enough, but somehow the entire latter half of the book fails to carry very much conviction. One feels that Mr Desmond is not devoid of the divine fire, but he needs a better boiler under which to build it.”
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N Y Times 25:252 My 16 ’20 600w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 2:573 My 29 ’20 600w
“The most accurate description that can be applied to the work is that it is a vivid and startling piece of impressionism, despite its grotesqueness.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a S 5 ’20 150w
“A remarkable novel, notwithstanding the author’s habit of parodying his own literary peculiarities. Primal and melodramatic Mr Shaw Desmond’s prose certainly is, but it sweeps us along so rapidly as to make a pause for criticism difficult. The book, in spite of its grotesqueness, is a vivid and startling piece of impressionism.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p271 Ap 29 ’20 480w
DEWEY, JOHN. Reconstruction in philosophy. *$1.60 (3c) Holt 191
20–17102
In these lectures delivered at the Imperial university of Japan in Tokyo, the author attempts “an interpretation of the reconstruction of ideas and ways of thought now going on in philosophy.” (Prefatory note) He shows that the task of future philosophy is to clarify men’s ideas as to the social and moral strifes of their own day and, instead of dealing with “ultimate and absolute reality,” will consider the moral forces which move mankind towards a more ordered and intelligent happiness. Contents: Changing conceptions of philosophy; Some historical factors in philosophical reconstruction; The scientific factor in reconstruction of philosophy; Changed conceptions of experience and reason; Changed conceptions of the ideal and the real; The significance of logical reconstruction; Reconstruction in moral conceptions; Reconstruction as affecting social philosophy. Index.
“Concrete, clearly written and unusually free from abstruse reasoning and technical diction.”
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Booklist 17:92 D ’20
“The simplicity and penetration of the statement gives to this little book an importance considerably out of proportion to its size. Although the name pragmatism scarcely occurs on its pages, the book is the most comprehensive and enlightening pragmatic document that has yet appeared.” B. H. Bode
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Nation 111:sup658 D 8 ’20 1500w
“One may agree heartily with Professor Dewey’s polemic against fixed and final aims and yet believe that the most urgent need of ethics now is to work out a science of values. The lack of some such criticism of values makes itself felt in Professor Dewey’s book.” A. S. McDowall
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N Y Evening Post p7 N 13 ’20 1800w
“The book is written with the accustomed fluency and piquancy of the pragmatic school, and it forms a piece of the most interesting reading.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 Ja 20 ’21 340w
DEWEY, JOHN, and DEWEY, HATTIE ALICE (CHIPMAN) (MRS JOHN DEWEY). Letters from China and Japan; ed. by Evelyn Dewey. *$2.50 Dutton 915
20–7580
“The Deweys, man and wife, are ‘professorial’ people. Mr Dewey is professor of philosophy in Columbia university and Mrs Dewey is a woman of great cultivation and deep interest in the things of the mind. The letters included in this book are written under the spur of first impressions. They have not either been revised or touched up in any way. You are never expected to remember that Mr Dewey is really a Ph.D. or that his wife reads ‘deep books.’ They make you see the cherry trees in bloom, the Mikado passing with his symbols, the chrysanthemums on the panels of his carriage; the Chinese women of the middle classes at home and the panorama of Chinese villages and streets. At the same time you feel that there is a serious purpose in the minds and the hearts of the two persons who write these letters.”—N Y Times
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Booklist 16:341 Jl ’20
Reviewed by R. M. Weaver
Bookm 51:631 Ag ’20 440w
“It is quite evident that Professor Dewey has enjoyed visiting countries ‘where the scholar is looked up to and not down upon.’ He writes with all the zest of a boy on his first trip abroad. Most striking is their revelation of Professor Dewey’s responsiveness to the æsthetic aspects of China and Japan.”
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Freeman 1:429 Jl 14 ’20 350w
“It is not difficult to guess the authorship of most of the letters, and Mrs Dewey’s interest in the more pictorial aspects of the countries, in the women, and in their educational and domestic problems, admirably supplements Professor Dewey’s more historical and speculative observations.” Irita Van Doren
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Nation 111:103 Jl 24 ’20 950w
“They are full of delightful descriptions of small events not usually described so sympathetically by travelers in the East.” M. F. Egan
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N Y Times 25:285 My 30 ’20 750w
Outlook 125:281 Je 9 ’20 180w
DICKSON, HARRIS. Old Reliable in Africa. *$1.90 (2c) Stokes
20–17655
Zack Foster, otherwise known as “Old Reliable,” is the colored valet of Colonel Beverly Spottiswoode, and when the colonel makes a trip to the Sudan, to see if the climate there is suitable for cotton culture, he takes Zack along with him. Zack’s presence guarantees him against ennui, for where Zack is, there is excitement. At one spot in Africa, he is hailed as “The Expected One,” by an Arab tribe, at another he rescues the most important donkey of the Sultan of Bong from crocodiles, and is suitably rewarded. But perhaps his most worthy exploit is the establishment of a “Hot cat eating house.” He reasons the labor problem out and comes to the conclusion that the natives refuse to work on the cotton plantation because they don’t need anything. He proposes to put within their reach some thing that they will be willing to work for, in the shape of hot fried catfish. This application of the law of supply and demand proves eminently satisfactory. But on the whole neither Zack nor the colonel are reluctant to return to Vicksburg in time for Christmas.
“Like most sequels, a falling off from the original.”
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Booklist 17:157 Ja ’21
“An amusing book for an idle hour.”
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N Y Evening Post p10 O 30 ’20 80w
“A series of adventures, many of which are of a startling dramatic character but always informed with the dry humor which is the very essence of Old Reliable’s irresistible personality.”
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N Y Times p22 N 21 ’20 210w
“His adventures are as queer as they are funny.”
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Outlook 126:515 N 17 ’20 30w
DILLISTONE, GEORGE. Planning and planting of little gardens: with notes and criticisms by Lawrence Weaver. il *$2.25 Scribner 712
20–26877
“Competitive schemes for planting for different kinds of lots are criticized from the architectural point of view. Incidentally, there are discussions on sundials, rock gardens, water-lily ponds, rose gardens, garden steps and pathways, climbers for the little garden, etc. Altho written for England, will be useful in this country where climate permits like vegetation.”—Booklist
Booklist 17:59 N ’20
“The author [is] as sound on the architectural aspect of garden-making as upon matters of pure horticulture.”
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Spec 124:559 Ap 24 ’20 170w
DILLON, EMILE JOSEPH. Inside story of the peace conference. *$2.25 (1½c) Harper 940.314
20–5137
“This is only a sketch—a sketch of the problems which the war created or rendered pressing—of the conditions under which they cropped up; of the simplicist ways in which they were conceived by the distinguished politicians who volunteered to solve them; of the delegates’ natural limitations and electioneering commitments and of the secret influences by which they were swayed, of the peoples’ needs and expectations; of the unwonted procedure adopted by the conference and of the fateful consequences of its decisions to the world.” (Foreword) These fateful consequences, in the author’s final summing up, are that future war is now universally looked upon as an unavoidable outcome of the Versailles peace. “Prussianism, instead of being destroyed, has been openly adopted by its ostensible enemies, and the huge sacrifices offered up by the heroic armies of the foremost nations are being misused to give one-half of the world just cause to rise up against the other half.” Contents: The city of the conference; Signs of the times; The delegates; Censorship and secrecy; Aims and methods; The lesser states; Poland’s outlook in the future; Italy; Japan; Attitude toward Russia; Bolshevism: How Bolshevism was fostered; Sidelights treaty with Bulgaria; The covenant and on the treaty; The treaty with Germany; The minorities.
“The title of this book is singularly non-descriptive. It has none of the qualities of narrative and every page betrays the fact that the author remained entirely outside the real workings of the conference. With all respect to Mr Dillon’s experience, he has written a misleading book.” C: Seymour
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Am Hist R 26:101 O ’20 600w
“Dr Dillon’s main intimacies in Paris seem to have been with those delegates [of small states]. That fact, which is not unconnected with his own nationality, has enabled him, thanks to his really wide knowledge of international problems, to get inside the skin of the Paris tragedy in a way which would be impossible to the ordinary advanced radical writer. There are faults of proportion. Not enough is made of the economic aspects of the failure, and many judgments are questionable.”
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Ath p1334 D 12 ’19 1000w
“Interesting but not easy to read, perhaps too detailed. No index.”
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Booklist 16:273 My ’20
Reviewed by Sganarelle
Dial 68:799 Je ’20 130w
“From ‘The inside story of the peace conference’ the reader takes away the impression of a stubborn and somewhat sour honesty, and also of a vacillating bias that the author intended as little as he suspected. A ripe scholarship, a keen observation, an adequate sweep, but—it is impossible to avoid its conclusion—a decidedly jaundiced personality.”
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Lit D 64:122 Mr 27 ’20 2200w
“Dr Dillon does not write without bias. On the other hand, his scathing indictment of the ignorance and inefficiency, the cynicism, the bad faith, and the remorseless pride of power of the big five and four and three is only equaled, but not excelled, by the now well-known criticism of Professor Keynes. The two books, indeed, supplement one another admirably.” W: MacDonald
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Nation 111:246 Ag 28 ’20 580w
“By virtue of his inside knowledge, his ruthless uncovering of weaknesses, his keenness in criticism, he well deserves to be called the Junius of the peace conference.”
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No Am 211:717 My ’20 1100w
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R of Rs 61:556 My ’20 180w
“It is not a history of the conference: it is an account of the way things were done at Paris, written by a man of wide outlook, who knows his way about the diplomatic world. Doubtless there will be many volumes written on the peace conference, but few are likely to be so valuable to the historian as this.”
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Sat R 128:562 D 13 ’19 1250w
“This book does not add to Dr Dillon’s reputation. The allied statesmen, being only human and fallible, made mistakes, notably in regard to Italy and Rumania. But the wonder is that they did so well as they have done. Dr Dillon emphasizes and exaggerates all their blunders. He has taken the scandalous gossip of embassies, clubs, and newspapers a little too seriously.”
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Spec 123:735 N 29 ’19 100w
“The whole volume is a bold and dashing and highly fascinating presentation.” A. J. Lien
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Survey 44:591 Ag 2 ’20 550w
“Our criticisms of this book are severe, but we believe they are just. Dr Dillon has had a great opportunity and he has failed to use it. He has failed because there is no evidence in the book of any consecutive thought, of any firm ideas, of any help for reconstruction in the future. Dr Dillon’s analysis of what happened at the conference is always biassed and often incorrect; he has chosen to make himself merely the mouthpiece of the complaints of the smaller states without helping his readers in the least to discriminate as to their justice.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p659 N 20 ’19 1900w
DILLON, MRS MARY C. (JOHNSON). Farmer of Roaring Run. il *$1.75 (1c) Century
20–1892
John McClure, a wealthy Philadelphian of Scottish birth, has created a large farm in West Virginia, more or less as a rich man’s toy, which is not even self-supporting. After five years his managing farmer dies, and McClure is astounded when the farmer’s pretty, girlish-looking widow asks to be allowed to run the farm. Reluctantly he consents. He soon finds that Mrs Sinclair is not only quite a capable farmer but also a very lovable woman; quite incidentally too he discovers that it is necessary to spend more time on his farm and—its manager. All sorts of improvements are put into immediate action: forest conservation, careful selection of the best cattle only, clubs for the isolated young people, a church, and other things that spring from Mrs Sinclair’s energetic, fertile brain. Being very young and beautiful, and of gentle birth, she attracts several potential lovers, but McClure, after many heated misunderstandings, and several romantic adventures, eventually wins her. Other minor love stories run through the book, also a mystery.
“Good descriptions of the country. Women will like it.”
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Booklist 16:203 Mr ’20
“A pleasant, thoroughly conventional and rather sugary little story, the conclusion of which is perfectly obvious by the time one has finished the first chapter, is Mary Dillon’s new novel.”
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N Y Times 25:126 Mr 14 ’20 350w
DILNOT, FRANK. England after the war. *$3 Doubleday 914.2
20–20324
England, says the author, is in a stage of transition and is entering upon a new epoch. What this new epoch is likely to be does not enter into the speculations of the writer who confines himself to sketching the main features of England in their present state of transformation. Among the contents are: The mood of the people; The governance of England; The women; Business the keystone; Labour battling for enthronement; Ireland; Britain overseas; From Lord Northcliffe to Bernard Shaw; Where England leads; New programmes of life.
Booklist 17:108 D ’20
“The American reader will find much to instruct him in the chapters dealing with the new leaders in politics and economics who have arisen in England since the war.” J. C. Grey
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Bookm 52:366 Ja ’21 400w
“If he is not profound nor subtle nor concise, he is never dull and seldom altogether commonplace.” C. R. H.
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Freeman 2:310 D 8 ’20 170w
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Ind 104:248 N 13 ’20 50w
N Y Times p14 O 24 ’20 1750w
“Mr Dilnot has produced a book entertaining and, in the main, thoughtful.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 N 29 ’20 270w
DIMMOCK, F. HAYDN, ed.[2] Scouts’ book of heroes; with foreword by Sir Robert Baden Powell. il *$2.50 Stokes 940.3
“A record of scouts’ work in the great war.” (Sub-title) Contents: 1914; Famous scouts in the war; Scout heroes of the army; Scout heroes of the navy; Heroes of the air service; The heroes at home; Just—a scout; Called to higher service. In addition sixty pages are devoted to records of those who received medals, etc.
DINGLE, A. E. Gold out of Celebes. il *$1.75 (2½c) Little
20–8238
Jack Barry, an American seaman out of a job, is loafing about Batavia, in the Dutch East Indies, when Tom Little, a traveling salesman tired of the typewriter business, puts him on the track of adventure. Little has undertaken to go into the interior in the interests of Cornelius Houten, a Dutch trader, who has reason to suspect one of his agents. Houten is looking for a skipper and Barry meets his needs. The two Americans scent mystery from the outset. In the first place there is the strange lady, Mrs Goring, who claims acquaintance with them and asks passage on their ship. In the second place there is something puzzling about the big soft-voiced Dutch mate. There is also the relation between Leyden, the man they are after, and Natalie Sheldon, the charming young missionary. And the last is the point that matters most to Barry. On some of these points the two are in doubt to the end, working often in the dark, but fully deserving the rewards that finally come to them.
Booklist 16:347 Jl ’20
Cleveland p72 Ag ’20 50w
“The plot of ‘Gold out of Celebes’ reveals nothing particularly new. The love interest is slight, but pleasing. It is the breezy way in which this novel is written that carries it. The plot is a secondary matter entirely, while the ‘red blood’ element, vivid enough at times, is always kept discreetly within bounds.”
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N Y Times p23 Ag 8 ’20 650w
Springf’d Republican p11a Je 6 ’20 220w
DINNING, HECTOR W. Nile to Aleppo. il *$7.50 Macmillan 940.42
“The author of this book is a captain in the Australian forces which fought in the great war. Mr McBey was the official artist which followed the army of the Egyptian expeditionary force and the two together, the soldier and the painter, collaborated to produce a volume which is not a book of the war, nor yet a book of travel, but a combination of the two. The story begins at Taranto, away down in far southern Italy. Here the force was simply in camp near the town, and presumably a transport appeared in the harbor, her nose pointing eastward and business opened up. Thence through Palestine and Syria. The trail leads around the hills of Judea, through its ravines and past its straggling orchards, and, at length, to the Holy City. He takes us through the valley of the Jordan to Ludd; and from Ludd to Damascus and thence to Homs; and from Homs to Aleppo, where the train traversed the burning sands to Beyrouth.”—Boston Transcript
“Captain Dinning is a born observer. He always contrives to see what is worth seeing and to record it vividly, sometimes in the slangy style of his diary, sometimes in the finished manner of his later chapters. Occasionally his judgments are open to criticism.”
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Ath p759 D 3 ’20 950w
“The whole is an intensely breezy narrative, written by a man who understands well the use of his eyes and of the English language to interpret what he sees.” E. J. C.
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Boston Transcript p4 O 20 ’20 600w
“Mr McBey’s pen sketches deserve more than passing mention, for he is no mere illustrator. His economy of line and his ability to convey an indelible impression of these arid stretches of Palestinian landscape, their undeniable color and beauty, are more than fortuitous.”
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N Y Evening Post p24 D 4 ’20 360w
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Spec 124:245 Ag 21 ’20 300w
DIXON, THOMAS. Man of the people. *$1.75 Appleton 812
20–13190
This drama of Abraham Lincoln has one purpose: to show Lincoln’s fight to save the Union. We see Lincoln on the one hand as the friend of the oppressed and dispensing pardons according to a deeper sense of justice than is apparent on the surface. On the other hand we see him deal with implacable firmness to carry through his great conviction that the Union must be saved. The whole is divided into a prologue, three acts, and an epilogue.
“Melodramatic and inferior to Drinkwater’s play.”
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Booklist 17:61 N ’20
DOBIE, CHARLES CALDWELL. Blood red dawn. *$1.75 (2c) Harper
20–10053
A story of San Francisco following the fortunes of a girl who has her own living and her own way to make in the world. She is in turn a stenographer in a business office, accompanist for a singer at fashionable at-homes and Red cross concerts, and entertainer in a Greek restaurant. The latter occupation takes her “south of Market” and into a new social world where she meets the foreign born and has a glimpse of the alien point of view on American life. Two men have a part in her story, Ned Stillman, descendant of native stock, and Dr Danilo, a Serbian doctor. The war is in progress at the time.
“Although it has merit, it is a rather tepid performance. Mr Dobie’s faults, the faults of the novice, grow less noticeable as he warms to his theme. But he fails to warm sufficiently. He handles all his situations and incidents with the indifferent care of a man following a recipe. In spite of its riotous title, ‘The blood red dawn’ is distressingly smug.” M. A.
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Freeman 1:525 Ag 11 ’20 360w
“Well constructed romance. The author knows his San Francisco. This story—his first full length book—gives a graphic and colorful picture of intrigue in the foreign quarter of that city of lights.”
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N Y Times 25:301 Je 6 ’20 420w
“The characters fail to transcend or to sublimate the type; are all, by a shade, a little second-rate or common; and the result is a disappointing effect, in a book containing so much veracious detail of confused mediocrity. The opening chapters give us hope of creative realism, and we seem to have received, when all is done, a disconcerting blend of naturalism and romance.” H. W. Boynton
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Review 3:272 S 29 ’20 250w
DODD, MRS ANNA BOWMAN (BLAKE). Up the Seine to the battlefields. il *$3 (3c) Harper 914.4
20–7447
“Why is it that not one traveler in a thousand, no, nor in tens of thousands has known the Seine shores as the shores of the Hudson are known—as the Rhine, for so many years, has been known and sung? Few Frenchmen even are fully aware of the wonders and beauties which a trip up the Seine will yield.” (Introd.) As one of the effects of the war has been the discovery of the Seine’s commercial possibilities the author fears that in a few short years the Seine will no longer be “the lovely river of beauty.” She therefore proposes to immortalize its many surprises in scenic and architectural splendors in a book which is profusely illustrated from engravings and paintings.
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Booklist 17:27 O ’20
“The book is intensely interesting both for its geography and its history.”
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Cath World 111:694 Ag ’20 220w
“The book is an amiable introduction to modern French history; and if Mrs Dodd’s manner is a trifle too intense for her subjects, there is at least not a tiresome page in the whole volume.” M. F. Egan
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N Y Times 25:285 My 30 ’20 150w
“Such a volume as the present will be grateful reading to all those who love France and who feel the force of the old days, no matter how modern some parts of new France have become.”
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Outlook 125:223 Je 2 ’20 80w
“Unfortunately Mrs Dodd’s style is too hasty—at points it is positively slipshod—to carry the finer effects that would make for complete success in such work as this.”
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Review 2:681 Je 30 ’20 300w
DODD, LEE WILSON. Book of Susan. *$2 Dutton
20–11147
“Susan is frankly a phenomenal child. After her stupid, bestial father murders the woman with whom he is living, Susan is adopted by a wealthy and cultured bachelor, and grows up to be a brilliant woman who holds her own in his circle of scholarly and fashionable friends.” (Outlook) “She is now old enough to be in love with [her] guardian, who is, of course, in love with her. But Ambo’s two special friends, a Yale professor and a New York radical, also love Susan. Finally it takes a bomb from a Gotha in the streets of Paris to bring Susan to the point of letting Ambo know that she loves him alone.” (Bookman)
“The reason why one reader is unimpressed by this plot, and even finds it absurd, is because he is unimpressed by Susan. She is over-clever, over-sprightly. So, for that matter, is the whole book.” H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 52:68 S ’20 500w
“For all its Stevensonesque touches, for all the moments when one glimpses a mind like Pater’s, or a glimmer of Ibsen, through the palings of the back fence, as it were, one has nothing, except a couple of characters—say five—to take away with one. The first part of the story is delightful.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ag 7 ’20 430w
“The book is much above the average novel, and the author’s insight into feminine psychology quite remarkable. Moreover, it has the great quality of interest.”
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Lit D p114 N 6 ’20 1650w
“Mr Dodd’s style is in another world from the gritty slovenliness of the average story; the earlier part of his book is filled with ripe and intense characterizations; the interpolated passages of criticism and verse are mellow and delightful. But the fable of the book is the fable of ‘Daddy Longlegs,’ not only in fact but, beneath all appearances of intellectual subtlety and integrity, in tendency and spirit. We can only hope that Mr Dodd will soon give us another novel in which his grace of style and temper shall serve to express an austerer strain of thought and imagination—austerer because it is truer and truer because it does not compromise.”
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Nation 111:329 S 18 ’20 620w
“The people in this narrative are the genuine variety. The character of Susan is a well rounded one. There is nothing commonplace about ‘The book of Susan.’ Mr Dodd writes in a fresh, entertaining style and has shaped his materials with no little skill.”
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N Y Times 25:28 Jl 4 ’20 530w
“In character depiction, in the give and take of dialogue, and in the incidents, the novel is more arresting than the majority of the American novels of the season.”
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Outlook 126:67 S 8 ’20 100w
DODD, WILLIAM EDWARD. Woodrow Wilson and his work. *$3 (4c) Doubleday
20–26482
“This portrait of Woodrow Wilson is designed to be a brief history of recent times as well as a chronicle of a great career. It aims to set the man in his historical background and to explain the trend of American life during a momentous period of world history.” (Introd.) “It is surely a record unsurpassed; and the fame of the man ... can never be forgotten, the ideals he has set and the movement he has pressed so long and so ably can not fail.” Contents: Youth and early environment; The new road to leadership; New wine in old bottles; The great stage; From Princeton to the presidency; The problem; The great reforms; Wars and rumours of wars; The election of 1916; The United States enters the war: “We are provincials no longer”; Roosevelt or Wilson; The great adventure; The day of reckoning; The treaty and the League; Index.
Booklist 16:343 Jl ’20
“It is fair to admit that Mr Dodd does his work with knowledge, skill, and an independent judgment in details.” J. A. Hobson
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Nation 111:189 Ag 14 ’20 1250w
“Although I am seldom in complete agreement with Professor Dodd, and often a horizon’s distance away from him, I find myself forced to the conviction that this book offers the fullest and fairest amount of Wilson and his work that I have seen, or am likely to see in many a day.” Alvin Johnson
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New Repub 24:36 S 8 ’20 2250w
“Quite the most discriminating, comprehensive and just appraisement of Woodrow Wilson that has yet been made.”
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N Y Times p21 S 12 ’20 550w
R of Rs 61:558 My ’20 230w
“As fairly as seems humanly possible, Prof. Dodd has maintained the historical point of view, endeavoring to weigh all evidence impartially, and taking counsel from friends and foes alike, and from the president himself on various occasions.”
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Springf’d Republican p8a S 19 ’20 1100w
Reviewed by W: L. Chenery
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Survey 45:168 O 30 ’20 520w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p653 O 7 ’20 110w
DODGE, HENRY IRVING. Skinner makes it fashionable. il *$1 (5c) Harper
20–6285
“Meadeville was a suburban town of the highest class. It was made up of plutocrats, prigs, good people, snobs, mean people, new-rich, new-poor.” Perhaps William Manning Skinner was one of the “mean people,” for he set the whole town by the ears in a sensational way. He knew how human they all were, how they dreaded, most of all, not to be in the height of fashion and not to do what the “best people” did. So he set the ball a-rolling that was to change the riot of extravagance in vogue among the newly-rich to a veritable riot of simple living. And how he and his good wife, Honey, chuckled over it all!
“Not as amusing as the earlier ‘Skinner’ stories.”
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Booklist 16:312 Je ’20
Cleveland p71 Ag ’20 50w
“The little book is a reservoir of bubbling humor, carrying with it a lesson well worth heeding in these days.”
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N Y Times 25:302 Je 6 ’20 550w
“A genuinely funny story.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a Ap 25 ’20 260w
DODGE, LOUIS. Whispers. *$1.75 Scribner
20–6862
“Louis Dodge’s new hero is named Robert Estabrook, and it is Beakman, the very unpleasant city editor of The News, who gives him the nickname of ‘Whispers’ because of his defective speech. Estabrook—or Whispers—arrives in Missouri City shortly after the murder of old Pheneas Drumm, a dealer in masks and costumes, reputed to be very rich, and goes first to the office of the highly successful News. But not liking the looks either of Beakman or of The News office—whereby he shows his good sense—he decides to try to get a position on the rival paper, The Vidette. This he does. Also, Whispers promises to solve the mystery of the Drumm murder within two days. Of course he makes good.”—N Y Times
Booklist 16:280 My ’20
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Cath World 112:121 O ’20 90w
“Mr Dodge has written a uniquely interesting book. The plot itself is simple enough, the dénouement not surprising; but from the very beginning a subtler interest is aroused by the genuine appeal of the characters revealed and the picturesque quality of the city newspaper life.”
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N Y Evening Post p3 My 1 ’20 480w
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N Y Times 25:240 My 9 ’20 350w
“Once the main thread begins to unwind, ‘Whispers’ plunges into an exciting series of dangers. Either through his own, or the author’s clumsiness, Estabrook does not display much craft in his sleuthing.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Je 27 ’20 250w
“The long arm of coincidence is applied to its limit, but the story is entertaining.”
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Wis Lib Bul 16:237 D ’20 20w
DODWELL, C. E. W. Righteousness versus religion. $2 Stratford co. 201
20–14752
In opposing righteousness to religion the author does not direct his criticism against Christianity in the sense of the “righteousness, simplicity and beauty” of the teachings of Christ, but against dogmatic religion which he makes responsible for everything that has gone wrong with the world. He charges it with promulgating “mischievous errors, falsities and debasing superstitions, ignorance, hypocrisy and narrow-minded bigotry and intolerance.” The contents are: Religion; Many religions; The Christian religion; The works of religion; The Bible; Righteousness. The postscript has paragraphs on the future of the “Church” and “Religion”; on the effects of Catholicism on Spain and Ireland; on the war; and a recommended list of books for further reading.
“Of his tremendous sincerity there can be no doubt. It might fairly be urged that the book fails to accord to its object of attack the usual privilege of being judged by its best rather than by its worst. Yet his assaults are put forward in such a whole-hearted and self-convinced manner that what he says is not calculated to wound or affront.” L. S.