Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 14)
Reading edition
“A valuable part of his book is the admirable list of references to contemporary and other authorities.”
+
Ath p782 Je 11 ’20 190w
“The author, while primarily an educational administrator and not a professional sociologist, nevertheless has attained a definite grasp of certain fundamental principles in the science of society. His book is a very thoughtful piece of work, but the reviewer confesses to losing his way frequently in the course of the argument.” A. J. Todd
+ −
Survey 45:22 O 2 ’20 600w
FINNEY, ROSS LEE, and SCHAFER, ALFRED L. Administration of village and consolidated schools. *$1.60 Macmillan 371
20–4558
“This book has been written especially to meet the needs of principals of small schools and to serve as a textbook in those institutions where young men and women are in training for the administration of village schools. Its five parts discuss, respectively, Governmental administration, The principal’s personal-official relations, Adapting the school to the needs of the child, The business side, and Miscellaneous.”—Boston Transcript
+
Booklist 17:11 O ’20
“It gives valuable and practical charts and tables and is fraught with helpful suggestions. It will be very useful to those who know how to discriminate and are not too slavishly bound to the letter.”
+
Boston Transcript p6 Jl 3 ’20 220w
“The book is written in a style that ought to appeal to teachers and school officers who have not enjoyed the opportunities of an elaborate training.”
+
El School J 20:711 My ’20 550w
+
School R 28:554 S ’20 140w
FIRKINS, OSCAR W. Jane Austen. *$1.75 (3c) Holt 823
20–4130
A critical and biographical study of Jane Austen, falling into three parts: The novelist; The realist; The woman. Part 1 is a searching and unsparing analysis of the six novels, with particular reference to plot. Part 2 is a more brief and general treatment of the characters. Part 3, the biographical section, is a study of Miss Austen’s personality as revealed in her letters and reflected in the novels. Notes and an index come at the end and the whole is prefaced by verses, “To Jane Austen,” from the author’s pen, reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly.
“He is often clever and always readable.”
+
Booklist 16:278 My ’20
Cleveland p84 O ’20 30w
“The advantage of this microscopic, literal measurement is that it prepares the way for an exact delineation of Jane Austen’s production and character. If the final picture lacks an inconsequent sureness, it is full of fine perspectives and fresh values.” C. M. Rourke
+
Freeman 1:549 Ag 18 ’20 760w
“He paints a sort of cubist portrait of Jane Austen, which would pass unrecognized were it not labeled with her name. He has succeeded in imagining a Miss Austen who is ‘one vile antithesis’. In ‘creative criticism’ does the critic create the author in his own image?” H. E. Woodbridge
−
Nation 110:sup485 Ap 10 ’20 700w
“A book both new and worth reading. He has looked at Miss Austen more through his own eyes, and less through the eyes of her many illustrious eulogists, than any other writer I know of. Even when he is in harmony with the opinions of Miss Austen’s posterity one feels his first-handedness. Not one of his more heretical opinions exists for the sake of saying something new.”
+ −
New Repub 22:318 My 5 ’20 1100w
“Although his book is written in so flowing and altogether charming a style that it is a pleasure to read it, I could not help wondering why he thought it worth doing at all. Certainly, no one that reads it will be tempted to fly to Jane Austen. Quite the contrary!” Gertrude Atherton
+ −
N Y Times 25:219 My 2 ’20 2950w
“Minute analysis of individual characters, their consistency and temperaments, is carried a little too far for any but the devoted admirers who have every one of Miss Austen’s novels firmly in remembrance.”
+ −
Outlook 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 40w
FISCHER, HERBERT ALBERT LAURENS. Studies in history and politics. *$5.65 Oxford 904
20–11671
“When the Right Honorable Herbert Fisher took up the onerous duties of a Minister of the crown on the British Educational board ... the heavy labors in the service of the English youth left him little time for writing and research. The studies collected in his latest volume are, therefore, not new, but are reprints of various magazine articles written, for the most part, between five and ten years ago, though here and there retouched and supplemented. Three of the eleven essays deal with French politics; three with the history of history; two with Napoleon; one with British imperial administration; one with the value of small states; and one with the resurgence of Prussia.”—Nation
+
Ath p510 Ap 16 ’20 1350w
“The studies are all amply worth reading.” Preserved Smith
+
Nation 111:133 Jl 31 ’20 980w
“Interesting and thoughtful essays.”
+
Spec 124:87 Jl 17 ’20 200w
+ −
Springf’d Republican p9a Jl 4 ’20 620w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup p231 Ap 15 ’20)
The Times [London] Lit Sup p215 Ap 1 ’20 60w
“Mr Fisher’s essays will interest everybody who cares either for history or for politics, and, most of all, those who care for both.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p231 Ap 15 ’20 2650w
FISHER, IRVING. Stabilizing the dollar. *$3.50 Macmillan 338.5
20–674
“[In this book] first there is a twenty-five page summary. Then there is the main body of the text, 125 pages, in which the same arguments that appear in the summary are amplified. Finally there is an appendix of 171 pages in which practically the same points are gone over again, only this time with a strong emphasis upon ‘technical details.’ Thus we have a boiled down encyclopedia addressed to three separate levels of attention, or perhaps of intellect, all within the modest confines of one small volume. Professor Fisher believes that the high cost of living is caused by a shrunken dollar, just as the low cost of living from 1873 to 1896 followed an enlarged dollar. The purchasing power of the dollar is at all times, so he easily proves, uncertain and variable. His remedy is to make the dollar more or less valuable, according as prices are rising or falling by adding or substracting from its weight in gold.”—Unpartizan Review
“The close association between economic and political problems at the present day warrants for this book the attention of political scientists.”
+
Am Pol Sci R 14:322 My ’20 80w
“This book is well arranged for summary or detailed reading.”
+
Booklist 16:189 Mr ’20
“Many prominent economists indorse the plan. The question of its practical application is a distinct and different affair. Be that as it may, the book is provocative of thought and deserves a wide reading.” G. M. J.
+
Boston Transcript p9 Je 5 ’20 550w
“The plan is presented with elaborate simplicity and persuasiveness, and an exhaustive discussion of technical details, alternative plans, and precedents.”
+
Dial 68:404 Mr ’20 80w
Lit D 64:119 Mr 13 ’20 950w
Reviewed by C. C. Plehn
Nation 110:769 Je 5 ’20 2150w
“It is a duty to direct attention to Professor Fisher’s plan, and it is agreeable to add that he makes its study easy.”
+
N Y Times 25:245 My 9 ’20 900w
R of Rs 61:447 Ap ’20 120w
“For the advanced student of currency and price movements the six appendices will prove of special interest.” E. R. Burton
+ |Survey 44:541 Jl 17 ’20 420w |The Times [London] Lit Sup p369 Je 10 ’20 120w
“In ‘Stabilizing the dollar’ we have not necessarily the final word, but the most complete exposition as yet of a great, fundamental reform whose inevitableness the reviewer cannot doubt.” A. W. Atwood
+ −
Unpartizan R 13:413 Mr ’20 1850w
FISHER, JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER, 1st baron. Memories and records. 2v il *$8 (6½c) Doran
20–5756
Lord Fisher devotes the first of these volumes to Memories, reserving such biographical details as he chooses to give for the volume of Records. Of the work as a whole, he says, it is “not an autobiography but a collection of memories of a life-long war against limpets, parasites, sycophants and jellyfish.” Aside from its pungent style, the book is of interest for its memories of King Edward, whom the author loved, for his estimates of Lord Nelson, whom he worshipped, and for his outspoken criticisms of Great Britain’s war policy. There are a number of illustrations and each of the volumes has its index. The appendixes to volume 2 give a summary of Lord Fisher’s great naval reforms, by W. T. Stead, and a synopsis of his career.
“This remarkable book is full of good things. The rush of the author’s forcible prose recalls the headlong progress of a motorcycle emitting explosive noises.”
+
Ath p1170 N 7 ’19 280w
“We get an impression of more than force; we feel that we are dealing with a perfectly honest man who has an unfailing eye for humbug.”
+
Ath p1225 N 21 ’19 900w
Ath p1387 D 19 ’19 40w
Booklist 16:261 My ’20
“It is a rambling autobiography without form or plan, frank to the verge of indiscretion or beyond, crammed with the enthusiasm and energy of youth (he was born in 1851 but was of the tribe of Peter Pan), exuberant beyond the bounds of the English language, and altogether delightful and incredible.”
+
Ind 103:185 Ag 14 ’20 250w
“Many delightful anecdotes testify to the more irresistible side of Lord Fisher’s personality, and his staunch praise of his friends, his inimitable descriptions of many sea captains, and his warm appreciation of the British merchant navy also show fine traits of discernment and character.” B. U. Burke
+
Nation 110:204 F 14 ’20 1350w
“His directness and brevity never fail him, every paragraph is charged with interest, and the reader’s mind easily gathers up and puts in place the material. The originalities in printing are devices of this fertile inventor to make truths go home and lodge.” D. S. M.
+
New Repub 23:285 Ag 4 ’20 1600w
“There is no connected narrative or any orderly sequence of events; and yet it is continuously interesting, often amusing, and sometimes exciting in a supreme degree. The language is occasionally deplorable, from the standpoint of most drawing rooms and all grammar schools; and yet there are passages of rare and original beauty from even a rhetorical point of view. One feels in the presence of a psychic force.” B. A. Fiske
+ −
N Y Times 25:179 Ap 18 ’20 2750w
“A peculiar book, this—gossipy, and good, nervous comment, with technical explanation shoved in like coal into a furnace. Navy men will enjoy it, but so will the man on the street.”
+
N Y Times 25:192 Ap 18 ’20 170w
Reviewed by Doris Webb
+
Pub W 97:1294 Ap 17 ’20 200w
“Admiral Fisher’s gift for comradeship makes him an admirable portraitist. There is no dull moment in the two volumes.”
+
Review 2:654 Je 23 ’20 1200w
“Sturdy fighter as he is, he hits no foul blow. He is not sparing of his epithets on his opponents en masse ... but of no individual living man or woman does he speak otherwise than in terms of kindliness and honour. If his blame is hearty, so is his praise; and while his blame is anonymous, his praise is defined. He who has applauded others so lavishly and willingly may perhaps be excused when he exhibits considerable affection for his own good deeds also.”
+
Spec 123:617 N 8 ’19 1300w
Spec 123:899 D 27 ’19 100w
+ −
Springf’d Republican p8 N 22 ’19 500w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup p579 O 23 ’19)
“The books are a vivid photograph of picturesque and historic personality.”
+
Springf’d Republican p11a My 9 ’20 1650w
“Inaccuracy is the inevitable result of hasty talk. Those of us who are not over and above solemn, and who are quite prepared to give Lord Fisher all the licence of, say, Admiral Coffin, whose free talk once amused the House of commons, often at his own expense, may still regret that he does not endeavour to deserve a share of ‘the heavenly gift of proportion and perspective’ which he admired in King Edward.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p579 O 23 ’19 1050w
“There are some things in these memories and records which few critics, now or hereafter, will commend except in so far as they exhibit some of the less attractive features of Lord Fisher’s personality with a candour which goes far to redeem them from censure. But these are really superficial traits.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p759 D 18 ’19 2050w
+
Yale R n s 10:437 Ja ’21 890w
FISKE, BRADLEY ALLEN. Art of fighting; its evolution and progress. il *$3 (2c) Century 355
20–7785
Paying a passing tribute to the universal desire for peace, the author says: “Until it is certain that war has actually been banished from the earth, armies and navies must be maintained. In order to give their country the protection needed, each army and navy must be correctly designed, prepared, and operated. To know whether this is being done, the people need a general knowledge of the principles of the art of fighting, especially of strategy. To impart this knowledge in simple language is the object of this book.” (Preface) The book is in three parts: Fighting and war in general; Historical illustrations; Strategy. This third section is composed of three chapters: Strategy in peace; Strategy in war; and Strategy as related to statesmanship. There is no index.
+
Booklist 17:51 N ’20
“It may be objected to this book, particularly by the pacifist mind, that it lacks a true perspective, a proper sense of proportion, an adequate conception of relative values. But the ready answer is that it is the book of an inventor, a specialist, an enthusiast. Admiral Fiske has made a notable contribution, worthy of the most careful study.”
+ −
N Y Times 25:251 My 16 ’20 1650w
R of Rs 62:333 S ’20 130w
+
Yale R n s 10:437 Ja ’21 330w
FISKE, CHARLES. Perils of respectability, and other studies in Christian life and service for reconstruction days. *$1.50 Revell 252
20–2430
“The subjects [of the fourteen sermons] are striking without being sensational. Among them are ‘Alone in the wilderness,’ ‘The peril of an empty soul,’ ‘The manliness of Christ,’ and ‘The gospel for an age of luxury.’ The author has found his way into the heart of things and speaks out of a deep experience. He understands the meaning of Christianity in all its phases, individual, social and corporate.”—Boston Transcript
“Bishop Fiske is a plain and convincing preacher: these are sermons worth reading as well as hearing. We miss the personality of the preacher but that is inevitable in the case of printed discourses.”
+
Bib World 54:433 Jl ’20 180w
“No man, minister or layman, can read them without becoming strengthened.”
+
Boston Transcript p6 Mr 3 ’20 150w
FITCH, ALBERT PARKER.[2] Can the church survive in the changing order? *80c Macmillan 230
20–3581
“Prof. Fitch likens the present day to other great periods of transition; the time of Jesus’s advent, of the Mohammedan invasion, of Luther’s protest. The church today stands for the old order. It has attempted to keep abreast of the times merely by tacking new social programs on to an outworn philosophy. This method is doomed to failure from the beginning. If the church is to survive it must mold progressively its fundamental conceptions. And its most fundamental conception, its attitude to the Jesus of history, must be based on an appreciation of his moral grandeur. A quickened conscience, resulting from a clearer apprehension of the moral value of Jesus’s teaching, is far more important for the church than any new Christological formulation. This moral awakening will itself have religious content in its devotion to eternal and transcendent values.”—Springf’d Republican
“We looked to the last sections of the book for something to guide and inspire the church so unsparingly criticized. There is no program offered. This is a fatal weakness. What is needed now is not a negative criticism but a constructive program.”
−
Bib World 54:645 N ’20 210w
“Anything from the pen of Dr Albert Parker Fitch is certain to be clear, colorful and aggressive. His latest little book is no exception.”
+
Springf’d Republican p6 Ap 5 ’20 330w
FITCH, ALBERT PARKER.[2] Preaching and paganism. *$2 Yale univ. press 204
20–19512
“The Amherst professor describes the permanent element in religion—the sense of God—in contrast with two forces that are in control of our present day thinking and acting, humanism and naturalism. He shows how these alien factors have entered and subtly taken possession of worship and even preaching, and he pleads for the religious view which, while acknowledging God in nature and in man, refuses to set up either man or nature as its norm and guide.” (N Y Evening Post) “The book is the forty-sixth of the series of the Lyman Beecher lectureship on preaching in Yale university and is the fourth work published on the James Wesley Cooper memorial publication fund.” (Boston Transcript)
Boston Transcript p8 D 4 ’20 330w
+
N Y Evening Post p12 D 31 ’20 180w
“Prof. Fitch may not altogether give the philosophical background to the desired restatement of transcendence, but he at least gives evidence of earnest and well-pondered affirmation. The book is meant both to instruct young clergymen and to inspire them, and it should succeed in its double object.”
+
Springf’d Republican p10 Ja 14 ’21 330w
FITZGERALD, FRANCIS SCOTT KEY. Flappers and philosophers. *$1.75 Scribner
20–26757
A book of short stories by the author of “This side of paradise.” Contents: The offshore pirate; The ice palace; Head and shoulders; The cut-glass bowl; Bernice bobs her hair; Benediction; Dalyrimple goes wrong; The four fists.
+
Booklist 17:31 O ’20
“The author proves himself a master of the mechanism of short-story technique, a neat hand with dialogue, and exactly as bungling with character work as one would expect from an author as young as the cynicism of his endings proclaims this author to be. For he cannot let well enough alone.... In fact that is the chief trouble with all Mr Fitzgerald’s tales. They are too consciously clever.” I. W. L.
+ −
Boston Transcript p4 N 6 ’20 250w
“Here are to be found originality and variety, with imaginativeness of the exceptional order that needs not to seek remote, untrodden paths, but plays upon scenes and people within the radius of ordinary life.”
+
Cath World 112:268 N ’20 130w
“The substance of the eight stories in his volume is in harmony with his new manner. They have a rather ghastly rattle of movement that apes energy and a hectic straining after emotion that apes intensity. The surface is unnaturally taut; the substance beneath is slack and withered as by a premature old age. In ‘This side of paradise’ there was both gold and dross. Instead of wringing his art, in Mr Hergesheimer’s fine expression, free of all dross, Mr Fitzgerald proceeded to cultivate it and to sell it to the Saturday Evening Post. Why write good books? You have to sell something like five thousand copies to earn the price of one story.”
−
Nation 111:330 S 18 ’20 380w
“Not the most superficial reader can fail to recognize Mr Fitzgerald’s talent and genius.”
+
N Y Times p24 S 26 ’20 530w
“‘Head and shoulders’ has a twist at the end that is truly O. Henryish. So does ‘Bernice bobs her hair.’ We pick these two as the best.”
+
Outlook 126:238 O 6 ’20 60w
Reviewed by Sibyl Vane
+
Pub W 98:661 S 18 ’20 280w
FITZGERALD, FRANCIS SCOTT KEY. This side of paradise. *$1.75 Scribner
20–6430
“It isn’t a story in the regular sense: There’s no beginning, except the beginning of Amory Blaine, born healthy, wealthy and extraordinarily good-looking, and by way of being spoiled by a restless mother whom he quaintly calls by her first name, Beatrice. There’s no middle to the story, except the eager fumbling at life of this same handsome boy, proud, cleanminded, born to conquer yet fumbling, at college and in love with Isabelle, then Clara, then Rosalind, then Eleanor. No end to the story except the closing picture of this same boy in his early twenties, a bit less confident about life, with ‘no God in his heart ... his ideas still in riot ... with the pain of memory ... he could not tell why the struggle was worth while,’ and yet ‘determined to use to the utmost himself and his heritage from the personality he had passed.’”—Pub W
Booklist 16:312 Je ’20
“In all its affectations, its cleverness, its occasional beauty, even its sometimes intentioned vulgarity and ensuing timidity, it so unites with the matter as to make the book a convincing chronicle of youth by youth.” M. E. Bailey
+ −
Bookm 51:471 Je ’20 950w
“It is merely his way of doing things that makes his story different from multitudes of its kind. To say that in ‘This side of paradise’ Mr Fitzgerald has written a novel that will cause us to use a modern and expressive phrase, to sit up and take notice, is a mild expression of the feeling he arouses in us. He is a story teller with a courage of his own. Many will not like his novel, some will abhor it, but none can question the fact that he is a novelist with a message if not with a mission.”
+ −
Boston Transcript p4 My 12 ’20 2000w
“Part of the story is thoroly amusing; part of it goes deep into the serious thoughts and desires and ambitions of its hero-author; in the last third he dives so deep that he gets well over his head.”
+ −
Ind 103:53 Jl 10 ’20 280w
“Mr Fitzgerald is on the path of those who strive. His gifts have an unmistakable amplitude and much in his book is brave and beautiful.”
+ −
Nation 110:558 Ap 24 ’20 500w
“An astonishing and refreshing book. The book is fundamentally honest and if the intellectual and spiritual analyses are, sometimes tortuous and the nomenclature bewildering to those not intimate with collegiate invention, it is nevertheless delightful and encouraging to find a novel which gives us in the accurate terms of intellectual honesty a reflection of American undergraduate life.” R. V. A. S.
+ −
New Repub 22:362 My 12 ’20 400w
“The whole story is disconnected, more or less, but loses none of its charm on that account. It could have been written only by an artist who knows how to balance his values, plus a delightful literary style.”
+
N Y Times 25:240 My 9 ’20 500w
“There are, as I see it, two secrets to the all-round satisfactoriness of Mr Fitzgerald’s book; he can write—that simply sticks out all over the book; and he has the rather rare good sense of ‘crowding his work instead of spreading it thin.’” R. S. L.
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Pub W 97:1289 Ap 17 ’20 460w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 2:393 Ap 17 ’20 320w
“The story’s construction occasionally gives an impression of jerkiness; but the author’s obvious familiarity with his ground and his uncanny ability to see life through the eyes of his characters reduces this defect almost to the vanishing point.”
+ −
Springf’d Republican p11a Je 13 ’20 500w
FLEMING, WILLIAM HENRY. Treaty-making power; Slavery and the race problem in the South. $1.50 Stratford co. 341.2
20–12527
The book contains two speeches by the author as a member of Congress from the tenth Georgia district. The practical issue underlying the speech of the Treaty-making power was given by the crisis threatening legislation in California to discriminate against Japanese children in the public schools. The second speech, Slavery and the race problem in the South, is a courageous plea for justice on behalf of the negro.
FLETCHER, CHARLES BRUNSDON. Stevenson’s Germany. *$3.50 Scribner 996
(Eng ed 20–9232)
“This book, which groups about Stevenson’s ‘Footnote to history’ evidence of German misbehaviour in the Pacific, and particularly in Samoa, is, we are informed by the preface, the conclusion of an ‘argument against Germany, begun in “The new Pacific,” and continued through “The problem of the Pacific”’; it is essentially an attempt to show that Germany is unfit to govern in the islands of the South sea, and a plea that in no circumstances whatever should she be allowed to regain an inch of those profitable lands.”—Ath
“The present volume has little to commend it. The organization is very faulty, the materials used are slight and even they have not been presented as well as they deserved, and there are certain obvious errors.” P. J. T.
−
Am Hist R 26:373 Ja ’21 320w
“There may be good and just reasons for excluding Germany from the Pacific, but they do not appear conclusively in this book. What appears too clearly is the desire to profit to the utmost by her downfall.” F. W. S.
−
Ath p735 Je 4 ’20 550w
Outlook 125:615 Ag 4 ’20 90w
“Well written and well-documented book.”
+
Sat R 129:476 My 22 ’20 700w
“The difficulty in being satisfied with Mr Fletcher’s case is not, however, that it is unfairly put or in any way exaggerated. On the contrary, it has been carefully prepared, and the evidence put forward is trustworthy. The trouble is that, from circumstances over which the Germans had no control, it is all pre-war evidence and must be judged by pre-war standards.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p362 Je 10 ’20 670w
FLETCHER, CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE. Historical portraits, 1700–1850; with an introd. by C. F. Bell. il 2v ea *$5.65 Oxford 757
(9–24668)
“The Clarendon press has published, after a long interval, the third volume of Messrs Fletcher and Walker’s collection of historical portraits. It contains a hundred and fourteen portraits, selected by Mr Walker, of men and women of eighteenth-century Britain, with short and racy memoirs by Mr Fletcher. The portrait gallery includes the famous admirals; generals like Wolfe, Cumberland, Wade, and Ligonier; Wesley, Berkeley, and other great divines; men of letters, lawyers, men of science like Newton and Halley, Dodsley the publisher, Arkwright, Wedgwood, and Brindley, the maker of canals, whose talents would have rusted in obscurity had he not been employed by the Duke of Bridgewater.” (Spec) The previous volumes appeared in 1909 and 1912.
“It is fair to say that the collaborators of this volume are to be congratulated in general on their selection. Yet the principle on which they worked remains a mystery. One needs only to consider the biographies which have accompanied the portraits of other such collections to perceive that Mr Fletcher is as much a genius in his way as Mr Walker is in his; and that between them they have produced an extraordinarily entertaining and instructive book.” W. C. Abbott
+ −
Am Hist R 25:489 Ap ’20 600w
+
Ath p640 Jl 18 ’19 90w
“Mr Fletcher’s potted ‘lives’ are excellent: they are a pattern of what such brief biographies should be. Scholarly, of course, informative and readable, they are completely at ease in their handling of men in every walk of life. The book has its limitations.” M. H. Spielmann
+ −
Ath p746 Ag 15 ’19 1800w
Brooklyn 12:40 N ’19 30w
“The value of this publication is so great for educational purposes that one hesitates before offering any criticism. Mr Fletcher’s biographical notices are in their turn models of conciseness and economy of space, and give just the information which should excite the student to a better acquaintance with each subject in turn. These notices, however, convey some idea that they have been written entirely apart from the portraits themselves.” Lionel Cust
+ −
Eng Hist R 34:607 O ’19 670w
“We have seen better photographic reproductions. But the volume is none the less of the greatest interest and value.”
+
Spec 122:86 Jl 19 ’19 1650w
“His biographies bring under fire virtually the whole of English history between 1700 and 1850, and few of them are not lit with new interest. We can imagine that in questions of aesthetic criticism his personal view will not be unchallenged.”
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p399 Jl 24 ’19 1950w
FLETCHER, JOSEPH SMITH. Dead men’s money (Eng title, Droonin’ watter). (Borzoi mystery stories) *$2 (2½c) Knopf
20–19048
This story is told by Hugh Moneylaws, a young law student in Berwick-upon-Tweed. While going on an errand which kept him out very late one night, Hugh comes upon a dead man lying in the woods. In the investigation that follows, Hugh conceals one piece of information, a bit of caution he has reason to regret later. He does not mention publicly having seen Sir Gilbert Carstairs, 7th baronet of Hathercleugh House, at the scene of the murder. When the one person with whom he shares this knowledge meets a violent death, he begins to realize the seriousness of it, and when Sir Gilbert makes a dastardly but unsuccessful attempt to put Hugh himself out of the way, he is convinced of Sir Gilbert’s guilt, and his disappearance makes assurance doubly sure. The remainder of the story tells of the efforts to locate him, and the facts that come to the light about him in the search. On several occasions Hugh’s life hangs by a hair, but he eventually comes out of it with only a crippled knee, and nothing more to fear from “Sir Gilbert,” who has met his punishment at the hands of another enemy.
“Take one typewriterful of Stevenson, add several murders for luck and one mystery that isn’t mysterious, mix well with a sensational jacket and an afterthought of a plot and the answer is ‘Dead men’s money.’”
−
N Y Evening Post p17 D 4 ’20 160w
“The author’s grasp on the various threads of his story is always firm, and he brings them all together at the end, leaving them tied up in a neat bow, with no loose ends, with a skill that compels deep admiration of his craftsmanship.”
+
N Y Times p21 N 7 ’20 320w
+ −
Sat R 127:427 My 3 ’19 190w
“Mr Fletcher is one of the most skilful writers of this type of fiction. The narrative abounds in thrills and tense situations and will be highly diverting to devotees of this school of fiction.”
+
Springf’d Republican p9a O 31 ’20 190w
FLETCHER, JOSEPH SMITH. Paradise mystery. (Borzoi mystery stories) *$1.90 (2c) Knopf
20–8629
A stranger in the town of Wrychester is killed by a fall from the upper gallery of the cathedral. But this fact naturally is not so simple as stated, and leads to the question, was the fall suicide, accident or murder, and if murder, who was the murderer, and what was the motive. In the answering of these questions many people are involved: Dr Ransford, whom the dead man had been asking for; Dr Bryce, his assistant, who had been forcing unwelcome attentions upon Ransford’s ward, Mary Bewery; Collishaw, the laborer, who later met his death because he knew too much; Simpson Harker, an ex-detective; Stephen Folliot, whose step-son is also a suitor for Mary Bewery’s hand. These, and others, are all bound up in a network of mystery which is not unraveled until the surprising denouement of the story.
“A good English mystery story.”
+
Booklist 16:347 Jl ’20
“Besides the mystery there is a tender little love story and several interesting characters.”
+
Cleveland p72 Ag ’20 50w
Lit D p100 O 23 ’20 1350w
+
N Y Times 25:25 Jl 11 ’20 390w
“The excellent reputation earned by J. S. Fletcher as a teller of engaging mystery tales is preserved in his latest story, ‘The Paradise mystery.’”
+
Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 18 ’20 240w
FLETCHER, JOSEPH SMITH. Talleyrand maxim. il *$1.75 (2c) Knopf
20–627
Linford Pratt, a young lawyer, is inspired by Talleyrand’s maxim: “With time and patience the mulberry leaf is turned into satin.” He knew that wit and skill were his, and that time and patience, coupled with opportunity, would bring him the fortune he craved. He was not over nice about the opportunity. It came to him in the shape of a will whose existence no one suspected. It was to have been the first rung of the ladder by which he was to rise. Complications set in in the shape of an unknown witness of his theft, and wits as sharp as his. He must rid himself of the first by murder; he must extricate himself from the latter by blackmail, by fraud and intrigue and still another murder. But the net closes in about him till a bullet from his own weapon is his only means of escape. Side by side with this tale of horror goes a perfectly good romance between a good young man and a virtuous young woman.
“A very ingenious and well told mystery story.”
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Booklist 16:204 Mr ’20
“In the invention and use of the complications, little and big, with which the author weaves and embroiders his plot, advances and delays its movement, and intrigues the reader’s attention, Mr Fletcher works with ingenuity, resource and skill. And he writes with a freshness of touch and an individual quality of style not always possessed by writers of detective fiction.”
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N Y Times 25:38 Ja 25 ’20 600w
“The story is written with the easy facility of a practised hand, and, if we once accept without demur certain conventional improbabilities, it shows plenty of movement.”
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Sat R 127:606 Je 21 ’19 200w
Spec 123:89 Jl 19 ’19 30w
“Mr Fletcher shows much inventive skill, and is resourceful in advancing and delaying the movement of the plot, and in handling the maze of complications which arise. He employs a fresh touch that gives a new zest to the much over-worked detective-story type of light fiction.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 14 ’20 340w
FLEURY, MAURICE, comte. Memoirs of the Empress Eugénie. 2v il *$7.50 Appleton 996
20–14392
“The publishers have had the manuscript for the last ten years, but because of the personal revelations contained in the book, Eugénie requested that it be withheld from the public until her death. It is written by Comte Fleury, who was for more than twenty years an intimate member of the empress’s entourage.” (Springf’d Republican) The memoirs end with the peace negotiations of 1870 and do not touch on the empress’s later years. There is no index.
“The memoirs contain no surprises. There is nothing in them that will compel any very considerable re-writing of the history of the second empire. Probably the most distinctive feature is the portrait they draw of the empress. It is, I think, much too favorable, inaccurate because incomplete. But it is done with sincerity, modesty, and good taste. It is a revelation of the empress as she would like to be seen.” F. M. Anderson
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Am Hist R 26:360 Ja ’21 320w
“A misleading title, for there is proportionately little from the pen of the empress herself and her personality is often lost in the flood of details of diplomacy and court life, but the author has been able to add some fresh information to the history of the second empire.”
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Booklist 17:153 Ja ’21
“He who hopes to find romance in the two volumes of the ‘Memoirs of the Empress Eugénie’ will be disappointed. What are we to say of a writer who omits both the drama of her rise and the pathos of her closing years, who robs the history of all its picturesque character and concentrates his attention upon her official routine? What are we to say of him? We are to say, of course, that he is an ‘official’ biographer and that, as such, is so anxious to present nothing which will detract from an impression of perfect propriety and dull royal respectability, that he has deprived her of all character.” J. W. Krutch
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Bookm 52:78 S ’20 600w
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Boston Transcript p8 O 2 ’20 1050w
Dial 70:107 Ja ’21 190w
“The most valuable and important things are the reports of intimate conversations and sayings of the Emperor and Empress and others, which picture forth their characters and, without description or character analysis, place them in a different light than they have been placed by other memoir writers and historians.”
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N Y Times 25:1 Jl 25 ’20 4650w
“Being a great admirer of Napoleon and Eugénie, Comte Fleury naturally gives a picture which is highly favorable to them. But he has also attempted to take into consideration the work which has been done by historical scholars on this period. The point at which the reader must be on his guard is in accepting without question Napoleon’s views as given in the conversations which the author quotes.” S. B. Fay
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Review 3:421 N 3 ’20 400w
R of Rs 62:446 O ’20 200w
Springf’d Republican p8 Jl 24 ’20 180w
“Memoirs are often disappointments, either containing nothing worth saying, or running to the Margot Asquith type. These memoirs have something to say, and it was not, in the saying, found necessary to surround them with bits of scandal or incidents better left untold.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 Ja 27 ’21 620w
“Comte Fleury had access to large quantities of letters and papers. They are thrown into the book pell-mell, with only the loosest arrangement; the source, and therefore the value, of many of them is left uncertain; it is not always easy to see in a particular place whose narrative is being read. None the less they make an interesting assortment, though nothing is brought to light in them to modify the judgment which reasonable people have for some time been accustomed to pass on the empire.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p643 O 7 ’20 1950w
FLEXNER, HORTENSE. Clouds and cobblestones. *$1.50 Houghton 811
20–19673
As the title indicates this collection of poems includes in its subjects everything contained in life between the clouds and the cobblestones: wide sympathies and interests and knowledge of men and their ways. The author employs both rhyme and meter and free verse. Among the titles are: If God had known; Children’s ward; Hunger; Masks; Longing; A sky-scraper; To a grasshopper; All souls’ night, 1917; Mammon redeemed; The sons of Icarus; Folk-dance class; Munitions; To Peter Pan; Blown leaves; A child; The masseuse.
“There is not a single poem in this collection that is not purely creative by reason of its presentation of a fresh, vivid idea, emotionalized and expressed poetically.” W: S. Braithwaite
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Boston Transcript p5 N 13 ’20 1200w
“Quite possibly there is nothing in these pages that will long endure, but the verses touch human values with sincerity and poetic feeling.” L. B.
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Freeman 2:430 Ja 12 ’21 180w
“She writes with a great deal of technical proficiency; her verse is simple, direct, and readable. This is at the same time its greatest virtue and its greatest defect, for having been apprehended easily, the lines fade from the memory, leaving no trace.”
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N Y Evening Post p13 O 30 ’20 80w
FLINT, LEON NELSON. Editorial: a study in effectiveness of writing. *$2.50 Appleton 070
20–20034
The author holds that, for all the truth that there may be in the saying: “the good editor is born not made,” the editor who has not thought out and applied a technique of his craft is “going it blind.” The book deals with methods of finding, gathering and handling editorial materials and with notions as to editorial responsibilities and opportunities. Contents: Development of the editorial column; Weakness and strength of the editorial; The editor and his readers; Materials for editorials; Editorial purposes; Building the editorial; The manner of saying it; Paragraphs and paragraphers; Typographical appearance; The editorial page; Editorial responsibility; The editor’s routine and reading; Analyzing editorials. The numerous illustrations consist of copies of specimen editorial pages and there is an index.
FLYNN, JOHN STEPHEN.[2] Influence of Puritanism on the political and religious thought of the English. *$4 Dutton 285.9
20–22021
“A broad survey of the results of the English Puritan movement in both hemispheres. The author has sought to distinguish the permanent from the merely transitory elements of Puritanism, and to relate it to the present age.”—R of Rs
“His reading, wide as it is, is in excess of his powers to use it profitably. He sets out with vague ideas on the varied content of Puritanism, with the natural result that he leaves us in a state of vagueness.”
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Ath p107 Jl 26 ’20 440w
R of Rs 63:111 Ja ’21 40w
“We are given an amiable piece of dilettantism, praiseworthy in object, careless in execution, and distinguished neither by clearness of intention nor by profundity of thought. We fail to see anything fresh in Mr Flynn’s book, and the ignorance which it would dispel is ignorance of the fundamental kind which a knowledge of English history would make impossible.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p361 Je 10 ’20 880w
FOCH, FERDINAND. Precepts and judgments. *$4 Holt 355
(Eng ed 20–6758)
This book, translated from the French by Hilaire Belloc, contains a sketch of the military career of Marshal Foch by Major A. Grasset. The Precepts give the marshal’s military teachings in condensed form and the Judgments contain short opinions on the European wars of the last century.
“A volume of great interest to the student of war.”
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Ath p61 Ja 9 ’20 50w
Reviewed by J: P. Wisser
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N Y Evening Post p8 O 23 ’20 800w
“The little book will, we think, make its readers anxious to read the originals from which it is compiled.”
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Spec 123:777 D 6 ’19 140w
FOCH, FERDINAND. Principles of war. *$7.50 Holt 355
These pages were written for young officers, says the author in his preface. “The reader must not look to find in them a complete, a methodical, still less an academic account of the art of war, but rather a mere discussion of certain fundamental points in the conduct of troops, and above all the direction which the mind must be given so that it may in every circumstance conceive a manœuvre at least rational.” (Preface) The translation is by Hilaire Belloc and the contents are: On the teaching of war; Primal characteristics of modern war; Economy of forces; Intellectual discipline—freedom of action as a function of obedience; The service of security; The advance guard; The advance guard at Nachod; Strategical surprise; Strategical security; The battle: decisive attack; Battle: an historical instance; Modern battle. There are twenty-three maps and diagrams.
“The entire work is convincing in its reasoning and its deductions, the language is clear (the translation is remarkably true to the original and expressed in excellent English), and the maps are adequate.” J: P. Wisser
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N Y Evening Post p8 O 23 ’20 800w
FOERSTER, ROBERT FRANZ. Italian emigration of our times. (Harvard economic studies) *$2.50 Harvard univ. press 325
20–103
“A most thorough survey of the greatest migratory movement of our time. The causes of emigration are analyzed by a consideration of conditions in Italy, and the emigrants are followed into the countries of their settlement in Europe, Africa, South America and the United States, the last of which is treated in detail. Their fortunes, economic and cultural contributions in their new homes are weighed carefully.—Booklist
“It may be said that Dr Foerster’s work is the most authoritative as it is the most comprehensive volume dealing with the subject of Italian immigration yet published in the United States, and is indispensable to all who care to know intimately its characteristic features and main purport.” W. E. Davenport
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Am Hist R 25:547 Ap ’20 500w
“The study is in all ways a very acceptable one, and may well serve as a model for similar studies of other nationalistic groups.” A. E. Jenks
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Am J Soc 25:783 My ’20 950w
“Especially valuable are the four chapters (97 pages) dealing with the Italian immigrants in the Argentine and Brazil. But the especial importance of Professor Foerster’s work is the careful analysis of the causes of emigration, of the effect of this movement on the Italian nation, and of its probable future.” Edith Abbott
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Am Pol Sci R 14:523 Ag ’20 700w
“Very readable.”
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Booklist 16:153 F ’20
“The main text holds its interest for the general reader from beginning to end, while the footnotes and bibliographical citations will rejoice the heart of scholars who may wish to follow the argument to the very source.” J. E. Le Rossignol
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Review 3:150 Ag 18 ’20 1550w
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R of Rs 61:335 Mr ’20 100w
“It is a scholarly and timely book. It is a prophetic book, for it tells us our faults, fully, faithfully and fearlessly, and points to a better way. It is a scientific book, for it promotes a better understanding and, consequently, a better feeling. It is a lonely book, for no one has ever before done for the Italian or any other foreign language group what this book does.” F. O. Beck
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Survey 44:312 My 29 ’20 450w
FOLKS, HOMER. Human costs of the war. il *$2.25 (2c) Harper 940.318
20–9641
While in charge of the American Red cross relief work in France, the author was impressed with the infinitesimal fraction of reality which found its way into print in the American papers. Towards the end of the war he was requested to make a survey of the needs of southern and southeastern Europe and to ascertain the net results of the war on human welfare. The book records his findings. It is not a constructive program he says, “simply a contribution toward a diagnosis which might make it possible to outline a well-considered course of treatment.” “Chapter I tells the origin of the survey ... and gives an account of the itinerary of the trips. Chapters II to VII, inclusive, deal respectively with Serbia, Belgium, France, Italy, and Greece. Chapters VIII to X endeavor to sum up the war’s results in all these countries, in the three vital aspects of childhood, home, and health. Chapter XI tries to fit the whole into a picture of war vs. welfare.” (Preface) There are an appendix and numerous illustrations.
“Although mostly estimates, the data are perhaps as accurate as any we shall ever get. The survey is somewhat defective, however, because confined chiefly to the five lands named, and would have been more valuable had all the belligerent countries been included.” N. L. Sims
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Am J Soc 26:370 N ’20 150w
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Booklist 17:11 O ’20
“It scarcely seems too much to say that this is the most human book that has been written on the effects of the war upon the populations of the countries that suffered most from the great conflict.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 7 ’20 420w
“His volume is one of the highest import. No more terrible exhibit of the nature of war has been written, not even by Philip Gibbs, Barbusse, Latzko, or Duhamel. The sacrifice of human values is portrayed in a plain, straightforward style, without any effort at a dramatic effect or an emotional appeal not inherent in the facts themselves.” D: S. Jordan
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Nation 111:sup410 O 13 ’20 1200w
“Mr Folks speaks in a calm, temperate, judicial tone, piling up his facts, statistics, descriptions with cool judgment and restrained temper.”
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N Y Times 25:12 Jl 25 ’20 2000w
“Mr Folks knows how to humanize statistics and make them yield up their hidden story of misery or hope.”
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Outlook 125:431 Je 30 ’20 70w
“Dr Folks is well fitted for the task he has undertaken.”
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Review 3:153 Ag 18 ’20 500w
R of Rs 62:112 Jl ’20 100w
“Like Gibbs’ ‘Now it can be told’ and Keynes’s ‘Economic consequences of the peace,’ this is a book to be owned and read—and like them it is readable. Mr Folks’ subject is as important as theirs, and his competence is unquestionable. This is not to say that it is the last word on the subject. Quite the contrary. One might wish, for instance, that there were more frequent indications that the Allies have not had all of the human costs to bear. Another obvious defect is the omission of maps.” E. T. D.
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Survey 44:449 Je 26 ’20 800w
FOOTNER, HULBERT. Fur bringers. $1.90 McCann
20–8241
“A tale of the Northwest. The trading posts, Indians, half-breeds, adventurers and beautiful heroines of the ordinary story are here anew in a plot in which the young trader afflicted with ‘June fever’ is obliged to take an open stand against the heroine’s father, known to all but the daughter as a slave-driver and profiteer.”—Booklist
“Very well written.”
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Booklist 17:31 O ’20
“The story has plenty of incident, it moves quickly, and is told with a good deal of spirit.”
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N Y Times p25 Ag 1 ’20 450w
Outlook 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 30w
FORBES, GEORGE. Adventures in southern seas: a tale of the sixteenth century. il *$1.75 (2c) Dodd
20–16854
A romance of the days of discovery based on the voyages of Dirk Hartog, Dutch navigator. The story is told by Peter Ecoores Van Bu who sailed on his first voyage with Hartog in 1616. They were bound for the South seas in search of treasure for the Amsterdam merchants who were sending them out. But the islands they reach are poor in treasure, if rich in adventure, and it is only after the lucky discovery of pearls that Hartog is willing to return. Several other voyages follow, on which the hero experiences ship wreck, capture by savages and numerous other adventures. At the end of his second voyage he marries his Dutch sweetheart and gives up the sea, but following her death he again listens to its call.
“The very spirit of high adventure—the manifold dangers and hardships of ancient seekers after treasure—blows through the pages of the book.”
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N Y Times p21 D 26 ’20 600w
FORBES, JAMES. Famous Mrs Fair, and other plays. *$2 Doran 812
20–21209
The other two plays in this collection are: The chorus lady; and The show shop. Of these plays, Walter Prichard Eaton, in his introduction to the book, comparing their literary qualities, says, that “The chorus lady” can least endure the scrutiny print affords although enormously successful on the stage, while “The show shop” “stands up four square under the test of print” and is a most pungent and amusing satire of American stage life. “The famous Mrs Fair” is a more serious production with reasoned reflections on life and human motives. Its heroine, the wife of a wealthy business man, has become famous as a war worker in France. Coming home she is lionized, can no longer adjust herself to her domesticity and dreams of a career. Not until the family is nearly disrupted with tragic results does she, in the nick of time, wake up to her former responsibilities.
“What first strikes the attentive reader of Mr Forbes’s handsome volume is the poverty of observation. Two of the three plays deal with the little theatrical world in which he has been busy for twenty years. Yet he has not seen that world directly at all. The superficial bits of verisimilitude are pure veneer. Nature is hard to reach even for those who see her. To Mr Forbes her face, like that of the idol of Sais, is veiled.” Ludwig Lewisohn
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Nation 111:787 D 29 ’20 620w
FORBUSH, WILLIAM BYRON. Character-training of children. 2v il per ser of 7v *$15 Funk 173
19–13817
These books by Dr Forbush, author of “Child study and child training” and “The boy problem in the home,” are issued in the Literary Digest parents’ league series. Volume one is devoted to: Problems of government, with the subject matter divided as follows: Problems to be solved by means of the child’s own responsiveness; Problems to be solved largely through suggestion; Problems to be solved largely by substitution; Problems to be solved largely through cooperation. Volume 2 continues the discussion along these lines and takes up Problems of self-government and Problems of living with others. The series as a whole comprises three other volumes by Dr Forbush and two by Dr Louis Fisher on the health-care of children which are reprints of earlier works.
“These volumes, written in the clearest language of technical terms, well illustrated and interestingly arranged, should be a helpful and invaluable guide for those who have children to bring up or children’s problems to consider.”
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N Y Times 25:17 Jl 18 ’20 280w (Review of series)
FORBUSH, WILLIAM BYRON. Home-education of children. (Literary Digest parents’ league ser.) 2v il per ser of 7v *$15 Funk 372
19–14028
The first of these two volumes is devoted to the first six years of a child’s life and consists of two parts: Teaching a baby, and Teaching a little child. Volume 2 is devoted to: Teaching a school child (from six to twelve or fourteen); and The teaching of youth (from fourteen upward). Volume 1 has a list of story-and-picture books to use with the littlest children, also a list of books to help the mother in telling stories, and in volume 2 there is a chapter on Books in the home, with suggestions for reading.
FORBUSH, WILLIAM BYRON. Sex-education of children. (Literary Digest parents’ league ser.) il per ser of 7v *$15 Funk 612.6
19–13816
“This book differs from others in the abundant literature that is being produced upon this topic, chiefly in the fact that it endeavors to present, with the least possible waste of space, all the material that parents of a growing family of children of both sexes need for their use at every stage of other children’s development. The unique feature, perhaps, is a section devoted to concrete answers to the embarrassing questions that children are likely to ask.” (Introd.) Contents: Why we have to do this; How to educate the little child; How to educate the schoolboy; How to educate the schoolgirl; How to educate the coming man; How to educate our coming women; List of books for further reading; Index.
FORD, HENRY JONES. Alexander Hamilton. (Figures from American history) *$2 Scribner
20–7498
“This book is a biography which aims to present the life of Hamilton as completely as possible from the evidence obtainable. It gives most attention to his political ideals and career and it also describes his character and personal life.”—Booklist
“One lays down the book with a clear grasp of Hamilton’s important contributions to American nationality, and a fair idea of the manner of man he was. Uniform fairness, fascinating style and illumination of American political history are the outstanding characteristics of the book.” M. L. Bonham, jr.
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Am Pol Sci R 14:718 N ’20 360w
Booklist 16:310 Je ’20
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Cleveland p77 Ag ’20 30w
“A straightforward, unbiased recital. The book is unwarmed by any glow of imagination, however.” L. B.
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Freeman 2:142 O 20 ’20 230w
“The volume is noteworthy for the temperate and just manner in which it is written. The author did not approach his task in that spirit of undue enthusiasm which much study of his subject too frequently inspires in the writer of biography.”
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N Y Times 25:9 Jl 4 ’20 400w
Reviewed by J: C. Rose
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Review 2:678 Je 30 ’20 1100w
FORD, LILLIAN CUMMINGS, and FORD, THOMAS FRANCIS. Foreign trade of the United States; its character, organization and methods; with an introd. by W. L. Saunders. *$2.50 Scribner 382
20–11960
“The ground work of the discussion is laid in a chapter on the ‘Nature, purpose and growth of international trade.’ This is followed by treatment of the subjects of the development of American foreign commerce; our war trade; our exports and imports; our methods; our exportation and importation of war materials and foodstuffs; the transportation problems and methods; insurance; credit; foreign exchange; balance of trade; our government aid to foreign trade. A final chapter concerns the foreign trade of other nations.”—Boston Transcript
Booklist 17:52 N ’20
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Ind 104:248 N 13 ’20 60w
FORKEL, JOHANN NIKOLAUS. Johann Sebastian Bach; his life, art, and work. il *$4.50 Harcourt
20–23005
Although Forkel was not the first to assemble the known facts of Bach’s career he was the first in appreciation of the preeminence of his genius. His monograph is not a “life” in the biographic sense but a “critical appreciation of Bach as player, teacher, and composer, based upon the organ and clavier works, with which alone Forkel was familiar.” (Introd.) The present volume is a revision of the first English version published in 1820 and is edited with copious annotations by Charles Sanford Terry. The appendices occupy nearly half of the volume and contain: Chronological catalogue of Bach’s compositions; The church cantatas arranged chronologically; The Bachgesellschaft editions of Bach’s works; Bibliography of Bach literature; A collation of the Novello and Peters editions of the organ works; Genealogy of the family of Bach; Index.
“Forkel’s text takes up only about a quarter of Dr Terry’s book; the rest is an extremely valuable collection of learned information. It is a pity that Dr Terry’s mental attitude appears to be—shall I say?—that of a creeper on a ruin. We badly need in English a book on Bach somewhat after the lines of the French monographs on composers.” E: J. Dent
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Ath p384 S 17 ’20 1500w
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Boston Transcript p5 N 27 ’20 420w
“Dr Sanford Terry, whose services to church music are too well known to need commendation, has made a valuable addition to the Bach literature by his new translation of Forkel’s biography, hitherto only available in the imperfect version published in 1820. He has added an excellent supplementary chapter on Bach at Leipzig. The portraits and illustrations are well chosen and reproduced.”
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Spec 125:819 D 18 ’20 320w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p585 S 9 ’20 100w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p610 S 23 ’20 1100w
FORMAN, HENRY JAMES. Fire of youth. il *$1.75 (1½c) Little
20–3795
This is the story of the country boy who comes to the city, goes wrong, but eventually finds the right path again. Anthony West is the son of a Nebraska editor, a man whose humble country paper, the Beacon, is known from one end of the land to the other. Anthony goes to Harvard, and following the death, first of father, and then mother, enters New York Journalism. But quicker means of making money appeal to him and he goes into a broker’s office, falls into the toils of an adventuress, is disillusioned and tastes the dregs of life. Then the girl from home comes to New York and hope picks up again. The war breaks out and when his service in the army is finished he is ready to go back to Little Rapids to the position Jim Howard has kept waiting for him on the Beacon.
“The crudeness of the story lies in the fact that Anthony does not as the publishers assert, ‘win through to a fine manhood.’ He wins through to nothing at all. His whole moral life is negative. He repudiates the fire of youth and through satiety and disgust regains his will to obedience under the social law. But his mind and character are what they were.”
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Nation 110:402 Mr 27 ’20 200w
“The plot is firm and logical, even if not strikingly original, but the merit of the book is in the rapidity and variety of its action—the scenes in London being as well done as those in New York—and in the sharply drawn characterization.”
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N Y Times 25:148 Mr 28 ’20 360w
“In spite of occasional jarring crudities, the book is worth while. The author seems to understand his characters.” D. Carr
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Pub W 97:178 Ja 17 ’20 260w
“The best character drawing is lavished on the minor roles.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a Ag 15 ’20 260w
FORMAN, SAMUEL EAGLE.[2] American democracy. il $1.75 Century 353
20–13840
“A text in government for high schools, academies and normal schools has been prepared by S. E. Forman. It is a text-book in general civics, covering the principles and theory of government, the machinery of government and its accomplishments. The author, who is well versed in civics and American history, has based this text on a former one, ‘Advanced civics,’ published in 1905, but has made this more comprehensive. New phases of democracy have been included, such as Americanization, and urban and rural problems. Questions on each chapter, and a short selective bibliography and an index make it more useful to the teacher.”—N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes
“We know of no work that presents the subject so clearly and comprehensively as does this book.” F. W. C.
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Boston Transcript p4 S 4 ’20 820w
N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes 7:54 N 17 ’20 160w
School R 28:715 N ’20 520w
FORRESTER, IZOLA LOUISE (MRS REUBEN ROBERT MERRIFIELD). Dangerous Inheritance; or, The mystery of the Tittani rubies. *$2 (3c) Houghton
20–18931
Carlota has inherited from her Italian grandmother great beauty, a marvelous voice and a fortune in jewels. But her New York teacher, after giving her all the technique he can, admits that her voice lacks the emotional quality that moves and stirs the hearer. Her soul still slumbers. Ward, her wealthy patron, tries to awaken it, but only succeeds in arousing her animosity. Then she meets Griffeth Ames, and her teacher at once catches the new note of power in her voice. Griffeth persuades her to sing in a society presentation of his opera, and to grace the occasion she wears her grandmother’s rubies. Instantly the international spies who have been on the lookout for the jewels are “on the job.” They try to rob her, but the various agents doublecross one another, and Carlota’s inheritance is finally returned to her. But the jewels have lost all charm for her, and she gladly turns over their value to the starving children of the old world, feeling herself rich enough in Griffeth’s love.
“The story has a slow, graceful, feminine movement that carries one eagerly to ‘the end.’ More life might have been bestowed upon the characters by having kept them in action while off-scene.”
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N Y Evening Post p10 O 30 ’20 150w
“There is an exuberance, a delight in the contrasts and the juxtapositions of life, a quick reaction to beauty wherever glimpsed that make the reading of this book a pleasant thing even though it is crude and obvious in many spots.”
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N Y Times p25 D 19 ’20 320w
FORSEY, MAUDE S. Jack and me. il *$1.50 (5c) Lippincott
A story for children about a little boy and girl who live in London and spend their summer holidays in Dorset. It tells in a simple way of home and school, of Christmas celebrations, of an older sister’s wedding, etc., and reads like a book of reminiscences of a real childhood.
FORSTER, EDWARD MORGAN. Where angels fear to tread. *$2 (3½c) Knopf
20–3675
An English widow outrages her late husband’s family by falling in love with and marrying an Italian peasant. They cut her off entirely and assume the care of her young daughter. The marriage turns out as unfortunately as might be expected. Lilia dies in giving birth to a son and the English Herritons make up their minds to get possession of this child also. Philip, the romantic brother-in-law who had once idealized everything Italian, and Harriet, the harsh, Puritanical sister-in-law go to Italy for that purpose. Miss Abbott, the English girl who had had a hand in the marriage, is there also. Their efforts end tragically. Philip falls in love with Miss Abbott, but learns that she, like Lilia, had been captivated by the handsome and indolent Gino.
“An odd and delightful piece of work.”
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Booklist 17:32 O ’20
“Gino is irresistible as the embodiment of the Italian character and tradition, just as Philip the defeated is irrefutable as a Britton.” H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 51:342 My ’20 260w
“If but one word were allowed to be said of this book and its people, it is ‘human.’”
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Bookm 52:175 O ’20 120w
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Dial 68:665 My ’20 60w
“The author knows his provincial Italy and the Italian character as well. The reader’s attention will be held to the end of this charming book.”
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N Y Times 25:168 Ap 11 ’20 750w
“Here is the best of material for a comedy. And it is as comedy that Mr Forster presents his material up to a certain point. Some may think that he would have done better had he decided to preserve that vein to the end.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 21 ’20 650w
FORT, CHARLES. Book of the damned. *$1.90 (1½c) Boni & Liveright 504
20–1375
The author explains: “By the damned, I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that science has excluded.... I have gone into the outer darkness of scientific and philosophical transactions and proceedings, ultra-respectable, but covered with the dust of disregard. I have descended into journalism. I have come back with the quasi-souls of lost data.” He has brought together a curious assemblage of physical phenomena for which science has never found any explanation. That other planets are trying to communicate with us is one of the hypotheses suggested.
“To read of them is to be inspired with an interest which has no need of the book’s sensational title; nor is it increased by the author’s quasi-scientific speculations which he presents in a staccato style that soon produces the wearying effect of a series of explosions.”
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Cath World 111:410 Je ’20 140w
“‘The book of the damned’ reminds one of Harnack’s characterization of the gnostic work ‘Pistis Sophia’ as ‘dedicated to the propaganda of systematic idiocy.’” Preserved Smith
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Nation 110:sup483 Ap 10 ’20 180w
Reviewed by Eugene Wood
N Y Call p10 My 2 ’20 1250w
“Whether he reaches any conclusion or what that conclusion is if he does reach it, is so obscured in the mass of words—a quagmire of pseudo-science and queer speculation—that the average reader will find himself either buried alive or insane before he reaches the end.”
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N Y Times 25:81 F 8 ’20 440w
Review 2:184 F 21 ’20
FORTESCUE, SIR SEYMOUR JOHN. Looking back. il *$7.50 (*21s) Longmans
20–9644
“It must fall to the lot of few naval men to have a career so varied in incident and so full of contrast as has been that of Sir Seymour Fortescue. During his twenty-one years of duty afloat, he not only served on the Mediterranean and China stations, and took part in the Egyptian war of 1882 and the Sudan campaign of 1885, but had his first experience of attendance on royalty in the Surprise and the Victoria and Albert. During the succeeding seventeen years, he was on the staff of King Edward VII, as equerry, and took his regular turn in waiting, but even then he managed to put in some sea time during the manœuvres of 1895 as commander of the Theseus, to spend six months as A.D.C. to Lord Roberts on the Headquarters staff in South Africa, and to pay a visit to the nitrate fields in Chile in 1907. Dovetailed between these diversified engagements, yacht sailing and horseracing, shooting and fishing, the opera and the theatre, with other forms of sport and pastime, made interludes, so that as a spectator of events from many viewpoints the present Serjeant-at-arms in the House of lords had exceptional opportunities, and it is not surprising that he should publish reminiscences so kaleidoscopic in colour and change.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“Sir Seymour Fortescue writes so well that one wishes he could have steered a more venturesome course. A little more latitude, and a good deal less longitude, would have made a more entertaining volume.”
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Sat R 129:563 Je 19 ’20 1550w
“A fine crop of picturesque stories told with great spirit, good humour and frankness.”
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Spec 125:150 Jl 31 ’19 640w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p298 My 13 ’20 1000w
47 WORKSHOP. Plays of the 47 workshop; second ser. (Harvard plays) il *$1.25 Brentano’s 812.08
29–11241
“Prof. Baker’s course in playwriting at Harvard has published two volumes of one-act plays written by students and performed at the university during the year. Of the four plays of this series, ‘Torches,’ by Kenneth Raisbeck, is a colorful tragedy of the Italian renaissance with a special musical prelude by R. T. Serp; ‘Cooks and cardinals,’ by Norman C. Lindau is a distinctly workable comedy for amateur production; ‘A flitch of bacon’ by Eleanor Holmes Hinkley is a farce comedy with an Elizabethan setting; and ‘The playroom,’ by Doris F. Halman is a modern fantasy wistful in its appeal and containing an echo of the late war.”—Springf’d Republican
“The book is one not to be overlooked by any organization searching for one-act plays which are simple enough to present under amateur conditions, and yet worth spending the time upon.” W. P. Eaton
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N Y Call p10 Ag 1 ’20 520w
“‘Forty-seven workshop plays,’ though containing nothing of great power, shows considerable technical skill in handling widely differing types of dramatic work.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 Ag 20 ’20 170w
“All are neatly and expertly constructed, show a sense for legitimate stage effects, and, while perhaps not masterpieces, are of a literary quality decidedly above that of most contemporary one-act plays in English.”
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Theatre Arts Magazine 4:349 O ’20 140w
FOSDICK, RAYMOND BLAINE. American police systems. (Publications of the Bureau of social hygiene) *$2 Century 352.2
20–20105
This volume has been written at the instigation of the Bureau of social hygiene and is a companion to the author’s “European police systems.” It is based upon personal study of the police in practically every city of the United States, with a population exceeding 100,000, and the comparisons between European and American conditions occurring in the book are made from the latest information available. As a last word the author says: “We have, indeed, little to be proud of. It cannot be denied that our achievement in respect to policing is sordid and unworthy. Contrasted with other countries in this regard we stand ashamed. With all allowances for the peculiar conditions which make our task so difficult, we have made a poor job of it.” The book is indexed and contains insert charts of the organization of the police departments of Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, St Louis and Washington. Contents: The American problem; The development of American police control; The present state of police control; Special problems of police control; The organization of the department; The commissioner or director; The chief of police; The rank and file; The detective force; The prevention of crime; Conclusion.
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Booklist 17:141 Ja ’21
“Notwithstanding the surprise with which his closing statements will he received, no doubt their truth will be recognized and those of us who have so loudly acclaimed our entire system of government as the best in the world may possibly find it to their advantage to read a few statements, which although bitter, are doubtless true.”
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Boston Transcript p1 D 4 ’20 320w
“Mr Fosdick has done a great public service in the making of this volume. A book of primary importance to the student of government.”
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N Y Evening Post p11 N 27 ’20 330w
“The whole book is a constructive criticism which will appeal to all citizens and city officials interested in the improvement of municipal government.”
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N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes 7:54 N 17 ’20 570w
N Y Times p18 N 28 ’20 1750w
Reviewed by Calvin Coolidge
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Outlook 127:187 F 2 ’21 2100w
“The author has done well to emphasize the almost insuperable difficulties confronting our police. The book should be read not only by police administrators but by the general public upon whose intelligent understanding of the problems set forth depends their solution.” E. D. Graper
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Survey 45:517 Ja 1 ’21 680w
FOSTER, JOHN. Searchers. *$1.90 (2½c) Doran
20–26880
Two halves of a secret join Italy and Scotland in a determined search for a casket of jewels lost three hundred and fifty years ago. The quest is made by the Searchers, an ancient organization, consisting at the time of the story of desperados, with one exception, Italian. The hiding place of the jewels is recorded in a document which for greater safety has been torn in two and one-half placed in the keeping of a Scottish family, the other with Roman Jesuits. In the story the two halves are gravitating towards each other throughout a series of thrilling and dangerous adventures, plots and counterplots till the grave of the priest, with whom the casket was buried, is discovered on a high and wild summit of the Scottish crags and the canny Scotchman carries off the day and the jewels as against the Italian plotters.
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Booklist 17:70 N ’20
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Boston Transcript p1 D 4 ’20 150w
N Y Times 25:27 Jl 25 ’20 530w
“Exciting and cleverly constructed.”
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Outlook 125:467 Jl 7 ’20 50w
“The story stimulates a feverish interest throughout its course.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 1 ’20 250w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p633 N 6 ’19 50w
FOSTER, MAXIMILIAN. Trap. *$2 (3c) Appleton
20–14214
Henry Lester was very wealthy, in fact uncomfortably so, for when he fell in love, he couldn’t be sure that Sally Raeburn, the object of his affections, wouldn’t marry him for his money rather than for love of him. So he didn’t ask her to marry him at all, but instead laid a neat little trap for her. At his country estate on the Hudson he assembled a house party, and among those present were Mrs Dewitt, a former sweetheart of his, and Mr Hastings, a young man of reputed wealth, and of course Sallie. How the trap, when it was sprung, caught not only Sallie, but Henry himself, is told in the story.
“A very good story it is.”
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Boston Transcript p8 N 6 ’20 230w
“The heavily padded story moves slowly, and its improbabilities are not made to seem plausible by clever development.”
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N Y Times p25 D 19 ’20 350w
FOSTER, WILLIAM ZEBULON. Great steel strike and its lessons. il *$1.75 Huebsch 331.89
20–26587
John A. Fitch in his introduction to the book speaks of the overwhelming power of the steel trust and says: “The story of the most extensive and most courageous fight yet made to break this power and to set free the half million men of the steel mills is told within the pages of this book by one who was himself a leader in the fight. It is a story that is worth the telling, for it has been told before only in fragmentary bits and without the authority that comes from the pen of one of the chief actors in the struggle.” Contents: The present situation; A generation of defeat; The giant labor awakes; Flank attacks; Breaking into Pittsburgh; Storm clouds gather; The storm breaks; Garyism rampant; Efforts at settlement; The course of the strike; National and racial elements; The commissariat—the strike cost; Past mistakes and future problems; In conclusion.
“This book, in spite of its lurid rhetoric, extreme statements, and partisan viewpoint, throws a good deal of light on labor conditions in the steel industry.” G: M. Janes
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Am Econ R 10:840 D ’20 140w
“Too frankly partisan to be history, and with too few facts to give it the weight of a scientific survey, this authentic picture of the labor machine in operation has the force of valuable evidence from the inside.”
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Booklist 17:12 O ’20
“It is seldom that the public is afforded such a frank statement from official sources so soon after the event and in this case it is especially useful since most of the news furnished during the course of the strike came from the representatives of the employers.” G. P. W.
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Grinnell R 16:309 D ’20 350w
“His book is worth a dozen abstract discussions of the labor movement, for it is an example, one of the best examples that has ever arisen, of labor doing its own thinking, making its own detailed and disinterested analysis. For its clarity, cogency, and significance, it is better worth reading than nine-tenths of the volumes written about public affairs.” G: Soule
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Nation 111:273 S 4 ’20 2000w
“Mr Foster’s book is an exceedingly valuable contribution to our scant body of authentic documents on the labor movement.” R. W. B.
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New Repub 23:284 Ag 4 ’20 1550w
R of Rs 62:334 S ’20 80w
Springf’d Republican p9a Ag 29 ’20 800w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p571 S 2 ’20 70w
“Mr Foster draws a vivid picture of events, all of which he saw and a large part of which he was. His judgment is cool and dispassionate; he sees the faults in the labor movement, but he imparts to his readers a tremendous admiration for the men who could conduct so long a campaign against such terrific obstacles.”
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World Tomorrow 3:349 N ’20 560w
FOWLER, WILLIAM WARDE. Roman essays and interpretations. *$5.65 Oxford 937
(Eng ed 20–11698)
“The contents fall into four parts: Roman religion; Roman history; parallels from the life of other races; and finally a group of literary studies devoted to Virgil and Horace, appreciations of Niebuhr and Mommsen, and a discussion of the tragic element in Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar.’ About half the material is reprinted from articles which had appeared in periodicals, chiefly the Classical Review and the Journal of Roman Studies; these, however, bear everywhere the traces of careful revision and are to be taken as embodying Dr Warde Fowler’s reconsidered judgments of today.”—Class J
“In these pages we are conscious not only of having laid before us the fruits of the highest quality of scholarship but of enjoying the guidance and companionship of a rare personality.” A. W. Van Buren
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Class J 15:444 Ap ’20 1850w
“There are a number of interesting suggestions scattered through the shorter papers, not all, of course, equally convincing.” H. S. J.
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Eng Hist R 35:614 O ’20 290w
“When Dr Warde Fowler speaks of Roman religion the rest of us have nothing to do but to listen and learn.”
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Spec 124:867 Je 26 ’20 2000w
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Springf’d Republican p8 My 15 ’20 250w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup p233 Ap 15 ’20)
“A volume without a dull page in it, and ranging over a very wide and varied field. It contains the gleanings of long studies, pursued into the ripeness of age with the ardency of youth.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p233 Ap 15 ’20 1300w
FOX, DAVID. Man who convicted himself. *$1.90 (2c) McBride
20–18253
“The Shadowers, Inc.” is a unique detective society composed of six ex-criminals who have decided to use their exceptional talents in an honest way rather than decidedly otherwise as heretofore. There is a handwriting expert, a jewel and art connoisseur, a toxicologist, “the greatest safe-cracker of the age,” and a smooth villain who has dealt in various forms of fraud, from oil stock to psychical phenomena. At the head of this band is Rex Powell, whose brain conceived the scheme. Their aim is restitution, not prosecution, and they work privately and discreetly. Their first case is one of robbery in an exclusive Riverside Drive home, but as it progresses it provides scope for the activities of each one of The Shadowers. That they are successful in apprehending the robber almost goes without saying but their greatest success lies in the fact that they actually force the man to convict himself.
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Boston Transcript p9 S 25 ’20 160w
“‘The man who convicted himself,’ despite its novelty, strikes the reader as plausible.”
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N Y Times p24 Ag 29 ’20 350w
“The story has the appeal of the popular melodrama and ‘dime novel’ without descending to crude and amateurish methods of telling.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a O 3 ’20 100w
FOX, DIXON RYAN. Decline of aristocracy in the politics of New York. (Columbia university studies in history, economics and public law) il *$4 Longmans 329
19–16519
“Under this title, Dr Fox, assistant professor of history in Columbia university, has given us an account of the decline of federalism in the state of New York and its eventual transformation into the whiggism of the forties. His narrative is a continuous panorama of party activities and beliefs and of the careers and influence of party leaders during forty years of New York’s history. It runs from the days of John Jay, Elisha Williams, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and others of those who represented the property rights and aristocratic privileges of the eighteenth century, to Thurlow Weed, the anti-renters of 1837, and the Tippecanoe clubs, log cabins, and hard cider of the Harrison and Tyler campaign. Thus, as far as it goes, it illustrates the influence of industrial development and geographical expansion upon party standards and standard bearers during a very important period of American history.”—Nation
“The book is a noteworthy contribution to all the social sciences.” A. C. Ford
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Am Econ R 10:342 Je ’20 320w
“Dr Fox employs usually a lucid and vivacious style which engages the attention. There are, however, a few lapses into discomforting awkwardness and ambiguity of expression. There are discernible in places, likewise, certain failures in nicety of historical discrimination. These minor deficiencies, however, detract little from the general high excellence of the work.” W: Trimble
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Am Hist R 25:725 Jl ’20 860w
“The work has great merits, principally those resulting from diligence in collecting materials and skill in arranging them.” H: J. Ford
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Am Pol Sci R 14:525 Ag ’20 170w
“As an analysis of the conditions under which the centre of political gravity was shifted from the old party of lawyers, bank presidents, merchants, and land-holding aristocrats to the ‘people,’ vested by the revised constitution of 1821 with the right to vote, this essay is both suggestive and informing.”
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Nation 109:827 D 27 ’19 1050w
“An interesting and illuminating history.”
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N Y Evening Post p23 O 23 ’20 180w
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N Y Times p16 O 17 ’20 1500w
FOX, EARLY LEE. American colonization society, 1817–1840. (Johns Hopkins university studies in historical and political science) $2.25 Johns Hopkins 326
20–506
“In this volume the author represents the colonization movement as essentially a moderate, conservative, border-state movement which had an appeal to men in every walk of life, from every political and religious creed, and from every section of the union. He divides the history of the American colonization society into two distinct divisions: the first, to which this volume is devoted, begins with the organization of the society in 1817 and extends to 1840; the second covers the period since 1840. This volume ends with the reorganization of the society in 1839, after which date the society, under the influence of the North and the East, was more aggressively anti-slavery in its programme and activities. In the first chapter, the author discusses at considerable length the status of the free negro and his relation to the slave and to the white population; in the second, the organization, purpose, and early history of the society; in the third, fourth, and last chapters, the relation of colonization to Garrisonian abolition, to emancipation and to the African slave-trade respectively.”—Am Hist R
“While the book contains much that is new and interesting the material is very poorly arranged and there is much repetition in the numerous quotations.” A. E. Martin
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Am Hist R 25:726 Jl ’20 650w
“While he does justice to the South, he does rather less than justice to the abolitionists. But he has made a very useful contribution to the history of the question of slavery, for one of the best ways of understanding its difficulties and complexities is to study it from the middle point of view of the ‘colonizationist.’” E. A. B.
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Eng Hist R 35:627 O ’20 390w
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Survey 43:505 Ja 31 ’20 320w
FOX, JOHN, Jr. Erskine Dale, pioneer. il *$2 Scribner
20–16857
“For the scene and period of his last romance, Mr Fox goes far back through nearly a hundred and fifty years. His hero, at the opening of the story a boy and at the close a young man, has been captured by the Indians, is brought up among them, and is as skilled in their ways of life and knowledge of woodcraft as if he had their blood in his veins. He is, however, the heir to a great Virginian estate, and the reader follows his exploits as he goes back and forth between the primitive scenes of the forests and the sophisticated life of the Virginian towns. At one moment he is with the pioneers resisting an attack from the Indians, at another in the very camps of the Indians themselves, and at a third gazing into the eyes of his beautiful cousin in the midst of the social entertainment of his prosperous relatives. More than once he faces death, but he emerges unscathed both from the attempts of the Indians to take his life and from the enmity of a jealous rival in love.”—Boston Transcript
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Booklist 17:116 D ’20
“In ‘Erskine Dale—pioneer,’ Mr Fox has portrayed with exceptional skill the spirit of those days when the national spirit of the British colonists was beginning to make itself felt. It is not merely the story of one boy’s adventures. It is a tale of the birth of the American power and influence as expressed in more than one picturesque region.” E. F. E.
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Boston Transcript p6 O 13 ’20 1100w
“It is a good book to give to the American boy, for it abounds in stirring adventures, and at the same time gives a good insight into the everyday life of the pioneers.”
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Cath World 112:552 Ja ’21 100w
“The dialog is full of ‘go’ and the book will appeal immensely to intermediates.”
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Cleveland p106 D ’20 50w
“The book has plenty of color and of movement, and gives an interesting picture of the period with which it deals.”
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N Y Times p10 O 17 ’20 760w
“Perhaps the very best of his many romances. The flow of the story is clear and strong; it has atmosphere, movement, and distinction.”
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Outlook 26:333 O 20 ’20 140w
“It is full of color and charm and thrill.” Joseph Mosher
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Pub W 98:1191 O 16 ’20 270w
“Mr Fox vividly recreates the atmosphere and social environment of the time.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a N 14 ’20 160w
FOXWELL, HERBERT SOMERTON. Papers on current finance. *$3.50 Macmillan 336.42
19–12740
“This volume brings together with little alteration seven articles and addresses spread over the period 1909–1917, but relating either to problems raised directly by the war or to questions to which the war has brought a new and urgent interest. An appendix reproduces a paper of 1888, ‘The growth of monopoly, and its bearing on the functions of the state’; also a letter dated February, 1918 advocating ‘fixed exchange within the empire.’ The first paper, ‘British war finance,’ deals critically with the crisis of 1914 and the financial emergency measures that it evoked. The next two papers are concerned with the problem of financing trade and industry, particularly after the war. ‘The financing of industry and trade’ (4) stresses the desirability of a closer touch between the financial, as distinguished from the banking institutions and British industries. ‘The banking reserve’ (5) deals with the inadequacy of the English position and proposes the establishment of a system of triple reserve. The burden of ‘Inflation: in what sense it exists: how far it can be controlled’ (7) an address delivered in 1917, is that the foreign exchanges do not prove currency depreciation, that gold depreciation was scarcely more marked in England than in the United States, that high prices resulted from the enormous expenditure of the government and could be checked only by cutting away from the gold standard.”—Am Econ R
Reviewed by C. A. Phillips
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Am Econ R 10:140 Mr ’20 550w
“It is the papers on finance and banking which show Professor Foxwell at his best, and make his volumes a valuable handbook for students.”
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Ath p781 Ag 22 ’19 1000w
“Professor Foxwell’s book suffers from the defect inherent in its form, which is that of lectures delivered at different times during the past ten years, of not co-ordinating the treatment of these problems. The contents are valuable and the author’s grasp of his subjects complete enough to make us regret that he did not recast the lectures into book form and develop his logical sequence.”
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Sat R 127:482 My 17 ’19 1350w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p242 My 8 ’19 450w
FRANCE, ANATOLE, pseud. (JACQUES-ANATOLE THIBAULT).[2] Bride of Corinth, and other poems and plays; a translation by Wilfrid Jackson and Emilie Jackson. *$2.50 Lane 842
20–19383
A volume of poems and plays. Contents: The bride of Corinth; Verses; Crainquebille; The comedy of a man who married a dumb wife; Come what may.
FRANCE, ANATOLE, pseud. (JACQUES-ANATOLE THIBAULT).[2] Little Pierre; tr. by J. Lewis May. *$2.50 (3½c) Lane
20–22476
“Little Pierre” is the story of a boy from his birth to his tenth year. It is told in the first person and the actual memories of childhood begin with his second year. He is the son of a Paris physician and is born “in the days when the reign of King Louis Philippe was drawing to a close.”
‘Mr May and his colleague have done well, uncommonly well with their work, have indeed lost very little in the transition from French to English, and kept all the charm of ‘Little Pierre.’” G. M. H.
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Boston Transcript p4 N 27 ’20 560w
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N Y Times p26 Ja 2 ’21 330w
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Outlook 126:558 N 24 ’20 50w
FRANCE, ANATOLE, pseud. (JACQUES-ANATOLE THIBAULT).[2] Seven wives of Bluebeard, and other marvellous tales; a tr. by D. B. Stewart. *$2.50 (5c) Lane
20–22333
Four fairy tales, not written for children. In the first Bluebeard is pictured as a shy, modest man, the victim of the extravagance and unfaithfulness of his seven successive wives. The other stories are: The miracle of the great St Nicholas, a satiric treatment of an old legend; The story of the Duchess of Cicogne and of Monsieur de Boulingrin, a version of The sleeping Beauty; and The shirt, the story of the king who was told to find the shirt of a happy man.
“This pleasant and apparently accurate rendering gives us one of the most delightful works of an author who loses relatively little through the process of translation, partly because of the Doric simplicity of his style and partly because of the importance which he attaches to the plot and the intellectual gist.”
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Ath p434 O 1 ’20 260w
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Sat R 130:485 D 11 ’20 60w
FRANCK, HARRY ALVERSON. Roaming through the West Indies. il *$5 (2c) Century 917.29
20–17981
The author says: “The following pages do not pretend to ‘cover’ the West Indies. They are made up of the random pickings of an eight-months’ tour of the Antilles, during which every island of importance was visited, but they are put together rather for the entertainment of the armchair traveler than for the information of the traveler in the flesh.” He also states that he wishes it distinctly understood that this is not the record of a walking trip. As a protest to those friends who ever since his vagabond journey around the world have expected him to travel always on foot he planned a trip on which walking would be difficult if not impossible. The book is in three parts: The American West Indies; The British West Indies; and The French West Indies and others. There are many illustrations and a map.
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Booklist 17:67 N ’20
“Altogether this latest volume is another witness to its author’s talent for description, his sense for the dramatic, and his eye for the picturesque, which combine to make his accumulating works a boon to the travel-thirsty reader.” L. M. R.
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Freeman 2:262 N 24 ’20 140w
“If the average American wants to know just what he would see and how he would feel in the West Indies, let him read Mr Franck’s book. On occasion Mr Franck reminds one of Herodotus, in the marked distinction between the credibility of what he reports as of his own experiences and the dubious quality of what he has got through hearsay.” A. J.
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New Repub 24:248 N 3 ’20 680w
“What all other writers aim at, Mr Franck accomplishes with consummate ease. The easy flowing style of ‘Zone policeman 88’ and ‘Vagabonding down the Andes’ is here manifested in its highest perfection.” W: McFee
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N Y Evening Post p5 N 20 ’20 1100w
“His pages are thickly sprinkled with character sketches of bizarre personalities, rarely poetic descriptive passages, and narratives as tense as their back-grounds are colorful. As in Mr Franck’s earlier books, the distinguishing characteristic of his writing is his ability to make his readers ‘see the sights’ through his eyes, which are so alert to catch any happening of human interest.”
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N Y Times p18 O 31 ’20 2300w
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Outlook 126:558 N 24 ’20 70w
“‘Roaming through the West Indies’ is easily the best ‘regular’ travel book on the islands south and east of Florida we have seen.” R. S. Lynd
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Pub W 98:1198 O 16 ’20 290w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
Review 3:345 O 20 ’20 70w
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Springf’d Republican p7a N 28 ’20 870w
FRANCK, HARRY ALVERSON. Vagabonding through changing Germany. il *$4 (4c) Harper 914.3
20–11658
The author went into Germany with the American army of occupation, and later, released from duty, he traveled throughout the country. He followed his usual custom of mixing with the people, talking with them and living their life as far as possible and his book sets down in detail his observations. Among the chapters are: On to the Rhine; Germany under the American heel; Thou shalt not ... fraternize; Knocking about the occupied area; Getting neutralized; The heart of the hungry empire; “Give us food!” Family life in Mechlenburg; On the road in Bavaria; Music still has charms. There are many illustrations from the author’s photographs.
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Booklist 17:27 O ’20
“The ‘vagabond’ tells his experiences in a rapid, brilliant manner, as if he were never for a moment tired, and had no difficulty at all in telling his story. The pictures tell the story of the Germany of today fully as well as does the author in his brilliant chat: and both together form a book well worth reading.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 31 ’20 440w