Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 24)

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Review 2:400 Ap 17 ’20 280w

R of Rs 62:448 O ’20 60w

“It is a delight to read one of Miss LaMotte’s books, and even in this which is little more than a pamphlet, one finds the unflinching courage and the keen insight which made her ‘Peking dust’ and the stories which make up ‘Civilization’ so different from the productions of most tourists in the Far East.” E. W. Hughan

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Socialist R 8:315 Ap ’20 400w

“No one who has in the last ten years studied the hydra-headed problems of narcotism could be anything but grateful to Ellen LaMotte for her book.... Does the American public realize to what extent opium is coming in over the Canadian boundary? It might for that reason alone pay that American public to open its eyes a little wider to the facts of British opium sold at public monthly sales in Calcutta as recorded in Ellen LaMotte’s ‘Opium monopoly.’” Jeannette Marks

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Springf’d Republican p11a Ap 11 ’20 2200w

“For two reasons the opium monopoly is worthy of our attention: first, the world interest, the salvation of the eastern peoples, the Chinese especially; second, the danger that the United States will take China’s place as the great market for these products. Either is enough to interest Survey readers in this small book, the author of which has the gift of making official reports and statistics tell an interesting and fascinating story.” J. P. Chamberlain

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Survey 44:252 My 15 ’20 550w

LAMPREY, LOUISE. Masters of the guild. il *$2.25 (3½c) Stokes

20–18171

Like the stories in the author’s previous book “In the days of the guild” these new tales do honor to the ideals of fine craftsmanship of the middle ages. The titles are: Peirol of the pigeons; A tournament in the clouds; The puppet players; Padraig of the scriptorium; The tapestry chamber; The fairies’ well; The wolves of Ossory; The road of the wild swan; The sword of Damascus; Fool’s gold; Archiater’s daughter; Cold Harbor; The wisdom of the galleys; Solomon’s seal; Black magic in the temple; The end of a pilgrimage. Poems alternate with the stories. There are illustrations by Florence Choate and Elizabeth Curtis, and notes on the stories come at the end.

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Booklist 17:123 D ’20

LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE. Day-book of Walter Savage Landor, chosen by John Bailey. *$1.25 Oxford 828

(Eng ed 20–16302)

“Men of taste, men with an ear for the classic note in prose, must always read Landor. That some have failed in this elementary duty is the burden of a delightful essay by Mr John Bailey prefixed to a little collection of Landor’s prose and verse,—a fine quotation for every day in the year, beginning with the famous epitaph on himself, and proceeding with symphonic development to the Latin epitaph on a young scholar. Mr Bailey—himself, as we know from other publications, an agreeable compound of the man of letters and the man of affairs—offers his little book, not as the last word in Landor, but as the first—as the preliminary encouragement to that larger reading it should do much to stimulate.”—Sat R

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Ath p1037 O 17 ’19 400w

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Boston Transcript p11 Ja 31 ’20 550w

“We recommend a course of Landor. In days when the rabble has to be wooed with flattery, it is bracing to the spirit to find one, who, liberal as he called himself, inhabited the mountain tops of life, and, never descending among the wrangling crowds, beckons us continually aloft.”

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Sat R 128:507 N 29 ’19 1850w

“Charming little book.”

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Spec 123:511 O 18 ’19 140w

“To glance through an admirable volume of selections from Landor, such as that edited by John Bailey is to be filled with delight and regret. What writer of the second rank has more to yield to the discoverer than he? What prose more squarely can support the weight of the exactest scrutiny than his?”

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Springf’d Republican p8 N 8 ’19 280w (Reprinted from Ath)

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Springf’d Republican p13 F 1 ’20 1000w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup p564 O 16 ’19)

“As, however, Mr Bailey implies by making a day-book of his selections, Landor not only constantly said beautiful things beautifully, but as constantly things that stand the wear and tear of daily life. No doubt the blank page at the end of this charming little book is provided to hold a good resolution—namely, whatever else may happen in nineteen twenty-one, to read Landor through.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p564 O 16 ’19 850w

LANE, MRS ANNE (WINTERMUTE), and BEALE, MRS HARRIET STANWOOD (BLAINE).^[2] Life in the circles. (Deeper issues ser.) *$1.25 Dodd 134

20–19176

This book is a continuation of the volume entitled “To walk with God,” and contains “further lessons received through automatic writing.” (Sub-title) There are lessons on will, knowledge, joy, truth, understanding, sympathy, and love.

“The level of intelligence of the sending spirits is not very high—a grade or two above the kindergarten.”

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N Y Evening Post p12 O 30 ’20 80w

LANE, MRS ANNE (WINTERMUTE), and BEALE, MRS HARRIET STANWOOD (BLAINE).^[2] To walk with God. (Deeper issues ser.) *$1.25 Dodd 134

20–6367

A series of “lessons” which the authors received in the form of automatic writings. An introduction gives the circumstances under which the messages were received and the lessons have to do with the power of love, helpfulness, kindness and the need for spiritual guidance. The authors say: “We realise that it will be said that there is nothing new in the teaching, and we admit that there is repetition to what seems an unnecessary degree, but we pledge our word that we have put nothing of our own into the text.” (Introd.)

“The fact that the wife of the Secretary of the interior and the daughter of James G. Blaine are the recipients of these messages will make a certain demand for the book.”

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Booklist 16:327 Jl ’20

LANE, MRS ROSE (WILDER). Making of Herbert Hoover. *$3.50 (4½c) Century

20–18582

Herbert Hoover represents America, says the author, and his is the spirit of five generations of American pioneers. His life began at the end of one pioneer age and the beginning of the other. His ancestors had been sturdy pioneers of Quaker stock—his father a blacksmith. They had conquered the soil, he conquered the world of finance. Much of the material of the book has been collected by Charles Kellogg Field, classmate and friend of Hoover.

“Written with the interest in really delightful settings and small circumstances of life such as a novelist employs to characterize a hero. Children will like this book.”

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Booklist 17:113 D ’20

“It is a story of a wonderful career, written with a brightness and a dash that captivates and enthralls.”

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Boston Transcript p7 O 30 ’20 580w

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N Y Evening Post p9 O 30 ’20 240w

R of Rs 62:669 D ’20 100w

“The book is readable for its vivid presentation of an active and adventurous career.”

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Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 30 ’21 330w

LANG, EDITH, and WEST, GEORGE. Musical accompaniment of moving pictures. il pa *$1.25 Boston music co.; Schirmer 780

20–4471

“A practical manual for pianists and organists and an exposition of the principles underlying the musical interpretation of moving pictures.” (Sub-title) There are three parts: Equipment; Musical interpretation; The theatrical organ. Musical scores are given and there is an index.

“Not exhaustive but very suggestive to the player and illuminating to the listener.”

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Booklist 16:232 Ap ’20

“It is a book we can warmly commend.”

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Survey 44:309 My 29 ’20 260w

LANGDON-DAVIES, JOHN. Militarism in education; a contribution to educational reconstruction. 80c Headley bros., London; for sale by Survey 371.43

19–12681

“The author contrasts the German and English systems of education, gives an account of the scholastic methods adopted in Norway, deals at considerable length with the aims of real physical training, devotes a chapter to boy scouts, and brings many arguments against compulsory national service, to which he is strongly opposed.”—Ath

Ath p475 Je 13 ’19 50w

“The faults of anti-militarist literature are usually rancour, sentimentality, and exaggeration. Mr Langdon-Davies has escaped all three. The merit of this book consists in its clearness and its shortness, in the fact that the author knows what he wants to prove, and proceeds to prove it without fuss or sentiment and with considerable moderation.”

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Ath p621 Jl 18 ’19 550w

Brooklyn 12:62 Ja ’20 30w

“From the point of view of physical health, Mr Langdon-Davies gives many proofs from experienced educationists of the deleterious effects on children of military training. In a valuable chapter on the psychological aims of physical education, he points out that character must be built on the basis of instinct and that ‘the cornerstone of the superstructure is the acquirement of habit and self-control.’” B. U. Burke

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Nation 110:335 Mr 13 ’20 1150w

LANGFELD, HERBERT SIDNEY.^[2] Aesthetic attitude. *$3.50 Harcourt 701

21–113

The author holds that a sense of beauty is as vital to the complete existence of the individual and of the race as is the sense of justice and that a nascent appreciation of what is beautiful can be developed into a strong, useful and satisfying reaction to the world of colors, sounds and shapes. The emphasis of the book, therefore, is put upon a description of the nature of appreciation and of the mental processes involved therein, ... its wider applications to the problems of human happiness. He concludes that “whenever we are able to adjust ourselves successfully to a situation, so that our responses are unified into a well-integrated or organized form of action, we call that situation beautiful, and the accompanying feeling one of æsthetic pleasure.” The contents are: Introduction; The science of beauty and ugliness; The æsthetic attitude (two chapters); Empathy; Illustrations of empathy from the fine arts; Unity and imagination; Illustrations of unity from the fine arts; Balance and proportion; Illustrations of balance from the fine arts; The art impulse; Conclusion; Index.

LANGFORD, GEORGE. Pic, the weapon-maker. il *$1.75 Boni & Liveright

20–13544

“Like Kipling’s ‘Jungle stories,’ but laid in western Europe perhaps 40,000 years ago, the story of ‘Pic, the weapon-maker,’ is George Langford’s popularization as fiction of such facts as science has revealed about the cave men of the Mousterian era. Pic, the ape-boy, with the hairy mammoth and the wobbly rhinoceros, formed a triple alliance of friendship and adventure. Pic was in search of the secret of cutting flints in such a way as to put a fine edge on them without spoiling them in the attempt, and before the story closes he has found it and made it the key to renewed fellowship with the tribe that had cast him out. As to the scientific quality of the story no less an authority than Henry Fairfield Osborn, director of the American museum of natural history, writes a brief approving introductory note.”—Springf’d Republican

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Booklist 17:37 O ’20

“Anthropology and adventure are jumbled—naively, at times—in this story which, for all its prehistoric licence, still clings to the technique of Stratemeyer and other weavers of juvenile romance.” L. B.

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Freeman 1:526 Ag 11 ’20 280w

“A troublesome fault is the author’s imaginative cocksureness. A higher degree of vagueness would actually have yielded an impression of greater exactness here. But where all is dark and chaotic, much must be forgiven to the first imaginative explorers. It is certain that Mr Langford’s book will fruitfully awaken the interest of the young in the remote past of the race, nor will maturer minds read it without some fresh light on dim places.” Ludwig Lewisohn

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Nation 111:190 Ag 14 ’20 260w

“The characterization of the Mammoth and the Rhinoceros is not the least clever part of this whimsical, fanciful and yet true story of this little, prehistoric man, and it is with real regret that the book is laid aside as the story closes.”

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N Y Times p18 S 19 ’20 650w

“An unusual and a powerful juvenile. The spirit and narrative of the book will be enjoyed even by children too young to attempt the reading for themselves.” R. D. Moore

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Pub W 97:1296 Ap 17 ’20 180w

Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 22 ’20 300w

Wis Lib Bul 16:198 N ’20 60w

LANIER, HENRY WYSHAM. Book of bravery; third series. il *$2.50 Scribner 920

20–15939

“This is a book of courage, wherein people in their daily pursuits meet with obstacles which they surmount through excellences of character. The man who is paid for his brave work, like the life-saver, the policeman, the fireman, is none the less brave and his deed is none the less fraught with the tingling quality of bravery. In the missionary field and on the battlefield Mr Lanier finds material for this volume.”—Lit D

Booklist 17:123 D ’20

“It is a collection worth making.”

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Ind 104:378 D 11 ’20 60w

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Lit D p96 D 4 ’20 90w

“For the inspiration of these volumes, children and parents alike may well be grateful to Mr Lanier.” M. H. B. Mussey

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Nation 111:sup674 D 8 ’20 60w

“The stories are vividly presented, and the book is one to stir the heart of youth.” Hildegarde Hawthorne

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N Y Times p9 D 12 ’20 80w

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Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 50w

LANKESTER, SIR EDWIN RAY. Secrets of earth and sea. il *$3.50 Macmillan 504

“These popularly written chapters on a wide variety of scientific and anthropological topics, such as What is meant by a species? Species in the making; The biggest beast; The earliest picture in the world; The art of pre-historic men; The swastika; etc., form a sequel to the same author’s ‘Science from an easy chair’ and ‘Diversions of a naturalist,’ and like them is mainly a reprint, with considerable additions, of articles published in daily or weekly papers.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup S 23 ’20

Booklist 17:144 Ja ’21

“The essays are entertaining but have no high literary qualities. Men like Shaler, Burroughs, Muir, Mills, and Slosson have done this sort of book far better in America.”

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N Y Evening Post p12 N 27 ’29 140w

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N Y Times p6 Ja 2 ’21 3100w

“Let it be said at once that ‘Secrets of earth and sea,’ though extremely interesting, is not in the best sense as diverting as was ‘Science from an easy-chair.’ The subjects treated are delightfully interesting to the layman but the style is unfortunately rather redundant and heavy.”

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Spec 125:861 D 25 ’20 190w

“The book is indicative of what will be common in that happy day when science will be written about as fully and as charmingly as purely literary subjects are today.”

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Springf’d Republican p8 D 3 ’20 350w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p623 S 23 ’20 90w

“Parents and guardians who are desirous of introducing their boys to the study of natural science and who, in pursuance of that praiseworthy aim, are looking for a book which, while sound and exact in statement, is yet light and easy to read and, above all, has no tincture of the school classroom, would do well to think of Sir Ray Lankester’s ‘Secrets of earth and sea.’”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p831 D 9 ’20 370w

LANSBURY, GEORGE. These things shall be. $1 (5½c) Huebsch 261

In these six essays the author proclaims himself a revolutionist and downright hater of the existing order but he does not see salvation in a terrific cataclysm with hopes of a new order arising from the ruins of the old. He pins his faith upon a change of heart in individual men and women and in the message “Ye must be born again.” The spirit of the essays is faith in a God of love and in the teachings of Christ of human brotherhood and love and cooperation. Mr Lansbury is editor of the London Daily Herald.

Ath p166 Ja 30 ’20 80w

“He has nothing startlingly new to say, but the serenity and steadfastness of his faith in humanity and in a society of individuals living the gospel of Christian love, will afford comfort and reassurance to minds tired for the moment of their searching.”

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Booklist 17:142 Ja ’21

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Survey 44:355 Je 5 ’20 310w

LANSBURY, GEORGE. What I saw in Russia. *$1.50 (3c) Boni & Liveright 914.7

21–434

In his introduction to the American edition of this book, Matthew F. Boyd, after reviewing the attitude towards Russia of the European powers, of which France is now the only one still openly hostile, finds that the United States has once more become the arbiter of world destiny and that her policy towards Russia will decide the future of the world. George Lansbury went to Russia to discover what was the spirit moving the men and women responsible for the revolution. He found it to be that of a band of people striving to build the New Jerusalem, that they are actuated by purely moral and religious motives and are doing what Christians would call the Lord’s work. Contents: Finland to Moscow; Lenin and other leaders; Lenin, bolshevism and religion; Co-operation, trade and business; Trade unions and labour organization; Children and education; Law and order; Prisoners and captives; About people; Public health; Moscow to London; Appendix.

“The chapter on religion will interest churchmen.”

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Booklist 17:142 Ja ’21

“Any one who wishes to gain a vivid picture of life in Soviet Russia, drawn with entire honesty and animated by sympathy and good will should, by all means, read Mr Lansbury’s book.” A. C. Freeman

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N Y Call p10 D 19 ’20 420w

LANSING, MARION FLORENCE, and GULICK, LUTHER HALSEY. Food and life. il 68c Ginn 613.2

20–5746

The book has been suggested by the new importance that the war has placed on food as a universal human need and on the desirability of a full knowledge of its potentialities even for children. “From its pages the child will learn the facts he should know concerning the great food business into which he is born and in which he is a partner.... There is hardly a virtue or an ideal of family, community, and world life which does not take a natural place in a study of the fundamental human problem of food.” (Preface) Every aspect of the food problem, the personal, the social, the economic and the scientific is entertainingly put before the child in detached stories. The contents are: A life business; The food tether; In business for yourself; Food as fuel; Our dally bread; The magic touch; Likes and dislikes; A world appetite; The first step; The moment of eating; In the world’s food market; The pitcher and the loaf; The gift of a garden; Kitchen service; Food and money; For future use; Food and health; Food and the government; At a world table. In Facts and figures are given tables, charts and lists of a scientific nature. The book has an index and illustrations.

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Booklist 17:123 D ’20

LASKI, HAROLD JOSEPH. Political thought in England from Locke to Bentham. (Home univ. lib.) *75c (1c) Holt 320.9

20–14002

The author holds that the eighteenth century began with the revolution of 1688, that it was a period of quiet after a storm and can make little pretence to discovery, but that its stagnation was mainly on the surface and that the period was fruitful of much thought resulting in future activity. The significance of Locke—who alone in this period confronted the general problems of the modern state—of Burke, Hume, Adam Smith and their contemporaries, forms the subject matter of the book. Contents: Introduction; The principles of the revolution; Church and state; The era of stagnation; Signs of change; Burke; The foundation of economic liberalism; Bibliography and index.

Booklist 17:92 D ’20

“The method of treatment is not coldly analytical but genial and speculative. Care is taken to relate political theory to ethics; there are flashes of penetration into matters psychological; but economics receives scant consideration. To the present reviewer neglect of economics seems fatal. The truth seems to be that Mr Laski has written a conventional story, bolstered up English political mythology, and left the great muddle of so-called ‘political thought’ just about where he found it.” C: A. Beard

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New Republic 24:303 N 17 ’20 1200w

“A really admirable little book.” F: Pollock

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N Y Evening Post p4 N 6 ’20 1250w

“There are a few obscurities of phrase throughout the book, and a few far-fetched judgments. But, on the whole, Mr Laski writes brilliantly and suggestively, evincing a clear comprehension of essentials, against a background of necessary learning. It is his most broadly considered and best-balanced work.”

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Springf’d Republican p11a S 12 ’20 1250w

LATANÉ, JOHN HOLLADAY. United States and Latin America. *$2.50 Doubleday 327

20–14147

“This book is based on a smaller volume ... ‘The diplomatic relations of the United States and Spanish America,’ which contained the first series of Albert Shaw lectures on diplomatic history. That volume has been out of print for several years, but calls for it are still coming in.... I have revised and enlarged the original volume, omitting much that was of special interest at the time it was written, and adding a large amount of new matter relating to the events of the past twenty years.” (Preface) Contents: The revolt of the Spanish colonies; The recognition of the Spanish-American republics; The diplomacy of the United States in regard to Cuba; The diplomatic history of the Panama canal; French intervention in Mexico; The two Venezuelan episodes; The advance of the United States in the Caribbean; Pan Americanism; The Monroe doctrine; Index and maps of South America and the Caribbean.

Booklist 17:166 Ja ’21

“The American people are thoughtless, careless, heedless concerning the questions that affect them as regards Latin America, because they are ignorant of those questions. But should they be fed with misstatements like this?” S. de la Selva

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N Y Evening Post p4 O 30 ’20 580w

R of Rs 62:446 O ’20 60w

LATHAM, HAROLD STRONG. Jimmy Quigg, office boy. il *$2 (5c) Macmillan

20–18923

A new story for boys by the author of “Under orders” and “Marty lends a hand.” At fourteen Jimmy goes to work as office boy in a big publishing house and the story shows the opportunities for advancement open to the boy who is industrious and willing to learn. One of Jimmy’s fellow workers, Fred Garson, has different ideals. He introduces Jimmy to the Office boys’ league and attempts to organize a strike. Fred disappears and with him some of the company’s funds. Jimmy, who refuses to believe his friend guilty, does some amateur detective work, clears Fred’s name and circumvents a group of bomb plotters in the bargain.

“There is a pronounced moral flavor, but it is quite wholesome.”

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Ind 104:376 D 11 ’20 60w

“Mr Latham improves in his narrative style and cumulative interest of plot.”

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Lit D p89 D 4 ’20 140w

“The author understands the types he has drawn, and he understands also the universal boy.”

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N Y Evening Post p12 N 13 ’20 140w

“The theme of Americanization inspires the book, but first of all it is a good story, a delightful bit of character study, and it is written by a man who knows his job.” Hildegarde Hawthorne

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N Y Times p9 D 12 ’20 90w

LATHAM, HAROLD STRONG. Marty lends a hand. il *$1.60 (3½c) Macmillan

19–16144

Marty, the young hero of this story for boys and girls, is in his sophomore year in high school. He has won first honors in the sophomore oratorical contest and is to play “Tony Lumpkin” in the class production of “She stoops to conquer.” And then just at that happy moment an accident to his father takes him out of school to shoulder the responsibilities of a bread winner. He finds an original way of earning a living—growing mushrooms in an abandoned mine. The mine proves to be the secret hiding place of German plotters and Marty sees that they are brought to justice. But the chief interest of the story is in the mushroom experiment, and thru cooperation of his loyal friends, it succeeds beyond Marty’s fondest hopes. His father recovers and takes charge of the new business and Marty looks forward to a return to school.

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Booklist 16:175 F ’20

“A distinct advance over his book of last year.” A. C. Moore

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Bookm 50:382 N ’19 60w

“Mr Latham knows his boys and girls, and he makes them not mere automatons but living figures on the stage he has set so skilfully.”

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N Y Evening Post p9 N 8 ’19 400w

“‘Marty lends a hand’ is a good story for young readers for the same reason that ‘Under orders’ was a good story for them, because it is what they are themselves when they are what they should be—simple, wholesome, natural and unconsciously democratic.”

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N Y Times 24:636 N 9 ’19 500w

LATZKO, ANDREAS. Judgment of peace. *$1.75 Boni & Liveright

20–1372

“The author of that bitter polemic against warfare, ‘Men in war,’ repeats his denunciation in ‘The judgment of peace.’ Lt. Latzko has written an argument rather than a novel. The thesis is that war is a diplomats’ game and wholly evil for the ‘impotent pieces.’ The hero of the book is George Gadsky, a pianist, who volunteered, submitted to arbitrary discipline, and ‘felt crushed, torn out of his real self, degraded to the level of a shabby, beaten sneak.’ The overbearing, stupid sergeant, the stay-at-home enthusiast and the families rivaling each other in iron crosses and deaths are scored. One ringing declaration in this novel is contained in the words of the Frenchman, Merlier: ‘Have not these four years taught every nation that you cannot seek to enslave others without robbing yourself of all freedom?’”—Springf’d Republican

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Booklist 16:349 Jl ’20

“Were it not for the devout prayer for human brotherhood which is made throughout the book, it would, not merely by its grimness and gloom, but by its lightning flashes of revelation, leave the night more black.” M. E. Bailey

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Bookm 51:206 Ap ’20 650w

“The ‘Judgment of peace’ appears to be the work of one who has gone through intense suffering by reason of the war, and whose life has become permanently embittered. Few writers equal his descriptions of the bloody agonies of the battlefield and his pictures of soldiers, but his outlook on life is morbid and gloomy.”

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Cath World 111:108 Ap ’20 360w

“His story fails as art because it is forever running into bald propaganda, as propaganda because its grounds are emotions instead of thoughts.”

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Dial 68:536 Ap ’20 80w

“Like ‘Men in war,’ ‘The judgment of peace’ is swift and strong, lucid and incandescent, appalling and irresistible. Latzko’s fierce arraignment and mighty tract should be welcomed by lovers of peace and should be kept alive in order that an epic memory all plumes and purple may not go down from our generation.” C. V. D.

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Nation 110:597 My 1 ’20 600w

“‘The judgment of peace’ is a book of hate—hate not for ‘enemy’ countries, but for selfish rulers and militarists everywhere. So far, so good—but the author goes too far; his condemnation of ruthless militarism, of selfish uncontrolled power, is good and true; his apparent assumption that all rulers, all governments, all holders of power everywhere, are thus actuated by utter selfishness, is neither. And one is left, at the end of this absorbing, brilliant, thoughtful and passionate book, with the sense that after all the author has not got us very far on the road toward the brotherhood of man.”

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N Y Times 25:89 F 15 ’20 700w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

Review 2:257 Mr 13 ’20 420w

“Patience is somewhat strained by the manner of this book; the protest is not new, and the tale is rather hastily and crudely constructed. The most effective part comes near the end, where Gadsky as a prisoner of war gets to know a French soldier.”

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Springf’d Republican p13a F 22 ’20 240w

“A significant book, comparable with Barbusse’s ‘Under fire.’ Not for the smaller libraries.”

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Wis Lib Bul 16:126 Je ’20 50w

LAUDER, SIR HARRY (MACLENNAN). Between you and me. $2.50 McCann

19–18483

“‘I’m no writin’ a book so much as I’m sittin’ doon wi’ ye all for a chat,’ Harry Lauder says in his first chapter; and he carries the plan through to the last. The book is a biography, a Scot’s philosophy of life, and a shrewd discourse on current social problems, combined.”—Outlook

“A book which will be liked only by the enthusiastic Lauder-ites. It is written in Scotch dialect which often runs unevenly into pure English. Not as good as ‘A minstrel in France.’”

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Booklist 16:167 F ’20

“Sir Harry mentions the possibility of two more books. We shall welcome them eagerly, as we always welcome him, but we cannot help hoping that, despite the charm of his gossipy style, the next ones will have to some degree the skeleton of an outline.” I. W. L.

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Boston Transcript p4 Mr 17 ’20 850w

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Dial 68:403 Mr ’20 60w

“Readers who are not frightened at a glimpse of Scotch dialect will love the book for its genuine human note, its humor, and its underlying pathos.”

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Outlook 124:203 F 4 ’20 70w

“This book gives Lauder and his message in a unique and inimitable way. It is well worth reading as Lauder himself is worth hearing.”

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R of Rs 61:671 Je ’20 100w

LAWRENCE, C. E. God in the thicket. *$2 Dutton

“It is a delicately worked narrative of a glittering world peopled by pantomime folk, whose names have been familiar to us all from childhood—Harlequin and Columbine, Pierrot, Punchinello, Aimée and Daphne, and many others. They live in the Forest of Argovie; and their life is the pantomime life, with its queer, sudden approaches to the greyer conditions of human existence and irresponsible withdrawals to the spangled regions of fantasy.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “The god of the title is none other than he of the pipes and the goat-thighs, Pan himself.” (N Y Times)

Cath World 112:688 F ’21 130w

“In many passages here there is a surplus of adjectives, a lack of precision and reality. There are times when the author writes with a pleasing irony that would be even more enjoyable if the vein were not overdone.”

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N Y Evening Post p10 D 31 ’20 140w

“Very delicately, very gracefully written, a little too long perhaps, but full of quaint conceits, poetically fanciful and therefore a good deal out of the ordinary.”

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N Y Times p20 N 21 ’20 550w

“A little masterpiece.”

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Sat R 130:262 S 25 ’20 60w

“It is perhaps refreshing in these prosaic days to exist for an hour in the world of fantasy.”

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Spec 125:372 S 18 ’20 30w

“It is a pretty story, which fails rather disappointingly to be something more.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p367 Je 10 ’20 550w

LAWRENCE, DAVID HERBERT. New poems. *$1.60 Huebsch 821

20–17904

Mr Lawrence prefaces his collection of new poems with a discussion of the nature of poetry, saying in part, “Poetry is, as a rule, either the voice of the far future, exquisite and ethereal, or it is the voice of the past, rich, magnificent.... The poetry of the beginning and the poetry of the end must have that exquisite quality, perfection which belongs to all that is far off.... But there is another kind of poetry: ... the unrestful, ungraspable poetry of the sheer present.” And it is for this third type of poetry, he continues, that new poetic forms must be forged. Among the poems of the book are: Apprehension; Coming awake; Suburbs on a hazy day; Piccadilly Circus at night; Parliament Hill in the evening; Bitterness of death; Seven seals; Two wives; Autumn sunshine.

“The more stringent their form the better these poems are; and when, as in Phantasmagoria, Mr Lawrence finds a subject suited to his strained and ‘pent-up’ manner, he ‘gets his effect’ very wonderfully.”

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Ath p66 F ’19 220w

“Mr Lawrence’s ‘New poems’—like the overwhelming bulk of ‘the rare new poetry’—seems inspired less by any remote touch of divine madness, than by a labored and sophisticated anxiety to exemplify a theory. Mr Lawrence has none of the brilliancy of Miss Lowell, none of the power of Mr Lindsay. His slim new book offers the pathetic spectacle of a shabby manikin pirouetting in caricature of the muse.” R. M. Weaver

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Bookm 52:59 S ’20 880w

Reviewed by Babette Deutsch

Dial 70:89 Ja ’21 380w

“Apart from a brilliant preface, there is scarcely anything in this book which is pitched at the same level of intensity as the best poems in ‘Look, we have come through.’ The touch is somewhat slacker and vaguer, the feeling less fused with the words. ‘New poems’ contains as least one poem which I am almost inclined to set higher than anything Lawrence has ever done. This is the poem called ‘Seven seals.’” J: G. Fletcher

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Freeman 1:451 Jl 21 ’20 900w

“Mr Lawrence’s preface poses spontaneity as an ideal, promising poetry that ‘just takes place.’ That is interesting, but it does not explain Mr Lawrence’s poetry, which here as always betrays elaborate trouble in its preparation.”

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Nation 111:sup414 O 13 ’20 50w

“His ‘New poems’ reasserts his place among the most gifted, the most arresting of the English poets.” H. S. Gorman

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N Y Times 25:16 Jl 4 ’20 630w

“As you read the whole volume through it seems to you more and more that he feels too intensely about a great many things. There is this difference between him and older sentimentalists, that they were at the mercy of pleasant feelings, while he is often at the mercy of unpleasant; but it is still the same poet’s disease, and in both cases the feelings seem too intense for their cause.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p67 F 6 ’19 1100w

LAWRENCE, DAVID HERBERT. Touch and go. (Plays for a people’s theatre) $1.25 Seltzer 822

20–12050

Altho the background of this drama is a strike in a British colliery it is not intended as a propaganda play. The author is concerned with the tragic element in the struggle between capital and labor. He has defined tragedy as “the working out of some immediate passional problem within the soul of man.” The play also represents his idea that a “people’s” theater should deal with people, with men and women, not with stage types.

“Mr Lawrence, of course, cannot escape his genius. The secondary qualities of ‘Touch and go’ are superior to the big things in the work of many other dramatists.” Gilbert Seldes

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Dial 69:215 Ag ’20 100w

“Mr Lawrence’s new play, ‘Touch and go,’ seems to indicate that, while the author may have gained compensations in other ways, he has lost, temporarily, it is to be hoped, under the blighting strains and trials of the last few years, some of the vital energy that is essential to a dramatist.” Elva de Pue

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Freeman 2:332 D 15 ’20 390w

“This is a play serious in purpose, of vital contemporaneous interest, unexceptionable motive and written with knowledge and ability, which is nevertheless ineffective, because while it exhibits a comprehensive sense of existing conditions and states its problem very clearly, it has nothing to offer or suggest in the way of a possible solution except a series of benevolent platitudes.” J. R. Towse

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N Y Evening Post p3 N 27 ’20 680w

“The preface is so excellent, so much in the manner of the great English tradition that it holds, and urges, and ends by being, I think, even better than the play, a fine little masterpiece of eight pages.” Amy Lowell

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N Y Times p7 Ag 22 ’20 2000w

“The only thing amusing in the little volume is the preface, which is entertaining enough. Mr Lawrence does not make this mistake of open didacticism when he writes poetry. Why, oh! why, does he write drama like this?”

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Spec 125:279 Ag 28 ’20 360w

“The preface has been most stimulating and formative. Preface and play, however, are widely separated. Never once are we led to feel the promised reality of the characters. The story moves in a confusion of the fundamental details.” Dorothy Grafly

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Springf’d Republican p11a S 5 ’20 440w

“His characters are overdrawn, and his action has to do with struggles of temperament rather than of contrasting philosophies.”

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Survey 44:592 Ag 20 ’20 100w

“The strength of the play lies in its picture of colliery life.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p304 My 13 ’20 80w

LAWRENCE, DOROTHY. Sapper Dorothy Lawrence; the only English woman soldier. (On active service ser.) *$1.25 (4c) Lane 940.48

20–5239

Miss Lawrence gives this account of her exploits in France as a soldier of the Royal engineers, 51st division. 179th tunnelling company. It was as a last desperate effort to get to the war that she plotted and struggled her way into the ranks. Twelve times she had applied for various forms of war work and had been turned down. Her efforts to go as newspaper correspondent met the same fate. The Tommies were more accommodating and helped her to accomplish her purpose. Contents: At Creil; Sleeping in Senlis forests; In soldier’s clothes; On the march for the trenches; Arrest; Tried at Third army headquarters; In a convent; On board.

Spec 123:411 S 27 ’19 200w

“A brightly written tale of pluck, energy, and determination.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p502 S 11 ’19 100w

LAY, WILFRID.^[2] Man’s unconscious passion. *$2 Dodd 157

20–18051

Dr Lay, author of “Man’s unconscious conflict” and “The child’s unconscious mind,” writes here of the part which the unconscious plays in love and marriage. Contents: The total situation; Conscious and unconscious passion; Affection is not passion; Insight; The transfer of passion; The emotion age.

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Nation 111:694 D 15 ’20 20w

“Dr Lay’s book is written in a most readable and interesting style and should make a great appeal to all those interested, professionally or otherwise, in this dominant and important phase of individual human life and its relation to the tissue of the whole social organism.” S. W. Swift

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Survey 45:545 Ja 8 ’21 880w

LEACH, ALBERT ERNEST. Food inspection and analysis. 4th ed il *$8.50 Wiley 543.1

20–5902

“This manual, designed for the use of analysts, health officers, chemists and food economists, has been revised and enlarged to the extent of ninety pages; new material having been added or substituted for material in earlier editions. The former arrangement of chapters has been retained but the list of references at the end of chapters has been left out and, instead, more attention has been given to footnote references. A special feature is the final chapter by G. L. Wendt, ‘Determination of acidity by means of the hydrogen electrode.’ The book includes such subjects as food, its functions, proximate components, and nutritive value; general methods of food analysis including microscope and refractometer; milk and milk products; flesh foods; eggs; cereal grains; tea, coffee, and cocoa; edible oils and fats; sugar; as well as artificial food colors, food preservatives, artificial sweeteners, flavoring extracts, and substitutes.”—J Home Econ

Booklist 16:356 Jl ’20

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J Home Econ 12:426 S ’20 240w

“As a whole, however, the new edition well maintains the reputation of the work. It contains so much trustworthy information that chemists concerned with foodstuffs will find it invaluable.” C. S.

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Nature 106:141 S 30 ’20 560w

LEACOCK, STEPHEN BUTLER. Unsolved riddle of social justice. *$1.25 (4½c) Lane 330

20–1689

The author sees in the present state of human society an extraordinary discrepancy between human power and resulting human happiness and analyzes the reasons for the present-day social unrest. He points to the complete breakdown of the Adam Smith school of political economists with their doctrine of “natural liberty” and laissez-faire. In asking “What of the future?” the author finds himself confronted with the phenomenon of modern socialism. This he relegates to the realm of beautiful but impracticable dreams and suggests as a mid-way course that the government should supply work for the unemployed, maintenance for the infirm and aged, and education and opportunity for children, and should enforce a minimum wage and shorter working hours. Contents: The troubled outlook of the present hour; Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; The failures and fallacies of natural liberty; Work and wages; The land of dreams: the utopia of the socialist; How Mr Bellamy looked backward; What is possible and what is not.

“Dr Leacock writes with great clarity and force. While the limits of the volume do not permit detailed treatment of any of the topics taken up, the reader will find every page suggestive and will be thankful for a chance to see the woods instead of the trees.” O. D. Skelton

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Am Pol Sci R 14:522 Ag ’20 360w

“Written in a vigorous, easy, though not humorous, style, that will make it popular with those who seek a middle track.”

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Booklist 16:262 My ’20

“The author of ‘Literary lapses,’ and all the rest of them, could not be dull if he tried. His new volume on the problems of modern life is fully as live as any of his humorous sketches, and nearly as readable.” I. W. L.

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Boston Transcript p5 Mr 13 ’20 1250w

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Cleveland p44 Ap ’20 50w

“A readable and frequently keen analysis of industrial society. Professor Leacock’s delicately manipulated scalpel cuts perilously close to the heart of the price system, in his perception of the paradox of value.... While the honest sunlight of criticism declares the insufficiency of individualist economics, the light that Professor Leacock throws upon socialism—taking Bellamy’s bleak vision of bureaucracy as sample—is almost a moonbeam from the larger lunacy.”

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Dial 68:404 Mr ’20 80w

“The riddle is not only unsolved when Professor Leacock tackles it, but it remains so when he has finished with it. The author has merely re-stated the problem in a lucid and concise manner and fused it with a sort of primer of economics, and comes out in the end with a middle-of-the-road vagueness as his major contribution to the subject.” L. B.

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Freeman 2:430 Ja 12 ’21 100w

Ind 103:319 S 11 ’20 20w

Reviewed by C. E. Ayres

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J Pol Econ 28:439 My ’20 550w

“Stephen Leacock is far from happy in his study of ‘The unsolved riddle of social justice.’ He reveals himself as a clever man, of course, but not as a serious economic thinker. He, surely, cannot be so ignorant as this book would lead one to infer.”

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Nation 110:772 Je 5 ’20 550w

“As a book for the general reader this little treatise can scarcely be too much commended. It is eminently humane in spirit, sensible, serious without being ‘dead serious,’ and thorough on the essential points. The author seems to know how average, educated people think and feel about the present state of society, and to have an unusually good idea of how to write for persons who do not know much about political economy.”

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No Am 211:430 Mr ’20 750w

Reviewed by Lyman Abbott

Outlook 125:124 My 19 ’20 750w

“It is sound common sense doctrine that he preaches, and for that reason it will be popular with but few people in these days of emotional ‘thinking.’”

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Review 2:234 Mr 6 ’20 750w

R of Rs 61:447 Ap ’20 40w

“Professor Leacock’s book is an appeal to pure reason; it is argumentative, but not quarrelsome; it is progressive in its aims, but it is not revolutionary. His picture may be overdrawn and too highly coloured, but it substantially represents what many thoughtful and clear-sighted men see today when gazing upon the eastern and western worlds.”

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Sat R 129:501 My 29 ’20 950w

“There is much good sense in this attractive book.”

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Spec 124:526 Ap 17 ’20 250w

“His solution may seem to be inadequate; but without doubt Mr Leacock has written a valuable popular analysis and has stated sane and forward-looking remedies.”

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Springf’d Republican p10 F 19 ’20 180w

“Mr Leacock’s treatment of the problem is not intentionally humorous or flippant, but it is surprisingly superficial. As soon as he comes to a discussion of the social thought that governs the demands of large masses at the present time, he becomes positively absurd. Mr Leacock is most successful where he pricks current misconceptions.” B. L.

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Survey 43:782 Mr 20 ’20 220w

“He does not overload his subject with the useless ballast of philosophic jargon, or obscure a poverty of thought by abundance of words. His book is short, lucid, always to the point, and sometimes witty.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p175 Mr 11 ’20 350w

LEACOCK, STEPHEN BUTLER. Winsome Winnie, and other new nonsense novels. *$1.50 Lane 817

20–21990

This is a sequel to “Nonsense novels,” published in 1911. Again the author parodies the style of various popular types of fiction. Among the numbers in this second series are Winsome Winnie: or, Trial and temptation, narrated after the best models of 1875; The split in the cabinet: or, The fate of England, a political novel of the days that were; Who do you think did it? or, The mixed-up murder mystery; Broken barriers, or Red love on a blue island; and Buggam Grange, a good old ghost story. The stories have appeared in Harper’s Magazine.

“While this later volume lacks to a slight degree the fresh spontaneity of Mr Leacock’s older books, there are plenty of sincere laughs left.” S. M. R.

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Bookm 52:371 D ’20 140w

“The great majority of readers will find ‘Winsome Winnie’ almost as good as the author’s best books. In other words: the work of a man who, in the silence of Mr Dooley, is the most amusing writer in North America.” E. L. P.

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Boston Transcript p4 D 24 ’20 490w

“Despite his delicious drolleries, Mr Leacock’s book of verbal cartoons contains an amazing amount of truthful criticism—doubly effective because its form and oblique method of delivery rob it of all malice.”

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N Y Times p11 D 19 ’20 670w

“A book of parodies which is as amusing as the first series. ‘Winsome Winnie’ and ‘Who do you think did it?’ are as good as any of the sketches which Professor Leacock has ever written.” E. L. Pearson

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Review 3:558 D 8 ’20 540w

“It will be a very superior person who does not laugh the first time he reads Mr Leacock’s version of these jocular subjects. But as the laugh comes from the verbal surprise or from the technical improvement in an established joke, it is not likely to be repeated.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p795 D 2 ’20 600w

LEADBITTER, ERIC. Rain before seven. *$2 (2c) Jacobs

20–9473

Michael Lawson was an awkward, shy and colorless youth, the fourth and youngest in a family of waning fortunes. As a gawky boy of fifteen he falls in love with the daughter of his tutor, Vicar Hargrieves. Some years later, Isobel’s heartless flirtations give him his first deep emotional experience. At school he discovers his love and talent for music and finds a patron who finances his musical education. But funds fail before he has launched upon a career, and he is reduced to playing in a picture-drome. He meets with a succession of failures and becomes a tramp. As such he is discovered by his sister Rosie—his family having been ignorant of his whereabouts for years. His brother, a successful scientist and inventor, takes him on in business. Michael makes good, drops music altogether, achieves tranquillity of heart and wins the love of a dear quiet girl, who had adored him even as a child.

“The first novel of a very grave and very garrulous young Englishman who has not yet discovered how many things have been said before. The trail of his story is lost under an underbrush of truisms, though through the brambles one catches glimpses of landscape not unlike some of Mr Mackenzie’s milder panoramas.”

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Dial 69:211 Ag ’20 100w

“It is rather more than a good example of the usual thing.” H. W. Boynton

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Review 3:561 D 8 ’20 270w

LEARY, JOHN J., Jr. Talks with T. R. il *$3.50 (4c) Houghton

20–11574

Extracts from the diaries of a veteran newspaper man who had been for many years in the habit of recording carefully his conversations with Theodore Roosevelt. These are now arranged under appropriate headings, some few of which are: Roosevelt and 1920; Dewey and Fighting Bob; The break with Taft; The attempt on his life; Clashes with the Kaiser; On election eve, 1916; Senator Lodge’s fist fight; Roosevelt’s one talk with Mr Wilson; Roosevelt on labor; Loyalty; Germans in America; Colonel Roosevelt on boys; Pershing and Wood. There are a number of illustrations.

“The picture is less attractive than that of the writer of the letters to his children, or of the state papers that have been included in Mr Bishop’s selection, but it seems to present with fidelity one of the poses of the most versatile statesmen of our day. The absence of an index makes the book more difficult to use than it need have been.” F: L. Paxson

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Am Hist R 26:149 O ’20 400w

“A wonderful readable book about a wonderful personality.” E. J. C.

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Boston Transcript p8 Je 12 ’20 450w

“The volume is a racy, authentic, well-considered work, but instead of revealing the inner springs of motive, instead of a transvaluation of strenuous values, it merely adds to the sum total of current impressions.” L. B.

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Freeman 2:118 O 13 ’20 280w

“Better than any photograph or any biography I know, they give you the feeling of having talked with the man in the flesh.”

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Ind 104:242 N 13 ’20 110w

“It is in all respects one of the best Roosevelt books we have ever seen, and in some respects the best.”

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N Y Times p19 Ag 15 ’20 1700w

“It is all vastly entertaining, though one wonders whether the obligation of discretion which private conversation implies has not in certain cases been prematurely sacrificed in the interest of impartial history.”

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Outlook 126:292 O 13 ’20 580w

“‘Talks with T. R.’ is an unusually interesting book. It is a really valuable book. It is certain to be read; it deserves to be read. The author of the book had done well to omit certain virulent assaults on living Americans, notably President Wilson.”

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Review 2:656 Je 23 ’20 350w

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R of Rs 62:111 Jl ’20 100w

“It is a readable and informing book. The principal criticism that may be made concerns the typography and make-up of the volume. It could be condensed nearly fifty per cent without detracting from its readableness.”

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Springf’d Republican p8 Je 24 ’20 550w

LEBLANC, MAURICE. Secret of Sarek. il *$1.75 Macaulay co.

20–5586

“To put into his narrative the right degree of thrill, the correct dose of horror, M. Leblanc takes us to the gloomy island of Sarek, off the coast of Brittany, which has the cheerful nickname of ‘Island of the coffins,’ and there plunges his characters into a welter of murder, mystery and terror that has few parallels in this kind of fiction. Strange figures robed in white, flitting in and out of the woods on the island, make one suspect that the ghosts of the druids of ancient times, or else descendants of theirs dwelling in caves beneath the island, have got on the rampage in the modern world. Arsène Lupin, the peerless solver of mysteries, arrives on the island in his little private submarine. He takes the situation in hand with his usual combination of ability, bravery and luck. Things move fast from the moment that he sets foot on the old stamping ground of the druids. It would be unfair to tell the series of strokes of genius, combined with strokes of the incredible luck, whereby Arsène Lupin circumvents the atrocious Vorski and makes it possible for ‘The secret of Sarek’ to have a happy ending.”—N Y Times

Ath p495 Ap 9 ’20 100w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

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Bookman 51:584 Jl ’20 230w

“Suffice it to say that it is an enthralling story, carried forward breathlessly amid a whirl of shooting, stabbing, crucifying and general bloodshed, cleverly raised above most of its kind by a really baffling atmosphere of mystery, a genuine thriller among thrillers.”

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N Y Times 25:199 Ap 18 ’20 700w

Reviewed by E. C. Webb

Pub W 97:996 Mr 20 ’20 250w

“The book is full of eerie mysteries and disasters violent enough to merit honourable mention in a competition with Greek tragedies and tinged with a suggestion of archaic survivals and black magic which will pleasantly thrill even a jaded reader.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p242 Ap 15 ’20 180w

LEDWIDGE, FRANCIS. Complete poems of Francis Ledwidge. *$2.50 Brentano’s 821

20–2931

Francis Ledwidge, the young Irish poet, lost his life in the war. His poems are brought together in this volume, with an introduction by Lord Dunsany. “Readers familiar with his work will find all of the favorites in this volume—June, To my best friend, Desire in spring, and others. They will find also his poems written during the great war. It is interesting to note that he did not write much of battle and all that went with it, but made his songs out of memories or out of new glimpses of beauty.” (N Y Times)

“His scope was limited. Trees, flowers and the recurring seasons were his theme. But he evidently believed in these things, and did not write of nature because since Wordsworth’s day, it is the correct thing to do. Ledwidge was a countryman and loved the country; the desire to express himself came, and he moulded into what are often exquisite forms, the simple country thoughts which were natural in him.”

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Ath p1255 N 28 ’19 340w

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Booklist 16:234 Ap ’20

“A book which many lovers of modern Irish poetry will rejoice to possess. In many of the poems there is evidence of a delicate and fragrant talent, but one refuses to speak, as the editor so confidently does, of Ledwidge’s genius.” H: A. Lappin

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Bookm 51:215 Ap ’20 160w

“It is difficult to predict what his future development might have been, but at least there is nothing in this collection to justify the editor in speaking so confidently of his protégé as a genius. Although there is here a great deal of fragrant and delicate imagination, and much keen and intimate observation of sky and tree and field and bird, there is nothing quite so full of Irish reality as any one of a dozen lyrics one might mention by Joseph Campbell or Padraic Colum, for example.”

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Cath World 110:827 Mr ’20 260w

“There is little in the slight evidence before us to indicate that he would have made his place by sheer power; his success, had he lived, and had he obtained it, would have been of the idiosyncratic sort. And success of this sort he would, I think, no doubt have obtained. For through all his work runs a strain of lyric magic.” Conrad Aiken

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Dial 68:376 Mr ’20 1900w

“Francis Ledwidge was an honest songster, a poet of the blackbird in a time of hawks and vultures. He was in no sense an important poet, it must be said.” Mark Van Doren

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Nation 111:sup415 O 13 ’20 60w

“When it is said that he is somewhat unvarying and that he is sometimes immature it remains to be said that in everything Francis Ledwidge wrote there is the shapely and the imaginative phrase.” Padraic Colum

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New Repub 22:190 Ap 7 ’20 680w

“He knew the simplicities and austerities of wild life in fields and woods so well that he could borrow from them a little sternness to go with the sweetness of his song.”

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N Y Times 25:27 Ja 18 ’20 500w

“It is simple, sincere, beautiful. Yet it is always quiet and restful. It is not emotional, it soothes. The pictures are gems.”

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Springf’d Republican p10 Ap 27 ’20 900w

“It is true that he is ‘the poet of the blackbird,’ that his ‘small circle of readers’ will turn to his work for its mildness, sweetness, and serenity, ‘as to a very still lake ... on a very cloudless evening.’ But that small circle must not be disappointed to discover that his limpidity and naturalness are often blurred with the derivative, that his taste is uncertain, ... that his imagination is less active than his fancy. Complete poems, unflawed by inequalities of tone and workmanship are therefore rare.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p607 O 30 ’19 1700w

“It is impossible to read these again without realizing that Ledwidge is Ireland’s foremost poet of landscape, a poet who will undoubtedly win lasting recognition.” N. J. O’Conor

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Yale R n s 10:207 O ’20 130w

LEE, GERALD STANLEY. Ghost in the White House. *$2 Dutton 342.7

20–8716

“‘The White House is haunted by a vague helpless abstraction,—by a kind of ghost of the nation, called the People.’ Gerald Stanley Lee gives expression to what he regards as the common aspiration of the people—a yearning to emerge from the ghost stage and to take on tangible shape and substance through which to give expression and to render service. This transformation must be wrought through the organization of the people—the consumers—into a large club or league with branches and chapters. Thus organized, the individual would have a channel for the expression and application of their constructive thought. On the individual is the responsibility of arming himself with knowledge adequate for good judgment, with perspective for sound progress, with vision for comprehensive planning. Then shall the President be simply the chief of a practical religion.”—Survey.

“Mr Lee writes for the most part in words of one syllable, a style admirably suited to reflect his own mental processes.” H. K.

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Freeman 2:333 D 15. ’20 190w

Ind 103:292 S 4 ’20 80w

“The author has thought, or mused, a lot, but he has hardly studied the problems at all. He fancies that economics is a very simple science—and so it is, his economics. He has not the faintest conception of the real forces that are now reshaping the industrial world.”

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Nation 111:276 S 4 ’20 430w

“Mr Lee’s book is thought provoking, stimulating, and much of it is true. It will provoke thought in persons who do not habitually think. One is not quite sure whether a good book like this helps or hinders one.” M. F. Egan

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N Y Times 25:5 Jl 4 ’20 3000w

“It is a remarkably successful attempt to formulate the definite, practical desires of the plain people.”

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R of Rs 42:109 Jl ’20 120w

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Springf’d Republican p6 O 4 ’20 670w

“It deserves to be widely read. It deals in a fascinating way with a common experience and a serious problem. While it does not solve this old problem, it serves a good purpose by stimulating new interest and new thought.” A. J. Lien

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Survey 44:591 Ag 2 ’20 200w

LEE, HARRY SHERIDAN. High company. *$1.50 Stokes 811

20–16183

A collection of war poems under the subtitle “sketches of courage and comradeship,” mostly hospital scenes full of pathos and touches of humor. Contents: The upper room; The pipe and the fire; Angeline; April hearts; The hidden wound; Trees; Baldur the bright god; Winged heels; Ninette and Rintintin; Deferred payment; “Soldiers three”; Biddle’s kid; The good brown earth; The roll of honour; Pudgyfist visits the hospital; Lights out; The pie lady; “Every dog has his day”; “All in the blue unclouded weather”; Buddies; The shadow of the cloud; “Men of good will.”

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Cath World 112:402 D ’20 170w

“The wounded doughboys are depicted with humor, sympathy, and originality, but the free verse form often degenerates into literal and banal prose.”

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N Y Evening Post p13 N 6 ’ 20 90w

“The tribute is beautiful in spirit, beautiful in expression.”

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N Y Times p24 D 19 ’20 380w

LEE, JAMES MELVIN, ed. Business writing. (Language for men of affairs) il $4 Ronald 808

20–9490

This volume has been prepared by a number of writers connected with the business department of colleges, and with business periodicals and is intended to help business men to write reports, articles for trade papers, make effective speeches at dinners, conventions or clubs, and to instruct advertising writers. The seven divisions of the book are headed: Essentials of writing; The reinforcement of reading; Letter for men of affairs; Report-writing; Advertising copy; The journalism of business; Mechanical and incidental. The appendices consist of bibliographies for both volumes and there is an index. The companion volume on “Talking business” is by John Mantle Clapp.

Booklist 16:334 Jl ’20

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R of Rs 62:672 D ’20 70w

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School R 28:636 O ’20 130w

LEE, JENNETTE BARBOUR (PERRY) (MRS GERALD STANLEY LEE). Chinese coat. *$1.75 (6c) Scribner

20–14288

To Eleanor More and her husband, Richard, a blue Chinese coat that she could not afford to buy became a kind of a symbol. The desire to give it to her stayed with her husband all thru their early married life—while their family was growing up and even after the children were men and women. Their pilgrimage to a far country to at last gain possession of the coat is the climax of a story which is part allegory and part romance.

“A quiet tale of married life told with a charming simplicity and a touch of symbolism.”

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Booklist 17:71 N ’20

“Companionable, sweet and comfortable, filling the mind with dreams of times when, unwillingly and under pressure, we were forced to let the great desire go.”

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Bookm 52:175 O ’20 60w

“A sweet little story, charmingly told, and illustrating the lovable qualities of husband and wife.”

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Cath World 112:271 N ’20 60w

“A story that is remarkably compact and sustained in interest throughout. Throughout it is woven the glimmering web of poetry, and this is due partly to the theme itself and partly to the simplicity of the prose. One feels upon reading the story that Mrs Lee possesses unsuspected talents. The idealism and symbolic qualities of ‘The Chinese coat’ are never in doubt. It is a book to be read.”

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N Y Times p23 S 26 ’20 480w

“A charmingly simple story that has just enough of a plot to hold it together.”

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Springf’d Republican p11a S 26 ’20 230w

Wis Lib Bul 16:194 N ’20 80w

LEE, VERNON, pseud. (VIOLET PAGET). Satan the waster. *$2.50 Lane 822

20–16301

Vernon Lee’s satirical allegory, “The ballet of the nations,” was published in 1915 and was reviewed in the Book Review Digest at that time. It is now reprinted here, with prologue and epilogue which take account of the deeper causes leading to the war and of the chaos that has followed it. In the trilogy thus completed Satan appears as “the waster of human virtues.” And since the greater and more useless the waste, the greater his delight, he finds his chief joy in self-sacrifice which is vain, and the author, who in the furnace of the war has come to doubt and question all accepted values, suggests that what the world needs in place of self-sacrifice is that altruism “which is respect for the other rather than renunciation of the self.” This and other philosophical aspects of the war are discussed in the Introduction and in the notes which follow the play.

Ath p846 Je 25 ’20 190w

“We are casting about for a reason why a book so honest, intelligent, well-written, clever, should not stimulate but depress, should be a tiresome book. We may mention that the masque, ‘Satan the waster,’ occupies 110 pages out of about 340; the remainder consists of introduction and notes. That is a damning—or at least a damnable—fact.” F. W. S.

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Ath p299 S 3 ’20 640w

Booklist 17:106 D ’20

“It is an interesting discussion of our international imbecilities and sets forth with pomp those precise opinions whose less elegant expression recently sent several hundred Americans to jail.”

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Dial 70:232 F ’21 70w

“Enormously stimulating and quickening book. It ought to be one of the real factors in that spiritual re-adjustment which is now a major democratic necessity.” F. H.

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New Repub 24:244 N 3 ’20 3650w

“Her satire fails because never from beginning to end can the reader believe in it. It is merely an expression of her opinions in a very artificial form; and, whether or no we agree with them, we would rather have them expressed in the natural form of argument.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p389 Je 24 ’20 3200w

“It embodies the reaction to the world war of one of the sanest minds and most finished stylists of her day. One who compares Romain Rolland’s dramatic satire ‘Liluli’ with this work, is struck with the similarity in purpose, in point of view, in fundamental concept, and even in their common form of cosmic burlesque. Neither the great Frenchman nor the great Englishwoman has written a ‘play’ in the ordinary sense, but each has made an uncommon contribution to literature.”

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Theatre Arts Magazine 5:85 Ja ’21 320w

LEES, GEORGE ROBINSON. Life of Christ. il *$5 Dodd 232

20–18310

Considering it of supreme importance to be able to visualize the scenery amid which the life of Christ was laid, the writer of this volume spent six years in Palestine during which he learned “how real was the life of Christ in the scenes depicted in the records of the Evangelist.” Thus with much local and historic coloring the life of Jesus is reinterpreted from the accounts of the apostles which are closely followed. The book is indexed and has one hundred and twenty-five full page illustrations.

“Inevitably it provokes comparison with Renan in point of literary style, if not in actual treatment, for Mr Lees is a convinced believer. His style fails badly by the test. Though a book of this kind is not greatly to our taste, we cannot but acknowledge the author’s devotion.”

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Ath p868 D 24 ’20 90w

“His narrative is plain, simple, understandable, but not marked by either remarkable scholarship or remarkable insight.”

+ −

Outlook 126:767 D 29 ’20 100w

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p687 O 21 ’20 90w

LE GALLIENNE, RICHARD. Junk-man, and other poems. *$1.75 Doubleday 811

20–17992

With a wealth of imagery and a poet’s wisdom all life is mirrored in these poems in the time-honored garb of rhyme and metre. The first line of the poem “On re-reading Le morte d’Arthur,” “Here learn who will the art of noble words” can be applied to this collection, the author’s first since the war.

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Booklist 17:105 D ’20

“If his extreme youth was a little hectic with the heady wine of passion his maturity has grown beautifully sane with the philosophic mind. He was never more youthful than now, when he has recaptured the song of the lark, regained the lightness of foot that measures the pace of any gypsy up hill and down dale, and with an eye for illusions that any lover might envy.” W: S. Braithwaite

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Boston Transcript p5 N 6 ’20 1300w

Dial 70:233 F ’21 130w

“It is a sad day for poetry when an authentic craftsman attains such facility that he writes from sheer momentum. This, we suspect, is what has happened in the case of Mr Richard Le Gallienne, whose new book, ‘The junkman’ is the mere shell of poetry—the forms without the feeling.” L. B.

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Freeman 2:165 O 27 ’20 200w

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Ind 194:246 N 13 ’20 150w

“It is compact with beauty, filled with all those things that we instinctively know to be the real marks of authentic poetry. The flare, the passion, the abiding sense of things that may not readily be put into words, are all here. It is the sort of poetry that endures, that becomes memorable and takes place in the memories and hearts of its readers.” H. S. Gorman

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N Y Times p11 O 10 ’20 1500w

“A collection of verse that equals anything this prolific author has done.”

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Springf’d Republican p9a O 31 ’20 400w

LEIGHTON, JOHN LANGDON. Simsadus: London; the American navy in Europe. il *$4 (11c) Holt 940.45

20–9639

“Sims—Admiral—U.S.” explains the title of the book. It was the cable address of Admiral Sims’ headquarters in London. The author was connected with the Intelligence section of Admiral Sims’ staff and as such is conversant with the inside facts and history of our naval operations. The book gives his personal impressions and disclaims official sanction. A partial list of the contents: The situation in April, 1917; Admiral Sims in London; The establishment of bases; Submarines off the American coast; A discussion of submarines and their methods; The distraction of submarines; Why American troopships were not sunk; The end of the submarine campaign; The man on the bridge (in homage); Appendix, charts and illustrations.

“After the host of war books which have kept our heads buzzing with anecdotes and statistics incoherently packed into a jumbled whole it is not only refreshing but instructive to read a clear, sane, and comprehensive exposition of our naval activities in Europe as set forth by Mr Leighton.” P. E. Stevenson

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N Y Times 25:23 Je 27 ’20 1000w

“It is something of a relief to find a war-book that does not strain one’s nerves, or overwhelm one with facts, and that has hardly any note in it of propaganda, or eulogy, or criticism. Mr Leighton has given a clear-cut, well-ordered account of what our navy did in connection with the British navy.”

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No Am 212:862 D ’20 1050w

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R of Rs 62:112 Jl ’20 90w

“Pervading his book is a whole-hearted devotion to his chief, which goes beyond mere professional loyalty and suggests kinship with the spirit that surrounded Nelson. Readers of Admiral Sims’s own book can hardly fail to discern the secret of this spirit and it is pleasant to find it reflected from the pages of his subordinate.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p3 Ja 6 ’21 860w

LE QUEUX, WILLIAM TUFNELL. Doctor of Pimlico; being the disclosure of a great crime. *$1.75 Macaulay co.

20–1211

“Weirmarsh is a criminal who operates all over the continent of Europe, as well as in England, and, possessing certain hypnotic powers, he finds it easy to bend other wills to his for his own profit. So not only is Sir Hugh Elcombe—with his splendid record as a British officer in several hard campaigns, including the great war just ended—made a pitiful object by his fear of an ‘exposure’ by Weirmarsh, but Sir Hugh’s beautiful stepdaughter, Enid Orlebar, who seems to be a perfect example of the high-class modern English girl is also under his baleful shadow. She is loved by the middle-aged cosmopolite who is intended to be the hero of the book. He is a talented author of mystery romances which bring him an income of several thousand pounds sterling a year. His real name, under which he writes, is Walter Fetherston. But he has a penchant for amateur detective work—he avers that he always ‘lives’ his romances—and when he is engaged in trying to get to the bottom of some criminal mystery he calls himself John Maltwood.”—N Y Times

Ath p1242 N 21 ’19 50w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

Bookm 51:585 Jl ’20 180w

“The story rambles on—always fluent and in well-chosen terms, with colorful pictures of various localities in Europe obviously made by one who knows them personally, but singularly deficient in suspense, dramatic action, humor, or any other of the qualities which make for real interest in an up-to-date work of fiction.”

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N Y Times 25:309 Je 13 ’20 700w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p698 N 27 ’19 140w

LESCOHIER, DON DIVANCE. Labor market. (Social science text-books) *$2.25 Macmillan 331

19–19765

“The purpose of this volume is to show the necessity for a national organization to control the problem of employment. In the course of his discussion the author presents much information concerning conditions of the labor market in this country and offers many suggestions to officials of employment offices, university students and teachers, legislators and the general public.”—R of Rs

“The book is an authoritative and constructive study of an important question; and its essential merit lies in the fact that it is based on experience. The general aspects of the question, however, are not neglected and the bibliography and references show that the subject has been studied as a whole.” G: M. Janes

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Am Econ R 10:605 S ’20 940w

“The subject is covered very fully and is presented in a popular style. Will be valuable to labor managers, students of economics, and progressive business executives.”

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Booklist 16:223 Ap ’20

“Of interest to all students of practical economic questions.”

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Cleveland p54 My ’20 40w

“A workmanlike book ... that fills a gap in economic literature.”

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Dial 68:541 Ap ’20 40w

“It is neither novel nor exciting. It is a sober and well-balanced study of the way in which the sale of labor in the employment market is organized. If Mr Lescohier’s book has a fault, it is his inclination to regard the general background of the present industrial system as permanent. But as a survey of machinery Mr Lescohier’s book is of real value.” H. J. Laski

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Nation 110:594 My 1 ’20 320w

R of Rs 61:447 Ap ’20 60w

“In this volume Professor Lescohier has rendered a singularly opportune public service. It is enormously important to have available at this time such a clear discussion of the nature of the labor market and of the significance for the country of the sundry labor and immigration policies proposed.”

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Survey 44:318 My 29 ’20 400w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p241 Ap 15 ’20 60w

LESLIE, NOEL. Three plays: Waste; The war fly; For king and country. *$1.50 Four seas co. 822

20–7067

There is tragedy in all of these realistic one-act plays. In Waste we have a dying consumptive girl whose last hours see a grief and poverty-stricken mother, a drunken father, and her lover turning from her to her younger sister. In the War-fly two strangers meet in a hotel restaurant and the one entertains the other with a gruesome fancy about flies as the devil’s emmisaries. In For King and country an aged village couple have one son returned from the war blind and while they are discussing the future of the other son and his war bride this other is brought home mad.

“Each and all of his three plays reveal him as a playwright with ideas, and as one whose own acting has enabled him to see dramatic values and to cause them to live in plays of his own. There is the reality of life in them as well as a feeling for the theatre that makes them actable. They hit the centre of the target.” A. A. W.

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Boston Transcript p4 Ap 21 ’20 450w

“Of Mr Noel’s three one-act plays the second, The war-fly, is quite dark in drift and meaning and so one suspects that neither matters greatly. His first and third plays, on the contrary, Waste and For king and country, are drenched with significance because they strain after no symbolism and are philosophical because they are true.”

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Nation 110:693 My 22 ’20 180w

“The three plays contained in Noel Leslie’s book are rather exasperating. In each one of them the author handles an excellent theme, makes fair headway with it and then does not quite realize the possibilities of his plots.”

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N Y Evening Post p9 My 8 ’20 140w

“The plays are set with an actor’s solicitude, and each begins with a promise which is overcast by partial disappointment.”

+ −

Review 2:464 My 1 ’20 100w

“They really are workmanlike in structure, are well written, and display some grasp of character and ability to devise dramatic situations. In ‘The war fly,’ the author shows that he can devise a tragic fantasy of some original power.”

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Theatre Arts Magazine 4:259 Jl ’20 180w

LEVEL, MAURICE. Tales of mystery and horror. il *$2 (3½c) McBride

20–18255

These stories are translated from the French by Alys Eyre Macklin. Henry B. Irving provides an introduction in which he says: “Reminding one of Edgar Allan Poe more than any other, M. Level employs the method of O. Henry in the service of the horrible.” The stories, which are all brief—have the titles: The debt collector; The kennel; Who? Illusion; In the light of the red lamp; A mistake; Extenuating circumstances; The confession; The test; Poussette; The father; For nothing; In the wheat; The beggar; Under chloroform; The man who lay asleep; Fascination; The bastard; That scoundrel Miron; The taint; The kiss; A maniac; The 10.50 express; Blue eyes; The empty house; The last kiss.

“He has Poe’s predilection for supernatural and gruesome themes, something of de Maupassant’s technique of compression, a flair for the ‘irony of fate’ formula, which was so characteristic of O. Henry’s plot, and a kinship with Burke’s nostalgie de la boue. But there the likeness ends, he has none of the qualities mentioned in a degree sufficient to raise him to the level of the men he suggests.”

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N Y Times p24 Ag 29 ’20 740w

“In spite of their subject-matter, the stories neither shock me morally, chill my blood with their horror, nor affect me with their pathos. A skillful machinist, not an artist, seems to have been at work.” E. L. Pearson

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Review 3:249 S 22 ’20 480w

LEVERAGE, HENRY. Shepherd of the sea. il *$1.75 (2½c) Doubleday

20–26194

This is a story of the icy North, of ice-floes, of shipwreck, of starvation and mutiny at a whaling station, of an overland trip in a dog-sled, deprivation and hunger and narrow escape from freezing. A missionary sea-captain who is out to fight the whiskey traffic with the Eskimos and to carry the word of God to them, picks up Buck Traherne when his motor-boat had capsized in the Strait. Traherne is just out of college at Seattle and a tenderfoot. The life on ship-board puts strength into him and he becomes, with the shepherd, the mainstay of the castaway crew on Herschel Island. Moona—half Eskimo and half Scotch—the shepherd’s ward, loves him and after the rescue has come, and the arctic flowers have once more lifted their heads, the charm she has knitted into Traherne’s muffler shows its potency.

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Booklist 16:204 Mr ’20

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

Bookm 51:80 Mr ’20 260w

“Memories of ‘Captains courageous’ seem to filter through the beginnings of Mr Leverage’s tale. Nevertheless, the plot would pass very well by itself if the author had the style and strength to render it into a forcible and plausible narrative. Unfortunately, he has not.” G. M. H.

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Boston Transcript p6 Ja 28 ’20 550w

“The tale contains an abundance of adventure, and the author seems to know the country and the life whereof he writes, but the book is marred by a style so very jerky that it soon gets upon the reader’s nerves.”

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N Y Times 25:39 Ja 25 ’20 380w

LEVERAGE, HENRY. Where dead men walk. *$1.75 Moffat

20–1210

“A story of the underworld, Mr Leverage’s new novel, ‘Where dead men walk,’ recounts the adventures of one Vilos Holbrook. He had lived a lazy, comfortable life until his uncle, Colonel Bishop, who had control of the modest fortune left him by his father, was swindled out of it while himself endeavoring to swindle a supposedly dying man. Only a few hours before he learned of the loss of his fortune, curiosity had induced him to attend the disreputable ‘Three students’ ball,’ where he had seen Gypsy Cragen dance, and later talked with her. When he presently discovered that she had been one of the gang of swindlers who had gotten the better of his uncle, he protected her, and later joined the little organization of thieves to which the Gypsy and her father, formerly a noted safeblower, belonged. This he preferred to earning an honest living as an electrical engineer. Also he took first to whisky, and then, under the Gypsy’s tutelage, to opium, which he found at the end of that path over the roof described as the one ‘where dead men walk.’”—N Y Times

“Stories of the underworld invariably possess a certain fascination. Mr Leverage has written a fair sample of this type of novel.”

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Boston Transcript p4 Je 2 ’20 240w

“The story is entertaining in its way and contains one really clever situation. But the style is unpleasantly staccato, and the construction leaves a good deal to be desired.”

+ −

N Y Times 25:76 F 8 ’20 300w

Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 25 ’20 80w

LEVERHULME, WILLIAM HESKETH LEVER, 1st baron. Six-hour shift and industrial efficiency. *$3.50 (4c) Holt 331

20–11378

The book is the American edition of the author’s “Six-hour day,” abridged and rearranged by Frank Tannenbaum, with an introduction by Henry R. Seager. Lord Leverhulme’s remedies for the defects of modern industry are based on actual experience and are summed up in the word co-partnership. He looks upon the employer as the senior partner in an industry and the employees as the junior partners, with the confidence that under such wisely planned leadership complete cooperation will gradually result. Contents: The problem of industrial efficiency; The six-hour shift; Harmonizing capital and labor; Co-partnership; Co-partnership and business management; Co-partnership and efficiency; Co-operative aspect of business; Health and housing; Shop committees and shop efficiency; Industrial administration; The workers’ interest in productivity; Principles of reconstruction; Socialism, or equality vs. equity. There is an index.

Booklist 16:357 Jl ’20

Lit D p106 S 4 ’20 1600w

R of Rs 62:110 Jl ’20 70w

Springf’d Republican p8 Je 15 ’20 150w

LEVINE, ISAAC DON. Letters from the Kaiser to the Czar. $3 Stokes 327

20–15556

These letters, “copied from government archives in Moscow, unpublished before 1920,” are “the private letters from the Kaiser to the Czar found in a chest after the Czar’s execution and now in possession of the Soviet government.” In his introduction the author reprints comments on the letters from various English papers and from Professor Walter Goetz. As the letters were written in English they are printed as written. Four of the letters are given in facsimile.

Booklist 17:113 D ’20

Reviewed by A. C. Freeman

N Y Call p7 Ja 9 ’21 580w

“While not as important as the telegrams which were published in 1917, these letters from the Kaiser to the Czar are extremely interesting as historical documents completing the picture. They reveal the author far better than any biographer could reveal him.” Herman Bernstein

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N Y Times p18 O 10 ’20 2550w

“They are only half satisfactory as correspondence because there are no letters of reply from the Czar to the Kaiser. Regrettably incomplete as the present volume is, no book, we think, could present a greater revelation of the Kaiser’s character. Such a book should have had an index.”

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Outlook 127:110 Ja 19 ’21 400w

R of Rs 62:445 O ’20 140w

“Mr Grant’s excellent introduction explains everything that needs explanation, and ample footnotes clear up the personal and other allusions which might perplex readers who are not close students of foreign politics.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p867 D 23 ’20 900w

LEVINGER, MRS ELMA EHRLICH.^[2] New land. $1.25 Bloch

20–10306

“This little collection of stories written for children, of ‘Jews who had a part in the making of our country,’ belongs in part to historical biography with a large fictional element and in part to pure fiction with a historical setting.”—Survey

“The particular ideal of the author of ‘The new land’ to be sure, is not Christian but patriotic virtue, but her method of approach is sadly reminiscent of the Sunday school library of old time. Nevertheless the tales are all carefully and enthusiastically told and often rise to intrinsic human interest.” C. K. S.

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Freeman 2:69 S 29 ’20 140w

“The stories are well written; they have a collective ‘moral,’ of course, but this does not obtrude itself, nor is it narrowly nationalistic.” B. L.

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Survey 45:468 D 25 ’20 120w

LEVISON, ERIC.^[2] Hidden eyes. *$1.75 Bobbs

20–16929

“Mysterious bank robberies at Jacksonville, Fla., furnish the plot of ‘Hidden eyes.’ The most complicated locks and burglar-proof bank vaults are opened without delay by a most adroit and elusive thief. Robbery after robbery occurs and the detective force is well-nigh demoralized. The detective chief, however, has a latent suspicion of a young chemist named Thornton, who is an expert in steel and safe locks. Thornton is taken in the very act of a midnight foray. But this is far from clearing the mystery. That duty is accomplished by a local doctor who dabbles in psychoanalysis and auto-suggestion.”—Springf’d Republican

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Boston Transcript p4 Ja 19 ’21 360w

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N Y Times p20 D 12 ’20 370w

“The dénouement is quite unexpected and furnishes the biggest thrill of all.”

+

Springf’d Republican p7a D 26 ’20 120w

LEVY, S. I.^[2] Modern explosives. il $1 (3½c) Pitman 662.2

The contents of this volume of Pitman’s common commodities and industries are: Modern explosives and their raw materials; The chemistry of explosives manufacture; The acids section of an explosives factory; The manufacture of propellant explosives; Preparation of the high explosives; Explosives in war and peace; Chemistry and national welfare. Index and illustrations.

“Although avoiding technical details, the author has given a reasonable and well-balanced treatment of his subject in the space at his disposal. One or two slips may be noted. The final chapter, on ‘Chemistry and national welfare,’ although not directly connected with the subject, is very apposite at the present time.”

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Nature 106:340 N 11 ’20 180w

LEWER, H. WILLIAM. China collector; a guide to the porcelain of the English factories. (Collector’s ser.) il *$2.50 (4½c) Dodd 738

“This book has been written to enable the enthusiastic collector of china, even after he has passed through his apprenticeship, and acquired a certain amount of experience, to form a correct judgment of that branch of ceramics embraced under the designation of old English porcelain.” (Foreword) The book has a prefatory note by Frank Stevens explaining the illustrations of which there are thirty-two and the marks. The distinctive features of each factory are treated under the titles of history, paste, glaze, decoration, production, characteristics, noted artists, chronology, and marks. The factories discussed are: Bow; Bristol; Caughley; Chelsea; Chelsea-Derby; Coalport; Derby; Longton Hall; Lowestoft: Nautgarw; New Hall; Pinxton; Plymouth; Rockingham; Spode; Swansea; Worcester. There is a chronograph, a bibliography, a tabular index of factories, an index of names and a general index.

LEWIS, SINCLAIR. Main street. *$2 (1c) Harcourt

20–18934

In telling the story of Main street, Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, the author has tried to tell the story of all America. His Main street “is the continuation of Main streets everywhere.” It is a story of dull mediocrity, complacent and satisfied with itself. Carol Milford, one year out of college, marries Dr Will Kennicott and goes with him to his home town, Gopher Prairie, in the wheat belt. Carol hates Main street at sight and in the six or eight years of her life that are chronicled does not hate it less, altho in the end she comes to see it with larger eyes and to endure it. One after the other she attempts reform measures, including a little theater venture, but her efforts meet defeat. She has her fling of defiance, and spends one of the war years in Washington, but comes back again, still rebellious. “I may not have fought the good fight,” says Carol, “but I have kept the faith.”

“One of the few really good American novels of today.”

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Booklist 17:117 D ’20

“The book is too long, rather tedious. But it has a humanity, a popular note which will appeal to thousands.” S. M. R.

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Bookm 52:372 D ’20 100w

“The total impression one derives is that neither Jane Austen nor George Eliot depicted the provincial England of the past with more vividness than that with which Mr Lewis portrays the present-day American small town.” S. A. Coblentz

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Bookm 52:357 Ja ’21 800w

“He knows the American small town for what it is, history in that respect being the supreme achievement in American fiction. But when he creates a protest against it, an attack upon its vicious existence, through the symbol of Carol Kennicott he comes nearer to the function of a treatise than the process of art. Kennicott is masterly drawn.” W: S. Braithwaite

+ −

Boston Transcript p4 D 11 ’20 1700w

“The atmosphere of the sordid smug little burg is well done.”

+

Cleveland p105 D ’20 40w

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Dial 70:106 Ja ’21 80w

“At times, Mr Lewis makes one feel that he has treated his people as mere incidents in an environment, that he has pictured them, not without malice, like Dickensian gargoyles. But there are scenes in his book as sensitively felt as some in Mr Sherwood Anderson’s ‘Winesburg, Ohio.’ These exceptional passages of his book are an earnest of the restraint and mastery which one will have the right to expect of his later work.” H. J. Seligmann

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Freeman 2:237 N 17 ’20 750w

“His dialogue, which he uses very freely, is brilliant. The exactness of this dialogue is a literary achievement of a very high order. Mr Lewis has given literary permanence to the speech of his time and section. But the dialogue in ‘Main street’ is anything but literature in the sense of Verlaine; it is living talk. ‘Main street’ would add to the power and distinction of the contemporary literature of any country.”

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Nation 111:536 N 10 ’20 820w

“‘Main street’ is pioneer work. Some formulae it does help to perpetuate. Some garishness and crudity it does unpleasantly employ in its anxiety to be effective and pat. But while the novelistic hen does not necessarily lay better if surrounded by strong artificial light, the light in ‘Main street’ is on the whole natural, honest and oh so amazingly illuminating.” F. H.

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New Republic 25:20 D 1 ’20 1500w

“‘Main street’ is a book to possess and treasure. What the critics have overlooked is just this: that Carol’s idealism was at least as superficial and worthless as the faults of Main street. Carol is more than a blind would-be leader of the blind; she is a butterfly aspirant for the leadership of the apsychosaurus.” Clement Wood

+ −

N Y Call p5 Ja 9 ’21 300w

“Dealing with material that is rarely subtle, Mr Lewis can be subtle enough himself. Besides his gift for character and situation, he has also a knack at satire and caustic epigram, with so enormous an acquaintance with the foibles and folklore of the Middle West that he has literally set a new standard for novels dealing with the section.” Carl Van Doren

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N Y Evening Post p3 N 20 ’20 2000w

“A remarkable book. A novel, yes, but so unusual as not to fall easily into a class. There is practically no plot, yet the book is absorbing. It is so much like life itself, so extraordinarily real. These people are actual folk, and there was never better dialogue written than their revealing talk.”

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N Y Times p18 N 14 ’20 1600w

“Gopher Prairie is untypical in human sympathy, in generous instincts, in kindness of heart. Its people are not merely heavy in mind, ludicrously dead to art and literature and world movements; they are selfish, grasping, slanderloving, ignoble. Carol herself is a shallow sort of reformer. This is the strongest criticism to be made on ‘Main street.’” R. D. Townsend

+ −

Outlook 127:31 Ja 5 ’21 400w

Reviewed by M. A. Hopkins

+

Pub W 98:1889 D 18 ’20 200w

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

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Review 3:447 N 10 ’20 690w

“It is full of the realism of fact, colored by rather laborious and overclever satire. But it has no sustained action, whether as realism or as satire. It is a bulky collection of scenes, types, caricatures, humorous episodes, and facetious turns of phrase; a mine of comedy from which the ore has not been lifted.” H. W. Boynton

− +

Review 3:623 D 22 ’20 280w

“Mr Lewis has fashioned one of the year’s most notable volumes of fiction.”

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Springf’d Republican p7a D 26 ’20 850w

“He is particularly adept in reproducing the vernacular. Whether the picture as a whole and his judgments on it are equally true may be a matter for disagreement. But as a sincere attempt to deal honestly with middle-western life the novel is noteworthy.”

+

Wis Lib Bul 16:238 D ’20 90w

LEWISOHN, LUDWIG, ed. Modern book of criticisms; ed. with an introd. (Modern lib. of the world’s best books) *85c Boni & Liveright 801

20–11399

“An anthology of passages (of about six pages or less each in length) from modern authors dealing with the principles of literature, art, and criticism, divided into four parts according to the nations represented by the authors drawn upon—for France, Anatole France, Lemaître, Remy de Gourmont; for Germany, Hebbel, Dilthey, Volkelt, R. M. Meyer, Hofmannsthal, Mueller-Freienfels, Alfred Kerr; for England, George Moore, G. B. Shaw, Arthur Symons, Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, W. L. George, T. MacDonagh, J. C. Powys; for America, Huneker, Spingarn, Mencken, Lewisohn, F. Hackett, Van Wyck Brooks, and Randolph Bourne.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“Mr Lewisohn’s group of critics are restless impressionists, almost destitute of doctrine.” S. P. Sherman

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Bookm 52:111 O ’20 880w

“Connoisseurs of critical personality as such will miss Mr More and Mr Sherman in this volume, inasmuch as they are men of a particularly vivid and dramatic force. The critics whom Mr Lewisohn does put in his collection speak for the most part superbly.” C. and M. V. D.

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Nation 111:219 Ag 21 ’20 1250w

“He has done his task in commendable fashion.” H. S. Gorman

+

N Y Times p8 Ag 1 ’20 240w

“A book which begins with selections from Anatole France and Jules Lemaitre is bound to be useful, for the critical writings of these men are less accessible than one could wish. Furthermore, Mr Lewisohn has made a number of translations of his own from German writers. It is this foreign background which gives the book its chief value.”

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Springf’d Republican p10 My 20 ’20 240w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p175 Mr 11 ’20 100w