Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 3)
Reading edition
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N Y Times p24 Ag 1 ’20 720w
Outlook 125:223 Je 2 ’20 80w
BARTHOLOMEW, WALLACE EDGAR, and HURLBUT, FLOYD.[2] Business man’s English, spoken and written. il *$1.48 Macmillan 808
20–15735
“Bartholomew and Hurlbut have prepared a book which ‘intends to interpret English as used by the careful business man of today.’ Chapter I of this book indicates the need of a study of business English. Succeeding chapters take up such subjects as the business vocabulary, ‘Common errors,’ clearness and emphasis in written expression. Chapters VIII, IX, and X deal with oral English. Five chapters are devoted to the study of various forms of letters. The subject of advertising is given thorough consideration.”—School R
N Y Evening Post p9 O 30 ’20 90w
Reviewed by Brander Matthews
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N Y Times p10 D 5 ’20 980w
“The book is well organized for use as a textbook. Persons giving English courses in secondary schools will find it helpful.”
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School R 28:797 D ’20 320w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p801 D 2 ’20 40w
BARTLETT, WILLIAM HENRY. Handbook of American government; rev and enl ed. by H: Campbell Black. *$1.25 Crowell 353
20–11824
The last previous edition of this book appeared in 1912. The present revision is designed to cover changes since that time, including three amendments to the constitution, changes in the judicial system, and changes brought about by the war. The editor has also “taken advantage of the opportunity to explain or discuss at greater length various important topics mentioned in the original text, and to introduce comments or explanations of some clauses of the constitution, or of the practical working of government under it, which had not previously been included.” (Editor’s note)
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Survey 45:26 O 2 ’20 60w
BARTLEY, MRS NALBRO ISADORAH. Gorgeous girl. il *$1.75 (2c) Doubleday
20–6713
Stephen O’Valley became rich quick. He strained every nerve to become so because he wanted to marry the “gorgeous girl,” Beatrice Constantine, the spoiled daughter of wealth. When the engagement gaieties, the wedding and honeymoon were over, and Steve proposed to Beatrice that they quiet down and “find themselves” the disillusionment began. A perpetual round of social excitement, a reckless spending of money was Beatrice’s entire world and Steve’s comparisons between her and Mary Faithful, his right hand in business, became more searching. In time Mary assumes the rôle of critic holding the mirror up to Steve, to show not only his own life but Mary’s heart. When the failure of Steve’s business sends the heartless Beatrice to Reno another kind of “gorgeous girl” takes her place.
“Nalbro Bartley has mastered the style of American magazine fiction. She has the light touch, the gift for quick, clever characterization and a modicum of American slang. It is quite noticeable that the women of the story are much more real creations than the men.”
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Boston Transcript p11 Ap 3 ’20 500w
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Ind 104:247 N 13 ’20 20w
“While Nalbro Bartley’s new story of ‘The gorgeous girl’ cannot be called particularly convincing, it is less glaringly improbable than some of her other tales. The book has some neat phrasing, Mary’s home life is nicely sketched, and there are a few clever touches of characterization.”
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N Y Times 25:199 Ap 18 ’20 480w
Reviewed by E. C. Webb
Pub W 97:995 Mr 20 ’20 300w
BARTLEY, MRS NALBRO ISADORAH. Gray angels. *$1.90 (1½c) Small
20–17174
The first notice the world took of Thurley Precore was when she “sang for her supper” and then continued to sing herself into people’s hearts generally. The rich ghost lady heard the voice in her living tomb and came out to take Thurley to New York and give her a musical education. She became a prima donna, lived in an intimate circle of first class artists, experienced their disappointments, their boredom and the restlessness of fame. She tried to become reckless and flirted with the forbidden, when her singing teacher, also a man of genius, whom she secretly loved, set her right by confiding to her his vision of America’s supreme mission in art. Winning the violet crown he called it. Later the war with its war madness showed to Thurley that her own particular mission lay in helping to restore a hysterical people to sanity and to become one of the gray angels to the broken ones of the war.
“The book is entertaining, the characters are well drawn. Fewer characters would have been better. Thurley’s interesting career, with its pleasing denouement, might have been told in considerably less than 420 pages.”
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N Y Times p10 O 17 ’20 350w
BARTON, BRUCE. It’s a good old world. *$1.50 Century 814
20–14616
The book is a collection of contributions to various magazines. They all look upon the cheery side of life, pick out the amenities from the commonplaces, and abound in good advice and cheery encouragement for the passengers on this “Good old world” whose “quiet, patient fashion in which he goes around about the same old task, day after day and year after year” the author admires. Some of the titles are: I expect to be entirely consistent—after ninety; A great little word is “why”; The second mile; It’s a moving picture world, and the film changes every few minutes; The fine rare habit of learning to do without; That fine old fake about the good old days; Everybody has something.
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Booklist 17:137 Ja ’21
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Ind 104:249 N 13 ’20 30w
“Brief and pithy and filled with common sense philosophy.”
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Wis Lib Bul 16:234 D ’20 30w
BARTON, GEORGE. Celebrated spies and famous mysteries of the great war. il *$2 Page 940.3
19–17029
“George Barton has gathered together some of the strange happenings of the war. It is no connected tale of espionage, but rather a series of pen pictures relating to only a few of those involved in the conflict, and those few among the best known. The opening chapter deals with the disappearance of the Hampshire, with Kitchener and his staff; the final one, with the murder of Ferdinand at Sarajevo. In between are such dissimilar persons as Edith Cavell, Capt. Fryatt, Bolo Pasha, Roger Casement, Ram Chanda and Werner Horn.”—Springf’d Republican
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Booklist 16:126 Ja ’20
“Every chapter reads like an Oppenheim novel in little, and there is matter enough in the book to furnish material for all writers who are seeking plots for stories of mystery.”
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Boston Transcript p11 D 13 ’19 200w
“This book contains more promise than performance. Whatever interest the stories themselves might hold is entirely spoiled by the stagey dressing.”
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Cath World 111:406 Je ’20 170w
“An especially interesting chapter is ‘Eugene Van Doren and the secret press of Belgium.’ If Mr Barton has told nothing new he has at least gathered together the fragments of interesting and varied careers reflecting differing aspects of the war.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 D 16 ’19 160w
BARTON, WILLIAM ELEAZAR. Paternity of Abraham Lincoln; was he the son of Thomas Lincoln? an essay on the chastity of Nancy Hanks. *$4 Doran
20–19246
The author says that this book may be considered a footnote to his earlier book, “The soul of Abraham Lincoln” and as a suppressed preface to a “Life of Abraham Lincoln” which he plans to write. He states that in collecting data for the first book he came upon a considerable body of material bearing on Lincoln’s paternity and discovered that a number of intelligent collectors of Lincoln books and students of history were convinced that Abraham Lincoln was not the son of Thomas Lincoln. “Moreover, the author found himself at length compelled to ask of himself the question, What if these reports are true? And he pursued his investigations with an open mind.... The author has endeavored to trace every rumor and report relating to the birth of Abraham Lincoln, to assemble all the available evidence in favor of it and against it, to judge each one of these reports upon its own merits, and to render what, he believes, is a judgment from which there can be no successful appeal.” The judgment is a refutation of the supposed evidence and the author believes that he has covered the ground so thoroughly that the matter need not be referred to again.
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Boston Transcript p7 N 20 ’20 840w
“A convincing study which leaves not a square inch of ground for the scandal to stand on. Mr Barton’s researches have been exhaustive and—barring a few minor slips—accurate.” C. V. D.
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Nation 111:734 D 22 ’20 820w
“It is undisputedly and indisputably a good work to which Dr Barton has set his hand.”
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N Y Times p16 O 31 ’20 1750w
R of Rs 53:222 F ’21 70w
“A scholarly monograph.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 N 15 ’20 480w
BARTON, WILLIAM ELEAZAR. Soul of Abraham Lincoln. *$4 (3½c) Doran
20–3862
“The fact that there are so many books on the religion of Abraham Lincoln is a chief reason why there should be one more.” (Preface) The author explains his volume by stating the considerations which differentiate it from earlier works. He has provided an adequate historical background for the study of Lincoln’s religious life in successive periods and has been aided in this effort by the fact that he spent seven years in the same environment in which Lincoln lived during two important epochs of his career. He has assembled a larger body of essential evidence than any previous writer has compiled, and subjected it to a critical analysis. He has opened several entirely new avenues of investigation and he has set forth his conviction concerning the faith of Abraham Lincoln aside from his theological opinions. Accordingly the book falls into three parts: 1, A study of religious environment; 2, An analysis of the evidence; 3, The religion of Lincoln. The appendices contain extracts from addresses and books of other writers and there is a bibliography and an index.
“For libraries attempting a complete Lincoln collection, though it is rather lacking in charm for general reading.”
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Booklist 17:28 O ’20
“This book is so important in its field that it must be regarded as necessary to any library, public or private, fittingly equipped for the critical consideration of Lincoln’s religious history. His book is so well done that it is likely long to remain the standard work on the subject.” L. E. Robinson
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Bookm 51:547 Jl ’20 3200w
“The conclusion of the whole matter is that despite its entertaining and its authoritative biographical qualities, such a book as ‘The soul of Abraham Lincoln’ is utterly futile. It leaves us exactly at the point of its beginning. In its last page we have no clearer idea of Lincoln’s religious belief than in its first. Despite the mass of material he assembles, Dr Barton proves nothing.” E. F. E.
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Boston Transcript p4 Ap 7 ’20 1500w
“His viewpoint, the skilful analysis of conflicting evidence, and the ability which the author shows in reaching a logical conclusion, seems to us to make this book one with which all students of the lives of Lincoln must hereafter reckon.”
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N Y Call p10 Mr 28 ’20 340w
“His volume will probably be the final authority on the much-debated topic of Mr Lincoln’s religious faith.”
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Outlook 124:656 Ap 14 ’20 2000w
Spec 124:835 Je 19 ’20 70w
“Like many others who would like to have Mr Lincoln pictured not exactly as he really was, but as they are eager to think him, Mr Barton labors hard to show what he believes to have been the president’s religious ideas. The result is a new literary portrait of Mr Lincoln, interesting and agreeable in details of the president’s family life, but leaving one unconvinced regarding his religious convictions.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 Mr 15 ’20 600w
“Mr Barton has done his work with good feeling and well. In one thing we dissent from him seriously. He quite naturally ascribes Lincoln’s refusal to follow his wife all the way into the Presbyterian fold, or some other, to the weak side of his intellect and character. In all this there is something astray.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p480 Jl 29 ’20 1250w
BARUCH, BERNARD MANNES. Making of the reparation and economic sections of the treaty. *$3 Harper 940.314
20–18667
Having been intimately concerned with the creation of the reparation and economic sections of the treaty, the writer, in his introduction to the book, gives an apologetic review of the then existing conditions. The treaty was made, he says, in the still smouldering furnace of human passion. In the reparation clauses the conference was not writing a mere contract of dollars and cents; it was dealing with blood-raw passions still pulsing through peoples’ veins. He concedes that the treaty is severe but also insists that it is a flexible instrument, qualified to help effectuate a just and proper peace, if that desire and purpose be really present. Contents: How the reparation clauses were formed; Drawing the economic clauses; Reparation clauses; Economic clauses; Appendix; Index.
“He writes with more caution and less indignation than Keynes but his conclusion is essentially the same.”
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Booklist 17:139 Ja ’21
“It is straight history, instead of being, like Keynes’s book, a blend of history, literary satire and propaganda.”
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Ind 103:442 D 25 ’20 120w
“Though Mr Baruch is still somewhat under the influence of the pall of Paris, he lifts something of the veil of secrecy, and when he does he speaks with authority, and not as the journalists. It is an invaluable contribution.” L. S. G.
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Nation 111:506 N 3 ’20 1200w
Reviewed by Alvin Johnson
New Repub 25:21 D 1 ’20 1550w
“Mr Baruch seeks to explain, rather than to defend—which is the more enlightening method. His simplicity, candor, and restraint let the reader in to an apprehension of the true facts as he sees them. Where is it, then, that Mr Baruch’s conception of the relations of men and nations fails us and dismays us? Because he counts too low the significance of words. Mr Baruch comforts himself that the parts of the treaty which he hates not less than I do are empty because they are impossible, and harmless because they can never happen. But they have wounded, nevertheless, the public faith of Europe.” J. M. Keynes
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N Y Evening Post p3 D 4 ’20 3050w
“The author has given a valuable account of the matter; clear, dispassionate, uninvolved. His contentions gain in force through the strictness with which he keeps within the field that he has marked out for himself.”
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No Am 212:859 D ’20 600w
“Should prove a valuable book of reference.”
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Outlook 127:32 Ja 5 ’21 340w
“Mr Baruch’s chapters are brief and direct, while also persuasive to the point of carrying conviction. The atmosphere in which the work was done is well reproduced. This volume will be a necessary part of every public and private library that includes the essential books relating to the making of peace.”
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R of Rs 62:668 D ’20 320w
“His new book is short and concise, but it is in some respects the most illuminating comment upon the treaty that we have seen.”
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Spec 125:778 D 11 ’20 1300w
BASCOM, LELIA. Elementary lessons in English idiom. *$2 Appleton 425
20–15172
A work prepared in the Extension division of the University of Wisconsin as a textbook for students in correspondence-study. It is “designed to aid two types of students,—those who are not native Americans but who have had a season of study in night school or elsewhere so that they read and write English a little; and those native Americans who are handicapped by a lack of knowledge of good English usage.” The teaching thruout the book is by examples and exercises for practice. Rules are reserved for a summing up at the end.
BASDEN, GEORGE THOMAS. Among the Ibos of Nigeria. il *$5 Lippincott 916.6
20–20653
“The country of the Ibos is a district in British West Africa on the lower Niger immediately above the delta, and mainly on the eastern bank of the river. The people—some of them—are cannibals and addicted to the offering of human sacrifices with every circumstance of cruelty; they eat snakes, except the python which is sacred; their occupations are primitive, farming, fishing, and hunting—all three it will be noticed connected with the necessity for procuring the prime necessity, food. Their customs will be found detailed in this book.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“There are annoying misprints both in English and Ibo; the map, especially in the southern portion, must be termed misleading, it does not even contain all the names mentioned in the text; but Mr Basden has brought together much interesting material, some of it novel, though in many instances insufficiently localized to be of use to the scientific student. The errors pointed out above need not alarm the general reader, who will find the life of the people set forth in an interesting manner.” N. W. T.
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Ath p580 O 29 ’20 580w
“It is by a missionary of wide experience, rare open-mindedness, and a real gift of observation. He makes no pretension to literary excellence, but has made a book that is entertaining as well as valuable ethnologically.”
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Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 60w
“If we did not begin by crediting Mr Basden with sincerity, we should be convinced of it in a few pages.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p631 S 30 ’20 720w
BASS, JOHN FOSTER. Peace tangle. *$4.50 Macmillan 940.314
20–19521
“Mr Bass traces recent diplomatic history from the secret treaties entered into by various nations through the Paris peace conference and the subsequent period. He devotes special chapters to conditions in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, the Balkans, and Turkey. Particular interest attaches to the comment on the League of nations.”—Outlook
“Not so much a study of the treaty itself as Scott or of particular sections of it as Baruch but more an evaluation in terms of actual conditions and hoped for results. Less well organized than Keynes but more detached in spirit (opinions are presented coldly, without any attempt to persuade).”
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Booklist 17:139 Ja ’21
“His book falls short of some of the other accounts, notably that of Keynes, in organization of material, in charm of style and subtlety of argument. In compensation it offers superior evidence of candor, freedom from preconception and party bias and respect for the independence of the reader’s judgment.” Alvin Johnson
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New Repub 24:330 N 24 ’20 1700w
“We know of no better volume to commend either to the man in the street or to the serious student. The matter reveals a keen observation, a rich experience, and a ripe maturity of judgment.”
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Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 330w
“It is the best single book that has been written showing how the peace treaty has actually worked in its application to political and economic conditions.”
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R of Rs 62:668 D ’20 110w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p843 D 9 ’20 100w
BASSETT, JOHN SPENCER. Our war with Germany; a history. il *$4 (3c) Knopf 940.373
19–19694
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
“Taken all together the account of Professor Bassett is the clearest and best that has yet attempted in one volume the story of our part in the world war. New sources will modify parts of the work, but the main outlines will stand much as this historian has dispassionately presented them. The chief complaint that some readers will make with justice is that the book is placid rather than penetrating or analytical.”
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Am Hist R 25:737 Jl ’20 650w
“Professor Bassett has written modestly and intelligently in a field in which it would be easy to go far astray, and has attained more than the ‘reasonable accuracy’ that his preface hopes for. No better book is as yet available for the student interested in our participation in the world war, and no other is so detached and historical-minded as this. The least successful portion of the book is that which covers the obscure yet significant leadership of the United States in the development of the ‘single front,’ military and economic.” F: L. Paxson
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Am Pol Sci R 14:351 My ’20 420w
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Booklist 16:198 Mr ’20
“Carefully studied and judicially written, this book is sure to be one of the useful authorities. In a broad survey of the field, the only notable lack is a consideration of the economic effects of the war and of its financing.” Preserved Smith
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Nation 110:302 Mr 6 ’20 360w
BASSETT, SARA WARE. Paul and the printing press. il *$1.50 (2½c) Little
20–8885
Paul Cameron, president of his class in Burmingham high school, conceives the idea of a school paper. With boyish daring he approaches the leading editor of the town with a business proposition and to the great man’s surprise persuades him into printing the paper. The venture is a success and Paul learns much of modern printing methods as well as something of the history of early manuscript books and of printing. The book is the first volume in the Invention series.
“Miss Bassett has made the story readable and enjoyable. One is not too conscious of the didactic intention while on the other hand her information stands out clearly, and she never allows it to be smothered by the story interest.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Je 30 ’20 150w
BASSETT, SARA WARE. Wall between. il *$1.90 Little
20–15702
“A feud of four generations between two New England families is the motif of Sara Ware Bassett’s new romance, ‘The wall between.’ Since the days of Great-Grandfather Webster and Great-Grandfather Howe, the two families have quarreled over who shall keep in repair the stone wall dividing their farms. Ellen Webster, a narrow-minded, vitriolic spinster of seventy-five, and Martin Howe, forty, are the respective heads of the families of this generation. Matters change when Ellen brings her young niece Lucy from the West into the old home. Lucy, who has heard nothing of the feud, makes the acquaintance of Howe’s three timid sisters, and eventually meets him. It follows that the two fall in love. On her death bed, Ellen discovers how matters stand with her niece and neighbor and determines on final revenge. When her will is read it is found that she leaves all her property to Howe provided he repairs the long-disputed wall. Otherwise it is to become the town poor farm. The situation develops into a battle between Howe’s pride and the inclinations of his heart. But love, as usual, finds a way out.”—Springf’d Republican
“A wholesome and pleasant, though not remarkable story that will please girls and women.”
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Booklist 17:70 N ’20
“Her previous novels, if one reads right, were somewhat saccharine, but with growing firmness of touch due to experience in writing ‘The wall between’ is more natural, more real, than its predecessors.” R. D. W.
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Boston Transcript p9 O 16 ’20 160w
“While different from her ‘Cape’ tales, this story is fully as interesting, for, in spite of its artificialities, it is told with understanding of human nature and the perversion of human instincts.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a S 26 ’20 320w
BATES, KATHARINE LEE. Sigurd our golden collie and other comrades of the road. il *$2 (3c) Dutton 636.7
19–19679
Under the first title we have the biography of a beloved dog, household pet of two professional women, teachers in Wellesley college, who tended him from puppyhood until old age ended his career. The other comrades of the road were birds, a cat, and Hamlet and Polonius, another dog and a parrot. Poems occur between the chapters.
“The grownup lover of pets will enjoy this book of dog, cat and bird biography much as children enjoy their numerous animal books. The writer’s fondness for collies is tempered with a sly delightful humor which relieves the book of sentimentality.”
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Booklist 16:169 F ’20
“She has, in short, made literature out of a dog and enshrined one lovable member of that remarkable race in a work as thoughtful as it is delightful. Sigurd, I believe, will take his place among the canine immortals, along with Greyfriars Bobby, John Muir’s Stikeen, and the great dogs of fiction.” W. A. Dyer
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Bookm 51:575 Jl ’20 750w
“It was almost inevitable that in writing the life-story of Sigurd Miss Bates should have woven into the book so much of the atmosphere of Wellesley that it will take on for the alumnæ of those years the character of an unfading memory.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p6 Ja 28 ’20 1100w
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Cleveland p33 Mr ’20 40w
“It may be that Miss Bates really understands dog nature, but she has not expressed it here.”
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Nation 110:861 Je 26 ’20 310w
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Outlook 124:203 F 4 ’20 60w
“We like her writing best when it is most bookish. That is its note. We have other books on our shelves aplenty in which the canine hero plays a more tragic or pathetic or even humorous rôle, but none in which he is more humanly literate than Miss Bates’s Sigurd of the golden fleece.”
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Review 2:135 F 7 ’20 260w
“Cannot fail to please all animal lovers.”
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Springf’d Republican p13 F 1 ’20 1000w
BATTERSBY, HENRY FRANCIS PREVOST (FRANCIS PREVOST, pseud.). Edge of doom. *$1.75 (2c) Lane
20–7652
A novel with scenes laid in England, East Africa and on the western front. Rumors of Julian Abingdon’s disgraceful conduct in Central Africa, where he has held official position, reach London, together with an unconfirmed rumor of his death. Believing him still alive and desiring to clear his name, his fiancée, Cyllene Moriston, insists on going out to look for him. His cousin, Jim Chaytor, who has always disliked Abingdon, takes charge of her expedition. Cyllene is stricken with fever and is left in the care of German missionaries while Chaytor goes on to find Julian. He finds him alive and well and living voluptuously with native women and hence desiring to remain officially dead. He does not tell Cyllene the truth; marries her himself and is then separated from her by the outbreak of the war. During his absence she meets Julian, finds that her old love is dead, and turns with full hearted devotion to her husband.
“‘The edge of doom’ is a very capable piece of work, serious without being in any way disagreeable, absorbing both on account of the intensity of the emotion, the consciousness of beauty both in emotion and in the physical aspect of things, and the importance of the historic background.”
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Boston Transcript p9 Je 5 ’20 400w
“The book reads very much as though the author had started out to write one kind of a story, then suddenly changed his mind and proceeded to produce another. This is the more deplorable because the second part of the book, the war section, is well done and interesting.”
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N Y Times 25:25 Je 27 ’20 480w
“The story is skilfully told, with a deft, yet sparing use of local colour which helps to carry conviction. It is well worth its place on any bookshelf.”
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Sat R 129:111 Ja 31 ’20 200w
“The novel part cannot be commended as a story. At the same time there is no doubt that the whole book is well written; the dialogue and the narrative skilfully and vividly handled.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p652 N 13 ’19 280w
BAXTER, ARTHUR BEVERLEY. Blower of bubbles. *$1.75 (2½c) Appleton
20–1698
Five unusual stories based on the war, with a sparkling iridescent quality remote from, yet not antagonistic to, reality. The title story depicts a delightful, apparently carefree personality, a gentleman, university bred, who has no set vocation in life, is a dilettante in almost everything it is possible to be, and who spends most of his time and energy making unfortunate or gloomy people happy: in other words, blowing bubbles. In spite of his weak heart he contrives to get into the war, is permanently crippled, yet sitting in his invalid’s chair in a picturesque garden on the Isle of Wight, blows brighter, gayer, more luminous bubbles than ever before, and gives one person, at least, a lasting happiness. The other titles are: Petite Simunde; The man who scoffed; The airy prince; Mr Craighouse of New York, satirist.
“All are readable.”
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Ath p1411 D 26 ’19 40w
Booklist 16:242 Ap ’20
“The very fact that the actors are of various nationalities affords a wide scope in character drawing and the author has done this work with an incisive delicacy of feeling which one cannot fail to appreciate. Humor is not lacking and forceful, thought-compelling passages add to the graceful style of every story.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Mr 24 ’20 160w
“They are whimsically written. But the regularity with which the various characters undergo a metamorphosis under the stimulus of the patriotic impulse becomes wearisome.”
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Dial 68:399 Mr ’20 60w
“In this brightly written collection of five short stories we have proof—rather sorely needed—that fiction with the recent great war as a setting can avoid bathos on the one hand and obviously false joviality on the other. One of the best books of unassuming and yet purposeful fiction that has seen the light this season.”
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N Y Times 25:123 Mr 14 ’20 1650w
“Perhaps the last is the best—‘Mr Craighouse of New York, satirist.’ His visit as a typical American to Lord Summersdale makes a very taking story.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p754 D 11 ’19 100w
BAXTER, ARTHUR BEVERLEY. Parts men play. *$2 (2c) Appleton
20–20646
Austin Selwyn, an American writer in England, has first hand opportunity, in his intercourse with the family of Lord Durwent, to observe the parasitism of the English aristocracy. The colorful personality of Elise Durwent and her latent protest against the uselessness of her class arouse his interest and love. When the war breaks out he sees in it a hideous wrong into which the people of all countries have been trapped by their ignorance. He embarks on a crusade against this ignorance and writes pacifist literature, which leads to a break with Elise. She declares indignantly that, far from crying out against the infamy and cruelty of the war, women feel the glory of it in their blood. The usual thing happens: Selwyn is gradually convinced of the error of his ways and his subsequent bravery in France wins him Elise.
“When he writes of London society as it was before the world war he exhibits a deft, light touch in drawing character sketches. Later he loses his attitude of detachment and ends in a loud outburst of jingoism which sounds strangely hollow in these disillusioned times.”
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N Y Evening Post p18 D 4 ’20 80w
“The author wrote another novel, ‘The blower of bubbles,’ which proved that he had a facile style, a whimsical spirit, and the power to divine and portray human nature. This book possesses all those qualities and an original undercurrent of philosophy as well.” Katharine Oliver
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Pub W 98:1890 D 18 ’20 270w
Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 23 ’21 150w
“A work of considerable promise. It is crude in parts, but crudeness is only a synonym of unripeness, and Mr Baxter’s literary defects are of a kind that experience can cure. Meanwhile, he has a vitality, a gift for swiftly moving narrative, and a creative power in flinging his characters upon the canvas which augur well for his future development.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p761 N 18 ’20 440w
BAXTER, LEON H. Boy bird house architecture. il *$1 Bruce pub. 680
20–7092
Mr Baxter, director of manual training in the public schools of St Johnsbury, Vt., has prepared this book out of his own experience with boy architects. “Each drawing offered is of a proven house, one that has served as a home for some of our songsters and if the directions, here set down, are faithfully followed, equal success will crown the builders’ efforts.” (Author’s preface) Some of the topics covered by the text are: Our friends the birds; Birds that adapt themselves to nesting boxes; Bird house material; Methods of conducting a bird house contest; Bird house day; Winter care of the birds. There are twenty plates with full working drawings for bird houses of various designs.
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Booklist 16:302 Je ’20
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School Arts Magazine 20:41 S ’20 70w
BAYFIELD, MATTHEW ALBERT. Measures of the poets. *$2 Macmillan (Cambridge univ. press) 808.1
20–12409
“Mr Bayfield’s aim in ‘The measures of the poets’ is to ‘provide students of English verse with a system of prosody that is on the one hand sound in principle, and on the other not liable to break down when brought to the test of application.’” (Spec) “The broad outlines of Mr Bayfield’s system are fairly adequately apprehended if we blend together our existing notions about a foot in verse and a bar in music. Metre in music is built up out of a succession of equal time divisions marked off by the recurrence of an accent, the accented beat falling at the beginning of each of them. Mr Bayfield considers that the basis of metrical structure in poetry is essentially the same: and he therefore lays it down that the first syllable of every foot must bear an accent. The bulk of English poetry being written in dissyllabic feet or their equivalents, it follows that the typical English foot must be the trochee. The main portion of Mr Bayfield’s primer is devoted to an exposition of the system of scansion which he deduces from this governing perception.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
“Mr Bayfield expounds his theory with bold lucidity, and illustrates it with telling examples from every variety of English verse.”
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Ath p1017 O 10 ’19 210w
“Like almost all prosodic theories which look at theory first, Mr Bayfield’s necessitates, even on its own showing, endless easements and epicycles to get it to work at all. There is no plain sailing; in fact, Mr Bayfield would seem to agree with Dr Johnson that ‘pure’ metre is dull and inartistic.” G: Saintsbury
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Ath p1150 N 7 ’19 2050w
“Mr Bayfield’s general treatment and scansions are by no means so convincing as those of his predecessors, [Lanier in ‘The science of English verse’ and Thomson in ‘The basis of English rhythm.’]” J. R. Hulbert
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Mod Philol 17:727 Ap ’20 200w
“The principle of his scheme is sound, and in the application of it to English verse he has shown, besides the wisdom of his instinct, a careful patience that is beyond praise.”
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Spec 122:864 D 20 ’19 1050w
“His theory has not cut him off from vital contact with poetry. The things of which he is chiefly aware are the essential things, and to read him is to have the ear quickened to a new enjoyment.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p668 N 20 ’19 1100w
BAYLEY, HAROLD. Archaic England. *$7.50 Lippincott 942.01
(Eng ed 20–11405)
“This is in the nature of a sequel to a book which Mr Bayley published some years ago called ‘The lost language of symbolism.’ He has long been an enthusiastic and industrious student of symbolisms and emblems and their hidden meanings, and of esoteric doctrines generally. The present work is copiously illustrated and offers controversial theories as to the peopling of Britain. Mr Bayley, among other things, sees in the Cretan discoveries a wholly new standpoint for the survey of prehistoric civilization. He believes that the Cretans systematically visited Britain, and that men of Trojan race peopled the island.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“No doubt, Mr Bayley has worked hard and honestly. Use him as a quarry and one will find gold, and, may be, other things. But how accept his doctrine as a whole?” R. R. M.
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Ath p240 F 20 ’20 260w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p22 Ja 8 ’20 120w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p166 Mr 11 ’20 2100w
BAZALGETTE, LÉON. Walt Whitman, the man and his work. *$3.50 (2c) Doubleday
20–2834
This work, the author says, was for him not a mere literary enterprise, but the fruit of close and fervent communion with Whitman’s work and character. Speaking of Whitman’s universality he says: “The America which dreams and sings, back of the one which works and invents, has given the world four universal geniuses: Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman.... And among these four figures, one of them more and more dominates the group: it is Walt Whitman.” (Introd.) The translator of the volume from the French, Ellen FitzGerald, attempts an explanation of the American masses’ neglect of Whitman, from the geniuses’ inevitable disregard of “untrained” minds, in deference to whom she has taken it upon herself to abridge M. Bazalgette’s treatment of the New Orleans episode and to lighten his emphasis on the “Leaves of grass” conflict. The book is in eight parts: Origin and youth; The multitudinary life; “Leaves of grass”; The wound dresser; The good gray poet; The invalid; The sage of Camden; The setting sun.
“Some remarkable pen portraits, a little Gallic exuberance at times.”
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Booklist 16:241 Ap ’20
“The Frenchman’s biography, sympathetic and glowingly eloquent as it is, can scarcely rank as an authoritative chronicle of the poet’s life. It possesses, however, multiple values of its own. The translator has taken the liberty of abridging M. Bazalgette’s book. This is regrettable and not easily justified.” J. Black
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Bookm 51:172 Ap ’20 1100w
Reviewed by James Oppenheim
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Dial 68:633 My ’20 1350w
“M. Bazalgette communicates an absolute sense of Whitman’s greatness. His book, like his theme, is ample and magnificent.” V. W. B.
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Freeman 1:68 Mr 31 ’20 500w
Reviewed by B: de Casseres
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N Y Times 25:239 My 9 ’20 1350w
“Well informed, and adjusted to all the aspects of his subject, M. Bazalgette has written what is in all points as good a short life of Whitman as a reasonable person could wish. But M. Bazalgette is often illuminating, seldom penetrating.”
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No Am 211:719 My ’20 680w
“Admirers of Whitman will find it a stimulating and suggestive treatment of the poet from a new angle.”
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Outlook 124:336 F 25 ’20 50w
“The book has been prepared with some care. But M. Bazalgette is inseparable from his subject; his jubilee from page 1 to page 355 is uninterrupted. When the author is too lavish of exclamation points the reader parries with the question mark.”
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Review 2:310 Mr 27 ’20 450w
“The biography, though rhapsodical rather than critical, will rank high among the scarce half-dozen of impressive books about the poet which have appeared in the quarter century since his death.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 Ap 8 ’20 480w
BAZETT, L. M. After-death communications. (Psychic ser.) *$1.60 Holt 134
The communications were received through automatic writing and the author says of them: “Whether these communications can come under the heading of telepathy from the living, or whether as the title suggests, they are partly due to telepathy from discarnate minds, is for the reader to decide.” (Preface) J. Arthur Hill, in his introduction to the book is inclined to attribute them to discarnate agency. Contents: First communications received; Cases where some link with communicators existed; Cases where relations were present; Cases where relations were not present; Character sketches; Special relationships; Erroneous, confused and irrelevant matter; Guides; Supernormal sense-impressions, etc.; The potential value of communication; Index.
N Y Evening Post p11 N 6 ’20 120w
BAZIN, RENÉ FRANÇOIS NICOLAS MARIE. Pierre and Joseph. *$1.75 Harper
20–7722
The story takes us to an Alsatian village at the outbreak of the war where the German subjects have all remained French at heart. Of the two brothers, Pierre and Joseph Ehrsam, the elder at once decides to flee the country and go to France to enlist, while the younger deems it wise to sacrifice himself in another way, to save the factory and the Ehrsam estate from confiscation by the Germans, by joining his German regiment. Pierre, in the French army makes unfavorable comparisons between French ways and German efficiency and is but slowly won over to complete enthusiasm for the spirit of France. Joseph at the eastern front develops an increasing hatred for the German spirit and when he is sent to the west and faces the necessity of fighting the French, he kills his superior officer and deserts to the French side. The translation is by Frank Hunter Potter.
Booklist 17:30 O ’20
“This latest novel of the gifted Frenchman adds not a single leaf to his laurel crown. For the most part, the interpretation is labored, and much space is devoted to moralizing upon the obvious. The general effect of the novel is accentuated by a translation which is awkward and infelicitous.”
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Cath World 111:688 Ag ’20 300w
“Interesting in itself, the story has an added interest through what it tells us of some of the events of the war, events which though important have not been much written about.”
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N Y Times 25:264 My 23 ’20 1050w
“In its English dress, ‘Pierre and Joseph’ is not markedly distinguished from several earlier romances of Alsace-Lorraine in wartime, unless by its simplicity and precision.” H. W. Boynton
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Review 3:45 Jl 14 ’20 450w
BEAMAN, ARDERN ARTHUR HULME. Squadroon. il *$2.50 (3c) Lane 940.48
20–14681
The cavalry in the great war was most of the time in little demand, and had to take its turn in the trenches and at digging parties to relieve the infantry. “Towards the end of 1917 ... a horse soldier could hardly pass an infantry detachment on the road without being greeted by ironical cheers and bitter abuse.” (Foreword) But the time came when their prestige was reestablished. The war episodes sketched in the book are the reminiscences of a clergyman attached to a cavalry brigade. Among the contents are: Joining the squadroon; Day marching; The gap; The trench party; The devastated area; The great advance; The last lap.
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Ath p751 Je 4 ’20 100w
“We commend the book most heartily: it is well and simply written, and deserves a wide popularity.”
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Sat R 129:545 Je 12 ’20 50w
“Those who happen not to have read many ‘war books’ of the kind, or not to be tired of them, will find these genial, graphic, fluently-written pages pleasant enough.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p215 Ap 1 ’20 130w
BEARD, DANIEL CARTER. American boys’ handybook of camp-lore and woodcraft. il *$3 Lippincott 796
20–21339
This volume of the Woodcraft series is profusely illustrated by the author. The first chapters have to do with outdoor fires under the captions: Fire making by friction; Fire making by percussion; How to build a fire; How to lay a good cooking fire. Other chapters take up: Camp kitchens; Camp food; Packing horses; The use of dogs; Preparing for camping trip; Saddles; Choosing a camp site; Axe and saw; Council grounds and fires; Ritual of the council fire.
“His book is interesting, cheery, practical and constructive.”
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Cath World 112:697 F ’21 110w
“A really valuable and comprehensive volume.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
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N Y Times p9 D 19 ’20 80w
BEARD, MARY (RITTER) (MRS CHARLES AUSTIN BEARD). Short history of the American labor movement. *$1.50 (4c) Harcourt 331.87
20–7573
As the title indicates, the book is intended as a brief and simple story of the labor movement in the United States from the day of independence to the present time. After pointing out that every modern industrial country has a labor movement and that, although there are national peculiarities, it has overleapt national boundaries; that the origin of the movement lies in self-defense; and that it has a deep spiritual and social significance, the author limits herself to a plain statement of the facts in each phase of the movement as it appeared. Contents: Nature and significance of the labor movement; Origin of American trade unions; The century old tactics of labor; Labor’s first political experiments; Return to direct industrial action; Industrial panic, political action and utopias; Trade unionism and the Civil war; A decade of panics, politics and labor chaos; Rise of the American federation of labor; The American federation of labor and politics; Revolutionary philosophies and tactics; Labor and the world war; Index.
“It is well organized, carefully definitive of simplest terms, and adapted to a less advanced student or reader of labor policies than Carlton.”
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Booklist 16:327 Jl ’20
“Mrs Mary Beard has not only supplied the student of the works of Professor Commons and his associates with a text-book admirably lucid and condensed, but she has achieved what is far more difficult in writing a text-book—especially where no text-book exists—a connected and in many ways a dramatic story.” A. L. Dakyns
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Freeman 1:523 Ag 11 ’20 1500w
“Mrs Beard’s book could hardly be better, as a readable and brief summary.” G: Soule
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Nation 111:17 Jl 3 ’20 800w
“Naturally, a large field has been covered in so small a work, but the reader in search of a small volume that will give him the essentials of this history will find this one valuable for the purpose.” James Oneal
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N Y Call p10 Je 13 ’20 370w
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R of Rs 61:671 Je ’20 40w
“An excellent summary of American labor history. The book is based on recent more voluminous works, but the clarity of explanation and the skill in selecting the salient facts of somewhat complicated situations and incidents are largely the author’s own.”
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Springf’d Republican p10 My 6 ’20 120w
“In her ‘Short history of the American labor movement’ Mrs Beard performs with interest, competence and wide sympathy a much needed service.”
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Survey 44:313 My 29 ’20 150w
“It gives a clear impression of the ups and downs of a movement which in one form or another goes back to colonial times. But its value is impaired by the author’s laudable desire for brevity. Her book is so general that it gives no sense of the real life and color of the labor movement and but little understanding of the contending philosophies within it. So important a phase of the modern labor movement as the development of the Amalgamated clothing workers is not even mentioned.” N. T.
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World Tomorrow 3:189 Je ’20 180w
“The book preserves an admirably sane and restrained tone to the end.” W: B. Walling
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Yale R n s 10:214 O ’20 380w
BEAUMONT, ROBERTS. Union textile fabrication. (Pitman’s textile industries ser.) il *$7.50 Pitman 677
A work dealing with the British textile industry. The preface states: “‘Union textile fabrication’ touches, in its technological aspects and interests, the many grades and branches of spun and woven manufacture.... The subject, when thus viewed, assumes proportions and bearings of paramount significance to the practitioner, the manufacturer, and the investigator, whether distinctly associated with the cotton, the wool, the flax, or the silk trade.” The book is made up of three sections: Bi-fibred manufactures; Compound-yarn fabrics; Woven unions; and the illustrations consist of “numerous original diagrams, sectional drawings, and photographic reproductions of spun and woven specimens in the text.” The author was formerly professor of textile industries, Leeds university.
“The book is well printed, neatly illustrated, and will be found valuable by all who are engaged in these branches of the textile industry.”
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Engineer 130:281 S 17 ’20 360w
BEAVER, WILFRED N. Unexplored New Guinea. il *$5 Lippincott 919.5
(Eng ed 20–8650)
“This interesting book is concerned with the primitive races of western Papua, where the author, a young Australian, acted as a resident magistrate for ten years before the war. Professor Haddon, in a preface, declares that Mr Beaver’s death in Flanders, where he was serving with the Australian corps, was a great loss to anthropology.” (Spec) “His narrative is an account of personal experiences along the Bamu and Fly rivers; and he makes good his claim to be an explorer. Little is known of the country behind the coastline; means of transport have to be improvized and the inhabitants are savages. In fact, savage is a mild term, for many of them are cannibals and all apparently head-hunters. Mr Beaver enumerates such of their customs as came under his notice, and throws out suggestions as to their origin, but without committing himself to any theory.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
“Mr Beaver’s descriptions of the customs of the Goaribari, Bamu, and other tribes are remarkably interesting; and Dr Gunnar Landtmann has added a noteworthy chapter upon the religious beliefs and practices of the Kiwai-speaking natives.”
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Ath p1019 O 10 ’19 250w
“In short, considered from the standpoint of what Sir Richard Temple would term an applied anthropology, Mr Beaver’s book is eminently useful and instructive. Lack of space allows but a passing reference to his important chapter on property and inheritance.” R. R. M.
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Ath p1117 O 31 ’19 950w
“An interesting and sound ethnological study, which is also an object lesson on the administration of aboriginal tribes by those who would introduce Caucasian culture.”
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Booklist 17:25 O ’20
“This is one of those books, by no means rare from British pens, that make the American ethnologist green with envy. It suggests what stores of information on tribes now extinct or acculturated to the white man’s ways might have been garnered by our Indian agents if they had been selected from the class represented by Mr Beaver.” R. H. L.
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New Repub 23:26 Je 2 ’20 900w
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Outlook 124:79 Ja 14 ’20 40w
R of Rs 61:221 F ’20 80w
“The author had the gift, not common among anthropologists, of writing well and of describing savage tribes with sympathy and humour. The book abounds in curious anecdotes.”
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Spec 122:584 N 1 ’19 180w
“Mr Beaver is no globe-trotter concerned to make a good story out of a few days spent in a strange land. He is absorbed in a subject that is organically interesting, and he is content to let it produce its own effect. Unintentionally he has framed an indictment of mechanical progress.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p544 O 9 ’19 1900w
BECK, ERNEST GEORGE. Structural steelwork. il *$7.50 (*21s) Longmans 691.7
20–10621
“The book contains technical information for the designing and constructing of ordinary steel-framed buildings. ‘The principal endeavor throughout has been to make the work broadly suggestive rather than particular or exhaustive.’ (Preface) The appendix contains tables useful for reference. Partly reprinted from the Mechanical World and The Engineer.”—Booklist
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Booklist 17:16 O ’20
N Y P L New Tech Bks p6 Ja ’20 70w
BECK, HERBERT MAINS. Aliens’ text book on citizenship; laws of naturalization of the United States. $1; pa 50c McKay 353
19–6644
“In preparing this book the aim has been to provide means of thoroughly and quickly acquiring the knowledge necessary to pass the examinations for naturalization and to assist those who have been deprived of the advantages of our modern public schools.” (Preface) The steps required for naturalization are first set forth. Then follows the texts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States and a final section is given up to questions and answers on laws and government. There is an index. The author is chief of naturalization, Camden county courts, Camden, N.J.
Booklist 17:9 O ’20
“This business-like explanation of the law’s provisions is infinitely more satisfactory and useful than the mushy, sentimental and verbose expository books for the foreign-born of which there are so many.” B. L.
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Survey 43:408 Ja 10 ’20 250w
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Wis Lib Bul 16:233 D ’20 60w
BECK, JAMES MONTGOMERY. Passing of the new freedom. *$1.50 Doran 940.314
20–18420
In part in the form of imaginary conversations, the book discusses the essential nature of President Wilson’s policies. The dialogues, in which the chief personages of the Peace conference take part, abounds in biting sarcasm. In the first dialogue Mr Wilson is made to appear upon the scene literally exuding “omniscience,” and to expound his new freedom with sounding grandiloquence. In his final estimate of Wilson the author says: “Already the world is conscious of a distinct revaluation of that interesting and complex personality, and it must be sorrowfully added that this revaluation adds nothing to his prestige.” The chapters are: Mr Wilson explains the new freedom; The old freedom; “It might have been”; The apostle of the new freedom.
“The use of imaginary conversation as a means of plucking the mystery out of the heart of the Peace conference may be questioned as to its integrity, but Mr Beck has employed the medium with such rare degree of skill that no one will question its effectiveness for literary purposes.”
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N Y Evening Post p24 O 23 ’20 190w
“Mr Beck has produced in these dialogues a kind of literature that is not often written after so much cool, thoughtful preparation, and that is seldom found to be, as in this case, profound and exact as well as amusing.”
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No Am 212:859 D ’20 850w
“‘The passing of the new freedom’ gives him some claims to rank as a political satirist—that rare bird in American letters.” E. L. Pearson
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Review 3:419 N 3 ’20 140w
BECKER, CARL LOTUS. United States; an experiment in democracy. *$2.50 Harper 342.7
20–13591
The book gives all the outstanding facts of our political history with such impartiality as to appeal to the reader’s critical faculty and to challenge independent conclusions. A “habitual dislike of thinking” the author holds to be a characteristic of Americans, which at the present time exposes them to the danger of mistaking the “form for the substance of democracy” and may prevent America from being in the future what it was in the past—“a fruitful experiment in democracy.” Contents: America and democracy; The origins of democracy in America; The new world experiment in democracy; Democracy and government; New world democracy and old world intervention; Democracy and free land; Democracy and slavery; Democracy and immigration; Democracy and education; Democracy and equality.
“It is to be hoped that the inaccuracies will not seriously injure the usefulness of a readable book, which is on the whole filled with sagacious comment and treats in a telling way a number of traits and tendencies of American democracy.” A. C. McL.
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Am Hist R 26:337 Ja ’21 560w
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Booklist 17:10 O ’20
“The author has given a valuable sketch of the political history of America.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ag 18 ’20 580w
“Keen, clear, impartial analysis of American institutions and traditions, reminding the reader in many ways of Bryce’s ‘American commonwealth.’”
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Ind 103:292 S 4 ’20 30w
Reviewed by C: A. Beard
Nation 111:sup416 O 13 ’20 450w
“Interesting, and would be valuable as a brief and rapid résumé of America’s early history and political problems were it not for one fatal defect. It lacks that aspect of detachment which we used to expect from college professors in dealing with debatable topics. Such a book must be read with the same caution with which the wise man reads the current political press during the presidential campaign.”
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Outlook 126:334 O 20 ’20 270w
Wis Lib Bul 16:232 D ’20 50w
BECKWITH, ISBON THADDEUS. Apocalypse of John. *$4 Macmillan 228
19–16729
“This book is a veritable encyclopedia of information regarding the interpretation of Revelation. A series of introductory studies deals at length with a history of eschatological hopes among Hebrews, Jews, and Christians. An extended description is given of apocalyptic writings among the Jews. There is also a detailed account of the occasion, purpose and unity of John’s apocalypse. Other topics discussed minutely are the literary characteristics of the author, the content of his composition, the permanent and the transitory elements in his book, the main features of his theology, the different methods that have been used in the interpretation of the book, its circulation and canonical recognition in the early church, the question of authorship, the two Johns of the Asian church, the meaning of the ‘beast,’ and the condition of the Greek text of the book. The commentary proper, which embraces slightly less than half the volume, is of the usual analytical and statistical type.”—Bib World
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Bib World 54:428 Jl ’20 550w
“It is a real service to religion and sanity when a scholar equipped with common sense as well as knowledge provides a good commentary on the book of Revelation. This has been done by Professor Beckwith. The book fills a real need.”
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Nation 111:163 Ag 7 ’20 250w
“A splendid treatise it is upon a splendid book, and a fresh honor to American scholarship.”
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Outlook 124:29 Ja 7 ’20 280w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p243 Ap 15 ’20 70w
BEERBOHM, MAX, comp.[2] Herbert Beerbohm Tree: some memories of him and his art. il *$7 Dutton
“The volume is at once a biography and a tribute. The first half of the book is written by Lady Tree. After short contributions by Sir Herbert Tree’s two daughters and Max Beerbohm (who, it will be remembered, is his half-brother) come A sketch, by Edmund Gosse; A tribute, by Louis N. Parker; From the stalls, by Desmond MacCarthy; Herbert Tree—my friend, by Gilbert Parker; From the point of view of a playwright, by Bernard Shaw; and An open letter to an American friend, by W. L. Courtney. By no means least in interest are the appendices, which contain Sir Herbert’s ‘Impressions of America,’ as written for London papers in 1916 and 1917, and some extracts from his ‘Notebooks,’ as well as the speeches made at the unveiling of the memorial tablet at His Majesty theater and the sermon preached by the Bishop of Birmingham at the memorial service.”—Springf’d Republican
“Why did not Mr Max Beerbohm give us a whole book himself instead of a ‘carved cherrystone’ called ‘From a brother’s stand-point’? That, no doubt, is his business. But why did he not persuade (or bully) Lady Tree into writing the whole work and inserting his and Mr Shaw’s contributions at the appropriate places? Certainly the half of it which she has contributed under the title ‘Herbert and I’ is delightful, in style and individuality.” D. L. M.
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Ath p519 O 15 ’20 880w
“When all is said this book serves its purpose. It is readable; it contains the facts; it gives personal anecdotes; it has a host of portraits in character and out; it provides a variety of points of view.”
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N Y Times p7 D 19 ’20 1250w
“A most interesting book about a great actor. Throughout, it is informal and lively.” E. L. Pearson
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Review 3:648 D 29 ’20 90w
“Lady Tree’s portrait of Tree is the most vivid and the most life-like the world is likely to possess.”
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Sat R 130:318 O 16 ’20 920w
“The whole book—all the contributions from all the different sources are in the mass so sparkling, that it is clear that for so many hands to write so amusingly, they must have been inspired by a thoroughly witty and amusing subject.”
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Spec 125:569 O 30 ’20 1150w
Springf’d Republican p8 O 23 ’20 40w
Springf’d Republican p8 Ja 8 ’21 150w
“It is an amusing macédoine, never insipid, giving all the flavours of the subject, without perhaps any one flavour that can be called dominant. And that is right, for Tree’s was a ‘mixed’ temperament, and his art was a good deal ‘mixed’ too.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p633 S 30 ’20 1350w
BEERBOHM, MAX. Seven men. il *$3.50 Knopf
20–19582
Six men and the author make seven. The book contains six imaginary sketches of six imaginary men: Enoch Soames; Hilary Maltby and Stephen Braxton; James Pethel; A. V. Laider; “Savonarola” Brown; with an appendix of drawings of these men by the author. As the drawings are caricatures so are the pen sketches satires on human vanities, weaknesses and foibles, literary and otherwise.
“In none is the author’s authentic touch wholly absent, but there are tedious pages.”
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Ath p1138 O 31 ’19 80w
“Our only regret on finishing the book is that he might have paraded his seventh, and after all his most amusing puppet, himself, a little more lavishly.” S. W.
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Ath p1186 N 14 ’19 720w
“The motif of each story in ‘Seven men’ is slight, the working out of it spread thin—very thin.” C. K. H.
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Boston Transcript p6 D 4 ’20 480w
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Nation 111:785 D 29 ’20 560w
“Another thing that gives feature to four of the five stories in ‘Seven men’ is their author’s love of design. Even upon his essays this love has left its mark, less distinct upon whole essays than upon single pages now and then.” P. L.
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New Repub 21:386 F 23 ’20 1500w
“Max is more than a humorist—he is an ironist. His irony is exquisite in its nuances, a carefully wrought method of workmanship that grows almost precieuse at times. ‘Seven men’ is assuredly one of the most amusing books of the year. It will recapture an undefinable atmosphere that could only go with youth that was audacious and laughable, and, by strange flashes, poignantly serious.” H. S. Gorman
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N Y Times p9 Ja 2 ’21 2150w
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Sat R 128:465 N 15 ’19 240w
“Not even a good comedy is so rare as genuine satire, and when an example of the latter is produced some indulgence in superlatives may well be excused. In the case of Mr Max Beerbohm’s new volume, which brilliantly achieves what ‘Zuleika Dobson’ as conspicuously missed it is difficult to restrain praise within the bounds of judgment, for its beneficent, limpid ridicule is an undiluted joy.”
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Spec 122:19 Ja 3 ’20 1500w
“The fragrant quality of the book, the solemn malice of the papers on Brown and A. V. Laider; the imaginative subtlety of the account of Enoch Soames, and the glorious remedy of the rivalry between Braxton and Maltby—they all show Max at his best.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a Ja 25 ’20 270w (Reprinted from London Observer)
“Not only are his characters interesting in themselves but Mr Beerbohm depicts them with such skill that the book is a welcome relief from the work of less accomplished writers.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 Ja 3 ’21 300w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p627 N 6 ’19 810w
BEERS, HENRY AUGUSTIN.[2] Connecticut wits and other essays. *$2.25 Yale univ. press 814
20–22823
“Mr Henry A. Beers’s ‘Connecticut wits’ consists of eleven brief literary essays on subjects whose diversity is undisguised. He has found nothing in the tradition or the atmosphere of his Yale habitat to discourage the inclusion of an essay on Cowley and an essay on Riley in the same volume.” (Review) “He unearths Joel Barlow and those other neglected spirits of old Connecticut; and then allows his fancy to range over such themes as the poetry of the cavaliers, Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Thackeray and Sheridan.” (Freeman)
“In manner, these essays are scholarly, informative, and suavely graceful.” L. B.
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Freeman 2:358 D 22 ’20 170w
Reviewed by Brander Matthews
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N Y Times p2 Ja 16 ’21 1150w
“Scholarship and humor are admirably blended in these essays.”
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Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 30w
“Mr Beers is a clear expositor, is at ease with facts, and can make them agreeable by almost imperceptible departures from the jogtrot of chronicle. Without humor, he has something of the buoyancy of humor.”
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Review 3:506 N 24 ’20 180w
“In his essays there is no trace of a professional tendency to carry on with the class room manner in one’s relations with the world beyond the class room.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 31 ’21 310w
BEGBIE, HAROLD. Life of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation army. 2v il *$10.50 Macmillan
20–5263
In the preface to this life of the founder of the Salvation army, the author says: “William Booth is likely to remain for many centuries one of the most signal figures in human history. Therefore, to paint his portrait faithfully for the eyes of those who come after us—a great duty and a severe responsibility—has been my cardinal consideration in preparing these pages. Only when circumstances insisted have I turned from my attempt at portraiture to examine documents which will one day be employed by the historian of the Salvation army.” The work opens with an account of social conditions in England at the time of William Booth’s birth and reflections on the probable effects of his early surroundings on his mind and character. Volume 1 covers the years up to 1881 and volume 2 continues the story to his death in 1912. There are a number of portraits and other illustrations and an index.
“The world may be divided into people who pray with General Booth, people who are angry with General Booth, and people who turn their face away and look out of the window. Mr Begbie, unfortunately, seems to have considered that it was necessary for his official biographer to pray perpetually with the General, and his 1,000 pages of biography even conform to the tradition of prayer in their repetitions, vagueness, and verbosity.” L. W.
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Ath p365 Mr 19 ’20 1800w
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Booklist 16:343 Jl ’20
Reviewed by O. L. Joseph
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Bookm 52:76 S ’20 550w
“There can be no doubt that Mr Begbie has laid us all under immense obligation through the unusual blend of candor, insight, and reverence with which he has limned the picture of this noble soul. And yet we must confess to a feeling of disappointment. At important places the story lacks clarity. Perhaps the most serious disappointment of all is the paucity of reference to General Booth’s immediate touch with the outcast. We miss the bugles and the tears of the Army too much.” A. W. Vernon
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Nation 111:507 N 3 ’20 2000w
“Mr Begbie has done his work well. We could have dispensed with some of his own observations concerning Darwin, Bergson, Nietzsche, and other figures of interest which are unhelpful to the story and whose omission might have sensibly reduced the size of the volumes. But where he has been content with simple narration of events and the selection of letters and writings, he has proved himself a good biographer.”
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Nation [London] 26:778 Mr 6 ’20 2100w
“Every small detail is entered into sympathetically and fully. This is a human document worth the reading.”
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N Y Times 25:191 Ap 18 ’20 120w
“The life-story of the man who created the Salvation army, written with a sympathy and understanding such as Mr Begbie puts in it, is an extraordinarily welcome book.”
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N Y Times 25:210 Ap 25 ’20 2200w
“Mr Begbie’s life of William Booth would be for the general reader twice as good if it were half as long.”
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Outlook 125:679 Ag 18 ’20 3500w
“For the general reader there are rather too many ‘interesting cases’ of conversion described in the more or less technical diction of revivalism, too much journalism in the way of press clippings and tributes from royalty. But the record as a whole is an inspiring one of heroic achievement.”
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Review 2:680 Je 30 ’20 680w
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R of Rs 62:334 S ’20 130w
“These portly tomes on the founder of the Salvation army are torrential in their eloquence and typhoon-like in their denunciations. They resemble nothing so much as an exceptionally lively rally at the Army headquarters, with the penitent-form in full view. Apart from his exuberance, Mr Begbie has an interesting tale to tell.”
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Sat R 129:230 Mr 6 ’20 1150w
“Though to the modern man this modern story has more to say than most of the annals of hagiology, it is as a romance, as a love story, that William Booth’s ‘Life’ is perhaps most to be valued. The pawnbroker’s assistant and the half-invalid girl from Brixton are the hero and heroine of a love romance which for passionate intensity, for sublimity, for tempestuous vicissitude, stands head and shoulders above the tales of Paris and Helen, of Tristram and Iseult.”
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Spec 124:584 My 1 ’20 1600w
“The biography is a thorough, exhaustive, vividly personal piece of work.”
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Springf’d Republican p10 Ja 14 ’21 530w
“In spite of a tendency to repetition, his book will be welcomed widely as the good thing which it undeniably is—a book frankly written and free from prejudice or exaggeration.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p121 F 19 ’20 1850w
BELL, JOHN KEBLE (KEBLE HOWARD, pseud.). Peculiar major. *$1.75 (2½c) Doran
19–15567
“An almost incredible story” says the subtitle, and so it is. The major had been given a ring by an old Turkish priest in ransom for his life. This ring was found to possess the magic property of making its bearer invisible. It first brought the major into repute as a lunatic, then into all manner of scrapes and out again and so from one Arabian nights’ entertainment into another until the war was over and we leave him returned to England and in the arms of his best-beloved.
Boston Transcript p4 My 26 ’20 300w
“Mr Howard has produced a book that will be a welcome relief from much of the dreary fiction of the day.”
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N Y Times 25:71 F 8 ’20 600w
“A book of irresponsible fun.”
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Outlook 124:336 F 25 ’20 70w
“We thought the humours of the ring that makes the wearer invisible had certainly been pretty well worked out by now. But this was a delusion.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p414 Jl 31 ’19 100w
BELL, WALTER GEORGE. Great fire of London in 1666. il *$6 Lane 942.1
20–19932
The book comes with forty-one illustrations including plans and drawings, reproductions of English and foreign prints, and photographs. It is the first authentic account of the fire resulting from thorough historic research. The sources have largely been manuscript and the subject matter includes measures taken for meeting the distress occasioned by the catastrophe, the temporary housing of the citizens, the restoration of trade and the work of rebuilding. Among the appendices are letters from residents in London and contemporary accounts (English and foreign) describing the great fire. There are also notes, a list of authorities consulted and an index.
“In every chapter sidelights are cleverly thrown upon the habits and daily lives of the rather unpractical citizens.” E. G. C.
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Ath p613 N 5 ’20 1200w
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Outlook 126:654 D 8 ’20 70w
“Mr Bell had, of course, previously proved himself a scholarly and responsible historian, a good literary craftsman, and an excellent guide to old London. Here we have all his qualities at their best, lighted up with an enthusiasm which good Londoners at any rate will find exceedingly sympathetic. Now and then, perhaps, he allows his fervour to run away with him.”
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Sat R 130:320 O 16 ’20 640w
“We commend Mr Bell’s excellent book, with its wealth of new material and its many illustrations and maps, to all who are interested in the history of London.”
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Spec 125:403 S 25 ’20 1850w
“The book is well and accurately referenced throughout.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p609 S 23 ’20 1900w
BELL, WALTER GEORGE. Unknown London. il *$1.50 Lane 914.21
20–5387
“In the eighteen essays which make up this book—for most of them are sufficiently personal to be given that name—is nothing that is not interesting. Mr Bell has chosen, for the most part, from among those antiquities of which everybody has heard but of which most people know nothing. His ‘Unknown London’ deals with very familiar things—with such things as Domesday book, the shrine of Edward the confessor, London stone, the wax works in the abbey, the Roman baths, the bells of St Clements, the bones of the mummy of Men-Kau-Ra in the British museum, and London wall.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup D 11 ’19
Ath p734 Je 4 ’20 1400w
Ath p763 Je 11 ’20 1250w
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N Y Times 25:279 My 30 ’20 800w
“His book, while necessarily desultory, is readable and full of information gathered at first hand.”
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Outlook 124:657 Ap 14 ’20 70w
R of Rs 61:559 My ’20 100w
“If Mr Bell is so human and hearty an antiquary it is that in him the antiquary and the journalist are admirably joined. The one gives to his book the gusto of an enthusiast. The other prevents him from ever forgetting, in his accumulation of knowledge, the art of interesting others.”
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Sat R 128:492 N 22 ’19 950w
Spec 123:585 N 1 ’19 110w
Springf’d Republican p10 Jl 1 ’20 170w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p615 O 30 ’19 60w
“The merit of his book is that the stories are retold here in a simple, personal, and most attractive way. From first to last Mr Bell is an admirable guide to old London, an enthusiast, well stored, humorous and unfailingly entertaining.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p731 D 11 ’19 950w
BELLAIRS, CARLYON WILFROY. Battle of Jutland; the sowing and the reaping. il *$5 Doran 940.45
(Eng ed 20–8002)
Lord Jellicoe has written his own account of the Jutland battle. This book is by one of the critics of his policy, who says: “The ban on discussion, which was felt by many as applying right up to the time of the surrender of the German fleet, no longer exists. Nothing that can be done now can remedy the past; but much that can be said may safeguard the future. Hence this book, which must stand or fall in proportion to its influence on future thought and action. It is not intended to be any more than a critical survey. It is not a full history of the battle of Jutland, for the policy of secrecy pursued by the Admiralty, and the failure to hold an investigation, have made an accurate history impossible for the time being.” (Preface) The book is illustrated with diagrams and there is an appendix containing a chronology of the battle; also an index.
“It has the authoritativeness that will give it value to historians.”
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Booklist 17:23 O ’20
Review 2:677 Je 30 ’20 1400w
“For the general reader it has less value than for the naval expert. Yet it is an interesting example of the kind of criticism which seems to be encouraged among British naval officers, not for the sake of mere controversy but in order to draw conclusions that may be useful in the future.”
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R of Rs 61:670 Je ’20 120w
“We do not quarrel with Captain Bellairs’s main conclusion, ... but we could wish that his tone did not sometimes suggest that he fails to be judicial.”
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Spec 124:277 F 28 ’20 1300w
“If his captious tone be ignored, there is much in Commander Bellairs’s criticism in his more general chapters on the sowing which is well said and is well worth saying. But we cannot commend his tone and temper; and for the reasons we have given we can attach very little weight to his onslaught on Lord Jellicoe.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p115 F 19 ’20 1700w
BELLOC, HILAIRE. Europe and the faith. $2.25 Paulist press 940
20–15729
“Mr Belloc’s essay may be regarded as having a twofold aim, although, to the mind of its author, this aim appears to be one and indivisible. The first, and more narrowly historic aim of the essay, is to present a new picture of the decline of the centralized Roman empire and the subsequent building up of Europe, and the second, more obviously philosophic aim, is to account for the modern European consciousness in terms of (1) the Catholic faith and (2) the reformation. To Mr Belloc these two objectives are not really distinct. An account of Europe is an account of the Catholic faith, and an account of the Catholic faith is an account of Europe.”—Ath
“The most convinced opponent of Mr Belloc’s views of the historian’s qualifications will probably agree instantly that an acquaintance with the Catholic faith is necessary to writing a history of Europe, although he may not agree that the historian must be a Catholic. But the strangest part of Mr Belloc’s assumption is that he regards this condition as sufficient. We feel that Mr Belloc, although a Catholic, has not understood European history, and that he does not understand the modern European consciousness.” J. W. N. S.
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Ath p406 S 24 ’20 1150w
“If many points of detail are not new, the explanation of their import and bearing is original. In some cases the author’s critical examination of sources is particular and minute.”
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Cath World 112:535 Ja ’21 900w
“Mr Belloc writes with great earnestness. One could wish that the solution of civilization’s difficulties were as simple as he judges it to be; and that for the strength of his argument history were as universally confirmatory of his preconceived thesis as it seems to him.” Williston Walker
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N Y Evening Post p9 O 23 ’20 950w
“Our real objection to him is not that he has twisted history to his own view—everybody does that—but that he has given us an incomplete book, and even on his own showing he has left out the vital part. He discusses at length the unified Roman state of Europe. He discusses at length the unified Roman church of Europe. But he omits to discuss the relations between the two.”
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Sat R 130:338 O 23 ’20 1150w
“It is needless to say that from Mr Belloc’s whole conception of Protestantism we profoundly dissent. He cannot conceive of men opening their eyes and realising that they were serving an institution and not the cause for which the institution stood. This fatal lack of insight and comprehension effectually disqualifies him from giving the impartial presentation of European history which he is desirous of exhibiting, and almost completely nullifies the graphic force and admirable clarity of his narrative.”
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Spec 125:858 D 24 ’20 1050w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p603 S 16 ’20 30w
“He has the courage of his consistency and the merit of a principle; but neither is adequate to the perplexities of the modern world.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p661 O 14 ’20 2100w
BEMAN, LAMAR TANEY, comp. Selected articles on the compulsory arbitration and compulsory investigation of industrial disputes. 4th ed, rev and enl (Debaters’ handbook ser.) *$2.25 Wilson, H. W. 331.1
20–18153
Altho issued as a revised edition of the handbook on compulsory arbitration first published in 1911, this is practically a new work. The explanatory note states: “This volume is compiled according to the general plan of the Debaters’ handbook series, but it differs from other members of the series in that it covers two questions.... In this case the two questions are closely related, and much of the literature deals with both, so that it is impracticable to present them in separate volumes and yet impossible to combine them into one question.... The volume contains a full general bibliography revised to the date of this issue, but not separated into affirmative and negative references.... It also contains briefs and reprints of the best material on both sides of each question.”
Booklist 17:165 Ja ’21
Reviewed by S. M. Lowenthal
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Survey 45:672 F 5 ’21 390w
BENÉT, STEPHEN VINCENT. Heavens and earth. *$2 Holt 811
20–21994
This collection opens with a long poem in two parts, Two visions of Helen followed by Chariots and horsemen; The tall town; Apples of Eden; The kingdom of the mad. The tall town is made up of poems of New York.
“So many moods and themes spread over the compass of this book, riotous and rapturous, whimsical and ironic, and undulating on waves of swift and thrilling music make ‘Heavens and earth’ an enjoyment to those who admire poetry when it is first of all music and imagination, and may be after these anything in the way of subject and ideal.” W: S. Braithwaite
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Boston Transcript p4 D 29 ’20 1300w
“He has a swirling dexterity in syntax and rhythm, and practices a gorgeous, hot impressionism.”
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Nation 112:86 Ja 19 ’21 60w
“Originality marks his work in spite of the intimation that his themes are somewhat threadbare. He possesses a virility that is manifest at all times and a delight in swinging measures and emphatic rhymes.” H. S. Gorman
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N Y Times p11 Ja 9 ’20 100w
BENET, WILLIAM ROSE. Moons of grandeur. *$2 Doran 811
20–19072
This collection of poems is reprinted from contributions to various magazines. With a few exceptions the poet takes his inspiration from history: the renaissance, ancient Egypt, medieval England furnishing him with subjects. Some of the titles are: Gaspara Stampa; Legend of Michelotto; Niccolo in exile; The triumphant Tuscan; Michelangelo in the fish-market; The ballad of Taillefer; The priest in the desert; Dust of the plains.
“The rich color and vigor of his poetry have caught some of the brilliance and romance of these times. The vocabulary and allusions make demands upon the reader which to many will be a serious drawback.”
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Booklist 17:104 D ’20
“A poet so fertile and diversified is bound to be interesting, and one cannot but recognize Mr Benet’s gifts of streaming phrase and bannered fancy; at the same time one often misses the clear, strong note of nature, often feels the absence from this work of actual blood and bone.”
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Nation 112:86 Ja 19 ’21 100w
“The vigor, the individuality, the natural sources of growth and development in his work, deserve the first word. Mr Benet’s limitations in making the renaissance, in its essence, live again are inherent in his method and approach. There was a roundness of gesture in these years which is missed by nervous actions and pouncing words.” Geoffrey Parsons
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N Y Evening Post p8 Ja 8 ’21 720w
“In ‘Moons of grandeur’ he includes ten such poems that may be ranked among quite the best things he has done. It is apparent in this book that he has grown greatly in stature as a poet. An extravagance that was once fatal to him as an artist at times has been finely curbed and turned into channels where it becomes a virtue.” H. S. Gorman
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N Y Times p11 Ja 9 ’21 480w
“Mr Benet’s poems possess the essential qualities of beauty and imagination.”
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Review 3:419 N 3 ’20 10w
“In these pictures of renaissance Italy Mr Benet proves his possession of rhythm, of knowledge, of an allusiveness as ingathering as a scythe, of energy, of a lambent and vibrant picturesqueness, of the gait and swing, if not the soul, of passion. ‘Moons of grandeur,’ with all its attractions, errs somewhat in the obscuration of the rhyme.”
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Review 3:654 D 29 ’20 290w
BENET, WILLIAM ROSE. Perpetual light. *$1.35 Yale univ. press 811
19–25952
“A memorial to the poet’s wife, who died early in 1919. ‘This verse is published in her memory,’ says the poet in a foreword, ‘because I wish to keep together the poetry she occasioned and enable those who loved her—and they were a great many—to know definitely what she was to me.’” (Springf’d Republican) “Some of the poems are reprinted from former books of Mr Benet, and a few of the others have appeared in American periodicals.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
“Mr Benet has a great command of rich language and rich rhythms, and many of his poems are of a high literary value.”
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Ath p194 Ap 9 ’20 80w
“A tribute full of deep and delicate feeling.”
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Booklist 16:122 Ja ’20
“Poems of much delicate beauty, tenderness and deep feeling.”
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Cleveland p85 S ’20 30w
“Mr Benet has written no better lyrics than some of those included in this volume. They are both brave and simple.”
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N Y Times 25:173 Ap 11 ’20 180w
“Mr Benet has given his best to this little book.”
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Springf’d Republican p15a Ja 18 ’20 200w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p783 D 25 ’19 60w
“The dignity, the courage, the faith, the aspiration of these verses are like a beacon in this time of unrest and uncertainty.” E: B. Reed
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Yale R n s 10:205 O ’20 220w
BENGE, EUGENE J. Standard practice in personnel work. il *$3 Wilson, H. W. 658.7
20–102
A work which aims to cover the subject of personnel work thoroly, showing what the standard practice at present is. “The author has attempted to preserve an impartiality of viewpoint, not by evading frank statement of conditions, but rather by presenting the pros and cons on each side of the labor question.” (Preface) Daniel Bloomfield, editor of the three volumes on industrial relations, contributes a foreword. Contents: The personnel audit; Job analysis; Study of the community; Labor turnover and labor loss; Organizing the personnel department; The employment process; Selection by mental and skill tests; Methods of rating ability; Education and training; Health supervision; Maintenance of the working force; Incentives and wages; Employee representation; Record keeping in the personnel department; Personnel research; Index.
BENNET, ROBERT AMES. Bloom of cactus. il *$1.50 (3c) Doubleday
20–7647
Jack Lennon goes prospecting for a lost copper mine in the Arizona desert. He encounters a fair amazon who, at the risk of her own safety, tricks him into becoming a partner to her scheme of rescuing her weak, drunken father from the clutches of a criminal white brute, and “Dead Hole, dad’s ranch” from marauding renegade Indians. She succeeds and so does Jack, after facing incredible dangers, cruelty and all-round slaughter, for Carmena becomes his own dearly beloved. She proves her metal by not only fighting her foes in the flesh but her own jealousy of her much more femininely frail, clinging and pretty foster-sister, Elsie.
BENNETT, ARNOLD. Our women; chapters on the sex-discord. *$2.50 (5c) Doran 396
20–18319
Sex-discord exists, the author avows; it will always exist; it will continue to develop as human nature develops—but on a higher plane; it is the most delightful and interesting thing in existence—a part of the great search for truth. In this vein a mere man writes broadly, sanely and humorously about women. Contents: The perils of writing about women; Change in love; The abolition of slavery; Women as charmers; Are men superior to women? Salary-earning girls; Wives, money and lost youth; The social Intercourse business; Masculine view of the sex discord; Feminine view of the sex discord.
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Booklist 17:93 D ’20
“‘Our women,’ being witty, human, and full of challenging contradictions, will bore no reader, but will interest everyone, if only for the sake of that argument dear to every mind.” Dorothy Scarborough
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Bookm 52:363 D ’20 560w
“He is not always sensible when he is serious, and he is not always funny when he seeks to be humorous. His discourse is merely the attempt of a glib and facile writer to toy with a theme upon which he can play endlessly, and at the end be no nearer his goal that he was at the beginning.” E. F. Edgett
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Boston Transcript p6 O 16 ’20 1400w
“The book is diverting to read, but is not without that vein of vulgarity which mars so much of Mr Bennett’s work.” L. P.
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Freeman 2:190 N 3 ’20 270w
Nation 112:90 Ja 19 ’21 400w
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N Y Times p1 O 10 ’20 1500w
“Mr Bennett writes as a novelist and more or less for the human fun of it.” K. F. Gerould
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Review 3:377 O 27 ’20 900w
Sat R 130:279 O 2 ’20 500w
“We believe that most of his own countrywomen, though they may praise, will not altogether like his book.”
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Spec 125:535 O 23 ’20 720w
“Though fresh enough in style and not philistine in precepts, ‘Our women’ is as conventional as ‘Godey’s lady’s book,’ which regaled several generations of young women; it is, however, a book modern in sentiment.”
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Springf’d Republican p10 O 21 ’20 320w
“His pictures of the modern woman are kaleidoscopic—a medley of truths and halftruths picked more or less at random from past, present and future.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p678 O 21 ’20 1000w
BENNETT, ARNOLD. Sacred and profane love. *$1.50 Doran 822
20–1240
A dramatization of the author’s novel “The book of Carlotta.” The story is that of Carlotta Peel, who as a young girl of twenty gives herself for one night to Emilio Diaz, a world famous pianist. She does not see him again for eight years and then, on learning that he has become a morphinomaniac, goes to him and nurses him back to health and manhood and restores him to his old place on the concert stage.
“It is, evidently, not the Arnold Bennett of ‘Clayhanger’ who plays upon the glittering instrument of the theatre. And it is that Arnold Bennett who could fortify the English drama.”
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Nation 110:435 Ap 3 ’20 200w
“The dialog leaves us unconvinced and shadowed by the feeling that sooner or later Carlotta will awaken to the futility of her task. We glance with foreboding into the future. The present is temporarily serene, but beyond the final curtain lurks a suspicion that the real conflict of human emotions is still to come.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a Ap 25 ’20 520w
“Mr Bennett could hardly write a play without putting into it some insight into character, some witty or suggestive comments upon human life, at least one or two interesting situations and some passages of good dialogue. Hence, this play is readable enough, but it is clumsy and unconvincing.”
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Theatre Arts Magazine 4:174 Ap ’20 180w
BENNETT, RAINE.[2] After the day. $1.50 Stratford co. 811
A volume of poems written after the war, reflecting the impressions of war of one who took part in it. The author is a Californian who has written dramas for local groups and had one play produced at the Greek theatre in Berkeley. The introduction, by George Douglas of the San Francisco Chronicle, says: “These ‘after the day’ or ‘nocturnal’ impressions were all written with a view to their being read aloud, and as dramatic reading they take on a singularly magnetic quality.” Free verse is the form employed.
“The poems, dramatic rather than lyric, are an earnest expression of a man—one who has something to say in free verse that is worth saying.”
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Boston Transcript p6 N 20 ’20 120w
BENOIT, PIERRE. Atlantida (L’Atlantide). *$1.75 (2½c) Duffield
20–12951
This prize novel of the French academy is translated from the French by Mary C. Tongue and Mary Ross. Two French officers engaged on a scientific expedition into the wilds of Sahara, discover the mythical island of Atlantis and find that instead of having been immersed in the sea, the desert had emerged about it preserving it with all its ancient treasures and through mysterious contact with the outside world, making it a storehouse of all the sciences and lore of all the ages. Antinea, its present ruler, a descendant of Neptune, is continually supplied with men from the outside world, who all die of love for her while she is unable to love. At last she loves one of the two officers of our story, but being scorned by him, she compels his companion to kill him. This one, by the aid of a slave girl in love with him, succeeds in escaping, but ever after wanders about a restless spirit, consumed with the desire to return.
BooklistM 17:30 O ’20
“There is a glamor of mystery in the story; there is a flavor of the Orient, a glint of gold, an aroma of perfume which attracts the senses and beckons the reader onward to the end. The French have a fascinating way with them.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ag 25 ’20 200w
“Benoit has learned from Anatole France to display erudition but the translators make a sad mess of it. What they do to classical names should be a warning to reformers of the curriculum.”
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Dial 69:546 N ’20 90w
“The tale is told with an economy, a sureness and a subtlety that show how a French writer can come near to salvaging for literature themes which, in English, are condemned to a humbler sphere.” H. S. H.
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Freeman 2:358 D 22 ’20 120w
“Excellent as Monsieur Benoit’s book is, it does not equal, either in imaginative power, fertility of invention, ingenuity and abundance of incident, suspense, dramatic effectiveness, construction, character-drawing, sustained interest or the ability to make the reader feel that the events narrated actually occurred, any save perhaps some one among the lesser of the many romances written by Sir Rider Haggard. This is not to say, however, that it is not an admirable and very entertaining story, with a conclusion both artistic and dramatic, and more than one scene of fine imaginative quality.”
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N Y Times p24 Ag 1 ’20 1050w
BENOIT, PIERRE. Secret spring. *$1.75 (3c) Dodd
20–7919
In this story within a story Lieutenant Vignerte tells his brother-in-arms the story of his life, which is still casting a melancholy spell over him. Just before the war he had been a tutor to the heir of the Grand Duke of Lautenburg-Detmold. He had fallen in love with the Grand Duchess, received much friendly encouragement, had come on the track of a mystery which points to the murder of her first husband—brother to the present duke—by discovering old records and a secret spring opening a door into a hidden chamber. A conflagration in the castle and the outbreak of the war prevented complete disclosure. The duchess herself took him in her private car to the French frontier and saw him safely into the hands of the French commander there. While in action in the trenches a German prisoner of high rank is discovered, by Vignerte’s confidant, to be the arch-fiend in the Lautenburg tragedy, but here again a complete revelation of the secret is foiled by a shell that kills both Vignerte and the prisoner.
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Cleveland p71 Ag ’20 70w
“In spite of the involved plot, the annoyance of a story within a story, and the somewhat cloudy narrative style—which latter may or may not be partly the fault of the translator—the spirit of romance in this volume makes it fairly acceptable to the leisurely reader.”
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N Y Times 25:21 Jl 11 ’20 550w
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Springf’d Republican p9a Ag 29 ’20 250w
BENSHIMOL, ERNEST. Tomorrow’s yesterday. *$1 Small 811
20–11179
Marsh dreams, The passing of a shadow, Morning and evening, Confession of hope, Atonement, In the wilderness, The tale of the grey wolf, The moon on the Palisades, At dusk, Evening, The end of the trail, are some of the themes in this volume of poems. The author is a young poet, a graduate of Harvard, class of 1917.
“It is pleasing to discover a poet today who thinks in every line he writes. There is no superfluous word-painting in any of Benshimol’s poems. They are the genuine and spontaneous expression of a highly imaginative and reflective mind. Here and there, unfortunately, the reader comes across an image that is obscure or jumbled.”