Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 36)
Reading edition
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Cleveland p91 S ’20 30w
“This monograph is a valuable addition to the limited number of carefully made studies of negro life. The oversight of data about the investigations and activities of several state governments, of the United States Shipping board and the Department of labor, needs correction in subsequent editions. Constructive suggestions would add to the utility of the study.” G: E. Haynes
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Survey 44:639 Ag 16 ’20 290w
SCOTT, JAMES BROWN, ed. Judicial settlement of controversies between states of the American union; an analysis of cases decided in the Supreme court of the United States. *$2.50 Oxford 353.9
20–6766
This volume of the Publications of the Carnegie endowment for international peace is a companion to the two volumes of cases which precede it. It has been prepared in the belief that the experience of the United States holds “a lesson for the world at large.” As the editor’s preface states: “The experience of the union of American states shows that a court of justice can be created for the society of nations, occupying a like position and rendering equal, if not greater, services, applying to the solution of controversies between its members ‘federal law, state law, and international law, as the exigencies of the particular case may demand.’” The volume is indexed.
Reviewed by J. P. Hall
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Am Hist R 26:345 Ja ’21 1100w
“Dr Scott has rendered a most useful service in bringing this material into such form that men can readily lay their hands on it.”
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Am Pol Sci R 14:167 F ’20 450w
“The absence of any classification enhances the uselessness of the volume. By abstracting from its setting the material he presents, Dr Scott offers a delusive palliative to a sick and suffering world. He would have done better had he done nothing.” T: R. Powell
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Nation 111:329 S 18 ’20 1000w
“A lucid and detailed analysis which may be read with interest by laymen.”
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Spec 124:86 Ja 17 ’20 200w
SCOTT, MARTIN J. Credentials of Christianity. $1.50 (2½c) Kenedy 239
Father Scott, author of “God and myself,” “The hand of God,” etc., writes this book in the belief that “Christianity has not failed, but mankind has failed Christianity.” The one thing that can save the world from disaster is “the adoption in private and public life of the principles and spirit of Christianity.” Contents: Christianity the most startling innovation in the history of the world; Christianity’s need of the soundest credentials; A judicial examination of the credentials; The gospels as a historic document; The truth of the gospel facts; The resurrection; The establishment of Christianity; Christ Himself; Christ and the world; The world after Christ; Christianity and men of genius; The world restorer; Your verdict.
“The best pages are those that contrast pagan and Christian life—the world before Christ and after.”
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Cath World 111:820 S ’20 390w
SCOTT, SIR PERCY MORETON. Fifty years in the royal navy. il *$6 (7c) Doran
20–205
These reminiscences were begun, the author states, after his retirement, by way of recreation and amusement, yet he hopes that they will show “how opposed the navy can be to necessary reforms, involving radical departures from traditional routine; the extent to which national interests may be injured owing to conservative forces within, and without, the public services; and what injury the country may suffer from politicians interfering in technical matters, which they necessarily do not understand.” (Preface) Contents: Entry into the navy; A cruise around the world; With the naval brigade in Egypt; H.M.S. Edinburgh and Whale island; H.M.S. Scylla and gunnery; How the 4.7–inch gun reached Ladysmith; Martial law in Durban; In the Far East; The Boxer rising; Gunnery on the China station; Wei-hai-wei and the cruise home; Gunnery muddle; Inspector of target practice; H.M.S. Good Hope with the channel fleet; An imperial mission; Vicissitudes of director firing; My retirement from the navy; War—back to work, 1914 and 1915; The defence of London against zeppelins; War reflections—1915–1917.
“This, book is a grave pronouncement by a distinguished expert in gunnery, and should receive the attention which it assuredly deserves.”
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Ath p1274 N 28 ’19 440w
Reviewed by C. C. Gill
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Bookm 51:274 My ’20 1450w
“Altho more sober and restrained in style, Sir Percy Scott’s book is quite as critical in substance as Lord Fisher’s.”
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Ind 103:185 Ag 14 ’20 80w
“A work of value to anyone interested in the technique of naval gunnery.”
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N Y P L New Tech Bks p17 Ja ’20 80w
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Outlook 126:768 D 29 ’20 200w
“Apart from opinion on professional matters, the narrative of these recollections is rather unequal. We get too much of ‘the mayor in proposing the toast of “our guests” referred,’ etc., and ‘in reply I said,’ etc.”
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Sat R 128:536 D 6 ’19 1000w
“We associate the name of Sir Percy Scott with naval gunnery. It is no surprise, then, to find that his memoirs are mainly devoted to this question. The book deserves careful reading, for the subject is of prime importance.”
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Spec 123:694 N 22 ’19 1750w
“His book is to be carefully read, not without skipping over shrewish passages here and there, but with thought.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p639 N 13 ’19 2000w
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Yale R n s 10:437 Ja ’21 880w
SCOVILLE, SAMUEL, jr. Blue pearl. il *$1.75 (3c) Century
20–17413
This story introduces all the characters of “Boy scouts in the wilderness.” Jim Donegan, the lumber king, offers to give the boys $50,000 if they will bring a blue pearl like the one Joe Couteau, the Indian boy, remembers to have seen in his childhood. Joe and Will Bright, the heroes of the earlier book, with two chosen companions, start on the quest. It takes them out to the Pacific coast and into the far north to the old home of Joe’s people, and after many adventures they return with the prize.
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Bookm 52:262 N ’20 20w
Lit D p99 D 4 ’20 70w
Reviewed by Hildegarde Hawthorne
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N Y Times p8 D 12 ’20 120w
“This is a story of some literary value.” H. L. Reed
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Springf’d Republican p7a N 28 ’20 110w
SCOVILLE, SAMUEL, jr. Everyday adventures. il $3 (4c) Atlantic monthly press 590.4
20–19518
A book of nature essays, most of them describing personal adventures with birds or other forms of wild life. The photographs which illustrate the book are especially noteworthy. Contents: Everyday adventures; Zero birds; Snow stories; A runaway day; The raven’s nest; Hidden treasure; Bird’s-nesting; The treasure hunt; Orchid hunting; The marsh dwellers; The seven sleepers; Dragon’s blood. The papers are reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly, Yale Review, the Youth’s Companion, and other periodicals.
“In these papers he proves himself among the fortunate few who can be called interpreters of outdoor things.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ja 8 ’21 150w
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Review 3:345 O 20 ’20 120w
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Wis Lib Bul 16:234 D ’20 40w
SCHRIMSHAW, STEWART.[2] Bricklaying in modern practice. il *$1.50 Macmillan 693.2
20–4712
“The author, who is Supervisor of apprenticeship for the state of Wisconsin, has written more inspiringly than his title suggests. He would have the artisan appreciate his possible opportunities in the erection of buildings that ‘shall reflect in their appearance the character of a substantial and refined people.’ The first chapter, largely historical, shows that lumber scarcity is leading to a wider use of brick and that opportunity is not lacking. Materials, tools and the outlines of practice are described. Estimating, safety and hygiene, economics, the bricklayers’ relation to the public, trade organizations, and apprenticeship are discussed in a way to interest the boy or young man who leans toward the trade. The ten pages descriptive of fire-place construction should appeal to many a lay reader. A good glossary.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
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N Y P L New Tech Bks p41 Ap ’20 120w
Pratt p19 O ’20 40w
SEAMAN, AUGUSTA HUIELL (MRS ROBERT R. SEAMAN). Crimson patch. il *$1.75 (4c) Century
20–14215
Mrs Seaman’s latest mystery story for girls involves a German spy plot. Patricia Meade is staying in a large hotel with her father, who is on a secret government mission. He can not disclose his business to her and she unwittingly allows an important paper to be stolen. Suspicion falls on Virginie de Vos, the little Belgian girl with whom Patricia has made friends. Patricia refuses to believe the girl guilty, and with the aid of Chet Jackson, the bell boy, sets out to find the missing paper. The two suspect one of the waiters, but he proves to be a friend in disguise. The paper is restored, the mystery of Virginie and her relation to her supposed aunt, Mme Vanderpoel is disclosed and happier days dawn for the little Belgian. The story has been running as a serial in St Nicholas.
SECHRIST, FRANK KLEINFELTER. Education and the general welfare; a text book of school law, hygiene and management. il *$1.60 Macmillan 370
20–4978
“Professor Sechrist has prepared a general introduction to the study of education. One of his early chapters deals with broad social facts such as illiteracy and Americanization of immigrant children. He also deals with the efforts of the federal government to subsidize education in the states and to promote the development of higher institutions. The third chapter treats the costs in the different states of conducting schools of various grades. The fourth chapter has to do with child labor, reviewing the legislation which has been attempted and the effects of this legislation. Following these introductory chapters there is a discussion of the material equipment of the school and the psychological characteristics of children. One chapter deals with the question why children are dull and reviews the medical facts which come out in inspections of school children. There are chapters of a psychological type and suggestions throughout of the possibilities of standardizing the work of the school in a scientific way.”—El School J
“Of the many educational books recently published this is one of the best and deserves the attention of all teachers and school supervisors.”
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Boston Transcript p7 Jl 10 ’20 110w
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El School J 20:712 My ’20 400w
“By his title and subtitle Professor Sechrist describes a rather unusual combination of material, presented in a valuable way.”
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School R 28:555 S ’20 170w
SECRIST, HORACE. Statistics in business: their analysis, charting and use. il *$1.75 McGraw 310
20–4489
“A concise, practical, and systematic treatment, more particularly for the use of business executives and students in schools of commerce. Chapter 4 deals with classification and tabulation; chapter 5 (pp. 42), with graphics; chapter 6, with averages and kindred terms.”—Am Econ R
“The book will be serviceable as an introductory text.”
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Am Econ R 10:388 Je ’20 40w
“No city official or head of a department or a business man who has an annual report to make can afford to miss the suggestions contained in Mr Secrist’s book.”
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N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes 7:35 O 13 ’20 100w
“The particular methods explained by Mr Secrist are not new; but they are presented with commendable clearness and brevity.”
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Survey 44:291 My 22 ’20 110w
SEDGWICK, ANNE DOUGLAS (MRS BASIL DE SÉLINCOURT). Christmas roses, and other stories. *$2.25 (2½c) Houghton
20–21186
The titles of these stories are: Christmas roses; Hepaticas; Daffodils; Pansies; Pink foxgloves; Carnations; Staking a larkspur; Evening primroses; Autumn crocuses; and in each there is something in the delicately complicated situation or in revelation of character of which the flower is a symbol. The stories are all English in background and reflect the war.
“Quiet delicacy of style and subtle character analysis mark these nine flower-named stories.”
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Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21
“Her understanding of character, her appreciation of beauty in all its forms, her ability to work quietly and effectively, yet with dramatic intensity, all make up the sum total of the satisfaction which we find here.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p8 Ja 29 ’21 580w
“With her happy choice of words and smooth rhythm of her style, the artistry is invisible, yet produces a telling effect. The characters and temperaments of her people are implied and evolved, not labelled.”
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Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 30 ’21 480w
SEDGWICK, ANNE DOUGLAS (MRS BASIL DE SÉLINCOURT). Third window. *$1.50 (10c) Houghton
20–10315
The setting of this story is the parental estate of a soldier killed in the war, and in it his young widow, Antonia, his maiden cousin, Miss Latimer, of contracted but acutely intensified vision, and Captain Saltonhall, the husband’s friend and now Antonia’s lover. Miss Latimer, whose entire limited emotional life had been concentrated on her cousin Malcolm, has succeeded in putting Antonia in an agonized frame of mind. The latter is torn by misgivings that, by marrying Saltonhall, she will be unfaithful to her first husband. By certain telepathic powers Miss Latimer obtains a knowledge of the unspoken thoughts in the two lovers’ minds and with it conjures up a vision of Malcolm’s sorrowing ghost standing by the fountain (seen from the third window of the drawing-room). The result is a tragedy, for the distressed Antonia takes an overdose of her sleeping powders.
Ath p736 Je 4 ’20 850W
Booklist 16:350 Jl ’20
“Few writers of fiction today can equal in perfection of style the work of Anne Douglas Segwick. But ‘The third window’ has an intrinsic interest as a story.” F. A. G.
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Boston Transcript p4 Je 9 ’20 1200W
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Cleveland p70 Ag ’20 120w
“It is a welcome relief to find, among the flood of books that exploit the present interest in psychic phenomena, one that is both an artistic piece of work, and a sincere attempt to penetrate beneath the usual morbid sentimentalism of the theme to the vital problems involved in a belief in survival.” H. W. M.
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Grinnell R 15:260 O ’20 260w
“It has much of the delicate precision of line and enhanced effect of perspective which the frame of a fine window can give to the view which it reveals. But the perfection in arrangement is not complete, and the flaws which appear come close to calling in question the validity of Miss Sedgwick’s studied placement of events and deliberate simplification. Yet even with these lapses, ‘The third window’ keeps a singular and exquisite beauty.” C. M. R.
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New Repub 24:101 S 22 ’20 680w
“Her characters are drawn with deftness, delicacy and skill, the book is beautifully written in a style at once clear and subtle, and all the values of the picture are finely maintained. Yet for all its excellences it has one great flaw, a defect at the very root of the argument. The reader cannot but believe that Antonia’s fondness for Malcolm was a very superficial thing, since she was not only willing but even anxious so quickly to put another man in his place.”
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N Y Times 25:292 Je 6 ’20 800w
“Somber in theme, the story is written with exquisite delicacy and grasping strength.”
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Outlook 125:431 Je 30 ’20 80w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 3:110 Ag 4 ’20 180w
“The redeeming features of the book are its truth to English life and its brevity. It may be added also that the delineation of the characters, such as they are, is quite skilfully done but there is nothing in the book as a whole which the world could not spare without any great sense of loss.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 1 ’20 130w
“So tense and subtilized is the atmosphere of Mrs de Sélincourt’s story that we fear to breathe lest we should break its charm. Indeed, the story is its atmosphere. It seems to emanate from and surround its characters like the perfume of flowers. Yet they affect us at length as if they were mere automata.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p301 My 13 ’20 950w
“The story is told with fine artistry and will appeal to discriminating readers with a taste for mental analysis.”
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Wis Lib Bul 16:196 N ’20 140w
SEGUR, SOPHIE (ROSTOPCHINE) comtesse de.[2] Old French fairy tales. il *$5 Penn
20–19079
“An octavo with full-page plates, both in color and in black and white, by Virginia Frances Sterrett, is ‘Old French fairy tales,’ compiled by Comtesse de Segur.” (Springf’d Republican) “The titles are: Blondine, Bonne-Biche, and Beau-Minon; Good little Henry; Princess Rosette; The little grey mouse and Our son.” (Booklist)
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Booklist 17:127 D ’20
“These tales are told in that simple and direct fashion that children love and older folk find good. And the illustrations are in truth among the loveliest that have ever translated fairy tale into fairy scene.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
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N Y Times p4 N 28 ’20 210w
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Springf’d Republican p10 D 17 ’20 80w
SEIFFERT, MARJORIE ALLEN (ELIJAH HAY, pseud.). Woman of thirty, and Poems of Elijah Hay. *$1.50 Knopf 811
19–19879
This is vers libre that sings. There is elusive beauty, the sweet and the bitter of life, and the wistfulness of passing youth. The opening piece is a morality play: The old woman, in which the new that makes place for the old is but the old in disguise. The poems are divided into Love poems in summer; Studies and designs; Interlude; Love poems in autumn; and the Poems of Elijah Hay.
Booklist 16:272 My ’20
Reviewed by H: A. Lappin
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Bookm 51:214 Ap ’20 100w
“The trouble with ‘A woman of thirty’ is its lack of synthesis. Colour and a free movement, subtleties of thought and rhythm are here, but they have not been integrated: they ravel out into many unconnected loose ends.” L: Untermeyer
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Dial 68:535 Ap ’20 160w
“The poems are sophisticated and a little cynical. She writes free verse naturally, unaffectedly and effectively.”
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Ind 104:65 O 9 ’20 130w
“Her figures, elaborate and excellent as they are, do not penetrate that core of the memory which lives on tranquilly and forever.” M. V. D.
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Nation 111:248 Ag 28 ’20 80w
“Almost one wishes that Mrs Seiffert could produce some disassociation in her personality. Then she might give us, besides the poems that are all too human, much more about the harsh black birds flying in the design—more in the style of that odd and very memorable little morality ‘The old woman.’ These are poems that evidence intellectual conception.” Padraic Colum
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New Repub 25:54 D 8 ’20 150w
“It must be admitted that in her failing Mrs Seiffert is better than many who achieve their limited successes; but the dominant overtone is an attempt at a deft sophistication, which can never quite conceal that it is the sophistication of rural Illinois, rather than the sophistication of Chicago, London.” Clement Wood
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N Y Call p10 Mr 28 ’20 500w
“Mrs Seiffert writes equally well in free verse and in regularly stressed rhythm. Her work is remarkable for a felicitous ease in expression and a great variety of interests and ideas.”
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N Y Times 25:193 Ap 18 ’20 180w
SELIGMAN, V. J. Salonica side-show. il *$4 Dutton 940.42
“There are four parts to the book, of which the first and last were written in Macedonia during the summer of 1918. Beginning with a description of the Seres road which was of the greatest importance for the British line of communications and on which the writer ‘can really claim expert knowledge’ after spending two years in various camps by its side, he proceeds to give amusing accounts of life behind the front among the British Tommies and Greek Johnnies.... The second part, which explains the events that led to the final offensive of September 15 to September 30, 1918, and gives an account of the battle itself with more details regarding the Anglo-Greek attack at Doiran, will prove of greater value to the historic mind.”—Review
“Mr Seligman’s book embodies a considerable amount of information regarding the expedition, and is printed in a clear and readable form.”
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Ath p932 S 19 ’19 80w
“There is a harmonious combination of humorous anecdote and serious study expressed in an easy but by no means slipshod style. Equally entertaining and instructing, the book is well worth reading.” A. E. Phoutrides
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Review 3:450 N 10 ’20 960w
“Mr Seligman treats the expedition so disconnectedly that his is a terrible rag-bag of a book. Some of his stories are excellent.”
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Sat R 128:366 O 18 ’19 520w
“His chapter on ‘The tragedy of Constantine’ is worth reading; nothing that he says about the allied diplomacy in regard to Bulgaria is too strong, but he errs in putting all the blame on the British foreign office.”
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Spec 122:411 S 27 ’19 190w
“Those who enjoyed ‘Macedonian musings’ will certainly take pleasure in ‘The Salonica side show.’”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p493 S 18 ’19 600w
SELIGMANN, HERBERT JACOB. Negro faces America. *$1.75 Harper 326
20–10771
This book is a study of the negro problem in the United States today from the friendly viewpoint of a former member of the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post and the New Republic, who is now connected with the National association for the advancement of colored people, The author discusses race prejudice at length and tries to show how many problems that most people consider to be racial are fundamentally economic and political problems. There are chapters on the negro in industry, the negro as scape-goat of city politics, and the effect of the European war upon the American negro. The Chicago, Omaha and Washington riots are explained and the Arkansas trouble of 1919 is treated under the caption “The American Congo.” There is an appendix on the Bogalusa, Louisiana, trouble by the president of the Louisiana state federation of labor. There is no index.
Booklist 17:143 Ja ’21
Reviewed by M. E. Bailey
Bookm 52:302 Ja ’21 300w
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Boston Transcript p6 Je 30 ’20 1200w
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Cleveland p91 S ’20 20w
“‘The negro faces America’ is the best general survey yet written on the negro in the United States. The book contains much fresh material.” M. W. Ovington
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Freeman 1:573 Ag 25 ’20 800w
“Besides reporting unanswerable facts Mr Seligmann gives us excellent discussion of such questions as ‘social equality’ and sex relationships.” O. G. V.
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Nation 112:121 Ja 26 ’21 890w
“Mr Seligmann has written an interesting book, a generous, ardent piece of agitation, but its usefulness is greatly impaired by its failure to make good upon the pretences of its arrangement. The issue as to the evolutionary inferiority of the negro, which, if it was relevant at all to his purpose, deserved thorough scientific presentation, is superficially handled.” L. B. W.
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New Repub 24:151 O 6 ’20 800w
“Mr Seligmann is a vigorous writer, very journalistic, who interests you by the rapid flow of his thought. He has considerable power in arranging his facts, but he quotes and quotes and quotes.”
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N Y Times p19 Ag 8 ’20 500w
“The question is here discussed in an intelligent, fair-minded manner.”
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Outlook 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 70w
“His book should be read by those who wish to know what negroes think and feel.” W: A. Aery
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Survey 45:24 O 2 ’20 450w
Wis Lib Bul 16:232 D ’20 90w
SERAO, MATILDE. Souls divided; tr. from the Italian by William Collinge. *$1.75 Brentano’s
20–7144
“The telling of a story by means of a series of letters is a fictional form which, though once exceedingly popular, is seldom used by modern writers. This method is employed in the new volume by Matilde Serao, the noted Italian writer. It is the hero, Paolo Ruffo, who does all the letter-writing, the lady to whom all his passionate epistles are addressed never replying to any one of them. She was an orphan, Diana Sforza, eldest daughter of an ancient house, and practically penniless. Gifted with a rarely lovely and very sympathetic voice, she won Paolo Ruffo’s heart by her singing. For a year he worshipped her, followed her about from place to place, and poured out his heart to her in a long succession of most fervent letters. Then, at last, utterly discouraged and broken, he left his native country, accompanied by the faithful sister upon whose shoulder he had wept more than once, and became a wanderer upon the face of the earth.”—N Y Times
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Cleveland p70 Ag ’20 80w
“‘Souls divided’ is probably a better novel than the translator has managed to project, yet even with this allowance its theme and substance tend toward emotional futility.”
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Dial 68:399 Mr ’20 50w
“The story is like a pressed flower suddenly found in the pages of a Lamartine. For a moment it gives you the nostalgia of the past. Then it crumbles.” L. L.
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Nation 110:sup488 Ap 10 ’20 200w
“Though it is always difficult to judge of the style of a book read only in translation, ‘Souls divided’ would seem to be very well written. As far as its interest and its appeal to the reader are concerned, these will depend largely upon whether that reader is or is not a sentimental temperament.”
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N Y Times 25:128 Mr 21 ’20 400w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 2:434 Ap 24 ’20 540w
“The fact that the whole story, except the epilogue, is related in Paolo’s letters to Diana is bound to give it an air of unreality, since he is obliged to write her a detailed description of her own wedding. But the southern passion of the letters, though it strikes one as a little strained in our colder northern tongue, has a genuine ring about it, and the lady reader who falls under its spell will readily forgive such little improbabilities. The translation is above the average.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p689 N 27 ’19 700w
SERGEANT, ELIZABETH SHEPLEY. Shadow-shapes; the journal of a wounded woman, October 1918–May 1919. *$2 Houghton 940.48
20–20217
In this record of her hospital experiences the writer attempts to envisage “a vast, embracing, unseizable truth that was essentially our common possession. The heightened glow cast by danger and death on the faces of the young, and its fading into the rather flat daylight of survival; the psychological dislocation of armistice; the weariness of reconstruction; the shift in Franco-American relations that followed President Wilson’s intervention in European affairs; and the place of American women in the adventures of the A. E. F.” (Preface) The three parts of the book are: The wing of death; Pax in bello; The city of confusion.
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Booklist 17:149 Ja ’21
“It is, indeed, amazing that Miss Sergeant is able to make her meagre details of vivid interest, but such is her art that she ably succeeds in holding attention throughout the pages of this novel journal.” C. K. H.
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Boston Transcript p8 D 1 ’20 390w
“The book derives a unity from its synthesis of fragments—a shade too clinical at times, but otherwise sharply realistic and delicately expressed.”
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Dial 70:232 F ’21 50w
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Freeman 2:501 F 2 ’21 200w
“Books so concentrated, so vivid, and so sustained in their spiritual excitement rarely get written.”
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Nation 112:123 Ja 26 ’21 170w
“How readable ‘Shadow-shapes’ is, and what is more, how full of feeling, of generosity, of the gold of human intercourse delicately essayed, of difficult things bravely thought out, of fine things appreciated, of good things described with sympathy, accuracy—this quite outweighs in my impression of it that vast excess of the sympathy over the accuracy, of the personal over the impersonal which, artistically at least, is a serious fault.” R. L.
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New Repub 25:268 Ja 26 ’21 1100w
“Originality is a force everywhere, and Miss Sergeant’s ‘Shadow-shapes’ is a very original volume. Miss Sergeant is an accomplished stylist, her art conceals itself. Picture after picture rises before us, in its very color, form and significance. If Miss Sergeant is supremely sensitive to the drama of minds, she is no less sensitive to the beauty of nature. Truly, every one should read this book.” Amy Lowell
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N Y Times p10 N 14 ’20 3200w
“A book of fine perceptions, enriched by a background of feeling and intelligence.”
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Review 3:622 D 22 ’20 820w
“Miss Sergeant has done much more than give a vivid record of hospital experiences. That indeed, although interesting, is the least part of an unusual book. The figures which Miss Sergeant draws from real life, frequently giving initials or only first names, are extraordinarily vivid and human.”
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Springf’d Republican p8a D 5 ’20 540w
Reviewed by E. B. Moses
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Survey 45:547 Ja 8 ’21 130w
SETON-WATSON, ROBERT WILLIAM. Europe in the melting pot. *$1.50 Macmillan 940.3
20–2792
“One of the most authoritative writers on eastern European politics here brings together a series of important papers which he has written during the war. For the most part they are reproduced from The New Europe, the weekly review which he founded in 1916 to represent the policy of himself and of those who cooperated with him. These embraced a league of nations, looking forward ultimately to all-round disarmament; support of the Slav movement; an advanced democratic programme for Russia; a federal solution for the border nations; agrarian reform throughout eastern and southern Europe; parliamentary control over foreign policy; equality of treatment for big and small nations; ‘satisfied nationalism’ as ‘the first essential preliminary to a new international order.’ A few of the papers have appeared in the Round Table or the Contemporary Review and one in the English Review. There are seven maps.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
Ath p1139 O 31 ’19 180w
Boston Transcript p10 My 1 ’20 400w
“Especially well informed, competent, and obstinate in dealing with southern Europe.”
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Dial 68:668 My ’20 50w
“The book is the work of a historian at grips with reality, and has the stamp of the best qualities of political writing.” N. C.
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Int J Ethics 30:345 Ap ’20 180w
“The author’s history merely records diplomatic and military events. Of history as a series of processes, dependent mainly on regional economics and national tradition, he shows little conception.”
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Sat R 129:412 My 1 ’20 1200w
“His treatment of the Adriatic question in this volume seems to us unfortunate, especially in regard to Fiume.”
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Spec 123:623 N 8 ’19 200w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p595 O 23 ’19 180w
“They are an excellent illustration of the best kind of political writing, viz., the application of genuine knowledge and settled principles to the immediate situation which from time to time presents itself.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p682 N 27 ’19 1300w
SEWALL, MRS MAY (WRIGHT). Neither dead nor sleeping; introd. by Booth Tarkington. *$2.50 Bobbs 134
20–8214
“There is a peculiar difference between Mrs Sewall’s communications with the world beyond and most of those with which the public is familiar through books without number. For she says that she found the discarnate spirits, urged and led by that of her husband, anxious to give her help and direction. The whole of Mrs Sewall’s nearly 300 pages is filled with the continuous, detailed, personal story of her intimate association and communication with these spirits. There is not much about conditions of life with them, as there usually is in books of this kind, but its place is taken instead by her account of what they did for her, what they taught her, and what she learned of their anxiety to help human beings. Their efforts in her behalf were mainly inspired, she says, by their wish to make it possible for her to give their message to humanity.”—N Y Times
“Strains certain tenets of temperate spiritualism but is brightly written and replete with interest.”
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Booklist 17:50 N ’20
N Y Times 25:18 Jl 4 ’20 300w
“The story is told with such full detail and sincerity, all resting, too, on the character of a woman so widely and favorably known, as to make on any reader a profound impression.” Lilian Whiting
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Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 18 ’20 1000w
SEYMOUR, HARRIET AYER. What music can do for you; a guide for the uninitiated. *$2 Harper 780
20–22166
The author holds that we need a new scheme of education which will be based upon the idea that man is his own salvation, that within himself are all the possibilities for harmony and growth. The new education must furnish the stimulus that will awaken this larger self. This stimulus is music and in this sense music is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Contents: Awakening to life through music; Melody, rhythm, and harmony; Melody; Rhythm; Harmony; Music for children; Practicing; Technique; Music for grown-ups; Phonographs and pianolas; Music and health; The philosophy of music. The appended bibliography contains three groups of book: books on psychology taking cognizance of music; biographies and books on music. There is also a list of phonograph records chosen from the catalogue of the Columbia Graphophone Company.
SEYMOUR, WILLIAM KEAN, ed. Miscellany of British poetry, 1919. *$2 Harcourt 821.08
A20–533
“This ‘Miscellany of poetry, 1919,’ is issued to the public as a truly catholic anthology of contemporary poetry. The poems here printed are new, in the sense that they have not previously been issued by their authors in book form.” (Prefatory note) Among the contributors are: Laurence Binyon; Gilbert K. Chesterton; William H. Davies; John Drinkwater; Wilfrid Wilson Gibson; Theodore Maynard; Edith Sitwell; and Alec Waugh. There are decorations by Doris Palmer.
“Mr Seymour is to be congratulated on having brought together what is on the whole a very interesting collection of verse. The list of contributors on the cover is in itself reassuring, and when we read the book we find that almost all of them are worthily represented.”
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Ath p94 Ja 16 ’20 180w
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Booklist 16:235 Ap ’20
Dial 68:538 Ap ’20 60w
Nation 110:855 Je 26 ’20 180w
“Chesterton’s St Barbara ballad contains touches as magical as his Lepanto, although the sustained flight does not equal the earlier chant. Lawrence Binyon is represented by verses full of magic, Davies is his own naive self, Drinkwater is faultless and polished, Edith Sitwell is whimsically delightful, Muriel Stuart is sharply dramatic, and, best of all, W. W. Gibson appears in verses equal to his best.” Clement Wood
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N Y Call p10 Je 20 ’20 900w
“To sum up, Mr Seymour’s book can be recommended to those who already possess collections of contemporary poetry in which poets of more modern temper are represented, or to those reactionaries who will read nothing but the most conservative verse.” Marguerite Williams
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N Y Times p24 Ag 22 ’20 360w
“Mr Seymour has not exercised, or indeed sought to exercise, the faintest critical faculty in forming his collection.”
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Sat R 129:391 Ap 24 ’20 950w
“There is a wholesome (one means esthetically, not morally wholesome) departure from the preciosity, the fine-spun, over-intellectual, finically phrased impressionism that was, in prewar days, the distinctly Georgian note.”
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Springf’d Republican p10 Je 22 ’20 150w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p23 Ja 8 ’20 100w
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Yale R n s 10:201 O ’20 140w
SHACKLETON, SIR ERNEST HENRY. South. new ed il *$6 (4½c) Macmillan 919.9
20–1604
The book is the story of Shackleton’s last expedition, 1914–1917, undertaken to achieve the first crossing of the Antarctic continent. It failed in its object, owing to the loss of one of its ships, but, says the author: “The struggles, the disappointments, and the endurance of this small party of Britishers, hidden away for nearly two years in the fastnesses of the polar ice, striving to carry out the ordained task and ignorant of the crisis through which the world was passing, make a story which is unique in the history of Antarctic exploration.” (Preface) Contents: Into the Weddell sea; New land; Winter months; Loss of the Endurance; Ocean camp; The march between; Patience camp; Escape from the ice; The boat journey; Across South Georgia; The rescue; Elephant island; The Ross sea party; Wintering in McMurdo sound; Laying the depots; The Aurora’s drift; The last relief; The final phase. The appendices contain: Scientific work; Sea-ice nomenclature; Meteorology; Physics; South Atlantic whales and whaling; The expedition huts at McMurdo sound. There are eighty-eight illustrations and diagrams and an index.
“The volume is extremely well illustrated.”
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Ath p1304 D 5 ’19 40w
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Ath p76 Ja 16 ’20 1100w
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Booklist 16:201 Mr ’20
“Sir Ernest Shackleton’s new book adds another to those priceless records of high human quality, and the story that it tells, aside from its scientific value, will have many readers who will find its pages enthralling and deeply moving.”
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N Y Times 25:42 Ja 25 ’20 1500w
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Outlook 124:291 F 18 ’20 200w
“Few modern authors have so effectively utilized the pent-up force of sturdy Anglo-Saxon monosyllables.” Philip Tillinghast
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Pub W 97:607 F 21 ’20 480w
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R of Rs 61:448 Ap ’20 260w
“Sir Ernest Shackleton’s book is written in a vigorous style.”
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Spec 123:862 D 20 ’19 1100w
“The story of the voyage that six men made in an open boat across eight hundred miles of the roughest water in the world, to bring relief to the twenty-two companions who remained on the island, rivals the best sea tale ever written. It is good for any one to read such a narrative as ‘South!’ We see what men may be.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 7 ’20 2500w
“The story is told simply, for the most part without much passion; but there is no need for that to hold our interest. This book, and many another like it, are written for the general reader; and the general reader (who would not read a scientific treatise if it were set before him) is rather prone to forget the scientific aspects of polar exploration. Sir Ernest Shackleton yields, perhaps too far, to this consideration.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p683 N 27 ’19 1250w
SHACKLETON, ROBERT. Book of Chicago. il *$3.50 Penn 917.7
20–19424
“To Chicago goes Mr Shackleton, after having exhausted New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. The Art institute, the clubs, the theatres, the elevated, the freight subway and the river all come in for his inspection, and Mr Shackleton has apparently gone over, under, around and through Chicago with a thoroughness that not many of its citizens would care to duplicate. Anon, he varies a charming style by telling stories, and by gallant attempts to rake up some worth-while poetry that has been written concerning the city.”—Boston Transcript
Booklist 17:151 Ja ’21
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Bookm 52:367 Ja ’21 120w
“For each matter which Mr Shackleton has not set down, there are a dozen that he has. Mr Shackleton is always interesting.” G. M. H.
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Boston Transcript p2 N 24 ’20 600w
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Outlook 126:690 D 15 ’20 70w
“A truly interesting and broadly conceived tribute to the much abused ‘Windy city.’”
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R of Rs 63:112 Ja ’21 100w
“The book is far from being a catalogue of land-marks and monuments, or even of merits and faults. It gives to the city a personal quality, and to the reader a sense that here is a mass of people, living, breathing, and enjoying life.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 D 20 ’20 250w
SHAFER, DONALD CAMERON. Barent Creighton. *$2 (2c) Knopf
20–11224
“An old time story of youthful romance and hot adventure, well seasoned ... with simple love and pleasant humor”—thus the author himself correctly describes his story. In the early forties, when the hero’s fortunes are at their lowest, an old aunt leaves him a legacy of four old keys, a box full of small gold figures of Inca gods, an undecipherable manuscript and the family estate with 5000 acres to hold in trust for his wife to be. The first three items point to family secrets all of which develop and unravel in the course of the story in quaintly romantic fashion with underground passages and chambers and hidden treasures. Of immediate interest to Barent, however, is to find a wife that is to save him from a debtor’s prison. How a wealthy land greedy neighbor of the Creighton estate offers his daughter to fill the place; how the daughter resents the bargain; how Barent tears up the contract when he finds he loves her and faces a variety of troubles instead; how the tables turn and how Ronella comes to require Barent’s help; and how the two really love each other more than gold and acres, make a fascinating tale.
“Very readable romance.”
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Boston Transcript p4 Ag 28 ’20 350w
“This is Mr Shafer’s first novel, and it is one of considerable promise, colorful and related with no little spirit.”
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N Y Times p22 Ag 8 ’20 360w
“A broad vein of humor rescues the tale from melodramatic lapses.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a O 24 ’20 220w
SHANKS, EDWARD BUXTON. People of the ruins. *$1.90 (2c) Stokes
20–17169
According to this “story of the English revolution and after,” (sub-title), the revolution broke out in 1924. During its first skirmishes Jeremy Tuft, physicist, is overtaken by a bomb while inspecting a new scientific discovery. Thanks to the new “ray” he awakens from the shock and crawls out of his hole in the ground in the year 2074 into a ruined and degenerate world. Almost all traces of our civilization are gone and the people are too ignorant and tired to restore what is left or to rebuild better. What is left is a ruling house in England, landlordism, and a degenerate industrialism in the north of England. In the ruler—an old Jew known us the “Speaker”—however, some of the old ambition survives. The form it takes to desire to reconstruct, with the aid of the oldest surviving mechanics, the onetime efficient gun. Now Jeremy Tuft is pressed into his services and the gun becomes a fact. Immediately there is war and more disaster in which the Speaker, his daughter Eva, and Jeremy, her lover, all go down to destruction together.
“The author writes entertainingly, imaginatively, and with a creative skill that makes his work pleasant if not nutritious reading.”
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Dial 70:231 F ’21 50w
N Y Times p22 O 24 ’20 800w
SHANNON, ALASTAIR. Morning knowledge: the story of the new inquisition. *$5 Longmans 192
“For two years and a half a prisoner of war in Turkey, the author devoted nearly half of that period to the writing of this work. If, perhaps, somewhat premature as a presentment of philosophy, the book is at all events an essay at the expression of a young man’s ‘positive assurance in the value of man as a real creator.’ Beginning with negations, the author advances by degrees to the conclusions that there is ‘more in life than mechanism, and more in reason than intellect’; that intellect is ‘so formed as to grasp mechanism wholly’; and that reason is so formed as to reflect life wholly and to find for life a purpose which is not yet palpable, though psychologically evident.”—Ath
Ath p125 Ja 23 ’20 120w
Cath World 111:691 Ag ’20 140w
“A very beautiful and a very sane philosophy will be found in these pages. The poetry in them has a lyrical quality reminiscent of Mr W. B. Yeats, and the prose at times glows at white heat. Although Mr Shannon’s work is uneven, and sometimes baffling, it is never commonplace.”
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Sat R 129:373 Ap 17 ’20 490w
“The condemnation of Mr Shannon’s method lies in the obscurity of his own conclusions.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p134 F 26 ’20 760w
SHARP, DALLAS LORE. Patrons of democracy. 80c (8c) Atlantic monthly press 379
20–4555
Professor Sharp of the English department of Boston university, holds that the true end of American education is not life or the getting of a living, but “living together,” “getting-on-together.” For this purpose the higher schools and colleges are negligible and the secondary schools are everything; for all the fundamental things of life are learned by the time a person reaches his eighteenth year. The spirit of democracy is one of these fundamental things and it is a matter of education. The book, therefore, is a plea for the common school and an arraignment of the private, parochial and vocational school.
Booklist 16:263 My ’20
“The book is a witty and idealistic appeal for a truer democracy.”
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Boston Transcript p4 Mr 17 ’20 120w
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Dial 68:668 My ’20 80w
“Dallas Lore Sharp’s belief in democracy is a tonic for us all. Moreover, he has a simple and, within limits, entirely practical prescription for democracy.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a My 2 ’20 1050w
SHARP, HILDA MARY. Pawn in pawn. *$1.90 (*7s) (1½c) Putnam
20–8275
Julian Tarrant, a distinguished English poet, comes into a fortune somewhat late in life. He has never married and has no close kin and he one day expresses his intention of adopting a child whom he may make his heir—and then forgets all about it. But his friend, Richard Drewe, who has taken him seriously, goes to the orphanage flippantly known as the Pawn shop, and returns with a little six-year old girl. The story thereafter is concerned with the development of this child, her relations to her adoptive father and uncle, and to one other man, a younger friend of the two others. An anonymously published book of poems proves the girl to have unusual poetic talent and then the secret of her birth and parentage is revealed. The story covers the last years of the nineteenth century and the period up to and including the world war.
Ath p464 Ap 2 ’20 100w
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Booklist 17:74 N ’20
Lit D p96 N 20 ’20 700w
“‘A pawn in pawn’ is an example of excellent writing, and in point of vital interest and ingenuity of plot quite out of the ordinary.”
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N Y Times 25:30 Jl 4 ’20 500w
“It is a tale which will really give great pleasure in the reading; but its weak construction and the hackneyed coincidences which lie at the back of it must prevent its ranking very high among novels of the moment.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p202 Mr 25 ’20 120w
SHAW, CHARLES GRAY. Ground and goal of human life. (Studies in philosophy and religion) $3.50 N.Y. univ. press 171
“The problem which Professor Shaw presents and endeavours to solve is the establishment of a ‘higher synthesis’ between an individualistic egoism and a scientifico-social self-suppression. The ‘higher synthesis,’ when he arrives at it in book three, is expounded in three sections, The joy of life in the world-whole, The worth of life in the world-whole (to be found in work), and The truth of life in the world-whole (to be found rather in culture than in æstheticism).”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“In formulating his code of ethics, Dr Shaw has succeeded in adding an illuminating and clearly written volume to the already large library dealing with the origins and values of human conduct.” L. M. S.
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Boston Transcript p8 F 28 ’20 550w
Dial 68:401 Mr ’20 60w
“Prof. Shaw’s presentation of his case is far from shallow and unconsidered—and has the inestimable merit of making no concessions to prejudices, of being absolutely unafraid. Moreover, it is a positive and too rare joy to find a book with exact footnote knowledge of the history of thought and literature.”
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N Y Evening Post p9 Mr 13 ’20 1350w
“It may be doubted whether this very substantial volume makes any very definite fresh contribution either practical or theoretical to its subject; and Professor Shaw is by no means free from the tendency among American philosophers to avoid clear logical exposition and to smother their thought under a heavy load of philosophic verbiage.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p110 F 12 ’20 180w
SHAW, FREDERICK JOHN (BROUGHAM VILLIERS, pseud.), and CHESSON, WILFRID HUGH. Anglo-American relations, 1861–1865. *$2.50 Scribner 327.73
(Eng ed 19–18602)
“‘Anglo-American relations, 1861–1865,’ deals with the causes of friction and misunderstandings between Great Britain and the United States during the trying years of the Civil war. The reasons which, for a time, gave prominence to the southern sympathies of the British ruling classes, while rendering almost inarticulate the far deeper feeling for the cause of union and emancipation among the masses of our people, are examined and explained. W. H. Chesson, grandson of George Thompson, the antislavery orator, who was William Lloyd Garrison’s bosom friend, contributes a chapter which attempts to convey an impression of the influence of transatlantic problems upon English oratory and the writings of public men.”—Springf’d Republican
“While Mr Villiers’s general presentation of national attitudes is excellent and very well worth reading in both countries, the facts of history which are brought into his narrative are unfortunately not so well understood by him.” E. D. Adams
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Am Hist R 25:715 Jl ’20 500w
“The whole book is instructive and very timely.”
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Ath p93 Ja 16 ’20 100w
Nation 110:436 Ap 3 ’20 420w
Springf’d Republican p8 O 4 ’19 140w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p655 N 13 ’19 60w
SHEDD, GEORGE CLIFFORD. Iron furrow. il *$1.75 (2c) Doubleday
20–7422
An American engineer of indomitable grit and perseverance sees possibilities in a barren tract of Arizona desert if the land is irrigated. He buys the land and sets to work in the face of the intrigues of a Mexican plutocrat, the wiles of eastern capital, his own shortage of funds, and the inclemencies of an Arizona winter. With all these troubles he still finds time to fall in love with a girl of fickle affections. The successful termination of his work on the canal is marked by the termination of his engagement by the faithless girl and the crowning of his efforts by a true woman’s love.
“It is a pleasant story in a quiet key, and is restful after the many stories where gun-play is a prominent practice.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Je 16 ’20 300w
SHEDLOCK, MARIE L. Eastern stories and legends. *$2 Dutton 294
20–18410
An enlarged edition of a collection of stories of the Buddha published in 1910, now issued with a foreword by T. W. Rhys Davids and an introduction by Annie Carroll Moore. “In India, Prof. Davids tells us, crowds may be seen listening all night long to these tales. There are many hundreds of them from which Miss Shedlock has selected only a few, and of these we are assured that their appeal to an audience never fails. She has told them again and again, and Miss Moore, of the New York Public Library, adds her conviction of their admirable suitability for telling.”—Boston Transcript
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Booklist 17:124 D ’20
“In rearranging and expanding this selection of stories from the Buddha rebirths, Miss Shedlock has wisely freed the book from limitations, which in the earlier edition gave it too much the appearance of a text-book to look readable.” A. C. Moore
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Bookm 51:315 My ’20 140w
“Discriminating and valuable selection of stories.” A. C. Moore
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Bookm 52:260 N ’20 60w
Boston Transcript p4 O 23 ’20 350w
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Springf’d Republican p8 N 18 ’20 150w
SHEEHAN, PERLEY POORE. House with a bad name. *$1.90 Boni & Liveright
The house was an anachronism in a part of New York that had fallen from a former grand estate. The neighborhood would have it that it was haunted. The people living in it were anachronisms and as such full of mystery. Old Nathan Tyrone and his daughter Mélissine lived in an older generation in thought, in dress, in habits. They were paragons of virtue and unworldliness, and their butler a good second to themselves. In due time Mélissine falls in love, and, about the same time, an evil woman appears upon the scene with blackmail and corruption. After the death of Mélissine’s father she insinuates herself into the house and for a time the air is dense with mystery and evil forebodings. But before so much virtue and saintliness even the wicked Belle becomes repentant and the evil mysteries she conjured up fade away. All but one, which comes to light after Mélissine’s marriage: through some estrangement between her father and grandfather, the former had been disinherited and had unwittingly been living on the bounty of the butler, the sole heir, all his life.
Boston Transcript p3 D 4 ’20 480w
“Mr Sheehan is a facile, delicate artist in the weaving of such a theme; the texture of it is excellent and his people, especially the two women, are admirably real.”
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N Y Evening Post p11 N 27 ’20 150w
“With a slight, old-fashioned plot, little dramatic action and characters that have been worn threadbare, it still must be conceded that the lazy reader, desiring mild bookish entertainment, will find it worth while to work his way through this placid novel.”
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N Y Times p26 Ja 2 ’21 420w
“The mingling of love and mystery is well sustained.”
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Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 23 ’21 210w
SHEFFIELD, MRS ADA (ELIOT).[2] Social case history; its construction and content. *$1 Russell Sage foundation 360
20–19858
The book belongs to the Social work series and deals with the recording of the relief workers’ cases and the purposes it subserves. The record is made with a view to three ends: (1) the immediate purpose of furthering effective treatment of individual clients, (2) the ultimate purpose of general social betterment, and (3) the incidental purpose of establishing the case worker herself in critical thinking. To expound these three ends from every point of view is the purpose of the book. It is indexed and contains: The purpose of a social case history; A basis for the selection of material; Documents that constitute the history; Composition of the narrative; The narrative in detail; The wider implications of case recording.
“‘The social case history’ is a new landmark in the profession of social case work. No one hereafter can undertake case work without first mastering the material and the method put into permanent form by this book. It does for the case record, and incidentally for certain phases of treatment, what Miss Richmond’s book on ‘Social diagnosis’ has done for investigation.” Frank Bruno
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Survey 45:432 D 18 ’20 980w
SHEFFIELD, LYBA, and SHEFFIELD, NITA C.[2] Swimming simplified. il $1.75 The authors, box 436, San Francisco 796
20–9362
“The purpose of this text book is to simplify the learning and teaching of swimming from a scientific point of view. Our further objective has been to arrange a series of lessons in their logical progression to meet the demands of schools, playgrounds, clubs and aquatic centers.... A special section upon the class man-procedure for mass instruction and class management has been arranged for teachers of swimming.” (Introd.) Contents: The method of procedure in learning or teaching swimming; The beginner’s first lessons; Analysis of the various swimming strokes; Racing turn—treading water—plunge for distance; Diving; Life saving; The safety valve and the swimming and life-saving tests; Water sports; Suggestions to instructors. There are numerous helpful illustrations. The authors are teachers of swimming in the San Francisco high schools and the University of California.
SHERARD, JESSE LOUIS. Blueberry bear. il *$1 Crowell
This biography of a bear cub forms an entertaining story for children altho it belongs to the type of story in which human psychology is attributed to animals. Blueberry with his father and mother lives near the home of Farmer Green. The father is shot by one of the farmer’s men and the little bear thereafter does all in his power to take revenge. Finally the farmer’s boys make him a captive and take him home with them and he learns that his father is still alive and a prisoner. The two escape and the bear family seeks a new home in the canebrake far from the haunts of man.
SHERIDAN, SOLOMON NEILL. Typhoon’s secret. il *$1.50 (2½c) Doubleday
20–7516
John Wentworth, a bank president’s son, is suddenly stranded, when the bank fails and his father mysteriously disappears out to sea. John’s friends scent a mystery and foul play connected with the failure and send John in a wild goose chase over the Pacific in search of clues and his father. The rest is a sea yarn full of thrilling incidents which culminate in a yacht’s wild flight before a typhoon, a burning ship, a companion yacht with romance on board, and finally a restored father, a restored fortune and a bride for John Wentworth.
Booklist 16:283 My ’20
SHERINGHAM, HUGH TEMPEST. Trout fishing memoirs and morals. il *$5 (5c) Houghton 799
The author begins his fishing reminiscences with an account of eel-fishing by hand as a child of nine, newly escaped from London. But he soon found that trout fishing is the sport par excellence and that trout fishers “by-nature,” not merely because sporting fashion prescribes it, belong to the pick of humanity. Among the contents are: Early days; A little chalk stream; The fishing day; The fly question; Minnow and worms; In a Welsh valley; Weather and wind; New waters. There are illustrations.
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N Y Evening Post p11 N 20 ’20 80w
“It is rather long drawn out, and not straight to the point.... Anyway, the angler who can’t learn something and get many new thrills from the book will not be found hereabouts.”
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N Y Times p19 D 26 ’20 410w
“His volume is as delightfully written as any work on angling which we have recently seen. American anglers will find themselves very much at home in the atmosphere of this work, even though it deals with unfamiliar waters.”
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Outlook 126:689 D 15 ’20 600w
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Spec 125:309 S 4 ’20 860w
“Mr Sheringham’s latest book on fishing is delightful for its humour and sound English as well as for the range of its reminiscences and its insight into the ways of trout. Its morals make it as companionable as its memories.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p395 Je 24 ’20 920w
SHERLOCK, CHESLA CLELLA. Care and management of rabbits. il *$1.25 (4c) McKay 636.9
20–14848
The purpose of the book is to set forth the commercial possibilities of rabbits and to point out to beginner and breeder alike the most economical way to success. It is intended as a handy, companionable guide on all phases of the care, breeding and management of rabbits. A partial list of the contents is: Some reasons for raising rabbits; The domesticated rabbit; The commercial breeds; The fancy breeds; The hutches; Feeding adult stock; Feeding young stock; Breeding; Utility value of rabbits; Fur farming; Pedigrees; Diseases and remedies; Appendix-handy feeding schedules. The book is illustrated.
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Booklist 17:59 N ’20
SHERRILL, CHARLES HITCHCOCK. Have we a Far Eastern policy? with an introd. by David Jayne Hill. il *$2.50 Scribner 327
20–7581
“One-half of Mr Sherrill’s book is not suggested by its title, and deals with matters which have no political implications—with the flora of the Hawaiian islands, with Japanese umbrellas, footwear, lanterns, street games, chrysanthemum shows, and private gardens. As to whether the United States has a definite Far Eastern policy, a negative is not distinctly asserted but is clearly implied. At any rate our author presents us with one of his own which he considers worthy of adoption by our government. Shortly stated, it is as follows: That the United States should refrain from all opposition to Japan’s expansion north and west upon the continent of Asia, that is, in the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Siberia; that, in return, Japan should agree to abandon her southeasterly development and transfer the Caroline and Marshall islands to international control or to administration by Australia; and, thirdly, that Japan, Australia, and the United States should jointly guarantee the independence of the Philippines.”—Review
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Booklist 16:332 Jl ’20
“General Sherrill’s ten months in the East seem to have been insufficient to awaken him to an adequate sense of the intricacy of problems that with such bland simplicity he has undertaken to solve.” R. M. Weaver
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Bookm 51:632 Ag ’20 420w
Reviewed by Harold Kellock
Freeman 2:188 N 3 ’20 580w
Lit D p86 Je 26 ’20 1500w
“This book, though spirited enough, lacks verity of perception, and is typical of the thanks propaganda of foreigners who visit Japan and spend their time with hospitable officials.” F: O’Brien
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Nation 111:250 Ag 28 ’20 560w
Reviewed by W. W. Willoughby
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Review 2:655 Je 23 ’20 850w
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R of Rs 61:669 Je ’20 100w
SHERWOOD, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS. Glimpses of South America. il *$4 Century 918
20–20207
The author knows South America well, as a business man having made several prolonged trips throughout its extent. He calls his book an informal one, covering the ground and containing information about that part of South America that a casual visitor would be most apt to visit and about which he would be less likely to get information from more formal treatises. It is compiled from notes jotted down for personal amusement and is illustrated with the author’s own photographs. It has six maps, a geographical and a general index and the text contains: The beaten track around South America; New York to Kingston and Panama; Panama and the Panama canal in war time; Down the west coast—Panama to Lima, Peru; Lima—the city of the past; Southern Peru and northern Chile; Iquique, Antofagasta and the nitrate desert; Valparaiso and Viña del Mar; Santiago—the capital of Chile; Over the Andes to the Argentine Republic; Buenos Aires—the Paris of America; Montevideo and the republic of Uruguay; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the way home.
“He gives many valuable tips about hotels, boats, and railroads in an entertaining way. His chapters on Lima and Buenos Aires are rather long, but his chatty method of writing gives charm to the volume.”
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N Y Evening Post p13 N 6 ’20 90w
“‘Glimpses of South America’ is frankly a book of travel—and a very entertaining one—but it will prove highly educational for the man who wishes to learn something of Latin Americans, their customs, mode of living, needs and psychology.” B. R. Redman
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N Y Times p15 Ja 16 ’21 840w
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Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 30w
“Mr Sherwood’s characterizations of people and places are terse and vivid and he makes no pretensions to an elaborate study of any of the matters of which he treats. What he has to say is intended to be helpful to the ordinary traveler.”
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R of Rs 62:672 D ’20 100w
“If there are traces of exaggeration, or of facetious inference, the reader, amused thereby, will not be disposed to be too inquiring. The work, as a whole, is vivid and informing—a thoroughly animated travel book.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a O 24 ’20 660w
SHERWOOD, MARGARET POLLOCK. World to mend. *$2 (2c) Little
20–17008
The story is ostensibly the journal of a working man. He was not always thus, this son of the idle rich, of New England birth, who had lived fifty years of inactivity, addicted to theoretical speculations of a critical and analytical nature, when the European war broke out. The war brings him a sudden realization that he has been but a looker-on in life, has not been a good citizen, not in immediate touch and sympathy with his fellow men. He must act, must become a worker, must undertake a handicraft. He chooses cobbling, settles in a typical New England coast town, and gradually works himself into the confidence of his fellow townsmen and into local influence. His journal records his experiences, is full of philosophical criticism of American life and character in general, of the flaws in our democracy, of our attitude to the war before our entry into it and of the imminence of a regenerated world after the war. Our actual participation in the war fills him with satisfaction and pride and the hope of future greatness.
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Booklist 17:119 D ’20
“Of the high earnestness of her mood there are visible manifestations. The delicate play of humor which we have so often noted in her work is absent. The poetic trend of her prose has been almost as ruthlessly stifled. Yet in spite of the handicap of abandoning two of her largest assets, the spell of the book is very strong. Miss Sherwood here as in ‘The worn doorstep’ has lived up to the magnitude of her opportunities.” D. L. Mann
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Boston Transcript p8 O 16 ’20 1250w
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Cleveland p105 D ’20 40w
“The cobbler of Mataquoit is a good thinker. He thinks through his problems, whether they be of government, economics, education, religion or sociology. He is, moreover, the master of a high style which sounds the tocsin of hope for literature in America once again.”
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N Y Times p23 N 14 ’20 460w
Outlook 126:515 N 17 ’20 60w
“Miss Sherwood has genuine literary power, and whatever she writes is worth reading from the point of view of style as well as for its subject. Miss Sherwood has spiritual insight and, looking through her eyes, we have at least a vision of how the new world should be built.”
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Springf’d Republican p12 O 20 ’20 240w
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Springf’d Republican p8 D 9 ’20 360w
SHESTOV, LEO. All things are possible. *$2 McBride 891.7
21–480
In this collection of aphorisms the author delivers himself of his reflections on life and literature. The work is translated from the Russian by S. S. Koteliansky and has a foreword by D. H. Lawrence, who sees in Shestov the final liberating struggle of the Russian psyche to shake itself free from the bondage of an alien European civilization.
“There is much that is brilliant in the book, much that is even profound. Moreover, if Hamlin Garland is right in reproaching this part of the United States with being ‘hopelessly sane,’ its influence here might be salutary. But we wonder whether a native of Iowa could be cajoled into reading beyond the first two pages. Nevertheless it is well now and then to face a defiant arraignment of the entire fabric of our civilization.” C. M. S.
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Grinnell R 16:309 D ’20 350w
Reviewed by Stark Young
Nation 111:693 D 15 ’20 450w
“His style is clear, uncollegiate and literary.” B: de Casseres
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N Y Times p19 O 3 ’20 1000w
“In any proper sense of the word there is not an atom of originality in the book, which is merely a decoction from Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche. To exalt Shestov as original, or as in any sense a philosopher, is mischievous nonsense. He is interesting as an illustration of the Slavonic nihilism which is capturing the fancy of so many of our half-educated modern youths.”
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Review 3:273 S 29 ’20 400w
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Springf’d Republican p10 Ja 7 ’21 540w
SHOWALTER, NOAH DAVID. Handbook for rural school officers. (Riverside textbooks in education) il *$2 Houghton 379.17
20–10062
The object of the book is to stimulate the rural school officers’ interest in education. The information given is based on personal investigation of the best plans, methods and practices now in use in the best rural communities of the United States. The foreword is a creed of nine paragraphs for the school trustee or director and the ground covered in the text takes in school organization, election and work of officers, resources and finances; school sites, plants, furnishings, apparatus and decorations; selection of teachers; the daily program, home and school cooperation, and supervision; the consolidation of rural schools; manual training and home economics; the question of lunches, health education and medical inspection, and, lastly, citizenship. There are also illustrations, appendices and an index.
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Booklist 17:15 O ’20
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El School J 21:154 O ’20 310w
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School R 28:554 S ’20 210w
SHUGRUE, MARTIN JOSEPH.[2] Problems in foreign exchange. *$2 Appleton 332.45
The principles and methods of foreign exchange are briefly described in the introduction to the book which falls into three parts. Part 1 consists of typical problems and solutions fully worked out. Part 2 sets problems for the student to work out. They come under the headings; Sources of supply and demand; Par of exchange; Theory of foreign exchange rates; Conversions in foreign exchange; Financing imports and exports; Arbitrage transactions and finance bills; General problems. Part 3, Appendices, contains foreign exchange documents and tables for the simplification of foreign exchange calculations.
SHUTE, HENRY AUGUSTUS. Real diary of the worst farmer. il *$1.75 (1½c) Houghton 817
20–7300
The diary begins with March 10, the appearance of the first bluebird, and gives a delightfully humorous account of all the haps and mishaps of an amateur farmer’s summer, until the reader takes leave of him on November 21, meditating before his empty pork barrel—he still had his pork barrel left—after the pigs, reared with so much effort, expense and expectation, turned out to have been tubercular. He consoles himself with characteristic optimism, that, in spite of a pile of unreceipted grain bills and other debts, he now has before him the satisfying winter pleasures of milking, bedding, feeding and caring for his stock twice a day by lantern light. The book is dedicated to amateur farmers, particularly to professional and salaried men, whose love of the soil and of domestic animals takes them to the country not for the money profit that may result, but for the interest in the life for its own sake.
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Booklist 17:74 N ’20
“Professionally I am inclined to condemn the book as a piece of deliberate manufacture by a man who knows too well that he is expected to be funny; personally I like it very well indeed.” W. A. Dyer
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Bookm 51:686 Ag ’20 650w
“‘The worst farmer’ satisfies all expectations with its dry wit and skilfully woven humor.”
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Boston Transcript p4 Je 9 ’20 460w
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Cleveland p72 Ag ’20 50w
“The book is amusing in its way, and no doubt many amateur farmers will find their own experiences more or less accurately reflected in this ‘Real diary of the worst farmer.’”
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N Y Times 25:236 My 9 ’20 450w
Outlook 125:125 My 19 ’20 50w
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St Louis 18:228 S ’20 20w
“Aside from the humor of the book one finds the author a genuine nature lover.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 My 24 ’20 370w
SIDGWICK, CECILY (ULLMANN) (MRS ALFRED SIDGWICK), and GARSTIN, CROSBIE. Black knight. *$2 (2c) Holt
20–14287
When Michael Winter comes up with a jolt against the fact that his father is a swindler and a suicide he ships for Canada with not a friend to bid him farewell. But a compassionate young girl, noticing his loneliness, proffers her hand as a good-bye for England and cherishes the memory of her daring as her romance ever after. In Canada he roughs it with the roughest and plunges with the rashest and indeed makes a fortune but incurs a term of prison in the bargain. Free again and rich he arrives in Paris in time to rescue his unknown friend from the clutches of a wicked aunt. They marry first and he pays the piper after, to settle his own and his father’s score, and there is an interrupted honeymoon, with a happy ending.
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Ath p410 S 24 ’20 200w
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Boston Transcript p6 N 3 ’20 150w
“The workmanship of the novel bears intrinsic evidence of its subdivision of labour. The Canadian scene is sketched with descriptive vigour, and enlivened with incident. Mrs Sidgwick, however, scarcely qualifies with her entries.” L. B.
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Freeman 2:165 O 27 ’20 210w
“The collaboration is only a juncture of opposites and not a mixture of complementary elements. In short, however faithful and interesting a collection of adventures the two authors may have chronicled, however successful they may have been in parts, as a unified whole their book fails because of a lack of unity in construction, in style, in character and in place.”
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N Y Times p27 S 12 ’20 210w
“Life on the great wheat ranch, in lumber camps, and in other more conventional scenes is described with vigor, knowledge, and a certain robust sense of fun. The book holds the attention firmly.”
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Outlook 126:201 S 29 ’20 100w
“Having been given the first innings Mr Crosbie Garstin has scored so fast and freely that the sequel inevitably partakes of the nature of an anti-climax.”
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Spec 125:861 D 25 ’20 500w
“A live and busy story.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p602 S 16 ’20 100w
SIEVEKING, L. DE G. Dressing gowns and glue. il *$1 Harcourt 827
(Eng ed 20–8231)
A book of nonsense verse, with drawings by John Nash. It is published “with an introduction about the verses by G. K. Chesterton and an introduction about the drawings by Max Beerbohm and something about all concerned by Cecil Palmer” and is edited by Paul Nash.
“Introductions, nonsense verses, and pictures are all alike absurd and equally delightful.”
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Ath p986 O 3 ’19 100w
“Nonsense in its finer form will be found in the illustrations more frequently and more definitely than in the text. Captain Sieveking’s verses have got extremely pleasant qualities; some of the poems that he calls ‘examples of blatant naughtiness’ have a real charm of idea; but he is not sufficiently severe, and allows himself to go on writing when the humor of the idea has already been sufficiently illustrated.” R. E. Roberts
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Boston Transcript p9 O 4 ’19 1200w
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Springf’d Republican p11a Je 27 ’20 320w
“There is not quite enough of this book—that is its only flaw.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p503 S ’19 520w
SIMONDS, FRANK HERBERT. History of the world war. 5v v 4–5 il ea *$5 Doubleday 940.3
v 4–5 “The fourth volume of Mr Simonds’ ‘History of the world war’ is concerned with the crucial developments of the year 1917—the German retreat to the Hindenburg line, the entry of America into the war, the Russian revolution and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the French and British offensives and reverses on the western front, the Italian defeat, and the aggressive submarine campaign on the part of Germany.” (R of Rs F ’20) “The fifth volume marks the culmination of his account of the allied campaigns. He tells with dramatic vividness the full story of American participation.” (R of Rs S ’20)
Booklist 16:276 My ’20 (Review of v 4)
“Here again we have, possibly displayed better than elsewhere, his fine sense of historical proportion, his superlatively dramatic style garnishing the most prosaic scientific manoeuvers, if important, with all the color of romance. He has taken critical advantage of the books by German military men published since the war.” Walter Littlefield
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N Y Times p6 D 19 ’20 380w
“The author’s running comment and interpretation are most illuminating and instructive.”
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R of Rs 61:220 F ’20 160w (Review of v 4)
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R of Rs 62:333 S ’20 180w (Review of v 5)
SIMPSON, CHARLES TORREY. In lower Florida wilds. il *$3.50 (4c) Putnam 917.59
20–15140
“A naturalist’s observations on the life, physical geography, and geology of the more tropical part of the state.” (Sub-title) The author has been a resident of the region he describes for more than twenty years. He found it an almost unbroken wilderness in 1882, which is now rapidly and forever disappearing. “Today most of its hammocks are destroyed, the streams are being dredged out and deepened, the Everglades are nearly drained; even the pine forests are being cut down.” (Introd.) Many species of animals and plants, found only in this area, have already been exterminated. The author has thoroughly explored the territory in its virgin fecundity and describes it both as a collector and a general naturalist. Contents: The building of the land; The Florida keys; The Ten Thousand islands; Cape Sable; The south shore of the mainland; The Everglades; The planting of our flora; The lure of the piney woods; The origin of the hammocks; In the primeval forest; Along the stream; Along the mangrove shore; The open sea beach; The wonders of Ajax reefs; The secrets of the sea; The story of the land snails; The beauty of the night; The survival of the fittest. There are an index, a map, and numerous illustrations.
“The style is a curious, though pleasant, blending of the scientist’s delight in naming, describing or explaining, and the artist’s sensitiveness to vivid coloring, ethereal lights or deeps of forest.”
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Booklist 17:28 O ’20
Reviewed by S: Scoville, jr.
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N Y Evening Post p9 O 23 ’20 1400w
“He has written well and he has presented his material in as popular a form as was possible, but the reviewer would be failing in his duty if he did not warn the casual book-buyer of the scientific nature of this volume with so attractive a title.”
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N Y Times p18 D 26 ’20 250w
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Outlook 126:238 O 6 ’20 60w
SIMPSON, EUGENE E. America’s position in music. *$1 (14c) Four seas co. 780.9
20–9483
A brief essay in which the author points out “that America has for a long time possessed a number of distinctive elements in music which were found in no other country, therefore were inevitably American.” He traces the pioneer efforts in American music, beginning with Lowell Mason in 1821, and he takes special notice of the use made of Indian and negro themes. The chronology at the end lists over ninety American composers, with the titles of their best known works. The essay is reprinted from “Modern music and musicians,” revised edition of 1918.
“Unfortunately Mr Simpson, who means well and has much common sense, tries to write grandiloquently. It is often difficult to understand him.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Je 23 ’20 450w
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Survey 44:385 Je 12 ’20 180w
SIMS, NEWELL LEROY, ed.[2] Rural community. il *$4.50 Scribner 301
20–12477
“Regarding the present stage of rural community development as one of transition from an individualistic to a co-operative economy, it is the expressed purpose of the volume to bring together in organized form the available ‘knowledge of the past communal order, both ancient and modern, for the shaping and perfecting of the order that is to be.’ The book is divided into three parts, each comprising four chapters, each chapter presenting material from several sources so organized as to constitute a comprehensive discussion of some unit phase of the general topic. Thus, the first part treats of the Ancient community, one chapter being given to each of the following topics: The primitive village; The mediaeval manor; The village community in America; and The disintegration of the village community. Part 2 considers the modern community under the headings, The modern community defined; Types of communities; Institutions of the community; and The evolution of the community. The latter half of the book is devoted to Part 3, Community reconstruction.”—School R
School R 28:795 D ’20 450w
SIMS, WILLIAM SOWDEN, and HENDRICK, BURTON JESSE. Victory at sea. il *$5 (4c) Doubleday 940.45
20–18578
This is not a complete history of the operations of our naval forces during the great war, but an account of the submarine campaign and the means by which it was defeated. Little or nothing was made public of the anti-submarine exploits at the time of their happening owing to the necessity for secrecy. Contents: When Germany was winning the war; The return of the Mayflower; The adoption of the convoy; American destroyers in action; Decoying submarines to destruction; American college boys and subchasers; The London flagship; Submarine against submarine; The American mine barrage in the North sea; German submarines visit the American coast; Fighting submarines from the air; The navy fighting on the land; Transporting two million American soldiers to France; Appendix; Index.
“This is a very interesting book carrying with it a comprehensive and intelligent description of the submarine and anti-submarine warfare of the late war, and is by far the best yet made known to the world.”
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Am Hist R 26:332 Ja ’21 1050w
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Booklist 17:109 D ’20
Boston Transcript p4 O 27 ’20 1050w
“Among the numberless books about the war I have seen no other which is so concise and clear and which shows the march of the main events so unobscured by unessential details. From beginning to end, the reader is never left in doubt on a single point.” B. A. Fiske
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N Y Times p4 O 31 ’20 2600w
“The most illuminating account of the war against the submarines which has yet appeared. It is a thrilling narrative, and we advise everybody to read it.”
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Spec 125:815 D 18 ’20 1850w
“It is in the highest degree authoritative.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p847 D 16 ’20 2100w
“The telling of this story is so attractive that the book ought to have a wide popularity.” W: O. Stevens
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Yale R n s 10:437 Ja ’21 180w
SINCLAIR, BERTRAND WILLIAM. Poor man’s rock. il *$1.90 (2c) Little
20–17084
A story of Puget Sound. Jack MacRae comes home from the war to find his father dying. In a letter left to his son the father tells the story of his youth and explains the reasons for his hatred of Horace Gower. Jack also learns that he has been robbed of his inheritance by Gower, and adding his father’s grievances to his own, he sets out to compete with the rich man in the salmon industry. As an independent buyer for his friend, Stubby Abbott, a rival canner, he makes inroads on Gower’s business and soon merits the magnate’s open hostility. In the meantime Jack has fallen in love with Betty Gower and the working out of the story involves the old tangle of youthful love thwarted by family disapproval, which in the end is triumphantly overridden.
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Booklist 17:119 D ’20
“As a student of character, Mr Sinclair is rather clever than profound. His interest lies primarily in the story he is telling and not in its setting, and, fortunately, he has the power to make us follow that story so keenly that only here and there do we miss the background.” E. A. W.
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Boston Transcript p4 O 20 ’20 600w
“In the telling Mr Sinclair has revealed a strange mental combination of psychologist, economist and artist. Nevertheless, ‘Poor man’s rock’ is an interesting story of an interesting phase of American endeavor.”
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N Y Evening Post p21 O 23 ’20 220w
“This is by far Mr Sinclair’s best novel. There is a great deal in it that is worth while, and every page is real. The theme is handled with such a blending of strength and beauty that it falls wide of the mark of maudlin sentimentality.”
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N Y Times p26 Ja 9 ’21 520w
“Altogether the novel is a strong piece of writing.”
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Outlook 126:558 N 24 ’20 70w
“Taken all in all, it’s a story that moves rapidly and with a lift straight to the end.” L. M. Harbeson
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Pub W 98:660 S 18 ’20 280w
SINCLAIR, MAY. Romantic. *$2 (4c) Macmillan
20–18389
This story of the first weeks of the war in Belgium is a psychological study of cowardice. At the opening of the story Charlotte Redhead has just broken off an episodic love affair with Gibson Herbert, her employer. The qualities that attract her in John Conway are his apparent cleanness and strength. The two work together as farm laborers for a year, maintaining a very satisfactory relationship on platonic terms. With the beginning of the war they go out, in company with two others, as an ambulance corps. And here under danger Charlotte sees John go to pieces. He welcomes the idea of danger and death, but turns tail at the reality, and at the same time develops a strain of cruelty. Charlotte gives in to the truth slowly and it is only after he has been killed, when a psycho-analytic doctor gives her the key, that she comes to understand, and so forgive, his weakness.
“It is not possible to doubt the sincerity of Miss Sinclair’s intentions. She is a devoted writer of established reputation. What we do deplore is that she has allowed her love of writing to suffer the eclipse of psycho-analysis.” K. M.
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Ath p552 O 22 ’20 860w
“Into ‘The romantic,’ which for its greater part is scarcely anything more than a sketchy record of war-time incident, Miss Sinclair has put a curious jumble of pseudo science and pretentious psychology.”
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Boston Transcript p4 O 20 ’20 1400w
“In ‘The romantic’ the psycho-analytic purpose stands out like a framework. It is a semi-scientific study rather than a novel, missing almost entirely the effect of mixed, unguided, concrete life which belongs to fiction.” C. M. Rourke
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Freeman 2:429 Ja 12 ’21 450w
“Her Charlotte Redhead is new and authentic both as a type and as an individual. The implications of Miss Sinclair’s fable and analysis are of the broadest significance. It is these implications that give Miss Sinclair’s book an extraordinary intellectual suppleness and strength.”
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Nation 111:567 N 17 ’20 600w
“A more difficult subject than this one which Miss Sinclair has chosen it would be almost impossible to find. And she has treated it sanely, admirably, with a certain clean honesty which renders it void of offense. ‘The romantic’ is a most unusual and most noteworthy book.” L. M. Field
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N Y Times p10 O 17 ’20 1100w
“The story in all its poignant brevity has that assured touch of artistry which we have a right to expect from the author of ‘The divine fire.’” F: T. Cooper
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Pub W 98:657 S 18 ’20 420w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 3:650 D 29 ’20 660w
“The book is a notable achievement in psychoanalysis, and Miss Sinclair is to be congratulated on the close study of character which she has given us.”
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Spec 125:641 N 13 ’20 640w
“‘The romantic’ is a rather curious book in that it is written almost spontaneously according to fixed theory. Its mechanism is flawless.”
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Springf’d Republican p7a D 12 ’20 500w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p666 O 14 ’20 620w
SINCLAIR, UPTON BEALL (ARTHUR STIRLING, pseud.). Brass check. *$1; pa *50c U. B. Sinclair, Pasadena, Cal. 071
20–11913
The book is a fierce arraignment of our present-day journalism. “When you have read this story, you will know our journalism; you will know the body and soul of it, you will know it in such a way that you will not have to be told what it is doing to the movement for industrial freedom and self-government all over the world.” (Introd.) It falls into three parts: part 1, The evidence, which is one half of the book, is a personal story telling what the author himself has seen and experienced in his struggles with the press for a period of twenty years. In part 2. The explanation, other witnesses are heard, “the wisest and truest and best people of our country” and the author pledges his honor that his statements are based on facts and facts only. Part 3, The remedy, has among its contents a practical program for a “truth-telling” weekly to be known as the National News.
Reviewed by H: L. West
Bookm 52:116 O ’20 950w
“Mr Sinclair’s book is a brave and sincere effort carried out in the worst of all tastes—so that your attention becomes focused on the writer instead of his writing.” Edwin Björkman
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Freeman 2:212 N 10 ’20 1850w
“Is Mr Sinclair telling the truth? If he is not, the Associated press and every newspaper he includes in his amazing revelations owe the American public the solemn duty of bringing him to justice but if Mr Sinclair’s statements go unchallenged by the press, every honest American must possess himself of the facts. Fascinating as his book is, incredible though it may appear to the dazed reader, it is a treatise based on names, places and dates, convincing despite our great desire to remain unconvinced.” J. J. Smertenko
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Grinnell R 16:329 Ja ’21 1000w
Int J Ethics 31:116 O ’20 140w
“This is a most important book which every reader will want to pass on to his neighbor. It is a complete, masterful study, and the presentation of its facts is wholly convincing. With Mr Sinclair’s conclusions, drawn from his facts, it is not necessary to agree. Mr Sinclair is a Socialist. He sees everything through the spectacles of class-consciousness. Also, at times he is humorless, and he has been persistently naive.” E. H. Gruening
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Nation 111:72 Jl 17 ’20 1050w
“There is nothing here even remotely approximating a rational survey of the conditions and practices of American journalism. There is a vast deal about the topic most interesting to Mr Sinclair—and that is Sinclair himself. The picture, while more or less true in many of its details, is, as a whole, a caricature. Is the book worth reading? It is; indeed, it should be widely read. But it should be read with the intelligence and information which will enable one to sift the truth from the mass of absurd and misleading statements which it contains.” W. J. Ghent
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Review 3:420 N 3 ’20 1350w
“The effectiveness of the facts in ‘The brass check’ for the average reader, not to mention a hostile critic, is seriously marred by the intermittent ‘bow-wowings’ of the writer. Can the author bring to the tragic theme of the prostitution of modern journalism no language but that of the yellow press? The people have been too deeply betrayed by the illusions of language not to demand the facts without the fireworks.” M. C. Crook
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Socialist R 8:382 My ’20 650w
Springf’d Republican p13a F 22 ’20 160w
“A passionate, intimately personal, elaborately detailed and documented indictment.” J. G. McDonald
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Survey 44:307 My 29 ’20 320w
“For the sake of the honour of the American press—the better elements in which cannot but be glad to see the worse exposed—one would like to know that this book was being widely read.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p712 N 4 ’20 720w
SINCLAIR, UPTON BEALL (ARTHUR STIRLING, pseud.). 100%; the story of a patriot. *$1.20 (1½c) pa *60c Upton Sinclair, Pasadena, Cal.
21–1179
In fiction form Mr Sinclair has told the story of the Mooney case, bringing in other recent events that show the methods used by business interests and their secret police, under-cover men, and agents provocateur. Peter Gudge is near the scene of the explosion on preparedness day. He is knocked senseless, arrested as a suspect, and given the third degree. Taking his measure, Guffey, the chief of police, decides that Peter is the man for his purpose and uses him first as star witness in the Goober case and later as one of his secret agents, detailed to spy on the “reds.” Peter is faithful and painstaking and rises to the top in his profession, a true 100% American. The data on which the story is built is supplied in an appendix.
“Mr Sinclair has abandoned the Zolaist symbolism and declamation of his earlier books and has chosen an intellectual and artistic method which is none other than that of Swift. Mr Sinclair has gods and a great subject burning, literally burning, out his heart. And so it comes about that this pedestrian mass of graceless prose achieves—in the most fundamental sense—literary values that young intellectuals seeking cultural modes for our American life can never reach. The book is a literary achievement of high and solid worth.”
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Nation 111:481 O 27 ’20 320w
“Dealing in certain facts that we all know to be true, it carries an impression of verisimilitude, despite elements of sentimentality and exaggeration. It gives a graphic insight into some of the ugliest phases of the class struggle.” G. H.
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World Tomorrow 4:30 Ja ’21 160w
SINGMASTER, ELSIE (MRS HAROLD LEWARS). Basil Everman. *$1.90 (2½c) Houghton
20–5404
Basil Everman, who never once appears in person, nevertheless dominates the entire story. The scene is laid in a small college town, lying a little north of Mason and Dixon’s line, where “the Civil war was still the chief topic of discussion among the older men.” The chief characters (after Basil) are: Richard Lister, son of the president of Walton college; Richard’s mother who is violently opposed to the musical career on which he has set his heart; Eleanor Bent, who has promising literary talent and with whom Richard falls in love; Mrs Bent, formerly Margie Ginter, an innkeeper’s daughter, who conceals Eleanor’s parentage from her; Dr Green, a physician; Thomasina Davis, spinster, who loved Basil Everman; and Mr Utterly of Willard’s Magazine, who has come across a story, an essay and a poem of Basil’s so wonderful that they have sent him to Waltonville to learn all he can about the defunct genius. The story ends happily.
“A good armchair story for people who enjoy this kind of character study, which is pervaded by kindly humor and gentle satire.”
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Booklist 16:246 Ap ’20
Lit D p87 S 4 ’20 3500w
“Miss Singmaster gives us a warm and charming picture of her little college town; she catches the external characteristics and harmless little oddities of her people. But she will not let herself regard their real lives with a critical eye.”
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Nation 110:401 Mr 27 ’20 500w
“Carefully and skillfully written, showing a restraint and finish far removed from the hasty, slipshod performances of so many writers of contemporary fiction.”
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N Y Times 25:120 Mr 14 ’20 500w
“Told with care and dignity, this novel has the quality we call distinction.”
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N Y Times 25:190 Ap 18 ’20 60w
“A fine piece of work.”
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Outlook 124:562 Mr 31 ’20 80w
“Both in plot and in character delineation Miss Singmaster has been very successful in this story. ‘Basil Everman’ ought to be one of the star volumes of the year.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a My 2 ’20 550w
SIRÉN, OSVALD. Essentials in art. il *$3.50 Lane 704
20–20086
The author of this volume is professor of the history of art at the University of Stockholm and has a world reputation as lecturer on art, especially primitive Italian art, in other European countries, in America and Japan. The essays in this volume are: Rhythm and form; Art and religion; Art and religion during the renaissance; The importance of the antique to Donatello; A late Gothic poet of line. The last two essays are profusely illustrated. The poet of line in the last essay is Parri Spinelli, a list of whose works is appended.
“His book on Leonardo da Vinci is better worth reading than many others that have been written on that, apparently inexhaustible subject. But his new volume can hardly be said to satisfy the expectations that the title might legitimately arouse.” E. M.
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Ath p836 Je 25 ’20 860w
“Most of the book is objective criticism of the highest order; the essay on ‘Rhythm and form’ is both penetrating and remarkable. Professor Sirén understands art—his volume is a distinctive contribution to aesthetics.”
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Dial 69:666 D ’20 50w