Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 37)

“Really touches essentials only in the initial essay on ‘Rhythm and form,’ in which an important matter is treated with more fulness than precision or originality. The rest is agreeable padding from the author’s recent magazine articles. The book is well made, and has the merit, in a critical work, of being easy to read.”

+

Review 3:564 D 8 ’20 90w

“Professor Sirén is a typical modern student, who has travelled much, and has first-hand knowledge of many arts. In his more purely historical essays he does not, in the pursuit of facts, lose sight of underlying principles. The essay ‘On the importance of the antique to Donatello’ is actually marred by a too careless treatment of material facts, and by a strange misconception of the character of Gothic art.”

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Sat R 130:97 Jl 31 ’19 1200w

“We welcome Professor Sirén’s collection of essays, for, although they contain nothing that is very fresh in point of view, they breathe a reasonable spirit, and state the modern position with moderation and sense.”

+ −

Spec 124:620 My 8 ’20 520w

“With the subject of line-drawing and rhythm, he is especially happy.”

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Springf’d Republican p8a D 5 ’20 360w

“He is not a lively writer, at least in our language; and his thought is so abstract that, dealing as it does with a subject so concrete and particular as art, it is often hard to follow. He is, by the present condition of aesthetic thought, forced to use a number of general terms without defining them; we ourselves have to supply the definition as we read, and we may supply it wrong; but those who are really interested in the subject will find his essay [Rhythm and form] worth reading.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p211 Ap 1 ’20 1750w

SITWELL, OSBERT. Argonaut and juggernaut. *$1.50 Knopf 821

20–3704

This volume by one of the young soldier-poets of Great Britain opens with a preface poem “How shall we rise to greet the dawn?” written in November, 1918. The four parts of the volume are entitled: The Phœnix-feasters; Green-fly; Promenades; and War poems. In the war poems satire predominates.

“Poems by one of the more notable exponents of the modern manner, who seems as yet to be uncertain both of his aim and method.”

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Ath p1208 N 14 ’19 80w

“Some will applaud Mr Sitwell’s political sentiments; others, when they read such things as ‘Sheep song,’ will be profoundly irritated. The intensity of their irritation will be the measure of Mr Sitwell’s success as a writer of satire. When we turn from Mr Sitwell’s satirical to what we may be permitted to call his ‘poetical’ poems, we are less certain in our appreciation and enjoyment.”

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Ath p1255 N 28 ’19 600w

“Mr Sitwell is thought by many, and doubtless considers himself, to be extremely wild and daring, when in reality he is merely a bad rider of his hobby. The only pieces in this volume in which he betrays genuine feeling are some of the vers libre efforts written in protest against the attitude of society towards the war.” J: G. Fletcher

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Freeman 2:189 N 3 ’20 360w

“As a satirist, and he is nothing if not a satirist, he never is vivid; he nowhere bites or breaks. His abuse is oratorical in its plenitude, oratorical and round and blunt. He by no means has mastered the indirectness, the cut, the slant, the side-sweep, the poetry of satire.” M. V. D.

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Nation 110:855 Je 26 ’20 160w

“He is moved to write by unbelief in the ideals of other people rather than by the passionate force of ideals of his own. He is a sceptic, not a sufferer. His work proceeds less from his heart, than from his brain. It is a clever brain, however, and his satirical poems are harshly entertaining and will infuriate the right people. They may not kill Goliath, but at least they will annoy Goliath’s friends.” Robert Lynd

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Nation [London] 26:352 D 6 ’19 650w

“Mr Sitwell’s impressive title is about the only impressive thing in his book.” Clement Wood

− +

N Y Call p10 Je 20 ’20 380w

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N Y Times 25:194 Ap 18 ’20 80w

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N Y Times 25:16 Je 27 ’20 300w

“There are passages in these pages which show that Mr Sitwell has embryonic poetic talent that may develop significantly, if he can get far enough away from the disturbing moods and reflections of war to give it free rein. He has the love of nature that is the poet’s best teacher. In ‘Argonaut and juggernaut’ Mr Sitwell is primarily not a poet, but a prophet. And his prophecy is full of flaming indignation and scorn.”

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Springf’d Republican p9a F 29 ’20 1000w

“When Captain Sitwell is not occupied with telling home truths he discloses an imaginative mind and a subtle sense of the value of words. Nor can his word-pictures fairly be criticised as rhetorical; each embodies an unobtrusive idea. Thus his ‘Sailor-song’ expresses with Elizabethan freshness the Elizabethan delight in the wonders of ocean and the life marvellous.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p699 N 27 ’19 280w

SKELTON, OSCAR DOUGLAS. Canadian Dominion; a chronicle of our northern neighbor. (Chronicles of America ser.) il subs per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 971

20–3361

“Volume forty-nine of the series is about ‘The Canadian Dominion’ and is by Oscar D. Skelton, professor of political science at Queen’s university. The book takes up the story of Canada from where it was left off by G. M. Wrong in ‘The conquest of New France’ at about 1760 and continues it to Canada’s entry into the great war.”—N Y Times

“The limitations are insignificant in comparison with the high intrinsic merit of the whole book. Its delightful literary form, together with its accuracy and suggestiveness, make it both the most readable and the most valuable of the general histories of the Canadian Dominion. The volume, in short, is a credit to Canadian scholarship.” C. D. Allin

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Am Hist R 26:350 Ja ’21 620w

“While thoroughly Canadian and more intensely patriotic than the self-styled scientific historians may favor, Mr Skelton is broad visioned, never provincial. To write impartially of Quebec Nationalists and Ontario Orangemen and of the language and separate school questions, required the restraint of a scholar.”

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Cath World 112:392 D ’20 1100w

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N Y Times p16 O 31 ’20 130w

R of Rs 52:223 Ag ’20 40w

SKILLMAN, WILLIS ROWLAND. A. E. F. who they were, what they did, how they did it. il *$2 Jacobs 940.373

20–7445

“We all have hobbies,” says the author, and his is the collection of facts and figures. From his habit of noting down “bits of information about army organization, divisions, insignia, casualties, dates, awards of medals, and a dozen other subjects of interest to soldiers” (Foreword) grew this book, and its object is to “explain, in terms any civilian can understand, the system by which the American army accomplished its work in France.” Among its distinctive features are statistical tables, maps, charts, diagrams, collar insignia, officer’s insignia, chevrons and a large colored chart of the shoulder insignia of the United States army. The table of contents is: A soldier’s survey of the world war; America’s part in the world war; System of command; The American divisions; The branches of the service; Army honors and symbols; Reminiscences; Appendix; Index.

SKINNER, ADA MARIA, and SKINNER, ELEANOR LOUISE, comps. Child’s book of modern stories. il *$3.50 Duffield

20–15344

Sixty-six stories by such authors as Louisa M. Alcott, Julia Darrow Cowles, Abbie Farwell Brown, Josephine Scribner Gates, Mary Stewart, Patten Beard, Thornton Burgess, and others. They are grouped as: Home tales; The story garden; Cheerful stories; and Tales and legends beautiful. There are eight pictures by Jessie Wilcox Smith.

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Booklist 17:127 D ’20

“Filled with seventy or more of the best short stories for children that have been written in recent years.”

+

Ind 104:376 D 11 ’20 100w

“The stories have been edited with tact and put into a style easy of comprehension by the simplest minds.”

+

Lit D p95 D 4 ’20 240w

“The pictures are characteristically charming.”

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Outlook 126:600 D 1 ’20 40w

SKINNER, ADA MARIA, and SKINNER, ELEANOR LOUISE, comps. and eds. Garnet story book. (Jewel ser.) *$1.75 (3c) Duffield

20–3194

For this collection the compilers have brought together “tales of cheer both old and new.” The collection opens with The good-natured bear, by Richard H. Horne, a story praised by Thackeray. The other stories are: Christmas wishes, by Louise Chollet; The man of snow, by Harriet Myrtle; Butterwops, by Edward A. Parry; Finikin and his golden pippins, by Madame De Chatelaine; The story of Fairyfoot, by Frances Browne; The snow-queen, by Hans Christian Andersen; The merry tale of the king and the cobbler, from Gammer Gurton’s Historie; The story of Merrymind, by Frances Browne.

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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 14 ’20 170w

SKINNER, CONSTANCE LINDSAY. Adventurers of Oregon; a chronicle of the fur trade. (Chronicles of America ser.) il per ser of 50v *$250 Tale univ. press 979.5

20–4768

“Constance Lindsay Skinner’s ‘Adventurers of Oregon’ describes the Lewis and Clark expedition and the cruise of the Tonquin, through which John Jacob Astor hoped to ‘control a mighty fur-trading system reaching from the Great Lakes to the Pacific ocean and on to China and India.’” (N Y Times) “The titles are: The river of the West; Lewis and Clark; The reign of the trapper; The Tonquin; Astor’s overlanders; Astoria under the Nor’westers, and The king of old Oregon. The period covered is from the beginnings of exploration to the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute in 1846, and the themes represented by the above chapter-heads are essentially two—discovery and exploration, and the fur-trade.” (Am Hist R)

“This book is a delight. The author treats the dramatic scenes and incidents in the background of Oregon’s history, achieving therein a wholly unusual degree of literary perfection. Thus she has produced a narrative which, for adult readers, deserves to take very high rank in its special field.” Joseph Schafer

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Am Hist R 26:117 O ’20 650w

“Occasionally it would seem that the effort to maintain a swiftly moving narrative has betrayed the author into sacrificing clarity. As a ‘Chronicle of the fur trade’ this work fulfills the purpose of the editors of the series in presenting an interesting account of a romantic phase of American development; historical perspective appears to have suffered in ‘Adventurers of Oregon.’” L. B. Shippee

+ −

Mississippi Valley Hist R 7:171 S ’20 660w

“The book has the true pioneering tang.”

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N Y Times p16 O 31 ’20 130w

R of Rs 62:223 Ag ’20 30w

SKINNER, ELEANOR LOUISE, and SKINNER, ADA MARIA. Children’s plays. il *$1.25 Appleton 812

19–1207

The authors urge the use of dramatic material in school work and have designed these plays to that end. They say “The little plays in this book, planned primarily for class room reading lessons, may be used (1) for practice in oral reading, (2) for original dramatizations in language work, (3) for school entertainments.” Some of the plays are original, others are adaptations. Contents: Nick Bluster’s trick; Cicely and the bears; The happy beggar; Professor Frog’s lecture; Cock-Alu and Hen-Alie; Mother Autumn and North Wind; The one-eyed servant; Little rebels; Everyday gold; The village shoe maker; The faithful shepherd; A royal toy-mender; The new New year. There are pictures by Willy Pogany.

“The simple, natural dialogue of these thirteen plays makes them excellent for reading and acting or for exercises in language work.”

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Booklist 16:316 Je ’20

St Louis 17:312 O ’19 50w

SLATER, THOMAS. Foundation of true morality. *$1.25 (9c) Benziger 171

20–12834

The author holds that man is not a mere physical machine but a moral agent, endowed with freedom to choose between good and evil. What is needed is a moral standard by which man can judge their actions. That this standard can be supplied by the Catholic conception of Christian morality rather than by the Protestant conception is the contention of the book. Contents: Man a moral agent; Legalism; Casuistry; Counsels and precepts; Sin; Grace.

SLATTERY, JOHN T. Dante. *$2 Kenedy 851

A course of lectures delivered before the student body of the New York state college for teachers in 1919 and 1920. The author treats of Dante as “Christianity’s greatest poet” and adopts for him Ruskin’s descriptive phrase “the central man of all the world.” There are five lectures: Dante and his time; Dante, the man; Dante’s “Inferno”; Dante’s “Purgatorio”; Dante’s “Paradiso.” There is a preface by John H. Finley.

SLATTERY, MARGARET.^[2] Highway to leadership. *$1.50 Pilgrim press 174

20–19286

In a series of essays the author expounds all the qualities necessary for leadership and incidentally the necessity of leadership. In the first essay: “A leader—one who leads,” the illustrations of born leadership are taken from children’s playgrounds with the conclusion that the requirements are three: “some knowledge and the hunger for more, an abandon of self-effacing consecration to the purpose, and a real passion for the goal.” The other essays are: The eyes that see; The ears that hear; The heart that feels; The mind that interprets; The practice that prepares; The courage that faces facts; The patience that teaches; The will that persists; The confidence that dares dream.

“In the clear convincing style which is usual with her, Miss Slattery gives the world another of her inspiring volumes.”

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Boston Transcript p4 Ja 5 ’21 180w

SLOANE, THOMAS O’CONOR. Standard electrical dictionary; a complete manual of the science; with addition by Prof. A. E. Watson. il *$5 Henley 621.3

20–12131

To this 1920 edition a second part has been added to the first. “In this part all the recent advances in appliances, new developments and refinements in theory have been very fully treated. The second part includes a series of short treatises on a multitude of topics which have arisen in the short period since the last enlarged edition appeared. There are also a large number of what may be properly termed definitions, which are required because of the increased terminology of the science.” (Preface) The new section comprises 175 pages of text with new illustrations and diagrams.

R of Rs 62:336 S ’20 40w

SLOANE, WILLIAM MILLIGAN. Balkans; a laboratory of history. 4th ed, rev and enl *$2.50 Abingdon press 949.6

20–14471

“The first edition of this work was issued a few months before the outbreak of the world war. Beginning with the fall of the Byzantine empire, the history of this section of Europe, where the blood of so many races have mingled that the author considers it an ethnological museum, the history is followed down to the opening of the year 1914. To make his story of the Balkans complete it was necessary for the author to revise it in the light of the last six years. Seven new chapters have been added. They make a concise and very broad sketch of the events leading up to the war, of the war, and of events up to and including the peace conference.”—Boston Transcript

“The author transforms his pre-war volume so that it becomes one of the best books on the war that we have.” F. W. C.

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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 14 ’20 880w

Ind 103:292 S 4 ’20 20w

“In this difficult work he well maintains his reputation for fairness and impartiality as an historian.”

+

R of Rs 62:221 Ag ’20 70w

SLOSSON, EDWIN EMERY. Easy lessons in Einstein. il *$1.35 Harcourt 530.1

20–8295

“A discussion of the more intelligible features of the theory of relativity.” (Sub-title) Dr Slosson, literary editor of the Independent, has attempted a simple explanation of the Einstein theories, making use of “such crude and absurd analogies as trains and elevators and projectiles flying through space and Coney island mirrors.” A paper by Dr Einstein on Time, space, and gravitation is reprinted from the London Times, and there is a bibliography of eight pages and an index. Parts of the book have appeared in the Independent.

“He is to be congratulated on the enthusiasm he has brought to what must have been a difficult and fatiguing performance.”

+

Ath p618 N 5 ’20 260w

“The main points of the Einstein theory and the experiments leading to it are explained in an interesting, informal way so that those not trained in mathematical physics can grasp them.”

+

Booklist 16:335 Jl ’20

“Slosson’s ‘Easy lessons in Einstein’ is a good attempt written in an easy style far above the breezy smartness of the Sunday supplements; it is trustworthy and throughout entertaining, if not always instructive. There is perhaps too much about the fourth dimension and somewhat too much striving ‘to loosen up,’ as he puts it, ‘our conventional ideas of the fixity of time and space.’” R: F. Deimel

+ −

Freeman 1:422 Jl 14 ’20 1700w

Ind 102:371 Je 12 ’20 650w

“A book with which the absolute layman may amuse himself for a few hours.”

+

Nature 106:466 D 9 ’20 60w

“If the reader will take the time to read this little book only as fast as he can really understand it—say a few pages at a time, with intervals of a day or more to let the ideas soak in, or to think them over—he will find this both stimulating and informing.” B. C. G.

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N Y Call p11 S 12 ’20 500w

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N Y P L New Tech Bks p37 Ap ’20 40w

Springf’d Republican p8 Ag 5 ’20 650w

SMALLWOOD, WILLIAM MARTIN, and others. Biology for high schools, il *$1.40 Allyn 570

20–17589

“Specifically the book aims to do six things: (1) To teach the pupil to see accurately what he looks at and describe exactly what he sees. (2) To teach him to think clearly and to base his conclusions upon his facts. (3) To broaden his knowledge of his own body through the study of the structure and functions of other animals and plants. (4) To show him by the adaptations of plants and animals how he can adapt himself to the varying conditions of life. (5) To make him a good citizen through his knowledge of good food, good health and good living conditions. (6) To teach him how biology has helped human progress and welfare.” (Preface) The contents are in four parts: Animal biology; Plant biology; Human biology; General biology. There are numerous illustrations and an index.

SMITH, CHARLES HENRY.^[2] Mennonites. $2.25 Mennonite bk. concern, Berne, Ind.

289.7

“The volume falls into two parts: the Mennonites in Europe, and in America. Beginning with the Anabaptists in Switzerland, and the indigenous movements of a similar character in Germany and the Netherlands, and their unjust and unwarranted identification by the authorities with the tragedy at Münster, the book leads to the systematizing of Anabaptist views by the Dutch ex-priest, Menno Simons, after whom the religion is named. The early scattered congregations in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Cleves-Julich, East and West Prussia, East Friesland, Hamburg, Holstein, Bavaria, Württemberg, Alsace-Lorraine and France, Moravia and Galicia, and their leaders all find their place. The story is one of martyrdom, division, confiscation, dispersion, but of abounding willingness to die for faith. The source for much of this is Thielman von Bracht’s ‘Martyr’s mirror,’ one of the monuments of Mennonite literature. The section devoted to the Mennonites in America is a reworking of Dr Smith’s earlier treatise on the ‘Mennonites in America.’ The final chapters of Dr Smith’s study are given over to special topics.”—Am Hist R

“Dr Smith is to be complimented on the patience and skill which has enabled him to produce what is undoubtedly the most authoritative work on the Mennonites in our language. His impartiality in dealing with the present-day rival branches of the sect is also worthy of commendation.” E: Krehbiel

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Am Hist R 26:310 Ja ’21 1500w

Nation 111:164 Ag 7 ’20 80w

SMITH, CHARLTON LYMAN. Gus Harvey, the boy skipper of Cape Ann. il *$1.65 (6c) Jones, Marshall

20–14706

A story for boys. Gus Harvey is a New York boy adopted by the captain of a fishing vessel from Gloucester. In spite of his New York bringing up Gus is familiar with boats and he readily adapts himself to the life of Cape Ann, his new home. He wins a yacht race, learns to build a boat and with his chum salvages a wreck and captures a band of burglars. There is a glossary of marine terms.

“Only for the boy who understands sailing and nautical terms. Nicely printed and illustrated.”

+

Booklist 17:124 D ’20

“The story has the quality of an old skipper’s talk.” A. C. Moore

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Bookm 52:262 N ’20 50w

SMITH, CORINNA HAVEN (PUTNAM) (MRS JOSEPH LINDON SMITH), and HILL, CAROLINE R. (MRS WILLIAM HILL). Rising above the ruins in France. il *$3.50 Putnam 914.4

20–13141

“Observations in the devastated regions of France, made since the armistice, by two American women who have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the work for ‘the children of the frontier.’ By the use of pen and camera these women undertake to show us in America something of the destruction that the north of France has undergone and something of the brave spirit with which the population has sought to rebuild its devastated homes.”—R of Rs

“The authors’ pictures of the re-awakening of life are simply and impressively sketched.”

+

Ath p645 N 12 ’20 160w

+

Booklist 17:109 D ’20

+

Cath World 112:693 F ’21 440w

“When they speak of conditions actually witnessed they speak with the natural authority of sincerity and lucidity. The book takes a particular value from the large number of photographs with which it is enriched.”

+ −

Nation 111:331 S 18 ’20 240w

“There is little of deliberate description, there are few adjectives, no one incident or visualization is dwelt on long. But the book is a glimpse of life and indomitable achievement—and that is an epic thing.”

+

N Y Times 25:22 Jl 25 ’20 2100w

“It is no small praise of the narrative to say that, while by no means purely descriptive, it matches the pictures in striking or appealing presentation of fact.”

+

No Am 212:718 N ’20 980w

+ −

Outlook 126:515 N 17 ’20 50w

“This incessant use of the historical present time gives their style an air of pretentious artifice; their frequent use of direct discourse gives it an air of fiction. So, except for the pictures and the appendix, they have succeeded in producing only an effect of make-believe in confusion.”

− +

Review 3:236 S 15 ’20 200w

R of Rs 62:222 Ag ’20 70w

“It would be misleading to say that this record of wonderful accomplishment is interesting throughout. Literary interest can hardly be achieved unless the principle of progression and climax be adhered to. Mrs Haven Smith, gives us a good many of those human touches which one always looks for in such a book.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p736 N 11 ’20 420w

SMITH, DAVID. Life and letters of St Paul. *$6 Doran 220.92

20–9032

“The author’s point of view in this book is well expressed in the preface: ‘Controversy is a foolish and futile employment; and I have endeavored to portray St Paul simply as I have perceived him during long years of loving and delightful study of the sacred memorials of his life and labor, mentioning the views of others only as they served to illustrate and confirm my own. And I would fain hope that I have written nothing discourteous, nothing hurtful.’ One of the most attractive parts of this volume is the translation of the epistles into modern English. The text is accompanied by a running exposition which takes note of the thought and purpose of these rich writings, and sets them in their historical context in a way that the average mind can understand. On the other hand, the scholar will find a great deal of suggestion from the extensive footnotes, which discuss the deeper questions of Biblical learning on subjects that are not always familiar even to the general run of scholars.”—Bookm

“The warmth of its style is likely to make it more acceptable as an aid to devotion than as a contribution to historical research.”

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Ath p442 Ap 2 ’20 150w

“This detailed, voluminous, and interesting life of Paul is by the author of ‘In the days of his flesh,’ and bears all the marks of unwearied scholarship, sympathetic interpretation, and exegetical insight that we have learned to associate with the name of Dr Smith.”

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Bib World 54:647 N ’20 450w

“Dr Smith has produced a work of genuine literature. He has a lucid style, a finely poised imagination, deep historical insight, a rich understanding of religious values, and a full grasp of the profoundest scholarship. He has thus written a volume that unquestionably takes rank with the great biographies of recent times. There is not a dull page.” O. L. Joseph

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Bookm 51:303 My ’20 1200w

N Y Times p29 O 17 ’20 80w

“This book is disappointing. The notes indicate that the author possesses minute scholarship, but the text does not indicate that he possesses spiritual insight.”

− +

Outlook 126:334 O 20 ’20 130w

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Spec 124:317 Mr 6 ’20 170w

“It is designed for the general reader rather than for the scholar, and throughout it maintains an allusiveness to general literature and history which will make it specially attractive to a wide circle of readers.”

+ −

The Times [London] Lit Sup p347 Je 3 ’20 700w

SMITH, GEORGE GREGORY. Ben Jonson. *$1.25 Macmillan

20–4866

“After many years Ben Jonson has been admitted to the sacred circle of English men of letters, that series of little critical biographies now numbering more than sixty names. In Mr Smith’s belated biography we have in his two opening chapters a recital of about all that is known of the circumstances of Jonson’s life, the rest of the book being given to a study of his literary work, with chapters on ‘literary conscience,’ the comedies, masques, tragedies and poems, and a final survey of his influence.”—Boston Transcript

Boston Transcript p10 F 7 ’20 1450w

“Mr Smith, in his entirely laudable anxiety to write unlike Swinburne, has written the greater part of his book with too much caution. The biography is all crowded into the first fifty pages and the remaining two hundred and fifty are left wholly free for criticism: the easiest arrangement, perhaps, but in this case not the best. It is only in the last two chapters, those on Jonson’s literary criticism and influence, that Professor Smith, himself an authority on sixteenth and seventeenth century poetical theory, comes into his own and does his author the fullest justice.” Mark Van Doren

+ −

Nation 110:206 F 14 ’20 1100w

“The new ‘Ben Jonson’ is generously written, but Mr Gregory Smith has kept Ben’s secret. It was, of course, impossible to quote much in the limits of space set by the conditions of the series; the more’s the pity that it came out in a series at all. The book is too big for it; it is so rich a harvest that one could wish the master of it had pulled down his barns and built greater; cancelled his contract, and made ‘Ben Jonson’ his magnum opus.”

+

Nation [London] 26:608 Ja 31 ’20 1950w

“Mr Smith is constantly on the defensive; he is often arrogant and peevish in his attitude towards other critics. Under his handling Jonson becomes not only dull but a source of dullness in other men, to wit in Mr Smith himself.” S. C. C.

− +

New Repub 23:342 Ag 18 ’20 500w

“Professor Smith has done full justice to Ben’s robust character without minimizing [his] grave faults. His plays are analysed with much ability, and their peculiar qualities are admirably explained and illustrated with reference to the theory upon which they were constructed. Insight and accuracy are the chief essentials in a short account of Ben Jonson, and Professor Smith possesses both.”

+

Spec 124:279 F 28 ’20 550w

“For the critical study in the Men of letters series which Mr Gregory Smith has just produced there is a place; it satisfies curiosity, it supplies many just observations, it provides valuable matter on the neglected masques; it only fails to remodel the image of Jonson which is settled in our minds.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p637 N 13 ’19 2100w

SMITH, GORDON ARTHUR. Pagan. *$1.75 Scribner

20–5580

“This is a collection of twelve short stories. In ‘The pagan,’ from which the book takes its title, there are three outstanding characters: Ferdinand Taillandy, son of Maxime Taillandy, a wealthy Parisian; his sister Marthe, and Peter Mason, a young American lawyer whose firm practiced on both sides of the Atlantic. In the ‘Feet of gold’ and ‘The end of the road’ the author draws further entertaining pictures of the same Ferdinand Taillandy—‘poet, pagan and wanderer on the face of the earth.’ The ‘City of light’ and ‘The bottom of the cup’ are pathetic tales of two young sisters, daughters of a widow of Evremont-sur-Seine, who, dazzled by the attractions of Paris, leaves home, only to return broken and disillusioned. ‘Tropic madness’ is decidedly humorous.”—N Y Times

Booklist 16:246 Ap ’20

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N Y Times 25:25 Jl 11 ’20 700w

SMITH, HENRY LOUIS.^[2] Your biggest job, school or business. *$1 Appleton 174

20–21351

These heart-to-heart talks with boys contain “Some words of counsel for red-blooded young Americans who are getting tired of school.” (Sub-title) The author’s object is to give the boy the necessary incentive to develop the will-power that will enable him to go thru with an irksome task for the sake of his future. The essays are: The American freight train; Quitting school for business; Grindstones: A study in tool-sharpening; A neglected art; The key to success in study; A widespread fallacy disproved; On getting rich; The cash value of book-learning; First lesson of the world war: Value of morale; A square deal for the home folks; College and university training; The home half of college preparation.

SMITH, HERBERT ARTHUR.^[2] American Supreme court as an international tribunal. *$3.50 Oxford 341.6

20–16853

“This small volume essays to draw an analogy between the Supreme court of the United States, when sitting as a tribunal to try cases involving sovereign states, and any international court that may hereafter be established for such purpose. The author reviews the various cases before the Supreme court in which one or both of the litigants have been states of the union, stressing those cases in which the jurisdiction of the court has been challenged, either successfully or otherwise.”—N Y Evening Post

+

N Y Evening Post p11 D 31 ’20 180w

“Professor Herbert Smith has compiled a very useful book, deserving close study at the present time.”

+

The Times [London] Lit Sup p642 O 7 ’20 650w

SMITH, JUSTIN HARVEY. War with Mexico. 2v *$10 Macmillan 973.6

19–19605

“This exhaustive historical work may be regarded—although the author does not so claim—as a sequel to his previous work, ‘The annexation of Texas.’ Professor Smith devotes two opening chapters to the consideration of the social, economic and political condition of Mexico and the Mexicans, both before and since the revolt from Spanish rule, which made it an independent state under the rule of Iturbide. Next are considered the relations between Mexico and the United States prior to the beginning of the war and the attitude of both powers on the eve of war. The second volume is devoted chiefly to a description of the war itself, the siege of Chapultepec, the capture of the capital city, the naval operations and the final victory and the signing of a treaty. Professor Smith has sought his material for this exhaustive history in public documents and records of the two governments, in collections of historical societies, and public and private libraries, in manuscripts public and private ... and in personal recollections of men still living, who took part in the conflict.”—Boston Transcript

“The reviewer is disappointed, because it seems to him that Dr Smith has not accomplished once for all the results that his immense labor and impressive grasp of the subject would have enabled him to do had he written with more regard to the necessary limitations of his readers. It would be a grievous error, however, to infer that he has not produced a notable book. One may not always agree with the author, but very few will be rash enough to neglect him.” E. C. Barker

+ −

Am Hist R 25:729 Jl ’20 1400w

Booklist 16:309 Je ’20

“This book must be regarded as the definitive work on this important episode in the history of the expansion of our country.” E. J. C.

+

Boston Transcript p6 F 4 ’20 1050w

“A thoroughgoing and accurate narrative.”

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Brooklyn 12:106 Mr ’20 40w

“Elaborate, but not very plausible.”

+ −

Dial 68:669 My ’20 70w

“The many engagements before final victory are described with a particularity which proves the author to have acquired a general understanding of military matters, with an appreciative grasp of the technique of the battlefield that make his narrative markedly convincing.”

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N Y Times 25:300 Je 6 ’20 1000w

“Professor Smith has labored with a keen eye for the human and picturesque qualities in his material. At the same time this is fundamentally the work of a painstaking scholar.”

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Outlook 125:223 Je 2 ’20 100w

R of Rs 61:334 Mr ’20 180w

“Mr Smith has made a thorough examination of the available material, and has built it into a monumental work which supersedes all previous histories of the subject. His treatment of the military part is admirable. His book is fully documented, and in every way a credit to the American school of history.”

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Spec 124:869 Je 26 ’20 350w

Springf’d Republican p8 Ja 3 ’20 70w

“The public is deeply indebted to Prof. Smith, who after years of patient delving in the vaults of historical societies, in local archives, in private collections, etc., has produced a scholarly and well thought-out history.”

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Springf’d Republican p5 Mr 8 ’20 600w

“The episodes are sufficiently distant to have enabled the passions and excitements to grow cold and for their comparative importance to be weighed and allocated in a just position in the history of the construction of the United States. The materials are adequate, even abundant, and the author with commendable industry has fortified his narrative with a wealth of corroborative annotation, and a formidable bibliography of his subject. He has, moreover, compiled a really useful index.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p350 Je 3 ’20 950w

SMITH, LAURA ROUNTREE. Like-to-do stories. il 55c Beckley-Cardy co.

A book of stories for boys and girls who are just beginning to read for themselves. Each story has its moral, as some of the titles will show: The little girl who liked to wash dishes; The little boy who liked to bring in wood and water; The little girl who couldn’t tell time; The little boy who was afraid of the dark; The little boy who liked to hang up his coat and hat; The little girl who did a kindness every-day.

SMITH, LEWIS WORTHINGTON, and HATHAWAY, ESSE VIRGINIA.^[2] Skyline in English literature. il *$2 Appleton 820.9

20–20033

The object of the book is to present the story of English literature in continuity by eliminating minor details and minor writers and keeping the attention on the skyline. The authors hold that territorial expansion and intellectual expansion go together and that while English-speaking peoples hold the forefront of the world their literature is the greatest in the world. The book is intended for high school use and its contents are: The English language and the English people; The Anglo-Saxon beginning; The Norman-French expansion; The Englishman’s house in order; The Greco-Italian expansion; The world expansion; Spiritual and social idealism: the overthrowing of masters; Spiritual decadence: the return of the masters; The intellectual expansion; the age of enlightenment; The spiritual expansion; idealism and the rebirth of song; The beauty and fullness of life; The industrial expansion; artists, workers, thinkers; Recent and contemporary writers. There is a list of literary places in England with map; a chronology, a glossary, an index and illustrations.

Boston Transcript p5 D 24 ’20 800w

N Y Evening Post p10 D 31 ’20 30w

SMITH, LOGAN PEARSALL, ed. Treasury of English prose. *$1.75 (3c) Houghton 820.8

20–5686

This collection of extracts from English prose begins with Chaucer in the fourteenth century. From the sixteenth century there are extracts from the “Book of common prayer,” from Sir Philip Sidney, Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare. Beginning in the seventeenth century with quotations from authorized versions of the Bible, there are, moreover, such names as Izaak Walton, Sir Thomas Browne, John Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and on through the eighteenth century, Swift, Addison, Johnson, Burke and Gibbon. Some of the more modern writers presented are Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Shelley, Keats, Carlyle, Emerson, Ruskin, Walter Pater, Henry James, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, and George Santayana.

Booklist 16:338 Jl ’20

“Not absolutely representative but includes some charming and little-known prose gems by several famous poets.”

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Cleveland p72 Ag ’20 30w

“Mr Smith has let his ear preside at every choosing, so that his volume is as rigorously cadenced as a collection of sonnets would be. Here with some omissions is the most perfect music which English prose has made.”

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Nation 111:278 S 4 ’20 100w

“What Mr Pearsall Smith holds to be good prose is to us only a kind of good prose; the kind that is alembicated and, as we say, poetical. It is the prose of conceit, imagery, and eloquence which stands over against the prose of narration, argument, or satire. So that it would strike even one who had no critical opinion of English prose and very little reading in it as somewhat strange that there is not one single piece of narrative in all this book.”

+ −

Nation [London] 26:398 D 13 ’19 2500w

“The contents are charmingly arranged and delightfully savory and brief.”

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New Repub 22:161 Mr 31 ’20 100w

“His treasury is a book of beauty, a book to keep at one’s bed’s head, a book to dip into, to travel with, to reread.” P. L.

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New Repub 22:253 Ap 21 ’20 1500w

“The anthology as it stands is now anything but representative.... The selections from the Bible are entirely admirable. The passages from Jeremy Taylor and Dr Donne are excellently chosen, and Mr Pearsall Smith is to be congratulated upon his phrase from Traherne and upon having recollected that Chaucer was not only the first English poet. Indeed, much of the prose written by poets in this book will delight and surprise most of Mr Pearsall Smith’s readers.”

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Spec 124:50 Ja 10 ’20 1000w

SMITH, MABELL SHIPPIE (CLARKE) (MRS JAMES RAVENEL SMITH).^[2] Maid of Orleans. *$1.25 Crowell

19–15636

“M. S. C. Smith has published a new volume of the old story of ‘The maid of Orleans,’ written particularly for girls, but by no means confined to such a constituency. To the length of nearly 300 pages the author relates the story of the girl and the voices that guided her in her efforts to free France from a foreign foe and set her rightful sovereign upon the throne.”—Springf’d Republican

“A commendable piece of work.”

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Cath World 111:254 My ’20 120w

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Outlook 124:28 Ja 7 ’20 70w

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Springf’d Republican p15 N 30 ’19 180w

SMITH, NORA ARCHIBALD. Christmas child, and other verse for children. il *$1.75 Houghton 811

20–19659

Verses for children reprinted from the Ladies’ Home Journal, Outlook, Youth’s Companion and other periodicals, including school and educational journals. There are about twenty poems on Christmas themes followed by others, with such titles as The fairy ring; Everybody’s baby; The answer of the flag; Learning to knit; Easter blossoms; The doll’s calendar.

“Miss Smith has the gift of sprightly versification, and her experience as a kindergartner leads her to a knowledge of the theme and the treatment that will please boys and girls.”

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Springf’d Republican p8 N 18 ’20 100w

SMITH, ONNIE WARREN. Casting tackle and methods. il *$3 (4½c) Stewart & Kidd 799

20–16779

Part 1, which is devoted to tackle, has chapters on The bait casting rod; The casting reel; Terminal tackle; Casting lures; Housing the tackle; Repair kits and methods. Part 2, on Methods, has nine chapters: A first lesson in casting; Landing tools and how to use them; Fishing a wadeable stream; Fishing a river from a boat; Shore casting; Casting after dark; Lake casting from a boat; Spoons and how to cast them; Trolling for bass. There are fourteen illustrations. The author is angling editor of Outdoor Life, in the pages of which the chapters of the book originally appeared. He is also author of “Trout lore.”

Booklist 17:103 D ’20

“A free and easy book full of authentic information given with the jocular assurance of the long-experienced angler.” Margaret Ashmun

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Bookm 52:345 D ’20 140w

“It is good reading; but it is meant primarily to be a guide to catching bass by casting, and such it excellently is. That it is well and heartily written is an added virtue.”

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N Y Evening Post p11 N 20 ’20 80w

SMITH, WILLIAM WESLEY. Pork-production. il *$3 Macmillan 636.4

20–12385

This volume of the Rural science series has been prepared by an associate professor of animal husbandry in Purdue university. “The material in the book has been drawn from three sources: from practical experience; experimental studies, particularly of feeding questions; and the results of research in the field of chemistry and biology.” (Preface) Subjects covered include handling and feeding of the herd, size of litters, forage crops, cereals, corn substitutes, cost of producing pork, marketing, judging, breeds and breeding. A chapter on The prevention of hog diseases is contributed by R. A. Craig. The volume is illustrated with eight plates and is indexed.

The Times [London] Lit Sup p685 O 21 ’20 50w

Wis Lib Bul 16:234 D ’20 60w

SMYTH, ETHEL MARY. Impressions that remained. 2v il *$10.50 Longmans

20–3070

Miss Ethel Smyth is an English musician and composer. In this book of memories she writes of her childhood and girlhood in a typical Victorian household and of her musical life in Germany, more particularly in Leipsig where she went as a student in 1877. The story of her friendship with Elisabeth von Herzogenberg adds a dramatic element to the book.

“Relentlessly truthful about herself, she refuses to say anything that could hurt others who still live. Her autobiography ends almost before her artistic career began; but even so it is a wonderfully fascinating record of a fierce, passionate and courageous life, told from the point of view of a woman who has reached a plane of rare serenity and detachment.” E: J. Dent

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Ath p1294 D 5 ’19 1900w

“This book is a rich and irresistibly vivid panorama. The reader has the pleasure of it that he has of a portrait gallery whose subjects, interesting in themselves, are delineated with comprehension and an unerring instinct of reproduction.” Pitts Sanborn

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Dial 68:637 My ’20 3300w

“No one can fail to be drawn by the record of that vanished Germany. The psychologist will study these fascinating pages for data of the artistic temperament, its force, its egotism, its limitations, of which it is not itself aware. But no one who begins the book can lay it aside until he reaches the end.”

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Review 2:182 F 21 ’20 950w

“Of the earlier part we can say little. Despite the fact that the author has a nice turn for observation, an easy style, and a good memory, we feel that much of the material is of too private a nature. It is when the author goes to Germany that the chief interest in the book begins.”

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Sat R 128:sup14 N 29 ’19 900w

“She writes of herself for the most part as if she were writing of another person, with a detachment that is almost uncanny. And although music naturally plays a large part in the narrative, these memoirs can be read with the keenest interest by those to whom music is a sealed book.”

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Spec 124:247 Ja 10 ’20 2000w

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Springf’d Republican p15a Ja 4 ’20 1600w (Reprinted from Ath and Observer [London])

“This is one of the most remarkable books of memoirs that has appeared in recent times. The intensity of the private life which she discloses, with something of Rousseau’s sensitiveness yet with a mixture of lively humour quite beyond his capacity, carries the reader away from the very outset. Without the descent into the abyss of the second volume there would have been matter enough for admiration in these witty pages; but it is that descent which gives the book a power of appeal which raises it far above the merely amusing and interesting.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p587 O 23 ’19 2350w

SMYTHE, J. A.^[2] Lead, including lead pigments and the desilverisation of lead. il $1 Pitman 669.4

The author of this booklet in the Pitman’s common commodities and industries series assumes very little knowledge of chemistry and physics on the part of the reader and tells the story of lead from the time the ore is dug from the earth to its finished products. Contents: History of lead; Lead ores: their method of occurrence and mineral associates; The finding and mining of lead ore and the preparation of the ore for smelting; The chemical changes involved in smelting; Smelting in the ore-hearth; Smelting in the reverberatory furnace; Smelting in the blast furnace; Condensation of lead fume; Softening and desilverisation of work lead; Cupellation of alloys of silver and lead; Properties and uses of lead and its alloys; Compounds of lead—litharge and red lead; White lead and other lead pigments; Lead in medicine and lead poisoning; Index, map and illustrations.

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Nature 106:241 O 21 ’20 70w

SNAITH, JOHN COLLIS. Adventurous lady. *$2 (2c) Appleton

20–15066

Lady Elfreda Catkin was something of an imperious young lady. Her parents, owing to Lord Carabbas’, the father’s, impecuniosity, had decided on a wealthy marriage for her with the newly rich, new nobility. Lady Elfreda had decided on frustrating their plans. On the spur of a moment opportunity offers for an exchange of rôles between her and a poor shy little nursery governess. After a true comedy of errors the hoax comes to light with the result that little Miss Cass marries Lord Duckingfield and the now thoroughly emancipated Elfreda marries George Norris, grandson of the former butler of her ladyship’s grandfather and of a former ladies’ maid.

“The adventures are very little adventures and dreadfully dull.” K. M.

−

Ath p616 N 5 ’20 240w

“Gay, crisp comedy shot through with a thread of genial satire.”

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Booklist 17:119 D ’20

“The adventures of Girlie Cass may not be morally significant to a universe in the throes of parturition, but they surely are jolly good fun, as Elfreda would say.”

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Boston Transcript p11 D 1 ’20 520w

Lit D p95 O 23 ’20 1400w

“‘The adventurous lady’ is perhaps more nearly akin to the history of the delectable Araminta than to any other of Mr Snaith’s books—a social comedy, witty and amusing, light and sparkling as sunflecked foam. All this it is, and yet more—an admirable illustration of what a really good writer can do with a well-worn and somewhat trite plot.”

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N Y Times p18 S 19 ’20 850w

“The tale is mildly amusing, but it is a pity that the author of ‘The sailor’ should think it worth while to write such a trifling farce.”

− +

Outlook 126:201 S 29 ’20 50w

Reviewed by Katharine Perry

Pub W 98:659 S 18 ’20 290w

Spec 126:24 Ja 1 ’21 40w

“The story is obviously at variance with the class of work Mr Snaith has done heretofore. It is a sprightly tale, written to amuse.”

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Springf’d Republican p9a O 24 ’20 400w

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p705 O 28 ’20 140w

SNOWDEN, JAMES HENRY. Truth about Christian science; the founder and the faith. $2.40 Presbyterian bd. 289.5

21–397

It is the object of the book to ascertain and state, as accurately and impartially and fairly as possible, the facts as to the founder and the faith of Christian science and to discriminate between the truth and error of the system. That it contains both is the author’s conviction. Contents: The subsoil of Christian science; Life of Mrs Mary Baker G. Eddy; Where did Mrs Eddy get her system of healing? “Science and health”: (1) the making of the book; (2) the contents of the book; Christian science teaching; The Christian science church; Mind healing and Christian science cures; The appeal of Christian science; Old truths newly emphasized; Index.

“‘The truth about Christian science’ is for the layman. It may be heartily recommended.”

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Boston Transcript p7 N 20 ’20 340w

“He has put together a very readable and useful account of the movement, together with a lucid examination of its doctrines, from the standpoint of an orthodox Christian theologist.”

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N Y Evening Post p12 D 31 ’20 300w

SNOWDEN, JAMES HENRY. Wonderful night. *$1.25 Macmillan 232

19–18544

“Egyptian history, old Greek and Roman, Persian, Phœnician, early Jewish, historic and prehistoric; all were preparation for the coming of Christ. Then came the first Christmas, the wonderful night. The writer of this version has undertaken to reconcile religion and science, to show that all thinking men could but have expected the thing which came to pass. It is an attempt to correlate the Christian story with ancient and modern history.”—Boston Transcript

Boston Transcript p6 Ja 17 ’20 600w

“If it must be done it could not be done in a more finished manner, with more attractive illustrations and illuminations.”

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Boston Transcript p4 My 12 ’20 220w

SODDY, FREDERICK. Science and life. *$4 Dutton 504

(Eng ed 20–12133)

“Among the investigators of radioactive substances Professor Frederick Soddy shares with possibly half a dozen men a position of preeminence. To the general public he is best known through his readable little book on ‘Matter and energy’ in the Home university library.” (Freeman) ‘Science, and life’ is the outcome of Professor Soddy’s five years’ tenure of the chair of chemistry at Aberdeen; and the addresses, together with articles here collected with them, are devoted to two main themes—the vast significance and importance of radioactivity, and the need of more and better science teaching in school and university. The Evolution of matter is the subject of one of the chapters reprinted from the Aberdeen University Review. In appendices Professor Soddy criticizes the financial operations of the Carnegie trust for the universities of Scotland.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)

“It is surely a great merit in Mr Soddy’s book that it awakens in us once more the feeling of adventure.... Being brought back to realities, and finding that they are purely ‘material,’ we can discover hope of essential change only in a profound alteration in the material basis of life. Mr Soddy’s book is exciting because this is exactly what he promises.” J. W. N. S.

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Ath p301 Mr 5 ’20 900w

“The book is of special interest to men of science, because it brings out their immense burden of responsibility. The chapters on radioactivity are beautifully written, and, coming from Prof. Soddy, are authoritative.” Ellwood Hendrick

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Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering 23:545 S 15 ’20 680w

“Given his lack of metaphysical subtlety, Professor Soddy can not be expected to say anything particularly new or enlightening on the relation of religion and science. Indeed, the essay devoted to that theme is singularly pointless. On the other hand, Dr Soddy is refreshingly clear and sound in his discussions of the relation of science and democracy.” R. H. Lowie

+ −

Freeman 2:20 S 15 ’20 1000w

Int J Ethics 31:114 O ’20 260w

“The whole story [of research in radio-activity] is told in a condensed form in several of the essays in this volume, and it could not be told better. Those who are interested in such subjects should obtain the book and read it.” W. A. T.

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Nature 105:1 Mr 4 ’20 1550w

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N Y P L New Tech Bks p65 Jl ’20 150w

Review 3:391 O 27 ’20 290w

“Professor Soddy, in urging the claims of the present and the future, seems unduly contemptuous of the past. He should leave it to undergraduates to make a bonfire of the ancient humanities, and should remember that the study of the past serves to guide the present and interpret the future.”

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Sat R 129:500 My 29 ’20 1150w

“Specially interesting to those who wish to know what light has been thrown upon the inmost secrets of matter in the last few years are the three papers entitled ‘Science and life,’ ‘The evolution of matter,’ and ‘The conception of the chemical element as enlarged by the study of radioactive change.’”

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Spec 124:84 Jl 17 ’20 1050w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p91 F 5 ’20 90w

SOME British ballads.^[2] il *$5 Dodd 821.08

(Eng ed 20–8033)

“Although this charming collection is entitled ‘British ballads,’ most of them are Scotch, but are none the worse for that. Indeed, we suppose it may be truly said that the best ballads are those of Scotland. There are here such old favourites as The lass of Lochroyan, Young Bekie, Chevy Chase, The twa corbies, Binnorie, and Get up and bar the door. There are eleven illustrations in colour by Arthur Rackham.”—Sat R

“Everybody knows the drawings in color with which Mr Rackham is wont to embellish the classics. This new volume is, if possible, more exquisite than those preceding. It is all that heart could wish.” Margaret Ashmun

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Bookm 52:342 D ’20 160w

“It may be that when parents see Rackham’s dramatic picturing of the ballad of ‘The twa corbies,’ they will have some misgivings as to its suitability for young folks. For boys and girls of fourteen there is much to be missed, if ‘Chevy Chase,’ and ‘The duke of Gordon’s daughter,’ and ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ are passed by because of nerves or the difficulties of dialect. Rackham is always decorative, delicate, and dramatic.”

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Lit D p94 D 4 ’20 190w

“It is hard to decide which is the more attractive feature of this book—Mr Rackham’s paintings or the ballads themselves.”

+

N Y Times p8 D 26 ’20 500w

Sat R 128:615 D 27 ’19 70w

SOMERVILLE, EDITH ANNA ŒNONE, and MARTIN, VIOLET FLORENCE (MARTIN ROSS, pseud.). Mount Music. *$2 (*7s 6d) Longmans

20–2644

“‘Mount Music’ is a tale of Ireland in transition, beginning in the late ‘eighties’ and ending early in this century. The years in which the action takes place mark the passing of the old régime, incarnate in the person of Major Richard Talbot-Lowry, a genial, improvident, dashing, and artless sportsman. And the situation is complicated for him by the fact that his estate marches with that of a young kinsman, a Roman Catholic and a home ruler, the playmate, and in time the lover, of Dick’s daughter Christian. Larry Coppinger, the young home ruler, was ‘in tune with all the world’; and if Christian yielded to the wishes of her father when he was broken in health, she had personally no fear of a mixed marriage. They are both attractive and generous young people, but the finest portrait is that of Francis Mangan, the ‘big doctor like an elephant in his hugeness and suppleness, his dangerousness and his gentleness.’ His relations to his father confessor and his family, his social ambitions and real benevolence, make a wonderful amalgam.”—Spec

“An Irish story, charming and wise and hard to classify because it is such a real book.” R. M. Underhill

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Bookm 51:444 Je ’20 20w

“Her Irish characters are every whit as entertaining, and presumably as truthful as those of Mr Birmingham himself. There are none of the stereotyped good and evil persons of modern fiction here. Everyone is taken as he or she is, and Miss Somerville wastes no valuable time in moralizing over the foibles of her characters. A good story, excellently told.” G. M. H.

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Boston Transcript p4 Ap 21 ’20 500w

“It is hard—nay, it is impossible—for an alien to write sympathetically or truthfully of things Catholic, especially if there be question of Catholic Ireland.”

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Cath World 111:410 Je ’20 150w

+

Cleveland p71 Ag ’20 30w

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Outlook 124:657 Ap 14 ’20 60w

“Alike in description, characterization, and dialogue preserves that unerring felicity of phrase, wide range of sympathy, and intrepid humour which were first exhibited in ‘An Irish cousin.’”

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Spec 123:898 D 27 ’19 700w

“The authors have written many pleasanter books and many that will be more popular, but their genius has never been more unmistakable than in this picture of the ‘big doctor,’ so sordid and vulgar and crafty and with something so big in him.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p766 D 18 ’19 1100w

SONNICHSEN, ALBERT. Consumers’ coöperation. *$1.75 Macmillan 334

19–16460

“John Graham Brooks gives a brief introduction to this volume. The author gives a brief review of the history and explanation of the cooperative movement, developed extensively throughout Europe during the war and now being adopted to some extent in the United States, especially in the middle western and western sections. He asserts it to be the alternative, not an antidote, to bolshevism. The growing importance of the procedure is illustrated by statistics. Its object, the author shows, is to reorganize industry on a collective basis from the point of view of the consumer; to create a consumers’ industrial democracy. He points out that it proceeds by action, rather than by talk.”—Springf’d Republican

“The value of the book consists in its giving the most adequate exposition of consumers’ coöperation yet given in this country,—a comprehensive story of the movement, the fullest in later years, and interesting suggestions as to future achievement.” E. P. Harris

+

Am Econ R 10:169 Mr ’20 450w

“The book is well written and is a clear exposition of consumer’s co-operation.” L. E. Hagerty

+

Am J Soc 26:371 N ’20 360w

“Students of the coöperative movement will find some useful information, lucidly set forth.”

+

Am Pol Sci R 14:363 My ’20 70w

+

Booklist 16:224 Ap ’20

“Informing and of general interest.”

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Springf’d Republican p10 Ja 30 ’20 450w

“Of singular interest in this book is the full description which it gives of the history of cooperation in the United States and its present status. We cannot, however, agree with the author in his interpretation of success and failure even though we take his statements of fact as accurate.” B. L.

+ −

Survey 43:622 F 21 ’20 700w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p241 Ap 15 ’20 80w

SORLEY, CHARLES HAMILTON. Letters; with a chapter of biography. *$5 Macmillan

(Eng ed 20–13569)

“It has been said that the death, in action, of Charles Hamilton Sorley constituted the greatest loss of the war to English literature. There may be some, perhaps, who will hardly commit themselves to this; but none will be so foolish as to deny that more than sufficient interest in his personality was kindled by the publication, in 1916, of his ‘Marlborough and other poems’ to justify the present appearance of this volume. These letters, edited by his parents with admirable restraint, form an invaluable commentary on the poems themselves. The letters really divide themselves into three groups: those written while at school at Marlborough; those while staying (and studying) in Germany, first at Shwerin in Mecklenburg and then at the University of Jena; and, lastly, those while in the army at home and in France.”—Sat R

“We do not receive many such gifts as this wonderful book; the authentic voice of those lost legions is seldom heard.” J. M. M.

+

Ath p136 Ja 30 ’20 2500w

“His published book of poems is not alone evidence of his literary ability. His letters reveal exceptional powers and proclaim the man that might have been.” E. F. E.

+

Boston Transcript p10 Mr 27 ’20 1300w

“One approaches them prepared to find little beyond promise—a hint of something fine cut down before fulfillment; they turn out to be very much more than mere promise; they are in themselves achievement, the expression of a rarely independent mind, humorous, rich and wise far beyond its years.” R. L.

+

New Repub 23:231 Jl 21 ’20 1250w

“Charles Sorley was a born letter-writer. As we read we feel ourselves to be wandering pleasantly among the green places of earth, with a brilliantly discursive boy at our side.”

+

Sat R 129:281 Mr 20 ’20 1000w

“They necessarily lose something of freshness and vividness when they are put together in a book, but they are full of amusing phrases and interesting comments.”

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Spec 124:351 Mr 13 ’20 1400w

“Quite apart from any sentimental associations, it is a more entertaining book than the average, and it has been edited by Professor and Mrs Sorley with a perfect restraint which has been sadly lacking in certain other books of this kind.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p726 D 11 ’19 1050w

SOTHERN, JOHN WILLIAM MAJOR.^[2] Oil fuel burning in marine practice. il *$7.50 Van Nostrand 621.12

“A manual of practical instruction in oil fuel burning: contains full and copiously illustrated descriptions of all modern oil fuel burning systems, together with exhaustive practical information relating to same; intended for the use of naval and mercantile marine engineer officers, etc.” (Sub-title) The book is in six sections; The properties and combustion of fuel oil; Fuel oil tests; Description of oil fuel fittings; Pressure systems of oil fuel burning; Faults in oil fuel burning; General notes on oil fuel burning. There are 102 diagrams and other illustrations. The author is principal of Sothern’s Marine engineering college, Glasgow, and member of the Institute of marine engineers, London, and of other engineering societies.

SOUTHARD, ELMER ERNEST. Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems. (Case history ser. Boston State hospital, Psychopathic dept.) il $10 Leonard 616.8

20–2508

“A comprehensive volume setting forth the conclusions of medical experts in a field which has recently undergone remarkable development is Dr E. E. Southard’s ‘Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems.’ The data are presented in 589 case histories from the war literature—largely French and German—of the years 1914–1918, from these data Dr Southard draws about 70 pages of conclusions. The book has a bibliography by Dr Norman Fenton and an introduction by Prof. Charles K. Mills of the University of Pennsylvania.”—Springf’d Republican

Ind 104:68 O 9 ’20 130w

“Primarily of value to physicians and army surgeons, the book is interesting even to the layman in its dramatic accounts of the soldiers who were victims of shell-shock.”

+

Outlook 124:479 Mr 17 ’20 110w

“Dr Southard presents his ideas not only with the thoroughness of the medical expert and scholar but with a certain humor and pungency, general literary culture and full appreciation of the relations of the subject to military service, and, incidentally, to everyday life.”

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Springf’d Republican p8a Ap 4 ’20 350w

“The book will stand as a monument to a man of many talents. Southard the scholar would not object to the statement that his book is as much a part of history as of medicine.” A. Myerson, M. D.

+

Survey 44:252 My 15 ’20 190w

SPADONI, ADRIANA. Swing of the pendulum. *$1.90 (1c) Boni & Liveright

20–774

Opening in San Francisco and ending in New York, this long novel tells the story of a woman’s life from youth to the beginning of middle age. The swing of the pendulum carries her from an unfortunate early marriage thru a passionate love affair with a man who is already bound by wife and child, to a safe and settled union based on mutual regard and need. Jean Norris graduates from the University of California, turns her back on teaching as a profession, enters library work, marries Franklin Herrick, follows Journalism, discovers the settlement movement, comes to New York as a social worker, plunges into civic reform, loves and loses Gregory Allen, forsakes her work to return to San Francisco, comes back and takes it up again, and after many emotional reactions marries her co-worker, Jerome Stuart.

“There is a good deal of fine characterization in this book; the dialogue is extraordinarily natural. But the prevailing atmosphere is sultry with sex; the middle-aged reader, at least, may find the performance as a whole both strained and wearisome.” H. W. Boynton

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Bookm 51:343 My ’20 240w

“This novel cannot be commended as a work of art. The story does not grip, several of its chapters are so episodic that they might be suppressed without loss, and the male characters are not men, but marionettes.”

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Cath World 111:700 Ag ’20 190w

“To hold the serious attention of serious readers through nearly five hundred pages argues at once a kinship with the wealthy mind of the true novelist. And such a kinship Miss Spadoni undoubtedly possesses.”

+ −

Nation 110:208 F 14 ’20 300w

“Miss Spadoni’s imagination sends forth into a real, three-dimensioned world a troop of pale characters cursed with congenital indistinctness doomed from birth to wander unrecognisably in the fog of a common origin.” R. L.

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New Repub 23:209 Jl 14 ’20 500w

“It is sincerely conceived and written, it shows grasp of character and its development, and it unfolds its story interestingly. It has also its distinct crudities, technically and ethically. Like others of its numerous kind, its prolonged emphasis upon sex will condemn it for a large body of readers who will feel that it gives a distorted and unhealthy view of life.”

+ −

N Y Evening Post p2 F 14 ’20 600w

“Any sincere study of ‘the woman alone’—to use Brieux’s phrase—is bound to be interesting, bound, indeed, to have a certain amount of value. In ‘The swing of the pendulum’ there is much that is crude, but there is real thought, real study and some vividness.”

+ −

N Y Times 25:134 Mr 21 ’20 750w

“Miss Spadoni has done some notable work in the past. Some of her short stories were of men and women, futile, and sordid, but she cut down beneath the events of their lives to the poetry of life. She has not, in ‘The swing of the pendulum’ kept the pace which she set herself in those tales.” Lucy Huffaker

+ −

Pub W 97:175 Ja 17 ’20 700w

“There are evidences of cuts which in places make for uncertainty of delineation—the only blemish of an otherwise almost perfect work of its kind.”

+ −

Survey 44:385 Je 12 ’20 150w

SPARGO, JOHN. “Greatest failure in all history.” *$2.50 (2c) Harper 947

20–14005

In this “critical examination of the actual workings of bolshevism in Russia” (Sub-title) the author claims to have assembled evidence which “must compel every honest believer in freedom and democracy to condemn bolshevism as a vicious and dangerous form of reaction, subversive of every form of progress and every agency of civilization and enlightenment,” and to show it up as “the curse which during less than thirty months has afflicted unhappy Russia with greater ills than fifty years of czarism.” (Preface) Contents: Why have the bolsheviki retained power? The soviets; The soviets under the bolsheviki; The undemocratic soviet state; The peasants and the land; The bolsheviki and the peasants; The red terror; Industry under soviet control; The nationalization of industry (I-II); Freedom of press and assembly: “The dictatorship of the proletariat”; State communism and labor conscription; Let the verdict be rendered; Documents; Index.

“Although most of the evidence carries its own weight the disinterested reader will wish in many cases for some critical evaluation of authorities cited.”

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Booklist 17:55 N ’20

“Mr Spargo is a Socialist, and it is because he considers the doctrines of Lenin and his followers a ‘grotesque travesty of Marx’s teachings,’ and a blow to socialism, and the arch enemy of all democracy, political, and industrial, that he exposes it as it is. This is the great merit of the book. It compels the reader to look at bolshevism as it is.” F. W. C.

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Boston Transcript p4 Ag 28 ’20 680w

“His latest volume attains a level of even greater detachment and cool judgment than its predecessors. The first uprush of hot revulsion of feeling against a false and violent philosophy, masked in the forms of the author’s own cause, has passed. Attacks upon the personal characters of bolshevist leaders are practically absent. The argument gains greatly in strength from this avoidance of personal invective.” M. W. Davis

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N Y Evening Post p4 S 25 ’20 780w

“Mr Spargo’s book is a stern book, but a just one. It was much needed, and it is especially timely now.” W: C. Redfield

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N Y Times p6 Ag 8 ’20 2650w

Springf’d Republican p8 N 16 ’20 180w

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p655 O 7 ’20 30w

Wis Lib Bul 16:235 D ’20 80w

SPARGO, JOHN. Russia as an American problem. *$2.25 (2c) Harper 947

20–3715

The author is a sworn enemy of Bolshevist rule and thinks that Russia is not ready for anything like a socialist state, lacking industrial development as she does. “At present she needs capital and capitalist enterprise.” This makes Russia an American problem and “there should be a very clear recognition, alike by the government and the people of the United States, of the great and far-reaching importance of securing for this country a very large share in the immense volume of trade which Russia’s recovery and economic reconstruction must inevitably produce.” Contents: Russia as an American problem; Russia and western civilization: Russia’s subjection to Germany; Japan as Germany’s successor; Japan and Siberia; Russia’s needs and resources; Postscriptum; extensive appendices and an index.

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Booklist 16:276 My ’20

Lit D p95 My 1 ’20 1400w

“The ultimate political advantage for the world of a Russia free from economic vassalage to militaristic neighbors is obvious, but Mr Spargo’s case would be equally strong if he did not magnify the danger of Russia’s position; for whatever may be the reality of Japan’s menace in Siberia the threat from Germany to European Russia or of a German-Japanese alliance belongs for the present in the realm of imagination.” Jacob Zeitlin

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Nation 110:730 My 29 ’20 2000w

+

N Y Evening Post p3 Ap 10 ’20 1250w

“Mr Spargo’s study is vitally interesting and illuminating, and it contains a wealth of precise information which will be priceless to business men in many lines when the time comes for meeting German commercial rivalry in her new Mitteleuropa.” J: Corbin

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N Y Times 25:127 Mr 21 ’20 1600w

“Vital and patriotic book.”

+

N Y Times 25:196 Ap 18 ’20 100w

Springf’d Republican p10 Ap 9 ’20 620w

Reviewed by Reed Lewis

Survey 44:51 Ap 3 ’20 200w

SPEARS, RAYMOND SMILEY. River prophet. il *$1.50 (1c) Doubleday

20–10310

A story of the “Old Mississip” and of the vagrant population—shanty boaters, pot hunters, river pirates—that lives upon its broad waters. Parson Elijah Rasba, from the mountains, floats down the Tug river to the Big Sandy, down the Big Sandy to the Ohio, down the Ohio and out onto the great river, where he exclaims “If this is the Mississippi what must the Jordan be!” Parson Elijah is seeking a lost soul, Jock Drones, whose mammy wants him back in the mountains, and so he joins the motley throng that goes “dropping down” the lower river. Among the other characters are Nelia Carline, who has left her husband, Gus Carline, the husband in pursuit of her, Lester Terabon, a newspaper man in search of copy, Mame Coape of the many divorces, Buck the river gambler, and Jock Drones, the lost soul who turns back to his mammy.

+ |Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21

SPENCE, LEWIS. Legends and romances of Spain. il *$6.50 Stokes 863

20–26986

The literature of the romantic period in Spain treated by a folk-lorist, who says, “Since the days of Southey the romantic literature of Spain has not received from English writers and critics the amount of study and attention it undoubtedly deserves.... I have made an earnest endeavour to provide English readers with a conspectus of Spanish romantic literature as expressed in its cantares de gesta, its chivalric novels, its romanceros or ballads, and some of its lighter aspects. The reader will find full accounts and summaries of all the more important works under each of these heads, many of which have never before been described in English.” (Preface) Among the chapters are: The sources of Spanish romance; “Amadis de Gaul”; Catalonian romances; Moorish romances of Spain; Tales of Spanish magic and sorcery; Humorous romances of Spain. There are illustrations and a brief bibliography.

“It is an honest attempt to interest the general reader in a delightful department of literature. A book of this sort is in special need of an index, especially as there are no detailed ‘Contents,’ only general chapter-headings. But though there is a useful short bibliography, there is no index at all.” G: Saintsbury

+ −

Ath p516 O 15 ’20 900w

+

Booklist 17:107 D ’20

Outlook 127:32 Ja 5 ’21 60w

“Extremely readable.”

+

Spec 125:784 D 11 ’20 60w

“The attractive page, the good print, the popular treatment, the fine coloured illustrations, render it exactly suitable for a present to an intelligent youth of either sex, while the accounts and summaries of all the important works under the various headings provide a real fund of instructive information.”

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The Times [London] Lit Sup p586 S 9 ’20 100w

“‘Legends and romances of Spain’ is not only a story book. There is a great deal of information in it and some real research. It is not quite up to date, perhaps.”

+ −

The Times [London] Lit Sup p833 D 9 ’20 660w

SPENCE, THOMAS, and others. Pioneers of land reform. *$1.50 Knopf 333

This book is one of the series of economic reprints of the famous Bohn libraries. It contains an introduction by M. Beer, characterizing and comparing the three essays. The essays are: The real rights of man, by Thomas Spence; The right of property in land, by William Ogilive; and Agrarian justice, by Thomas Paine.

+

The Times [London] Lit Sup p195 Mr 25 ’20 1200w

SPENDER, HAROLD. Prime minister. il *$4 Doran

20–22843

In writing this biography the author has drawn upon “the memories of twenty-seven years of unbroken friendship” and in summing up the characteristics of his friend he says: “It is this combination of the slow qualities, with the swift—of judgment with daring, of mercy with rigour, of slow reflection with swift attack, of the zeal of the Cambrian with the shrewdness of the Fleming—that marks him off from so many of his race.” The first thirteen chapters are devoted to Lloyd George’s childhood and youth and earlier career up to the beginning of the war and the rest of the contents is: A war man (1914–1915); East or west? (1915); Serbia (1915): Munitions (1915): The new ministry of munitions; Premiership (1916); The saving of Italy; The Versailles council; Victory; The peace conference; The new world; The man; Highways and byways; Through foreign eyes. There are illustrations, appendices and an index.

“This record has the force of an autobiography rather than of a detached appraisal.”

+

Booklist 17:29 O ’20

Reviewed by D: J. Hill

+

Bookm 52:163 O ’20 1800w

Boston Transcript p6 Je 23 ’20 1800w

“The book is pitched in a high dithyrambic key which is too laboriously sustained to be convincing and at last becomes exasperating. The literary frills are, moreover, a trifle cheap and shabby. Either the whole thing is the most flagrant and therefore self-defeating sort of pamphleteering or Mr Spender’s once robust literary sense is suffering a sad decline.” R: Roberts

−

Freeman 1:571 Ag 25 ’20 1650w

“Mr Spender’s portrait of the Prime Minister can claim in one respect only to be a faithful one. It is Mr Lloyd George as he appears to himself—not to his Maker. Not merely by false interpretation of events but by false attribution of qualities and acquirements Mr Spender fabricates his hero.” J. A. Hobson

−

Nation 111:sup415 O 13 ’20 1400w

“It has none of the detached judgment of a historical appraisal of a completed career. Instead it has the militant interest of a brief presented in behalf of one of the most brilliant statesmen of modern times. It is not biography in the highest form of that art nor is it great literature. But Mr Spender’s work is not cheapened or vitiated by unseeing eulogy of his subject.” W: L. Chenery

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N Y Times 25:3 Je 27 ’20 3550w

“Mr Spender knows no discrimination in his eulogy: whatever his hero has done is not only right but so conspicuously right that it needs neither apology nor explanation. The best we can honestly say of ‘The prime minister’ is that it will serve as a quarry from which some future biographer may draw useful materials.”

− +

Spec 124:427 Mr 27 ’20 750w

Springf’d Republican p9a Jl 4 ’20 800w

“Much the most satisfactory part of the book is that which describes Mr Lloyd George’s birth and upbringing, his early political activities, his entry into Parliament, and the brilliant fighting years in which he marked himself out as a certain minister of the crown. The history of his career as a minister down to the outbreak of war is vague and scrappy and generally inadequate.”

+ −

The Times [London] Lit Sup p189 Mr 18 ’20 350w

SPOFFORD, HARRIET ELIZABETH (PRESCOTT) (MRS RICHARD S. SPOFFORD). Elder’s people. il *$1.75 (2c) Houghton

20–5405

Through these stories of old New England we look into the hearts of the country people, hear their gossip, learn to know their homely religion, their superstitions, see the struggles they have with their baser selves and glimpse their higher natures. We also learn to love the sturdy souls that recur in all the stories and embody the best that is in them all—Elder Perry, Old Steve, Miss Mahala, and others. The stories are: The deacon’s whistle; A change of heart; A rural telephone; The step-father; John-a-dreams; Miss Mahala’s miracle; An old fiddler; The blessing called peace; Father James; The impossible choice; A village dressmaker; Miss Mahala’s will; A life in a night; Miss Mahala and Johnny.

“Undramatic, but interesting.”

+

Booklist 16:314 Je ’20

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Lit D p102 O 23 ’20 1200w

“Mrs Spofford is not by any means a great craftsman, her limitations are quite evident, but within her power—and she is never unduly anxious to achieve what is beyond her—she provides some interesting and entertaining bits of fiction.”

+ −

N Y Evening Post p2 Ap 10 ’20 480w

“The series of short stories which makes up this chronicle contains nothing particularly new or striking, but the tales have quite a good deal of verisimilitude, and some of the characters are likable.”

+

N Y Times 25:198 Ap 18 ’20 280w

Outlook 124:657 Ap 14 ’20 20w

“Mrs Spofford has finely and strongly delineated a number of choice spirits here whom one will not easily forget. She has also incorporated much of the quiet humor of this type of people, and, all in all, has presented here not an especially great book but a very interesting one.”

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Springf’d Republican p11a My 9 ’20 250w

SPRING RICE, SIR CECIL ARTHUR. Poems. *$3 Longmans 821

20–17907

“Mr Bernard Holland reminds us in his preface that the late ambassador to the United States published two books in his lifetime, a book of verse with interludes in poetic prose ‘adapted from the Persian’ and a prose version of a Persian love tale with a veiled mystical meaning. Besides the Persian sonnets this volume contains ‘In memoriam, A. C. M. L.,’ and a number of miscellaneous poems.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“His poems are like his personality and please us by some charm which is not quite analysable. They are strangely different from the work of most men of action. There are only a few poems in this book which are absolutely bad, but, on the other hand, there is probably none which is not marked by some flaw.”

+ −

Spec 125:782 D 11 ’20 850w

+

Springf’d Republican p7a N 28 ’20 720w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup O 14 ’20)

The Times [London] Lit Sup p654 O 7 ’20 90w

“They are true poetry. The volume may not add one to the list of great English sonnets; but the beauty and the sincerity of these claim attention.”

+

The Times [London] Lit Sup p664 O 14 ’20 720w

SPYRI, FRAU JOHANNA (HEUSSER). Cornelli; tr. by Elisabeth P. Stork. (Stories all children love ser.) il *$1.50 (3½c) Lippincott

20–17408

In his introduction to this story for children Charles Wharton Stork regrets that its author should be known for one of her books only, altho that one is the justly popular “Heidi.” In the present story, he thinks “we find a deeper treatment of character, combined with equal spirit and humor of a different kind.” It is the story of a happy-hearted little Swiss girl who is changed into a sullen, morose and unattractive child through the misunderstanding of two women in whose care her father leaves her. A woman of different type, the mother of a family of four, finds the secret of Cornelli’s unhappiness and brings back the old sunny disposition.

“There is a breath of the mountain freshness which suggests ‘Heidi.’ The translation of the children’s speeches into formal English gives them sometimes a rather stilted effect.”

+ −

Booklist 17:163 Ja ’21

SPYRI, FRAU JOHANNA (HEUSSER). Toni, the little wood-carver; tr. by Helen B. Dole. il *$1 (9c) Crowell

20–15071

From earliest childhood Toni had carved animals out of wood and his dearest ambition is to be a wood-carver. But the cost of instruction is beyond his mother’s means and he is sent up into the mountains to herd the farmer’s cows. Here, overcome by the loneliness, he breaks down and falls into a lethargy from which nothing arouses him. He is taken to a great sanitarium where he finally recovers and finds a good friend who provides the money for the desired training.

Wis Lib Bul 16:199 N ’20 90w

SQUIRE, JOHN COLLINGS (SOLOMON EAGLE, pseud.). Birds, and other poems. *$1.25 Doran 821

(Eng ed A20–244)

Birds, the first poem of this collection is based on the thought that the birds are older than man and that in the days of his infancy they built their nests in the self-same way and with the same perfection they do today. The other poems are: Processes of thought, Airship over suburb, Harlequin, Winter nightfall, Two songs, and A far place.

“‘The birds’ is an interesting poem full of felicitous things. But it seems somehow to lack intensity. The three poems called ‘Processes of thought’ are naturally more personal, more intimately felt; for they are a record of introspection. In these we seem to be getting nearer our ideal of what the lyric inspired by science or philosophy should be like.” A. L. H.

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Ath p783 Ag 22 ’19 1000w

“His nature minutæ, his tenderness, his color are Wordsworthian, with a drama, a music, a diamond-cut-diamond quality, as well as a quality of the noblest oratory, that the old bard never knew.”

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Bookm 52:367 D ’20 280w

“The poem after which the collection takes its name has a common idea but one which Mr Squire expresses with uncommon vigor and suggestion. The advantage of Mr Squire over the average American poet of similar gifts is his ability to express sentiment without sentimentalizing the mood.” W: S. Braithwaite

+ −

Boston Transcript p9 D 1 ’20 1500w

“The difficulty with his poetry, for there is a difficulty—lies in the unfortunate fact, that despite the obvious care he lavishes upon it, it is too lax, too impersonal. Like everyone else who has something new to say, Mr Squire has discovered that a new idea depends on a new form of utterance being found to fit it. It is only a pity that he has so few new ideas, and that he is content instead with writing poems in which neither the idea—nor the utterance—is of the slightest importance.” J: G. Fletcher

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Freeman 2:284 D 1 ’20 900w

“His head is clearer than his poetry is fine; he is sober, and he has a vein of reflection not wholly resembling other men’s, but the strength that he has displayed rather than implied, and his metaphors, of which he apparently is proud, are painfully overdeveloped.”

− +

Nation 112:86 Ja 19 ’21 80w

“The writing of verse is only one of Mr Squire’s innumerable activities, and yet he is a poet of no small talent. Unlike most of his brother Georgians, he is at his best when he is most metaphysical. At his best he is fantastically powerful; at his worst he is florid and bombastic. The present volume shows him more in the latter mood.”

+ −

N Y Evening Post p11 N 6 ’20 180w

“Mr Squire in his present volume has lost none of that quiet controlled distinction which was always his; but he seems to have got rid of the rather hard, metallic note which was noticeable in some of his former work. The most remarkable poem of the book is called ‘A far place.’ To us it seems one of the most original and absolutely successful and complete poems that Mr Squire has ever written.”

+

Spec 123:376 S 20 ’19 620w

“This little book is not merely a joy in itself and additional to what is now a considerable body of work, but extremely rich in promise.”

+

The Times [London] Lit Sup p409 Jl 31 ’19 980w

SQUIRE, JOHN COLLINGS (SOLOMON EAGLE, pseud.). Books in general. (2nd ser.) *$2.50 (3½c) Knopf 824

20–16289

This is the second series of short essays, reviews and squibs on books and writers, collected from weekly contributions to the New Statesman. They are brilliant, witty and full of originality. Some of the topics are: The descendants of Shakespeare; Scientific management for Pegasus; The inferior poems of Keats; One’s favourite author defined; Shelley’s letters; The essay in America; The humours of hymnology; Dialect in literature; Verhaeren; On submitting manuscripts; Rupert Brooke in retrospect.

Booklist 17:107 D ’20

“Even more interesting than technical success, in this sort of thing, is the quality of mind we see at work. Mr Squire has an admirable sanity.” K. F. Gerould

+

Bookm 52:263 N ’20 780w

“Mr Squire’s style is distinctly conversational. The fluent grace of such table-talk, however, neatly disposes of the adage that all men talk in prose.”

+

Dial 69:665 D ’20 70w

“Somehow the sense of leisure in ‘Books in general’ is not richly filled; the notations are too fluent, the writing lacks spring, and more often than not it lacks the effect of enjoyment. Scarcely one of his papers can be read without expectancy. But the promise is seldom fulfilled.” C. M. R.

−

Freeman 2:382 D 29 ’20 210w

“The comments on books, politics and things in general are thoughtful, amusing and suggestive, worth reading and thinking about.”

+

Ind 104:68 O 9 ’20 320w

“They are informative, witty, often merely playful. Critical acumen is shown at times, but more often the evident purpose of the papers is to amuse.”

+

N Y Times p10 O 8 ’20 550w

“Mr Squire mentions books and publications from this country only for the purpose of jeering at them; it is gently done, but still a jeer. ‘Books in general,’ however, includes such pleasing essays ... that most of us will forgive ‘Solomon Eagle’ for tweaking a feather or two of the American eagle’s tail.” E. L. Pearson

+ −

Review 3:229 S 15 ’20 180w

Reviewed by P. U. Kellogg

+

Survey 45:27 O 2 ’20 680w

STARLING, ERNEST HENRY. Feeding of nations. *$1.90 (*5s) Longmans 338.1

20–666

“This small book of one hundred forty-five pages contains a vast store of information concerning the principles of human nutrition and the application of these principles to the problem of feeding the community in times of peace and war.” (N Y Evening Post) “Dr Starling was chairman of the Food committee of the Royal society which took up the study of the problem of feeding the nation before the government realized that there was a problem, and afterwards scientific adviser to the ministry of food.” (Survey)

“An extremely able and attractive presentation of a difficult subject.”

+

N Y Evening Post p5 Mr 20 ’20 500w

+

Survey 43:656 F 28 ’20 1050w

STEARNS, HAROLD EDMUND. Liberalism in America: its origin, its temporary collapse, its future. *$1.75 (2½c) Boni & Liveright 321.8

20–1878

“The core of liberal philosophy” writes the author, “is respect for the individual and his freedom of conscience and opinion.” To trace the foundations of this philosophy in America and to account for its complete break-down during the war is the main purpose of this book. The ten chapter titles are: What liberalism is; The English heritage and the American development; American liberalism to the eve of the war; The emotional breakdown before warhysteria; Timidity and the seductions of office or career; President Wilson, the technique of liberal failure; Political symbolism and the mob; Débâcle of pragmatism; Leadership; The future. A bibliography of two pages follows. The author was formerly associate editor of the Dial.

“His plea for tolerance is marked by intolerance, for good-nature with ungenerosity in weighing the motives of others, for nonpartisanship and detachment with evident animus and one-sided advocacy rather than fairness and breadth of vision. Hence the value of the work as a critique of American liberalism is very seriously impaired for the general reader and the serious student.” C. E. Merriam

−

Am Pol Sci R 14:511 Ag ’20 520w

“While one cannot altogether agree with the conclusions of the author of this extremely readable exposition of liberalism, the arguments are in most cases clear, and fairly presented.”

+ −

Bookm 52:173 O ’20 200w

“But for all the flat contradictions with which the book seems to abound, it is interesting for the variety of subjects of current interest it touches notwithstanding the author does not seem to have completely assimilated these—as, indeed, who has? One thing that can be said about the book in general is that it is liberal.” W. A. M.

− +

Boston Transcript p6 F 25 ’20 800w

“Herein lies the fundamental weakness of the discussion. One gathers no clearly defined impression of what liberalism is or expects to do, and who are the liberals. Mr Stearns writes impassionately and with a refreshing verve that carries the reader headlong with him.”

+ −

Cath World 111:254 My ’20 340w

Ind 102:234 My 8 ’20 170w

“One inclines to a wish that the writer had brought to his task a little more sympathy, a little more humility, and a great deal more information, and the wish becomes very strong when one reaches his discussion of Mr Wilson. In a considered estimate by a liberal thinker one looks for a fair and balanced examination of causes and results. Mr Stearns simplifies the president’s problems so that any departmental clerk might have overcome them. He imputes low motives without the least apparent justification.” Jacob Zeitlin

−

Nation 110:238 F 21 ’20 850w

“The book is of great value. Its analysis of American tendencies is more balanced and inclusive than any contemporary work upon the subject.” C. W.

+

N Y Call p6 Ja 9 ’21 230w

Reviewed by W. J. Ghent

−

Review 2:229 Mr 6 ’20 1150w

R of Rs 61:336 Mr ’20 50w

“It is no engaging picture of our American war mind that Mr Stearns paints, and twenty months ago it would have been hotly resented by the great majority of our people. That the average man of intelligence is likely to find himself mainly in agreement with it now (although he may hesitate to admit the fact, even to himself) is the best evidence that the picture is essentially true.” F: A. Ogg

+

Survey 44:308 My 29 ’20 350w

“As a volume of broad discussions, enriched by much reflection on books and events, and by brilliant insight into motives, this book is a success. Yet as an ordered analysis of the basic problem of liberty the book fails, and its chief value will be lost unless it becomes the starting point of a much needed discussion.” G: Soule

+ −

Yale R n s 10:197 O ’20 500w

STEBBING, EDWARD PERCY. Diary of a sportsman naturalist in India. il *$5 Lane 799

20–22627

This diary is published with a purpose. The author says: “The sporting anecdotes and material selected from my note-books, which form the greater part of the book, are designed to lead up to and emphasize the necessity which exists of affording an adequate protection to the game and other animals of India.” (Preface) The book is in two parts: Sport in the big game jungles of India; and Game protection and the provision of sanctuaries for the preservation of the Indian fauna. There are illustrations from photographs and sketches by the author and others.

“He describes his experiences fairly graphically, although, after a few pages, we have too much confidence in his shooting to be seriously alarmed for him.”

+ −

Ath p473 O 8 ’20 260w

“There is a chapter on ‘Jungle lore,’ and several real tiger stories that outdo most of those common to fiction. All the photographs are very good, and the little pen and ink drawings, which are the productions of five different persons, while not equal to Mr Seton’s, carry their own individuality, and give new life to the already entertaining text.”

+

Boston Transcript p2 D 11 ’20 210w

“A most interesting collection of reminiscences. His tiger stories are capital.”

+

Spec 124:245 Ag 21 ’20 250w

“As a faithful account of conditions as they have been during the last quarter of a century, Mr Stebbing’s book is likely to have a definite and permanent value; and he knows well how to entertain as well as to instruct.”

+

The Times [London] Lit Sup p497 Ag 5 ’20 750w

STEELE, DAVID MCCONNELL. Papers and essays for churchmen; being a series of studies on topics made timely by current events. *$1.50 (2½c) Jacobs 204

20–1134

The only unity that the author claims for this collection of papers is that “they were all written to be read either to or by churchmen.” (Foreword) The author’s mental tenor is conservative and his thinking along the lines of his convictions is vigorous. He holds that the war has dispelled the mist of immoral emotionalism that had begun to envelop the churches, a form of this emotionalism being the literal interpretation of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” He repudiates woman’s suffrage as wholly bad, hurls anathema against labor organisations and socialism and advises that the poor, as the “economically sick,” are properly the charges, not of the church, but of the state. The contents are: Effect of the war on religion; Wanted, an American Sunday; Woman suffrage and religion; Men’s clubs and the churches; The poor, with you always; The church and labor agitation; Socialism—Christian and pagan; Revelation—final or progressive; The Episcopal church; Change of name of the church; Proportionate representation.