Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 4)
Reading edition
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Springf’d Republican p9a Jl 4 ’20 250w
“The writer is a true poet and this first volume not only has great promise for the author’s future development, but has great charm in the present.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 1 ’20 100w
BENSON, EDWARD FREDERIC. “Queen Lucia.” *$2 (1½c) Doran
20–15389
Riseholme was a strictly Elizabethan village, and “The Hurst,” the Lucas’s house, more Elizabethan than all the rest, was its social centre. Here Queen Lucia reigned. For ten years she had been the undisputed ruler when the smoldering rivalry between herself and her neighbor, Mrs Quantock, threatened open eruption. Not content with having set the town’s pace with her classic taste, Queen Lucia must also make herself the leader in each new fad discovered and introduced by Mrs Quantock. With the coming of the famous singer, Olga Bracely, as a resident of the town, all social observances, rules and precedents are knocked into a cocked hat and one by one the bubbles, in which Mrs Lucas saw her own greatness reflected, are pricked. She no longer rules and social oblivion threatens to engulf her when Olga, in large-hearted pity, executes a series of maneuvers which reinstate a humbler and wiser queen in something of her former position.
“The dismallest feature of all is that Mr Benson’s humour should have gone—not to the dogs, but to the cats.” K. M.
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Ath p241 Ag 20 ’20 700w
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Booklist 17:30 O ’20
“Fantastic in the extreme, Mr Benson’s latest novel may be accepted more as a light and airy fantasy than as a contribution to the study of English social manners. It is, in fact, a merry farce transferred from the lights of the stage to the printed pages of fiction and it bears further tribute to the ingenious qualities of Mr Benson’s humor.” E. F. E.
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 28 ’20 1150w
“A clever and amusing satire.”
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Cath World 112:549 Ja ’21 170w
“The book is lacking in what we are constantly told is necessary for a good novel. There is not much plot; there is no love interest; there is no climax. But it is long since one has seen such a masterly bit of satire, such a piece of character-study as Lucia.”
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Lit D p101 S 18 ’20 1400w
“The book is a great treat from beginning to end.” E. L. Pearson
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Review 3:249 S 22 ’20 480w
“Apart from its humor and comic sense of character, the narrative emphasizes Mr Benson’s versatility and his mature art.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a S 12 ’20 400w
“Taken as pure farce, ‘Queen Lucia’ is an altogether satisfying entertainment; full of humorous situations, sparkling with wholesome wit. The characters, too, are for the most part consistent and original. So very little restraint would have kept it within the limits of comedy and we do not feel that it gains in any way from the touches which incline to extravaganza.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p502 Ag 5 ’20 480w
BENSON, EDWARD FREDERIC. Robin Linnet. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
19–19852
The book shows us English society “snug and comfortable and stereotyped” in various aspects. First among the students and faculty of Cambridge where, in the former, the spirit of youth occasionally pierces through the stereotyped smugness doubly emphasized in the faculty. There we meet Robin Linnet, nicknamed “Birds,” a lovable boy, full of fun and horse-play with his chums, but fortified by a rare love and respect for his mother. The latter, Lady Grote—brilliant society woman, patroness of celebrities, shining center of an aristocratic coterie absorbed in “a fever of mere living, a determination to make the most of the present moment, whether bridge or scandal or games”—has for her saving quality her great and sane love for her son. The war-change that English society suffers, topples Lady Grote’s world over like a house of cards, when her son goes to France. She decides to superintend the Red cross hospital, into which her husband converts their country house, in person. When Robin is killed her spirit rises nobly to the occasion and what was a fill-gap and a duty now becomes a work of love.
“Full of bright and entertaining dialogue.”
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Ath p1138 O 31 ’19 120w
“Parts of the book are so slow moving that some readers may not care to finish it.”
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Booklist 16:242 Ap ’20
“The action moves cumbrously; too much time wasted in irrelevant talk by superfluous characters. This tries the reader’s patience, and makes negligible a book which might have been one of Mr Benson’s most successful efforts.”
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Cath World 111:539 Jl ’20 210w
“The concluding pages of the book are beautifully written and very moving, making the whole worth while. It is a book practically devoid of even a slight thread of plot, and it is very much too long.” L. M. Field
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N Y Times 25:1 F 29 ’20 1150w
N Y Times 25:190 Ap 18 ’20 70w
“Not Mr Benson’s best work in fiction. The whole [is] thrown together rather than thought out.”
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Outlook 124:479 Mr 17 ’20 70w
“The story is told with Mr Benson’s usual vivacity, but the conversion of Lady Grote is far less convincing than the elaborate and often acute analysis of her emotions in her unregenerate days.”
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Spec 124:179 F 7 ’20 500w
“The closing chapters are beautifully written. Mr Benson is deeply sympathetic without giving way to the strong temptation to be highly sentimental. The characters are excellently individualized.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a Ap 25 ’20 700w
“Has the same merits and weaknesses as Mr E. F. Benson’s previous novels.... Mr Benson, in fact, is almost entirely preoccupied with the superficial.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p629 N 6 ’19 460w
BENSON, STELLA. Living alone. *$1.75 Macmillan
20–2266
“This little book describes the adventures of Angela and the adventures of those with whom she comes in contact while she is caretaker of a small general shop which is also part convent and monastery, part nursing home and college, and wholly a house for those who wish to live alone. She is an out-and-out, thorough witch, a trifle defiant, poor, always hungry, intolerant of cleverness and—radiant.... We have said that ‘Living alone’ is a book about the war. There is an air raid described from below and from above, together with a frightful encounter which Harold has with a German broomstick, and one of the inmates of the house of ‘Living alone’ is Peony, a London girl who is drawing her weekly money as a soldier’s wife—unmarried. The story that Peony tells her fellow-lodger Sarah Brown of how she found the everlasting boy is perhaps the highwater mark of Miss Benson’s book.”—Ath
“We hardly dare to use the thumbmarked phrase, a ‘born writer’; but if it means anything Miss Stella Benson is one.” K. M.
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Ath p1187 N 14 ’19 440w
Booklist 16:203 Mr ’20
“Stella Benson possesses the rarest of attributes among writers—that of personality.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p4 My 5 ’20 950w
“The particular merit of ‘Living alone’ is that it is a fairy-tale for grown-ups, a piece of whimsical madness without rhyme or reason.” H. S. G.
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Freeman 1:406 Jl 7 ’20 200w
“No one but a poet could have written ‘Living alone.’ It is Barrie at moments; again it is Chesterton, that preposterously humorous Chesterton of the romances; and, after all, it is Stella Benson. It is a book for the lonely and it is a lesson for the self-conscious. Best of all, it can be read for the sake of the narrative by those who do not care to trouble themselves with allegory.”
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N Y Evening Post p2 My 1 ’20 720w
“It is a book to dally over and reflect on.”
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Sat R 129:70 Ja 17 ’20 100w
“There are many amusing sketches of people.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a My 16 ’20 330w
“It is a pity that mere manner should so have marred this new essay in beautiful nonsense. Beautiful is none too grand a word for ‘Living alone.’ The book teems with beautiful ideas, beautiful imaginings, best of all—beautiful feeling.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p586 O 23 ’19 550w
BERESFORD, JOHN DAVYS. Imperfect mother. *$2 (2c) Macmillan
20–8237
A story based on what the Freudians term the “mother complex.” Cecilia Kirkwood, a woman of dynamic personality, is married to a sombre little book-seller and is mother to three grown children. At forty-one she falls in love with the cathedral organist and leaves her family to go to London with him. Before taking the step she tells her story to her seventeen year old son thinking him the only one who will understand her. Stephen at this time is just beginning to fall in love with little Margaret Weatherly and his mother, hungry for admiration and sensitive to all shades of feeling toward herself, is conscious of the slight change in his attitude, and the one bond that might have held her to her home is broken. All thru his young manhood Stephen is influenced by the tie that binds him to his mother and all his relations with women, including his love for Margaret, are affected by it. With the dissolution of the conflict her spell over him is broken and he moves forward unhampered to business success and happy marriage.
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Booklist 16:346 Jl ’20
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Boston Transcript p8 Je 12 ’20 950w
“Reads like a case book on the ‘Oedipus complex.’ But in spite of the author’s effort to get everything right according to Freud it is not a bad story.”
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Ind 103:54 Jl 10 ’20 110w
“The story is woven with great delicacy and with unobtrusive skill and is remarkably interesting. Yet it is doubtful whether really great fiction would thrive on so much scientific awareness.” Ludwig Lewisohn
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Nation 111:74 Jl 17 ’20 750w
“‘An imperfect mother’ is certainly one of the best of the recent English novels. The author is secure in the consciousness of a ripe and finely developed art.” W. H. C.
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New Repub 24:52 S 8 ’20 900w
“It is all symmetrical enough. And yet it is all quite unconvincing. It is even uninteresting. Cecilia alone emerges—a splendid creature bursting through the murky moralities of stuffy Medboro.”
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N Y Times 25:264 My 23 ’20 700w
“It is an easy enough book to read; but there is nothing much to carry away from it, except the impression of an experienced chronicler rehandling his materials in the light of an ‘idea.’”
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Review 2:654 Je 23 ’20 650w
“Where it might be thought to fail, is in the too subtle characterisation of Celia; older hands would have broadened their touches. It is a fine piece of work.”
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Sat R 130:14 Jl 3 ’20 100w
“The merit of the book lies in the skill with which the conflict between Cecilia’s better instincts and her invincible egotism is drawn. Mr Beresford is an admirably self-effacing narrator.... Allowing for the improbabilities we have noted, this is an excellent and restrained study of an ‘a-moral’ type of womanhood.”
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Spec 124:697 My 22 ’20 560w
“Judged as an essay in morbid psychology, ‘An imperfect mother’ is an interesting document; judged as a novel, it is a failure.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p199 Mr 25 ’20 850w
BERGER, MAURICE. Germany after the armistice. *$3.50 (5c) Putnam 914.3
20–9640
“A report, based on the personal testimony of representative Germans, concerning the conditions existing in 1919.” (Sub-title) The author of this book, which is translated from the French, with an introduction, by William L. McPherson, was a lieutenant of the Belgian army. He went to Berlin after the signing of the armistice to engage in a series of personal interviews with men of prominence in diplomacy, the army, industry, finance, politics, journalism, the arts and sciences. These interviews are here published in full and contain such names as: Brockdorff-Rantzau; Prince Lichnowsky; General Kluck; Karl Helfferich; Hugo Haase; Karl Kautsky; Theodor Wolff; Maximilian Harden; Hermann Sudermann, and many others. In his conclusions the author treats of: Germany and the war; Germany and the atrocities; The Kaiser—militarism—bolshevism; Public spirit—the government; Germany and the society of nations; The new Germany. The book also contains a preface by Baron Beyens, former Belgian minister in Berlin, and has an index.
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Booklist 16:339 Jl ’20
“A full revelation is this volume of the true inwardness of the German character.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ag 4 ’20 500w
“The interviewer writes with the violent prejudice of an enemy who still fears his defeated foe. But many of the conversations are of peculiar interest none the less. Especially valuable, perhaps, are the statements of Kautsky and other Socialists; also the account of the shameless murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.” H: W. Nevinson
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Freeman 1:404 Jl 7 ’20 280w
“No better account has appeared of the individuals who are directing the destinies of the young republic.”
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Ind 104:67 O 9 ’20 30w
“Lieutenant Berger draws with bold strokes the portraits of the men he met—they stand out with lifelike distinctiveness. His style is simple and vivacious and his subject matter is engrossing.”
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N Y Times 25:10 Jl 18 ’20 1300w
R of Rs 62:112 Jl ’20 40w
“There is a tone of sincere frankness in the interviews which carries weight. Lieutenant Berger is evidently a man of tact and discernment; he refused to enter upon useless discussion, but he was able to guide the conversation so skilfully as to secure for his superiors the desired information.” C: Seymour
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Yale R n s 10:419 Ja ’21 310w
BERGSON, HENRI LOUIS. Mind-energy. *$2.50 (3c) Holt 194
20–15087
This collection of lectures and essays, translated from the French by H. Wildon Carr, is not only an authorized translation, says the translator, but has been carefully supervised by M. Bergson himself, as to details of meaning and expression, in order to give it the same authority as the original French. The lectures are partly in exposition of philosophical theory, partly detailed psychological investigation and metaphysical research illustrative of their author’s concept of reality as a fundamentally spiritual activity. Contents: Life and consciousness; The soul and the body; “Phantasms of the living” and psychical research; Dreams; Memory of the present and false recognition; Intellectual effort; Brain and thought; a philosophical illusion; Index.
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Booklist 17:137 Ja ’21
“Bergson is brilliant, and he is in close touch with the life of men. He is always worth reading for his intellectual strength and his insight into things spiritual. In this book Bergson is found at his best.” F. W. C.
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Boston Transcript p4 S 22 ’20 1050w
“The present volume is valuable for students of Bergson just because its confident reaffirmations proclaim that, in the author’s judgment, his theories have stood the test of time. Hence this is a good opportunity for attempting a total estimate of Bergson’s work and a sorting out of what is likely to live from what is likely to die.” R. F. A. Hoernle
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N Y Evening Post p6 Ja 15 ’21 850w
“The student who lacks either the time or the training to study Mr Bergson’s larger and more difficult work will find in this volume of essays clues not difficult to understand and profitable to follow.”
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Outlook 126:767 D 29 ’20 300w
“The essays before us, though diversely prompted, all converge towards one centre, which is revealed by the title of the book. At the end they leave the feeling that he has been pursuing the same subject all the time. The tenacity with which he applies his principles is certainly to be noted in a thinker who suggests such a flexible, almost elusive, view of reality. There is a fascinating essay about ‘false recognition.’”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p715 N 4 ’20 800w
BERNSTORFF, JOHANN HEINRICH ANDREAS HERMANN ALBRECHT, graf von. My three years in America. *$5 Scribner 940.32
20–11505
“As a pendant to Mr Gerard’s reminiscences of the American embassy in Berlin during the war, Count Bernstorff’s account of his work as German ambassador at Washington is of some historic interest. He is mainly concerned to defend himself and to put all the blame for the quarrel with America on the Berlin foreign office and on the military chiefs. He denies, of course, that he had anything to do with the campaign of bomb outrages which German-Americans, assisted by Irish-Americans, waged against American and Canadian factories and allied shipping. He records the profound horror and indignation caused by the torpedoing of the Lusitania, but disclaims all previous knowledge of that foul deed.”—Spec
“For the historian and student of the war Count von Bernstorff’s book has undoubted value. The excellence of the translation may be due in part to the style of Count von Bernstorff; for, unlike many German writers, he does not hide his thought behind dense and complicated entanglements of language, but sets it forth in clear, short, crisp sentences.” E. E. Sperry
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Am Hist R 26:99 O ’20 1100w
“There are many curious statements in the book, some of which no sophisticated reader will believe without confirmation. At any rate students of political science will find many things in this volume to provoke dissent, and some also that will meet with hearty concurrence.”
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Am Pol Sci R 14:736 N ’20 250w
“The book is interesting and has a certain historical value.”
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Ath p11 Jl 2 ’20 580w
“The tone is reasonable and conciliatory, the logic sometimes too smooth.”
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Booklist 17:23 O ’20
“Throughout the narrative Count Bernstorff is wonderfully frank. Whether this frankness arises from an honest openness of mind or from an utter absence of ability to realize his own obliquity is a question for each reader to solve for himself.” E. J. C.
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 10 ’20 900w
“Count Bernstorff himself is not a thinker like Norman Angell and Bertrand Russell, but he is intelligent to a high degree, exact, fearless, without cheap pride, living in a much more real atmosphere than most of the German war statesmen. He has the prime advantage, for a time of such complexity, of having a good mind that functions without interference from his prejudices or his passions.” Norman Hapgood
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Nation 111:132 Jl 31 ’20 1750w
“The story is told coolly and without any sign of prejudice, except for an occasional slurring reference to Colonel Roosevelt or Ambassador Gerard. The narrator analyzes his characters in an objective sort of way, unmoved by anger or enthusiasm, except for one exclamation of admiration for Colonel House; he dissects, he does not eulogize or condemn.” C. W. Thompson
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N Y Times 25:3 Jl 4 ’20 2150w
“This book, as a real contribution to history, will assuredly take its place alongside volumes of such permanent value as Viscount Haldane’s, General von Falkenhayn’s, and Count Czernin’s. Indeed, in none of these is there sharper, more illuminative, and more cynical observation both of men and events.”
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Outlook 126:690 D 15 ’20 250w
Review 3:710 Jl 7 ’20 360w
“It would be a serious mistake to consider his ‘plaidoyer’ as dispassionate history. It is a further and exceedingly interesting addition to that large library of self-justification now appearing in Germany. It differs from other volumes only on a point of good taste.” Christian Gauss
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Review 3:190 S 1 ’20 1200w
“The reader into whose hands it may come will not fail to find its chapters exceedingly interesting, as they review familiar episodes from what to Americans is an unfamiliar standpoint.”
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R of Rs 62:221 Ag ’20 240w
“We think that all the great actors in the German tragedy, military, political and diplomatic, have now told their story, except the ex-Kaiser. Count Bernstorff’s is certainly the best of these ‘pieces justificatives,’ for it shows that the writer’s judgment was better than that of his masters, and his style is temperate and logical.”
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Sat R 129:542 Je 12 ’20 900w
Spec 124:799 Je 12 ’20 430w
“His attempt to gauge American character is on the whole happy. Even those who differ with him will find it difficult to disprove his findings. There is no rancor in his judgments. There is no attempt to add piquancy to the narrative by gossip.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 9 ’20 280w
BERRIMAN, ALGERNON E., and others. Industrial administration. (Manchester univ. publications) il *$2.40 Longmans 331
20–9654
“The lectures published in this volume were delivered in the department of industrial administration in the College of technology, Manchester, during the session 1918–19, by various well-known authorities on subjects relating to industrial administration.” (Nature) “Contents: Social obligations of industry to labour, by B. S. Rowntree; The applications of psychology to industry, by T. H. Pear; Education as a function of management, by A. E. Berriman; Occupational diseases, by T. M. Legge; Atmospheric conditions and efficiency, by L. Hill; Industrial councils and their possibilities, by T. B. Johnston; Training for factory administration, by St G. Heath; Industrial fatigue, by A. F. S. Kent.” (Am Econ R)
Am Econ R 10:840 D ’20 50w
Ath p814 Je 18 ’20 60w
Nature 106:74 S 16 ’20 620w
BETTER letters; a little book of suggestions and information about business correspondence. $1 Herbert S. Browne, 608 S. Dearborn st., Chicago 658
20–3557
“This little book has been compiled for the average person in business, whether executive or stenographer, who wants a statement in simple and direct form of the elementary things that are essential to good letters. It is a first-aid manual of style for business correspondence, suitable for adoption by any commercial concern, large or small.” (Introd.) Contents of part 1—The letter itself: Appearance; Substance; Phraseology; Punctuation; Paragraphing; Abbreviations; Miscellaneous. Contents of part 2—Words, right and wrong; Some misused words; Verbal vulgarisms; Similar words often confused; Pronouns: their use and abuse; Miscellaneous.
Booklist 17:17 O ’20
BIERSTADT, EDWARD HALE, ed. Three plays of the Argentine; tr. from the Spanish by Jacob S. Fassett, jr. *$1.75 Duffield 862
20–4775
In his introduction to these plays Mr Bierstadt has given us a glimpse of the culture of one of our American neighbors to the South, of whom we have hitherto known too little. His historical sketch of the folk drama of the Argentine, known as the drama criollo, shows it to have sprung from the very heart of the people, the gaucho, and to have had its inception in the sawdust ring of the circus. As given in the translation, the plays are transcriptions from the original popular and unprinted versions and although modified, have retained their true atmospheric and colorful qualities. Of the two first Mr Bierstadt says: “They are perhaps the most famous in all the category of gaucho plays, and carry as do no others the very spirit of the pampas.” These are “Juan Moreira” and “Santos Vega.” The third, “The witches’ mountain,” is not in the same sense a gaucho play, as it is set in the mountain country, but is considered as marking the last milestone in the epoch of truly native drama.
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Booklist 16:336 Jl ’20
“‘The witches’ mountain’ is the only one of the three plays included that conforms to the canons of real drama.”
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Dial 59:664 D ’20 80w
“The second, while sufficiently crude and violent, has elements of great beauty. The third, The witches’ mountain, is a really magnificent piece, both in conception and construction.”
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Freeman 1:214 My 12 ’20 400w
“When we come to the actual texture of the ‘dramas criollos’ the impression is one of slight disappointment. The figure of the wandering ‘gaucho’ and minstrel is romantic rather than naive. Speech and verse, at least in their translated forms, present a curious mixture of the sentimental and the artificial. In The witches’ mountain there is high and concentrated dramatic passion. But this play is obviously the least primitive of the three.”
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Nation 110:693 My 22 ’20 260w
“These plays have a freshness and vigor of spaces our Wild West scenarios somehow lack. There are the same conventional gestures, the same corroborated sentiment from which any informing fire has gone out. But at least these are reminiscent of authentic instead of manufactured emotion.” Lola Ridge
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New Repub 25:236 Ja 19 ’21 660w
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Review 2:605 Je 5 ’20 240w
“However primitive the plays, they possess what our American drama strives in vain to discover, the soul of their native land.... The witches’ mountain is doubtless the most actable, and the most easily understood by an American audience.” D. Grafly
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Springf’d Republican p13a Ap 25 ’20 600w
“If these plays seem immature rather than naive; crude, rather than in the spirit of the folk; if Mr Bierstadt seems to have mistaken the drama inherent in the life and character of the ‘gaucho’ for drama in the plays that represent him, there is still nothing but gratitude due him for introducing the ‘gaucho’ to our unromantic world.”
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Theatre Arts Magazine 4:256 Jl ’20 380w
BIGELOW, MELVILLE MADISON. Papers on the legal history of government; difficulties fundamental and artificial. *$2 (4½c) Little 320.1
20–4206
The author warns against making a fetish of history and points out the difficulty in the way of its infallibility as a teacher. The number and complexity of the facts, in part hidden, in part incomprehensible, impede correct judgment. Besides, latent energies may at any time spring into action to change men’s reactions to given facts. On the other hand there is a certain fundamental principle on which society rests and which serves as constant in the interpretation of history. It is the object of the book to study the past, to give assurance of the principle and then to see how men have acted and are acting in its presence. Contents: Unity in government; The family in English history: an inquiry; Medieval English sovereignty; The old jury; Becket and the law; Index.
Am Pol Sci R 14:738 N ’20 50w
Booklist 17:10 O ’20
Boston Transcript p6 Ap 28 ’20 220w
BINDLOSS, HAROLD.[2] Lister’s great adventure (Eng title, Head of the house). il *$2 (2c) Stokes
George Lister, a young Canadian engineer, has his pluck and natural ability rather than a defective scientific training to thank for a moderate success. His self-reliance scorns the help of friends. He rescues a young girl, Barbara Hyslop, from an amorous crook who has induced her to run away with him. Later he is instrumental in returning the girl to the bosom of her family. Having lost his job he resolves to see something of the world and goes to England, and while there undertakes to raise a wreck off the African coast for Barbara’s step-father. After heroic efforts he succeeds but succumbs to the fever-ridden locality. Barbara, who from conscientious scruples over her romantic exploit, had refused his love, now calls him back to health with the gift of it.
“The heroine and the various members of her family have more individuality than is usual in this class of literature.”
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Ath p523 O 15 ’20 80w
“There are no improbabilities and no excesses of sentimentality, the style is simple and effective, and the pace is brisk and unwavering.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p621 S 23 ’20 90w
BINDLOSS, HAROLD. Wilderness mine. il *$1.90 (1½c) Stokes
20–14600
This story is divided into three distinct parts, the first and third of which take place in England, and the second in Canada. Creighton and Stayward are partners in business until Creighton, driven on by his wife’s extravagances and his daughter’s need of an education, misappropriates some of the funds and Stayward dissolves the partnership. Creighton disappears and his wife spreads stories about Stayward’s cruelty and dishonesty to her husband. The Canadian part of the story has to do with Geoffrey Lisle, Stayward’s nephew, who is managing a mine there, and who comes in contact with Tom Carson, cook and chemist, who helps him defeat the rival mining company he is working against. Upon his return to England at his uncle’s death, Geoffrey again meets the girl who has been in his thoughts ever since he left England, to discover that she is Ruth Creighton, and theoretically his enemy. The timely discovery of who Tom Carson really was helps him to win the girl and to clear his uncle’s name in her eyes.
Booklist 17:70 N ’20
“His latest effort is a far more polished production than some of those that have gone before it. As it is not the best kind of romance, quite naturally it is not the best kind of adventure, but it serves very well for an hour or so’s amusement, and lovers of Mr Bindloss will find in this tale all the ingredients of his other efforts.”
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Boston Transcript p8 S 15 ’20 350w
“Mr Bindloss is one of those writers (all too few) who handle the adventure story without stressing the adventures to the disadvantage of all the other parts of the story. In other words, his characterization is always clear and distinct and worked up with some elaboration, and he has a quick eye at the description of natural scenery.”
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N Y Times p27 Ag 22 ’20 370w
“The Canadian part of the book is much the best.”
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Outlook 126:378 O 27 ’20 40w
BINDLOSS, HAROLD. Wyndham’s pal. *$1.75 (2c) Stokes
19–16148
Harry Wyndham having inherited from his forefathers an old business enterprise of somewhat doubtful credit, along with a romantic, restless, daring temperament, sets out on a trading adventure in the wild lagoons, mandrake swamps, fever atmosphere, and mysterious dangers of the Caribbean coast. There is a girl back home in England, for whose sake he wishes to return wealthy and successful. He achieves his purpose, although in order to do it he has to deal with a dangerous, sinister, mysterious creature called the Bat, and has to compromise his honesty and honor. Found out by his bride and business partner he seriously undertakes reparation and re-establishes his own self-respect, as well as the respect of others.
“Men, and boys in their teens, will like this story.”
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Booklist 16:242 Ap ’20
“Without being particularly exciting or particularly vivid, it holds the reader’s attention.”
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N Y Times 25:120 Mr 14 ’20 380w
Outlook 124:479 Mr 17 ’20 50w
“To an astonishing degree, he maintains his average. And his average is good.” H. Dick
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Pub W 97:604 F 21 ’20 280w
“We have read better stories by this author.”
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Sat R 128:422 N 1 ’19 60w
“The story is rather better than many of the author’s recent books, and his readers will find considerable entertainment in its pages.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 7 ’20 300w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p502 S 18 ’19 100w
BINNS, OTTWELL. Mating in the wilds. (Borzoi western stories). *$2 (2c) Knopf
20–15961
Hubert Stane, who has served a prison sentence on a false charge, is in the north woods. Here he meets Gerald Ainley, the man who was responsible for his sentence. Ainley apparently stands high in the estimation of Hudson Bay company officials and is a suitor for the hand of Helen Yardely, a beautiful English girl who is making a tour of the posts with her uncle. Helen is lost in the woods. Stane finds her and fate forces the two to spend long months of exile together. Helen takes naturally to primitive life and when Stane’s name is cleared the two are married at an English mission and continue their wilderness life.
“An exciting tale told with literary excellence beyond the average of adventure stories.”
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N Y Times p25 Ag 29 ’20 550w
“It is all admirably and romantically told. Though we know the tale of old, it is still alive when the right chronicler takes it up; and Mr Binns never for a moment lets it flag.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p126 F 19 ’20 200w
BIRDSEYE, CLARENCE FRANK. American democracy versus Prussian Marxism. *$2.50 Revell 335
20–4906
“Clarence F. Birdseye, in a volume entitled ‘American democracy versus Prussian Marxism,’ presents what he calls ‘a study in the nature and results of purposive or beneficial government,’ his object being to warn his fellow-citizens of the great danger threatening the American form of government through the attacks that are being made upon it by Marxian socialists. In order to make clear the danger is real, and not fanciful, Mr Birdseye analyzes both governmental forms and shows conclusively that no tolerance of the Marxian idea can be permitted in this country without damage to American institutions and ideals.”—N Y Times
“In this compact little volume, rich in well selected facts and information throughout, the author has performed a useful service.” W. B. Guthrie
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Am Pol Sci R 14:510 Ag ’20 420w
N Y Times p31 S 5 ’20 90w
R of Rs 61:560 My ’20 50w
BIRNBAUM, MARTIN. Introductions; painters, sculptors and graphic artists. il *$5 Sherman, F: Fairchild 704
20–2849
“Papers by an American critic on Beardsley, Conder, C. H. Shannon, C. Ricketts, Pakst, Dulac, Alfred Stevens, John Flaxman, and some younger American artists—Maurice Sterne, Paul Manship (sculptor), Alfred Sterner (painter, lithographer, etc.), Robert Blum (illustrator, decorator, pastellist), Edie Nadeloman (Polish sculptor), Kay Nielsen, the Danish water-colourist, Jules Pascrin, the Austrian satiric artist.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“The Aubrey Beardsley and Conder introductions may be taken as the perfect models for this form of art. Mr Birnbaum, himself, never quite arose to the same plane of detachment in his later writings. The citations, though brilliant, become too incessant and the authorities parading through the pages scarcely give each other elbow room. The feats of memory displayed are prodigious, comparable to those of Mr Huneker. In fact, stylistically, there is more than a suspicion that Mr Birnbaum is Mr Huneker’s child.” H: McBride
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Dial 68:371 Mr ’20 1850w
“To be graceful, informing, and readily understood was the problem. The author has solved it with sure literary tact and offers as well a fine criticism which was not in the bond.”
+
Review 2:184 F 21 ’20 350w
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Springf’d Republican p8 S 10 ’20 580w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p304 My 13 ’20 50w
BIRRELL, AUGUSTINE. Frederick Locker-Lampson. il *$8 Scribner
(Eng ed 20–14702)
“A kinship of spirit as well as relationship by marriage bound Mr Birrell and Locker-Lampson, and in every page of his character sketch, he reveals a sympathy that is both personal and professional. Few books are both more and less a biography than this. It is merely a series of impressions and appreciations. Less than half its opening pages contain the biographical matter, and then follow some fifty pages of letters from eminent literary men—including Thackeray, Dickens, Tennyson, Holmes, Ruskin, Hardy and Stevenson—which reveal the esteem in which Locker-Lampson was held by his contemporaries. The other material which completes the volume includes six letters written by him to his son at Eton, some family bookplates, bibliographical notes on the books in the famous Rowfant library, and a brief account of the Rowfant library at Cleveland, with a list of its publications.”—Boston Transcript
“Mr Birrell’s biography reads so queerly because it brings before us a real human being. It is not that he is more profound than others, or that he has a story to tell to which we cannot fail to listen. It is that the values of life are quite different from those of biography. There is such a thing as living. One of the chief merits of Mr Birrell’s method, which is a peculiar compound of wit and sanity, is that it reduces these nineteenth-century phantoms to human scale.” V. W.
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Ath p201 Ag 13 ’20 1300w
“It has been a long time since ‘London lyrics’ first appeared, but none the less this intimate and accurate character sketch of their author has a genuine interest and value.” H: L. West
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Bookm 52:73 S ’20 450w
“A gentle and a genial tribute, it may well be said, is this volume to the personality, the achievements and the memory of a rare being.” E. F. E.
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Boston Transcript p6 Je 30 ’20 1250w
“As a piece of book-making, the offering is admirable; as a book—! But Mr Birrell is a devoted chronicler and if, from these impeccable pages, his placid father-in-law emerges an even less interesting figure than he seemed before one’s perusal of his memorial, the meticulous chronicler himself can not escape scot-free.” L: Untermeyer
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Freeman 2:163 O 27 ’20 750w
“Hitherto the best analysis of Locker’s work was to be found in the sympathetic study prepared by Austin Dobson in 1904. Mr Birrell’s sketch is ampler than Mr Dobson’s and it is also more discursive. It abounds in playful digressions and in pleasant irrelevancies.” Brander Matthews
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N Y Times 25:14 Jl 11 ’20 2300w
“His sketch is somewhat discursive and casual, containing more background than definite statements, but it includes some agreeable Birrelling.”
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Sat R 129:588 Je 26 ’20 1000w
“Nowhere has he gossiped more charmingly; and if he cannot resist an occasional divagation from his main topic, his obiter dicta are as pleasant as ever.”
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Spec 124:82 Jl 17 ’20 1500w
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Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 18 ’20 650w
“In reading this book, and noticing how Mr Birrell is always sliding away from his subject to talk about himself, or about somebody or something other than Frederick Locker, you ask why he chose ‘Frederick Locker-Lampson: a character sketch’ for the title of a book that might just as properly have been called ‘Scraps,’ or ‘Chips,’ or ‘Jottings.’ In the end nevertheless, you feel that you have been unfair. Mr Birrell, in his odd, slipshod way, is a man of letters—at least a man who delights in letters; and he gives you a faint character sketch of Frederick Locker-Lampson.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p381 Je 17 ’20 1500w
BISHOP, CARLTON THOMAS.[2] Structural drafting and the design of details. il *$5 Wiley 744
20–4714
“The author was formerly chief draftsman to one of the largest bridge companies, and is now a professor at Yale university. Part 1 covers comprehensively the duties of the draftsman and what he should know in a general way about organization of plant and office, as well as a survey of the manufacture and fabrication of structural steel. Part 2 tells in detail about the technique of drawing, with special chapters devoted to beams, girders, trusses, bracing systems, bills, checking, etc. Part 3 deals closely with the theory and practice of designing different types of construction members.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
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Booklist 17:102 D ’20
“To the student or inexperienced draftsman the book is invaluable. The experienced draftsman can hardly fail to add to his efficiency by reading it. The typography of the book is all that needs be desired. This, with the general excellence of the contents, will make it a standard in the field of structural drafting for some time to come.”
+
Engin News-Rec 84:1215 Je 17 ’20 1150w
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Iron Age 105:1293 Ap 29 ’20 160w
Mining & Scientific Press 121:33 Jl 3 ’20 110w
“On the whole we are inclined to name this the best book on the subject.”
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N Y P L New Tech Bks p27 Ap ’20 170w
Pratt p16 O ’20 20w
BISHOP, ERNEST SIMONS. Narcotic drug problem. *$1.50 Macmillan 613.8
20–1614
“‘It is becoming apparent that in spite of all the work which has been done there has been practically no change in the general situation, and there has been no solution of the drug problem.’ This is the conclusion of Dr Ernest S. Bishop, clinical professor of medicine in the New York polyclinic medical school. Two outstanding elements appear to Dr Bishop to have received insufficient consideration in the efforts to solve the narcotic drug problem. One of these elements is the suffering of the addict: the other is the nature of the physical disease with which he is afflicted. Dr Bishop asserts that the exploitation of human weakness and suffering would be checked on any large scale, if the disease created by continued administration of opiates were recognized and its physical demands comprehended and provided for in legitimate and relatively unobjectionable ways.... Dr Bishop also recommends the establishment under proper supervision and management of stations or clinics at which those who for financial or other reasons are unable to secure honest medical help, may obtain their necessary opiate at minimum expense without ‘resorting to underworld associations and illicit commerce.’”—Springf’d Republican
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Cleveland p74 Ag ’20 50w
“Occasionally, very occasionally, one finds a book upon a somewhat technical subject which is not merely readable and informative, but actually liberating. Such a book is Dr Bishop’s discourse on the narcotic drug problem.”
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No Am 211:428 Mr ’20 850w
Review 3:112 Ag 4 ’20 130w
“A criticism of the book might well be directed against its redundancy. Nor does it appear just what type of audience he had in mind when inditing his message. Obviously it is not intended for the narcotic drug addict. If addressed to the physician, it is incomplete and fragmentary. If meant for the layman only casually interested in the problem, the message should have had greater emotional appeal.” H. E. K.
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Social Hygiene 6:586 O ’20 480w
“Dr Bishop’s study of the situation is scientific, thorough and humane. It will authoritatively inform the public regarding a subject on which enlightenment is needed.
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Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 29 ’20 800w
“The real problems of the narcotic drug situation are related to the origin and prevention of heroin and cocaine addictions and the treatment and after-care of those so addicted. This book avoids these questions and is sterile of information on these essential points of the narcotic drug problem.” Medicus
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Survey 44:253 My 15 ’20 450w
BISHOP, H. C. W. Kut prisoner. (On active service ser.) il *$1.50 (3c) Lane 940.47
20–5240
The author, a subaltern of the Indian army reserve of officers, gives an account of prison life at Kastamuni in Asia Minor, and of his escape in company with three other officers, their recapture, and rescue by Turkish brigands and their voyage across the Black sea in a small boat, to the Russian border and freedom. Contents: Ctesiphon; Kut; From Kut to Kastamuni; Life in Kastamuni; Escape from Kastamuni; The first night; On the hills; Slow progress; Bluffing the peasants; Reaching the coast; Recaptured; Rescued; In hiding with the Turks; Continued delays; Three days on the Black sea; The Crimea and home; Friends in captivity. There are maps, illustrations and appendices.
“The book is interesting.”
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Ath p386 Mr 19 ’20 30w
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Boston Transcript p8 S 15 ’20 250w
“Mr Bishop describes his adventures simply and clearly, and his book is worth reading.”
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Spec 124:216 F 14 ’20 70w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p90 F 5 ’20 60w
BISHOP, JOSEPH BUCKLIN. Theodore Roosevelt and his time shown in his own letters. 2v il *$10 Scribner
20–17013
“Seven years ago, when Theodore Roosevelt published his ‘Autobiography,’ he prefixed to it a foreword, which began with this sentence. ‘Naturally, there are chapters of my autobiography which cannot now be written.’ Yet he had written from day to day, on the spur of the moment, in his frank letters to one or another of his multitude of friends, the very passages which he could not give to the public while he was still in the thick of the fight. And it is these passages which enliven and illuminate the two volumes which Mr Bishop has now selected and set in order, and explained and annotated. The work was begun while Roosevelt still lived; it had his complete approval; parts of it were read to him and amplified from his recollections.”—N Y Times
“The biography which will be most worth while to libraries.”
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Booklist 17:68 N ’20
“One of the most notable works of the season is Joseph Bucklin Bishop’s ‘Theodore Roosevelt.’” Margaret Ashmun
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Bookm 52:345 D ’20 140w
“With perfect taste and judgment Mr Bishop has stood aside and allowed the story to be told through Roosevelt’s letters. He has made an excellent book, important, always readable and often extremely amusing. With the ‘Autobiography’ and Mr Thayer’s book, the present work, ‘Theodore Roosevelt and his time’ is one of the three indispensable books on this subject. With Mr Huneker’s ‘Steeplejack,’ it is one of the two best American biographies of this year.” E. L. Pearson
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Boston Transcript p5 O 23 ’20 2750w
“It is a work of notable artistic merit. Perhaps fifty years hence it may generally be conceded that this book preserves what is important in ‘the true Theodore Roosevelt’s’ character. At present one cannot help feeling that Mr Bishop’s figure of rugged integrity, unerring rectitude, and loftiest patriotism has been shorn of some of its beams.” S. P. Sherman
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Nation 112:18 Ja 5 ’21 2500w
“A difficult task has been accomplished triumphantly, and the result is a portrait of Roosevelt by himself, set in an editorial frame which is artistically unobstructive. Mr Bishop has given us a work which does for one president of the United States what was done for an earlier president by the publication of Grant’s ‘Personal memoirs.’ And neither of these great men would object to the comparison.” Brander Matthews
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N Y Times p4 O 3 ’20 2300w
“There are a few little errors, nothing of consequence. But the book is undoubtedly partisan; which does not prevent it from being a thoroughly good and complete biography.” C: W. Thompson
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N Y Times p5 O 3 ’20 3450w
“It is a work after Roosevelt’s own heart, the sort of record that he himself would have endorsed just as it stands, showing him in the full strength and weakness of his very human quality.” F: T. Cooper
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Pub W 98:1196 O 16 ’20 480w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+
Review 3:314 O 13 ’20 340w
“These two volumes, as they stand, will serve not only for the present time but for future generations.”
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R of Rs 62:669 D ’20 280w
“Mr Bishop has succeeded in giving us two volumes of great value and readability.”
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Wis Lib Bul 16:236 D ’20 110w (Reprinted from Atlantic D ’20)
BISHOP, LOUIS FAUGÈRES. Heart troubles; their prevention and relief. il *$3.50 Funk 616.1
20–13070
A book written in popular style and addressed to the layman. The author believes that a patient is entitled to the full confidence of his physician and thinks that in heart disease “the educated patient can help more when wisely advised than in almost any other form of disease.” The book is in two parts: Physiological and symptomatic, and Therapeutic. The final chapter is devoted to Nursing in heart troubles. The book is illustrated and indexed and there is a one-page list of collateral reading. The author is professor of the heart and circulatory diseases, Fordham university, New York city.
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Cath World 112:410 D ’20 90w
“The immediate effect of this sane and sensible work should be a wider dissemination of modern knowledge of the heart, its affections and their treatment; the ultimate result should be a reduction in the alarming death rate from heart disease in the United States.” V. B. Thorne
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N Y Times p17 Ag 29 ’20 3000w
“A ‘doctor book’ of an unusual sort and one which will be found of great interest and of much practical value.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 2 ’20 130w
BISPHAM, DAVID SCULL. Quaker singer’s recollections. il *$4 Macmillan
20–1629
“For thirty years and more David Bispham has been prominent, here and abroad, as a baritone of note, a singing actor, and an advocate of the use of English speech in opera. In these recollections he has packed into one volume the record of a long and busy life—a life of many strange and varied experiences. Unlike most men who have their hour in opera, he has had his in society. He has traveled far and wide, and mixed with people who were worth knowing and far-famed in many ways. To this it may be added, unreservedly, that he has more than an instinctive turn for setting down, in plain but vivid words, what he would tell.”—Review
Booklist 16:241 Ap ’20
“The style, unfortunately, is plainly that of a singer, and wavers continually between the exclamatory and the sentimental.”
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Dial 68:402 Mr ’20 90w
“While Mr Bispham’s book may appeal primarily to singers and students of singing, it is none the less a valuable text book for students of the drama.”
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Drama 10:356 Jl ’20 140w
“It is an interesting volume full of the writer’s personality written with more literary skill and taste than many such books, giving many sidelights on the musical life of the period of which it treats.” R: Aldrich
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N Y Times 25:6 F 29 ’20 2150w
“If we were disappointed in David Bispham’s ‘A Quaker singer’s recollections,’ it was not because of lack of thoroughness, but because that delightful singer’s fund of anecdote has not been used to advantage.”
+ −
N Y Times 25:192 Ap 18 ’20 80w
“A singer who can write with ease and style is rarer than that rare bird, the black swan. One artist of the kind is David Bispham.” C: H: Meltzer
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Review 2:289 Mr 20 ’20 950w
R of Rs 61:333 Mr ’20 100w
“An excellent volume of reminiscences.”
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Spec 124:694 My 22 ’20 780w
“He has perhaps not grasped the first bitter truth to be learned by an author that of all the countless incidents which his own mind makes picturesque in retrospect only those are interesting which he can make picturesque to others. The bald stretches, however, are only occasional.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p233 Ap 15 ’20 850w
BISS, GERALD. Door of the unreal. *$2 (3c) Putnam
20–19179
Strange disappearances are common in fact and in fiction, sometimes involving equally strange explanations, but surely in either realm, nothing could rival the solution of the mystery of this story. Of the four people who completely vanish from a well-traveled English road about midnight of a moonlight night, the only one who is ever seen again is Tony Ballingdon, and he is found unconscious and bruised in a nearby wood. Lincoln Osgood, an American who happens to be on the scene, makes a study of the case and soon forms a theory which proves to be the correct one, altho so weird and uncanny is it that he himself can hardly credit it. It is based on lycanthropy and its strange lore: in fact, it presupposes the existence in the neighborhood of two werewolves, Prof. Lycurgus Wolff and his old servant. By his knowledge of the subject Osgood prevents further tragedy and frees Dorothy, Wolff’s daughter, from the curse that is threatening her.
“With the understanding that the solution of the mystery of the novel lies along the lines of lycanthropy, the reader finds before him a smoothly written, straightforward narrative, lucid and compelling in its admirable simplicity, and endowed with that sustained interest which before anything else connotes a good story.”
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N Y Times p23 S 19 ’20 760w
“A readable yarn it is.”
+
Review 3:350 O 20 ’20 330w
BLACHLY, CLARENCE DAN. Treatment of the problem of capital and labor in social-study courses in the churches. *50c Univ. of Chicago press 330.7
20–2984
“The social-study movement in the churches of America has developed on lines both sound and broad in recent years, and a review of its present status would be decidedly helpful. Mr Blachly, however, has found the material so large that in the present essay he confines himself to only one aspect of that movement. He presents an analysis of several hundred pamphlets and reports, replies to questionnaires and letters of inquiry, the texts of the social study courses used in the leading Protestant churches, the principal church magazines and other literature. He distinguishes five methods of approach to the discussion of capital and labor by the churches: deductive study which he finds as a rule incomplete and non-conclusive; controversial discussion, especially the adoption of a definite political or economic platform, which is dangerous to church harmony; control of experience through attitude of mind and heart, i.e., emphasis on the spiritual rather than the legal control of conditions; scientific, critical examination—which is rare because the religious attitude is as different from that of the student as it is from that of the legislator; the incorporation of modern, scientific and sociological facts into teaching that is primarily religious. Evidently, the author’s preference is for the last named method.”—Survey
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Booklist 17:10 O ’20 (Adapted from Survey 43:781 Mr 20 ’20)
“This is a valuable summary of information for the student of the teaching of organized religion on present-day problems of the social life and a suggestive criticism of the different policies that have been adopted.” B. L.
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Survey 43:781 Mr 20 ’20 330w
BLACK, HUGH.[2] Lest we forget. *$1.50 Revell 824
“In the eleven chapters which make up this book the author discusses among other things the meaning of the victory, a democracy safe for the world, patriotism, true and false, peace and pacifism, the binding of the nations and the English-speaking peoples. In the chapter on the binding of the nations he says: ‘All men of goodwill must recognize that the plan for a league of nations is inspired with their highest ideal, and they can make it invincible.’”—Springf’d Republican
N Y Evening Post p24 O 23 ’20 90w
N Y Times p21 N 14 ’20 120w
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Springf’d Republican p8 D 21 ’20 280w
BLAKE, A. H. Things seen in London. il *$1.35 Dutton 914.21
20–26316
“This book is a pocket-sized volume, belonging to the Things seen series, which contains descriptive and historical chapters on points of special interest with post-card sized illustrations.”—Booklist
Booklist 16:239 Ap ’20
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Spec 122:546 O 25 ’19 40w
“It hardly exhausts the city. But it is a good introductory description, written by a person who appreciates historic flavor. The little book is well illustrated.”
+
Springf’d Republican p8 F 18 ’20 120w
BLAKEMORE, ARTHUR WALKER.[2] Make your will. *$1.25 Appleton 347.6
20–22318
The book is “a guide to the drafting of a valid will under the laws of any state.” (Sub-title) In the introduction the reasons for making a will, its essentials, and definitions of the terms used are given. The other chapters are: Form and essentials; Provisions of will; Execution of will; Codicils; After execution of will. The book is indexed and has an appendix containing a synopsis of laws affecting wills for every state.
BLANCHARD, PHYLLIS MARY. Adolescent girl. *$2.50 Moffat 136.7
20–8047
“A pioneering into the field of girl life in a direction, says Dr G. Stanley Hall in his preface, which his studies took with the adolescent boy. The book is a summary of the main theories of Fichte, Schelling, Von Hartmann, Bergson, Freud, Trotter, Adler, Jung, Maeder and others.”—Booklist
“More helpful to the serious student than Evans [‘Problem of the nervous child’] because of its carefully selected chapter bibliographies.”
+
Booklist 16:302 Je ’20
“Unfortunately, she does not resist the temptation to adopt the evangelistic tone. Although ostensibly based on the findings of Freud, Jung and Adler, there is never any suggestion that their researches may ultimately lead to a questioning of some of our moral standards. But this is an eminently safe book.” Fola La Follette
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Freeman 1:621 S 8 ’20 1100w
“To the reviewer the book commends itself most particularly on account of the richness of first-hand clinical material, put in a simple, readable manner, the frankness with which the author has handled the subject of the instinctive determinants of conduct, and finally because it reflects throughout a ‘mental hygienic’ rather than a therapeutic aim.” Bernard Glueck
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Mental Hygiene 4:974 O ’20 800w
“The chief value of Miss Blanchard’s work is in line with her own real interest, philosophy. Busy workers with girls, who may feel that their knowledge of the main developments of psychoanalysis is rather vague, and who wish to know some of its real possibilities in their own field, will find this a useful and interesting introduction.” M. E. Moxcey
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Social Hygiene 6:584 O ’20 350w
“She endeavors to give a social direction to her material. But it remains a good deal of a jumble.”
+ −
Springf’d Republican p9a Jl 4 ’20 70w
Reviewed by A. E. Morey
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Survey 45:369 D 4 ’20 560w
BLAND, JOHN OTWAY PERCY. Men, manners and morals in South America. il *$4.50 Scribner 918
(Eng ed 20–14550)
“This book is the outcome of two or three journeys which Mr Bland, the author of several books on China, made to South America in the course of the war. They took him to Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “He protests against the ‘blue-book stodginess’ of many works which deal with that portion of the western hemisphere south of the equator. It is undeniable that the general reader wants, not dry particulars of South American trades, industries, and manufacturing possibilities, but silhouettes of the men and women and their social life; descriptions of the prairies and forests, of mountain gorges and the ‘everlasting hills.’ Mr Bland, who portrays numerous types of South American humanity, and spiritedly describes the places he has visited, successfully avoids the faults to which his strictures apply.” (Ath)
“His book is heartily to be commended.”
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Ath p687 My 21 ’20 100w
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Booklist 17:25 O ’20
“All that he tells is well worth the reading.” E. J. C.
+
Boston Transcript p8 Je 12 ’20 550w
“Tho rambling in manner and somewhat cynical in tone, is an illuminating introduction to a little understood part of the world.”
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Ind 104:68 O 9 ’20 60w
“In no place in the present work has he attained or even attempted that subtlety of characterization, that inimitable charm of description which enchants us in Hudson. The outsides of people he has faithfully observed and studiously catalogued; the insides he has missed. Not that there are lacking passages of rare beauty and memorable description in the present work. Had Mr Bland chosen any other theme than this one, which has already been covered by a master, his volume would stand out as an unusual contribution to the literature of travel.” H. L. Varney
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N Y Times p16 Ag 15 ’20 1700w
“He writes because he likes writing, and as he writes very brightly the reader has no cause to complain. He conjures up people and customs that were strange to him in phrases of so much colour, point, and pungency that we are well content to see them with his eyes.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p198 Mr 25 ’20 1100w
BLAND, OLIVER. Adventures of a modern occultist. *$2 Dodd 133
20–17101
To acquire psychic power, says the author, presupposes certain unusual natural gifts and the object of the volume is to render assistance to those possessing such gifts. It contains disclosures of hidden facts which have been abiding their time for years in the author’s notebooks, and which are of interest to the spiritualist, the theosophist, and the student of psychic research. Contents: The dead rapper; The automatist; Astral light and psycho-lastrometer; An experiment on the theory of protective vibration; Sex in the next world; The reality of sorcery; Incense and occultism; Beasts and elementals; Possession; Some new facts and theories; Oriental occultism.
BLASCO IBÁÑEZ, VICENTE.[2] Enemies of women (Los enemigos de la mujer); tr. from the Spanish by Irving Brown. *$2.15 Dutton
20–19241
“In a fairy-like villa on the Mediterranean, Prince Lubimoff, a Russian Apollo, surfeited with luxury and liasons, gathers a group of friends,—a savant, a soldier, and a musician,—in order to live in calm contemplation, free from the most disturbing element in life—the feminine. These ‘enemies of women,’ as they style themselves, start with a sense of satiated superiority that makes renunciation easy, but the gradual defection of each from the code and the coterie forms an intriguing study of human nature and its inevitabilities. In the end, all the ‘enemies of women’ have succumbed to the eternal feminine and chiefly because of it have gone to fight on the side of idealism, even that incorrigible epicurean, the Russian prince, losing an arm in the Foreign legion and gaining some semblance of a soul.”—Pub W
“Taking it by the large, the book, though not without its weak spots, is a decided improvement over the two that went before it in point of time, and thus provides a genuine climax to the trilogy.” I. G.
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Boston Transcript p8 N 6 ’20 1350w
“While the book is a colorful, cross-section of the hectic war and post-war fragments of European civilization, it lacks the directed drive of the ‘Four horsemen’ and ‘Mare nostrum,’ as well as the concentration of theme and treatment of the Spanish stories.” Clement Wood
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N Y Call p10 Ja 16 ’21 200w
“The book is so full of splendid, glowing color, so rich in characters, each one clearly set forth and individualized—it has so many dramatic scenes, so many statements upon which one would like to comment, that to choose among them is extraordinarily difficult. That the book is beautifully written, and the descriptions of scenery remarkable, goes, of course, without saying.”
+
N Y Times p22 O 31 ’20 1300w
“Blasco Ibáñez has, with master hand, painted a broad, crowded canvas, teeming with life and glowing with primary colors. It is undeniably a strong book and thoroly characteristic of the author, tho with rather an over-emphasis on the sensual side and coronetted classes, and with different ethical values from those to which the Anglo-Saxon mind is trained.” Katharine Perry
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Pub W 98:1888 D 18 ’20 410w
BLASCO IBÁÑEZ, VICENTE. Mexico in revolution; tr. by Arthur Livingston and José Padin. *$2 Dutton 972
20–12284
“The author of the ‘Four horsemen of the Apocalypse’ happens to be one of the few Spaniards of distinction who have recently visited the United States. That he should prove to be a journalist as well as a novelist occasioned some surprise among his admirers in this country. His visit to Mexico was distinctly a journalistic enterprise, the outcome of which was a series of articles printed in the New York Times and other important newspapers and now brought out in book form.”—R of Rs
“Statements cited as facts are sometimes based on hearsay, or incomplete knowledge. The style is that of a vigorous piece of reporting, particularly in the vividness of the personalities portrayed.”
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Booklist 17:24 O ’20
Cath World 112:401 D ’20 260w
“It is interesting reading, and is, of course, excellently written. The book is of only temporary interest, however, and from the standpoint of historical study will be of little or no value.”
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Grinnell R 15:262 O ’20 100w
“His shrewd, quick-glancing political insight, his wit, his sense of the picturesque, his fundamental common sense views of life and the smooth, even flow of his style are all illustrated at their best in his little book on ‘Mexico in revolution.’”
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Ind 104:244 N 13 ’20 320w
“Señor Ibáñez owes a great deal to his translators. They had an inspiring task, for Ibáñez is a born journalist of the highest type, and the swift rush of his narrative, the power of terse description, the characterization, the wit to ‘make you see it,’ should be a spur to any translator.”
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N Y Times 25:10 Jl 25 ’20 3800w
“Ibáñez will seem to the friends of the Mexican people to have erred as badly in going to the opposite extreme [from the radical position]. Yet Ibáñez’ picture, even if overdrawn, is an honest one. It is a depressing picture if one accepts it as it stands. But the artist has overcharged his canvas.” W. J. Ghent
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Review 3:212 S 8 ’20 800w
“Señor Blasco Ibáñez is gifted with a ‘nose for news’ and an unusual ability to give literary form to his observations and impressions. In short, he is a first-rate reporter. He employed his time in Mexico to good advantage.”
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R of Rs 62:333 S ’20 140w
BLASCO IBÁÑEZ, VICENTE. Woman triumphant (La maja desnuda); tr. from the Spanish by Hayward Keniston; with a special introductory note by the author. *$1.90 Dutton
20–7292
“The central theme concerns the intimate tragedy of a great painter, Renovales, who, beholding the loveliness of his young wife, persuades her to pose for him, promising that the picture shall be destroyed. But when his inspired hand has added the last brush-stroke, Renovales knows that this is his master piece, and when exhibited will bring him fame. The wife, however, in a sudden revulsion of outraged dignity, flings herself on the picture and slashes it into ribbons. Her act cleaves asunder the artist’s two-fold worship. Meanwhile, a blight has fallen upon the wife’s former beauty. With pitiful futility she admits to herself that he might freely paint and exhibit her if only it would bring back her vanished charm. Yet she clings to life until the day when she becomes aware that even his technical fidelity is at an end. But when the prematurely old and faded wife is dead and buried, the memory of her comes back to haunt Renovales with the elusive charm of her girlhood. And it is borne in upon him that while pursuing unattainable desires he has missed the best life had to offer, and that now it is forever too late.”—Pub W
“‘Woman triumphant’ is, if one may say so without sounding dogmatic, one of the three great novels by Blasco Ibáñez that will endure. There are power, irony, depth and greatness in this novel. Josefina is one of Blasco Ibáñez’s few convincing portrayals of women, and Renovales is not merely an artist type, but a flesh and blood creature. The atmosphere is vibrant with interest, there are admirable pages of art-criticism, and the ever attractive scenes out of Bohemia.” I: Goldberg
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Boston Transcript p10 My 1 ’20 1300w
Dial 69:102 Jl ’20 130w
“It shares the vivid pictorial quality, the sweeping rhetorical strokes characteristic of his fiction, but the slightness of its structure, tenuity of its philosophy and a certain morbidity of theme relegate it to the secondary rank among his novels. There is too much in the book that has this charnel-house atmosphere, and while it has unmistakable power, power does not redeem it.”
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N Y Evening Post p2 Ap 24 ’20 850w
“Vicente Blasco Ibáñez is the great storyteller of today. In sheer ability to narrate, to make even the minutest analyses of the thought-processes of his characters part of his action, he stands peerless. ‘Woman triumphant’ only serves to emphasize those traits which have brought him enthusiastic homage before. The translation, like the original, is far above the average.” T. R. Ybarra
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N Y Times 25:198 Ap 18 ’20 950w
Reviewed by F: T. Cooper
Pub W 97:1287 Ap 17 ’20 450w
“What moves us in it is that for all their blundering and wantonness something real and abiding has sprung from the union of Renovales and his maja.” H. W. Boynton
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Review 2:520 My 15 ’20 500w
“Despite an inherent tendency to sensationalism, ‘Woman triumphant’ may be enjoyed for keen interpretation of human nature, sustained romantic creation, strong plot and vigorous action.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a My 30 ’20 500w
BLEYER, WILLARD GROSVENOR. How to write special feature articles. *$2.25 Houghton 070
20–5605
“A handbook for reporters, correspondents and free-lance writers who desire to contribute to popular magazines and magazine sections of newspapers.” (Sub-title) “The book is the result of twelve years’ experience in teaching university students to write special feature articles for newspapers and popular magazines.... The success that these students have achieved leads the author to believe that others who desire to write special articles may be aided by the suggestions given in this book.” (Preface) A careful analysis of current practices is the basis of the methods presented and an effort has been made to show the application of the principles of composition to the writing of articles. The book falls into two parts of which the second is devoted to a collection of typical newspaper and magazine articles, with an outline for the analysis of them. Part 1 contains: The field for special articles; Preparation for special feature writing; Finding subjects and material; Appeal and purpose; Types of articles; Writing the article; How to begin; Style; Titles and headlines; Preparing and selling the manuscript; Photographs and other illustrations. There is an index.
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Booklist 17:47 N ’20
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Springf’d Republican p8a Ap 4 ’20 240w
BLISS, DANIEL. Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss; ed. and supplemented by his eldest son. il *$2.25 Revell
20–20532
“Daniel Bliss is not a name of resounding fame, and yet the man who bore it lived a long and useful life, reaching well into its ninth decade, and this long life was for the most part spent in doing good to his fellowman. This book is largely an autobiography written, it is believed, wholly from memory, in his eighty-second year. His life was the life of a missionary, a teacher and the founder and president of the Syrian Protestant college at Beirut. He was born in August, 1823, in Vermont, the son of a farmer of the olden time. In his own language Mr Bliss records many incidents of his childhood. He follows these anecdotes with the story of his school life, his apprenticeship to a tanner, his course later at the academy and at Amherst, where he was graduated in 1852. It was during his college course that he became interested in missions and resolved to become a missionary. Soon after his graduation he received ordination to the ministry. Three years later he was married, and with his wife sailed for his lifework in Syria.”—Boston Transcript
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Boston Transcript p6 O 9 ’20 340w
N Y Evening Post p9 O 30 ’20 120w
Outlook 126:421 N 3 ’20 1450w
“Exceedingly readable book. There is something extremely restful and benign in the manner and matter of the narration.”
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Spec 125:674 N 20 ’20 300w
“One of the most interesting biographies of the year.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 N 19 ’20 700w
BLOCKSIDGE, ERNEST WALTER. Ships’ boats. il *$9 (*25s) Longmans 623.8
20–13582
“The first detailed text-book on this important subject. It follows mainly the requirements and classification of the British Board of trade and aims to deal essentially with practical applications and to avoid all abstruse theory. Form, stability, strength and capacity are carefully considered. Constructional details of the various classes are given and there are chapters on timbers, pontoon boats, motorboats, nested boats, and sail-boats; lifting and lowering appliances, buoyancy air-cases; miscellaneous equipment; galvanizing methods, painting, repairs and maintenance, fire and boat drifts, and stowage and transporting arrangements. The book is illustrated with photographs and line details. The author is ship surveyor to Lloyd’s register.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
“Mr Blocksidge presents for the first time a complete and authoritative work on a very important branch of naval construction.” C. M. Peabody
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Int Marine Engineering 25:774 S ’20 1700w
N Y P L New Tech Bks p31 Ap ’20 100w
Spec 124:54 Jl 10 ’20 180w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p109 F 12 ’20 60w
BLOOD, BENJAMIN PAUL. Pluriverse; an essay in the philosophy of pluralism; with an introd. by Horace Meyer Kallen. *$2.50 Jones, Marshall 191
20–9219
“In 1874 Blood wrote and circulated a pamphlet entitled ‘The anaesthetic revelation and the gist of philosophy,’ which brought him into correspondence with Tennyson and Gurney, Emerson and Sir William Ramsay, Stirling and James. In the last years of his life he returned to the topic, and the result is ‘Pluriverse,’ posthumously published. The central point of the book is simple enough. It is that philosophy is ‘of all our vanities the motliest,’ and that the ‘satisfaction’ which it seeks, the sense of security through insight into the mystery of being, is not to be obtained through argument and reasoning but through the illumination or revelation which comes under the influence of anaesthetics.”—New Repub
“Another obscure volume is added to the literature of philosophy. And this will have to be acknowledged despite the fact that the diction of the author is in many places very beautiful, and his thoughts very often exceedingly suggestive.” F. W. C.
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Boston Transcript p8 Je 12 ’20 570w
“Blood, in thorough keeping with the best in American philosophy, thinks waveringly and writes excellently.” E. P.
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Dial 70:109 Ja ’21 200w
“Even Dr Kallen’s interesting and sympathetic introduction does not convince me that the aftermath was worth gathering in.... At any rate, most sane and reasonable men do not gather their religion in the obscure by-ways of abnormal experience, and one cannot help feeling that Blood’s memory would have been better served had it been allowed to live only through the pages of William James.” R. F. A. H.
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New Repub 24:332 N 24 ’20 1250w
BLOOMFIELD, DANIEL, comp. Selected articles on modern industrial movements. (Handbook ser.) *$1.80 Wilson, H. W. 330.4
20–1961
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
Am Econ R 10:363 Je ’20 40w
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Booklist 17:93 D ’20
“The selection on the whole is a fair and representative one. There is an exceptionally complete bibliography.”
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Nation 110:774 Je 5 ’20 220w
“The editor seems to have been able to detach himself from any bias in making his selections. An excellent bibliography is presented, and an index completes what is, on the whole, a very useful documentary work. If the other volumes in the series maintain the standard set by this one they will prove valuable as a source of reference and study.” James Oneal
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N Y Call p10 My 2 ’20 420w
N Y Times 25:196 Ap 18 ’20 30w
“As in all compilations of broad scope and limited size, the judicious but fallible editor has included things that he might have left out, and excluded things that he should have put in, and none of his readers will be altogether satisfied; but for all that, he has set before them some good material, for which those who have appetite for industrial problems should be truly thankful.” J. E. Le Rossignol
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Review 3:504 N 24 ’20 230w
“The compiler has made a discriminating selection of material. Papers on Bolshevism give a much needed insight into that creed, and tend to check the trouble-breeding application of the term to all radicals. Both the student and the man of business will find here ample material on which to base intelligent conclusions.”
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Scientific American 122:476 Ap 24 ’20 130w
“Throughout an attempt is made to treat controversial subjects from various points of vision. Least successful in this respect is the chapter on Bolshevism, particularly as it relates to the achievements of the Soviet government. On the whole, however, the cream of the literature on both sides is impartially presented.” H. W. L.
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Socialist R 8:252 Mr ’20 120w
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Springf’d Republican p10 My 6 ’20 70w
Survey 44:312 My 29 ’20 100w
“The reader is left free to make his own deductions from the fund of valuable information contained therein. The selected bibliography which starts the volume is a real contribution to literature on the subject of industrial relations.”
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Textile World 57:30 My 15 ’20 160w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p741 N 11 ’20 50w
BLOOMFIELD, DANIEL, comp. and ed. Selected articles on problems of labor. (Handbook ser.) *$1.80 (1c) Wilson, H. W. 331.8
20–9366
This is volume 3 of Mr Bloomfield’s series of books on industrial relations following “Employment management” and “Modern industrial movements.” The compiler has selected for reprint the best of the recent material on the subject, grouping this material under the headings: Causes of friction and unrest; Cost of living; Methods of compensation; Hours of work; Tenure of employment; Trade unionism; Labor disputes and adjustment; Limitation of output; Industrial insurance; Housing; Methods of promoting industrial peace; Occupational hygiene; Women in industry. Bibliographies have been provided for each subject and there is an index. Meyer Bloomfield writes an introduction.
Am Econ R 10:607 S ’20 50w
Reviewed by R. W. Stone
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Am J Soc 26:242 S ’20 200w
“All phases of the labor problem are ably and concisely treated.”
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Am Machinist Jl 8 ’20 120w
Booklist 17:10 O ’20
Springf’d Republican p10 Ap 24 ’20 200w
“This series has become indispensable for those who, unable to maintain a large filing system of their own, wish to keep important articles on industrial topics that appear in the periodicals.” B. L.
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Survey 44:638 Ag 16 ’20 140w
BLOUNT, BERTRAM; WOODCOCK, WILLIAM H.; and GILLETT, HENRY J. Cement. il *$6 (*18s) Longmans 691.5
20–13877
“The present volume forms one of the series of Monographs on industrial chemistry which is being edited by Sir Edward Thorpe, F.R.S., and published by Messrs Longmans. The book contains an introduction, thirteen chapters, and five appendices. In the introduction it is explained that, although cements may vary in chemical nature from casein to iron oxide, yet, by common consent and because of the enormous practical importance of calcareous cements, the term cement, used without qualification, is restricted to them; and it is of calcareous cements alone that the book treats. There are, as Mr Blount points out, numerous varieties of such cements, but they all fall into two groups, (1) the calcium silicate group, and (2) the calcium sulphate group, the first being typified by Portland cement and the second by plaster of Paris. Strictly speaking, it is with the first group alone that the author is concerned.”—Engineer
“This is a welcome addition to what may be described as the ‘popular’ literature on cement. There is indeed much in the book that should cause the cement manufacturer of today to think.” S. G. S. Panisset
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Concrete 17:130 O ’20 640w (Reprinted from British Chemical Industry)
“One has become accustomed to connect Mr Blount’s name with novel and interesting points of view on a variety of matters and we are not surprised, therefore, to find that he has in large measure treated his subject in a manner quite different from that adopted by any previous author.”
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Engineer 130:280 S 17 ’20 2250w
“Rather fuller references to continental and American methods would have been welcome. A very useful book.” C. H. Desch
+ −
Nature 106:3 S 2 ’20 820w
+
N Y P L New Tech Bks p48 Jl ’20 100w
BLÜCHER VON WAHLSTATT, EVELYN MARY (STAPLETON BRETHERTON) VON. English wife in Berlin. *$6 Dutton 940.343
21–600
“Evelyn, Princess Blücher, English wife of the great-grandson of the famous marshal of Waterloo, lived throughout the war among her husband’s people, mainly in Berlin, and set down a record of what she heard, saw, thought and felt. As one of that strange colony of distinguished internationals who were war-bound in the German capital, she met everybody of note and enjoyed exceptional advantages for seeing what was going on behind the scenes during those eventful and tragic years. She saw the war also as the country-folk saw it, for she was frequently at the Blücher family seat in Silesia; and at the same time she played a useful rôle in the care of the British prisoners and wounded.”—Freeman
Ath p107 Jl 23 ’20 520w
“There is nothing stale or war-worn in this account.” Margaret Ashmun
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Bookm 52:346 D ’20 70w
“Remarkably shrewd and impartial record.” C. R. Hargrove
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Freeman 2:283 D 1 ’20 1000w
“Almost alone of the chronicles that have come out of the enemy country, her diary presents a portrayal of events that is neither envenomed by partisanship nor warped by propagandist intention.” Amy Loveman
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N Y Evening Post p14 D 4 ’20 1050w
“Takes high rank among the really worthwhile books of the war.”
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N Y Times p28 D 26 ’20 920w
“Princess Blücher’s book adds hardly any fact of importance or of permanent historical value. The author saw German life during the war from only a few angles. The attraction of the book for the general public lies almost wholly in the appeal which it makes to persons who are interested in people of title for the title’s sake.”
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Review 3:654 D 29 ’20 260w
R of Rs 62:672 D ’20 90w
“This book, simply written by an English lady, with a decided sense of humour and deep religious faith, is far more amusing and informative than the many documented narratives of the famous war correspondents, because it is written from the centre of things in Germany, and has no political or partisan object.”
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Sat R 130:73 Jl 24 ’20 1050w
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Spec 124:84 Jl 17 ’20 2400w
“Its tone is moderate, neither violently pro-English or anti-German.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 N 25 ’20 980w
“This is not exactly an important book, but it is one of the most interesting of those that have been written about life in Germany during the war. Princess Blücher writes with ease, sympathy, and charm, but no special distinction.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p411 Jl 1 ’20 2250w
BLUNDELL, MARY E. (SWEETMAN) (MRS FRANCIS BLUNDELL) (M. E. FRANCIS, pseud.).[2] Beck of Beckford. *$2 Kenedy
(Eng ed 20–23029)
“The Becks of Beckford were baronets—alternatively Sir John and Sir Roger—and through an honest endeavour to repay money that had been embezzled by a member of the family they have come down in the world and live as hardworking farming folk. Young Sir Roger, the Beck of Beckford of the story, after school and Oxford, comes back to the farm; and instead of marrying an American heiress with whom he fell in love, wins through his hardships and difficulties by hard work.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“The book is wholesome and pleasant enough, but seems best suited to readers who are still at the naïve and unexacting age.”
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Cath World 112:550 Ja ’21 100w
“This is a simple, pretty tale, but saved from insignificance by the skill which never fails this novelist.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p386 Je 17 ’20 120w
BODENHEIM, MAXWELL. Advice; a book of poems. *$1.25 Knopf 811
20–16518
Among the titles are: Advice to a street-pavement; Advice to a buttercup; Foundry workers; Rattlesnake mountain fable; Advice to a butterfly; Fifth avenue; Boarding house episode; Steel mills; South Chicago. Some of the poems have appeared in the Yale Review, Smart Set, New Republic, Touchstone and other magazines.
“Mr Bodenheim uses words in a cryptic, esoteric fashion, attaching to them meanings of his own, as though they were his private property and not the common possession of the race.”
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Ath p614 N 5 ’20 140w
“Mr Bodenheim has proved himself a very capable artist. Once the reader is willing to lend a bit of sympathy to his theory there is much to enjoy in his poems. The clew to their virtues may be a little difficult to get, the harmony may seem discordant, the images a trifle confusing and fantastic, but careful discernment will bring unity out of the picture, and with a vivid phase of imaginative suggestion.” W: S. Braithwaite
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Boston Transcript p3 N 27 ’20 1050w
“His unfailing sentiment for things leads him at moments whimsically to indulge both word and thought with frantic gestures, even occasionally with unworthy figures of speech. Such tricks, although they often steal distinction from surprise, wear out the power of the brain to respond and eventually develop a resentment toward the kind of verse that leaves us jaded. But it must be observed that Mr Bodenheim has not made a habit of these literary capers; as occasional lapses, his can be condoned.” Stewart Mitchell
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Dial 69:645 D ’20 1100w
“There is not a single piece in the volume that fails to possess a fresh outlook, a precious intellectual attitude; but these are labored over and strained at so painstakingly that whatever poetry existed in the original concept has long left, and only dry intellectual husks remain.” Clement Wood
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N Y Call N 21 ’20 440w
“‘Advice’ is indubitably one of the important books of the year, as it is one of the books most compact with beauty, actually worthy of frequent rereading. It is a book small only in size, for behind its lines tremble the multitudinous vibrations of a world of beauty and thought.” H. S. Gorman
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N Y Times p22 D 26 ’20 920w
BOGARDUS, EMORY STEPHEN. Essentials of Americanization. $1.50 (3c) Univ. of Southern California press, 3474 University av., Los Angeles, Cal. 325.7
19–12739
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
“The book is written in splendid spirit and should be of good service to foreigners and to untrained Americanization workers. The chapter dealing with Democracy and the square deal, one of his four Americanisms, is the best in the book. It is much better than the other three. The chapter on the negro is very good but inconclusive.” A. E. Jenks
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Am J Soc 25:651 Mr ’20 280w
Booklist 16:153 F ’20
“On the whole, the book is a valuable contribution to a subject in which there is much interest at the present time.”
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School R 28:313 Ap ’20 180w
BOGARDUS, EMORY STEPHEN. Essentials of social psychology. new and enl ed $1.75 Univ. of Southern California press, 3474 University av., Los Angeles, Cal. 301
20–11686
This is a revised and much enlarged edition of a work published in 1918. “In this edition the problems have been re-stated and increased in number.... The subject matter has been re-written and elaborated. The original eight chapters have grown into fifteen chapters.” (Preface to 2d ed) Contents: The field, development, and literature of social psychology; Psychological bases of social psychology; The social personality (three chapters); Suggestion-imitation phenomena (three chapters); Invention and leadership (two chapters): The nature of groups; Group conflicts; Group loyalties; Group control; Social change and progress. Problems and references follow the chapters. There is a general bibliography and an index.
“The volume makes no particularly new contribution to its subject; its value lies in its outlining of the field in its differentiations, and its opening up to the student of volumes of pioneer inquiry.”
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N Y Evening Post p12 Ja 29 ’21 160w
BOGART, ERNEST LUDLOW. Direct and Indirect costs of the great world war. *$1 Oxford; pa gratis Carnegie endowment for international peace 336
19–18454
In this volume of Preliminary economic studies of the war Professor Bogart of the University of Illinois presents a discussion, with tables and estimates, of the war costs in each of the countries concerned. The foreword says: “In the following pages the direct outlays of the governments, which are matters of usual financial procedure, may be said to be fairly accurate; the attempt to estimate the indirect costs of the war, however, is attended with a considerable amount of conjecture and must be regarded merely as the best guess which is possible at the present time.” The work closes with a bibliography of thirty pages and an index.
+
Am Econ R 10:377 Je ’20 140w
“It is not as an accurate summary of the costs of the war, but as an outline of the financial history of the great powers, that the book will prove permanently useful.” Alzada Comstock
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Am Hist R 26:362 Ja ’21 420w
“This book by Professor Bogart is the most complete and authentic account now in print of the losses of the war, stated in terms of dollars. The work bears the mark of painstaking cautions and scholarly method. An extensive bibliography and good index adds to its value.” C. J. Bushnell
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Am J Soc 25:650 Mr ’20 280w
Ath p386 Mr 19 ’20 100w
Reviewed by C. C. Plehn
Nation 111:379 O 6 ’20 380w
Survey 44:309 My 29 ’20 350w
“Professor Bogart has produced a careful, sober, and thoughtful analysis of the cost of the war to the world at large, so far as the items can be stated without over-indulgence in ‘estimates,’ and with all proper caveats.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p74 F 5 ’20 1100w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p369 Je 10 ’20 80w
BÖHME, JACOB.[2] Confessions of Jacob Boehme; with an introd. by Evelyn Underhill. *$2 Knopf 189
“Mr Scott Palmer has done a valuable piece of work in getting together in a small volume the more personal utterances of Jacob Boehme. It is a book that will appeal to many people who have felt an interest in the great mystic, but, at the same time, have found his writings, when presented to them in mass, heavy and difficult reading.”—Freeman
“Mr Scott Palmer has been wise in keeping as far as possible to William Law’s eighteenth-century translation, the simple language of which is so admirably adapted to the profound meditations of this homely tradesman. Quite apart from their speculative and philosophic value, certain sentences in this volume have about them the intense and innocent beauty of really great literature.” Llewelyn Powys
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Freeman 2:357 D 22 ’20 840w
“We are grateful to Mr Scott Palmer and Miss Evelyn Underhill for their help in faithfully elucidating Böhme’s doctrine and revealing the man himself.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p502 Ag 5 ’20 1350w
BÖHME, JACOB. Six theosophic points, and other writings. *$3 (1½c) Knopf 189
20–4124
This book, written in 1620, has here been newly translated into English by John Rolleston Earle. In addition to the Six theosophic points, the contents are: Six mystical points; On the earthly and heavenly mystery; On the divine intuition.
“Valuable for helping to clarify a book written four hundred years ago in a very difficult vocabulary. Too obscure and special for any but the student of the question.”
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Booklist 16:326 Jl ’20
“These new translations have something more than the face value of new translations of an old and more or less inaccessible author. Students of German mysticism are indebted to the scholarship of John Rolleston Earle as a commentator as well as a translator.” G. H. C.
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Boston Transcript p4 My 5 ’20 500w
Reviewed by Preserved Smith
Nation 110:sup483 Ap 10 ’20 220w
N Y Times p15 S 12 ’20 130w
“In the ‘Six theosophic points’ one will wander long unless one is provided with some chart. Page after page record the wanderings of a puzzled, ever-searching, ill-equipped, penetrating spirit, with no compass or chart; often over-stepping, it would seem, the bounds of sanity, but from time to time letting fall a pregnant saying. Even in his incoherences are gleams of light.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p502 Ag 5 ’20 2650w
BOJER, JOHAN. Power of a lie. *$2 Moffat
“The novel tells the story of two men living in a small Swedish town or village, tells what the power of a lie did to them, to their families, and to those persons who came in contact with them—and it. Knut Norby, a wealthy farmer, has indorsed a note for a friend, Henry Wangen, a note for 2,000 kronen. Three or four years later Wangen becomes a bankrupt and Norby denies his signature, denies that he ever saw the paper, or ever signed one for Wangen. The witness is dead; Wangen is convicted of forgery and sent to prison, while Norby is given a banquet by his fellow-townsmen. The innocent man is punished; the guilty man is fêted.”—N Y Times
“Here is a novel of compelling power and dignity, illuminated by a bleak beauty like that of the aurora borealis.”
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Dial 69:546 N ’20 60w
“Bojer does not allow himself the luxury of beauty except where it aids his story. He strips his narrative bare, trims it exquisitely to the least detail, and lets it glide straight before the wind. Johan Bojer is undoubtedly a great artist, although by no means a luxuriant and happy one. He has been aided in his American venture by the admirable translation of Jessie Muir, which deserves the highest praise.” R. L. Duffus
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Freeman 1:524 Ag 11 ’20 360w
“The novel is indeed admirably written, the author indulging neither in verbal fireworks nor in splashes of black, white or scarlet. One reads it with the feeling that it is the truthful account of a real occurrence, but of an occurrence seen from all sides. ‘The power of a lie,’ in short, stands head and shoulders above the average contemporary novel.”
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N Y Times 25:291 Je 6 ’20 1050w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 3:708 Jl 7 ’20 750w
“The idea is presented with fine suggestiveness and artistic vitality.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 25 ’20 280w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p613 O 30 ’19 50w
BOJER, JOHAN. Treacherous ground; tr. from the Norwegian by Jessie Muir. *$2 Moffat
20–4783
“Young Erik Evje has two characteristics; he is a man whose former immoral aberrations weigh heavy on his conscience, and a man imbued with high ideals in connection with social reform. By putting into practice his ideals he hopes to atone for his sin. He can find no solace in religion, and he makes of his philanthropic work his crucifix. The little colony that he plants on a hillside is the only tangible evidence of his ideals, and at the same time his atonement. But he is told that his house is built on sand, that a landslide will carry it away. It is too necessary as his last grip on the best part of himself for him to give it up. The landslide occurs and wipes out several families.”—Springf’d Republican
“A story with interesting characters, a pleasant background and well sustained suspense, that is thoughtful without a touch of heaviness.”
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Booklist 16:242 Ap ’20
“Its trenchant clearness is almost frightening, like transparent glass where one expected wooden walls; its teaching is both true and tragic.” R. M. Underhill
+
Bookm 51:444 Je ’20 100w
Reviewed by R. L. Duffus
Freeman 1:524 Ag 11 ’20 360w
Lit D p93 Je 26 ’20 1800w
“The tale has the bite and ‘follow through’ of an Ibsen play, a ‘Wild duck’ or an ‘Enemy of the people.’ It lacks, accordingly, the rich sympathy of ‘The great hunger.’” H. W. Boynton
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Review 2:520 My 15 ’20 420w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 3:709 Jl 7 ’20 120w
“The theme is peculiarly and very strongly developed. Johan Bojer employs a very realistic style and presents a vivid picture of the Evje farm.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 My 31 ’20 250w
BOK, EDWARD WILLIAM. Americanization of Edward Bok; the autobiography of a Dutch boy fifty years after. il *$5 Scribner
20–17333
In writing his autobiography the author has treated himself objectively, which accounts for the title. It is with the editor and publicist that the book deals, not with the author’s private self. Not until he retired from the editorship of the Ladies’ Home Journal, did he cease to be two personalities and become simply himself. The book abounds in reminiscences of editorial experiences and of famous men, contains facsimiles of autographs and manuscripts, a list of biographical data, illustrations and an index.