Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 5)
Reading edition
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Booklist 17:111 D ’20
“Mr Bok has done more than merely carry the reader with him along the pleasant paths which he has trod. He has thought deeply upon the problem of the immigrant and the result is a valuable contribution.” H: L. West
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Bookm 52:362 D ’20 540w
“This autobiography of the ex-editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal is likely to produce upon the sophisticated reader that impression of exasperated amusement which I have noted in more or less civilized Britons when they have undergone a course of the Saturday Evening Post, at my suggestion, in order that they might become familiar with that microcosm of the United States.” E. A. Boyd
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Freeman 2:355 D 22 ’20 2550w
“This is an extraordinary array. In all the account of it there is not one gleam of intellectual speculation, not one sign that Mr Bok ever heard of the world of ideas, or that he understood any passions stronger than sentimentalism. His criticism of the America in which he lived and which he seems to have understood so well, is always merely trivial.” I. B.
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Nation 111:783 D 29 ’20 1050w
Reviewed by A. M. Jungmann
N Y Evening Post p2 O 23 ’20 1400w
“Considered in every aspect, ‘The Americanization of Edward Bok’ is an affording and a significant book. In style it is as simple and perspicuous as Xenophon’s ‘Anabasis,’ which was also written in the third person and by a man of shrewd common sense who trusted his instincts.”
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No Am 213:134 Ja ’21 2000w
“There is a great deal that is stimulating to energy, originality, and resourcefulness in this autobiography, as well as much that is amusing and agreeable reading.” R. D. Townsend
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Outlook 126:514 N 17 ’20 1600w
“It is pleasant reading and happily stimulating to wholesome ambition.” R. R. Bowker
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Pub W 98:1884 D 18 ’20 300w
“All in all, this is a remarkable book. Edward Bok is as compelling a writer when telling his own story as when writing on other themes, and this ought to be one of the ‘best sellers’ of the year.”
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Springf’d Republican p7a D 26 ’20 850w
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Wis Lib Bul 16:237 D ’20 100w
BOLTON, GUY, and MIDDLETON, GEORGE. Light of the world. il *$1.75 Holt 812
20–19671
The scene of this three-act play is Oberammergau, the village of the Passion play, just previous to a new performance; the time, between the choosing of the actors and the opening of the play; and the theme, the disparity between the teachings of Christ and the daily life of Christians. Anton Rendel, the chosen Christus, discovers, on the eve of his friend Simon’s wedding, that Simon has betrayed the girl Anton had loved. Anton forgives but advises confession to Ruth, the bride, and is left under the impression that it was made. The girl and her baby seek refuge and find shelter in Anton’s house. His rivals among the actors throw suspicion on Anton and insist that he drive out the girl or give up his rôle as Christus. He does the latter and before the play is to open a mob comes to set fire to his house. At that moment the truth of the situation has just been revealed to Ruth. She exacts open confession from Simon as the price of her love, whereupon the rôle of Christus is once more offered to Anton.
“In no sense is this a play that will live, but it is a workmanlike performance with a creditable motive—defence of the unfortunate and misunderstood.”
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N Y Evening Post p16 D 4 ’20 220w
“Guy Bolton and George Middleton have made a real addition to the literature of our contemporary stage. Yet curiously, perhaps, the illustrations interspersed through the published play serve as a check rather than a spur to the reader’s enjoyment.” Dorothy Grafly
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Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 30 ’21 450w
BOLTON, HERBERT EUGENE, and MARSHALL, THOMAS MAITLAND.[2] Colonization of North America, 1492–1783. il *$4.25 Macmillan 970
20–16766
“A solid treatise (arranged in headed paragraphs) by two American history professors, giving a comprehensive survey of the colonization of North America from 1492 to 1783, and providing a more complete account than previous works have done of the colonies of nations other than the English and of English colonies other than those which established their independence. A special attempt has been made to do better justice to Spanish achievements in North American colonization. Of the three sections into which the work is divided the first deals with the founding of the colonies, the second with their expansion and the international conflict (Anglo-Spanish and Franco-Spanish as well as Franco-English), and the third with the revolt of the English colonies. Numerous convenient maps elucidate the text. Index 53 pp.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
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R of Rs 63:110 Ja ’21 240w
“A convenient and readable sketch of the whole subject.”
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Spec 125:823 D 18 ’20 110w
“The style of the work is far from distinguished, and it is a text-book rather than a work of history; but it shows just that breadth and firmness of treatment which will aid the student to acquire a true perspective of past events. The excellence of the idea should have considerable effect on the elementary teaching of history.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 N 4 ’20 120w
“Because of this comprehensive character, from the point of view of our present interests instead of from that of the original thirteen states of the union, it will be particularly appreciated by those of us who feel the importance of intelligent acquaintance with our historical backgrounds but have not the time to specialize in colonial history.” Lilian Brandt
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Survey 45:579 Ja 15 ’21 100w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p802 D 2 ’20 120w
BONI, ALBERT, ed. Modern book of French verse in English translations. (Modern books of verse) *$2.50 Boni & Liveright 841.08
20–8026
“‘The modern book of French verse’ covers the whole field of French poetry from Guillaume de Poitier’s writing in 1071 to Jules Romain’s, who was born as late as 1885. All the famous figures of French poetry are generously included, the book being starred with the names of Villon, Marot, de Ronsard, Du Bellay, Chenier, De Beranger, Victor Hugo, De Musset, Gautier, De Lisle, Baudelaire, Prudhomme, Mallarmé, Verlaine, Samain, Laforgue, De Régnier, Jammes, Paul Fort and Vildrac. Among the translators may be casually noted Jethro Bithell, Robert Bridges, Chaucer, Austin Dobson, Ernest Dowson, James Elroy Flecker, Andrew Lang, Arthur O’Shaughnessy, John Payne, W. J. Robertson, Rossetti, Swinburne, J. A. Symonds, Arthur Symons and Francis Thompson.”—N Y Times
Booklist 16:337 Jl ’20
“Mr Boni’s admirable compilation of English translations of the best French poetry makes a delectable volume. There are very few false notes in this varied chorus.”
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Cath World 111:834 S ’20 170w
“An excellent anthology of translations. Should be valuable in courses in comparative literature.”
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Dial 69:434 O ’20 100w
“The wealth of material at Mr Boni’s command must have made his editorial task a pleasure as it has undoubtedly made the resultant book invaluable. In future editions, however, Mr Boni should fill a few very obvious gaps.” Ludwig Lewisohn
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Nation 110:857 Je 26 ’20 950w
“His anthology has many gaps, judged as a selection of French verse. However, it is useful and interesting to have this collection of translations, not only for a better idea of French verse among those to whom the originals are sealed, but for a study of poets of the whole subject of translation.” W. P. Eaton
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N Y Call p11 Je 13 ’20 620w
“It must have been a labor of love on Mr Boni’s part, and, like all labors of love, it vindicates itself by its completeness and high average of value. The book will be found invaluable by those who do not read French easily.”
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N Y Times 25:296 Je 6 ’20 600w
“The quality of the verse is comparatively high; none of it is high enough to dissuade a sensitive reader from learning French.”
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Review 3:47 Jl 14 ’20 250w
Springf’d Republican p8 Jl 15 ’20 230w
Reviewed by E: B. Reed
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Yale R n s 10:202 O ’20 360w
BONJOUR, FELIX. Real democracy in operation: the example of Switzerland. *$1.50 (3c) Stokes 342.4
20–9847
The author of the book, a former president of the Swiss national council, outlines and explains the constitution and the workings of the Swiss federal republic, which he considers to be in the vanguard of democratic evolution. The twenty-five more or less autonomous states comprising this confederation are political laboratories which borrow one from another those forms of government which appear to succeed best—a practice which insures continuous democratic growth. Contents: Federalism in Switzerland; The evolution of democracy in Switzerland; The Landsgemeinde; The referendum; The results of the referendum; The popular initiative; The results of the initiative; The election of the government and officials by the people; Democracy in the communes and the churches; Compulsory voting and woman suffrage; Proportional representation; Democracy in the army and maintenance of neutrality; The future of democracy in Switzerland; Appendix; Index.
“Written in a pleasing style and admirably translated.” R. C. Brooks
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Am Pol Sci R 14:514 Ag ’20 330w
Booklist 17:50 N ’20
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Boston Transcript p6 Ag 18 ’20 220w
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Cleveland p90 O ’20 40w
N Y Times p19 Ag 22 ’20 3000w
Outlook 126:558 N ’21 ’20 180w
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R of Rs 62:109 Jl ’20 80w
“We recommend those who are interested in the theory and art of modern politics to read this volume of Mr Felix Bonjour with attention, even though they may be bored occasionally with its inevitable parochiality.”
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Sat R 130:119 Ag 7 ’20 750w
“A book such as M. Bonjour’s was much needed.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p416 Jl 1 ’20 950w
BOOK of Marjorie. *$1.50 (6½c) Knopf
20–4704
The book is an idyl of married life told by the husband. It begins with that night in spring when he first told Marjorie that he loved her and makes the reader a confidant of all the intimate details that lay between then and the time when they both bent over Peter’s bassinette and knew that they “should live forever in Peter and Peter’s children.”
“The book offers no unusual problems and its reactions are simple and happy.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p11 Ap 17 ’20 800w
Nation 110:402 Mr 27 ’20 250w
“The telling is graceful and natural; the little autobiographical fragment is a thing to cherish.” C. W.
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N Y Call p11 My 16 ’20 180w
“‘The book of Marjorie’ is a simple description of a happy marriage by a writer whose main charm is simplicity.”
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N Y Times 25:164 Ap 11 ’20 650w
BORDEN-TURNER, MARY. Romantic woman. *$2 (1½c) Knopf
20–15390
The story of a Chicago heiress who marries into the British aristocracy. It opens in Chicago, here lightly disguised as “Iroquois,” with the heroine’s own account of her democratic and rather hoydenish girlhood and an introduction to the childhood friends, Louise, Phyllis, Jim Van Orden and Pat O’Brien, who play a part in her later life. Perhaps she should have married Jim and settled down to a conventional and comfortable American life, but traveling with her father in India she falls romantically in love with a handsome cavalry officer, not knowing that he is heir to a dukedom. He, on his part, tho genuinely attracted to the girl, is not unconscious of her wealth. Marriage brings disillusionments and introduces the naïve American into a society whose standards are quite incomprehensible. There is considerable analysis of the two contrasting points of view and the story ends with a glimpse of the war.
“If you can find either constructive idea or positive personality in this book, I cannot; and therefore it remains for me, despite its clever elaboration of detail, that thing which Mr Hewlett rightly dismisses as not worth the name—a string of anecdotes, and no more.” H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 52:71 S ’20 560w
“Her picture of that city [Chicago] and its people is one of the very brilliant things in recent literature. Its temper is not harsh, but it has an edge and the edge cuts clean every time. Always she conveys the richness, the distinction, and the vigor of an arresting character and mind.”
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Nation 110:625 My 8 ’20 900w
“Miss Borden is not a little pretentious. She does not avoid trying to take more soul out than she has really put in. At the same time, she has a rich theme and she knows her theme. She has a real Englishman in hand and she knows him; and she has a vitality almost as good as the vitality of art. Hers is not the detachment of art or the sincerity of artistic self-expression. It is the drive of emotion, the sincerity of a personal confession told in provisional terms.” F. H.
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New Repub 22:290 Ap 28 ’20 1650w
“Except where it becomes too involved the book is well written. Where its author has been most successful is in the atmosphere of dull discontent, of poignant disillusion, which she evokes throughout. There are neat characterizations, epigrammatic bits of phrasing and some passages written with unblushing frankness.”
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N Y Times 25:208 Ap 25 ’20 600w
“It is a book worth reading slowly and must be so read, for it is told in that peculiar manner practiced by Conrad. It is a taxing style, but it has its fascination.” M. K. Reely
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Pub W 97:1288 Ap 17 ’20 300w
“The work is characterized by contrasts, there are times when the climaxes and the description are vivid but between these there are pages where the writing is labored.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Je 6 ’20 220w
BOSSCHÈRE, JEAN DE. City curious. il *$3 Dodd
20–18755
A fantastic fairy tale, retold in English by F. Tennyson Jesse. Smaly and Redy, husband and wife, who live in a charming little white house, regret that they haven’t three daughters to occupy their little bedrooms. They wished for them and said a magic verse, but nothing happened. Then they set out to look for them. The story follows their strange adventures and describes the very curious people they meet. The grotesque pictures by the author are in keeping with the text.
Lit D p96 D 4 ’20 30w
“The Belgian turns of thought and imagery have been kept, but not at the expense of good English, as is sometimes the case in a translation.”
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Spec 125:745 D 4 ’20 260w
“It is really ingenuous of M. de Bosschère and his admirers to imagine him as qualified to draw for children. We should hide all his pictures from them.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p830 D 9 ’20 330w
BOSTWICK, ARTHUR ELMORE. Librarian’s open shelf; essays on various subjects. *$3 (3c) Wilson, H. W. 814
20–26990
“The papers here gathered together represent the activities of a librarian in directions outside the boundaries of his professional career, although the influences of it may be detected in them here and there.” (Preface) The book forms a companion volume to “Library essays” and like that volume is composed of collected papers and addresses prepared for various occasions. Partial list of contents: Do readers read? What makes people read? The passing of the possessive: a study of book titles; Selective education; The uses of fiction; The value of association; Modern educational methods; Some economic features of libraries; Simon Newcomb, America’s foremost astronomer; The companionship of books; Atomic theories of energy; The advertisement of ideas.
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Booklist 17:91 D ’20
BOSTWICK, ARTHUR ELMORE. Library essays. *$3 (2c) Wilson, H. W. 020
20–26991
The author celebrates his twenty-fifth year of librarianship with the publication of this volume of collected essays and addresses. They are arranged chronologically and “reflect to a certain extent the progress of library work during the past quarter century.” (Preface) Among the subjects covered are: Pains and penalties in library work; How librarians choose books; The work of the small public library; Lay control in libraries and elsewhere; The whole duty of a library trustee, from a librarian’s standpoint; Library statistics; The love of books as a basis for librarianship; The library as the educational center of a town; The librarian as a censor; How to raise the standard of book selection; The library and the business man; The future of library work; The library as a museum; The library and the locality. There is an index.
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Booklist 17:91 D ’20
BOSWELL, A. BRUCE. Poland and the Poles. il *$4 (4½c) Dodd 943.8
20–26318
The book is based on a study of Poland extending over many years and on personal contact with Poles during a five year’s residence of the author in their country. It is rather a series of essays than a continuous narrative and aims to treat Poland ethnically rather than politically and to describe all the region where Polish civilization is an important element. The contents are: The land; The people: National characteristics; The past of Poland; Divided Poland; Political parties; The country-side; Commerce and industry; The Ukraine question; Work at the foundations; The capital city; The great romantic poets; Modern currents in Polish literature; Education and science; Art and music; The war; Three maps, numerous illustrations and an index.
“A valuable contribution to the literature dealing with a country of which too little is known by the English reader. The Polish national characteristics are very clearly described.”
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Ath p1243 N 21 ’19 70w
“We would draw attention to Mr Boswell’s able summary of the Ukrainian problem.... On the other hand, although he devotes a whole chapter to Polish affairs during the war, his treatment of the Teschen question is, in our opinion, neither adequate nor correct. The purely informative sections of Mr Boswell’s book are accurate and thorough. His treatment of ethnographical matters is particularly good, while the two chapters he devotes to Polish literature cover a large amount of fresh ground.” P. S.
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Ath p1396 D 26 ’19 700w
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Booklist 16:240 Ap ’20
“One of the foremost impressions made by the book is that of the earnest effort of the author to give a truthful delineation of the country and the people of whom he writes. This after the long years of propaganda on the part of both Germany and Russia is too important to be overlooked.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p4 My 19 ’20 600w
Ind 104:68 O 9 ’20 50w
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R of Rs 61:446 Ap ’20 100w
“A readable and instructive book by a competent authority. The concluding chapter gives a useful sketch of Polish policy during the war which was very perplexing for western readers.”
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Spec 124:21 Ja 3 ’20 140w
“Unlike some supporters of the Polish cause he has no need to make up in sentiment what he lacks in knowledge; on the contrary his knowledge saves him from an unqualified and undiscriminating enthusiasm. The historical and political side is naturally the most important at the present time, and it is in regard to this that Mr Boswell’s work is most illuminating.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p659 N 20 ’19 850w
BOSWORTH, THOMAS OWEN. Geology of the mid continent oilfields. il *$3 Macmillan 553
20–26532
A work covering the oil fields of Kansas, Oklahoma and north Texas. A bibliography of four pages following the introduction shows the sources on which the author has drawn. The sections of the book are then devoted to: Geographical and geological situation of the mid continent oil region; History of the development of the mid continent oil region; Geological structure of the mid continent oilfield region; Geological history of the oil bearing deposits; Stratigraphy and the oilfields; The oil accumulations and their relation to geological structure; Character of the oil; The natural gas; Production of gasoline from natural gas; Salinity of oilfield waters; Some general conclusions. There is a folding map showing the region under consideration, with additional maps and drawings and eight illustrations from photographs. The book is indexed.
“Although the vocabulary of the book is more or less technical, nevertheless the lay reader may pursue it with comfort and understanding.” I: Lippincott
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Am Econ R 10:588 S ’20 410w
“There is certainly nothing strikingly new in Dr Bosworth’s book, and one further perceives in the work a strong undercurrent of bias to prevalent American opinion. For the rest, the book certainly contains some useful features.” H. B. Milner
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Nature 105:608 Jl 15 ’20 750w
Spec 125:541 O 23 ’20 160w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p639 S 30 ’20 60w
BOUCICAULT, RUTH BALDWIN (HOLT) (MRS AUBREY BOUCICAULT). Rose of Jericho. *$1.90 (1½c) Putnam
20–6707
Sheelah Brent was literally picked up by a traveling theatrical company and pressed into their services as substitute for a sick stage child, when she was only seven. For six weeks she thus tided over, with her earnings, a crisis in her family while her widowed father was ill from overwork. Later, when she came to choose her own course, it was the theater. She made good in her profession and in due time became an artist. Towards this latter development her love experiences as a woman helped. But it meant struggle and heartache for Sheelah and defiance of all conventions. Heart solitude once more overtakes her when her son Michael, the fruit of her first girlish and illicit love, is sent to school in England under the guidance of his English father. It is then that she finds so much solace in a book that she writes to the author for more spiritual help. With the coming of the war both Michael and his father volunteer and the latter rescues his son at the cost of his eyesight. The usual thing follows but not before Sheelah has turned to religion, Michael has been killed and she has discovered in her former lover the author of the helpful book.
“A good deal of the novel is well written, particularly the first two ‘books,’ but it drags badly toward the close.”
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N Y Times 25:170 Ap 11 ’20 350w
“The beginning is cleverly human, but the close is strongly-presented pathos of the type commonly classed as ‘sob stuff.’”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Je 13 ’20 190w
BOUCKE, OSWALD FRED. Limits of socialism. *$1.50 (1½c) Macmillan 335
20–7869
After having made it clear that he considers socialism as neither a chimera nor a crime the author makes an attempt at a sympathetic examination of its various tenets with a view to laying bare its weak points and demonstrating the necessity for amendments of the original creed. “Revision is a step in the onward march of civilization. Science itself is nothing if not continual growth and redefinition of terms, whose finest fruit is the advancement of humanism.” The book falls into two parts. Part 1, The limits in theory, contains: The problem; Karl Marx and the economists; The economic interpretation of history; Justice. Part 2, The limits in practice, contains: The limits in production; The limits in distribution; The limits in consumption; The limits in government; A petition. There are seven statistical tables and an index. The author is professor of economics at Pennsylvania state college.
“In regard to the program of socialism, the author makes a worthy contribution to a much neglected subject in that he points out the difficulties which socialists will encounter in trying to realize their ideals, and the limited success which they are likely to attain.” J. E. Le Rossignol
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Am Econ R 10:860 D ’20 780w
Booklist 17:50 N ’20
“When he leaves the field of economics he is less convincing. The book will prove rather stiff exposition to the general reader, who will be annoyed at the needlessly scientific vocabulary.”
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Nation 111:304 S 11 ’20 340w
“The book is stimulating to thought because it is itself thoughtful, a model in manner and temper, a better antidote to socialism’s errors than denunciation or denial of the evils it seeks to cure.” E: A. Bradford
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N Y Times p12 S 12 ’20 2000w
“There is much good stuff in the book, some shrewd ideas, and some sound generalizing, which if turned into language understanded of the people would be valuable.”
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Review 3:112 Ag 4 ’20 320w
R of Rs 62:672 D ’20 20w
BOULENGER, JACQUES. Seventeenth century. *$3.50 (2c) Putnam 944.03
20–26872
This work forms one of the volumes of the National history of France. It is preceded by “The century of the renaissance” by L. Batiffol, published in 1916, and is followed by “The eighteenth century,” by Casimir Stryienski, also issued in 1916. Contents: The youth of Louis XIII; Richelieu; The preponderance of France (1630–1643); The kingdom under Louis XIII; The beginnings of society and of classic literature; The Fronde and Mazarin; The “Roi-soleil”; The glorious years, 1661–1678; Decline; Religious matters; Sunset; The kingdom under Louis XIV; The great age. References come at the end of the chapters and there is an index.
“Distinctly a readable book.”
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Booklist 17:64 N ’20
“This new presentation of the greatest period in the history of France is brilliantly written.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 24 ’20 700w
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Ind 104:217 N 13 ’20 50w
“Boulenger has undertaken a difficult task, and he has done it well. Though treating the general history of a whole century in some detail, he is neither superficial nor tiringly technical. One feature of his book is especially commendable; the author’s desire to be non-partisan. It may be well to bring out the fact that, for the real or quasi-specialist, Boulenger treats his subject too much from the outside, and thus fails to emphasize sufficiently at least one feature of much importance for the proper understanding of the epoch he treats.”
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Review 3:503 N 24 ’20 1900w
R of Rs 62:223 Ag ’20 30w
“His portraits of Richelieu, Mazarin, Colbert and the great King himself are vivid and unforgettable. M. Boulenger is a learned historian but, like so many French scholars, he wears his learning lightly.”
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Spec 125:344 S 11 ’20 150w
“M. Boulenger’s subject is relatively simple, but it is a big one, and it has the disadvantage of being hackneyed. The best praise that can be given to his book is to say that it is on a level with M. Madelin’s ‘French revolution,’ and superior to any other volumes in this attractive series.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p436 Jl 8 ’20 700w
BOULNOIS, HENRY PERCY. Modern roads. il *$5.75 (*16s) Longmans 625.7
(Eng ed 20–9208)
“The author was a member of the British Advisory engineering committee appointed in 1910 as a result of the increasing dust nuisance due to poorly constructed roads. Much information regarding British conditions was obtained and standard specifications produced. This book covers in a comprehensive way the subjects of motor traffic, the various kinds of roads and details of construction, waves and corrugations, slippery streets, with appendices relating to traffic regulations.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
N Y P L New Tech Bks p28 Ap ’20 70w
Spec 122:145 Ja 31 ’20 420w
BOURNE, RANDOLPH SILLIMAN.[2] History of a literary radical; and other essays. *$2 (3c) Huebsch 814
This collection of essays, reprinted from various magazines, is edited with an introduction by Van Wyck Brooks. The latter is a sketch of the author’s intellectual development which is corroborated in the first essay, “History of a literary radical.” What Bourne stood for, says Van Wyck Brooks, was a new fellowship of the youth of America, a league of youth, for the purpose of creating, out of the blind chaos of American society, a fine, free, articulate cultural order. “He, if any one, in the days to come, would have conjured out of our dry soil the green shoots of a beautiful and a characteristic literature: he knew that soil so well, and why it was dry, and how it ought to be irrigated!” (Introd.) The essays are: History of a literary radical; Our cultural humility; Six portraits; This older generation; A mirror of the Middle West; Ernest: or Parent for a day; On discussion; The puritan’s will to power; The immanence of Dostoevsky; The art of Theodore Dreiser; The uses of infallibility; Impressions of Europe; Trans-national America; Fragment of a novel.
“The essay which gives its title to the book is a piece of intellectual biography which is worth the careful study of everyone who is puzzled by the open revolt of the choicest intellects in our undergraduate bodies against the ideals and discipline of our universities. In ‘The Puritan’s will to power’ and in ‘Transnational America’ Randolph Bourne’s feelings were perhaps too deeply involved to permit him to attain the complete clarity and cogency usual with him. But the gently whimsical ‘Ernest, or Parent for a day’ would be a sufficient compensation for any imperfections there might be elsewhere in the book.” Alvin Johnson
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Freeman 25:293 F 2 ’21 880w
“It is impossible, in spite of all that makes it valuable, to read this book without a final sense of disappointment. Randolph Bourne’s interests were as wide as the world; his views were true and tempered; his style is simple, and it is effective chiefly because the words he uses are wise and exact rather than original; but his appeal, after all, is very narrow. He is the pure intellectual addressing the ‘younger intelligentsia,’ and his exclusiveness gradually becomes slightly tiresome even as the phrase quoted becomes irritating.” Freda Kirchwey
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Nation 111:619 D 1 ’20 1050w
BOURNE, RANDOLPH SILLIMAN. Untimely papers. *$1.50 (3½c) Huebsch 320.4
20–26319
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
“Written during America’s war preparations, these papers are well named untimely, for they question with the rigor of a clear minded, uncompromising pacifist and idealist, America’s attitude in combating the spirit of the war lord with war. They are an interesting portrayal of the courage in his belief of the author.”
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Booklist 16:219 Ap ’20
“Dying just when he should have come into his own, Randolph Bourne left behind him a set of brilliant essays on the political life of yesterday. These have been gathered and edited by James Oppenheim with a foreword perhaps a thought too laudatory. Yet much can be said for Mr Bourne’s keen insight and flashing style. His sentences are diamond cut, his reasoning clear even to the most undiscerning.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ap 28 ’20 240w
Reviewed by E. C. Parsons
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Dial 68:367 Mr ’20 1500w
“They are courageous papers in that they represent an unwincing defence of an attitude which can never have been at all popular. They are turned from protest into positive statement by a long and unfinished essay on the state, in which Mr Bourne was clearly searching to vindicate the ultimate rights of personality against the demands of authority outside. The whole essay is a superb cry of anger against a tyranny which he felt to be grinding. Yet I venture to think that the essay is in fact largely devoid of realistic basis. It has a specialized motivation which makes it valuable as the record of a personal experience, but impracticable as a contribution to political science.” H. J. Laski
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Freeman 1:237 My 19 ’20 1150w
“It is the book of a too sensitive spirit, dying brokenhearted in a world that seemed hopelessly insane and misdirected. Whatever we may think of the substance of these essays there can be no question of the delicate beauty of their expression or the evidence they give of the patrician dignity and courage which marked the author’s personality.”
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Ind 102:234 My 8 ’20 100w
“No educated, honest, able-bodied man can read the war essays of Randolph Bourne without some degree of admiration for their dead author and some sort of shame for himself. What we say now without being either brave or original he said then, not, perhaps, with the maturity of a Bertrand Russell or a Romain Rolland, but at least with fine courage and imagination. It may turn out that the cleanest picture of ourselves when we were not ourselves is here in these two hundred and thirty pages.”
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Nation 110:522 Ap 17 ’20 380w
“The unfinished fragment on the state, which was to have been so great a book, is still a keen and impressive analysis of social psychology.... And after the self-styled peace what would Randolph Bourne have added, what doubly bitter denunciation, to the temperate ironies of these searching papers? Perhaps nothing but the tolerant smile of one who foresaw.” Marion Tyler
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Socialist R 8:251 Mr ’20 550w
“Academically, his arguments may have been right, but it is obvious that they were uttered at a time when they must have proved the reverse of helpful. They may now be read with the dispassionate calm to which they are entitled, and they well repay careful consideration.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a F 22 ’20 220w
“He proved right in many of the pronouncements which can now be weighed against actual happenings; and for this reason there is hope that a kindly hearing may yet be given to the essays here reprinted.”
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Survey 44:291 My 22 ’20 150w
“These papers are overshadowed by the war; and as the war figured in Bourne’s outlook as a tragic impertinence which had rudely choked the young shoots of a new life in America with which his dearest hopes were bound up, there is a steady undertow of resentment which disturbs the balance of his thought. But all the same, these papers were worth printing as a historical document to show the generations to come how the war struck a profound and honest mind that had enthroned the spirit of life and was already seeing afar off the triumph of life over the forces of death.” R. R.
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World Tomorrow 3:157 My ’20 160w
“He could write—there is no question about that—and he could think, but these two fine qualities do not excuse the fact that his first principles are nearly always wrong.” M. F. Egan
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Yale R n s 10:188 O ’20 380w
BOWEN, WILLIAM.[2] Enchanted forest. il *$2.50 Macmillan
20–20549
In this series of fairy tales a forest is turned into paper, its brooks petrified and the voice of the birds stilled by the bad temper of a king. How the forest was redeemed by Bilbo the woodcutter’s son, who thereby won the princess; how the pair cured the old king’s temper through an “Interrupter” and his “Encourager”; and how little Prince Bojohn and his playmate Bodkin had many adventures with elves and fairies, is all told in these tales with delightful humor. The book is illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham.
BOWER, B. M., pseud. (BERTHA MUZZY SINCLAIR) (MRS BERTRAND WILLIAM SINCLAIR). Quirt. il *$1.75 (2½c) Little
20–8857
Lorraine Hunter lives in Los Angeles and has absorbed her ideas of the “West” from the movies. She has never known her father, a rancher in Idaho, but she pictures him as a cattle king and sees herself in the rôle of cattle king’s daughter. She finds the Quirt, Brit Hunter’s ranch, a very different place from her imaginings. It is one of the few small ranches allowed to survive in the shadow of the great Sawtooth cattle company’s holdings. Other small owners have been absorbed or have met “accidental” deaths, but Brit and his partner, as two highly respected old-timers, have remained unmolested. On the night of her arrival Lorraine loses her way and finds herself mixed up with one of the “accidents” referred to. She talks, and talk is dangerous to the Sawtooth. In the fight that follows Lone Morgan lines up with the Quirt but it is Swan Vjolmar, the seemingly innocent Swede, who plays the final card.
Booklist 16:350 Jl ’20
“The tale begins interestingly enough, but what with deeds of violence, and thunderstorms of a like violence, soon passes into the realms of mediocrity.”
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Boston Transcript p7 Je 23 ’20 300w
Cleveland p71 Ag ’20 60w
“The story moves briskly, with plenty of sensational incident, while all its detail, as always in B. M. Bower’s novels, is colorful and convincing.”
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N Y Times 25:22 Je 27 ’20 370w
Outlook 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 40w
Springf’d Republican p11a Je 20 ’20 200w
“A story of western life that is both fresh and plausible.”
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Wis Lib Bul 16:193 N ’20 160w
BOWMAN, ARCHIBALD ALLAN. Sonnets from a prison camp. *$1.50 Lane 811
20–8620
The author, professor of philosophy at Princeton university, says of these sonnets written in captivity that they “stood between my soul and madness,” and hopes that what has meant so much to him under one of the heaviest blows that can befall a soldier will have some general human interest. They are grouped as follows: In the field; The nadir; On the march; Rastatt; Hesepe; Thoughts of home; Influences; Watchwords and maxims; England and Oxford; Home thoughts once more; Interlude; England.
“When he begins to write of those reflective themes to which the sonnet form is fitted, Mr Bowman reveals himself as an interesting and talented writer. Mr Bowman’s chief defect is a certain stiltedness and overnobility of language, which sometimes leads him to talk of prosaic or trivial things with a pomp which does not become them.”
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Ath p429 Mr 26 ’20 180w
“Benvenuto Cellini also wrote sonnets in captivity: and they are as perfunctory and uninspired as are Professor Bowman’s.” R. M. Weaver
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Bookm 52:63 S ’20 70w
Reviewed by Marguerite Williams
N Y Times p24 Ag 22 ’20 100w
Sat R 129:110 Ja 31 ’20 200w
“Grave and eloquent sonnets, a little sententious and here and there a little prosaic.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p755 D 11 ’19 80w
BOYER, WILBUR SARLES. Johnnie Kelly. il *$2 (3c) Houghton
20–16092
Johnnie Kelly is a red-headed Irish boy of thirteen when he makes his debut at Public school 199, Amsterdam ave., the Bronx. The teachers regard him as a terror, but one instructor, Daniel Parks, takes enough interest in him to try to show him how he can be a leader. His various escapades fill the book, culminating in his being elected vice-president of the Amsterdam Republic, and receiving the wrist watch which is offered to the pupil who sells the most liberty bonds. Incidentally, he plays no small part in the romance that develops between Mr Parks and the pretty new teacher, Helen Bouck.
“Many schoolmasters are of a cut-and-dried sort, who cut circles in deep ruts and see nothing in life beyond the daily routine of the schoolroom. But Mr Boyer sees beyond this and has made a natural study of the boy and his characteristics. Not this alone, but he himself has a rare gift of humor, and the two are combined in ‘Johnnie Kelly.’”
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Boston Transcript p5 N 6 ’20 190w
“The efforts of a ‘Bronix’ policeman’s son to attain popularity in a Manhattan public school are amusing enough, and he and his young associates are human and healthy.” M. H. B. Mussey
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Nation 111:sup672 D 8 ’20 150w
BOYNTON, PERCY HOLMES. History of American literature. *$2.25 Ginn 810.9
20–3784
Omitting authors of minor importance the book has been written “with a view to showing the drift of American thought as illustrated by major writers or groups and as revealed by a careful study of one or two cardinal works of each.... The growth of American self-consciousness and the changing ideals of American patriotism have been kept in mind throughout.... As an aid to the student, there are appended to each chapter (except the last three) topics and problems for study, and book lists which summarize the output of each man, indicate available editions, and point to the critical material which may be used as a supplement, but not as a substitute, for first-hand study.” (Preface) Beginning with the 17th century, the contents contain chapters on the earliest verse, the poetry of the revolution and the early drama, all our American classics as: Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whittier, Longfellow, Lowell, Mrs Stowe and Holmes, the later poetry and Walt Whitman, the rise of fiction and contemporary drama. There are also two maps, three chronological charts, an appendix characterizing the most significant American periodicals and an index.
Boston Transcript p7 Ja 28 ’20 750w
“The style throughout is marked with a crispness and vivacity that are missing in too many textbooks in the same field. The author’s scientific knowledge and scholarship are winningly displayed on every page of his book.”
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School R 28:315 Ap ’20 220w
BRACKETT, CHARLES. Counsel of the ungodly. *$2 (3c) Appleton
20–13703
When Peter van Hoeven, scion of an old and wealthy New York family, lost his fortune at the age of sixty-two, he determined to earn his living as a butler. Luck brought him into a newly rich family, mother and daughter, of whom the mother is exuberantly vulgar and the daughter sensitively aware of their short-comings. Jacob Smith, alias Peter van Hoeven, becomes Mary’s guardian angel and she relies on him and confides in him more and more. When it is subsequently discovered that Mary is not Mrs Davison’s daughter, as the long lost husband with the real daughter turns up, Peter resolves to adopt Mary as his niece, trumping up a story of a lost brother Richard whose daughter she is. That she really is his niece becomes probable later. He now makes himself known to his family to whom he introduces his niece. He also undertakes to cure her of an undesirable love affair by first engineering her into and then out of an engagement by ungodly counsel. As the right fellow is waiting just around the corner it all ends well.
“Light and fairly amusing.”
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Booklist 17:70 N ’20
“It is a delightful atmosphere into which you are led in this swiftly moving story, where almost every one is pleasant to know.”
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Lit D p92 O 23 ’20 1550w
“The author’s flexible style and skill in drollery, distinctly above the average, makes one regret that he has not employed his literary ability in a less inconsequential plot.”
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N Y Times p24 Ag 29 ’20 330w
BRADFORD, GAMALIEL. Prophet of joy. *$1.50 Houghton 811
20–14773
This tale in verse relates the career of a millionaire’s son, a golden-haired vision of a boy, imbued with a faith that it was his mission to redeem the world with the gospel of joy. His first convert was a spinster cousin, Theodora, who undertook to stand between him and his stern father, to be ever his haven of refuge and to smooth the way for him generally. His exploits are many and fantastic. He meets all manner of people, the lowly and the artists, the pious and the rich, and he meets them all alike with laughter, gaiety, and love. With this love and joy in life he at last undertakes to assuage a striking mob and meets his death. The woman agitator whose method, unlike his, had been to stir up hatred and revenge as a means of salvation, but who had long loved the boy, vows before his body that violence must die and dedicates herself to “joy’s pure torch” and to love as the “Star of immortal hope to mortal men.”
“Characters, incidents and beauty of telling combine to make an interesting story and a poem of wide appeal.”
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Booklist 17:60 N ’20
“What fun the author must have had composing all this! He has not only worked with his subject, he has played with it. He keeps up his own and the reader’s courage, sometimes by whistling. It is one of the most original contributions to literature that I have seen, and I know nothing in American literature which it resembles. And it is written in the American, not the English language.” W: L. Phelps
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Bookm 52:170 O ’20 1400w
“When the ‘prophet of joy’ is killed in an attempt to mediate between a band of strikers and their employer, there is little sense of pathos because the character has been largely a creature of fancy and as such has engaged the reader’s attention rather than his affection. But Mr Bradford is fluent and dexterous and the rhymes carry one along through one hundred and ninety-three pages of easy and agreeable reading.” L. M. R.
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Freeman 2: S 29 ’20 300w
“He takes pains to show what it is that he is not talking about—Christian Science, Sunday school morality, silly altruism—but we are never sure what it is that he is talking about, and never sure that his is not the nambiest-pambiest of palliatives.”
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Nation 112:86 Ja 19 ’21 230w
“Mr Bradford is a poet, and a good one. Much of the present poem shows a deftness and a skill that place him high among writers of light verse. But in all fairness he must leave his ivory tower and acquaint himself with causes he dislikes before writing unfairly of them. The book, barring this one capital fault, is a capital one, and as such may be recommended.” C. W.
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N Y Call p10 S 12 ’20 700w
“It seems to the present reviewer, indeed, the most stimulating and absorbing volume that has appeared in American poetry since ‘The Congo’ and ‘Spoon River.’ It is not an imitation but a vital incarnation of the Byronic satire, proving that modern life may be dressed in an ancient mode at least as effectively as in the fashions of the hour. The ‘Prophet’ should find an audience for many years to come; should even, one is tempted to say, win a permanent place among the classics of lighter American verse.” C: W. Stork
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N Y Evening Post p5 O 23 ’20 1150w
“Nothing can be gayer, idler, saucier, easier, more winningly devious and desultory than his treatment of the eight-line Italian epic stanza. The story is agreeable, and the only point of failure is the point in which in a poem of this kind failure is most forgivable and least important—the nature and handling of the thesis.”
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Review 3:390 O 27 ’20 310w
BRADLEY, ARTHUR GRANVILLE. Book of the Severn. il *$5 Dodd 914.2
(Eng ed 21–834)
“The ancients had river gods; we too have them in our minds and feel their qualities. For rivers are things of life and personality, of soul and character.... Some of our river gods are men and some are women.... Father Thames has proclaimed his sex for all time; but the Severn has been a lady since literature began.” (Chapter 1) The author shows his readers not only the scenic but also the historic Severn and conducts him from its cradle in Plinlimmon to Gloucester with sixteen color plates to mark the way. There is no index.
“The author tells the story in ample detail and with full knowledge.”
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Outlook 126:202 S 29 ’20 60w
“In brief, this is a most entertaining volume. The coloured plates do not add much to its attractions.”
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Spec 124:465 Ap 3 ’20 150w
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Springf’d Republican p8 My 8 ’20 210w
“Mr Bradley has a mingled zest for scenery, for history, and for the humours and graces of life, which makes him one of the best of all-around companions on such a series of excursions, either afoot or in an armchair.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p209 Ap 1 ’20 950w
BRADLEY, GLENN DANFORD. Story of the Santa Fe. (Frontiers of America) il *$3 Badger, R: G. 656
20–6283
“The [story of the] railroad known as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe describes the beginnings and development of one of the most extensive of American railroad systems. Projected by the vision of Cyrus K. Holliday, and developed by the energy and financial support of other farseeing Americans, this railroad was built to develop the business which was originally conducted in primitive fashion from the Missouri river across the Kansas prairies and through the mountains to the old mining centre, Santa Fe. It is an account of what real men by the exercise of push and profanity have been able to accomplish, even in the face of tremendous obstacles and hindrances, both natural and those presented by the devilish ingenuity of man.”—Boston Transcript
“The story as written by Mr Bradley is very complete. The author has done his work very well.” J. S. B.
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Boston Transcript p4 Ap 7 ’20 800w
R of Rs 61:672 Je ’20 30w
BRADLEY, MRS MARY (HASTINGS). Fortieth door. *$1.75 (2c) Appleton
20–2264
A romantic adventure story staged in Cairo, Jack Ryder, altho young and good to look at, has managed to evade the society of girls and devote himself wholly to the fascinations of Egyptian tombs. He is bored unspeakably at thought of the masked ball to which his compatriot, Jinny Jeffries, is dragging him. But at the ball he meets Aimée, the alluring veiled figure who is to lead him so far on the road to romance. It is only when the dance is over, his heart already well lost, that he learns that her attire is no picturesque disguise donned for an evening, that she is a high born Moslem escaped for a few mad moments from the haremlik. Fate and ancient custom are against him, but he learns by accident that Aimée is of French birth, and youth, daring and good luck conspire on his side to bring all to a happy end.
Booklist 16:203 Mr ’20
“Here is a ‘romantic incident’ carried through from start to finish without a false note, though some of the harmony toward the end is, as is were, a trifle close.” H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 51:583 Jl ’20 220w
“Mrs Bradley transports us to the realms of romance. We realize that we are not moving among scenes of reality, but we do not greatly care.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Mr 24 ’20 160w
“The story is well thought out and interesting. And it has the merit of being smoothly written and vividly as well.”
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N Y Times 25:120 Mr 14 ’20 60w
“Cleverly told with plot of interest and original details well sustained throughout.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 7 ’20 280w
“A good adventure story.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p353 Je 3 ’20 90w
BRADLEY-BIRT, FRANCIS BRADLEY. Bengal fairy tales. il *$5 (7½c) Lane 398.2
20–22478
These fairy tales have been collected by the author from the natives of Bengal by word of mouth. They breathe the spirit of the East and are unlike any of western tales, as are also the six full-page illustrations in color by Abanindranath Tagore. The contents are in three parts, the first of which consists of the stories told by Bhabaghuray, the traveller.
“The really ideal illustrator of this kind of literature is, of course, the artist who is himself a product of the land which has given birth to it, and from this point of view the book illustrated by Mr Tagore is of special interest.”
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Int Studio 72:206 Ja ’21 60w
BRADY, LORETTA ELLEN. Green forest fairy book. il *$2 (4c) Little
20–18407
A book of new fairy tales into which the author has put much of the true fairy-land atmosphere. Some of the titles are: Dame Grumble and her curious apple tree: A tale of the Northland kingdom; The little tree that never grew up; The tale of Punchinello; The strange tale of the brown bear. The illustrations are by Alice B. Preston.
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Springf’d Republican p9a D 5 ’20 70w
BRAITHWAITE, WILLIAM STANLEY BEAUMONT, ed. Anthology of magazine verse for 1919; and Year book of American poetry. *$2.25 Small 811.08
Mr Braithwaite who omits from this annual volume his usual critical introductory essay takes occasion to call attention to Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “The valley of the shadow,” as a poem demanding careful attention and study. Other notable poems are Leonora Speyer’s “The queen bee flies,” Sara Teasdale’s “August moonrise,” Vachel Lindsay’s “The empire of China is crumbling down,” Lola Ridge’s “The everlasting return”; also poems by Witter Bynner, Scudder Middleton, Edna St Vincent Millay, Louis Untermeyer, Maxwell Bodenheim, Amy Lowell, and others.
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Booklist 16:194 Mr ’20
Reviewed by H: A. Lappin
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Bookm 51:212 Ap ’20 50w
“Taken as a whole, the ‘Anthology of magazine verse for 1919’ possesses distinct merit as a collection of contemporary verse. As a stepping-stone in the steady advance of American poetry it is even more interesting.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p6 Ja 14 ’20 1700w
“All in all the anthology is valuable not only as literature, but as a barometer of the spirit of the times.”
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Ind 103:185 Ag 14 ’20 280w
“There is poetry here of a grade we like to boast of being able to find every day in the magazines, that of Conrad Aiken, Sara Teasdale, Clement Wood, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and sundry others. There is singing here that is something more than verse, and there is verse that is something less than poetry.” R. P. Utter
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Nation 110:238 F 21 ’20 100w
“The year book is, if anything, more representative and satisfactory than its predecessors. The critical material at the back is more restrained than hitherto, and gains thereby. For those who wish to keep up with the best of the new poetry, the book is indispensable.” C. W.
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N Y Call p10 My 23 ’20 400w
“Critics have often told Mr Braithwaite that his collections of magazine verse can never have the highest value because the best American poetry is not published in magazines. This year, at any rate, that would seem to be untrue. It is doubtful whether anything better than Edwin Arlington Robinson’s ‘Valley of the shadow’ has been published in any of the books of the year.” Marguerite Wilkinson
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N Y Times 25:140 Mr 28 ’20 360w
“Mr Braithwaite’s annual ‘Anthology of magazine verse’ improves from year to year. The present volume is no exception to this rule. Particularly to be commended is the elimination of Mr Braithwaite’s usual attempt at rating the verse of the year according to merit.”
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Outlook 124:203 F 4 ’20 100w
“Mr Braithwaite has done his work with knowledge, with discernment, and with a liberality which sometimes compromises his discernment.”
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Review 3:236 S 15 ’20 300w
Springf’d Republican p8 Mr 9 ’20 750w
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Survey 43:554 F 7 ’20 150w
“He is too generous in his appreciation, including much that is excellent but not significant. As with every anthology, we quarrel with the selections. Though the book would gain by omissions, the general level is a high one.” E: B. Reed
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Yale R n s 10:199 O ’20 390w
BRAITHWAITE, WILLIAM STANLEY BEAUMONT, ed. Book of modern British verse. *$2 Small 821.08
20–1984
“A collection intended to acquaint American readers with contemporary British verse in the period which ‘began with an assault upon reality and a shock of symbols’ to be disturbed and perhaps re-directed by the forces of war.” (Booklist) “John Masefield’s ‘August, 1914,’ is included, and G. K. Chesterton’s booming ‘Lepanto,’ also favorite poems by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Walter de la Mare, J. C. Squires, Ralph Hodgson, Joseph Campbell, James Stephens, Thomas MacDonald and many others. William Butler Yeats, probably the greatest of all living makers of lyrics, is not represented. But it is generally understood that his work seldom appears in anthologies.” (N Y Times)
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Booklist 16:195 Mr ’20
“It has Masefield’s ‘Biography,’ ‘August, 1914,’ and ‘Cargoes’; Belloc’s ‘South country’; Brooke’s five splendid sonnets; Julian Grenfell’s ‘Into battle’—finest of all the ‘war poems’; de la Mare’s ‘The listeners.’ And these are only a few of the memorable things included.” H: A. Lappin
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Bookm 51:211 Ap ’20 700w
“Due to something more incomprehensible than his taste he has failed signally. ‘The book of modern British verse’ begins as a misnomer; it ends as a misrepresentation.” L: Untermeyer
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Freeman 1:69 Mr 31 ’20 1100w
“It exhibits the period fairly enough without characterizing it, and with this book as with other anthologies, even the best, the critical reader will miss old friends and make new ones.” R. P. Utter
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Nation 110:238 F 21 ’20 80w
“A pleasant and interesting little book. Mr Braithwaite has over-emphasized the importance of Cicely Fox Smith’s verse.... Nor do the ‘Songs from the evil wood’ represent Lord Dunsany’s poetic talent as well as would a passage from his imaginative and often beautiful prose.” Marguerite Wilkinson
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N Y Times 25:140 Mr 28 ’20 160w
“The sheer beauty and spontaneity of these poems must surprise pleasantly those who have believed this period of social unrest and of war incapable of producing art of the highest order.” B. L.
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Survey 43:554 F 7 ’20 150w
BRAND, MAX. Trailin’! *$1.75 (3c) Putnam
20–6637
A wild-west story that opens in Madison Square garden, where Anthony Woodbury accepts a challenge and rides a man-killing horse. Shortly after, the man Anthony has always regarded as his father is killed and Anthony goes West to follow the trail of the slayer and learn the secret of his birth. With the foolhardiness of a tenderfoot he takes unrealized risks, but his skill and daring always carry him through, and he is successful too in winning a western bride.
“The story undeniably grips.”
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Ath p118 My 28 ’20 100w
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Booklist 16:311 Je ’20
BRANOM, MENDEL EVERETT. Project method in education. (Library of educational methods) *$1.75 Badger, R. G. 371.3
19–15249
In his first chapter on “The nature of the project method,” the author discusses the term “project” and the different meanings assigned to it, saying, “There is no fundamental difference of opinion concerning the meaning of the word, but the difference lies in the degree of elasticity that should be permitted. In every case a unit of purposeful, intellectualized activity is involved.” The chapters that follow take up: The evolution of the project as an educational concept; The relation of the project method to instincts; The social basis for the project method; The significance of motivation; Teaching by projects; Learning by projects; The project-question; The project-exercise; The project-problem; Manual or physical projects; Mental projects not involving manual activity; The project method in history; The project method in geography; The reorganization of the course of study; The preparation of the teacher. There are twelve pages of references and an index.
“A valuable discussion of the project method.”
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Cleveland p19 F ’20 20w
“The author sets forth in clear terms one of the existing needs in education, namely, to get away from the ‘bookish, theoretical education of former days.’ There are times, however, when his distinctions are not exactly clear to the reader.”
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School R 28:234 Mr ’20 900w
BRASOL, BORIS L. Socialism vs. civilization. *$2 Scribner 335
20–4141
As indicated by the title, the object of the book is to prove that socialism is the most dangerous enemy to civilization and that socialist agitation “threatens to ruin not only the existing order but also every attempt to improve it and to insure social progress and general prosperity.” The author claims to be a close student of Marx whose economic and social theories he attempts to explain and to refute. Professor Thomas Nixon Carver of Harvard university writes an introduction, and the contents are: Modern socialism—its theories and aims; Criticism of the Marx theory; The great socialistic experiment in Russia; Socialist explanations of the failure in Russia; Socialistic agitation in Europe and America; Social revolution or social reconstruction.
“Mr Brasol’s book gives a just though not a neutral estimate of the character and aims of modern socialism.” J. E. LeRossignol
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Am Econ R 10:624 S ’20 800w
“Brasol’s treatise is a valuable criticism of radical socialism, it fails to meet in a convincing way, the issue as raised by Laidler, Spargo, Vandervelde, Rauschenbusch and others, although the constructive proposals given in the last chapter might to some extent at least mitigate the admitted evils of the present system.” L. M. Bristol
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Am Pol Sci R 14:520 Ag ’20 200w
Booklist 16:260 My ’20
“He makes out his case by infinite omissions, by a near-sightedness that throws the whole subject out of proportion, and by a plentiful use of epithets like ‘soap-box agitator’ and ‘parlour Bolshevist’; and his constructive suggestions are of an incredible banality.”
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Freeman 1:71 Mr 31 ’20 240w
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Nation 110:860 Je 26 ’20 340w
“The chief moral to be drawn from the volume is that he wastes his time who tries to interpret present-day social movements without being at least sympathetic with the spirit of social unrest and demand for change.” H: P. Fairchild
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N Y Evening Post p16 Ap 24 ’20 850w
“His book is full of ammunition for those who feel a call to oppose propaganda to propaganda, and of reassurance to those who consider the facts disquieting.”
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N Y Times p10 N 21 ’20 920w
Outlook 125:124 My 19 ’20 650w
“In offering opinion on his book a sharp distinction should be drawn between the first four chapters and the last two; the book would be twice as good with the last two eliminated.”
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Review 2:491 My 8 ’20 380w
“While it cannot be recommended to the opponent of socialism as an altogether reliable armory of arguments, the book, nevertheless, often hits the nail and should prove stimulating and useful to the convinced Socialist and the impartial student.” B. L.
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Survey 44:121 Ap 17 ’20 200w
BREARLEY, HARRY CHASE. Time telling through the ages. il *$3 Doubleday 529
20–1749
“When the Ingersolls of watchmaking fame desired to celebrate the quarter-century of their experience in that industry, a book relating the evolution of time-keeping devices was adopted as a fitting memorial and as an anniversary contribution to horological art and science. The anniversary occurred in war time and the book had to wait until the establishment of peace. It is a handsomely illustrated volume, ‘Time telling through the ages,’ and bears the name of Henry C. Brearley as author, although credit is given Miss Katherine Morrissey Dodge for the research work necessary. The book relates the development then of watchmaking in England, France, Switzerland and America, past the days of the guilds and of handmade watches to the era of machine made standard parts at a price within the reach of everybody. Among the illustrations are many photographs of rare and curious old watches in the museums of the world. There is also included as an appendix forty-two pages of encyclopedic dictionary, defining and often illustrating all the terms pertaining to watchmaking and all the names of people identified through the ages with the progress and perfecting of the art.”—Springf’d Republican
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N Y Times p23 Je 27 ’20 720w
“Most ingenious compilation. The illustrations are numerous and interesting.”
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Review 3:478 N 17 ’20 200w
St Louis 18:243 O ’20 50w
“The story is interesting and valuable.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 1 ’20 550w
BREASTED, JAMES HENRY, and ROBINSON, JAMES HARVEY. History of Europe, ancient and medieval. il $1.92 Ginn 940
20–5789
A work based on the authors’ “Outlines of European history.” “Chapters 1–20 have been completely rewritten, simplified, and condensed; and more space has been given to Roman history and less to that of the ancient Orient.... As for the rest of the work, much condensation has been effected and the details of presentation have been reconsidered from beginning to end.” (Preface) The bibliographies have also been revised. Part 1 of the book, Earliest man, the Orient, Greece and Rome, is by Professor Breasted. Part 2, Europe from the break-up of the Roman empire to the French revolution, is by Professor Robinson.
Booklist 17:165 Ja ’21
“The writer sees no reason why the book should not meet with immediate success, for it is without question one of the best in a somewhat barren field.”
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School R 28:475 Je ’20 250w
BREBNER, PERCY JAMES (CHRISTIAN LYS, pseud.). Ivory disc (Eng title, Gate of temptation). *$1.75 (1½c) Duffield
20–10366
Dr Bruce Oliver had, until nearly his fortieth year, found women only an interesting study, and had not regarded them sentimentally. But when Estelle Bocara came into his life, his heart awakened. She felt and responded to his love, but she was already married to an eastern professor and mystic. As their acquaintance grew and their intimacy developed, Dr Oliver found Estelle at times to be under the strange mesmeric power of her husband, when she committed crimes of which she had no knowledge. Thinking her mental condition due to physical injury received in her childhood, Dr Oliver performed a successful operation on her brain. In an effort to complete the cure, Oliver put himself in Bocara’s power, with almost disastrous results. Fortunately for him, another victim of Bocara’s cruelty freed them both, and the obstacle to marriage with Estelle was removed. The ivory disk of the title is the amulet, the gift of Estelle which Oliver believes saved him from death.
“To become an adept in the craft of storytelling sometimes means advancement in literary style; had it been so in Mr Brebner’s case he would not have opened one of his chapter-sections with such a passage as ‘The crisp air of the morning had not yet let go of the world.’”
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Ath p750 Je 4 ’20 160w
“‘The ivory disc’ will furnish the reader with a harmless kind of diversion and will make no extortionate demands either upon his attention or upon his intellect.”
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N Y Times p28 Ag 15 ’20 360w
“The book can be recommended to lovers of sensation and cheap sentimental versions of occultism.”
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Sat R 130:164 Ag 21 ’20 90w
Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 18 ’20 170w
“A distressing story. Apparently the author wants to make our flesh creep. But, somehow, he does not.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p305 My 13 ’20 110w
BRERETON, FREDERICK SADLIER. Great war and the R. A. M. C. *$6 Dutton 940.475
(Eng ed 20–285)
“‘The great war and the R. A. M. C. takes up the work of the Royal army medical corps on the western front during the first months of the war and relates with full detail the whole story of its efforts, failures and achievements, with especial reference to the service of its field ambulances.” Springf’d Republican
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Ath p1275 N 28 ’19 120w
Springf’d Republican p8 Jl 10 ’20 50w
“His succinct accounts of the various actions and manœuvres are just sufficient to support the main thread of the story without diverting the interest from it.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p4 Ja 1 ’20 1400w
BRIDGE, SIR FREDERICK. Westminster pilgrim. il *$8 Gray, H. W.
19–14604
“This bulky but entertaining book recounts a great deal more than the story of a pilgrimage to Westminster. It might excusably claim to be the history of the Abbey itself during the last half-century—coronations, funerals, choral functions, musical services, etc., having all the prominence that the organist would naturally consider their due. First and foremost, it is an autobiography of the chatty gossipy order; the life-story of a singularly busy musician who rose from the ranks, who came into contact with many of the leading men of his time, and who by his own showing never lost an opportunity for profiting by his talents or his peculiar fund of ready wit and jocularity. But in addition to this it deals now and again with serious musical topics, more particularly, of course, those which have come within the orbit of the author’s own wide professional experience.”—Sat R
“On the whole, however, the book suffers from those very excellences which make Sir Frederick so eminently suited to his office.”
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Ath p396 My 30 ’19 600w
Brooklyn 12:67 Ja ’20 40w
“The Illustrations are of exceptional interest, and the whole book is excellently got up.”
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Sat R 127:508 My 24 ’19 1200w
“The emeritus-organist of Westminster has led a full and successful life, and the record of his professional activities makes excellent reading, for Sir Frederick Bridge is an admirable raconteur.”
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Spec 122:665 My 24 ’19 1350w
“He records meetings with a few great men outside his profession—Dickens, Tennyson, Browning; but it seems that the organist of the Abbey is most likely to meet great men at their funerals. His friends who were not great in the worldly sense are much more entertaining.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p233 My 1 ’19 1100w
BRIDGE, NORMAN. Marching years. il *$2.50 (3c) Duffield
20–18955
The above title is given to the autobiography of a noted physician of New England origin, the eighth generation in direct descent of Deacon John Bridge, to whom a bronze statue has been erected near Harvard university. Dr Bridge was graduated from the Chicago Medical college, served on the teaching staff of Rush Medical college for two decades and is the author of many publications on medical subjects, a list of which is appended to the text.
BRIDGES, ROBERT. October. *$1.50 Knopf 821
“‘October, and other poems’ does not bring anything particularly new to bear on Mr Bridges’s poetry. Its principal value is to show the poet laureate’s reactions to the war.” (N Y Times) “The best that we get is a quiet sound to arms in ‘Wake up, England,’ a tribute to victory in ‘Der tag: Nelson and Beatty,’ a ghostly dialogue between the victorious admirals of the past and present, some stanzas on ‘Britannia victrix,’ in the orthodox tradition of rehearsing the spirit of England’s greatness, some tributes to personal friends who were lost in the war, laurel-verse for the great soldier Lord Kitchener, sonnets to America in joining the fight for liberty, praise for the dominions for throwing in their lot with the mother of the brood, and other such occasional verses.” (Boston Transcript)
“The disappointment, if we may call it disappointment, of this small book is that so much of its room is taken up by poems of a more or less official inspiration. Nothing he writes, be the occasion never so official or the inspiration tenuous, is marred by a touch of shoddy; the dignity of poetry is safe in his hands. This dignity has no pomposity. It is only a name for the austerity and candour that mark the true artist.”
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Ath p472 Ap 9 ’20 640w
Reviewed by S: Roth
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Bookm 52:361 D ’20 160w
Reviewed by W: S. Braithwaite
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Boston Transcript p4 Ag 28 ’20 1150w
“The collection is hardly representative of Mr Bridges’ best work, but at its least, it is good verse.”
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Dial 69:664 D ’20 80w
“Mr Bridges was created to do small things in poetry, and to do them very well.”
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Nation 112:86 Ja 19 ’21 80w
“The one drawback to Mr Bridges’s poetry is a lack of fire. It all seems conscious, coldly worked out to a well-defined formula. He carves carefully and with meticulous skill the clever cameos which he offers the public.” H. S. Gorman
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N Y Times p13 Ag 29 ’20 950w
“The name ‘October’ which the poet laureate has given to his new book of poems is exceedingly appropriate. There is the perfection and completion of autumn about them, the sense of something rounded and finished, a matured and considered beauty.”
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Spec 124:557 Ap 24 ’20 320w
BRIDGES, VICTOR. Cruise of the “Scandal,” and other stories. *$1.75 (2c) Putnam
A volume of short stories by an English writer who introduces them with graceful apologies to “the countrymen of Edgar Allan Poe and O. Henry.” Mr Bridges is author also of “The lady from Long Acre” and the stories are written in the light-hearted manner of that novel. Among the fifteen titles are: The cruise of the “Scandal”; The man with the chin; Tony and his conscience; With the conquering turkey; A bit of Old Chelsea; Full-back for England; The bronze-haired girl; His reverence.
“A cluster of very delightful short stories.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Ag 7 ’20 400w
“Here is an English author who is satirical, keenly observant and above all humorous.”
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Ind 103:323 S 11 ’20 60w
“Most of the tales are amusing, the author’s style is light and readable, and several of the stories reflect pleasantly the easy-going existence of the well-to-do young English bachelor as it was before the war.”
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N Y Times 25:23 Jl 18 ’20 450w
“The short story which gives this book its title is charming and gay. Some of the others are flippant or rummy.”
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Outlook 125:615 Ag 4 ’20 20w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 3:253 S 22 ’20 200w
BRIGGS, THOMAS HENRY. Junior high school. (Riverside textbooks in education) *$2 Houghton 373
20–13790
A work by a professor of education, Teachers college, Columbia university. “The purpose of the book is to present the facts, so far as they can be ascertained, concerning the newly established junior high schools, or intermediate schools, and at the same time to set forth a constructive program for the reorganization if it is to be educationally effective.” (Preface) The author states that he has visited personally more than sixty junior high schools, that he has supplemented the information thus obtained by a study of the literature of the subject, by questionnaire returns, conferences and correspondence. He has also acted as educational advisor of the Speyer experimental junior high school in New York. Contents: The need of reorganization of schools; The development of the junior high school; Claims and objections; Organization; Special functions of the junior high school; Curricula and courses of study; Methods of teaching; Teachers and salaries; The administration of the schedule and of class units; Social organization and control; Buildings and grounds; Costs; Results; In conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
Boston Transcript p5 S 4 ’20 260w
“The book will serve a moderately useful purpose as a textbook for classes of beginners who need to be taught some definition of the movement, but will probably do little to influence practice in the present or the future.”
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El School J 21:70 S ’20 600w
BRIGHAM, ALBERT PERRY. Cape Cod and the Old Colony. il *$3.50 (6c) Putnam 974.4
20–14826
The book considers the Cape in its entirety: geologically, geographically, and historically. We are told of its relation to the glacial invasion, of its changing shoreline, due to the corroding and depositing force of the waves, and “how the first colonists and those who followed them have adjusted themselves to the mobile conditions of nature and of man.” (Preface) Contents: The Pilgrims around the bay; The origin of the Cape; The changing shoreline; Old Colony names and towns; On the land; The harvest of the waters; Roads and waterways; Three centuries of population; The environment of the sea; illustrations, index and maps.
“Clear, informative, and without distinction of style. Good photographs and charts.”
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Booklist 17:26 O ’20
“It is sort of glorified geography, with a good deal that is both interesting and instructive.” W. A. Dyer
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Bookm 52:126 O ’20 50w
“One thing at least is certain—he has presented science in a garb that does not repel the layman, and that in itself is always in the nature of an achievement.” B. R. Redman
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N Y Times p9 Ja 9 ’21 260w
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Outlook 126:202 S 29 ’20 60w
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Review 3:539 D 1 ’20 120w
BRIGHOUSE, HAROLD. Marbeck inn. *$1.75 (2c) Little
20–3713
Sam Branstone’s cradle had stood in a laborer’s cottage. Through a deed of heroism in his boyhood he secured a grammar school education and his face was set towards success. A loveless marriage to an extravagant woman emphasizes the necessity for money. The means he employs for getting it are not of the highest. To business he adds politics and the ambition for power. Then in the capacity of his secretary, comes Effie, the woman of beauty and charm and a talent for self-sacrifice. She loves Sam and resolves to sacrifice herself for him by putting the beauty, that has never found a place there, into his life. During a week at Marbeck inn together, she changes his outlook and as he sinks in the social scale he rises spiritually.
Ath p573 Ap 30 ’20 850w
“A book full of clever detail but somehow without any final whereabouts. For myself, I am unable to like or believe much in either Sam or his Effie, and can’t feel that I ought to have been bothered with them, despite the craftsmanship of their sponsor.” H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 51:343 My ’20 150w
“‘The Marbeck inn’ is, as far as we know, Mr Brighouse’s first novel. In it may be found certain of the characteristics discoverable in all his plays, a shrewd knowledge of and a censorious attitude towards the life and the people of his own section of England, and a contempt for the ruling powers of both city and nation. The basis of Mr Brighouse’s art, both as dramatist and novelist, is character.” E. F. E.
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Boston Transcript p8 F 28 ’20 1550w
“The unregenerate Sam and his world have a magnificent solidity and lifelikeness. His formidable and admirable mother, his moral slattern of a wife, the Rev. Peter Struggles, George Chapple, and even Mr Alderman Verity—these people are authentic, vivid, and memorable.”
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Nation 110:393 Mr 20 ’20 380w
“As a study of certain phases of life in and about Manchester, this English author’s new book is to be commended for its faithfulness. That the story is decidedly sordid in tone may be the consequence of its environment. Certainly there are few pleasant people among its characters.”
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N Y Times 25:148 Mr 28 ’20 340w
“The action of the story is rapid and free. It has a dash that savors somehow of the movies, and the characters are perhaps equally moviesque—bold in outline without much delicacy of shading. One feels that one has to take the author’s word for their third dimension—all except Anne, the watchful mother, and Peter Struggles, loved pastor of St Mary’s.” Marguerite Fellows
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Pub W 97:602 F 21 ’20 260w
“One agrees with the author that Sam is worth staying with until the moment arrives when he is to discover that he has a soul. On the other hand, exception will be taken to Mr Brighouse’s method of showing Sam his soul.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Ap 11 ’20 550w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p241 Ap 15 ’20 100w
BRIGHOUSE, HAROLD. Three Lancashire plays. $2.50 French, S. 822
20–13324
“The first of the three plays, ‘The game,’ proposes to be about football. The true subject of the play is parents and children. The daughter of the ‘gentleman’ rebels against her father and wants to marry the footballer; the footballer clings to his stern old mother and will not marry the girl unless he may keep his mother. And naturally the girl realizes that that would never ‘work’ and gives up her lover. ‘The northerners’ is a play about the introduction of machine-looms and the new tyranny of the masters of labour in the Lancashire of 1820. ‘Zack’ is a character comedy.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“The first two plays in the volume are hardly adaptable to use in America, but ‘Zack’ will be a valuable addition to the repertory of amateur groups.”
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Drama 10:355 Jl ’20 170w
“His plots are neither simple and exact, nor, on the other hand, marvels of good carpentry. They are either too weak or too strong, invertebrate or too dependent on situation. But ... we have here three plays in which Brighouse’s keen sense of good stage-humour, and his knack for observing character are applied to a people and a life that he could know honestly at first hand.” K. M.
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Freeman 1:525 Ag 11 ’20 650w
“Mr Brighouse’s touch and temper are equally uncertain. In ‘The northerners’ his action is ingenious in the bad and artificial sense, and flares into the noisiest melodrama in the last act. ‘The game’ is a far sounder and less pretentious play than ‘The northerners’; ‘Zack’ is negligible.” Ludwig Lewisohn
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Nation 111:18 Jl 3 ’20 200w
“‘The game’ is, perhaps, a trifle too local, with an appeal to a more specialized audience whose chief interest lies in the fair play of organized sport. It is a relief to discover in the last play, ‘Zack,’ amusement for its own sake.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 11 ’20 580w
“As for ‘Zack,’ it cries out for acting. But the dialogue and the situations go for little in print.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p121 F 19 ’20 900w
“All show a sense of the theatre, good situations, lively talk (and, one might exclaim, ‘What more could you ask, in Heaven’s name?’), but for all this they are at best but commonplace.”
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Theatre Arts Magazine 4:350 O ’20 140w
BRINKLEY, FRANK, and KIKUCHI, DAIROKU. History of the Japanese people. il *$4.50 Doran 952
This history dates from the earliest times to the end of the Meiji era and has been compiled with the collaboration of Baron Kikuchi who also contributes the foreword. He claims that among the many books on Japan there has not yet been a history of Japan so essential to the proper understanding of Japanese problems. Besides that part of the contents devoted especially to dynastic and political history there are chapters on: The historiographer’s art in old Japan; Japanese mythology; Rationalization; Origin of the Japanese nation; Language and physical characteristics; Manners and customs in remote antiquity; The capital and the provinces; Recovery of administrative authority by the throne; Manners and customs of the Heian epoch; Art, religion, literature, customs, and commerce in the Kamakura period; Foreign intercourse, literature, art, religion, manners, and customs in the Muromachi epoch; Christianity in Japan; Revival of the Shintō cult; Wars with China and Russia. The appendix contains: The constitution of Japan; The Anglo-Japanese agreement, 1905; and the Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905. There is a list of Japanese works consulted; an index; 150 illustrations engraved on wood by Japanese artists; half-tone plates and maps.
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Bookm 51:633 Ag ’20 20w
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Springf’d Republican p8 D 21 ’20 460w
BRINTON, REGINALD SEYMOUR. Carpets. $1 Pitman 677
20–14784
This volume of Pitman’s Common commodities and industries series comprises the following chapters: History; Materials; Dyeing; Hand-made carpets; Brussels; Wilton; Axminster; Chenille; Tapestry; Ingrain; Design and colour; Statistics; Employers and employed; Conclusion. There are thirty illustrations and an index.
BROOKE, STOPFORD AUGUSTUS. Naturalism in English poetry. *$3 Dutton 821.09
20–20661
“These studies deal with that reaction from artificial and conventional poetry of the eighteenth century which began with Thomson, grew through a transition period of some fifty years (1730–1780) into the ‘naturalistic’ poetry of Burns and Cowper, reached its height with Wordsworth, and died with Shelly, Keats, and Byron. They are based on the Ms. of a course of lectures delivered by the late Stopford Brooke at University college, London, in 1902. The later chapters of the book are also printed from Mss., except two, which appeared after the author’s death in the Hibbert Journal.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“There was, perhaps, no great originality in Stopford Brooke’s criticism; and in reading his particular book one sighs occasionally for a page or two of precise discussion of the keyword in the title. On the other hand it has the redeeming salt of a genuine humanity, an enthusiasm which, if it attaches sometimes to what seems to us only diluted poetry, is in the main convincing—a book, in short, which can be read with pleasure rather than exhilaration, and which, considered as lectures delivered to a university audience, is admirable.”
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Ath p792 Je 18 ’20 600w
“Mr Brooke’s book is one that should be widely read, for it gives new life to these men [Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron].” H. S. Gorman
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N Y Times p14 Ja 16 ’21 400w
“While Stopford Brooke has written good criticism, he has not written great criticism; for a criticism which, while dealing with human values, does not really seek for the larger reconciling ideas, and which always in a pinch leans toward a theological standard cannot be called great.”
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No Am 213:284 F ’21 1300w
“Though the present work penetrates deeply into the spirit that animated the naturalistic poets, it is marred by the use of many outworn phrases, examples of tautology, and an irritating loquacity that might be forgiven in a lecturer, but cannot be condoned in the printed page.”
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Sat R 130:141 Ag 14 ’20 550w
Springf’d Republican p8 N 27 ’20 300w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p305 My 13 ’20 70w
BROOKS, ALFRED MANSFIELD. From Holbein to Whistler; notes on drawing and engraving. il *$7.50 Yale univ. press 767
20–15784
“Starting with the ‘Beginnings of line engraving in Italy,’ Mr Brooks comments on the line engraving and wood in the North, talks upon the work of such men as Mantegna, Marcantonio, Raimondi, Lucas of Leyden, Durer and Holbein; gives an account of the theory and progress of etching through Rembrandt, Van Dyck to Claude Lorraine; mezzotint engraving as exemplified by Claude Lorraine and Richard Earlom, and concludes on the famous collection of engravings and designs by Turner known as ‘The liber studiorum.’ The volume is illustrated in both line and shadow, with reproductions of the famous drawings of the artists dealt with.”—Boston Transcript
“Ease and dignity mark the style.”
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Booklist 17:59 N ’20
Boston Transcript p5 S 4 ’20 470w
“If the reader may occasionally prefer a different path from the one taken by Mr Brooks, that is in measure a matter of personal predilection. The same may be said of the choice of prints for discussion. However, in the end the book stimulates, and exhibits good common sense.”
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Review 3:625 D 22 ’20 450w
“On the whole, it is an interesting and instructive book, a little verbose, but full of shrewd observations and sound though unoriginal generalities. It is neither sufficiently concise nor sufficiently ample for very general use; however, the patient reader will be amply repaid for the reading.” R: Bassett
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Springf’d Republican p7a D 26 ’20 580w
BROOKS, CHARLES STEPHEN. Luca Sarto. il *$1.75 (2c) Century
20–3883
Fourteen hundred and seventy-one is the time of this story of adventure and romance, as told by the hero, Luca Sarto, in the first person. Here is his own outline of the events: “We shall see, when all is done, how a man fled wisely from his enemies, the Orsini; how he came to France; how later, in good time, he wooed and kissed a lady; how, after a night that was candled by stars and danger, the morning sun was witness to their betrothal. I end with priest and blessing. No need of candle then.”
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Booklist 16:242 Ap ’20
“Remarkable for the fidelity with which the author preserves the atmosphere of the middle ages.”
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Bookm 52:369 D ’20 60w
“From the confinement and necessary limitations of the essay-form, Mr Brooks has emerged with much credit, to give us a glorious adventure bubbling with spirits, and plausible withal.” R. D. W.
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Boston Transcript Mr 13 ’20 800w
“Full of intrigue and action, and related in a quaint phraseology full of color and metaphor.”
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Cleveland p50 My ’20 110w
“It has the sparkle of brightly burnished armour and a pulse-quickening pace. The manner of the telling is not without a touch of swagger, spiced with the salt flavour of the modern point-of-view, humorous and whimsical.”
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Dial 68:664 My ’20 80w
“The book, a first novel, is an entertaining historical romance cleverly written and contains plenty of intrigue and adventure combined with a pretty love story.”
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N Y Times 25:1 Mr 7 ’20 320w
“His adventures in France are told with dash, and the style smacks truly of the manner of the fifteenth century.”
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Outlook 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 60w
“A spirited and amusing if not inspired narrative of adventure-cum-politics.” H. W. Boynton.
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Review 2:463 My 1 ’20 640w
“The story is well written, in a fresh and stimulating romantic spirit, and should appeal to those with a weakness for historical novels that do not contain too much history.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 14 ’20 450w
BROOKS, JOHN GRAHAM. Labor’s challenge to the social order; democracy its own critic and educator. *$2.75 (2c) Macmillan 331
20–8263
“The problem here submitted is a study of power rapidly and in part accidentally acquired by labor. More especially it is a study of what labor is to do with its new mastership, what fitness it possesses for the work it would take in hand and how, meantime, other classes are to play their part.” (Chapter 1) The author holds that the war has precipitated this new power of labor, which in normal times would have developed more slowly and carried with it its own discipline, and that now its education will be more costly both for itself and the public. He also holds that for capital the day of “the lone hand” has closed and that the lesson for both capital and labor to learn is to unite their forces in cooperative effort. A partial list of the contents is: “A new society”; World lessons; The struggle at its worst; The Inner revolution; Lessons from the communists; Socialism; Government ownership; Industrial democracy at its best; The employers’ case against the union; The new “profit-sharing”; Syndicalism; The new guild; Index.
“It is a stimulating and penetrating appreciation of the latest developments in the labor field on the background of Mr Brooks’s forty years’ study of the upward movement of wage-earners throughout the world. Like his other books, it is a human document rather than a dogmatic treatise.” H: R. Seager
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Am Econ R 10:602 S ’20 1000w
“The volume is fully up to the author’s standard of writing, which means that it is accurate, good-tempered and interesting.”
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Am Pol Sci R 14:739 N ’20 50w
“The very interesting illustrations cited throughout make this book not only earnest but really attractive reading on labor organization questions.”
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Booklist 16:327 Jl ’20
“A clear account and discriminating criticism of the labor movement.”
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Ind 103:319 S 11 ’20 30w
Reviewed by G: Soule
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Nation 111:535 N 10 ’20 480w
“His book is unquestionably the most mature, balanced and far-seeing analysis of recent months.” Ordway Tead
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New Repub 25:208 Ja 12 ’21 410w
“With some blemishes here and there of involved or slipshod phrase, the book is to be warmly welcomed. No other man in America who deals with this subject draws from so ample a store of learning and experience. No other has at once the exactness and the scope of his information. No other writes with such uniform tolerance and breadth of view.” W. J. Ghent
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Review 3:448 N 10 ’20 720w
“His tolerance and his desire to understand and to interpret the world of labor fairly and humanly give distinction to his work.” W. L. C.
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Survey 45:73 O 9 ’20 300w
BROOKS, VAN WYCK. Ordeal of Mark Twain. *$3 Dutton
20–8431
“This book is primarily a psychological study and yet it is full of biographical detail related to the career of Mark Twain, and supplements the biography written by Mr Paine. It should be stated, however, that Mr Brooks did not undertake this task in the spirit of a chronicler. He started, rather, with the aim of offering a logical explanation of Mark Twain’s well-known tendency to pessimism.” (R of Rs) “The main idea in the book is that Mark Twain’s career was a tragedy—a tragedy for himself and a tragedy for mankind. Everyman who does not live up to his highest possibilities is living in a state of sin. Mark Twain was, therefore, one of the chief of sinners, because his possibilities were so great and he fell so short. There were two villains in Mark Twain’s tragedy—his mother and his wife. His mother was more eager to have him good than to have him great; his wife wanted him to be a gentleman. Between them they tamed the lion and made him perform parlor tricks. This hypothesis is worked out by Mr Brooks.” (N Y Times)
Booklist 16:343 Jl ’20
“Having set up his theory, everything in the humorist’s career is made to contribute to it in the most plausible, ingenious, and stimulating way; the book is so able and interesting that to read it is a delight. Yet, for me, as I strive to realize Mark Twain, remembering the man and reading the author to find the man, the result is not satisfactory, nor do I think Mr Brooks has penetrated to the heart of the secret. He has succumbed to the danger which always confronts the thesis-maker who has to subdue data so that they may buttress his belief.” R: Burton
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Bookm 52:333 Ja ’21 2900w
“Not only a subtle psychological study of one of the most prominent figures in the life of the past century, but also a valuable acquisition to the essay realm of American history.”
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Cath World 112:255 N ’20 700w
Reviewed by R. M. Lovett
Dial 69:293 S ’20 3150w
“This ‘Ordeal’ is so brilliant a book and comes so near the truth in its general outlines that it seems almost an excess of seriousness to point out certain excesses of seriousness into which Mr Brooks has been carried by his ardor for the dignity of the literary profession. But it should be pointed out that his criticism is very far from being disinterested. He means to bring an adequate indictment against the sort of society which discourages and represses a man of genius.” C. V. D.
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Nation 111:189 Ag 14 ’20 1350w
“Unfortunately Van Wyck Brooks took Mark Twain’s humorously megalomaniac utterances for serious expressions of a megalomaniac soul, and, as it seems to me, utterly missed the most promising lead in his mountain of ore. But there were riches enough for his purpose, nevertheless.” Alvin Johnson
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New Repub 23:201 Jl 14 ’20 2350w
“Many books have been written about Mark Twain; but with the exception of Paine’s biography this work by Mr Van Wyck Brooks is the most important and the most essential. Whether one agrees with Mr Brooks’s thesis or not—and I do not—one must admire and one ought to profit by the noble and splendid purpose animating it. It is a call to every writer and to every man and woman not to sin against their own talents.” W: L. Phelps
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N Y Times p1 Je 27 ’20 2200w
“While Mr Brooks is in no sense an artist in words, he is a dramatic expositor, and he owns a thesis which attracts to its defense an inspiritingly large number of crisp facts and observations. His book will interest and serve even the unbeliever.”
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Review 3:108 Ag 4 ’20 1150w
“Mr Brooks seems to have adopted a thesis which he feels bound to support by ingenious and plausible argument. As a clever and brilliant application of critical methods to a literary career, the book has few equals in American literature.”