Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 6)
Reading edition
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R of Rs 62:334 S ’20 120w
“Although it is easy to dissent from Mr Brooks’s interpretation of Clemens’s biography, the book aims to provide something of the serious criticism which is so essential not only to American letters but to American culture. It is somewhat overtheorized and finespun. The ideas would be clearer if the book were more condensed in expression and data.”
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Springf’d Republican p6 Jl 5 ’20 490w
Wis Lib Bul 16:114 Je ’20 60w
BROWER, HARRIETTE MOORE.[2] Self-help in piano study. il *$1.50 Stokes 786
20–17977
The book is in two parts: Practical lessons in piano technic and Plain talks with piano teachers and students. It consists of reprinted matter from the Musical Observer and Musical America in the form of brief essays, many of them written in response to requests from teachers and students. Among the chapters of Part 1 are: The principles of piano playing; The beginner; Use of wrist and arms; Scale playing. Part 2 has talks on: On teaching; Laying the foundation; Points on technical training; Touch and tone, etc.
BROWER, HARRIETTE MOORE. Vocal mastery. il *$3 Stokes 784.9
20–19844
This book is composed of a number of talks with famous singers with a view to obtaining “their personal ideas concerning their art and its mastery, and, when possible, some inkling as to the methods by which they themselves have arrived at the goal.” Among those interviewed are Enrico Caruso, Geraldine Farrar, Amelita Galli-Curci, Giuseppe de Luca, Luisa Tetrazzini, Antonio Scotti, Reinald Werrenrath, and Sophie Braslau. A group entitled, With the master teachers, includes David Bispham, Oscar Saenger, Herbert Witherspoon, Yeatman Griffith, and J. H. Duval. Twenty photographs illustrate the book. Miss Brower is author also of “Piano mastery,” a book of similar purpose for pianists, and other books for musicians.
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Booklist 17:102 D ’20
BROWN, ABBIE FARWELL. Heart of New England. *$1.50 Houghton 811
20–16517
This collection of poems is a tribute in verse to the Pilgrim tercentenary, taking the reader from the Pilgrim’s separation from old England, to the present generation’s reunion thru the war. The first group of poems deals entirely with New England and some of the poems are: Pilgrim mothers; Pirate treasure; Grandmother’s house; Grandmother’s garden; Pine music; The blazed trail. The second group contains war songs, among them: Peace—with a sword; From the canteen; Prayer for America. The book ends with The rock of liberty: a Pilgrim ode, 1620–1920.
“Many who cannot find pleasure in more daring modern poets should find contentment in the work of Miss Brown. When much of today’s poetry is forgotten her verse will wait for him who wishes to know the true New England.” N. J. O’Conor
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Boston Transcript p6 O 9 ’20 3400w
BROWN, ALICE. Homespun and gold. *$2 Macmillan
20–19504
“‘Homespun and gold’ is an appropriate title for Miss Alice Brown’s new collection of stories, considering the homely material she has used and the glint of hope that persists in an atmosphere of impending tragedy. The people and scenes are all of New England, and the situations deal with the suppressed desires, the thwarted hopes, and the hated sacrifices made lovable, of a people in whom the Puritan tradition is not entirely dead.” (Freeman) Contents: The wedding ring; Mary Felicia; A homespun wizardry; Red poppies; Ann Eliza; The return of father; The deserters; The house of the bride; A question of wills; A brush of paint; The path of stars; The widow’s third; White pebbles; Confessions; Up on the mountain.
“Because they describe life rather than interpret it they fail to move one profoundly. The reader closes the book impressed with its sustained excellence; the sure touch of an experienced craftsman is apparent on every page, but it throws no clear light upon the enigma of human destiny.” L. M. R.
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Freeman 2:285 D 1 ’20 240w
“Taken together, they form an interesting picture of New England village life. It is a picture far less grim than some others we have seen.”
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N Y Times p22 N 21 ’20 850w
“They are humorous, human, and true.”
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Outlook 126:690 D 15 ’20 60w
“There is very little description in any of the stories—dialog is used almost wholly and this aids in the sharp differentiation of the characters. A homely idiom, fast becoming obsolete, adds to this effect.”
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Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 23 ’21 170w
BROWN, ALICE. Wind between the worlds. *$2 (2c) Macmillan
20–11071
In various ways the characters of this story are interested in the life hereafter and in communication with the dead; and the reactions on the living, when the quest becomes too ardent, constitute its moral. A bereaved mother, one of whose sons has been killed in the war, pins all her faith to automatic writing, in the hope of getting a message from him. Her relations with her husband become strained, her nerves threaten to give way. Her secretary, who practices the writing, has through it so lost her grip on the higher potentialities of life, that she no longer discriminates between genuine and fraudulent practices. A scientist has taken the matter up from the scientific side and from seeking communication with his dead wife has been led deeper and deeper into his investigations, and becomes almost crazed and totally irresponsible. For love of him his daughter surrounds herself with a fabric of lies from which only the love of an unusual, divining young man and her father’s death, extricate her. For the bereaved mother and her family the situation is saved by the penetrating wisdom of an old woman.
“Written with characteristic deftness and charm.”
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Booklist 17:30 O ’20
“In ‘The wind between the worlds’ Miss Brown has, despite the intricacy of her theme, sacrificed neither her story to her problem, nor her problem to her story. Devotees of the cult doubtless will not approve of it, for its hints at fraud will seem to them to be unjust, and it suggests little sympathy on the part of the novelist with the cause they have so near at heart. To others, however, it will appear as a sensible and skilfully imaginative exposition of a vital subject.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 21 ’20 1400w
Cleveland p105 D ’20 60w
Lit D p110 N 6 ’20 2700w
“If one can forget the shoddiness of the material there are several virtues that might be pointed out. The book will undoubtedly please disciples of the formula school of fiction.” H. S. G.
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New Repub 25:210 Ja 12 ’21 340w
“The ‘plot portion’ of the story is the weakest part of it. There are times when it seems manufactured. But the character drawing is admirable. That the novel is admirably written and the atmosphere of Boston, where the scene is laid, excellently reproduced, of course goes without saying.” L. M. Field
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N Y Times 25:15 Jl 11 ’20 1550w
“The love-plot is singular, but not convincing or quite well managed.”
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Outlook 126:111 S 15 ’20 150w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
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Review 3:234 S 15 ’20 360w
“Madame Brooke, the grandmother of the dead boy, is much the most interesting and unconventional character in the book, and in her the author depicts an exclusively American type.”
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Spec 125:782 D 11 ’20 50w
“The technique is admirable; but the breath of life is rarely present. The characters are intellectually conceived, the story is original, the psychology shows insight; there is capital description, reasonably good dialogue, situations both interesting and dramatic; the tale moves without faltering; and yet, the breath of life being absent for the most part, the story is unreal.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p701 O 28 ’20 340w
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Wis Lib Bul 16:193 N ’20 120w
BROWN, SIR ARTHUR WHITTEN, and BOTT, ALAN JOHN. Flying the Atlantic in sixteen hours. il *$1.50 (4c) Stokes 629.1
20–8254
In this account of the prize-winner in the first competitive flight across the Atlantic, in a Vickers-Vimy machine. Sir Arthur Brown says: “We have realized that our flight was but a solitary fingerpost to the air-traffic—safe, comfortable and voluminous—that in a few years will pass above the Atlantic ocean.” The last three chapters of the book are devoted to a discussion of aircraft in commerce and transportation. Contents: Some preliminary events; St John’s; The start; Evening; Night; Morning; The arrival; Aftermath of arrival; The navigation of aircraft; The future of transatlantic flight; The air age; illustrations.
Booklist 16:333 Jl ’20
“One leaves the book with the sensation of having been in the midst of remarkable accomplishment.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 7 ’20 900w
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Outlook 125:223 Je 2 ’20 30w
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Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 22 ’20 300w
BROWN, DEMETRA (VAKA) (MRS KENNETH BROWN), and PHOUTRIDES, ARISTIDES, trs. Modern Greek stories. (Interpreters’ ser.) *$1.90 (3c) Duffield
20–26756
The book has a foreword by Demetra Vaka describing the emotional and intellectual history of the Greeks from the time they lost their independence to the Turks in 1453 to the present. Modern Greece, she says, owes her independence and inspiration to her poets and other writers and Mount Olympus, by becoming the stronghold of the outlaws and insurgents against Turkish rule, became in a new sense a sacred mountain. Of the authors of the eight stories selected for the volume, all but three are still living. The stories are: Sea; The sin of my mother; The god-father; Mangalos; Forgiveness; Angelica; A man’s death; The frightened soul; She that was homesick.
Booklist 17:31 O ’20
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Boston Transcript p6 S 8 ’20 380w
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Lit D p92 N 20 ’20 1450w
“All these stories are pervaded with a fatalism, a sombreness, a prepossession unredeemed by that super-sight that we associate with the Greeks of old. If they are exact transcriptions of the instincts and beliefs of the Greek people of today they have far to go before the heights are reached.” B. D.
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N Y Times p9 Ag 22 ’20 950w
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Outlook 126:238 O 6 ’20 50w
“Without awakening at any point intense curiosity or poignant interest they hold the attention by their sincerity, truth, simplicity, and an indefinable democratic and human tone. They are admirably translated in pure idiomatic English.”
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Review 3:480 N 17 ’20 250w
“Charming tales. The stories are fascinating in their strange beauty.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a S 12 ’20 270w
“These stories are beautiful as literature; they are fascinating as documents of a people’s inner life.” B. L.
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Survey 45:334 N 27 ’20 150w
BROWN, EDNA ADELAIDE. That affair at St Peter’s. il *$1.75 (4c) Lothrop
20–7761
This story is told by Preston Perrin, the junior warden of St Peter’s, a church in the suburban town of Hollywood. The tale has to do with the theft of St Peter’s communion plate between two morning services on a June Sunday. Various persons had access to the safe where the silver was kept, including Sophie Dennison, whom no one, least of all, Preston, could connect with such a crime, Thompson, the organist, Anna, a Girl’s friendly girl, and of course the rector. Fred Farrell. A detective is called in, but his conventional methods prove little. Finally, the silver is returned and the affair is explained very naturally and credibly, the whole excitement lasting less than a week.
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Booklist 16:346 Jl ’20
“The book is old-fashioned, but—its mystery appearing early—will be finished if started.”
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Bookm 52:174 O ’20 210w
“A very interesting and well written story. All characters are attractive and a spice of love-making, withal, completes the value of the work as a story of human interest.”
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Boston Transcript p4 Je 2 ’20 130w
BROWN, EVERETT SOMERVILLE. Constitutional history of the Louisiana purchase, 1803–1812. $2.50 Univ. of Cal. 973.4 A20–742
“The purpose of this monograph is to discuss the most important of the constitutional questions which arose as a consequence of the purchase of Louisiana, and to show how the statesmen and legislators in charge of affairs at that time interpreted the constitution in answering those questions. Much has been written on the Louisiana purchase but no connected narrative of its constitutional aspects has hitherto appeared.” (Preface) The author has confined his study principally to the lower part of the province, that organized as Orleans territory and afterwards admitted as the state of Louisiana. He has utilized much hitherto unpublished material. There is a bibliography of thirteen pages, in which this material, together with published works, is cited. An appendix reproduces the Senate debate on the Breckinridge bill in 1804, and the volume is indexed. It is published as volume 10 of the University of California publications in history, of which Herbert E. Bolton is editor.
“Dr Brown has covered a wide range of manuscript and printed material, and handled it with a just sense of proportion and a keen scent for the significant. I do wish, however, that aspirants for the three magic letters would not be so oppressed by the solemnity of their quest as to neglect the light and humorous aspects of their subject.” S. E. Morison
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Am Hist R 26:143 O ’20 280w
“A careful and elaborate monograph.” H. E. E.
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Eng Hist R 35:625 O ’20 80w
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Ind 104:249 N 13 ’20 40w
BROWN, GEORGE EDWARD. Book of R. L. S.; works, travels, friends, and commentators. il *$2.50 (3c) Scribner
20–6150
A book of Stevenson miscellany, alphabetically arranged. “The chief aim of this book is to provide a commentary on his works as far as possible from Stevenson’s own standpoint by showing the circumstances in which they were written, their history in his hands, and his judgments on them.... The scheme of the volume also embraces references to members of his family, and to his more or less intimate friends as well as the places directly associated with his wandering life.” (Preface) The comments vary in length from brief paragraphs to several pages. Subjects covered more or less at length include the Appin murder, on which “Kidnapped” was based; “The black arrow”; Alan Breck; “Catriona”; Father Damien; Dedications; “Kidnapped”; Samoa; San Francisco; In the South seas; and “Treasure island”; and there are also notes on Barrie, Meredith, Kipling, Sidney Colvin, and others. The book has eight illustrations and is indexed.
“The arrangement is handy for reference, and the information sufficiently attractive to repay one who dips into the book for pleasure.”
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Ath p1275 N 28 ’19 50w
Boston Transcript p7 Ja 17 ’20 1000w
“Raises the question of how long Stevenson will survive segmentation, mutilation for mottoes, and vivisection in calendars, without impairment of his literary vitality. This volume, fortunately, is a dictionary rather than a dissection.”
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Dial 68:401 Mr ’20 70w
“Once you have braced yourself and plunged in, an encyclopedia is delightful reading and so is this ‘Book of R. L. S.’”
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Ind 102:235 My 8 ’20 300w
“Unless some one does the same thing better, the book will stand; it need fear no rivalry, so far as ready reference is concerned, from more brilliant narratives. Minor shortcomings are offset by his general accuracy and good sense.”
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Nation 110:436 Ap 3 ’20 180w
“‘A book of R. L. S.’ is a good compendium of everything that is worth knowing in the life of Stevenson.” B: de Casseres
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N Y Times 25:1 Mr 7 ’20 900w
Review 2:436 Ap 24 ’20 120w
“Contains a valuable index.” D. K.
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St Louis 18:66 Ap ’20 30w
“It seems a little odd to find all sorts of information about Stevenson, his friends, and critics arranged under alphabetical headings, as if he were a cookery book or a postal guide. We have at this date quite enough books about Stevenson, and we hope that this will be the last for some time to come.... While Mr Brown’s industry is remarkable, his criticism is not always of the kind we regard as useful.”
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Sat R 128:610 D 27 ’19 1350w
“A pleasant and informing study. The arrangement which is so convenient for reference, interferes very little with the book’s readability.”
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Spec 124:86 Ja 17 ’20 70w
“The reader is made to feel an intimate acquaintance with that very remarkable author and man.”
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Springf’d Republican p10 F 27 ’20 220w
“The book serves also as a bibliography, with notes of the values of first editions.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p698 N 27 ’19 90w
BROWN, IVOR JOHN CARNEGIE.[2] Meaning of democracy. *$2 McClurg 321.8
(Eng ed 20–4617)
“The lecturer of Oxford tutorial classes attempts to show what democracy implies. He recognizes that the word has come to mean nothing. Having accepted the principle of equality, as the basis of a division of power, he proceeds to outline representative government. He finds in this inevitable delegation of power, three main problems; the demand for general education to make articulate public opinion, the machinery for translating this public opinion into practice and in the third place, the need of curbing those elected to office, so that they will not forget the source of their power.”—Boston Transcript
“An excellent little book.”
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Ath p303 Mr 5 ’20 520w
“Ivor Brown’s ‘The meaning of democracy’ warms the heart with the new vision of education—education where teacher and students meet as equals.” A. Yezierska
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Bookm 52:499 F ’21 190w
Boston Transcript p5 D 4 ’20 140w
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Springf’d Republican p13a Ap 25 ’20 360w (Reprinted from The Times [London] Lit Sup p116 F 19 ’20)
“It is more human, more readable, and more thought-provoking than nine out of ten of the treatises on the same general lines with which it has been our rather arduous privilege to grapple. This is because Mr Brown is neither very whole-hearted nor, happily, very consistent about his self-imposed task. The terrible series of definitions by which he is going to fathom the last recesses of the democratic idea loses itself, like certain eastern rivers, in the desert during the course of the first few chapters; and we can bear with the loss.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p116 F 19 ’20 1500w
BROWN, NELSON COURTLANDT. Forest products. il *$3.75 Wiley 674
19–15703
A book by the professor of forest utilization, New York state college of forestry. “Some idea of its scope may be obtained from such chapter headings as the following: Wood pulp and paper; Tanning materials; Veneers; Slack and tight cooperage; Naval stores; Wood distillation; Charcoal; Boxes; Cross ties; Poles and piling; Mine timber; Fuel; Shingles; Maple syrup and sugar; Rubber; Dye woods; Excelsior and cork. Under each topic the character and source of the raw material, the tree species involved, the processes of manufacture, the marketing, the utilization, and values are discussed. Whenever any attempts have been made toward standard specifications and grading of the products, these are given in considerable detail. Statistics of production in the United States or of importation from other lands are arranged in convenient tables, and still more important for the scientist is the bibliography which is appended to each chapter.” (Bot Gaz)
Booklist 16:156 F ’20
“Attractive in appearance, well illustrated, and carefully organized.” G: D. Fuller
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Bot Gaz 68:479 D ’19 220w
BROWN, ROBERT NEAL RUDMOSE. Spitsbergen. il *$5 Lippincott 919.8
20–7933
“This book, from the pen of a British explorer, meets the new demand for information about the mineral resources of this Arctic archipelago, and at the same time gives a good account of the history, exploration and animal and plant life of the country. The author discusses the three ways suggested for settling the political status of Spitsbergen—partition, international control by two or more nations, and annexation by one or other nation. He rejects the first two propositions as not feasible and concludes that the islands should be annexed by either Great Britain or Norway, the choice to be submitted to the League of nations and decided by a mandate to one or other of these powers.”—R of Rs
“Dr Rudmose Brown is a geographer of repute with considerable scientific attainments, whose work in the Antarctic has won recognition, and in this volume he has given us a valuable, lively and most interesting account of the Spitsbergen archipelago. He writes with a restrained enthusiasm inspired by a genuine love of these wild regions which compels our interest.” L. C.-M.
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Ath p1064 O 24 ’19 1250w
“Since the book was finished before the government of the country was settled it is slightly out of date in this, but is chiefly valuable for the details of history and economic resources.”
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Booklist 17:26 O ’20
“The book states the problem clearly and contains numerous helpful maps and illustrations.”
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Outlook 124:291 F 18 ’20 60w
R of Rs 61:220 F ’20 120w
“Dr Rudmose Brown gives a map showing the principal mining estates according to nationality, but no map showing the distribution of coal, and no geological map. This last seems a curious omission and certainly is a regrettable one. His book may be recommended to the general inquirer and especially to the tourists and health seekers.”
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Sat R 128:612 D 27 ’19 1300w
“An interesting and useful book.”
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Spec 123:473 O 11 ’19 1450w
“This is one of those commendable volumes which entertains while it informs the reader.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p556 O 16 ’19 1000w
BROWNE, EDWARD GRANVILLE.[2] History of Persian literature under Tartar dominion (A. D. 1265–1502). il *$14 Macmillan 891.5
21–509
“The literature of Persia has found a most able and enthusiastic interpreter in Professor Edward G. Browne, of the University of Cambridge, who has already published two exhaustive volumes entitled ‘A literary history of Persia,’ bringing the subject down to the middle of the thirteenth century. Now comes a third, covering the period from 1265 to 1502. It is practically a continuation, if not so in name and form, of the other two standard volumes.” (Nation) “The period dealt with begins immediately after the terrible Mongol invasion under Hulagu, includes the conquests of the redoubtable Tamerlane, and ends with the appearance of the great Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safawi dynasty, as the saviour of his country.” (Spec)
“It must be confessed that it is not easy reading. He could hardly expect it to be a popular piece of literature. But what a glorious feast it provides! He has indeed performed a great and needed work in interpreting this fine people to modern readers.” N. H. D.
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Boston Transcript p6 N 20 ’20 780w
“Takes its place by the side of the two earlier volumes as a masterpiece of sound scholarship and critical judgment.” A. V. W. Jackson
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Nation 111:508 N 3 ’20 560w
“The volume, in short, is worthy of its distinguished author, and sheds a flood of light on an epoch with which even experts are unfamiliar.”
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Sat R 130:359 O 30 ’20 720w
“His treatment of the subject is so direct and so clear that the general reader would never suspect that the ground traversed is mostly new ground, and that the sources both for the history and for the literature are for the most part contained in unpublished manuscripts.”
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Spec 125:337 S 11 ’20 2300w
BROWNE, ROBERT T. Mystery of space. *$4 Dutton 114
19–18843
“It is Mr Browne’s belief that mankind has entered upon a new era in the development of intellect and that new powers of perception and understanding are unfolding in the most advanced members of the race. ‘The intellect’, he says, ‘has but one true divining rod, and that is mathematics,’ and he brings forward his mathematical evidence to prove his contention. He discusses also the genesis and nature of space, devotes a chapter to an exposition of the fourth dimension, another to discussion of non-Euclidian geometry and traces the growth of the notion of hyperspace.”—Springf’d Republican
Brooklyn 12:112 Ap ’20 30w
“The greatest of all latter-day books on space. It is written by a mathematician, a mystic and a thinker, one who, endowed with a tremendous metaphysical imagination, never lets go any point of the threads of reality. Lucid and logical, with a pen that never falters, Mr Browne advances steadily from page to page upon the fortresses of science.” B: de Casseres
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N Y Times 25:119 Mr 14 20 1700w
“It is excessively irritating that writers on this subject either choose or are forced to employ a vocabulary and a style which are repellent to the reader, and to mix the significant and insignificant into an almost inextricable tangle. Careful and prolonged searching brings forth the fact that Mr Browne has a definite and interesting thesis.” L: T. More
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Review 2:133 F 7 ’20 950w
Springf’d Republican p8 D 20 ’19 100w
“As offering to the reader very intelligible and significant, not to say impressive intimations and conceptions of that larger universe in which we live and move and have our being, and of which we are hardly aware, ‘The mystery of space’ presents an admirable idea, in its clear and well-considered resumé of facts.” Lilian Whiting
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Springf’d Republican p11a Mr 28 ’20 1150w
BROWNRIGG, SIR DOUGLAS EGREMONT ROBERT. Indiscretions of the naval censor. il *$2.50 (4c) Doran 940.45
20–7998
The author was chief censor at the British admiralty during the war. He writes of: The establishment of the naval censorship; How the news came of the battles of Coronel and the Falkland islands; Problems of publicity and propaganda; The battle of Jutland; The death of Lord Kitchener; Educating the public; Co-operation with other departments; Zeebrugge and the censorship; Authors, publishers and some others; Press men of allied countries; Visitors to the Grand fleet; Artists and the naval war; Censoring naval letters; Wireless and war news; Odds and ends; A censor’s “holidays”; Last days of the censorship. The illustrations are grouped at the end and there is an index.
“Admiral Brownrigg has many amusing stories to tell as well as many momentous topics to discuss.”
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Ath p226 F 13 ’20 80w
Booklist 16:340 Jl ’20
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Dial 69:212 Ag ’20 50w
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Ind 103:185 Ag 14 ’20 40w
“Anyone who expects Sir Douglas Brownrigg’s ‘Indiscretions of the naval censor’ to be indiscreet will be disappointed. Where the Admiral does become interesting is in his intimate account of life at that ramshackle building known as the British admiralty.”
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Nation 111:51 Jl 10 ’20 260w
“The grave question of the proper relation to be observed in time of war between the truth, the state, the public, and the press scarcely obtrudes its chilly presence into the warm stream of anecdote which courses through these pages.”
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Nation [London] 26:868 Mr 20 ’20 1100w
“The book is breezily written and as entertaining as it is genuinely informative.”
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Review 3:322 O 13 ’20 440w
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R Of Rs 61:670 Je ’20 100w
“Admiral Brownrigg has command of a straightforward, telling style. His book is full of humour, good spirits, and the kind of information which only he is in a position to impart.”
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Sat R 129:334 Ap 3 ’20 1150w
Spec 124:181 F 7 ’20 300w
Yale R n s 10:437 Ja ’21 220w
BRUNNER, MRS ETHEL (HOUSTON). Celia and her friends. *$1.25 Macmillan
“Seven short sketches of London society fill 150 small pages of ‘Celia and her friends’ in which Ethel Brunner presents a bright and benevolent heiress, attended most of the time by a clever bachelor, who fain would change his state and hers, and assisted in the various chapters by a supporting cast of more or less merit.”—Springf’d Republican
Dial 68:804 Je ’20 50w
“As a picture of one phase of idle London life, there may be some interest, but it has been so much better done by other writers that it fails to impress one.”
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N Y Times 25:148 Mr 28 ’20 280w
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Outlook 124:431 Mr 10 ’20 70w
“The dialog is full of repartee not overdone. The book isn’t meant to be deep; whimsical, frivolous, entertaining, would describe it better.”
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Springf’d Republican p12 My 21 ’20 140w
BRUNNER, MRS ETHEL (HOUSTON). Celia once again. *$1.80 Macmillan
(Eng ed 20–5894)
“‘Celia once again’ is a collection of nine short stories—perhaps episodes is the better term, as there is no pretense of a fictional plot in any of them; they all relate to Celia and her interesting friends. According to Peter—Celia’s husband—she was ‘dangerously quick in making friends,’ she was anxious to make every penny she could for charity, and when she stationed herself in Piccadilly with her flag tray and a bundle of tickets for a picture to be raffled for, ‘Love’s awakening,’ it was small matter for wonder that her handsome face and becoming costume won for her a gratifying success. But her philanthropic effort was not without adventures; these the author recounts.”—N Y Times
“The dialogue is often witty and every chapter sparkles with comment and whimsical philosophizing on people and affairs.”
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N Y Times 25:160 Ap 4 ’20 380w
BRYANT, MRS ALICE ELISABETH (CRANDELL), ed. Treasury of hero tales. (Treasury ser. for children) il *$1 (3½c) Crowell 398.2
20–15175
The stories retold for children in this volume are The Gorgon’s head; The apples of youth; The story of Siegfried; The coming of Sir Galahad; Rinaldo and Bayard; White-headed Zal; Beowulf and Grendel; How Cuchulain got his name; How Robin Hood met Little John.
Reviewed by Hildegarde Hawthorne
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N Y Times p8 D 19 ’20 50w
BRYANT, MRS SOPHIE (WILLOCK). Moral and religious education. (Modern educator’s lib.) *$1.90 (*6s) Longmans 377
(Eng ed E20–537)
“Some advocates of moral training in the schools believe that morality can best be taught through the development of religious faith and by direct appeal to self-respect, reason, sympathy, and common-sense. A book advocating this idea has just appeared. It deals with such general topics as self-liberation and self-realization, the moral ideal, the religious ideal, and the reasoned presentment of religious truth. A chapter is devoted to each of these topics.” (School R) “In the second division of the volume a large number of attractive examples are given of model lessons on moral topics. There are reviews of the lives and doings of great men and a concrete setting forth of social and personal virtues. The last part of the book attempts to furnish concrete material for religious instruction. The character of this fourth division of the book can be well illustrated by citing the general title of the section and the titles of certain of the chapters. The general title is The reasoned presentment of religious truths. Under this heading there are chapters on The young student’s need of a reasoned doctrine, God and the world, Man and his destiny, etc.” (El School J)
“The book is an interesting and typical contribution to the field of endeavor which is at the present time commanding large attention in American institutions. It will undoubtedly be made use of as a reference book by teachers in the field of moral and religious education.”
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El School J 20:716 My ’20 260w
“Generally speaking, the discussion is theoretical and abstract. In but a few cases does it touch problems of everyday life. For the American teacher, it seems to have little of value.”
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School R 28:478 Je ’20 150w
BRYAS, MADELEINE DE, comtesse, and BRYAS, JACQUELINE DE. Frenchwoman’s impressions of America. il *$1.75 Century 917.3
20–9734
The comtesse and her sister came to America in 1918 on a lecture tour to speak in behalf of devastated France. While here their services were also enlisted to help in the third Liberty loan drive. They traveled from coast to coast in this double capacity and have here jointly recorded their experiences in characteristically vivacious French style. The book has an introduction by André Tardieu and the contents are: Paris bombarded; No submarines; New York “en guerre”; “Dry” Washington; American hospitality; Speaking for the third Liberty loan; Experiences in factories; Over the top; American generosity; Touring for devastated France; On a mission for the American government; “Proper” America; In the Middle West; St Louis; Our reception at Camp Dodge; No Indians and no cowboys; A dip in Saltair with Mormons; The Pacific coast; San Francisco; Puget Sound; Vers la France.
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Booklist 17:26 O ’20
Freeman 1:358 Je 23 ’20 300w
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Lit D p105 S 18 ’20 1050w
“Their book is vivacious, sprightly, entertaining, incisive, shrewd, full of wit and humor, especially when the authors tell us about things which struck them as being particularly American.”
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Outlook 125:542 Jl 21 ’20 110w
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Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 19 ’20 370w
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Wis Lib Bul 16:122 Je ’20 60w
BRYCE, JAMES BRYCE, viscount.[2] World history. (British academy. Annual Raleigh lecture, 1919) pa *90c Oxford 901
20–15226
“Lord Acton chose the idea of liberty as the central line around which to write a world history. In the present lecture Lord Bryce suggests another and perhaps more profitable clue—the notion of the gradual unification of mankind. This process he briefly traces through the centuries of history, showing how language, conquest, trade, religion and thought have helped to draw together the scattered tribes of primitive humanity into large groups. This process of convergence has, however, been accompanied by a process of divergence, for while individuals have been drawn into groups, the groups have tended to become profoundly separated. Lord Bryce concludes his lecture by a speculative prophecy of the future.”—Ath
Ath p355 Mr 12 ’20 110w
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Nation 111:251 Ag 28 ’20 450w
BRYHER, WINIFRED. Development; a novel; preface by Amy Lowell. *$2 Macmillan
“‘Development’ is an essay in autobiography, a note-book rather than a novel, the fragmentary jottings of a child’s emotions, a child entirely centred on self and in her recollections deliberately isolating herself from other minds.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “The record takes its subject from early childhood, beginning at four years old, through much travel around the Mediterranean, with sensuous absorption of the ‘warm South’; into two years of bleak school life, and a succeeding period of vague seeking after an undefined something that shall be life.” (N Y Evening Post)
“This book is described as a novel; we should prefer to call it a warning.” K. M.
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Ath p144 Jl 30 ’20 840w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
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Bookm 52:341 Ja ’21 480w
“There is to be another volume called ‘Adventure,’ to follow this one of ‘Development.’ At least it seems quite certain that those of us who have experienced the spell of Nancy’s early days will not be likely to neglect the later volume.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p5 N 20 ’20 1200w
Nation 112:188 F 2 ’21 780w
“The chief complaint leveled against Miss Richardson’s sequence is that Miriam Henderson, however faithfully rendered, is not worth writing about. This cannot be said of Nancy. Inarticulate as she is, here is a personality of complicated power.” C. M. Rourke
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New Repub 25:270 Ja 26 ’21 950w
“It is patently sincere, and the author has an unusual feeling for words, a highly developed color sense, and intensity of feeling. But even here she is hunting not for the inevitable, right word but for the bizarre, the surprising. Nevertheless, the result is often felicitous and is saved from becoming burlesque, though sometimes by a narrow margin.” H. L. Pangborn
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N Y Evening Post p8 Ja 15 ’21 580w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 3:561 D 8 ’20 250w
“It has the value that truth and sincerity always give, but as a piece of literature it has more promise than achievement. Out of her experience and toil will some day come a notable, perhaps even a memorable book, but we cannot close the present review without a warning against the danger of too close a pre-occupation with the analysis of one’s own emotions. Breadth, stability, and intellectual strength are not to be found in this book; they can be gained only by the assiduous study of the external world.”
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Sat R 130:79 Jl 24 ’20 380w
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Spec 125:781 D 11 ’20 460w
“The evident truth of much of what Miss Bryher tells us about Nancy does not save a good deal of ‘Development’ from being simply dull. These experiences set down in this way, are no more than the raw material for art, to be turned into something coherent and beautiful when a maturer experience can use them, when egotism has been touched with a tolerant humour, and people have ceased to be ‘baffling.’ They are notes on the artistic mind before it has left the stage of the grub, and grubs are never very pleasant.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p401 Je 24 ’20 640w
BUCK, ALBERT HENRY. Dawn of modern medicine. il *$7 Yale univ. press 610.9
20–15528
“‘The dawn of modern medicine’ gives a concise review of the progress of medical science from the early part of the eighteenth century until about 1860. Among the contents are a discussion of medicine in Germany and other European countries during the eighteenth century, brief biographical sketches of a number of physicians and surgeons who were leaders then, and a somewhat detailed description of workers in special departments of medicine and surgery. Several chapters deal with important European hospitals of that time and other organizations for the teaching of medicine.”—Springf’d Republican
Booklist 17:56 N ’20
“Dr Buck is to be congratulated on his study of the history of medicine in the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth centuries. As a biographical study of the leaders of medicine the book is all too sketchy; in fact, many of these histories have been culled from standard medical histories.” E. P. Boas
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Freeman 2:283 D 1 ’20 1050w
“A loose and disorderly arrangement greatly lessens the usefulness of this stately volume. It confuses men of the highest importance and men of no importance at all. It presents a chaotic and unintelligible picture of the progress of the medical sciences during the period under review.” H. L. Mencken
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Nation 112:87 Ja 19 ’21 700w
“The work is of interest as an addition to general medical literature and because of the manner of treatment it will prove interesting and profitable to the ordinary reader.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a O 31 ’20 210w
Survey 45:27 O 2 ’20 130w
BUCK, CHARLES NEVILLE. Tempering. il *1.75 (1c) Doubleday
20–5772
A story of the Kentucky mountains spanning the years between the feud-ridden period of the late nineteenth century and the world war. One of Boone Wellver’s kinsmen is convicted for the murder of Goebel, the democratic nominee for governor, and young Boone swears vengeance to the death on the man whose false testimony convicted him. But Boone has already come under the influence of Victor McCalloway, a professional soldier, and McCalloway persuades him to wait till he is twenty-one. Boone is sent to school, falls in love with Anne Masters, learns a new code of manners and morals, but once comes dangerously near a return to his old gods and to keeping his old vow. He goes into politics and when the war comes enlists. He meets Anne, from whom he had been separated, and there is promise of happiness after the war.
Booklist 16:311 Je ’20
“It is a compliment to Mr Buck’s literary skill that he makes mighty interesting reading of the story of his hero’s symbolical struggle. ‘The tempering’ will not suffer by comparison with any of John Fox’s novels of similar locale.”
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N Y Times 25:28 Jl 18 ’20 550w
BUCK, HOWARD SWAZEY. Tempering. *$1 Yale univ. press 811
20–1675
This is the first volume in the Yale series of younger poets. This series “is designed to afford a publishing medium for the work of young men and women who have not yet secured a wide public recognition. It will include only such verse as seems to give the fairest promise for the future of American poetry.” Twelve of the war poems printed as part two were in 1918 awarded the annual prize in poetry offered at Yale university. Other poems are reprinted from the Nation, Contemporary Verse, Poetry Journal, Poetry, the Masses, and the Yale Literary Magazine.
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Boston Transcript p4 My 5 ’20 450w
“A first book of verse wherein jubilant youthfulness, unwearied even in the poems of war experience, marches to gay pipes with a sweeping stride and an idealism unappalled.”
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Dial 68:667 My ’20 30w
“There is such real artistic restraint and such moving sincerity in most of the battle and exile pieces that it is a pity that the poem of the return should border on vulgarity. Mr Buck has obviously not yet quite found himself, but he certainly has the stuff of real poetry in him.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p427 Jl 1 ’20 150w
BUCK, SOLON JUSTUS. Agrarian crusade: a chronicle of the farmer in politics. (Chronicles of America) il subs per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 329
20–4901
“The farmer in American politics is the theme treated by Mr Solon J. Buck in ‘The agrarian crusade,’ in which are related the rise and fall of the so-called Granger movement in the West, the greenback propaganda, the Farmers’ alliance, the organization of the Populist party and its surprising success in 1892, the silver issue, and more recently the growth of the Nonpartisan party in North Dakota and other states.”—R of Rs
Reviewed by E. P. Oberholtzer
Am Hist R 26:147 O ’20 600w
“It is obviously a hurried piece of work, well enough written, but with a tendency to triteness and wordiness.”
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Cath World 112:390 D ’20 500w
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N Y Times p16 O 31 ’20 130w
R of Rs 62:110 Jl ’20 70w
St Louis 18:106 Je ’20 20w
BUCKLE, GEORGE EARLE. Life of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield. v 5–6 il ea *$6 Macmillan
The author of these two volumes is Monypenny’s successor. The work was extended in order to treat more fully of Disraeli’s management of the eastern question, the most outstanding feature of his administration. This was made possible, says the author, by the Russian revolution. “There can be now no reasons of international delicacy to prevent a full disclosure of Disraeli’s eastern policy.” Contents of volume 5: The Irish church, 1868; Defeat and resignation, 1868; Reserve in opposition, 1868–1871; Lothair, 1869–1870; The turn of the tide, 1872–1873; Bereavement, 1872–1873; Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield, 1873–1875; Power, 1874; Political success and physical failure, 1874; Social reform, 1874–1875; An imperial foreign policy, 1874–1875; Suez canal and royal title, 1875–1876; From the Commons to the Lords, 1876–1877; Appendix—an unfinished novel. Contents of volume 6: Reopening of the eastern question, 1875–1876; The Bulgarian atrocities, 1876; The Constantinople conference, 1876–1877; War and cabinet dissension, 1877; Conditional neutrality, 1877; Derby’s first resignation, 1877–1878; Final parting with Derby, 1878; Agreements with Russia and Turkey, 1878; The Congress of Berlin, 1878; The Afghan war, 1878; The Zulu war, 1879; Beaconsfield and the queen, 1874–1880; Last months of the government, 1879–1880; Dissolution and defeat, 1880; Endymion, 1880; The last year, 1880–1881; The man and his fame; Index to the six volumes.
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Ath p72 Jl 16 ’20 2000w
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Booklist 17:112 D ’20
“The record is as revealing as anything in range of British biography.”
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Lit D p90 N 20 ’20 1600w
“For, with all respect to the preceding volumes of this monumental biography, none of them, nor all of them together, compare in interest, in the present reviewer’s opinion, with these two. It may be said at the outset that Mr Buckle has done his work well. His narrative is full and free and flowing. It has a nice proportion between his own words and those of his hero, an entertaining alternation between the life and the letters—and not too much of the speeches—of his subject; an agreeable and readable style; a pleasing touch of humour; a sufficiency of anecdote and allusion. It is, in brief, an excellent piece of biographical writing.” W. C. Abbott
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N Y Evening Post p5 S 18 ’20 2000w
“If nothing is set down in malice, nothing is withheld through a mistaken sense of loyalty. Disraeli is painted in this full length portrait as he was. His faults and follies are revealed, as well as his amiable and outstanding ability.” Rollo Ogden
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N Y Times p5 S 19 ’20 1900w
“This biography, too large for most American readers, will nevertheless be a necessity in every library, public or private, which aims to possess in completeness any dealing with the history of Europe during the nineteenth century.”
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Outlook 126:202 S 29 ’20 180w
“Undoubtedly one of the most important compilations for the student of nineteenth century English history.”
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Pratt p31 O ’20 30w
Reviewed by R. R. Bowker
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Pub W 98:1883 D 18 ’20 330w
“Mr Buckle’s work will stand comparison with Lord Morley’s ‘Life of Gladstone,’ and that is the greatest possible praise.” Lindsay Rogers
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Review 3:293 O 6 ’20 2300w
R of Rs 62:446 O ’20 150w
“Mr Buckle has concluded his task, and produced one of the greatest political biographies in the language. For the general reader the work is, of course, too long; and even the student of history might have dispensed with some of the letters and some of the extracts from speeches, which nearly always weary.”
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Sat R 129:562 Je 19 ’20 1200w
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Sat R 129:587 Je 26 ’20 1750w
“Mr Buckle’s detailed narrative of Disraeli’s handling of the eastern question between 1876 and 1878, which is of course the main feature of his closing volumes, is full of interest and instruction for the present generation. Disraeli’s letters abound in good things, access to which is facilitated by an excellent index.”
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Spec 124:829 Je 19 ’20 1850w
“On the whole, everybody who is not an extreme partisan will recognize the honesty, the lucidity and ability with which Mr Buckle has stated his case.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p373 Je 17 ’20 7000w
BUCKROSE, J. E., pseud. (MRS ANNIE EDITH [FOSTER] JAMESON). Young hearts. *$1.90 (1c) Doran
20–11074
Mr Thompson’s moving away from Wressle came as the direct result of his being dropped from the Urban District Council. Shorn of the privileges of public life, he felt that he couldn’t carry on as of yore, and so decided to take up farming in real earnest. He therefore bought a farm in Muckleby and moved his faintly protesting wife and daughters there. Once settled in the little village, he felt that he should use his influence for good, and so undertook to destroy old superstitions and to revive old country customs which were falling into disuse. His schemes for carrying these purposes out are the foundation of the story, although the romances of his daughters Helen and Maude have a large share in it as well.
“Leisurely, will not be as well liked as some of her others.”
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Booklist 17:33 O ’20
“As usual with this author, her quiet manner covers and sustains a warm human interest; the environment is graphically pictured; the characters are drawn with an assured, vitalizing touch. That of the father, an unconscious egoist, is somewhat unduly elaborated, introducing matter that is superfluous, almost extraneous; and there is also an unwonted paucity of what Mrs Buckrose has taught us to expect eagerly, her unique, delightful humor.”
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Cath World 112:268 N ’20 130w
“Mildly, almost tepidly humorous in its pictures of English country life. The lady who writes under the name of J. E. Buckrose has given us better stories.”
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Outlook 126:67 S 8 ’20 50w
BUDISH, JACOB M., and SOULE, GEORGE HENRY. New unionism in the clothing industry. *$3 (4½c) Harcourt 331.87
20–15160
In defining their term “new unionism” the authors give a brief account of the changes that have taken place in unionism both in England and America from as far back as the “one big union” agitation in England in 1830 and point out that the present significant distinction between unions is between those “which are unconscious that their efforts tend toward a new social order and so adapt their strategy to the immediate situation” and those “which are conscious of their desire for a new order, and so base their strategy on more fundamental considerations.” The latter type is best exemplified by the unions of the clothing workers of America which in their breadth of sympathy and vision, their new ideal and new hope throw light both on the aspirations of British labor and on the present flux and unrest in the American labor movement. The book is an account of the struggles and the rise of the unions in the clothing industry. Contents: The new unionism; The clothing industry; The human element; The unions—their beginnings and growth; Decisive victories; Collective agreements; Philosophy, structure, and strategy; Education; Labor press and cooperatives; Textiles; The future; Bibliography, appendix and index.
Booklist 17:50 N ’20
“Although the authors have no doubt tried to be impartial, the book is clearly the product of partisans rather than the work of unbiased observers. No mention is made of any of the short-comings of the newer unions, nor are the difficulties and perplexities of the employer in his contact with them dealt with (except in connection with seasonal idleness). The book is, however, an excellent one; the authors have a thorough knowledge of their subject and a broad outlook over the industrial problem.” A. M. Bing
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Survey 45:23 O 2 ’20 1200w
“Should find a place in the public library of every city with an industrial population as it undoubtedly points the way which union developments will take in the future.”
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Wis Lib Bul 16:232 D ’20 80w
BUELL, RAYMOND LESLIE. Contemporary French politics. *$3.50 Appleton 944.08
20–20938
The author calls attention to three sterling qualities in the French people which, in the elections of November 1919, steered them, contrary to the predictions of the “storm prophets,” clear of Bolshevism and the extreme socialist left. These qualities are: their attachment to property, their respect for authority, and their civic spirit. In the light of these he interprets the present political situation. The book has an introduction by Professor Carlton J. H. Hayes and the contents are: Party philosophies; Parties and parliament; The “Bloc” and the sacred union; Party realignments; Woman suffrage and the “R. P.”; The 1919 elections; The demand for a new constitution; Syndicalism: program and tactics; The press and the censorship; The bureaucracy and state socialism; A government by interests and experts; Regionalism; What the French peace terms might have been; The French conception of a league of nations; What France thought of American “idealism”; Appendices; Index.
Booklist 17:148 Ja ’21
“Mr Buell’s book affords the beginning of sound knowledge concerning France because it treats of the larger—that is, the political—aspects of French life with some approach to completeness and without the sentiment that blurs outlines.”
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No Am 213:282 F ’21 950w
BULLARD, ARTHUR (ALBERT EDWARDS, pseud.). Russian pendulum: autocracy—democracy—bolshevism. il *$2 Macmillan 947
19–15627
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
“Though the material is not well organized and the observations not very profound, yet ‘The Russian pendulum’ is one of the very few good books in English on present day Russia.” F. A. Golder
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Am Pol Sci R 14:356 My ’20 500w
“His suggestions for allied policy in the future are vague, but his detailed account of actual happenings in Russia makes this a very informative book.”
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Booklist 16:236 Ap ’20
Reviewed by Harold Kellock
Freeman 1:620 S 8 ’20 300w
“He shows himself well disposed, sympathetic, and fair-minded in every way. But he is not remarkable for the amount of his novel information or for comprehension of the forces at work, nor is he very clear-cut in his view of the means by which the desired readjustment is to be brought about. His best chapter is a survey of the mistakes of allied diplomacy in Russia. To his statement of remedies as well as to his other judgments, Mr Bullard is led more by his wishes than the facts.”
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Nation 110:268 F 28 ’20 420w
“In his own recommendations Mr Bullard is modest; he realizes that the problem is too dynamic for any program hard and fast in its details. But, for all that, Mr Bullard is hazy.” C. M.
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New Repub 21:361 F 18 ’20 1950w
“Much of it is valuable first-hand material for the student, and some of it, alas, can not be considered as entirely accurate or unbiased. Quite the most valuable feature of the volume is his opening chapter devoted to Lenin. The Siberian part is unworthy of the writer and appears to have been done under pressure to pad out an otherwise admirable book, a pressure which is also indicated by the faulty transliteration of Russian names.”
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Review 2:207 F 28 ’20 550w
R of Rs 61:107 Ja ’20 80w
“‘The Russian pendulum’ does not reveal any understanding of the forces back of the great change in Russia.” Alexander Trachtenberg
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Socialist R 8:250 Mr ’20 620w
Springf’d Republican p8 D 27 ’19 100w
“This is unquestionably one of the ablest books yet written dealing with revolutionary Russia. Not only in his comment on events, but in his treatment of the more fundamental aspects of the situation, he has, with vigorous and imaginative word, written a highly illuminating book.” Reed Lewis
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Survey 44:47 Ap 3 ’20 580w
BULLARD, ARTHUR (ALBERT EDWARDS, pseud.). Stranger. *$2 (2c) Macmillan
20–7920
The story takes the reader into an intellectual circle of lower New York, among social workers, literati and artists—America’s aspirations at their best. Into this circle is injected a Moslem—son of an American missionary couple in Turkey—born and brought up there, a convinced Mohammedan. This leads to comparisons between eastern and western life and religion, not always flattering to our western civilization. Some flaws are detected in the proud and secure foundations of our science and “efficiency.” The finest exponent of the latter and of feminism, Helen Cash, meets her Waterloo in the calm questioning eyes of this stranger. Frank Lockwood, the artist, sees in him the savior of his soul, and to Eunice Bender, the sick girl, he opens up heaven before she dies, through the spirituality of his love.
Booklist 16:346 Jl ’20
“We do not often happen upon so very good a story as this one, from every point of view.” D. L. M.
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 14 ’20 1000w
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Cleveland p83 S ’20 70w
“In brief, one feels that Mr Bullard, in attempting to be realistic, has achieved only a faithful narrative, based on ideas about which, on the whole, no one would wish to dispute.” L. M. R.
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Freeman 3:286 D 1 ’20 160w
“As a character and a sympathetic intermediary between East and West, Mr Bullard’s ‘Stranger’ is picturesque and charming; as a guide and philosopher he is amiably sentimental and futile.” Ludwig Lewisohn
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Nation 110:828 Je 19 ’20 320w
“As Mr Bullard has avoided the rocks of mere Menckenesque satire, so has he steered clear of the equally dangerous shallow pools of sentimentalism. He has not achieved a great book—there are few such in the world—but he has penetrated pretty nearly to the core of some of the counterfeits that time will break. His story is interesting, thoughtful, reasoned, suggestive.” S. C. C.
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New Repub 24:25 S 1 ’20 1000w
“It is an idyll of a rare degree of loveliness, delicate as a flower, but without, one feels quite sure, a flower’s evanescence. Unusual and striking in conception, the book is no less unusual and striking in execution. A really worth-while novel, one which appeals both to the reader’s brains and to his emotions, is this.”
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N Y Times 25:279 My 30 ’20 1000w
“Both in its originality as to treatment and balance between character interest and suggestion of thought the novel is of substantial value.”
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Outlook 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 70w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 3:349 O 20 ’20 600w
“Altogether the special pleading of the book in favour of Morocco versus America should not be too readily believed in by the intelligent reader.”
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Spec 125:820 D 18 ’20 50w
“‘The stranger’ is a very appealing and unusual novel in the delicacy and vividness of its portraiture.”
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Springf’d Republican p8 N 30 ’20 580w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p670 O 14 ’20 120w
BULLER, ARTHUR HENRY REGINALD. Essays on wheat. il *$2.50 Macmillan 633.1
20–838
“The book contains chapters on: The early history of wheat-growing in Manitoba; Wheat in western Canada; The origin of Red Bobs and Kitchener; The wild wheat of Palestine. But the most important part of the book is the chapter on The discovery and introduction of Marquis wheat, perhaps the most productive variety of wheat in North America. The style is non-technical.” (Booklist) “The author is professor of botany in the University of Manitoba.” (Brooklyn)
“The book should appeal not only to the student of economic history, and to botanists, but to the general reader who may wish to learn something of the great cereal crops of North America.” I: Lippincott.
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Am Econ R 10:815 D ’20 450w
Booklist 16:225 Ap ’20
Brooklyn 12:99 Mr ’20 40w
“Prof. Buller’s ‘Essays on wheat’ are among the most interesting things we have seen for a long time. He is singularly fortunate in his subject, and he tells his story remarkably well, giving the wealth of detail, the figures, and the references needed by the man of science, without sacrificing interest or literary form.” E. J. Russell
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Nature 105:224 Ap 22 ’20 1000w
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Spec 124:870 Je 26 ’20 450w
“The volume is an excellent and timely addition to works dealing with the resources of North America.”
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Springf’d Republican p9a Ag 15 ’20 260w
BULLOCK, EDNA DEAN, comp. Selected articles on the employment of women. (Debaters’ handbook ser.) *$1.25 Wilson, H. W. 331.4
20–4722
A second edition of this handbook, first published in 1911, has been prepared by Julia E. Johnsen. New material has been included covering “the new outlook on the employment of women the rapidly changing phases growing out of women’s large part in war work, the larger opportunities, new and fairer standards of protective legislation,” and the bibliography has been revised and brought down to date.
Ann Am Acad 90:172 Jl ’20 20w
“Valuable in presenting the subject from many angles.”
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Booklist 16:286 My ’20
“Although the articles selected are interesting, well arranged and yield their significance easily to the lay student, they do not give the solid basis of fact which debaters ought to have. They dwell, however, on the most important questions for women workers.” E. K. Wells
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Survey 45:168 O 30 ’20 260w
BULMAN, HARRISON FRANCIS. Coal mining and the coal miner. il *$6 Macmillan 622.3
(Eng ed 20–11528)
“A comprehensive survey of the whole industry as it existed in normal times—the figures and statistics being confined for the most part to the period before the war, ending with 1913—by an experienced colliery manager and director of colliery companies. The book was written before the Coal commission, and Mr Bulman hopes that the normal picture he draws ‘may serve as a useful corrective to some erroneous ideas which have arisen from its proceedings.’ A chapter of seventy-nine pages very fully illustrated with plans and photographs is devoted to ‘Miners’ houses.’”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
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Ath p384 Mr 19 ’20 50w
“We cannot say that his book is attractive in form or style, but it is at any rate an honest book and not misleading propaganda.”
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Spec 124:429 Mr 27 ’20 240w
“For those who are interested in the why of industrial troubles, this book can serve as a means of showing the gaps in the thinking of colliery managers and how they do not comprehend the incoherency of the men who work.” Hugh Archibald
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Survey 45:167 O 30 ’20 620w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p157 Mr 4 ’20 90w
“His dispassionate, detailed, documented, and illustrated statement of facts is far more impressive and convincing than mere argument or assertion.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p163 Mr 11 ’20 750w
BULSTRODE, BEATRIX (MRS EDWARD MANICO GULL). Tour in Mongolia. il *$5 (8½c) Stokes 915.1
What led this English lady, after an eighteen months’ stay in China, to travel in Mongolia was “the fascination of the unknown, a deep love of the picturesque and inherent desire to revert awhile to the primitive.” Also Mongolia was an opportunity of meeting with medievalism untouched. The trip took place in 1913 while Mongolia was at war with China and the author’s account is particularly instructive in her analysis of Mongol character. An introduction by David Fraser, Times correspondent in Peking, explains the political situation at the time of the tour. The book is indexed and profusely illustrated.
“She can handle a pen to excellent effect.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p596 S 16 ’20 960w
BUNAU-VARILLA, PHILIPPE. Great adventure of Panama. *$1.75 Doubleday 986
20–5904
The object of the book is to show how the Panama canal enterprise was hedged about by criminal conspiracies on the part of Germany, both financially and politically, linking it intimately with the great war. The author claims to expose the mysterious threads of “the always-menacing ‘occult power of Germany’” which have long been visible to himself alone. Among the contents are: The occult power of Germany; The Boche conspiracy in Mexico (1861–63) preparing the provocation of 1870; The Boche conspiracy in France, (1888–92), to wreck the Panama canal, in order to create the depressed state of mind necessary for the premeditated aggression; Various traces of Boche intrigue in Bogota for defeating in 1903 the adoption of the Panama canal by the United States, etc.
Booklist 16:298 Je ’20
“The trouble with M. Bunau-Varilla’s method of argument in seeking to prove his contentions is that he considers a mere uncorroborated statement quite sufficient to prove anything that he wishes to prove.” T: R. Ybarra
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N Y Times 25:158 Ap 4 ’20 1100w
“There is perhaps more rhetoric than evidence in certain parts of this narrative; yet it would not be surprising if evidence as yet uncovered should sometime confirm nearly all of the author’s opinions. Few fact stories, it may be said, tell so clearly as does this of M. Bunau-Varilla’s just how things were done and what motives actuated the doers.”
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No Am 212:285 Ag ’20 900w
Outlook 126:768 D 29 ’20 300w
“It is not lightly to be dismissed because of the ebullient egotism with which it is written. The testimony of the chief actor in the drama is worth listening to.”
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Review 3:649 D 29 ’20 1000w
BUNKER, JOHN JOSEPH LEO. Shining fields and dark towers. *$1.25 Lane 811
19–15769
This is the first volume of a poet from the Middle West who looks down from philosophic heights upon the din of battle, of traffic and travail with a sweet and mellow wisdom and an encompassing faith in a divine love. The contents in part are: Earth-music; The flute-player; To harsh judgment thinking itself wisdom; The splendid stranger; New York sketches; Ballade of faces fair; Love’s intendment; The great refusal; Quest and haven.
“Though the section entitled ‘New York sketches,’ and the study called ‘Complainte d’amour,’ contain some of the cleverest and most interesting vers libre that the present reviewer has ever seen, Mr Bunker is no disciple of the new school. He is essentially in the great tradition, and it is in the familiar forms, the recognized types of English verse, that he does his most ample and satisfying work.” H: A. Lappin
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Bookm 50:373 N ’19 850w
“Not always with the same perfection of expression does he sing, but at the same time never does he fail to give, whatever the mood or theme may be, a significance to it that comes from his spiritual manner of approach and understanding. This peculiarly individual quality is as apparent in the four poems of the ‘New York sketches’ with their realistic background and outlines, as in the ‘Quest and haven,’ the memorial poem to Francis Thompson.” W. S. B.
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Boston Transcript p11 F 7 ’20 1300w
“Mr Bunker has enjoyed and experimented with a wide range of poetry. Not the less for this has he remained captain of his poetic soul. His is a highly personal muse, tender and chastened, yet capable of merriment, with the far vision of the pure in heart. Lyrics such as ‘Revolution,’ ‘To harsh judgment thinking itself wisdom,’ or, in more playful vein, ‘Boons,’ are distinct additions to the sum of modern poetry.”
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Cath World 110:403 D ’19 350w
“Mr Bunker is direct, fluent, enthusiastic, and harmless, with good impulses and ordinary vision.” M. V. D.
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Nation 110:76 Ja 17 ’20 180w
“The book shows much promise, and nearly all of it has the real singing quality, although now and then, as happens sometimes with even the best of poets, either the author’s ear has failed him or his command of the technique of poetical expression has not been up to the mark. But these lapses are rare.”
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N Y Times 25:62 F 1 ’20 360w
“Some day if this writer keeps on and has a real experience in life, he may become a poet. If all his work were as musical as the four stanzas on ‘Twilight’ criticism of his work would even now have to be modified.”
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Springf’d Republican p13a Ja 25 ’20 260w
“Mr Bunker is said to be ‘a modern of the moderns,’ but we prefer him in the more old-fashioned mood which inspires ‘Twilight’ and some of the other pieces in his book.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p406 Je 24 ’20 180w
BURGESS, THORNTON WALDO. Burgess animal book for children. il *$3 (4½c) Little 590
20–21007
A companion volume to the Burgess bird book. In the story Peter Rabbit goes to school to Mother Nature. He learns first about his own cousins, the marsh rabbit, the arctic hare, and others, and then about his friends the squirrels, and so on up through the animal kingdom to the deer, elk, bears and other large mammals. “There has been no attempt to describe or classify sub-species.... The purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader with the larger groups—orders, families, and divisions of the latter, so that typical representatives may readily be recognized and their habits understood.” The pictures are by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and there is an index.
“‘The Burgess animal book’ ought to be given to every child in America as an introduction to the animal life of our continent. And there is not one of those children who won’t like it and absorb an untold amount of information from it.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
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N Y Times p4 D 5 ’20 420w
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N Y Evening Post p11 D 31 ’20 50w
“This book affords further evidence that Mr Burgess is doing a great deal toward making the boys and girls of today a generation of naturalists.”
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Springf’d Republican p72 N 21 ’20 170w
BURGESS, WALTER H. Pastor of the Pilgrims: a biography of John Robinson. il *$4 Harcourt
20–20311
This study of the life and times of John Robinson is based on original research. “Besides the identification of the early home and the parentage of John Robinson, these pages throw a little fresh light upon the Southworths and Carvers and others connected with the Pilgrim Father movement. Gervase Neville is identified, and the anonymous opponent of Robinson in one of his earliest controversies is named. The history of the obscure church in the western part of England is unfolded, and an attempt made to settle the vexed question of the identity of John Smith.” (Foreword) A partial list of the contents is: The birthplace and parentage of John Robinson; Religion in England in the days of Elizabeth and James; Separation from the Church of England—Robinson and Bernard—Gervase Neville—William Brewster; Religious refugees at Amsterdam; The Pilgrims at Leyden; Robinson’s plea for lay preaching; The sailing—Robinson’s letter of advice—Robert Cushman’s letter—the “Mayflower’s” voyage; The influence of Robinson on the thought and life of his age. There are illustrations, appendices, a chronological table of the writings of John Robinson and an index.
“The volume shows wide study of the whole literature of contemporary separatism and of its opponents, and may be heartily commended not only as a biography of the Pilgrim pastor, but as a most readable and informing account of the separatist movement of his day not only for the specialist but for the general reader.”
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Am Hist R 26:338 Ja ’21 400w
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Outlook 126:238 O 6 ’20 120w
“Here is brave stuff, no doubt; unhappily nothing organic or even articulate has been made of it. With a little artistic sympathy, with even a touch or two of the quality which marks a man of letters, he might have made the portrait memorable.”
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Review 3:380 O 27 ’20 460w
“Taken as a whole, the volume is a good example of what can be accomplished, well-directed historical scholarship applied to a definite object.”
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R of Rs 62:447 O ’20 100w
“We could wish that the biography was less interrupted by digressions on side-issues, but Mr Burgess’s enthusiasm for his subject is wholly commendable.”
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Spec 124:872 Je 26 ’20 220w
“It does not treat all phases of the separatist movement with equal thoroughness. It is deficient at times in method and proportion. But it is an earnest, honest work, in which, in spite of the author’s sympathy with Robinson, and a desire to claim for him as large a personal influence as possible little is written with any other object than telling the truth. Its deductions are moderate.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a S 26 ’20 1400w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p369 Je 10 ’20 90w
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p432 Jl 8 ’20 1150w
BURGESS, WARREN RANDOLPH. Trends of school costs. (Education monographs) il $1 Russell Sage foundation 379
20–17519
“The study is based upon data included in the reports of the United States Commissioner of education, and covers the period from 1870 to 1918. By means of the ‘line of trends’ the writer presents a striking picture of the drift of annual expenditures for public education in the United States during the period noted, comparing this with a similar representation of the growth in pupil attendance. Noting the fact that teachers’ salaries and new buildings absorb four-fifths of all school expenditures for the year 1917–18, an analysis is made of the trends of teachers’ salaries since 1840, the salaries of rural and city teachers, both men and women, being considered separately. Interesting comparisons of these with the lines representing the trends of the cost of living and of the salaries of other workers are presented. Likewise, the tendencies with reference to costs of buildings are similarly shown. A special set of tables and graphs indicates the trends of such costs during the period from 1915–20. From the data presented the writer concludes that ‘to buy the same amount of educational service in 1920 as in 1915 it will be necessary to double the school budget.’ The closing chapter deals with the sources of income for school support.”—School R
“Aside from the content, the method employed in the study will be of interest to students of education.”
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El School J 21:235 N ’20 250w
N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes 7:39 O 20 ’20 70w
School R 28:710 N ’20 680w
BURKE, KATHLEEN. Little heroes of France. il *$1.75 (4c) Doubleday 940.344
20–17608
Twelve stories of deeds of heroism performed by French children during the war. The author was engaged in relief work and some of the children she knew personally. “Others she knew because all France loved and honored them. One of the stories, that of the Denisot children, was found in the diary of a German soldier.” (Introd.) Contents: André Lange and his wheelbarrow; Madeleine and André Daniau; Denise Cartier; Robert Felix; Louise Haumont; Louis and Marcelle Denisot; Baby Pierre; Gustave Daret; René Chautier; Etienne Chevrille; Emile Depres; Henriette Maubert. The book is illustrated by Paul Verrees and has an introduction by Alfred Holman.
“Heroic, really true and full of action these will prove stirring tales and bring home the horrors of war to all boys and most girls.”
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Booklist 17:121 D ’20
Ind 104:379 D 11 ’20 40w
“It is an incredibly stirring, beautiful little book, and it is one that every generous child will love. It is not alone for children, however.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
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N Y Times p9 D 12 ’20 90w
Springf’d Republican p6 D 4 ’20 50w
BURKE, THOMAS.[2] Song book of Quong Lee of Limehouse. *$1.25 Holt 811
20–22856
A book of poems in free verse viewing life through the oriental eyes of Quong Lee, shopkeeper in Limehouse, London’s Chinatown. Humor and philosophy mingle in the poems. Titles are: Of buying and selling; A nightpiece; Of a national cash register; Under a shining window; A song of little girls; At the feast of lanterns; Of worship and conduct.
“Occasionally a banality, but light and poignant sentiment in abundance, with here and there a poem that sets vibrating the cords of sensibility.”
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Bookm 52:551 F ’21 100w
“Mr Burke triumphs so splendidly in these verses, as he did in his prose stories, that he deserves all the praise we can give him.” W: S. Braithwaite
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Boston Transcript p4 D 22 ’20 1450w
“These vers libre pieces of ‘song’ present the personality of Chinatown, the quaint phrase and the cool temper with a reality which grows more and more vivid as one reads them through.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p782 N 25 ’20 60w
BURROUGHS, EDGAR RICE. Tarzan the untamed. il *$1.90 McClurg
20–7515
“This new story tells what happened to Tarzan and his wife and the home he had made in British East Africa when war broke out in 1914 and a small detachment of black soldiers, commanded by German officers, marched past his farm and on to German headquarters. Tarzan was hurrying home from Nairobi, where he had heard of the outbreak of war when this happened, and when he reaches his farm he finds a scene of desolation, no one left alive upon his place. In grief and rage and hate he casts off the veneer of civilization and becomes the ape-man once more, while he ranges the country to find those who have killed his mate and mete to them the justice of the jungle. He finds them, but the result makes only the beginning of the story, which goes swiftly on through many complications.”—N Y Times
“It runs on for some four hundred pages with no visible trace of style, little or no atmosphere or local color, and about as slim a foundation plot as has graced a novel for many a day.”
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Boston Transcript p4 S 4 ’20 300w
“The story shows the same qualities that have marked the previous Tarzan stories—ingenuity and fertility of invention, combined with those crude and garish features that make the success of a popular moving picture play.”
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N Y Times 25:302 Je 6 ’20 430w
“Will doubtless thrill the crowd which loves the cinematograph, and cares nothing for common-sense, or coherence, compared with violent sensation and frequent killing.”
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Sat R 130:141 Ag 14 ’20 360w
Springf’d Republican p11a S 12 ’20 120w
BURROUGHS, JOHN. Accepting the universe. il *$2 (2c) Houghton 210
20–18062
“A series of sallies, excursions, into the world of semi-philosophical speculation,” the author calls this collection of essays, whose burden is “that this is the best possible world, and these people in it are the best possible people,” that “the universe is good,” and “the heart of nature is sound.” Among the longer essays are: Shall we accept the universe? The universal beneficence; The faith of a naturalist; The price of development; The problem of evil. Then follow two groups of short pieces under the headings: Horizon lines; and Soundings. The poet of the cosmos, in the last essay, is Walt Whitman.
“The philosophizings will please many not too radical thinkers. Most people will prefer his bits on nature.”
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Booklist 17:97 D ’20
Bookm 52:367 D ’20 180w
Lit D p101 N 6 ’20 1200w
“He is a naturalist; his vision is as broad as terrestrial time; he leads us over much geological and biological ground to the mind of man. But once confronted with that phenomenon, he is, like many a scientist, evasive; he is reduced to the merest academic platitudes.”
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Nation 112:89 Ja 19 ’21 840w
“Spirited and eloquent pages.” H. W. Boynton
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N Y Evening Post p4 D 31 ’20 1050w
“There will be many who will take issue with Mr Burroughs’s philosophy of God and nature, good and evil, life and death, but this will not disturb him. He has unquestionably brought the inexorable facts of existence to bear upon theories, creeds and beliefs, and has applied their lesson with unsparing frankness. The result is not in line with so-called orthodoxy, but none the less he has coined into words the unspoken expressions of many hearts.” H: L. West
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N Y Times p16 O 24 ’20 950w
“His philosophy is a mass of contradictions. Mr Burroughs in accepting the universe drops out from it its most important phenomena.”
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Outlook 126:515 N 17 ’20 300w
“Of flowers and birds and the simple life Mr Burroughs has something to say, his divagations on the universe leave us doubting. It would in fact be easy to point out a series of shocking inconsistencies into which he has been thrown by his ambitious attempt to combine a wise and wholesome life in nature with a metaphysical theory of natural evolution.”
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Review 3:392 O 27 ’20 470w
BURT, KATHARINE (NEWLIN) (MRS MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT). Hidden Creek. il *$2 (2½c) Houghton
20–15343
When Sheila Arundel’s artist father dies and leaves her penniless, she counts herself fortunate to be befriended by Sylvester Hudson, who has come into her life thru a painting of her father’s he has just bought to decorate his western hotel. He takes her back with him to Millings, but the reception his family give her makes her eager to be independent and in gratitude to Hudson she consents to become a bar maid in his saloon. The only member of his family who treats her with respect is Dickie, the despised half-drunken son, in whom she discovers a soul akin to her own poetic nature. Her success in the saloon brings her popularity of a kind, but one particularly trying day, culminating in a brutal insult from her employer, determines her to get away and she seeks refuge with Miss Blake, a recluse living on Hidden Creek alone with her dogs and her peculiarities. From the horror that this experience brings, Cosme Hilliard, a hot-blooded young half-Spaniard, rescues her, and for a time it seems that he is to be her hero, but Dickie, whose character has been developing along with hers, altho in a different way, at length comes into his own.
“‘Hidden Creek’ follows no beaten path; its plot is skillfully developed and the story is told with realism and with a sparkling wit.”
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N Y Times p30 S 12 ’20 200w
“Will be welcomed by the reader with fondness for romance staged apart from the trodden paths of every day life.”
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Springf’d Republican p11a S 26 ’20 200w
BURT, KATHARINE (NEWLIN) (MRS MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT). Red lady. *$1.75 (3c) Houghton
20–6709
A unique feature of this mystery story is that its principal characters, including both hero and villain, are women. Men play secondary parts. Three housekeepers have fled from the Pines when Janice Gale accepts the position. Her first intimation of something wrong comes with the signs of terror exhibited by her mistress’s young son at sight of her red hair. Then there are indications that the house is haunted. The child Robbie is frightened into convulsions and dies with a strand of red hair in his fingers. Janice next comes face to face with the ghost and finds her the counterpart of herself. Convinced that this is a real woman she sets herself to trace the mystery, braves great dangers, all but loses her life, escapes and wins the love of the young detective who has been regarding her as a criminal.
“An exceptionally fine specimen, American in origin, of that popular genus colloquially known as the ‘shocker.’”
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Ath p867 D 24 ’20 80w
“The mystery of it all is hard to penetrate but Mrs Burt at last finds a way out of the strange tangle and altogether writes a very good and very unusual story.”
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Boston Transcript p7 My 8 ’20 200w
“This story would be more attractive if the author were to make, say, her present ninth chapter her first. She could condense in that one chapter about all she has told us in the eight preceding and would thus spare the reader much boredom. And yet, considering how good are the final chapters, there is reason to believe that we have in Mrs Burt one of the well worth while writers of real mystery stories of the immediate future.”
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N Y Times 25:27 Je 27 ’20 650w
BURT, MAXWELL STRUTHERS. Songs and portraits. *$1.50 Scribner 811
20–8428
“A nature modestly reflective as well as emotionally alert is revealed in ‘Songs and portraits’ by Maxwell Struthers Burt. The poems reminiscent of the dead, in form and spirit not unlike those of Rupert Brooke, express the belief that ‘the dead know all.’ In ‘Fishing’ and ‘Marchen’ this Princeton poet paints gay and naive little small-boy pictures. He reasons rather bitterly against frantic fanatics and pudgy-fingered plutocrats.”—Springf’d Republican
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Booklist 17:60 N ’20
“Mr Burt’s ear and his learning are much indebted to Rupert Brooke—but it is a sorrowful thing to see anyone assume so easily all the palpable qualities of another. There are the same studied irrelevancies, the same feminine endings, the same delight in names. Mr Burt has imitated most of the many things we would like to forget in Rupert Brooke, including his glorification of war and death.” G. T.
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Freeman 1:526 Ag 11 ’20 250w
“When at last he shall speak thoughts all his own, it is hoped that he will not have lost his really very lovely gift of expression, his round, elegant, springtime pregnancy and shapeliness of phrase.” Mark Van Doren
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Nation 111:sup414 O 13 ’20 100w
“Although many of the poems seem unfinished, as if their maker had had the right poetic impulse but scant leisure, nevertheless there is a warmth and naturalness of utterance In all of them that will rejoice the hearts of those who are weary of strident or vapid artificialities.” Margaret Wilkinson
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N Y Times p18 Ag 8 ’20 370w
“Mr Burt’s ‘Songs and portraits’ has real delicacies of a kind neither very usual nor very extraordinary. There are phrases of drooping grace; there are straying, sinuous rhythms; there is a desultory and hovering tenderness. Mr Burt’s very picturesqueness is rather mellow than picturesque.” O. W. Firkins
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Review 3:171 Ag 25 ’20 100w
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Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 11 ’20 160w
BURTON, ALEXANDER. Public speaking made easy. (Made easy ser.) $1.25 (3c) Clode, E. J. 808.5
20–16872
In the introduction the author calls attention to the present-day tendency in the art of oratory which distinguishes it from the oratory of the past. “This is the cultivation of simplicity in form as opposed to that ornateness of phraseology which has been so characteristic of the most esteemed public utterances in former times.” The chapters following the Introduction are: Breathing; Pronunciation; The voice; Accessories of the voice; Direct training; Preparing a speech; The deeper training; Beecher’s Liverpool address; Lincoln’s oratory; A southern orator; The American system; Conclusion.
BURTON, THEODORE ELIJAH. Modern political tendencies and the effect of the war thereon. (Stafford Little lectures for 1919) *$1.25 Princeton univ. press 320.1
19–25948
“The president of the Merchants national bank of New York, former United States senator from Ohio, sees four dominant phases in the changing ideas of peoples and governments: the relation of governments to the governed; the relation of the governed each to the other; the relation of the central government to its constituent parts; and international relations.”—Booklist
Booklist 16:112 Ja ’20
Boston Transcript p6 F 11 ’20 650w
“‘Modern political tendencies’ by Theodore E. Burton possibly sets the Stafford Little lectures at a higher level of open-mindedness than was reached by such earlier contributors as Grover Cleveland and Elihu Root; in fact it is marked by that tone of restrained liberalism which is coming to be a mark of our more important bank presidents, to the great amazement and confusion, no doubt, of their editorial satellites.”
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Dial 67:498 N 29 ’19 60w
BURY, GEORGE WYMAN. Pan-Islam. *$2.25 Macmillan 297
20–5812
“‘“Pan-Islam” is an elementary handbook,’ explains the author, ‘not a text-book, still less an exhaustive treatise.’ It is a study of the Pan-Islamic problem on the political, social, religious, and many other sides, by one who served in the Hedjaz and Arabia during the war, but has also had a quarter of a century’s experience of Mohammedan countries and peoples. As a rule he abstains from political criticism.”—Ath
“His remarks on aggressive missionary enterprise are sensible and illustrated by plenty of facts.”
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Ath p61 Ja 9 ’20 80w
“The book is well written and full of interesting and valuable information. The long experience of the author and his manifest fairness make his opinions of more than ordinary importance.”
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Bib World 54:429 Jl ’20 230w
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Booklist 17:48 N ’20
“The Carnegie peace commission should send the last chapter, A plea for tolerance, to every missionary organization.”
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Dial 68:668 My ’20 60w
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Spec 124:18 Ja 3 ’20 1250w
“He writes in a progressive spirit and very sympathetically toward the Moslem world. It is far better that his sentiments were expressed by an Englishman than by an American. The last chapter, a plea for toleration, is really a most admirable piece of writing.” I. C. Hannah
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Survey 44:310 My 29 ’20 280w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p770 D 18 ’19 60w
“Mr Bury presents a fairly impartial view of Christian missions in the Near East, with their effect on Islam. It is a problem which he has studied at first hand, and he is studiously careful to express his views courteously. He is best when he is away from religious discussion, describing the Arab and the Turk as he knows them. Altogether Mr Bury’s book contains much that is entertaining; and although he has chosen too resonant a title for what might more reasonably be called essays, his expressed opinions are sensible and his matter readable.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p776 D 25 ’19 1000w
BURY, JOHN BAGNELL. Idea of progress. *$5.50 Macmillan 901
20–9233
“Prof. J. B. Bury’s new work is ‘The idea of progress: an inquiry into its origin and growth.’ The theme is developed under such chapter headings as: Some interpretations of universal history: Bodin and Leroy; Utility the end of knowledge: Bacon; The progress of knowledge: Fontenelle; The general progress of man: Abbe de Saint-Pierre; New conceptions of history: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Turgot; The French revolution: Condorcet; The theory of progress in England; German speculation on progress; The search for a law of progress: Saint-Simon and Comte; and Progress in the light of evolution.”—Springf’d Republican
“This is just the chief merit of Professor Bury’s book, that it discriminates with fine precision between what is essential to the modern conception of progress and what only superficially resembles it. His exposition of the significance of the idea of progress in the history of European civilization is so lucid that it leaves nothing to be desired.” Carl Becker
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Am Hist R 26:77 O ’20 800w
Ath p791 Je 18 ’20 630w
“It is hardly necessary to say that the author carries out the historical inquiry with great width of learning and with a scrupulous desire to make a reasonable case even for those writers whose presentation has its weak or even its ridiculous points. His remarks are eminently judicious wherever they can be tested.” P. V. M. Benecke
+ − |Eng Hist R 35:581 O ’20 1650w
“An exceedingly clear and interesting account of the origin and growth of the idea of progress.” S. B. Fay
+ |Review 3:478 N 17 ’20 520w
“Professor Bury’s work in clarity, accuracy, and fairness attains the high standard set by his previous historical volumes.”
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Spec 124:795 Je 12 ’20 950w
Springf’d Republican p8 Ap 17 ’20 90w
“It is a work of profound scholarship, sedate in tone and rational in spirit. It is unfortunate that Professor Bury did not carry his study beyond his self-imposed limitation which ended it with the time when progress became a current creed.” A. J. Todd
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Survey 45:322 N 27 ’20 730w
“A sound piece of pioneer work, with its merits and limitations. Only his knowledge of the subject and its intrinsic interest have saved his book from falling into the class of those which are less often read than consulted. Professor Bury has condensed the results of his work with remarkable ease and brevity and always with fairness.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p357 Je 10 ’20 1700w
BUSH, COLEMAN HALL. Applied business law. *$1.28 Holt 347.7
20–5200
As the ordinary empirical methods of acquiring the essentials of business law and practice are “entirely too slow ... the purpose of this book is to eliminate the long term of apprenticeship, to give a wide range of experience to all who seek it, by presenting material, both law and facts, for application in constructive work.” (Statement of purpose) The book is in two parts: 1, Fundamental principles: Essentials of contracts; Agency; Service; Deposits, loans, and hiring of things; Carriage; Sales of goods; Partnership; Insurance; Negotiable paper; Real property; Business corporations. 2, How to write business papers: Simple contracts; Articles of agreement; Negotiable contracts; Contracts concerning land; Miscellaneous forms; Index.
School R 28:476 Je ’20 250w
BUTCHER, ALICE MARY (BRANDRETH) lady. Memories of George Meredith. il *$1.60 (6c) Scribner
(Eng ed 20–6151)
This book of reminiscences begins delightfully, when the author was a girl of thirteen, with pebbles tossed against a bedroom window and an invitation to walk to the top of Box Hill to see the sun rise. It continues in the same vein of intimate, personal reminiscence to the day of Meredith’s death. There are pleasant glimpses of Shakespeare readings, of picnics, of Meredith’s family life, and of his friendships with young people, with quotations from letters and conversations.
“Her reminiscences have a girlish naïveté which is far from unattractive. Her anecdotes and some of the letters he wrote to her and his whimsical and witty talk help to fill out pleasantly our mental portrait of Meredith.”
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Ath p1354 D 12 ’19 100w
“She is to be congratulated on her heroic self-restraint. We enjoy here, we are made to feel, the cream of several volumes.” J. J. Daly
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Bookm 51:351 My ’20 820w
“Many details of Meredith’s family life are given by Lady Butcher in a wholly informal and fragmentary manner. Her style is frequently cloudy and repetitious, and she often spoils a good story by her clumsy way of telling it.” E. F. E.
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Boston Transcript p6 Ja 17 ’20 1250w
Cleveland p51 My ’20 80w
“After reading Lady Butcher one needs to draw back a little with half-closed eyes to fit the various fragments together; but in a moment or two it will be seen that they merge quite rightly into the figure of the great man.”
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The Times [London] Lit Sup p765 D 18 ’19 900w
BUTLER, ELLIS PARKER. How it feels to be fifty. *75c (18c) Houghton 814
20–8224
A genial essay reprinted from the American Magazine of December, 1919. Its substance is summed up in the concluding paragraph: “At twenty my life was a feverish adventure, at thirty it was a problem, at forty it was a labor, at fifty it is a joyful journey well begun.”
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Boston Transcript p6 Jl 17 ’20 480w
BUTLER, ELLIS PARKER. Swatty; a story of real boys. il *$1.90 (2c) Houghton
20–5587
Mr Butler goes back to his own boyhood for these stories. They are stories of boy life on the banks of the Mississippi and the book opens with a tale of the mighty river on one of its spring rampages. Swatty, Bony and George are “real boys” of the Huck Finn and Plupy Shute type. Altho the episodes are loosely woven together to make a continuous narrative, many of them are in effect short stories and some have been published as such in the American Magazine. Among the titles are: The big river; Mamie’s father; Scratch-cat; The haunted house; The red avengers; The ice goes out.
“Better if read in parts, a few adventures at a time.”
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Booklist 16:311 Je ’20
“Were it not for a lamentable lapse into sentimentality out of keeping with the rest of the book, ‘Swatty’ would be a worthy successor [to Huck Finn]. A boy like George would never in this wide world possess a grandmother addressed as ‘Ladylove,’ and if he did, he would be cut into small pieces before he would use so soft an appellation.” G. M. Purcell
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Bookm 51:473 Je ’20 470w
“Although the situations are somewhat hackneyed, the author has the knack of seeing things from a boy’s point of view and expressing them in a boy’s language.”
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Cleveland p50 My ’20 60w
“The humor of the book is broad and obvious rather than whimsical, but Mr Butler’s admirers will probably enjoy it.”
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N Y Times 25:253 My 16 ’20 380w
“There will doubtless be a stampede for ‘Swatty’ in the children’s room of many a public library, altho Ellis Parker Butler in his subtitle does not commit himself as to whether this is a story for real boys, or merely about them. There is a choice morsel, for the girls, too, in the incident of the tailor’s fashion sheet.” R. D. Moore
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Pub W 97:1001 Mr 20 ’20 140w
BUTLER, SIR GEOFFREY GILBERT. Handbook to the league of nations; with an introd. by Robert Cecil. *$1.75 Longmans 341.1
20–5652
“Sir Geoffrey has presented in skeleton outline the development of the league idea from the day of Grotius to the framing of the Paris covenant, passing over rapidly its earlier history and laying stress on the attempts at international organization represented by the Holy alliance and the Hague conferences. He has throughout emphasized the fact that on a concert and not on a balance of the Powers rested the best hope of realization of the ideals of the statesmen and thinkers who strove for the elimination of war, and he bases his faith in the efficacy of the newly formed league on its conformity to that principle. In addition to general discussion of the provisions of the covenant, Sir Geoffrey has added the text of the document with commentary upon its specific features.”—N Y Evening Post