Book Review Digest Devoted to the Valuation of Current Literature Reviews of 1920 Books (continued 7)
Reading edition
Reviewed by J. R. Towse
+
N Y Evening Post p7 Mr 6 ’20 200w
Spec 124:215 F 14 ’20 50w
“Sir Geoffrey Butler’s book is of modest scope and plan, but it provides what has until now been lacking—a sober and succinct statement of historic process which we date from Grotius, and of which the covenant is but the latest phase.”
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p780 D 25 ’19 240w
BUTLER, NICHOLAS MURRAY. Is America worth saving? *$2 (3c) Scribner 304
20–5743
These addresses on national problems and party policies have for their common theme the exposition and interpretation of the fundamental principles upon which the American government and American civil society is built. The real difficulty in solving all our present day problems by the light of these fundamental principles, the author claims, lies in their extreme simplicity. He looks upon socialism and similar movements as subversive of these principles, as the real enemies of the people, and as entirely destructive, and places his faith upon a “stalwart and patriotic Americanism.” Among the contents are: Is America worth saving? A programme of constructive progress; The real labor problem; A league of nations; Elihu Root, statesman; Problems of peace and after-peace; The making of a written constitution; Theodore Roosevelt, American; Faith and the war; Is American higher education improving? The colleges and the nation; Index.
Reviewed by Everett Kimball
Am Pol Sci R 14:512 Ag ’20 490w
Booklist 16:298 Je ’20
“Failing entirely to understand the play of actual economic forces in the production and distribution of income, it is natural that Dr Butler should conclude that strikes and industrial wars are simply the result of an ignorance of the true and complete harmony of interests between capital and labor. Dr Butler pleads for ‘cooperative individualism into a moral purpose.’ But we cannot help feeling that he has not got any intelligible grip upon this moral purpose, and therefore shows a feeble hold upon the very principle of individual liberty whose championship he assumes.” O. O.
−
Nation 110:728 My 29 ’20 1350w
“There are no compromises of principles in this book, and the author makes no concessions to those demands made through the cries of the herd. To all Americans who need a mental tonic today, and to all who feel that their confidence in law and the application of law to life needs strengthening, and to all who believe that this republic is not to drift at the mercy of every wind of doctrine, this very seminal volume belongs of right.” M. F. Egan
+
N Y Times 25:203 Ap 25 ’20 3450w
+
R of Rs 61:556 My ’20 60w
“Read aright, the book is a masterly and no doubt timely defence of American institutions and the principles underlying them.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p363 Je 10 ’20 1150w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p671 O 14 ’20 40w
BUXTON, NOEL EDWARD, and LEESE, C. LEONARD. Balkan problems and European peace. *$1.75 Scribner 949.6
19–19084
“This book on Balkan political problems falls into three parts: (1) a history of pre-war European politics in the Balkans; (2) the policies pursued during the war by the Entente and Allied powers, with particular reference to Bulgaria; and (3) the probable future of the Balkans.”—Ath
Reviewed by Ferdinand Schevill
+
Am Hist R 25:747 Jl ’20 360w
“Clear and interesting little book. It displays considerable knowledge and the matter is well arranged.”
+
Ath p258 F 20 ’20 60w
Reviewed by B. U. Burke
Nation 111:218 Ag 21 ’20 750w
N Y Times p19 O 10 ’20 70w
“Its value depends on the light it sheds on Bulgarian aspirations rather than on any impartial discussion of new material.” H. F. Armstrong
+ −
Review 2:395 Ap 17 ’20 1200w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p699 N 27 ’19 160w
BYNNER, WITTER (EMANUEL MORGAN, pseud.). Canticle of Pan and other poems. *$2 Knopf 811
20–9070
Among the poems of this book are the Canticle of praise, written in celebration of the ending of the war and presented at the Greek theater in Berkeley, California, in December, 1918, and the Canticle of Pan, delivered as the Phi Beta Kappa poem at the University of California in June, 1917, and the Canticle of Bacchus, also presented in California. Among the shorter poems are a number of translations from the Chinese. Titles of others are: Youth sings to the sea; The wild star; Vintage; Gipsying; Pittsburgh; A song in the grass; The swimmer; The desert; On leaving California; Away from California; Rain; Night; News of a soldier.
Booklist 17:60 N ’20
“Witter Bynner, in his ‘A canticle of Pan,’ is more of a ventriloquist than a poet. He speaks in too many voices, and on too wide a range of topics to have achieved mastery in any manner or distinction in any style. Mr Bynner’s volume is singularly unauthentic: it is an anthology of imitations (none of them particularly effective) of most of the known manners of prosody.” R. M. Weaver
−
Bookm 52:62 S ’20 700w
+
Boston Transcript p8 F 12 ’19 500w
“In these canticles Mr Bynner has evolved a medium admirably suited for community expression, dealing with the large events of the world. In a sense these are experimental, and Mr Bynner, while giving them a certain poetic merit, has not made them distill his finest poetic spirit. His lyric note is, at its best, one of the purest among present-day poets.” W. S. B.
+ −
Boston Transcript p6 Jl 3 ’20 1150w
“What one has here in the end is Bynner, the man, rather than Bynner, the poet. He is a delightful man, clever and keen and kind. But he is too full of his message to be truly moving.” E. P.
+ −
Dial 70:109 Ja ’21 120w
“Witter Bynner forfeits our respect at the outset by writing a canticle wherein he imagines Pan and the Christ child as friends; he continues to forfeit it by a vein of breezy, Vachel Lindsay-Stephen Graham optimism that runs through his book.” J: G. Fletcher
−
Freeman 1:476 Jl 28 ’20 230w
“These canticles as well as some of the less ambitious poems are marred by an ethical idealism that is too self-conscious. Pan and Bacchus especially must not moralize. Their magic is their waywardness. The best poems in the book are the slighter ones, including the bits of translation from the Chinese, Japanese and Russian and the original poems in their spirit.” C. M. S.
+ −
Grinnell R 15:283 N ’20 300w
+
Ind 104:246 N 13 ’20 110w
“Mr Bynner’s latest volume proves, among other things, that there are limits beyond which Mr Bynner cannot be said to gain by experimentation. Not that he has a still, small voice; not that he is a little poet; but he is most himself and most happy when he is working in established, or at least in well knit, rhythms and moods. His publisher has produced him in a form that does both American poetry and American publishing handsome credit.” M. V. D.
+ −
Nation 110:856 Je 26 ’20 230w
“Witter Bynner’s new volume, ‘A canticle of Pan’ leaves one disturbed and aggrieved. He is undeniably such a really talented poet that one wonders why so much of his book leaps out of the mind much faster than it leaps in. It is apparent that the community masque idea is not a happy choice for Mr Bynner. It is in the shorter pieces in this book that Mr Bynner is at his best.” H. S. Gorman
+ −
N Y Times 25:18 Jl 25 ’20 450w
“A rather poorly balanced miscellany of poems. The volume is by no means representative of Mr Bynner’s excellence as a lyric poet. In comparatively few pieces in the present collection does he approach his highest standard of workmanship. A number of them are trivial in conception and detract substantially from the merit of the others.”
− +
Springf’d Republican p11a S 5 ’20 430w
BYRNE, DONN. Foolish matrons. *$1.90 (2c) Harper
20–18252
The heroines of the story are four: one wise and three foolish. The wise one was a great actress who married the big uncouth surgeon whom she loved, gave up her career and became his guardian angel and mother of his children. Georgia, pretty and frivolous, craved the excitement of gay New York. Married she was a vampire and finally drifted to the underworld. Sheila, the college graduate and newspaper woman, clever and heartless, dreamt of a career, married a poet for the glamor of it and drove him to drink with her coldness. Sappho, the model, frankly married for money, and posed as patroness of amateur artists. She became ashamed of her plain millionaire husband and thought to do better for herself but lost in the game.
“There is enough material in ‘The foolish matrons’ for four novels; any one of the biographies which are told simultaneously would have made a book by itself—a book representing with true artistry a segment of life.”
+
N Y Times p24 O 10 ’20 600w
“The tale has vivid elements: it is overdrawn, but possesses dramatic intensity.”
+ −
Springf’d Republican p9a N 14 ’20 150w
C
CABELL, JAMES BRANCH.[2] Domnei; a comedy of woman-worship. *$2 McBride
20–20192
A revised edition of “The soul of Melicent,” published in 1913, with a new introduction by Joseph Hergesheimer. For note on the story see Annual for 1914.
“Cabell has won indisputably the position of being one of our few distinguished men of letters. He is not for every reader, but one can scarcely picture his desiring this doubtful honor. He writes for his own discriminating audience, and for them he cannot write enough. He creates a taste which it is difficult to satisfy with lesser delights. ‘Domnei’ carries a significance and an atmosphere of its own.” D. L. Mann
+
Boston Transcript p6 Ja 8 ’21 1100w
“It is a subtle story, but not a convincing story.... And ‘Domnei’ is an entertaining story—a story to be read at one sitting—with colour and marvel and high-sounding words. It has the outline of a narrative poem, and I, for one, feel that it is a pity that Mr Cabell did not turn his prose into verse.” Padraic Colum
+ −
Freeman 2:404 Ja 5 ’21 650w
“The thing that makes ‘Domnei’ stand out above most fables of chivalrous romance is not the clear and sympathetic character portrayal, nor the flowing, beautiful English, nor is it the great wealth of mediaeval lore, which Mr Cabell undoubtedly possesses to an exceptional degree. The greatness of ‘Domnei’ lies in the fact that every detail, historical, narrative, or constructive, falls into place with consummate art, bringing to us of these later and hurried days a spiritual interpretation of the knight’s quest for divine beauty.” H. W. M.
+
Grinnell R 16:330 Ja ’21 400w
CABOT, WILLIAM BROOKS.[2] Labrador. il *$3 Small 971.9
“‘Labrador’ is an account of half a dozen expeditions into the interior of that country which the author has made since 1904. From it the reader obtains an impression of what life is like in that elemental land, barren and sentineled off its coast by age-old icebergs. The country is one of the oldest primal faces of the globe, and Mr Cabot believes it may have been the cradle of the human race. Its only products are fur and fish, and, as the fur is failing, Labrador will doubtless remain a little-known land. ‘Over this great territory,’ writes the author, ‘the people still wander at will, knowing no alien restraint, no law but their own. The unwritten code of the lodge and open, the ancient beliefs still prevail.”—N Y Times
“The lovers of nature study and of travel and adventure will find much of interest in this carefully written book. Mr Cabot writes with enthusiasm as well as with rare intelligence.” E. J. C.
+
Boston Transcript p4 D 29 ’20 540w
+
N Y Times p4 Ja 2 ’21 280w
CADMUS and HARMONIA, pseuds. Island of sheep. *$1.50 (5c) Houghton
20–7649
In an English country house, on the eve of a house party, the host and hostess are much distressed about the future. The party is about equally composed of optimists and pessimists and they are all more or less liberal. It consists of the minister of the parish, a highland landowner, a labor ex-member of Parliament, the wife of a former Liberal minister, a progressive journalist and his wife, an American woman resident in England, a lady given to good works, a conservative, a liberal lawyer, a grenadier of the guards; a lieutenant of the United States army, a labor leader, an imperialist, a French general, a coalition member of parliament, an American politician and a captain of industry. They discuss the future and reconstruction from all points of view, of which the most satisfactory in the end seems to be that of the ex-labor member of Parliament. It at least moves the minister to relate the old saga of Balder, the life-giver, and his expected return to earth after the twilight of Walhalla has made an end to the old gods.
“The quickness of the argument, the mental agility of some of the talkers and the interesting character touches give a delightful lightness to this presentation of serious problems.”
+
Booklist 16:311 Je ’20
“Rolls the present world unrest up into a cheerful and conservative package, with the strings tied a bit too neatly.”
−
Dial 68:804 Je ’20 70w
“As a matter of fact, characterization is the authors’ weakest point. Their style is too fluent, too uniform. Opinions are well contrasted, but the individualities of the speakers are lost in the monotony, in the rhythm and vocabulary of their utterance.” R. F. A. H.
+ −
New Repub 24:222 O 27 ’20 700w
“It is rather hard for an American to account for the admiration which the book is said to have won in England. There is not, as a rule, anything particularly novel in the content or exceptionally striking in the form.”
+ −
N Y Times 25:224 My 2 ’20 430w
“When the reader finishes it, he may be inclined to think first, that although done by a master hand, it is a rather slight contribution to the great post-war discussion. But the more he thinks about it the more the reader begins to perceive that ‘The island of sheep’ is a microcosm of the present mental and physical state of the world, certainly of the English-speaking world.”
+
Outlook 125:28 My 5 ’20 900w
“The reader will thank us for letting him discover for himself the rare charm of this book. Passion is excluded, though there is plenty of idealism, and an abundance of hard, shrewd wit. National characteristics are exceedingly well portrayed. There is here a fineness akin to a forgotten art.”
+
Review 2:487 My 8 ’20 1250w
“Most of our readers, faced with this list [of characters] in the abstract, will be inclined to turn from the book with a ‘Lord ‘a mercy!’ or ‘Heaven save us!’ If they do they will be quite wrong, for, in spite of the soundness of the argument, the book is a light one, and full of very pleasant relief, which we must not call comic, but which has the same effect as the old stage artifice.”
+
Spec 123:616 N 8 ’19 2200w
+
Springf’d Republican p10 Ap 29 ’20 280w
CAINE, WILLIAM. Strangeness of Noel Carton. *$2 (3c) Putnam
20–11497
This is not exactly a story within a story but rather two stories so interwoven and fused that in the end they are not distinguishable apart. They are both written in the first person by Noel Carton and one is his journal and the other the novel he writes because his wife has said he couldn’t do it. This wife he hates for her crudity and smallness, altho he has sold himself to her for the home and comforts she gives him. In his novel he unconsciously portrays himself and his wife Josephine as his main characters, Nigel and Jocelyn. As he becomes absorbed in his plot, and as he takes more and more powerful drugs in his fight against insomnia, it is increasingly difficult for him to distinguish between the real of his life and the unreal of his fancy. The climax comes when his hallucinations give way to madness, and the tragedy of his novel is carried out in real life.
“The fastidious reader will be inclined to put this volume aside after the first few pages, but if he can persevere he may very quickly realize that the vulgarity of the author’s manner is deliberate, and very effective and moving. It is paying a great compliment to Mr Caine to say that no one who does not read this remarkably plausible tale from cover to cover could believe it.”
+
Ath p846 Je 25 ’20 180w
“In a unique combination of diary and straight novelistic construction, Mr Caine has done something for the novel which one Reizenstein once did for the stage in ‘On trial’—he has found a new form.”
+
Bookm 52:273 N ’20 220w
Lit D p92 O 9 ’20 2800w
“The book is original and exceedingly well done.”
+
N Y Evening Post p9 S 25 ’20 200w
“From the moment you meet Noel Carton, his wife, and his situation you are deeply interested in all three. You don’t like him nor yet his wife, but he is a vivid, actual creature, and he makes every one, perhaps we might better say everything, he touches, vivid and compelling.”
+
N Y Times p24 S 5 ’20 1300w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+
Review 3:376 O 27 ’20 100w
“Not every reader is likely to enjoy this grim mixture of realism and fantasy, but it is impossible to deny the power with which it is written.”
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p353 Je 3 ’20 180w
CALDWELL, WALLACE EVERETT. Hellenic conceptions of peace. pa *$1.25 Longmans 172.4
19–18236
“An historical study of the subject, beginning with the epic age and coming down to the fourth century B.C. Issued as one of the Columbia university studies in history, economics and public law.” (Brooklyn) “What Mr Caldwell has done is to restate what the Greek poets, historians, orators, and political leaders have said and written about the desirability of peace. For that was their theme, that peace was desirable and war was destructive. He has also traced for us, in the tumultuous course of Greek history, the attempts to preserve the peace and the causes of their failure.” (Nation)
“This is an interesting study written by a man well grounded in Greek history. Our main criticism is that Dr Caldwell has not kept his aim steadily enough in view. In fact, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that there has been a certain shifting of aim as the work proceeds. The concluding chapter is the most valuable part of the book.” W. S. Ferguson
+ −
Am Hist R 25:313 Ja ’20 450w
Brooklyn 12:60 Ja ’20 30w
“There is much in Dr Caldwell’s record that has special pertinency to these times.”
+
Nation 109:804 D 20 ’19 250w
“Certain problems appear very modern especially the conflict of Athens and Sparta regarding the implications of ‘freedom,’ and the inability of Greece to form a permanent league of free states, in spite of religious and commercial incentives to unity.”
+
Springf’d Republican p10 D 5 ’19 180w
CALKINS, RAYMOND, and PEABODY, FRANCIS GREENWOOD. Substitutes for the saloon. *$1.75 Houghton 178
20–1362
“To the study which he made for the famous Committee of fifty twenty years ago and which has been the standard volume on the subject during that entire period, Dr Calkins now adds a new introduction and a series of appendices supplementing carefully chosen points in a way to bring the whole discussion of the saloon substitute up to date and to make of the volume a handbook for those who wish to engage in this form of social service and to learn something of the body of experience which has been built up for a half century. The book is particularly illuminating in setting up the workingmen’s club or whatever one cares to call it, against the perspective of neighborhood, class, race, religion, politics, age, habits and other factors which condition its success or involve its failure. In the long run, it seems clear, the ‘substitute’ must be almost purely democratic or else commercial in management, and it must be of spontaneous growth or at any rate seem to be.”—Survey
“Interesting to leaders of men and boys of the working class.”
+
Booklist 16:273 My ’20
+
Boston Transcript p9 Ap 10 ’20 300w
Survey 43:471 Ja 24 ’20 650w
CALLWELL, SIR CHARLES EDWARD. Dardanelles. *$5 (3½c) Houghton 940.42
20–4693
The book belongs to the Campaigns and their lessons series. The author considers the contest in the Dardanelles as a campaign by itself which was affected by events elsewhere only in so far as these diverted much needed military and naval resources. The work is designed to be a study of certain phases of the campaign rather than a formal record of its course, many of the problems discussed admitting of considerable diversity of opinion. Thus the naval attempt to force the Straits without military aid, the famous landing on the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula on the 25th of April, and the successful evacuation of the sea-girt patch of Turkish territory are discussed at length, but some of the principal combats are dismissed briefly because their story suggests no special lessons.
“The book needs an index.”
+ −
Ath p1387 D 19 ’19 90w
+
Booklist 16:287 My ’20
“It cannot fail to be of the utmost value, as a document of the war, which will increase in value as the years pass.” E. J. C.
+
Boston Transcript p6 F 18 ’20 750w
“The story is told with the accuracy and straightforward impartiality that might be expected. After the accounts of each main event, whether success or failure, General Callwell adds a passage of ‘Comment,’ criticizing that action and pointing out where the causes of success or failure lay. To all military students and to all who, like myself, are intimately acquainted with the campaign, these comments will naturally be the most valuable and interesting parts of the volume.”
+
Nation [London] 26:648 F 7 ’20 1100w
R of Rs 61:446 Ap ’20 100w
“General Callwell’s valuable study of the Dardanelles campaign, from a military standpoint, appears opportunely as the complement of the Dardanelles commission’s report on the conduct of the operations.”
+
Spec 123:729 N 29 ’19 1400w
“This is an excellent addition to the ‘Campaigns and their lessons’ series. The one criticism that we have to make of it is the inadequacy of the maps. There are certain phases of the campaign, notably the attacks at Anzac and Suvla in August, 1915, which it is impossible to follow clearly without large and clear maps.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p724 D 11 ’19 850w
CALLWELL, SIR CHARLES EDWARD. Life of Sir Stanley Maude, lieutenant-general. il *$6 Houghton
(Eng ed 20–14053)
“This official biography of the conqueror of Bagdad, who died during the fourth year of the war, was written by the British Director of military operations at the War office. General Maude was one of the small group of commanders brought to the front by the war who appealed to the popular imagination. Fortunately, his biographer is one of the leading military writers of our time. The book is inspiring, not merely as the life of a great soldier, but as a contribution to our knowledge of British military operations in Mesopotamia.” R of Rs
“As clear and sympathetic an account as any friend of General Maude’s could desire.” O. W.
+
Ath p239 Ag 20 ’20 680w
Boston Transcript p1 D 4 ’20 1350w
+
R of Rs 62:670 D ’20 90w
“There is not too much Maude in the book, nor is there too much collateral history, just a happy combination of the two, an achievement which is by no means common in memoirs!”
+
Sat R 130:279 O 2 ’20 1000w
“Sir Charles Callwell is particularly to be congratulated on the justice and candour with which he has written this book. Eulogy at points where eulogy is undeserved is an offence in biography. It is misleading; it deprives the reader of the opportunities of learning the lessons which he might have learned from the truth; and in the last analysis it is unfair to the subject of the biography himself. Sir Charles Callwell, while making clear his intense admiration of Maude, succeeds in giving point to that admiration by admitting that Maude was not without his intellectual faults as a soldier.”
+
Spec 125:209 Ag 14 ’20 1550w
“In spite of the attraction of his subject the biography is to be read once and no more. One hesitates to think that General Callwell has missed the secret of Maude’s greatness. One searches the book in vain for a generalization, a fruitful idea.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p485 Jl 29 ’20 1200w
CAMERON, CHARLOTTE.[2] Cheechako in Alaska and Yukon. il $6 Stokes 917.98
Cheechako is Eskimo for tenderfoot, but this particular tenderfoot turns out to be a hardened traveler. After many other lands the far North beckoned this adventurous Englishwoman and she set out from Seattle in June to travel 2,200 miles on the Yukon to Alaska and back all in a summer season. She sings the praises of the wondrous riches of the country—for which she bespeaks a prosperous future—and of the hospitality of its people. Nome, which had lured her from childhood, was the real objective of the trip and of it the author gives a detailed account. The book is well illustrated.
Ath p581 O 29 ’20 280w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p655 O 7 ’20 40w
“Very wisely she is content to write as a sightseer, not as a pioneer; and the result of this renunciation is that we get from her something fresh.”
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p663 O 14 ’20 1000w
CAMP, CHARLES WADSWORTH. Gray mask. il *$1.75 (2c) Doubleday
20–2640
An episodic narrative dealing with the solution of various mysteries and taking its name from the first adventure. Garth, a member of the detective force, is asked by his chief to assume the disguise of the Gray Mask, a criminal chemist who goes with face covered to hide the effects of an explosion. The disguise takes him into the heart of a criminal gang, among whom to his horror he finds Nora, his chief’s daughter. But her presence there is satisfactorily explained and the law breakers are brought to justice. The second episode concerns a murder mystery, and there are others, ending with Garth’s engagement to Nora.
“The stories hardly measure up to the author’s previous work.”
+ −
Springf’d Republican p11a My 16 ’20 200w
CAMP, WALTER CHAUNCEY. Football without a coach. il *$1.25 Appleton 797
20–13870
The object of the book is to supply a perfect pen-and-ink coach for a football team, telling it how to progress from week to week, warning it of the dangers that will crop up and telling it how to surmount each difficulty that arises. It is intended as a text-book for the grammar school boy, the high school student, and the young man from the shop or office. Contents: Building the foundation; Sizing up the candidates; The first scrimmage; Practice without a scrub; The line and the forward pass; The line; The backfield; Building plays; The strategy of football; Things that make or break a team.
Booklist 17:102 D ’20
“The book comes as near to taking the place of an expert coach as printed words can.”
+
Ind 104:249 N 13 ’20 50w
+
Lit D p96 D 4 ’20 40w
+
R of Rs 62:448 O ’20 200w
CAMP, WALTER CHAUNCEY. Handbook on health and how to keep it. *$1.25 (3c) Appleton 613
20–5624
In formulating a “simple, reasonable and practical system of preserving physical fitness” for all ages, the author has had in mind the “simplest, shortest, least exhausting and most exhilarating form of calisthenics” that can be devised. He has concentrated his setup exercises with four groups of three each thus: Hands, Hips, Head; Grind, Grate, Grasp; Crawl, Curl, Crouch; Wave, Weave, Wing. Portions of the book are devoted to practical suggestions as to the value of certain sports at proper periods of life and to cautions as to the general health and the follies of some habits. Contents: Problems of youth and age; Daily dozen set-up; Reviewing follies; Children, schoolboy and collegian; Industrial worker.
+
Booklist 16:333 Jl ’20
R of Rs 62:335 S ’20 60w
+
Springf’d Republican p12 My 21 ’20 300w
“Mr Camp’s latest book should be useful to the instructor of gymnastics and the Boy scout leader. The author’s insistence upon athletics will readily be forgiven on the ground of a specialist’s natural enthusiasm; but the space given to it and other general considerations in the book hardly make it a very practical ‘handbook’ for the individual in need of advice and stimulus.” B. L.
+ −
Survey 44:252 My 15 ’20 160w
CAMPBELL, HENRY COLIN. How to use cement for concrete construction for town and farm. il $2 Stanton & Van Vliet 693.5
20–6499
This comprehensive book covers such subjects as Farming with concrete; What concrete is, how to make and use it; Making forms for concrete construction; Reinforcement; Concrete foundations and concrete walls; Tanks, troughs, cisterns, and similar containers for liquids; Concrete floors, walks and similar concrete pavements; A concrete garage on the farm; Poultry houses of concrete; Concrete silos, etc. The author writes from the point of view of both engineer and farmer. There is an alphabetical table of contents, and the book is very fully illustrated.
Booklist 17:97 D ’20
N Y P L Munic Ref Lib Notes 7:35 O 13 ’20 90w
+
N Y P L New Tech Bks p28 Ap ’20 70w
+
Springf’d Republican p8 Je 18 ’20 210w
CANBY, HENRY SEIDEL. Everyday Americans. *$1.75 (5½c) Century 917.3
20–16765
The book is a “study of the typical, the everyday American mind, as it is manifested in the American of the old stock. It is a study of what that typical American product, the college and high school graduate, has become in the generation which must carry on after the war.” (Preface) This typical American the author finds to be “the conservative-liberal” in whom the inherited liberal instincts have become petrified and who suffers with a sort of a hardening of the arteries of the mind. There is also a radicalism of a sort but it is a very different thing from European revolutionary radicalism. The soul of America now in which abides the future, is the bourgeoisie and he advises all who wish to speculate in postbellum America to study the younger leaders of the labor parties on the one hand and the college undergraduates on the other. They are the future. Contents: The American mind; Conservative America; Radical America; American idealism; Religion in America; Literature in America; The bourgeois American.
“Written in a clear, rather colorless style.”
+ −
Booklist 17:110 D ’20
“If Mr Canby’s book had been written long ago it would have remedied in large degree the appalling ignorance existing abroad concerning American mind and thought.”
+
Bookm 52:272 N ’20 180w
“A timely, undogmatic contribution to an exceedingly lively issue.”
+
Dial 70:232 F ’21 70w
“As far as it goes, Mr Canby’s book is very good and very interesting. On the whole, his analysis appears to be sound; and his candour is admirable.” R: Roberts
+
Freeman 2:308 D 8 ’20 1150w
Nation 111:512 N 3 ’20 280w
“Thoughtful and lucid appraisement of American values. Though the style is simple, it is closely packed; the substance is weighty, and no one will get it all in the first reading.”
+ −
Review 4:17 Ja 5 ’21 580w
“It may be argued that there is no special brillance or insight in these pages, but if one really wishes to convince the average thoughtful American, it is well to be neither too philosophical nor too paradoxical. Mr Canby at least shows us that he has an active mind, capable of searching the underlying issues of the time in which he lives.”
+ −
Springf’d Republican p11a S 26 ’20 650w
“This study of the American mind is altogether delightful because of its directness, sincerity and penetration.” B. L.
+
Survey 45:369 D 4 ’20 280w
CANFIELD, CHAUNCEY L., ed. Diary of a forty-niner. *$3.50 Houghton 979.4
The book is based on the authentic diary of one Alfred T. Jackson, a pioneer miner who cabined and worked on Rock Creek, Nevada County, California, from 1850 to 1852. It is a “truthful, unadorned, veracious chronicle of the placer mining days of the foothills, a narrative of events as they occurred; told in simple and, at times, ungrammatical sentences, yet vivid and truth compelling in the absence of conscious literary endeavor.... It sets forth graphically the successive steps in gold mining, from the pan and rocker to the ground sluice and flume.... No less fascinating is the romance interwoven in the pages of the diary.” (Preface) The editor states that he has verified many of the incidents and happenings. An edition of the book was published in San Francisco shortly before the earthquake and fire, during which the plates and many of the copies were destroyed.
“This book is well printed in large type but the solid character of the contents, in spite of the chapter headings, will repel some readers.” H. S. K.
+ −
Boston Transcript p3 D 11 ’20 600w
“One of the most fascinating features of this remarkable document is the diarist’s self-revelation of his evolution from a Puritanical New Englander, bound and shackled with the prejudices of generations, into a broad-minded man whose mental growth is miraculously stimulated by the freedom of his environment and associations.”
+
N Y Times p22 Ja 16 ’21 2850w
+
R of Rs 63:223 F ’21 100w
CANNAN, GILBERT. Release of the soul. *$1.75 Boni & Liveright 149.3
20–8452
“The surface of life has been broken by the war, says Mr Cannan; there is no longer any structure in social existence: ‘For the artist there is metaphysic or nothing.’ And in this highly metaphysical, mystical essay he attempts to convey a programme for the immediate future of society and especially for the artist. We are told that the book was written during Mr Cannan’s recent visit in America, in a period of intense creative inspiration. As a record of mystical experience, as an endeavor to express the ineffable, it expects from the reader a coöperation more sympathetic than that of the intelligence. Stripped of its mysticism, the argument is a tolerably familiar one; it is a fusion of certain beliefs almost universally held now by the younger writers and artists, beliefs regarding the industrial régime, bourgeois democracy, intellectualism, the instinct of workmanship, the release of the creative impulses.”—N Y Evening Post
“Mr Cannan’s new book is, indeed, unusual. The words God, soul, life, occur with extraordinary frequency but the variety of their syntactical connections throws no light on their meanings. Since we are neither provided with, nor enabled to deduce, definitions of Mr Cannan’s chief terms, we find his book unintelligible.”
− +
Ath p764 Je 11 ’20 500w
“The tone of the book is rhapsodical; its sentences are so desultory; and even the illustrations drawn here and there from history, art and literature are so loose, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide at times what he exactly does mean.”
−
Cath World 111:832 S ’20 230w
“There is little art in his exposition and less evidence of work. And it takes more religion of a charitable nature than Mr Cannan preaches to restrain one from saying that the author of this work has released his soul so very successfully that it has disappeared.”
−
Dial 69:433 O ’20 110w
“Flashes of fine thought are not incompatible with loose thinking. A book may be very stimulating and suggestive in its details and yet as a whole leave behind an impression of hopeless confusion. This is just the kind of book Mr Cannan has produced.” Edwin Bjorkman
− +
Freeman 2:19 S 15 ’20 1600w
“It is not unlikely that many, perhaps most, of the people who read Mr Cannan’s new book will wonder what he is driving at. A little of this bewilderment will be due to Mr Cannan himself; for when he passes over from the dramatic to the discursive a certain elusiveness invades his speech. The book is one of those which must be read two or three times over before its whole significance becomes clear; but it is abundantly worth that trouble.” R: Roberts
+ −
Nation 111:301 S 11 ’20 1100w
“His book is a curious, largely incomprehensible and thoroughly dull rhapsody upon God and nature, life, love and the soul.” S. C. C.
− +
New Repub 24:152 O 6 ’20 220w
“The charm of the book is to be found in some of the brief ecstatic meditations in which from time to time the pages flower.” Van Wyck Brooks
+ −
N Y Evening Post p7 My 8 ’20 950w
“Mr Cannan has flung a light bridge from mysticism to internationalism over which it is quite conceivable that an exposition so airy, chary, and fleeting as his own may pass in safety. But the plain man, the logician, and the investigator can not be urged to trust his weight to the inadequacies of the trembling fabric.”
+ −
Review 3:711 Jl 7 ’20 500w
“It is an embarrassing book to read. One feels like an intruder upon a privacy, for really Mr Cannan appears to have suffered considerably. Either so ‘private and confidential’ a book ought not to have been written, or we should not be reading it.”
−
Sat R 130:14 Jl 3 ’20 240w
“Obviously what Mr Cannan says is largely platonic doctrine, to many incomprehensible; but spiritual emphasis at this time is so needed that the book is justified in spite of its frequent cloudy and chaotic passages.”
+ −
Springf’d Republican p8 Jl 8 ’20 220w
“Mr Cannan, weary of criticism and all negative activities, has turned to mysticism; and this book is the result. It is sincere, passionate and interesting, but it lacks structure, and so is a little difficult to read.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p417 Jl 1 ’20 1850w
CANNAN, GILBERT. Time and eternity; a tale of three exiles. *$1.90 (2½c) Doran
20–7059
London is the abode of these three exiles. One of them is an Englishman, Stephen Lawrie, at odds with the world about him and with the war, living in voluntary seclusion in the London slums, trying to solve the riddle of the universe in silence and inactivity. The other, Perekatov, is a Ukrainian Jew eking out a precarious existence in London as a correspondent for a Russian paper. He obtrudes himself on Stephen with whose face, seen at a public meeting, he had been impressed. There is much spasmodic, intangible talk between them and their intercourse ripens into friendship of a sort. Valerie du Toit, the third exile, is a South African of French Huguenot extraction, who has come to England athirst for the eternal verities. With elemental force the spirits of Stephen and Valerie meet and melt into each other. This kindles insane jealousy in Howard Ducie who acts the Othello to Valerie’s Desdemona, smothers her in her sleep and has himself run over by a train. Stephen accepts the tragedy as a happening in time which can not interfere with the eternity of his love.
Ath p1035 O 17 ’19 240w
“Mr Gilbert Cannan’s novels are important novels, but they are not good novels. They are the illustrative material of his essays and they do not illustrate them in any creative fashion. The theories shine through too glaringly, as in ‘Time and eternity.’ Mr Cannan started out with a naive creative impulse, but the events of the past six years have aroused in him, as in many of us, so much impassioned thinking about life that the material of creation itself slips from his grasp.”
−
Nation 110:658 My 15 ’20 400w
“Though the book frequently reveals creative strokes, though its general plan is majestically conceived, yet it conveys the sense of being a preliminary work. ‘Time and eternity’ suggests the need for a future work which will see the thing through. The sculptor is still groping.” J. C. L.
+ −
New Repub 23:182 Jl 7 ’20 730w
“‘Time and eternity’ is the result of a serious lack in its author, the lack of a sense of humor. The piece has untold burlesque possibilities, and they have been wasted. ‘Time and eternity’ may be ascribed only to a rapidly advancing senility.” Henrietta Malkiel
−
N Y Call p10 My 9 ’20 420w
“We have all long known the phrase ‘a welter of words,’ but to read Gilbert Cannan’s new book ‘Time and eternity’ is to realize just exactly what it implies. The reader’s strongest feeling after he has at last toiled his weary way through this extremely dull book is a desire for plenty of soap and water and good fresh air.”
−
N Y Times 25:204 Ap 25 ’20 900w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
Review 2:489 My 8 ’20 520w
“Mr Cannan writes too quickly and too often. He writes with a sort of hungry rage, because he despises something, though he does not know what, and desires something equally unknown to him. His work is as restless and as inconclusive as a conversation between adolescents teased with growing pains.”
−
Sat R 128:419 N 1 ’19 1200w
“In ‘Time and eternity’ Mr Cannan presents a piece of tedious writing and speculation about slinking individuals who are out of harmony with the ages.”
−
Springf’d Republican p11a Je 20 ’20 400w
“Mr Cannan has not yet, in this method, passed the experimental stage. Moreover, he has not enough to say about the souls of his three exiles, to each of whom by name is allotted one-third of this short book, to engage unflagging attention. They are queer if not tiresome, but vaguer than people speaking uninspired lines from behind a curtain. They do nothing very much; they appear to want nothing very special; they certainly are nothing very intensely.”
−
The Times [London] Lit Sup p531 O 2 ’19 650w
CANNAN, GILBERT. Windmills; a book of fables. *$1.60 (3c) Huebsch
20–17654
A volume of satires. The first two, Samways island and Ultimus, altho written before 1914 have to do with a series of wars between Fatland (England) and Fatterland (Germany) and, except in matters of mechanical detail, they indicate remarkable foresight. Of the two that follow, Gynecologia describes the women governed world that succeeded the great wars, and Out of work is a social satire involving Jah, the devil, and a certain Nicholas Bly, a labor agitator. The author writes a preface to the American edition. The book was published in England in 1915.
“Mr Cannan’s satire is not as keen and cutting when bare and exposed in these sketches as it is in some of his other books where it half hides behind a veil of romance. ‘Windmills’ is brilliant in places, but not as a whole.”
+ −
Boston Transcript p7 Jl 31 ’20 310w
“What he says is inexpugnably true; it is only his prose which is ineffective.”
+ −
Dial 69:433 O ’20 70w
“When the time and circumstances of the book’s composition are remembered one’s admiration for Mr Cannan’s clear and trenchant perspicacity is of the highest. At that point, however, one’s admiration ends. Here, as in all his recent books, there is, on the side of art, a total lack of modulation, of warmth, of felicity.” Ludwig Lewisohn
+ −
Nation 111:160 Ag 7 ’20 650w
“It makes light of high things and low and at the same time heavy reading for both. It sounds like Greenwich Village at its futilest.”
−
Outlook 125:615 Ag 4 ’20 60w
“The truth is, Mr Cannan, with all his pose of independence, is nothing if not a partisan. He belongs to his time and his school; and neither his paradox nor his satiric whimsy nor his flashes of sentiment could have been what they are without the example or let us say the inspiration of a Chesterton, a Shaw, and a Wells. The book has, above all, the assertiveness, the bumptiousness, the determined brilliancy, and unease which will, we may fear, be the hallmark of the passing literary generation to the eye of posterity.” H. W. B.
−
Review 3:192 S 1 ’20 920w
CANTACUZÈNE, PRINCESS (COUNTESS SPÉRANSKY, née JULIA DENT GRANT). Russian people. il *$3 Scribner 947
20–6483
“Many who have followed the Russian articles in the Saturday Evening Post of Princess Cantacuzène will no doubt greet with pleasure their appearance in book form under the title ‘Russian people: revolutionary recollections.’ Similar to Princess Cantacuzène’s earlier book, ‘Revolutionary days,’ these pictures of Russian life are seen through the eyes of a member of the upper classes, residents for years in the country. It is the simple folk outside the city, exemplified by the peasant of the Cantacuzène estate, Bouromka, about whom the stories center. In addition to the pictures of Bouromka before and after the ‘red’ outbreaks, there are chapters dealing with the efforts in various parts of the old empire to re-establish a stable government. Crimea, where the Cantacuzène villa is situated, was one such center. ‘Daughters of Russia’ is the title of the final chapter, these ranging from Catherine the Great to Catherine Breshkovsky and Maria Botshkarova.”—Springf’d Republican
“The author knows the peasants and tenantry outside of the large cities and writes of them intimately and interestingly. Her account of the revolution and of political affairs is, however, second hand and lacks clarifying detail.”
+ −
Booklist 17:64 N ’20
“They present readable and accurate impressions of events on which full information is still hard to get.”
+
Ind 103:440 D 25 ’20 130w
“It would be a mistake to regard her story as seriously contributing to our understanding of the revolution, if for no other reason than that her materials are obtained at secondhand and to a great extent from rumor. Painting in simple black-and-white is not her only limitation.”
−
Nation 110:860 Je 26 ’20 340w
“Princess Cantacuzène’s book is certainly a striking case of a good opportunity missed. If only she had stuck more to what she saw herself during those days when her adopted country was going to pieces before her eyes!”
− +
N Y Times 25:224 My 2 ’20 1400w
Springf’d Republican p8 Je 18 ’20 380w
CAPABLANCA, JOSÉ RAÚL. My chess career. il *$2.50 Macmillan 794
20–6061
The author, born in Havana, Cuba, in 1888, began to play chess at the age of five. At eleven he was matched against the Cuban champion, J. Corzo. In his introductory chapter he says: “The object of this little book is to give to the reader some idea of the many stages through which I have passed before reaching my present strength.... As I go along narrating my chess career, I will stop at those points which I consider most important, giving examples of my games with my own notes written at the time the games were played, or when not, expressing the ideas I had while the game was in progress.” This plan is followed thruout the book, beginning with the match with Corzo and continuing to the Hastings victory congress in 1919. The conclusion gives points for beginners.
“There is not a trace of boastfulness in the book. Capablanca’s passion is for exact scientific truth. The general spirit is one of detached and critical self-observation. Altogether, a book of great psychological interest.” R. O. M.
+
Ath p237 F 20 ’20 650w
Booklist 17:103 D ’20
“This refreshing little book probably contains more real information on the science of chess than a dozen of the more weighty tomes put together. Capablanca’s comments on his own and his adversary’s play throughout the book are of a most original and illuminating sort.” Moreby Adlom
+
Bookm 51:573 Jl ’20 950w
“It is in many ways the most egotistical, and incidentally subjective book we have ever come across; the note of satisfaction sounds like a loud gong throughout, nor does the voice of self-praise die away. The book, in fact, has been written in a mood of positively aboriginal conceit. All this, however, should not obscure the fact that Senor Capablanca’s chess-games are very brilliant, and his notes full of interest.”
− +
Sat R 129:251 Mr 13 ’20 700w
“His notes on his games are lucid and vivacious.”
+
Spec 124:248 F 21 ’20 160w
Springf’d Republican p8 My 18 ’20 200w
“The interest is immensely enhanced by being annotated by Capablanca himself.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p136 F 26 ’20 350w
CAPEK, THOMAS. Cechs (Bohemians) in America. il *$3 (5½c) Houghton 325.7
20–1302
The author, after a residence of thirty-nine years in Cech America, is thoroughly conversant with the history and the status of his countrymen here. The volume aims “to throw light, not only on the economic condition of the Cech immigrant, but on his national, historic, religious, cultural, and social state as well.” (Introd.) It describes the American Cech as being not an adventurer but a bona-fide settler, an idealist and an upholder of modern democracy. Biographical sketches are given of all the prominent and intellectual Cechs who have exerted an influence on their countrymen in America and the book is abundantly illustrated. Successive chapters are devoted to the immigration in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and to the Cech’s economic status. Other chapters are: New Bohemia in America; Rationalism: a transition from the old to the new; Socialism and radicalism; Journalism and literature; Musicians, artists, visitors from abroad; The churches; The part the American Cechs took in the war of liberation. There is an appendix and an index.
“‘The Cechs in America’ is a comprehensive, carefully arranged manual of all information about this section of our immigration. To anyone wishing, or needing, to be authoritatively and thoroughly informed on this subject, his book is indispensable.”
+
Am Hist R 26:142 O ’20 530w
“Interesting and informing.”
+
Booklist 16:222 Ap ’20
“His picture leaves no detail obscure so long as he writes without religious or political preconceptions. The copious bibliography in this volume deserves special complimentary mention.”
+
Cath World 111:104 Ap ’20 580w
+
Nation 111:482 O 27 ’20 420w
+ −
N Y Evening Post p8 F 14 ’20 480w
Outlook 125:281 Je 9 ’20 120w
R of Rs 61:335 Mr ’20 50w
“His own sturdy love of America, mixed with his identification with the Czech in America makes the book a delightful though unintentioned combination of the subjective and the objective. None of the other national groups have produced anything quite like it.” H. A. Miller
+
Survey 44:384 Je 12 ’20 550w
CAPES, BERNARD EDWARD JOSEPH. Skeleton key. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
20–7424
This detective story is prefaced by an introduction by G. K. Chesterton. The action takes place at Wildshott, the country home of the Kennetts, where Vivian Bickerdike, who tells part of the story in his own words, and Baron Le Sage are guests. Shortly after their arrival, a pretty housemaid is murdered in a secluded path not far from the house. The usual steps are taken, an inquest is held and a detective called in. Several arrests are made but finally guilt seems to fasten itself pretty conclusively upon Hugo Kennett, the young son of the family, whose choice seemed to be marry or murder. But Baron Le Sage is not satisfied that he is guilty, and uncovers a deep laid and unsuspected plot of which Hugo was to have been the victim, and the perpetrator was to go scot free. Fortunately the scheme was foiled in time.
“Will please the more critical reader.”
+
Booklist 16:346 Jl ’20
“Above the average detective story.”
+
Cleveland p72 Ag ’20 30w
Ind 103:323 S 11 ’20 40w
“‘The skeleton key’ is a detective story of singular ingenuity and power. Yet it is much more than that, in that the air of delicate romance dispels much of the sordidity that, in the very nature of the work, is always striving to rear its head and dominate the narrative.”
+
N Y Times 25:17 Je 27 ’20 470w
“The late Bernard Capes was one of the few writers of mystery and detective stories who make an honorable effort to combine plot with literary workmanship. This posthumous tale is one of his best. It has a decidedly original dénouement which will puzzle even practical mystery solvers.”
+
Outlook 125:29 My 5 ’20 50w
CAREY, AGNES. Empress Eugénie in exile. il *$4 Century
20–20073
These reminiscences from Empress Eugénie’s own lips are culled from letters and diaries kept by the author while a member of the Empress’s household at Farnborough. The book contains many illustrations from photographs and the contents are: Farnborough Hill, an empress’s home; Daily events: further extracts from diary and letters; The Empress visits Queen Victoria; Later events at Farnborough Hill; Reminiscences of Empress Eugénie: her characteristics and idiosyncracies.
+
Boston Transcript p9 N 13 ’20 660w
“Mrs Carey incorporates, especially in the last half of the book, a great deal about the daily life at Farnborough which can be of interest only to persons who make a hobby of Eugénie, if any such there be. But this fault must be overlooked, for the book has the extraordinary merit of telling Eugénie’s own story or stories told by Eugénie, within an hour or so after they had dropped from her lips.”
+ −
N Y Times p11 N 21 ’20 2050w
+
Review 3:625 D 22 ’20 170w
R of Rs 62:670 D ’20 70w
CAREY, WILLIAM, and others. Garo jungle book; or, The mission to the Garos of Assam. il *$2 (2½c) Am. Bapt. 266
20–2499
After describing the Garos topographically, the author calls their mountain abode “a den of wild beasts and of still wilder men.” “Within, the fiercest passions held sway, and gruesome superstitions, such as made the blood of the Bengalis run cold to think of, wrapped them in an atmosphere of ghostly fear.” It was when the British government was faced by the only remaining alternative “extermination of the Garos” that the missionaries began to demonstrate the possibility of another way. The book is the history of the struggle and an account of what has been accomplished. It contains abundant illustrations, two maps, and appendices consisting of a glossary, a list of Garo books, of churches and schools and a service chart.
CARLETON, WILLIAM. Stories of Irish life; with an introd. by Darnell Figgis. *$1.75 Stokes
A20–891
“Himself a peasant, William Carleton writes of the Irish people, the Irish scene and the Irish life out of the book of his own experience. He was the youngest of the fourteen children of a small farmer in Tyrone, and was brought up in a household that knew the ancient Irish tongue as well as the English language. His real literary career began in 1828, when, at the age of thirtyfour, he settled permanently in Dublin and became a contributor to the Christian Examiner. For this paper, Carleton during the following six years wrote his ‘Traits and stories of the Irish peasantry’ upon which is based his reputation as a delineator of Irish life and character. As one of the recently issued volumes in a new Library of Irish literature, eight stories and sketches are selected to represent Carleton’s contribution, among them being: Neal Malone; Phelim O’Toole’s courtship; The party fight and funeral; The midnight mass; and Denis O’Shaughnessy going to Maynooth.”—Boston Transcript
“Carleton belongs by right to the Irish classics. His tales are vigorous and brimful of humour. His character-drawing was extremely vivid, and some of his heroes are like creations of flesh and blood. He had also a gift of impressive description.”
+
Ath p445 Je 6 ’19 60w
“His temperament and his experience combined to produce a picture of the peasantry which is unrivalled as an historical document, and fascinating as a work of art. Protestant though he became, Carleton writes always as one oppressed, of those suffering from similar oppression, and for that very reason appeals with undying power to the generous ethic of fair play which has always characterized the Anglo-Saxon elsewhere. What he wrote for his own generation has lost nothing of its force today.” R. B. J.
+
Ath p750 Ag 15 ’19 950w
Booklist 16:287 My ’20
“No matter what varying amount of interest they may have found in Carleton’s tales, readers and critics have vied with each other in emphasizing their appealing and truthful Irish quality.... In many ways, however, Carleton followed stereotyped formulas both in his plots and his character portrayals.” E. F. E.
+ −
Boston Transcript p6 F 11 ’20 1600w
+
Cath World 112:395 D ’20 160w
CARLTON, FRANK TRACY. Elementary economics. *$1.10 (2c) Macmillan 330
20–1765
The author of this “introduction to the study of economics and sociology” realizes that economics is not a science in which the problems discussed can be proved mathematically; that it fairly bristles with controverted points; that the student is apt to approach it with preconceptions and class or interest bias. The object of the book is to help the student to look upon both sides of a question and to come to independent conclusions on such problems of everyday life as prices and markets, taxation, banking, tariff, wages, rent, transportation, and ownership of property. The book falls into three parts: Outline of industrial and social evolution; Fundamental economic concepts; Economic problems. Some of the more specific subjects discussed are: Getting a living under various conditions; Wants and value; Direction of the world’s workers; Wealth and income; Competition and monopoly; Money and banking; Railway transportation; Labor organizations; Labor legislation; Agricultural economics; Taxation; Industrial unrest; Social and industrial betterment. There is an index.
“The simplicity and clarity of treatment together with thought-stimulating topics for discussion make this a good textbook for the beginner in economics in junior or senior high school.”
+
Booklist 17:10 O ’20
“The style of the book is simple enough to justify its introduction into the upper years of the elementary school. The material is of so vital a type that it deserves recognition in all schools. Where the special problem is that of preparing children for trades this book will serve to give a broader view of the individual’s place in industry.”
+
El School J 20:548 Mr ’20 350w
“The author of this book has done more than simply produce another book on elementary economics for use in high schools. He has in reality broken away from the traditional discussion of consumption, production, exchange, and distribution, and organized his discussion in quite a different manner from that followed by traditional texts in the field. There are no lists of reference books. This seems unfortunate since the book itself does not contain enough material for even a half-year course in the subject.”
+ −
School R 28:313 Ap ’20 260w
“A text that is sure to find ready reception for courses in economics, especially in secondary schools. As a basis for fruitful class discussion it should prove very effective in the hands of a competent instructor.” E. R. Burton
+
Survey 44:541 Jl 17 ’20 120w
CARLTON, FRANK TRACY. Organized labor in American history. *$2.50 (4c) Appleton 331.87
20–7434
In tracing the influence of the wage earner in American history the writer points out the intimate relations between industrial evolution and social progress. So long as there were still open frontiers towards the west, the economic life of America can be said to have been abnormal. Now that the frontier is a thing of the past the wage earner’s influence may be expected to increase in importance as the years go by. To examine the cause and effect of organized labor as a social phenomenon and a social institution is the object of the book. Contents: Introduction; Epochs in the history of organized labor; Adoption and interpretation of the constitution; The free school and the wage earner; Land reform and the wage earner; Labor legislation and the wage earner; Other reform movements and the wage earner; Labor parties, socialism, direct action, and the progressive movement; The ideals of the wage earner; Recent pre-war tendencies; The war and after; Index.
“One of its chief merits is that it is based on an accurate knowledge of the ideals and policies of organized labor.” G: M. Janes
+ −
Am Econ R 10:837 D ’20 780w
“The author has accomplished his modest purpose of helping to bring American history into a truer perspective by showing the influence of the wage-earner on the course of events.” Mary Beard
+
Am Hist R 26:369 Ja ’21 280w
Booklist 16:328 Jl ’20
Cleveland p75 Ag ’20 40w
Reviewed by G: Soule
+
Nation 111:18 Jl 3 ’20 70w
“His interpretation of this history shows keen insight into the play of economic forces that have made for the development of classes, the rise of the labor movement and the evolution of industrial society. On the interpretive side we think that it is more informative than the more laborious work of Professor Commons and associates.” James Oneal
+
N Y Call p10 Je 13 ’20 820w
R of Rs 61:671 Je ’20 40w
“I do not see why a book designed to give understanding of the present should deal with Shay’s rebellion and fail to do more than mention either the interesting development among the garment workers of the equally significant changes in the organizations of railroad workers. I have no desire to quarrel with Professor Carlton’s selection, for his temper is tolerant and his mood understanding, qualities to be prized highly among men whose minds are directed to the description of events in the field of labor.”
+ −
Survey 41:315 My 29 ’20 100w
“Will serve as a useful introduction to a close study of modern American labour problems.”
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p425 Jl 1 ’20 30w
“It is only the second half that deals with controversial matters. Here also Professor Carlton’s work is effective in that he carries the reader into the heart of the subject by bringing up all the live and crucial issues. But his frank policy of taking a decided stand upon most of them himself makes it highly desirable that his standpoint should be grasped by the reader, in advance if practicable.” W: E. Walling
+
Yale R n s 10:214 O ’20 900w
CARNEGIE, ANDREW. Autobiography. il *$5 (4c) Houghton
20–19520
The volume is edited by John C. Van Dyke and has a preface by Mrs Carnegie. Besides the facts of the author’s life and career the book contains much matter of general interest and reminiscences of notable personages. There are chapters on: Civil war period; The age of steel; Mills and the men; The homestead strike; Problems of labor; The “gospel of wealth”; Educational and pension funds; Washington diplomacy. The book is well illustrated and has a bibliography and an index.
“The historian will regret that it confines itself more to portraiture than to documentation, that it throws little new light upon partly known facts, and that it has none of the elaborate accuracy likely to be found in the biography of a man who seeks to justify himself. The reader of the book retains a friendly feeling towards a simple yet astute personality.” F: L. Paxson
+ −
Am Hist R 26:368 Ja ’21 490w
Ath p891 D 31 ’20 600w
“Although scrappy and gossipy in parts the interest is sustained.”
+
Booklist 17:112 D ’20
“The result, for those who knew Mr Carnegie intimately, is most satisfactory and charming. The style is simple and unaffected. The joyous enthusiasm, which filled him from youth to old age, shines forth in these pages.” W: J. Holland
+
Bookm 52:364 D ’20 700w
Reviewed by R. M. Lovett
Freeman 2:451 Ja 19 ’21 2150w
“The volume is as entertaining as it is inspiring. It will undoubtedly rank high among the world’s lasting autobiographies.”
+
Ind 103:440 D 25 ’20 360w
“Carnegie unfolds himself, and nowhere does he attempt to make it appear that he has virtues which he has not—modesty, for instance. Sometimes he talked with real eloquence and sometimes with bathos, but he sets both down with unfailing fidelity.”
+
N Y Times p3 O 17 ’20 1150w
Reviewed by R. R. Bowker
+
Pub W 98:1883 D 18 ’20 240w
“The general reader will find this the best American autobiography since 1885, when General Grant’s ‘Memoirs’ were published.”
+
Review 3:620 D 22 ’20 1900w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p848 D 16 ’20 950w
Wis Lib Bul 16:237 D ’20 70w
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE. DIVISION OF INTERCOURSE AND EDUCATION. American foreign policy; with an introd. by Nicholas Murray Butler. Carnegie endowment for international peace 327
20–7870
“This collection of documents is intended by the editor to comprise ‘those official statements by successive presidents and secretaries of state which, having been formally or tacitly accepted by the American people, do in effect constitute the foundation of American foreign policy.... They are the classic declarations of policy which, taken together, present a record of which the American people may well be proud.’ Naturally the selection begins with Washington’s farewell address and includes Jefferson’s statement as to entangling alliances. Then follow the various messages relating to the Monroe doctrine: Monroe’s, Polk’s, Buchanan’s, Grant’s, Cleveland’s, and Roosevelt’s. Blaine, Hay, and Root contribute their ideas as to the Monroe doctrine, that of the last named being in no sense official, as it is the well-known address as president of the American Society of international law for 1914. The instructions to and reports from the American delegates to the Hague conferences are properly included.”—Am Hist R
Am Hist R 26:141 O ’20 360w
“Readers who do not wish their history predigested for them, but on the other hand do not resent a prescribed diet, will find this little volume much to their liking.” E. S. Corwin
+
Review 3:70 Jl 21 ’20 200w
CARPENTER, EDWARD. Pagan and Christian creeds: their origin and meaning. *$3 (3c) Harcourt, Brace & Howe 290
20–5669
The author holds that the process of the evolution of religious rites and ceremonies has in its main outlines been the same all over the world and that it has proceeded in orderly phases of spontaneous growth. The object of the book is to trace the instigating cause of this great phenomenon along psychological lines. In its first inception, he claims, it was stimulated by fear and has run along three main lines: the movements of the sun and planets; the changes of the seasons; and the procreative forces. Contents: Solar myths and Christian festivals; The symbolism of the Zodiac; Totem-sacraments and eucharists; Food and vegetation magic; Magicians, kings and gods; Rites of expiation and redemption; Pagan initiations and the second birth; Myth of the golden age; The saviour-god and the virgin-mother; Ritual dancing; The sex-taboo; The genesis of Christianity; The meaning of it all; The ancient mysteries; The exodus of Christianity; Conclusion. The appendix on the teachings of the Upanishads contains two essays: Rest and The nature of the self. There is an index.
“Mr Edward Carpenter has wide reading and as far as one can judge, no lack of the critical faculty; so that, presumably, he could play the man of science if he chose. But his interest is less in theory than in practice. He looks forward to a new age, and, preoccupied with his vision of the future, searches the present and the past for such promise as they may hold of the fulfilment of his hope.” R. R. M.
+
Ath p240 F 20 ’20 1100w
Booklist 17:6 O ’20
“To everyone acquainted with ... any of Mr Carpenter’s books, the present volume on religious origins and developments will come as a warrant of profound thought and beautiful illumination of expression.” W. S. B.
+
Boston Transcript p6 Ap 28 ’20 650w
“His treatment is throughout as sympathetic and as fair as his purpose to demonstrate his thesis allows him to be; and it is only right to admit that he makes a very good case for the vast generalization that he lays down. But he is greater as prophet than as critic; and that is why this book does not measure up to ‘Towards democracy.’” R: Roberts
+
Freeman 1:405 Jl 7 ’20 1300w
Int J Ethics 31:119 O ’20 270w
“Some of the researches of Frazer and Lang and Tylor and other scholars are vulgarized by him, and conclusions drawn from their premises from which any of them would recoil.” Preserved Smith
−
Nation 110:sup483 Ap 10 ’20 220w
“Mr Carpenter’s book is written for those who have not read much of anthropological research, and such readers will find in it an exceedingly clear and lucid summary of a vast body of specialist work. And the book is filled with that humane and glowing hope for humanity which has made Mr Carpenter’s writings an inspiration to countless readers. It can be confidently recommended to all who are not specialists in the subjects with which it deals.” B. R.
+ −
Nation [London] 27:116 Ap 24 ’20 1100w
“Mr Carpenter is never clear, although he writes clearly. He disappears in a vacuum at the end of all his books and poems. He lacks the thunder and the sureness, the passion and the vision of the real prophet. He possesses clarity without light. He expounds, but does not see.” B: de Casseres
−
N Y Times 25:155 Ap 4 ’20 800w
+ −
Springf’d Republican p11a Je 27 ’20 1000w (Reprinted from Nation [London])
The Times [London] Lit Sup p180 Mr 18 ’20 1900w
CARPENTER, RHYS.[2] Plainsman, and other poems. *$2 Oxford 821
“Rhys Carpenter is a poet enamored of classic themes. Thus in his new book, ‘The plainsman,’ we find such titles as For Zeus’ grove at Dodona, The charioteer of Elis, Birds of Stymphalus, Heracles sails westward and Pegasos at Hippokrene. He also loves nature and swinging lilting songs. His method of singing is that of former days, but to it he brings his own active personality.”—N Y Times
Ath p833 D 17 ’20 50w
“There is not one of Rhys Carpenter’s verses that does not possess in its degree magic and power. The poet’s thought is beautifully instinctive and confident: his expression is beautifully artistic and considered.”
+
No Am 212:569 O ’20 1150w
“There is many a gracefully turned poem in this book, the kind of poetry that almost runs into music. Mr Carpenter is a master of the shades of sound, he is dexterous in his meters and the delicate finish and completeness of his efforts set them in a distinctive place among contemporary efforts.” H. S. Gorman
+
N Y Times p11 Ja 9 ’21 240w
CARRINGTON, HEREWARD (HUBERT LAVINGTON, pseud.). Boy’s book of magic. il *$2 Dodd 793
20–17072
“The object of this book is twofold: (1) To explain, not only how a trick is done, but also how to do it ... and (2) to describe and explain those tricks which the average boy can make or procure, with relative ease and with but little expense.” (Preface) It falls into two parts: part 1: Introductory remarks; Card tricks; Coin tricks; Tricks with handkerchiefs; Tricks with eggs; Pieces of apparatus of general utility; Feats of divination; Miscellaneous tricks; Concluding instructions. Part II: Hindu magic; Handcuffs and escapes therefrom; Sideshow and animal tricks. There are numerous illustrations.
Booklist 17:163 Ja ’21
“The directions are clear and practicable, and there are many helpful illustrations.”
+
Ind 104:378 D 11 ’20 70w
+
Lit D p86 D 4 ’20 190w
CARRINGTON, HEREWARD (HUBERT LAVINGTON, pseud.). Higher psychical development. il *$3 Dodd 133
20–17105
The book contains an outline of the secret Hindu teachings as embodied in the Yoga philosophy and is the substance of a series of twelve lectures delivered by the author before the Psychological research society of New York in 1918. It supplements a previous book by the same author, “Your psychic powers and how to develop them,” and is recommended for more advanced reading as it contains information and “secrets,” never before published and hitherto carefully guarded by the Hindu Yogis, and shows the connection between the Yoga practices and our western science, philosophy and psychic investigations. Contents: An outline of Yoga philosophy; Asana; Pranayama; Mantrayoga and Pratyahara; Dharana; Dhyana and Samadhi; The Kundalini and how it is aroused; “The fourth dimension,” etc.; “The guardians of the threshold”; The relation of Yoga to occultism; The relation of Yoga to “psychics”; The projection of the astral body; Glossary and Index.
CARRINGTON, HEREWARD (HUBERT LAVINGTON, pseud.). Your psychic powers and how to develop them. *$3 (3c) Dodd 134
20–5132
The author warns the reader that the views presented in the present volume are not necessarily his own but constitute the body of traditional and accepted theories on spiritualism and psychic phenomena. He has tentatively and for the sake of argument adopted the “spiritistic hypothesis” to set forth the possibilities that it contains. This course has been warranted, he claims, by the newer researches and conclusions in the field of psychical research. He also believes that the bulk of the material contained in the book is sound and helpful and that in following the practical instructions the reader cannot go far wrong. A partial list of the contents is: How to develop; Fear and how to banish it; The subconscious; The spirit world; The cultivation of spiritual gifts; The human aura; Symbolism; Telepathy; Clairvoyance; Dreams; Automatic writing; Crystal gazing and shell-hearing; Spiritual healing; Trance; Obsession and insanity; Prayer, concentration and silence; Hypnotism and mesmerism; Reincarnation and eastern philosophy; The ethics of spiritualism; Physical phenomena; Materialization; Advanced studies.
“Perhaps gives insufficient warning to the amateur, who nevertheless will usually find results not as readily forthcoming as the recipes might imply.”
+ −
Booklist 16:256 My ’20
“It is without question the best and most complete, the clearest and the most sensibly compiled compendium of ‘dippy’ lore that we have read.” B: de Casseres
+
N Y Times 25:189 Ap 18 ’20 450w
“As a statement of the spiritistic position the volume is accurate, careful, thorough, if never once for a single moment illuminating or inspiring.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p555 Ag 26 ’20 500w
CARROLL, ROBERT SPROUL. Our nervous friends; illustrating the mastery of nervousness. *$2 Macmillan 616
19–18395
“In a series of short stories Dr Carroll, who is medical director of the Highland hospital in Asheville, describes typical cases of nervous pathology—chiefly among the well-to-do—indicating clearly in each case the causes of the condition and how it might have been avoided or overcome.”—Survey
“Another of the encouraging but by no means coddling books which the nervous patient and his friends may read with profit.”
+
Booklist 16:191 Mr ’20
Brooklyn 12:85 F ’20 30w
Survey 43:657 F 28 ’20 50w
CARSWELL, CATHERINE. Open the door. *$2 (1c) Harcourt
20–10736
This novel adds one more to the list of recent books about women by women of which “Mary Olivier” is perhaps the most noted example. It is the story of Joanna Bannerman, altho it is some little time before Joanna’s story emerges from that of the Bannerman family. Indeed it is never entirely distinct from it. The Bannerman children grow up in an atmosphere of narrow religiosity, bordering on mysticism and ecstasy. Joanna’s after life is a reaction from her early environment. As a girl she dreams of love, which to her means adventure, escape, possession of the world. She seeks realization of her dreams, first in marriage with Mario Rasponi, who takes her to Italy, then in illicit union with Louis Pender, an artist, and finally, in her second marriage with Lawrence Urquhart, finds fulfillment of life.
“It is head and shoulders above the class of books which are commonly called ‘best-sellers,’ it makes a genuine appeal to the intelligence as well as the emotions, and we do not doubt for an instant that it was inspired by the author’s love of writing for writing’s sake.” K. M.
+ −
Ath p831 Je 25 ’20 700w
“The novel can stand without difficulty upon its own merits. This does not mean that it lacks entirely certain earmarks of the beginner. It has on the other hand much that more than makes up for a stiffness of movement which betokens the amateur. Miss Carswell will undoubtedly handle her material more easily in the future but it is questionable whether she will be able at that time to bring to a book the freshness of interest and unconventionality of phrase which attracts us strongly here.” D. L. M.
+
Boston Transcript p6 Jl 17 ’20 550w
“She does not succeed, perhaps, in drawing merely a normal woman normally, but with great competence she portrays a slightly neurotic heroine of somewhat unusually varied experience, understandingly and with conviction. It is in the conventional happy ending alone that the story fails. In its penetration to the secret springs of character and conduct, in its visualization of persons and interrelated groups, in its mastery of line and its sureness of phrase, this is no amateur effort but a first novel of some moment, provocative of thought and expectation.” H. S. H.
+
Freeman 1:598 S 1 ’20 900w
“Joanna and her story remain vivid and delightful and have a touch of epic breadth and richness.” Ludwig Lewisohn
+
Nation 111:134 Jl 31 ’20 170w
“Sex interests without haunting or obsessing or torturing her. Miss Carswell is in the happy position of one who is naturally frank and naturally decent. Her decency and her frankness are not at war. ‘Open the door’ is quite sure to fasten many readers’ eyes upon Miss Carswell. She can do love and landscape and character. It is more than a remarkable first novel. It is a remarkable novel.” Silas
+ −
New Repub 23:258 Jl 28 ’20 1000w
N Y Times 25:23 Jl 11 ’20 650w
“Her work has many striking qualities: energy, a rich profusion of characters clearly seen and relentlessly portrayed, and a thoroughly modern treatment of that all-absorbing theme of today—the duel of the generations. One is inclined to think that she has put too much into her book. She leaves too little to the imagination, with the result that very few of her characters engage the affection of the reader.”
+ −
Spec 125:151 Jl 31 ’20 600w
“Few have gone further in the successful analysis of motives than the authoress of this interesting novel.”
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p301 My 13 ’20 360w
CARTER, ARTHUR HAZELTON, and ARNOLD, ARCHIBALD VINCENT. Field artillery instruction. il *$6.50 Putnam 358
20–10616
“A complete manual of instruction for prospective field artillery officers.” (Sub-title) Contents: Physical instruction; Dismounted drill and military courtesies; Matériel; Drill of the gun squad; Fire discipline; Field gunnery; Conduct of fire; Communication; Orientation and topography: Reconnaissance; Horses and their care; Riding and driving; Cleaning and care of equipment; Entraining and detraining. There are 272 illustrations, two appendices and an index. The work is based on the authors’ experience at the Field artillery central officers training school, Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky.
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p802 D 2 ’20 60w
CARTHAGE, PHILIP I. Retail organization and accounting control. *$3 (4c) Appleton 658
20–20957
This book covers the subject of accounting as applied to the department store, specialty shop and retail store of any description. The author says: “I have long felt the need of a text book on department store procedure, and have endeavored to render my book useful by its treatment of accounting, management and systems. Theory is entirely eliminated. Practical application and experience are its governing features.” (Introd.) Contents: Books in use and procedure; Books in use; Sales checks and return checks; Auditing; Balance sheet (three chapters); Turnover; Merchandising (two chapters); Profit and loss; Burden; Profit and loss; Alteration department. The book is illustrated with fifty-eight forms (tables, charts, etc.) and is indexed.
CARVER, THOMAS NIXON.[2] Elementary economics. il $1.72 Ginn 330
“It is the purpose of this book to examine the economic foundations of our national welfare and to point out some of the simpler and more direct methods of strengthening these foundations.” (Introd.) There is a topical treatment of the chapters, after the manner of textbooks, under which each topic is briefly explained and a list of exercise questions at the end of each chapter. The divisions of the book are: What makes a nation prosperous; Economizing labor; The productive activities; Exchange; Dividing the product of industry; The consumption of wealth; Reform. The book is indexed and illustrated.
CASTIER, JULES. Rather like.... *$2.25 (3c) Lippincott 847
(Eng ed 20–682)
“Rather like” is a book of parodies on English authors, written by a Frenchman while interned in a German prison camp. Before bringing out the work the English publisher submitted a proof of each parody to the author parodied and the comments received in reply are printed in an introductory note. The sketches are genuine parodies, not burlesques. Among them are G. K. Chesterton: What’s maddening about man; A. Conan Doyle: The footprints on the ceiling; John Galsworthy: Punishment; Charles Garvice: The power of love; W. W. Jacobs: The yellow pipe; Rudyard Kipling: The song of the penny whistle; G. Bernard Shaw: The exploiters.
“These parodies are highly creditable as the work of a foreigner, but they are not really effective. One can recognize the subjects of the parodies, but the author adopts the long-nose method in exaggerating none but the obvious features.”
+ −
Ath p94 Ja 16 ’20 90w
+ −
The Times [London] Lit Sup p764 D 18 ’19 800w
CASTLE, AGNES (SWEETMAN) (MRS EGERTON CASTLE), and CASTLE, EGERTON. John Seneschal’s Margaret. *$2 (2½c) Appleton
20–17318
John Tempest and John Seneschal, comrades and strangely alike, suffer untold agonies imprisoned together in Turkey. Seneschal finally breaks under the strain and is buried in the wilderness by Tempest. So much the prologue tells. The story proper begins with a hospital in London. Tempest is a patient here and as a result of a head wound is suffering from loss of memory. He is identified by the Seneschal family as their son and heir and taken to their home. He is horribly aware that this is all wrong but cannot recall his own identity and his fixed belief that John Seneschal is dead is considered one of the delusions of his mental condition. The one other certainty that he clings to is the face and name of Margaret—and Margaret was Seneschal’s childhood sweetheart. In all the confusion of his clouded mind she seems the one thing that is true and real. After rest and care and love have been given him, his mind suddenly clears and he knows that he is John Tempest usurping the place of John Seneschal. Complete recollection brings problems whose solution taxes all the love and honor of John Tempest’s manhood, but from which he emerges true blue.
“We may be glad of this—that the book with which Egerton Castle has bidden us farewell is not only artistically worthy of one who loved and respected his art, but contains a depth and richness of feeling far beyond that of any of the blithe tales preceding it, while in all the long line of his heroines there is not one finer or more lovable than she who was ‘John Seneschal’s Margaret.’” L. M. Field
+
N Y Times p22 N 14 ’20 1000w
“Entertaining and vigorous narrative.”
+
Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 30 ’21 450w
“The story is indeed one of the best productions of Mr and Mrs Egerton Castle.”
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p741 N 11 ’20 150w
CASTLE, AGNES (SWEETMAN) (MRS EGERTON CASTLE), and CASTLE, EGERTON.[2] Little hours in great days. *$2 Dutton
“The latest volume by Agnes and Egerton Castle, ‘Little hours in great days,’ is one of domestic thrills such as the Castles know how to evoke so well. It is a continuation in spirit and in form of their ‘Little house in war time,’ with the difference explained. ‘The little house, after many vicissitudes, stands, even as the world stands today, upon a return to order and new kindly hopes.’ The Castles have a gardener, now that such men are luxuriously possible, and ensuing chapters reveal in a quiet way the joys of gardening and a gardener. Some chapters are by one writer and some by the other; from long association their style is uniform, and in these garden chapters difficult to attribute—if we had not been told. As with other English writers who cannot quickly forget the war, better chapters follow, ‘Tommy at war’ and ‘The soul of the soldier,’ for example, which take up and also look back upon the man in khaki after November, 1918.”—Boston Transcript
Ath p29 Ja 2 ’20 40w
“The best of the volume is in the character sketches it contains, agreeable rather than sharp-cut, of people they have known intimately. The authors’ delicacy is real, their feelings just, and their desire to please obvious.”
+
Boston Transcript p5 D 24 ’20 190w
“Mr and Mrs Castle will find it difficult entirely to acquit themselves of the charge of having written a ‘pretty-pretty’ book. In writing about the maimed soldiers Mr and Mrs Castle show a fine quality of mind and a sympathy that increases with spending.”
+ −
Sat R 129:40 Ja 10 ’20 310w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p717 D 4 ’19 110w
CASWELL, JOHN. Sporting rifles and rifle shooting. il *$4 Appleton 799
20–12388
“The notes and suggestions contained in this book are the result of experience in many lands and against practically all kinds of game, as well as on the target range and in actual military service. Its purpose is to supply data for the hunter against game and to give both hunter and target shooter more simple solutions of the rather intricate methods in use for the calculation of elevation, windage, and atmospheric conditions.” (Preface) Chapters are devoted to: Rifle types; Game rifles; Target rifles; Actions; Stocks; Sights; Cleaning; Bullets; Lubrication of bullets; Cartridges; Elevations; Windage and atmosphere; Judgment of distance; Position; Aiming and trigger squeeze; Stalking and cover; Aims for vital points on game. In addition there are eight appendices, devoted to various matters including Historical sketch of the evolution of the rifle, glossary, and a select bibliography of the rifle. There are eighty-one illustrations and an index.
+
Booklist 17:144 Ja ’21
“With certain limitations, much to be regretted, he has written a very good book. It is to be regretted that Col. Caswell has failed to recognize a wider range of choice in rifles, that he has neglected to discuss the human facter as the principle element in the killing of game.” C: Sheldon
+ −
N Y Evening Post p5 D 31 ’20 1400w
“Although the book makes no pretenses to literary style, it contains passages that many novelists might well envy.”
+
Springf’d Republican p9a O 3 ’20 230w
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p550 Ag 26 ’20 640w
CATHER, WILLA SIBERT. Youth and the bright Medusa. *$2.25 (3c) Knopf
20–17316
This collection of stories presents four of Miss Cather’s recent short stories: Coming, Aphrodite!; The diamond mine; A gold slipper; and Scandal. To these are added four of the earlier stories with which she first won critical appreciation: Paul’s case; A Wagner matinée; The sculptor’s funeral; and “A death in the desert.” In the early as in the later stories the theme is youth and art.
“The first four are longer and more ambitious, but not so strong. Her real shortcoming is that she is at present quite without a ‘style’; placed beside any European model of imaginative prose she is dowdy and rough, wanting rhythm and distinction.” O. W.
+ −
Ath p890 D 31 ’20 780w
“Honest, skillfully wrought stories. Their ruthless, almost cynical, unmasking of sometimes ugly truths will repel some readers.”
+
Booklist 17:115 D ’20
“The author perceives life from many angles, all subsidiary to her comprehensive outlook; she has the faculty of getting under the skin of each character, or of speaking from his mouth: she is economical, therefore powerful, in her management of action, interaction and contrast; she succeeds remarkably in conveying the sense of detachment which the ‘different’ from their kind experience.” B. C. Williams
+
Bookm 52:169 O ’20 580w
“As studies of success, of the successful, of the victims of ‘big careers,’ as simply of ambition, above all of the quality of ambition in women, they probably are not surpassed.”
+
Dial 70:230 F ’21 200w
“The thing is told with the utmost skill, and the deftest effects of descriptive incident. The two contrasted personalities are projected as firmly in a few strokes as if a whole novel had been filled with the details of their careers.” E. A. B.
+
Freeman 2:286 D 1 ’20 760w
“The stories have the radiance of perfect cleanliness, like the radiance of burnished glass. Miss Cather’s book is more than a random collection of excellent tales. It constitutes as a whole one of the truest as well as, in a sober and earnest sense, one of the most poetical interpretations of American life that we possess.”
+
Nation 111:352 S 25 ’20 500w
“Feeling she has, and romantic glamour, but at no time does she seem easily irradiant. For this reason her very effectiveness, her shrewd impersonal security in the arrangement and despatch of her story, has a formality that takes away from the flowing line of real self-expression. Better than the familiar vast ineptitude, this formality. But Miss Cather is perhaps still withholding from her fiction something that is intimate, essential and ultimate.” F. H.
+ −
New Repub 25:233 Ja 19 ’21 1800w
“‘Youth and the bright Medusa’ is decidedly a literary event which no lover of the best fiction will want to miss.”
+
N Y Times p24 O 3 ’20 550w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+
Review 3:314 O 13 ’20 190w
+
The Times [London] Lit Sup p670 O 14 ’20 50w
“Miss Cather is one of a small group of American authors who are producing literature of a high type and adding to the literary laurels of America in Europe. She is an artist with a sure touch in moulding a plot and depicting a motive. The longer stories here—Coming, Aphrodite and The diamond mine—are consummate in both respects.”
+
World Tomorrow 3:351 N ’20 130w
CAUSE of world unrest. *$2.50 Putnam 296
20–19292
The American publishers of this English book decline to accept any responsibility for the soundness of the conclusions presented. H. A. Gwynne, editor of the London Morning Post, in a long introduction of approval of the contents, also points out that its editors do not assume the authenticity of the documents upon which it is based—the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The contention of the book is “that there has been for centuries a hidden conspiracy, chiefly Jewish, whose objects have been and are to produce revolution, communism, and anarchy, by means of which they hope to arrive at the hegemony of the world by establishing some sort of despotic rule.” (Introd.)
“Unfortunately, truth is a matter of proportion. We do not doubt that the industrious authors of this volume have amassed material that might become a valuable footnote to history—in the hands of a historian. Alas that there should lie so great a difference between induction and deduction; and that in the discharge of even the sternest ‘public duty’ a sense of humor should be so essential!”
−
Ath p645 N 12 ’20 1000w
Boston Transcript p7 N 17 ’20 540w
“The book is one which parlor Bolshevists ought to read, yes, every one ought to read it who is interested in the development of free government, and especially those simple-minded optimists who think that the key to progress has been found and that government is a well understood thing.” J: J. Chapman
+
N Y Evening Post p4 N 27 ’20 670w
“The authors are conspicuously honest, but their honesty inclines to credulity, and they are disposed to confuse ‘post hoc’ with ‘propter hoc.’ While admitting that ebullient Israel requires to be carefully watched, we really cannot, in these days of unstinted publicity, swallow mysterious stories about a ‘formidable sect.’”
− +
Sat R 130:376 N 6 ’20 1250w
Spec 125:503 O 16 ’20 1250w
“The book which appears under the pretentious title, ‘The cause of world unrest’ contains nothing to make good its pretenses.” Harry Schneiderman
−
Survey 45:322 N 27 ’20 280w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p638 S 30 ’20 50w
CENTER, STELLA STEWART, comp. Worker and his work. (Lippincott’s school text ser.) il *$2 Lippincott 820.8
20–26453
“‘The worker and his work,’ by Stella S. Center, is a text for high schools designed ‘to meet the needs of boys and girls who feel the urgent necessity of selecting the right vocation.’ It is a book of prose selections from present-day writers, ranging from H. G. Wells to Harold Bell Wright, interspersed with a few bits of verse.” (Nation) “It is not concerned with processes nor practical problems. The illustrations are from artists who use some form of labor for their subjects; they include Meunier, Pennell and Rodin.” (Booklist)
Booklist 16:269 My ’20
“The selections themselves leave a confusing and contradictory impression.”
− +
Nation 111:50 Jl 10 ’20 280w
St Louis 18:212 S ’20 20w
“It is rather a romantic statement of modern industry than a true one. The book, however, should find a real place and should give to many students a preliminary picture of the variety of industry.” Alexander Fleisher
+ −
Survey 44:638 Ag 16 ’20 100w
CHAFEE, ZECHARIAH, jr. Freedom of speech. *$3.50 Harcourt 323.4
20–22239
The object of the book is to inquire into the proper limitations upon freedom of speech by way of ascertaining the nature and scope of the policy which finds expression in the First amendment to the United States constitution and then to determine the place of that policy in the conduct of war. With a wide and learned acquaintance with the law, the author’s endeavor is to get behind the rules of law to human facts, and although not in personal sympathy with the views of most of the men who have been imprisoned since the war began for speaking out, he declares with certitude “that the First amendment forbids the punishment of words merely for their injurious tendencies. The history of the amendment and the political function of free speech corroborate each other and make this conclusion plain.” Contents: Freedom of speech in war time; Opposition to the war with Germany; A contemporary state trial—the United States v. Jacob Abrams et al; Legislation against sedition and anarchy; The deportations; John Wilkes, Victor Berger, and the five members; Freedom and initiative in the schools; Appendices (including Bibliography); Index of cases; General index.