story in two generations based on authentic letters and beginning in
the days of Napoleon the Great with the love letters of Dora Best to
George Brett and continuing with the love affair of their son who, in
1897, became Viscount Esher.
_Lady Rose Weigall_, by RACHEL WEIGALL. Lady Rose was the favourite
niece of the great Duke of Wellington. Her long life (1834-1921)
brought her in contact with Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Rubenstein, Jenny
Lind, Bismarck, Browning, Disraeli, Lord Palmerston, Dickens, the
Empress Eugenie and many royalties. Not the least interesting things
are her letters exchanged with Germany during the World War.
_“Indiscretions” of Lady Susan_, by LADY SUSAN TOWNLEY. Entertaining
and well-edged gossip by the wife of a diplomat who was stationed in
many countries.
_The Literary Spotlight_, with an introduction by JOHN FARRAR. Personal
portraits of contemporary American writers, first published in The
Bookman, and anonymous to permit greater candour. Louis Untermeyer,
Mary Johnston, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Floyd Dell, Sinclair Lewis, Owen
Johnson, Edna Ferber, Amy Lowell and others are included.
Unusual Biographies and Autobiographies.
_Thomas Nelson Page: A Memoir of a Virginia Gentleman_, by ROSWELL PAGE.
_All in a Lifetime_, by HENRY MORGENTHAU.
_My Life and Work_, by HENRY FORD in collaboration with SAMUEL CROWTHER.
_My Boyhood_, by JOHN BURROUGHS.
_Lord Northcliffe: a Memoir_, by MAX PEMBERTON.
_Fourteen Years a Sailor_, by JOHN KENLON. The Chief of the New York
Fire Department in a naïve and pleasing account of his Irish boyhood.
_The Life of an American Sailor: Admiral William Hemsley Emory_, from
his letters and memoirs edited by ADMIRAL ALBERT GLEAVES.
_Mr. Lloyd George_, by E. T. RAYMOND.
_The Americanization of Edward Bok_, by EDWARD W. BOK. One of the most
widely read of American autobiographies and still in strong demand.
_A Man From Maine_, by EDWARD W. BOK. A biography of Cyrus H. K.
Curtis, head of the Curtis Publishing Company of Philadelphia.
_From McKinley to Harding: Personal Recollections of Our Presidents_,
by H. H. KOHLSAAT. The political interest is strong.
_The Print of My Remembrance_, by AUGUSTUS THOMAS. For all who are
interested in the theatre and its people.
WALTER DAMROSCH’S _My Musical Life_ begins with a childhood in Germany
and aside from its autobiographical interest constitutes to some extent
a history of orchestral music in America.
_My Memories of Eighty Years_, by CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW. About evenly
personal and political in interest.
_Letters of James Gibbons Huneker_, edited by JOSEPHINE HUNEKER, and
MR. HUNEKER’S _Steeplejack_ (autobiographical). The record of one of
our most brilliant critics, versatile in all the arts.
_John H. Patterson: The Pioneer in Industrial Welfare_, by SAMUEL
CROWTHER. Of a similar interest with HENRY FORD’S _My Life and Work_.
_The Editorials of Henry Watterson_, edited by ARTHUR KROCK. They
complete his own account of himself in “_Marse Henry_.” The political
interest is naturally the main thing and is exceedingly vivid
(1868-1921).
_The Life of Lord Rosebery_, by E. T. RAYMOND. Analytical biography.
_C. K. S., An Autobiography_, by CLEMENT K. SHORTER. The author is a
veteran English critic and writer.
_The Life of William Schwenk Gilbert_, by SIDNEY DARK. Gilbert of
Gilbert and Sullivan, “The Mikado,” “H. M. S. Pinafore,” etc.
FRANK SWINNERTON’S _George Gissing: A Critical Study_, and his _Robert
Louis Stevenson: A Critical Study_. The interest is literary rather
than biographical.
_Tennyson: A Modern Portrait_, by HUGH I’ANSON FAUSSET. Both literary
and biographical in its interest. Richard Le Gallienne, in the New York
Times, says: “The manner of this portrait is very attractive. Biography
and criticism are artfully and suggestively blended, and the influence
of Tennyson’s environment throughout his life on the development of his
character and his poetry is vividly and for the most part convincingly
illuminated.”
_The Life of William Hazlitt_, by P. P. HOWE. The only biography we
have of a remarkable literary figure.
_Victor Hugo: His Work and Love_, by ANDREW C. P. HAGGARD. A new
account. The romantic element in Hugo’s life is emphasised, although
not unduly.
_Embassies I Have Known_, by WALBURGA, LADY
PAGET. The English, German and Austrian Courts in the last half-century.
Two Books About English Seats.
_Knole and the Sackvilles_, by V. SACKVILLE-WEST. See Chapter 6.
_Earlham_, by PERCY LUBBOCK.
_9. Alice in Authorland and Penrod’s Five-Foot Shelf_
Alice in Authorland.
Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice, to the White Queen, flinging the book
on the floor.
“Exactly,” the White Queen replied.
“Haven’t you anything a self-respecting person can read?” Alice
inquired.
“A self-respecting person,” answered the White Queen, “would not ask
such a silly question. She would accompany me into Authorland and make
the acquaintance of the people there and learn to find her way about.
Instead,” added the White Queen, cuttingly, “instead of bothering me. I
am very busy.”
“Well, if you’re very busy, you won’t want to take me with you and
introduce me to all those people,” Alice observed, a trifle sulkily.
“Of course I will!” The White Queen spoke with annoyance but also
with cheerfulness, for she prided herself on seldom being one-sided.
“I am never too busy to loiter. And let me tell you that when _you_
become too busy to loiter you will find everyone else too lazy to live
with--and then what will you do?”
Alice admitted she didn’t know. The White Queen was in a great hurry
because, as she said, once in Authorland it would only be possible to
make haste slowly. They looked up the timetable and found any number of
editions just leaving. As they were entering a compartment the guard
came along, crying: “Here! You can’t go in there! That’s reserved for
fairies”--but a very pleasant-looking woman who was already seated
inside stuck out her head and said: “Oh, do let the little girl come
in. Besides, she’s with the White Queen, who may ride anywhere.” So the
guard let them in, with a good deal of grumbling, slammed the door and
blew his whistle and they were off. The pleasant-faced woman smiled at
Alice, and Alice took courage to ask:
“Are you a fairy, then?”
“No, my dear, but I write about them. It’s more fun than being one,
really. My name is Rose Fyleman and I live part of the time in London
and part of it in Fairy Hills--that’s the nice residence section of
Authorland, you know.”
“What are your books, please?” Alice asked, primly.
“Oh, there’s _Rose Fyleman’s Fairy Book_, and _The Fairy Flute_, and
_The Fairy Green_ and _Fairies and Chimneys_--all poems--and _The
Rainbow Cat_, whom I knew very well and admired no end. He used to walk
about the Child’s Garden of Verse--that’s the little village green with
flower-beds in Fairy Hills.”
Rose Fyleman lent Alice some of her books to read on the train. The
White Queen slept in a corner, but finally sprang up, crying: “We’re
here, we’re here!”
“But the train isn’t stopping,” protested Alice. Rose Fyleman and the
White Queen laughed. “Silly,” said the White Queen, “it isn’t a train,
it’s an edition, and editions never stop in Authorland. You just jump
off anywhere.” And with that she jumped. So did Rose Fyleman, pausing
to say: “You won’t mind it. Landing in a heap of books is such fun.”
Alice finally summoned her courage and jumped, too. A man six feet tall
and over caught her nicely and set her down right side up. Then he very
politely introduced himself. He was Frederick Arnold Kummer, he said,
and it was his business to catch girls and boys and set them down right
side up. “With care,” he added.
Alice thanked him and took the two books he handed her, _The First Days
of Man_ and another called _The First Days of Knowledge_. “You won’t
need these here,” he explained, “but you’ll find them very useful and
probably interesting and maybe exciting when you go back.”
There was no trace of the White Queen, so Alice went down the
road, picking her way among the books planted everywhere, until a
white-haired and smiling old lady sent out her boy, Nils, to show her
the way about. Nils said the white-haired woman was Selma Lagerlöf, and
she had written for him two sets of wonderful adventures. He had been a
rather bad boy and Selma Lagerlöf had turned him into an elf and later
had sent him through animal land. “I’ll give you the books,” said Nils,
picking out a couple that stood between two book ends at corners of
the road. “Here they are--_The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_ and _The
Further Adventures of Nils_.”
Alice thought she should like to go back and talk with Selma Lagerlöf,
whose smile had seemed mysterious and wonderful, but Nils was bent on
showing her the animals. Of these there were quantities, and Nils knew
them all, it appeared, and their owners.
“That there’s Brer Rabbit,” he was beginning, when Alice interrupted
to say, “You can’t say ‘that there.’” “Yes, I can,” he retorted, “I’ve
just said it.” Alice saw he was hopeless, like all boys, and paid no
further attention to his grammar, while Nils discussed the creatures,
both wild and tame, all about. Some grazed peacefully, some were
frisking and playing, and a few gyred and gimbled in the wabe like
the slithy toves Alice had heard her friend, Mr. Lewis Carroll, tell
about. Brer Rabbit didn’t in the least resemble the White Rabbit, being
brown in colour and having no vest pocket with a watch and chain. Uncle
Remus and Uncle Remus’s friend, Joel Chandler Harris, kept tabs on
Brer Rabbit. Forrestine C. Hooker was feeding lumps of sugar to the
Comanche pony named Star that she has written about in _Star: The Story
of an Indian Pony_, and Prince Jan, the St. Bernard of her other book,
stood gravely by her. Ernest Thompson Seton, looking more wild than his
wildest animals, was racing about, trying to keep track of his grey
squirrel, Bannertail, of Krag and Randy and Johnny Bear and Chink, of
Lobo, Rag and Vixen, and especially of the Sandhill Stag. “It’s the
hardest work,” he assured Alice, stopping for a moment to subdue his
hair and wipe his forehead, “to observe all their habits. I simply
couldn’t ever do it if I didn’t have wide margins in my books and
make a little drawing whenever I noted a new habit. Bad habits in the
lefthand margins, good habits in the righthand margins.” “But,” said
Alice, wonderingly, “the drawings all look alike to me.” “You might as
well say all animals look alike to you,” said Mr. Seton, impatiently.
“But they don’t know good and bad, though; all they know is habits.
Now, if children only had habits they would be as interesting as
animals.” “I’m sure I don’t know,” answered Alice, doubtfully.
Nils had disappeared and the White Queen was nowhere in sight, either.
“It’s a strange place,” thought Alice. “It is, indeed,” said a man who
was busy painting magnificent pictures in most glowing colours. “It’s
strange because no one ever stays long enough to bore you.” “Oh, is
that it?” Alice answered. But she was really much impressed. She looked
at the gorgeous paintings, each signed “N. C. Wyeth” and each outdoing
the one before. She thought with secret ecstasy: “I’m only going
to have books with his pictures in them.” Mr. Wyeth, who seemed to
understand her thought, said out loud: “You’ll find others--Kay Nielsen
and Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac and Noel Pocock.” Alice said, “Yes,
no doubt,” but in her own mind she decided it must be because he was as
modest as he was wonderful.
“Do you like boys’ stories?” asked a boy much older than Nils, who had
come up suddenly. “Of course!” Alice responded. She looked at him
more closely. “Why you must be the boy in _High Benton_, aren’t you?”
He grinned. “I guess I am. I was only going to say, if you like boys’
stories--and all the girls I know do--my friend, William Heyliger, has
written a new one, _The Spirit of the Leader_. It’s stuff like _High
Benton_, a high school story. Great!” Alice was about to ask him for
the book when all the editions began running past so rapidly that she
became dizzy and screamed and shut her eyes. When she opened them a
moment later, Authorland had vanished and she was back at her starting
place and the White Queen was asking with sharpness:
“Have you been all this time deciding on something to read? You have to
read, you know, in order to grow up; and at this rate you’ll never grow
up at all!”
Penrod’s Five-Foot Shelf.
Feeling the need of solitude, Penrod Schofield moved slowly toward the
barn. As he walked he kicked desultorily at such objects, animate and
inanimate, as obtruded themselves in his path--the round top of the
water cutoff in the lawn, on which he had broken the blades of the
lawn mower last Saturday; a bag of clothes pins reposing harmlessly
on its side, and the white cat, Sherlock Holmes. “Ole cat!” Sherlock,
untarnished by the hostile toe, trotted off complacently. Creatures
like Penrod were little in the life of one who had been victor over the
hound of the neighbouring Baskervilles.
Choosing Entrance Two, the youth ascended to Apartment B-3 of the barn,
a second-story location offering an outside window with no bath but
with proper seclusion. Here on a conscientiously measured shelf of his
own manufacture was the beginning of the Penrod Schofield Library.
The shelf, constructed in his leisure hours, was exactly five feet in
length, a noted educator having assured Penrod and others, through the
medium of many full-page advertisements, that the books on a five-foot
shelf could furnish the equivalent of a college education. With a
passion for exactitude, and in pursuance of a further condition, Penrod
was devoting to the books on his five-foot shelf a requisite fifteen
minutes a day.
“Five feet divided by fifteen minutes a day makes--makes----.” The
youth struggled for a while with this intricate problem in arithmetic,
at length muttering: “I know. Y’ count the pages, and then divide
by fifteen; no, by the number of pages y’ c’n read in fifteen
minutes;--no, that ain’t right either, is it?” There was no answer;
there would be none if he looked in the back of one of the books,
either; and for a while Penrod had a doubt whether, on looking in the
back of the noted educator’s head, any answer would be found there. He
did not understand how the educator could possibly be right, nohow, for
of course the first and indispensable item for any book shelf was the
complete works of G. A. Henty. He ran his eye along these:
_Bravest of the Brave; or, With Peterborough in Spain_
_By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War_
_With Clive in India; or, The Beginnings of an Empire_
Few, but still a beginning. A catalogue recently procured assured him
that there were at least thirty-five more that he should possess.
Allowing an inch per volume, which he had found necessary, fully three
feet of the five must be reserved for the author of _By Pike and Dyke:
A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic_ and other classical studies
in the historical field. Still, the two feet remaining gave probable
space for a coupla dozen lesser masterpieces. He examined the volumes
already in place:
_Treasure Island_, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
It had sixteen full-page pictures in colour, lining papers and a
coloured title page by Wyeth, and was quite satisfactory.
_The Boy Scouts’ Year Book: 1923_
Penrod had belonged to a troop which had busted up and there was no
use joining another as he expected to begin smoking shortly, anyway.
However, this book was useful, containing stories and talks on sports
and tales of true adventure and Dan Beard’s camping stuff and “Boys
Who Have Made Good” and a bunch of funny stories and--best of all--all
about radio.
_For the Good of the Team_, by RALPH HENRY BARBOUR
This was a brand-new, regular hot story about Stuart Harven captaining
the football team at Manning School and his roommate, Neal Orr, and
other fellows. Penrod regarded it as a slick story and nobody was
going to borrow it from him for a darn good long while because it was
brand-new and a hot story.
_Lochinvar Luck_, by ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE
One of those he-men, you said it, this Albert Payson Terhune and
two-fisted and all, and writes the grandest dog stories a fellow ever
gets hold of, no Black Beauty here-nice-doggie story but a corkin’
story about how Jamie Mackellar, a plucky little truck driver,
mortgages his truck to own a fine th’rough-bred collie and the kennel
owner who is a crook stings him bad; but the measly pup runs away and
lives wild and grows a wonderful bone and coat; and then Jamie captures
him back and takes him to the show and what Jamie and the dog do to
that crook kennel owner is some cautionary warning to all crooks.
_Fourteen Years a Sailor_, by JOHN KENLON
This here’s a good sea story, especially when they get shipwrecked
on the desolate Crozet Islands and make a wonderful escape, hard to
believe but it musta been so, because Kenlon he comes to New York later
and sees a fire panic in a theatre and that turns him to be a fireman.
Now he’s Chief of the New York City Fire Department, can you beat it?
What wouldn’t I give to ride to a four-alarm fire with him, going like
mad!
_Kim_, by RUDYARD KIPLING
Things in this story of _Kim_ I don’t just get hold of, but it’s a
great story all right and I’ve read it twice and I bet I read it some
more. Got to get the _Jungle Books_ and _Captains Courageous_ to put
alongside it. Certainly Kipling’s the real thing, most especially on
India.
_The Boy’s Book of Inventions_, by RAY STANNARD BAKER
Well, of course. A fellow’d have to have that, and the on’y thing was
to get hold of the other, _The Boy’s Second Book of Inventions_ it was
called, to go with it. Couldn’t have too many books like that which
besides being useful, and the kind you c’n always get your folks to
give you for presents, was interesting, like most of the books they
give hardly ever are.
Penrod reflected. No use to worry. He had room for ’most twenty
more books, anyway, allowing for Henty; and when he had read some
of these enough he could give one away now and then. Or maybe start
a circulating library, a cent a week, which would leave room on the
shelves and bring in money for new books.... From the distance came a
voice: “Penrod!” His mother was calling, and as it unquestionably was a
call to supper, perhaps he had better respond. He moved away. “Gosh,
my fifteen minutes was gone an’ I never read anything. Takes fifteen
darn minutes a day deciding what to read. Maybe she’s got strawberry
shortcake I c’d eat five feet of that no trouble at all!”
Books for Alices and Penrods.
It has become the fashion to try to classify books for boys and girls
by ages, but as children’s mental ages, tastes, interests and other
details vary not less widely than adults’, it is much more discreet to
arrange the “juveniles,” so-called, by general characters. Books not
explicitly named above are included in the following very limited and
rather carefully chosen groups:
All About Animals.
MARGERY WILLIAM’S _The Velveteen Rabbit_, with colour pictures by
William Nicholson. Unusual pictures drawn on stone by the artist.
MARSHALL SAUNDERS’S _Bonnie Prince Fetlar_ and her _The Wandering Dog_
ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE’S _Buff: A Collie_ and his _Further Adventures of
Lad_
WILLIAM T. HORNADAY’S _The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals_
ERNEST THOMPSON SETON’S _Bannertail: The Story of a Grey Squirrel_, his
_Wild Animals I Have Known_, his _Lives of the Hunted_--all illustrated
by the author.
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS’S _Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings_, with 112
illustrations by A. B. Frost. Mostly about animals. It is important to
have Mr. Frost’s pictures.
RUDYARD KIPLING’S _The Jungle Book_ and _The Second Jungle Book_ have
been mentioned; likewise FORRESTINE HOOKER’S _Star_ and her _Prince
Jan: St. Bernard_. _The Elephant’s Child_, _the Sing-Song of Old Man
Kangaroo_, and _How the Alphabet Was Made_ are Kipling selections now
published as separate small books
For quite little boys and girls there are the MAY BYRON books: _The
Little Black Bear_, _The Little Brown Rooster_, _The Little Yellow
Duckling_, and _The Little Tan Terrier_; and also books by JOHN BRECK,
as follows:
_Mostly About Nibble the Bunny_
_Nibble Rabbit Makes More Friends_
_The Sins of Silvertip the Fox_
_Tad Coon’s Tricks_
_The Wavy Tailed Warrior_
_Tad Coon’s Great Adventure_
_The Bad Little Owls_
_The Jay Bird Who Went Tame_
Introducing Fairies.
All the books named above by ROSE FYLEMAN, including _The Rainbow Cat_
_Fairy Tales_ by the BROTHERS GRIMM, illustrated by Noel Pocock
_The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Other Tales for Children_, retold by
SIR ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH and illustrated by Kay Nielsen
The Fairy Ring Series: Andersen’s Fairy Tales illustrated by Dugald
Stewart Walker--_Thumbelisa and Other Stories_, _The Mermaid and Other
Stories_, and _The Garden of Paradise and Other Stories_
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN’S and NORA A. SMITH’S _The Fairy Ring, with
Children’s Bookplate_, and their _Magic Casements: A Second Fairy Book_
The Most Wonderful Pictures.
The series of classics illustrated in colour by N. C. Wyeth includes:
_The Scottish Chiefs_, by JANE PORTER, edited by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
and NORA A. SMITH
_Westward Ho!_ by CHARLES KINGSLEY
T_he Last of the Mohicans_, by J. FENIMORE COOPER
_The Boy’s King Arthur_, by SIDNEY LANIER
_The Black Arrow_, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
_Kidnapped_, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
_Treasure Island_, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
_The Mysterious Island_, by JULES VERNE
_Poems of American Patriotism_, chosen by BRANDER MATTHEWS
Among the books illustrated by Howard Pyle are:
_The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire_
_The Story of King Arthur and His Knights_
_The Story of the Champions of the Round Table_
_The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions_
_The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur_
The two books illustrated by Kay Nielsen are:
_The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Other Tales for Children_ retold by
SIR ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH
_East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North_
Here are two books illustrated by Maxfield Parrish:
_The Arabian Nights_, edited by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN and NORA A. SMITH
_Poems of Childhood_, by EUGENE FIELD
Some other books with especially fine illustrations in colour are:
_A Child’s Garden of Verses_, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, illustrated by
Jessie Willcox Smith
_The Wind in the Willows_, by KENNETH GRAHAME, illustrated by Nancy
Barnhart
LOUIS DODGE’S _The Sandman’s Forest_ and his _The Sandman’s Mountain_,
both illustrated by Paul Bransom
MARY MAPES DODGE’S _Hans Brinker, or, The Silver Skates_, illustrated
by George Wharton Edwards
FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT’S _Little Lord Fauntleroy_, with illustrations
by Reginald B. Birch
MAUDE RADFORD WARREN’S and EVE DAVENPORT’S _Tales Told by the Gander_
and their _Adventures in the Old Woman’s Shoe_, both illustrated by C.
A. Federer
_The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha_, edited by J. B. TREND and
illustrated by Jean de Bosschere
_Robinson Crusoe_, by DANIEL DEFOE, illustrated by Noel Pocock
_Stories from Hans Andersen_, illustrated by Edmund Dulac
_Stories from the Arabian Nights_, retold by LAURENCE HOUSMAN, with
pictures by Edmund Dulac
_The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales from the Old French_, retold
by SIR ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH, illustrated by Edmund Dulac
HAWTHORNE’S _A Wonder Book_, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
ÆSOP’S _Fables_, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
_A Fairy Book_, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
The Outdoor Life.
WARREN H. MILLER’S _Camping Out_, his _The Boy’s Book of Hunting and
Fishing_, and his _Canoeing, Sailing and Motorboating_
_The Boy Scouts’ Year Book_ for 1923 or earlier years, as each annual
contains outdoor information of permanent interest
_The Boy Scouts’ Book of Campfire Stories_, and the _Boy Scouts’ Book
of Stories_, both edited by FRANKLIN K. MATHIEWS
EDWARD CAVE’S _Boy Scout’s Hike Book_ and his _The Boy’s Camp Book_
ERNEST THOMPSON SETON’S _The Book of Woodcraft_, his _Sign Talk_, his
_Woodcraft Manual for Boys_, and his _Woodcraft Manual for Girls_
JEANNETTE MARKS’S _Vacation Camping for Girls_