articles by leading specialists and successful workers in this field.
Its object is to elucidate the general aim of the consolidated school:
social efficiency, with its subordinate aims of vital, vocational,
avocational, civic, moral efficiency. It shows how the new method
fosters cooperation, and socialization, how children may be physically
and mentally changed by suitable methods and how the consolidated
school can furnish opportunity for a school farm, homes for teachers
and a community centre. The first chapter, National and rural
consolidation, and many of the subsequent chapters are by the editor,
Louis W. Rapeer. Other chapters are: The American rural school, by
Philander P. Claxton; Community organization and consolidation, by
Warren H. Wilson; Rural economics and consolidation, by T. N. Carver;
The growth of consolidation, and Transportation of pupils at public
expense, by A. C. Monahan; A visit to a consolidated school, and The
country girl and the consolidated school, by Katherine M. Cook;
Methods and facts of consolidation, by W. S. Fogarty; The difficulties
of consolidation, by L. J. Hanifan. The book is indexed and has a
bibliography.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:14 O ’20
“The book is to be commended on its attempt to use the problem
approach to the various topics.”
+ =El School J= 21:231 N ’20 450w
=School R= 28:796 D ’20 240w
=RASHDALL, HASTINGS.= Idea of atonement in Christian theology. (Bampton
lectures, 1915) *$5.50 Macmillan 232.3
20–9571
“Mr Rashdall traces the history of the doctrine of the atonement down
from its pre-Christian origins through the New Testament, and then by
way of the Apostolic fathers, the Latin theology, the Schoolmen, and
the Reformers down to modern times. His main interest lies in the
controversy between the subjective and the objective types of
atonement doctrines.”—Nation
* * * * *
− =Ath= p412 Mr 26 ’20 420w
“Even so competent and scholarly a discussion as this of Mr Rashdall’s
carries with it a suggestion of belonging to a stage which we have
left behind us. Those who are acquainted with Mr Rashdall’s work will
find the sincerity and thoroughness of discussion which they have
learned to expect from him.” R: Roberts
+ − =Nation= 110:624 My 8 ’20 750w
“This is one of the most important theological works that have
appeared for more than a generation. Its quality is scientific.”
+ =Spec= 124:311 Mr 6 ’20 1750w
“It is probably the most important constructive treatise on systematic
theology which has been published by an English divine during the
present century. Parts of it will be found difficult by readers who
are not experts in theology, for it deals with problems of great
complexity. But it is both subtle and lucid; it is a unity and not
patchwork; and, as compared with the reticence of some fairly recent
work, it is remarkably outspoken.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p250 Ap 22 ’20 1550w
=RASKIN, PHILIP M.= Songs and dreams. *$1.25 Stratford co. 811
20–9428
In a foreword the author tells something of the conditions under which
his poems have been written. He learned English after the age of
nineteen, published his first book of verse in English, with an
introduction by Israel Zangwill, in London in 1914, and has since come
to New York where he now makes his home. The poems are in five groups:
Love and longing; Autumn flowers; Echoes of exile; Chequered shadow;
The dawn of a nation. Some of the poems in the third group, such as To
free Russia (1917), The Torah and “No news” are racial in theme, but
the one purely Jewish section of the book is the concluding one,
devoted to the Zionist ideal.
* * * * *
“Despite Israel Zangwill’s opinion that ‘the best of Mr Raskin’s poems
might have been written by Robert Browning,’ there is much in them
that is merely ‘pretty work’—though the same thing might be said,
heaven knows, of the famous Victorian poet. In fact, the first of this
volume, dealing, as it does, with love, is fairly puerile. But toward
the end of the volume we happen upon a collection of poems entitled
‘The dawn of a nation’ which contains one or two verses worth while.
The one poem which makes the collection notable is that called ‘After
the British declaration.’”
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ’20 380w
=RAVEN, CHARLES E.= Christian socialism, 1848–1854. *$6.50 Macmillan
335.7
“This work is based on the Donellan lectures delivered by the author,
who is dean of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, at Trinity college,
Dublin, in May, 1919. It traces the ‘Christian socialist’ movement
from its origin in the reaction against the ‘laissez faire’ principles
of the early 19th century to the apparent failure of the effects of
Maurice, Neale and Ludlow in 1853, after the passing of Slaney’s act,
which gave recognition to the cooperative movement. The concluding
chapter deals with the ‘Foundation of the working men’s college’ after
the breakdown of the earlier hopes of the Christian socialists.”—The
Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“The volume as a whole is a genuine contribution to English economic
history and will doubtless be received as such. Mr Raven would have
been a little more convincing in some parts if he had been less
profuse in praising his heroes and at the same time had shown more
charity for Mrs Sidney Webb and other critics of the Christian
Socialists.”
+ =Nation= 112:sup247 F 9 ’21 410w
“Mr Raven’s contribution to the history of economics is valuable, and
has obviously entailed much research. But he does not go deeply enough
into the philosophic and historic interrelation of things, such as the
relation of socialism to liberalism, or to anarchism, or to naturalism
and supernaturalism.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:397 N 13 ’20 1700w
+ − =Spec= 125:405 S 25 ’20 1300w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p538 Ag 19 ’20 100w
“Mr Raven has found a good subject for a book and has studied it
industriously. The best part of his book is his account of the men who
made the movement, especially of Ludlow, a man far less known than he
deserves to be. But it is a pity that he tries to exalt his heroes by
depreciating every one else.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p594 S 16 ’20 2100w
=RAYMOND, E. T.= All and sundry. *$2.25 (3½c) Holt 920
(Eng ed 20–6135)
The book consists of a collection of striking pen pictures of
prominent contemporaries in politics and letters, as seen through a
brilliant and witty man’s eyes. The author’s avowed object is to show
the “accredited hero,” as he really is and not in the effulgence of a
halo. Among the sketches are: President Wilson; Georges Clemenceau;
John Burns; G. K. Chesterton; Sir Eric Geddes; Dean Inge; Rudyard
Kipling; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Robert Smillie; Harold Begbie; Lord
Robert Cecil.
* * * * *
=Ath= p31 Ja 2 ’20 60w
+ =Booklist= 16:344 Jl ’20
“The book is full of important facts brought together in an accessible
form. But Mr Hutchinson has little penetration and suffers in any
comparison that is drawn between his work, which may be admitted to be
good, and the work which is entitled to be called excellent of some
recent writers.” Theodore Maynard
+ − =Bookm= 51:682 Ag ’20 650w
“He is particularly good in his vivid sketches of John Burns, G. K.
Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Smillie, and Lord Robert Cecil.”
+ =Freeman= 1:382 Je 30 ’20 150w
“The inside analyst should be in a class by himself, and generally is.
Mr Raymond demonstrated that he was one of the leaders of that class
in ‘Uncensored celebrities,’ and ‘All and sundry’ is merely the second
volume.”
+ =N Y Times= p16 S 12 ’20 2200w
“His second volume of character sketches is a worthy companion of his
first. No one will maintain that the portraits are all equally
successful, that all are speaking likenesses.” Archibald MacMechan
+ =Review= 3:130 Ag 11 ’20 1450w
“Entertaining and chatty essays.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:112 Jl ’20 50w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 O 4 ’19 130w
“A mind full of ideas and a flowing pen are as exhilarating a
combination as a wet sheet and a flowing sea. But they tend to run
away with one. ‘All and sundry’ does—or do—not escape this danger. Nor
does it altogether escape the contagion of war-time opinion. But it is
a refreshing volume.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 1100w
“No man can seriously pretend that he is able to write with equal
authority on the Prince of Wales, Marshal Foch, President Wilson, M.
Clemenceau, the Bishop of London, Mr Hilaire Belloc, Sir Thomas
Beecham, and Mr Frank Brangwyn—to take only a few names at random.
Another unfortunate thing for Mr Raymond is that in his ‘Uncensored
celebrities’ he had picked out the largest plums. However, even here
Mr Raymond has his effective flashes, for he is a clever draughtsman
with the pen, especially upon political subjects. There is real
humour, as well as observation.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p729 D 11 ’19 950w
=RAYMOND, E. T.= Life of Arthur James Balfour. il *$3 Little
20–20922
“Most distinct as an individual, Mr Arthur James Balfour belongs to an
easily recognisable type, represented both in England and France by a
number of statesmen who owe their fame less to any specific
performance than to the impression created by their intellectual
brilliance.... He has always been credited with an indefinable
superiority over his performances. They have been notable; but it is
vaguely felt that the man is more notable still; in the midst of his
greatest failures he was more interesting than other men in their most
triumphant success. With others the “might-have-been” is a reproach:
with men like Mr Balfour it is a tribute: they please in
disappointing.” (Chapter I) The book is indexed.
* * * * *
“Wit, irony, detachment—these a writer must have if he is to ‘do’ Mr
Balfour, and Mr Raymond has them. Why then does he leave us
unsatisfied? At bottom, we think, because he does not bring the
philosopher and the politician into any real relation.” S. W.
+ − =Ath= p808 D 10 ’20 1050w
+ =Booklist= 17:153 Ja ’21
“His book is not ‘A life’ in any vital sense; it being a mere
enlargement of a ‘Who’s who’ entry, with a few comments and quotations
thrown in. There are, to be sure, some bright and witty things in the
book.” F. P. H.
− + =N Y Call= p8 Ja 9 ’21 520w
“Concise and serviceable biography.”
+ =R of Rs= 63:110 Ja ’21 110w
“Mr ‘Raymond’s’ biography of Mr Balfour is an entertaining book. He
states the facts fairly, and his comments are lively and on the whole
sympathetic. But the author is obviously conscious of difficulties.”
+ =Spec= 125:856 D 25 ’20 780w
“He has not, in spite of the claim put forward in the title, produced
what is commonly understood by a biography. The study is, in the first
place, limited to a single aspect of Mr Balfour’s many-sided
personality, and, in the second place, objective; but to say that is,
by no means, to deny that it is worth reading. Within its limitations,
it is brilliantly clever.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p727 N 11 ’20 900w
=RAYMOND, GEORGE LANSING.=[2] Ethics and natural law. *$2 Putnam 171
20–11578
“Intuitionalism is restated and made to account for all our ethical
judgments. Conscience is asserted to be the basis of obligation, and
the whole ethical problem is treated on psychological basis, as a
conflict of the desires of the mind and of the body. All the
particular problems treated, among them courtship and marriage, social
pleasures, commercial and business relations, government, are solved
by the exhortation to keep the mind’s desires uppermost.”—Springf’d
Republican
* * * * *
=Springf’d Republican= p9a O 24 ’20 140w
“The student of ethics will considerably fortify his knowledge of the
history of ethical thought by reading the book, especially the first
twelve chapters.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p862 D 16 ’20 440w
=READE, WILLIAM HENRY VINCENT.= Revolt of labour against civilization.
*$1 (*3s) Longmans 331
(Eng ed 20–9138)
“The author’s main thesis we shall best summarize in his own
words:—‘Progress in civilization does always and everywhere manifest
the working of a single and fundamental law—the greater the necessity
of things, the smaller their importance.’ To pass on to the
application of his thesis to the present situation, we find him in
whole-hearted opposition to the ideal, as he conceives it, of
Bolshevism, and the labour movement in general. In this he detects the
main and imminent danger to civilization. The conflict between the
Allies and the Germans was, he holds, of comparatively minor
importance, not because he defends or justifies our enemies, but
because he discovers no plain or clear-cut conflict of principle. The
real danger he descries in the attempt, on the part of the so-called
working-class, to evade or reverse his fundamental law of
civilization, to make the satisfaction of the most primitive needs the
only social activity of any value or deserving of any reward.”—The
Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
=Ath= p1410 D 26 ’19 100w
Reviewed by H. J. Laski
=Nation= 110:594 My 1 ’20 200w
“Mr Reade has no specific remedy to propose: that indeed is a merit of
his essay, which is intended to make the reader think furiously, and
which achieves its purpose.”
+ =Spec= 123:735 N 29 ’19 200w
=Survey= 43:782 Mr 20 ’20 180w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p679 N 20 ’19 300w
“Mr Reade’s book is one that provokes to disagreement; but for all
that, perhaps even because of it, it demands to be read. After all,
mere assent or dissent matters little compared with the pleasure to be
derived from contact with so vigorous and sincere an intellect, and
though we may traverse every one of his conclusions, it is with the
sense that Mr Reade is, at least in spirit, on the side of the
angels.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p728 D 11 ’19 1350w
=READE, WINWOOD.= Martyrdom of man; with an introd. by F. Legge. *$2.50
Dutton 909
“This book was published in 1872. Its author’s first intention was to
write on the part which Africa had played in the world’s story. But
the conception grew under his hands until it became a full-fledged
philosophy of history. His guiding principle of explanation is given
in the last pages of the book. ‘I give to universal history a strange
but true title—“The martyrdom of man.” In each generation the human
race has been tortured that their children might profit by their
woes.’ The successive stages in this painful upward struggle he
designates as war, religion, liberty, and intellect, and to each of
them he devotes a section of his book. But another stage is yet to be
traversed: we must in the interests of right thinking rid ourselves
forever of anthropomorphic religion. It was mainly owing to Reade’s
attack on Christianity that his book was passed over in disdainful
silence by so many. ‘The martyrdom of man’ has now reached its
twenty-first edition.”—Review
* * * * *
“Everything is made simple and clear with a few bold strokes, and the
multiplicity of the trees never obscures the woods. The lively style
is an added stimulus to the reader, for the author possessed an
undeniable talent for direct and forcible statement. When he becomes
enthusiastic in his narrative he can revivify the past as tellingly as
Macaulay, whom he resembles also in the crispness of his sentences.”
W. K. Stewart
+ =Review= 2:629 Je 16 ’20 1000w 550w
=Springf’d Republican= p10 Mr 19 ’20
=RECOULY, RAYMOND.= Foch: the winner of the war. *$3 (4½c) Scribner
20–3252
This volume has been translated from the French by Mary Cadwalader
Jones. The author has been closely associated with Marshal Foch as a
brother-in-arms and in his estimation the co-ordinated military talent
in the Allied leaders found its highest expression “in the keen
intelligence and strategic genius of their generalissimo—Foch.” The
account of Foch’s career in the great war is preceded by a short
description of his family and earlier life. Contents: Some glimpses of
Foch; His family and his career; His lectures at the Ecole de guerre;
In command of the twentieth army corps; At the head of the ninth army;
The pursuit and the check; The battle of Flanders; The French
offensive of 1915; Verdun; The Somme; A visit to Foch; The change of
command; Foch, generalissimo; The widening battle; Illustrations,
maps, index.
* * * * *
“While Captain Recouly’s is not a very inspiring study of one of the
few men of undoubted military genius in the late war, it does help the
reader to some understanding of the man and to make clearer to him the
battles fought by Foch.”
+ − =Ath= p273 Ag 27 ’20 230w
=Booklist= 16:241 Ap ’20
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Je 4 ’20 450w
=REED, EARL H.=[2] Tales of a vanishing river. il *$3 (5c) Lane
20–22228
The river was the Kankakee, near the southern end of Lake Michigan,
and once the main confluent of the Illinois. Once it lapped its
leisurely course with many ramifications through low marsh lands,
teeming with natural beauty and bird life, the home of the Miami and
Pottowattomie Indians. Now the Indians and the beauty and the birds
are gone and a mighty ditch of straight-channelled course has drained
away the marshes. The book is an attempt at the interpretation of the
life along the river that has vanished and is illustrated with
sketches by the author. The contents are: The vanishing river; The
silver arrow; The brass bound box; The “Wether book” of Buck Granger’s
grandfather; Tipton Posey’s store; Muskrat Hyatt’s redemption; The
turkey club; The predicaments of Colonel Peets; His unlucky star.
* * * * *
“All have a rich flavor of newness, of freshness, of originality.” E.
J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ja 15 ’21 620w
“When you establish yourself in front of a wood fire in an easy chair
with an hour or two of leisure to look forward to, an excellent book
to have at hand is ‘Tales of a vanishing river.’”
+ =Ind= 103:442 D 25 ’20 100w
“Mr Reed writes with a queer, mellow philosophy and humor and in a
gently meandering style which seems to recapture something of the
slow, placid course of the river whose loss he mourns.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 Ja 8 ’21 230w
“They are invariably quaint and whimsical. Perhaps the most diverting
is ‘The “wether book” of Buck Granger’s grandfather.’ Like the
companion volume on the dunes of Lake Michigan, this work is rather
unusual in character and invariably entertaining.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 D 27 ’20 420w
=REES, ARTHUR JOHN.= Hand in the dark. *$2 (1½c) Lane
20–13345
A house party at an English country home is going on. The guests are
at dinner when they are startled by a woman’s shriek of horror,
followed by the report of a pistol. They flock upstairs, to find Mrs
Heredith, a bride of three months, the victim of murder. The police
start investigations which result in the arrest of Hazel Rath, the
daughter of the housekeeper. Altho she pleads innocence there are many
suspicious things in her conduct which she refuses to explain. Philip
Heredith, husband of the murdered girl, does not believe her guilty,
and hires a private detective, who suspects Captain Nepcote, a house
guest at the time of the murder. Then, from an unexpected quarter,
comes a clue to the actual criminal, who had planned his crime with
such diabolical skill and cunning, aided by chance, that it was only
by as strange a chance that he was ever discovered.
* * * * *
“A detective story above the average, though to some readers it will
seem too long drawn out and to others too tragic.”
+ =Booklist= 17:160 Ja ’21
“The details are rather gruesome, but the plot is one of the best of
the year.”
+ =Cleveland= p107 D ’20 40w
“Mr Rees has set before the reader a mystery whose blind and baffling
qualities are likely to puzzle and lead astray the most astute and
skillful of lovers of detective fiction. For the author writes well,
with a good, forceful, interesting style, makes graphic and pleasing
pictures of his background, and puts vitality and individuality into
the delineation of his characters.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:26 Jl 25 ’20 620w
“The book is better written than the average crime tale.”
+ =Outlook= 125:647 Ag 11 ’20 50w
“In this detective story the murderer is really ingenious, and will
not easily be discovered. Mr Rees has spent too much time at the
beginning in picturing old-world details, and elsewhere by being
‘literary’ he delays the action of the story which is everything in a
tale of this sort.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:525 D 25 ’20 130w
“Mr Rees spins us with deft entanglements another of his first-class
mystery yarns.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p781 N 25 ’20 80w
=REES, BYRON JOHNSON=, ed. Modern American prose selections. $1 (1c)
Harcourt 810.8
20–10539
A selection of some twenty examples of modern American prose. The
compiler’s aim has been to bring together examples of “typical
contemporary prose, in which writers who know whereof they write
discuss certain present-day themes in readable fashion.” Among the
selections are: Abraham Lincoln, by Theodore Roosevelt; American
tradition, by Franklin K. Lane; Our future immigration policy, by
Frederic C. Howe; A new relationship between capital and labor, by
John D. Rockefeller, jr.; My uncle, by Alvin Johnson; When a man comes
to himself, by Woodrow Wilson; The education of Henry Adams, by Carl
Becker; The struggle for an education, by Booker T. Washington;
Traveling afoot, by John Finley; Old boats, by Walter Prichard Eaton.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:147 Ja ’21
=REID, FORREST.= Pirates of the spring. *$1.90 (2c) Houghton
20–26325
The story is of a boy, Beach Traill, not clever at books, but of
unusual integrity of character, and of his friends. They are all at
the same school, three of them, and a fourth has recently been added
as a sort of disturbing element. This fourth is Evans, a handsome,
intellectual, timid lad, a bit off-caste socially, and somewhat
lacking in manly spirit and upstanding courage. Troubles come, partly
through bad influence, partly through irrepressible animal spirits,
but the boys’ uprightness finds a way out. Beach wins out with his
widowed mother and against a suitor of hers whom he detests. Beach and
Miles fight it out in fierce battle which rivets their friendship.
Palmer, the most clever, subtle and daring of the three, holds his own
through his strong sense of justice, and it is in him that Beach
eventually discovers, with an exuberant sense of happiness, his real
friend.
* * * * *
=Ath= p338 Mr 12 ’20 500w
“There is no climax in the story, but only the flow of everyday
happenings, no progress but the development of the boys’ characters;
and the whole is told in a narrative of quiet beauty.”
+ =Booklist= 16:246 Ap ’20
“Lovers of boys will appreciate the sympathetic understanding of Mr
Reid’s portraying. The story gives added pleasure in its descriptions
of the countryside and is altogether an artistic delight.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ap 7 ’20 360w
“The narrative is of a singular though very quiet beauty—a beauty
gained partly by the writer’s marvellous closeness to his subject,
partly by his cool tenderness, partly by his sense of the almost pagan
interpenetration of nature and the lives of his characters.”
+ =Nation= 110:305 Mr 6 ’20 260w
“‘Pirates of the spring’ is less a story than a study of character
development during the troubled and turbulent years of adolescence, a
study handled delicately and sympathetically; with much subtlety and
many deft touches of humor. It is of course admirably written.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:148 Mr 28 ’20 400w
=Review= 2:310 Mr 27 ’20 500w
+ =Sat R= 130:40 Jl 10 ’20 100w
“One thinks of this book with Richard Pryce’s ‘Christopher,’ Hugh
Walpole’s ‘Jeremy’ and E. F. Benson’s ‘David Blaize.’ But
discriminating taste will accord a higher degree of artistry to Mr
Reid’s work than to the efforts of these able delineators of
adolescent boyhood. The mentality and philosophy of boyhood are an
open book to Mr Reid.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Mr 21 ’20 600w
“The boys are boys, and not merely the mouthpieces of ideas.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p173 Mr 11 ’20 220w
=REIK, HENRY OTTRIDGE.=[2] Tour of America’s national parks. il *$4
Dutton 711
20–18059
“Colonel Reik’s book brings out the distinctive features of the
greatest of these western parks. He shows that no two of them are
alike, that each is worth seeing on its own account. While he has not
attempted to write a guide book in the ordinary sense of the term, his
chapters contain much of the kind of information that is sought in
guide books and that will be found indispensable to anyone attempting
a tour of the parks for the first time.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
+ =N Y Evening Post= p30 O 23 ’20 270w
Reviewed by B. R. Redman
+ =N Y Times= p9 Ja 9 ’21 100w
+ =R of Rs= 62:672 D ’20 160w
=REPINGTON, CHARLES À COURT.= First world war, 1914–1918. 2v *$12
Houghton 940.48
20–22246
“Colonel Repington in two stout volumes has recorded his ‘personal
experience’ of the great war, and in so doing has given to the public
the first of the great books of the war that is not simply military,
political or diplomatic, but a combination of each that is focused on
the personal activity and relationship of a single individual who was
behind the scenes and in touch with almost every phase of the war.
These pages of personal experiences during the war are a ‘contribution
towards the elucidation of the truth so far as I was able to ascertain
it at the time, and will, I hope, enable many to understand better the
events of these memorable years,’ Colonel Repington declares. They are
given from his diaries as he scrupulously kept them, recording the
most trivial incidents innocently tucked away in some social
engagement of chance meeting of soldiers, statesmen, journalists, or
comments of the larger events which followed each other with such
amazing rapidity.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“Colonel Repington is, in fact, so simple that we cannot take any
interest in him. His views on the war, in any important sense, are
negligible. The only portions of his diary of any interest are his
items of political and military information and the light he throws on
prominent personages connected with the war. For the rest, and except
when his professional interests are awakened and he gives lists of
troops and ‘wastage’ figures, the whole diary is at the gossip level.”
− + =Ath= p436 O 1 ’20 1250w
=Booklist= 17:149 Ja ’21
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 O 20 ’20 1150w
“Colonel Repington moves between a bloodbath and a stale spittoon, and
is apparently prouder of dipping his pen in the latter than in the
former.” Shane Leslie
− =Dial= 59:64 D ’20 1050w
“The book is a curiosity. We have not been able to find in it the
slightest evidence that Col. Repington, viewing the supreme tragedy of
secular history, was even remotely aware of its human implications. He
could observe a world convulsed, and report upon it without
compassion, without gravity, without understanding.” Lawrence Gilman
− =Freeman= 2:499 F 2 ’21 1800w
“As a diarist he is intimate and unaffected and racy and explicit like
Pepys, and he is almost as disconcertingly complete.”
+ =Nation= 111:786 D 29 ’20 320w
“The self-assurance of Colonel Repington is to be noted. It is to that
self-assurance, plus his vanity, that we owe this monumental book. But
if we do not get too weary of his ‘practically no English articles are
read and discussed except mine,’ we may find illumination—most of it
unintentional—in his accounts of his work running to and fro between
the generals, the politicians and the press.” F. H.
+ − =New Repub= 24:274 N 10 ’20 3500w
“He has produced an extraordinarily interesting gossip-book which will
doubtless be widely read and extensively commented upon. It is
apparent from the briefest characterization of this amazing book that
it is on the delineation of society in the war that the readers will
linger longest. It is one long indiscretion.” W. C. Abbott
− + =N Y Evening Post= p2 N 27 ’20 1350w
“To an American reader the chief criticism to be made of all these
accounts of luncheons, dinners and concerts in the company of the rich
and fashionable is that they are intolerably wearisome. Colonel
Repington continually speaks of the play of wit in these high circles,
but gives very few examples of it.”
+ − =N Y Times= p1 O 24 ’20 2400w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
=Review= 3:376 O 27 ’20 340w
“In short, his tendency to take his hostesses overseriously, apart
from some waste of space, does little to impair the value of an
enlightening book. His taste may be a bit at fault but rarely his
judgment.”
+ =Review= 3:559 D 8 ’20 800w
“This is the best book on the war that has appeared, and we hope it is
the last. Everybody is sick of the war, its horrors and its squabbles,
and wants to forget it. The excellence of the book consists in its
twofold claim on our attention. There is the exhaustive criticism of
the conduct of the war by a military expert of European reputation:
and there is the picture of manners in that section of society ruled
by American women, drawn by one who lived in its favour.”
+ =Sat R= 130:260 S 25 ’20 1450w
“Go into a shady part of the garden, or better still, into a damp
shrubbery and lift up some big flat stone. Underneath you will find a
quantity of crawling creatures, disturbed by the light so suddenly let
in upon them.... Such a garden adventure recurs irresistibly to the
mind as one reads Colonel Repington’s diary of the war years.... As to
the enlightenment which his book should bring in regard to the way in
which public affairs are too often handled, as to the advantages of
the lessons to be learnt, and finally as to the value of this first
step in the reform which comes with knowledge, we have no doubt
whatever.”
+ =Spec= 125:434 O 2 ’20 2900w
=REPPLIER, AGNES.= Points of friction. *$1.75 (4c) Houghton 814
20–19680
Essays reprinted from periodicals. Six have appeared in the Atlantic
Monthly, two in the Century, one in the Yale Review and one in the
Nation. Contents: Living in history; Dead authors; Consolations of the
conservative; The cheerful clan; The beloved sinner; The virtuous
Victorian; Woman enthroned; The strayed prohibitionist; Money; Cruelty
and humour.
* * * * *
“Keen and original, upholding recognized standards.”
+ =Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“I find myself liking best the essay on ‘Dead authors,’ because it
gives us more of the humor we have come to look for in Miss Repplier’s
presentment of human error. But I confess myself at a disadvantage in
dealing with her: I have almost never found myself failing to agree
with her on any essential point, and my appreciation is apt to take
the form of gratitude for the distinguished expression of what would
seem to civilized people to be obvious.” K. F. Gerould
+ =Bookm= 52:265 N ’20 290w
“Miss Repplier upholds many wholesome truths which in these days seem
in danger of oblivion, and her ironic shaft pierces many a sham notion
high in popular esteem. The noble art of the essay suffers at her
hands neither diminution nor dishonor. ‘Points of friction’ is a
stimulating and eminently readable book.”
+ =Cath World= 112:386 D ’20 680w
“A halfscore of the delightfully keen-witted and observant papers
which Miss Repplier is kind enough to write from time to time for the
enjoyment of appreciative readers. They are always welcome and
invariably worth while.”
+ =Outlook= 126:470 N 10 ’20 50w
“It would not be amiss to call Miss Repplier the Chesterton of
America. Both are Tories of a sort, lovers of the good things mankind
has found by long toil and is now so childishly anxious to discard.”
+ =Review= 3:563 D 8 ’20 400w
“Miss Repplier’s essays are sound in workmanship and sound but not
granitic in thought. Not often does finished and pungent phrasing
serve merely as a covering for thin or tawdry ideas. Usually there is
an edge to the thought, and it will be found suggestive to those who
may not accept all its implications.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ja 10 ’21 680w
=REW, SIR ROBERT HENRY.= Food supplies in peace and war. *$2.25 (*6s 6d)
Longmans 338
20–4724
“In this essay, Sir Henry Rew considers briefly the world’s supply and
demand and the extent to which the United Kingdom met its own demands
for food before and during the war, and then discusses the outlook now
that the war is ended.... [He concludes] that the cries of ‘Famine!’
are wide of the mark, inasmuch as nature, upon which the recovery of
agriculture mainly depends, never goes on strike. He thinks that after
the harvest of 1921 Europe will be producing as much food as before.
He evidently believes that the Germans are deliberately exaggerating
their troubles. He defines the British nation’s interest in
agriculture as two-fold—to secure the maximum quantity of food, and to
maintain the maximum number of persons on the land. He points out that
insurance against famine caused by war implies not only a large wheat
crop, but also a large stock of cattle, since milk and fat are as
necessary as bread. He concludes with a reminder of the importance of
the human factor in agriculture and the necessity for a life of wider
scope and variety in the villages.”—Spec
* * * * *
“A very sane and reasonable discussion of the food problem.” T. N.
Carver
+ =Am Econ R= 10:590 S ’20 260w
“It is written in popular style and in this lies its real value.”
+ =Ann Am Acad= 90:173 Jl ’20 80w
“This book is not very big, but it is full of information and of
sagacious comments on the facts set out for the reader’s benefit.”
+ =Ath= p428 Mr 26 ’20 160w
“Sir Henry Rew has the happy and unusual faculty of making statistics
interesting. The book was badly needed, for it is highly important
that the average man should realise the facts.” E. J. Russell
+ =Nature= 105:320 My 13 ’20 950w
+ =Spec= 124:464 Ap 3 ’20 250w
“The book is stimulating, authoritative and well worth reading.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 44:309 My 29 ’20 440w
=REYMONT, WLADYSLAW STANISLAW.=[2] Comédienne. *$2 (2c) Putnam
20–20943
The story is translated from the Polish by Edmund Obecny and relates
the fate of a young actress. Janina Orlowski is driven from home by an
insanely tyrannical father, whose choice of a husband she has refused.
Her ambition is to become an actress and she goes to Warsaw and is
taken on by a third-rate company. Her experiences there are a series
of disillusionments, the actors she meets are not interested in art
but are a sordid, coarse lot. She falls into dire poverty and on the
verge of starvation and about to become a mother, she commits suicide.
* * * * *
“It is almost inconceivable that the novel has lost anything in
translating, so delightfully lyric are the descriptions of the Polish
countryside, so poignant the characterization, so diverting the
dialogue.” W. T. R.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 4 ’20 770w
=REYNOLDS, GERTRUDE M. (ROBINS) (MRS LOUIS BAILLIE REYNOLDS).= Also Ran.
*$1.90 (2c) Doran
20–19180
Jacynth Pennant had spent her early life away from her home, having
been adopted as a baby by an aunt. When she returned to it as a young
lady, she found an air of mystery enveloping everything. Her father,
though affectionate, was unhappy and worried. The neighborhood had not
ceased talking about the murder of Guy Warristoun some time before.
His brother Ranulf was suspected of the murder, but acquitted upon the
testimony of a chauffeur. Ran subsequently disappeared and had not
been heard of since. Shortly after Jacynth’s return, he unexpectedly
put in his appearance once more. When he persuaded Jacynth to marry
him after a short acquaintance, her impelling motive of acceptance was
that her father was under heavy obligations to him. He explained as
his reason for asking her that he wanted to put it out of her power to
marry his cousin Hector, a worthless fellow with whom she was half in
love, and to whom, though his lawful heir, he did not wish to leave
his property. His one biggest reason he did not give—he was in love
with her. How she came to realize this, after doubt and heartache for
both is the culmination of the story, and in the process of its
development is revealed the true explanation of Guy’s death and the
chauffeur’s part in it.
* * * * *
“Though not always convincing the story is wholesome and ingenious and
will interest men or women.”
+ =Booklist= 17:160 Ja ’21
“The tale, although not very convincing and one in which it would be
easy to pick holes, is ingenious and interesting.”
+ − =N Y Times= p25 O 3 ’20 400w
“The author makes a fairly interesting book with a happy ending to
this rather hackneyed theme.”
+ − =Spec= 125:216 Ag 14 ’20 50w
=REYNOLDS, MYRA.= Learned lady in England, 1650–1760. il *$2.25 Houghton
396
20–26551
The book is one of the Vassar semi-centennial series, published in
honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Vassar college.
Although it is specifically limited to the learned women in England in
the period between 1650 and 1760, the first chapter is devoted to
those before 1650, beginning with Juliana Barnes, who, although a nun,
wrote a book on “hunting, hawking and fishing” in 1481. The outcome of
the research is that in all ages “there have been individual women who
by force of native endowment and through some favorable conjunction of
circumstances, have risen into prominence in realms not ordinarily
open to the women of their time,” but they have been isolated cases
and “what was actually accomplished in the century before 1760 was a
lavish sowing of seed, a steady infiltration of new ideas, a breaking
up of old certainties as to woman’s place in domestic and civic life,
and an accumulation of examples proving women capable of the most
varied intellectual aptitudes and energies.” Contents: Learned ladies
in England before 1650; Learned ladies in England from 1650–1670;
Education; Miscellaneous books on women in social and intellectual
life; Satiric representations of the learned lady in comedy; Summary;
Bibliography; Index; and illustrations.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20
“It is an interesting and original piece of work and covers ground
that has hardly been touched before.” Martha Plaisted
+ =Bookm= 51:689 Ag ’20 300w
Reviewed by C. M. Rourke
=Freeman= 2:68 S 29 ’20 1400w
Reviewed by Dorothy Brewster
=Nation= 111:sup419 O 13 ’20 800w
“Years of research must have been devoted to gathering materials for
this illuminating treatise. The presentation is clear and orderly; nor
is it anywhere swamped by the multitudinous and clear-cut detail.”
+ =Review= 4:18 Ja 5 ’21 400w
=RHEAD, GEORGE WOOLLISCROFT.= Earth- (5c) Dodd 738
(Eng ed 20–8046)
The author of this volume, we are told by H. W. Lewer in the foreword
is a practical potter and, moreover, an artist and art examiner in
pottery to the board of education. With his help, therefore, it is
hoped that the collector will be enabled to discriminate between well
authenticated examples and worthless specimens and probably forgeries.
“The book covers the whole story of British earthenwares from those of
the Slip and Salt glazed period, now more and more sought after, to
the less coveted but still interesting specimens of the early
nineteenth century.... The illustrations include many rare examples
from well-known collections.” (Author’s preface) Among the contents
are: Early British, mediæval and sixteenth century wares; Slip wares;
English Delft wares; Wedgwood; Contemporaries and followers of
Wedgwood; Lustred wares; The makers of image toys and chimney
ornaments; Glossary of terms; Bibliography; Index.
* * * * *
“The subject of Mr Woolliscroft Rhead’s work is so enormous that we
can hardly complain of inadequate treatment, but it is less well
written than Mr Young’s [‘The silver and Sheffield plate collector’]
and less likely to be useful. His spelling and phraseology are also
sometimes at fault. It is further extremely inconvenient that the
plates are not numbered, which makes reference to them a complicated
matter.”
+ − =Sat R= 129:86 Ja 24 ’20 600w
“Mr Rhead, as an artist and a potter, writes of a subject which he
knows, and young collectors will find some useful hints in his pages.”
+ =Spec= 123:698 N 22 ’19 120w
=RHEAD, LOUIS JOHN.= Fisherman’s lures and game-fish food. il *$4 (7c)
Scribner 799
20–9836
A book intended as a companion volume to the author’s “Trout stream
insects,” and like that work illustrated with pictures in color
painted from living specimens. The author states: “This book has a
two-fold object. First: to multiply largely all species of game-fish
for the people’s use by a new method and a logical system of ‘feeding’
that will more rapidly attain a better result in the conservation of
American fresh-water game-fishes.... Second: to vastly improve present
angling conditions by introducing a new and entirely superior style of
fishing with artificial nature lures in place of the live bait that is
now being employed in ever-increasing quantities.” (Preface) The
illustrations include pictures of live creatures that fish eat and of
artificial nature lures; also chart plans to show feeding places. The
book is indexed.
* * * * *
“Mr Rhead’s new volume is commended to Outlook anglers as a book which
deserves a place in every library beside the writings of George La
Branche and Dr Henshall.” H. T. Pulsifer
+ =Outlook= 125:614 Ag 4 ’20 2300w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 2 ’20 250w
=RHOADES, CORNELIA HARSEN (NINA RHOADES).= Four girls of forty years
ago. (Brickhouse books) il *$1.50 (2½c) Lothrop
20–20005
A story for girls picturing the social life of New York in 1880. The
four girls, Dulcie, Daisy, Maud and Mollie, live in an old house near
Washington Square and spend their summers on the Hudson river at
Tarrytown. They live with a stepgrandmother who enforces the rule that
children should be seen and not heard, but there is an Uncle Stephen
who comes from California and takes them to see “The pirates of
Penzance,” and they have other good times. The news that their father
is coming home from China bringing a stepmother fills them with
consternation, but the dreaded stepmother proves to be their loved
friend Miss Leslie and every one is left happy at the close.
=RHODES, HARRISON GARFIELD.= American towns and people. il *$3.50 (6c)
McBride 917.3
20–20209
Papers that have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, touching lightly and
with humor on the external aspects of certain American cities. There
are six essays of this character: Why is a Bostonian? Who is a
Philadelphian? What is a New Yorker? The portrait of Chicago;
Washington, the cosmopolitan; Baltimore; and one other, Is there a
West? devoted to California. To these are added: The hotel guest; The
high kingdom of the movies; The American child; The society woman.
* * * * *
“Although there are serious moments and some penetrating analyses, the
sketches are on the whole light and entertaining, not thorough
studies.”
+ =Booklist= 17:151 Ja ’21
“Never is Mr Rhodes dull, never does brilliancy become an obsession
with him, but his writings on American days and ways are of decided
value.” G. M. H.
+ =Boston Transcript= p3 D 11 ’20 360w
“‘American towns and people’ has its classic prototype in Henry
James’s ‘The American scene,’ but it is a version highly journalized
and simplified, intended not so much to interpret as to amuse. In this
doubtless quite as important capacity, it for the most part succeeds
admirably, only at times seeming a little fatuous, a little too
effusive, a bit bland perhaps.”
+ − =Dial= 70:231 F ’21 50w
“Generally speaking, Mr Rhodes only sees about one-third of his
subject. He sees the Four hundred, but not what O. Henry called the
Four million. The book is a credit to its publishers, and is
beautifully illustrated. If it is one-sided or no-sided, it is at any
rate written in a swift, bright style, illuminated by a keen sense of
the comic.”
+ − =N Y Times= p8 D 5 ’20 1600w
“The unusually discriminating comment of this book is matched by
exceptionally good pictures.”
+ =Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 30w
+ =R of Rs= 63:112 Ja ’21 50w
“To have discovered the individuality of some of our American cities
and to have in so many little things shown exactly in what it
consists, is no small achievement. So much for the social student’s
appreciation of this book. As a piece of descriptive writing, its
excellence is likely to appeal to a much wider circle.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 45:579 Ja 15 ’21 260w
=RHODES, HARRISON GARFIELD.=[2] High life: and other stories. *$2 (3c)
McBride
20–17527
High life, the first and longest story, is an amusing skit picturing
life in a colony of exiled royalty in Switzerland. The other stories
are: The little miracle at Tlemcar; Fair daughter of a fairer mother;
The importance of being Mrs Cooper; The sad case of Quag; Springtime;
Vive l’Amerique! They have been copyrighted by the Curtis publishing
company, Collier’s, the Ridgway company, the Metropolitan and
Harper’s.
* * * * *
“It is all told with much grace, cleverness and conversation, realism,
and with a Daudetesque humor. Mr Rhodes is a cosmopolitan, and he
understands the art of the short story; only in two or three passages
is his manner of writing open to any censure.” N. H. D.
+ =Boston Transcript= p1 D 11 ’20 450w
=RHODES, JAMES FORD.= History of the United States from Hayes to
McKinley, 1877–1896. *$2.75 Macmillan 973.8
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
* * * * *
“Mr Rhodes’s new eighth volume is not a fair continuation of his
memorable five volumes on the Civil war, or even of the sixth and
seventh in which he gave a partial picture of the next dozen years.
Its abbreviated scale of treatment affects both contents and manner of
presentation. Rarely do the related facts in this volume appear to
have meaning or to be parts of a coherent structure.... Stopping short
of McKinley’s inauguration, he fails to show the foundations of the
silver movement and the Populist party, with the result that his
picture of the second Cleveland term lacks its background. Yet he
fails also to explain the emergence of the tariff issue and the
identification of the Republican party with it, although these facts
are vital to the period of his choice. Mr Rhodes has probably not
broadened his historical repute by this volume, but he has not ceased
to be sagacious along the lines of his experience and attainment.” F:
L. Paxson
+ − − =Am Hist R= 25:525 Ap ’20 1050w
“The author’s impartiality is little short of miraculous. South and
North can read him on the Civil war without great irritation.”
+ =Ath= p273 Ag 27 ’20 150w
+ =Booklist= 16:200 Mr ’20
“If the most recent volume of the ‘History of the United States from
Hayes to McKinley, 1877–96’ is of less importance than those which
preceded it, this is not due to any shortcomings on the part of the
author. Dr Rhodes shows the same robust good sense, severe
impartiality, and scrupulous accuracy which have secured him his
position among American historians.” H. E. E.
+ =Eng Hist R= 35:476 Jl ’20 130w
“This volume is of the same general character as the preceding volumes
and with one possible exception, deserves to rank with them. While the
style is not brilliant, it affords easy, sometimes even attractive
reading. Yet, for all that, the student of our recent history will
close the book with disappointment, a disappointment due to the
feeling that the author has failed to show a discriminating sense of
proportion. On the topics discussed the author, in most cases, can
hardly be said to have touched the bottom. The treatment of industrial
unrest falls far below chapter IV of his earlier work, dealing with
slavery.” D: Y. Thomas
+ − =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:84 Je ’20 600w
“It seems invidious to speak in any tone of disparagement of a work of
Mr James Ford Rhodes, who has given us the classic interpretation of
our history from the compromise of 1850 to the close of the
reconstruction period. And yet competent judges must feel grieved that
the ‘History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley’ is added, as
an eighth volume, to the classic seven. It is as thin as the lean kine
that followed the seven fat ones in Pharoah’s dream.”
− + =Nation= 110:805 Je 12 ’20 350w
+ =Spec= 124:624 My 8 ’20 250w
“He has industry and a judicial temperament which, though not always
quite unbiassed in regard to individuals enables him to survey
contemporary politics without evidence of partisanship. He has,
moreover, a lucid narrative style and a happy gift of choosing apt and
trenchant phrases. Not all his authorities are first-rate; but he uses
them nimbly. It is very much to be regretted that a book which
represents so much sound labour and has so much permanent value, in
the assistance which it will be to all future writers on this period,
should be so marred by petty faults.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p448 Jl 15 ’20 1500w
=RICE, ALICE CALDWELL (HEGAN) (MRS CALE YOUNG RICE), and RICE, CALE
YOUNG.= Turn about tales. il *$1.90 (8c) Century
20–16343
There are ten short stories in this book, five by Cale Young Rice, and
five by his wife, Alice Hegan Rice, arranged alternately. Mrs Rice’s
contribution includes Beulah; The nut; A partnership memory; Reprisal;
and The hand on the sill; while Mr Rice’s are entitled Lowry;
Francella; Archie’s relapse; Under new moons, and Aaron Harwood. Some
of the stories have appeared in magazine form.
* * * * *
“This volume of stories should hold its own with any collection likely
to be published this year. They cover a wide range of emotion,
background, and subject, and are of high literary merit.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p9 S 25 ’20 170w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 23 ’21 150w
=RICHARDS, MRS CLARICE (ESTABROOK).=[2] Tenderfoot bride. il *$1.50
Revell
20–21005
“A cultured eastern woman with a delight in new things and a sense of
humor describes events on a Wyoming ranch.” (Booklist) “When the
‘tenderfoot bride’ arrived it was still a lawless, pioneer land, with
cattle, cowboys, and desperadoes. Then came a pastoral age: sheep and
Mexican herders, followed by the farmer. Her record covers but sixteen
years, yet the earlier phases are as extinct as the Pharaohs. She has
caught them all in passing, and portrayed them to the life.” (Bookm)
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:118 D ’20
“She has given us more than a bit of current history, for one senses
the writer’s personality,—a growth through the delights and trials of
existence among elemental conditions to a broad vision of life and its
responsibilities. Therein lies the rare charm of the book.”
+ =Bookm= 52:368 D ’20 140w
=RICHARDS, CLAUDE.= Man of tomorrow. new ed *$2 Crowell 174
“A discussion of vocational success with the boy of today.”
(Sub-title) The author believes that there is special need of
attention to vocational guidance today. “Following this great world
war, civilization will take on an aspect of general reconstruction,
and hence the man of the future will need an equipment that will fit
him to take his place in a society with difficult problems to solve
and big tasks to perform.” (Preface) The book is divided into seven
parts: The need of vocational guidance; The importance of
specializing; The need of a broad foundation; Choosing a vocation;
Representative vocations; Avocations; General conditions of vocational
success. An appendix contains a word to the counselor and there is an
index. The author states that while the work is intended primarily for
men there is little in it that does not apply equally to young women.
* * * * *
“An excellent vocational guide-book. Its tone is high and the little
ethical teaching that it contains is safe and sound.”
+ =Cath World= 112:120 O ’20 220w
=RICHARDS, GRANT.=[2] Double life. *$1.75 (2c) Dodd
20–18767
Olivia Pemberton was the wife of a semi-commercial, therefore fairly
successful novelist. She was all that a wife and mother should be
until her two children were away at school, when she became bored and
restless. Half apathetically she accompanied her husband to Newmarket
one day where he went in quest of racing atmosphere for a new novel.
It ended with a tentative, very small and haphazard bet on one of the
horses. From now on Olivia secretly takes to reading sporting papers
and making greater and greater ventures, even ordering a trainer to
buy and train a horse for her. She goes thru all the stages of the
gambling fever, sometimes on the verge of a breakdown. Twice her horse
wins and when she is dreaming of the triple crown at the Derby with
honored publicity to herself, her trainer informs her that the horse
is broken down and will race no more. But with her winnings and the
sale of the horse, she is enabled to accompany her confession to her
husband with a goodly sum of money and her complete renunciation of
gambling.
* * * * *
“The technical details will be found interesting even by neophytes,
and the whole produces that effect of coherence and facility proper to
a practised pen.”
+ =Ath= p80 Jl 16 ’20 120w
=N Y Evening Post= p10 N 6 ’20 120w
“The book will prove entertaining, but hardly more than that.”
+ − =N Y Times= p18 D 5 20 460w
“To put it bluntly, Mr Grant Richards is not an artist. ‘Double life’
has some power to please, partly because it conveys double the number
of sensations enjoyed in the ordinary routine of life by that never
realized type—the average, everyday person.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p401 Je 24 ’20 400w
=RICHARDS, MRS LAURA ELIZABETH (HOWE).= Honor Bright. il *$1.65 (3c)
Page
20–17823
The story of an American girl’s school days in Switzerland. Honor is
an orphan and the Pension Madeleine is the only home she knows. She
speaks in the quaint French-English of her teachers and is very happy
with her school-girl companions. While on an expedition into the
mountain, she slips and sprains her ankle and is kept a prisoner in an
Alpine cottage for a time. It is a delightful experience and Honor
thereafter dreams of spending her life in the Alps, making cheese and
tending goats. But an unknown cousin from America comes to take her
away to a new and strange world.
=RICHARDSON, C. A.= Spiritual pluralism and recent philosophy. *$4.50
Putnam 192
(Eng ed 20–7073)
“Mr Richardson, a disciple of Professor James Ward, sets himself the
task of elaborating, on purely metaphysical lines, the case for the
‘spiritual’ and theistic pluralism which formed the basis of his
master’s ‘Realm of ends: pluralism and theism.’ Incidentally he
undertakes to answer the neo-realists in general and Mr Bertrand
Russell in particular. He accepts Mr Russell’s conclusions as valid
with limits, i.e., the limits of reality considered as objective. But,
Mr Richardson urges, Mr Russell and his school, with all their
ingenuity, do not account for the subjective reference, whereas
spiritual pluralists can account for it without detriment to the
positive results of the neo-realists.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“The book is written with great care and much subtlety. There is,
however, a tendency to rely too much on arguments from concepts,
without due inquiry into their meaning and source. In general, I think
the book would gain cogency through a larger use of empirical
material.” D. H. Parker
+ − =J Philos= 17:611 O 21 ’20 1100w
=Nature= 105:773 Ag 19 ’20 70w
“To speak bluntly, Mr Richardson is excessively difficult reading, and
some part of the fault lies with himself, and not with the subject. As
a provisional guess, one would suggest that he has thought mainly
about the general philosophic attributes of his universe, and has not
sufficiently pondered, not only the position but the capacity and
attributes of the individual who exists therein. This part of his
work, it seems to us, he will not get right until he dips down more
thoroughly into the grand question of consciousness.”
+ − =Sat R= 129:253 Mr 13 ’20 840w
“It is not easy to justify a pluralist metaphysic on intellectualist
grounds, and one cannot help feeling that, as against Mr Russell on
the one hand and Mr Bradley on the other, Mr Richardson is ‘playing
the odd’ all the time. But he plays with spirit and no mean dialectic
skill.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p15 Ja 8 ’20 580w
=RICHARDSON, DOROTHY M.= Interim. *$2 Knopf
20–9715
“Fifth in the long series of volumes published under the general title
of ‘Pilgrimage,’ Miss Dorothy M. Richardson’s new novel, ‘Interim,’
continues the history of that young woman, Miriam Henderson. So
closely connected with its predecessors as to be a part of them rather
than a separate book, ‘Interim’ would probably be almost
unintelligible to any one not possessed of a close acquaintance with
the earlier books. When ‘The tunnel’ came to an end Miriam Henderson
was apparently on the verge of leaving Mrs Bailey’s house, but we find
her still living there when we meet her in ‘Interim,’ despite the
coming of the boarders. Among these boarders there are several young
physicians from Canada, and one of them, bearing the unattractive name
of von Heber, supplies the suggestion of a plot, which is the only
thing of the kind the book contains.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“She leaves us feeling, as before, that everything being of equal
importance to her, it is impossible that everything should not be of
equal unimportance.” K. M.
− =Ath= p48 Ja 9 ’20 150w
“We prefer our novels as novels, and not following the technique of
Chinese chess explained by a politician in yachting terminology. There
are pages and pages of drivel, too.” C. W.
− =N Y Call= p11 S 12 ’20 250w
“From no point of view could ‘Interim’ be called easy reading, and a
method of sometimes almost ignoring punctuation and printing dialogue
in solid pages does not tend to make it any the easier.”
− =N Y Times= 25:320 Je 20 ’20 550w
“There lies the secret of Miriam’s appeal. Nothing seems to escape
her. She is never dull or unaware; she never ceases to live and to
respond to stimulus. And thus life, seen through her eyes and felt
through her emotions, comes to be an exciting business, and the world
an infinite stretch of inexhaustible delights.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p766 D 18 ’19 750w
=RICHARDSON, NORVAL.= Pagan fire. *$1.75 (1½c) Scribner
20–21002
Anne Rennell was quite contented and happy as the wife of an American
politician in Washington. Franklin Rennell, too, was contented as
United States senator. He took his work seriously and was of the
eternal-boy sort of type, honest and plodding without intellectual
brilliance. The first disturbance came when political intrigue put the
flea into Anne’s ear that she was cut out for an ambassador’s wife in
Rome. Rome it must be, henceforth. Anne feels that she has a right to
her own life and happiness and that Franklin’s career must give way to
it. In Rome she blossoms out, the romance of it enters her blood and
with it an infatuation for Prince Cimino. The latter ends with a night
with the Prince at his castle in the Campagna. After that Anne has
something to live down, which, the reader trusts, she will be able to
do with the aid and the sacrifice of two devoted friends.
* * * * *
“The most human and most logical character in the book is that of
Senator Lelong. The story is pleasantly told in the slow analytical
style of the English novel.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 N 27 ’20 290w
“While Norval Richardson’s well-written novel ‘Pagan fire’ is far from
uninteresting as a story, the greater part of its claim on the
reader’s attention is derived from its quite fascinating setting.”
+ =N Y Times= p26 Ja 2 ’21 460w
“The interest of the novel is derived less from the actual story than
from the glorious settings of the drama.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 23 ’21 170w
=RICKARD, L. (MRS VICTOR RICKARD).= Cathy Rossiter. *$1.75 (1c) Doran
20–772
Cathy Rossiter, by birth of the English aristocracy, was a modern
woman who, without breaking her old ties, became interested in all
sorts of progressive movements. Her personal charms make her a
favorite in every circle from the aristocratic drawing room down to
the half-starved strikers in Sabury road. Her most intimate friend is
Dr Monica Henstock, a successful practitioner and her opposite in
character and temperament. At her house she meets John Lorrimer who is
about to propose to Monica when Cathy’s beauty and personality
intrigue and side-track him. In time Cathy marries Lorrimer and
through a complication of circumstances Monica’s and Lorrimer’s
emotions and ethics both become befuddled and Cathy after an illness
is locked up in an insane asylum on a flimsy pretext. Her experiences
at the asylum and her rescue by some of her old friends make a
thrilling tale.
* * * * *
“Mrs Victor Rickard has here achieved, without directing her energy
towards any lofty or even wayward ambition, a marked success. The
story is sheer melodrama from beginning to triumphant and happy end;
but melodrama tempered with sound observation of character.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p697 N 27 ’19 340w
=RICKARD, THOMAS ARTHUR.= Technical writing. *$1.50 Wiley 808
20–7844
“Mr Rickard has served as editor of three leading mining periodicals
and has written several well known professional works. He laments the
carelessness shown by engineers in the preparation of reports and
papers and has brought into this work the expansion of five lectures
which he delivered in 1916 to engineering classes in the University of
California. The many faults of composition and errors of vocabulary
are discussed and illustrated by many examples of bad writing (with
corrections) gleaned mainly from mining books and periodicals.”—N Y P
L New Tech Bks
* * * * *
“Mr Rickard’s exposition is vigorous and broad-minded.”
+ =Ath= p352 S 10 ’20 150w
“It is well worth discriminating perusal, the chapter on style being
particularly good. Violations of present-day typographical orthodoxy
mar nearly every page of his book. They suggest the amateur. They are
not classic. Also, in a work of this sort, it is only reasonable to
expect that the author will observe his own precepts.” W. N. P. R.
+ − =Engineering & Mining Journal= 109:1326 Je 12 ’20 780w
“The lay reader should also get much from the volume.”
+ =N Y P L New Tech Bks= p40 Ap ’20 100w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p587 S 9 ’20 80w
=RIDEAL, ERIC KEIGHTLEY.= Ozone. *$4 Van Nostrand 546.2
The author begins with the Early history of ozone and its general
properties, and continues his treatment of the subject with chapters
on: The natural occurrence of ozone: Chemical production; Thermal
production; The electrolytic preparation of ozone; Production by
ultraviolet radiation and by ionic collision; Production by means of
the silent electric discharge; The catalytic decomposition of ozone;
Industrial applications; Methods of detection and analysis. There are
two indexes, to names and subjects. The author is professor of
physical chemistry in the University of Illinois and the book is
published as one of the series, A treatise on electro-chemistry,
edited by Bertram Blount.
* * * * *
“The author deals with the whole fascinating subject in a manner which
should appeal to most readers.”
+ =Engineer= 129:653 Je 25 ’20 300w
“The author has been distinctly successful in his effort to collect
and correlate the various references to ozone which occur in chemical
literature, and his monograph will be welcomed if only for that
reason. In addition, it contains a valuable summary of what is known
about ozone, and by indicating problems which remain to be solved
should also serve to promote investigation.”
+ =Nature= 106:77 S 16 ’20 300w
=N Y P L New Tech Bks= p52 Jl ’20 120w
=RIDEOUT, HENRY MILNER.= Foot-path way. *$1.90 (2c) Duffield
20–6491
A story of the Far East. Dan Towers, the hero, is an American
adventurer who has decided that it is time to go home. Fate brings him
across the path of an old friend, Parimban, an Arabian merchant.
Parimban is murdered and Towers is left with Leda, his friend’s
beautiful young daughter, on his hands. He finds a refuge for her with
a religious order and goes on his way, accepting the dangerous mission
he had earlier made up his mind to refuse. He has many adventures,
some in company with a religious fanatic, called Hury Seke, from his
habit of writing gospel messages on walls and rocks, all beginning
“Hury Seke Jehovah.” To others he is introduced by a gay young
troubadour, Runa la Flèche. In the end the beautiful ward, who had
once shown uncomfortable signs of falling in love with Towers, is more
suitably mated with Runa.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:350 Jl ’20
“I turn the last page and lay down the book with the sense of having
enjoyed a modest work of art instead of having been merely diverted by
a pretentious bag of tricks. I like his story, but I like still more
his way of telling it, his freedom from the slipshod smartness now
fairly encouraged as normal by editors still getting pay-ore from the
vein (or the tailings) of the Kipling-O. Henry tradition.” H. W.
Boynton
+ =Bookm= 51:581 Jl ’20 380w
=Ind= 104:382 D 11 ’20 50w
“The tale is entertaining, swift-moving and romantic, and gives a
colorful picture of adventurous lives.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:252 My 16 ’20 700w
“This is not of a genre that all novel readers care for, but those who
do will find this book an excellent example of it, exciting and
amusing.”
+ =Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 100w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 240w
=RIDGE, LOLA.=[2] Sun-up; and other poems. *$1.50 Huebsch 811
These are free verse, imagiste poems. In the group “Sun-up,” the poet
sees the world through a child’s eyes and gives us glimpses of a
child’s soul. All the poems express modernity, a free spirit and a
turbulent world. They are grouped under the headings: Sun-up;
Monologues; Windows; Secrets; Portraits; Sons of Belial; Reveille—the
last group containing lines to Alexander Berkman, to Emma Goldman and
to Larkin.
* * * * *
“No adult knows what little girls think about, but one is willing to
believe that it is approximately what he finds here, where Freud
rather than Plato is read back into the infant mind.” D. M.
+ =Nation= 112:sup244 F 9 ’21 340w
“The series of poems from which the book takes its name are vividly
poignant renderings of the child-mind, intimate in their apperception
and flaring forth in arresting magic and color at times. Her method is
free verse, but it is a distinct free verse. It is the sudden throwing
of vivid phrases before one that conjure up limitless thoughts.” H. S.
Gorman
+ =N Y Times= p11 Ja 9 ’21 520w
=RIDSDALE, KNOWLES.= Gate of fulfillment. *$1.50 (4c) Putnam
20–6634
A story told in letters. Margaret Bevington, a very charming and
brilliant widow, answers an unusual advertisement calling for a
secretary for an invalid. The invalid, who is also a misogynist, sends
her a caustic reply declining her services, but a correspondence
develops out of the incident. Later, learning that the secretary he
had preferred to her had proved incompetent, she applies in person
under an assumed name and is engaged. She then leads a double life, as
staid, prim Martha Pratt and as witty Margaret Bevington, and the
misogynist finds himself falling in love with two women. The tonic
good sense of one and the mental stimulus of the other do their work.
He is restored to health to learn that the two characters who have
meant so much to him combine into one person.
* * * * *
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ − =Bookm= 51:586 Jl ’20 200w
“This is a very commodious, even lazy, way of writing a book; and,
unless the letters are uncommonly brilliant, the result is generally
disappointing. In this case, however, Mr Ridsdale has turned out a
worthwhile correspondence in developing an ingenious though rather
slender plot. ‘The gate of fulfillment’ will be read with interest.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:31 Jl 18 ’20 300w
=Springf’d Republican= p11a S 26 ’20 160w
“It is a piquant situation, and some of its possibilities are well
realized. But it wants a light, tactful, restrained treatment of which
the author knows nothing. The letters of every one concerned are as
fulsome, as precious, and as humourless as they can possibly be; and
their prolix affectations become painfully tiresome long before the
end is reached.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p458 Jl 15 ’20 150w
=RIHANI, AMEEN F.= Descent of bolshevism. $1 (9c) Stratford co. 335
20–6355
A small book written to prove that bolshevism is of oriental origin.
The author goes back to fifth century Persia and has chapters on:
Mazdak and Mazdakism; The Khawarij; The Karmathians; The Assassins;
The Illuminati.
* * * * *
“Mr Rihani’s little book ends suddenly and without a satisfactory
conclusion. His statements must be read with great caution.” N. H. D.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p10 My 15 ’20 560w
“He tells his stories roundly and underlines his morals blackly; but
his essential facts are sound.”
+ =Review= 2:682 Je 30 ’20 200w
=RIHBANY, ABRAHAM MITRIE.=[2] Hidden treasure of Rasmola. il *$1.75
(5½c) Houghton
20–19674
This story of the digging for a treasure is a true story and a
personal experience of the author’s. The scenes portrayed are real
phases of the life of the common people of Syria and the people
participating in the enterprise were real. The psychology, beliefs and
mode of life of the people concerned are also depicted and the
thrilling part of the story is that the treasure too, to all
probabilities was real although it eluded the grasp of the diggers
thru the machinations of a clever rogue.
=RINEHART, MARY (ROBERTS) (MRS STANLEY MARSHALL RINEHART).= Affinities.
*$1.75 (2c) Doran
20–9275
A volume of short stories. The first is the story of a group of
married people who decide on an affinity picnic, with husbands and
wives left at home. The affair comes to grief and when the parties
concerned learn that the other set of wives and husbands have been
carrying out a similar idea there are mutual recriminations and
forgivenesses. The other stories are in like vein. Contents:
Affinities; The family friend; Clara’s little escapade; The borrowed
house; Sauce for the gander. The stories were copyrighted by the
Curtis Publishing Company and date from 1909 to 1915.
* * * * *
“Entertaining, but several readers say not up to her usual standard.”
+ − =Booklist= 17:36 O ’20
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 18 ’20 300w
“Delightful tales each with a snap at the end.”
+ =Cleveland= p71 Ag ’20 60w
“Mrs Rinehart always writes entertainingly and she tempers humor with
rare human sympathy and common sense. These stories are just the thing
for hammock reading on a lazy afternoon.”
+ =Ind= 103:53 Jl 10 ’20 80w
“Each one as unexpected and as amusing as the others, stories that
keep you laughing and interested, stories full of the little
absurdities of human nature and the queer tricks of fate.”
+ =Lit D= p97 S 4 ’20 3050w
“If laughter really does promote health, Mrs Rinehart should take her
place among the great physicians of the age.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:295 Je 6 ’20 480w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 8 ’20 420w
“The studies of English life and manners would strike most English
readers as imaginative, and it is hard to believe that life in America
exactly tallies with the authoress’s description, though it may really
be like this. Anyhow it makes cheerful reading.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p538 Ag 19 ’20 120w
=RINEHART, MARY (ROBERTS) (MRS STANLEY MARSHALL RINEHART).= Poor wise
man. *$2 (1½c) Doran
20–17961
The time of the story is immediately after the war and the
circumstances social unrest, strikes, plots, political campaigns,
mobs, riots, bombs, wise vigilance on the part of the Department of
justice and timely interferences of the American Legion. The romance
is supplied by Lily Cardew, granddaughter of the richest man in town,
just back from her war-work and much changed, and Willy Cameron, a
poor drug clerk who had been Lily’s pal in camp and is one of nature’s
noblemen. Soon after her return Lily is ensnared by the wiles of an
arch anarchist and all-round fiend. She even marries him but at that
very crisis is rescued by Willy. Many are the adventures and
hairbreadth escapes of both before their final reward.
* * * * *
+ =Bookm= 52:252 N ’20 360w
“The story is well told, but our hearts are not touched by the romance
of the impossible hero and heroine.”
+ − =Cath World= 112:554 Ja ’21 150w
“Mrs Rinehart gives us a very thrilling story, and a sense of
disappointment with her method need not obscure the good points and
readable character of this ‘novel with a purpose.’”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 D 31 ’20 200w
“The novel is alive and vigorous.”
+ =Outlook= 126:515 N 17 ’20 80w
“The book is exceedingly timely. It states the problem between labor
and capital fairly and proves the futility of mob violence. And it
states it in the lives of very actual people.” Katharine Oliver
+ =Pub W= 98:1193 O 16 ’20 300w
“A story well worth reading.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p801 D 2 ’20 120w
=RINEHART, MARY (ROBERTS) (MRS STANLEY MARSHALL RINEHART).=[2] Truce of
God. il *$1.50 Doran
20–21966
In the days of chivalry and when the church had decreed a “truce of
God,” from Thursday of every week until Monday morning, during which
time all fighting must cease, a young French overlord had put away his
wife because she had borne him no son and because, heirless, upon his
death his estates would fall to his cousin and arch enemy, Philip of
the Black Beard. That the lady took refuge with this same Philip,
enraged Charles still more. But it came to pass on a Christmas day
that the truce of God entered the heart of Charles when he came to the
castle of Philip in search of his runaway little daughter, Clotilde.
As he goes to the bedside of his wife to ask her forgiveness he finds
that a son has indeed this day been born to him.
* * * * *
“The story is told interestingly and with effective simplicity, and
successfully reproduces the mediæval atmosphere; but the author leaves
the impression of having put an undue strain upon plausibility in
order to reach a desired conclusion.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p18 D 4 ’20 220w
+ =N Y Times= p27 Ja 2 ’21 370w
=RIPLEY, GEORGE SHERMAN.= Games for boys. il *$1.60 Holt 790
20–21483
A collection of games for players of the adolescent and post
adolescent age. The compiler says: “Properly played games develop
courage, initiative, generosity, cooperation, cheerfulness, loyalty,
obedience, alertness and sense of honor,” and in selecting the games
he has based his choice on these qualities. Contents: Circle games;
Opposed line games; Tag games; Quiet games; Miscellaneous games; Relay
and other races; Stalking and scouting games; Camp stunts and water
sports; Mimetic setting-up exercises; Contest and exhibition events;
Camping notes.
* * * * *
+ =Ind= 104:378 D 11 ’20 80w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8a D 5 ’20 80w
=RISING, LAWRENCE.= She who was Helena Cass. *$1.90 (2c) Doran
20–17649
Jay Sefton, a rising young novelist, acted a novel when he constituted
himself a secret detective to find Helena Cass, dead or alive. Three
years previous, her mysterious disappearance had set two continents
agog with rumors and surmises. Jay Sefton had once met her socially,
been greatly impressed by her personality and now the fever of the
search had entered his blood. In disconnected accounts the story
pieces itself together, and clue follows upon clue, revealing the rich
possibilities of an undisciplined impulsive young girl; her tragic
side-step from the conventional path; her all but murder in a Spanish
inn; her refuge in a convent; temporary return to a world that had
known her; her second escape to the convent; her motherhood and her
final discovery in a secluded rural retreat in Spain by Jay Sefton and
his wooing of her.
* * * * *
“It’s well told, too, with a slightly French touch and an intriguing
style.” S. M. R.
+ =Bookm= 52:370 D ’20 200w
“From the standpoint of style the book is decidedly jerky. It
possesses many faults, many inconsistencies, but we are obliged to
remember that the author has subordinated everything to the weaving
and unraveling of his mystery. The first is ably done, and the second
is accomplished with commendable ingenuity.” D. L. M.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 D 4 ’20 270w
“The novel is full of Latin color, some of the descriptive bits being
powerfully photographic. All the characters are real and intensely
individualized. The development of Helena Cass from a self-centred,
selfish girl to a fine, broad, lovable character is a fine bit of
psychological analysis.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p20 O 23 ’20 180w
“The book is full of Spanish color, and some of the descriptive
passages are striking.”
+ =N Y Times= p19 N 28 ’20 140w
“The story is original, but its literary quality is not particularly
good.”
+ − =Outlook= 126:378 O 27 ’20 110w
Reviewed by L. M. Robinson
=Pub W= 98:1196 O 16 ’20 320w
=RITCHIE, ANNE ISABELLA (THACKERAY) lady (MRS RICHMOND RITCHIE).= From
friend to friend. *$2.50 Dutton
(Eng ed 20–8889)
“‘From friend to friend,’ a little volume of recollections by
Thackeray’s daughter, Lady Ritchie, edited by her sister-in-law, Emily
Ritchie, has just been published. Lady Ritchie met many of the most
interesting people in England in the course of her long life, which
covered the period from 1838 to 1919, and in this little book she has
ranged far back into the past and given glimpses of her father, of
Tennyson and his wife, of Mr and Mrs Browning, of Adelaide Kemble and
many others. There are anecdotes of Thackeray in his younger days,
when he was beginning to write and wishing rather to paint, and later
on when he was in the full tide of literary production.”—Springf’d
Republican
* * * * *
=Ath= p126 Ja 23 ’20 40w
“If at times, in spite of its delicate artistry, the narrative grows a
little prim, there is usually a twinkle of humour to light it up again
before many lines are past. Our old-world hostess is too skilful to
let us get dull.”
+ =Ath= p303 Mr 5 ’20 420w
=N Y Times= p15 S 12 ’20 60w
“This little volume is slight but pleasing.”
+ =Outlook= 125:125 My 19 ’20 80w
“It is more enjoyable than many books of reminiscence. Lady Ritchie
abounds in good-humor.”
+ =Review= 2:522 My 15 ’20 200w
“Lady Ritchie interests and amuses us without falling either into the
distortions of malice, or the sentimentally which dwells on the ‘dear
old days,’ and leaves us as cold as if we were listening to a canting
preacher.”
+ =Sat R= 129:189 F 21 ’20 750w
“Charming little book.”
+ =Spec= 124:54 Ja 10 ’20 140w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 My 1 ’20 120w
“Lady Ritchie knew what was interesting and what was not; she lived
intensely in her memories, and she can take her readers to live in
them with her.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p19 Ja 8 ’20 1100w
=RITCHIE, ROBERT WELLES.= Trails to Two Moons. il *$1.75 (3½c) Little
20–17007
The story is of the Wyoming cattle country at the time when the
struggle for existence was on between the cattle rangers and the
sheep-raising homesteaders. Little by little the latter were
encroaching upon the former’s grazing lands. Three figures stand out
in the tale, Zang Whistler, the cattle-thieving outlaw, Original Bill
Blunt, inspector for the Stockman’s alliance, and Hilma Ring, a
sheepherder’s daughter, a dazzling but heartless beauty. A lonely life
of hardship and struggle had cut her off from all femininity and
hardened her heart. It is the taming of this shrew that tempts both
Zang and Original. Amid killings and rough horse-play, during which
Hilma has her fill of terror, loneliness and despair, nursing her
hatred for Original, the latter’s character and power finally subdue
and awaken the woman in her. Even Zang, whose wild career is but an
offshoot of his inherent integrity, receives Hilma’s recognition of
his loyalty and devotion.
* * * * *
“The story possesses a sort of crude strength besides exciting
incidents; its characters are fairly well individualized; its
descriptions are vivid, and its fights colorful. However, we cannot
say that the conversion of the heroine’s hate for the hero to love for
him is convincing. The strings that pull the character hither and
thither at this point of the story are altogether too evident.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p21 O 23 ’20 110w
“The story is ultra-romantic and the characters not essentially of
flesh and blood—mere types and caricatures. But the setting in which
the story occurs is painted so very vividly that it lends the air of
reality to ‘Trails to Two Moons’ which the characters themselves and
their vigorous actions lack.”
+ − =N Y Times= p25 D 26 ’20 320w
=ROBBINS, CLARENCE AARON (TOD ROBBINS).= Silent, white and beautiful;
and other stories. *$1.90 (3c) Boni & Liveright
Short stories by an author who makes a specialty of the gruesome.
Contents: Silent, white and beautiful; Who wants a green bottle? Wild
Wullie, the waster; For art’s sake. There is a preface by Robert H.
Davis.
* * * * *
“If these grotesque and morbid tales were just a bit better, they
might even be great! But failing of greatness, they are so horrible as
to be occasionally funny.”
− + =Bookm= 52:550 F ’21 100w
“The horror of the truth in daily life is greater than the horror Mr
Robbins seeks in his imaginative and improbable wanderings among
murderers and spirits.” R. D. W.
− =Boston Transcript= p8 Ja 29 ’21 350w
“Genuine horror requires a certain inner logic, a subtle plausibility
not discoverable in these stories.” L. B.
− =Freeman= 2:358 D 22 ’20 170w
“There is no doubt that he has an eerie fancy, great fertility of
invention, and not a little psychological insight. But he is unequal
to the point of eccentricity. Two of his four narratives, ‘Wild
Wullie, the waster,’ and ‘Who wants a green bottle,’ are simply inept.
‘Silent, white and beautiful,’ on the other hand, has an original and
strangely vivid central idea.”
+ − =Nation= 111:596 N 24 ’20 230w
“Frankly tales of terror, built upon most improbable foundations, they
would be revolting in the hands of a lesser artist.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p17 D 4 ’20 100w
“The author has dipped his pen in blood while steeping his literary
ego in diablerie, and the outcome is a feast of melodrama and
morbidity that leads logically to nightmare.”
− + =N Y Times= p27 Ja 2 ’21 420w
=ROBERTS, CECIL EDRIC MORNINGTON.= Poems. *$1.50 Stokes 821
20–1006
This collection of poems falls into three parts: Poems; The dark
years; and Other poems. John Masefield writes a preface to the
collection and says of the author: “When I think of the poems, I feel
that he must be young; not young enough perhaps to have been carried
away, or destroyed, by the recent great events, but young enough to
see them clearly, to respond to them, and to realize that the tragedy
of them has been the tragedy of the young, the blasting of the young,
for the benefit and at the bidding of the old.... That, in the main,
is the tragedy of Mr Roberts’ latest and best poems, in the volume
here printed.” In another place he says of the poet: “He has a quick
eye for characters, a lively sense of rhythm, and a fondness for
people, which should make his future work as remarkable as his present
promise.”
* * * * *
“Will be liked by those who enjoy conventional poetry touching on a
note of sadness.”
+ =Booklist= 16:235 Ap ’20
“These labored verses move us not at all. The book is full of echoes
and infelicitous imitations. The book, in short, is full of clichés of
thought and phrase.” H: A. Lappin
− =Bookm= 51:213 Ap ’20 100w
“The experience which has made Mr Roberts ‘old’ to his friends, has by a
curious paradox kept him gloriously young in his dreams and visions.
These poems, even embedding such grim interludes as is represented by
the ‘Charing cross’ poems, are the poems of youth; but of a youth who
has been trebly stored with the ancient wisdom and ways of the world.”
W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ja 24 ’20 2150w
“Delightful poems chiefly on Arcadian themes.”
+ |=Cleveland= p52 My ’20 60w
Reviewed by Mark Van Doren
=Nation= 111:sup415 O 13 ’20 60w
“It is not enough to be high-spirited, and warm-hearted, and
quick-witted, and brave and sensitive—and this poet is all these. To
feel splendidly is one thing, to shape the feeling another. Mr Roberts
at present is apt to throw off his feeling into rhyme without due
concentration, as though assuring us of his exuberance and bidding us
be content with that.” J: Drinkwater
+ − =N Y Times= 25:240 My 9 ’20 380w
“The many lyric poems are a flower-garden in which the reader can
spend a long time, and to which he will want to return. Mr Roberts
writes gracefully and melodiously, and is never elaborate or
artificial.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8a Ap 4 ’20 700w
=ROBERTS, RICHARD.= Unfinished program of democracy. *$2 Huebsch 321.8
(Eng ed 20–6572)
“‘The unfinished programme of democracy.’ by Dr Richard Roberts,
readily divides itself into two parts: the first three chapters in
which the author sets forth what he considers to be the causes of the
present crisis in democracy, and the rest of the book in which he
specifies in detail and supports with argument the measures and
changes that would, in his view, fulfil the democratic ideal.”
(Freeman). “The main lines of practical doctrine on which the
discussion is conducted are—a national minimum and a secure standard
of life universally enforced and provided for; the limitation of
profits; the elimination of the ‘social parasite’; the economic
independence of women; the abandonment of the dogma of ‘State
sovereignty’ and the recognition in the organization of government of
the geographical and the vocational unit; the growth of the spirit and
practice of social fellowship; a democratic world knit by a federation
of democratic nations.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
* * * * *
“Mr Roberts’s work is one to be read and inwardly digested.”
+ =Ath= p1048 O 17 ’19 130w
=Booklist= 17:142 Ja ’21
=Brooklyn= 12:125 My ’20 30w
“It is only the first part of the book, in which Dr Roberts states his
social theory, that in the view of the writer of this note exposes
itself to criticism.” T. M. Ave-Lallemant
+ − =Freeman= 1:428 Jl 14 ’20 1100w
=Ind= 103:319 S 11 ’20 30w
“The book is both refreshing and heartening and deserves a wide
reading, not only for the soundness of its ideas but for the
distinction and charm of its temper, and the vividness of its style.”
+ =Nation= 111:330 S 18 ’20 620w
“He writes with force and charm; and he gives evidence of wide reading
and of serious reflection. But when he comes to chapter VII, ‘The
organization of government,’ his hand fails him.” W. J. Ghent
+ − =Review= 3:316 O 13 ’20 300w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 F 7 ’20 60w
“It is a scholarly book by a man of vision.” A. J. Lien
+ =Survey= 45:73 O 9 ’20 180w
“One of the ablest of the ministers of the English Presbyterian church
here discusses the social problem in a comprehensive and practical
way, with a full appreciation of new conditions and new trends of
thought.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p550 O 9 ’19 180w
=Wis Lib Bul= 16:107 Je ’20 60w
=ROBEY, GEORGE.= My rest cure. il *$1.40 (4c) Stokes 827
19–13978
The author informs his readers that he is tired of being funny, that
he has had a collapse and needs a complete rest, and he is going to
tell about his holiday in the country in his natural serious and
solemn manner. By the skin of his teeth he succeeds in escaping from
home without his wife and the entire family. His haven of rest is the
Sunrise Arms of Little Slocum. The dream and the reality of Little
Slocum are not quite the same. He almost succumbs to the ministrations
of the sewing-bee of Little Slocum mothers, but after a ten mile
flight in pajamas and mackintosh and rubber boots he catches a train
that takes him back to the city. The illustrations by John Hassall add
to the solemnity of the book.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:246 Ap ’20
“It may be that Mr Robey converses too much about nothing in
particular, it may be that his humor is not that of America; but
various episodes in his book are excruciatingly funny.”
+ =Boston Transcript= Mr 13 ’20 350w
“We cannot say that we have been vastly exhilarated by ‘My rest
cure.’”
− =Sat R= 128:160 Ag 16 ’19 340w
=ROBINSON, ALBERT GARDNER.= Old New England houses. il *$5 Scribner 728
20–16280
“‘Old New England houses’ has about one hundred sumptuously printed
views, mostly of the type of plain, unpretentious small country houses
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which we roughly classify
as ‘colonial,’ though quite a few of the more pretentious mansion type
of house, such as were built by the wealthier merchants and
shipmasters in the larger coast towns, are included. The subjects are
selected from an artistic rather than an architectural or antiquarian
viewpoint. The first few pages are given to an untechnical talk on the
varied types and styles of houses and where one may hunt for them with
reasonable chance of success, but the greater part of the book is
devoted to the pictures of the houses themselves, an entire page being
usually given to each print.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 S 29 ’20 280w
“The text of this book is slight, not wholly unsuggestive perhaps, but
disappointing. The illustrations, however, are of positive interest.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p14 O 23 ’20 520w
Reviewed by W. B. Chase
+ =N Y Times= p2 S 12 ’20 2450w
+ =Outlook= 126:202 S 29 ’20 70w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:314 O 13 ’20 30w
“Like most books of the sort, ‘Old New England houses’ is more to be
valued for its pictures than for its text. Here the text, however, is
entirely adequate as a brief introduction to upward of a hundred
photographs.”
+ =Review= 3:479 N 17 ’20 180w
“‘Old New England houses’ will be interesting and useful.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a O 3 ’20 260w
=ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON.= Lancelot. *$1.75 Seltzer 811
20–12049
“In ‘Lancelot’ Mr Robinson has continued the study of Camelot which he
began three years ago in ‘Merlin.’” (Nation) “We open at the period in
the Arthurian triangle when Lancelot, who has seen the grail, has
determined to leave Camelot and Guinevere forever, and follow the
lonely marsh-light that the knights hailed as the true gleam.
Guinevere tempts him out of this. Arthur and his knights return, and
find what the purblind king has shut his eyes to so long. Lancelot
flees, and Guinevere is to be burnt at the stake. The greatest of the
knights returns and rescues her, taking her to his castle of Joyous
Gard; from which he later surrenders her. But the poison of the
situation has raised up enemies in the king’s own household,
especially his illegitimate son, Modred, and Lancelot, persuaded too
late to go to the king’s aid, arrives after the battle in the north,
in which king and bastard alike receive their death-wounds. He pays
one final visit to Guinevere, habited as a nun, but still enough of
her own self to listen to Lancelot’s belated plea that she rejoin him,
and now enough of her new self to refuse it. Then the passion-wrecked
knight rides away after that will-o-the-wisp whose presence men still
vainly seek without themselves.” (N Y Call)
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:22 O ’20
“Any modern treatment of the Arthur material challenges comparison at
once with some of the illustrious names in English literature:
Tennyson, Swinburne, Arnold, and Morris, to mention only the best
known. Mr Robinson’s ‘Lancelot’ is no misbegotten changeling in this
notable company. The analysis is subtle, unsentimental, and
contagiously sympathetic.” R. M. Weaver
+ =Bookm= 51:457 Je ’20 520w
“In this narrative Mr Robinson not only proves by reason of thought
and substance his position as the greatest of all living American
poets, but also by the supreme consciousness and evocation of beauty.”
W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 Je 12 ’20 1350w
+ =Cleveland= p86 O ’20 80w
“The verse moves with dignity and attains at times even a detachable
beauty, and yet the memorable lines are comparatively few—for this
author.”
+ − =Dial= 69:103 Jl ’20 120w
“It has no pictorial exuberance. Scarcely a line could be quoted for
self-sufficient imagery. For the rest, the beauty of the poem is a
low-keyed, intense but quiet beauty of cadence and rhythm. Its matter
speaks with restraint and with completion. Its power lies in the
immanence of its people and their struggle with their fate.” C. M.
Rourke
+ =Freeman= 2:164 O 27 ’20 550w
“The verse of ‘Lancelot’ is as athletic and spare as an Indian runner,
though it walks not runs. At the same time, he varies his verse in
admirable accord with situation and character. Since Browning there
has been no finer dramatic dialogue in verse than that spoken by
Lancelot and Guinevere and no apter characterization than the ironical
talk of Gawaine. One must go out of verse, to George Meredith and
Henry James, to find its match. But Mr Robinson has the advantage of
verse.” C. V. D.
+ =Nation= 110:622 My 8 ’20 650w
“Edwin Arlington Robinson can say more in two lines than most poets
can in several verses. His vision is somber; it is marked by an
uncompromising consistency in the handling of eternal values.” H. S.
Gorman
+ =New Repub= 23:259 Jl 28 ’20 1150w
“‘Lancelot’ is life, albeit a gray and grim vision of it. It is a
great tale, greatly told. American poetry is richer for the aching
disillusionment of Mr Robinson’s art.” Clement Wood
+ =N Y Call= p11 My 16 ’20 750w
“It has been well thought out, well felt and well made. This is not to
say that it is a great poem, however, or that no important criticism
can be brought against it. When he draws personality the lines are
firm and flawless. But can he show us the color and texture of life,
and make us feel the heat of it in those old days of myth and magic?”
Marguerite Wilkinson
+ − =N Y Times= 25:170 Ap 11 ’20 1050w
“Its supreme beauty lies in its analysis of character and motive.”
+ =Outlook= 127:67 Ja 12 ’21 780w
“Mr Robinson’s ‘Lancelot’ is a finer achievement than his ‘Merlin.’
Splendidly imagined and unerringly wrought, this book reaffirms the
conviction that Mr Robinson is today the most significant figure in
American verse.” E: B. Reed
+ =Yale R n s= 10:205 O ’20 280w
=ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON.= Three taverns. *$1.50 Macmillan 811
20–15484
“Edwin Arlington Robinson’s new volume of miscellaneous poems, ‘The
three taverns’ is likely to earn him—if he has not already earned—a
reputation as the Henry James among poets. His fondness for portraying
the complex facets of character in an oblique light and by means of
inscrutable hints and sinuous innuendoes has led him to further
workings of the vein of dramatic lyric opened four years ago by his
famous ‘Ben Johnson entertains a man from Stratford.’ The present
collection contains seven long poems of this sort, revealing in
monolog or dialog a moment in the life of St Paul, Lazarus, Brown of
Harper’s ferry, Hamilton, and real or imagined people of lesser
note.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“‘The man against the sky’ indicated very clearly the place of the
poet, it was very high—how high we had not the standards by which to
measure. ‘The three taverns’ brings us much nearer to him, closer
within the embrace of his sympathies, and, by the same law, lifts him
much farther above us.” S: Roth
+ =Bookm= 52:361 D ’20 500w
“The substance of the longer poems in this book is more profoundly
grounded in Mr Robinson’s philosophy of human nature and experience
than in any of his other poems. Even in the shorter poems we find this
power distilled until almost achingly the meanings break through a
speech that is simplified to a bareness of figure or illusion. Take
the poem ‘The mill’ and say if a tragedy could be so mercilessly told
with the economy of speech by any other living poet.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 S 11 ’20 1850w
“Here is a great virtue that belongs peculiarly to Mr Robinson among
American poets. His work is always packed with thought. ‘The three
taverns’ is a big book and it grows with each reading. It is the work
of lonely hours, of unfailing meditation, and of authentic genius, if
such a thing may be admitted to exist in these troublous times.” H. S.
Gorman
+ =Freeman= 2:186 N 3 ’20 1150w
“It is a sombre book, ‘The three taverns,’ sombre and polished to a
high dark sheen, and the bitter tang of it remains in the memory after
reading.” C. F. G.
+ =Grinnell R= 16:332 Ja ’21 340w
“Separate enough in themselves, they yet stand with respect to each
other in a sort of pattern, like the monoliths of a Druid circle....
What holds them in the pattern is that tone of mingled wisdom and
irony, that color of dignity touched with colloquial flexibility, that
clear, hard, tender blank verse and those unforgettable eight-line
stanzas and dramatic sonnets which go to make up one of the most
scrupulous and valuable of living poets.” C. V. D.
+ =Nation= 111:453 O 20 ’20 1300w
“‘The three taverns’ is a finished product. It is a book such as only
a master, touched with the authentic fire of genius, could make
possible. Within its 120 pages is crystallized the best of modern
American poetry. No European could find better introduction to
American achievement in letters than through the poems that are
contained in ‘Three taverns.’” H. S. Gorman
+ =N Y Times= p18 Ja 16 ’21 1250w
“Little of his old magic of intonation and rhythm is lacking from ‘The
three taverns,’ even though the intellectual appeal overmasters at
times the poetic.”
+ =Outlook= 127:67 Ja 12 ’21 680w
“Mr Robinson’s verse, as always, flows with limpid purity, but his
quaintly compounded vocabulary and his intellectual penetration compel
the closest attention to his pages. Readers who have the patience or
the agility to follow Mr Robinson are not meanly rewarded.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p10 O 7 ’20 450w
=ROBINSON, EDWIN MEADE (TED ROBINSON, pseud.).= Piping and panning.
*$1.75 Harcourt 811
20–16520
The author conducts a column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and this is
a volume of his humorous newspaper verse. Among the titles are: To a
lady; The lecture; The story of Ug; Things I despise; Things I like;
Some Anglicisms; The drawbacks of humor; Love lyrics; We Olympians;
The critic’s apology; In various keys; The typewriter’s song; Rural
delights; Butter and eggs; The average man.
* * * * *
“Of its kind, Edwin Meade Robinson’s ‘Piping and panning’ is of a
pleasant quality. No man may trifle with the muse day after day with
impunity, but Mr Robinson has been able to command her support in a
fair average of instances. His book discloses a nimble fancy, a facile
dominion of vocabulary and verse forms, and a ready wit.” L. B.
+ − =Freeman= 2:190 N 3 ’20 160w
“Many of the verses, it is true, are occasional and uninspired; but
the book is a wholly satisfactory one for the good things it has in
abundance.” Clement Wood
+ − =N Y Call= p8 Ja 9 ’21 180w
=ROBINSON, ELIOT HARLOW.= Maid of Mirabelle. il *$1.75 (2c) Page
20–12599
A story of the last days of the war and the period immediately
following. The scene is laid in a village of Lorraine. Here Daniel
Steele, an American Friend who has come to France to do relief and
reconstruction work, falls under the spell of Joan le Jeune, the maid
of Mirabelle. When Daniel had left home he had taken with him the
promise of his foster-sister Faith to be his wife on his return. But
for a little time Joan makes him forget Faith, and Joan, to whom he
brings the romance of strange lands, almost forgets her own soldier
lover Jean. But when Jean is under suspicion she turns to him, and
Daniel, too, recovering from a wound, finds his thoughts bound up in
Faith and is ready to return to his own country leaving Joan to her
happiness.
* * * * *
“Somewhat too sentimental in execution, but simple and pretty.”
+ − =Outlook= 126:67 S 8 ’20 20w
=ROCHE, ARTHUR SOMERS.= Uneasy street. il *$1.75 (2c) Cosmopolitan bk.
corporation
20–2645
He was an impecunious clerk before the war, but won a commission and
was swept into New York gilt-edged society by his millionaire chum
after their discharge. He goes the pace and one night of it finds him
in debt and in love and temptation staring him in the face in the form
of a trunkful of money under his hotel bed. He falls for it, takes
what he needs with intentions to refund, but is found out before that
happy event can take place. Then his manhood reasserts itself, he
returns the stolen money and makes a clean confession of his guilt to
his employer, his chum’s father. He is forgiven and is reinstated in
the good graces of his fiancée, his chum and gilt-edged society.
* * * * *
“In construction the present story is by far the best he has written.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ap 7 ’20 120w
“That the story is devoid of all plausibility will not detract from
its interest to such readers as enjoy this sort of a book.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:120 Mr 14 ’20 220w
Reviewed by Joseph Mosher
=Pub W= 97:177 Ja 17 ’20 260w
=ROCHECHOUART, LOUIS VICTOR LÉON, comte de.=[2] Memoirs of the Count de
Rochechouart; auth. tr. by Frances Jackson. *$5 Dutton
20–17881
“These memoirs are a first-class historical document of the period
before and after the Napoleonic wars. The Count de Rochechouart was
only a lad when the revolution broke out, and practically without
money he made his way across Europe and took service with the Emperor
of Russia, whom he served until 1814, when he was appointed to a
military post under the restored Bourbons in Paris, and took a
prominent part in the refounding of royalist France.”—Sat R
* * * * *
“His narrative is of absorbing interest, in itself: material enough
for a dozen historical romances, told with vivacity, a wealth of
illuminative anecdote. The version is faithful and admirably written,
a valuable contribution to French and European history in our
language.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p18 O 23 ’20 360w
“The Rochechouart memoirs become thin and unsatisfactory after the
peace, and give few details of the new French society which Balzac was
afterwards to describe so brilliantly; and with the count’s retirement
into the country in 1822, they practically cease. But as they stand,
they are a valuable contribution to a period of which we can never
have too much information.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:340 O 23 ’20 630w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p648 O 7 ’20 950w
=ROE, A. S.= Chance and change in China. il *$3 (3c) Doran 915.1
20–11512
A book devoted not to political affairs but to the little alterations
in custom that indicate social change and the influence of the outside
world. Among the chapters are: The seductive city; The city of the
river orchid; The black smoke [opium]; The dragon house; The gem-hill
city; The serpent month; On the “river of broad sincerity”; The city
of western peace; The pepper month; The contemptible one [woman]; A
painted cake. The title given to this last chapter signifies “a thing
that has come to nothing,” and refers to the republic, altho the
author says, “Though to many the republic has become a ‘painted cake,’
some at least of the seeds scattered here and there in the days of its
first youth have taken root.” There are many illustrations and an
index.
* * * * *
“The accounts of travel and life in New China are fascinating, and
Miss Roe’s book both promises and provides some rare hours of
entertainment.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 21 ’20 400w
=Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 70w
“A varied and entertaining account of modern life in the Far East. It
is by no means a serious book. Rather it appears to be a collection of
more or less coherent reminiscences carried away by the author after
traveling through parts of the country.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ag 13 ’20 280w
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p159 Mr 4 ’20 100w
“Her book does not lend itself to continuous reading, for it is both
discursive and disjointed. Too retiring to weave a connecting thread
out of the accidents that befell herself, too logical to put forward a
reconciliation of contradictions that defy it, too honest to suggest a
whole where she had seen but a small part, she leaves on the mind an
idea of confusion—and that, perhaps, is the truest impression she
could give of China at this period of chance and change.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p180 Mr 18 ’20 950w
=ROGET, FRANÇOIS ROGET.= Altitude and health. (Chadwick lib.) *$5 Dutton
612.27
(Eng ed SG20–68)
“Professor Roget, of Geneva, was invited by the Chadwick trustees to
form one of their panel of lectures. The subject which he treats in
the three lectures which he delivered for the Trust in 1914, and which
are contained in this volume, has become, since the development of
aviation, one of increasing importance; but the professor, though he
does not ignore aviation, explores with great care and fullness the
effect of altitude upon health and physique mainly from the point of
view of the Alpine pedestrian climber and resident.”—The Times
[London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“The information contained in this book regarding climate appears on
the whole to be accurate and reasonably complete. So much cannot be
said regarding matters physiological. Whether on account of war
prejudice or other cause a large mass of valuable German work is
passed over almost in silence and even in the selections from English
and American investigators the most important modern contribution is
merely mentioned.” Yandell Henderson
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p8 O 30 ’20 1000w
“If, as undoubtedly is the case, there are still many people who dread
the effects of unmitigated fresh air, and especially that of mountain
resorts, these lectures should help to convert them to saner views.”
+ =Spec= 124:587 My 1 ’20 900w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p755 D 11 ’19 90w
=ROHMER, SAX, pseud. (ARTHUR SARSFIELD WARD).= Golden scorpion. *$1.75
(2c) McBride
20–7137
Mystery, magic and an element of indefinable horror enter into this
story by the author of the Fu Manchu tales. Gaston Max, a famous
Parisian detective, Inspector Dunbar of Scotland Yard, and Dr Keppel
Stuart, an obscure London practitioner with an unusual knowledge of
poisons, are all concerned in the case of the golden scorpion. For a
time no one of them knows who or what the scorpion may be, altho this
symbol is known in some way to be associated with a series of
mysterious deaths in both London and Paris. Dr Stuart is drawn into
the case when the beautiful and alluring Mlle Dorian comes to him as a
patient. As in the author’s other stories there is a strong tinge of
the oriental.
* * * * *
“A good mystery story.”
+ =Booklist= 17:75 N ’20
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
=Bookm= 51:582 Jl ’20 130w
+ =N Y Times= 25:22 Je 27 ’20 530w
Reviewed by Joseph Mosher
+ =Pub W= 97:1291 Ap 17 ’20 360w
=Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 20 ’20 220w
“It is a relief to have mystery and magic mixed up with good detective
work after so great a glut of German espionage, and the reader will
find the golden scorpion in a pleasing variety of unusual and
unexpected situations.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p633 N 6 ’19 300w
=ROHMER, SAX, pseud. (ARTHUR SARSFIELD WARD).=[2] Green eyes of Bast.
*$2 (2½c) McBride
20–18256
This story is of the unreal, and presupposes the existence of hybrid
beings, half woman and half cat, born in Egypt in the month sacred to
the goddess Bast. The fate of the individual or family upon which the
enmity of such a being rests, may be imagined. The Coverly family in
England is so marked, and one by one its members meet their deaths in
various ghastly manners. To the police, who are naturally not in
possession of the secret of the cat-woman, it is very mysterious.
Altho they make many discoveries, what finally clears it all up is the
confession of the Eurasian, Dr Damar Greefe, who had brought up the
hybrid monstrosity in the interests of science. Though they are in
league together, she finally masters him and the final tragedy is his
death, for she eventually adds his murder to the already long list of
fatalities of the story.
* * * * *
“Persons of experience know that, in shockers as in life, it is not
the goal but the road there that matters, and their gratitude to the
author will suffer no diminution because the villain’s explanatory
discourse reveals some weak points in the construction of the story.”
+ − =Ath= p275 Ag 27 ’20 150w
+ − =N Y Times= p25 O 24 ’20 540w
“Mr Rohmer devotes himself to the production of atmosphere with his
old skill.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p538 Ag 19 ’20 130w
=ROLLAND, ROMAIN.= Liluli. il *$2 Boni & Liveright 842
20–11590
“In ‘Liluli’ Romain Rolland has given to the world one of the most
daring satires that have ever been written. Liluli is illusion, the
ideal, the chimera, the eternal vamp of history. The time and place of
the drama are fanciful. The stage is a ravine spanned by a footbridge.
The human race is on the march—toward a mirage. There are peasants and
intellectuals, diplomatists and socialists, satyrs and mountebanks,
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, Truth and Opinion, the Gallipoulets
and the Hurluberloches (who are at war), shopkeepers, peddlers and
fettered brains. And Polichinello. He is the laughing brain. He is the
eternal mocker. He believes in nothing and smiles at all things. He is
the wisdom of folly. In the general crash on the bridge of the world,
when the human race goes into the abyss, Polichinello goes with it.
Everything collapses on him—the fighting people, furniture, crockery,
poultry, stones, earth and the grand chorus of idealists. On top of
the mess sits Liluli, her legs crossed, smiling and showing the tip of
her tongue, her fore-finger to her nose.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:22 O ’20
“The play is a farce and a savage satire all in one. It is
Aristophanic in its conception and working out, now bitter, now
blatant, now indecent, and at times blasphemous. It would have been
entirely possible to satirize hypocrisy and venality as playing potent
parts in the stirring up of war without insulting religion and its
God.”
− =Cath World= 112:408 D ’20 170w
“It is a strange and powerful book, this monstrous comedy of
world-wide calamity. The logical necessity of the catastrophe, the
inevitableness with which not only the vices, but even the virtues of
her victims play into the hands of Liluli, make them susceptible to
her lure, and hasten their doom, gives this weird farce the
impressiveness of a Greek tragedy.” H. M. Evers
+ =Grinnell R= 15:258 O ’20 620w
“It is a pity that M. Rolland has chosen the now dominant symbolical
forms for the embodiment of his fable. Never so much as today did art
need to speak directly. ‘Liluli’ is beautiful and memorable. But its
literary sophistication stands in the way of its broader
effectiveness.” Ludwig Lewisohn
+ − =Nation= 111:18 Jl 3 ’20 370w
“Probably Rolland had in mind to write somewhat after the manner of
Aristophanes. Certainly he has the necessary verve and gusto and
satiric sting. But the Greek stuck to themes that could be represented
on the stage. The Frenchman has tried to sweep all humanity into the
scene, and the result is that you, the reader, have to create a brain
theater for the work in order to realize its true values. It would
have been far more effective for most people in some other form.”
+ − =N Y Call= p10 Jl 25 ’20 550w
“‘Liluli’ is a memorable book. It demolishes with great Rabelaisian
and Aristophanic guffaws the ridiculous and anarchistic societies that
we live in. The book is a bridge to a new world—still nebulous, not
even yet a mirage.” B: de Casseres
+ =N Y Times= 25:2 Jl 11 ’20 860w
=Outlook= 125:467 Jl 7 ’20 30w
“‘Liluli’ is written in behalf of what is, or was or should be, a
noble cause; it is written with an art and grace which should have
fitted it to charm and to serve; yet its spirit and methods are such
as to dispel that charm and to annul that service.”
− + =Review= 3:151 Ag 18 ’20 950w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 Ag 23 ’20 950w
“Perhaps Romain Rolland is scarcely of the race and lineage of the
master satirists, and his ‘Liluli’ may not be the ideal satire for
this crazy age; but Rolland shows many of their great traits, and
‘Liluli’ is so far the one outstanding satire of its time.”
+ =Theatre Arts Magazine= 4:348 O ’20 410w
“Here are all the arguments and experiences with which the pacifist is
familiar incisively personified—not without a certain strong tang of a
former literary age.”
+ =World Tomorrow= 3:351 N ’20 130w
=ROLT-WHEELER, FRANCIS WILLIAM.= Boy with the U.S. trappers. (U.S.
service ser.) il *$1.50 (2c) Lothrop 639
19–17885
This unusually well illustrated volume follows the plan of the other
books of the series in combining information with narrative. In
telling the story of young Gavin Keary, from the time he is left alone
to shift for himself till he is engaged as a trapper by the U.S.
biological survey, the author manages to impart a great deal of
information about the work of this branch of the government service,
the conditions of modern trapping and the ways of wild animals.
* * * * *
“The average reader will find it interesting and boys will find it
even thrilling.”
+ =Booklist= 16:208 Mr ’20
“It avoids the insipidity that goes with most boys’ books and is
packed full of information about ranch life.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 D 20 ’19 100w
=ROOF, KATHARINE METCALF.=[2] Great demonstration. *$2 (3c) Appleton
20–19435
Roger Lessing and Terry Endicott are both in love with Lucretia Dale.
She is in love with neither until on the eve of Terry’s departure for
the war, she realizes that he has her heart. But report comes that he
is dead, and half against her own will, she consents to marry though
she cannot love Roger. Roger has always been a disciple of New
thought, believing “What I desire, will come to me,” but even his
desire for Lucretia’s love cannot bring it to him. Then Terry is
miraculously returned to life from a German prison; and Roger’s desire
for Lucretia’s love is intensified. From the creed of New thought he
advances into more dangerous forms of eastern mysticism to gain his
end until finally the power that he sought to use masters him, and he
meets his death in his last effort to control Lucretia’s mind and
love.
* * * * *
“It cannot be said that the psychic element in this novel is either
interesting or convincing. On the other hand, the sketches of daily
existence in the ‘studio’ are amusing and the general atmosphere of
the story is pleasing.”
+ − =N Y Times= p24 Ja 16 ’21 430w
=ROOSEVELT, KERMIT.= Happy hunting-grounds. *$1.75 Scribner 799
20–19277
“In the opening chapter, the author gives an intimate picture of his
father, as he remembers him in the rôle of companion during numerous
hunting expeditions. There are numerous personal incidents and
reminiscences. Other chapters have to do with hunting in America,
including trips into Mexico. ‘Book collecting in South America’
recalls another purpose of a trip into a foreign land. At the end of
the volume a sketch is given of Seth Bullock, his father’s friend,
sometimes called the ‘last of the frontiersmen,’ a type celebrated and
adored by Roosevelt.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:145 Ja ’21
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 30 ’20 420w
“The volume is interesting and well written throughout—Kermit
Roosevelt has inherited his father’s knack of clear description and
vigorous English.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p13 O 30 ’20 130w
+ =R of Rs= 62:669 D 20 140w
“Will be welcomed by the many admirers of the former president, those
who admired him as a man, and not only as a political leader.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 O 19 ’20 190w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p843 D 9 ’20 150w
=ROPER, WILLIAM W.= Winning football. il *$2 (4½c) Dodd 797
20–17071
The author distinguishes between an old and a new way of playing
football. The old way “was first and last a trial of speed and
strength and weight and courage” in which cleverness was at a discount
and mere pounds and inches at a premium. The new way is “thinking
football,” for which the author claims every manly virtue and that it
is “a splendid preparatory school for life.” Of this game the book
proposes to set forth the underlying principles. Contents: Modern
football a battle of wits; The spirit behind the team; The routine of
early season practise; Every man in every play; A real quarter-back
must have brains; Running the team; The kicking game; The schedule;
The day of the big game; Illustrations.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:145 Ja ’21
“A readable unusually valuable book for any one who is coaching
football.”
+ =Ind= 104:249 N 13 ’20 40w
“It is not only informational, but inspirational. The attitude
throughout is that of the highminded amateur sportsman of the best
type. For this reason, if for no other, it is a book that most men and
all boys should read.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p11 N 6 ’20 210w
+ =N Y Times= p25 Ja 30 ’21 160w
=ROSE, JOSHUA.= Complete practical machinist. il $3 Baird 621.9
20–2274
In the twentieth, greatly enlarged edition of this work, the reader is
introduced “to the machine tools in which the cutting tools are used,
whereas in the earlier editions the cutting tools only were treated
upon.” (Preface) The present edition has 432 illustrations. The work
originally appeared in 1894.
=ROSEBORO, VIOLA.= Storms of youth. *$1.75 (2½c) Scribner
20–8273
Just before Perry Grantley left college, a faculty incident revealed
to him in a flash what “a sporty thing” it would be to be a man. It
clinched his decision to stay in the old home town and fight the
political graft that had crept into the local government there. In the
story we follow Perry’s crusade against the insidious corruption of
the town and his personal vicissitudes in matters of the heart—how his
unguarded marriage to a flower-like girl with an unborn soul resulted
in early widowerhood and his final union with the playmate of his
youth whom he had always loved. Incidentally a picture of small town
life, its outstanding figures, with their normal, their sub- and
super-normal qualities, unfolds itself, leaving the reader with the
impression that life with its successes, its failures and its sorrows
is all a part of “the beauty and wonder.”
* * * * *
“There is a very vivid picture of the life of the town from the
beginning of the book. One must admire the author’s skill in
visualizing these varied elements.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ’20 370w
“The characters are well realized, the situations are poignant, and
the method of narration becomes progressively more coherent and
telling.”
+ =Dial= 69:210 Ag ’20 100w
=N Y Times= 25:30 Jl 4 ’20 180w
“The book would be a better one if the end were reached a little
sooner. The novel contains a good many characters, but the author
keeps firm hold on each one of them, and their variety helps to give
verisimilitude to this tale of love and politics in a small American
town.”
+ =N Y Times= p29 Ag 15 ’20 700w
=Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 40w
“My feeling about the whole book is that it is too elaborate a
mechanism, with a weakness at its vitals. Finally, we are reluctantly
aware of the style as artful in its polish and saliency. We feel that
the writer has labored well, but we feel that she has labored.” H. W.
Boynton
− + =Review= 3:272 S 29 ’20 280w
=ROSENFELD, PAUL.= Musical portraits. *$2.50 (3c) Harcourt 780
20–8863
In these “interpretations of twenty modern composers” (Sub-title) the
author characterizes the music of each and shows how each composer
reflected the age in which he lived either in its entirety or in
certain phases and according to the musician’s temperament. The
composers are: Wagner; Strauss; Moussorgsky; Liszt; Berlioz; Franck;
Debussy; Ravel; Borodin; Rimsky-Korsakoff; Rachmaninoff; Scriabine;
Strawinsky; Mahler; Reger; Schoenberg; Sibelius; Loeffler; Ornstein;
Bloch. The appendix consists of short biographical notes of each
composer.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:304 Je ’20
“Mr Rosenfeld knows how to write. This fact alone would make him of
the minority among those who write at and about music. His style is
nervous, clear, ironical if not humorous, and he uses words with
precision. A well-written, interesting, sincere, exasperating book. In
other words, a book worth reading.” Deems Taylor
+ − =Dial= 69:313 S ’20 3150w
“Each is a sort of snapshot of the essential personality of a
musician, and all taken together make up a gallery of modern composers
so penetrating, vivid and trenchant that no reader is likely to forget
them. The method used is the impressionist. Inevitably, the special
pitfall of a method like Mr Rosenfeld’s is over-subjectivity and
sentimentalism, with its resultant turgidity and tendency to ‘fine
writing.’ Mr Rosenfeld’s first book of essays at once establishes him
as one of the few writers on music able really to illuminate their
subject.” D. G. Mason
+ − =Freeman= 1:332 Je 16 ’20 1600w
+ =Ind= 102:374 Je 12 ’20 190w
“Many of the fundamental ideas set forth have been voiced at one time
or another by the more penetrating of European critics. Yet Mr
Rosenfeld has displayed a marked faculty for reinvesting these ideas
in fresh and striking habiliments, embroidering them with such
originality and skill that they take a new aspect. The whole book, in
fact, is an astounding exhibition of virtuoso writing.” Henrietta
Straus
+ =Nation= 111:sup411 O 13 ’20 1550w
“For its many good qualities, this book is deserving of unstinted
praise. For one thing, it is, I believe, the first noteworthy attempt
to take an accurate and full-size measurement of the music makers of
our day, and for another, the critical yard stick is applied by a hand
equally as artistic as it is dexterous. The only annoyance I
experienced in reading the book was due to a feeling that, in parts,
many of the pages were overwritten.” Max Endicoff
+ − =N Y Call= p10 Jl 18 ’20 260w
“Mr Rosenfeld delights in vivid colors. At moments, to be sure, one
sees a tendency to overdo this eloquence; to pass too suddenly from
rhapsody to invective, and from praise to blame. But even with such
faults—perhaps because of them—these ‘Twenty portraits’ are in their
own field unique.” C: H: Meltzer
+ − =Review= 3:456 N 10 ’20 950w
“There is an abundance of subtlety, of ‘style,’ of smart theories that
are more preoccupied with themselves and their inner consistency than
with their subject-matter.”
− =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ag 31 ’20 380w
=ROSS, EDWARD ALSWORTH.= Principles of sociology. (Century social
science ser.) *$4 Century 301
20–9364