“English industrialism, is, primarily, a consequence of certain
philosophic ideas, but the author fails to comprehend this major fact,
not from any lack of knowledge of the complexities of economic
organization, but rather, one surmises because such intricacies are
too much for him. He has not seen the wood for the trees, and he fears
generalizations—except the one implied throughout the book, that there
are no generalizations possible.” R. W.
− + =Freeman= 2:141 O 20 ’20 980w
“The book shows throughout the discriminatory use of the latest
available results of research and much painstaking original work. The
controversial treatment, the careful qualification in discussion, as
well as occasional heaviness in style, make the book unsuited for an
undergraduate text.”
+ − =J Pol Econ= 28:520 Je ’20 500w
+ − =New Repub= 23:341 Ag 18 ’20 1650w
“It is encyclopædic in its character and is much more full in dealing
with the mechanical aspects and the mechanical development of industry
than with the history of the men, women, and children who have been
engaged in the industries of England. In this respect it is a
disappointing book.”
+ − =Outlook= 126:67 S 8 ’20 170w
“It is no small task to formulate a general text-book covering so
enormous a field and involving many disputatious matters. Professor
Usher has, however, accomplished this with skill. Some of his chapters
are inadequate. In his discussion of land reform and the inclosure
movement, for example, the plight of the evicted peasant farmers seems
to be poorly understood. A similar criticism of a narrowness of
sympathy, or at any rate of an inadequacy of understanding, might be
directed against the final chapter. Professor Usher has a very thin
knowledge of the British labor situation today.” W. L. C.
+ − =Survey= 45:288 N 20 ’20 300w
=USHER, ROLAND GREENE.= Story of the great war. il *$2.50 Macmillan
940.3
19–19080
“Professor Usher begins his story with the assassination of the
Archduke of Austria; but he shows beyond doubt that the war really
began months before this event. The German attitude in 1914 is
described; the reports of spies concerning the French and the Russian
preparedness and the British reluctance to enter into war. With these
preliminaries, which include the first five chapters of his book,
Professor Usher begins his narrative with the story of the campaign on
Paris and the wonderful strategy displayed by General Joffre, followed
by the aggressiveness of Foch.... He traces the work of Hindenburg;
the entrance of the British and the Italians into the struggle; the
submarine campaign and the incident of the Lusitania; ... the German
offensive of 1918; the entrance of America into the war;
Chateau-Thierry and the surprising fighting qualities of the American
soldier; St Mihiel, the crumbling of the German line; and the final
crash and fall.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“Many of the illustrations, taken from newspapers published in the
most acute moments of the war, are full of extreme feeling. The book,
therefore, does not tend to form cool and restrained views of the
world war. Probably the author did not wish to form such views. Its
strong point is in its large amount of information presented clearly
and directly.”
+ − =Am Hist R= 26:136 O ’20 300w
“It is distinctive for the clearness of statement, an interpretation
rather than a catalogue of events. May be read with interest by upper
grade pupils or grown-ups. Good illustrations and maps.”
+ =Booklist= 16:165 F ’20
“Professor Usher’s story is told with wonderful vigor, great
picturesqueness and with a rare comprehension of causes and of
effects. His final brief discussion of the query, ‘Who won the war?’
is illuminating and beyond doubt thoroughly correct in its findings.”
E. J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ja 17 ’20 550w
“It was to be expected that what was written under the stress of war
should partake largely of the character of propaganda, but the war is
now a matter of history and we have a right to expect that historical
students will try to assume a more judicial attitude toward the events
of the past few years. The chief objection to Mr Usher’s work is that
its viewpoint is that of 1917.” L. M. L.
− + =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:76 Je ’20 330w
“It is a serious handicap to American history that much of it is now
written to meet the needs of the immature mind, that is, for the
college audience. Professor Usher has composed a ‘story of the war’ in
which the bright boy will find just what he wants, but in which the
thoughtful man can grasp little to satisfy him.” Preserved Smith
− + =Nation= 110:302 Mr 6 ’20 220w
“This history is terse, clear, and well proportioned. It will serve
satisfactorily as a ready reference book and for schools, and will
help in reading the more elaborate histories that will later appear.”
+ =Outlook= 124:161 Ja 28 ’20 40w
“The volume is attractively illustrated.”
+ =R of Rs= 61:220 F ’20 100w
+ =School R= 28:315 Ap ’20 380w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p242 Ap 15 ’20 30w
V
=VACHELL, HORACE ANNESLEY.= Whitewash. *$1.90 (1c) Doran
20–7763
The past, the present, and the future are represented in this story,
and, as must be expected, clash. Lady Selina Chandos, widow of the
Squire of Upworthy, writes with a quill and carries on her husband’s
work along his lines. Consequently the picturesque village of Upworthy
is in a state of decay, and sickness and death lurk between the rotten
floors and leaking thatched roofs. Her daughter Cicely has been at
school and her chum there was Tiddy, the very incarnation of modernity
and daring feminism. Also the old parish doctor, owing to conditions
in the village, is obliged to take on a partner in the person of young
Dr Grimshaw. Lady Selina’s nearest neighbor is Lord Wilverley, an
up-to-date landlord. Of course there is trouble and not until Lord
Selina’s son, Brian, is dead in France, the village in revolt, the
manor house in ashes, and Cicely has jilted Lord Wilverley and
declared her love for Grimshaw, does Lady Selina realize that
whitewashing time is over and a new day has dawned.
* * * * *
“A trenchant indictment of obsolete systems of estate-management.”
+ =Ath= p464 Ap 2 ’20 100w
“In spite of its sociological theme, a well told story untainted by
preachiness.”
+ =Booklist= 16:351 Jl ’20
“All this seems very serious, and somewhat in the nature of a social
and political tract for the times, but the discussion of conditions in
the village of Upworthy and on the Chandos estate are so closely
interwoven into the story that they are made much more effective than
if they were direct propaganda. The love element in the story is
ingenious.” E. F. E.
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 Je 19 ’20 1400w
“The story is mediocre in characterization but rich in the dramatic
portrayal of a wealth of incident.”
+ − =Cleveland= p71 Ag ’20 60w
“It is pleasant, leisurely writing with some excellent character
drawing.”
+ =Ind= 103:53 Jl 10 ’20 180w
“In a characteristic English country home the old and the new order
strive for supremacy in Mr Vachell’s new novel. And the story through
which he portrays the conflict between them is a fine piece of
workmanship, telling a real story—which so much English fiction does
not—and having a compact framework and an ample supply of interesting
and illuminating incident.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:292 Je 6 ’20 550w
“The novel is capital both for its entertainment and its picture of
old and new English society.”
+ =Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 120w
“The dénoûement is ingeniously contrived, with a good curtain, and
throughout there is no lack of animated and appropriate, if
undistinguished, dialogue. Yet the book leaves us with far less
sympathy for the representatives of either régime than Mr Galsworthy’s
more serious studies of patricians and rebels.”
+ − =Spec= 125:118 Jl 24 ’20 420w
“Mr Vachell invariably writes in an optimistic vein and with due sense
of the humorous and romantic possibilities of a situation. But the
serious under-current is always visible beneath the sun-tipped waves
of the author’s light mood.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 800w
“It is the sudden confrontations, the changes of fortune and the
impact of fate against fate that go to make the book, and they make it
in spite of Mr Vachell’s deficient insight into character. The
dialogue is clever, amusing, enterprising; but it does not seem to be
just exactly what the given person must have said on the given
occasion. Mr Vachell supplies a good plot, and the plot is nine-tenths
of the novel.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p200 Mr 25 ’20 350w
=VALLANCE, AYMER.=[2] Old crosses and lychgates. il *$7.50 Scribner 718
(Eng ed 20–18244)
“Mr Vallance sees in the erection of crosses a suitable way to
memorialize England’s dead in the great war. ‘It is hoped,’ he says,
‘that it might prove useful to gather together a collection of
examples of old crosses and lychgates, as affording the most
appropriate form of monuments for reproduction or adaptation to the
needs of the present.’ In his historical and descriptive studies of
the crosses to be found in England and Wales, except for some
unclassified varieties, Mr Vallance classifies them under five types
to which he devotes a chapter each. They are the monolith crosses, the
shaft-on-steps type, the spire-shaped or Eleanor crosses, preaching
and market crosses.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“The volume is richly illustrated in lithograph of over two hundred
crosses and lychgates with many plans and details in line, making with
the documentary and historical and descriptive text a fascinatingly
instructive work.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 21 ’20 1250w
+ =Sat R= 130:96 Jl 31 ’19 820w
“Mr Vallance surveys his field both widely and closely, and we find
but few occasions of criticism.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p343 Je 3 ’20 1100w
=VANCE, LOUIS JOSEPH.= Dark mirror. il *$1.75 Doubleday
20–5778
“Priscilla Main, the heroine, is subject from childhood to strangely
realistic dreams. She is a wealthy young society woman and artist; but
in the dreams she assumes another personality and moves in an
unfamiliar environment. In the dream existence she associates with
denizens of the underworld in ‘the street of strange faces,’ and is
known as ‘Red Carnahan’s girl.’ She is loved by Mario, who belongs to
another world, but dwells in the lawbreakers’ region of the city, and
who wants to remove her from those unwholesome surroundings. Priscilla
grows to love this man of her dreams. The dreams become so vivid and
distressing that the girl seeks the aid of a psychoanalyst who loves
her, and who undertakes to solve the mystery of her wandering ego. The
mental experimentalist gradually is able to harmonize dreams with
reality and startling data from the realm of psychology are brought to
light.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“Plausible though slightly overdrawn. The end is unexpected and also
fresh.”
+ − =Booklist= 16:315 Je ’20
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p13a Ap 25 ’20 250w
=VANDERLIP, FRANK ARTHUR.= What happened to Europe. *$1.50 (3c)
Macmillan 940.314
20–8050
For the second edition of this work Mr Vanderlip has written a new
preface of twenty-one pages in which he analyzes the financial and
economic development in Europe in the ten months following the writing
of his book. “On the whole,” he says, “the events which have since
occurred have been in harmony with the broad analysis made last May
[1919].” He believes that America has missed a great opportunity and
thinks that there is now little that we can do. “Our first task now is
to put our own house in order.” Descriptive note with critical
excerpts for the first edition will be found in the Annual for 1919.
* * * * *
=N Y Times= p17 Ag 15 ’20 460w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 S 9 ’20 140w
=VAN DIEREN, BERNARD.=[2] Epstein. il *$12.50 (26c) Lane 735
Jacob Epstein, whose genius the author of this volume compares to that
of Rembrandt, is said to be one of the greatest living sculptors. He
belongs to that order of original creative minds “who have made the
world, made humanity what it is in its best aspects. Human achievement
is their work, human thought takes its foundation from what they have
recognized and revealed, and the sum total of knowledge progresses by
cumulative effect from one of such masters to the next one.” As it is
the author’s opinion that words can not help in the appreciation of an
art that does not speak to the spectator in its own language, the
observations of the book are chiefly devoted to the problems of
appreciation and understanding of art in general. The book contains
fifty reproductions in collotype of the sculptor’s work.
* * * * *
=Boston Transcript= p6 N 20 ’20 330w
“The reproductions are beautiful in the profoundest sense. The volume
is an accessible enrichment to the world of art.”
+ =Dial= 69:666 D ’20 120w
“In spite of a treatise as heavy-handed as any ever inflicted by
pretentious and empty shoptalk the illustrations of the sculptor’s art
still interest and entrance. It is characteristically absurd that a
public which does not buy a sculptor’s work should purchase a
comparatively expensive book about him in which none of his spirit
lives and which, while it contains his apotheosis as a divinity,
contains still more the apotheosis of up-to-date studio and café
commonplace.”
− + =N Y Evening Post= p7 D 4 ’20 1200w
=N Y Times= p9 D 26 ’20 340w
“If we gather anything from it all, it is a general impression that
most people who interest themselves in the arts are fools, and that Mr
Van Dieren has tried to say so in a hundred and thirty pages with a
persistent implication that he is not one of them. As for Mr Epstein,
if we wish to add to our knowledge of him, we must look at the fifty
plates considerately separated from the text at the end of the book.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p349 Je 3 ’20 1550w
=VAN DOREN, MARK.= Poetry of John Dryden. *$3 Harcourt 821
20–19675
“This is an effort to brighten the most neglected side of the greatest
neglected English poet. There is some novelty, I hope, in a treatment
on an extended and more or less enthusiastic scale of Dryden’s
non-dramatic verse as a body, with attention to the celebrator, the
satirist, the journalist, the singer, and the story-teller all
together.” (Preface) The contents are: The making of the poet; False
lights; The true fire; The occasional poet; The journalist in verse;
The lyric poet; The narrative poet; Reputation; conclusion; Appendix;
Index.
* * * * *
“His study of a great poet and a great dramatist is a singular
mingling of contradictions and it is hardly necessary as an
introduction to a poet who needs no introduction.” E. F. Edgett
− =Boston Transcript= p1 D 18 ’20 1800w
“Mr Van Doren has read his English poetry devouringly up to Dryden and
down from him, with the purpose of showing from whom the poet received
each genre, what he did to each, and what it became in the hands of
his successors. By letting in these sidelights skilfully and
relevantly, he manages, without clogging his exposition, to make his
discussion of Dryden a compendious history of poetic form. The effect
upon the reader is, as I can testify, almost riotously stimulating.”
S. P. Sherman
+ =Nation= 111:619 D 1 ’20 1600w
“Our debt to America in the matter of criticism and true scholarship
applied to English literature grows greater year by year. An admirable
example of the thoroughness, nay, of the exhaustive quality of
American criticism, even when it is most sympathetic and least
pedantic, is to be found in this delightful study of John Dryden. The
present writer must confess to a personal interest in Mr Van Doren’s
book because it happens that the American critic’s judgment, not
merely in the whole, but in the parts, agrees in an uncanny way with
his own.”
+ =Spec= 125:739 D 4 ’20 1600w
=VAN DYKE, JOHN CHARLES.= Grand canyon of the Colorado; recurrent
studies in impressions and appearances. il *$2 Scribner 917.91
20–4459
“The book of the northern rim [of the Grand canyon] has yet to be
written, but Professor Van Dyke has studied the scenery from the
southern side and in his recently published book ‘The Grand canyon of
the Colorado,’ gives us a popular account of the geology of the
region. He protests against the naming of the great temples and buttes
of the canyon after the gods of India. The views from a number of the
southern points are described and details are given of the principal
trails to the river. Reference is made to the animals, birds, and
trees, and to the discoverers and prehistoric inhabitants of the
canyon.”—Bookm
* * * * *
“Will delight readers, especially those of a slight scientific bent,
who are not traveling.”
+ =Booklist= 16:240 Ap ’20
Reviewed by Le Roy Jeffers
+ =Bookm= 51:360 My ’20 900w
“The most complete, picturesque and satisfactory account of the Grand
canyon that we have.”
+ =Cleveland= p77 Ag ’20 80w
“Written with all his graceful style and imagery, it may be called a
literary guidebook of a superior kind. About half the book is devoted
to the rock structure of this geologist’s paradise, and as these pages
have not only been carefully prepared by the author but have been read
in proof by Mr Ransome, of the Geological survey, they may be accepted
as accurate.” F: S. Dellenbaugh
+ =Nation= 110:771 Je 5 ’20 400w
“It is a good book for a pleasant afternoon. Mr Van Dyke does not
philosophize or preach or rub in his colors so intensely that he
forces you to yawn. There are none of the clichés of the improving
book here.” M. F. Egan
+ =N Y Times= 25:284 My 30 ’20 200w
“Here is an exceptionally good book about the Grand canyon.”
+ =Outlook= 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 60w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ag 2 ’20 220w
=VAN DYKE, TERTIUS.= Songs of seeking and finding. *$1.50 Scribner 811
20–6369
“It would have been rather disappointing if the music of many little
(and unpronounceable) rivers, spilled down his boyhood years, had not
left song in the heart of the master of Avalon’s son. So it is not at
all surprising to discover that ‘Songs of seeking and finding’ is a
book of very pleasant and profitable verse. The strong, virile faith
behind the poems—their wholesome Christianity—impresses the reader
more than the polish of their lines. Mr Van Dyke pleads for real
values of life and real religion.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“Tertius Van Dyke writes poetry in the manner of his father, but not
quite so well.”
+ − =Ind= 104:66 O 9 ’20 50w
“The best things in the book seem to me to be ‘The war-makers,’
because there is a bit of good healthy rage in it, and ‘A minister
learns about life,’ because it has a good idea in it and ends at just
the right moment.” M. Wilkinson
+ − =N Y Times= p18 Ag 8 ’20 300w
“Mr Van Dyke is more successful in poems thus reflective than in his
lyrics, though in them the same forceful spirit is unmistakable.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p12 Je 8 ’20 310w
=VANE, DEREK.= Ferrybridge mystery. *$2 Moffat
20–17412
“A suburb of London is the scene of Derek Vane’s story. Basil Monck, a
member of the London stock exchange, whose antecedents are unknown to
his most intimate acquaintances, is found shot dead in his home. There
is not the slightest clue to the identity of the murderer, but there
are many people who might logically be suspected of the crime. Monck
had more enemies than friends; he was generally known to have used his
fascinating personality unscrupulously in his dealings with women, and
more than one man blamed him for the loss of a fortune. Motives for
the murder are plentiful and every man or woman who had cause to hate
Monck falls naturally under suspicion.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“It is a pleasure occasionally to find one story of the kind which
justifies the publisher’s contention. The latest book by Miss Derek
Vane is a worthy example. It is above the average of its kind.” C. H.
O.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 S 4 ’20 540w
“In choosing the character upon whom to settle responsibility for
Monck’s death, the author has displayed a courage and an originality
that may react against the popularity of her story.”
+ =N Y Times= p23 S 19 ’20 370w
=VANE, GEORGE (VISCONDE DE SARMENTO).= Waters of strife. *$1.75 (2c)
Lane
20–12603
Beginning before the war in England we get a glimpse of the pre-war
intrigues carried on by a German count, exiled in England, and his
accomplices. But the greater part of the story transpires on Belgian
soil in war-time showing up the ruthlessness of the Germans, and the
indignities to which the Belgians were subjected. The heroism of an
American boy and girl of Belgian descent furnish most of the thrills,
and some fine friendships among the English aristocracy and the
middle-class are depicted.
* * * * *
“The story is full of vigor and coloring befitting the day and scene
in which it is laid.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 28 ’20 160w
“The book is very badly constructed and the character drawing
amateurish, but the account of Aline’s experiences in Belgium is
interesting and occasionally dramatic.”
+ − =N Y Times= p22 Ag 8 ’20 450w
“The book has some good episodes, but in the ordinary way it is
difficult to work up much excitement, principally because the heroes
and scoundrels alike ignore probabilities.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p305 My 13 ’20 130w
=VAN LOON, HENDRIK WILLEM.=[2] Ancient man. il *$3 Boni & Liveright 571
“‘Ancient man’ is to be the first of a series of nine history books in
story form, which ‘will explore the intricate wilderness of the bygone
ages’ and in summing up ‘try to show where the human race has lived up
to its highest possible achievements and wherein it has failed to rise
above the status of the earliest cavemen.’ (Ind) “It begins about
fifty thousand years ago with a broad sketch of prehistoric man,
struggling against elemental nature. It skips to the Nile and comes on
down the ages to the Phoenecians.” (N Y Times)
* * * * *
“The text is terse, up to date, and thoroughly interesting.” A. C.
Moore
+ =Bookm= 52:260 N ’20 110w
“The famous historian undertook this task for his own boys, eight and
twelve years old, and he has sensed unfailingly the way to stimulate
the interest and satisfy the curiosity of youngsters of about that
age.”
+ =Ind= 104:379 D 11 ’20 250w
“Absorbingly interesting. This is the way to tell history to
children—and to the rest of us.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
+ =N Y Times= p9 D 19 ’20 130w
=VANSITTART, ROBERT GILBERT.= Singing caravan; a Sufi tale. *$2 Doran
821
(Eng ed 19–14218)
The device of the pilgrimage, with alternating narrative and song, is
put to new uses by this young English poet. For the end of the matter
is not mere entertainment by the way, but philosophical discussion, in
which the views of the watchmen, the merchant, the scholar, the
sheikh, the sceptic, and even the camel, are represented.
* * * * *
“‘The singing caravan’ hammers mysticism into clean, efficient verse,
which in its ease and correctness, displays the immense technical
equipment of the recent English poets; but his subject matter shows
the lack of freshness and homeliness that handicaps the Georgian poets
as a group in comparison with their American rivals.”
+ − =Dial= 68:537 Ap ’20 50w
“Eastern mysticism and the imagery of the caravan form the vehicle by
which Mr Vansittart conveys his mind upon final things; but there is
no affectation of the Orient in his thought, and even his words are
straightforward and plain; he has Schubert’s knack of turning common
phrases into bewitching melody.”
+ =Spec= 123:118 Jl 26 ’19 50w
“The charm of Persian landscape, the wealth of Persian poetry have
been woven into these tales, and they may be read just as profitably
for the pictures they paint as for the lessons they teach.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 25 ’20 150w
“‘The singing caravan’ is ‘a tale of Persian mystics,’ and with the
Persian mystics we are few of us on intimate terms. But its rich and
clear colouring, innocent of purple patchwork, though ‘local,’ may
none the less charm the untravelled; and the poem may be enjoyed
either for its landscape and characters, its allegory, its remarkable
craftsmanship, or for the sake of the mind and spirit which are
revealed in it.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p447 Ag 21 ’19 1000w
=VAN VECHTEN, CARL.= In the garret. *$2 (3c) Knopf 780.4
20–926
From the garret of his memory the author produces many things,
scrutinizes them whimsically and chats about them at random. The
things are authors and books and music and people he has met.
Contents: Variations on a theme by Havelock Ellis; A note on Philip
Thicknesse; The folk-songs of Iowa; Isaac Albéniz; The holy jumpers;
On the relative difficulties of depicting heaven and hell in music;
Sir Arthur Sullivan; On the rewriting of masterpieces; Oscar
Hammerstein: an epitaph; La tigresse; In the theatres of the purlieus:
Mimi Aguglia as Salome, Farfariello, The negro theatre, The Yiddish
theatre, The Spanish theatre.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p257 F 20 ’20 80w
+ =Booklist= 16:198 Mr ’20
“He has a magnificent way of being unimportant. His touch is light and
artistic. His culture is Hunekeresque. His scholarship is musicianly,
sometimes jazzy.” Mary Terrill
+ =Bookm= 51:193 Ap ’20 350w
+ =New Repub= 22:161 Mr 31 ’20 80w
“The author does himself injustice by opening with the least
attractive essay in the book, though it shows the most erudition....
It is when he surveys the American scene that we go all the way with
Mr Van Vechten.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p77 F 5 ’20 800w
=VAN VECHTEN, CARL.= Tiger in the house. il *$5 Knopf 636.8
“I have written, how skilfully I cannot tell, on the manners and
customs of the cat, his graces and calineries, the history of his
subjugation of humankind. Through all the ages, even during the dark
epoch of witchcraft and persecution, puss has maintained his
supremacy, continued to breed and multiply, defying, when convenient,
the laws of God and man, now our friend, now our enemy, now wild, now
tame, the pet of the hearth or the tiger of the heath, but always
free, always independent, always an anarchist who insists upon his
rights, whatever the cost. The cat never forms soviets; he works
alone.” (Apotheosis) The illustrations are many and beautiful. There
is an exhaustive bibliography and an index and the contents are: By
way of correcting a popular prejudice; Treating of traits;
Ailurophobes and other cat-haters; The cat and the occult; The cat in
folklore; The cat and the law; The cat in the theatre; The cat in
music; The cat in art; The cat in fiction; The cat and the poet;
Literary men who have loved cats; Apotheosis.
* * * * *
“The book is a revelation concerning the more or less important part
which cats have played in history and literature.”
+ =Bookm= 52:367 Ja ’21 160w
“The suggestive ingenuity of its title is matched by the far-reaching
skill with which he has amassed and arrayed his facts so as to make
them into a continuous story that blends both fact and the
imagination.” E. F. Edgett
+ =Boston Transcript= p2 D 11 ’20 1600w
“Mr Van Vechten is less fortunate in his choice of pictures than in
his text.” J. W. Krutch
+ =Nation= 112:sup243 F 9 ’21 780w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
=Review= 3:648 D 29 ’20 150w
=VAN VORST, MARIE.= Fairfax and his pride. *$1.75 Small
20–4010
“Miss Van Vorst’s narrative is the story of the struggles of Antony
Fairfax to gain distinction as a sculptor. He is largely self-taught,
but soon after coming to New York in 1880, at the age of twenty-three,
we find him perfecting an epoch-making piece of modeling in the studio
of a famous sculptor. The latter steals the credit for Fairfax’s work,
and starts the young man on the career which threatens to snuff out
his ambition and great talents. It is after this mischance that
Fairfax becomes successively fireman and engineer for the New York
Central. His railroad service ends abruptly with the receipt of a
small inheritance from an admirer. This takes him to Paris, where he
establishes his fame, experiences a brief romance, and finally has the
satisfaction of confounding the man who stole the early fruits of his
genius.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“Not as interesting as ‘Big Tremaine’ and will not be as popular.”
+ − =Booklist= 16:284 My ’20
“It is safe to say that no American novel of the season so far
surpasses the quality of ‘Fairfax and his pride.’ It tells a story
that takes you astray and brings you back to the main current of
events with surprising interest. The characters are all well drawn. We
close the book with the consciousness that here is a real American
novelist.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Mr 24 ’20 1550w
=N Y Times= 25:170 Ap 11 ’20 320w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
=Review= 2:393 Ap 17 ’20 160w
“The young sculptor and his difficulties do not produce a very lively
impression. Miss Van Vorst never brings her readers into intimate
touch with him, and the short, jerky chapters are irritating in their
effects.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p11a My 30 ’20 550w
=VAN WESEP, HENDRIKUS BOEVE.= Control of ideals. *$2 (5c) Knopf 171
20–18312
This “contribution to the study of ethics” (Sub-title) is concerned
primarily with the problem of war prevention. The author holds that
man is more an imaginative than a rational animal and apt to mistake
his imaginative world for the world of reality. By learning to control
our ideals we learn to distinguish between an ideal and a fixed idea
and to live by rather than die for them. The book takes up in turn the
origin, nature, and function of human ideals and the supreme worth of
the individual and of human life. Contents: Variety of ideals;
Attitude toward ideals; Assimilation of ideals; The survival of
ideals; Nations; Development of self-consciousness; Society versus the
individual; Utopianism; Democracy; Tolerance; Harmony; Symbiosis;
Atomism; Functions of ideals; Moral courage; Index.
* * * * *
“Scholarly but written for the layman.”
+ =Booklist= 17:92 D ’20
“His optimism seems a little too easy for a disillusioned
civilization, but at least he is intelligible, a great recommendation
for any one educated among the fogs of metaphysics.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p13 O 30 ’20 70w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p670 O 14 ’20 90w
=VAST, HENRI.= Little history of the great war. il *$2 Holt 940.3
20–20075
A short history of the war, translated from the French by Raymond
Weeks of Columbia university. Contents: The German race—pangermanism;
The environment—William II and Europe (1900–1914); The critical
moment—responsibility for the war; The sudden attack—battle of the
Marne; Eastern front—Serbia and Russia (1914–1916); Distant theaters
of war—in the Orient—on the sea and in the colonies; The Italian
effort—the army of Saloniki; Retrospective preparation (1915–1916);
The ruin of Russia (1916–1918); American aid; Peace offensives;
Victory—capitulation of Germany. There are twenty-seven maps, but no
index.
* * * * *
“A wonderfully compact story of the war, composed with characteristic
French clarity.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:671 D ’20 60w
=VAUGHAN, WALTER.=[2] Life and work of Sir William Van Horne. il *$5
Century
20–20625
The life of Sir William Van Horne is something of a romance, he having
made his way from a poor boy in Illinois to an English peerage. He
gained his fame and his fortune as a builder of railroads of which the
Canadian Pacific was his greatest achievement. With his natural
abilities, says his biographer, he would have achieved greatness in
any field; as a military commander, as an engineer or architect, as a
painter or in the natural sciences. The book has several maps,
illustrations and an index.
* * * * *
“The chief merit of the book is its really vivid picture of a striking
personality.” Allan Nevins
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p8 Ja 29 ’21 1250w
=R of Rs= 62:670 D ’20 100w
=VEBLEN, THORSTEIN B.= Place of science in modern civilization, and
other essays. *$3 Huebsch 330.4
20–6953
“The assumptions of the existing economic order are studied in
Thorstein Veblen’s latest book, ‘The place of science in modern
civilization.’ This is a carefully selected series of papers published
in economic journals during the past twenty years, and sums up the
principles of an economic attitude so popular among modern economists
that it has been entitled ‘Veblenism.’”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“If these old essays are valuable, in the face of all that their
author has since contributed, it is because of their emphasis upon the
spirit of his work; because, as much as anything he has done, they
show the impulse and intention of his scholarship. There are here, as
elsewhere, passages that rouse impatience because of the author’s very
carelessness of pragmatism.” Babette Deutsch
+ − =Dial= 69:79 Jl ’20 1250w
“There are serious difficulties in the way of a ‘scientific’ treatment
of economics, over which Mr Veblen does not help us, and many of which
he does not see. A keen critic, he is not a close or clear thinker;
destructively valuable, we can hardly follow him as a constructive
leader.” F. H. Knight
+ − =J Pol Econ= 28:518 Je ’20 1100w
“The book is a rich contribution to economic and social literature,
and is, in a way, Mr Veblen at his scientific best.” H. A. Overstreet
+ =Nation= 111:250 Ag 28 ’20 500w
“Nowhere in them is there any indication of that subtle wit, the
telling thrust, the finely pointed characterization that rewarded the
hours of toil through his other writings. While our author’s standing
as a humanist is enhanced by the essays, his reputation as an
economist will not be.” N. W. Wilensky
− + =N Y Call= p10 My 16 ’20 1050w
“One cannot help wondering whether Mr Veblen himself knows what an
excellent literary quality his writings have, and what a boon to the
jaded reader is the absence in his work of certain conventional
literary virtues—solemnity, geniality, sonority, and the like.”
+ − =No Am= 211:424 Mr ’20 1350w
“The position of Mr Veblen is so deserving of attention that one must
regard his involved style and ponderous vocabulary as a misfortune.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p8 Mr 18 ’20 580w
“Several of them are on academically important topics which,
nevertheless, the more general public that has become interested in
the author’s theories can afford to skip. Others deal with fundamental
issues which the layman should try to understand. Among these we would
class the three papers on the preconceptions of economic science which
demonstrate the shifts in the boundaries of that science, and
especially the newer emphasis on its human aspects.”
+ =Survey= 44:352 Je 5 ’20 150w
=VERNÈDE, ROBERT ERNEST.= Port Allington stories, and others. *$1.90
(2c) Doran
20–21335
A volume of short stories by an English author who was killed in the
war, issued now as he had prepared them for publication, with a
preface by his wife. Some of them had appeared in Harper’s Magazine.
Contents: “This is Tommy”; The greatness of Mr Watherstone; The
outrage at Port Allington; The offense of Stephen Danesford; Soaring
spirits; The bad Samaritan; The sunk elephant; The adventure of the
Persian prince; The smoke on the stairs; On the raft; Madame Bluebird;
The missing princess; A night’s adventure; The maze.
* * * * *
“Deftness of phrasing, and a sense of character and of the social
ironies mark a volume of tales whose sarcasm is never bitter and whose
laughter is always good-natured.”
+ =N Y Times= p26 D 26 ’20 310w
“Nowhere except in Mrs Wharton’s matchless ‘Xingu,’ and possibly in Mr
Benson’s current ‘Queen Lucia,’ have the humors of feminine club-made
culture been more amusingly displayed.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 3:253 S 22 ’20 300w
=VERNÈDE, ROBERT ERNEST.= War poems, and other verses. *$1.50 Doran 821
20–20444
Edmund Gosse in his introduction gives a biographical sketch of the
author, an Englishman of French descent who, altho past military age,
enlisted at the beginning of the war and was killed in 1917. Among the
war poems are England and the sea, The call; The Indian army; A legend
of the fleet; To the United States; Christmas, 1914; To Canada; Before
the assault. These are followed by a small group of “other verses” on
such themes as The July garden, Friendship, To an English sheep-dog.
The volume was published in England in the fall of 1917.
* * * * *
+ =Lit D= p33 F 16 ’18 100w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
=Review= 3:269 S 29 ’20 250w
“In Lieutenant Vernède’s unhesitating and uncompromising verse the man
sustains the poet, but the poet merits that support.” O. W. Firkins
+ =Review= 3:318 O 13 ’20 120w
=R of Rs= 57:333 Mr ’18 230w
“Some of the finest poems that have come from the trenches. They are
instinct with an exalted patriotism.”
+ =Spec= 120:14 Ja 5 ’18 320w
=VERRILL, ALPHEUS HYATT.=[2] Islands and their mysteries. il *$1.75
Duffield 551.42
20–20916
The author offers this volume as a companion to “The ocean and its
mysteries.” It explains in a non-technical manner how islands are
formed, how they resemble or differ from one another, how they become
covered with vegetation, and are inhabited by animal life and many
other puzzling and interesting features of islands and insular life.
Imaginary trips to imaginary islands of various types hold the young
reader’s attention. Contents: The romance of islands; Islands and
islands; Volcanic islands; Coral islands and other islands; Island
life; Island vegetation; A ramble on a lake island; An island in the
sea; Exploring an island in a tropical river; A visit to an island in
tropical seas; The island of salt; The island of pearls; When people
dwell in a volcano; Islands of the frozen seas. There are
illustrations.
* * * * *
“The story is an extremely fascinating one and although designed
undoubtedly for the reading of adults, cannot fail to be both
interesting and instructive to boys and girls in their teens, whose
minds are beginning to expand and to reason and inquire into the
causes of things.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p1 D 11 ’20 330w
“Always he retains a human viewpoint, so that his book reflects the
wonder and mystery of life instead of degenerating into a mere
scientific treatise.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 Ja 8 ’21 480w
+ =R of Rs= 63:112 Ja ’21 80w
“Although the style, which smacks somewhat of the elementary
geography, grows a bit monotonous at times, he leaves one wishing for
more.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 28 ’21 200w
=VESTAL, SAMUEL CURTIS.= Maintenance of peace. *$5 (2c) Putnam 341
20–9987
“The foundations of domestic and international peace as deduced from a
study of the history of nations.” (Sub-title) At the hands of history,
going as far back as ancient Assyria, the author endeavors to prove
that peace can only be secured on a basis of militarism and
preparedness and on a “balance of power” rather than on a world
confederacy or a league of nations. Sea power ought naturally to
belong to the nation weakest in land power, in order that the balance
of power may be maintained and “freedom of the seas” can be little
more than a phrase. Of pacifism he will have none for it teaches “a
spiritless doctrine of cowardice.” Preparedness is as necessary for
the maintenance of domestic peace as of peace between nations. A
partial list of the contents is: The domestic peace of nations; The
integration of nations; World federation; The balance of power; Early
history of the balance of power; The thirty years’ war; Part taken by
England in maintaining the balance of power since the treaty of
Utrecht; Lessons that should be drawn from attempts to overthrow the
balance of power and establish world empires; The Holy alliance;
Arbitration as a panacea for war; Neutralization of small states;
Disarmament; Germany prepares for world conquest; Growth of pacifism
outside of Germany; Index.
* * * * *
“Many new ideas are broached in this thoughtful volume, which is
worthy of the close study of statesman and militarist.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 16 ’20 400w
=Ind= 103:292 S 4 ’20 20w
=VILLARS, MEG.= Broken laugh. *$2 (1c) McBride
The heroine, a very simple and trusting little English girl, who
answers to the name of Kissy-Girl, is betrayed at the age of seventeen
and goes to London alone to await the birth of her child. A chance
clue from a newspaper sends her to Paris in search of the man and she
is there decoyed into a house of ill fame. Refusing to become one of
the professional inmates she is allowed to remain as a servant. In
this capacity she meets Jim Crighton, an Englishman who falls in love
with her and takes her to Brussels. He has made up his mind to marry
her when the war breaks out. He enlists and succeeds to a title. His
intention to marry Kissy remains, but a German bomb puts an end to
everything.
* * * * *
“If she had been content to develop her whole story in the milieu she
knows best, she would probably have produced a really effective
narrative.”
+ − =Ath= p1386 D 19 ’19 60w
“A novel of more than usual literary excellence. The reader’s sympathy
with this story will depend almost entirely upon his conception of the
importance of conventionally fixed morality.”
+ =N Y Times= p24 N 7 ’20 470w
“Like much latter-day fiction, this work has numerous touches of
interest and reality; but, as a whole, gives an effect of weakness.”
− + =Sat R= 129:193 F 21 ’20 230w
“Such a tale might be sensational, but, in Miss Villars’s telling, it
is delicate.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a Ag 29 ’20 420w
“Obviously the war should not have been allowed to intrude; it spoils
everything. But one day she may write a book as good from cover to
cover as the first hundred pages of ‘The broken laugh.’”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p769 D 18 ’19 480w
=VILLIERS, FREDERIC=, il. Days of glory. il *$5 Doran 940.49
20–4792
“The sketch book of a veteran correspondent at the front.” (Sub-title)
The volume consists of a series of fifty full-page illustrations
showing scenes at the front, each accompanied by brief descriptive
comment. Philip Gibbs contributes an introduction, “A salute to
Frederic Villiers.”
* * * * *
“A well made book.”
+ =Booklist= 16:277 My ’20
“It is worth whole tomes of verbal description. The pictures are vivid
and accurate.” N. H. D.
+ =Boston Transcript= p10 Ap 17 ’20 560w
“Villiers represents the type of the old-guard war correspondent at
its best. The sketches in ‘Days of glory’ have no special artistic
merit. They look very old fashioned beside the modern methods of
Nevinson and Nash. In character they are topographical, anecdotal,
documentary. There is no doubt that they possess a certain historical
significance.”
+ =Nation= 111:785 D 29 ’20 250w
+ =Outlook= 124:657 Ap 14 ’20 60w
“The artistic merit of Mr Villiers’s work consists not merely in the
personal element wrought into the pictures as contrasted with the
mechanical work of a camera, but also in the fact that here are
pictures at which no camera had a chance in 1914–15, and the other
pictures which no camera could have furnished with all the license in
the world.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ap 26 ’20 360w
=VILLIERS, FREDERIC.= Villiers, his five decades of adventure. 2v il *$6
(7½c) Harper
20–20650
Two volumes devoted to the life of a veteran war correspondent and
artist. He was born in 1851, in England, and his first association
with wars came in 1870 when he went over to Paris to pick up material
for a panorama of the Franco-Prussian war. The next adventure that
offered was the war between Serbia and Turkey in 1876, and others
followed, taking him to every part of the earth, down to the great
war. The volumes are illustrated.
* * * * *
“These tales of five decades of adventure must be placed among the
greatest of autobiographies.” E. J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p11 D 8 ’20 750w
“Here between covers are the dramatic figures and the stirring events
of two and a half generations presented by a writer trained throughout
a lifetime in the art of bringing out all the high lights and shades
of dramatic contrasts.”
+ =N Y Times= p18 D 12 ’20 2600w
“With long practice in telling the public what it wanted to know, it
might go without saying that this autobiography is chatty and
interesting from start to finish.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 21 ’21 520w
=VINCENT, FLORENCE SMITH.= Peter’s adventures in Meadowland. il *$2
Stokes
20–18753
A nature-fairy story for children. Peter is a little boy who has no
playmates. For saving the life of an oak tree that his father had
wanted to cut down, he is rewarded with the friendship of all the
living things. He not only learns their language, he is able at will
to make himself smaller and smaller until he meets butterflies and
grasshoppers and crickets on equal terms. He can enter their houses,
climb up spider web ladders and ride on a butterfly’s back. So he
learns of their ways, and finds out that they are just as wise, and
sometimes wiser, than humans.
=VORSE, MARY MARVIN (HEATON).= Growing up. *$1.75 Boni & Liveright
20–12378
“This book is concerned solely and entirely with the growing up of a
small family of children and the trials, perplexities and mooted
questions which the parents of those children faced every day of their
lives in their effort to do the right thing by their offspring.” (N Y
Times) “Very likely many who start this book will be impressed with a
sense of familiarity since Tom and Alice Marcey and their three
children have already seen the light some years ago in the pages of a
magazine, but we must know Robert and Sara and Jamie in book form to
fully appreciate them.” (Boston Transcript)
* * * * *
“Will delight all modern troubled parents and other grownups.”
+ =Booklist= 17:75 N ’20
“One of the most interesting characteristics of the book is the
breadth of its appeal. The children are so natural, their parents are
so natural, that it seems impossible that anyone could fail to find
something attractive in their story.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 17 ’20 450w
“The tale presents a more or less deft but quite obvious mixture of
pedagogy and feminism, in an ample solution of juvenile prattle and
misdemeanour. The whole, however, is so well spiced with humour and
sweetened with domestic sentiment that (to quote the publisher’s
tribute) ‘the tired business man and the weary housewife will find a
real release in reading it.’” H. S. H.
+ =Freeman= 1:574 Ag 25 ’20 580w
“Her humor is fresh and rich and delicate. One may quite forget her
psychological implications and yield to the mirth and human charm of
her story and her people.”
+ =Nation= 111:275 S 4 ’20 440w
“Mrs Vorse’s story, though backed by sound psychology and keen
observation, is yet light fiction. Its merit is rather in the
contribution it makes to the growing volume of child thought, to the
explanation of such pieces as ‘The young visiters’ than in the
intrinsic value of either the tale or the style.” Henrietta Malkiel
+ =N Y Call= p10 Ag 15 ’20 500w
“It is a most engaging book. The freshness, the humor and the
spontaneity that characterized Mrs Vorse’s former novel are equally
manifest here, along with a deeper purpose and a greater
significance.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:25 Jl 4 ’20 820w
“Every one who enjoyed ‘The Prestons’ will be glad to read ‘Growing
up.’”
+ =Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 40w
“This story is as delightful as ‘The Prestons,’ and that is saying
much for it. The author has an uncanny understanding of children and
the problems that they offer to conscientious parents.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8a S 19 ’20 500w
+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:239 D ’20 40w
=VORSE, MARY MARVIN (HEATON).=[2] Men and steel. *$2 (3c) Boni &
Liveright 331.89
After a graphic description of the power of iron and of how coal, iron
and steel rule our civilization, of the great machines in the mills to
which man is but a negligible adjunct, of the mill towns—the slummiest
and the comparatively decent—all with the common motive: “Man is puny;
Industry great”—the author gives the history of the great steel strike
which she has personally followed up and observed in detail. The book
falls into four parts: Strike background; The steel strike; Silence;
The dying strike.
* * * * *
“Skillfully written the book is, but it proves next to nothing, for
throughout the author uses the individual’s story (easy to find among
several hundred thousand people) to prove broad truths.”
− + =Boston Transcript= p4 Ja 19 ’21 170w
“It is a beautiful and a terrible book, because like a true work of
art it embodies the elemental beauty and terror of life.”
+ =Nation= 112:87 Ja 19 ’21 780w
“This book of Mary Vorse’s is a thrilling and a perfectly sane and
down-on-the-ground contribution to the history of that historic steel
strike of last winter. It is a book really of stories—of stories of
men and of women and of children and of homes.” W: Hard
+ =New Repub= 25:51 D 8 ’20 1000w
“At the beginning of chapter II there is a really powerful bit of
writing.... And there are other pieces of really good writing in the
book. The rest too frequently tends toward the bathos of film captions
and magazine stories. The story she tells is not only improbable, but
she puts her own opinions and feelings into the mouths of her Slovaks
with a ruthless roughness. Where they do not speak as she would have
them she makes them think her thoughts.”
− + =N Y Times= p23 Ja 16 ’21 1200w
“On the whole, she has done an illuminating bit of work. It is
propaganda rather than detached painting, but it is propaganda of a
high quality. At times one regrets that the artist in Mrs Vorse was
not more rigorous in its exactions on the other side of her
personality, but, after all, no one else has given so moving a picture
of the routine of life in the steel towns.” W. L. C.
+ − =Survey= 45:676 F 5 ’21 220w
=VORSE, MARY MARVIN (HEATON).= Ninth man. il *$1.25 (7½c) Harper
20–15068
This story, set in a medieval Italian city, is a study of hate and
fear. Mazzaleone, the conqueror of the city, has decreed that it shall
mete out its own punishment and to each ninth person passing in review
before him he has given a black disc which signifies power over life
or death. For within thirty days each possessor of a disc may
designate secretly one who is to be put to death. First mad lust for
life breaks loose, then hatred and revenge, and lastly fear. But among
the frenzied populace there moves one who preaches love and
forgiveness and who offers to take on himself the death for all. This
is Brother Agnello, who carries one of the black discs and who was
first shown the way to keep his own hands clean and then the way to
redeem his townsmen.
* * * * *
+ =N Y Times= p24 D 19 ’20 370w
“It is a colorful tale, and will appeal to those who have found
pleasure in the earlier Italian stories of Maurice Hewlett and the
romances of James Branch Cabell’s invention.”
+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:196 N ’20 90w
W
=WADSLEY, OLIVE.= Belonging. *$1.75 (2c) Dodd
20–15700
The heroine is a beautiful English girl married to a French count. She
does not love him but is devotedly loyal during his long and hopeless
illness. Two men love her, Charles Carton, who had been the object of
her girlish devotion, and Julian Guise. Following her husband’s death
she becomes engaged to Julian. Jealousy between the two men leads to a
struggle and Carton is killed. Julian, who is severely injured, is
taken away by his father and kept in ignorance of what follows. The
guilt is placed on Sara and she suffers a year’s imprisonment. When
she meets Julian after her release he is terribly changed but a second
meeting brings explanations and reconciliation.
* * * * *
“Taking well-worn material, Miss Wadsley has used it so skillfully and
with so firm, yet delicate, a literary touch that it comes near to
being a masterpiece in its way. If the subject enjoyed a higher moral
tone this commendation could be given without qualification.”
+ − =N Y Times= p24 S 26 ’20 540w
=Spec= 124:22 Jl 3 ’20 40w
“We cannot say that in the matter of construction this story is very
successful.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p241 Ap 15 ’20 140w
=WALDMAN, LOUIS.= Albany: the crisis in government; with an introd. by
Seymour Stedman. il *$1.75 Boni & Liveright 335
20–12624
“This is the story of the suspension, trial and expulsion from the New
York State legislature of the five Socialist assemblymen. It was
written by one of the expelled members. It is an ex parte report of
the case, to which an introduction is supplied by one of the attorneys
for the defense.”—R of Rs
* * * * *
=Am Pol Sci R= 14:737 N ’20 80w
+ =Booklist= 17:150 Ja ’21
“The illustrations scattered through the volume might well have been
omitted, partly because they are copies of cartoons and partly because
they are poorly done. The introduction by Seymour Stedman is lucid and
interesting.”
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 24 ’20 170w
=Nation= 111:278 S 4 ’20 120w
“Written by one of the victims of the injustice, the book is of course
extremely partisan. Yet if one may judge from a generous reading of
the newspaper accounts of the trial, it is fairly representative. The
proofreading is poor, and there are further evidences of undue haste
in preparation and printing. But for all that it is a book well worth
anybody’s reading and reflection.” W. J. Ghent
+ − =Review= 3:89 Jl 28 ’20 1600w
“The line of cleavage in public opinion as to the merits of this case
is not likely to be materially modified by the publication of this
book. It is, however, an interesting and readable account of a famous
episode.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:109 Jl ’20 100w
“Mr Waldman’s book is convincingly written and his argument forceful.
The author tells his story in a fair and straightforward manner.” L.
D. Lasker
+ =Survey= 45:103 O 16 ’20 440w
=WALEY, ARTHUR=, tr. Japanese poetry, the Uta. *$3.25 Oxford 895
20–14302
“The poems here translated are from the Manyo Shu anthology
(Ten-thousand leaves collection), compiled by Otomo no Yakamochi, who
died in 785, and are considered as the beginnings of Japanese poetry
as an art. ‘The translations in this book,’ says Mr Waley, ‘are
chiefly intended to facilitate the study of the Japanese text; for
Japanese poetry can only be rightly enjoyed in the original. The
original texts of the poems accompany the translations, and notes on
grammar are given to facilitate the student who wishes to master the
originals.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“Mr Waley comes not halfway, but all the way to meet an intelligent
ignorance. He is instructive without severity; he is learned, but
affable. His translations have, we think, every indispensable quality
of good literal translation—especially a kind of negative rhythmical
and tone value, and distinction of vocabulary without a trace of
preciousness or squeamishness.” F. W. S.
+ =Ath= p12 Ja 2 ’20 950w
+ =Booklist= 16:339 Jl ’20
=Boston Transcript= p7 O 9 ’20 380w
“It is decidedly difficult to find anything in the literature of the
West which recalls these brief lyrics, which confine within seventeen
or at most within thirty-one syllables the passion of a life or the
shadowing imminence of death.” Babette Deutsch
+ =Dial= 70:204 F ’21 800w
“The volume shows the scholarly care and literary taste which were the
charms of Mr Waley’s previous translations, and nobody could wish for
a better introduction to Japanese poetry; but the poems do not give
the same thrill as those little decorative masterpieces—the Chinese
translations. Some of them seem to be too purely decorative.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p646 N 13 ’19 820w
=WALISZEWSKI, KAZIMIERZ.= Poland the unknown; tr. from the French.
*$2.25 Doran 943.8
(Eng ed 20–6295)
It is the contention of the author that the characteristics of the
Polish people and of their national ideals has always been quite
distinct from those of western Europe and that, as a vanquished
nation, she has for nearly a century and a half presented not her own
face but a mask to the world. That her exceptional virtues rather than
her failings have been the chief cause of her undoing and that of all
the nations that participated in the latter, Prussia has been the
arch-criminal, is the object of the book to show. Contents: The enigma
of a nation’s fate; The Polish paradox; Ideas and principles; Organs
of government; Anarchy; The crisis; The catastrophe; Beyond the grave;
Resurrection; Conclusion.
* * * * *
“M. Waliszewski’s book is largely a vigorous and effective polemic
against the misrepresentations of Polish history so long and
systematically inspired by Berlin and St Petersburg. Unfortunately,
his own views as to the causes of Poland’s downfall are nowhere very
concisely summed up. The author may be criticized for great
carelessness in the matter of names and dates.” R. H. L.
+ − =Am Hist R= 26:316 Ja ’21 750w
=Ath= p1243 N 21 ’19 100w
“It is written in a somewhat ebullient manner which, although it makes
agreeable reading, is not altogether favourable to processes of
reasoned argument. We do not wish to suggest that M. Waliszewski is
consciously prejudiced, but he is perhaps too closely affected by the
conditions he describes to judge them dispassionately.” P. S.
+ − =Ath= p1396 D 26 ’19 520w
“M. Waliszewski is an excellent sales-agent who knows his literary and
historical wares and knows, also, how to spread them before his
customers with tact and grace; but for all that, his work will hardly
serve as a reliable guide for future historians of the Polish
question—if only because, having spent most of his life in Paris, be
writes with a decidedly French accent.” H. W. van Loon
− + =Freeman= 2:237 N 17 ’20 620w
“Unfortunately for his main purpose, he has felt called upon to
develop his thesis in a detail which makes the book rather difficult
reading for anyone not intimately acquainted with Polish history.” M.
A. Chickering
+ − =Survey= 45:514 Ja 1 ’21 190w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p615 O 30 ’19 70w
“Being written as a corrective it tends to give a somewhat one-sided
view if taken only in itself without reference to the mass of
literature which it seeks to controvert. Even so it is of very
considerable interest, especially in regard to the history of the
nineteenth century.
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p659 N 20 ’19 170w
=WALKER, ABBIE (PHILLIPS) (MRS FRED ALLAN WALKER).= Sandman’s rainy day
stories. il *75c (2c) Harper
These rainy day stories are quite properly fairy tales, with such
titles as Princess Cantilla, The tree of swords, The silver
horseshoes, The blue castle, Nardo and the princess, The enchanted
boat, The gingerbread rock, and so on. The book belongs to the Sandman
series and is illustrated by Rhoda C. Chase.
+ =Ind= 104:396 D 11 ’20 50w
=WALKER, ABBIE (PHILLIPS) (MRS FRED ALLAN WALKER).= Sandman’s stories of
Drusilla doll. il *75c (2c) Harper
A book of stories for very little people. Drusilla is an unbreakable
doll, and it is very lucky for her that she is, for her adventures are
many and dreadful and only an unbreakable could have survived them.
The book belongs to a series of Sandman’s stories and is illustrated
by Rhoda C. Chase.
=WALKER, HENRY CRAGIN.= Jimmy Bunn stories. il *$1.75 (8c) Century
A book of animal stories for little folks. As in the older folk lore
of many lands the rabbit and the wolf are pitted against one another,
and the nimble wits of Jimmy Bunn, here as always, are more than a
match for the craft of his adversary. The black and white
illustrations are by Hope-Innes.
* * * * *
“Fortunately this is not one of that new type of children’s books
attempting to compete with the moving pictures. Its language is
simple; its faint moralizing successfully camouflaged.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p25 O 23 ’20 100w
=WALKER, SYDNEY FERRIS.= Electric mining machinery. il $5 Pitman 622
20–9652
A British work by a member of the Institution of electrical engineers,
who is also author of “Electricity in mining,” “Electricity in houses
and workshops,” and other works. The author says, “I have endeavoured
to explain every little point that, from my own experience, I think
may trouble mining men.” The book is illustrated with 132 figures and
is indexed.
=WALLACE, DILLON.= Ragged inlet guards; a story of adventure in
Labrador. il *$1.50 (2½c) Revell
20–2262
Four boys on a Labrador coast were left as the mainstay of their
families went when their fathers and big brothers went to the war.
They constituted themselves the Ragged inlet guards, and did men’s
work. Their home life, their hunting experiences and adventures are
described in the book and the climax of the story is their capture of
a German wireless station which brought them a medal each from King
George.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:316 Je ’20
“Stirring book of adventure. Librarians will find it in great demand
among their younger patrons.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Mr 21 ’20 200w
=WALLACE, EDGAR.= Four just men. *$1.75 (2c) Small
20–15957
The “Four just men” are a conscientious little band who are not
satisfied with justice as it is meted out by law, and therefore take
certain cases of wrong-doing into their own hands. The first case that
this book records is that of Sir Philip Ramon, English Secretary of
foreign affairs. He intends to introduce an aliens’ extradition bill
in Parliament which if put thru will exile from England one Garcia,
and virtually hand him over to the “corrupt and vengeful government”
which is persecuting him. The Four just men are determined this shall
not happen and are even willing to resort to taking Sir Ramon’s life
that the bill may not go thru. He is warned of his danger and the
police take unprecedented precautions but their protection proves
inadequate and the Four just men have another success to add to their
list. The second case the story takes up has to do with the “Red
hundred,” an anarchistic body whom the Four just men work against. One
of their number almost meets his Waterloo in this adventure, but
finally makes his escape thru the cleverness of the rest of the band.
* * * * *
“Readers of crime and mystery tales will find this book entirely
satisfying. The dénouement is startling.”
+ =N Y Times= p24 S 26 ’20 300w
“The action is absorbing.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 2 ’21 160w
=WALLACE, EDGAR.= Green rust. *$1.60 Small
20–4011
“‘The green rust’ is the story of Oliva Cresswell, the granddaughter
and heiress of a millionaire, but ignorant of the fact, and of a
conspiracy to destroy the wheat crop of the world by a new mildew—the
green rust—of a most virulent and aggressive type. The dangers she
runs from those engaged in the conspiracy, who are anxious to obtain
control of her money to finance an enormous wheat speculation, and the
protection she receives from the most unlikely persons, make up a
story full of excitement.”—Sat R
* * * * *
“His hero is disappointing because his judgment is so often bad, his
resource meagre and his foresight dull. Its character drawing is
sufficiently sharp for its purpose.”
+ − =Boston Transcript= p9 My 8 ’20 320w
“The whole narrative is breathless, sometimes even confusing, in its
rapid melodrama, but it has a grip that never loosens. It is
essentially a story of ‘action.’ The characterization does not yield
novelty in any instance.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:22 Je 27 ’20 580w
=Sat R= 128:392 O 25 ’19 100w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p502 S 18 ’19 140w
=WALLACE, EDNA KINGSLEY.=[2] Stars in the pool; a prose poem for lovers.
*$2 Dutton
20–20966
“The tale is about King Telwyn’s daughter, Roseheart. Here came, sent
by his father, King Lokus, to learn from the wise King Telwyn
‘somewhat of life and living in the great world,’ the young Prince
Flame. And Flame ‘looking upon the Princess Roseheart, drew one great
breath, and loved her with the love of a man’s heart. And Roseheart,
when she looked into the eyes of Flame, and his heart therein, knew
him for her lord, and loved him.’ Flame met the Old gray woman of
Shadows who told him that she ‘was Sorrow, and the Way of destiny, and
the Shadow of things.’ And Flame had to experience these things on a
quest which was prefigured to him in a vision. On his wanderings he
met with many natural and spiritual adventures, coming back in the end
when he had searched and found the truth beyond self, to wed the
Princess Roseheart and realize the meaning of love.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“An exquisite tale that has the shimmering grace and spiritual charm
of the romantic spirit of chivalry.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p2 D 4 ’20 330w
“‘The stars in the pool’ tells in dainty fashion a story which is part
fairy tale, part allegory.”
+ =N Y Times= p28 Ja 2 ’21 540w
=WALLAS, GRAHAM.= Life of Francis Place, 1771–1854. 3d ed *$3.50 Knopf
A20–157
“The American edition of Graham Wallas’ life of Francis Place is
chiefly a reprint of the original edition printed in 1898. The career
of Francis Place spanned the beginnings and the early development of
the industrial revolution. Born in 1771, he was a young man when the
fires of the French revolution illuminated the world. He was a trade
unionist when unions were outlawed by Parliament as conspiracies. He
engaged in bitter industrial struggles and paid those terrible
penalties which are exacted only of working men who are loyal to their
fellows. He became a liberal, and after he had made a fortune he was
an influence in the politics of the kingdom. To his efforts are
attributable some of the important beginnings of social
legislation.”—Survey
* * * * *
=Ath= p118 Mr ’19 30w
=Booklist= 16:168 F ’20
“Mr Wallas’s biography of Francis Place is a valuable contribution to
the economic, the social and the political history of England.” E. F.
E.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ja 10 ’20 1750w
“It is almost idle to praise it now, for it has taken its place among
the accepted masterpieces of English political biography. It is
difficult to overestimate the significance that attaches to his
portrait.” H. J. Laski
+ =Dial= 68:614 My ’20 2900w
Reviewed by R: Roberts
+ =Nation= 110:371 Mr 20 ’20 1250w
“Good, timely reading.”
+ =Outlook= 124:291 F 18 ’20 80w
“His account of this fascinating pioneer of the British labor movement
is a classic in biographical research.” W. L. C.
+ =Survey= 44:89 Ap 10 ’20 350w
=WALLING, WILLIAM ENGLISH=, ed. Sovietism; the A B C of Russian
bolshevism—according to the bolshevists. *$2 Dutton 335
20–10515
“This is a summary of bolshevist utterances, made with a view to
showing what the real aims of the bolshevist leaders are. The official
documents and decrees, the speeches of Lenine and other leaders, the
published opinions of Maxim Gorky, acclaimed as the greatest
Bolshevist writer, are the chief sources from which Mr Walling has
drawn in formulating this ‘A B C of Russian bolshevism.’ Mr Walling
assumes that the public wants to know ‘what the bolsheviki actually
stand for—according to a fair summary of their own acknowledged words
and deeds.’”—R of Rs
* * * * *
“The book should do much as an antiseptic against the bolshevist
poison.” A. W. Small
+ =Am J Soc= 26:250 S ’20 130w
=Am Pol Sci R= 14:739 N ’20 60w
“Scattered material makes it better for reference than for straight
reading. No index.”
+ − =Booklist= 17:56 N ’20
“His encyclopædic labours would be more convincing if it were not for
his careless habit of misquotation and of quoting isolated sentences
which when placed in their context convey a far different meaning.”
Harold Kellock
− =Freeman= 1:620 S 8 ’20 300w
“Granted that all of his conclusions are supportable, Mr Walling’s
method of establishing the case is far from satisfactory. What is
needed at this time is less political opinion and more economic
facts.” W. E. Atkins
− + =J Pol Econ= 28:710 O ’20 900w
“Nine-tenths of the book is made up of quotations taken chiefly from
the hostile press. It is worthy of note that Mr Walling seems to have
found one of the clues of bolshevist philosophy: he emphasizes the
militarization of industry which took place in some parts of Russia
and which is incompatible with the principle of industrial democracy.
It is really a strong point, and one should begin with it; but
unfortunately Mr Walling mentions it only accidentally and then again
dives into the characteristic anti-bolshevist hysteria.” Gregory
Zilboorg
− =Nation= 111:sup424 O 13 ’20 190w
“We do not know of any book from which the American reader can get a
better photograph of Russian Bolshevism as portrayed and interpreted
by the Bolshevists themselves.”
+ =Outlook= 126:111 S 15 ’20 220w
“The conclusions reached are irrefutable. Mr Walling is entirely fair
in his selections and it is unnecessary for him to indulge in an
argumentative attack.”
+ =Review= 3:270 S 29 ’20 1550w
=R of Rs= 62:221 Ag ’20 90w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p430 Jl 8 ’20 900w
=WALPOLE, HUGH SEYMOUR.= Captives. *$2 (1c) Doran
20–20321
Captives of their inheritance and environment are the two leading
figures of this psychological novel. Maggie Cardinal’s youth had been
loveless and her father’s, the miserly, sordid, unlovable vicar’s,
religion repellent to her. His death, when Maggie was nineteen, was a
liberation; now she would lead her own life. But she only escapes to
more fanatical religion, in the house of her aunts, and her natural
truthfulness and the absence of early training in conventional forms,
make her both a religious and social rebel. Martin Warlock’s early
fetters had been different. His intense love for his father, preacher
of the Kingscote Brethren, had included the father’s religion. Long
years of wandering over the earth had preserved the love but dimmed
the religion. The love becomes Martin’s chain. It also becomes his
conscience when Maggie’s trust confronts him with his past life. To
save Maggie from himself he goes away. The story resolves itself into
Maggie’s courageous struggles to remain true to her self and to her
love for Martin in spite of her marriage to an unloved clergyman and
of the demands of conventional society.
* * * * *
“We cannot, with the best will in the world, see in the result more
than a task—faithfully and conscientiously performed to the best of
the author’s power—but a ‘task accomplished,’ and not even
successfully at that. For we feel that it is determination rather than
inspiration, strength of will rather than the artist’s compulsion,
which has produced ‘The captives.’” K. M.
− =Ath= p519 O 15 ’20 1150w
“One is especially interested in the environment, but feels a lack of
the spontaneity of other Walpole novels.”
+ − =Booklist= 17:161 Ja ’21
“A long looked-for and worthy successor in the Walpole line. It is
bigger in theme than its predecessors, more than ever a novel of life
as opposed to the episodic novel.”
+ =Bookm= 52:369 D ’20 180w
“Its criticism of life in general, and specifically with the elements
of life with which it deals, presents a many sided view so that we are
able to understand clearly the weaknesses and strength of all the
characters. As a chronicle of these times and as a portrayal of people
we all may easily come into contact with, it is an eloquent example of
the consummate art of a literary artist.” E. F. Edgett
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 N 13 ’20 1400w
“‘The captives’ makes Mr Walpole’s previous books look like agreeable
fragments. For the wealth of substance here is not more notable than
the display of architectonic power. ‘The captives’ scarcely ranks
below ‘Clayhanger’ and not very greatly below ‘Of human bondage,’ and
is, therefore, one of the foremost British novels of the period.”
+ =Nation= 111:735 D 22 ’20 1050w
“No reader will set ‘The captives’ down without the figure of Maggie
Cardinal having been permanently limned upon his memory. The portrait
is consistent throughout. The pictures of the band of religious
fanatics, some of them charlatans, and of their sincere leader are
particularly forceful. Mr Walpole’s method is that of the realist, but
he has scarcely employed it to the best of its possibilities.”
+ − =N Y Times= p18 N 7 ’20 1000w
“In distinction of literary workmanship Mr Walpole is at his best in
this story.” R. D. Townsend
+ =Outlook= 127:31 Ja 5 ’21 330w
“While the direct subject of the volume concerns the religious
teachings of one narrow sect in England, which he designates as the
Kingscote Brethren, the application of his theme is as wide as the two
continents.” Calvin Winter
+ =Pub W= 98:1890 D 18 ’20 350w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
=Review= 3:384 O 27 ’20 200w
“The book is full of perturbed and uneasy striving, and is elemental
both in its energy and the simplicity of its theme.”
+ =Spec= 125:473 O 9 ’20 640w
“The characters are essentially unlovely though undeniably strong.
Despite all this, it is a story of rare power—sober, to be sure, but
never morbid—and one that emphasizes the author’s advanced position in
the ranks of contemporary novelists.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p7a D 12 ’20 620w
“There is something wanting to make the æsthetic pleasure of reading
this book as intense as it should be, which argues something wanting
in the performance. It is not that one misses the mystery and
excitement of ‘The dark forest,’ and ‘The secret city,’ but there is
the unavoidable feeling that, after the keenest appreciation of so
much artistic skill, it should be possible to put the book down with
the exhilaration of having read a masterpiece; and it is not
possible.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p633 S 30 ’20 900w
=WALSH, JAMES JOSEPH.= Medieval medicine. *$2.75 Macmillan 610.9
“This book, by an American medical authority, belongs to the series of
Medical history manuals, edited by Dr John D. Comrie. It embraces the
history of about 1,000 years, during which the achievements in
medicine and surgery were quite as remarkable as the achievements of
the middle ages in other spheres.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p463 Ap 2 ’20 110w
“The volume is fully within the comprehension of any educated reader,
and is as entertaining as a novel.”
+ =Cath World= 112:112 O ’20 570w
“As to the learning and competence for his task, no question can be
raised, but the method he elects to adopt is one which has brought
much work on the history of science into not unjustified contempt.” C:
Singer
− + =Nature= 105:127 Ap 1 ’20 950w
+ =Spec= 124:831 Je 19 ’20 1250w
“Severe compression has been necessary; but the process has not
interfered with the lucidity or the interest of this instructive
little book.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p142 F 26 ’20 70w
=WALSH, JAMES JOSEPH.=[2] Religion and health. *$2.25 (2c) Little 265.8
20–21211
The argumentation of the book turns on the influence of the mind on
the body and attempts to show how a trusting faith in God tends to
produce an equilibrated mind, which is the foundation of psychic
health, and, by interaction, of physical health. The book is indexed
and contains much sound advice as to the way of achieving both kinds
of well-being. The contents are: Can we still believe? Prayer;
Sacrifice; Charity; Fasting and abstinence; Holydays and holidays;
Recreation and dissipation; Mortification; Excesses; Purity; Insanity;
Nervous disease; Dreads; Suffering; Pain; Suicide and homicide;
Longevity; The Bible and health; Health and religion.
=WALSH, THOMAS.= Don Folquet, and other poems. *$1.50 Lane 811
20–4773
The title poem has for its theme an episode of French history and
tells how Don Folquet, a trader’s son, was first celebrated at the
court of Toulouse as Prince of song, how he tired of court life and
became a monk and later the Bishop of Toulouse and as such pronounced
a ban on the city for its wickedness. Among the other poems are a
Mother Goose sonnet series; Murillo paints “The assumption”; Catullus
anent his Lesbia; The sigh for Deirdre; Ad limina.
* * * * *
=Ath= p833 D 17 ’20 160w
“Mr Walsh has composed a medieval and monastic narrative in effete,
Tennysonian pentameters which singly are good but which in the
aggregate are wearisome.” Mark Van Doren
− + =Nation= 111:sup415 O 13 ’20 40w
“To this reviewer ‘Don Folquet’ is less interesting than other things
in the book. It is a poem for those who would forget reality. ‘The
brownstone row,’ written in the kind of unrhymed cadence now in vogue,
shows that Mr Walsh could do something with reality if romance charmed
him less.”
+ − =N Y Times= p15 Ja 9 ’21 600w
“The execution falls short of the motive. Its merit is confined to
grace, and the grace is confined to landscape.” O. W. Firkins
+ − =Review= 3:171 Ag 25 ’20 60w
=WALSH, THOMAS=, ed. Hispanic anthology. $5 Putnam 861.08
20–20332
“A collection of translations, ‘by northern Hispanophiles, of Spanish
poems into English verse,’ offered as an affectionate tribute to the
Spanish poet of today, whether he writes in the old world or the new.
Dr Walsh, besides contributing a large portion of the versions, has
garnered almost eight hundred pages of translations into something
like a chronological unity, providing the selections with short
prefatory notes and interspersing them with some twenty-nine portraits
of ancient and modern Spanish poets.”—Freeman
* * * * *
“With the material at hand he has produced a creditable collection
that should be at the elbow of every Hispanic student.”
+ =Bookm= 52:274 N ’20 190w
“Masefield’s rendering of Gustave Adolfo Becquer’s ‘They closed her
eyes,’ is one of the most beautiful poems in the collection.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 Ja 5 ’21 250w
“Catholic readers will especially rejoice to possess, in this
delightful form, some of the most impressive work of the great Spanish
mystical poets, Fray Luis de Leon, St John of the Cross, and St
Teresa.”
+ =Cath World= 112:542 Ja ’21 270w
“A valuable book not alone for its well-arranged collection of poems,
but for the fine reproductions of famous portraits and for the
biographical notes.”
+ − =Dial= 70:233 F ’21 100w
“The volume, despite its shortcomings, should be owned by every
Hispanophile; it represents a pioneer-effort in a field agape with
pitfalls, and, however much one may criticize the result as it now
stands, Dr Walsh, by the mere fact of having initiated it and brought
it forth, has earned the thanks of his fellow enthusiasts.” I:
Goldberg
+ =Freeman= 2:214 N 10 ’20 720w
“Never has Spanish poetry been done so good or complete a turn in
English as Mr Walsh now does it.” D. M.
+ =Nation= 111:784 D 29 ’20 600w
“Mr Walsh has not only edited this volume, providing it with valuable
typographical and critical notes, but he has supplied it with the bulk
of the translations, translations which show him possessed in an
uncommon degree of one of the most valuable, as it is one of the most
unselfish of literary gifts.” R: Le Gallienne
+ =N Y Times= p10 Ja 9 ’21 1800w
“The plan of his anthology is remarkable for its comprehensive
inclusion of selections from the work of every significant figure in
Hispanic poetry from the unknown author of the ‘Poema del Cid’ to the
latest of Porto Rican modernistas, born in 1898. Equally important,
and especially so from the point of view of the American reader
unacquainted with the Spanish language, is the finely judicious
selection which Mr Walsh has made in choosing not only the original
Spanish poems most representative of their authors but the
translations into English which constitute the anthology. For the most
part these translations are of highly poetic quality.” L. R. Morris
+ =Outlook= 126:237 O 6 ’20 820w
=WALSH, WILLIAM SEBASTIAN.= Psychology of dreams. *$3 (2½c) Dodd 135
20–9817
The author views dreams from many points of view and is not pledged to
any one theory. He presents the theories made popular by recent
writers on psycho-analysis, but also sets forth the opinions of
Freud’s critics. Contents: Historical sketch; The mind in sleep; The
material of dreams; The instigators of dreams; The peculiarities of
dreams; Dreams as wishes; The effects of dreams; Typical dreams;
Prodromic dreams; Prophetic dreams; Nightmare; Night terrors;
Somnambulism; Miscellany; The analysis of dreams; Day-dreams. There
are two indexes, to proper names and to subjects. The author is a
practicing physician and he has endeavored to make the work as
practical as possible with a view “toward aiding sufferers from
nervous affections, as well as toward promoting a better understanding
of various normal and abnormal mental processes.”
* * * * *
“What he has written is a book of popular medicine rather than one of
popular psychology. Upon psychology he does not appear to have any
theories, and his very opinions are undecided. But when he writes
about the ‘night terrors’ of children and the best means of mitigating
them, he is full of common sense, and proves himself an admirable
popular doctor.”
+ =Ath= p553 O 22 ’20 120w
“For all practical purposes, ‘The psychology of dreams’ is an adequate
exposition of interesting data, carefully collected. The chapter on
prodromic dreams is perhaps as interesting as any in the book.” C. K.
H.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 17 ’20 320w
“The chapter dealing with daydreams is especially interesting and
instructive and, like the other chapters, is written in so clear a
manner that the beginner will have little difficulty in becoming
acquainted with the dream mechanism and its meaning. On the whole it
can be said that the work is an excellent medium for the student who
wishes to become acquainted with the workings of the unconscious.” L.
P. Clark
+ =Mental Hygiene= 4:983 O ’20 300w
Reviewed by R: Le Gallienne
+ =N Y Times= 25:4 Jl 11 ’20 2900w
“Not intended for professional reading, but distinctly popular in its
appeal, this book will have lively interest for the general reader who
likes to be entertained while he is being instructed. There are many
sensible hygienic suggestions.”
+ =Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 40w
“Dr Walsh might have made his point of view clearer, but he at least
presents attractively a good deal of interesting material.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 210w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p622 S 23 ’20 80w
=WALSH, WILLIAM SEBASTIAN.= Yours for sleep. *$2.50 Dutton 613.7
20–3569
“The title of Dr William S. Walsh’s book, ‘Yours for sleep,’ is
somewhat misleading, as appears from the first sentence in his
preface: ‘The object of this little volume is not only to help the
sleepless to sleep, but also to instruct them on a few of the
principles of right living, a disregard of which is most often the
sole cause of their disorder.’ People who are not in the pink of
condition will be interested in the author’s treatment of such
subjects as indigestion, eye defects, diseases of the teeth and gums,
value of exercise and fresh air, and general hygiene.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“No one has written more helpfully or collected more valuable
information for the sleepless than Dr William S. Walsh.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:21 Jl 25 ’20 220w
+ =Outlook= 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 40w
“It is a valuable contribution to the subject and amply repays
perusal. The book is evidently the product of reflection, erudition
and experience.” J. E. Kelly, M. D.
+ =Survey= 44:252 My 15 ’20 200w
=WALSTON, SIR CHARLES (SIR CHARLES WALDSTEIN).= Eugenics, civics and
ethics; a lecture delivered to the summer school of eugenics, civics and
ethics on August 8th, 1919, in the Arts school, Cambridge. *$1.60
Macmillan 171
“A strong plea is made in this lecture for the organisation and
development of the study of ethics, or, as the author prefers to call
it, ethology. The interdependence of eugenics and civics, and the
foundation of both in ethics, are discussed, and warning is given
against striving to produce the perfect physical specimen of man
without due consideration of character and mental attributes. Towards
the end of the lecture the progressive nature of ethical codes is made
clear, and great stress is laid on the importance of the establishment
of our ideal of the perfect man and the teaching of such practical
ethics in both schools and homes.”—Nature
* * * * *
=Nature= 105:804 Ag 26 ’20 100w
“This lecture provides an excellent introduction to the author’s
somewhat forbidding larger works.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 45:332 N 27 ’20 100w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p539 Ag 19 ’20 100w
=WALTERS, L. D’O.=, comp. Anthology of recent poetry. *$1.75 Dodd 821.08
20–20447
An anthology of modern British verse. Harold Monro, who writes the
introduction, supplies the key to the collection when he says, “The
best poetry is always about the earth itself and all the strange and
lovely things that compose and inhabit it.” The first object, he says
later, is to give pleasure. “Moreover, it is adapted to the tastes of
almost any age, from ten to ninety, and may be read aloud by
grandchild to grandparent as suitably as by grandparent to grandchild.
It is an anthology of poems, not of names.” Among the poems and their
authors are April, by William Watson; The lake isle of Innisfree, by
W. B. Yeats; The donkey, by G. K. Chesterton; The south country, by
Hilaire Belloc; The west wind, by John Masefield; Full moon, by Walter
de la Mare; A dead harvest, by Alice Meynell; The great lover, by
Rupert Brooke; Star-talk, by Robert Graves; Stupidity street, by Ralph
Hodgson; The oxen, by Thomas Hardy.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:147 Ja ’21
“It is a good coat-pocket anthology.”
+ =Ind= 104:383 D 11 ’20 30w
=Nation= 112:188 F 2 ’21 110w
“This collection includes some charming things by living hands of real
distinction, and some others which make us regret young poets lost in
the war. The anthologist has given us real pleasures, and we forego
the reviewer’s privilege of grumbling about the inclusion of this or
the exclusion of that.”
+ =Sat R= 130:398 N 13 ’20 190w
“The poems are few but well chosen from the standpoint of the seeker
after clear language and well-defined images. There is little of that
strained impressionism and hazy, finespun introspection which are the
bane of modern verse.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 N 16 ’20 270w
=WALTON, GEORGE LINCOLN.= Oscar Montague—paranoiac. il *$1.50 (3c)
Lippincott
19–15667
In this novel Dr Walton embodies the ideas prevalent in his
non-fiction books, “Why worry,” “Those nerves,” and others. Ruth
Fulton, chronic fusser, in a fit of pique, jilts her steady
serious-minded fiancé and marries the town rake, who thinks most men
are against him. Oscar, their son, grows up spoiled, idle, badly
educated, boon companion of ruffians and loafers. He has the obsession
that everyone is in a conspiracy against him, and secretly cherishes
the illusion that one Nicky Bennett is trying to harm him.
Accidentally meeting Nicky when in an evil mood he pulls out a
revolver and shoots him; pleads insanity to escape the electric chair,
but once inside the asylum finds that the law refuses to let him out.
The daughter of Ruth and Gerrold is normal and lovable, and happily
marries the son of her mother’s old sweetheart, after having by a bit
of clever detective work “on her own,” saved the lad from being
falsely convicted for the murder of her father.
* * * * *
“The characters are clearly drawn, and are thoroughly lifelike people,
whose lives, without anything brilliant or startling, are full of
quiet interest, humorous or pathetic.”
+ =Ath= p258 F 20 ’20 130w
“Amateurish is the only adjective to describe adequately this novel,
with its wooden puppets in place of characters and its obviously
mechanical situations. The book’s two redeeming features, are the
occasional flashes of whimsical humor the author displays, and the
disarmingly naïve manner in which he pokes fun at his own inexperience
as a novelist.”
− + =N Y Times= 25:85 F 8 ’20 700w
“The only person of any interest in the book is the daughter, Helen,
and the only episode of any interest is Helen’s discovery of the real
culprit who had run over and killed her father. This has not much to
do with Oscar Montague—paranoiac, who is quite a secondary character
in a poor novel.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p126 F 19 ’20 160w
=WARD, HARRY FREDERICK.= New social order. *$2.50 Macmillan 304
19–19067
“Prof. Harry F. Ward of Union theological seminary, in his new book,
‘The new social order,’ writes on social and industrial change both
from economic and from ethical standpoints. His book considers in part
1 the underlying principles of the new order, in part 2, various
programs, such as those proposed by the British labor party, the
Russian soviets, the league of nations, various movements in the
United States, and the churches.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“Dr Ward has been developing a very unusual fluency of speech, mental
power, and moral insight that appear strikingly in this book. Although
some of the chapters on the principles might well have been a little
shorter and crisper, the style is always interesting, at times rising
to natural and impressive eloquence; and the thought is throughout
clear and weighty. This is one of the most important books for the
citizen of this generation to read thoughtfully, and read at an early
date.” C. J. Bushnell
+ =Am J Soc= 25:645 Mr ’20 1100w
Reviewed by C. G. Fenwick
=Am Pol Sci R= 14:341 My ’20 260w
=Booklist= 16:190 Mr ’20
“Dr Ward has rendered a real service in bringing together in compact
form so many expressions of the new spirit. He knows that they are
signs rather than realities, but it is a poor skipper who cares not
which way the veering flaw blows. Christians and pagans will do well
to ponder them.” C: A. Beard
+ =New Repub= 23:208 Jl 14 ’20 950w
=R of Rs= 61:336 Mr ’20 80w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 F 3 ’20 80w
“In this latest of his several volumes Professor Ward makes his most
notable contribution to the religious interpretation of the changing
social order. Professor Ward’s discussion of the controverted points
dealt with is frank and fearless, notwithstanding, perhaps the more
because of, the criticism he has all along met from certain
ecclesiastical and special interest groups.” Graham Taylor
+ =Survey= 44:121 Ap 17 ’20 850w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p407 Je 24 ’20 150w
“The chapter on the Russian soviet constitution is far and away the
ablest and clearest statement yet given to us upon that very important
subject. Mr Ward is to be envied for his twofold gift of grasping
details and of strong speculative thinking; and this combination makes
his book a singularly valuable and safe guide for the student.” R. R.
+ =World Tomorrow= 3:157 My ’20 150w
=WARD, JOHN.= With the “Die-hards” in Siberia. *$2.50 (3c) Doran 957
20–7944
The author commanded a detachment of British troops sent to Siberia to
support Kolchak. He blames his own government for its halfhearted
support of the enterprise it had undertaken, and is especially bitter
against the Americans and the Japanese. The book was written, he says,
“for the private use of my sons in case I did not return.” Among the
chapters are: From Hong Kong to Siberia; Bolshevik successes; Japanese
methods and Allied Far-eastern policy; Administration; Omsk; Along the
Urals; Russian labour; In European Russia; American policy and its
results; Japanese policy and its results; General conclusions. There
is an index.
* * * * *
“Colonel Ward is too innocent for a propagandist. We knew Colonel Ward
had been no nearer to Moscow than had we in London, but we have
received an impression that in far-away Siberia he fought desperately
against the Red armies. Why did the coalition permit their friend to
write a book and give the show away so completely? We find that
Colonel Ward never met the disciplined armies of Trotsky, and, except
for one engagement, the whole campaign was a series of affairs with
Bolshevik bands.”
− =Nation= [London] 27:78 Ap 17 ’20 480w
“Colonel Ward’s book is bound to furnish material for controversy. His
narrative is couched in a style that is the acme of plain speaking; he
wastes no time in euphemisms or diplomatic circumlocution, but
fearlessly handles facts as they come to him. From all internal
evidence his book has the air of a straightforward, truthful
narrative.”
+ =N Y Times= p26 S 26 ’20 1000w
“Colonel Ward’s narrative makes a vivid and fascinating picture of
stirring events and gives throughout the impression of keen
observation and sincerity.”
+ =Review= 3:532 D 1 ’20 1500w
“There is nothing small about this book. The countries he traversed,
the observations he made, and the cause he worked for, all convey a
sense of space and sanity, which no niggling pen could have produced.
There is no delicate tracery of outlines here, no precious selection
of words to convey an atmosphere and the genial author does not deal
in suggestions and impressions, but relies almost entirely on
forthright facts.”
+ =Sat R= 129:306 Mr 27 ’20 850w
“Colonel Ward’s account is very welcome because it is obviously honest
and sincere.”
+ =Spec= 124:389 Mr 20 ’20 1300w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p183 Mr 18 ’20 1150w
=WARD, MARY AUGUSTA (ARNOLD) (MRS HUMPHRY WARD).= Harvest. il *$2 (2½c)
Dodd
20–6288
When Rachel Henderson took the Great End farm near Ipscombe to lead an
independent life as a woman farmer, she had had a past in Canada. She
had been married to a worthless man, had lost her child, had been
divorced and—more than that—when fleeing from her husband’s cruelty,
had succumbed to the sympathy and protection of Dick Tanner, a
neighboring farmer, and had stayed with him for three days and nights.
When, in the course of events at Great End farm, she becomes engaged
to a young American captain, from a near-by camp, still guarding her
secret, she faces a spiritual struggle. After all the confessions are
made and the lover also has achieved a victory over his time honored
prejudices, a bullet from the former, now hate-crazed husband, kills
her in her lover’s arms.
* * * * *
“Mrs Ward cannot be judged by ‘Harvest,’ It is a plain mystery novel;
it bears the impress of her desire to emerge from the library and to
walk in the cornfields—in the new land which is war-time England. But
she is unhappy in such surroundings and her serenity is gone.” K. M.
− + =Ath= p606 My 7 ’20 600w
“It would be an injustice to Mrs Ward to say that ‘Harvest’ is in any
degree worthy of a novelist of her reputation, or indeed of many a
novelist of lesser reputation. ‘Harvest,’ in common with its immediate
predecessor, ‘Helena,’ and many of her later stories, might have been
written by any one of a hundred English fiction writers of the hour.
It is utterly conventional in form, and commonplace in plot and
characterization.” E. F. E.
− =Boston Transcript= p4 My 5 ’20 1400w
“Written in that smoothly flowing style to which Mrs Ward’s readers
have so long been accustomed, the book, while not indeed equal to her
best, shows no falling off from the standard set by her recent work,
but on the contrary rises somewhat above it. The novel contains some
lovely pictures of the English country.” L. M. Field
+ =N Y Times= 25:152 Ap 4 ’20 1000w
=N Y Times= 25:190 Ap 18 ’20 30w
“It is with peculiar pleasure that one recognizes in the late Mrs
Humphry Ward’s posthumous novel, ‘Harvest,’ the qualities that have
marked the very best of her fiction writing. This tale of rural
England in war time is notable for the balance and unity of theme and
development. It is almost astonishingly superior, for instance, to
‘Helena.’”
+ =Outlook= 125:280 Je 9 ’20 200w
“I for one should be unhappy if it were necessary for me to remember
Mrs Ward by this book.” H. W. Boynton
− =Review= 2:680 Je 30 ’20 420w
=Spec= 124:494 Ap 10 ’20 400w
“Mrs Ward does not make these women seem very real. She idealizes
their ‘trim’ appearance in pseudo-masculine attire and at no time
visualizes their lives and pursuits from their own standpoint.
Sympathy, and an earnest effort at understanding, however, are always
apparent.”
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 22 ’20 460w
=WARNE, FRANK JULIAN.= Workers at war. (Century New world ser.) *$3
Century 331
20–17812
From a dispassionate, conservative point of view the author reviews
the present industrial situation with its resultant high cost of
living. He accords high praise to the statesmanship of President
Wilson in controlling the situation during the war and to the
activities of the National war labor board. That the government now
fails to realize the three essentials of industrial justice: a fair
profit, a fair wage and a fair price is due to the present autocratic
system of corporate organization of production. The remedy lies in the
democratization of the corporation and in an American federation of
consumers. A partial list of the contents is: The workers and the
world war; The government as the employer; The Wilson administration’s
labor policy; The National war labor board; The government, wages, and
the cost of living; The vicious cycle and the labor union; Democracy
in industry; The three parties to production; Industrial autocracy and
the corporation.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:95 D ’20
Reviewed by G: Soule
+ =Natlor= 111:534 N 10 ’20 370w
=N Y Times= p15 N 7 ’20 140w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 N 9 ’20 60w
“The book is valuable as a summary of governmental labor policies
during the war, as a record of the achievements of labor and the
effect of autocratic control on the wage earner and the consumer.” J.
D. Hackett
+ =Survey= 45:287 N 20 ’20 280w
=WARREN, ARTHUR.= London days. *$2.50 (3c) Little
20–17401
This book of reminiscences begins in 1878, when the author, fresh from
Boston, arrived in London at the age of eighteen. He made the choice
because “history already made and rounded and woven into legend, the
scenes among which men have lived and wrought through centuries,
shaping the rich past on which we build the present” fascinated him
more than the prospect of pioneering in the West. The period covers
nineteen years of Journalism, nine of them as correspondent for the
Boston Herald, and combines with memories and impressions of London
those of celebrated personages. Contents: First glimpses of London;
London in the late seventies; A Norman interlude; I take the plunge;
Browning and Moscheles; Patti; John Stuart Blackie; Lord Kelvin;
Tennyson; Gladstone; Whistler; Henry Drummond; Sir Henry Irving; Henry
M. Stanley; George Meredith; Parnell; “Le brav’ général” (Boulanger);
Index.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:154 Ja ’21
Reviewed by Margaret Ashmun
=Bookm= 52:346 D ’20 20w
“As journalism the writing is good; it does not assume to be more.
Gossipy, wholesome, harmless, never profound, but lighted up here and
there by almost poetic touches of admiration and of reverence, these
reminiscences should well suit those who desire an easy introduction
to the charm of biography.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p9 O 30 ’20 300w
“Despite the fact that in many cases he insists on writing an old
story as if it were still of vital interest, he has preserved some
anecdotes that merited survival and he has drawn the portraits of
several famous Britons with commendable skill.”
+ − =N Y Times= p4 O 24 ’20 1450w
=R of Rs= 62:670 D ’20 60w
“His estimate not only of men, but of the social and literary forces
of modern London, are trenchantly expressed.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 O 13 ’20 430w
“It is a book to evoke enthusiasm for his literary style as well as
for the human interest that attaches to the people whose names are
chapter headings here.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 N 8 ’20 430w
=WARREN, HOWARD CROSBY.= Human psychology. il *$5 Houghton 150
19–16728
The author distinguishes between genetic and descriptive psychology:
the one dealing with mental growth and mental progress from species to
species; the other with mental life as it actually exists. The
interest of the book centers mainly on the latter, the static view of
psychology. At the end of each chapter is a list of collateral reading
and some practical exercises intended to train the student in precise
critical observation of mental phenomena. The contents are: The
science of psychology; The organism; The neuro-terminal mechanism;
Physiology of the neuron; Stimulation, adjustment, and response;
Behavior; Conscious experience; The senses; The components of mental
states; Primary mental states; Secondary mental states; Succession of
mental states; Attitudes; Character and personality; Organized mental
life. The appendix deals with some debatable problems for the benefit
of the advanced students and contains: The mind-body relation;
Mechanism and purpose; Neural activity; The visual process. There are
also illustrations and tables; directions for performing the exercises
and an index.
* * * * *
“Comprehensiveness, thoroughness, clear definitions, elaborate
classifications and an open-minded, progressive outlook are what
characterize this work. And it is not only comprehensive, in that it
covers the entire field of descriptive psychology, but it is
comprehensive in its grasp of the subject.” F. W. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 Je 19 ’20 800w
“Professor Warren’s book is interesting not only in itself, but also
in the indication which it gives of the phases of psychology which may
be expected to survive after this period of devotion of the science to
its practical applications.”
+ =El School J= 20:392 Ja ’20 480w
“In sum, this is a most scholarly work, which in the beginning, and
generally in outward semblance, gives promise of breaking fairly away
from the traditions that produced the behavioristic schism, but which
is found to be still heavily burdened with the inheritance of
formalism, only partially offset by its clearness, criticism, humor,
and tolerance.” F. L. Wells
+ − =Mental Hygiene= 4:982 O ’20 660w
Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow
=Nation= 111:15 Jl 8 ’20 90w
“Professor Warren’s work as a whole would be an excellent introduction
for beginners in psychology, though it is, of course, a work of
interest for advanced students also.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p586 S 9 ’20 300w
=WASHBURN, CLAUDE CARLOS.= Order. *$2 (1½c) Duffield
20–4014
Marville, the beautiful residential suburb of a big city was law and
order incarnate—order with all its ugly sordid features pruned away,
beautified and civilized. Into it blows its antithesis, the spirit of
romance in the person of Peter Gresham, Englishman, packed off to
America by his aristocratic relatives. He literally explodes into
Marville in a train wreck, becomes its hero, and later upsets the
tranquillity of everybody with whom he comes in contact. The reactions
of this spirit of romance on law and order form the substance of the
story. By one man and one woman it is understood. Peter himself does
not understand but is it, and when it brings him in contact with
Annette Cornish, beautiful young wife of an elderly man, there is
fire. Others are simply stimulated, bewildered, shaken out of their
repose for the nonce. Annette and pretty Elsie Cook succumb completely
to its spell. Annette, disciplined and broken-in by order from
childhood, fears it and is broken by it. Elsie, the half-savage, gives
herself to it unstintingly, but comes out with flying colors by dint
of a saving remnant of hard practical sense. Peter turns his back on
it all and is killed at Neuve Chapelle.
* * * * *
“Exceptionally interesting story. Here we have a book of ideas which
is never didactic, but presents both sides of a case with striking
fairness, a tale whose plot springs from the natural interplay of
character upon character, and whose lights and shadows are managed
with notable artistry.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:190 Ap 18 ’20 100w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
=Review= 2:393 Ap 17 ’20 120w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p13a Ap 18 ’20 320w
=WASHBURNE, CARLETON W.= Common science. il *$1.60 World bk. 502
20–15542
The book belongs to the New-world science series edited by John W.
Ritchie. It is based on a collection of 2000 questions asked by school
children in the upper elementary grades over a period of a year and a
half. These questions are sorted and classified according to the
scientific principles involved in answering them. The object of the
method is to lead the child from an interest and curiosity in a
specific phenomena to a general principle and to arouse his
imagination by making it clear to him what part it plays in his own
life. The contents are grouped under the headings: Gravitation;
Molecular attraction; Conservation of energy; Heat; Radiant heat and
light; Sound; Magnetism and electricity; Electricity; Mingling of
molecules; Chemical change and energy; Solution and chemical action;
Analysis. There are appendices, an index and illustrations.
* * * * *
“The book should be of value in conserving and developing the science
interests of children of junior high-school age.”
+ =El School J= 21:154 O ’20 350w
=WASSERMANN, JACOB.= World’s illusion; auth. tr. by Ludwig Lewisohn.
(European library) 2v *$4 (1½c) Harcourt
20–22159
This is the first book by this author, a Viennese novelist, to appear
in English. It was written, he says, during the last years of the war:
“Only in this way could I keep contact with and faith in humanity.” It
has nothing to do with the war, but is a picture of pre-war society in
central Europe, a brilliant, feverish picture of a society in the
first hectic stages of decay, resting on insecure foundations of
poverty, misery and crime. The first volume is devoted to the life of
the upper classes, represented by Crammon, the Austrian aristocrat,
Christian Wahnschaffe, son of a German captain of industry, Eva Sorel,
the dancer, and almost countless others. The scenes flit from capital
to capital with the haste and inconsistency of a screen drama. In the
second volume we have in contrast the dregs of society, for Christian,
in search of truth, has descended to the lowest depths. He gives up
his fortune, studies medicine to fit himself for a field of usefulness
and in the end cuts himself off entirely from his family and
disappears, to continue his search elsewhere.
* * * * *
“Despite the penny-dreadful stuff there is a breath of serenity that
reveals the artist in complete mastery of his material and despite the
frank consideration of sex, there is an indubitable chastity hovering
over all these pages. In fact, were one to select a single word with
which to describe the mood of the work as a whole, he would most
probably say, austerity.” I. G.
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 4 ’20 1400w
Reviewed by Paul Rosenfeld
+ − =Freeman= 2:545 F 16 ’21 2550w
“It would hold the interest through all its 787 pages if there were
nothing in it save its arresting procession of grotesque incidents,
but there is something more, and that something is an ironical quality
that suggests the manner of the great Russians. All his characters,
high and low, are pathological cases. Thus the chronicle, to an
American, cannot carry much conviction despite its fine passion and
its vivid detail.” H. L. Mencken
+ − =Nation= 111:sup668 D 8 ’20 880w
“Wassermann has created a work of strange and sombre power. The
translation is unusually good.” E. A. Boyd
+ =N Y Evening Post= p3 Ja 15 ’21 1750w
“The book’s chief values lie in its interpretation of modern
industrial society as Wassermann sees it. But surely not all European
society is degenerate. Humanity as a whole is not portrayed in ‘The
world’s illusion.’”
+ − =N Y Times= p16 N 28 ’20 1050w
=WATKIN, EDWARD INGRAM.= Philosophy of mysticism. *$5 Harcourt 149.3
The author differentiates between the mystic and his mystical
experiences, and the metaphysics of mysticism. The mystic, he says,
can not adequately state his experiences in terms of discursive
reason, nevertheless the philosophy of mysticism is “the body of truth
about the nature of ultimate reality and of our relationship to it to
be derived from the content of mystical experience.” (Preface) He
regards the Catholic church as the best vehicle of expression for this
body of truth. The contents are: The divine immanence; Unity of God;
The transcendence of God; The relation between the soul and God; Views
of the mystic way; The negative way; The active night; Mystical
experience previous to the night of spirit; The passive night of
spirit; Purgatory and the passive night of spirit; The transforming
union: or mystical marriage; On the mystical interpretation of
Scripture; The witness of nature mysticism to the teaching of Catholic
mysticism studied in the mysticism of Richard Jefferies; St John the
poet; Epilogue; Notes.
* * * * *
Reviewed by G. E. Partridge
=N Y Times= p28 D 26 ’20 170w