“Mr P. Whitwell Wilson, who has more than once written for this Review and who is now living in the United States as a special correspondent of the London Dally News, has produced for American readers a little volume entitled ‘The Irish case before the court of public opinion.’ Mr Wilson was formerly a Liberal member of Parliament and also for a number of years worked in harmony with men like the late Mr Redmond and the other nationalist leaders. Mr Wilson, however, is wholly opposed to the present Sinn Fein movement for a separate Irish republic, and he undertakes in this book to show how, one after another, the real grievances of Ireland have been remedied.”—R of Rs
“Whether one agrees with Mr Wilson or not, one cannot help admiring his extremely lucid and convincing defence of Great Britain’s Irish policy. Partisan it is, but books on the Irish question have a tendency to be strongly pro-Irish or pro-English, and Mr Wilson sets forth his case in a very tolerant manner.”
“It is almost unbelievable that any competent journalist who undertakes to discuss Sinn Fein should be still ignorant of the meaning of those two words, yet that is the plight of Mr Wilson. Since he has not yet discovered the meaning of two simple words now universally familiar to every newspaper reader, it is not surprising that his references to the financial relations of Ireland and England teem with incredible misstatements.” E. A. Boyd
“A remarkably fair-minded and adequate summary of the reasons for viewing with distrust the Sinn Fein propaganda.”
“Whether or not one agrees with the conclusions presented by Mr P. Whitwell Wilson, one must appreciate the good temper and moderation with which he argues.”
“His book is valuable from the standpoint of its convenient recital of recent political history in relation to Ireland, and should have a wide reading.”
WILSON, THEODORE PERCIVAL CAMERON.[2] Waste paper philosophy; with an introd. by Robert Norwood. *$1.50 Doran 821
The author of these papers and poems had been a schoolmaster before his enlistment in 1914. He was killed in 1918. Waste paper philosophy, part I of the book, is composed of short prose essays written for his son. Part 2 contains his poems, the first of which, Magpies in Picardy, was printed in the Literary Digest in February, 1917.
“Among the many poems inspired by the late war, ‘Magpies in Picardy’ has stood out as one of the very best. To every schoolboy in our land should a copy of ‘Waste paper philosophy’ be given. One closes the little book tenderly, for here is the record of a rare spirit.” C. K. H.
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
WILSON, WOODROW. Hope of the world. *$1 (2c) Harper 353
This volume of speeches continues the series that began with “Why we are at war.” It contains “Messages and addresses delivered by the president between July 10, 1919, and December 9, 1919, including selections from his countrywide speeches in behalf of the treaty and covenant.” In making the selection from the addresses on the peace treaty and the League of nations the aim has been to avoid repetition and to present “the more cogent and significant portions of Mr Wilson’s appeal to the public.” Among the state papers are included the message on the high cost of living, letter to the national industrial conference, appeal to the coal miners, and message to the new Congress.
“Nearly all have in greater or less degree the characteristic merits with which we have become familiar, and the title chosen for the collection hits very well the note of earnest, almost wistful, conviction that gives impressiveness and driving force to practically everything that President Wilson has said. There is much material here for reflection, and it is presented with the lucidity and grace that we have learned to respect.”
WINDLE, SIR BERTRAM COGHILL ALAN. Science and morals. *$2.75 Kenedy 215
“Sir Bertram Windle, the distinguished Roman Catholic scientist, now professor of anthropology in St Michael’s college, Toronto, collects here (with some revision) nine essays which he has contributed to the Dublin Review, the Catholic World, America and Studies. Apart from the title essay he writes on Theophobia and Nemesis; on the narrowness of the strictly scientific, especially the biological view (Within and without the system); on the relation of the Roman church to science (Science in ‘bondage’); Science and the war; Heredity and ‘arrangement’; Special creation; Catholic writers and spontaneous generation; and he reviews Mr F. H. Osborn’s ‘The origin and evolution of life.’”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“This is worth while and very much worth while. It is worth while as a readable and popularly rendered contribution to apologetical literature; it is very much worth while because it is a contribution from a recognized scientist on a subject of wide scientific consequence.”
WISE, JENNINGS CROPPER. Turn of the tide. *$1.50 (3c) Holt 940.373
Cantigny, Château Thierry, and the second battle of the Marne are the three operations in which the American troops made their initial appearance in battle in the great war and which mark the transition of the Allies from the defensive to the offensive and the turn of the tide of victory in their favor. The author was a member of the Historical section of the General staff of the American expeditionary force for a number of months after the armistice, had access to the archives at General headquarters, came in contact with many of the leaders of the war and visited and made a careful study of every battlefield of which he writes. The three battles are the subjects of the three chapters of the book which also has a number of maps and appendices.
WISTER, OWEN. Straight deal; or, The ancient grudge. *$2 (2c) Macmillan 327
The ancient grudge is the American feeling of ill-will toward England. This anti-English prejudice is explained by the author as a “complex” founded on false history teaching in childhood and fostered by Great Britain’s enemies. He reviews the history of our relations with England from the revolution down and says in conclusion: “In this many-peopled world England is our nearest relation. From Bonaparte to the Kaiser, never has she allowed any outsider to harm us. We are her cub. She has often clawed us, and we have clawed her in return.... Her good treatment of us has been to her own interest.... If we were so far-seeing as she is, we also should know that her good will is equally important to us.”
“Mr Wister’s purpose in his new book commands our sympathies. He has good intentions, but he is just a shade too friendly. He presses our hand a little too enthusiastically.”
“Mr Wister is too good a writer of fiction to be quite satisfactory as a historian. He relies too much upon imagination and invention; he deals with historic personages as though they were characters in a novel, to be managed as the requirements of the plot dictate. The fact is that this book of Mr Wister’s, like his earlier ‘Pentecost of calamity,’ is a product of war psychology. It is a case of off with the old hate, on with the new.” R. L. Schuyler
“Hysterical and rather silly book. To put it bluntly, Mr Wister has far to go before he recovers from the panic psychology of the war. Mr Wister is the victim of economic innocence and of a sincere admiration, which does him credit, for English civilization.” H. S.
“Makes many true and effective points, but is a little exclusive in its attitude towards nations outside the frontiers of Anglo-Saxondom.”
“Mr Wister’s frivolity and fatuity are basic. He has his grip on the facts of Anglo-American history. In this region he escapes being a jingo and, what is more, he escapes being a toady, at least nine times out of ten. But once he tries to grip the facts of the world, outside Anglo-America, he is dangerously sentimental and at sea.” F. H.
“His is not a calm judicial mind; he is very much a partisan and a fighter. His vehemence now and then runs to the choler of the elderly man who dogmatizes angrily from his club window. Apropos of America’s attitude toward England, we learn the writer’s opinion of Roosevelt, of Secretary Daniels, of Admiral Sims, and so on. I for one regret his occasional fling of cynicism.” H. W. Boynton
“Mr Owen Wister has written a good book; and in writing it he has done a good deed. Mr Wister knows the English at home and abroad; he is an American of the Americans, but he is a grandson of Fanny Kemble and he has both relatives and relations in England. He is therefore unusually well equipped to discuss the social usages and the national peculiarities of the two countries.” Brander Matthews
“A very readable book. We do not agree with him, or with the politicians and the press men, in thinking that friendship can be ensured by books, and speeches, and leading articles.”
“Unfortunately, the book will not attain its end. For this Mr Wister is himself to blame. Much of the work is trivial arguments. It will not be any better to write our history with deliberate sympathies than with deliberate antipathies.”
WITHAM, GEORGE STRONG. Modern pulp and paper making; a practical treatise. il $6 Chemical catalog co., 1 Madison av., N.Y. 676
The author has had thirty-seven years’ practical experience in the pulp and paper industry. He is now manager of mills for the Union bag and paper corporation, Hudson Falls, N.Y. His aim in this book has been “to describe the equipment and processes actually used in pulp and paper plants on this continent today.... No attempt has been made to describe every piece of equipment ever used in the industry. Neither has the author attempted to deal with the historical aspect. Also, while recognizing the great importance of chemistry in connection with papermaking, no chemical considerations have been introduced which would not readily be comprehended by one with no special knowledge of that science.” (Preface) Contents: Processes by which pulp is produced; Materials from which pulp is produced; Varieties of paper; The saw mill; The wood room; The sulphite mill; The acid plant; The soda process; The sulphate process; The ground wood mill; Bleaching; The beater room; The machine room; The finishing room; General design of pulp and paper plants; The power plant; Testing of paper and paper materials; Paper defects: their cause and cure; Personnel; Useful data and tables; Index. There are over 200 figures in the text.
“This is the first book on the subject of paper-making that we have ever read that is really worth while; it is a practical treatise on paper technology that bears the stamp of genuine authority. One subject, however, in the book which has been somewhat summarily dealt with is that relating to the dyeing and coloring of paper. In its typographical makeup the present volume is a credit to its publishers.”
“For ‘the man on the job’ this is, on the whole, a much more satisfactory work than that of Cross and Bevan; moreover it deals only with American practice. The practical aspect of the book should be emphasized.”
WITWER, HARRY CHARLES. Kid Scanlan. *$1.75 (2½c) Small
Kid Scanlan, welterweight champion, goes into the movies and this is the story of his adventures as told by his manager, Johnny Green. Among the titles of chapters, each of which constitutes a short story, are: Lay off, Macduff; Pleasure island; Lend me your ears; The unhappy medium; Life is reel! Hospital stuff.
“This book may be scoffed at by the more intellectual, but the wideness of its appeal is evident.”
“A humorous mixture of extravagance and slang in Witwer’s happiest vein.”
WITWER, HARRY CHARLES. There’s no base like home. il *$1.75 (3c) Doubleday
A combination of baseball and the movies. Ed Harmon, “the undisputed monarch of the diamond,” continues the series of letters to his friend Joe, and tells what happened after he brought his French wife, Jeanne, to New York. Jeanne not only learns English, she undertakes to teach that language to her husband. She also goes into the movies, and drags her reluctant husband with her. Jeanne’s relatives come from France to pay a surprise visit, but as suddenly return, inspiring their son-in-law to give three cheers for prohibition. The stories are: There’s no base like home; She supes to conquer: A fool there wasn’t; So this is Cincinnati!; The merchant of Venus; The freedom of the shes; A word to the wives; The nights of Colombus; The league of relations.
“Abounding in picturesque slang, unusual figures of speech and shrewd comment on present-day tendencies and foibles.”
“In a certain way, Witwer’s stories remind one of Keystone comedies, although, of course, they are not quite so far-fetched in their incongruous situations. This kind of patter is handled with skill by Mr Witwer, who hardly ever descends to a too-obvious cheapness.”
WODEHOUSE, PELHAM GRENVILLE. Little warrior. *$2 (1½c) Doran
Jill Mariner is an American girl brought up in England. In her, cheerfulness and impulsive kindliness are counterbalanced by pride and quick temper. Between the two she never succumbs to any situation, but fights her way through. There are abrupt changes in her circumstances. From possessing a fortune and being engaged to an English peer, she drops to the position of chorus girl in an American musical comedy. After a brief but stormy career of a tragi-comical nature—with the emphasis on the comical—and after being wooed a second time by Sir Derek, she decides that she loves Wally Mason, her girlhood chum and now a writer of musical comedy in New York, best.
“So much of current fiction is touched with glowering realism or sour-mouthed cleverness that such real spontaneity and good humor as Mr Wodehouse’s is irresistible.” H. W. Boynton
“The author manages to play upon even such a light-eroded spot as Forty-second street and Broadway with such piquant and Americanesquely touch-and-go ironical sparkle, such color and deft comedy tempo, as to leave with the reader an illusion of freshness and a complex of winning aftertones.”
“The gay comedy-romance is a top-notcher of its kind. The reader who doesn’t chuckle over this melange of English and American slang will have to be determinedly gloomy.”
“The tale is capital burlesque with a warm touch of human nature.”
WOLCOTT, THERESA HUNT, ed. Book of games and parties for all occasions. il *$2 Small 793
The material for the book has largely been compiled from the entertainment page of the Ladies’ Home Journal. The contents are intended to furnish entertainments for home, school and church parties, beginning with New Year’s Eve, extending throughout the year and taking in all the holidays of a general and private character, with invitations, menus for special occasions, appropriate rhymes and poetry, illustrations and an index.
WOOD, CLEMENT. Jehovah. *$2 Dutton 811
A long narrative poem with frequent lyric interludes. The time is 1034 B. C., in the reign of David. David’s forces under Joab, sweeping south, spoiling and conquering in the name of their God, Jehovah, meet the resistance of the Kenites, the hill dwellers of Mount Sinai whose tribal God Jehovah is. Demanding tribute for their king and worship for their God, the Israelites are faced with the Kenites’ claim for priority in Jehovah worship, Moses having learned it from his Kenite father-in-law, Jethro. In the conference that follows two conceptions of Jehovah are set forth. The tribal god of the Kenites is opposed to the imperialist god of Israel. By trickery Joab outwits the weaker forces and falls upon them unawares to slay and exterminate, all for the glory of Jehovah. Toward the end a new conception of God is developed, the God of brotherhood as visioned by the prophet Jotham. The poem was awarded one of the Lyric poetry prizes for 1919.
“If it won the Lyric prize, it was hardly for its lyrism. Still, the poem is dramatic, the characterization interesting, and some of the passages genuinely powerful.”
“When Clement Wood wrote ‘Jehovah’ he took the chance at being dull on the bigger chance of successfully writing a poem about an evolving god. He fails, and he is dull; but there is a sort of leaden grandeur about the attempt.” R. D.
“It has, curiously, a flavor of ‘Beowulf’ rather than of the Hebrew poets and prophets. It is written in a variety of verse forms, many of them interesting.”
“‘Jehovah’ suffers from a too constant strenuousness of reach and a too mighty savagery of diction; there is more motion than flow, more activity than strength. Yet certain of the songs genuinely mount; and Uz, the wrinkled patriarch, spokesman for the Kenites, is a triumph in portraiture.” Mark Van Doren
“The various songs about Jehovah sung by the two conflicting tribes of warriors, are replete with beauty that is made more significant and meaningful because there are depths to the thoughts expressed. There is an unmistaken classic air about Clement Wood’s ‘Jehovah.’” Alvin Winston
“The grim expectancy in the tale is a strong point. There are cases, unfortunately, in which the vocabulary, not the conception, is herculean, in which it is only the dictionary that bares its thews.” O. W. Firkins
“The poem is a faithful attempt to produce a visualization of men and events of 3000 years ago. It is hardly distinguished, but it shows considerable knowledge of the subject.”
WOOD, CLEMENT. Mountain. *$2.50 Dutton
“Pelham Judson grows up on the mountain, the son of the successful exploiter of its resources in iron; goes to Yale and absorbs the conventional social ideals (including an exploit as a strikebreaker); leads an almost preposterously chaste life, which he compensates for after his marriage to Jane by a delayed affair with Louise; returning to Adamsville after graduation, becomes converted to the cause of labor and socialism and is one of the leaders in the long drawn-out strike in the mines. The result of the conversion is, of course, permanent estrangement from his father and mother, the former the leader of the standpat forces.”—New Repub
“A heterogeneous mass of capital and labour, love and catastrophe. Mr Wood’s masterful portrayal of the negro race, however, furnishes a background which puts his high-lights to shame and leaves us the hope that he will visualize the white race with equal clarity.”
“Love, it may be said, Mr Wood presents more convincingly than economics. The characters of his story, never clearly realized, make sudden and inexplicable shifts of attitude to meet the necessities of a somewhat vaguely conceived plot, just as his social theories are strained to make destructive facts work toward constructive ends.” H. S. H.
“One looks in vain for a single passage of supreme beauty, for one arresting phrase; yet there is in the book an undercurrent of power rare in a first novel.”
“From the point of view of art the mind is unpersuaded and the imagination a blank. The book is all haste and over-eagerness. The creative hand has scarcely touched it yet.”
“This is an uncommonly fine bit of work, for a first novel. The working class type is a real one, not a caricature. Yet the chief protagonists, Pelham Judson in particular, do not come into the reader’s experience with that unerring finality which is always the mark of sure imaginative creation. They are not inconsistent; they are plausible; they are unfailingly interesting. But they are mere sketches, not realities.” H. S.
“With ‘Mountain’ Clement Wood has added 335 pages to the little heaps of worthwhile contemporary literature.” A. W. Welch
“The novel reflects truthfully and interestingly an ardent if not entirely substantial type of temperament.”
WOOD, ERIC FISHER. Leonard Wood: conservator of Americanism. il *$2 (3c) Doran
The author admires the subject of his biography as the conservator and champion of Americanism, for his work at Plattsburg, his pleas for preparedness and his dignified reticence about himself. His flawless record in the past the author hopes gives just grounds for predicting a still greater career for him in the future. “He has ever been a true prophet in all matters pertaining to the political and military welfare of his native land, its allies and dependencies. He has never had to make excuses, for although the administrative tasks successively allotted to him have been vast in scope, he has never in any one of them fallen short of exceptional success.” (Conclusion) Contents: Ancestry and boyhood; Personal characteristics; As a surgeon; The Geronimo campaign; The Spanish-American war; Governor of Santiago; The Wood method; Appointed governor of Cuba; Governor of Cuba; Turning their government over to Cubans; The conquest of yellow fever; The Rathbone case; Governor of the Moro province; Dato Ali; The military administrator; The conservator of Americanism; The world war; Illustrations, appendix and index.
“A most interesting and most readable book.”
“Although Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Wood is an indifferent biographer, his book contains several oases of competent writing. Thus he gives a graphic sketch of the Geronimo campaign, and his account of the Cuban operations is soldierly and useful.”
WOOD, FREDERIC JAMES. Turnpikes of New England and evolution of the same through England, Virginia and Maryland. il $10 Jones, Marshall 386
“A detailed history of each of the many turnpike companies, such as is here furnished, offers a great deal to interest the engineer, and, from one point of view, summarizes the economic development of the country from the close of the revolution to the middle of the nineteenth century.” (Review) “The author, an engineer, has included everything—engineering problems, history, finance, management, vehicles, description.” (Booklist)
“It is written in a fascinating style, full of good humor, replete with stories and historical incidents, and its enthusiastic verve carries the reader from start to finish.” N. H. D.
“A handsome volume of which both author and publisher have reason to be proud.”
WOOD, IRVING FRANCIS.[2] Heroes of early Israel. il *$2 Macmillan 220.9
“‘Heroes of early Israel’ is one of the Great leaders series. It seeks to tell in a popular manner the stories of the old Hebrew heroes whose lives are too often lost for the young in the more difficult portions of the Bible.”—N Y Times
“The book is intended especially for use in schools, but many will like to put it into the hands of their children as an introduction to Biblical study.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
WOOD, LEONARD. Leonard Wood on national issues; comp. by Evan J. David. pa *$1.25 (8c) Doubleday 308
“In compiling this book the object has been to collect representative statements from the speeches and writings of General Leonard Wood on national problems.” (Compiler’s introd.) Among the subjects covered are: How Cuba won self-determination; Capital, labor and the golden rule; American women—today and tomorrow; War and peace; The league of nations; The farmer—his rights and wrongs; Teachers, moulders of the future; Immigration without assimilation: Americanization. In addition to the compiler’s introduction there is a foreword by Edward S. Van Zile.
WOODBERRY, GEORGE EDWARD. Roamer, and other poems. *$1.75 Harcourt 811
The greater part of the book is taken up by “The roamer,” a long poem in four books symbolizing the soul’s pilgrimage through the ages and its upward progress. A sonnet sequence, Ideal passion, Poems of the great war, and a group of Sonnets and lyrics complete the volume.
“For those who like conventional, idealistic poetry.”
“Mr Woodberry’s lines are penned with such precision, dignity, and grace, and express so noble an enterprise, that one feels they should not be allowed to perish without protest. And yet they fail to stir. Is it that Mr Woodberry is too much merely the inheritor of Victorian maladies and philosophies?” L. M. R.
“As an occasional poet Mr Woodberry is not exciting after the occasion has passed; in the present period of enforced listlessness toward the war, his poems on that occasion, at least, seem good work thrown away, seem good words robbed of their right to ring. Mr Woodberry is more surely a poet when he is a Platonist, as in ‘Ideal passion,’ on the whole the most vibrant portion of his recent output.” Mark Van Doren
“Professor Woodberry’s book must be accounted one of the genuine poetical achievements of the year, but it will hardly make a wide appeal to this generation.” H. S. Gorman
“‘Ideal passion’ is excellent, while the ‘Roamer’ is valuable only to specialists in literature or disciples of Mr Woodberry. The shorter poems in the volume are vastly better than the ‘Roamer,’ but attain no equality with ‘Ideal passion.’” O. W. Firkins
WOODHOUSE, HENRY. Textbook of applied aeronautic engineering. il *$6 Century 629.1
“The bulk of this book is devoted to a description of existing machines, but in the first chapter the author declares that for commercial success the aeroplane should be built to carry twenty tons of useful load, and considers how this can be done. Other chapters consist largely of reprints of papers and documents, many from American sources, relating to aeroplane and seaplane engineering in the U.S.A. navy, the theory of flight, rigging, alinement, maintenance and repairs, and the value of plywood in fuselage construction.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
WOODHOUSE, THOMAS, and KILGOUR, P. Cordage and cordage hemp and fibres. (Pitman’s common commodities and industries ser.) il $1 Pitman 677
An introductory chapter suggesting something of the early history of cordage is followed by: Definition of cordage and sources of fibres; Classification of fibres; The cultivation of hemp; Retting, breaking and scutching; The cultivation of plants for hard fibres; The preparing and spinning machinery for hemp and other soft fibres; The preparing and spinning machinery for manila and other hard fibres; Twines, cords and lines; Ropes and rope-making; Yarn numbering; Marketing. There are 31 illustrations and an index. The authors are connected with the Dundee technical college and school of art.
WOODS, ARTHUR. Policeman and public. *$1.35 Yale univ. press 352.2
“‘The policeman and public,’ by Lieut.-Col. Arthur Woods, former police commissioner of New York city, places in book form the author’s lectures in the Dodge course at Yale on the ‘Responsibilities of citizenship.’ Points discussed are: The puzzling law; The policeman as Judge; The people’s advocate; Methods of law enforcement; Esprit de corps; Reward and punishment; Grafting; Influence; Police leadership; and The public’s part.”—Springf’d Republican
“Throughout the book is a sympathetic discussion of the problems from the standpoint of the policeman. At the same time Mr Woods appreciates the reasons for the sometimes hostile attitude of the public toward the police.” J. L. Gillin
Reviewed by G. H. McCaffrey
“A popular and interesting presentation of the problems and methods of the police, and of the ways in which the public may cooperate to add effectiveness to the service.”
“Colonel Woods has done a great service to the policemen of the entire country by putting their case fairly before the public.”
“The little book is instructive and intensely interesting.”
“Entertaining and instructive, not only to those connected with an important branch of municipal government and to applicants for places therein but to the public generally.”
“They are made lively reading by a mass of illustrative anecdotes.”
WOODS, GLENN H. Public school orchestras and bands. il $2 Ditson 785
In realization of the growing importance of music in our educational curriculum this book is offered to meet in particular the needs of the teacher who has no knowledge of instrumental music. It emphasizes three essentials for the instrumental work in the public school system: that the instruments for the band and orchestra be supplied to the children; that the work begin in the lower grades of the elementary schools and be carried through the high school; and that the instruction be given by special teachers of instrumental music. Among the contents are: Importance of instrumental instruction; Preparation of teachers: How to organize instrumental instruction; Instruction in the elementary schools; Instruction in the high schools; Conducting; Suggestions about tuning; How to assemble an orchestra score; Transposition; List of band and orchestra music, and instruction books. There is an appendix and numerous illustrations.
“For music leaders who lack professional training this book will be most helpful. It is practical, concise, and is written by one who has first-hand knowledge of the problem.”
WOODWORTH, HERBERT G. In the shadow of Lantern street. *$1.75 (1½c) Small