Poetry, the author holds, is not subject to evolution in its essence but is an unchanging function of an unchanging life and its three genres, the lyrical, the dramatic and the epic, are comparable to the three eternal ways of meeting experience: “as simply a present moment, or as a present moment in which the past is reaped, or as a present moment in which the future is promised.” The other essays of the volume are: The teaching of poetry; The new poetry; Scholarship and poetry.
“Of great value to all lovers of poetry is Mr Erskine’s book. His criticism is keen and trenchant and happily expressed in a style peculiarly his own.” C. K. H.
“When his moral prejudices are not in the way, Mr Erskine is a sound writer.” Llewellyn Jones
Reviewed by W: McFee
“One will find great pleasure in his book, but it will hardly take its place as an important document.”
“They are characterized by a fine mingling of discrimination and common sense. His breadth of view, his refusal to rest content with mere special scholarship, gives value to his advice about the teaching of poetry.”
Reviewed by L. R. Morris
“An uneven book in which the critical elements are decidedly superior to the constructive ones.”
“There is somewhat too much of that intellectual writing around a subject which is common with persons who are afraid of the obvious, but, on the whole, the book will awaken thought; it will not do this the less because some of its reasoning will arouse criticism.”
ERVINE, ST JOHN GREER. Foolish lovers. *$2 (1c) Macmillan
Mr Ervine’s new book is dedicated to his mother, who asked him to write a story without any “bad words” in it, and to Mrs J. O. Hanny, who asked him to write a story without any “sex” in it. It is the story of a charmingly conceited young Irishman who goes to London to write novels and plays and comes home again to be a grocer. John’s boyhood is spent in the home over the shop where three generations of MacDermotts had preceded him. He grows up under the care of his mother, his Uncle Matthew, the dreamer whose dreams come to nothing, and his Uncle William, who supports the family. He goes to London where he meets Eleanor. He asks her to marry him almost at first meeting, dogs her steps and finally persuades her to marry him, only to find that she has leagued herself with his mother to persuade him back to Ballyards and the shop.
“‘The foolish lovers’ has nothing to commend it but a good beginning. Why did he write it? Or, rather, why did he give up writing it? Perhaps he would reply that what is not worth doing is not worth doing well. It is a possible explanation.” K. M.
“It is regrettable that so good a story as this bears so poor a title. ‘The foolish lovers’ is neither an exact nor an appealing designation for a novel that is so full of the commonsense of life.” E. F. E.
“Mr Ervine, in spite of his obvious determination to fix securely the ‘local coloring,’ has failed to evoke the fine, harsh, sincere reality of the Black Northerners with whom his story deals. Prose drama is, after all, this author’s true medium.”
“John McDermott himself is not altogether credible. His exploits, especially his wooing of Eleanor—the central thing in the book—have none of the homely vigor and quiet truth of the Irish scenes and incidents. Here and there Mr Ervine gives us glimpses of a more searching novel he might write about the people of Ulster. But he deliberately cut himself off from that possibility here by the kindly promises to be harmless which he records in his dedication.” Ludwig Lewisohn
“To put it all as briefly as possible, ‘The foolish lovers,’ while not so remarkable a book as ‘Changing winds,’ is worthy of its author—and to say that a book is worthy of St John Ervine is to give it high praise.”
“Modern taste hardly asks for anything really better than such a suave and frank, sympathetically critical and wisely humorous treatment of life as is found in this book. Its tone just suits the mood of the cultivated man or woman of today who has outgrown youthful tastes but has retained a certain independence of view-point. In charm and in acuteness—the two qualities generally most worth commending in the fiction of the day, in which hysteria is so apt to take the place of power—‘The foolish lovers’ is preeminent.”
“‘The foolish lovers’ exemplifies to a very high degree the special gifts which have made its author’s novels notable among recent fiction. Mr Ervine has something of Dickens’s love for people. No more delightfully tender description of a courtship is contained in recent fiction, nor any which so finely sets forth as that in ‘The foolish lovers’ the unconscious humor of young love.” L. R. Morris
“Mr Ervine’s tale is in the new-British mode, the post-Wellsian, somewhat diffuse, somewhat overburdened with scenes and ‘characters,’ if not, in this instance, with ‘ideas.’” H. W. Boynton
“The portraits of his family are excellent, and the way he imposes himself on Eleanor is ably studied.”
“Mr St John Ervine has chosen an old theme, but he has invested it with the freshness and vigour which we have come to expect from his work.”
“The story is rich in whimsical observations on personal characteristics and political trends, and engages the reader’s close interest in all its phases.”
“By far the most attractive part of his story takes place in Ballyards. The characters of Uncle William and Uncle Matthew are delightful. The success with which Mr Ervine brings out their simplicity and nobility of character is a convincing proof of his gifts as a novelist.”
ESCOUFLAIRE, RODOLPHE C. Ireland an enemy of the allies? tr. from the French. *$2.50 Dutton 941.5
“M. Escouflaire’s thesis in this volume is that the Irish question so-called is ‘an international imposture.’ In years past this French writer had accepted anti-British propaganda from Ireland at its face value, but his contact with British statesmen during the war led him to question his earlier conclusions, and in the present volume after an independent study of Ireland’s relations with England he declares categorically that the whole Irish claim of oppression by England, so far as the present generation is concerned, is a myth.”—R of Rs
“The egotism of his attitude is bewildering, but it is the key to a treatment of Irish affairs which would otherwise be merely stupidly unfair and ungenerous.”
“The book is a grotesque perversion of all Irish history, ancient and modern. The author’s gross ignorance is never corrected by the translator.” E. A. Boyd
“Lovers of England must trust that she will not listen to such counsels as these.” Preserved Smith
“His book is well written, but without the wise judgment that comes through the sympathetic understanding that such men as Lloyd George bring to the problem.”
“M. Escouflaire’s book must be laid down with a sigh of disappointment. It is the sort of work which can help no one, a perfect specimen of how Irish matters should not be discussed, and those most anxious for the object he sets before himself should be the first to repudiate the methods by which he is seeking it. The present critic hates Sinn Fein and all its works as much as M. Escouflaire can hate them, but he would wish to see it attacked with artillery not so far out of range.” H. L. Stewart
“Accurate and spirited little book.”
ESSEN, LÉON VAN DER. Short history of Belgium. il *$1.50 (3c) Univ. of Chicago press 949.3
This second and enlarged edition of the original book contains a special chapter on Belgium during the war. The book is illustrated and has a bibliography and an index. The first edition was published in 1916.
“Dr Van der Essen has succeeded admirably in confining a record of monumental size within the compass of a small volume. Yet, in doing so, he has not sacrificed clearness for brevity nor interest for compactness.”
“Professor van der Essen has treated this difficult and often intricate subject with admirable skill; though writing with a scholar’s intimate knowledge of his country’s history, he has succeeded in steering clear from the shoal of ponderosity and dulness. Here and there the Roman Catholic has led the historian astray.”
“It is a fascinating story told by a master of the facts who writes with a fine sense of proportion.”
EVANS, CARADOC. My neighbors. *$1.75 (5c) Harcourt
More stories of a Welsh rural neighborhood by the author of “My people” and “Capel Sion.” In a prologue entitled “The Welsh people” the author offers some explanation of the ugly and distorted aspects of human nature that he presents. The stories are: Love and hate; According to the pattern; The two apostles; Earthbred; For better; Treasure and trouble; Saint David and the prophets; Joseph’s house; Like brothers; A widow woman; Unanswered prayers; Lost treasure; Profit and glory.
“I happen to know something of Welsh religion, and I have written not a little in criticism of it. But the religion which Mr Evans describes I have never met with. We Welsh have many grievous faults, and we have not been as faithful in self-criticism as we should have been. But Mr Caradoc Evans’s book does not describe us. It describes only Mr Caradoc Evans’s own soul; and it is not a pretty sight.”
“Mr Evans’s artistic gift is very genuine but hard and narrow. In its present trend one can see little chance for its development. The stories are like rocks—impressive but barren. The preface is written in a more flexible vein and a more ironic mood. In it the language of the English Bible, from which Mr Evans draws, is transmuted for the uses of his artistic intention. In the stories themselves it is employed merely as a weapon. But his work has fierce honesty, concentration, power. It is sanative and, within its definite limits, completely achieved.”
“But does he really traverse the whole stage? We cannot think so. Where there are Goneril and Regan we cry out for a Cordelia, and Mr Evans would, we think, have made his terrible portraits more effective even than they are already if he had introduced more contrast and relief into them.”
“Mr Evans knows the Welsh intimately and searchingly, and his portrayal of their daily lives, their bickerings, prayings and aspirations is altogether ruthless and incisive.” Pierre Loving
“The hardy reader who will persist beyond the almost impenetrable idiom of Caradoc Evans will be richly rewarded. Especially do we recommend the book to reformers, utopists, spinners of millennial dreams.”
“He is sometimes difficult to follow, partly because the dialogue is in English literally translated from the Welsh, and partly because the stories are almost excessively condensed; but the subdued irony and false simplicity are delightful, and he knows the sovereign power of the restraint which leaves events to explain themselves without heavy exegesis.”
EVANS, EDWARD RADCLIFFE GARTH RUSSELL. Keeping the seas. il *$3 Warne 940.45
“Captain Evans saw a great deal of the Dover patrol and of all it included. He tells his experiences, so to speak, right on end and in a kind of chronological order. He is a witness who was there and records what has remained in his mind of what he saw. And he had notable things to remember; for he commanded the Broke in the action of March, 1917, in the Straits. The war produced few such passages of conflict as the action in the Straits. Captain Evans’ services, like those of other officers, consisted in the main of cruising and watching. At the end he was afforded a change in the direction of Gibraltar and the Portuguese coast.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“His ‘simple sailor volume,’ as he calls it, is full of miscellaneous stories which would have been the better if they had been more carefully digested; but if the whole is rather confusing, not a little good matter is to be found in the heap.”
EVANS, MRS ELIDA. Problem of the nervous child. *$2.50 (3c) Dodd 136.7
This volume comes with an introduction by Dr C. G. Jung of Zurich who says of the author: “Mrs Evans’ knowledge of her subject matter is based on the solid foundation of practical experience, an experience gained in the difficult and toilsome treatment and education of nervous children.... This book, as the reader can see on almost every page, is the fruit of an extended work in the field of neuroses and abnormal characters.” Its purpose is to aid parents in the training and education of their children, not to add another “to the already long list of textbooks explaining psychoanalytical treatment for nervous troubles.” It does not presuppose scientific training in the laws of human development on the part of those for whom the book is intended and therefore avoids technical terms and abstruse discussions as far as possible, giving only end results of present day research and observation on the subject, with examples of cases. Contents: Statement of the problem; The development of repression; Symbolic thought; The child and the adult; Mental behaviour of the child; Defence reactions; The parent complex; Buried emotions; Child training; Muscle erotism; The tyrant child; Teaching of right and wrong; Self and character; Index.
“There are spots in the book where the all-absorbing panacea of psycho-analytic therapy is too powerful, and she over-stresses the environment, losing sight of the medico-psychological fact that many defects are organically directed. The book needs a broader sensing and interpreting of the ever present interplay between the hereditary and environmental forces.” H. F. Coffin, M.D.
EVANS, LAWTON BRYAN. America first. il *$2.50 Bradley, M. 973
“Instead of being what the title might imply, the volume contains one hundred stories from the history of America in condensed form and written in a style that will prove interesting to the juvenile reader. The author goes on the supposition that the nearer a story is to the life of the child, the more eagerly it is absorbed. True stories, he says, about our own people, about our neighbors and friends and about our own country at large, are more interesting than true stories of remote people and places. The stories grouped in the volume open with ‘Leif, the lucky,’ and continue down through history to the time when Americans made history over-seas.”—Springf’d Republican
“An excellent piece of work. The book will be a valuable supplement to school study of our national history and it will stimulate a healthy national pride.”
EVARTS, HAL GEORGE. Cross pull. *$1.90 (3½c) Knopf
The hero of this story is Flash, a cross between wolf, coyote and dog. Clark Moran took him as a puppy and tamed him and the dog in him responded to kindness. To one other Flash gives his allegiance, to Betty, the girl from the East who comes into the mountains. To most other humans he is indifferent, but there is one he hates. The story tells how he served his two loved ones in a crisis, and how in so doing he took his own revenge on his enemy. In the end he settles down as a safe and trusted house dog, but there were times when the wild strain awakened and at those times, on still nights during the mating moon, certain civilized suburbanites would experience a primitive shudder at hearing the lone wolf’s call.
“Not over humanized or sentimentalized; one of the best dog stories.”
“A better novel it might have been, but a better animal study it could scarcely have been.”
“A story of more than ordinary interest either as an ‘animal story’ or a ‘live’ western romance.”
EVARTS, WILLIAM MAXWELL. Arguments and speeches: ed., with an introd., by his son Sherman Evarts. 3v *$15 Macmillan 815
“Mr Evarts (1818–1901) as leader of the American bar, orator, and statesman, was one of the most conspicuous of American citizens in the nineteenth century. This substantial collection of his public utterances not only provides a record of his career, but an important document for the social and political events of his day and for the history of American oratory. He was the leading counsel for the defendant in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Jackson in 1868; and in 1872 was counsel for the United States in the Alabama arbitration at Geneva. He was secretary of state during President Hayes’s administration (1877–1881) and one of the senators for New York 1885–1891.”—The Times [London]. Lit Sup
“The editor’s introductions and comments are brief and well chosen throughout. Taken as a whole, the volumes are a worthy memorial to one of the influential leaders of the American bar, and of the Republican party during a difficult period of our history.” W: A. Robinson
“The ‘Springbok’ argument is said by our leading authority on international law to be as good an argument in a prize case as he has ever read. The defense of Andrew Johnson was equally worth reprinting. As to the rest of the three volumes there is much room for doubt.” Zechariah Chafee, jr.
“These volumes should find a place in all public libraries, especially those of the higher institutions of learning, and in many private libraries. especially those of persons interested in the political history of the United States.”
“We are glad to find, in sampling these volumes, that Evarts’s high reputation for eloquence is fully justified.”
Reviewed by Moorfield Storey
EVISON, MILLICENT. Rainbow gold. il *$1.75 Lothrop
While their father is serving a term of imprisonment on a charge of embezzlement three young people, Toni, Basil and Cecily, go to live with their grandfather in a lonely old house in Maine. The grandfather is crabbed and cold and the two aunts have become as dull and drab as the old house. The story tells how the children bring new life into it and how Toni wins her grandfather’s heart and moves him to take steps toward a new hearing of their father’s case which proves his innocence.
FABRE, JEAN HENRI CASIMIR. Secret of everyday things; informal talks with the children: tr. from the French by Florence Constable Bicknell. il *$2.50 Century 504
This book for young readers contains another selection of Uncle Paul’s talks, following “The story-book of science,” “Our humble helpers” and “Field, forest and farm.” Among the everyday things discussed are Thread; Pins; Needles; Silk; Wool; Flax and hemp; Weaving; Woolen cloth; Moths; Calico; Dyeing and printing; Human habitations; Soap; Fire; Matches; Glass; Iron; Rust; Pottery; Coffee; Sugar; Tea; Bread; Air; Evaporation; Rain; Snow; The force of steam; Sound and light. There are occasional illustrations in the text.
“Would be useful in junior high schools.”
“Didacticism flies before Fabre’s freshness of style like dust before a broom.”
“The insect world has been recreated for lay readers by the patience and the genius of Fabre. Here his themes are homelier but his gift for accurate information, made fascinating in the telling, is the same.”
“The heart and mind of a scientist, the style of an artist, and the sympathy of a man whose child spirit never died live in the book.” Hildegarde Hawthorne
FAIRBANKS, HAROLD WELLMAN. Conservation reader. il *$1.20 World bk. 338
This book is one of the Conservation series and is especially designed for the education of children in right ways of looking at nature. It is the author’s opinion that much of the enthusiasm for conservation will expend itself uselessly unless it can be made to reach the children and the purpose of the book is to present its principles to pupils in a simple and interesting manner. Among the contents are: How our first ancestors lived; The earth as it was before the coming of civilized men; How far will nature restore her wasted gifts? Things of which soil is made; The use and care of water; How the forests are wasted; Our forest playgrounds; What is happening to the wild flowers; What shall we do when the coal, oil, and gas are gone? What is happening to the animals and birds; How to bring the wild creatures back again. Among the many illustrations are two color prints and there is an index.
“Well adapted for use in the intermediate grades.”
FALKENHAYN, ERICH GEORG ANTON SEBASTIAN VON. German general staff and its decisions, 1914–1916. *$5 Dodd 940.343
“The book will attempt to set forth in an intelligible form, according to my knowledge at the time of their occurrence, those operative ideas by which the best of us were guided in battle and victory during the two years of the war when I was at the head of the general staff. My statements do not afford any history of the war in the ordinary sense of the word. They touch upon the events of the war, and other occurrences connected with the latter, only in so far as is necessary to justify the decisions of the general staff.” (Preface) Contents: The change of chief of the general staff; The general military situation in the middle of September, 1914: The battles of the Yser and around Lodz; The period from the beginning of trench warfare in November-December, 1914, until the recommencement of the war of movement in 1915; The break-through at Gorlice-Tarnow and its consequences; Operations against Russia in the summer and autumn of 1915; Beginning of the unrestricted submarine campaign; Attempts to break through in the west in the autumn of 1915, and the campaign against Serbia; The situation at the end of 1915; The campaign of 1916; Comparative review of the relative strength of forces (Appendix); Maps.
“The work itself is a memoir, rather than a history. It makes no references to authorities, and furnishes little in the form of documents, but it bears evidence of more careful preparation than is usual with memoirs and of being based on authentic records or accurate first-hand knowledge.” J: Bigelow
Reviewed by W. C. Abbott
“Both as a personal apologia and as a revealing of inside German military history this volume is a worthy companion to Ludendorff’s book—indeed, it is better; it is less clumsy and tart, its language is clearer and terser.”
“With one exception, his book is a candid and apparently straightforward statement of the problems he was called upon to solve, and as such it will always be valuable to the special student, but not to the general public: it proves nothing.”
“General von Falkenhayn’s book on the war is, from the military standpoint, a much more serious production than General Ludendorff’s memoirs, though it does not appeal in the same way to the natural man’s desire for revelations of the enemy’s domestic controversies. The attentive reader of his book will be impressed with General von Falkenhayn’s personality. He writes like a soldier, not like a politician.”
“Von Falkenhayn’s book is a worthy companion to Ludendorff’s. It has the merit of being shorter; it contains a much smaller admixture of politics; and its handling of personal controversies, though sufficiently tart, is less clumsy and disagreeable than Ludendorff’s.”
FARIS, JOHN THOMSON. On the trail of the pioneers; romance, tragedy, and triumph of the path of empire. il *$3.50 Doran 978
The present volume does not give in full detail the historical background of the successive great movements of population from the East to the West but rather actual typical cases of emigrants on the move. “It ... gives glimpses of many of these great movements, the routes the emigrants took, and the sections to which they went. The endeavor is made to answer the questions, Who were the emigrants? How and where did they travel? What adventures did they have by the way? What were their impressions of the country through which they passed? What did they do when they reached their destinations?” (Preface) For this purpose full use has been made of the records of early travellers and pioneers. Contents: Through the Cumberland gap to Kentucky and Tennessee; Through the Pittsburgh and Wheeling gateways; Floating down the Ohio and the Mississippi; From northern New York and New England to the West; The Santa Fe trail; The Oregon trail; Across the plains to California; Toiling up the Missouri; Bibliography; Index; Maps and illustrations.
“An excellent, condensed history.”
“While sketchy and disjointed, Mr Faris’s book presents enough that is piquant or solidly interesting to lure the reader to search further for himself.”
“The author has accomplished a scholarly piece of work without pedantry or tedious generalization. The writing of the book is so fresh and entertaining that the general reader will find it a real pleasure to peruse it.”
“There are evidences of haste in the compilation of the book and in the explanatory matter which introduces the excerpts from diaries, resulting in too general statements of specific historical events, and some minor errors. The charm of this book lies in the abundant passages from old journals which happily escaped the improving pencils of ‘literary’ friends.” C. L. Skinner
FARIS, JOHN THOMSON. Seeing the Far West. il *$6 Lippincott 917.8
“John T. Faris’s ‘Seeing the Far West’ has chapters upon the scenery of Colorado, Arizona, the Yellowstone, the Sierras, Oregon, and Washington.” (Review) “He regales his readers with bits of gossip and local history that enliven and endow with a human interest the scenes to which he leads them.” (N Y Times)
“The writing of the book is simple and direct, gaining thereby in clearness and force. Its sincerity cannot be questioned and its personal touches and humanness stir alive one’s jaded interest in travel volumes.” J. W. D. S.
“‘Seeing the far West’ is a desirable addition to any home library.”
“Occasionally the reader finds flashes of description that are characterized by originality, but, on the whole, the writer is content with conventional utterance.” B. R. Redman
“The book will take its place as one of the best of the ‘boosters’ for seeing the great West.”
“Mr Faris has the enviable trick of making one see. He sets one dreaming golden, fantastic, rainbow dreams, and leaves one,—as only the most vivid dreams can leave one,—half convinced that one has actually been there in the flesh.” Calvin Winter
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
“It is well illustrated with photographs which show that Mr Faris is not too enthusiastic in his descriptions.”
“Mr Faris’s main difficulty is that he has so many things to write about. In fact, he would have given a clearer idea of the country if of its natural features he had been content to describe fully one of each kind instead of—in perhaps a spirit of democratic equality—giving a shorter account of several.”
FARNELL, IDA.[2] Spanish prose and poetry old and new. *$5.25 Oxford 860.8
“‘Spanish prose and poetry, old and new.’ by Ida Farnell is a collection made in the belief that one of the consequences of the war will be an increased interest in the literature of the Latin races. Miss Farnell has endeavored to show something of the spirit of Spanish literature by translated extracts from authors ranging from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century (omitting the eighteenth as an age of decadence), to which she has prefixed short biographies of the writers.”—Springf’d Republican
“Her versification is unusually successful in coping with the peculiar difficulties of Spanish verse. Her biographical sketches, her comments and her notes are lively and entertaining. It is a delightful book.” N. H. D.
“Her prefaces, though enfeebled as criticism by moral and patriotic bias, are enthusiastic, and arouse keener expectations than her translations satisfy.”
FARNOL, JEFFERY. Black Bartlemy’s treasure. *$2.15 Little
This is a veritable treasure island and piracy story. Martin Conisby, Lord Wendover, is sold as a slave to a Spanish galleon by Sir Richard Brandon, the slayer of his father. After making his escape and returning to England, swearing vengeance, he unwittingly becomes the rescuer of Brandon’s daughter. He does not find Sir Richard, who has since been lost at sea. But he falls in with a man about to set forth in quest of a treasure and joins him. Lady Joan Brandon embarks on the same ship and presently the two are set adrift in a boat and reach the island. Here they live for some time, a la Robinson Crusoe and love grows to such an extent that the hero is ready to abjure his vow of vengeance. The treasure is also found. When rescuers come events develop in such a way that he renounces love and all and remains a solitary hermit on the island as the ship sails away. Much rough fighting and slaughter punctuate the various phases of the story.
“Some reminiscences of Stevenson and Charles Reade may have gone towards shaping ‘Black Bartlemy’s treasure,’ but Mr Farnol gives a good account of himself as regards both these models.”
“The story would be much more effective were it narrated in forthright English.” E. F. Edgett
“The author has written a thrilling and convincing sea story with so many quaint characters and so much cut-and-thrust action that it is hard to find anything which may be offered as a parallel in very recent fiction.”
“The action is as rapid as ever. The ingenuity with which Mr Farnol creates fresh situations of romance is tireless.”
FARNOL, JEFFERY. Geste of Duke Jocelyn. il *$2.50 Little