Another random document with no related content on Scribd:
N Y Evening Post p9 O 30 ’20 90w
Reviewed by Brander Matthews
N Y Times p10 D 5 ’20 980w
“The book is well organized for use as a textbook. Persons giving English courses in secondary schools will find it helpful.”
School R 28:797 D ’20 320w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p801 D 2 ’20 40w
BARTLETT, WILLIAM HENRY.
Handbook of American government; rev and enl ed. by H: Campbell Black. *$1.25 Crowell 353
20–11824
The last previous edition of this book appeared in 1912. The present revision is designed to cover changes since that time, including three amendments to the constitution, changes in the judicial system, and changes brought about by the war. The editor has also “taken advantage of the opportunity to explain or discuss at greater length various important topics mentioned in the original text, and to introduce comments or explanations of some clauses of the constitution, or of the practical working of government under it, which had not previously been included.” (Editor’s note)
BARTLEY, MRS NALBRO ISADORAH. Gorgeous girl. il *$1.75 (2c) Doubleday
20–6713
Stephen O’Valley became rich quick. He strained every nerve to become so because he wanted to marry the “ gorgeous girl,” Beatrice Constantine, the spoiled daughter of wealth. When the engagement gaieties, the wedding and honeymoon were over, and Steve proposed to Beatrice that they quiet down and “find themselves” the disillusionment began. A perpetual round of social excitement, a reckless spending of money was Beatrice’s entire world and Steve’s comparisons between her and Mary Faithful, his right hand in business, became more searching. In time Mary assumes the rôle of critic holding the mirror up to Steve, to show not only his own life but Mary’s heart. When the failure of Steve’s business sends the heartless Beatrice to Reno another kind of “ gorgeous girl” takes her place.
“Nalbro Bartley has mastered the style of American magazine fiction. She has the light touch, the gift for quick, clever characterization and a modicum of American slang. It is quite noticeable that the women of the story are much more real creations than the men. ”
Boston Transcript p11 Ap 3 ’20 500w
Ind 104:247 N 13 ’20 20w
“While Nalbro Bartley’s new story of ‘The gorgeous girl’ cannot be called particularly convincing, it is less glaringly improbable than some of her other tales. The book has some neat phrasing, Mary’s home life is nicely sketched, and there are a few clever touches of characterization.”
N Y Times 25:199 Ap 18 ’20 480w
Reviewed by E. C. Webb
Pub W 97:995 Mr 20 ’20 300w
BARTLEY, MRS NALBRO ISADORAH. Gray angels.
*$1.90 (1½c) Small
20–17174
The first notice the world took of Thurley Precore was when she “ sang for her supper ” and then continued to sing herself into people’s hearts generally. The rich ghost lady heard the voice in her living tomb and came out to take Thurley to New York and give her a musical education. She became a prima donna, lived in an intimate circle of first class artists, experienced their disappointments, their boredom and the restlessness of fame. She tried to become reckless and flirted with the forbidden, when her singing teacher, also a man of genius, whom she secretly loved, set her right by confiding to her his vision of America’s supreme mission in art. Winning the violet crown he called it. Later the war with its war madness showed to Thurley that her own particular mission lay in helping to restore a hysterical people to sanity and to become one of the gray angels to the broken ones of the war.
“The book is entertaining, the characters are well drawn. Fewer characters would have been better. Thurley’s interesting career, with its pleasing denouement, might have been told in considerably less than 420 pages. ”
The book is a collection of contributions to various magazines. They all look upon the cheery side of life, pick out the amenities from
the commonplaces, and abound in good advice and cheery encouragement for the passengers on this “Good old world” whose “quiet, patient fashion in which he goes around about the same old task, day after day and year after year ” the author admires. Some of the titles are: I expect to be entirely consistent—after ninety; A great little word is “why”; The second mile; It’s a moving picture world, and the film changes every few minutes; The fine rare habit of learning to do without; That fine old fake about the good old days; Everybody has something.
Booklist 17:137 Ja ’21
Ind 104:249 N 13 ’20 30w
“Brief and pithy and filled with common sense philosophy.”
Wis Lib Bul 16:234 D ’20 30w
BARTON, GEORGE. Celebrated spies and famous mysteries of the great war. il *$2 Page 940.3
19–17029
“George Barton has gathered together some of the strange happenings of the war. It is no connected tale of espionage, but rather a series of pen pictures relating to only a few of those involved in the conflict, and those few among the best known. The opening chapter deals with the disappearance of the Hampshire, with Kitchener and his staff; the final one, with the murder of Ferdinand at Sarajevo. In between are such dissimilar persons as Edith Cavell,
Capt. Fryatt, Bolo Pasha, Roger Casement, Ram Chanda and Werner Horn.”—Springf’d Republican
Booklist 16:126 Ja ’20
“Every chapter reads like an Oppenheim novel in little, and there is matter enough in the book to furnish material for all writers who are seeking plots for stories of mystery.”
Boston Transcript p11 D 13 ’19
200w
“This book contains more promise than performance. Whatever interest the stories themselves might hold is entirely spoiled by the stagey dressing.”
Cath World 111:406 Je ’20 170w
“An especially interesting chapter is ‘Eugene Van Doren and the secret press of Belgium.’ If Mr Barton has told nothing new he has at least gathered together the fragments of interesting and varied careers reflecting differing aspects of the war. ”
Springf’d Republican p8 D 16 ’19 160w
BARTON, WILLIAM ELEAZAR. Paternity of Abraham Lincoln; was he the son of Thomas
Lincoln? an essay on the chastity of Nancy Hanks. *$4 Doran
20–19246
The author says that this book may be considered a footnote to his earlier book, “The soul of Abraham Lincoln” and as a suppressed preface to a “Life of Abraham Lincoln” which he plans to write. He states that in collecting data for the first book he came upon a considerable body of material bearing on Lincoln’s paternity and discovered that a number of intelligent collectors of Lincoln books and students of history were convinced that Abraham Lincoln was not the son of Thomas Lincoln. “Moreover, the author found himself at length compelled to ask of himself the question, What if these reports are true? And he pursued his investigations with an open mind.... The author has endeavored to trace every rumor and report relating to the birth of Abraham Lincoln, to assemble all the available evidence in favor of it and against it, to judge each one of these reports upon its own merits, and to render what, he believes, is a judgment from which there can be no successful appeal.” The judgment is a refutation of the supposed evidence and the author believes that he has covered the ground so thoroughly that the matter need not be referred to again.
Boston Transcript p7 N 20 ’20 840w
“A convincing study which leaves not a square inch of ground for the scandal to stand on. Mr Barton’s researches have been exhaustive and barring a few minor slips accurate.” C. V. D.
Nation 111:734 D 22 ’20 820w
“It is undisputedly and indisputably a good work to which Dr Barton has set his hand.”
N Y Times p16 O 31 ’20 1750w
R of Rs 53:222 F ’21 70w
“A scholarly monograph.”
Springf’d Republican p6 N 15 ’20 480w
BARTON, WILLIAM ELEAZAR. Soul of Abraham Lincoln. *$4 (3½c) Doran 20–3862
“The fact that there are so many books on the religion of Abraham Lincoln is a chief reason why there should be one more. ” (Preface) The author explains his volume by stating the considerations which differentiate it from earlier works. He has provided an adequate historical background for the study of Lincoln’s religious life in successive periods and has been aided in this effort by the fact that he spent seven years in the same environment in which Lincoln lived during two important epochs of his career. He has assembled a larger body of essential evidence than any previous writer has compiled, and subjected it to a critical analysis. He has opened several entirely new avenues of investigation and he has set forth his conviction concerning the faith of Abraham Lincoln aside from his theological opinions. Accordingly the book falls into three parts: 1, A study of religious environment; 2, An analysis of the evidence; 3, The religion of Lincoln. The appendices contain extracts from addresses and books of other writers and there is a bibliography and an index.
“For libraries attempting a complete Lincoln collection, though it is rather lacking in charm for general reading.”
Booklist 17:28 O ’20
“This book is so important in its field that it must be regarded as necessary to any library, public or private, fittingly equipped for the critical consideration of Lincoln’s religious history. His book is so well done that it is likely long to remain the standard work on the subject.” L. E. Robinson
Bookm 51:547 Jl ’20 3200w
“The conclusion of the whole matter is that despite its entertaining and its authoritative biographical qualities, such a book as ‘The soul of Abraham Lincoln’ is utterly futile. It leaves us exactly at the point of its beginning. In its last page we have no clearer idea of Lincoln’s religious belief than in its first. Despite the mass of material he assembles, Dr Barton proves nothing.” E. F. E.
Boston Transcript p4 Ap 7 ’20 1500w
“His viewpoint, the skilful analysis of conflicting evidence, and the ability which the author shows in reaching a logical conclusion, seems to us to make this book one with which all students of the lives of Lincoln must hereafter reckon.”
N Y Call p10 Mr 28 ’20 340w
“His volume will probably be the final authority on the muchdebated topic of Mr Lincoln’s religious faith.”
Outlook 124:656 Ap 14 ’20 2000w
Spec 124:835 Je 19 ’20 70w
“Like many others who would like to have Mr Lincoln pictured not exactly as he really was, but as they are eager to think him, Mr Barton labors hard to show what he believes to have been the president’s religious ideas. The result is a new literary portrait of Mr Lincoln, interesting and agreeable in details of the president’s family life, but leaving one unconvinced regarding his religious convictions.”
Springf’d Republican p6 Mr 15 ’20
“Mr Barton has done his work with good feeling and well. In one thing we dissent from him seriously. He quite naturally ascribes Lincoln’s refusal to follow his wife all the way into the Presbyterian fold, or some other, to the weak side of his intellect and character. In all this there is something astray.”
20–18667
Having been intimately concerned with the creation of the reparation and economic sections of the treaty, the writer, in his introduction to the book, gives an apologetic review of the then existing conditions. The treaty was made, he says, in the still smouldering furnace of human passion. In the reparation clauses the conference was not writing a mere contract of dollars and cents; it was dealing with blood-raw passions still pulsing through peoples’ veins. He concedes that the treaty is severe but also insists that it is a flexible instrument, qualified to help effectuate a just and proper peace, if that desire and purpose be really present. Contents: How the reparation clauses were formed; Drawing the economic clauses; Reparation clauses; Economic clauses; Appendix; Index.
“He writes with more caution and less indignation than Keynes but his conclusion is essentially the same. ”
Booklist 17:139 Ja ’21
“It is straight history, instead of being, like Keynes’s book, a blend of history, literary satire and propaganda.”
Ind 103:442 D 25 ’20 120w
“Though Mr Baruch is still somewhat under the influence of the pall of Paris, he lifts something of the veil of secrecy, and when he does he speaks with authority, and not as the journalists. It is an invaluable contribution.” L. S. G.
Nation 111:506 N 3 ’20 1200w
Reviewed by Alvin Johnson
New Repub 25:21 D 1 ’20 1550w
“Mr Baruch seeks to explain, rather than to defend which is the more enlightening method. His simplicity, candor, and restraint let the reader in to an apprehension of the true facts as he sees them. Where is it, then, that Mr Baruch’s conception of the relations of men and nations fails us and dismays us? Because he counts too low the significance of words. Mr Baruch comforts himself that the parts of the treaty which he hates not less than I do are empty because they are impossible, and harmless because they can never happen. But they have wounded, nevertheless, the public faith of Europe.” J.
Keynes
N Y Evening Post p3 D 4 ’20 3050w
M.
“The author has given a valuable account of the matter; clear, dispassionate, uninvolved. His contentions gain in force through the strictness with which he keeps within the field that he has marked out for himself.” No Am 212:859 D ’20 600w
“Should prove a valuable book of reference.”
127:32 Ja 5 ’21 340w
“Mr Baruch’s chapters are brief and direct, while also persuasive to the point of carrying conviction. The atmosphere in which the work was done is well reproduced. This volume will be a necessary part of
every public and private library that includes the essential books relating to the making of peace. ”
+
R of Rs 62:668 D ’20 320w
“His new book is short and concise, but it is in some respects the most illuminating comment upon the treaty that we have seen. ”
Spec 125:778 D 11 ’20 1300w
BASCOM, LELIA. Elementary lessons in English idiom. *$2 Appleton 425 20–15172
A work prepared in the Extension division of the University of Wisconsin as a textbook for students in correspondence-study. It is “designed to aid two types of students, those who are not native Americans but who have had a season of study in night school or elsewhere so that they read and write English a little; and those native Americans who are handicapped by a lack of knowledge of good English usage. ” The teaching thruout the book is by examples and exercises for practice. Rules are reserved for a summing up at the end.
BASDEN, GEORGE THOMAS. Among the Ibos of Nigeria. il *$5 Lippincott 916.6 20–20653
“The country of the Ibos is a district in British West Africa on the lower Niger immediately above the delta, and mainly on the eastern bank of the river. The people some of them are cannibals and addicted to the offering of human sacrifices with every circumstance of cruelty; they eat snakes, except the python which is sacred; their occupations are primitive, farming, fishing, and hunting all three it will be noticed connected with the necessity for procuring the prime necessity, food. Their customs will be found detailed in this book.” The Times [London] Lit Sup
“There are annoying misprints both in English and Ibo; the map, especially in the southern portion, must be termed misleading, it does not even contain all the names mentioned in the text; but Mr Basden has brought together much interesting material, some of it novel, though in many instances insufficiently localized to be of use to the scientific student. The errors pointed out above need not alarm the general reader, who will find the life of the people set forth in an interesting manner. ” N. W. T.
Ath p580 O 29 ’20 580w
“It is by a missionary of wide experience, rare open-mindedness, and a real gift of observation. He makes no pretension to literary excellence, but has made a book that is entertaining as well as valuable ethnologically.”
Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 60w
“If we did not begin by crediting Mr Basden with sincerity, we should be convinced of it in a few pages. ”
BASS, JOHN FOSTER. Peace tangle.
Macmillan 940.314
20–19521
*$4.50
“Mr Bass traces recent diplomatic history from the secret treaties entered into by various nations through the Paris peace conference and the subsequent period. He devotes special chapters to conditions in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, the Balkans, and Turkey. Particular interest attaches to the comment on the League of nations.” Outlook
“Not so much a study of the treaty itself as Scott or of particular sections of it as Baruch but more an evaluation in terms of actual conditions and hoped for results. Less well organized than Keynes but more detached in spirit (opinions are presented coldly, without any attempt to persuade).”
Booklist 17:139 Ja ’21
“His book falls short of some of the other accounts, notably that of Keynes, in organization of material, in charm of style and subtlety of argument. In compensation it offers superior evidence of candor, freedom from preconception and party bias and respect for the independence of the reader’s judgment.” Alvin Johnson
New Repub 24:330 N 24 ’20 1700w
“We know of no better volume to commend either to the man in the street or to the serious student. The matter reveals a keen observation, a rich experience, and a ripe maturity of judgment.”
Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 330w
“It is the best single book that has been written showing how the peace treaty has actually worked in its application to political and economic conditions.”
R of Rs 62:668 D ’20 110w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p843 D 9 ’20 100w
BASSETT, JOHN SPENCER. Our war with Germany; a history. il *$4 (3c) Knopf 940.373 19–19694
For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.
“Taken all together the account of Professor Bassett is the clearest and best that has yet attempted in one volume the story of our part in the world war. New sources will modify parts of the work, but the main outlines will stand much as this historian has dispassionately presented them. The chief complaint that some readers will make with justice is that the book is placid rather than penetrating or analytical.”
Am Hist R 25:737 Jl ’20 650w
“Professor Bassett has written modestly and intelligently in a field in which it would be easy to go far astray, and has attained more than the ‘reasonable accuracy ’ that his preface hopes for. No better book is as yet available for the student interested in our participation in the world war, and no other is so detached and historical-minded as this. The least successful portion of the book is that which covers the obscure yet significant leadership of the United States in the development of the ‘single front,’ military and economic.” F: L. Paxson Am Pol Sci R 14:351 My ’20 420w
Booklist 16:198 Mr ’20
“Carefully studied and judicially written, this book is sure to be one of the useful authorities. In a broad survey of the field, the only notable lack is a consideration of the economic effects of the war and of its financing.” Preserved Smith Nation 110:302 Mr 6 ’20
Paul Cameron, president of his class in Burmingham high school, conceives the idea of a school paper. With boyish daring he approaches the leading editor of the town with a business
“Miss Bassett has made the story readable and enjoyable. One is not too conscious of the didactic intention while on the other hand her information stands out clearly, and she never allows it to be smothered by the story interest.”
+ proposition and to the great man ’ s surprise persuades him into printing the paper. The venture is a success and Paul learns much of modern printing methods as well as something of the history of early manuscript books and of printing. The book is the first volume in the Invention series.
Boston Transcript p6 Je 30 ’20 150w
BASSETT, SARA WARE. Wall between. il *$1.90 Little
20–15702
“A feud of four generations between two New England families is the motif of Sara Ware Bassett’s new romance, ‘The wall between.’ Since the days of Great-Grandfather Webster and Great-Grandfather Howe, the two families have quarreled over who shall keep in repair the stone wall dividing their farms. Ellen Webster, a narrow-minded, vitriolic spinster of seventy-five, and Martin Howe, forty, are the respective heads of the families of this generation. Matters change when Ellen brings her young niece Lucy from the West into the old home. Lucy, who has heard nothing of the feud, makes the acquaintance of Howe’s three timid sisters, and eventually meets him. It follows that the two fall in love. On her death bed, Ellen discovers how matters stand with her niece and neighbor and determines on final revenge. When her will is read it is found that she leaves all her property to Howe provided he repairs the long-
disputed wall. Otherwise it is to become the town poor farm. The situation develops into a battle between Howe’s pride and the inclinations of his heart. But love, as usual, finds a way out.”
Springf’d Republican
“A wholesome and pleasant, though not remarkable story that will please girls and women. ”
Booklist 17:70 N ’20
“Her previous novels, if one reads right, were somewhat saccharine, but with growing firmness of touch due to experience in writing ‘The wall between’ is more natural, more real, than its predecessors.” R. D. W.
Boston Transcript p9 O 16 ’20 160w
“While different from her ‘Cape’ tales, this story is fully as interesting, for, in spite of its artificialities, it is told with understanding of human nature and the perversion of human instincts.”
Springf’d
Under the first title we have the biography of a beloved dog, household pet of two professional women, teachers in Wellesley college, who tended him from puppyhood until old age ended his career. The other comrades of the road were birds, a cat, and Hamlet and Polonius, another dog and a parrot. Poems occur between the chapters.
“The grownup lover of pets will enjoy this book of dog, cat and bird biography much as children enjoy their numerous animal books. The writer’s fondness for collies is tempered with a sly delightful humor which relieves the book of sentimentality.”
Booklist 16:169 F ’20
“She has, in short, made literature out of a dog and enshrined one lovable member of that remarkable race in a work as thoughtful as it is delightful. Sigurd, I believe, will take his place among the canine immortals, along with Greyfriars Bobby, John Muir’s Stikeen, and the great dogs of fiction.” W. A. Dyer
Bookm 51:575 Jl ’20 750w
“It was almost inevitable that in writing the life-story of Sigurd Miss Bates should have woven into the book so much of the atmosphere of Wellesley that it will take on for the alumnæ of those years the character of an unfading memory. ” D. L. M.
Boston Transcript p6 Ja 28 ’20 1100w
Cleveland p33 Mr ’20 40w
“It may be that Miss Bates really understands dog nature, but she has not expressed it here.”
Nation 110:861 Je 26 ’20 310w
Outlook 124:203 F 4 ’20 60w
“We like her writing best when it is most bookish. That is its note. We have other books on our shelves aplenty in which the canine hero plays a more tragic or pathetic or even humorous rôle, but none in which he is more humanly literate than Miss Bates’s Sigurd of the golden fleece.”
Review 2:135 F 7 ’20 260w
“Cannot fail to please all animal lovers.”
Springf’d Republican p13 F 1 ’20 1000w
BATTERSBY, HENRY FRANCIS PREVOST
(FRANCIS PREVOST, pseud.). Edge of doom. *$1.75 (2c) Lane
20–7652
A novel with scenes laid in England, East Africa and on the western front. Rumors of Julian Abingdon’s disgraceful conduct in Central Africa, where he has held official position, reach London, together with an unconfirmed rumor of his death. Believing him still alive and desiring to clear his name, his fiancée, Cyllene Moriston, insists on going out to look for him. His cousin, Jim Chaytor, who
has always disliked Abingdon, takes charge of her expedition. Cyllene is stricken with fever and is left in the care of German missionaries while Chaytor goes on to find Julian. He finds him alive and well and living voluptuously with native women and hence desiring to remain officially dead. He does not tell Cyllene the truth; marries her himself and is then separated from her by the outbreak of the war. During his absence she meets Julian, finds that her old love is dead, and turns with full hearted devotion to her husband.
“‘The edge of doom’ is a very capable piece of work, serious without being in any way disagreeable, absorbing both on account of the intensity of the emotion, the consciousness of beauty both in emotion and in the physical aspect of things, and the importance of the historic background.”
Boston Transcript p9 Je 5 ’20 400w
“The book reads very much as though the author had started out to write one kind of a story, then suddenly changed his mind and proceeded to produce another. This is the more deplorable because the second part of the book, the war section, is well done and interesting.”
N Y Times 25:25 Je 27 ’20 480w
“The story is skilfully told, with a deft, yet sparing use of local colour which helps to carry conviction. It is well worth its place on any bookshelf.” Sat R 129:111 Ja 31 ’20 200w
“The novel part cannot be commended as a story. At the same time there is no doubt that the whole book is well written; the dialogue and the narrative skilfully and vividly handled.”
The
Times [London] Lit Sup p652 N 13 ’19 280w
BAXTER, ARTHUR BEVERLEY. Blower of bubbles. *$1.75 (2½c) Appleton
20–1698
Five unusual stories based on the war, with a sparkling iridescent quality remote from, yet not antagonistic to, reality. The title story depicts a delightful, apparently carefree personality, a gentleman, university bred, who has no set vocation in life, is a dilettante in almost everything it is possible to be, and who spends most of his time and energy making unfortunate or gloomy people happy: in other words, blowing bubbles. In spite of his weak heart he contrives to get into the war, is permanently crippled, yet sitting in his invalid’s chair in a picturesque garden on the Isle of Wight, blows brighter, gayer, more luminous bubbles than ever before, and gives one person, at least, a lasting happiness. The other titles are: Petite Simunde; The man who scoffed; The airy prince; Mr Craighouse of New York, satirist.
“All are readable.”
Ath p1411 D 26 ’19 40w
Booklist 16:242 Ap ’20
“The very fact that the actors are of various nationalities affords a wide scope in character drawing and the author has done this work with an incisive delicacy of feeling which one cannot fail to appreciate. Humor is not lacking and forceful, thought-compelling passages add to the graceful style of every story.”
Boston Transcript p6 Mr 24 ’20 160w
“They are whimsically written. But the regularity with which the various characters undergo a metamorphosis under the stimulus of the patriotic impulse becomes wearisome.”
Dial 68:399 Mr ’20 60w
“In this brightly written collection of five short stories we have proof rather sorely needed that fiction with the recent great war as a setting can avoid bathos on the one hand and obviously false joviality on the other. One of the best books of unassuming and yet purposeful fiction that has seen the light this season. ”
N Y Times 25:123 Mr 14 ’20 1650w
“Perhaps the last is the best ‘Mr Craighouse of New York, satirist.’ His visit as a typical American to Lord Summersdale makes a very taking story.”
Times [London] Lit Sup p754 D 11 ’19 100w
BAXTER, ARTHUR BEVERLEY.
Parts men play. *$2 (2c) Appleton
20–20646
Austin Selwyn, an American writer in England, has first hand opportunity, in his intercourse with the family of Lord Durwent, to observe the parasitism of the English aristocracy. The colorful personality of Elise Durwent and her latent protest against the uselessness of her class arouse his interest and love. When the war breaks out he sees in it a hideous wrong into which the people of all countries have been trapped by their ignorance. He embarks on a crusade against this ignorance and writes pacifist literature, which leads to a break with Elise. She declares indignantly that, far from crying out against the infamy and cruelty of the war, women feel the glory of it in their blood. The usual thing happens: Selwyn is gradually convinced of the error of his ways and his subsequent bravery in France wins him Elise.
“When he writes of London society as it was before the world war he exhibits a deft, light touch in drawing character sketches. Later he loses his attitude of detachment and ends in a loud outburst of jingoism which sounds strangely hollow in these disillusioned times.”
N Y Evening Post p18 D 4 ’20 80w
“The author wrote another novel, ‘The blower of bubbles,’ which proved that he had a facile style, a whimsical spirit, and the power to divine and portray human nature. This book possesses all those qualities and an original undercurrent of philosophy as well.”
Katharine Oliver
Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 23 ’21 150w
“A work of considerable promise. It is crude in parts, but crudeness is only a synonym of unripeness, and Mr Baxter’s literary defects are of a kind that experience can cure. Meanwhile, he has a vitality, a gift for swiftly moving narrative, and a creative power in flinging his characters upon the canvas which augur well for his future development.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p761 N 18 ’20 440w
BAXTER, LEON H. Boy bird house architecture. il *$1
Bruce pub. 680
20–7092
Mr Baxter, director of manual training in the public schools of St Johnsbury, Vt., has prepared this book out of his own experience with boy architects. “Each drawing offered is of a proven house, one that has served as a home for some of our songsters and if the directions, here set down, are faithfully followed, equal success will crown the builders’ efforts.” (Author’s preface) Some of the topics covered by the text are: Our friends the birds; Birds that adapt themselves to nesting boxes; Bird house material; Methods of conducting a bird house contest; Bird house day; Winter care of the birds. There are twenty plates with full working drawings for bird houses of various designs.
School Arts Magazine 20:41 S ’20 70w
BAYFIELD, MATTHEW ALBERT. Measures of the poets.
*$2 Macmillan (Cambridge univ. press) 808.1
20–12409
“Mr Bayfield’s aim in ‘The measures of the poets’ is to ‘provide students of English verse with a system of prosody that is on the one hand sound in principle, and on the other not liable to break down when brought to the test of application.’” (Spec) “The broad outlines of Mr Bayfield’s system are fairly adequately apprehended if we blend together our existing notions about a foot in verse and a bar in music. Metre in music is built up out of a succession of equal time divisions marked off by the recurrence of an accent, the accented beat falling at the beginning of each of them. Mr Bayfield considers that the basis of metrical structure in poetry is essentially the same: and he therefore lays it down that the first syllable of every foot must bear an accent. The bulk of English poetry being written in dissyllabic feet or their equivalents, it follows that the typical English foot must be the trochee. The main portion of Mr Bayfield’s primer is devoted to an exposition of the system of scansion which he deduces from this governing perception.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
“Mr Bayfield expounds his theory with bold lucidity, and illustrates it with telling examples from every variety of English verse. ” Ath p1017 O 10 ’19 210w
“Like almost all prosodic theories which look at theory first, Mr Bayfield’s necessitates, even on its own showing, endless easements and epicycles to get it to work at all. There is no plain sailing; in fact, Mr Bayfield would seem to agree with Dr Johnson that ‘ pure ’ metre is dull and inartistic.” G: Saintsbury
Ath p1150 N 7 ’19 2050w
“Mr Bayfield’s general treatment and scansions are by no means so convincing as those of his predecessors, [Lanier in ‘The science of English verse ’ and Thomson in ‘The basis of English rhythm.’]” J. R. Hulbert
Mod Philol 17:727 Ap ’20 200w
“The principle of his scheme is sound, and in the application of it to English verse he has shown, besides the wisdom of his instinct, a careful patience that is beyond praise.”
Spec 122:864 D 20 ’19 1050w
“His theory has not cut him off from vital contact with poetry. The things of which he is chiefly aware are the essential things, and to read him is to have the ear quickened to a new enjoyment.”
The Times [London] Lit Sup p668 N 20 ’19 1100w
(Eng ed 20–11405)
“This is in the nature of a sequel to a book which Mr Bayley published some years ago called ‘The lost language of symbolism.’ He has long been an enthusiastic and industrious student of symbolisms and emblems and their hidden meanings, and of esoteric doctrines generally. The present work is copiously illustrated and offers controversial theories as to the peopling of Britain. Mr Bayley, among other things, sees in the Cretan discoveries a wholly new standpoint for the survey of prehistoric civilization. He believes that the Cretans systematically visited Britain, and that men of Trojan race peopled the island.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“No doubt, Mr Bayley has worked hard and honestly. Use him as a quarry and one will find gold, and, may be, other things. But how accept his doctrine as a whole?”
R. R. M.
This work, the author says, was for him not a mere literary enterprise, but the fruit of close and fervent communion with Whitman’s work and character. Speaking of Whitman’s universality he says: “The America which dreams and sings, back of the one which works and invents, has given the world four universal geniuses: Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman.... And among these four figures, one of them more and more dominates the group: it is Walt Whitman.” (Introd.) The translator of the volume from the French, Ellen FitzGerald, attempts an explanation of the American masses ’ neglect of Whitman, from the geniuses’ inevitable disregard of “untrained” minds, in deference to whom she has taken it upon herself to abridge M. Bazalgette’s treatment of the New Orleans episode and to lighten his emphasis on the “Leaves of grass ” conflict. The book is in eight parts: Origin and youth; The multitudinary life; “Leaves of grass ” ; The wound dresser; The good gray poet; The invalid; The sage of Camden; The setting sun.
“Some remarkable pen portraits, a little Gallic exuberance at times.”
Booklist 16:241 Ap ’20
“The Frenchman’s biography, sympathetic and glowingly eloquent as it is, can scarcely rank as an authoritative chronicle of the poet’s life. It possesses, however, multiple values of its own. The translator has taken the liberty of abridging M. Bazalgette’s book. This is regrettable and not easily justified.” J. Black
