Chapter LVII: Part 2: , ‘The imaginative life of children,’ includes six chapters (13)

+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 18 ’21 420w

=MUNROE, JAMES PHINNEY.= Human factor in education. *$1.60 Macmillan 370.1

20–2741

“A volume defending vocational education and written by a
vice-chairman of the Federal board for vocational education. The
author tries to show that the old regime of twenty years and more ago
was a flat failure in the scheme of education in the United States.
There is strong intimation that much of the old system is still in
force. He shows how the great world war has helped bring us to our
senses in the matter of educating boys and girls in a many-sided way
rather than in a narrow way as previously. (School R) “The book does
not advocate, however, the separation of vocational from academic
schools.” (Booklist)

* * * * *

+ =Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20

“The plea for reorganization of elementary and secondary education
could hardly be put more forcibly than is here given. To the casual
reader, however, there seems to be some overemphasis in places; but
this only makes one think more carefully.”

+ − =School R= 28:390 My ’20 600w

=MURCHISON, CLAUDIUS TEMPLE.= Resale price maintenance. pa *$1.50 Longmans 338.5

19–17749

“Dr Murchison lays the foundation for discussion of price maintenance
in the two chapters upon marketing: The organization of the market,
and Irregularities of the present retailing system. The discussion of
price maintenance is given in chapters five to eight.” (Am Econ R)
“[Other subjects discussed are] the function of the retailer, and
attempts to prevent price-cutting. Issued as Columbia university
studies in history, economics, and public law.” (Brooklyn)

* * * * *

“A serious study such as this is to be commended even though it does
not say the last word upon price maintenance.” H. R. Tosdal

+ − =Am Econ R= 10:120 Mr ’20 850w

=Brooklyn= 12:62 Ja ’20 30w

“The various forms of price maintenance and of price cutting are
described in detail, and the arguments for and against both, as well
as for the author’s own compromise position, are stated with lucidity.
If the reader remains unconvinced, the reason lies in the fact that in
actual life the problem of price determination is bound up with a
variety of other problems of equal importance to the consumer.” B. L.

+ − =Survey= 43:202 N 29 ’19 320w

=MURDOCK, VICTOR.= China, the mysterious and marvellous. il *$2.50 Revell 915.1

20–20219

“Mr Murdock’s book is simply a narrative of a trip into China that
took him rather far into the interior and away from the usual route of
the tourist.” (Freeman) “He says, ‘Here is the history of the present
volume. My brother in Wichita took the letters I had written and as
they had been published in our paper, the Eagle, put them in the form
they bear. Our idea was to let me give copies of it to particular
friends.” (N Y Times)

* * * * *

“It is unfortunate, we think that Mr Murdock elected to write this
story of his travels, not in English, but in journalese. Some three
hundred pages of etymological ‘jazz’ places an undue strain on the
reader’s literary nerves. And this is more the pity because the author
can command good, plain English when he wants to.” Harold Kellock

+ − =Freeman= 2:188 N 3 ’20 620w

“The text is so frisky, the words so plain and slangy, comparisons so
lacking, and the subject dealt with so personally, that I wondered at
a publisher printing such a book with paper and labor so dear.” F:
O’Brien

− =N Y Times= p7 S 5 ’20 3650w

+ =Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 50w

=MURRAY, ELSIE RIAEH, and SMITH, HENRIETTA BROWN.= Child under eight. (Modern educator’s lib.) *$1.90 (*6s) Longmans 372.2

(Eng ed E20–581)

“The book which comes from England with this title, ‘The child under
eight,’ is a discussion of the kindergarten after the fashion that
might have been found in an American book fifteen or twenty years ago.
The titles of the various chapters indicate the temper of the writers.
There are chapters entitled The world’s mine oyster, All the world’s a
stage, Joy in making, In grassy places, etc. The book is not without
some practical suggestions for work in the kindergarten, but in the
main it is a defense of the kindergarten with some reference to modern
movements in the treatment of little children.”—El School J

* * * * *

=El School J= 20:716 My ’20 170w

+ =Spec= 124:553 Ap 24 ’20 900w

=MURRAY, GILBERT.= Our great war and the great war of the ancient Greeks. (Creighton lecture, 1918) *$1.25 (13c) Seltzer 938

20–13139

A comparison between the Peloponnesian war and the great war in
Europe. The war between Sparta and Athens was the greatest war the
world had ever known. “Arising suddenly among civilized nations,
accustomed to comparatively decent and halfhearted wars, it startled
the world by its uncompromising ferocity.” And it ended in a peace
that was no peace and was followed by other wars, the outcome of which
was death to both combatants. Drawing on the historians and dramatists
of the time the author sets forth a picture that shows many striking
similarities to our modern experience. In conclusion he expresses a
hope that in spite of the terrible evils growing out of the recent
war, we may make use of the opportunity to build a better
international life out of the ruin. The work is dated November 7,
1918.

* * * * *

=Nation= 111:252 Ag 28 ’20 350w

“Gilbert Murray’s translations are, as always, enjoyable, even though
such words as ‘Niagara’ in the mouth of the Athenians make us a bit
suspicious that other lively expressions also may be more Murray than
Aristophanes.” J. W. Hughan

+ =Socialist R= 9:208 N ’20 220w

=MURRAY, JOHN.=[2] John Murray III, 1808–1892. il *$1.50 Knopf

(Eng ed 20–8871)

“John Murray III was the grandson of the John Murray (1745–93,
originally MacMurray!) who founded the famous publishing house in
November, 1768, and the son of John Murray, jr. (1778–1843), who is
perhaps best remembered now as friend and publisher of Byron and as
publisher of the Quarterly Review. Of John Murray III (1808–92) there
was no account adequate at all, except mere facts in the Dictionary of
national biography, until his son’s interesting article appeared in
the Quarterly Review for January, 1919. The present little book
consists of that article, revised and enlarged, followed by the
father’s paper on the ‘Origin and history of Murray’s handbooks for
travellers,’ and by some new letters to his family (1830–91), mainly
describing vividly various travels abroad and at home.”—N Y Evening
Post

* * * * *

“The letters are excellent reading, and we venture to ask for more, if
more are to be had.”

+ =Ath= p76 Ja 16 ’20 300w

“Interesting because of his participation in literary events of real
significance, such as Scott’s announcement of his authorship of
‘Waverly’ and the publication of the ‘Origin of species.’”

+ =Booklist= 17:153 Ja ’21

“One misses such anecdotes and illustrations of literary life as might
have been expected from a publisher in close contact with great
writers.”

+ − =Nation= 112:90 Ja 19 ’21 180w

“This is a very interesting and welcome little book.” L. L. MacKall

+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 D 4 ’20 1250w

“The memoir has the unusual fault of being too brief, but it does
justice to its subject and adds a new and interesting chapter to the
history of English publishing.”

+ =Spec= 122:81 Ja 17 ’20 1650w

=MUSCIO, BERNARD.= Lectures on industrial psychology. 2d ed, rev il *$3 Dutton 658.7

20–13083

“A book principally composed of a series of lectures given to general
audiences at Sydney university.” (Survey) “These lectures discuss such
topics as fatigue, muscle coördination, individual differences,
scientific management, motion study, and other applications of
psychology to the life of workers.” (R of Rs)

* * * * *

=Ath= p180 F 6 ’20 1250w

“Taken as a whole, Mr Muscio’s volume may be recommended particularly
on account of its lucidity and common sense as providing what is
probably the best short account yet published in this field. In
certain places, however, these lectures are distinctly weak. The
author sometimes betrays only a distant acquaintance with the
statistical material of his subject. Another weakness of these
lectures is their too great reliance on the anecdotal method.” P. S.
Florence

+ − =Freeman= 2:117 O 13 ’20 600w

=R of Rs= 62:447 O ’20 30w

“There is no other book for the general reader that states the case
for a scientific handling of the human factor in industry more clearly
or more convincingly.” B. L.

+ =Survey= 44:638 Ag 16 ’20 280w

=MUZZEY, DAVID SAVILLE.= American history. il *$1.92 Ginn 973

20–10077

A prefatory note to this revised edition says, “Besides bringing the
narrative down to the spring months of the year 1920, the author has
entirely recast that part of the book following the Spanish war, and
has made considerable changes in the preceding chapters. The changes
are chiefly in the direction of added emphasis on social and economic
factors in our history. New illustrative material has been added, the
maps have been improved, and the bibliographical references brought
down to date.” The work was first published in 1911.

* * * * *

+ =School R= 28:548 S ’20 340w

=MYERS, ANNA BALMER.= Patchwork; a story of the “plain people.” il *$1.75 (2c) Jacobs

20–5190

The “plain people” is what the religious sects, Mennonites, Amish,
etc., in the Pennsylvania Dutch country are called. Phœbe Metz was a
child of the “plain people” and this is her story from the time she
was a quaint, unusually interesting and original little “Dutchie” of
ten until she told David Eby that she would be his wife. She was fond
of the world and its vanity, her golden curls and pretty clothes. She
was frank about it; she could not be anything else but honest. And she
had the courage, likewise, to go her own way, sorely as she grieved
and shocked Aunt Maria. She went to Philadelphia to study music;
tasted and loved the world’s glitter; saw some of its wickedness too;
but when it came nigh to brushing the bloom off her youth, she escaped
unscathed to her beloved country. There among the people and things
that were a part of her very life she found herself, and when David
returned from the war with but one leg, they both knew how much they
had cared since they were children. There is much charm in the book’s
local coloring.

* * * * *

“Entertaining but with less convincing dialect and background than Mrs
Martin’s ‘Tillie.’”

+ − =Booklist= 16:349 Jl ’20

“There is a good deal of information about the ‘plain sects,’ their
ways and speech and ideas, in this perfectly innocuous little story.”

+ − =N Y Times= 25:321 Je 20 ’20 320w

=MYERS, FREDERIC WILLIAM HENRY.= Human personality and its survival of bodily death. *$4 Longmans 133.9

“This well-known work first appeared about sixteen years ago in two
volumes, each of about seven hundred pages in length. The text is here
materially condensed, and most of the appendices, which occupied about
half each volume and contained examples of phenomena analysed in the
text, are omitted. A short biographical sketch of Myers is
included.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

* * * * *

“As Myers’ theory develops to include more and more unusual phenomena
it preserves its persuasiveness and elasticity: Myers’ patient skill
is indeed the most attractive feature of the book.” J. W. N. S.

+ =Ath= p78 Ja 16 ’20 1300w

Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow

=Dial= 69:201 Ag ’20 1150w

+ =Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 140w

+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 20 ’20 650w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p719 D 4 ’19 60w

=MYERSON, ABRAHAM.=[2] Nervous housewife. *$2.25 (4½c) Little 616.8

20–21011

“Every practicing physician, every hospital clinic, finds her a
problem, evoking pity, concern, exasperation, and despair.” (Introd.
note) By examining the various causes and forms of nervousness in
housewives, from merely deënergizing neurasthenia to highly
pathological cases, from all points of view, the book seeks to
stimulate the trend toward greater individualization in women, and to
promote a more constructive and intelligent rebellion against
old-established conditions and discontents. The book is indexed and
the chapter headings are: The nature of “nervousness”; Types of
housewife predisposed to nervousness; The housework and the home as
factors in the neurosis; Reaction to the disagreeable; Poverty and its
psychical results; The housewife and her husband; The housewife and
her household conflicts; The symptoms as weapons against the husband;
Histories of some severe cases; Other typical cases; Treatment of the
individual cases; The future of woman, the home, and marriage.

* * * * *

“Written sympathetically and sensibly for the housewife herself to
read.”

+ =Booklist= 17:144 Ja ’21

=Boston Transcript= p6 D 4 ’20 360w

“There is a note of pessimism about the book, despite its
wholesomeness, that strikes a discordant chord here and there. But on
the whole the book is sane, frank without being indelicate, wise, and
fairly well-written.”

+ − =N Y Evening Post= p12 D 31 ’20 270w

N

=NALKOWSKA, SOFJA RYGIER.= Kobiety (women). il *$2 (3c) Putnam

21–492

This novel of Polish life has been translated from the Polish by
Michael Henry Dziewicki. It takes the form of self-revelations of a
beautiful, intellectual and self-centered girl—the transitional woman.
Nothing matters to her but her own sensations, her own experiences.
From the height of a coldly reasoning, logical intellect she surveys
passion, coquettes with it, longs for it and, when it comes rejects
it—from an inherited instinct of chastity. In the words of a rejected
lover, she was: “A bundle of theories, of sentimental scepticism, of
self-assurance.... A poor frightened bird always popping its head
under its wing!” But then this particular lover was only a splendid
specimen of physical perfection. At the end, discouraged and
bewildered, Janka returns to her old professor, who had been sorely
grieved when she had disappointed his hopes for her and had turned her
back upon science. The confessions are in three parts: Ice-plains;
“The garden of red flowers”; A canticle of love.

* * * * *

“Specifically a story of Polish life, this very unusual book reveals
the secret springs of all human life. To read it after a long course
of the mediocre, superficial writing through which a reviewer, in the
course of his duty, must wade is like emerging from the subway and
drawing pure air into the lungs. The translator has done excellent
work and the Benda drawing is distinctive.”

+ =N Y Times= p25 O 24 ’20 380w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

=Review= 3:451 N 10 ’20 720w

“Considered in detail, it is a curious, sometimes brilliant, and often
ludicrous work. We do not know whether the writer, for all her
subtlety and power of detachment, is the least aware of what an absurd
figure she has produced in Janka, this portentous type of modern
youth. The book is indeed surprisingly uneven, subtle and extravagant,
balanced and preposterous in turn.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p797 D 2 ’20 620w

=NAPIER, MARGARET.= Songs of the dead. *$1.50 Lane 821

20–17909

In his introduction to these poems Edward Garnett says of them that
they are unlike anything else; that they are not a “normal” product;
that they are a rough diamond from a matrix suggesting comparison with
the author of “The marriage of heaven and hell”; that in the
simplicity and intensity with which they banish from our sight
everything extraneous, alien to their passion, they are a lesson in
poetry; and that, with the conception that when we die we live on in
the grave, in our memories, in our anguish, in our desires, they are a
lesson in passionate feeling.

* * * * *

“They are poems of frustration, imperfect verbal equivalents of great
spiritual experiences, greater in intention and conception than in
realized execution. Miss Napier writes in free verse, in a curiously
tortured style full of inversions (one has the feeling that she is
trying to express, by the unnatural quality of the style, the more
than normal intensity of her emotion).”

+ − =Ath= p527 Ap 16 ’20 160w

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 N 3 ’20 480w

=N Y Evening Post= p29 O 23 ’20 80w

=NATHAN, GEORGE JEAN, and MENCKEN, HENRY LOUIS.= American credo. *$1.75 Knopf 814

20–3354

One hundred and three of the one hundred and ninety-one pages of this
“contribution toward the interpretation of the national mind”
(Sub-title) are preface, excused by the authors on the ground “having
read it, one need not read the book.” The authors’ contention is that
“deep down in every man there is a body of congenital attitudes, a
corpus of ineradicable doctrines and ways of thinking, that determines
his reactions to his ideational environment.” While the preface
consists of ratiocinations on these attitudes, doctrines and ways of
thinking the book itself is a collection of maxims and traditional
tenets that are supposed to make up the mental equipment of the
ordinary man. The first one reads: “That the philoprogenitive instinct
in rabbits is so intense that the alliance of two normally assiduous
rabbits is productive of 265 offspring in one year.” Other examples
are: “That Henry James never wrote a short sentence”; and “That German
peasants are possessed of a profound knowledge of music.”

* * * * *

=Ath= p429 Mr 26 ’20 140w

=Ath= p574 Ap 30 ’20 1200w

+ =Booklist= 16:338 Jl ’20

“None but a captious critic could find fault with the fact that the
authors’ preface occupies fully two-thirds of the book, for in that
space the truth about America and its inhabitants is told as it has
not been for some time.” G. M. H.

+ =Boston Transcript= p9 Mr 10 ’20 480w

+ =Cleveland= p76 Ag ’20 60w

=Dial= 68:666 My ’20 80w

+ =R of Rs= 62:447 O ’20 10w

=Springf’d Republican= p6 Je 17 ’20 260w

“The stringing together of widely held fallacies does not constitute
an ‘American credo’ any more than a collection of ‘want’ ads makes a
job. It does not describe, explain or interpret anything. The authors
themselves do not know American character, even in its major aspects,
but only its ludicrous or despicable blemishes.”

− =Survey= 44:385 Je 12 ’20 140w

“On the whole we do not gather from this repertory of popular
fallacies any very definite picture of American mentality. But one can
get from the latter half, at any rate, which does great credit to the
authors’ ingenuity, a good deal of entertainment.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p190 Mr 18 ’20 280w

=NATHAN, ROBERT.= Peter Kindred. *$2 (2c) Duffield

20–1889

The story of a boy’s school and college life, and his first contacts
with the outer world. Peter’s father sends him to Phillips Exeter with
the vague intention of giving him a gentleman’s education. The two
years in this school are followed by four at Harvard and the story
traces the quiet unsensational development of his mind and character.
He makes friends, is converted to Carverism—the economic creed of a
popular professor, and in his junior year meets Joan, a Radcliffe
student. Peter and Joan are married the year after his graduation.
They set up housekeeping in a New York tenement and work and play
together and test out their theories of life. The story ends with the
birth and death of their child.

* * * * *

“Unluckily there is not quite enough ‘to him’ to command and hold our
interest and concern at the exacted pitch.” H. W. Boynton

+ − =Bookm= 51:343 My ’20 120w

− =Dial= 68:537 Ap ’20 50w

“The reader possessed of sufficient pertinacity to work his way
through the first two hundred pages of ‘Peter Kindred’ will find in
the last part of the book a realistic sketch of youthful theories and
ideals at war with the economic facts of life.”

− + =N Y Times= 25:50 Ja 25 ’20 300w

“The story is well thought out and well written. Mr Nathan has put a
great deal into his work and has taken it seriously. That in itself is
more than can be said for many writers of current fiction.”

+ =Outlook= 124:479 Mr 17 ’20 240w

“The boy is a tolerably nice boy, and he does and thinks and says the
things a tolerably nice boy would. We do not deny that he is true to
fact. But what of it? Who cares? Since the author has failed to make
us care about him as a person?” H. W. Boynton

+ − =Review= 2:392 Ap 17 ’20 900w

=NEALE, REGINALD EDGAR.= Electricity. il $1 Pitman 621.3

20–16269

“In this book the author attempts no more than a review of the general
nature of electricity, the methods of producing it and the services to
which it is applied.” (Preface) The book is illustrated with
forty-five figures in the text. It is issued as one of Pitman’s common
commodities and industries series.

* * * * *

“It is remarkable how complete and accurate is the information given.
The reader is, however, hurried on unpleasantly fast, and is never
allowed to pause where his interest is aroused.”

+ − =Nature= 105:804 Ag 26 ’20 230w

=NEIHARDT, JOHN GNEISENAU.=[2] Splendid wayfaring. il *$2.25 Macmillan 978

20–27591

“As a poet, picturing the savage adventure of the early days of the
Yankee invasion of the plains and mountains, Mr Neihardt has already
won his reputation: his theme is huge and his powers are not unworthy
of it. In his new volume, a prose volume, he appears again in his
chosen domain, now as an historian. The period taken is 1822 to 1831,
the event is the career of Jedediah Smith, who in the eight years of
his adventurous maturity was the first American leader to discover the
central overland route to California—later the great immigrant and
trade route—and to measure the length of the Pacific coast from Los
Angeles to the Columbia.”—Bookm

* * * * *

“Mr Neihardt gives unity and verve to his volume by making Smith the
central spirit: but it is in a truly epic mode that the story is
conceived, and hence there could not be less than a picturesque
emphasis upon the companions of the hero, among them Ashley and Henry,
builders of the fur industry, and the trapper Hugh Glass who is the
subject of one of Mr Neihardt’s best-known poems.” Hartley Alexander

+ =Bookm= 52:360 Ja ’21 580w

“All this is fascinating reading, suggesting the lurid tales, much
sought and pored over, in boyhood, but while it is fascinating, it is
history, history of the growth of the United States; as important as
the occupation of the older states and the taking of the central
portion of the present union.” J. S. B.

+ =Boston Transcript= p2 N 24 ’20 570w

“This task has evidently been a labour of love, for Mr Neihardt has
not felt impelled to follow the pattern of angular, unimaginative
recital into which so many books of this kind fall.” L. B.

+ =Freeman= 2:478 Ja 26 ’21 180w

“A parallel work by, say McMaster, and called, say ‘Western
exploration from 1822–1831,’ would have been a valuable contribution
to the history of the West; but ‘The splendid wayfaring,’ as the title
plainly shows, is more than that; it is an American prose epic, an
absorbing tale of courage and endurance.” Walter Franzen

+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 D 4 ’20 520w

“Mr Neihardt has for the subject of this prose story one of the truly
dramatic themes of American history.”

+ =R of Rs= 63:223 F ’21 110w

“Mr Neihardt has allowed himself a rather lofty flight in his opening
paragraphs, where he links his tale up with that of the western
progress of the Aryan races. In a number of other places a tendency to
ornate language may be observed. But in other respects ‘The splendid
wayfaring’ has compelling force.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 D 17 ’20 300w

“Mr Neihardt has succeeded in giving some epical quality to his heroes
and painting, as he intended to do, the mood of their adventures.” M.
C. C.

+ − =Survey= 45:578 Ja 15 ’21 240w

=NEKLIUDOV, ANATOLII VASIL’EVICH.=[2] Diplomatic reminiscences before and during the world war, 1911–1917; tr. from the French, by Alexandra Paget. *$8 Dutton

(Eng ed 20–10794)

“A Russian diplomat’s frank statement of what he learned as Minister
to Bulgaria during the Balkan wars of 1912 and of 1913, supplemented
by his observations during the world war, when he was serving as
Minister to Sweden, and Ambassador to Spain. Writing in the firm
conviction that all who took part in the tremendous events of those
years now belong to ‘an irrevocable past,’ M. Nekliudov speaks as
freely concerning his contemporaries as if they were actually dead.”—R
of Rs

* * * * *

“M. Nekliudov, with his tears and his discontents, is not a very
interesting person. The best part of his long book is the record of
his ambassadorship in Sweden during the war, and in his comments on
certain Russian statesmen such as Stürmer and Protopopoff he has
something to say that is not without interest.”

− + =Ath= p205 Ag 13 ’20 270w

=R of Rs= 63:109 Ja ’21 90w

“The style is more than clear and studiously temperate: it is at times
eloquent and pathetic, and throughout tinged with the philosophy
natural to a cultured gentleman. The English of Alexandra Paget is so
good that it must, we think, be ranked as a first-rate translation.”

+ =Sat R= 130:94 Jl 31 ’20 1000w

+ =Spec= 124:87 Jl 17 ’20 210w

“Having lost his emperor, his country and his sons, this former
representative of a departed system sees no necessity to guard certain
of those secrets which go to make up the mystery of diplomacy. In
consequence of this break with the past which fate has forced upon him
M. Nekliudov is interesting and informative.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p343 Je 3 ’20 1300w

=NEW= Decameron; second day. *$1.90 McBride

20–8740

The first volume was published last year. Like it this second volume
is a collection of short stories by different authors, each story in
keeping with the character of its narrator. Contents: Jim of Moloch’s
bar, by Francis Carco: Bread upon the waters, by Michael Sadleir; The
history of Andrew Niggs, by Basil Blackwell; The tool, by W. F.
Harvey; The master-thief, by Dorothy L. Sayers; The affair of the
Mulhaven baby, by M. Nightingale; The vase, by Camilla Doyle; “Once
upon a time” by Bill Nobbs; A prayer perforce, by M. Storm Jameson;
Salvator Street, by Sherard Vines.

* * * * *

“In spite of serious inequalities in the work, the total result is
undoubtedly entertaining. In all the stories there is evidence of
careful workmanship, a preoccupation with literary means which is
highly satisfactory save when it aims at effect with too unchastened
self-consciousness.” F. W. S.

+ =Ath= p172 Ag 6 ’20 520w

“Some of them are excellent, some rather poor and a few unequivocally
dull. Heralded simply as ‘Salvator street’ comes the surprise of the
book. In it Sherard Vines has succeeded in creating a character
besides writing the best story of the volume.”

+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 11 ’20 350w

“The idea of vocational guidance in the telling of tales is not
altogether conducive to the best flights of the imagination. The
obligation to relate the sort of story that a master-printer, a poet,
or a psychic researcher would be apt to relate seems to have put a
restraint upon most of the contributors.” L. B.

− =Freeman= 2:501 F 2 ’21 130w

“‘The new Decameron,’ to carry on its excellent plan, must be, like
the ‘Canterbury tales’ which its general method recalls, more
variously human in substance and in modulation. Their inventiveness in
plot and ingenuity in structure are remarkable. But these are not high
qualities in fiction. ‘The new Decameron’ needs not, indeed,
cheerfulness, but sunlight; less smell of the charnel house and more
of the earth.”

− + =Nation= 111:596 N 24 ’20 260w

“The structure of the book is cleverly contrived, and in reading it
the fact that this is the work of several hands does not obtrude
itself too violently. At its best the book is artistic, and it is
always elegant. The remoteness, the wickedness, and the nervous dread
of crudity dissociate the authors from the literary giants of past
times. All the contributors give an impression of literary taste, and
not one of them has generated a ‘human document.’”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p363 Je 10 ’20 550w

=NEWBOLT, SIR HENRY JOHN.=[2] Book of good hunting. il *$3.50 (*10s 6d) Longmans 799

20–18594

“Sir Henry Newbolt has put together many interesting stories about
sport. Elephants, lions, and tigers come first: then there are
chapters on deer-hunting and fox-hunting, with many extracts from Mr
Masefield’s fine poem, ‘Reynard the fox,’ and a closing chapter on
fishing. In his introductory chapter, ‘On the nature of sport,’ he
states the arguments for and against sport, and insists very strongly
on the value of true sportsmanship to the national character.”—Spec

* * * * *

+ =Ath= p649 N 12 ’20 500w

“Sir Henry Newbolt writes so pleasantly that he will attract readers
of all ages.”

+ =Spec= 125:710 N 27 ’20 90w

“From a literary or sporting standpoint, the book is equally
attractive.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 18 ’21 320w

“The instances of hunting experiences chosen by Sir Henry are
admirably described, and compel the reader to share the excitement of
the hunter. He brings out all the concomitants which differentiate
sport from killing.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p825 D 9 ’20 950w

=NEWLAND, H. OSMAN.= Romance of modern commerce. il *$2 Lippincott 380

20–3902

“The book is, as described in its sub-title, a popular account of the
production of a number of common commodities. It collects a mass of
miscellaneous information about wheat and other cereals, tea, coffee
and cocoa, rubber, tobacco, cotton, silk, wool, timber, paper, fruit
and wine, cattle and leather, vegetable and mineral oils, furs and
feathers, precious stones and metals.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

* * * * *

“Informative and of varying interest. Could be used by upper grades
and high schools.”

+ =Booklist= 17:55 N ’20

=Brooklyn= 12:126 My ’20 20w

=R of Rs= 62:448 O ’20 30w

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p748 D 11 ’19 150w

=NEWMAN, ERNEST.= Musical motley. *$1.50 Lane 780.4

20–1630

A series of papers by an English musical critic. Among the titles are:
“L’enfant prodigue”; On instruments and their players; On musical
surgery; Criticism by code; Futurist music; The best hundred scores.

* * * * *

“Mr Newman is a musician of the nineteenth century. This must not be
taken to mean that he is an old-fashioned pedant who is out of touch
with new developments. On the contrary, he is intensely interested in
modern music and has no sentimental illusions about that of the past.
Music is for him always a thing of the living present.” E: J. Dent

+ =Ath= p1010 O 10 ’19 900w

+ =Booklist= 16:232 Ap ’20

“Mr Newman is never dull, even when he is grave.” H: T. Finck

+ =Bookm= 51:169 Ap ’20 440w

“The chief attraction of Mr Newman’s book, besides its dry humor, is
its lack of dogmatism and its corresponding illumination of
speculative points.” M. H.

+ =New Repub= 22:168 Mr 31 ’20 520w

+ =R of Rs= 61:224 F ’20 80w

“He differs from a good many fashionable critics in his familiarity
with the works of the ancients, and in testing the moderns by
standards which these critics are either ignorant of, or refuse to
accept. Perhaps the wisest and sanest passages in the book are those
in which he differentiates the originality that counts from that which
does not.”

+ =Spec= 123:542 O 25 ’19 1450w

“The book is always interesting, often gay, reading. The essays on the
classics are apt, but do not go far enough; that on the grotesque is
tentative, that on obituaries might have been omitted. We should have
liked some more like ‘Originality in music’ and ‘Quotation,’ and that
on Bishop Blougram in partibus, which are full of sound judgments
delivered with a light touch.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p545 O 9 ’19 1300w

=NEWSHOLME, SIR ARTHUR.= Public health and insurance: American addresses. $2.50 Johns Hopkins 614

20–12817

“Sir Arthur Newsholme has for thirty-five years been an active figure
in the public health profession of Great Britain and for eleven of
those years has served as principal medical officer of the Local
government board. In the fall of 1919 he came to the School of hygiene
and public health of Johns Hopkins as lecturer on public health
administration. The book just published is made up of addresses
delivered to public audiences in the course of visits paid to various
university and medical centers in America.” (Survey) “It is largely
devoted to the present state of public health in England and to the
progress in public health policy that has been realized within the
last fifty years.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)

* * * * *

“The sections which describe the wonderful progress made in dealing
with tuberculosis and child welfare in England during the past few
years will prove of absorbing interest to the specialist. There is
hardly a chapter in the book, however, which should not be read by
every social worker for its value as a contribution to the philosophy
of social reform.” C.-E. A. Winslow

+ =Survey= 45:259 N 13 ’20 460w

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p621 S 23 ’20 170w

=NEWTON, ALMA (MRS ALMA NEWTON ANDERSON).= Jewel in the sand. *$1.35 (6c) Duffield

20–1890

A beautiful girl, Cynthia, tells her story in detached episodes: how
she left her barren, loveless New England home to come to New York and
study music; how after her first success love came to her. The perfect
soul union is marred by the man’s duality. She goes away, has more
half mystic experience, becomes more and more spiritualized as she
struggles with poverty and is at last rescued by the man who had
always loved her unselfishly, had renounced her and had waited. He
marries her and takes her home to the East.

* * * * *

“By dealing with life more realistically than she has yet done Alma
Newton has deepened the effect of those unique spiritual qualities
that have from the first distinguished her work.”

+ =N Y Times= 25:39 Ja 25 ’20 600w

=NEWTON, W. DOUGLAS.= Westward with the Prince of Wales. il *$2.50 (2½c) Appleton 917.1

20–17402

The author, as special correspondent, accompanied the Prince of Wales
on his tour through Canada and the United States and gives his
impressions of the Prince, the cities and country through which they
passed, and the receptions they received, in an entertaining chatty
way.

* * * * *

+ =Ath= p528 Ap 16 ’20 60w

“He has a distinctive and pleasing style. His volume is as
good-humored an account of travels as has appeared for some time.”

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 1 ’20 280w

“He draws an intimate and charming portrait of the Prince, and
furnishes at the same time, an entertaining view of Canada and some
cities of the United States as they appear to an intelligent
Englishman.”

+ =N Y Times= p14 D 5 ’20 1100w

+ =Outlook= 126:378 O 27 ’20 40w

=Review= 3:194 S 1 ’20 200w

“Gaily, vividly, even wittily, Mr Newton sets forth what he saw;
unimportant and unpretentious as this record of a transcontinental
journey across Canada is, it will inspire readers to go and do
likewise. Mr Newton writes in a vein of amused appreciation.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 22 ’20 1600w

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p244 Ap 15 ’20 160w

=NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION.= Newton chapel. $1.50 (2c) Am. Bapt. 252

20–8357

A selection from the chapel talks delivered during the year 1918–19 by
members of the faculty of the Newton theological institution. The
first is on The meaning of the New year, by President George E. Horr.
Among those that follow are: How Jesus looked at men, by Winfred N.
Donovan; The compelling power of Jesus’ personality, by Henry K. Rowe;
Freedom and service, by James P. Berkeley; The inner life, by Samuel
S. Curry; The joy of forgiveness, by Frederick L. Anderson; The spirit
of expectation, by Richard M. Vaughan; James Russell Lowell and the
preacher, by Woodman Bradbury. The chapel talks are supplemented by
seven addresses at the conference of the Baptist leaders of New
England.

* * * * *

“On the whole the talks are unified, interesting, and excellent
examples of little sermons.”

+ =Bib World= 54:433 Jl ’20 200w

“The clergy expect the scientist, the historian, the statesman to
stick to known facts, and then wonder why the church does not succeed
better while the preacher is permitted to soar off into the realms of
the imagination and preach as sacred truth that which finds its origin
in theory and its expression in cant. Of course there are good things
in the book, much sound advice, many godly admonitions, but it is
proper to call attention to a dangerous method of preaching which
succeeds in little else than furnishing ground for scepticism.”

− + =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ag 6 ’20 300w

=NEXÖ, MARTIN ANDERSEN.= Ditte: girl alive! *$2 (2c) Holt

20–26759

This story, translated from the Danish, describes the life of poor
fisherfolk and of the poorest of small farmers. It is the story of a
little illegitimate girl left in the care of her grandparents, whose
one joy in life she becomes. When her mother, a cold, selfish, cruel
creature, now married to a rag-and-bone man and huckster, wants her as
nurse for her other children, she does not hesitate to take her away
from the blind, widowed grandmother. Ditte’s life is wretched, her
only true friend her step-father, the jovial rag-and-bone man. She
repays him by standing by him, through all his sorrows and
afflictions, with indomitable good nature and courage, until she is
forced to leave him to go into service.

* * * * *

“The loveliness in human nature and the evil also stand out in sharp
relief against the simple, often sordid background. Will interest
readers of ‘Pelle the conqueror.’”

+ =Booklist= 17:73 N ’20

“The Danish author has not been fortunate in the translation, however,
which is uneven and lacking in idiomatic grace.” E. P.

+ − =Dial= 70:106 Ja ’21 60w

“With all the straitened cruelty of its events the story has a quality
which is almost glamorous. The simple telling and lack of stress
somehow give it breadth; it is full of the effect of open spaces.
There are passages of great tenderness, and others of fresh gaiety and
resilience. Then, too a primary perception of human forces lifts the
story out of any narrow bondage.” C. M. Rourke

+ =Freeman= 2:213 N 10 ’20 420w

“The story scrupulously avoids an artificial symmetry of structure and
follows, so far as possible, the rhythm of life. The firmness and
simplicity of the style shine even through an inferior translation.”

+ =Nation= 111:303 S 11 ’20 600w

“The English version is a livid corpse, and the only function left for
a reviewer who knows the original is that of coroner. In common
honesty, Henry Holt & Co. should put on the title page of ‘Ditte: girl
alive,’ ‘Mutilated from the Danish,’ and omit the name of the innocent
author.” Signe Toksvig

− + =New Repub= 25:113 D 22 ’20 1300w

“The characters in the book are flesh-and-blood people and their drab,
dreary lives are made very real.”

+ =N Y Times= p24 S 5 ’20 620w

=Outlook= 126:238 O 6 ’20 50w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

+ =Review= 3:450 N 10 ’20 520w

=Spec= 125:744 D 4 ’20 30w

“The book deserves to be read. It is well-written, effective, and
above all, bears the earmarks of truth.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a N 14 ’20 370w

“It is to be supposed that, as with ‘Pelle,’ this volume is but one of
several dealing with the same characters, and that later Ditte will
develop into womanhood. If that be so, Mr Nexö has made an interesting
first movement, though it may be hoped that later ones may have the
contrast of greater lightness; if this be all, then it can only be
regarded as an unfinished fantasia.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p701 O 28 ’20 480w

=NICHOLS, ROBERT MALISE BOWYER.= Aurelia, and other poems. *$2 Dutton 821

20–15351

“The sequence of ‘Sonnets to Aurelia’ gives the story of a
disappointed lover with his mistress whose falseness, though ugly,
intensifies the helpless passion of the man. The form of the sonnet in
which the poet tells his story is Shakspearean.”—Boston Transcript

* * * * *

“Mr Nichols, like many of the minor Elizabethan lyrists, uses the
fourteen lines of the sonnet simply for the sake of their sound, their
rich baroque handsomeness of appearance. That is the principal and, to
our mind, damning defect of his sonnets. They have no substance. The
fountains are dry, the parched stone faces open their mouths to no
purpose; we are at a loss to see why the monument was built.”

− =Ath= p765 Je 11 ’20 1200w

“Among Mr Nichols’s most potent qualities the quality of vision is the
steadiest and strongest. Among the most recent English poets he is the
richest in this endowment.” W. S. B.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ’20 1200w

“The result is, to my taste, like a dish flavoured with nutmeg and
cinnamon to which has been added a dash of tabasco sauce.” J: G.
Fletcher

− =Freeman= 2:331 D 15 ’20 600w

“With some of the faults of youth, Mr Nichols has all of its virtues.
He is adaptable, he is resourceful, he is restlessly eager to try new
methods, to pour his soul into an unaccustomed vessel. He has force,
eloquence, fire, and passion.”

+ − =Spec= 124:22 Jl 3 ’20 850w

* * * * *

“The conspicuous fault of ‘Aurelia’ is the insecurity of its style. Here is a series of quasi-Shakespearian sonnets, in which we have conceits without gracefulness, artifices aimed at intensifying rather than at easing the situations they describe—in brief a conscious author, magnifying an experience the content of which was meagre at the best in imitation of a spontaneous one the experience of which is too full to be contained.”

− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p418 Jl 1 ’20 1000w

=NICHOLSON, MEREDITH.= Blacksheep! blacksheep! il *$1.75 Scribner

20–7287

“At a dinner in Washington the hero, one Archibald Bennett, whose
income encourages his neurasthenia, sits next to a girl who tells him
that no man whose life motto is ‘Safety first!’ is likely to have a
very good time or escape a bored anaemia. Several days later the same
Archie goes to Maine to look at a house for his sister, and the next
thing he knows he has shot a man and is a fugitive from justice in the
stolen car driven by the ‘governor’! After that you, together with the
police forces of most of the states in the Union, are completely in
the ‘governor’s’ power.”—N Y Times

* * * * *

=Booklist= 16:314 Je ’20

=Cleveland= p72 Ag ’20 60w

“It is as breathlessly contrived and as diverting to follow as a
crooked street in a mediaeval town, along which anything might
happen.”

+ =N Y Times= 25:220 My 2 ’20 550w

“The tale furnishes pleasant diversion.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 6 ’20 480w

=NICHOLSON, WATSON.= Anthony Aston, stroller and adventurer. *$1.25 The author, South Haven, Mich.

20–19783

This brief monograph forms a footnote to stage history. Little has
been known of Tony Aston, the author says, “save that he was a
strolling player for many years, the author of an unsuccessful play
and the much more important Brief supplement to Colley Cibber’s
apology.” An autobiographical sketch which he happened upon in the
British museum in 1914 has been made the basis of Mr Nicholson’s
account. This sketch is appended, as is the “Brief supplement.”

* * * * *

“The reprint is welcome and every student interested in ancient
Bohemias will be delighted to hear Aston tell, with complete disregard
for syntax and in the authentic pot-house style of Ned Ward and the
other blackguard wits, of his amazingly varied career.”

+ =Nation= 112:sup246 F 9 ’21 450w

“The student of the stage and society will find his career interesting
for the light it throws upon the provincial and illegitimate stage of
the time, concerning which practically nothing is known.” J. W. Krutch

+ =N Y Evening Post= p8 N 27 ’20 380w

=NICHOLSON, WATSON.= Historical sources of DeFoe’s Journal of the plague year. $2 Stratford co. 942.06

DeFoe’s “Journal of the plague year” which has hitherto been
classified as fiction and has been accounted as a “masterpiece of the
imagination” is here proven, by the aid of extracts from original
documents in the Burney collection and manuscript room of the British
museum, to be “a faithful record of historical facts, that it was so
intended by the author and is as nearly correct as it was humanly
possible to make it from the sources and time at his command.” The
contents are: Originals and parallels of the stories in DeFoe’s
Journal; The historical sources of the Journal; Errors in the Journal;
Summary. The appendices consist of excerpts from the original sources
of the Journal and from hitherto unpublished documents illustrative of
the plague. There is a bibliography.

* * * * *

=Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 90w

=Spec= 124:834 Je 19 ’20 400w

=Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 23 ’20 240w

“Dr Watson Nicholson’s book suffers a little from the researcher’s
usual impatience with those who preceded him; a little more from his
sometimes odd and slack English; more still from careless
proof-reading. But those who are interested in DeFoe should read the
book, because the author does more than work his case out closely.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p418 Jl 1 ’20 800w

=NICOLAY, HELEN.= Boys’ life of Lafayette. il *$1.60 (2½c) Harper

20–16920

The author writes of Lafayette as “a very gallant, inspiring figure
uniting the old world with the new.” She tells her young readers in
the preface: “This is no work of fiction. It is sober history; yet if
the bare facts it tells were set forth without the connecting links,
its preface might be made to look like the plot of a dime novel.” The
book is illustrated and has an index.

* * * * *

+ =Booklist= 17:123 D ’20

“Even tho this is pure history, as the author declares, there is a
deal of romance in the life of Lafayette to fascinate the young
reader.”

+ =Lit D= p96 D 4 ’20 40w

=NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM.= Antichrist. (Free lance books) *$1.75 (5c) Knopf 230

20–4092

Mr Mencken has made a new translation of “The antichrist,” Nietzsche’s
last work with the exception of his “Ecce homo.” The introduction
states: “The present translation of ‘The antichrist’ is published by
agreement with Dr Oscar Levy, editor of the English edition of
Nietzsche. There are two earlier translations, one by Thomas Common
and the other by Anthony M. Ludovici.... I began this new Englishing
of the book, not in any hope of supplanting them, and surely not with
any notion of meeting a great public need, but simply as a private
amusement in troubled days. But as I got on with it I began to see
ways of putting some flavour of Nietzsche’s peculiar style into the
English, and so amusement turned into a more or less serious labour.”
Mr Mencken’s introduction offers a critical interpretation of
Nietzsche.

* * * * *

“Mr Mencken’s translation of Nietzsche’s last considerable work is
lively and energetic, and his introduction is a happy example of his
critical writing.”

+ =Ath= p557 Ap 23 ’20 130w

=Booklist= 17:85 N ’20

Reviewed by Preserved Smith

=Nation= 110:sup483 Ap 10 ’20 250w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p243 Ap 15 ’20 60w

=NIVEN, FREDERICK JOHN.= Tale that is told. *$1.90 (1½c) Doran

20–17825

The simple uneventful chronicle of a Scotch clergyman’s family, told
in a leisurely manner. The father is a genial egotist who had preached
to Queen Victoria at Balmoral and who never lets this fact be lost
sight of. The story follows the course of the six children’s lives
after his death, telling of their worldly success, business affairs,
love affairs and marriages. For a time three of the brothers conduct a
book store and circulating library, of which an amusing account is
given.

* * * * *

+ − =Ath= p439 O 1 ’20 820w

“He takes such a ‘slice of life’ as might delight Mr Hugh Walpole, and
he treats it quite in the manner of Mr Walpole, only—and it is an
important difference—he lacks something of his vitality. The substance
is more level, a level quality not due to restraint but to quality of
vision.” D. L. M.

+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 O 20 ’20 700w

“The scenes in the library are especially good.”

+ =Cleveland= p105 D ’20 40w

“The novel as a whole reflects the commonplace lives of the vast
majority of us, ‘such poor little figures struggling along in the
jungle’ with considerable accuracy.”

+ =N Y Times= p18 N 14 ’20 850w

“I wish I could feel the glow that so many writing people seem to be
feeling about Frederick Niven’s ‘A tale that is told.’ It is pleasant
enough, human enough in its somewhat lacklustre fashion; but in the
end not much more than ‘a long preparation for something that never
happens.’”

+ − =Review= 4:57 Ja 19 ’21 640w

“The characters are unusually alive; it is a pity that they all lack
charm. The book is well constructed; the author has distinct ability.”

+ − =Spec= 126:56 Ja 8 ’21 40w

“It is refreshing to come upon a man who can write both lightly and
profoundly and who can mingle tenderness and humor without losing the
force of either.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a N 14 ’20 380w

“It is not a story with a pattern, but there is a frame to it that
gives it bounds and a focus that gives it coherence; there is sunlight
in it—the pale northern sunlight of Scotland. The characterization is
clear and the more pungent for its tolerance.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p633 S 30 ’20 470w

=NOGUCHI, YONÉ (MISS MORNING GLORY, pseud.).= Japanese hokkus. *$2 Four seas co. 895

20–20445

The hokku is the seventeen syllable poem of Japan which the author
describes at some length in the preface. This preface is in itself a
prose poem in its quaint English and with the vista it opens into the
Japanese mind. The real value of the hokku, we are told, is not in
what it expresses but how it expresses itself spiritually: not in its
physical directness but in its psychological indirectness. It is “like
a spider-thread laden with the white summer dews, swaying among the
branches of a tree; ... that sway indeed, not the thread itself, is
the beauty of our seventeen syllable poem.” Of the translating of the
hokku the author says, it is like the attempt to bring down the
spider-net and hang it up in another place. The epilogue is a
reflection on the introduction of western civilization into Japan.

* * * * *

“‘Japanese hokkus’ is remarkable for at least two reasons; one,
because its poems are of that sensitive and illusive loveliness that
is rare in the realism of contemporary publications, and another
because the book links the literature of the Orient and the Occident
rather more than any other poet whom we recall.” K. B.

+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 2 ’20 1100w

“Whether it is because he is writing in a foreign language, or because
English cannot have packed into it the associations of thousands of
years and the treasure of half-forgotten philosophies, the Japanese
poet fails to produce the effect achieved by Waley in his
translations.” Babette Deutsch

+ − =Dial= 70:206 F ’21 230w

“To enjoy this present volume and to be deaf to Mr Walter de la
Mare—or to Shakespeare’s songs, for that matter—is to enjoy the art
page of the newspaper more than a visit to the originals in the art
gallery.” Llewellyn Jones

− + =Freeman= 2:260 N 24 ’20 600w

+ =N Y Evening Post= p18 O 23 ’20 110w

=NOLEN, JOHN.= New ideals in the planning of cities, towns and villages. il $1 (3c) Am. city bureau, Tribune bldg., N.Y. 710

20–211