“‘Ring in the new’ cannot but compel the absorbed interest of its readers, but more than this, it is worthy the writing and the reading, because it is a voice for the voiceless, because it needs must have its share in bringing about a social condition wherein at least no ‘evil is wrought by want of thought.’ Such a book deserves to be held high above the flood of ordinary fiction, in that its appeal is not to anything less than the noblest elements of character.” M. Gordon Pryor Rice.
“The most vivid individual in the book is Sarah, the charwoman. The weakest parts of the story are the extracts from ‘The branding iron.’”
“The charm of Mr. Whiteing’s narrative is greatly enhanced by his mastery of the art of presentation. He writes with a most engaging ease, preserving a happy mean between pedantry and looseness,—indeed, the impression created is curiously like that of listening to a brilliant talker.”
Whiting, Lilian.Florence of Landor. **$2.50. Little.
“In this fascinating work Lillian Whiting is seen at her best.”
“So far as Landor is concerned, the more valuable parts of Miss Whiting’s volume are those containing the reminiscences of his young American friend Miss Kate Field, who saw a good deal of him during the last four or five years of his long life.”
“It contains some new and interesting anecdotes and a few good illustrations.”
“It is not, to be sure, one of those that invite perusal at a single sitting. On the contrary, the best enjoyment will be derived through desultory browsing.”
“Without giving any but the barest details of the poet’s life, Miss Whiting brings vividly before us the brilliant circle of choice intellects, so attached to Landor and to Florence, who ministered to his later years.”
Whiting, Lilian.From dream to vision of life. *$1. Little.
“Optimistic papers in which scientific knowledge and religious fervor are combined, compose this volume. They are entitled; Thine eyes shall behold the King in his beauty, The key of the secret, Live in harmony with the new forces, The incalculable power of the spirit, The spiritual illumination, All’s love and all’s law, The rose and flame of life, The glory of summers that are not yet, and To whom the eternal world speaks.”
Whiting, Lilian.Joy that no man taketh from you. **50c. Little.
“It will appeal with special force to those saddened, discouraged, disappointed ones from which riches have taken wings, or who have been overcome by still greater calamities.”
Whiting, Lilian.Land of enchantment: from Pike’s Peak to the Pacific. **$2.50. Little.
The grandeur and scenic marvels of the great Southwest with its resources and development of life fill Miss Whiting’s volume. The wonders of Colorado, both in the Pike’s Peak region and in Denver “the beautiful,” the surprises of New Mexico with its ruins, traditions and mines, the magic of Arizona with its petrified forest, and Grand cañon, and southern California, mild in its sunshine, all compel the reader to traverse the way under the spell of enchantment.
“She makes proper copy of excellent material for such a purpose.”
“The author has gone over well-known ground quite thoroughly, and has discovered much that is new and picturesque.”
Whitney, Caspar.Jungle trails and jungle people; travel, adventure and observation in the Far East. **$3. Scribner.
“The style, instead of being halting, has the rapid stride of an expert American journalist, and, in spite of occasional disfigurements, the author has produced a work of considerable interest to the general reader, and painted some pictures of Eastern manners and character unfamiliar to those who live in the smaller world of the West.”
“What he saw and what he did are pleasantly set down with many illustrations in this handsome volume.”
“Mr. Whitney conveys to the reader a good deal of the pleasure and excitement which he himself experienced.”
Whitney, Helen Hay.Sonnets and songs.**$1.20. Harper.
“Gifted young debutante.” Edith M. Thomas.
Whitson, John H.Justin Wingate, ranchman.†$1.50. Little.
“It is a capital story of the West and well worth the reading.”
Whittier, John Greenleaf.Poems; with a biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole. $1.25. Crowell.
Uniform with the “Thin paper poets” this volume becomes a student’s textbook thru its introduction and notes.
Who’s Who, 1906. *$2. Macmillan.
The 1906 volume contains two thousand more biographies than its predecessor. It contains also the number of a man’s sons and daughters, his telegraphic address and telephone number and the registered number of his motor-car.
“The book seems to us to have entirely changed its character since its inception; but in its present form it is exceedingly useful as a book of reference.”
“The new detail tends to promote self-advertisement rather than public utility.”
“The selection of American names is as capricious as ever.”
Whyte, Rev. Alexander.Walk, conversation and character of Jesus Christ our Lord. $1.50. Revell.
“Permeated with this moral purpose, these addresses may be classified as devotional reflections upon the life of Jesus.” Llewellyn Phillips.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas (Smith) (Mrs. G. C. Riggs).Rose o’ the river.†$1.25. Houghton.
“The vivid glimpses of life among the lumbermen are the best features of the book which surely must have made its way on the strength of its predecessor, ‘Rebecca,’ rather than on its own merits.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
“Is as spontaneous and fascinating in its way as was her ‘Rebecca’ in another.”
Wilcox, Henry S.Foibles of the bench. $1. Legal literature co., Chicago
The various types found upon the bench in all lands and ages and here personified and analyzed under such chapter headings as; Egotism, Courtesy, Concentration, Courage, Decision, Vain display, Corruption, etc.; in which appear Judge Knowall, Judge Wasp, Judge Doall, Judge Fearful, Judge Wobbler, Judge Wind, Judge Graft and others, who are classed under the virtues which they fail to represent. The whole is breezy and amusing.
“It is excellent work of this character that makes one regret the carelessness and lack of skill that have ruined what might otherwise have been a valuable criticism of the Bench.” Frederick Trevor Hill.
Wilde, Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Wills.De profundis.**$1.25. Putnam.
“This last work of Oscar Wilde’s may be read with deep interest from many points of view; but it is perhaps most truly remarkable as a piece of introspective psychology.” Rafford Pyke.
“Fantastic his utterances often are, but they are always shrewd, penetrating, suggestive.”
Wilde, Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Willis.Picture of Dorian Gray.**$1.50. Brentano’s.
A new edition of Oscar Wilde’s “psychological masterpiece”, containing chapters that have never before appeared in any American edition. Dorian Gray of the beautiful face and black soul presents just the antithesis of character that fascinated the author’s mind. Love, joy, sorrow all exist in the vesture of life—so they can be donned or doffed at pleasure.
“The book is more effective now than when first published because we know now how true it is.”
Wildman, Murray Shipley.Money inflation in the United States: a study in social pathology. **$1.50. Putnam.
A sociological study which “has nothing to do with individual morals, but is an attempt to explain certain incidents in our National life to which as a people we cannot point with pride. We are a people with a financial ‘past,’ and Mr. Wildman sets out to rehabilitate us by connecting financial vagaries little different from immoralities, with facts in our National history which show that we were not naturally bad, but yielded to stress of circumstances and most naturally.”—N. Y. Times.
“Is well worthy of commendation to the inquiring student.” Frank L. McVey.
“No one has hitherto treated with such detail the economic conditions underlying the successive movements in favor of cheap money.”
“Although the book is far from controversial in its tone, its reading will certainly do much to create harmony of opinion on the subject of sound money. As a study of the formation of opinion on one question it is very suggestive.” Caroline M. Hill.
“Mr. Wildman has written a most ingenious and suggestive apologia for our financial heresies of the period he selected.”
“Both his method and his reasoning are ingenious, and although it seems to us that he presses a hypothesis to an extreme, we have found his little treatise singularly stimulating.”
Wiley, Sara King.Alcestis and other poems. **75c. Macmillan.
Reviewed by Louise Collier Willcox.
Wilkins, William Henry.Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV. **$5. Longmans.
“There is no great addition to historical knowledge in Mr. Wilkins’s story of Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV.” A. G. Porritt.
“He is just to George IV., and gives besides an excellent picture of the period.”
“It must be said that Mr. Wilkins, though a conscientious searcher and worker, is here rather an apologist than an historian.”
“Mr. Wilkins is too much of an advocate to be a wholly convincing historian and there are signs that he has written in some haste. He deserves full credit for the tact, sensibility, and good taste with which he has performed it.”
Wilkinson, Florence.Far country: poems. **$1. McClure.
“Miss Wilkinson ... is before all, a romanticist, the narrative and ballad are her predestined forms, and she handles them with all the freedom of a native gift.... In phrasing and imagery ‘The far country’ ... shows a freshness and imaginative vision that bespeak the poet’s hand and eye, and above all a joy in the art.... Miss Wilkinson is not a sonneteer ... but to show that she knows wherein her strength lies, there are few sonnets in the volume. It is chiefly the human riddle which haunts her eager, questioning mind.”—N. Y. Times.
“A tendency toward forced forms of expression and an indulgence in mere emotional ejaculation appear to be the most noticeable fault of what is, on the whole, a volume of quite exceptional richness and strength.” Wm. M. Payne.
“A volume of uneven, but on the whole, singularly poetic verse. A little sharper discrimination between profusion and diffusion, a little sterner renunciation of unreal and extraneous adornment, a little firmer grasp of organic structure, and Miss Wilkinson will be a poet to reckon with.”
“Miss Wilkinson is so rarely unsure in metre, has indeed such command of herself in the most intricate forms, that when one comes upon a jarring line he knows it to be willful heresy rather than unconscious error.” Jessie B. Rittenhouse.
“An occasional bit of self-consciousness, an evident effort, mar some verses otherwise most pleasing.”
Williams, C. F. Abdy.Story of organ music. *$1.25. Scribner.
“A recent volume in the “Music story series.” The author has outlined a history of the rise and development of organ music, in which the works of the leading composers are described. He is of the opinion that the history of organ music revolves around one gigantic personality, that of Bach, and that no organ composer of any eminence has existed who has not been largely influenced by him. The author has drawn considerably on Ritter’s ‘Geschichte des orgelspiels,’ and on the collections of Comer and others.” (Dial.) The book contains a number of musical illustrations including the whole of a toccata by Pasquini.
“Mr. William’s treatise is scholarly, clear, concise, and elucidative.”
“Interesting as well as scholarly the book is one of the best in a series that has varied noticeably in merit.”
“Cannot be commended too highly to all organists.”
“His book is brief but scholarly, and is the work of a man that knows his subject and knows how to present it interestingly—even the more abstruse historical portions of it. The book is one of the best of a series that has varied greatly in merit.” Richard Aldrich.
Williams, Egerton Ryerson, jr.Ridolfo, the coming of the dawn, a tale of the Renaissance. †$1.50. McClurg.
Perugia, harassed as it was in the hundred and fifty years or more that the Baglioni ruled it by violence, is the scene of this story of Gismonda, the Florentine bride of Ridolfo Baglioni, then signore of Perugia. He marries her for her dowry and leaves her on her wedding day a prisoner in his castle to continue his career of crime and oppression; but she, by her faithfulness, her goodness, and her beauty, finally succeeds in awakening the soul of Ridolfo to a realization of his sins. He forthwith repents of his black deeds, inaugurates a new era for down-trodden Perugia and makes of himself a man worthy of his wife’s love.
“It leaves a strong and even valuable impression of an age which it is well to look back at, not only when modern puzzles seem petty, but when modern civilization seems defective.”
“The book is eminently readable.”
“The story is full of action and dramatic situations.”
Williams, Hugh Noel.Five fair sisters: an Italian episode at the court of Louis XIV. **$3.50. Putnam.
The five sisters of this historical biography are Laure, Olympe, Marie, Hortense, and Marianne Mancini, the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin. All were taken from Rome to France as children and made brilliant marriages. With the exception of Laure, they all lived long and had romantic careers. Had not Mazarin been so obstinate, Marie Mancini would have been consort of Louis XIV. of France. Olympe became the Comtesse de Soissons; Marianne, Duchesse de Bouillon, who was implicated in the poison trials of 1680; Hortense the Duchesse de Mazarin, fled from her jealous, bigoted husband, and became a reigning beauty at the Court of Charles II. of England.
“He does not affect to have made any additions to historical knowledge, and shows no great fondness for discussing problems or unravellingmysteries; but the facts are stated fairly, and, as a rule, fully enough for the general reader.”
Reviewed by Percy F. Bicknell.
“His volume looks well; his illustrations are interesting: his style, though it smacks a good deal too much of translation, is readable; his subject could hardly have been better chosen.”
“The present author has put the facts together in a very satisfactory fashion.”
“Both entertaining and of interest as throwing light on the life of this great period in French history.”
“Mr. Williams, however, has made a readable story out of material only too abundant. His book is quite as much a study of times and manners as a regular biography: with so many leading figures this was a foregone conclusion.”
Williams, Hugh Noel.Later queens of the French stage.Scribner.
A less distinctive work for stage art has been wrought by the six women in this group than by the women who were sketched in the first book of the series, “Queens of the French stage.” This latter group includes Sophie Arnould, Mlle. Guimard, Mlle. Raucourt, Mme. Dugazon, Mlle. Contat, and Mme. Saint-Huberty, and “they were rather reapers than sowers and left few traces on their art.” (Lond. Times.)
“To anyone who likes gossip, amusing stories, vivid descriptions of a very brilliant and heartless state of society, just before it toppled to its fall, we recommend Mr. Williams’s handsomely published book. He has spared no little trouble in research, and is thoroughly well up in his subject; and his book makes most agreeable reading.”
“Mr. Williams’s new book has all the faults of his ‘Queens of the French stage,’ and has them in an aggravated degree. His style is still more slovenly, his grammar still more faulty, his accuracy still more blemished ... his proofs still more carelessly read.”
“It is a record of scandals.”
Williams, Hugh Noel.Queens of the French stage.*$2.50. Scribner.
“He tells his stories very well, and has a wide knowledge of the memoirs, letters, the epigrams and so forth which illustrate his subjects, and quotes them freely on his handsome pages.”
Williams, Jesse Lynch.Day-dreamer. †$1.50. Scribner.
An unabridged rendering of “News and the man,” an amplified version of “The stolen story.” “There is a general stir in this novel which successfully stimulates the rush of a daily newspaper office when the presses are in motion and the ‘stories’ are coming in from every quarter. The reporter’s slang, which is a kind of dialect known only to the initiated, is freely used and the narrative bristles with expert knowledge of reportorial ways and speech.” (Outlook.)
“A very plausible story and a splendid picture of newspaper life and newspaper men.” Stephen Chalmers.
Reviewed by Louise Collier Willcox.
“Among the entertaining stories of the season a first place must be given to ... ‘The day dreamer.’”
“But in spite of the well-seasoned character of the plot and the persons, ‘The day-dreamer’ is nevertheless a neatly articulated and very readable tale.”
Williams, Leonard.Granada: memories, adventures, studies and impressions. **$2.50. Lippincott.
“Here is a book that gives only one chapter to the Alhambra. ‘The Alhambra by moonlight,’ all the rest being devoted to pilgrimages within easy reach of the City of Granada.... Some lead into the snows of the splendid Sierra Nevada, but most of them are within the power of any one.” (N. Y. Times.) “To the systematic frauds connected with the famous sacred mountain, he devotes several chapters, in which he tells the whole story of the exploitation of the caves—‘a longish story,’ he says, ‘full of interest, social, national and psychological, the story of the most astounding, amazing and protracted swindle the world has ever heard of.’” (Int. Studio.)
“The chapters which make up this volume are much too disconnected in subject, and the author has not the art of interesting us in ... commonplace experiences.”
“It is unfortunate that a book so full of varied charm should not have better illustrations. The want of an index is also a considerable drawback to the value of the work.”
Williams, Neil Wynn.Electric theft. †$1.50. Small.
An unusual story with plenty of plot, action and romance has its setting in Athens, with the scene shifting to London. A young engineer, who is also an inventor, is sent to Athens to discover the cause of the theft of electricity from the Athenian electric power company. The closely guarded villainy is operated by a band of anarchists whose leader becomes the hero’s rival in affairs of heart as well as schemes in which cunning and skill abound.
Williams, Rebecca R. (“Riddell,” pseud.).Fireside fancies. *75c. Jenkins.
A poem in which the author’s fancy recalls a sequence of brave deeds long past and weaves them into verse at his own fireside.
Williams, Sarah Stone (Hester E. Shipley).Man from London town. $1.50. Neale.
There was a man from London town, and in this modern version of the old rhyme, having scratched out both his eyes as the result of an unfortunate love affair he becomes a cynic, is bored with life and loving. But at last he realizes that his eyes are out thru the influence of a young widow of high ideals and a charming personality, and she is the cause of his jumping once more into the bramble bush and scratching them in again. Unfortunately the man has become so embittered and, is so lacking in fine feeling that he handles too roughly the thing which gave him light. He is the type of a man whose vision is permanently distorted and even love could not make him see.
Williams, Theodore C.Elegies of Tibullus.$1.25. Badger, R. G.
“Of this work the judgment must be that it is a paraphrase rather than a translation, and the frequent felicities in the rendering add to one’s regret at its defects.”
Williamson, Charles Norris, and Williamson, Mrs. Alice Muriel (Livingston).Lady Betty across the water.†$1.50. McClure.
Lady Betty, the naive young sister of an impoverished duke, comes over from England to visit a Mrs. Stuyvesant-Knox at Newport. The plans of her hostess for securing the sister of a duke as her brother’s wife are frustrated, and the plans of Betty’s mother of securing an American fortune seem, for a time, endangered by a young man who crosses in the steerage of Betty’s ship and who wins her young affection by heroic deeds before she discovers him to be a millionaire in disguise. The story is light and breezy and is full of social satire.
“The interest is smartly whipped up, and kept spinning and humming gaily to the last page.”
“A little more of the handsome Californian, and a little less violet teas and cat lunches would have made it a better balanced book.” Frederick Taber Cooper.
“A frothy sort of cleverness is the chief attribute of the story, but its thin vein of wit is exhausted long before the end is reached, and nothing more substantial is found to take its place.” Wm. M. Payne.
“The intent is to present a friendly picture of real American life, to hold up the mirror to ‘society’, and to provide a sort of guide book of America’s typical institutions; but it’s all done British visitors must be warned not to take it upon such meagre knowledge of the facts that seriously.”
“It is a pleasantly written narrative, very frothy.”
“A lively and entertaining tale.”
“A readable and entertaining story.”
Williamson, Charles Norris, and Williamson, Mrs. Alice Muriel.My friend the chauffeur.†$1.50. McClure.
Reviewed by Wm. M. Payne.
“The tale is amusing enough, but on the whole less good than other stories by the clever authors.”
Willis, Henry Parker.Our Philippine problem: a study of American colonial policy. $1.50. Holt.
Reviewed by Winthrop More Daniels.
“So, while there is much in this book ... which is of very considerable import, it is so intermixed with errors, half-truths, misinformation of one sort and another, and political insinuation, as to make the book an altogether unsafe guide for him who is not already expert in Philippine matters.”
Reviewed by Hugh Clifford.
Willoughby, William Franklin.Territories and dependencies of the United States: their government and administration. *$1.25. Century.
Reviewed by F. J. Goodnow.
Wilson, Alice.Actaeon’s defense and other poems. $1. Badger, R: G.
Half a hundred nature poems, love sonnets and lyrics.
Reviewed by Wm. M. Payne.
Wilson, Rev. C. T.Peasant life in the Holy Land. *$3.50. Putnam.
“Peasant life in Palestine was cast in stereotype plates centuries ago, long before the Christian era, and the present life is printed from the old plates. Therefore to see how peasants live and what they think and feel now is to understand how they lived and what they thought in the time of Christ, not to say in the time of Abraham. That fact gives to a portrait of modern life by one who has been a long-time resident of the Holy Land value as well as interest.”—Outlook.
“It is only when he quits his own subject to indulge in speculations or a general view that he stumbles.”
“This interesting book is not so much, as the author claims, a contribution to the folklore of Palestine, altho some stories are given, as a description of the peasant life.”
“It gives a picture of the better side of peasant life, and incidentally is of considerable value to the student of Oriental and Biblical archaeology, folklore, and religion.”
“The value of the book lies in a wealth of detail about the daily lives of the fellahin. This sharp definition of detail lends a special worth to Mr. Wilson’s work.”
“It contains not a great deal which will be fresh to one who is familiar with Dr. Thomson’s ‘Land and the book’ or Professor Curtiss’s ‘Primitive Semitic religion to-day.’”
“Mr. Wilson’s book is full of interesting details about Palestinian life. He has extended his observations to natural objects, and has much that is curious to tell us.”
Wilson, Calvin Dill.Making the most of ourselves. **$1. McClurg.
“For young men and women who are at a groping and impressionable age and who have not had ‘advantages,’ this book ought to be of far greater value than most of its kind.”
Wilson, Floyd Baker.Through silence to realization; or, The human awakening. $1. Fenno.
Self-mastery is the keynote of this volume. Practical suggestions for the achievement of it along metaphysical lines are made by one who has proved that “thoughts are things,” and as entities can be implanted into consciousness and vitalized there.
Wilson, Francis.Joseph Jefferson. **$2. Scribner.
A sketch of Mr. Jefferson by a close friend and fellow actor which pictures “what will be of inestimable value to future generations of playgoers—the personality of Joseph Jefferson.” (Ind.) “New light is thrown on the best qualities of Jefferson, his amiability, his genial humor, his sound artistry. The illustrations include reproductions of photographs of the actors, and some of Jefferson’s paintings.” (N. Y. Times.)
“Those who knew Mr. Jefferson personally and those who knew him only on the stage will be sorry to see him so belittled by an account which, meaning to exalt, succeeds only in debasing.”
Reviewed by Louise Closser Hale.
“A pleasing and worthy portrait.” Percy F. Bicknell.
“His analysis of many of the elements of Jefferson’s success—as in “Rip Van Winkle”—is a good one, and the chief impressions are agreeable.” Wm. T. Brewster.
“There are few such nuggets in the book, and they can be found only by sifting a vast amount of rubbish.”
“The sketches of personalities are intimate and charmingly done.”
“A book as true to nature as it is entertaining.”
“Mr. Wilson has done a careful piece of work in bringing together his reminiscences, and there is none of the feeling that he is holding something back to use later on.”
“Is packed full of story, incident, and picturesque description.”
Winchester, Caleb Thomas.Life of John Wesley. **$1.50. Macmillan.
Professor Winchester “points out that Wesley was the child of his age in his distrust of enthusiasm. He laid great stress upon an intelligent faith, and endeavored himself to be clear, candid, and logical. That he could have carried on his especial work within the Anglican church, had the bishops of his day held more statesmanlike ideas as to their duty is plain enough; in fact, he never abandoned that church nor did he desire his followers to do so. Yet the logic of events made the organization of a distinctive Methodist body inevitable.”—Critic.
Reviewed by H W. Boynton.
“He brings out the character and personality of the man better, on the whole, than any of Wesley’s previous biographers have done.”
“The last chapter on ‘John Wesley the man’ is an especially clear and satisfactory presentation of the great preacher’s mind and personality.”
“It is written in excellent style, and is marked by thoroness of information, fairness of judgment, and that sanity and balance, which come only with extensive knowledge.”
“It is compact, bright, clear-sighted, a book in which an American writer seems to have achieved something of the lucidity, combined with accurate knowledge, of the best French work. There are a few slips here and there in it.”
“This writer has given us, in brief space, probably the clearest view of his hero.”
“He writes in a style which is luminous without being rhetorical, warm without being emotional, and simple without being commonplace.”
“Professor Winchester has dealt fairly with his subject, showing the dark as well as the light sides.”
“Is not primarily a Methodist tribute to the founder of his church; it is the seasoned judgment of a man of literature and an historian of philosophic mind concerning a great divine.”
“He is neither a worshipper nor an iconoclast.”
Winslow, Helen Maria.Woman of tomorrow. *$1. Pott.
“The author points out the weak spots in the woman of to-day, and tells her what to do in order to become a more able woman of to-morrow.”—N. Y. Times.
“The writer has made no attempt, in these discreet articles, to treat her subject profoundly or from an original point of view.”
Winter, Alice Ames.Jewel weed.†$1.50. Bobbs.
In the foreground of this story with a middle west setting is a quartette of young people composed of Dick Percival of substantial family connections, his college friend Ellery Norris who is striving to make good his heralded efficiency, Madeline Elton, a finely bred young woman, and Lena Quincy whose gilded vulgarity finds fit expression in the jewel weed. The “jewel weed” becomes Dick’s protege, later his wife, and as such a foreign element in the refined atmosphere of his mother’s home. In contrast to her selfishness which menaces her husband’s social, financial and political career is the fine loyalty of Madeline, which champions everybody’s cause—Ellery Norris more than all others.
“Though not a great novel, this is an excellent love-story written in a bright and pleasing style and very rich in human interest. More than this, it is for the most part true to the life it depicts.”
Wise, John Sergeant.Recollections of thirteen presidents. **$2.50. Doubleday.
From the political atmosphere surrounding him in boyhood, the author absorbed the personalities of the presidents of his father’s day, Tyler, Pierce and Buchanan; and of the men following down to the present day he is able to write out of the fulness of his intimate knowledge of them. The author is a Southerner, fought with the confederacy, and does not neglect to make prominent the just position from which to view the work of Jefferson Davis.
“The taste displayed is often a bit more questionable. and there are many signs of hasty and ill-considered writing. It can, however, never be called a dull book, or one lacking in a fine sense of patriotism.”
“Some wonderfully fresh and striking pen portraits.”
“The book is confessedly partisan rather than judicial in its tone. It is an interesting series of political sketches from a personal point of view, and the intelligent reader will have no trouble in recognizing the point of view andmaking all necessary allowances. We have noticed few slips of fact.”
“His estimates of the public men he discusses in his book are to a rather remarkable degree free from partisan, even though not always from personal bias. They are both interesting and entertaining.”
“His estimates of these historical characters, expressed with the utmost frankness and evident sincerity, make ‘readable footnotes to history.’”
Wise, John Sergeant.Treatise on American citizenship. $3. Thompson.
A book dealing with the primary rights, duties, and privileges of the American citizen and analyzing the peculiar dual system—federal and state—under which he lives. There are seven parts to the treatise: Of citizenship generally; How American citizenship may be acquired; Of the obligations and duties of the citizens to the nation and the state; Of the rights, privileges and immunities of the citizen; Privileges and immunities under the war amendments; Of the protection of citizens abroad; Of expatriation, aliens and who may not become citizens.
“While Mr. Wise has given us here a useful and valuable work, it must be said that it leaves much to be desired and that there is still room for a comprehensive text on the law of citizenship.” Frank Hamsher.
“As a popular summary of the more important features of our system, the book will be found useful. It is marked by great fairness and freedom from bias of any kind.”
“It is a very useful book, showing a great deal of patient industry, and a clear and sound judgment in dealing with authorities.” Edward Cary.
“He has made no use of treaty stipulations, diplomatic correspondence, rulings of the Department of state or decisions of arbitration commissions. He does not seem to have examined the excellent works of Van Dyne and Howard or the less valuable ones of Morse and Webster, from all of which he could have gained useful information both as to the law of citizenship and methods of treatment. Notwithstanding all that has been said above in criticism of Mr. Wise’s book as a treatise on the law of citizenship, it is a useful and interesting work. To the idea of state citizenship he makes a distinct contribution and his discussion of civil rights under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments contains many original and valuable suggestions.” James Wilford Garner.
Wishart, Alfred Wesley.Primary facts in religious thought. *75c. Univ. of Chicago press.
“Dr. Wishart is a careful reasoner and the volume, on the whole, is an admirable work of the kind. As is so frequently the case in didactic theological works, however, the author, it seems to us, sometimes presumes too much, and therefore his premises are open to criticism.”
Wister, Owen.Lady Baltimore.†$1.50. Macmillan.
This story might be called the “Love affairs of a bachelor” in the objective sense of Lilian Bell’s “Love affairs of an old maid.” For the hero finds real life and other people’s matrimonial projects more fascinating than musty genealogical records that sufficiently searched will prove the blood of kings in his veins and admit him to the “Selected salic scions.” The setting is typically Southern and among the characters are a charming dispenser of cakes at a Woman’s exchange, a young man whose approaching marriage to a brilliant siren furnishes cause for a vast expenditure of the hero’s quixotic chivalry, and numerous old ladies of King’s Port. It would divulge too much of the whimsically clever story to reveal the meaning of so high sounding a title as “Lady Baltimore.”
“The story is one of love, prettily conceived and executed, but it is, perhaps, a little longwinded and slow of development.”
“But it is not merely for its adherence to an academic formula that ‘Lady Baltimore’ is to be praised. It is good to read because of its characterisation, its geniality and its ideas.” Edward Clark Marsh.
“Like Mr. Owen Wister’s other fiction, is defective on the side of construction, but the defect is atoned for by the author’s powers of characterization and his narrative charm.” Wm. M. Payne.
“It is doubtful if any other author has so accurately touched the keynote of the real South, or contrasted it so shrewdly with that of the North.”
“He has given us the most courteous, intelligent and veracious interpretation of Southern life ever published without losing a single man by violence out of the tale.”
“Mr. Wister brings to this new environment all the fine play and parry of style, all the insight, all the certainty of coloring, that carried the West before his compelling pen.”
“‘The Virginian’ can no longer be held to be the work of an impassioned tiro by any one who observes how in ‘Lady Baltimore’ the story is informed by the idea, how light and delicate the humour is for all the urgency of the pleading, how fragrant is that atmosphere of lavender which the whole story breathes.”
“Is marked by all the author’s cleverness and power of observation. What Mr. Wister has written might be called extravaganza with a purpose.”
“The attraction of the book is in its hitting off things and people in little illuminating phrases which flash this and that characteristic home to you.”
Reviewed by Louise Collier Willcox.
“It is a true American novel in subject, spirit, and atmosphere.”
“There is little success in striking the deeper chords that might be set vibrating by a stronger hand and one less preoccupied with its own rather capable cleverness and its stylistic ingenuity.”
“Owen Wister displays as before the delicacy of touch, the clear precise treatment of ideas, the felicity and grace of expression which make his writing distinguished and admirable, but his material is this time too scanty, and his dissertations seem tedious and complicated to the point of mystification.”
“Is a many-sided book, in which plot and incident, ingenious though they are, are of subsidiary importance, and serve the ulterior purpose of enabling the writer to liberate his mind on a number of burning questions. His satire is inspired not by malice, but by a genuine desire of reform.”
Witt, Robert Clermont.How to look at pictures. **$1.40. Putnam.
America finds this book published five years ago in England of such value that it deems it worth while to reprint it even tho there have appeared a number of works akin to it—books whose purpose is identical with it, viz. to direct laymen how to judge first class works of art, “Mr Witt speaks of the personal point of view, the point of view of the subject the picture represents, that of the artist, how to look at a portrait, a historical painting, a colored picture, a genre painting, a landscape and a drawing; how to note the light and shade in a painting, the composition of the picture, the treatment of the subject by the artist, and the methods and materials of a painter.” (N. Y. Times.)
“Several helpful books dealing with the general subject of looking at pictures have been published within the last year, but none of these has the breadth or scope of this admirable book by Mr Witt.”
“Its contents are marked by tranquil common sense. There is nothing in it which is not true, and nothing, perhaps, which may not still be novel to some part of the great public.”
Wolfenstein, Martha.Renegade, and other tales. $1.25. Jewish pub.
“‘A renegade’ presents to us a number of Gentile sinners and Jewish saints in the setting of far-away Bohemia.” (Nation.) This story “is tragical, of course, and there are ten others. The prevailing atmospheric effect is gray, a dull sad gray, and there is always a sense of what may be called the joy of suffering, a sort of reveling in the luxury of woe.” (N. Y. Times.)
“We need not quarrel with the characterization if the stories were only interesting; but they are not.”
“Many of them show a considerable dramatic power.”
“Full of local color, race peculiarities treated with knowledge and skill, and withal broad human sympathy and delicate humor.”
Wood, Eugene.Back home.†$1.50. McClure.
“The book itself is very like an apple: juicy, ripe and red with garnered sunshine. It is altogether wholesome and sweet to the core.”
Wood, Henry.Life more abundant: scriptural truth in modern application. **$1.20. Lothrop.
“It is an important contribution to the constructive religious thought of the day.”
Wood, Theodore.Natural history for young people. $2.50. Dutton.
A survey of the animal world so copiously and realistically illustrated that it furnishes “zoological garden in a book.” “The writer has given a few original observations. Beyond a general classification, he has not attempted scientific methods of treatment. He has selected, from the various groups, the most interesting species, and has written about them with much entertaining detail.” (Nation.)
“On account of its sumptuous format, is for the library rather than for field and forest.”
“The text is written simply and clearly and is kept free from super-scientific terminology. Decidedly a commendable work.”
Wood, Walter Birbeck, and Edmonds, James Edward.History of the Civil war in the United States, 1861–1865. *$3.50. Putnam.
“There is no lack of intelligent comprehension of the events described, and the presentment is simple and direct. Though one may here and there find fault with the work of Messrs. Wood and Edmonds, the book is nevertheless a good military account of our Civil war—impartial, painstaking, intelligent.” J. K. Hosmer.
“It is a useful condensation of the best military histories and is illuminated by much judicious comment.”
“It is characterized by understanding, by impartial attitude and by thoroness of treatment.”
“It is readily admitted that for succinctness of statement, for saneness of judgment, for fairness of conclusion there is scarce a volume anywhere in all our war literature which equals this one.” William E. Dodd.
Wood, William.Fight for Canada; a sketch from the history of the great Imperial war. *$2.50. Little.
This history of England’s fight for Canada has been prepared in the light of recently discovered sources of original information and has been treated from a point of view both naval and military. Chapters are devoted to: Pitt’s imperial war; New France and New England; Vandreuil and Bigot; Montcalm; Anson and Saunders; Wolfe; The siege of Quebec; The Battle of the plains; The fall of Quebec; and The fall of New France. The text is both scholarly and interesting, the notes, bibliography, and index are full and satisfactory, and there are portraits and colored maps.
“Mr Wood has not Mr. Parkman’s command of resonant prose, but in simple language details the events hour by hour, describing the character of the ground as one familiar with every foot of it, and the movements of the men of each side as if at a review.” James Bain.
“An interesting and praiseworthy book.”
Woodberry, George Edward.Swinburne. **75c. McClure.
A recent volume in the “Contemporary men of letters series.” The sketch is not a biography but “a subtle and subjective study not so much of Swinburne’s poetry as of his poetic impulses.” (Nation.)
“The book is important not so much becauseof the accident of its being perhaps the first on the subject to be published in this country as because of an uncommon qualification of the author for his task. It is true that he has broad perspective and intimate knowledge, but of greater significance is the affinity of spirit between the poet and his critic.” Lewis N. Chase.
Woodberry, George Edward.Torch: eight lectures on race power in literature, delivered before the Lowell institute of Boston. **$1.20. McClure.
Thru “The torch” “one increasing purpose runs. This purpose is the thought that there is a race-mind which slowly, unfalteringly, grandly, approaches through the centuries its final summation (if finality in this connection be conceivable) through a variety of channels, but chiefly through the treasure-stores of great literature.” (Reader.) “The work of the race-mind in literature, as it seems to Mr. Woodberry’s optimistic idealism, is not so much mere self-expression as self-conquest, liberation, racial euthanasia.” (Nation.) The title of the lectures are: Man and the race, The language of all the world, The Titan myth, Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Shelley.