AUSTIN, FRANK EUGENE.Preliminary mathematics. $1.20 Austin, F. E., Hanover, N.H. 512 17-11117
“This book is designed by its author, a professor in the Thayer school of civil engineering connected with Dartmouth college, to serve as a connecting link between the study of arithmetic and the study of algebra. The subject matter up to page 77 is suitable for pupils in the eighth grade and below, while the remaining portion of the text will prove of assistance to pupils in the high schools. ... Many points are explained herein that are passed over in ordinary text books. The chief object of this book is to show how to solve problems.” (Preface)
“Useful to one who has not had the advantages of school and wishes to take up arithmetic and algebra by himself.”
AUSTIN, MARY (HUNTER) (MRS STAFFORD W. AUSTIN).The ford. il*$1.50 (1c) Houghton 17-11466
California is at once the scene and the theme of this novel. Steven Brent, one of those men who have an instinctive feeling for the soil, who are meant to be its tillers, has nurtured his ranch, Las Palomitas, till it is on the point of paying, when he yields to the persuasions of his wife and the promises held out by the speculators and goes into oil. But men of his calibre are not built for speculation. Financial failure and the wife’s death come together. The story thereafter is concerned with the twoBrent children, Anne and Kenneth, whose dream it is to buy back Las Palomitas. In the end it is Anne who accomplishes it, for Anne proves to have the business sense that those two lovers of the soil for its own sake, Kenneth and his father, lack. Anne is the new woman at her best.
“Well written and more interesting for its atmosphere and character drawing than for its plot.”
“A story of fine feeling and (to use a wooden term) exceptional workmanship. Its four women might be taken as a microcosm of the modern world of women.” H. W. Boynton
“The great social and commercial plot behind these children is strongly handled and conveys more than any other American fiction since Frank Norris of what Mrs Austin calls the ‘epic quality of the west.’” J: Macy
“The story is interesting, and yet it disappoints us in some way not easy to describe. There is a vagueness which allows the mind of the reader to wander and his interest to flag. ... Words cloud the plot and befog the issue.”
“In this book is a substance worthy of Mrs Austin’s rich and finished style.”
“Brooding deep beneath the ferocious animosities of capitalist and homesteader, Mary Austin has wrought in her still pastoral something of almost Biblical beauty. Some few novels of the year may offer as good construction; fewer as clear, racy diction; none a more satisfying picture than little dripping Kenneth with the drowned lamb in his arms.” T. D. Mygatt
“Industrial conditions, business intrigue, social reactions, and the temperaments of individuals are all constantly involved among the motives of this remarkable tale, and all are treated with knowledge, with insight, and with feeling. It is one’s final impression, however, that the story as a whole fails to attain a quite sufficient unity and strength. ... The reader is roused as by an impassioned plea; he is stimulated to the point of being ready to change his whole outlook upon life and yet in the end he cannot tell whether the thing that has so impressed him is Providence or the brute forces of life or the spirit of California. ... One must marvel at the degree of success which Mrs Austin has attained in treating a broad and complex theme both comprehensively and minutely, both psychologically and epically.”
“The description is clear and strong in its picture of industrial conditions. There are also charm and romance in the life of the young people. The plot and development are not as closely woven as one could wish.”
“Stands without a peer among recent books of fiction as a thoroughly characteristic portrayal of a typically American community of the West.”
AYDELOTTE, FRANK, ed. English and engineering.*$1.50 McGraw 620.7 17-4324
A collection of essays for the use of English classes in engineering colleges. “A quotation from the introduction is the fullest explanation of Professor Aydelotte’s endeavor, and an index of the pedagogic value of his work: ‘To train the student to write by first training him to think—to stimulate his thought by directing his attention to problems of his own profession and of his own education and to the illumination of them which he can find in literature: these two tasks may be performed together—better together than separately—and with that double aim in view this collection has been made.’” (Engin Rec)
“An admirable collection of essays with a breadth and keenness of selection that certifies the right of its compiler to occupy the chair of English in one of our greatest engineering schools. Also a most commendable introduction whose ideas are unassailable and remarkably illustrated. ... In no sense can it be taken as a handbook. It needs the attrition of the class to make its somewhat hidden gold to glisten. To any except those who know writing and its methods, the collection of essays would prove a bewilderment.”
“If this book is designed for use in a course in freshman composition, it has too limited a scope, if it is to be used for the specific purpose indicated above, as a part of a broader programme, it is an admirable volume.”
“‘Collection of selected essays, some by famous authors and some by others of lesser note. ... A most interesting collection of good writings that any man will profit by reading, and it should find a welcome on the shelf of every technical man who aspires, as he should, to evaluate the place that his profession occupies in the affairs of the world.’” D. S. Kimball
“The author is professor of English in the Massachusetts institute of technology.”
AYDELOTTE, FRANK.[2]Oxford stamp, and other essays.*$1.20 Oxford 378 18-390
“A group of essays forming the ‘educational creed of an American Oxonian’ is brought together in this volume whose writer is Professor Frank Aydelotte of the Massachusetts Institute of technology, and they are the fruits of his residence and study at the English university as a Rhodes scholar. ‘The holder of one of these appointments,’ he says, ‘who on his return from Oxford engages in university teaching in this country, inevitably makes comparisons, and looks at many of our educational problems from a new point of view. Much in the work and atmosphere of an English university is strikingly different from the adaptations of German university methods which have prevailed in our higher education for half a century. In the hope that this point of view may interest students of our educational problems, these essays are put together.’ Among their titles are ‘The Oxford stamp,’ ‘Spectators and sport,’ ‘The religion of punch,’ ‘A challenge to Rhodes scholars,’ ‘English as humane letters,’ and ‘Robert Louis Stevenson darkening counsel.’”—Boston Transcript
“Rarely before has the complex English college system and the unique English college life been described so clearly and so briefly.” E. F. E.
AYSCOUGH, JOHN, pseud. (BP. FRANCIS BROWNING DREW BICKERSTAFFE-DREW).French windows.*$1.50 Longmans 940.91 17-24699
The author of this book, the chapters of which originally appeared in the Month, an English periodical, was for the first eighteen months of the war attached to the British expeditionary force as chaplain to a field ambulance. The book does not describe military operations, but consists mainly of conversations with various French and British soldiers. Though John Ayscough is known as a writer of highly imaginative fiction, he assures us that every character and episode in these pages is taken from life, and that his first-hand impressions have not been retouched.
“It sounds like a contradiction of terms to speak of a charming war book; yet this is exactly what John Ayscough’s new volume is—a book of the war, written in the very heat of the war and out of its turbulent heart, throbbing with its deepest feelings, and yet charming beyond words. Whatever of self-revelation the soldier himself in this war may write, we can never again quite so penetratingly see into it as John Ayscough makes us see.”
“The book is always sympathetic, often heart-breaking, almost always tender, and not easy to forget.”
“Episodes and characters are drawn from reality and each conversation is a portrait and a history.”
“Some of the conversations are of so intimate a character that it almost seems indecent to have recorded them. Humour and pathos jostle one another in these fugitive pages. John Ayscough seems to realize that if things are tragic enough they are funny. Insight and understanding are in this book, and, in spite of a tendency to occasional gush and rhapsody, it has a value of its own. It reveals the simple greatness of the English soldier.”
“The point of view is that of a man of fifty-six, a Roman Catholic priest singularly devoid of any sectarian bias; one who, though not French, loves every field of France as if he had been born on it, and speaks her language fluently, if not idiomatically; a lover of his kind, ‘half priest and half poet’; and above all a thinker who looks at everything ‘sub specie æternitatis’, and even in the darkest hours remains undismayed and unshaken in his faith. ... This is a book which differs from most war books by reason of its aim. It shows that amid all that makes for brutalization and misery and despair in modern warfare, there are exultations as well as agonies, and that man’s soul remains unconquerable.”
“Mr Ayscough evidently inspires affection in the young soldiers with whom he lives; he betrays his natural pleasure thereat, with undeniable egotism and he records far too categorically the terms in which that affection is conveyed.”
AZAN, PAUL JEAN LOUIS.War of positions; with a preface by Brigadier General Joseph E. Kuhn, U.S.A.; tr. at Harvard university.*$1.25 Harvard univ. press 355 17-22880
“The author of this little book is one of the group of officers sent over here by the French government to assist in the training of officers for our new American army. As chief of the military mission which was sent to the Officers’ reserve training camp at Harvard, he worked there all spring and summer, arousing the greatest of enthusiasm among the hundreds of men who were in training under him. ... The same principles of warfare which he expounded to his pupils there he has explained in this book. ... In part one the author considers the present war, its general characteristics, the different forms of warfare it has developed, the fronts, attrition, principles of offensive and defensive, the rôle of a high command in an offensive, the functions of the different arms of the service. The second part deals with ‘Positions,’ their organization, trench duties and relief, while the third and fourth parts develop the principles of attack on a position and defense of a position.”—N Y Times
“While written primarily for the instruction of American officers who are going abroad it is full of interest for the student of military history or for any intelligent reader.”
“The book ought to be of the greatest value to all officers and non-coms of the new American armies and of their privates as well. In his capacity as director of officers’ schools in France, Colonel Azan has trained a large part of the French officers up to and including the rank of major. He has, therefore, learned how to teach.”
BACHELLER, IRVING ADDISON.Light in the clearing; a tale of the north country in the time of Silas Wright.il*$1.50 (1c) Bobbs 17-11215
A story of northern New York state in the first half of the nineteenth century. Much of it is woven about the career of Silas Wright, an early governor of the state. It is told in the first person, however, by Barton Baynes, a boy who came under Wright’s protection early in his career and who was inspired by the older man’s encouragement and example. The early chapters, telling of Barton’s boyhood, spent with stern-faced Aunt Deel and big-hearted Uncle Peabody, give a good picture of the life of the times.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
“Readers Mr Bacheller will have for his latest novel, and plenty of them, but it will not be long in passing into the dim obscurity of contemporary fiction. It is thoroughly out of date. It is not even a good example of the desirable things of the past, of those departed forms of fiction whose death we sometimes regret. It is distinctly the survival of the unfittest. Yet it is entertaining in its way.” E. F. E.
“Told with simplicity, kindly humor, and genuine understanding.”
“Excellent as are Mr Bacheller’s other works—‘Eben Holden,’ ‘D’ri and I,’ and the ever-popular ‘Keeping up with Lizzie’—none of them equals this story of the forties, either in artistic finish or in breadth of spirit. It is a book we would like every American girl and boy to read.”
“The book is amusing and certainly uplifting in its influence, but sometimes a trifle artificial.”
“‘The light in the clearing’ takes us, yet again, upon a sentimental journey, in a very good sense of the term, into the past. ... Mr Bacheller has the knack of making one’s throat swell with simple, homefelt emotion for the golden rule and other tritenesses which, for the most part, we are ready enough to abandon to the movies, literary and other.”
“Very different in method and purpose from any of his previous stories, Mr Bacheller’s new novel must be accounted, at the outset, as quite the most important piece of fiction he has put forth.”
“‘The light in the clearing’ is an exact complement to ‘Eben Holden,’ as unmistakably good, less idyllic, but stronger. The two together would seem in themselves to assure their author a considerable and permanent place in American literature.”
“Sturdy American ideals are wholesomely offered to admiration and emulation.”
“It is a story of simple, homespun life, full of wide, out-door freedom, and the healing, balsamic breath of a cleaner, younger world.” F: T. Cooper
“While the story is episodical, it is skilfully knit, and the reader’s attention never relaxes until the final page is turned. The book will have a host of contented readers.”
“The continual exaltation of commonplace virtues makes it a wholesome but somewhat tiresome story.”
BACON, CORINNE, comp. Children’s catalog of thirty-five hundred books; a guide to the best reading for boys and girls. (Standard catalog ser.)*$6 Wilson, H. W. 028.5 17-17986
The first edition of the Children’s catalog, a 1,000-title list, was noted in the Digest in 1916. The 3,500-title list includes a few books in French and German; also a few 1916 books published too late for inclusion in the 2,000-title list. 700 volumes have been analyzed. “The editor has been fortunate in securing the advice and cooperation of Miss Agnes Cowing, of the Pratt institute free library; Miss Alice I. Hazeltine, of the St Louis public library; Miss Hatch, of the Cleveland public library, and of the staff of the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh. ... The numbers in parentheses after titles indicate approximately the grades for which the books are suitable, and have been taken for the most part from various library lists. Two of the collaborators also made suggestions as to grading.” (Preface) The 1,000 list, buckram bound, sells for $2; the 2,000 list, for $4; the 3,500 list for $6. These catalogs are also issued in paper covers printed on light-weight paper for quantity use. These are for sale exclusively to those who have previously purchased at least one bound copy. They are sold in lots of ten or more at 15c, 25c, and 40c per copy.
“This compilation, by one whose work in other lines gives assurance of more than usual merit, is based on many selected lists, and is the result of the advice and co-operation of children’s librarians and others familiar with literature for children.”
“All workers with boys and girls, and especially those who have to do with school and public libraries will be grateful to the compiler for the infinite pains she has taken to make sure of a wise selection of really good, wholesome books for young people. Parents will do well to consult the catalog in the public library which they patronize. It goes without saying that every public library will make available this unsurpassed list, without which no library can be said to be properly equipped.” F. H. P.
“The author and publisher of this important book has done a great service to teachers in every grade of the elementary school. As the title indicates, the list is large enough to include the best in all of the more important fields of knowledge.”
“A most valuable bibliography of elementary-school children’s books and books about such books.”
“It is needless to say the advice is trustworthy and of immense value to librarians, teachers and book purchasers.”
“Every school and every home needs it in order to buy books intelligently.”
“The catalog containing 2,000 titles and analyticals for 447 volumes has been practically tested in our children’s room and found to answer most of the demands, although for large collections the 3,500 list now [April, 1917] in preparation will of course be more satisfactory. ... The questions now asked by school children demand indexes that will lead directly to up-to-date reliable facts. How well this demand has been met may be judged by a few titles taken at random from the 2,000 catalog. ... The profession owes a debt of gratitude to Miss Bacon for supplying so indispensable a tool that will lessen the present duplication of effort and promote greater efficiency.” N. M. De Laughter
“The list will be useful to librarians for selection and for cataloging. The subject headings conform in the main to Miss Mann’s ‘Subject headings for use in dictionary catalogs of juvenile books.’ It will be useful at the librarian’s desk if checked with books in the library and used as a printed catalog. ... Extra copies would be useful for the public, for special use of teachers, or for catalogers.”
BACON, CORINNE, comp. Prison reform.*$1.25 (1c) Wilson, H. W. 365 17-4496
This volume in the Handbook series is designed to give the reader a general knowledge of prison reform in the United States. The material of the book, a selection of the best articles from the literature on the subject, is arranged under nine headings: History of prison reform; Conditions and methods in prisons and reformatories; Sing Sing and Warden Osborne; Psychopathic clinics and classification of prisoners; Convict labor; Indeterminate sentence; Probation and parole; Jails; Centralized control of penal institutions. The bibliography, which is unusually full, follows a similar arrangement. A paper on “The prison of the future” has been written for the volume by Thomas Mott Osborne.
“There is an excellent bibliography.”
“A timely and much-needed work.”
“It is a compilation of over 90 articles by students and experts covering almost the entire field of penology. ... In addition to the 300 pages devoted to the various aspects of reform within the walls, there is a valuable bibliography of 24 pages, listing books, pamphlets, reports, periodicals and many articles dealing with the general subject. ... We take pleasure in commending this book to all students and readers of penological problems.”
Reviewed by Philip Klein
BACON, GEORGE WASHINGTON.Keeping young and well; annotated by W: T: Fernie.*$1 (3c) Clode, E: J. 613 17-24683
The author of “Health and longevity” packs these new chapters full of valuable matter which aims at a maximum of utility with a minimum of words. A long study of personal hygiene and a life-long practice of what the writer preaches give authority to his undertaking. Contents: Health hints for the home; Bodily organs and their functions; Our food, and errors in diet; The drink habit; Light, pure air and ventilation; Respiration and deep breathing; Cheerfulness and happiness; Exercise and rest; Sound sleep and its benefits; Vital energy—conserved or wasted; A long and healthy life; Fifty maxims and rules for the aged; Colds: causes, prevention, remedies; One hundred ailments—cause, prevention and home remedies; Our foods and their medicinal values; Medical glossary.
BADLEY, JOHN HADEN.Education after the war.*$1.25 Longmans 375 (Eng ed E17-671)
“The author has been for many years a leader in British education, especially in the Workers’ educational association, but he is best known for the demonstration school which he has maintained for twenty-four years at Petersfield in Hampshire. ... Mr J. H. Badley was trained at Rugby, at Cambridge and in Germany. He was interested with Cecil Reddie and Edward Carpenter in the opening of Abbotsholme, but turned from this work to the establishment of his old experimental school primarily because of his interest in coeducation. ... The book contains a careful consideration of the needs of each stage of life from the nursery up. The differentiation of workers and professional groups is well thought out. The plan for training for national service gives consideration to the claims of militarism.”—Springf’d Republican
“Mr Badley rightly says that all subjects will be equally narrowing in their influence if the value of any kind of work be judged by the direct help it will give to the earning of an income. He proposes that special work required for professional training should be begun during the last two years of the suggested longer school course, with the object of relieving the university of much of the preliminary work which now usually occupies the first year of its course. Stress is laid upon the value of research to university students.”
“Of especial interest to Americans are the plans for training for national service. A positive program is given in detail but possibly of equal importance is the very clear showing of what is not essential to this training.” F. A. Manny
“America has much to learn from what he offers.”
“Those who have followed the author’s work will not be surprised to find the outline and details of this post-war program suggestive at many points for American needs.”
BAGWELL, RICHARD.Ireland under the Stuarts and during the interregnum.3v v 3*$5 Longmans 941.5
v 31660-1690.
“There are now six stately volumes written by Mr Bagwell, and in them he narrates the fortunes of his native land from the days of the Tudors to the fall of the Stuarts at the battle of the Boyne. ... In the larger part of the present book he has no other historian to fear, for he is the first to describe the reign of Charles II at any length or with any proper sense of the importance of its opening years. ... From measures to men there is an easy transition. The historian is quite at home in drawing the characters of men like Lord Robartes, Lord Berkeley, Essex, and Clarendon, who were the real governors of the country. ... Another prominent man is Tyrconnel, and a consideration of his strange career introduces quite naturally the revolution in Ireland. ... In the concluding chapters Mr Bagwell has a short account of the three churches and the social state of the country from the restoration to the revolution.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) For volumes 1 and 2 of this history, consult Digest annual volume for 1909.
“The first adequate account of Ireland during the restoration. That, in a sense, is the chief contribution of this present volume. ... From his pages are eliminated that passion which has made most Irish history all politics, and that memory of wrongs which has made most Irish politics all history.” W. C. Abbott
“Though Irish by birth, Mr Bagwell is probably of Anglo-Irish stock. In politics he is a Unionist of the more positive type. This fact is, of course, sufficient to render his work unacceptable to a large part of the reading public in Ireland; for in spite of his almost painful effort to do justice to both sides in the controversies of Britain, it is quite clear that Mr Bagwell regards the union of Ireland with England as one that is necessary to both countries. Critics generally have, however, found much to praise in Mr Bagwell’s histories. His evident fairness, his judicial attitude, his restraint in drawing conclusions and in framing statements have been remarked upon by many reviewers. For his literary style there is very little to be said: it is clear but prosy and bald.” L. M. Larson
“The first two volumes of ‘Ireland under the Tudors’ appeared in 1885. It was hailed in this Review as inaugurating ‘a new departure in Irish historiography,’ by its ‘judicial tone’ and its unprejudiced method of treating the political and ecclesiastical controversies of the sixteenth century. At the same time the complaint was made that ‘he crowded his canvas with too many facts to enable the student to realize quite distinctly the salient features of his subject.’ The present volume deserves the same praise, but is not open to similar criticism. Mr Bagwell’s six volumes (including in the total the three on ‘Ireland under the Tudors’) are a monument of well-directed industry, and he has gained in mastery of his materials as his work proceeded.” C. H. Firth
“Ireland, more, almost, than any other land, demands the candor of impartiality in those who would narrate its history. To have achieved this with such splendid thoroughness is Mr Bagwell’s peculiar triumph. The period under consideration is one of the most crucial in all Irish history. ... To read intelligently the history of the nineteenth century in Ireland one must understand and appreciate the results of this distribution of territory in the seventeenth. ... The book is provided with helpful notes and a useful index.”
“He does not describe the war after the Boyne, perhaps because Dr Murray has done this so thoroughly in his recent book. The chapters on social conditions and the churches are excellent but very brief. Dr Bagwell is reserved to a fault, but his history—the work of a whole generation—is the best and almost the only impartial account of Tudor and Stuart Ireland.”
“Since the death of W. E. H. Lecky, Mr Richard Bagwell is the foremost Irish historian. ... No one could adequately review a book like that lying before us, and hope to do full justice to its many-sidedness. All we can say is that we have been steadily using its two predecessors in the course of our work on the Stuart period and that the more we use them the more we admire them.”
BAILEY, EDGAR HENRY SUMMERFIELD.Text-book of sanitary and applied chemistry; or, The chemistry of water, air and food. 4th ed rev*$1.60 Macmillan 660 17-13814
“Prof. E. H. S. Bailey’s ‘Sanitary and applied chemistry’ appears this year—the eleventh since its first publication—in a fourth, revised edition. Its persistence in recurring editions is testimony to the place it has won for itself in our colleges. Designed for students who have already had a course in general chemistry, it deals with the most important applications of chemistry to the life of the household, without attempting to cover the whole field of what may be called ‘chemistry in daily life.’ An important feature of the book is the introduction of directions for performing many well-chosen illustrative experiments. In this latest edition, the text has been corrected and much of it rewritten and brought down to date; and chapters on Textiles and on Poison and their antidoteshave been added, increasing the contents by about sixty pages over the last previous edition of 1913. A good index enhances the working value of the text.”—Nation
“The chapters on the Purification of water and Sewerage have been revised and brought up to date. ... There is no bibliography in this edition.”
“It is not only an excellent textbook, but is written in such a clear style that it should prove valuable to housewives wishing a work of general information and reference on their everyday problems.”
“Throughout the text there are distributed 197 well selected experiments which will greatly help to fix important facts in the student’s mind.” W. P. Mason
BAILEY, HENRY CHRISTOPHER.Highwayman.*$1.50 Dutton (Eng ed 15-19412)
“The hero of ‘The highwayman’ is of the type that the Baroness Orczy delights in drawing—imperturbable, expressionless, of an ironical turn of mind, and possessed of depths which a woman’s charm alone can stir. In the generation of Harry Boyce these qualities cried out for adventure and romance, for it was also the generation of the ‘good’ Queen Anne, of the Pretender, and of the great Duke of Marlborough. With all these did our hero have dealings, but more especially was he lured by the charms of the wayward Alison, whom fate and the impulse of a moment had given him to wife.”—Dial
“We should have been glad to see more of the historical characters introduced by Mr Bailey, for he succeeded in creating a fascinating illusion of their presence and speech. Praise is due to the excellent style of the novel, which is undoubtedly the work of an accomplished and conscientious draftsman.”
“His wit is more after the manner of Fielding or of Wycherley than of the later and the modern historical sentimentalists. ‘The highwayman’ is a good brisk story for those not too squeamish.”
“Piquancy is the chosen note, and the performer thoroughly enjoys being piquant. ... There is great play of wit in these pages, as well as the play of swords; the author especially loves, and liberally presents, the naughtiness of polite humor in the reign of Queen Anne.”
“An over-mannered and not altogether agreeable tale of Queen Anne’s time.”
“A story most spirited, as is always Mr Bailey’s work, of the open road.”
BAILEY, LIBERTY HYDE.Standard cyclopedia of horticulture. 6v v 6 il*$6 Macmillan 634 (14-6168)
v 6“The last volume extends from S through Z. In addition there is a complete index to the six volumes, a finding list of binomials, a cultivator’s guide and a supplement of additional species which have been introduced to cultivation in this country since the first volumes were prepared. The list of collaborators contains the names of the most prominent men in horticulture and allied sciences in this country.”—Springf’d Republican
“It is to be expected that the nomenclature of this work will be adopted so far as possible by all nurserymen and landscape architects, so that there will be some uniformity. A finding-list is intended to accompany volume six, giving the various more important common and botanical names of plants, with a reference to the name under which the plant appears in the cyclopedia. A committee of the American society of landscape architects, the Ornamental growers association, and other bodies interested, is now working upon the subject of the standardization of the names of plants, and the finding-list will have the benefit of their labors to the date of its publication.”
“The sixth volume in every way upholds the high standard set by the preceding volumes. ... The cyclopedia is a work containing items of interest to the practical man as well as the scientist. Every group of plants is treated from both the practical side and the botanical viewpoint. ... It is of interest to the florist, market gardener, nurseryman, botanist, landscapist and all lovers of plant life. ... While there are many changes in nomenclature, they are such as have been recommended by the highest authorities in the country.”
BAILEY, TEMPLE.Mistress Anne.il*$1.35 (2c) Penn 17-11213
“Mistress” Anne Warfield was a young Maryland school-teacher with clear ideals and a belief in the dignity of work. She was also the granddaughter of Cynthia Warfield, an aristocrat of the older South. So when the quiet of the little southern village was invaded by a popular novelist, a New York doctor and his mother (who, however, were of the South), and some brilliant society women, Anne’s innate good breeding overcame her inexperience and comparative poverty and she found her place among them. The scene changes from the quiet Maryland riverside to fashionable New York and three love-stories run to a comfortable conclusion.
“It is written in the same vein as its successful predecessor, ‘Contrary Mary,’ but is neither so quaint nor so touching nor so piquant as the earlier book.”
“Even more praiseworthy than the story itself is the atmosphere of the book. Avoiding the flippant optimism, which has of late been so heavily exploited, Miss Bailey employs a more sane and convincing treatment.” Joseph Mosher
“While it is primarily a wholesome love story, beneath the surface is a call to service in the great army that work for public weal. Anne Warfield is one of the most delightful heroines of the year’s novels.”
“The author pictures the loyalty of southern folk to their ancestral homes and their spirit of noblesse oblige.”
BAIN, FRANCIS WILLIAM.Livery of Eve. il*$1.50 (5½c) Putnam 17-14951
Another fairy tale in imitation of the Hindu. The tale is told by the Moony-crested god to the Daughter of the Snow, and at the end of it he propounds a conundrum. The tale is of Aparájitá, whose beauty was such that the only rival she had to fear was her own reflection in the pool, and of Kámarúpa, the barber, who was unrivaled for ugliness, and of Keshawa, the king, who cared nothing for women, altho he unfailingly attracted their love. To gain her own ends, Aparájitá makes use of the spell by means of which the soul may enter another body. The soul of the handsome king takes on the ugly body of the barber, and the ugly one finds himself enshrined in the body of the king. The conundrum at the end has to do with the old problem of women’s wiles.
“No other European writer gives us such a sense of being absolutely at home with the Pundits. Kipling, in comparison with the author of ‘A digit of the moon’ or ‘A draught of the blue’ or ‘Ashes of a god,’ seems to be a Cockney interloper.”
“We assure those who have read ‘A digit of the moon’ and ‘The ashes of a god’ with amusement and joy, that they will find equal pleasure in ‘The livery of Eve.’”
“Mr Bain shows us, with all his wonted mastery of picturesque simile and phrase, that the old Hindu spirit and imagination survive, after countless generations of foreign rule. He displays a Hindu literature, subtly blended with and purified by western poetic sentiment and western ethics. ... He has been more successful than most in creating in western minds the atmosphere of Indian romance.”
“While rich in local color, the book is not by a great deal so rich as ‘A digit of the moon.’ One looks almost in vain for the telling phrases, the subtly cultivated rhythms which in the first work brought the exotic beauty of tropic nights and days home to us.”
“We do less than justice to this book if we do not read it aloud, for each syllable has been hammered into place and is taking thrust and strain as in poetry.”
BAINVILLE, JACQUES.Italy and the war; tr. by Bernard Miall.*$1 (1½c) Doran 945 (Eng ed 17-26484)
The author’s purpose is “to show Italy as the war has revealed her.” He says, “The Italian state is one of the most original and one of the most vigorous elements of modern Europe, and one of the richest in future promise. The war came at one of the most favourable moments of its growth and evolution. Italy was able to seize upon this moment, and to-morrow, we believe, she will count in the world for more than she counted yesterday.” He writes of: Italian opinions and intentions; The adaptations of the House of Savoy; The nationalist tradition; Italy is no longer the country of the dead; The Quirinal and the Vatican; From the Triple alliance to the Quadruple entente; The historic month in Italy; The future. The author is a Frenchman who has seen long service as a correspondent in Italy.
“M. Bainville’s work is of peculiar interest, and gives some idea of inner Italy, as well as of the motives which led to her intervention in the war.”
Reviewed by H. J. Laski
“For us, his book is admirably informative.”
BAIRNSFATHER, BRUCE.Bullets and billets.il*$1.50 (3c) Putnam 940.91 17-3729
Bruce Bairnsfather is a cartoonist whose drawings picture the humor of trench life. In this book he has written of the early days of the war, illustrating the account with some of his own sketches. Modern warfare appears to be a muddy business, but the good humor of the author-artist and his pals seemed to be proof against all physical discomforts.
“Among the trivial books growing out of the war, this one found its place abroad and it will amuse a certain (or uncertain) number here.”
Reviewed by P. F. Bicknell
“Unfortunately for us our officer-author gets him a man servant shortly after the book begins and moves out of the picturesque mud—had he seen less of his own class and more of his men this might indeed have been a book to rival ‘Kitchener’s mob.’” Robert Lynd
“This volume is not in the least literary, but it bubbles over with laughter and a very human enjoyment of rare comforts. ... It is well illustrated, too.”
“The drawings of Captain Bairnsfather have become so much of an institution in the army that they scarcely need an introduction. Personally we are not convinced that some type might not have been found equally comic yet standing less questionably for all that the war means to a democracy that goes forth to fight. ... The book before us shows how much Captain Bairnsfather has in him. His jokes are spontaneous, and, when he tries, they fit the drawings perfectly. He has, moreover, firmness and a power to charm when he pleases.”
“Here we have an army officer who invariably depicts his men (to whom his book is dedicated) as the very type which the army is anxious to suppress. ... It is not with Captain Bairnsfather’s humour that we quarrel, for his situations are invariably amusing. It is because he standardizes—almost idealizes—a degraded type of face.”
BAKER, HARRY TORSEY.Contemporary short story; a practical manual. $1.25 Heath 808.3 17-1356
“In the course of six chapters the author outlines in a lively manner the essentials of the American short story from both the editor’s and the reader’s point of view, drawing largely for his material upon his own personal editorial experience. ... ‘This volume,’ he says, ‘accordingly aims to teach promiscuous young authors, whether in or out of college, how to write stories that shall be marketable as well as artistic. It attempts to state succinctly, and as clearly as may be, some fundamental principles of short-story writing. ... Each chapter is followed by a series of suggestive questions for beginners in fiction, and at the end of his book are printed lists of American fiction magazines, books on the short story, and titles of representative short stories by English and American writers.’”—Boston Transcript