“Half a dozen young people, three girls and three young men, all of them great friends and all but one pledged never to marry, decide to adopt a child and bring it up on the co-operative plan. A little girl of ten, Eleanor Hamlin, an orphan from Cape Cod, is chosen as the subject of this experiment, and the first twelve chapters tell of her experiences with her six volunteer parents, each of whom lives in a different way and has different ideas from any of the rest. Eleanor spends two months with first one and then another, until she has stayed with all six; they teach her a good deal, and to them she is a liberal education.”—N Y Times
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
“Will attract the favorable attention of those who want an old-fashioned story about new-fashioned people. It is old-fashioned in this day of typewriter-made fiction because it is full of common sense and good workmanship. There is more than an amusing plot, there are real ideas in it, as well as flesh and blood and brain characters.”
“It is a bright little story and the cooperative parents are nicely sketched.”
KELLOGG, MRS CHARLOTTE.Women of Belgium; turning tragedy to triumph. il*$1 (3c) Funk 940.91 17-12252
An account of relief work in Belgium, with special reference to what the Belgium women have been doing for themselves and their countrymen. Mrs Kellogg went to Belgium in July, 1916, as the one woman member of the Commission for Belgian relief. Herbert Hoover, on behalf of the Commission, says “We offer her little book as our, and Mrs Kellogg’s, tribute in admiration of them [Belgian women] and the inspiration which they have contributed to this whole organization.” All profits from the sale of the volume go to the relief work.
“A wonderful story of courage and heroism as splendid as any of the battlefield or trench.”
“There are many angles of vision, of course, from which one may consider the conditions in Belgium, and Mrs Kellogg has elected to put her emphasis, not upon the source of the Belgian calamity, but rather upon the spiritual reaction of the women to the set of circumstances imposed upon them.”
“Her tale is moving to a degree. She has given to the world, in her description of the accomplishments of the 55,000 volunteer relief-workers, a remarkable picture of splendid courage and of the noble service of true human brotherhood and sisterhood.”
“Mrs Kellogg’s restraint gives her book convincing value as a document.” E. S. S.
“The simplicity with which she writes makes the wonderful story of the devotion, the unstinted service, the utter self-abnegation with which many thousands of Belgian women are giving themselves completely to this work stand out all the more grandly.”
KELLOGG, LOUISE PHELPS, ed. Early narratives of the Northwest, 1634-1669. (Original narratives of early American history)*$3 (2c) Scribner 973.2 17-6235
The author has brought together a group of the original narratives of the early French explorers of the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi. These narratives, as she says, are “full of the charm of brave deeds, of heroic endurance, of abiding enthusiasms, and of famous achievements.” Among them are records of the adventures and explorations of Nicolet, Radisson, Allouez, Marquette, Jolliet, La Salle and Tonty, and Duluth. Three facsimiles of old maps illustrate the volume.
“All of the narratives thus brought together are elsewhere printed, but not all are readily available, nor are all English versions complete or trustworthy. The Tonty memoir, here given in full, should prove useful to students of a wider field than that to which this volume is specially devoted. For all of the journals, Miss Kellogg’s abundant annotation is helpful. The clearly-penned introduction to each narrative not merely summarizes it, but informs the student of what printing it has already had, either in French or English, and makes plain the editor’s choice of text. Not the least interesting feature of the work is a facsimile of a contemporary map drawn to illustrate Marquette’s discoveries. The volume as a whole bespeaks scholarly care.”
“Although not by any means the most important of the series, it is in many respects the most interesting. The narrations of the early Frenchmen who traversed the Old Northwest possess a charm that will always appeal to the student of history.”
“It is a great convenience both to the historical student and to the general reader to have these materials arranged in a single volume.”
KELLOGG, VERNON LYMAN, and TAYLOR, ALONZO ENGLEBERT.Food problem.*$1.25 (2½c) Macmillan 613.2 17-29573
The two authors are members of the United States food administration and the book has an introduction by Herbert Hoover. Part 1, devoted to The problem and the solution, has chapters on: The food situation of the western allies and the United States; Food administration; How England, France and Italy are controlling and saving food; Food control in Germany, and its lessons. Part 2, The technology of food use, has chapters on: The physiology of nutrition; The sociology of nutrition [two chapters]; Grain and alcohol. In conclusion there is a brief chapter on Patriotism and food.
“Their volume is so replete with facts and cogent, lucid reasoning that it is indispensable to all who write on this problem for newspapers and magazines. Particularly instructive, psychologically as well as economically, are the results of a study of conditions in Germany made in these pages.”
“The present admirably clear book will make the patriotic reader rather painfully conscious of the enormous difficulties in our food situation.”
“The book is specially remarkable because of its comprehensiveness, the amount of space it covers in its two hundred-odd pages, and for the clarity of its discussion.”
“The second section of the book gives a popular exposition of the most widely adopted modern theory of nutrition such as every speaker and writer on food conservation should carefully study to guard him from pitfalls. Altogether, this section is full of new and revised judgments even for those, not specialists, who may claim a general acquaintance with the subject. The only item in the detailed recommendations to which the reviewer finds it difficult to assent is the advice to those of means to subsist as far as possible upon the ‘rare, expensive goods, delicacies, if you please,’ in order to release more of the cheaper foods for the poorer classes and for export.” Bruno Lasker
KELLY, RUSSELL ANTHONY.Kelly of the Foreign legion. il*$1 (4½c) Kennerley 940.91 17-28641
“The first seven chapters of this book are letters received from Russell A. Kelly, age 21, volunteer in theLégion étrangère. The letters, many of which were published in the New York Evening Sun, were sent to his parents in New York and have been retained in exactly their original form except for the omission of strictly personal matters.” (Preface) The letters date from November 25, 1914 to June 15, 1915. After the engagement around Souchez on June 16 their writer was officially recorded as “missing.” Their helpfulness lies in their naturalness in the recording of daily happenings. The last chapter of the book gives an interesting history of the Foreign legion, dating its existence back to the fifth century under Clovis.
“One could wish nothing better for our boys ‘over there,’ and on the way, than that their records may be as honorable as that of ‘Kelly of the Foreign legion.’”
“The book differs from many others of its kind in an apparent absence of emotion in the performance of a hated but inevitable task.”
“That he enjoyed the experience is manifest in spite of his repeated assertions that war is asinine and his ridicule of the theory that war is grand. It is an interesting human document.”
“Kelly makes the soldier’s life stand out vividly in these letters. The book is a good side light on the war.”
KELSEY, CARL.[2]Physical basis of society.*$2 (2c) Appleton 304 17-274
For descriptive note see Annual for 1916.
“Two things especially are worth noting about this book. One is the great mass of data which has been assembled. ... The second important feature of the book is that it symbolizes very markedly some of the newer tendencies in the development of sociology.” L. L. Bernard
“The defects, as far as there are any, are essentially those which are related to the use of the survey method. The extensive character of the facts which are given would seem to justify more personal induction than one finds in the book. A few inaccuracies occur. ... A splendid and original service has been performed by Professor Kelsey in selecting, bringing together, organizing, and presenting in one volume such a fund of concrete material upon the physical bases of social progress. Students undertaking sociological studies, and the busy reader alike, will find the book of increasing usefulness.” E. S. Bogardus
“From the writings of the specialists on geography, natural history, biology, ethnography and criminal anthropology, he has gleaned, arranged and intelligently interpreted experiments and observations not easily accessible to the student. The style is clear and interesting, the treatment concrete and summary, the attitude objective and the spirit impartial. The author shows open-mindedness and sound judgment, and, in dealing with controverted matters, takes pains to give the evidence on both sides.” E. A. R.
“A work that widely read would do much toward bridging the gap between the older generation and the new.”
“Dr Kelsey gives us little more than a compilation of the best thought of authorities on the subjects he discusses. If Dr Kelsey has anything original to tell us, it is only the most assiduous reader who will be able to find it. His two most original chapters are those wherein he discusses ‘Social institutions’ and ‘The nature of progress.’” Harry Salpeter
“The book gives all appearances of having been too hastily written, and thus furnishes grounds for the criticism that the work of sociologists is superficial. This is all the more deplorable because the general plan and logic of arrangement of the book are excellent.” F. S. Chapin
Reviewed by Graham Taylor
KEMMERER, EDWIN WALTER.Modern currency reforms. diags*$2.40 Macmillan 332 16-25102
“Beginning with the Indian monetary reform of 1893 five important currency adjustments have been consummated. The other four comprise those perfected in the Philippines, Porto Rico, the Straits Settlements, and Mexico—although some may doubt the efficacy of that of the last-named country. Professor Kemmerer has assembled data of these five reforms covering the conditions which preceded them, the causes, the plan of readjustment, and the results, presenting it in a volume of unusual value and interest to students of finance.” (Boston Transcript) “Professor Kemmerer was financial adviser to the Philippine government, and during that service drafted the currency legislation for the Straits Settlements. He had especial opportunities for information regarding the establishment of a new standard of value in Porto Rico.” (N Y Times)
“Barring the title, the book is quite satisfactory, from table of contents to index, both inclusive. ... No man, surely, is better fitted than Professor Kemmerer to write such an account. The author himself made so much of the history here chronicled that his book must have for every reader an unusual quality of finality. ... Is not adapted to use as a textbook for American college classes.” G: R. Wicker
“Professor Kemmerer needs no introduction to students of money and credit. His contributions in this field have been numerous and of a uniformly high order. He and Professor Irving Fisher are generally recognized as the two foremost exponents in the United States of the modern form of the ‘quantity theory’ of money value.” E. E. Agger
“Every day enhances the value of this work. ... It is safe to say that attempts at currency reform will play no small part in the finance of the coming years, and the laboratory experiences which Professor Kemmerer here describes will be of inestimable value to the world. To be sure, these experiences are related to fluctuating silver moneys, whereas the great problems of the future will relate to depreciated paper currencies. Yet a depreciated currency is a depreciated currency, whether it be metal or paper.”
“No one wishing to be abreast in the state of the art and science can afford to be ignorant of these object lessons of how prices, taxes, wages, and contracts of indebtedness are affected by such reforms.”
KENNEDY, CHARLES RANN.Rib of the man; a play of the new world in five acts, scene individable, setting forth the story of an afternoon in the fulness of days. il*$1.30 Harper 822 17-8757
The theme of Mr Kennedy’s play is the coming of a new day in which a new relation will be established between men and women and in which there will be no war. “If we depend upon war to end war, we are lost indeed,” says Diana Brand, “No! War will end by the advent of something mightier than itself! It is here, now! At the door!” The scene is an island in the Ægean, the time, toward the end of the European war. Scene and action are arranged to correspond somewhat with the situation in the Garden of Eden.
“With all these elements which would seem to remove it far from any sense of reality, the dramatist does the seemingly impossible, and gives us actual people, doing real things in a natural way.”
“Part of the dialog is witty; once or twice the plot of the play proper begins to sound very interesting. As for Diana, she is a very real and very wonderful woman, and deserves a better vehicle for her power, beauty and humor.”
“It will be caviare to the general and a stumbling block to some of his stanchest admirers. To the cynical and skeptical it will appear the work of a rhapsodical sentimentalist and visionary. Only those in sympathy with his sturdy apostolic faith will recognize the inspiring spirituality of his main themes, and even they will regret that high ideals, so eloquently and forcibly expressed, should be blurred by much that is extravagant or intemperate.” J. R. Towse
“Had Mr Kennedy not enlisted the aid of symbolism that simplicity of his program might perhaps have been quarreled with, but he envelopes the issues in such allegorical vagueness that realistic standards are inapplicable.”
“The fervor, humanitarian aspiration, glorious conception of a spirit-free world, loyalty to true art, occasionally beautiful turn of phrase and daring presentation do not rescue this play from frequent triviality and occasional overwhelming dullness. ... It will leave most readers merely indifferent.” Frank Macdonald
“A vein of satire runs through it, for Mr Kennedy delights in satire, and the character study is delicately done. Of action the play has little; it moves in the realm of thought.”
“His people, save for his superman and superwoman with their conception of the new world, are all more or less caricatures, illustrative of present-day types. Indeed the superman and superwoman themselves are tremendously overdrawn, as they must perhaps be in an allegorical play, yet drawn for all that with force and feeling. They express radical doctrines. They utter lines that are ultra-modern, occasionally blasphemous—a compound of Wells and Shaw—and yet it is impossible to escape the lofty thought that animated the poet-dramatist in writing. ... The situations possess true dramatic forcefulness and the lines many times rise to genuine poetry.”
KENT, CHARLES FOSTER.Social teachings of the prophets and Jesus.*$1.50 Scribner 220 17-12971
“The discovery that the great prophets and founders of Judaism and Christianity were above all else social teachers and reformers is rapidly revolutionising the study of the Bible,” says the author. “The Hebrew prophets and Jesus speak to us to-day more directly and convincingly than they did even to their contemporaries, for we are far more keenly alive to the importance of the social problems which they were seeking to solve. To appreciate fully the social principles which they laid down it is necessary first to become acquainted with the personality of each of these prophets and with the immediate political and social conditions with which they were dealing. Studied in the light of their historical background, these teachings can then be readily interpreted into universal terms and used as a solvent for the social problems of today.” In this paragraph both the purpose and method of Professor Kent’s book are summed up. It is divided into four parts, treating of: The social ideals of the pre-exilic prophets; The social ideals of the exilic and post-exilic prophets and sages; The social ideals of Jesus; The social ideals of Jesus’ followers. There is a five-page bibliography.
“Dr Kent’s conception of Jesus is well known from his earlier works, and reappears here with still sharper emphasis on the ‘social service’ aspects. ... The objections to this point of view hardly need recapitulating. All this is in no way meant to say that Dr Kent has not written very much of very great value. The weakness is a weakness often to be found in writings of the ‘social service’ school—a desire to obtain results too directly, a constant implication that the biblical teachers spoke with modern problems in modern phrasing ever before their minds. Good method requires that we determine the content of such teaching in the light of its own day. The appendix contains an excellent bibliography, an elaborate list of subjects for investigation and discussion, and a brief classified index of biblical passages.” B. S. Easton
“The book will not solve all present-day social problems by the teachings of the Bible. It is not intended to do this. It is meant primarily to be a source book; and when used as such it will be found to be a most excellent one.” F. W. C.
“It is not so much his social principles that are objectionable, which are one sided rather than false, but his implicit rejection of supernatural religion without which those principles have little force. Traditional Christianity is the most tremendous assertion ever made by man. It is worse than futile to hold, as does this writer, that it matters little or nothing whether it is true or not. That is the one thing that really does matter.”
“Will be of much assistance to Christian preachers and teachers.”
“This is the work of a man saturated with the broader subject which includes that of the book. Those who are wondering what to teach advanced classes in a church school will find a good course in this college textbook.” L: A. Walker
“Dr Kent, who is Woolsey professor of Biblical literature in Yale university, is well known to Bible students for his work in religious history and modern criticism. ... Dr Kent is in the main a conservative as regards social theory, but he seeks merely to arrange the social utterances and expand them as nearly as possible in accordance with their original meaning. The book is carefully compiled, and is a valuable and timely contribution to the Christian interpretation of modern social problems.”
KERFOOT, JOHN BARRETT.How to read.*$1.25 (2½c) Houghton 028 16-22768
For descriptive note see Annual for 1916.
“This is a most suggestive book. It should lead many to realize the mental indigestion from which they suffer, and help them to order their reading so as to make it useful.”
“Mr Kerfoot is the literary critic of Life; and he has brought into his essay that journal’s distinctive tone: the brilliant and piquant passing into the flippant, and occasionally degenerating into the slangy. But the principles for which he argues are old friends of psychology, applied to reading. ... The principles upon which Mr Kerfoot dwells are by no means new in themselves, but they may well be new to many. The author’s method is certainly novel.”
“There may have been a more fascinating exposition written in some language, at some time, on some subject, than Mr Kerfoot’s book; but one is permitted to doubt it.”
“It is all interesting, but we wish he had made some of his statements with more directness and fewer explanations.”
“It is not a humorous book, but it sparkles from the first page at frequent intervals clear to 297. Going to such a school is delightfully rewarding if one will not expect the teacher to do it all. Reaction to the Kerfoot stimulus is not difficult, but it must be seriously experienced, not too much at once, if this book is to be a veritable ‘open sesame’ to literature.”
KERNAHAN, COULSON.In good company.*$1.50 (2c) Lane 920 17-15319
A volume of personal reminiscences of distinguished men. Five of the papers that compose the contents deal with Theodore Watts-Dunton. The other papers are: A. C. Swinburne; Lord Roberts; When Stephen Phillips read; Edward Whymper as I knew him; Oscar Wilde; S. J. Stone, the hymn-writer.
“A miscellany of excellent personalia, somewhat inflated in manner but intimate in its revelations of the inner world of literary London.” E. F. E.
“Mr Kernahan’s book, like all good company, is stimulating and provocative. It is too often dull; it is marred by mysterious hints at things the author might tell an he would, and by a very wearisome and embarrassing—an almost servile—self-depreciation. And yet the glimpses that it affords of such ever-interesting figures as Swinburne, Watts-Dunton, Oscar Wilde, and the mountaineer and scientist, Edward Whymper, who are the subjects of the best of the sketches, are amazingly lifelike.”
“The Wilde essay has some things that had better have been left unsaid.”
“Mr Kernahan, in his pictures of his friends, reveals his own stature—a man big enough to forget his own importance in a study and appreciation of his friends and fellow craftsmen.”
“This collection of ‘personal recollections’ superficially resembles but essentially differs from the abundant chirping books and articles about the celebrities of the day. It differs from them in containing a number of deliberately executed literary portraits, composed and finished with a clear consciousness that portrait painting is a fine art with a technique beyond the reaches of the cheerful chatterbox.”
“In his circle Mr Kernahan moves with appropriate kindliness and dignity and attentiveness. Of his three graces the best is undoubtedly the last. He has a fine faculty for remembering and recording what people actually said, or what sounds actual.” B. H.
“He pays a fine tribute to Lord Roberts, in whose campaign for national service he took part. Like every one else who came into contact with that great man, Mr Kernahan was profoundly impressed with his courtesy, his patience, and his abounding energy.”
“One of the most interesting because least familiar sketches in Mr Kernahan’s book is that of S. J. Stone, the hymn writer, author of ‘The church’s one foundation.’”
“We have enjoyed Mr Kernahan’s book so much that we find ourselves asking what the reason can be. ... He succeeds very singularly in making us feel that to all these men life was a rich and remarkable affair. ... The average person is chiefly struck by the eccentricities of the great; Mr Kernahan, on the otherhand, bears witness to the fullness, sincerity, and passion with which great men live compared with lesser men.”
KERR, SOPHIE.Blue envelope. il*$1.35 (2c) Doubleday 17-5983
When she is nineteen, Leslie Brennan learns that she must earn her own living. It had been her father’s wish, her guardian informs her, that she adopt some gainful occupation and support herself for two years. The transition from a well-established social position in a small city to a business college and boarding house existence in New York is a sudden one but Leslie adapts herself to it. She finds a position with a red-haired, irascible chemist, and it is when her employer sends her to Washington with an important formula intended for the War office that exciting events begin for Leslie. It is thru them that she proves her mettle, learning at the same time how affairs stand between her and the red-haired chemist.
“Light, good for reading aloud, and has made a good ‘movie.’ Appeared in Woman’s Home Companion.”
“The story is told with vivacity and skill. A considerable fault is the not infrequently reviewed recital of happenings for the benefit of persons in the story not as well informed as the readers of the book.”
“There is a delightful vein of humor throughout the tale, and, while the pictures of difficulties encountered by working girls are vivid and serious, the story is quickly diverted to a more romantic and improbable course.”
KERRUISH, JESSIE DOUGLAS.Miss Haroun Al-Raschid.*$1.50 (1c) Doran 17-13954
“Rathia Jerningham, heroine and narrator of the tale, has led a very unusual kind of life. Her mother, Rathia Khan, of Abasside descent, having died when she was but a baby, her father married a courageous English lady who went with him on all his expeditions. It was often very dangerous, for Sir Horne Jerningham was a really great Assyriologist; as his daughter grew up, she shared his work and became herself an expert. But before this Lady Jerningham the second had also died, several years had been spent in England, and Rathia had a year in society before she returned to Asiatic Turkey, leaving her half-sister, Evelyn, and two brothers to be educated in England. The novel begins with the coming of this half-sister to Constantinople, whence she insists upon accompanying her father and Rathia to their home in Mosul. Through Kurdistan and Mesopotamia the story takes us into Armenian villages, among the Chaldean Christians, and into the hold of a Kurdish mountain chief. ... There is a love story interwoven with it all. ... The period is the early nineties, when Victoria was still on the throne of England, and the Armenian massacres were brewing.”—N Y Times
“The author apparently knows well the life of which she writes, for her novel contains an abundance of illuminating and interesting detail.”
“This novel is a little confusing and difficult to follow in its hurry of events, but much may be forgiven for the sake of the vivid picture of Mesopotamia given us by the author. The part of the book which deals with Assyriological excavations in the Land of the two rivers furnishes most timely reading, and incidentally affords much detailed information as to the conditions under which our troops are fighting in that theatre of war.”
“An exceedingly well-told tale, full of color, excitement, and solid information. The last named is so smoothly merged with the element of fiction, however, that it never transcends the imaginative atmosphere surrounding the narrative.”
“Miss Kerruish’s story has won the first prize in her publishers’ thousand-guinea novel competition, and both the authoress and her judges are to be congratulated on a decision with which her readers will have good reason to agree.”
KESTER, PAUL.His own country.*$1.50 (1c) Bobbs 17-17972
“The plot of ‘His own country’ centres around the personality of Julius Cæsar Brent, whose blood is but one-eighth black. While still a boy he goes to Montreal, becomes in time a physician, marries twice, in each case a white woman. He has three children, a son and two daughters. In middle age the call of his native Virginia rings loud in his ears, and having acquired a competence, he purchases an old estate by correspondence and without revealing his identity as a former slave boy who once dwelt in a cabin in the very district of tidewater Virginia to which he returns. ... He is denied all social recognition. Against the appeal of his wife, he decides to remain, subjecting her and his children to a degrading humiliation even greater than his own. The months and the years pass. He becomes a national figure, lectures far and wide on the race question, heads a great movement to make the negroes a permanent political and financial power, and finally brings upon himself and two of his children the doom of death. A thousand and one details of his association with his fellow Virginians of both races add to the length and substance of the story, and numerous plots and counterplots in it increase its persistent sensationalism.”—Boston Transcript
“The book is long, rather unpleasant, and will have a limited appeal.”
“The hand of the playwright betrays itself in the series of dramatic or melodramatic episodes upon which the story hinges. ... As a tract this book, prophesying as it does a great struggle to the death between the black race and the white, may do more harm than good; as a story, with all its touches of realism, it amounts to a skilful melodramatic contrivance on a great scale.” H. W. Boynton
“His facts run away with him, and his imagination plays havoc with them. ... His story becomes a veritable chaos of ill-constructed incidents. It is the wildest sort of sensation. ... Its pictorial quality is unquestioned, its creation of both black and white character is remarkable in its truth to life, it contains many incidents strong in their realism, its dialogue abounds in shrewd human touches, but the story as a whole falls far short of reaching the dignity of its theme and of achieving the sincerity of the novelist’s purpose.” E. F. E.
“As a novel, the story is interesting; as a psychological study and as a thought-provoking introduction to more serious consideration of the future of the colored race in America, it deserves attention. To offset the prolixity and occasional stiffness there is a sincere and wholesome study of conditions and atmosphere that cannot fail to impress the reader.”
“We are all thinking first of the war. But we must not forget the problems of democracy facing us at home, and no one of these is more important than the problem of right and justice in our relations with the colored people. ... The story does not offer any solution for the race problem but it does present the tragic situation fairly and humanly.”
“Fully and strongly as the case for ‘the nigger’ is put by Brent in speech, it is all belied by Brent in action. He can go so far and no farther towards greatness, fails always to meet the supreme tests. ... This theory of his essential inferiority by reason of the ‘black drop’ in him emerges as the dubitable idea underlying this elaborate and, on the whole, melodramatic narrative.”
“Dr Brent is not a tragic figure, nor one that wins the reader’s sympathies. He is not even convincing. The whole story reads much as if Mr Kester meant it to be a warning of the dangers of negro progress.”
“With very considerable talent, and with more than average knowledge of his subjectmatter, he has written a strange and wonderful melodrama, at times verging on power, at times so crude as to be scarcely tolerable.”
“So far as it discusses race problems it would be a better book if the author showed evidence of the slightest knowledge about the effort made by Booker Washington, Hampton and Tuskegee, and their friends, North and South, black and white, to make a good man and a good citizen out of the negro. He seems to have the idea that the friends of the negro are chiefly occupied in advocating miscegenation and negro supremacy.”
“Mr Kester is neither academic nor melodramatic. The ethics of the question are presented without weakening the dramatic and emotional elements inherent in the tale. It is a very long, but at no point, tedious book. ... which makes a deep impression on the reader.”
KETCHAM, EDWARD AUGUSTUS.Fire insurance. $2.50 E: A: Ketcham, Madison, Wis. 368 16-11610
“The author has been for ten years an examiner in a state insurance department and his purpose in writing this book is stated to be ‘to place in convenient form the essential elements relating to the fire insurance business ... for the student.’ The following chapters occupy 218 of the 301 pages and constitute the important part of the book: History of fire insurance (two chapters), Rating of risks, Fire insurance accounting, and Examination of a fire insurance company.”—Am Econ R
“The book is almost wholly descriptive, with much detail in parts of it. The style is good, but there is a lack of unity and logical arrangement, each chapter reading as if it had been prepared as a paper or as an address. There is little discussion of the fundamental principles underlying fire insurance or of the concrete problems which arise in the conduct of the business. ... No index is provided; and this in a book lacking unity, and almost wholly descriptive in character, becomes a more than ordinarily serious defect.” W: F. Gephart
KETTLE, THOMAS MICHAEL.Poems and parodies.*$1 Stokes 821 (Eng ed 17-17077)
The author, late professor of Irish economics in the National university of Ireland, was killed in France in 1916. This little book of his poems has an appreciative foreword by William Dawson. The poems themselves are grouped as: Personal; Early poems; Translations; Miscellaneous; Political; War poems.
“They are the reflection of a mind quick and free, rich in subtle ironies and tendernesses, but most frequently—since it was the mind of an Irish patriot—full of a brilliant indignation.”
“Those who are interested in following the careers of the men who have made the big concern of their lives the political emancipation of Ireland will no doubt be interested in this volume, but it has no particular claim to one’s attention as straight poetry or parody though it is all quite clever.”
“The charm and the finest quality of Kettle’s poems come out in the dreaming. He fought the Germans for a dream, as he had fought England for a dream; and however uncomfortable it may be for the politicians and rulers of the Empire when this power is expended upon politics, this heroic dreaming is the source of all good Irish literature.”
KETTLE, THOMAS MICHAEL.[2]Ways of war; with a memoir by his wife, Mary S. Kettle.*$2.75 Scribner 940.91 (Eng ed 17-28917)
“Barrister-at-law, poet, literary stylist, patriotic Irishman, eloquent speaker, member of Parliament, journalist, professor of economics, and finally a soldier, giving up his life at Ginchy on Sept. 9, 1916, ‘at the post of honour, leading his men in a victorious charge,’ Kettle was a man of the loftiest ideals. ... The memoir by his wife is followed by a sequence of chapters which constitute the apologia of an Irish man of letters as to why he felt called upon to offer up his life in the war for the freedom of the world. The first section of the book, ‘Why Ireland fought,’ includes chapters upon ‘The bullying of Serbia’ and ‘The crime against Belgium.’ In the early days of the war Kettle was in Brussels, and had opportunities of visiting Termonde, Malines, and other places. A striking chapter of the book deals with the soldier-priests of France.”—Ath
“The book will help to fill a small and solitary shelf in the big library this world-conflict is creating; for it is rich in two of literature’s prime essentials, a lucid and beautiful style, and a fervor in expression that is well-nigh that of the mystic who is a zealot.” S. A.
“The volume is composed of various papers, all bearing the marks of a rare style and scholarship. There are pungent and vivid pages on the scenes he witnessed in Belgium, and on various phases of life at the front, a scathing study of Bismarck, Nietzsche, and Treitschke in ‘The gospel of the devil,’ while the ‘Rhapsody on rats’ is typical of Kettle’s racy wit.”
“Read this book that you may receive comfort and confidence from the unquenchable spirit of the new France. Read the memoir, written simply and movingly by Kettle’s widow, that you may come to love the man for what he was and the country which begat him.”
“The book contains some brilliant little sketches of life at the front.”
KILMER, JOYCE., ed.Literature in the making.*$1.40 (3c) Harper 810.4 17-13416
Mr Kilmer reports interviews with a number of contemporary men and women of letters. He says in explanation of his purpose: “How eagerly would we read an interview with Francis Bacon on the question of the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, or an interview with Oliver Goldsmith in which he gave his real opinion of Dr Johnson, Garrick, and Boswell! A century or so from now, some of the writers who in this book talk to the world may be the objects of curiosity as great.” Among the subjects discussed with various authors are: War stops literature—William Dean Howells; The joys of the poor—Kathleen Norris; National prosperity and art—Booth Tarkington; Romanticism and American humor—Montague Glass; Commercializing the sex instinct—Robert Herrick; Literaturein the colleges—John Erskine; The new spirit in poetry—Amy Lowell. The interviews were written up first for the New York Times.
“Much sense and much nonsense will be found, as might be expected, in these interviews.” E. F. E.
“A book of fascinating quality and wide appeal.”
“The titles of the interviews really promise more than the interviewer accomplished but some interesting things are said with point and humor.”
Reviewed by G: B. Donlin
“A genial, human, gratifying, and readable book. ... A brief biographical paragraph in the table of contents after each author’s name gives an outline of his life and work.”
“The interviews by Joyce Kilmer which have appeared in the magazine section of the Sunday New York Times may be said to have outlived their usefulness. The papers in collected form are a veritable hodge-podge. ... It must not be inferred that Mr Kilmer ‘writes down,’ that he is inept, or that he distorts; he is too good a newspaper man and too honest a writer for that. The papers were not intended to have permanent form, and that is why they appear to such disadvantage in it.”
KILMER, JOYCE.Main street, and other poems.*$1 Doran 811 17-28181
Mr Kilmer is now an officer in America’s new army, and six of the twenty-eight poems in this volume are about the war. “The white ships and the red” deals with the Lusitania, while “The cathedral of Rheims” is from the French of Émile Verhaeren. Nearly half of the remaining poems deal with religious subjects.