“A pretty and measurably conventional romance.”
“The little story is told in rather a disjointed way, and lacks the charm and the suggestion of homelike, everyday life which made certain of Mrs Richmond’s books such pleasant reading. The whole thing seems forced. ... However, it has some agreeable touches.”
RICHMOND, GRACE LOUISE (SMITH) (MRS NELSON GUERNSEY RICHMOND).Red Pepper’s patients; with an account of Anne Linton’s case in particular.il*$1.35 (2c) Doubleday 17-24403
The masterful, quick-tempered, kindly, red-headed doctor who figured in “Red Pepper Burns” and “Mrs Red Pepper” has become the most popular physician and surgeon in a small suburban town. Some of the patients whose stories are interwoven with his are his old friend, Gardner Coolidge, a starving young Hungarian violinist; Anne Linton, the book-agent with hair to match “Red” Pepper’s own, who has a bad attack of typhoid fever, and about whom clings a mystery; Jordan King, badly hurt in an automobile accident; and “Red’s” old enemy, Dr Van Horn.
“As usual, Mrs Richmond makes all her people handsome and interesting and angelic, such paragons of beauty and behavior that they seem hardly to belong in the naughty world that most of us know.”
“Romantic and likely to be popular.” Marguerite Wilkinson
“This is the third volume Mrs Richmond has devoted to the far-reaching services of the auburn-haired doctor, but as yet the tone of artificiality which so often appears when a single character is made the center of a series of stories is conspicuously absent.”
RICHMOND, GRACE LOUISE (SMITH) (MRS NELSON GUERNSEY RICHMOND).Whistling mother.il*50c (11½c) Doubleday 17-22303
“Mrs Richmond puts her little tale into the mouth of a boy who has enlisted in the army. He tells in engaging boyish style just what happened when, having decided he must go, he left college, where he was in his junior year, and went home for twenty-four hours to say good-bye. ... And through all the trial of the visit home and the last good-by his mother was ‘a thorough sport.’ ... He was in the habit of calling her his ‘whistling mother’ because she could whistle ‘like a blackbird,’ and they had a whistling call for each other of which the music and the words form the heading of the little story.”—N Y Times
“Exceedingly well written.” J. W.
“Artistically, it is the best thing Mrs Richmond has ever done.”
RICHMOND, MARY ELLEN.Social diagnosis.*$2 Russell Sage foundation 361 17-13224
This book for social workers is a study of methods of case work as applied by various charity organization societies. The author’s aim has been to make some advance toward a professional standard. She believes also thatthe methods devised in social work, as here set forth, will be of value in other fields, such as medicine, education and industry. Part 1 deals with Social evidence, with chapters on: Beginnings, The nature and uses of social evidence, Testimonial evidence, etc. Part 2 takes up The processes leading to diagnosis, considering The first interview, The family group, Outside sources, etc. Part 3 is devoted to Variations in the processes, with chapters given to certain special cases, the blind, the feebleminded, etc. Special tables have been prepared for the volume, and there is a bibliography and a good index.
“The questionnaires [part 3] represent the experiences of many experts and will probably set the standard for a great deal of such work in the future.” W. H. Heck
“It is the only comprehensive textbook on social work in relation to the individual or family ever written. The book dignifies all social work and marks its first steps on the road to becoming a profession.” Amelia Sears
“It should form the basis for intelligent study even in small communities and will be invaluable to the individual engaged in case work.”
“Some workers would be spurred to greater efforts from reading this book. Others, and particularly beginners, might throw up their hands in despair. There is no case worker who could not be helped from the reading of this book. He will realize how far he still has to travel.” W: B. Bailey
“A valuable contribution to social literature. It is rich with suggestions but is too long drawn out. It could have been just as ‘meaty’ with fewer pages and certainly it would have been more readable and more read.” G. F.
“She has produced a book remarkable for the accuracy of the methods outlined for the social worker and for the detail and thoroughness with which she has gone into the subject of measurements in one phase of life,—the pathology of social adjustment.”
“The author is remarkably successful in holding a proper balance between generalization and example. But it is a thousand pities that the most valuable of these examples are tucked away in pages of type so small that a considerable body of readers will probably skip them altogether. ... Miss Richmond has felt it best to exclude a study of the client’s religious life. She has felt that one could adequately diagnose and serve the needs of a human being without knowing just what his religion or irreligion means to him. In my opinion this is an impossible attempt.” R: C. Cabot
“With this book social welfare work has ceased to be a mere body of traditional practices and is in a way to become a science. Although it was written primarily for a special class of social workers, ‘Social diagnosis’ will interest every student of the social sciences who believes that sociology is ever to be anything more than a philosophy of history or an appanage of social psychology.” R. E. Park
“No social worker who hopes to rise in the profession ought to be without this book; and no student of applied sociology should fail to pore over it.”
“Miss Richmond has given authoritative and exhaustive treatment to a vexed problem in its fundamental aspects.”
“The book is nothing if not concrete, and in the preliminary fields to which it has confined itself it is exceedingly comprehensive.”
“This is an admirable book, which deserves to be read and pondered far outside of the circle for which it was immediately intended.” Roscoe Pound
“Every social worker in towns of 10,000 should either own it or be able to consult it in the library.”
RIDDELL, WALTER ALEXANDER.Rise of ecclesiastical control in Quebec. (Columbia univ. studies in history, economics and public law) pa*$1.75 Longmans 277.1 16-22304
“The book tells how the economic, ethnic, and political conditions which have prevailed in the province of Quebec led up to and made possible the strategic position of the Roman Catholic church in Canada. The aim of the author, to use his own words, is ‘to present sufficient source material to afford the general reader a basis upon which to form an adequate judgment of the sociological and historical origins in Quebec which have been responsible in a large part for the present racial situation in Canada as a whole ... and to show their relation to the growth of the church itself.’”—J Pol Econ
“The author has examined the marriage registers in more than eighteen hundred cases and finds that the colonists, so far as these records give indication, came with a fair degree of evenness from all over France. This is data which the historian of the future cannot afford to overlook. The real service of the book is performed in the last two chapters, where there is more attention to history and less to sociology. The early rise of church influence in the affairs of New France and its later decline during the first half of the eighteenth century are traced out with care and clearness. The position of the church when Quebec passed into British hands ... all these things are explained fully and with judicious temper. While Dr Riddell has used good materials, the tendency to be inaccurate in little things is a serious blemish.” W: B. Munro
“This book throws much light on the present socio-political situation in Canada. The barrier that has grown up between the English- and French-speaking people, largely through the instrumentality of the church, promises to be one of the most serious control problems which the dominion government has to face.”
“Even in a field adorned by the brilliant pens of Parkman and Fiske the work before us must take a very high place from its sound scholarship, abundant references to authorities, and good writing. ... Dr Riddell’s book can never be ignored by any serious student of the history of this continent.” I. C. Hannah
RIDDELL, WILLIAM RENWICK.Constitution of Canada in its history and practical working. (Yale lectures on the responsibilities of citizenship)*$1.25 Yale univ. press 342 17-15183
“An interesting study of the constitution of Canada in its historical and practical aspects. ... A full comparison of the Canadian constitution with that of the United States shows very clearly the differences between the two systems. The book is written with as little technical language as the nature of the study permits.” (Ontario Library Review) “Each of the four lectures has a full and valuable appendix, containing much material which the requirements of the lecture platform apparently prevented from being included in the body of the work.” (Springf’d Republican)
“So far as his own land is concerned the author is on sure ground; but his knowledge ofconstitutional law as administered by the courts in this country is by no means of the same high order.” W: B. Munro
“The brevity of the book is such that only an outline of historical development is possible. Furthermore, the subject is treated with a nonlegal audience always in mind. The student of history and government, as well as the student of law, will gain little from the volume. Generalizations are indulged in with much freedom, and some are open to question.”
“Justice Riddell is to be thanked for his painstaking and highly simplified summary of Canada’s history and present government. It begins where the majority of educated Americans will find a beginning desirable—at very elementary facts. Students of jurisprudence will be particularly interested in Justice Riddell’s views on the decision of the Supreme court in the Dartmouth college case, which are quoted in full in an appendix.”
RIDER, BERTHA CARR.Greek house; its history and development from the Neolithic period to the Hellenistic age. il*$3.25 Putnam 722 16-24977
“The excavations of recent years in Crete, Asia Minor, Delos and other islands, and the Greek mainland, have brought to light a wealth of material for the study of house-planning in Greece both prehistoric and historic. Unfortunately, this material is least abundant for the period when we most of all desire it—the classical epoch of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. On the other hand, it is remarkably copious in the period which begins with the dawn of civilization in the Aegean, and ends on the threshold of the Homeric age. ... Miss Rider has endeavoured to embrace within her grasp the whole of this material, and to bridge the central gap by means of literary evidence.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“The chapter on Homeric palaces is of especial value to the student, with its discussion of Homeric terms and phrases.”
“The principal value of the book lies not in its advocacy of a theory, but in the excellent summary which it presents of a large special literature, mostly scattered in periodicals. ... Miss Rider shows the specialist’s fondness for technical terms, which may occasionally prove an obstacle to the non-professional reader. On the whole, however, the book is extremely well written. ... We must register one protest—against the price of the book, which seems excessive for a volume of this size, illustrated only with line cuts.”
“By no possibility can it ever be a popular book; it is far too specialized and technical in its scope and treatment. ... There can be no question about the research and scholarship that have gone to its making. ... Miss Rider is doubtless writing for fellow archæologists as learned as herself—for the already converted, to whom her unadorned statements of fact will seem more excellent than any charm of style.”
“Her presentation of the facts is clear and accurate, and the plans with which her text is illustrated are well chosen, nothing essential being omitted.”
RIDGE, WILLIAM PETT.Madame Prince.*$1.35 (1½c) Doran 16-24204
Madame Prince is a dressmaker in a London suburb. She is a capable and level-headed business woman and the mother of four children. We are told something of her early struggles, but these are past when the story opens. The three girls are old enough to act as their mother’s assistants in the shop and Richard, the boy, is finishing school. The cares that meet Madame Prince as the story progresses are those of the mother of grown-up children, and they spring largely from the unconscious selfishness of youth. But there are joys that compensate.
“A superfluity of detail is noticeable, and there are some trivial incidents; but a bright tone predominates, and much of the book is true to life. The novel is amusing, and a good example of the author’s style.”
“Quiet as the humor of the book is, it is also compelling.”
“Mme Prince wins and holds the reader’s sympathy, holds it from the first page to the last. ... The story is related with a good deal of humor and charm. ... It is life as a very, very great number of people—the majority, perhaps—know it, which is portrayed so deftly and so veraciously in these pages.”
“We see Madame Prince clearly, she is the mother woman existing only for her children. The children exist only for her, but in another sense; we do not see them clearly, because the author confines himself to describing such actions of theirs as throw light on the mother’s character, without confining himself further to such as are mutually consistent. ... Mr Pett Ridge has another bait in addition to his story, and that is his gift for writing crisp dialogue.”
RIHBANY, ABRAHAM MITRIE.[2]Militant America and Jesus Christ.*65c (8c) Houghton 172.4 17-31542
The author of “The Syrian Christ” has written this book to show that Jesus Christ would not have been a non-resistant in the present war. He says, “I do not so know Christ. I do not believe the New Testament presents such a hopelessly and helplessly neutral Christ.” Such pacific sentiments as “Blessed are the peacemakers” were the utterances of normal times and are no more to be taken as an expression of an attitude toward war than were the pacific sermons and baccalaureate addresses common in America a decade ago. These later authors have now been put to a test which Jesus was never called on to face, since no such crisis as the present arose in his day. The author feels that after an examination of other New Testament passages, “even a pacifist must see that while our gospel is a message of peace, it is not a message of helpless submission to rapacious aggressors.”
“A vigorous answer to those pacifists who seek to entrench themselves behind the teachings of Jesus.”
“It bears eloquent evidence of the value of much in little. Mr Rihbany’s book is eloquent and convincing. If converts are possible, it will make them.” E. F. E.
“In his eagerness to make our divine Saviour the more human and the more understandable to others, Mr Rihbany appears to have thrown up a lot of Syrian dust through which it is not always easy to see clearly the Christ who is divine. His interpretation of Christ lacks authority; the Christ he pictures for his readers lacks authority. And of what use to soldiers or to anyone else, to men seeking the light, is a Christ who lacks authority, who cannot lead or command.”
“One of the most convincing answers that has been made to the belief that Jesus was a pacifist.”
RILEY, JAMES WHITCOMB.Name of Old Glory. il*$1.25 Bobbs 811 17-17072
A collection of James Whitcomb Riley’s poems of patriotism, with an appreciation of the poet by Booth Tarkington. Only three of the twenty selections are in the familiar Indiana dialect—“The old man and Jim,” “Thoughts on the late war,” and “Decoration day on the place.”
RILEY, W.Way of the winepress.*$1.50 (2c) Putnam
“This is the story of the firm of Messrs Middleton, weavers, in a Yorkshire town and in a village of the Dales; but, though the vicissitudes of the business are vividly told as from a personal experience, yet the core of the chronicle is in the inner vicissitudes of David Middleton and those who by fate or his own impulse have been gathered round him. Chief amongst these are the story teller, Louis, and the slum girl, Victoria Smith, both of whom are characters well worth studying, and both form contrasts not only to each other but to the stern impetuosity of David. ... David, tender and even quixotic at heart, accepts every reverse as a direct discipline from God. ... ‘The way of the winepress’ must be passed unaided and alone, and no human counsel of affection dare soften it. Contrasted with this disciple of the wrath of God is the unorthodox disciple of the love of God, Truman, who opens the doors of learning to Louis and Victoria, and in the end opens the door of love to David.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) The action takes place more than thirty years ago.
“‘The way of the winepress is the way of loving sacrifice,’ and it becomes, if the author is to be believed, a way of joy for all who tread it.”
“The background of the book, wherein a number of simple and some very delightful characters have their place, is full of reflection. The plot is small and at times almost oddly simple, but there is an unstrained human interest in the characters and their setting which gives to the whole some of that gentle dignity which the writer has found amongst the ample hills and woods and streams where his scenes are laid.”
RINDER, FRANK, comp. Royal Scottish academy, 1826-1916. il*42s Maclehose & sons, Glasgow 708.2
“The chief part of this massive volume consists of a complete list of works by Raeburn and by members (honorary included) and associates of the Royal Scottish academy exhibited between the years 1808 and 1916 at the exhibitions held by the institutions which preceded the academy and those of the academy itself from 1827 onwards, and in this list a special note is made of any works that have passed into public galleries. The list has been compiled under the direction of Mr Frank Rinder with the sanction of the president and council, and a narrative filling nearly a hundred pages, tracing the origin and development of the academy, is contributed by Mr W. D. McKay, one of its principal officers.” (Int Studio) Mr Rinder also contributes an essay.
“If Mr Rinder’s task does not evoke from the living all the gratitude which its accomplishment deserves, he may be sure that in years to come there will always be some who in profiting by his labours will not fail to acknowledge their indebtedness.”
“It is a pity that this useful book could not have been produced in a more convenient form. A quarto of nearly 500 pages is difficult to handle.”
RINEHART, MRS MARY (ROBERTS).Altar of freedom.*50c (12c) Houghton 355.7 17-14707
An appeal to mothers to sacrifice their sons willingly on “the altar of freedom.” “Personal service,” the author says, “is not rolling bandages for the other woman’s son.”
“She has herself been to the war countries and was allowed to see far more than most Americans have seen of what war has meant. ... She writes emphatically of the necessity of proper training for the soldier.”
“Mary Roberts Rinehart writes whereof she knows when in ‘The altar of freedom’ she tells the mothers of this land why and how their sons must enter this war. One of her sons has gone, the other two will go if, when they are old enough, they are needed. She has seen the war close at hand and her unflinching words are born not of theory and imagination, but of facts.”
“The book is very direct, very quiet, very moving. And it is simple and patriotic and brave.”
“Article in the Saturday Evening Post April 21, but more usable in this little book form.”
RINEHART, MRS MARY (ROBERTS).Bab: a sub-deb.il*$1.40 (2c) Doran 17-14952
Bab, the sub-debutante, tells her own story, describing most touchingly the sorrows of a girl whose family still looks on her as a child. Coming home for her Christmas holidays, Bab, who is seventeen, realizes the tragic position of a younger sister. She is snubbed and patronized, until, moved by desperation and a desire to make herself seem of importance, she invents a lover and a love affair, with violets addressed to herself and a photograph of an unknown young man to give a touch of reality to the fiction. The results are all that she desires, and more. This is the first episode of the book. There are five in all, including extracts from Bab’s diary.
“Some have appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. Read a little at a time.”
“An attempt to picture in a humorous manner the young American girl of the same age as Mr Tarkington’s hero. But it is not nearly so simple, so subtle or so true to life as its prototype, and the pleasant domestic charm of ‘Seventeen’ is absent from its pages. ... You feel the lack of a pleasant attitude.” J. F. S.
“The stilted English in which she expresses her ‘lofty thoughts’ while amusing lends a touch of artificiality to the stories.”
“This is a book that mothers and fathers of girls ought to read, for it will help to enlighten them. Also, they, and all others, will find it the most clever and amusing of all Mrs Rinehart’s books.”
“A lively and often humorous, but artificial picture of the adolescent school girl.”
RINEHART, MRS MARY (ROBERTS).Long live the king!il*$1.50 (1c) Houghton 17-24814
This romantic tale reminds the reader both of Hope’s “Prisoner of Zenda” and of Mrs Burnett’s “Lost prince.” Prince Ferdinand William Otto, the ten year old hero, is a dear little boy, whose three great desires when he becomes king are that he may have a dog, that his cousin Hedwig may marry the man she loves, and that he, Ferdinand William Otto, may be “a good king like Abraham Lincoln.”The love interest in the story is supplied by the Princess Hedwig, Lieutenant Nikky Larisch, and Karl, king of Karnia. A mild revolutionary flavor is given by the “Committee of ten.”
“Exciting, wholesome and will be popular.”
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
“The essential touch which makes the charm of the story lies in the character of the little Otto.” D. L. M.
“There has never been a better picture of the cruel contrast between court life and the heart of youth than this tale of a prince in a petty European monarchy who tries to extract a little boyish fun from a choking atmosphere of foreign intrigue, Nihilist conspiracy, ceremonious etiquet and cold-blooded statecraft. ... All of the characters of the book are real human beings.”
“It may be described as a Zenda story ‘with a difference.’ It lacks the usual conquering Anglo-Saxon, his nearest representative being a small American boy who inadvertently gives a happy turn to affairs at the critical moment. Here is a tale of humor as well as sentiment: towards the end it imposes a somewhat larger burden upon the good-humored credulity of the reader than the traffic need be called upon to bear.”
“The tale is highly romantic, it possesses a complicated plot, there is much and constant action, and if there is little humor, its loss is made good by much sentiment. ... The author has written a story that is different from any of the others of that sort, and has made it plausible, interesting, and appealing. The figure of the Crown Prince is particularly appealing in its wistfulness, its lovableness, and its real manliness.”
“Otto is a natural and friendly chap even if he is a prince, and his adventures with his American boy acquaintance are jolly.”
“An engaging but rather pathetic story.”
RIVES, HALLIE ERMINIE (MRS POST WHEELER).Long lane’s turning.il*$1.50 (1½c) Dodd 17-22567
Henry Sevier, the brilliant young southern lawyer, knew that his besetting sin was his dependence upon stimulants at times of crisis. Only one other knew this—Cameron Craig, the head of the liquor trust and Sevier’s rival for the hand of Echo Allen. Craig had another weapon—an old letter, the publication of which could bring scandal upon the Allen family. How Craig trades upon these two secrets and enmeshes Sevier in a net, how Sevier wins out both from his own weakness and the ruthlessness of his rival, is told in a series of vivid chapters.
“Published in the Red Book under title, ‘The heart of a man.’”
“Drink is the theme underlying the somewhat artificial structure of ‘The long lane’s turning.’ It is a story of romantic contrivance based upon the working out of a preconceived idea. ... Yet whatever flimsiness may be discerned in the plot there is none in the style.” H. W. Boynton
“A melodramatic temperance novel, so far as its style and characterization are concerned. ... The story moves at a brisk pace, and is entertaining.”
“Melodrama with a vengeance.”
ROBBINS, EDWARD J., comp. Universal drill manual. il*$1 Sherwood co. 355 17-16555
A complete résumé of the really necessary and important points which should be the common knowledge of every private, compiled from strictly official sources by a captain in the Major officers reserve corps, with illustrations from the same sources.
ROBERTSON, ERIC SUTHERLAND.Bible’s prose epic of Eve and her sons.*$1.75 (3½c) Putnam 222 (Eng ed A17-80)
The author has made a study of those parts of Genesis attributed to the authorship of “J.” The opening of Genesis is the work of “P.” J’s narrative breaks in with the fourth verse of the second chapter. Mr Robertson says, “The writer known as J has a narrower outlook on the cosmos than P, but it is a more human, a more sunny outlook. This writer or editor is, like Herodotus, a gatherer of legends at old shrines.” The text of the “J” narrative is given in an appendix.
“What we know is that the book tells us what would have been Mr Robertson’s mind if he himself had written the ‘J’ document. And that is enough to make the book like a charming work of fiction.” G. LaP.
“On reading the book, one gets the impression that all this paraphernalia of scholarship is merely a passport to recommend the book to modern readers, while the author’s real interest lies in moralizing and exegesis of the time-honored variety which allows one to deduce anything under the sun from no matter what text.”
“There is no doubt that the book is very good reading, partly, we think, because Mr Robertson writes so very well. The story as he tells it reminds us very much of the Bible, partly again because of the identity of the names.”
“Mr Robertson brings to bear on his task an alert and unconventional intelligence.”
“Literary criticism should welcome in this book an original, gallant, and successful attempt to turn to the account of poetry some of the results of scholarship in a field where it has been said science was destroying everything spiritual and inspiring. ... Mr Robertson brings out the inherent romance and the inherent primitive theology in these old tales. We get from his book a sense of geographical values which readers of the Bible too seldom feel. ... He has based his speculations upon sound scholarship.” G: M. Harper
ROBERTSON, LIONEL, and O’DONNELL, THOMAS CLAY.Healthful house. il $2 Good health pub. co. 640 17-16902
“The authors of this book have not confined themselves to details of hygiene and sanitation, as these terms are commonly understood. They have attempted rather to emphasize ‘the health importance of beautiful colors and beautiful lines and masses, beautiful wall and floor coverings, equally with fresh air and light—in short, to present to the reader a house that is healthful because it satisfies the demands of hygienic and esthetic sense alike.’”—R of Rs
“The discussion of interior fitments is sane and informative.”
ROBINSON, CYRIL EDWARD.Days of Alkibiades; with a foreword by Prof. C. W. Oman. il*$1.50 Longmans 913.38 (Eng ed 17-26255)
“One of the criticisms most frequently made on the teaching of Greek and Latin is that it teaches the pupil to deal very cleverly with words, but tells him nothing about things. ... Mr Robinson’s book represents an attempt—and a surprisingly successful attempt—to provide the modern schoolboy and general reader with the background of things, for lack of which classical teaching in the past has so often been dull and dead. ... The result is a series of sketches of the various phases of Greek life which are not only lightly and charmingly written, but also embody on innumerable points of detail the result of the latest researches.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“The book is an entertaining mixture of known facts and acknowledged romance.”
“The book reads like a romance. A boy will learn more from these sketches, as the author modestly styles them, than from many a ponderous, old-fashioned textbook.”
“Gilds the pill of Greek antiquities more attractively, than does Bekker’s ‘Charikles’ or the ‘Alkibiades’ of C. H. Bromely. Out of actual or possible scenes from the life of Alcibiades he has composed a sequence of readable chapters that covers the chief topics of Athenian private and public life strung on a thread of story that adds interest without distracting the reader’s attention. ... Many of the descriptions are admirably clear and vivid. ... The illustrations based on the author’s sketches, whatever their artistic merits, are well adapted to the purpose of visualizing and schematizing precisely the information that the reader needs and the student may remember. They cannot, of course, take the place of the two-hundred and sixty-three authentic reproductions from the monuments in Professor Gulick’s ‘Greek antiquities.’ The book is one of the best companions to the reading of the Greek classics that we have met in many a day. It makes Greek life ‘seem real.’”
“He is sound in scholarship; he bases his scenes on actual events and anecdotes. ... His style is agreeable, but a little elaborate.”
“Our only serious criticism of his book is that, while unconventional in his scheme, he is almost too conscientious in the use of his material.”
“Mr Robinson is not only a very careful and well-read scholar, but he has made the rare imaginative effort to realize his knowledge; and he has laid the reader under an additional obligation by being modest enough not to flaunt it. ... A volume like this is a challenge, not a ‘work of reference.’ The value of the book is enhanced by some skilful pieces of translation and a series of drawings.”
ROBINSON, EDGAR EUGENE, and WEST, VICTOR J.[2]Foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1917.*$1.75 Macmillan 327.73 17-31893
The aim of the authors has been “to present an account of the development of the policy followed by Woodrow Wilson in dealing with the foreign relations of the United States during the years 1913-1917, and to provide in convenient form the more important statements of the president and his secretaries of state in announcing and carrying forward that policy.” The authors point to a fuller understanding of the president’s policy to be gained from an examination of the earlier period of his administration and furnish ample excerpts from his speeches and messages. The three divisions of the subject treated are: The development of the policy; More important events in American foreign relations; More important utterances of the administration.
“The treatment of the subject is both comprehensive and detailed. It is also clearly reasoned and judicially presented. For the book is in no sense the work of uncritical, enthusiastic admiration. ... The book must be especially recommended to those casual readers and superficial thinkers who allow themselves to be unduly influenced by headlines in newspapers and the flippant comment of ‘the man in the street.’ The work deserves every praise, also, for the clear succinct logical manner in which its analytical discussion is carried on. Every help is afforded the reader for intelligent investigation of the subject.”
“The work is an admirable piece of bookmaking, and its reference value is great.”
ROBINSON, EDWARD LEVI.1816-1916; one hundred years of savings banking. 50c Am. bankers’ assn. 332 17-13470
“This little volume, comprising twenty-nine pages of text and sixty pages of bibliography, has been prepared under the direction of the Savings bank section of the American bankers’ association. The text is written by Mr Edward L. Robinson, vice-president of a savings bank in Baltimore, and the bibliography prepared by Marian A. Glenn, librarian of the American bankers’ association [and Ina Clement]. ... The topics covered by the bibliography are as follows: Thrift and savings; Individual thrift; Domestic thrift; Evidences of thriftlessness; Economics of thrift; Industrial thrift; Business thrift; Banking thrift; National thrift; International thrift; Thrift agencies; Nation-wide thrift movement inaugurated to celebrate centennial anniversary of savings banks in America.”—J Pol Econ
“The volume is chiefly valuable for the extensive bibliography.”
“This is a timely little book. The bibliography, covering the whole subject of thrift and a number of allied topics, is not altogether successful.” B. L.
ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON.Merlin.*$1.25 Macmillan 811 17-8576
Mr Robinson has retold the story of Arthur, Merlin and Vivian, altering the outlines of the traditional tale very little, but reading new meanings into the situation. He has chosen for the time of his narrative, the eve of the downfall of Arthur’s court. Merlin, after the ten years spent with Vivian in Broceliande, has returned with the purpose of again lending Arthur his counsel, but in thinking out the problem he comes to see that he must turn back without seeing the king, leaving him to the fate he has prepared for himself.
“His people are as strongly individualized and speak as naturally as though their author had been putting them into a novel instead of into a narrative poem of mediæval setting. This brings their problems much closer to the reader. ... Mr Robinson has always deservedly been placed by critics among the few of our really great poets. He is a very complete master of his art.” D. L. M.
“On the whole, in spite of Mr Robinson’s literary power, we prefer the terrors of ‘mid-Victorian morality’ and the symbolism of the ‘Idylls of the king.’”
“One must feel it was a malicious elf that suggested Arthurian romance as a subject for Mr Robinson’s pen. The subject is new to him,but his method and manner are unchanged. Subject and method do not harmonize. Upon a style which has shaped itself in the delineation of modern types of mind—complex, eccentric, intensely individualized—is laid the task of depicting certain very unmodern characters which throughout a long and august tradition have been treated as simple, conventional, naïve. The result, in less skilful hands, would have been burlesque. ... Mr Robinson resembles his own Merlin, who has much to say about what he has seen and known without giving much notion of what it is, and who seems to rely upon our remembrance that he has been impressive in other scenes.” Odell Shepard
“It is pleasant to take up Merlin and read as one reads mere poetry. ... Mr Robinson in ‘Merlin’ has plainly felt his work in Tennyson’s quality. It is clear at once that the style, and often the quality, are very like Tennyson’s. In ‘Merlin’ there is more smoothness, more expected proportions, leisure and fluency [than in much of Mr Robinson’s] previous work and less of that effect of rather trenchant rhythm, of brusque acumen and passionate shrewdness, and of a kind of analytical excitement for the mind, that have made a distinguishing quality in his poetry.” S. Y.
“It is not a great poem, though its failure is not intrinsic in its subject. The subject simply betrays more openly than a modern one certain defects in the author. He has neither the singing magic of the old school nor the swift, egotistic vitality of the new. He is a respectable poet, but he is heavy.”
“The state of the modern world is subtly symbolized in this fine poem, which has amazing beauty of texture and ventures a new philosophy.”
“Of all our modern writers, Mr Robinson most resembles Meredith, never in his technique or in his choice of subjects, but in the solidity of his work and in the sense of intellectual force. Much of our contemporary verse is painfully thin; here the foundations are dug deep. ... Each volume of Mr Robinson’s deepens the conviction that he is our foremost American poet.” E: B. Reed
ROBINSON, HARRY PERRY.Turning point; the battle of the Somme. il*$1.50 (1½c) Dodd 940.91 17-18381
“This account of the battle of the Somme is written by the official correspondent of the London Times. In preparing it he has used his dispatches to his paper as a basis, and so has made a consecutive narrative of the operations of the British troops in that action. He explains that he has made only incidental reference to the co-operation of the French troops because he was not sufficiently familiar with their share of the battle to write about it. His narrative covers the four and a half months from the 1st of July, 1916, to the middle of November.”—N Y Times