“This unpretentious book of reminiscences is truly delightful. His pictures of famous personalities have a fine flavor. Among them are Gladstone, Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth of Austria, Emperor Francis Joseph, Empress Eugenie, and Queen Victoria.”
“Canon Shearme’s ‘recollections’ make very pleasant reading. The book is not long and it is quite light. We are all often asked to recommend such a book in these days, and the name is well worth remembering. His point of view is ... that of a scholar and a kindly, leisurely gentleman, who can talk to us very pleasantly about all sorts and conditions of people.”
“All through the volume there is the atmosphere of the Anglican church; and much of the author’s recollections has to do with church life and clerical haps and mishaps.”
SHELFORD, ROBERT WALTER CAMPBELL.Naturalist in Borneo. il*$5 Dutton 508.491 (Eng ed 17-15691)
“The author, who died in 1912, was curator of the Sarawak museum before settling down at the Oxford museum as assistant-curator under the guidance of Professor Poulton, who edits his book. It is apparent from the wide scope of his work, ranging from men and mammals to beetles, and from the vividness and exactitude of his observations, that Mr Shelford was a born naturalist, and would have done great things had he lived. As it is, the book is curiously interesting. ... The author’s numerous photographs are excellent.”—Spec
“Beside the interest of the manuscript, is that of the silent witness it bears to an unconquerable spirit which no physical ill could discourage, no amount of required personal effort could daunt. Unprefaced by the brief biography Dr Poulton of Oxford wrote, one would still feel the impulse of a rarely strong and appealing personality.” F. B.
“Significant as are the facts gleaned from the author’s study of thevertebrataof Borneo, it is in the field of entomology that he exhibits most strikingly the specialized worker’s intimate knowledge.”
“A fascinating and unusual book, the work of a well-trained and thoughtful observer in many fields of science. He was specially keen on the problems of mimicry as a means of survival in the struggle for existence, and throughout the book, before we come to the special chapter on the subject, he supplies a host of observations on the odd habits of the world of life from animals to plants. Occasionally the dry and polysyllabic style of science may be a little technical for the reader, but the book as a whole is well and clearly written and free from the clumsiness which is too common among scientific writers. It is also well illustrated.”
“At Kuching, in Sarawak, the Rajah Brooke established a museum which, it was wisely provided, was to be confined to Bornean subjects. With this limitation it has grown within its field to be an institution of great value; and it was as curator of the museum for some seven years that Mr Shelford gained his acquaintance with Bornean natural history. But the chief value of this book lies in its suggestiveness and biological speculations.”
SHELTON, WILLIAM HENRY.Jumel mansion; being a full history of the house on Harlem Heights built by Roger Morris before the revolution; together with some account of its more notable occupants. il*$10 Houghton 974.7 17-216
“At the extreme upper end of Manhattan island, on a plot of land bounded by 160th and 162d streets, stands a historic building. It is known variously as the Roger Morris house, the Jumel mansion, and Washington’s headquarters, and it has been standing as a fine example of Georgian architecture since 1763. ... The records of this famous house and estate, with many biographical and personal records of its residents and others associated in one way or another with its history, have been gathered by Mr Shelton, its curator, and with many illustrations and facsimile plates and documents they have been made into a large quarto volume, stamped on the cover with a representation of the mansion. The book is appropriately entitled ‘The Jumel mansion,’ for that is its most popular designation and it is to the Jumels, and especially to Mme Jumel that it owes, in spite of its historical revolutionary significance, the greater part of its distinction.”—Boston Transcript
“By far the most striking historical contribution is the author’s excursus on the great fire of September, 1776, and the connection therein of Nathan Hale. The reviewer has observed no slips of consequence. One may question the proportion of space allotted to the law-suits and to the unsavory chronicles of the Bowen family.
The volume is well illustrated, and is a creditable and attractive addition to the list of works on famous American houses.” E. K. Alden
“Throughout the book forms a valuable contribution to American topographical history.” E. F. E.
“The author has examined a countless number of manuscripts, letters, and records, and as a result has produced a thorough history of one of the best known historical landmarks of Manhattan.”
“A large and showy book on a trivial subject.”
“His book is charmingly written and most attractively presented.”
SHEPARD, ODELL.[2]Lonely flute.*$1.25 Houghton 811 17-11821
“Only rarely does a poet succeed in catching the inner significance of his own verse and crystallizing that impression into a title for his book of verses. This is what in a high degree Mr Shepard has done in his little volume of carefully selected poems. Most of Mr Shepard’s verse is quite plainly divided into what has to do with California and what with New England. The New England note is, however, by far the more potent. We should not need the hint given us by the poems upon Concord, to realize the influence upon him of Emerson.”—Boston Transcript
“The few dates scattered through the book convince us that these poems cover a number of years and are the chosen best of the poet’s output during these years. It is verse of high restraint, reflecting from first to last a lofty poetic ideal and a steadfast struggle toward the ideal.” D. L. M.
Reviewed by Conrad Aiken
“There are many beautiful things in ‘A lonely flute’—high imagination, rich color, noble emotion. Mr Shepard is particularly successful when he writes of nature.”
“A refined and tranquil volume, of wavering promise.” O. W. Firkins
SHEPARDSON, GEORGE DEFREES.Telephone apparatus; an introduction to the development and theory. il*$3 Appleton 654.6 17-4036
The author says that, while numerous books on telephony have been published, there is “a paucity of systematic, historical, and theoretical treatment.” It is to meet this deficiency that his book has been prepared. “The book presumes that the reader has a working knowledge of algebra, trigonometry, calculus and physics, including the laws governing direct and alternating currents.” Part 1 is devoted to Speech sounds, receivers, transmitters; part 2 to Signaling equipment; Part 3 to Sources of electromotive force and protection. Part 4 is given up to appendices devoted to the more advanced mathematical phases of the subject. The author is professor of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota.
“The wealth of references given to the technical literature in discussing the principles and modes of operation of telephone apparatus would justify the publication of this book without any regard to the matter contained in the text. The text is, moreover, well arranged and amply illustrated for the treatment of the subject.”
“Also reviewed in the American City, March, 1917.”
SHEPHERD, WILLIAM GUNN.Confessions of a war correspondent. il*$1 (3c) Harper 940.91 17-17737
Mr Shepherd, as reporter for the United press association, covered the fall of Antwerp, is credited with being the only newspaper correspondent who saw the first battle of Ypres, was with the Austrians at Przemysl, and has visited the British, German and Italian fronts. In this book, he does not describe battles, but gives us a picturesque narrative of a war correspondent’s daily life. In the chapter entitled “The forty-two-centimeter blue pencil,” he states the case for censorship. In the last chapter, There are worse things than slaughter, he tells of the “moral and mental disintegration that is caused by military service in individual cases.” Other interesting chapters are The free-lance and the faker and The psychology of retreats.
“What Mr Shepherd does in this readable book is to ‘open the stage door and welcome his readers to the “behind-the-scenes” of war reporting.’”
“Mr Shepherd’s story brings out well the three stages through which war correspondence has passed in the course of the present conflict, and he calls them the ‘free-lance days,’ the ‘dark ages,’ and the ‘stage of the new twentieth-century war correspondent.’ The book is an entertaining and apparently truthful account of a war reporter’s trials and triumphs.”
“Those who have read Richard Harding Davis’s last story ‘The deserter,’ will be keenly interested to find in one chapter an account of the incidents on which the story was based. One [chapter] of particular interest tells about the spy mania that permeates Europe.”
“A spirited narrative of experiences.” P. B.
SHEPPARD, ALFRED TRESIDDER.Quest Of Ledgar Dunstan.*$1.50 (1c) Appleton 17-21976
“This is the second volume in what may prove to be an extensive series about the same personage. In the earlier novel—‘The rise of Ledgar Dunstan’—we saw the boyhood of Dunstan, and followed him through the processes of growth and rebellion in the midst of a conventionally religious family. The present chronicle begins immediately after his marriage to Mary Beltinge of Beltinge. Dunstan, ‘of obscure middle-class origin, and a novelist whose name was just beginning to be known,’ ... lacks spine, effectiveness, precisely in the proportion that he does not lack a complacent self-sufficiency and a capacity for feeling, for suffering. It speedily becomes apparent to Mary that the marriage to Dunstan was a blunder, and in the course of their wedding trip in Brittany she coolly relinquishes him in favor of an American artist, one Lincoln, and virtually leaves the story. ... What concerns the novelist, thereafter, is to trace the progress of Dunstan’s despair, spiritual chastisement and final readjustment. ... For the really important business of the book, however, he introduces, and delineates at great length, an extraordinary character, a decayed genius who imagines himself the realization of the ancient idea of Anti-Christ.”—Boston Transcript
“Not the sort of novel to please vastly the casual story-reader. But obviously Mr Sheppard is not one of those novelists whose aimis popular success. He has achieved something finer and more difficult, for this book is an uncommonly subtle and well-sustained story of weak souls, and of the doctrines that brought one to destruction and the other to salvation.” F. I.
“The description of the insane asylum might be effective were it not so intolerably long; the same comment applies to the account of Ledgar’s night of horror in the old curiosity shop. ... Mr Sheppard is not without talent, but it is swamped by his verbosity.”
“Here is a remarkable novel, something quite outside the ordinary ruck of fiction, something different, distinctive, startling, thought-compelling, and cataclysmic. ... Mr Sheppard has evidently made a close study of various forms of mania, especially of religious mania, and his book is an impassioned plea for reform in our treatment of lunatics, which he asserts is the grossest scandal of our civilisation. ... We have had this kind of thing in fiction before, but never, perhaps, have we had so startling, so convincing, and so minute a study of the horror and ugliness of madhouse life.”
“An interesting and elaborate study of the personality of the hero.”
“If, in spite of many interesting passages, a book be devoid of beauty of diction, of force, of manners, proportion, and sobriety, can it be anything but a bad book? We are inclined to say that it cannot. But as, in exasperation, we pronounce this opinion, we find ourselves arrested by something. We recall the saying: ‘Who touches this book touches a man.’”
SHEPPARD, ALFRED TRESIDDER.Rise of Ledgar Dunstan.*$1.50 Appleton 16-22850
“This novel is of the type of J. D. Beresford’s ‘Early history of Jacob Stahl,’ following the life of its hero from boyhood to maturity. Ledgar Dunstan is a drifter, a somewhat spineless sort of person. Brought up very strictly by an austere Baptist father in a convention of ‘Thou shalt nots,’ he presently comes to London and finds himself without any code at all. He rejects that of his father and seems to lack sufficient energy and sufficient interest in living either to make or to adopt one for himself. Several persons leave him money, he is successful as a writer, and the book ends with a marriage into which he has slipped more because it was an easy and agreeable thing to do than for any other reason.”—N Y Times
“The book is ingenious and brilliant rather than sound and sincere.” H. W. Boynton
“A chaotic vehement mist of ideas hangs over the entire story. Mr Sheppard is so much addicted to thinking in ink that ‘The rise of Ledgar Dunstan’ comes near to striding the border that separates fiction from philosophy. ... When the author chooses to narrate, he can, and in a most telling manner. He has accuracy of touch and sympathy and insight. He has an experience which he must have gained from a varied life, a breadth of view which approaches the universal, and above all the saving grace of humor which prevents him taking himself with too deadly a seriousness. Thus ‘The rise of Ledgar Dunstan’ has a character and it has promise of a better sequel.” J. P. M.
“Provides a good deal of material for the student of social conditions and not much for the lover of novel reading. ... We have here another example of the ‘literature of revolt,’ in which, however, the author wrestles with the question of religion in a constructive or positive way.” E: E. Hale
“Frankly, it is a bit puzzling. Nevertheless, let us hope that the sequel may fulfil the promise of what seems to be the author’s first book. It is interesting and has merit.”
“His infancy, his boyhood, his younger manhood, are laid before us with that scrupulous (and ruthless) particularity which the ‘life’ novel prescribes. It is an admirable method, other things being equal—or rather, under one condition: that the human subject of our study shall be inherently worth our trouble. ... Ledgar Dunstan fails, in the present instalment of his story, to prove his worth for us.”
“Generally the reader has an irritating feeling that Ledgar Dunstan ought to be both real and interesting, and is neither. ... Could two-thirds of this book be removed, we would have a novel not unworthy of attention; it is in no way a cheap and tawdry book—but it is an amateurish one.”
“The author has just enough of ability in depicting character and in presenting incidents and lively talk to give hopes for his future as a novelist, but this volume is in itself about as bad as it can be as regards construction, development, and proportion.”
“Mr Sheppard understands the formulas fairly well, and we concede to him perceptions and sympathies which, as is the case with most novelists, far outstrip his faculty for presentation. What he entirely fails to realize is the nature of the art of fiction. There can be no such thing as a novel without a purpose. ... A torrent of prattle devastates the book, and, as for the cracking of jokes, we are goaded, ravaged, desolated by them.”
SHERMAN, STUART PRATT.Matthew Arnold; how to know him. il*$1.50 Bobbs 17-13963
One chapter is devoted to Matthew Arnold’s character and career, and the remainder of the book is then given up to a study of his work. “Matthew Arnold is a charming but not an altogether conciliatory writer,” says the author in beginning his first chapter. “If you disagree with him, he does not encourage you to believe that you may be in the right.” The literary study is divided into the following chapters: Poems of the personal life; Poems of the external world; Literary criticism; Education; Politics and society; Religion. The author is professor of English in the University of Illinois.
“A good volume for any small library needing a separate work.”
“Professor Sherman approaches his task with a complete understanding of his subject, and in his brief volume he has written an exceptionally able and comprehensive introduction to a study of the work and influence of Matthew Arnold.” E. F. E.
“An excellent appreciation of [Arnold’s] ability as poet and literary critic.”
“The reader will turn from the book with a distinct impression of Matthew Arnold as a person, and with a pretty clear concept of what he considered it necessary to believe regarding poetry, education, politics, and religion—if one would see life and see it whole. ... It is, however, an invitation to substitute knowledge about Arnold for acquaintance with him. ... I am not finding fault with the content, style, or spirit of the book. My criticism goes deeper, or else is beside the mark. I object to the general theory upon which the book is based; I attack Mr Sherman’s method.” M. C. Otto
“The author was braced by diligence both in the collecting of minor material and in the weaving of it into a predetermined disquisitive pattern to square with an inherently unsympatheticattitude toward the poet and essayist. But tho the verse quotations from Arnold are not always of the best, certain contributory information of real worth (as in ‘Literary criticism’) may, here and there, be culled from the 314 pages.”
“Usually books of the ‘how to know’ order consist of a mass of facts with directions for study but with little aid to real insight. This, however, provides a reader with a sound basis for both appreciation and criticism. This is the more effective because the biographical chapter at the beginning is a real introduction to the man himself.”
“He does not point out with the vividness of the here and now just how Matthew Arnold reconstructs, just how his message renews itself with each generation.” E. B.
“Mr Sherman has the gift of style. He says exactly what he wishes to say, without hurry, without circumlocution, without bungling. [He] does admirable justice to Arnold’s life as a record of noble and unselfish endeavor; the life of a man who preached everywhere the duty of perfecting our natures, moral, intellectual, aesthetic, social, and religious. The book may be heartily commended to those who wish to understand why Arnold is still an important influence in the world. Mr Sherman skilfully and judiciously expounds the very helpful idea that the interest and charm of Arnold’s essays lie far more in their extraordinary power to stimulate interest, curiosity, and the aesthetic sense, than in the correctness of his estimates. His best message, here as elsewhere, is moral and religious.” H: B. Hinckley
SHERMAN, STUART PRATT.[2]On contemporary literature.*$1.50 (2c) Holt 820.4 18-773
A collection of critical essays that have appeared in the Nation. The word contemporary is given a broad interpretation, admitting of the inclusion of Shakespeare. “Shakespeare is here,” says the author, “because I find him the most interesting and suggestive of living writers. His presence helps one to distinguish the values of his competitors. His humanism serves as a measure of the degrees of their naturalism.” Contents: The democracy of Mark Twain; The Utopian naturalism of H. G. Wells; The barbaric naturalism of Theodore Dreiser; The realism of Arnold Bennett; The aesthetic naturalism of George Moore; The skepticism of Anatole France; The exoticism of John Synge; The complacent Toryism of Alfred Austin; The aesthetic idealism of Henry James; The humanism of George Meredith; Shakespeare, our contemporary.
“Despite the limitations suggested by the titles, Professor Sherman gives a fairly complete view of each of his ten modern writers.” E. F. E.
“Mr Sherman really offers us many acute and many weighty pages; there is a subterranean stream of humor from whose half-hidden courses one may occasionally sip a gratefully saline draught; and his introduction, which is really the essence of the book, begins on a charming, captivating note, and rises toward the end, where the war enters, to a tone of noble gravity. Yet one finds a little too much deference, however cloaked, for our farther East, and an unwillingness to give recognition to the fact that this spinning world must change.” H: B. Fuller
“The essence of Mr Sherman’s criticism is American correctness, that bloodless correctness to which New England has given its wintry flavor. It is correctness rampant that makes Mr Sherman’s crest different from the ordinary heraldry; and the main delectation of his book is its conservative call to arms. Mr Sherman preaches a forlorn gospel when he begs us to cower behind the moral life of the race to peer at art.” F. H.
“We have said that Mr Sherman is thoughtful, but we do not stand sponsor for much of his thinking. Much of it is muddled, or is cast in such a mold that all sense of perspective is lost. We cannot escape the feeling that Mr Sherman as critic plays second fiddle to Mr Sherman as echo of literary and popular opinion.” F. J. K.
“Mr Sherman is a literary critic primarily, with the insight and the equipment, the disinterestedness and the sympathy with which the literary critic must needs be endowed if his work is to win respect; and yet, so closely is literature related to life that Mr Sherman, in dealing with three of the novelists of the moment, is compelled to be a moralist. ... In these three papers [on Wells and Dreiser and Moore] inspired by one purpose he rises above the criticism of literature to the criticism of life itself.” Brander Matthews
“It is precisely this uncompromising attitude that becomes so irritating to those of us who happen to look upon contemporary letters with a more open mind and a more indulgent spirit. Professor Sherman, with his invaluable background of classicism ... is a qualified and much needed preceptor of public aesthetics. But not content with this, he appoints himself custodian of the public morals. ... It would be ungracious not to mention in conclusion the almost flawless appreciation of Henry James.” F: T. Cooper
SHERWOOD, MARGARET POLLOCK.Familiar ways.*$1.25 (4c) Little 814 17-25113
Five of the fifteen essays in this volume appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, nine in Scribner’s Magazine, and one, “The comradeship of trees,” in the Vassar Alumnae Quarterly. “Our nearest,—and farthest,—neighbors” tells of the birds, and “The final packing” considers the luggage one may carry “through heaven’s gate.” Contents: The little house; Our Venetian lamp; House-cleaning; The vegetable self; The sabbatical year; It is well to be off with the old house before you are on with the new; Real estate; Our nearest,—and farthest,—neighbors; Plain country; Gardens, real and imagined; The comradeship of trees; Brother Fire; The threshold; Old trails; The final packing.
“Charmingly written, intimate essays.”
“Only here and there as we browse among the books of a season do we find one that has this exquisite quality about it—this intimate, revealing manner of changing the common experience into something of significance for us. To those who care only for the surfaces of literature, this book will also possess a charm in its delicate, effervescing humor.” D. L. M.
“No description can adequately indicate the charm and inspiration she puts into a few simple words. There are beauty and truth in her words, glorification of small duties, helps for the unavoidable burdens, and a spirit of comradeship and sympathy, for which we are all grateful.”
“A chapter is better than a book full of this placidly charming but too frequently unideaed prose. The reader flags in the presence of revery that seldom brightens to the vividness of dream, and of a breath of poetical feeling that will not rise to a dream.”
SHESTOV, LEON.Penultimate words, and other essays.*$1.25 (2½c) Luce, J: W. 891.7
Leon Shestov is a Russian critic and essayist. The essays in this volume are taken from his “Apotheosis of groundlessness” and “Beginnings and ends.” The longest essay is that on Tchekhov, which takes up 60 of the 225 pages. Contents: Anton Tchekhov; The gift of prophecy [study of Dostoevsky]; Penultimate words; The theory of knowledge.
“In his book, Shestov attacks many philosophers and authors, devoting articles of varying length to Hegel, Schopenhauer and others—a destructive criticism, for he gives us no discoverable positive philosophy of his own in the place of those destroyed.” Nellie Poorman
“Criticism with Shestov is not a hand-to-mouth business. He does not choose a subject and then begin to wonder what he can find to say about it. His criticism is philosophy expounded by means of a particular example, and rather hinted at than expounded. One feels that he has strong convictions, but is shy of proclaiming them.”
SHIPLEY, ARTHUR EVERETT.Studies in insect life, and other essays. il*$3.50 Dutton 504 (Eng ed SG17-225)
“Dr Shipley for many years has taken an active part in promoting, directing, and sharing in zoological investigations with an immediate economic bearing.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) Contents: Insects and war; The honey-bee; Bombus, the humble-bee; On certain differences between wasps and bees; The romance of the depths of the sea; Sea fisheries; Sir John Murray: a great oceanographer; Grouse disease; Zoology in the time of Shakespeare; The revival of science in the 17th century; Hate.
“Essays as instructive as they are pleasing. ... The author is not afraid to introduce a touch of humour.”
“Some of his sentences are remarkable for their entire lack of punctuation. Some of them are also extremely awkward, but on the whole it is lively reading and is a good book to put into the hands of a boy who likes the study of nature.”
“They are all so written as to be intelligible to the lay reader and they are of more than passing interest.”
“The title is two-thirds inappropriate, and the addresses as written are of unequal value. ... The first and last essays, entitled respectively ‘Insects and war’ and ‘Hate,’ are the most original and the best written.”
“It is Dr Shipley’s gift to write scientific essays artistically. ... He has humour and a light touch, and things are so interesting to himself that they become interesting to us. Not that we pretend to explain his style, which permits of luminous, dignified discourse on lice and fleas, as well as on fisheries and grouse.”
“The essay on ‘Hate’ is a discursive and rather superficial analysis of that emotion which makes good reading, but begins and ends nowhere in particular.”
“He winds up with an amusing essay on ‘Hate.’”
“Three essays on bees and wasps probably arose from Dr Shipley’s part in stimulating inquiry into the Isle of Wight bee disease.”
SHKLOVSKII, ISAAK VLADIMIROVICH (DIONEO, pseud.).In far north-east Siberia; tr. by L. Edwards and Z. Shklovsky. il*$3 Macmillan 915.7 17-3732
“The present volume is an exceptionally interesting contribution to our knowledge of Siberia. The author passed four years in the Kolyma region of the province of Yakutsk, and the result is a book containing a remarkable amount of information concerning the customs and mode of existence of the Yakuts, Chooktchi, Lamouts, and other natives of that depressing country, where life is a ceaseless struggle with cold, famine, and disease.”—Ath
“The book contains much interesting matter relative to the hut-life and manners of these little-known races; and there are light touches.”
“It corrects several prevalent errors of the anthropologists and ethnologists.”
“There are many illustrations of places, people, weapons, and native drawings, all of which add to the pleasure that any one must take in this volume, and the map of Yakutsk makes it easy to follow the text understandingly.”
“One of the most fascinating books of travel published for many a long day.” Bishop Frodsham
“It is a little-known book written by a Russian Jew who was apparently banished to the region described, and it was published about a quarter of a century ago. The author is a journalist who has won distinction by reporting affairs in England in the Russian press. ... ‘In far north-east Siberia’ should be studied by all students of Siberia and of ethnography generally. For it is unique in its details.”
SHOREY, PAUL.Assault on humanism. 60c Atlantic monthly 375 17-18361
These essays in defense of classical studies by Professor Shorey have been reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly to form the first volume in the series of “Atlantic monographs,” to be published by the Atlantic Monthly company.
“Nothing could be less urbane, less rational and precise, than this strident polemic. ... The Atlantic has done a disservice in stirring the dead bones of this controversy to rattle again. ... Even the radical will regret that the polemics of the classical tradition should go out in so tasteless a splutter as this first of the Atlantic monographs.” Randolph Bourne
“The main virtue of Professor Shorey’s method is the consummate skill with which he carries the warfare into the camp of the enemy. Any one familiar with his powers of irony and sarcasm need not be told that he sets forth the illogical procedure and dishonest assumptions of the present-day pedagogues in a way to cause inextinguishable laughter on the slopes of Parnassus.”
“A brilliant defense of the classics.”
“Prof. Paul Shorey upholds the standard of sound learning and literary culture—qualities which are in need of defenders in a land where the half-educated are at present more aggressive than the educated.”
SHOWERMAN, GRANT.Country child. il*$1.75 (2c) Century 17-28802
This book of sketches forms a companion volume to “A country chronicle,” published last year. The small boy, whose sensations and emotions the author is able to recreate so vividly thru a remarkable memory for little things, is younger in this book. In the beginning he is a little boy in dresses,—as you willremember, little boys used to wear dresses in those days. The first half of the book, “A country child,” is an account of those early years. The second part, “Barefoot boys,” describes school days and the beginning of boy friendships. Delightful bits of local color are provided in conversations with the friendly German hired-hand, who, a generation ago, was so important a feature of life in every Wisconsin farm home.
“Never have the sights and sounds, the tastes and smells and tactile sensations of the farm been more realistically presented than in this book.”
“Strong in charm and appeal. ... The reader in retrospect is led to write his own story in his mind, and so gets a double enjoyment out of the book.”
“The continuous use of the present tense grows pretty monotonous before the end of this second book; and by monotony the pictorial effect of the method is well-nigh lost.”
“Prof. Showerman seems to have reproduced a child’s mind with photographic accuracy, and the result is a success which is scientific but principally—as also ostensibly—from the literary standpoint.”
SHULER, MARJORIE.For rent—one pedestal. $1 (4c) National woman suffrage pub. 324.3 17-7811
In a series of letters to a friend, a young college woman describes her conversion to woman suffrage and her experiences as a suffrage worker. It all begins with her dismissal from her first position as a teacher for political reasons. Recognizing for the first time the relation between politics and woman’s work, she becomes an ardent worker for the cause, and the writes with spirit and humor of all the adventures that she meets as canvasser, street speaker, etc.
“Sometimes one has a faint suspicion that the story is a disguised text-book on how to make a suffrage speech, how to run mass meetings and street meetings, and convert farmers at fairs, and on methods of distributing literature and advertising the cause—the public biscuit-making incident, for instance. But the sugar-coating hides the pill quite successfully.”
SHURTER, EDWIN DU BOIS.How to debate.*$1.35 Harper 808.5 17-24074
“This book treats of the various ways of convincing and persuading men. While intended as a text-book for high schools and colleges, it is also adapted to the needs of the lawyer, the preacher, the teacher, the citizen: in short, to any one who is called upon—and who is not?—to urge the acceptance of his ideas upon a hearer, or to refute ideas offered in opposition thereto.” (Preface) The book is an outgrowth of the author’s former work, “Science and art of debate,” published in 1908. Contents: Introduction—The advantages of debate; The proposition; Analysis of the question; Proof; Evidence; Arguments—constructive; Argument—refutation; The brief; Persuasion; Methods in school and college debating. Questions for debate, a specimen debate, rules of parliamentary procedure, bibliographies, etc., are given in appendixes.
“An excellent treatise.”
“The bibliography is not up to date.”
“Fifteen years of training students in the University of Texas to play the game have enabled the author to produce a very practical book. It is superior to its predecessors in that the old classic illustrations are supplemented by many modern instances showing that the old shifts still lead to success. ... But there is no evidence that the author is aware how much his theories have been modified by modern investigations in modern individual or social psychology.” C. R.
SHURTER, EDWIN DUBOIS, ed.[2]Winning declamations and how to speak them. $1.25 Noble, L. A. 808.5 17-6669
This collection of selections in prose and verse has been prepared by the professor of public speaking in the University of Texas, who says, “Practically every selection in this volume has been tried out in class work and in public contests. ... The declamations are intended for training the public speaker, and not the dramatic reader or mere entertainer.” The book is divided into two parts: For intermediate and grammar grades; and For high schools and colleges. An introduction discusses the art of public speaking and each selection is prefaced by brief suggestions for the speaker.
SHUTE, HENRY AUGUSTUS.Youth Plupy; or, The lad with a downy chin. il*$1.35 (2c) Houghton 17-23759
Plupy has figured in “The real diary of a real boy”; “Real boys”; “Plupy, the ‘real boy,’”; and “Misadventures of three good boys.” Judge Shute’s dedication reads as follows: “This book, which contains a fairly veracious account of the love affairs of a long-legged, gawky, sensitive, bashful, absurd, and ridiculous youth, is dedicated, with a sincere fellow-feeling, to all such youths. I see them daily passing my office. Their coat-sleeves are all-too-short, the legs of their trousers all-too-brief, their wrists and ankles, in startling contrast to their abnormally thin shanks and arms, seem over-developed. They are opulent in white eyelashes, blushes, mobile Adam’s-apples, affection, and honesty. Their voices are—well, beyond description. God bless them all.”
“Capital reading—first-class for the fag-end of a weary day.”
“He is an entirely real boy and the various members of his family are real people.”
“If the book seems to have been written for boys, one reader’s guess is that it will get a more sympathetic reading from a large number of men of mature years who will grin with personal reminiscence as Judge Shute holds the mirror for them as well as for himself.”
SIDGWICK, CECILY (ULLMANN) (MRS ALFRED SIDGWICK).Salt of the earth.*$1.40 Watt 17-20666
Brenda Müller, the heroine, was of German parentage, but English training and sympathies. She visited her relatives in Germany several times, and some of them visited the Müllers in England. This ended in her marriage to her cousin, Lothar Erdmann, a typical Prussian officer, settled in Berlin. Brenda was unhappy among Lothar’s relatives and friends, who thought themselves the “salt of the earth,” and her husband proved unfaithful, but though she realized that she had made a mistake, she stood ready to pay the price. When the war broke out and Lothar was called to the colors, he forced Brenda to remain with his parents in Berlin, but later she followed him to Belgium, and eventually escaped to her parents in London. Lothar also went to London to direct Zeppelin raids, and was shot as a spy.
“The English goodness and the German badness are exaggerated, so that the story is timely but lacks reality.”
“The novel is clever and readable, but we think that the patriotic feelings of the author have tempted her to colour too highly the characters of certain Germans introduced in the book. The uncle, in particular, is quite preternaturally objectionable.”
“The careful reading of this illuminating story is especially recommended to those American altruists who smugly assert that they are not at war with the German people, but only with the German government.” F. B.
“A chronicle of hate for Prussianism, well thought out and presented.”
“Brenda is a real person, intelligent, long suffering, striving to keep on decent terms with her husband’s impossible family. ... The descriptions are well done and vivid, the various members of the Erdmann tribe cleverly sketched.”
“In spite of the opportunities for sensationalism which the material offers, Mrs Sidgwick has told her story in a quiet and convincing way which makes for realism.” R. D. Moore
“Its action is so placed as to permit a frank exposé of the sinister activities of the Prussian military caste, and the poisonous effect of the propaganda of ‘welt politik’ upon the German masses. ... It is an entertaining story, narrated with spirit.”
SIGURJONSSON, JOHANN.Modern Icelandic plays: Eyvind of the hills; The Hraun farm; tr. by Henninge Krohn Schanche.(Scandinavian classics, v. 6) $1.50 Am.-Scandinavian foundation 839.6 16-22079
“The author is introduced to the American public by the American-Scandinavian foundation as a representative of the renaissance of Icelandic literature. ... The stronger and later play, ‘Eyvind of the hills,’ is based on a romantic story of an eighteenth century outlaw who, having wearied of the loneliness of his mountain retreat, descends to the valleys and under an assumed name takes service as a farm hand. His mistress Halla, a well-to-do widow, falls in love with him; and rejecting the advances of Björn the bailiff, who has discovered that the supposed farm hand is the notorious outlaw, she flees to the mountains with her lover. ... The second piece, ‘The Hraun farm,’ is a modern story of pastoral Icelandic life; it has charm, but lacks the force and daring of ‘Eyvind of the hills.’”—Dial