“Her first-hand knowledge of an eastern country, and a talent for describing men and places, give to such books as ‘On the face of the waters’ an interest which will outlast the author’s life. But ‘Marmaduke,’ is in a different category, being outside the sphere of personal experience. ... The habit, inveterate in both hero and heroine, of diving into seas and rivers from high places when they get the chance, with other features of this book, suggests the cinematograph.”
“The story is not only Victorian in its setting, but its treatment recalls at times the exuberant sentiment of Smedley and the author of ‘Guy Livingstone.’”
“It is a tale that engages the interest, in spite of much inaccuracy, much infelicity, much worn coin in Mrs Steel’s English prose.”
STEELE, DAVID MCCONNELL.Going abroad overland; studies of places and people in the far West. il*$1.50 (3½ c) Putnam 917.8 17-5855
This book of travel is based on three journeys across the North American continent and back. The author, a Philadelphia clergyman, has written it “to acquaint the denizens of eastern districts with their neighbors, far removed but close allied, their fellow-citizens of the Far West.” Contents: Going abroadoverland; Following the setting sun; The city of the holy faith; Grand Canyon, the Titan of chasms; A Sunday at Lake Tahoe; The city without a soul; In the land of the Dakotas; A week in Glacier national park, etc.
“Superior to the ordinary because of its keen observations, its accurate facts, its delightful style and its subtle humor.” G. F.
“Part of the book appeared in weekly instalments in the Philadelphia press.”
“Unique among such volumes as have yet appeared of American travel articles. Each chapter describes a scene or city, the whole illustrated by many photogravures. Readers are shown that they can really travel, can see and know and feel places and people foreign to their previous experience—all without leaving North America.”
“Not essential to small libraries but readable.”
STEINER, BERNARD CHRISTIAN.Life of Henry Winter Davis. $1.50 Murphy, J: 16-14479
“Henry Winter Davis (1817-1865) is the last of the great congressional leaders of the Civil war period to find a biographer. ... The first three chapters, which are autobiographical, give an interesting picture of Davis’s boyhood and his life as a student at Kenyon college and at the University of Virginia. Dr Steiner himself covers the period from 1840 to 1865, treating in detail the various stages in his hero’s political career, as a Whig, a Know Nothing, a Constitutional Unionist and a Republican. New light is thrown upon a number of questions, especially upon the so-called Wade-Davis bill and the Wade-Davis manifesto, both of which, as Dr Steiner shows, were primarily the work of Davis and should more properly be described by the term Davis-Wade.”—Am Pol Sci R
“Should let in a strong light on some of the darkest places of politics in Maryland.” W: A. Dunning
“Dr Steiner’s book is extremely sympathetic. In fact, if there is any fault to be found at all, it would be that it is too sympathetic, or, in other words, that it is not sufficiently critical. ... When we consider, however, that the unfavorable aspects of Davis’s career have been fully represented by Nicolay and Hay, Gideon Welles, and others, we ought perhaps, after all, to be grateful for this excellent plea for the defense. ... All students of the Civil war and reconstruction will welcome the scholarly addition to the growing literature of that period.” W. R. Smith
STEINER, EDWARD ALFRED.My doctor dog. il*50c Revell 18-1116
“Over in the Carpathian mountains where Prof. Edward A. Steiner began his remarkable career, there is a strong belief among the peasants that certain dogs have the power of effecting cures where learned doctors are helpless. Dr Steiner—only he wasn’t wearing any title then, but was just a little curly-headed Hebrew lad—had such a dog. Perhaps he had forgotten it, or had overlooked its literary possibilities, until one day in a college settlement hospital in a city in America he came upon the same superstition, and it called up old memories. That evening around the fire-place in the college social room he told the story to the girls. Now he has told it again in book form as a tale within a tale.”—Springf’d Republican
“When the author forgets himself and his intrusive audience he gives a picture of the dirty, beautiful, simple village and its peasant population which is as engaging as it is convincing. But the frame of this picture is as distracting as it is foolishly ornate. After all, the story is the thing and not the story-teller’s sentimental associations or his ethical convictions.”
“Lovers of dogs and of dog stories will make a mistake if they do not read this little volume.”
STEINER, JESSE FREDERICK.Japanese invasion; a study in the psychology of interracial contacts.*$1.25 McClurg 325.7 17-7214
In his introduction Robert E. Park of the University of Chicago says, “This book is an attempt to study the phenomenon of race prejudice and national egotism, so far as it reveals itself in the relations of the Japanese and the Americans in this country, and to estimate the role it is likely to play in the future relations of the two countries. So far as I know, an investigation of precisely this nature has not hitherto been made.” The author, who spent seven years in Japan as a teacher in a mission college, writes of: Our first acquaintance with the Japanese; The Japanese attitude toward the West; The closing of the open door; The problem from the Japanese viewpoint; The Japanese “menace”; The isolation of Japanese in America; The reaction of the Japanese to American economic conditions; Organization and solidarity of Japanese immigrants; The problem of intermarriage; The Japanese in America as a race problem; The world significance of waking Asia. There is a bibliography of representative books and articles, followed by an index.
“This book is a very valuable contribution to the means for correctly estimating the present American-Japanese situation. The author displays a thorough knowledge of his subject and much skill and judgment in his handling of it.” H: P. Fairchild
“The work is well documented and has a fairly complete bibliography (14p.).”
“The most valuable portions of Mr Steiner’s book are chapters discussing the attitude in various sections of the United States toward Japanese residents, the reaction of the Japanese to American economic conditions, the organization and solidarity of Japanese immigrants, and the problem of intermarriage.” F: A. Ogg
“His treatment of the Californian situation is characteristic. He does not blame this government, state or national; he is interested in tracing and diagnosing a condition. He discusses the Japanese as human beings; not as the menacing abstractions which plague Californian imaginations. The last chapter, The significance of waking Asia, is a forceful and fitting close to an extraordinarily suggestive book.”
“Sober, restrained, informing, useful.” H: R. Mussey
STEINMETZ, CHARLES PROTEUS.[2]America and the new epoch.*$1 (2c) Harper 330.9 16-21734
For descriptive note see Annual for 1916.
“Mr Steinmetz, who is by birth and training a German—of Prussia—eliminates, both in his historical surveys and in his study of America’s present condition and future possibilities, all consideration of spiritual forces. He interprets history, and therefore of course the present situation in the United States, solely in terms of material tendencies, material forces, material results.” F. F. Kelly
“Dr Steinmetz has that rare and suggestive vision of the Socialist who is at the same time a great inventive engineer and an active officer in one of our most advanced and successful industrial corporations. He is personally engaged in fashioning the corporation out of which he hopes the industrial state will be built. His socialism might be called a ‘corporation syndicalism,’ for what he outlines is a union of huge corporations into whose hands will be entrusted the productive work of the nation.” R. S. Bourne
“The economic interpretation of history is pressed to its uttermost limits. Along with much that is bizarre, the book contains illuminating passages. The author is at his worst when he deals in historical generalizations, but when he touches more concrete matters he is not infrequently acute and penetrating.”
“A book that ought to command the most serious study and thought of every economist in America.” C. M. W.
“The book gains no little of its large value from this quality of personal testimony by a qualified observer who has experienced both systems. As such he has taken and presents a bird’s-eye view of world industries, and speaks industrially where all others are speaking in terms of politics, war, and diplomacy. It is a stimulating volume presenting points of view which ought not to be so novel.”
STEINMETZ, CHARLES PROTEUS.Theory and calculation of electric circuits. il*$3 McGraw 621.31 17-9822
“Doctor Steinmetz is America’s best known authority in the field of electrical mathematics. In revising his well known ‘Alternating current phenomena’ for the fifth edition, the great increase in size made it necessary to divide the work into three parts, of which the present work is the second. ‘In the following volume I have discussed the most important characteristics of the fundamental conception of electrical engineering, such as electric conduction, magnetism,wave shape, the meaning of reactance and similar terms, the problems of stability and instability of electric systems, etc., and have given a more extended application of the method of complex quantities, which the experience of these twenty years has shown to be the most powerful tool in dealing with alternating current phenomena.’ (Preface)”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
“An authoritative treatise.”
STEMPEL, GUIDO HERMANN, comp. and ed. Book of ballads, old and new. (English readings for schools) il 60c Holt 821.08 17-13306
These ballads are grouped under the headings: Old ballads; American ballads; New ballads. The four “American ballads” are reprinted from Lomax’s “Cowboy songs and other frontier ballads” (1910). The “new ballads” range from Campbell, Hood and Lady Nairne, to Kipling, Lowell, Masefield, Newbolt, Noyes, Whittier, etc. There is an introduction, mainly historical, followed by a “descriptive bibliography” of two pages. Appended are 102 pages of “notes and comment”; and a glossary.
“There are fewer of the old ballads, altho much the same ones as those chosen by Professor Hart [in his “English popular ballads,” 1916].”
“The introduction treats vexed questions of origins fairly and clearly. It strikes us as distinctly the best introduction to the subject we have seen.”
STEPHENS, HENRY MORSE, and BOLTON, HERBERT EUGENE, eds. Pacific ocean in history.*$4 (3c) Macmillan 904 17-5822
A volume containing papers and addresses presented at the Panama-Pacific historical congress held at San Francisco, Berkeley, and Palo Alto, California, July 19-23, 1915. A brief outline of the history and plan of the congress is given in the introduction. The body of the book is given up wholly to the papers and addresses of the general and special sessions. Among the subjects covered at some of the special sessions were: The Philippine Islands and their history as a part of the history of the Pacific ocean area; The north-western states, British Columbia, and Alaska in their relations with the Pacific ocean; Spanish-America and the Pacific ocean; Japan and Australasia. There is an index that seems to be unusually complete.
“Among the addresses those by H. Morse Stephens on the Conflict of European nations in the Pacific, by Rafael Altamira y Crevea on the Share of Spain in the history of the Pacific ocean, and by Theodore Roosevelt on the Panama canal are noteworthy. The paper by Professor Murakami, on Japan’s early attempts to establish commercial relations with Mexico, embodying his investigations in the archives of Spain, Italy, and Japan, is perhaps the most interesting of all the contributions.” W: R. Shepherd
“For its condensed summary of historical facts the book should be of use to students.”
“The student of American history will find these papers of most absorbing interest.”
“Much of the book is not of interest to the layman. But this is not true of the opening address of Professor Stephens, in which he discourses upon the conflict of European nations in the Pacific. His wide view of international relations of the past four hundred years may well enlarge the horizon of many a casual reader.”
“Sixteen of the twenty-nine contributions are by Californians—a fact which explains both the strength and the weakness of the volume. The unfortunate absence of South Americans, of Australians, and of Chinese, though some had been expected to appear, deprived the Congress and its printed record of any claim to represent the ‘Pacific ocean in history.’ Taken singly the average standard of the various papers is distinctly commendable.”
“A useful service for those interested in world politics has been performed in the publication of the minutes and papers of the Panama-Pacific historical congress of 1915. ... All the strings of world diplomacy meet in the Pacific as they do nowhere else.”
STEPHENS, WINIFRED.Madame Adam (Juliette Lamber);la grande Française; from Louis Philippe until 1917. il*$4 Dutton (Eng ed 18-1178)
“The founder and editor for twenty years of La Nouvelle Revue, the mistress of a political salon, and the friend through more than half a century of leaders of French life and thought, a passionate advocate of self-government and of nationalism, Madame Adam is one of the most notable women of the Europe of to-day. She is here presented to us by one who has written and lectured a good deal about France and French history, and who has had the advantage of Mme Adam’s personal acquaintance and interest in the present work. Her main authority, however, is, of course, Mme Adam’s seven volumes of ‘Souvenirs.’”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“Of great interest, and particularly well worth reading at the present time.”
“A most comprehensive account of her varied and spectacular career.”
“It was Madame Adam who first suggested and later engineered her country’s alliance with Russia.”
“We are glad to see this interesting biography of Mme Adam, one of the most remarkable women of her time. She has played a considerable part in French journalism and politics from the days of the Second empire. She was the trusted friend of George Sand and Gambetta and many other eminent people, and she has been a protagonist of the woman’s movement in its largest sense, and of the Revanche for 1870, which is now at last to be realized. As founder and editor for twenty years of the Nouvelle Revue (1879-99), she did much to consolidate the Third republic and to stimulate that wonderful revival of French national spirit which has been manifested in this war.”
“Mme Adam’s own ‘Souvenirs’ end with the year 1880, and though they stand as the main authority Miss Stephens’s book is primarily valuable as filling up the gap of nearly forty years; and here the author has had important aid from Mme Adam herself, from Sir Sidney Colvin, and from other contemporaries. The book is also to be welcomed because it is admirably written ... with a gaiety and zest not often to be found in such generous measure among biographers.”
STEPNIAK, pseud. (SERGIEI MIKHAILOVICH KRAVCHINSKII).New convert; a drama in four acts; tr. from the Russian by T: B. Eyges. $1 Stratford co. 891.7 17-9135
A play of the early days of the Russian revolutionary movement. The author, says Prince Peter Kropotkin in his introduction, “was one of the pioneers who decided to ‘go to the people.’ Disguised as a laborer, he mingled among the peasants in the villages. At the beginning of the so-called ‘terrorist’ movement he was one of its pioneers and heroes.” In the play it is a young girl of good family who follows this course. Her father casts her off and disowns her, but his love for her is so great that when he finds her in danger, he takes her into his house and tries to shield her. In so doing he is himself won over to the Nihilist cause, becoming the new convert.
“It is unfortunate that the translation abounds in foreign English and in all kinds of blunders. With a modicum of proper editing, it would be a very actable and interesting play.”
“It is well worth reading at this time as a first-hand document of the pioneer labor for Russian liberty. But, if the truth must be told, it is not likely that this play will add to Stepniak’s literary reputation. ... Yet there is much beauty in the play, a warm sympathy pervades the whole and that big simplicity which emanates from all of Russia’s great men. An hour with ‘The new convert’ will be well spent.” T: Seltzer
STERN, MRS ELIZABETH GERTRUDE (LEVIN).My mother and I.*$1 (4c) Macmillan 17-16442
A story of the Americanizing of a young Jewess, whose father, a rabbi, and whose self-sacrificing little mother, came from a small town in Russian Poland to the ghetto of a city in the Middle West. The one cellar room which was their first home, the girl’s days in the grammar and high school, her discovery of “Little women” in a rag shop, and later of the public library, are simply but vividly pictured. She wins a scholarship and works her way through college, only to find life in the ghetto insupportable; and to leave home to study settlement work in New York. There she meets her husband, and after the birth of their son, the old mother takes her first long trip in 25 years to see her daughter as “an American woman at the head of an American home” and to experience “an infinite loneliness” because she cannot understand the new ways and the new people. “And yet,” writes the daughter, “if I am truly part of America, it was mother, she who does not understand America, who made me so.” The introduction is by Theodore Roosevelt.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
“The remarkable charm of the book lies in the daughter’s faithful picture of the mother and in her appreciation of what the Americanization of the foreign-born means in pain and separation.”
“Describes the loftier and rarer aspect of immigration.”
“What affects one just a little unpleasantly is the predominance of pride over tears in the countenance of the narrator as she shakes from her feet the dust of her father’s house and goes to dwell forevermore in the tents of the Americans. The completeness of her break with the ghetto left some precious things behind.”
“The note struck in Mrs Stern’s book appears to be a more sincere one than that sounded by Miss Antin, because, though the narrative is a personal one, the reader is not oppressed by the ego of the writer.” M. G. S.
“The book is well worth while. Not only because of the picture it gives of the Americanized second generation, ... but also because of the excellent style. ... The best thing in the book is the beautifully tender portrayal of the relation between the mother and daughter, a relation which is at once an idyl and a tragedy.”
“Perhaps an even more useful service of the book will be to open some blind young eyes to the true worth and value of their parents.” K. H. Claghorn
STERN, FRANCES, and SPITZ, GERTRUDE T.Food for the worker.*$1 Whitcomb & B. 613.2 17-13100
This book is devoted to the problem of how to provide sufficient nutritious food at a low cost. The authors say, “Our contribution towards answering the question is this series of menus, with food values and costs for a period of seven weeks.” The book is not adapted for use by the average untrained housewife in the type of family for which the menus are planned. It will be most useful in the hands of the visiting housekeeper or other social worker. In fact its preparation is due in part to the experience of one of the authors as a visiting housekeeper. Lafayette B. Mendel of Sheffield scientific school has written a foreword commending the book.
“Practical, usable, intelligently planned, for the aid of housewives catering on a working man’s income, and useful to the teacher, visiting housekeeper or social worker. Reprints ‘How to build a fireless cooker’ from Form 776 States relations service. Bibliography. (2p.).”
“Should fill a great need at the present time.” Graham Lusk
“A direct contribution to the literature of both social service and home economics. Presents in small compass clear and scientific material that will be invaluable for anyone who is responsible for the feeding of families who through force of circumstances must keep to a limited food allowance. ... A book for the trained worker, but the untrained may find in it much to shed light upon their pathways.” W. S. Gibbs
STERNE, ELAINE.Road of ambition. il*$1.35 (1c) Britton pub. 17-13078
Big Bill Matthews is foreman in a steel mill when the story opens. He is a newly elected governor at its close. But unlike many another man who has trod the road to ambition, he does not find achievement bitter, for Bill’s aim is always to help his fellow men, and his way is made bright by the love of the woman who had been the lady of his early dreams. When he first saw Daphne Van Steer, he had no thought of anything but worship from afar. Then came the success of his invention, his fortune, his education in the ways of the world at the hands of May Larrabee, and eventually his marriage with Daphne. For her it was not a marriage of love, in the beginning—that came later.
“Just the book for the reader who likes a story with plenty of thrills and a happy ending.”
“Elaine Sterne has written the sort of story which we are glad to have from an American novelist. Such a story could have been written more effectively by a man, but one is willingto pass over certain feminisms in the discussion of business for the sake of the story itself, which is engrossing.”
“A first novel, and a promising one. It is ambitious, faulty, of course, but interesting, with some well written, natural dialogue, and a dramatic quality which, as often happens in the work of novices—and of experienced writers, too—occasionally spills over the line which separates the dramatic from the merely melodramatic. The opening chapters are the best.”
Reviewed by R. D. Moore
STERRETT, FRANCES ROBERTA.William and Williamina. il*$1.40 (2c) Appleton 17-25816
The heroine of this story, Williamina, a friendly little girl of ten, was found when a baby, by William Kirwin, in a rowboat, after a dreadful storm. Kirwin had gone to live in the country because of weak lungs, and, even when cured, seemed to have no desire to mix again with people. Williamina filled his life and he filled Williamina’s. Yet it was partly due to her that he finally returned to a busier and more conventional existence. Some of the other characters are: Helen Spafford, a school-teacher, who wants to try gardening; Mrs Macartney, who runs a chicken farm; Marietta White, who overworked at college and is taking an enforced rest; Imogene Grace Butters, the stout trained nurse; Mr Brewer, who has no use for “fool females”; Bob Brown, who is hurt in an automobile accident; Hunter Olney, the rich breakfast food man; and tall young Doctor Grey with his “shock of sandy hair.” There are three rather slight love affairs in the book, but the main interest centers in Williamina, who wishes that she and William “should always love each other and really belong to each other and live together happily forever and a day.”
“Williamina is amusing at times, and not quite so aggressively virtuous as some children in fiction.”
STETSON, JAMES FRANCIS LYNDE, and others.Some legal phases of corporate financing, reorganization and regulation.*$2.75 Macmillan 338.8 17-7837
“A volume of addresses delivered in 1916 by recognized leaders of the legal profession at the instance of the Association of the bar of the city of New York, to audiences drawn from practicing lawyers. Mr Stetson contributes a lengthy paper concerning the preparation of corporate bonds, mortgages, collateral trusts and debenture indentures. ... Mr Byrne supplies an exceptionally valuable treatise on the foreclosure of railroad mortgages in the United States courts. ... Mr Cravath treats of the reorganization of corporations; bondholders’ and stockholders’ protective committees; reorganization committees; and the voluntary recapitalization of corporations. ... Mr Wickersham deals with the Sherman anti-trust law. ... Mr Montague writes about the Federal trade commission and the Clayton act. Mr Coleman and Mr Guthrie discuss the public service commissions.”—Ann Am Acad
“It deals with particular problems in the peculiarly narrow and intensive manner of legal procedure. This is its great merit, but it is also the reason why the broader economic aspects of the problems treated are either totally disregarded or else disposed of with only a few phrases. Yet within their field of legal literature most of these essays are remarkably comprehensive; in fact, several of them, notably Cravath’s on reorganizations, are certainly unrivaled in the sphere of legal finance.” A. S. Dewing
“If the volume contained nothing but Mr Byrne’s treatise, it would still be an important addition to legal literature.” J: L. Sullivan
“Although stated to be designed primarily for the practical guidance of practicing lawyers, [these addresses] will be of interest and value to students of corporation problems, the trust problem, and public utilities. The three on corporation problems are by far the most interesting to the economist. With the exception of the last address on public utilities, the other addresses tend to be mainly descriptive, with little analysis.”
“If ‘a priori’ reasoning is a peculiar weakness of lawyers, there is no trace of it in the legal field ploughed through in the first three essays. The practical corporation lawyer ... begins with a very concrete picture of the result he wishes to attain. He draws upon a wide practical experience to point out the simplest and surest way of bringing the result about. Very different is the situation in the field of public law described in the remaining four essays. Here we are not yet out of the domain of dogma, of question-begging phrases, of concepts that bear the appearance of self-evident truths, but dissolve into meaningless verbiage when we try to apply them to flesh and blood.” G. C. Henderson
STEVENS, RUTH DAVIS, and STEVENS, DAVID HARRISON,[2]eds. American patriotic prose and verse.*$1.25 McClurg 811.08 17-28105
The selections in this book are arranged chronologically to conform with the history of our country. In addition to this strictly historical material, selections suitable for the patriotic holidays are included. Each selection is accompanied by a brief note, giving biographical and other data.
“Chiefly valuable for its timeliness, and while it is not without certain historical examples of the kind, it would have been more suitable if chosen with greater care and judgment.” W. S. B.
STEVENS, WILLIAM HARRISON SPRING.Unfair competition; a study of certain practices, with some reference to the trust problem in the United States of America.*$1.50 Univ. of Chicago press 338.8 17-9697
“‘Unfair competition’ is an expansion of the author’s two articles which originally appeared in the Political Science Quarterly for 1914. The new matter consists chiefly of added illustrations of cases of the different methods of unfair competition, the listing of a new heading called ‘Interference,’ and the expansion of the conclusion, where especial attention is given to the trust legislation of 1914 as it relates to this subject.” (J Pol Econ) “The text analyzes many types of unfair competition and gives the concrete and specific facts, as well as the principles involved. It is a valuable companion volume for the compilation by Davies.” (Int J Ethics)
“The chapter on ‘Exclusive arrangements’ is, in the writer’s opinion, the weakest chapter of the book, as these arrangements, while classified and considered separately, are adjudged equally objectionable. The book is replete with illustrations, is written in an interesting style, and will be welcomed by all interested in this important subject.” J. E. Hagerty
“Dr Stevens has done a real public service by placing in convenient form an assembly of facts on this problem. The tone of the book is not that of an arraignment or accusation. The author shows neither indignation nor heat—he seeks in guarded language to establish the facts.” J. T. Young
“It is patent that Stevens is not a proponent of large industrial combinations simply because they are large, and he carries the convictionsof one who has investigated carefully the methods by which, fortunately or unfortunately, big business has grown. The logical soundness of some of his assertions is tinged by a super-vigilant search for recondite motives on the part of business; but he is not unfair.” Frank Parker
“The volume is sound and timely and is the best presentation of the topic available. While the conclusions of Dr Stevens appear sound, additional weight would have been given them had he tried to set forth and refute in more detail the arguments sometimes advanced to justify the various methods of competition which he condemns.” C. W. Wright
STEVENSON, BURTON EGBERT.King in Babylon. il*$1.50 (2c) Small 17-24692
“The story concerns a moving-picture producer and his determination to introduce imagination and art into his work. ... He built a plot about Henley’s lines, ‘I was a king in Babylon and you were a Christian slave.’ The production carried him and his company to Egypt, where a suitable setting was found in a royal tomb practically excavated by an American archaeologist. It is at this point that the seemingly supernatural enters the tale, giving an extraordinarily weird and gripping turn to the story.”—Dial
“The events are thrilling and well suggested, only the final act seems unreal.”
“The author provides a rational explanation which is skillfully but not altogether convincingly worked out.”
“A thrilling story with a groundwork of common sense!... Instead of yielding to the easy trick of invoking the supernatural in order to gain his effect, the author skilfully erects a framework of logical explanation on which one may stand and enjoy the spectacular climax without danger of doing his intelligence injury.”
“Some readers may think the story rather long-drawn-out and tedious here and there. But it has the merit of originality in its treatment, if not in its main theme of reincarnation, and in general is of the thrilling stuff of which ‘best sellers’ are made.”
“Appeared in McClure’s Magazine, v. 49, May-Oct. 1917.”
“But the air of mystery and suspense surrounding the reincarnation theory is sustained until the very close, where a wholly plausible clue brings us breathlessly but safely back to sunlight on terra-firma.” Joseph Mosher
“Cleverly exploits the theory of reincarnation and blends the materialistic present with the mysteries and superstitions of antiquity.”
STEVENSON, GEORGE.Little world apart.*$1.25 (1c) Lane 17-7457
A novel made up of little things. Applethwaite is a country parish that constitutes a little world in itself. The great lady of the neighborhood, the vicar and his family, the farm folk and the serving maids all have a place in the story, so that at its close one feels very well acquainted with all Applethwaite. Into this little world comes a strange woman from the world outside to make friends with the vicar’s family and start tongues a-wagging. In its ending there is a touch of sadness, but the sadness is tinged with hope. Victoria is queen at the time of the story.
“One does not read of Applethwaite for the sake of its plot or plots, but for the sheer joy of tarrying and gossiping there. Like ‘Cranford’ and ‘Old Chester tales,’ ‘A little world apart’ is ‘rich in veined humanity.’”
“A most delightful account of life in a country village in, presumably, the ‘eighties’ of the last century. The character drawing is most delicately finished, and the author has a fresh and discriminating sense of humor.”
“The author has a happy faculty of characterization, and it is to be regretted that he did not have a stronger center for his story.”
“Some very good character portraiture.”
STEVENSON, WILLIAM YORKE.At the front in a flivver. il*$1.25 (2½c) Houghton 940.91 17-25614
The preface tells us that the author left a newspaper position in Philadelphia in 1916 to offer his services to France as driver of an ambulance. “He kept a rough diary which, as the occasion offered, he forwarded to his people. ... These notes are here published almost as jotted down.” The scene of his experiences was in the neighborhood of the Somme.
“No heroics or exaggeration mar this simple humorous record.”
“Freshly written.”
“A document the very robustness and downright sincerity of which are a real joy to those who honestly want to be made to see.” Philip Tillinghast
“A strong vein of humor adds many lightening touches to the narrative. But in spite of these there is nowhere a denial of the seriousness of the situation confronting the Allies in their fight with the enemy.”
STEWART, BASIL.On collecting Japanese colour-prints; being an introduction to the study and collection of the colour-prints of the Ukiyoye school of Japan. il*$2 (9c) Dodd 761 17-26875
The author states that because most books on Japanese prints have apparently been written from the historical or artistic point of view, they are of little use to the inexperienced collector. He has, therefore, written this book primarily for the beginner, and refers the reader who wishes fuller information to Ficke’s “Chats on Japanese prints” or Von Seidlitz’s “History of Japanese colour-prints.” “Mr Stewart gives a brief survey of the history and production of prints, mentioning only the better-known artists. In the cases of Hokusai and Hiroshige the various series, states, and editions are enumerated.” (Dial) “The illustrations are from the author’s collection, and are in keeping with the scope of the book. Both the blocks and the text are printed in a brown ink.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) There is a chapter on Japanese chronology as applied to the dating of prints.
“It is an artistic book and will prove useful to students.” N. H. D.
“‘On collecting Japanese colour-prints’ is intended for the amateur who is starting a collection, and as such it is a satisfactory handbook.”
“Will be found especially useful in the detection of forgeries, imitations, and reprints. The translations of the script and signatures upon the prints illustrated are a praiseworthy feature of this volume.”
“Mr Stewart has not anything really new to tell us, though his information is usually accurate and his views sound.”
STILES, PAULINE.New footprints in old places. il*$2 (2c) Elder 914.5 17-25821
It is to Italy, and in particular to Rome, where the author spent a winter, that the greater part of this book of travels is devoted. Her travels date back to 1913 and 1914, August, 1914 bringing them to a close. Contents: En route to Rome; First days in our Roman home; Rome—The mother of nations; Roman holidays; Rome and a new year; We travel in the south; Spring comes to Rome; Last Roman days; We become Parisians; Touraine and Belgium; We encounter London; War and England. There are eighteen illustrations.
“Travel books written in diary form are usually avoided by the experienced reader; this one, however, is exceptionally well done, and is quite charming both in the joyous enthusiasm of its descriptive matter and in the well-printed photographic illustration.”
“Miss Stiles is a good letter writer, and there is nothing stilted in her word pictures of the most familiar places. Add to that fact that she saw some places that are not in the beaten track, and had the privilege of being a guest in various Roman houses where the mere tourist never goes, and the charm of the book is enhanced. Typography, illustrations, binding, all combine to make this a travel book above the average.”
STILES, PERCY GOLDTHWAIT.Human physiology; a text-book for high schools and colleges. il*$1.50 Saunders 612 16-15031
“The announcement in the preface, the ‘purpose is to present concisely the accepted facts with only a limited description of the experiments by which these facts have been established,’ gives an idea of the scope and nature of the book. ... Little of historical importance is mentioned, the omission being purposeful.”—Science
“The book before us is an excellent attempt to provide a text-book for high schools. But, good as it is as an elementary account of the present state of physiological science, it cannot be regarded as altogether successful. It is apt to be dull and didactic rather than stimulating. ... It would be an improvement if a part of the wealth of the book in facts were sacrificed for a more intensive treatment of some of them. ... The book is remarkably free from errors.” W. M. Bayliss
“On the whole, the book fulfills its particular purpose better than any other with which I am familiar. Writing such a book is a particularly difficult task, and the author has succeeded better than most. There are many new diagrams of unusual clearness.” F. H. Pike
STIMSON, FREDERIC JESUP (J. S. OF DALE, pseud.).Light of Provence.*$1.25 Putnam 812 17-14539
This dramatic poem pictures troubadour life and the French court in the thirteenth century. The foreword states that the drama is entirely historical, though the character of Douce is partly imaginary and Adelais is compounded of Adelaide, Countess of Burlatz and Ermengarde, Countess of Narbonne. It also lists the authorities on which the drama is based. Mr Stimson seems to have worked over it for sixteen years and then kept it by him for twenty-one more before publishing it.