“An almost dishonestly misleading title. The impression of coördination that is conveyed is belied when it turns out that the birds receive only thirty-two pages in a volume of 359 pages, or one chapter among twenty-one. This chapter, it should also be said, is of no value to the field student, concerning, as it does, only such matters as bird houses and food. The justification of the book (it does justify itself) is in the highly condensed information on gardening and full index that renders this information quickly accessible. The author’s information, though generally correct and serviceable, is more than once careless.”
“An indispensable guide for the amateur gardener and home-builder, equally suited to the needs of those who have a large acreage at their disposal and for the person with the modest backyard or the narrow window-box.”
CROY, MAE SAVELL.1000 hints on vegetable gardening.*$1.50 (3c) Putnam 635 17-18609
Uniform with “1000 shorter ways around the house,” and “1000 things a mother should know.” There is a chapter whose tabulation is alphabetical which groups under each vegetable the hints for the planting, care, cooking and preservation of that vegetable. There are chapters on: Soil and fertilization; The hotbed and cold-frame; Seed; Planting; Thinning and transplanting; Cultivation; Watering; Weeds; Insects and sprays; Fruit; Small fruits; Nuts; Trees; Miscellaneous hints; List of agricultural experiment stations; Plan for a family garden; Table denoting how much space should be devoted to various vegetables; Convenient lists for gardeners; Index.
CROY, MAE SAVELL.1000 things a mother should know.*$1.50 (3c) Putnam 649 17-13344
The suggestions the author has brought together have reference “to tiny babies and growing children; their clothes, their care, their food, their training, and their entertainment.” As in her earlier book, “1000 shorter ways around the house,” she has arranged a large amount of miscellaneous material under convenient subject headings. Contents: Pregnancy; Clothing; The nursery; Health rules and medical care; Hygiene and sick-room suggestions; Food; Habits and training; Amusements; Miscellaneous.
“A large amount of miscellaneous information conveniently arranged.”
CRUMP, IRVING.Boys’ book of policemen. il*$1.35 (2½c) Dodd 352 17-13226
A companion volume to “The boys’ book of firemen,” by the same author. It will give a new idea of the policeman’s duties and of the wide variety of the opportunities offered by the calling. Contents: The call of adventure; “Pounding the pavement” with the patrolman; The six-foot guards of traffic; In action with the mounted men; Mile-a-minute motor patrol; The four-footed police of the dog patrol; The pirate fighting marine division; The sleuths of the secret service; The riot call and other police signals; Police preparedness; Policemen in the making; Your big brother—the cop.
“Besides all the practical information, stories are told of many adventures and thrilling incidents.”
CUBBERLEY, ELLWOOD PATTERSON, and others.School organization and administration. (Educational survey ser.) il $1.50 World bk. co. 371 16-17381
The report of a school survey conducted by Dr Cubberley in Salt Lake City in 1915. “The survey concerned itself especially with the form or organization and administration under which the schools were operated, the system of supervisory control by means of which the superintendent of schools worked, the progress in the fundamental subjects being made by the children in the schools, and the problem of adequate finance. ... The report contained, in addition, a number of features which were quite distinctive. ... Among these should be mentioned the detailed explanation of the tests made and the results obtained, the study of the instruction of retarded pupils, the work in health control, the school building and site problem, and the peculiar financial problem, presented by this city.” (Preface) The first edition published by the Board of education of Salt Lake City was early exhausted and this second edition is now printed with some revisions and additions by the author.
“A great mass of educational literature is accumulating, some of it of dubious value, which may or may not be useful hereafter as material or sources for students in educational administration and practise. A painstaking example of a work of this type is ‘School organization and administration.’”
“Will be useful to any school officer or parent who wishes to work out an intelligent view of his own school situation.”
Reviewed by B: C. Gruenberg
CUMBERLAND, WILLIAM WILSON.Cooperative marketing.*$1.50 Princeton univ. press 334 17-28662
“In ‘Cooperative marketing: its advantages as exemplified in the California fruit growers exchange’ Prof. W. W. Cumberland has written the history of the exchange since its beginnings in the early nineties, outlined its methods of work, summarized its benefits, and said a few words of its pertinence to cooperative marketing in other fields. ... It consists, essentially, of 8,000 orchardists united into 117 local packing exchanges, each handling fruit on a cost basis; of 17 district selling exchanges, or clearing-houses; and of the central exchange, which, under president and directors, provides market facilities, issues daily bulletins of market information, advertises, owns the ‘Sunkist’ trade-mark, handles litigation, and maintains an organized selling force of 75 offices and 200 salesmen in the principal European, Canadian, and American markets.”—Nation
“Comprehensive, suggestive, candid and rational. This book should give a great stimulus to the one phase of cooperation.”
“Professor Cumberland tells his story lucidly and comprehensively.”
CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM.Progress of capitalism in England.*90c (3c) Putnam 330.9 (Eng ed 17-15935)
This book contains the substance of lectures delivered in the London school of economics and political science in 1915, and is “published in the hope that it may prove a useful appendix to the author’s ‘Growth of English industry and commerce.’” (Preface) The book is divided into three sections: Economic history and empirical economic science; The development of the body economic in England: Lessons from experience. “One-third of it is devoted to the general philosophy of the subject. ... The development of industrial capitalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is touched upon only by a briefdiscussion of ‘laisser-faire.’ A contribution to the economic problems of the future is offered in the final chapter on ‘Lessons from experience.’” (Eng Hist R)
“Much material of great interest to students of economic history is presented in brief compass, particularly in the second part of the book which deals with ‘The progress of capitalism in mediaeval cities.’”
“The many students of Archdeacon Cunningham’s ‘Growth of English industry and commerce’ will not find anything new in his lectures on ‘The progress of capitalism in England’ but those who desire a very brief summary of his views on this aspect of economic history will find this little book helpful.” G. U.
“Besides an instructive summary of our economic development, this little book contains an earnest plea for the study of economic history.”
CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM, ROBERT BONTINE.[2]Brought forward; Charity; Faith; Hope; Progress; Success.ea*$1.35 Stokes (Eng ed 17-11795)
“Of the six volumes which are now being brought out in a uniform edition in this country, one, ‘Brought forward,’ is published for the first time. The other books, although they have been appearing one by one in England since the early years of the century, have never before been issued here. The present edition amounts, therefore, to an introduction, for American leaders, to a large part of a well-known British writer’s work. Of the fifteen stories in the new volume, three are Scotch, three English, one a story of the Arabs, one a story of Spain; the others take the reader to scenes past and present in Latin America. ... The name of the volume ‘Charity’ is taken from the initial story of the book, but nearly all the tales have charity, sometimes in an odd form, as motif. ... ‘Faith’ and ‘Hope’ form the keynotes of the volumes of those titles, though sometimes faith and hope show themselves, and play their parts in men’s and women’s lives, in strange and sad ways. ... ‘Progress,’ a long story in the book of that name, is a horrible record of the putting down of a rebellion in Mexico. ... His sympathies are always with the simple people, the oppressed, the misunderstood.”—N Y Times
“Keen as is the sympathy that marks his pictures of simple folk in England and Scotland, his stories of Latin America are really the most interesting in the book, with a few brief sketches of Spaniards and Moors following close behind. Yet the whole book is a series of delightful portraits, both of men and of horses. The earlier volumes show the same understanding that marks ‘Brought forward.’”
“He has irony, pity, and wit. He is the master of the telling phrase, and can produce a convincing picture with the utmost economy of words. Our delight in this book is tempered only by the fear that it is to be, according to rumour, Mr Cunninghame Graham’s last.”
“We need only say that they are as attractive as ever—especially ‘El tango Argentino’—and commend them to his many faithful readers, who will be grieved to learn from the preface that the author will write no more.”
CURLE, RICHARD.Echo of voices.*$1.50 (2c) Knopf 17-13448
Richard Curle is author of a critical study of Joseph Conrad, and Conrad has stood sponsor for this book of short stories. “I think your taking him up is a good move,” he wrote to the publisher. “He has brains; he has also a writer’s temperament.” The short stories that compose the book are serious studies of life and character. Most of them have a commonplace London setting. One, His kingdom, is a story of South Africa; another, Nineteen, of the South seas. The other titles are: The two dependants; Midnight: The would-be friends; General service; Monsieur Clavel; Deep down.
“The book is, it is easily apparent, not strikingly of the ‘wholesome’ breed. It is not likely to please those who lack a relish for the eccentric and somewhat bitter. But the tales, for all their lack of the conventionalities of structure and content, have a certain power and self-sufficiency.” F. I.
“There is perhaps more than a suggestion of Mr Conrad’s own method, and more than a trace of the influence of the great Russians, especially Dostoevsky. But what then? These are no bad models for a young writer with a temperament, and Mr Curie has had the strength to put his individual stamp on all but one of these tales.”
CURRAN, WILLIAM TEES, and CALKINS, HAROLD A.In Canada’s wonderful northland. il*$2.50 (2c) Putnam 917.1 17-5856
A book devoted to the northern part of the province of Quebec, a country now being opened to settlement by the construction of a railroad to Hudson bay. It is an account of eight months of travel by canoe, motorboat and dog-team. The authors were continuing studies made earlier by Mr Curran and summed up in “Glimpses of northern Canada, a land of hidden treasure,” a work issued by the Canadian government. The book is well illustrated and supplied with maps.
“An unassuming and interestingly written record of a trip taken by the authors in 1912.”
“The book prefigures, in all likelihood, a remarkable expansion northward in the near future.”
“From the intimate manner in which the narrative is set forth, the reader seems to live in the region through which he passes. The sixty illustrations and maps are illuminating and well chosen.”
“It is not as well written as it might have been; the illustrations are exceptionally good and, on the whole, the book is one of the best volumes of Canadian travel in some time.”
“Those who wish a true and vivid picture of the vast region known as northern Canada cannot do better than read ‘In Canada’s wonderful northland.’”
“This being a book for the general reader, Mr Curran does not give details about his technical work. It contains an appendix giving new and valuable information about the harbours discovered.”
“Covers some of the ground of Leith’s ‘Summer and winter on Hudson bay.’”
CURRIE, BARTON WOOD.Tractor and its influence upon the agricultural implement Industry. il*$1 (2c) Curtis pub. co., Independence square, Philadelphia 631 16-15374
A series of papers on the development and use of farm implements, with particular reference to the tractor, reprinted from the Country Gentleman. Part 1 consists of a miscellaneous collection in which the author deplores the “senseless diversification” of farm machinery and argues for standardization. Part 2 is devoted to the tractor and its place in agriculture.
CURRIE, JOHN ALLISTER.Red watch; with the first Canadian division in Flanders.il*$1.50 Button 940.91 (Eng ed A17-370)
“Colonel Currie’s book deals concretely with but one regiment of the many that have gone out from Canada. But in its careful and representative detail it offers us much information about the part played in the war by Canada as a whole.” (N Y Times) “The ‘Red watch’ is the term applied to the 48th Highlanders. After the battle of Langemarck only 212 out of the 1034 members of this regiment responded to the muster call.” (R of Rs)
“The men under his command were certainly a band of heroes, and the story of their heroism stirs the blood. The pictorial feature is prominent.” P. F. Bicknell
“Colonel Currie is particularly emphatic in praising the temperance and careful living of his men, and denying reports that British, French, or Canadian soldiers are given rum or drugs ‘to keep up their courage.’ ... There is much that is thrilling in this clean-cut soldier’s chronicle, much that is inspiriting and fine. It is a soldier’s record, through and through.”
CURTIN, DANIEL THOMAS.Land of deepening shadow; Germany-at-war.il*$1.50 (2c) Doran 940.91 17-13672
The author is a young American war correspondent who went to Germany late in 1915. His purpose in the book is to give a general picture of conditions in that country under the stress of war. In the early chapters he aims to show how all Germans were “made to think as one man,” in other words, “how the German government creates unity.” It is done by utilizing all the forces that mold public opinion, schools, pulpit, theatre, and press. In the later chapters he describes “the forces tending to disintegrate that wonderful unity.” Among the chapters are: A Land of substitutes; The gagging of Liebknecht; Spies and semi-spies; The iron hand in Alsace-Lorraine; The war slaves of Essen; Germany’s human resources; In the deepening shadow.
“Evidently authentic, it gives many informing and probably unique experiences.”
“Some books dealing with the internal condition of Germany convey an impression that the colours are too liberally spread upon the palette. The supply of horrifying and sensational facts occasionally forces on the reader the suspicion that the authors have kept the probable demand rather too prominently in view. Mr Curtin’s book is free from that sort of thing.”
“Mr Curtin is one of Lord Northcliffe’s young men; and he has his patron’s faculty of making our flesh creep with quite exceptional hideousness. The book he has written will tell any reader what Mr Curtin says he saw inside the German empire; but I think that he will conclude that his author has still to learn the value of historic and psychological light and shade.” H. J. Laski
“A frank, well-informed, and brightly written, though egotistical, book by a Germano-phobe Irish newspaper reporter for the Northcliffe press.”
“Under the disguise of a seemingly frank and dispassionate analysis of conditions, the facts are carefully selected and presented with true journalistic cunning in contrast and climax. One hesitates to term this technique dishonest even in a minor sense, for the chances are that it results more from an unconscious bias than from any deliberate attempt to deceive. ... The whole force of Mr Curtin’s book comes from making vivid the truth of the chancellor’s utterance in the Reichstag when he said, apropos of the complete blockade of Great Britain by submarines, ‘We are staking all on this throw.’”
“It is a depressing or inspiring picture, just as the inclinations of the reader are ‘pro-Ally’ or ‘pro-German.’ But it is well written, and seems to be the work of a trained observer, even if his impartiality be questioned.” J. W.
“Since thorough knowledge of an enemy is the first essential of efficient warfare, the intimate, first-hand view which he offers ought to have wide reading.”
“The reader will find the information collected and classified; he will find the facts reported in an impartial and historical spirit; and he will find the reports characterized by a degree of reality and authority not always, perhaps not often, to be found in newspaper correspondence. The author reports, not what he was given every facility to see, but what was often carefully hidden from him.”
“Of special interest are his chapters on educational and publicity methods employed by the government.”
“It gives the most complete account at present procurable of the internal conditions of [Germany]. ... The fact that the author’s country was not involved in the conflict enabled him not only to see more than an Englishman would have been allowed to see, but also to take a more objective view of the phenomena which he observed.”
CURTIS, LIONEL, ed. Commonwealth of nations. pt 1*$2.50 (1c) Macmillan 325.3 (17-1660)
For descriptive note see Annual for 1916.
“The lay-reader, despite the clearness of style, the auxiliary plans, and the handsome appearance of the book will hardly be attracted to the seven hundred pages of solid matter. Nor will the scholar be apt to find it of great use. It is essentially an edition of reports, lengthy but marked by serious omissions, made by industrious and intelligent laymen, and drawn from familiar secondary material. The purpose of the work is warmly to be commended but its value to historical scholars is at least questionable.” C: Seymour
“There is great ability in his statement, and a very wide knowledge is implied in his treatment of imperial history. Given the limitations he has himself imposed, the development of the present situation is truly rendered; and the volume is one which no intelligent British citizen can afford to neglect. ... The fundamental fault of Mr Curtis is provincialism. ... His geography would have to be revised for an American edition of his book; and perhaps even his history is tainted with the same provincialism of outlook. ... The sum of our criticism is this: there is ability in the marshalling of facts and the urging of a political programme, but the moral attitude implied is ingenuously primitive.” C. D. Burns
“The real significance of the present study is that it is to be regarded as a counterblast to such writers as Jebb and others who believe in Britannic alliance and conceive the future of Britain to be an alliance between the mother-country and the self-governing dominions. ... Indeed, the completeness with which it collates such material and the convenient form in which it presents it make the volume a handy treatise on the failure of contract ortreaty to insure permanency of political relationships. At this time, too, the subject is of wider interest than its immediate problem; the volume might be read as a sufficient antidote to a good bit of the literature put forth by the League to enforce peace. On the other hand, the study suffers from a failure to look at the history and evolution of the self-governing dominions. The American colonies, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States are treated, but the history of Canada and Australia is almost completely ignored. ... In the background of these ideas is Treitschke rather than T. H. Green. They go with a temper rather out of style at present—too little in sympathy with the common people.” D. A. MacGibbon
“The chapters on the American revolution (from the British point of view) and the relations between England and Ireland are specially interesting. The book is weighty, and may be recommended to students of history and imperial politics. It is liberally supplied with elaborate maps and diagrams.”
CUSHMAN, ROBERT EUGENE.Excess condemnation.*$2 (2½c) Appleton 336.1 17-21830
Mr Cushman, who is instructor in political science in the University of Illinois, treats his subject from the standpoint of the American city, the experience of European cities being introduced merely for illustrative and comparative purposes. He defines excess condemnation as, “‘the policy, on the part of the state or city, of taking by right of eminent domain more property than is actually necessary for the creation of a public improvement, and of subsequently selling or leasing this surplus.’” (Engin News-Rec) He discusses the three main objects of excess condemnation: “(1) to solve the vexing problems of remnants of land; (2) for the protection of improvements against the prejudicial use of adjacent land; (3) to take for the benefit of the city the increase in values of land adjacent to public improvements, due to the improvements themselves, and thus pay or help pay for the cost of the improvements. ... He then takes up ‘gains and risks’ administration, and the constitutionality of excess condemnation. A few bibliographical references and a list of cases cited are given.” (Engin News-Rec) The editor of the National municipal league series, in which this is the third volume, states in his introduction that this is the first work in the English language on the subject.
“It presents ample data on the many perplexing phases of the subject and discusses in a judicial spirit the evidence on both sides of controverted questions. ... The book deserves the careful attention of engineers and other city officials concerned in planning, financing and protecting municipal improvements, broadminded real estate men and all who are interested in helping on the orderly and economical growth of municipal improvements.”
“With its historical and illustrative material and general citation of cases the book will prove helpful to all students of the subject. ... The slow movement of our cities towards fundamental improvements is primarily because of the expense involved. The volume will by many be considered lacking in its handling of this.” E: T. Hartman
CUTLER, FREDERICK MORSE.Old First Massachusetts coast artillery in war and peace.il*$1 (2c) Pilgrim press 353.9 17-12948
Lieutenant Cutler gives the history of the “Old First” from its origin in 1784 to January, 1917. There are many pictures showing the changes in uniform and in artillery with the passing generations. The first appendix gives the Genealogy of the coast artillery; the second a bibliography.
“No Massachusetts militia unit has enjoyed a more interesting history, or has been more actively engaged in the country’s defence, than the Old First.”
“It will be news to many to find that in 1784 the general apathy toward military affairs in the United States was so marked that the total regular army was comprized within a single company, now Battery F of the field artillery.”
“Lieut. Cutler, who, by the way, is pastor of the Congregational church of Wenham, has told his story with a wealth of anecdote and in a style that will commend the volume beyond its particular clientele.”
CUTLER, ROBERT.Louisburg square. il*$1.50 (2c) Macmillan 17-10857
First of all this novel is a picture of Boston society. Old Boston names, Cabot, Quincy, and Copley, appear in its pages. Secondarily, it is a story. Rosalind Copley, the heroine, is a beautiful and popular young girl who interests herself in charities, acting as a volunteer worker in a settlement house. She has entered into a tentative engagement with Ben Cary, a promising young lawyer, when she meets Eric Rolland. Love between the two springs up quickly, but Rosalind feels that Ben has claims on her. Circumstances solve her problem.
“Mr Cutler knows whereof he writes. But the value of his novel does not rest on a knowledge of Beacon street and Commonwealth avenue. ... ‘Louisburg square’ starts where many of its unsuccessful competitors stop. Its universal elements bring it to the goal they miss.” R. W.
“The author makes some attempt at characterization, but the result is not very convincing. The whole with its irritating self-immolation is somewhat too suggestive of an ‘Elsie’ book to be pleasant.”
“All the old ingredients are here; there is a certain vigor about the telling, but why waste it on this trivial skeleton of an unreality?” C. W.
“A first novel and the product of an author so young that he was graduated from Harvard only last year, ‘Louisburg square’ shows a great deal of promise and a quite commendable present achievement.”
“There is quite enough in ‘Louisburg square’ of the quiet insight into and keen appreciation of that Boston culture which Mr Cutler understands well to make us hope for his early return from soldiering to writing—for him, evidently a field of promise.”
DALE, ROBERT BURDETTE.Drawing for builders. (Wiley technical ser. for vocational and industrial schools) il*$1.50 Wiley 692 16-20746
“This book is intended to serve as a basis for a problem course in elementary architectural drawing, and to be especially useful to the practical builder and to the ambitious young man who wishes to become an architect’s draftsman. ... Its aim is not only to teach the student to make drawings, but to instruct him to read and use them. It is written for use in home-study instruction, either with or without assistance, and it is hoped that it may find a place in high schools, vocational schools, night schools and industrial classes.” (Preface) Contents: Introduction; Drawing instruments and materials; How to make a drawing; Architecturalfree-hand lettering; Straight-line projection; The problems. These problems take up about one-half of the book. The author is assistant professor in charge of vocational courses in engineering at Iowa state college.
“The same author’s ‘Arithmetic for carpenters and builders’ is an excellent book for the same type of reader.”
DALRYMPLE, LEONA.Kenny.il*$1.35 (2c) Reilly & B. 17-21645
This story is by the author of the $10,000 prize novel, “Diane of the green van.” “Kennicott O’Neill is [the hero’s] full name, and he is a famous painter and as richly endowed with temperament as he is entitled to be by his double birthright of Celt and artist. Nevertheless, every one calls him ‘Kenny,’ even to his 23-year-old son, Brian. ... It all begins because Kenny, being more impecunious than usual, has taken Brian’s shotgun out and sold it, and Brian, being much annoyed, has thrown his paint brush across the studio and smashed a statuette.” (N Y Times) The two quarrel and Brian leaves his father “to tramp off into God’s green world of spring.” Kenny, homesick for the boy, follows him later, and they both find Joan, the girl in gold brocade, and her young brother, Don. Many things happen, and “finally Kenny realizes that the time has come for him to be 44 years old and for Brian, at last, to be 23 years young.” (N Y Times)
“Entertaining, sentimental, and in parts delightfully humorous.”
“If, not being too particular about facts, one likes occasionally a bit of Irish blarney and a bit of a romance with fairies lurking around the corner, then one should most certainly read about Kenny, artist, lover, and father to his son.”
“Leona Dalrymplehas written an American E. Temple Thurston novel; and although the comparison between the two may not be wholly in her favor, it is not meant to be derogatory. For nothing is so difficult—for an American writer, so relentlessly difficult—as the expression of charm in personality. Mr Merwin has given us his interpretation of New York’s bohemia; Miss Dalrymple now gives us hers, and, to tell the truth, it pleases us more.”
“A slight, wind-woven, gay story, with a touch of pathos toward the end.”
“Miss Dalrymple tells her very light story with zest, and there are pleasant bits of outdoor description. As a picture of Irish character it is highly conventional.”
D’ALTON, J. F.Horace and his age.*$2 (3c) Longmans 874
A study in historical background intended to encourage consideration of the character of the age in which Horace lived and wrote. The writer says, “I have tried to view him in the light of the various movements of his time, to recapture, as it were, the atmosphere in which he moved, to estimate a portion at least of the influences under which many of his thoughts were bodied forth.” Contents: Horace and Roman politics; The Augustan revival; Horace in religion and philosophy; The period of the Epistles; Horace and social problems; Horace and popular beliefs; Literary criticism.
“Prof. D’Alton, with a careful endeavour to steer clear of Procrustean-ism, and from evidence mainly derived from the poet’s writings, has in considerable measure succeeded in placing before us, not indeed a new Horace, but one whose mentality is perhaps a little easier to understand than was previously the case.”
“It is a particular pleasure to call attention to a genuinely distinguished contribution to the understanding of Horace.”
“To a certain extent he is successful, for he has great knowledge and great love of his subject, he writes admirably, and throws light on many particular points; but the total effect is that he presents the reader rather with an excellent book of reference than with an effective portrait.”
“It displays industry, accuracy, and temperate judgment. It does not go wandering after paradoxes like that which ensnared so brilliant a scholar and so keen a critic as Verrall. And by its seriousness it is a good corrective to the superficial view of Horace as an elegant trifler, a preacher of pleasure, one whose ideals of life were low. The defect of these qualities ... is that the book is rather useful than stimulating, and leaves no clear total impression.”
DALY, JOSEPH FRANCIS.Life of Augustin Daly. il*$4 (2½c) Macmillan 17-25827
The brother of Augustin Daly has written this intimate biography which is not only a full record of the life and work of America’s greatest theatrical manager but is an important contribution to the history of the American stage. During his early years, Mr Daly was dramatic critic for several of the New York papers. In this field he developed taste and genius not only for theater management but for play writing. In 1869 he entered the theatrical business when he leased the Fifth avenue theater for a term of two years and advertised to produce “whatever is novel, original, entertaining and unobjectionable,” and to revive “whatever is rare and worthy in the legitimate drama.” Mr Daly’s sincere, unflagging devotion to the cause of establishing the theater on a successful basis of high excellence furnishes the theme of the larger part of the work which cannot fail to find a large audience among producers, managers, playwrights, actors and, as well, the general public.
“Augustin Daly did a great service for the American stage, a service made all the more important by the influence of his own sterling character and single-eyed purpose, and this account of it deserves to have a place among the interesting records of American achievements.” F. F. Kelly
“A sympathetic appreciation by a brother. The reader is therefore offered a mass of interesting personalia, in lieu of any profound critical estimate of Augustin Daly’s influence on the American theater.”
“The author has succeeded in rearing a notable monument of fraternal affection. But, though a respected and capable judge, he had little skill in bookmaking. The legal habit of his mind is betrayed in the accumulation of the smallest details, rather than in orderly and discriminating use of them. His relation, especially in some of the earlier chapters, is often exceedingly confused and rambling.” J. R. Towse
“So broad, indeed, is the book’s scope that it becomes almost a history of the New York stage through the middle and later decades of the nineteenth century. And there are numbers of photographs of the stars of the seventies, eighties, and nineties, pictures which will arouse a flood of recollections in the breasts of middle-aged theatregoers.”
“An admirable biography. The author has used his ample material with tact and taste.”
“The book singularly and regrettably fails to give the intimate view we expect in biography. ... He has made a ship-shape lucidbiography with the personal equation of both brothers left out. To this end he seems to have deliberately foregone the abundant anecdotal charm of theatrical books. But he has made a valuable statistical contribution to the history of the American stage.” Algernon Tassin
DAMPIERRE, LÉON MICHEL MARIE JACQUES DE, marquis.German imperialism and international law; based upon German authorities and the archives of the French government. il*$3.50 Scribner 940.91 (Eng ed 17-15316)
“In the first chapters M. de Dampierre devotes himself to an investigation of the theories which have gone to build up the principles of German imperialism, contrasting them with the opposed doctrines which have found their expression in the attempts to build up a system of international law.’ ... He then proceeds to show how all that has happened in this war. ... is the logical and inevitable consequence of the teaching of German writers before the war. ... He has read widely and ... his illustrations from the works of German writers are always supported by full references. ... The two last chapters, ‘The German war and spoliation’ and ‘German terrorism,’ are almost entirely occupied with a discussion of the diaries of German soldiers, which afford irrefutable evidence regarding what took place during the months of August and September, 1914.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“M. de Dampierre proves quite conclusively that the annexation of Belgium was the direct objective of the war.”
“Ably and temperately written book, fortified throughout by the evidence of enemy literature and documents.”
“He writes as one who brings to the study of contemporary history the habits formed in the great school which has grown up round the study of the French archives, and his work is as scientific, asdocumenté, as that of any German. ... It is much to be regretted that there is no index to the book.”
DANA, MARVIN.Perfect memory.*$1 (7c) Clode. E: J. 154 17-24845
How to have and keep a perfect memory is the thesis of Dr Dana’s hundred forty pages of practical instruction. He believes that whether a memory is good or bad anyone can improve it one thousand per cent, or more, by following the methods set forth in these pages. The scheme of mental control upon which he bases his instruction stresses concentration, visualization, necessity for the concrete, association of ideas and avoidance of the abstract. He points out the best results, and way to secure them, from memorizing lists, dates, names and faces. He says that the right kind of memory “means a mind in the plenitude of its vigor, growing, serene, energized, competent to every task; a mind that compels the respect of others, and, what is of deeper worth, maintains to the full one’s own self-respect, which is the foundation-stone whereon content is builded.”
DANE, CLEMENCE.Regiment of women.*$1.50 (1c) Macmillan 17-3574
This book by a new writer recalls Hugh Walpole’s early novel “The gods and Mr. Perrin.” It is a study of the unwholesome conditions that may exist in a large school where pupils and teachers are so isolated from the active life of the world that emotional reactions are intensified to a dangerous degree. In this case it is a girls’ school and the teachers are women. Clare Hartill, a brilliant, selfish woman, who attracts girls to her, accepts their devotion for a time and then casts them off, is the central figure. One of the younger teachers, Alwynne Durand, becomes attached to her in much the same way that the sentimental schoolgirls do. The unnatural friendship is fortunately brought to an end by the intrusion of a more healthful outside influence. In an unobtrusive way the story offers an argument for co-education.
“A detailed, well written study. ... Interesting, shows a real danger and suggests a remedy.”
“The unsound morale of girls’ schools is caught powerfully. The morbid, unhealthy association of women among themselves, the strong affections, the intrigue, the jealousies, and the influence of the mistresses on the immature pupils, are admirably suggested. The atmosphere is heady. The reader longs for a man.”
“The book’s striking merit lies in the extraordinary fidelity of its picture. It does for the English girls’ school much what Mr Walpole’s ‘The gods and Mr Perrin’ did for the English boys’ school. The theme in both instances is the life of the teachers, rather than of the pupils.”
“In a larger way, the book interprets the ingrowing emotionalism and moral sterility to which any community lacking the leaven of the opposite sex is prone.” H. W. Boynton
“Miss Dane does not make manifest to the American reader sufficient reason for the fascination which her Miss Hartill is able to exercise over her associates in the school. Otherwise, it is a noteworthy picture of a scheming, clever, selfish, vain woman who has become, temperately, more or less abnormal. ... The book takes its title, in which ‘regiment’ is used in its old English sense of ‘rule,’ from John Knox’s ‘First blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women.’”
“It is hard to believe that ‘Regiment of women’ is the first novel that its author, Clemence Dane, has written. ... This power of ‘creating’ and expressing character is usually the reward of nothing but long labour. ... The chief impression is one of wisdom: a shrewd penetration into human minds and the circumstances that mould or fix them, combined with an admirable ‘all-roundness’ of outlook upon human life.”
DANILEVSKII, GRIGORIIPETROVICH.[2]Moscow in flames; tr. from the Russian by Dr A. S. Rappoport.*$1.40 Brentano’s 17-31035
“This is not, as the translator states, the first novel by this author to appear in English. Danilevskii (1829-90), already known in English by a novel dealing with Pougachev’s rebellion, called ‘The Princess Tarakanova,’ here presents the French invasion from the Russian point of view. The story covers the period 1812-53, and follows the fortunes of a young nobleman and his betrothed, a society beauty.”—Ath
“It is vivid, full of historical detail, and a good specimen of its class, and is, of course, crammed with historic names.”
“The characters in ‘Moscow in flames’ are drawn with the flatness and remoteness of fresco; its incidents are strikingly unoriginal. But his comments on Russian life and character are not without shrewdness and piquancy.”
“Allowing for the difficulties of translation, the author’s style is a little crude, judging by severe standards, and his character sketches weak. On the whole, however, the book is interesting, typifying, as it does, a popular Russian novel.”
DARBISHIRE, ARTHUR DUKINFIELD.Introduction to a biology, and other papers. il*$2.50 Funk 17-15695
“The late Mr Darbishire, an accomplished young Oxford biologist, died of illness contracted in camp before he could complete his book. He had written a lively criticism of the materialistic theory of life, and just as he came to face the constructive side of his essay—‘Is the soul a mere aggregate symptom of a mechanism—the body? Or is the body not rather the instrument of the soul?’—he had to lay his pen aside. The scattered papers which have been collected by his sister, with a brief memoir, hint at the answer which he would have given. He was strongly influenced by Samuel Butler and by M. Bergson, but he was an original and fearless thinker and inquirer whom English science could ill spare.”—Spec
“Unhappily the work is but a fragment. ... The essay, however unconvincing, is brightly written, for the author had a style of candid freshness and a gift of investing even trivial things with humorous interest. The charm of his personality is well brought out in the brief biographical sketch by his sister.”