B

Bacheller, Irving A.Eben Holden’s last day a-fishing.†50c. Harper.

7–29429.

Two pictures of an old favorite are presented in this slight volume; one of fishing on a June day and the other of Christmas-time in Eben Holden’s old-fashioned country home. He is still the kind, wise, humorous companion of earlier days.

Bacon, Edwin Munroe.Connecticut river, and the valley of the Connecticut. **$3.50. Putnam.

6–27342.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“The familiar story is well told and gives the lie afresh to the complaint that picturesque America is lacking in historical associations. A few minor slips occur.” Kate M. Cone.

Bacon, Josephine Dodge Daskam.Domestic adventures. †$1. Scribner.

7–29425.

“The present story sets forth both the erotic and culinary experiences of three bachelor girls from New York, who decide that their combined resources justify the setting up of a modest establishment in the suburbs somewhere ‘out Greenwich way.’”—Bookm.

“Here is something to be strongly recommended as a panacea for the peculiarly debilitating effects of the servant problem. Somewhat in the form of a diary presumably jotted down from day to day, but occasional lapses into a reminiscent mood, as of one writing it up several years later, considerably disturb the continuity and befog the chatty atmosphere.” G. W. Adams.

“Mrs. Bacon has scored so often by virtue of sheer hard cleverness that it is not to be wondered at if the note grows yet harder and thinner as time goes on.”

“The plot is of soap-bubble texture ... and the whole is told with abundant humor in a style of exceptional simplicity and good taste.”

“The book is full of fun.”

“A mild plot is cleverly managed by the author.”

Bacon, Mrs. Mary Schell (Dolores Bacon, pseud.)In high places. †$1.50. Doubleday.

7–31212.

The “high places” are the risky elevations from which scrupulous and unscrupulous actors in high finance manipulate the money market. A business woman of to-day occupies the center of the stage.

“‘In high places,’ in fact, inspires a hope that Mrs. Bacon may go on rather than back, that she may succeed in ridding herself of the shopworn, obvious side of her talent and by clearing her mind of a residue of stock phrases and characters, leave it free to receive her own unhackneyed and genuine impressions.”

“In many respects the novel is disagreeable—in some unnecessarily so—but the plea that it is true to life can be supported, without doubt.”

Bacon, Mrs. Mary Schell (Dolores Bacon, pseud.), ed. Songs every child should know. **90c. Doubleday.

6–35301.

More than a hundred songs with music are grouped here. They include songs of sentiment, folk song, cradle songs, songs of war, national hymns, nonsense songs, patriotic songs, Shakesperian songs and miscellaneous songs. Introductory notes to each song add enlightenment for the child.

“The judgment used in the selection of these songs is as good as the taste displayed is broad and catholic.”

“Such a book should be graded rather than arranged artificially into groups. Mrs. Bacon is too generous, though her idea is excellent.”

“One of the best books in the ‘Every child should know’ series.”

Badger, George Henry.Water-star. *80c. Am. Unitar.

7–29693.

Four essays, The water-star, Landscape of the soul, The haunts of the hind, and Do we see nature? In the first one the water lily is used for a lesson. The author shows that in sending forth above the surface of the water so wonderful a flower the roots do quiet work in the murky depths; so in life, if crowning success be attained, there lies back of it the commonplace pegging away at stale duties.

Bagley, William Chandler.Classroom management: its principles and technique. *$1.25. Macmillan.

7–15629.

“Useful to any teacher who has not solved all his practical problems, and particularly valuable to the young teacher. The great virtue of the book is its actuality; its material has been gathered mainly from experience and observation. The writer constantly sums up the best expert opinion upon the question in hand.... The contents of the book may be suggested by a few of the chapter titles: ‘The daily program,’ ‘Hygienic conditions in the school-room,’ ‘Order and discipline,’ ‘Penalties,’ ‘The problem of attention.’”—Dial.

“The thought is sane and illuminating throughout, and the form is always clear and strong. We know of no other book that will bring more varied and abundant help to the teacher in actual hand-grips with his task.”

“While the book is written primarily for students of education in schools and colleges, it will be helpful to all teachers and will appeal to the most thoughtful and ambitious.”

“The high standpoint of the author is strikingly evident in his noble chapter on ‘The ethics of schoolcraft,’ whose seven pages, separately printed, are well worth wide distribution among teachers at public expense.”

Bagot, Richard.Temptation. †$1.50. Macmillan.

7–37716.

Italy furnishes the stage, and her people the actors for this study in psychology. A very unhappy Italian woman moved by the sinister fascination of an ancestor’s homicidal act of killing her lover by poison resorts to the same means to rid herself of a husband whom she loathes. “Ugo, the hapless count, his wife Cristina, the Duchess of San Felice, and Fabrizio, the guilty cousin, are all human figures.” (Ath.)

“Mr. Bagot observes keenly, but a little hastily; he is rather sharp than wise in his judgments, and his people are drawn without the subtle shades which would make them interesting in themselves.”

“It is a powerful drama, and discloses Mr. Bagot at his best.”

“Like Mr. Crawford, also Mr. Bagot never lets you forget that he is writing of an alien race, with habits and temperaments and language quite foreign to that of the Anglo-Saxon; and yet, at the same time, he interprets them so skilfully that the sum total of your impressions is rather that of the brotherhood of the two races than of the gulf between them.” Frederic Taber Cooper.

“Mr. Bagot spends so much care on the few characters whom he introduces, and offers so close an explanation of their motives, that we are prepared both for greater vigour of action and greater subtlety of speech. But he seldom drops his attitude of the grave observer pondering wide issues. In any case, however, it is an interesting book; you lay it down not infrequently, but you open it with respect.”

“The facts are bald enough, but they are interpreted with much skill.”

“There are few gleams of fascination in ‘Temptation’.”

“That which may be most cordially praised in this novel is the author’s evidently exact and always interesting depiction of Italian country life and social customs and manners.”

“Although the main theme of the story is gloomy, there are many pleasant passages. The book is always interesting.”

“Though ‘Temptation’ cannot be pronounced a pleasant book, the author must be acquitted of any desire to palter with the principles of right and wrong.”

Bailey, Edgar H. S.Text-book of sanitary and applied chemistry; or, The chemistry of water, air, and food. *$1.40. Macmillan.

6–32422.

In which the author emphasizes the fact that a knowledge of the relations of health to pure air, unpolluted water, and wholesome food will greatly improve sanitary conditions of students as well as people at large. Part 1 discusses air and fuel in their relation to heating and ventilation, lighting by the various agents now in use, water supply and purification, and disposal of household waste. Part 2 deals with food, food-materials, food accessories, preservatives, beverages and dietaries.

“Professor Bailey has brought together much of the material which he has used for his lectures on domestic economy in the University of Kansas, and made of it a practical class textbook.”

Reviewed by Ellen H. Richards.

“The field covered by the work is so very great that it is hardly to be expected that thoroughness can be attained in a book of 345 small pages. There are many things in the book which will interest the student reader, but he must remember that it is essentially elementary.”

*Bailey, Elmer James.Novels of George Meredith: a study. **$1.25. Scribner.

7–34148.

In five chapters Mr. Bailey deals with the development of Meredith’s genius, the best known characters in his stories, and the analogies between his work and that of his predecessors.

“Neither the style nor the matter is of a kind to inspire confidence. The new and interesting part of the book is a sketch of Meredith’s influence upon other novelists.”

“The volume can be used as a companion to Trevelyan’s work on Meredith’s poetry and philosophy.”

Bailey, Liberty Hyde, ed. Cyclopedia of American agriculture: a popular survey of agricultural conditions, practices and ideals in the United States and Canada. 4v. $5. Macmillan.

7–8529.

A work whose purpose is to sift the literature in which scientific farming finds expression and to “embody its most important and permanent results.” (N. Y. Times.)

v. 1.Deals with “Farms.” Discusses agricultural regions, their soils, temperature; the selection, laying out and culture of farms; farm machinery irrigation, sanitation, etc.

v. 2.Considers the subject of crops under three divisions: “the first deals with the plant in general, its life processes, its response to such stimuli as artificial light, weak poisons, and electricity, insects and diseases which harm it, plant breeding and introduction, the management of weeds, crop rotation and crop yields. Part second describes the manufacture of various crop products from pickles to denatured alcohol. The third section, which is a general discussion, alphabetically arranged, of American farm crops, fills the main portion of the volume.” (N. Y. Times.)

“A monumental work of interest to a much larger class than farmers only.”

“Is indispensable to public and reference libraries, and it should be extensively purchased for circulating and school libraries in the rural districts.”

“A truly magnificent, coherent and exhaustive work.”

Bailey, Temple. Judy.†$1.50. Little.

7–30439.

Two motherless girls of contrasting types are joint heroines in this story. One happy hearted girl who had been brought up on fresh air, simple food, sunshine and flowers teaches the other child, cloyed with things of life to the point of youthful ennui, a wholesome life lesson.

Bailey, William Bacon.Modern social conditions. $3. Century.

6–34864.

“The field covered by this volume is part of that treated in Mayo-Smith’s ‘Statistics and sociology.’ The first chapter is an elementary treatise on the history of statistics. The other chapters give statistical information in relation to sex, age, conjugal conditions, births, marriage, death and the growth of population.”—Am. J. Soc.

“The author has rendered a service to students by bringing up the figures as nearly as possible to date.” C. R. H.

“Judged intrinsically the book not only justifies its appearance, but strongly commends itself to the use of every student of demography. The author’s style is simple, and the volume is crowded with information. In fact the data are often compelled to speak too largely for themselves. A stronger emphasis upon their interpretation and practical bearing would have heightened the interest of the book. On the other hand, the theoretical discussion avoids all irritating mathematical complexities.” George B. Mangold.

“It is undoubtedly the most excellent compilation of more or less familiar population statistics that has been done by an American. Yet the question may be seriously raised as to the essential value of such treatises for the student of social conditions. Several sections are included in the treatise under consideration, which are abstruse and difficult, and ... the reader is not led up carefully to a full comprehension of those sections.” J. C.

“I am compelled to conclude that the book is not based upon the best authorities, that the authorities followed have not been used critically, and that it is not an adequate presentation of the present condition of American vital statistics.” Walter F. Wilcox.

“As a text for students, its most serious fault is the constant resort to an off-hand, ready-made explanation of every conceivable situation. Comments are too facile and correlations too readily assumed. The style of the book is loose in the extreme.” D. C. Wells.

Baillie, James Black.Outline of the idealistic construction of experience. *$2.75. Macmillan.

7–11048.

The general purpose of this volume “is to expound the essential principles of British Neo-Hegelianism in fairly systematic fashion and with reference to the present problems of philosophy.” (Philos. R.)

“The book will not be found easy even by the trained student of philosophy, but we know no English work in which there has been a more successful effort to give clear and convincing meaning to those abstract phrases in which alone idealist doctrines can be expounded.”

“Its debt to the ‘Phanomenologie des Geistes’ is so avowedly extensive, and yet its hold upon modern problems—psychological and epistemological, social and religious—is so vital, that the reader is hardly able to say whether the work is strongest as a fresh treatment of these problems or as an exposition of Hegel; the fact being that it is both things—the one because it is the other.” J. W. Scott.

“If his object is to make an effective appeal to common sense and the scientific mind, we are inclined to think that his method is not well chosen for the purpose. To render Hegel is one thing, to do the work of the great idealists ‘all over again’ is another. Each is sufficiently difficult by itself, and they would be best attempted independently; to combine the two in a single volume is almost to court disaster.”

“The book is as accurate, in nearly all essential respects, as it is dry and colorless; and it is really helpful in assisting one to think out again the idealistic problem and its solution. But it fails exactly where Mr. Haldane’s Gifford lectures (1902–4) were so preëminently successful,—in impressing the reader with the very important bearing of modern idealism upon the most recent problems of science and philosophy, as well as upon the more practical but not less perplexing, problems of modern life.” Ernest Albee.

“In this lucid volume the profound difficulties that underlie an idealistic theory of experience are analyzed with great elaboration, and the idealistic position placed in a new and more helpful environment.”

Baily, J. T. Herbert.Emma, Lady Hamilton; a biographical essay with a catalogue of her published portraits. *$3.50. Stokes.

A record of Lady Hamilton, the prominence of whose pictorial phase but emphasizes the avenue thru which she made so many conquests, namely, her beauty. The text serves only as a setting for the pictures.

“Mr. Baily’s narrative, short and readable, is apologetic and even warmly eulogistic in tone, and may well be supplemented and corrected by some less favorable presentation of the famous courtesan.” Percy F. Bicknell.

“Although the book is not an authoritative life or a critical essay on her portraiture, it is quite the best pictorial record.”

Baker, Cornelia.Court jester; with il. by Margaret E. Webb and Margaret H. Deveneau. †$1.25. Bobbs.

6–28221.

The story of the journey of the Princess Marguerite to Spain to become the wife of the son of Ferdinand and Isabella.

“Well-told and interesting but too drawn out to hold the average child’s attention throughout.”

“A book well worth while. The publishers are to be congratulated on this successful collaboration.”

“A well-written historical novel for children. The illustrations ... are excellent in portrayal of character and costume.”

Baker, Ernest A.History in fiction. 2v. *$1.50. Dutton.

7–29857.

An enlargement of an earlier work, “Guide to the best fiction.” It is classified, arranged and indexed for the convenience of the student. “Its two small volumes deal, the first with English historical fiction, the second with American and foreign subjects.... The general arrangement is chronological under the various countries, but a novel and acceptable feature is that, wherever possible, there is added, in the fashion of a foot-note, information about fiction actually written in the time treated by the books in the regular text.” (Outlook.)

“These two volumes are the result of an enormous amount of labor well expended. The brief notes appended by Mr. Baker to the titles of the books he enumerates are generally informing, and occasionally not without a touch of humour.” A. Schade van Westrum.

“So far as we have tested the accuracy and inclusiveness of the work, it seems capital, and a special word of praise should be given for the index.”

“Very carefully compiled catalogue.”

Baker, Etta Anthony.Youngsters of Centerville. il. †$1.50. Holt.

7–30441.

Stories for children which deal with real boys and girls, their games, their pranks, their school and their faith in each other. There is wholesome patriotic sentiment in the doings of these youngsters, the sort that any school boy may profit by.

Baker, George Pierce.Development of Shakespeare as a dramatist. *$1.75. Macmillan.

7–22387.

A comprehensive modern analysis of Shakespeare’s growth as a playwright. Comprehensive, inasmuch as it omits no step of the great dramatist’s development, and modern “in the generous citations from the most recent critics of the drama in England, France, and America; in the omission of the well-known facts of Shakespeare’s life, and the disregard of the familiar quibbles over the text.” (N. Y. Times.) “The illustrations constitute a valuable feature of the book. They embrace the most authentic maps of Elizabethan London, all illustrationsthat throw light on the construction of the Elizabethan stage, and many other things that help us to an understanding of the drama of the period.” (Nation.)

“The book may well be read in conjunction with Professor Raleigh’s, as supplying precisely the information which is lacking in that.” Edward Fuller.

“The book throws more light on Shakespeare’s intellectual and artistic development than many others written with less regard for external conditions and for the part other playwrights played in preparing the way for Shakespeare.”

“There are certain points in Professor Baker’s study that one is tempted to disagree with; but on the whole his book is extremely valuable because of the sound common sense of his attitude toward the playwright and his work.” Walter Clayton.

“We wish to recommend the general sanity of Professor Baker’s work and his thorough sympathy with his author.”

“The enthusiastic analyst gets the better of that poetic sense so desirable in the Shakespearean critic. Excepting this limitation, however, the viewpoint of the book is wholly admirable, and a lover of the poet’s plays cannot fail to extract from it both profit and inspiration.”

“His conclusions may seem radical to readers who are not familiar with the more recent discussions; but they are in accord substantially with those held by nearly all later investigators.” Brander Matthews.

“This study ... is full of light and leading in the confusion of uneducated opinion.”

“It is to be regarded as an exceptionally interesting and valuable addition to recent Shakespeare literature.” Wm. J. Rolfe.

Baker, James Hutchins.American problems; essays and addresses. **$1.20. Longmans.

7–7477.

In which American ideals are depicted and problems of sociology and education discussed. “The main emphasis is laid on moral ideals, and on moral culture as ‘the corner-stone of all culture.’” (Outlook.)

“Professor Baker’s style is clear and pleasing, his large range of illustrations are aptly applied while the general tone of the work is vigorous and even inspiring.”

“The author firmly believes that the world is growing better on the whole, and sets forth his belief in an interesting if not strikingly original manner.” Max West.

“The only distinction of the book is its style, which has a crispness and vigor that many readers, especially such as are neither thoughtful nor well read, will doubtless find attractive.”

Reviewed by Montgomery Schuyler.

“If it lacks style, it is also without pedantry—a virtue not to be despised in this day of the making of many books.” Edward C. Elliott.

Baker, John Cordis, ed. American country homes and their gardens; introd. by Donn Barber. $5. Winston.

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