Chapter 150

7–30444.

“This volume of jingles is judiciously divided, somewhat like Charles Welsh’s edition of ‘Mother Goose,’ to accord with the physical activities and dawning mental appreciation of small folk. There is a diversity of selection, ranging from ‘Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, where have you been?’ to Tennyson’s least childlike and most stilted poem, ‘Minnie and Winnie.’”—Nation.

“Taken in a set, these three volumes of verse represent an agreeable progress from classic jingle to rarest poetry.”

Wigram, Edgar T. A.Northern Spain; painted and described by Edgar T. A. Wigram. *$6. Macmillan.

“The kind of description which lies halfway between the guide-book and the book of atmosphere.” (Outlook.) “The author made his tour as a bicyclist. He journeyed with observing eyes, and very little in Spain that was really worth while escaped him.” (Ind.) “Besides ‘hamlets’ and small towns, the traveler stopped at the larger cities, including Covadonga and Asturias, Leon, Galicia, Benavente, Zamora, Toro, Salamanca, Bejar, Avila, Toledo, Segovia, Burgos, Navarre, and others.” (N. Y. Times.)

“One cannot open these pages anywhere without being struck by our author’s capacity for presenting a scene in words at once fit and few.”

“As we read what he has written we see Spanish types with a new significance, and we lay down the volume with a better and a clearer understanding of Spain and the Spaniards.”

“It is greatly to be regretted that Mr. Wigram ... was not accompanied on his journey through Northern Spain by a professional painter who would have been able to supplement his eloquent descriptions of the scenes he visited by aesthetic presentments of them in colour. Gifted, moreover, with a vivid imagination and a keen sense of humor, Mr. Wigram manages to hit off in a few telling sentences the idiosyncrasies not only of the men and women, but of the animals he met.”

“Mr. Wigram has well caught in his pictures the varied colors of Spain, which seem at first glance so inharmonious when viewed by essentially Occidental eyes. But they are true, and the artist is to be congratulated that he has dared to depict the truth and to account for it so entertainingly in a most attractively written text.”

“The author not only describes the country through which he rode or walked, but also tells anecdotes, gives bits of the history of certain places, and provides other interesting information.”

“An altogether unworthy successor to Ford and Borrow is Mr. Wigram who possesses one faculty denied to those worthies—namely, the facility of describing by picture as well as by pen.”

“As a writer he harps too much upon merely pictorial effects, which were doubtless attractive to an artist but suffer through vain repetition. Though we may not claim him as guide or philosopher, he is certainly well met as a soothing friend.”

Wilberforce, Wilfrid, and Gilbert, Mrs. A. R.Her faith against the world. *$l. Benziger.

A young barrister asks the aristocratic Sir Richard Forrester for the hand of his daughter, Gertrude and is refused because he lacks position. Later he gets into Parliament on assuring his constituents that he is not a Roman Catholic. Sir Richard then welcomes him, but Gertrude, who has joined the Roman church, refuses to marry a Protestant, and is turned out of her father’s house. The solution of this complication is the burden of this political-religious novel.

“The book is written from the point of view of a Roman Catholic, but without bitterness and intolerance.”

“An entertaining novel, although it is somewhat sketchy in both action and character, and although it does carry a moral instruction.”

Wilcox, Earley Vernon.Farm animals: horses, cows, sheep, swine, goats, poultry, etc. **$2. Doubleday.

6–35959.

A practical book giving general information about the breeding and care of farm animals.

“A good, popular guide.”

“It is rather an excellent compend of general information. The chapter on dairy stock is the best in the book, but every chapter is good. The illustrations have the advantage of being well related to the subject.”

Wilde, Oscar.Decorative art in America: a lecture, together with letters, reviews, and interviews; ed. with an introd. by Richard B. Glaenzer. **$1.50. Brentano’s.

6–39452.

Mr. Glaenzer in his introduction sets forth the characteristics chiefly as they pertain to art, of “the most pitiful dreamer, the wittiest cynic and the most brilliant wit of his century.” The nineteen essays or groups of letters which this volume includes strike the dominant art notes of Oscar Wilde’s nature. Among the personalities touched up by the “verbal colourist” are Mrs. Langtry, Sarah Bernhardt, Whistler, Keats, and Kipling.

Wilde, Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Wills.Ballad of Reading gaol; drawings by Latimer J. Wilson. *$1. Buckles.

7–16474.

In this new edition of the well-known ballad the spirit of the gruesome revelation of a soul in torment is marred by the illustrations which, lacking any subtle suggestion of the horrors of the hangman and the terrors of death, are commonplace and repellant.

Wiley, Harvey Washington.Foods and their adulteration. Il. *$4. Blakiston.

7–19428.

This book, descriptive in character, reaches a large audience, including the consumer, the manufacturer and the scientific as well as the general reader. It treats of the origin, manufacture and composition of food products; the description of common adulterations, food standards and national food laws and regulations. The information contained in this manual appeals especially to the intelligent and scientific cook.

“The book is invaluable to the manufacturer and the consumer, to the scientist and the layman; it is indispensable to even a small collection on this subject of wide, present-day interest.”

“This is the most authoritative and comprehensive book that has appeared on this important subject, and there is no other man in America who is better fitted to handle it from both the scientific and the legislative sides than the author.”

“This is not the book of a crank, and Dr. Wiley’s views regarding the future of the American food-supply are in general optimistic.”

“The information furnished by Dr. Wiley arms the public with knowledge—knowledge of the conditions and of its own rights.”

“Amid a large mass of confusing and often exaggerated newspaper articles dealing withthe subject, it is a comfort to find a book covering the field so completely, so sanely and withal in so interesting a way.”

Wiley, Sara King.Alcestis and other poems. **75c. Macmillan.

5–32655.

Descriptive note in December, 1905.

Wiley, Sara King.Coming of Philibert. **$1.25. Macmillan.

7–18078.

A tragic poem-drama of three acts in which Prince Philibert, who has been reared in the forest and kept unconscious of his heritage, according to the wish of his dead father, is brought to the court of Artacia by his twin brother, the young king who feels that he has been unjustly dealt with. Here the world is opened to him, all his latent emotions awake, and unwittingly, he usurps his brother’s place in the hearts of his people, and comes to wear his crown and marry his Clementia.

“It will bear reading. But, in the acting, it would appear lamentably monotonous and wanting in almost every essential of a play, notably characterization, contrast and ‘suspense.’”

“Is an interesting bit of dramatic blank verse which just misses distinction.”

“As a play there is much good exposition but little vital action. The verse is always correct, and occasionally there are flashes of fine poetry.” Christian Gauss.

“Mrs. Drummond is an essentially feminine poet of fine insight and delicate sensibility. The chief gain in ‘The coming of Philibert’ is the dramatic action and force.” Louise Collier Willcox.

Wilkinson, Florence.Silent door. †$1.50. McClure.

7–10292.

A village story ... “which revolves about Justinian Penrith, incarnate genius of austerity, and a little child left ... upon his doorstep. Given a beautiful daughter who had fled from home some years previous for an affaire d’amour and whose whereabouts had baffled all search—and you have the key to ‘The silent door.’” (N. Y. Times.)

“In Miss Wilkinson’s novel ... one recognizes the promise rather than the achievement. The story taken as a whole is unimpressive. The plot is mildly preposterous, and none of the characters, not even little Rue herself, seems ever quite detachable from the printed page. But the details of Miss Wilkinson’s work are a constant delight.” Harry James Smith.

“The chief charm about Miss Wilkinson’s style is its absolute lack of hurry. It is seldom that one encounters such genuine charm in a volume constructed upon a plan so simple.”

“There are some fine pages of description. The humor is abundant and genuine.”

“It has a pervasive, though not obtrusive, spiritual quality, and leaves upon one an impression of sweetness and light.”

“In her first novel, she has accomplished something also rare, and certainly thoroughly delightful.”

Wilkinson, Rt. Rev. Thomas Edward.Twenty years of continental work and travel. *$3 50. Longmans.

“The record of an Anglican bishop’s experience in north and central Europe among British colonies, factories, and communities, comprising an area eight times the size of Great Britain.”—Lit. D.

“Bishop Wilkinson has great power of observation and much skill in expressing that observation in words. There is in the volume a good deal of padding which, should have been omitted.”

“An interesting panorama of Europe, with a fine historic perspective.”

Willcocks, M. P.Wingless victory. $1.50. Lane.

7–35625.

Devonshire furnishes the setting of this story. “The plot centres about the winning of an unloving and pretty nearly unfaithful wife by her husband.... The husband is a physician, a curious mixture of strength and weakness, heroism and failure, and altogether a very human and lovable person. The wife is not so comprehensible a type, but still real enough in her feminine perversity and unreasonableness.... Johanna is of another type, and she, too, makes one see deep down into the reality of things. The whole book is alive with human passion, powerfully portrayed, and with the vigor and freshness of the open air.” (N. Y. Times.)

“Talent such as hers was not and never could be acquired in any of the ready-made schools of fiction. It bears the stamp of originality.”

“The author has certainly produced a notable as well as a good story. It seems to us somewhat clogged by over elaboration of style and metaphor.”

“The book is the work of one who has thought much. Scattered through it are gnomic sayings that stick in the memory. These and an intimate sense of natural forces, are perhaps the striking external features of the book.” Ward Clark.

“The book has strength ... although not in this plot with its dubious ethical implications. It is the strength of keen analysis, vivid descriptive power, and a characterization of the rustic population of Devon and Dartmoor fairly comparable with the work of Mr. Phillpotts and other disciples of the school of Thomas Hardy.” Wm. M. Payne.

“An Ibsen plot set in a Thomas Hardy environment. The combination is, on the whole, an effective one, for the author has undoubted talent.”

“In the case of Miss Willcock’s book ... we have need of some emphatic word that shall signify a book that is not a season’s masterpiece or a giant among pigmies, but, as we conceive, one that takes its place, if not among the highest, still among books where rules of measurement seem a little out of place.”

“Rises high above the level of common day fiction. In Miss Willcock’s elaborate descriptions we discern a certain scraping of stage scenery being shifted. In the same way there is unnecessary harping on such indefinable elements as ‘race-processes’ and ‘electric forces of the ages’ unnecessary reductions of action and feeling to terms of biology and prehistoric anthropology.”

“A helpful and heartening story, not because any of its characters are particularly high or heroic in their accomplishment, but because it conveys that life itself in its simple, homely, everyday guise is a thing worth while.”

“A very remarkable piece of work, and not less interesting than remarkable.”

“No one except the serious-minded reader who loves a problem novel should embark upon ‘The wingless victory.’”

Williams, Archibald.How it works: dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and their application to apparatus in common use.$1.25. Nelson.

7–29122.

“Here the reader will find explained in a concise, straightforward manner the working of everything from a locomotive or a motorcar to a Bunsen burner or a Westinghouse brake. The book is profusely illustrated with helpful diagrams, and we are glad to note that an index has been provided.”—Acad.

“Hardly any other volume will answer as many of the questions that a bright boy asks and ought to ask about the things he sees and uses. It should head the list of books to be bought for school libraries.”

“The volume furnishes much that is practical and lucid.”

Williams, Archibald.Romance of early exploration, with descriptions of interesting discoveries, thrilling adventures, and wonderful bravery of the early explorers. *$1.50. Lippincott.

6–39449.

“The present book brings exploration down to A. D. 1600 beginning with its infancy 200 years before Herodotus. Pictures and maps add desirabilty to the book.”—Nation.

“The writer’s own manner is one of manly straightforwardness, as free from dulness as from misplaced embellishment.”

Reviewed by Cyrus C. Adams.

“An intelligent boy could hardly have a book which would give him more entertainment and more instruction.”

Williams, Egerton Ryerson, jr.Ridolfo, the coming of the dawn, a tale of the Renaissance. †$1.50. McClurg.

6–36880.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“One thing is certain about Mr. Williams’ first attempt to write a novel; he has succeeded.”

Williams, Elizabeth Otis.Sojourning, shopping and studying in Paris, a handbook particularly for women. **$1. McClurg.

7–18307.

An excellent little book into which has been compressed a wealth of valuable information for the woman who is traveling alone in France. It contains the addresses of suitable hotels, boarding houses, schools of art, places of amusement, and shops in Paris, it tells what charges, fees, etc. are just, it explains customs and conventions, tells where one may go without an escort, what one may bring home without duty, how to arrange one’s finances, and appends a classified vocabulary which contains all the words and phrases essential to a shopping tour or an excursion.

“A suggestive, helpful little handbook.”

“Just the sort of information needed by American ladies in Paris. And, altho written for women, we fancy that men will find it almost as valuable.”

Williams, Henry Llewellyn, jr., comp. Lincoln story book. **$1.50. Dillingham.

7–8232.

It is the story-telling Lincoln shorn of platform oratory who is revealed in this generous collection of anecdotes. There are over four hundred of them and in the retelling nothing of the humor, or of the tone of the classics has been sacrificed.

Williams, Hugh Noel.Madame Recamier and her friends. *$2. Scribner.

The details of the long salon-reign of Mme. Récamier are carefully set forth here. “With no commanding ability such as in itself might draw a group about her, yet, in wealth and in poverty, in court favor and banishment, in youth and in age, Mme. Récamier was ever the center of a great circle, and ever herself simple, contented, generous, unspoiled by attention from all the famous people of her time.” (Ind.)

“Granting the ‘raison d’etre’ of the biography, it may be said that the author has conscientiously studied the life of his heroine, together with those of her friends as they affected hers, and presents the results in a pleasant, easy manner, which makes the book an entertaining one.”

“A most satisfactory story of an extraordinary career.”

Reviewed by Hildegarde Hawthorne.

Williams, Hugh Noel.Queen Margot, wife of Henry IV. of France. *$7.50. Scribner.

7–25144.

Daughter of Catherine de Medici, wife of Henry of Navarre, the brilliant La Reine Margot is revealed in both an attractive and forbidding light. She figures thruout the sketch as a being mightily swayed by emotions yet capable of detaching herself from them as in the case of her “debonair equanimity of mind” when divorced from her husband, and called upon to mingle with his new queen and their children.

“On the whole, the author has succeeded in his endeavour to give a full and impartial account of her life, and has acquitted himself satisfactorily of his secondary aim—that of sketching the historical events ‘in which she was more or less directly concerned.’”

“Despite this special diligence and an adequate knowledge of sixteenth century memoirs, we have found this book enriched by little illuminating criticism.”

Williams, James Mickel.An American town: a sociological study. Priv. ptd.

6–46255.

“The author, formerly a fellow in sociology in Columbia university, has in connection with his graduate work, made this sociological study of a small town of rural New York.... He has given us a little bit of the social history of the town and community, dividing it into two periods—from the settlement to 1875 and from 1875 on.”—Ann. Am. Acad.

“It is a painstaking, intelligent, and extremely suggestive piece of scholarly work. On the whole Mr. Williams is to be heartily congratulated on a piece of work which opens up new possibilities in the intensive study of localities, and proves that monographic work of this kind is to be of prime importance to sociology.” George E. Vincent.

“This volume is valuable because it is an illustration of careful, conscientious field work, even if occasionally the conclusions seem unwarranted.”

Williams, John E. H.Life of Sir George Williams, founder of the Young men’s Christian association. **$1.25. Armstrong.

6–42910.

Written at the request of Sir George Williams’ family by “one who has had intimate access to all the sources of information and who writes with keen sympathy and appreciation.... Beginning as a poor young clerk and without other resources than his own strength of character and an indomitable will, the subject of the present work rose to be one of the most considerable men in England.” (Lit. D.)

“Is a contribution to the literature of power.”

Williams, Leonard.Granada: memories, adventures, studies and impressions. **$2.50. Lippincott.

6–35342.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

Reviewed by Wallace Rice.

Williams, T. Rhondda.Evangel of the new theology. *$1.50. Scribner.

“The basal question of religion, as he observes, is the relation of God to the living world. The theology now being outgrown conceived of God and man as external to each other, beings apart, and out of this fallacious dualism the Unitarian controversy grew. But ‘the gist of the new theology’ is the oneness of the spiritual nature in God and man, so that humanity itself is ‘an incarnation of the divine life.’”—Outlook.

“In one way or another the whole realm of modern religious thought is touched upon with profound discrimination. The book will prove exceedingly helpful to all who desire a clear and sane statement on vital matters from the modern point of view. As a group of sermons, however, it would seem that the book gives undue emphasis to intellect and does not sufficiently appeal to the deeper things of the heart. Also, the use of Scripture is not large.” E. A. Hanley.

“It is marked by warmth as well as freshness and force, and by intentness on the realities of religious faith.”

Williamson, Charles Norris, and Williamson, Alice Muriel.Car of destiny.†$1.50. McClure.

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