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“The story opens in an extraordinary way, by a sailor slipping overboard into the South Pacific ocean, just after killing the captain of the tramp steamer in which he sailed. The escaped sailor, who has taken with him no baggage save just a life-belt, is a strong swimmer and after some thirty hours of alternately swimming and floating, the fugitive reaches shore on an island of the South Sea. It is inhabited and the traveller lands just in time to save Joan, the heroine, from injury at the hands of an angry native. With such a beginning proceeds a romance of the Sulu sea and islands. Joan and her brother are the only whites in this vicinity and the brother is absent in another island, leaving his sister who is in care of a great Dane. The dog is poisoned by a treacherous native and Joan is barely saved from attack by the sudden entrance of the fugitive. Of course there are adventures without number, thrilling escapes from peril, a love episode and a pleasant ending.”—Boston Transcript
“Fairly readable.”
“This is as good a novel of adventure as has appeared for some time, not only because there is a clean-cut story, but on account of the splendid lucidity with which it is related.”
“The story is hardly more than mildly interesting.”
BARBOUR, RALPH HENRY, and HOLT, H. P.Mystery of the Sea-Lark. il *$1.75 (3c) Century
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Jack Holden and his chum George Santo salvage an abandoned sloop, the Sea-Lark, and fit her up for use as a ferry boat. Sometime before, Jack’s father had been forced to sever relations with his business partner, Simon Barker, under a cloud of suspicion and Jack is glad of the opportunity to help out the family finances. The venture is a success, but the boys are surprised at the sudden desire of two strangers to buy the boat. Then comes a series of strange midnight visits and finally both boat and boys are kidnapped and taken out to sea. They outwit their captors and in solving the mystery of the Sea-Lark clear Mr Holden’s good name and restore the stolen money that had been the foundation of the trouble.
“What a boy will call a ‘dandy yarn.’” Hildegarde Hawthorne
“A capital story for boys.”
“The story is well told and the interest is cumulative.”
“A good mystery story which, refreshingly, is quite free from German spies.”
BARCLAY, FLORENCE LOUISA (CHARLESWORTH) (MRS CHARLES W. BARCLAY).Returned empty. *$1.75 (5c) Putnam
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A strange story of reincarnation. Luke Sparrow is brought up in a foundlings’ home, where the only clue to his identity is the label found on him bearing the inscription “Glass with care” on one side and on the other “Returned empty.” He is a lonely baby, and grows up to be a lonely man, with one queer trait: he has a passion for peering thru the windows of comfortable homes, as if seeking for something he cannot find. And then one day, he finds it in the home of a beautiful woman. She tells him the strange story that explains his life. In a previous incarnation he had been her husband, and at his tragic death, she had grieved so deeply that her love had called him back to this world to live again. But this great love, altho it brought them together, cannot keep them so, and she steps out of his life again leaving him infinitely richer, for the short remaining span of his life, for the contact.
“She has made a most appealing story which will interest readers who do not usually number Mrs Barclay among their favorite authors.” Cornelia Van Pelt
BARCLAY, VERA C.Danny again; further adventures of “Danny the detective.” il *$1.25 (5c) Putnam
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This sequel to “Danny the detective” is a book of short stories. The first is a wartime story in which Danny again appears as the captor of a German spy. The other titles are: Christmas eve; A sporting kid; A midnight adventure; The secret room; In mid-air; Dicky’s chance; The bishop’s story. Some of the stories are reprinted from The Wolf Cub, an English Boy scout publication.
BARCYNSKA, HÉLÈNE, countess.Rose o’ the sea (Eng title Pretty dear). il *$2 (2c) Houghton
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Eccentric Henry Eton was the only father Rose had ever known since he had rescued her from the sea sixteen years before. Now at his death, she determines to go to London to make her way alone rather than stay in the little village which is so lonely without him. She is fortunate in London to fall at once into a congenial occupation and among friendly people. Among her new acquaintances is Denis Mallory, a lovable, wayward boy, whose father, Lord Caister, is much worried about the lad. Rose’s sweet spirit and common sense so appeal to the father that he arranges an engagement between Rose and Denny hoping thus to keep the boy straight. They both try to enter into the arrangement honestly altho Rose realizes she is doing it for Lord Caister’s sake rather than for his son’s. But when she comes into a large inheritance Lord Caister’s pride releases her from the agreement, which Denis, by a hasty marriage with an actress, has already made impossible. There is now no barrier between Rose and Lord Caister himself except pride, and that is finally broken down by Denny’s tragic death.
“The heroine is remarkably artless; a little too artless, indeed, to seem real—in this world, at all events. The author’s experience as a writer of eminently readable fiction enables her thoroughly to enlist the reader’s interest in this wild-flower heroine.”
“A novel which many girls and women will like.”
“Rose in ‘Rose o’ the sea’ is a sort of female St Francis of Assisi. The novel may help an undiscriminating mind to while away a dull hour.”
“It is a little story sure to delight every lover of impossible romance.”
BARKER, ARTHUR.[2]British corn trade; from the earliest times to the present day. (Pitman’s common commodities and industries) il $1 (2½c) Pitman 338.1
The term corn trade in British usage includes “all trade not only in wheat, ... but also in any other cereal for which there is any commercial demand, such as barley, oats, maize, rye or rice.” Contents: The British corn trade and its units; The corn trade in old England; The English law on the “cornering” of wheat and other grain; Two hundred and fifteen years of wheat prices in England; The corn laws era; The growth and development of the modern corn trade; The effect of the great war on the corn trade. There are notes at the close and an index.
BARKER, D. A.[2]Great leviathan. *$1.75 (2c) Lane
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Tom’s life was regulated by principle. As a lad at Harrow his principles brought him into trouble because they ran counter to the rules of the school. Later they interfered with his adopting a settled career and he led a wandering life as a lecturer against social evils. Even as a child he had begun to look upon marriage as wrong, for he had witnessed his mother’s unhappiness, and free unions had become a matter of principle with him. He makes a convert of his beloved Mary. At first they are happy, but as little by little the great leviathan breaks her spirit, love goes and she leaves him. His other endeavors also meet with the world’s scorn and a complete nervous breakdown is the result. After his recovery he goes to India and there he joins a devout and aged Hindoo on his last pilgrimage and finds peace in the “glory of God” as taught by the Bhagavad Gita.
“For a first attempt it is a commendable piece of work, but it does not—if one may be permitted the expression—cut any ice. It is pleasantly written, and there are many happy touches, but we are never certain as to what it is that the author is after.” K. M.
“Mr Barker’s story is really very well told, he is greatly in earnest, and the ideals he handles are much ‘in the air’ just now, especially in England.”
“A clever account is given of how he spoils his life by his experiment in evading the chains of matrimony. The end of the book is not quite so convincing.”
“Technically ‘The great leviathan’ is interesting as showing what Mr Wells’s technique may become in unskilful hands. But the book, though a failure, is an interesting failure. Mr Barker could not have written it without learning a good deal of the difficulties of novelwriting. He has things to say. His next book will probably be worth reading.”
BARKER, MRS HELEN GRANVILLE (HELEN MANCHESTER HUNTINGTON).Songs in cities and gardens. *$1.25 Putnam 821
19–19881
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19–19881
The princess’s garden, The narrow glass, To snow, The garden on the hill, The wayfarer, The playmate, Lost gardens, On the river, Songs of the rain and the wind, are some of the titles from part 1 of this collection of poems. Part 2, containing the Songs in cities, is devoted to such themes as: The house; The portrait; Night, and the curtains drawn; Beyond knowledge; Old age; Twilight; To fire; The city; Harvest of dreams. A note says that some of the verses have been printed in earlier books by the author, now out of print.
“Mrs Granville Barker’s great technical accomplishment is the source both of her triumphs and of her failures. Sometimes she is simply exercising her ingenuity in the void, creating bubble-shapes of a tenuous and fleeting prettiness. But at other times, when she has good material on which to employ her skill, she produces finished and distinguished work.”
“Mrs Barker’s verse may not be for those who can ‘see heaven in a grain of sand,’ but it has a quality that intelligence and taste can thoroughly enjoy.” W. S. B.
“These songs are quite short and slight little wisps of fancy, as it were. But one cannot read on without being truly moved by the passing thoughts so tenderly expressed.”
BARKER, J. ELLIS.[2]Economic statesmanship; the great industrial and financial problems arising from the war. *$7 Dutton 330
(Eng ed 20–11567)
(Eng ed 20–11567)
(Eng ed 20–11567)
(Eng ed 20–11567)
“The publishers have brought out a second edition of J. Ellis Barker’s ‘Economic statesmanship.’ When this book was first published in the autumn of 1918 the negotiations at Spa and Versailles were still in the future. The new edition accordingly includes about two hundred additional pages dealing with problems and movements which have come to the front during the last two years. About half the new material relates to the economic position and future of Russia and Japan.”—Am Pol Sci R
“The descriptive and analytical features of the book are admirable; they contain a wealth of economic facts condensed in statistical form and ably presented to the reader, retaining his interest throughout with no sacrifice of accuracy and precision of detail. Mr Barker does not succeed so well in the development of the theoretical features of his book.” E. S. Furniss
“One may not agree with all Mr Barker’s conclusions, but there is no doubt that his book is a storehouse of important facts and figures.”
“Neither in the views expressed nor in the compilation of statistics is there much matter of importance for the American student: moreover, many of the chapters are inevitably out of date.”
BARNETT, EDWARD DE BARRY.Explosives. *$5 Van Nostrand 662
(Eng ed 20–6748)
(Eng ed 20–6748)
(Eng ed 20–6748)
(Eng ed 20–6748)
In this volume of the Industrial chemistry series “the author has endeavoured to give a clear but concise account of the manufacture of explosives, together with an outline of the methods used for investigating this class of substance.” (Author’s preface) Contents: Introduction; Gunpowder; Explosive compounds; Smokeless propellants; Blasting explosives; Safety coal mine explosives; Percussion caps, detonators and fuzes; Matches, pyrophoric alloys and pyrotechny; Explosive properties; Sensitiveness and stability; Conclusion. A brief bibliography follows the introduction. Other references come at the chapter ends and there is an index.
BARNEY, DANFORD.Chords from Albireo. *$1.50 Lane 811
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This is the author’s second volume of poems. “Dust of stars” was published in 1916. “The present collection includes the work that Mr Barney has done since the publication of his first volume, and hence covers the varied periods before his enlistment, during his service in France, and since his return and discharge.” (Foreword) The four sections of the book are headed: 1917; France; 1919: By the sea. The foreword is by Lawrence Mason of Yale university.
Reviewed by W: S. Braithwaite
“‘Chords from Albireo’ is a worthy successor to his ‘Dust of stars.’ It marks a deepening of the poetic instinct and a firmer grasp of technique. Mr Barney’s work is important because of its spontaneous evocation of moods, its impressionistic appeal to the senses.”
“My complaint against Mr Danford Barney is that my understanding is a horse which he overworks—and starves. All this would not have been worth saying in this place, had Mr Barney been destitute of poetical capacity.” O. W. Firkins
BAROJA Y NESSI, PIO.Youth and egolatry. (Free lance books) *$1.75 (4) Knopf 868
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“When I sat down to begin these pages, somewhat at random, my intention was to write an autobiography, accompanying it with such comments as might suggest themselves. Looking continually to the right and to the left, I have lost my way, and this book is the result.” (Epilogue) The result is a collection of aphoristic, partly whimsical, partly cynical, always sincere sketches of the author himself, his personality, his beliefs, his literary opinions and inclinations, the main facts of his life. The translation from the Spanish is by Jacob S. Fassett and Frances L. Phillips with an introduction by H. L. Mencken who says of the writer that he is more Spanish than most of his famous contemporaries. The contents are grouped under: Fundamental ideas; Myself, the writer; The extraradius; Admirations and incompatibilities; The philosophers; The historians; My family; Memories of childhood; As a student; As a village doctor; As a baker; As a writer; Parisian days; Literary enmities; The press; Politics; Military glory. The appendices are: Spanish politicians; On Baroja’s anarchists; Note.
“Baroja is a Latin: lucid reasoning and clear patterns of thinking teach him to gauge and adapt life.” Stark Young
“The book is annoying and at the same time distinctly fascinating. The pages that are worth while are immeasurably fewer than the worthless ones; but these are so worth while that the book’s existence is justified.” C. W.
“He is wilful and headlong, but sometimes discerning in his literary judgments.”
BARR, MRS AMELIA EDITH (HUDDLESTON).Songs in the common chord; songs for everyone to sing, tuned to the C major chord of this life; introd. by Joseph C. Lincoln. *$1.50 Appleton 821
20–1986
20–1986
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20–1986
“From among the hundreds of poems I have written during forty years I have saved enough to make a small volume which some day I may publish.” So Amelia E. Barr is quoted in the introduction to this, the promised small volume. Among the titles are: The great happiness; The old piano; Lost flowers; The empty purse; At fifty years; Quiet hours; An old street; Harvest song; A country place in heaven; The tree God plants; At the last; A writer’s question.
“Mrs Barr frankly was content with fireside narrative and easy injunction, with good deeds and cheerful rhythms. Her rhythm occasionally cantered too fast, so that her cheeks flushed and her bonnet bobbed; but there always was a halt somewhere, with no real effect of a runaway.” M. V. P.
“Mrs Barr was no master of the flaming phrase, to be sure, yet she had her felicity of line. What she looked at she saw clearly, and there was something of the folk quality in the best of her work.”
BARRETT, WILTON AGNEW.Songs from the journey. *$1.25 Doran 811
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Among the contents of this book are poems reprinted from Poetry, the Forum, Contemporary Verse, Boston Transcript, McCall’s Magazine, and “Victory,” Mr Braithwaite’s anthology of peace poems. The author employs both free verse and regular meters. Titles are: Songs from the journey; A New England church; To a pair of scarlet tanagers in the square; Soldiers, behold your beauty; The valley and the shadow; The holiday; A song of fulfillment.
“Mr Barrett is one of the quieter young American poets who is not likely to be very much talked about, but who will leave an influence upon his readers wherever his book finds them.” W. S. B.
“Novel conceits of fancy expressed with appealing grace and fraught with the glamour of dreams.”
“Once only, in ‘Songs from the journey,’ does Mr Barrett touch authentic poetry—in the suave and colorful ‘The vase.’ The book is not distinguished verse.”
“Mr Barrett is a poet of great promise, a spirit clear-eyed and keen.”
“He has mastered the not too recondite, yet also not too facile, secret of expressiveness in free verse.” O. W. Firkins
BARRON, CLARENCE WALKER.World remaking; or, Peace finance. *$1.75 (4c) Harper 330.9
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“All history is bound up in the human problems of personal and national finance—personal and national protection to daily subsistence.” (Foreword) It is the object of the book to set forth from the point of view of the financier and the enemy of socialism “the true relations between the work of capital and the work of hand, and the relation of both to the labor of brain,” and to show their bearing on our present-day problems. Some of the articles are: England the great war loser; England’s weakness and restricted output; Ships and shipping; The value of the pound sterling; Protection and protected shipping; Reducing hours and increasing efficiency; The spirit under British finance and business; The social unrest; Peace “without victory”; Helpless Russia; Indemnities and signatures; Socialism versus democracy; Inflation by currency, war bonds, and taxes; Are we to pay for German intrigue at Panama? Bolshevik danger and the remedy.
“The book is gossipy and readable, and yet is trustworthy, for Mr Barron had entrée to authorities who talked freely.”
“There are many little affectations of speech scattered through the book which some may find irritating. But it is, nevertheless, a good book and well worth reading.”
BARRUS, CLARA.John Burroughs; boy and man. il *$3.50 Doubleday
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“The incidents here related have been told me by Mr Burroughs himself, and are sanctioned by him. During the midsummer and fall for many years past I have wandered with him over the fields and hills and through the woods where he roamed as a boy. In these rambles he has pointed out the places where the narrated events occurred. He has explained in detail the curious and interesting ways and means of long ago—old-time ways which will never come again. And not only in his youthful haunts, but also during many an evening by the fireside at The Nest, he has again recounted the childish recollections, the boyish pastimes, and the youthful dreams recorded here.” (Preface) After a characterization of the “grown-up boy” and his forebears the contents are grouped under the headings: Childhood; Boyhood; Youth; Maturity. There are numerous illustrations and an index.
“Originally intended as a boys’ life of Burroughs, this is full of the human, humorous life of the country boy, with the story of the work and play of the man written in a way to interest readers of any age.”
“Cheerfully condescending and commonplace. Mr Burroughs deserves something better.” D. M.
“It is true to the life, sympathetic and intimate. No admirer of John Burroughs can do without this pleasant book.”
“It is a good book for boys and girls as well as for older people up to the nineties.”
BARRY, RICHARD HAYES.Fruit of the desert. *$1.50 Doubleday
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“A race of sun-worshippers, the Sunnites, rescue the hero, left starving on the desert of Arizona by bandits. He finds his new friends to be survivors of an ancient civilization. Inevitably, as in all stories of this type, he falls in love with their high priestess and escapes with her to the less romantic but more comfortable life of every-day America.”—Outlook
“Having elected to write a romance, and a romance of a very romantic sort, Mr Barry is entirely justified in using romantic methods and in paying just as little heed as pleases him to probabilities. He writes with the skill of a craftsman, he keeps the interest well sustained.”
BARTHOLOMEW, WALLACE EDGAR, and HURLBUT, FLOYD.[2]Business man’s English, spoken and written. il *$1.48 Macmillan 808
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“Bartholomew and Hurlbut have prepared a book which ‘intends to interpret English as used by the careful business man of today.’ Chapter I of this book indicates the need of a study of business English. Succeeding chapters take up such subjects as the business vocabulary, ‘Common errors,’ clearness and emphasis in written expression. Chapters VIII, IX, and X deal with oral English. Five chapters are devoted to the study of various forms of letters. The subject of advertising is given thorough consideration.”—School R
Reviewed by Brander Matthews
“The book is well organized for use as a textbook. Persons giving English courses in secondary schools will find it helpful.”
BARTLETT, WILLIAM HENRY.Handbook of American government; rev and enl ed. by H: Campbell Black. *$1.25 Crowell 353
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The last previous edition of this book appeared in 1912. The present revision is designed to cover changes since that time, including three amendments to the constitution, changes in the judicial system, and changes brought about by the war. The editor has also “taken advantage of the opportunity to explain or discuss at greater length various important topics mentioned in the original text, and to introduce comments or explanations of some clauses of the constitution, or of the practical working of government under it, which had not previously been included.” (Editor’s note)
BARTLEY, MRS NALBRO ISADORAH.Gorgeous girl. il *$1.75 (2c) Doubleday
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Stephen O’Valley became rich quick. He strained every nerve to become so because he wanted to marry the “gorgeous girl,” Beatrice Constantine, the spoiled daughter of wealth. When the engagement gaieties, the wedding and honeymoon were over, and Steve proposed to Beatrice that they quiet down and “find themselves” the disillusionment began. A perpetual round of social excitement, a reckless spending of money was Beatrice’s entire world and Steve’s comparisons between her and Mary Faithful, his right hand in business, became more searching. In time Mary assumes the rôle of critic holding the mirror up to Steve, to show not only his own life but Mary’s heart. When the failure of Steve’s business sends the heartless Beatrice to Reno another kind of “gorgeous girl” takes her place.
“Nalbro Bartley has mastered the style of American magazine fiction. She has the light touch, the gift for quick, clever characterization and a modicum of American slang. It is quite noticeable that the women of the story are much more real creations than the men.”
“While Nalbro Bartley’s new story of ‘The gorgeous girl’ cannot be called particularly convincing, it is less glaringly improbable than some of her other tales. The book has some neat phrasing, Mary’s home life is nicely sketched, and there are a few clever touches of characterization.”
Reviewed by E. C. Webb
BARTLEY, MRS NALBRO ISADORAH.Gray angels. *$1.90 (1½c) Small
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The first notice the world took of Thurley Precore was when she “sang for her supper” and then continued to sing herself into people’s hearts generally. The rich ghost lady heard the voice in her living tomb and came out to take Thurley to New York and give her a musical education. She became a prima donna, lived in an intimate circle of first class artists, experienced their disappointments, their boredom and the restlessness of fame. She tried to become reckless and flirted with the forbidden, when her singing teacher, also a man of genius, whom she secretly loved, set her right by confiding to her his vision of America’s supreme mission in art. Winning the violet crown he called it. Later the war with its war madness showed to Thurley that her own particular mission lay in helping to restore a hysterical people to sanity and to become one of the gray angels to the broken ones of the war.
“The book is entertaining, the characters are well drawn. Fewer characters would have been better. Thurley’s interesting career, with its pleasing denouement, might have been told in considerably less than 420 pages.”
BARTON, BRUCE.It’s a good old world. *$1.50 Century 814
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The book is a collection of contributions to various magazines. They all look upon the cheery side of life, pick out the amenities from the commonplaces, and abound in good advice and cheery encouragement for the passengers on this “Good old world” whose “quiet, patient fashion in which he goes around about the same old task, day after day and year after year” the author admires. Some of the titles are: I expect to be entirely consistent—after ninety; A great little word is “why”; The second mile; It’s a moving picture world, and the film changes every few minutes; The fine rare habit of learning to do without; That fine old fake about the good old days; Everybody has something.
“Brief and pithy and filled with common sense philosophy.”
BARTON, GEORGE.Celebrated spies and famous mysteries of the great war. il *$2 Page 940.3
19–17029
19–17029
19–17029
19–17029
“George Barton has gathered together some of the strange happenings of the war. It is no connected tale of espionage, but rather a series of pen pictures relating to only a few of those involved in the conflict, and those few among the best known. The opening chapter deals with the disappearance of the Hampshire, with Kitchener and his staff; the final one, with the murder of Ferdinand at Sarajevo. In between are such dissimilar persons as Edith Cavell, Capt. Fryatt, Bolo Pasha, Roger Casement, Ram Chanda and Werner Horn.”—Springf’d Republican
“Every chapter reads like an Oppenheim novel in little, and there is matter enough in the book to furnish material for all writers who are seeking plots for stories of mystery.”
“This book contains more promise than performance. Whatever interest the stories themselves might hold is entirely spoiled by the stagey dressing.”
“An especially interesting chapter is ‘Eugene Van Doren and the secret press of Belgium.’ If Mr Barton has told nothing new he has at least gathered together the fragments of interesting and varied careers reflecting differing aspects of the war.”
BARTON, WILLIAM ELEAZAR.Paternity of Abraham Lincoln; was he the son of Thomas Lincoln? an essay on the chastity of Nancy Hanks. *$4 Doran
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The author says that this book may be considered a footnote to his earlier book, “The soul of Abraham Lincoln” and as a suppressed preface to a “Life of Abraham Lincoln” which he plans to write. He states that in collecting data for the first book he came upon a considerable body of material bearing on Lincoln’s paternity and discovered that a number of intelligent collectors of Lincoln books and students of history were convinced that Abraham Lincoln was not the son of Thomas Lincoln. “Moreover, the author found himself at length compelled to ask of himself the question, What if these reports are true? And he pursued his investigations with an open mind.... The author has endeavored to trace every rumor and report relating to the birth of Abraham Lincoln, to assemble all the available evidence in favor of it and against it, to judge each one of these reports upon its own merits, and to render what, he believes, is a judgment from which there can be no successful appeal.” The judgment is a refutation of the supposed evidence and the author believes that he has covered the ground so thoroughly that the matter need not be referred to again.
“A convincing study which leaves not a square inch of ground for the scandal to stand on. Mr Barton’s researches have been exhaustive and—barring a few minor slips—accurate.” C. V. D.
“It is undisputedly and indisputably a good work to which Dr Barton has set his hand.”
“A scholarly monograph.”
BARTON, WILLIAM ELEAZAR.Soul of Abraham Lincoln. *$4 (3½c) Doran
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“The fact that there are so many books on the religion of Abraham Lincoln is a chief reason why there should be one more.” (Preface) The author explains his volume by stating the considerations which differentiate it from earlier works. He has provided an adequate historical background for the study of Lincoln’s religious life in successive periods and has been aided in this effort by the fact that he spent seven years in the same environment in which Lincoln lived during two important epochs of his career. He has assembled a larger body of essential evidence than any previous writer has compiled, and subjected it to a critical analysis. He has opened several entirely new avenues of investigation and he has set forth his conviction concerning the faith of Abraham Lincoln aside from his theological opinions. Accordingly the book falls into three parts: 1, A study of religious environment; 2, An analysis of the evidence; 3, The religion of Lincoln. The appendices contain extracts from addresses and books of other writers and there is a bibliography and an index.
“For libraries attempting a complete Lincoln collection, though it is rather lacking in charm for general reading.”
“This book is so important in its field that it must be regarded as necessary to any library, public or private, fittingly equipped for the critical consideration of Lincoln’s religious history. His book is so well done that it is likely long to remain the standard work on the subject.” L. E. Robinson
“The conclusion of the whole matter is that despite its entertaining and its authoritative biographical qualities, such a book as ‘The soul of Abraham Lincoln’ is utterly futile. It leaves us exactly at the point of its beginning. In its last page we have no clearer idea of Lincoln’s religious belief than in its first. Despite the mass of material he assembles, Dr Barton proves nothing.” E. F. E.
“His viewpoint, the skilful analysis of conflicting evidence, and the ability which the author shows in reaching a logical conclusion, seems to us to make this book one with which all students of the lives of Lincoln must hereafter reckon.”
“His volume will probably be the final authority on the much-debated topic of Mr Lincoln’s religious faith.”
“Like many others who would like to have Mr Lincoln pictured not exactly as he really was, but as they are eager to think him, Mr Barton labors hard to show what he believes to have been the president’s religious ideas. The result is a new literary portrait of Mr Lincoln, interesting and agreeable in details of the president’s family life, but leaving one unconvinced regarding his religious convictions.”
“Mr Barton has done his work with good feeling and well. In one thing we dissent from him seriously. He quite naturally ascribes Lincoln’s refusal to follow his wife all the way into the Presbyterian fold, or some other, to the weak side of his intellect and character. In all this there is something astray.”
BARUCH, BERNARD MANNES.Making of the reparation and economic sections of the treaty. *$3 Harper 940.314