Chapter 12

(Eng ed 20–8650)

“This interesting book is concerned with the primitive races of western Papua, where the author, a young Australian, acted as a resident magistrate for ten years before the war. Professor Haddon, in a preface, declares that Mr Beaver’s death in Flanders, where he was serving with the Australian corps, was a great loss to anthropology.” (Spec) “His narrative is an account of personal experiences along the Bamu and Fly rivers; and he makes good his claim to be an explorer. Little is known of the country behind the coastline; means of transport have to be improvized and the inhabitants are savages. In fact, savage is a mild term, for many of them are cannibals and all apparently head-hunters. Mr Beaver enumerates such of their customs as came under his notice, and throws out suggestions as to their origin, but without committing himself to any theory.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)

“Mr Beaver’s descriptions of the customs of the Goaribari, Bamu, and other tribes are remarkably interesting; and Dr Gunnar Landtmann has added a noteworthy chapter upon the religious beliefs and practices of the Kiwai-speaking natives.”

“In short, considered from the standpoint of what Sir Richard Temple would term an applied anthropology, Mr Beaver’s book is eminently useful and instructive. Lack of space allows but a passing reference to his important chapter on property and inheritance.” R. R. M.

“An interesting and sound ethnological study, which is also an object lesson on the administration of aboriginal tribes by those who would introduce Caucasian culture.”

“This is one of those books, by no means rare from British pens, that make the American ethnologist green with envy. It suggests what stores of information on tribes now extinct or acculturated to the white man’s ways might have been garnered by our Indian agents if they had been selected from the class represented by Mr Beaver.” R. H. L.

“The author had the gift, not common among anthropologists, of writing well and of describing savage tribes with sympathy and humour. The book abounds in curious anecdotes.”

“Mr Beaver is no globe-trotter concerned to make a good story out of a few days spent in a strange land. He is absorbed in a subject that is organically interesting, and he is content to let it produce its own effect. Unintentionally he has framed an indictment of mechanical progress.”

BECK, ERNEST GEORGE.Structural steelwork. il *$7.50 (*21s) Longmans 691.7

20–10621

“The book contains technical information for the designing and constructing of ordinary steel-framed buildings. ‘The principal endeavor throughout has been to make the work broadly suggestive rather than particular or exhaustive.’ (Preface) The appendix contains tables useful for reference. Partly reprinted from the Mechanical World and The Engineer.”—Booklist

BECK, HERBERT MAINS.Aliens’ text book on citizenship; laws of naturalization of the United States. $1; pa 50c McKay 353

19–6644

“In preparing this book the aim has been to provide means of thoroughly and quickly acquiring the knowledge necessary to pass the examinations for naturalization and to assist those who have been deprived of the advantages of our modern public schools.” (Preface) The steps required for naturalization are first set forth. Then follows the texts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States and a final section is given up to questions and answers on laws and government. There is an index. The author is chief of naturalization, Camden county courts, Camden, N.J.

“This business-like explanation of the law’s provisions is infinitely more satisfactory and useful than the mushy, sentimental and verbose expository books for the foreign-born of which there are so many.” B. L.

BECK, JAMES MONTGOMERY.Passing of the new freedom. *$1.50 Doran 940.314

20–18420

In part in the form of imaginary conversations, the book discusses the essential nature of President Wilson’s policies. The dialogues, in which the chief personages of the Peace conference take part, abounds in biting sarcasm. In the first dialogue Mr Wilson is made to appear upon the scene literally exuding “omniscience,” and to expound his new freedom with sounding grandiloquence. In his final estimate of Wilson the author says: “Already the world is conscious of a distinct revaluation of that interesting and complex personality, and it must be sorrowfully added that this revaluation adds nothing to his prestige.” The chapters are: Mr Wilson explains the new freedom; The old freedom; “It might have been”; The apostle of the new freedom.

“The use of imaginary conversation as a means of plucking the mystery out of the heart of the Peace conference may be questioned as to its integrity, but Mr Beck has employed the medium with such rare degree of skill that no one will question its effectiveness for literary purposes.”

“Mr Beck has produced in these dialogues a kind of literature that is not often written after so much cool, thoughtful preparation, and that is seldom found to be, as in this case, profound and exact as well as amusing.”

“‘The passing of the new freedom’ gives him some claims to rank as a political satirist—that rare bird in American letters.” E. L. Pearson

BECKER, CARL LOTUS.United States; an experiment in democracy. *$2.50 Harper 342.7

20–13591

The book gives all the outstanding facts of our political history with such impartiality as to appeal to the reader’s critical faculty and to challenge independent conclusions. A “habitual dislike of thinking” the author holds to be a characteristic of Americans, which at the present time exposes them to the danger of mistaking the “form for the substance of democracy” and may prevent America from being in the future what it was in the past—“a fruitful experiment in democracy.” Contents: America and democracy; The origins of democracy in America; The new world experiment in democracy; Democracy and government; New world democracy and old world intervention; Democracy and free land; Democracy and slavery; Democracy and immigration; Democracy and education; Democracy and equality.

“It is to be hoped that the inaccuracies will not seriously injure the usefulness of a readable book, which is on the whole filled with sagacious comment and treats in a telling way a number of traits and tendencies of American democracy.” A. C. McL.

“The author has given a valuable sketch of the political history of America.”

“Keen, clear, impartial analysis of American institutions and traditions, reminding the reader in many ways of Bryce’s ‘American commonwealth.’”

Reviewed by C: A. Beard

“Interesting, and would be valuable as a brief and rapid résumé of America’s early history and political problems were it not for one fatal defect. It lacks that aspect of detachment which we used to expect from college professors in dealing with debatable topics. Such a book must be read with the same caution with which the wise man reads the current political press during the presidential campaign.”

BECKWITH, ISBON THADDEUS.Apocalypse of John. *$4 Macmillan 228

19–16729

“This book is a veritable encyclopedia of information regarding the interpretation of Revelation. A series of introductory studies deals at length with a history of eschatological hopes among Hebrews, Jews, and Christians. An extended description is given of apocalyptic writings among the Jews. There is also a detailed account of the occasion, purpose and unity of John’s apocalypse. Other topics discussed minutely are the literary characteristics of the author, the content of his composition, the permanent and the transitory elements in his book, the main features of his theology, the different methods that have been used in the interpretation of the book, its circulation and canonical recognition in the early church, the question of authorship, the two Johns of the Asian church, the meaning of the ‘beast,’ and the condition of the Greek text of the book. The commentary proper, which embraces slightly less than half the volume, is of the usual analytical and statistical type.”—Bib World

“It is a real service to religion and sanity when a scholar equipped with common sense as well as knowledge provides a good commentary on the book of Revelation. This has been done by Professor Beckwith. The book fills a real need.”

“A splendid treatise it is upon a splendid book, and a fresh honor to American scholarship.”

BEERBOHM, MAX, comp.[2]Herbert Beerbohm Tree: some memories of him and his art. il *$7 Dutton

“The volume is at once a biography and a tribute. The first half of the book is written by Lady Tree. After short contributions by Sir Herbert Tree’s two daughters and Max Beerbohm (who, it will be remembered, is his half-brother) come A sketch, by Edmund Gosse; A tribute, by Louis N. Parker; From the stalls, by Desmond MacCarthy; Herbert Tree—my friend, by Gilbert Parker; From the point of view of a playwright, by Bernard Shaw; and An open letter to an American friend, by W. L. Courtney. By no means least in interest are the appendices, which contain Sir Herbert’s ‘Impressions of America,’ as written for London papers in 1916 and 1917, and some extracts from his ‘Notebooks,’ as well as the speeches made at the unveiling of the memorial tablet at His Majesty theater and the sermon preached by the Bishop of Birmingham at the memorial service.”—Springf’d Republican

“Why did not Mr Max Beerbohm give us a whole book himself instead of a ‘carved cherrystone’ called ‘From a brother’s stand-point’? That, no doubt, is his business. But why did he not persuade (or bully) Lady Tree into writing the whole work and inserting his and Mr Shaw’s contributions at the appropriate places? Certainly the half of it which she has contributed under the title ‘Herbert and I’ is delightful, in style and individuality.” D. L. M.

“When all is said this book serves its purpose. It is readable; it contains the facts; it gives personal anecdotes; it has a host of portraits in character and out; it provides a variety of points of view.”

“A most interesting book about a great actor. Throughout, it is informal and lively.” E. L. Pearson

“Lady Tree’s portrait of Tree is the most vivid and the most life-like the world is likely to possess.”

“The whole book—all the contributions from all the different sources are in the mass so sparkling, that it is clear that for so many hands to write so amusingly, they must have been inspired by a thoroughly witty and amusing subject.”

“It is an amusing macédoine, never insipid, giving all the flavours of the subject, without perhaps any one flavour that can be called dominant. And that is right, for Tree’s was a ‘mixed’ temperament, and his art was a good deal ‘mixed’ too.”

BEERBOHM, MAX.Seven men. il *$3.50 Knopf

20–19582

Six men and the author make seven. The book contains six imaginary sketches of six imaginary men: Enoch Soames; Hilary Maltby and Stephen Braxton; James Pethel; A. V. Laider; “Savonarola” Brown; with an appendix of drawings of these men by the author. As the drawings are caricatures so are the pen sketches satires on human vanities, weaknesses and foibles, literary and otherwise.

“In none is the author’s authentic touch wholly absent, but there are tedious pages.”

“Our only regret on finishing the book is that he might have paraded his seventh, and after all his most amusing puppet, himself, a little more lavishly.” S. W.

“The motif of each story in ‘Seven men’ is slight, the working out of it spread thin—very thin.” C. K. H.

“Another thing that gives feature to four of the five stories in ‘Seven men’ is their author’s love of design. Even upon his essays this love has left its mark, less distinct upon whole essays than upon single pages now and then.” P. L.

“Max is more than a humorist—he is an ironist. His irony is exquisite in its nuances, a carefully wrought method of workmanship that grows almost precieuse at times. ‘Seven men’ is assuredly one of the most amusing books of the year. It will recapture an undefinable atmosphere that could only go with youth that was audacious and laughable, and, by strange flashes, poignantly serious.” H. S. Gorman

“Not even a good comedy is so rare as genuine satire, and when an example of the latter is produced some indulgence in superlatives may well be excused. In the case of Mr Max Beerbohm’s new volume, which brilliantly achieves what ‘Zuleika Dobson’ as conspicuously missed it is difficult to restrain praise within the bounds of judgment, for its beneficent, limpid ridicule is an undiluted joy.”

“The fragrant quality of the book, the solemn malice of the papers on Brown and A. V. Laider; the imaginative subtlety of the account of Enoch Soames, and the glorious remedy of the rivalry between Braxton and Maltby—they all show Max at his best.”

“Not only are his characters interesting in themselves but Mr Beerbohm depicts them with such skill that the book is a welcome relief from the work of less accomplished writers.”

BEERS, HENRY AUGUSTIN.[2]Connecticut wits and other essays. *$2.25 Yale univ. press 814

20–22823

“Mr Henry A. Beers’s ‘Connecticut wits’ consists of eleven brief literary essays on subjects whose diversity is undisguised. He has found nothing in the tradition or the atmosphere of his Yale habitat to discourage the inclusion of an essay on Cowley and an essay on Riley in the same volume.” (Review) “He unearths Joel Barlow and those other neglected spirits of old Connecticut; and then allows his fancy to range over such themes as the poetry of the cavaliers, Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Thackeray and Sheridan.” (Freeman)

“In manner, these essays are scholarly, informative, and suavely graceful.” L. B.

Reviewed by Brander Matthews

“Scholarship and humor are admirably blended in these essays.”

“Mr Beers is a clear expositor, is at ease with facts, and can make them agreeable by almost imperceptible departures from the jogtrot of chronicle. Without humor, he has something of the buoyancy of humor.”

“In his essays there is no trace of a professional tendency to carry on with the class room manner in one’s relations with the world beyond the class room.”

BEGBIE, HAROLD.Life of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation army. 2v il *$10.50 Macmillan

20–5263

In the preface to this life of the founder of the Salvation army, the author says: “William Booth is likely to remain for many centuries one of the most signal figures in human history. Therefore, to paint his portrait faithfully for the eyes of those who come after us—a great duty and a severe responsibility—has been my cardinal consideration in preparing these pages. Only when circumstances insisted have I turned from my attempt at portraiture to examine documents which will one day be employed by the historian of the Salvation army.” The work opens with an account of social conditions in England at the time of William Booth’s birth and reflections on the probable effects of his early surroundings on his mind and character. Volume 1 covers the years up to 1881 and volume 2 continues the story to his death in 1912. There are a number of portraits and other illustrations and an index.

“The world may be divided into people who pray with General Booth, people who are angry with General Booth, and people who turn their face away and look out of the window. Mr Begbie, unfortunately, seems to have considered that it was necessary for his official biographer to pray perpetually with the General, and his 1,000 pages of biography even conform to the tradition of prayer in their repetitions, vagueness, and verbosity.” L. W.

Reviewed by O. L. Joseph

“There can be no doubt that Mr Begbie has laid us all under immense obligation through the unusual blend of candor, insight, and reverence with which he has limned the picture of this noble soul. And yet we must confess to a feeling of disappointment. At important places the story lacks clarity. Perhaps the most serious disappointment of all is the paucity of reference to General Booth’s immediate touch with the outcast. We miss the bugles and the tears of the Army too much.” A. W. Vernon

“Mr Begbie has done his work well. We could have dispensed with some of his own observations concerning Darwin, Bergson, Nietzsche, and other figures of interest which are unhelpful to the story and whose omission might have sensibly reduced the size of the volumes. But where he has been content with simple narration of events and the selection of letters and writings, he has proved himself a good biographer.”

“Every small detail is entered into sympathetically and fully. This is a human document worth the reading.”

“The life-story of the man who created the Salvation army, written with a sympathy and understanding such as Mr Begbie puts in it, is an extraordinarily welcome book.”

“Mr Begbie’s life of William Booth would be for the general reader twice as good if it were half as long.”

“For the general reader there are rather too many ‘interesting cases’ of conversion described in the more or less technical diction of revivalism, too much journalism in the way of press clippings and tributes from royalty. But the record as a whole is an inspiring one of heroic achievement.”

“These portly tomes on the founder of the Salvation army are torrential in their eloquence and typhoon-like in their denunciations. They resemble nothing so much as an exceptionally lively rally at the Army headquarters, with the penitent-form in full view. Apart from his exuberance, Mr Begbie has an interesting tale to tell.”

“Though to the modern man this modern story has more to say than most of the annals of hagiology, it is as a romance, as a love story, that William Booth’s ‘Life’ is perhaps most to be valued. The pawnbroker’s assistant and the half-invalid girl from Brixton are the hero and heroine of a love romance which for passionate intensity, for sublimity, for tempestuous vicissitude, stands head and shoulders above the tales of Paris and Helen, of Tristram and Iseult.”

“The biography is a thorough, exhaustive, vividly personal piece of work.”

“In spite of a tendency to repetition, his book will be welcomed widely as the good thing which it undeniably is—a book frankly written and free from prejudice or exaggeration.”

BELL, JOHN KEBLE (KEBLE HOWARD, pseud.).Peculiar major. *$1.75 (2½c) Doran

19–15567

“An almost incredible story” says the subtitle, and so it is. The major had been given a ring by an old Turkish priest in ransom for his life. This ring was found to possess the magic property of making its bearer invisible. It first brought the major into repute as a lunatic, then into all manner of scrapes and out again and so from one Arabian nights’ entertainment into another until the war was over and we leave him returned to England and in the arms of his best-beloved.

“Mr Howard has produced a book that will be a welcome relief from much of the dreary fiction of the day.”

“A book of irresponsible fun.”

“We thought the humours of the ring that makes the wearer invisible had certainly been pretty well worked out by now. But this was a delusion.”

BELL, WALTER GEORGE.Great fire of London in 1666. il *$6 Lane 942.1

20–19932

The book comes with forty-one illustrations including plans and drawings, reproductions of English and foreign prints, and photographs. It is the first authentic account of the fire resulting from thorough historic research. The sources have largely been manuscript and the subject matter includes measures taken for meeting the distress occasioned by the catastrophe, the temporary housing of the citizens, the restoration of trade and the work of rebuilding. Among the appendices are letters from residents in London and contemporary accounts (English and foreign) describing the great fire. There are also notes, a list of authorities consulted and an index.

“In every chapter sidelights are cleverly thrown upon the habits and daily lives of the rather unpractical citizens.” E. G. C.

“Mr Bell had, of course, previously proved himself a scholarly and responsible historian, a good literary craftsman, and an excellent guide to old London. Here we have all his qualities at their best, lighted up with an enthusiasm which good Londoners at any rate will find exceedingly sympathetic. Now and then, perhaps, he allows his fervour to run away with him.”

“We commend Mr Bell’s excellent book, with its wealth of new material and its many illustrations and maps, to all who are interested in the history of London.”

“The book is well and accurately referenced throughout.”

BELL, WALTER GEORGE.Unknown London. il *$1.50 Lane 914.21

20–5387

“In the eighteen essays which make up this book—for most of them are sufficiently personal to be given that name—is nothing that is not interesting. Mr Bell has chosen, for the most part, from among those antiquities of which everybody has heard but of which most people know nothing. His ‘Unknown London’ deals with very familiar things—with such things as Domesday book, the shrine of Edward the confessor, London stone, the wax works in the abbey, the Roman baths, the bells of St Clements, the bones of the mummy of Men-Kau-Ra in the British museum, and London wall.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup D 11 ’19

“His book, while necessarily desultory, is readable and full of information gathered at first hand.”

“If Mr Bell is so human and hearty an antiquary it is that in him the antiquary and the journalist are admirably joined. The one gives to his book the gusto of an enthusiast. The other prevents him from ever forgetting, in his accumulation of knowledge, the art of interesting others.”

“The merit of his book is that the stories are retold here in a simple, personal, and most attractive way. From first to last Mr Bell is an admirable guide to old London, an enthusiast, well stored, humorous and unfailingly entertaining.”

BELLAIRS, CARLYON WILFROY.Battle of Jutland; the sowing and the reaping. il *$5 Doran 940.45

(Eng ed 20–8002)

Lord Jellicoe has written his own account of the Jutland battle. This book is by one of the critics of his policy, who says: “The ban on discussion, which was felt by many as applying right up to the time of the surrender of the German fleet, no longer exists. Nothing that can be done now can remedy the past; but much that can be said may safeguard the future. Hence this book, which must stand or fall in proportion to its influence on future thought and action. It is not intended to be any more than a critical survey. It is not a full history of the battle of Jutland, for the policy of secrecy pursued by the Admiralty, and the failure to hold an investigation, have made an accurate history impossible for the time being.” (Preface) The book is illustrated with diagrams and there is an appendix containing a chronology of the battle; also an index.

“It has the authoritativeness that will give it value to historians.”

“For the general reader it has less value than for the naval expert. Yet it is an interesting example of the kind of criticism which seems to be encouraged among British naval officers, not for the sake of mere controversy but in order to draw conclusions that may be useful in the future.”

“We do not quarrel with Captain Bellairs’s main conclusion, ... but we could wish that his tone did not sometimes suggest that he fails to be judicial.”

“If his captious tone be ignored, there is much in Commander Bellairs’s criticism in his more general chapters on the sowing which is well said and is well worth saying. But we cannot commend his tone and temper; and for the reasons we have given we can attach very little weight to his onslaught on Lord Jellicoe.”

BELLOC, HILAIRE.Europe and the faith. $2.25 Paulist press 940

20–15729

“Mr Belloc’s essay may be regarded as having a twofold aim, although, to the mind of its author, this aim appears to be one and indivisible. The first, and more narrowly historic aim of the essay, is to present a new picture of the decline of the centralized Roman empire and the subsequent building up of Europe, and the second, more obviously philosophic aim, is to account for the modern European consciousness in terms of (1) the Catholic faith and (2) the reformation. To Mr Belloc these two objectives are not really distinct. An account of Europe is an account of the Catholic faith, and an account of the Catholic faith is an account of Europe.”—Ath

“The most convinced opponent of Mr Belloc’s views of the historian’s qualifications will probably agree instantly that an acquaintance with the Catholic faith is necessary to writing a history of Europe, although he may not agree that the historian must be a Catholic. But the strangest part of Mr Belloc’s assumption is that he regards this condition as sufficient. We feel that Mr Belloc, although a Catholic, has not understood European history, and that he does not understand the modern European consciousness.” J. W. N. S.

“If many points of detail are not new, the explanation of their import and bearing is original. In some cases the author’s critical examination of sources is particular and minute.”

“Mr Belloc writes with great earnestness. One could wish that the solution of civilization’s difficulties were as simple as he judges it to be; and that for the strength of his argument history were as universally confirmatory of his preconceived thesis as it seems to him.” Williston Walker

“Our real objection to him is not that he has twisted history to his own view—everybody does that—but that he has given us an incomplete book, and even on his own showing he has left out the vital part. He discusses at length the unified Roman state of Europe. He discusses at length the unified Roman church of Europe. But he omits to discuss the relations between the two.”

“It is needless to say that from Mr Belloc’s whole conception of Protestantism we profoundly dissent. He cannot conceive of men opening their eyes and realising that they were serving an institution and not the cause for which the institution stood. This fatal lack of insight and comprehension effectually disqualifies him from giving the impartial presentation of European history which he is desirous of exhibiting, and almost completely nullifies the graphic force and admirable clarity of his narrative.”

“He has the courage of his consistency and the merit of a principle; but neither is adequate to the perplexities of the modern world.”

BEMAN, LAMAR TANEY, comp. Selected articles on the compulsory arbitration and compulsory investigation of industrial disputes. 4th ed, rev and enl (Debaters’ handbook ser.) *$2.25 Wilson, H. W. 331.1

20–18153

Altho issued as a revised edition of the handbook on compulsory arbitration first published in 1911, this is practically a new work. The explanatory note states: “This volume is compiled according to the general plan of the Debaters’ handbook series, but it differs from other members of the series in that it covers two questions.... In this case the two questions are closely related, and much of the literature deals with both, so that it is impracticable to present them in separate volumes and yet impossible to combine them into one question.... The volume contains a full general bibliography revised to the date of this issue, but not separated into affirmative and negative references.... It also contains briefs and reprints of the best material on both sides of each question.”

Reviewed by S. M. Lowenthal

BENÉT, STEPHEN VINCENT.Heavens and earth. *$2 Holt 811

20–21994

This collection opens with a long poem in two parts, Two visions of Helen followed by Chariots and horsemen; The tall town; Apples of Eden; The kingdom of the mad. The tall town is made up of poems of New York.

“So many moods and themes spread over the compass of this book, riotous and rapturous, whimsical and ironic, and undulating on waves of swift and thrilling music make ‘Heavens and earth’ an enjoyment to those who admire poetry when it is first of all music and imagination, and may be after these anything in the way of subject and ideal.” W: S. Braithwaite

“He has a swirling dexterity in syntax and rhythm, and practices a gorgeous, hot impressionism.”

“Originality marks his work in spite of the intimation that his themes are somewhat threadbare. He possesses a virility that is manifest at all times and a delight in swinging measures and emphatic rhymes.” H. S. Gorman

BENET, WILLIAM ROSE.Moons of grandeur. *$2 Doran 811

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