Chapter 124

20–3587

This is a book for boys about boys who have gained success, wealth, honor, and prestige in the business world. It contains more than twenty-six sketches of successful men, among them: Philip Danforth Armour—California pioneer and Chicago packing king; P. T. Barnum—the world’s greatest showman; Alexander Graham Bell—immortal telephone inventor, and humanitarian; James Buchanan Duke—American tobacco and cigarette king; Henry Ford—the Aladdin of the automobile industry; Hudson Maxim—poet, philosopher, and wizard of high explosives; John Davison Rockefeller,—oil king and world’s greatest industrial leader; John Wanamaker—America’s foremost retail merchant and originator of the department store; Orville and Wilbur Wright—who achieved immortal fame as airship inventors. A portrait accompanies each sketch.

“In these conventionally laudatory portraits of a group of American inventors and business men there is no departure from the old Sunday school type of ‘helpful’ stories for the young except in a decided journalistic snappiness of style.” E. S.

WILKINSON, MRS MARGUERITE OGDEN (BIGELOW).Bluestone. *$1.50 Macmillan 811

20–11184

A volume of lyrics. In her preface the author touches on the relation of lyric poetry to music as she employs it in the composition of her poems. Contents: Bluestone; Songs from beside swift rivers; Songs of poverty; Preferences; Love songs; Songs of an empty house; Songs of laughter and tears; Whims for poets; California poems; The pageant.

“Songs with a wide appeal because they are mostly ‘themes of the folk.’ The appreciation of nature and outdoor feeling are keen.”

“There is an undoubted poetic element in these poems of Mrs Wilkinson, but it is dew rather than flame. And being excellently even in craftsmanship, there is no poem that fails to satisfy the reader’s interest in being what it is.” W: S. Braithwaite

“Marguerite Wilkinson has decided moral and metrical spring without conspicuous originality; though she is deeply touching here in Songs of an empty house, on the childless state.” M. V. D.

“Mrs Wilkinson undoubtedly possesses a deal of talent; it is evident throughout her work, cropping out in felicitous stanzas here and rhythmical lines there, but she allows an occasional triteness to retard the success of the book as a whole.”

WILLARD, FLORENCE, and GILLETT, LUCY HOLCOMB.[2]Dietetics for high schools. il *$1.32 Macmillan 613.2

20–12948

“Home economics teachers will be interested to learn that a much needed textbook of dietetics has recently appeared. The content of the book is especially significant in view of the experience of both authors as teachers of the subject and of one of them as worker with actual problems of malnutrition and of family feeding on low incomes in the Association for improving the condition of the poor. The book starts with a comparison of the weights and heights of the girls in the class with the standards for their ages. Following this is a study of food values as to fuel, protein, mineral, vitamines, and the requirements of a good diet. Following the general study of the basis for planning meals, the authors make an interesting and concrete section of the book by selecting a family containing children of various ages and discussing the marketing problems of this family. The high-school girl thus makes application of her earlier nutrition study to actual food purchase for the family’s need.”—School R

“This book is a distinct contribution to the very small group of elementary textbooks in nutrition. The work is accurate and up-to-date. The points are supported and illustrated by suitable tables and charts in such number as to constitute a unique feature of a beginner’s book in nutrition. One specially commendable feature is the fact that it may be used quite as appropriately as a textbook for boys as for girls.” M. S. Rose

“A splendid and thoroughly scientific body of material makes the book a well-rounded and teachable text.”

WILLIAMS, ARIADNA TYRKOVA- (MRS HAROLD WILLIAMS).From liberty to Brest-Litovsk. *$6 Macmillan 947

19–18461

“This is a narrative of events from the first uprisings of the revolution in March, 1917, to the ratification of the peace with Germany a year later. Herself a member of the Petrograd municipal council and the Moscow conference, Mrs Williams has described in detail the cabinet crises and political vicissitudes of the provisional government and the steady trend of the socialist center toward bolshevism. Less complete is her account of the first months of the bolshevist régime and its negotiations with Germany at Brest-Litovsk.”—Survey

“Although the book is emotionally coloured with righteous anger and hatred towards the Bolsheviks, we cannot but welcome it as an honest attempt to narrate the history of the first year of the Russian revolution.” S. K.

“The facts here recorded will be most impressive to all who keep even an approximately open mind on the Russian question.”

“She might have made her book a skilful and telling arraignment of her political opponents if she could have restrained her quite intelligible hatred and indignation. She betrays her prejudice and weakens her case most seriously in loading on the Bolsheviki the blame for all that Russia has suffered since the beginning of the revolution.” Jacob Zeitlin

“When we had finished this long book of Mrs Harold Williams, we asked ourselves why it left us with the taste of the dust of Dead Sea apples. The answer is, we believe, that nothing is so barren as perpetual denunciation. Only a political controversialist could be quite so self-blind as Mrs Williams.”

“This book may be recommended as a storehouse of facts, and it is to be hoped that the author will in due course produce another volume, bringing the story down from Brest-Litovsk to the present day.”

“She shows an intimate knowledge of the political convulsions of 1917, and she describes them in a clear and forcible style. The dominant note of the book is amazement that the Russian people, with their many good qualities, could have allowed themselves to be dominated by a gang of scoundrels.”

“Partisan and patriot Mrs Williams is, and the reader will not find in her description of the storm-tossed waters of the revolution any clear perception of its deeper currents. But the reader will find in her book a useful chronicle of events and an interesting and vivid representation of the political kaleidoscope and of the opinion of no small part of the Russian intelligentsia during that momentous year.” Reed Lewis

“A connected account of the first phase of the Russian revolution has been badly needed. Mrs Williams has a clear picture in her own mind of what led to Bolshevism, and her main theme is easy to trace throughout the book. In these days, when many English liberals join in the foolish denunciation of nearly all Russian liberals as counter-revolutionaries without examining the positive side of their policy, it is useful to see the aims and policy of the provisional government clearly and sympathetically restated.”

WILLIAMS, BEN AMES.Great accident. *$2 (1½c) Macmillan

20–5226

This is a story of American provincial politics and of education gone wrong. The way Winthrop Chase, junior, had been brought up by a well meaning father and mother had brought out strongly the negative side of his character. He always did the thing he was told not to do and was fast becoming a drunkard. Shrewd old Ames Caretall, congressman, returns from Washington just as a mayoral election is coming on. He resolves to take a gambler’s chance with young Wint and uses his influence to have him elected mayor over the head of Wint’s own father. How the “joke” does the trick, knocks manhood into Wint, and develops him into a sober, unusually decent, honorable and lovable character is the burden of the story.

“This town and its inhabitants stand out with remarkable clearness, and it is well worth while for English men and women to read of it. They will see for themselves how different is their country from that huge one which speaks the same language.” O. W.

“This is a capital story. There are a number of well-drawn subsidiary personages, making the life of the small town vivid and often amusing. Its atmosphere is distinctive and typical.” N. H. D.

“It is a perfectly good idea and the characters are interesting enough, but the author seems to be a little bit tired; it all needs to be keyed up to a higher pitch.”

“It will go far toward dispelling in the average reader’s mind the illusion that a realistic presentation of American life must necessarily be dull, morbid and unduly sophisticated.”

“The merit of the tale lies in its portrayal of small town life, of the men who control or try to control the political destinies of the friendly little town of Hardiston, and in an easy and agreeable style.”

“Two romances and a broad vein of humor balance the political narrative, making an entertaining if rather unlifelike American tale.”

WILLIAMS, GAIL.Fear not the crossing. $1.25 (9c) Clode, E. J. 134

20–1895

A series of spirit communications given to the author through automatic handwriting by the spirit of a man who had but recently died, and who found it at first very difficult to adjust himself to conditions on the other side. The messages are given from day to day, and describe the life beyond death, its great beauty, satisfying joy, its boundless service for others, and its superiority to our flesh-bound existence. Advice is given too for our greater serenity of the spirit while still in the flesh. Think of God, pray to Him, in order that His power may radiate through you, and enable you to do the tasks assigned to you, is the advice frequently repeated by this spirit control. He speaks often of love as the most beautiful earthly force. A new note in this book is its description of the temporary agony of the soul newly awakening “on the other side of death.”

“The just complaint that most spirit revelations are of such trivial and childish nature, finds no grounds here, as the matters treated are all of large and worthy import.” Katharine Perry

Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow

WILLIAMS, HENRY SMITH.Witness of the sun. il *$1.90 (3c) Doubleday.

20–16495

When John Theobold is killed in his office, some one has to be found to fasten the murder to, as is usual in such cases. The guilty man seems to be Señor Cortez, a fiery Brazilian, jealous of Theobold’s interest in his wife, with Frank Crosby, the murdered man’s private secretary, as his accomplice. The case comes to trial, and the counsel for the defense springs a surprise. With the aid of Jack Henley, a bright office boy with an interest in photography, he presents proof, substantiated by actual pictures taken on the spot, showing that Cortez and Crosby could not have committed the crime, and who did and why. But all surprises are not yet over: the counsel for the defense learns that no amount of circumstantial evidence ever proves anything, it only shows that things might have happened in a certain way, but they might also have happened in some other way, and in this case they did.

“The plot and its solution evince striking ingenuity on the part of Mr Williams.”

WILLIAMS, JAMES MICKEL.[2]Foundations of social science. *$6 Knopf 301

The book is an analysis of the psychological aspects of the social sciences and emphasizes the vital relation of social psychology to the other social sciences, pointing out how the advancement of the latter is dependent on the development of the former. Although the assumptions of social science are in their last analysis, all resting on human nature, they have relied too much on the traditional social relations and have failed to discriminate between “a motive that is essential in traditional political relations, or in traditional economic relations and one that is essential in human nature.” Also they have allowed mass phenomena to obscure the individual and have lost sight of the fact that only through the operation of certain instinctive dispositions of individuals do they act as groups. The volume falls into four parts: Social psychology and political science; Social psychology and jurisprudence; Social psychology as related to economics, history and sociology; The field and methods of social psychology. Appended is a partial list of the books, documents and articles referred to in the text, and an index of subjects.

WILLIAMS, JENNIE B.Us two cook book, rev and enl ed *$1.50 Harper 641.5

In this cook book “every recipe has been carefully estimated and tested—the ingredients reduced so as to supply the requirements of two.” (Preface) Contents: Soups; Fish; Meats; Poultry and game; Entrees; Vegetables; Eggs; Beverages; Breads, cakes, etc.; Desserts; Fruits, pickles and sauces; Miscellaneous. Tables for cooking and measuring come at the end. There is no index. The book was copyrighted in Canada in 1916.

WILLIAMS, LLEWELLYN W.Making of modern Wales. *$2.25 Macmillan 942.9

“The recorder of Cardiff, in this well-organized, well-documented, and well-indexed treatise, studies the processes, legal, political, and social, by which mediæval was transformed into modern Wales. He devotes much space to the story of Catholicism in Wales after the reformation, and to an account of the Courts of great session—subjects on which far less has been written than on the council of the Marches, the history of Welsh nonconformity, and other main topics. His last chapter deals with the bilingual problem.”—Ath

“The author’s chapter on the Great sessions, which were abolished in 1830, is the best account of them that has yet been written.”

“The solid value of Mr Williams’s researches arouses gratitude and deep respect. We should, however, describe his work as research of the second—the organizing stage, chiefly—rather than of the first stage. The chapter on the reformation is extremely interesting. The chapter on the Welsh Catholics is the most picturesque and attractive in the book, and probably contains the most generally unfamiliar information. The most workmanlike and most original chapter is that on the king’s Court of great sessions.”

WILLIAMS, SIDNEY CLARK.Unconscious crusader. *$1.75 (2c) Small

20–4708

This is a story of present-day journalism and of James Radbourne, who started as reporter on a daily paper and ended as proprietor of one. All the ups and downs of a newspaper career, all the rivalries and jealousies between staff and managers of different papers come out in the story and how James Radbourne took the straight course until he won out and made himself a name for honest journalism. He did not know that some one was watching this course, but when she was satisfied that it was the right one she came and asked for a job. It was “Miladi.”

“When we turn from the world of business and politics to that of romance the atmosphere is clean and fresh. The setting for the romance is deliciously funny.” G. L. E.

“‘An unconscious crusader’ will hardly set the world aflame, yet it is readable and affords a glimpse of the inside workings of a newspaper office.”

“An attempt, not wholly successful, is made to weave in a love story, or rather an alleged one. It detracts from the interest of the story, rather than adds to it.”

WILLIAMS, WAYLAND WELLS.Goshen street. *$1.90 (1½c) Stokes

20–17177

Goshen street is a New England country road. David Galt, who is born on a Goshen street farm, is given an education thru the benevolence of a millionaire who makes a hobby of sending poor and promising boys to college. He goes into journalism afterwards and rises high in his profession, but Goshen street always remains an influence in his life. It is Sylvia Thornton who first brings David to her father’s attention and as he continues to make his way up in the world David holds to the intention of marrying Sylvia, but instead he marries Naomi Fiske. The war comes, David is first a correspondent, then a soldier. Naomi dies of influenza while nursing in France and after the war David and Sylvia again meet in Goshen street.

“Interesting, well written, a truthful picture of Connecticut farm people.”

“Although the scenes in New York are interesting, and although David’s wife Sylvia is an artistic triumph, particularly because she is so difficult, it is Goshen street itself, David’s ancestral home, and his father, mother and brother, to which my memory returns most fondly. The descriptions of the street are admirable examples of English style. This book has such fine quality that it sharpens one’s appetite for the next.” W: L. Phelps

WILLIAMS, WHITING.What’s on the worker’s mind. il *$2.50 Scribner 331.8

20–17086

“Mr Williams was a prominent official in a large steel fabricating concern. He wished to fit himself for the position of employment manager, and thought it a part of his preparation to find out what it was like to be a workman. Therefore he left home with a few dollars in his pocket and looked for a job. This is the story of his adventures in a basic steel plant, a rolling mill, a coal mine, an oil refinery, a shipyard, and other resorts of toil.”—Nation

“Reveals without bitterness or antagonizing radicalism the unsatisfactory lives of the workers. Vivid and worth while, but will not be popular.”

Reviewed by Harold Waldo

“An unusual and interesting book.”

“As a first-hand account of actual working and living-conditions in the great basic industries, Mr Williams’s ‘What’s on the worker’s mind’ is of considerable value for the author is an excellent reporter. But as an analysis of what the worker is actually thinking and doing about his problems, and in so far as it proposes solution for these problems, the book falls far short of its mark.” W: Z. Foster

“The narrative of his adventures is of extraordinary interest and his conclusions are worth attention.”

Reviewed by G: Soule

“Short as the book’s economic perspective is, its central contribution remains intact; its psychological analysis is penetrating and original. Its educational value can be literally tremendous.” Ordway Tead

“Not only are the observations obviously timely, but they have a force that results from their having been derived from actual experience.”

WILLIAMS-ELLIS, CLOUGH, and WILLIAMS-ELLIS, A.Tank corps; with an introd. by H. J. Elles. il *$5 (4½c) Doran 940.4

20–3588

Major-General Ellis commander of the tank corps, in his introduction to the volume, calls attention to the “difficulties of dealing concisely, even by comment, with the kaleidoscopic events of two and a half crowded years—with the questions of organisation, training, personnel, design, supply, fighting, reorganisation, workshops, experiments, salvage, transportation, maintenance.” This states in a nutshell the enormous problem solved by the tank in its rapid and forced evolution while the war was in process. The first chapter is intended for the civilian who, thanks to the censorship, “has had no opportunity of making himself familiar with the tactical opportunities and problems that the use of tanks has introduced or with the conditions under which tank crews fight.” It contains several plans and diagrams showing the general arrangement and construction of this formidable machine. There are other illustrations and an index.

“Excellent and well illustrated book.”

“The tank corps was one of the miracles of the war, and its history was bound to be one of the best romances. It is good to have the full story told so soon and by such competent chroniclers. The authors give us all the technical information that is needed, and at the same time they fit the achievement of the tank corps into the great movements of the campaign. The style is never for a moment ponderous or dull.” J: Buchan

“A vivid military treatise.”

“A confused collection of details instead of a coherent story. The confusion is not helped by the absence of maps. The book is a disappointment; but no mistakes can entirely rob of their interest the first full accounts that have been published of the terrible struggles of the tanks in the Flanders mud during the third battle of Ypres.”

WILLIAMSON, CHARLES NORRIS, and WILLIAMSON, ALICE MURIEL (LIVINGSTON) (MRS CHARLES NORRIS WILLIAMSON).Second latchkey. il *$1.60 (2c) Doubleday

20–7290

Annesley Grayle meets the man who calls himself Nelson Smith under romantic circumstances and marries him without knowing his real name or anything about him. As paid companion to a crabbed old lady she has found life dreary and colorless. He brings love and joy into it and she adores him and asks no questions. Shortly after it becomes apparent to the reader that the man is a very clever jewel thief. The heroine however is slower witted and when the truth is forced home to her she is crushed and believes her love dead. There follows a period of estrangement and penitence spent on the hero’s ranch in Texas, followed by reconciliation.

“A tale of plot, whose surprises and thrills are never balked by the improbable.”

“The Williamsons have succeeded in concentrating our entire interest in their plot, and though—as is natural in this type of story—we should not be likely to read the book a second time, it is equally likely that we should be inclined to read the next Williamson book upon the recommendation of this.” D. L. M.

“The authors have not allowed a trifle like probability to stand in their way, but the tale holds the reader’s interest, and Annesley is a charming heroine. Smoothly and pleasantly written, ‘The second latchkey’ is an agreeable and an entertaining romance of things as they are not.”

WILLIS, GEORGE.Philosophy of speech. *$2.50 Macmillan 404

(Eng ed 20–17996)

“Mr Willis’s book is not so much a connected system of philosophy as a series of thoughts on various subjects connected with the faculty of speech. Beginning with a discussion of the origins of speech, he goes on to show the connection of the history of speech with the history of thought; he devotes a chapter to metaphor, another to grammar, another to the question of spelling and spelling reform, others to purism and correct speech, and a final section to speech and education.”—Ath

“One does not always agree with Mr Willis, but one can never find him anything but very entertaining and stimulating.”

“This is, indeed, a strange book. It seems to be a survival from the linguistic dark ages. The author does not disclose any intimacy with Anglo-Saxon, with Gothic or with old high English, nor does he show any scholarship in comparative philology.” Brander Matthews

“The present writer has not for years come across a book in which highly disputable assertions were mixed up with facts with such complete impartiality. Nothing could be more admirable than the author’s attack upon the ordinary grammar-books, and his exposition of the causes which have led to the extraordinary muddle-headedness of these compilations.”

WILLOUGHBY, D.About it and about. *$5 Dutton 824

(Eng ed 20–10519)

“These essays, most of which appeared in Everyman, consist of comment on questions of the day, written from a ‘moderate’ point of view.” (Ath My 21 ’20) “Roughly speaking, Mr Willoughby touches on all the burning or still glowing topics of the day, on peace and war, on housing, on labour, on Ireland, on servants civil and domestic, and many other more or less immediate doubts and difficulties.” (Ath Je 11 ’20)

“Readably and brightly written.”

“The rational good-humor characteristic of the book, a really precious quality at this time, naturally brims over in laughter, spontaneous and frequent enough to convey to the reader a feeling of expectant animation. Occasionally, the easy note of mirth has been forced.” F. W. S.

“A witty, animated, keen-sighted, judicious and mature product of journalism. Informing and revealing sentences abound.”

“The author is implicit in it—‘his vaunts, his feats.’ He is often amusing. Mr Willoughby’s detachment is aloofness; from his Olympian height he scans the depths—or would if the depths were not shallows. His knowledge, however, does not come of patient observation, but from the study of the authorities.”

WILLOUGHBY, WESTEL WOODBURY.Foreign rights and interests in China. $6 Johns Hopkins 327

20–8714

“Professor Willoughby, of the Johns Hopkins university, served as legal adviser to the Chinese republic during the war. He has used his special knowledge to compile a statement of the rights conferred by treaties or agreements of an official character upon foreigners and foreign powers in China. As he says, the situation is ‘complicated in the extreme,’ for China permits all kinds of extra-territorial rights and suffers ‘spheres of interest, “special interests,” war zones, leased territories, treaty ports, concessions, settlements and legation quarters’ to infringe on her sovereignty, to say nothing of commercial concessions and revenue services under foreign control.”—Spec

“As a work of reference the volume may be highly commended.”

“His explanations and comments are thorough-going and illuminating. They are never wearisome, as legal discussions sometimes are.” E. B. Drew

“It has a quality that renders it easily read from beginning to end. This happy issue must be ascribed in due degree to the author’s admirable style and control of his material; but while the book is a model of what a thesis should be, it possesses, besides its usefulness as a work of reference, a human interest that is altogether compelling.” F: W. Williams

“The work is well done and is an addition of permanent value to the literature on the Far East.” W. R. Wheeler

WILSON, CAROLYN CROSBY.[2]Fir trees and fireflies. *$1.75 Putnam 811

Poems on varied themes. Among the titles are: Mid winter; The patchwork quilt; Houseless; On the arrogance of lovers; Roads; December; Two songs for my child; Late March. These miscellaneous verses are followed by a series of love sonnets. Some of the pieces are reprinted from Vanity Fair, New Republic, Pagan and Vassar Miscellany.

“There is a certain nicety of phrasing, evenness and melody of line that raises them out of the ordinary and yet they are by no means pallid bits. Throughout, there is upon these poems, some greater, some less, the unmistakable hallmark of distinction.”

“At its best Miss Wilson’s verse has a tight-lipped irony about it; or it may even develop into humor that is broad but never blatant. At its worst her poetry is quite a different matter; without ever being badly written, it is pompously and conventionally emotional.”

WILSON, EDWIN BIDWELL.Aeronautics. il *$4 Wiley 629.1

20–4713

“The introduction to the book includes the ideas underlying simple flight and the aerodynamics of aerofoils. In the chapter on ‘Motion in two dimensions’ are collected with proofs the fundamental theorems in dynamics. The principles are carried step by step to the consideration of stability, and are then illustrated by example. The study of motion in three dimensions is committed to a following chapter. The last chapter in the section devoted to rigid dynamics applies the equations developed to the stability of the aeroplane. The rest of the book is devoted to ‘Fluid mechanics.’”—Nature

“It is very clearly written, and will be particularly valuable to advanced students of the subject for many reasons. On the other hand, it will not appeal strongly to the less advanced worker.”

WILSON, MRS MARY A.Mrs Wilson’s cook book. *$2.50 Lippincott 641.5

20–17378

According to the title page the author was “formerly Queen Victoria’s cuisiniere,” as well as instructor in domestic science in the University of Virginia summer school and for the United States navy. The present volume contains her best recipes, set forth, as she says, not in the heavy cook book style, but in a more intimate manner “as if housewife and author were conversing upon the dish in question.” The recipes follow one another without arrangement or order but an index provides a guide to the contents.

WILSON, MAY (ANISON NORTH, pseud.).Forging of the pikes. *$1.90 (1½c) Doran

20–4710

The pikes are forged for the rebels of the Upper Canadian rebellion of 1837. The hero Alan’s sympathies are with the rebels the while his whole being is in the toils of his love for Barry. Barbara Deveril, the supposed daughter of the tavern-keeper is Indian in appearance and in her love for the forest and Indian traditions. She is Alan’s “Oogenebahgooquay”—the wild rose woman. One day, soon after the appearance of a dazzlingly handsome stranger, an Englishman, she disappears from the woods and the countryside, leaving Alan with his grief and his suspicion. While the rebellion and its dangers, and a brief sojourn in Toronto engage Alan, Barry is living through her short and sorrowful romance as the Indian-wed wife of the handsome Englishman. But they were meant for each other and the sick, disillusioned and widowed Barry finds herself still linked to life by her love for Alan.

“The description of country life, of the woods and of nature is vivid. The historical portions, on the other hand, are unsatisfactory.”

“The story part of the book is an entirely secondary affair, conventional and not particularly interesting. To the average American reader the best of the tale will be the picture it gives of Canadian life at the time.”

“The style is flowing and simple and has an agreeable if not strictly synchronous flavor of Pepys.” H. W. Boynton

WILSON, PHILIP WHITWELL.Irish case before the court of public opinion. il *$1.25 Revell 941.5

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