Chapter 55

20–4805

These human documents, as letters by the author of “A student in arms” can be called, are published as a tribute of love to one who sleeps in France. The introduction and notes are by Edward Miller, whose glowing picture of a loving personality adds an interest to the letters which, although written for the most part to his family and intimate friends, “run up and down the whole gamut of life.” Here and there are pen and ink sketches reproduced from the letters and charming features of the book are several facsimile letters to nephew and niece. Contents: The subaltern, 1904–1906; The undergraduate, 1907–1910; The traveller, July 1910–July 1912; The emigrant 1912–13; One of the immortal hundred thousand, 1914–1916.

“Let us say at once that the first impression on the reader is that Hankey in his letters falls below the high literary inspiration which he displays in a ‘Student in arms.’ Yet the letters if they do not on the surface display the same quality as the essays, reveal when carefully studied a nature free, noble, and humane, combined with a truthfulness deeply impressive from its singular intensity.”

“The author’s religion was very rational and wholesome and very advanced in thought for so young a man. Here and there he drops a comment on religion that would be worthy of the profoundest philosopher.”

“These letters reveal the zest of life in a man of deep religious experience, especially quick to respond to the challenge of those on whom the burdens of life bore more heavily than on himself.”

HANNAY, JAMES OWEN (GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM, pseud.).Irishman looks at his world. *$2 (3½c) Doran 914.15

20–4485

In this volume an Irishman tells us simply and dispassionately what he knows about his country, its politics, its religion, its social and economic structure and at the end disavows any knowledge of a solution of the Irish problem. He seems strongly to suspect that “we Irishmen, all of us, are spending most energy on what matters least, the form of the state; and far too little energy on what matters most, the making of men.” Contents: Irish politics—the old parties; Irish politics—the new parties; The island of saints—Ireland’s religion;—and scholars—Ireland’s culture; Education—primary, intermediate, university; Education—the Gaelic league and the Irish agricultural organisation society; The Irish aristocracy; The farmers; The middle classes—Dublin—Belfast—the country town; Conclusion.

“Mr Birmingham takes apparently a rather Laodicean attitude. He is not aflame with that determined patriotism which burns in the souls of so many other Irish writers of today. He has applied, on the contrary, his own rather detached, yet pleasantly sympathetic spirit, and the wit and knowledge of human nature that have gone to the making of his novels, to a study of his fellow-Irishmen, and with laudable results.”

Reviewed by Preserved Smith

“Mr Birmingham’s book covers a very broad field, and does it with an ease, a lack of hurry and an ever-present sense of humor, which, when the highly controversial nature of the subjects is considered, render it a most unusual volume.”

“We can cordially commend Canon Hannay’s book to all who want to know what sort of men inhabit Ireland, what they think about, and in what way they will bear themselves in the hour of trial; we commend it to all who think some working compromise can be devised to inveigle Ulster under a Dublin parliament, and who imagine that because a policy is useful and desirable it must therefore also be practicable.”

“This book will be much more helpful than ‘Irish impressions.’ Mr Chesterton found in Ireland the stronghold of the religion of which he is such an able propagandist. George Birmingham, although adherent to the church of Ireland, deals more even justice and displays in his treatment of the religious question that Irish fairness which is as real as Irish bigotry, though far less generally recognized.”

HANNAY, JAMES OWEN (GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM, pseud.).Up, the rebels! *$1.75 (2½c) Doran

19–15676

Sir Ulick Conolly was a high government official in Ireland whose phlegmatic temperament and easy-going worldly wisdom refused to take the unrest of the Irish Nationals seriously. His policy was not to suppress the rebels but to avert an explosion by letting them blow off steam freely. He did not even suppress his daughter Mona, one of the rebels, who talked in Gaelic and dressed like a Celtic queen; who engaged in conspiracies and led uprisings. But he managed to send her off into the country to her aunt’s, for safe keeping, as he thought. There she organizes the natives and proclaims the Irish republic in the village of Dunally. Her father’s timely interference saves the situation from becoming serious for the rebels and turns the fracas into something of a farce. In the end the girl is put to bed for recuperation under the watchful eye of her aunt.

“The humorous possibilities of the situation are used with delicacy and ingenuity. George A. Birmingham is at his best in this book.”

“Never was irony so playful, so kindly an instrument as in Birmingham’s ‘Up, the rebels.’” M. E. Bailey

“To read ‘Up, the rebels!’ is to see new light upon the Irish question. Both as a story and as a study of political and social conditions it is a tribute to the knowledge and skill of a leader among present-day clerical humorists.” E. F. E.

“Of course it is possible that some persons will not find this tale amusing; there are people who do not find the Gilbert and Sullivan operas amusing. But those who can enjoy wit and a shrewd, ironic treatment of certain human vanities and foibles will undoubtedly chuckle long and deeply over Mr G. A. Birmingham’s new tale.”

“A thoroughly delightful story of Ireland, over which the reader chuckles long if not loud, appreciating and enjoying the whimsical wit and good-natured satire he has some time ago learned to expect from this most entertaining of writers.”

“Canon Hannay has never written a more satisfying story.”

“Another of those disconcerting criticisms of Irish life and English government which illuminate the difficulties of affairs in the distressful country. The fact that the book is as amusing as any of its predecessors, even ‘Spanish gold’ or ‘The search party,’ seems merely incidental, but it must be mentioned.”

“We have already had several serious novels inspired by the events of Easter, 1916, but George Birmingham is the only writer who has turned the sequel to humorous purpose, and he is probably the only writer living who could be trusted to do so without offence. The worst that can be said of the book is that, as in ‘The seething pot,’ his first novel, the author sees no way out.”

“The relation between his amusing chronicles and actual life may be remote: no matter, for they were always considered to be descriptive of the kind of events that might occur if people and Ireland had happened to be like the people and the Ireland of George Birmingham’s books.”

HANSHEW, MARY E., and HANSHEW, THOMAS W. (CHARLOTTE MAY KINGSLEY, pseud.).Riddle of the frozen flame. il *$1.75 (2c) Doubleday

20–9476

“Mr Maverick Narkom, superintendent of Scotland Yard, sat before the litter of papers upon his desk.... ‘Dash it, Cleek!’ he said for the thirty-third time, ‘I don’t know what to make of it, I don’t, indeed!’” So opens the new Cleek story. The mystery referred to is a series of daring bank robberies. But more unusual matters are to follow, involving the riddle of the frozen flames. Sir Nigel Merriton sees them on the first night spent in Merriton Towers and his impulse is to go out onto the fens to investigate, but his horrified servants restrain him with tales of those who have dared this never to return. Sir Nigel, who is very much in love and has just become engaged, has no wish to risk his life and his interest in the supposed supernatural phenomenon lapses. It is only when Dacre Wynne, his unsuccessful rival, disappears, that he is moved to action and carries the strange tale to Scotland Yard, arousing the interest of Cleek, who pursues the mystery to its solution.

“The dénouement is obvious from the first, while the love interest is of the usual stereotyped kind. Even so, ‘The riddle of the frozen flame’ is an infinitely better mystery tale than many others appearing this season.”

“‘The riddle of the frozen flame’ is a cleverly conceived tale that will idle away an hour most pleasantly.”

HANSON, DANIEL LOUIS.Business philosophy of Moses Irons. il *$2.50 (1c) Shaw, A. W. 658

20–19862

A series of chapters, in fiction form, on the methods of conducting a big business today. Moses Irons is the typical self-made business man, shrewd, kindly, humorous and masterful. His ideals, his methods, his relations with his subordinates are set forth in the book, some of the chapters of which are: A romance of business; Live wires and dead ones; Getting a job with Moses Irons; The ironmaster talks advertising; Business diplomacy and trade anarchists; Wives and sweethearts; The ironmaster gets pointers on handling salesmen; The ironmaster invests in junk.

HANSON, OLE.Americanism versus bolshevism. il *$1.75 (2½c) Doubleday 331.87

20–2669

The author speaks of bolshevism and everything he conceives of as coming under the head—communism, syndicalism, I. W. W.’ism—in no uncertain terms. They all, he says, thrive on “murder, rape, pillage, arson, free love, poverty, want, starvation, filth, slavery, autocracy, suppression, sorrow and hell on earth.” (Preface) After giving the above ‘isms more than their due he also mentions the red employers as likewise culpable, but “we should be thankful that every day they become less and soon will be an inconsequential minority in the land.” Among the contents are: The labour situation in Seattle; Something of the rise, trial and failure of bolshevism in Europe; Some of history’s verdicts on reformers, utopias, trade unions, and bolshevism; The causes of Bolshevism in Russia; The origin and development of bolshevism in the United States; Bolshevism in America: its causes and some remedies; Bolshevism contrasted with Americanism.

“The book contains pages of shallow generalizations.”

“The value of this book, and the interest of it, is the clearness with which it points out the menace.” I. W. L.

“The best part of the book is that in which Mr Hanson tells the story of his own fight. The reader is forced to decide whether or not Mr Hanson has attempted too much. For one thing he has endeavored to generalize from his own experiences. His arguments are weak when he delves into the past. Ole Hanson on the subject of remedies is worth reading.”

HANUS, PAUL HENRY.School administration and school reports. *$1.75 Houghton 379.15

20–13792

The object of the book is to help principals and teachers as well as superintendents and boards of education to acquire a clearly defined educational and administrative policy and to formulate and justify their opinions and procedure. Contents: The meaning of education; Some principles of school administration; Town and city school reports, more particularly superintendents’ reports; Testing the efficiency of public schools; Courtis arithmetic tests applied to employees in business houses; Measuring progress in learning Latin; How far shall the state go? The German example; German schools and American education; Germany’s kultur; The Harvard graduate school of education.

“One might raise a question as to why such an excellent monograph as the first three chapters would make should be made to carry an equal amount of loosely associated material. The last eight chapters are interesting and have individual value, but are not more closely related to the theme of the book than many other articles which might have been included. The busy school administrator would doubtless appreciate the book more if there were fewer ‘riders’ attached.”

“The clear-cut statement of principles of school administration and of the bases of determining the efficiency of the administration of a system of schools, and the analysis of typical school reports and the suggestions for their improvement contained in the first four of the essays have in themselves much more than enough of value to justify the volume.”

HAPGOOD, NORMAN.Advancing hour. *$2 Boni & Liveright 940.5

20–12808

Mr Hapgood accepts the fact that we are now in the midst of revolution, and accepting that fact, he says “the only question is in what manner it will be conducted, and by whom.” He states his own position, and defines his liberalism: “If a radical is one who by nature prefers sudden change and violent remedies then I am not a radical.... A liberal differs from a radical in humility. He concentrates on certain changes, good in themselves and also carrying the seeds of further change, but he leaves later steps to later times. His faith is that if the next step taken by us is important and of right direction we shall have done all that belongs to our moment.” Contents: In time of revolution; The storm cellar; The blockade of thought; What the issues are; Without a party; Facing bolshevism: our follies in Russia; Facing bolshevism: the future in Russia; Is socialism needed? The answer of cooperation; The answer of liberalism; From Wilsonism to the future; What is our faith?

“A hopeful book which does not attempt to solve all problems at a stroke.”

“Mr Hapgood always writes interestingly even though his words may not be based upon the soundest philosophy.”

“Outside of an excellent chapter on the cooperative movement, the volume is chiefly pious platitude, amiable advice to business men not to make fools of themselves in a time of rapid social change like the present.” Harold Stearns

Reviewed by W: MacDonald

“It is a book worth everyone’s reading, for its notable contribution of facts and ideas, and more especially for its candor of spirit, rare indeed in a day when a great part of our political writers are still more or less disabled morally by their late services to national morale in disseminating lies and misrepresentations for the glory of God and the cause of right.” A. J.

“Mr Hapgood shows the defects of his good qualities and one of these is at present a lack of knowledge in what these good qualities consist. The volume is stimulating, patriotic without being nationalistic, unselfish and idealistic; but it shows some of the defects of an education which seems to have been entirely American.” M. F. Egan

“The best chapter in the book is chapter eight on the advantages of co-operation, over both socialism and government regulation of great combinations, as a remedy for industrial injustice. Mr Norman Hapgood is an effective pamphleteer; but excellences in a pamphleteer are fatal defects in a historian.”

“To one reviewer at least—and one who is not insensible to the part Mr Hapgood has taken in past times in the advocacy of certain social measures—there is provocation on almost every page of this book. But in the two chapters on the Russian problem, as well as in other incidental treatment of this problem, the provocation concentrates in every line.” W. J. Ghent

“To see things steadily and clearly is a gift of few. Mr Hapgood possesses fewer blind spots than most, but it may be that he is mistaken in parts of his analysis. However, he stimulates the reader to formulate his own beliefs. The style is a trifle labored, but there is no mistaking the book’s earnestness.”

“Special mention should be made of Mr Hapgood’s intimate study of President Wilson. It is a helpful antidote to Mr Keynes’ sketch.” L. R. Robinson

HARA, KATSURO.[2]Introduction to the history of Japan. *$2.50 (2½c) Putnam

952

The book is the first of a projected series of publications by the Yamato society, whose aim is to make clear the meaning and extent of Japanese culture to other nations, and to introduce the best literature and art of foreign nations to Japan for a promotion of a common understanding. The present volume is intended for those Europeans and Americans who would like to know Japan “not as a land of quaint curios and picturesque paradoxes only worthy to be preserved intact for a show, but as a land inhabited by a nation striving hard to improve itself, and to take its share, however humble, in the common progress of the civilisation of the world.” (Preface) Contents: The races and climate of Japan; Japan before the introduction of Buddhism and Chinese civilisation; Growth of the imperial power; gradual centralisation; Remodeling of the state; Culmination of the new régime; stagnation; rise of the military régime; The military régime; the Taira and the Minamoto; the shogunate of Kamakura; The welding of the nation; the political disintegration of the country; End of medieval Japan; The transition from medieval to modern Japan; The Tokugawa shogunate—its political régime; culture and society (two chapters); The restoration of the Meidji; Epilogue. The objects of and the rules of the Yamato society are given in full and there is an index.

“A carefully evolved and well written synopsis of the many centuries of Japanese national life. There is one especially creditable circumstance about the publication of this book. It is honest Japanese propaganda, and it makes no pretensions of being anything else.” S. L. C.

HARBEN, WILLIAM NATHANIEL.Divine event. *$1.75 (2c) Harper

20–16796

A story of psychical phenomena. Hillery Gramling, unhappy over the death of his brother, in consultation with a medium is sent to New York’s East side to live among the poor. There he comes in contact with Lucia Lingle, a beautiful young girl who seems to be under the shadow of some awful, mysterious tragedy. He falls in love with her and is anxious to help her. He is aided by Professor Trimble, psychologist, alienist, mental scientist, who becomes deeply interested in Lucia’s case. Thru the mediumship of Madame DuFresne, they discover the exact nature of her trouble, that her half-brother is trying to prove her insane that he may take over her inheritance. Together they fight the thing out, encouraged always by the supernatural aid they receive, thru Madame DuFresne, from those on the other side of death. In the end thru their combined efforts, Lucia is freed from the awful curse that has hung over her, and has the promise of happiness.

“The plot is slight and unconvincing but is evidently meant to be taken seriously and will interest readers inclined to believe in spirit control and guardian angels.”

HARCOURT, ROBERT HENRY.Elementary forge practice. 2d ed, enl il $1.50 Manual arts press 672

20–19056

A second edition of a work originally published by the author, instructor in forge practice in Leland Stanford Junior university, where it has been used as a text. It is designed for use in technical and vocational schools. Contents: Materials and equipment; Drawing-out, bending and twisting; Common welds; Special welds; Hammer work; Annealing, hardening and tempering steel; Tool forging. There are forty-four plates illustrating as many projects.

“The volume should prove a valuable addition to any shop library as a supplementary text. For the teacher of large classes of beginners it should lift the burden of much class work and explanation if placed in the hands of the pupils as a text.”

HARD, WILLIAM.Raymond Robins’ own story. il *$2 (4c) Harper 947

20–3007

Colonel Robins was the unofficial representative of the American ambassador to Russia for eighteen months and a close observer of the powers that conducted Russian affairs, and he has had a more intimate acquaintance than any other American or allied representative with the government of Lenin. He is not a socialist and not a bolshevist, but he sees that the danger from the latter, if such there be, lies not in riots and robberies, mobs and massacres, not in its disorder but in its order, in that “the Soviet system is genuinely a system on its own account.... It can be extinguished only in the free air of fair controversy and of fair, practical proof.” There is but one choice left to America, according to Colonel Robins, in dealing with Russia, and that is not intervention but intercourse. The story of the book is told by the author as it was narrated to him by Colonel Robins. The contents are: The arrival of the Soviet; Trotzky’s plans for soviet Russia; The all-Russian congress and the Brest-Litovsk peace; The personality and power of Nikolai Lenin; The bolshevik “bomb”; and many illustrations.

“It stands out in this consecutive form as the most vigorous, the most picturesque, as well as the most truthful record in English of the birth of Bolshevism through the Soviet.” O. M. Sayler

“Mr Hard is so carried away with dramatic fervor that he feels it necessary to interrupt himself every now and then to assure us that Mr Robins is a good anti-Bolshevist. But these interludes need not divert the reader from the important parts of the book. Mr Robins’ admirable suggestions as to future American policy toward Russia deserve to be widely read.” Reed Lewis

HARDY, THOMAS.Collected poems, lyrical, narratory and reflective. *$3.40 Macmillan 821

20–26754

“This book contains all of Thomas Hardy’s poetry except ‘The dynasts,’ including poems which have appeared in his prose works.”—Booklist

“There have been many poets among us in the last fifty years, poets of sure talent, and it may be even of genius, but no other of them has this compulsive power of Hardy. The secret is not hard to find. Not one of them is adequate to what we know and have suffered.... Therefore we deliberately set Mr Hardy among the greatest.” J. M. M.

“Let it be said straight out that in our opinion, whatever else Mr Hardy’s writing, susceptible to scansion, is, it is not poetry. It is not poetry, because, in the end, poetry is in a sort illusion.... He has been guilty of the last, the unforgivable sin in poetry—* *he has sinned against love, for which there is and should be no forgiveness.”

“Mr Hardy, once and for all, set up as poet, then, at an age when Shakespeare left our mortal stage. This book, for that reason alone, is an unprecedented achievement. Apart from that, to read steadily through it—and what severer test of lyrical poetry could be devised?—is to win to the consciousness not of any superficial consistency, but assuredly of a ‘harmony of colouring’; not, however keen the joy manifest ‘in the making,’ of an art become habitual, but of a shadowy unity and design.”

HARKER, MRS LIZZIE ALLEN.Allegra. *$1.75 (2c) Scribner

20–161

Allegra is a charming but decidedly self-centered young actress who sees every person and every incident in the light of her career. She is playing in a provincial repertory theater at the opening of the story and it is thru a chance meeting with Paul Staniland that her ambition to appear in London is gratified. Paul is delighted with Allegra and works up a part for her in the play he is dramatizing from one of Matthew Maythorne’s novels. Maythorne is one of those popular novelists whose books sell into the thousands and he fatuously accepts the success of the play as a tribute to himself, giving Paul none of the credit. Allegra’s admiration for the novelist is killed by a reading of his book and she comes to appreciate Paul, but a visit at the country home of Paul’s people, delightful tho they are, convinces her that she belongs to the theater and she returns to the stage.

“The plot is not credible in parts, but this does not mar the interest of the story.”

Reviewed by M. E. Bailey

“If Paul seems a special creation made to fit Allegra’s need, why quarrel with him? Are we not left with the conviction that here is a really happy ending to a story?”

“A number of minor characters are very well drawn.”

“All the minor characters, in fact, are skillfully portrayed, with any number of quaint and understanding little touches which make ‘Allegra’ very agreeable reading—the more agreeable because the author has had the good taste and good sense to avoid the conventional ‘happy ending.’”

“Altogether it is a slight but pleasing little story without any probing into psychology or any tremendous conflict of forces.”

“Allegra, a little hard and egotistical, and passionately devoted to her art, is well studied. And the whole tale (which moves among well-bred people throughout) is on a good level, though we think a little below that attained in other books by the author.”

HARPER, GEORGE MCLEAN.[2]John Morley, and other essays. *$1.60 Princeton univ. press 814

20–10290

“Professor Harper, of Princeton university, author of various books of literary criticism (including the substantial and able work on Wordsworth), here puts together eight essays—on John Morley; Victor Hugo (these from the Atlantic Monthly); Michael Angelo’s sonnets; Balzac; W. C. Brownell (an American critic); Wordsworth at Blois; Wordsworth’s love poetry; and ‘David Brainerd: a Puritan saint.’”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“His generalizations are just, and he is not ridden by them; he knows when to generalize and when to forget his generalizations.”

HARRIS, CORRA MAY (WHITE) (MRS LUNDY HOWARD HARRIS).Happily married. *$1.75 (2c) Doran

20–3192

The scene is an exclusive southern town, the time that summer of intense war activity, 1918, and the characters several married pairs. Two of these are Mary and Pelham Madden, and two others Ellen and Barrie Skipwith. Mary is one of those calm, maternal and beautifully placid women, a perfect housekeeper and mother of four children. Ellen is a childless woman with red hair and baby blue eyes. Mary has just found a note in her husband’s pocket addressed to Dear Pep. Ellen has just turned in a Red cross subscription list with an anonymous contribution of $1000. How Mary wakes up and learns to practice the old womanly wiles is the theme of a story that is told amusingly with touches of satire.

“Entertaining in spite of its hackneyed plot.”

“Mrs Harris makes no attempt to inject novelty into the situation. She relies on her knowledge of men and women and her happy faculty in phrasing her reflections thereon for the pleasure of her readers. And these easily suffice.” F. A. G.

“The entertaining and shrewd comment upon married life, adds ginger to a somewhat conventional vamp story.”

“An immense quantity of mildly entertaining and occasionally shrewd comment strung on a very slight, very much worn thread of plot, constitutes Corra Harris’s new novel.”

“Mrs Harris’s thesis does not command unfaltering acquiescence. For those, however, who collect novels as others collect butterflies, the book will have a great deal of interest.”

HARRIS, CREDO FITCH.Wings of the wind. *$1.75 (1½c) Small

20–11301

Jack Bronx, returning from the war, is packed off by his fond parents on their private yacht, with one of his army pals. On the way to Havana they pick up a stranger who turns out to be a secret envoy from the Kingdom of Azuria, in search of a lost princess. Chance favoring they trace the princess as one of the passengers on another yacht. Great is the chase, thrilling the adventures which eventually take the party to the Florida swamps into the ancient haunts of the Seminoles. The princess is rescued, Jack falls violently in love with her, and the old emissary hard put to it to save her, under the circumstances, for the throne of Azuria. Jack’s resourceful friend settles the matter by demonstrating to everybody’s satisfaction that the emissary’s orders to deliver the princess did not contain the provision that she must be single when found.

“The story teems with thrilling incidents. The plot, however, is trite.”

HARRIS, H. WILSON.Peace in the making. il *$2 Dutton 940.314

20–6966

“‘What I have endeavored to produce is an account, checked by such official documents as are available, which will convey to the general reader some not wholly inadequate impression both of what the conference did and how it did it.’ (Preface) The author was for three months the special correspondent of the London Daily News to the conference.”—Wis Lib Bul

“Mr Harris is well-informed and his pen-pictures of the personality and policy of the leading diplomats, tho less lively than those of Mr Keynes, are far closer to the facts.”

“His plan is less ambitious than that of Dr Dillon, for he leaves out most of the historical summaries which are a valuable feature of Dr Dillon’s volume, and also tells fewer incidents. His account of the Prinkipo episode, and of the apparently deliberate intermeddling of France to insure that the proposed conference should come to naught, should be read by anyone who still cherishes confidence in the good faith of the Paris negotiators.” W: MacDonald

“Those readers who are interested in finding an account of the peace conference to supplement the somewhat opinionated statements of Keynes and Dillon would do well to provide themselves with a copy of ‘The peace in the making.’ The book as a whole, while not itself history in the fullest sense, may well be regarded as a contribution to history.”

“His summary of the deliberations of the conference is just a little too summary, and the chapter on Lenin and Bela Kun is vague and unsatisfactory. On the other hand, Mr Harris’s judgments of the personalities of the conference are generally temperate and just.”

HARRIS, JAMES RENDEL.Last of the Mayflower. (Manchester univ. publications) *$2 (*5s) Longmans 974.4

Back to Index Next