Chapter 61

20–14228

The book has to do with the pedagogy of Jesus, which, the author says, is a discovered and staked-out but unworked mine. The aim of the book is two-fold: “to see how Jesus taught, or is presented to us as having taught,” and “ultimately, to influence our own methods of teaching morals and religion,” and is primarily to be used as a guide to be followed in study classes. A partial list of the contents is: How did Jesus secure attention? His use of problems; His conversations; His questions; His discourses; His parables; His use of symbols; His imagery; Education by personal association; Did Jesus appeal to the native reactions? His attitude toward children; His qualities as teacher; The significance of Jesus in educational history. The appendix consists of topics for further study, and there are illustrations and a bibliography.

HORTON, CHARLES MARCUS.Opportunities in engineering. (Opportunity books) *$1 (5c) Harper 620

20–6879

This little treatise on engineering might well be called an epic, for it sings the praises of the engineer and his work in all its aspects. It is a wonderful profession, perhaps “the topmost of all professions” in its possibilities of world service, and the engineer is both a thinker and a doer and as such has more of the world under his control than falls to the lot of most men. Contents: Engineering and the engineer; Engineering opportunities; The engineering type; The four major branches; Making a choice; Qualifying for promotion; The consulting engineer; The engineer in civic affairs; Code of ethics; Future of the engineer; What constitutes engineering success; The personal side.

HOWARD, ALEXANDER L.Manual of the timbers of the world, their characteristics and uses. il *$9 Macmillan 691.1

“The book is intended to supplement the standard works on timber and aims at giving an account of the important timbers either on the market or likely to be of use to us in the future. The properties and characters of 500 of these woods are considered and suggestions made as to their practical utilization. Quite a large amount of information is given on the cultural conditions necessary for many of the best timber trees and on the possibility of growing them in this country. This special part of the work is followed by a more general one, dealing with the conversion and preservation of timber, specifications and conditions of contract; then comes a very important section dealing with the artificial seasoning of timber.”—Spec

“On the subject of timbers he is a fanatic. His passion leads him into mistakes, but it leads him also into real appreciation of the beauty of woods, and into a prose style that conveys unexpectedly through the technicalities the charm of his subject.” Malcolm Cowley

“The book is fully illustrated and well arranged; it will be of more use than its author modestly imagines.”

HOWE, EDGAR WATSON.Anthology of another town. *$2 (5c) Knopf

20–20449

A series of sketches, varying in length from a paragraph to several pages, describing characters from a middle western small town. The title suggests “Spoon River,” but Mr Howe writes in simple, direct prose and without irony. Many of the sketches go back to his boyhood and his own experience as a printer’s apprentice.

“Consists of backyard gossip about the inhabitants of Atchison, Kansas; as such it is unexpurgated and entirely delightful. Mr Howe is not so cosmic as Mr Masters and he is a great deal easier to read.”

HOWE, J. ALLEN.Stones and quarries. (Pitman’s common commodities and industries) il $1 Pitman 691.2

“In this small volume an attempt has been made to place before the reader a broad general view of the stone industry, to show what part it plays in the life of the community and to give an outline of the methods and machinery employed in its development.” (Preface) Chapters on The stone industry. Rocks, stones and minerals and Classification of stones are followed by six chapters devoted to the various types of stones and their modes of occurrence. Then come four chapters on the employment of stone, in building and engineering, roads, etc., and two concluding chapters on Quarrying and The preparation of stone for the market. There is a one-page bibliography and an index.

HOWE, MARK ANTONY DE WOLFE.George von Lengerke Meyer; his life and public services. il *$5 (3c) Dodd

20–726

The book is based on a large collection of papers, in manuscript and in print, among them Mr Meyer’s diary. The contents are: Beginnings; Affairs and politics in Boston and Massachusetts; Ambassador to Italy; Ambassador to Russia; Postmaster general; Secretary of the navy; The final years. Illustrations and an index.

“In the preparation of this work. Mr Howe has followed the golden rule for biographers, by allowing his subject, so far as possible, to tell his own story. Letters and diary entries constitute the record of an interesting, useful and busy life.” G: W. Wickersham

“The conversations with the Czar and with the Kaiser will be especially interesting.”

Reviewed by Lindsay Swift

“The volume, while full, is not graphic, and does not reveal Mr Meyer as a deep or vivid reader of social reactions. It is even disappointing in the inside light it might throw on the official ‘family life’ of two presidents of the United States.”

“Every chapter of this well-written biography is worth reading.”

Reviewed by E: G. Lowry

“Because of its accurate and intimate picture of life behind the scenes in the great countries of the world for a period of approximately fifteen years, the work must certainly prove of value to historians in search of material upon which to base comprehensive studies of the world war.”

HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN, ed. Great modern American stories. *$1.75 Boni & Liveright

20–11148

“Twenty-four short stories, ranging from Edward Everett Hale’s ‘My double’ and Harriet Prescott Spofford’s ‘Circumstance’ of other days, to George Ade’s ‘Effie Whittlesy’ and Theodore Dreiser’s ‘The lost Phoebe’ of the present, make up the contents of an anthology of ‘The great modern American stories.’ The selection is made by none other than William Dean Howells, and to it he contributes an introduction which is by no means the least interesting feature of the volume. It is compressed within eight pages, and it forms a compact summary of the course of American short story writing during the past half-century and more.”—Boston Transcript

“A fascinating collection. One finds old favorites almost forgotten such as ‘The little room,’ while the stories one looks for are here too.”

“Some of the stories which are given a place cause one to wonder on what possible basis Mr Howells made his choice. Their inclusion might be comprehensible were it not for the brilliant tales which they displace. Mr Howells’ omissions are indeed decidedly more striking than his selections.”

“A nice adjustment of personal preferences to inevitable inclusions is here revealed.”

“Short story writers may very well take a look at this book, with its soundly native material and integrity of approach. Only two or three of the collection can by any stretch be called great, but they cleave a way and accomplish a measurable result.” C. M. Rourke

“No anthology, of course, is final: a dozen other candidates for this volume will occur to any reader at all expert; but if editing can be as nearly classical as writing, this collection may have to be called a classic.”

“The two dozen stories all repay reading and reward re-reading; but none of them is more readable than the preface of the editor himself.” Brander Matthews

“The volume is undoubtedly interesting, though the kind of interest it begets does not leave one particularly impressed by the merits and dignities of the short story as a kind.”

HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN.Hither and thither in Germany. (Harper’s travel companions) il *$2 (4½c) Harper 914.3

20–2699

Basil March, of silver wedding journey fame, has taken the cure at Carlsbad, and for an after-cure he and his wife do a bit of traveling about Germany. Their trip is described in the book, the chapters of which have been selected from the original volume.

“The deftest hand which ever drove an American pen has here cut away the meandering narrative of the original and has kept the descriptive parts. But what description this of Mr Howells’s—as easy as an eagle, as flexible as a serpent, as natural and clear as a brook going about its business!”

“In true Howells’ style the narrative rambles along, sometimes with full detail as if photographed, and again with an impressionistic summary of a whole experience in a few words. It may be that in the future, with the smoothing of asperities, the tide of the tourist travel will flow to Germany again. Then if not before, this book of Mr Howells’ should score a large popularity.”

HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN.Vacation of the Kelwyns; an idyl of the middle eighteen-seventies. *$2 (2c) Harper

20–16794

Kelwyn, post-graduate lecturer on historical sociology, was rather theoretical than practical. Mrs Kelwyn was conventionally practical, always eager, theoretically, to be fair and generous, but rather fussy, withal; and both were typically New England. They rented an abandoned farm, with one of their “family” houses, of the Shakers for a year, had a farmer and his wife put in charge, and arranged to spend their vacation there. The farmers were shiftless and ignorant. In their world and the Kelwyn’s there was no common meeting ground and the latter’s summer turned out a tragicomedy. The situation was somewhat saved by their cousin, Parthenope Brook, and a stray teacher, a poetic dreamer and idealist and experimenter with life. His experiments even included the kitchen and the cooking of meals in which Parthenope joined him with the inevitable result.

“Nowhere has Mr Howells shown more clearly his possession of the dual powers of the observer and the chronicler. Many novelists have either the one power or the other. Few possess them both equally, and Mr Howells is one of the few.” E. F. E.

“It must be admitted that ‘The vacation of the Kelwyns’ represents Mr Howells in his most uninteresting phase.” F. E. H.

“About this trivial theme play all the warmth and grace and gentleness which marked the later Howells.” C. V. D.

“The trouble with ‘The vacation of the Kelwyns’ is that it makes too little out of the situation presented. The implications of the story hang at loose ends. Worse, the movements of the characters thus tangled in a web of intangible difficulties are not only too often trivial in themselves but they lack the symbolical significance which might have carried the observer into larger regions of reflection.” Carl Van Doren

“‘The vacation of the Kelwyns’ is a delightful example of Mr Howell’s method and (every creation being a form of confession) a vivid revelation of the man himself. It takes a simple situation, simple people; but this very simplicity makes us feel anew that the drama of human emotions is never simple.” Alexander Black

“It is a finely wrought out presentation of American life and character, with interesting sketches of the Shakers and of the reaction of their tenets and practices on the minds of ordinary Americans. It is quiet and restrained, but by no means boresome.”

“The whole affair has the effect, at least, of something altogether casual and artless. Its range and theme are slight; but only one person could have told it, and we who loved that demure and faultless voice may well be grateful that fate has somehow saved one more hearing of it for us, as a surprise.” H. W. Boynton

“The ambling graces of the narrative are not a great matter, but it is really interesting to see that a novelist of this true and distinguished talent, at the end of the long span of his career, had still the freshness and the good faith to tell a simple story with simplicity.”

HOWLAND, LOUIS.Stephen A. Douglas. (Figures from American history) *$2 Scribner

20–7497

“A study of Douglas as a public character which is necessarily also a picture of his times. The author stresses the fundamental patriotism which the heated party controversies of the day often obscured. Sources are not cited.”—Booklist

“Mr Howland leaves upon his readers a clear-cut impression of Douglas—of what he did and of what he failed to do. He knows his man and the times in which he lived. Slips are few.” J: C. Rose

HRBKOVA, SÁRKA B., tr. and ed. Czechoslovak stories. (Interpreters’ ser.) *$1.90 (2c) Duffield

20–8884

The author of these translations in a long introductory essay on the people and literature of Czechoslovakia, divides the literature into three periods: the early, the middle and the modern—the last dating from the close of the eighteenth century to the present day. The writers of the stories belong to the most modern group, from 1848 to the present day and consist of Svatopluk Cech; Jan Neruda; Franti[)s]ek Xavier Svoboda; Joseph Svatopluk Machar; Bo[)z]ena Víková-Kunĕtická; Bo[)z]ena Nĕmcová; Alois Jirásek; Ignát Herrman; Jan Klecanda; Caroline Svĕtlá. A short biography of the writer precedes each translation and there are appendices.

“Several in their simplicity and beauty are as fine and true as some of Selma Lagerlöf’s best peasant tales.”

HUBBARD, GILBERT ERNEST.[2]Day of the crescent; glimpses of old Turkey. il *$6 Macmillan 949.6

“In the library of the British Foreign office the author of this book stumbled upon a collection of sixteenth and seventeenth century books of Turkish travel, which had been bequeathed to the library by some noble diplomat of the last century who had been attached to the Constantinople embassy. ‘The authors were a cosmopolitan and heterogeneous lot, including among others such diverse characters as a Flemish diplomat, a French artist, a Polish soldier, a Venetian dragoman, and an English man of science. Their stories of how they travelled, painted, plotted, or fought according to their several capacities are full of color and romance, and worthy products of the age of adventure in which the actors lived.’ All these books pictured the ‘golden age’ of Turkey—an age that is almost unknown to us today—and Mr Hubbard decided that it would be a pleasant and profitable task to arrange and compress in one volume the most interesting portions from this collection of old narratives.”—N Y Evening Post

“He has certainly made no wide search for material, nor approached his subject in any critical way, nor attempted to give close unity to his scheme. Under these conditions Mr Hubbard has succeeded in presenting a vivacious, interesting, and thoroughly readable book.” A. H. Lybyer

“This is certainly the most picturesque of the scores of volumes of which the great war and its surroundings have been the occasion.” E. J. C.

HUDSON, HENRY, 2d., pseud.Spendthrift town. *$2.25 (1c) Houghton

20–22444

New York city is the Spendthrift town of the title. Claire Nicholson is the central character, a young girl brought up in a conservative and aristocratic family who have never moved from their Ninth street house, and whose creed is “Work hard, take care of your property, increase it if you possibly can, and let all idealists and spouters and impractical people alone.” At twenty a series of misfortunes come upon the family, bringing death, dishonor and poverty into Claire’s experience of life, and when wealthy Dudley Orville asks her to marry him, she consents. It doesn’t take many years for her to discover that Dudley values material things too highly and his marriage vows not at all. But she has by now realized, too, that she loves Felix Malette, a young Englishman whom she had previously scoffed at for regarding material things too lightly. She realizes that she has wronged both Dudley and herself by marrying him and they separate, but she refuses to get a divorce as Dudley wishes. She is finally driven to doing so to obtain the allowance that she needs, but feels herself degraded in so doing, and feels that it would be impossible ever to make use of a freedom secured as she had secured hers. Nevertheless the closing page sees her sailing for Europe where Felix is.

“‘Spendthrift town’ is one of the finest bits of realistic American literature which has come to my attention this year.” S. M. R.

“The book, as a whole, has solid merit and abundant promise and should not be overlooked by readers who care for good work of native origin.”

“The caste, the manners of these people, suggest Scott Fitzgerald’s more earnest moments, but the story is altogether without that young gentleman’s vigor, ardor and wit.”

“The real strength of the story is in the vivid picture it presents of certain phases of metropolitan life, which will be appreciated by New Yorkers as well as by those who know little of the great city.”

“In fact all of the characters in the story appear weak, selfish and bored, and one following their apparently aimless existences has no difficulty in falling into the last-named condition, especially as the book is full of descriptions of a rather exhaustive nature.”

HUDSON, JAY WILLIAM.College and new America. *$2 (5c) Appleton 378

20–12841

Social reconstruction, the author holds, requires the aid of the colleges and looks to them for skilled intelligence of a special sort. This requires reform and the first reform needed is that of the college professor himself. He outlines the nature of the college professor’s obligation to the social order, hardly recognized heretofore but upon which lies the ultimate hope of the college. Dr Henry Suzzallo contributes a foreword, and the contents are: The call of the new order; The academic mind; The defense of the academic mind; The obligation to the social order; The failure of the academic mind; How college professors educate; America as an educational motive; The truth worth teaching; Some next things in college education; The meaning of America; The college and American life; The largest terms of culture; How may these things be? Index.

“Although written from the professor’s point of view, all who are interested will find profit in this clarifying consideration of aims.”

“We somehow feel that Dr Hudson’s ‘New America’ started about 1865, right after the Civil war; that he draws no distinction between what the conscious America of today is trying to be, and what it was permitting itself to be before the late unpleasantness in Europe. Also, though he points out with some acumen the faults of our present system of college education, he does not convince the reader that he has anything very substantial with which to remedy these faults.” J. W. G.

“In formulating the educational problem of the colleges, Dr Hudson has performed a real service such as one could scarcely expect from any one but a practical-minded philosopher, at home alike with realities and with abstractions. Dr Hudson’s remedies are not so convincing as his criticism.”

“All in all, if Prof. Hudson’s book had been written before the war it would have come as a startling prophecy, but now it is in the position of the oracle which tells, in faltering accents, that which has come to pass.”

“The book is likely to be subjected to the criticism that it does not tell us what to do. But as a definite challenge to university and college men who are not completely academic to undertake seriously the task of reconstructing the aims and instruments of higher education in America, this book must have wide and serious consideration.” J. K. Hart

HUDSON, STEPHEN.Richard Kurt. *$2.25 Knopf

A long novel concerned with the emotions and reactions of a young Englishman, particularly in his relations with his father, his wife, and a young Italian girl called Virginia. Between himself and his father there is a long standing antagonism. His wife, Elinor, is a woman of social aspirations with one set of values only. She is beautiful and he still apparently loves her, altho there is little sympathy between them. In Italy he meets Virginia, a girl of puzzling character, who alternately intrigues and repulses him. He is ready to leave his wife for her and cannot determine whether her pose of reluctance is the result of genuine naïveté or of deep-seated design. In the end repugnance overcomes him. He leaves her and accompanies his now aged father to London. Midway in the story there is a brief interlude of friendship with an intelligent American woman who exhorts Richard to “be a man,” advice he seems temperamentally incapable of following.

“Mr Hudson combines aloofness of attitude and a complete saturation with his subject. Rarely has a riper first novel appeared. It is solidly founded in its observation, built with a serene sureness of touch, careless of vain graces, disdainful of all appeals save that of its inner veracity.”

“The very long book is much of it well done. Many of the numerous descriptions are good, and, in short, the author shows himself to be possessed of talent which it seems rather a pity that he should expend on relating the detailed history of a man who was not only a drinker and a gambler, but a sponge, a spineless parasite and cad, too feeble and too monotonous in character to hold the reader’s attention.”

“Three-quarters of the book is weak, trivial, negligible, and but for Virginia the rest would be the same. She alone is something more than an unpleasant hotel acquaintance. There is Virginia and one thing more, the last meeting between Richard and his father. This also, slight though it is, is touched with beauty.”

HUDSON, W. H.Birds in town and village. il *$4 Dutton 598.2

20–2104

“Sketches of birds done with an intimate understanding of their habits and temperaments; chatty anecdotes and quaint legends, and the out-of-doors make this one of the author’s characteristically charming books. The first part is a revision of his earlier work, ‘Birds in a village,’ now out of print. Eight colored plates by E. J. Detmold.”—Booklist

“Vivid and fascinating descriptions of bird life.”

“Mr Hudson is not an ordinary writer nor his book an ordinary book about birds. One is at loss to decide which is the greater charm of the books, the author’s mastery of style or his knowledge of the birds which he describes and makes real.” J. C.

“This book is not so whimsical as Mr Hudson’s ‘The book of a naturalist.’ On the other hand, it is a closer and more charming study of natural history.”

“The essays are delightful, even in tone, but with only occasional bits that are Hudson at his best.”

“It is literary, of course: but the writing is based on solid fact, and though Mr Hudson is sensitive, he is not sentimental.”

“The book is well worth reading.”

“Though some of Mr Hudson’s contentions appear disputable, this book is full of his unsurpassed perception and unique charm.”

HUDSON, W. H.[2]Birds of La Plata. il 2v *$15 Dutton 598.2

“The matter contained in this volume (which forms a companion to Mr Hudson’s famous ‘The naturalist in La Plata’) is taken from his ‘Argentine ornithology’ (1888–9), the matter contributed by the late P. L. Sclater, in order to make a complete list, being omitted along with the synonymy of the species described by Mr Hudson. Fresh species being continually added to the list, the work became out of date, the only thing of permanent interest being Mr Hudson’s account of the birds’ habits. There seems to have been no subsequent volume from any other source about Argentine birds.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“The two volumes are packed full of the little delightful personal touches which make Hudson’s descriptions always a delight. In this book are traces of the carelessness which sometimes appears in Hudson’s writings. The color-plates by Gronvold add much to the beauty of the book, and although not so spirited as those of our own Fuertes they are beautifully done.” S: Scoville, jr.

“Though the book thus forms no inadequate guide to the birds of at least a large portion of the Argentine territories, it makes a direct appeal to many bird-lovers who may never hope to see any of the species here described in their natural haunts.”

HUDSON, W. H.[2]Dead Man’s Plack, and An old thorn. *$2.50 Dutton

20–23046

“‘Dead Man’s Plack’ is a story of a thousand years ago. The story is of Edgar the Peaceful, of Earl Athelwold, and of the beautiful Elfrida who so dreadfully became queen and again so dreadfully became queen mother, and is a simple, savage story of a simple, savage time. It is a happy fortune that has brought ‘An old thorn’ within book covers with ‘Dead Man’s Plack.’ This shorter story, which was originally published in The English Review a number of years ago, is probably the only narrative we have (the only one to Mr Hudson’s knowledge) which deals with ‘that rare and curious subject, the survival of tree worship’ in England. But it will live in the readers’ mind as a piteous and haunting human tragedy—the story of a young countryman who was hanged (and this was only a century ago) for stealing a sheep.”—N Y Times

“In ‘An old thorn’ Hudson is at his best. He moves to his conclusion with that sense of inevitability that is the core of tragedy.”

“And just as ‘Green mansions’ glows forever with the brilliance of the tropical forest, so here in ‘Dead Man’s Plack’ a Saxon England is recreated for us, and can never die. This new book of Hudson’s must have a permanent place in our libraries.”

“There is a simple and plaintive charm in the narrative.”

“Here are two short stories by Mr Hudson, good enough for most writers, but not his best. We could praise them for many things; if they were by an unknown writer we should be content to praise; we should even enjoy them more than we do now, knowing the other works of their author; but, as it is, we are perhaps a little ungrateful for their many beauties because we cannot refrain from asking why the short story, even in ‘El ombu,’ does not quite suit Mr Hudson’s genius.”

HUEBNER, GROVER GERHARDT.Ocean steamship traffic management. *$3 Appleton 387

20–9794

The book is one of a series of manuals for instruction in the various phases of steamship business. Its object is to give in systematic order all the facts and activities that come within the range of the ocean shipping business, for the guidance of individual students studying by themselves and for use as a class text-book. The contents are divided into three parts: Part I: The traffic organization of ocean shipping; Part II: Ocean shipping documents; Part III: Ocean rates and regulation. There is an index.

“The material is exceptionally well arranged.”

“Well organized; written with clearness and precision.”

HUEBNER, SOLOMON S.Marine insurance. *$3 Appleton 368.2

20–16525

The volume is the first of a series of manuals designed to assist students training for the marine insurance, shipping and exporting business. It is adapted to the needs of beginners and does not aim to discuss highly technical or isolated aspects of the business, such as the specialist of long training may desire. Contents: Nature and functions of marine insurance; Types of underwriters; Types of policies; Analysis of the policy contract; Analysis of the perils covered; Total loss; General average; Particular average; Cargo insurance; Hull insurance; Freight insurance; Builders’ risk insurance; Reinsurance agreements; Marine underwriters’ associations; Rate making in marine insurance; Appendices (including specimens of the various types of policies); Index

“His book is comprehensive and well written and should prove helpful to large numbers of the young generation in the country’s marine insurance offices.”

HUGHES, ADELAIDE MANOLA.Diantha goes the primrose way, and other verses. *$1.35 Harper 811

20–6682

The title poem depicts in free verse the drama of a woman who, turning away from her husband-friend to passionate love, sees that love die and leave her desolate. She seeks comfort in work and in an hour of mortal agony grasps the protecting hand of that husband-friend. The other poems are grouped under the headings: Ceremonials, and Beloved objects.

Reviewed by R. M. Weaver

HUGHES, EDWARD ARTHUR.Britain and greater Britain in the nineteenth century. *$1.60 (1½c) Putnam 942.08

(Eng ed 20–3437)

A book written “for the general public, as well as for the upper forms of schools.” The author is assistant master at the Royal naval college, Dartmouth. Part 1, devoted to Great Britain and Ireland, consists of the following chapters: Introductory; England from Waterloo to the great reform bill (1815–1832); English politics from the great reform bill to the outbreak of the Crimean war (1832–1853); The condition of England 1815–1853; Foreign relations to the end of the Crimean war; Palmerstonian England; Ireland 1800–1866; England and Ireland 1868–1885; England and Ireland 1886–1906; Social movements (two chapters). Part 2 devotes a chapter each to Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India and Egypt, with a concluding chapter on The British empire. There is an index.

“On the whole it is the best short history of modern Britain that has appeared. But there is one serious defect that greatly impairs its usefulness. Not only is there no bibliography but there are no references whatever. Good as it is, it is not particularly dynamic or illuminating.” C. F. Lavell

“Despite the absence of personal bias, rigorously to be suppressed in a book like this, and the compression of a large subject into 300 pages, we read ‘Britain and greater Britain’ through from start to finish with unabated interest.”

HUGHES, GLENN.Broken lights. *$1.50 Univ. of Washington 811

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