Chapter XLVI: Part 2: , ‘The imaginative life of children,’ includes six chapters (2)

“The faults of anti-militarist literature are usually rancour,
sentimentality, and exaggeration. Mr Langdon-Davies has escaped all
three. The merit of this book consists in its clearness and its
shortness, in the fact that the author knows what he wants to prove,
and proceeds to prove it without fuss or sentiment and with
considerable moderation.”

+ =Ath= p621 Jl 18 ’19 550w

=Brooklyn= 12:62 Ja ’20 30w

“From the point of view of physical health, Mr Langdon-Davies gives
many proofs from experienced educationists of the deleterious effects
on children of military training. In a valuable chapter on the
psychological aims of physical education, he points out that character
must be built on the basis of instinct and that ‘the cornerstone of
the superstructure is the acquirement of habit and self-control.’” B.
U. Burke

+ =Nation= 110:335 Mr 13 ’20 1150w

=LANGFELD, HERBERT SIDNEY.=[2] Aesthetic attitude. *$3.50 Harcourt 701

21–113

The author holds that a sense of beauty is as vital to the complete
existence of the individual and of the race as is the sense of justice
and that a nascent appreciation of what is beautiful can be developed
into a strong, useful and satisfying reaction to the world of colors,
sounds and shapes. The emphasis of the book, therefore, is put upon a
description of the nature of appreciation and of the mental processes
involved therein, ... its wider applications to the problems of human
happiness. He concludes that “whenever we are able to adjust ourselves
successfully to a situation, so that our responses are unified into a
well-integrated or organized form of action, we call that situation
beautiful, and the accompanying feeling one of æsthetic pleasure.” The
contents are: Introduction; The science of beauty and ugliness; The
æsthetic attitude (two chapters); Empathy; Illustrations of empathy
from the fine arts; Unity and imagination; Illustrations of unity from
the fine arts; Balance and proportion; Illustrations of balance from
the fine arts; The art impulse; Conclusion; Index.

=LANGFORD, GEORGE.= Pic, the weapon-maker. il *$1.75 Boni & Liveright

20–13544

“Like Kipling’s ‘Jungle stories,’ but laid in western Europe perhaps
40,000 years ago, the story of ‘Pic, the weapon-maker,’ is George
Langford’s popularization as fiction of such facts as science has
revealed about the cave men of the Mousterian era. Pic, the ape-boy,
with the hairy mammoth and the wobbly rhinoceros, formed a triple
alliance of friendship and adventure. Pic was in search of the secret
of cutting flints in such a way as to put a fine edge on them without
spoiling them in the attempt, and before the story closes he has found
it and made it the key to renewed fellowship with the tribe that had
cast him out. As to the scientific quality of the story no less an
authority than Henry Fairfield Osborn, director of the American museum
of natural history, writes a brief approving introductory
note.”—Springf’d Republican

* * * * *

+ =Booklist= 17:37 O ’20

“Anthropology and adventure are jumbled—naively, at times—in this
story which, for all its prehistoric licence, still clings to the
technique of Stratemeyer and other weavers of juvenile romance.” L. B.

− + =Freeman= 1:526 Ag 11 ’20 280w

“A troublesome fault is the author’s imaginative cocksureness. A
higher degree of vagueness would actually have yielded an impression
of greater exactness here. But where all is dark and chaotic, much
must be forgiven to the first imaginative explorers. It is certain
that Mr Langford’s book will fruitfully awaken the interest of the
young in the remote past of the race, nor will maturer minds read it
without some fresh light on dim places.” Ludwig Lewisohn

+ − =Nation= 111:190 Ag 14 ’20 260w

“The characterization of the Mammoth and the Rhinoceros is not the
least clever part of this whimsical, fanciful and yet true story of
this little, prehistoric man, and it is with real regret that the book
is laid aside as the story closes.”

+ =N Y Times= p18 S 19 ’20 650w

“An unusual and a powerful juvenile. The spirit and narrative of the
book will be enjoyed even by children too young to attempt the reading
for themselves.” R. D. Moore

+ =Pub W= 97:1296 Ap 17 ’20 180w

=Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 22 ’20 300w

=Wis Lib Bul= 16:198 N ’20 60w

=LANIER, HENRY WYSHAM.= Book of bravery; third series. il *$2.50 Scribner 920

20–15939

“This is a book of courage, wherein people in their daily pursuits
meet with obstacles which they surmount through excellences of
character. The man who is paid for his brave work, like the
life-saver, the policeman, the fireman, is none the less brave and his
deed is none the less fraught with the tingling quality of bravery. In
the missionary field and on the battlefield Mr Lanier finds material
for this volume.”—Lit D

* * * * *

=Booklist= 17:123 D ’20

“It is a collection worth making.”

+ =Ind= 104:378 D 11 ’20 60w

+ =Lit D= p96 D 4 ’20 90w

“For the inspiration of these volumes, children and parents alike may
well be grateful to Mr Lanier.” M. H. B. Mussey

+ =Nation= 111:sup674 D 8 ’20 60w

“The stories are vividly presented, and the book is one to stir the
heart of youth.” Hildegarde Hawthorne

+ =N Y Times= p9 D 12 ’20 80w

+ =Outlook= 126:470 N 10 ’20 50w

=LANKESTER, SIR EDWIN RAY.= Secrets of earth and sea. il *$3.50 Macmillan 504

“These popularly written chapters on a wide variety of scientific and
anthropological topics, such as What is meant by a species? Species in
the making; The biggest beast; The earliest picture in the world; The
art of pre-historic men; The swastika; etc., form a sequel to the same
author’s ‘Science from an easy chair’ and ‘Diversions of a
naturalist,’ and like them is mainly a reprint, with considerable
additions, of articles published in daily or weekly papers.”—The Times
[London] Lit Sup S 23 ’20

* * * * *

=Booklist= 17:144 Ja ’21

“The essays are entertaining but have no high literary qualities. Men
like Shaler, Burroughs, Muir, Mills, and Slosson have done this sort
of book far better in America.”

− + =N Y Evening Post= p12 N 27 ’29 140w

+ =N Y Times= p6 Ja 2 ’21 3100w

“Let it be said at once that ‘Secrets of earth and sea,’ though
extremely interesting, is not in the best sense as diverting as was
‘Science from an easy-chair.’ The subjects treated are delightfully
interesting to the layman but the style is unfortunately rather
redundant and heavy.”

+ − =Spec= 125:861 D 25 ’20 190w

“The book is indicative of what will be common in that happy day when
science will be written about as fully and as charmingly as purely
literary subjects are today.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 D 3 ’20 350w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p623 S 23 ’20 90w

“Parents and guardians who are desirous of introducing their boys to
the study of natural science and who, in pursuance of that
praiseworthy aim, are looking for a book which, while sound and exact
in statement, is yet light and easy to read and, above all, has no
tincture of the school classroom, would do well to think of Sir Ray
Lankester’s ‘Secrets of earth and sea.’”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p831 D 9 ’20 370w

=LANSBURY, GEORGE.= These things shall be. $1 (5½c) Huebsch 261

In these six essays the author proclaims himself a revolutionist and
downright hater of the existing order but he does not see salvation in
a terrific cataclysm with hopes of a new order arising from the ruins
of the old. He pins his faith upon a change of heart in individual men
and women and in the message “Ye must be born again.” The spirit of
the essays is faith in a God of love and in the teachings of Christ of
human brotherhood and love and cooperation. Mr Lansbury is editor of
the London Daily Herald.

=Ath= p166 Ja 30 ’20 80w

“He has nothing startlingly new to say, but the serenity and
steadfastness of his faith in humanity and in a society of individuals
living the gospel of Christian love, will afford comfort and
reassurance to minds tired for the moment of their searching.”

+ =Booklist= 17:142 Ja ’21

+ =Survey= 44:355 Je 5 ’20 310w

=LANSBURY, GEORGE.= What I saw in Russia. *$1.50 (3c) Boni & Liveright 914.7

21–434

In his introduction to the American edition of this book, Matthew F.
Boyd, after reviewing the attitude towards Russia of the European
powers, of which France is now the only one still openly hostile,
finds that the United States has once more become the arbiter of world
destiny and that her policy towards Russia will decide the future of
the world. George Lansbury went to Russia to discover what was the
spirit moving the men and women responsible for the revolution. He
found it to be that of a band of people striving to build the New
Jerusalem, that they are actuated by purely moral and religious
motives and are doing what Christians would call the Lord’s work.
Contents: Finland to Moscow; Lenin and other leaders; Lenin,
bolshevism and religion; Co-operation, trade and business; Trade
unions and labour organization; Children and education; Law and order;
Prisoners and captives; About people; Public health; Moscow to London;
Appendix.

* * * * *

“The chapter on religion will interest churchmen.”

+ =Booklist= 17:142 Ja ’21

“Any one who wishes to gain a vivid picture of life in Soviet Russia,
drawn with entire honesty and animated by sympathy and good will
should, by all means, read Mr Lansbury’s book.” A. C. Freeman

+ =N Y Call= p10 D 19 ’20 420w

=LANSING, MARION FLORENCE, and GULICK, LUTHER HALSEY.= Food and life. il 68c Ginn 613.2

20–5746

The book has been suggested by the new importance that the war has
placed on food as a universal human need and on the desirability of a
full knowledge of its potentialities even for children. “From its
pages the child will learn the facts he should know concerning the
great food business into which he is born and in which he is a
partner.... There is hardly a virtue or an ideal of family, community,
and world life which does not take a natural place in a study of the
fundamental human problem of food.” (Preface) Every aspect of the food
problem, the personal, the social, the economic and the scientific is
entertainingly put before the child in detached stories. The contents
are: A life business; The food tether; In business for yourself; Food
as fuel; Our dally bread; The magic touch; Likes and dislikes; A world
appetite; The first step; The moment of eating; In the world’s food
market; The pitcher and the loaf; The gift of a garden; Kitchen
service; Food and money; For future use; Food and health; Food and the
government; At a world table. In Facts and figures are given tables,
charts and lists of a scientific nature. The book has an index and
illustrations.

* * * * *

+ =Booklist= 17:123 D ’20

=LASKI, HAROLD JOSEPH.= Political thought in England from Locke to Bentham. (Home univ. lib.) *75c (1c) Holt 320.9

20–14002

The author holds that the eighteenth century began with the revolution
of 1688, that it was a period of quiet after a storm and can make
little pretence to discovery, but that its stagnation was mainly on
the surface and that the period was fruitful of much thought resulting
in future activity. The significance of Locke—who alone in this period
confronted the general problems of the modern state—of Burke, Hume,
Adam Smith and their contemporaries, forms the subject matter of the
book. Contents: Introduction; The principles of the revolution; Church
and state; The era of stagnation; Signs of change; Burke; The
foundation of economic liberalism; Bibliography and index.

* * * * *

=Booklist= 17:92 D ’20

“The method of treatment is not coldly analytical but genial and
speculative. Care is taken to relate political theory to ethics; there
are flashes of penetration into matters psychological; but economics
receives scant consideration. To the present reviewer neglect of
economics seems fatal. The truth seems to be that Mr Laski has written
a conventional story, bolstered up English political mythology, and
left the great muddle of so-called ‘political thought’ just about
where he found it.” C: A. Beard

− + =New Republic= 24:303 N 17 ’20 1200w

“A really admirable little book.” F: Pollock

+ =N Y Evening Post= p4 N 6 ’20 1250w

“There are a few obscurities of phrase throughout the book, and a few
far-fetched judgments. But, on the whole, Mr Laski writes brilliantly
and suggestively, evincing a clear comprehension of essentials,
against a background of necessary learning. It is his most broadly
considered and best-balanced work.”

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 12 ’20 1250w

=LATANÉ, JOHN HOLLADAY.= United States and Latin America. *$2.50 Doubleday 327

20–14147

“This book is based on a smaller volume ... ‘The diplomatic relations
of the United States and Spanish America,’ which contained the first
series of Albert Shaw lectures on diplomatic history. That volume has
been out of print for several years, but calls for it are still coming
in.... I have revised and enlarged the original volume, omitting much
that was of special interest at the time it was written, and adding a
large amount of new matter relating to the events of the past twenty
years.” (Preface) Contents: The revolt of the Spanish colonies; The
recognition of the Spanish-American republics; The diplomacy of the
United States in regard to Cuba; The diplomatic history of the Panama
canal; French intervention in Mexico; The two Venezuelan episodes; The
advance of the United States in the Caribbean; Pan Americanism; The
Monroe doctrine; Index and maps of South America and the Caribbean.

* * * * *

=Booklist= 17:166 Ja ’21

“The American people are thoughtless, careless, heedless concerning
the questions that affect them as regards Latin America, because they
are ignorant of those questions. But should they be fed with
misstatements like this?” S. de la Selva

− =N Y Evening Post= p4 O 30 ’20 580w

=R of Rs= 62:446 O ’20 60w

=LATHAM, HAROLD STRONG.= Jimmy Quigg, office boy. il *$2 (5c) Macmillan

20–18923

A new story for boys by the author of “Under orders” and “Marty lends
a hand.” At fourteen Jimmy goes to work as office boy in a big
publishing house and the story shows the opportunities for advancement
open to the boy who is industrious and willing to learn. One of
Jimmy’s fellow workers, Fred Garson, has different ideals. He
introduces Jimmy to the Office boys’ league and attempts to organize a
strike. Fred disappears and with him some of the company’s funds.
Jimmy, who refuses to believe his friend guilty, does some amateur
detective work, clears Fred’s name and circumvents a group of bomb
plotters in the bargain.

* * * * *

“There is a pronounced moral flavor, but it is quite wholesome.”

+ =Ind= 104:376 D 11 ’20 60w

“Mr Latham improves in his narrative style and cumulative interest of
plot.”

+ =Lit D= p89 D 4 ’20 140w

“The author understands the types he has drawn, and he understands
also the universal boy.”

+ =N Y Evening Post= p12 N 13 ’20 140w

“The theme of Americanization inspires the book, but first of all it
is a good story, a delightful bit of character study, and it is
written by a man who knows his job.” Hildegarde Hawthorne

+ =N Y Times= p9 D 12 ’20 90w

=LATHAM, HAROLD STRONG.= Marty lends a hand. il *$1.60 (3½c) Macmillan

19–16144

Marty, the young hero of this story for boys and girls, is in his
sophomore year in high school. He has won first honors in the
sophomore oratorical contest and is to play “Tony Lumpkin” in the
class production of “She stoops to conquer.” And then just at that
happy moment an accident to his father takes him out of school to
shoulder the responsibilities of a bread winner. He finds an original
way of earning a living—growing mushrooms in an abandoned mine. The
mine proves to be the secret hiding place of German plotters and Marty
sees that they are brought to justice. But the chief interest of the
story is in the mushroom experiment, and thru cooperation of his loyal
friends, it succeeds beyond Marty’s fondest hopes. His father recovers
and takes charge of the new business and Marty looks forward to a
return to school.

* * * * *

+ =Booklist= 16:175 F ’20

“A distinct advance over his book of last year.” A. C. Moore

+ =Bookm= 50:382 N ’19 60w

“Mr Latham knows his boys and girls, and he makes them not mere
automatons but living figures on the stage he has set so skilfully.”

+ =N Y Evening Post= p9 N 8 ’19 400w

“‘Marty lends a hand’ is a good story for young readers for the same
reason that ‘Under orders’ was a good story for them, because it is
what they are themselves when they are what they should be—simple,
wholesome, natural and unconsciously democratic.”

+ =N Y Times= 24:636 N 9 ’19 500w

=LATZKO, ANDREAS.= Judgment of peace. *$1.75 Boni & Liveright

20–1372

“The author of that bitter polemic against warfare, ‘Men in war,’
repeats his denunciation in ‘The judgment of peace.’ Lt. Latzko has
written an argument rather than a novel. The thesis is that war is a
diplomats’ game and wholly evil for the ‘impotent pieces.’ The hero of
the book is George Gadsky, a pianist, who volunteered, submitted to
arbitrary discipline, and ‘felt crushed, torn out of his real self,
degraded to the level of a shabby, beaten sneak.’ The overbearing,
stupid sergeant, the stay-at-home enthusiast and the families rivaling
each other in iron crosses and deaths are scored. One ringing
declaration in this novel is contained in the words of the Frenchman,
Merlier: ‘Have not these four years taught every nation that you
cannot seek to enslave others without robbing yourself of all
freedom?’”—Springf’d Republican

* * * * *

+ =Booklist= 16:349 Jl ’20

“Were it not for the devout prayer for human brotherhood which is made
throughout the book, it would, not merely by its grimness and gloom,
but by its lightning flashes of revelation, leave the night more
black.” M. E. Bailey

+ =Bookm= 51:206 Ap ’20 650w

“The ‘Judgment of peace’ appears to be the work of one who has gone
through intense suffering by reason of the war, and whose life has
become permanently embittered. Few writers equal his descriptions of
the bloody agonies of the battlefield and his pictures of soldiers,
but his outlook on life is morbid and gloomy.”

+ − =Cath World= 111:108 Ap ’20 360w

“His story fails as art because it is forever running into bald
propaganda, as propaganda because its grounds are emotions instead of
thoughts.”

− =Dial= 68:536 Ap ’20 80w

“Like ‘Men in war,’ ‘The judgment of peace’ is swift and strong, lucid
and incandescent, appalling and irresistible. Latzko’s fierce
arraignment and mighty tract should be welcomed by lovers of peace and
should be kept alive in order that an epic memory all plumes and
purple may not go down from our generation.” C. V. D.

+ =Nation= 110:597 My 1 ’20 600w

“‘The judgment of peace’ is a book of hate—hate not for ‘enemy’
countries, but for selfish rulers and militarists everywhere. So far,
so good—but the author goes too far; his condemnation of ruthless
militarism, of selfish uncontrolled power, is good and true; his
apparent assumption that all rulers, all governments, all holders of
power everywhere, are thus actuated by utter selfishness, is neither.
And one is left, at the end of this absorbing, brilliant, thoughtful
and passionate book, with the sense that after all the author has not
got us very far on the road toward the brotherhood of man.”

+ − =N Y Times= 25:89 F 15 ’20 700w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

=Review= 2:257 Mr 13 ’20 420w

“Patience is somewhat strained by the manner of this book; the protest
is not new, and the tale is rather hastily and crudely constructed.
The most effective part comes near the end, where Gadsky as a prisoner
of war gets to know a French soldier.”

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p13a F 22 ’20 240w

“A significant book, comparable with Barbusse’s ‘Under fire.’ Not for
the smaller libraries.”

+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:126 Je ’20 50w

=LAUDER, SIR HARRY (MACLENNAN).= Between you and me. $2.50 McCann

19–18483

“‘I’m no writin’ a book so much as I’m sittin’ doon wi’ ye all for a
chat,’ Harry Lauder says in his first chapter; and he carries the plan
through to the last. The book is a biography, a Scot’s philosophy of
life, and a shrewd discourse on current social problems,
combined.”—Outlook

* * * * *

“A book which will be liked only by the enthusiastic Lauder-ites. It
is written in Scotch dialect which often runs unevenly into pure
English. Not as good as ‘A minstrel in France.’”

+ − =Booklist= 16:167 F ’20

“Sir Harry mentions the possibility of two more books. We shall
welcome them eagerly, as we always welcome him, but we cannot help
hoping that, despite the charm of his gossipy style, the next ones
will have to some degree the skeleton of an outline.” I. W. L.

+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 Mr 17 ’20 850w

+ =Dial= 68:403 Mr ’20 60w

“Readers who are not frightened at a glimpse of Scotch dialect will
love the book for its genuine human note, its humor, and its
underlying pathos.”

+ =Outlook= 124:203 F 4 ’20 70w

“This book gives Lauder and his message in a unique and inimitable
way. It is well worth reading as Lauder himself is worth hearing.”

+ =R of Rs= 61:671 Je ’20 100w

=LAWRENCE, C. E.= God in the thicket. *$2 Dutton

“It is a delicately worked narrative of a glittering world peopled by
pantomime folk, whose names have been familiar to us all from
childhood—Harlequin and Columbine, Pierrot, Punchinello, Aimée and
Daphne, and many others. They live in the Forest of Argovie; and their
life is the pantomime life, with its queer, sudden approaches to the
greyer conditions of human existence and irresponsible withdrawals to
the spangled regions of fantasy.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup) “The
god of the title is none other than he of the pipes and the
goat-thighs, Pan himself.” (N Y Times)

* * * * *

=Cath World= 112:688 F ’21 130w

“In many passages here there is a surplus of adjectives, a lack of
precision and reality. There are times when the author writes with a
pleasing irony that would be even more enjoyable if the vein were not
overdone.”

+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 D 31 ’20 140w

“Very delicately, very gracefully written, a little too long perhaps,
but full of quaint conceits, poetically fanciful and therefore a good
deal out of the ordinary.”

+ =N Y Times= p20 N 21 ’20 550w

“A little masterpiece.”

+ =Sat R= 130:262 S 25 ’20 60w

“It is perhaps refreshing in these prosaic days to exist for an hour
in the world of fantasy.”

+ =Spec= 125:372 S 18 ’20 30w

“It is a pretty story, which fails rather disappointingly to be
something more.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p367 Je 10 ’20 550w

=LAWRENCE, DAVID HERBERT.= New poems. *$1.60 Huebsch 821

20–17904

Mr Lawrence prefaces his collection of new poems with a discussion of
the nature of poetry, saying in part, “Poetry is, as a rule, either
the voice of the far future, exquisite and ethereal, or it is the
voice of the past, rich, magnificent.... The poetry of the beginning
and the poetry of the end must have that exquisite quality, perfection
which belongs to all that is far off.... But there is another kind of
poetry: ... the unrestful, ungraspable poetry of the sheer present.”
And it is for this third type of poetry, he continues, that new poetic
forms must be forged. Among the poems of the book are: Apprehension;
Coming awake; Suburbs on a hazy day; Piccadilly Circus at night;
Parliament Hill in the evening; Bitterness of death; Seven seals; Two
wives; Autumn sunshine.

* * * * *

“The more stringent their form the better these poems are; and when,
as in Phantasmagoria, Mr Lawrence finds a subject suited to his
strained and ‘pent-up’ manner, he ‘gets his effect’ very wonderfully.”

+ − =Ath= p66 F ’19 220w

“Mr Lawrence’s ‘New poems’—like the overwhelming bulk of ‘the rare new
poetry’—seems inspired less by any remote touch of divine madness,
than by a labored and sophisticated anxiety to exemplify a theory. Mr
Lawrence has none of the brilliancy of Miss Lowell, none of the power
of Mr Lindsay. His slim new book offers the pathetic spectacle of a
shabby manikin pirouetting in caricature of the muse.” R. M. Weaver

− =Bookm= 52:59 S ’20 880w

Reviewed by Babette Deutsch

=Dial= 70:89 Ja ’21 380w

“Apart from a brilliant preface, there is scarcely anything in this
book which is pitched at the same level of intensity as the best poems
in ‘Look, we have come through.’ The touch is somewhat slacker and
vaguer, the feeling less fused with the words. ‘New poems’ contains as
least one poem which I am almost inclined to set higher than anything
Lawrence has ever done. This is the poem called ‘Seven seals.’” J: G.
Fletcher

+ − =Freeman= 1:451 Jl 21 ’20 900w

“Mr Lawrence’s preface poses spontaneity as an ideal, promising poetry
that ‘just takes place.’ That is interesting, but it does not explain
Mr Lawrence’s poetry, which here as always betrays elaborate trouble
in its preparation.”

+ − =Nation= 111:sup414 O 13 ’20 50w

“His ‘New poems’ reasserts his place among the most gifted, the most
arresting of the English poets.” H. S. Gorman

+ =N Y Times= 25:16 Jl 4 ’20 630w

“As you read the whole volume through it seems to you more and more
that he feels too intensely about a great many things. There is this
difference between him and older sentimentalists, that they were at
the mercy of pleasant feelings, while he is often at the mercy of
unpleasant; but it is still the same poet’s disease, and in both cases
the feelings seem too intense for their cause.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p67 F 6 ’19 1100w

=LAWRENCE, DAVID HERBERT.= Touch and go. (Plays for a people’s theatre) $1.25 Seltzer 822

20–12050

Altho the background of this drama is a strike in a British colliery
it is not intended as a propaganda play. The author is concerned with
the tragic element in the struggle between capital and labor. He has
defined tragedy as “the working out of some immediate passional
problem within the soul of man.” The play also represents his idea
that a “people’s” theater should deal with people, with men and women,
not with stage types.

* * * * *

“Mr Lawrence, of course, cannot escape his genius. The secondary
qualities of ‘Touch and go’ are superior to the big things in the work
of many other dramatists.” Gilbert Seldes

+ − =Dial= 69:215 Ag ’20 100w

“Mr Lawrence’s new play, ‘Touch and go,’ seems to indicate that, while
the author may have gained compensations in other ways, he has lost,
temporarily, it is to be hoped, under the blighting strains and trials
of the last few years, some of the vital energy that is essential to a
dramatist.” Elva de Pue

− + =Freeman= 2:332 D 15 ’20 390w

“This is a play serious in purpose, of vital contemporaneous interest,
unexceptionable motive and written with knowledge and ability, which
is nevertheless ineffective, because while it exhibits a comprehensive
sense of existing conditions and states its problem very clearly, it
has nothing to offer or suggest in the way of a possible solution
except a series of benevolent platitudes.” J. R. Towse

+ − =N Y Evening Post= p3 N 27 ’20 680w

“The preface is so excellent, so much in the manner of the great
English tradition that it holds, and urges, and ends by being, I
think, even better than the play, a fine little masterpiece of eight
pages.” Amy Lowell

+ =N Y Times= p7 Ag 22 ’20 2000w

“The only thing amusing in the little volume is the preface, which is
entertaining enough. Mr Lawrence does not make this mistake of open
didacticism when he writes poetry. Why, oh! why, does he write drama
like this?”

− + =Spec= 125:279 Ag 28 ’20 360w

“The preface has been most stimulating and formative. Preface and
play, however, are widely separated. Never once are we led to feel the
promised reality of the characters. The story moves in a confusion of
the fundamental details.” Dorothy Grafly

− + =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 5 ’20 440w

“His characters are overdrawn, and his action has to do with struggles
of temperament rather than of contrasting philosophies.”

− =Survey= 44:592 Ag 20 ’20 100w

“The strength of the play lies in its picture of colliery life.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p304 My 13 ’20 80w

=LAWRENCE, DOROTHY.= Sapper Dorothy Lawrence; the only English woman soldier. (On active service ser.) *$1.25 (4c) Lane 940.48

20–5239

Miss Lawrence gives this account of her exploits in France as a
soldier of the Royal engineers, 51st division. 179th tunnelling
company. It was as a last desperate effort to get to the war that she
plotted and struggled her way into the ranks. Twelve times she had
applied for various forms of war work and had been turned down. Her
efforts to go as newspaper correspondent met the same fate. The
Tommies were more accommodating and helped her to accomplish her
purpose. Contents: At Creil; Sleeping in Senlis forests; In soldier’s
clothes; On the march for the trenches; Arrest; Tried at Third army
headquarters; In a convent; On board.

* * * * *

=Spec= 123:411 S 27 ’19 200w

“A brightly written tale of pluck, energy, and determination.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p502 S 11 ’19 100w

=LAY, WILFRID.=[2] Man’s unconscious passion. *$2 Dodd 157

20–18051

Dr Lay, author of “Man’s unconscious conflict” and “The child’s
unconscious mind,” writes here of the part which the unconscious plays
in love and marriage. Contents: The total situation; Conscious and
unconscious passion; Affection is not passion; Insight; The transfer
of passion; The emotion age.

* * * * *

+ =Nation= 111:694 D 15 ’20 20w

“Dr Lay’s book is written in a most readable and interesting style and
should make a great appeal to all those interested, professionally or
otherwise, in this dominant and important phase of individual human
life and its relation to the tissue of the whole social organism.” S.
W. Swift

+ =Survey= 45:545 Ja 8 ’21 880w

=LEACH, ALBERT ERNEST.= Food inspection and analysis. 4th ed il *$8.50 Wiley 543.1

20–5902

“This manual, designed for the use of analysts, health officers,
chemists and food economists, has been revised and enlarged to the
extent of ninety pages; new material having been added or substituted
for material in earlier editions. The former arrangement of chapters
has been retained but the list of references at the end of chapters
has been left out and, instead, more attention has been given to
footnote references. A special feature is the final chapter by G. L.
Wendt, ‘Determination of acidity by means of the hydrogen electrode.’
The book includes such subjects as food, its functions, proximate
components, and nutritive value; general methods of food analysis
including microscope and refractometer; milk and milk products; flesh
foods; eggs; cereal grains; tea, coffee, and cocoa; edible oils and
fats; sugar; as well as artificial food colors, food preservatives,
artificial sweeteners, flavoring extracts, and substitutes.”—J Home
Econ

* * * * *

=Booklist= 16:356 Jl ’20

+ =J Home Econ= 12:426 S ’20 240w

“As a whole, however, the new edition well maintains the reputation of
the work. It contains so much trustworthy information that chemists
concerned with foodstuffs will find it invaluable.” C. S.

+ − =Nature= 106:141 S 30 ’20 560w

=LEACOCK, STEPHEN BUTLER.= Unsolved riddle of social justice. *$1.25 (4½c) Lane 330

20–1689

The author sees in the present state of human society an extraordinary
discrepancy between human power and resulting human happiness and
analyzes the reasons for the present-day social unrest. He points to
the complete breakdown of the Adam Smith school of political
economists with their doctrine of “natural liberty” and laissez-faire.
In asking “What of the future?” the author finds himself confronted
with the phenomenon of modern socialism. This he relegates to the
realm of beautiful but impracticable dreams and suggests as a mid-way
course that the government should supply work for the unemployed,
maintenance for the infirm and aged, and education and opportunity for
children, and should enforce a minimum wage and shorter working hours.
Contents: The troubled outlook of the present hour; Life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness; The failures and fallacies of natural
liberty; Work and wages; The land of dreams: the utopia of the
socialist; How Mr Bellamy looked backward; What is possible and what
is not.

* * * * *

“Dr Leacock writes with great clarity and force. While the limits of
the volume do not permit detailed treatment of any of the topics taken
up, the reader will find every page suggestive and will be thankful
for a chance to see the woods instead of the trees.” O. D. Skelton

+ =Am Pol Sci R= 14:522 Ag ’20 360w

“Written in a vigorous, easy, though not humorous, style, that will
make it popular with those who seek a middle track.”

+ =Booklist= 16:262 My ’20

“The author of ‘Literary lapses,’ and all the rest of them, could not
be dull if he tried. His new volume on the problems of modern life is
fully as live as any of his humorous sketches, and nearly as
readable.” I. W. L.

+ =Boston Transcript= p5 Mr 13 ’20 1250w

+ =Cleveland= p44 Ap ’20 50w

“A readable and frequently keen analysis of industrial society.
Professor Leacock’s delicately manipulated scalpel cuts perilously
close to the heart of the price system, in his perception of the
paradox of value.... While the honest sunlight of criticism declares
the insufficiency of individualist economics, the light that Professor
Leacock throws upon socialism—taking Bellamy’s bleak vision of
bureaucracy as sample—is almost a moonbeam from the larger lunacy.”

+ − =Dial= 68:404 Mr ’20 80w

“The riddle is not only unsolved when Professor Leacock tackles it,
but it remains so when he has finished with it. The author has merely
re-stated the problem in a lucid and concise manner and fused it with
a sort of primer of economics, and comes out in the end with a
middle-of-the-road vagueness as his major contribution to the
subject.” L. B.

− + =Freeman= 2:430 Ja 12 ’21 100w

=Ind= 103:319 S 11 ’20 20w

Reviewed by C. E. Ayres

+ − =J Pol Econ= 28:439 My ’20 550w

“Stephen Leacock is far from happy in his study of ‘The unsolved
riddle of social justice.’ He reveals himself as a clever man, of
course, but not as a serious economic thinker. He, surely, cannot be
so ignorant as this book would lead one to infer.”

− + =Nation= 110:772 Je 5 ’20 550w

“As a book for the general reader this little treatise can scarcely be
too much commended. It is eminently humane in spirit, sensible,
serious without being ‘dead serious,’ and thorough on the essential
points. The author seems to know how average, educated people think
and feel about the present state of society, and to have an unusually
good idea of how to write for persons who do not know much about
political economy.”

+ =No Am= 211:430 Mr ’20 750w

Reviewed by Lyman Abbott

=Outlook= 125:124 My 19 ’20 750w

“It is sound common sense doctrine that he preaches, and for that
reason it will be popular with but few people in these days of
emotional ‘thinking.’”

+ =Review= 2:234 Mr 6 ’20 750w

=R of Rs= 61:447 Ap ’20 40w

“Professor Leacock’s book is an appeal to pure reason; it is
argumentative, but not quarrelsome; it is progressive in its aims, but
it is not revolutionary. His picture may be overdrawn and too highly
coloured, but it substantially represents what many thoughtful and
clear-sighted men see today when gazing upon the eastern and western
worlds.”

+ − =Sat R= 129:501 My 29 ’20 950w

“There is much good sense in this attractive book.”

+ =Spec= 124:526 Ap 17 ’20 250w

“His solution may seem to be inadequate; but without doubt Mr Leacock
has written a valuable popular analysis and has stated sane and
forward-looking remedies.”

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p10 F 19 ’20 180w

“Mr Leacock’s treatment of the problem is not intentionally humorous
or flippant, but it is surprisingly superficial. As soon as he comes
to a discussion of the social thought that governs the demands of
large masses at the present time, he becomes positively absurd. Mr
Leacock is most successful where he pricks current misconceptions.” B.
L.

− + =Survey= 43:782 Mr 20 ’20 220w

“He does not overload his subject with the useless ballast of
philosophic jargon, or obscure a poverty of thought by abundance of
words. His book is short, lucid, always to the point, and sometimes
witty.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p175 Mr 11 ’20 350w

=LEACOCK, STEPHEN BUTLER.= Winsome Winnie, and other new nonsense novels. *$1.50 Lane 817

20–21990

This is a sequel to “Nonsense novels,” published in 1911. Again the
author parodies the style of various popular types of fiction. Among
the numbers in this second series are Winsome Winnie: or, Trial and
temptation, narrated after the best models of 1875; The split in the
cabinet: or, The fate of England, a political novel of the days that
were; Who do you think did it? or, The mixed-up murder mystery; Broken
barriers, or Red love on a blue island; and Buggam Grange, a good old
ghost story. The stories have appeared in Harper’s Magazine.

* * * * *

“While this later volume lacks to a slight degree the fresh
spontaneity of Mr Leacock’s older books, there are plenty of sincere
laughs left.” S. M. R.

+ =Bookm= 52:371 D ’20 140w

“The great majority of readers will find ‘Winsome Winnie’ almost as
good as the author’s best books. In other words: the work of a man
who, in the silence of Mr Dooley, is the most amusing writer in North
America.” E. L. P.

+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 24 ’20 490w

“Despite his delicious drolleries, Mr Leacock’s book of verbal
cartoons contains an amazing amount of truthful criticism—doubly
effective because its form and oblique method of delivery rob it of
all malice.”

+ =N Y Times= p11 D 19 ’20 670w

“A book of parodies which is as amusing as the first series. ‘Winsome
Winnie’ and ‘Who do you think did it?’ are as good as any of the
sketches which Professor Leacock has ever written.” E. L. Pearson

+ =Review= 3:558 D 8 ’20 540w

“It will be a very superior person who does not laugh the first time
he reads Mr Leacock’s version of these jocular subjects. But as the
laugh comes from the verbal surprise or from the technical improvement
in an established joke, it is not likely to be repeated.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p795 D 2 ’20 600w

=LEADBITTER, ERIC.= Rain before seven. *$2 (2c) Jacobs

20–9473

Michael Lawson was an awkward, shy and colorless youth, the fourth and
youngest in a family of waning fortunes. As a gawky boy of fifteen he
falls in love with the daughter of his tutor, Vicar Hargrieves. Some
years later, Isobel’s heartless flirtations give him his first deep
emotional experience. At school he discovers his love and talent for
music and finds a patron who finances his musical education. But funds
fail before he has launched upon a career, and he is reduced to
playing in a picture-drome. He meets with a succession of failures and
becomes a tramp. As such he is discovered by his sister Rosie—his
family having been ignorant of his whereabouts for years. His brother,
a successful scientist and inventor, takes him on in business. Michael
makes good, drops music altogether, achieves tranquillity of heart and
wins the love of a dear quiet girl, who had adored him even as a
child.

* * * * *

“The first novel of a very grave and very garrulous young Englishman
who has not yet discovered how many things have been said before. The
trail of his story is lost under an underbrush of truisms, though
through the brambles one catches glimpses of landscape not unlike some
of Mr Mackenzie’s milder panoramas.”

− + =Dial= 69:211 Ag ’20 100w

“It is rather more than a good example of the usual thing.” H. W.
Boynton

+ =Review= 3:561 D 8 ’20 270w

=LEARY, JOHN J., Jr.= Talks with T. R. il *$3.50 (4c) Houghton

20–11574

Extracts from the diaries of a veteran newspaper man who had been for
many years in the habit of recording carefully his conversations with
Theodore Roosevelt. These are now arranged under appropriate headings,
some few of which are: Roosevelt and 1920; Dewey and Fighting Bob; The
break with Taft; The attempt on his life; Clashes with the Kaiser; On
election eve, 1916; Senator Lodge’s fist fight; Roosevelt’s one talk
with Mr Wilson; Roosevelt on labor; Loyalty; Germans in America;
Colonel Roosevelt on boys; Pershing and Wood. There are a number of
illustrations.

* * * * *

“The picture is less attractive than that of the writer of the letters
to his children, or of the state papers that have been included in Mr
Bishop’s selection, but it seems to present with fidelity one of the
poses of the most versatile statesmen of our day. The absence of an
index makes the book more difficult to use than it need have been.” F:
L. Paxson

+ − =Am Hist R= 26:149 O ’20 400w

“A wonderful readable book about a wonderful personality.” E. J. C.

+ =Boston Transcript= p8 Je 12 ’20 450w

“The volume is a racy, authentic, well-considered work, but instead of
revealing the inner springs of motive, instead of a transvaluation of
strenuous values, it merely adds to the sum total of current
impressions.” L. B.

+ =Freeman= 2:118 O 13 ’20 280w

“Better than any photograph or any biography I know, they give you the
feeling of having talked with the man in the flesh.”

+ =Ind= 104:242 N 13 ’20 110w

“It is in all respects one of the best Roosevelt books we have ever
seen, and in some respects the best.”

+ =N Y Times= p19 Ag 15 ’20 1700w

“It is all vastly entertaining, though one wonders whether the
obligation of discretion which private conversation implies has not in
certain cases been prematurely sacrificed in the interest of impartial
history.”

+ =Outlook= 126:292 O 13 ’20 580w

“‘Talks with T. R.’ is an unusually interesting book. It is a really
valuable book. It is certain to be read; it deserves to be read. The
author of the book had done well to omit certain virulent assaults on
living Americans, notably President Wilson.”

+ − =Review= 2:656 Je 23 ’20 350w

+ =R of Rs= 62:111 Jl ’20 100w

“It is a readable and informing book. The principal criticism that may
be made concerns the typography and make-up of the volume. It could be
condensed nearly fifty per cent without detracting from its
readableness.”

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p8 Je 24 ’20 550w

=LEBLANC, MAURICE.= Secret of Sarek. il *$1.75 Macaulay co.

20–5586

“To put into his narrative the right degree of thrill, the correct
dose of horror, M. Leblanc takes us to the gloomy island of Sarek, off
the coast of Brittany, which has the cheerful nickname of ‘Island of
the coffins,’ and there plunges his characters into a welter of
murder, mystery and terror that has few parallels in this kind of
fiction. Strange figures robed in white, flitting in and out of the
woods on the island, make one suspect that the ghosts of the druids of
ancient times, or else descendants of theirs dwelling in caves beneath
the island, have got on the rampage in the modern world. Arsène Lupin,
the peerless solver of mysteries, arrives on the island in his little
private submarine. He takes the situation in hand with his usual
combination of ability, bravery and luck. Things move fast from the
moment that he sets foot on the old stamping ground of the druids. It
would be unfair to tell the series of strokes of genius, combined with
strokes of the incredible luck, whereby Arsène Lupin circumvents the
atrocious Vorski and makes it possible for ‘The secret of Sarek’ to
have a happy ending.”—N Y Times

* * * * *

=Ath= p495 Ap 9 ’20 100w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

+ =Bookman= 51:584 Jl ’20 230w

“Suffice it to say that it is an enthralling story, carried forward
breathlessly amid a whirl of shooting, stabbing, crucifying and
general bloodshed, cleverly raised above most of its kind by a really
baffling atmosphere of mystery, a genuine thriller among thrillers.”

+ =N Y Times= 25:199 Ap 18 ’20 700w

Reviewed by E. C. Webb

=Pub W= 97:996 Mr 20 ’20 250w

“The book is full of eerie mysteries and disasters violent enough to
merit honourable mention in a competition with Greek tragedies and
tinged with a suggestion of archaic survivals and black magic which
will pleasantly thrill even a jaded reader.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p242 Ap 15 ’20 180w

=LEDWIDGE, FRANCIS.= Complete poems of Francis Ledwidge. *$2.50 Brentano’s 821

20–2931

Francis Ledwidge, the young Irish poet, lost his life in the war. His
poems are brought together in this volume, with an introduction by
Lord Dunsany. “Readers familiar with his work will find all of the
favorites in this volume—June, To my best friend, Desire in spring,
and others. They will find also his poems written during the great
war. It is interesting to note that he did not write much of battle
and all that went with it, but made his songs out of memories or out
of new glimpses of beauty.” (N Y Times)

* * * * *

“His scope was limited. Trees, flowers and the recurring seasons were
his theme. But he evidently believed in these things, and did not
write of nature because since Wordsworth’s day, it is the correct
thing to do. Ledwidge was a countryman and loved the country; the
desire to express himself came, and he moulded into what are often
exquisite forms, the simple country thoughts which were natural in
him.”

+ =Ath= p1255 N 28 ’19 340w

+ =Booklist= 16:234 Ap ’20

“A book which many lovers of modern Irish poetry will rejoice to
possess. In many of the poems there is evidence of a delicate and
fragrant talent, but one refuses to speak, as the editor so
confidently does, of Ledwidge’s genius.” H: A. Lappin

+ − =Bookm= 51:215 Ap ’20 160w

“It is difficult to predict what his future development might have
been, but at least there is nothing in this collection to justify the
editor in speaking so confidently of his protégé as a genius. Although
there is here a great deal of fragrant and delicate imagination, and
much keen and intimate observation of sky and tree and field and bird,
there is nothing quite so full of Irish reality as any one of a dozen
lyrics one might mention by Joseph Campbell or Padraic Colum, for
example.”

+ − =Cath World= 110:827 Mr ’20 260w

“There is little in the slight evidence before us to indicate that he
would have made his place by sheer power; his success, had he lived,
and had he obtained it, would have been of the idiosyncratic sort. And
success of this sort he would, I think, no doubt have obtained. For
through all his work runs a strain of lyric magic.” Conrad Aiken

+ − =Dial= 68:376 Mr ’20 1900w

“Francis Ledwidge was an honest songster, a poet of the blackbird in a
time of hawks and vultures. He was in no sense an important poet, it
must be said.” Mark Van Doren

+ − =Nation= 111:sup415 O 13 ’20 60w

“When it is said that he is somewhat unvarying and that he is
sometimes immature it remains to be said that in everything Francis
Ledwidge wrote there is the shapely and the imaginative phrase.”
Padraic Colum

+ − =New Repub= 22:190 Ap 7 ’20 680w

“He knew the simplicities and austerities of wild life in fields and
woods so well that he could borrow from them a little sternness to go
with the sweetness of his song.”

+ =N Y Times= 25:27 Ja 18 ’20 500w

“It is simple, sincere, beautiful. Yet it is always quiet and restful.
It is not emotional, it soothes. The pictures are gems.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ap 27 ’20 900w

“It is true that he is ‘the poet of the blackbird,’ that his ‘small
circle of readers’ will turn to his work for its mildness, sweetness,
and serenity, ‘as to a very still lake ... on a very cloudless
evening.’ But that small circle must not be disappointed to discover
that his limpidity and naturalness are often blurred with the
derivative, that his taste is uncertain, ... that his imagination is
less active than his fancy. Complete poems, unflawed by inequalities
of tone and workmanship are therefore rare.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p607 O 30 ’19 1700w

“It is impossible to read these again without realizing that Ledwidge
is Ireland’s foremost poet of landscape, a poet who will undoubtedly
win lasting recognition.” N. J. O’Conor

+ =Yale R n s= 10:207 O ’20 130w

=LEE, GERALD STANLEY.= Ghost in the White House. *$2 Dutton 342.7

20–8716

“‘The White House is haunted by a vague helpless abstraction,—by a
kind of ghost of the nation, called the People.’ Gerald Stanley Lee
gives expression to what he regards as the common aspiration of the
people—a yearning to emerge from the ghost stage and to take on
tangible shape and substance through which to give expression and to
render service. This transformation must be wrought through the
organization of the people—the consumers—into a large club or league
with branches and chapters. Thus organized, the individual would have
a channel for the expression and application of their constructive
thought. On the individual is the responsibility of arming himself
with knowledge adequate for good judgment, with perspective for sound
progress, with vision for comprehensive planning. Then shall the
President be simply the chief of a practical religion.”—Survey.

* * * * *

“Mr Lee writes for the most part in words of one syllable, a style
admirably suited to reflect his own mental processes.” H. K.

− =Freeman= 2:333 D 15. ’20 190w

=Ind= 103:292 S 4 ’20 80w

“The author has thought, or mused, a lot, but he has hardly studied
the problems at all. He fancies that economics is a very simple
science—and so it is, his economics. He has not the faintest
conception of the real forces that are now reshaping the industrial
world.”

− =Nation= 111:276 S 4 ’20 430w

“Mr Lee’s book is thought provoking, stimulating, and much of it is
true. It will provoke thought in persons who do not habitually think.
One is not quite sure whether a good book like this helps or hinders
one.” M. F. Egan

+ − =N Y Times= 25:5 Jl 4 ’20 3000w

“It is a remarkably successful attempt to formulate the definite,
practical desires of the plain people.”

+ =R of Rs= 42:109 Jl ’20 120w

+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 O 4 ’20 670w

“It deserves to be widely read. It deals in a fascinating way with a
common experience and a serious problem. While it does not solve this
old problem, it serves a good purpose by stimulating new interest and
new thought.” A. J. Lien

+ =Survey= 44:591 Ag 2 ’20 200w

=LEE, HARRY SHERIDAN.= High company. *$1.50 Stokes 811

20–16183

A collection of war poems under the subtitle “sketches of courage and
comradeship,” mostly hospital scenes full of pathos and touches of
humor. Contents: The upper room; The pipe and the fire; Angeline;
April hearts; The hidden wound; Trees; Baldur the bright god; Winged
heels; Ninette and Rintintin; Deferred payment; “Soldiers three”;
Biddle’s kid; The good brown earth; The roll of honour; Pudgyfist
visits the hospital; Lights out; The pie lady; “Every dog has his
day”; “All in the blue unclouded weather”; Buddies; The shadow of the
cloud; “Men of good will.”

* * * * *

+ =Cath World= 112:402 D ’20 170w

“The wounded doughboys are depicted with humor, sympathy, and
originality, but the free verse form often degenerates into literal
and banal prose.”

+ − =N Y Evening Post= p13 N 6 ’ 20 90w

“The tribute is beautiful in spirit, beautiful in expression.”

+ =N Y Times= p24 D 19 ’20 380w

=LEE, JAMES MELVIN=, ed. Business writing. (Language for men of affairs) il $4 Ronald 808

20–9490