Chapter LIII: Part 2: , ‘The imaginative life of children,’ includes six chapters (9)

“From its opening chapter, the reader’s interest is caught and held.
Amy Lowell, herself, has done no more vivid color bits than this
author has introduced in descriptions of Manila. Aside from the
brilliancy of the local setting, she has woven a tale of exceeding
interest and charm, and super-excellent quality in novels of today,
its ‘third act’ is most engrossing.” C. K. H.

+ =Boston Transcript= p4 S 4 ’20 540w

“‘The green god’s pavilion’ may hardly be termed an extraordinary
novel, for it is built too obviously for thrill purposes, but it
displays an intimate knowledge of conditions in the Philippines and
presents with frequency pictures of native life that are vivid and
finely written.”

+ =N Y Times= p10 O 10 ’20 600w

=MARTYN, WYNDHAM.= Secret of the silver car. *$1.75 Moffat

20–5579

Another book of the adventures of Anthony Trent, master criminal. In
an indiscreet moment while they were shut in a caved-in dugout in
Flanders, expecting death at any moment, Trent had told the story of
his life to his unknown and unseen companion. Both escape and with the
war over, he sets himself to find this unknown “William Smith” who
knows too much about him for his own safety. He meets “William
Smith’s” sister, falls in love with her and for her sake resolves to
give up his brilliant criminal career. In her service he goes out to
the Balkans, becomes involved in international intrigue, has many
hairbreadth escapes, but secures the papers that mean so much to Lady
Daphne’s father and is rewarded with her hand.

* * * * *

=Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 3 ’20 300w

“Nor is this book mere swashbuckling. It is written always adroitly,
sometimes humorously, and with the zest of the author’s own
enjoyment.”

+ =N Y Evening Post= p20 Ap 24 ’20 200w

Reviewed by M. K. Reely

=Pub W= 97:996 Mr 20 ’20 320w

+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a My 16 ’20 200w

=MARVIN, FRANCIS SYDNEY=, ed. Recent developments in European thought. *$6.25 Oxford 901

20–17403

“This volume, which is a sequel to ‘The unity of western civilization’
(1915) and ‘Progress’ (1916), is, like them, the fruit of a course of
lectures given at a summer school at Woodbrooke, Birmingham. The
addresses composing it were given in August, 1919, and it traces the
idea of progress in European history since 1870. Among the
contributors, besides the editor, are Mr A. E. Taylor, who writes on
‘Philosophy,’ Dr F. B. Jevons, who writes on ‘Religion,’ Mr A. D.
Lindsay, of Balliol, whose subject is ‘Political theory,’ and Mr A.
Clutton Brock, who discusses ‘Art.’ Each article is followed by a
bibliographical note as a guide to further reading.”—The Times
[London] Lit Sup N 11 ’20

* * * * *

=Ath= p509 Ap 16 ’20 1400w

“In spite of the difficulties of handling the vast intricate masses of
still fluid material, the contributors have given readable and yet
valuable summaries of the progress of thought. For the beginner, there
could be no better introduction to the essential contributions of
man’s recent achievement.” M. J.

+ =Int J Ethics= 31:114 O ’20 460w

“Naturally, the essays by different authors vary in value. The least
satisfactory is the first, on philosophy.... The most brilliant essays
are those dealing with the fields of thought most intensively
cultivated by the last generation.... Compared with the treatment
accorded history, the studies here offered of political theory and of
economic progress are slightly disappointing.... Taken as a whole, the
cumulative impression of these various lectures is greater than that
of any one taken separately.” Preserved Smith

+ − =Nation= 111:379 O 6 ’20 1000w

“The personality of each of the twelve writers is given full
expression. It makes the diversity more interesting than the unity.”
H. W. C.

+ − =Nature= 105:607 Jl 15 ’20 500w

“The aim of the writers is to trace the progress and acquisitions of
thought and give a general picture of the results obtained by modern
knowledge; and they have succeeded in producing essays that are of a
high quality and also thoroughly readable.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p247 Ap 22 ’20 2450w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p742 N 11 ’20 110w

=MARX, MAGDELEINE.= Woman; tr. by Adele Szold Seltzer. *$1.90 (6c) Seltzer

20–11894

A translation of a novel that is said to have created a sensation in
France. It is a record of emotional moments. The characters have no
names, no appearances. They are only personalities. The “woman” of the
story loves and marries and bears a child. While still loving her
husband she takes a lover and then loses both husband and lover in the
war. Out of these experiences she emerges invincible, with an undimmed
capacity for life and an indomitable will to live. Henri Barbusse says
in his introduction, “In no other book perhaps so markedly as in this
has the integrity of an individual been more respected, and never has
an imaginary character so consistently warded off whatever is not of
itself. You don’t even seem to feel that this ‘woman’ talks or tells a
story. You simply know what she knows.”

* * * * *

Reviewed by Theodore Maynard

− + =Bookm= 52:75 S ’20 700w

=Dial= 69:433 O ’20 70w

“To those in search of a well-written book, not to mention a
contribution to real literature, Magdeleine Marx has nothing whatever
to offer. The style is wordy, pretentious and empty, a disjointed
collection of hollow phrases embodying all the platitudes of the
so-called revolt of woman.” E. A. Boyd

− =Freeman= 2:43 S 22 ’20 960w

=Ind= 104:64 O 9 ’20 500w

“The story is frank and sincere and full of isolated perceptions that
are both searching and beautiful. But it is also thin and scrappy and
disjointed, and the complete shadowiness of all the characters robs
its theories of the inner energy of a human content. In a word, Madame
Marx has felt very deeply and reflected intensely, and those who
agreed with her passionately have taken it for granted that she has
written a great book. But that is taking for granted far too much.”
Ludwig Lewisohn

− + =Nation= 111:134 Jl 31 ’20 900w

“A very great deal of it gives the reader the impression of a mind
out-stretching itself, to the point of dislocating all its joints, in
order to perceive and express something that nobody else has ever
perceived or expressed.”

− =N Y Times= 25:25 Jl 4 ’20 850w

“The book is written in a resignedly magnanimous strain, and passages
occur, which, taken by themselves, might affect us as noble. Yet as a
whole its absence of elevation in the midst of calls to elevation is
confounding.”

− + =Review= 3:347 O 20 ’20 750w

“‘Woman,’ if nothing else, is an interesting psychological study of
the type of mind that dwells upon sex and psychoanalysis with a
neurasthenic intensity, when the world is full to overflowing with
real woman problems.” M. E. Sangster

+ − =Social Hygiene= 6:590 O ’20 260w

“It does seem to me that the book might more appropriately have been
called ‘A woman.’ For the rest, the book is perfervid in a way that we
do not quite like in America, perhaps because we are not wholly
acclimated to it. It has pages of unusual beauty, and a high degree of
unity and directness.”

+ − =World Tomorrow= 3:350 N ’20 350w

=MASEFIELD, JOHN.= Enslaved. *$2.50 Macmillan 821

20–13322

The long narrative poem of the title depicts courage born of love and
begetting the brotherhood of man even in the untamed. A fair damsel is
carried off by a pirate galley into the captivity of a khalif’s harem.
Her lover follows into slavery to rescue her. He does so with the aid
of a brother slave who must kill a traitor to accomplish their
purpose. Recaptured and brought before the khalif they are set free
because their tale causes human stirrings in the hawk breast of the
latter. The other poems are: The hounds of hell; Cap on head; Sonnets;
The passing strange; Animula; The Lemmings; Forget; On growing old;
Lyric.

* * * * *

+ =Ath= p718 My 28 ’20 60w

“It seems to us that Mr Masefield’s first business is to regain
control of his words; and that he can only do this by deliberately
attempting a subject that bristles with psychological nuances, and
insisting that his language shall accommodate itself to them.
Otherwise we fear he will never succeed in expressing that elusive
beauty which he sees, but which at present comes to us only in
assertion or in fitful gleams through the interstices of an opaque
style.” J. M. M.

+ − =Ath= p823 Je 25 ’20 2300w

+ =Booklist= 17:22 O ’20

“Mr Masefield is the single poet writing in English today who both in
popular esteem and by the most exacting critical estimate legitimately
belongs to the august line of poets who are among the chief glories of
our race: to his greatness no journalistic cavil can add or take
away.” R. M. Weaver

+ =Bookm= 52:65 S ’20 240w

“In this poem, [On growing old], as in so many aspects of the other
poems in this volume, one feels the shadows of the world, deepened by
the tumult of war, settling upon the radiance of a brave visionary
spirit. The thrill, the excitement, the adventures of living are all
now subdued to this key of sadness, in which the passion and beauty
that was once a flame becomes an effable glow.” W. S. B.

+ − =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 18 ’20 2400w

“The whole thing seems bookish, remote, unreal. The characters do not
become sufficiently interesting: seem, in fact, insufficiently
equipped with a back-ground of flesh and blood experience.” J: G.
Fletcher

− + =Freeman= 2:163 O 27 ’20 1050w

“One of the signs that the times are good in English poetry is the
fact that Mr Masefield keeps on writing poems which tell stories.”
Mark Van Doren

+ − =Nation= 111:sup670 D 8 ’20 310w

“In his latest volume there are some serious offenses against rhyming,
euphony, and scansion, but in the larger aspects, in the essential
substance and indescribable quality of authentic poesy, he is more
richly endowed than any other living writer.” Lawrence Mason

+ =New Repub= 23:340 Ag 18 ’20 1250w

“‘Enslaved,’ his latest book of poems, offers a peculiarly fine view
of Masefield in all his variety. There is no poet in England, unless
we except Hardy, who possesses keener insight into the hearts of men.
It is this attitude toward life, this same fatalism that recognizes
the worst, yet sees the best behind, that makes John Masefield one of
the finest living figures in the whole field of English poetry.”

+ =N Y Times= 25:1 Jl 11 ’20 2450w

“A volume which reveals anew the amazing power and versatility of that
English poet.”

+ =Outlook= 127:68 Ja 12 ’21 450w

“‘Enslaved’ is a dramatic adventure tale. But ‘Enslaved’ is likewise a
dreamy, semi-lyrical, murmurous, and caressing tale. It is
Masefieldian in its power to be both these things at once.” O. W.
Firkins

+ =Review= 3:317 O 13 ’20 600w

“The book is extraordinarily rich, for it contains beside others,
‘Forget’ and ‘On growing old,’ two of the most beautiful poems that Mr
Masefield ever wrote, and in this age of singers Mr Masefield remains
our poet of greatest achievements.”

+ =Spec= 124:765 Je 5 ’20 500w

=MASEFIELD, JOHN.=[2] Right Royal. *$1.75 Macmillan 821

20–18954

“In ‘Right Royal’ Mr Masefield celebrates in a narrative poem the
story of a horse-race. The story of Mr Masefield’s poem is that of a
horse with great points and virtues, for speed and endurance, but very
undependable, having lost a number of races by going panicky from
fear. He was bought by Charles Cothill, who believed that all his
potential qualities as a winner could be developed. Cothill backed his
own horse to the extent of all his possessions, which created a crisis
in his love for the woman he hoped to marry. If he lost, his love was
lost. In fact, it was win all or lose all.”—Boston Transcript

* * * * *

“It will be acknowledged that the preliminaries of the race, the
discussions in the stables, the professional tips and omens, the
catalogue of the entries, are sandy soil for the growth of poetry. The
best of the poem has no relation to the worst; the worst might have
been sacrificed. Even in the best are imperfections, but we have
learnt to swallow Mr Masefield’s longer poems without straining at the
gnats.” E. B.

+ − =Ath= p692 N 19 ’20 600w

+ =Booklist= 17:146 Ja ’21

“It is growing very trite to say that Mr Masefield does this thing or
that thing better than any contemporary poet. He does the things that
nobody else does and is thus in competition with himself. ‘Right
Royal’ may not be as fine a poem as ‘Enslaved,’ but no one can dispute
that it is the best narrative of a horse-race that has been written by
any modern poet.” W: S. Braithwaite

+ =Boston Transcript= p5 N 20 ’20 1500w

“‘Right Royal’ is a bad poem, both intrinsically and because it fails
to satisfy certain necessary expectations. It promised to be as good
as ‘Reynard the fox,’ but it is woefully, incredibly worse.” Mark Van
Doren

− + =Nation= 111:sup670 D 8 ’20 240w

Reviewed by W. B. D. Henderson

+ =N Y Evening Post= p2 N 20 ’20 1650w

Reviewed by R: Le Gallienne

+ =N Y Times= p17 D 26 ’20 1700w

“The feeling that ‘Right Royal’ deserves to be placed below the
earlier volume [‘Reynard the fox’] may be purely a matter of
individual temperament on the part of the reviewer. In any case, it is
a volume which occupies an enviable place in the field of modern
poetry.”

+ =Outlook= 127:68 Ja 12 ’21 120w

Reviewed by G: D. Procter

+ =Pub W= 98:1893 D 18 ’20 320w

“The weather—cloud, sun, wind, and shower—is given more prominence and
is better conceived in ‘Right Royal’; but to balance this, the
unsuccessful passages are decidedly worse than those in ‘Reynard the
fox.’ Another fault it seems to the present writer to possess, which
the incomparable ‘Reynard the fox’ does not: it is a little
monotonous. As a ‘galloping poem,’ however, it is certainly one of the
best in English.”

+ − =Spec= 125:675 N 20 ’20 1200w

“He piles simile on simile and each simile is beautiful in itself,
each is a patch of ornament stuck on, not woven into the fabric. Mr
Masefield has told a brave tale bravely. If his courage had been like
Right Royal’s, he would have dared to leave undecorated the beauty
inherent in the tale.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p734 N 11 ’20 1050w

=MASON, ALFRED EDWARD WOODLEY.= Summons. *$2 (2c) Doran

20–18656

Harry Luttrell had a strong sense of military honor and of the
necessity for self-discipline. The first drove him to join the army,
the second to tear himself away from the woman he loved and accept a
post in Egypt. His friend and classmate, Martin Hillyard, had had a
chequered career: as a sailor; in a three years’ struggle for
existence in the port-towns of Spain; as an Oxford student and
successful playwright; and during the war his knowledge of Spain
serves him in good stead as a secret service agent. Stella Croyle,
Luttrell’s one-time love, in his absence eats her heart out in
neurotic, undisciplined longing and occasionally has recourse to the
comfort of drugs. While on a leave of absence during the war, Luttrell
meets Stella again without experiencing the old-time thrill and at the
same time he meets and falls in love with Joan Whitworth. Poor Stella
commits suicide under circumstances that throw suspicion on Joan.
Through his experiences in the secret service, Hillyard is enabled to
clear Joan and smooth the way for her and Luttrell.

* * * * *

“An interesting variant of the modern detective story.”

+ =Booklist= 17:159 Ja ’21

“It is a splendid story which Mr Mason has written, based upon his
experiences in the war, full of dramatic vigor—a real novel in every
sense of the word—and permeated with the atmosphere of England, Spain,
and Egypt.”

+ =Bookm= 52:368 D ’20 90w

“This novel is an excellent substitute for a modern detective story.
Instead of possessing a single, unified plot it is composed of a
rosary of minor plots which endows it with somewhat of the character
of real life.”

+ =N Y Evening Post= p21 O 23 ’20 250w

“One cannot help wishing that the important character of Joan
Whitworth were less exaggerated and more likable, for she does more
than a little to harm the book, but it is easy to forgive this
shortcoming when one remembers Martin Hillyard and the picturesque
José Medina, the very amusing Sir Chichester Splay, Millie, and
several others among the varied figures depicted on Mr Mason’s richly
colored canvas.”

+ − =N Y Times= p24 O 10 ’20 660w

“Mr Mason, here as always, has an exciting and unusual story to
unfold. This novel is hardly the equal of the ‘Four feathers’ or ‘The
broken road,’ for the author attempts to ming a not very successful
humorous vein with his natural plot-and-action type of fiction
writing.”

+ − =Outlook= 126:470 N 10 ’20 60w

“The touch of melodrama in the last section of the book is well
conceived and exciting. The best piece of writing in the book is the
description of the night passed by Martin Hillyard on the shore of a
river in the Sudan. This vivid picture of the life of the game-hunter
in wild countries affords a striking contrast to the sophisticated
chapters at the beginning of the book.”

+ − =Spec= 125:539 O 23 ’20 470w

“Mr Mason has shown better form than this.”

− =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p683 O 21 20 650w

=MASON, ARTHUR.= Flying bo’sun. *$1.75 (4c) Holt

20–19236

The narrative, the author claims, is of his own experience. It tells
of the voyage of a sailing schooner from San Francisco to the Fiji
Islands, of the superstitious sailors’ taking alarm at the alighting
on the ship of the “flying bo’sun,” the bird of bad omen, the
subsequent death of the captain, his haunting of the cabin and
spiritualistic rappings. On the return voyage the Hindoo stowaway has
a mysterious illness and is left in a state of coma on the captain’s
bed while a terrific hurricane is raging. During a critical moment,
when all seems lost, the frail little Hindoo is suddenly seen in
charge of the wheel giving commands in the captain’s voice with the
captain’s ghost standing beside him. With the ship safe and calm
restored the Hindoo is found just coming to life on the captain’s bed.
He disclaims all knowledge of commanding a ship but is still shaken by
the memory of the hideous dream he has had.

* * * * *

“The feeling persists that, with the exception of the spiritual
phenomenon, the whole dramatic voyage actually occurred.” S. M. R.

+ =Bookm= 52:371 D ’20 90w

“As a story of the sea it ranks with the best of Jack London or Morgan
Robertson, and as a story of the uncanny it is comparable with
‘Dracula’ and ‘The master of Ballantrae.’”

+ =N Y Evening Post= p22 O 23 ’20 200w

“In spite of the undoubted accuracy of Mr Mason’s idiom, however, the
discriminating layman is likely to find less of the authentic or
communicable essence of the sea in ‘The flying b’sun’ than in the
spiritual reaction of Masefield, Conrad, Tomlinson and McFee.”

+ − =N Y Times= p25 Ja 16 ’21 340w

=MASON, AUGUSTUS LYNCH.= Guiding principles for American voters. *$2 Bobbs 320

20–18679

“Mr Mason aims this ‘handbook of Americanism’ chiefly at the newly
enfranchised women and at the young men about to cast their first
vote. He analyzes the make-up of the government and argues for what he
aptly calls a ‘re-dedication to those principles which have made
America great’—i.e., a conservative application of the underlying
ideas of the Constitution. He objects to radical methods of taxation,
to too much government ownership, governmental price fixing, etc., and
he sees ‘Socialism’ as a menace.”—N Y Evening Post

* * * * *

“His arguments are cogently presented and supported by carefully
examined data: an excellent brief for the preservation of a
conservative republic rather than a radical democracy.”

+ =N Y Evening Post= p11 O 30 ’20 100w

“Its purpose is to popularize an argument, and it has no other value.”

− =Springf’d Republican= p8 N 9 ’20 50w

=MASON, WILLIAM LESLEY.= How to become an office stenographer. (Just how ser.) il $1.50 Pitman 652

20–26543

“A handy book intended for the untrained shorthand student who is
ambitious to secure a good position without previous experience.”
(Title page) The book is adapted for use as a text in business schools
and in high school commercial departments. There are thirteen
chapters, entitled: Your attention, please! “Safety first”; What
business men expect of a stenographer; Preparedness; Your “busy” day;
Taking the business letter; Transcribing the business letter; Typing
the business letter; Typing business forms; The use and care of the
typewriter; Words: their use and abuse; Filing letters; Time-saving
office appliances. There are two appendixes giving postal regulations
and information regarding the civil service.

* * * * *

=Booklist= 16:303 Je ’20

=MASSENET, JULES ÈMILE FRÉDÉRIC.= My recollections. il *$3 Small

19–15403

“An autobiography telling the story of this modern French musical
leader’s career, and especially of his many works. [It is] translated,
by express desire of the author, by his friend H. Villiers Barnett.
Illustrated.”—Brooklyn

* * * * *

“Will be enjoyed by the average reader as well as the opera-goer and
student of music.”

+ =Booklist= 16:79 D ’19

Reviewed by H: T. Finck

=Bookm= 51:171 Ap ’20 180w

“A charming autobiography.”

+ =Brooklyn= 12:68 Ja ’20 40w

“His narrative, like his music, reveals facility, grace, and charm,
and is alternately gay and sentimental to the point of pathos. One is
not very much wiser after reading the book, but one closes it with a
certain regret at parting from such amiable company.” Henrietta Straus

+ − =Nation= 111:76 Jl 17 ’20 190w

Reviewed by Lawrence Gilman

=Yale R n s= 9:872 Jl ’20 1100w

=MASSEY, MRS BEATRICE (LARNED).= It might have been worse. *$1.75 (6½c) Wagner, Harr 917.3

20–4452

An account of a motor trip from coast to coast taken in the summer of
1919, with notes on roads, hotels, and other matters of interest to
travelers. Contents: The start; New York to Pittsburgh; Ohio and
detours; On to Chicago; Through the dairy country; Clothes, luggage,
and the car; The Twin cities and ten thousand lakes; Millions of
grasshoppers; The Bad lands; The dust of Montana; A wonderland;
Westward ho! Nevada and the desert; The end of the road.

=MASSINGHAM, HAROLD JOHN.= Letters to X. *$2.50 Dutton 824

20–26887

“In ‘Letters to X,’ H. J. Massingham discourses on a great many phases
of modern life and literature. There is hardly a modern English author
of any consequence who does not come under the appraisement of his
pen.”—Springf’d Republican

* * * * *

“The book contains many excellences of detail, and reaches at times
and maintains for a while a level notably above its average.
Perspective is perhaps Mr Massingham’s outstanding quality.” F. W. S.

+ − =Ath= p110 Ja 23 ’20 950w

“Familiar, rambling essays of a book lover that will please the
‘gentle reader’ with like leanings, particularly if he be fond of the
Elizabethans and Carolines. Their exclusive bookishness will make them
seem cold and remote to others.”

+ − =Booklist= 17:62 N ’20

Reviewed by S. P. Sherman

=Bookm= 52:108 O ’20 1950w

“These are essays of rare quality in which the essayist is writing
continuously of the alliance between literature and life.” E. F. E.

+ =Boston Transcript= p7 Jl 17 ’20 1100w

“Mr Massingham’s essays are delivered ex-cathedra and in a style both
heavy and dense. He is a lover of dust covered books, but he seems
widely read rather than discriminating, and though he ranges all the
way from Richard de Bury’s ‘Philobiblon’ to John Gould Fletcher, he
hardly does much to illuminate the names which he mentions. He
declares many enthusiasms but lacks the gift of differentiation.”

− + =Nation= 111:162 Ag 7 ’20 180w

“It is a pity that Mr Massingham has chosen to hide this wise, witty,
companionably learned and most comforting book under the bushel of a
title which not only gives no hint of its quality, but is actually dry
and forbidding. Of the value of good literature, of the qualities
which constitute it and of the laws of its making, he says some of the
wisest, most pertinent, things written in a long day.” R: Le Gallienne

+ =N Y Times= p7 Ag 8 ’20 2650w

“The word which fits his style exactly is one of the best adjectives
in our language which the language is guilty of criminal negligence in
permitting itself gradually to lose—the word ‘lusty.’ If it were dead
instead of merely decaying, it might be recalled to life by the easy,
careless, rushing vigor of Mr Massingham’s undaunted prose.”

+ − =Review= 3:172 Ag 25 ’20 360w

“Mr Massingham’s attacks on his own age, sharp, dipped in bitterness,
aimed with truth though they are, do not really touch the monster. Bad
though the age may be, he is too impatient and petulant with it; and
he is divided in his desires.”

+ − =Sat R= 129:232 Mr 6 ’20 1050w

=Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 10 ’20 40w

“Treating his work as art, susceptible to form, even in the rather
strained sense of that word which he adopts, we find it deficient in
that very quality, and especially in that element of form,
tranquillity, upon which he so insists.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p30 Ja 15 ’20 1300w

=MASSINGHAM, HAROLD JOHN=, ed. Treasury of seventeenth century English verse, from the death of Shakespeare to the Restoration (1616–1660). (Golden treasury ser.) il *$1.50 Macmillan 821.08

(Eng ed 20–10754)

“Mr Massingham has marked out as his claim the most characteristic
part of the century in time, and has not excluded any kind except the
dramatic. Most of his selections are naturally lyrical, but by no
means all; and he has thus been able to find room for at least
specimen fruits from the half-wilderness gardens of ‘Pharonnida’ and
‘Cupid and Psyche.’ He has also cast his gathering net unusually wide,
and his readers will make acquaintance with authors who will pretty
certainly be new to them, such as Thomas Fettiplace and Robert
Gomersal. In giving uniform modern spelling throughout Mr Massingham
may invite censure from some purists, but certainly not in this place.
Whatever may be the case earlier, the printers’ spelling of the
mid-seventeenth century is, as he justly says, ‘only externally
archaic.’ Half its differences from present use are not uniform and
are evidently haphazard. One may not perhaps approve quite so heartily
his practice of excluding some beautiful things as ‘too well known.’
The authors are alphabetically arranged.”—Ath

* * * * *

Reviewed by G: Saintsbury

+ =Ath= p40 Ja 9 ’20 1400w

“A fresh, provocative, beautiful little book. Palgrave’s volume was
not a bit better gauged for Palgrave’s time than Mr Massingham’s is
for ours. The purest twentieth-century principles are in operation
here. Mr Massingham’s notes are lively to the end, though often they
are cleverly irrelevant and gloriously slap-dash. It is as if Mr
Saintsbury were twenty again.”

+ =Nation= 110:151 Ja 31 ’20 370w

“The completeness of the book makes it an excellent compendium for any
one studying that era, although it is to be feared that many a general
reader will be frightfully bored by the stiff artificiality that marks
many of the poems, especially after they get past the Elizabethan
era.” H. S. Gorman

+ − =N Y Times= 25:21 Jl 25 ’20 170w

“The poems, as a whole, are excellently chosen, and the enthusiasm of
the introduction makes pleasant reading. The notes, with their short
biographical summaries, are especially valuable. But it needs a
certain type of mind to appreciate seventeenth century literature, and
if all readers are not stirred to the same joy in it as Mr Massingham,
it is not his fault, but that of the period.”

+ =Sat R= 129:39 Ja 10 ’20 480w

“Mr Massingham’s introduction is a delightful essay written in a style
that has caught something of the curious felicity of the poets in
whose work he has steeped himself.”

+ =Spec= 124:212 F 14 ’20 1000w

“He claims, and with justice, that the ordinary reader will find here
a whole body of poetry with which he has never before had the chance
of making acquaintance. This is a service for which the student of
English poetry will be heartily grateful to Mr Massingham. But if he
be a lover as well as student he will probably find it hard to keep
down some irritation at an anthologist who sets out with the resolve
to give him as few as possible of the poems which he is known to
like.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p129 F 26 ’20 3400w

=MASTERS, EDGAR LEE.= Domesday book. *$4.50 Macmillan 811

20–19678

In this volume Mr Masters has told a long story in verse. The body of
Elenor Murray is found by the river near Starved Rock in Illinois and
the coroner, William Merival, sets out to assemble the evidence, the
material evidence from the man who finds the body, the doctor who
performs the autopsy and the spiritual evidence from those who had
known the girl from her birth or her parents before her. The effect of
these testimonies brought together is to throw light on the many-sided
character of one human being when all secrets are laid bare and to
show how one life, however humble or pitiful, affects countless other
lives, its influence radiating like ripples in a pool when a stone is
dropped.

* * * * *

“If Masters can rid himself of his oracular airs and the bad
Browning-Shakespeare patois with which he wearies his staunchest
admirers, there are few limits to his possible achievements. ‘Domesday
book’ is too diffuse and prosy to be a masterpiece of poetic fiction,
but it contains the seeds and strength—and the hope—of one.” L:
Untermeyer

+ − =Bookm= 52:363 Ja ’21 550w

“The great American poem of the war has come in the ‘Domesday book’
and come from the hand of the poet who laid the foundation in the
synoptic Americanism of the ‘Spoon river anthology.’ The latter was a
great work; ‘Domesday book’ is greater.... ‘Domesday book’ is a great
national topic of America’s soul symbolized in the character of Elenor
Murray.” W: S. Braithwaite

+ =Boston Transcript= p7 D 4 ’20 1900w

“The trouble with ‘Domesday book’ is chiefly that it thins this raw
material out until it becomes hopelessly prosaic. The realism of
‘Spoon river’ had the virtue of selection and of epigram. In his
latest work, Mr Masters has become extensive without any corresponding
enlargement of the imagination and the power behind his broader
canvas.” O. M. Sayler

− + =Freeman= 2:357 D 22 ’20 600w

“The total effect is often crude and heavy, now pretentious, now
hopelessly flat; and yet beneath these uncompleted surfaces are the
sinews of enormous power, a greedy gusto for life, a wide imaginative
experience, an abundance of the veritable stuff of existence—all this,
and yet not an authentic masterpiece. ‘Spoon river anthology’ still
has no rival from the hand of its creator.” C. V. D.

+ − =Nation= 111:566 N 17 ’20 470w

“For all its largeness of intention, all its vitality and
forcefulness, ‘Domesday book’ is not, to my mind, finally articulated.
It seems to me unfinished. I do not mean that the poem is not brought
to a conclusion. It is concluded, and, I believe, appropriately
concluded. But it has parts that should have been cut away or have
been more wrought over.” Padraic Colum

+ − =New Repub= 25:148 D 29 ’20 1700w

“It could have been produced nowhere but in America and nowhere so
justly as in the Middle West. The epigrammatic compactness of ‘Spoon
river anthology’ is lacking in it, but it takes on a huge strength
that the former book lacked.” H. S. Gorman

+ =N Y Times= p18 Ja 16 ’21 840w

“If there be any one who does not clearly realize that life is
infinitely complex, that it is in the last analysis practically
impossible to assign responsibility for evil, that much good may be
where convention sees only evil ... if there be any one who is not
convinced of these things already or cannot learn them from his own
observations and the daily papers, he may derive great benefit from
reading Mr Masters’ book. But those to whom these things are
commonplaces will perhaps not care to wade through the poem.”

− + =No Am= 213:286 F ’21 900w

“The Edgar Lee Masters, whose ‘Spoon river anthology’ blazed a new
trail thru American literature, returns with ‘Domesday book.’ Perhaps
he is less sardonic now, but the vision of ‘Domesday book’ is broader
and it is, happily, gently suffused with a very human tolerance and
forgiveness.” G: D. Proctor

+ =Pub W= 98:1894 D 18 ’20 430w

“The first part is very interesting, and the whole book is readable.
Its essence is prosaic, though a back door is left open through which
poetry can let herself in in a neighborly fashion, if she chooses. Her
visits are infrequent.” O. W. Firkins

+ − =Review= 4:15 Ja 5 ’21 1350w

=MASTERS, EDGAR LEE.= Mitch Miller. il *$3.50 Macmillan

20–17009

Mitch Miller’s story is told by his friend Skeeters Kirby. It is a
story of boys and a boy’s town written for adults. Mitch has read “Tom
Sawyer” and Tom is to him a living personality. The two boys hunt for
buried treasure and try to repeat all of Tom’s exploits. They dig for
treasure in Old Salem where Lincoln lived, and an old man who knew
Lincoln talks to them of a different kind of treasure. They run away
intending to visit Tom Sawyer but are brought back home. Later their
fathers take them on a journey to Hannibal, Missouri, where they meet
life’s first disillusionment. Mitch is something of a dreamer and a
poet. He is killed stealing rides on the cars, and in the epilogue,
written thirty years after, the author can say that he is now glad
that his chum did not live to face the shattered idealism of the
present day.

* * * * *

+ =Booklist= 17:72 N ’20

“The best boy’s story in our generation of American authors has been
written by Mr Masters in ‘Mitch Miller.’” W: S. Braithwaite

+ =Boston Transcript= p5 O 9 ’20 1500w

“Those who have neatly ticketed Mr Edgar Lee Masters as a cynic will
be obliged after reading ‘Mitch Miller,’ to change their label—if they
must have labels. There is, to be sure, a sub-acid quality in the
epilogue. But the mood of the book is one of dedication rather than of
challenge. Its tone is sunny and fresh and sweet; its beauty quiet and
unobtrusive. ‘Mitch Miller’ comes close to being a masterpiece with
its breadth of interpretation, and the fineness and singleness of its
mood. It is complete, even to the tragedy at the end.” C. M. R.

+ =Freeman= 2:214 N 10 ’20 250w

“The narrative is tangled in a snarl of moods. Its movement is often
thick, its wings gummed and heavy. Only in flashes does the powerful
imagination of Mr Masters shake itself free and burn with the high,
hot light which so often glows in the ‘Anthology.’ There are touches
of admirable comedy and strong strokes of character and some racy
prose; but as a whole ‘Mitch Miller’ falls regrettably between the
clear energy which might have made it popular and the profound
significance which might have made it great.” C. V. D.

+ − =Nation= 111:566 N 17 ’20 480w

“If fidelity to nature were the whole of art, Mitch Miller would be a
perfect book, or almost perfect.... The defect in the author’s method
comes out in the end of the book.... Is there nothing in American life
significant and interesting enough to make it worth while for a boy
like Mitch to grow up? Perhaps there is not; but if that is true, it
is an artistic problem to be faced, not evaded through a petulant
dismantling of a stage well set.” Alvin Johnson

+ − =New Repub= 24:276 N 10 ’20 1250w

“Mr Masters’s novel is put down with mingled feelings. It has many
faults, but it has quite as many virtues. There is so much to the book
that it leaps into the mind to advise the author to write novels
henceforth and forevermore and let poetry rest.”

+ − =N Y Times= p20 N 7 ’20 980w

“The book is unusual and captivating.”

+ =Outlook= 126:600 D 1 ’20 80w

“We are in the habit of looking to Mr Masters for clear-cut character
drawing and for sympathetic, if sometimes ironic, understanding of the
motives of men but we have often felt regretfully, that he seemed to
be too much interested in the morbid side of human nature. ‘Mitch
Miller’ comes as a grateful answer to that doubt.” Marguerite Fellows

+ =Pub W= 98:1192 O 16 ’20 300w

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

=Review= 3:447 N 10 ’20 630w

+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:238 D ’20 70w

=MASTERS, EDGAR LEE.= Starved Rock. *$1.75 Macmillan 811

19–17050

For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.

* * * * *

“Perhaps the poet’s first worthy successor of ‘Spoon River’; but while
displaying something of its sardonic spirit the present collection is
of far wider range.”

+ =Booklist= 16:162 F ’20

“He is at his ripest and surest in such mordant and merciless analyses
as Lord Byron to Doctor Polidori, The barber of Sepo. They’d never
know me now, Oh you Sabbatarians! and that profound disquisition on
Poe, Washington hospital. And the man who wrote Sagamore Hill, that
incomparable portrait of Theodore Roosevelt; who wrote Chicago and I
shall go down into this land, manifests an intimate understanding of
the American heart at its noblest.” H: A. Lappin

+ =Bookm= 51:216 Ap ’20 250w

+ =Cleveland= p86 O ’20 20w

“In ‘Starved Rock’ there is little music but much food for thought.”

+ =Ind= 104:165 O 9 ’20 40w

“It is beginning to be apparent that Mr Masters neither can nor needs
to depart from his original tone and method. He cannot do so
profitably and there is no need, since the vein which served them
seems inexhaustible. There are not lacking here the old familiar notes
of sour, practical tragedy, of hoarse, heroic scepticism, of good,
round, pagan, Chicago fleshliness. But [the reader] is sorry for a
certain strenuous complacency which has been growing in Mr Masters
over a considerable period and which is particularly objectionable in
the present volume.”

+ − =Nation= 110:557 Ap 24 ’20 550w

“Unfortunately, Mr Masters frequently fails to sing because he fails
to simplify. He is a thinker, first of all, and the thinker is
naturally more discursive than the singer. And now a word for the best
of the book. It is a poem about Roosevelt, called At Sagamore Hill.
Here is a poem which has in it truth, dignity, vision, vitality.”
Marguerite Wilkinson

+ − =N Y Times= 25:4 Mr 7 ’20 1100w

“In ‘Starved Rock,’ the reader will not starve, though he will
scarcely feast. There are the usual monologues, of which only two are
slimy. There are bulky and hazy philosophies, cosmicisms, idealisms,
feeble sedatives for bitter griefs. There is an excellent bit of
journalism, self-described in the title, Sagamore Hill. There are
landscapes of an alluring but unsatisfying picturesqueness. There are
instances of that lyric pliancy and invitation which surprise the ear
among the ruder notes of Mr Masters, and there are rare moments of
true inspiration.” O. W. Firkins

+ − =Review= 2:519 My 15 ’20 650w

“Mr Masters is the same versatile narrator who builds poems of facts
rather than of fancies, and who presents carefully analyzed characters
and situations in a cold, direct and fearless way. He is still at his
best as an analyst or narrator, and he is still unsatisfactory and
unconvincing when he wanders from matter-of-fact or satirical verse.”

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p10 F 20 ’20 850w

=MATHEWS, BASIL JOSEPH.= Argonauts of faith: the adventures of the “Mayflower” Pilgrims. il *$1.50 Doran 974.4

20–10629

In this book for boys and girls, with a foreword by Viscount Bryce,
there is a prologue comparing the embarking of the Pilgrims on their
quest for liberty to the ancient Argonauts’ quest of the Golden
fleece. The epilogue suggests that the Pilgrim fathers had their
counterparts in the heroes of “Pilgrim’s progress,” and that they
laid the keel for a new Argo—the ship of state of a new
commonwealth. The stories told are: On the great north road: The
stormy passage; The land of threatening waters; The house with the
green door; The ship of adventure; The adventures of scouting; A
clearing in the waste; Builders in the waste; Greatheart, Mr
Standfast, and Valiant-for-truth. There are a chronology, an index,
illustrations and maps.

* * * * *

“The story is so well told that it is a pity not to have had it
accurate in details.”

+ − =Bib World= 54:645 N ’20 190w

+ =Booklist= 17:37 O ’20

“Follows history with admirable care, presents an excellent
atmosphere, and tells an absorbing story.” W. H. Dyer

+ =Bookm= 52:126 O ’20 60w

“Of all the books relating to the Pilgrims, ‘The argonauts of faith’
by Basil Mathews has the best dramatic form and the most suggestive
content for the story-teller, teacher, or librarian.” A. C. Moore

+ =Bookm= 52:261 N ’20 100w

“It is a very readable account and the impression it leaves is an
accurate one.”

+ =Ind= 104:242 N 13 ’20 140w

+ =Lit D= p96 D 4 ’20 50w

Reviewed by Hildegarde Hawthorne

+ =N Y Times= p9 D 19 ’20 60w

+ =Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 40w

“Basil Mathews has written an old story in an interesting way.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a Ag 15 ’20 180w

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p242 Ap 15 ’20 80w

=MATHEWS, BASIL JOSEPH=, ed. Essays on vocation. *$1.75 Oxford 174

“The purpose is to inculcate the importance of vocation as
distinguished from mere profession or making one’s living, and the
spirit of the book is ethical and idealistic. One of the essays,
Vocation in art, by H. Walford Davies, is an inspiring piece of
literature. The other essays are: Vocation and the ministry, by Edward
Shillito; Vocation in law, by Sir E. Pollock; Vocation in the home, by
Emily E. Whimster; Commerce as a vocation, by W. H. Somervell;
Vocation in industry, by A. Ramage; Vocation in education, by J. Lewis
Paton; The career of an elementary school teacher, by Fanny Street;
and Sir William Osler’s Vocation in medicine and nursing.”—Ath

* * * * *

=Ath= p1081 O 24 ’19 100w

“As one might expect, a book of essays on vocation edited by Mr Basil
Mathews, with contributions by such people as Mr Edward Shillito, Mr
Lewis Paton and Sir William Osler could hardly be anything but good.
But a good book on vocation is not good enough. It should possess,
especially at such a time as this, a certain prophetic quality. It
ought to be constraining, irresistible. But this is just what Mr
Mathews’s book is not.” R: Roberts

+ − =Freeman= 2:236 N 17 ’20 840w

=MATURIN, EDITH (CECIL-PORCH) (MRS FRED MATURIN).= Rachel comforted. *$2.50 Dodd 134

20–16938

The authenticity and truthfulness of these “conversations of a mother
in the dark with her child in the light” (Sub-title) are vouched for
in a preface by W. T. Stead and a note by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The
conversations between the author and her dead son were carried on by
means of a planchette over a period of years and the mother asserts
that she retired from the world and gave up herself, her health and
her life to them and that the one essential condition for such
communications are a perfect love on both sides. The object of the
book is to comfort other bereaved parents.

* * * * *

=Ath= p589 Ap 30 ’20 60w

+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 23 ’20 420w

− =Springf’d Republican= p7a N 28 ’20 220w

=MAUGHAM, REGINALD CHARLES FULKE.= Republic of Liberia. il *$6.50 Scribner 916.6

20–26544

“The author, Mr Maugham, knows much of Africa, has written on Africa,
and, when he completed in 1918 the pages which are now published, he
had had for some years personal experience of life in Liberia as
British consul-general at Monrovia. He deals with Liberia from all
aspects, with its geography, history, administration and institutions,
its climate, races, birds and beasts, plants and trees. The words and
the music of the Liberian national anthem are supplied, and a very
clear account by a practised pen is made more attractive by a number
of excellent illustrations and an adequate map.”—The Times [London]
Lit Sup

* * * * *

+ =Ath= p431 Mr 26 ’20 80w

+ =Booklist= 16:308 Je ’20

“His study of Liberia tries on the one hand to say pleasant things
concerning Liberia, and on the other hand to show British merchants
that now and here is their chance to exploit a rich land.” W. E. B.
DuBois

− =Nation= 111:350 S 25 ’20 330w

“All through the book Mr Maugham gives evidence of genuine sympathy
and understanding for the Liberians and their problems.”

+ =N Y Times= p6 O 10 ’20 660w

“An excellent account of Liberia.”

+ =Spec= 124:248 F 21 ’20 180w

“This is a timely, interesting and valuable work, giving a fairly
complete description of the Negro republic. It is written in a
kindlier tone than has sometimes been employed by other writers on the
country.” I. C. Hannah

+ =Survey= 44:310 My 29 ’20 320w

“Of this republic the present book tells us all that is to be told,
and tells it well. Owing to difficulties and delay in publication, the
book is a little complicated by two prefaces, and the editing or
revision has not been immaculate. But, taken as a whole, it is a most
interesting and informing book.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p132 F 26 ’20 1450w

=MAUGHAM, WILLIAM SOMERSET.= Land of the Blessed Virgin. il *$2.50 (5c) Knopf 914.6

A20–1263

In this book the author gives his recollections of Andalusia in a
series of sketches—the land ablaze with sunshine, opulent with
luminous soft color, with cities bathed in light, desolate wastes of
sand, dwarf palms and the flower of the broom. The character of the
country he finds typified in the paintings of Murillo and the colors
of his palette—“rich, hot, and deep”—the typical colors of Andalusia.
Some of the sketches are: The churches of Ronda; Medinat Az-Zahrā; The
mosque; Cordova; Seville; The Alcazar; Women of Andalusia; The dance;
A feast day; Before the bull-fight; Corrida de Toros; Granada; The
Alhambra; The song.

* * * * *

“Its objective descriptions are full of rich and vivid color, its
travellers’ tales are intimate and charming and its records of the
impressions made upon the mind of the author, though not without
touches of affectation, are so individual as to be far more
interesting than most chronicles.”

+ =Booklist= 17:27 O ’20

“If the reader of ‘The land of the blessed virgin’ is not anxious to
visit Andalusia after reading these pages he is impervious to the
picturesqueness of the scene and to the rare qualities of Mr Maugham’s
style.” E. F. E.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ag 4 ’20 1300w

+ =Freeman= 2:165 O 27 ’20 340w

+ =N Y Times= p24 Ag 22 ’20 650w

=MAUGHAM, WILLIAM SOMERSET.= Mrs Craddock. *$1.90 (2½c) Doran

20–26573

This is one of Mr Maugham’s earlier stories now first brought out in
America. It is a story with one central interest, one woman’s
passionate love for a man, its change to hate and gradual cooling to
indifference. Bertha Ley, of Court Leys, falls rapturously in love
with a handsome young tenant farmer on her estate and marries him in
the face of his lukewarm response and the disapproval of everyone
else. She is mistress of her own fortune and has but one relative, a
keen-minded acerbic aunt who believes in standing aside and letting
others follow their own courses. Bertha gives everything into Edward’s
hands and Edward proves a model English squire. But as he rises in
county estimation, Bertha’s love for him wanes and her abject devotion
gives place to distaste. She leaves him, has a brief love affair with
a quite different type of man, and comes home again to settle into a
state of apathy and indifference from which his death, under the very
circumstances she had once imagined with such poignant pain, does not
rouse her.

* * * * *

“An unusual character study.”

+ =Booklist= 16:349 Jl ’20

“The merits of ‘Mrs Craddock’ as a story are no less than its high
qualities as a character study, and it should have been offered to
American readers long ago.” E. F. E.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 16 ’20 1000w

“It has some subtlety, but moves rather heavily and joylessly.”

+ − =Outlook= 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 20w

=MAULE, MARY KATHERINE (FINIGAN) (MRS JOHN P. MAULE).= Prairie-schooner princess. il *$1.75 (2c) Lothrop

20–15508

A story of the crossing of the plains and the settlement of Nebraska.
The Peniman family, Quakers from Ohio, are going west in a prairie
schooner when fate throws little Nina Carroll into their hands. Her
father has been killed by an Indian arrow but there is reason to
believe that it was a white man not an Indian who was responsible.
Valuable papers relating to the little girl are stolen and nothing can
be learned of her family connections. She is adopted by the Penimans,
altho they know that she has enemies who for some reason wish to gain
possession of her. Because of their Quaker principles they treat the
Indians with kindness and justice and at several crises in the story
they are rewarded by the timely aid of their Indian friends. The
children grow up, the boys take part in the Civil war, the mystery in
Nina’s story is cleared away and Nina and Joe Peniman and two other
pairs of young people set up new homes in the prairie state.

* * * * *

“This story of the West has all the atmosphere of the region it
describes—that is to say, it is flat, monotonous, and dry.”

− =N Y Evening Post= p20 O 23 ’20 60w

=MAUROIS, ANDRÉ.= Silence of Colonel Bramble. *$1.25 (3½c) Lane

20–4463

This light-hearted war book is an interpretation of English, Irish and
Scotch character from the point of view of a witty Frenchman. During
the war the author acted as interpreter with a Scotch division, a
position occupied by Aurelle in his story. It is composed largely of a
series of mess-room conversations in which the different characters
are allowed to reveal themselves. The translation is by Thurfrida
Wake, with translations of Aurelle’s occasional verses by Wilfrid
Jackson. The originals of these verses are given in an appendix.

* * * * *

“The humour of the story is somewhat less enjoyable in the translation
than in the original; but the reader is still able to appreciate the
incisive delineation of the gallant officer who fills the title-rôle.”

+ =Ath= p832 Ag 29 ’19 100w

+ =Booklist= 16:245 Ap ’20

=Bookm= 51:443 Je ’20 30w

“The volume is interesting for its portrayal of the way a Frenchman
sees the English race.”

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 16 ’20 480w

“Those who have been the guests of British officers at the various
staff and brigade headquarters will recognize every scene and every
character in the pages of this book. It is distinctly a man’s book—a
trifle risqué at times from a Puritanic point of view, but always
witty and artistically delicate.” F: T. Hill

+ =N Y Times= 25:208 Ap 25 ’20 800w

“‘The silence of Colonel Bramble’ is the wittiest book of comment on
warfare and our national prejudices that we have yet seen. The
rendering now published is well done on the whole, but it cannot equal
the original.”

+ =Sat R= 128:226 S 6 ’19 850w

“No more sympathetic, and at the same time penetrating, appreciation
of British character has appeared than this modest collection of
sketches, which, by the way, include passages of unexpected tenderness
and restrained power.”

+ =Spec= 123:771 D 6 ’19 1350w

=MAXSON, CHARLES HARTSHORN.= Great awakening in the middle colonies. *$1.25 Univ. of Chicago press 277

20–7587