Chapter LXXVII: Part I: contains: The evolution of the principles underlying the (5)

The book is one of the Psychic series and describes the cure of a case
of illness of fifteen years’ standing in the course of a year and
eight months by an invisible spirit doctor. It contains a preface by
J. Arthur Hill, testimonials by several personal friends of the
patient and a report by the physician long in charge of the case in
the flesh. The contents are: A chance paragraph; A chain of
coincidences; The first interview; A further surprise; The invisible
hand; Experiences and experiments; Fellow-lodgers; Royal progress;
Learning to walk; “My little girl”; Six months later; Comments and
criticisms; Appendix and index. The book was published in England as
“One thing I know, or, The power of the unseen.”

* * * * *

“‘The unseen doctor’ is as respectable a book of psychic experiences
as has come to the public. There is no doubt that it is a record of
real experiences. But, respectable as the book is, it still leaves
open the eternal question, ‘Why should spirit doctors cling to the
earth, and why have they no concerns of their own?’”

+ − =N Y Times= p16 N 14 ’20 320w

“As a ‘psychic’ tale the book is futile and foolish, indeed, rather
fertile in folly.”

− =Review= 3:393 O 27 ’20 230w

“There is nothing fantastic in the story, and it is told with such
convincing truth that the reader seems to have no choice save to
accept it on its face value.” Lilian Whiting

+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 23 ’21 330w

=UNTERMEYER, LOUIS=, ed. Modern American poetry. *$1.40 Harcourt 811.08

20–1516

“In his anthology, ‘Modern American poetry’ Louis Untermeyer has
selected 132 poems by 80 authors, arranged them effectively, with
brief notices for each writer and handy indices. Old favorites are
here; ‘Little boy blue’ rubs shoulders with ‘The purple cow,’ and
‘When the frost is on the punkin’ with ‘A stein song.’ Franklin P.
Adams, Oliver Herford, and Carolyn Wells are represented.”—Springf’d
Republican

* * * * *

“All the best recent things are here.” H: A. Lappin

+ =Bookm= 51:212 Ap ’20 70w

“This verse is remarkable for vigor and energy, form being sacrificed
for content. An interesting feature is the group of seven poems on
Lincoln by seven different poets.”

+ =Cleveland= p41 Ap ’20 60w

“Though it too often misses the authentic current, is too often led
away into stagnant marshes, it is perhaps as good a map as we yet
possess. The editor is a better conversationalist than guide.”

+ − =Dial= 68:667 My ’20 60w

=Dial= 69:664 D ’20 60w

“It is a comprehensive and unusually satisfying collection.”

+ =Ind= 104:64 O 9 ’20 130w

Reviewed by R. P. Utter

=Nation= 110:237 F 21 ’20 420w

“The present reviewer’s quarrel with Louis Untermeyer’s ‘Modern
American poetry’ is not so much because of its selections and
omissions—both often very wise ones—as because of Untermeyer’s
attitude of mind in his introduction. It is the typical attitude of
the poets of our present little ‘renaissance,’ and perhaps one should
hardly quarrel with it, but smile at it. You would suppose poetry that
was honest, fresh, contemporary, had never been written before.” W. P.
Eaton

− + =N Y Call= p10 Ja 18 ’20 1000w

“If there be any critic in the country who ought not to make a
schoolbook, that critic is Louis Untermeyer. He is much too
brilliantly individual and his likes and dislikes are too pronounced.
It is a book of verse that young people probably will like, if they
like verse at all. Many of the selections included are humorous.... A
good professor would make a better anthology for use in schools.”
Marguerite Wilkinson

− + =N Y Times= 25:140 Mr 28 ’20 480w

+ =School R= 28:630 O ’20 160w

“The criticism may be raised that Mr Untermeyer has been too generous
to the ultra-moderns. But the selections of Carl Sandburg, John Gould
Fletcher and Alfred Kreymborg are chosen with discrimination, and
serve to accomplish the editor’s purpose.”

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ja 26 ’20 300w

+ =Survey= 43:554 F 7 ’20 150w

“This book is a delightful one to read; it has a distinct
individuality, and if Mr Untermeyer, in avoiding the beaten track,
does not always publish the finest work of his poets, he recovers many
a line that has been undeservedly forgotten.” E: B. Reed

+ =Yale R= n s 10:199 O ’20 390w

=UNTERMEYER, LOUIS=, ed. Modern British poetry. *$2 Harcourt 821.08

20–13991

A companion volume to Mr Untermeyer’s ‘Modern American poetry.’ Over
seventy-five poets are represented, ranging from Thomas Hardy, born in
1840, to Robert Graves, born in 1895. Among the others are Alice
Meynell, William Watson, Francis Thompson, A. E. Housman, Ernest
Dowson, Hilaire Belloc, Walter de la Mare, G. K. Chesterton, W. W.
Gibson, John Masefield, Ralph Hodgson, Harold Monro, John Drinkwater,
Siegfried Sassoon, Francis Ledwidge, Irene Rutherford McLeod, Richard
Aldington, Robert Nichols and Charles H. Sorley. In an introduction
the editor discusses the new influences and tendencies.

* * * * *

=Booklist= 17:23 O ’20

=Dial= 69:664 D ’20 60w

“A few months ago saw the birth of Mr Untermeyer’s book of ‘Modern
American poetry,’ a work remarkable as showing the wide variety of
theme and treatment which is at least one characteristic trait of
American poetry today. Now Mr Untermeyer, for some obscure reason,
essays the same feat with ‘Modern British poetry.’ And the result is
conspicuously a failure.” J: G. Fletcher

− =Freeman= 2:116 O 13 ’20 1100w

+ =Nation= 111:278 S 4 ’20 50w

“The disproportionate amount of space allotted to the various poets
gives a false emphasis: Mr Hardy, Mr Bridges and Mr Russell have each
less than three pages, while Mr Chesterton has nine and Mr Kipling and
Mr Noyes (Mr Noyes!) twelve each. The anthologist is tolerant of many
schools; but his eye is more on the present than on the immediate
past.” S. C. C.

− + =New Repub= 24:49 S 8 ’20 800w

“Aside from the small flecks the book presents itself as an admirable
attempt and one that, through its delightful snapshots of the poets
prefixed to each writer’s work, should inveigle readers into a closer
scrutiny of British verse.”

+ − =N Y Times= p16 N 7 ’20 490w

“The editor’s taste is sensitive, and his curious bitterness towards
the Victorians, which is the main drawback to his liberality, does not
greatly affect the catholicity of the work.”

+ =Review= 3:321 O 13 ’20 280w

+ =School R= 28:630 O ’20 160w

=UNTERMEYER, LOUIS.= New Adam. *$1.75 Harcourt 811

20–16871

As an introduction to this book of poems Mr Untermeyer reprints “A
note on the poetry of love” from the New Republic. He comments on the
artificiality of the love poetry of the preceding age and notes that
in our day there is a tendency to return “to the upright vigor, the
wide and healthy curiosity” of our earlier ancestors, the
Elizabethans. Among the poems of the book are: The new Adam, Hands,
Asleep, Summer storm, A marriage, Wrangle, Equals, Supplication, The
eternal masculine, Windy days, The embarrassed amorist, Words for a
jig, Disillusion, The prodigal.

* * * * *

“There is nothing about love or woman in this collection, except it be
in the verses called ‘The wise woman,’ that is new in love poetry, and
there is many a mood and theme that has been both artistically and
emotionally better expressed by any number of poets in the past ‘two
centuries.’” W: S. Braithwaite

− + =Boston Transcript= p4 D 31 ’20 1000w

Reviewed by Babette Deutsch

=Dial= 70:89 Ja ’21 380w

“There is in this recent work of Mr Untermeyer’s a note that is
singular in American poetry. It shows a writer who has become curious
about the soul.” H. S. Gorman

+ =Freeman= 2:332 D 15 ’20 320w

“Mr Untermeyer is casual, as he promised, and flippant, and frank, and
dutifully vulgar; but seldom is his effect other than that of an agile
pen tracing a facile passion.”

− =Nation= 112:86 Ja 19 ’21 160w

“Neither the rhapsodic nor the mocking quality, however, gives the
substance of Untermeyer’s work. The roots of his power lie deeper.
Upright vigor, wide and healthy curiosity describe his own work
excellently.” Babette Deutsch

+ =N Y Evening Post= p5 N 6 ’20 860w

“One of Mr Untermeyer’s most marked traits is a delightful
whimsicality. It crops up again and again throughout the volume, for,
strangely enough, this book, which purports to be so revealing, is
really extremely reticent. But a dissatisfaction obtrudes itself. Why,
oh why, has Mr Untermeyer, master of so many differing forms, chosen
to follow Heine in his tight little rhythms and mathematically cut
stanzas? In Mr Untermeyer’s case, the effect is not exactly what I
imagine he hopes.” Amy Lowell

+ − =N Y Times= p8 O 10 ’20 3500w

=Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 10 ’20 70w

=USHER, ABBOTT PAYSON.= Introduction to the industrial history of England. il *$2.50 Houghton 330.942

20–5634

The book is a narrative of all the historical facts in the industrial
development from the earliest beginnings to the present time, which
presumably explains the word introduction in the title. The ground
covered is shown in the contents: Forms of industrial organization;
The rise of the crafts in antiquity; Crafts and craft gilds in
medieval France; The population of England: 1086–1700; Village and
manor; The traders and the towns; The development of gilds in England;
The woolen industries: 1450–1750; The enclosure movement and land
reform; The industrial revolution; The East India company and the
vested interests; The new cotton industry; The reorganization of the
metal trades; The rise of the modern factory system; The rise of
collective bargaining; The protection of health and welfare by the
state; The development of the railway; The government and the
railways; Combinations and monopolies; Incomes, wages, and social
unrest; Selected references; Index, maps, figures, and graphs.

* * * * *

“His exposition is generally clear. The balance of general statement
and of particular fact is in most chapters good. The author is usually
a trustworthy guide. The most serious weakness of the work, when it is
appraised as a manual for college undergraduates, lies in its plan
rather than in its execution. I think, however, that few teachers who
examine the book will dissent from the conclusion that it would be
greatly improved if a large part, almost one third of the whole, were
cut out, and if the space saved were used for the consideration of the
topics now omitted.” Clive Day

+ − =Am Econ R= 10:572 S ’20 1050w

“The facts are presented with scholarly care, but the style is not too
technical.”

+ =Booklist= 16:224 Ap ’20

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 31 ’20 490w

“Marked by scholarliness and originality.”

+ =Cleveland= p90 O ’20 10w

“English industrialism, is, primarily, a consequence of certain
philosophic ideas, but the author fails to comprehend this major fact,
not from any lack of knowledge of the complexities of economic
organization, but rather, one surmises because such intricacies are
too much for him. He has not seen the wood for the trees, and he fears
generalizations—except the one implied throughout the book, that there
are no generalizations possible.” R. W.

− + =Freeman= 2:141 O 20 ’20 980w

“The book shows throughout the discriminatory use of the latest
available results of research and much painstaking original work. The
controversial treatment, the careful qualification in discussion, as
well as occasional heaviness in style, make the book unsuited for an
undergraduate text.”

+ − =J Pol Econ= 28:520 Je ’20 500w

+ − =New Repub= 23:341 Ag 18 ’20 1650w

“It is encyclopædic in its character and is much more full in dealing
with the mechanical aspects and the mechanical development of industry
than with the history of the men, women, and children who have been
engaged in the industries of England. In this respect it is a
disappointing book.”

+ − =Outlook= 126:67 S 8 ’20 170w

“It is no small task to formulate a general text-book covering so
enormous a field and involving many disputatious matters. Professor
Usher has, however, accomplished this with skill. Some of his chapters
are inadequate. In his discussion of land reform and the inclosure
movement, for example, the plight of the evicted peasant farmers seems
to be poorly understood. A similar criticism of a narrowness of
sympathy, or at any rate of an inadequacy of understanding, might be
directed against the final chapter. Professor Usher has a very thin
knowledge of the British labor situation today.” W. L. C.

+ − =Survey= 45:288 N 20 ’20 300w

=USHER, ROLAND GREENE.= Story of the great war. il *$2.50 Macmillan 940.3

19–19080

“Professor Usher begins his story with the assassination of the
Archduke of Austria; but he shows beyond doubt that the war really
began months before this event. The German attitude in 1914 is
described; the reports of spies concerning the French and the Russian
preparedness and the British reluctance to enter into war. With these
preliminaries, which include the first five chapters of his book,
Professor Usher begins his narrative with the story of the campaign on
Paris and the wonderful strategy displayed by General Joffre, followed
by the aggressiveness of Foch.... He traces the work of Hindenburg;
the entrance of the British and the Italians into the struggle; the
submarine campaign and the incident of the Lusitania; ... the German
offensive of 1918; the entrance of America into the war;
Chateau-Thierry and the surprising fighting qualities of the American
soldier; St Mihiel, the crumbling of the German line; and the final
crash and fall.”—Boston Transcript

* * * * *

“Many of the illustrations, taken from newspapers published in the
most acute moments of the war, are full of extreme feeling. The book,
therefore, does not tend to form cool and restrained views of the
world war. Probably the author did not wish to form such views. Its
strong point is in its large amount of information presented clearly
and directly.”

+ − =Am Hist R= 26:136 O ’20 300w

“It is distinctive for the clearness of statement, an interpretation
rather than a catalogue of events. May be read with interest by upper
grade pupils or grown-ups. Good illustrations and maps.”

+ =Booklist= 16:165 F ’20

“Professor Usher’s story is told with wonderful vigor, great
picturesqueness and with a rare comprehension of causes and of
effects. His final brief discussion of the query, ‘Who won the war?’
is illuminating and beyond doubt thoroughly correct in its findings.”
E. J. C.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Ja 17 ’20 550w

“It was to be expected that what was written under the stress of war
should partake largely of the character of propaganda, but the war is
now a matter of history and we have a right to expect that historical
students will try to assume a more judicial attitude toward the events
of the past few years. The chief objection to Mr Usher’s work is that
its viewpoint is that of 1917.” L. M. L.

− + =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:76 Je ’20 330w

“It is a serious handicap to American history that much of it is now
written to meet the needs of the immature mind, that is, for the
college audience. Professor Usher has composed a ‘story of the war’ in
which the bright boy will find just what he wants, but in which the
thoughtful man can grasp little to satisfy him.” Preserved Smith

− + =Nation= 110:302 Mr 6 ’20 220w

“This history is terse, clear, and well proportioned. It will serve
satisfactorily as a ready reference book and for schools, and will
help in reading the more elaborate histories that will later appear.”

+ =Outlook= 124:161 Ja 28 ’20 40w

“The volume is attractively illustrated.”

+ =R of Rs= 61:220 F ’20 100w

+ =School R= 28:315 Ap ’20 380w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p242 Ap 15 ’20 30w

V

=VACHELL, HORACE ANNESLEY.= Whitewash. *$1.90 (1c) Doran

20–7763

The past, the present, and the future are represented in this story,
and, as must be expected, clash. Lady Selina Chandos, widow of the
Squire of Upworthy, writes with a quill and carries on her husband’s
work along his lines. Consequently the picturesque village of Upworthy
is in a state of decay, and sickness and death lurk between the rotten
floors and leaking thatched roofs. Her daughter Cicely has been at
school and her chum there was Tiddy, the very incarnation of modernity
and daring feminism. Also the old parish doctor, owing to conditions
in the village, is obliged to take on a partner in the person of young
Dr Grimshaw. Lady Selina’s nearest neighbor is Lord Wilverley, an
up-to-date landlord. Of course there is trouble and not until Lord
Selina’s son, Brian, is dead in France, the village in revolt, the
manor house in ashes, and Cicely has jilted Lord Wilverley and
declared her love for Grimshaw, does Lady Selina realize that
whitewashing time is over and a new day has dawned.

* * * * *

“A trenchant indictment of obsolete systems of estate-management.”

+ =Ath= p464 Ap 2 ’20 100w

“In spite of its sociological theme, a well told story untainted by
preachiness.”

+ =Booklist= 16:351 Jl ’20

“All this seems very serious, and somewhat in the nature of a social
and political tract for the times, but the discussion of conditions in
the village of Upworthy and on the Chandos estate are so closely
interwoven into the story that they are made much more effective than
if they were direct propaganda. The love element in the story is
ingenious.” E. F. E.

+ =Boston Transcript= p8 Je 19 ’20 1400w

“The story is mediocre in characterization but rich in the dramatic
portrayal of a wealth of incident.”

+ − =Cleveland= p71 Ag ’20 60w

“It is pleasant, leisurely writing with some excellent character
drawing.”

+ =Ind= 103:53 Jl 10 ’20 180w

“In a characteristic English country home the old and the new order
strive for supremacy in Mr Vachell’s new novel. And the story through
which he portrays the conflict between them is a fine piece of
workmanship, telling a real story—which so much English fiction does
not—and having a compact framework and an ample supply of interesting
and illuminating incident.”

+ =N Y Times= 25:292 Je 6 ’20 550w

“The novel is capital both for its entertainment and its picture of
old and new English society.”

+ =Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 120w

“The dénoûement is ingeniously contrived, with a good curtain, and
throughout there is no lack of animated and appropriate, if
undistinguished, dialogue. Yet the book leaves us with far less
sympathy for the representatives of either régime than Mr Galsworthy’s
more serious studies of patricians and rebels.”

+ − =Spec= 125:118 Jl 24 ’20 420w

“Mr Vachell invariably writes in an optimistic vein and with due sense
of the humorous and romantic possibilities of a situation. But the
serious under-current is always visible beneath the sun-tipped waves
of the author’s light mood.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a Jl 4 ’20 800w

“It is the sudden confrontations, the changes of fortune and the
impact of fate against fate that go to make the book, and they make it
in spite of Mr Vachell’s deficient insight into character. The
dialogue is clever, amusing, enterprising; but it does not seem to be
just exactly what the given person must have said on the given
occasion. Mr Vachell supplies a good plot, and the plot is nine-tenths
of the novel.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p200 Mr 25 ’20 350w

=VALLANCE, AYMER.=[2] Old crosses and lychgates. il *$7.50 Scribner 718

(Eng ed 20–18244)

“Mr Vallance sees in the erection of crosses a suitable way to
memorialize England’s dead in the great war. ‘It is hoped,’ he says,
‘that it might prove useful to gather together a collection of
examples of old crosses and lychgates, as affording the most
appropriate form of monuments for reproduction or adaptation to the
needs of the present.’ In his historical and descriptive studies of
the crosses to be found in England and Wales, except for some
unclassified varieties, Mr Vallance classifies them under five types
to which he devotes a chapter each. They are the monolith crosses, the
shaft-on-steps type, the spire-shaped or Eleanor crosses, preaching
and market crosses.”—Boston Transcript

* * * * *

“The volume is richly illustrated in lithograph of over two hundred
crosses and lychgates with many plans and details in line, making with
the documentary and historical and descriptive text a fascinatingly
instructive work.”

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 21 ’20 1250w

+ =Sat R= 130:96 Jl 31 ’19 820w

“Mr Vallance surveys his field both widely and closely, and we find
but few occasions of criticism.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p343 Je 3 ’20 1100w

=VANCE, LOUIS JOSEPH.= Dark mirror. il *$1.75 Doubleday

20–5778

“Priscilla Main, the heroine, is subject from childhood to strangely
realistic dreams. She is a wealthy young society woman and artist; but
in the dreams she assumes another personality and moves in an
unfamiliar environment. In the dream existence she associates with
denizens of the underworld in ‘the street of strange faces,’ and is
known as ‘Red Carnahan’s girl.’ She is loved by Mario, who belongs to
another world, but dwells in the lawbreakers’ region of the city, and
who wants to remove her from those unwholesome surroundings. Priscilla
grows to love this man of her dreams. The dreams become so vivid and
distressing that the girl seeks the aid of a psychoanalyst who loves
her, and who undertakes to solve the mystery of her wandering ego. The
mental experimentalist gradually is able to harmonize dreams with
reality and startling data from the realm of psychology are brought to
light.”—Springf’d Republican

* * * * *

“Plausible though slightly overdrawn. The end is unexpected and also
fresh.”

+ − =Booklist= 16:315 Je ’20

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p13a Ap 25 ’20 250w

=VANDERLIP, FRANK ARTHUR.= What happened to Europe. *$1.50 (3c) Macmillan 940.314

20–8050

For the second edition of this work Mr Vanderlip has written a new
preface of twenty-one pages in which he analyzes the financial and
economic development in Europe in the ten months following the writing
of his book. “On the whole,” he says, “the events which have since
occurred have been in harmony with the broad analysis made last May
[1919].” He believes that America has missed a great opportunity and
thinks that there is now little that we can do. “Our first task now is
to put our own house in order.” Descriptive note with critical
excerpts for the first edition will be found in the Annual for 1919.

* * * * *

=N Y Times= p17 Ag 15 ’20 460w

=Springf’d Republican= p8 S 9 ’20 140w

=VAN DIEREN, BERNARD.=[2] Epstein. il *$12.50 (26c) Lane 735

Jacob Epstein, whose genius the author of this volume compares to that
of Rembrandt, is said to be one of the greatest living sculptors. He
belongs to that order of original creative minds “who have made the
world, made humanity what it is in its best aspects. Human achievement
is their work, human thought takes its foundation from what they have
recognized and revealed, and the sum total of knowledge progresses by
cumulative effect from one of such masters to the next one.” As it is
the author’s opinion that words can not help in the appreciation of an
art that does not speak to the spectator in its own language, the
observations of the book are chiefly devoted to the problems of
appreciation and understanding of art in general. The book contains
fifty reproductions in collotype of the sculptor’s work.

* * * * *

=Boston Transcript= p6 N 20 ’20 330w

“The reproductions are beautiful in the profoundest sense. The volume
is an accessible enrichment to the world of art.”

+ =Dial= 69:666 D ’20 120w

“In spite of a treatise as heavy-handed as any ever inflicted by
pretentious and empty shoptalk the illustrations of the sculptor’s art
still interest and entrance. It is characteristically absurd that a
public which does not buy a sculptor’s work should purchase a
comparatively expensive book about him in which none of his spirit
lives and which, while it contains his apotheosis as a divinity,
contains still more the apotheosis of up-to-date studio and café
commonplace.”

− + =N Y Evening Post= p7 D 4 ’20 1200w

=N Y Times= p9 D 26 ’20 340w

“If we gather anything from it all, it is a general impression that
most people who interest themselves in the arts are fools, and that Mr
Van Dieren has tried to say so in a hundred and thirty pages with a
persistent implication that he is not one of them. As for Mr Epstein,
if we wish to add to our knowledge of him, we must look at the fifty
plates considerately separated from the text at the end of the book.”

− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p349 Je 3 ’20 1550w

=VAN DOREN, MARK.= Poetry of John Dryden. *$3 Harcourt 821

20–19675

“This is an effort to brighten the most neglected side of the greatest
neglected English poet. There is some novelty, I hope, in a treatment
on an extended and more or less enthusiastic scale of Dryden’s
non-dramatic verse as a body, with attention to the celebrator, the
satirist, the journalist, the singer, and the story-teller all
together.” (Preface) The contents are: The making of the poet; False
lights; The true fire; The occasional poet; The journalist in verse;
The lyric poet; The narrative poet; Reputation; conclusion; Appendix;
Index.

* * * * *

“His study of a great poet and a great dramatist is a singular
mingling of contradictions and it is hardly necessary as an
introduction to a poet who needs no introduction.” E. F. Edgett

− =Boston Transcript= p1 D 18 ’20 1800w

“Mr Van Doren has read his English poetry devouringly up to Dryden and
down from him, with the purpose of showing from whom the poet received
each genre, what he did to each, and what it became in the hands of
his successors. By letting in these sidelights skilfully and
relevantly, he manages, without clogging his exposition, to make his
discussion of Dryden a compendious history of poetic form. The effect
upon the reader is, as I can testify, almost riotously stimulating.”
S. P. Sherman

+ =Nation= 111:619 D 1 ’20 1600w

“Our debt to America in the matter of criticism and true scholarship
applied to English literature grows greater year by year. An admirable
example of the thoroughness, nay, of the exhaustive quality of
American criticism, even when it is most sympathetic and least
pedantic, is to be found in this delightful study of John Dryden. The
present writer must confess to a personal interest in Mr Van Doren’s
book because it happens that the American critic’s judgment, not
merely in the whole, but in the parts, agrees in an uncanny way with
his own.”

+ =Spec= 125:739 D 4 ’20 1600w

=VAN DYKE, JOHN CHARLES.= Grand canyon of the Colorado; recurrent studies in impressions and appearances. il *$2 Scribner 917.91

20–4459

“The book of the northern rim [of the Grand canyon] has yet to be
written, but Professor Van Dyke has studied the scenery from the
southern side and in his recently published book ‘The Grand canyon of
the Colorado,’ gives us a popular account of the geology of the
region. He protests against the naming of the great temples and buttes
of the canyon after the gods of India. The views from a number of the
southern points are described and details are given of the principal
trails to the river. Reference is made to the animals, birds, and
trees, and to the discoverers and prehistoric inhabitants of the
canyon.”—Bookm

* * * * *

“Will delight readers, especially those of a slight scientific bent,
who are not traveling.”

+ =Booklist= 16:240 Ap ’20

Reviewed by Le Roy Jeffers

+ =Bookm= 51:360 My ’20 900w

“The most complete, picturesque and satisfactory account of the Grand
canyon that we have.”

+ =Cleveland= p77 Ag ’20 80w

“Written with all his graceful style and imagery, it may be called a
literary guidebook of a superior kind. About half the book is devoted
to the rock structure of this geologist’s paradise, and as these pages
have not only been carefully prepared by the author but have been read
in proof by Mr Ransome, of the Geological survey, they may be accepted
as accurate.” F: S. Dellenbaugh

+ =Nation= 110:771 Je 5 ’20 400w

“It is a good book for a pleasant afternoon. Mr Van Dyke does not
philosophize or preach or rub in his colors so intensely that he
forces you to yawn. There are none of the clichés of the improving
book here.” M. F. Egan

+ =N Y Times= 25:284 My 30 ’20 200w

“Here is an exceptionally good book about the Grand canyon.”

+ =Outlook= 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 60w

+ =Springf’d Republican= p6 Ag 2 ’20 220w

=VAN DYKE, TERTIUS.= Songs of seeking and finding. *$1.50 Scribner 811

20–6369

“It would have been rather disappointing if the music of many little
(and unpronounceable) rivers, spilled down his boyhood years, had not
left song in the heart of the master of Avalon’s son. So it is not at
all surprising to discover that ‘Songs of seeking and finding’ is a
book of very pleasant and profitable verse. The strong, virile faith
behind the poems—their wholesome Christianity—impresses the reader
more than the polish of their lines. Mr Van Dyke pleads for real
values of life and real religion.”—Springf’d Republican

* * * * *

“Tertius Van Dyke writes poetry in the manner of his father, but not
quite so well.”

+ − =Ind= 104:66 O 9 ’20 50w

“The best things in the book seem to me to be ‘The war-makers,’
because there is a bit of good healthy rage in it, and ‘A minister
learns about life,’ because it has a good idea in it and ends at just
the right moment.” M. Wilkinson

+ − =N Y Times= p18 Ag 8 ’20 300w

“Mr Van Dyke is more successful in poems thus reflective than in his
lyrics, though in them the same forceful spirit is unmistakable.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p12 Je 8 ’20 310w

=VANE, DEREK.= Ferrybridge mystery. *$2 Moffat

20–17412

“A suburb of London is the scene of Derek Vane’s story. Basil Monck, a
member of the London stock exchange, whose antecedents are unknown to
his most intimate acquaintances, is found shot dead in his home. There
is not the slightest clue to the identity of the murderer, but there
are many people who might logically be suspected of the crime. Monck
had more enemies than friends; he was generally known to have used his
fascinating personality unscrupulously in his dealings with women, and
more than one man blamed him for the loss of a fortune. Motives for
the murder are plentiful and every man or woman who had cause to hate
Monck falls naturally under suspicion.”—N Y Times

* * * * *

“It is a pleasure occasionally to find one story of the kind which
justifies the publisher’s contention. The latest book by Miss Derek
Vane is a worthy example. It is above the average of its kind.” C. H.
O.

+ =Boston Transcript= p4 S 4 ’20 540w

“In choosing the character upon whom to settle responsibility for
Monck’s death, the author has displayed a courage and an originality
that may react against the popularity of her story.”

+ =N Y Times= p23 S 19 ’20 370w

=VANE, GEORGE (VISCONDE DE SARMENTO).= Waters of strife. *$1.75 (2c) Lane

20–12603

Beginning before the war in England we get a glimpse of the pre-war
intrigues carried on by a German count, exiled in England, and his
accomplices. But the greater part of the story transpires on Belgian
soil in war-time showing up the ruthlessness of the Germans, and the
indignities to which the Belgians were subjected. The heroism of an
American boy and girl of Belgian descent furnish most of the thrills,
and some fine friendships among the English aristocracy and the
middle-class are depicted.

* * * * *

“The story is full of vigor and coloring befitting the day and scene
in which it is laid.”

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Jl 28 ’20 160w

“The book is very badly constructed and the character drawing
amateurish, but the account of Aline’s experiences in Belgium is
interesting and occasionally dramatic.”

+ − =N Y Times= p22 Ag 8 ’20 450w

“The book has some good episodes, but in the ordinary way it is
difficult to work up much excitement, principally because the heroes
and scoundrels alike ignore probabilities.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p305 My 13 ’20 130w

=VAN LOON, HENDRIK WILLEM.=[2] Ancient man. il *$3 Boni & Liveright 571

“‘Ancient man’ is to be the first of a series of nine history books in
story form, which ‘will explore the intricate wilderness of the bygone
ages’ and in summing up ‘try to show where the human race has lived up
to its highest possible achievements and wherein it has failed to rise
above the status of the earliest cavemen.’ (Ind) “It begins about
fifty thousand years ago with a broad sketch of prehistoric man,
struggling against elemental nature. It skips to the Nile and comes on
down the ages to the Phoenecians.” (N Y Times)

* * * * *

“The text is terse, up to date, and thoroughly interesting.” A. C.
Moore

+ =Bookm= 52:260 N ’20 110w

“The famous historian undertook this task for his own boys, eight and
twelve years old, and he has sensed unfailingly the way to stimulate
the interest and satisfy the curiosity of youngsters of about that
age.”

+ =Ind= 104:379 D 11 ’20 250w

“Absorbingly interesting. This is the way to tell history to
children—and to the rest of us.” Hildegarde Hawthorne

+ =N Y Times= p9 D 19 ’20 130w

=VANSITTART, ROBERT GILBERT.= Singing caravan; a Sufi tale. *$2 Doran 821

(Eng ed 19–14218)

The device of the pilgrimage, with alternating narrative and song, is
put to new uses by this young English poet. For the end of the matter
is not mere entertainment by the way, but philosophical discussion, in
which the views of the watchmen, the merchant, the scholar, the
sheikh, the sceptic, and even the camel, are represented.

* * * * *

“‘The singing caravan’ hammers mysticism into clean, efficient verse,
which in its ease and correctness, displays the immense technical
equipment of the recent English poets; but his subject matter shows
the lack of freshness and homeliness that handicaps the Georgian poets
as a group in comparison with their American rivals.”

+ − =Dial= 68:537 Ap ’20 50w

“Eastern mysticism and the imagery of the caravan form the vehicle by
which Mr Vansittart conveys his mind upon final things; but there is
no affectation of the Orient in his thought, and even his words are
straightforward and plain; he has Schubert’s knack of turning common
phrases into bewitching melody.”

+ =Spec= 123:118 Jl 26 ’19 50w

“The charm of Persian landscape, the wealth of Persian poetry have
been woven into these tales, and they may be read just as profitably
for the pictures they paint as for the lessons they teach.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 25 ’20 150w

“‘The singing caravan’ is ‘a tale of Persian mystics,’ and with the
Persian mystics we are few of us on intimate terms. But its rich and
clear colouring, innocent of purple patchwork, though ‘local,’ may
none the less charm the untravelled; and the poem may be enjoyed
either for its landscape and characters, its allegory, its remarkable
craftsmanship, or for the sake of the mind and spirit which are
revealed in it.”

+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p447 Ag 21 ’19 1000w

=VAN VECHTEN, CARL.= In the garret. *$2 (3c) Knopf 780.4

20–926

From the garret of his memory the author produces many things,
scrutinizes them whimsically and chats about them at random. The
things are authors and books and music and people he has met.
Contents: Variations on a theme by Havelock Ellis; A note on Philip
Thicknesse; The folk-songs of Iowa; Isaac Albéniz; The holy jumpers;
On the relative difficulties of depicting heaven and hell in music;
Sir Arthur Sullivan; On the rewriting of masterpieces; Oscar
Hammerstein: an epitaph; La tigresse; In the theatres of the purlieus:
Mimi Aguglia as Salome, Farfariello, The negro theatre, The Yiddish
theatre, The Spanish theatre.

* * * * *

+ =Ath= p257 F 20 ’20 80w

+ =Booklist= 16:198 Mr ’20

“He has a magnificent way of being unimportant. His touch is light and
artistic. His culture is Hunekeresque. His scholarship is musicianly,
sometimes jazzy.” Mary Terrill

+ =Bookm= 51:193 Ap ’20 350w

+ =New Repub= 22:161 Mr 31 ’20 80w

“The author does himself injustice by opening with the least
attractive essay in the book, though it shows the most erudition....
It is when he surveys the American scene that we go all the way with
Mr Van Vechten.”

+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p77 F 5 ’20 800w

=VAN VECHTEN, CARL.= Tiger in the house. il *$5 Knopf 636.8

“I have written, how skilfully I cannot tell, on the manners and
customs of the cat, his graces and calineries, the history of his
subjugation of humankind. Through all the ages, even during the dark
epoch of witchcraft and persecution, puss has maintained his
supremacy, continued to breed and multiply, defying, when convenient,
the laws of God and man, now our friend, now our enemy, now wild, now
tame, the pet of the hearth or the tiger of the heath, but always
free, always independent, always an anarchist who insists upon his
rights, whatever the cost. The cat never forms soviets; he works
alone.” (Apotheosis) The illustrations are many and beautiful. There
is an exhaustive bibliography and an index and the contents are: By
way of correcting a popular prejudice; Treating of traits;
Ailurophobes and other cat-haters; The cat and the occult; The cat in
folklore; The cat and the law; The cat in the theatre; The cat in
music; The cat in art; The cat in fiction; The cat and the poet;
Literary men who have loved cats; Apotheosis.

* * * * *

“The book is a revelation concerning the more or less important part
which cats have played in history and literature.”

+ =Bookm= 52:367 Ja ’21 160w

“The suggestive ingenuity of its title is matched by the far-reaching
skill with which he has amassed and arrayed his facts so as to make
them into a continuous story that blends both fact and the
imagination.” E. F. Edgett

+ =Boston Transcript= p2 D 11 ’20 1600w

“Mr Van Vechten is less fortunate in his choice of pictures than in
his text.” J. W. Krutch

+ =Nation= 112:sup243 F 9 ’21 780w

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

=Review= 3:648 D 29 ’20 150w

=VAN VORST, MARIE.= Fairfax and his pride. *$1.75 Small

20–4010

“Miss Van Vorst’s narrative is the story of the struggles of Antony
Fairfax to gain distinction as a sculptor. He is largely self-taught,
but soon after coming to New York in 1880, at the age of twenty-three,
we find him perfecting an epoch-making piece of modeling in the studio
of a famous sculptor. The latter steals the credit for Fairfax’s work,
and starts the young man on the career which threatens to snuff out
his ambition and great talents. It is after this mischance that
Fairfax becomes successively fireman and engineer for the New York
Central. His railroad service ends abruptly with the receipt of a
small inheritance from an admirer. This takes him to Paris, where he
establishes his fame, experiences a brief romance, and finally has the
satisfaction of confounding the man who stole the early fruits of his
genius.”—Springf’d Republican

* * * * *

“Not as interesting as ‘Big Tremaine’ and will not be as popular.”

+ − =Booklist= 16:284 My ’20

“It is safe to say that no American novel of the season so far
surpasses the quality of ‘Fairfax and his pride.’ It tells a story
that takes you astray and brings you back to the main current of
events with surprising interest. The characters are all well drawn. We
close the book with the consciousness that here is a real American
novelist.” W. S. B.

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Mr 24 ’20 1550w

=N Y Times= 25:170 Ap 11 ’20 320w

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

=Review= 2:393 Ap 17 ’20 160w

“The young sculptor and his difficulties do not produce a very lively
impression. Miss Van Vorst never brings her readers into intimate
touch with him, and the short, jerky chapters are irritating in their
effects.”

− + =Springf’d Republican= p11a My 30 ’20 550w

=VAN WESEP, HENDRIKUS BOEVE.= Control of ideals. *$2 (5c) Knopf 171

20–18312

This “contribution to the study of ethics” (Sub-title) is concerned
primarily with the problem of war prevention. The author holds that
man is more an imaginative than a rational animal and apt to mistake
his imaginative world for the world of reality. By learning to control
our ideals we learn to distinguish between an ideal and a fixed idea
and to live by rather than die for them. The book takes up in turn the
origin, nature, and function of human ideals and the supreme worth of
the individual and of human life. Contents: Variety of ideals;
Attitude toward ideals; Assimilation of ideals; The survival of
ideals; Nations; Development of self-consciousness; Society versus the
individual; Utopianism; Democracy; Tolerance; Harmony; Symbiosis;
Atomism; Functions of ideals; Moral courage; Index.

* * * * *

“Scholarly but written for the layman.”

+ =Booklist= 17:92 D ’20

“His optimism seems a little too easy for a disillusioned
civilization, but at least he is intelligible, a great recommendation
for any one educated among the fogs of metaphysics.”

+ − =N Y Evening Post= p13 O 30 ’20 70w

=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p670 O 14 ’20 90w

=VAST, HENRI.= Little history of the great war. il *$2 Holt 940.3

20–20075

A short history of the war, translated from the French by Raymond
Weeks of Columbia university. Contents: The German race—pangermanism;
The environment—William II and Europe (1900–1914); The critical
moment—responsibility for the war; The sudden attack—battle of the
Marne; Eastern front—Serbia and Russia (1914–1916); Distant theaters
of war—in the Orient—on the sea and in the colonies; The Italian
effort—the army of Saloniki; Retrospective preparation (1915–1916);
The ruin of Russia (1916–1918); American aid; Peace offensives;
Victory—capitulation of Germany. There are twenty-seven maps, but no
index.

* * * * *

“A wonderfully compact story of the war, composed with characteristic
French clarity.”

+ =R of Rs= 62:671 D ’20 60w

=VAUGHAN, WALTER.=[2] Life and work of Sir William Van Horne. il *$5 Century

20–20625

The life of Sir William Van Horne is something of a romance, he having
made his way from a poor boy in Illinois to an English peerage. He
gained his fame and his fortune as a builder of railroads of which the
Canadian Pacific was his greatest achievement. With his natural
abilities, says his biographer, he would have achieved greatness in
any field; as a military commander, as an engineer or architect, as a
painter or in the natural sciences. The book has several maps,
illustrations and an index.

* * * * *

“The chief merit of the book is its really vivid picture of a striking
personality.” Allan Nevins

+ − =N Y Evening Post= p8 Ja 29 ’21 1250w

=R of Rs= 62:670 D ’20 100w

=VEBLEN, THORSTEIN B.= Place of science in modern civilization, and other essays. *$3 Huebsch 330.4

20–6953

“The assumptions of the existing economic order are studied in
Thorstein Veblen’s latest book, ‘The place of science in modern
civilization.’ This is a carefully selected series of papers published
in economic journals during the past twenty years, and sums up the
principles of an economic attitude so popular among modern economists
that it has been entitled ‘Veblenism.’”—Springf’d Republican

* * * * *

“If these old essays are valuable, in the face of all that their
author has since contributed, it is because of their emphasis upon the
spirit of his work; because, as much as anything he has done, they
show the impulse and intention of his scholarship. There are here, as
elsewhere, passages that rouse impatience because of the author’s very
carelessness of pragmatism.” Babette Deutsch

+ − =Dial= 69:79 Jl ’20 1250w

“There are serious difficulties in the way of a ‘scientific’ treatment
of economics, over which Mr Veblen does not help us, and many of which
he does not see. A keen critic, he is not a close or clear thinker;
destructively valuable, we can hardly follow him as a constructive
leader.” F. H. Knight

+ − =J Pol Econ= 28:518 Je ’20 1100w

“The book is a rich contribution to economic and social literature,
and is, in a way, Mr Veblen at his scientific best.” H. A. Overstreet

+ =Nation= 111:250 Ag 28 ’20 500w

“Nowhere in them is there any indication of that subtle wit, the
telling thrust, the finely pointed characterization that rewarded the
hours of toil through his other writings. While our author’s standing
as a humanist is enhanced by the essays, his reputation as an
economist will not be.” N. W. Wilensky

− + =N Y Call= p10 My 16 ’20 1050w

“One cannot help wondering whether Mr Veblen himself knows what an
excellent literary quality his writings have, and what a boon to the
jaded reader is the absence in his work of certain conventional
literary virtues—solemnity, geniality, sonority, and the like.”

+ − =No Am= 211:424 Mr ’20 1350w

“The position of Mr Veblen is so deserving of attention that one must
regard his involved style and ponderous vocabulary as a misfortune.”

+ − =Springf’d Republican= p8 Mr 18 ’20 580w

“Several of them are on academically important topics which,
nevertheless, the more general public that has become interested in
the author’s theories can afford to skip. Others deal with fundamental
issues which the layman should try to understand. Among these we would
class the three papers on the preconceptions of economic science which
demonstrate the shifts in the boundaries of that science, and
especially the newer emphasis on its human aspects.”

+ =Survey= 44:352 Je 5 ’20 150w

=VERNÈDE, ROBERT ERNEST.= Port Allington stories, and others. *$1.90 (2c) Doran

20–21335

A volume of short stories by an English author who was killed in the
war, issued now as he had prepared them for publication, with a
preface by his wife. Some of them had appeared in Harper’s Magazine.
Contents: “This is Tommy”; The greatness of Mr Watherstone; The
outrage at Port Allington; The offense of Stephen Danesford; Soaring
spirits; The bad Samaritan; The sunk elephant; The adventure of the
Persian prince; The smoke on the stairs; On the raft; Madame Bluebird;
The missing princess; A night’s adventure; The maze.

* * * * *

“Deftness of phrasing, and a sense of character and of the social
ironies mark a volume of tales whose sarcasm is never bitter and whose
laughter is always good-natured.”

+ =N Y Times= p26 D 26 ’20 310w

“Nowhere except in Mrs Wharton’s matchless ‘Xingu,’ and possibly in Mr
Benson’s current ‘Queen Lucia,’ have the humors of feminine club-made
culture been more amusingly displayed.” H. W. Boynton

+ =Review= 3:253 S 22 ’20 300w

=VERNÈDE, ROBERT ERNEST.= War poems, and other verses. *$1.50 Doran 821

20–20444

Edmund Gosse in his introduction gives a biographical sketch of the
author, an Englishman of French descent who, altho past military age,
enlisted at the beginning of the war and was killed in 1917. Among the
war poems are England and the sea, The call; The Indian army; A legend
of the fleet; To the United States; Christmas, 1914; To Canada; Before
the assault. These are followed by a small group of “other verses” on
such themes as The July garden, Friendship, To an English sheep-dog.
The volume was published in England in the fall of 1917.

* * * * *

+ =Lit D= p33 F 16 ’18 100w

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

=Review= 3:269 S 29 ’20 250w

“In Lieutenant Vernède’s unhesitating and uncompromising verse the man
sustains the poet, but the poet merits that support.” O. W. Firkins

+ =Review= 3:318 O 13 ’20 120w

=R of Rs= 57:333 Mr ’18 230w

“Some of the finest poems that have come from the trenches. They are
instinct with an exalted patriotism.”

+ =Spec= 120:14 Ja 5 ’18 320w

=VERRILL, ALPHEUS HYATT.=[2] Islands and their mysteries. il *$1.75 Duffield 551.42

20–20916

The author offers this volume as a companion to “The ocean and its
mysteries.” It explains in a non-technical manner how islands are
formed, how they resemble or differ from one another, how they become
covered with vegetation, and are inhabited by animal life and many
other puzzling and interesting features of islands and insular life.
Imaginary trips to imaginary islands of various types hold the young
reader’s attention. Contents: The romance of islands; Islands and
islands; Volcanic islands; Coral islands and other islands; Island
life; Island vegetation; A ramble on a lake island; An island in the
sea; Exploring an island in a tropical river; A visit to an island in
tropical seas; The island of salt; The island of pearls; When people
dwell in a volcano; Islands of the frozen seas. There are
illustrations.

* * * * *

“The story is an extremely fascinating one and although designed
undoubtedly for the reading of adults, cannot fail to be both
interesting and instructive to boys and girls in their teens, whose
minds are beginning to expand and to reason and inquire into the
causes of things.”

+ =Boston Transcript= p1 D 11 ’20 330w

“Always he retains a human viewpoint, so that his book reflects the
wonder and mystery of life instead of degenerating into a mere
scientific treatise.”

+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 Ja 8 ’21 480w

+ =R of Rs= 63:112 Ja ’21 80w

“Although the style, which smacks somewhat of the elementary
geography, grows a bit monotonous at times, he leaves one wishing for
more.”

+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 28 ’21 200w

=VESTAL, SAMUEL CURTIS.= Maintenance of peace. *$5 (2c) Putnam 341

20–9987

“The foundations of domestic and international peace as deduced from a
study of the history of nations.” (Sub-title) At the hands of history,
going as far back as ancient Assyria, the author endeavors to prove
that peace can only be secured on a basis of militarism and
preparedness and on a “balance of power” rather than on a world
confederacy or a league of nations. Sea power ought naturally to
belong to the nation weakest in land power, in order that the balance
of power may be maintained and “freedom of the seas” can be little
more than a phrase. Of pacifism he will have none for it teaches “a
spiritless doctrine of cowardice.” Preparedness is as necessary for
the maintenance of domestic peace as of peace between nations. A
partial list of the contents is: The domestic peace of nations; The
integration of nations; World federation; The balance of power; Early
history of the balance of power; The thirty years’ war; Part taken by
England in maintaining the balance of power since the treaty of
Utrecht; Lessons that should be drawn from attempts to overthrow the
balance of power and establish world empires; The Holy alliance;
Arbitration as a panacea for war; Neutralization of small states;
Disarmament; Germany prepares for world conquest; Growth of pacifism
outside of Germany; Index.

* * * * *

“Many new ideas are broached in this thoughtful volume, which is
worthy of the close study of statesman and militarist.”

+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 16 ’20 400w

=Ind= 103:292 S 4 ’20 20w

=VILLARS, MEG.= Broken laugh. *$2 (1c) McBride

The heroine, a very simple and trusting little English girl, who
answers to the name of Kissy-Girl, is betrayed at the age of seventeen
and goes to London alone to await the birth of her child. A chance
clue from a newspaper sends her to Paris in search of the man and she
is there decoyed into a house of ill fame. Refusing to become one of
the professional inmates she is allowed to remain as a servant. In
this capacity she meets Jim Crighton, an Englishman who falls in love
with her and takes her to Brussels. He has made up his mind to marry
her when the war breaks out. He enlists and succeeds to a title. His
intention to marry Kissy remains, but a German bomb puts an end to
everything.

* * * * *

“If she had been content to develop her whole story in the milieu she
knows best, she would probably have produced a really effective
narrative.”

+ − =Ath= p1386 D 19 ’19 60w

“A novel of more than usual literary excellence. The reader’s sympathy
with this story will depend almost entirely upon his conception of the
importance of conventionally fixed morality.”

+ =N Y Times= p24 N 7 ’20 470w

“Like much latter-day fiction, this work has numerous touches of
interest and reality; but, as a whole, gives an effect of weakness.”

− + =Sat R= 129:193 F 21 ’20 230w