Evening Star Newspaper, March 9, 1930, Page 102

} THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH PEN- NELL. By Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Bos- ton: Little, Brown & Co. : RS. PENNELL'S book reinforces the theory that it is the personal friendly letter which serves, above all other documents, to re-embody the writer in his ‘actuality of mind and heart. Such let- ters are written with no end in view, save to impart to this friend or that one some bit of news, some mood, some trifling experience, to make some request or arrangement—all of which are on the common level of daily life. All are frank, else they would not have been written, all are compact of their passing value. himself. And, as I have already said, these two volumes of Pennell letters bear out the assumption in a very rich manner. To be sure, here L E;»E; Eg.3s Y £ S ¢ show great Joseph a il N il {1 1 38 : E i | H i i, E 3 | : E | i | | 5 | | | it il g i i Brc many nn'sl.enwmln:; the map <lowing THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH )9, 1930. The Joseph Pennell Letters, and Richard Haliburton’s Search for “New Worlds to Conquer’—A Study of John Brown. the heavy line of his journeyings is awe-inspir- ing, and the book is the second ome of the crude efforts toward tillage, the trading and trapping, the Indians in ¥hejr strange villages, season to be dedicated to David Lavrance the starting up of industry by fur company Chambers, & former Washingtonian. R. M. K. JOHN BROWN: The Making of a Martyr. Robert Penn Warren. New York: Payson away from this historic event something of its fact, much of its real significance. Succeed- ing years of swift and momentous change have served still further, to move the incident into the limbo of dim and forgotten things. Yet it was a thing to remember, for the country and the world to remember—that of a man with a handful of followers to attack the arsenal at this point, Harpers Ferry, under within the years and incidents his boyhood and youth in countless of the and commonplace happenings of that social institutions, toward injustice, toward the whole complex of existence that surrounded and pushed outward into strange behaviors this seemingly average boy and man, John Brown. 1 4 EEFRE cerity to dig out those elements and influences eventuated in the martyr., A greatly significant—not alone as a book, but as a searching i i Egtii § l gratitude of readers for the robust and in-seeing character ®and road builder—the slow and unequal ad- vance of civilization toward the West. A great story, ome calculated to make us stop a minute for a look outward upon that which this country has become, to mark the miles and the years lying in between that rough and glorious period and the amazing quality ef the present in America. Familiar with the great West, in its history and in 1ts_significance, Miss Laut here¢ comes to the ald of readers by way of this graphic true story, by way of this panorama of American pioneer life. THE RELUCTANT MADONNA. My Steen, suthor of “Dark Duel” etc. York: Prederick A. Stokes Co, well done. It is. But, John begat James, and so on at quite undue length, does not make for exhilaration, on the reader’s part. Soon, how- ever, it becomes piain that this course is neces- sary to the subsequent course of the affair. Eg HrH | T band spent the rest of his t of worldliness. t curious rightly, g 8 g g z SR 255;;;; ¢ in Eggi!i ig il Ek 55?52%!!5 . i} 1 %3 ! 4. i 4! §: i z | iy !»Eg : E i 1 H i I ;’ g2 i 1 THIE ;Z-i: i 1h iril ; 8 TAKING CHANCES. By M. J. Farrell. delphia: J. B. Lippincott Company: . Tfl!: age-old story of the sirens is hére moved forward into today. Helen and Dido and Cleopatra and the rest of the deve astating tribe are here distilled off into the being of a young woman who carries on under the disarming name of Mary. And Mary is a fair pattern—a “sample™ in the parlance of trade—of straight action. Devotion <to the business in hand—that of rendering quite help- ess every youth who comes within her sphere of influence—that is Mary’s engrossment. The story would be of a monotony of conquest had not the writer provided a back- ground of scene and action calculated to pro- vide comfort stations and rest rooms for the Phila- tremely well done. With a theme that buiges with excess, this writer is restrained point. A little of M: ; Farrell knows this case, with effects much more significant in the long run than any mere single fall could be expected to produce. The bulk of this busi- ness hinges upon the murder of a young society man in his own apartment and upon the suse picion that grows around one of his own class, a friend. The matter gets along by way of the trial of this accused friend. Rather, it can hardly be said to get along, since the youth refuses a single item of information, even to the lawyer baving his case in hand. In a practical admission of every sort of damming evidence, or suspicion, he throws himseli, a dead weight, upon his advocate. Then arcund the two, suspect and lawyer, there wind such hopelessly, not only these two, but person trying to follow on through of villainy that nothing less weaving around them. Soon, or reason, or so it seems at first, begin to rise about the doings of pira the coast of America. Stories of Capt. in his daring raids and in his savage crue to those in his power who questioned treat. ment of them. This tale of old da; gradually into the current matter murder. And—this is a good place ¢ You would better take up the book yourself for the sake of an ambitions adventure in story invention; for the sake of the daring of the author in making use of a vengeance. its author dead hundreds of years, yet of a per-' sistent, living vengeance, embodied and revisit- ing the phases of the moon for another try toward its own satisfaction of full requital, By SIBYL WILBUR An Asthentic Biography Mrs. Eddy’s life is here de- picted with illuminating clearness. s care- reshing manner. Mies Wil- bur wae net a Christian Sci- entist when ske wrote this biography for publication in a magazine general cir- culation. Published by THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING SOCIETY Bosron, U.S. A, 2 408 Pages — 18 Hiustrations Cloth Edition: $3.00 For sale at leading bookstores