Evening Star Newspaper, June 8, 1930, Page 94

THE SUNDAY STAR, HF, ADAMS FAMILY. By James Truslow Adams, auther of “Thg Founding of New England,” etc. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. - NCE a spiteful someone said “Ameri- can history is all cluttered up with Adamses.” It is easy to imagine that same splenetic bystander exclaiming at this moment, “Oh, Lord! Here are the \demses again.” And here they are—four snerations of them, *“the most distinguished umily in the United States,” according to this uthor, James Truslow Adams, who makes it gite clear that he himself has no connection ‘ith the great family of which he has written. logn in Virginia, this Adams lived abroad auch of the time as a boy, but came home 1 time to receive the bulk of his education in umerica. Beginning as a business man, he 1 1912 gave up that engagement in order to ursue the study of history. New England \etame his preoccupation. In evidence, he has roduced three substantial studies of this local- y at different periods of its development. rom the founding of New England to its art in the movement for independence on to s place in the great Republic—such has been ne field of investigation and research on the art of this scholar of modern oiitlook and nethod. “I. know that neighborhood as well as I mow the palm of my own hand,” is the old armer’s way of asserting intimacy with this lace or that one. Reading “The Adams Fam- ly,” that saying comes to mind in respect to he breadth and depth of this writer's knowl- xdge of New England during the years when he United States was in its beginnings and ‘arly youth. Indeed, it is that familiarity with he historic facts of the place and time, that asight into the essential New England direct- ng and dominating Colonial affairs, which sives to the study of the Adams family much f its significance as biographic history of sur- »assing quality. ot It is this section that sets the first stage ‘or the family itself. To be sure, the stage xpands finally to the full measure of the Inited States itself, with wings to right and eft, including parts of the Old World. Clearly, v family of expansive spirit and expanding wwers. Marching along with the growth of he United States in territory and power and nternational relations, are four generations of ‘his dominant and influential family. From jehn Adams, second President of the Republic, 0 Charles Francis Adams, present Secretary if the Navy, the line runs through a century wnd a half of history. In between these two we another President, national legislator, iiplomats, scholars and writers, a business man af prominence, more scholars and more writers. And each, in this inspired accounting, stands out in the intimacy of his own individuality, wtively possessed as well of the family tra- dition of upstanding character. These personal wnd family characteristics move out into the qurrent of growing American history, contribut- ing In time and circumstance to the reguire- ments of the country at the hands of its citizens. The book is strikingly alive. These Adamses are a vital, an unconquerable tribe, clan, family. A part of such vividness of effect is due, no ijoubt, to the author’s intimacy with every aspect of the historic background. Due also to 1\ creative gift, to a dramatic sence of human qualities, set to certain proportions, which go nto the re-creation of individuals by way of wint. Selection and emphasis, these applied in ieep insight and expert application, serve to re- wmimate this American dynasty of sound citi- zeqship to immediate participation in all the sxigencies of our national growth. A superb work of high scholarship, which stands at the ame time as an absorbing story of individual ife, grouped by spiritual kinships into a unigue ‘amily biography. An Atlantic Press publica- don, for whose actual issue we are in debt to Little, Brown & Co. A FPLOCK OF BIRDS. By Kathleen Coyle, author of “Liv,” etc. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Tfll year 1919. Dublin, during the Black and Tan period. Christy, sentenced to leath for a crime which Christy called, simply, yve for Ireland, if he called it anything at all; 7a‘herine Munster, the boy’s mother. Such = foundation of Kathleen Coyle's story. Not story at all, not in the common acceptance “Iw» word. Not a thing for bored readers to to for diversicn. Just an adventure of the A, instead, that takes hold of those, only, ‘ho have gone down into the dark places of ‘ear and anguish. Down there, in that place, s Catherine .Munster, reaching for the boy in wer heart, meeting his nature in this dilemma shrough his kinship to herself. Sensing his lears there in the prison, realizing the fiare of aope that comes by way of outside efforts for 7is release, meeting those hopes—those false 2wopes—with the divine intuitions of comfort day by day and hour by hour. Set down within her own soul is this boy. And around him she her spirit mantle of courage and hope and comfort as, before birth, he was wrapped im the nourishing blanket of her own body. Ministering to him minute by minute, whether ore ent with him or absent from him. And yei to see Catherine Munster in her home, with “he family, there is no stress of open suffering % be felt. Courage and composure take care ¥ common household matters. The woman e self, however, is not there except as a mech- ani;m. Mind and heart are ardent elsewhere un‘ er this calm appearance. “Listen, Christy! I shall keep vigil for you . on my knees. I want you to dip into my soul, into my prayers and take courage from me. I will not fail you.” *“And I"—his voice ya:. weought for her and bound on her—*I will B%6i cail you. I will die like your son!” A soul exposure, this, under the most bitter of WASHI NGTON, _D. C. JUNE 8 1930. " More About the Adams Family—A Volume on the Latin Republics—Novels for the Long Summer Days. its agonies. A simple moving forward, feeling its way through the intricacies of love’s anguish, setting down simply, and most beautifully, the heart throbs of this mother around the faltering heart of the son. Oh, poignant work—and great! THE FLAME IN THE WIND. By Grace Noll Crowell, author of “Silver in the Sun,” etc. Dallas: The Southwest Press. REEN and cool and Summery to the eye. Charming book-entrance to a budget of lyric stuff, whose drive is a deep sense of beauty. Beauty of nature or beauty spots in human dealings with life, momients of high heroism toward it. This volume is gathered from periodicals of substance—Harpers, Century, Scribners, Chris- tian Science Monitor and their kind. Complete, it shows to good advantage the even texture of its excellence, the fine fabric of its artistry. Lyric poetry is, generally speaking, emotion and mood set to music. Under beauty’s spell the poet finds his heart a-singing songs to which mating words fit themselves, as bird trills match the joyous moments of winged life. Moods are elusive, difficuit to transfer, hard to catch. So the great majority step aside from lyrics. However, once in accord with the poet’s mood, if for no longer than the briefest touch, reward, rich and abundant, comes running. So it is here. “God Keep a Clean Wind Blowing” is a trumpet call to courage. “I Have the Need of Meadow Lands” stands here, a gallant ‘“noblesse oblige” to Mother Earth herself. “The Morning High- way” goes back to the beauty and promise of the world’s first dawning. And so one might go on, naming and specifying. To do that would, in only fair justice, include the whole. Let us make the point, instead, that this is pure lyric poetry. Not only in its substance, but in form as well. It sings—both in time and in tune. Perfect cadence is its general stamp as it comes winging this way. Take the book, just a little book, and get out under the trees with it. You will see things that, maybe, you have not seen before or lately. You will sen:y a2 nmew mood of beauty and, incidentally, yod will meet a very charming poet. SEEING THE LATIN REPUBLICS. By Wil- liam A. Reid. Illustrated. Washington: The Pan-American Union. VERYBODY in a rush getting ready to go. To go where and why? The “why” of general Summer out-faring is obvious. Change, with the majority, ranks as an essential of ex- istence, along with food and air and sleep. Matter for argument at this point. Let it“go. Hot weather is no time for the ardors of dis- putation, The “where” of vacation time is always an important thing. Why not, this year, plan to see something of the Latin coun- tries to the South. Better acquaintance among all parts of the Western Hemisphere is surely desirable, for the sake of civilized intercourse. However, no such serious motive need prompt vou in this case. Interesting neighbors, these to the South of us. Beautiful scenery, strange plant life, unfamiliar animals add to the novelty also of islands and mainland. Romance awaits you there, too, the romance of explora- tion and conquest, of growing industry and invention, of easy communications and swift transit from one luring land to another. Now, whether you plan to take this Summer vacation in actuality or by the book route, here at hand is adequate means for either adventure. In case you are really going to take train and ship to meet your immedaite need for rest and change this book gives itemized practical advice on every question that can possibly arise. Al the dull, but necessary, details of passports, ciothing. hotels, doctors and drinking water— it’'s all here to your hand. More thrillingly, however, are the stories of places, locations, characteristics of life, racial drifts and the social or political sequence of these, industries, amusements, culture, and so on. These form the gemeral guide to observation. Added, most usefully added, are specific directions for get- ting from place to place—Cuba, Haiti, Virgin Islands, Mexico from both its east and west approaches, all of Ceneral America and then to Panama for a gathering in of its unusual and interesting features, Here is a book, freely illustrated, of definite instruction for an in- teresting, even an exciting, Summer adventure in seeing the Latin republics. THREE SCORE AND TEN. By Alec Waugh, author of “The Loom of Youth,” etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. THE story of the family, of the generations, seems to have worked a spell upon novel- ists, especially upon those of English origin. And, coming to think of it, this is the most to be expected of all fiction material for the English writer. Succession is in the blood, the line of descent uppermost in the mind. That is the kind of story that Alec Waugh has pro- duced in “Three Score and Ten.” Father, son and grandson, carry on successively as leading characters. English country life provides the attractive background of action. Always an interesting setting, when it is knowingly and g feelingly projected, as it is here. A romance of good substance and quite simple character serves the readers of romance well. But it is rather the character of the men, it is their various attitudes through the stages of boy- hood, youth and manhood, that bring the work to its best substance.. Yet there is no strain of psychelogical analysis here. Character and temperament come out in the run of events, just as they do in life. And even there they come in the most matter-of-course way. These are interesting people. Letting them be- have as such without personal interference on his part, gives the novel its fine quality. When Englishmen write sagas of their tribe they, as a rule, are so much more concerned in defining British quality and substance than they are in the story that readers are likely to give it up after 300 pages or so. Alec Waugh seems not to be—not yet to be—controlled by the pas- sion for exploiting the English stripe of father and son. The novel gains greatly by this avoid- ance. In the place of such work here is a good story of English life, with intelligent people and interesting incidents carrying it to its con- clusion in a waywise sophistication that is pleasing and stimulating to the reader. AFRICAN DRUMS. By Fred Puleston. Illus- trated by Andre Durenceau. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. & N Africa, around the Kongo region for 14 years. After nothing more than‘adventure, But those were the years when adventure was everything. Out that way there appears to have been nothing else. Strange tribes, a new code of morals—rather the oldest code—trading with the natives and gathering from these a world of novel makeshifts of human existence, Joneliness indescribable but dear, queer customs around marriage and birth . . . witch doctors, cannibalism, the Kongo forest and swamp, and so on in long detail of about the ways of life in Kongo Africa. And the drums—always and forever the drums, listed here as “those in- fernal drums.” In the course of time home again. By and by nothing more exciting than being & physician, engrossed with the maladies of women and children. Tremendously active he appears to be even in this useful profes- sion. One day Dr. Puleson came upon “Trader Horn.” This served, naturally, to re- vive his own old days in Africa. No doubt he said to himself “I can equal that Horn man at spinning an African yarn. I believe I could beat him!” And so the story grew. It is for vou to decide between him and “Trader Horn.” Not so easy as you may think either. For here is . full-blooded adventure, as such. Besides, here is a big body of interesting fact set out in colorful pictures, calculated, all, to revive interest in the big and still unknown “dark continent.” The art of the illustrations is weird, strange, inexplicable—but tremen- dously stirring in its bodily outpushing toward the reader, in its positive challenge to him. UNCLE SAM, in the Eyes of His Family. By John Erskine, author of “The Private Life of Helen of Troy,” etc. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. NCE in a book of his John Erskine pointed out a great piece of work for some in- spired writer to undertake. Nothing less, this epic effort, than to bring the beloved and world- known “Uncle Sam” of cartoon origin into the domain of actual life. In other words, to bring this comic appearance to life, to endow it with actuality, to give human substance to this beloved caricature, “who awaits only the happy assistance of genius to pass from his sphere of dim but wide popularity into the world of national art. Uncle Sam is perhaps more real now to the majority of American children than Lincoln himself. His features are obviously the product of our life and cli- mate; the character that he almost has is strikingly akin to ours. If we only knew his family history—who are his relatives, what his voice - sounds like when he speaks. The poet who will tell us this——." No other poet appearing to undertake the task of Uncle Sam, Mr. Erskine does it him- self. And here is the life story of our Uncle Samuel. Well, it reads much like the story of any average American man and family. And that, no doubt, was the author’s clear intent. But, somehow, we had -looked for something more, something not the average. Because, you see, even in cartoon and comic strip, Uncle Sam is not average. We thought a poet would take him in hand—a genius whose insight and artistry would expand here, and gild there, and make beautifully true at this point, and touchingly human at that one. That is not the effect at all. The trouble is that at the end and toward it Mr. Erskine has identified the beloved. figure with certain selfish and oppressive aspects of “big business”—and this is not Uncle Sam at all. A sadder sug- gestion yet is that John Erkskine has reverted to type, and by virtue of this lapse has made an allegory of Uncle Sam, has taught a lesson whose end reads “They knew then that he was hopeless.” It is a dull allegory at that. The author would better run back io “Helen.” Books Received HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON; An Idyll of Chicago. By John Bright. Introduction by Harry Elmer Barnes. New York: Jona- than Cape & Harrison Smith, CURIOSITY COTTAGE; The Adventures of _David Benjamin Abercrombie. By Lavinia Bray Korsmeyer. Boston: Christopher. CAGED. By Courtney Ryley Cooper. Boston: Little, Brown. BALM IN GILEAD. By Helen Mullins, author of “Earthbound,” etc. New York: Harper. THE AMERICA’'S CUP RACES. By Herbert L. Stone, editor of Yachting. Illustrated with photographs. New revised edition. New York: Macmillan. CO-ORDINATED MOTOR-RAIL-STEAMSHIP TRANSPORTATION. By G. Lloyd Wilson, Ph, D, professor of commerce and trans- portation, Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania. Il- lustrated. New York: Appleton. ALIAS BLUEBEARD; The Life and Death of Gilles de Raiz. By Emile Cabory. English version by Alvah C. Bessie. New York: Brewer & Wharren. KING MOB; A Study of the Present-day Mind. By Frank K. Notch. New York: Harcourt, Brace. b GREEN MAGIC; The Story of the World of Plants. By Julie Closson Kenly, author of “Strictly Personal,” etc. Illustrated by Edna M. Reindel. New York: Appleton: THE OBELISK. By William Rollins, jr. New York: Brewer & Warren. ABOUT WOMEN. By John Macy. Morrow, KNOWING, COLLECTING AND RESTORING EARLY AMERICAN FURNITURE. By Henry Hammond Taylor. With a foreword by Homer Eaton Keyes, editor of Antiques. Illustrated. Philadelphia: Lippincott. ’ DAGGERS IN A STAR; Selected Poems from Five Authors, Drawings by Herbert E. Fouts. New York: Harrison. POINTS EAST; Narratives of New England. By Rachel Field. New York: Brewer & Warren. FLAG IN THE WIND. By Alfred Stanford. New York: Morrow. HOW TO COMMIT A MURDER. By Danny Ahearn. New York: Ives Washburn, THE LAWN; The Culture of Turf in Park, Golfing and Home Areas. By Lawrence S. Dickinson, assistant professor of horticule ture, Massachusetts Agriculture College, Il lustrated. New York: Orange Judd. POLITICS IN A PROTESTANT CHURCH. By Rembert Gilman Smith, pastor, Washing- ton, Ga., Methodist Episcopal Church South. Atlanta: The Ruralist Press. LUCIAN GOES A-VOYAGING. By Agnes Carr Vaughan. Illustrated by Harrie Wood. New York: Knopf. p THAT FLAME OF LIVING FIRE. By Clarencg True Wilson, D.D.,, LL.D. Introduction by Bishop Titus Lowe. New York: Richard R. Smith, Inc. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CHAMELEON, By Daisy Breaux (Cornelia Donovan O'Don- ovan Calhoun). Washington: Potomac Press. UPON THIS ROCK. By Rev. F. J. Mueller, New York: P. J. Kenedy. THEY'RE OFF; The Romance of the Kentucky Derby. By Kenneth C. Crain. «Chicago: Kenford Press. A LANDLUBBER'S LOG; Around the world as sailor and tramp. By Arthur Warner, Boston: Little, Brown. FIRST AND LAST. By Victor L. Whitechurch. New York: Duffield. AMERICAN NATURISTS. By Henry 2 Tracy, author of “Towards the Open,® etc, New York: Dutton. JUNE MOON; A comedy, in a prologue and three acts. By Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman. New York: Scribner’s. THE NEAR AND THE FAR. By J. H. Myers. New York: Harcourt, Brace. ANNALS OF THE DESERT. By Maude Mason Austin, author of “’Cension.” by Gandara. Boston: Stratford. THE DEVIL'S SPOON. By Theodora DuBois, New York: Stokes. By John P. Marquand. New York: WARNING HILL. Boston: Little, Brown. ALONG QUEBEC HIGHWAYS, tourist guide, Published by the Department of Highways and Mines. THE PLAYS OF ANTON TCHEKOV. Trans- lated by Constance Garnett. Preface by Eva Le Galllenne. New York: Modern Library. MOUNTAIN GOLD. By Basil Carey. New York: Clode. TO BE TAKEN BEFORE SAILING. By Irvin S. Cobb. New York: Cosmopolitan, PILGRIM’'S FORD. By Muriel Hine, author of “The Ladder of Folly,” etc. New York: Appleton. SINGING DAVIDS. A selection of poems from 15 authors. New York: Harrison. THE SHIP OF TRUTH. By Lettice Ulpha Cooper. Boston: Little, Brown. > THE ROAD TO WILDCAT. A tale of Southern mountaineering. By Eleanor De La Vergne Risley. Illustraied. Boston: Little, Brown, PAN AND THE FIRE-BIRD. By Sam M, Steward. Introduction by Benjamin Musser, New York: Harrison. Felix Mahony’s National Art School Color, Interior Decoration, Costame Design, Commercial Art, Posters 1747 R. 1. Ave. North 1114