Evening Star Newspaper, July 20, 1930, Page 84

JNDROMEDA IN WIMPOLE STREET. By Dormer Creston. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. HIS is a London lady of yesterday. You do recall, though, the pagan story of that first Andromeda, chained to a rock by her father to secure his own safety from the angry gods who had claimed a human victim as the penalty of his disobedience. And you remember the coming by of Perseus, valorous and beautiful youth, who rescued the maiden—and then, of course, loved her. This incident and others of blood kin to it—either true happenings or made-up ones—gave rise to the greatest story in the world, the love story. A chameleon of a.story that, changing in hue and glow minute by minute, stays forever young, forever the best story of all. Out of this particular form of recording there have emerged at long intervals epics of great lovers. Not many of these, but undying and dizzying in their hold upon the human heart. Petrarch and Laure, Heloise and Abelard, to name the most familiar and the best beloved. Now we are minded again of this ancient Andromeda and Perseus. And this in turn brings us to the Andromeda in Wimpole street Brings us to the love story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. In sadder plight even than her prototype, this Andromeda was bound between two rocks, tight-wedged against her. One of these was nothing other than the bed of an invahd. The other was the hard will of a self-engrossed father. Not very good soil to sprout so delicate a seed as love. Yet the miracle came to pass. And young W-owning, poet, fell in love with Elizabeth Barrett’'s poetry before he ever saw the lady, loving her, “sight unseen,” through the genius of her verse. And here is the story, the love story begun by letters and, in so far as this book is concerned, carried out chiefly through the same medium. And a deeply con- vincing romance it is, though of pattern so strange, so wellnigh unbelievable. The male loves health, youth, beauty, vigor of blood, prompt resiliences. In a word, the male loves himself and, looking into a mirror of such girlish charm, he sees thrown back to him his own self, his own power as miracle worker, creating such responsive beauty by his own strength. Therefore the wonder grows over the unmistakable passion of Robert Browning for this sick girl, even though she was a great artist. Jput here it is, in all of these letters. Here also is her resistance to the onset of romance in face of the common sense that warns her. But, for once in a million times, common sense failed and the very pinnacle of no sense at all bound Robert and Elizabeth Browning to an indissoluble union. Inciden- tally, it joined them to the little group of great lovers, who, at long intervals, have transfigured _romantic intercourse, have beautified literature with word-colors of rose and gold, with a silver verdancy of sheen. There is uplift in this read- ing. Yet it is merely a literal account of the reluctant yielding of a girl—or a sick girl in bond to a selfish, obdurate and cruel father— to the mastery of love. One author and critic—undeniably a skeptic in this case besides—rather begs the whole question of great love by concluding that “Robert Browning was the greaatest husband in the world.” Much too big a matter to open up here, since it requires a deep analysis of husbandly greatness, a deeper probe into the question of man-and-woman love, a re-airing of much public discussion of marriage and a host of other intellectual and emotional review- ings. Let it go that “Robert Brown e greatest husband in the world.” But read this book for its complete survey of the ro- mance, for its fair appraisal of the Andromeda in the case, for the sturdy sincerity of Brown- ing, for the true idyl that steps out from this in-seeing and artful portrayal of a most vital episode, or dream, in the life of every man and woman. " BY THE WATERS OF MANHATTAN. Charles Reznikoff. Introduction by Louis Unter- meyer. New York: Charles Boni. Paper book. A GRAY story. The grayness deepens here and fades a bit there, but the general hue does not change. Despite the pervasive gloom, it is a possessive story. Every sentence is a bit of truth about life. Each chapter is a budget of fact on the resources of the human to withstand the insensate cruelty of nature, or destiny, or whatever the driving power of existence is. It is the story of a family of Russian Jews, trying to live—to eat and sleep and wear clothes—in the native land. Then the migration to this country and what befalls here. Bare, bald, no gesture toward softening the case nor, for that matter, toward “making it harder, here is—really no story. Rather it is rigid workmanship, like carving where even no slight slip or mistake can be toterated. Father and mother and children step out here, a Jewish family deep-grounded in its own ritual of life, alien to the softer soil of America, frightened at its latitudes, bewil- dered by its easy shiftings, trying with might and main to hold on to itself within this ready urgency toward every sort of giving way to fnviting circumstance. You will not find a story of simpler statement, nor one of greater -ebvious sincerity. Just a Jewish household, rooted in its own tradition, striving patiently, pathetically, for only a small share of that whaich mounts in seeming abundance all around #. A story of the poor evervwhere. The dif- ferences hardly count—and 2t they do count here. What happens? Novhing, excepé to keep on. It seems to me to be a very fine art to iransfer life to words of such telling effect, of such austere economy, of such shattering efiect. SOME OTHER BEAUTY, By I A. R. Wylle, author of “Black Harvest,” etc, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. LX stories. Each is a cut stone, its facets afire " with the dramatic, intense glow of ghe heart of the matter. You do not say THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JULY 29, 1930. \ DA _GILBERT AMYER/ The Love Story of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett—Wide Variety of Fiction for Summer Reading. this at first. Maybe you do not say it at all. Instead, after reading any one of these penetrating bits of life you sit long turning it over in your feelings rather than in your mind, for the sheer beauty that finally does come out from it and does settle upon it, and does enter softly into your own dawning sense of beauty, that, otherwise, had not seemed to be beauty at all. Exquisite work, that elicits homage and humility, and, better yet, that stirs the resolve to “try some more,” to work harder and with more fitting tools. However, here are the stories—rather, here is one of them, “You g Nowhere.” This is an elevator boy, shy and self-effacing, never getting beyond an acquaintance with the shoes of those passing up and down with him. A pair of black pumps, rusty and down-at-heel, grew dear to him. Long after he dared to look at the little girl of the rusty pumps— pale, thin, wan. And he loved her. Never lonely any more. And once—just once—he lets himself and her into a bachelor’s apart- ment. Cold and rainy outside, or never would he have done this. Then, just as they were warming a bit to the comfort of the place, the owner stepped into the place. You know what the average man would do. This one did. The lovely point is that, in his shy and awkward way, Young Nowhere became in- stantly a man of high chivalry, of stanchly protective instinct—just fine, just right, a manly man of quiet efficiency. An elevator boy, a tiny working girl—nothing to look at either of them. Lovely, though, to find “some other beauty” than that of common ac- ceptance. So with each of these stories. Just underneath there the glowing thing is. If you cannot read them all—but you will. Still, if you cannot—do not on your life forego “Bravo, Toro!” BOOKS: Their Place in a Democracy. By R. L. Duffus. Boston: Houghton Mifin Company, A CRITICAL day for books and the book business, yet this special view does not engross the author of “Books.” Rather is he, from a distinct point of advantage, overlooking the full book situation of America instead. This publication grew, naturally, from a study undertaken for the Carnegie Corporation to discover the status of distribution for serious non-technical books. From that experience comes the survey in hand by way of which author, publisher, buyer, reader, take their several places and diverse influences in the full scheme of book production and distribution. intertesting outlook to the common reader. Never before so many books and allied publi- cations. Where do they come from? What are the problems of publishing and distributing? What about the book-shop with its new rival, the department store and the pharmacy and the bargain-counter set-up on every corner? What are the book clubs, in origin, member- ship, effects upon an increased reading public? City librarians and rural libraries are de- scribed in their use and usefulness. A most interesting chapter is “The Georgraphy of Reading.” The entire book is interesting for it & a condensed, snappy business-like treat- ment of a subject that needs just such elec- tricity behind it. Dealing in profound book study, this man is not of the “worm” variety of book devotees. He is alert, spontaneous, laughing, ready in reference and allusion—all qualities that serve this particular subject with complete competency and with a most communicable budget of really needed infor- mation upon this special subject. FRENCH LEAVE. By Jeannette Phillips Gibbs, author of “Humdrum House,” etc. Boston. Little, Brown & Co. A YOUNG American turned Frenchman, Parisian at that, s likely to produce rather striking results, since the average American is & thoroughgoing fellow that skimps not any of his undertakings. When Charles Clayton, from the States, went to Paris to stay he was likely to give an all-around, yard-wide, fast- color performance in the way of expatriation. He did. And this is the record of it. He falls in love with a rich girl. French? No, there are no rich French girls. American, but trans- planted, like himself. To be sure, the fellow has a wife at home. But this is a broad and elastic era wherein individual happiness is the only consideration. In securing this it is likely— it is certain—that other happinesses will go to ruin; but that is something for the moralists and philosophers to settle, not for Charles Clayton. So without any legal or religious benefits whatever the young pair set out on the cobblestone rcad of trying to live to- gether. Mrs. Gibbs takes hold of the business like a business woman. Here is a thing to be done; so, whether one hankers after the job or not, it must be put through. This is the feel- ing that one has about the author while read- ing her new story. Not that she does not do highly creditable work. She does. Particularly able is she in characterization. Each one in- volved here is himself in a rounded fidelity to his nature, his up-bringing, his temperament. There is never a shred of loose work whereby there are inconsistent overlappings of one individual upon another. The analysis, the psychological insight, are of exceptional quality, of a clear dispassion of personal interference out of her own prepossessions and theories. The picture of Paris is delightful—broad, easy, way- wise, communicable. Yet with all this of in- tellectual equipment on the author’s part, all this of good artistry and fine writing—the story, somehow, is not her story. Ism't it a good novel? Yes, a good novel, much above many. It lacks, however, or it seems to me to lack, evidence of any spontaneous joy in creat- ing it, of any deep emotional absorption in its unfolding. Maybe I'm wrong. You try it for yourself. This is a vital and important matter, so you try it. An intellectual exercise of high order. A creation? No. TENTS OF THE MIGHTY. By Donald Rich- berg, author of “The Shadow Man,” etc. Foreword by Paul Kellogg. New York: Willet, Clark & Colby. ‘HE “mighty” ones tented here are close enough to us in time to make them both intelligible and interesting. Wilson, Roosevelt, La Follette, Bryan—names that date the bulk of these reminiscences. “A realistic chronicle of our generation on the march” is what Paul * Kellogg calls the book in his introduction, and that is what it is. It is within that word “realistic,” however, that the special qualities and powers of the writer lie. Listen a minute ionger to the Kellogg man talking. Then you will run to read the book on your own account. Donald Richberg is, according to this report, “a modern minstrel; a man with a penchant for writing popular songs, novels, learned articles in legal and economic reviews.” Lawyer, play-maker, man-of-all-work of intel- lectual cast and, above all, a user of words that drive or fly as occasion requires, that soar and settle finally into the comviction of other public workers, of other men interested in a fair share of happiness for all. Preacher? Never in the world. No more of a preacher than Theodore Roosevelt himself. Just the same sinewy sort of man, though; just the same bold innovator—but more picturesque even, more poetic surely. Here is the story of the Progressive movement, of railroad litigation, of a readjustment of transportation by way of which government, labor and operators take interrelated obligations. Here is a sketch of the remodeled industrial and social structure which the last few years has logically achieved. “A prose ballad of leadership” for yesterday and today “shot through with prophetic glimpses.” Whether you, reader, agree with this philosophy, all are certain to seize with joy upon this forthright, robust, good- humored, pungent review of the immediate ru:z of this country by way of pictures of its eaders. Books Received TO THE SOUTH SEAS; the Cruise of the Schooner Mary Pinchot to the Galapagos, the Marquesas and the Tuamotu Islands and Tahiti. Illustrated. By Gifford Pinchot. Philadelphia: The John Winston Co. A 40-year dream come true by way of these wide sailings. Hourly hauls of adven- ture in strange places crowd the ship’s log. Hundreds of fresh pictures flock into the record. Hosts of new neighbors appear— plant, animal, human neighbors. Even science grows friendly here, talks a simple lingo about no end of things, opens up many a reserve of knowledge to easy access. The object of the adventure is plainly adventure. High buoyancy of spirit dominates it. Gay com- radeship animates it. A stirring account of voyaging, chiefly for the fun of the thing, passes on to readers a highly communicable body of entertaining facts about these islands of the South Seas. . ”e THE LAND OF THE PEPPER BIRD: Liberia. Illustrated. By Sidney de la Rue. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. A study of the republic of Liberia from the standpoint of the historian engrossed in eco- nomic situations and the growth of peoples under this influence. The development of the Negro under conditions approaching those of the white man is the heart of this study. Around it, however, is grouped a full picture of that locality. Climate and soil, natural growths, imported industries, the adaptation of the natives to these new conditions—these are the topies which receive attention from the author. A great many pictures of scenery, of ways of getting about, of new ways grafted onto old customs, are brought out here to complete a picture whose purpose is to portray the status and promise of this significant experiment in political self-dependence on the coast of Africa. * s e AFRICA FROM PORT TO PORT. By Mary Mott-Smith. Illustrated with photographs and drawings by the author. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co. Here a woman goes a-sailing. Down the West coast and up the east side of Africa. For two years Mary Mott-Smith pursued an scquaintance with the land ite people bringing up, finally, at Port An ad venturess of exactly the right this one. A dauntless, laughing lady of o T AR TR AN and persistence, who is smashing the ancient and honorable woman tradition to smithereens. Incidentally, she is seeing a host of things that the average male explorer passes by. Little points serve here to carry many an im- portant one across. Many observations on the natives and their ways are delightfully original and illuminating. A capable and conscientious traveler delivers a solid budget of fresh news for the benefit of the growing host of book travelers. L I I SEEING ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. By E. M. Newmar. author of “Seeing Italy,™ etc. Illustrate! from original photographs. New York: FPuak & Wagnalls Co. Simple announcement serves abundantly in respect to this book and its author. Another Newman travel book is ready for readers. * & * = DOWN THE TIBER AND UP TO ROME. By Harold Donaldson Eberlein, Geoffrey J. Marks, Frank A. Wallis. Illustrated by Frank Wallis. Philadelphia: J. B. Lip- pincott Company. Sounds a half-tone out of key to be riding the noble Tiber in an odd modern contrap- tion, “a black rubber canoe.” But that was the way of it. Out of the vicissitudes of this river faring there were innumerable happen- ings on Tiber's bank or stream by way of which a finely appreciable part of Italy—its wayside pictures of mountain and valley and hill town, its friendly people in their own setting—climbed over canoe-side, “black rub- ber canoe” at that, to go along to Rome with these hilariously gay river men. Lovely, in a pleasure taking that is not trying to be something else. * * 2 » THIN AIR: A Himalayan Interlude. By Con- stance Bridges. Decorations by Ronald Belfour. New York: Brewer & Warren, Inc. Good travel incident. Fine word pictures. With these go a story, a mystery tale at that, a plausibly conceived action, based largely on high “thin air” and the average mind getting mixed up tcgether. If you are inclined to be a shade captious you will ask why the author didn’t do either one thing or the other—have a picturesque and competent travel account on the one hand or, on the other, an absorbing mystery suitable for the unusual locale. The blend is not so inspired, not so workmanly, as one wishes it were. *« s ' UNITED STATES COAST PILOT: Atlanile Coast: Sandy Hook to Cape Henry; Includ- ing Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. 1930. Washington: United States Governmert Printing Office. Mapped and otherwise adequately docu- mented. a new edition of the Coast Pilot, pre- pared by the Department of Commerce in col- laboration with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, is now ready for the use of those interested in the subject, either professionally or as common students of current business. A little volume of astonishing scope and substance. Geology and geography give the character of the coast included. Upon the contacts of sea and land along this stretch in their relations to com- merce and travel does the bulk of this volume have to do. Harbors and ports, every sort of aid to navigation, every. measure instituted for safety and efficioncy—all these and innumerable other points of necessary information stand :in orderly alignment in this exceptional publica- tion. Stand also as suggestion that within the United States Government reports and records is a store of information, priceless and over- looked, save to the few who bave practical business need of the great service that waits free for the asking. This single little volume stands for an immense library of stored knowi- edge. « s %0 THE CARLSBAD OF AMERICA. Bedford, Pa. Bedford Springs Publishing Co. A full description of the facilities offered by the Penn State health and pleasure resort. Natural scenery, medicinal properities of the waters, accommodations provided. These, with the various ailments to be treated by the heal- ing waters, round up a sizable book of specific direction and information, Out of Season. veracity of fishermen has often beem questioned, but one fisherman, at least, found it to his advantage to tell a lie. He was fishing in a stream In New York State prior to the opening of the bass sea- son, and, during the course of his sport, he hooked a hr:e bass. To play safe, he tied it to a line and fastened it to an overhanging branch of a tree, upstream from where he was fishing. The fish, of ¢ourse, remained alive in the water. o’ Shortly after, a game warden came along, saw the fisherman and inspected his catch, largely perch, with some catfish included. As they were gossiping a bit, the bass upstream began to thrash around in the water. In- vestigating, the warden found the bass and aé once accused the fisherman of taking bass out of season. “Oh, no,” the fisherman contradicted him, “I didn't take him. He kept getting on my hook, so I tied him up there till I get through fishing.” And what warden could arrest a man after a yarn like that? MANUSCRIPT WORK Reasonable Rates. Several Years'