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WHISTLER. By James Laver. New York: ‘Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. PACE in the Library of Congress, " _together with the lovely Freer Gallery on the Mall, offers exceptional ways for acquaintance with James McNeill Whistler, artist and man. But, even to the most earnest and assiduous, Whistler is ‘hard to catch. No middle ground within his ature where plain folks can walk in’ any S'leasure of security. And to such uncertainty even the chroniclers on the Whistler theme have added. Excess appears to follow the man—excess of adulation on the cne hand, of derogation and abuse on the other. To be sure, the tender twilight pictures stay fixed, those might moods of the Thames—all prose by day. Yet, everything said, Whistler to the average calls for an impresario. And here he is, pre- senting that man, mercurial, unexpected, now and then quite impossible in an orderly world, gcing his own way. Setting his own standards of behavior, laying down his own laws of con- duct, adopting picturesque and even bizarre mppearances quite regardless of a gaping and censorious world. But here, too, is the genius— again setting standards of art for himself, breaking sacred laws, smashing ancient idols. Always the rebel, usually the poseur—and unfailingly the artist. No, James Laver does mot give such unqualified praise of Whistler. #He modifies the greatness here and there with some judgment drawn from many cases that shaves off a trifle from the unadulterate quality of the Whistler art. ‘This balancing, this impersonal examination, this resistance to the man’s prodigious person- Rlity while the artist is being examined, set dorth, clarified, so to speak—all this is that which gives surpassing value to readers on the Wway to James Whistler by way of an astute criiic, by way also of a cultured and appreci- give human being. A fascinating book. Yet a Whistler book is bound to be of dazzling con- tent. The point to this one, that the author has kept his own head while traversing the wonderland of this artist and amazing man. Stories innumerable go along here to embody NVhistler, to deliver him alive, to interpret, to &t him in order, as well as this can be done, for the better understanding of readers—readers of p>n and readers of art. ‘ith James Laver’s “Whistler” a deeply un- Ki-i’tanding guide is provided for us who go, oft>n and often, to the Freer Gallery, for the Btionge personal partaking that one feels before #ie sensitive and trembling and questioning P cuty of the Whistlers which so clearly call g_m that unique treasury of art in the Capital ily. ¥AMOUS FAMILIES OF MASSACHQSEPTS. Two volumes. Illustrated. By Mary Caro- line Crawford. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. !,‘LAYING of the warp” was, In earlier days, z a good deal of a household ritual. When the hand-loom, set up in a corner of the warm kitchen, did its bit in providing cloth for Borments, blankets, carpets and other whatnot i household gear, the laying of the warp was . ftunction of delicacy and consequence. For wnon its quality, upon the precisica of its p acement, depended much of the value of the *‘ruit of the loom”—its durability and its peauty of smooth finish. This book by Mary Crawford reminds one of that by-gone example of household industry. Here, lined in an prierly system of parallels; are many of the old and famous families who, working to- gether and in unbroken seqguences, set the cuadation of the Bay Colony and patterned upeon it the woof of daily life which has made piassachusetts what it is today Adams, Endicott, Winthrop, Lowell, Cabot— v all know these names, out of our history bouks, out of later press accounts. But these w2t not all. There were otherS. About two- Bocre illustrious Puritan families all told are Biven out by this indefatigable authcr, whe put certainly five years in spreading the fcundation of much of New England’s present plac2 in the great commonweaith of the United Bt tes. Fathers and mothers, children and grand- ghvldren—such the formula of a work like $his. Monotonous? Not at all, surprisingly mct at all. The wonder is that cut of so much of imposed uniformity there couid be so sruch also of interesting variety. New Eng- fand will read the book in genuine interest ©f the personal sort. Historians will come to fook upon it as an invaluable source book for gheir own research purposes. At’'the moment, bowever, Miss Crawford's study is bound ic fake a prompt and important piace in the $ rthday celebration of Massachusetts now on fits way. The 300th anniversary. Listen to Oliver Wendell Holmes a minate: *Other things being equal in most relation- shins, I prefer a man of family”—one with four or five generations welded into his mak- fng. Well, here he is, and here they are—- # most interesting and important part of this gountry. The illustrations—Copleys, &tuarts, a Van yck and so on—add greatly to the historical nd interpretative value of the study s a hole. @HE POEMS OF EMILY DICKENSON. Egdited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Hampson. Centenary edition. Bos- ton: Little, Brown & Co. FOR several years now enthusiastic literary hounds have driven Emily Dickenson into p wide-open that, during her lifetime, not even ghe devil himself could have brought about. W:l'—it is pretty much over. To be sure & lot of time and bad manners went into the goraers and closets of the girl’s neart and mind, @il on the faint, or false, trail of a mystarisus fover. Who was it! Who could it have been! n on and so on. Mysterious lovers are Bt:" in? potencies in the imugination of % _1DA GILRERT AMYER/ A New Book About the Artist Whistler. Famous Families of One State—Poems and a Novel or Two. those who probably never had any, either mysterious or otherwise. What T started to say is that out of the digging and delving there does emerge a fact. Indeed rather a glorious fact. Emily Dickenson is a poet. A deep- feeling poet, for the New England world around her and for great expanses of life and beauty lying outside this stern domain. With the feel- ing went, and goes, rhythmic and musical tones, sounds of singing, to carry many a lovely picture or thought out of herself into the near- by woods and fields where her companions— mostly birds and squirrels and fleeting dreams of beauty—waited for her. No point at all in analyzing Emily Dickenson some more. It has all been done—forms and metrics whittled to a finish. Besides, poetry is poetry only when it is that to you, to me. Lyrics are a mood, elusive, maybe hidden, quite enigmatic, unless perchance that mood is for the moment my own, your own. Just fer a flash of holiday play, let us do better than to try dissection upon Emily. Let us call her. Here she is in a moment of pure pertness: s “I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell! They’d banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell 'your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!” Some other day, some more of Emily Dick- enson herself in other and different out-farings of song. Let us get acquainted that way and let the literary analysts and censors go hang. Let’s! NEW YORK. By Paul Morand. Translated by Hamish Miles. Illustrations by Joaquin Vaquero. New York: Published by the Book League of America. ERE is the big city as it looks to the sen- sitized lenses of a cultivated Frenchman. A man who “composes” elements into distinct views, who marshals the views into an orderly and luminous panorama, then endows it with a soul, evokes from it a spirit of fairly single significance. All this done, because the man is French and, therefore, can’t do otherwise, the author lays New York upon a silver platter, so to speak, and in smiling courtesy hands it over to America for the general delectation of all the people. “Downtown,” “midtown,” “uptown,” such the austere simplicity forced upon this multifa- rious mart of the world for consideration by Paul Morand. Tremendously impressive in a pure poetic impact is the opening of “New York.” It is the silence of the world’s begin- ning. An empty sea with never a sail. A gull’s, cry. At this point the swelling tide makes a way up the estuaries. Over there darkness is hiding the hills, Yonder a sulphur-yellow sun is sinking. Motionless, folded in on itself like a bud, the place that one day will be New York is awaiting its birth. ; After this gesture—religion-poetry-science in blend, the rush of the modern Babylon seizes the author. But the rush does not disconcert him. He is still the man of straight seeing and deft handwork. Aspects and phases come to him through the conglomerate of city de- tails. Promises and denials read into this ac- counting through a thousand little lines of small meaning when left in unrelated street clutterings. The man gathers in both hands the items which, welded, present the modern pageantry that is New York. A thrilling ad- - venture, to go with Paul Morand. A gorgeous picture, offered by Paul Morand. Beautiful! ‘Well worth the honor of being chosen to stand high in the month’s offerings of literary art. Now, just a minute for smiling at the artless fellow from Paris. Oh, the monstrously high buildings of Manhattan! Why so audaciously soaring? Why, because the Eiffel tower is very, very high. That was the impulse that pushed the skyscraper toward the clouds. But, now that the tower has been passed in this building sky-race, why, now, it is more than likely that there will come an abatement of the height craze of New York. Don't you like that? I do. It's lovely—just one of several gentle and friendly reminders that home is home after all. And not even a brazen metropolis shall be allowed to take on airs over the home: Right! “MANNA-HATIN”: The Story of New York. Published by the Manhattan Co. of New York. g HER! an institution turns author, turns story-teller, to be close to the fact. From its many safe sources of information, historic and current, the Manhattan Co. has ventured upon the true romance of our greatest city and its multifarious deeds. The book is of in- spirational purpose and is, undeniably, just that in effect also. “To bring to the present and future citizens of Greater New York new pride in a glorious past, new loyalty to the city New Forei gn Trade. wrm American foreign trade falling off in the fiscal year of 1929-1930, the Bureau of Foreign and Domsstic Commerce, never- theless, made substantial gains in its efforts to improve foreign trade conditions and points with pride to a 20 per cent increase in income as a result of the bureau’s efforts. During the year more than three and a half million serv- ices of various types were rendered to the bus- iness public, bringing an increase over the previous year both in new business and in sav- ings. This service rendered by the bureau is as wide and varied as the business of the country and the world as a selling field. As an exam- ple, the bureau aided manufacturers of knit goods in Alabama to dispose of their products in South Africa. Cargoes of lumber from far west Washington were guided to the United Kingdom and Italy. California canned sar- dines were disposed of in Java, while bricks from Missouri went into construction work in Norway. . These samples indicate the nature of the work that is being carried on by the bureau’s 56 foreign offices, which are located in 44 trade centers. Not only are markets found, trade disputgs adjusted, information on shipping and so on supplied, but statistical information on market conditions, competition from other sources, tariff rates and other factors are gathered and placed at the disposal of those seeking to ship their products to foreign rts. powtth the question of exports as serious as it is now, the work of this bureau is gaining in importance and many surveys which have been under way for some time are being rushed to completion in order that the deductions there- from may be placed at the disposal of manu- facturers and exporters at as early a time as possible. Building National Forests. Tfl! problem ahead of the Forest Service in building up the national forests in the Southern Appalachian regions is going to be a difficult one to solve and one requiring much painstaking work and careful planning, in the opinion of R, ¥. Stuart, chief of the Forest Service, who has recently made an inspection tour through mountain regions in Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia. The areas in question have gone the way of much of the virgin forest land of this coun- try. They have been cut over and stripped of all their valuable timber and then left to the devices of nature. The law of physics that nature abhors a vacuum seems to hold good in” agriculture, too, if bare ground, for the par- allel, may be considered a vacuum. New growth followed in the wake of the luimberjacks’ saw and ax, but it was largely a scrub growth, and this, too, fell victim in many instances to the ravages of forest fires, which found the brush left lying after the lumbering ideal fuel through which to rage its destructive way. Other new growth, even scrubbier perhaps than the first, replaced the trees burned down in the fires. The land in the areas visited lends itself to-a vigorous growth, and this tendency, if properly directed by the planting of more valuable types of tree than those now growing, could in a comparatively short time produce really va'uable stands of timber. Reconstruction* forces working in some of these areas have already made considerable progress toward replacing the present growth with hardwood. It has so happened in some areas that the acid wood, pulpwood and cord- wood available in the present stand of timber have been in sufficient demand fo make the removal of the trees fairly profitable. In other areas, however, these same condi- tions do not exist, and the problems there are greater. The efforts of the local officials are being directed to utilization programs through which it is hoped the trees now available may be disposed of at a price which will assist in the further development of the parks. New Button Factories. button industry attracted more manu- facturing groups during 1920 than in 1927, but the value of the products dropped off more than a million dollars. There were 17 additional factories engaged in the busi- ness, which totaled $28,500,000, bringing the number of those so engaged up to 246. Of the output pearl and other shell buttons led in value, accounting for more than $11,000,000 of the products. in which they live and an eager hope for the still greater and finer city that is to come.” Such the avowed design. “Only a River!” Just a river with beaver in millions along its banks. Troubles in the wide world across the sea. Fleeing these, come Pil- grims, Walloons, Crullers. And the Indians sell “Manna-Hatin” to Peter Minuit for $24 worth of trinkets. And right here is a picture of the great transaction. As with Paul Morand and hjs “New York,” this story, once on its feet, runs like the wind through the succeeding years of New York life and growth. We see the beginning of Wall Street' itself. We look on upon early current customs and costumes. We are in when “Manna-Hatin” goes English and when it gathers in Staten Island. Here are points when the Revolution engaged New York, when old heroes walked its streets. Then, later, comes the passion of growth and expansion at first along the ground, ncw, however, giving challenge to the clouds. The Stock Exchange, the money center of the world, the war, and after, in its effect upon this giant of the na- tional commonwealth. There is no use in trying to tell you half that the story holds. It is a breath-taking adventure to partake from every important point of view of the influences and actualities that have gone into the making of Greater New York. Many of illustrations give early and later points of growth. An impres- sive picture is an airplane moving slowly and high over the city the “first commercial aircraft to cross the Atlantic.” The work ends with a most useful chronology, a most intelli- gently devised time-table. The Renaissance starts it, away back in 1453, where, certainly, the seed of the great discovery lay; 1929 ends it with modern scientific constructions and plans well on their way to fruition. I'm enthus- iastic over this book. I hope you will be. It is a deep mine of authentic stuff in respect, not only to “Manna-Hatin” and its growth alone, but to the country as a whole as well. As for story, it is complete engrossment. FIXED MARRIAGE. Anonymous. New York: Harper & Bros. THE author of this novel has recently emerged from her hiding away. And, in evidence thereof, you will immediately have a new novel from her, all named 'n’ everything. This is the one, however, that for the moment engages me. Here is a subject so sensitive as to be per- petually like a fresh scald on the hand. Yet it is a matter that ot only exists but one, too, that is not uncommon in the life roundabout. Nothing less, nor more, than that two young people of different religious belief and practice fall in love with each other and get married. A Catholic girl and a Protestant boy. Deeply in love and not in any great degree affected by the whirl of modern life in its effect upon the young folks. The author does not complicate the case by that ‘issue. Rather does she try to show—rather does she show—how early religious teaching does become a very influential factor even in the domestic- relations of this young couple. No sensation here. Rather a close and open-minded study of character re- acting to current demand and to early training at the same time. A trying and important theme for romance. Yet it exists and to its study the author has brought intelligence, understanding, impartiality and the gift of making a story. Having read the book, the elders will be inclined to recede from the un- happy decision that their efforts to bring up- children in the way they should go is nowadays a failure. The prime difficulty, of course, lies in the fact that here are offered two ways that should be followed—ways that are mutually ex- clusive of each other. And that brings up the immemorial question—— Never mind. What's the use? A finely constructed novel, profound in its implications. But it is likely to be a novel negligible or openly condemned.: We are that way, you know. Books Received THE LIFE OF CHRIST. In wood cuts. By James Reid. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. CHRIST OR CAESAR. The religion of Jésus and the religion of natonalism. By Wil- liam Lyon Phelps, Lampson professor o® English literature, Yale University. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. ULTIMO. An imaginative narration of life under the earth. Projections by John Vassos. Text by Ruth Vassos. New -York: E. P, Dutton & Co. X CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETS, 1930. Edited by Horace C. Baker. Boston: The Stratford Co. SELECTED POEMS. By Benjamin Musser. New York: Henry Harrison, Publisher. NEAR AND FAR. New poems by Edmund Blunden, author of ‘““The Shepherd,” etc. New York: Harper & Bros. A DEEPER SILENCE. By Samucl Heller. New York: Henry Harrison. HEARTSTRINGS. By Gwynneth D. Walker. Philadelphia: Published by the author. SCATTERED GEMS. By Gertrude Lee, autaor of “Moods,” etc. Boston: The Stratford Co. MORE RUTHLESS RHYMES; for heartless homes. By Harry Graham, author of-. “Ruthless Rhymes.” Illustrated by Ridge- . well. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. DAILY IDEAS AND IDEALS. By Lueila Dowd Smith, author of “Wayside Leaves,” etc. Boston: The Stratford Co. THE LITTLE BLUE PLUTE. Py Charles Beghtol. New York: Henry Harrison. OSCAR WILDE. His life and confessions, in- cluding the hitherto unpublished full and final confession by Lord Alfred Douglas and “My Memories of Oscar Wilde.” By Ber- nard Shaw. New York: Covici-Friede.