Evening Star Newspaper, January 11, 1931, Page 90

FHE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. Edited with introduction by Manuel Komroff. Ii« lustrations by Witold Gordon. The Kublai Khan edition. Book No. 257. New York: Horace Liveright. IS TRUE, patently true, that legible print is the prime essential of a book. . Yet, how close to untruth this becomes Yy when face-to-face with a volume upon which has been exercised the spell of beauty, of art in its conception and projection of sheer distinction in the alliance of paper and print, of pictures and other decorations, of bulk and binding. Here is a beautiful volume, this Kublai Khan edition of Marco Polo’s trav- els. An old story, bound to live forever, or so it seems. Bound to live by virtue of its perennial * by the vital quality of its adventures, by mvid offering of these to every passing .age as if they were a living part of every day of high endeavor—today, tomorrow, & thousand hence. No doubt whatever about the life tenure of Marco Polo. Therefore, this is a man to expend time and art upon for his fair ad- mission to the company of each generation as it comes along. S0, Horace Liveright, ordaining himself as wlmemlnlsmtot.heoflenhlkmgdomletup by Marco Polo, through the combined agency of fact and fantasy, and the high art of story- telling, has rcset the great adventure in sur- poundings that are measurable by their charm and importance. Special printing and decora- tions and binding unite in artful partnership Manuel Komroff is assigned the work of historic value to the Polo adventure. This Jooking of the Orient when Marco Pole passed that way. A dramatic pointing upon high inci- dents of the adventurer's long lingering in the . Goography, history, adventure, the power the Great Kahn, the wars and politics of that gay, minor events packed in around high under- , the ways of separate provinces, great that past, vast sovereignties won and . ¥HE RING OF THE LAWENSKOLDS. By Selma Lagerlof, author of “The Treasure,” ete. New York: Doubleday, l:‘)onn and Com- peny. Quiid. Ly g3 1 gs f "981E1 Efait aégéaég i g i EEEE 4 d 111 i1, £ Lt THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY I, 1931, Walter Maxwell Writes a Vi ivivaew Poem. A.S. M. Hutchinson ’sLate;t Novel—And a Book by Selma Lagerlof. vast scheme, possibly inhabitable points, but that is something else. What next? Oblitera- tion of that achieved? Progression to the point of——! Such the accomplishment of Penergy” di- rected, controlled by an “intelligence” inherent to it. “Unmade energy,” “birthless intelligence” —therefore, self-creative these two; therefore, self-propulsive toward that of which we are now dimly cognizant. Not so? When that in- telligence took on measure, it became mind. Your mind and mine. When substance became sketchy and inadequate reference to the tre- mendous adventure of reading this poem. Mr. Maxwell himself says, very helpfully to me, and, I trust, to you: “In the argument which embraces the poem the author avoids reference to conventional theology on the one hand or to the attitude of materialistic thought on the other hand. The poem wholly leaves aside conventional belief and materialistic crit- icism. Primal, uncreated ‘force’ and ‘intelli« gence’ are the source and ‘pith’ of all. And account for all.” A decided stir from the world thinking- large part it may be for the excitement of the forth- faring itself. Twenty years of deep and far produce living bodies and things, SEEING SPAIN AND MOROCCO. By E. M. Newman, author of “Seeing Italy,” etc. Il- lustrated. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co. E M. NEWMAN is one of the chief props ® of a contention of mine that travel by I'm in a minority. Indeed, I the sole advocate of such a everybody wants to go some Continued from Nineteenth Page companiment is directed by Alexander Smal- THI Force School, calling itself “the school of the White House Gang,” having an- nounced the concert which it is sponsoring and at which the National Capital Choir will sing on the night of January 23 at Constitution Hall, has divulged some of the program. It seems that these eminent choristers, under the leadership of Dr. Albert W. Harned, will per- form the prelude to Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” Gounod’s “Unfold, Ye Portals Ever] e from “The Redemption,” and many other in- teresting things by Schubert, Banks, Purcell, Bach, Noble and Buck—all of which will be announced definitely during the coming week. ’l‘fllluslcflourmrmthkd&emoonu 5§ o'clock in the fourth floor see Spain, coming up from Morocco as a sort of open door through which centuries ago Moors themselves moved to dominate to impregnate it with Moorish thought g Eng EEEE THE BOOK OF SIMON. By A, 8. M. inson, author of “If Winter Comes” other famous novels. Illustrations by A. ‘Watson. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. T mig Monday, January 12, at 4 p.m., band concert, wxudny, January 14, at 8 p.m., orchestra es se oo Pflds'y, January 16, at 3 p.m., orchestra con- The concerts will be in the auditorium at Marine Barracks under the direction of Capt. Taylor Branson, leader of the band. Navy Band Concert, The United States Navy Band, under the Jeadership of Lieut. Charles Benter, will give inson never did & more artful turn of true genius than he has done here. To be sure, the incentive was of the highest—the most adorable baby, Simon, from his beginnings till he was 3 years old, that ever fared into a book. Ever? Well, almost any one’s baby—to hear the pare ent tell it—might have done this. And that is, in large part, the point of this book. Reading, one has that very Simon, or Peter, or James, in his eye, and heart. His son, if you 'please, And so he is. The difference lies in the per- son of the father, largely, in his understanding of the small man so like himself, in the readi« ness, grace, beauty, love. You should see Simon, flitting from page to page, léaping and flying, never for a moment rest, save for that single instant when, in and piercing beauty he looks out . page, right into your own answering love. Just gen book. You’ll agree. P. 8.—Not much mother in the book- that helps. Mothers are all right—God bl ‘em—but they are, as a rule, terribly underf when it comes to any real portrayal of their own particular offspring. A man’s world, this one, “The Book of Simon.” B [ tE%E and recitation, Collected and : Anna Whittaker Roussel. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Comse pany. HEROES OF THE BATTLE ROAD; 1775. A Boston: The Meador Company. A PENNY A DREAM. By Mary Edgar Come stock. New York: Henry Harrison. wnomvounngn? What the Handwrit- ing Reveals, Louise Rice, author of “What Handwriting Shows,” etc, -New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, ¢