Evening Star Newspaper, December 13, 1931, Page 99

= e REVIEWS (OF e BERNARD SHAW. By Frank Harris. “An Unatkhorized Biography Based on Pirst Hand Information.” Postscript by Mr. Shaw. New York: The Book League of America. N unauthorized biography”, says II Mr. Harris. “Unauthorized, yes,” agrees Mr. Shaw, “but not a biography.” Unheard of before, probably, that the subject of such a study should have so immediate a chance of retort as to cover both the biography and its answer by a single pair of book lids And this was the way of it. Frank Harris, sick to death, sent the manuscript of this biography to Mr. Shaw himself, asking for its reading and for such revision as the facts in the case might require. The “postscript” by Mr. Shaw is, in sum, a line of general comment upon the book. One that states the reasons why 1t is not biography in either the purpose or development of this form. These two had been friends for 40 years. Shaw, early in his career, writer for a publica- tion of which Harris was editor. Enemies, in spots, no doubt. Or so one assumes, looking at the two of them. Certainly quite opposite in temperament, outlook and attitude. Many the hour when disagreements, open and elo~ quent, must have bzen not uncommon betwesn them. Besides, at the time of this book, Harris was sick and far below the popularity that in his heydey he had so keenly enjoyed. Mr. Shaw was, and is, on the top of the world, so to speak, in an undiminished hold upon the public. Speaks pretty well for both of them, or 80 it seems to me, this episode wherein Shaw appraises his own “biography” and at the same time pays a high tribute to FranR Harris, pays it openly and earnestly, an act of finer homage than many of the ardent friends of Harris have, so far, made. That “postscript”, how- ever, does come pretty close to running away with the whole book. You can read for yourself and can draw from that reading that the work of Harris here is a collection of incidents, episodes, discon- nected periods in Shaw's life. These sum to stress the perfect idiosyncrasy that, to his mind, embodies the whole of Shaw. An eccentric in politics, a dreamer of socialistic ineptitudes, a talkative reformer, a blatant prophet for Whitechapel A disturber, spectacular in pose and appearance. Mr. Shaw makes special point of this frag- mentary treatment of himself by the author. Claims that, while he may be a bundle of queer things, he is nevertheles, a bundle, and that no considerable biography can ignore that basic fact. Blography is a re-creation, an organic whole, followipg its subject in birth, blood, training, temperament, achievement, in- fluence upon his day and neighborhood, or upon the world, as the case may be. In addi- tion, or in perfect fulfillment, it carries the touch of the artist, besides, co-ordinating all the parts, interpreting them, relating the whole man in truth and potentiality to the near, and remote life significances around him. Such, in the rough, is biography. So the reader joins with Mr. Shaw in voting egainst the claims of this “unauthorized bio- graphy.” Interesting? Of course. Bernard Shaw is copy for the clever raconteur. The most perfect case of complete self-dramatiza- tion to be found—save with children. And in this respect Shaw is a child, giving to his various roles the deep sincerity that children give to their endless impersonations, with never a flaw in the character for the time being in possession. Greatest actors in the world, these children. And Shaw is one of them. No doubt his hatred of Irving was rooted in a great artist’s professional rivalry. Nothing in the world to do with Ellen Terry. . Harris is given to probing intimacies with his literary subjects. His work with Oscar - Wilde shows this. 8o does this work with Shaw. The male, inordinately wedded to his maleness, is not far removed in this respect from moronic stupidity. An inheritance, to be sure, from Solomon down, but a sense of proportion and a glimmering of propriety would tend to correct the unbalance and un- harmony of such absorption of artists in this particular. Or s0 it would seem. A book of vivid gossip, of facts unset to their proper bonds and relationships. Entertaining reading, for Frank Harris uses his words ex- pertly. But not, in any sense, a biography of Bernard Shaw. Rather, a distillation of Frank Harris himself through the medium of Bernard Shaw. The trade publication of “Bernard Shaw” is by Simon & Schuster, New York. THE DREYFUS AFFAIR. By Jacques Kayser. Covici-Friede. New York. lN the years that have passed since 1894, much has been written concerning Captain Al- fred Dreyfus and the unfortunate “affaire” with which he was so closely identified. At the time the tremson charges were placed against the officer and all France was aflame the writers, Zola and Anatole PFrance, went to his rescue with their pens. Zola was forced into exile; Anatole France went on writing. After the real facts came to light, a half dozen years later, other writers took up the work—placing their hero, or martyr, in the leading role of stage play, novel and movie scenario—and the end is not yet. Many his- tories of the “affaire” are added to the book- shelf of fictional material, and not the least of these is this new book by Jacques Kayser. While the claim is made that this writer, who is a relative of Captain (now Lieutenant Colonel) Dreyfus, is unbiased in his bulky re- port of the ramifications of the “affaire,” the book reads in an entirely different way. The author sees only one side of the tribulations of Dreyfus; he views the whole matter from the Dreyfusard standpoint; he represents the officer in a shining light, never for an instant THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 137. 1931 15 ] S e e A 5 B T T OF THE NEW BCOK / “An Unauthorized Biography Based Upon First-Hand In formation”—More Concern- ing the “Affaire Dreyfus”—The Newest Fiction. acknowledging that the prosecutors might have considered that they were working for the interest of Frar}ce. The history of the Dreyfus case is too well known for a detailed repetition. The capiain was accused of being a traitor to hig country. It was alleged that he had forwarded army secrets 1o the military attache of another country, and an unsigned scrap of paper was brought forth as evidence. Because the case aroused such interest and such intense racial hatreds in France, it was closely followed in other countries. Captain Dreyfus was con- victed and sentenced to Devil's Island for life. His friends took up the matter, worked cease- lessly for a new trial, and about seven years later were rewarded by the acquital of Drey- fus. This new volume is exhaustive, and rather exhausting, in its detall, and yet it is probably the most authentic of all such his- tories of “the Affaire Dreyfus.™ C. E. N. THE DEVIL HERSELF. By Lois Montross, author of “Town and Gown,” etc. New York: Horace Liveright. BIG theme. Science violated by trade, by commercialism. The “devil” here is New York. It is any other great city. Science capitalized by competition in trade. A rage of advertising that makes claim for every* sort of miracle—health, beauty, eternal youth, short cuts to wealth, and so on and so on—and always the miracle is attributed to some fresh achievement on the part of the great necromancer, science. A few months ago, T. Swann Harding, scientist at Washington, wrote a big and pro- foundly illuminating book on this subject, “The Degradation of Science,” setting out just the ways in which commerce, trade, the hurry to get rich, are making serious inroads upon the rate of advance that science is able to accomplish. Now, using the same theme, Lois Montross has written a novel of power and beauty. New York is the “devil” that so clearly leads astray a young scientist devoted to laboratory tests along certain lines of chemistry. Engrossed in research, he was seized upon by the adver- tising end of the firm that had up to this time encouraged his purely scientific experi- ments and studies. There, too, came gradually the glamour of the big town, irresistible, un- escapable. Love also joined in the assault upon the citadel of this boy's intellectual integrity. A big theme, sustained right up to the doorway of genius itself. The story with a purpose is a relic of Puritan New England. An ounoxious thing, as a rule. This novel gives no effect of preachment or prepared gloom. It is a rich picture of life, current and de- manding. - A picture of many facets, yet all casting the same subtle rays, wherein fore- boding lights flicker. A story of great shops and business houses, of night life brilliant and seducing, of frustration bedecked as promise and fulfillment. The city, “a flaming rampant challenge to youth”—“Come, try the merciless cruelty of my strength. For I am a jealous god of brick and stone and machinery designed by man for the defeat of man.” Rich, modern, daring—today and today's youth, set to the rhythm of New York, to the sharp tempo of this amazing moment. A story so competent in its artistry as to seem not like studied artistry at all. Its every moment is full of this minute, of this hour. Yet dooms- day loiters stealthily alongside, or smiles knowingly, from the midst of the endless ex- citement. And science merely waits for its own better day. Beautiful work, and engrossing in its every picture and movement. WINGS FOR MEN. By Prank Wead (lieu- tenant commander U. 8. N, retired). Century Co., 1931: New York. Reviewed by J. B. Hancock. AVXATION is our most modern achievement and most of us have been intrigued only by its present and its future. That grand “past,” which was the embryo of all that now interests us in flying, has become virtually for- gotten in the excitement of current news. Lieut. Comdr. Wead, in his “Wings for Men” has filled that imperative need for a written record of the story of man’s conquest of the afr. His detailed presentation, completely dispels any idea that aviation could still be considered a mew ‘“game,” for he presents a background of some millions of years before the memory of man and traces the whole story from that day when some superior power en- dowed a small mammal with the necessary wings to glide from one tree to another in order to avold the dangers of earth-bound creatures. Accurate to a high degree, obviously the fruit of years of research, “Wings for Men” gives us the drama and personalities of avi- ation history which would otherwise so readily be lost—those magnificent failures who “hurtled from the sky into eternity,” as well as those whose stirring deeds have happily been crowned with the joy and the thrill of success. Inténsely interesting in style, with con- stantly recurring evidence of that mental bril- lance for which the author has always been knewn, “Wings for Men” is a book which every peison interestcd in aviation will want to have in his library. As time goes on the cwner of this book will appreciate it more and more. It keeps always at hand the recorded back- ground of flight. THE LINDBERGHS. By Lynn and Dora B. Hgines. New York: The Vanguard Press, FRDM the hour of that first flight across seas to France it has been increasingly clear that Charles Lindbergh is of the lineage of daring ancestors. Now we are all heirs of the forefathers, but, In the main, an indeterminate tribe, after all. Here, however, it is obvious that hard living with the sea in a land that gave no soft favors to its children went into the making of this son of pioneers and out- farers. And here is the story of Scandinavian grand- fathers of the Lindberghs, who in the icy- waters of the North Atlantic were hardened to a seamanship of Viking significance. And the story comes down to the emigration of Charles Lindbergh's grandfather, to his pas- sage from the Atlantic Coast to Minnesota, by way of the Mississippi as far as St. Anthony Fslls. Then northwest in the “covered wegon” to upper Minnesota, where the family settled. This the place where the father of the “Lone Eagle” won his way to the Congress of the United States and, later, lost out from that distinction through his fierce opposition to war, through his radical advocacy of pacifism. A positive man, that father, A stern man, in leash to an exacting conscience. One whose lovable parts had to be dug for under an ex- terior of somewhat forbidding cast. Young Charles has a touch of that same rigidity about him, a seriousness of demeanor, a conscience of carefulness in his chosen career of aviation that is worth many lives, no doubt, in the long run of actual flying. ' To get good and ready appears to be the gospel of this airman, rather than to take the chance, and lose. The book is of intimate quality. The writ- ers in close touch with a situation of moment to the country itself, since it sets out, minutely and from close range, the stormy political career of young Lindbergh's father. This is one of the most interesting features of the book. This and the clear study ef the Lindbergh temperament which these authors make with s0 much of intelligent summary and clearly convincing interpretation. In effect a study of pioneer America, by way of the Lindbergh tribe, the latest scion himself a pioneer of tre- mendous daring and achievement. Useful as history, fascinating as adventure, illuminating as & view of family character transmitted line by line. KEY AND ALLIED FAMILIES. By Mrs. Julian” C. Lane. Published by Mrs. Lane. Printed by the J. W. Burke Company, Macon, Ga. THE family tree is to many as fascinating as that apple tree of Eden has proved to be significant in the history of mankind. No doubt the genealogical pursuit: started from that single momentous episode. And it has flourished enormously, libraries even having grown up under the passion of man to dis- cover a family tree, and to be able to point out the particular limb upon which he himself sits perched in pride and security. The book in hand is a case in point. Here is the Key family, followed, painstakingly, from its first and simplest records, on to the time when Francis Scott Key gave peculiar significance and honor to the family as a whole, And a good share of the work and care in this publication centers upon the historic episode from which rose “Tie Star Spangled Banner,” that stirring and beloved clarion call, that is as fresh today as when it floated, new, from the heart and mind of its creator. Beside this - epical point, the story includes much other matter of interest in the life of Francis Scott Key. The houses made famous and historic by him. The points in Washington where he lived and which he frequented in social and friendly ways. The book is & tribute to the industry, to the persistence, to the achieve- ment of its author. Beside its present use, it will, sotiie time, serve an ambitious writer as source book for many a tale of Washington and its environs, Next year, with historic Washington to the fore in honor of the birthday of George Wash- ington, this book of personal history will have 2 place of keen interest to the tourists and the pilgrims who are bound to face upon the Capital in homage to the great man whom the city is to honor in the name of the entire country. On the Book Room Table THE GOLDEN BOOK., December. HEKHOV, Hugo, Merimee, Rousseau, Arnold Bennett, Thomas Hardy and many another of tested power invite this month into the peculiarly delightful atmosphere of the Golden Book. The gem of them all at the moment, howe ever, is a book review. Let me tell you about it. Away back almost a hundred years ago & somewhat inconspicuous journal was running, serially, “Barnaby Rudge,” by Charles Dickens, At this its third issue, a young “hack writer? was assigned by the management to write § little story about this instailment and the onesg that had gone before it. The “hack” of course, went to his job. It was Edgar'Allen Poe. And here you have his review of Charles Dickeng in Barnaby Rudge. You read it. Book reviewe ing is a popular school exercise nowadays and a good one, too. Take the little adventure in reviewing as Edgar Allan Poe carried it through, ‘What do you think? . I think that any magazine justifies itself for many months and not just one, for disco%s ering and giving to readers so clear a treasurg as this scrap of wriling most certainly is. BOOKS ABROAD. The Autumn issue of thig international quarterly of comment on fore eign books. Published at the University of Oklahoma, thig magazine, invariably interesting and useful, gives here as outstanding articles, “The Yankee Peril,” by E. A. J. Johnson; “Spanish-Ameri« can Poetry,” by Alice Stone Blackwell; “Amerie can Linguists and German Playwrights,” by P, Schonemann. “The Once Over” gives, as usual, its splendid summary of German, French, Spanish and Italian literature in its various forms. All classified and ready to the eye. NATURE MAGAZINE. Published in W ton by the American Nature Association. Its purpose to “stimulate public interest in every form of nature and the out-of-doors, Devoted to the practical conservation of the great natural resources of America.” A magazine -of great beauty in its illustra« tions and general format of stimulating spirit along the lines of its defined purpose. The best of reading goes with the other unfailing ate tractions of this unique publication. And the plctures! These are a constant and lasting Jov, THE CARILLON. A national quarterly mags« zine of verse, published at the Capital. This perjodical now beginning its third year, “its third successful year,” the editor reminds me, has more than a few contributors from Washington and these no doubt will be of special local interest. Yet, beyond this imw mediate concern “The Carillon” has excels lence of substance and form, calculated ¢ carry it forward through many another year of success and independence, . Looks like a gallant enterprise to me. Oné whose quality of substance is not below the purpose that set it out to meet the clouds the sunrise and the dusk. ; Good luck to “The Carillon.” Better thad “good luck.” Instead, the success that it [ ] clearly deserves. GREATER WASHINGTON. THE NATION’'S CAPITAL MAGAZINE, Both local publications by commereial ang industrial interests of Washington, the Taste growing Capifal of the United States, VIRGINIA: “Pirst in the Heart of the Nation® A most beautiful pictorial production of th§ Virginia State Chamber of Commerce, Riche mond. Not only the scenic splendor of Virginig stands out here, but, besides, here is a wealth of opportunity, in picture, for every sort of industrial development and economie progs ress. Leaders in the various State interests are here, too, and history itself marches the pages of this beautiful magazine. Books Received Mystery: THE MURDER OF STEPHEN KESTER., H. Ashbrook, author of “Murder of Oeg Thane,” ete. New York: Coward-McCann, Ine. CASTLE SKULL. By John Dickson Oary, author of “It Walks by Night,” etc, New York: Harper & Brothers, TRIAL BY WATER. By Hulbert author of “The Owl Taxi,” etc. Rinehart. MYSTERY MANSION. By Lane Philadelphia: The Penn Publishing Ce, MAD MURDER. By Richard H. Wilkinsomg Boston: Meador Publishing Co, TAINTED POWER. By Carroll John Daly, etc. New Parrar author of “The Tag Murders,” York: Edward J. Clode, Inc. TORTURE GARDEN. By Octave Mirbeay, Translated from the French by Alfred C. Bessie. Foreword by James Huneker. Il strated by Jeanette Seelhoff. New Yorks Claude Kendall. THE FLEET HALL INHERITANCE. BY Richard Keverne, author of “The Havering Plot,” etc. New York: Harper & Brothers, MURDER OFF STAGE. By Monte Barretty Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. THE TONI DIAMONDS. By Gordon Latis, New York: The Dial Press. AN INNOCENT CRIMINAL. By J. D. Berege ford. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co, MAD MURDER. By Richard Hill W Boston: Meador Publishing Co. FIRST NIGHT MURDER. By F. G. Parkgd, New York: 'The Dally Press. 4 BUY OR RENT NEW BOOKS 5 at WOMRATH’S 1319 F St. N.W. 3107 14th St. NW. _ Jane Bartlett, 1603 Conn. Ave. N.Wi s Used Books at Remarkable | - Reductions i (o