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THAREE NEW NO DIFFER WIDELY IN SUBJECT “Brothers Ashkenazi,” “Somewhere to the Sea” and “Three Bags Full” Fall Short of Genius, but Achieve Sincerity and Merit Attention—Other Recent Books Reviewed. By Mary-Carter Robefls. THE BROTHERS ASHKENAZIL By 1. J. Singer. Translated from the Yiddish by Maurice Samuel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. BOMEWHERE TO THE SEA. By Kenneth Reddin. Boston:-Hough- ton Mifflin Co. THREE BAGS FULL. By Roger Bur- lingame. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co. HE first and third of the novels listed above are released to.the public this week. The second came out last month. The three bear no resemblance to one another in subject matter; “The Brothers Ashkenazi” is a story of Po- lish Jews in the city of Lodz, “Some- where to the Sea” is set in Dublin and deals with the Sinn Fein con- spiracy of 1920 and “Three Bags Full” is a family novel of New York State. Yet there is a likeness in the yorks in that all are sincere and reditable, all deal with backgrounds rather than with people and none is jnspired or memorable as writing. Since, obviously, every novel can- not be a work of literature, one sup- poses one should give thanks for the variety of fiction which is not trash, for the work- which is done in good taste and with care for truth and form. Yet if one were to shed tears for authors, one fears that they would not be for the perpetrators of the clap-trap which makes up the great stream of current fiction, but precisely for the men and women whose work is done in careful hon- esty—without fire. How sorrowful in- deed must be the labors of the poor scribe who lays words end to end up to the length of 500 pages only to achieve decorum! Such writers clear- ly know merit. It is impossible fo think that a man who can write a long and perfectly decorous novel has not aimed in the beginning at some- thing better. Such works are every reviewer's bane. What is there to say of them? One cannot treat them lightly; good taste and honesty should never be mocked. and one cannot improvidently draw upon one's precious adjective reserve either, for a work of genius may fall from heaven the day afterward. The good, decorous, honest book indeed is as exasperating as the good, decor- ous, honest person. One respects it, one sympathizes with it, one would like to make its way easier for it. And at heart one feels it is more of nuisance than any one thing has a right to be. To this classification belong the three books listed above. “The Broth- ers Ashkenazi” has had advance pub- licity of a sort which made one look, | albeit cautiously, for a possible work of genius. Mr. Knopf, writing over his own signature, ‘dists it frankly with “Kristin Layransdatter” and *“The Growth of the Soil” As Mr. Knopf is not wholly without eritical discernment, one opened the covers of “The Brothers Ashkenazi” with some | expectation. It may be, of course, that the proc- ess of translation is to some degree responsible for the curiously lifeless quality of the characters of this work. ‘Translation should be taken into ac- | count certainly. But, on the other | hand, one recalls that “Kristin Lav- ransdatter” itself was a translation. ‘The difficuliies are not insurmounta- ble. With all allowance made for them 1in the case of “The Brothers Ashken- azi” it would seem that the work is | more industrial and sogiological his- tory of a city that it is 8 human docu-~ ment. It has movements rather than characters. And one holds to the| theory that novels are intended pri- marily to be about men and women. ‘With the growth of “mass” thinking, of course, the theory may become out- moded.- It may happen in years ahead that the hero of a novel will legitimately be John Proletariat Up- surge, the heroine Bettina Social Con-. science and the villain Count Alexis | Laissez-Faire. But for the present, the backward mentality of the review- er clings to a liking for human beings. And it is the lack of human beings in “The Brothers Ashkenazi” which is the basis of her disappointment in the work. It is the story of industrial change in a Polish cloth-weaving city, involv- ing the displacement of hand workers by machines, the use of immoral meth- ods of competition among owners, the oppression of the workers, and—of course—the gradual emergence of class consclousness among them. The writer unquestionably knows his back- ground, As a history of industrial growth his work is first-rate. But as a novel? Well, take, for ex- ample, the title and its relation to the text. The brothers, who are the lead- ing characters, are simple lay figures. Their only importance to the author has plainly been the part which, as types, they play in his industrial pic- ture—Meyer is the shrewd, unscrupu- lous cold-hearted factory owner, and his twin, Yakob, is the generous, pleas- ure-loving opportunist. Mr. Singer early in his work makes the gesture of setting the two up in mutual opposi- tion; he flirts for a few chapters with the time-honored theme of brother- against-brother. But his interest is not really in the brothers. It is in the rise of the proletariat, and the problem of Jew against Christian, and will workers of the two religions be able to forget their ancient hatreds in order to unite against the common foe, the owner and capitalist? So Yakob. soon fades out of the story, and Meyer fills no more place in it than is needed to supply & boss of thoroughly contemptible qualities. In other words, he becomes & dummy in his creator’s hands. Even in the pass- ages which are devoted to his personal existence and emotions, he never comes to life. His contribution to the living quality of the drama consequently is negligible, ‘although' he ‘is the main character. As for the proletariat side of the class struggle, it has hardly more human _Teality. Its leader is Nissan, who, in class in rabbinical studies. One cannot damn them | for several great tragedies in it, but he treats it as if he were. impatient with any of its aspects except those which bear upon the class struggle. There is, for example, the episode of the strike which ends in a pogrom; the Christian ‘workers, thwarted of their ends, turn on the Jews—who are also workers—and massacre num- bers of them. The strike, of course, is a failure. Nissan, a Jew, had or- ganized the uprising, only to see it get completely out of hand. The emotional possibilities of the event call for a Tolstol. Mr. Singer has related the happening briefly and boredly, as one who sets down a mere necessary detail, It would not be fair to dismiss his work, however, without writing that he has a vivid talent for the use cf detail, and that the impersonal qual- | ity of his book is relieved by brief brilliant passages descriptive of con- ditions and minor characters. But these passages are superimposed, as it were, and the fabric of the book as a whole-is of a mechanical gray- ness. The chief merit of the work would seem to be an educational value. America has had immigrants in great numbers from the district which Mr. Singer treats, and an understanding | of these people would undoubtedly be | fostered by some knowledge of the brutalized existence which—accord- ing to “The Brothers Ashkenazi"— they have led. Coming to “Somewhere to the Sea,” we have another world and a man- ner of writing as different as if it actually had derived from & separate star. For this novel is a work of the | kind which reviewers delight to call & “nostalgic romance.” As has been said, it is set in Dublin | in the days of the Sinn Fein con- | spiracy, which means & Dublin of ambushes, escapes, arrests, searches and sudden death. Yet it is neither a brutally realistic book nor a tale and highly informational as to the manner in which the great health foundations work. NOW THAT APRIL'S HERE. AND' OTHER STORIES, By Morley Cal- laghan. New York: Random House. R. MORLEY CALLAGHAN may possibly merit the designation which has sometimes been laid on him of being a dealer in tricks, but whether he does or no, it must be admitted that he performs tricks of distinction. He is a very adroit writer and he knows prose. In the present bankrupt: con- dition of the short story, his work ought not to be underrated. It is not as if we could produce half a dozen others and say, “These write better.” The present collection of 35 stories is much of a level, that level being one of delicate treatment of almost imper- ceptible situations. In almost all the tales it is the desires of the human heart which is the subject, rather than the men and women who have those desires. For Mr. Callaghan has & curious faculty for dissecting that organ and laying it bare in all its wishfulness, without giving any par- ticular identity to its possessors. This faculty imparts a classic impersonality to his work, which its excellent formal- ity bears out. At the same time there is indisputably a colorlessness about it, which derives from the same source. In this latter respect Mr. Callaghan falls short of Somerset Maugham, whose work his most nearly resembled. Maugham is rich in color, even while using the same precision of form and somewhat the same subtlety of mnoti- vation. Taken story by story, the work in the present volume must be conceded to represent a high mark in the pres- ent ranks of short story publication. It makes the heavy pretentiousness and momentously presented triteness | of pure adventure. Instead, it en- deavors to portray the state of mind | | of a young man who goes up to the neck into conspiracy and then finds that he wants his life for himsell after all. It is all delicately done, in pastel colors. The hero's struggles are | poetic rather than profound. The | real enjoyment to be’ derived from | reading the book is in the lively back- ground against which the young man moves—openings at the Abbey The: ter, exhibitions attended by A. E. and ‘ James Stephens, hole-and-corner ma- neuverings with life at stake, but cai ried off with a calmness born of des- perate habit. doubt the verisimilitude of the pic-| ture or to feel that “Somewhere to | the Sea” is not written from the’life. It rings true and commands respect on that count. Yet, the reviewer prophesies, most readers will find it hard to care a great deal about the young man or what comes of his divided desires. This, too, may be called a book about a time, rather than about a man. “Three Bags Full” is a family novel. It deals with the descendants of Hendrik Van Huyten, who settled up- state New York shortly after the Rev- olution and whose family remained in the town which he had founded. It is & good sound chronicle, but, like | many family novels, it gives forth the | impression that the author has cared | more for his characters than any one generation they parade before the| reader, having their love affairs and griefs, and no one will deny that there is truth to life in the procession. But truth without driving significance is photography, and family albums have long been a by-word. Then, .50, Mr. Burlingame has rather a naive style.| But “Three Bags Full” is, notwith- standing these disparagements, an | eminently respectable piece of work. THE RISE OF LIBERALISM. By Harold J. Laski. New York: Har- per & Bros. 'HIS is a history of the philosophy of liberalism, timely in that its philosophy at a crisis. Sketching in broad strokes the development of lib- eral ‘thought through four centuries, he comes at last to the conclusion that today our business - men—one-time champions of liberalism—are its op- | posers. “The authority of democracy to en- force its will,” he says, “at least so far as its elected representatives ex- press its will, is at present thwarted by the Supreme Court; in Europe the same end has been served, more bru- tally, by the advent of men Hke Hit- ler and Mussolini. In each case, what is at stake is essentially a social phil- osophy, & view of the way in which the national income should be dis- tributed. The President and Con- gress seek to use the supreme co- ercive power of the State for their view; but the Constitution stands in their way. In such a dilemma the stage is set for one of those funda- ‘mental conflicts of which no one can predict the outcome. The period has arrived in American economic evolu- tion when the postulates of its system are incompatible with political democ- racy. Either the class relations of America must be changed or it will be compelled to change the democratic basis of society in order to realize its fundamental objective of profit.” ‘That is his conclusion.. In & similar way Prof. Laski discusses liberalism in relation to fascism, socialism snd the Russian dictatorship. AN AMERICAN DOCTOR'S ODYSSEY. By Victor _Helser, MD. New York: W. W. Norton Co. - THI subtitle of this best-selling book s “Adventures in 45 Counjries.” And therein lies its story. Dr. Heiser, backed by the Rockefel- ler Foundation, traveled for 30 It is impossible to| else is likely to. Generation after| built a boat in his backyard, in order distinguished author now sees that| [ of our esteemed fictioneers look like the Grand Rapids concept of the wood-working art in the presence of | Chippendale. It is delicate, well-bal- anced and quiet. And sometimes it is | profound. If this be a trick, then it is one worth studying. One commends | it to those contemporary artists of the story form who are playing marbles | down at the corner while waiting for the 1937 O'Brien accolade. It might give them some literary work to do. THE ' ENCHANTED VOYAGE. By Robert Nathan. New York: Alfred | A. Knopt, Inc. 'O SAY that Robert Nathan is an | author whose work, no matter how light, must be received with joy, is only to state a literary truism. For | Robert Nathan is & genius. ' That in- definable quality which distinguishes perfect from good, that ability to | create life rather than to write ac- | curately about it—that is his. There | is only one possible complaint to bring | | against him. He writes too little. His present book is & small one. In | a period in which novels grow longer and longer, until a reviewer begins desperately to judge them by their ef- facacy as doorstops, “The Enchanted | Voyage” adds up to just 187 pages, | and it has large type and wide mar- | | gins, too. But they are Robert| Nathan in good form—if not in the very best of his form, still himself. He tells us here a fanciful litjle | piece about a Bronx carpenter who that he might dream that he was a It was not much of a boat, | | but it was a fine vehicle for dreams. | Then, in a series of quietly humor- | ous events, the boat actually gets “launched,” and the little carpenter’s adventures begin in earnest, surpass- ing in their strangeness even the things of which he has dreamed. It is unnecessary to go beyond this point in revelation. The book is done with | Nathan's familiar wisdom and gentle- ness. His old readers will want it. | sailor. WHITEOAK HARVEST. By Mazo De La Roche. Boston: Littie, Brown & Co. N AWE before the popularity of the | Whiteoak series of novels, a mere | reviewer hesitates to say anything even slightly detrimental about so splendidly successful an institution in the world of letters. Yet, having hes- itated, the present writer will commit herself to the proposition that the present -Whiteoak opus is & tour de force and a strictly average piece of romantic cheese. Miss De La Roche has evidently come to the point with her famous family where she feels the same passion for its members as sen- timental spinsters do for babies. She gurgles over them. The reviewer does not like gurgling. WHAT PLANE IS THAT? By C. A. ‘Weymouth, jr., with a foreword by Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. ™ THESE days, when the slert grammar school pupil can look up at an airplane flying at the medium altitudes—up to, say 7,500 feet—and tell you not only what it is, who built it, and. perhaps. even the make of engine, seating. capacity and wing section, it behooves the well-posted adult to at least know the difference between a scheduled airliner and an Army pursuit airplane if he hopes to maintain any reputation for intelli- gencé when in juvenile society. ‘The Weymouth book is for the adult who doesn’t want to be compelled to. light a cigarette in & vain attempt to be nonchalant when & youngster asks, “What plane -is that?” and points maliciously at a new Navy Grumman single-seater fighter. It's no use try- ing to pass it off lightly by saying, “Oh, these new ones are so .much’ alike, it's hard to tell.” They can be told apart very readily and Wey- mouth shows you how it is done. The book is a collection of accurate and spirited line drawings of the lead- iy ‘types ot -the important ‘date on -the ship, re- duced to tabulated simplicity, “To know thiese new phases by sight flertest -of fish, has %0 .come up on the Sometimes victims. . VELS STRIKE HIGH LEVEL OF SKILL P L .IN THE CURRENT MAGAZINES IRIS MORLEY, Author of “The Proud Paladin.” (William Morrow & Co.) “Peasant Digging,” a lithograph by Vincent Van (The Viking Press.) “Letters to an Artist.” Goh, from Brief Reviews of Books Non-Fiction. YES ON JAPAN. By Victor Yakontoff. New York: Cow- ard McCann. E An attempt by a former military attache at the Imperial Rus- | sian Embassy at Tokio to write an unbiased survey of Japan today. Full of valuable information. PORTRAIT OF A PEOPLE CROA- TIA TODAY. By Dorothea Orr. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Record of a year’s stay in Croatia, which seems to have been long enough to convert the author to admiration of the land. Fairly interesting. FLOWERS AND THEIR TRAVELS. By Frances Margaret Fox. Indi- anapolis: Bobbs-Merril Co. How flowers came to our shores and where the various kinds were first dis- covered. Interesting for school chil- dren. WITH AXE AND MUSKET AT PLYMOUTH. By Gleason L. Archer. New. York: The Ameri- can Historical Society. History of the Pilgrims, told in fic- tionized narrative form. Good read- ing for school children. A WORLD IN DEBT. By Freeman Tilden. New York: Funk & Wag- nalls. An examination into the nature of money owed, and the effect of such money on society. Pertinent to the times. SCOTTSBORO THE FIREBRAND OF COMMUNISM. By Files Cren- shaw, jr., and Kenneth A. Miller. Montgomery: The Brown Print- ing Co. A study of the Bcottsboro case, based on the idea that communism has been responsible for much of the agitation conterning - the alleged wrongs of the accused Negroes. By | & lawyer and & newspaper man. McLOUGHLIN AND OLD OREGON. By Eva Emery Dye. New York: ‘Wilsori-Erickson, Inc. Revised edition of the story of the Scotch doctor of the Oregon frontier. THE CONQUEST. By Eva Emery Dye. New York: Wilson-Erick- son, Inc. Revised_edition of the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition. THE AARON ‘BURR CONSPIRACY. With introduction by Dr. Charles A, Beard. By Walter Flavius Mc- Caleb. . New York:' Wilson-Erick- son, Inc. ‘ Revised edition of a work first pub- lished .in 1903. 0 THE RISE OF AMERICAN DEMOC- "RACY. By. Dr, Sydney. Strong. New York; Wilson-Brickson, ‘Inc. < Collectien of brief selections from ‘contemporary records, —designed to show the growth of American demog- récy from the time of Columbus. on. CAN INDUSTRY GOVERN ITSELF? By O. W. Willcox. - New York: W. .. W. Norton Co. -A study of the “directed economies” made by the sugar industry, as &n general might in sell- MY PIONEER PAST. By Guy Wi ‘Memories of a ploneer whose famjly septtled in Oregon in 1885, Interesting. By Harold McCracken. New York: Robert Speller Publishing Corp. Geographical romance. A TIME TO REMEMBER. By Leane Zugsmith. New York: Random House. - Class struggles in a department store. THE PROUD PALADIN. B, Iris Mor- ley. New York: William Morrow & Co. Romance of fourteenth century France. THE HEART AWAKES. By M. B. Kennicott. Boston: . Houghton Miflin Co. Love of mature and sophisticated man and woman, told by medium of lstters, telegrams and so on. NOAH PANDRE. By Salman Schne- our. Translated from the Yiddish by Joseph Letwich. New York: Lee Furman. Story of a Jewish hero in pre-war Russia. Rather more hearty and less ‘melancholy than is customary among ‘works on the subject. TWO DIVIDED BY ONE. By Norah C. James. New York: The Macauley Co. Triangle. THE BOY SOOUTS' YEAR. BOOK. Edited by Franklin K. Matthews. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co. Short stories about sports. Poetry. THE TREE OF TIME. By Gertrude Huntington McGiffert. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Collection of verse, some previously published, various lengths and sub- vori s’s o Live Alone New Hungarian Quarterly Appears, Looking Literate énd Rich. Time Sutrveys the Vote-Getting Aspects of Political Pamphleteering in 1936 Campaign. By M. C. R. ‘WO quarterlies come to hand today, breaking the polite mo- notony of weeklies and month- lies which at present seem to be doing mothing much but view with plaintive alarm. So—welcome quarterlies. One is the Hungarian. It is new as & publication, this being its second issue. The Society of the Hungarian Quarterly publishes it, and Columbig University sponsors it in this country. It is literate, it is printed on nice, thick paper, it looks expensive. Hun- gary—past, present, political and artistic—is its subject. For non-Hun- garian readers the most interesting plece, in the present number will be s lorig one by Sir Norman Angell, called “The English-Speaking Peoples and the League Ideal” S8ir Norman is opposed to war. He has sald so in English and American publica- tions. Now he says so in the Hun- garian quarterly. The second quarterly is the Gilbert and Sullivan, issued by the American Gilbert and Sullivan association. It has a nice verse in it. Observe— “England, O England! ‘We thank thee very much for Magna Carta— subsequent democracy the starter; We thank thee, too, for Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell, These many years they've filled & long-felt lack well: ‘We thank thee for Burgoyne and Lord Cornwallis, Whose visit in our need was such a solace; We thark -thee, Britain, we don't mind -confessing, For many another truly unmixed blessing. "twere hateful, Yes, contemptible and petty. Were We not supremely grateful, Far beyond all other boons, For Sir William's gay libretti And Sir Arthur’s golden tunes.” And, after tripping through a large | number of stanzas in this manner, it ends with these lines: | “And so0, bless } The jeu d'esprit, the rare noblesse Of G. and S. “Now the final curtain falls, ‘While, responsive to our ecalls, Still they caper and coyly dart, All in the mode of D'Oyly Carte. “A la mode and a la Carte Savoy fare served a la Carte.” ot And, nothing short of ‘The author is Melville Cane. Quar- terlies, farewell. ME, this week, gives space to cam- paign literature—as campaign lit- | erature seems to be called. Septem- ber, says Time, is the great pamphlet season in' campaign years. Maybe. ‘The present reviewer, however, has a great wish for November to come, and | has had it since about last February. | Time's list is & modest one compared to the bales of pro and cons which have been weekly dumped on her desk | in that time. At present a space on her shelves is duly marked Week'’s Savior and Panacea.” Into it ‘What Wells did for history with such amazing success in “The Outline of History” he has now done for the whole science of life! Here in one thrilling narrative is the dramatic epic of all living things—a whole library of knowledge on every form of life—revealing the mysteries of the human body and humen behavioz; of animal life; life in the sea; in- the origin and evolution of Growth aad Development of the Embrye Childhood, Adelesconce, Maturity How Our Food Becomes Blood Memmels Birds and Reptiles Fishes, Insects Vegetable Life The Smellest Living Things Evolution and Creation The Six Vitaming outstan fore each month to membe: [H.G.WELLSs ky: Greatest Outline universe. In fascinating text and pictures H. Julian S. Huxley and G. P. Wells, unfolds the secrets of birth, sex life working of the body machine in man and in all other living things. “The Science of Life” is a work which no modern, well-informed person can do without, Originally published in four volumes for $12.00, it is now pre- sented complete in this ONE magnificent volume of 1514 pages—and you may have it free, if you accept this offer of free membership in the Guild. ‘This is the most sensational offer the Guild has ever made. Don't miss it. Act at once before the supply of these wonderful books is exhausted. A Few of the Fascinating Subjects in This Great Volume Nervous Mechanism ond the Brain Sea Serpents end Living Dineseurs Infoctions and Comtugious Disease Is Human Rejuvenation Desirable? Ways and Werlds of Life The Plants of the Ancieat World Reproduction and Drugs, Their Uses and Dangers Mendel's Law of Heredity *"Missing Links'" in Evelution The Ages of Ancient Life The Reptilian Adventure promptly goes the political—or cam- paign—literature. ‘Time, however, not hawing to make & steady thing of it, has given itself 4 little fun. It has estimated its listed works on the ground of their “poten- tiality” or vote-getting strength. It mentions eight current publications, as follows: “Uncommon Sense,” by David Cushman Coyle, potentiality 100,000 votes for Roosevelt; “Waste,” by David Cushman Coyle, potentiality 25,000 votes for Roosevelt; “The Long Road,” by Arthur E. Morgan, poten- tiality 10,000 votes for Roosevelt and 5,000 for Landon; “Neither Purse Nor Sword,” by James Beck, potentiality 100 votes for Landon and 1,000 for Roosevelt; “I'm for Roosevelt,” by | Joseph P. Kennedy, potentiality 5,000 | votes for Roosevelt; “What It's All| About,” by Willlam Allen White, po- | tentiality 150,000 votes for Landon; “Half Way With Roosevelt,” by Ernest | K. Lindley, potentiality 5,000 votes for Roosevelt and 2,500 for Landon; “After the New Deal, What?” by Nor- for Thomas, 2,000 for Landon and 3,000 for Roosevelt. | | man Thomas, potentiality 1,000 votes ! | | So by this standard the week’s | pamphleteering has netted the Presi- dent 149,000 votes and Mr. Landon 160,100. Enough William Allen Whites, seemingly, would swing the Nation, E story of Mrs. Wally Simpson, 80 much in the news because of her friendship with the King of Eng- land, is discussed in this week's Liber- ty. The author of the piece is Fred- erick Lewis. Mrs. Simpson has been reported a “new-rich” American, says Mr. Lewis. | | Actually, he continues, “her ancestry goes back much farther into Britain's history than the King's own House of Hanover and Windsor. “The Warfleld family is descended from that noble knight, Pagan de ‘Warfield, who came to England with William' the Conqueror in 1066 and distinguished himself in the Battle of Hastings. . .. : “Richard Warfield, direct descend- ant of Pagan, came to Maryland in 1662, and settled on the banks of the Severn. Here, st this estate known as Warfield Right, he founded the |'American branch of the family. . . .| “Furthermore. Mrs. Simpson’s | mother was a Montague of the Vir- | ginia Montagues, who go back almost if not quite as far.” And thus the “new-rich” epithet is disposed. | The remainder of the article traces the course of the royal friendship from its beginnings in the home of Mrs. Jimmie- Corrigan to the King's first dinner—“the meal heard ’'round the world.” THE current New Republic pub- ishes an indignant review of Margaret Mitchell's best-selling “Gone With the Wind,” lashing the hapless book because it “flatters people who like to think of themselves as aristo- crats” and because it is an encyclo- pedia of the plantation legend,” which legend, says Mr. Malcolm Cowley (the author), is “false in part and silly in part and vicious in its gen- eral effect on Southern life today.” “The | Then, having gotten that off his chest to the length of a column, class-con< free TO NEW MEMBERS OF THE LITERARY G. Wells, in collabors and hundreds of other subjects GUILD MEMBERSHIP IS FREE publication. » sparkling, illustrated little journal—is sent free rs of the Guild. In this magazine, descrip- lection and scious Malcolm admits in one short paragraph that Miss Mitchell has written a pretty good book, after all, demonstrating, apparently, that the critic’s duty is to politics first and criticism afterward. But the thing that interested the present reviewer in his piece was not his comments on the book, which are perfectly predictable to any one fa- miliar with his state of mind, but a passage from a Macmillan Co. press release which he quotes. Says the release: “It appears that if ail the coples of ‘Gone With the Wind’ which have been printed were piled on top of each other the stack would be 50 times as high as the Empire State Building in New York City. Or if the pages of all these copies were laid end to end they would' encircle the world at the Equator two and two-thirds times.” Now, this is really interesting liter= ary criticlsm. It suggests a method of advertising which publishers, for some inexplicable reason, have over= looked, advertising works of literature, that is, by size, weight and thick- ness. Three dollars’ worth of book, as it were, in certifiable form. So much paper, 5o much ink. So many ounces—or would it be best to call them ounces? Might it not be strike ing to institute a new system of meas- ures for the trade? “Anthony Ade verse,” for example, could be used as a standard, and noveis could be .ad- vertised as weighing so many adverses, or half-adverses, or double adverses, or what have you? It seems very rea- sonable. And it certainly would throw blurb writers out of their jobs. That, in itself, would seem to be recom= mendation enough. o S TR Aids Uphill Drivers, ARYLAND, attacking the State road traffic problem from a new angle has hit upon a solution of the seml-narrow road and hill ion, On a number of three-lane roads M ! traffic lines are’ painted in such & manner that traffic hill has two lanes, approaching & while that dee scending has but one lane. Our Lending Library hos all the latest books Take one home to read tonight "‘Gone With the Wind" “Drums Along the Mohawk' “I Am the Fox" . IOC for 3 days 2¢ for each additional day Lending Library . . . First Floor Whole Amazing Story of E SCIENCE OF LIFE , Every reader of the Famous “Outline of History” has eagerly awaited this Great Companion Work. 'S VALUE Twice a Year ‘This Mn new BONUS plan gives thousands of Guild . an additional NEW book every lfl ‘months ABSOLUT!LYME;CI.“ Full details of this special plan will be sent to you upon enrollment, 1€ you wish to enroll through a_ local. store, visit Wood- word & Lothrop, Book Department. MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY FREE~"The Science of Life" Gulld of , Dept. o m‘-fiw 9 W. 5. Pnrall-me without charge as s member of thé Literary Gufld of Americs.” 1-am to Teceixs free each month the Guiid llllll\'m,”“wlh’fll." and ::I .. Othér membershid privileges. 1t 1s understood that I will purchase A mind-. mum ol four bosks through the Literary Guild within a year—either Guild Buloctions or any pther books of my choice—and me dsainst ags incre Jn canss of v @ copy of K. G. Wells’ you guarantss to n price of Guild selections during this. tme.. igreement. you will send me at oncs, “The Science of Life.”