ONE-ACT PLAYS BY CANADIAN AUTHORS. Edited by Mary Wallace Brooks. 228 pages. Paper. Montreal: The Canadian Authors' Association.

The announcement that the Atlantic Monthly $10,000 Novel Prize has been won by a Canadian author reminds the literary world that all the talent among the modern English group is not confined to the British Isles. The Canadian Authors' Association includes not only writers of established reputation but many young authors who show skill in varied forms of writing. Among the most promising collections of plays that have come to this department is the first book of one-act plays by Canadian authors, edited by Mary Wallace Brooks, and presented by the Drama Group of the Montreal Branch, C. A. A. The plays selected for the book have been chosen primarily for production by Little Theatres, Community Players, or amateur dramatic societies. They are distinguished by a wide variety of fancy and, as might be expected, many show native knowledge of French and English history, manners, and customs. Stuart Armour, a member of the Community Players, Montreal, in "The Maid," portrays a visit of Jeanne D'Arc to a dugout in the British lines in France during the World War. Gregory Doane, the youngest of the playwrights, a member of the class of 1927 of Acadia University, contributes two plays with an interesting historical background: "For the Em

pire," depicting Napoleon and Josephine; and "A Dead Woman Bites Not," an unusual study of Queen Elizabeth and her Secretary of State. Leslie Gordon Barnard, one of Canada's best known short-story writers, offers two powerful bits of tragedy in "The Traitor," and "The Midnight of Monsieur St. Jean." "The Dream," by Mary Wallace Brooks, is a pretty piece of phantasy about Shelley. Other unusual phantasies are Pauline B. Perrigard's "All Hallow's Eve," Merton Stafford Threlfall's "The Happiest Place," Harry Green's "The Death of Pierrot," Stuart Armour's "The Newcomer," and Frances Fenwick Williams's "Which." Interesting studies of peasant types are represented in T. M. Morrow's "The Blue Pitcher," Nancy Rankin's "The Hardhead," and Pauline B. Perrigard's "The King." "Voices," by Mary Wallace Brooks, "The Favours of My Lady Leone," by Margaret E. Elliott, and "The Turn of the Road," by Elizabeth Jerrold Church, are good examples of dramatic characterization.

Mazo de la Roche, winner of the Atlantic novel award, contributes two plays, "Low Life," and "Come True." Both are ample proof that she has mastered the drama as well as the novel form. "Low Life" is a unique and witty study of Mrs. Benn, a charwoman, her worthless husband, and their non-paying guest, Linton of the lordly manners, who wins his board in an unexpected way. "Come

IMAGINATIVE WRITING. By Adele Bildersee. 226 pages. Cloth. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company.

During twenty years, more or less, of experience, Professor Bildersee has learned that the art of writing cannot be taught; it can only be learned. "The part the teacher can play in this process," she writes, "is that of guide and adviser - collaborator, if need be. Accordingly the book has its center, not in the subject matter to be taught, but in the students to be reached."

Students, therefore, are shown how to study the finished handiwork of practiced craftsmen of the art of writing as young painters study the canvases of their masters. In a few heartening pages, the teacher dispels the illusion that writing is easy for the elect and impossible for all else. Then she proceeds to take up each problem separately as it arises in the projects she presents. Recognizing that plot has become passé in this age of the biographical novel, Professor Bildersee uses the newer method in helping her students to plan and write chapters of a biographical story. There are many pages of examples from the best modern writers which are used to solve questions of narrative method and style. Especially helpful are the chapters on the Materials of Description, Writing the First

Chapter, Sincerity and Simplicity in Writing, A Feeling for Word Values, The Novel in which Nothing Happens, which Nothing Happens, The Dramatic Method, Special Parts of the Story, A Vacation from Realism. The experienced author as well as the beginner will find inspiration in these pages, although Professor Bildersee never attempts to make writing appear easy even quoting Irvin Cobb to prove her argument:

"You should see me some morning when I'm in the mood for dashing off the stuff. There I sit, dashing it off at the rate of about an inch and a half an hour, and using drops of sweat for punctuations. I'm the same sort of impetuous dasher that the Muir Glacier is. And so is every other writer I know who is getting by with it. They say Thackeray worked three weeks once over a single paragraph, and then threw it away and started in all over again. What ails the rest of us is that we work long hours over those paragraphs, and then have n't sense enough to throw them away. We leave them in."

THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. By Lucy Lockwood Hazard. 326 pages. Cloth. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

Students of American literature will find here the first attempt to consider our literature from the point of the western and southern expansion that has kept pace so rapidly with changes in our geographical frontiers.

Mrs. Hazard is peculiarly fitted to make such a study. Born in Connecticut, removed to Southern California in early childhood, she grew up in an atmosphere of transplanted Puritanism and western freedom. She was educated at the University of California and is a member of the English Department of Mills College. She has analyzed the frontier as it influences American life and philosophies and has studied the frontiers of Puritan and Cavalier, hunter, miner, and farmer, as other writers have chosen them for a setting. The book considers not only regional pioneering, but industrial pioneering and spiritual pioneering. From Hawthorne, Cooper, Bret Harte, Garland, and others, Mrs. Hazard pro

ceeds to a study of such interpreters of modern frontier life as Anderson and Cather. It is a lively and refreshing study from a new point of view that should prove most stimulating to writers.

THE CHILDREN'S OWN BOOK OF LETTERS AND STORIES. By Maude Burbank Harding. 221 pages. Cloth. Boston: Marshall Jones Company.

Every author who realizes the value of early training in writing will want to see this little book in the hands of every boy or girl who shows any inclination to write. It will be, undoubtedly, the first important handbook for many a budding author under the age of twelve. Seldom have we seen so much necessary information offered in such vastly entertaining form. Such often prosaic matters as parts of speech are presented in the top tray of the "tool chest," as the author calls the pages which hold only the tools themselves. There is instruction in writing the friendly letter, the semi-formal letter, notes, short stories, imaginative description, storyletters, book reviews, plays, and poems. And there are countless suggestions for stories for all seasons, with many pages of actual letters and stories written by boys and girls in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Grades of The Woodward School.

New Books in Brief

"Byron: A Study of the Poet in the Light of New Discoveries," by Albert Brecknock, is published by D. Appleton & Co.

"Anthony Trollope: A Commentary," by Michael Sadleir (Houghton Mifflin Company), is a study of the novelist's work, together with a record of his life. The book has an introduction by A. Edward Newton.

"An Outline of Contemporary Drama," by Thomas H. Dickinson, is published by the Houghton Mifflin Company.

"Memoir of Jane Austen," by James Edward Austen-Leigh (Oxford University Press), deals with the personality, family life, and work of Miss Austen.

"Correct English," by H. Joseph Walthier (Frederick H. Hitchcock), deals with disputed points in English spelling, pronunciation, and usage.

"The Poetry of Nonsense," by Emile Cammaerts (E. P. Dutton & Co.), is a comparison of nonsense verse and poetry.

"Studying the Short Story," by Blanche Colton Williams (Doubleday, Page, & Co.), contains, among other things, a complete analysis of Irving Cobb's prize story, "The Snake Doctor," and a list of short stories that have become famous.

"New Methods for the Study of Literature," by Edith Rickert, is published by the University of Chicago Press.

"The Literary Revolution," by Stanton A. Coblentz (Frank-Maurice, Inc.), is a study of revolutionary tendencies in modern literature.

"Essays on Literature and Life," by A. CluttonBrock, is published by E. P. Dutton & Co.

"The Road to the Temple," by Susan Glaspell (Frederick A. Stokes Company), is an account of the life of George Cram Cook, who founded the Provincetown Players, and whose grave the Grecian government marked with one of the fallen stones from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

"The Actor in Dickens: A Study of the Histrionic and Dramatic Elements in the Novelist's Life and Works," by J. B. Van Amerongen, is published by D. Appleton & Co.

The Oxford University Press has published a "New History of Spanish Literature," by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly.

"The Sea in English Literature," by A. Treneer, is published by Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., of London.

"English Spelling: Its Rules and Reasons," by W. A. Craigie, is published by F. S. Crofts & Co.

"Henry James: Man and Author," by Pelham Edgar, is published by the Houghton Mifflin Company.

"A History of Caricature," by Bohun Lynch, is published by Little, Brown, & Co.

"Behind the Scenes with a Newspaper Man," by E. J. Stackpole, is published by J. B. Lippincott & Co.