Crockett and the maudlin sentiment of Dr. Watson are alike deservedly forgotten."

Apparently Lacon's chief cause for exasperation is the loss of Barrie the novelist in Barrie the successful dramatist.

Bernard Shaw is the second subject, to whom Lacon says: "Whatever your faults, you are undoubtedly stimulating. We may not agree with your conclusions; it is extremely probable that we shall quarrel with your taste; but, if we possess brains at all, you will make us think. . . . There are signs in your more recent work of a growing humanity. After all, yours is the type of mind that commonly mellows with age- and even a vegetarian feels the approach of seventy."

Within the first dozen pages, Lacon shows that he is an English critic who is thoroughly acquainted with his subjects and in these biographical sketches he discusses their faults and virtues with engaging candor. Although he chooses to hide his identity, he gives no impression of enmity, but rather that of a valuable "hair-shirt" friend, prickly at times, but decidedly stimulating.

present exalted position "by sheer hard work." "You have the gift of concentration and it has enabled you to do many things more than commonly well. And you have the crowning merit of opening your stories well. Before three pages are read we come upon some striking picture that stands out and gives the keynote of the book."

As for Arnold Bennett, Lacon thinks he is the most acute observer writing novels today, and says: "I take you to be one of those rare men of letters who are capable of writing, at will, to please the popular taste. It was said of you that, at an early stage in your career, you resolved to do certain books for your support - "pot-boilers," as they are playfully but often inaccurately termed in art circles and certain other books to please yourself and to enhance your reputation among the critics. I do not say that this resolution of yours was uncommon: many writers, no doubt, have determined at various times to follow a like sensible course; but it is distinctly unusual for anyone to carry such an intention to a successful conclusion. Most of us, I suspect, are so mistrustful of the public taste in letters that we imagine popularity can be secured by careless and slipshod work; and when we aim at this simple method of pleasing the great body of readers we find, to our disgust, that we have merely succeeded in alienating the reviewer, hitherto our only friend. The fact is, no writer can work happily at anything but his normal level; he cannot "write down" to his public; and any attempt at this sort of condescension will do him more harm than good. He can, however, vary his theme and his methods, within certain limits; and it seems to me that you have managed to do this very cleverly. You discovered, too, a most admirable and ingenious method of using the same story more than once a method so simple that one wonders no one had the intelligence to discover it before. You wrote 'Clayhanger,' and then 'Hilda Lessways,' which is the same novel from the point of view of the woman instead of the man. There seems to be no limit to the

To H. G. Wells, Lacon says: "The great thing about you, in my opinion, is that you have continued to grow. For a novelist success commonly means an arrested development: the world, his agent and his publisher all conspire to persuade him that he has gone far enough, and that for the future he had better make an honest living by imitating himself. From an artistic point of view his career usually ceases at the moment when his commercial success begins. You are not liable to this reproach. Possibly it may be held that you err slightly in the other extreme."

Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, Lacon thinks, is a "bigger thing than has been done by any of our contemporary novelists. There is astonishingly little I could wish altered in it. And, as so often happens, my admiration for this work has thrown a glamour over the rest: I read virtues into them that perhaps are not really there: faults that irritate others seem to me trifling, matters of no moment."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has reached his

developments that may arise out of this interesting departure; it points to a new form of the novel altogether, and it may be admitted that some new form of fiction is greatly needed."

There are seventeen other lectures to such writers as Chesterton, "the spoiled child of English literature;" Hichens; Max Beerbohm, "the Fortunate Youth of the Nineteenth Century;" Kipling; Belloc; Masefield, whose verse is quoted at length; and D. H. Lawrence. And to every one Lacon gives his share of keen appreciation and criticism. In conclusion, he says: "Let it suffice that I have selected here those authors whose work I know best. I have said what I thought of all—I trust without offence. And if by any chance any of them think I have been unkind, let them turn to the illustrations, and be comforted!"

B. W. S.

THROUGH THE YEAR WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS. By Mabel Patterson. 337 pp. Cloth. New York; Walter Neale. 1925.

Authors ancient and modern, countries great and small, and centuries old and new, crowd each other in the pages of this book, which is a decidedly cosmopolitan calendar of writers, arranged by their birthdays. Every day of the year finds not only one, but often several authors represented. And for each name Mabel Patterson has prepared a biographical note, a list of the author's best known works, and a brief quotation. Each month contains a wide variety of names but perhaps the most interesting collection is found in April. Brillat-Savarin, Bismarck, and Edmond Rostand share the first day; Thomas Jefferson and Hans Christian Andersen, the second; Washington Irving, Edward Everett Hale, and John Burroughs, the third. Others celebrating April birthdays are Swinburne, Wordsworth, Hazlitt, Henry Clay, Henry James, Bliss Carman, Shakspere, and Anatole France. A key to the unique medley is an alphabetical index of names. There is also an Appendix containing a varied list of such

ancient authors as Homer, Confucius, Socrates, Horace, Chaucer, Saint Francis, and Spenser.

The Dreamer. A romantic rendering of the life-story of Edgar Allan Poe. By Mary Newton Stanard. Illustrated. 382 pp. Cloth. Philadelphia; J. B. Lippincott Company. 1925. $3.50.

If the purpose of biography is to interpret faithfully not only the life but the spirit of its subject, this book is in every sense a true biography. It is as romantic and imaginative as even the romantic and imaginative Poe himself could desire.

In the Foreword the author says: "This story of Edgar Allan Poe, poet and man, is simply an attempt to make something like a finished picture of the shadowy sketch the biographers, hampered by the limitations of proved fact, must, at best, give us. To this end I have used the story-teller's license to present the facts in picturesque form. Yet I believe I have told a true story - true to the spirit if not to the letter for I think I have made Poe and the other persons of the drama do nothing they may not have done, say nothing they may not have said, feel nothing they may not have felt. In many instances the opinions, and even the words I have placed in Poe's mouth are his own found in his published works or his letters. I owe much, of course, to the writers of Poe books before and up to my time. But more than to any one of his biographers, I am indebted to Poe himself for the revelations of his personality which appear in his own stories and poems, the most part of which are clearly autobiographic."

The first chapter strikes a note of pathos in describing the death of Poe's mother, and this note, so typical of the poet's life, is sustained throughout the book. In fact, a more sympathetic rendering of his life-story could not be imagined.

The author believes that in Poe there dwelt two distinct personalities which dominated him spirit and body by turns. She

calls these personalities Edgar Goodfellow, "the gay, the laughter-loving, the daring," and Edgar the Dreamer, "fond of solitude and silence and darkness." And she proceeds to show how they dominated Poe through his childhood; his boyhood with his fosterparents; his journalistic struggles; his pathetic romance, and his ultimate fame.

Prepared some years ago to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Poe's birth, this book now appears in this new edition which has been improved by conforming the story to the latest discoveries regarding Poe's life, the addition of illustrations, and a table of contents which makes it possible for the reader to turn easily to any special passage or incident.

AN OUTLINE OF COPYRIGHT LAW. By Richard C. De Wolf, LL.B., with an introduction by Thorwald Solberg. 330 pp. Cloth. Boston: John W. Luce & Co.

This book is a scholarly essay based on a series of lectures given before a class in the American University at Washington. Mr. De Wolf sets out to give the writer who is selling his manuscripts a complete survey of the law of copyrights, together with commentaries and practical methods of procedure. The book is intended primarily for authors rather than lawyers, and succeeds admirably in maintaining the layman's viewpoint throughout. The style, which is straightforward and clear, carefully avoids legal phraseology, but loses nothing in accuracy.

The preface by Mr. Solberg, Registrar of Copyrights, is in some respects more timely than the rest of the book. It has to do with the proposed new statute which will supplant the rather antiquated one now in effect. The need for such a change is obvious. Mr. Solberg indicates six desirable and probable amendments, which include doing away with red tape coincident to obtaining a copyright, the entry of the United States into the International Copyright Union, and the separation of the various valuable rights accruing to the author, so that they may be disposed of

separately. The rapid development of the radio, phonograph, and motion picture industries makes this last reform almost obligatory.

The last chapter of the book is filled with sound counsel of a practical nature, pointing out the many pitfalls besetting the way of the author from the time he completes his manuscripts until the last copyright renewal expires.

The subject is as important to the author as that of marketing his work, but has never received the attention it merits. This book should be on the reference table of everyone who is selling "intellectual property," and should be carefully consulted before signing contracts. At the same time, the young writer should not lose sight of the old adage, "A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client." J. K. W. EVERYMAN'S GENIUS. By Mary Austin. 365 pp. Cloth. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1925. $2.50.

What is genius? Even the people who have it do not definitely know what genius is. Yet Mrs. Austin says, "The real wonder is not that one man should be a genius, but that every man should not be." She also says that she is probably the only person to be found who will insist that genius can be acquired. Certainly it is an uncommon idea and a book that is designed to prove this belief is of uncommon interest.

Mrs. Austin's personal success as a novelist, poet, playwright, and critic makes her observations of especial interest to other writers, but she by no means confines her study to the literary world. Her book represents thirty years' personal research into the nature and processes of genius.

Although Mrs. Austin felt that much of her work was still in the laboratory stage, she was persuaded to prepare this book because of the interest aroused by a lecture she gave at New York University, and a series of articles which presented her observations on the interior phases of writing life.

The book contains a selection of instances

and devices, discovered and invented, for managing one's own mind, together with those collected from other workers, either by contact or by research, among the personal records of creative workers of every race and time. In a practical and understandable way, Mrs. Austin discusses the racial resources of genius, resources of education, training talent, genius and the subconscious, the technique of intuition, and acquiring genius.

Of particular interest is the section, "Notes on Personal Methods," representing a wide variety of experiences. Among the contributors to this section are Alexander Harvey, Robert Edmund Jones, Ryan Walker, Fannie Hurst, and Marianne Moore. Maxwell Aley, fiction editor of the Woman's Home Companion, also describes his use of Mrs. Austin's articles in his Journalism class at New York University.

PETER PANTHEISM by Robert Haven Schauffler. 215 pp. cloth. New York, the Macmillan Company 1925. $2.00.

"Unborn Words," published last month in THE WRITER, was only a taste of the delightful feast of interest and humor which regales the reader of this book. It is composed of a collection of essays, originally published in a sufficiently large group of magazines to suggest the catholic appeal of Mr. Schauffler's writings: The Century, The New Republic, The Outlook, The New York Evening Post Literary Review, The Saturday Review of Literature, and The Virginia Quarterly Review.

"Peter Pantheism" is, therefore, a book which should recommend itself to all interested in the light humorous essay. Imaginative, but not fantastic, light, but not flippant, humorous, but not painfully so, poetic, but not obtuse, Mr. Schauffler's style is representative of the best of the modern light essayists. Anyone who suspects himself of possessing a like vein cannot go far wrong in reading this book, once for amusement, and twice and thrice for study.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH VERSIFICATION. By Paull Franklin Baum. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

It is rather late in the day to review Dr. Baum's Principles of English Versification, but not too late to recommend it as one of the handiest and clearest books on the subject. Here will be found a summary of the more important theories of verse rhythm and a sensible conclusion that the underlying rhythm of English verse depends not on accent alone or time alone, but on a combination of these two elements. However, the volume is not given over to a discussion of abstract theories. Each metrical form is carefully explained and the history of it in our poetry traced with illustrations. The discussion of our many stanza forms which is particularly comprehensive should stimulate the novice to imitation and to inventions of his own. All in all, there is no book on English versification which I would recommend sooner to the writer or the appreciative reader of ROBERT HILLYER.

verse.

THOSE WHO RUN MAY READ. Carl Van Doren Forum for March.

WASHINGTON IRVING. George Haven Putnam. Forum for March.

AMY LOWELL AND THE FAR EAST. Florence Ayscough. Bookman for March.

LIFE THROUGH FICTION. II-Major Barbara. Charles A. Bennett. Bookman for March.

AN AMERICAN SONNETEER (DONALD EVANS). Paul Rosenfeld. Dial for March.

GERHART HAUPTMANN. Brian W. Downs. North American Review for March-April-May.

THE IRRESPONSIBLE POWER OF REALISM. O. W. Firkins. North American Review for March-AprilMay.

MAURICE BARRES: AUTHOR AND PATRIOT. F. D. Cheydleur. North American Review for MarchApril-May.

STEPHEN CRANE AT COLLEGE. Harvey Wickham. American Mercury for March.

COMEDY AND THE AMERICAN SPIRIT. Langdon Mitchell. American Mercury for March.

NEWSPAPER GIRLS. Catharine Brody. American Mercury for March.

BILL NYE, HUMORIST. John P. Robinson. Ziff's for March.

H. M. TOMLINSON. John Gunther. Bookman for February.

How I DIDN'T TRY TO BE A WRITER. With Portrait. Edith Ballinger Price. Youth's Companion for February 25.

LIFE THROUGH FICTION. I The Wild Duck. Charles A. Bennett. Bookman for February.

WOOD ENGRAVING NEARLY A LOST ART. Illustrated. Frank French. Photo-Era for February.

BADJECTIVES AND BADVERBS. Allen T. Moore. Mailbag for February.

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PETRARCH'S LETTERS. With portrait. Birger R. Headstrom. Open Court for February.

MAKING PLAYWRIGHTS AND PRODUCERS. An Interview with Professor Baker of Yale. John Bakeless. Independent for January 30.

BRUCE BARTON. With portrait. Ben Duffy. Youth's Companion for February 4.

WILBUR DANIEL STEELE. Frank B. Elser. Bookman for February.

The house in Moscow in which Tolstoy lived in the winter season from 1882 till 1901, and which now belongs to the Soviet Government, has been opened to the public.

Professor Gilbert Murray of Oxford University will come to Harvard next fall at the first incumbent of the Charles Eliot Norton chair of poetry. He will be at Harvard from September until Christmas. Rudyard Kipling, now convalescent, has gone on a Mediterranean cruise.

Poultney Bigelow has sued H. G. Wells for $50,000 damages, alleging that Wells called him a bore. Harold R. Corbin has been made editor of Physical Culture, one of the Macfadden publications.

"Voltaire," by Richard Aldington, is published by E. P. Dutton & Co.

"The Literature of the Middle Western Frontier," by Ralph Leslie Rusk, is published in two volumes by the Columbia University Press.

"How to Describe and Narrate Visually," by L. A. Sherman, is published by the George H. Doran Company.

"The Sonnet of Today - and Yesterday," by David Morton, is published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.

"An Introduction to Expository Writing," by Dora Gilbert Tompkins and Jessie MacArthur, is published by Harper & Brothers.

"The Historian and Historical Evidence," by Professor Allen Johnson, of Yale, is published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

"The Newspaper Worker," by James Philip MacCarthy, is published in a new edition by FrankMaurice, Inc., New York.

"What's the News?" by Harper Leech and John C. Carroll, is published by Pascal Covici, Chicago. The American Journal of Science, established in New Haven in 1818, has been turned over to Yale by Professor Emeritus Edward S. Dana and will now become an integral part of the educational activities of the University. The active editorship will for a time be continued by Professor Bateman

"Contemporary Russian Literature, 1881-1925," by Prince D. S. Mirsky, is published by Alfred A. Knopf.