BOOKS & AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2272, 5 October 1914, Page 3

BOOKS & AUTHORS.

[By Libee.]

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

THE WONDER BOOK OF SOLDIERS.

The appearance of "Hie Wonder Book of Soldiers" (Ward, Lock and Co.; per Whitcombe and Tombs) is singularly apropos at the present moment when nothing is talked of but the great war, and even the most peace-loving of civilians finds himself impelled to take an interest in each and every phase of military . life. The recent addition to Messrs. Ward Lock's well-known "Wonder Book" series is a handsome quarto volume of- some three hundred pages, packed so liberally with pictures of soldiers and soldiering in all its branches, that almost every page in the stout volume either contains an illustration in or faces some full-page plate. In. addition to several largo > coloured plates the illustrations in monotone; which - number several hundreds, describe episodes of campaigns recent and of comparatively olden times, whilst every step in a soldier's career, every incident in his life, in barracks, on parade ground, on the troopship, or in the' actual field of war, is carefully and accurately illustrated. As a picture book alone the volume is well worth purchasing. But almost equal interest will be exhibited by its purchasers in the admirable eeries of stories and desoriptive articles, many by accredited authorities on the history of war and on military life, in various countries, of the present-day, which have been collected an darranged so judiciously by the editor, Mr. Harry Goldring., Amongst other articles of special interest at the present time are those on "The British Army and its Various Branches," "The Making of a Soldier," "What a Modern Battle is Like," "The Daily Life of a Soldier," "Modem Methods of Coast Defence," "Continental Armies,"' "Whore Every Boy is Trained to- be a Soldier," "The Citizen Armies of Australia, and Now Zealand.'' I cannot too warmly commend this excellent publication, which is published at tho. extremely reasonable price of 3s. 6d., to heads of families and especially fathers of bovs. Primarily intended though it be for the instruction and entertainment of youthful readers, I can-vouch for the fact that it is likely to prove iust-as fascinating. to readers who ■ have long left their boyhood behind them.

FOR THE KIDDIES. From the new London publishing house of Max Goschen (per Whitcombe and Tombs) comes a' delightful book of nonsense entitled "What Happened to Hannah." The author, Miss Mary Garth, exhibits considerable powers of imagination,.and although in places her story is, pleasantly reminiscent of- Lewis Carroll's charming stories, she displays no small originality in tho details of the extraordinary adventures of her little heroine. The illustrations (in colour) are by Irene Payne, an artist whose name is new to me. but who exhibits both grace and humour in her drawings, some of which are almost riotously fantastic. That two or three of .them should suggest an Arthur Rackhani-like character is no discredit to Miss Payne, for.the Rackham .gnomes and witches have by this time become nhno't i convention, and in tho majority of the drawings Miss Payne pro.es mat mio lias very clever ideas of her own; aiid can work .thorn out with excellent draughtsmanship,. Tho book"is a large quarto, handsomely printed and artfswcally bound. An excellent book to oar-mark as a future Christmas gift. '

THE LETTERS OF R.L.S. Even those lucky bookmen who pos-. sess_ the complete edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Letters, either in tho two-volume octavo edition or the bandy and elegant edition in four smaller volumes (both published by Methuens), should welcome the appearance in Methoen e Shilling Library, of the prettily produced little book entitled "Somo Letters of Bobert Louis' Stevenson." A moro delightful companion for a train or steamer journey could not well be imagined. Stevenson was at his very best as a letter writer. His are full of that wayward,- whimsical humour which makes his essays such delightful reading, and it is in his letters that his best and only: really satisfactory biography is to bo found. The selection . now published co/ers each and every period of Stevenson's life, from his school days in Edinburgh right up to the final scene at Vailima. Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, Stevonson's stepson and collaborator, has acted as editor. The la6t letter quoted is one written to Stevenson's faithful friend, Charles Baxter, tho Edinburgh lawyer, who, as a young man, shared in many of the novelist's escapados. It is in serious vein, for it is a letter of condolence on the death of Mr. Baxter's father. The olosing sentences run as follows:—

I have had hard lines. I hare . . been so long waiting for death, I have unwrapped my thoughts from about life so long, that I have not a filament left to hold I have dono my fiddling so long under Vesuvius, that I have almost forgotten to play, and can only wait for the eruption, and think it long of coming. Literally, no man has more wholly outlived life than I. And still it's good fun.—R.L.S. The letter was dated Sept-ember, 1894. On December 3 the "eruption" that has been so "long of coming" came at last, and the pen of Tusitala, as the Samoans called Stevenson, was henceforth to ho for ever idle.' There are close on three hundred pages in this little book. There is not one of them that does not enshrine some fine thought, some outburst of genial humour or kindly satire, some example of Stevenson's fin© critical taste in literature, or, best of all, some passage displaying his broad, human charity and sympathy with all that is true and gentle and noble in life. (New Zealand price, Is. 3d.)