BOOKS and AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 186, 4 May 1929, Page 28

BOOKS and AUTHORS

A Weekly Survey

By

“Liber”

tripe a man, a pcpe he can smolce. Give a man a book, he can read: And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed.

BOOKS OF THE DAY Luther Burbank. ' Luther Burbank, who passed away last year, was unquestionably one of the greatest of latterday naturalists and horticulturists, and much of liis work in connection wjth plants and plant life —“the wizard of plant life,” Hugo de Vries, the great Dutch botanist, styled him —was of a highly and laudably utilitarian character. Apart from his special work and its wonderful results, the famous Californian naturalist was in many ways a very remarkable man, one whose intimacies with notable men, such as Edison, the great inventor, Paderewski, the famous pianist, John Muir, and so many other leading men who could be mentioned, testified to the soundness and sincerity of his personal friendships. It was meet, indeed, that the world should possess permanent records of Burbank’s life and work other than those to be found in official and specialised scientific chronicles, and already, as we know, “The Harvest of the Years,” of which he and Wilbur Hall were the authors, and which is published by the famous American publishlgn firm of Houghton, Mufflin, and Co., has met with a large sale in the United States. Burbank himself had long before his lamented death begun to put into shape what was practically i an autobiography. This work was added to and edited by his friend Wilbur I Hall, who, in his “Biographical ’ Sketch," gives a deeply interesting pen portrait of the famous naturalist. Of the book itself it is safe to say, without entering into details, it is so complex as almost to defy analysis and condensation, and is in essence an autobiography of one of “the most interesting minds that America has yet produced,” being also the complete embodiment of a singularly attractive and stimulating personality, of equal interest for the humanist and the student of nature. The illustrations, which so noticeably enhance the interest and value of Burbank’s own record of his work, trace his carer, from his birth in his Massachusetts early home, right through his career of plant raising and breeding, his marvellous experiments in California with the same, the quite astoundingly successful results achieved, .up to his last photograph. There are many photographic illustrations of plants and flower development ever to be connected with his name; facsimiles of letters from royalties and others interested in his work, with portraits of himself and of some of the many friends of him whom Wilbur Hall calls “the gallant, lovable, kindly, shrewd, whimsical Luther Burbank.” (18s.).

RELIGION, ETHICS, ETC. Man and the Supernatural. Miss Evelyn Underhill, long recognised as a leading English writer on mysticism, provides in her new volume, “Man and the Supernatural” (Methuen), what she has “tried to describe, in terms which I believe to be consistent with Christian philosophy, some of the ways in which that independent, spiritual reality which we recognise as Divine is disclosed by human being and enters and transforms their lives.” . . . The one principle of the participation in “Eternity as well as Time” runs through all the chapters, and is apnlied in a different part of the religious field.” The book, which throughout is of a singularly fascinating character to all who are interested in religion, mysticism and ethics, includes lectures given at the University of St. Andrews, at King’s College, London, and at the Church Congress of 1906, as well as others contributed to “The Hibbert Journal” and’other high-class publications. (10s.) The Cambridge Shorter Bible. In a stout, well-printed volume of close upon 900 pages, the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press send us a copy of “The Cambridge Shorter Bible,” arranged by A. Nairne, T. R. Glover and Sir A. Qulller Couch. This is an attempt to present in an attractive form all but the least attractive parts of the Bible. It is not the whole Book, nor on the other hand, a mere volume of selections; it is offered as a Bible reduced in compass, yet faithful to the whole. In a sense the “Cambridge Shorter Bible” is a sequel to “The Little Children’s Bible” and “The Children’s Bible,” which were not intended for children much beyond the age of eleven, but it was felt that a Bible acceptable for use in schools might be a great deal fuller. The plan of the Book is simple, the Biblical writings falling roughly into certain classes, the narrative books, the legislative, and those which embody with less immediate reference to history, the eternal aspects of man’s relations with God. It has been the constant endeavour of the compilers to keep every passage which, for any school of Christian thought has par- , ticular association, along with the larger contexts which all would choose. Naturally of the legislative ■ books, but little has been retained. ■ Thus nothing of “Chronicles” will be j found in the vloume, while the “Gos- , pels” and the “Acts” are unabridged. , Used wisely and well the “Cambridge , Shorter Bible” should be found of ( great and profitable use in all schools s where a good grip of Biblical know- g ledge is properly esteemed of value. ] (Australian and New Zealand price I i 9s. fid.)

| LIBER’S NOTE-BOOK The Philosopher of Vailima. 1 Some hitherto unpublished letters • of Sir James Barrie, Charles Darwin, ■ Charles Dickens, George Meredith, ■ Froude, John Ruskin, and 11. L. Steven- ■ son have come into the possession of a I Blackpool dealer and will be placed i in a London auction mart shortly. ■ Stevenson’s letters, which are probabiy the most valuable, include three written during the last year of his life from Vailima, Samoa, where he died in 1894. ' “It now begins to look,” writes R. L. S:, “as though I should survive to see myself impotent and forgotten. It’s a pity that suicide is not thought the ticket in the best circles. But •your (liverish indeed) letter goes on to congratulate me on having been the one thing I am a little sorry for—little, .not much—for my father himself had lived to think I had been wiser than he. But the cream of the jest is that I have lived to change my mind; and I think he was wiser than 11. Had I been an engineer, and literal ture my amusement, as he wished, it I would have been betetr, perhaps. I ’ have pulled it off, of course; I have won a wager, and it is pleasant while it lasts; but how long will it last? I don’t know, say the old bells of Bow. All which goes to show that nobody is quite sure in judging himself. Truly, had I given way, and gone on with engineering, I should be dead by now. Well, the gods know best, but a liver pill has merits.” In another letter he refers to his splendid life, and says:—“Before very long, we shall be in our graves. Eit and well I have had a splendid life of it, grudge nothing, regret very little—and then only some little : . . misconduct for which I deserve hanging, and must infallibly be damned . . . and take it all over, damnation and all, would hardly change with any man of my time unless, perhaps, it were Gordon, or our friend Chalmers, a man I admire for his virtues, love for his faults, and envy for the real Al life he has, with everything that heart—my heart, I mean—could wish.” Hazlitt’s centenary is due next year, and Dents are to celebrate the occasion by issuing a new edition of the fine complete Hazlitt, which, edited by Arnold Glover, was issued by them, and now brings a very substantial figure. Mr. Howe, who has long specialised in Hazlitt, is now to edit the new edition. It is to be hoped that Dents will, as they usually do, study the bookman of medium purse. I would vastly like a complete Hazlitt, who was probably the greatest of journalists, but the old edition, running into thirteen volumes, was quite beyond the reach of most, of us at 12s. a volume.. The cheapest Hazlitt I know is in the “World’s Classics,” but it is far from complete. I see that Mr. Lindsay Buick’s “The French at Akaroa: An Adventure in Colonisation,” is eulogistically reviewed by the “Australasian,” which closes a long notice by remarking: “We have i to thank Mr. Buick not only for an interesting book, but still more for the , patience, freedom from prejudice, and j scientific spirit displayed by him in tin- ' ravelling a story which, has been hith- ; er to treated ...with romantic exaggera- ; tion.” Well said of an exceptionally • fine work on New Zealand historical ] literature.

S SOME RECENT FICTION s The Pathway. Mr. Henry Williamson, who was , awarded the Hawthornden Prize for ; his last year’s novel, “Tarka and the ■ Otter,” will make many new friends . by his long and excellent novel of life in the West country, “The Pathway” ; (Jonathan Cape), although not a few ’ passages therein will be greatly to the ' distaste of many readers. The scene ' is the country house of Wildernesse, : on the wild Devon coast, with some of the most interesting and pleasant inmates whom ever novelist imagined and placed in life. To this house, the old•sters, God-fearing, simple-minded folk, with a youngster of fine mental traits, ant, a girl whom all must love, conies William Maddison, visionary, exsoldier, disciple of Shelleyism, a man for whom the war has spelt, with the passing of the ways, the lesson that all the old generation had lea nt was idle, that most modern things were wrong, and that he perhaps were destined to put it right by his Shelley-like poems, which, alas, could find no acceptance. The story of the curiously composed menage at Wildernesse and the semimaternal character of the love which is granted Maddison by Margaret, and which to most of us, he seems to refuse to properly appreciate, is told in a very beautifully worded story, which conveys a clever concept of natural history lore and will delight 'all who know the West Country. Maddison. however, is difficult to accept as a thoroughly sane man. who drives away all who would help him. That the war was responsible for any such was. of course, inevitable, but Mrs. Ogilvie summed him up well from the start. The end —Maddison’s suicide—could not have been prevented by anyone at k Wildernesse, >ut it seems hard that

Mrs. Barrie Goldie’s story of life on the Riviera, “The Green Tabloids” (Hodder and Stoughton), has for principal actors a very charming pair of lovers, a sculptor, Michael Ruffini, and Desdemona, thedaughter of an English beauty, whose husband, much older than herself, has passed away suddenly from heart disease. The pair are happily married when an exvalet, blaming himself for what he thinks has been a tragedy, unburdens himself of what he conceives to be the truth as to his old master’s death. This is overheard by Desdemenona, who leaves her husband. After a landslide and other sensations the pair are thrown together again when Desdemenona learns she has blamed herself wrongly of her father’s death, and instead of by her error her father’s end had been by natural means. The young pair are engagingly drawn and the mother is a careful study of the silly and indulgent “jazzing” style of mother.

Novels Received. Brief mention can alone, for undeniable considerations of space, begiven to the following:—Robert Chambers can always tell a good story and his “The Rogue’s Moon” (Cassell) is a rattling yarn of Caribbean pirates and buccaneers, some of whom the heroine, the vigorously described Nancy Topsfield, long disguised as a man, brings eventually to Execution Dock and a Government yardarm. Another well-told yarn of the sea, a tale of England’s war with France over the American colonies, is Raymond McFarland’s “The Sea Panther” (Cassell). Full of cutlass play and thrills innumerable. From Hutchinson and Co. comes a grim but very remarkable story, “In Chains,” by Joseph Belmont, in which are recounted the terribble trials of a young Russian Jew, most unjustly treated, with his long-suffering wife, us the result of his criticism of official villainy, and suffering no less from, a cruel pogrom than from the superstitious cruelty of men and women of their own race. The Siberian escape of the hero is a bit of very fin« writing. "'White Wings.” by Mrs. M. Forrest, also from Hutchinson, is a

—James Thomson. what might have been so charming a tale, must have been doomed to have for Mary Ogilvie so sad an ending. Some Thrillers. Herbert Footner seems to have been very successful with his female detective,. Madame Storey, who, in “The Velvet Hand” (Hodder and Stoughton), engages in her crime detecting activities on both sides of the Atlantic. The opening story, “The Velvet Hand,” is a singularly original case of a cunningly contrived tragedy, of which an eminent scientist is the victim on a railway train, the murderer being brought to justice as the result of the American lady’s shrewdness. In “Legacy Hounds”, and “The Round Room” the scenario is American. For a genuine thriller, setting forth the difficulties and obstacles and dangers which a criminologist and secret service agent wages, against a gang of foreign dope traders, jewel robbers and scoundrels generally, “Half Devil, Half Tiger,” by R. J. Fletcher and Alex McMillan /John Murray) could not well be bettered. A Central American President who settles in an English, to enjoy the spoils of his past rascality, and who would add to his income by smuggling in quantities of cocaine is a hard scamp to bowl out, but despite his protection by three tame jaguars, he is discovered by dint of Davidson’s loyal Dyaks and the whole plot comes to grief. “The Death of the Claimant,” by A. Richard Martin (Methuen and Co.), is by the .author of “The Cassiodore Case,” which, a year or two ago, had quite a good run. Mr. Martin’s new story begins with a murder on Hampstead Heath, a nobleman at one time being under strong suspicion. Heraldry plays an important part in the elucidations conducted by the great sleuth, Brenders Noble, .the plot changing its locale more than once and considerable ingenuity being exhibited by the author.

strange but powerfully told story of Australian lite, a group of Australian gum trees exerting a strange influence on the life of Synfe Jackson and Liarn McPheris, the penniless Irish lad. “The Bagginses,” by Mabel Constandurons (Hutchinson), is a droll story of Cockney life and humour. One is glad that the love story of Ag and Bert, in Walworth. ends so happily. Constables publish a cheaper and very welcome new edition of Thomas Burke’s Cockney romance, “The Sun in Splendour,” which was reviewed in the “Dominion” a year or so ago as being equal to the best of Pett Ridge, and specially interesting to lovers of music. From Jarrolds and Co. come “Scarlet Gables,” by Catherine I. Dodd, a very prettily told romance of a missing heir, lost for two generations', and full of many picturesque descriptions of old-time Lancashire; and “The Fox Woman,” by N. Bartley, an American novel, the heroine of which, Stanley Ames, is a powerful study of a modern woman, the personification of feminine selfishness.