LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 5, 7 January 1928, Page 21

LITERARY NOTES

Sir Edmund Gosse, in his "Leaves and Fruit" (Hoinemann), thus epitom ises George Gissing's character: "In every capacity it was Gissing's fate to do himself less than justice. He was thought to be sullen when he merely lacked the power to communicate his sympathy. He was, in fact, a very gentle, sensitive, and appreciative mind, tied fast to a temperament the most unfortunate that could have been devised." The mystery cities of the Maya people of Central America are the subject o fa record of exploration and adject of a record of exploration and adcompanied by representatives of the British Museum and the Carnegie Institution, has travelled widely in America. The remains of Maya art date back thousands of years, as Dr. Gann and his colleagues found in various sanctuaries. These had been decorated in brilliant colours, and were, no doubt, the temples of grotesque idols and the scenes of strange religious ceremonies. Sir Alfred Moml discusses "Industry and Politics" in a work so entitled, published by Macmillau. It is based upon his great experience of English business and industrial conditions, and thus it has a note of autobiography and a note of history. The book opens with an introduction in which our national affairs are examined in a large, general way. It then goes on particularly to such subjects as "Socialism —What it Really Is," and "Why Socialism Must Fail." Other chapters are concerned with "The Post Napoleon Era,""Canada and Empiro Policy," "The Unemployment Problem," and "Why I Joined the Conservatives." There was a great outcry, and Queen Victoria was personally displeased, when "The Greville Diary" was published last century. Greville was the clerk to the Privy Council, and this gave it a piquancy which was reflected in its popularity. But, as was known at the time, many passages, thought to be too piquant, too personal, or too intimate about living people, were left out of the book. The manuscript of the famous diary is in the British Mus cum, and so accessible to anybody. A full edition of it, edited by Mr. P. W. Wilson, is about to be published. Messrs. Stanley Paul announce for immediate publication a popular edition of Commander F. A. Worsley's story of the 1925 British Arctic Expedition, "Under Sail in the Frozen North." The book, it is remarked, does the heart good, telling of the irrepressible spirit of our race and of a seaman's lovo of his ship. It should make an acceptable present to any boy iii his 'teens. All tho illustrations, maps, and scientific reports •ire retained, and this fact, coupled with the reduction in the cost of tho volume, leaves librarians, who have not already done so, no excuse for not lidding this breezy classic to their shelves.