LITERARY NOTES PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 152, 29 June 1935, Page 24

LITERARY NOTES

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

• BOOKS AND AUTHORS i __ ', To gather material for his new - book, "Swinging the Equator," Mr. Wil- - Mam J. Makin flew across the Mediter- " ranean and down Africa to the.Cape ; in an air liner specially placed at his , disposal. Dr. Isidore Kozminsky has taken with him to London the manuscripts of several new books. One of these is l on the subject of numbers in philoso- ; phy, history, and romance. An earlier ; work on the same subject published 1 nearly 30 years ago attained a sale of ' more than 1,000,000 copies. • The two authors of "Thirteen* Sailed ) Home" have had entirely different . lives. Mr. Ken Attiwill is an Aus- • tralian journalist who has been liner . steward and sailed before the mast on : a Cape Horn windjammer. Mr. J. O. [ C. Orton went from Sandhurst to the I Norfolk Regiment, , and left it for ! fifteen years' service in the R.A.F. He , made ,the film, "Windjammer,"' from ! Mr. A. J. ViUiers's book, "By Way of ; Cape Horn." '■ Upon reaching his 'eighty-fifth birth- ■ day (on March 24), Mr. Silas K. Hock- . irig has resolved not to write any more ' novels. He is at work, however, on a ■ small book in which he Will compare • the conditions of' his early days with : those of 1935., His first novel appeared when he was aged 26. In the , following year (1879) he published ! "Her Benny," a children's tale, the I sales of. which exceeded a million [ copies long ago. ! The silver jubilee of the Poetry I Society has been celebrated in London • by a dinner at which Alfred Noyes pre- : sided. The membership of the society J includes as many as 3000 British poets, major and minor. There is great diversity in their everyday occupations and in their social status. One of them is '. a parlourmaid in the'house of a high '. War Office official^ another is a stationmaster in Wales, and a third is an [ octogenarian member- .of a business i firm in the City of London. ' Cassells • announce for immediate 1 publication'a study by Mr. Bernard I Darwin' of the life and times of the ' famous John Gully, who died in 1863. Mr. Darwjn paints a vivid picture; of the period, . and particularly, of the ruffianly underworld through which : John Gully pushed his way to wealth as a colliery owner and to a career in ! Parliament... Squire Osbaldeston, Palm- ' er, the Rugeley poisoner, "Old ! Crocky," the founder of Crockford's, ; and numerous prize-fighters'are some 1 of the noteworthy and notorious char- [ acters who form the background of the ; book. 1 Panait Istrati, the Rumanian, novelist,' jkrho died recently, led a life as varied ,as that of any of the characters he . created. The son of a Greek smuggler [ and a Rumanian peasant woman, he ' became in turn mason, labourer, en- ', gineer, valet, locksmith, house painter, t waiter, sandwichman, photographer; , and journalist, He was encouraged to r, write by M. Romain Rolland, the i. French author, and he wrote in French, . a language of which he knew nothing I until he was thirty.. Among his books | translated into English are "Balkan [ Tavern" and "Kyra, My Sister." '■ At the time of his death at the end > 6f 1924 William Archer, dramatist and > critic of the stage, was engaged in the ! writing of a book on dreams. It was ■ a-subject in which he had long been ! interested, particularly in his • later . years; when his play "The Green • Goddess" originated in a dream. He '■ kept a careful record of his own ■ dreams. It was this record which i formed the basis of the book which he ■ left unfinished. The task has now : been completed by Mr. Theodore '- Besterman, to whom the whole of his ■ materials were entrusted. The book, t "On Dreams^' will' shortly, be pub- , lished by Methuen. Professor Gilbert • Murray has contributed an. introduc--1 tion. J ART IN NEW ZEALAND \ Presently to enter upon its eigrith 3 year of publication, "Art in New Zea- - land" steadily maintains a high standf ard. The June number is unusually 1 strong both as to variety and quality.. I On the art side it contains specially - commissioned .criticisms of the Can--1 terbury and the Auckland Society of j! Arts' annual exhibitions and the - annual show staged by the New Zea--1 land Academy of Fine Arts. Mr. and ,' Mrs. Kenneth Ballantyne. of New r York, contribute an article, "On < Monotypes," in which that interesting j process is explained in detail; two reb productions of monotypes, the work 1 of Kenneth Ballantyne. accompany the I statement. From London, Christopher i Perkins discusses characteristically '■> modern Chinese painting, an exhibition " of which is going (or has gone) to I England, the article being reinforced > by two illustrations. This number is, j by the way, rich in illustrations: there are two plates in full colour—one is t the painting that won the Bledisloe Medal for the year—and over a score of black-and-whites. The literary features include several pages of rei- , views, the result (with editorial coml- ment) of the quarterly's annual verse s competition, a London letter, and a t- moving short story. Admirers of the o late D. K. Richmond's paintings will ), be glad to know that her art will be c specialty featured in. the Septemher il issue.

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

The Chief Librarian of the Wellington Public Libraries has chosen "Challenge!" by Graham Seton Hutchinson, as the book of the week, and has furnished the following review: Although we in New Zealand are not directly concerned with problems of government in Great Britain, the majority of us give those problems just as much consideration as we do our domestic ones and probably take just as great an interest in British politics as the people in Britain do. There Has always been a strong belief at the back of the New Zealander's mind that given the right men, a new spirit and broader ideals, the British nation would outdo its past history and lead the world out of chaos into permanent peace and prosperity. According, to Colonel Hutch inson,' Britain is now at the crossroads. He makes a powerful appeal to the nation that these conditions be fulfilled so that Britain can take the road to the achievement of that which he believes to be her destiny. To those who were so impressed with the spiritual appeal of Mi-. Baldwin's recent speech in the defence debate and to those who have regained confidence in- the British National Government owing to the strengthening of the Cabinet, "Challenge" will have an additional appeal. To those who still consider that the reins' of government in Britain have yet to be placed in the right hands, the book will constitute a call to action. In "Challenge," which was written just prior to the recent Cabinet changes, the author sees the beginning of a new political epoch and the end of uncertainty. Usury is doomed, and he sees the establishment of a State governed entirely on Christian principles. This" is his strongest appeal to British philosophy. 'He says: "The British nation is going to have a new birth of freedom. True liberty will be found in true Christ democracy." When we read on and understand the logic of his creative criticism we may realise that this may well be the beginning of a new Crusade. "It is clear that the root of every evil is the system of usury, a system which sets man against man, establishment against establishment, industry against industry, nation against nation." The book takes the form of a survey of British government, services, 'institutions, and conventions. Of each, the author points out the inherent weaknesses and shows that by the application of the fundamental teachings of Christ those weaknesses .will drop away. He plans a social construction "based upon a living spiritual force." Colonel Hutchinson is well qualified, as a distinguished soldier, to speak of national defence. He asserts "the problem of defence ... is a matter for the citizen. The question of national defence is one of being able to feed our own people within these islands." In view of the meat discussions which are taking place in London at the present time, Colonel Hutchinson has found his disciples. From these remarks on domestic defence we naturally turn to see what the author has to say on the defence of the Empire. We are disappointed that he does not treat this question as deeply as is warranted. He contends, however, that the Dominions, as well as Britain, must undertake their own social regeneration before the spiritual basis of the British peoples will become a living force to combat the disruptive elements in the world today. It is interesting to note that the author is a great admirer of Lord Baden-Powell. He calls the Boy Scout movement the most virile in Britain, and intimates that the principles of honour, exercise, and comradeship, as well as those of dress, coitld well be incorporated in thel training of the adult.' . The book may help to knit together the ephemeral ideas of reconstruction which lie at the back of all ,our minds. It has as strong an application to New Zealand as. it has to the Old Country. It contains the forceful and clear opinion of a man whose authority to speak is undoubted. Whatever may be the course of the difficult crosscurrents of present-day history, the book leaves us with a faith confirmed that ■we as a race have /the 'opportunity to emerge leading the other nations to a higher plane. RECENT LIBRARY ADDITIONS. Other tiles selected from recent accession lists are as follows: —General: "Blazing the Trail in the Solomons," by E. McHardy; "A Journalist in China," by H. G. W. Woodhead; "Recollections," by D. Yon Biesemann; "Five Watersheds," by R. Bray; "The Conquest of Suffering," by R. Calder; "The Romance, of Engineering," by A. D. Merriman; "Ibn Sa'ud," by K. Williams; "The Roman Church and the Modern Man," by H. A. A. .Major. Fiction: "The Unexpected Gift," by S. Cole; "Sounding Harbours," by E. Merceiri; "Twenty-five Sanitary Inspectors," by R. East; "A Woman's Way," by H. St. J. Cooper; "Riders in the Dark," by D. Ward; "The Kinder Bees," by G. Knox; "The Net Love Spread," by N. Bradshaw; "The Man Without a Name," by S. Kyle.