IN THE LIBRARY

Northern Advocate, 1 February 1930, Page 7

IN THE LIBRARY

AN OVERGROWN TOME,

The case of the “London Tele--1 phone Directory” as literature has been unduly neglected, remarks the “Daily Telegraph,” though the similar case of “Who’s Who” has often been sustained. In the latter work we have a pageant of high life—man with all his orders on. The “Telephone Directory” is a book rich and various—and overcrowded —as the j metropolis itself. Naturally the! characterisation is obscure, and the I vowelless dialect in which some of j the work is written adds to the-diffi-culty. But these are defects of the rich qualities of the work. It has for hero no single individual but mankind in the round. Its millions of readers cannot but feel sympathy for the difficulties of its publishers. The book is growing in a way no other book grows. The Post Office have printed it in three columns and have utilised that Hebraic devce of the dropped vowdl, but it is still too big. We cannot abide it in two volumes, but its contents are becoming too much for one. Is this the rock on which the electric civilisation splits? Have we at last reached the final antinomy before which science sits with folded hands ?

A WORD FOR PETER BELL. Poor Peter Bell has had to carry an enormous burden since the day Wordsworth met him on the banks of the river and pressed him into the service of poetry. For a century or so Peter Bell'has stood as the type of the unimaginative human being whose vision is wholly bounded by the senses, and- who is not visited by gleams and suggestions very deep or very high. He can never see beneath the surface.

No man sees who only sees with his eyes, says William Blake. He must see through them—his thinking must come into action. The power of. perception which “sees sermons in stones, books in running brooks, and God in everything,” did not belong to Peter Bell. Hence— A primrose by a river’s brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more.

Nevertheless, to see a primrose is something. To note that it is yellow means even more. It means that any day the primrose may begin to speak to Peter Bell, even as the meanest flower that blows could disturb the master poet with the joy of elevated thoughts. One of our modern thinkers tells how he once stood at the threshold of art quite like Peter Bell. And one day walk-ing-through the Louvre he came upon a group of paintings that glowed with all the glory of a re-velation-—“I realised that I was seeing a picture and that I.had never! .seen one before. It said things to me that I could at least dimly understand; my eyes' had been opened.” Today the trouble with so many people is that the primrose is not noticed at all; Says John Clare:

With its little brimming eye Anjtl its yellow rims so pale And its crimped and curled leaf Who can pass its beauties by? At least Peter Bell did not pass it by.

Thu screen’s most famous portrayer of mother roles, Louise Dresser, has no children of her own. She plays a mother again in her latest picture, “The Three Sisters,”, Pox Movietone production. Her screen children in the picture are June Collyer, Joyce Compton and Eddie McPhail. fel , I HI @ Anton.o Moreno, the well-known Spanish actor, has a prominent part in the Pox Movietone production, “Romance of the Rio Grande.” To obtain realism for this picture, ;Morano refused to have a double for this role, and performed all the stunts himself. In one scene he is culled upon to be splashed with water by Mona Maris, who has the part of “Manuolita,” a vivacious little tomboy. He has a number of falls and at the end of the picture he was a mass of bruises. And all for a few laughs. It is hard to realise this matinee idol of other days being all smashed up to furnish fun for the modern folk who demand realism every time. m m h 0

The cast is being chosen for another of the talking pictures’ big revue spectacles on the Fox lot. It is to be called “Hollywood Nights,” directed by James Tinling, from a scenario by Andrew Benson. Leading roles have been assigned •to Joseph Wagstaff, Lola Lane, David Rollins, Stuart Erwin, Dixie Lee, Staron Lynn, Whispering Jack Smth (the radio singer), Sue Carol, Nick Stuart, and Stepin Fetchit. 0 0 0 S

“The Dollar Princess,” Leo Fall’s celebrated musical play, in which Donald Brian and Valli Valli scored a sensational success all over the country, will be filmed in a modernised version by Fox Movietone. Alexander Korda has been signed to direct. The picture is planned as one of the most elaborate musicals of the year.

(BY “THE BOOKMAN.”)

LITERARY NOTES.

Victor Gollancz announces a new poem, “The Uncelestial City,” by Humbert Wolfe, and “The Collected Poems of Gerald Gould.” * * * * A new book by Maurice Maeterlinck, “The Magic of the Stars,” is appearing in English with Allan and Unwin.

*'* * * “Blue Feathers” is a volume of humorous poems by E. V, Knox, which Chatto announce, with illustrations by G. L. Stampa. 1= * *

“Whatever Gods May Be” is the title of a novel by M. Andre Maurojs, which Cassell publish in England. l * • * • Elkin Mathews announces “The Melting Pool,” a tale of- Borneo by T Mervyn Skipper, with drawings by \ Mr. R. W. Coulter. I*

An autumn romance, by Mr. Jeffrey Farnol is ready with Sampson Low, under the title, “Another Day.” * * * * “The Way of Ecmen,” a new, fulllength story by James Branch Cabell, the American writer, is appearing from the Bodley Head. * * * » A new play by John van Druten, “After All,” appeared as a volume with the Putnams in September. ♦ •* . * ■ *

Chatto is publishing “One Hears a Drum,” by Allan Baddeley, a book which concerns the old training ship Britannia. * * * - •* “E. Barrington” makes Cleopatra the heroine of a story, “The Laughr ing Queen,” which Harrap- publishes.

John Budden, who wrote “Jungle John,” has now written his “Further Adventures,” and Longmans announce the book. **♦ ■ ♦ Ex-President Coolidge’s Autobiography will be published in London as early as possible by Chatto and Windus. * * * ♦ An English translation of the famous “History of Iberian Civilisation,” by Oliveira Martins, is announced by the Oxford Press. ♦ * ♦ * “Today’s Daughter” is a domestic and social story by Miss- Berta Ruck which will appear shortly with Hodder and Stoughton.

Mr. Eimar O’Duffy has largely rewritten his first story, “The Wasted Island,” for a new edition, which Macmillan announces. * * * * Gilbert \K. Chesterton has written a defence of the Roman Catholic Church, of which he is la member, and it has just been published by Sheed and Ward. It is strangely entitled “The Thing,” and the author by this appellation denotes the Roman Catholic Church.

“Our publishers,” says St. John Ervine, “having stoutly refused to publish any war novels, on the false plea that people did not wish to read about' the war, are now 'publishing too many on the false assumption that nobody "wishes to read any*, thing but war novels.

A biography of Sir George Parkin, a man prominent in the modern, annals of our Empire, is appearing with the Macmillans. The late Sir John Willison, Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s biographer, undertook Parkin’s life, and all the papers were placed at his disposal. When Sir John died the work was in an advanced state, and Parkin’s son-in-law, Mr. W. I* Grant, has given it the finishing touches. But as the whole plan of the book, and in great part its wording, are the work of Sir John. Willison, it will appear under his name only. It is a very complete account of Parkin’s many activities.

Donu Byrue, the Irish novelist, left a story which will appear under the title, ‘'Field of Honour.”

.Marriage, in all its aspects, is the subject of a book 'by Bertrand Russell, which Allen and Unwin'announce. * * * S|c

■Clemeneeau's memories and reflections wore published in England in October by the Constables, under the title “In the Evening of Thought. ’* The same house announces “The' Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice,” who followed Viscount Bryce as our Ambassador to America. A third Constable book is “The Hardman Papers,” a further selection from the letters of Sir William Hardman, who was something of a Victorian Pepys.

Pursuing her studies on English and' Scottish royalty, Mrs. Thornton Cook lias now written biographical sketches of the Prihcess Marys of England,' from the earliest times to the present Princess Mary. The Marys include the sprightly sister of Henry VIII., his daughter of “bloody” fame, and, loss far away, the daughter of George 11. and the wife of the Georgian Duke of Gloucester, Mrs Thornton Cook, whoso book the Murrays announce, touches history not only in England, but in France, Germany, and Holland. 'She shows us Marys in prosperity ahd ” Marys in adversity, and she has gathered much quaint and out-of-the-Way information.