BOOKS ID THEIR WRITERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12069, 26 July 1917, Page 8

BOOKS ID THEIR WRITERS.

The Dominion should take considerable interest in a. new book on Russia just issued by the Cambridge University Press entitled ''Russian Realities and Problems.' for it- is'issued- under the editorship of Dr Harold Williams, of New Zealand. Dr Williams has been acting in B,ussia. as special correspondent for the London ''Daily Chronicle"' and "Daily Telegraph." His knowledge of B'uEsia and the variety of peoples comprised within it is probably Wider than that, of any correspondent except" Dr Dillon. He is specially well-informed as to the reform movements among the Finns. Lett* and Lithuanians and other small nationalities within that Empire., and this book, it is announced, is highly illuminative of these small peoples and their aspirations towards freedom.

The fourth edition of H. G. Wells's " God the Jnvisible King" has already been required, although the book was- only published on May 10. "Here speaks a man of unusual prophetic vision." This is the comment of the Danish paper, " Nordlyset," on Georg Brandes\s book, " Tiro World at War," which has recently appeared in a translation by Catherine D. Groth. "This not mean," the editor continues, " that the reader is necessarily convinced by all of Brandes'a statements. Many will be stimulated to contradiction or criticism, but they cannot remain indifferent." " There has been much talk of France haying been reborn through tho agony of this war," -says Alexander "Powell in "Brothers in Arms," just published in America by the Houghton Mifflin Company. ''Therein we are wrong. Tt is merely that we Americans have known the French only superficially, and that in thinking and speaking of them we have indulged in the careless and inaccurate habit of generalisation. We have believed them lacking in seriousness and perseverance, and we have thought, them volatile and temperamental. . . . What have we known of the sober, simple-hearted, industrious, frugal, plain-living, deeply religious people who are the real France? France has not been reborn. It is an affront to her to say it. She has but cast aside the glittering garment which she wore for the gratification of strangers in order to free her sword arm."

Wilham J. Locke's new novel. "The Red Planet," which is perhaps best described as a. story of war "time, bnt not of war, was to have been published in London on Julv 6.

Edith Wherry, author of " The Wanderer on a Thousand Hills." is a daughter of one of the oldest living American missionaries to China. Her'fatner w fls one of t] l6 besieged in the famous siege of Pek-m in 1900, and hi s cablegram V ss *i° . rst : ne "-s to bo receiver] in New j-ork of the safety of the foreigners after the lifting of the siege" Joseph Conrad was well over thirlv Wore he began " Almaver's Folly" tmd then as he says i n "A Personal ,°H ', i tJl:i amhit ' ion of being an author had never turned up among those gracious imaginary existences one crates fondly for one's self at times in tl.o stii Iness and immobility of a day dream In the twenty yrars since th ; niexplicable rvenf 0 f his firsfc b k (he weathered seaman, who left the sea, to enter upon what he calls " the career ol the most unlkcrary of writers " lias come to be acknowledged as one of the, ehiot figures in contemporaneous English prose. °

Major Charles W. Gordon, of the Forty-third Cameron Highlanders of Canada, who is better known to the word as "Ralph Connor," author of "I ho Sky Pilot." "Tho Man From Clengam, "Corporal Cameron," "Ihe Patrol of the Sun-Dance Trail," etc., in private life is a Presbyterian clergyman. As a Christian minister and chaplain of the Forty-third Cameroninns he. has had to face the contention of pacifists it hat the destruction of human life is unchristian. In a current, letter to the "North American Student" he answers unhesitatingly in the affirmative it he question, "Should a Christian Figlit ?" E. Temple Thurston has written a new novel of Ireland, entitled "Enchantment." which I>. Appleton and Co. expect to publish shortly in America.

In addition to the new biography of I Thoreau by F. B. Sanborn, says a | Boston papa", there await, admirers of the nature lover and interpreter two I other new books about the hermit of Walden. Gleason's " Th/ough the Year With Thoreau " and "' Henry Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend," who happened to be 'the sou of EinerOn thf. rover of Mr Jeffrey l'arnol;s latest novel, " The Definite Ob.rrct, it is written: "This story has .not been published .serially.'' Which means, comments an American reviewer, that) when tho rvador mentions it lie is m vo danger of being cut, short; by the person who says, ~; Oh.. T read that long ago in a. magazine,' which is next to th° annoyancj of being told tho same thing about Avhat you believe to ho a new ,ioke. The. real booklorer seldom reads the magazines ;:o 1 very few magazine readers are booklovers. A° note from Paris says that Berger-Levrault have recently brought out a book of peculiar interest dealing with the Belgian Press during German occupation. It is entitled ''' La Press Clandestine dans la. Belgique Occupee." The author is M. Jean Massart, vice-directeur do la classes des sciences de l'Academie Royalo do Belgique. A saving fact in the situation of the Belgian people under German rule has been the uninterrupted appearance of Belrian newspapers. They have been and aiv, clondestincly printed and they bring to a sorely tried people the assurance of unshakable confidence in the. future of their country. It is the Belgian point of view in its vigor and in ite disdain of the bruta-1-isers of their country and their homes which this secret Press has kept before the people, and it is probably in a great measure due to the brave men who have kept their printing presses going, in spite of deadly risks, that the Belgians after nearly three years under German rule could find it in them to send the spirited and unyielding message to Vaudcrvelde on the subject of the carrying on of the war. Never did von Bissing find out where the printing , presses wore hidden, and yet, whenever an issue of "La Libre Belgiquo" appeared, he found a copy of it in his morning mail. 31. Jean Massart's book is being sold for the benefit of the Belgian charitable funds. John Lane, and Co.. of London and New York, are to publish immediately an edition of the poems of Charles Warren Stoddard, the Californian poet of the South Seas, collected by his lifelong friend. Miss Ina- Coolbrith. Stoddard's only publication of verse was au .parly volume of ''Poems" published in 1867, and, as a follower and admirer of Walt, Whitman, his scattered verses have a. merit and charm comparable to those of his prose works, which are standards now in American literature. The volume- will contain poetical tributes to Stoddard's memory by his friends Joaquin Miller, Ina Coolbrith, Thomas Walsh and George Sterling. Many of the poems deal with the author's life in the South Seas and reminiscences of his early daya among the missions of California. Peter B. Kyne', the American short story writer, is going to join hands with Uncle Sam. Kyne announced lately that just as soon as he completes a. novel ha is now rushing to compilation for an Eastern publisher he will make application for the August officers' training ca.mp. If he fails in that, he will join some other branch' of the overseas forces. Kyne Served in the "Fighting Fourteenth" in ■ the Phillipines.

In "Shakespeare and Chapman: a Thesis of Chapman's Authorship of 1 A Lover's Complaint' and. Hit Oricin-

ation of ' Timon of Athens,' with Indications of Further Problems," Mr J. M. Robertson. M.P-. revives a literary controversy. Mr Robertson claims to prove that the contention of Sir. Sidney Lee and Professor Mackail that '■ A Lover's Complaint." is probably not bv Shakespeare has. been"established *bv him. and that the authorship can be ' attributed with certainty to Chapman- He also maintains thatthe inception of ''Timon of Athens" is due to Chapman, who drafted the first scene of the playWork done- by George Meredith early in his career for Ixmdon '*' Graphic and not before published in book form, ha* been gathered together by an American publisher nnder the title " Up to Midnight." Baroness Souiny, author of "Russia of Yesterday and To-morrow," is in the United States making a special study of the American woman.

"Armenian Legends and Poems," issued by Dent, is the title of a work which contains a considerable number of lyrics which are translations of recent Armenian poems- Miss Boyajian is responsible for some good renderings. Among the announcements for the coming autumn season in England, Mr Heinemann includes "Christmas Tales of Flanders." illustrated in colour and black and white, by Jean de Bosschere. The volume is a collection of legends and popular fables which are still told to children in the farmhouses of Flanders and Brabant. Though some of the legends are common to other countries they have their characteristic Flemish traits. Another volume promised for the autumn by Mr Heinemann is " Serbian Fairy Tales," translated by Elodio Mijatovjch, and illustrated in colour and black and white by Sidney Stanley. The tale v s in this volume have been selected from the translation of Serbian folk-lore made by Mdme. Mijatoviteh some twenty years ago. In their original form these tales were taken from the lips of peasant women and professional story tellers.

M. Jean Adrian Jusserand, Ambassador from France to the United States since 1902, has been awarded the prize of 2000 dollars by the Columbia University officials for the best book of the year on the history of the United States. The fund from which the income is derived was given by Mr Joseph Pulitzer. The book which w r on the award was " Americans, Past and Present." M. Jusserand entered the French diplomatic service early in his career; and from 1898 to 1902 was Minister to Denmark. Marrying an American wife he welcomed the appointment to Washington, and once he got settled in the harness, he adjusted himself to American ideals and ways with rare facility and alacrity. As a man of letters and a scholar he long since won his place with French 3iirl British critics; and his welcome to the American academic and literary worlds has been none the less hearty and appreciative.