FROM BOOKSTALL & STUDY

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19237, 26 November 1930, Page 13

FROM BOOKSTALL & STUDY

A “womanless library” is to be established in lowa, U.S.A., under the will of a misogynous lawyer. Only books by men will be allowed, and magazines must be censored to eliminate all articles and stories written by women. The new president of the Johnson Society is Mr A. Edward Newton, of Philadelphia. Mr Newton owns a valuable collection of Dr Johnson manuscripts, and has been a generous donor of Johnson relics to the Gough Square Museum, which was once Dr Johnson’s house. “We don't print any such stuff as that!” said the editor loftily as he handed back the poem. “Well, you needn’t be so haughty about it!” retorted the poet. “You’re not the only one who won’t print it.” Professor J. L. Morrison, the Pro fessor of Modern History at Armstrong College, JJniversity of Durham, New-castle-on-Tyne, has resigned from the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society because the society has arranged a series of lectures dealing with certain modern authors whose works he considers are indecent. The first three names on the list of lecturers are D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, and James Joyce. “The historical novelist,” writes Mr A. Tressider Sheppard, “must study books on costume, on coinage, on the contemporary history of other States; he must read contemporary letters, diaries, despatches, even legal _ documents and medical works. Nothing dealing with his period and locality should be foreign to him. He may have to go to works on heraldry, on botany, on etymology, on arboriculture, agriculture. Picture galleries and museums, cathedrals and churches and castles all yield their spoils.” a Military diaries (writes Lord Pon* sonby. In his “British Diarists,” just published) are not among the best, but they often demonstrate the. British soldier’s characteristic of making light of the dangers and hardships he has to undergo. An officer’s diary in the Boer War is eminently characteristic of this particular quality. In a long entry he describes a fishing expedition, giving details of the flies, rod, and gut he used; he goes on with a passage about a pony for coursing hares, and at the end he writes, “We have had two big battles.” The “Week-end Review” (London) offered prizes for an epigram of four lines on the return of “the ashes” to Australia, the verse to be by a suppositious “un-English business man, whose staff has been disorganised since May by the curious popularity of cricket.” The first prize was won with the following : We’ve got the Bird, so I have heard, Whose mystic Ashes oversea take wing; A.nd here, I trust, that from the dust, Business as Usual, Phcenix-like, will spring. The second prize was ’awarded to the writer of this verse:— Australia, while her wealth was fooled away, Hindered our work to teach us how to play; Now let her wear, with sackcloth for her sins, The Ashes she so opportunely wins. Zi Zi ♦♦ “The humour which above all other delights the feminine mind, I think, is the humour of situation; and especially that branch of it which consists in the presentation of an ironic contrast between the real situation of a character and the situation - as he imagines it to be,” writes Miss Phyllis Bentley in ‘John o’ London’s Weekly.” It is in this that Jane Austen so excels; all the humpur of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and of ‘Emma’ consists in just this; the skilful and subtle and sly revealing to the reader of the world as it appeared to the sensitive Marianne and as it really was, of Emma’s feelings towards Knightlev as she believes them to be and as they are. The screen scene in ‘The School for Scandal,’ Benedick’s situation in the early part of ‘Much Ado/ the theme of Miss Rose Macaulay’s ‘Keeping up Appearances/ the difference between Bertie Wooster’s view of Bertie Wooster and Jeeves’s view of the same young man (not Bertie’s actual character, which is exaggerated after the Dickensian fashion)—all these belong to the type of humour most agreeable to ■women.” This year will be rich in literature about Queen Victoria. Last month Sir Frederick Ponsonby’s “Sidelights on Queen Victoria” was published, and in it is described an incident in which both Gladstone and William 11. figure. Gladstone in 1881 pressed her to sign the Speech in which occurred the sentence: “It is not my intention that the occupation of Kandahar shall be permanently maintained.” When three Privy Councillors went to Osborne for the Queen’s signature, Her Majesty at first declined, though she ultimately did sign with certain reservations. She then sent Sir Henry Ponsonby to see Gladstone, arming him with a strong letter, in which she wrote: —“The Queen has never before been treated with such want of respect and consideration in the forty-three and a half years she has worn her thorny crown. . . . She is kept (purposely) in the dark, and then expected simply to agree. . . . Sir Henry must tell Mr Gladstone, Lord Granville, and Lord Hartingdon that she will not stand such treatment. The disrespect and contempt of her position shown her she will not tolerate . . . Sir Henry cannot overrate the Queen’s indignation. Mr Gladstone tries to be a Bismarck, but the Queen will not be an Emperor William to do anything he orders.” “The Treasure of Big Waters,” by Ridgwell Cullum. Published by Cassell and Company, Limited. Copy from Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. What was the mysterious treasure which Larry Forsyth discovered on the fringe of the Arctic? Every year he went into the North and returned, but though his bank balance increased enormously, the paid hirelings who systematically went through his outfit at different times could find no trace of anything of value. Larry defended his secret with his life, but left the key to his son, Andy. The latter, fresh from college, was not the hard proposition which his father was, but he was fortunate enough to win the love of a quick-witted girl of North, and she l saved the position. The tale is written in Mr Cullum's best style, and the breezy outdoor atmosphere is a very welcome change from the great majority of the present day novels. “And All Because,” by Denise Robins. Published by Mills and Boon, Limited, London. Copy from Sands and M’Dougall (Pty.), Ltd., London. Nicholas Ilulme, secretary to a politician, works exceedingly hard to try and keep his widowed sister and her two children. Unfortunately for him, a rather embarrassing situation results in the loss of his position, and he finds himself out of a job with three other mouths to feed. On top of this he contracts pneumonia, arid things look

very black. Ill's employer's daughter, the person responsible for the loss of his good position, displays a new side to her character, and attempts to make up to him for the wrong he has suffered, but he refuses charity, of course. He has a difficult struggle, but wins through, and all because a lady fell in love he achieves happiness and success. This is a very pretty story indeed, and it shows the reader why Denise Robins has enjoyed such popularity with the public. The characters are drawn most attractively and the tale makes a very definite appeal. This author’s novels’ sales have now topped the 100,000 mark. It is confidently anticipated that “And All Because” will prove more popular than any of the others she has written and that it will be one of the ; favourites of this season. “In Pirate Waters,” by George Garner. Published by Whitcombe and Tombs, Limited. Why do almost all the exciting books tell of London, Paris, New York, or other equally distant places? Here, at last,, is a story with the opening scenes in Christchurch, the home of the youthful hero. Jack Stevens, instead of going to a boarding-school, finds himself by reason of a peculiar combination of circumstances, on board the mystery-ship Tisiphone, at sea. Here he finds that the ship’s mission is to destroy the notorious Chinese pirate, Loh Wang, whose extensive operations resulted in the Tisiphone’s captain making a search round New Zealand. The pirate hunters have some most thrilling adventures, and Jack and his friend Trixie have some amazingly narrow escapes, but they always have the good fortune to come out smiling. This is an adventure story which will be enjoyed immensely by boys of all ages over, say, ten or twelve. The writer has written a most attractive tale, with mysterv a ” < ?„ adventure presiding thrill" after thrill. “In Pirate Waters” will prove one of the popular gift-books this season. lhey That Go Down”, by Margaret Steen (Cassell and Co.), is a powerful story of the days of Nelson’s Navy and the press gang. It follows the adventures of Jane Carrodus, a strong-willed girl with a passion for the sea, and her childhood’s companion, Paul Knox, a sensitive boy of Jewish extraction, -whose horror of the sea takes the form of a morbid foreboding. Paul is pressed into the service, and the sea claims him in lifelong subjection to its baleful influence. Knowing no place to call home, nor any peace, the squalor an'd hardship of the life below decks leaves its mark on his soul. Softening dreams return only rarely in the remembrance of Jane or in the hope of a gipsy’s prophecy that he is to come to a large house of his own when he has crossed a dark river. Jane, with ideas in advance of her time, gravitates from Plymouth to London. Though all the time her tenderness longs for Paul, she submits to the tutorship and semi-protection of Captain Brett, a man who is a strange compound of ignobility and fineness. There she is transformed from an unsophisticated country girl to a woman capable of holding her own in society. Her comradeliness, however, finds satisfaction finally in a marriage with a gentler man. Captain Malcolm. But a sudden revelation of the life of the ordinary seaman of the day, who typifies Paul to her, launches her on a scheme for a home for sailors at Chatham. This she calls “Paul KnoxHouse”. And Paul, coming ashore at Chatham after the victory of Trafalgar, reads the inscription. But he never enters that house in life, for a moment before he had given himself .up for murder. Fie finds his house at last down the dark river. Then Jane saw that in the curious pattern of the universe, wherein life follows life with curve and angle and bewildering convolution, it had not been intended that the lines which represented her life and Paul’s should touch—should intertwine. That brief, youthful approach—it had been a mere caprice, a touch of bravura complicating the bold, arrogant sweep which flung their lives apart, as though each could but spoil the other, as though the Everlasting Designer had known that they could never weld into a harmonious pattern. The Rev John Skinner (1772-1839), of Trinity College, Oxford, and for thirtynine years rector of Camerton, was in his day a well-known antiquary and parson who, when he died, bequeathed to the British Museum some ninetyeight MS. volumes of diary, travel and research. From this immense quarry has now been dug a volume, “The Journal of a Somerset Rector”, which Mr Murray was to publish on October 28. The editors are Mr Howard Coombs and the Rev A. N. Bax, who have given us a human document, portraying not only an interesting personality, but a picture of the mode of life, occupations, recreations, joys and troubles of a country clergyman’s existence a hundred years ago. In “Time to Stare” Miss Marjorie Booth’s second novel, which Mr Murray will publish shortly, the author has set herself to tell what happened to Bret James, who found his happiness in crowds, in speed, in machinery, when he fell deeply in love with Linda, the daughter of a painter, who shared her father’s passion for the simple and quiet things of life. Linda returned Bret’s love. What, then? Circumstances arose which brought the under current of conflicting temperaments to the surface. The theme is treated with humour, delicacy and power. Two of Mrs E. Thornton Cook’s historical romances, “Their Majesties of Scotland” and “Roj-al Elizabeths”, have just been reissued in cheap editions by Mr Murray. Mrs Cook has well established a reputation as a painter of historical portraits, and these two illustrated volumes will be found full of illumination as well as of charm. Few children have been more written about than Princess Elizabeth. Almost from her first hpur she has lived a public life, and now Mr Murray announces “ The Authorised Life Story of the Princess Elizabeth,” written by “ Anne Ring,” formerly of the Duchess of York’s household. The book is illustrated with thirty-two photogravures and should be eagerly welcomed, especially by the children, for. its pages not only record the simple happiness of a. Royal home, but establish the beginnings of a personality that some day; will be historic. '