BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19564, 1 May 1935, Page 10

BOOKS AND WRITERS

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS.

“If a man lias no worries lie degenerates to a chrysalis state. Give him worries and his Drain Keeps active and he hasn’t time to droop away.” atonies anu —George Robey, the English comedian.

“MEN NEVER KNOW.” BRILLIANT VICKI- BAUM. NEW TUNE ON OLD THEME. The most accomplished novelist, with all the help of the greater freedom that the novel now enjoys might despair of playing a new tune upon the eternal triangle. In “Men Newer Know," Vicki Baum has not only played a new tune, hut also she 'has developed it with all the mastery a great musician displays over his thematic material. The action of the story extends oyer live days, during which time the point of view of the lover, the wife, and the husband is presented in strict alternation. I grudge giving even the faintest outline of so good a story; but no harm will be done by saying that the lover is an American businiess man who, during a brief visit to 'Berlin, falls in love witli and is loved in return by tire wife of a young German official in the judicial service. The husband’s mind is preoccupied during these fatal five days with a difficult poisoning case over which he is presiding, a superb exercise in counterpoint as the author handles it.

To tell more would be to spoil one of the best stories a novelist lias given us, and I beg readers not to indulge in that vile habit of looking at the end of the book first.

“WHILE ROME BURNS.” A BERNARD SIIAW STORY. HOW HE PROPOSED. In his lively book, “While Rome Burns,” Alexander Woolcott, an American journalist, tells us that, according to Frank Harris, George Bernard Shaw was a passionate cyclist, and that his bones were excessively brittle. One or other of his limbs was generally in splints. An accident deposited “0.'8.5.” on the high road outside Miss ‘Townsend’s home. He was carried in and nursed with a tender de-volion that terrified Shaw into the conviction that if lie tarried a single day longer than was necessary he would propose. So before he was able to use his crutches he tried to run—but be slipped on the step and not only, rebroke his leg but shattered the other one as well. He was carried back and had just strength enough to raise his head and ask, “Will you marry me?" Miss Townsend answered, “Yes." “And that," said Harris, “was that.” NEW ZEALAND WRITER. PUBLISHES SIXTH NOVEL. • Jarrolds is publishing the sixth novel of Nelle Scanlan, the New Zealand writer. It is named “Ambitious Harvest," and is the story of the chequered love of two Now Zealanders in England and on I,lie Continent, witli the heroine’s many experiences in America.

PROFESSORS’ TASTE. LIKE DETECTIVE STORIES. REVEL IN "'LIGHT” BOOKS. Professor A. J. A. Wa'ldock, M'A.> of Sydney University, likes Wild West and detective stories. They thrill hiim he admits, ’but they also reveal points ! in the technique of writing, j In a lecture to an English class at the Sydney University, Professor Wal- ■ dock surprised students when he referred to a “ crude and superficial Wild West story,” which he had read. He was secretive about the name of the publication. “Some of yoiu may get hold of it, to your disadvantage,” he hedged. “ Just a tale by a popular author to ■read in the sun —that is often my desire,” he said, but he added that his hours of leisure were very rare. Not Say Too Much. And there is something more than the mind relaxation, the thrill of excitement, and the “’all’s well with the world ” ending that attracts Professor Waldock to these stories. ■He found an illustration of Coleridge's technique in “ Ghristabel ’’ in ! tiie magazine story which he had j mentioned to the Ants students. M was characteristic of “Ghristabel" that the reader is left to produce his own impression on certain tilings. In the Wild West story of the days of the covered waggons the writer employed the same technique—the art of not saying too much and so leaving something to the imagination. Professor Waldock, said it is not unusual for men of the Arts to revel in the readihg of “light" books. He instanced the case of his colleague at the University, Professor R. C. Mills, who is a well-known reader of detective stories. He has acknowledged that if he had the spare time he would write mystery novels. There is also Mr G. D. H. Cole, a leading economist and scholar in England, who writes a bevy of detective books each year, in collaboration with his wife. t

MITCHELL LIBRARY. A SYDNEY INSTITUTION. NO SUPERIOR OF ITS KIND. Though he has traversed 'the United Kingdom, Europe, and America in a 12 months’ lour of examination, Air C. It. 11. Taylor, of the Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand-^, turned to Sydney by the Oronsay,***B , !siS'fied that the 'Mitchell Library, Sydney, has no superior of its kind. America was more spectacular, he said, but the statistics quoted there often had no foundation in fact. Germany was most progressive in ■books and libraries, but Australia compared most favourably with them all, with Sydney superior to '.Melbourne and Adelaide. The Turnbull Library in Wellington is of similar type lo the Mitchell Library, and it is hoped, said Mr Taylor, | to establish closer co-operation bcj tween them. j Travelling under the Carnegie j Scholarship system,' Mr Taylor met i in the Vatican Library Mr John Met 1 j'oalfe, Deputy Principal Librarian of rlhe Public Library, 'Sydney, who was 'touring in the same way. BOOKS IN DEMAND. AT PUBLIC LIBRARIES. The following books were in popular demand at the public libraries during the week:— Fiction. Mannln, E.—Cactus. Yore, Clem —Trigger Slim. Linklater, E.—Ripeness is All. Ruck, B.—A Star in Love. 'Martyn, W.—Nightmare Castle. Meynell, E.—Time’s Door. Baum, V. —Men Never Know. Mundy, T.—There was a Door. Jepson, M.—Via Panama. Stone, I.—Lust for Life. Wheatley, D.—The Devil Rides Out. Smith, E.—Tzigane. Buck, P. S.—The House Divided. General. ' Culbertson, Ely—Contract Bridge Red-hook on Play. j Lloyd George, D.—War Memoirs, Yol. 111. “Sinbad” —lied Saunders. Ilanighen and Zisclika —The Secret I War for Oil. | Meeker, J. K.—Meligiun and Gomjmunism. Curie, J.' 11.—Travels and Men. Jdrioss, I. I,.—(Man Tracks. Yaehell, 11. A.—Arising out of That. RUPERT BROOKE’S POEMS. COPY FETCHES 1153. An autographed copy of Rupert Brooke’s “Poems" (1911) fetched £33 at a recent London sale. i i - “ANTHONY ADVERSE.” !' ■ - i 1 " | BAN IN IRISH FREE STATE. ! —— i “Anthony Adverse,’’ .Ail' Hcrvoy Allen’s novel, which has sold more Hum 500,000 copies in I lie Englishspeaking world, has been banned in Hie Irish Free State. | | •• MORLIFE ” WAKES MORE BLOOD. u Morllt'e Tablets are really a Womierlul discovery,' 'writes a medical man. “|| out on]v supp'ies Hie system vvitii pure blood, but will) valuable mineral propurile’s." Morllt'e Tablets tßve amuamg results m tre-Uirg anaemia and lung j troubles. Money-back guarantee. Alt Cbomlsts.

HISTORIC DOCUMENTS. BARTHOU’S LITERARY TREASURES. THREE FAMOUS WAR ORDERS. JThe sale of the historical books and autographs belonging to the late M. Barthou is to begin at the endJof the month, says a Paris message. ; > (. M. Barthou, besides being a noted bibliophile, collected autographs or manuscripts having a direct'bearing on ■the rare volumes he .possessed. Valuable books by French 16th and 17th century writers, for instance, are in many cases accompanied by the authors’ own MSS. or by historic letters sent or received by them. For instance, in the very rare first edition of Bossuet’s Funeral Oration of Henrietta Maria, Queen of England and wife of Charles 1., there is enclosed a letter from that Queen written during the Civil War and addressed to Cardinal Mazarin, thanking him for help rendered to the King’s cause. % ~ . Boy Prince’s MS. Another book by the same prelate containis a very curious MS. It is an Essay by the Young Dauphin of France, son of Louis XIV., who died many years before his father, corrected by Bossuet, who was in charge of his education. The hoy prince’s handwriting—lie was only ten years ol"age at the time —is easier to read than the many cor-, rcctions by his venerable tutor. Among modern books there is one of the very rare copies of the Versailles Peace Treaty, specially bound in green morocco,leather by order of the French Government, it includes autoI graph copies of three of the most famous orders issued by French command-ers-in-chief during the war: That by Jofl’re before the Battle of the Marne; That by Foch in March, 1918, declaring the Allied armies would light “in front of Amiens, in Amiens, and behind Amiens," but they would stop tiie enemy and prevent him pushing a, wedge between the British and French armies; and finally, That by Petuin announcing the Armistice. Peace Conference. Other autographed MSS. in the volumes are a portion of President Poincare’s speech inaugurating the Peace Conference in January, 1919, and a letter from Mr Lloyd George, dated Genoa, assuring M. .Barthou of his great anxiety that nothing should happen to divide the opinion of two great democracies (Great Britain and France), upon whose friendship the peace of Europe largely depended. France’s 19th century poets, like Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Vigny, and Victor Hugo, are all represented by rare first editions, nearly every one with appropriate autographed letters, MSS., or proofs corrected by the authors themselves. It is expected that very high prices will be paid for some of these literary treasures.