Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 58

PART FOP Reviews of Current Books 'J THE DETROIT FREE PRESS SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 9, 1930 03 Lincolniana Additions Analysis of Emotions Embarrassing To Fascists Bookshelf Notes For Many Moods Character From Shakespeare "The Count's Ball," Beautifully Translated, Remarkable Wo by Eccentric Young Frenchman Who Died at the Age of Twenty, a Psychological Enigma. to permit logical explanation can only say that he was one those wonder children who are bom to die early, and to whom the Ko7 LINCOLN From as wnbrotype mwto IN 1800. in Springfield, IllinoU, Sharply Etched Portraits Distinguish "Tantalus" by Noted Dutch Author By Gretchen Mount. "The Count's Ball." By Raymond Radiguet.

W. W. Norton and Company. TN SEPTEMBER, 1920, Raymond Radiguet, then a boy of seventeen, wrote this in his notebook: "Age counts for nothing. It is Rimbaud's work, and not the age at which he produced it, that astonishes me.

All the great poets wrote at seventeen. The greatest are those who succeed in making us forget their age." At that time Radiguet had himself been writing poetry for three years, and he had then already completed the entire book of poems which was afterward published. A year later he published his first novel, "Le Diahle au Corps," and shook literary Paris to Its foundations. His name was on everyone's lips; everybody was reading his book; but few knew then and most of us do not know now, for that matter exactly who or what he was. It is said that he was an eccentric, a young man of queer appearance, near-sighted and frail, and that he represented himself to be four years older than he actually was because he was sensitive about his age.

He is said to have wander ed aimlessly through the streets of Paris by day and to have slept in bars at night. We know that he collaborated with Jean Cocteau and Eric Satie In a comie opera, and that most of the well-known artists and sculptors In Paris, attracted by his extraordinary personality, painted and modeled him. Further than that his readers know very little. Two years after the appearance of "Le Diable au Corps" he finished his second novel, the present volume. The proofs were brought to him as he lay 111, but he refused to make any revisions.

He would leave it as he had written It His work and his life finished almost simultaneously. He died, December 12, 1923, twenty years old, and left behind him a psychological enigma which probably has no parallel, Precoslty is not rare In letters, of course, but most of the outstanding youthful prodigies are more or less-understandable because they have written enough, or have lived publicly enough, to provide psychologists a basis for analysis of the nature of their genius and their personalities. But too little is known of Raymond Radiguet as yet Old Mandalay Its Romance By Katlerine Conder. "The Lacquer Lady." By F. Tennyson Jessie.

The MacmiU lan Company. THE atory of the last stand of oriental royalty, brlght-hued and barbaric as in the days of Kubla Khan, is told in this novel of the British annexation of Upper Burma. History, if it bothers at all, records the fine on the Bombay-Burma Trading corporation as the cause of the bloodless British conquest of the kingdom of Ava. Miss Te revenla the truth of the mat ter in this love-story of "Fanny," tne obscure nuie nau-casLB nuiuen ir) Vauirhan Freeman. F.

Tennyson Jesse, author of "The Loqiier Lady." who became the favorite of the chief queen in the golden palace and whom fate made the chief instrument in the downfall of a dynasty. Miss Jesse writes of a fairy-story world, of Mandalay, the Royal City of Gems as It was a half eentury past. Within its red-and-gold walls arrogant, child-like kings and queens plot and play until the West steps in and ends forever the pageantry. "Three Bras Elephants. By Herman Landon.

Horace Live-right. Nothing good really could be expected to come from a scarecrow of a house, built for spite. From Rronson's spite, the dwelling that ruined real estate values along Manhattan's Kant river, emanate all the evil influences that result in the formation of the Anti-Blackmail club and a series of murders. Junius Bronson, son of the builder, returns to the unlovely scenes of his childhood in time to participate actively in the solution of mysteries surrounding the house, the hunchback, and the three little brass elephants. Hin flippant daring wins, besides the solution, the heart of pretty Laurel Courtleigh.

This mystery story, lacking originality in all else, does have the merit of Introducing a new architectural type, a house "all humps and knohi and ugly protuberances," with nine dormer windows that look like protudlng dead orbs," to say nothing of a vanishing black and red room. 4 a i Ludwig Views Lincoln as Albert Shaw Pictures His Holden Shows His By Leila E. Bracy. 'Lincoln." By Emil Ludwig. Little, Brou and Company.

A FULL LENGTH life of Abra- XX ham Lincoln by a writer of Emil Ludwig'a caliber la an event In the literary world. But the lover of Lincoln will Immediately be curious to know whether Herr Ludwig, even considering his un doubted gifts, could possibly Interpret the life story of a man bo alien to him. How could he appre ciate the peculiar humor of the backwoodsman? Could he estimate the sublime height reached by Lincoln from such humble beginnings as the cabin In Kentucky afforded? In a very modest preface Herr Ludwig sets forth his alms and bis views. "I am sure that my American friends are not expecting me to give them a new Lincoln, or to open up fresh and undiscovered material, but rather to present Lincoln In a new historical method. I see him like one of Shakespeare's characters, absolutely original, comparable to none, imme-morably unique.

He has fascinated me for years, and if some good may be found in this effort of mine, it has sprung from a -personal sympathy which I have never felt so strongly for any other great man of history." True, "the art of portraying human characters cannot be achieved by studying historical documents: it is practiced and learned in a never-ending study of living men and women." We have had the Interesting account of Lincoln's life by Miss Tar-bell; the study of the man by "Billy" Herndon, bis law partner and Intimate, and Jesse Weik who devoted a lifetime to studying Lincoln. Carl Sandburg has vividly portrayed Lincoln against the background of the middle west and the panorama of politics. Beverldge did not live to finish his able analysis of Lincoln the lawyer and politician, and Nlcolay and Hay secretaries peculiarly situated to appraise Lincoln. Ludwig'a life is a composite of these biographies a distillation of the essential Lincoln from the writings of those who knew him, his own letters and speeches and the result of that "never-ending study cf living men nd women." Certainly no previous biographer Lincoln has more greatly appre- elated his ability to express hi thoughts so clearly that the western farmer and the shrewd eastern lawyer could neither misunderstand nor misinterpret them, than this man of letters. There Is scarcely a page on which there is not some reference to Lincoln's ability to shape sentences so crystal clear that they mirror the honesty, the Integrity and the beauty of Lincoln's mind and heart.

The author whose tools have been words recognizes the craftsmanship of Lincoln's utterances. And these utterances cover the many phases of Lincoln's life his shrewdness as a lawyer, his instinctive ability to appraise men's motives and thoughts with the of the psychoanalyst, his tact as a friend, hia insight and fairness when dealing with women and with poor relations, his statesmanship, his political acumen and above all his tolerance and understanding. There were no muddy depths In Lincoln. The poet and dreamer In Ludwig responds to the poet and dreamer In Lincoln and It Is first, last and always as the dreamer that we see Lincoln in this portrait. Lincoln's extreme melancholy, which was a fixed part of his nature, is Interpreted by Ludwig as the reaction of a dreamer who knows that he will never attain the longed for goal.

In support of this reasonable theory is the Mter which Lincoln wrote to his friend. "I now have no doubt that It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly ran realize." All of the facts about Lincoln are knit by Ludwig into a firm fabric. He divides the life Into periods which he names Wage Earner, Citizen, Fighter, Liberator and Father. The style Is the same as that employed in the previous biographies by the same author-Goethe, Napoleon and Bismarck. There are no confusing foothotes ana tne hook ends with Lincoln's last breath on the morning following the tragedy at Ford's theater on tne night of April 14, 1865.

In a bed that was too small for him he dies "like a pilgrim, slain on Good Friday like a prophet." The translation from the Ger man was made by Eden and Cedar Paul. The book is illustrated with 11 plates from photographs in the collection of F. H. Meserve. of New York, the life mask and the cast of the right hand, made bv Volk and a photograph of Mary" Todd Lincoln.

"Excepting the English," says Mr. Ludwig, "Europeans, even intelligent and scholarly men and women, know far less about American history than Americans about the history of Europe, so I consider it one of the happiest privileges of my career to be able to present this greatest of American characters to the Old World." And Americans may be grateful to Mr. Ludwig not only for this fine contribution to the literature of Lincoln but for the fact that Europeans will learn about us and our great American from such a sympathetic artist. "Abraham Lincoln." By Albert Ehaw. The Review of Reviews corporation.

Two volume one "The Year of His Election" and the other "His Path to the Presidency" contain "a cartoon history" of Abraham Lincoln. Since so many biographies of Lincoln have been written it is no longer generally believed that he shot like a rocket from obscurity to the White House. The first named of these two volumes shows how lor.g and arduous that pathway was the years of testing and maturing that made Lincoln the man of the hour when that Important hour in our history struck. The second volume THE MERMAID BOOK SHOPS CURRENT LITERATURE RARE BOOKS FIRST EDITIONS 1014 Eait JefTerion Are. 1116 Washington BlTd.

By Mary Griffin. "Spider Kin." By Forman Broun. Robert Packard and Company. AMONG the younger poets, born and educated in Michigan, the name of Forman Brown will bear watching. His first slim volume of verse brings a number of delicately wrought verse fabrics for our contemplation, some of them notably "In Church," "Mister Bowser," and "David Advises" spiced with a pleasing, subtle humor, a quality rare In modern poetry.

The title piece, "Spider Kin," hints of love of outdoor scenes and nature, evident upon reading the volume In entirety. Since his graduation from the University of Michigan in 1922, Mr. Brown has taught school, traveled here and abroad, lived on a New Hampshire farm and in southern France and served both as playwright and puppeteer with a group of puppet players, all experiences that have been sewn brightly into "Spider Kin." In "Puppeteer," he says: hare played God: flood balanctnr above The jellnw clar ot Hihte and pulled the alrtnre That make alive the t'nv" wooden thinre. Ami leu not merer, mnannesn. or love, But only ahinir eyes that strain To make the puppeis pan acmei the And simulate the human heritage Ol pleaaure that li maaqueradiiiff pala.

Some day I thai! sot make them act ae men i shah he God Indeed, and ehall not care. Ah, hew 1 11 tend tbem awlDiJiif Ihrourh the air Ah, how I'll make them leap and fTerel then I Ah. how I'll lturh when hey who watch the ihow Whisper. "He's mad He a God. IH hare jou know I Tamela' Spring Song." By Cecil Roberts.

D. Appleton and Company. "Why not? Why not a thousand things? Why not a set of furs, a Rolls-Royce, a decent husband, a healthy baby? Why not dry shoes even, and a decent house? Why not a home, with a father and mother providing things Instead of this fight for two pounds, and a grandmother with a ten-shilling pension and a weakness for whisky?" Such was Pamela Kemp's outlook one rainy London morning when she got off at Aldgate, and viewed a sunny golden poster that flaunted, "Why Not Spend the Spring in the Tyrol?" Nevertheless this is a story book and In story books things happen. Pamela does spend the spring In Tyrol, and In the company of famous authors, millionaires, and titles. And even if she doesn't marry a prince she does marry a count with a castle, a good disposition and a handsome face.

Fiction for fiction's sake and for entertainment Is the aim of "Pamela's Spring Song." It may make 18-year-old hearts palp a bit and even brighten the hopes of older ones that haven't grown cold. "The Lost Flute." Translated by Gertrude Laughlin Joerrlssen. The Elf Publishers. The Chinese poems collected In this beautifully printed anl bound book have undergone a double translation, from the Chinese to "La Flute de Jade: Poesies Chlnoise," by Franz Tous-saint, and from the French to English by Miss Joerrlssen. Lovely bils of thought most of them are, expressing emotions understandable and living centuries after they were written, and expressing them with deft, quick stroke.

Tchang-Klou-Llng In the early eighth century says: "I am not In lore at this moment. A flower ie no lnnirer full ot perfume because a pretty woman baa plucked It." Chang-Wou-Klen, centuries later says: "The red tulip which I rare yon, yon let fill Into tiie dust. I nicked it up. It was all white. In thnt little moment the enow fell upon our love." Many of the poems revolve on themes of love and friendship, on the life of the warrior's wife; some of them are about death.

They are Joyous, mournful, sometimes cynical. "The Return of William Shakespeare." By Hugh Klngsmill. Bobbs-Merrlll. Albert Henry Butt, the scientist, finds his painstaking experiments In the realm of reintegration of life bringing results. He is able to bring rats, tadpoles, dogs, pigs and other animals to life.

He brings back a young man who had recently committed suicide only to have the saved one shoot himself all over again. Then he attempts something really big he brings William Shakespeare out of his long sleep. Mr. Kingsmlll has written an amusing story about Shakespeare's return to a modern world. Though he is able to adapt himself easily to new conditions, the poet's health is not of the best, and be is not able to appear in public.

A substitute is chosen to play his role for the inquisitive public and does so very well until the arguments over the strange reappearance of Shakespeare become too warm for his comfort. Read the book for entertainment, but without hope that Mr. Butt's secret potion will be disclosed for your use. "The Canon of Lost Waters." By Hoffman Birney. Cosmopolitan.

Richard Burton has a deep love for the grassy plateaux of Aguas Perdldas, the "Lost Waters," a secluded spot where he has made his home for years, and raised his beautiful child, Dolores, without knowledge of 'the outside world. The advent of Jepp Starr, Texan broncho-buster, is a revelation to the girl. Jepp is a veritable Marco Polo to her, telling her wonderful stories of country outside her experience, winning her love, and finally, after much opposition, overcoming the prejudices of her father. Hoffman Birney has written other stones of the southwest, "Vigilantes," "The Masked Rider," "King of the Mesa" and "Steeldust." Life Isn't So Bad." By May Edginton. Cosmopolitan.

Kelly March only decides that life Isn't such a bad proposition after all when he discovers lovely red-headed Ksta Gerald and learns through her that some women prefer love to money. Kelly has been somewhat disillusioned by being too rii-h and desirable to gold-diggers. A love ptory that begins in an un'a-hionabie section of IinIrt. an has settings in various parts of America and Fui'ira. Career Through Cartoons, and Evolution to Greatness.

begins with Lincoln's return (from the speaking tour on which the east first caught a glimpse of the man and felt the power of his utterances. It ends on the fourth day of the following March when Lincoln finally took the oath of office. In the interim were those trying months when he said tnat he would gladly sacrifice two years of his life if he did not have to undergo them but could go on to Washington Immediately. Every page of both these large volumes is embellished not only with the comic cartoons illustrating the current thought and reactions of the time upon men and things, but also with scores of photographs of Lincoln's contemporaries In public life. One is awed by the very thought of how much patient work must have been entailed In the collecting of this interesting material.

The Intricate network of politics is commented on by a man who has made a deep study of the long history of events that focused on Lincoln. "Abraham Lincoln, the Politician and the Man." By Raymond Holden. Minton, Balch and company. While the author of "Abraham Lincoln" disavows any intention of toppling a great man from the pedestal to which legend has raised him, he gives us Lincoln as a party regular who consistently was intelligent and capable but in whose early record is no evidence of either great vision or great public spirit. These came later when the spirit of the man had passed through the crucible of national crisis and personal adversity.

Mr. Holden ahowa the gradual ascent from the position of "party regular" to nobility and wisdom. Lincoln's greatness we read here was in the fact that he outgrew this normal beginning and cast, aside the shackles of nreiudice. achieving unselfishness. Every book about Lincoln adds something to our Knowledge anu appreciation of him as politician, lawyer and citizen his greatness never diminishes.

The book Is illustrated. Joyous Title-Unhappy Tale By Helen C. Bower. "Joy It My Xame." By Borah Salt. Payson and Clarke.

ALL the real Joy In this new novel by the spicily and alllter-atlvclv named Sarah Salt la in the title, for Joyous the Btory most emphatically is not. It Is modern and frank and thoroughly disillusioning a set of adjectives which we presume might equally well be applied to the author. Yet Sarah Salt writes with keen, cruel power and a searching clarity that give value to her observations. Personally this reviewer wishes she would not weaken the effect of her general style by the old dodge of introducing letters written by one of the characters. Certainly Sarah Salt Is not such a lazy writer that she cannot build up her story without recourse to this trick, employed earlier in "Sense and Sensuality." Even though the letters in "Joy Is My Name" successfully recreate the atmosphere of the narrow home In the imall English town from which Joyce Raven escaped to Join an unimportant repertory company, they break the rhythm.

Young and pretty, Joyce ItaA-en has taken the first step toward realizing her ambition to become a Sarah Salt, author of "Joy In My 'Bme," great actress when we find her as a member of Mrs. P.lce-Pllkington's band of troupers. Soon it develops that Joy's troubles are to begin because her Inbred sense of the Importance of being a "good gel" gets into Instant conflict with the biological allure of the leading man, already spoken for. by the fading Mrs. Merely to the extent of a few kisses does Joy succumb, and then Maurice buys her a pair of shoes.

Somebody tells Mrs. and Joy is given the gate. From this moment the graph goes downward. Joy tries the agencies in London and gets nowhere. To pay her room rent and have train fare back home she gives a stranger what was denied the charming Maurice.

Once with her mother and aunt again Joy faces the fury of outraged middle-class morality. The understanding mother-love upon which she depended is a sorry fable. Joy turns from home to a position in a private asylum again the love of life overcomes her. This time a young doctor is the man responsible for her dismissal. Yet the memory of Maurice and the desire for him have become i such a driving obsession that Joy i goes to him at last, in a dingy little room where poverly and the bust-up of the Rlce-Pilkington com- I pany have brought him.

His "love" offers hr nothing more hopeful than an introduction to a prostitute who may be useful to Joy. So the story ends with tea and toast and Joy's presentiment that through Maurice she is to suffer, i though she is determined never! aain to lose him." the eternal desire to be loved would burn her up. She would be destroyed," Sarah Rait does not writ" stories of sweetness and light, but of life going the hard way, of physical d- -ir that derides the power of mimit over what matters ni'mt to them, But the impression hi wriMn leaves a definite as her stvle. I farah Fait knows a realism that cannot be laughed off. By Harry Hansen.

"Escape." By Francesco XittU O. P. Putman't Sons. SCAPE," by Francesco Nittl, purports to contain revelations which will seriously embarrass the Fascist regime In Italy. Nittl Is a nephew of the former prime minister of Italy, whose name he bears, and who contributes a foreword to this book.

Both are now living in Paris. Whatever controversy the book will arouse will probably be fought out by Italian political factions without Americans getting into It The charges made by the former prime minister and his nephew against Mussolini's dictatorship have been made before. What is new Is Nitti'i story of the treatment of political prisoners and life on the islands of the Mediterranean set aside for their detention. Nitti's escape make an exciting chapter and takes its place beside famous narratives of similar evasions of the law, Including Casanova's escape from the Leads and the one or two Isolated escapes from Devil's Island. The story indicates that although the Fascist! had a strict regime In the islands they could not prevent prisoners from getting word to the mainland.

This Indicates that there are disaffected Italians outwardly Fascist but Inwardly ready to serve the opposition if opportunity permits. Only In this way could the three men who escaped have communicated with the friends who took them off the Island In a powerful launch. The Nittl family has always been prominently Identified with Italian politics and resents the present dictator and his policies. Likewise they are members of the Italian Methodists, which further complicates matters. They contend that members of the opposition party are subjected to annoying police surveillance and that imprisonment on the islands frequently results without provocation.

Nitti writes that he first became an object of suspicion when he outwardly showed hia sympathy with the widow ot Matteotti, the Socialist deputy whose murder is generally ascribed by the opposition to the Fascisti. Hia story reveals how Intensely Italians of both parties feel about the matter. Mattcottl's sympathizers have made a shrine out of the spot where the man's body was found, and gave It such prominence that the police placed guards to keep all visitors away. Nitti risked his own safety by going there Intent on placing, flowers, which he finally gave to the police who were guarding the spot. In his subsequent arrest he suffered from the severity of the guards, and at Lampedusa, the island on which he was first detained, met with one of those brutal creatures who are invariably found In prison administration, a man who takes his own inferiority out on prisoners of superior intelligence by mistreating them.

Escape from Liparl is practically impossible, gays Nitti, and he and his two friends are. the only ones who made It successfully. But by their very escape they made things more difficult for those who remained behind, and now naturally it will be hard for anyone to repeat their exploit. "A 'Roman Holiday." Bv Don Ryan. Macaulay Company.

Don Ryan's new novel, "A Roman Holi day, makes one pause. It reveals a fecund talent rich In expression and touched with a desire to record the bizarre, the exotic and the dregs of life. Perhaps the author subscribes to the belief of a school of psychology which thinks man la best studied in abnormal cases; that culture Is best analyzed by its suppurating sores. A fine Intelligence and a love for vivid episode are distinguishing cnaracieristics ot tnis author, who, once he geta his material In hand, may go far. Today he la still too eager to relate his philosophical reading to life by picking events that Justify his theme.

When he describes life at the studios In Hollywood It is the worst side; when he touches on war experiences in France he is most at home amid macabre scenes. Ryan has read much In the pages of Oswald Spengler, to whom he dedicates his book. To some extent his heroine, Diana Hunter, born Hara, a movie actress, Justifies a conclusion of "the physiologist of historical philosophers." Ryan sees her as "a tiny gauge for the decline of life throughout the western world." Decay has set in the American world; Hollywood, during and after wartime, reveals this disintegration to the fullest extent. It is a Hollywood that "resembles the Cumae of Petronlus. Marked by the same grotesque extravagance, the exaltation of the JJiana Is both a part of the life and an observer just outside its borders.

Her mental progress is Has convincing than her rise as an actress. One suspects that her author has made her the spokesman lor nis own reflections on the de tthe wef l' yarvine and then between letting her act and letting her reason out the purport of what she sees. The transition is easy because Diana, although she understands Spengler's destructive theories, does not follow the German students into suicide, but wishes "to grasp and fulfil her destiny so much the quicker for what she understood." After varying adventures, she dies of bronchial pneumonia. Aside from Spengler, a lot of old fiends of college days make their! reappearance Remy de Gourmont's 01 riauoerr lempta- non 01 nt. Amnony, not to men- tion bows to a large galaxy of poets 80,1 Goethe.

Schiller, Keats rsergson. t-lie raure, Ouspensky. Maeterlinck and Marcus Aurelius. But. though tremendously occupied "m-noousiy with speculation, Ryan car.no (1plcng the color, tne e' ot avoid onrush of life itself, and In that I faculty lies the hone of hia voucnsaie talents which Am in 1 i 1 score of years all that they 2 have accomDlsheri if 'Wt had been set by fate at three SSC "The Count's Ball" has been bM11 tifully translated by Malcolm ley, and it is prefaced by an Ytr' tionate tribute from Jean Coctea? In plot it might be called a love story, with an ending "hi or not as one chooses to regard i Francois de Seryeuse falls in with Catherine, the wife of 7 friend, Count Anne d'Orge (w erine is gradually influenced Francois' affection-influenced against her wlll-and in fc-rt tion she calls Francois' mother her aid, begging the older womaa to prevent her son from attendm? the dinner and ball which the count has arranged.

Francois, however does attend the dinner, and the dis! traught Catherine finally appeals to her husband, confessing her love, and asking him to help her resist an infatuation which must inevita bly drift into infidelity. The count, answer, which practically ends th. book, is this: "Come, Catherine, let us very calm. We aren't living itt the Antilles. The damage it done; let us try to repair it the best we can.

Francois must have a place in the grand march. You will choose his costume." All of which Is quite in keepint with notes made by Raymond Radi guet when the novel was planned, and found after his death by Jett Cocteau. In these notes he hd set down his intention to write a novel "in which only the psychology will be romantic;" in which "the only imaginative effort will be applied, not to exterior events, but to the analysis of emotions;" and which, while a "novel of chaste lova, will be as salacious in its own way as the most unchaste novel." Surely a queer undertaking for a youth of eighteen! And all the more remarkable for having been written in a post-war Pari-a world of chaotic hatred and in the midst of the artistic confusion in. cident to a period notable for being Paris' orgy of the weirdest sort of sensationalism in the name of art It is, as M. Cocteau says.

"th sort of book that can't be writtta at his age." uj si f)xm These books, reviewed on this page, will be on display in the Hudson Book Shop Mondny: "Lincoln," at $5 By Emil Ludwig "Escape," at $2.50 By Francesco A'tVi "The Lacquer Lady," at $2.50 By F. Tennyson Jesse HUDSON'S Book Shop MFZZANTNE FARMER STHEET UUILDING You will find these new and interesting books on our Book Shop shelves. "Gather the Slars" Diana Patrick, Ui "Pure Gold" O. E. Rohaag, "The Human Mind Karl A.

M'tnninitr, iS "The Rise of American Civilization" CkarltsA.andHIarjR.Bevi Mesaaalae Book Crowley-Milneits COXAX DOTLE sap: f7 do not knoic when I have been more thrilled." I PLAN by Graham Scton $2 psychological study but, as well, a skilful analysis of the hard-set social structure of Holland, with ita aternly conservative codes, reared by men and maintained by women. an aristocrat, marries Thora Vogel, member of a wealthy, powerful commercial family. The reader makes Tideman's acquaintance when he Is 40, loving his wife, but with a wistful, boyish, longing for adventure. His wife, with her sturdy bourgeois upbringing, cannot understand him and recoils In horror at the suggestion that she overlook his casual philanderlngs. Tideman comes to New York on 'business, has an "affair" with a silly, empty-headed but pretty American girl who follows him back to Holland.

In the end, Tide-man divorces his wife to marry the girl and finds, of course, that Margaret is no more the woman of his dreams than was his wife. He realizes, too late, that happiness is not for him but that a return to his wife might bring a measure of content His wife, conscious of the lifted eyebrows of her family and friends should she take back the divorced husband, regretfully turns her face from him. In this frame the author hag set sharply etched pictures of the stern, hypocritical, smug life of the Vogels, who are put before us as typical of their class. There are Tideman's vain, idealistic attempts to find his heart's desire. There are pictures of country club life in the vicinity of New York, iife as the author saw It during her visit to this country In 1925.

Particularly interesting Is this picture of Americans as a Hollander sees us. The book, well translated by G. J. Renler and Irene Clephane, is the third of the author's to appear in America. The others are "The Rebel Generation," and "The House of Joy." "Forgive l' Our Happiness." By Walton Hall Smith.

Horace Live-right Heralded on the jacket as a "new kind of sophisticated sex book," this story of Reggie Thayer reads suspiciously as though It had been written with Hollywood royalties In mind, Reggie is not his father's son, although he Soesn't find It out until his real father dies. He's the black sheep of the family and scandalizes everyone with his love affairs, his feverish attempts to find happiness and his failure at marriage with a woman who Is a psychological "case." Well, It takes a lot of Freud, Lombroso, physical culture, drinking, jazz, tuberculosis and things like that to make everything come out reasonably well. Reasonably well, that is; not as your sainted aunt would like. It's the sort of book one rather expects to see recommended as hammock reading, light and diverting. And what a swell movie it would make! Best Sellers The week' test teller in Detroit's representative stores are Vsted helow in the order of popularity.

riCTioy. "All Our Yesterdays." H. M. their Tom-Kom- Jifuon; "Coronet," Manuel lion; "Iron Man." TT. II.

Burnett: "False Spring," Bratrire Seymour; By Andrew Bernhard. "Tantalus." By Jo Tan Ammert-Kuller. K. P. Dutton and Company.

AN old theme, man's quest for a dream woman whose charm will never fade and whose appeal Is as eternal as life, engages the attention of the distinguished Dutch novelist In "Tantalus." No Don Juan seeking fresh con quests to gratify his vanity or to stimulate hia Jaded senses Is Evert Tideman, the central character of the book. Rather might he be termed an arrested adolescent, one of that army of men who never have outgrown the turbulence and restlessness of their youthful struggles to come to terms with sex. But the book is not only a penetrating Negro Writings In Anthology By Amey Smyth. "Anthology of American Xegro Literature." Edited, with Introduction, ly T. F.

Calverton. The Modern Library. TO ANYONE Interested in the development of the American Negro one of the most significant characteristics of the new school of Negro literature Is Its new racial consciousness and naturalness. This Is particularly shown In the poetry of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen and several of the modern novels by Negroes. Mr.

Calverton explains In his introduction that his is the first Negro Anthology which attempts to be inclusive "in terms of historical background as well as diversity of forma." In many cases he has included material because of its representative value, not for any especial literary merit The volume contains a few short stories, poems, spirituals, chapters from novels and essays, giving a fair idea of "what the American Negro has achieved in the art of literary forms." The more modern examples are the most Interesting, Some or them show a high degree of Intelligence and culture, as well as the genius In emotion and rhythm, peculiar to tne isegro race, nota bly evident in those poets mention ed above. It is true here that the higher the development and the more universal the sympathy the finer the racial expression that Is. in terms of racial consciousness. Here there is pride without arrogance, because of that larger understanding. Here is neither servility born of slavery nor the intolerant superiority complex of the newly educated.

It Is rather the new spirit of what has been termed the Negro Renaissance, whose tenets are honest self-expression regardless of praise or blame from white or black. Langston Hughes has stated their creed simply and forcefully: "We younger Negro artists who create now Intend to express our Individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it does not matter. We know we are beautiful.

And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laugns. it colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves." Among the most Interesting selections in the book are poems by Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Jean Toom-er.

and a poem by Jessie Fauset; chapters from novels and essays by Walter White. W. E. B. DuBols, and others.

The Blues and Spirituals are represented in two different sections. Of Negro drama there is little to be said as yet. The two short stories by Eric Walrond and Rudolph Fisher are well-written and vivid. Typical of th Negro rhythm and love of living things is Jean Toomer's "Song of the Son," whose first two verses are here quoted: "Pour. pour that parting eoul In sons, pour It In the sawdust glow of n-eht.

Into the velvet air tonight. And let the vniley carry It And 1-st the valley carry It alona." lant and soil, red ami end eweet- tre, Ro wii-it of grasa. pmflirate of p'n. Nfw Just before in einxh nun flTpne. Thy enu, time, I have r-turrM to 'life Thy eon, 1 have, in time, retuinel to Following this advance In culture, this realization of the true racial heritage of the Negio in literature, the next generations will marn a sure development, a new at freedom In expiessinn.

The drama. now scarcely touched hy AmencA Neero writers, especially may be enriched by their emua. Three Against the World." Knyr. yulgar and a demand for the satis-Smith; "Young Man ot Manhat- t-faction of abnormal annetitoa tan," Katharine Brush. XOX-FICTIOW "Is Sex Xeccssaryr' Thurber and White; 'Caught Short," Eddie Cantor; "Franklin." Bernard Fay; "iieamng or Vulture." John I'ouys a beyil't Fo'tsle," Lowell' Thomas; "The Tragic Era," Claude Bowers.

The vrrk's brit circulators in the Detroit Public Library are listed bcloic in the order of their popularity. FICTIOX. "Gallery of Womn.n Theodore Preiser; -Hudson River Bracketed," Edith Wharton; "Diana." Emil Ludwig; "I'mcilling Cod," Perry: Maries; Garriion." Bo- fitl Markorits: "lltima Hrnry Richardson. XOX-FICTIOX. "Marriage and Morals." Rertraitd John Pouit; 'fnivcrse Around: I S.r James Jeans; TirM.jht of Harry r.t Onc'i 0.n." "C-jf or Cemmty," John Deicey.

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