Illinois, as a result of the financial difficulties of its editor, Dr. Theodore Canisius, to whom, after the nomination, he resold it for the modest sum of $400. Close to this is the author's discovery and reproduction of another "lost speech" of Lincoln's, delivered at the conclusion of the 1858 campaign and unnoticed by the newspapers. Dr. Barton was given access to the original manuscript of this speech, which is in every sense worthy of Lincoln, by its owner, Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago. One is gratified to see, in this work, that the traditional affaire de cœur with Ann Rutledge has been robbed of much of the melodramatic increments which have lately been exploited by the uncritical, and again restored to sanity. The author refutes Herndon's assertion that Lincoln never loved anyone but Ann and shows convincingly that, despite their occasional moments of seeming incompatibility, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln needed each other, and that the latter did much to spur her husband into the presidency. There are many interesting points of information in this biography of Lincoln that are either new or given a new and more adequate treatment many, in fact, that one is tempted to wonder whether Dr. Barton has not given us the definitive biography of the Civil War President. SO By William The Life of Abraham Lincoln. FIRST AID TO THE BOOKISH By Will H. Solle If somehow those thousands could be led to discover the new edition of Bessie Graham's "The Bookman's Manual", book buying might assume a different complexion, and selections for the home library, at least, would be based upon definite knowledge and not mere hearsay. The material in its six hundred pages is of inestimable value to a larger group than those who sell books. Its subtitle, "A Guide to Literature", indicates the broad field of those to whom it will render direct and adequate service. Librarians have already evidenced their interest in the book by buying it; the general reader will find it an "ever present help in time of trouble" when seeking elusive information about books. Its lists will save much time and vacillation for reading circles, literary clubs, and professional men and women attempting to map out a definite course of reading. But in a review the book must be considered from the bookseller's angle. There is a growing number of bookstores in these United States in which the working force is animated by certain ideals, and upheld by a sense of rendering a professional as well as a commercial service. Although these ideals have nowhere been definitely stated, observation of such stores leads to certain conclusions. Usually the bookseller who looks upon his work as a profession is in the business because he loves books and cannot resist the fascination of working among them. The basis of his efforts necessarily becomes commercial, since it has been inevitable for him to transmute his passion for books into a living. His stock is selected with discrimination, THE cross or by discovering to HE cross word puzzles have proved for one of his fundamental tenets is to thousands of people the use of a dictionary and "Roget's Thesaurus". spread good literature in his community. He believes a large part of his duty is to let visitors to the store know what new work has appeared on the market. With this duty in mind, he displays the best of recent publications and directs the attention of his clients to the books pertaining to their interests, their tastes, and their hobbies. His greatest work, however, is in meeting the demands of the uninformed, those who seek this, that, or something else with a concept as vague as the wordiest book on philosophy. To him it is often given to meet the worried, perplexed, or blasé individual and urge upon him a book to meet his need. The questions he receives in a day rival in variety, peculiarity, and number those received by a reference librarian in a big city library. Most of his knowledge he has acquired from following the difficult advice of Jared Bean, who wrote in 1774: First of all matters, 'tis your greatest need Turn then your whole Attention to the Unfortunately the bookseller cannot read everything, and rarely does he have time to look back and read the books of yesteryear. His task is to read next week's books. But as the days hurry through his shop, he picks up much miscellaneous information about old books, early editions, neglected titles, authors, dates, and publishers. Heretofore he has been almost entirely dependent upon his own researches and memory to acquire needed information. Today he has found an ally in "The Bookman's Manual". Concrete evidence that booksellers are improving the quality of their service lies in the fact that such a book as this demands a second edition within three years. The book is the result of Miss Graham's "course of lessons on book salesmanship, given at the William Penn Evening High School, Philadelphia". Later this course of lessons appeared serially in "The Publishers' Weekly" as the "Home School for Booksellers". That anything composed of lists of books and authors' names could be made fascinating reading has been proved, for these pages bristle with the adventure of discovering long desired facts, searching for omissions, chancing upon bits of humor or unfamiliar sayings about books. Every week the bookseller is called upon to answer such questions as: "What is considered the best encyclopædia?" "Who made the best translation of 'Faust"?" "Where can I find a good list of biographies?" "Who wrote this, that, or the other?" "Where can I find 'When You Were a Pollywog'?" "Where can I find Soand-So's 'Such-and-Such"?" "How many 'Utopias' have been written?" Answers to nearly all of these questions and scores of others are found in the Manual, besides directions for locating quickly "mornamillion" in addition. These facts are not given in a dreary, professorial manner - for instance: "To be told what head means in twenty-seven different connections, and then to be told what headache, headdress, and head-work means as well, seems to show that unabridged dictionaries are made for the stupidest of mankind." And so they are. No doubt Miss Graham's task of selecting what should or should not be included was difficult. With space limited and information unlimited, it is surprising to find so much contained in so few pages. But why, we wonder, are the names of Eunice Tietjens, Edward Carpenter, Holbrook Jackson, J. G. Frazer, and Frank Harris entirely lost? Surely Frank Harris's "Life of Oscar Wilde" deserves a place in any list of biographies, and the other writers named have done work that is being talked of and possesses a permanency worthy of a place in this manual. H. L. Mencken receives comment only in relation to Nietzsche and language; and though Marguerite Wilkinson's "New Voices" is mentioned, the reference is too casual to suggest its great value to the bookseller and the student of modern poetry. The omission of any reference to books for children is comprehensible. The four chapters contained in the serial publication of the manual merely grazed the subject. The classics for children mount high in number, and are augmented by the multitude of illustrated editions of each title. This absence of comment on juvenile literature can be forgiven more readily since the information it might have contained may be gleaned from the pages of that excellent little book "What Shall We Read to the Children?" by Clara W. Hunt. A chapter that might have been included but probably was never even thought of, is one on the various literary prizes offered. What is the history of such awards as the de Goncourt and Nobel Prizes abroad, the Pulitzer Prize in America, the various other prizes to which publishers seem to attach importance in their announcements? It is easy enough to learn the names of such awards but next to impossible to learn, without research, the conditions, emoluments, and honors attaching to them. If more space has been given in this review to what Miss Graham did not include than to what she did include, it has not been intended as faultfinding. The Manual is so crammed full of lists, facts, and authoritative criticisms that it would be impossible to begin their recital. The only hope for the reviewer is to direct attention to omissions in an effort to indicate how extensive are the facts included. The Manual's detailed information about translations of great classics calls for special praise, while the impersonal tone in which the criticisms of many books are given will render these criticisms helpful in placing each book in its proper rank. A work such as Miss Graham's does much to assist the professional bookseller in spreading the knowledge of good books and fine literature in his community. It gives him the encyclopædic information so much needed in his daily round, it enables him to speak with authority on work that has been done. Yet never for a moment may he relax his vigil and forget "to read unceasing & unceasing read", for it will be many years before he again receives so admirable an assistant. The Bookman's Manual, A Guide to Literature. By Bessie Graham. New, revised edition. R. R. Bowker Company. IN BRIEF REVIEW HE first satisfying thing about "Casanova in England", edited by Horace Bleackley (Knopf), is the binding which is done in three colors one dares not mention together. Then the book opens, if one is fortunate, upon the lovely Duchess of Hamilton, her delicious face peeping out of a peaked hood trimmed with tufts of satin and tied with a bow. It is distressing that she plays so small a part in Casanova's visit. Mr. Bleackley has let Casanova himself tell his adventures in London, with the exception of occasional asides of explanation or humor. Our hero describes his presentation at court, his night in Newgate prison, his affairs with countesses and courtezans, his hasty flight from London. It is an exciting tale. Mr. Bleackley says of the "Memoirs": "In spite, however, of the variety of the material and the vigor of the narrative the work in many respects does not reach the highest excellence. In no case does he succeed in drawing a masterly portrait. Similarly, he fails entirely to convey an impression of the places he depicts." But certainly Casanova, from the material Mr. Bleackley has collected, does not fail in the unconscious revelation of himself. The diverse intellectual riches of H. G. Wells are abundantly displayed in "A Year of Prophesying" (Macmillan), a collection of recent journalistic essays and reviews on subjects of a wide and timely variety. But the chief concern of this singularly liberal and broadly gifted mind is here, as always, with the stubbornly tangled aspects of world problems. Wellsian views are invariably stimulating, keen witted, profoundly rational; and his present lusty airing of them betrays no falling off in vigor of utterance. The perennial enthusiasm with which he continues to attack the reactionary enemies of world progress and international unity should prove infectious to the younger readers of this work, the generation to whom Wells, in the early pages, addresses a direct and eloquent appeal. The jacket of J. Ramsay MacDonald's "Socialism: Critical and Constructive" (Bobbs-Merrill) calls it the standard work on socialism, which it certainly is not; for it attempts only to set forth the point of view of the former Labor minister and not to elucidate all the ins and outs of a stupendous subject. Yet it is the better for its lack of exhaustiveness and critical aloofness. In the political utterances of Mr. MacDonald, even his most vigorous opponents have had to admit his beautiful lucidity, his sincerity of utterance, and a restraint far from common even in the most august of parliamentary arenas. This is a new edition brought up to date by the addition of a few notes and buttressed by an idealism undimmed by years of energetic struggle. There is no need here to repeat the arguments and expositions which Mr. MacDonald presents; they are not new, and he makes no boast of having made conspicuous contributions to socialistic theory. The value of the work has nothing to do with newness, but lies in a clarification of the position held by the great middle party of Socialists, who have as little sympathy with proletarian dictatorship and the class struggle as they have with capitalist waste. It is the statement of a creed, and as such it is worthy of the respectful study of both friends and foes. That the demise of "The Freeman" was indeed a loss to the country is made evident from the array of wise and well written essays, sketches, editorials, and book reviews collected in "The Freeman Book" (Huebsch). While not every selection included attains a high standard both as to style and content, and while (as Mr. Huebsch freely admits in an explanatory note) it was found necessary to omit many pieces as good as those included, yet the volume as a whole manifests a range of thought, an earnestness of presentation, a scholarly reach, and an individuality of tone that would lend distinction to any periodical; and it says much for the quality of the book that the bulk of its contents, while possibly not of permanent value, are as interesting and as timely today as when first made public in "The Freeman". Something of the usefulness of glassware must have departed with the coming of the Prohibition Amendment, yet the value of old glass rises steadily in the eyes of collectors, and the story of glassmaking from the days of the Egyptians up to modern times is an Arabian Nights' tale. "Old Glass: European and American" (Stokes), by Mrs. N. Hudson Moore, treats exhaustively of the rise and fall of glassmaking in various countries and at various times in the world's history. Even a cursory glance at the numerous beautiful illustrations will show how characteristic of the national traits of their makers were the examples of Venetian, Flemish, German, Spanish, and English glass. When we come to American glass we discover many European traits, accounted for by the fact that hun dreds of glassworkers were imported to this country in early Revolutionary times. The story of the notorious "Baron" Stiegel is a chronicle in itself, as are the quaint and often hideous flasks and bottles pressed in designs to commemorate the life and times of various early American statesmen. We have a notion that it is necessary for the fastidious collector to cultivate a taste for the great range of whisky containers manufactured by our convivial forebears. But it is not difficult to understand a passion for the delicately tinted, marvelously wrought glass that is the prize of the antiquary's heart. And it is gratifying to learn that American glassmakers have turned out some superb pieces that, even in this day of ingenious duplicators, defy imitation. One finishes reading Rheta Childe Dorr's autobiography, "A Woman of Fifty" (Funk, Wagnalls), with a consciousness of having followed intimately the career of a woman distinguished for her courageous and practical idealism, her determination to become one of the "human race", and her valiant efforts to free the weaker sex of chains by means of the ballot. Her life seems to have been an incessant struggle broken now and then by equally arduous experiences as a press correspondent in various unquiet regions of Europe for the cause of bettering the social, commercial, moral, and intellectual conditions of modern American womanhood. In recounting it, she has produced a book as thrilling as a romance and infinitely more valuable because true. |