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of Wales, when Wordsworth wandered among the daffodils at Grassmere, when the famed Catalani drew her worshipers to Covent Garden, when Sir Joshua Reynolds was daubing great canvases with unforgetable oils, when Bonaparte's manœuvres on the Continent were but as summer thunder heard at a distance. Time slips away as we dine and chat and pursue the daily round of living with Farington, and the veil seems gossamer which would obscure from us these heroic figures of yesterday. Happy he who kept a diary, for he has served future generations no less than the artist or statesman! We owe a debt of gratitude also to James Greig who has, with intelligence and care, prepared the volume for publication.

The only connecting link between the papers which make up the delectable volume of essays by Jules J. Jusserand entitled "The School for Ambassadors" (Putnam) is "the pen which wrote them", yet the title is apt. As the author notes, the authorities maintain that the perfect ambassador should be as nearly omniscient as may be possible for humanity, and should be adept in Few diplomats of our day have come so close to attaining that ideal perfection as M. Jusserand: in scholarship and in human adaptability as well as in the narrower functions of his political office. Some of these essays, he explains, were "addresses which it took an hour to deliver and months to prepare: others were prompted by stays in particularly lovable spots like the Euganean Hills or Ronsard's Vendomois". The title The title paper is a revision of his presidential address before the American Historical Association, in 1921: a survey of the history of diplomacy since the thirteenth century.

In Henry Holt and Company's series, "Writers of the Day", another volume has appeared-"H. G. Wells", by Ivor Brown. The writer of this biographical summary of Mr. Wells's work has entered gracefully into the spirit of contemporary biographical style, which appears to be standing serenely, if somewhat contemptuously, apart from the more ragged prose of novels. While nothing like a comprehensive work is undertaken, the book is an easy and sufficient biography of what was and is really H. G. Wellsthe writer's mind and his esprit. Wisely and concisely Mr. Brown has divided the interests that dominated the developing Wells, showing how those various interests influenced and were his writings; and carefully he has brought out the largeness of the details in the life of the English writer. Followers of Wells will be delighted to have their mentor so pleasingly explained; and others will find much information that is in itself good literature.

Musician's lives, as usually described, are as interesting and exciting as romances; they have in addition the glamor which attracts servant girls to stories of duchesses. Nathan Haskell Dole's "Famous Composers" (Crowell) should therefore be successful in arousing popular interest in music, for its purpose is avowedly to present life stories with the interest of fiction. What he gives, then, is chiefly narrative, with a sprinkling of anecdote and an occasional critical obiter dictum of no great originality or importance. This treatment, on the whole quite successful, may account for and justify the rather unsatisfactory choice of composers: they need not be first rate, they must be personages whose lives will furnish good copy.

THE BOOKMAN'S MONTHLY SCORE

Compiled by Frank Parker Stockbridge, Life Member of the American Library Association, in Cooperation with the Public Libraries of America

Even in a belated (meterologically speaking) season like the present, "spring" fiction comes into its own. In two months half the titles in the monthly score have disappeared and half a dozen new ones taken their places. Just why publishers bunch their hits, as it were, by making seasonal offerings of their wares, is a mystery of the trade. Do they issue their spring fiction because of a definite demand for something new to read as well as to wear in the spring; or is spring fiction itself a fiction, like spring lamb or spring chicken? Would not the public buy and read just as many copies of a given book if it were offered at any other time of the year? One wonders and leaves the question open.

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As forecast last_month, “Arrowsmith" has climbed; it has precisely changed places in the May Score with "The Thundering Herd". But here's a little peep behind the scenes. The Little French Girl" is numerically further ahead of "Arrowsmith" and all the rest of the list than the most popular book ever recorded in this Score has ever been ahead of the field. Which is unimportant but interesting. - F. P. S.

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THE SEVEN SEAS

American and English Books Abroad-Ferdinand Lassalle-Books and Decorative Art-Mercury or Apollo?- In the Land of the Forty Niners-Literary Hyphens-"By the Queen of Roumania" - Prophets

with Honor.

T is refreshing to be able to record ready market, particularly in Ger

It is refreshing to be able to regist

and American books are regaining their old status and in some respects are improving on even prewar standards. Generally speaking, the books which are really successful in America and England will prove successful, at any rate to a limited extent, on the Continent. A book or story which has some fundamental appeal to human nature is not likely to fail in countries other than that of its origin. Margaret Kennedy's fine novel, "The Constant Nymph", for instance, was sold to Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and for publication in the Tauchnitz edition, within three months of publication.

. Provided the setting is not too local and the dialogue not too idiomatic, the well told original mystery or detective story will generally find a publisher in one or more countries abroad. Works by authors of established reputation, like John Galsworthy and Thomas Hardy, are almost certain to sell, although in many cases some years after recognition in their own country.

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many. Temporarily, at any rate, there is a big demand abroad for travel books.

Among recent contracts made for foreign rights, it is interesting to note that Henry Ford's "My Life and Work" is to be published in Portuguese- the twelfth language into which this book has been translated. H. G. Wells's "Kipps" is to be published in Czechoslovakia; "The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page" in Dutch; Mary Borden's "Jane - Our Stranger" in Swedish and German; E. M. Forster's "A Passage to India" in Swedish; John Galsworthy's "The White Monkey" in Danish-Norwegian, Swedish, and Italian; and Michael Arlen's "The Green Hat" in German, French, Danish-Norwegian, and Swedish. New additions to the Tauchnitz collection include "The Rector of Wyck" and "Arnold Waterlow" by May Sinclair; "Love" by the author of "Elizabeth and Her German Garden"; and "Balisand" by Joseph Hergesheimer.

Sixty years ago a bullet cut short the romantic career of Ferdinand Lassalle. He was killed in a duel at the age of forty. Lassalle was one of the most remarkable figures in modern German history. A Jew, brilliant of intellect, able in politics, and compelling in personality, he inspired the admiration of even Bismarck, who described him

as "one of the most intellectual and gifted men with whom I have ever had intercourse". The great traveler von Humboldt applied to him the characteristically German epithet of "Wonder Child"; Heine considered him the "Messiah of the nineteenth century".

In celebration of Lassalle's centenary the German ex-minister, Herr Konrad Haenisch, has published "Lassalle, Mensch und Politiker" (Berlin: Franz Schneider Verlag), an admirable outline of Lassalle's life and work. Not the least interesting feature of Herr Haenisch's book is its exposition of Lassalle's essentially nationalist policy, with its inevitable distrust of the Austrian monarchy, and his intelligent (as the war proved) anticipation of the disintegration of the Austrian State. The book also sheds light on the mutual antagonism of Lassalle and Marx. But perhaps the most illuminating part of the whole work deals with Lassalle's firm stand for "a good understanding between the two great civilised nations, Germany and France, from which all political liberty, all progress of European civilisation, all democratic evolution depend. On this hangs not only the fate of any one nation; it is a matter of life or death for European democracy." O tempora, o mores!

*

The Exposition of Decorative Art is upon us. Hardly have we recovered from those sonnets to a soccer team, rhymes for a runner, ballads of a basket ball, and other atrocities which accompanied the Olympic Games than we are invited to wade through columns of laudatory adjectives with which messieurs les journalistes hail the glories of polychromic decoration and profusion of gilding that characterize most of the pavilions.

A very handsome special number of

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"L'Illustration" shows readers all over the world exactly how the principal buildings look on the architects' water color sketches. The distance which separates these fairylike structures from the unfinished shanties that occupy the grounds at present is considerable. One is tempted to quote Browning's Rabbi ben Ezra, "What I aspired to be, and was not, comforts me." We are told that in another month or so things will be more shipshape. It would be fairer to postpone any detailed examination of the Section du Livre until that date, although we may already mention that Crès, Morance, and, naturally, the magazine "Art et Décoration" have separate pavilions.

America does not figure officially at the Exposition, but a bookstore, Le Portique, has placed on sale copies of the Dial Press's superb album "Living Art", edited Art", edited by Scofield Thayer. Among Parisian critics Elie Faure, André Salmon, Maurice Raynal, and Roger Allard have hailed this album as unique among publications reproducing modern art, and it is some satisfaction to feel that the culture and taste of the United States are represented at least to this extent. Le Portique is something of an innovation in the way of bookshops. It has an extensive lending library of valuable works dealing with the fine arts, many of which are scarce or out of print. Situated on the Boulevard Raspail, close to the artist quarter of Montparnasse, it includes among its patrons a number of American students from the schools in the rue de la Grande Chaumière and the near by Alliance Française.

We may expect that the Exposition will bring with it a host of volumes dealing with the tendencies and achievements of ultramodern art. One of the first to appear is an attractive

volume "Le Meuble Français Moderne" by Louis M. Moussinac quite a model of its kind; and we had last year a useful collection entitled "L'Art Français depuis Vingt Ans" with short monographs on such subjects as "Le Travail de Metal", in which France has lately been distinguishing herself, "La Céramique et la Verrerie", and "Les Décorateurs du Livre", as well as the inevitable painting, architecture, and sculpture. While none of these volumes can be said to set the Seine on fire, they are valuable handbooks for those interested in the subject. They have the further merit of being moderate in price and well, although not profusely, illustrated.

André Gide enjoys giving offense. Last year he felt it necessary to publish a work defending a certain vice generally condemned by public morality everywhere and limited to those individuals whom Edward Carpenter has classified as "The Intermediate Sex". Recently he has sold off at public auction the presentation copies of books given him years ago by brother authors who do not approve of his attitude on this question. Among those who have thus incurred Monsieur Gide's displeasure we find Maurice Maeterlinck, Francis Jammes, Pierre Louys who has died just as he was again coming to the fore- and Henri de Régnier. Other items at the sale were manuscripts, limited editions, and corrected proofs of various books by Gide himself as well as a fine "first" of Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and Lord Alfred Douglas's "Poems". There were four hundred and five items in all, and the total amount realized was slightly over one hundred thousand francs. It is said that this sum is considerably less than the

figure Gide anticipated. Altogether it would seem that the author of "L'Immoraliste" and "Les Nourritures Terrestres" would have done better to remain faithful to Apollo, father of literature, rather than desert him in favor of Mercury, god of commerce. The comments on Monsieur Gide's action in making money out of books that had been given him have been numerous and scathing, and we should not be surprised if more of his former friends would join the list of those whose works shall not be allowed to have the honor to figure on his shelves. Hence, another sale. . .

Is it fact? Is it fiction? At any rate "L'Or", by Blaise Cendrars, is an unusual and fascinating book. With no history of early California at hand for reference, it is not easy to say how far Cendrars has based his account of the adventures of Johann August Sutter on actual documents or how much he may have added or subtracted. The fact remains that the result is a coherent, intensely interesting whole, probably the first important historical novel about America ever written by a Frenchman. In its kind it challenges comparison with the best work of our own writers. Sutter himself, sometime tramp in his native Switzerland, then again adventurer on the Seven Seas, the absolute ruler over the richest valleys in California, finally dying, a destitute and half mad beggar, on the steps of the Capitol at Washington, is a striking, even an epic figure. The story of his rise and subsequent ruin, caused, ironically enough, by the discovery of gold on his ranch, is a tale that captures the imagination. Its romantic appeal is increased by the abrupt, almost dry style, reminiscent of the language of the old chronicles,

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