LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2842, 5 August 1916, Page 6

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Stray Leaves. .The authorities of Yale University havo n(;ted very gracefully in awarding the Henry Howland memorial prize of 15(10 dollars this year. Their report says: "The Henry Howland memorial prize of 1500 dollars is awarded caoh second year 'to the citizen .of any country for marked distinction in literature.' On an isle in the Aegean, under the olives by the sounding sea, lies buried a young Englishman, a poet, a soldier, dead, on his way _to Gallipoli.. To Kuport. Brooke, patriot and poet, the Howland prize this year is given."

I am indebted to Mr. Herbert Baillie, the City Librarian, for a perusal of a volumo of essays, "Counter Currents," by the well-known American writer, Agnes Itepplier, and published by Houghton, Mifflin and 00. I havo long been an admirer of- Miss Bcpplier's literary gifts, and possess more than one collection of her earlier essays, which deal mainly with literary subjects. In "Counter' Currents," however, there-is little trace of "bookishness." A wider' field i 9 invaded, and the essays display a fine breadth of outlook, both' on political and social problems,-' expressed with all .the author's .old clarity and grace of diction. In a specially ■thoughtful essay (one of several in v.'hicn the.war is dealt with), entitled "Americanism," Miss Bepplier tells her fellow citizens some very" plate homo truths as to tho folly of a national attitude of . selfish' exclusiveness, and yet more selfish insistence Tipon . tho value of purely material welfare, I would I ; had space availablo for quotation from this and other essays in tho book, which, to my mind at least, contains some of the sanest and most valuable views oq international responsibilities' that wo have yet had from , an' American writer. '.

William J. Locke's latest' novel has already been published in America, under the title of "Yivoetti." It is described as a dramatic story of love and; jealousy, two brothers and ono girl playing the prominent roles. . Sir Henry' Lucy, who terminated his many years' connection with "Punch" a :few months ago, has been succeeded, as "Toby M.P.,"" by Mr. Algernon-'Locker, a son of Arthur Locker, the first editor of "Tho Graphic."

Rene Boylesve -is one of tlio once few but now, 6inco tile war, quite French novelists, whose books can be left about the house, 'as.the .'saying goes. His latest story, "A Gentlewoman of France/' has been "crowned" by . - "the FrencE Academy and has . enjoyed a great vogue on the Continent.' .An English translation is published by ..Stanley Paul and Co.: , v •: <

Eden Philpotts's tMrd incarnation 'oflis delightful,."Human Boy" this timea .war .appearances was j.ublishcd ' in London just before tJie lasfc .mail left. 'The. new novel which ,those popular writers, the Williamsons,. are publishing, (through Methuens), is said to be tho outcome of a dream which Mrs. Williamson had a few mouths ago. The title is "The War Wedding."

The' first volume of Maxim Gorki's autobiography, Teviewod in these columns a few months ago, is to be followed very 1 shortly by a second: instalment in an English translation to be published by Werner L&urie." The title is "In the World."

A. C. Gardiner—that "poison-bag," as Mr. Lloyd; Geqrgo recently called him— has written a sketch ot Sir Douglas Haig for tho July, issue of the "Century Magazine." It is bound to 'be a pieco of sensation-mongering, but after all it matters little what this disgruntled Liberal and unpatriotic Englishman, may sayi about Haig ol' any other British General, either ,in ."The Century" or in the "Little. Englander" organ, the London- "Daily News," of which; hs is the editor. . ; ■■■■ •■}. ■ , .

Amongst the signatures, to. a recent appeal to "all American authors" to contribute to a fund for "tho relief of wounded soldiers of the Allied nations I notice those of William D.. TCowells, Winston Churchill, Basil King, Booth Tarkington, Kato Douglas, Wiggin, Margaret Deland, Hamlin Garland, and many others well known to New Zealand Tenders. The appeal is worded in strong Sympathy with , the cause of the Allies—tho Allies of the Quadruple Entente.

As. one-of the-earlier and - still most faithful New Zealand 'admirers of tho late Sydney Porter's work, "Liber" is delighted to'find ,the Canadian humorist,' Professor Stephen Leacock, paying a whole-heSirted tribute to the genius of 0. Henry, in his recently-published book, "Essays and Literary Studies." In his essay "Tho Amazing Genius of 0. Henry," Professor Leacock says: "It. is hard indeed to illustrate 0. Henry's genius by the quotation of single phrases •and sentences'. Tho humour that is in his work lies too deep for that. His is not tho comic wit that explodes the reader into a huge guffaw of laughter and vanishes. His humour is of that deep quality that smiles -at life itself and mingles our amusement with our tears/' > The shilling (N.Z, Is? 6d.) popular edition of 0. Henry's books, now being published by Hodder and Stoughton, snould make' these excellent stories much uioro widely known. - , SOME RECENT FICTION Two Good "Americans," * • . ■ Stagey, so-called romance, sickly sentimeift, and slipshod writing so frequently disfigure present-day Amaricuu fiction that it is a welcome change for the jaded reviewer to happen upon such a piece of sterling work as Mrs. Mary S. Watts's latest novel, "The liudder" (Macmillan a'nd Co.). - Both in. "Nathan Burke" and "Van Cleve" Mrs. Watts showed she had in her the makings of a novelist of the first rank, and her succeeding story, "The Rise of Jennie Cushing," contained somo equally fine work. In her latest story, .described as a "novel with several heroes," the author again displays her gift for clean-cut, powerful character-drawing, her wide knowledge of human nature, and her .capacity to !i\y bare the innermost workings of the human mind, together with a gently ironic humour which contributes so notably to her successful presentment of tho light as well as the. shade of life. Her heroine, Nelly Maranda, is, it is true, a little disappointing, for it is difficult to conceive of a woman of her character marrying the brainless -but wealthy youngathlete, Amzi Loring, and still less conceivable that she should have been fascinated, oven for a moment, by the eloquent,but: shallow and selfish young labour leader, T. Chauncey Dovitt. With the latter' cuaraetcr, however, the author is com-, pletely successful. Vain, egotistical,' gifted- with a certain showy, 'eloquence which is his chief asset in life* Devitt is a typo of the most mischievoup class of labour agi-' tator, a diligent and skilful juggler with words. From the time ho delivers his "valedictory" at the university to the time where we leave him, a discredited failure as a labour lender, but opening up a new career for himsolf as n professional temperance lecturer, ho is always a selfish charlatan. It is a merciless portrait that Mrs. Watts draws, I but it is instinct with life nnd truth, '■fylrs. Watts's other ."heroes" aro a millionaire ice manufacturer, brutal, maybe, at times, and purse-proud, but with an equipment of horse-sense and rough, good nature, which atones for some at least ot, the unlovcliness of the portrait; a "ward politician" and union secretary of tho accepted type; a genial, honest old Irishman, tho charlatan's f,itlicr;'anU a.successful novelist, who is; introduced, it would seein, for purposes: • of contrast to his silly'and selfish sister-in-law and her family. -The heroine's experiences as a sooial worker sorve to introduce studies of lower middle-class

life, " and' thc story includes a strike, and touches indirectly upon not alow tfnpleasant' features of American industrial and political life. "Tho Rudder" may bo summed up as an exceptionally well-written novo], a long way above .tho gonerat average of present-day Amorican .fiction.

Tho author of that powerfully-written ■novel, "A 'Certain K-ich'Manj"- Mr. William/Allon White, now gives us, in his "God's Puppets? (Macuiillan and-Co.) four exceptionally well-written stories, tlio background of which, New fiaynham, is u country town in one of the Middle-Western States. Many ■of ; the leading characters in the first story, "A. Social Itectangle," appear in, its successors, aiid it seems a pity that tho four stories could not. have been merged. into one by the introduction of some siinplo plot. Boyco liilworth, a mean, avaricious, and dishonest banker and religious hypocrite, is skilfully contrasted .with hi 6 stepbrother, Caleb Hale, an easygoing, and, according to tho Kilworth code, not'a little of a wastrel, and the contrast is effectively continued into tie second generation. Throughout tho stories, too,, thefo appears, every now and then, tlie always' welcome figure of the Colonel, a genial old Irishman, whose wayward, daughter,'Lalla Jiookh Longford, the local beauty, ■ brings threo men" to ruin. Mr. White introduces ns to a host of subsidiary characters, and sets forth the political, industrial, and social lifo of .'the- little .town so convincingly that the reader of his hook soon feels quite ,at home therein. For one story, or sketch, for it is barely more than an episode, "The Gods Arrive," Mr. White's- 1 book is well worth reading. Nowhere in American fiction can I romombor a more /ironically, humorous and yet pathetic description, of tho fallen grandeur of a'discarded professional politician. I'or twenty-odd years a Congressman, and. "one of the most remarkable men. in t'his country," asour old friend Mr. Hannibal Chollop would havo expressed' it, ■poor "Judge" Ladgett ("judgo" spells lawyer in America) is at last defeated, and.-finds himself,, a man without 'an occupation, without money, and, what is worse 'than' all, a completely negligiblo entity in the community over which he has lorded it'so long. "Tho Gods Arrive" is really an admirable little sketch. The Crimson Field. ' | . Mr. Halliwell Sutciiffe's,-latest story, "The Crimsop. Field'" (Ward, Lock and ■ Co.; per Whitcombe and Tombs), takes ITS >;ack to tho days of; I'loddcn Field. It is a good workmanliko novel; replete witli the spirit of romance. The hero, a gallant young Yorkshire yeoman, Svylester Demaine, lovis -a high-born ..maiden,-the Lady Perceval, whose father ■tells tho young man to. win his sjiurs. Mr. Sutcliffe gives a vigorously-written description of the march across tho Border,' and tho bloody fight on Floddon. TLing James and other historical characters are introduced, and the, story goes witli an excellent swing from first to ■last. [Several other notices "of novels held over.]