BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19878, 6 May 1936, Page 10

BOOKS AND WRITERS

COMMENTS AND EXTRAC'IS.

“There are far too many novels; I think something ought to he done about n.”-—Domp Smith (author or the successful plays “Autumn Crocus" and “Touch “'oL'd.") A

MOUNT IVEREBT. ‘ IS ASCENT POSSIBLE? .._—— SUPERHUMAN Erron'r NECESSARY. , Sir Francis Younghushand, one of the first men to believe the ascent of Mount Everest posslblt‘. examines the chances at sin-tress this your in his fascinating book. “ Everest: The Chal—lenge." lie i'erngznisrs that a “ superhuman effort" will lw required. I “ \Vc must see how \\r ran get our climbers up to the rrncini point 100‘) feet below tho summit,“ he writes, “ in tit form to tackle that rrnlly tar}dangerous and (llil'lcnlt mon. up the couloir and the t'urthnr 600th in tho summit. That leads us back to that counsel of perfection with whirl] every Everest expedition religiously sets out ——the need of keopinj: :i Dilll‘ in clover for the. tlnnl tztt'urtf ‘ In pral-tirto it, has nuvnr proved possible to save any portirnlur climbers from fatigue and strain, but Sir Fran—cis contends that, the mountain will never be ciimhed i‘xct‘pt by men who have been spared donkey work at high altitudes. and suzu'osts that it DONG? might be clioson as one of the pair to attempt the last ioOot‘t. He believes] that every eit’ort should he made to establish a camp above 2R.ooo[t. on the face of the timed pyramid. . Craving for More Food. One very noteworthy experience of the last expedition was their craving (or more food at great heights. Through special efforts to stimulate the spirits of a few selected porters, and by arranging for plenty of nppetising food and letting each climber have what suits him in particular. it might Just be possble to establish a camp at 28.Ii00tt. Sir Francis observes that Everest climbers experience no sense of disappointment on turning back from further efforts to reach the summit. Owing to the lack of oxyzen their sensibilities are so dulled that they are “almost dying meni“ indifferent alike to success and failure. PRIZI OF £IOOO. BOOK BY A TEACHER. OPEN THROUGHOUT THE \VORLD. A prize of £IOOO is offered by Hod—der and Stoughton. Ltd.. the wellknown publishers, for a book written by a teacher during 1986. Details of the competition set out that the book may he of any type, fiction, travel. biography. humour, 8. nature book, or a hook on sport, with the one restriction that, a “ school story " or book about school life will not be eligible. The book must be between 75,000 and 150.000 words long (unless piotures are its primary part). and the entrants must have had at least one year's tenrhlnz experience and still be members at the profession. The competition is open to school teachers. men and women, throughout the world. MENUS FOR MINDS. LIST IN LONDON PAPER. The tollowing list of “ menus for minds" appears in a London paper:— “ England and the Near East: The Crimea.“ by Harold Temperley. “ Hitler: A Biography," by Konrad Holden. “ Poets and Prophets," by Andre Mourois “ Under the Boishevik Uniform," by Vladimir Lazarevski. “Antarctic Discovery: The Story of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition," by Richard Evelyn Byrd. “Anti—Semitism,“ by Hugo Valentin. “The Yellow Spot: The Extermination of the Jews. with an introduction by the Bishop of Durham." “Scottish Eccentrics," by Hugh Mac Diarmid. “The Pickwick Portrait Gallery." “.'l‘he Vampire: And Other Poems," by Herbert E. Palmer. “Beowulf: Guide Dog.“ by 'Ernest Lewis. “ Head Office." [by Hugh Preston. “Strange Glory." by L. S. Myers. I “The Retreat." -hy Forrest lieit’l. “The Singing Men at tinslicl,” by Austin Clarke. ”A “app in Lowndos Square," by naehel Ferguson. “ Fifty-Fifty.“ by Pamela. l’rnnkau.

COURSE OF HISTORY. l SHAPED BY GREAT PLAGUES. 1 “_ i EFFECT OF GLANDS 0N DESTINY. ‘ It is a coincidence that “Disease and Destiny" and “The Glands or Destiny“ should be published almost simultaneously, because each has a purpose in common. . The tlrst. is by a well—known AmeriIcmt doctor, Ralph 11. Major, who sets out to show how the course or history has been shaped by the great plagues tlllil pustiicnces which ravaged the world trom inediaeral times. The second is of a rather more technical character, and in it Dr. lvo llieikle (20le sets out to explain the limportani functions, only partly luntlerstoutl, ot’ the glands and their lsrcretions, and when he has done this Ihe proceeds to analyse from historical fact and contemporary portraiture the effects which the misfunctioning 01' glands has had on great. figures of history. lnterestlnq Camper-[sona-There are one or two interesting comparisons to be made in these two Ibooks. Dr. Major, for example, shows the terrible ravages made by “gaol fever" among Napoleon's troops. Typhus fever as we know it to—day accounted for more casualties in Napoleon's retreat from Moscow than any other cause. From this debacle can be traced the beginning of Napoleon‘s decline. Dr. Cobb, however, looks at things differently. Everything goes to show. he says, that Napoleon himself suffered trom “premature thyroid and pituitary failure,“ accompanied by an early declension of his magnificent intellect. ” Again Dr. Major finds that disease was responsible for the oddities and inconsistencies in the character of Henry \'lll., but Dr. Cobb flatly 'diSagrees. Henry, he says, was a gross and enormous feeder. He over-taxed his dynamic endocrine glands—thyroid, pituitary, and adrenals—and this led to their premature failure. New Field of Speculation. However that may be. there is a new field of speculation here for the historian who may care to assess the part played by the Plague in bringing the Church into contempt and haStening the Reformation. And who knows, asks Dr. Cobb. what the subsequent history of Russia might have been if Peter the Great, ivan the.’l‘errible, and Catherine 11. possessed dih‘erent cmlorrine arrangements? _--—_____. PIGKWIOK GENTENARY. 'A PORTRAIT GALLERY. MAIN CHARACTERS DEALT \VITH. The Pickwick Centenary celebra—itions may prompt many people to read ’“Pickwlck Papers" all over again and spur on to renewed effort that section ‘of the public which regards Dickens .as castor oil—very good in its way. but difficult to take, says a writer in a London paper. One can heartily recommend to those suffering under the medical theory a book published by Chapman and Hall (Dickens's original publishers), called “A Pickwick Portrait Gallery." Sixteen contributors have taken the main characters in "Plckm wick" and etched in a complete‘ character study' of each. l No one reading these can fail to l realise that here is enshrined tto‘ quote Mr Betjeman) “every variety‘ of humour, every generous emotion of which the soul is capable." =_—_=