BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 5

BOOKS AND WRITERS

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS

HIS SIXTIETH BOOK UPTON SINCLAIR’S NEW NOVEL BIBLIOGRAPHY TO BE ISSUED Upton Sinclair’s new novel, “Littl Steel.” will be his sixtieth book—appropriately, for ho has just cele brated his sixtieth birthday. Werner Laurie, his English pub Ushers, will shortly issue a biblio -ranh y of all his translations am foreign editions. These include 76 titles in 47 languages and 39 coun tries—probably a record. SHORT STORY CONTEST OVER 1200 ENTRIES NEW ZEALAND COMPETITORS Short-story writers appear to be ii good supply in Australia and Nev

Zealand. In the Bulletin’s fIOO shor story competition just concluded the; were 1200 entries. A decision will be made <n a wee or two. There were many entrif from the Dominion.

FACTS AND IDEAS DEAN INGE’S ESSAYS TROUBLES OF OUR TIME Dean Inge reflects upon the troubles of our time in his latest book, “Our Present Discontents.” In a long introduction the Dean sums up the position of things today in temperate language, unless it he intemperate to refer to the rape of Abyssinia by Italy. He challenges the dictum that the ballot box invariably voices the will of God. “Vox populi vox Dei” is an impressive tag. but he maintains it is not a statement of final and absolute truth. In the causeries that follow ' the introduction, which would in itself provide a useful tract for the times, the Dean considers many subjects. The book is divided into eight sections. headed respectively “International Affairs.” “England.” “Religion." “Social Problems.” “History.” “Education,” “Science” and “Miscellaneous.” He considers books on America by Carl Van Dnren and Andre Siegfreid. He questions whether America will fall into line with Russia, Ihe beehive. In “The Law of Nature,” he concludes. “The worship of the State is grovelling and degrading idolatry, fit only for a nation of slaves.” Against the Nazi Idea He reads “Germany Speaks” with sympathy, hut declares against the Nazi idea. Their racial claims he describes as “fustian.” He thinks that the best books by foreigners on England include Portheim’s “England, the Unknown Isle.” In {r Cain and Abel” he deals characteristically with the Jewish question. “Russia Seen Without Blinkers” projects the U.S.S.IU to disadvantage. The Dean prefers the Nazi to the Bolshevist. “Beneath Ihe Fine Clothes” is concerned with the Coronation, and invokes “Sartor Besartus.” and “London” is concerned with the Coronation once more. Here is a dean saluting the old metropolis as the Wallace sisters salute it in vaudeville.

“The Empire Needs Puritans” is elicited by friendly criticisms of the Dean’s address to the overseas delecrates at Winchester. The report of Ihe Commission on Christian Doctrine is considered in ihe first article and in Ihe “Religious” section. “One Flock but Not in One Fold” is concerned wiih the latest scheme for reunion.

From the section concerned with religion ihe Dean passes on to “Social Problems.” and is as uncompromising ns one would expect him to be. Under “History” come discussions on Julian Ihe Apostate and the Dead Past. “Education” includes “A Liberal Educatin’’ and “Improving Our Minds,” and under “Science” is “A Recipe for Genius,” in which the Dean writes for a reperusal of Havelock Ellis. In a “Study of British Genius” the Dean calls up Sir Francis Galton to substantiate his claim that genius is not to madness near allied. In view of the Dean's strictures on the racial theories of the Nazis in an early section of the book one might, suggest that he is unexpectedly patient with Mr Ellis, who surely is doctrinaire enough.

BOOKS AS FRIENDS

OWNERSHIP NECESSARY’ CHANGED ATTITUDE TO LIFE “We are rightly striving to make our libraries 'free, not only to reference readers, but also to borrowers. I hope, however, that we shall not quench the desire to possess our own hooks,” said the president of the New Zealand Library Association, Mr T. D. 11. Hall, addressing the annual conference of the association in Palmerston North.

“There is a tendency to-day to exalt research and to regard books as a necessary means for furthering such studies. For this purpose they may well be borrowed and returned. Fewer people seem to feel the need for the companionship of books, to which they turn as to a friend. That is a loss to be deplored, and indicates changed attitude to life. “I think there is something to be said for the acquisitive instinct. It has been the handmaid of creative art. as witness the carving by primitive man of his own weapons and ornaments. It has fostered a spirit of carefulness and the social virtue of respect for the belongings of others. Ownership, in the impulse it gives to ihe creative act and to love of the thing owned, is held by many t,o be a reflex of the Divine nature. Not in the desire to possess, hut in the use of the things and in our final attitude toward them is the source of evil.”

BOOKS ABOUT BRITAIN

BIG INCREASE IN GERMANY A MATTER FOR REJOICING German books about Britain are showing a great increase, says the official Nazi paper, Voelkischer Beo- ! bachter. “This is a matter for rejoicing,” it says. “For it shows that the German people are earnestly striving to increase their knowledge of foreign countries and do not let themselves, like certain other self-confident nations, be spoon-fed with phrases and prejudices.”

BEST SHORT STORIES

( THE COLLECTION FOR 19.38 A SHORTAGE OF HUMOUR. ' Edward J. O’Brien has made man> annual collections of short stories ; and he lias developed an extreme I > sharp eve for the exceptionally goo. j story—especiallv for the exception 1 ally good story by a new writer. , There are 4 i stories in “The Besi

Short Stories, 1938,” 25 by English, 19 by American and Canadian writern. Among established writers are H. E. Bates, Elizabeth Bowen, H. A. Manhood. Sarah Gertrude Millin, Frank O'Connor. T. F. Powys, Manuel Komroff, Frederic Prokosch, Libby Benedict and John Steinbeck. There is even a fragment, almost a complete story, by Katherine Mansfield. But new or newer names appear over stories which rival any by the senior writers. Pure humour is the quality that emerges most rarely, it seems, 'in the modern short story.