29 SEPTEMBER 1923, Page 22

Gods of Modern Grub Street. By A. St. John Adcock

and E. 0. Hopp& (Sampson Low. 7s. 6d. net.)

We never imagined that a journalist's Pantheon was so crowded. In this devotional there are photographs by Mr. E. 0. Hoppe of more than thirty authors—including both Mr. Hardy and Mr. A. S. M. Hutchinson, both Mr. de la Mare and Mr. Alfred Noyes—and each receives a word of worship from Mr. A. St. John Adcock. The photographs vary in fidelity and artistic value. Mr. John Drinkwater is, of:course, a beautiful subject, and the photograph of Mr. John Masefield is a roman- - tic study in absorption and inoffensiveness ; but surely neither Mr. Frank Swinnerton nor Mr. Phillips Oppenheim can be satisfied that they are well portrayed. The -photograph of

Mr. W. H. Davies must be an old one ; or perhaps a benevolent fog on the negative has brought back his youth. Within his limits of universal praise Mr. Adcock is able to show some discrimination, and he keeps our attention by his lively style. It is a book of the kind we read with interest and feel ashamed of reading.