Book Notes
ONE of the more ambitious of the post-war publishing projects has just been announced by Eyre and Spottiswoode. It is a series of twelve Volumes, entitled English Historical Documents, which are to be published under the general editorship of Professor David Douglas, of Bristol University. The purpose is to make accessible one of the basic materials of the historian—documents the texts of which are seldom included in the available books. These, the sources
of English history, will, where necessary, be translated into English and be accompanied by bibliographies and such statistical informa- tion, as is relevant. Covering the whole of English history from the coming of the Anglo-Saxons to the year 1914, the volumes will each be in charge of a separate editor and, containing approximately 400,000 words, will appear in a format similar to that of the famous Cambridge histories. It is planned to complete publication by 1950. The O.U.P. are responsible for the American edition.
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More Essays in Christian Polity is the sub-title of Canon V. A. Demant's Theology of Society, which Faber are publishing this month. Canon Demant, theologian and one of the leading members of the Christendom group, has become widely recognised in his particular branch of Christian sociology. And it is as a sociologist that he has written this book, for the general reader as well as for the specialist. His theme is " the problem of the western world which retains some real adherence to the European tradition in respect of its conscious aims, but is losing or destroying the culture out of which these aims grew."
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Announcements of forthcoming books on music include two new additions to Dent's Master Musicians Series—Chopin, by Arthur Hedley, and Ravel, by Norman Demuth. Both books are by specia- lists who are still relatively little known to the public. Arthur Hedley, in his search for background, lived in Poland for some months, and there learnt the Polish language so that he migh- gain a first-hand knowledge of the documents relating to the earlier parts of the com- poser's biography. From the Oxford University Press comes the announcement of two books by Dr. Percy A. Scho'es. The first is a revised edition of his Oxford Companion to Music The other is The Mirror of Music, 1844-1944, a work chiefly compiled from the pages of the Musical Times, which recently passed its centenary.
* * * Cape's reissue on May 12th of James Joyce's Stephen Hero, which has been unobtainable for some time, coincides with A Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake, which appeared some years ago in America and is being published here by Faber. The book is by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson, who spent a number of years in tracing their way through the labyrinth which has been variously known as " a prodigious masterpiece " or " the grave of Joyce's genius." Although to a certain extent an exercise in cryptography, their book, the authors emphasise, is a " key " and does not attempt to explain every allusion. Its purpose is to lead to a new estimate of Joyce's last work. * * * * The latest addition to Allen and Unwin's Town and County Hall series is Municipal Health Services, by Norman Wilson, who is the Leverhulme Foundation Lecturer in Public Administration at Liver- pool University. Most people are vaguely aware of the remarkable variations in the extent and efficiency of services as between some local authorities and others. This book, which gives an account of the powers in regard to the personal health services' which are possessed by these bodies, shows how an informed public interest would help to improve their efficiency. G. W.
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