A GENIUS . IN, THE FAMILY By Hiram Percy Maxim To
be the son of a genius has its good points and its drawbacks. The son of - Sir Hiram Maxim, one of the most brilliant inventors of his day, was fully aware of that ; and in this little book (Michael Joseph, 7s. 6d.), written. when he was an elderly man, he describes the extraordinary habits of his father, and the practical jokes played on him as 'a small boy by his effervescing and erratic parent. Life could never be dull for a young Maxim, but it was perilous ; and too often the beautiful jokes in- vented and carried out with a scientific precision by his father and himself were not received with due appreciation by his mother or their neighbours. The charm of both parents, one so dynamic and the other so gentle, is conveyed in the lightest of touches ; and without ever being sentimental, the emotions and preoccupations of an_ unusually intelligent and serious child are de- lightfully described. The famous father, iuventor, of the Maxim gun and many developments in electric light and gas, is shown from a purely domestic angle, but this only brings ont his inventive- ness and determination. The son,
• almost as.famous an inventor, died this year, soon after his book was written.
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