BOOKS
THIS WEEK'S BOOBS.
MESSRS. BENN BROS. this week bring out the first six volumes of their attractive series of Contemporary British Artists, edited by Mr. Albert Rutherston. They are slim quarto books, each containing a critical study of the artist concerned, and ending with a series of interesting plates. The painters treated in this first batch are Messrs. Paul Nash, William ilothenstein, William Nicholson, Augustus John, George Clausen, and Sir William Orpen.
Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton publish Lord Milner's essays Questions of the Hour. One is his Observer article reprinted, but the rest are published for the first time. The chapters deal 'with " The Policy of Labour," " Economy and Taxation," " The Aftermath of War," " Towards Peace in Industry," and " Our Undeveloped Estate." Lord Shaw of Dunferm- line has written a book called The Law of the Kinsmen (Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton), whiCh is prefaced by ex-President Taft. Lord Shaw visited the United States and Canada as the guest of the American and Canadian Bar Associations. In his preface Mr. Taft has interesting things to say about Prohibition :— " As an outgrowth of the reforming and religious enthusiasm engendered during the War, we enacted into constitution and statute the policy of prohibiting in the whole United States the manu- facture, transportation, import and export of intoxicating beverages. Now in the colder and calmer state of the public mind, the reform is found to be at variance with the habits of many of our people, especially in the large cities, and in the outset the law has become most difficult to enforce."
Evasions of the law are frequent, and the whole law is coming into disrepute owing to the " lax, apologetic and conniving attitude of respectable people towards the unlawful but lucrative trade " of bootlegging. Mr. Taft opposed Prohibi- tion, but he sees great benefit to American public life in the abolition of the saloon which has been effected. He believes that the Prohibition laws cannot, in practice, be repealed. Both writers have graceful things to say about Anglo-American good will.
Mr. S. Baring Gould publishes Early Reminiscences (John Lane). An attractive looking Life of Fred Archer, the famous jockey, by Mr. E. M. Humphris, has been published by Messrs. Hutchinson. It is most pleasantly illustrated. The Clarendon Press issue three important volumes by Mr. T. Rice Holmes on The Roman Republic. This book is, in effect, chiefly a life of Caesar, and seems an exhaustive work. There are a number of novels and a book of essays by Mr. Stephen Leacock called Over the Footlights (The Bodley Head). It includes a mock-Ibsen play, " The Sub-Contractor "—" Done out of the Original Swedish with an Axe." Those who have been enjoying Eleanore Duse's Ghosts will like a scrap of conversation between Vamp and Dump :— Vamp : There now, you're comfortable. Dump : Why should I be comfortable ? I'm too ill to be com- fortable. In six years I shall be dead. Vamp : Oh, no I Don't say that. Dump : Yes, I will. The bile is mounting to my oesophagus. Vamp : Oh, no t Dump : I say it is. There's an infiltration into my ducts. My bones are turning into calcareous feldspar.
Mr. Coppard has a new volume of stories, The Black Dog (Jonathan Cape), and Messrs. Collins publish a novel by Mr. Michael Arlen, These Charming People. Mr. Cape is also issuing an edition of Herman Melville's works. It is in many ways quite as attractive as that published by Messrs. Constable, the print is better disposed, and the dark red covers with their white labels are very neat. Messrs. Constable's edition costs 17s. M. per volume ; Mr. Jonathan Cape's 7s. 6d. The only inferiority of the Cape edition seems to be in the paper. But Mr. Cape's paper is more than passable.
The week's funniest book is undoubtedly a little boot published by Philip Gee, called The Court Circle : Its Func- tions, Procedure and Activities, by Guy Heseltine and Others. The chapters include " Royalty and Yachting," " Royal Racing," " Royal Shooting and Fishing," " The Royal Mews," " The Royal Cellars," and " The Royal Kennels." Our dignity in keeping such high society, however, is somewhat dashed by the book being interleaved by advertisements of those who have discovered how to raise penny roll muscles on the human body, of hatters, furnishers, shoemakers, and the makers of a remedy succinctly entitled " Dog Mixture."
Last week in these notes I alluded to an anthology of American poems by Mr. Squire (published by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton). This was a mistake. It is a volume of poems by Mr. Squire written in or about America. My apologies are due to Mr. Squire and his publisher.
Next week, June 80th, I hope to devote the Spectator's review columns entirely to books for holiday reading. There will be agreeable novels, light biographies, memoirs, and books of travel.
THE LrTERARY EDITOR.
Previous page
