The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-17
BUTTE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Some Recent Additions to the
Shelves.
IN REVIEW AND CRITICISM
Poetry and Literature Discussed bv
Librarian Davies - Markham's
1.-THE Man With the
Hoe"

Librarian Davies discusses literature and
poetry in his weekly review of the works
| recently added to the list. He talks inter-
estingly of the service done by the au-
thors. This is the time of the year when
the Dig library is not so largely patron
lied, owing to excursions and out of town
visits. He says:
We begin with poetry. Among the
| books to be considered this week are two
volumes of very exceptional excellence
unless the apparent consensus of our best
| literary judges is at fault. These vol
umes are 1.-THE Man With the Hoe, and
Other POEMS" by Edwin Markham, and
| the memorial edition of the Poems of
| Henry Timrod. Mr.. Timrod was a native
| of South Carolina and before his death,
in 1867, many of his poems were favorites
| with the most cultured minds in the ma
| ton. Yet the first complete edition ap-
| pears this year, when it is evident that
| they will receive the wide recognition they
| deserve.
For some years Mr.. Markham. who is a
| school teacher in Oakland, Cal, has oc-
| casionally contributed verses to the pc
| riodical press. But in the San Francisco
| Examiner for Jan. 8, 1899, appeared a
| poem. THE Man With the Hoe, which
| at once became famous. The idea of .tae
| poem was inspired by Millet's "Angelus,
and was 10 years in developing. Short as
| it is, and it covers only two pages of the
| volume, it is great poem. The other
poems in the book are of much merit but
| lack the intensity of thought that char
| acterizes The Man With the Hoe"
| The personality of Aubrey De We're has
been better known to the literary world
| than have his verses, though both are
| charming. A good idea of his best work
| may be catcher from Selections From
| the Poems of Aubrey De We're" edited
| by George E. Woodbury..
James Henry Brownlee has done us a
| good service by compiling in one small
volume WAR Time Echoes; Poems. He
| roic and Pathetic, Humorous and Dialec-
| tic, of the Spanish-American War, from
| various sources and by many different au-
| thors.
| A book that will appeal to the average
| reader perhaps more than will any other
| OF the books so far mentioned is Irish
| Love Songs" edited by Katharine Ty
nan. ~"
| Too brief to give a comprehensive
| knowledge of the subject, but excellent
| to convey a general idea, is Chapters on
| Jewish Literature" by Israel Abra-
hams
| Specially designed for school use, but
| excellent for anyone who desires a guide
| to the merits of our American poets, are
| the two volumes compiled by c. w. Bar
deem with the title Authors Birthdays"
DOn the English literature of the later
| Georgian and early Victorian period,
| decidedly gossipy production is the Ma
| elise Portrait Gallery of lllustrious Lit
erary Characters, With Memoirs, Bio
graphical, Critical, photographed and
Anecdotal Illustrative of the Literature
| of the Former Half of the Present Cen
tury," by William Bates.
Some of us think that the greatest hu-
morist that our country has yet pro-
duced was the gentleman who some years
ago was conspicuous for expressing pro-
found thought and the results of keen OBJ
servation in the homliest phrases. Josh
Billings; His Works. Complete has long
been out of print, but its permanent mer-
its have caused a new edition to appear
during the past year.
Thomas Carlyle was undoubtedly the
ablest critic and the most forceful nflu-
erce in literature during the present GEN.
tury. He made not only no secret of the
| coarser traits of his nature. but even
emphasized them, and the false impression
thus conveyed was perpetuated by the edi-
torial work of Mr. Froude who was
fortunately his biographer. OF late years
the gentler qualities that he possessed
have been coming to light, and nowhere
are they more apparent than in his Let
tiers to His Youngest Sister,
The earliest records of the various races
furnish a fascinating and eXhaustless field
to the antiquarian, and of few races can
it be said that their early literature af-
fords more tempting prospects than does
that of the Irish Yet the results are
coming very slowly. One of the old fras-
hot alar, will 1,n .rln Il 10
have within their reach is the "Cuchullin
Saga in Irish Literature; a Collection of
Stories Relating to the Hero Cuchullin,'
translated by various scholars and edited
by Eleanor Hull.
We are indebted to Senator Depew for
a copy of his "Autumnal Speeches in
1885," AS these are largely post-prandial
addresses, they will be of special use in
our collection.
The literary standing of George Mere
dith and of the De Veres are the chief
topics discussed in 'In the Republic of
Letters" by w. Macneile Dixon.
A book on a subject on which the ideas
of American readers are generally quite
vague, and on which a cultured person is
apt to feel his lack, Is Contemporary
French Novelsts" by Rene Doumic.
English Mosques" edited by Herbert
Arthur Evans, contains a selection from
the productions of several Elizabethan au-
thors, but the chief value of the volume is
in the excellent critical and explanatory
essays, which are prefixed
The greatest name in Italian literature.
and one of the greatest writers of all
time was Dante Alighieri. A book de-
voted to an elucidation of his master
piece Is ''Dante's Ten Heavens; Study of
the Paradise" by Edmund C, Gardner.
''Three Studies in Literature, by Lew
is f. Gates. consists Of three chapters,
which discuss in very scholarly manner
Matthew Arnold, Cardinal Newman and
Francis Jeffrey.
A work on the foundation myths of
English literature is THE Legend of Sir
Gawain: Studies Upon Its Original Scope
and Significance by Jessie L. Weston.
Perhaps the most charming and salts
factory book of "reminiscences of the sea-
sor is James Russell Lowell and His
Friends" by Edward Everett Hale.
The life of ''Victor Hugo" by his widow,
is not the best life of the great French
man, but it supplies a point of view that