The San Francisco call., 1905-02-26

{4) "The Doctrine of Life" which Is
careful analysis of the relations OF
morals of good conduct to spiritual
life. 1t also contains an exposition of
the spiritual sense of the Ten Com
mandments. The book further con-
tains the nine questions originally pro-
pounded to Swedenborg by the Rev.
Thomas Hartley, NJ. A, with the an
swers Of Swedenborg. They relate
chiefly to the Lord. the Trinity and the
Holy Spirit.
(The American Swedenborg Print
ing and Publishing Company, New
York; limo. cloth, 81. postpaid)
While one needs more than the
usual stock of optimism to- enthuse
over a dictionary, if enthusiasm is
ever to be excited by any work so
prosy. it will surely be from the. new
library edition Of Webster's Standard
Dictionary. 1t comes to hand all
properly attested with the gold medal
award of the st. Louis Exposition,
bound in flexible leather, and is a fine
example generally of the art of book
manufacture.
Gaird & Lee, Chicago, Illustrated.
Price. 81 50.)
A little drama in the original Span
ish from the pen of Pedro Calderon
de la Barca, a celebrated verse writer
of old Madrid in the 18th century, has
been received. 1t is entitled la Vida
Els Sueno" and IS intended for ad
vanced students. Like most of the
Spanish dramas of that time the treat
ment of the story Is strongly religious.
The author uses as a motif the ulti-
mate control of the natural man
through an appeal to his obligations
to his fellow men, and shows the van
ity OF indulging human passions and
the necessity of meriting eternal bliss.
american Book Company
Among the thousands of amusing let
ters which enliven the monotony Of the
publishers existence came recently an
undated request from a Western city,
written, it goes without saying, by a
woman, and expressed concisely in the
following words: 'I want an interest
ing book to read. Please send me one
If / don't like it. I will send it back"
Perhaps the day will come when pub
lishers will have sample departments,
where fragments of books will be sub
mitted to women, with fac SMILES Of
cover, etc., from which the ladies may
choose volumes for their libraries as
they now select materials for their
gowns. 1t is a painful, because an un-
familiar, experience to a woman to buy
- - - r.r7lrt
if she changes her mind after she has
ordered the goods. All dry goods
houses recognize and submit to this
idiosyncrasy on the part Of women,
and since books are read by women in
America far more than by men, possi-
bly, the sale of books might be in
creased If there were not such an
alarming finality in their purchase that
a woman stops to think before invest
ing.
That remarkable little book on "Op-
timism'-the life creed of it's still more
remarkable writer, Helen Keller-con-
tinues to excite comment. both in this
country and in England. Its publish
ers, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., state
that it's sales were larger in 1904 than
in 1903. the year 1T first appeared. OPP
timism" is the inspiration of a poem by
Richard Watson Glider in the January
Century apropos of a copy Of the book
sent him by Joseph Jefferson.
Bookmaking in the United States has
been prosperous and increasingly ac-
tive, according to the careful statistics
gathered by the Publishers Weekly
and produced in it's number Of January
%. The total output of new books and
new editions advanced from 1866 in 1903
to 1921 in 1904. an increase of 426; but
the increase in new books alone was
much more marked. being from 57s3 to
6971, or 117S, while the new editions fell
off about 750. This is a fairly favorable
showing for the mental fertility Of our
writer's and the demand for their pro-
duct.
Sir William Magnay has laid the
scenes of his new romance of adven-
ture, "A Prince of Lovers in Walda-
via and Beroldstein. names which
hide the identity Of two of the many
Independent German states which ex-
listed for the greater part OF two CEN
turies, after the close of the Thirty
Years War. Sir William Magnay Is
favorably known as the author of
''The Red Chancellor" and other
novels. "A Prince of Lovers will be
published in March by Little. Brown
& Co.
Literary ~ OteS.