Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-22
FARRARSLFE STORY
ANTICIPATED BY NOVEL
OF SINGERS CAREER
"The Song Of the Lark" Tells a
Strong and Moving Story of
the Path to Fame in
the Musical World
OTHER NEW FICTION
Books by the Greater and Lesser
Lights Of the Literary
World

Miss Farrar really need not bother
about her autobiography. We have II.
villa Sibert Gather has vltalized the
career Of an American singer who mounts
the climax OF operatic success TO the
capital rung, where she can cast a ret
respective eye over the prospective art
worshipping public at her feet, critics
crushed, roles OF high tragedy created,
familiar roles so greatly interpreted as
TO become classics for comparison, and
suppressing IL all. The glamourous at
mosphere OF romance. And then-this, by
the way, Is only part a hint. OF what
is in The Song of the Lark" (Hough-
ton Miffin Company, Boston)--as her eye
follows the trail to the setting sun she
can see the wide-stretchlng prairies, bor-
der towns with their picturesquely
squalid Mexican quarters, homes of the
cliff dwellers. melancholy Renaissance Of
a life that was and memento more OF
the fugacity of the life that is; student
sometimes in Chicago. with its hothouse
culture OF the studios its conservatory
intrigues and scandals, its metropolitan
callousness and opportunity, too, open to
aspiration only when backed by deter
mination and industry. Oh, the tragedy
and the toll that leads to prima donna
dom! Theo Kronberg knew each irk of
the routine, each cark of the life by the
time her glorious period entered its 1rst
phase with triumph in New York. Then
come Europe, Wagner, fame-and isola-
ton, And memories, memories, always
memories.
Miss Gather has surveyed 1t accurately,
this route to operate glory traversed by
American girls who sing; has marked the
| turns, the ruts, the rocks that lead to
the heights. She has brilliantly indicated
! the stages OF the journey taken by Amer
ican girls-town prodigy, choir singer,
music teacher, light opera or concert,
| prima donna laurels. maybe. Nordica,
Homer, Eames, Nielsen, de Ireville, Noria,
! Caroline White, Mademoiselle Cahier.
Felice Lyme, Marcia Won Dresser, Farrar
| here are a few names of those who
have toiled along the way trod by Theo
| Kronberg. Miss Gather has written their
| autobiographies for them in realistic way.
| She has added the glamour of romance
only for technical purpose Of the novel.
Quite converse is the musical story set
| forth in Ella w. Peattie's "Lotta EN-
| bury's Career" (Houghton Mifflin Com
| pany, Boston,. Lottas gift was "violin-
| istic," not vocal. She, too, left home to
become a great musician, but music
| proved to be her avocation after all and
| the home her true sphere. She did not
| lose the rosy cheeks of the country girl
| in her experience in conservatories In the
great city but-fortunately for her-she
1
| ican girls of her aspirations never lose
| by experience-belief in the genius OF
| what is merely a talent, more often, In
| deed, only a knack. So she came oack'
| her love of her art undimmed, but her
| belief in her career sensibly reconstruct
| ed to help her father, in i'll health, run
his business. Sometimes as she worked
| in the store maybe old wistful MOODS
overlook her dreams of unthralled audi
ences as she played the Tschaikowsky
concerto, but she kept at her prosaic
work finding her poetry in the great
content of making others happy. A
sweet, somewhat moralizing story,
pleasantly told, with touches OF pathos
humor and tenderness.
Conceive of cross between oscai
Wilde and Sherlock Holmes and you viii
| create a figure resembling the detective
in Frank Danby's 1.-THE Story Behind the
Verdict" (Dodd, Mead & Co, New York;
He is purely an amateur who hnds II
crime detection new sensations for
faded mind. An esthete above all, he Is &
dnettante at art, dabbler at poetry,
| student of science, an arrived" writer
an epigrammatist. Such Crichton o.
chap! But It truly is wonderful, hi
fascinating solutions of the murder by
cat. the taking off of a popular actor ol
the eve OF FIRST night" and other In
genious exploits. Readers of detectiv
literature have something new and goo
in Mrs Frankau's book.
Any well-regulated detective yarn, spu
according to accepted ideas, must neces
sarily lead the reader far astray befor
putting him upon the road that leads Il
a solution of the mystery. He must b.
made to suspect at least four or fiye ver!
innocent persons Of perpetrating tn
crime narrated in the first chapter. Tha
Is to be expected But when an autho
points the finger of suspicion to a dozel
or more he lays himself liable TO tn
} charge Of OVERRIDING it. Thomas w
Hanshew, whose "Cleek' detective storie
have gained a considerable measure o
popularity, has certainly overdone 1t Il
''The Riddle of the Night doubleday
Page & Co.. New York;. Not only doe
he have too many suspected murderers
but so many loose ends are offered tn
reader for unraveling that the literar!
fabric altogether lacks substantially
AS detective stories go, THE Riddle o
the Night is not bad; It would be mucl
better II the author had had more re
gard for simplicity Of plot.
To turn to more genteel crime, the kid
| mapping OF a wealthy aunt by her adven