Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-17
Reviews of New Books

Almost every one intends to be that,
But, in this practical work day age.
mere intentions have petered out COM
pletely as any sort Of acceptable mo-
tive. Even the most heroic of eleventh
hour resolutions leave the plain on
locker filled up with only the single
impulse to do for--to do for that re-
pentant no-account to the full limit
Of his fists, and even to the limit of his
foot if need be. That is the story. The
man of the affair is a young cosmopol-
itan marooned to the woods because
something has gone wrong with his In
sides-lungs. If one recalls rightly.
Plenty of good and true backwoods
cry that is calculated to lead one away
from the main issue. There is. too. a
nice little girl. Then there comes a
marriage before God"-one of those
outcome of all marriages. OF course.
there is the more distant, and more
real. urban background for the man
with an uncle and a fortune under csr-
of his own kind. That is the substance
of this melodramatic tale. The writer.
like the hero. Is person Of good intent
but the story Is slight matter in SO
far as Its convincing quality and ita
literary artistry 60.
LITERATURE IN THE MAKING. BY
Joyce Kilmer. New York: Harper 4
Bros.
These are interviews made up be-
tween its author-reviewer and critic
and several of the we'll known writers
of the day. The common theme of dis
cussion is the effect Of the great war
upon literature. both as art and as
business. The conclusions are. as
matter of course. of slight import. ainee
the actual proof is away in the 'front.'
ing years. The fact that every novel
has nowadays some bearing upon, or
leaning toward. the war has. in reality,
nothing to do with the case. The most
of this is nothing more than plain stage
business. The real interest Of this vol
ume lies in the face-to-face meeting
that Joyce Kilmer arranges between
the reader and one and another of
these well known writer's. For instance,
there is the open and familiar talk with
William Dean Howells--an honor and
JOY to American readers. And, be-
side him. one has chance to meet here
out on the summer veranda, SO to speak,
many one who has given him the pure
delight OF companionship in many a
day when he positively had to have
something that was aside from the
sheer areariness OF things-John Bur
for the inside OF social life, Booth
Harrington for the immortal boy. Rex
Beach for the romance Of industrial
western life. and SO on with many an
other in America who has won the
right to say yea" or may" in the lit
erary concerns of the present. For the
reader who Is on the trail Of tenden-
ctes, In contrast to the mere reader.
this is succinet and at the same time
vital and personal survey of tho trend
of literature in America under the
world impulse OF the great upheavai.
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. Nv
Isaac Don Levine, foreign news ed :
itor, New York Tribune. New York :.
Harper & Bros.
The overthrow of Nicholas II-of the
Romanof dynasty and autocraey-apd
the reach toward a republican form Of
government, Is the climax and the as
sential theme of this oppertune and in
forming study of Russia. With an il
Eliminating glance at the last century
Of struggle toward freedom, the writer
passes promptly into the swift drama
of the present. presenting in such de-
tail as the scope of this volume narn,its
the essential elements Of the proGie-
ious action that now, in the midst of
the worlds greatest war. il mevin.
toward the contamination OF Russian
emancipation fren the pewer OF i'm