The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-01
THE BOOK SHELF
By THE BIBLIoPHILE

clared 1t a unique and remarkable lit erary achievement
 Any one who attempts a description of Mary MacLane's new book, 'I, Mdry MacLane." is bound to fall short of that which is given in one sentence by the author herself:
 "So I write this book of Me-lny Soul, my Heart, my sentient body, my
 magic, Mind: their potentialities and contradictions"
 Here is book in which a woman has analysed her own secret self, laid bare to the reader her private vani- ties, her whims, her passions, the thoughts she thinks. Never did any small volume cover so wide range of human interests as this, never did author place between the covers of a book more live, glowing, many sided character than that which Mary MacLane has placed: Herself The book is startling It jumps from q scrub-woman to John Keats, from an intellectual appreciation of poetry to
 touching conception of motherhood. on one page is letter to God, lofty and beautiful-and on the next a dis cussion of responsibility and refine | ment which brings one to earth with jolt. One reads it between gasps, and closes 1t with the realization that | this is life-life which is ever a ming I ling of sky and earth of exalted sac rifice, bitted temptations, pots and | pans.
 A singular personality comes to light with the publication of Mary MacLanes "I Mary MacLane." The author of this surprising book of self f-revelation is a na- tive of Butte. Montana. Fifteen years ago-at the age of 19-she published The Story of Mary MacLane," which at once attracted the attention of the public for 1 it's bold, critical self analysis The book was In many ways anoateI1rsh hl1t If had unique literary merit, which was not ap- prec1ated in this country. It did, how ever, have an enormous sale and brought her the money which enabled her to ex- tend her horizon and broaden her experi- ence by travel. For the next eight years she was much in the east for sometime in London and Paris. The old solitary mood was thrown aside, she plunged into a bright world of friendships and event fulness. She stored up vivid mental i'm ages of persons and places, which her keen, merciless intellect was ever at work upon-dissectng, analyzing, Interpreting
 Fifteen years after the publication of her first book the woman who writes q Mary MacLane,' is of broader experience more practiced vision, more matured artistic power. long period of illness which fol- lowed closely on the years of travel swept her back to the old introspective self, from which she was able to look out on scenes and people as across chasm It gave her perspective. Her book Is at once an Illuminating and spell-b binding analy- sis of the hidden self of Everyman, and a piercing, satiric comment on the outer aspect of affairs and men.
 INSIDE THE BRITISH ISLES" By Arthur Gleason. Sixteen illustrations
 The Century company, publishers, New
 York city
 Herein Arthur Gleason surveys the con- tot,- 1Io-.G S.- and prophecies the social, economic and political situations probable at the con- clusion Of the war. He analyses the ef- feet of war upon each of those problems which have occupied British attention during the past century-labor unrest, the feminist movement Irish nationalism and outlines the order of reconstruction in finance, machinery, religion, literature, and education MT. Gleason believes that the war has not crushed the spirit of democracy. Never before" he declares l have I seen the subject act with so much initiative and I have never heard | him express vigorously" It has, | instead. widened the principle of demo- cratic control to embrace the entire em- pire. reducing England herself to the position of an equal among equals
 Arthur Arthur Gleason was born in Newark. N. J.. in 1873; he graduated from Yale in 1901 His training, first as re- | porter on the New York Tribune. and | later, in editorial capacities, on the Cos mopoltan, Country Life in America, Sur vey, and Golfers Weekly, have proved invaluable to him in collecting material l for his book. When war broke out in 1914 he joined the Red Cross work with the Hector Munro ambulance corp in | Belgium. In Golden Lads" he sum- marized the German atrocities in Bel | gium of which he had been an eyewit- ness. Inside the British Isles" is the result of nine months careful study of | conditions as they are today, back grounded by visits to Great Britain ex- | tending over Is years.
 SEA THUNDER"
 By H. Devere Stacpoole. The John Lane |
 Co., publishers, New York city.
 MT. Stacpoole says that a true born | cable man Is as rare as good violinist. l and he illustrates his point with a novel | that for character-dra wing and suspense | and action surpasses most of the sea | stories ever written It is about a cable cutting cruise that was to cost $500 day. The cruise develops into a freebooting expedition. with both English and Ger man cruisers in search of the sea rob- | Der. A deep-sea yarn bristling with daredevil exploits. Following the story of the cable expedition MT. Stacpoole continues to narrate the adventures of Captain Blood, skipper who had lost several ships and several small fortunes. but had never lost a friend who had run guns and run gin, and had his name i coupled With the word "barratry" In earlier times privateering and grand smuggling would have claimed him and held him by their charms. In these flat times he was just a freelance
 THE END OF THE FLIGHT" By Burton Kline. The John Lane com
 pany. publishers, New York city.
 The story of a young man who, leaving the Harvard law school with a stout will. large ability and baffling silence, sees a quicker success in small inland town than In great city, is Burton Kline's f story. The End of the Flight" The suc- cess comes to him, but not without a struggle. Made judge and about to mar ry. his ambitions suddenly come into vio- lent collision with the aims of a master ful woman. The combat of these two de- termined characters runs through a string Of dramatic episodes to the final triumph or the man. Playing round this battle are the fortunes of much merrier love affair, and the many humors of a typical miniature metropolis-its magnificent airs It's business squab bles, it's social jealous les, It's tea-table gossip and Its generally wholesome and contented American life
 "CLEOMENES"
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