The New York herald., 1921-09-04
His books and his other friends

If WINTER COMES. By A. s. M.
Hutchinson. Little. Brown & Co,
Boston.
|IHIS book is nobly written. And
it could not possibly be writ
tan SO well unless the author
had things to say that lifted him to
higher utterance than skill alone can
achieve.
Mark Sabre, like Hamlet, is troubled
by the dangerous habit of thinking.
But though he weighs all considera-
tions they seldom puzzle his will He
acts, no matter how the results may
affect himself.
Certainly there is winter enough in
Marks year, before spring comes.
From the beginning one realizes that
he will not live easily. He explains
his own difficulty to one of the three
women who affect his life:
He said. I'll tell you. Mona. I'm
unsatisfactory because I've got the
most Internal habit of seeing things
from about twenty points of view in
stead of one For other people that's
the most irritating thing you can pos
sibly imagine. I've no convictions:
that's the trouble. I swing about from
side to side. I always can see the
other side of a case, and you know.
that's absolutely fatal
"She said gently. Fatal to what.
Marko?'
He was going to say, ITO happi-
ness but he looked at her and then
looked away. Well. to everything; to
success. You can't possibly be sue
cessful II you haven't got convictions
what I call bald headed convictions.
That's what success is, Mona. the sue
cess of politicians and big men whose
names are always in the papers. It's
that: seeing a thing from only one
point of view and going all out for 1t
from that point of view Convictions.
Not mucking about all round a thing
and seeing it from about twenty diff
ferent sides like I do You know. you
can't possibly pull out this big BOOM
ing sort of stuff they call success II
you're going to see anybody's point of
view but your own. You must have
convictions. Yes. and narrower than
that. not convictions, but conviction.
Only one conviction-that you're right
and that every one who thinks diff
ferently from you is wrong to blaZes."
This is not a bookish book-it is
full of business and love and war.
But there are luminous pages on
Marks feeling both for the books he
loved to read and the books he planned
though his wife always referred to
these contemptuously as lesson
books"
"He was attached to his books. not
only for what was In them. but as en-
titles. He had written once in a
manuscript book In which he some
times wrote things. 7 like the feel of
them and know the feel of a friends
hand. And can look at them and
read them without opening them In
the same way as. without his speak
ing, one looks at the can enjoy the
face Of a friend 7 feel toward them
when look at them in the shelves
well. as IL they We're feeling toward
me just as am feeling toward them.
And he had added this touch. which is
perhaps more Illuminating: The
other day some one had had out one
of my books and returned II upside
down. I swear II was as grotesque
and painful 10 me to see II upside
down as il I had come into the room
and found nv brother standing on his
head against the wall. fastened there.
At least I couldn't have sprung to
him to release him quicker than did
to the book to upright IT."
As a boy he tried to read Byron
and couldn't get interested at first
But even as he was shutting the
volume to put 1t finally away. his eye
happened upon two lines that struck
into him-it was like physical blow
the most extraordinary sensation:
The isles OF Greece the isles of Greece
Where burning Sappho loved and sung.
"He caught his breath. It was ex-