The Washington herald., 1921-06-12
THE New LITERARY OFFERINGS


She has aged father and a ranch which gang Of
desperate baden plan to appropriate One look into
Mollys bic eyes is enough to make Raeey call oil all
other engagements and devote his entire energies and
those Of his pal Swing Tunstal. to saving Molly and
her ranch. It's only fair to add that Molly is not
ungrateful. .''
HALF LoAvEs-By Margaret Culkin Banning. do
RAM
young wife with high ideals and many domestic
virtues and a commonplace husband who wants
little more jazE in life" than his wifes symphonic
tastes will permit furnish Margaret Cukin Banning
with interesting marriage problem. There is much
unhappness for the pair until the wife decides to
compromise with her, ideals and be content with
half loaf Of happiness The other married pairs who
form an effective chorus for the principals are all
hbblng more or less eontentedly at their half loaves
when, the story ends Mrs, Banning has decided
gift for depicting domestic with yivdness and
charm Like Kathleen Norris, she make bathing
baby or tucking in a crib blanket fascinating per-
formance but the big moments of her plot and charac-
ter development not convincing. However. the
novel shows unusual insight and keen powers OF
observation which promise well for Mrs. Banninss iu
ture a novelist -, -'
THREE PLAYS: Dif'rent, The Straw, aud The EN-
peror Jones' by Eugene O'Nein (Boni and
Lveright).
"The Emperor Jones" easily of the big
hits Of the past theatrical in New York, and
viii be long remembered largely for the acting OF the
negro Charles Gpin, but also, and in no small meas
ure for its unique theme and the sure workmanship
Of Eugene O'Neili "Dif'rent." when tried New
York uptown audiences after a in Greenwich
Village made distinctly lesser hit and was shelved
by some critics as morbid However that may be,
neither play reads well as It acts, and for those
who saw "The Emperor Jones', to read 1t IS an anti
climax Those who did not see it, may get good
deal out of the reading. however for there is more IN
han
takes only little of the readers imagination to
cal ND the nsstent beat Of the tomtom and the re-
slltant Jungle terror. "DifrenL Study OF New
England spinster, is even more readable, and Inc
Straw which has not yet been produced but IS an
nounced for next season. the best reading play OF
the three ONeiIl is the most original OF our Amerf
can playwriehts and while he IS perhaps too subtle
for the average production, there is certainly
no harm in studying him, and no one who is interesed
in contemporary drama can go wrong IN read"s
these samples Of his work
THE DESERT FIDDLER-By William H. Handy
Doubleday, Page and Col ..,..... ....-.-
Cotton raising in the imperial valley may NOT
sound adventurous but you have. only to read the
aDesert Fiddler" to discover that it IS Ihere arc
treacbetous Mcxcans, an unscrupulous American
villain gambling fights and financial crises 10 enen
the tale which is already embelhshed with IoVe
story a 6ddng hero, and his humorous trns'y n'eno
from Arkansas II is pleasantly written and would
make easy reading for hot day
LITERARY LOCALS.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, the greatest living authority
on appers recently sailed with his wife for Europe
His novel, This Side of Paradise" old is near
ing the end of its eleventh edition
:st Jesse Lynch Williams the author Of And So
They Were Married" and "Rematng Time, has been
elected to succeed Rex Beach president OF the Au-
thors, Artists and Dramatsts' League of America
,-, Houghton Mifn announce that they will publish
this month new book of poetry, Legends" by Miss
Amy Lowell. wno according to Prot Nuguchi, of
Toxic university, shares with Walt Whitman the po-
sitiou Of the most popular of American poets among
the japanese. .