The Washington herald., 1921-04-30
THE HERALD BOOKSHELF
BOOKNOTES

suffers a mental collapse. Mrs. Por-
ter consulted one OF the leading
physicians in Boston. so that there
would be no chance for her to make
any slip. She also insisted upon
paying for the advice she received
for her imaginary patient as IL Il
all had been a regular call.
Dr. Edwin Z. Slosson must have
some difficulty. il this sort of thing
goes on, in determining whether
what he has really written is a
novel or a book on chemistry; The
Century Co. publishers of his ''Cres-
tive Chemistry" announce that they
have printed the seventy-eighth
thousand.
Arthur Hayden's book, -Chsts on
Old Silver" which for some years
has been recognized as the authority
on this subject, is now supplement
ed by his equally valuable work en-
titled Chats on Old Shefiield Plate"
(StokesD. The fund of fascinating
information about the invention of
this process in the metalsmith's art
and the story of its practice at Shelf
field, make a book Of interest to the
general reader as well as to the COL
lector.
The Anniversary Edition Of the
works of Thomas Hardy. which the
Harpers have had in preparation
for a number of years. has just
been completed. The set, compris-
ing twenty-one volumes, includes
all Of Hardy's prose and verse-the
first time that his complete works
have been brought together in q
uniform edition. The author has
written = special general preface TO
the edition as well as new intro
ductions TO the volumes. These in
Productions, in the nature Of rem
iniscenCes Of the way in which the
novels came to be written. tell Of
the originals OF many Of Hardy's
characters and backgrounds. The
eighty illustrations in the Anniver-
sary EDITION are photogravures OF
the actual places in wessex in
which. under different names. the
stories are set. A map OF the coun-
try of the novels shows their rela-
tive positions. The edition has been
limited by the publishers to 1.2So
sets.
Z. p. Dutton & Co. have just pub
lished a new instalment, the Sec
ond, of their notable new series,
The Kings Treasures of Litera-
| ture," OF which the general editor is
Sir Arthur T. Quiller Couch. The
series comprises the choicest works
guage. both modern and ancient, to-
gether with some translations Of
the classics OF other tongues. The
volumes are small. only about four
by FIVE inches and running from
200 to 800 pages each, Of a size held
easily in the hand and ready 20 be
tucked without trouble into pocket
or bag for a journey by train. And
also they will stand much use, be-
| ing well bound in strong dark green
| or dark red linen. The first install
ment. which appeared last fail, SPn-
tanned twenty-one volumes. The
new one adds twenty more titles to
the list.
In his "Reminiscences Of Tolstoy"
| Ciuc"Sch). Maxim Gorky tells us
that ToIstoy talked most % God.
Of peasants and Of woman. OF lit
erature rarely and little. as though
literature were something alien TO
him" Nevertheless there are scat
tered through this small volume,
which has been called the greatest
piece of impressionistic bioE, Apply
of this century" various literary
opinions, often bizarre, always in
teresting. "Romanticism." Toistoy
says in one place. comes from. the
fear of looking straight into the
eyes of truth" OF Dickens: 'On
the whole, he was a sentimental,
loquacious and not very clever writ
er, but he knew how to construct a
novel as no one else could. certainly
better than Bslzac." His judgment
of his own writing was scarcely
tainted by false modesty. OF War
and Peace" he himself said: with
out false modesty. 1t is like the