Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1922-02-28
The Gazette's Book Shelf
A. r. D.

Poems and Portraits. Don Marquis.
Doubleday, Page and Company, New
York.
To those who have long loved Don
MARQUIS this collection of his poems
will be more than welcome. He is more
than columnist; it is not enough to
read his verses in The Sun Dial. We
must have something between covers,
Ia book for our shelves, to which we
can turn for a graceful thought, a
happy phrase, some expression of his
biting wit.
The book is divided into two dis
tinct halves. The first, Poems and
Portraits, shows Don Marquis, the
Dreamer. In one or two of the poems
he rises to really great heights and
clothes his images in Languages OF
amazing beauty. All the poignant
beauty of Spring is gathered into
the first four lines of his Song in
Springtime:"
"Inexorable Spring comes on to
hurt me,
With all her aching ecstasy,
And sudden beauty like a Javelln
Pierces the heart of me-"
The second group, Savage Portraits,
is lust as characteristic of this many
sided genius. "Miss Pringle" is quot
ed in hundred reviews. The Quinks
are known to all of US; Tessie Smith
crs walks our streets every after
noon; Adele belongs to every woman's
club. "Sank" is the best of its kind
since Kipling immortalized "Tomlin-
son." And reading through the verses
we are inclined to agree with the
Devil of that same poem, There's
sore decline in Adams line If this De
the spawn of earth"
Potomac Landings. By Paul Will
stach. Doubleday, Page and Co., New
York.
1t is not surprising that this book
heads the non-fction lists at all book
stores. People are asking for it be-
cause it is worth while. The whole
country owes debt to Paul Wiistach
for giving US this carefully prepared
and charmingly wordcd story OF the
Potomac river and its close assocla-
ton with the histories of Maryland
and Virginia.
Mr.. Wilstach has captured the fine
spirit of Colonial days; made the hard
riding, hard drinking, choleric gentle
man of that. period live again IN the
pages of his book. There is the rustic
of silken petticoats across these same
pages, the flutter of white hands,
drift of rose leaves. The old names
charm our ears like music. Well known
characters of history walk Familiarity
among US and talk as friends.
Three Soldiers. By John Dos Passos.
George H. Doran Company, New York.
!. You may like it. Quite probably you
will hate it. But you will think about it,
feel violently, find neutrality impos-
sible. 1t is unquestionably great
book; possibly the greatest war book
we have had. The author is terribly in
earnest. He has a story to tell; case
to present, the case Of Young Amerl-
ca VS.. the War Machine. Critics call
it unpleasant, ovcrdrawn, dreadful.
Perhaps it is but it is also all the
cumulative horror. of War and its ef-
fccts upon mind and body crowded into
a few hundred pages.
In three soldiers, Fusclli, Cristield,
John Andrews,-we have composite
picture of the American Army. The
author tells their story with brutal
frankness; not one single fault is
minimized; not single evil CLOSED
over. Instead, he paints the fralltles
of tho flesh with dreadful clearness,
redeeming his characters only by
blind, unrealized CROPPING for beauty
and freedom. 1t is the eternal de-
sire of the moth for the star,-ln
Fusell and Crisfeld exemplifled by
purely earthly things; in John An
drews by soul hunger too long de-
MED.