The Topeka state journal., 1922-10-28
Book MeDs

ing on Life." just issued by Boni &
Liveright.
If written in the third person and
if an act of fiction it would be a sor
Anderson-Upton Sinclair. Written in
the first person and apparently a true
story of the life of a youngster whose
head was in the skies and whose feet
was in the mud. it really is startling
piece of modern autobiography.
1t is a brazen work. It spares
neither blasphemy nor eroticism. 1t
uses words and phrases that a few
years ago would have caused it to
have been one OF the books the cor
ner drug store Langers-on peeked into
behind the prescription case.
In this respect it is almost repul-
sive. The time may come when the
American general reading public can
sit by the fireside and read in black
and white the profanity and obscenity
seem quite right. Most men have
heard these spoken curses-yet they
abhor them in print.
Kansas readers and especially the
greatly interested in 'Tramping on
Life" A good part of the book deals
with Harry Kemp's days at the state
university.
He calls it an autobiography
therefore what he writes is supposed
pictures rather startling condition
of his time in K. U. His statement
that the frater14ities "keep women"
for their members is enough to arouse
the condemnations of university au-
thorities.
Kemps references to William AL
len White, his visit to Emporia, HIS
impression of Walt Mason, his frank
ness in admitting that he cultivated
the acquaintanceship of Jay House for
the purpose of gaining notoriety-
these stories and many more smack
of Kansas.
The climax of the book deals in
his success at capturing the wife of
famous writer, living with her in
the woods and finally running away
to New York. 1t is a remarkable in
cident to be placed in print in such
short time following the occasion
Somehow or other it is indicative of
trouble for Harry Kemp. Develop
ments will tell.
'Tramping on Life" will be heard
from before the year is over. 1t Is
hereby predicted that it will cause a
stir in bookdom-possibly in Kansas
and in the private life of the author.
1t is an interesting and well writ
ten and exceedingly bold account of
mans struggle for notoriety and
recognition.
One book like this, however, is
enough.
Marie Conway Oemler, whose latest
novel is Two Shall Be Born" (Cens
tury) in introducing an Irish-Ameri-
can element into the new romance,
which has to do with millionaire
Irish cop" and a Polish princess, is
but making good use of a knowledge
of the Irish temperament that Is in
stinctive. Her grandmother, "a Scotch
covenanter," Mrs. Oemler says, who
49,, ,;s-%o H. = FL
and in Tipperary at that" was thoro
Irishwoman, wonderful dancer,
singer and teller of tales-and be-
heved implicitly in fairies. And this
wonderful grandmother had a great
deal TO do with the molding of the
little granddaughter whom she called
by an Irish love-name-Maureen dhu,
meaning dark little Mary"
Alfred F. Loomis, author of that
successful book of an adult playtime.
''The Cruise o. the Hippocampus."
has gone into the juvenile field, and
the Century company will bring out a
boys book of his in the not distant
future.
Why does K. U. remain SO silent
on the expose of university life in
Harry Kemps new book ''Tramping
on Life?
when reflect upon the changes
I have seen in my native city of Chi
cago I feel that I ought to have a
flowing white beard, carry a staff.
wear sandals and drape myself in a
bedspread like a Biblical patriarch"
says julian Street, whose first novel,
Rita Coventry" has just been pub
lished by Doubleday, Page & Com
pany
horn ChiFaQn 1V a mill
inhabitants. Nor could it then prop
erly be called a city of half a million.
1t had the area and numbers of a city,
but it almost utterly lacked metro
politan advantages and disadvantages. |
1t was like an overgrown country
town, and my boyhood was like a
country-town boyhood. I have always
been thankful for that.
Moreover, I heard so much of
earlier days from my parents and
grandparents that I feel as tho I re-
membered Chicago from its begin |
-nings. The Civil war broke out near |
ly twenty years before I was born, |
but I remember the fourteen thou |
sand Confederate prisoners at Camp |
Douglas. L counted them myself Also |
I remember well my sensations as |
fled from the Chicago fire, seven |
years before my BIRTH"
Clarence Darrow's "Crime and Pun
Karl A. Menninger at the Sunday
Evening Reading club of the Central |
Congregational church tomorrow eve
ming at $50 o'clock.
Clara Johnston, president of the |
club, announces the remainder of the |
years series as follows:
In Christianity ......... Emile Coue |
John Wells Rahill
November
Maria Chapdelaine .....-..-..L Louis Hemon |
II. J. Colburn
November Il
Red Bud Women .......--... Mark O'Dea |
Marco Morrow
November 19
This Freedom ........A. S. n. Hutchinson |
Miss Charlotte Leavitt
November 26
The Economic Basis of Politics.
Observation-Disclosures. Charles A. Beard |
Samuel o. Rice
The Message of Rabindranath Tagore to |
the Western World
John Wells Rahill
December 10
Up Stream Ludwig lewiston /