New-York tribune., 1922-04-23

ness and professional men
Il. is eomething terrific. Herbert
Quick, although he has been a
vigorous practiccr Of law, the Mayor
OF n city, tho editor OF n big farm
Journal tho backbone Of the Wilson
| ADMINISTRATOR Farm Loan Board and
tho manager Of his own farm in We,t
Virginia. has found time 50 write n
dozen books. the latcs. Of which is the
remarkably hne "VandemarA's FoiIy."
! Masters became the successor to Walt
Whitman in his law Office. Arthur
Train manages to let neither hi, law
/ practice nor his fiction writing inter
/ lere with each other. Sherwood Andcr-
son still claims that ne is q business
mnn. Richard Washburn Child wrote
"The Hands OF Nara" between amba,-
endorial bows in Rome Not content
with hewing out their main careers.
Americans thunder away at novels dur
ing their odd moments.
Donald Richberg I, a. lawyer, and n
successful one. His novel, "A Man of
Purpose IS something more than n
novel. II IS a roaring burlesque. This
crafty observer of American lfc and
its institutions makes consummate fun
OF us He has attempted n difficult
| thing, and has ACCOMPLISHED hjs pur-
pose with an unusual degree Of sus-
tanned subtlety and skill
lt seems to me that. compared with
"A Man Of Purpose" other recent bur
lesQucs are thrown out OF the runnirp
/ "the Cruise Of the Kawa" fades into
feeble, obvious and sophomore effort
at merry-andrewing, while "Ptomainc
Street" gives tho impression Of batch
OF tenuous trivialitIcs
Tho charming thing about "A Man
| OF Purpose" is that its burlesuue char
hcter is but rarely obvious. There are
readers who might never detect it at
all, For MIR. Richberg does not brandish
sundry He works with painstaking
restraint and reserve. He Is never the
ciuofootcd clown. SO carefully does he
watch his step that he has even taken
IN the astute Thomas Y. Crowell Com
pany, his publishers.
Tho publishers blurb the book as
the unforgcttabe portrait Of human
soul the amazing life-story of
man who dared reads like a
document from lifs and grips tho
reader from tho opening page i
one OF tho most sincere and compell-
ing narrative. Of recent year. i
while fiction, it has all the rinr OF
tact"
Is the jok. really on Thomas Y.
Crowell, and is "a Man OF Purpose"
the biggest literary hoax Of It's genera
tioo.
Mr. RICHBERG burlcsques about
everything in sight He bur
lcsques the whole narrative form. He
burlesqucs epI9ram. He burlcsques
propriety and morality, realism and ro-
nance. He burlesQues politics and the |
relations between big business and the |
state. He burlesques the Nletzschean
drive Of American ambition. He bur
lesqucs the irony Of lilo itself
Hove you ever head Art Young's !
burlesque OF Southern Congrossmans
speech You will enjoy "a Man Of
Purpose" even moro.
The main attack Of the book appears
to bo directed against eentimcntality. !,
The narrative is interspcrscd with quo
tations from Wordsworth, Ebert Hub
bard and Francis Thompson. Observe
somo Of the chapter headines: "A
Pure Young Man" "Moonllght," "In-
tcrmczAo," "The Trap Opcna," "Thc
God Who Grew"
The author, in foreword, states that
Rodney Merrill, tho central character,
has done the Disappearance act, and
that d. Il. has come into possession Of
a box containing a jumbled mass Of
papers, evidently of McrrilPs compost
lated by Merrill in the first person. He
recounts his enrly schooling, his work
at the University Of Chicago, his study
OF law at Harvard, his appointment as
assistant city attorney in r midwest
crn city, probably Chicago; his trials
OF cases, his appointment to represent
the shippers in rate fight against the
railroads before the Interstate Com
merce Commission, his race for the
Governorship of Illinois on the
Progressive ticket, his defeat, his
Of tho cause OF tho strik-
ing coal miners, his dramatic and
qulXotlc tilt in court with the presid-
ng judge and his Imprisonment for
contempt of court.
Splendid material, this, for a rollick-
ng burlesque. One wonders that these
phases Of American lfe
nave never been singled out before for
seudoserious but jovial treatment.
throughout the tale Mr.. Richberg
ourlesques most deliciously the candor
# our antobiographical novelists. He
loses with the injunction:
''Curious minded strangers will IND 10
sat!sfacton IN trying to identify tho