The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-21
Book Meus

1t is generally known that Rex
Beach, whose new novel, Flowing
Gold,' is already among the best SELL
ers. studied law and didn't like it.
But few know the reason why. Here
is his. own version: :. II read
Blackstone, but 1 didn't like the plot.
How he got into the six best sellers
don't know. 1 put my feet on the
desk and read what a lot of high
brows had to say about 'torts,' con-
tracts and common law but never
got one good stomach laugh out of
the whole bunch. 1 preferred Rich
ard Harding Davis or George AIDE.
Sometimes I went on a still hunt for
| witnesses and dragged them into
court, then rode herd on them while
my two brothers told the jury how
their clients had been abused. My
| brothers are real lawyers, orators,
you know, with eloquence to burn.
The only eloquence 1 ever developed
was when 1 drove a dog-team.'
| George Inness Hartley, author of
! THE Importance of Bird Life" pub
lished September 20 by the Century
Co. is a grandson of George Inness,
| Sr., the landscape painter. His grand
son has apparently inherited in an
other phase the love of nature that
pervades all the Inness canvases. He
has a strong bent for natural history,
his previous book being a boys story
4
/ flora of Demerara british Guiana
well spiced, of course, with adven-
| ture. Mr.. Hartley was with William
Beebe, the ornithologist, author of
THE Edge of the Jungle etc, at the
British Guiana Geological Station.
''Non-Violent Coercion" by Clar>
ence NJ. Case, announced by the Cen
fury Co., for publication October 20.
has been delayed, and it's date is now
said to be indefinite. The books which
are certain to appear on that date
are: "Our Republic" by S. E. For
man, a one-volume history for the
general reader; The Shakespeare
| Garden" by Esther Singleton; "Our
Medicine Men" by Paul H. De Kruif;
and The Inca Emerald" by Samuel
Scoville, Jr.
81 have not digested the book yet"
| writes Geraldine Farrar of Edna
Worthley Underwood's The Peni-
tent (Houghton Mifflin) it was so
absorbing. 1 ate it in gulps and
washed it down with avid enthusiasm
I hardly know what to say of nv
feelings which are just that much
more than a critical combination of
| words. 1 want to re-read certain
parts of it at leisure when 1 can
| think. This woman has an amazing
fashion of presenting periods and
using just the voluptuous titling of
the century of which her work treats.
Certain episodes in Pushkin's exile,
Waronzow's soliloquy, Metternich's
| summing up of that seed of revolt
sown by Napoleon are mastery in
style and description. When she
evolves her knowledge and how-she
sets it down in words, is unusual.
really graphic and to my mind. one
of the few treatises on Russia that 1
could enjoy. Seen thru this woman's
| Imaginative windows one has a far
more comprehensive impression than
a Russian author could convey to me
on the same subject"
"Penitent," by the way. was written
| by a Kansas woman Mrs. Edna
WorthIey Underwood lived for many
years in Arkansas City.
Houghten Mifflin company pub
lished October 20. the letters of
Franklin K. Lane. The History of
Medicine. by Walter Libby; The De-
velopment of the British Empire by
Howard Robinson; Maurice Baring's
novel, Overlooked" Frances Jenkins
| Olcott's Good Stories for Great
Birthdays" and THE Soul of Dorset"
l by E. J. barton.