Evening star., 1923-12-01
The Library Table
By THE BOOKLOVER

The Nobel prize for literature goes
this year to Ireland. 1t kas been
awarded to William Butler Yeats. the
Irish poet. Mr.. Yeats is one of the
chief exponents of the Irish national
LIST movement in literature and has
been one Of the founders of the Irish
Literary Theater. George Moore said
that "all the Irish movement rose out
of Yeats and returns to Yeats"
William Butler Yeats was born in
Dublin in 1866. the son of an artist.
At the Erasmus Smith School in Dub
lin he made many Of the friends who
were later to be his co-workers in the
Celtic revival. One of the first pub
lished volumes appeared In 1889 un-
der the title of its leading poem,
THE Wanderings Of Oisin." Since
that time he has published many Tyr
les and dramas and has in addition
been editor, journalist and essayist.
Some of his best lyrics are included
In the volumes THE Countess Cath
les" The Wind Among the Reeds"
Responsibilities" and I'm the Seven
Woods" The plays Of Yeats are near
~ all based on Gaelic legend and
of Hearts Desire" Ca athleen nj Hou-
lihan," '"rhe Shadowy Waters" "On
Bales Strand" "rhe Kings Thresh-
old" and The Green Helmet" With
pays Wsrs Thefe Ff fD.afsn Is %othing =; and and
The Pot of Broth" 1.-The Countess
Cathleen" was the inaugural produc-
ton Of the Irish Literary Theater.
the first of his plays TO be performed
and was the means Of his introduce
tfon to the American stage in 1901:
1t has always been his most popular
play.
Yeats early became interested in
magic and occultism and in his essay,
"The Celtic Twilight" he tells some
OF his experiences with practitioners
of the occult He is by nature a mys-
tic and all his poetry Is permeated
supernatural is mingled with the he
roic in his treatment of Gaelic leg
ends. Since the Nobel prize il liter
ature is given for "the most distin-
guished work of an idealistic tend
ency,' the award to Yeats seems es-
pecially appropriate.
George Moore has given descrlp-
ton of the appearance OF Yeats, under
cover of the character Ulick Dean in
the novel Evelyn Innes."
I1S lidu OIlC VI lHOSc lciE II
faces. all In a straight line. with fiat.
slightly hollow cheeks and long
chin. 1t was clean shaven, and
heavy lock of black hair was always
falling over his eyes. 1t was his eyes
that gave the somber, ecstatic char
dark, deeply set, singularly shaped
and they seemed to smolder like
fires In caves. leaping and sinking out
of the darkness. He was tall, thin
young man, and he wore black jack
ct and large necktie. tied with the
ends hanging loose over his coat.
< y
4 study OF a temperance which
appears also predestined Is presented
by VILLA Gather in her latest novel,
"A Lost Lady" Mrs. Forester, sec
ond wife of Capt. Daniel Forester Of
Sweet Water, railroad man and con-
tractor, was twenty five years young
er than her husband. This discrepancy
in ages seems to have had little to
do. however. with the development of
her temperament. Sweet Water was
"one of those gray towns along the
Burlington railroad between Omaha
and Denver. The grayness and dull
ness of the town seem also TO have
had no connection with the course OF
her life. The fact delicately Indicated
by Miss Gather in telling the brief
d type-a type old as the beginning
of the world: Homer's "Cressida.
whose story was borrowed and retoid
By both Chaucer and Shakespeare,
was one of the earliest representa-
tives of this type to be celebrated in
literature. Able Prevost's "Manon
Lescaut" and The Lady of the Ca
melias' of Dumas f1ls were two ia
nous modern Cressidas. Chastity
was not among the possibilities for
them: nor was 1t for Mrs Forester.
The discovery by Mel Herbert, neph-
ew of Judge Pommeroy, who was
Capt. ForreSter's lawyer and friend.
of the real character of Mrs. Forester
is a situation full OF repressed dra-
matte intensity. In the early morn
ing Mel rushed away from the For
roster house disillusioned.
''Niel found himself at the foot of
the hill on the wooden bridge, his
face hot. his temples beating, his
eyes blind with anger. In his hand
he still carried the prickly bunch Of
wild roses. In that instant
between STOPPING to the window sill
and rising he had lost one of the
most beautiful things. in his life"
For the first time cynicism began to
grow in his mind. Lilies that fester.'
he muttered, lilies that tester smell
far worse than weeds. Beau
tiful women. whose beauty meant
more than 1t said-was their bril-
eoarse e,ansy and a~ conceaied? Was Wa that their
secret?" A few years later Mel made
another discovery. "Niel had often
wondered just how much the captain
knew. Now, as he went down the
hill he felt sure that he knew every
there was to know about Marian For
rester." Toward the end, just before
Mrs. Forester. widow then. left
Sweet Water forever, Mel sorrowfu1ly
knew that she had fallen still! lower
had, in fact, placed herself beyond
the tolerance of even her most de-
voted and blindest friends.
+. The District of Columbia ranks
above all the states of the Union as a
notwithstanding community, accord
ing to a table published in the No
vember Journal of the National Edu-
cation Association. The article cited
Is a study Of the distribution Of the
circulation of ten of the largest
American magazines. all having cir
culations of from 100000 to 1000, 900.
The argument of this article Is that
the most reading is done in the states
where educational facilities are best.
* x * X
The middle west is so used to hear
ing itself called fiat, dull, uninterest-
ing, lacking in scenic beauty. that it
ought to be very grateful to John t.
Faris. who has written a book called
"Seeing the Middle West" in which
he represents that great central Sec
ton of our country as rich in varied
beauty. The tour followed by Mr..
Faris begins with a steamer trip up
the great lakes to Duluth. From Du-
luth he goes up into the Dakotas, then
southwark into Nebraska, Kansas and
Oklahoma, then north again through
Misranri Inwa and WISCONSIN He