Evening star., 1926-04-03
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BOokLOper.

Poetry is so much the natural Ian
guage of Carl Sandburg that his bioe-
raphy Abraham Lincoln, the Prairie
Years" is as truly poetic as his verse
Through his treatment Lincoln be.
comes the hero of an epic-the epic of
pioneer life IN the middle West.
Nancy Hanks Is lyric figure and
Ann Rutledge the subject of an eleGy
Always to Carl Sandburg nature at
every season Is mystery or beauty.
and human beings are mysteries. too,
whose souls are often entirely hidden
from those nearest them. or Lucy
Hanks. Lincoln's maternal grand
mother. he says: She believed in
God. in the Bible. in mankind, in the
past and future, in babies, people, ami
mails. flowers, fishes. in foundations
and roofs. In time and the eternittes
outside OF time: she was believer.
keeping in silence behind her gray
eyes more beliefs than she spoke. The
description of the first home and first
Summer Of Tom Lincoln and Nancy
Hanks after their marriage Is as fine
free verse as Carl Sandburg ever
wrote. THE Lincolns had q cabin OF
their own 10 live In. II stood among
wild crab-apple trees. And the smell
of wild crab.apple blossoms, and the
low crying of all wild things, came
keen that Summer TO the nostrlls of
Nancy Hanks The Summer stars
that year shook out pain and warning
strange daughters, for Nancy Hanks.
The death of Nancy Hanks, when her
son was eight years old, was one Of
the many tragedies of that prairie life
80 the woman, Nancy Hanks, died
36 years old. a pioneer sacrifice, with
nd inEc
everyday chores, of mystic Bible
verses read over and over for their
promises, and with memories of blue
wistful hills and a Summer when the
era b.aDple blossoms famed white and
she carried boy-child into the world.
The brief, sad love story of Lincoln
and Ann Rutledge is touched with
poetic Imagination, yet with repres
sion. "He was 26, she was q: the
earth was their footstool: the sky was
4 sheaf Of blue dreams: the rise Of the
blood gold rim Of full moon in the
evening was almost too much 10 live
see and remember" When the beau
tiful slim girl with light corn.silk
hair. blue eyed. pink fair lay diving
OF malaria fever, she asked for Lin
coin. They sent for him. He rode
Ridge farm They let him in: they left
the Two together and alone a last
hour in the log house. with slants Of
light on her face from an open clap
board door. 1t was two days later
that death came.
i
Again and again in the course o
this remarkable biography Carl Sa nd
burg pauses In his story TO sing the
glories OF wonderful nature. Lin
coin al / often worked alone in the
timbers, all day long with only The
sound Of his own AK, or his own voice
speaking to himself or the cracklinG
and swaying of branches in the wind
and the cries and whirs of animals, o.
brown and silveT.gray squirrels. oi
partridgeS. hawks, crows. turkeys
sparrows and the occasional wild cats
The tricks and WITNESSES of the sky
how to read clear skies and cloud,
weather. the creeping vines OF ivy anC
wild grape, the recurrence Of dogwoOC
blossoms In Spring. the ways of snow
rain. driZZle. Sleet. the visitors of sky
and weather coming and going houl
by hour-he tried TO read their secrets
he tried 10 he friendly with thei,
mystery" But Carl Sandburg know:
that nature is not always kindly: she
has her hostile moods. Pioneers arr
half gypsy. The lookout is on hori
IONS from which at any time another
and stronger wandersong may come
calling and take the heart. To love ol
to kill. with gold or with ashes. witt
bluebirds burbling in ripe cornfield:
or with rheumatism or hog cholera ol
mortgages. rust and bugs eating crops
and farms into ruin
&*&*
In "Spinster OF This Parish" w. B.
Maxwell created a woman with q
double personality leading double
life. Outwardly colorless spinstel
living quietly with a maid in an apart
ment of a London parish. she was IL
reality having "a life of love and ad
venture and was not at all ashamed
of il. In his new novel. Fernando.
MIR. Maxwell has drawn woman OF
many persona lities all elusive Fer
nande is the Lilith woman. the cleo
patra woman. the enchantress BuI
she has not merely the power of fas
cinatins, of enthralling. men; she has
also a genuine gift for friendship
which. of course, makes her more dan.
gerous. Her husba nd is only figure
in her ckground-perhaps he has
once interested her. Her charm, heI
art, her wit. her sympathy, are all dis
played for her lover, cyril Faulkner
and his employe. Eric Bowen. Amons
the accomplishments of this versatile
woman is the power of ana living her
own charact@ and the feminine char
acter in general. One of her ohserva
tions. which in her own case is pro
phetic. is: But the fact is that the
most terribly effective weapon mar
can use against a woma n is kindness.
X X X
What Evolution Is" by George Fl
Parker. professor of zoology in
Harvard University. is clear. simple
presentation of the chief scientific
facts about evolution. so brief that |,
can easily be read in two hours. The
author states the evidences for evolu
tion from comparative anatOmy, EN-
bryology. geology, from the geogra phi
ical distribution of animals and from
rudimentary organisms. lie discusses
the principal eXpiana tions of evolu
tion, including Lamarkism or the in
heritance of acquired characters: Dar
winism. or descent with modifica tions
as the result of natural selection: and
the mutation theory. In the authors
final chapter. devoted to human an
plications of the theory of evolution
he holds that man as an animal is
product of evolution: that although
mans nature is lin many respect.
contradictory TO that of the animal,
below him. it is grounded on the
same basic principles. He ha:
evolved far beyond the vast ma lorit,
of creatures, and though he has
reached level where conduct is di
rected in new ways and under novel
conditions he is nevertheless still sub
ject to the old laws. There is. after
all. only one kind of life in the uni.
verse" , The author makes no at.
tempt to reconcile science and religion
X
Ralph Paine, whose, posthumous
novel ''!n Zanzibar was recent,
published. once had job in small
grocery that catered to, the negro