Evening star., 1927-10-08
THE LIBRARY TABLE


lished monthly Tor more than 30
years. with the September number Ii
issued by a neW editor, Burton Rascoe.
Heretofore it has been sponsored sue
cessiyely by two book publishing firms,
but now has no connection with any
house whose books may be reviewed In
its pages. It now calls itself "a revue
of life and letters During it's long and
creditable career, although it has pub.
lished some short stories, serlalized
fiction and general articles, predOm-
inantly it has been devoted to book
reviews and literary news and gossip.
Judging by editorial announcements
and by the September and October
numbers, produced by the new direc-
ton, the Bookman will continue to
publish literary criticism and COM
ment, as heretofore, but Will hereafter
include more material OF a general
and non-literary nature. Longtime
readers of the Bookman ma much
to interest them in "Old Bookman
Davs" nv Arthur BARTLETT Maurice,
at one time editor of the Bookman,
in the September number. This gives
a picture Of it's brilliant first editor.
Harry Thurston Peck. as we'll as some
account Of it's early contributors and
other comments on the history or the
magazine. Such old readers may per-
hans be startled to find featured up in
the first number Of the new series
articles by Theodore Dresser; Upton
Sinclair and James Branch Cabell.
Old friends will watch whether the
magazine, which frankly had slumped
from it's earlier standards, will again
be made as interesting as 1t was under
Harry Thurston Peck, the author OF
the hon mot that certain writer's OF
his day were "neurotic, erotic and
tommyrotic."
The changing fortunes and charac
tor of the Bookman bring to mind the
,,ps and downs of many another mag
az.ne. There is the old North Ameri
can Review. Begun as a quarterly
following the model Of the great Eng
lish ouarterlies, throughout most OF Its
distinguished history it had been q
monthly, predominantly devoted to
politics and public affairs. A year OF
80 ago it changed back to quarterly
publication, but has now again become
a monthly. One of the greatest trans
formations was in the Dial. After
being published for many years bi
monthly in Chicago as q purely liter
arv journal, devoted almost exclu
sively to book reviews, few years
ago it was moved to New York, where
it became q monthly, devoted to new
forms In literature and art, with book
reviews distinctly subordinated. The
career of the Cosmopolitan has been
distinctively revolutionary. 1t was
first published in Rochester, n. Y.
by a firm manufacturing Office equip
ment. Its rather tame text was de
signed to carry the manufacturers ad
vertising. Next John Brisben Walker
got it and made of it the first 10-cent
magazine. cheap in price but excel
lent in quality-a general magazine
widely read by thinking people. Last
it was gathered into the great Hears,
net. with its staple fiction somewhat
daring in tone. In its last phase the
name Cosmopolitan Is subordinated Il
Hearst's International. with which 1t:
publisher combined 1t.
Tire autobiography of Sir II. Rider
Haggard. 1.-The Days of My Life" hat
been in his publishers safe since 1912
awaiting the authors death to be pub
lished. Rider Haggard is known t
most people only as the writer Of
wild. impossible ronances. which
whatever their effect on the young
people of today. at least caused many
Of the older generation to read Ions
past their usual bed hour. Nearly *
of these romaHces appeared, with only
short intervals between them. Prob
ably the most famous was She" 8
tale Of an Immortality youthful en-
chantress. king Solomon's Mines.
Allan Quatermain" and Jess" rank
next in popularity. These four were
all written between January. 1885
and March, 1886. The chief scenes oil
his romances are South Africa. Egypt
Palestine, Mexico, Peru and Iceland
About 1898 he became interested ir
the question of English agriculture
and from that date his time was
divided between romance writing anG
investigations of agricultural prob
lens. He assisted In the writing OF
various government reports and pub
lished five volumes on agricultural
subjects.
Popular, or sensational, which
Or both? Albert Edward Wiggam ir
"The Fruit of the Family Tree" wrote
a book on heredity which won com
mendation from some scientists and
denunciation from others. His recen,
book, 1.-The Next Age of Man." goes
in for prophetic anthropology. AS ir
his earlier book. Mr.. Wiggam stresses
the fact, or theory. that high human
qualities are the outcome of heredity
and that lacking a distinguished
heredity not much is to be expected
OF any one. He is believer in aristoc
racies, not in democracies. He is also
firmly convinced that intellect, artistic
gifts and moral qualities. and usually
physical soundness, go together.
\ + \ X
Catherine the Great of Russia, one
of the extraordinary queens of his
tory. tells her own story, and with
great frankness. In the pages oil
Katherine Anthony's translation OF
the Memoirs Of Catherine the Great.
The Empress, who later came to be
known as 1.-The Messalina of the
North" was the daughter of a minor
prince of the family OF Anhalt-Zerbsi
and was brought up in her fathers
house at Stettin. When she was Ii
she was invited to Moscow by the
Empress Elizabeth Of Russia and
there her career as an adventures
began. She was soon married to the
imbecile Grand Duke Peter, nephew
and heir Of Empress Elizabeth. He be.
came Emperor Peter III and shortly
afterward Catherine seized the crown
and imprisoned Peter. With or with.
out her connivance, her fmbecile de.
throned husband was murdered by
her lover Orlov. Catherine was, then,
a usurper and spent the rest of her
life in fear OF losing her throne. The
memoirs disclose the father, not her
husband, Of her son, who was many
years later Emperor Paul, as well as
much about her many scandalous
love affairs which continued into her
old age.