Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-22
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the Booklorer

I'll dftldtlC dCtlNlty anu ClldIiSe. EilSldHNl
and America. the Scandinavian ma
tons. Russia. Germany France, Italy
and Spain have all produced dramatists
Of note. Various currents of thought
and method are easily traceable in the
dramas of the period, some dependent
on nationality, some apparently uni
versal. For the student Of modern dra-
ma who is not content merely to see
or read plays. but is interested in
questions of motivation, character, type.
art methods and staging. a handbook
of great value is to be found in "A
Study of the Modern Drama" by Bar
rett H. Clark Mr.. Clark has previous
" written THE Continental Drama of
Today" and THE British and American
Drama of Today" His method is sChol-
arly and the reading lists under au-
thors, general lists at the end of the
book. ard lists of plays by authors. to-
gether furnish very complete modern
drama photography In preparing "A
Study of the Modern Drama" Mr..
Clark received help from many drama
fists of distinction. among them Max
i'm Gorky, Sir Arthur PinerO, Henry
Arthur Jones, John Masefield Somerset
Vaughan, Sir James Barrie, Lord Dun
sany, St John IRVINE and Augustus
Thomas; and from such critics as
Samuel A. Eliot, jr., Montrose j. Moses,
Thomas H. Dickinson, Edwin Bjork-
man and William Lyon Phelps.
X x X \
The drama of Norway, Denmark, Swe-
den, Russia, Germany, Austria. Hun
gary, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy,
Spain England, Ireland and America,
and YiddiSh drama form the divisions of
the book. Under such division a brief
general introduction is followed by biog-
raphies of several of the leading drama
lists and lists of their chief plays, with
criticism. Danish. Swedish, Hungarian.
Belgian and Dutch drama are repre-
Scnted by but one name each-Hialmar
Bergstrom. August Strindberg, Ferenc
tor Franz Molnar, Maurice Maeter-
llnck and Herman HeijermanS. Span
lSh drama has three names-JoSe Eche-
garay, Benito Perez-Galdos, Jacinto
BeNavente-aS has also Austrian drama
Hermann Bahr. Arthur Schnitzler and
Hugo Won HofmannSthal. American
dramatistS selected begin with Bronson
Howard, Augustus Thomas and Clyde
Fitch and end with Eugene O'Neill
i; * *
Mr.. Clark's comments on individual
dramatists are often epigrammatic. OF
Gorky's plays he writes: They are the
byprCductS OF genius who must try all
forms in order to find what best suits
him. Sudermann since 1900 has
steadily sunk in the estimation of his
own countr. men, chiefly because the
Grama has developed beyond the point
to which he helped to bring it," Synge,
the create. of the dramatists who
wrote for thu Irish theater," wandered
about the Aran Islands, Kerry. Wick
lew and Connenara, and out of rich
fund Of folklore, speech and character
he created his plays" D'Annuzio is
the perfect type of csthete; his is the
religion of beauty" Echegaray, who
was considered to belong to the age that
had just. closed with the Spanish
American war;, was Spanish to the
core. Benavente, though he remained
firmly rooted IN the best traditions of
his country, belongs to the world
BrieuX ana Hervieu ARE among the
best opponents of the thesis play in
France" Bronson Howard was among
the first to realize that in the America
of his day there was material for an
indigenous drama" but Eugene O'Neill
lis the first American dramatist to be
seriously considered by the world at
large"
i; X
Lewis CAROLS handwritten copy of
Alice in Wonderland" which he sent
as birthday present to Alice" is now
to be housed in a huge steel vault, fire.
proof and burglar proof. but furnished
to look like an ordinary library. built
by DR.. A. S. W. Roscnbach for his spe-
cial treasures in his New York home
This safe will also contain the diaries
of DR.. John Ward in Is small volumes,
one of which contains the statement
that Shakespeare, his contemporary,
died of drinking. 1t is estimated that
DR.. Rosenbach has spent over $25 900, 900
for rare books in the past decade.
Books and Bidders" his "reminiscences,
contains many thrilling accounts of his
pursuit and capture of literary treasures.
X y
In THE Rise of American Commerce
and Industry" DR.. S. E. Forman of
this city has skillfully interviewer a
study of the evolution of our social
structure and economic history with the
story of our commercial and industrial
development The book opens with an
Introductory explanation of the scope
and aim of economic history and the
relation of government to economic
affairs, giving enough English back
ground to make clear the influence OF
the mother country upon Colonial his
tory. With this as foundation. the
text proceeds to discuss the Colonial
economy 1607-1783l, the foundations
of the early national economy 1783-
1920. the mechanical revolution and
economic expansion 0S25-1865). the
corporation and the triumph of manu-
facturers C865-190O) and big business
and trade expansion 1900-l925). A
striking feature of the book is the
prominence given to labor in the in
dustrial development of the country
The viewpoint of the author is shown
by the following extract from the
preface: AT the beginning we see
civilization in which the classes counted
for everything and the masses for moth
ing. But as time wore on. the masses
becoming more and more conscious OF
their worth, persisted in rating them
selves at value that was always rising
They were taken at their own appraise-
ment, with the result that by the mid
ole of the nineteenth century class dis
tinctions had so faded away that the
common man was coming to regard
himself as living in a society of his
peers. The situation in 1854 was hit
off by Abraham Lincoln: There IS no
permanent class of hired laborerS
amongst us. twenty-five years ago l
was hired laborer The hired laborer
of yesterday labors on his own account
today But not yet had the masses at
tanned their highest level. In the wears
that followed they not only held their
own but gained new ground, and at
the opening of the twentieth century
there was no place in the world in
which it was better with the common
man than it was in the United States
X y X Y
In his dramatic history of the Rus
sian Revolution. The Fall OF the
Russian Empire" Or Edmund A. Walsh
calls attention to an underlying cause
of many important historical events
which is too often overlooked-"the
essential humanity of kings and queens
He says: Had Anne Boleyn been less
comely, Henry VIII might never have
ropI1diotnd Katherine Of ArdOOO. there