Evening star., 1928-11-17
THE LIBRARY TABLE
Bv the Bookloucv

| A literary event IN the united states
which calls for public celebration and
private rejoicing is the publication of
the initial volume OF the new "Diction-
| ary of American Biography" Great
| Britain has for years had a Dictionary
| of National Biography" first edited by
Sir Leslie Stephan, who was succeeded
| nv Sir Sidney Lee The British die
| tionary was published from 1885 to 1901
and reached So volumes, to which three
sup3lemental volumes were added in
1901. three in 1912, and one volume in
1927. The American dictionary is be-
ing published under the auspices of the
American Council of Learned Societies.
whose constituent members are the
American Historical Association, the
American Economic Association, the
American Philosophical Soci...y. the
American Academy of Arts and Sslences,
the American Antiquarian Society, the
American Oriental Society, the Amer
lean Plilological Association, the Ar
theological Institute of America, the
American Philosophical Association, the
American Political Science Association.
the American Sociological Society, the
Linguistic Society of America. the His
tory of Science Society, the Medieval
Academy of America. and the Modern
Language Association of America, With
/
cent the claim of the council that the
dictionary represents the most ambi-
tious work of scholarship ever attempted
in America The publishers further
state. for the council, that lit is, and
will remain, the definite source for in
formation about those men and women
who have made America and who are
now making America what it is, it Is a
veritable treasure house OF personal and
local history It's perpetuation is assured
both by the funds available for editorial
research and by the Incorporation of the
project by the learned societies" DR.. j.
FRANKLIN Jameson. chief of the division
of manuscripts and of the chair of
American history of the Library Of Con-
grsss. is chairman of the. committee of
MANAGEMENT of the dictionary and DR..
| Allen johnson, formerly professor OF
American history at Yale University and
editor of Chronicles of America" is
eciitor-ir chief
The names of no living persons are to
be included in the Dictionary Of Amer
! ican Biography ITO become eligible
the subject must have completed his
life and. before he died, have made
some outstanding contribution to the
tradition of America. This provision
automatically bars the possibility oil
either favoritism or wealth influencing
the selection" Not all persons who have
held office and been much before the
public will be assured Of places in the
dictionary. THE dictionary will moi
automatically include officeholders as
such. The man and not the office will
be the prime consideration. Achieve
ment Of one sort or another will be the
test. Virtue alone will not find its re-
wcrd here; even men of evil influence
will not be ignored. For example, Jesse
James has been judged worthy Of space
because of his activity in frontier out
lawry; but the ordinary criminal or the
mailman, whose only claim to fame Is
that he shot President, will naturally
have no record here. Sports
will not be neglected. The celebrated
athletes will be included, as we'll as
heroes of professional base ball. tennis
and the prize ring. In word, no such
complete assembling of the significant
names in American history, politica
and social. has ever before been under
taken" These extracts from the pros.
pectus of the dictionary show the scope
of the work. When complete 1t viii
comprise 20 volumes, and then almost
Immediately supplements will be neces-
sary. which will be issued at 10-yearly
| intervals.
In this first volume Of the ''Diction-
ary of American Biography just is
sued are many we'll known names, be-
sides many unfamiliar to most people
There are SO pages of Adamscs, begin
ming with Abigail Adams, wife of the
second President of the United States
(but not included for that reason), and
ending with William Writ Adams, q
Confederate officer. Edwin A. Abbey.
Lyman Abbott. Jean Louis Agassiz,
Louisa M. Alcott, Thomas Bailey Aid
rich, John w. Alexander, Ethan Allen,
Sir Edmund Andres. Francis Asbury,
John j. Audubon. Nathaniel Bacon,
John Kendrick Bangs and P. T. Bar
mum are among the first volume
the volume are James Truslow Adams,
Edwin H. Blashfield, Worthington
Chauncey Ford. David Starr Jordan.
Shailer Mathews, Henry Fairfield Os-
born, L. o. Howard, Charles Moore.
George p Merrill and Harvey w. Wiley.
The initials of contributors are ep-
pended to all articles. Each article is
concluded with a short, selective
photography.
| As one of the exponents of the
| stream of consciousness" novel, Mrs.
Virginia Woolf has satisfied many lovers
of style, interested many devotees of
psychological fiction, and puzzled many
| other people by her novels In Jacobs
Room" Mrs. Galloway" and ITO the
| Lighthouse" Her latest novel, OR
lando," illustrates her usual method and
introduces what might almost be called
a thesis. the relativity of time. She
says: AN hour, once it lodges in the
| queer element of the human spirit, may
be stretched to so or 100 times its clock
! length on the other hand, an hour
may be accurately represented on the
| tinepiece of the mind by one second.
In accord with this theory, some people
live precisely the So or 70 years al
| lotted them on the tombstone. OF the
rest. some We know to be dead, though
| they walk among us: others are num-
dreds of years old, though they call
themselves 36." Is this only another
way of saying that some people put
more into their lives than others, 1--we
more extensively and intensely. or has
Mrs. Woolf some deeper philosophical
scientific meaning? Her hero Orlando,
is boy of is living in the Elizabethan
period, a scion of nobility. court
favorite-that is, he Is all this at the
beginning of the book. At the END ne
is a youngish woman in her thirties,
writer of poetry. in 1928. Orlando
changes sex in the eighteenth century;
after becoming thoroughly disillusionedi
with women and love, ambition and
literature, life individual and life rela-
tive. AS a woman, Orlando roams over
Europe with band of gypsies. then
searches for the significance of life in
the complexities of London. AS time
passes, or seems to pass, Orlando be"
comes Victorian lady. and when
something has happened to more time.
twentieth century lady. All the ex-
perience of four centuries. as mere MS
| torians reckon time. has helped to MAKE
| Orlando what she ultimately becomes.