Evening star., 1928-12-04
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. C.. NJ.
A MODERN PLUTARCH. John Cour-

|
John Cournos, or any other modern
story-teller, seeking inspiration and
| pattern out of the past, could not do
better than to take stand beside the
old Boeothian Plutarch. whose great
| book of Lives" has held something
| like rivalry with the Bible itself in long
| life and devoted reading.
! To be sure, in these days of external
| tumult. "Plutarch Lives may not seem
to be holding its own. For that matter,
no other serious reading is, either.
| Nevertheless, there is good evidence
| that Plutarch is still going concern.
| The book in hand is such evidence.
| And there are other signs for which
| there is no space here. No longer than
Yesterday or thereabout. Joseph Can
| non. looking backward IS years to life
along the Wabash, voted positively for
Plutarch Not so many years before
| that, Emerson and Thoreau and Joaquin
Miller gave eager support to the old
! Greek. Further and further back, all
| along the 1900 years, and more, since
Plutarch's day there are lined up warm
advocates of this old genius-Voltaire,
Rousseau and many another celebrity.
| Rabelais, with a shout of laughter,
pounds the Lives in joyous and ro-
|
would he have done without Plutarch
{ as a source of supply for Julius Cae-
sar" and Antony and Cleopatra" and
| "Timon of Athens" and yet others OF
! the great dramas!
And now, right out of the present.
John Cournos names himself mod
ern Plutarch" and falls to the business
of creating Lives" out of the human
stuff that is near at hand-about 20
of the nearby celebrities in life and
! letters contributing to the work. Cour-
! nos opens his book with an apology to
Plutarch. A modest gesture, but a
needless one, since the work so fully
| justifies the effort.
! Seeking the source of Plutarchs sus-
| tanned vitality and interest. this au-
| thor finds three elements of possible
accounting. The first of these is that,
invariably Plutarch held himself to the
basic human elements. out of which
arose such marvels and variety of ac-
/ tivity as characterized the SO men who
make up these immortal Geographic
studies Men, at bottom, are of identi-
cal stuff. The same feelings, desires,
passions animate them all. The par
| ticular course taken by each, the spe-
| cial quality of his achievement, the use
made of his powers-these derive from
varied sources, such as blood. training,
| the age around him, more or less ac-
cidental, all. By holding to the basic
qualities of his characters Plutarch in
sured to himself an unbroken effect of
| the current and cotemporaneouS hu-
man. Again, Cournos found the old
| Greek to have the gift of words. words
| to dress the idea and to embody it,
| easy words. and an imagination winglng
| straight from the thought to be illumi-
| mated. And yet again, he caught the
value of Plutarch's comparisons be-
| tween the nature the ambition the
| achievements of this man and that one.
These, the three elements that to this
modern writer seemed. in large part,
| to account for the sustained interest
and charm of "Plutarch's Lives"
! And thus equipped with fresh out
look upon his model. John Cournos set
about the stories that make up this
| book. Projected here are 20 Lives"
( Projected, not in geographic complete
ness, but in a consideration of those
essentials which stand for the character
of the subject in hand and stand as well
| for the quality and effect of his achieve
! ments upon the life of his day and sue
| ceeding days.
You will be deeply interested in the
comparisons set up here-that is, you
will be interested when, with the au
sons for bringing this pair, or that one,
| together for the purpose of illuminat-
ing each. The critical power of Cournos
comes out in striking fashion through
these comparisons and contrasts. For
instance, Mark Twain and Anatole
France, unlikely consortS, stand up here,
side by side. Brought together, these,
by the tragic philosophy of both, an
| identical philosophy that with one is
in 1aIf Othnr
| in sardonic smile of pure irony. In
| teresting and stimulating studies, all
of these, whose immediate effect is TO
; spur readers to more thoughtful and
! intelligent attitude toward writer's of
account. Here side by side are Gaugin
and Thoreau, both repudiating society,
but from different sources of urge and
in wholly different manner. And here
are others brought into partnership Tor
, some good and deep reason-George
Sand and George Eliot, Robert E. Lee
and Simon Bolivar, Cecil Rhodes and
Ferdinand de LessepS. Others, too, and
all of them most interesting from this
point of view But there is time to say
only that John CournoS has paid strict
attention to the business of telling the
good story, just as his great exemplar
paid such attention. He begins in the
| middle of Notwithstanding inter-
esting, which beats by a long way,
starting in at the beginning. Begin
nings are likely to be dull. 1t lakes
action, motion, speed to create warmth.
CournoS knows this and minds it, too.
| So, there is always entertainment here,
as we'll as fact and critical consldera-
| ton A fine achievement-and no apol-
ogieS are due Plutarch No doubt he
is delighted with his new disciple.
y 4 x
SPOKESMEN. T. K Whipple. D. APP
pleton q Co.
The "spokesmen" are 10 of our mod
ern writer's. The author, professor of
English in a Western university, e:ves
these writer's critical and appraising
consideration here, against the broad
background of American life as 1t is and
against an equally broad background
of American idealSm in art which, as
yet, is hardly more than beautiful
and elusive dream. These writer's run
from Henry Adams to Eugene O'Nelll,
chosen not only for the genuine sub
stance of their work, but for the fact
that these, in way, represent
Counterpart of an earlier period in the
settlement of this country, say the
pioneer period. The general trend of
the study here is that America is not,
as yet certainly, fruitful soil for
the growth of matured and mellow
art America has not the poetic
temper" as the author puts it. This
temper has been shut off, or calami-
tously delayed, by the spirit of prac-
| ticality that seems to absorb the Amer
lean heart and soul. 1t turns out that
the pioneer period was not the great
and manly adventure that it has been
supposed to be. No, this period so alb
sorbed the pioneer for the wherewithal
of personal life and safety that the
poetic temper had no show at all. Just
simply died, a-borning, if it got even
that far. What the pioneer failed to do
against the poetic temper the Puritan
pretty nearly finished-not quite though,
iArIir 81