Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-23
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BooklOUer

scious or unconscious motto of an in
creasing number of people who desire
to carry on their education and who
consider that they can best do so
through reading the books most suited
to their needs. But in the face OF an
ever-increasing flood Of new books con-
stantly being added to the countless
number of those previously published,
readers with limited time are often at
loss to know what books are best
worth while, what will prove most help
full and stimulating on the subjects OF
their interest. To meet the need for
guides to most-sought subjects, the
American Library Association has pre-
pared a series OF booklets, each oil
which is in itself brief and interest
ingly written introduction to It's SUBJ
ieCt by a trustworthy authority, who In
each case recommends half-dozen or
more of the best books designed for
brief reading course This series Is en-
titled Reading With Purpose"
A recent number in the Reading
With a Purpose series is entitled
pivotal Figures of Science" by DR..
Arthur E. Bostwick, long the editor of
the science department OF the Literary
Digest and librarian of the st. Louis
Public Library, whose purpose in writ
ing the pamphlet is to help people to
discover few readable books on the
lives of famous men of science" who,
he says, have devoted their lives to
untangling the riddle Of the world" In
his brief story DR. BostWick tells Of the
Curies, husband and wife. who, work.
ing in a little shed with the poorest
kind of apparatus, extracted from the
pitchblende of France substance now
valued at $4,000 gram; Of Benjamin
Franklin, who "Snatched the thunder
bolt from heaven with a childs kite,
and of Darwin, who, though he did not
ATTEMPT to connect his theory of natu-
raj selection in any way with theologi-
cal dogmas. has come to be regarded by
some as an enemy Of Christianity. He
tells of PaSteur, whose pioneer work in
incubation reached climax when his
first human subject. little Alsatian
boy bitten ID times by mad dog, was
saved from death by Dear Monsieur
PaSteur." as the child called him, and
of Michael Pupin, Serbian peasant
boy. who landed In America with 5
cents in his pockets, worked his way
into college and has become professor
at Columbia University and a diStin-
guished scientist in the field of electro
mechanics. For these and a number of
other scientists DR.. BoStwick has Sug-
geSted seven books. OF collective BIZ
ography he recommends Makers of
Science" by Ivor B. Hart; Heroes of
the Scientific World" by Charles r.
Gibson. and Leading American Men
of Science" edited by David Starr Jor-
dan. Four individual Biographies are
included IN his list. Charles Darwin"
by Gamaliel Bradford; The Life Of
Pasteur," by Rene Vallery-Radot:
From Immigrant to Inventor" by
Michael Pupin.
Readers of this column will be glad
to know that during the last two or
three years more than 80 booklets have
been issued by the American Library AS
ISOLATION in its Reading With Pur-
pose" series, and that others are prom
ised for publication. Some of them
have previously been commented on in
this column. Among the titles which
appeal to very diverse tastes and inter-
eSts are the following: Biology" by
Vernon, Kellogg; English Literature,
by w. N. C. Carlton; The Physical
Sciences by Edwin e. Slosson: "Psy-
cholcgy and Its Use by Everett Dean
Martin; Our Children" by NJ. V.
O'Shea; Religion in Everyday Life" by
Wilfred T. Grenfell; The Appreciation
Of Sculpture" by dorado Taft; The
Europe of Our Day" by Herbert Adams
Gibbons; American Education" by
William F. Russell; THE Modern Es-
say" by Samuel McChord Crothers;
THE Founders OF the Republic" by
Claude G. Bowers; Twentieth Century
American Novels by William Lyon
Phelps: Adventures in Flower Garden
ing" by Sidney B. Mitchell; Good Eng
lish," by Virginia c.. Bacon, and George
Washington" by Albert Bushnell Hart.
~
Stephen Gwynn. author OF several
books on ireland. has contributed to the
Kit Bag Travel Books a volume entitled
Ireland; Its Place of Beauty, Enter
tainment. Sport and Historic Associa-
ton" Mr.. Gwynn is an Irishman who
knows Ireland and also knows how to
make it interesting to others. 1t is not
Ireland Of political factions which con-
Germs him, but Ireland of velvety green
hills and deep valleys: of chains of lakes
and tumbling streams, full of fish; of
stretches of moorland, haunted by game;
OF irregular, jagged, black coast line.
with many bold headlandS. of ruined
castles and towers; of matched peasant
cottages. For purposes of description
he divides Ireland north and south. into
the east toward the channel and the
west toward the Atlantic.
X
All the romantic characters Of litera-
ture and history are being novelized,
monopoly of the process. j. A. Steuart,
after writing biography OF Stevenson.
put him into a novel The Cap of
Youth not particularly interesting
novel nor one which added anything to,
our knowledge of Stevenson. Francois
Villon, whose personality as revealed in
his poetry arouseS curiosity about his
life. has been made the subject of
novel, For Love of Sinner, Being q
Tale of the Love and Sorrows of Fran
co.'s Villon." by Robert Gordon Ander-
son. In the story Villon appears as the
lawless vagabond. the reckless leader Of
a reckless crowd, the seeker for JOY III
life which he never forgetS is short,
the purSuer of women, the poet who
catches occasional moments of spiritual
rapture. Sentenced TO death like
Shakespeare Bardolph and Nym on
the charge of robbing church. he is
rescued at the last moment and eXiled
from Paris for h year instead. But the
witchery of Paris has SO taken possession
of his soul that he looks upon exile as
almost equal TO death. The picture Of
Villon drawn by Mr. Anderson is one of
mingled gayety and pathos.
4 \
The name of Borgia always sends a
shiver through one. something akin TO
that produced by good mystery story.
for the crimes of the Borgias have come
to seem to most of us today about as
real as the crimes in the Sherlock
Holmes stories of Conan Doyle or the
stories of Herbert Adams, Carolyn Wells
and j. S. Fletcher. So many modern
writer's have whitewashed the BorgiaS
that we are often made to feel>that they
are badly slandered persons of eS-
timable character. WhiteWaSh Is not