Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-16


this Teutonic people as q whole. So |
different from English and American |
thought. as the novel makes Individually |
clear. Where did these Germans get |
that probing mind, that genius for phil |
osophy and psychology by way OF which |
their outlook upon both life and death, |
their attitude before both of these, is |
new and strange, inviting even, to those |
of us who are habituated by dealings |
with the more easily seized externals.
THE HEART OF HAwTHORNE'S
JOURNALS. Edited by Newton
Arvin. Boston: Houghton, Mifhin
Co.
THE diary implies personal, intimate
l. self-revelation. This constitutes its
prime general appeal. In the measure
to which the analyst has come out
into the open of public interest and
curiosity, to that degree does his journal
receive wide attention. Emerson, Tho
reau, Burroughs, have through this
medium contributed substantially not
only to an understanding of their own
outlook upon life, but to better appre-
citation rs well of the periods in which
they lived. And here, in continuation
of the work, comes Hawthorne's journal.
Different, in general, from the others.
Hawthorne is not the philosopher, like
Emerson, probing the universe for its
puzzle, nor q naturalist like Thoreau
on the one hand, like Burroughs on the
other. Here is the story-teller, the
dramatiSt, the man Of poetic magma
ton, who out of his surroundings in
stinctively selects and sets down mate
rial for his craft. So whether at home
or abroad, Hawthorne sees the life
| around him in the essence Of literary
possibility 1t is for this that this par
| ticular volume Is of high interest and
sterling value. One Of the greatest Of
American novelists opens here the box
| of treasures from which he gathered
| this novel or that one in its original
| impulse toward inspiration and growth.
| From every possible source, much Of it.
| not before published, Mr.. Arvin has
collected the material from which he
| has fashioned o consecutive view OF the
| novelist in the varied interests and
activities that summed in his life as
the means by way Of which Hawthorne
became Americas greatest romancer.
| These brief studies, notes, comments,
hand, as autobiography on the other.
The book reflects a rich season In the
| literary life Of New England. It invites
clearly to q rereading of Hawthorne's
| novels, Of Emerson's philosophy, Of
Thoreau's seclusions with nature.
Il ~ II
BRIGHT METAL. BY T. S. stribling,
author of "Teeftallow," etc. New
York: Doubleday, Dorsn & Co.
THE Tennessee mountains and the
- life that these have bred back this
new Stribling romance. To portray the
mountaineer as, perhaps, the most I'M
changed and unchanging of all the peo-
pie Of this country appears to have been
the design Of the author. Certainly, this
Is the effect of the story. The theme
novelist. Mere descriptions could not
serve TO deliver the hardsfips and mar
rowness and prejudice, the ignorance,
the bitter feuds, the passionate piety
that counted even question OF religion
as the deepest Of sins. And, so, Mr..
Stribling, by way Of the novelist's rights,
made q story of the matter. From this
isolated corner he sent young man
out into the world where, by a single
act of heroism he came into a general
passing popularity on the outside. The
immediate result Of this furry of flame
was wife for the boy-a girl from the
New York stage, down on her luck for
the time being. There is the story. It
is the drama of alien elements. and of
the efforts toward accommodation, set
up between the two. The problem Is for
| tHlS .WdyWiSe BII 10 i've WIFI JOIlH Idl-
houn Pomeroy in the Tennessee noun
tains-to live with the mother and the
sister and the few neighbors Of the lit
tie settlement. In sincerity and under
standing Mr.. Stribling follows the trail
Of his own setting. Out Of 1t a new
Main Street grows, q really finer
Main Street" than the one so loudly
acclaimed. Sinclair Lewis Is, in his
novels, more or less subject to the Bit
~ CorfNo f1lVn
ridicule, satire, a shade of contempt, a
tinge Of external superiority take away
from his work as portrayal Of character
and custom on the one hand, and on
the other take away from the true quail
ity of his art. With Mr.. Stribling the
supreme obligation is to embody the life
of the mountaineers Of this locality, is
to deliver 1t in the terms Of love and the
age-old accommodations OF marriage.
Always in complete sincerity-now in
gayety, now in regret. now in plain rec
ord-the author does this Therefore TO
his account stands another admirable
novel of the peculiarly winning Stribling
stripe.
RED TIGER: Adventures In Yucatan
and Mexico. BY Phillips Russell,
author Of Benjamin Franklin" etc.
Pictures by Leon Underwood. New
York: Brentanos.
off they go. these two. Their kit
~ bullying with the lust of adventure
to which nothing Is added but plenty
of paper and pencils. The place upon
which they are headed does the rest
as you will agree when you hear its
name. Yucatan--but nowadays that is
merely another way of saying Mayas
and the old Magyar civilization which
science Is digging out from the jungle
of that tropic quarter. You have al
ready heard something about it-that
wonderful Chichen-Itza, the Magyar
Mecca, thousand years ago queen city
of these people. All we have to do Is
to Jump into the "fotingo" much pref
tier name than Q Henry Ford"-with
this pair of adventurers to rattle our
bun1py and hazardous way out to the
ruins which the Carnegie Institution Is
unloading above ground. Something
happens about once minute. But at
each of these minutes MIR. Russell falls
to writing and Mr.. Underwood to max
ing pictures so. when forgetting inter-
venes temporarily, we simply look to
the left for the story and to the right
for the scene itself, and on we go. A
most stirring adventure through one
of the great lost lands OF the world.
And to think, too. that 1t is here on
| Cd 10 - at