Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-07-09
% TIME LIKE THE PRESENT BY Storm
Jameson. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

of either the conventional or the sensational
biography It is an intensely personal, but not
egotistical revelation of her own mind OF how
she thinks and feels about life as 1t Is IN this
war century and her profound. sickened disgust
oyer it ALL We feel in reading it that soul
has been laid bare, the soul of an ideaIist which
was almost completely shattered IN 1914 ana
tive years which followed. Storm Jameson was
born in Whitby Yorkshire, in 1897, when
steamships had almost driven their loveher
histers" the sailing vessels OIL the seas Her
Environment and that of her ancestors IN the
ehipbuilding town. with its harbor formerly
bristling with forest of masts, has given ner
the setting for most of her novels. Her own
childhood memories and those OF her mother,
khich have become blended with her own are
delicately told in the early part Of the book
Ehe has always loved Whitby and stu hVes
there with her husband and son, though u mas
nhanGed for the worse. There Is no Will IN
h,s town to save it from the vulgarity OF
Mechanical civilization" Places have meant
much to her and have caused her best and
most abiding memories. Those who resemble
her in this can enter into her subJectlv1ty wnen
she says: MY mind, which forgets easily per-
sons and events, has as many fields, streets,
lanes and houses as Atlantis. do not think
about absent persons often or with such
intense longing as think OF places
THE story of my life ends with the end OF
l9l4" Storm Jameson says. The world war
broke in on her happy student life In London,
with her fellow students about everything and
they all felt that they were beginning new
age So we were. but We were mlnslnformed on
q vital detail Her brother, only ~, VINO hao
received the Military Cross for conspicuous
gallantry in action" in the Flying Corps, was
shot down in no mans land in 1917. She has
told his story in one of her novels, as she has
also drawn on her own London student ex-
periences in several In 1882" she says, what
living. gaping mouth will say that it was worth
while to kill my brother in his nineteenth year?
You may say that the worlds account Is bal
anced by the item that We have with us still
number of elderly patriots, politicians army
contractors women who obscenely presented
white feathers" This is bitterness, unforgettng
bitterness but it is better than forgetful SNUG
ness She speaks for Tho generation which
came of age at the time of the World War. For
d long time did not realize that the war had
stripped my generation of its leaves and
branches leaving the bare, manned stem Her
bitterness is not caused more by memory OF
the past than by fear Of the future. She sees
governments and political leaders as having
learned nothing from the World War and as
headed straight for another, and probably ulti-
mate war. But the impression must not be
conveyed that this is a pacifst propaganda BOOK.
It is piece Of real literature OF suffering, not
morbid and entirely self-ccntered, like Marie
Bashkirtseffs journal, but embracing fear for
all humanity and questioning of all existing
values The mordant satire of some Of the last
pages recalls Swift who was, perhaps, not
rs insane as some of his timid and apologize
friends tried to represent him when he wrote
his Modest Proposal" Miss Jameson says,
apropos of profits in war industries as an
obstacle to disarmament IF the sale as table
decacy of the infants of the poor could once
be established and prosper it would seem as
decent and beneficial. '''Nor would the directors
Of the industry fail to think of themselves as
necessary and important"
REPLACEMENT LIST OF FICTION. Compiled
by the Book Buying Committee OF the Amer
/ lean Library Association, Carl e. Cannon
/ Chairman Chicago: American Library
Association.
NHOUGH this pamphlet fiction list IS in
u tended for librarians, to aid them IN the
ver-present necessity Of replacing fiction, 1t
has great possibilities of usefulness to the gen.
eral reader who wishes from time to time to
purchase a novel which is not absolutely new
and TO know in what edition it Is obtanable and
Nhat0will be the price. also to the reader who
would like to look up easily the chief novels OF
some especial writer. The editors protect them
selves in their explanatory Introduction from
being held to responsibility for what they have
mot attempted to do. They do not claim that
the list is one of only worth while authors and
tties Its conception Of worth. while authors
may not land unquestionably will mott be that
of the various users of the list. But the COM
lnittee believes that most of the titles will be
replaced with frequency by a good many OF
Americas public libraries. Those titles which
khey customarily buy, but which they look Tor
In vain on the list, they may continue to pur-
chase without sense of sin, for this list is tenet
only, and not dogma"
The list as whole seems very much what
It ought to be-that is, it seems to contain the
titles which ought to be in most demand by
the reading public after it has settled down t.
reading books of few years or more in age,
after having satisfied its need. presumably, to
see and form an opinion of the last-minute
books OF course, the long lists Of novels by
Jeffery Farnol, Joseph c. Lincoln and E. Phillips
Oppenheim are harmless concession to public