Evening star., 1934-05-06

Atherton, Adventures of a Novelist -
published few years ago. Both are
recoections of novelists who have
been in the front ranks of American
literature for nearly 80 years and in these VOL
umes in effect say vale" Both are revelations
of personality, but the personalities revealed
different possible. To Gertrude Ath-
eIton life has bcen great adventure enjoyed
to the full, and she tells about it egotisti-
cally, vigorously with few reserves. To Edith
Wharton life is "the saddest thing there is.
next to death" and she writes of it with deli
cacy and restraint, but reading her
"reminiscences fail to realize that she has
lived richly TO" though the years are sad the
days have way OF being jubilant." Her life
story is naturally to a large extent one of lit
erary associations and activities. but there is
enough of the purely personal to complete
rounded whole.
Mrs. Wharton's earliest recollections are of
sthe old New York, where she was born and
which she has commemorated in SO many OF
her novels. Literally her first recollection is of
walking with her father up Fifth avenue wear
ing her new Winter bonnet, with white Shet-
land wool veil. Her ancestry she pronounceS
"purely middle class" The mcn mer
chant ship-owners and good citizens; the
women upheld the strict standards OF good So
ciety The family Summer home was at New
port which figures almost equally with New
York in Mrs. Wh1rtons novels. Travel began
early for the woman who was to be traveller
much of her life, and when she was only little
Edith Jones was playing in the Roman Forum.
Travel became her routine for at least four
months of the year after her marriage with
Edward Wharton. though their home was Pen
craig Cottage Newport. Her husbands health.
never good became gradually worse, until,
few years before the World War, "he could no
longer lead life of normal activity" Since
then she has lived almost entirely abroad.
OF her many books. Mrs. Wharton writes
rftn Of
the consciously successful novelist. or the
novel generally accepted her masterpiece she
says: The book to the making Of which I
brought the greatest joy and the fullest ease
was Ethan Frome.'" She comments on the
many criticisms of it as painful" and on the
indignation caused, especially among New Eng
landers by her novel Summer" in which the
account of the colony of drunken mountain
outlaws given to her in every detail by the
rector of church at Lenox. She speaks hu-
morously of the many charming books which
she has planned but never written. OF her
war work in France. with the Secours aux
Besses Militaires. she writes more fully than
of her books OF her friends. she writes with
the warmth of one to whom they have meant
much Walter Berry. distant cousin. she
speaks of as the ''one friend who seems
not a separate person, however dear and be-
loved, but an expansion an Interpretation OF
ones self the very meaning of ones soul" Ber-
nard Berenson and his wife were friends at
whose villa near Florence she made annual Wis
its, living and working as if in her own home.
Paul Bourget Smoothed her social path in Paris
and never failed as friend. In England, Mrs.
Humphry Ward made her at home in both Lon
don and country houses Henry James, often
called Mrs Wharton's master in the art Of writ
ing was priced friend and often visited her
in the Rue de Varenne, Paris. His abandon
ment of his America citizenship, to show his
Indignant sympathy with England because
the United States did not sooner enter the
World War, she considered rather puerile and
altogether unlike him." but she felt that his
death during the war saved him from much
bitterness over it, which his failing health made
him untitled to endure.
MERCHANTS OF DEATH. A Study Of the In
ternational Armament Industry. BY H. c.
Engelbrecht PHI D., and F. c. Hanighen.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.
\A/ORLD peace through aI-around disarma-
w ment is dream which has taken pos
session of many people, more and more people
as more and more is known about the details
of the World War and about what the next war
will be like. Some believe in the realization Of
the dream at scme time not too far distant;
others fear sadly that it will always be only
dream. Meanwhile, another group. so say the
authors of this book fearing the dream per-
sistently encourage war and competitive arma-
ment. accomplishing their purposes through
unsuspected channels. Armament makers
the merchants of DEATH" Arms merchants in
America and Europe are among the founders
of organizations to promote large navies, among
those attempting to mold public opinion
through publicity. among those who engineer
war scares." They are singularly broad
minded in their business dealings and do not
object to farming the potential enemies of
their own country" All of this and much
more DR.. Englebrecht and Mr.. Hanighen tell
In, tod in, rorI1