Evening star., 1934-11-04
In the World of Books

| 1t on flaws in capitalist economy.
Part III tells of the plan which the
authors, If given the responsibility.
would put into operation, OF would
attempt to put into operation. Per-
haps the contributors to this SYM
postum should have been invited into
the brain trust" Upton Sinclair Is
one of them. John Dewey writes the
introduction.
THE STORY OF MY LIFE. BY Marie,
Queen Of Rumania. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons.
LOYALTY is royalty and a queen
~ is a queen, even in these days OF
precarious aristocracy and equally
precarious democracy. The dowager
Queen of Rumania is the best known
and the most publicized Queen in the
world today. II news statements and
news hints can be accepted, she Is
still playing q part in the politics Of
her own country and Of Europe. The
angle from which she writes her auto
biography, of which another volume
will probably appear later, Is that OF
"Rumania and I, or and Rumania," !"
but most Of Europe Is also In the
picture. Her birth in Eastwell, Kent,
in 1875, as the daughter of Queen
Victoria's second son, begins the story,
which ends in this volume with the
accession to the throne of Rumania
of her husband. Ferdinand, which
caused "one of the most tremendous
and overwhelming emotions Of my
life"
Queen Marie's story. told with
frankneSs tempered with discretion,
will be of great interest to all who care
to know how royalty lives when not
on parade at public functions or on
official pilgrimages. Intimate char
acterizations of many of the members
of European royal families, known
through kinship and frequent aSso-
citation, give added vivacity to
thoroughly animated narrative.
"Grandmamma Queen, the all-power-
fult was the arbiter of our diff
ferent fates." "Grandmamma Empress
(wife of Alexander II of Russia) - .
had more reasons than Ill health for
being sad" Uncle BERTHE edward
vida genial figure of rippling good
humor." The childhood days of the
English princess who was to become
crown princess and Queen were
apparently very happy. with all the
pleasures Of parties, pretty dresses,
riding lessons skating. fairy stories,
visits to relatives, birthday celebra-
tions and compliments which any
fortunate little girl might expect, and
the additional festivities and adulation
which were the prerogatives of her
rank. She was an observant child
and her recollections Of those early
days in England show a remarkable
memory.
At II she was married to Ferdinand
crown prince of Rumania, and re-
calls that it was considered "un beau
marriage" by Rumania, for a "prin-
cess whose uncles and cousins sat on
many thrones was Just what they all
wanted" There is much in the story
about royal marriages and the
preservation or loss of caste In them
Her marriage to Ferdinand, whom
she calls 'Nando," was, she says. a
happy one and. in spite of many dull
ceremonies and period of home
sickness, she enjoyed the society Of
Bucharest, to which, however, she
has never been limited. The births
of her children, the friends she made
in Rumania, foreign travels to we'd
dings and coronations of relatives
and the ceaseless activities of pleas
ures And officialdom filled her life
until the war came to tear so many
the beginning of the World War that
King Carol of Rumania, uncle of
Crown Prince Ferdinand, q dominant
Hohenzollern. died and Ferdinand
became King. King Carol and his
Queen, Carmen Sylvia, are spoken OF
affectionately by Queen Marie as
Uncle and Aunty." Undoubtedly the
volume 10 come, which will begin
with Marie as Queen, will have many
more possibilities of political and So
cial revelation. but will it be sub
jected to censorship?
NOT I, BUT THE WIND" BY
Frieda Lawrence. New York: The
Viking Press.
A FTER permitting the other women
who laid some sort of claim to
Lawrence to write Of him at will, each
convinced that she alone really knew
him, the woman who knew him best,
who, after a six weeks acquaintance,
deserted her husband and three chill
dren to live with Lawrence, who
lived with him for 18 years. now
breaks her silence to tell something
Of what she discovered about him and
to publish a selection of his letters
The first meeting of D. H. Lawrence
and Frieda Won Richthoten was in
1912. their elopement and marriage
soon followed, and then began their
travels, always accompanied by Law
rence's continuous writing. which
ended with his death at Vence on
the Riviera in 1880. A long period
of their life was passed in New Mex
leo, at Taos, where Lawrence, with
the help of Indians, built a little
cabin, from which Frieda sent forth
this memoir.
Whatever critics, both old
fashioned and modernistic, may
think of Lawrence, his purpose in his
writing and how well he accomplished
1t, whatever the verdict of the dis
tant future may be, Frieda Lawrence
Is thoroughly convinced of the