Evening star., 1935-11-10

administrations anord such interest,"
ing reading.
Dealing with the books Of the period,
Mr.. Sullivan shows considerably less
astuteness. as when. for example, he
groups James Branch Cabell with
Elinor Glynn as a writer of what he
calls "sex novels"-a term, Incl
dentally, which seems puzzling since
most novels are about people and most
people belong to one or the other Of
the sexes. Whatever the fate Of the
rest of the series, this grouping ought
to assure Volume vi of immortality.
1t is big book printed in agreeable
large type, and furnished with good,
snappy heading at the top of each
page. We whele-heartedly recon-
mend it.
KING JASPER. BY Edwin Arlington
Robinson With an introduction
by Robert Frost. New York: The
Macmillan Co.
THIS poem, in the narrative style
that Edwin Arlington Robinson
did so superbly. was completed shortly
before the poets death. 1t must have
a special significance, in view of this,
for it represents his reflections on our
times and the present changing nature
of our institutions.
1t is the tale of King Jasper. who
had risen to his power partly by ex-
ploitation of Hebron, his friend. Ar
rived at greatness Jasper found him.
self surrounded by hate and fear, by
gathering cloud of treachery. He
knows that it is the son of his dead
friend who brings all this about
representing the discomfort of the
masses of those whom life seems to
have betrayed-but he is powerless to
cope with it. Realistically he waits
and his kingdom is destroyed about
him. Out of the desolation only one
creature escapes. That is Zoe. the
love of the kings c :, who typifies the
wisdom that is beyond the timeliness
Of expediency.
1t is significant of Mr. Robinson's
social philosophy that Zoe herself
Stays young Hebron. the agitator
against the king. OF him he says:
". learn from his red rhetoric
How little he knows that millions who
know less
Might yet be ta' ght by kings-if kings
were not
So royalty occupied in their not seeing
Sometimes an inch or two ahead Of
them"
The poem does not reach quite to
the heights that some of the earlier
works by Mr.. Robinson attained, but
it as all that beauty, that clear rea-
sonable beauty, that one expects to
fl ! in any couplet that came from
his hand. The introduction by Robert
Frost is worthy tribute. 1t so COM
bi7es propriety and appreciation that
1t surpasSes the function of an intro
duction and becomes itself a part OF
the book.
MIR. WHITE, THE RED BARN. HELL
AND BR1DEWATER. Four Pc
culiar Stories and a Preface. BY
Booth Harrington. Garden City:
Doubleday Doran g. Co.
RooTH HARRINGTON. in the first
three stories Of this small volume,
examines the problems of Immortality,
the evolution of the soul and the ma
ture of hell. If that sounds ponderous.
one must remember "Penrod." I'M
mortality. psychic evolution and the
holocaust are not such interesting
themes as small boys plot to avoid
staying after school. but the old in
genious hand is controlling them.
Booth Harrington cannot be dull, but
one does feel that for him to turn his
wise talent for gayety to the questions
that occupy sophomores is a waste
Another Seventeen" please-and let
who will be cosmic.
In the fourth story Of the volume
Mr.. Harrington gives us a horribly
real study of selfishness, the more
shocking as he has set it against the
background of contemporary Utopia
the blissful expectation of 5000 a
month for everybody whose age is
above so. His hero, an old loafer,
awaiting the day Of bounty, has so
cents to spend. The manner in which
he does it makes him one of the most
outrageous of characters since Dick
ems Quilp. Unhappily, however,
Bridewater is a great deal more cred
ible.
Readers will want this book, al
though it is not the happiest of Mr..
Tarkington's work.
o. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD
PRIZE STORIES OF 1885. Edited
by Harry Hansen. Garden City;
Doubleday Doran g. Co.
THIS volume. awaited annually with
ghoulish glee, is irrepressibly out
once more. Oh-the intrepid spirit of
its sponsors! With what dauntless
patience, with what quenchless zeal
they thread their ways. year after
year, through the sorrowful mess of
our published fiction. Do they not
know that such pearl fishing is out
of date?
Then, having fished, with what
agonies of conscience do they weigh
the breathless question of whether
story A by Miss Smith deserves fourth
place or whether 1t should be relegated
to fifth and room thus made for tale
B, that comes from the expensive pen
of Mr.. Jones. Miss Smith. they say,
has style Cor has sheO. but Mr.. Jones
has charm. Style or charm? Which
shall 1t be? Is the door locked, one
wonders, while they deliberate, and
are their meals brought in by q lit
erary bailiff?
And what do they eat-these male