Evening star., 1936-11-28

Ordinary volume. 1nere Ii SOTt VI
ironic justice in this, end one Is i'm
PEELED to reflect how the truly great
novelists have usually left their lives
Gin the form Of complete bound vol
umes, at least) for posterity to write
behind them.
ENJOYMENT OF LAUGHTER. BY
Max Eastman. New York: Simon
6y Schuster.
THE analysts get around to every
thing these days, and SO it was
perhaps inevitable that one Of them
should undertake In time to tell us
why We laugh. DR.. Freud. of course,
has already had a try at the subject,
but he is only the old trail blazer, after
all, the analytical Daniel Boone, who
merely indicated to the Boy Scouts
all the possibilities. So now Scout
Eastman takes up laughter. If you
are not incurably opposed to this
fashion of tracing reflexes out of the
clinic and into the drawing room, you
will have to concede that he has done
a very nice thing of it. Such as it is,
Of course, such as it is.
To Mr.. Eastman must 60 credit for
comprehending that the important
thing about laughing is not why we
do 1t, but the fact that We do 1t at all.
He does go dipping around among the
favorite phrases Of the explainers; he
talks about releases" and that sort
Of thing. But he is smart enough to
know that people would rather laugh
than be told about laughing, and con-
sequently he has larded his book
heavily with samples Of the material
of which laughter is made-or, in the
common phrase Of the illiterate, jokes.
He has some very fine jokes in his
volume; he has pretty nearly all the
good ones. They seem to be put there
as sugar on the analytical pill, but
page for page, there Is probably more
sugar than medicine So an unregen-
crate reader can skip Mr.. Eastman
and 60 from Josh Billings to Eddie
Cantor, and keep the narrative pretty
straight. And the reviewer predicts
that that is what most readers will do.
After all, Billings is Billings and has
never needed much explaining to be
loved. And the like Of Mark Twain,
Artemus Ward, Frank Sullivan and
others. Mr. Eastman puts himself, on
the whole, in very good company. His
book can be recommended.
RTRAITS AND SELF-POR-
TRAITS. BY Georges Schreiber.
Boston: Houghton Miff1in Co.
A DREADFUL question rises out Of
this volume Of 40 portraits of liv-
ing writer's done by the gifted pencil of
Georges Schneider. And that is - how
is it that so many writing men have
piggy faces? Piggy, yes Porcine. If
you want q word more elegant. But
in effect what is conveyed to the eye
by a fattish lower jaw and a pug
nose in combination. No less than
nine, by serious repeated count. of the
40 accomplished gentlemen whose fea-
lures are here limned by Mr.. Schrei-
Der for posterity have countenances of
that cast They are James Truslow
Adams, Stephen Vincent Benet, John
Dos Passos, Lion Feuchtwangler, H L.
Mencken, Christopher Morley, j. B.
Priestley, Hendrix Wlllem Van Loon
and Franz Werfel.
And Of the other 81 horribly large
number seemed only to be exempt be-
cause the artist drew them full face
and not in profile. Few If any of
them are handsome. The literary life
seems to make the hair recede and the
chin come down, in men. at any rate.
But perhaps the case Is no better
among women, for, while pretty ones
do write, they practically never write
good books. This array of masculine
LONELINESS, however, is really de-
pressing.
The book contains pencil portraits
by Georges Schreiber of 40 literary
eminences, and each portrait is ac-
companied by ''self-portrait" by the
subject, his own estimate Of himself in
q page or two. 1t Is an amusing VOL
ume to have. 1t would be nice gift
book for a person who collects oddities.
1t is probably intended for just that
purpose.
DIVIDE THE DESOLATION. BY
Kathryn Jean MacFarlane. New
ork: Simon & Schuster.
THIS Is a very respectable novel on
the life of Emily Bronte, a trifie
over-emotional and without literary
distinction, but still . careful and
earnest piece Of work. The authors
sincerity is apparent through it. and
is of such fervid quality that it will
make for sympathetic rather than
critical reading. Those whose more
sentimental literary affinities include
the Brontes should have it. 1t shows
careful research as well as intense
personal sympathy, it is only fair to
say.
RHYME AND PUNISHMENT. BY
Leonard Bacon. New York: Far
rar & Rinehart.
THIS is volume Of light verse,
= combining something of the man
ner of Arthur Guiterman with that Of
Ogden Nash. 1t is readable. although
not so accomplished as the work
of either practitioner just named. It
is concerned chiefly with taking cracks
at contemporary institutions and man
ners, and the cracks, perhaps, are lit
tie harder than mere humor indicates.
You are warned not to buy it as a gift
for your aunt.
THE NATIONALIZING OF BUSI-
NESS. 1S78-1898. Illustrated. By
Ida NJ Tarbell. New York: The
Macmillan Co.
This book by the distinguished au-
thor of THE History of The Standard
Oil Company" is, in effect, a history
of the early growth of capitalism in
America, together with a portrayal Of
the forces which sought to halt the