Evening star., 1936-12-05
WHY WRITE ABOUT WRITERS?
Inner Circles Literary World Are Brought Attention
of Casual Readers-Ms Bucks Family Observations.
Dreams of Great Explorer and True Poet. :

His writing at this stage Is poetic,
even visionary.
In 1856, however, he made his first
expedition north. to explore the east
ern coast Of Greenland, and from
that time on he knew where his career
lay. The present book is merely q
record. after that, Of his successive
fOrays into the Arctic.
After the discovery there was, Of
course, the controversy with DR.. Cook.
The book examines this affair in close
detail, and attributes to the disap-
pointment which Peary felt at his
treatment by Cooks adherents his
subsequent failure In health.
A Anal chapter is given to outlining
the plans which he made for develop
ing an air service; early In the his
tory Of flying he perceived its I'M
portance and he WAS active from then
VA IN encouraging the building 0f
national air service.
Prof. Hobbs, the author, has himself
engaged in Arctic exploration. He is
president of the Association of Ameri-
can Geographers and vice president of
the International Commission on
Glaciers. His work is accurate and
competent beyond question. AS has
been said, it should find q public.
SELECTED POEMS BY WIT'TER
BYNNER. Edited by Robert Hunt.
With u critical preface. by Paul
Horgan. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.
IN THIS volume are gathered what
the editor feels are the best of Wit
ter Bynner's poems, from his first
volume, Young Harvard" which ap-
peared in 1907, to his last one, 'The
Guest Book" which came out in 1885.
There seems little reason, beyond that
Of individual liking. for quarreling
with the selection.
As Witter Bynner has shown himself
to be, over the years, q true poet, there
also seems little point in remarking
that the collection is a desirable one.
The interesting thing about it. from
the critical standpoint, Is the manner
in which 1t reflects the fashions
sAAASASa PoCkiy lldo RdSSCo III
our century. From young Harvard
it goes to Greenwich Village, from
Greenwich Village it takes peregrina-
tion through the Oriental, from the
Oriental 1t turns to American South
west-a perfect tour dilettantes, il
you wish, but laid out here by the
fortunate hands of a master.
nf in, A., L,,t t.
does the historical significance of the
volume hold true. In the early years
there was the Whitman influence.
| showing to the point Of decided imita-
tion. Later came the free versifying
period Of the pre-war years. In that
era Bynner, proposing to mock at the
many schools" of poetry then -four
ishing-the imagists, the vorticists
and the like-wr0te his famous Spec
ira in collaboration with Arthur
Dawson Ficke. He proposed in it TO
satirize the current poetasters by
writing nonsense under the guise of a
still newer school" Curiously, the
poems quoted here from that effort
read with better effect than those they
attempted to mock. At any rate, the
reminder is salutary A chokingly
eager emotion is about all that they
convey-as apt an expression of their
decade, perhaps, as may be, a decade
now considerably more mauve than
| the COS.
The later work shows an increasing
austerity of form and an evermore
| penetrating, evermore detached and
subtle satire. The poet seems to have
reached the point, indeed, where he Is
a poet in form only; he writes now as
3 philosopher. He sings, but his mel
ody Is built on a finely shaded scale,
and his words are not lyrics-they
are proverbs
1t is, Of course, a volume to be had.
Its critical preface is long and pre-
tentiouS. but need not be read. It
accomplishes nothing, and so is in the
very best tradition of such essays.
COLLECTED POEMS OF FORD
MADDOX. FORD. With an intro
duction by William Rose Benet.
New York: Oxford University Press.
THE veteran Ford MADDOX Ford
scarcely needs introduction. His
poems, however, have not previously
been published in collected form in
this country, and SO the present vol
ume should find receptive public.
1t contains the poems which were
published in England in the volumes
Of 1916, 1918 and 1927, with new
hitherto unpublished group. Critical
ly speaking, it could be pruned down
considerably with improvement. But
historically, like the collection Of
Witter Bynner's work reviewed above,
it is interesting in its entirety for the
light that it throws on the poetical
fashions of the past decades.
Its faults lie, perhaps, in the fact
that its author is writer's writer.
Nourislied in literary tradition, he has
always seemed to think in paragraphs,
and no doubt he muses. in ssanzas.
The line between craftsmanly neat
ness and the genuine experience which
makes living verse has never troubled
him greatly. He is at home on either
side Of it, and about equally divided.
The present volume should be noted
for one great achievement. however,
and that is in the writing Of its jacket
notice. 1t marks q truly breath-taking
restraint.
"This," 1t says, els the first exten-
sive printing in book form in America
of Mr.. Ford's poems, which reach a
high quality and are always out of
the ordinary" Compare that, oh.
readers, to the horescent verbiage Of
| the American blurb! Out Of the ordi-
nary, indeed.
The volume is recommended as q
contemporary work of interest. Its
eventual value, Of course, can hardly
be predicted.
! THE HAY SYSTEM OF CHILD DE-
vELOPMENT. BY William Howard
Hay, M. D. Esther L. Smith. Pub
lished by Thomas Y. Crowell Co.,
New York.
~, ~S,,v.