Evening star., 1937-02-20

naturally. and Mrs. Harding has given
it that, sometimes falling into rather
extremely personal interpretations of
her heroine's emotions and identify
ing herself, obviously, with the tragic
Empress. Indeed. in those passages
which deal with the Empress domestic
life Mrs. Harding seems excessively
tender; it Is as if she were moved
by her material beyond her power of
conveyance, and had to fall back on
reiterations and something perilously
near gush. But this is only an oc-
casional error. In general, the book
does justice to tremendously dra-
matte material. It is not profound
history, but 1t Is an extremely read
able tale.
TIME AND CHANCE. BY Alexander
Black. New York: Farrar b Rine-
hart.
THE stream Of autobiographies
coming from the presses while
thick last year, gives every promise Of
being even thicker this twelvemonth.
Already on the reviewers shelves books
OF lives outnumber novels, and a large
proportion of these lives are self-writ-
ten. Clearly we are entering highly
articulate season.
Now, the only trouble about auto
biographies Is that, for some reason,
when they descend upon one thickly,
even good ones have great sameness,
nT1l fhie ~ ~ frnFVa tho fort
that they may treat Of widely different
circumstances. It is curious, and the
reviewer can only suggest as an ex-
PLANTATION that the first personal pro-
noun Is particularly conducive Of irri-
tation. One has more sales resistance,
as it were, toward the man who talks
about himself than one does to q
talker on almost any other subject.
So autobiographies ought to be bril-
liant. There should be no middle
ground. When one is merely good and
grammatical there seems to be very
little to say about it, even though,
as with the present book, it embodies
"reminiscences Of a large number of
holders of famous names.
Alexander Black, as most people
know, was at one time Sunday editor
of the New York Times and is a novel,
ist Of some accomplishment. More
than this, he was a. pioneer in camera
work, having produced and presented
picture plays" with his still camera
years in advance Of the motion pic
ture. He. has known writers, politi-
clans, editors, artists, actors and no.
tables generally, from George Bernard
Shaw to Annie Besant. He writes of
them here, as they came in and out Of
his life. He uses style characterized
by intelligent forbearance and does
not trouble himself particularly over
wit. His book Is a respectable life
document. There will be worse auto
biographies.
AMERICA: A REAPPRAISAL. BY
Harold e. Stearns. New York:
Hillman Curl.
THE only objection which one can
make to this book is that it
should have been written at all. And
that rests, not on its own faults, but
on the multiplicity of times with which
its contents have already been uttered.
America: A Reappraisar' might very
well have its title changed to Amer
lea: Another Reappraisal," or, more
poignantly, to America: The 15oth
Reappraisa1," or America: The Re-
appraisal Of the Present Week.
For reappraiSing their native land
has become brisk business with our
young writing men, and more than
one Of them has already done, not
one volume on the subject, but two,
while joyous bulletins from their pub
fishers pour into reviewers offices
everywhere bearing the tidings that
a third is even at the moment causing
labor pains.
Consequently, even q good book on
the subject fails to arouse weary
critics to more than polite acceptance.
Like an elderly clergyman, christening
his hundredth baby, most reviewers
will fail to feel the bubbling excite
ment of the proud parent or his spon-
sors. Instead, there Is pessimistic
proportion of the profession which is
verging on nervous breakdown over
the secret fear that Mr.. Stuart Chase
or Mr.. George Seldes or Mr.. James