Evening star., 1938-02-13

Hoover Book Presents Philosophy of Crime With Evidence That
Among Thieves-P Pearl Bu Genius.
sFeud

durable mistake Of trying to patronise
his Yankee relative. BY so doing he
aroused Beatty Balestiers unforgiving
animosity and finally, when . dispute
occurred over moving field, Beatty
let out his wrath In threatening Ian
guage. Kipling responded with ILL
calculated superiority; he simply had
Beatty arrested. This, says Mr.. Van
De Water. was playing into his enc
my's hands with q vengeance. For
the newspapers rushed to cover the
trial and Beatty, delighted at having
so broad an audience, spared none Of
his considerable talent In making his
famous brother-in-law ridiculous.
That was what the English Kipling
could not bear. He emerged from the
litigation smarting, and very soon he
left Vermont and likewise America.
And he never came back. He un-
doubtedly felt that he was right but
that he had no more chance OF vim
dicating his rightness in our cynical
country than = mAn has of arguing
with hornets. That feeling must &C.
count for his lifelong savage hatred
OF US. He might have forgiven much,
but he could not forgive being ridi-
culed and at the same time being put
hopelessly IN the wrong. And 1t Is
hard to blame him for that, too.
Mr.. Van De Water brings out sew
eral interesting points in his story.
He tells for one thing Of Kipling's
genuine attachment to America be-
fore the quarrel and of his efforts to
understand us. He reminds us, too,
that THE Seven Seas" Many In
ventions," Captains Courageous" and
the First and Second Jungle Books"
were written wholly or in part in YER
mont. Further than that, he men,
tions that it was to Beatty Balestier's
brother, Wolcott, that Kipling dedi-
Gated those sonorous lines:
Beyond the path Of the outxnost sim
through utter darkness hurled,
Farther than ever comet fiared or
vagrant stardust swirled
Live such rs fought and sailed and
ruled and loved and made our
world"
Too bad! And the worst Of 1t is,
that. reading Mr.. Van De Waters
story. one cannot but like both men.
vermont was just not big enough to
hold them. Well-again-too bad.
LOUISA MAY ALcoTT. BY Katha-
rine Anthony. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf.
THE biographer of Marie Antoinette
and Queen Elizabeth adds here the
story OF Louisa May Alcott to her list
OF life histories of famous women.
She makes rather an impressionistic
thing of it. showing us her subject in
the nat instead Of the round, but still
produces q readable and interesting
work. She says in her foreword that
she has had it for her intention to
write a life Of Miss Alcott for adults,
all previous books on the subject being
classifiable as children's works, Con-
sequently she mixes her factual mar.
rative of the goings and cominRs of
Louisa's life with psychological asides
quite In the approved manner. In
these passages she is neither pro-
found nor startling. but, as said, her
book is, on the whole solid and read
able.
The author Of Little Women"
emerges from 1t as a woman of strong
emotion and genuine talent whose de-
votion to what she esteemed duty"
and whose environment prevented her
from utilizing either emotion or talent
to its full. She had, as Miss Anthony
presents her, 4 loyalty to her family
which transcribed normal feeling: she
thought Of herself always Is one of
the Alcotts rather than as an indi-
vidual. or perhaps, better to say. rather
than as An artist. Her family was in
deed the great reality Of her life and.
as she grew older. she acquired 1 sort
OF passion for self-sacrifice for her
family's sake.
Taking this premise to work on, the
author inescapably treats of the fam
lly itself to . considerable degree, so
that her book becomes a history of all
the Alcotts as well as Of Louisa. They
were an extraordinary group, as she
presents them, all emotionally strong
and all turning their emotion to ideals
and theories Of conduct instead of to
practice. Naturally they did not at
tract many close associates and like
wise naturally their comparative soli-
tude added to their clannishness.
Ihe potentialities lying within this
group-the four high-spirited and
gifted girls, the feminist mother, the
eccentric father-might have yielded
. volume OF analysis Of the most hair
splitting and intimate kind, the popu-
lar prying biography in short. The re-
viewer, however, cannot ind it in her
heart to be sorry that Miss Anthonv
mas written otherwise. For what such
DOCKS tell us Is seldom more than we
can infer for ourselves from plain
facts, and in decent usage such infer
ence Is generally left unsaid. This
oook In its resolute avoidance of SEN
satlonal conclusions. its dignified pur-
suance OF fact, Is deserving commen-
dation,
THE MERRY MERRY MA1DENs
BY Helen Grace Carlisle. New York:
Harcourt. Brace 6 Co.
FOR those who attended the hirh
schools Of New York in the period
just preceding or at the time Of the
World War this book will bring back
nostalgia memories. Seen through
the pages Of other writer's, or remem-
bered only in memorable incidents
New York seems either 4 glamoro,s
whirl or q smutty slum, 4 hectic hot
bed Of business or society. both spelled
in oversize capitals, or the den Of fever
Drained intelligentsia OF various per-
suasions
But Helen Grace Carlisle remembers
New York clearly as merely a home
town, q town inhabited by middle-
class tailors, small merchants. mu.i-
clans and small-time sports. The hieh
school girl Of the era wore middies
and blue or plaid pleated skirts. Her