Evening star., 1938-03-13

(Harcourt, BraceJ
The book is one more chapter ir
Miss Keller's heroic life and tribute
of unsurpassed love to the woman who
made that life possible.
FORGIVE US OUR VIRTUES. By
Yards Fisher. Caxton: The Cax-
ton Printers.
SOMETHING should be done about
- Prof. Vardis Fisher, his education
He is unquestionably an Earnest
Soul, but he is about a decade and
half behind the times in his literary
fashion. He remains just where he
was when he first began to be heard
OF as a chap who wrote novels sc
daring" that nobody would PRINT
them, which novels, on being printed
(for they always were), invariably
turned out to be documents proclaim
ing with electrified surprise that hui
man beings have sex Prof. Fisher
seemed to have found this out a trifle
late in life, and it so startled him that
he simply could not get over the dis
covery. 1t took him four immense
and unsurpaSSedly turgid theme novels
to get his tidings on to paper. but he
finally did A reader might be justified
in supposing, when that monument
was at last set up in type, that the
professor had finished with his thesis
But not so. He is at it again. Once
more he steps before the world with
his message-once more he unflinch-
ingly asserts that men and women
are male and female.
Now the discovery Of sex is surely
in the freshman course 1t sometimes
evokes outcries from the young, but
they are customarily heard with little
notice. One expects them. One does
not expect mature man, however, to
60 on repeating his freshman lore
forever. And If he be a writer, he
should keep somewhere near the spirit
OF his day-unless he happens to be
a writer of such masterpieces as defy
all time, and this Prof. Fisher GER
tainly is not. He is writer of this
age. If he is anything. And now he
lags behind his age, setting forth the
themes which were new in the Sher-
wood Anderson teens and twenties.
And so, tagging behind his day and
lacking genius to carry him outside
its spirit, he seems in bad way. As
said, something ought to be done about
him.
His present book is novel about
people who are not honest with them
selves in sex matters and so come to
various kinds of grief. 1t is badly
written and dull The reviewer cam
not think Of anything else to say about
it, except. that it is so trite that the
word "trite" seems fresh beside. Oh.
somebody do something about this poor
professor!
LOST ATLANTIS. BY James Bran.
well. New York: Harper e. Bros.
THIS curious volume is a compila-
ton of lore concerned with the
myth of lost continent, a land which
once lay where the Atlantic Ocean is
today. and OF which rumors have
persisted with strange obstinancy
through centuries of the worlds his
tory. The author has made a study
OF those mysterious references and
has brought them together here. The
result is work which must have real
fascination for students of the curious,
a thing assembled for learning's sake
and fit to receive the respect of all
men of scholarly intent.
1t begins with the earliest known
references to the lost land and carries
its examination down to the most re-
cent theories and scientific findings.
1t then goes on to trace the part which
the Atlantis has played in various
literature as a symbol of human hopes
and dreams. When all is said and
done, the reader will have little that
Is solid to rest on; the Atlantis re-
mains misty .unreality. But there
is wealth of legend, myth and lore
In the work, and wistful burden
Of longing, too. To ponder over it is
to come close to the old conclusion
that human knowledge is generally
unsubstantial, and that human desire
is changeless. Such books are valu-
able, though most certainly not for
the famous average reader"
HELL ON ICE. BY Comdr. Edward
Ellsberg. New York: Dodd, Mead
g. Co.
HELL ON ICE; THE SAGA OF
THE JEANETTE" Is the epic
story of a heroic adventure, 1t. George
Washington De Longs expedition in
search of the North Pole by way of
Bering Sea. It is tale of intense
drama, of great human sacrifice to
surmount great obstacles. and of
failure.
Sixty years ago the Jeanette sailed
from San Francisco, passed Alaska
and entered the Arctic Ocean. OF
Wrangel Island the ship was frozen
in. Frozen in and drifting helplessly
with the ice, the ship remained for
two years. Then it was crushed and
sank, but not before all escaped. Drag
ging their boats behind them, the
men started south over the broken
foes.
It was typical of the expeditions
luck that the drifting ice carried
them north faster than they could
work south. Afraid to tell his men
lest they quit and die, De Long kept
them working. He hoped that If they
struggled far enough across the ice
field they would come to the edge,
where they could launch their boats
and sail to Siberia. It might be SO
miles, it might be 500.
The drift changed. De Long reached