Evening star., 1938-01-02
FEW INSPIRED BOOKS IN 1887
Pot Boilers Relieved Part by Boga
phes of Distincon-History and Constitution Have
Contributed Some New Volumes.

| q fine thing. Miss salminen has q
Cinderella history herself, having
written her novel while she worked Is
housemaid to support herself, and
then having won the coveted Helsing-
fors Novel Prize with her manuscript
much more romantic history, indeed.
than she consents to allow her pitiful
| heroine.
And we have also loud, lusty thing
from South Africa, coming to us from
the hand Of young author who writes
in English, but calls himself Dutch
man. This is Mr.. Stuart Cloete, whose
THE Turning Wheels" is a current
best seller. Mr.. Cloete writes with
more enthusiasm than skill. but in his
account Of the great trek of the Dutch
settlers into the Transvaal-wasi 1t the
Transvaal?-he unquestionably has
something. It remains to be seen, how
ever, whether he is an unskilled now
elist with a story too good to be
spoiled or . young writer who only
needs to require more control to show
q real talent.
Still another superior work from q
foreign pen is Karel Capek's highly
diverting War With the Nevis" the
book which, If readers remember al
most caused the reviewer to take leave
of her senses as. during its preliminary
publicity campaign, she was under the
impression that it was not a book
about nevis which was soon to be
shipped to her, but tank full of
veritable salamanders. When the
misunderstanding was finally cleared
up, however, she realized that she had
a most amusing volume on her hands;
Mr.. Capek, who 10 years ago contrib
uted the word robot" to our vocabu-
larry dt was term of horror then
which seems since to have become
one of admiration), has here proph-
esied what will become Of us when
we add the exploitation OF intel
ligent animals to that Of our own
species. Assuming that we undertake
to put the grimy work OF the world
into the hand-or flns-of highly
intelligent nevis, we will presently find
Oo1oCltCc, 1lC says, SAO"0Go o4A tlIC
planet. and only the inevitable growth
of folly among the conquerors will en-
able us to survive at all. The work
has been called a rewriting Of Pen
guin Island" It is not that by any
means, but it is an admirable satire
and can be recommended to any In
telligent reader who has q philoso-
phical sense of the grievous trend of
our time. As it did not sell very we'll,
the reviewer assumes that such readers
do not exist in any remarkable num-
bersS The goodness of the book, how
ever, remains.
THUS the fiction of 1887. Yet, be-
fore going on to consider the other
fields Of writing as they have been in
the past seasons, the reviewer feels
that some comment is due on the
extraordinary number Of Civil War
novels to which we have just been
treated. The unhnd, obvious infer
ence to draw from the numerical
plenty Of these works Is that certain
of four writer's, observing the delight.
full monetary success Of Gone With
the Wind" have prudently decided to
see If they might go and do likewise.
Be that as it may, however, some of
these books have been respectfully
good-Caroline Gordon's None Shall
Look Back" Clifford Dowdeys "Bugles
Blow No More" and Royce Brier's
boy in Blue" have been among the
prominent ones.
And there have been some first
novels from writer's distinguished in
other fields, too. Mr.. Walter Duranty,
who, as everybody knows. Is the pre-
| eminent journalist on the Russian
experiment, came out with piece of
fiction set against the background Of
the Muscovite revolution. He called
it "One Life. One Kopeck." It was
nothing much Mr.. Elmer Rice, who
has won fame as playwright, also
has recently published first novel,
Imperial City" 1t is an overwhelm-
ingly vast conglomeration Of case
histories taken out Of modern New
York City. Accurate as to sociolog-
ical implications (no doubt), it suffers
from bad grammar and cliche think
ing. It seems an excellent book to
| give to some one toward whom you
have q polite dislike. Beyond that,
the reviewer can think Of nothing to
be done with it, unless, for its vast
bulk, it might be used in the country
as q door stop.
As TO why the novels Of the year
should have been 50 uneventful
is a question on which the reviewer
can throw no light. Be the reasons
what they may, the fact is there.
Only one compensation seems to
emerge, and that is that while our
novels have been miracles Of nom
distinction, our biographies in 1887
have been more than ordinarily good.
It seems, indeed, to have been q bio
graphical year. Not only has there
been an unusually large number of
life histories written; there has been
q considerable proportion Of good
ones, too, readable ones, picturesque,
romantic and colorful.
OF these the following may be
listed: "The Golden Fleece" by Ber-
tita Harding, an account Of the lives
OF the last Of the Austrian Emperors
and his Empress; Andrew Jackson, u
by Marquis James, a tender and wor-
shipful, but somehow an immensely
convincing story Of the stormy war
rior President; Something of N.Y.
SELF" which was Rudyard Kipling's
posthumous autobiography; present
Indicative" the self-written life story
of that spectacular young man of the
theater, Noel Coward; Madame
Curie," written by the great scien-
lists daughter and very fine: "Win-
field Scott" by Maj. Charles Winslow
Elliott, long biography of the IA
nous general in which much hitherto
unused material is employed; "Ten.
nessee Background" by Evelyn Scott
the authors account of her childhood
in the rural South; Henry Clay" by
Bernard Mayo, the first Of q trilogy