Show Island Becomes Refuge for ary Lions Resting on Laurels Sylvia Warner London Guest Critic Gilbert Parker Also There 5 By NEA BOOK SURVEY Literary lions have llave been stalking the Manhattan veldt In in unusual numbers these past weeks Inor- Inor Inordinately tame and unobtrusive lions they have proved to be sure munching at eclairs and tea cakes and going on public exhibition only I when lashed and prodded by pub re representatives es I Within a few eels the Survey has encountered Julia Peterkin up from the land of the Gullah ne negroes ne- ne groes in the Carolinas Du Do Bose by which Comes from being a a best seller O. O E. E in from froni the northwest on the heels of his successful Victorious V us Sir Gilbert Parker who clings to the ro- ro rna mantle tlc idea to the end and Sylvia Townsend arner 1 over from London London Lon Lon- don as a guest critic Sir Gilbert easily could be lost loston loston on Wall all street Wandering among the figures of the financial financial finan- finan cial world he would woud pass as one ot of the mOre successful bankers operators oper oper- or merchant princes A man manwell manwell well along in years he seems disarmingly disarmingly dis- dis young oung and nd he will tell you that he stays young through op- op To be sure he is economically economically cally unworried and has been since The night flight of Way Vay In writing he to art old roman romantic tie tradition tion his is almost al- al most Victorian The advance of women women wo- wo men in affairs one feels has interested interested in- in him but his ideas remain those or of a quarter of a a. ago SOr SOMETHING ELSE Miss Warner arner is something else again Meeting leL el comes under tho general heading Of t a real e p We Ve author who whoSo sti So stimulated our our in ad- ad vance A And nd anyon Who has has' read Tier Lolly Willows vs Mr 1 Fortunes Fortune's Fortunes Fortune's For For- tunes tune's Maggot or The he True heart must Imo V what We mean For Miss Warner Varner is a a writer who can rudely out from under a readers feet and leave him treading upon air it Is pervaded with a certain fragrance rice and is haunted by of the author To Too few alas are the authors authors au- au thors who write something of themselves them them- selves so subtly between the lines who 0 o pique One with with curiosity to toor w h w they O a or or- Whose liose with w words carries one away into a r restful world ot of sound hero Here are books which one wants to read al aloud ud to some someone ri else else-at least n a hundred spots An And particularly particularly par par- is this true of of- The True TrueHeart Trueheart Heart Viking Press which left leftUs leftus Us won wondering cring if the author was as n in love with wordS as she seemed Here is a- a dream adream I. I talc with I all the thO quiet beauty ot of the poet tucked Into it 11 A unreal as asa a day dream with a terribly ir ironic import stabbing rough its poetry at ti sentimentality In in roman romance which allowed its heroes and heroines hero heio ines however eugenically ly unsuited to fall faU into each others arms I BECOMES MATED So ir iii the last pages of The Heart we fine Suky tI th bond girl who been lluc ed OUt of the Victorian days mated at t- t last to the gentle idiot she while met laboring in the marshlands and about to bear beal him a child Before the strange adventures of Suk Suky have ended ended- mid and these n n. n amazing iII hi- hi te with Quee Queen th Victoria strain of madness in in has i ib b carried en-carried beyond Eric her sweet sweet- heart It Is so typically to have them mariy a and d live hap hap- piTy ever after and have havO many chil dl dren n after the fashion of the the best beit romances But what of f the offspring oft off spring of an unsuspecting orphan girl and the symbOl l Of love Jove and nd kindness she has s in enin Eric tile the poetic idiot Here Is a tale to your heart and at the same same time Hmo t to carry you away aWay into Idyllic English country country- sides lt Is our om own particular fa- fa a- a I book of the season As for Miss Miss' Warner Varner herself what one remembers most is hw hands perhaps the most most sensItive hands w ve have ever seen She is' is the most unobtrusive lion we we ever have haye seen Observed at a literary tea she picks an Jn inconspicuoUs corner comer and never a moment orn nt would be js suSpected by guests as asa asa a celebrity I feel that women are the oldest old old- st efficient tellers story i est st arid and m most In the world arId she says And so I I just tell the stories You see it has lIas been the task of 01 women throughput throughout the ages to pu lUt t their children upon their knees an and spin them tal tales sJ s. s J fabulo s stories arid en e even tho ho most stolid and unimaginative women have e been known to grow extremely Inventive under these And this has gone gone on since there were tales to tell and words words' to tell them with SoI So I haVe haye been One been one of the protestants pro pro- against the who who- r 6 iii hI for tor the realistic school of writing I have a personal re rebellion re- re bellion against the s called so-called sophisticated sophis- sophis women women writers Because ot of this I. I try to carry carryon on the tradition tradition- ot of telling stories But I dont don't consider consider con con- sider ny my tales fantastic How on canS can say shi that they are fantastic I when everything in fn life Ufe today is so unreal and unbelievable Is a a mys- mys tery Tue r e fact ha that it rings ami ii voice appears out ot of ether seems seems' to mo mo Infinitely more incredible In- In credible than any fantastIc dream of the lie 1 Clings Romance sai I t ty j 1 C CSIR SIR PARKER |