Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY 21 1932 3 Critical Reviews of Late Books Mrs Wiggs’ Great NOVEL IN EARLIER TRADITION Popularity as Yet Shows No Decline Neil Bell’s Second Book Detailing Spectacular Doings of Financial Genius a Whimsical Tragic Figure Is Book League Choice —By Ei E- - mid-forti- well-meani- AT TIIE CROSSROADS OF LIFE WHICH WAY? By Theodora Benson Publishers Doubleday Doran & Co Garden City N Y here and THEODORA BENSON has tried a novel literary experiment a measurable success While it Is not perhaps an experiment one would like repeated at least she has done very cleverly what she set out to do and by that much is successful And she has produced a novel that is brightly entertaining with serious undertones her writing has a distinct spontaneous charm the glow and freshness of youth without its exuberant overflowing This purpose of Miss Benson— who is a daughter of Lord Chamwood and they do say every bit as pretty as her picture — is to show on what trifling things the scales of destiny may turn how vital are some of our most casual decisions Taking her modern heroine at a moment when called upon to choose between three courses of action Miss Benson tells what might have happened m each of the possible lives of which the direction is suggested Piefacing the chapter of this momentous decision with a brief account of Claudia Heseltine’s childhood and girlhood as she approaches the cross roads that gives us the key to Claudia s nature Miss Benson shows us that for her any one of the three stories she outlines might have been possible heroine In each instance Claudia acts quite m accord with w hat we have learned of s her Three invitations have come to Claudia: One from her very dear friend a week-en- d Lady Rosemary who belonged to the intellectuals asked toher tointo the highfit Byng a polo star unlikely party to help entertain Lionelweek-end with the Carstairs of a smart fast brow set A second was a crowd where she would meet the intriguing Guy Vemey who was so unhappily married The third invitation came from Hugo long her devoted swam to go down to his parents —and she knew from this visit she would probably come back engaged To choose the Carstairs succumb to Guy Vemey s charms and become involved in a liaison of some months until the man tires to go to Lady Rosemary fall m love with Lionel Byng’s good looks and after marriage need the more satisfying companionship of Hugo or to accept Hugo’s invitation and the inevitable proposal and lajer find herself unable to resist the fascinating Verney— these are the alternatives Miss Benson offers her heroine Which way?— when each leads to pain and grief and hopeless error Her Claudia who lived only m the present following the impulses of her heart might have said with Humbert Wolfe as Miss Benson quotes him: What shall we steer by Having no chart But the deliberate Fraud of the heart? ONE SECTION OF ENGLISH SOCIETY AFTERNOON MEN By Anthony Powell Publishers Henry Holt & Co New Yoik outsider who has been coveting entrance into the envied circle of ANY English folk artists writers and others of aesthetic pursuits a it society where one’s ears are constantly titillated by stimuvisioning with clever bon mots is doomed to rude disconversation lating illusionment should he read Mr Powell’s book Mr Powell portrays his afternoon men” choosing the sage’s term in company of “giddy-hcad- s but I don’t calmly dispassionate but frank manner Such they are he says— minIf the members of his group are disappointingly ordinary where one has expected brilliance at least they are wholly natural It would seem dawdle and drink nnd Jove and they have been diawn from life and they ronverse— not profoundly often very Inanely— in quite realistic fashion You are not to suppose however that Mr Powell’s account of the doings Quite the contrary it and sayings of his artistic folk is unentertaimng entertains hugely is humorous and has moments that might be melodramatic under less odioit treatment Atwater who works m a museum but plans to write is perhaps the cenfriend Pringle a tral pivot his meeting at the club bar with his slickness that naturally bad aitist who had picked up in Paris "atheveneer of story Acquaintances made people buy his work occasiomlly" opening are not drift in they all drink there is talk of a “party” Most of them invited’ but later they all go on— the lovely Harriet friend to any man g who has money to spend Barlow the portrait painter and his who s brother on leave from his navy poct the American publisher Si hcig-iliook if she finishes it and who at the paity immedo to Harriets going to declare he diately drinks himself to sleep on the floor only waking up will “throw a party" that is a party host who seems unused to parties and doesn t care There s the et all for this one and guests include Susan Nunnery and Lola of the gnome-lik- e face who attaches herself to Atwater and goes home with him to his being This attachment progresses though Atwater is ' flat we really attracted to the somewhat aloof busan Accompanying Atwater mistress Sophy go to tea at Barlow’s studio along with his a through amusing incidents at the museum to most informal dinner party until she leaves for a holiday and so in purposeless meetings with busan fashion until the week-enparty in the country cottage of Pringle which In ended Pringle changed his mind only tragedy nearly Then Atwater returns to Irani that Susan has gone to America but However he’s nut only not alone —something of a body blow fir him temporarily and another party is on the tapis as the story etuis This smt of aimless surface living if pi evented by Atwater and his friends Mr Powell depicts with neat touch there is clever writing and absurdities of situation well handled— as a first novel it has exceptional merits schose Theodora Benson third novel "Which Way" is charmingly original Those Who Make New York By CATHERINE NUTTER MANHATTAN SIDESHOW By Konrad Publisher The Century BercovicL Company New York Bercovlcl has Once again Konrad made cosmopolitan New York the subject of his versatile pen and in “Manhattan Sideshow” he offer flashing glimpses of many of that city’s colorful With a frankness that at personalities times borders on daring he writes intimately in this volume of individuals of every nationality and from every strata of society but possessing a peculiar philosophy of life which identifies them as New Yorkers all To his readers Bercovlcl Is here s genial guide and with him they make the rounds of Gothams restaurants and speakeasies learning from masters of their various arts the fickle tastes of their clientele they visit the breadlines with their motley crowds they spend an evening at a renowned artist’s studio or they are interested onlookers at Harlem’s mor of the French silk manufacturer whose sense of values the great war so completely altered And no less revealing is the character study of the Jewish actress whose meteoric rise to stardom Intrigues one not half so much as does her clever ruse to obtain financial support when failure followed upon success It matters little that many of these names will never be known outside the Immediate circle of their wearers the stones interest equally as well as the anecdotes about such figures as Theodore Dreiser Mischa Elman the Millay sisters Emma Goldman and a host of others The average reader will find this volume entertaining for Bercovlcl has captured within its covers all the fascination that makes New York a city apart from others A vividness that characterizes the master colorist mingled with a subtle charm all Its own makes “Manhattan Sideshow" a most arresting book P doing ’V - - V iln Deka-nawid- USEFUL TO WRITERS STUDENT OR OTHERS THE STUDENTS' DICTIONARY OF SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS ComPublisher piled by Lloyd Adams Noble & Noble New York To promote greater discrimination in the use of words that the one precise word for the place shall be used that the student’s vocabulary shall be enlarged to make It unnecessary to use trite hackneyed term to convey his thoughts this little volume has been deslgneii It Is a quick reference book in which one can pin down the elusive word promptly without resorting to the massive Web- ster In addition to Its compilation of “likes and opposites” there Is appended a table of automobile terms with definitions end of radio terms likewise gaiety But though the glamor of the city pervades the printed pages it is not so much New York the exotic as It Is Manhattan the crucible of all peoples that is here revealed by Bercovlci’s pen Beggars who have acquired great wealth millionaires who have been reduced to dire poverty anarchists and social workers figures of the stage or the literary world —these are but a few whose stories sometimes glamorous often poignant sre related In this book There is the tale told with subtle ht YOVTWS HIGH HOPE AND DREAMS SEEM EARLY REALIZED THE SKY IS FALLING By Oliver Jenkins Publishers The St Botolph Society Boston This Is the story of Peter who dropping out of his state university without finishing his course took up newspaper work in his small home town Very quickly tiring of the limitations of the field he went up to Boston seeking a wider sphere A holiday season Job in a book store then very shortly— with amazing promptness In fact however long it seemed to Peter— he gets a reporter’s job on a leading Boston journal and almost before you can' catch your breath he has blossomed into a successful author his "Young Man" a smart novel of sophisticated youth being the talk p I the hour Of course there were gills all along the way — Peter having the natural curl- osity and emotions of youth — the college senior Isobcl Cassandra the Bohemian who wrote or might gome day Nine who did nothing but enjoy life many men furnishing the means Sheila daughter of wealth who—well we hardly learn However it was much about Shelia only Jean the “marigold” girl of the bookshop who really mattered to Peter — Jean who ran away from him lest she binder his career It sounds almost like one of the success stories but isn t really It moves with a rush touching only passages here end There are gnps there in Peter’s life that destroy the continuity of the story end the author hardly gets beneath the suifore of things his effort to show us what Peter was actually like lacking So ‘The ky Is k ailing’ is surces men ly a pleasant but inconclusive little stoiy Reproduction of Benjamin Wests painting “The Treaty of Shackmason” New World Drama” ' First Success ed ed THE SECESSION MOVEMENT By Dwight Lowell Dumond Publisher The MacMillan Company New York When Professor Dumond who Is an assistant profesaor of American history at the University of Michigan states In his preface that “I have attempted to atate the premises upon which the several groups of Southerners Justified resistance to the federal government and to trace the process of secession" it is understood that it is chiefly the Southern side of the controversy which brought about the civil struggle that he Is presenting That an extensive research has preceded his consideration his lengthy Whether It would Indirate has been sufficiently exhaustive to make his book wholly authoritative oniv one who has himself thoroughly explored the history of this quistion between North and Soulh may answer Professor Dumond admits he is "conscious that further research will bring forth new and sounder Interpretations at ninny points" Neverthi le a the book Is a commendable undertaking and for those who have a special Interest in this momentous passage m American history will piove Professor Dumond’s study of of value ' ttie sources of newspaper aources-- as Information for the people at large" In that p rlod —has been exhaustive among Journals of pro Southern sentiment luginning with an outline rf the divergent political doctrines in the southern and bonier aUies in lflbO the book takes up the project of enunciation among them the rrisis resulting from tha C h irleston eonventlon and continue through all the important phases of tha movement the efforts at cnmprnmun and their failure the secession cf tha n gulf slates and proposals for ei oust to the Waihinglon convention whti h was "the last expedient of the border slave state conservatives to arrest revolution and political disintegration” Gregory Mason archeologist nnd author of "Columbus Came Late" (Century) discounts the perils of South American Jungles in ccmtiast with those experienced when he returned to the United States to be strm k down by e taxicab and suffer a broken rib while he was on his way to le ture He suggests 'pieties girde’ us the walchwoid of America I860-186- — — first Anthony Pourll timd " Afhtnwm Men" does proiocaine uvrk in his Illustration from “The Red Books of General Interest rue-tio- half-heait- 1 v Navee" clean-lookin- good-natur- so until a few short year ago Following Thorwald who was came his widow Gudrid who had married one Thornfinn on an expedition to avenge his death Others followed many Norsemen settling among and intermingling with the Indians whom they found friendly and peaceful Come Columbus not looking for a passage to India but for the fabled gold of the redman Came Cortes and his horde of murderers to desecrate and enslave the Aztecs Came Raleigh the Puritans John Smith and the establishment of the first permanent settlement of Europeans and that firat meeting of white men and red was reenacted many times But before this two famed prophets a hsd appeared among the Indians Huron and Hiawatha the Onan-dag- a both preaching against the war fare between tribes Wise shows that Dekanawida meaning “the one in whom two streams flow” was probably Jean Francois De la Roche Sieur de RobervaL lieutenant governor of Canada Roberval disappeared and no effort was made to trace him Hiawatha and Dekanawida effected many organization for peace which functioned with much more perfection than anything evolved by early white settlers In the Indian there wu an Instinctive spirit of religion Wise says Alone on the open plain or in the primeval forests he was nearer the deep springs of life than the European who came to convert him from his heathenism Hie Great Spirit was always In his daily life In the morning he said his prayer to the Spirit who sent the sun when he smoked his pipe he murmured e prayer to the Spirit who watched over him God was always near him the spiritual in all things taking precedence over the material And the Christians tried to improve the Indian spiritually! Wise traces the influence of Indian civilization on America showing how the present evolvement of our government had its basis in the old Iroquois league and how Chief Tamenend and the political system he Instituted among the Lennl Lenape was basis of the Tammany Society's plan to bring about a more perfect union between the thirteen states He is particularly harsh with tha government's policy in respect to Indian treaties There was never a treaty mada with the red man that wasn’t broken in fact most of them were made with that in mind for expanding America needed land The Indian had that land ao the thing to do wai to take it from him The Indian like anyone else will fight for the place he calls home in pro- - THE RED MAN IN THE NEW WORLD DRAMA By Jennings C Wise Publishers W F Roberts Co Washington D C Countless men and women have recognized and protested against America’ Inhumanity to the first Americans but it has been left to Jennings C Wise to place squarely before the country the tragedy of the Indian under the march of the white man's “civilization" Nietzsche said "The process of evolution Involves the utilization of inferior species race class or individual by the superior all life Is exploitation and subsists ultimately on other life big fishes catch little fishes and eat them and that is the whole story of life" Mr Wise proves the truth of that in his monumental work and he had a perfect object lesson in the treatment of the Indian by his tyhlte brother It Is an established fact today that Columbus was not the discoverer of America Early in the 11th century Leif Erie-aoand his brother Thorw aid made voyages to America exploring as far south In 1000 Leif had been as Long Island as far as Rhode Island bay where the party spent the winter No natives had yet been encountered and it was not until 1004 that the Indian and the white man first looked on each other A scouting party of Indians seeing the “great canoe’ of the Norsemen approached Innocent and curious as children Seeing them Thorwald said “Let us fall upon these heathen cannibals for God hath willed that we shall posses their lands” So Christian white men slew their red brethren— and have been n THE NAVT Charles Beard author of "The Navyi Defense or Portent!" (Harpers) suggests the theme song for the “naval experts" of today might be “Stick close to your desks and never go to sea and you all may be rulers of the Queen's red-head- ed red-fac- 176-00- three-quarter- es ing his way Up to London go the Otways and playing with a half million as one might a sixpence Andrew takes up gramophones the movies and other "big business enterprises eager as much for the adventure as for the he spends as joyously embarkmoney that floods in Characteristically For his worst excesses — as buying on the maddest orgy of prodigality ing a palace hotel arranging the most elaborate party of London history for its opening to cancel the whole thing at the last day 'and invite instead some 3000 of the city’s riffraff — are blamable to Brenda the heartless beauty who captures his heart and brings him misery If ever an element of meanness entered into his acts it is at Brenda’s urging left to himself Andrew might be vulgar blatant but some generous motive directed him The end is of course the collapse of his hastily built edifice of success and for Andrew tragedy — but we seeing him as Martin sees him cannot hold him actually guilty of fraudulence since indeed the millionaire ineffectual fellow of little Senwich Andrew is the same with whom fate joked in letting him handle wealth The story is m effect fantastic extravagant its amazing hero and his grandiose schemes unbelievable but it may stand as symbolic of some of the capricious happenings of the world of business and finance Richly crowded with incident and well flavored as it is the book is bound to be enjoyed if one follows its leisurely pages X Mrs Wins of the' Cabbage Fetch bee celebrated her thirtieth year by e sale of 4500 copies This classic by Alice Uegan Rice wee published la October 1901 by The Century Company In e modest edition of 2000 copies priced et 11 Less then 6000 copies were sold durlnf the first three months end the book (eve no Indies-tlo-n of the tremendous popularity which It wee to ethleve Amerlce In 1902 according to the current vlewers-wltalarm had not become mechanised standardised or 0 made advertising-consciouBut copies of Mrs Mlggs were sold In that year In these days of Cheney Reports end such things publishers look beck wistfully on such figures The total sales of Mrs Wiggs era s of a boverlng around million copies end she shows no signs Of decrepitude HOLLIS— LIFE AND ANDREW OTWAY By Neil Bell Publishers O P Putnam’s Sons Co New York In his preface his indebtedness to H O Wells the CONFESSING the critics who find In the flamboyant figure he portrays a likeness to that other spectacular genius who rose from obscurity to amass riches of “Tono Bungay" Mr Bell’s story of Anrecalls the drew Otway and his remarkable career undoubtedly Wellsian character and discovers similarities also in its characters and manner to other earlier English writers Yet it bears his personal mark and its fantastic hero may be regarded as his own creation however he has been unconsciously influenced by his revered Wells Andrew Otway arrived at his without having attained any measure of success and his eccentricities making him a butt for ridicule in the little town of Senwlch is revealed to us through the eyes of his foster son Martin child of the woman he had loved but who had thrown him over To the boy he had been more than a father and the son’s affection for the whimsical kindly creature never wavers through all their changing fortunes for underneath the curious outer layer of the man his boastfulness and truculence his buffoonery and ostentation Martin can recognize his essential qualities of generosity and tenderness and his kind heart It is well the son should interpret Andrewr for only so do we understand this remarkable personality and find him after all a rather pathetic person and lovable Constantly big plans which were to bring them fortune ideas for advertising his business for new businesses originated in Otway’s brain but these Great Ideas netted no more than a tempoiary profit except when the book bonus idea expanding gave him a taste of success until the idea of indestructible china started the golden tide flow- ANOTHER SPEAKER RISES TO DEFEND OUR RED BROTHERS LISTENIN'? By Tony Wons Publishers Reilly and Lee Chicago Radio enthusiasts who have followed broadcasts— three times Tony Wons’ daily — will like to renew their pleasure hi his messages of good cheer through this little volume which has skimmed the cream from his series And Tony being a genial philosopher who mixes a fair measure of wit with his homely everyday wisdom those who have missed his talks on the air will find In these excerpts an Incentive to be a little less pessimistic even to pluck up courage to bid Old Man Depression dc part what though banks close Bnd It continues to snow Tony has something to say about nearly everything under ttie heivens that woines the average man and Its likely he will put his finger right on the core of the thing that s bothering v ou At any rate you'll feel more of a ‘Pcptomist" after reading him TC YOU tecting himself and his home he killed white men and thus became savage and murderer Washington was a friend of the Indians and did his bust to help them Jefferson closed his eyes so the whites could steal more land Many president tried to aid the Indian but in most cases Congress has overruled the chief executive thus making a political football of the Lincoln freed the Indian problem alaves many owned by Indians but not until 57 years later was the red man Sentor William H King of Utah has with his resolution of 1927 shown himself a friend of the Indian Countless individuals organizations philanthropic foundations today are devoted to Indian welfare and it may be from now on Poor Lo will be given a new deal After 900 years of oppression murder and land stealing the red man has nothing left for the white man to covet— so we now look upon him as a fellow citizen if not brother and politicians will pay Just as much for his vote as for yours or mine MISTAKFN HONOR Mrs Harrietts K Leldlng whose "ChPrleMon Historic and Romantic ' was a recent LippinrnU book says the most exciting thing that ever happened to tier Was to be ml taken for M lode Adams at a theatrical gathering in New York June Triplett the well known sailor adven-tui-e lies and hciouie of a Cnrey hook ‘Coconut Oil" was recently mirr'ed to Jo Mlflzlner a renic artist Probably June's aca exploits me over A DESIRE TO READ A GOOD STORY CAN BE GRATIFIED FROM TIIE STOCK OF TIIE READ nnulnci IN SOLID COMFORT roar books snt HR1inc Bland holds lari and mall bo tki and maaartnas tn fulfill Muds of lltht attirdf road ns position natal mall? lh)6td f r bd or chair y and body strain Only— Rluninatra ponton DESERET BOOK COMPANY $350 Oiiranlrrt! for riAi iiptif tat dealer bf ttimjnndl TTurrt filw nd namt roNTFN MAN! FAf Tl BIVO 1M7 Alrfttrat Aa lltrkeiav Writ of CO fall! 44 tASl ON SOI Til TTVIPt |