Salt Lake Tribune | 1931-07-26 | Page 43

TIIE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY 'MORNING JULY 261931 Critical Reviews of In the Field of Late Books Modern Writers “RATIONAL” IDEA OF POETIC MIND MARKS UTAH DON’S NEW ABSORBING HUMAN DOCUMENT v Author’s First Story for Seven Years Period One of Power Scene Shifts from Cape Cod to Breton Coast AND STIMULATING TREATISE By L C ZUCKEIt CREATIVE POETRY By B Roland Lewis Publisher The Stanford UniStanford University versity Presa Calif The Importance in the world of scholarship of the university on the east bench of Salt Lake' City will undoubtedly be' poshed up a few notches by this new book whose title page introduces the author B Roland Lewis as “Professor of English University of A By E E HOLLIS By Mary E Waller Publishers Little Brown St Co Boston v She has written no more Is a MARY WALLER not prolific novelist hovels but after a reader has discovered her six or seven of Lymphs” first published In 1904 and demanding many subsequent reprintings each succeeding book from her pen is anticipated with keen interest Miss Waller possesses a fine percepShe writes tive gift and deep and abundant human sympathies from a calm considered view of life with emphasis on the things that are enduring “The Windmill on the Dune” her first novel for seven years is Michael Chelworth’s story as he himself set It down In order that he might comprehend the design of his life to test whether as he feels chance hajS had domination over It rather than his own will Michael exile in Europe to his Cape a man of 46 returning from a Cod home m his own boyhood retreat the windmill on the dune gives himself to retrospection He recalls his first ten years as filled with Joy of living In which love of the sea and his wild Capeland and love of his gay bewitching French mother were dominant elements Tbe first embittering event comes husband and hfer chilwhen the adored mother deserts hjpr dren to go with a stranger A few years after the father dies In a foreign port and Michael and the small Pennryn are left to the charge of Cousin 6usan who had been as a second mother to them It Is Pennryn who follows his father on the sea Michael’s Instinct for beauty turns him to desire to recreate it on canvas His time after the two years he allows himself at college and after he has solved his financial problem with his cranberry bogs Is given to studying the sea and dunes In their manifold aspects and moods building a foundation whereon In later years his fame rests Michael marries but still art is his mistress which the sweet child Milly who is his wife realizes When the sailor Pennryn with his mothOri er’s gayety of spirit comes home Michael finds himself deserted the heels of this tragedy comes the hurricane which wrecks Pennryn’s ship casting his body on the sands at Michael’s feet Evfen more than Mllly’s his brother’s disloyalty destroys Michael’s faith and sends him hard and bitter to Paris to find forgetfulness In his art Of his years among the stanch patient Breton peasants of the rocky Island of Sein where peace at last is given him and where “the intaxi-- ’' cation of space and of the Intrepid wind” brings his creative powers to who full fruition of the pitiful Marjolalne and little son becomes Michael’s adopted Jerry of Connie whom Jerry loves and her mother the mysUrlous Madame Herve and of how they dispersed the clouds from Michael’s life we learn as Michael writes it 20 years after d when once more sheltered in his windmill ‘on the dune Here in his comes the denouement to bring Michael comprehension that the root of his trouble Is In himself and to purge him of bitterness of the sea and the salt It is a vltai human story winds of the Cape filled with vivid pictures of Michael’s home of Britd fisher folk Miss Waller lets sentiment possess tany and its her at times but this is balanced by the sincerity of her writing THE WINDMILL ON THE DUNE “Wood-Carv- er nor lazy-minde- for all the wide 'reading that shows itself throughout is it a mere synthesis of other peoples' work By taking full advantage of the field and laboratory research of bioloand analysts of gists psychologists Professor Lewis has striven to advance our Ideas about the middle ages of poetry beyond thought In which poetics has stood fi speech-behavi- ed sea-capta- It Is no mere outline lor the Utah” till Not that one will find this work dry in d Jean-Mar- ie Cape-lan- ed brave-60ule- IRISII SETTING FOR QUIET IDYL THE GARDEN1! New York By L A G Strong Publisher Alfred A Knopf Inc for the literary accomplishment of L A G Strong ONE’S expectations the dramatic “Dewer by the young Englishman’s afirst novel Hides” have been amply Justified by finely told story of boyhood in “The Garden" This book which Is the July selection of The Book League of America is written In clear and delicate prose revealing even more than did the former work the deep poetic Instincts of the author" “The Garden” telling of an English-lrls- h lad’s summers in the old home of his mother and among her Irish folk interprets the spirit of sensitive youth with a clarity and penetrative insight that is rare There is a strong autobiographical note in the narrative Dermot’s emotions and experiences have a very intimate personal quality Bermot Gray has an English father and lives and is educated in England but only an interlude in the story is scened in his home country The weeks spent in Ireland at his grandparents’ cottage are the golden point in the whole year’s circle for him his love for Ireland becomes an intense and vital garthing Granny’s quaint den it seems to Dermot must be like the Garden of Eden and for us it has the charm It had for him One feels himself a boy with Dermot in his twilight walks there with Bessie the cook in his romps with his talks with the communicative Mr Caggen the gardener and as Dermot grows older his fishing adventures below the Sea Wall with Paddy his philosopher friend their catching of the vicious conger eels being among the exciting incidents It is on the Bea Wall that Dermot’s firpt experience with femininity comes about and Paddy’s attempt to aid his young friend Mona remains in falls so that the falry-llk- e his heart but an “ageless and unfading” vision later teaches him more of feminine instability But the very summit of Dermot’s happiness In these Irish are the visits to Delgany with the Jolly Uncle Ben and his cousin holidays Eileen and the boisterous Con his hero The simple devout faith of this Irish y household coupled with its ways strongly Influences Dermot’s spiritual life and brings him Into conflict with his cold English father whose religious convictions are vague The story brings Dermot to his preparations for Oxford Just as the war breaks and we learn from an epilogue that neither he nor Con came back from France It Is a quietly moving narrative with no dramatic climaxes but it achieves reality both In Its Irish scenes and the kindly folk who people them while Its slightly wistful — ' will — — charm not easily leave one ' ed Paddy-monk- ed AMERICA’S CRAZE FOR WEALTH MONEY MAD New York By Rex Beach ——I—! "Nebula” creative fountain piece executed by Avard Fair -banks Right Portrait of Boy a recent commission of the young sculptor’s Great Gridiron Figure as Seen By Journalist Friend ROCKNE By Warren Brown Reilly & tee Chicago Pub- lishers Knute Rockne considered by many as this country’s most efficient foot- ball mentor was killed In an airplane accident early this year Immediately there began to appear in newspapers and magazines tributes to the great qualities of the coach the volume of which probably has not been exceeded even by the outpourings following the death of a president This sort of anecdotal biography by Mr Brown published only a few months after the coach's tragic end Is a culmination of the Journalistic tributes to him Mr Brown has attempted to reveal the character of Rockne by carrying the reader through numerous thrilling football situations — Just before a game during one or Just after one— In which the personality of Rockne played a vital part Now there Is no more powerful and Incisive method of unfolding character than by action that Is action of the person Involved But In "Rockne” star football players during Rockne’s reign at Notre Dame from 1917 until his death take the center of the stage so frequently and so completely that the ey happy-go-luck- Publisher Cosmopolitan Book Corporation story Is built to a WHILE Rex Beach’s highly coloredIs not d the pattern what matters It Is the theme pattern which counts He has been Intent on presenting a view of “money-maAmerica particularly of the feverish period Just prior to the great market debacle of 1929 The building of great fortunes that collapse over night the mad eager craze for wealth and more wealth the deadly optimism of those days when “caution was a synonym for cowardice’’— on these he places emphasis The story begins on one of the Florida keys with the 'conventional episode of the rich young man In an airplane accident rescued by the poor but beautiful girl with whom he falls In love but nobly leaves because though he is a man of wealth he Is also a man of honor —and hs has a wife — at least a sort of wife However Florida Is not at all daughter of a bootlegger as she pretended Her father Is a Claiborne banker But rather more a fisherman than banker the bank ialllng he innocent victim of his associates’ misdealings is sent to prison Whereupon Florida becomes hard and mercenary ruthlessly deciding to make other mentopay for what has been done to her beloved Daddy New York she has a miraculous success In Wall And of course going street and becomes the dearest friend of the rich young man’s wife— the exotic countess who loves wealth but has no talent for wifehood All other men pursue Florida only Wllmcr Worth refrains even though his wife counsels him to take a mistress Florida finding men eager to give her tips or loans takes advantage of the rising market and makes a fortune to pay all her father’s debts but" infected with the' general fever loses all her surplus In the crash Meanwhile the Influential Wilmer has arranged her father's release and his reestablishment In business So when the countess obligingly races an automobile to her death — or maybe it was accident— Florida is ready to forgive aU and the usual “close-up- ” indicates the hdppy end There are certain scenes well handled and vivid but on the whole the story Is superficial and no more than a pleasant addition to the summpr fiction crop— and Air Beach can do bettqr Successor for Aldrich Saga Soon lo Conic - - Announcement of the forthcoming novel by Bess Streeter - h author of that sagk of American motherhood "A Lantern In Her Hand” will have Importance for thousands of readers Published In 1928 this volume has had a continuous success taking deep hold on the affection of the reading public "A White Bird Flying” the new title is to be published August 3 It carries on the story ofthethe Neheroic braska pioneer mother Abbie Deal through her granddaughter Laura who her imagination set alight by a snatch of poetry found in her grandmother's scrapbook which contained the phrase “a white bird flying” dreams of high achievement This is a story of the modem woman and the conflict between her duties and her dreams Al-dlc- rapid-pace- d’ as dust pontifical lifelessly Intellectual No the pages flow warm and vibrant: a keen fervor toward the poetry beloved of English readers declares Itself time and again "Poetry begins In emotion and ends In emotion” Is one of the axioms in the book-an“Creative Poetry” springs not from sn external stimulus toclearly publish but from passionate appreciation as well as from a passionate desire to see through to the realities of poetic mind poetic form poetic effect The first chapter is motivated by the belief not only that the creative Impulse the poetic mind is "wholly human not superhuman" but also-tha- t it Is not peculiar to menDistal derangement or degeneracy satisfied with the cult of poetic madness and the cult of divine Inspiration — because notice these lower the dignity of the poet — It seeks in the mental sciences a “more rational” Idea of the poetic mind than these cults Imply The origin of poetry- of emotion Is organic a neural state arising when normal motor response to sensory Impressions Is Impeded or frustrated These moments of disturbed adaptive functioning of the nerve centers abound in everybody’s ordinary experience “Most normal human beings have poetic capacity In varying de— but Professor Lewis finds that gree” great poetry Is the result of further involution of Interference— It Is achieved In reaching toward unattainable fullness of realization in striving to surmount the “greatest burden In the the burden of the incomWorld municable” To emotion of this degree exaltation in poetrv is due the The chapter on 'The Organic Rhythm of a Poem” maintains that rhythm in the beginning Is “the place of like alongside of like” as in primitive outbursts of Joy or sorrow— poetic peaks of experience— where the whole and the same line repeatthing is one over ed over and Rhythm is at bottom organio— a natural product of human Is earnestly-defendeverse Free physiology as authentically organic with reference to the emotional stuff and ultimately to certain physiological) rhythms “Verse llbre always has been in the heart of man”t These chapters dealing with highly disputable problems are provocative If not to every reader’s thinking entirely satisfactory The nature of the causation of the inhibition we know as emotion seems to one reader to be treated too Nor does this reader find that poetry is always experienced and uttered In a mood of dis- -: satisfaction Regarding the account of organic rhythm It may be pointed out that the line repeated may not In Itself be truly rhythmical for rhythm Is not simply ah outpour of breath of a certain proportionate length but a particular structure of outpour Aspiring poets will find In this volume ardent support of various wholesome heresies Poetry does not depend on poetic diction in order to be poetry archaie diction Is not per se In general “it is the poetry bepoetic hind the words that makes them poetic” Also poets will be pained or to behold proof that there is pleased but a pretty small amount of marked Inversion of word order In English verse 1716 chapter - concerning “The Theme of the Poem” should open the eyes and sprout Ideas for writers — whether they write from aspiration or for the market: particularly for people who write snort stories1 The book as a whole tips with light the identity at the heart of all the species of creative literature The general reader wilt delight in the crisp epigrams In which Professor Lewis fixes vitally and memorably the truths which the years have verified The quotations too from poets of the world as well as the references to central passages in scientific works make this volume a point of departure In Its field Finally It may be asserted temthat teachers of English in perately high schools are few whose appreciation of literature and power of teaching will not grow '‘in clarity and with through familiarity “Creative Poetry” Scores Greedy - reader often forgets the coach in the excitement of reliving football scenes excellently painted by Brown who Is a Veteran jChIcago sports writer During too much of the book the reader sees Rockne only as Inspiration for such great football men as George Glpp Jack Elder Frank Cariedo Schwartz Joe Savoldo and many others These famous stars stage drama after drama for the reader but It Is not Rockne upon whom attention Is focused 4Ua rather the strength and speed of Glpp or the amazing precision with which the "Four Horsemen” functioned Yet when Rockne Is brought to the' foreground when he Is dealing directly with his players Brown brings out vividly a powerful character one who performed the most trivial tasks with infinite care and precision whose humor was delicious whose iron will could not be bent by anyone whose subtlety was continually astounding even his most Intimate friends whose capacity for Work was prodigious and whose kindness could never be forgotten by those on whom he liberally bestowed it Rockne was bom In Norway his father coming to this country In 1893 to exhibit at the Chicago exposition and then sending for his family Knute received his secondary education like most American boys but would never have gone to college had it not been for the Influence exerted by a chum and for the possibility of making a name for himself on the cinders Rockne broke several track" records during his first three years at Notre Dame but did not become a football star Until his senior year He became assistant coach at his elma mater immediately upon his graduation in 1915 There Is an excellent appendix to Mr Brown’s volume In which Is given the recerd St Rockne’s teams as well as their personnel) and also numerous Illustrations ly NINE-YEAR-OLD- 'S “D1RY” AMUSING AND REVEALING DIRY OF SYLVIA M’NEELY By Herself Publishers Longmans Green & Co New York At nine years Sylvia shows signs of taking up the pen dropped by her mother the late Marian Hurd McNeel writer of many stories for children Sylvia’s “dlry” is without doubt authentic the entries have a delicious naturalness that Is convincing She Is no literary prodigy however but a healthy normal youngster capable of the chameleon like changes from Incorrigible barbarism to seraphic Innocence from lovableness to uttej depravity Haying been given a book that suggested the recording of her dally doings Sylvia Inscribes on Its first page this pugnacious pronouncement: 1 pity the bucher I pity the cook Mon-temo- rt ’ I pity the guy That tuches this book This warlike attitude Is revealed frequently elsewhere in Its pages In fact Sylvia seems not at all averse to a good fight and her “kwarls” are numberless Her opinion of boys Is not very high at this period based on the behavior of her brother Lee and hts friend Franklin who come to the shows the girls give and then want their money back 'or as she writes one day: "They made a House today They wouldn’t let me even look in It All boys are And later “Lee gave such me his scees for my birthday this morning and took them back tonight" verse Sylvia’s tendency to drop Into Is seen on almost every page of her "dlry” and her efforts often discover an unconscious wisdom as: ' SECOND CONTEST FOR LONG STORY NOT ANNOUNCED tlght-wads- ” Scribner’s Magazine has Just announced a new 15000 contest for the best long story of between 15000 and 30000 words submitted before January 1 1832" The contest open to AmeriOne who says too much can authors (United States and CanDoes not get In good ada) subjects writers to no restrlC-- ' With their little friends tions as to matter Betting or style As they really could Success of the first competlllon last year won by John Peale Bishop for his “Many Thousands Gone” has prompted this continuation of a market for the long story a form of writing somewhat under -- The will be “First Person Singular”neglected magazine editors have of Included tales Englishmen which is been encouraged by the quality of the same the At time and abroad home at work submitted In the first contest a new edition of Mr Maugham's “The which discovered such new writers as- In the Parlour" will appear Gentleman ' Marjorie Klnnan Rawlings Nahum Sab-saand several others whose stories Under the title of “Lovers- Are Never were published in Scribner's last year JLosers” the latest book of the success ful young Frenchman Je&n Glono who won the International Prlx Brentano two years ago Is to bo published by Brents no’s In the fall M Olono has rethe Prlx Pierre cently been accorded been named by Corrard and he has crltlcs as a candidate for the coveted Goncourt prize A new novel by Thames Williamson author of “Hunky” Is to be published In the early autumn by Harcourt Brace In Krusack’s House” Is to carry on the story of the inarticulate hero of “Hunky” Mr Williamson returned recently from Europe only to leave at once for an Indefinite period In Mexico accompanied by his “two necessities"' his typewriter and his wife ! To determine whether America lias a national plan or merely a confusion of plans Morris L Ernst has In his “America's Primer” an August book from Putnam’s sought to give a definite pic- The Literary Almanac "Give Him the Earth” Is the amazing title of a first novel which Knopf lists Is a among" July books The author young Englishman Rupert the first of a distinguished family to turn to literature and the only member athletics not to take honors In Croft-Cook- e y -A Danish novelist sponsored by Slgrld Undset Is Marie Bregendahl whose novel “A Night of Death” Is to be Introduced In America by Knopf The author has been writing since 1904 and Is popular In her own country “Simple Peter Cradd the latest E Phillips Oppenhelm Just brought out by Little Brown was written solely for the author's own enjoyment and amusement and Is "a study of the revolt of a man nearly fifty years ago against his environment” which suggests there may be something autobiographical about It The history of tabloid Journalism Is told In fiction form In “Hot News” a auJuly book from Macaulay's The thor Is Emile GauvTeau once of the New York Graphic and now editor of The New York Mirror who says he wrote the book “to reflect an era In mad Journalism which we will never see ' 1 -- again” a July “Grourtds for Indecency” Macaulay publication Is by Milton Her- bert Oropper and Edna Sherry authors of the popular play "Ladles of the Evening" This new book has been turned into a play which had been acquired for production by the late David Belasco REX BEACH ' In August a new collection of short stories by W Somerset Maugham Is to com' from poiUrieday Doran Ihe title " ' ture of the country’s economic and cultural pattern While millions are out of work we are producing more wealth per capita than ever produced by any other country and Mr Ernst wants to know why this should be Margaret Ayer Barnes author of the latest Pulitzer prize novel “Years of Grace” left the manuscript of a new novel with her publishers Houghton Mifflin on her way abroad for a vacation The new title will be "Westward Passage” and will appear In December