Show and Literature COMMENT ON THE BOOKS OF TODAY Women of Suffolk Frank Biography of Fascinating Personality ' — -- well-round- -- ed 7 refreshing robustness Hester an Illegitimate child product of 1 casual encounter between a young Suffolk drover and a farm girl of the Midlands who had been impressed by his strength is motherless from her birth Her father drowned in a drunken spree never knew of his daughter but left her a legacy that was to make easisr the hard pathway for her young feet This was a rare zest for living an eagerness for adventure a buoyant spirit that lifted undaunted from disaster Released from the cuffings and abuse and monotony of the workhouse which was all the world she had known to become e farm drudge her mistress' raging could not damp her spirits long Was not this new world beautiful and excitingT As housemaid at the rectory then Hester is taught proper respect for the gentry and learns too what it is she wgnts from life when accident gives her glimpse of the rector’s son his hard shining torso bared as ha shadow-boxe- d Though Hester leaves the rectory in disgrace because of the child coming she keeps secret the knowledge that the hand soma athleta had fathered It Hester has no complaint— it is not for e gentleman to marry a servant— nor any regret But since it la best the child have a father she marries Jesse the dull pious thatcher she had kept dang ling who wanted a good housekeeper even more than a wife Though Jesse makea bn unsatisfactory husband Hester who takes a 'stern view of marriage remains loyaL Only when his' ingrowing religion takes the form of abhorrence of the flesh and ha turns his back on tha marriage bed she feels sha is freed from any duty to him And with freedom the ripe blooming Hester’s warm sensual nature need not go long starved In gay Charlie a roving peddler atrongly lured by "inside tips" at tha racetrack and whose healthy animalism matches her1 own Hester finds a mate who fits happily into the thatcher’s vacated place and their many years together through varied ups and downs are lived out as contentedly and Each fills tha enjoyably as though the parson had blessed thg relationship other’s need they draw their happiness from the same sources The remainder of the story belongs very largely to Jenny Hester’s eldest daughter in whom Hester’s beauty is refined by her heritage from the gentry’ which also gives that love of books and atudy which makes her "different" from tha rest of Hester’s brood: the rather dull daughter of Jesse and tha lively son and daughter by Charlie Hester proud of Jenny's fineness is reconciled to the separation it means and insists this daughter shall hava an education be made "a lady So Jenny making short work with a schol- arship of Leiston secondary school goes up to Cambridge— a bit of gambling luck bringing Charlie 200 pounds— as a history scholar and becomes Junior Mistress at a girls’ school Yet'Jenny for all her delight in learning !! not altogether happy realizing that her adored Hester ana Charlie would not be acceptable in the social milieu where she has arrived even if their irregular union remained a secret Moreover she is by no means devoid of Hester’s avid curiosity about life ' and masculinity— and the penalty of an unexpected kiss in the dark is loss of her place She cannot return to Hester to reveal that her "lady" has failed her and take refuge in Italy tha land of her dreams where through a series of interesting adventures she reveals herself a true daughter of her full-blood- ed tP 1 mother I 1 v Though these women are at the center of Mr Freeman’s story he has not departed far from the theme of his former books Hester Jenny too has kinship with Joseph and his brothers of tha farm they live close to the earth Their little world has been depicted with vigor and the book is wholly alive throughout to write e life of Keats and never did By JESSIE MILLER ROBINSON AMT LOWELL: A Chronicle With II W Freeman Adds Another to HU Richly Sensuous Vital Portrayals of the Suffolk Country folk and Their llfo By EEIIOLLIS- HESTER AND HER FAMILY By H W Freeman Publishers Henry Holt and Company New York Cityy writers today reveal thefmselves as close to the common FEW English or as competent to portray vividly the life of country folk as the author of "Joseph and Hit Brethren "Esthers of Their People and now "Hester and Her Family In which be places first emphasis on the feminine portion of this earthy life A warmly human vital narrative "Heater and Her Family moves through rich pages unhurriedly but never tediously absorbed in its depiction of a phase of English life that Mr Freeman has studied carefully Its heroine— or perhaps' it has two heroines— la a' thoroughly chtrarterlzation an individual not a type Mr Freeman does not deal with types and Ms people have a - 10 Extracts From Her Correspondence Publishers By B Foster Damon Mifflin company Boston Houghton — It ta now ten years sines ths peering— of that dynamic poet and crusader for the New Poetry Amy Lowell yet her poems still sell and ehe la not forgotten Her life wsa closely Interwoven with her work and & Foster Damon of Brown unlvsrsity himself a poet and critlq of distinction and an Intimate friend of Miss Lowell has hers given us a most oomprshanslve and colorful biography using whentvtr poe-stbls Mias Lowell’s own words and Including many of har letters also a number of her scholarly lectures on fres verse The book la dedicated to Mrs Harold Russell (Ada Dwyer) a native Utahn and Miss Lowell's closest friend and executor Mr Damon says the world will never know how much it owes to Mrs Russell for making ths path smooth for Amy LowelL Throughout ths poet’s later years Mrs Russell arranged everything from the entertaining of guests to ths reading of proofs So welt did Mrs Russell sot as her comrade In art that Mias Lowell ones suggested they put out 0 sign "Lowell and Russell Makers of Fine Poems" Mr Damon tolls Us that Miss Lowell possessed many eccentricities other n ones of working than the only at night and smoking a large Whan she traveled all black cigar electrio clocks had to bo stopped all mirrors and other shining objects sheathed In black and all telephone messages taken to Mrs Russell's room On one occasion Miss Lowell opened two pillows took all tho feathers out 'of ono and transferred them to tho other to make It large enough for hor convenience A life-loworshipper at the thrlno of Eleanors Duse who Inspired her to ' write her flrat Important poem Mlsa Lowell Invited the great actress to visit her at Ssvensls her beautiful homo near Boston but the death of Duso Intervened When Duse’s seerstary Informed Mlsa Lowtll that when on tour Dust ato almost nothing- but required a glass of champagno befors any sps-ol- al effort and none wag to ba had In ths dayr of prohibition Miss Lowell promptly raided ths cellars of Sevenels and of bar friends with such effectiveness that she was able to round up thirty-si- x bottles for the actress Miss Lowell’s capacity for labor was amazing despite her almost Incessant Most of her work is the result of almost Inexhaustible research For ono poem "Mahy Swans" written for Phi Beta Kappa she read sixty-thrvolumes covering Indian poetry and ceremonials She was ths first to broadcast fres vers over the radio In the United Statel and perhaps the first in the entire world although she did not enjoy the experience and wrote an amusing account of It to a friend At the age of fifteen-Mis- s Lowell read Leigh Hunt’s "Imagination and Fancy" which introducsd her to a poet The Inventor of "polyphonio prose” carried on a prodigious correspondence with many writere here and abroad including D H Lawrence Thomas Hardy Remr de Gourmont and Sara Teasdale gave numeroue lecture In" many ctUee was a brilliant conversationalist entertained lavishly and had a great capacity for friendship helping many a struggling artist besides writing four volumes of prose and nearly a dozen books of verse “The life of a poet Is by no means the dreamy aesthetic one people are led to suppose A mixture of that of a day laborer a traveling salesman and an itinerant actress is about what it amounts to!” she writes in a letter to Richard Aid lngton -- Although ng v - th ee 'J J Lenkei woodcut wrapper design for "Hosier end Her Family" Amy Lowell of NewEngland Poet-Crusad- er poetic composition from this manu-script than from any book or person M' Her biography of Keats took four years to write and hastened ‘her death It rI Is a curious fact that James Russell Lowell her Illustrious cousin planned When she was called John Keats e she bought all the Keats sale material in the Locker-Lampso-n thus aoqulring the manuscript of “The Eve of SL Agnes" She alweya maintained that she had learned more about thirty-on- Mystery and Adventure MURDER IN THE SENATE By Publishers Dodge Geoffrey Coffin Publishing Company NSw York City Political Intriguo and the machinations of fanatic organizations and Individuals seeking the overthrow of jthc government furnish tho detecmotivation of this action-fille- d tive tale which Is the product of a young Harvard graduate who has been a student of criminology Dealing with tho rise of a faction that very much resembles today’s ruling orders in Germany and Italy Geoffrey Coffin not only gives us a picture of what may happen In our own country but proves himself a competent hand at jthls typo of fiction Ho would appear to have studied also ths methods of tho Depurpose partment of Justice to some When the Influential silver-haire- d Senator Barron a rock agalnit which both unruly factions break receives an urgent message to call on Admiral Whitehead of the general staff of the Pretorlans an order of fascist type Inspector Scott Stuart 4 Department of Justice agent serving with the police to keep pesos In the capital accompanies him Fortunately as their arrival Is almost Coincidental with the death of the admlral apparently a suicide Stuarl however sees evidence that points to a murder arranged to look like suicide and being a friend of the senator and his pretty daughter Joan devotes his energies to uncovering ths truth his efforts being assisted by a secret agent of England who sees In the threat of Pretorian success a menace to England's plans Suspects are plentiful found not only in high officials of the Ideal Order opposing the Pretorian Order but disloyal Preto-riaand among members of the admiral's own household Through a whirlwind series of events d Stuart In which the shrewd patches his brain against enemies and has more than one ticklish momenL escaping at the ‘end from a hopeless situation With no margin to Spare to save the country from utter ruin and foiling the efforts of the The escape' of the enemy factions chief villain however suggests that he may make further trouble for this clever Inspector Stuart THE BAT FLIES LOW By Sax Rohmer Publisher The Crime Club Inc by Doubleday Doran and Co Inc Garderr City N Y A Sax Rohmer mystery with tho sinister Fu Manchu absent would seem almost like “Hamlet” with Hamlet left ouL But as a matter of truth tha famous Oriental rascal is not so greatly missed In “The Bal" mysterious Egyptian gentleman who perorms supernatural feats Mr Rohmer creates as enigmatic and fascinating a character possessing the same ocoult powers as Fu Manchu but without his propensities for evil He schemes as subtly as the Oriental but with purpose tit prevent rather than to commit evil When a secret agent for Lincoln Hayes New York millionaire and noted Egyptologist returns from Egypt bringing a priceless papyrus a chapter of the ancient Book of Thoth Hayes believes he has in his hands an age-ol- d Egyptian secret that will revolutionize the modern system of lighting But before his technlcian'can examine the papyrus to learn the formula it disappears in the midst of a phenomenal creation of darkness and at the same d Mohamtime his guest the med Ahmes Bey vanishes leaving Hayes' pretty secretary in a curious state of unconsciousness as though she had been struck by lightning Investigations Show the house has harbored a spy employed by a strong rival of Hayes’ great electric company While District Attorney Maguire is convinced that Simon Lobb is responsible for the disappearance of the manuscripL Hayes behaves the papyrus is on Us way back to Egypt with Mocohammed Bey and his flame-haire- d adjutor The trail leads to the ancient land via London where Hayes has ns keen-witte- Among the Current Fiction Titles - 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Howard Linden had turned to portrait painting entirely after Edith who had stepped from a country vicarage "Into the bawdyhouse of the Muses" had “discovered" hint and influenced his style by comparing it with the simplifications of Modgllanl Shajiad seen that his landscapes were unprofitable but that his "simplified heads” could be made lucrative that Knowing "Fame is but an assemblage of trifles” she has managed the trifles and Howard was becoming "popular” Only Howard felt uneasy about his “art” was It sincere? “Do I penetrate?” be wondered “Do I really paint the outside or the inside of a man or neither? And how far dare I tell the truth about a face like Major Rowan’s? It Is Important that Major Rowan pay for the picture” When Howard meets Jean Ingram young worshiping responsive hie disShe stimulates content crystallizes him awakens his desires he feels his youth renewed To possess her end through her to regain his Integrity of spsl and become something more than a "formula" as an artist he Is ready to discard all his past When Edith who had hoped this was only “an affair" is moved by humiliation to reveal her knowledge he leaves taking In Paris Jean abroad with him where Jean 4s fascinated by the Bo- - hemian world Howard “meets Edith on every comer and hates the city and Jean’s absorption of it A rift grows In their happiness and as they roam further into Brittany and along the coast to the little village where Howard feels he can live there ’are conflicts and bitterness and Jean Infatuated with the excitements of Paris leaves him for a time Howard consenting to test her feeling for him But she returns when she knows she is to bear his child and finally love comes back to them in" the little house he has built fop her Each has learned to be forbearing in love— they now can “face each other” Mr Nicholson putting his hero under the microscope emotionally succeeds rather well in his portrayal but his other characters are less credible especially Ivan Edith’s reluctant friend The artistic atmosphere Is ex- pressed with vividness but one leaves the book with a feeling that Mr Nicholson has never really pulled his peo-- f pie out of the emotional difficulties in which he had Involved them MOCCASIN FLOWER By John Bell Publishers Tha Book Masters SL Paul Minn With the terrible Sioux uprising of 1861 as its Chief event jhis novel pictures Minnesota of the Civil war period the city of SL Paul as a frontier army post the life of the settlers and their relations with the Indian tribes on the reservation 130 miles away It is a picture well detailed but bo overlaid wltfc a fictional romance of improbable character as to lack effective- ness Its rarely beautiful French heroins i I Annette daughter of a wealthy fur trader is called "Moccasin Flower" by the Indians who adore her particularly Chief Little Crow who wants her for his squaw and hasn’t at all liked her declination of his proposal The vivacious Annette has many lovers and knows not how to choose between them but her affections are somewhat engaged by the New England lieutenant George Powers But when her twin sister Virginie who has married the young Frenchman Renard going to his SL Louis home to live has a most tragic experience that ’ Causes her death Annette holds Renard reepsonsible and plans vengeance against him by winning his love and then breaking his heart However In the midst of the Sioux depredations against the settlers—with ‘scenes detailed too horrible for the printed page— Annette riding out to carry aid to the family at' one of her father’s trading posts is accompanied The Indians attack the by Renard post and only Annette and her escort survive the massacre the girl being saved for Little Crow The remainder of the story tells of their escape from the red3kins and the hardships undergone together during which Annette learns her true feelings While its background has historic InteresL the narrative is extremely amateurish in style its characters given little reality Rochelle f African Pageant "March Hare" a recent publication from Oxfords university press whose author is Elsa Smlthers is an autobiographical volume set against a background 'of South African history the Sekukuni Rising the Boer war gold rushes and continual migration Miss Smlthers was born in South Af- -' rica in 1862 and knew Jameson Rhodes Rider Haggard Pretorlus Kruger and other famous characters In 1926 Miss Lowell wo the Pulitzer prize for her “What’t O’Clock” Mr Damon says the tlmi has not yet come to evaluate Miss Lowell’s place as a poet But even If she had written nothing at all she would have earned an Important position in American' literary history by her crusading for the “new” poetry She did much to rouse the publio Interest end change the concept of poetry f’Prettinesa plus a moral” Even the poets who despised free verse and lmaglsm found themselves writing with greater clarity conciseness ln-- tensity and truthfulness because of Miss Lowell’s revolutionary dicta ' We are indebted to Dr Damon (and to Mrs Russell) for Illuminating the life of one of the most fascinating and vivid personalities In American letters Tills informative biography by Mr Damon is to be recommended as e stimulus to the aspiring poet as well as to the literary student and the general reader It contains an almost complete history of the Imaglst movement in verse The book ie Illustrated and also contains a chronological list of the first printing of all of Miss Lowell’s poems and prose well-know- o FACE TOUR LOVER By Hubert Nicholson Publishers Henry Holt and Company New York City Here a young author deals with s time-wor- n situation meticulously scrutinizing Its emotional phases and producing a atudy that is provocative but not after all very rewarding in the end It Is another version of the old triangle: an artist whose success as a portrait painter has been largely built up by his Wife’s efforts who suddenly finds' he Is content with neither his art nor his marriage all because of a girl met casually an eager- provincial young woman come up to London for an art education Hubert Nicholson writes with an incisiveness and vigor of style that manages to give hie analysis an aspect of importance that It hardly possesses yet hie examination Is not without its later-s- st NEWS OF ART WORLD AND UTAH ARTISTS cold-eye- THE BITTERROOT TRAIL By James W Johnsorf Publishers The Ltd Caldwell Caxton Printers Idaho Lewiston Idaho of day and the period when the gold strikei at Oroflpo at Elk Creek Boise ’ Basin created tenae excitement In tha clutch In the was west while the east of Civil war Is the period James W Johnson chooses for setting of a thrilling tale of adventure in which greed villainy love and revenge are elements Mr Johnson a native of Utah who ha Uved in Idaho for a decade or more has famlUarized himself with the history of the gold rush and the background of hi story Is well limned Action begins when “fokerface" Boh Bainbrldge coming to Lewlstown on secret business of his own causes unease among tho rest of the stagecoach passengers by Insisting on taking Into the town the body of tho youth found on the trail who has been shot by road agents for the gold dust he was carrying Lewiston felt It had enough trouble of Its own Only the fearless Pat Ford a saloonkeeper but a man who had a vision of building an empire in this western land has the courage to oppose the lawless "innocents” gang dominating the town In Bainbrldge he finds a fellow spirit and the two inaugurate a Vigilance committee determined to break up this outlaw gang and establish law and order in tbs country And Balnbtldge’s private revenge— against the gambler Who had persuaded his stater to run away from California had betrayed her and then making her tha stake lri'-- a gambling game lost her to a murderer-runs along with this purpose when he finds the man responsible for tha final tragedy is a member of the "Innocents” Moving with rapldflre action with humor plentiful and romantlo iltua- ' tions Interspersed With a hero of the right caliber who never stops for tho smoke to dear away but goes right on shooting “The Bitterroot Trail” is a good yarn A touch of tho amateur is apparent but Mr Johnson proves he has ths stuff In him and ons will ex pact better future stories More and Better Writers Today O’Brien Declares Two hundred American short Stories of “permanent literary value” are published annually In the United States nowadays by young American writers as compared with only one or two years ago when published twenty-on- e he began selecting stories for his annual series of “The Best Short Stories” Edward J O'Brien says in an article on The American Short Story” appearing In the end pages of the December issue of the Magazine Story “The difference between the American short story of 1914 and that of today” hs says “is as great as between the poetry of Rope and the poetry of Keats” Nine short stories all of them by new writers are contained in the December issue of the magazine —————— a disturbing encounter with the alluring Hatasu and to startling adventures along the unknown Path to Harmachls and the mysterious "Place of the Lamp’’ The taciturn Hayes may be led to forego his plans but another so cleverly dupes all parties to the conflict that the secret is brought back to America and awesome disaster follows ‘The Bat Flies Low" is replete with thrilling situations and dark mysteries as a Sax Rohmer story should be and makes exciting reading though one may not accept its premise that old Egypt held scientific sqcrets beyond tho knowledge of today’s scientists ‘ Seldes Biography ‘Sawdust Caesar Has Ban Removed On of tho most sensatlonal books written since tho war a biography of Benito Mussolini by George Seldes which was suppressed by order of tho ' British foreign office gpd tho French QuAI d’Orsay has just been published by Harper and Brothers At the same time a cable was received from London stating that tho ban which tho British government Issued against the book In 1932 at a time when relations with Italy were so friendly has been lifted owing to changed conditions and that tho British publisher alsoMs rushing out an edition Mr Seldes was tho Chicago Tribuno correspondent in Romo In 1919 1920 1924 and 1923 when ho was asked to leave because of hls publication of official documents dealing with Mussolini’ participation In tho assaslnatlon of th leading opposition member of parliament Matteottl Ho began eol-Iecting hls documents In 1923 just at- - 7 ter hie colleague William Bolltho of the New York World wrote tho pro- diction that tho true history of Mussolini and fascism would he destroyed by 1930 because thp fascist government had already destroyed all the real records of Mussolini’s llfo and had succeeded In getting tho Swiss and other governments to remove from publio files those records of vlo- lance sabotage and forgery which affected the Italian dictator For olx months Mr Seldes worked on the revised manuscript bringing It up to data giving tha economic fl-nariclal and other reasona for the Ethiopian adventure and supplying tho documents and footnotes which make ths sensational record unchallengeable Whet Is claimed by Editors' wk Burnett end Martha Foley of Story magazine to be the most powerful Jungle story they have read since the magazine was founded Is Graham Greene’s "A Chance for Mr Lever” which appears as the feature of the January number of Story It la Mr Greenels flrat short story to be published In the United States where hls novels are well known the first being “The Man Within" Hls latest appearing in September was "England Made Me” “A Chance for Mr Lever” Is a tale of the Liberian Interior growing out of hie recent trip through the unexplored region of this West African republic Mr Greene English writer is a distant cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson “Horses In Connecticut" a satire on dog stories whose author F M Burnley will grant that It Isn’t significant la another contribution and Elizabeth Coatsworth winner of the Newbery prize for a children's book appears with a story “On Second Thought” of a mistress who became a wife and found it not so easy Sherwood Anderson contributes an article on author-shl- p -- telling “Why Men 771c Write" 3ookaneer Sags We Wish for You In the Neu Year— many happy hours by your fireside with a good book ' Reading is by far tbe outstanding lor recreation thoughtful people - r - ' ( |