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O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD. Prize stories, 1919. *$1.90 (1½c) Doubleday
20–8630
A volume published as a memorial to O. Henry and composed of the fifteen short stories which a committee of the Society of arts and sciences of New York city have decided on as the best short stories of 1919. Blanche Colton Williams writes the introduction. Contents: England to America, by Margaret Prescott Montague; “For they know not what they do,” by Wilbur Daniel Steele; They grind exceeding small, by Ben Ames Williams; On strike, by Albert Payson Terhune; The elephant remembers, by Edison Marshall; Turkey red, by Frances Gilchrist Wood; Five thousand dollars reward, by Melville Davisson Post; The blood of the dragon, by Thomas Grant Springer; “Humoresque,” by Fannie Hurst; The lubbeny kiss, by Louise Rice; The trial in Tom Belcher’s store, by Samuel A. Derieux; Porcelain cups, by James Branch Cabell; The high cost of conscience, by Beatrice Ravenel; The kitchen gods, by G. F. Alsop; April 25th, as usual, by Edna Ferber.
Booklist 17:119 D ’20
“One can only wish that more of such volumes might be issued, for many of our American writers are at their best in the short story. The ‘O. Henry memorial award’ volume of 1919 is a book well worth reading.”
+ N Y Times 25:319 Je 20 ’20 850w + − Review 3:132 Ag 11 ’20 140w
OAKESMITH, JOHN. Race and nationality; an inquiry into the origin and growth of patriotism. *$4 Stokes 320.1
19–16466
“As the result of an attempt to arrive at a lucid conception and precise definition of ‘a nationality,’ the author thinks that he has discovered the explanation of nationality ‘in what may be formally called the principle of “organic continuity of common interest”‘; and the constructive part of the book is devoted to the elucidation of this principle. The author considers that universal and lasting peace will be secured, not by ‘the sudden imposition of hastily manufactured machinery,’ but by the gradual extension of the above principle from national to international life.”—Ath
Ath p961 S 26 ’19 120w
Reviewed by F. J. Whiting
Review 1:705 D 27 ’19 1200w R of Rs 61:336 Mr ’20 40w
Reviewed by I. C. Hannah
+ − Survey 43:504 Ja 31 ’20 360w
“This is a treatise of ability, displaying considerable knowledge of the literature of the subject.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p486 S 11 ’19 120w
“It would not be difficult to show that there are inconsistencies in the discussion and conclusions arrived at by Mr Oakesmith; inconsistencies traceable largely to his desire to do justice to the representatives of all shades of opinion. It may be more profitable than dwelling on such points to note one or two omissions from the volume, in particular the demands of what may be called pseudo-nationality; that form of it which is not the slow result of continuously operating influences, but is artificially created.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p600 O 30 ’19 1200w
O’BRIEN, EDWARD JOSEPH HARRINGTON (ARTHUR MIDDLETON, pseud.). Best short stories of 1919. *$2 (1½c) Small
The authors represented in this year’s volume are: G. F. Alsop; Sherwood Anderson; Edwina Stanton Babcock; Djuna Barnes; Frederick Orin Bartlett; Agnes Mary Brownell; Maxwell Struthers Burt; James Branch Cabell; Horace Fish; Susan Glaspell; Henry Goodman; Richard Matthew Hallet; Joseph Hergesheimer; Will E. Ingersoll; Calvin Johnston; Howard Mumford Jones; Ellen N. La Motte; Elias Lieberman; Mary Heaton Vorse, and Anzia Yezierski. The book contains also an introduction by Mr O’Brien, discussing points raised by Waldo Frank’s “Our America,” and the usual features of the Year book of the short story.
Booklist 16:314 Je ’20
“Of the twenty stories an indifferent half-dozen barely pass the average.... Sherwood Anderson’s ‘An awakening,’ and Joseph Hergesheimer’s ‘The Meeker ritual,’ have the distinction of subtlety and style, irrespective of theme. You feel about the other authors that each might with a little effort have written the other’s story, but these two of Anderson’s and Hergesheimer’s could only have been written by themselves.” W. S. B.
+ − Boston Transcript p10 Mr 27 ’20 650w
Reviewed by Doris Webb
Pub W 97:603 F 21 ’20 380w
“Mr O’Brien’s standards define themselves with precision, and a summary of his tests will serve as test for Mr O’Brien. He has no eye for style. The second point in literature to which Mr O’Brien is insensitive is tone. The third and final want is the sense of workmanship. Mr O’Brien, however, has qualities which are as incontestable as his limitations. He has a keen, if not infallible, sense, of the powerful in motive, the original and trenchant in conception. Mr O’Brien’s collection will be of service to those readers who are wise enough to grasp its limitations.”
+ − Review 2:463 My 1 ’20 520w
O’BRIEN, GEORGE A. T. Essay on mediaeval economic teaching. *$4.75 (*12s 6d) Longmans 330.9
20–20196
“Mr O’Brien passes in review the principal economic theories of the medieval schoolmen, not continuing the study farther than the beginning of the sixteenth century. In a concluding chapter he gives reasons for a favourable estimate of the medieval economic doctrine from the points of view of production, consumption and distribution.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“It is a truism (which unfortunately is rarely true) to say of a new book that it supplies a long felt want: but in the case of Dr O’Brien’s essay to say so would be strictly true. Mediæval economic theory has never before been discussed with the fullness it merited.”
+ Cath World 112:109 O ’20 480w
Reviewed by C: A. Beard
Nation 111:480 O 27 ’20 800w
“It is a work of learning and ability, concerned rather with the clear and concise presentation of doctrine than with the criticism of it.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p369 Je 10 ’20 110w
“The historian who peruses this book will put it down with mixed feelings of amusement over the wordy contest and of despair at the unfamiliarity the combatants display with the alphabet of historical science.”
− The Times [London] Lit Sup p466 Jl 22 ’20 1000W
ODELL, GEORGE CLINTON DENSMORE. Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving. 2v il *$12 Scribner 822.3
20–19676
“Professor Odell has undertaken to do for all Shakespeare’s plays, tragedies and comedies, histories and dramatic romances, what has hitherto been attempted for two of the tragedies only, in Miss Wood’s ‘Stage history of Richard III,’ and in Brereton’s rather sketchy account of the various performances of ‘Hamlet.’ He has organized his two volumes in eight chronological divisions: the age of Betterton (1660–1710); the age of Cibber (1710–1742); the age of Garrick (1742–1776); the age of Kemble (1776–1817); the leaderless age (1817–1837); The age of Macready (1837–1843); the age of Phelps and Charles Kean (1843–1879), and the age of Irving (1879–1902). Not only does he give us what is to a certain extent a history of the theatres of London, he also supplies us with what is almost (if not quite) a history of the superb evolution of the art of scene painting.”—N Y Times
Booklist 17:106 D ’20
“Students should be grateful to Professor Odell for the painstaking manner in which he has traced the fate of Shakespeare on the English stage. Mr Odell has attacked the subject with freshness and zest. His enthusiasm never seems to flag.... Admire his work as I do, I am convinced that had Mr Odell been more thoroughly in sympathy with the new ‘unrest’ in the theater, he would have seen more clearly certain points relating the past with the present.” M. J. Moses
+ Nation 111:sup660 D 8 ’20 1400w
“No better medium than the work of Professor George C. D. Odell has thus far been provided to apprehend the gradual evolution of stage decoration, costume, and attention to historic accuracy.” H. H. Furness, jr
+ N Y Evening Post p6 D 4 ’20 1650w
“It is no dry-as-dust chronicle that he has here given us. It is a readable book that he proffers, a book abounding in apt anecdote, in illuminating quotation and in genial comment. Although the author has had to correct many blunders and many misstatements of many predecessors, he spares us the acrimony of controversy.” Brander Matthews
+ N Y Times p2 O 24 ’20 300w
O’DONNELL, ELLIOT. Menace of spiritualism. *$1.50 (3½c) Stokes 134
20–6366
The author of the book, himself an investigator in the field of psychic research and a believer in spontaneous manifestations of the spirits of the dead, condemns the practice of spiritualism, with its mediumistic invocations of spirits as a vice. Its dangers are many. From the point of view of orthodox Christianity it menaces faith and morality alike; from that of the medical profession it is injurious to health; from that of the greater number of most eminent scientists it is a sham; and from the point of view of common sense it is a hotch-potch of imbecility, gullibility, and roguery. Contents: Foreword by Father Bernard Vaughan; “Spiritualism”—what is it? How spiritualism tries to distort the Old Testament; Spiritualism and the New Testament; Spiritualism and the churches; The phenomenal side of spiritualism and its effect on the health; The danger of fraud of all kinds at séances.
“He delivers some shrewd blows, and in a popular manner sets forth a strong case against spiritualists and their operations.”
+ Ath p352 Mr 12 ’20 80w + Cath World 112:252 N ’20 40w N Y Times 25:19 Jl 4 ’20 160w
“Such protests are welcome, however much they fall short of the sanction of a high consistency; it is hardly to be expected that a critic of Mr O’Donnell’s electric temper will find favor with those who see in psychical research a far wider menace and a subtler attack upon the fundamentals of sound thinking. Yet to part of the composite clientèle from which latter-day recruits for the occult are gathered, this earnest word of warning may prove helpful.” Joseph Jastrow
+ − Review 3:41 Jl 14 ’20 250w Springf’d Republican p6 Je 1 ’20 400w The Times [London] Lit Sup p143 F 26 ’20 80w
O’DUFFY, EIMAR. Wasted island. *$2 (1c) Dodd
20–16927
A story of Ireland and the Irish movement culminating in the Easter rebellion. Bernard Lascelles, son of a successful Dublin doctor, is brought up in ignorance of his country’s history. In fact it is part of his father’s purpose to keep him in ignorance, fearing that the boy may take after his uncle Christopher Reilly, who died fighting England on the side of the Boers. Bernard is sent to an English school, but in spite of his father’s efforts is drawn into the Nationalist and later into the Sinn Fein movements, a letter left by his uncle Christopher to be read on his twenty-first birthday proving the turning point in his life. A very different bringing up is that of Stephen Ward, whose father, a discouraged Fenian, hopes that his son may never wreck his life in the hopeless cause but does not deny him knowledge. Both young men oppose the Easter uprising but both are involved in it. Bernard is wrecked by it but Stephen escapes. “‘And now,’ said Michael Ward to his son, ‘now that everything has turned out as I told you it would, what do you mean to do?’ ‘I suppose,’ replied Stephen, ‘we must begin all over again.’”
Booklist 17:159 Ja ’21
“The story is long and the plot complicated but it is well told and the interest is sustained to the close.”
+ Boston Transcript p8 D 11 ’20 350w
“Although, as an artistic piece of work, the book leaves much to be desired, its vigour and sincerity save it from the category of the mediocre.” L. M. R.
+ − Freeman 2:406 Ja 5 ’21 160w
“It is one-sided and its heroes are not very attractive characters, but it is interesting and informing.”
+ − Ind 104:244 N 13 ’20 90w
“Mr O’Duffy is refreshingly free from didacticism. He allows the facts to explain for themselves, and does not make any indictment in the bitter, devastating manner of Brinsley McNamara’s ‘The clanking of chains.’ Regarded as a human document this book should be of great interest and assistance to readers in America who want to understand the Ireland which confronts them in alarming headlines.” E. A. Boyd
+ N Y Evening Post p3 O 30 ’20 1300w
“The animus of the book as a whole is unmistakable. Hate for England rather than love for Ireland is the mainspring of this active ‘patriotism.’” H. W. Boynton
+ − Review 3:422 N 3 ’20 380w The Times [London] Lit Sup p104 F 12 ’20 540w
OEMLER, MRS MARIE (CONWAY). Purple heights. *$2 (2c) Century
20–17411
The hero is Peter Devereaux Champneys, a boy of eleven when the story opens. The scene is South Carolina where Peter lives in a four-roomed cabin with his mother, who runs a sewing machine to keep herself and Peter alive. Peter, who is considered a dunce in school, spends all his odd moments making pictures. One day he sketches the Red admiral—the beautiful butterfly that alighted on the milkweed pod by the side of the road—and the Red admiral proves to be his good fairy. His mother dies and Peter brings himself up, with the aid of Emma Campbell, a faithful negress. An unknown uncle appears out of the West and offers to send Peter to Paris, and so anxious is Peter to get to Paris that he accepts the uncle’s strange terms, marriage with an unknown Nancy Simms. His first sight of Nancy Simms is disconcerting, for she is a red-haired virago, but he runs away to Paris immediately after the ceremony and forgets her. In Paris he becomes famous and in the meantime Nancy grows up to be a beautiful woman and all ends well.
+ Booklist 17:73 N ’20
“Excellent, forceful writing appears on the earlier pages. Soon the benevolent persons enter, one after another, and they reflect urban life. The naturalness and sincerity of the story lessen.” R. D. W.
+ − Boston Transcript p4 O 27 ’20 500w
“A new author, writing real literature, is Mrs Oemler.” Lilian Bell
+ N Y Evening Post p8 N 27 ’20 950w
“The author knows the South, and her understanding of the black man’s mind is demonstrated on nearly every page. ‘The purple heights’ is a worthy successor to Mrs Oemler’s first success, ‘Slippy McGee.’”
+ − N Y Times p23 O 24 ’20 600w
“When Peter grows up and goes to Paris and becomes famous the charm vanishes and interest lags. It is in her beginnings that the author is most successful.”
+ − Pub W 98:1192 O 16 ’20 200w
“Decidedly inferior to ‘Slippy McGee,’ but nevertheless an entertaining story, with some delightful passages describing the hero’s youth.”
+ − Wis Lib Bul 16:238 D ’20 30w
OGILVIE, PAUL MORGAN. International waterways. *$3 Macmillan 387
20–2670
“‘International waterways’ is a history of the development of maritime enterprise. It sets forth the efforts of certain nations to secure the exclusive enjoyment of the seas. The first part of Mr Ogilvie’s book concludes with a critical discussion of the question of the freedom of commercial navigation. Part II is composed of a reference manual, where is to be found a list of all the international inland waterways of the world, together with the treaties and laws governing the same.”—Springf’d Republican
Reviewed by A. F. Hershey
+ − Am Pol Sci R 14:519 Ag ’20 700w Booklist 16:300 Je ’20
“A valuable reference work. If there is any fault to be found with Mr Ogilvie’s work it is a fault perhaps inseparable from the breadth of the task and the limited size of the volume. The author has neither the time nor the space to pause for that wealth of illustration which the reader would like to demand. But he constantly cites his sources and the reader who is interested in more detailed study may turn to them.” G. H. C.
+ − Boston Transcript p9 My 29 ’20 850w
“The international lawyer, the historian, and the general student of modern problems will each be grateful to Mr Ogilvie for his helpful work.” M. W. Tyler
+ Mississippi Valley Hist R 7:161 S ’20 460w
“Mr Ogilvie’s thoughtful treatise is very timely.” L. J. B.
+ Review 2:603 Je 5 ’20 1350w R of Rs 62:224 Ag ’20 60w
“A scholarly, well-written history.”
+ Springf’d Republican p10 Ap 30 ’20 280w + Survey 44:352 Je 5 ’20 100w + The Times [London] Lit Sup p215 Ap 1 ’20 120w
“The bibliography of treaties is likely to be of much practical use in coming years and represents a great deal of most fruitful labour. The bibliography of works dealing with the subject, though not exhaustive, will be helpful. An excellent index concludes a very thorough piece of work.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p265 Ap 29 ’20 1600w
O’HIGGINS, HARVEY JERROLD. Secret springs. *$2 (3c) Harper 130
20–19287
The author outlines the system of a Dr X who has “largely uncovered the mechanism by which the mind affects health” and who has evolved this system of mental hygiene according to which he treats his patients and directs them to safeguard themselves. It is based on the Freudian theory of psychoanalysis from which Dr X deviates and upon which he enlarges to some extent by not emphasising the sex element with the same insistence. The contents consider suppressions: In love and marriage; In health; In childhood; In happiness and success; In Theodore Roosevelt; In character and conduct; In dreams; In religion.
“Mr O’Higgins is agreeably free of Freudian and sexual obsessions.”
+ Nation 111:694 D 15 ’20 50w
“It is a very cheerful book, not only because it escapes what the writer calls the ‘unspeakable’ abstruseness and laboratory gruesomeness of the expositions of Freud and his followers, but also because everybody gets cured.” Renee Darmstadter
+ − N Y Evening Post p8 D 31 ’20 400w
O’KELLY, SEUMAS. Golden barque; and The weaver’s grave. *$1.75 (4c) Putnam
The longest tale in this collection, “The weaver’s grave,” describes an ancient graveyard “Cloon na Morav,” the meadow of the dead. So ancient is it that to have a right of burial there amounts to a pedigree. It is only the weaver, newly dead, and one survivor, Malachi Roohan, the cooper, who still have that right. On two other ancient inhabitants of the town devolves the task of finding the weaver’s grave. It is a well-nigh hopeless quest, related with insight and weird humor. The rest of the book, under the heading “The golden barque” consists of: Michael and Mary; Hike and Calcutta; The haven; Billy the clown; The derelict; The man with the gift.
+ Ath p31 Ja 2 ’20 130w
“Slight plots, delightful people and the characteristic Celtic humor.”
+ Booklist 17:159 Ja ’21
“‘The golden barque’ is so finely and purely Irish that it is doubtful whether a child could make the most of it. But these are tales with so much literary and poetic quality that it would be unfortunate not at least to give the child a chance.”
+ Ind 104:380 D 11 ’20 40w
“There is an indescribable charm in these two Irish stories, which is attributable to the manner in which they are told, rather than to any extraordinary merit in plot and action.”
+ N Y Times p19 N 7 ’20 460w
“I shall recall the book for the long sketch with which it begins, but which for obvious reasons is not the title-story: ‘The weaver’s grave,’ a comedy most limited in scene and accessory, but rich in content and perfect in form.” H. W. Boynton
+ Review 3:422 N 3 ’20 190w
“His characters are new, not picked from the crowd but found here and there in Ireland with individuality stamped all over them. They are not very important characters, but such as they are they challenge attention.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 D 28 ’20 180w
“If all these little stories were as beautifully told as the first, the set would be a rare delight. They vary in merit, and usually fall when Mr O’Kelly relies on detail, to rise again when he opens his inner vision.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p677 N 20 ’19 230w
OLCOTT, FRANCES JENKINS. Story-telling ballads. il *$3 Houghton 821.08
20–21433
The anthology contains seventy-seven of the ancient ballads and narrative poems such as were sung by minstrels and recited by gaffers and gammers in days of old. They are intended for boys and girls from twelve to fifteen years of age, and contain “romances, hero-tales, faërie legends and adventures of knights and lovely damsels. They sing of proud and wicked folk, of gentle and loyal ones, of laidley worms, witches, mermaids with golden combs, sad maidens, glad ones and fearless lovers, mosstroopers, border-rievers, and kings in disguise.” (Foreword) There are four color-prints, and the appendix contains suggestions for teachers, a glossary and indexes of subjects, authors, titles and first lines. The contents are grouped under the headings: The salt blue seas; A-harrowing o’ the border; Brave hearts and proud; Lays o’ faërie; Lays o’ wonder; Merry gestes; Sad gestes; Pretty mays and knights so bold; For Halloween and midsummer eve; All under the greenwood tree; O’ pilgrimage and souls so strong.
“Miss Olcott has selected her ballads with good taste, and the indexes and glossary are excellent.”
+ N Y Evening Post p20 D 4 ’20 100w
OLCOTT, HARRIET MEAD. Whirling king, and other French fairy tales. il *$1.50 Holt
20–16112
Ten fairy stories adapted from the French and illustrated in silhouette. The titles are: Prince Rainbow; Bleuette’s butterfly; The frozen heart; The elf-dog; The whirling king; The magic mirror; The queen’s treasure; The stupid princess; The flying wizard; The forest fairy.
OLDMEADOW, ERNEST JAMES. Coggin *$1.75 (1½c) Century
20–818
The meeting of two human spirits for mutual uplift, development and regeneration is the theme of the story. The Reverend Oswald Redding, rector of a fashionable Episcopal church in Bulford-on-Deme, discovers in little Harry Coggin, son of a rags-and-bone man, a prodigy in intellect and spirit. In awarding him a scholarship at the grammar school, he has thrown a bombshell into the society of notables and inflamed the class hatred of the lowly. The story records Harry’s brief and distressing career at the school and shows how his rare gifts and spirit pierce the crust of the rector’s conventional Christianity, turning him from the well-worn ruts of his career to find God along new paths. Harry in turn receives the courage, the incentive, the divine impulse for his genius, from the rector’s enveloping love.
“The clever, respectful little boy, in this bit of his life, is perhaps a less interesting study than the more substantial figure of the rector. The case of the misuse of endowments and charities is intelligently argued; but we cannot believe in the ‘conversion’ of the socialist house-painter, and the definition of agnosticism would not satisfy an intelligent schoolboy.”
+ − Ath p1274 N 28 ’19 100w
“This strange, extraordinarily attractive little personality is Mr Oldmeadow’s discovery, and from the moment we meet him talking to George Placker we are prepared to follow him anywhere he may like to take us. The novel as a whole lacks proportion. The closing scenes, with the rector for principal figure, are far too drawn out.” K. M.
+ − Ath p143 Ja 30 ’20 700w
“A quiet picture, very life-like, appealing to readers who do not demand much plot.”
+ Booklist 16:282 My ’20
“The story is the result of a literary craftsmanship worthy of notice.”
+ Boston Transcript p5 N 20 ’20 150w
“No doubt the book is to be classed as propaganda; but propaganda is seldom so engagingly presented. The book has faults, the more irritating because they could have been easily avoided had the author exerted himself a little more. Nevertheless, its vitality is deep-rooted and its appeal is wide.”
+ − Cath World 111:698 Ag ’20 510w
“The first of a trilogy evidently ambitious of being the English ‘Jean Christophe.’ Though of fine craftsmanship and possessing a certain unique charm, not on the same artistic plane.”
+ − Cleveland p42 Ap ’20 100w
“The story has charm and a warm subdued color and a savor of the earth and of old houses in forgotten sunshine.”
+ Nation 110:373 Mr 20 ’20 260w
“Coggin is, to tell the truth, a fearful prig, and the reader must have a patient way with priggish and humorless virtue to bear with him till the end of the present narrative. The story is told with a certain skill and polish; but it is not very clearly worth telling, for all that.”
− + Review 2:310 Mr 27 ’20 220w The Times [London] Lit Sup p698 N 27 ’19 60w
OLGIN, MOISSAYE JOSEPH. Guide to Russian literature (1820–1917). $3 (3½c) Harcourt 891.7
20–7675
Because Russian literature reproduces the spiritual struggles of men and goes down to the very bottom of everyday existence to scrutinize the economic, the social and the political life of the country, its study becomes valuable not only as an art but as the surest road to the understanding of the Russian people and conditions. The author therefore has selected from the literary productions of the nineteenth and twentieth century only those which have value for the present either on account of their artistic qualities, or as representing some aspect of Russian life. The contents are in three chronological groups, each preceded by a general survey of the era. Part I—The growth of a national literature; Part II—The “modernists”; Part III—The recent tide. The book also contains a list of pronunciations of authors’ names, an appendix on juvenile literature in Russia, and an index.
“This might well be called an inspired booklist. It answers the question ‘What shall I read to understand Russian character and Russian life?’”
+ Booklist 16:306 Je ’20
“The grouping of the material in this rather ‘sketchy’ volume is somewhat inadequate. Authors whose influence was very small are at times given more attention and space than is seemly in comparison to those who are very characteristic and important both from the historical and psychological point of view.”
− + Dial 69:322 S ’20 120w
“It is fresh in its treatment, original in its scheme and far more intelligently comprehensive than any other available handbook.”
+ Freeman 1:262 My 26 ’20 700w
“Mr Olgin combines an initiate’s grasp of the political and social background of his country with an intense and catholic appreciation of its literature and his command of incisive and pictorial English might be envied by writers to whom the tongue is native.” Jacob Zeitlin
+ − Nation 111:327 S 18 ’20 240w
“The book is expressly not devised as a ‘history,’ yet the American reader or student of Russian literature will find it of much greater value as a history than any so-called history he can lay his hands on in English.” Clarendon Ross
+ New Repub 24:334 N 24 ’20 490w
“In view of the number of authors dealt with, it is only natural the individual sections should prove more or less uneven. Some are splendid; others are far from satisfactory. The work as a whole is an excellent production.”
+ − N Y Times p16 O 10 ’20 780w
“That quality of compactness which one demands in a handbook is not invariably adhered to.”
+ − Springf’d Republican p8 Ag 24 ’20 160w
“Mr Olgin has managed to convey an exceptionally colorful and rich picture of each of these writers, with a good deal of detail crowded into a small space.”
+ World Tomorrow 3:350 N ’20 340w
OLIVER, MAUDE I. G. First steps in the enjoyment of pictures. il *$1.50 (4c) Holt 750
20–4272
A book designed for boys and girls which may also be helpful to other beginners in picture study. The fifty-five illustrations show examples from American museums and art galleries, and are limited to the work of American painters. One aim of the book is “to furnish a background for the reading of descriptive books on art.” Consequently the author has taken pains to introduce all the accepted art terms and phrases and to make their meaning clear. Contents: Media (two chapters); Classification; Color; Draughtsmanship; Values; Perspective; Composition; Technique; Character; Conclusion—A glimpse into fairyland (a suggested pageant).
+ Booklist 16:353 Jl ’20 N Y Times p25 S 5 ’20 40w + Pub W 97:606 F 21 ’20 70w
“Any boy or girl above the age of twelve may use this book to advantage and will find it interesting and suggestive as well as instructive.”
+ R of Rs 61:612 Je ’20 80w
OLMSTEAD, FLORENCE. Stafford’s Island. *$1.75 (2c) Scribner
20–9141
Clarissa Stafford had grown up a lonely child on a lonely island, off the Georgia coast, with her apathetic, hermit grandfather, Peter Stafford. Her loneliness had developed occult powers in her and she sometimes felt certain that she saw the reflection of a man in the mirror of the drawing room where the picture of her grandmother, whose namesake and image she was, hung over the fireplace. When Clarissa is twenty a young man is washed ashore in a storm who resembles the vision. It all comes out in the story how Henry Thorne is the grandson of the man who painted Clarissa Stafford, and how that accounts for the picture and then ran off with the older the mysterious affinity that draws the living young people irresistibly towards each other.
Booklist 16:314 Je ’20
“Miss Olmstead has, with appealing artistry, woven a fascinating love story.”
+ N Y Times 25:28 Jl 18 ’20 300w
OMORI, ANNIE SHEPLEY, and KOCHI DOI, trs. Diaries of court ladies of old Japan. il *$5 Houghton 895
21–128
An introduction to the book by Amy Lowell describes the time and environment in which the ladies of these diaries wrote and gives a biographical sketch of each of them. The time was the middle of the Heian period which lasted from 794 to 1186, when Japan was thoroughly civilized, even “a little overcivilized, a little too fined down and delicate” and when women occupied an advanced position—they were educated, allowed a share of inheritance and had their own houses. Much of the best literature of Japan has been written by women. A common characteristic of the diaries is delicacy, rare and exquisite taste and skill in poetic composition. The ladies are Sarashina, Murasaki Shikibu and Izumi Shikibu. The illustrations are from Japanese prints, some in color, and the appendix contains an Old Japanese calendar and a chronological table of events connected with the diaries.
“A delightful curiosity and an attractively made book.”
+ Booklist 17:149 Ja ’21
“The literary quality of the three diaries is extremely high. They would all be eminently readable if written only yesterday. Added to the joyment of their intrinsic merits is the fact that they present a faithful picture of the court life of the times as well as some singularly striking contrasts between three women of totally different temperaments.”
+ N Y Times p16 D 26 ’20 2050w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+ Review 3:558 D 8 ’20 60w
O’NEILL, EUGENE GLADSTONE. Beyond the horizon; a play in three acts. *$1.50 Boni & Liveright 812
20–8634
“The tragedy of the misfit. Robert Mayo, a young farm born dreamer who longs to travel ‘beyond the horizon,’ gives up going to sea when he finds out that Ruth Atkins loves him but refuses to sail with him. His brother Andrew, as well fitted to be a farmer as Robert is unfitted to be a farmer becomes a sailor. Robert marries Ruth, but they soon cease to love each other and Robert, wasted by tuberculosis, crawls out of the house to die ‘alone—in a ditch by the open road—watching the sun rise.’”—Wis Lib Bul
“A powerful, grim ironic tragedy.”
+ Booklist 16:338 Jl ’20
“Mr O’Neill is most successful with such primitive types as Ruth. When he approaches a complex nature like Robert’s, his presentation is weaker. ‘Beyond the horizon’ is a good drama. It might have been a great one but for two defects that create and sustain each other, namely the theatre-consciousness of the playwright, and the fact that he is a too anxious father to his brood.” Lola Ridge
+ − New Repub 25:173 Ja 5 ’21 980w
“The appeal of ‘Beyond the horizon’ is instantaneous, but lasting. Never is it reduced to cleverness; never does it compromise with the American audience. Its truth is too profound and too soul-stirring to carry in one eye a smile, in the other a tear.”
+ Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 8 ’20 750w Wis Lib Bul 16:116 Je ’20 120w
ONIONS, BERTA (RUCK) (MRS OLIVER ONIONS). Bridge of kisses. il *$2 (2½c) Dodd
20–17083
A story as sentimental as its title. Josephine Dale becomes engaged to a very worthy young man, Hilary Sykes, but obviously the wrong man for her. She frankly admits to herself that she is only doing it to give her mother peace of mind about her future. A young bridge-builder comes into the neighborhood on an engineering project, and, as his mother and hers had been girlhood friends, she takes a friendly interest in him, and that interest finally prompts her to find a wife for him. Her efforts do not meet with signal success, since it is obvious to everyone but Joey herself that the bridge-builder was made for her and her alone. A happy ending is inevitable, and Mr Sykes is consoled with a more suitable mate, so all is well.
ONIONS, BERTA (RUCK) (MRS OLIVER ONIONS). Sweethearts unmet. il *$1.75 (2c) Dodd
19–18030
In the form of separate stories, confessions, so to speak, a young girl and a young man each in turn pours out the story of his and her life, of their longings, their love hunger and their ideals. They were meant for each other, they had dreamt and speculated about each other, but seemed actually destined to live lives apart till luck and chance brought them, when it was almost, but not quite, too late, into each other’s arms. On this the author philosophizes: many young people in the large cities who are meant for each other never meet and end by marrying the wrong one. Her remedy is, not social centres, or matrimonial bureaus but a more hearty, understanding welcome of young people in individual homes, the creation of an entirely new atmosphere for the possibilities and needs of youth.
“A sentimental, very light love story of the kind that will please young readers.”
+ Booklist 16:245 Ap ’20
“She proceeds to write the story, in her own pretty, quaint way, and a capital story it is—wholesome as a breath of spring.”
+ N Y Times 25:135 Mr 21 ’20 650w
OPPENHEIM, EDWARD PHILLIPS. Devil’s paw. il *$1.90 (3c) Little
20–16858
Miss Catherine Abbeway, the heroine of the story, is a wonderful woman. By birth half Russian and half English and an aristocrat, her sympathies are entirely with the oppressed and with labor. She belongs to a secret labor organization whose object it is to bring about an early peace with the Central powers. Of this organization or council all but two, and they the leaders, are honest men. The two are scoundrels in the pay of Germany. Catherine undertakes, at great personal risk, to intercept messages from alleged German socialists for the council. Julian Orden, son of a peer, and anonymous author of peace articles that are creating a stir, discovers her in the act and takes the documents from her. But, to protect her in a compromising situation, he proclaims her his fiancée. Later when, after some breathless days, Catherine has discovered the sinister plot of the pseudo labor leaders and has saved England and the Allies from disaster, the pretense becomes fact.
“One of his poorer stories.”
+ − Booklist 17:118 D ’20
“The novel is not without ingenuity, and contains one or two fairly dramatic scenes; but it is not so entertaining a story as ‘The great impersonation.’”
+ − N Y Times p25 O 3 ’20 550w
“‘The devil’s paw’ is far from being his best work.”
− Outlook 126:334 O 20 ’20 60w
“The story cannot be classed among the best that Mr Oppenheim has written, but will, nevertheless, stimulate a considerable degree of interest.”
+ − Springf’d Republican p9a O 3 ’20 180w + − Wis Lib Bul 16:238 D ’20 40w
OPPENHEIM, EDWARD PHILLIPS. Great impersonation. il *$1.75 (2c) Little
20–629
Baron Leopold von Ragastein had been educated in England, at Eton and Oxford. While there he had had a double in a school mate, Sir Everard Dominey. Later they meet again in a German colony in East Africa where von Ragastein is now military commander. The latter is a perfect type of German efficiency and fitness, while the other, with a growing drink habit upon him, is generally at outs with life. They exchange confidences and when the German receives sudden orders to go to England on a secret mission he resolves to go as Sir Everard Dominey after first making away with the real Sir Everard. There he faces many delicate situations, but all goes well and the tasks imposed by the German government grow with the impostor’s daring. When the war breaks out he out-does himself by enlisting in the Norfolk yeomanry and at the very end comes the startling disclosure that it is after all the real Sir Everard who had not been so drunk in Africa “but that he was able to pull himself up when the great incentive came.”
“A good Oppenheim book.”
+ Booklist 16:205 Mr ’20
“The story pursues its course, sometimes in a lively fashion and sometimes sluggishly, but always moving towards a goal of surprise that will doubtless astonish many a reader. Its characters have in them something less fairylike and more human than is customary with Mr Oppenheim.” E. F. E.
+ − Boston Transcript p6 Ja 7 ’20 1250w Ind 102:66 Ap 10 ’20 240w
“‘The great impersonation’ is a very decided improvement on the productions which have recently been flowing from the excessively prolific pen of Mr E. Phillips Oppenheim. The main idea is a good one and many of the details are well managed.”
+ − N Y Times 25:10 Ja 11 ’20 550w
“Mr Oppenheim certainly springs a genuine surprise upon his readers in the outcome of this story. Unfortunately, it is often the case that things that are novel and surprising are not very convincing, and that is true here.”
+ − Outlook 124:161 Ja 28 ’20 120w
Reviewed by Doris Webb
Pub W 96:1691 D 27 ’19 280w
“The plot is exceedingly ingenious.”
+ Spec 125:675 N 20 ’20 40w
“He taxes one’s credulity, however, in asking the acceptance of the Englishman’s magic rejuvenation and revolutionary alterations in character and habit.”
+ − Springf’d Republican p15a Ja 18 ’20 420w The Times [London] Lit Sup p669 O 14 ’20 200w
ORCZY, EMMUSKA (MRS MONTAGUE BARSTOW) baroness. His Majesty’s well-beloved. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
19–19054
A quaintly told story of an English actor in the times of Charles II. John Honeywood, devoted to Thomas Betterton is permitted, in his capacity as friend and secretary, to see much of the intimate life of that famous actor. It is he, who, in the form of a beseeching letter to Mary Saunderson, formerly betrothed to Tom Betterton, tells of the latter’s strange, thwarted love and passion for a lady of nobility: the insults and outrage her family heap upon “the mountebank” who presumes to my lady’s affections; the bitter, relentless revenge Betterton slowly perfects and executes: and finally his utter renunciation to save the innocence of Lady Barbara, and to restore to her the man she loves, cleared from all dishonor. Throughout the narrative Honeywood pleads with Mistress Saunderson that Betterton’s love for Lady Barbara is naught but a wild infatuation, and that his feeling for herself is still pure and unsullied. Evidently he succeeds, for the final chapter chronicles the wedding of Thomas Betterton, actor, and Mary Joyce Saunderson.
“An interesting, wholesome adventure story.”
+ Booklist 16:245 Ap ’20 + Cleveland p50 My ’20 100w
“The tale is picturesque and dramatic, with many an unexpected twist.”
+ N Y Times 25:128 Mr 21 ’20 500w
“Better written, we think, than this author’s ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ romances and equally stirring in plot.”
+ Outlook 125:125 My 19 ’20 20w
“The Baroness Orczy is an old hand at this kind of story, has the machinery under control and the lingo pat.” H. W. Boynton
+ − Review 2:463 My 1 ’20 150w
“It is a vivid tale, told with all the charm, color and romantic flavor characterizing Baroness Orczy’s novels.”
+ Springf’d Republican p11a S 5 ’20 310w The Times [London] Lit Sup p573 O 16 ’19 60w
O’RIORDAN, CONAL O’CONNELL (NORREYS CONNELL, pseud.). Adam of Dublin. *$2 Harcourt
20–20003
Adam was born in the gutter and began his career in life, at the age of seven, selling stale papers. When he came to a sudden realization of what that meant he went to pour out his heart in confession to Father Innocent Feeley and found his first and truest friend. He makes other friends too, for after Father Innocent’s intervention has secured for him an education for the priesthood, and after the good Father’s death occurred at a crisis in Adam’s school life that made his position there untenable, the queer old Frenchman in Adam’s lodging house, who was not a Frenchman at all but a German musician, took him under his wing and saw to it that he was freed from the clutches of the Jesuits. The book leaves young Adam—the incarnation of the romantic soul of Ireland—on the brink of a new and freer life, of which the reader is led to expect an account in another volume.
“Among so many dead novels it is a delight to hail one that is so rich in life.” K. M.
+ Ath p652 N 12 ’20 960w + Booklist 17:159 Ja ’21
“The story so far is noteworthy not so much because of its youthful hero, as for the effortless creation of the atmosphere of Irish life.” L. M. R.
+ − Freeman 2:478 Ja 26 ’21 100w
“Mr Conal O’Riordan has apparently embarked on a trilogy. However, Adam is an amusing child. One feels resigned to meeting him again.”
+ Spec 125:641 N 13 ’20 70w
“It is not a story of plot, nor can it be called one of ‘child psychology’; but it is carried through with an underlying humour and a resourcefulness free from all the usual devices of the novelist, which is not without its charm.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p637 S 30 ’20 200w
“The author feels acutely and deeply, both in joy and in pain. He has both quick sensitiveness and profound emotion, two qualities which do not always go together. We cannot at the moment recall any book that drags us so deep into the mire, yet keeps the light of love and hope so steadily shining throughout.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p683 O 21 ’20 560w
ORTH, SAMUEL PETER. Armies of labor; a chronicle of the organized wage-earners. (Chronicles of America ser.). il per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 331.87
19–19137
“As the subtitle suggests, this volume is a history of the labor movement as expressed through workers’ organizations, rather than of labor conditions. It touches only incidentally upon wages, hours of work, and other features of the labor contract at different periods, or upon the details of labor legislation. Within these limits it covers the field. The author cites mostly secondary sources. The volume is well indexed and contains bibliographical appendixes.”—Am Hist R
“It is readable, concise, and comprehensive.” V: S. Clark
+ Am Hist R 26:122 O ’20 290w
Reviewed by L. B. Shippee
+ Mississippi Valley Hist R 7:157 S ’20 310w
“In ‘The armies of labor’ Samuel P. Orth has written a book of great value.”
+ N Y Times p16 O 31 ’20 130w
ORTH, SAMUEL PETER. Our foreigners; a chronicle of Americans in the making. (Chronicles of America ser.) il per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 325.1
20–4766
“This book, by a professor of political science at Cornell university, is chiefly descriptive; and, owing to limitations of space, considerably condensed. The first two chapters cover the period prior to 1820; and the unique fourth chapter upon Utopias in America, describes the various communistic experiments. The negroes, Irish, Teutons, and Orientals each have a chapter to themselves; but all the more recent types of immigrants are mentioned, and are illustrated by cuts from photographs. Thirteen pages are devoted to the history of immigration legislation. A short bibliographical note is appended.”—Am Hist R
“In general the treatment is impartial. There is lacking a certain ethnological accent needed to bring out fundamental considerations.” P. F. Hall
+ − Am Hist R 25:749 Jl ’20 320w + Cleveland p91 S ’20 60w
“A better perspective would have brought out more sharply the cultural contributions of our foreigners, their political affiliations and influence, and the setting of our immigration legislation. Mr Orth writes well and with poise and discrimination, but he has added nothing to our knowledge. His book is for the general reader rather than the scholar.” G: M. Stephenson
+ − Mississippi Valley Hist R 7:174 S ’20 380w
“It may be said in fact that the many statistics with which ‘Our foreigners’ is enriched are admirable, and that the almost equally numerous opinions which scarify the work are for the most part violently prejudiced, wholly out of place, and not only false in deduction but entirely misleading in the theories to which they give rise.” E: H. Bierstadt
− + New Repub 24:302 N 17 ’20 1200w + N Y Times p16 O 31 ’20 130w St Louis 18:98 Je ’20 20w
OSBORNE, JAMES INSLEY. Arthur Hugh Clough. *$2.25 (4½c) Houghton
20–12116
The author has written the life of Arthur Hugh Clough with special emphasis on his intellectual development and the growth of his powers as a poet. There are interesting references to his friendships with Emerson, Lowell, and others and to his sojourn in America. Contents: Childhood; At Rugby; As undergraduate; As fellow of Oriel; The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich; Amours de voyage; Dipsychus; Last years; Conclusion; Index.
“The investigation has not, perhaps, been as thorough as it is clearheaded.” F. W. S.
+ − Ath p268 F 27 ’20 1000w + Booklist 17:29 O ’20
Reviewed by J. W. Krutch
+ Bookm 51:687 Ag ’20 1050w
“Its one drawback is a peculiar style which changes back and forth between the past tense and the historical present.” E. F. E.
+ − |Boston Transcript p6 Je 26 ’20 1550w
“There is much in this study which the student of mid-Victorian poetry and intellectual life will find useful and suggestive. But Mr Osborne’s work has little charm of style, and fails to render Clough attractive to the reader.”
+ − Cath World 111:831 R ’20 60w
“Mr Lytton Strachey has already devoted a few acid paragraphs to ‘this earnest adolescent.’ But Mr Osborne is free from any such levity. To him Clough is neither the corpus vile nor the hero: he is the occasion none the less for some uncommonly adroit criticism.”
+ Freeman 1:427 Jl 14 ’20 1150w
“Mr Osborne’s temper, at least as it exhibits itself here, is almost too well suited to his subject. A heartier, less scrupulous treatment might have left more oxygen in the air at the really depressing end.” M. V. D.
+ − Nation 112:122 Ja 26 ’21 640w
Reviewed by B. R. Redman
N Y Times p11 O 3 ’20 1350w
“Mr Osborne’s book is a critique rather than a biography; suggestive, but not satisfying. He would have done better had he given us less of his own interpretations and more of Clough’s letters, leaving the reader to interpret their significance for himself.”
+ − Outlook 125:507 Jl 14 ’20 100w
“The unimportant subject is exhaustively and exhaustingly studied. Nothing could exceed the pains with which we are told what a man who is not made interesting thought.”
+ − Review 3:655 D 29 ’20 120w
“If there is a defect in Mr Osborne’s book, it is that he seems less inclined to dwell on the positive qualities of Clough’s poetry than on its shortcomings. In a psychological and critical study of Clough’s life it is masterly; the analysis is searching, but there is sympathy as well as justice in the author’s intuition.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p153 Mr 4 ’20 1850w
O’SHAUGHNESSY, EDITH LOUISE (COUES) (MRS NELSON O’SHAUGHNESSY). Alsace in rust and gold. il *$2 (3½c) Harper 940.48
20–6294
The author says that from the rut and routine of war-work in Paris she was conveyed “as on a magic carpet, to the blue valleys and the rust and gold and jasper hills of Alsace, where the color is laid on thick, thick,” when she accompanied the French military mission during the thirteen historic days preceding the armistice. In this well-illustrated book she describes with “no polemics and no statistics” the picturesque aspect of the country. Contents: The journey there; All Saints’ day, November, 1918; Fête des morts, November, 1918; Thann and old Thann; The Ballon d’Alsace; La popote; The houses of the chanoinesses; Luncheon at Bitschwiller—the mission in residence at St-Amarin—Saint-Odile; The “field of lies” and Laimbach; The valley of the Thur; The re-Gallicizing of Alsace; The Hartmannswillerkopf; “Les crêtes”—“Déjeuner” at Camp Wagram—the Freundstein and its phantoms; Return to Masevaux; The vigil of the armistice; Dies gloriæ.
+ Booklist 17:25 O ’20
“‘Alsace in rust and gold’ has a quality of permanence that will make it readable ten, fifteen, twenty years hence. It should occupy an honored place on the shelf, marked ‘Travel’ in every well-regulated library.”
+ Cath World 111:689 Ag ’20 260w + Nation 110:773 Je 5 ’20 250w + Outlook 126:654 D 8 ’20 70w
“So long as she confines herself to impressions and sentiments the record flows smoothly, for Mrs O’Shaughnessy is a writer of quick perception and likely feeling. But from time to time there is a little attempt, unconscious perhaps, to parade the knowledge she has picked up in her long acquaintance with many lands and many men, and then even the most indulgent reader is roused to revolt.”
+ − Review 3:47 Jl 14 ’20 300w R of Rs 61:558 My ’20 50w
“It is a book of charm, to be read leisurely. The account of the last few days of the war in this province, which was so vitally affected by the outcome of the conflict, adds something worth while to the volume of war literature.”
+ Springf’d Republican p10 Je 11 ’20 450w
O’SHAUGHNESSY, EDITH LOUISE (COUES) (MRS NELSON O’SHAUGHNESSY). Intimate pages of Mexican history. *$3 (3c) Doran 972
20–17983
“This book, concerning the four presidents of Mexico whom I have personally known, contains only what I have seen myself, or what, by word of mouth and eye in eye I have learned from those intimately connected with the men and events of which it speaks.” (Preface) As the wife of a diplomat the author combines intimate knowledge of Mexican conditions with her personal reminiscences. The four presidents are: Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Leon de la Barra, Francisco I. Madero, and Victoriano Huerta.
Booklist 17:108 D ’20
“This is the most delightful of Edith O’Shaughnessy’s books. It deserves the place of honor among books dealing with Mexico.” C. A. Crowell
+ Bookm 52:270 N ’20 680w
“It is an absorbing story, told in a masterly manner, by one who thoroughly comprehends it all and who is a master of English composition.” E. J. C.
+ Boston Transcript p7 O 9 ’20 1250w
“The book under discussion is decidedly worth while.”
+ Cath World 112:250 N ’20 230w
“She is a brilliant writer, with a free hand and an indifferent tread.”
+ N Y Times p18 O 24 ’20 2050w
“There is throughout the whole book an intimacy and warmth which, if it does no more, can scarcely fail to make one’s mind receptive of a broader point of view. Probably it will do more. It is not easy to see that Mrs O’Shaughnessy’s philosophy of Mexico, realistic to the point of cynicism, yet generous in feeling, is in any essential way wrong.”
+ No Am 212:716 N ’20 1000w
“The author has an advantage for which she owes thanks to no one but herself: a vivid and picturesque style which, reinforced by deep sincerity and an ardent enthusiasm, gives her narrative the glow of adventurous fiction. There is much in the latter chapters more spicy than reverential. But the author has a clear vision and her plain speaking makes for better understanding of Mexico.” Calvin Winter
+ Pub W 98:663 S 18 ’20 400w
O’SHEA, PETER F. Employees’ magazines; for factories, offices, and business organizations. il *$1.80 Wilson, H. W. 658
20–26978
A book on house organs as a factor in employment management. The foreword says, “The value of the printed word in organizing, educating and managing large groups of employees in industry is greater today than ever before.... The old paternalistic shop paper which reached down to pat a man on the shoulder is out of date. But the modern house magazine, alive, sincere, human and constructive, has tremendous opportunities, that have been greatly increased by the wide-spread growth in intelligence and interest among workmen the country over.” Contents: The employees’ magazine as an aid to management; Promoting cooperation by the house organ; Educational work of a house organ; How a house organ improves morale; Democracy of an employees’ magazine; Organization and getting material; Editorial methods and costs; A contractor’s employees’ magazine; Magazines for offices, stores, and sales organizations; Learning from other fields; Appendix: a brief list of good exchanges.
+ Booklist 17:100 D ’20 + Springf’d Republican p6 O 11 ’20 480w
OSLER, SIR WILLIAM. Old humanities and the new science. *$1.50 Houghton 375
20–7592
The book contains Sir William Osler’s inaugural address as president of the British classical association, which proved to be his last public utterance. It contains a memorial introduction by Dr Harvey Cushing setting forth the unusually high and many-sided achievements of the author as both scholar and man and describing in brief the organization and purpose of the Classical association. One of these purposes—the furthering of a closer cooperation between natural science and the humanities—accounts for the choosing of “one of the most eminent physicians in the world” as its president. Dr Osler is said to have been “a well-nigh perfect example” of this union and his address to have “embodied the whole spirit of this ideal.”
“It is a rare production, witty, learned, fraught with a high degree of inspiration, full of sympathy for the old humanities, filled with surprises in the portrayal of great classical writers.”
+ Boston Transcript p6 Jl 7 ’20 300w
“The conclusion is that an eminent medico, even with a generous dose of litteræ humaniores, is not qualified to lecture on mediævalism, philosophy and history.”
− Cath World 112:250 N ’20 330w
“It is a pregnant, witty and humane discussion of the interdependence of the two branches of learning. Osler reveals himself here as a physician of the line of Sir Thomas Browne and the scholar-philosophers of the renaissance.”
+ Freeman 1:358 Je 23 ’20 180w + Nation 111:192 Ag 14 ’20 340w
“As a whole this address of a man of science who was also a man of letters is delightful. It is scholarly, as became the place and the occasion, but it is never pedantic and it is never dull. Indeed, it is often playful.” Brander Matthews
+ N Y Times 25:263 My 23 ’20 1600w
“Wit and wisdom equally characterize this essay.”
+ Springf’d Republican p8 My 13 ’20 250w
OSTRANDER, ISABEL EGENTON (ROBERT ORR CHIPPERFIELD, DOUGLAS GRANT, pseuds.). How many cards? *$2 (2c) McBride
20–19916
A murder in New York society forms the raison d’être for this detective story. Eugene Creveling is found dead in his library early one April morning. McCarthy, the ex-roundsman detective of previous stories, constitutes himself the chief investigator. He interviews the family, social and business friends and servants of the murdered man, and finds, as he says, “every last one of them bluffing and hedging and lying,” except the O’Rourkes, former friends of his in the old country, whose integrity he would swear by. He can’t understand what the others are all working for, but gradually their motives are uncovered, and altho they have a bearing on the character and habits of the dead man, the identity of the murderer remains still a mystery. Then in a flash the solution is revealed to McCarthy by a passing glimpse of a woman’s handwriting, the last woman in the world he would want to suspect. But thru an act of what he calls Providence she is not brought to justice, and after all perhaps Creveling got no more than he deserved for playing with a woman’s honor.
N Y Times p27 Ja 2 ’21 360w Springf’d Republican p7a N 28 ’20 110w
OSTRANDER, ISABEL EGENTON (ROBERT ORR CHIPPERFIELD, DOUGLAS GRANT, pseuds.). Unseen hands. *$1.75 McBride
20–10735
“This story of Mr Chipperfield’s is placed before us as a mystery in which every member of a wealthy family seems to be menaced. The mother and the eldest son have each died under peculiar circumstances shortly before the opening of the story. We are instantly met with strange, murderous intention being disclosed in regard to the father and the second son. Such intimate knowledge of the family life is disclosed that we are forced to the conclusion that it is an ‘inside Job.’ The problem is to find the person with motive and means for such gradual but wholesale murder.”—Boston Transcript
Booklist 17:35 O ’20
“It is an unlikely situation in twentieth-century America, but capable of being quite mystifying if handled dexterously. Mr Chipperfield guards his secret well. His situations are not always screwed up to the highest pitch, but he does succeed in rousing false conjectures and the general air of suspicion which successful detective fiction demands.”
+ − Boston Transcript p6 Ag 7 ’20 380w
“Readers of detective tales will find this book of absorbing interest; the plot is well developed and the dénouement startling. Decidedly, Mr Chipperfield knows how to write a detective story. ‘Unseen hands’ is one of the best of its kind.”
+ N Y Times p29 Ag 15 ’20 350w
“The climax is not unexpected, yet possesses the elements of a surprise. The story is entertaining of its type.”
+ Springf’d Republican p7a D 12 ’20 130w
O’SULLIVAN, MRS DENIS. Mr Dimock. *$2 (2½c) Lane
20–21190
Horace Dimock, a prosperous American business man and a notorious philanderer, spends much of his time in England with his English friends, the center of whom are Lady Freke and the widowed Crystal McClinton, sisters and of American birth. To Crystal he is even secretly married. As the story opens he is coming to England, at the appeal of the sisters, to rescue his ward, Daphne O’Brien, daughter of a former love, from the nunnery. He falls violently in love with Daphne at first sight. His ardor diverts her from her purpose, but she turns from him as soon as she learns of his treachery to Crystal, whom he now seeks to divorce. At the end we find him sans Crystal and Daphne, and reduced to the goodnatured tolerance of the friends who had once admired him. Much of international, post war interest and of the havoc of war plays in the story and Daphne, the would-be nun, becomes the happy wife of a wonderful young Serbian hero.
“There is workmanlike writing in the book and there are moments of some emotional power. We object to a certain romantic staginess of the war heroes.”
+ − N Y Evening Post p8 Ja 15 ’21 330w N Y Times p24 D 26 ’20 400w
OTTMAN, FORD CYRINDE. J. Wilbur Chapman. *$2.50 Doubleday
20–12138
The biography of a distinguished and widely-known preacher written by a personal friend. “To write his life none among his friends was so well qualified as Dr Ottman,” says John F. Carson in his introduction. “In all his ministry Dr Ottman was his confidant, his companion in the home and on his world journeys, his friend and counsellor, a sharer of his joys and sorrows. Such intimacy supplies a biographer with materials for a sympathetic and revealing interpretation.” There are chapters on: Lineage; Environment; College and seminary; The Whitewater and the Hudson; Philadelphia and New York; A retrospect; Summer conferences; Evangelism; On the way to Australia; At home and abroad, etc., with a closing chapter on Personality. There is a frontispiece portrait.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 4 ’20 300w
“With sympathetic approach and with due appreciation of Dr Chapman himself, one lays down the book with a feeling that Dr Ottman has fallen short of the possibilities in the case.”
+ − Springf’d Republican p11a S 5 ’20 580w
OUR unseen guest. *$2 (3c) Harper 134
20–3803
Philosophical discussions communicated to Joan and Darby, the anonymous authors of this book—by a young soldier who had recently died, or “graduated,” and was living and working “on the other side.” In the beginning this spirit gave proof of his identity, which the authors quite accidently found corroborated. The communications center about “quality of consciousness.” Our development is both qualitative and quantitative. At birth we are given quality of soul—which is definitely fixed—a rebirth of a certain quality of consciousness, which has been developing on the other side, into our human body. During our earth life, if we are true to our “quality,” we develop quantity of soul, which upon our “graduation” we bring as our contribution to the whole of consciousness on the other side. There are many rebirths, until the supreme consciousness is reached. Joan and Darby at first were very material skeptics, holding fast to the theories of subconsciousness, telepathy, etc., but in the end were quite convinced.
“In view of the unconvincing and emotional quality of many of the popular books upon psychical research, the readers of ‘Our unseen guest’ will be inclined to [say]—‘the best thing of the kind!’” Margaret Deland
+ N Y Times 25:4 Je 27 ’20 1250w
“Wordy nonsense as this is, it is more coherent because more modest than most of the revelations from the beyond; the evasion (in the vernacular bluff) is more transparent, less likely to produce the semblance of profundity by which the judgment is soothed to a blissful ignorance mistaken for knowledge.” Joseph Jastrow
+ − Review 3:43 Jl 14 ’20 350w
OVERTON, GRANT MARTIN. Mermaid. il *1.75 (2c) Doubleday
20–1891
A story of the sea and of sea-faring life seen from the coast and a coast-guard station. Captain Smiley and his crew have rescued a little girl of six, the only survivor of a wreck, and have called her Mermaid, from the ship’s name. With the captain as Dad and the crew as uncles she lives a life full of poetry and adventure. In spite of her name she grows into a sane and healthy womanhood, surrounded in her school days by boy friendships that later turn into love. From among these she chooses Guy Vanton the lonely poet boy, shadowed by a dark family history. In the course of the story several family histories of the old coast town are revealed and withal much human nature, some philosophy and the light of a new era is shown to lay old ghosts and to conquer old fears. Mermaid’s husband, Guy, pays for his conquest with his life, and Dick Hand, overstepping conventions with the courage of love, reaps his reward.
OVINGTON, MARY WHITE. Shadow. *$1.75 (2c) Harcourt
20–5123
A story of the race problem told with an effective restraint. The plot is unusual. A white baby, for family reasons, is left in a negro cabin, to be brought up as a negro child and until the age of nineteen, to believe herself of negro blood. Then a dying and repentent grandfather restores her to her name and position and she is free to cross the line into the white world. Realizing what her fate will be wherever her story is known, she chooses to lose herself in New York, earning a living in the garment trades. Here she finds herself on the edge of the labor movement, but she is never quite drawn into it. She remains outside the conflict. The call to action comes to her when the life of her dark brother, the playmate of her childhood, is endangered, and to save him from the fury of a lynching mob, enraged to the point of blood lust at thought of a negro who has laid his hand on a white woman’s arm, she again crosses the color line and falsely declares herself of negro birth. The story ends as it began, in the South, with Hertha entering the beautiful southern home of which she is to be mistress, but even within its protection, with her lover’s arm about her, she looks ahead and knows that “the shadow of man’s making” will always lie beside her path.
Booklist 16:314 Je ’20
“Miss Ovington has written a novel of keen interest. She has handled the story unfalteringly. She has shown the immense possibilities that lie in such a theme when treated truthfully and artistically. She treats her colored characters with the same attributes of nature and temperament as the whites, and in so doing opens up the way to the possibilities in the future of American fiction.”
+ Boston Transcript p4 Je 2 ’20 2000w
“In no recent book has the American negro’s problem been more sympathetically treated than in ‘The shadow.’ She succeeds throughout in treating them as individuals rather than as racial types and does so with a simple and unselfconscious realism.” M. G.
+ Freeman 2:93 O 6 ’20 160w
“The execution is unexceptionable, but the people and the incidents lack concreteness. No doubt Miss Ovington has seen them in the flesh. But she has seen them as a sociologist rather than as an artist. But this will not trouble the average reader at all. And since in most of the novels he gets the characters are conventionalized into conformity with the demands of intolerance and hatred, one cannot but desire a wide popularity for this book in which the controlling spirit is one of humanity and of the civilized instincts.”
+ − Nation 110:558 Ap 24 ’20 160w
“There can be no doubt of Miss Ovington’s love and sympathy for the negroes. Each page is full of the burning resentment she feels for their wrongs, but one cannot help wondering what her real belief is with regard to the race.”
+ − N Y Evening Post p3 My 1 ’20 630w
“Miss Ovington’s book is well constructed and faultlessly written.”
+ N Y Times 25:25 Je 27 ’20 560w
“Incidentally, the race question is touched upon with sympathy toward all sides of the problem.”
+ Outlook 124:657 Ap 14 ’20 40w
“The story is written throughout with a deep sympathy for all the characters.”
+ Springf’d Republican p9a Ag 29 ’20 240w
“Her black characters are drawn lovingly: for she seems to possess in rare combination that sympathetic affection which the southern white feels for the black when he ‘keeps his place’ together with comprehension of the aspiring mind and soul of the black race.” M. K. R.
+ World Tomorrow 3:287 S ’20 260w
OWEN, ROBERT. Life of Robert Owen. *$1.50 (1c) Knopf
20–26889
The book is the first of a series of economic reprints which form a new social economic section of the famous Bohn libraries. The volumes deal with the great writers and pioneers in the field of economics of whom Robert Owen was the first to grasp the meaning of the industrial revolution. The present volume has an introduction by M. Beer, a bibliography of the works of Owen, and an index.
+ Ath p784 Je 11 ’20 50w Booklist 17:85 N ’20
“A comparison of Owen’s ‘Life’ with contemporary records will reveal a number of substantial discrepancies.” R: Roberts
+ − Freeman 2:187 N 3 ’20 850w
OYEN, HENRY. Plunderer. *$1.75 (3c) Doran
20–4782
Roger Payne, an energetic young northerner, buys a thousand acre tract of “prairie” land in Florida. When he goes down to look it over he finds that the quality of the land corresponds quite exactly to the agent’s description, but that it is covered with about two feet of water. With the aid of his friend Higgins, an engineer, he works out a plan for drainage, but finds that the physical difficulties are the least of his obstacles. One of the men in the company that sold him the land is Senator Fairclothe, but he soon learns that this statesman is only the catspaw for Garman, the real villain in the situation. The senator’s beautiful daughter is engaged to Garman, but there is love at first sight between her and Roger and the outcome of the tale, which abounds in scenes of brutality, is the winning of the girl as well as title to the reclaimed land.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 51:683 Jl ’20 290w
“The book is an adventure tale of good quality: and if the reader will overlook its lack of plausibility it will hold his attention to the end.”
+ N Y Times 25:134 Mr 21 ’20 300w
“The tale is exciting and adventurous.”
+ Outlook 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 20w Springf’d Republican p13a My 2 ’20 200w
OZAKI, YEI THEODORA. Romances of old Japan. *$8.50 Brentano’s 895
“Madame Ozaki’s ‘romances’ are for the most part stories dealt with by the popular drama of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They are of two types, the sanguinary and the supernatural. The first corresponds to the earlier period of the Yedo popular stage and to the careers of the first three Danjūrōs, famous for their impersonations of ferocious warriors. In the present work ‘The quest of the sword,’ ‘The tragedy of Kesa’ and ‘The Sugawara tragedy’ belong to this type. The second type, represented in this book by ‘The spirit of the lantern,’ ‘The reincarnation of Tama,’ ‘The badger-haunted temple,’ etc., corresponds to the popularity of the great ghost-impersonator Matsusuke, who died c.1820.”—Ath
“These characteristic native idylls are charmingly translated.”
+ Ath p1170 N 7 ’19 70w
“It is not difficult to discover why Madame Ozaki’s material is drawn from the stage, and not from the classical literature of Japan. Her rendering of one or two poems in this book shows that she is imperfectly acquainted with the older language. Her style is that of cinema-libretti, a medium thoroughly suited to the nature of her material. Numerous illustrations by the contemporary artists Keishū and Hōsai add to the impression of modernity produced by the book. Might not it have been illustrated by old theatrical woodcuts?” A. D. W.
+ − Ath p1398 D 26 ’19 440w
“Mme Ozaki’s very readable tales gain by being associated with native pictures, though the artist seems to have been influenced by western painting.”
+ Spec 123:696 N 22 ’19 140w
“The illustrations are Japanese. None of them, we suppose, would be considered anything but negligible in Japan. But to the western eye there is hardly one which does not possess some of those qualities of grace, decision, and style which are seldom absent from the most trifling Japanese work.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p747 D 11 ’19 400w