20–12460
“The late Mrs Heaton was a clever New York journalist who for reasons of health had to spend seven years in Sicily. She devoted herself to the study of the Sicilian peasantry, their customs and their dialects. We are told that after the Messina earthquake this American lady was called in as an interpreter between Italian officers from the North and the peasants. Her book shows that she made many close friends among the poor and gained an unusual knowledge of their ways. Six of the chapters are given to descriptions of fairs and festivals.”—Spec
“The author was a gifted writer whose perceptions struck far below the surface and who could see her material in historical perspective as well as with rare human understanding.”
+ Booklist 17:27 O ’20 + Bookm 52:345 D ’20 40w + N Y Times p22 D 12 ’20 280w
“A book which possesses both charm and real value. The high quality of the vivid and sympathetic realism with which the scenes and characters are described recalls the best regional writers of Italy.”
+ Review 3:390 O 27 ’20 660w + Spec 125:282 Ag 28 ’20 190w + The Times [London] Lit Sup p528 Ag 19 ’20 900w
HEIDENSTAM, KARL GUSTAF VERNER VON. Birth of God. *$1.25 Four seas co. 839.7
20–6852
This one act play, translated from the Swedish by Karoline M. Knudsen, is a symbolic presentation of the human soul’s eternal search after God. It is a moonlit scene in the street of the Sphinxes at Karnak, where a modern and an ancient man meet on the same quest with the old animal idols dancing about. The quest comes to an end when they both realize that it is in their faith in the unknown God and their search for him that they possess him and build him altars and sacrificial fires.