BAYLEY, HAROLD. Archaic England. *$7.50 Lippincott 942.01
(Eng ed 20–11405)
“This is in the nature of a sequel to a book which Mr Bayley published some years ago called ‘The lost language of symbolism.’ He has long been an enthusiastic and industrious student of symbolisms and emblems and their hidden meanings, and of esoteric doctrines generally. The present work is copiously illustrated and offers controversial theories as to the peopling of Britain. Mr Bayley, among other things, sees in the Cretan discoveries a wholly new standpoint for the survey of prehistoric civilization. He believes that the Cretans systematically visited Britain, and that men of Trojan race peopled the island.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“No doubt, Mr Bayley has worked hard and honestly. Use him as a quarry and one will find gold, and, may be, other things. But how accept his doctrine as a whole?” R. R. M.
− + Ath p240 F 20 ’20 260w The Times [London] Lit Sup p22 Ja 8 ’20 120w The Times [London] Lit Sup p166 Mr 11 ’20 2100w
BAZALGETTE, LÉON. Walt Whitman, the man and his work. *$3.50 (2c) Doubleday
20–2834
This work, the author says, was for him not a mere literary enterprise, but the fruit of close and fervent communion with Whitman’s work and character. Speaking of Whitman’s universality he says: “The America which dreams and sings, back of the one which works and invents, has given the world four universal geniuses: Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman.... And among these four figures, one of them more and more dominates the group: it is Walt Whitman.” (Introd.) The translator of the volume from the French, Ellen FitzGerald, attempts an explanation of the American masses’ neglect of Whitman, from the geniuses’ inevitable disregard of “untrained” minds, in deference to whom she has taken it upon herself to abridge M. Bazalgette’s treatment of the New Orleans episode and to lighten his emphasis on the “Leaves of grass” conflict. The book is in eight parts: Origin and youth; The multitudinary life; “Leaves of grass”; The wound dresser; The good gray poet; The invalid; The sage of Camden; The setting sun.