+ Dial 69:546 N ’20 50w
“The highest praise you can give an author in these days is to say that his or her book is ‘thoroly American,’ from which, alas, it does not necessarily follow that it is an excellent piece of workmanship. Edna Ferber’s ‘Half portions,’ however, wins on both counts.”
+ Ind 103:53 Jl 10 ’20 160w
“Miss Edna Ferber is not thoughtful about the affairs of the world. She simply does not let herself think. If some one would endow Miss Ferber, and make it no longer too expensive for her to think or bring a story to an honest conclusion, she might become a sort of American Arnold Bennett.” Ludwig Lewisohn
+ − Nation 110:828 Je 19 ’20 200w
“It is a book that is thoroughly enjoyable and laughable from beginning to end.”
+ N Y Times 25:236 My 9 ’20 620w
FERBER, EDNA, and LEVY, NEWMAN. $1200 a year. il *$1.50 Doubleday 812
20–18069
A three-act play in which a university professor gives up his $1200 a year position in the university to earn $30 a day in a mill. He immediately becomes popular as a labor leader and lecturer and is in demand all over the United States, but it is only when he is offered a salary of $5000 a week in the movies that the magnate who owns the university as well as the mill is moved to consider the question of an adequate salary for a professor.