+ Am Econ R 10:363 Je ’20 80w Booklist 17:28 O ’20 + Cleveland p77 Ag ’20 60w
“A well-constructed and interesting biography.”
+ N Y Times p30 Ag 1 ’20 160w
“It is a little hard to tell where Babson begins and Wilson leaves off, for the biographer has not been quite able to play the part of Boswell to his Johnson.” J. E. Le Rossignol
+ − Review 2:333 Ap 3 ’20 420w R of Rs 61:334 Mr ’20 150w Springf’d Republican p8 Ag 6 ’20 290w
“Mr Babson has both succeeded and failed. He has done effectively what he set out to do. He has failed to do the much greater thing, such for example, as that which Graham Wallas has accomplished in his life of Francis Place. In a word, his book is not a biography insofar as biography is an art.” W. L. C.
+ − Survey 44:89 Ap 10 ’20 600w
BACON, FRANK. Lightnin’; after the play of the same name by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon. il *$1.75 (3c) Harper
20–4438
A novel made from a popular play of the same name in which Mr Bacon has been playing the title part. Lightnin’ Bill Jones, so-called because it doesn’t describe him, is a gentle, genial old humorist who keeps a hotel in Calivada, on the California-Nevada line. In fact the state line runs thru the house, so that divorcees wishing to obtain the advantages of the easy divorce laws of one state might do so and at the same time enjoy the privileges of a California resort. Two land sharks, who for reasons of their own, wish to get control of the property, talk Bill’s wife and adopted daughter into their scheme, and then, unable to win Bill’s consent, persuade the wife to get a divorce. But their plans are foiled, and Bill with his genius for “fixing” things also brings about a happy ending to the love romance of two young people.