Am. Hist. R. 12: 211. O. ’06. 80w.
“He has a sunny, gossipy, conversational way of writing that leaves no wounds. And it is evident that he suppresses the unkind things he might say. The chief defect of the book is the suppression of the author’s personality. He tells too little of what he himself has seen and known of public men.”
+ + – N. Y. Times. 11: 433. Jl. 7, ’06. 1060w.
Steel, Mrs. Flora Annie Webster. Book of mortals: being a record of the good deeds and good qualities of what humanity is pleased to call the lower animals. $3. Macmillan.
“Reproductions of great paintings of animals have been published in attractive typographical form with a story written around them.” (R. of Rs.) “The book is divided into three parts—‘What our fellow-mortals are,’ ‘What animals have done for man,’ and ‘What our fellow-mortals are doing.’ In the first part the author shows the similarity of the ways of the ‘beasts that perish’ and those of mortals; Part 2, is given over to a few animal legends and tales of animal symbolism which have been interwoven with the history of the human race, while the third division concerns itself with the ways in which, day by day, hour by hour, they (our ‘fellow mortals’) make the life of each of us pleasurable, profitable—nay, more! possible.” (N. Y. Times.)
“The author’s is a hopelessly sentimental view, but she is very much in earnest, and pleads her case with eloquence and with the address of an advocate.”
– Ath. 1906, 1: 263. Mr. 3. 440w.
“There are both humor and kindliness in the writing of this book.”