Review of "Admiral's Light"

Henry Milner Rideout '99, whose book is reviewed by Mr. Castle below, has rapidly come into fame as a novel writer in the last three years. Before being graduated from Harvard College in 1899, he edited "Letters of Thomas Gray" in his Senior year, and also Tennyson's "Princess" in co-operation with Mr. C. T. Copeland '82. Mr. Rideout was instructor in English from 1899-1904. In 1906 his first novel, "Beached Keels," was published. Since then have followed "The Siamese Cat," and "Admiral's Light."

Admiral's Light. By Henry Milner Rideout '99. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.50.

Mr. Rideout's books have lately appeared in such quick succession that with each new one we are inclined to say. "This must be a pot-boiler," and then we take it up and to our surprise find again fresh, well-balanced work. "Admiral's Light" is no exception. It is a breath, all to short, of down-east air, tingling with the strong, salt flavor of sea-girt downs and long, pebbly beaches; a tantalizing glimpse of gray ocean and pine-clad islands. The story, as a mere story, amounts to little, but why should it? The book does not purport to be more than a few stray chapters from the lives of a few people, isolated almost absolutely as are the inhabitants of Eastern Maine. Their interests are circumscribed by the hills on one side and the ocean on the other. Yet it seems but natural that the stranger--a smuggler he happened to be--who comes to dwell with them should find himself at home in their tiny circle, and that one who had never been beyond the hills and to whom the world beyond the horizon was mystery, should long to be out and away. Miss Wilkins would probably have allowed the girl to be a sufficient excuse to make the boy settle contentedly into the monotonous existence of caring for the light-houses. Mr. Rideout has her drive him away, knowing that when he had made a place for himself he would call her, loving her for her sacrifice, and needing her for her illuminating knowledge of himself. These are real people. Some day we shall meet them, or at least their near of kin, on the highways or the by-paths of the world.