THE CRIMSON BOOKSHELF -- REVIEWS -- JOTS AND TITLES

Over 360 Harvard men died in service during the recent World War. That the memory of their lives and services might be fittingly preserved, the Corporation some time ago appointed Mark A. DeWolfe Howe of the Atlantic Monthly staff, as Biographer of the Harvard Dead in the War against Germany. Mr. Howe's task is now nearing completion, and the Harvard University Press promises for June publication the first of his four volumes. This will contain biographical, sketches of those 30 men whose deaths occurred before the United States entered the war. The book bears the appropriate subtitle, "The Vanguard."

There is a fine quality of phrase in James E. Agate's "Responsibility" (Doran), as well as a thoughtful turning over of ideas, a delight in ideas for their own sakes.

"Lying between like and dislike is a fascinating region of reconciliation," says Mr. Agate. "There are many things in life I want to reconcile: . . . . . the vigor and beauty of the Bible and the rusticity of its writers; the philosophic acceptance of a First Cause as inconscient as the telephone, and the strong inclination to say one's prayers; the faculty to cope with Kant and the childlike aptitude for faith; the sheepishness of the Shakespearean mask and the sublimity of the poet; the greatness of Queen Elizabeth and the pretentiousness of her virginity; the grace of Charles the Martyr and his unending folly; the greasy corpulence of Gautier and the perfection of his verse; the divine murmur of Verlaine and the cretin's mentality."

In short, asks Mr. Agate, what is life and why is genius? We fear that even the Bellman who knew all about Snarks and Bathing Machines and Things could not do all this reconciling. And if he could, life wouldn't be worth living.

Of all the many chapters of the treaties drawn up at Paris last year, the most definite and perhaps the most permanent are those which establish the territorial settlements. The economic provisions are in their nature temporary and subject to adjustment; the League of Nations has not yet been ratified by the United States; but the territorial provisions have already called new states into being and profoundly modified the frontiers of old ones. This side of the Paris Conference forms the chief subject of the new book by Professors Charles H. Haskins and Robert H. Lord ("Some Problems of the Peace Conference." Harvard University Press).

An opening chapter puts the conference in its setting and describes its methods of work, besides indicating the nature of the questions it had to settle. The principal problems are then passed in review Belgium and Schleswig, Alsace-Lorraine, the Left Bank of the Rhine, the Saar Valley, Poland and Czecho-Slovakia, Austria-Hungary, the Italian frontier and the states of the Balkans. The historical background is given in each case, but each problem is placed in the perspective of the negotiations at Paris and viewed primarily as one calling for practical solution in the treaties of peace. Particular attention is given to questions which involve the League of Nations, and specially prepared maps enable the reader to see at a glance the changes of frontier and the boundaries of the new states. The volume is both authoritative and readable.

As part of the celebration of Amherst's 100th anniversary next year, the college will begin the publication of a series of volumes written by Amherst men, to be known as The Amherst Books.

The first volume of the series, to be published next fall and now in the press, is President Alexander Meiklejohn's "The Liberal College," a collection of his papers and addresses on educational problems, which will command much attention. Two other books are nearly ready for publication: Professor John F. Genung's "The Life Indeed,' his last and perhaps most characteristic work, which was found among his papers after his death, and Professor Anson D. Morse's "Parties and Party Leaders," a collection of his best political essays, which were published in various periodicals. Other volumes are in preparation