Crimson Bookshelf

The Bookshelf herewith offers an extremely sketchy and tentative list of suggestions for Christmas reading and Christmas giving. Most of the books have appeared in the last year; prices are not given. The advertisements and the booksellers will gladly supply them the booksellers will gladly supply them.

Fiction: Scholem Asch's "The Nazarene" is a fine and compelling account of the life of Christ, occasionally marred by the somewhat unnecessary framework. . . . As for Joyce's "Finnegans Wake," we are silent and abashed. Let him who can think of a better category for this experiment in language classify it for himself. . . Lin Yutang's "Moment in Peking" offers a glimpse into the world of a Chinese whose views on himself, life and the Occident have gained him a wide following. Don't take your preconceptions about the novel form with you into this novel. . . There's always John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath," whether you think it's the Great American novel of real worth to make an impression on the reading public since "G--W--T--W--". . . Vardis Fisher tells the story of the Mormen trek in "Children of god." A capable book and to be recommended to both Fisher fans and enemies. . . Safest fiction of the year to give is C.S. Forester's "Captain Horatio Hornblower." Guaranteed to please all levels of comprehension, although in different degrees. . . "Here Lies" by Dorothy Parker reassembles most of her old stories and adds a few. Our Mrs. Parker may not seem quite so startling as she did in the dear dead days, but her stories still pack an impressive punch. . . . John O'Hara has some more tough stories in "Files On Parade" many of them good, although one can't help but feel that he is capable of better than he has been giving us. . . "Sailor off the Bremen," by Irwin Shaw, is a collection of twenty stories by a young writer who started with "Bury the Dead" and has continued to turn out work of startling excellence. . . Ludwig Bemelman's "Small Beer" has ten sketches, dealing chiefly with Germany and Austria, pre- and post-Hitler. Well illustrated by the author. . . . "The Web and the Rock" is almost exclusively for Thomas Wolfe partisans. . .

Christopher Morley has again hit bestseller lists with "Kitty Foyle," a novel about a young lady in Philadelphia. It's off the beaten track of Morley novels, and therefore all the more welcome . . . Lloyd C. Douglas' "Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal" is another in the manner of "Green Light" and "White Banners." Others will presently be forthcoming, it is to be presumed . . . "Escape," by Ethel Vance, is a sensitive and moving story of he Nazi regime and of its victims . . . "Christmas Holiday" is a worthy addition to the list of books which have made W. Somerset Maugham one of the most distinguished modern novelists in English . . . Augusta Tucker's "Miss Susie Slagle's" recounts the story of a student's boarding house in Baltimore . . . Stephen Vincent Benet's "Tales Before Midnight" again attest to his ability as a writer of the fantastic and disturbing short story. More intriguing stories in the manner of "Thirteen O'Clock."

Poetry: T. S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" helps us to remember that Mr. Eliot used to exercise a considerable gift for writing light verse. His cats are delightful, and the book is in every way pleasing. His "Family Reunion," published last Spring created the nearest thing to a literary cause celebre that Harvard had seen in years. You can give it to reactionary Anglophile classicists, if you know any. . . . Mark Van Doren's "Collected Poems, 1922-1938" give a good picture of a sensitive and rather mystical mind. Mr. Van Doren's "Shakespeare" cannot be too highly recommended. An entirely fresh and illuminating critical appraisal. . . . Stephen Spender and J. L. Gilli have translated some poems of the young Spanish poet. F. Gareia Lorea, who was killed early in the Spanish war. This is not, unfortunately, the first example of a considerable talent to meet an unfitting and untimely death. . . . Another translation, this time of Rainer Maria Rilke's "Duino Elegies." by Mr. Spender and J. B. Leishman. Rilke has at last come to have the international reputation he so richly merits.

Biography: Carl Van Doren's "Benjamin Franklin" is a scholarly yet decidedly reasonable account of our "first civilized American." as Charles Edward Russell once called him. . . . Of course, Carl Sandburg's "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years" is the biography of this or, apparently, any other year. A new edition of "The Pratrio Years" is now also available. . . . Henry Seidel Canby's "Thoreau" is a good, solid work on a great American writer. . . . Havelock Ellis' "My Life" is an undistinguished chronicle of a distinguish life. . . Henry F. Pringle makes "The Life and Times of William Howard Taft" a far more appealing and interesting book than one's impressions of the Taft administration would make one suspect. . . . Boris Souvarine's "Stalin" is less a biography than an attack on the man who, in the author's opinion, has sold out the ideals of the Russian Revolution.

Politics, History, etc.: Raymond Moley, in "After Seven Years," lets his hair down and tells all about that awful man Roosevelt and his nasty New Deal which refused to follow Moley the Sage. Caviar to Republicans and reactionary Democrats. . . . Hermann Rauschning's "The Revolution of Nihilism" is a bitter attack on Hitler, by one who left the cause. . . . John Gunther goes on patiently revising his excellent and informative "Inside Europe" to fit changing political scene. And his "Inside Asia" does as much for that continent as his first book did for the scene of the current catastrophe. Which is saying a great deal. . . ."Not Peace But a Sword" is Vincent Sheean's latest book, a history of Europe from March, 1938 to March 1939, It would be interesting to see what changes the book would undergo if Mr. Sheean were to rewrite it now that he has forsworn Soviet Russia once and for all. Nevertheless, a fine book by one of the most intelligent reporters of our day. . . . Nora waln's "Reaching for the Stars" is a superior account of one woman's reactions to the Nazi regime. Not passionate in its hatred, but one the less deeply moving. . . David Lloyd George's "Memoirs of the Peace Conference' reconstruct, from an unmistakable viewpoint, the peace conference which made no peace at all. . . Pierre van Paassen's "Days of our Years" remains one of the most enthralling, and certainly the best written, of the "personal histories" which the future will find useful in reconstructing our times. Mr. Van Paassen's literary gifts are sufficient to raise his book well above the level of what used to be called "journalism." Sometimes it seems as though the journalists are writing the only really worthwhile books these days. . . . Clarence Streit's "Union Now" has attracted much attention as one man's intelligent and constructive program for a lasting world peace. May it yet be possible that we find a world in which peace is more than the interval between two wars.

And without any attempt at classification: "Wind, Sand and Stars," by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, is an exciting selection of reminiscences from the life of a great flier. The author's "Night Flight" will be remembered as a splendid short novel, dealing with aviation. . . "I Believe", edited and with an introduction by Clifton Fadiman. Mr. Fadiman has collected a series of personal credos from various minds of our time, ranging from H. K. Mencken to Bertrand Russell. . . . And John Sloan's "Gist of Art" is a provocative discussion of the theory and practice of art by an American painter of unquestionable ability. . . Bellamy Partridge's "Country Lawyer" reconstructs an interesting side of rural life in an older America. . . . "The 1940 New Yorker Album" assembles an excellent selection of the most unique cartoon humor in the world. . . . James Thurber's "The Last Flower" has been causing a mild furor of late, with its poetic parable of the future of our civilization. Unequivocally recommended. . . "U.S. Camera Annual: 1940" is edited by Steichen which means that it should be the best available, and is . . . Hyman Levy's "Modern Science" is a difficult but rewarding study of the physical sciences. . . Agnes Newton Keith's "Land Below the Wind" is a chronicle of four years in North Bornce. . . . Phil Stong's "Horses and American Social life and manners. Altogether a good thing. . . Carl Carmer's "The Hudson" is a fine compound of history and legend by one of our best investigators of regional America. . . . Granville Bick's "Figures of Transition" is an intelligent and illuminating study of six English writers at the end of the last century whose work serves as a transition from the Victorian to the modern period in English literature. Mr. Hicks work is not doctrinaire and is thoroughly good . . . Joseph Wood Krutch's "The American Drama Since 1918," is a lively critical history of our drama since, approximately, Eugene O'Neill.

Reprints: Vernon L. Parrington's "Main Currents in American Thought" is no available in one volume. Still te best study of American literature, as far as it goes . . . Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" is also to be had in one volume . . . Still another telescoping in Edward McCurdy's spendid edition of "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci", very good to have or give . . . Professor John Livingston Lowes' classic of literary research. "The Read to Xangdn," has now been reprinted. May it long serve to remind us that literary scholarship can itself produce the finest of literature