38 WILMETTE LIFE March 1, 1929 him. He cannot be happy with his wife with whom otherwise he might have built up a conventional happy home. His vision and a sort of futile remorse drive him out of the country, he accepts foreign work and is gone ; seven years. On his return his wife dies he marries the girl of his dream, but 'dream has become reality ~nd with another girl history repeats itself. The- man sh~ws himself weak, unable to cope with life, yet because of Miss Bryner's art we do not lose patience, he is extraordinarily interesting. The style of the book is packed, compressed, sometimes almost difficult, but always "meaty," never thin. Esther Gould's book Corner · JUST PARAGRAPHS One cannot help . pausing to comment on the good taste of the American public. when one reads the .announcement that "The Case of Sergeant Grischa," · the tremendous novel of the War is now the best selling novel in the country. Three authors who will do us the honor of visiting us this winter are Rene Fulop Miller, whose "Rasputin" has aroused widespread comment, Sylvia Townsend \Varner who will have a new novel this spring, and Paul Morand whose book of negro stories~ "Black Magic," will soon be published. though she is not above taking a good shot with a machine gun now and then. a shot on the level however not aimed from above. In "The Strange Necessity"-which · is the necessity of man to understand to tabulate, to appreciate, to express life in art-she has written a brilliant critical essay on James Joyce. For those who would understand that great enigma of our day it seems to me that nothing could be more illuminating or provocative of thought. You may not agree entirely with Miss West, probably you will not, but in any case her words will lead you to think creatively, which is what it seems to me good criticism should do. Besides the essay on Joyce which takes up perhaps two-thirds of the book there are gathered together a number of the short essays which Mis' West has written in the last year or two for one of our New York literary papers. Wilmette 3700 BUOKS Telephone for your books. Orders fiUed promptly. You Can't Print That George Seld11 The truth behind the news1918-Jgl8. VISITS HOME CIRCLE At the recent annual dinner of the St: Lawrence County soCiety of New York. Irving- Bacheller presented autographed copies of his new novel. "The House of Three Ganders." to more than 200 members. Mr. Bacheller is himself a product of St. Lawrence count\·. and was form.erly president of the societv. The novel is based on the murder committed in New York state thirt~· years ago. GOOD CRITICISM "THE STRANGE NECESSITY" By Rebecca West Doubleday Doran & Co. Creative, dynamic critici sm is a rare art, little thought upon in our own day when our magazines and papers are full of the destructive, self-aggrandizins;! sort of Menckenism which makes the function of criticism rather that of a workman standing on a hig-h build ing beside a pile of bricks, leisurely and at his pleasure dropping these bricks over the parapet on the head : ; of the unsuspecting passerby. This is looked upon as great sport ammig the tribe and when a particularly wellaimed blow falls it is cause for gleeful rejoicing on the building top. But Rebecca \Vest is of another cali bre. Unquestionably acknowledged ~s the finest or perhaps one of the t\\·c finest critics in England she criticize · uot for the fun of bashing in head but with the truer purpose of criticism She analyzes, explains. appraises building up something with her bricks. Payson a Clarke, Ltd..... S4.oo A MAN POSSESSED HE AND HOOVER The White Girl Vera Casparg J. H. Surs a Company ... Sl.OO Garden Oats Faith Baldwin A novel Qf younger marriage. Dood, Mead a Company ... $2.oo Isadora Duncan's Russian Days and her last years in France. Irma Duncan and Allan Ross McDougall Covici-Friede, Inc ........ S3.50 The Untold Story (Isadora Duncan) Mary Desti Horace Liveright. ........ $3.50 Terror Reigns in these llyslery Stories Stone Blunts Scissol'a $2.00 Author-Gerard Fairlie Llttl·· Brown Gladstone 8 Palmerston Fourteen turbulent yurs as revuled in their correspondM ence 1 8 5 1 - 1 8 65. Edited with full introduction and commentary Philip Guedalla Harper Shadowed $2.50 A hilarious mystery Author-- A. Chester Belloc nnrpcrs a Bros . . . . . . . . . . S5.oo Ellery \Valter, author of "Around th~ "WHILE A BRIDEGROOM vVorld On One Leg," (Putnam's) has TARRIED" just completed a three months' lecture tour of the United States in which By Edna Bryner he made ninety speechet5, covered 15,000 E. P. Dutton & Co. miles, and autographed innumerable A year or two ago Edna Bryner, books, including one for a young lady wrote a book, "Andy Brandt's Ark," who ann~unced that she was beginning which received the highest acclaim her collection of famous signatures from critics everywhere. She has fol- with "you and Hoover." lowed it now with a second novel "While the Bridegroom Tarried," a Putnam's are publi·5hing in March. novel which is a study of a single "Marie Bonifas," by Jacques De Larracharacter as that was the study of a telle, a book that will undoubtedly he familv. compared with "The Well of LoneiiAlden Bennington is not a simple ness." character. Not the character that he HEAR NOTED EDUCATOR tnight have been judged to be on our Mrs. W. S. Heffernan of the Chifirst introduction to him, a rather vain and egotistical young man, moderate- cago School board spoke before the ly . good-looking, somewhat musical, St. Francis Xavier school Parentspending his last evening before his Teacher association last week. Mrs. marriage not in reverie of what lies Heffernan is a noted educator and her before him or of what it can mean to talk was reported as very instructin· him or the woman he is taking to and interesting. make happy, but in a sort of concenTO GIVE ROOM TEA trated appraisal of the good things of A room tea for mothers of children himself and life. Then in the midst of this rather In Mrs. Glennon's fourth grade at the :-.mugly comfortable hour, comes a Stolp school will he given at the home ~irl's voice over the phone, "You are of Mrs. B. F. Lewis, 610 vVashington to be married tomorrov.·. I shall never street, Tuesdav afternoon, March 5. marrv." In these few words lies the Mrs. I. K. Stover will assist the poison which destroys not only the hostess . . voung man's smug dream but his very Mrs. F. M. Simmons, 730 Central life. He becomes like a person possessed, avenue, left last week for a visit with for he is possessed by the vision of her sist~r, Mrs. F. F. Skeel, in Tucwhat life might have been. The girl son, Ariz. She will be away for some ~hat h ~ loved abjuring life and love for time. ' My Studio Window Marietta M innigerode Andrews E. P. Dutton ........... $5.00 Witness for the Defense $2.00 Author- A. E. W. Mason St·rlbrwrs -------------------------------------- At the Villa Rose $2.00 Author- A. E. W. Mason St·rlbnc.·rs A Rover I Would Be E. V. Lucu Dutton ....... · ........ $1.50 Sealed Trunk $2.00 Author-Henry K. Webster Dobbs ::\lurlll The Seven Character Torches of Murder at Sea $2.00 Author-Richrrd Connell Minton Balch &1il King Doubleday, Doran ....... $1.00 Pretty Sinister "The Seven Sleepers" $2.00 · , A new thriller by the author of Wild-Goose Chase Fanny Heaslip Lea Dodd, Mud ~ Company .. S1.oo LORD'S-BOOKS Author-Francis Breeding Little Brown Chandler's &31 Davia St. Univ. 123 Wil. 724 I rut ln·itle the Wtat Davi· Street Doot