A WOMAN'S BEST YEARS

By W. Beran Wolfe '22. New York. Long & Smith, 1934. Pp. 268.

Dr. Wolfe writes another book for the general reader which is designed to be inspirational and educational in effect. It is always a question in my mind whether such books ever hit their target effectively, but I am willing to grant that may be because my viewpoint is that of the academic psychologist rather than the lay reader in this interesting and highly controversial field.

The book is subtitled, "The Art of Staying Young." In the preface (which should not be skipped over lightly), we find life divided into four decades. Childhood is a period of exploration; adolescence leads to manhood or womanhood; love, marriage and children or a career follow; and then comes maturity. The point of the book is to insist that life may "begin" at forty if we learn how to enjoy life. Maturity can be the best years of all, rather than the usual old age and senility. The thesis is presented that youth is a matter of mental attitudes, and not years, and that no woman is ever too old to be a complete human being. Our knowledge of mental hygiene, contraception, modern machinery, preventive medicine, and the emancipation of women—all these are aids in gaining the goal. These are outlined in the preface.

Turning to the first chapter, the reader will find the pattern of the book stated in the form of twelve problems that must be solved correctly in order to gain the ideal goal of a youthful maturity. Each of these twelve problems are explained in detail in the chapters that follow. For example, the first two problems relate to "Your BodyAsset or Liability" and "Beauty and Sex Appeal." These are consolidated into the second ehapter. The next two problems are Your Family" and "Sexual Lonliness" and these constitute the third and fourth chapters, respectively. Chapter 5 includes four problems: careers, "bridge, bazaars, and boiedom, and "also ran," and romance. Then follows a chapter on religion in maturity, and the last three problems are packed into chapter 7. The final chapter is "An Open Letter to Mary Smith" and is added to later printings of the book to acknowledge and capitalize upon the gratitude of Mary Smith for the book under review.

As suggested above, one's reactions to this book will depend on what one expects of the book. Its reception will be much more enthusiastic among the non-college public than among those who may have gone into these matters in much greater detail than is to be found in this latest of a long series of recent books on similar inspirational themes. One is troubled to know, regarding, this book, whether to believe the addage "And the truth shall make ye free," or to insist that "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."