HANOVER BROWSING

IT SEEMED APPROPRIATE that in the undergraduate number of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE undergraduates should contribute to this column. Not only will alumni learn what the undergraduates are reading, and what they think about it, but they may find also certain recommendations that they, too, may wish to read. Of the men selected to contribute, two are senior fellows, one the editor of The Dartmouth, one reviews books for the Jack-o-Lantern, one is a freshman, and three are students of mine whose intellectual maturity I have come to appreciate. The quality of their comment is high, the books they have chosen to read are generally of a superior grade, and altogether their response is most satisfactory. It has been necessary to omit a few recommendations for lack of space; as far as possible I have eliminated only duplications. Before proceeding it is fitting that I here express my thanks in behalf of myself and of the MAGAZINE to the contributors for their friendly co-operation.

Samuel French Morse '36, senior fellow and promising young poet, who has a most comprehensive knowledge of modern poetry, suggests the following books: Ideas ofOrder by Wallace Stevens (1935); "R. P. Blackmur has said that Wallace Stevens has created what amounts to 'a new sensibility' and this second collection of poems over twenty or more years proves it." Pittsburgh Memoranda by Haniel Long (1935); "A triumph which seems to me to almost wholly overbalance the much talked-of 'poetic renaissance' in England. It has guts and a fire which really flames high." TheAsiatics by Frederick Prokosch (1935); "A first novel full of smell and brilliance, a little tenuous at times, but .... thoroughly enjoyable." Music Ho! by Constant Lambert (London, 1934); "The first sane judgment of modern music I have read, putting certain people in their own place. It does, however, take for granted that one has heard a great deal of modern music and understands the old." The Life and Mindof Emily Dickinson by Genevieve Taggard (1930); "This biography of a great poet seems to get at the person, the poet herself, with little fact to go on, and it is extremely well written." Mr. Morse concludes: "The work of John Donne, William Blake, John Keats, along with Tristram Shandy, the books of Mary Webb, and Henry James have given me much pleasure this year, and before."

Richard L. Hobbs, a freshman and the son of D. P. Hobbs '04, sends in the following list of books read in the Tower Room: I Write as I Please by Walter Duranty; "I recommend this book to all those who are interested in Russia and its people. The book is not only edifying but intensely interesting. Its many stories . . . . told as only a reporter can tell them . . . .

cannot fail to hold the reader's attention." Silas Crockett by Mary Ellen Chase; "This novel portrays the rise and fall of a seafaring family of Maine In my estimation the character sketches in this book are accurate and convincing." Government inBusiness by Stuart Chase; "This book presents a "cut and dried" subject in a new and popular way which is more comprehensible to the layman. The author gives many facts concerning the need of increased government regulation which are not yet fully recognized. Moreover, the book contains constructive as well as destructive criticism."

John L. Meston '37, from Pueblo, Colorado, is majoring in English, and sends in the following recommendations: Songsfrom the Slums by Kagawa. "In these poems a Japanese mystic (who is at the same time a socialist, a pacifist, and, above all, a Christian) makes his indictment of the social system that will allow to exist within it the evils he realistically depicts. .... Kagawa's portrayal of the slums of Shinkawa will be provocative to all readers, and his doctrine and method should be inspirational to all professing Christians." Noguchi by Gustav Eckstein; "In a swift, present-tense style, Dr. Eckstein fascinatingly brings to life the personality of a man he sincerely finds both lovable and great." The Letters of D. H. Lawrence. "Whatever the reader may think of Lawrence as a man, it must be conceded that his letters per se are among the best of our time." Solstice by Robinson Jeffers. "The temperament of Jeffers is in itself an expression of our times that cannot be over- looked, however far from the truth one may consider him to be .... he deserves to be followed closely." The Essays ofMontaigne, translated by Trechmann. "A permanent figure in the world of books, Montaigne will always repay reading; one of the greatest examples of a highly civilized intellect, he is, in the present gloom of apparent barbarism, particularly valuable." In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell. "For those to whom logic is the enemy of truth, Russell will probably always be anathema, but nevertheless he is typical of the modern temper, a brilliant writer, and in these essays has analyzed with a keen, scientifically trained intellect 'such aspects of social questions as tend to be ignored in the clash of politics.' "

Budd W. Schulberg '36, recent editor of The Dartmouth suggests Grey Granite: "It is the most over-looked book of the year, a novel of Scotch middle and lower class life which attains that rare combination of individual reality, substantial humor and social validity. The author, James Leslie Mitchell, died last year at the age of thirty- one. There is enough liveness in the book to safeguard it from premature death." Europa by Robert Briffault. "An entertaining novel .... but his sensational emphasis on the debaucheries of the continental ruling classes seems almost to persuade us that callipygy by divine right was the real cause of the last war." It Can'tHappen Here. "Sinclair Lewis is superficially very clever and sincerely very democratic. The result is a novel which is first- rate anti-fascist propaganda but only second-rate aesthetics. His insight into the contemporary American-scene is cameraclear, but not profound Hidden away in Woodstock all year, he was not retreating as some have claimed. He was listening to Father Coughlin and Gene Talmadge." It Seems to Me by Heywood Broun. "These little essays have been my bedtime stories. H. B. is a journalistic Peck's Bad Boy who loves to twist the tails of some of our most sacred cows. And when we aren't looking, he breaks the monotony of this attack with a good swift kick. But even the cows seem to love it." The DogBeneath the Skin: "W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood take up the poetic attack on the one English institution that doesn't pause for tea at four, the status quoIt is really funny for its own sake, not to mention ours. Some of its poetry is good, too, especially when the authors turn to prose." Get It Right by John Opdycke. "Recommended before conferences with professors and especially before fraternity rushing. The Dartmouth, being an independent journal, was always exempt from such artificial conventions, however." (This is a book on correct grammar.—Ed.)

Leonard S. I-lorsheim Jr. '36, a man of high scholarship, and who reads widely, suggests: The World's Illusion by Wasserman; "because of its breadth of concept, even though I don't necessarily agree with its viewpoint." Elements of Poetry and Religion by Santayana; "because it epitomizes the writer's philosophy of life and literature. I liked it because it can serve for the basis of a broad-minded and workable personal philosophy." The Demon of the Absolute by Paul E. More; "because, though this is not a book but an essay, it points the way toward moderation in literature, and can be combined so well with Santayana's point of view." My Country and MyPeople by Lin Yutang; "This book does an excellent job of delineating one of the most ancient civilizations in the world in a style which most modern writers would do well to study." The Prince by Machiavelli. "If we knew our fellows as the writer did, perhaps there would be less disappointment and tomfoolery in the world." North tothe Orient by Anne M. Lindbergh; "a delightful and well-written book." Quack!Quack! by Leonard Wolff. "This is an incisive essay on modern unreason."

John Oliver Walker '36, reviewer, sends in a fine list: The Last Puritan by George Santayana. "Because Mr. Santayana is one of our most brilliant and far-seeing philos- ophers, and has given us in this, his first novel, not only vivid character study, but a maze of ideas and suggestions of ideas moving spoke-like from a central thesis which, alone, in its discussion of the disappearance of American puritanism conceived in the higher sense, would be sufficient to give his book a high place among social novels of the last years." Fontamara by Ignazio Silone. "Because Silone in this book makes the most subtle attack on Italian fascism, because he shows clearly the cost of that fascism to the spirit of the hard-working simple agricultural laborers, because his portraits of those laborers are exquisite in their emotional tone, in their capture of a philosophic viewpoint, and because of the naivete and essential sorrow of the humor which pervades the book." The MidcLle-Age d Man on the Flying Trapeze by James Thurbur. "Because humor is a settling element we need more of, and Thurber's book is the funniest I have read for a long time." Revolt on the Campus by James Wechsler. "Mainly because it is written daringly and honestly .... and because it is in opposition to the growing forces of reaction- ism which are throttling the thinking students in American colleges today." TortillaFlat by John Steinbeck; "funnier and cleaner bit of character study than February Hill." Louis Sullivan by Hugh Morrison. "Because Louis Sullivan did more than any other man toward the birth and crystallization of a true, expressive modern architecture, because Morrison has not only done painstaking work in the assimilation of the material for the book, but has interpreted the life of Sullivan sympathetically and with understanding, and because he has, in his chapters on Sullivan's theory of functionalism done much to correct many false impressions of that theory."

Paul S. Cleaveland '36, senior fellow, recommends: Voodoo Fire in Haiti by Richard A. Loederer, and in contrast to this story of some manifestations of Haitian religion, Black God by D. Manners-Sutton, which "is a study of religion and magic in the Congo .... reminiscent of Conrad's Heart of Darkness." City Editor, by Stanley Walker, which "presents a colorful picture of almost every aspect of the business." Maurois' Byron is "splendid biography" which "comes much closer to being true biography than did Ariel, and is scholarly, competent, and entertaining throughout." Mr. Cleaveland concludes, "At this point I am just about half way through Seven Pillars of Wisdom .... which is absorbing reading with many memorable and gripping incidents."

Henry S. Esberg '37, a fine linguist and most interested in modern art and architecture, suggests: The Old Boat Rocker by Alexander Mudd; "the book is full of Will Rogers' wisdom, and helps to indicate to the layman by analogy just what our new laws and confusing political system amounts to." Life and Times of Mark Antony by Arthur Weigall, "which is full of accurate detail, and a story well unified and interesting." Winterset by Maxwell Anderson; "one of the few plays of the season that not only bares examination in print, but improves with it." The Modern Movementin Painting by T. W. Earp. "One of the few books on modern art that is carefully selective in context and explanation of our present movements. Comprehensible to the layman."

Contributors CLEAVELAND, PAUL S. '36, Lancaster,Neiv Hampshire ESBERG, HENRY S. '37, Purchase, N. Y. FLORSHEIM, LEONARD S. '36, Chicago HOBBS, RICHARD L. '39, Maiden, Mass. MESTON, JOHN L. '37, Pueblo, Colo. MORSE, SAMUEL FRENCH '36, Danvers,Massachusetts SCHULBERG, BUDD W. '36, Los Angeles WALKER, JOHN OLIVER '36, Topeka