Hanover Browsing

Suggestions of Contemporary Books

WILLIAM BREWSTER: Concord River. This is by the author of the already famed October Farm. The Harvard Press published it, and the illustrations are by Frank Benson. It is a book to own and read leisurely. A classic in nature writing. The author died in 1919, and the above mentioned titles have been drawn from his diaries. *

Ernest Hemingway: To Have and HaveNot. Hemingway is as hard-boiled as ever, and there is a murder on almost every page. The characters are despicable, but you'll have a hard job in not reading the book in a sitting. Not the author at his best.

J. Penn: For Readers Only. Anybody who has ever had a card to the British Museum Reading Room will enjoy this account of the room and its famous readers.

Vaughan Wilkins: And So Victoria. I could hardly finish this book, but a hundred thousand readers can't be wrong.

Christopher J. Thornhill: Taking Tanganyika. Experiences of an intelligence officer in South Africa, 1914-1918.

Dorothy Hewlett: Adonais: A New Lifeof John Keats. A readable book written with a justifiable bias.

Dean E. Gordon Bill has recommended to me two books:

Soboleff: Nansen Passport. A trip around the world on bicycles, push and motor, which took many years.

Michael Martin: Captain Lightfoot, TheLast New England Highwayman. One of the best narratives read in a long time. An autobiography written in the early nineteenth century just before the author was hanged.

SHERE NECESSITY forbids me from completing my project as outlined in the October issue. Of the twentyseven pages of titles left to consider of T. E. Lawrence's library at Clouds Hill I must select only those which I consider excellent and little known. The other titles you must, if you are interested, look up for yourselves in the book before me T. E.Lawrence by His Friends (Doubleday Doran).

Professor McQuilkin DeGrange of the Dartmouth faculty is an enthusiastic reader and admirer of John Davidson who wrote in England during the nineties. Lawrence had six of his books. Davidson is best known for his Testaments.

My notes on various titles follow, and all are strongly recommended to readers of this column:

Dorgelfes, R. Wooden Crosses. One of the better French war books. Still better is his Le Cabaret de la Belle Femme.

Doughty, C. M. Arabia Deserta. This was the book which taught Lawrence most about Arabia, and Lawrence wrote a long preface for a new edition in 1921. Doughty died the following year. This classic on the East has been called by competent men "the greatest prose work of the nineteenth century." It was published first in 1888.

Douglas, Norman. Old Calabria. Douglas's novel South Wind is well known, but his best writing may be found in his three travel books, but particularly in Siren Land and Old Calabria.

Flecker, J. E. Collected Poems, which contains his best known poem "The Golden Journey to Samarkand."

Forster, E. M. Lawrence had almost all of Forster's books, some of which I have mentioned in these columns before. Forster has been called the "novelist's novelist." Try A Passage to India, and his biography of G. Lowes Dickinson, who is still remembered personally by several members of the Dartmouth faculty.

Garnett, Edward, and Garnett, David. Lawrence had all the books of father and son. Edward Garnett died last February, and known best as critic and publisher's reader, discoverer of Conrad, and so on, he was also the author of several plays and literary criticism. His Friday Nights is a memorable book. His son David is best known for his charming fantasy Lady intoFox.

Garrard, A. Cherry. The Worst Journeyin the World. This is one of the modern classics of travel. The author was with Scott in his last Antarctic expedition, and although he did not go to the Pole with Scott, he made a memorable journey in search of rare penguin eggs with Bowers and Wilson. A fascinating and great book.

Graham, R. B. Cunninghame. Lawrence was a friend of Cunninghame Graham's and possessed nearly all of his books, the best of which might be Mogreb-el-Acksa,Thirteen Stories, etc.

Hanley, James. Boy. For an interesting account of the fate of this book see E. M. Forster's recent book, excellent in itself, Abinger Harvest.

Hardy, Thomas. The Dynasts. One of the great poems of our time. Three volumes, 1903, 1906, 1908.

Hart, B. H. Liddell. Lawrence possessed all of Hart's books, all dealing with the strategy of war. Later Hart was Lawrence's biographer.

Heidenstam, Verner von. The CharlesMen. A great novel concerning Charles XII of Sweden. A classic waiting to be read. Heidenstam won the Nobel Prize.

Henderson, W. B. D. The New Argonautica. Possibly Edward Garnett gave Lawrence this proof copy of Professor Henderson's epic poem.

Housman, A. E. A Shropshire Lad. Hudson, W. H. Adventures arnongBirds, El Ombu, and others. Lawrence possessed almost all of Hudson's books, perhaps the most poetic writer on birds that ever lived. "El Ombu" is one of the finest short stories in English, and is a personal reminiscence of his early youth in the

Argentine. Jones, E. H. and Hill, C. W. The Roadto En-Dor. This is one of the two or three best "escape" books written about the Great War.

Joyce, James. Lawrence of course had Ulysses.

Lawrence, D. H. Twenty-five books in Lawrence's library, by the much-publicized writer who wrote Sons and Lovers.

Lewis, C. Day. Collected Poems, 1919-1933. Lawrence was always interested in the work of England's best modern poets, so he possessed this volume. He also had the books of Auden and Spender.

Mackenzie, Compton. First AthenianMemories, Gallipoli Memories, GreekMemories. These three books deal with the British Intelligence Service in the Near East during the Great War. Sinister Street, by the same author, is the finest novel about Oxford that I know.

Manning, Frederic. The Middle Parts ofFortune. Someday future historians will consider this the finest novel of the War. Manning was a Catholic scholar and poet, who died in 1931.

Montague, C. E. Dramatic Values. Montague was the "leader" writer for many years for the Manchester Guardian, and wrote half a dozen excellent books; one of the best of modern prose stylists.

Owen, Wilfred. Poems. Perhaps the finest poetry written during the war by one on active service, who was killed one week before the Armistice.

Peacock, T. L. The Misfortunes of Elfin. Recently I have been recommending my students in Romanticism to read Peacock, a delightful and neglected writer.

Powys, T. F. Mr. Tasker's Gods. The sinister quality of Mr. Powy's prose must have interested Lawrence.

Proust, M. Apparently Lawrence had only one book by this master of modern French prose: a book of letters.

Richardson, H. H. The Fortunes ofRichard Mahony. I once saw a letter of Lawrence's analysing the work of this talented lady; it revealed a critical mind of the first order.

Roberts, E. M. The Time of Man, etc. Edward Garnett was an enthusiast for this American's work and presented Lawrence with his copies. Well known to American readers, her work is too subtle and delicate for popular approval.

Rothenstein, Sir William. Men andMemories> 1900-1922. If you once start this book of memoirs I guarantee you'll have a difficult job in putting it down.

Sassoon, S. Counter-Attack, and otherpoems. A well known book of war poetry by the author of Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man.

Thomas, Bertram. Arabia Felix. Lawrence wrote the introduction to this fine book which described the first crossing by a white man of the "empty quarter" of Arabia.

Thomas, Edward. Selected Poems. Thomas has just had a biography written about him by an American, Robert Eckert Jr., of Freeport, Illinois. Nature writer and poet killed in 1917 on Western Front.

Tomlinson, H. M. Gallions Reach.

Trelawney, E. J. Adventures of aYounger Son. Autobiography by a contemporary and friend of Shelley and Byron. It is astonishing in seeing the complete list of Lawrence's books to realize how many were given, or recommended to him, by the late Edward Garnett.

Williamson, Henry. Tarka the Otter. For Williamson's appraisal of Lawrence see his book Devon Holiday in which one character, Colonel Everest, is modeled upon Lawrence.

Young, F. B. Marching on Tanga. This is one of the forgotten books on the war, and one of the finest yet written. Brett Young was a Doctor in Smut's army in South Africa.

Also in the book from which I have taken this list of selections from Lawrence's library is a list of gramophone records he possessed. W. Warwick James says of it: "The list is so excellent, and the choice so wide, that it would probably satisfy an expert."

Lawrence's library is an excellent example of what a discriminating reader can get together on very little money. I strongly recommend anyone who is forming a library, or who expects to form one, to consult pages 476-510 in T. E. Lawrence byHis Friends.