Hanover Browsing

FOR THE March issue I asked three well known and popular professors to contribute to my column. Professor W. K. Stewart and Professor David Lambuth listed their favorite books and Professor Joseph L. McDonald listed the most important economic books for the year. If space remains I shall add a list of my own favorite books.

Professor Stewart writes: "I find it difficult in some cases to distinguish between books which I like very much and those which have really influenced me. The following" list rather jumbles the two categories. But I think I may truly say of these books, among others, that they have 'got under my skin' and have become to some extent a part of me."

i. The Bible: from the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, parts of Isaiah, and a few of the Psalms; from the New Testament, the four Gospels and the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.

2. Homer, The Odyssey. 3. Plato, The Apology of Socrates, and a few of the early dialogues. 4. Das Nibelungenlied. 5. About twelve plays of Shakespeare, especially Hamlet and Othello. 6. Pascal, Pensees. 7. Goethe, Faust. 8. Wordsworth's poetry. 9. Mill, On Liberty. 10. Ibsen, Brand and Peer Gynt. 11. Tolstoy, Anna Karenina. 12. Emerson's Journal and possibly a few of his essays.

PROFESSOR DAVID LAMBUTH heads his list: "Books I Turn To," and writes: "I suppose one's favorite books are those with the most worn bindings, the most marginal notes, and the most paper markers sticking out from between their pages. On that basis then: Longinus' Upon the Sublime.

Because after reading modern books 1 on the meaning of art I always go back to Longinus, who knew it better.

Shakespeare—particularly Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra.

Because every time I pick up a play to verify a quotation I find myself reading the play through again.

Keats' Poems and Letters.

Because here is ever-renewed beauty and the most penetrating insight into art by a great artist.

Carlyle's Sartor Resartus.

Because the man's vision and sympathy, his vitality and humor, stir one like a trumpet.

Browning's shorter Poems.

Because his hundred men and women never grow old or lose their living humanity or their infinite variety.

Stevenson's Essays.

Because his are the most enheartening words to live with that I know, and his phrases cap experience at every turn. Kipling's Poems.

Because they play so marvelously and variedly upon the English language, because they are delightfully human in their mixture of wisdom and humor, and because they are an inexhaustible source of illustration.

Conrad's Youth.

Because it is as fascinating as art as it is profound in its understanding of romantic courage and human life. Frost's Poems.

Because they offer a quietness, a sanity, and a wisdom one cannot do without, and because they touch the very heart of reality.

PROFESSOR JOSEPH L. MCDONALD'S list (contemporary publications in the field of economics) follows:

1. The Folklore of Capitalism. By Thurman W. Arnold. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937, 400 p.

This book, which has been widely acclaimed, is an analysis of the ways in which the United States thinks and acts.

2. Economic Planning and International Order. By Lionel Robbins. London: Macmillan, 1937, 330 p.

An examination of the significance of different kinds of planning from an international point of view.

3. International Monetary Issues. By Charles R. Whittlesey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1937, 252 p.

A survey of current thought and practices in the international monetary field.

4. Raw Materials in Peace and War. By Eugene Haley. New York. Council on Foreign Relations, 1937, 326 p.

A comprehensive and clear analysis of effects which unequal distribution of basic commodities has on world trade, on preparedness and on international security.

5. Reciprocity: A National Policy ForForeign Trade. By William S. Culbertson. New York: Whittlesey House, 1937, 298 p.

A timely discussion, by a qualified observer, of the reciprocal trade agreement program of the United States.

6. The Decline of Competition. By Arthur R. Burns. New York: McGraw Hill, 1936, 619 p.

A study of the operations of the contemporary industrial system, the causes for changes in market conditions, and the implication of social control.

7. Labor's Search for More. By Malcolm Keir. New York: Ronald, 1937, 537 p.

An interesting account of the development of the labor movement in the U. S.

8. Problems in Labor Relations: A CaseBook Representing Some Major Issues inthe Relations of Labor, Capital and Government. By Herman Feldman. New York: Macmillan, 1937, 353 p.

An excellent collection of cases which deal with the economic and social implications of the current controversies in the field of industrial relations.

9. Development of Economic Society. By George Mathews and Frank T. DeVyer. Boston: Little, Brown 8c Cos., 1937. 474 P-

A brief historical survey of the development of economic institutions, doctrines, arid societies.

10. Facing the Tax Problem,'. A symposium, of the Committee of Taxation of the Twentieth Century Fund, Inc. New York.

A survey of taxation in the U. S. and a program for the future.

11. The Undistributed Profits Tax. By M. Slade Kendrich. Washington: Brookings Institution, 1937, 108 p.

An excellent study of this much discussed Federal Tax.

12. Prosperity and Depression. By Gottfried Von Haberler. Geneva: League of Nations, 1937, 363 p.

A systematic analysis of existing theories of the business cycle, and an attempt to construct from these a general synthesis.

MY OWN LIST consists not in the best books but in those I have a genuine affection for.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 3 volumes. Harcourt.

My Diaries, by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. 2 volumes. Knopf.

Memoirs of Alexander Herzen, translated by Constance Garnett. 6 volumes. Knopf. A Shepherd's Life, by W. H. Hudson. Methuen.

Don Quixote, by Cervantes. Everyman Library, 2 volumes. Arabia Deserta, by C. M. Doughty. Jonathan Cape.

The Middle Parts of Fortune, by Frederick Manning, 2 volumes. Limited Edition. Peter Davies. Regular edition under the title of Her Privates We.

The Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer. Le Morte D'arthur, by Malory. Medici Society.

Sportsman's Sketches, by Turgenev. Translated by Constance Garnett. 2 volumes. Dent or Dutton.

The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoievsky. Translated by Constance Garnett. Macmillan.

The Mirror of the Sea, by Joseph Conrad. Doubleday.

Rodeo, by R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Doubleday.

Twilight of the Gods, by Richard Garnett. Knopf.

The Prince, by Machiavelli. Everyman Library.

The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. 2 volumes. Penguin Books.

The Sea and the Jungle, by H. M. Tomlinson. Modem Library. Disenchantment, by C. E. Montague. Brentanos.

And with thanks to my contributors I remain happily yours, the Browser.