Hanover Brpwsing

The Best of Conrad; A First Novel by Mari Tomasi; A New Camera Book and Another Work on New Hampshire

IN READING THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY of Er- nest Rhys, the editor of the famous Everyman's Library series, I came across this passage: "I had taken with me a copy of his The Mirror of the Sea .... and when I asked Conrad which of all his books was his own favorite, he pointed at once to the slender blue volume. The book is, I believe, the best and the least read of all he wrote, and will live the longest." This pleased me for The Mirror of the Sea has long been my favorite Conrad title. If you have never savored its pages do so now, and if you have, try re-reading it. And remember that Conrad was a Pole.

All this reminds me to tell you that the next time you are in Hanover drop into the Treasure Room of the Baker Library and see our new collection of Conrad recently given to Dartmouth through the Friends of the Dartmouth Library by Mr. George Matthew Adams of New York.

Several books have been, sent me for review.

Deep Grow the Roots, by Mari Tomasi. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1940. $2. This first novel has earned the praise already of such writers as Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Mary Ellen Chase, and Faith Baldwin. It deserves most of what they say about it, and Miss Tomasi, born in Montpelier, V ermont, will, I hope, try next a novel about Vermont.

The setting of Deep Grow the Roots is in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy, and the author tells a simple story of a young' Italian Luigi's love for the soil, and finally how his life was eventually blasted by Duce's Ethiopian war. Miss Tomasi's characters are few, but memorable.

In its starkness, and in its tragic ending, the book somehow reminded me of Josephine Johnson's first novel Now In November. It would seem that one's first novel, if it is to be really good, must end in a tragic note. There' is nothing forced in Miss Tomasi's ending, but neither does the reader feel it to be inevitable.

Neither is there anything faked in Miss Tomasi's earthy atmosphere, and all in all this is a story eminently worth reading, though I fear that most male readers will find it too slow, or too lyrical, or too sensitively done. Get it for your wife, and on her advice, if she offers it, read it yourself. It surely must be one of the finest novels to come out of Vermont in many a year, and Vermont may well be proud of Mari Tomasi.

I asked Norbert P. Gillem, a negro student from Washington, D. C., who is a fine photographer, to review for other such enthusiasts as there may well be among the alumni, William Mortensen's OutdoorPortraiture, published by the Camera Craft Publishing Company, 1940, at 52.75.

fundamental prerequisites of good outdoor photography and suppressing the professional's tendency to become more technical, Mortensen has written a welladapted reference for both the novice and advanced camera-man alike. He presents his material in an outlined, illustrated 'negative approach,' which is exceptionally singular in its clearness and simplicity. All phases—equipment, handling of the camera, lighting, background, and arrangement of the subject—are treated with the aim of obtaining a desirable reflection of personality in an equally pleasing and congruous setting.

"If you are at all familiar with snapshooting, you, no doubt, are aware of the million-and-one little things (troubles) which pop up to spoil your attempted masterpiece. Mr. Mortensen anticipates these problems. And be it a shot of the neighbor's pet cat or a glamorous portrait of that certain girl, it is included in this practical treatise of faults and corrections."

I have written here before of the WPA series of excellent state guide books published by Hastings House, the Oxford, and Viking presses, etc., I now have before me a well designed and printed book by the Stephen Daye Press called Hands ThatBuilt New Hampshire, the Story of Granite State Craftsmen—Past and Present. It was written by the workers on the WPA New Hampshire Writers' Project, and is well up to, and beyond in many instances, other books in the series. The book covers basketmaking, ship's figure heads, architecture, cabinetmakers, woodworking, wood carving, pottery, stonecutting, glass, metal working, spinning, needle work, and so on. The book is admirably illustrated, and or interested in, the state of New Hampshire. There is a fine bibliography, an index, and the price is $3.

Herbert Waters did the wood engravings for Muriel Follett's remembered NewEngland Year, Stephen Daye Press, 1939, and he has now compiled for the same press an engagement book, measuring 8 inches by 6, titled New England Days: 1941, and illustrated it with fifteen or sixteen woodcuts, and with an appropriate quotation every now and then. Each day has three panels allotted to it, morning, afternoon, and evening, and it would make an attractive gift for milady's desk, table, or whatever piece of furniture milady keeps her engagement book on. The book is bound looseleaf, the pages turn easily and lie flat, and altogether it seems to me to be a lovely and practical little book. The price is $1, and it measures up to the high standards of printing which this press has usually set for itself.

Sometime ago I wrote here of Professor Fraser Darling's books. One was his A Naturalist on Rona, and the other a scientific study of the Scottish stags A Herd of RedDeer. The latter has become a sort of a classic. People who read these books became interested in Darling's own life the islands west of Scotland and so he has written another book, which I recently,in spite of Hitler, got from England. This is called Island Years, and is published by George Bell at 12/6. It is a very wonderful story and will interest anyone who likes nature writing at its best. You will hear of Darling some day, so you might as well be gin reading him now.

A woman writer, Freya Stark, who should be classed with the great writers on Arabia, has written another fine book A Winter inArabia. This is published by Murray in London and sells for 16/. There are 98 J. lustrations and a map.

Readers of Gertrude Bell, Lawrence of Arabia, the Blunts, Richard Burton, or Charles Montagu Doughty, will enjoy Freya Stark's books. This one, telling of a winter (1938) spent in the Hadhramaut region of South Arabia, distills the very essence of Arabia, its smells, diseases, character, heat, cold, its feuds, raids, bickerings, and government masterfully.

I recommend to you when you want to relax books by Paul Gallico (the Hiram Holliday books), anything by Eric Ambler, and there are always the Jeeves and Runyan anthologies to while away an hour.

Not Faster Than a Walk, by Viola C. White. Middlebury College Press, 1939.

This is a record of a Vermont year written by a sensitive woman who is, by profession, a librarian. The walks Miss White took were all in the vicinity of Middlebury College, and most of her observa- tions, and they are acute and always alert for beauty, will be familiar to all who know Middlebury. She also knows her Emerson and Thoreau, and reveals herself as a woman of sense and sensibility.

JOHN PHILIP TROXELL, PROFESSOR OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, AND MALCOLM COLBY HENDERSON, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHVSICS Dartmouth added two distinguished names to its faculty roll with the appointment this year of Professor Troxell (left) and ProfitHenderson (right). Troxell has received degrees at Washburn and Wisconsin, has taught at seven other institutions. Henderson is graduate of Yale, received his Ph.D. at Cambridge University, has engaged in research and teaching at Yale, California and Princeton.