HIGHLIGHTS OF MODERN LITERATURE.

Edited by Francis Brown '25. New York: New American Library (Mentor Bookks), 1954. 240 PP.35ç.

"Paper backs" need not have torrid fronts as Mentor Books have usefully demonstrated. However, Mentor seems unduly carried away when it thickly spreads its covers with so large an assortment of type faces that were a bosom, against all the laws of probability, lurking behind this typographical Mother Hubbard there could never be any escape. Yet let us not cavil about covers when it is contents that count. The insides of this little volume could readily triumph over far more serious obstacles than an unprepossessing frock. Lovingly assembled by Francis Brown '25, editor of the New York Times Book Review since 1949, Highlights of Modern Literature contains articles and reviews - Mr. Brown terms them "fugitive pieces" - from the New York Times Book Review from 1949 to 1953. The editor disclaims the label of literary history for his collection - "the book has no chronological pattern nor does it point literary trends." Rather it is an endeavor to suggest the broad dimensions, the continuity of flow, and the characteristic properties of the main stream of modern literature. This is done by a sampling technique not wholly dissimilar to that employed by the oceonographers in probing the great marine currents. Among those who pore over the microscope in the process are Sean O'Casey, Elizabeth Bowen, Joyce Cary, Stephen Spender, W. H. Auden, Thomas Mann, Allan Nevins, V. S. Pritchett and Katherine Anne Porter. And in a very special category are the three Dartmouth men who have added the lustre of their names and critical penetration to this impressive collection of essays. They are Richard Eberhardt '26, Carlos Baker '32, and Budd Schulberg '36. It is perhaps not wholly accidential that the biographical sketches of these three men give prominent notice of their Dartmouth associations. After all, the editor of the volume is the Chairman of the College's Committee on Public Relations.

Highlights of Modern Literature is deserving of an honored place on the ever-growing roster of Francis Brown's scholarly and literary achievements.