The Story World and Photodramatist (Jul-Oct 1923)

FOR YOUK BOOKSHELF "The Latest Novels Reviewed Sty Hetty Goldrick WHEN you look over the list of new books each month it is quite astonishing to consider how many typewriters the world 'round must be clacking out their daily stint of words, ringing their little bells to say, "hold on, you are at the end of a line," putting quotation marks around all the billions of "he says" and "she sobs," interrogating questions and shouting exclamations, and in the end coming to a solemn, round period. What stupendous labors. Does the hard-worked author rebel? Not he. Enough for him if readers only buy, and forthwith displays the fruits of his toil. Ben Hecht once remarked that it should not take more than twice as long to write a mystery story as it takes to read one. Accordingly he wrote "The Florentine Dagger" (Boni and Liveright) in ten hours, it is said. Charles Norris has a fondness for one syllable titles. "Bread," a novel of a woman in business has just been issued by Dutton. Gilbert Frankau, son of "Frank Denby" and author of "The Woman of the Horizon," (Century) has written a short autobiography for the Centurion. Mr. Frankau had little of the early hardships of the novelist. Before he went to the Front he had made a rough draft of "The Woman of the Horizon." At the Front he re-wrote it in spare moments and it has had a tremendous sale. This was his first novel and has been followed by several other successful ones. For a tale of pure fancy read "Lady Into Fox," by David Garnett (Alfred A. Knopf). Critics are unaminous in its praise, the tale being as perfectly written as it is unusual. It is the story of a young wife gradually undergoing a vixenish change until she is transformed into a red fox. The center of interest is of course the husband. Other interesting books just published by Knopf are "The Singing Wells," by Roland Pertwee, a story of the Arabian desert and reminiscent of Robert Hichen's earlier work; "Dead Souls," by Nikolay Gogol, translated by Constance Garnett (it is said that "Dead Souls" is in a fashion the Main Street of Russia), and a new edition of Dostoyevsky containing personal reminiscences and letters to his friends and wife. Harcourt-Brace will publish Dorothy Canfield Fisher's next book, "Raw Material." Mrs. Fisher is working on it in France, where she will remain a year. It will not be a novel but a collection of short stories, character sketches and incidents, being actually the raw materials out of which fiction is made. "The Fascinating Stranger," by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday and Page), is a new study in whimsicality. "The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page," published by the same company and edited by Burton J. Hendrick, is considered a real addition to American letters. "The Temptress," by Blasco Ibanez and "The End of the House of Alard," by Sheila KayeSmith are on E. P. Dutton's list. Sheila Kaye-Smith is considered by many to be the best woman novelist in England today. She is masculine in her viewpoint and writes from study and observation rather than from personal experience and emotions as many women do. "Men Like Gods," by H. G. Wells (Macmillan) is a story of Utopia. It has Mr. Wells' usual charm and force but is not perhaps so entertaining as "Back to Methuselah." Scribner has issued a new edition of the works of John Galsworthy and Appleton has Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" done into Latin. T. K. Glover has made the translation, the Latin words being on one side of the page and the English on the other. "The Alaskan," by James Oliver Curwood (Cosmopolitan) is selling well. It has this unusual beginning: a woman boards a boat at Seattle with no luggage except