DEADLINES. By Henry Justin Smith. Chicago: Covici-McGee. In its extraordinary combination of two elements almost never united, Deadlines, the new book by the news editor of The Chicago Daily News stands apart from all other books-be they works of fiction or of sober fact that have dealt with journalism. This series of sketches is written with the authority of the professional. It comes the nearest to accurate description of physical conditions and character in a newspaper office of all books that have essayed in any degree to picture these things from within. In a way, the volume is a vade mecum for the cub reporter. At the same time, it is written with literary breath, with full cognizance of the viewpoint of the outsider, with a thoroughly modern realism that te'ls the reader all the secrets of the prison house. The character portraits in this book, though composite, have the stamp of reality upon them, the atmosphere is a true atmosphere, above all the mental attitudes are obviously genuine. All the boredom and all the fascination of newspaper work are here, and one learns why able men hate it and remain in it. The glamor of the newspaper world, as commonly conceived in fiction, is stripped away, and a new glamor is substituted, a glamor that takes account of hideousness and weariness and bad temper, of thwarted ambitions and preserved ideals, of the "dank, blank canvas dawn" and the weary nightwatch, as well as of the excitement of the big scoop. It seems as if the so-called "cynicism" of the newspaper man, an attitude dramatized and merely hinted at by such writers as Kipling and R. H. Davis, here found its true expression as a sort of ingrained philosophy, devoid of pose, the inevitable outcome of experience. What we have here, indeed, is something more than fictionized fact or factual fiction. It is a searching study of a business, a profession, imperfectly socialized, incompletely professionalized. Newspaper work is an occupation that maddens, hardens, or breaks many of those who are involved in it. For the life of the newspaper man and the nature of his product, the public, its cravings, its tastes, its notions of efficiency, are responsible. Our civilization, which makes news what it is, is also responsible. Unlike the men of other professions, the newspaper man cannot, if he would, set up a protective wall between himself and the world, shutting out all but a limited number of interests, impressions, or demands. He cannot possess his soul in quiet by receiving patients or clients in an office. He is at the mercy of everything, and life, crude life, is his master. It is difficult to express these ideas without seeming to overdraw and without implying that Mr. Smith has overdrawn. The essential fact is that Mr. Smith, a newspaper man, really does see the newspaper life as a phase of civilization and has thus portrayed it. GLIMPSES OF AUTHORS. By Caroline Ticknor. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Half the knowledge that Caroline Ticknor possesses concerning notable authors, ranging in date from Charles Dickens to Eugene Field, would amply justify the writing and publication of a larger book than her Glimpses of Authors. In this book one will find authentic reminiscences of Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, Mark Twain, Lafcadio Hearn, William Winter, Henry James an astonishing list. Whatever facts, great or small, can be gathered concerning any of such eminent or notable persons as are written of in this book are in general worthy of careful collection and of publication in some form or other. But of course there is gossip and gossip, anecdote and anecdote. Some persons are more fortunate than others in the kind of gossip and anecdote that comes to them, and still more fortunate in the gift of a fine discrimination. The author of Glimpses is among the particularly favored ones-so much that is distinctive and truly prizable has come within her ken, so nice is the sense of values which enables her to present acceptably the tiniest things as well as the more striking phases of life and character that she has observed or known about. Surely that sense of immediacy which some writers of reminiscences are able to convey to their readers is a great gift. Possessing it, Miss Ticknor seems to bring us face to face with those of whom she writes and to make the past as vivaciously appealing as are the better moments of the present. A book of literary reminiscences so artfully natural, so deftly put together, and so genuine in its contents as this will be everywhere welcomed. VOL. 217 CONTENTS No. 6 Published monthly by the North American Review Corporation PUBLICATION OFFICE, RUMFORD BUILDING, CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE J. HENRY HARPER, President; HERBERT E. BOWEN, Treasurer and Business Manager 855 The price of THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, published monthly, is thirty-five cents a single copy, or four Entered as second-class matter December 18, 1920, at the Post Office at Concord, N. H., CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE ALFRED L. P. DENNIS, for many years Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, attended the Peace Conference at Paris as Assistant Military Attaché, having served as Captain of Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff through 1918 and 1919. He is the author of Eastern Problems at the Close of the Eighteenth Century. DARRELL FIGGIS is a writer on literary subjects whose critical work is more familiar in England and Ireland than to readers on this side of the Atlantic. The Editors' Note preceding the article gives a more extended account of his recent activities. VERNON KELLOGG, formerly Professor of Biology in Stanford University, is Permanent Secretary of the National Research Council and Chairman of its Division of Educational Relations. This is the second paper in the series this REVIEW is presenting on aspects of progress in civilization during the past decade. ARTHUR BULLARD, editor of Our World, was formerly member of the Committee on Public Information at Washington. Mr. Bullard, "Albert Edwards," is an old contributor to this REVIEW. FRANCES KELLOR is a well-known sociologist. In 1910 she was appointed the Chief Investigator in the Bureau of Industries and Immigration of the Department of Labor, and was in charge of the War Work Extension for Aliens during the war. Miss Kellor was invited by the Transatlantic Steamship Passenger Conferences to assist in the perfection and extension of a registration system in Europe and the United States to prevent hardships to immigrant travellers; and in that capacity spent nine months in twenty countries of Europe. EDWIN A. ALDERMAN, the distinguished President of the University of Virginia, in addition to the exacting demands of his high office, has happily secured leisure enough to make notable contributions as a man of letters. His published works include Obligations and Opportunities of Citizenship, Can Democracy Be NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW JUNE, 1923 THE UNITED STATES AND THE NEW TURKEY BY ALFRED L. P. DENNIS THE delegates to the adjourned Conference at Lausanne, which is to meet on April 23, are gathering as I write. It is impossible, therefore, to prophesy what they may do or how they may act. Enough has happened, however, to give occasion for a brief recapitulation of the original situation as it developed at Lausanne. Then the difficult condition in which Americans find themselves may become clearer. Furthermore, there are the fundamental factors which must continue to affect the entire question of the relations of the United States to the new Turkey. The first Conference at Lausanne was notable in that, while it did not produce an agreement, it exposed at least two clear examples of Turkish diplomacy. The pledges given by the Angora Government to Soviet Russia in respect to the régime to be adopted for the Straits were speedily abandoned by the Turks. The agreement which was not signed at Lausanne but which was practically secured regarding the Straits was opposed by Soviet Russia. It was tempestuously denounced by Chicherin on February 1. He declared: "If the convention is signed without Russia, the Ukraine, and Georgia, the latter will retain an entirely free hand and complete liberty of action. If certain Powers sign this convention without Russia, the Ukraine, and Georgia, the Straits question remains and will remain open." This was in accord with the pledges mutually given by both Copyright, 1923, by North American Review Corporation. All rights reserved. |