12mo.  About 320 pages. $1.35 net

While this is Dr. Hannah’s first novel, it is his eighth published work; he thus brings to bear the skill of the literary craftsman upon his dramatic theme of the Quakers’ conscientious objections to war.  To fight or not to fight is the problem that confronted Edward Alexander when he witnessed the bombardment of Scarborough; he decided as an Englishman, not as a Quaker—­but, the next day a telegram came summoning him to the death-bed of his mother, who demanded as her dying wish that he should not abandon the principles of the Friends.  He had the strength to reverse his decision but neither his fiancee nor his best Cambridge friend could understand.  How he nearly lost the former while saving the life of the latter on the battle field in Flanders is the basis of an absorbing plot which holds the interest from beginning to end of this thrilling story of young love.  An admirable book recommended especially to those who detest alike the mawkish sentiment of the “best-seller” and the revolting realistic novels of our day.

THE CHILD OF THE MOAT, A STORY OF 1550, BY I.B.  STOUGHTON HOLBORN.

12mo.  About 320 pages. $1.25 net

This is a book for girls of from 13 to 16 written for a child rescued from the Lusitania.  Many complain that girls’ books are too tame and prefer those written for boys.  Mr. Holborn therefore promised to write a girls’ book with as much adventure as Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.”  He has succeeded and the hair-breadth escapes of the heroine should satisfy the most exacting.  The scene is laid in the stirring times of the Reformation and those who know the author as an archaeological lecturer will recognize his bent in several picturesque touches, such as the striking dressing scene before the heroine’s birthday-party.  The book is a remarkable contribution to children’s literature and suggests a raising of the standard if more were written by men of learning and scholarship who are true child-lovers.  After all was not “Alice in Wonderland” written by an erudite Oxford don and everyone who has read the present author’s volume of poems “Children of Fancy” will know him as a lover of children.

G. ARNOLD SHAW, PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY LECTURERS ASSOCIATION

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL, NEW YORK

Recommended by the A.L.A.  Booklist

Adopted for required reading by the Pittsburgh
Teachers Reading Circle

VISIONS AND REVISIONS

A BOOK OF LITERARY DEVOTIONS

By JOHN COWPER POWYS

8vo, 298 pp.  Half White Cloth with Blue Fabriano Paper Sides, $2.00 net

This volume of essays on Great Writers by the well-known lecturer was the first of a series of three books with the same purpose as the author’s brilliant lectures; namely, to enable one to discriminate between the great and the mediocre in ancient and modern literature:  the other two books being “One Hundred Best Books” and “Suspended Judgments.”