January 1, 1939
Franz Kafka: The Hero as Lonely Man
With the recent publication in German of Max Brod’s biography of Franz Kafka, it has at last become possible to approach the author of The Trial and The Castle from […]
January 1, 1939
The Teaching of Poetry
Editorial Notes One of the pleasantries of Renaissance poets was to assert that verse is immortal. One of the modern evidences is certainly this, that the good verse in English […]
January 1, 1939
Painter of the Half-World
Toulouse-Lautrec by Gerstle Mack. Knopf. $5.00 At the time of his death in 1901, after scarcely more than a decade of mature activity, Toulouse-Lautrec had made for himself a distinctive […]
January 1, 1939
The Cities’ Summer Death
The summer hospital enframesIn its fashionable windowsBoats brow-beaten by varnished stormsAnd curbed-off grass where no cows browse. Grandfather feathery as thoughtFurls his flurried wrapper and floatsOff his adjustable bedWafted on […]
January 1, 1939
Genius Limited and Yearning
GEORGE GERSHWIN. Edited by Merle Armitage. Longmans Green. $5.00 In this book are a number of pieces about Gershwin, a number of photographs of him, the caricatures by Covarrubias and […]
January 1, 1939
Was Shakespeare a Philosopher?
Mr. W. C. Curry’s book, Shakespeare’s Philosophical Patterns,1 does not seem to have received yet the study it deserves, but there is plenty of time. It is a bold and […]
January 1, 1939
The Shattered Door
The Fathers by Allen Tate. Putnam’s Sons. $2.50. No doubt many readers of Allen Tate’s novel, The Fathers, have read it in about the way they read current novels—as a […]
January 1, 1939
Private and Public Verse
A Glad Day by Kay Boyle. New Directions. $2.00.The Carnival by Frederic Prokosch. Harper and Brothers. $2.00.The Five Fold Mesh by Ben Belin. Knopf. $2.00. Miss Boyle’s poetry like her […]
January 1, 1939
The Dandelion Girls
As home-made candles with fuzzy wicksBent birches sprout out of a knobWhere brilliant clouds have surged away —Clouds are luxuriantly grey. Slackly curling below this knobA stagnant brook is stiff […]
January 1, 1939
Poetry of Feeling
THE COMPLETE COLLECTED POEMS OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, 1906-1938. New Directions. $3.00 W. C. Williams, in his view of life and of poetry, is an uncompromising romantic. He believes in […]
January 1, 1939
The Advent of American Music
A fresh unprecedented representative of American culture appeared some thirty-odd years ago. It was music of high quality by an American. Its manipulation of the medium was intrinsically interesting and […]
January 1, 1939
Mature Intelligence of an Artist
FURTHER LETTERS OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, Edited with Notes and an Introduction by Claude Colleer Abbott. Oxford University Press. $6.00 Professor Abbott’s present volume completes the publication of all Hopkins’ […]