GOODSPEED
AMERICAN BIBLES
Easier to read and understand...
using the American language of the 20th century
in the famous translation
Iy J. M. P. SMITH and EDGAR J. GOODSPEED
THE COMPLETE BIBLE
(SMITH-GOODSPEED)
The Old and New Testaments, plus the 14
books of the Apocrypha, all in one volume.
Cloth, $4.00; leather, $10.00
THE NEW TESTAMENT
(GOODSPEED)
Loved for the simplicity and directness of its
language. Popular Edition, doth, $1.2); leather,
hexed, $4 JO; Gift Edition, $}.)0
THE GOODSPEED
PARALLEL
NEW TESTAMENT
The American translation and the King James
Version side by side $2.7)
BOARDMAN ROBINSON
By ALBERT CHRIST-JANER
The art book of (he year. 126 magnificent reproduc
tions—9 in full color. "Lavish, generous, and handsome.
One of the most interesting books on American art."—
Reginald Marsh. 9H" x 12M", itS.OO
IMMORTAL VILLAGE
By DONALD CULROSS PEATTIB
The gallant story of a little Riviera town. "Capti
vating." — N.Y. Herald Tribune. Woodblock illus
trations by Paul Landatre. td-71
AMERICAN DAUGHTER
By ERA BELL THOMPSON
A Negro girl meets the problems of American life
with humot and friendliness. #3.00
MIDWEST AT NOON
By GRAHAM HUTTON
"The best book yet about the Middle West. ,.
Gose to a miracle:"—Bernard De Voto.
350 pages, with maps, f3.50
LAY MY BURDEN DOWN
Edited hyB A. BOTKIN
The Negro's own story of slavery and emancipa
tion* in the words of former slaves. "A treasure of
, American folklore."—Howard Fast. t3.50
r
TALKING TO THE MOON
By JOHN JOSEPH MATHEW'S
a _ _* ism. Kmra rKp turpiua Indian
iih •« r" m— -
moons on the Oklahoma prairie. $S.OO
« JUST PUBLISHED
NATHANIEL
FISH MOORE'S DIARY
Edited by STANLEY PARGELLIS and RUTH BUTLER
A charming account of a 6-weeks’ trip to the tough and booming
West a century ago by the President of Columbia College
Limited edition, $2.7i IK
Books of Art and Artists
A SELECTION of the
year’s best books in any
category presupposes an
acquaintance with the
major part of the year’s output
in that class. Since The Star is
for the general reader, only a
small part of its review space
can be given to books on art ; con
sequently, less than 50 have come
to my desk during 1946.
To be named as one of a few
“best,” an art book should ful
fill certain conditions. It should
deal with a subject of the first
rank, it should be comprehensive
in scope, well organized and
clearly presented. None, of the
books I have seen this year meet
all these requirements. But
many of them are admirable
within their limits.
* dr dr dr
Old Masters
“Vasari’s Lives of the Most
Eminent Architects, Painters
and Sculptors of Italy’’ appeared
this year for the first time in a
single volume for the general
reader, abridged and edited by
Betty Burroughs (Simon &
Schuster, $3.75). If it could be
claimed for 1946 (instead of
1550 when the first edition ap
peared) it would be the year’s
outstanding art book. Miss Bur
roughs has cut Vasari’s “70
Lives’* to about 50, has con
densed his narrative and has
eliminated his extensive descrip
tons of works now lost. She has
retained his informal, gossipy
style. Consequently, these bi
ographies, full of anecdote and
human interest, should prove
fascinating to the general reader.
Piero di Cosimo was an un
compromising realist of the
Italian Renaissance, who hap
pens to be "represented in the
United States by an unusually
large number of important char
acteristic paintings. An excel
lent, scholarly book about him by
R. Langton Douglas (University
of Chicago Press, $5) provides a
biography of the eccentric artist,
a critical study of his works and
other features of value to art
lovers and students.
“Rembrandt, the Jews and the
Bible,” by Franz Landsberger (the
Jewish Publication Society of
America, $3.00) polishes one facet
of the art of Holland’s greatest
master, me important roie mem
bers of the Jewish race played
in his paintings and graphic arts.
Works indisputably by Rem
brandt and also those attributed
to him which have any connec
tion. however tenuous, with the
Jewish theme, are analyzed.
Rembrandt’s life, the circum
stances which took him to Am
sterdam, and the sociological
and economic conditions of 17th
Century Holland which made it
a haven for Jews are discussed
in an interesting and readable
way. The author is a German
Jewish scholar now teaching in
Cincinnati.
* * * *
American Art
George inness, one of the
few outstanding American
painters of the 19th cen
tury, is the subject of an
important monograph by Eliza
beth Mctausland (American Ar
tists Group, $1.50). This artist
lived through the period while
the vast American frontier was
still a reality, on into the post
Civil War era when free land was
gone, and industrialism ad
vanced. The author’s definitive
study of his life, and of his inti
mate, serene landscape paintings
nlaces him against this stirring
background in its historic, social
and economic aspects.
50 Christmas Books.
Winslow Homer enjoys today
a greater reputation than Inness,
- as a 19th century American mas
ter. American Water Color and
Winslow Homer by Lloyd Good
rich (American Artists Group,
$2) reviews the subject from early
days when it was an amateur ac
complishment, to its development
as a major medium, due to its
masterful handling by Homer.
His contemporaries and a few
outstanding recent and living ex
ponents of water color are studied
in short chapters, easy to read as
well as scholarly.
, Contemporary American paint
ers John Sloan, Rockwell Kent,
Thomas Benton, Max Weber,
Waldo Peirce, Stuart Davis and
Eugene Speicher, are the subjects
of American Artists Group Mono
graphs which are miniature re
trospective exhibitions, each con
taining about 50 gravure repro
ductions, a color frontispiece and
a foreword by the %rtist. That
by Stuart Davis is the best: A
serious discussion of his career
and of abstract painting. The
little books are not impressive in
By Florence S. Berryman
Art Editor of The Star
i-y
Segment of the Triumphal
Arch for the Emperor Maxi
milian, from “The Complete
Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer
edited by Willi Kurth. (Crown
publishers; $3.50.)
format; but they provide authen
tic introductions to these import
ant men.
For nearly half a century The
American Art Annual has em
bodied the factual record of art
in the United States, more com
pletely than any other publica
tion. This unique reference book
appeareu xur vac uioi* iruuc m
four years because of the war,
and picked up the story of
American art where it left off in
1941. It also supplies information
on museums, societies and art
schools in Canada, and Latin
America as well as in our coun
try. (The American Federation
of Arts, $12.)
The Untied States’ northern
neighbor has had less attention
from the esthetic standpoint,
than the dynamic Mexicans.
“Canadian Painters,” edited by
Donald W. Buchanan (Oxford
University press, $6.50) goes far
toward dispelling our ignorance
on the subject. This handsome
Phaidon edition is primarily a
picture gallery witji approxi
mately 90 large plates, 4 in colors.
The story of painting in Canada
is carried from its beginnings a
century ago, to about 1930 in a
concise preface. A second volume
will deal with the modems of the
past 16 years. It is regrettable
that the scope was not enlarged
to include them all in one com
prehensive history.
* * * *
European Modernism
CONTEMPORARY painting
of radically different char
acter is that of Marc Cha
gall, subject of an admir
able Museum of Modem Art
monograph by James Johnson
Sweeney (Simon & Schuster, $3).
rr*uj_ n..nninM rVi Inner
prominent in the “School of Paris”
paints highly imaginative com
positions in which representa
tional or naturalistic elements are
arranged without reference to
nature or logic. For nearly 30
years Chagall has been the sub
ject of a succession of publica
tions. But Mr. Sweeney’s mono
graph is the first comprehensive
evaluation in English.
* 5ft * * ,
Oriental
ONTEMPORARY art is an
C uncharted sea compared to
the strongly traditional art
of China, which is more ex
tensively collected and appreci
ated in the United States, than
that of any other Oriental nation.
“Chinese Culture in the Arts,” by
Stanley Charles Nott (Chinese
Culture Study Group of Amer
ica; $9.75) endeavors to explain
the meaning of the designs and
symbols which decorate the art
of China. It also records facts
about the cultural development
of the Chinese, where these are
embodied in the forms and de
signs of Chinese art. Nearly 200
line drawings illustrate these
symbolic devices, and more than
60 large plates reproduce jade
ritualistic objects embellished
with them.
Rituafl plays a strong part, too.
In primitive art. “Arts of the
South Seas,” by Ralph Linton and
Faul S. Wingert, in collaboration
with Rene d’Hafnoncourt (Simon
& Schuster, $5) is the first com
prehensive survey In English, of
the South Pacific Islands area,
which was almost the entire the
ater of war from Hawaii to the
* Philippines. The volume contains
little known but important ex
amples of primitive art, which
have had considerable influence
in the modem art movement. The
text deals with races, origins.
geograpny, social organization
and many other aspects of the
subject. Although the authors call
it merely a preliminary survey, it
covers a lot of territory.
% * * * *
Caricature
Lincoln in caricature
assembled and described
by Rufus Rockwell Wilson
(Primavera Press, Inc.;
$7.50) is the most comprehensive
collection of Lincoln cartoons I
have seen; 165 of them. They are
supplemented with political and
historical comment. The book is
particularly interesting because
it shows Lincoln through the eyes
of his contemporaries.
Latin America
(Continued From Page 14.)
- ,
detail and local color, the above
sketched panorama is true of
all Latin America, though not
so somber in well-fed, happy
and prosperous Argentina, whose
population is now intoxicated
with the heady wine of national
ism.
Always in Search
0£ Idols and Gods
Latin American writers are
aware of the fact that the destiny
of the world depends on Great
Britain, the United States and
Russia. They know very well
that in the big orchestra of the
United Nations, Latin America
does not play even second fiddle,
but only a noisy, out-of-tune
£ ^ •'W?. -
£fl/CO VEfl/SS/ATO.
—Sketch by Newman Sudduth.
marimba. They also know that
whenever they try to interpret,
analyze or simply write about
world political and economic
problems, they are handicapped
from the start by a lack of com
plete and sound information.
They never can get the real “in
side dope.” And they are sure
that no matter what they may
say, they will hardly have a
chance of being heard beyond
the boundaries of their own coun
tries. The most they can do for
the time being—and I think that
is much—is to focus in their
books and articles their home
problems. In brief, their local
trees prevent them from looking
too much at the dreadful, en
tangled and vicious jungle of in
ternational affairs.
On the threshold of the atomic
era, Latin American writers,
' painfully conscious of their needs
and shortcomings, have a real
istic outlook on the world around
them, and they are all craving
for social justice and a real
peace. For that, some trust in
God. Some trust in Stalin. Some
used to trust in Roosevelt.
Isn’t it funny that no matter
how materialistic you may fye,
you are always in search of idols
and gods?