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of the old cavaliers that rode from manor to manor, making the whole region ring with their merry laughter and their crazy pranks. Her ears were always open to anything told, but this tale alone had a power over her heart that none other might exert.

These tales stirred restless longings in her heart. They seemed to be calling to her, whispering to her about some great task that she was to perform some time. Gradually those vague longings shaped themselves into a passionate wish that she, herself, might become a weaver of tales to which not only silent little home-sitting girls but the whole wide world might listen. But what she never imagined was that the task waiting for her might be to retell the very tales that had grown so dear to her heart, tales that even her love looked upon as mere gossip of the countryside.

When not listening, she read; and when not reading, she wrote. An endless stream of wild, romantic adventures flowed from her pen, each one more unreal and original than the preceding one. Her heroes represented every age but her own. They hailed from every corner of the globe but Wärmland. Most of them had lived before, in the Arabian Nights, in the Icelandic sagas, or in the romances of Walter Scott. In those days it never occurred to her that heroes not less worthy to be sung might be found much nearer to herself,-even in her own memory, where dwelt those old cavaliers of Ekeby.

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When not listening or reading or writing, she was going about waiting for fortune to arrive." This fortune her dreams pictured in the form of a great publisher who was to discover by mere chance what she had written and find it so wonderful that he had to publish it. "And then," to quote her own words, "everything else would follow as a matter of course. Strange to say, that was pretty much what did happen at last, but not until many years later, when she had long ceased to wait for the fortune that seemed never to come.

At twenty-two she went to Stockholm to study at the Normal School in order that she might earn her living as a teacher. Still the dream of a writer's fame lingered within her. Still the old legends were filling her mind like so much mist, and still she was straining her eyes to glimpse the great stories she felt sure were lying beyond that mist. One day she was walking alone along one of the streets of Stockholm,-a most ordinary street, without a trace of beauty or poetry to set it apart,-when all of a sudden a great light blazed up within her. At the heart of that light she saw what she was to tell,-saw the tale, saw that it was the old familiar one of the cavaliers at Ekeby,-saw that it brought her heroes as luminous as any known to poetry. In that moment of vision she saw her future mission so vividly that it made her stop right where she was. And as she stood there the whole street rose up toward the sky and sank down again, rose up and sank down." And when she returned to reality once more she must needs look around with blushing cheeks and her mind wondering whether, perchance, others had also seen what she saw, or whether they had merely seen the foolish way in which she was behaving.

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She did not enter at once upon the task she

knew now to be hers, for while she had discovered what she had to tell she had not yet learned how she was to tell it. Years of hard study and hard labor for a living passed by before more light came. She tried and tried.and mostly in the manner of the day. Remember that it was the day of naturalism, of photography, of preoccupation with surface appearances. How could fairy tales,-even though they were real,-be told in the manner of such a day? So she strove in vain, her material and her form refusing obstinately to meet in that harmony which makes a real story. She tried verse and she tried to wield the old tale into a drama. "No, no, no!" it cried,-and there she was, until one day word reached her that her old parental home was to be sold.

She journeyed in haste to have one more sight of it before it ceased to be a home,-and there, in her childhood surroundings, the final inspiration came to her. The spirit of romanticism which had lain dead and buried so many years came to life again and took up its abode in her soul, filling it with a new insight and a new courage. Then and there she vowed to tell the old tale in her own way, humbly but without fear, letting it come just as it would choose to come. On her return to the little city in southern Sweden where she was teaching school she sketched out three chapters in so many nights, 'the pages filling themselves with a quickness that she had never dreamt of." After that the week-day cares of her profession closed in upon her again, and again a long time passed without much being done, the one difference being that now she knew both what she had to do and the way of doing it.

But at last her saga was drawing near its triumphant climax. A Swedish periodical offered a big prize for the best original novel of a hundred pages. Eight days before the closing of the contest Miss Lagerlöf decided to try for the prize with five of the chapters she had already sketched out. Two of these had assumed a form that made them immediately available, but the other three had to be practically written anew. At that time she was visiting the home of one of her sisters in the very heart of the region where the tales of the cavaliers had sprung into life. The night before the day when the manuscript must be mailed she had to attend a party. This was held in the very manor where had once lived the evil genius of the cavaliers, that old Sintram who had made a pact with the Evil One and who used to be seen traveling homeward at night after two black fire-breathing bulls. In that legendhaunted house Miss Lagerlöf wrote the last twenty pages, sitting up all night after the party had come to an end.

The rest seems almost dull in comparison with what has been told so far. She was awarded the prize, as we all know,-and this, although the work she submitted was merely a torso. To complete it became then an imperative necessity, and friends arranged things so that she could take a year's leave of absence for that purpose. And in 1891 "Gösta Berling's Saga reached the public in the shape with which we are now familiar.

Once she had begun to write in earnest, she simply had to keep on. More Wärmland tales

rose out of her memory demanding to be told. Volume after volume grew out of her busy pen. In some ways they were not as good as the first one; in other ways they were even better. That initial spontaneity which gave to "Gösta Berling's Saga" a niche all by itself had been spent and could never be recovered. In its place came artistic restraint and sense of proportion in growing degrees. And on the whole, it might be said that each new book showed definite signs of advance.

After a while she left her teacher's position to give herself undividedly to writing. King Oscar and his youngest son, the painterprince," Eugene, befriended her and enabled her to realize her long cherished desire of seeing foreign lands and peoples. She won more and more admirers among small and great, among rich and poor. She bought back her beloved Marbacka with the money her pen had earned. And,-what mattered more than anything else to herself, perhaps.-new tales began to reach her, tales having their roots in that vast foreig world of which she had dreamed when she tried

to borrow heroes from Walter Scott and the

Arabian Nights. Thus she wrote "The Miracles of Antichrist," which is laid in Sicily, and "Jerusalem," which begins in the Swedish prov

ince of Dalecarlia, her own winter home for

many years now, and ends in Palestine. The first part of the latter work proved a tale even greater than that which she had woven around the wayward figure of Gösta Berling. Its first and final chapters are counted among the finest things our latter-day literature has to offer. Long before this second masterpiece of hers placed her fame on a solid basis that fame had spread to other countries than her own, and, as a rule, she was received by the public as one carrying precious gifts. Not so in this country, however, when her three first volumes were brought out here in translations that left little to wish for. A few knowing ones read and gave thanks and passed on the good word: that once more it had pleased the gods of song and saga to bless the earth with a true poet. But the mass remained indifferent. Soon copies of those three volumes might be had for a few cents from among the deadwood littering the stalls outside the second-hand bookstores, which is the customary sign of commercial failure in the land of letters. When "Jerusalem" was ready the firm that had already obtained the American rights to the English translation deemed it wiser not to make use of them. Thus it happens that, to this day, American readers are unable to buy the book which many lovers of Miss Lagerlöf's art consider her greatest so far.

But here, too, she was to conquer in the end. Another firm risked the publication of that group of short stories to which she has given the name of "Christ Legends." These charm ing tales, at once so quaintly unreal and so startlingly real, so daringly familiar and so profoundly reverent, took the fancy of our public as decisively as the previous volumes had failed to do so. The result was that the scorned earlier works also came into honor. And nowadays you may look long and hard without hope of finding a cheap copy of "Gösta Berling's Saga" or "Invisible Links' or "The Miracles of Antichrist," for they have all, long ago, been snapped up and read.

FIVE

TRANSLATIONS OF MISS LagerlöF'S WORKS IVE of the works of Miss Lagerlöf have been translated into English and published in this country,* the first of these being in 1899. In many respects this is the strongest "The Story of Gösta Berling," which appeared and most characteristic work of the author. The story, or "saga," as it is in the original,of Gösta Berling is a chronicle founded on actual occurrences of life on a country estate beginning of the past century. Gösta Berling in the province of Wärmland, in Sweden, at the is a preacher whose appetite for strong drink brings him down to the life of a pensioner upon is an iron magnate. He is, however, a mighty the estate of a wealthy woman whose husband man in love and war, although slave of a whim, of the desire of the moment, wild and terrible, but possessor of a tremendous power, fearless of everything." The story of the loves and hates, adventures and customs of this lonely part of South Sweden, with its impenetrable forests and many lakes and rivers, is told with a swing and style that is almost Homeric. Nine editions of the book have already been sold in lished in this country has been made by Pauline Sweden. The English translation now pubBancroft Flach.

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there are fourteen short stories. These are also tales of the Northland and they are full of the same power and charm of style that characterize

In the collection entitled "Invisible Links"

Gösta Berling." Each tale treats of at least one vigorous incident, and each is characterized by a play of fancy and fascination of style that at times suggest Hawthorne. Noteworthy among these tales are: "The King's Grave," The Legend of Reor," and "The Romance of a Fisherman's Wife." The English translation is by Pauline Bancroft Flach.

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Miss Lagerlöf is "The Miracles of Antichrist," Perhaps the most striking, original work of which treats, not of the Northland, but of traditions, customs, and characters in sunny Sicily. The superstitiousness, the picturesque poverty, the vindictiveness, and the impulsive devotion of the Sicilian character are set forth with a vitality and skill remarkable in the work of a writer so bred and steeped in Scandinavian traditions. "The Miracles of Antichrist" was also translated by Pauline Bancroft Flach.

Nothing since the days of Hans Christian Andersen has so stirred the children of not only Scandinavia but of Europe as Selma Lagerlöf's

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Wonderful Adventures of Nils." This delightful and original fairy story tells of many wonderful adventures that happened to the boy Nils, of battles between rats, of talking cows, wicked foxes, etc. Within three weeks after publication in Sweden more than 30,000 copies of the book were sold. So accurate is the author's knowledge of animal life, and so stimulating her description of the habits of animate nature, that the book has been adopted in the public schools of Sweden as equal to a textbook in natural history. The translation of the

*The Story of Gösta Berling. Little, Brown & Co.

473 pp. $1.50. Invisible Links. Little, Brown & Co.

286 pp. $1.50. The Miracles of Antichrist. Little, Brown & Co. 378 pp. $1.50. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. Doubleday, Page & Co. 430 pp.. ill. $1.50. Christ Legends. Henry Holt & Co. 272 pp. $1.25.

English edition of this work is by Velma Swan-
ston Howard. We are promised in the near
future a second volume.

In "Christ Legends" we have a collection of
eleven short stories of the marvelous based on
traditions, legends, and "
all peoples regarding the birth, boyhood, and
sagas
" found among

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THE NEW BOOKS

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION

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One of the most important travel books of the season is the story of Dr. Sven Hedin's discoveries and adventures in Tibet, which he has brought out in two volumes under the general title "Trans-Himalaya.' ing a closely woven, carefully prepared account Besides beof the achievements of a scientific explorer, geographer, and ethnologist, this work is an entertainingly told story of startling experiences, exciting adventures, and really remarkable achievements in the field of exploration. The expedition of this Swedish explorer started in August, 1906, entering the Forbidden Land from the northwest. He thoroughly explored the country, penetrating with the aid of his thirty-seven Asiatic followers into sections in which not only had no Western man ever trod but in which the existence, even, of Europe was unknown. Dr. Hedin's description of his meeting with the Tashi Lama shows that head of the Buddhist church to be human form but a man who in kindness of not a divinity in heart, innocence, and purity approaches as near as possible to perfection.' are almost literally crowded with illustrations, These two volumes largely from photographs but in many cases reproduced from drawings and sketches by the author. There are 388 illuswater-color trations and ten maps to the entre work.

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A posthumous volume by the late Jeremiah Curtin describes the author's experiences during "A Journey in Southern Siberia." This expedition was undertaken by Mr. Curtin for the purpose of collecting and studying the primitive folklore and myth tales of the Mongols. These are recorded in the volume under consideration in Mr. Curtin's well-known direct, simple, and suggestive style. The volume is illustrated.

It has become a question, not whether the season's output of books will include a work on Italy and the Italians, but how many books on this topic and by whom will they be written. A very sumptuous volume of leisurely travel and comment is Henry James' "Italian Hours."" This book is made up of exquisite and sympathetic descriptions of the beauties of Italian cities and the temperament of their citizens. There are thirty-two full-page illustrations in color by Joseph Pennell.

A handsomely illustrated volume of travel, by Rodolfo Lanciani, describes "Wanderings in 1 Trans-Himalaya. 2 vols., 875 pp.. ill., $7.50. By Sven Hedin. Macmillan. A Journey in Southern Siberia. Curtin. Little, Brown. By Jeremiah Italian Hours. 319 pp., ill. $3. Mifflin. 505 pp., ill. $7.50. By Henry James. Houghton

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American public in the subject of waterways, In view of the growing interest of the the new book by Herbert Quick on "American Inland Waterways Mr. Quick makes in this volume a comparison of our own water highways with like channels has a peculiar timeliness. of trade in foreign countries. their relation to railway transportation, their creation, restoration, and maintenance. He discusses author adopts the sound view that it is wasteful The

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DR. SVEN HEDIN, THE SWEDISH EXPLORER (Whose book, 46 Trans-Himalaya," has just been translated into English)

those facilities are provided which are neces-
to compel trade to follow the water unless
sary to make water traffic economical as com-
pared with land traffic. The photographic illus-
Wanderings in the Roman Campagna.
dolfo Lanciani. Houghton Mifflin. 378 pp., ill. $5.
By Ro
American Inland Waterways. By Herbert Quick.
Putnam. 241 pp., Ill. $3.50.

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trations which accompany the text are fresh and pertinent.

A curious book of travels, differing somewhat from contemporary works, was written by John Davis, an Englishman, early in the last century and dedicated to Thomas Jefferson,' Unlike most of the English travelers in America at that period, Davis was a writer and more interested in literary developments in the new country than in other phases of pioneer life. He served for some months as a teacher in South Carolina and Virginia, and spent in all four years and a half in journeying through the States from 1798 to 1802. He visited the new city of Washington at the time of Jefferson's inauguration. The new edition of his travels is edited, with an introduction and notes, by A. J. Morrison.

BOOKS ABOUT CANADA AND THE FAR NORTH

Two recently issued books on Canada emphasize the vastness of the Dominion's domain and resources as well as the fact that Canada now stands on the threshold of national existence with more than one serious problem facing her. Miss Agnes Laut's "Canada: The Empire of the North "2 tells again the romantic story of the Dominion's growth from colony to virtual kingdom. The book is full of historic incident and graphic writing. It closes with a brief section devoted to the probable future of the Dominion and the question, "Will she stand the strain, the tremendous strain, of prosperity, and the corruption that is attendant on prosperity?" Mr. Emerson Hough's sermon,-for such it is,-on England's duty to Canada is entitled, "The Sowing." Mr. Hough has some hard things to say about both the United States and Great Britain and some very fine things to tell us about Canada. Sounding all through his text, also, is a warning of the dangers of a too-rapid civilization. Both these volumes are illustrated.

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Miss Agnes Deans Cameron has written a spirited account of a woman's journey through Canada to the Arctic. This journey, begun at Athabasca Landing, was practically all by water to Fort McPherson and comprised in all 1854 miles. The route was by the Athabasca River and Lake, Great Slave River and Lake, and the Mackenzie River. At Fort McPherson Miss Cameron was far above the Arctic Circle and within a few miles of the Arctic Ocean itself. The greater part of the river journey was made by steamers, which during the summer season make trips of more or less regularity. At Athabasca Landing Miss Cameron found two women who have served as missionaries to the Cree Indians for many years and have printed on a hand-press in the Cree language syllabic hymns and portions of the Gospel.

It is eminently fitting that the first comprehensive description of Labrador to be given to the world should be authorized by the man who

Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America. By John Davis. Holt. 429 pp. $2.50. By Agnes Chicago:

Canada: The Empire of the North. C. Laut. Ginn & Co. 446 pp.. ill. $1.75. The Sowing. By Emerson Hough. Vanderhoof-Gunn Company. 222 pp., ill.

The New North. By Agnes Deans Cameron. Appletons. 398 pp., ill. $3.

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has done more than anyone else to bring that far-away land into touch with our civilization." In the preparation of this volume Dr. Grenfell has had the co-operation of W. S. Wallace, Reginald A. Daly, Albert P. Low, Charles W. Townsend, E. B. Delabarre, and other writers qualified by special knowledge to treat of various phases of the subject. As to the future of Labrador Dr. Grenfell is optimistic. Difficult as seems the problem of reclamation of this land to civilization, Dr. Grenfell believes that harder problems than this have been successfully solved.

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Trailing and Camping in Alaska," by Addison M. Powell, gives the experiences of a decade in prospecting for copper deposits in the famous Copper River district. The country is described in an interesting way, but the story is more important for the insight that it gives into pioneer life in the years immediately following the Klondike excitement.

SOME NEW VOLUMES OF HISTORY The American Bureau of Industrial Research, together with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has been engaged for more than six years in collecting manuscripts and printed materials relating to industrial conditions in America from the colonial period to the present time. It is said that the bureau alone has expended over $75,000, which was contributed by men of wealth and by students who desired to make such data available while it was still possible to do so. A selection of the more important documents thus acquired is to be published in a series of ten volumes,' edited by Prof. John R. Commons, of the University of Wisconsin, assisted by Ulrich B. Phillips,

Labrador: The Country and the People. By Wilfred T. Grenfell and others. Macmillan. 497 pp., ill. $2.25.

Trailing and Camping in Alaska. By Addison M. Powell. New York: A. Wessels. 379 pp.. ill. $2. 7 Documentary History of the American Industrial Society. Vols. I and II. Edited by Ulrich B. Phillips. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company. 375 pp. each. $5 each.

Eugene A. Gilmore, Helen L. Summer, and John B. Andrews. The first two volumes, for which Professor Phillips, of Tulane University, is responsible, are devoted to plantation and frontier conditions, 1649-1863. the entire work is contributed by Prof. Richard A preface to T. Ely, who was the leading spirit in founding and organizing the Bureau of Industrial Research, and an introduction by Prof. John Bates Clark, of Columbia University. These two volumes present a remarkably vivid picture (painted by contemporaries) of the industrial structure of the Old South,-the planters, the overseers, the white "redemptioners," the negro slaves, the free negroes, the town artisans, the slave-traders, the European immigrants, the frontier farmers, the Indian fighters, and the desperadoes.

991

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A comprehensive and scholarly historical and descriptive work on 'The German Element in the United States,' showing the part played by people of German birth in the upbuilding of American life and culture, has been brought out in two volumes from the pen of Dr. Albert Bernhardt Faust, professor of German in Cornell University. Professor Faust spent more than ten years in collecting material and in preparing this work. It not only deals with the great personalities of Teutonic birth and language who have contributed to our political, social, and educational civilization, but also analyzes the importance and significance of the present-day German element in this country.

lations of the United States, covering more
An elaborate discussion of the diplomatic re-
than 600 pages, by Rear-Admiral Chadwick,
has been (so the author tells us) the outcome
Admiral (then Captain) Chadwick began soon
of a study of the causes of the war of 1898.
after the close of the Spanish-American con-
flict to study the war
events.
as a purely military
The idea grew upon him and in this

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REAR-ADMIRAL CHADWICK

DR. ALBERT BERNHARDT FAUST (Author of a scholarly, painstaking work on "The German Element in the United States ")

volume we have the story of more than one hundred years of what he calls "really a racial strife." Admiral Chadwick writes with a clear, direct, and suggestive style and fortifies his moderate, scholarly conclusions with copious notes and bibliographical references.

To attempt the illustrations of the manners of eighteenth century London, which Mr. Henry B. Wheatley informs us had been his ambition for years, it was inevitable that the graphic art of Hogarth should have been called upon. This was the genesis of Mr. Wheatley's illustrated study of the English capital more than a century ago, which he has entitled Hogarth's London." prints are used to illustrate the description. Fifty-three Hogarth

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BIOGRAPHY

One of the ablest of the American geologists of the last generation was Prof. Josiah Dwight Whitney, of Harvard University. Although

(Whose new work, "The Relations of the United Professor Whitney died in 1896, his "Life and

States and Spain," is noticed on this page)

The two volumes are illustrated with portraits and other illustrations, including a number of maps and charts.

1 The German Element in the United States. By Albert B. Faust. Houghton Mifflin. 2 vols., 1200 pp., ill. $7.50.

Letters," by Edwin Tenney Brewster, have only
Diplomacy. By F. E. Chadwick.
The Relations_of_the United States and Spain:
pp. $4.
Scribners. 610
Hogarth's London. By H. B. Wheatley. Dutton
467 pp., ill. $4.80.

Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney. By
Edwin T. Brewster.
411 pp., ill. $2.50.
Houghton Mifflin Company.

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