Books of the Year

In the first eleven months of 1938, U. S. publishers brought out 9,949 new titles. There were 1,590 new novels, 606 biographies and autobiographies, 329 travel books, 1,158 new titles in the field of belles-lettres which includes poetry and criticism, 764 titles which come under the general head of politics, economics and the social sciences. In this enormous mass of books --good, bad, ponderous, specialized, dull, exciting, original, confused, confusing--a few stand head & shoulders above rivals in their respective fields. Some emerge from the year's crowd by their wide popular appeal, a few because of their unquestionable literary significance, still fewer because they offer contributions of importance to the consequential issues of the modern world. Outstanding titles:

NOVELS

NO STAR IS LOST--James T. Farrell-- Vanguard ($3).

COUNT BELISARIUS--Robert Graves-- Random House ($3).

MAN'S HOPE--Andre Malraux--Random House ($2.50).

JOSEPH IN EGYPT -- Thomas Mann -- Knopf (2 vols. $5).

THE YEARLING -- Marjorie Kinnan Rowlings--Scribner ($2.50).

BLACK IS MY TRUELOVE'S HAIR--Elizabeth Madox Roberts--Viking ($2.50).

HOUSE OF ALL NATIONS -- Christina Stead--Simon & Schuster ($3).

THE FATHERS -- Allen Tate -- Putnam ($2.50).

WHAT PEOPLE SAID--W. L. White-- Viking ($2.75).

SHORT STORIES

THE UNVANQUISHED--William Faulkner --Random House ($2.50).

THE FIFTH COLUMN AND THE FIRST FORTY-NINE STORIES--Ernest Hemingway --Scribner ($2.75).

THE WAY THINGS ARE--Albert Maltz International ($2).

THE LONG VALLEY--John Steinbeck-- Viking ($2.50).

UNCLE TOM'S CHILDREN -- Richard Wright--Harper ($2.50).

BIOGRAPHY

FANNY KEMBLE: A PASSIONATE VICTORIAN -- Margaret Armstrong -- Macmillan ($3).

EAGLE FORGOTTEN: THE LIFE OF JOHN PETER ALTGELD--Harry Barnard--Bobbs-Merrill ($4).

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON -- Hermann Hagedorn--Macmillan ($3).

THE HIDDEN LINCOLN: From the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon-- Edited by Emanuel Hertz--Viking ($5).

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN--Carl Van DorenuViking ($3.75).

A PURITAN IN BABYLON: THE STORY OF CALVIN COOLIDGE -- William Allen White--Macmillan ($3.50).

TOM WATSON: AGRARIAN REBEL -- C. Vann Woodward--Macmillan ($3.75).

AUTOBIOGRAPHY & LETTERS

LETTERS OF HENRY ADAMS, 1892-1918 --Edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford--Houghton Mifflin ($4.50).

THE JOURNALS OF BRONSON ALCOTT-- Edited by Odell Shepard -- Little, Brown ($5).

THE PADEREWSKI MEMOIRS--Ignace Jan Paderewski & Mary Lawton--Scribner ($3.75).

MARGARET SANGER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY--Norton ($3.50).

THE LETTERS OF LINCOLN STEFFENS -- Edited by Ella Winter & Granville Hicks --Harcourt, Brace (2 vols. $10).

BEYOND DARK HILLS--Jesse Stuart-- Dutton ($3.50).

CURRENT AFFAIRS

THE COMING STRUGGLE FOR LATIN AMERICA--Carleton Beals--Lippincott ($2.50).

JAPAN IN CHINA--T. A. Bisson--Macmillan ($3).

A SOUTHERNER DISCOVERS THE SOUTH-- Jonathan Daniels--Macmillan ($3).

THE RAMPARTS WE WATCH--George F. Eliot--Reynal & Hitchcock ($3).

RED STAR OVER CHINA--Edgar Snow --Random House ($3).

POETRY

COLLECTED POEMS--E. E. Cummings-- Harcourt, Brace ($3).

*DEAD RECKONING--Kenneth Fearing --Random House ($1.75).

*THE SELECTED POETRY OF ROBINSON JEFFERS--Random House ($3.50).

LAND OF THE FREE--Archibald MacLeish--Harcourt, Brace ($3).

THE FIFTH DECAD OF CANTOS -- Ezra Pound--Farrar & Rinehart ($1.50).

*THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LAURA RIDING--Random House ($4).

*TRANSLATIONS FROM THE POETRY OF RAINER MARIA RILKE--Norton ($2.50).

*COLLECTED POEMS--Genevieve Taggard--Harper ($2.50).

*THE COMPLETE COLLECTED POEMS-- William Carlos Williams--New Directions ($3)

HISTORY

A HISTORY OF THE BUSINESS MAN-- Miriam Beard--Macmillan ($5).

DEMOCRACY IN THE MAKING -- Hugh Russell Fraser--Bobbs-Merrill ($3.50). Savory history of the Jackson-Tyler fight against the United States Bank.

THE POLITICOS -- Matthew Josephson --Harcourt, Brace ($4.50). Left-wing study of post-Civil War spoilsmen.

THE BIG FOUR--Oscar Lewis--Knopf ($4.50). Excellent characterizations of the organizers of the Central Pacific Railroad.

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE

JOURNEYS BETWEEN WARS--John Dos Passos--Harcourt, Brace ($3).

AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES -- Federal Writers' Project. Best: NEW YORK PANORAMA (Random House, $2.50), NEW ORLEANS (Houghton Mifflin, $2.50), MISSISSIPPI (Viking, $2.50).

LISTEN! THE WIND -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh--Harcourt, Brace ($2.50).

ART

THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI --Reynal & Hitchcock ($15).

SKY HOOKS--The Autobiography of John Kane--Lippincott ($3.50).

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC--Gerstle Mack-- Knopf ($5).

CHARLES SHEELER, ARTIST IN THE AMERICAN TRADITION -- Constance Rourke -- Harcourt, Brace ($3).

HUMOR

LIFE CLASS -- Ludwig Bemelmans -- Viking ($2.50).

GRANDMA CALLED IT CARNAL--Bertha Damon--Simon & Schuster ($2).

WITH MALICE TOWARD SOME--Margaret Halsey--Simon & Schuster ($2).

MY SISTER EILEEN--Ruth McKenney-- Harcourt, Brace ($2).

GENERAL

THE EVOLUTION OF PHYSICS -- Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld--Simon & Schuster ($2.50).

THE BASIC WRITINGS OF SIGMUND FREUD --Edited by Dr. A. A. Brill--Modern Library ($1.25).

THE CULTURE OF CITIES--Lewis Mumford--Harcourt Brace ($5).

CRITICISM

WHITMAN--Newton Arvin--Macmillan ($2.75). First clear exposition of Walt's political beliefs and actions.

THE WORLD'S BODY--John Crowe Ransom--Scribner ($2.75). Lucid essays on the obscurity of contemporary verse.

THE TRIPLE THINKERS--Edmund Wilson --Harcourt, Brace ($2.75). Ten essays, literary and otherwise, by a leading U. S. critic.

* To be reviewed in TIME, December 26.

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