Life — March 14, 1907 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Best Book I Have Been Reading Epiror or Lire: Dear Sir—My absence from home lias made me late in re plying to your query about the book I have liked best in the past year. I think I should unhesitatingly give my preference to Vernon Lee’s “Enchanted Woods.” I have read numbers I have liked, but this is the only one that gave the real thrill the jrisson which is the delightful gift of the work of art to its readers. One's first impulse on closing its covers is to pack something and follow in the path pointed out by the author, or if that is impossible, to take every person one patticularly likes by the back of the neck and hold the book before them till they, too, read and rise to accompany one. A book seems to me to be valuable just in so far as it stirs to greater intensity the “will to live’’—to live more richly and beautifully, and the “Enchanted Woods” stirs impulses that must be something like the longing that draws birds across seas and continents in their annual migration. Yours truly, Applegarth, Centre Island. ELizaBeTH BISLAND. From the President of Princeton University Epitor or Lire: Dear Sir—I am obliged every year in a perfunctory way to run through so many books that I am afraid individual volumes do not make the impression upon me they once did. Perhaps it is for that reason that during the past year the book which impressed me most lay entirely outside the lines of my pro- fessional reading. It was Miss May Sinclair’s “The Divine Fire.” I do not know when it was published, but I read it within the last twelvemonth, and it seemed to me a truly vital piece of writing, because it did not describe characters, but created them, and added to the number of persons whose life experience one may be said to have known Very truly yours, Princeton, N. J. Wooprow Witson, Epitor oF Lire: Dear Sir—1 have your letter of January 5, asking which book I have read this last year impressed me most. In reply, I beg to say that last spring I was so busy with the rate-bill and last summer and fall so occupied with lecture-work that I did not have time to read any books. I like old books best, anyway. Very truly yours, Washington, D.C. B. R. Titian, Epitor or Lire: Dear Sir—In response to your question, I think I may say that among all the books I have read during the past year T liked best “London Films,” by William Dean Howel My reasons for this choice are surely obvious. The greatest thing in England is London. thing in America is William Dean Howells. Bartlett says of genius: “The force of Nature could no further go— To make a third, she joined the other two.” Sincerely yours, CaroLyn WELLS ‘The greatest And so, as Mr. Rahway, N. J. Eprtor or Lire: Dear Sir—Your request that I should tell you about the book I have read during the last year which has instructed me most, entertained me most and inspired me most rather took me aback. For some little time I could not think of which book had done all these things to me in the superlative degree. Then I remembered all I had been reading about myself in the newspapers, and the book flashed into my mind at once. It is Stanley Waterloo’s “Story of Ab.” That it instructed me as no other book has done, I have Stanley Waterloo’s own word. For he has stated that I got from his “Story of Ab” in six weeks what it had taken him fifteen years to get. The entertainment the “Story of Ab” afforded me goes with the saying. It was, honestly, the most entertaining book. ‘The inspiration the “Story of Ab” afforded me goes with the advertising. It so inspired me and so filled me with desire that others might know of it and receive the same pleasure and profit, that I lifted its content and put it into my “Before without a doubt the “Story of Ab” is the book of the r that most instructed me, most entertained me, most in- spired me and most profited me. Sincerely yours, Jack Lonpoy, —Oh, I made a mistake. I have just recollected that s ago that I read the “Story of Ab.” al. Eprtor oF Lire: Dear Sir—One of the most interesting books that I have read during the past year is “ Fundamental,” by Rev. Chas. Jefferson, published by Crowell and Company. Yours truly, Lincoln, Neb. W. J. Bryan. comicbooks.com