Life, 1920-05-20 · page 28 of 48
Life — May 20, 1920 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine reviews new books, with one accompanying political cartoon titled "Making Him Stay Dead." The cartoon satirizes **Admiral Lord Fisher**, a controversial British naval figure. The illustration shows a man in top hat repeatedly striking a corpse labeled "MILITARISM," attempting to ensure it remains dead. The accompanying review of Fisher's memoir *Memories and Records* explains the satire: Fisher was known as an "irrepressible personality"—a disruptive, never-maturing force in British public life (compared to Peter Pan). The cartoon's dark humor suggests that despite efforts to kill militarism (particularly after World War I), figures like Fisher keep reviving it through their continued influence and writing. The joke targets both Fisher's persistent meddling in naval/military affairs and broader post-WWI anxieties about whether militaristic thinking could truly be eliminated.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HINTED MEADOWS, by Kerr. (George H. Doran Company.) This new novel, with its scene laid in a Maryland village, is a story distinctively Sophie American and altogether delightful; easily worth more than Sophie Kerr's four pre- vious books combined. Fundamentally it is a straight romance and a study of two kinds of constancy—man’s and woman's Quite as important to most readers will be the charming portrayal of an entire community—all the people who count coming and going throughout the tale. To many thousands of readers it offers a satisfaction scarcely achieved once a year. The Letters of Henry James, edited by Percy Lubbock. — (Charles Sons.) Two vivid yolumes—for Henry James “let himself go” in his letters as he never did in his fiction. The full force of his artist's purpose is disclosed in many Scribner's The Latest Books sentences almost fanatical and often dis- dainful, though never supercilious or cold. Among the priceless things are his views of the work of other writers. The spec- tacle of James uniting with Stevenson to helittle Thomas some, he—well, alone worth the price of Hardy's Tess will, for admission Memorics and Records, by Fisher. Lord John (George H. Doran Company.) We understand that the boy stood on the burning deck whence all hut he had fled; and if the boy was Admiral Lord Fisher we can quite understand the exodus from the moment when he began to dictate the content: of There used to be a French phrase (very popu- these two volumes. lar; worked to death) about the “terrible child.” Imagine a terrible child with the Peter Pan quality of never growing up, and you will have some notion of the role Making Him Stay Dead of Lord Fisher in English public life. It is this irrepressible personality of his that will make joyous reading for 1! a smaller number will w what the author has to say al» naval operations throughout the conceives they were wretched! and his arguments have at least ing of his own splendid record « and acknowledged naval Jane clusten, by O. W. Holt & Co.) estimate irkins \ critical and hiv ( Henry hical sound, so keen and tively written as to make you vo read, or re-read, Jane yc Fighting Without a W bertson Military The only (Harcourt, Bra intervention in candid, firsth, have seen. (Continued on page 936) comicbooks.com