1933
Belles lettres and bell ringers
Folk-Say
Folk-Say IV . The Land is Ours . 1932 .Edited by B. A. Botkin.
Norman, Uni-versity of Oklahoma Press, 1932 . $3 .00 .
IT is significant that the ed-itor of the Fourth Folk-Say does
not an-nounce it any more as a "Regional Miscellany," but proclaims
: "The land isours ."Not that regionalism and folklore are
altogether forgotten. We have herebeautiful poems reproducing
impressionsfrom the Southwest ; the very spirit of afiesta in Santa
Fe captured in a fleetingmoment of romantic enchantment; atenderly
moving narrative poem of naivemysticism ("A Miracle of Santuario")
;Sterling Brown's humorous, yet disturb-ing Negro poems ; portrayal
of the dif-ferent local brands of religious
hysteria,quasi-religious hypocrisy, and misapplica-tion of
democracy. We also find in thisvolume some stories of frontier
lawless-ness ; a vivid and beautiful descriptionof a desert
wedding, in the form of aletter ; many exquisite lyric poems,
andthe majestic Bunyan saga .
But, with very few exceptions, the con-tributors to this volume
are not concen-trating upon the capturing of regionaldifferences or
upon the recording of spon-taneous creations of "common folks"which
may perhaps be "folklore in themaking ." The contents of this
volumeis deeper, more serious than that . It istremulous with
pent-up human grief,tense with human suffering, attentive tosocial
conditions, to the uncertainty anddespair which are spreading all
over thecountry, irrespective of localities and re-gions, oblivious
of geographical, climaticand racial differences . The writers
have,in this volume, a tendency to regardtheir characters as parts
of society as awhole, and the different localities as partsof the
country as a whole. Moe Brag-in's farmhand thinks not only of
him-self, but of others : "Sure, there's manya poor feller won't
find a hole to winterin soon ." And his farmer, too, insteadof
talking about his personal plight,talks about his group: "Yah, it
ain't usthat gits it all . . . . It's the wholesaler sit-ting on a
soft tail ." When the old manin the Virginia hills (John C.
Rogers,"Heart of My Grandfather") complainsabout his hardships and
his son's unem-ployment, he asks : "Are they doing any-thing about
it"-clearly taking his own
The Sooner Magazine
case as a sample of a national calamity ;in the same sketch the
mailman asks,"how is it elsewhere," and the day la-borer back home
on a visit tells of thenation-wide depression, starvation
andhysteria ; he is not without hope-"someday there will be more
than that,"but the road to this goal is not atall clear in his mind
; yet, he vaguelyenvisages the culmination of thisgeneral unrest :
"marching again allof us over the land our land smelling ofloam of
pine of cosmetics of oil tryen-stopus ." The vagueness of his
hopes,the dimness of his vision mingle withthe mellowness of his
memories, with thewarmth of his tribute to his grandfather,with the
mist-filled longing for "the goodold time ;" and this general lack
of clear-ness and of analysis is outwardly express-ed by lack of
punctuation and by idi-osyncrasies of spelling, which makes
thesketch difficult to read . But the attemptto peer through the
partition of his in-dividual stall is here seen clearly.
Neither does Daniel Garrison's "WhiteNigger" consider poverty
his own per-sonal calamity . "Christ! ain't poor folksever going to
get nothing. . . . nothingbut hard work and misery . Ain't itright
to be poor? Ain't this here worldmeant for poor folks?" He
classifieshimself with other "poor folks" andwants better
treatment, but he does noteven dream of any possibility of
abolish-ing poverty altogether ; all he wants issome alleviation
for himself and his kind .H. H. Lewis portrays his Mac, Joe,
Hine, Stockhead as individual figures,in his admirable short
character sketches ;but in Humpy he reaches out into widercircles
and complains:
"The West"-it's all in the mind now;Go west-to the slums ;Follow
the echoes and find now-Bums, bums, bums . . . .
The volume represents a remarkablyvivid and reliable
cross-section of Ameri-can life in 1932, with the exception of
thestrictly industrial centers. The hard-ships, the unrest, the
chaos, the bewil-derment are all here .
But also the more permanent featuresof American small-town and
farm lifeare portrayed. Paul Horgan in "TheBurden of Summer" makes
us see thepitiful attempt at courage and dignityof an old farmer
who braves a sunstroketo prove to himself and others that heis
still strong and able-bodied . Thene ver-do-well Oscar Davis in
Webb's
by
Joseph A . Brandt
TOWARDthe
NEWSPAIN
The first political history ofthe republican movement .
"Mr- Brandt's book, aside from being asignificant and valuable
contribution topolitical history, is especially interestingbecause
of its timeliness, and because itis written in such a way as to be
interest-ing to the lay reader as well as to thestudent of history-
Mr- Brandt has had akeen appreciation of the drama of theperiods of
which he writes and he fre-quently resorts to dia!ogue to focus
dra-matic climax- His prose is vigorous andclear and his material
so cleverly handedthat the story moves right along, enrichedand
never impeded by skilfully inter-polated detail ." - Faith
Hieronymous,Tulsa Daily World .
"The author shows an arresting familiaritywish political trends
in Spain, tells hisstory objectively, and seems content torely on
the lessons of 1873 . . . '-NewYork Sun .
"Readers who wish to familiarize them-selves with the course of
events in Spainwill find the whole background of therevolutionary
movement presented ingreat detail in Toward the New Spain
the most complete account of thesort available in English . .
-"-NorthAmerican Review .
$4.00
The
University ofChicago Press
152
"Slough Country" is not fit for farming-he likes hunting too
well . Virgil Ged-des offers us a powerful drama of farmlife in his
"Mud on the hoof." E. P.Cookie, in his subtle dialogue "Lace"etches
for us the romantic Reba whomthe atmosphere of the farm is
smother-ing, and her matter-of-fact sister . JeanThomas has created
a unique and ar-resting personality in her Doctor Jeremi-ah
Withero. George Milburn, in littlegems of his note-book entries,
gives valu-able touches of character study and topsy-turvy social
values . E . M. Berry analyzessmall-town mass psychology in
"BoogerRed."
It is impossible even to mention allthat is valuable and
enjoyable in theFourth Folk-Say . The appearance of thebook is up
to the high standard of theUniversity of Oklahoma Press.SOPHIE R .
A. COURT.
Production controlLeonard Logan, "Production Control in
the Petroleum Industry" in the BrookingsLectures on Mineral
Economics, Mc-Graw-Hill Book Co., Inc. New York,1932 .
After giving the petroleum produc-tion control problem in its
historical per-spective, Professor Logan, '14as, of theUniversity
of Oklahoma, economic de-partment faculty, analyzes the
variousfactors at stake. The institution of prop-erty rights, the
migratory tendency ofthe oil, the romantic and speculative na-ture
of the industry all receive carefulattention. The industry has
passed thelaissez faire stage . Voluntary control hasbeen attempted
but has not proved ade-quate. Involuntary control has
raisedproblems concerning federal or state
PATRONIZE THESE
SOONER ADVERTISERS
"Funeral Directors for
More than Thirty Years"
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jurisdiction but because of precedent andinertia the federal
government is notexpected to participate except in the caseof an
extreme emergency. Proration isregarded as an important emergency
ac-tion, but unit control, with the pool asthe unit, the most
scientific . DoctorLogan does not attempt to prophesy con-cerning
future control methods but doesemphasize the necessity of such
action be-cause of economic waste involved underfree competition .
The very fact thatDoctor Logan was invited to give oneof the
Brookings Lectures for the MineralEconomics indicates that he is
regardedas an authoritative writer on petroleumeconomics.-JOHN B.
EWING.
Tristan and IseultDr . Maurice Halperin, assistant pro-
fessor of French, Writing Le Roman deTristan et Iseut dans la
Literature Anglo-Americaine as his thesis for the degreeof Docteur
de l'Universite de Paris,France, has gained recognition in
Ameri-ca, England and on the continent.
Reviews have appeared in LeRevuenglo-Americaine published in
France
The Modern Language Review publish-ed in England; The Modern
LanguageJournal and Books Abroad published atNorman .The Modern
Language Journal says
of Doctor Halperin : "He has done anexcellent and very useful
piece of workin bringing together and discussing thevarious
versions, translations and adap-tions .of the famous old story .
His workis to be commended to all those interest-ed in the
poem."
Traumatic surgeryAbstractive Lectures in Traumatic
Surgery, a book of recent lectures givenby a member of the
faculty in traumaticsurgery Will be issued soon to
physiciansthroughout the state . The book is valu-able to
physicians because it contains themost recent research, while
textbook ma-terial is often about four years old. Au-thorities in
the field represented are Dr .W. C. Campbell, Memphis,
Tennessee;Dr. H. Winnett Orr, Lincoln, Nebraska ;Dr . F. D.
Dickson, Kansas City, Mis-souri ; Dr . William R. Cubbins,
Chicago,Illinois ; Dr . Charles L. Scudder, Boston,Massachusetts;
Dr. W. B. Carrell, Dallas,Texas; Dr. T. J. Ganslen,
Milwaukee,Wisconsin ; Dr . A. E. Bence, Wichita,Kansas ; Dr . L. E
. Evens, Hartford, Con-necticut ; and Dr . R. D. Schrock,
Omaha,Nebraska .The work of compiling the book is
under the supervision of L. W. Kibler,of the extension division
.
A new book of interest to medical stu-dents is Practical Anatomy
edited by Ed-ward Philip Stibbe, published at $7 byLongmans Green
in New York .
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February
PRAISE
NEW YORK TIMES - "Onethinks of Miss Cather's Archbishop,
although her book hadmore conscious literary qualityand less
intimate acquaintancewith the subject."PHILADELPHIA LEDGER
-"Wah'Kon-Tah is an album ofIndian types, written with loveand
devotion and with keenappreciation of the beauty andthe poetry of
landscape and ofcharacter."PHILADELPHIA RECORD -'His words come
easily and lin-ger like a song in the mind . . .a beautiful book, a
tender, un-derstanding book Written by acultured and sensitive
man."MARY AUSTIN (in The Satur-day Review) -"Succeeds intranslating
the tribal mood moresuccessfully than any Indian rec-ord which has
yet been pro-duced ."OLIVER LA FARGE (author ofLaughing Boy)-"As a
story ofIndians it is in a class by itself . . .a delight to read
."HENRY SEIDEL CANBY-"Arare achievement-the capture inWords of a
vanished life ."THE NEW REPUBLIC - "In-fused with life and beauty
."TIME-"A first book, Mathews'work reads like the matured wis-dom
of a man civilized but un-spoiled."LEWIS GANNETT-"A bookwith a
flavor all its own."H . E. WILDES (Phila . Ledger)-"Human and
deeply understand-
STANLEY VESTAL-"His In-dians are genuine, his scenes ex-citing,
his descriptions sheerpoetry."
360 pages, illustrated-a de-lightful story to read- acharming
book to give. Print-ings have reached 50,000 cop-ies . At all
bookstores. 2.50
WAH'KON-TAHby JOHN JOSEPH MATHEWS,'20
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman
