Brain Computer Interface M G Sumithra Full Chapter PDF
Brain Computer Interface M G Sumithra Full Chapter PDF
Brain Computer Interface M G Sumithra Full Chapter PDF
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Brain-Computer Interface
Scrivener Publishing
100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J
Beverly, MA 01915-6106
Publishers at Scrivener
Martin Scrivener ([email protected])
Phillip Carmical ([email protected])
Brain-Computer Interface
Edited by
M.G. Sumithra
Rajesh Kumar Dhanaraj
Mariofanna Milanova
Balamurugan Balusamy
and
Chandran Venkatesan
This edition first published 2023 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
and Scrivener Publishing LLC, 100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J, Beverly, MA 01915, USA
© 2023 Scrivener Publishing LLC
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ucts visit us at www.wiley.com.
ISBN 978-1-119-85720-4
Set in size of 11pt and Minion Pro by Manila Typesetting Company, Makati, Philippines
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface xiii
1 Introduction to Brain–Computer Interface: Applications
and Challenges 1
Jyoti R. Munavalli, Priya R. Sankpal, Sumathi A.
and Jayashree M. Oli
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 The Brain – Its Functions 3
1.3 BCI Technology 3
1.3.1 Signal Acquisition 5
1.3.1.1 Invasive Methods 6
1.3.1.2 Non-Invasive Methods 8
1.3.2 Feature Extraction 10
1.3.3 Classification 11
1.3.3.1 Types of Classifiers 12
1.4 Applications of BCI 13
1.5 Challenges Faced During Implementation of BCI 17
References 21
2 Introduction: Brain–Computer Interface and Deep Learning 25
Muskan Jindal, Eshan Bajal and Areeba Kazim
2.1 Introduction 26
2.1.1 Current Stance of P300 BCI 28
2.2 Brain–Computer Interface Cycle 29
2.3 Classification of Techniques Used for Brain–Computer
Interface 38
2.3.1 Application in Mental Health 38
2.3.2 Application in Motor-Imagery 38
2.3.3 Application in Sleep Analysis 39
2.3.4 Application in Emotion Analysis 39
v
vi Contents
xiii
xiv Preface
The Editors
December 2022
1
Introduction to Brain–Computer
Interface: Applications and Challenges
Jyoti R. Munavalli1*, Priya R. Sankpal1, Sumathi A.1 and Jayashree M. Oli2
2
Amrita School of Engineering, ECE, Bengaluru, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
India
Abstract
Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) is a technology that facilitates the communica-
tion between the brain and the machine. It is a promising field that has lot of poten-
tial to be tapped for various applications. To begin with, this chapter explains the
basics of the brain and its function. It describes the BCI technology and the steps:
from signal acquisition to applications. The signal capturing is done through inva-
sive and non-invasive methods. The features from the brain signals are extracted
and classified using various advanced machine learning classification algorithms.
BCI is extensively helpful for health-related problems but it also has applications
in education, smart homes, security and many more. BCI has its own share of
challenges that it has to overcome so that it could be beneficial in the future use.
We discuss about all the issues like ethical, technical and legal. This chapter pro-
vides an overview on BCI through basics, applications, and challenges.
Keywords: Brain-Computer Interface, BCI technology, BCI applications,
BCI challenges
1.1 Introduction
“A man sitting in a garden enjoying his regular walk. There are three
devices that are in use in the garden; a drone, a wheelchair, and a lap-
top. Each of them is controlled by the man without using any remote
1
2 Brain-Computer Interface
controller. Yes, he is controlling them with his mind. This is one of the
examples of brain-machine interface and we will be having numerous of
them in the near future.”
In the past 20 years, the world has seen tremendous changes in the
technology. Many technologies were invented that really affected the soci-
ety for/in their well-being. We are witnessing new arenas like Artificial
Intelligence, Virtual Reality, electronic health records, robotics, Data
Science, and many more. All these have revolutionized the healthcare
delivery system. Artificial Intelligence has paved its way in diagnosis, pre-
diction of diseases through its advanced algorithms like machine learning
and deep learning [1]. Virtual reality assists in treatment plans like pho-
bias and neurological disorders [2]. EMR-based real time optimization has
improved the efficiency of hospital systems and aid in decision making,
again through technological intervention [3–7]. It has been observed that
robotic assisted surgeries and the extent to which data science was uti-
lized during pandemic are the big marking of technology in healthcare
(Healthcare 4.0). With these technological interventions, Brain Computing
Interface (BCI) is one among them.
In 1920, the first record to measure brain activity of human was by
means of EEG but the device was very elementary. Later in 1970, research
on BCI that was particularly for neuro-prosthetic, began at the University
of California, Los Angeles, but it was in 1990s that these devices were actu-
ally implemented in humans.
A Brain–Computer Interface is also referred as Brain Machine Interface
or Mind-Machine Interface. BCI is a computer-based system that acquires
the signals based on the activities in the brain and analyzes and translates
the neuronal information into commands that can control external envi-
ronment (either hardware or software). It is an Artificial Intelligence system
that identifies the patterns from the collected brain signals. The electrical
signals that are generated during brain activities are used in interaction or
change with the surroundings. It allows individuals that are not capable to
talk and/or make use of their limbs for operating the assistive devices that
help them in walking and handling and controlling the objects [8]. BCI is
extensively used in Medicine and Healthcare [9].
This chapter presents the overview of BCI: its history and basics, the
process details with hardware components, its applications and then finally
the challenges faced while dealing with BCI. We begin with the description
of functional areas of brain.
Introduction to Brain–Computer Interface 3
Parietal lobe
Occipital
lobe
Frontal
lobe
Cerebellum
Most commonly, the BCI focuses on patients that have problems with
motor state and cognitive state. In normal humans, there is an intersection
of brain activity, eye movement, and body movements. If any one of them
is missed, it results in constrained state. Figure 1.2 shows this intersection.
It is observed that BCI is applicable to the areas where patients have nor-
mal to major cognition levels working along with no motor state response
to minor motor state response. So under this umbrella, we get patients that
experience completely locked-in syndrome (CLIS) or Locked-in Syndrome
(LiS) [13].
Motor state
Normal
Minor problem
Major problem
BCI domain
No Response
Signal Processing
Signal Feature
Classification
Acquisition Extraction
Digitized
signal
Commands
Feedback
BCI Application
Intracortical
Recording
Invasive
ECoG
BCI Recording
EEG
Methods
MEG
Non-invasive
fMRI
NIRS
a. Intra-Cortical Recording:
A single electrode or sometimes array of electrodes are in the cortex of the
brain. These interfaces are been used for the past 70 years and some of the
popular kinds of hardware for intracortical recording are as follows:
i. Wire-based arrays
ii. Micro-machined micro-electrodes
iii. Polymer microelectrodes
i. Wire-Based Arrays
They are also called Microwire arrays, Wire arrays are made up of insulated
metal wires with an uninsulated tip that is used to observe the bipotential
form of neurons in a bipolar environment [15]. The diameter of those wires
is in the range of 10–200 micrometers the limitations of microwire-based
arrays are as follows:
b. Electrocorticography (ECoG)
Intracranial electroencephalography is a technique for recording brain sig-
nals by putting electrode grids on the cortex’s surface. ECoG is an inva-
sive BCI recording method that records with electrodes put directly on the
brain’s exposed surface [22]. These are used when performing an internal
brain surgery.
Non invasive
EEG
MEG
Invasive
ECoG
SEEG
Intracortical
implant
b. MEG (Magnetoencephalography)
It is an imaging test which reflects the activity of the brain by recording
the magnetic fields produced by electric currents occuring naturally in the
brain [31].
10 Brain-Computer Interface
1.3.3 Classification
The signal patterns in the brain are dynamic stochastic processes because
of the biological factors and technical issues like amplifier noise and elec-
trode impedance changes. The identified signals before being translated
12 Brain-Computer Interface
Earlier BCI was used for decoding the thoughts of the handicapped peo-
ple with speaking and mobility issues. These applications used methods
such as speech communications and spelling applications that aided as
an alternative means of communication. With modern computing, BCI is
even used for healthy people. Now days, BCI is used as measuring tool to
assess an individual’s physiological quotient involving emotions, cognitive
level and effectiveness.
Just as the brain functions in diverse areas, BCI applications span over
a diverse area such as Healthcare, Education, Smart environment, Security
and authentication, Marketing and advertising, Gaming and entertain-
ment. Since BCI acts as a medium between the brain and the outside world,
its application domains are infinite and very promising i.e., BCI applica-
tions are to be considered that are pertinent to specific business.
a) Healthcare
Healthcare applications of BCI have transformed to various clinical prod-
ucts used in daily life. BCIs can be classified under the clinical uses as the
direct assistive control technologies and neuro rehabilitation. These assis-
tive control BCI applications encircle areas of communication, locomotion
and movement control, environment control, prevention, detection and
diagnosis [38].
b) Communication
BCI is mainly used for communicating with people with locked-in syn-
drome. Three types of BCI systems based on EEG, that measure electro-
physiological features tested on humans for commination purpose are:
Slow Cortical potentials (SCPs), P300 event-related potentials and senso-
rimotor rhythms (SMRs) [38].
d) Prevention
BCI are used in various consciousness level detection system. These appli-
cations prevent loss of function and decrease in alertness level which are
the side effects of smoking of due to consumption of alcohol. BCI is also
used in detecting motion sickness, which arise due to confliction of sensory
generated between eyes, ear and brain during motion of the individual [39].
f) Rehabilitation
Patients with mobility issues are given physical rehabilitation for restoring
the lost functions and regain their previous mobility levels, so that they can
adapt to the disabilities. With these physical rehabilitations, patients suf-
fering from strokes can also recover fully. BCI uses mobile robots for eases
the daily life activities of such patients. BCI based neuro-prosthetic devices
are used for patients wherein their previous levels of communication or
mobility cannot be recovered. Nowadays BCI is diving into the arena of
virtual reality for monitoring and controlling the avatar movements gen-
erated from the brain waves. Augmented reality-based BCI system such
as augmented mirror box uses brain signals that are generated by incor-
porating both the injured as well as healthy limb. BCI driven therapeutic
tools have the potential to the aide patients with impaired neuro muscular
functions because of trauma, to re-learn the motor functions. These BCI
systems enable patient’s functional recovery and thus enhance their quality
of life [39].
g) Education
In BCI enabled education systems, brain signals are used to understand the
level of clarity in processing the information. Non-invasive BCI techniques
are used for self-regulating the learning experience and improve the cog-
nitive therapeutic methods. fMRI-based EEG BCI trainings are used for
emotional regulation, fight depressions and other neuropsychiatric disor-
ders [39].
16 Brain-Computer Interface
h) Smart Environment
Severely disabled patient’s quality of life can be improved significantly
with BCI-based environment control system. These control systems
effectively manage their daily life environment around them such as
lighting systems in the house, room temperature, TV units and power
beds. Smart environment systems enhance the patient’s well-being
and relieve them from being dependent on others. Smart environ-
ments based on BCI enhance well-being, safety, and independence of
patients in daily life. Modern computing has tied up BCI technologies
and Internet of Things (IoT) that create smart houses, workplaces, and
transportations for monitoring the patient’s mental state and adapt
the surrounding environment appropriately. These functionalities are
extended to use of universal plug and play home networking. Working
conditions can be greatly improved by assessing the user’s cognitive
state. BCI systems are used for studying the impact of mental fatigue
and stress levels because of workload. Various BCI techniques are used
in assessing the user’s cognitive state. Even virtual audio-visual set-ups
are used for analyzing and evaluating the brain signals associated with
the user’s response [39].
A. Usability Challenges
It talks about the issue of acceptance by patients to use BCI technology.
These usability challenges can be either issues related to training process or
ITR (Information Transfer Rate) [1]. The user has to be trained to deal and
control with the system and is a time-consuming process. This training is
either in the preliminary phase or in the calibration phase. The most com-
mon available solution to this is to adopt single trial instead of multiple
trials. One of the solutions is to use zero training classifier.
Information Transfer Rate is the method used widely for evaluating BCI
systems. This parameter depends on the accuracy of detection, the num-
ber of trials and the average detection time taken. Increase of accuracy of
detection can be achieved by increasing signal to noise ratio and should be
considered in pre-processing phase. An approach called dynamic stopping
is use to reduce average detection time is certain applications. Another
18 Brain-Computer Interface
B. Technical Challenges
These are related to recording of the electrophysiological properties of brain
signals. The technical challenges include the issues related to non-linearity,
noise, non-stationary, quality of the dataset, limited number of training
sets, data fusion, inability of data interpretation
iv. Quality of the data set: In BCI application the quality of the EEG sig-
nals depends on the quality of the headsets or electrodes used for the mea-
surements. The electrodes used for measurement usually requires gel or
liquid which cause discomfort to users. Practically when user’s comfort is
to be considered dry electrodes are preferred. Some investigations reports
that the data acquired from dry electrodes consists of more noise when
compared with wet electrodes whereas another set of studies reports that
the quality of data are almost same for both electrodes. There is a need
for further investigations on the usage and efficiency of electrodes for the
Introduction to Brain–Computer Interface 19
vi. Data analysis methods: There are numerous algorithms which are
used for removal of artifacts in data pre-processing. Different algorithms
have different limitations when used in analyzing the EEG data. Some
algorithms focus on the removal of certain artifacts some focus on increas-
ing the accuracy in the removal of artifacts. Different applications use
different algorithms like ICA algorithms are used for artifacts removal in
EEG recordings, CCA, and its combination for removal of muscle artifacts.
When artifacts overlap with the spectral components then Wavelet trans-
form fails completely. Hence the challenge arises for a single algorithm
which can be efficient and accurate to satisfy different conditions satisfac-
torily. Thus, the goal for future researchers would be to develop algorithms
which are application specific and has good accuracy and time efficiency
and standardize the methods for a particular application [40].
In context to feature extraction techniques CSP and its combination
algorithm gives encouraging results for EEG data. Based on the investi-
gations done by researchers SVM is considered as the most powerful clas-
sifier powerful classifier for classification of high dimensionality feature
vectors. Another study shows that the deep learning methods, CNN and
RNN are better when compared with other methods and the accuracy of
CNN is high for time-series values.
methods. Usually in most of the cases the obtained data is partial or noisy.
This may be due to unstable recording or due to built-in flexible nature of
brain. Hence learning of neural signal processing is essential to understand
the adaptive nature of the brain [41].
All BCI experiments are conducted in a controlled environment (lab)
where realistic target users are not considered. Studies show that heart
rate and cortisol influences characteristics of EEG data. EEG data varies
with sensory stimulus such as smell, sound, and movements which affect
the quality of EEG data. Hence in order to make BCI the system robust
the engineers should consider the environment where the BCI system is
applied along with the target set of users. For example, the design criteria
change for a user who stays at home most of the times and controls house-
hold articles and for a person who is taxi driver who drives in a heavy
traffic, the level of attention and concentration are different. Hence during
design phase, it is important to consider the environmental aspects and the
target user for a more efficient BCI system.
References
1. Vaidya, R.R., Nagendra, A., Shreyas, B., Munavalli, J.R., Predictive and com-
parative analysis for diabetes using machine learning algorithms. Int. J. Adv.
Sci. Technol., 29, 3, 14407–14416, 2020.
2. Nalluri, S.P., Reshma, L., Munavalli, J.R., Evaluation of virtual reality oppor-
tunities during pandemic. 2021 6th International Conference for Convergence
in Technology (I2CT), 2021.
3. Munavalli, J.R., Rao, S.V., Srinivasan, A., Manjunath, U., van Merode, G.G.,
A robust predictive resource planning under demand uncertainty to improve
waiting times in outpatient clinics. J. Health Manage., 19, 4, 563–583, 2017.
4. Munavalli, J.R., Rao, S.V., Srinivasan, A., van Merode, G.G., An intelligent
real-time scheduler for out-patient clinics: A multi-agent system model.
Health Inform. J., 26, 4, 2383–2406, 2020.
5. Munavalli, J.R., Rao, S.V., Srinivasan, A., van Merode, G.G., Integral patient
scheduling in outpatient clinics under demand uncertainty to minimize
patient waiting times. J. Health Inform., 26, 1, 435–448, 2020.
6. Munavalli, J.R., Rao, S.V., Srinivasan, A., van Merode, G.G., Workflow-based
adaptive layout design to improve the patient flow in the outpatient clinics.
Ann. Romanian Soc. Cell Biol., 25, 3, 8249–8257, 2021.
7. Munavalli, J.R., Rao, S.V., Srinivasan, A., van Merode, F., Dynamic layout
design optimization to improve patient flow in outpatient clinics using
genetic algorithms. Algorithms, 15, 3, 85, 2022.
8. Shih, J.J., Krusienski, D.J., Wolpaw, J.R., Brain–computer interfaces in medi-
cine. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, vol. 87, pp. 268–279, 2012.
9. Kummar, R.G., Suhas., S.J., Vismith, U.P.J., Munavalli, J.R., Brain computing
interface-applications and challenges. IOSR J. Comput. Eng., 23, 2, 29–40,
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10. Abdulrahman, S., Roushdy, M., Salem, A.B.M., Overview of acquisition
techniques brain signals in human identification and disease diagnosis:
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37. Bablania, A., Edla, D.R., Dodia, S., Classification of EEG data using k-near-
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faces: Current state and future prospects. IEEE Rev. Biomed. Eng., 2, 187–199,
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Bari, B.S., Khatun, S., Current status, challenges, and possible solutions of
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2
Introduction: Brain–Computer
Interface and Deep Learning
Muskan Jindal1, Eshan Bajal1* and Areeba Kazim2
Abstract
Brain signals or radiations are a relatively new concept that works with informa-
tion collected via human brain and cognitive activity. These signals like human
brain are influenced by all the physical, geographical, emotional, and cognitive
activities around it, are individualistic in nature, and follow numerous patterns.
Complying with the same Brain–computer interface (BCI), is the area of science
where these signals are contemplated to advance the human-computer interac-
tion applications. This area of research ties the cord between human cognitive to
computer’s processing and speed, aiming to create a unique field in biomedical
sciences to introduce infinite applications like, neural rehabilitation, biometric
authentication, educational programs, and entertainment applications. Although
nascent, Brain–computer interface (BCI) has four major grades of processing
steps – signal acquisition, signal pre-processing, feature extraction, and classifi-
cation. This study firstly, thoroughly elaborates upon its various processing steps
while exploring the origin, need, and current stage of development of Brain–
computer interface (BCI) with respect to brain signals. Post complete under-
standing of basic concepts and terminologies of brain signals, Brain–computer
interface (BCI) and their interconnection along in the field of bio-medicine; this
study elucidates upon primordial methodologies of Brain–computer interface
(BCI) along with respective merits and demerits with intensive classification.
A differential based analysis is provided to insight into new age deep learn-
ing-based method in the field of Brain–computer interface (BCI) while com-
paring them with primordial techniques. A complete data intensive review is
25
26 Brain-Computer Interface
performed for new era deep learning techniques while properly classifying the
same into multiple gradations based on deep learning framework and their vari-
ous versions implemented namely, neural networks (CNN) and recurrent neural
networks (RNN), long short-term memory (LSTM) architecture, U-net among
other. This chapter also aims to provide real world application, challenges, scope
of future growths, avenues of expansion and complete industry specific guide for
implementing insights gathered from brain signals in the nascent area of Brain–
computer interface (BCI). Lastly, to fathom the performance of Brain–computer
interface (BCI) this study also provides its application in multiple case studies
with desperate health hazards like brain tumor, Dementias, Epilepsy and Other
Seizure Disorders, Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), Alzheimer’s
Disease, Parkinson’s and Other Movement Disorders. This chapter aims to not
only provide background, current status, future challenges and case studies but
also an application specific perspective in Brain–computer interface (BCI) in the
field of bio-medical.
2.1 Introduction
Brain–Computer interface primarily thrives on brain signals, which is bio-
metric information that is compiled or processed by human brain. These
brain signals can be result of any kind of thoughts or activity that is result
of active and passive mental state. A normal human brain always emits
brain signals due to the constant state of activity that occurs even when the
physical body is at complete rest, i.e., brain emits signals when humans are
sleeping as well. Thus, there is no paucity of brain signals [1]. Psychologists
have often used the emotions or thoughts a human think to understand
or interpret the real meaning of these brain signals but often human mind
does not let complete visibility into these brain signals [2]. Thus, by the
implementation of precise brain signal decoding one can comprehend or
interpret the actual meaning of these brain signals without disturbing the
current mental and physical state of prospect’s psychology. These brain sig-
nals when interpreted correctly can improve the prospect’s quality of life
or provide insight into their inner mind-set or psychology [3]. Based on
the research done by various experts and psychologists, brain signals colla-
tion had two kinds of signals-invasive signals and non-invasive signals [4].
BCI and Deep Learning 27
Invasive signals require deeper penetration and can be collected via deploy-
ing electrodes on human scalp. While non-invasive signals are acquired
rather easily without any penetration or use of electrode as they are col-
lected over the scalp [5].
Brain–computer interface (BCI) systems uses certain mechanism to use
these brain signals to create a constant mode of communication between
human brain and computer, such that the messages, communication, com-
mands, and emotions of human brain are conveyed to computer without
any physical moment of either the human brain or the computer interface
[6]. This is done by the Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) systems via mon-
itoring the conscious electric brain activities by the application of elec-
troencephalogram (EEG) signals that can detect any impulse of thoughts
or activity that occurs in human brain [7]. These EEG signals have been
actively use by neurologists in the healthcare industry to diagnose mul-
tiple diseases, help identify any incumbent brain activity, medical proce-
dures like surgeries, provide insights into real anatomy and implications
of human brain and other medical and psychological applications [8, 9].
For Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) systems, EEG signals use captured
and then digitalized or processed by the use of various processing algo-
rithms, so that these EEG signals or brain signals are converted to real time
control signals [10]. This establishes a link between the prospect or the
human brain and the computer, such that all the active or passive activities
in the human brain can be detected by the computer system. This connec-
tion enables the computer to comprehend all the activities, emotions, or
demands that human brain exhibits, enabling many revolutionary tasks.
Like, help physically disabled people or people with temporary limb or
people with any kind of disability perform almost all the tasks [11]. This
makes them independent, self-sufficient, confident and improve their qual-
ity of life that medical science cannot even imagine to do [12–14]. Different
Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) systems control different types of brain
activity, considering there are diverse activities that the human brain per-
forms – classifying Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) systems into different
kinds based on the activities they perform or the organ replacement they
are responsible for [15]. Another way to classify Brain–Computer Interface
(BCI) systems is the kind of brain signals they use considering there are
multiple kinds namely, electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram
(ECG or EKG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), or hybrid
input of any two or more brain signal [16]. A very established EEG based
Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) system is P-300, Steady State Visual
28 Brain-Computer Interface
iii
At a time when he most urgently needed money, Mr. Hamilton had
had a series of conversations with an actor manager known on both
sides of the Atlantic. This man needed a new play and Hamilton had
the necessary idea, but there was a difficulty. “If I were prepared to
give him all the best scenes, all the best lines and build the play not
round the boy and girl but all about himself, make him suffer as the
boy was to suffer, love as the girl was to love, and, as he was to be a
clergyman, undergo a momentary shattering of faith which would
give him a first-class opportunity to show how supremely he could
touch the tragic note, a check on account of royalties would be paid
at once and a contract signed.” Mr. Hamilton refused, thereby
sacrificing all future chances in this quarter, but “when that play was
offered to the public in 1911 word for word as I had described it to
the man who subsequently forgot my face, it was called ‘The
Blindness of Virtue.’ Can’t you imagine how I love to say that it has
been running ever since?”[63]
It was first written as a novel, however, under that title. The novel
was well-received and when Mr. Hamilton’s younger brother, Arthur
Hamilton Gibbs, came down from Oxford for some golf he suggested
that a play be done from the novel. Cosmo’s reply can be imagined,
but the old idea took instant hold, and the manuscript of the play was
ready precisely when an actor who had taken the lease of the
Adelphi Theatre, meeting Hamilton on the street, asked: “Why don’t
you make a play of The Blindness of Virtue?” C. H.’s reply was to
hand him the typed play.
This novel and play mark a decisive point in the author’s career. It
appeared in 1911 and the following year Mr. Hamilton made his first
visit to America. On his return he was inevitably asked: “Are you
going to use your novels for the ventilation of vital questions or are
you going to revert to the entertaining novel of society life?” He
answered: “I believe that I have now lived long enough, suffered
enough, observed enough and studied enough to try and rise a little
above the level of a merely entertaining writer,—one content to give
his readers satirical pictures of men and women of the world, their
surroundings, their little quarrels and their little love affairs. I believe
that I have it in me to put into my work something that is of value
apart from any pretensions to literary merit that it may have; that will
cause the people who read it to ask themselves whether the world
and the social system is as perfect as they imagined it to be, if they
ever thought about these things. I don’t think I can better describe
my intentions than by saying that I am going to write human stories
for human beings and no longer light sketches of people who are
afraid to think and do not desire to remember their great and grave
responsibilities.”
Book, play and motion picture must have made everyone familiar
with The Blindness of Virtue as a sermon on sex education
powerfully implied by the engrossing story of an innocence that was
merely ignorance. A glance at Mr. Hamilton’s succeeding novels will
show how consistently he has stuck to his determination not to write
mere light fiction.
The Door That Has No Key (1913) is a story of married life. A man
has given a woman his name but has never found the key to her
mind. The Miracle of Love (1915) is the story of an English duke with
a conscience and a sense of duty. He faces the necessity of
marrying for money in order to restore family fortunes, although he is
already in love with a girl whom it is quite impossible for him to
marry, even though he sacrifice, for her sake, title and estates. The
Sins of the Children (1916) is more strictly in succession to The
Blindness of Virtue. This is a novel of American family life illustrating
the danger to young people coming from ignorance of sex truths,
and showing that the children’s sins are principally due to the failure
of parents to tell them what they should know.
Scandal (1917) is an exceptionally good illustration of Cosmo
Hamilton’s ability to write a dramatically interesting story, freighted
with moral and ethical teachings, but fictionally buoyant, and with the
story uppermost all the time. Beatrix Vanderdyke is the beautiful
daughter of wealthy parents. She is also the typical American spoiled
child. A flirtation in which she throws conventions aside gives the
occasion for scandalous talk; and to enable her to cope with the
situation she asks Pelham Franklin, an acquaintance, not to show
her up when she announces that he and she have been secretly
married. Franklin has his own idea as to the lesson she needs; he at
once acknowledges her as his wife and proceeds to treat her as if
she were. It is the way, with such a girl, to a happy ending.
Who Cares (1919) is the story of a boy and girl, high-spirited,
healthy, normal and imaginative, flung suddenly upon their own
resources, buying their own experiences, and coming finally out of a
serious adventure hurt and with a price to pay, but not damaged
because of the inherent sense of cleanness that belongs to both. His
Friend and His Wife (1920) describes the tragic repercussions in
tranquil homes of one moral misstep. The Blue Room (1920) is the
story of a young man whose reformation took place too late to avoid
giving a shock of keen mental anguish to his prospective bride on
the eve of their marriage. These two people achieve happiness not
without scars, and the novel is a sharp stroke at the double standard
of morality or sex ethics.
The Rustle of Silk (1922) is a presentation of political and social
life in after-war London. Lola Breezy, a reincarnation in a shabby,
lower middle class environment of the famous and alluring Madame
de Breze of eighteenth century France, lifts herself out of her
surroundings by sheer force of personality and becomes the friend
and confidante of England’s Home Secretary, the “coming”
statesman.
Another Scandal (1923) is an extension of Scandal and deals with
Beatrix Vanderdyke and Pelham Franklin after their marriage. Mr.
Hamilton, describing the genesis of the novel, explains: “Here was
this astounding creature, Beatrix, not only married but about to have
a baby. Sentimental cynic that I am, I hoped that she had settled
down. At the same time, I dreaded a tangent. I hadn’t long to wait.
Hardly had Franklin II. time enough to open his eyes when Beatrix
suffered the inevitable reaction, finding that the ‘girl stuff,’ as she had
an irritating way of calling that pathetic-tragic-romantic thing in her,
had not worked itself out.” There is some extremely sound
philosophy on the whole subject of marriage in this novel.
iv
Scandal, like The Blindness of Virtue, made an effective play; the
number who will recall Francine Larrimore in the rôle of Beatrix
Vanderdyke is large. Rather better, except for those who have the
empty prejudice against reading plays, than any of Mr. Hamilton’s
novels is his Four Plays (1924), containing “The New Poor,”
“Scandal,” “The Silver Fox,” and “The Mother Woman.” It is amusing
to read the note in connection with “The Mother Woman”:
“Misproduced in New York under the title of ‘Danger’ in 1922.” Mr.
Hamilton, in a long experience with the theater, has suffered much
and most of it with sportsmanship and cheerfulness; he is entitled to
this calm and rather deadly comment.
“The New Poor” is social satire, a comedy in which actors
impersonate the servants; but the other three plays are in line with
Mr. Hamilton’s recent novels. “The Silver Fox” is a comedy of
marriage and divorce; but unquestionably the most powerful play of
the collection is “The Mother Woman.” Dealing with the question of
children in a marriage which is a social contract rather than a
sacrament, at least, from the wife’s viewpoint, its strength lies in the
hardness and the consistency with which the wife is characterized. In
its thesis the play bears wholly in one direction—not a weakness in
the theatre, of course; but Mr. Hamilton has the wisdom to give Violet
Scorrier good speeches and to let her walk off the stage, at the end
of the last act, unchanged, unchanging, and satisfied with her
unshared ego.
The history of these plays and various others, together with much
of the history of his novels will be found in Mr. Hamilton’s extremely
readable Unwritten History. This, if it must be classed, can only be
put into the list of informal and anecdotal autobiographies. It has all
the good humor, the respect for human interest and the relative
disregard for the claims of mere importance which should pervade a
book of its sort. In other words, it has the exhilaration of talk devoted
to one’s liveliest recollections, with no special regard for chronology
and with only the spur of mood. And the mood? It is throughout
humorous, even self-humorous, democratic and impartial. Mr.
Hamilton does not go out of his way to express his opinions, but
neither does he dodge a natural comment when the occasion
comes. You gather, for example, his very definite and not favorable
view of David Lloyd George. The book is exceptional for its range of
portraits. In anything from a sentence or two to several pages there
is something about Kipling, Barrie, Conrad, Sinclair Lewis,
Coningsby Dawson, Gilbert K. Chesterton, Heywood Broun and W.
J. Locke among writers; the King and Queen, Lord Roberts, Colonel
E. M. House, Mr. Asquith, Admiral Beatty, J. Pierpont Morgan, Lord
Balfour, Melville Stone and the Prince of Wales among the figures of
public life; John Drew, Owen Davis, Pinero, Augustus Thomas,
George Arliss, William Archer, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks,
Charlie Chaplin and Granville Barker among the people of the
theater. The twelve caricatures, particularly those of Bernard Shaw,
Charles Frohman, George Grossmith, Sir Martin Harvey, Mr. Lloyd
George and Lytton Strachey are the first public disclosure of Cosmo
Hamilton’s decided talent as an artist.
But perhaps the interest and engaging quality of Unwritten History
can best be shown by quoting, not an anecdote of some personage,
but some such incident as that of the first trip Mr. Hamilton made to
this side:
“Before the ship had left Southampton I was flattered by the
attention of an extremely good-looking, athletic, well-groomed
youngish man, who insisted on walking the deck with me. He took
the trouble to let me know, very shortly after we had broken the ice,
that although that trip was not his maiden one he had only made the
Western crossing once. But when, an hour before the bugle sounded
for dinner, the purser touched me on the arm as I was following him
into the smoking-room and murmured the one word ‘card-sharp,’ I
still went on utterly disbelieving this brutal summing up of a delightful
man’s profession. Those were the old bad days when America was
free, and never dreamed of interfering with the rights of foreign
vessels, and so we had a sherry and bitters together in what is now
an easy though a criminal way of encouraging an appetite. After
which, his hand closing familiarly on a box of dice, he suggested with
a naïve smile that we should kill an awkward half an hour by
throwing for five pound notes, and I saw, in a disappointed flash, the
reason of his flattery. The purser was right, as pursers have a knack
of being. And so as much to retrieve myself from his obvious
assumption that I was an ‘easy mark,’ as to be able to continue a
pleasant acquaintanceship without having again to back out of future
invitations of the same expensive sort, I made ready to dodge a
knockout blow and told him that I not only had no spare fivers to lose
but had a peculiar aversion to losing them to a card-sharp. After a
second or two of extreme surprise at my character reading and
temerity he burst out laughing, and we walked the deck together with
perfect affability during the whole of the rest of the voyage. He was
one of the most interesting men that I have ever met, a student of
Dickens and Thackeray with a strong penchant for the Brontës, and
as devoted a lover of Italy as Lucas is, with much of the same feeling
for its beauty and its treasures. At no cost at all I greatly enjoyed his
company and when, six months later, I met him by accident in
Delmonico’s, with the ruddy color that comes from sea air and
shuffleboard, I was charmed by his eager acceptance of my
invitation to dine. In the meantime he had read Duke’s Son and
although he liked my story very much and said so generously
enough, at the same time assuring me that he was not much of a
hand at modern books, he wound up by regretting that I had not met
him before I wrote about cheating at cards, because he could have
put me right on several points. He died fighting gallantly, and
probably as humorously, in the war.”
v
Readers of Unwritten History may look upon a photograph of Mr.
Hamilton’s home, an English cottage of that idyllic air which seems
to be the special property of all English cottages belonging to all
English authors. Mr. Hamilton and a young son (now somewhat
older) are on the brick steps that lead to the house, for the cottage is
on a hill. Beside the steps and in front of the house is what we call
an “old-fashioned garden”—flowers and plants in a profuse,
unordered growth, with the tall spikes of flowering hollyhocks making
the garden three-dimensional. Mr. Hamilton’s second marriage, after
the death of Beryl Faber, was with a Californian; and he now resides
here rather more than abroad, although he endeavors to spend his
summers in England and on the Continent. In the war, of course, he
was in service, first with the anti-aircraft corps (when he was finally
detailed to Sandringham, for the protection of the King and Queen
during their stay) and then as a British publicist and propagandist in
America. American audiences like him, and he reciprocates.
There is, indeed, about him personally a simplicity, directness and
fundamental unsophistication that may be perceived in his fiction but
which is missed by the casual reader and auditor and observer and
acquaintance. Accident, marked talents and a variety of surface
tastes and social interests have constantly brought him into what has
been well described as “the world where one bores oneself to death
unless one is in mischief.” But both boredom and mischief are
impossible if one continues, as C. H. has continued, to care only for
the same handful of essentials. One thinks of him, for example, as
the very antithesis of W. L. George. Less poetic than his brother,
Philip Gibbs, he has his share of the same moral earnestness (a
family trait) and gifts as great or greater as a storyteller, especially a
story of drama all compact.
ii
Besides the large number of sketches and impressions of
Woodrow Wilson embedded in various recent books, there have
already been published several biographies; but The True Story of
Woodrow Wilson, by David Lawrence, seems to me distinctly the
best of these, and probably the best immediate life of Wilson we
shall have. Mr. Lawrence sat under Mr. Wilson when Wilson was
professor of jurisprudence and politics at Princeton; he was with him
at the time of nomination for Governor of New Jersey; he knew
intimately the dissension at Princeton over the Wilson policies as
President of the University; and from the time of Mr. Wilson’s
nomination for the Presidency of the United States, Mr. Lawrence
saw him continuously and at close range. For the younger man had
quickly become one of the most brilliant of the Washington
correspondents. His daily despatches then, as now, appeared in
newspapers throughout America. He was in Washington, covering
the White House, during Mr. Wilson’s terms; went with him on his
campaign tours; went with him through Europe and watched him at
Versailles; and finally was with him on the tour on which Mr. Wilson
suffered the physical collapse leading to his death. The result of this
prolonged contact is a book in which nothing relevant is omitted or
evaded. Mr. Lawrence begins with a striking chapter summarizing
the paradoxical qualities of the war President—in some respects the
most satisfactory portrait yet painted. He continues with the same
impartiality and a frankness which no one else has ventured; and not
the least valuable feature is the correspondent’s ability to throw light
on certain public acts of Wilson which have heretofore gone
unexplained.
One or two other volumes in which the political interest is
predominant deserve mention while our minds are on recent history.
Maurice Paleologue was the last French ambassador to the Russian
Court, serving about two years, from 3 July 1914 to mid-1916. The
three volumes of his An Ambassador’s Memoirs constitute the most
interesting account we have had of the imperial decline, chiefly
because M. Paleologue, with all the genius of French writing,
pictures the slow downfall with a kind of terrible fidelity. The
despairing vividness of this history is mitigated by many delightful
asides on aspects of Russian character and psychology, art and life,
written with an equal brilliance and a keen enjoyment.
Twelve Years at the German Imperial Court, by Count Robert
Zedlitz-Trützschler, is by the former controller of the household of
William II., then German Emperor. Its predominant interest is its
gradually built up character portrait of the ex-Emperor in the days of
his power. I say “gradually built up,” for the book consists simply of
private memoranda made by Zedlitz-Trützschler through the years of
his service. It seems that the unhappy Count felt keenly the inability
to say what he thought or to express his real feelings with safety to
anybody. At first, like every one else, he was fascinated by his royal
and imperial master. As he says in his preface: “There is a tendency
today to underrate the intellect of the Emperor very seriously. There
can be no dispute that his personality was a dazzling one.... He
could, whenever it seemed to him worth while, completely bewitch
not only foreign princes and diplomats, but even sober men of
business.” The spell waned because William lost interest. Zedlitz-
Trützschler’s book is the soberest and in some respects the frankest
book about William that I have seen. Its publication has put the
author in hot water with his family and all his class.
Charles Hitchcock Sherrill’s The Purple or the Red, based on
personal interviews with Mussolini of Italy, Horthy of Hungary, Primo
de Riveira of Spain and other statesmen, as well as most of the
surviving European monarchs, contains much interesting material
about after-war Europe. It is ultra-conservative in its political attitude,
but General Sherrill makes an effective case for his idea that the
Crown, in European countries, has served as a rallying point for
patriotism and by its place above factions has been a bulwark
against revolution with bloodshed.
iii
Two very exceptional autobiographies are Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle’s Memories and Adventures and Constantin Stanislavsky’s My
Life in Art. Both are ample, lavishly illustrated volumes; and far apart
as are the lives they record, I hesitate to say that either exceeds the
other in charm.
The creator of Sherlock Holmes is a big, amiable man, a person of
great simplicity of manner and almost naïve in his enjoyment of
people, places and events. His book is inevitably one of a very wide
popular appeal, the more so as Sir Arthur is entirely without conceit.
In Memories and Adventures he tells of his education at Stoneyhurst,
in Germany, and in Edinburgh, where he got his doctor’s degree. He
relates his early medical experiences and tells of his first attempts at
writing. A memorable voyage to West Africa as a ship’s surgeon, his
earlier religious ideas and beliefs and the changes they underwent,
and his marriage are all dealt with.
Then comes the story of his first real success as an author, made
with the novel, A Study in Scarlet. He had resounding subsequent
successes with Micah Clarke, The Sign of the Four, and The White
Company. The creation of Sherlock Holmes was a great milestone in
Conan Doyle’s life. This is without question the most famous
character in English fiction. Visits to America and Egypt and political
adventures are chronicled. There are reminiscences and anecdotes
of Roosevelt, George Meredith, Kitchener, Lloyd George, Balfour, Mr.
Asquith, Henry Irving, Kipling, Bernard Shaw, Barrie and many
others, living and dead, sprinkled through these extremely readable
chapters. The closing chapter is devoted to the author’s amazing
experiences in psychical research; and it must be said for him that
he writes more persuasively of his experiences and beliefs in this
affair than anyone else has ever managed to do. Altogether
Memories and Adventures will engross anyone who opens it.
Very different, with its own style and an accent of enthusiasm
throughout, is Constantin Stanislavsky’s My Life in Art. This man has
been the stage director of the Moscow Art Theater since its
establishment in 1898; and although that theater is now known
throughout the world, and is frequently hailed as the world’s foremost
playhouse, Stanislavsky’s reputation outside Russia has naturally
been confined to the circles of dramatic art. His autobiography
depended for its American publication wholly on the intrinsic interest
of what he had to tell. You may infer that that interest is
considerable. It is.
I spoke of the book’s style. It is peculiar, individual; sincere and
unskilled, awkward and yet masterful; admirable because so
evidently a part of the author. Born in 1863, the son of a wealthy
Russian merchant family and the grandson of a French actress,
Stanislavsky as a boy showed stage talents in family theatricals; and
though he later slaved over accounts in his father’s counting-house,
his nights were nights of feverish absorption in the theater. His birth
placed him in the thick of the social and intellectual life of Moscow,
for he belonged to the class which has created the arts of Russia. At
twenty-five he became director of the Society of Art and Literature, a
group of young people with serious ideas about the stage and a
great dissatisfaction with the current Russian theater. When
Stanislavsky met Nemirovich-Danchenko, the Moscow Art Theater
was founded.
The first half of My Life in Art is therefore chiefly personal, a rich
slice of Russian life with plum-like impressions and reminiscences of
Rubinstein, Tolstoy, Tommaso Salvini the elder and other great
artists of that time. The second half deals with the Moscow Art
Theater, in which Stanislavsky made for himself a reputation as one
of Russia’s greatest actors, particularly in the rôles of Othello,
Brutus, and Ivan the Terrible. This part of My Life in Art is crammed
with material of interest and value not only to those who follow the
theater but to all whose great interest is art. Chekhov, Tolstoy,
Maeterlinck and others in person are delightfully mixed with
interpretative experience in their plays and in the plays of
Shakespeare, Molière, Pushkin and other immortals. The book
closes with a description of the present work of the Moscow Art
Theater, including the Soviet régime in Russia and the visit to
America.
At last we have a biography of Clyde Fitch, achieved in that most
satisfactory of ways, by means of his letters. Mr. Montrose J. Moses
and Miss Virginia Gerson, who edited the memorial edition of Clyde
Fitch’s plays, have been engaged for some time in collecting the
Fitch letters and the result of their labor is now published in one
volume. Clyde Fitch and His Letters reflects well a personality which
people never forgot, since meeting him was, as some one said, like
meeting a figure in fiction. Fitch had a genius for friendship. His
letters were always unstudied, without pretension to literary style,
and brimful of a strongly impressionist reaction to the place or the
event. He dashed them off as the spirit prompted—on board ship, by
an open window of a Continental hotel, on the terraces of his country
house; notes of appreciation, notes of invitation, long, impulsive
descriptions of European festivities (some processional in Spain or
some picturesque account of Venetian gondoliering). They breathe,
these letters, of his warm association with the novelist, Robert
Herrick; they show a light-hearted friendship with Maude Adams and
Kate Douglas Wiggin; they show interchanges of appreciation
between Fitch and William Dean Howells. Again, the reader sees the
evidence of the personal concern and interest Fitch showed in the
actors and actresses engaged for his plays. From the incipient idea
of a plot for a play to the play’s first night, the letters enable the
reader to follow breathlessly the climb of Clyde Fitch to the position
of America’s most successful playwright. But he remained a simple,
unaffected sort of person.
One cannot say more, I suppose, than that from the day when
Richard Mansfield asked him to write “Beau Brummell” to the day of
Clyde Fitch’s death, when he had taken “The City” abroad for a final
polishing which death prevented, Clyde Fitch and His Letters is full of
the live rush of the man. A very sane and fundamentally enthusiastic
attitude was his toward American life, and those who read the book
will not miss that part of it.
iv
Of two books by women, one, Sunlight and Song, by Maria Jeritza,
is the great singer’s autobiography; while Frances Parkinson Keyes’s
Letters from a Senator’s Wife is autobiographical only incidentally.
Mme. Jeritza is not only the foremost feminine personality in grand
opera in America today, but by her concert tours she has become
known throughout the United States. Her Sunlight and Song is a
book pretty certain to interest everyone who has heard her—or
heard of her. It is written with directness, in a thoroughly popular
vein, and is utterly free from affectations or pose. An Austrian by
birth, she sang in Olmütz while in her teens, living on the hope of an
engagement in Vienna. At length she came to the capital and waited
her turn in the trying-out of voices. She was engaged for the
municipal opera and afterward for the Court Opera House. Her rôles
from operas by Richard Strauss and Puccini were rehearsed under
the personal direction of the composers; she met Caruso and
dozens of other musical celebrities; she sang before and met the
Emperor; and in 1921 she came to America. One of the most
interesting bits of her book concerns a rehearsal of “Tosca” at which
she slipped and fell. She sang “Vissi d’arte” where she lay, exciting
Puccini’s enthusiasm. He exclaimed that always he had needed
something to make the aria stand out and command attention; and
this did it! When it was announced that Jeritza was to sing in “Tosca”
in New York, there was a noticeable wave of hostility from those who
associated the rôle exclusively with Geraldine Farrar. It vanished
after she had appeared.
Among the photographs with which Jeritza’s book is illustrated are
many extremely beautiful pictures of the singer in her various rôles.
The chapters on “How an Opera Singer Really Lives,” “Studying with
Sembrich,” “Singing for the Phonograph,” and “Some Guest
Performances” will especially repay students of the voice.
The book by Mrs. Keyes, wife of the United States Senator from
New Hampshire, is in a class by itself. Letters from a Senator’s Wife
consists entirely of actual letters written to old friends who were
some distance away from Washington and who had a full feminine
curiosity about life there. Taken as they stand, Mrs. Keyes’s letters
form a pretty complete record of social and political life in the capital
as seen from the inner official circle. Beginning with her first
impressions of Washington, Mrs. Keyes goes on to describe the
Harding inauguration, the burial of the Unknown Soldier, the arms
conference, the agricultural conference in 1922 and the industrial
conference in 1923; the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial; the
presentation of a gram of radium to Madame Curie; the diplomatic
and New Year’s receptions at the White House; the convention of
women’s organizations at which Lady Astor was conspicuous;
dinners, teas, an afternoon cruise as Mrs. Harding’s guest on the
Mayflower and social affairs innumerable.
The result is a picture of Washington exactly as a woman in Mrs.
Keyes’s place would be privileged to see it; women readers will have
a sense of participating in the things described. It is, I should say,
exclusively a woman’s book; but no one who appreciates the
average woman’s enjoyment of social detail will underestimate what
Mrs. Keyes has accomplished. But in addition to telling the reader
what she would have to do, whom she would meet, and what
functions she would attend if she were in the Washington circle, the
book does really constitute an attractive record of current history in
the making and as made. Women who read it can scarcely fail to
become more intelligent than before.
v
Fortunately Maurice Francis Egan, one of the most beloved of
Americans, lived to complete for us his Recollections of a Happy
Life. The author of Everybody’s St. Francis, Ten Years Near the
German Frontier, Confessions of a Book-Lover and other volumes
had a scroll of memories which began in Philadelphia in the 1850s
and which included political and social Washington in the Civil War
period. In Recollections of a Happy Life the New York of the Henry
George era is touched in with delightful anecdotes of Richard
Watson Gilder and the group that surrounded him; there is a crisp
picture of Indiana where Dr. Egan was professor of English at Notre
Dame; and the book fairly launches itself with a full record of life in
Washington and of the author’s close association with Presidents
McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson, under the last three of whom
Dr. Egan held the post of Minister to Denmark. Scholar, poet, critic,
and most winning of companions, Dr. Egan’s autobiography reflects
a good deal of America in the past half-century as well as his own
varied experiences here and abroad.
Of even more definitely literary interest is C. K. S. An
Autobiography, by Clement K. Shorter. An indefatigable book
collector whose library is rich in first editions, original manuscripts,
and autograph letters, Mr. Shorter is probably best known as an
editor and dramatic critic. He has had thirty years in each rôle, and
still writes weekly causeries which carry, on occasion, a provocative
sting. George Meredith, Stevenson, Andrew Lang, Thomas Hardy,
and Gissing each are the subject of a chapter founded primarily on
personal impressions of the man.
Such personal impressions, mixed with estimates of the writer’s
work, form the substance of The Literary Spotlight, edited, with an
introduction, by John Farrar, editor of The Bookman. These
anonymous literary portraits have been aptly called “Mirrors of
Literature.” The anonymity has made possible a great deal of
frankness, humor, and penetration worth having, and Mr. Farrar has
added bibliographies, biographical facts and such data as make the
volume handy for reference. Edna Ferber, Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Floyd Dell, Mary Johnston, Edwin Arlington Robinson and
others of high contemporary interest are presented.