The Green-Room

Francis Pitcairn, author of “News of America,” brings an unusual background and wide experience to the discussion of how Europeans form their opinions of the life and people of this country. Of French and Scottish parentage, Mr. Pitcairn was educated in England, Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. After seven wanderjahre throughout Europe, he has for the past two years lived in this country as correspondent of an English newspaper.

In “Captains Uncourageous,” Charles A. Beard, the historian, undertakes to point out, from the vantage ground of many years’ research in American social and economic history, just how immoral the industrial system of modern America would appear, and did indeed actually appear in the ‘fifties, to the Southern slave-owner. The Southern planter on this occasion presents his case against “free” labor through the pen of an historian born in Indiana, and one not habitually charged with toryism. Apparently modern America would do well to examine a little more thoughtfully, if not more indulgently, the moral position of the man who felt responsible for the welfare of those whose labor he exploited.

Archibald Rutledge, the author of “Beasts Called Wild,” has frequently contributed nature sketches to the Virginia Quarterly. Author of numerous volumes of nature essays and of verse, he is publishing this autumn “Tales of a Sportsman” (Macmillan).

Prince D. S. Mirsky is a native of the Ukraine who, after fighting in the World War and in the ‘White Army during the civil war, removed to England. He is now lecturer in Russian literature at King’s College, London, and is the author of various works on Russian history and literature as well as of a book on Lenin. In “The Soviet Films” he discusses the extraordinary developments that are taking place in a new art under a new social system.

Ernestine Evans will be remembered by many of our subscribers as the author of a delightful sketch of Russian life, “South to the Caucasus,” published in the April, 1928, number of the Quarterly. In “Straws in the German Winds” she gives her very personal impressions of the “feel” of Germany during the past summer.

Lizette Woodworth Reese has published poetry before in the Virginia Quarterly, and is the author of a number of volumes of verse and “A Victorian Village,” an autobiography. She is a native of Baltimore. Virginia Moore is the author of two volumes of verse, “Not Poppy” and “Sweet Water and Bitter.” This is her first appearance in the Quarterly. Robert Liddell Lowe, who is on the faculty of Purdue University, has contributed verse to various magazines besides the Virginia Quarterly. Aline Kilmer (Mrs. Joyce Kilmer), who now lives in New Jersey, is a native of Norfolk, Virginia: she is the author of several volumes of poetry.

William Cabell Bruce, the author of “A Plantation Retrospect,” was born on the famous Virginia plantation he therein describes, the year before the Civil War broke out. In this retrospect, Senator Bruce speaks intimately of the plantation economy, an economy which, even after the legal abolition of slavery, offered the sharp contrast to the North’s free labor that Mr. Beard analyzes in “Captains Uncoura-geous.” Besides having served as United States Senator from Maryland, Senator Bruce is the biographer of Benjamin Franklin and of John Randolph of Roanoke. This is his first contribution to the Virginia Quarterly since its first number in April, 1925.

That there are more than one “South” is a proposition which even some Southerners are by way of occasionally forgetting. But Staunton Hill was separated by more than geographical distance from the lower Mississippi which Harold Taylor describes. The author of “How Firm a Foundation” has already portrayed “Happy Hollow” and its inhabitants in the April, 1981, Virginia Quarterly.

“Some of Us,” which includes the essay on Elinor Wiley from the Virginia Quarterly of July, 1930, was published last autumn in a limited edition. It dispelled the delusion of some readers that in “The Way of Ecben” James Branch Cabell was to be understood as closing his career as an author. Mr. Cabell’s books have been written in the vicinity of Richmond and Mountain Lake in Virginia, and the essays upon which he has recently been engaged have to do with his own experience as a writer. “Before Aesred” should be read in the Cabellian spirit.

James Southall Wilson was editor of the Virginia Quarterly for the first six years of its existence, and is still a member of its editorial board. Frederick P. Mayer, of the University of Pittsburgh, has frequently contributed to the Quarterly. The author of “The Diplomatic Background of the World War,” Professor Charles Seymour of Yale, reviews in this issue the most notable recent contribution to the study of the origins of the War. This is Professor Seymour’s first contribution to the Virginia Quarterly. Dexter Perkins, now professor of history and government at the University of Rochester, served as a captain of infantry in the A.E.F. during the War; was attached to the historical section of American headquarters; and later worked in connection with the Paris Peace Conference. Edward Wagen-knecht, whose most recent book is “Jenny Lind” (Houghton Mifflin), is a frequent contributor to this magazine. Lambert Davis is managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly. The reviewer of the group of books on Lincoln, Andrew Nelson Lytle, has just published a life of General Bedford Forrest (Minton, Balch). Mr. Lytle was one of the contributors to “I’ll Take My Stand,” and farms in Tennessee. Dumas Malone is editor of the Dictionary of American Biography. Bernadotte E. Schmitt, whose “The Coining of the War” (Scribner’s) is reviewed in this issue, is professor of history in the University of Chicago. Carroll Mason Sparrow, professor of physics in the University of Virginia, is an associate editor of the Virginia Quarterly, and has been a frequent contributor.

THE VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW

Edited by STRINGFELLOW BARR

Advisory Editors James Southall Wilson John Calvin Mktcalf Carroij, Mason Sparrow

The Virginia Quarterly Review is published at the University of Virginia: in April, July, October, and January. Subscription rates: $3.00 the year. Canadian, $3.25; Foreign, $3.50. Single copies, 75 cents.

Contributions should be accompanied by postage for return and addressed to The Editor op The Virginia Quarterly Review,. University, Virginia. The University of Virginia and the Editors do not assume responsibility for the views expressed by contributors of articles.

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Lambert Davis, Managing Editor

PUBLICATION AND EDITORIAL OFFICE; 1 WEST RANGE

UNIVERSITY, VIRGINIA