Books: Modern Tragedy

THE EXECUTIONER WAITS—Josephine Herbst—Harcourt, Brace ($2.50).

Speculators on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel for 1934, already betting heavily on Ruth Suckow's The Folks (TIME, Oct. 1), saw another feminine candidate loom on the horizon last week. Josephine Herbst's The Executioner Waits has little to do with the original conditions of the Pulitzer bequest ("wholesome atmosphere" and "highest standard of American manners and manhood"), but it conforms to the present standard: it is one of the best U. S. novels of 1934.

Sequel to Pity Is Not Enough (TIME, May 29, 1933), The Executioner...