Fiction: Recent Books: Jul. 18, 1938

Non-Fiction

OSCAR WILDE—Boris Brasol—Scribner ($3.50).

Friendly biography by an admirer whose accounts of the poet's life have the effect of documenting some unpleasant aspects of his character, and whose tributes to Wilde's poetry make it seem dated and dull.

EDISON'S OPEN DOOR—Alfred O. Tate —Button ($3).

Worshipful reminiscences by Edison's Canadian-born private secretary, with many after-dinner anecdotes, with illuminating but fragmentary accounts of the attempt by German financiers to capture control of the infant electric industry.

ACROSS THE FRONTIERS—Philip Gibbs —Doubleday, Doran ($3).

From conversations with commercial travelers, lesser diplomats, people he meets...