Books: Man of Two Worlds

THE INNOCENT EYE (268 pp.)—Herbert Read—Holt ($3.50).

In his 53 years, Herbert Read has written 20-odd books of poetry, criticism and biography (Wordsworth; In Defense of Shelley) and become Britain's top authority on modern art. He is a not uncommon type of his generation—an intellectual who was born early enough to enjoy the traditional tranquillity of Victorian rural England, but who reached an individualistic maturity during the disordered years between two wars. It is in this respect that his autobiography makes good reading—for Read shuns sensational confessions and concentrates on the varying influences that left their marks on his mind.

All the early...