Books: Valedictory

THE BULWARK — Theodore Dreiser—Doubleday ($2.75).

Shortly before he died, the late, great Theodore Dreiser finished two novels, the first he had written in 20 years. The Stoic, which will not be published until fall, completes the towering trilogy on U.S. business which was begun with The Financier (1912) and continued in The Titan (1914).* The Bulwark, which he had meditated for some 30 years, is an unpretentious, fitting valedictory.

For years, Puritans attacked most of Dreiser's novels tooth & nail for their frankness and coarseness. The Bulwark is Dreiser's tender tribute to all that was good in the forces which...