BOOKS: Poet's Progress

MAGNUS MERRIMAN—Eric Linklater-Farrar & Rinehart ($2.50).

For seven months Farrar & Rinehart's Vice President John Chipman Farrar has worn a broad grin. For all that time Hervey Allen's Anthony Adverse, Farrar-published, led U. S. fiction best-seller lists. Three weeks ago it dropped to second place, nosed out by Sinclair Lewis's much-boosted Work of Art. But Publisher Farrar's grin did not perceptibly lessen. In England, too, Anthony Adverse was running second, topped only by another alliterative title, Magnus Merriman. This week, by bringing out Magnus Merriman's U. S. edition, Publisher Farrar very nearly...