Books: Horn Tooter

RESTLESS Is THE RIVER—Augusf Derleth —Scribner ($2.50).

Good writers are supposed to make their name on merit alone; bad writers are supposed to be those who go around tooting their own horns. That supposition is not accurate. The trick is, for the critic, to shut out the tooting long enough to hear himself think.

A horn tooter is August Derleth, burly-chested, blond, 30-year-old native of a sleepy, picturesque village called Sauk City, Wis. (pop. 1,137). Last fortnight he published his 14th book, Restless Is the River, a historical novel laid in the Sac Prairie country, revolving around a democratic-minded Hungarian count who flees...