Rare Ben
O RARE BEN JONSON—Byron Steel—Knopf ($3). ". . . Ben tries in vain to spear an eel with the newly-invented fork, and in exasperation flings the fork across the room. With his large hand he dips up an eel from its greasy dish and conveys it drippingly to his mouth. He smacks his lips loudly, and washes the eel down with a deep tankard of Canary. . . . "Ben sleeps heavily, and awakes the next morning in a dripping sweat, but with brave notions. . . . He always writes under these conditions. His drunken, salty sweat seems to bring him inspiration." Thus Author Steele in what he calls a "poetically [in the Aristotelian sense] true conception" of Ben Jonson. There is no necessity to justify, as he attempts, fictionized biography; the public has accepted it as its best communication with the past. The Ben Jonson we have here is a lovable, disgusting, Falstaffian figure who drinks, slops, fights, sweats, writes lovely lyrics. One hundred and fifty-eight well-printed pages suffice to give his life in its entirety. If the style is not so robust as Jonson, the conception is brutal enough. Jonson is rare, rare as a century plant; rare also as a beefsteak. Author Steele, aged 20, lately studied under Professor John Erskine,* of Columbia University. Lectures by Professor Erskine inspired the writing of the Jonson book, the author says.
Story of a Philosopher
The Book.† As a small boy, Author Durant lived with his parents and his many brothers in factory towns of Massachusetts & New Jersey. His career as schoolboy differed little from that of any other intelligent schoolboy except that at an early age Author Durant received an invitation from a Roman Catholic Priest: "You must study more, and pray more, and always bear in mind that the church has chosen you to be one of our servants. . . ." For some years Jack (as Author Durant has chosen to call himself in these pages) accepts the invitation to be a priest if he does not always follow the advice which accompanied it. Then after being a reporter, a teacher, a factory worker, he leaves his seminary to become an anarchist.
As an anarchist, a distaste for violence prevented him from achieving important success. Desire for culture made him tour Europe and a thirst for more education made him come back and study post-graduate philosophy at Columbia University. Then he finds Ariel, a Jewish girl of 15, with whom he falls in love. They marry and find happiness in the pursuit of wisdom and the possession of love. A closing chapter, called "I Become A Daddy" announces, with infinite detail, the birth of a daughter to Mr. & Mrs. Durant.
The Significance. It is unfortunate that so evidently sincere a book as this successor to The Story of Philosophy should be given an appearance of artificiality by mannerisms and pretensions which are part of the personality of the author and hence actually evidences of his sincerity. There is, in the first place, no good reason for calling the book (as Mr. Durant does) a "mental autobiography"; its subject is usually something very distinct from Author Durant's intellectual development and its method is far from analytical.