NEW BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS

HE newspapers and magazines, and the book-shops themselves, are

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full of suggestions for Christmas. Many of these books are popular novels, so well advertised, and so often discussed, that it is needless to mention them again. Everyone has heard of them. If you are still looking for a book, you may find what you wish in

Souls on Fifth, by Granville Barker. It is a curious satire on fashionable New York, — a strange, little night-sketch of the souls of departed New Yorkers blown up and down above Fifth Avenue. It carries an allegory, partly humorous, partly sad, which the reader can construe for himself. With

Whale Hunting with Gun and Camera, by Roy C. Andrews, you may please the reader who likes to hear about adventure and a strange calling, but prefers to stick to fact. It is plentifully illustrated. The man who likes adventure, but does not insist on fact, will discover the right thing in The Gold Trail, by H. de Vere Stacpoole, a story of the East Indies. The one who enjoys the products of a weird imagination, combined with a carefully polished style, is recommended to read

The Last Book of Wonder, by Lord Dunsany. For books of travel and biography, for all the books of fact, you are usually compelled to open your pocket-book a little wider than for a novel or a volume of poetry. Sometimes you get more for your money, more in quantity, or more in the lasting readable quality of the book. An autobiography full of anecdotes and amusing recollections of the stage is

The Melancholy Tale of Me, by E. H. Sothern. The actor's stories of his famous and lovable father are a great treat. If your friend, for whom you contemplate a gift, is familiar with modern poets he will enjoy the ingenious parodies in

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and Other Poets" by Louis Untermeyer. But if you think he would prefer a more serious discussion of the older poets (and if you are willing to open that pocket-book to the width we mentioned), give him Appreciations of Poetry, by Lafcadio Hearn. Do not be alarmed because we said it is "serious." This book, as well as Hearn's "Interpretations of Literature," are easy to read and extraordinarily fresh and interesting.

The Vermilion Box, by E. V. Lucas, is an entertaining story, or series of letters, about the War. A little sadness enters, but mostly it is light

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and charming, - one of the best works of fiction the war has produced in England. For the poetry of the war, from various countries,

Poems of the Great War, selected by J. W. Cunliffe, is comprehensive, and well chosen. To turn back to our own city, some house which you pass every day, or some district through which you walk, may attract and interest you even more, after you have read

The New York of the Novelists, by Arthur Bartlett Maurice. In it, the author discusses the regions which writers of novels and stories have chosen for their scenes.

The Agony Column, by Earl Derr Biggers, is a brief but lively detective story. It can and will be read at a sitting. The sharp, almost cruel note of satire which is creeping into American humor, through European influences, is to be found in

A Book of Burlesques, by H. L. Mencken. It is immensely funny, but you must be careful to whom you give it. Be sure that he can bear to hear our national peculiarities ridiculed. Another humorous book, less caustic, is

Further Foolishness, by Stephen Leacock. The last three, as well as "The Vermilion Box" are well adapted for reading aloud.

But you are not compelled to give a new book, — that is, one recently published. Some books are always new, and to sensible folk, always welcome. Such a book is

The Golden Treasury, by F. T. Palgrave, and if your friend should already own one copy of it, he will not mind having another one to carry while traveling. There is also an excellent

Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics,. by F. L. Knowles. And, speaking of collections of poetry, there is a delightful little book, inexpensive, but for some reason not always easy to get at the book-stores. It is called

Ballades and Rondeaus, edited by Gleeson White.

CENTRAL BUILDING OF THE LIBRARY

HE picture reproduced on this page shows the Central Building of The New York Public Library, as seen from Bryant Park, near Forty-Second Street. The result is less familiar, but not less beautiful than the pictures usually made of the front of the building, from some point on Fifth Avenue.

The large windows at the top light the main reading room, on the third floor, and the long, narrow windows beneath light the book-stack. The picture was drawn by Mr. Louis H. Ruyl, and it appeared first in the magazine section of the New York Evening Post. To Mr. Ruyl, and to the Post, the Branch Library News is indebted for permission to reproduce it here.

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NEW BOOKS

A BOOK NOT OWNED BY THIS BRANCH LIBRARY MAY BE BORROWED FOR YOU FROM ANOTHER BRANCH, unless IT IS IN GREAT DEMAND

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