New Books

The following estimates of books much in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:

THE THREE HOSTAGES--John Buchan* --Houghton ($2.00). Three were kidnapped--the daughter of the richest man in the world, the heir of the proudest English dukedom, the child of a national hero. Sir Richard Hannay, unraveler of mysteries, is called from his Cotswold cottage to find them. Matching his wits against those of a fascinating villain, he culls clues from the subconscious mind and follows his quarry through a series of extraordinary episodes, finally stalking for a night and a day over the sinister and mist-wrapt Highlands of Scotland. Aside from its indisputable ability to excite, this work contains a wealth of character study and pungent observation that lifts it from being a thriller into being a book. The style is that of a well-read hunting-squire, talking rather fantastically at his own dinner table where, after all, he is privileged to talk.

THE SAILOR'S GARLAND--An Anthology of Sea Poems, collected by John Masefield--Macmillan ($2.50). Here Mr. Masefield has gathered his favorite songs of the sea. No fainting nostalgic verses, whispering sotto voce of flying spindrift, cloudy sails and hushed lagoons are these, but salty ballads, roaring chanties, brave sea-tales. Though Chaucer, to whom Mr. Masefield owes much, John Donne and Sir Andrew Barton are well represented, most of the poems are comparatively modern. This is explained by the fact that the older poets, through the Elizabethans, knew the sea only well enough to fear it, regarding it as a crawling, treacherous enemy, as indeed it was, and looking upon sailors as rude, blasphemous, uncharitable dogs, as indeed they were. They were also intrepid fighters and stout explorers. These are the songs, as they might be sung by a binnacle light over a can of flip, of the exploits of those who sailed in galleon, lazaret and caravel--a tribute to

Many an old captain whom we shall never know,

Who walked the deck under the colours when the winds did blow,

And stained the planks red with his blood before they carried him below,

Like an old sailor of the Queen's,

And the Queen's old sailor.

*Buchan is famed as historian and editor as well as novelist. An extended review of his NATIONS OF TODAY--Houghton (6 vols., --$30.00 0 was printed in TIME, Feb. 25 (Foreign NEWS),