Recent Books

Non-Fiction

OSCAR WILDE--Boris Brasol--Scribner ($3.50).

Friendly biography by an admirer whose accounts of the poet's life have the effect of documenting some unpleasant aspects of his character, and whose tributes to Wilde's poetry make it seem dated and dull.

EDISON'S OPEN DOOR--Alfred O. Tate --Button ($3).

Worshipful reminiscences by Edison's Canadian-born private secretary, with many after-dinner anecdotes, with illuminating but fragmentary accounts of the attempt by German financiers to capture control of the infant electric industry.

ACROSS THE FRONTIERS--Philip Gibbs --Doubleday, Doran ($3).

From conversations with commercial travelers, lesser diplomats, people he meets on boats, England's indefatigable journalist Philip Gibbs concludes that Neville Chamberlain's realistic policy is the only thing that can save the world.

ISAAC FRANKLIN, SLAVE TRADER AND PLANTER OF THE OLD SOUTH--Wendell Holmes Stephenson--Louisiana State University Press ($3).

After the War of 1812, Isaac Franklin made a fortune of $750,000 as a slave trader, had the finest house in Tennessee, six big plantations in Louisiana, 600 slaves. This academic biography with its voluminous notes and appendix is interesting for its detailed account of slave trading as a business.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.