Books from 1915

I noticed a group called Literary Centennials where they read books and authors from 100 years ago. They seem to focus on the more literary highbrow stuff, but I thought it was a good basis for looking at my own collection and choosing some to read or re-read. So I spent a bit of time in my tagged pre-1950 collection, adding specific copyright dates where missing, and adding the tag 1915 by power edit. At the end of the year, I'll erase that one and do it again for 1916.

I was surprised by how few titles I came up with; but it probably is a function of being in the middle of the Great War.

I have several books about WW1 published that year.
Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross, which I've read and wasn't impressed.
Fighting in the Clouds for France is one I haven't read yet, so I will dig it out and read it.
Defenseless America is non-fiction and I have read part of it. I can't remember specifics, but you get the idea from the title. I'll look for it as well.

Grace S. Richmond's characters are uniformly pro-intervention for the US. Her doctors volunteer for service before the US enters the war. Her only book published this year is Strawberry Acres, and I don't think it mentions the War, but, hey, any excuse to visit her books works for me.

Does anybody else think this is a good project?
Join me!

The BingoDOG card in the catagory challenge includes 'a book published in 1915', so you might find suggestions there.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/180134

I will check it out, but I'm not looking for other books, just using it as a tool for getting to my own books first. :)

I think I read The Thirty-Nine Steps last year, but it seems I missed cataloging it.

I started reading The voyage out a couple of weeks ago, but I keep picking up other things...
The Good soldier (Ford Madox Ford), Something Fresh (Wodehouse) and The Metamorphosis (Kafka) are other classics from that year.

Common knowledge list for books on LT originally published in 1915: http://www.librarything.com/commonknowledge/search.php?q=1915&f=16&uid=L...

Another reason to reread Anne of the Island (not that I wait for a reason). - hearthlit

>5 thorold: Oh, what a good use of that feature. Duh! Glad there aren't more that 500 or so titles there to examine at the moment though.

>7 2wonderY:
There are multiple entries in the list for a lot of the better-known titles. So the real number of works will be rather less than 500.

I have Thornton Burgess's The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse, The Adventures of Sammy Jay and Old Mother West Wind, all of which I've read and loved.

The Valley of Fear by Arthure Conan Doyle which I've also read and loved.

I have read and NOT loved The Thirty-nine Steps.

I have on my shelves, but have not read Michael O'Halloran by Gene Stratton Porter and Winning a Fortune by Lewis Wm. Klinker. I may pluck those out if I can find them, to read this year. I love Porter's work, and have no idea who Klinker is or what his fortune is. Probably one of the obscure books I've inherited.

I thought I had P.G. Wodehouse's Life at Blandings, but if so, I haven't cataloged it. I would like to read that as well.

ETA: Can't find the book by Klinker, so maybe just the Porter book to read.

I finished re-reading Strawberry Acres and enjoyed it more the second time. Richmond generally has a doctor or a minister as a central character. Here, Donald Ferry is not primary, but still affords a very good example. He is a young man who lives with his mother and enjoys out of door work, like chopping down trees. Though he lives out of town, his chuch is inner city, and he pays particular attention to the men and boys of the tenements, befriending them and establishing YMCA type services.

The Lane family, three young men, their sister and an uncle, inherit the farm next door. They've lived in reduced circumstances for a couple of years since their parents died, and they've been making home in a cramped fifth floor walkup. Oldest brother, Max, has felt the weight of responsibility and initially thinks only of relieving their finances by selling the property.

Good friends from childhood, Jarvis and Josephine Burnside help to make a transition to the farm possible, first by setting up a tent camp in the pine grove and then with a scheme to put the farm back into productive use.

Their lives are fuller and healthier as they make the transition, and even Max grows to love the farm and recognize its value in subtle redemptive ways.

Family, friends and community are celebrated; along with the joy of hard, but productive, work. Richmond's characters are always cognizant of being good examples to each other and working to make personal improvements in self. That's refreshing.

Oh, and true friendship is outlined by the contrast between the Burnsides and Neil and Dorothy Chase, who appear now and then from their travels. The Chases are obliviously inconsiderate. Both Jarvis and Neil offer to purchase the farm, but Jarvis in consideration of the Lane's needs and Neil to his own benefit.

I've made an LT list or books published in 1915: please feel free to add to or correct it. https://www.librarything.com/list/10116/all/
I think I included all the books mentioned here so far.

I've just had someone point out that Strawberry Acres was published in 1911. Sorry for misleading everyone.

I just read it a couple of days ago. I enjoyed it very much, so thanks for telling us about it! Whenever I read a book like this, written just before the war, I can't help feeling a little sad, because I always think about those cheerful (and not so cheerful) young men going off to war in just a few years. Or they would be if it was real life.

I am about to give up on Michael O'Halloran. The morality preaching is killing what would otherwise have been a sweet story. It is amazing how people change their whole being and way of living, just because a "sweet young thing" gives them a heartfelt lecture. Rather than calling her an interfering, rude, self-righteous, ignoramus who thinks she knows it all, and to get lost, they have an epiphany and become perfect living citizens! Sorry. It just doesn't happen that way. People who have lived in such a way to mess up their lives as bad as some of these have do not drop all of their bad ways overnight, and even if they do change, the consequences of their former actions play out in their lives for years.

Also, talk about your deux ex machina! The whole story is one right after another.

I've had to skim through the political lectures from Leslie about how if men would just be perfect, then all the women would love to be in their "cave with their man and their children." And she has the plan to solve all of the economical problems of the world too!

The only reason I'm still reading, is that I know this was a definite movement in the early part of our century, so I'm learning while I choke and gag through the pablum.

>15 MrsLee: I read it a looong time ago, and remember nothing about it. Perhaps I've blocked it off. That's why I appreciate having LT, where I can record my impressions and reliably find them again. I used to keep a Composition book, and it was worn more from paging back than adding new entries.

I've pulled Prudence of the Parsonage and Hepsey Burke to re-read. I remember both with fondness. Hepsey Burke has two copyright years, both 1914 and 1915. Perhaps it was a serialized story. Just dipping in a little bit, I'm already laughing out loud.

Hepsey is a home grown philosopher, and her speech is peppered with wit.

“Don’t you let him frighten you, Mr. Maxwell,” Hepsey replied. “Jonathan would probably hold on with both hands if he lay flat on his back in a ten-acre lot. He’s just that fearless and enterprisin’.”

There are only 4 copies of Hepsey Burke on LT, possibly ebooks, and I want to pass on a correction of the author's name.

Electronic versions have the author listed as Frank Noyes Westcott. It should be Frank Nash Westcott. Edward Noyes Westcott was his brother and the author of David Harum.

I've sent an email to Project Gutenburg, where I think the error originated.

I found and documented the correct name and added it to the author page.

Does anyone know how to contact Google Books to have them make a correction?

I am reading Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship. I remember my dad saying that he's liked Tom Swift. I am mainly enjoying it because of the thought of my Dad enjoying it as a boy. Dad loved gadgets his whole life and was always Mr. fix-it to everyone he knew.

I've read a couple of Tom Swifts and remember them fondly. Very similar in quality to Nancy Drew.

> 15 Mrs Lee - I think I had the same reaction to Michael O'Halloran. I like the beginning, where his mother taught him good habits that allowed him to thrive on his own. I never finished the book and it's languishing on my shelves. Perhaps I should finish it this year, write a review and then get rid of the darn thing!

Interesting idea. I just went to my "Your Books" page and clicked on "Date" to arrange the books by publication date. Now, these are the publication dates of my own editions, of course, so in some cases this might not be entirely accurate, but in my library I find these:

Chief Contemporary Dramatists, edited by Thomas Herbert Dickinson
The Double Traitor by E. Phillips Oppenheim
The Gold of the Gods by Arthur B. Reeve
The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey
Russian Fairy Tales from the Skazki of Polevoi by R. Nisbet Bain
The Turmoil by Booth Tarkington
The World's Greatest War: Its Inception and Progress by Professor Charles Maxwell

>20 SilverKitty: I'm going to finish it tonight or bust! Then I'll have to pick up either a murder mystery or an adventure to get the cloying taste out of my mouth. It isn't that I am against most of the ideas, it is the way they are shoved down your throat.