CHRONICLES OF BARABBAS

Slated for news treatment in the literary press, this book should be off to a good start. A famous publisher, now retired, tells the story of his publishing career, with sidelights on authors which will appeal to the avid curiosity of the public that always wants to get behind the literary scenes. The first half of the book treats the different phases of his career as such, rather than attempting a conventional chronological autobiography. The interest in this section is frankly greater for the book world than for the general public. But the chapters of Arnold Beanett, Frank Swinnerton, Hugh Walpole, H. G. Wells, in fact virtually all the outstanding figures in the literary world of George Doran's publishing day. There is enough of the biographical element for background, enough of the personal to give a note of authenticity, and enough of the spice of occasional malice to make food for the gossip hounds. The market is definitely a ""literary"" one.