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ACROSS THE BUSY YEARS by Nicholas Murray Butler

ACROSS THE BUSY YEARS

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Publisher: Scribner

In no other contemporary biography are you likely to find such an impressive inventory of names, diplomatic, political, literary as in that of Nicholas Murray Butler. But as one critic remarked of the first volume, whatever Butler derived from these giant brains and personalities he keeps assiduously to himself. The second volume tallies closely with the first, in its strict impersonality, formality, meticulous listings of whom he saw where. The main part of the book deals with Butler's role as unofficial ambassador of good will, working for international understanding and peace. Correspondence, interviews, statements, reports, all the official side of his activities are included. The rest of the book deals with odds and ends: various other governmental problems in which he was interested, his acquaintance with Robert Lincoln, and one chapter is happily devoted to the bon mots of famous writers and conversationalists he has known. Gauge your market by the demand for the first. We find Butler both ponderous and dry.