he Last Half Century, by J. W. Cunliffe, THE
MACMILLAN COMPANY.

A Hugh Walpole Anthology, selected by the author. LONDON: J. M. DENT
& SONS. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY.

Hugh Walpole, Master Novelist. Pamphlet published by GEORGE H. DORAN
COMPANY. (Out of print.)

Who's Who [In England].

CHAPTER XX

UNIQUITIES

=i=

Each of these five is a book which, either from its subject, its
authorship, or its handling, is _sui generis_. I call such books
"uniquities"; it sounds a little less trite than saying they are unique. I
think I will let someone else speak of these books. I will look to see,
and will let you see, what others have said about my uniquities.

=ii=

First we have _Our Navy at War_ by Josephus Daniels. W. B. M'Cormick,
formerly of the editorial staff of the Army and Navy Journal, reviewing
this book for the New York Herald (28 May 1922) said:

"Josephus Daniels always was an optimist about navy affairs while he was
Secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1921, and now that he has told what the
navy did during the world war he demonstrates in his narrative that he is
a good sport. For in spite of the many and bitter attacks that were made
on him in that troubled time he does not make a single reference to any of
them, nor does he wreak any such revenge as he might have done through
this medium. In this respect it may be said that truly does he live up to
the description of his character set down in the pages of Rear Admiral
Bradley A. Fiske's autobiography, namely, that 'Secretary Daniels
impressed me as being a Christian gentleman.'

"In its general outlines and in many of its details there is little in Mr.
Daniels's story that has not been told before in volumes devoted to single
phases of the United States Navy's war operations. For example, his
chapter on the extraordinary task of laying the great mine fields, known
as the North Sea barrage, from Norway to the Orkneys, is much more fully
described in the account written by Captain Reginald R. Belknap; the story
of 'Sending Sims to Europe' is also more extensively presented in that
officer's book, _The Victory at Sea_, and the same qualification can be
applied to the chapter on the fighting of the marines in Belleau Wood and
elsewhere, and the work of our destroyers and submarines in European
waters.

"But Mr. Daniels's history has one great merit that these other books
lack. This is that it tells in its 374 pages the complete story