Mr. Secretary
$2.50
By, MACMILLAN
DISGUISED as an autobiography, this book presents the life and thoughts of Mr. Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War. Just how proper or valuable this device may be is not to be discussed in this short review. If cleverly done, — and Mr. Williams has done it very cleverly indeed, — it gives an extraordinary effect of verisimilitude. One believes the words put in a dead man’s mouth or alleged to have been written by his pen. In any event this book shows careful study anti research and a quick ear for the prose style of our Civil War statesmen. The author has definite ideas about the kind of man Stanton was, of how he treated McClellan and how be felt about Lincoln. And he breathes life into his reconstruction of events. Perhaps his next book will be more straightforward in approach.