1930
Jan. 1
The Black Christ and Other Poems
Countee Cullen
Harper Bros.
Wilm. Del.
Jan. 9
Music in the Streets
Vera Caspary
Novel
J. H. Sears Co.
Wilm. Del.
Jan. 14
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemmingway
Another War Novel.
Scribner’s
Phila. Pa.
Jan. 18
Blind Spots
Henry Smith Leiper
Friendship Press
New York
Study of Racial Prejudices
Washington D.C.
265.
Jan. 21
An Artist in the Family
Sarah Gertrude Millin
Boni & Liveright
One of those So. African novels
State Normal School. Petersburg, Va.
Jan. 22
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
Brentano’s
A hideous novel.
State Normal School. Petersburg, Va.
Jan. 28
The Unconquered
Maude Diver
G. P. Putnam
Novel
Greensboro, N.C.
Jan. 30
Science in Search of God [i]
Greensboro, N.C.
266.
1930
Feb. 18
Coronet
Manuel Komroff
Literary Guild Selection for Jan. 1930
A stupendous canvas of a novel.
Train between Jacksonville Fla. and Fort Valley Ga.
Feb. 22
Labels
A. Hamilton Gibbs
Bobbs-Merrill
Post war novel
Train between Fort Valley Ga. & Montgomery, Ala.
Feb. 25
Red Bean Row
R. Emmet Kennedy
Study of Algiers and Gretna, over the river from New Orleans.
Tuskegee, Alabama
Feb. 26
The Girl from Scotland Yard
Edgar Wallace
Doubleday, Doran…
Detective novel
Train – Tuskegee to Talladega, Ala.
267.
March 1
Parnassus on Wheels
Christopher Morley
The Sun Dial Library[ii]
Charming novel
Birmingham, Alabama
March 3
The Great Impersonation
E. Phillips Oppenheim
A. L. Burt
Detective novel
Train between Jackson, Miss. & New Orleans, La.
April 3
Plays & Pageants from the Life of the Negro
Edited by Willis Richardson
The Associated Publishers
Drama.
Philadelphia, Pa.
April 8
Ladies and Girls
Vera Caspary
Century Co.
Rather amusing novel.
Wilm. Del.
268.
April 14
The No-Nation Girl
Evans Wall
The Century Co.
A weird “race” novel. All wrong, yet somehow right.
Wilm. Del.
April 20
Marriage and Morals
Bertrand Russell
Essay – Philosophy
Horace Liveright
Radical and modern philosophy on morals.
Wilmington, Delaware
April 27
The Prophet
Kahlil Gibran
Philosophy
Alfred A. Knopf
Wilm. Del.
May 1
Prize Poems of 1913 – 29
Edited by Chas. Wagner
Chas. Boni
Phila. Pa.
269.
May 5
Cimarron
Edna Ferber
Novel
Doubleday & Doran
Train bet. Cape Charles & Phila.
May 9
Uncle Sam and What His Family Thinks of Him [iii]
John Erskine
Satirical Novel
Bobbs-Merrill
Certainly an incisive arraignment of European princes in their attitude towards the U.S.
Wilm. Del.
May 23
Fugitives from Passion
Coningsby Dawson
Novel
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Wilm. Del.
May 24
Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-Two Hundred Women
Compiled by Katherine Bement Davis
Statistical & Case Study
Harper’s
Phila. Pa.
270.
May 28
Brief Candles
Aldous Huxley
Short Stories or rather Novelettes
Doubleday, Doran.
Phila. Pa.
June 1
Jews Without Money
Michael Gold
Autobiography
Horace Liveright
New York
June 2
The Inconsistent Villains
N. A. Temple Ellis
Mystery Novel
E. P. Dutton
New York
June 5
Uncle Sham
Kanhaya Lal Gauba
Claude Kendall
An East Indian reply to Mother India. Awful satire – yet … about the U.S.[iv]
271.
June 20
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton (re-read)
Novel
Century Co,
Haverford College, Pa.
July 13
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Alfred A. Knopf
Novel. His first and a mighty good one.
W’ton. Del.
July 17
Celibate Lives
George Moore
Short Stories
Boni & Liveright
Phila. Pa.
July 17
Loose Ladies
Viña Delmar
Harcourt, Brace & Howe
Short Stories
Wilm. Del.
272.
July 26
By the Waters of Manhattan
Charles Reznikoff
The Boni Paper Books
Novel
Wilm. Del.
Aug. 3
The Bellamy Trial
Frances Noyes Hart
A. L. Burt
Novel
Wilm. Del.
Aug. 14
Black Manhattan
James Weldon Johnson
History
Alfred A. Knopf
Phila. Pa.
Aug. 15
Sweet Man
Gilmore Millen
Novel
The Viking Press
Pitiful.
Wilm. Del.
273.
Sept. 1
Moby Dick
Herman Melville
Albert & Charles Boni
The greatest sea yarn of them all.
Wilmington, Del.
Sept. 2
All in the Racket
William E. Weeks
Showing How Crime & Law go hand in hand. Novel.
Boni Paper books
Wilm. Del.
Sept. 6
The Master of the Day of Judgement
Leo Perutz
Trans. from German by Hedwig Singer
Novel
Boni Paper Books
Wilm. Del.
Sept. 12
Jaws of Circumstance
Carl Clausen
Serial Novel Collier’s Weekly
Phila. Pa.
274.
Sept. 24
Paul Robeson, Negro
Eslanda Goode Robeson
Harper Bros.
Biography
Train bet. Phila. & W’ton
Sept. 27
The Forth Plague
Edgar Wallace
The Crime Club, Inc.
Mystery Novel
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 7
Ashenden or the British Agent
W. Somerset Maugham
War Narrative
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 15
El Goes South
McKinley Kantor
Novel – Chicago Life
Coward-McCann Co.,
Wilm. Del.
275.
Oct. 16
The Casuarina Tree
Somerset Maugham
Boni & Liveright
Short Stories
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 17
Wandering Women
John Cournos
Novel
Boni Paper Books
Phila. Pa.
Oct. 21
Laments for the Living
Dorothy Parker
Short Stories
Boni & Liveright
Phila. Pa.
276.
Oct. 25
Twenty-four Hours
Louis Bromfield
Frederick A. Stokes
Novel. A most remarkable book. Cross Section of N.Y. life in 24 hours.
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 30
Ex-Judge
Anonymous
Brentano’s
Novel – Another Exposé
Phila. Pa.
Nov. 4
Murder in the Embassy
“Diplomat” – Anonymous [v]
Johnathan Cape & Harrison Smith
Mystery Novel
W’ton. Del.
Nov. 8
A Saturday Life
Radclyffe Hall
Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith
Amusing – if disappointing
Wilm. Del.
276.
1930
Nov. 12
Poems – 198 -1921
Ezra Pound
Boni and Liveright
Phila. Pa.
Nov. 14
The Mystery of the Folded Paper
Hulbert Footner
Mystery Novel
Harper Bros.
Phila. Pa.
Nov. 20
The Door
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mystery Novel
Phila. Pa.
Nov. 26
Sunway
Margaret Sperry
Boni Paper Books
Novel
Train between Phila. & Wash.
277.
1930
Nov. 29
The Ghost on the Down [vi]
Edgar Wallace
Mystery Stories (2)
Wash. D.C.
Nov. 30
Slightly Scarlet [vii]
Novel
Wash. D.C.
Dec. 5
Louis Beretti
Donald Henderson
Grosset & Dunlap
Gangster novel. Thriller
Phila. Pa.
Dec. 22
Borgia
Zona Gale
Alfred A. Knopf
Novel – Preciosity on a tangent
Phila. Pa.
278.
1930
Dec. 26
The Book of Simon
A. S. M. Hutchinson
Descriptive narrative of a child
Little, Brown & Co.
Wilm. Del.
Dec. 26
Madman’s Drum: A Novel in Woodcuts
Lynd Ward
Jonathon Cape & Harrison Smith
Wilm. Del.
Dec. 29
St. Peter Relates and Incident of the Resurrection Day
James Weldon Johnson
Privately Printed for Distribution
Poem
Wilm. Del.
1930
Novels — 42
Poems — 4
Woodcut Novel — 1
Biography & Autobiography – 3
Science & Philosophy – 5
Short Stories — 5
Satire — 1
Drama — 1
History — 1
63 66% novels
Notes
[i] Kirtley F. Mather was the author of this book. It was published in 1928 by Henry Holt & Co.
[ii] A series issued by Garden City Publishing Company, a subsidiary of, then, Doubleday, Doran.
[iii] The correct title of the book is Uncle Sam in the Eyes of His Family (1930).
[iv] Another partially illegible annotation for this entry.
[v] The author of this book, John Franklin Carter (1897-1967), also wrote under the pen names of “Unofficial Observer” and “Jay Franklin.”
[vi] Dunbar-Nelson was most likely referring to Wallace’s The Ghost on Down Hill and The Queen of Sheba’s Belt (1929) in this entry.
[vii] Possibly Percy Heath’s Slightly Scarlet (1930) adaptation from the World Wide Publishing Company.
