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Conversations with Toscanini, by B. H. Haggin (Doubleday, $4.00). In matters of taste, and the arts in general, nothing is quite so rare, so anomalous, these days as genuine enthusiasm. The average appreciator is mild, eclectic, impartial, and almost no one exposes the passionate prejudices and shameless pedantries which mark a true lover. Therefore the record of absolute seriousness and insatiable attention which Mr. Haggin here brings to the work of Toscanini is—altogether apart from the subject—itself a delightful and tonic encounter. It is, in fact, the log book of a man whose gift for listening is every bit as dedicated, intensive, fanatic and pure-in-heart as his idol’s was for conducting. May their tribe increase.

R. PHELPS

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Conversations with Toscanini, by B. H. Haggin (Doubleday, $4.00). In matters of taste, and the arts in general, nothing is quite so rare, so anomalous, these days as genuine enthusiasm. The average appreciator is mild, eclectic, impartial, and almost no one exposes the passionate prejudices and shameless pedantries which mark a true lover. Therefore the record of absolute seriousness and insatiable attention which Mr. Haggin here brings to the work of Toscanini is—altogether apart from the subject—itself a delightful and tonic encounter. It is, in fact, the log book of a man whose gift for listening is every bit as dedicated, intensive, fanatic and pure-in-heart as his idol’s was for conducting. May their tribe increase.

R. PHELPS