689 
THE AMERICAN-SC AND IN AVI A N R E VIE W 
We must be careful not to condemn Hallstrom 
before we see what he is trying to do. 
The present collection of stories will be 
of interest to all who are attempting to know 
the best of contemporary literature in Scandi¬ 
navia. Hallstrom will not rival in general 
popularity such authors as Selma Lagerlof, 
\ erner von Heidenstam, and Hjalmar Soder- 
burg; but his genius has a stimulating quality 
of its own, in which imagination and spiritual 
fineness play the leading parts. Mr. F. J. 
hielden seems in his introduction to be too 
much bound by Swedish estimates of Hall¬ 
strom, but his translation is adequate and 
sympathetic. C. W. S. 
Northern Lights 
Anders DeWahl in America 
At the conclusion of a summer vacation in 
America, Anders DeWahl was invited by the 
New \ ork Chapter to give an evening of 
readings from Swedish lyric and dramatic 
literature at the Hotel Astor on October 5. 
Five Swedish societies in New York joined 
with the Chapter in extending this invita¬ 
tion to Mr. DeWahl. The recital was fol¬ 
lowed by a reception and buffet supper. Mr. 
DeWahl’s career and influence on the Swedish 
stage are described in the October Review. 
An earlier recital in California is referred 
to in the following comment from a San Diego 
paper. 
When an actor reaches the point in his 
art where mere language becomes only an 
incident in his portrayals, he is worthy of the 
study and emulation of those devoted to that 
form of art. Those who heard Mr. DeWahl 
will never forget his marvelously delicate 
shading, the cadence of a voice controlled to 
the expression of every human emotion/’ 
Professor Svedberg to Wisconsin 
Professor Theodor Svedberg of Uppsala 
University, one of the world’s greatest au¬ 
thorities in the field of physical chemistry, 
has accepted an appointment to lecture in the 
spring term of 1923 at the University of Wis¬ 
consin and the following summer school ses¬ 
sion. While in this country Professor Sved¬ 
berg will also visit Yale University and will 
be one of the foreign speakers at the dedica¬ 
tion of the new chemical laboratory. 
Rolf and Borgny Hammer 
I he sudden death last April of the singer 
Rolf Hammer brought to an end a life which 
had been consistently devoted to the higher 
and more idealistic forms of music and dra¬ 
matic art. We are indebted to Mr. J. C. M. 
Hansen, of Chicago, for details regarding the 
Avork of Rolf Hammer and his talented wife, 
the actress Borgny Hammer, in the cause of 
Northern culture. In its courage and in¬ 
trepidity it may be compared to that of their 
compatriots who broke ground in the virgin 
prairies of the West. Rolf Hammer’s first 
visit to this country was when he came as 
soloist with the Norwegian Student Singers 
who toured the country, and his beautiful 
tenor voice was said by all who heard the 
choir to be the outstanding feature of its con¬ 
certs. It was probably this visit that made 
him decide to cast his fortunes with this coun¬ 
try, and for many years he and his wife 
lived and worked with Chicago as their head¬ 
quarters. Though handicapped by the fact 
that English was a foreign language to them, 
they organized and carried through successful 
tours through all parts of the West and South 
and latterly the East, too, playing Ibsen^s 
social dramas to appreciative audiences in all 
parts of. the country. In addition Rolf Ham¬ 
mer continued his work as a singer, and has 
probably done more than any other single man 
to make Norwegian composers known in 
American musical circles. 
Of the ideals that animated Rolf Hammer 
Mr. Hanson says: “In his art it was not a 
question of what was most popular or most 
likely to draw. He must give of his best or 
not at all. It was because of these and many 
other sterling qualities that his many friends 
in the old motherland as well as in his new 
home felt that in the death of Rolf Hammer 
we were deprived of another of those who 
have stood for real and lasting spiritual 
values against the materialism, coarseness, 
and even degeneracy that have in so startling 
a manner permeated many of our cultural ac¬ 
tivities during the period of the war and the 
years that have followed immediately upon 
tile world crisis.” 
A Denmark Number of “World Agri- 
gulture” 
TVorld Agriculture is a magazine published 
quarterly at Amherst, Massachusetts, by the 
World Agricultural Society, a non-commercial 
