three have been translated into English under two titles, Ships in
the Sky and The Night and the Dream). This is one of the major works
of Icelandic literature--containing a fascinating world of fancy,
invention, and reality. It is the story of the development of a
writer who leaves home in order to seek the world. One of the best
known stories in all Icelandic literature is his masterly short
novel Advent or The good Shepherd (Aðventa).--Father and Sam
Feðgarnir) was first published in the periodical Eimreiðin in
1916. The present version, with slight changes, is that found in the
author's collected works, Rit XI, 1951.

Most Icelandic writers have, of course, written in the vernacular
only, in spite of longer or shorter stay abroad. This applies to the
last two authors represented here, both of whom appeared on the
literary scene about 1920.

Guðmundur G. Hagalín (b. 1898) comes from the sea-girt Western
Fiords, where he was a fisherman before attending secondary school.
Later, he lectured on Iceland in Norway for a few years (1924-27),
and is now a superintendent of public libraries. His home is in the
neighbourhood of Reykjavík. In his novels, and more particularly in
his short stories, he is at his best in his portrayals of the simple
sturdy seamen and countryfolk of his native region, which are often
refreshingly arch in manner. Hagalín, who is a talented narrator,
frequently succeeds in catching the living speech and characteristic
mode of expression of his characters. The Fox Skin (Tófuskinnið)
first appeared in 1923, in one of his collections of short stories
(Strandbúar).--He has also been successful as a recorder and editor
of the biographies of greatly different people, based on first-hand
accounts of their own lives. He is at present continuing with the