The Lion and the Unicorn

An American playwright in London, a girl he cannot have, a Cuban gun-runner and a young officer off to the war — six stories about people who behave better than they need to. Davis was the most famous reporter of his age, covered six wars, and was the model Charles Dana Gibson drew for the Gibson Man; the title story is his best, and the self-sacrifice in it is done with a shrug rather than a speech. Fifty-five plates, among them Munch and Tissot, gather the women, shop girls and shipboard dancers of the era into a fitting companion for these stories of London and Cuba.