London, Dec. 10.
*Fifieen-Thirty", the newly published autobiography of Mrs. Helen Wills Moody, six times Wimbledon and American champion, tells the story of her tennis life from the age f fifteen to the present day, the title bearing a chronological as well as sporting significance, It is not entirely devoted to sport, but gives her views on a number of subjects and her varied experiences, To the lawn tennis enthusiast, however, the main interest of the book is its account of her introduction to the sport as a pig-tailed sehoolgir] who astonished the American tennis world by beating prominent players, her account of the important matches she has played in, descriptions of famous players and general comments on the game. The book is not by any means a text-book of the game. but a commentary in which much of interest and something of instruction given, Thought Behind "Poker Face"
Above all it gives an insight into the character of a player who has neter been fully understood, and something of the thought behind the "poker face" which was all the spectator knew of her, In an illuminating chapter she remarks "I could not seek to be liked, If anyone happened to like me I was touched and happily grateful, but I did not know how to go out of my way to create a favourable impression. In a hard match I did not think of whether I was smiling or not, or whether my feelings were written on my face. If they were they were, but if they were not I did not know it. Followers of tennis had naturally tired of having someone who had no expression.
"Over a period of years the name that had been given me had gone though a curious change—first it was "Little Miss Poker Face", which might be called a term of affection. Then "Our Helen", which was agreeably pleasant, and finally "Queen Helen". I was not really the queen of tennis, anyway, but that was the name I had been given." These remarks occur in a section dealing with her play in 1929.
Mrs. Moody shows that threughout her career she has been prepared to learn from mistakes, and that her rise to fame has been the result of hard practice as well as the natural gift to play well.. When she was beaten by Miss Kitty MeKane at Wimbledon in 1924 she learnt the necessity for concentration, the importance of removing from the mind any thought not immediately bearing on the question of the moment. She considers that the best concentrators she has met were Mile Suzanne Lenglen and Mrs, Mallory, Among men players she picks out Rene Lacoste as possessing "almost un-Believable powers of concentration,"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.