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diff --git a/27116-0.txt b/27116-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebc1164 --- /dev/null +++ b/27116-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9841 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN +STREET *** + + + + +WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN STREET + +by + +GRANT OVERTON + +Author of "The Women Who Make Our Novels" + + + + + + + +New York +George H. Doran Company + +Printed in the United States of America + +Copyright, 1922, +by George H. Doran Company + +WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN STREET. + +Press of +J. J. Little & Ives Company +New York, U. S. A. + + + + +FOR +GEORGE H. DORAN +WHO HAD THE IDEA + + + + +PREFACE + +I have borrowed my title from two remarkable novels. + +_If Winter Comes_, by A. S. M. Hutchinson, was published in the autumn of +1921 by Messrs. Little, Brown & Company of Boston. + +_Main Street_, by Sinclair Lewis, was published in the autumn of 1920 by +Messrs. Harcourt, Brace & Company of New York. + +I have not before me the precise figures of the amazing sales of these two +books--each passed 350,000--but I make my bow to their authors and to +their publishers and to the American public. I bow to the authors for the +quality of their work and to the publishers and the public for their +recognition of that quality. + +These two substantial successes confirm my belief that the American public +in hundreds of thousands relishes good reading. Without that belief, this +book would not have been prepared; but I have prepared it with some +confidence that those who relish good reading will be interested in the +chapters that follow. + +As a former book reviewer and literary editor, as an author and, now, as +one vitally concerned in book publishing, my interest in books has been +fundamentally unchanging--a wish to see more books read and better books +to read. + +From one standpoint, _When Winter Comes to Main Street_ is frankly an +advertisement; it deals with Doran books and authors. This is a fact of +some relevance, however, if, as I believe, the reader shall find +well-spent the time given to these pages. + + Grant Overton. + +19 July 1922. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I THE COURAGE OF HUGH WALPOLE 15 + + II HALF-SMILES AND GESTURES 33 + + III STEWART EDWARD WHITE AND ADVENTURE 55 + + IV WHERE THE PLOT THICKENS 68 + + V REBECCA WEST: AN ARTIST 78 + + VI SHAMELESS FUN 88 + + VII THE VITALITY OF MARY ROBERTS RINEHART 102 + + VIII THEY HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME 118 + + IX AUDACIOUS MR. BENNETT 133 + + X A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN 152 + + XI COBB'S FOURTH DIMENSION 166 + + XII PLACES TO GO 187 + + XIII ALIAS RICHARD DEHAN 196 + + XIV WITH FULL DIRECTIONS 212 + + XV FRANK SWINNERTON: ANALYST OF LOVERS 225 + + XVI AN ARMFUL OF NOVELS, WITH NOTES ON THE NOVELISTS 244 + + XVII THE HETEROGENEOUS MAGIC OF MAUGHAM 270 + + XVIII BOOKS WE LIVE BY 293 + + XIX ROBERT W. CHAMBERS AND THE WHOLE TRUTH 308 + + XX UNIQUITIES 321 + + XXI THE CONFESSIONS OF A WELL-MEANING YOUNG MAN, + STEPHEN MCKENNA 334 + + XXII POETS AND PLAYWRIGHTS 347 + + XXIII THE BOOKMAN FOUNDATION AND THE BOOKMAN 366 + + EPILOGUE 372 + + INDEX 373 + + + + +PORTRAITS + + PAGE +HUGH WALPOLE 17 +STEWART EDWARD WHITE 57 +REBECCA WEST 79 +MARY ROBERTS RINEHART 103 +ARNOLD BENNETT 135 +IRVIN S. COBB 167 +FRANK SWINNERTON 227 +W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM 271 +STEPHEN McKENNA 335 + + + + +WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN STREET + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE COURAGE OF HUGH WALPOLE + + +=i= + +Says his American contemporary, Joseph Hergesheimer, in an appreciation of +Hugh Walpole: "Mr. Walpole's courage in the face of the widest scepticism +is nowhere more daring than in _The Golden Scarecrow_." Mr. Walpole's +courage, I shall always hold, is nowhere more apparent than in the choice +of his birthplace. He was born in the Antipodes. Yes! In that magical, +unpronounceable realm one reads about and intends to look up in the +dictionary.... The precise Antipodean spot was Auckland, New Zealand, and +the year was 1884. + +The Right Reverend George Henry Somerset Walpole, D.D., Bishop of +Edinburgh since 1910, had been sent in 1882 to Auckland as Incumbent of +St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral, and the same ecclesiastical fates which took +charge of Hugh Seymour Walpole's birthplace provided that, at the age of +five, the immature novelist should be transferred to New York. Dr. Walpole +spent the next seven years in imparting to students of the General +Theological Seminary, New York, their knowledge of Dogmatic Theology. Hugh +Seymour Walpole spent the seven years in attaining the age of twelve. + +Then, in 1896, the family returned to England. Perhaps a tendency to +travel had by this time become implanted in Hugh, for now, in his late +thirties, he is one of the most peripatetic of writers. He is here, he is +there. You write to him in London and receive a reply from Cornwall or the +Continent. And, regularly, he comes over to America. Of all the English +novelists who have visited this country he is easily the most popular +personally on this side. His visit this autumn (1922) will undoubtedly +multiply earlier welcomes. + +Interest in Walpole the man and Walpole the novelist shows an increasing +tendency to become identical. It is all very well to say that the man is +one thing, his books are quite another; but suppose the man cannot be +separated from his books? The Walpole that loved Cornwall as a lad can't +be dissevered from the "Hugh Seymour" of _The Golden Scarecrow_; without +his Red Cross service in Russia during the Great War, Walpole could not +have written _The Dark Forest_; and I think the new novel he offers us +this autumn must owe a good deal to direct reminiscence of such a +cathedral town as Durham, to which the family returned when Hugh was +twelve. + +[Illustration: HUGH WALPOLE] + +_The Cathedral_, as the new book is called, rests the whole of its effect +upon just such an edifice as young Hugh was familiar with. The Cathedral +of the story stands in Polchester, in the west of England, in the county +of Glebeshire--that mythical yet actual county of Walpole's other novels. +Like such tales as _The Green Mirror_ and _The Duchess of Wrexe_, the aim +is threefold--to give a history of a certain group of people and, at the +same time, (2) to be a comment on English life, and, beyond that, (3) to +offer a philosophy of life itself. + +The innermost of the three circles of interest created in this powerful +novel--like concentric rings formed by dropping stones in water--concerns +the life of Archdeacon Brandon. When the story opens he is ruling +Polchester, all its life, religious and civic and social, with an iron +rod. A good man, kindly and virtuous and simple, power has been too much +for him. In the first chapter a parallel is made between Brandon and a +great mediæval ecclesiastic of the Cathedral, the Black Bishop, who came +to think of himself as God and who was killed by his enemies. All through +the book this parallel is followed. + +A certain Canon Ronder arrives to take up a post in the Cathedral. The +main thread of the novel now emerges as the history of the rivalry of +these two men, one simple and elemental, the other calculating, selfish +and sure. Ronder sees at once that Brandon is in his way and at once +begins his work to overthrow the Archdeacon, not because he dislikes him +at all (he _likes_ him), but because he wants his place; too, because +Brandon represents the Victorian church, while Ronder is on the side of +the modernists. + +Brandon is threatened through his son Stephen and through his wife. His +source of strength,--a source of which he is unaware--lies in his +daughter, Joan, a charming girl just growing up. The first part of the +novel ends with everything that is to follow implicit in what has been +told; the story centres in Brandon but more sharply in the Cathedral, +which is depicted as a living organism with all its great history behind +it working quickly, ceaselessly, for its own purposes. Every part of the +Cathedral life is brought in to effect this, the Bishop, the Dean, the +Canons--down to the Verger's smallest child. All the town life also is +brought in, from the Cathedral on the hill to the mysterious little +riverside inn. Behind the town is seen the Glebeshire country, behind +that, England; behind England, the world, all moving toward set purposes. + +The four parts of the novel markedly resemble, in structure, acts of a +play; in particular, the striking third part, entirely concerned with the +events of a week and full of flashing pictures, such as the scene of the +Town Ball. But the culmination of this part, indeed, the climax of the +whole book, comes in the scene of the Fair, with its atmosphere of +carnival, its delirium of outdoor mood, and its tremendous encounter +between Brandon and his wife. The novel closes upon a moment both fugitive +and eternal--Brandon watching across the fields the Cathedral, lovely and +powerful, in the evening distance. The Cathedral, lovely and powerful, +forever victorious, served by the generations of men.... + +=ii= + +Courage, for Hugh, must have made its demand to be exercised early. We +have the "Hugh Seymour" of _The Golden Scarecrow_ who "was sent from +Ceylon, where his parents lived, to be educated in England. His relations +having for the most part settled in foreign countries, he spent his +holidays as a minute and pale-faced 'paying guest' in various houses where +other children were of more importance than he, or where children as a +race were of no importance at all." It would be a mistake to confer on +such a fictional passage a strict autobiographical importance; but I think +it significant that the novel with which Walpole first won an American +following, _Fortitude_, should derive from a theme as simple and as strong +as that of a classic symphony--from those words with which it opens: "'T +isn't life that matters! 'T is the courage you bring to it." From that +moment on, the novel follows the struggle of Peter Westcott, in boyhood +and young manhood, with antagonists, inner and outer. At the end we have +him partly defeated, wholly triumphant, still fighting, still pledged to +fight. + +Not to confuse fiction with fact: Hugh Walpole was educated at Kings +School, Canterbury, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. When he left the +university he drifted into newspaper work in London. He also had a brief +experience as master in a boys' school (the experiential-imaginative +source of _The Gods and Mr. Perrin_, that superb novel of underpaid +teachers in a second-rate boarding school). The war brought Red Cross work +in Russia and also a mission to Petrograd to promote pro-Ally sentiment. +For these services Walpole was decorated with the Georgian Medal. + +What is Hugh Walpole like personally? Arnold Bennett, in an article which +appeared in the Book News Monthly and which was reprinted in a booklet, +says: "About the time of the publication of _The Gods and Mr. Perrin_, I +made the acquaintance of Mr. Walpole and found a man of youthful +appearance, rather dark, with a spacious forehead, a very highly +sensitised nervous organisation, and that reassuring matter-of-factness of +demeanour which one usually does find in an expert. He was then busy at +his task of seeing life in London. He seems to give about one-third of the +year to the tasting of all the heterogeneous sensations which London can +provide for the connoisseur and two-thirds to the exercise of his vocation +in some withdrawn spot in Cornwall that nobody save a postman or so, and +Mr. Walpole, has ever beheld. During one month it is impossible to 'go +out' in London without meeting Mr. Walpole--and then for a long period he +is a mere legend of dinner tables. He returns to the dinner tables with a +novel complete." + +In the same magazine, in an article reprinted in the same booklet, Mrs. +Belloc Lowndes, that excellent weaver of mystery stories and sister of +Hilaire Belloc, said: "Before all things Hugh Walpole is an optimist, with +a great love for and a great belief in human nature. His outlook is +essentially sane, essentially normal. He has had his reverses and +difficulties, living in lodgings in remote Chelsea, depending entirely +upon his own efforts. Tall and strongly built, clean-shaven, with a wide, +high forehead and kindly sympathetic expression, the author of _Fortitude_ +has a refreshing boyishness and zest for enjoyment which are pleasant to +his close friends. London, the home of his adoption, Cornwall, the home of +his youth, have each an equal spell for him and he divides his year +roughly into two parts: the tiny fishing town of Polperro, Cornwall, and +the pleasure of friendships in London. 'What a wonderful day!' he was +heard to say, his voice sounding muffled through the thickest variety of a +pea-soup fog. 'It wouldn't really be London without an occasional day like +this! I'm off to tramp the city.' It is one of Hugh Walpole's +superstitions that he should always begin his novels on Christmas Eve. He +has always done so, and he believes it brings him luck. Often it means the +exercise of no small measure of self-control, for the story has matured in +his mind and he is aching to commence it. But he vigorously adheres to his +custom, and by the time he begins to write his book lies before him like a +map. 'I could tell it you now, practically in the very words in which I +shall write it,' he has said. Nevertheless, he takes infinite trouble with +the work as it progresses. A great reader, Hugh Walpole reads with method. +Tracts of history, periods of fiction and poetry, are studied seriously; +and he has a really exhaustive heritage of modern poetry and fiction." + +Perhaps since Mrs. Lowndes wrote those words, Mr. Walpole has departed +from his Christmas Eve custom. At any rate, I notice on the last page in +his very long novel _The Captives_ (the work by which, I think, he sets +most store of all his books so far published) the dates: + + POLPERRO, JAN. 1916, + POLPERRO, MAY 1920. + +=iii= + +The demand for the exercise of that courage of which we have spoken can be +seen from these further details, supplied by Arnold Bennett: + +"At the age of twenty, as an undergraduate of Cambridge, Walpole wrote +two novels. One of these, a very long book, the author had the +imprudence to destroy. The other was _The Wooden Horse_, his first +printed novel. It is not to be presumed that _The Wooden Horse_ was +published at once. For years it waited in manuscript until Walpole had +become a master in a certain provincial school in England. There he +showed the novel to a fellow-master, who, having kept the novel for a +period, spoke thus: 'I have tried to read your novel, Walpole, but I +can't. Whatever else you may be fitted for, you aren't fitted to be a +novelist.' Mr. Walpole was grieved. Perhaps he was unaware, then, that a +similar experience had happened to Joseph Conrad. I am unable to judge +the schoolmaster's fitness to be a critic, because I have not read _The +Wooden Horse_. Walpole once promised to send me a copy so that I might +come to some conclusion as to the schoolmaster, but he did not send it. +Soon after this deplorable incident, Walpole met Charles Marriott, a +novelist of a remarkable distinction. Mr. Marriott did not agree with the +schoolmaster as to _The Wooden Horse_. The result of the conflict of +opinion between Mr. Marriott and the schoolmaster was that Mr. Walpole +left the school abruptly--perhaps without the approval of his family, +but certainly with a sum of £30 which he had saved. His destination was +London. + +"In Chelsea he took a room at four shillings a week. He was twenty-three +and (in theory) a professional author at last. Through the favouring +influence of Mr. Marriott he obtained a temporary job on the London +Standard as a critic of fiction. It lasted three weeks. Then he got a +regular situation on the same paper, a situation which I think he kept for +several years. _The Wooden Horse_ was published by a historic firm. +Statistics are interesting and valuable--_The Wooden Horse_ sold seven +hundred copies. The author's profits therefrom were less than the cost of +typewriting the novel. History is constantly repeating itself. + +"Mr. Walpole was quite incurable, and he kept on writing novels. _Maradick +at Forty_ was the next one. It sold eleven hundred copies, but with no +greater net monetary profit to the author than the first one. He made, +however, a more shining profit of glory. _Maradick at Forty_--as the +phrase runs--'attracted attention.' I myself, though in a foreign country, +heard of it, and registered the name of Hugh Walpole as one whose progress +must be watched." + +=iv= + +Not so long ago there was published in England, in a series of +pocket-sized books called the _Kings Treasuries of Literature_ (under the +general editorship of Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch), a small volume called _A +Hugh Walpole Anthology_. This consisted of selections from Mr. Walpole's +novels up to and including _The Captives_. The selection was made by Mr. +Walpole himself. + +I think that the six divisions into which the selections fell are +interesting as giving, in a few words, a prospectus of Walpole's work. The +titles of the sections were "Some Children," "Men and Women," "Some +Incidents," "London," "Country Places," and "Russia." The excerpts under +the heading "Some Children" are all from _Jeremy_ and _The Golden +Scarecrow_. The "Men and Women" are Mr. Perrin and Mrs. Comber, from _The +Gods and Mr. Perrin_; Mr. Trenchard and Aunt Aggie, from _The Green +Mirror_; and Mr. Crashaw, from _The Captives_. The "Incidents" are chosen +with an equal felicity--we have the theft of an umbrella from _The Gods +and Mr. Perrin_ and, out of the same book, the whole passage in which Mr. +Perrin sees double. There is also a scene from _Fortitude_, "After Defeat." +After two episodes from _The Green Mirror_, this portion of the anthology +is closed with the tragic passage from _The Captives_ in which Maggie +finds her uncle. + +Among the London places pictured by Mr. Walpole in his novels and in this +pleasant anthology are Fleet Street, Chelsea, Portland Place, The Strand, +and Marble Arch. The selections under the heading "Country Places" are +bits about a cove, the sea, dusk, a fire and homecoming. The passages that +relate to Russia are taken, of course, from _The Dark Forest_ and _The +Secret City_. + +Not the least interesting thing in this small volume is a short +introductory note by Joseph Conrad, who speaks of the anthology as +"intelligently compiled," and as offering, within its limits, a sample of +literary shade for every reader's sympathy. "Sophistication," adds Mr. +Conrad, "is the only shade that does not exist in Mr. Walpole's prose." He +goes on: + +"Of the general soundness of Mr. Walpole's work I am perfectly convinced. +Let no modern and malicious mind take this declaration for a left-handed +compliment. Mr. Walpole's soundness is not of conventions but of +convictions; and even as to these, let no one suppose that Mr. Walpole's +convictions are old-fashioned. He is distinctly a man of his time; and it +is just because of that modernity, informed by a sane judgment of urgent +problems and wide and deep sympathy with all mankind, that we look forward +hopefully to the growth and increased importance of his work. In his +style, so level, so consistent, Mr. Hugh Walpole does not seek so much for +novel as for individual expression; and this search, this ambition so +natural to an artist, is often rewarded by success. Old and young interest +him alike and he treats both with a sure touch and in the kindest manner. +In each of these passages we see Mr. Walpole grappling with the truth of +things spiritual and material with his characteristic earnestness, and in +the whole we can discern the characteristics of this acute and sympathetic +explorer of human nature: His love of adventure and the serious audacity +he brings to the task of recording the changes of human fate and the +moments of human emotion, in the quiet backwaters or in the tumultuous +open streams of existence." + +=v= + +There is not space here to reprint all of Joseph Hergesheimer's +Appreciation of Hugh Walpole, published in a booklet in 1919--a booklet +still obtainable--but I would like to quote a few sentences from the close +of Mr. Hergesheimer's essay, where he says: + +"As a whole, Hugh Walpole's novels maintain an impressive unity of +expression; they are the distinguished presentation of a distinguished +mind. Singly and in a group, they hold possibilities of infinite +development. This, it seems to me, is most clearly marked in their +superiority to the cheap materialism that has been the insistent note of +the prevailing optimistic fiction. There is a great deal of happiness in +Mr. Walpole's pages, but it is not founded on surface vulgarity of +appetite. The drama of his books is not sapped by the automatic security +of invulnerable heroics. Accidents happen, tragic and humorous; the life +of his novels is checked in black and white, often shrouded in grey; the +sun moves and stars come out; youth grows old; charm fades; girls may or +may not be pretty; his old women---- + +"But there he is inimitable. The old gentlewomen, or caretakers, dry and +twisted, brittle and sharp, repositories of emotion--vanities and malice +and self-seeking--like echoes of the past, or fat and loquacious, with +alcoholic sentimentality, are wonderfully ingratiating. They gather like +shadows, ghosts, about the feet of the young, and provide Mr. Walpole with +one of his main resources--the restless turning away of the young from the +conventions, prejudices and inhibitions of yesterday. He is singularly +intent upon the injustice of locking age about the wrists of youth; and, +with him, youth is very apt to escape, to defy authority set in years ... +only to become, in time, age itself." + +Perhaps this is an anti-climax: The University of Edinburgh has twice +awarded the Tait Black Prize for the best novel of the year to Mr. +Walpole--first for _The Secret City_ in 1919 and then for _The Captives_ +in 1920. + +BOOKS BY HUGH WALPOLE + +Novels: + THE WOODEN HORSE + THE GODS AND MR. PERRIN + (In England, MR. PERRIN AND MR. TRAILL) + THE GREEN MIRROR + THE DARK FOREST + THE SECRET CITY + THE CAPTIVES + THE CATHEDRAL + +Romances: + MARADICK AT FORTY + THE PRELUDE TO ADVENTURE + FORTITUDE + THE DUCHESS OF WREXE + THE YOUNG ENCHANTED + +Short Stories: + THE GOLDEN SCARECROW + JEREMY + THE THIRTEEN TRAVELLERS + +Belles-Lettres: + JOSEPH CONRAD--A Critical Study. + +SOURCES ON HUGH WALPOLE + +Hugh Walpole: An Appreciation, by Joseph Hergesheimer, GEORGE H. DORAN +COMPANY. + + +English Literature During the Last Half Century, by J. W. Cunliffe, THE +MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +A Hugh Walpole Anthology, selected by the author. LONDON: J. M. +DENT & SONS. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY. + +Hugh Walpole, Master Novelist. Pamphlet published by GEORGE H. DORAN +COMPANY. (Out of print.) + +Who's Who [In England]. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HALF-SMILES AND GESTURES + + +=i= + +Half-smiles and gestures! There is always a younger generation but it is +not always articulate. The war may not have changed the face of the world, +but it changed the faces of very many young men. Faces of naïve enthusiasm +and an innocent expectancy were not particularly noticeable in the years +1918 to 1922. The sombreness, the abruptness, the savage mood evident in +the writings of such men as Barbusse and Siegfried Sassoon were abandoned. +Confronted with the riddle of life, spared the enigma of death, the young +men have felt nothing more befitting their age and generation than the +personal "gesture." + +If you ask me what is a gesture, I can't say that I know. It is something +felt in the attitude of a person to whom one is talking or whose book one +is reading. And the gesture is accompanied, in some of our younger +writers, with an expression that is both serious and smiling. These +half-smiles are, I take it, youth's comment on the riddle of a continued +existence, on the loss of well-lost illusions, on the uncertainty of all +future values. What is there worth trying for? It is not too clear, hence +the gesture. What is there worth the expenditure of emotion? It is +doubtful; and a half-smile is the best. + +Such a writer, busily experimenting in several directions, is Aldous +Huxley. This child of 1894, the son of Leonard Huxley (eldest son and +biographer of Prof. T. H. Huxley) and Julia Arnold (niece of Martha Arnold +and sister of Mrs. Humphry Ward), has with three books of prose built up a +considerable and devoted following of American readers. First there was +_Limbo_. Then came _Crome Yellow_, and on the heels of that we had the +five stories--if you like to call them so--composing _Mortal Coils_. I +have seen no comment more penetrating than that of Michael Sadleir, +himself the author of a novel of distinction. Sadleir says: + +"Already Huxley is the most readable of his generation. He has the +allurement of his own inconsistency, and the inconsistency of youth is its +questing spirit, and, consequently, its chief claim to respect. + +"At present there are several Huxleys--the artificer in words, the amateur +of garbage, pierrot lunaire, the cynic in rag-time, the fastidious +sensualist. For my part, I believe only in the last, taking that to be the +real Huxley and the rest prank, virtuosity, and, most of all, +self-consciousness. As the foal will shy at his own shadow, so Aldous +Huxley, nervous by fits at the poise of his own reality, sidesteps with +graceful violence into the opposite of himself. There is a beautiful +example of this in _Mortal Coils_. Among the stage-directions to his play, +'Permutations Among the Nightingales,' occur the following sentences: +'Sydney Dolphin has a romantic appearance. His two volumes of verse have +been recognised by intelligent critics as remarkable. How far they are +poetry nobody, least of all Dolphin himself, is certain. They may be +merely the ingenious products of a very cultured and elaborate brain.' + +"The point is not that these words might be applied to the author himself, +but rather that he knows they might, even hopes they will, and has sought +to lull his too-ready self-criticism by, so to speak, getting there first +and putting down on paper what he imagines others may think or write of +him. + +"Huxley is a poet and writer of prose. His varied personalities show +themselves in both. The artificer in words is almost omnipresent, and God +forbid that he ever vanish utterly. The disciple of Laforgue has produced +lovely and skilful things, and one is grateful for the study of the French +symbolists that instigated the translation of 'L'Apres-midi d'un Faune.' +In 'The Walk' the recapture of Laforgue's blend of the exotic and the +everyday is astonishingly complete. + +"The cynic is as accomplished as the Pierrot and 'Social Amenities,' parts +of 'Soles Occidere et Redire Possunt,' and, in _Limbo_, 'Richard Greenow' +(first 100 pages) and 'Happy Families' are syncopated actuality, and the +mind jigs an appreciative shoulder, as the body jerks irresistibly to +'Indianola.' + +"There remains Huxley the sensualist, a very ardent lover of beauty, but +one that shrinks from the sordid preamble of modern gallantry, one that is +apprehensive of the inevitable disillusionment. As others have done, as +others will do, he finds in imagination the adventure that progress has +decreed unseemly. + +"The reader who is shocked by 'slabby-bellies,' 'mucus,' 'Priapulids'; the +reader who is awed by the paraded learning of 'Splendour by Numbers,' by +the deliberate intricacy of 'Beauty,' or the delicate fatigue of 'The +Death of Lully' in _Limbo_--these are no audience for an artist. It +tickles the author's fancy, stretches his wits, flatters his deviltry to +provoke and witness such consternation and such respect. But the process +is waste of time, and a writer of Huxley's quality, whatever his youth, +has never time to waste." + +=ii= + +Readers who have chuckled over _Guinea Girl_ or have read with the +peculiar delight of discovery _The Pilgrim of a Smile_ are astonished to +learn that its author is, properly speaking, an engineer. Norman Davey, +born in 1888 (Cambridge 1908-10) is the son of Henry Davey, an engineer of +eminence. After taking honours in chemistry and physics, Norman Davey +travelled in America (1911), particularly in Virginia and Carolina. Then +he went to serve as an apprentice in engineering work in the North of +England and to study in the University of Montpellier in France. + +His first book was _The Gas Turbine_, published in London and now a +classic on its subject. In the four years preceding the war he contributed +articles on thermodynamics to scientific papers. It is only honest to add +that at the same time he contributed to Punch and Life--chiefly verse. + +After the war he had a book of verse published in England and followed it +with _The Pilgrim of a Smile_. He has travelled a good deal in Spain, +Italy, Sweden, and his hobby is book collecting. This is all very well; +and it explains how he could provide the necessary atmosphere for that +laughable story of Monte Carlo, _Guinea Girl_; but one is scarcely +prepared for _The Pilgrim of a Smile_ by those preliminaries in +thermodynamics--or in Punch. The story of the man who did not ask the +Sphinx for love or fame or money but for the reason of her smile is one of +the most intelligible of the gestures characteristic of literature since +the war. + +=iii= + +The gesture as such is perhaps most definitely recognised in the charming +book by John Dos Passos, _Rosinante to the Road Again_. This, indeed, is +the story of a gesture and a quest for it. The gesture is that of Castile, +defined in the opening chapter in some memorable words exchanged by +Telemachus and his friend Lyæus: + +"'It's the gesture that's so overpowering; don't you feel it in your arms? +Something sudden and tremendously muscular.' + +"'When Belmonte turned his back suddenly on the bull and walked away +dragging the red cloak on the ground behind him I felt it,' said Lyæus. + +"'That gesture, a yellow flame against maroon and purple cadences ... an +instant swagger of defiance in the midst of a litany to death the +all-powerful. That is Spain ... Castile at any rate.' + +"'Is "swagger" the right word?' + +"'Find a better!' + +"'For the gesture a mediæval knight made when he threw his mailed glove at +his enemy's feet or a rose in his lady's window, that a mule-driver makes +when he tosses off a glass of aguardiente, that Pastora Imperio makes +dancing....'" + +I do not know whether one should classify _Rosinante_ as a book of travel, +a book of essays, a book of criticisms. It is all three--an integrated +gesture. Certain interspersed chapters purport to relate the wayside +conversations of Telemachus and Lyæus--dual phases of the author's +personality shall we say?--and the people they meet. The other chapters +are acute studies of modern Spain, with rather special attention to modern +Spanish writers. One varies in his admiration between such an essay as +that on Miguel de Unamuno and such an unforgettable picture as the vision +of Jorge Manrique composing his splendid ode to Death: + +"It had been raining. Lights rippled red and orange and yellow and green +on the clean paving-stones. A cold wind off the Sierra shrilled through +clattering streets. As they walked the other man was telling how this +Castilian nobleman, courtier, man-at-arms, had shut himself up when his +father, the Master of Santiago, died, and had written this poem, created +this tremendous rhythm of death sweeping like a wind over the world. He +had never written anything else. They thought of him in the court of his +great dust-coloured mansion at Ocaña, where the broad eaves were full of a +cooing of pigeons and the wide halls had dark rafters painted with +arabesques in vermilion, in a suit of black velvet, writing at a table +under a lemon tree. Down the sun-scarred street, in the cathedral that was +building in those days, full of a smell of scaffolding and stone dust, +there must have stood a tremendous catafalque where lay with his arms +around him the Master of Santiago; in the carved seats of the choirs the +stout canons intoned an endless growling litany; at the sacristy door, the +flare of the candles flashing occasionally on the jewels of his mitre, the +bishop fingered his crosier restlessly, asking his favourite choir-boy +from time to time why Don Jorge had not arrived. And messengers must have +come running to Don Jorge, telling him the service was at the point of +beginning, and he must have waved them away with a grave gesture of a long +white hand, while in his mind the distant sound of chanting, the jingle of +the silver bit of his roan horse stamping nervously where he was tied to a +twined Moorish column, memories of cavalcades filing with braying of +trumpets and flutter of crimson damask into conquered towns, of court +ladies dancing and the noise of pigeons in the eaves drew together like +strings plucked in succession on a guitar into a great wave of rhythm in +which his life was sucked away into this one poem in praise of death." + +=iv= + +The Column is an American institution. What is meant, of course, is that +daily vertical discussion of Things That Have Interested Me by different +individuals attached to different papers and having in common only the +great gift of being interested in what interests everybody else. Perhaps +that is not right, either. Maybe the gift is that of being able to +interest everybody else in the things you are interested in. Of all those +who write a Column, Heywood Broun is possibly the one whose interests are +the most varied. It is precisely this variety which makes his book _Pieces +of Hate: and Other Enthusiasms_ unique as a collection of essays. He will +write on one page about the boxing ring, on the next about the theatre, a +little farther along about books, farther on yet about politics. He makes +excursions into college sports, horse racing and questions of fair play; +and the problems of child-rearing are his constant preoccupation. + +Consider some of his topics. We have an opening study of the literary +masterpiece of E. M. Hull, the novel celebrating the adventures of Miss +Diana Mayo and the Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan. The next chapter deals with +Hans Christian Andersen and literary and dramatic critics. Pretty soon we +are discussing after-dinner speeches, Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey. If this +is a gesture, all I can say is, it is a pinwheel; and yet Broun writes +only about things he knows about. Lest you think from my description that +_Pieces of Hate_ is a book in a wholly unserious vein, I invite you to +read the little story, "Frankincense and Myrrh." + +"Once there were three kings in the East and they were wise men. They read +the heavens and they saw a certain strange star by which they knew that in +a distant land the King of the World was to be born. The star beckoned to +them and they made preparations for a long journey. + +"From their palaces they gathered rich gifts, gold and frankincense and +myrrh. Great sacks of precious stuffs were loaded upon the backs of the +camels which were to bear them on their journey. Everything was in +readiness, but one of the wise men seemed perplexed and would not come at +once to join his two companions who were eager and impatient to be on +their way in the direction indicated by the star. + +"They were old, these two kings, and the other wise man was young. When +they asked him he could not tell why he waited. He knew that his +treasuries had been ransacked for rich gifts for the King of Kings. It +seemed that there was nothing more which he could give, and yet he was not +content. + +"He made no answer to the old men who shouted to him that the time had +come. The camels were impatient and swayed and snarled. The shadows across +the desert grew longer. And still the young king sat and thought deeply. + +"At length he smiled, and he ordered his servants to open the great +treasure sack upon the back of the first of his camels. Then he went into +a high chamber to which he had not been since he was a child. He rummaged +about and presently came out and approached the caravan. In his hand he +carried something which glinted in the sun. + +"The kings thought that he bore some new gift more rare and precious than +any which they had been able to find in all their treasure rooms. They +bent down to see, and even the camel drivers peered from the backs of the +great beasts to find out what it was which gleamed in the sun. They were +curious about this last gift for which all the caravan had waited. + +"And the young king took a toy from his hand and placed it upon the sand. +It was a dog of tin, painted white and speckled with black spots. Great +patches of paint had worn away and left the metal clear, and that was why +the toy shone in the sun as if it had been silver. + +"The youngest of the wise men turned a key in the side of the little black +and white dog and then he stepped aside so that the kings and the camel +drivers could see. The dog leaped high in the air and turned a somersault. +He turned another and another and then fell over upon his side and lay +there with a set and painted grin upon his face. + +"A child, the son of a camel driver, laughed and clapped his hands, but +the kings were stern. They rebuked the youngest of the wise men and he +paid no attention but called to his chief servant to make the first of all +the camels kneel. Then he picked up the toy of tin and, opening the +treasure sack, placed his last gift with his own hands in the mouth of the +sack so that it rested safely upon the soft bags of incense. + +"'What folly has seized you?' cried the eldest of the wise men. 'Is this a +gift to bear to the King of Kings in the far country?' + +"And the young man answered and said: 'For the King of Kings there are +gifts of great richness, gold and frankincense and myrrh. + +"'But this,' he said, 'is for the child in Bethlehem!'" + +=v= + +Editor of the London Mercury, J. C. Squire has the light touch of the +columnist but limits himself somewhat more closely to books and the +subjects suggested by them. Very few men living can write about books with +more actual and less apparent erudition than Mr. Squire. Born in 1884, +educated at Cambridge, an editor of the New Statesman, a poet unsurpassed +in the field of parody but a poet who sets more store by his serious +verse, Mr. Squire can best be appreciated by those who have just that +desultory interest in literature which he himself possesses. I have been +looking through his _Books in General_, _Third Series_, for something +quotable, and I declare I cannot lift anything from its setting. It is all +of a piece, from the essay on "If One Were Descended from Shakespeare" to +the remarks about Ben Jonson, Maeterlinck, Ruskin, Cecil Chesterton and +Mr. Kipling's later verse (which I have nowhere seen more sensibly +discussed). + +Well, perhaps these observations from the chapter "A Terrifying +Collection" will give the taste! It appears that an anonymous donor had +offered money to the Birmingham Reference Library to pay for the gathering +of a complete collection of the war poetry issued in the British Empire. +After some preliminary comment, Mr. Squire concludes: + +"If that donor really means business I shall be prepared to supply him +with one or two rare and special examples myself. I possess tributes to +the English effort written by Portuguese, Japanese and Belgians; and pæans +by Englishmen which excel, as regards both simplicity of sentiment and +illiteracy of construction, any foreign composition. Birmingham is not +noted for very many things. It is, we know, the only large city in the +country which remains solidly Tory in election after election. It +produced, we know, Mr. Joseph and Mr. Austen Chamberlain. It has, we know, +something like a monopoly in the manufacture of the gods in wood and brass +to which (in his blindness) the heathen bows down; and there are all sorts +of cheap lines in which it can give the whole world points and a beating. +But it has not yet got the conspicuous position of Manchester or +Liverpool; and one feels that the enterprise of this anonymous donor may +help to put it on a level with those towns. For, granted that its +librarians take their commission seriously, and its friends give them the +utmost assistance in their power, there seems every reason to suppose that +within the next year the City of Birmingham will be the proud possessor of +the largest mound of villainously bad literature in the English-speaking +world. Pilgrims will go to see it who on no other account would have gone +to Birmingham; historians will refer to it when endeavouring to prove that +their own ages are superior to ours in intelligence; authors will inspect +it when seeking the consoling assurance that far, far worse things than +they have ever done have got into public libraries and been seriously +catalogued. The enterprise, in fact, is likely to be of service to several +classes of our fellow-citizens; and it cannot, as far as I am able to see, +do harm to any. It should therefore be encouraged, and I recommend anyone +who has volumes of war-verse which he wishes to get rid of to send them +off at once to the Chief Librarian of Birmingham." + +Oh, yes! _Books in General_, _Third Series_, is by Solomon Eagle. Mr. +Squire explains that the pen name Solomon Eagle has no excuse. The +original bearer of the name was a poor maniac who, during the Great Plague +of London, used to run naked through the streets with a pan of coals of +fire on his head crying, "Repent, repent." + +Too late I realise my wrongdoing, for what, after all, is _Books in +General_ as compared to Mr. Squire's _Life and Letters_? As a +divertissement, compared to a tone poem; as a curtain-raiser to a +three-act play. _Life and Letters_, though not lacking in the lighter +touches of Mr. Squire's fancy, contains chapters on Keats, Jane Austen, +Anatole France, Walt Whitman, Pope and Rabelais of that more considered +character one expects from the editor of the London Mercury. This is not +to say that these studies are devoid of humour; and those chapters in the +volume which are in the nature of interludes are among the best Mr. Squire +has written. Unfortunately I have left myself no room to quote the +incomparable panegyric (in the chapter on "Initials") to the name of John. +Read it, if your name is John; you will thank me for bringing it to your +attention. + +=vi= + +One expects personality in the daughter of Margot Asquith, and the readers +of the first book by Princess Antoine Bibesco (Elizabeth Asquith) were not +disappointed. The same distinction and the same unusual personality will +be found in her new book, _Balloons_. Princess Bibesco's _I Have Only +Myself to Blame_ consisted of sixteen short stories the most nervously +alive and most clearly individualised of feminine gestures. The quality of +Princess Bibesco's work, in so far as purely descriptive passages can +convey it, may be realised from these portraits of a father and mother +which open the story called "Pilgrimage" in _I Have Only Myself to +Blame_: + +"My father was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known but as he +refused to choose any of the ordinary paths of mental activity his name +has remained a family name when it should have become more exclusively his +own. If anything, my mother's famous beauty cast far more lustre on it +than his genius--which preferred to bask in the sunshine of intimacy or +recline indolently in the shady backwaters of privacy and leisure. And yet +in a way he was an adventurer--or rather an adventurous scientist. He was +often called cynical but that was not true--he was far too dispassionate, +too little of a sentimentalist to be tempted by inverted sentimentalism. +Above all things he was a collector--a collector of impressions. His +psychological bibelots were not for everyone. Some, indeed, lay open in +the vitime of his everyday conversation but many more lay hidden in +drawers opened only for the elect. + +"Undoubtedly, in a way, my mother was one of his masterpieces. Her beauty +seemed to be enhanced by every hour and every season. At forty suddenly +her hair had gone snow white. The primrose, the daffodil, the flame, the +gold, the black, the emerald, the ruby of her youth gave way to grey and +silver, pale jade and faint turquoise, shell pink and dim lavender. Her +loveliness had shifted. The hours of the day conspired to set her. The +hard coat and skirt, the high collar, the small hat, the neat veil of +morning, the caressing charmeuse that followed, the trailing chiffon +mysteries of her tea-gown, the white velvet or the cloth of silver that +launched her triumphantly at night, who was to choose between them? Summer +and winter followed suit. Whether you saw her emerging from crisp organdy +or clinging crepe de chine, stiff grey astrakan or melting chinchilla +always it was the same. This moment you said to yourself, 'She has reached +the climax of her loveliness.' + +"My father delighted in perfection. He had discovered it in her and +promptly made it his own. I don't know if he ever regretted the unfillable +quality of her emptiness. Rather I think it amused him to see the violent +passions she inspired, to hear her low thrilling voice weigh down her +meaningless murmurs with significance. To many of her victims the very +incompleteness of her sentences was a form of divine loyalty. One young +poet had described her soul as a fluttering, desperate bird beating its +wings on the bars of her marvellous loveliness. At this her lazy smile +looked very wise. She thought my father an ideal husband. He was always +right about her clothes and after all he was the greatest living expert on +her beauty. Obviously he loved her but--well, he didn't love her +inconveniently." + +=vii= + +There will be some who remember reading a first novel, published several +years ago, called _Responsibility_. This was a study from a Samuel +Butleresque standpoint of the attitude of a father toward an illegitimate +son. At least, that is what it came to in the end; but there were +leisurely earlier pages dealing with such subjects as the tiresomeness of +Honest Work and the dishonesty of righteous people. Very good they were, +too. James E. Agate was the author of this decidedly interesting piece of +fiction. He was not a particularly young man, being in his early forties; +but he was a youngish man. He was youngish in the sense that Mr. Wells and +Mr. Bennett are youngish, and not in the sense of Sir James Peter Pan +Barrie--incapable of growing up. As dramatic critic for the Saturday +Review, London, Agate has been much happier than in a former experience on +the Cotton Exchange of Manchester, his native city. "Each week," said The +Londoner in The Bookman, recently, "he watches over the theatre with an +enthusiasm for the drama which must constantly be receiving disagreeable +shocks. He is a man full of schemes, so that the title of his new book is +distinctly appropriate." That new book is called _Alarums and +Excursions_. + +"Agate is not peaceable," continues our informant. "He carries his full +energy, which is astounding, into each topic that arises. He seizes it. +Woe betide the man who dismisses an idol of his. It is not to be done. He +will submit to no man, however great that man's prestige may be. He is the +bulldog." + +Agate is a critic "still vigorous enough and fresh enough to attack and to +destroy shams of every kind. This is what Agate does in _Alarums and +Excursions_." + +Bright news is it that Agate is writing a new novel "on the Balzacian +scale of _Responsibility_." + +=viii= + +It was in 1918, when I was exploring new books for a New York book +section, that there came to hand a volume called _Walking-Stick Papers_. +Therein I found such stuff as this: + +"And so the fish reporter enters upon the last lap of his rounds. Through, +perhaps, the narrow, crooked lane of Pine Street he passes, to come out at +length upon a scene set for a sea tale. Here would a lad, heir to vast +estates in Virginia, be kidnapped and smuggled aboard to be sold a slave +in Africa. This is Front Street. A white ship lies at the foot of it. +Cranes rise at her side. Tugs, belching smoke, bob beyond. All about are +ancient warehouses, redolent of the Thames, with steep roofs and sometimes +stairs outside, and with tall shutters, a crescent-shaped hole in each. +There is a dealer in weather-vanes. Other things dealt in hereabout are +these: Chronometers, 'nautical instruments,' wax guns, cordage and twine, +marine paints, cotton wool and waste, turpentine, oils, greases, and +rosin. Queer old taverns, public houses, are here, too. Why do not their +windows rattle with a 'Yo, ho, ho'? + +"There is an old, old house whose business has been fish oil within the +memory of men. And here is another. Next, through Water Street, one comes +in search of the last word on salt fish. Now the air is filled with +gorgeous smell of roasting coffee. Tea, coffee, sugar, rice, spices, bags +and bagging here have their home. And there are haughty bonded warehouses +filled with fine liquors. From his white cabin at the top of a venerable +structure comes the dean of the salt-fish business. 'Export trade fair,' +he says; 'good demand from South America.'" + +The whole book was like that. I remember saying and printing: + +"If this isn't individualised writing, extremely skilful writing and +highly entertaining writing, we would like to know what is." + +But what was that in the general chorus of delighted praise that went up +all over the country?--and there were persons of discrimination among the +laudators of Robert Cortes Holliday. People like James Huneker and Simeon +Strunsky, who praised not lightly, were quick to express their admiration +of this new essayist. + +Four years have gone adding to Holliday's first book volumes in the same +class and singularly unmistakeable in their authorship. They are the sort +of essays that could not be anonymous once the authorship of one of them +was known. We have, now, _Broome Street Straws_ and the pocket mirror, +_Peeps at People_. We have _Men and Books and Cities_ and we have a score +of pleasant _Turns About Town_. + +Holliday shows no sign of failing us. I think the truth is that he is one +of those persons described somewhere by Wilson Follett; I think Follett +was trying to convey the quality of De Morgan. Follett said that with +Dickens and De Morgan it was not a question of separate books, singly +achieved, but a mere matter of cutting off another liberal length of the +rich personality which was Dickens or De Morgan. So, exactly, it seems to +me in the case of Holliday. A new book of Holliday's essays is simply +another few yards of a personality not precisely matched among +contemporary American essayists. Holliday's interests are somewhat +broader, more human and perhaps more humane, more varied and closer to the +normal human spirit and taste and fancy than are the interests of +essayists like Samuel Crothers and Agnes Repplier. + +The measure of Holliday as an author is not, of course, bounded by these +collections of essays. There is his penetrating study of Booth Tarkington +and the fine collected edition of Joyce Kilmer, _Joyce Kilmer; Poems, +Essays and Letters With a Memoir by Robert Cortes Holliday_. + +=ix= + +A gesture can be very graceful, sometimes. A half-smile can be wistful and +worth remembering. That was a pleasant story, almost too slender +structurally to be called a novel, by Gilbert W. Gabriel, published in the +spring of 1922. _Jiminy_ is a tale of the quest of the perfect love story +by Benjamin Benvenuto and Jiminy, maker of small rhymes. The author, music +critic of The Sun, New York, had long been known as a newspaper writer and +a pinch hitter for Don Marquis, conductor of The Sun's famous column, The +Sun Dial, when Don was A. W. O. L. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +STEWART EDWARD WHITE AND ADVENTURE + + +=i= + +"Stewart Edward White," says George Gordon in his book _The Men Who Make +Our Novels_, "writes out of a vast self-made experience, draws his +characters from a wide acquaintance with men, recalls situations and +incidents through years of forest tramping, hunting, exploring in Africa +and the less visited places of our continent, for the differing occasions +of his books. In his boyhood he spent a great part of each year in lumber +camps and on the river. He first found print with a series of articles on +birds, 'The Birds of Mackinac Island' (he was born in Grand Rapids, March +12, 1873), brought out in pamphlet form by the Ornithologists' Union and +since (perforce) referred to as his 'first book.' In the height of the +gold rush he set out for the Black Hills, to return East broke and to +write _The Claim Jumpers_ and _The Westerners_. He followed Roosevelt into +Africa, _The Land of Footprints_ and of _Simba_. He has, more recently, +seen service in France as a Major in the U. S. Field Artillery. Though +(certainly) no Ishmael, he has for years been a wanderer upon the face of +the earth, observant and curious of the arresting and strange--and his +novels and short stories mark a journey such as but few have gone upon, a +trailing of rainbows, a search for gold beyond the further hills and a +finding of those campfires (left behind when Mr. Kipling's _Explorer_ +crossed the ranges beyond the edge of cultivation) round which the +resolute sit to swap lies while the tenderfoot makes a fair--and +forced--pretence at belief." + +=ii= + +Spring, 1922, having advanced to that stage where one could feel +confidence that summer would follow--a confidence one cannot always feel +in March--a short letter came from Mr. White. He enclosed two photographs. +One of them showed a trim-looking man with eyeglasses and moustache, +sitting shirt-sleeved in a frail-looking craft. The letter explained that +this was a collapsible canvas boat. My deduction was that the picture had +been taken before the boat collapsed. + +There was also a picture of another and much sturdier boat. I think the +name Seattle was painted on her stern. She lay on a calm surface that +stretched off to a background of towering mountains--Lake Louise Inlet. +The much sturdier boat, I understood, was also the property of S. E. +White. + +[Illustration: STEWART EDWARD WHITE] + +The letter made all these things very clear. It said: "Fifteen tons, fifty +feet, sleeps five, thirty-seven horsepower, heavy duty engine, built +sea-going, speed nine knots. No phonograph! No wine cellar. + +"We are going north, that is all the plans we have. We two are all there +are on board, though we are thinking of getting a cat. On second thought, +here is the crew in the canvas boat we carry to the inland lakes to fish +from. Her name is the _Wreckless_; be careful how you spell it." + +As stated, the crew in the about-to-collapse boat was Stewart Edward +White. On his way north it was his intention to revise what will be, in +his judgment, the most important novel he has written. But I must not say +anything about that yet. Let me say something, rather, about his new book +which you who read this have a more immediate prospect of enjoying. _On +Tiptoe: A Romance of the Redwoods_ is Stewart Edward White in a somewhat +unusual but entirely taking rôle. Here we have Mr. White writing what is +essentially a comedy; and yet there is an element of fantasy in the story +which, in the light of a few opening and closing paragraphs, can be taken +seriously, too. + +The story sounds, in an outline, almost baldly implausible. Here are +certain people, including a young woman, the daughter of a captain of +industry, stranded in the redwoods. Here is a young man out of nowhere, +who foretells the weather in a way that is uncannily verified soon +afterward. Here also is the astonishing engine which the young man has +brought with him out of nowhere,--an engine likely to revolutionise the +affairs of the world.... + +I suppose that the secret of such a story as _On Tiptoe_ lies entirely in +the telling. I know that when I heard it outlined, the thing seemed to me +to be preposterous. But then, while still under the conviction of this +preposterousness, the story itself came to my hand and I began to read. +Its preposterousness did not worry me any longer. It had, besides a +plausibility more than sufficient, a narrative charm and a whimsical +humour that would have justified any tale. The thing that links _On +Tiptoe_ with Stewart Edward White is the perfect picture of the +redwoods--the feeling of all outdoors you get while under the spell of the +story. I do not think there is any doubt that all lovers of White will +enjoy this venture into the field of light romance. + +=iii= + +Stewart Edward White was the son of T. Stewart White and Mary E. (Daniell) +White. He received the degree of bachelor of philosophy from the +University of Michigan in 1895 and the degree of master of arts from the +same institution in 1903 (_Who's Who in America: Volume 12_). He attended +Columbia Law School in 1896-97. He married on April 28, 1904, Elizabeth +Grant of Newport, Rhode Island. He was a major with the 144th Field +Artillery in 1917-18. He lives in California. But these skeletal details, +all right for _Who's Who in America_, serve our purpose poorly. I am going +to try to picture the man from two accounts of him written by friends. One +appeared as an appendix to White's novel _Gold_, published in 1913, and +was written by Eugene F. Saxton. The other is a short newspaper article by +John Palmer Gavit (long with the New York Evening Post) printed in the +Philadelphia Ledger for May 20, 1922. + +Mr. Saxton had a talk with White a few days before White sailed from New +York for his second African exploring expedition. Saxton had asked the +novelist if he did not think it possible to lay hold of the hearts and +imaginations of a great public through a novel which had no love interest +in it; if "man pitted against nature was not, after all, the eternal +drama." + +White thought for a moment and then said: + +"In the main, that is correct. Only I should say that the one great drama +is that of the individual man's struggles toward perfect adjustment with +his environment. According as he comes into correspondence and harmony +with his environment, by that much does he succeed. That is what an +environment is for. It may be financial, natural, sexual, political, and +so on. The sex element is important, of course,--very important. But it is +not the only element by any means; nor is it necessarily an element that +exercises an instant influence on the great drama. Any one who so depicts +it is violating the truth. Other elements of the great drama are as +important--self-preservation, for example, is a very simple and even more +important instinct than that of the propagation of the race. Properly +presented, these other elements, being essentially vital, are of as much +interest to the great public as the relation of the sexes." + +The first eight or nine years of Mr. White's life were spent in a small +mill town. Michigan was at that time the greatest of lumber states. White +was still a boy when the family moved to Grand Rapids, then a city of +about 30,000. Stewart Edward White did not go to school until he was +sixteen, but then he entered the third year high with boys of his own age +and was graduated at eighteen, president of his class. He won and, I +believe, still holds the five-mile running record of the school. + +The explanation is that the eight or ten years which most boys spend in +grammar school were spent by Stewart Edward continually in the woods and +among the rivermen, in his own town and in the lumber camps to which his +father took him. Then there was a stretch of four years, from about the +age of twelve on, when he was in California, as he says "a very new sort +of a place." These days were spent largely in the saddle and he saw a good +deal of the old California ranch life. + +"The Birds of Mackinac Island," already referred to, was only one of +thirty or forty papers on birds which White wrote in his youth for +scientific publications. Six or seven hundred skins that he acquired are +now preserved in the Kent Scientific Museum of Grand Rapids. + +His summer vacations while he was in college were spent cruising the Great +Lakes in a 28-foot cutter sloop. After graduating he spent six months in a +packing-house at $6 a week. His adventure in the Black Hills gold rush +followed. + +It was during his studies at Columbia that White wrote, as part of his +class work, a story called "A Man and His Dog" which Brander Matthews +urged him to try to sell. Short Stories brought it for $15 and subsequent +stories sold also. One brought as much as $35! + +He tried working in MCClurg's bookstore in Chicago at $9 a week. Then he +set out for Hudson Bay. _The Claim Jumpers_, finished about this time, was +brought out as a book and was well received. The turn of the tide did not +come until Munsey paid $500 for the serial right in _The Westerners_. +White was paid in five dollar bills and he says that when he stuffed the +money in his pockets he left at once for fear someone would change his +mind and want all that money back. + +_The Blazed Trail_ was written in a lumber camp in the depth of a northern +winter. The only hours White could spare for writing were in the early +morning, so he would begin at 4 A. M., and write until 8 A. M., then put +on his snowshoes and go out for a day's lumbering. The story finished, he +gave it to Jack Boyd, the foreman, to read. Boyd began it after supper one +evening and when White awoke the next morning at four o'clock he found the +foreman still at it. As Boyd never even read a newspaper, White regarded +this as a triumph. This is the book that an Englishwoman, entering a book +shop where White happened to be, asked for in these words: "Have you a +copy of _Blasé Tales_?" + +White went out hastily in order not to overhear her cries of +disappointment. + +=iv= + +Mr. Saxton asked White why he went to Africa and White said: + +"My answer to that is pretty general. I went because I wanted to. About +once in so often the wheels get rusty and I have to get up and do +something real or else blow up. Africa seemed to me a pretty real thing. +Before I went I read at least twenty books about it and yet I got no +mental image of what I was going to see. That fact accounts for these +books of mine. I have tried to tell in plain words what an ordinary person +would see there. + +"Let me add," he went on, "that I did not go for material. I never go +anywhere for material; if I did I should not get it. That attitude of mind +would give me merely externals, which are not worth writing about. I go +places merely because, for one reason or another, they attract me. Then, +if it happens that I get close enough to the life, I may later find that I +have something to write about. A man rarely writes anything convincing +unless he has lived the life; not with his critical faculty alert; but +whole-heartedly and because, for the time being, it is his life." + +=v= + +John Palmer Gavit tells how once, when hunting, White broke his leg and +had to drag himself back long miles to camp alone: + +"Adventure enough, you'd say. But along the way a partridge drummed and +nothing would do but he must digress a hundred yards from the shorter and +sufficiently painful way, brace himself for the shot and recoil, kill the +bird and have his dog retrieve it, and bring his game along with him. Just +to show himself that this impossible thing could be done. + +"I am not imagining when I say that in this same spirit Stewart Edward +White faces the deeper problems and speculations of life. He wants to know +about things here and hereafter. With the same zest and simplicity of +motive he faces the secret doors of existence; not to prove or disprove, +but to see and find out. And when he comes to the Last Door he will go +through without fear, with eyes open to see in the next undiscovered +country what there is to be seen and to show that the heart of a brave and +unshrinking man, truthful and open-handed and friendly, is at home there, +as he may be anywhere under God's jurisdiction." + +BOOKS BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE + +THE WESTERNERS +THE CLAIM JUMPERS +THE BLAZED TRAIL +CONJUROR'S HOUSE +THE FOREST +THE MAGIC FOREST +THE SILENT PLACES +THE MOUNTAIN +BLAZED TRAIL STORIES +THE PASS +THE MYSTERY +ARIZONA NIGHTS +CAMP AND TRAIL +THE RIVERMAN +THE RULES OF THE GAME +THE CABIN +THE ADVENTURES OF BOBBY ORDE +THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS +AFRICAN CAMP FIRES +GOLD +THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY +THE GREY DAWN +THE LEOPARD WOMAN +SIMBA +THE FORTY-NINERS +THE ROSE DAWN +THE KILLER, AND OTHER STORIES +ON TIPTOE: A ROMANCE OF THE REDWOODS + +SOURCES ON STEWART EDWARD WHITE + +The Men Who Make our Novels, by George Gordon. MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY. + +Who's Who in America. + +Stewart Edward White: Appendix to GOLD (published in 1913) by Eugene F. +Saxton. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY. + +Stewart Edward White, by John Palmer Gavit. PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC LEDGER, +May 20, 1922. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WHERE THE PLOT THICKENS + + +=i= + +Scarcely anyone is there, now writing mystery stories, who, +with the combination of ingenuity--or perhaps I should say +originality--dependableness, and a sufficient atmosphere comes up to +the high and steady level of Frank L. Packard. Born in Montreal in 1877 +of American parents, a graduate of McGill University and a student of +Liége, Belgium, Mr. Packard was engaged in engineering work for some +years and began writing for a number of magazines in 1906. He now +lives at Lachine, Province of Quebec, Canada, and the roll of his books +is a considerable one. In that roll, there are titles known and +enthusiastically remembered by nearly every reader of the mystery tale. +Is there anyone who has not heard of _The Miracle Man_ or _The Wire +Devils_ or Jimmie Dale in _The Adventures of Jimmie Dale_ and _The Further +Adventures of Jimmie Dale_? _The Night Operator,_ _From Now On_, +_Pawned_, and, most recently, _Doors of the Night_ have had their public +ready and waiting. That same public will denude the book counters of +_Jimmie Dale and The Phantom Clue_ this autumn. + +Packard differs from his fellow-writers of mystery stories in his flair +for the unusual idea. In _Pawned_ each character finds himself in pawn to +another, and must act as someone else dictates. _Doors of the Night_ is +the account of a man who was both a notorious leader and hunted prey of +New York's underworld. _From Now On_ is the unexpected story of a man +after he comes out of prison; and Jimmie Dale, Fifth Avenue clubman, was, +to Clancy, Smarlinghue the dope fiend; to the gang, Larry the Bat, stool +pigeon; but to Headquarters--the Grey Seal! + +Stories of the underworld are among the most difficult to write. The thing +had, it seemed, been done to death and underdone and overdone when Packard +came along. In all seriousness, it may be said that Packard has restored +the underworld to respectability--as a domain for fictional purposes at +least! It is not that his crooks are real crooks--though they are--but +that he is able to put life into them, to make them seem human. No man is +a hero to his valet and no crook can be merely a crook in a story of the +underworld that is intended to convey any sense of actuality. Beside the +distortions and conventionalisations of most underworld stories, Packard's +novels stand out with distinctiveness and a persistent vitality. + +=ii= + +When a book called _Bulldog Drummond_ was published there was no one +prescient of the great success of the play which would be made from the +story. But those who read mystery stories habitually knew well that a +mystery-builder of exceptional adroitness had arrived. Of course, Cyril +McNeile, under the pen name "Sapper," was already somewhat known in +America by several war books; but _Bulldog Drummond_ was a novelty. +Apparently it was possible to write a first rate detective-mystery story +with touches of crisp humour as good as Pelham Grenville Wodehouse's +stuff! There is something convincing about the hero of _Bulldog Drummond_, +the brisk and cheerful young man whom demobilisation has left unemployed +and whose perfectly natural susceptibility to the attractiveness of a +young woman leads him into adventures as desperate as any in No Man's +Land. + +For Cyril McNeile's new story _The Black Gang_, after the experience of +_Bulldog Drummond_ as a book and play, Americans will be better prepared. +An intermediate book, _The Man in Ratcatcher_, consists of shorter stories +which exhibit very perfectly McNeile's gift for the dramatic situation. He +gives us the man who returned from the dead to save his sweetheart from +destruction; the man who staked his happiness on a half forgotten waltz; +the man who played at cards for his wife; the man who assisted at suicide, +either ordinary short stories nor ordinary motifs! I should hesitate to +predict how far McNeile will go along this special line of his; but I see +no reason why he should not give us the successor of Sherlock Holmes. + +=iii= + +_Black Cæsar's Clan_ is the good title of Albert Payson Terhune's new +story in succession to his _Black Gold_, a mystery story that was +distinguished by the possession of a Foreword so unusual as to be worth +reprinting--one of the best arguments for this type of book ever penned: + +"If you are questing for character-study or for realism or for true +literature in any of its forms,--then walk around this book of mine (and, +indeed, any book of mine); for it was not written for you and it will have +no appeal for you. + +"But if you care for a yarn with lots of action,--some of it pretty +exciting,--you may like _Black Gold_. I think you will. + +"It has all the grand old tricks: from the Weirdly Vanishing Footprints, +to the venerable Ride for Life. Yes, and it embalms even the +half-forgotten and long-disused Struggle on the Cliff. Its Hero is a hero. +Its Villain is a villain. Nobody could possibly mistake either of them for +the Friend of the Family. The Heroine is just a heroine; not a human. +There is not a subtle phrase or a disturbingly new thought, from start to +finish. + +"There is a good mystery, too; along lines which have not been worked +over-often. And there is a glimpse of Untold Treasure. What better can you +ask; in a story that is frank melodrama? + +"The scene, by the way, is laid in Northern California; a beautiful and +strikingly individualistic region which, for the most part, is ignored by +tourists for the man-made scenic effects and playgrounds of the southern +counties of the State. + +"If, now and again, my puppets or my plot-wires creak a bit noisily,--what +then? Creaking, at worst, is a sure indication of movement,--of +action,--of incessant progress of sorts. A thing that creaks is not +standing still and gathering mildew. It moves. Otherwise it could not +creak. + +"Yes, there are worse faults to a plot than an occasional tendency to +creakiness. It means, for one thing, that numberless skippable pages are +not consumed in photographic description of the ill-assorted furnishings +of the heroine's room or cosmos; nor in setting forth the myriad phases of +thought undergone by the hero in seeking to check the sway of his pet +complexes. (This drearily flippant slur on realism springs from pure envy. +I should rejoice to write such a book. But I can't. And, if I could, I +know I should never be able to stay awake long enough to correct its +proofs.) + +"Yet, there is something to be said in behalf of the man or woman who +finds guilty joy in reading a story whose action gallops; a story whose +runaway pace breaks its stride only to leap a chasm or for a +breathcatching stumble on a precipice-edge. The office boy prefers Captain +Kidd to Strindberg; not because he is a boy, but because he is human and +has not yet learned the trick of disingenuousness. He is still normal. So +is the average grown-up. + +"These normal and excitement-loving readers are overwhelmingly in the +majority. Witness the fact that _The Bat_ had a longer run in New York +than have all of Dunsany's and Yeats's rare dramas, put together. If we +insist that our country be guided by majority-rule, then why sneer at a +majority-report in literary tastes? + +"_Ben Hur_ was branded as a 'religious dime novel.' Yet it has had fifty +times the general vogue of Anatole France's pseudo-blasphemy which deals +with the same period. Public taste is not always, necessarily, bad taste. +'The common people heard Him, gladly.' (The Scribes did not.) + +"After all, there is nothing especially debasing in a taste for yarns +which drip with mystery and suspense and ceaseless action; even if the +style and concept of these yarns be grossly lacking in certain approved +elements. So the tale be written with strong evidence of sincerity and +with a dash of enthusiasm, why grudge it a small place of its own in +readers' hours of mental laziness? + +"With this shambling apology,--which, really, is no apology at all,--I lay +my book on your knees. You may like it or you may not. You will find it +alive with flaws. But, it is alive. + +"I don't think it will bore you. Perhaps there are worse +recommendations." + +=iv= + +Hulbert Footner does not look like a writer of mystery stories. A tall, +handsome, well-dressed, extremely courteous gentleman who, had he the +requisite accent, might just have arrived from Bond Street. He has a trim +moustache. Awfully attractive blue eyes! He lives on a farm at Sollers, +Maryland. No one else, it seems, is so familiar with the unusual corners +of New York City, the sort of places that get themselves called "quaint." +No one else manages the affairs of young lovers (on paper) with quite so +much of the airy spirit of young love. I can think of no one else who +could write such a scene as that in _The Owl Taxi_, where the dead-wagon, +on its way in the night to the vast cemetery in a New York suburb, is held +up for the removal of a much-needed corpse. Such material is bizarre. The +handling of it must be very deft or the result will be revolting; and yet +the thing can be done. In the latter part of that excellent play, _Seven +Keys to Baldpate_, George M. Cohan and his company bandied a corpse from +attic to cellar of a country house. This preposterous scene as presented +on the stage was helplessly laughable. Mr. Footner's scene in _The Owl +Taxi_ is like that. + +The man has a special gift for the picturesque person. I do not know +whether he uses originals; if I suspect an original for old Simon Deaves +in _The Deaves Affair_, I get no farther than a faint suspicion that ... +No, I cannot identify his character. (Not that I want to; I am not a +victim of that fatal obsession which fastens itself upon so many readers +of fiction--the desire to identify the characters in a story with someone +in real life. The idea is ridiculous.) Mr. Footner knows Greenwich +Village. He knows outlying stretches in the greater city of New York; he +knows excursion boats such as the Ernestina, whose cruises play so curious +a part in _The Deaves Affair_. I have a whetted appetite for what Footner +will give us next; I feel sure it will be like no other story of the +season. A great deal to be sure of! + +=v= + +The peculiarity about _Gold-Killer_ is the mystery behind the excellent +mystery of the book. I mean, of course, the mystery of its authorship. I +do not any longer believe that the book is the work of Siamese twins--in a +physiological sense of the word "twins." I know that there is no John +Prosper--or, rather, that if there is a John Prosper, he is not the author +of _Gold-Killer_. Yet the book was the work of more than one man. Were two +intellects siamesed to write the story? Those who, in my opinion, know the +facts point to the name on the title page and say that John is John and +Prosper is Prosper and never the twain shall meet, unless for the purpose +of evolving a super-_Gold-Killer_. Whether they will be able to surpass +this book, which opens with a murder at the opera and finishes +(practically) with a nose dive in an airplane, is beyond my surmise. + +If they will try, I give them my word I will read the new yarn. + +Mrs. Baillie Reynolds's latest novel is called _The Judgment of Charis_. +It is not a story to tell too much about in advance. I will say that +Charis had run away from an all-too-persistent lover and an +all-too-gorgeous family, and had been taken under the wing of a kindly, +middle-aged millionaire and invited to become his secretary. She expected +some complications and in her expectations she was not disappointed; and +the readers' expectations will not be disappointed either, though they may +find the ending unexpected. _The Vanishing of Betty Varian_ restored to +readers of Carolyn Wells a detective whose appearance in _The Room with +the Tassels_ made that story more than ordinarily worth while. I do not +know, though, whether Penny Wise would be interesting or even notable if +it were not for his curious assistant, Zizi. The merit of detective +stories is necessarily variable; _The Vanishing of Betty Varian_ is one of +the author's best; but Miss Wells (really Mrs. Hadwin Houghton) is, to me, +as extraordinary as her stories. All those books! She herself says that +"having mastered the psychology of detachment" she can write with more +concentration and less revision than any other professional writer of her +acquaintance. Yes, but how---- No doubt it is too much to expect her to +explain _how_ she is ingenious. + +Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, sister of Hilaire Belloc, is ingenious in a different +direction. Her story of _What Timmy Did_ was one that attracted +especial attention from those periodicals and persons interested in +psychic matters. Here was a woman whose husband had died from +poison--self-administered, the coroner decided--and here was little +Timmy, who knew that something was wrong. Animals also knew it; and then +one day Timmy saw at her heels a shadow man, stiff and military, and +behind him a phantom dog. Mrs. Lowndes's gifts, different from her +distinguished brother's, are none the less gifts. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +REBECCA WEST: AN ARTIST + + +=i= + +Whether Rebecca West is writing reviews of books or dramatic criticism or +novels she is an artist, above everything. I have been reading delightedly +the pages of her new novel, _The Judge_. It is Miss West's second novel. +One is somewhat prepared for it by the excellence of her first, _The +Return of the Soldier_, published in 1918. Somewhat, but not adequately. + +Perhaps I am prejudiced. You see, I have been in Edinburgh, and though it +was the worst season of the year--the period when, as Robert Louis +Stevenson says, that Northern city has "the vilest climate under +Heaven"--nevertheless, the charm and dignity of that old town captured me +at the very moment when a penetrating Scotch winter rain was coming in +direct contact with my bones. I was, I might as well confess, soaked and +chilled as no New York winter snowstorm ever wetted and chilled me. It did +not matter; here was the long sweep of Princes Street with its gay shops +on one side and its deep valley on the other; across the valley the +tenements of the Royal Mile lifted themselves up--the Royal Mile, which +runs always uphill from the Palace that is Holyrood to the height that is +the Castle. Talk about gestures! The whole city of Edinburgh is a +matchless gesture. + +[Illustration: REBECCA WEST] + +And so, when I began the first page of _The Judge_, it was a grand delight +to find myself back in the city of the East Wind: + +"It was not because life was not good enough that Ellen Melville was +crying as she sat by the window. The world, indeed, even so much of it as +could be seen from her window, was extravagantly beautiful. The office of +Mr. Mactavish James, Writer to the Signet, was in one of those decent grey +streets that lie high on the Northward slope of Edinburgh New Town, and +Ellen was looking up the sidestreet that opened just opposite and +revealed, menacing as the rattle of spears, the black rock and bastions of +the Castle against the white beamless glare of the southern sky. And it +was the hour of the clear Edinburgh twilight, that strange time when the +world seems to have forgotten the sun though it keeps its colour; it could +still be seen that the moss between the cobblestones was a wet bright +green, and that a red autumn had been busy with the wind-nipped trees, yet +these things were not gay, but cold and remote as brightness might be on +the bed of a deep stream, fathoms beneath the visitation of the sun. At +this time all the town was ghostly, and she loved it so. She took her mind +by the arm and marched it up and down among the sights of Edinburgh, +telling it that to be weeping with discontent in such a place was a +scandalous turning up of the nose at good mercies. Now the Castle +Esplanade, that all day had proudly supported the harsh virile sounds and +colours of the drilling regiments, would show to the slums its blank +surface, bleached bonewhite by the winds that raced above the city smoke. +Now the Cowgate and the Canongate would be given over to the drama of the +disorderly night, the slumdwellers would foregather about the rotting +doors of dead men's mansions and brawl among the not less brawling ghosts +of a past that here never speaks of peace, but only of blood and argument. +And Holyrood, under a black bank surmounted by a low bitten cliff, would +lie like the camp of an invading and terrified army...." + +=ii= + +_The Judge_ is certainly autobiographical in some of the material +employed. For instance, it is a fact that Miss West went to school in +Edinburgh, attending an institution not unlike John Thompson's Ladies +College referred to in _The Judge_ (but only referred to). It is a fact, +as everyone who knows anything about Miss West knows, that Miss West was +an ardent suffragette in that time before suffragettes had ceased from +troubling and Prime Ministers were at rest. An amazing legend got about +some time ago that Rebecca West's real name was Regina Miriam Bloch. Then +on the strength of the erring "Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature" +did Miss Amy Wellington write a sprightly article for the Literary Review +of the New York Evening Post. Miss Wellington referred to this mysterious +Regina Miriam Bloch who had stunned everybody by her early articles +written under the name of one of Ibsen's most formidable heroines; but +unfortunately Miss West wrote a letter in disclaimer. She cannot help Mr. +Ibsen. It may be a collision in names, but it is not a collusion. The +truth about Rebecca West, who has written _The Judge_, seems to be +dependably derivable from the English _Who's Who_, a standard work always +worth consulting. This estimable authority says that Rebecca West was born +on Christmas in 1892, and is the youngest daughter of the late Charles +Fairfield of County Kerry. It further says that she was educated at George +Watson's Ladies' College, Edinburgh. It states that she joined the staff +of The Freewoman as a reviewer in 1911. Her club is the International +Women's Franchise. Her residence is 36 Queen's Gate Terrace, London S. W. +7. Her telephone is Kensington 7285. + +Now is there anything mythical left? What excuse, O everybody, is there +any longer for the legend of Regina Miriam Bloch? + +But I do not believe Miss West objects to legends. I imagine she loves +them. The legend of a name is perhaps unimportant; the legend of a +personality is of the highest importance. That Miss West has a personality +is evident to anyone familiar with her work. A personality, however, is +not three-dimensionally revealed except in that form of work which comes +closest to the heart and life of the worker. To write pungent and +terrifyingly sane criticisms is a notable thing; but to write novels of +tender insight and intimate revelation is a far more convincing thing. +_The Judge_ is such a novel. + +=iii= + +There is a prefatory sentence, as follows: + +"Every mother is a Judge who sentences the children for the sins of the +father." + +There is a dedication. It is: + +TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER + +_The Judge_ is a study of the claim of a mother upon her son. The +circumstances of Mrs. Yaverland's life were such as peculiarly to +strengthen the tie between her and Richard. On the other hand, she had +always disliked and even hated her son Roger. + +The first part of the book, however, does not bring in Richard Yaverland's +mother. It is a picture of Ellen Melville, the girl in Edinburgh, the girl +whose craving for the colour of existence has gone unsatisfied until +Richard Yaverland enters her life. Yaverland, with his stories of Spain, +and his imaginative appeal for that young girl, is the fulcrum of Ellen +Melville's destiny. + +That destiny, carried by the forces of human character to its strange +termination, is handled by Miss West in a long novel the chapters of which +are a series of delineative emotions. I do not mean that Miss West shrinks +from externalised action, as did Henry James whom she has admired and +studied. She perceives the immense value of introspection, but is not lost +in its quicksands. She can devote a whole chapter to a train of thought in +the mind of Ellen Melville, sitting inattentively at a public meeting; and +she can follow it with another long chapter giving the sequence of +thoughts in the mind of Richard Yaverland; and she can bring each chapter +to a period with the words: "She (he) glanced across the hall. Their eyes +met." It might be thought that this constitutes a waste of narrative +space; not so. As a matter of fact, without the insight accorded by these +disclosures of things thought and felt, we should be unable to understand +the behaviour of these two young people. + +All the first half of the book is a truly marvelous story of young lovers; +all the latter end of the book is a relation scarcely paralleled in +fiction of the conflict between the mother's claim and the claim of the +younger woman. + +Of subsidiary portraits there are plenty. Ellen's mother and Mr. Mactavish +James and Mr. Philip James are like full-lengths by Velasquez. In the +closing chapters of the book we have the extraordinary figure of the +brother and son, Roger, accompanied by the depressing girl whom he has +picked up the Lord knows where. + +And, after all, this is not a first novel--that promise, which so often +fails of fulfilment--but a second novel; and I have in many a day not read +anything that seemed to me to get deeper into the secrets of life than +this study of a man who, at the last, spoke triumphantly, "as if he had +found a hidden staircase out of destiny," and a woman who, at the last, +"knew that though life at its beginning was lovely as a corn of wheat it +was ground down to flour that must make bitter bread between two human +tendencies, the insane sexual caprice of men, the not less mad excessive +steadfastness of women." + +BOOKS BY REBECCA WEST + +THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER +THE JUDGE + +SOURCES ON REBECCA WEST + +Who's Who. [In England]. + +Rebecca West: Article by Amy Wellington in the LITERARY REVIEW OF THE NEW +YORK EVENING POST, 1921. + +Articles by Rebecca West in various English publications, frequently +reprinted by THE LIVING AGE. See the READERS' GUIDE TO PERIODICAL +LITERATURE. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SHAMELESS FUN + + +=i= + +One way to write about Nina Wilcox Putnam would be in the way she writes +about everything. It's not so hard. As thus: + +Some dull day in the office. We look up and whom should we see standing +right there before us but Nina Wilcox Putnam! Falling over backwards, that +being what our swivel chair is made for, we say: "Well, well, well! So +today is May 3, 1922! Where from? West Broadway?" + +"I should not say so! South Broadway, I guess. I've just motored up from +Florida. But your speaking of West Broadway reminds me: I've written a +piece for George Lorimer of Saturday Evening Post. You see my book, _West +Broadway_, brought me so many letters my arm ached from answering them. +What car did you drive? Where d'y' get gas in the desert? What's the best +route? And thus et cetera. So now I have wrote me a slender essay +answering everything that anybody can ask on this or other +transcontinental subjects. Mr. Lorimer will publish, and who knows--as +they say in fiction--it might make a book afterward." + +"How's Florida?" + +"I left it fine, if it doesn't get in trouble while I'm away. I've bought +a ranch, for fruit only, on the East Coast, between Palm Beach and Miami, +but not paying these expensive prices, no, not never. And I shall live +there for better but not for worse, for richer, but most positively not +for poorer. I pick my own alligator pears off my own tree unless I want to +sell them for fifteen cents on the tree. Bathing, one-half mile east by +motor." + +"Been reading your piece, 'How I Have Got So Far So Good,' in John +Siddall's American Magazine." + +"Yes, I thought I would join the autobiographists--Benvenuto Cellini, +Margot Asquith, Benjamin Franklin, et Al, as Ring Lardner would insist. Do +you know Ring? He and I are going to have one of these amicable literary +duels soon, like the famous _Isn't That Just Like a Man? Oh, Well, You +Know How Women Are!_ which Mrs. Rinehart and Irvin Cobb fought to a +finish. But speaking of sport, I have discovered my grandest favourite +sport, in spite of motoring, which is deep sea fishing, nothing less. Let +me inform you that I landed a 9-pound dolphin which he is like fire-opals +all over and will grace the wall of my dining-room no matter if all my +friends suffer with him the rest of their lives. He was a male dolphin; +get that! It makes a difference from the deep sea fishing sportsman's +standpoint. And this place of mine at the end of South Broadway where I +can roll cocoanuts the rest of my life if I want to is at, in or about +Delray, Florida. D-e-l-r-a-y; you've spelled it." + +"We're publishing your new book on how to get thin, _Tomorrow We Diet_." + +"Oh, yes. Well, I am several laps ahead of that. Now, I am going up to my +home in Madison, Connecticut, to work. Later, I'll maybe drive out to +Yellowstone Park or some place. Well, I might stay here at the Brevoort +for a month; run down to Philadelphia, maybe. Did you know I once wrote a +book for children that has sold 500,000 copies? And, besides a young son +whom I am capable of entertaining if you'll let him tell you, I have a few +ideas...." + +Hold on! This isn't so easy as it looked. + +Probably Nina Wilcox Putnam is inimitable. This one and that may steal +Ring W. Lardner's stuff, but there is a sort of Yale lock effect about the +slang (American slanguage) in such books as _West Broadway_ which is not +picked so easily. As for the new Nina Wilcox Putnam novel, _Laughter +Limited_--if you don't believe what we say about N.W.P. inimitableness +just open that book and see for yourself. The story of a movie actress? +Yes, and considerable more. Just as _West Broadway_ was a great deal more +than an amusing story, being actually the best hunch extant on +transcontinental motoring, outside of the automobile blue books, which are +not nearly such good reading. + +And then there's _Tomorrow We Diet_, in which Nina Wilcox Putnam tells how +she reduced fifty pounds in seven months without exercising anything but +her intelligence. But if you want to know about Nina Wilcox Putnam, read +her story in her own words that appeared in the American Magazine for May, +1922. Here is a bit of it: + +"Believe you me, considering the fact that they are mostly men, which it +would hardly be right to hold that up against them, Editors in my +experience has been an unusually fine race, and it is my contracts with +them has made me what I am today, I'm sure I'm satisfied. And when a +fellow or sister writer commences hollering about how Editors in America +don't know anything about what is style or English, well anyways not +enough to publish it when they see it, why all I can say is that I could +show them living proof to the contrary, only modesty and good manners +forbids me pointing, even at myself. I am also sure that the checks these +hollerers have received from said Editors is more apt to read the Editor +regrets than pay to the order of, if you get what I mean. + +"Well, I have had it pretty soft, I will admit, because all the work I +done to get where I am, is never over eight hours a day penal servitude, +locked up in my study and fighting against only such minor odds and +intrusions as please may I have a dollar and a quarter for the laundry, or +now dear you have been writing long enough, I have brought you a nice cup +of tea, just when I am going strong on a important third chapter. But my +work is of course not really work since it is done in the home, as my +relations often remind me. At least they did until I got George, that's my +pres. husband, and he never lets me be interrupted unless he wants to +interrupt me himself for a clean collar or something. + +"Also besides working these short hours, four of which is generally what +us authors calls straight creative work, I have it soft in another way. I +got a pretty good market for my stuff and always had, and this of course +has got me so's I can draw checks as neat and quick as anybody in the +family and they love to see me do it. + +"All kidding to one side it is the straight dope when I say that from +being merely the daughter of honest and only moderately poor parents I +have now a house of my own, the very one in our town which I most admired +as a child; and the quit-claim deed come out of my own easy money. I also +got a car or two--and a few pieces of the sort of second-hand stuff which +successful people generally commence cluttering up their house with as a +sign of outward and visible success. I mean the junk one moves in when one +moves the golden oak out.... + +"I never commenced going over really big until it was up to me to make +good every time I delivered, and this was not until my husband died and +left me with a small son, which I may say in passing, that I consider he +is the best thing I have ever published. Well, there I was, a widow with a +child, and no visible means of support except when I looked into the +mirror. Of course, before then I had been earning good money, but only +when I wanted something, or felt like it. Now I had to want to feel like +it three hundred and sixty-five days a year. + +"I'll tell the world it was some jolt." + +=ii= + +_Perfect Behaviour_ is the calmly confident title of the new book by +Donald Ogden Stewart--a work which will rejoice the readers of _A Parody +Outline of History_. Behaviour is the great obstacle to happiness. One may +overcome all the ordinary complexes. One may kill his cousins and get his +nephews and nieces deported, and refuse to perform Honest Work--yet remain +a hopeless slave to the _Book of Etiquette_. In a Pullman car, with a +ticket for the lower berth, he will take the seat facing backward, only to +tremble and blush with shame on learning his social error. Who has not +suffered the mortification of picking up the fork that was on the floor +and then finding out afterward that it was the function of the waiter to +pick up the fork? What is a girl to do if, escorted home at night from the +dance, she finds the hour is rather late and yet her folks are still up? +Whether she should invite the young man in or ask him to call again, she +is sure to do the wrong thing. Then there are those wedding days, the +proudest and happiest of a girl's life, when she slips her hand into the +arm of the wrong man or otherwise gives herself away before she is given +away. Tragedy lurks in such trifles. Don Stewart, who has suffered +countless mortifications and heartbreaks from just such little things as +these, determined that something shall be done to spare others his own +unfortunate experiences. + +_Perfect Behaviour_ is the result of his brave determination. It is a book +that will be constantly in demand until society is abolished. Then, too, +there is that new behaviouristic psychology. You have not heard of that? I +can only assure you that Mr. Stewart's great work is founded upon all the +most recent principles of behaviouristic psychology. Noted scientists will +undoubtedly endorse it. You will endorse it yourself, and you will be able +to cash in on it. + +Stewart wrote _A Parody Outline of History_ for The Bookman. When the idea +was broached, John Farrar, editor of The Bookman, was about the only +person who saw the possibilities. Response to the _Parody Outline of +History_ was immediate, spontaneous and unanimous. When the chapters +appeared as a book, this magnificent take-off of contemporary American +writers as well as of H. G. Wells leaped at once into the place of a best +seller. It remains one. The thing that it accomplished is not likely to be +well done again for years. + +=iii= + +_Neither Here Nor There_ is the title of a new book by Oliver Herford, +author of _This Giddy Globe_. + +I do not know which is funnier, Herford or his books. Among the +unforgotten occasions was one when he was in the Doran office talking +about a forthcoming book and nibbling on animal crackers. Suddenly he +stopped nibbling and exclaimed with a gasp of dismay: + +"Good heavens! I've been eating the illustrations for my book." + +=iv= + +_Timothy Tubby's Journal_ is, of course, the diary of the famous British +novelist with notes by Theresa Tubby, his wife. Tubby, on his visit to +this side, was remarkably observant. He says: + +"How weary we were after a few hours of being interviewed and +photographed! This deep appreciation on the part of the American people +was touching, but exhausting. Yet my publishers telephoned me every two or +three hours, to say that editions of my latest novel were flying through +multitudinous presses; that I must bear up under the strain and give the +public what it demands; namely, the glimpse of me and of my aristocratic +wife. This, it seems, is what sells a book in America. The public must see +an author in order to believe that he can write. + +"When my distinguished forebear Charles Dickens[1] arrived in the town of +Boston, he found his room flooded with offers of a pew at Sunday morning +church. This fashion in America has apparently passed, though I was taken +on sightseeing expeditions to various cathedrals whose architecture seemed +to me to be execrable (largely European copies--nothing natively +American). It was never suggested that I attend divine service. On the +contrary, I had countless invitations to be present at what is known as a +'cocktail chase.' My New York literary admirers seemed tumbling over one +another to offer me keys to their cellars and to invite me to take part in +one of those strange functions. It is their love of danger, rather than +any particular passion for liquor, that has, I believe, given birth to +these elaborate fêtes. + +"A cocktail chase takes place shortly before dinner. It may lead you into +any one of a number of places, even as far as the outlying districts of +the Bronx. If you own a motor, you may use that; if not, a taxi will do. +Usually a large number of motors are employed. Add to this pursuing +motorcycle policemen, and the sight is most impressive. The police are for +protection against crime waves, not for the arrest of the cocktail +chasers. A revenue agent performs this function, when it becomes +necessary. + +"The number of our invitations was so large that it was hard to pick and +choose. Naturally, we did not care to risk attendance at any function +which might injure our reputation. Usually my wife has an almost psychic +sense of such matters; but the Social Register was of no assistance in +this case.[2] Before several hours had passed, however, we decided to hire +a social secretary. I phoned my publisher for a recommendation. 'Dear +Tubby,' he said, 'what you need is a publicity agent, not a social +secretary. I'll send you the best New York can offer immediately. It was +careless of me not to think of it before. You seemed to have a genius for +that sort of thing yourself.' + +"The publicity agent is difficult to explain. He is somehow connected with +an American game which originated in the great northwest, and which is +called log-rolling. He stands between you and the public which is +clamouring for a glimpse of you. The difference between a social secretary +and a publicity agent seems to be that the former merely answers +invitations, while the latter makes sure that you are invited. He writes +your speeches for you, sometimes even goes so far as to write your novels, +and, in a strange place, will impersonate you at all public functions +unless your wife objects.[3] + +"Mr. Vernay arrived, fortunately, in time to sort our invitations. +'First,' he said, 'just you and Terry' (he was one of those brusque new +world types and Theresa rather enjoyed his familiarity--'so refreshing,' I +remember she said) 'sit right down and I'll tell you all about literature +in this here New York.'" + +... I have always been meaning to read Tubby's novels--so like those of +Archibald Marshall and Anthony Trollope, I understand--but have never got +around to it. Now I feel I simply must. + +----- + + [1] The relationship was on my husband's father's side. The + Turbots + were never so closely connected with the bourgeoisie. + + [2] We, of course, had entrée to all the best Fifth Avenue + homes, but + since we have now become literary folk, we + hose to remain so. We therefore avoided the better + classes. + + [3] Indeed Mr. Vernay was a most accomplished gentleman, and + I never + objected to him. I only remarked once that I was glad + Timothy was + not so attractive to the ladies as Mr. Vernay. This, I + did + not consider an objection. +=v= + +Such an expert judge as Franklin P. Adams has considered that the ablest +living parodist in verse is J. C. Squire. Certainly his _Collected +Parodies_ is a masterly performance quite fit to go on the shelf with Max +Beerbohm's _A Christmas Garland_. In _Collected Parodies_ will be found +all those verses which, published earlier in magazines and in one or two +books, have delighted the readers of Punch and other magazines--"Imaginary +Speeches," "Steps to Parnassus," "Tricks of the Trade," "Repertory Drama, +How They Do It and How They Would Have Done It," "Imaginary Reviews and +Speeches" and "The Aspirant's Manual." + +The great source book of fun in rhyme, however, is and will for a long +time remain Carolyn Wells's _The Book of Humorous Verse_. This has not an +equal in existence, so far as I know, except _The Home Book of Verse_. +Here in nearly 900 pages are specimens of light verse from Chaucer to +Chesterton. Modern writers, such as Bert Leston Taylor and Don Marquis, +share the pages with Robert Herrick and William Cowper, Charles Lamb and +Oliver Wendell Holmes. Verses whimsical, satiric, narrative, +punning--there is no conceivable variety overlooked by Miss Wells in what +was so evidently a labour of love as well as of the most careful industry, +an industry directed by an exceptional taste. + +P. G. Wodehouse used to write lyrics for musical plays in England, +interpolating one or two in existing successes. Then he came to America +and began writing lyrics, interpolating them in musical comedies over +here. Then he began interpolating extremely funny short stories in the +American magazines and he has now succeeded in interpolating into modern +fiction some of the funniest novels of the last few years. This bit from +his latest, _Three Men and a Maid_, is typical: + +"Mrs. Hignett was never a very patient woman. "'Let us take all your +negative qualities for granted,' she said curtly. 'I have no doubt that +there are many things which you do not do. Let us confine ourselves to +issues of definite importance. What is it, if you have no objection to +concentrating your attention on that for a moment, that you wish to see me +about?' + +"This marriage.' + +"'What marriage?' + +"'Your son's marriage.' + +"'My son is not married.' + +"'No, but he's going to be. At eleven o'clock this morning at the Little +Church Around the Corner!' + +"Mrs. Hignett stared. + +"'Are you mad?' + +"'Well, I'm not any too well pleased, I'm bound to say,' admitted Mr. +Mortimer. 'You see, darn it all, I'm in love with the girl myself!' + +"'Who is this girl?' + +"'Have been for years. I'm one of those silent, patient fellows who hang +around and look a lot, but never tell their love....' + +"'Who is this girl who has entrapped my son?' + +"'I've always been one of those men who....' + +"'Mr. Mortimer! With your permission we will take your positive qualities +for granted. In fact, we will not discuss you at all.... What is her +name?' + +"'Bennett.' + +"'Bennett? Wilhelmina Bennett? The daughter of Mr. Rufus Bennett? The +red-haired girl I met at lunch one day at your father's house?' + +"'That's it. You're a great guesser. I think you ought to stop the +thing.' + +"'I intend to.' + +"'Fine!' + +"'The marriage would be unsuitable in every way. Miss Bennett and my son +do not vibrate on the same plane.' + +"That's right. I've noticed it myself.' + +"'Their auras are not the same colour.' + +"'If I thought that once,' said Bream Mortimer, 'I've thought it a +hundred times. I wish I had a dollar for every time I thought it. Not the +same colour! That's the whole thing in a nutshell.'" + +Mr. Wodehouse is described by a friend as "now a somewhat fluid inhabitant +of England, running over here spasmodically. Last summer he bought a +race-horse. It is the beginning of the end!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE VITALITY OF MARY ROBERTS RINEHART + + +=i= + +"The total result ... after twelve years is that I have learned to sit +down at my desk and begin work simultaneously," wrote Mrs. Rinehart in +1917. "One thing died, however, in those years of readjustment and +struggle. That was my belief in what is called 'inspiration.' I think I +had it now and then in those days, moments when I felt things I had hardly +words for, a breath of something much bigger than I was, a little lift in +the veil. + +"It does not come any more. + +"Other things bothered me in those first early days. I seemed to have so +many things to write about and writing was so difficult. Ideas came, but +no words to clothe them. Now, when writing is easy, when the technique of +my work bothers me no more than the pen I write with, I have less to say. + +[Illustration: MARY ROBERTS RINEHART] + +"I have words, but fewer ideas to clothe in them. And, coming more and +more often is the feeling that, before I have commenced to do my real +work, I am written out; that I have for years wasted my substance in +riotous writing and that now, when my chance is here, when I have lived +and adventured, when, if ever, I am to record honestly my little page of +these great times in which I live, now I shall fail." + +These surprising words appeared in an article in the American Magazine for +1917. Not many months later _The Amazing Interlude_ was published and, +quoting Mrs. Rinehart soon afterward, I said: "If her readers shared this +feeling they must have murmured to themselves as they turned the absorbing +pages of _The Amazing Interlude_: 'How absurd!' It is doubtful if they +recalled the spoken misgiving at all." + +Few novels of recent years have had so captivating a quality as had this +war story. But I wish to emphasise again what I felt and tried to express +at that time--the sense of Mrs. Rinehart's vitality as a writer of +fiction. In what seem to me to be her best books there is a freshness of +feeling I find astonishing. I felt it in _K_; I found it in _The Amazing +Interlude_; and I find it in her new novel just published, _The Breaking +Point_. + +_The Breaking Point_ is the story of a man's past and his inability to +escape from it. If that were all, it might be a very commonplace subject +indeed. It is not all, nor half. + +Dr. Richard Livingstone, just past thirty, is supposedly the nephew of Dr. +David Livingstone, with whom he lives and whose practice he shares in the +town of Haverly; but at the very outset of the novel, we have the fact +that--according to a casual visitor in Haverly--Dr. Livingstone's dead +brother had no son; was unmarried, anyway. And then it transpires that, +whatever may have been the past, Dr. Livingstone has walled it off from +the younger man's consciousness. The elder man has built up a powerful +secondary personality--secondary in the point of time only, for Richard +Livingstone is no longer aware of any other personality, nor scarcely of +any former existence. He does, indeed, have fugitive moments in which he +recalls with a painful and unsatisfactory vagueness some manner of life +that he once had a part in. But in his young manhood, in the pleasant +village where there is none who isn't his friend, deeply centred in his +work, stayed by the affection of Dr. Livingstone, these whispers of the +past are infrequent and untroubling. + +The casual visitor's surprise and the undercurrent of talk which she +starts is the beginning of a rapid series of incidents which force the +problem of the past up to the threshold of Richard Livingstone's +consciousness. There would then be two ways of facing his difficulties, +and he takes the braver. Confronted with an increasingly difficult +situation, a situation sharpened by his love for Elizabeth Wheeler, and +her love for him, young Dr. Dick plays the man. The title of Mrs. +Rinehart's story comes from the psychological (and physical) fact that +there is in every man and woman a point at which Nature steps in and +says: + +"See here, you can't stand this! You've got to forget it." + +This is the breaking point, the moment when amnesia intervenes. But later +there may come a time when the erected wall safeguarding the secondary +personality gives way. The first, submerged or walled-off personality may +step across the levelled barrier. That extraordinarily dramatic moment +does come in the new novel and is handled by Mrs. Rinehart with triumphant +skill. + +It will be seen that this new novel bears some resemblances to _K_, by +many of her readers considered Mrs. Rinehart's most satisfactory story. If +I may venture a personal opinion, _The Breaking Point_ is a much stronger +novel than _K_. To me it seems to combine the excellence of character +delineation noticeable in _K_ with the dramatic thrill and plot +effectiveness which made _The Amazing Interlude_ so irresistible as you +read it. + +=ii= + +To say so much is to bear the strongest testimony to that superb vitality, +which, characteristic of Mrs. Rinehart as a person, is yet more +characteristic of her fiction. There is, I suppose, this additional +interest in regard to _The Breaking Point_, that Mrs. Rinehart is the wife +of a physician and was herself, before her marriage, a trained nurse. The +facts of her life are interesting, though not nearly so interesting as the +way in which she tells them. + +She was the daughter of Thomas Beveridge Roberts and Cornelia (Gilleland) +Roberts of Pittsburgh. From the city's public and high schools she went +into a training school for nurses, acquiring that familiarity with +hospital scenes which served her so well when she came to write _The +Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry_, the stories collected under the +title of _Tish_ and the novel _K_. She became, at nineteen, the wife of +Stanley Marshall Rinehart, a Pittsburgh physician. + +"Life was very good to me at the beginning," said Mrs. Rinehart in the +_American Magazine_ article I have referred to. "It gave me a strong body +and it gave me my sons before it gave me my work. I do not know what would +have happened had the work come first, but I should have had the children. +I know that. I had always wanted them. Even my hospital experience, which +rent the veil of life for me, and showed it often terrible, could not +change that fundamental thing we call the maternal instinct.... I would +forfeit every part of success that has come to me rather than lose any +part, even the smallest, of my family life. It is on the foundation of my +home that I have builded. + +"Yet, for a time, it seemed that my sons were to be all I was to have out +of life. From twenty to thirty I was an invalid.... This last summer +(1917), after forty days in the saddle through unknown mountains in +Montana and Washington, I was as unwearied as they were. But I paid ten +years for them." + +Mrs. Rinehart had always wanted to write. She began in 1905--she was +twenty-nine that year--and worked at a tiny mahogany desk or upon a card +table "so low and so movable. It can sit by the fire or in a sunny +window." She "learned to use a typewriter with my two forefingers with a +baby on my knee!" She wrote when the children were out for a walk, asleep, +playing. "It was frightfully hard.... I found that when I wanted to write +I could not and then, when leisure came and I went to my desk, I had +nothing to say." + +I quote from a chapter on Mrs. Rinehart in my book _The Women Who Make Our +Novels_: + +"Her first work was mainly short stories and poems. Her very first work +was verse for children. Her first check was for $25, the reward of a short +article telling how she had systematised the work of a household with two +maids and a negro 'buttons.' She sold one or two of the poems for children +and with a sense of guilt at the desertion of her family made a trip to +New York. She made the weary rounds in one day, 'a heartbreaking day, +going from publisher to publisher.' In two places she saw responsible +persons and everywhere her verses were turned down. 'But one man was very +kind to me, and to that publishing house I later sent _The Circular +Staircase_, my first novel. They published it and some eight other books +of mine.' + +"In her first year of sustained effort at writing, Mrs. Rinehart made +about $l,200. She was surrounded by 'sane people who cried me down,' but +who were merry without being contemptuous. Her husband has been her +everlasting help. He 'has stood squarely behind me, always. His belief in +me, his steadiness and his sanity and his humour have kept me going, when, +as has happened now and then, my little world of letters has shaken under +my feet.' To the three boys their mother's work has been a matter of +course ever since they can remember. 'I did not burst on them gloriously. +I am glad to say that they think I am a much better mother than I am a +writer, and that the family attitude in general has been attentive but not +supine. They regard it exactly as a banker's family regards his bank.'" + +Most of the work of the twelve years from 1905 to 1917 was done in Mrs. +Rinehart's home. But when she had a long piece of work to do she often +felt "the necessity of getting away from everything for a little while." +So, beginning about 1915, she rented a room in an office building in +Pittsburgh once each year while she was writing a novel. It was sparsely +furnished and, significantly, it contained no telephone. In 1917 she +became a commuter from her home in Sewickley, a Pittsburgh suburb. Her +earnings had risen to $50,000 a year and more. + +"My business with its various ramifications had been growing; an enormous +correspondence, involving business details, foreign rights, copyrights, +moving picture rights, translation rights, second serial rights, and +dramatisations, had made from the small beginning of that book of poems a +large and complicated business. + +"I had added political and editorial writing to my other work, and also +records of travel. I was quite likely to begin the day with an article +opposing capital punishment, spend the noon hours in the Rocky Mountains, +and finish off with a love story! + +"I developed the mental agility of a mountain goat! Filing cases entered +into my life, card index systems. To glance into my study after working +hours was dismaying." + +More recently, Mrs. Rinehart has become a resident of Washington, D. C. +Her husband is engaged in the Government health service and the family +lives in the Wardman Park Hotel, having taken the apartment of the late +Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania. + +=iii= + +"Yet, if I were to begin again, I would go through it all, the rejections +at the beginning, the hard work, the envious and malicious hands reached +up to pull down anyone who has risen ever so little above his fellows. Not +for the money reward, although that has been large, not for the publicity, +although I am frank enough to say I would probably miss being pointed out +in a crowd! But because of two things: the friends I have made all over +the world, and the increased outlook and a certain breadth of perception +and knowledge that must come as the result of years of such labour. I am +not so intolerant as in those early days. I love my kind better. I find +the world good, to work and to play in. + +"I sometimes think, if I were advising a young woman as to a career, that +I should say: 'First, pick your husband.' + +"It is impossible to try to tell how I have attempted to reconcile my +private life with my public work without mentioning my husband. Because, +after all, it requires two people, a man and a woman, to organise a home, +and those two people must be in accord. It has been a sort of family creed +of ours that we do things together. We have tried, because of the varied +outside interests that pull hard, to keep the family life even more intact +than the average. Differing widely as they do, my husband's profession and +my career, we have been compelled to work apart. But we have relaxed, +rested and played, together. + +"And this rule holds good for the family. Generally speaking, we have been +a sort of closed corporation, a board of five, with each one given a vote +and the right to cast it. Holidays and home matters, and picnics and dogs, +and everything that is of common interest all come up for a discussion in +which the best opinion wins. The small boy had a voice as well as the +biggest boy. And it worked well. + +"It is not because we happened to like the same things. People do not +happen to like the same things. It is because we tried to, and it is +because we have really all grown up together. + +"Thus in the summer we would spend weeks in the saddle in the mountains of +the Far West, or fishing in Canada. But let me be entirely frank here. +These outdoor summers were planned at first because there were four men +and one woman in our party. Now, however, I love the open as the men do." + +=iv= + +"Writing is a clean profession. The writer gets out of it exactly what he +puts in, no more and no less. It is one-man work. No one can help. The +writer works alone, solitary and unaided. And, contrary to the general +opinion, what the writer has done in the past does not help him in the +future. He must continue to make good, day after day. + +"More than that he must manufacture a new article every day, and every +working hour of his day. He cannot repeat himself. Can you imagine a +manufacturer turning out something different all the time? And his income +stopping if he has a sick headache, or goes to a funeral?" + +=v= + +Next to the vitality, the variety of Mrs. Rinehart's work is most +noticeable. Her first novel, _The Circular Staircase_, was a mystery tale, +and so was her second, _The Man in Lower Ten_. She has, from time to time, +continued to write excellent mystery stories. _The Breaking Point_ is, +from one standpoint, a first class mystery story; and then there is that +enormously successful mystery play, written by Mrs. Rinehart in +conjunction with Avery Hopwood, _The Bat_. Nor was this her first success +as a playwright for she collaborated with Mr. Hopwood in writing the farce +_Seven Days_. Shall I add that Mrs. Rinehart has lived part of her life in +haunted houses? I am under the impression that more than one of her +residences has been found to be suitably or unsuitably haunted. There was +that house at Bellport on Long Island--but I really don't know the story. +I do know that the family's experience has been such as to provide +material for one or more very good mystery novels. My own theory is that +Mrs. Rinehart's indubitable gift for the creation of mystery yarns has +been responsible for the facts. I imagine that the haunting of the houses +has been a projection into some physical plane of her busy +sub-consciousness. I mean, simply, that instead of materialising as a +story, her preoccupation induced a set of actual and surprising +circumstances. Why couldn't it? Let Sir Oliver Lodge or Sir Arthur Conan +Doyle, the Society for Psychical Research, anybody who knows about that +sort of thing, explain! + +Consider the stories about Letitia Carberry. Tish is without a literary +parallel. Well-to-do, excitement loving, with a passion for guiding the +lives of two other elderly maidens like herself; with a nephew who throws +up hopeless hands before her unpredictable performances, Tish is funny +beyond all description. + +Just as diverting, in a quite different way, is Bab, the sub-deb and +forerunner of the present-day flapper. + +Something like a historical romance is _Long Live the King!_--a story of a +small boy, Crown Prince of a Graustark kingdom, whose scrapes and +friendships and admiration of Abraham Lincoln are strikingly contrasted +with court intrigues and uncovered treason. + +_The Amazing Interlude_ is the story of Sara Lee Kennedy, who went from a +Pennsylvania city to the Belgian front to make soup for the soldiers and +to fall in love with Henri.... But one could go on with other samples of +Mrs. Rinehart's abundant variety. I think, however, that the vitality of +her work, and not the variety nor the success in variety, is our point. +That vitality has its roots in a sympathetic feeling and a sanative humour +not exceeded in the equipment of any popular novelist writing in America +today. + +BOOKS BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART + +THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE +THE MAN IN LOWER TEN +WHEN A MAN MARRIES +THE WINDOW AT THE WHITE CAT +THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF LETITIA CARBERRY +WHERE THERE'S A WILL +THE CASE OF JENNY BRICE +THE AFTER HOUSE +THE STREET OF SEVEN STARS +K +THROUGH GLACIER PARK +TISH +THE ALTAR OF FREEDOM +LONG LIVE THE KING +TENTING TO-NIGHT +BAB, A SUB-DEB +KINGS, QUEENS AND PAWNS +THE AMAZING INTERLUDE +TWENTY-THREE AND A HALF HOURS' LEAVE +DANGEROUS DAYS +MORE TISH +LOVE STORIES +AFFINITIES AND OTHER STORIES +"ISN'T THAT JUST LIKE A MAN?" +THE TRUCE OF GOD +A POOR WISE MAN +SIGHT UNSEEN AND THE CONFESSION +THE BREAKING POINT + +SOURCES ON MARY ROBERTS RINEHART + +"My Creed: The Way to Happiness--As I Found It," by Mary Roberts +Rinehart. AMERICAN MAGAZINE, October, 1917. + +"Mary Roberts Rinehart as She Appears" by Robert H. Davis, AMERICAN +MAGAZINE, October, 1917. + +"My Public" by Mary Roberts Rinehart, THE BOOKMAN, December, 1920. + +The Women Who Make Our Novels, by Grant Overton, MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY. + +Who's Who in America. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THEY HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME + + +=i= + +If people will write memoirs, they must expect to suffer. They have only +themselves to blame if life becomes almost intolerable from the waves of +praise and censure. I am going to speak of some books of memoirs and +biography--highly personal and decidedly unusual books, in the main by +persons who are personages. + +_The Life of Sir William Vernon Harcourt_ concerns Sir William George +Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt, who was born in 1827 and died in 1904. +He was an English statesman, grandson of Edward Vernon Harcourt, +Archbishop of York. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was +called to the bar in 1854. He entered Parliament (for Oxford) in 1868, sat +for Derby 1880-95, and for West Monmouthshire, 1895-1904. He was +Solicitor-general 1873-74, Home Secretary 1880-85 and Chancellor of the +Exchequer in 1886, 1892-94 and 1894-95. From March, 1894, to December, +1898, he was leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons. He wrote +in the London Times under the signature of "Historicus" a series of +letters on International Law, which were republished in 1863. His +biography, which begins before Victoria ascended the throne and closes +after her death, is the work of A. G. Gardiner. + +_Memoirs of the Memorable_ is by Sir James Denham, the poet-author of +"Wake Up, England!" and deals with most of the prominent social names of +the end of the last and commencement of this century, including Mr. +Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Byron, Robert Browning, the Bishop of +London, Cardinal Howard, Lord Dunedin, Lewis Carroll, Lord Marcus +Beresford and the late Bishop of Manchester. The book also deals with club +life and the leading sportsmen. + +_The Pomp of Power_ is by an author who very wisely remains anonymous, +like the author of _The Mirrors of Downing Street_. I shall not run the +risks of perjury by asserting or denying that the author of _The Mirrors +of Downing Street_ has written _The Pomp of Power_. As to the probability +perhaps readers of _The Pomp of Power_ had better judge. It is an +extremely frank book and its subjects include the leading personalities of +Great Britain today and, indeed, all the world. Lloyd George, +Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, Lord Haig, Marshal Joffre, Lord +Beaverbrook, Millerand, Loucheur, Painleve, Cambon, Lord Northcliffe, +Colonel Repington and Krassin of Soviet Russia are the persons principally +portrayed. The book throws a searchlight upon the military and diplomatic +relations of Britain and France before and during the war, and also deals +with the present international situation. It may fairly be called +sensational. + +Especially interesting is the anonymous author's revelation of the rôle +played in the war by Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, so lately +assassinated in London. The author was evidently an intimate of Sir Henry +and, just as evidently, he is intimately acquainted with Lloyd George, +apparently having worked with or under the Prime Minister. He is neither +Lloyd George's friend nor enemy and his portrait of the Prime Minister is +the most competent I can recall. Can he be Philip Kerr, Lloyd George's +adviser? + +I praise, in this slightly superlative fashion, the picture of the British +Prime Minister by the author of _The Pomp of Power_ ... and I pick up +another book and discover it to be E. T. Raymond's _Mr. Lloyd George: A +Biographical and Critical Sketch_. The author of _Uncensored Celebrities_ +is far too modest when he calls his new work a "sketch." It is a genuine +biography with that special accent due to the biographer's personality and +his power of what I may call penetrative synthesis. By that I mean the +insight into character which coördinates and builds--the sort of biography +that makes a legend about a man. + +Mr. Raymond does not begin with the "little Welshman" but with a Roman +Emperor, Diocletian, our first well-studied exemplar of the "coalition +mind." These are the words with which, after a brilliant survey of the +Prime Minister's career, the author closes: + +"If, however, we withhold judgment on every point where a difference of +opinion is possible, if we abandon to destructive criticism every act of +administrative vigour which is claimed by his admirers as a triumph, if we +accept the least charitable view of his faults and failures, there still +remains more than enough with which to defy what Lord Rosebery once called +'the body-snatchers of history, who dig up dead reputations for malignant +dissection.' If only that he imparted, in a black time, when it appeared +but too likely that the Alliance might falter and succumb from mere +sick-headache, his own defying, ardent, and invincible spirit to a tired, +puzzled, distracted and distrustful nation; if only that he dispelled the +vapours, inspired a new hope and resolution, brought the British people to +that temper which makes small men great, assured our Allies that their +cause was in the fullest sense our own, and finally achieved the great +moral victory implied in 'unity of command'--if these things be alone +considered, he will be judged to have earned for his portrait the right to +a dignified place in the gallery of history; and some future generation +will probably recall with astonishment that it was considered unfit to +adorn the dining-room of a London club." + +And here are two new books by Margot Asquith! One is _My Impressions of +America_, the other continues _The Autobiography of Margot Asquith_. Of +the first of these books there is to say that it represents Mrs. Asquith's +matured impressions and will have a value that could not possibly attach +to interviews or statements she gave on this side. It also gives, for the +first time, her frank and direct analyses of the personalities of the +distinguished people whom she met in America. The continuation of her +_Autobiography_ is a different matter. Those who have read _The +Autobiography of Margot Asquith_ will be prepared for the new book. At +least, I hope they will be prepared and yet I question whether they will. +There is, after all, only one person for Mrs. Asquith to surpass, and that +is herself; and I think she has done it. This new book will add Volumes +III. and IV. to _The Autobiography of Margot Asquith_. + +In _The Memoirs of Djemal Pasha: Turkey 1913-21_ will be found the +recollections of a man who was successively Military Governor of +Constantinople, Minister of Public Works and Naval Minister and who, with +Enver Bey and Talaat Bey, formed the triumvirate which dictated Turkish +policy and guided Turkey's fate after the coup d'état of 1913. I believe +these memoirs are of extraordinary interest and the greatest importance. +They give the first and only account from the Turkish side of events in +Turkey since 1913. The development of relations with Germany, France and +England immediately before the war is clearly traced, and a graphic +account is given of the first two months of the war, the escape of the +Goeben and the attempts made to keep Turkey neutral. When these failed, +Djemal Pasha was sent to govern Syria and to command the Fourth Army, +which was to conquer Egypt. The attack on the Suez Canal is described, and +then the series of operations which culminated in the British reverses in +the two battles of Gaza. Further important sections are devoted to the +revolt of the Arabs and the question of responsibility for the Armenian +massacres. + +The value of _Miscellanies--Literary and Historical_, by Lord Rosebery, +consists not so much in his recollections of people as in the delight of +reading good prose. Lord Rosebery has a natural dignity and a charm of +lucid phrasing that adapts itself admirably to the essay form he has +chosen. The subjects he takes up are beloved figures of the past. Robert +Burns, as Lord Rosebery talks of him, walks about in Dumfries and holds +spellbound by sheer personal charm the guests of the tavern. There are +papers on Burke, on Dr. Johnson, on Robert Louis Stevenson, and others as +great. One group deals with Scottish History and one with the service of +the state. The last is a study of the _genius loci_ of such places of +mellow associations as Eton and the Turf. The sort of book one returns +to! + +=ii= + +I was going to say something about Andrew C. P. Haggard's book, _Madame de +Staël: Her Trials and Triumphs_. But so profoundly convinced am I of the +book's fascination that I shall reprint the first chapter. If this is not +worthy of Lytton Strachey, I am no judge: + +"In the year 1751 a young fellow, only fourteen years of age, went to +Magdalen College at Oxford, and in the same year displayed his budding +talent by writing _The Age of Sesostris, Conqueror of Asia_, which work he +burnt in later years. + +"The boy was Edward Gibbon, who, after becoming a Roman Catholic at the +age of sixteen, was sent by his father to Switzerland, to continue his +education in the house of a Calvinist minister named M. Pavilliard, under +the influence of which gentleman he became a Protestant again at Lausanne +eighteen months later. + +"The young fellow, while leading the life of gaiety natural to his age in +company with a friend named Deyverdun, became an apt student of the +classics and was soon a proficient in French, in which tongue he wrote +before long as fluently as in English. With young Deyverdun he worked, and +in his company Edward Gibbon also played. After visiting frequently at the +house of the celebrated Voltaire at Monrepos, and after being present when +the distinguished French philosopher played in his own comedies and +sentimental pieces, the young fellow's thoughts soon turned to the theme +which was the continual subject of conversation of the ladies and +gentlemen who were Voltaire's guests and formed the company of amateurs +with whom the great dramatic writer was in the habit of rehearsing his +plays. This was, as might have been suspected in such a society, the theme +of love. + +"As it happened, there was in the habit of visiting Lausanne a young lady +who was a perfect paragon. Her name was Suzanne Curchod, and she was half +Swiss and half French, her father being a Swiss pastor and her mother a +Frenchwoman. + +"Very handsome and sprightly in appearance, the fair Suzanne was well +instructed in sciences and languages. Her wit, beauty and erudition made +her a prodigy and an object of universal admiration upon the occasion of +her visits to her relations in Lausanne. Soon an intimate connection +existed between Edward Gibbon and herself; he frequently accompanied her +to stay at her mountain home at Grassy, while at Lausanne also they +indulged in their dream of felicity. Edward loved the brilliant Suzanne +with a union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, and was in later years +proud of the fact that he was once capable of feeling such an exalted +sentiment. There is no doubt that, had he been able to consult his own +inclinations alone, Gibbon would have married Mademoiselle Curchod, but, +the time coming when he was forced to return to his home in England his +father declared that he would not hear of 'such a strange alliance.' + +"'Thereupon,' says Gibbon in his autobiography, 'I yielded to my +fate--sighed as a lover, obeyed as a son, and my wound was insensibly +healed by time, absence and new habits of life.' + +"These habits of life included four or five years' service in the +Hampshire Militia, in which corps Suzanne's lover became a captain, the +regiment being embodied during the period of the Seven Years' War. + +"Upon returning to Lausanne, at the age of twenty-six, in 1763, Edward +Gibbon was warmly received by his old love, but he heard that she had been +flirting with others, and notably with his friend M. Deyverdun. He +himself, while now mixing with an agreeable society of twenty unmarried +young ladies who, without any chaperons, mingled with a crowd of young men +of all nations, also 'lost many hours in dissipation.' + +"He was not long in showing Suzanne that he no longer found her +indispensable to his happiness, with the result that she assailed him, +although in vain, with angry reproaches. Notwithstanding that she begged +Gibbon to be her friend if no longer her lover, while vowing herself to be +confiding and tender, he acted hard-heartedly and declined to return to +his old allegiance, coldly replying: 'I feel the dangers that continued +correspondence may have for both of us.' + +"It is impossible to feel otherwise than sorry for the brilliant Suzanne +at this period, as although from her subsequent manoeuvres it became +evident that her principal object in life was to obtain a rich husband, +from the manner in which she humiliated herself to him it is evident that +she was passionately in love with the author of _The Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire_. + +"Eventually the neglected damsel gave up the siege of an unwilling lover, +while assuring her formerly devoted Edward that the day would come 'when +he would regret the irreparable loss of the too frank and tender heart of +Suzanne Curchod.' + +"Had the pair been united, one wonders what would have been the +characteristics of the offspring of an English literary man like Gibbon, +who became perhaps the world's greatest historian, and a beautiful woman +of mixed nationality, whose subsequent career, although gilded with riches +and adorned with a position of power, displays nothing above the mediocre +and commonplace. + +"Edward Gibbon's fame, which was not long in coming, was his own, and will +remain for so long as a love of history and literature exists in the +world, whereas that of Suzanne Curchod rests upon two circumstances--the +first that she was once the sweetheart of Gibbon, the second that she was +the mother of a Madame de Staël. + +"When finally cast off by the Englishman, the Swiss Pastor's daughter +remembered that, if pretty, she was poor, and had her way to make in the +world. She commenced to play fast and loose with a M. Correvon, a rich +lawyer, whom she said she would marry 'if she had only to live with him +for four months in each year.' + +"The next lover was a pastor, who was as mercenary as herself, for he +threw her over for a lady with a large fortune. After this failure to +establish herself, Suzanne became tired of seeking a husband in +Switzerland and went to Paris as the companion of the rich and handsome +Madame Vermoneux, the supposed mistress of Jacques Necker, the rich Swiss +banker, who was established in the French capital. Once in Paris, it was +not long before by her seductions Suzanne succeeded in supplanting Madame +Vermoneux in the still young banker's affections, with the result that she +married him in 1764. + +"Gibbon, whom she had last seen in 1763, returned to the side of his +former love when she was at length safely married to another man. We find +him writing in 1765, to his friend Lord Sheffield, formerly Mr. Holroyd, +that he had spent ten delicious days in Paris about the end of June. 'She +was very fond of me, and the husband was particularly civil.' He continues +confidentially: 'Could they insult me more cruelly? Ask me every evening +to supper, go to bed and leave me alone with his wife--what an impertinent +security!' + +"It was in the month of April in the following year, 1766, that was born +Madame Necker's only child, Anne Louise Germaine, who was destined to +become one of the most remarkable women of modern times. From the great +literary talent displayed by this wonderfully precocious child from +girlhood, it is difficult not to imagine but that in some, if merely +spiritual, way the genius of her mother's old lover had descended through +that mother's brain as a mantle upon herself. That she learnt to look upon +Gibbon with admiration at an early age is sure. Michelet informs us that +owing to the praises showered upon the historian by M. Necker, Germaine +was anxious, as her mother had been before her, to become Gibbon's wife. +She was, however, destined to have another husband--or rather we should +say two other husbands." + +=iii= + +_Recollections and Reflections_ by a Woman of No Importance has added +greatly to the number of this author's readers, gained in the first +instance by her _Memories Discreet and Indiscreet_, which was followed by +_More Indiscretions_. + +_Recollections and Reflections_ consists of random memories of lords and +ladies, sportsmen, Kings, Queens, cooks, chauffeurs and Empresses, related +with a great deal of philosophy and insight and no little wit. + +There are stories of Gladstone's lovemaking, of Empress Eugenie and the +diamond the soldier swallowed, of Balfour's hats, Henry Irving's swelled +head and the cosmetics of Disraeli. There are stories of etiquette at a +hair-dressers' ball side by side with comments on Kitchener's waltzing. + +Lady Angela Forbes was the daughter of the fourth Earl of Rosslyn and the +youngest child of one of the largest and most prominent families in +England. Kitchener, Lord Roberts, Disraeli, the Kaiser, Prince Edward--she +has dined or sailed or hunted with them all on the most informal terms. +She tells, with engaging frankness, in _Memories and Base Details_, of the +gaieties, the mistakes and tragedies of herself and her friends. + +It was Baron von Margutti who informed the Emperor Francis Joseph in 1914 +that Serbia had rejected his ultimatum. The character of the Emperor is a +moot question. _The Emperor Francis Joseph and His Times_, reminiscences +by Baron von Margutti, is by a man who knew the Emperor intimately and who +knew the men and women who surrounded him daily. Baron von Margutti met +all the distinguished European figures, such as Edward VII, Emperor +Wilhelm, Czar Nicholas and the Empress Eugenie who came to Austria to +visit. He watched from a particularly favourable vantage point the deft +moves of secret diplomacy which interlaced the various governments. + +Lord Frederic Hamilton, born in 1856, the fourth son of the first Duke of +Abercorn, was educated at Harrow, was formerly in the British Diplomatic +Service and served successively as Secretary of the British Embassies in +Berlin and Petrograd and the Legations at Lisbon and Buenos Aires. He has +travelled much and, besides being in Parliament, was editor of the Pall +Mall Magazine till 1900. The popularity of his books of reminiscences is +explained by the fascinating way in which he tells a story or illuminates +a character. Other books of memoirs have been more widely celebrated but I +know of none which has made friends who were more enthusiastic. _The +Vanished Pomps of Yesterday_, _Days Before Yesterday_ and _Here, There and +Everywhere_ are constantly in demand. + +But, all along, a surprise has been in store and the time is now here to +disclose it! The talent for this delightful species of memoirising runs +through the family; and Sir Frederic Hamilton's brother, Lord Ernest +Hamilton, proves it. Lord Ernest is the author of _Forty Years On_, a new +book quite as engaging as _Here, There and Everywhere_, and the rest of +Sir Frederic's. Word from London is that Sir Frederic will have no new +book this year; he steps aside with a gallant bow for Lord Ernest. I have +been turning pages in _Forty Years On_ and reading about such matters as +the Copley curse, school life at Harrow where Shifner and others bowed the +knee to Baal, bull fights in Peru and adventures in the Klondike. +Personally the most amusing moments of the book I find to be those in +which Lord Ernest describes his experiments in speaking ancient Greek in +modern Greece. But this is perhaps because I, too, have tried to speak +syllables of Xenophon while being rapidly driven (in a barouche) about +Patras--with the same lamentable results. It is enough to unhinge the +reason, the pronunciation of modern Greek, I mean. But maybe your hobby is +bathing? Lord Ernest has a word in praise of Port Antonio, Jamaica, as a +bathing ground. + +What he says about hummingbirds--but I mustn't! _Forty Years On_ is a mine +of interest and each reader ought to be pretty well left to work it for +himself. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AUDACIOUS MR. BENNETT + + +=i= + +Mr. Bennett's audacity has always been evident. One might say that he +began by daring to tell the truth about an author, continued by daring to +tell the truth about the Five Towns, and has now reached the incredible +stage where he dares to tell the truth about marriage. This is affronting +Fate indeed. It was all very well for Arnold Bennett to write a play +called _Cupid and Commonsense_. Perhaps, in view of the fact that it is +one of the great novels of the twentieth century, it was all right for him +to create _The Old Wives' Tale_; but it cannot be all right for him to +compose such novels as _Mr. Prohack_ and his still newer story, _Lilian_. + +Think of the writers who have stumbled and fallen over the theme of +marriage. There is W. L. George ... but I cannot bring myself to name +other names and discuss their tragic fates. There are those who have +sought to make the picture of marriage a picture of horror; but that was +because they did not dare to tell the truth. That marriage is all, no one +but Mr. Bennett seems to realise. No one but Mr. Bennett seems to realise +that, as between husband and wife, there are no such things as moral +standards, there can be no such thing as an ethical code, there can be no +interposition of lofty abstractions which Men call principles and appeal +to as they would appeal to a just God, Himself. No one but Mr. Bennett +seems to realise that the relation between a man and his wife necessarily +transcends every abstraction, brushes aside every ideal of "right" and +"wrong." Mr. Bennett, in the course of the amazing discoveries of an +amazing lifetime, has made the greatest discovery possible to mortals of +this planet. He has discovered that marriage occurs when a man and a woman +take the law into their own hands, and not only the human law, but the +divine. + +It would be impossible for the hero of a Bennett novel of recent years to +be a character like Mark Sabre in _If Winter Comes_. Arnold Bennett's +married hero would realise that the health, comfort, wishes, doubts, +dissimulations; the jealousies, the happiness or the fancied happiness, +and the exterior appearances of the woman who was his wife abolish, for +practical purposes, everything else. It is due to Mr. Bennett more than to +anyone else that we now understand that while "husband" may be a correct +legal designation, "lover" is the only possible æsthetic appellation of +the man who is married. If he is not a lover he is not a husband except +for statutory purposes--that is all. + +[Illustration: ARNOLD BENNETT] + +=ii= + +It is hard to describe _Lilian_. I will let you taste it: + +"Lilian, in dark blue office frock with an embroidered red line round the +neck and detachable black wristlets that preserved the ends of the sleeves +from dust and friction, sat idle at her flat desk in what was called 'the +small room' at Felix Grig's establishment in Clifford Street, off Bond +Street. There were three desks, three typewriting machines and three +green-shaded lamps. Only Lilian's lamp was lighted, and she sat alone, +with darkness above her chestnut hair and about her, and a circle of +radiance below. She was twenty-three. Through the drawn blind of the +window could just be discerned the backs of the letters of words painted +on the glass: 'Felix Grig. Typewriting Office. Open day and night.' Seen +from the street the legend stood out black and clear against the faintly +glowing blind. It was eleven p.m. + +"That a beautiful girl, created for pleasure and affection and expensive +flattery, should be sitting by herself at eleven p.m., in a gloomy office +in Clifford Street, in the centre of the luxurious, pleasure-mad, love-mad +West End of London seemed shocking and contrary to nature, and Lilian +certainly so regarded it. She pictured the shut shops, and shops and yet +again shops, filled with elegance and costliness--robes, hats, stockings, +shoes, gloves, incredibly fine lingerie, furs, jewels, perfumes--designed +and confected for the setting-off of just such young attractiveness as +hers. She pictured herself rifling those deserted and silent shops by some +magic means and emerging safe, undetected, in batiste so rare that her +skin blushed through it, in a frock that was priceless and yet nothing at +all, and in warm marvellous sables that no blast of wind or misfortune +could ever penetrate--and diamonds in her hair. She pictured thousands of +smart women, with imperious command over rich, attendant males, who at +that very moment were moving quickly in automobiles from theatres towards +the dancing-clubs that clustered round Felix Grig's typewriting office. At +that very moment she herself ought to have been dancing. Not in a smart +club; no! Only in the basement of a house where an acquaintance of hers +lodged; and only with clerks and things like that; and only a gramophone. +But still a dance, a respite from the immense ennui and solitude called +existence!" + +After Lilian's mother died she had been "Papa's cherished darling. Then +Mr. Share caught pneumonia, through devotion to duty and died in a few +days; and at last Lilian felt on her lovely cheek the winds of the world; +at last she was free. Of high paternal finance she had never in her life +heard one word. In the week following the funeral she learnt that she +would be mistress of the furniture and a little over one hundred pounds +net. Mr. Share had illustrated the ancient maxim that it is easier to make +money than to keep it. He had held shipping shares too long and had sold a +fully-paid endowment insurance policy in the vain endeavour to replace by +adventurous investment that which the sea had swallowed up. And Lilian was +helpless. She could do absolutely nothing that was worth money. She could +not begin to earn a livelihood. As for relatives, there was only her +father's brother, a Board School teacher with a large vulgar family and an +income far too small to permit of generosities. Lilian was first +incredulous, then horror-struck. + +"Leaving the youth of the world to pick up art as best it could without +him, and fleeing to join his wife in paradise, the loving, adoring father +had in effect abandoned a beautiful idolised daughter to the alternatives +of starvation or prostitution. He had shackled her wrists behind her back +and hobbled her feet and bequeathed her to wolves. That was what he had +done, and what many and many such fathers had done, and still do, to their +idolised daughters. + +"Herein was the root of Lilian's awful burning resentment against the +whole world, and of a fierce and terrible determination by fair means or +foul to make the world pay. Her soul was a horrid furnace, and if by +chance Lionel Share leaned out from the gold bar of heaven and noticed it, +the sight must have turned his thoughts towards hell for a pleasant +change. She was saved from disaster, from martyrdom, from ignominy, from +the unnameable, by the merest fluke. The nurse who tended Lionel Share's +last hours was named Grig. This nurse had cousins in the typewriting +business. She had also a kind heart a practical mind, and a persuasive +manner with cousins." + +Lilian in the office late at night has been engaged in conversation by her +employer, Mr. Grig, and Mr. Grig has finally come to the point. + +"'You know you've no business in a place like this, a girl like you. +You're much too highly strung for one thing. You aren't like Miss Jackson, +for instance. You're simply wasting yourself here. Of course you're +terribly independent, but you do try to please. I don't mean try to please +merely in your work. You try to please. It's an instinct with you. Now in +typing you'd never beat Miss Jackson. Miss Jackson's only alive, really, +when she's typing. She types with her whole soul. You type well--I +hear--but that's only because you're clever all round. You'd do anything +well. You'd milk cows just as well as you'd type. But your business is +marriage, and a good marriage! You're beautiful, and, as I say, you have +an instinct to please. That's the important thing. You'd make a success of +marriage because of that and because you're adaptable and quick at picking +up. Most women when they're married forget that their job is to adapt +themselves and to please. That's their job. They expect to be kowtowed to +and spoilt and humoured and to be free to spend money without having to +earn it, and to do nothing in return except just exist--and perhaps manage +a household, pretty badly. They seem to forget that there are two sides to +a bargain. It's dashed hard work, pleasing is, sometimes. I know that. But +it isn't so hard as earning money, believe me! Now you wouldn't be like +the majority of women. You'd keep your share of the bargain, and +handsomely. If you don't marry, and marry fifty miles above you, you'll be +very silly. For you to stop here is an outrage against commonsense. It's +merely monstrous. If I wasn't an old man I wouldn't tell you this, +naturally. Now you needn't blush. I expect I'm not far off thirty years +older than you--and you're young enough to be wise in time.'" + +=iii= + +It will be seen that _Lilian_ has all the philosophy and humour which make +_Mr. Prohack_ a joy forever, and in addition the new novel has the strong +interest we feel in a young, beautiful, attractive, helpless girl, who has +her way to make in the world. And yet, I love _Mr. Prohack_. I think I +have by heart some of the wisdom he utters; for instance-- + +On women: "Even the finest and most agreeable women, such as those with +whom I have been careful to surround myself in my domestic existence, are +monsters of cruelty." + +On women's clubs: "You scarcely ever speak to a soul in your club. The +food's bad in your club. They drink liqueurs before dinner at your club. +I've seen 'em. Your club's full every night of the most formidable +spinsters each eating at a table alone. Give up your club by all means. +Set fire to it and burn it down. But don't count the act as a +renunciation. You hate your club." + +On his wife: "You may annoy me. You may exasperate me. You are frequently +unspeakable. But you have never made me unhappy. And why? Because I am one +of the few exponents of romantic passion left in this city. My passion for +you transcends my reason. I am a fool, but I am a magnificent fool. And +the greatest miracle of modern times is that after twenty-four years of +marriage you should be able to give me pleasure by perching your stout +body on the arm of my chair as you are doing." + +On his daughter: "In 1917 I saw that girl in dirty overalls driving a +thundering great van down Whitehall. Yesterday I met her in her foolish +high heels and her shocking openwork stockings and her negligible dress +and her exposed throat and her fur stole, and she was so delicious and so +absurd and so futile and so sure of her power that--that--well ... that +chit has the right to ruin me--not because of anything she's done, but +because she is." + +On kissing: "That fellow has kissed my daughter and he has kissed her for +the first time. It is monstrous that any girl, and especially my daughter, +should be kissed for the first time.... It amounts to an outrage." + +On parenthood: "To become a parent is to accept terrible risks. I'm +Charlie's father. What then?... He owes nothing whatever to me or to you. +If we were starving and he had plenty, he would probably consider it his +duty to look after us; but that's the limit of what he owes us. Whereas +nothing can put an end to our responsibility towards him.... We thought it +would be nice to have children and so Charlie arrived. He didn't choose +his time and he didn't choose his character, nor his education, nor his +chance. If he had his choice you may depend he'd have chosen differently. +Do you want me, on the top of all that, to tell him that he must +obediently accept something else from us--our code of conduct? It would be +mere cheek, and with all my shortcomings I'm incapable of impudence, +especially to the young." + +On ownership: "Have you ever stood outside a money-changer's and looked at +the fine collection of genuine banknotes in the window? Supposing I told +you that you could look at them, and enjoy the sight of them, and nobody +could do more? No, my boy, to enjoy a thing properly you've got to own it. +And anybody who says the contrary is probably a member of the League of +all the Arts." + +On economics: "That's where the honest poor have the advantage of us.... +We're the dishonest poor.... We're one vast pretence.... A pretence +resembles a bladder. It may burst. We probably shall burst. Still, we have +one great advantage over the honest poor, who sometimes have no income at +all; and also over the rich, who never can tell how big their incomes are +going to be. We know exactly where we are. We know to the nearest +sixpence." + +On history: "Never yet when empire, any empire, has been weighed in the +balance against a young and attractive woman has the young woman failed to +win! This is a dreadful fact, but men are thus constituted." + +On bolshevism: "Abandon the word 'bolshevik.' It's a very overworked word +and wants a long repose." + +=iv= + +The best brief sketch of Arnold Bennett's life that I know of is given in +the chapter on Arnold Bennett in John W. Cunliffe's _English Literature +During the Last Half Century_. Professor Cunliffe, with the aid, of +course, of Bennett's own story, _The Truth About an Author_, writes as +follows: + +"He was born near Hanley, the 'Hanbridge' of the Five Towns which his +novels were to launch into literary fame, and received a somewhat limited +education at the neighbouring 'Middle School' of Newcastle, his highest +scholastic achievement being the passing of the London University +Matriculation Examination. Some youthful adventures in journalism were +perhaps significant of latent power and literary inclination, but a small +provincial newspaper offers no great encouragement to youthful ambition, +and Enoch Arnold Bennett (as he was then called) made his way at 21 as a +solicitor's clerk to London, where he was soon earning a modest livelihood +by 'a natural gift for the preparation of bills for taxation.' He had +never 'wanted to write' (except for money) and had read almost nothing of +Scott, Jane Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, the Brontës, and George Eliot, +though he had devoured Ouida, boys' books and serials. His first real +interest in a book was 'not as an instrument for obtaining information or +emotion, but as a book, printed at such a place in such a year by +so-and-so, bound by so-and-so, and carrying colophons, registers, +water-marks, and _fautes d'impression_.' It was when he showed a rare copy +of _Manon Lescaut_ to an artist and the latter remarked that it was one of +the ugliest books he had ever seen, that Bennett, now in his early +twenties, first became aware of the appreciation of beauty. He won twenty +guineas in a competition, conducted by a popular weekly, for a humorous +condensation of a sensational serial, being assured that this was 'art,' +and the same paper paid him a few shillings for a short article on 'How a +bill of costs is drawn up.' Meanwhile he was 'gorging' on English and +French literature, his chief idols being the brothers de Goncourt, de +Maupassant, and Turgenev, and he got a story into the Yellow Book. He saw +that he could write, and he determined to adopt the vocation of letters. +After a humiliating period of free lancing in Fleet Street, he became +assistant editor and later editor of Woman. When he was 31, his first +novel, _A Man From the North_, was published, both in England and America, +and with the excess of the profits over the cost of typewriting he bought +a new hat. At the end of the following year he wrote in his diary: + +"'This year I have written 335,340 words, grand total: 224 articles and +stories, and four instalments of a serial called _The Gates of Wrath_ have +actually been published, and also my book of plays, _Polite Farces_. My +work included six or eight short stories not yet published, also the +greater part of a 55,000 word serial _Love and Life_ for Tillotsons, and +the whole draft, 80,000 words of my Staffordshire novel _Anna +Tellwright_.' + +"This last was not published in book form till 1902 under the title of +_Anna of the Five Towns_; but in the ten years that had elapsed since he +came to London, Bennett had risen from a clerk at six dollars a week to be +a successful 'editor, novelist, dramatist, critic, connoisseur of all +arts' with a comfortable suburban residence. Still he was not satisfied; +he was weary of journalism and the tyranny of his Board of Directors. He +threw up his editorial post, with its certain income, and retired first to +the country and then to a cottage at Fontainebleau to devote himself to +literature. + +"In the autumn of 1903, when Bennett used to dine frequently in a Paris +restaurant, it happened that a fat old woman came in who aroused almost +universal merriment by her eccentric behaviour. The novelist reflected: +'This woman was once young, slim, perhaps beautiful; certainly free from +these ridiculous mannerisms. Very probably she is unconscious of her +singularities. Her case is a tragedy. One ought to be able to make a +heart-rending novel out of a woman such as she.' The idea then occurred to +him of writing the book which afterwards became _The Old Wives' Tale_, and +in order to go one better than Guy de Maupassant's 'Une Vie' he determined +to make it the life-history of two women instead of one. Constance, the +more ordinary sister, was the original heroine; Sophia, the more +independent and attractive one, was created 'out of bravado.' The project +occupied Bennett's mind for some years, during which he produced five or +six novels of smaller scope, but in the autumn of 1907 he began to write +_The Old Wives' Tale_ and finished it in July, 1908. It was published the +same autumn and though its immediate reception was not encouraging, before +the winter was over it was recognised both in England and America as a +work of genius. The novelist's reputation was upheld, if not increased, by +the publication of Clayhanger in 1910, and in June, 1911, the most +conservative of American critical authorities, the New York Evening Post, +could pronounce judgment in these terms: + +"'Mr. Bennett's Bursley is not merely one single stupid English provincial +town. His Baineses and Clayhangers are not simply average middle class +provincials foredoomed to humdrum and the drab shadows of experience. His +Bursley is every provincial town, his Baineses are all townspeople +whatsoever under the sun. He professes nothing of the kind; but with quiet +smiling patience, with a multitude of impalpable touches, clothes his +scene and its humble figures in an atmosphere of pity and understanding. +These little people, he seems to say, are as important to themselves as +you are to yourself, or as I am to myself. Their strength and weakness are +ours; their lives, like ours, are rounded with a sleep. And because they +stand in their fashion for all human character and experience, there is +even a sort of beauty in them if you will but look for it.'" + +BOOKS BY ARNOLD BENNETT + +Novels: + A MAN FROM THE NORTH + THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL + THE GATES OF WRATH + ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS + LEONORA + HUGO + A GREAT MAN + THE BOOK OF CARLOTTA + WHOM GOD HATH JOINED + THE OLD ADAM + BURIED ALIVE + THE OLD WIVES' TALE + CLAYHANGER + DENRY THE AUDACIOUS [In England, THE CARD] + HILDA LESSWAYS + THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS + HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND + THE GLIMPSE + THE CITY OF PLEASURE + THESE TWAIN + THE LION'S SHARE + THE PRETTY LADY + THE ROLL CALL + MR. PROHACK + LILIAN + +Plays: + CUPID AND COMMONSENSE + WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS + THE HONEYMOON + MILESTONES [With Edward Knoblauch] + THE GREAT ADVENTURE + THE TITLE + JUDITH + SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE + THE LOVE MATCH + +SOURCES ON ARNOLD BENNETT + +Who's Who [In England]. + +English Literature During the Last Half Century, by John W. Cunliffe. +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Arnold Bennett. A booklet published by GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, 1911. +(Out of print.) + +The Truth About an Author, by Arnold Bennett. GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY. + +The Author's Craft, by Arnold Bennett. GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY. + +Some Modern Novelists, by Helen Thomas Follett and Wilson Follett. +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. + +Arnold Bennett, by J. F. Harvey Darton, in the WRITERS OF THE DAY series. + +The critical articles on Mr. Bennett and his individual books are too +numerous to mention. The reader is referred to the New York Public +Library or the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., and to the Annual +Index of Periodical Publications for the last twenty years. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN + + +=i= + +I know of only one book which really aids parents and others who have to +oversee children's reading. That is Annie Carroll Moore's invaluable +_Roads to Childhood_. The author, as supervisor of work with children in +the New York Public Library, has had possibly a completer opportunity to +understand what children like to read and why they like it than any other +woman. What is more, she has the gift of writing readably about both +children and books, and an unusual faculty for reconciling those somewhat +opposite poles--things children like to read and the things it is well for +them to read. + +Miss Moore says that the important thing is a discovery of personality in +children and a respect for their natural inclinations in reading--an early +and live appreciation of literature and good drawings is best imparted by +exposure rather than by insistence upon a too rigid selection. "What I +like about these papers," said one young mother, "is that they are good +talk. You can pick the book up and open it anywhere without following a +course of reading or instruction to understand it. There is full +recognition of the fact that children are different and react differently +to the same books at different periods of their development." + +Maude Radford Warren's _Tales Told by the Gander_ is one of those books +for children that adults find interesting, too; and there is a new series +of children's books by May Byron, concerning which I must say a few words. +The series is called "Old Friends in New Frocks" and here are a few of the +titles: + +_Billy Butt's Adventure: The Tale of the Wolf and the Goat._ + +_Little Jumping Joan: The Tale of the Ants and the Grasshopper._ + +_Jack-a-Dandy: The Tale of the Vain Jackdaw._ + +These books are noteworthy for their beautiful illustrations. Each volume +has an inspired and fanciful frontispiece in colours by E. J. Detmold and +line illustrations by Day Hodgetts. Moreover, there are end papers and the +binding has a picture in colour that begins on the back and extends all +the way around in front. Naturally they are for very young children--shall +we say up to seven years old? + +=ii= + +On April 29, 1922, the Philadelphia Public Ledger printed a letter from +twelve-year-old Marion Kummer, as follows: + +"Dear Mr. Editor: My father asked me to write you a story about him and +they say at school that I am good at stories, so I thought I would. I +think he thinks I can write and become a great writer like him some day, +but I would rather be a great actress like Leonora Ulrick. I saw her in a +play where she went to sleep and they stuck pins in her but could not wake +her up, which part I should not like. But at that I would rather be an +actress because acting is pleasanter and more exciting and you do not have +to write on the typewriter all day and get a pain in your back. Daddy says +he would rather shovel coal but he does not, but snow sometimes, which has +been very plentiful about here this winter, also sledding. + +"When he is not working, he goes for a walk with the dogs, or tells us +most any question we should ask almost like an encikelopedia. He is very +good-natured and I love the things he writes, especially plays. Daddy has +just finished a children's book called _The Earth's Story_ about how it +began millions of years ago when there was a great many fossils, so nice +for children. Also about stone axes. My brother Fred made one but when he +was showing us how it worked the head came off and hit me on the foot and +I kicked him. So stone axes were one of the man's first weapons. Daddy +read us each chapter when it was done and we helped him except baby +brother who wrote with red crayon all over one chapter when no one was +there, and he should not have been in Daddy's office anyway. Daddy has to +draw horses and engines for him all the time. He gets tired of it but what +can he do?" + +Now this is very pleasant, for here on the table is the first volume of +_The Earth's Story--The First Days of Man_ by Frederic Arnold Kummer; and +this book for children has a preface for parents in it. In that preface +Mr. Kummer says: + +"In this process of storing away in his brain the accumulated knowledge of +the ages the child's mind passes, with inconceivable rapidity, along the +same route that the composite minds of his ancestors travelled, during +their centuries of development. The impulse that causes him to want to +hunt, to fish, to build brush huts, to camp out in the woods, to use his +hands as well as his brain, is an inheritance from the past, when his +primitive ancestors did these things. He should be helped to trace the +route they followed with intelligence and understanding, he should be +encouraged to know the woods, and all the great world of out-of-doors, to +make and use the primitive weapons, utensils, toys, his ancestors made and +used, to come into closer contact with the fundamental laws of nature, and +thus to lay a groundwork for wholesome and practical thinking which cannot +be gained in the classroom or the city streets. + +"As has been said, the writer has tested the methods outlined above. The +chapters in _The First Days of Man_ are merely the things he has told his +own children. It is of interest to note that one of these, a boy of seven, +on first going to school, easily outstripped in a single month a dozen or +more children who had been at school almost a year, and was able to enter +a grade a full year ahead of them. The child in question is not in the +least precocious, but having understood the knowledge he has gained, he is +able to make use of it, he has a definite mental perspective, a sure grasp +on things, which makes study of any kind easy for him, and progression +correspondingly rapid." + +To say that _Jungle Tales, Adventures in India_, by Howard Anderson Musser +is a series of missionary tales of adventure in India, is to give no idea +of the thrills within its covers. There are fights with tigers, bears and +bandits, and there is one long fight against ignorance and disease, +superstition and merciless greed. And the fighter? He was an American +athlete, who had won honour on the track and football field. Great for +boys! + +=iii= + +The English _Who's Who_ says: "Colonel Stevenson Lyle Cummins"--then +follows a string of degrees--"David Davies Professor of Tuberculosis, +University College, South Wales, Monmouthshire, and Principal Medical +Officer to the King Edward VII. Welsh National Memorial Association +since 1921.... Entered Army 1897; Captain, 1900; Major, 1909; +Lieutenant-Colonel, 1915; Colonel, 1918; served Nile Expedition, 1898 +(medal with clasp, despatches); Sudan 1900, 1902; Sudan, 1904 (Clasp); +Osmanieh 4th class, 1907; European War, 1914-18 (C.B., C.M.G., +despatches six times, Brevetted Colonel); Legion of Honour (Officer), +Couronne de Belgique (Officer); Col. 1918; Croix de Guerre (Belgian), +1918, retired from Army, 1921." + +But I don't suppose that it was as a consequence of anything in that +honourable record that Colonel Cummins wrote _Plays for Children_, in +three volumes. I suppose it was in consequence of another fact which the +English_ Who's Who_ mentions (very briefly and abbreviatedly) as "four +_c._" + +The possession of four children is a natural explanation of three volumes +of juvenile plays. + +But wait a moment! Did Colonel Cummins write them wholly for his +youngsters? As I read these little plays, it seems to me that there is +frequently an undercurrent of philosophy, truth, satire--what you +will--which, unappreciated by the youngsters themselves, will make these +household dramas ingratiating to their parents. At any rate, this is +exceptional work; you may be sure it is, for publishers are not in the +habit of bringing out an author's three volumes of children's plays all at +one stroke, and that is what is happening with Colonel Cummins's little +dramas. + +What is there to say in advance about _The Fairy Flute_, by Rose Fyleman? +No one of the increasing number who have read her utterly charming book of +poems for children, _Fairies and Chimneys_, will need more than the breath +that this book is coming. I shall give myself (and I think everyone who +reads this) the pleasure of quoting a poem from _Fairies and Chimneys_. +This will show those who do not know the work of Rose Fyleman what to +expect: + + PEACOCKS + Peacocks sweep the fairies' rooms; + They use their folded tails for brooms; + But fairy dust is brighter far + Than any mortal colours are; + And all about their tails it clings + In strange designs of rounds and rings; + And that is why they strut about + And proudly spread their feathers out. + +=iv= + +Francis Rolt-Wheeler has spent years at sea, travelled a great deal in the +West Indies, and South America, trapped at Hudson Bay, punched cattle in +the far West, lived in mining camps, traversed the greater part of the +American continent on horseback, lived with the Indians of the plains and +lived with the Indians of the Pueblos, was a journalist for several years, +has been in nearly every country of the world, and when last heard from +(May, 1922) was meandering through Spain on his way to Morocco intending +to take journeys on mule-back among the wild tribes of the Riff. He is +studying Arabic and Mohammedan customs to prepare himself for this latest +adventure. He writes boys' books. + +Can he write boys' books? If a man of his experience cannot write boys' +books, then boys' books are hopeless. + +_Plotting in Pirate Seas_, besides the thrill of the story relating Stuart +Garfield's adventures in Haiti, contains glimpses of the whole pageant we +call "the history of the Spanish Main." There is a chapter which gives an +account of Teach and Blackbeard, the buccaneers. Other chapters offer +natural history in connection with Stuart Garfield's hunt for his father. +The boy gets an inside view of newspaper work and a clear idea of native +life in Haiti and of conditions which brought about American intervention +on the island. + +_Hunting Hidden Treasure in the Andes_ is, explicitly, the story of Julio +and his guidance of two North American boys to the buried treasure of the +Incas; but the book is much more than that. It gives, with accuracy and +exceptional interest, a panorama of South American civilisation. + +These are the first two volumes of the "Boy Journalist Series." Two other +books, the first two volumes in the series called "Romance-History of +America," are: + +_In the Days Before Columbus_, which deals with the North America that +every youngster wants to know about--a continent flung up from the ocean's +bed and sculptured by ice; a continent that was kept hidden for centuries +from European knowledge by the silent sweep of ocean currents; a continent +that developed civilisations comparable with the Phoenician and Egyptian; +the continent of the Red Man. The book places what we customarily call +"American History" in its proper perspective by hanging behind it the +stupendous backdrop of creation and the prehistoric time. + +_The Quest of the Western World_ is not the usual story of Columbus, +preceded by a few allusions to the adventurings of earlier navigators. Dr. +Rolt-Wheeler has written a book which goes back to the days of Tyre and +Sidon, which includes the core of the old Norse and Irish sagas, and which +comes down to Columbus with all the rich tapestry of a daring past +unrolled before the youthful reader. Nor does the author stand on the +letter of his title; he tells the story of the Quest both backward and +forward, tying up the past with the present and avoiding, with singular +success, the fatal effect which makes a child feel: "All this was a long +time ago; it hasn't anything to do with me or today." + +And now two new Rolt-Wheeler books are ready! _Heroes of the Ruins_, the +third volume of the "Boy Journalist Series," tells of a fourteen-year-old +who lived for four years of war in trenches and dugouts. Andre, the Mole, +went from one company to another, dodged the authorities and successfully +ran the risks of death, emerging at the end to take up the search for his +scattered family, from whom he had been separated in the early days of the +fighting. + +The third volume in the "Romance-History of America" books is _The Coming +of the Peoples_, which tells how the French, Spanish, English and Dutch +settled early America. + +=v= + +Olive Roberts Barton is a sister of Mary Roberts Rinehart. When she taught +school in Pittsburgh for several years before her marriage, she worked +with children of all sizes and ages during part of that time and found +small children were her specialty. She says: + +"Working with them, and giving out constantly as one must with small +children, was like casting bread upon waters. It came back to me, what I +was giving them, not after many days but at once; their appreciation, +their spontaneous sympathy, their love gave to me something I could get +nowhere else, and it was enriching. I felt then, as I still feel, that +children give us the best things the world has to offer, and my effort has +been to make some return. Twice during the crises in my married life I +went back to the schoolroom for comfort. Once after the death of one of my +own children, when I had no others left, and again when my husband went to +the battle-fields of France. + +"I have written with the same experience as I taught. My first successes +were with adult fiction. I have had something like six hundred short +stories published by syndicates, and magazine articles have appeared from +time to time, but gradually I realised that I wanted children for my +audience. Several years ago I published _Cloud Boat Stories_. Later _The +Wonderful Land of Up_. A syndicate editor saw these books and asked me to +start a children's department for the five hundred papers he served. That +was the beginning of the 'Twins.' Nancy and Nick were born two years ago. +They still visit their little friends every day in the columns of many +newspapers. What a vast audience I have! A million children! No wonder one +wishes to do his best. + +"I have two children of my own. They are my critics. What they do not +like, I do not write. We all love the out-of-doors and to us a bird or a +little wild animal is a fairy." + +But when I try to say something about the _Nancy and Nick_ series I find +it has all been said for me (and said so much better!) by that +accomplished bookseller, Candace T. Stevenson: + +"I have just finished all of the books by Olive Roberts Barton. They are +truly spontaneous and delightful. In fact, they have carried my small +group of children listeners and myself along as breathlessly as if they +were Alice in Wonderland or Davy and the Goblin. They are delightful +nonsense with exactly the right degree of an undercurrent of ideas which +they can make use of in their business of everyday living. Children love +morals which are done as skilfully as the chapter on Examinations in +Helter Skelter Land, and Sammy Jones, the Topsy Turvy Boy in Topsy Turvy +Land, and I found my group not only seriously discussing them but putting +them into practice. Speaking of putting things into practice, there is +only one spot in all of the books which seemed to me as if it might get +some children into trouble. The description of Waspy Weasel's trick on the +schoolmaster in Helter Skelter Land where he squeezes bittersweet juice +into the schoolmaster's milk and puts him to sleep, I think would lead any +inquiring mind to try it. + +"The whale who loved peppermints, Torty Turtle with his seagull's wings +on, the adventures of the children when they help Mr. Tingaling collect +the rents--this isn't the same old stuff of the endless 'bedtime' stories +which are dealt out to us by the yard. These animals are real people with +the tinge which takes real imagination to paint. + +"At first I was disappointed in the pictures, but as I read on I came +to like those also, and I found that they were wholly satisfactory to the +children. The picture of the thousand legger with all his shoes on is +entrancing, and poor Mrs. Frog cutting out clothes because the +dressmaker had made them for the children when they were still +tadpoles. These books ought to come like an oasis in the desert to the +poor-jaded-reading-aloud-parent." + +=vi= + +At Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, in a small house built from her own plans +and standing 2,000 feet above sea level, in a growing shade of trees, +lives Marion Ames Taggart, author of the Jack-in-the-Box series--four +children's books that renew their popularity every year. They are: + + AT GREENACRES + THE QUEER LITTLE MAN + THE BOTTLE IMP + POPPY'S PLUCK + +_At Greenacres_ and _The Queer Little Man_ are particularly good to read +aloud to a group of children; they really are the mystery and detective +story diluted for children. + +Miss Taggart, an only child and extremely frail in childhood, had the good +fortune as a consequence of ill-health to be educated entirely at home. As +a result she had free access to really good books--for the home was in +Haverhill, Mass. She began to carry out a cherished wish to write for +young girls in 1901, when her first book (for girls of about sixteen) was +published in St. Nicholas. She has a habit of transplanting four-footed +friends in her stories under their own names--as where, in the +Jack-in-the-Box series, one finds Pincushion, Miss Taggart's own plump +grey kitten. + +What will the children say to _A Wonder Book_, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, +with pictures in color by Arthur Rackham? I do not know why I ask this +rhetorical question, which, like most questions of the sort, should be +followed by exclamation points! There will be exclamations, at any rate, +over this book, surely the most beautiful of the year, perhaps of several +years. The quality of Arthur Rackham's work is well known, its artistic +value is undisputedly of the very highest. And Hawthorne's text--the story +of the Gorgon's head, the tale of Midas, Tanglewood, and the rest--is of +the finest literary, poetic and imaginative worth. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +COBB'S FOURTH DIMENSION + + +=i= + +As a three-dimensional writer, Irvin S. Cobb has long been among the +American literary heavy-weights. Now that he has acquired a fourth +dimension, the time has come for a new measurement of his excellences as +an author. + +Among those excellences I know a man (responsible for the manufacture of +Doran books) who holds that Cobb is the greatest living American author. +The reason for this is severely logical, to wit: Irvin Cobb always sends +in his copy in a perfect condition. His copy goes to the manufacturer of +books with a correctly written title page, a correctly written copyright +page, the exact wording of the dedication, an accurate table of contents, +and so on, all the way through the manuscript. Moreover, when proofs are +sent to Mr. Cobb, he makes very few changes. He reduces to a minimum the +difficulties of a printer and his changes are always perceptibly changes +for the better. + +But I don't suppose that any of this would redound to Cobb's credit in the +eyes of a literary critic. + +[Illustration: IRVIN S. COBB] + +And to return to the subject of the fourth dimension: My difficulty is to +know in just what direction that fourth dimension lies. Is the fourth +dimension of Cobb as a novelist or as an autobiographer? It puzzles me to +tell inasmuch as I have before me the manuscripts of Mr. Cobb's first +novel, _J. Poindexter, Colored_, and his very first autobiography, a +volume called _Stickfuls_. + +The title of _Stickfuls_ will probably not be charged with meaning to +people unfamiliar with newspaper work. Perhaps it is worth while to +explain that in the old days, when type was set by hand, the printer had a +little metal holder called a "stick." When he had set a dozen lines--more +or less--he had a "stickful." Although very little type is now set by +hand, the stick as a measure of space is still in good standing. The +reporter presents himself at the city desk, tells what he has got, and is +told by the city editor, "Write a stickful." Or, "Write two sticks." And +so on. + +_Stickfuls_ is not so much the story of Cobb's life as the story of people +he has met and places he has been, told in a series of extremely +interesting chapters--told in a leisurely and delightful fashion of +reminiscence by a natural association of one incident with another and one +person with someone else. For example, Cobb as a newspaper man, covered a +great many trials in court; and one of the chapters of _Stickfuls_ tells +of famous trials he has attended. + +=ii= + +Now about this novel of Cobb's: Jeff Poindexter will be remembered by all +the readers of Mr. Cobb's short stories as the negro body servant of old +Judge Priest. In _J. Poindexter, Colored_, we have Jeff coming to New +York. Of course, New York seen through the eyes of a genuine Southern +darkey is a New York most of us have never seen. There's nothing like +sampling, so I will let you begin the book: + +"My name is J. Poindexter. But the full name is Jefferson Exodus +Poindexter, Colored. But most always in general I has been known as Jeff +for short. The Jefferson part is for a white family which my folks worked +for them one time before I was born, and the Exodus is because my mammy +craved I should be named after somebody out of the Bible. How I comes to +write this is this way: + +"It seems like my experiences here in New York is liable to be such that +one of my white gentleman friends he says to me I should take pen in hand +and write them out just the way they happen and at the time they is +happening, or right soon afterwards, whilst the memory of them is clear in +my brain; and then he's see if he can't get them printed somewheres, which +on the top of the other things which I now is, will make me an author with +money coming in steady. He says to me he will fix up the spelling wherever +needed and attend to the punctuating; but all the rest of it will be my +own just like I puts it down. I reads and writes very well but someway I +never learned to puncture. So the places where it is necessary to be +punctual in order to make good sense and keep everything regulation and +make the talk sound natural is his doings and also some of the spelling. +But everything else is mine and I asks credit. + +"My coming to New York, in the first place, is sort of a sudden thing +which starts here about a month before the present time. I has been +working for Judge Priest for going on sixteen years and is expecting to go +on working for him as long as we can get along together all right, which +it seems like from appearances that ought to be always. But after he gives +up being circuit judge on account of him getting along so in age he gets +sort of fretful by reasons of him not having much to do any more and most +of his own friends having died off on him. When the State begins going +Republican about once in so often, he says to me, kind of half joking, +he's a great mind to pull up stakes and move off and go live somewheres +else. But pretty soon after that the whole country goes dry and then he +says to me there just naturally ain't no fitten place left for him to go +without he leaves the United States." + +It seems that Judge Priest finally succumbed to an invitation to visit +Bermuda, a place where a gentleman can still raise a thirst and satisfy +it. Jeff could not stand the house without the Judge in it; and when an +opportunity came to go to New York, Jeff went. + +=iii= + +The biographer of Cobb is Robert H. Davis, editor of Munsey's Magazine, +whose authoritative account I take pleasure in reprinting here--the more +so because it appeared some time ago in a booklet which is now out of +print. Mr. Davis's article was first printed in The Sun, New York: + +"Let me deal with this individual in a categorical way. Most biographers +prefer to mutilate their canvas with a small daub which purports to be a +sketch of the most significant event in the life of the accused. Around +this it is their custom to paint smaller and less impressive scenes, +blending the whole by placing it in a large gilded frame, which, for +obvious reasons, costs more than the picture--and it is worth more. Pardon +me, therefore, if I creep upon Mr. Cobb from the lower left-hand corner of +the canvas and chase him across the open space as rapidly as possible. It +is not for me to indicate when the big events in his life will occur or to +lay the milestones of the route along which he will travel. I know only +that they are in the future, and that, regardless of any of his +achievements in the past, Irvin Cobb has not yet come into his own. + +"The first glimpse I had of him was in a half-tone portrait in the New +York Evening World five years ago. This picture hung pendant-like from a +title which read 'Through Funny Glasses, by Irvin S. Cobb.' It was the +face of a man scarred with uncertainty; an even money proposition that he +had either just emerged from the Commune or was about to enter it. Grief +was written on the brow; more than written, it was emblazoned. The eyes +were heavy with inexpressible sadness. The corners of the mouth were +drooped, heightening the whole effect of incomprehensible depression. +Quickly I turned to the next page among the stock quotations, where I got +my depression in a blanket form. The concentrated Cobb kind was too much +for me. + +"A few days later I came suddenly upon the face again. The very +incongruity of its alliance with laughter overwhelmed me, and wonderingly +I read what he had written, not once, but every day, always with the +handicap of that half-tone. If Cobb were an older man, I would go on the +witness stand and swear that the photograph was made when he was +witnessing the Custer Massacre or the passing of Geronimo through the +winter quarters of his enemies. Notwithstanding, he supplied my week's +laughter. + +"Digression this: + +"After Bret Harte died, many stories were written by San Franciscans who +knew him when he first put in an appearance on the Pacific Coast. One +contemporary described minutely how Bret would come silently up the stairs +of the old Alta office, glide down the dingy hallway through the exchange +room, and seat himself at the now historic desk. It took Bret fifteen +minutes to sharpen a lead pencil, one hour for sober reflection, and three +hours to write a one-stick paragraph, after which he would carefully tear +it up, gaze out of the window down the Golden Gate, and go home. + +"He repeated this formula the following day, and at the end of the week +succeeded in turning out three or four sticks which he considered fit to +print. In later years, after fame had sought him out and presented him +with a fur-lined overcoat, which I am bound to say Bret knew how to wear, +the files of the Alta were ransacked for the pearls he had dropped in his +youth. A few gems were identified, a very few. Beside this entire printed +collection the New England Primer would have looked like a set of +encyclopedias. Bret worked slowly, methodically, brilliantly, and is an +imperishable figure in American letters. + +"Returning to Cobb: He has already written twenty times more than Bret +Harte turned out during his entire career. He has made more people laugh +and written better short stories. He has all of Harte's subtle and +delicate feeling, and will, if he is spared, write better novels about the +people of today than Bret Harte, with all his genius and imagination, +wrote around the Pioneers. I know of no single instance where one man has +shown such fecundity and quality as Irvin Cobb has so far evinced, and it +is my opinion that his complete works at fifty will contain more good +humour, more good short stories, and at least one bigger novel than the +works of any other single contemporaneous figure. + +"He was born in Paducah, Kentucky, in June, '76. I have taken occasion to +look into the matter and find that his existence was peculiarly varied. He +belonged to one of those old Southern families-there being no new Southern +families--and passed through the public schools sans incident. At the age +of sixteen he went into the office of The Paducah Daily News as a +reportorial cub. + +"He was first drawn to daily journalism because he yearned to be an +illustrator. Indeed, he went so far as to write local humorous stories, +illustrating them himself. The pictures must have been pretty bad, +although they served to keep people from saying that his literature was +the worst thing in the paper. + +"Resisting all efforts of the editor, the stockholders and the subscribers +of The Paducah Daily News, he remained barricaded behind his desk until +his nineteenth year, when he was crowned with a two-dollar raise and a +secondary caption under his picture which read 'The Youngest Managing +Editor of a Daily Paper in the United States.' + +"If Cobb was consulted in the matter of this review, he would like to have +these preliminaries expunged from his biography. But the public is +entitled to the details. + +"It is also true that he stacked up more libel suits than a newspaper of +limited capital with a staff of local attorneys could handle before he +moved to Louisville, where, for three years, he was staff correspondent of +The Evening Post. It was here that Cobb discovered how far a humorist +could go without being invited to step out at 6 a.m. and rehearse 'The +Rivals' with real horse-pistols. + +"The first sobering episode in his life occurred when the Goebel murder +echoed out of Louisville. He reported this historic assassination and +covered the subsequent trials in the Georgetown court house. Doubtless the +seeds of tragedy, which mark some of his present work, were sown here. +Those who are familiar with his writings know that occasionally he sets +his cap and bells aside and dips his pen into the very darkness of life. +We find it particularly in three of his short stories entitled 'An +Occurrence Up a Side Street,' 'The Belled Buzzard,' and 'Fishhead.' +Nothing better can be found in Edgar Allan Poe's collected works. One is +impressed not only with the beauty and simplicity of his prose, but with +the tremendous power of his tragic conceptions and his art in dealing with +terror. There appears to be no phase of human emotion beyond his pen. +Without an effort he rises from the level of actualities to the high plane +of boundless imagination, invoking laughter or tears at will. + +"After his Louisville experience Cobb married and returned to Paducah to +be managing editor of The Democrat. Either Paducah or The Democrat got on +his nerves and, after a comparison of the Paducah school of journalism +with the metropolitan brand, he turned his face (see Evening World +half-tone) in the direction of New York, buoyed up by the illusion that he +was needed there along with other reforms. + +"He arrived at the gates of Manhattan full of hope, and visited every +newspaper office in New York without receiving encouragement to call +again. Being resourceful he retired to his suite of hall bedrooms on 57th +Street West and wrote a personal note to every city editor in New York, +setting forth in each instance the magnificent intellectual proportions of +the epistolographer. The next morning, by mail, Cobb had offers for a job +from five of them. He selected The Evening Sun. + +"At about that time the Portsmouth Peace Conference convened, and The Sun +sent the Paducah party to help cover the proceedings. Upon arriving at +Portsmouth, Cobb cast his experienced eye over the situation, discovered +that the story was already well covered by a large coterie of competent, +serious-minded young men, and went into action to write a few columns +daily on subjects having no bearing whatsoever on the conference. These +stories were written in the ebullition of youth, inspired by the ecstasy +which rises from the possession of a steady job; a perfect deluge from the +well springs of spontaneity. There wasn't a single fact in the entire +series, and yet The Sun syndicated these stories throughout the United +States. All they possessed was I-N-D-I-V-I-D-U-A-L-I-T-Y. + +"At the end of three weeks, Cobb returned to New York, to find that he +could have a job on any newspaper in it. This brings him to The Evening +World, the half-tone engraving, which was the first glimpse I had of him, +and the dawn of his subsequent triumphs. For four years he supplied the +evening edition and The Sunday World with a comic feature, to say nothing +of a comic opera, written to order in five days. The absence of a +guillotine in New York State accounts for his escape for this latter +offence. Nevertheless, in all else his standard of excellence ascended. He +reported the Thaw trial in long-hand, writing nearly 600,000 words of +testimony and observation, establishing a new style for reporting trials, +and gave further evidence of his power. That performance will stand out in +the annals of American journalism as one of the really big reportorial +achievements. + +"At about this juncture in his career Cobb opened a door to the past, +reached in and took out some of the recollections of his youth. These he +converted into 'The Escape of Mr. Trimm,' his first short fiction story. +It appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. The court scene was so +absolutely true to life, so minutely perfect in its atmosphere, that a +Supreme Court judge signed an unsolicited and voluntary note for +publication, in which he said that Mr. Cobb had reported with marvelous +accuracy and fulness a murder trial at which His Honour had presided. + +"Gelett Burgess, in a lecture at Columbia College, said that Cobb was one +of the ten great American humourists. Cobb ought to demand a recount. +There are not ten humourists in the world, although Cobb is one of them. +The extraordinary thing about Cobb is that he can turn a burst of laughter +into a funeral oration, a snicker into a shudder and a smile into a crime. +He writes in octaves, striking instinctively all the chords of humour, +tragedy, pathos and romance with either hand. Observe this man in his +thirty-ninth year, possessing gifts the limitations of which even he +himself has not yet recognised. + +"In appraising a genius, we must consider the man's highest achievement, +and in comparing him with others the verdict must be reached only upon +consideration of his best work. For scintillant wit and unflagging good +humour, read his essays on the Teeth, the Hair and the Stomach. If you +desire a perfect blending of all that is essential to a short story, read +'The Escape of Mr. Trimm' or 'Words and Music.' If you are in search of +pure, unadulterated, boundless terror, the gruesome quality, the blackness +of despair and the fear of death in the human conscience, 'Fishhead,' 'The +Belled Buzzard' or 'An Occurrence Up a Side Street' will enthrall you. + +"Thus in Irvin Cobb we find Mark Twain, Bret Harte and Edgar Allan Poe at +their best. Reckon with these potentialities in the future. Speculate, if +you will, upon the sort of a novel that is bound, some day, to come from +his pen. There seem to be no pinnacles along the horizon of the literary +future that are beyond him. If he uses his pen for an Alpine stock, the +Matterhorn is his. + +"There are critics and reviewers who do not entirely agree with me +concerning Cobb. But they will. + +"As I write these lines I recall a conversation I had with Irvin Cobb on +the hurricane deck of a Fifth Avenue 'bus one bleak November afternoon, +1911. We had met at the funeral of Joseph Pulitzer, in whose employ we had +served in the past. + +"Cobb was in a reflective mood, chilled to the marrow, and not +particularly communicative. + +"At the junction of Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street we were held up +by congested traffic. After a little manoeuvring on the part of a mounted +policeman, the Fifth Avenue tide flowed through and onward again. + +"'It reminds me of a river,' said Cobb, 'into which all humanity is drawn. +Some of these people think because they are walking up-stream they are +getting out of it. But they never escape. The current is at work on them. +Some day they will get tired and go down again, and finally pass out to +sea. It is the same with real rivers. They do not flow uphill.' + +"He lapsed into silence. + +"'What's on your mind?' I inquired. + +"'Nothing in particular,' he said, scanning the banks of the great +municipal stream, 'except that I intend to write a novel some day about a +boy born at the headwaters. Gradually he floats down through the +tributaries, across the valleys, swings into the main stream, and docks +finally at one of the cities on its banks. This particular youth was a +great success--in the beginning. Every door was open to him. He had +position, brains, and popularity to boot. He married brilliantly. And then +The Past, a trivial, unimportant Detail, lifted its head and barked at +him. He was too sensitive to bark back. Thereupon it bit him and he +collapsed.' + +"Again Cobb ceased talking. For some reason--indefinable--I respected his +silence. Two blocks further down he took up the thread of his story +again: + +"'--and one evening, just about sundown, a river hand, sitting on a +stringpiece of a dock, saw a derby hat bobbing in the muddy Mississippi, +floating unsteadily but surely into the Gulf of Mexico.' + +"As is his habit, Cobb tugged at his lower lip. + +"'What are you going to call this novel?' + +"'I don't know. What do you think?' + +"'Why not "The River"?' + +"'Very well, I'll call it "The River."' + +"He scrambled from his seat. 'I'm docking at Twenty-seventh Street. +Good-bye. Keep your hat out of the water.' + +"Laboriously he made his way down the winding staircase from the upper +deck, dropped flat-footed on the asphalt pavement, turned his collar up, +leaned into the gust of wind from the South, and swung into the +cross-current of another stream. + +"I doubt if he has any intention of calling his story 'The River.' But I +am sure the last chapter will contain something about an unhappy wretch +who wore a derby hat at the moment he walked hand in hand with his +miserable Past into the Father of Waters. + +"For those who wish to know something of his personal side, I can do no +better than to record his remarks to a stranger, who, in my presence, +asked Irvin Cobb, without knowing to whom he was speaking, what kind of a +person Cobb was. + +"'Well, to be perfectly frank with you,' replied the Paducah prodigy, +'Cobb is related to my wife by marriage, and if you don't object to a +brief sketch, with all the technicalities eliminated, I should say in +appearance he is rather bulky, standing six feet high, not especially +beautiful, a light roan in colour, with a black mane. His figure is +undecided, but might be called bunchy in places. He belongs to several +clubs, including The Yonkers Pressing Club and The Park Hill Democratic +Marching Club, and has always, like his father, who was a Confederate +soldier, voted the Democratic ticket. He has had one wife and one child +and still has them. In religion he is an Innocent Bystander.' + +"Could anything be fuller than this?" + +=iv= + +It was Mr. Davis, also, who in the New York Herald of April 23, 1922, made +public the evidence for the following box score: + + 1st 2nd + +Best Writer of Humour Cobb ---- +Best All-Round Reporter Cobb ---- +Best Local Colourist Cobb ---- +Best in Tales of Horror Cobb ---- +Best Writer of Negro Stories ---- Cobb +Best Writer of Light Tarkington Cobb and + Humorous Fiction Harry Leon Wilson +Best Teller of Anecdotes Cobb Cobb + +"Not long ago a group of ten literary men--editors, critics, readers and +writers--were dining together. Discussion arose as to the respective and +comparative merits of contemporaneous popular writers. It was decided that +each man present should set down upon a slip of paper his first, second +and third choices in various specified but widely diversified fields of +literary endeavour, and that then the results should be compared. Admirers +of Cobb's work will derive a peculiar satisfaction from the outcome. It +was found that as a writer of humour he had won first place; that as an +all round reporter he had first place; that as a handler of local colour +in the qualified sense of a power of apt, swiftly-done, journalistic +description, he had first place. He also had first place as a writer of +horror yarns. He won second place as a writer of darkey stories. He tied +with Harry Leon Wilson for second place as a writer of light humorous +fiction, Tarkington being given first place in this category. As a teller +of anecdotes he won by acclamation over all contenders. Altogether his +name appeared on eight of the ten lists." + +Cobb lives at Ossining, New York. He describes himself as lazy, but +convinces no one. He likes to go fishing. But he has never written any +fish stories. + +BOOKS BY IRVIN S. COBB + +BACK HOME +COBB'S ANATOMY +THE ESCAPE OF MR. TRIMM +COBB'S BILL OF FARE +ROUGHING IT DE LUXE +EUROPE REVISED +PATHS OF GLORY +OLD JUDGE PRIEST +FIBBLE, D.D. +SPEAKING OF OPERATIONS +LOCAL COLOR +SPEAKING OF PRUSSIANS +THOSE TIMES AND THESE +THE GLORY OF THE COMING +THE THUNDERS OF SILENCE +THE LIFE OF THE PARTY +FROM PLACE TO PLACE +"OH, WELL, YOU KNOW HOW WOMEN ARE!" +THE ABANDONED FARMERS +SUNDRY ACCOUNTS +A PLEA FOR OLD CAP COLLIER +ONE THIRD OFF +EATING IN TWO OR THREE LANGUAGES +J. POINDEXTER, COLORED +STICKFULS + +Plays: +FUNABASHI +BUSYBODY +BACK HOME +SERGEANT BAGBY +GUILTY AS CHARGED +UNDER SENTENCE + + +SOURCES ON IRVIN S. COBB + +Who's Who in America. + +Who's Cobb and Why? Booklet published by GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY. +(Out of print). + +Article by Robert H. Davis in the book section of THE NEW YORK HERALD +for April 23, 1922. + +Robert H. Davis, 280 Broadway, New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +PLACES TO GO + + +=i= + +The book by Thomas Burke called _More Limehouse Nights_ was published in +England under the title of _Whispering Windows_. At the time of its +publication, Mr. Burke wrote the following: + +"The most disconcerting question that an author can be asked, and often is +asked, is: 'Why did you write that book?' The questioners do not want an +answer to that immediate question; but to the implied question: 'Why don't +you write some other kind of book?' To either question there is but one +answer: BECAUSE. + +"Every writer is thus challenged. The writer of comic stories is asked why +he doesn't write something really serious. The novelist is asked why he +doesn't write short stories, and the short-story writer is asked why he +doesn't write a novel. To me people say, impatiently: 'Why don't you write +happy stories about ordinary people?' And the only answer I can give them +is: 'Because I can't. I present life as I see it.' + +"I am an ordinary man, but I don't understand ordinary men. I am at a loss +with them. But with the people of whom I write I have a fellow-feeling. I +know them and their sorrows and their thwarted strivings and I understand +their aberrations. I cannot see the romance of the merchant or the glamour +of the duke's daughter. They do not permit themselves to be seized and +driven by passion and imagination. Instead they are driven by fear, which +they have misnamed Commonsense. These people thwart themselves, while my +people are thwarted by malign circumstance. + +"Often I have taken other men to the dire districts about which I write, +and they have remained unmoved; they have seen, in their phrase, nothing +to get excited about. Well, one cannot help that kind of person. One +cannot give understanding to the man who regards the flogging of children +as a joke, or to whom a broken love-story is, in low life, a theme for +smoking-room anecdotes. + +"Wherever there are human creatures there are beauty and courage and +sacrifice. The stories in _Whispering Windows_ deal with human creatures, +thieves, drunkards, prostitutes, each of whom is striving for happiness in +his or her way, and missing it, as most of us do. Each has hidden away +some fine streak of character, some mark below which he will not go. +And--they are alive. They have met life in its ugliest phases, and fought +it. + +"My answer, then, to the charge of writing 'loathsome' stories, is that +these things happen. To those who say that cruelty and degradation are not +fit subjects for fiction, I say that all twists and phases of the human +heart are fit subjects for fiction. + +"The entertainment of hundreds of thousands with 'healthy' literature is a +great and worthy office; but the author can only give out what is in him. +If I write of wretched and strange things, it is because these move me +most. Happiness needs no understanding; but these darker things--they are +kept too much from sensitive eyes and polite ears; and so are too harshly +judged upon the world's report. I am no reformer; I have never 'studied' +people; and I have no 'purpose,' unless it be illumination. + +"What we all need today is illumination; for only through full knowledge +can we come to truth--and understanding." + +=ii= + +Burke's new book, _The London Spy_, is described by the author as "a book +of town travels." Some of the subjects are London street characters, cab +shelters, coffee stalls and street entertainers. The range is very wide, +for there is a chapter called "In the Streets of Rich Men," which deals +with Pall Mall and Piccadilly, as well as a study of a waterside colony, +including the results of a first pipe of opium ("In the Streets of +Cyprus"). Mr. Burke tells a good deal about the film world of Soho and is +able to give an intimate sketch of Chaplin. Perhaps the most charming of +the titles in the book is the chapter called "In the Street of Beautiful +Children." This is a study of a street in Stepney, with observations on +orphanages and reformatories and "their oppressions of the children of the +poor." + +Thomas Burke was born in London and seldom lives away from it. He started +writing when employed in a mercantile office, and sold his first story +when sixteen. He sincerely hopes nobody will ever discover and reprint +that story. His early struggles have been recounted in his _Nights in +London_. He married Winifred Wells, a young London poet, author of _The +Three Crowns_. He lives at Highgate, on the Northern Heights of London. He +hates literary society and social functions generally. His chief +recreation is wandering about London. + +=iii= + +There is very little use in doing a book about China nowadays unless you +can do an unusual book about China; and that, precisely, is what E. G. +Kemp has done. _Chinese Mettle_ is an unusual book, even to the shape of +it (it is nearly square though not taller than the ordinary book). The +author has written enough books on China to cover all the usual ground +and, as Sao-Ke Alfred Sze of the Chinese Legation at Washington says in +his foreword, Miss Kemp "has wisely neglected the 'show-window' by putting +seaports at the end. By acquainting the public with the wealth and beauty +of the interior, she reveals to readers the vitality and potential energy, +both natural and cultural, of a great nation." Three provinces are +particularly described--Yünnan, Kweichow, Hunan--and there are good +chapters on the new Chinese woman and the youth of China. This book has, +in addition to unusual illustrations, what every good book of its sort +should have, an index. + +In view of the title of this chapter I have hesitated over mentioning here +Albert C. White's _The Irish Free State_. Whether Ireland now should be +numbered among the places to go or not is possibly a matter of heredity +and sympathies; but at any rate, Ireland is unquestionably a place to read +about. Shall we agree that the Irish Free State is one of the best places +in the world to go in a book? Then Mr. White's book will furnish +up-to-the-minute transportation thither. + +The book is written throughout from the standpoint of a vigorous and +independent mind. It will annoy extreme partisans of all shades of +opinion, and will provoke much discussion. This is especially true of the +concluding chapter, in which the author discusses "Some Factors in the +Future." The value of the book is enhanced by the inclusion of the +essential documents of the Home Rule struggle, including the four Home +Rule Bills of 1886, 1893, 1914 and 1920, and the terms of the Treaty +concluded with Sinn Fein. + +Whether Russia is a place to go is another of those debatable questions +and I feel that the same conclusion holds good. A book is the wisest +passport to Russia at present. _Marooned in Moscow_, by Marguerite E. +Harrison, is not a new book--in the sense of having been published last +week. It remains about the best single book published on Russia under the +Soviet government; and I say this with the full recollection that H. G. +Wells also wrote a book about Soviet Russia after a visit of fifteen days. +Mrs. Harrison spent eighteen months and was part of the time in prison. +She is an exceptionally good reporter without prejudices for or against +any theory of government--with an eye only for the facts and a word only +for an observed fact. + +It is good news that _The Secret of the Sahara: Kufara_, by Rosita Forbes, +is to be published in a new edition. This Englishwoman, with no assistance +but that of native guides, penetrated to Kufara, which lies hidden in the +heart of the Libyan desert, a section of the Sahara. This is the region of +a fanatical sect of Mohammedans known as the Senussi. No other white woman +has ever been known to enter the sacred city of Paj, a gloomy citadel hewn +out of rock on the edge of a beautiful valley. _The Secret of the_ +_Sahara_ is illustrated with pictures taken by the author, many times +under pain of death if she were detected using a camera. + +=iv= + +C. E. Andrews is a college professor who saw war service in France and +relief administration work in the Balkans. His gifts as a delightful +writer will be apparent now that his book of travels, _Old Morocco and the +Forbidden Atlas_, is out. This book, unlike the conventional travel book, +has the qualities of a good story. There is colour and adventure. There +are humorous episodes and there are pictures that seem to be mirrored in +the clear lake of a lovely prose. The journey described is through a +region of Morocco little traversed by white men and over paths of the +Atlas Mountains frequented chiefly by wild tribes and banditti. + +Of all places to go, old New York remains, for many, the most appealing. +Does it sound queer to recommend for those readers _A Century of Banking +in New York: 1822-1922_, by Henry Wysham Lanier? Mr. Lanier is a son of +Sidney Lanier, the poet, and those who believe that a chronicle of banking +must necessarily be full of dry statistics are invited to read the opening +chapter of this book; for Mr. Lanier begins his tale with the yellow fever +epidemic of 1822, when all the banks of New York, to say nothing of the +thousands of people, fled "from the city to the country"--that is, from +lowermost Broadway to the healthful village of Greenwich. This quality of +human rather than statistical interest is paramount throughout the book. + +I go back almost four years to call attention again to Frederic A. +Fenger's _Alone in the Caribbean_, a book with maps and illustrations from +unusual photographs, the narrative of a cruise in a sailing canoe among +the Caribbean Islands.... It is just a good book. + +=v= + +_Robin Hood's Barn_, by Margaret Emerson Bailey, should be classified, I +suppose, as a volume of essays. It seems to me admirably suited for this +chapter, since it is all about a pleasant house inhabited by pleasant +people--and surely that is a place where everyone wants to go. Margaret +Emerson Bailey is describing, I think, an actual house and actual people; +not so much their lives as what they make out of life in the collectivism +that family life enforces. At least, I seem to get from her book a unity +of meaning, the lack of which in our lives, as we live them daily, makes +for helplessness and sometimes for despair. + +With even more doubt as to the exact "classification," I proceed to speak +here and now of L. P. Jacks's book, _The Legends of Smokeover_. Mr. Jacks +is well known as the editor of the Hibbert Journal and a writer of +distinction upon philosophical subjects. I should say his specialty is an +ability to relate philosophical abstractions to practical, everyday +existence. Those familiar with his essays in the Atlantic Monthly will +know what I mean. And is the Smokeover of his new book, then, a place to +go? It is, if you wish to see our modern age and industrial civilisation +expressed in such terms--almost in the terms of fiction--as make its +appraisal relatively easy. + +I suppose this book might make Mr. Jacks memorable as a satirist. It +brings philosophy down from the air, like a peaceful thunderbolt, to +shatter the vain illusions we entertain of our material success and our +civilised strides forward. The fact that when you have begun to read the +book you may experience some difficulty in knowing how to take it is in +the book's favour. And why should you complain so long as from the outset +you are continuously entertained and amused? You can scarcely complain ... +even though at the end, you find you have been instructed. In a world +thickly spotted with Smokeovers, Mr. Jacks's book is a book worth having, +worth reading, worth reading again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ALIAS RICHARD DEHAN + + +=i= + +At that, I think I am wrong. I think the title of this chapter ought to be +"Alias Clotilde Graves." + +The problems of literary personality are strange. Some time after the Boer +War a woman who had been in newspaper work in London and who had even, at +one time, been on the stage under the necessity of earning her living, +wrote a novel. The novel happened to be an intensive study of the Boer +War, made possible by the fact that the writer was the daughter of a +soldier and had spent her early years in barracks. England at that time +was interested by the subject of this novel. It sold largely and its +author was established by the book. + +She was forty-six years old in the year when the book was published. But +this was not the striking thing. William De Morgan produced the first of +his impressive novels at a much more advanced age. The significant thing +was that in publishing her novel, _The Dop Doctor_ (American title: _One_ +_Braver Thing_), Clotilde Graves chose the pen name of Richard Dehan, +although she was already known as a writer (chiefly for the theatre) under +her own name. + +I do not know that Miss Graves has ever said anything publicly about her +motive in electing the name of Richard Dehan. But I feel that whatever the +cause the result was the distinct emergence of a totally different +personality. There is no final disassociation between Clotilde Graves and +Richard Dehan. Richard Dehan, novelist, steadily employs the material +furnished in valuable abundance by Clotilde Graves's life. At the same +time the personality of Richard Dehan is so unusual, so gifted, so lavish +in its invention and so much at home in surprising backgrounds, that +something approaching a psychic explanation of authorship seems called +for. + +=ii= + +Clotilde Inez Mary Graves was born at Barracks, Buttevant, County Cork, +Ireland, on June 3, 1864, third daughter of the late Major W. H. Graves of +the Eighteenth Royal Irish Regiment and Antoinette, daughter of Captain +George Anthony Deane of Harwich. Thus, the English _Who's Who_. + +"She numbers among her ancestors admirals and deans," said The Bookman in +1912. + +As the same magazine at about the same time spoke of her as descended from +Charles II.'s naval architect, Admiral Sir Anthony Deane, one wonders if +Sir Anthony were not the sum of the admirals and the total of the deans. +But no; at any rate in so far as the admirals are concerned, for Miss +Graves is also said to be distantly related to Admiral Nelson. + +I will give you what The Bookman said in the "Chronicle and Comment" +columns of its number for February, 1913: + +"Richard Dehan was nine years old when her family emigrated to England +from their Irish home. She had seen a good deal of barrack life, and at +Southsea, where they went to live, she acquired a large knowledge of both +services in the circle of naval and military friends they made there, and +this knowledge years afterward she turned to account in _Between Two +Thieves_. In 1884, Miss Graves became an art student and worked at the +British Museum galleries and the Royal Female School of Art, helping to +support herself by journalism of a lesser kind, among other things drawing +little pen-and-ink grotesques for the comic papers. By and by she resolved +to take to dramatic writing and being too poor, she says, to manage in any +other way, she abandoned art and took an engagement in a travelling +theatrical company. In 1888 her first chance as a dramatist came. She was +again in London, working vigorously at journalism, when some one was +needed to write extra lyrics for a pantomime then in preparation. A letter +of recommendation from an editor to the manager ended in Miss Clo Graves +writing the pantomime of _Puss in Boots_. Later a tragedy by her, +_Nitocris_, was produced for an afternoon at Drury Lane, and another of +her plays, _The Mother of Three_, proved not only a literary, but also a +material, success." + +Her first novel to be signed Richard Dehan being so successful, an English +publisher planned to bring out an earlier, minor work, already published +as by Clotilde Graves, with "Richard Dehan" on the title-page. The author +was stirred to a vigorous and public protest. In the ensuing controversy +someone made the point that the proposed reissue would not be more +indefensible than the act of a publishing house in bringing out posthumous +"books" by O. Henry and dragging from its deserved oblivion Rudyard +Kipling's _Abaft the Funnel_. + +I do not know whether the publishing of books is a business or a +profession. I should say that it has, at one time or another and by one or +another individual or concern, been pursued as either or both. + +There have certainly been, and probably are, book publishers who not only +conduct their business as a business but as a business of a low order. +There have been and are book publishers who, though quite necessarily +business men, observe an ethical code as nice as that of any of the +recognised professions. Perhaps publishing books should qualify as an art, +since it has the characteristics of bringing out what is best or worst in +a publisher; and, indeed, if we are to hold that any successful means of +self-expression is art, then publishing books has been an art more than +once; for unquestionably there are publishers who find self-expression in +their work. + +This is an interesting subject, but I must not pursue it in this place. +Certainly Miss Graves was justified in objecting to the use of her new pen +name on work already published under her own name. In her case, as I +think, the objection was peculiarly well-founded, because it seems to me +that Richard Dehan was a new person. Since Richard Dehan appeared on the +title-page of _The Dop Doctor_, there has never been a Clotilde Graves in +books. You have only to study the books. The _Dop Doctor_ was followed, +two years later, by _Between Two Thieves_. This novel has as a leading +character Florence Nightingale under the name of Ada Merling. The story +was at first to have been called "The Lady With The Lamp"; but the author +delayed it for a year and subjected it to a complete rewriting, the result +of a new and enlarged conception of the story. + +Then came a steady succession of novels by Richard Dehan. I remember with +what surprise I read, in 1918, _That Which Hath Wings_, a war story of +large dimensions and an incredible amount of exact and easy detail. I +remember, too, noting that there was embedded in it a marvellous story for +children--an airplane flight in which a youngster figured--if the +publisher chose, with the author's consent, to lift this out of its +larger, adult setting. I remember very vividly reading in 1920 a +collection of short stories by Richard Dehan, published under the title +_The Eve of Pascua_. Pascua is the Spanish word for Easter. I wondered +where on earth, unless in Spain itself, the author got the bright +colouring for his story. + +What I did not realise at the time was that Richard Dehan is like that. +Now, smitten to earth by the 500-page novel which he has just completed, I +think I understand better. _The Just Steward_, from one standpoint, makes +the labours of Gustave Flaubert in _Salaambo_ seem trivial. It is known +with what passionate tenacity and surprising ardour the French master +studied the subject of ancient Carthage, grubbing like the lowliest +archseologist to get at his fingertips all those recondite allusions so +necessary if he were to move with lightness, assurance and consummate art +through the scenes of his novel. But, frankly, one does not expect this of +the third daughter of an Irish soldier, an ex-journalist and the author of +a Drury Lane pantomime. Nevertheless the erudition is all here. From this +standpoint, _The Just Steward_ is truly monumental. I will show you a +sample or two: + +"Beautiful, even with the trench and wall of Diocletian's comparatively +recent siege scarring the orchards and vineyards of Lake Mareotis, +splendid even though her broken canals and aqueducts had never been +repaired, and part of her western quarter still displayed heaps of +calcined ruins where had been temples, palaces and academies, Alexandria +lay shimmering under the African sun.... + +"The vintage of Egypt was in full swing, the figs and dates were being +harvested. Swarms of wasps and hornets, armed with formidable stings, +yellow-striped like the dreaded nomads of the south and eastern frontiers, +greedily sucked the sugary juices of the ripe fruit. Flocks of fig-birds +twittered amongst the branches, being like the date-pigeons, almost too +gorged to fly. Half naked, dark or tawny skinned, tattooed native +labourers, hybrids of mingled races, with heads close-shaven save for a +topknot, dwellers in mud-hovels, drudges of the water-wheel, cut down the +heavy grape-clusters with sickle-shaped cooper knives. + +"Ebony, woolly-haired negroes in clean white breech-cloths, piled up the +gathered fruit in tall baskets woven of reeds and lined with leaves. Copts +with the rich reddish skins, the long eyes and boldly curving profiles of +Egyptian warriors and monarchs as presented on the walls of ancient +temples of Libya and the Thebaïd, moved about in leather-girdled blue +linen tunics and hide sandals, keeping account of the laden panniers, +roped upon the backs of diminutive asses and carried to the winepresses as +fast as they were filled. + +"The negroes sang as they set snares for fig-birds, and stuffed themselves +to the throat with grapes and custard-apples. The fat beccaficoes beloved +of the epicurean fell by hundreds into the limed horsehair traps. Greek, +Egyptian and negro girls, laughing under garlands of hibiscus, periwinkle +and tuberoses, coaxed the fat morsels out of the black men to carry home +for a supper treat, while acrobats, comic singers, sellers of cakes, +drinks and sweetmeats, with strolling jugglers and jesters and Jewish +fortune-tellers of both sexes, assailed the workers and the merrymakers +with importunities and made harvest in their own way." + +The story is extraordinary. Opening in the Alexandria of the fourth +century, it pictures two men, a Roman official and a Jewish steward, who +are friends unto death. The second of the four parts or books into which +the novel is divided opens in England in 1914. We have to do with John +Hazel, the descendant of Hazaël Aben Hazaël, and with the lovely Katharine +Forbis, whose ancestor was a Roman, Hazaël Aben Hazaël's sworn friend. + +A story of exciting action certainly; it has elements that would +ordinarily be called melodramatic--events which are focussed down into +realities against the tremendous background of an incredible war. The +exotic settings are Egypt and Palestine. It must not be thought that the +story is bizarre; the scenes in England, the English slang of John Hazel, +as well as the typical figure of Trixie, Lady Wastwood, are utterly +modern. I do not find anything to explain how Miss Graves could write such +a book; the answer is that Richard Dehan wrote it. + +=iii= + +Miss Graves, of whose antecedents and education we already know something, +is a Roman Catholic in faith and a Liberal Unionist in politics. She lives +at The Towers, Beeding, near Bramber, Sussex. Her recreations are +gardening and driving. + +But Richard Dehan knows the early history of the Christian Church; he +knows military life, strategy, tactics, types; he knows in a most +extraordinary way the details of Jewish history and religious observances; +he knows perfectly and as a matter of course all about English middle +class life; he knows all sorts of things about the East--Turkey and Arabia +and those countries. + +This is a discrepancy which will bear a good deal of accounting for. + +Before I try to account for it I will give you a long passage from _The +Just Steward_, describing the visit of Katharine Forbis and her friend to +the house of John Hazel, lately of London and now of Alexandria: + +"The negro porter who had opened the door, a huge Ethiopian of ebony +blackness, dressed and turbaned in snow-white linen, salaamed deeply to +the ladies, displaying as he did so a mouthful of teeth as dazzling in +whiteness and sharply-pointed as those of the mosaic dog. + +"Then the negro shut the heavy door and locked and bolted it. They heard +the car snort and move away as the heavy bolts scrooped in their ancient +grooves of stone. But, as they glanced back, towards the entrance, the +imperturbable attendant in the black kaftan waved them forward to where +another man, exactly like himself in feature, colouring and costume, +waited as imperturbably on the threshold of a larger hall beyond. On its +right-hand doorpost was affixed a cylinder of metal _repoussée_ with an +oval piece of glass on that something like a human eye. And the big +invisible bees went on humming as industriously and as sleepily as ever: + +"'Bz'zz'z!... Bzz'z!... Bzz m'm'm!...' + +"Perhaps it was the bees' thick, sleepy droning that made Miss Forbis feel +as though she had previously visited this house in a dream, in which, +though the mosaic dog had certainly figured, together with a negro who had +opened doors, the rows of shoes along the wall, the little creature +tripping at her side, the two dark, ultra-respectable men in black +tarbushes and kaftans had had no place or part. Only John Hazel had bulked +big. He was there, beyond the grave Semitic face of the second Jewish +secretary, on the farther side of the torrent of boiling amber sunshine +pouring through a central opening in the roof of the inner hall that +succeeded the vestibule of the mosaic Cerberus. An atrium some forty feet +in length, paved with squares of black and yellow marble with an oblong +pool in the midst of it, upon whose still crystal surface pink and crimson +petals of roses had been strewn in patterns, and in the centre of which a +triple-jetted fountain played. + +"The humming of the unseen bees came louder than ever, from a doorway in +the wall upon Katharine's right hand, a wall of black polished marble, +decorated with an inlaid ornament in porphyry of yellow and red and pale +green. The curtain of dyed and threaded reeds did not hide what lay beyond +the doorway. You saw a long, high-pitched whitewashed room, cooled by big +wooden electric fans working under the ceiling, and traversed by avenues +of creamy-white Chinese matting, running between rows of low native desks, +before each of which squatted, on naked or cotton-sock-covered heels, or +sat cross-legged upon a square native chintz cushion, a coffee-coloured, +almond-eyed young Copt, in a black or blue cotton nightgown, topped with +the tarbush of black felt or a dingy-white or olive-brown muslin turban, +murmuring softly to himself as he made entries, from right to left, in a +huge limp-covered ledger, or deftly fingered the balls of coloured clay +strung on the wires of the abacus at his side. + +"Oh! ... Wonderful! I'm so Glad you Brought me!' + +"Lady Wastwood's emphatic exclamation of pleasure in her surroundings +brought cessation in the humming--caused a swivelling of capped or +turbanned heads all down the length of three avenues--evoked a +simultaneous flash of black Oriental eyes, and white teeth in dusky faces +lifted or turned. Then at the upper end of the long counting-house, where +three wide glassless windows looked on a sanded palm-garden, and the +leather-topped knee-hole tables, roll-top desks, copying ink presses, +mahogany revolving-chairs, telephone installations, willow-paper baskets, +pewter inkstands and Post Office Directories suggested Cornhill and +Cheapside rather than the Orient--one of the olive-faced Jewish +head-clerks in kaftans and side-curls coughed--and as though he had pulled +a string controlling all the observant faces, every tooth was hidden and +every eye discreetly bent on the big limp ledgers again. + +"All the Coptic bees were humming sonorously in unison as Katharine went +forward to a lofty doorway, framing brightness, where waited to receive +her the master of the hive.... + +"The light beings behind him may have exaggerated his proportions, but he +seemed to Trixie the biggest man she had ever seen, and nearly the +ugliest. Close-curling coarse black hair capped his high-domed skull, and +his stern, powerful, swarthy face, big-nosed and long-chinned, with a +humorous quirk at the corners of the heavy-lipped mouth, that redeemed its +sensuousness, was lighted by eyes of the intensest black, burning under +heavy beetle-brows. His khaki uniform, though of fine material and +admirable cut, was that of a common ranker, and a narrow strip of colours +over the heart, and the fact of his left arm being bandaged and slung, +intimated to Lady Wastwood that Katharine's Jewish friend had already +served with some degree of distinction, and had been wounded in the War. +And drawing back with her characteristic inconquerable shyness, as he +advanced to Miss Forbis, plainly unconscious of any presence save hers, +Trixie's observant green eyes saw him bend his towering head, and sweep +his right arm out and down with slow Oriental stateliness, bringing back +the supple hand to touch breast, lips and brow. Whether or not he had +raised the hem of Katharine's skirt to his lips and kissed it, Lady +Wastwood could not definitely determine. She was left with the impression +that he had done this thing." + +=iv= + +I should have liked to have given, rather than purely descriptive +passages, a slice of the complicated and tense action with which the story +brims over, but there is the difficulty that such a scene might not be +intelligible to one not having read the story from the beginning. I must +resist the tendency to quote any more, having indulged it already to +excess, and I am ready to propound my theory of the existence of Richard +Dehan. + +If you receive a letter from The Towers, Beeding, it will bear a double +signature, like this: + + RICHARD DEHAN + CLOTILDE GRAVES + +Clotilde Graves has become a secondary personality. + +There was once a time when there was no Richard Dehan. There now are times +when there is no Clotilde Graves. + +To a woman in middle age an opportunity presented itself. It was the +chance to write a novel around the subject which, as a girl, she had come +to know a great deal about--the subject of war. To write about it and gain +attention, the novel required a man's signature. + +Then there was born in the mind of the woman who purposed to write the +novel the idea of a man--of _the_ man--who should be the novelist she +wanted to be. He should use as by right and from instinct the material +which lay inutile at her woman's disposal. + +She created Richard Dehan. Perhaps, in so doing, she created another +monster like Frankenstein's. I do not know. + +Born of necessity and opportunity and a woman's inventiveness, Richard +Dehan took over whatever of Clotilde Graves's he could use. He is now the +master. It is, intellectually and spiritually, as if he were the +full-grown son of Clotilde Graves. It is a partnership not less intimate +than that. + +Clotilde Graves--but she does not matter. I think she existed to bring +Richard Dehan into the world. + +BOOKS BY RICHARD DEHAN + +Novels: + THE LOVER'S BATTLE + THE DOP DOCTOR + BETWEEN TWO THIEVES + THE HEADQUARTER RECRUIT + THE COST OF WINGS + THE MAN OF IRON + OFF SANDY HOOK + EARTH TO EARTH + UNDER THE HERMES + THAT WHICH HATH WINGS + A SAILOR'S HOME + THE EVE OF PASCUA + THE VILLA OF THE PEACOCK + THE JUST STEWARD + +Plays + NITOCRIS + DRURY LANE PANTOMIME, PUSS IN BOOTS + DR. AND MRS. NEILL + A MOTHER OF THREE + A MATCHMAKER + THE BISHOP'S EYE + THE FOREST LOVERS + A MAKER OF COMEDIES + THE BOND OF NIKON + A TENEMENT TRAGEDY + + +SOURCES ON RICHARD DEHAN + +Who's Who [in England]. + +THE BOOKMAN for February, 1913 (Volume XXXVI, pp. 595-6), also brief +mention in THE BOOKMAN for September and October, 1912. + +Private Information. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WITH FULL DIRECTIONS + + +=i= + +I have read the book called _Civilization in the United States_, a +collection of essays by various Americans, and count the time well spent +chiefly because, at the end of the chapter on "Sport," I came upon these +words by Ring W. Lardner: + +"The best sporting fiction we know of, practically the only sporting +fiction an adult may read without fear of stomach trouble, is contained in +the collected works of the late Charles E. Van Loan." + +This is expert testimony, if there is such a thing. The books Mr. Lardner +referred to are published in a five-volume memorial edition consisting +of: + + FORE! GOLF STORIES + SCORE BY INNINGS: BASEBALL STORIES + OLD MAN CURRY: RACETRACK STORIES + TAKING THE COUNT: PRIZE RING STORIES + BUCK PARVIN: STORIES OF THE MOTION PICTURE GAME. + +This collected edition was published by George H. Doran Company with the +arrangement that every cent above actual cost should go to Mrs. Van Loan +and her children. + +William T. Tilden, 2nd, was winner of the world's tennis championship in +1920 and 1921. With W. M. Johnston he was winner of the Davis cup in the +same years. He also won the United States championship in those years. His +book, _The Art of Lawn Tennis_, published in 1921, was republished in +1922. The revised edition included chapters on the winning of the Davis +cup and on the world's and the United States championships, on Mrs. +Mallory's play in the women's world championship games in France and +England, and on Mlle. Lenglen's play in America. Mr. Tilden also added an +estimate of the promising youngsters playing tennis and indulged in one or +two surprising and radical prophecies. + +_Twenty Years of Lawn Tennis_, by A. Wallis Myers, an English player of +distinction, has interesting chapters on play in other countries than +America, England and France. An anecdotal volume this, with moments on the +Riviera and matches played in South Africa. + +After unpreventable delays we have, at last, _The Gist of Golf_ by Harry +Vardon. Using remarkable photographs, Vardon devotes a chapter to each +club and chapters to stance, grip, and swing. Although the chief value of +the book is to the player who wants to improve his game, there is text +interesting to everyone familiar with golf; for Vardon gives personal +reminiscences covering years of play and illustrative of his +instructions. + +=ii= + +I suppose the fifty-three photographs, mostly full page ones, are the +outstanding feature of _Wild Life in the Tree Tops_, by Captain C. W. R. +Knight. This English book, large and flat, shows with the aid of the +camera, the merlin pursuing her quarry, young tawny owls in a disused +magpie's nest, female noctules and their young, the male kestrel brooding, +and a male buzzard that has just brought a rabbit to the younglings in the +nest. Plenty of other pictures like these! The chapters deal with the +buzzards of the Doone country, the lady's hawk, woodpeckers, brown owls, +sparrow-hawks, herons and various other feathered people. + +Did you ever read _Lad: A Dog_? Well, anyway, there is a man named Albert +Payson Terhune and he and his wife live at a place called "Sunny-bank," at +Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, where they raise prize winning collie dogs. +Photographs come from New Jersey showing Mr. and Mrs. Terhune taking +afternoon tea, entirely surrounded by magnificently coated collies. You +will also find, if you stray into a bookstore this autumn, a book with a +jacket drawn by Charles Livingston Bull--a jacket from which looms a +colossal collie. He carries in a firmly knotted shawl or blanket or sheet +or something (the knot clenched between his teeth) a new-born babe. +New-born or approximately so. The title of this book is _Further +Adventures of Lad_. + +Mr. Terhune writes the best dog stories. Read a little bit from the first +chapter of _Further Adventures of Lad_: + +"Even the crate which brought the new dog to the Place failed somehow to +destroy the illusion of size and fierceness. But the moment the crate door +was opened the delusion was wrecked by Lad himself. + +"Out on to the porch he walked. The ramshackle crate behind him had a +ridiculous air of chrysalis from which some bright thing had departed. For +a shaft of sunlight was shimmering athwart the veranda floor. And into the +middle of the warm bar of radiance Laddie stepped--and stood. + +"His fluffy puppy-coat of wavy mahogany-and-white caught a million +sunbeams, reflecting them back in tawny-orange glints and in a dazzle as +of snow. His forepaws were absurdly small even for a puppy's. Above them +the ridging of the stocky leg bones gave as clear promise of mighty size +and strength as did the amazingly deep little chest and square shoulders. + +"Here one day would stand a giant among dogs, powerful as a timber-wolf, +lithe as a cat, as dangerous to foes as an angry tiger; a dog without fear +or treachery; a dog of uncanny brain and great lovingly loyal heart and, +withal, a dancing sense of fun. A dog with a soul. + +"All this, any canine physiologist might have read from the compact frame, +the proud head carriage, the smoulder in the deep-set sorrowful dark eyes. +To the casual observer, he was but a beautiful and appealing and +wonderfully cuddleable bunch of puppyhood. + +"Lad's dark eyes swept the porch, the soft swelling green of the lawn. The +flash of fire-blue lake among the trees below. Then he deigned to look at +the group of humans at one side of him. Gravely, impersonally, he surveyed +them; not at all cowed or strange in his new surroundings; courteously +inquisitive as to the twist of luck that had set him down here and as to +the people who, presumably, were to be his future companions. + +"Perhaps the stout little heart quivered just a bit, if memory went back +to his home kennel and to the rowdy throng of brothers and sisters and, +most of all, to the soft furry mother against whose side he had nestled +every night since he was born. But if so, Lad was too valiant to show +homesickness by so much as a whimper. And, assuredly, this House of Peace +was infinitely better than the miserable crate wherein he had spent twenty +horrible and jouncing and smelly and noisy hours. + +"From one to another of the group strayed the level sorrowful gaze. After +the swift inspection Laddie's eyes rest again on the Mistress. For an +instant, he stood, looking at her, in that mildly polite curiosity which +held no hint of personal interest. + +"Then, all at once, his plumy tail began to wave. Into his sad eyes sprang +a flicker of warm friendliness. Unbidden--oblivious of everyone else--he +trotted across to where the Mistress sat. He put one tiny white paw in her +lap and stood thus, looking up lovingly into her face, tail awave, eyes +shining. + +"'There's no question whose dog he's going to be,' laughed the Master. +'He's elected you--by acclamation.'" + +=iii= + +Not content with being the husband of Margaret Sangster, C. M. Sheridan +has written _The Stag Cook Book_. I would have it understood that this is +an honest-to-goodness cook-book, although I readily confess that there is +plenty of humour throughout its pages. Mr. Sheridan has acquired various +unusual and unreplaceable recipes--I believe he secured from Wladislaw +Benda, the illustrator, a rare and secret formula for the preparation of a +species of Hungarian or Polish pastry. Now, as every housewife knows, and +as no man except a Frenchman or somebody like that knows, the preparation +of pastry is an intricate art. Simply to make ordinary French pastry +requires innumerable rollings to incredible thinnesses; besides which the +pastry has to be chilled; but there is more than that to this recondite +substance which Mr. Benda, probably under the terms of the Treaty of +Brest-Litovsk, surrendered to Mr. Sheridan. The pastry in question has to +be executed with the aid of geometrical designs. Mr. Sheridan has supplied +the necessary front elevation and working plans. He shows you where you +fold along the line from A to B--in other words, along the dotted line. +Thus no man using this unique cook-book can go wrong any more than his +wife can go wrong when making a new dress according to Pictorial Review or +McCall's or Delineator patterns. + +On the other hand, women remain still chiefly responsible for the food we +eat. Elizabeth A. Monaghan's _What to Eat and How to Prepare It_ is an +orthodox cook-book in contrast with Mr. Sheridan's daring adventure. + +=iv= + +Large numbers of people still play games. I do not mean cards or tennis or +golf or any of the famous outdoor and indoor sports, but just games, the +sort of things that are sometimes called stunts and that make the life of +the party--or, by their absence or failure, rob the evening gathering of +all its vitality. For the people who play games, Edna Geister is the one +best bet. Edna Geister knows all about stunts and games and parties and +she brims over with clever ideas for the hostess or recreation leader. You +will find them in her book _Ice-breakers and the Ice-breaker Herself_. The +second section of this book, _The Ice-breaker Herself_, has been bound +separately for the convenience of those already owning _Ice Breakers_. +Miss Geister's latest book, _It Is to Laugh_, was written primarily for +adults because there is so much material already available for the +recreation of children. Nevertheless almost every one of the games and +stunts described in _It Is to Laugh_ can be used for children. There are +games for large groups and small groups, games for the family, for dinner +parties, for community affairs and for almost any kind of social +gathering, with one chapter devoted to out-of-door and picnic programmes. + +Playing the piano is not a game, at least not as Mark Hambourg, the +pianist and composer, plays it. Hambourg, though born in South Russia in +1879, the eldest son of the late Professor Michel Hambourg, has for years +been a naturalised Englishman. In fact, he married in 1907 the Honourable +Dorothea Mackenzie, daughter of Lord Muir Mackenzie. And the pair have +four daughters. Mark Hambourg was a pupil of Leschetitzky in Vienna, where +he obtained the Liszt scholarship in 1894. He has made concert appearances +all over the world, his third American tour falling in 1907, and his first +Canadian tour in 1910. + +Mark Hambourg's book is called _How to Play the Piano_ and the text is +helped with practical illustrations and diagrams and a complete compendium +of five-finger exercises, scales, arpeggi, thirds and octaves as practised +by Hambourg. + +=v= + +Those who read The Bookman will not need to be told that the articles by +Robert Cortes Holliday on _Writing as a Business: A Practical Guide for +Authors_, will constitute an exceptional book. The great point about Mr. +Holliday's chapters, which have been written in collaboration with +Alexander Van Rensselaer, is that they are disinterested. There has been +an immense amount of printed matter, some of it in book form, telling of +the problems that confront the writer, especially the young beginner. As a +rule, the underlying motive was to induce people to write so that someone +else might make money out of their efforts, whether the writers did or +not. So-called correspondence schools in the art of writing, so-called +literary bureaus, interested individuals anxious to earn "commissions," +and sometimes individuals who purported to be publishers have for many +years carried on a continuous campaign at the expense of persons who did +not know how to write but who fancied they could write and who, above +everything, craved to write--craved seeing themselves in print and hearing +themselves referred to as "authors" or "writers." It would take a +statistician versed in all manner of mysteries and calculations to tell +how many people have been deluded by this stuff, and how much money has +been nuzzled out of them. The time was certainly here for someone in a +position to tell the truth to speak up. + +And of Mr. Holliday's qualifications there is no question. He has had to +do with books and authors and book publishing for years. He was, as his +readers know, for a number of years in the Scribner bookstore. He was with +Doubleday, Page & Company at Garden City; he was with George H. Doran +Company, serving not only as editor of The Bookman but acting in other +editorial capacities. He is now connected with Henry Holt & Company. As an +author he is amply established. Therefore, when he tells about writing and +book publishing and bookselling, and when he discusses such subjects as +"Publishing Your Own Book," his statements are most thoroughly documented. +The important thing, however, is that Mr. Holliday is disinterested, he +has no axe to grind in the advice he gives; although the impressive thing +about his book is the absence of advice and the continual presentation of +unvarnished facts. After all, confronted with the facts, the literary +aspirant of ordinary intelligence must and should reach his own +conclusions as regards what he wants to do and how best to essay it. This +is a sample of the kind of straightforwardness to which Mr. Holliday +adheres: + +"An experienced writer 'on his own' may earn a couple of hundred dollars +or so in one week, and for several weeks afterward average something like +$14.84. The beginner-writer should not consider that he has 'arrived' when +he has sold one story, or even several; it may be a year before he places +another. And the future of a writer who may be having a very fair success +now is not any too secure. Public taste changes. New orders come in. The +kind of thing which took so well yesterday may be quite out of fashion +tomorrow. + +"There is among people generally much misconception as to the profits +ordinarily derived by the author from the publication of a book. The price +of a novel today is about two dollars. Usually the author receives a +royalty of about fifteen cents a copy on the first two thousand copies +sold, and about twenty cents on each copy thereafter. A novel which sold +upward of 50,000 copies would bring the author something like $10,000. +Many men make as much as $10,000 by a year's work at some other business +or profession than authorship. But authors who make that amount in a year, +or anything near that amount, are exceedingly rare. A book is regarded by +the publisher as highly successful if it sells from five to ten thousand +copies. Far and away the greater number of books published do not sell as +many as 1,500 copies. Many far less. A recently published book, which +received a very cordial 'press,' has had an uncommon amount of publicity, +and the advertisements of which announce that it is in its 'fourth +printing,' has, after about half a year, earned for its author perhaps +$1,000. Its sale now in active measure is over. An author is fairly +fortunate who receives as much as $500 or $600 from the sale of his book. +I recall an excellent story published something over a year ago which was +much praised by many reviewers. It took the author probably the better +part of a year to write it. He was then six months or more getting it +accepted. He has not been able to place much of anything since. At the +end, then, of two years and a half he has received from his literary +labors about $110." + +Mr. Van Rensselaer has greatly enhanced the usefulness of _Writing as a +Business_ by the addition of very complete bibliographies. + +_Illumination and Its Development in the Present Day_, by Sidney +Farnsworth, has nothing to do with street or indoor lighting but has a +great deal to do with lettering and illuminating manuscripts. Mr. +Farnsworth traces the growth of illumination from its birth, showing, by +means of numerous diagrams and drawings, its gradual development through +the centuries from mere writing to the elaborate poster work and +commercial lettering of the present day. Although other books have already +been written on this fascinating subject, Mr. Farnsworth breaks new ground +in many directions; he treats the matter from the modern standpoint in a +manner which makes his work invaluable not only to students of the art, +but also to the rapidly-growing public interested in what has hitherto +been a somewhat exclusive craft. The book is well illustrated. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +FRANK SWINNERTON: ANALYST OF LOVERS + + +=i= + +It is as an analyst of lovers, I think, that Frank Swinnerton claims and +holds his place among those whom we still sometimes call the younger +novelists of England. + +I do not say this because his fame was achieved at a bound with +_Nocturne_, but because all his novels show a natural preoccupation with +the theme of love between the sexes. Usually it is a pair of young lovers +or contrasted pairs; but sometimes this is interestingly varied, as in +September, where we have a study of love that comes to a woman in middle +life. + +The unique character of _Nocturne_ makes it very hard to write about +Swinnerton. It is true that Arnold Bennett wrote: "I am prepared to say to +the judicious reader unacquainted with Swinnerton's work, 'Read +_Nocturne_,' and to stand or fall, and to let him stand or fall by the +result." At the same time, though the rule is that we must judge an artist +by his finest work and a genius by his greatest masterpiece, it is not +entirely just to estimate the living writer by a single unique +performance, an extraordinary piece of virtuosity, which _Nocturne_ +unquestionably is. For anyone who wishes to understand and appreciate +Swinnerton, I would recommend that he begin with _Coquette_, follow it +with _September_, follow that with _Shops and Houses_ and then read +_Nocturne_. That is, I would have made this recommendation a few months +ago, but so representative of all sides of Swinnerton's talent is his new +novel, _The Three Lovers_, that I should now prefer to say to anyone +unacquainted with Swinnerton: "Begin with _The Three Lovers_." And after +that I would have him read _Coquette_ and the other books in the order I +have named. After he had reached and finished _Nocturne_, I would have him +turn to the several earlier novels--_The Happy Family_, _On the +Staircase_, and _The Chaste Wife_. + +=ii= + +_The Three Lovers_, a full-length novel which Swinnerton finished in +Devonshire in the spring of 1922, is a story of human beings in conflict, +and it is also a picture of certain phases of modern life. A young and +intelligent girl, alone in the world, is introduced abruptly to a kind of +life with which she is unfamiliar. Thereafter the book shows the +development of her character and her struggle for the love of the men to +whom she is most attracted. The book steadily moves + +[Illustration: FRANK SWINNERTON] + +through its earlier chapters of introduction and growth to a climax that +is both dramatic and moving. It opens with a characteristic descriptive +passage from which I take a few sentences: + +"It was a suddenly cold evening towards the end of September.... The +street lamps were sharp brightnesses in the black night, wickedly +revealing the naked rain-swept paving-stones. It was an evening to make +one think with joy of succulent crumpets and rampant fires and warm +slippers and noggins of whisky; but it was not an evening for cats or +timid people. The cats were racing about the houses, drunken with primeval +savagery; the timid people were shuddering and looking in distress over +feebly hoisted shoulders, dreadfully prepared for disaster of any kind, +afraid of sounds and shadows and their own forgotten sins.... The wind +shook the window-panes; soot fell down all the chimneys; trees +continuously rustled as if they were trying to keep warm by constant +friction and movement." + +The imagination which sees in the movement of trees an endeavour to keep +warm is not less sharp in its discernment of human beings. I will give one +other passage, a conversation between Patricia Quin, the heroine, and +another girl: + +"'Do you mean he's in love with you?' asked Patricia. 'That seems to be +what's the matter.' + +"'Oho, it takes two to be in love,' scornfully cried Amy. 'And I'm not in +love with him.' + +"'But he's your friend.' + +"'That's just it. He won't recognise that men and women _can_ be friends. +He's a very decent fellow; but he's full of this sulky jealousy, and he +glowers and sulks whenever any other man comes near me. Well, that's not +my idea of friendship.' + +"'Nor mine,' echoed Patricia, trying to reconstruct her puzzled estimate +of their relations. 'But couldn't you stop that? Surely, if you put it +clearly to him....' + +"Amy interrupted with a laugh that was almost shrill. Her manner was +coldly contemptuous. + +"'You _are_ priceless!' she cried. 'You say the most wonderful things.' + +"'Well, _I_ should.' + +"'I wonder.' Amy moved about, collecting the plates. 'You see ... some day +I shall marry. And in a weak moment I said probably I'd marry him.' + +"'Oh, Amy! Of _course_ he's jealous.' Swiftly, Patricia did the young man +justice. + +"'I didn't give him any right to be. I told him I'd changed my mind. I've +told him lots of times that probably I sha'n't marry him.' + +"'But you keep him. Amy! You do encourage him.' Patricia was stricken +afresh with a generous impulse of emotion on Jack's behalf. 'I mean, by +not telling him straight out. Surely you can't keep a man waiting like +that? I wonder he doesn't _insist_.' + +"'Jack insist!' Amy was again scornful. 'Not he!' + +"There was a moment s pause. Innocently, Patricia ventured upon a +charitable interpretation. + +"'He must love you very much. But, Amy, if you don't love him.' + +"'What's love got to do with marriage?' asked Amy, with a sourly cynical +air. + +"'Hasn't it--everything?' Patricia was full of sincerity. She was too +absorbed in this story to help Amy to clear the table; but on finding +herself alone in the studio while the crockery was carried away to the +kitchen she mechanically shook the crumbs behind the gas-fire and folded +the napkin. This was the most astonishing moment of her day. + +"Presently Amy returned, and sat in the big armchair, while, seated upon +the podger and leaning back against the wall, Patricia smoked a +cigarette. + +"'You see, the sort of man one falls in love with doesn't make a good +husband,' announced Amy, as patiently as if Patricia had been in fact a +child. She persisted in her attitude of superior wisdom in the world's +ways. 'It's all very well; but a girl ought to be able to live with any +man she fancies, and then in the end marry the safe man for a ... well, +for life, if she likes.' + +"Patricia's eyes were opened wide. + +"'I shouldn't like that,' she said. 'I don't think the man would either.' + +"'Bless you, the men all _do_ it,' cried Amy, contemptuously. 'Don't make +any mistake about that.' + +"'I don't believe it,' said Patricia. 'Do you mean that my father--or +_your_ father...?' + +"'Oh, I don't know. I meant, nowadays. Most of the people you saw last +night are living together or living with other people.' + +"Patricia was aware of a chill. + +"'But _you've_ never,' she urged. 'I've never.' + +"'No.' Amy was obviously irritated by the personal application. 'That's +just it. I say we _ought_ to be free to do what we like. Men do what they +like.' + +"'D'you think Jack has lived with other girls?' + +"'My dear child, how do I know? I should hope he has.' + +"'Hope! Amy, you do make me feel a prig.' + +"'Perhaps you are one. Oh, I don't know. I'm sick of thinking, thinking, +thinking about it all. I never get any peace.' + +"'Is there somebody you _want_ to live with?' + +"'No. I wish there was. Then I should _know_' + +"'I wonder if you would know,' said Patricia, in a low voice. 'Amy, do you +really know what love is? Because I don't. I've sometimes let men kiss me, +and it doesn't seem to matter in the least. I don't particularly want to +kiss them, or to be kissed. I've never seen anything in all the flirtation +that goes on in dark corners. It's amusing once or twice; but it becomes +an awful bore. The men don't interest you. The thought of living with any +of them just turns me sick.'" + +=iii= + +The analysis, in _The Three Lovers_, of Patricia Quin is done with that +simplicity, quiet deftness and inoffensive frankness which is the hallmark +of Mr. Swinnerton's fiction. And, coming at last to _Nocturne_, I fall +back cheerfully upon the praise accorded that novel by H. G. Wells in his +preface to it. Said Mr. Wells: + +"Such a writer as Mr. Swinnerton sees life and renders it with a +steadiness and detachment and patience quite foreign to my disposition. He +has no underlying motive. He sees and tells. His aim is the attainment of +that beauty which comes with exquisite presentation. Seen through his art, +life is seen as one sees things through a crystal lens, more intensely, +more completed, and with less turbidity. There the business begins and +ends for him. He does not want you or anyone to do anything. + +"Mr. Swinnerton is not alone among recent writers in this clear detached +objectivity. But Mr. Swinnerton, like Mr. James Joyce, does not repudiate +the depths for the sake of the surface. His people are not splashes of +appearance, but living minds. Jenny and Emmy in this book are realities +inside and out; they are imaginative creatures so complete that one can +think with ease of Jenny ten years hence or of Emmy as a baby. The fickle +Alf is one of the most perfect Cockneys--a type so easy to caricature and +so hard to get true--in fiction. If there exists a better writing of +vulgar lovemaking, so base, so honest, so touchingly mean and so +touchingly full of the craving for happiness than this, I do not know of +it. Only a novelist who has had his troubles can understand fully what a +dance among china cups, what a skating over thin ice, what a tight-rope +performance is achieved in this astounding chapter. A false note, one +fatal line, would have ruined it all. On the one hand lay brutality; a +hundred imitative louts could have written a similar chapter brutally, +with the soul left out, we have loads of such 'strong stuff' and it is +nothing; on the other side was the still more dreadful fall into +sentimentality, the tear of conscious tenderness, the redeeming glimpse of +'better things' in Alf or Emmy that could at one stroke have converted +their reality into a genteel masquerade. The perfection of Alf and Emmy is +that at no point does a 'nature's gentleman' or a 'nature's lady' show +through and demand our refined sympathy. It is only by comparison with +this supreme conversation that the affair of Keith and Jenny seems to fall +short of perfection. But that also is at last perfected, I think, by +Jenny's final, 'Keith ... Oh, Keith!...' + +"Above these four figures again looms the majestic invention of 'Pa.' +Every reader can appreciate the truth and humour of Pa, but I doubt if +anyone without technical experience can realise how the atmosphere is made +and completed, and rounded off by Pa's beer, Pa's meals, and Pa's +accident, how he binds the bundle and makes the whole thing one, and what +an enviable triumph his achievement is. + +"But the book is before the reader and I will not enlarge upon its merits +further. Mr. Swinnerton has written four or five other novels before this +one, but none of them compares with it in quality. His earlier books were +strongly influenced by the work of George Gissing; they have something of +the same fatigued greyness of texture and little of the same artistic +completeness and intense vision of _Nocturne_. + +"This is a book that will not die. It is perfect, authentic and alive. +Whether a large and immediate popularity will fall to it, I cannot say, +but certainly the discriminating will find it and keep it and keep it +alive. If Mr. Swinnerton were never to write another word I think he might +count on this much of his work living, when many of the more portentous +reputations of today may have served their purpose in the world and become +no more than fading names." + +=iv= + +Arnold Bennett has described Swinnerton personally in a way no one else is +likely to surpass. I will prefix a few elemental facts which he has +neglected and then will let him have his say. + +Frank Arthur Swinnerton was born in Wood Green, England, in 1884, the +youngest son of Charles Swinnerton and Rose Cottam. He married, a few +years ago, Helen Dircks, a poet; her slim little book of verse, +_Passenger_, was published with a preface by Mr. Swinnerton. His first +three novels Swinnerton destroyed. His first novel to be published was +_The Merry Heart_. It is interesting to know that Floyd Dell was the first +American to appreciate Swinnerton. I make way for Mr. Bennett, who says: + +"One day perhaps eight or nine years ago I received a novel entitled _The +Casement_. The book was accompanied by a short, rather curt note from the +author, Frank Swinnerton, politely indicating that if I cared to read it +he would be glad, and implying that if I didn't care to read it, he should +endeavour still to survive. I would quote the letter but I cannot find +it--no doubt for the reason that all my correspondence is carefully filed +on the most modern filing system. I did not read _The Casement_ for a long +time. Why should I consecrate three irrecoverable hours or so to the work +of a man as to whom I had no credentials? Why should I thus introduce +foreign matter into the delicate cogwheels of my programme of reading? +However, after a delay of weeks, heaven in its deep wisdom inspired me +with a caprice to pick up the volume. + +"I had read, without fatigue but on the other hand without passionate +eagerness, about a hundred pages before the thought occurred suddenly to +me: 'I do not remember having yet come across one single ready-made phrase +in this story.' Such was my first definable thought concerning Frank +Swinnerton. I hate ready-made phrases, which in my view--and in that of +Schopenhauer--are the sure mark of a mediocre writer. I began to be +interested. I soon said to myself: 'This fellow has a distinguished +style.' I then perceived that the character-drawing was both subtle and +original, the atmosphere delicious, and the movement of the tale very +original, too. The novel stirred me--not by its powerfulness, for it did +not set out to be powerful--but by its individuality and distinction. I +thereupon wrote to Frank Swinnerton. I forget entirely what I said. But I +know that I decided that I must meet him. + +"When I came to London, considerably later, I took measures to meet him, +at the Authors' Club. He proved to be young; I daresay twenty-four or +twenty-five--medium height, medium looks, medium clothes, somewhat reddish +hair, and lively eyes. If I had seen him in a motorbus I should never have +said, 'A remarkable chap'--no more than if I had seen myself in a +motorbus. My impressions of the interview were rather like my impressions +of the book: at first somewhat negative, and only very slowly becoming +positive. He was reserved, as became a young author; I was reserved, as +became an older author; we were both reserved, as became Englishmen. Our +views on the only important thing in the world--that is to say, +fiction--agreed, not completely, but in the main; it would never have done +for us to agree completely. I was as much pleased by what he didn't say as +by what he said; quite as much by the indications of the stock inside the +shop as by the display in the window. The interview came to a calm close. +My knowledge of him acquired from it amounted to this, that he held +decided and righteous views upon literature, that his heart was not on his +sleeve, and that he worked in a publisher's office during the day and +wrote for himself in the evenings. + +"Then I saw no more of Swinnerton for a relatively long period. I read +other books of his. I read _The Young Idea_, and _The Happy Family_, and, +I think, his critical work on George Gissing. _The Happy Family_ marked a +new stage in his development. It has some really piquant scenes, and it +revealed that minute knowledge of middle-class life in the nearer suburbs +of London, and that disturbing insight into the hearts and brains of quite +unfashionable girls, which are two of his principal gifts. I read a sketch +of his of a commonplace crowd walking around a bandstand which brought me +to a real decision as to his qualities. The thing was like life, and it +was bathed in poetry. + +"Our acquaintance proceeded slowly, and I must be allowed to assert that +the initiative which pushed it forward was mine. It made a jump when he +spent a week-end in the Thames Estuary on my yacht. If any reader has a +curiosity to know what my yacht is not like, he should read the striking +yacht chapter in _Nocturne_. I am convinced that Swinnerton evolved the +yacht in _Nocturne_ from my yacht; but he ennobled, magnified, decorated, +enriched and bejewelled it till honestly I could not recognise my wretched +vessel. The yacht in _Nocturne_ is the yacht I want, ought to have, and +never shall have. I envy him the yacht in _Nocturne_, and my envy takes a +malicious pleasure in pointing out a mistake in the glowing scene. He +anchors his yacht in the middle of the Thames--as if the tyrannic +authorities of the Port of London would ever allow a yacht, or any other +craft, to anchor in midstream! + +"After the brief cruise our friendship grew rapidly. I now know +Swinnerton--probably as well as any man knows him; I have penetrated into +the interior of the shop. He has done several things since I first knew +him--rounded the corner of thirty, grown a beard, under the orders of a +doctor, and physically matured. Indeed, he looks decidedly stronger than +in fact he is--he was never able to pass the medical examination for the +army. He is still in the business of publishing, being one of the +principal personages in the ancient and well-tried firm of Chatto & +Windus, the English publishers of Swinburne and Mark Twain. He reads +manuscripts, including his own--and including mine. He refuses +manuscripts, though he did accept one of mine. He tells authors what they +ought to do and ought not to do. He is marvellously and terribly +particular and fussy about the format of the books issued by his firm. +Questions as to fonts of type, width of margins, disposition of +title-pages, tint and texture of bindings really do interest him. And +misprints--especially when he has read the proofs himself--give him +neuralgia and even worse afflictions. Indeed he is the ideal publisher for +an author. + +"Nevertheless, publishing is only a side-line of his. He still writes for +himself in the evenings and at week-ends--the office never sees him on +Saturdays. + +"Frank Swinnerton has other gifts. He is a surpassingly good raconteur. By +which I do not signify that the man who meets Swinnerton for the first, +second or third time will infallibly ache with laughter at his remarks. +Swinnerton only blossoms in the right atmosphere; he must know exactly +where he is; he must be perfectly sure of his environment, before the +flower uncloses. And he merely relates what he has seen, what he has taken +part in. The narrations would be naught if he were not the narrator. His +effects are helped by the fact that he is an excellent mimic and by his +utter realistic mercilessness. But like all first-class realists he is +also a romantic, and in his mercilessness there is a mysterious touch of +fundamental benevolence--as befits the attitude of one who does not worry +because human nature is not something different from what it actually is. +Lastly, in this connection, he has superlatively the laugh known as the +'infectious laugh.' When he laughs everybody laughs, everybody has to +laugh. There are men who tell side-splitting tales with the face of an +undertaker--for example, Irvin Cobb. There are men who can tell +side-splitting tales and openly and candidly rollick in them from the +first word; and of these latter is Frank Swinnerton. But Frank Swinnerton +can be more cruel than Irvin Cobb. Indeed, sometimes when he is telling a +story, his face becomes exactly like the face of Mephistopheles in +excellent humour with the world's sinfulness and idiocy. + +"Swinnerton's other gift is the critical. It has been said that an author +cannot be at once a first-class critic and a first-class creative artist. +To which absurdity I reply: What about William Dean Howells? And what +about Henry James, to name no other names? Anyhow, if Swinnerton excels in +fiction he also excels in literary criticism. The fact that the literary +editor of the Manchester Guardian wrote and asked him to write literary +criticism for the Manchester Guardian will perhaps convey nothing to the +American citizen. But to the Englishman of literary taste and experience +it has enormous import. The Manchester Guardian publishes the most +fastidious and judicious literary criticism in Britain. + +"I recall that once when Swinnerton was in my house I had there also a +young military officer with a mad passion for letters and a terrific +ambition to be an author. The officer gave me a manuscript to read. I +handed it over to Swinnerton to read, and then called upon Swinnerton to +criticise it in the presence of both of us. 'Your friend is very kind,' +said the officer to me afterward, 'but it was a frightful ordeal.' + +"The book on George Gissing I have already mentioned. But it was +Swinnerton's work on R. L. Stevenson that made the trouble in London. It +is a destructive work. It is bland and impartial, and not bereft of +laudatory passages, but since its appearance Stevenson's reputation has +never been the same." + +BOOKS BY FRANK SWINNERTON + +THE MERRY HEART +THE YOUNG IDEA +THE CASEMENT +THE HAPPY FAMILY +GEORGE GISSING: A CRITICAL STUDY +R. L. STEVENSON: A CRITICAL STUDY +ON THE STAIRCASE +THE CHASTE WIFE +NOCTURNE +SHOPS AND HOUSES +SEPTEMBER +COQUETTE +THE THREE LOVERS + + +SOURCES ON FRANK SWINNERTON + +Who's Who [In England]. + +Frank Swinnerton: Personal Sketches by Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells, +Grant Overtor, Booklet published by GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, 1920. + +Private Information. + + + + +Chapter XVI + +AN ARMFUL OF NOVELS, WITH NOTES ON THE NOVELISTS + + +=i= + +"The quiet, the calm, the extreme individualism, and the easy-going +self-content of my birthplace and early habitat--the Eastern Shore of +Maryland, have been, I fear, the dominating influences of my life," writes +Sophie Kerr. "Thank heaven, I had a restless, energetic, and very +bad-tempered father to leaven them, a man with a biting tongue and a kind +heart, a keen sense of the ridiculous and a passion for honesty in speech +and action. I, the younger of his two children, was his constant +companion. I tagged after him, every day and all day. Even when I was very +small he interested me--and very few fathers ever really interest their +children. + +"The usual life of a girl in a small semi-Southern town was mine. I +learned to cook, I made most of my own frocks, I embroidered excessively, +I played the violin worse than any other person in the world, I went away +to college and I came back again. I wasn't a popular girl socially for two +reasons. I had inherited my father's gift of sarcasm, and there was the +even greater handicap of a beautiful, popular, socially malleable older +sister. Beside her I was nowhere. + +"But I wanted to write, so I didn't care. I got my father to buy me a +second-hand typewriter, and learned to run it with two fingers. And I +wrote. I even sold some of the stuff. The Country Gentleman bought one of +my first stories, and the Ladies' World bought another. This was +glorious. + +"Then I got a job on the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph, an afternoon +newspaper owned by Senator Oliver. Later I went to The Gazette-Times, the +morning paper also owned by the Senator. A few years later I came to New +York and found a place on the staff of the Woman's Home Companion, +eventually becoming Managing Editor. Two years ago I resigned my editorial +job to give all my time to writing. Of course I had been writing pretty +steadily anyway, but holding my job too. + +"I had expected, when I gave up office work, to find my leisure time an +embarrassment. I planned so many things to do, how I would see all my +friends often, how I would travel, read, do all sorts of delightful things +that double work had before made impossible. But I've done none of them. I +haven't nearly as much time as I had when I hadn't any time at all, and +that's the honest truth. + +"If only I could arrange a multiple existence--one life for work; one for +the machinery of life, housekeeping, getting clothes made, shopping; one +for seeing my friends, travel, visiting; one life for the other diversions +such as music, the theatre, clubs, politics, one life for just plain +loafing. Now that would be wonderful. But to crowd it all into twenty-four +hours a day--no, too much of it gets squeezed out. + +"What do I like the most? Comfort, I think. And old painted satinwood, and +cats and prizefights, and dancing, and Spanish shawls, and looking at the +ocean, and having my own way. And I dislike argument, and perfume, and fat +women, and people who tell the sort of lies that simply insult your +intelligence, and men who begin letters 'Dear Lady,' and long earrings, +and intolerance." + +All of which is excellent preparation for the reader of Sophie Kerr's new +novel, _One Thing Is Certain_. Those who read her _Painted Meadows_ will +expect and will find in this new novel the same charming background, but +they will find a much more dramatic story. Since the novel is one of +surprise, with an event at its close which throws everything that went +before in a new, a curious, a startling and profoundly significant light, +I cannot indulge in any further description of it in this place. But I do +wish to quote some sentences from a letter Sophie Kerr wrote me: + +"I wanted to show that when lives get out of plumb, the way to straighten +them is not with a violent gesture. That when we do seize them, and try to +jerk them straight again, we invariably let ourselves in for long years of +unhappiness and remorse. Witness Louellen. In two desperate attempts ... +she tries to change the whole current and colour of her life." + +So much for the essential character of the story, but there is a question +in my mind as to what, in the story, readers will consider the true +essential! I think for very many it will not be the action, unusual and +dramatic as that is, but the picture of a peculiar community, one typical +of Maryland's Eastern Shore, where we have farmer folk in whom there lives +the spirit and tradition of a landed aristocracy. The true essential with +such readers, will be the individuals who are drawn with such humour and +skill, the mellowness of the scene; even such a detail as the culinary +triumph that was Louellen's wedding dinner. A marvellous and incomparable +meal! One reads of it, his mouth watering and his stomach crying out. + +=ii= + +_The House of Five Swords_, by Tristram Tupper, is a gallant +representative of those novels which we are beginning to get in the +inevitable reaction from such realism as _Main Street_ and _Moon-Calf_, a +romantic story of age and youth, of love and hate, of bitter unyielding +hardness, and of melting pity and tenderness. It begins with the Robin, +age seven, with burnished curls, viewing with awestruck delight five +polished swords against the shining dark wall in Colonial House, where she +had gone to deliver the Colonel's boots! She forgot the boots. She lifted +two of the swords from the wall, crossed them on the floor and danced the +sword dance of Scotland. From the doorway a white-haired old figure +watched with narrowed eyes and tightened mouth. Then the storm broke.... + +_The House of Five Swords_ is Mr. Tupper's first novel. A native of +Virginia, he has done newspaper work, has tramped a good deal and was +fooling with the study of law when American troops were ordered to the +Mexican border. After that experience he went overseas. On his return from +the war, he tried writing and met with rapid success. + +=iii= + +Readers of Baroness Orczy's novels will welcome _Nicolette_. + +This is essentially a love story, with the scene laid in the mountains of +Provence in the early days of the Restoration of King Louis XVIII to the +throne of France. An ancient half-ruined château perches among dwarf +olives and mimosa, orange and lemon groves. There is a vivid contrast +between the prosperity of Jaume Deydier, a rich peasant-proprietor, and +the grinding poverty of the proud and ancient family of de Ventadour, +whose last scion, Bertrand, goes to seek fortune in Paris and there +becomes affianced to a wealthy and beautiful heiress. Nicolette, the +daughter of Jaume Deydier, whose ancestor had been a lackey in the service +of the Comte de Ventadour, is passionately in love with Bertrand, but a +bitter feud keeps the lovers for long apart. + +There will be a new novel this autumn, _Ann and Her Mother_, by O. +Douglas, whose _Penny Plain_ gave great pleasure to its readers. "Penny +plain," if you remember, was the way Jean described the lot of herself and +her brothers whom she mothered in the Scottish cottage; but matters were +somewhat changed when romance crossed the threshold in the person of the +Honourable Pamela and a bitter old millionaire who came to claim the house +as his own. + +_Ann and Her Mother_ is the story of a Scotch family as seen through the +eyes of the mother and her daughter. The author of _Penny Plain_ and _Ann +and Her Mother_ is a sister of John Buchan, author of _The Thirty-nine +Steps_, _The Path of the King_, and many other books. + +_December Love_, by Robert Hichens, will have a greater popularity than +any of his novels since _The Garden of Allah_. It is a question whether +this uncannily penetrative study of power and the need for love of a woman +of sixty does not surpass _The Garden of Allah_. In Lady Sellingworth, Mr. +Hichens is dealing with a brilliant woman. The theme is daring and calls +for both skill and delicacy. Of the action, one really should not say very +much, lest one spoil the book for the reader. The loss of the Sellingworth +jewels in Paris had caused a sensation in the midst of which Lady +Sellingworth was silent. She declined to discuss the disappearance of the +jewels. There followed the advent at No. 4 Berkeley Square of Alick +Craven, a man of thirty, vigorous, attractive and decidedly a somebody. +But inexplicably--at any rate without explanation--Lady Sellingworth +retired from society when Craven appeared. + +_Tell England_ by Ernest Raymond is a novel which has been sensationally +successful in England. It is a war story and I will give you some of the +opening paragraphs of the "Prologue by Padre Monty": + +"In the year that the Colonel died he took little Rupert to see the +swallows fly away. I can find no better beginning than that. + +"When there devolved upon me as a labour of love the editing of Rupert +Ray's book, _Tell England_, I carried the manuscript to my room one bright +autumn afternoon and read it during the fall of a soft evening, till the +light failed, and my eyes burned with the strain of reading in the dark. I +could hardly leave his ingenuous tale to rise and turn on the gas. Nor, +perhaps, did I want such artificial brightness. There are times when one +prefers the twilight. Doubtless the tale held me fascinated because it +revealed the schooldays of those boys whom I met in their young manhood +and told afresh that wild old Gallipoli adventure which I shared with +them. Though, sadly enough, I take Heaven to witness that I was not the +idealised creature whom Rupert portrays. God bless them, how these boys +will idealise us! + +"Then again, as Rupert tells you, it was I who suggested to him the +writing of his story. And well I recall how he demurred, asking: + +"'But what am I to write about?' For he was always diffident and +unconscious of his power. + +"'Is Gallipoli nothing to write about?' I retorted. 'And you can't have +spent five years at a great public school like Kensington without one or +two sensational things. Pick them out and let us have them. For whatever +the modern theorists say, the main duty of a story-teller is certainly to +tell stories.'" + +This prologue is followed by the novel which begins with English public +school life in the fashion of _Sonia_ and other novels American readers +are familiar with. The main theme of the book is Gallipoli. + +The new novel by J. E. Buckrose is _A Knight Among Ladies_. Mrs. Buckrose +says that the character of Sid Dummeris in this book is modelled upon an +actual person. "He did actually live in a remote country place where I +used to stay a great deal when I was a child and as he has been gone +twenty years, I thought I might employ my exact memories of him without +hurting anyone." This was in answer to questions asked by The Bookman +(London) of a number of English writers. The London Bookman wanted to find +out if novelists generally drew their characters from actual people. The +replies showed that this proceeding was very rare. Mrs. Buckrose recalled +only one other instance in which she had used an actual person in her +fiction. Mrs. Buckrose is Mrs. Falconer Jameson. She lives at Hornsea, +East Yorkshire, and says: + +"My real hobby is my writing--as it was my secret pleasure from the age of +nine until I was over thirty when I first attempted to publish. I look +after my chickens, my house and a rather delicate husband; write my books +and try to do my duty to my neighbour!" + +=iv= + +Back of the new novel by Margaret Culkin Banning, _Spellbinders_, is the +question: Has the vote and its consequent widening of the mental horizon +introduced a brand new element of discord or a factor for mutual support +into modern marriage? The household of the George Flandons was almost +wrecked by it. That his wife should accept the opportunity to play her +part in State and National affairs seemed to George Flandon a desertion of +her real duty. + +Mrs. Banning has written a novel which will surprise those who remember +her only by her first novel, _This Marrying_. The surprise will be less +for those who read her second novel, _Half Loaves_, for they must have +been struck by the real understanding she showed of the married +relationship and the marked increase in her skill as a writer. +_Spellbinders_ is the sort of work one looks for after such a good novel +as _Half Loaves_. + +Mrs. Banning, who was married in 1914, lives in Duluth. A graduate of +Vassar, her first novel was written in one of Margaret Mayo's cottages at +Harmon, New York. She is of purely Irish ancestry, related to the Plunkett +family which bred both statesmen and revolutionaries for Ireland. On the +other side there was a Colonel Culkin, who, Mrs. Banning says, "came over +at the time of the Revolution but unfortunately fought on the wrong side, +so we forget him and begin our Culkin lineage in this country with the +Culkin who came over at the famous time of the 'potato-rot.'" That would +be the Irish famine of 1846, no doubt. + +_Sunny-San_, Onoto Watanna's first novel in six years, has been the signal +for her re-entrance not only into the world of fiction, but the world of +motion pictures and plays. Even before _Sunny-San_ was ready as a book, +the motion picture producers were on the author's track. A large sum was +paid cash down for the picture rights to the novel and then the prospect +of a picture was laid aside while the possibilities of a play were +estimated. These were seen to be exceptionally good. Here was a story of +young American boys travelling in Japan and coming upon a still younger +Japanese girl, threatened with cruelty and unhappiness. The young men +endowed Sunny-San, so to speak, planking down enough money to secure her +protection and education. Thereupon they continued blithely on their +travels and forgot all about her. + +Some years later a well-educated, dainty and exceedingly attractive +Japanese girl presents herself on the doorstep of a house in New York +where one of the young men resides. Situation! What shall the young man do +with his charming and unexpected protégée! In view of the prolonged +success of Fay Bainter in the play, _East Is West_, it was obviously the +thing to make a play out of _Sunny-San_. And this, I believe, is being +done as I write. In the meantime Onoto Watanna, who is really Mrs. +Winnifred Reeve, and who lives on a ranch near Calgary, Canada, is very +busy with her Canadian stories which have excited the enthusiasm of +magazine editors. I am confident that she will do a Canadian novel; the +more so because she tells me that, despite the success of _Sunny-San_ and +the enormous success of her earlier Japanese stories, like _A Japanese +Nightingale_, her interest is really centred at present in Canada, its +people and backgrounds. + +=v= + +Pending Dorothy Speare's second novel, let me suggest that those who have +not done so read her first, _Dancers in the Dark_. That a young woman just +out of Smith College should write this novel, that the novel should then +begin immediately selling at a great rate, and that David Belasco should +demand a play constructed from the novel is altogether a sequence to cause +surprise. I have had letters from older people who said frankly that they +could not express themselves about _Dancers in the Dark_, because it dealt +with a life with which they were utterly unfamiliar--which, in some cases, +they did not know existed. And yet it does exist! The demand for the book, +the avidity with which it has been read and the intemperance with which it +has been discussed testify that in _Dancers in the Dark_ Miss Speare wrote +a book with truth in it. I suppose it might be said of her first +novel--though I should not agree in saying it--that, like F. Scott +Fitzgerald's _This Side of Paradise_, it had every conceivable fault +except the fatal fault; it did not fail to live. The amount of publicity +that this book received was astonishing. I have handled clippings from +newspapers all over the country--and not mere "items" but "spreads" with +pictures--in which the epigrammatic utterances of the characters in +_Dancers_ were reprinted and their truth or falsity debated hotly. Is the +modern girl an "excitement eater"? Does she "live from man to man and +never kill off a man"? There was altogether too much smoke and heat in the +controversy for one to doubt the existence, underneath the surface of Miss +Speare's fiction, of glowing coals. And Miss Speare? Well, it is a fact +that, like her heroine in _Dancers_, she has an exceptional voice; and I +understand that she intends to cultivate the voice and to continue as a +writer, both. That is a very difficult programme to lay out for one's +self, but I really believe her capable of succeeding in both halves of the +programme. + +Another distinctly popular novel, _The Moon Out of Reach_, by Margaret +Pedler, is the fruit of a well-developed career as a novelist. _The Hermit +of Far End_, _The House of Dreams Come True_, _The Lamp of Fate_, and _The +Splendid Folly_ were the forerunners of this immediate and distinct +success. Mrs. Pedler is the wife of a sportsman well known in the West of +England, the nearest living descendant of Sir Francis Drake. They have a +lovely home in the country and Mrs. Pedler, besides the joys of her +writing, is a collector of old furniture and china and a devotee of +driving, tennis and swimming. It is interesting that as a girl she studied +at the Royal Academy of Music with a view to being a professional singer. +Marriage diverted her from that, but she still retains her interest in +music; and it is characteristic of such novels as _The Splendid Folly_ and +_The Moon Out of Reach_ that a lyric appearing in the book embodies the +theme of the story. These lyrics of Mrs. Pedler's have mostly been set to +music. + +What shall I say about Corra Harris's _The Eyes of Love_ except that it +offers such a study of marriage as only Mrs. Harris puts on paper? Shrewd +and homely wisdom, sympathetic and ironical humour, the insight and the +fundamental experience,--above all, imagination in experience--which made +their first deep and wide impression with the publication of _A Circuit +Rider's Wife_. I open _The Eyes of Love_ at random and come upon such a +passage as this, and then I don't wonder that men as well as women read +Corra Harris and continue to read her: + +"Few women are ever related by marriage to the minds of their husbands. +These minds are foreign countries where they discover themselves to be +aliens, speaking another smaller language and practically incapable of +mastering the manners and customs of that place. This is sometimes the +man's fault, because his mind is not a fit place for a nice person like +his wife to dwell, but more frequently it is the wife's fault, who is not +willing to associate intimately with the hardships that inhabit the mind +of a busy man, who has no time to ornament that area with ideas pertaining +to the finer things. So it happens that both of them prefer this divorce, +the man because the woman gets in the way with her scruples and emotions +when he is about to do business without reference to either; the woman +because it is easier to keep on the domestic periphery of her husband, +where she thinks she knows him and is married to him because she knows +what foods he likes, and the people he prefers to have asked to dine when +she entertains, the chair that fits him, the large pillow or the small one +he wants for his tired old head at night, the place where the light must +be when he reads in the evening rather than talk to her, because there is +nothing to talk about, since she is only the wife of his bosom and not of +his head." + +=vi= + +Phyllis Bottome is just as interesting as her novels. When scarcely more +than a child with large, delightful eyes, she began to write, and +completed at the age of seventeen a novel which Andrew Lang advised an +English publisher to accept. Thereafter she wrote regularly and with +increasing distinction. Ill-health drove her to Switzerland where, living +for some years, she met all kinds of people from all the countries of +Europe and America as well. + +It is interesting that her father was an American, although after his +marriage to an Englishwoman, he settled in England. Later Mr. Bottome came +to America and for six years during Phyllis Bottome's childhood he was +rector of Grace Church at Jamaica, New York. Phyllis Bottome is the wife +of A. E. Forbes Dennis, who, recovering from dangerous wounds in the war, +has been serving as passport officer at Vienna. They were married in 1917. +Those who know Phyllis Bottome personally say that the striking thing +about her is the extent of her acquaintance with people of all sorts and +conditions of life and her ready and unfailing sympathy with all kinds of +people. She herself says that she "has had friends who live humdrum and +simple lives and friends whose stories would bring a rush of doubt to the +most credulous believer in fiction." "My friendships have included +workmen, bargees, actresses, clergymen, thieves, scholars, dancers, +soldiers, sailors and even the manager of a bank. It would be true of me +to say that as a human being I prefer life to art, even if it would at the +same time be damning to admit that I know much more about it. I have no +preferences; men, women, children, animals and nature under every aspect +seem to me a mere choice of miracles. I have not perhaps many illusions, +but I have got hold of one or two certainties. I believe in life and I +know that it is very hard." + +The hardness of life, its uproar, its agony, its magnificence and its +duty, is the theme of Phyllis Bottome's latest and finest novel. When it +was published, because it was so different from Phyllis Bottome's earlier +work, I tried to draw attention to it by a letter in which I said: + +"I don't know whether you read J. C. Snaith's _The Sailor_. People said +Snaith got his suggestion from the life of John Masefield. _The Sailor_ +sold many thousands and people recall the book today, years afterward. +But, as an ex-sailor and a few other things, I never found Snaith's 'Enry +'Arper half so convincing as Jim Barton in Phyllis Bottome's new novel, +_The Kingfisher_. + +"Jim, a boy of the slums, reaching toward 'that broken image of the mind +of God--human love,' goes pretty deeply into me. Since reading those last +words of the book--'Beauty touched him. It was as if he saw, with a flash +of jewelled wings, a Kingfisher fly home'--I keep going back and rereading +bits.... + +"Won't you tackle _The Kingfisher_? If you'll read to the bottom of page +51, I'll take a chance beyond that. Read that far and then, if you stop +there, I've no word to say." + +Although this letter called for no special reply, I received dozens of +replies promising to read the book and then enthusiastic comments after +having read the book. I do not consider _The Kingfisher_ the greatest book +Phyllis Bottome will write, but it marks an important advance in her work +and it is a novel whose positive merits will last; it will be as moving +and as significant ten years from now as it is today. + +=vii= + +I come to a group of novels of which the chief aim of all except two is +entertainment. _The_ _Return of Alfred_, by the anonymous author of +_Patricia Brent, Spinster_, is the diverting narrative of a man who found +himself in another man's shoes. What made it particularly difficult was +that the other man had been a very bad egg, indeed. And there was, as +might have been feared (or anticipated), a girl to complicate matters +tremendously. + +E. F. Benson's _Peter_ is the story of a young man who made a point of +being different, of keeping his aloofness and paying just the amount of +charm and gaiety required for the dinners and opera seats which London +hostesses so gladly proffered. Then he married Silvia, not for her money +exactly, but he certainly would not have asked her if she hadn't had +money. No wonder E. F. Benson has a liberal and expectant audience! In +_Peter_ he shows an exquisite understanding of the quality of the love +between Peter and his boyish young wife. + +A. A. Milne is another name to conjure with among those who love humour +and charm, gentleness and a quiet shafting of the human depths. There is +his novel, _Mr. Pim_. Old Mr. Pim, in his gentle way, shuffled into the +Mardens' charming household. Mr. Pim said a few words and went +absentmindedly away,--leaving Mr. Marden with the devastating knowledge +that his wife was no wife, that her first husband, instead of lying +quietly in his grave in Australia, had just landed in England. In short, +the Mardens had been living in sin for five years! Then Mr. Pim came back +for his forgotten hat and the Marden household was again revolutionised. + +_Beauty for Ashes_, by Joan Sutherland, is a story with a more serious +theme. It really raises the question whether a man who has wrongly been +named as co-respondent is in honour bound to marry the defendant. The +affair of Lady Madge with Lord Desmond was an entirely innocent one, +despite what London said. Lady Madge's husband, wrought upon by shame and +anger, began his action for divorce; and Desmond found himself not merely +face to face with dishonour but bound by conventional honour for life to a +girl with whom he had simply been friendly. + +William Rose Benét had been known chiefly as a poet until the publication +of his first novel, _The First Person Singular_. The scene of _The First +Person Singular_ shifts between the kinetic panorama of modern New York +and the somewhat stultifying quietude of a small Pennsylvania town. A +mysterious Mrs. Ventress is the centre of its rapidly unfolding series of +peculiar situations. Mrs. Ventress is a puzzle to the townspeople. They +believe odd things about her. The particular family in Tupton with which +she comes in contact is an eccentric one. The father is a recluse--for +reasons. His adopted daughter, Bessie Gedney, is an odd character among +young girls in fiction. Dr. Gedney's real daughter had disappeared years +before. Why? What has become of her? This complicates the mystery. + +_The First Person Singular_ is a light novel, avowedly without the heavy +"significance" and desperately drab realism of many modern novels. And yet +it flashes with tragedy and implicates grim spiritual struggle without +tearing any passion to tatters. The author's touch is light, the variety +of his characters furnish him much diversion. The amusing side of each +situation does not escape him. His style has a certain effervescent +quality, but, for all that, the tragic developments of the story are not +shirked. + +Another treatment of a problem of marriage, a treatment sympathetic but +robust, is found in the new novel of F. E. Mills Young, _The Stronger +Influence_. Like Miss Mills Young's earlier novels, _Imprudence_ and _The +Almonds of Life_, the scene of _The Stronger Influence_ is British Africa. +The story is of the choice confronting a girl upon whom two men have a +vital claim. + +To be somebody is more ethical than to serve somebody. The individual has +not only a right but an obligation to sacrifice family entanglements in +the cause of a necessary personal independence. This is the attitude +expressed in Richard Blaker's novel, _The Voice in the Wilderness_. The +story centres around the figure of Charles Petrie, popular playwright in +London but known in Pelchester merely as a shabby fellow and to his family +a singularly sarcastic and annoying father. Sarcasm was Petrie's one +defence against the limp weight that was Mrs. Petrie His children would +have been astonished to hear him called a charming man of the world, yet +he was. It is probable that he never would have come out into the open to +combat if he hadn't been moved constantly to interfere and save his +daughter Cynthia from offering herself as a willing sacrifice to her +mother. Richard Blaker is new to America, a novelist of acutely pointed +characterisations and careful atmosphere. + +=viii= + +_Nêne_, the work of an unknown French school teacher, a novel +distinguished in France by the award of the Goncourt Prize as the most +distinguished French novel of the year 1920, had sold at this writing +400,000 copies in France. Three months after publication, it had sold in +this country less than 3,000 copies. + +I am glad to say that it was sufficient to draw to the attention of +Americans this deplorable discrepancy to arouse interest in the novel. +People of so divergent tastes as William Lyon Phelps, Corra Harris, Ralph +Connor, Walter Prichard Eaton, Mary Johnston, Dorothy Speare and Richard +LeGallienne have been at pains to express the feeling to which _Nêne_ has +stirred them. I have not space to quote them all, and so select as typical +the comment of Walter Prichard Eaton: + +"I read _Nêne_ with great interest, especially because of its relation to +_Maria Chapdelaine_. It seems to me the two books came out most happily +together. _Maria Chapdelaine_ gives us the French peasant in the new +world, touched with the pioneer spirit, and though close to the soil in +constant battle with nature, somehow always master of his fate. _Nêne_ +gives us this same racial stock, again close to the soil, but an old-world +soil its fathers worked, and the peasant here seems ringed around with +those old ghosts, their prejudices and their passions. I have seldom read +any book which seemed to me so unerringly to capture the enveloping +atmosphere of place and tradition, as it conditions the lives of people, +and yet to do it so (apparently) artlessly. This struck me so forcibly +that it was not till later I began to realise with a sigh--if one himself +is a writer, a sigh of envy--that _Nêne_ has a directness, a simplicity, a +principle of internal growth or dramatic life of its own, which, alas! +most of us are incapable of attaining." + +The author of _Carnival_, _Sinister Street_, _Plasher's Mead_; of those +highly comedic novels, _Poor Relations_ and _Rich Relatives_; of other and +still more diverse fiction, Compton Mackenzie, has turned to a new task. +His fine novel, _The Altar Steps_, concerns itself with a young priest of +the Church of England. We live in the England of Lytton Strachey's _Queen +Victoria_--the England of 1880 to the close of the Boer War--as we follow +Mark Lidderdale from boyhood to his ordination. _The Altar Steps_, it is +known will be followed by a novel probably to be called _The Parson's +Progress_. Evidently Mr. Mackenzie is bent upon a fictional study of the +whole problem of the Church of England in relation to our times, and +particularly the position of the Catholic party in the Church. + +"Simon Pure," who writes the monthly letter from London appearing in The +Bookman (and whose identity is a well-known secret!) thus describes, in +The Bookman for September, 1922, a visit to Mr. Mackenzie: + +"I have recently seen the author of _The Altar Steps_ upon his native +heath._ The Altar Steps_ is the latest work of Compton Mackenzie, and it +has done something to rehabilitate him with the critics. The press has +been less fiercely adverse than usual to the author. He is supposed to +have come back to the fold of the 'serious' writers, and so the fatted +calf has been slain for him. We shall see. My own impression is that +Mackenzie is a humorous writer, and that the wiseacres who want the novel +to be 'serious' are barking up the wrong tree. At any rate, there the book +is, and it is admitted to be a good book by all who have been condemning +Mackenzie as a trifler; and Mackenzie is going on with his sequel to it in +the pleasant land of Italy. I did not see him in Italy, but in Herm, one +of the minor Channel Islands. It took me a night to reach the place--a +night of fog and fog-signals--a night of mystery, with the moon full and +the water shrouded--and morning found the fog abruptly lifted, and the +islands before our eyes. They glittered under a brilliant sun. There came +hurried disembarking, a transference (for me, and after breakfast) to a +small boat called, by the owner's pleasantry, 'Watch Me' (Compton +Mackenzie), and then a fine sail (per motor) to Herm. I said to the +skipper that I supposed there must be many dangerous submerged rocks. 'My +dear fellow!' exclaimed the skipper, driven to familiarity by my naïveté. +And with that we reached the island. Upon the end of a pier stood a tall +figure, solitary. 'My host!' thought I. Not so. Merely an advance guard: +his engineer. We greeted--my reception being that of some foreign +potentate--and I was led up a fine winding road that made me think of +Samoa and Vailima and all the beauties of the South Seas. Upon the road +came another figure--this time a young man who made a friend of me at a +glance. He now took me in hand. Together we made the rest of the journey +along this beautiful road, and to the cottage of residence. I entered. +There was a scramble. At last I met my host, who leapt from bed to welcome +me! + +"From that moment my holiday was delightful. The island is really +magnificent. Short of a stream, it has everything one could wish for in +such a place. It has cliffs, a wood, a common fields under cultivation, +fields used as pasture, caves, shell beaches, several empty cottages. Its +bird life is wealthy in cuckoos and other magic-bringers; its flowers have +extraordinary interest; dogs and cattle and horses give domestic life, and +a boat or two may be used for excursions to Jethou, a smaller island near +by. And Mackenzie has this ideal place to live in for as much of the year +as he likes. None may gather there without his permission. He is the lord +of the manor, and his boundaries are the sea and the sky. We walked about +the islands, and saw their beauties, accompanied by a big dog--a Great +Dane--which coursed rabbits and lay like a dead fish in the bottom of a +small boat. And as each marvel of the little paradise presented itself, I +became more and more filled with that wicked thing, envy. But I believe +envy does not make much progress when the owner of the desired object so +evidently appreciates it with more gusto even than the envious one. Reason +is against envy in such a case. To have said, 'He doesn't appreciate it' +would have been a lie so manifest that it did not even occur to me. He +does. That is the secret of Mackenzie's personal ability to charm. He is +filled with vitality, but he is also filled with the power to take extreme +delight in the delight of others and to better it. Moreover, he gives one +the impression of understanding islands. Herm has been in his possession +for something more than a year, and he has lived there continuously all +that time (except for two or three visits to London, of short duration). +It has been in all his thoughts. He has seen it as a whole. He knows it +from end to end, its rocks, its birds, its trees and flowers and paths. +What wonder that his health is magnificent, his spirits high! What wonder +the critics have seen fit to praise _The Altar Steps_ as they have not +praised anything of Mackenzie's for years? If they had seen Herm, they +could have done nothing at all but praise without reserve." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE HETEROGENEOUS MAGIC OF MAUGHAM + + +=i= + +Now, I don't know where to begin. Probably I shall not know where to leave +off, either. That is my usual misfortune, to write a chapter at both ends. +It is a fatal thing, like the doubly-consuming candle. Perhaps I might +start with the sapience of Hector MacQuarrie, author of _Tahiti Days_. I +am tempted to, because so many people think of W. Somerset Maugham as the +author of _The Moon and Sixpence_. The day will come, however, when people +will think of him as the man who wrote _Of Human Bondage_. + +This novel does not need praise. All it needs, like the grand work it is, +is attention; and that it increasingly gets. + +[Illustration: W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM] + +=ii= + +Theodore Dreiser reviewed _Of Human Bondage_ for the New Republic. I +reprint part of what he said: + +"Sometimes in retrospect of a great book the mind falters, confused by the +multitude and yet the harmony of the detail, the strangeness of the +frettings, the brooding, musing intelligence that has foreseen, loved, +created, elaborated, perfected, until, in the middle ground which we call +life, somewhere between nothing and nothing, hangs the perfect thing which +we love and cannot understand, but which we are compelled to confess a +work of art. It is at once something and nothing, a dream of happy memory, +a song, a benediction. In viewing it one finds nothing to criticise or to +regret. The thing sings, it has colour. It has rapture. You wonder at the +loving, patient care which has evolved it. + +"Here is a novel or biography or autobiography or social transcript of the +utmost importance. To begin with, it is unmoral, as a novel of this kind +must necessarily be. The hero is born with a club foot, and in +consequence, and because of a temperament delicately attuned to the +miseries of life, suffers all the pains, recessions, and involute self +tortures which only those who have striven handicapped by what they have +considered a blighting defect can understand. He is a youth, therefore, +with an intense craving for sympathy and understanding. He must have it. +The thought of his lack, and the part which his disability plays in it +soon becomes an obsession. He is tortured, miserable. + +"Curiously the story rises to no spired climax. To some it has apparently +appealed as a drab, unrelieved narrative. To me at least it is a gorgeous +weave, as interesting and valuable at the beginning as at the end. There +is material in its three hundred thousand or more words for many novels +and indeed several philosophies, and even a religion or stoic hope. There +are a series of women, of course--drab, pathetic, enticing as the case may +be,--who lead him through the mazes of sentiment, sex, love, pity, +passion; a wonderful series of portraits and of incidents. There are a +series of men friends of a peculiarly inclusive range of intellectuality +and taste, who lead him, or whom he leads, through all the intricacies of +art, philosophy, criticism, humour. And lastly comes life itself, the +great land and sea of people, England, Germany, France, battering, +corroding, illuminating, a Goyaesque world. + +"Naturally I asked myself how such a book would be received in America, in +England. In the latter country I was sure, with its traditions and the +Athenæum and the Saturday Review, it would be adequately appreciated. +Imagine my surprise to find that the English reviews were almost uniformly +contemptuous and critical on moral and social grounds. The hero was a +weakling, not for a moment to be tolerated by sound, right-thinking men. +On the other hand, in America the reviewers for the most part have seen +its true merits and stated them. Need I say, however, that the New York +World finds it 'the sentimental servitude of a poor fool,' or that the +Philadelphia Press sees fit to dub it 'futile Philip,' or that the Outlook +feels that 'the author might have made his book true without making it so +frequently distasteful'; or that the Dial cries 'a most depressing +impression of the futility of life'? + +"Despite these dissonant voices it is still a book of the utmost import, +and has so been received. Compact of the experiences, the dreams, the +hopes, the fears, the disillusionments, the ruptures, and the +philosophising of a strangely starved soul, it is a beacon light by which +the wanderer may be guided. Nothing is left out; the author writes as +though it were a labour of love. It bears the imprint of an eager, almost +consuming desire to say truly what is in his heart. + +"Personally, I found myself aching with pain when, yearning for sympathy, +Philip begs the wretched Mildred, never his mistress but on his level, to +no more than tolerate him. He finally humiliates himself to the extent of +exclaiming, 'You don't know what it means to be a cripple!' The pathos of +it plumbs the depths. The death of Fannie Price, of the sixteen-year-old +mother in the slum, of Cronshaw, and the rambling agonies of old Ducroz +and of Philip himself, are perfect in their appeal. + +"There are many other and all equally brilliant pictures. No one short of +a genius could rout the philosophers from their lairs and label them as +individuals 'tempering life with rules agreeable to themselves' or could +follow Mildred Rogers, waitress of the London A B C restaurant, through +all the shabby windings of her tawdry soul. No other than a genius endowed +with an immense capacity for understanding and pity could have sympathised +with Fannie Price, with her futile and self-destructive art dreams; or old +Cronshaw, the wastrel of poetry and philosophy; or Mons. Ducroz, the +worn-out revolutionary; or Thorne Athelny, the caged grandee of Spain; or +Leonard Upjohn, airy master of the art of self-advancement; or Dr. South, +the vicar of Blackstable, and his wife--these are masterpieces. They are +marvellous portraits; they are as smooth as a Vermeer, as definite as a +Hals; as brooding and moving as a Rembrandt. The study of Carey himself, +while one sees him more as a medium through which the others express +themselves, still registers photographically at times. He is by no means a +brooding voice but a definite, active, vigorous character. + +"If the book can be said to have a fault it will lie for some in its +length, 300,000 words, or for others in the peculiar reticence with which +the last love affair in the story is handled. Until the coming of Sallie +Athelny all has been described with the utmost frankness. No situation, +however crude or embarrassing, has been shirked. In the matter of the +process by which he arrived at the intimacy which resulted in her becoming +pregnant not a word is said. All at once, by a slight frown which she +subsequently explains, the truth is forced upon you that there has been a +series of intimacies which have not been accounted for. After Mildred +Rogers and his relationship with Norah Nesbit it strikes one as +strange.... + +"One feels as though one were sitting before a splendid Shiraz or +Daghestan of priceless texture and intricate weave, admiring, feeling, +responding sensually to its colours and tones. Mr. Maugham ... has +suffered for the joy of the many who are to read after him. By no willing +of his own he has been compelled to take life by the hand and go down +where there has been little save sorrow and degradation. The cup of gall +and wormwood has obviously been lifted to his lips and to the last drop he +has been compelled to drink it. Because of this, we are enabled to see the +rug, woven of the tortures and delights of a life. We may actually walk +and talk with one whose hands and feet have been pierced with nails." + +=iii= + +I turn, for a different example of the heterogeneous magic of Maugham, +including his ability to create and sustain a mood in his readers, to the +words of Mr. MacQuarrie, who writes: + +"It was Tahiti. With a profound trust in my discretion, or perhaps an +utter ignorance of the homely fact that people have their feelings, a +London friend sent us a copy of _The Moon and_ _Sixpence_. This friend, +actually a beautiful, well set up woman of the intelligent class in +England (which is more often than not the upper fringes or spray of the +_bourgeoisie_), wrote: 'You will be interested in this book, since quite +the most charming portion of it deals with your remote island of Tahiti. I +met the author last night at Lady B----'s. I think the landlady at the +end, Mrs. Johnson, is a perfect darling.' + +"Knowing Somerset Maugham as a dramatist, the author of that kind of play +which never bored one, but rather sent one home suffused with +pleasantness, I opened the book with happy anticipation. Therefore--and +the title of the book, _The Moon and Sixpence_, gave a jolly calming +reaction--I was surprised and frankly annoyed when I found myself +compelled to follow the fortunes of a large red-headed man with mighty sex +appeal, who barged his way through female tears to a final goal which +seemed to be a spiritual achievement, and a nasty death in a native +_fare_. I was alarmed; here was a man writing something enormously strong, +when I had been accustomed to associate him with charming London +nights--the theatre, perfect acting, no middle class problems, a dropping +of one's women folks at their doors and a return to White's and whiskey +and a soda. And furthermore, in this book of his, he had picked up Lavina, +the famous landlady of the Tiare Hotel, the uncrowned queen of Tahiti, and +with a few strokes of his pen, had dissected her, and exposed her to the +world as she was. Here I must quote: + +"'Tall and extremely stout, she would have been an imposing presence if +the great good nature of her face had not made it impossible for her to +express anything but kindliness. Her arms were like legs of mutton, her +breasts like giant cabbages; her face, broad and fleshy, gave you an +impression of almost indecent nakedness and vast chin succeeded vast +chin.' + +"This may seem a small matter in a great world. Tahiti is a small world, +and this became a great matter. I read the book twice, decided that +Somerset Maugham could no longer be regarded as a pleasant liqueur, but +rather as the joint of a meal requiring steady digestion, and suppressed +_The Moon and Sixpence_ on Tahiti. The temptation to lend it to a kindred +spirit was almost unbearable, but the thought of Lavina hearing of the +above description of her person frightened me and I resisted. For kindred +souls, on Tahiti as elsewhere, have their own kindred souls, and slowly +but surely the fact that a writer had described her arms as legs of mutton +(perfect!) and her breasts as huge cabbages (even better!) would have +oozed its way to Lavina, sending her to bed for six days, with gloom +spread over Tahiti and no cocktails. + +"All of which is a trifle by the way. Yet in writing of Somerset Maugham +one must gaze along all lines of vision. And it seemed to me that Tahiti +in general, and Papeete in particular should supply a clear one; for here, +certainly, in the days when Maugham visited the island a man could be +mentally dead, spiritually naked and physically unashamed. I therefore +sought Lavina one afternoon as she sat clothed as with a garment by the +small side verandah of the Tiare Hotel. (Lavina was huge; the verandah was +a small verandah as verandahs go; there was just room for me and a bottle +of rum.) + +"'Lavina,' I remarked; 'many persons who write come to Tahiti.' + +"'It is true,' she admitted, 'but not as the heavy rain, rather as the few +drops at the end.' + +"'Do you like them?' I enquired. + +"One makes that kind of remark on Tahiti. The climate demands such, since +the answer can be almost anything, a meandering spreading-of-weight kind +of answer. + +"'These are good men,' said Lavina steadily, wandering off into the old +and possibly untrue story of a lady called Beatrice Grimshaw and her +dilemma on a schooner in mid-Pacific, when the captain, a gentle ancient, +thinking that the dark women were having it all their own way, offered to +embrace Miss Grimshaw, finding in return a gun pointing at his middle, +filling him with quaint surprise that anyone could possibly offer violence +in defence of a soul in so delightful a climate. + +"After which and a rum cocktail, I said: 'Lavina, did you see much of +M'sieur Somerset Maugham when he was here?' + +"'It is the man who writes?' she inquired lazily. + +"'It is,' I returned. + +"'It is the _beau garçon-ta-ta, neneenha roa?_' she suggested. + +"'Probably not,' I said; 'I suspect you are thinking, as usual, of Rupert +Brooke. M'sieur Maugham may be regarded as _beau_, but he is not an +elderly waiter of forty-seven, therefore we may not call him a _garçon_.' + +"'It is,' Lavina admitted; 'that I am thinking of M'sieur Rupert, he is +the _beau garçon_.' + +"'But,' I said, 'I want to know what you thought of M'sieur Somerset +Maugham?' + +"Once started on Rupert Brooke, and Lavina would go on for the afternoon! + +"'I respect M'sieur Morn,' said Lavina. + +"'Oh!' thought I; 'if she respects him, then I'm not going to get much.' + +"'His French is not mixed,' she continued, referring to Maugham's Parisian +accent; 'I speak much with him, and he listen, with but a small question +here, and one there. It is the pure French from Paris, as M'sieur _le +Governeur_ speak, who is the pig. But when he speak much, then it is like +the coral which breaks.' + +"Lavina now wandered off permanently; it was impossible to bring her back. +Her image of the brittle coral branches was a mild personality directed at +Maugham's stutter, which seldom escapes the most sophisticated observer. +For those who interview him always find well cut suitings, clean collars +and the stutter, and very little else that they can lay hold of with any +degree of honesty. Which only goes to prove my own opinion that Maugham, +as an observer, refuses to have his own vision clogged by prying eyes at +himself. + +"I expect that if my French had been better, I might have got some +information about Maugham in Tahiti from the bland and badly built French +officials who lurk in the official club near the Pomare Palace. I was +reduced, in my rather casual investigation, to questioning natives and +schooner captains. Once I felt confident of gaining a picture, I asked +Titi of Taunoa. (Titi is the lady who figures a trifle disgracefully in +Gauguin's _Noanoa_, the woman he found boring after a few weeks, her +French blood being insufficiently exotic to his spirit.) + +"Said Titi: 'M'sieur Morn? Yes, him I know; he speak good French, and take +the door down from the _fare_ on which is the picture done by Gauguin of +the lady whose legs are like thin pillows and her arms like fat ropes, +very what you call strained, and funny.' + +"After which her remarks centred around a lover of her sister, who had +just died at the age of seventy, and Titi considered that the denouement +made by Manu, the sister, was uncalled for at the death bed, since the +true and faithful wife stood there surrounded by nine children, all safely +born the right side of the sheet. She did mention that the removal of the +door from the _fare_ caused the wind to enter. And although I often made +inquiries, I never gained much information. Tahiti, as a whole, seemed +unaware of Maugham's visit. + +"They may have adored him; but I suspect he was a quiet joy, the kind +native Tahiti soon forgets, certainly not the kind of joy she embodies in +her national songs and _himines_. Such are the merry drunkards, +inefficient though earnest white hulahula dancers and the plain (more than +everyday) sinners who cut up rough with wild jagged edges and cruel +tearings. + +"His occasional appearance at the French club would raise his status, +removing any light touches with his junketings, perhaps turning them into +dignified ceremonies. Which, for the Tahitian, approaches the end. The +Tahitian never quite understands the white man who consorts with the +French officials, although many do. 'For are not these men of Farane,' +says the native, 'like the hen that talks without feathers?'--whatever +that may mean, but it suggests at once the talkative Frenchman denuding +himself on hot evenings, and wearing but the native _pareu_ to hide +portions of his bad figure. + +"But although, in some ways, Maugham hid himself from the natives and +pleasant half-castes, he saw them all right, and clearly, since the +closing pages of the _The Moon and Sixpence_ display a magical picture of +that portion of Tahiti he found time to explore." + +=iv= + +Mr. Maugham now offers us _On a Chinese Screen_, sketches of Chinese life, +and _East of Suez_, his new play. + +There are fifty-eight sketches in _On a Chinese Screen_, portraits +including European residents in China as well as native types. Here is a +sample of the book, the little descriptive study with which it closes, +entitled "A Libation to the Gods": + +"She was an old woman, and her face was wizened and deeply lined. In her +grey hair three long silver knives formed a fantastic headgear. Her dress +of faded blue consisted of a long jacket, worn and patched, and a pair of +trousers that reached a little below her calves. Her feet were bare, but +on one ankle she wore a silver bangle. It was plain that she was very +poor. She was not stout but squarely built and in her prime she must have +done without effort the heavy work in which her life had been spent. She +walked leisurely, with the sedate tread of an elderly woman, and she +carried on her arm a basket. She came down to the harbour; it was crowded +with painted junks; her eyes rested for a moment curiously on a man who +stood on a narrow bamboo raft, fishing with cormorants; and then she set +about her business. She put down her basket on the stones of the quay, at +the water's edge, and took from it a red candle. This she lit and fixed in +a chink of the stones. Then she took several joss-sticks, held each of +them for a moment in the flame of the candle and set them up around it. +She took three tiny bowls and filled them with a liquid that she had +brought with her in a bottle and placed them neatly in a row. Then from +her basket she took rolls of paper cash and paper 'shoes' and unravelled +them, so that they should burn easily. She made a little bonfire, and when +it was well alight she took the three bowls and poured out some of their +contents before the smouldering joss-sticks. She bowed herself three times +and muttered certain words. She stirred the burning paper so that the +flames burned brightly. Then she emptied the bowls on the stones and again +bowed three times. No one took the smallest notice of her. She took a few +more paper cash from her basket and flung them in the fire. Then, without +further ado, she took up her basket, and with the same leisurely, rather +heavy tread, walked away. The gods were duly propitiated, and like an old +peasant woman in France, who has satisfactorily done her day's +housekeeping, she went about her business." + +=v= + +W. Somerset Maugham was born in 1874, the son of Robert Ormond Maugham. He +married Syrie, daughter of the late Dr. Barnardo. Mr. Maugham has a +daughter. His education was got at King's School, Canterbury, at +Heidelberg University and at St. Thomas's Hospital, London. + +Mr. Maugham's father was a comparatively prominent solicitor, responsible +for the foundation of the Incorporated Society of Solicitors in England. +Somerset Maugham, after studying medicine at Heidelberg, went to St. +Thomas's, in the section of London known as Lambeth. He obtained his +medical degree there. St. Thomas's just across the river from Westminster +proved his medical ruin, and his literary birth. The hospital is situated +on the border of the slum areas of South London where much that is +hopeless, terrible, and wildly cheerful can be found. Persons are not +wanting who hold that the slums of Battersea and Lambeth contain more +misery and poverty than Limehouse, Whitechapel and the dark forest +surrounding the Commercial Road combined. To St. Thomas's daily comes a +procession of battered derelicts, seeking attention from the young men in +white tunics who hope to be doctors on their own account some day. To St. +Thomas's came Eliza of Lambeth, came Liza's mother, came Jim and Tom. Here +is the genesis of Maugham's first serious work, _Liza of Lambeth_. + +It will be simpler and less confusing to deal with Somerset Maugham in the +first instance as a maker of books rather than as a playwright. One cannot +help believing that, while not one of his plays can be regarded as a pot +boiler, they yet but seldom display that fervent purpose found in his +books. Yet in his plays, one finds a greater attention to conventional +technique and "form" than one finds in books like _Of Human Bondage_ and +_The Moon and Sixpence_. + +The first book launched by Somerset Maugham, _Liza of Lambeth_, could +hardly have been, considering its slight dimensions, a clearer indication +of the line he was to follow. It came out at a time when Gissing was still +in favour, and the odour of mean streets was accepted as synonymous with +literary honesty and courage. There is certainly no lack of either about +this idyll of Elizabeth Kemp of the lissome limbs and auburn hair. The +story pursues its way, and one sees the soul of a woman shining clearly +through the racy dialect and frolics of the Chingford beano, the rueful +futility of faithful Thomas and the engaging callousness of Liza's +mother. + +Somerset Maugham's next study in female portraiture showed how far he +could travel towards perfection. _Mrs. Craddock_, which is often called +his best book, is a sex satire punctuated by four curtains, two of comedy +and two of tragedy. This mixture of opposites should have been enough to +damn it in the eyes of a public intent upon classifying everything by +means of labels and of making everything so classified stick to its label +like grim death. Yet the unclassified may flourish, and does, when its +merit is beyond dispute. _Mrs. Craddock_ appeared fully a decade before +its time, when Victorian influences were still alive, and the modern idea +for well to do women to have something to justify their existence was +still in the nature of a novelty. Even in the fuller light of experience, +Maugham could hardly have bettered his study of an impulsive and exigent +woman, rising at the outset to the height of a bold and womanly choice in +defiance of social prejudice and family tradition, and then relapsing +under the disillusions of marriage into the weakest failings of her class, +rising again, from a self-torturing neurotic into a kind of Niobe at the +death of her baby. + +The ironic key of the book is at its best, in the passage half way +through-- + +"Mr. Craddock's principles, of course, were quite right; he had given her +plenty of run and ignored her cackle, and now she had come home to roost. +There is nothing like a knowledge of farming, and an acquaintance with the +habits of domestic animals, to teach a man how to manage his wife." + +=vi= + +As a playwright Mr. Maugham is quite as well known as he is for his +novels. The author of _Lady Frederick_, _Mrs. Dot_, and _Caroline_--the +creator of Lord Porteous and Lady Kitty in _The Circle_--writes his plays +because it amuses him to do so and because they supply him with an +excellent income. Here is a good story: + +It seems that Maugham had peddled his first play, _Lady Frederick_, to the +offices of seventeen well-known London managers, until it came to rest in +the Archives of the Court Theatre. The Court Theatre, standing in Sloane +Square near the Tube station, is definitely outside the London theatre +area, but as the scene of productions by the Stage Society, it is kept in +the running. However, it might conceivably be the last port of call for a +worn manuscript. + +It so happened that Athole Stewart, the manager of the Court Theatre, +found himself needing a play very badly during one season. The theatre had +to be kept open and there was nothing to keep it open with. From a dingy +pile of play manuscripts he chose _Lady Frederick_. He had no hopes of its +success--or so it is said--but the success materialised. At the +anniversary of _Lady Frederick_ in London, Maugham thought of asking to +dinner the seventeen managers who rejected the play, but realising that no +man enjoyed being reminded of a lost opportunity he decided to forgo the +pleasure. + +The circumstances in which _Caroline_ was written give an interesting +reflex on Maugham as an artist. This delicious comedy was put on paper +while Maugham was acting as British agent in Switzerland during the war. +Some of its more amusing lines were written in some haste while a spy (of +uncertain intentions toward Maugham) stood outside in the snow. + +=vii= + +Someone, probably the gifted Hector MacQuarrie, whom I fear I have +guiltily been quoting in almost every sentence of this chapter, has said +that Maugham writes "transcripts, not of life as a tolerable whole, but of +phases which suit his arbitrary treatment." It is an enlightening +comment. + +But Maugham himself is the keenest appraiser of his own intentions in his +work, as when he spoke of the stories in his book, _The Trembling of a +Leaf_, as not short stories, but "a study of the effect of the Islands of +the Pacific on the white man." + +The man never stays still. When you think the time is ripe for him +triumphally to tour America--when _The Moon and Sixpence_ has attracted +the widest attention--he insists on going immediately to China. This may +be because, though well set up, black-eyed, broad-framed and excessively +handsome in evening clothes, he is rather diffident. + +BOOKS BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM + +NOVELS: + LIZA OF LAMBETH + THE MAKING OF A SAINT + ORIENTATIONS + THE HERO + MRS. CRADDOCK + THE MERRY-GO-ROUND + THE LAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN + THE BISHOP'S APRON + THE EXPLORER + THE MAGICIAN + OF HUMAN BONDAGE + THE MOON AND SIXPENCE + THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF + ON A CHINESE SCREEN + +PLAYS: + SCHIFFBRÜCHIG + A MAN OF HONOUR + LADY FREDERICK + JACK STRAW + MRS. DOT + THE EXPLORER + PENELOPE + SMITH + THE TENTH MAN + GRACE + LOAVES AND FISHES + THE LAND OF PROMISE + CAROLINE + LOVE IN A COTTAGE + CAESAR'S WIFE + HOME AND BEAUTY + THE UNKNOWN + THE CIRCLE + EAST OF SUEZ + +SOURCES ON W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM + +Who's Who [In England]. + +Somerset Maugham in Tahiti: Hitherto unpublished article by Hector +MacQuarrie. + +THE BOOKMAN (London). + +Private information. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BOOKS WE LIVE BY + + +=i= + +_The Parallel New Testament_ is by Dr. James Moffatt, whose _New +Translation of the New Testament_ has excited such wide admiration and +praise. _The Parallel New Testament_ presents the Authorised Version and +Professor Moffatt's translation in parallel columns, together with a brief +introduction to the New Testament. + +I suppose there is no sense in my expending adjectives in praise of Dr. +Moffatt's translation of the New Testament. I could do so very easily. But +what I think would be more effective would be to ask you to take a copy of +the Authorised Version and read in it some such passage as Luke, 24th +chapter, 13th verse, to the close of the chapter and then--and not +before!--read the same account from Dr. Moffatt's _New Translation_, as +follows: + +"That very day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus +about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were conversing about all these +events, and during their conversation and discussion Jesus himself +approached and walked beside them, though they were prevented from +recognising him. He said to them, 'What is all this you are debating on +your walk?' They stopped, looking downcast, and one of them, called +Cleopas, answered him, 'Are you a lone stranger in Jerusalem, not to know +what has been happening there?' 'What is that?' he said to them. They +replied, 'All about Jesus of Nazaret! To God and all the people he was a +prophet strong in action and utterance, but the high priests and our +rulers delivered him up to be sentenced to death and crucified him. Our +own hope was that he would be the redeemer of Israel; but he is dead and +that is three days ago! Though some women of our number gave us a +surprise; they were at the tomb early in the morning and could not find +his body, but they came to tell us they had actually seen a vision of +angels who declared he was alive. Some of our company did go to the tomb +and found things exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him.' +He said to them, 'Oh, foolish men, with hearts so slow to believe, after +all the prophets have declared! Had not the Christ to suffer thus and so +enter his glory?' Then he began with Moses and all the prophets and +interpreted to them the passages referring to himself throughout the +scriptures. Now they approached the village to which they were going. He +pretended to be going further on, but they pressed him, saying 'Stay with +us, for it is getting towards evening and the day has now declined.' So he +went in to stay with them. And as he lay at the table with them he took +the loaf, blessed it, broke it and handed it to them. Then their eyes were +opened and they recognised him, but he vanished from their sight. And they +said to one another, 'Did not our hearts glow within us when he was +talking to us on the road, opening up the scriptures for us?' So they got +up and returned that very hour to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven +and their friends all gathered, who told them that the Lord had really +risen and that he had appeared to Simon. Then they related their own +experience on the road and how they had recognised him when he broke the +loaf. Just as they were speaking He stood among them [and said to them, +'Peace to you!']. They were scared and terrified, imagining it was a ghost +they saw; but he said to them, 'Why are you upset? Why do doubts invade +your mind? Look at my hands and feet. It is I! Feel me and see; a ghost +has not flesh and bones as you see I have.' [With these words he showed +them his hands and feet.] Even yet they could not believe it for sheer +joy; they were lost in wonder. So he said to them, 'Have you any food +here?' And when they handed him a piece of broiled fish, he took and ate +it in their presence. Then he said to them, 'When I was still with you, +this is what I told you, that whatever is written about me in the law of +Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he opened +their minds to understand the scriptures. 'Thus,' he said, 'it is written +that the Christ has to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and +that repentance and the remission of sins must be preached in his name to +all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. To this you must bear testimony. +And I will send down on you what my Father has promised; wait in the city +till you are endued with power from on high.' He led them out as far as +Bethany; then, lifting his hands, he blessed them. And as he blessed them, +he parted from them [and was carried up to heaven]. They [worshipped him +and] returned with great joy to Jerusalem, where they spent all their time +within the temple, blessing God." + +I am particularly glad to say that Dr. Moffatt is at work now on a _New +Translation of the Old Testament_. No man living is fitter for this +tremendously important and tremendously difficult task than James Moffatt. +Born in Glasgow in 1870, Dr. Moffatt has been Professor of Church History +there since 1915. Of his many published studies in Bible literature, I now +speak only of _The Approach to the New Testament_, which he modestly +describes as "a brief statement of the general situation created by +historical criticism," aiming to "bring out the positive value of the New +Testament literature for the world of today as a source of guidance in +social reconstruction, so that readers might be enabled to recover or +retain a sense of its lasting significance for personal faith and social +ideals." + +=ii= + +With Alfred Dwight Sheffield's _Joining in Public Discussion_ was begun +publication of a unique collection of books suitable alike for general +reading and for use in trade union colleges. This is the Workers' +Bookshelf Series. These books, in many instances, are being written by the +chief authorities on their subjects--men who have dealt exhaustively with +their specialties in two and three-volume treatises, and who now bring +their great knowledge to a sharp focus and a simple, condensed statement +in small but wholly authoritative new books. + +The work of preparing these little masterpieces has been undertaken by an +editorial board chosen with the aid of the Workers' Education Bureau of +America. The board consists of Charles A. Beard, Miss Fannia Cohn, H. W. +L. Dana, John P. Frey, Arthur Gleason, Everitt Dean Martin, Spencer +Miller, Jr., George W. Perkins and Robert Wolf. + +Trade union colleges now exist all over the United States, training armies +of workers. The lack of suitable texts for use in these colleges has been +a serious obstacle to the training they desire to give. + +This obstacle the Workers' Bookshelf overcomes. The books that compose it +will each be distinguished for (a) scholarship, (b) a scientific attitude +toward facts, and (c) simplicity of style. + +Each volume is beginning as a class outline and will receive the benefit +of every suggestion, and criticism through its gradual growth into the +written book. + +Each book will be brief. Its references will help the reader to more +detailed sources of information. + +By binding the books in paper as well as in cloth, the volumes will be +brought within the reach of all. + +The Workers' Bookshelf will contain no volumes on vocational guidance, nor +any books which give "short cuts" to moneymaking success. + +The series will not be limited to any set number of volumes nor to any +programme of subjects. Art, literature and the natural sciences, as well +as the social sciences, will be dealt with. New titles will be added as +the demand for treatment of a topic becomes apparent. + +The first use of these books will be as texts to educate workers; the +intermediate use of the books will be as the nucleus of workingmen's +libraries, collective and personal, and the last use of the Workers' +Bookshelf will be to instruct and delight all readers of serious books +everywhere. + +In our modern industrial society, knowledge--things to know--increases +much more rapidly than our understanding. The worker finds it increasingly +difficult to comprehend the world he has done most to create. The +education of the worker consists in showing him in a simple fashion the +interrelations of that world and all its aspects as they are turned toward +him. On the education of the worker depends the future of industrialism, +and, indeed, of all human society. + +The author of _Joining in Public Discussion_ is professor of rhetoric in +Wellesley College and instructor in the Boston Trade Union College. His +book "is a study of effective speechmaking, for members of labour unions, +conferences, forums and other discussion groups." The first section is +upon "Qualifying Oneself to Contribute" to any discussion and the second +section is upon "Making the Discussion Group Co-operate." A brief +introduction explains "What Discussion Aims to Do." + +The following titles of the Workers' Bookshelf are in preparation: + +_Trade Union Policy_, by Dr. Leo Wolman, lecturer at the New School for +Social Research and instructor in the Workers' University of the +International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. + +_Women and the Labor Movement_, by Alice Henry, editor of Life and Labour, +director of the Training School for Women Workers in Industry. + +_Labor and Health_, by Dr. Emery Hayhurst of Ohio State University, author +of "Industrial Health Hazards and Occupational Diseases." + +_Social Forces in Literature_, by Dr. H. W. L. Dana, formerly teacher of +comparative literature at Columbia, now instructor at Boston Trade Union +College. + +_The Creative Spirit in Industry_, by Robert B. Wolf, vice-president of +the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, member of the Federated +American Engineering Society. + +_Cooperative Movement_, by Dr. James B. Warbasse, president of the +Cooperative League of America and instructor at the Workers' University. + +=iii= + +Side by side in Esme Wingfield-Stratford's _Facing Reality_ are chapters +with these titles: "Thinking in a Passion" and "Mental Inertia." Those +chapter titles seem to me to signify the chief dangers confronting the +world today--perhaps confronting the world in any day--and the main +reasons why we do not face reality as we should. I regard _Facing Reality_ +as an important book and I am not alone in so regarding it. What do we +mean by reality? The answer is explicit in a sentence in Mr. +Wingfield-Stratford's introduction, where he says: + +"But if we are to get right with reality or, in the time-honoured +evangelical phrase, with God, it must be by a ruthless determination to +get the truth in religion, even if we have to break down Church walls to +attain it." + +Then the author proceeds to assess the social and ethical conditions which +threaten the world with spiritual bankruptcy. As he says: + +"Whether Germany can be fleeced of a yearly contribution, of doubtful +advantage to the receiver, for forty years or sixty, what particular +economic laws decree that Poles should be governed by Germans or +vice-versa, whose honour or profit demands the possession of the town of +Fiume or the district of Tetschen or the Island of Yap, why all the horses +and men of the Entente are necessary to compel the Port of Dantzig to +become a free city, what particular delicacy of national honour requires +that the impartial distribution of colonies should be interpreted as +meaning the appropriation of the whole of them by the victors--all these +things are held by universal consent to be more urgent and interesting +than the desperate necessity that confronts us all." + +And yet, for some, reality is not immanent in the affairs of this world +but only in those of the next. Among the men who, with Sir Oliver Lodge, +have gone most deeply and earnestly into the whole subject we call +"spiritualism," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is now the most widely known as he +has always been the most persuasive. The overflowing crowds which came out +to hear him lecture on psychic evidences during his recent tour of America +testify to the unquenchable hope of mankind in a life beyond ours. Sir +Arthur has written three books on this subject closest to his heart. _The +New Revelation_ and _The Vital Message_ are both short books presenting +the general case for spiritualists; _The Wanderings of a Spiritualist_, +the result of a lecture tour in India and Australia, commingles incidents +of travel with discussions of psychic phenomena. I believe Sir Arthur has +in preparation a more extensive work, probably to be published under the +title _Spiritualism and Rationalism_. + +In recent years there has been something like a consensus honouring +Havelock Ellis as the ablest living authority on the subject of sex; or +perhaps I should say that Mr. Ellis and his wife are the most competent +writers on this difficult and delicate subject, so beset by fraudulent +theories and so much written upon by charlatans. Let me recommend to you +Havelock Ellis's slender book, _Little Essays of Love and Virtue_, for a +sane, attractive and, at the same time, authoritative handling of sex +problems. + +=iv= + +_Little Essays of Love and Virtue_, however, is, after all, only upon a +special subject, even though of extreme importance. There are others among +the books we live by which I must speak of here. It is tiresome to point +out that we are all self-made men or women, consciously or unconsciously, +in the sense that if we gain control of our habits, to a very large extent +we acquire control of our lives. If, in _Some Things That Matter_ Lord +Riddell did no more than point out this old truth, his book would not be +worth mentioning. What makes it so well worth mentioning, so much more +deserving of discussion than any I can enter upon here, is the fact that +Lord Riddell tells how to observe, how to read, and how to think--or +perhaps I should say how to develop the habit of thought. I think, so able +are his instructions, so pointed and so susceptible of carrying out by any +reader, that his book would carry due weight even if it were anonymous. +But for those who want assurance that the author of _Some Things That +Matter_ is himself somebody who matters, let me point out that he is one +of the largest newspaper proprietors in the world, a man whose grasp on +affairs has twice placed him at the head of news service for two +continents--once at the Peace Conference in Paris and afterward at the +Disarmament Conference in Washington. + +_Some Things That Matter_ is the best book of its kind since Arnold +Bennett's _How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day_, a little book of +trenchant advice to which it is a pleasure again to call attention. Of all +Mr. Bennett's pocket philosophies--_Self and Self-Management_, _Friendship +and Happiness_, _The Human Machine_, _Mental Efficiency_ and _Married +Life_--_How to Live on_ _Twenty-four Hours a Day_ is easily of the +greatest service to the greatest number of people. + +=v= + +I read Dr. George L. Perin's _Self-Healing Simplified_ in manuscript and +enthusiastically recommended its acceptance for publication. Dr. Perin was +the founder of the Franklin Square House for Girls in Boston, a home-hotel +from which 70,000 girls, most of whom Dr. Perin knew personally, have gone +forth all over these United States. His death at the end of 1921 was felt +by thousands of people as a personal loss. He left, in the manuscript of +this book, the best and simplest volume I know of on what is generally +called autosuggestion. And I have examined a great many books of the +sort. + +Discarding all extreme claims, Dr. Perin says in the first place that the +mind can heal; that it may not be able to heal alone; that obviously no +form of healing can be successful without a favourable mental state; that +the favourable mental state can usually be acquired by the sincere and +conscious effort of the sufferer. This effort should take the form of +certain affirmations. + +It is at this point that the ordinary book on autosuggestion breaks +down--so far as any practical usefulness is concerned. Either it +degenerates into a purely technical treatise or it becomes lost in a +mysticism which is to the average reader incomprehensible. What has long +been needed has been a book like _Self-Healing Simplified_, readable by +the ordinary person who has his own troubles to contend with and who knows +not how to contend with them; who is willing to believe that he can do his +part by cheerful resolutions and faith toward getting well, but who has no +idea what to do. + +Dr. Perin tells him _what_ to do, _what_ to say, _what_ to think and how +to order his daily life. Actually Dr. Perin does much more than this; his +own confidence and personal success inspire confidence and give the +impulsion toward one's own personal success. However, excellent as the +book might be, it would be worthless if it were not clearly and simply +expressed. It is. I remember no book of the kind so direct and so lucid. + +=vi= + +It is a pleasure to feel that his new book, _Poets and Puritans_, +introduces T. R. Glover to a wider audience. The author of _The Pilgrim_, +_Essays on Religion_, _The Nature and Purpose of a Christian Society_, +_Jesus in the Experience of Man_ and _The Jesus of History_ is a scholar +and somewhat of a recluse whom one finds after much groping about dim +halls at Cambridge. A highly individual personality! It is this +personality, though, that makes the fascination of _Poets and Pilgrims_--a +volume of studies in which the subjects are Spenser, Milton, Evelyn, +Bunyan, Boswell, Crabbe, Wordsworth and Carlyle. Mr. Glover notes at the +foot of the table of contents: "An acute young critic, who saw some of the +proofs, has asked me, with a hint of irony, whether Evelyn and Boswell +were Puritans or Poets. Any reader who has a conscience about the matter +must omit these essays." There you have the flavour of the man! It is +expressed further in the short preface of _Poets and Puritans_:-- + +"Wandering among books and enjoying them, I find in a certain sense that, +the more I enjoy them, the harder becomes the task of criticism, the less +sure one's faith in critical canons, and the fewer the canons themselves. +Of one thing, though, I grow more and more sure--that the real business of +the critic is to find out what is right with a great work of art--book, +song, statue, or picture--not what is wrong. Plenty of things may be +wrong, but it is what is right that really counts. If the critic's work is +to be worth while, it is the great element in the thing that he has to +seek and to find--to learn what it is that makes it live and gives it its +appeal, so that, as Montaigne said about Plutarch, men 'cannot do without' +it; why it is that in a world, where everything that can be 'scrapped' is +'scrapped,' is thrown aside and forgotten, this thing, this book or +picture, refuses to be ignored, but captures and charms men generations +after its maker has passed away. + +"With such a quest a man must not be in a hurry, and he does best to +linger in company with the great men whose work he wishes to understand, +and to postpone criticism to intimacy. This book comes in the end to be a +record of personal acquaintances and of enjoyment. But one is never done +with knowing the greatest men or the greatest works of art--they carry you +on and on, and at the last you feel you are only beginning. That is my +experience. I would not say that I know these men, of whom I have written, +thoroughly--a man of sense would hardly say that, but I can say that I +have enjoyed my work, and that, whatever other people may find it, to me +it has been a delight and an illumination." + +Another welcome book is E. V. Lucas's _Giving and Receiving_, a new volume +of essays. Since the appearance of _Roving East and Roving West_, Mr. +Lucas has been looking back at America from London with its fogs and +(yes!) its sunshine. The audience for his new book will include not only +those readers he has had for such volumes in the past but all those +personal friends that he made in a visit that took him from California to +the Battery. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ROBERT W. CHAMBERS AND THE WHOLE TRUTH + + +=i= + +Once a man came to Robert W. Chambers and said words to this effect: + +"You had a great gift as a literary artist and you spoiled it. For some +reason or other, I don't know what, but I suppose there was more money in +the other thing, you wrote down to a big audience. Don't you think, +yourself, that your earlier work--those stories of Paris and those novels +of the American revolution--had something that you have sacrificed in your +novels of our modern day?" + +Mr. Chambers listened politely and attentively. When the man had finished, +Chambers said to him words to this effect: + +"You are mistaken. I have heard such talk. I am not to blame if some +people entertain a false impression. I have sacrificed nothing, neither +for money nor popularity nor anything else. + +"Sir, I am a story-teller. I have no other gift. Those who imagine that +they have seen in my earlier work some quality of literary distinction or +some unrealised possibility as an artist missing from my later work, are +wrong. + +"They have read into those stories their own satisfaction in them and +their first delight. I was new, then. In their pleasure, such as it was, +they imagined the arrival of someone whom they styled a great literary +artist. They imagined it all; it was not I. + +"A story-teller I began, and a story-teller I remain. I do pride myself on +being a good story-teller; if the verdict were overwhelmingly against me +as a good story-teller that would cast me down. I have no reason to +believe that the verdict is against me. + +"And that is the ground I myself have stood upon. I am not responsible for +the delusion of those who put me on some other, unearthly pinnacle, only +to realise, as the years went by, that I was not there at all. But they +can find me now where they first found me--where I rather suspect they +found me first with unalloyed delight." + +This does not pretend to be an actual transcription of the conversation +between Mr. Chambers and his visitor. I asked Mr. Chambers recently if he +recalled this interview. He said at this date he did not distinctly +recollect it and he added: + +"Probably I said what is true, that I write the sort of stories which at +the moment it amuses me to write; I trust to luck that it may also amuse +the public. + +"If a writer makes a hit with a story the public wants him to continue +that sort of story. It does not like to follow the moods of a writer from +gay to frivolous, from serious to grave, but I have always liked to +change, to experiment--just as I used to like to change my medium in +painting, aquarelle, oil, charcoal, wash, etc. + +"Unless I had a good time writing I'd do something else. I suit myself +first of all in choice of subject and treatment, and leave the rest to the +gods." + +As a human creature Chambers is strikingly versatile. It must always be +remembered that he started life as a painter. There is a story that +Charles Dana Gibson and Robert W. Chambers sent their first offerings to +Life at the same time. Mr. Chambers sent a picture and Mr. Gibson sent a +bit of writing. Mr. Gibson's offering was accepted and Robert W. Chambers +received a rejection slip. + +Not only was he a painter but Chambers has preserved his interest in art, +and is a welcome visitor in the offices of curators and directors of +museums because he is one of the few who can talk intelligently about +paintings. + +He knows enough about Chinese and Japanese antiques to enable him to +detect forgeries. He knows more about armour than anyone, perhaps, except +the man who made the marvellous collection of mediæval armour for the +Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. + +One of his varieties of knowledge, observable by any reader of his novels, +is lepidoptery--the science of butterflies. He collects butterflies with +exceeding ardour. But then, he is a good deal of an outdoor man. He knows +horses and books; he has been known to hunt; he has been seen with a +fishing rod in his hand. + +His knowledge of out-of-the-way places in different parts of the +world--Paris, Petrograd--is not usual. + +Will you believe me if I add that he is something of an expert on rare +rugs? + +Of course, I am, to some extent, taking Rupert Hughes's word for these +accomplishments; and yet they are visible in the written work of Robert W. +Chambers where, as a rule, they appear without extrusion. + +=ii= + +And here is the newest Robert W. Chambers novel, _Eris_. Mr. Chambers's +_The Flaming Jewel_, a melodrama of the maddest character, was published +last spring. _Eris_ is really a story of the movie world, and reaches its +most definite conclusion, possibly, in a passage where the hero says to +Eris Odell: + +"Whether they are financing a picture, directing it, releasing it, +exhibiting it, or acting in it, these vermin are likely to do it to death. +Your profession is crawling with them. It needs delousing." + +But I am not really anxious, in this chapter, to discuss the justice or +injustice of the view of motion pictures thus forcibly presented. I have +read _Eris_ with an interest sharpened by the fact that its hero is a +writer. I seem to see in what is said about and by Barry Annan expressions +of Mr. Chambers's own attitude of more than casual importance. + +Barry Annan is obsessed with the stupidity of the American mass and more +particularly with the grossness (as he sees it) of New York City. + +"Annan went on with his breakfast leisurely. As he ate he read over his +pencilled manuscript and corrected it between bites of muffin and bacon. + +"It was laid out on the lines of those modern short stories which had +proven so popular and which had lifted Barry Annan out of the uniform +ranks of the unidentified and given him an individual and approving +audience for whatever he chose to offer them. + +"Already there had been lively competition among periodical publishers for +the work of this newcomer. + +"His first volume of short stories was now in preparation. Repetition had +stencilled his name and his photograph upon the public cerebrum. Success +had not yet enraged the less successful in the literary puddle. The frogs +chanted politely in praise of their own comrade. + +"The maiden, too, who sips the literary soup that seeps through the pages +of periodical publications, was already requesting his autograph. Clipping +agencies began to pursue him; film companies wasted his time with +glittering offers that never materialised. Annan was on the way to +premature fame and fortune. And to the aftermath that follows for all who +win too easily and too soon. + +"There is a King Stork for all puddles. His law is the law of +compensations. Dame Nature executes it--alike on species that swarm and on +individuals that ripen too quickly. + +"Annan wrote very fast. There was about thirty-five hundred words in the +story of Eris. He finished it by half past ten. + +"Re-reading it, he realised it had all the concentrated brilliancy of an +epigram. Whether or not it would hold water did not bother him. The story +of Eris was Barry Annan at his easiest and most persuasive. There was the +characteristic and ungodly skill in it, the subtle partnership with a +mindless public that seduces to mental speculation; the reassuring caress +as reward for intellectual penetration; that inborn cleverness that makes +the reader see, applaud, or pity him or herself in the sympathetic rôle of +a plaything of Chance and Fate. + +"And always Barry Annan left the victim of his tact and technique +agreeably trapped, suffering gratefully, excited by self-approval to the +verge of sentimental tears. + +"'That'll make 'em ruffle their plumage and gulp down a sob or two,' he +reflected, his tongue in his cheek, a little intoxicated, as usual, by his +own infernal facility. + +"He lit a cigarette, shuffled his manuscript, numbered the pages, and +stuffed them into his pocket. The damned thing was done." + +And again:-- + +"Considering her, now, a half-smile touching his lips, it occurred to him +that here, in her, he saw his audience in the flesh. This was what his +written words did to his readers. His skill held their attention; his +persuasive technique, unsuspected, led them where he guided. His +cleverness meddled with their intellectual emotions. The more primitive +felt it physically, too. + +"When he dismissed them at the bottom of the last page they went away +about their myriad vocations. But his brand was on their hearts. They were +his, these countless listeners whom he had never seen--never would see. + +"He checked his agreeable revery. This wouldn't do. He was becoming smug. +Reaction brought the inevitable note of alarm. Suppose his audience tired +of him. Suppose he lost them. Chastened, he realised what his audience +meant to him--these thousands of unknown people whose minds he titivated, +whose reason he juggled with and whose heart-strings he yanked, his tongue +in his cheek." + +And this further on:-- + +"He went into his room but did not light the lamp. For a long while he sat +by the open window looking out into the darkness of Governor's Place. + +"It probably was nothing he saw out there that brought to his lips a +slight recurrent smile. + +"The bad habit of working late at night was growing on this young man. It +is a picturesque habit, and one of the most imbecile, because sound work +is done only with a normal mind. + +"He made himself some coffee. A rush of genius to the head followed +stimulation. He had a grand time, revelling with pen and pad and littering +the floor with inked sheets unnumbered and still wet. His was a messy +genius. His plot-logic held by the grace of God and a hair-line. Even the +Leaning Tower of Pisa can be plumbed; and the lead dangled inside +Achilles's tendon when one held the string to the medulla of Annan's +stories." + +Our young man is undergoing a variety of interesting changes: + +"Partly experimental, partly sympathetically responsive, always tenderly +curious, this young man drifted gratefully through the inevitable episodes +to which all young men are heir. + +"And something in him always transmuted into ultimate friendship the +sentimental chaos, where comedy and tragedy clashed at the crisis. + +"The result was professional knowledge. Which, however, he had employed +rather ruthlessly in his work. For he resolutely cut out all that had been +agreeable to the generations which had thriven on the various phases of +virtue and its rewards. Beauty he replaced with ugliness; dreary squalor +was the setting for crippled body and deformed mind. The heavy twilight of +Scandinavian insanity touched his pages where sombre shapes born out of +Jewish Russia moved like anachronisms through the unpolluted sunshine of +the New World. + +"His were essays on the enormous meanness of mankind--meaner conditions, +mean minds, mean aspirations, and a little mean horizon to encompass all. + +"Out of his theme, patiently, deftly, ingeniously he extracted every atom +of that beauty, sanity, inspired imagination which _makes_ the imperfect +more perfect, creates _better_ than the materials permit, _forces_ real +life actually to assume and _be_ what the passionate desire for sanity and +beauty demands." + +There comes a time when Eris Odell says to Barry Annan:-- + +"'I could neither understand nor play such a character as the woman in +your last book.... Nor could I ever believe in her.... Nor in the ugliness +of her world--the world you write about, nor in the dreary, hopeless, +malformed, starving minds you analyse.... My God, Mr. Annan--are there no +wholesome brains in the world you write about?'" + +I think these citations interesting. I do not feel especially competent to +produce from them inferences regarding Mr. Chambers's own attitude toward +his work. + +_Eris_ will be published early in 1923, following Mr. Chambers's _The +Talkers_. + +=iii= + +Mr. Chambers was born in Brooklyn, May 26, 1865, the son of William +Chambers and Carolyn (Boughton) Chambers. Walter Boughton Chambers, the +architect, is his brother. Robert William Chambers was a student in the +Julien Academy in Paris from 1886 to 1893. He married, on July 12, 1898, +Elsa Vaughn Moler. He first exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1889; he was +an illustrator for Life, Truth, Vogue and other magazines. His first book, +_In the Quarter_, was published in 1893; and when, in the same year, a +collection of stories of Paris called _The King in Yellow_ made its +appearance, Robert W. Chambers became a name of literary importance. + +Curiously enough, among the things persistently remembered about Mr. +Chambers to this day is a particular poem in a book of rollicking verse +called _With the Band_, which he published in 1895. This cherished--by +very many people scattered here and there--poem had to do with Irishmen +parading. One stanza will identify it. + + "Ses Corporal Madden to Private McFadden: + 'Bedad yer a bad 'un! + Now turn out yer toes! + Yer belt is unhookit, + Yer cap is on crookit, + Yer may not be drunk, + But, be jabers, ye look it! + Wan-two! + Wan-two! + Ye monkey-faced divil, I'll jolly ye through! + Wan-two! + Time! Mark! + Ye march like the aigle in Cintheral Park!'" + +In the course of writing many books, Chambers has been responsible for one +or two shows. He wrote for Ada Rehan, _The Witch of Ellangowan_, a drama +produced at Daly's Theatre. His _Iole_ was the basis of a delightful +musical comedy produced in New York in 1913. He is a member of the +National Institute of Arts and Letters. + +BOOKS BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS + +IN THE QUARTER +THE KING IN YELLOW +THE RED REPUBLIC +THE KING AND A FEW DUKES +THE MAKER OF MOONS +WITH THE BAND +THE MYSTERY OF CHOICE +LORRAINE +ASHES OF EMPIRE +THE HAUNTS OF MEN +THE CAMBRIC MASK +OUTSIDERS +THE CONSPIRATORS +CARDIGAN +THE MAID-AT-ARMS +OUTDOOR-LAND +THE MAIDS OF PARADISE +ORCHARD-LAND +FOREST LAND +IOLE +THE FIGHTING CHANCE +MOUNTAIN LAND +THE TRACER OF LOST PERSONS +THE TREE OF HEAVEN +THE FIRING LINE +SOME LADIES IN HASTE +THE DANGER MARK +THE SPECIAL MESSENGER +HIDE AND SEEK IN FORESTLAND +THE GREEN MOUSE +AILSA PAIGE +BLUE-BIRD WEATHER +JAPONETTE +THE STREETS OF ASCALON +ADVENTURES OF A MODEST MAN +THE BUSINESS OF LIFE +THE COMMON LAW +THE GAY REBELLION +WHO GOES THERE? +THE HIDDEN CHILDREN +ATHALIE +POLICE!!! +THE GIRL PHILIPPA +THE BARBARIANS +THE RESTLESS SEX +THE MOONLIT WAY +IN SECRET +THE CRIMSON TIDE +THE SLAYER OF SOULS +THE LITTLE RED FOOT +THE FLAMING JEWEL +THE TALKERS +ERIS + +SOURCES ON ROBERT W. CHAMBERS + +Hugh Walpole: An Appreciation, by Joseph Hergesheimer, GEORGE H. DORAN +COMPANY. + +English Literature During the Last Half Century, by J. W. Cunliffe, THE +MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +A Hugh Walpole Anthology, selected by the author. LONDON: J. M. DENT +& SONS. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY. + +Hugh Walpole, Master Novelist. Pamphlet published by GEORGE H. DORAN +COMPANY. (Out of print.) + +Who's Who [In England]. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +UNIQUITIES + + +=i= + +Each of these five is a book which, either from its subject, its +authorship, or its handling, is _sui generis_. I call such books +"uniquities"; it sounds a little less trite than saying they are unique. I +think I will let someone else speak of these books. I will look to see, +and will let you see, what others have said about my uniquities. + +=ii= + +First we have _Our Navy at War_ by Josephus Daniels. W. B. M'Cormick, +formerly of the editorial staff of the Army and Navy Journal, reviewing +this book for the New York Herald (28 May 1922) said: + +"Josephus Daniels always was an optimist about navy affairs while he was +Secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1921, and now that he has told what the +navy did during the world war he demonstrates in his narrative that he is +a good sport. For in spite of the many and bitter attacks that were made +on him in that troubled time he does not make a single reference to any of +them, nor does he wreak any such revenge as he might have done through +this medium. In this respect it may be said that truly does he live up to +the description of his character set down in the pages of Rear Admiral +Bradley A. Fiske's autobiography, namely, that 'Secretary Daniels +impressed me as being a Christian gentleman.' + +"In its general outlines and in many of its details there is little in Mr. +Daniels's story that has not been told before in volumes devoted to single +phases of the United States Navy's war operations. For example, his +chapter on the extraordinary task of laying the great mine fields, known +as the North Sea barrage, from Norway to the Orkneys, is much more fully +described in the account written by Captain Reginald R. Belknap; the story +of 'Sending Sims to Europe' is also more extensively presented in that +officer's book, _The Victory at Sea_, and the same qualification can be +applied to the chapter on the fighting of the marines in Belleau Wood and +elsewhere, and the work of our destroyers and submarines in European +waters. + +"But Mr. Daniels's history has one great merit that these other books +lack. This is that it tells in its 374 pages the complete story of the +work of the navy in the world war, giving so many details and so much +precise information about officers and their commands, ships of all +classes and just what they did, the valuable contributions made to the +winning of the war by civilians, that it makes a special place for itself, +a very special place, in any library or shelf devoted to war books." + +=iii= + +Leslie Haden Guest, a surgeon of wide experience and secretary of the +British Labour Delegation to Soviet Russia, is the author of _The Struggle +for Power in Europe (1917-21)_, "an outline economic and political survey +of the Central States and Russia," of which E. J. C. said in the Boston +Evening Transcript (4 March 1922): + +"The author writes from personal observation in Russia and discloses much +of the life of the day in that country which heretofore has remained +undisclosed to the world. He has met and interviewed Lenine and Trotsky +themselves, shows us the individuality of these great Bolshevist leaders +and tells us much of the life of the people and of the social conditions +and tendencies in that distressful country. + +"Next he crosses to Poland, another undiscovered country, and shows us the +new Poland, its aims and its struggles to emerge from a state almost of +anarchy into one of a rational democracy. Very little do we of this +country know of the new nation of Tcheko-Slovakia, but Dr. Guest has +travelled through it also and shows us the two sections, one cultured, the +other more backward, but both working together to form a modern democratic +nation. + +"The distressful condition of Austria and the Austrians now suffering for +the sins of the Hapsburgs, is next shown forth. Vienna, once the capital +of a vast empire and the seat of a great imperial court, was suddenly +reduced to the level of the capital of a small agricultural, inland state, +a condition productive of great suffering. The conditions here are shown +to differ much from those in other countries, for the dismemberment of +Austria was not brought about by the act of the Allies, but of their own +people. The causes of the suffering are fully explained, as are also the +causes of similar conditions in Hungary, in Roumania, in Bulgaria and in +other countries affected by the economic and political upheavals following +the war. That democracy in Europe will finally triumph Dr. Guest feels +certain and he gives lucid reasons for the faith that is in him. He gives +a broadly intelligent analysis of the entire situation and finds that the +essential conditions of success of a democracy are peace, education and +adequate nutrition. But he shows that a great problem exists which must be +worked out; and he shows how it must be worked out. Dr. Guest is not alone +a thinker, but an observer; not a theorist, but a man of practical +understanding, who has studied a problem at first hand and shows it forth +simply but comprehensively and with an eye single to the needs of +humanity." + +=iv= + +Of _Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic_, by Raymond M. Weaver, Carl Van +Vechten, writing in the Literary Review of the New York Evening Post (31 +December 1921), said: + +"No biography of Melville, no important personal memorandum of the man, +was published during his lifetime. It is only now, thirty years after his +death and one hundred and two years after his birth, that Raymond M. +Weaver's _Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic_ has appeared. + +"Under the circumstances, Mr. Weaver may be said to have done his work +well. The weakness of the book is due to the conditions controlling its +creation. Personal records in any great number do not exist. There are, to +be sure, Melville's letters to Hawthorne, published by Julian Hawthorne, +in his _Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife_. There are a few references to +Melville in the diary of Mrs. Hawthorne and in her letters to her mother. +There remain the short account given by J. E. A. Smith, a man with no kind +of mental approach to his hero, a few casual memories of Richard Henry +Stoddard, whose further testimony would have been invaluable had he been +inclined to be more loquacious, and a few more by Dr. Titus Munson Coan +and Arthur Stedman; but both these men, perhaps the nearest to Melville in +his later years, were agreed that he ceased to be an artist when he +deserted the prescribed field of _Typee_ and _Omoo_, and they harassed his +last days in their efforts to make him perceive this, much as if an +admirer of Verdi's early manner had attempted to persuade the composer +that work on 'Aida' and 'Otello' was a waste of time that might much +better be occupied in creating another 'Trovatore.' In desperation, +Melville refused to be lured into conversation about the South Seas, and +whenever the subject was broached he took refuge in quoting Plato. No very +competent witnesses, therefore, these. Aside from these sources, long open +to an investigator, Mr. Weaver has had the assistance of Mr. Melville's +granddaughter, who was not quite ten years old when Melville died, but who +has in her possession Mrs. Melville's commonplace book, Melville's diary +of two European excursions, and a few letters. + +"Generally, however, especially for the most important periods and the +most thrilling events in Melville's life, Mr. Weaver has been compelled to +depend upon the books the man wrote. + +"The book, on the whole, is worthy of its subject. It is written with +warmth, subtlety, and considerable humour. Smiles and thoughts lie hidden +within many of its pregnant lines. One of the biographer's very strangest +suggestions is never made concrete at all, so far as I can discern. The +figure of the literary discoverer of the South Seas emerges perhaps a bit +vaguely, his head in the clouds, but there is no reason to believe that +Melville's head was anywhere else when he was alive. Hawthorne is at last +described pretty accurately and not too flatteringly. _The Scarlet Letter_ +was published in 1850; _Moby Dick_ in 1851. It is one of the eternal +ironies that the one should be world-famous while the other is still +struggling for even national recognition. There are long passages, +well-studied and well-written, dealing with the whaling industry and the +early missionaries, which will be extremely helpful to any one who wants a +bibliographical background for the ocean and South Sea books. Melville's +London notebook is published for the first time and there is a nearly +complete reprint of his first known published paper 'Fragments From a +Writing Desk,' which appeared in two numbers of The Democratic Press and +Lansingburgh Advertiser in 1839 (not 1849, as the bibliography erroneously +gives it). Mr. Weaver is probably right in ascribing Melville's retirement +from literature to poverty (it was a fortunate year that brought him as +much as $100 in royalties and his account at Harper's was usually +overdrawn), to complete disillusionment, which made it impossible for him +to say more than he had already said, even on the subject of +disillusionment, and to ill-health. + +"It is a pleasure, moreover, to find that Mr. Weaver has a warm +appreciation of _Mardi_ and _Pierre_, books which have either been +neglected or fiercely condemned since they first appeared, books which are +no longer available save in early editions. They are not equal to _Moby +Dick_, but they are infinitely more important and more interesting than +_Typee_ and _Omoo_, on which the chief fame of the man rests. It is to his +credit that Mr. Weaver has perceived this, but a great deal more remains +to be said on the subject. _Mardi_, _Moby Dick_, and _Pierre_, as a matter +of fact, form a kind of tragic trinity: _Mardi_ is a tragedy of the +intellect; _Moby Dick_ a tragedy of the spirit, and _Pierre_ a tragedy of +the flesh. _Mardi_ is a tragedy of heaven, _Moby Dick_ a tragedy of hell, +and _Pierre_ a tragedy of the world we live in. + +"Considering the difficulties in his path, it may be said that Mr. Weaver +has solved his problem successfully. The faults of the book, to a large +extent, as I have already pointed out, are not the faults of the author, +but the faults of conditions circumscribing his work. At any rate, it can +no longer be said that no biography exists of the most brilliant figure in +the history of our letters, the author of a book which far surpasses every +other work created by an American from _The Scarlet Letter_ to _The Golden +Bowl_. For _Moby Dick_ stands with the great classics of all times, with +the tragedies of the Greeks, with _Don Quixote_, with _Dante's Inferno_ +and with Shakespeare's _Hamlet_." + +=v= + +A man who is certainly an authority on naval subjects tells me that _The +Grand Fleet_ by Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa is the masterpiece of the great +war. He does not mean, of course, in a literary sense; but he does most +emphatically mean in every other sense. I quote from the review by P. L. +J., of Admiral Jellicoe's second book, _The Crisis of the Naval War_. The +review appeared in that valuable Annapolis publication, the Proceedings of +the United States Naval Institute for April, 1921: + +"This interesting book is the complement of his first volume, _The Grand +Fleet,1914-16_. Admiral Jellicoe, the one man who was best situated to +know, now draws aside the curtains and reveals to us the efforts made by +the Admiralty to overcome the threat made by the German submarine +campaign. The account not only deals with the origin ashore of the defence +and offence against submarines, but follows to sea the measures adopted +where their application and results are shown. + +"The first chapter deals at length with the changes made in the admiralty +that the organisation might be logical and smooth working to avoid +conflict of authority, to have no necessary service neglected, to provide +the necessary corps of investigators of new devices, and above all to free +the first Sea Lord and his assistants of a mass of detail that their +efforts might be concentrated on the larger questions. + +"The appendices are of value and interesting because they show the +organisation at different periods and emphasise the fact that the Naval +Staff at the end of the war was the result of trial and error, natural +growth, and at least one radical change adopted during the war. + +"Chapters II and III deal with the Submarine Campaign in 1917 and the +measures adopted to win success. The gradual naval control of all merchant +shipping with its attendant difficulties is clearly shown. The tremendous +labour involved in putting into operation new measures; the unremitting +search for and development of new antisubmarine devices is revealed, and +above all the length of time necessary to put into operation any new +device, and this when time is the most precious element, is pointed out. + +"That a campaign against the enemy must be waged with every means at hand; +that new weapons must be continually sought; that no 'cure-all' by which +the enemy may be defeated without fighting can be expected; that during +war is the poorest time to provide the material which should be provided +during peace, the Admiral shows in a manner not to be gainsaid. + +"Chapters IV and V deal with the testing, introduction, and gradual growth +of the convoy system. It is shown how the introduction of this system was +delayed by lack of vessels to perform escort duty and why when finally +adopted it was so successful because it was not only defensive but +offensive in that it meant a fight for a submarine to attack a vessel +under convoy. + +"Chapter VI is devoted to the entry of the United States. The accurate +estimate of our naval strength by both the enemy and the allies, and our +inability upon the declaration of war to lend any great assistance are +shown--and this at the most critical period for the Allies--a period when +the German submarine campaign was at its height, when the tonnage lost +monthly by the Allies was far in excess of what can be replaced--when the +destruction of merchant shipping if continued at the then present rate +would in a few months mean the defeat of the Allies." + +=vi= + +I will give you what Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich said in the Weekly Review +(30 April 1921; The Weekly Review has since been combined with The +Independent) regarding _A History of Sea Power_, by William O. Stevens and +Allan Westcott: + +"Two professors at the Naval Academy, the one a historian, the other a +close student of Mahan, have written a noteworthy volume in their _History +of Sea Power_, published in excellent form, generously supplied with maps, +illustrations, and index. The title suggests Mahan's classic which is +largely followed in plan and treatment. It will be remembered that his +writings covered in detail only the years from 1660 to 1815. While not +neglecting this period, this book is particularly valuable for events not +within its self-assigned limits. Practically it is a history of naval +warfare from ancient times to the present day. Each chapter deals briefly, +but ably, with one epoch and closes with an appropriate bibliography for +those who care to go more fully into the question; a commendable feature. +The last chapter, 'Conclusions,' deserves especial attention. Naturally, +considerable space is devoted to the story and analysis of Jellicoe's +fight. Few will disagree with the verdict of the authors: + +"'It is no reflection on the personal courage of the Commander-in-Chief +that he should be moved by the consideration of saving his ships. The +existence of the Grand Fleet was, of course, essential to the Allied +cause, and there was a heavy weight of responsibility hanging on its use. +But again it is a matter of naval doctrine. Did the British fleet exist +merely to maintain a numerical preponderance over its enemy or to crush +that enemy--whatever the cost? If the Battle of Jutland receives the stamp +of approval as the best that could have been done, then the British or the +American officer of the future will know that he is expected primarily to +"play safe." But he will never tread the path of Blake, Hawke, or Nelson, +the men who made the traditions of the Service and forged the anchors of +the British Empire.' + +"One factor in the success of the antisubmarine campaign is not mentioned, +important as it proved to be. This was the policy adopted by the Allies of +not giving out the news that any U-boat was captured or otherwise +accounted for. Confronted with this appalling veil of mystery the morale +of the German submarine crews became seriously affected; volunteering for +this service gradually ceased; arbitrary detail grew necessary; greatly +lessened efficiency resulted. + +"The authors are to be congratulated on producing a volume which should be +in the hands of all naval officers of the coming generation; on the +shelves of all who take interest in the development of history; and of +statesmen upon whom may eventually rest the responsibility of heeding or +not heeding the teachings of Mahan as here sympathetically and cleverly +brought up to date." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CONFESSIONS OF A WELL-MEANING YOUNG MAN, STEPHEN MCKENNA + + +=i= + +In a sense, all of Stephen McKenna's writing has been a confession. More +than any other novelist now actively at work, this young man bases fiction +on biographical and autobiographical material; and when he sits down +deliberately to write reminiscences, such as _While I Remember_, the +result is merely that, in addition to confessing himself, he confesses +others. + +He has probably had more opportunity of knowing the social and political +life of London from the inside than most novelists of his time. In _While +I Remember_ he gives his recollections, while his memory is still fresh +enough to be vivid, of a generation that closed, for literary if not for +political purposes, with the Peace Conference. There is a power of wit and +mordant humour and a sufficiency of descriptive power and insight into +human character in all his work. + +[Illustration: STEPHEN McKENNA] + +_While I Remember_ is actually a gallery of pictures taken from the life +and executed with the technique of youth by a man still young--pictures of +public school and university life, of social London from the death of King +Edward to the Armistice, of domestic and foreign politics of the period, +of the public services of Great Britain at home and abroad. Though all +these are within the circle of Mr. McKenna's narrative, literary +London--the London that is more talked about than seen--is the core of his +story. + +=ii= + +Mr. McKenna's latest novel, _The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman_, is +a series of monologues addressed by one Lady Ann Spenworth to "a friend of +proved discretion." I quote from the London Times of April 6, 1922: "In +the course of them Lady Ann Spenworth reveals to us the difficulties +besetting a lady of rank. She is compelled to live in a house in Mount +street--for how could she ask 'The Princess' to visit her in +Bayswater?--and her income of a few thousands, hardly supplemented by her +husband's directorships, is depleted by the disbursements needed to keep +the name of her only son out of the newspapers while she is obtaining for +him the wife and the salary suited to his requirements and capacities. Mr. +Stephen McKenna provides us with the same kind of exasperating +entertainment that we get at games from watching a skilful and +unscrupulous veteran. Her deftness in taking a step or two forward in the +centre and so putting the fast wing off side; her air of sporting +acquiescence touched with astonishment when a penalty is given against her +for obstruction; her resolution in jumping in to hit a young bowler off +his length; the trouble she has with her shoe-lace when her opponent is +nervous; the suddenness with which every now and again her usually +deliberate second service will follow her first; the slight pucker in her +eyebrows when she picks up a hand full of spades; the pluck with which she +throws herself on the ball when there is nothing else for it; her +dignified bonhomie in the dressing room! We all know Lady Ann and her +tricks, but nothing can be proved against her and she continues to play +for the best clubs. + +"In this story Lady Ann is playing the social game, and it is a tribute to +the skill of Mr. McKenna that at the end we hope that the Princess will be +sufficiently curious about her new 'frame and setting' to continue her +visits.... We have used the word 'story' because Lady Ann reports her +machinations while they are in progress and we are a little nervous about +the issue. Her main service, however, lies in the pictures she draws of +her own highly placed relatives and of a number of people who at house +parties and elsewhere may help ladies of title to make both ends meet. +Chief among them is her son Will, who even as seen through her partial +eyes, appears a very dishonest, paltry boy. Her blind devotion to him +humanises both her shrewdness and her selfishness. It is for his sake that +she separates her niece from the fine young soldier she is in love with +and that she almost succeeds in providing the King's Proctor with the +materials for an intervention that would secure to him the estates and +title of his fox-hunting uncle. There is always a plain tale to put her +down and always the friend of proved discretion is left with the +impression that the tale is the invention of malice; at least we suppose +she must be, for Lady Ann is allowed by people to whom she has done one +injury to remain in a position to do them another. The difficult medium +employed by Mr. McKenna entitles him, however, to count on the +co-operation of the reader; and it is to be accorded the more readily that +to it we owe the felicity of having her own account of the steps she took +to prevent an attractive but expensive widow from running away with her +husband, and of the party which she gave, according to plan, to the +Princess and, not according to plan, to other guests let loose on her by +her scapegrace brother-in-law." + +=iii= + +Stephen McKenna, the author of _Sonia_, not to be confused with Stephen +McKenna, the translator of Poltinus, belongs to the Protestant branch of +that royal Catholic sept which has had its home in the County Monagham +since the dawn of Irish history. Some members, even, of this branch have +reverted to the old faith since the date of Stephen McKenna's birth in the +year 1888 in London. + +He was a scholar of Westminster and an exhibitioner of Christ Church, +Oxford. After he had taken his degree, his father, Leopold McKenna, an +elder brother of the Right Honourable Reginald McKenna, K. C., the last +Liberal Chancellor of the British Exchequer, made it possible for him to +travel desultorily and to try his luck in the great literary adventure. + +On the outbreak of the war, as his health, which is delicate to the point +of frailness, debarred him from entering the army, Stephen McKenna first +volunteered for service at his old school, and, after a year, joined the +staff of the War Trade Intelligence Department, where he did valuable war +work for three and a half years. He represented his department on the +Right Honourable A. J. Balfour's mission in 1917, to the United States, +where he enjoyed himself thoroughly and made himself very popular; and he +did not sever his connection with the government service until February, +1919, four months after the conclusion of the armistice. + +Stephen McKenna's first three novels--_The Reluctant Lover_, _Sheila +Intervenes_ and _The Sixth Sense_--were written and published before their +author was 27 years of age! But _Sonia_, the story that made him widely +known, was written entirely during the period of his activities on the +staff of Westminster School and at the War Trade Intelligence Department. +The book won the public favour more quickly than perhaps any other novel +that has appeared in our time. + +The success of _Sonia_ was largely due to its description in a facile, +popular and yet eminently chaste and polished style, of the social and +political situation in England for a half generation before and during the +early stages of the war. This description Stephen McKenna was peculiarly +well-equipped to produce, not only as the near relative of a prominent +cabinet minister, but also as an assiduous frequenter of the leading +Liberal centre, the Reform Club, on the committee of which he had sat, +despite his youthful years, since 1915. The political interest, indeed, is +revealed in the subtitle, _Between Two Worlds_, which was originally +intended for the actual title. + +McKenna's next book, _Ninety-Six Hours' Leave_, appealed to the reader's +gayer moods and _Midas and Son_, with its tragic history of an +Anglo-American multimillionaire, to the reader in serious temper. + +In spite of certain blemishes due to Mr. McKenna's unfamiliarity with +American life, I should say that _Midas and Son_ is probably his ablest +work so far. I think it surpasses even _Sonia_. Mr. McKenna returned to +Sonia in his novel, _Sonia Married_. His work after that was a trilogy +called _The Sensationalists_, three brilliant studies of modern London in +the form of successive novels called _Lady Lilith_, _The Education of Eric +Lane_ and _The Secret Victory_. + +=iv= + +Writing from 11, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1920, Mr. +McKenna had this to say about his trilogy: + +"_Lady Lilith_ is the first volume of a trilogy called _The +Sensationalists_, three books giving the history for a few years before +the war, during and immediately after the war, of a group of +sensation-mongers, emotion-hunters or whatever you like to call them, +whose principle and practice it was to startle the world by the +extravagance of their behaviour, speech, dress and thought and, in the +other sense of the word, sensationalism, to live on the excitement of new +experiences. Such people have always existed and always will exist, +receiving perhaps undue attention from the world that they set out to +astonish. You, I am sure, have them in America, as we have them here, and +in the luxurious and idle years before the war they had incomparable scope +for their search for novelty and their quest for emotion. Some of the +characters in _Lady Lilith_ have already been seen hovering in the +background of _Sonia_, _Midas and Son_ and _Sonia Married_, though the +principal characters in _Lady Lilith_ have not before been painted at full +length or in great detail; and these principal characters will be found in +all three books of the trilogy. + +"_Lady Lilith_, of course, takes its title from the Talmud, according to +which Lilith was Adam's first wife; and as mankind did not taste of the +Tree of Knowledge or of death until Eve came to trouble the Garden of +Eden, Lilith belongs to a time in which there was neither death nor +knowledge of good or evil in the world. She is immortal, unaging and +non-moral; her name is given by Valentine Arden, the young novelist who +appears in _Sonia_ and elsewhere, to Lady Barbara Neave, the principal +character in _Lady Lilith_ and one of the principal characters in the two +succeeding books." + +=v= + +In person, Stephen McKenna is tall, with a slender figure, Irish blue +eyes, fair hair, regular features and a Dante profile. He has an engaging +and very courteous address, a sympathetic manner, a ready but always +urbane wit and great conversational charm. He possesses the rare +accomplishment of "talking like a book." His intimates are legion; and, +apart from these, he knows everyone who "counts" in London society. He is +known never to lose his temper; and it is doubtful whether he has ever had +cause to lose it. + +His one recreation is the Opera; and during the London season his +delightful chambers in Lincoln's Inn are the almost nightly scene of +parties collected then and there from the opera house. + +=vi= + +A sample of _The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman_: + +"Lady Ann (_to a friend of proved discretion_): You have toiled all the +way here again? Do you know, I feel I am only beginning to find out who my +true friends are? I am much, much better.... On Friday I am to be allowed +on to the sofa and by the end of next week Dr. Richardson promises to let +me go back to Mount Street. Of course I should have liked the operation to +take place there--it is one's frame and setting, but, truly honestly, +Arthur and I have not been in a position to have any painting or papering +done for so long.... The surgeon insisted on a nursing home. Apparatus and +so on and so forth.... Quite between ourselves I fancy that they make a +very good thing out of these homes; but I am so thankful to be well again +that I would put up with almost any imposition.... + +"Everything went off too wonderfully. Perhaps you have seen my brother +Brackenbury? Or Ruth? Ah, I am sorry; I should have been vastly +entertained to hear what they were saying, what they dared say. Ruth did +indeed offer to pay the expenses of the operation--the belated prick of +conscience!--and it was on the tip of my tongue to say we are not yet +dependent on her spasmodic charity. Also, that I can keep my lips closed +about Brackenbury without expecting a--tip? But they know I can't afford +to refuse £500.... If they, if everybody would only leave one alone! Spied +on, whispered about.... + +"The papers made such an absurd stir! If you are known by name as +occupying any little niche, the world waits gaping below. I suppose I +ought to be flattered, but for days there were callers, letters, +telephone-messages. Like Royalty _in extremis_.... And I never pretended +that the operation was in any sense critical.... + +"Do you know, beyond saying that, I would much rather not talk about it? +This very modern frankness.... Not you, of course! But when a man like my +brother-in-law Spenworth strides in here a few hours before the anæsthetic +is administered and says 'What is the matter with you? Much ado about +nothing, I call it.' ... That from Arthur's brother to Arthur's wife, +when, for all he knew, he might never see her alive again.... I prefer +just to say that everything went off most satisfactorily and that I hope +now to be better than I have been for years...." + +BOOKS BY STEPHEN MCKENNA + +THE RELUCTANT LOVER +SHEILA INTERVENES +THE SIXTH SENSE +SONIA: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS +NINETY-SIX HOURS' LEAVE +MIDAS AND SON +SONIA MARRIED +LADY LILITH +THE EDUCATION OF ERIC LANE +THE SECRET VICTORY +WHILE I REMEMBER +THE CONFESSIONS OF A WELL-MEANING WOMAN + +SOURCES ON STEPHEN MCKENNA + +_Who's Who_ [In England]. + +Private Information. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +POETS AND PLAYWRIGHTS + + +=i= + +I have to tell about a number of poets and, regarding poets, I agree with +a very clever woman I know who declares that poetry is the most personal +of the arts and who further says that it is manifestly inadequate to talk +about a poet's work without giving a sample of his poetry. So, generally, +I shall quote one of the shorter poems or a passage from a longer poem. + +John Dos Passos, known for _Three Soldiers_ and for _Rosinante to the Road +Again_, will be still more variously known to those who read his book of +verse, _A Pushcart at the Curb_. This book bears a relation to +_Rosinante_, the contents grouping themselves under these general +headings: + + Winter in Castile + Nights by Bassano + Translations from the Spanish of Antonio Machado + Vagones de Tercera + Quai de la Tournelle + Of Foreign Travel + Phases of the Moon + +I will select for quotation the sixth or final poem dedicated to A. K. +McC. from the section entitled "Quai de la Tournelle," + + This is a garden + where through the russet mist of clustered trees + and strewn November leaves, + they crunch with vainglorious heels + of ancient vermilion + the dry dead of spent summer's greens, + and stalk with mincing sceptic steps, + and sound of snuffboxes snapping + to the capping of an epigram, + in fluffy attar-scented wigs ... + the exquisite Augustans. + +Christopher Morley is too well-known as a poet to require any explicit +account in this place. I shall remind you of the pleasure of reading him +by quoting the "Song For a Little House" from his book, _The Rocking +Horse_, and also a short verse from his _Translations from the Chinese_. + + I'm glad our house is a little house, + Not too tall nor too wide: + I'm glad the hovering butterflies + Feel free to come inside. + + Our little house is a friendly house, + It is not shy or vain; + It gossips with the talking trees, + And makes friends with the rain. + + And quick leaves cast a shimmer of green, + Against our whited walls, + And in the phlox, the courteous bees, + Are paying duty calls. + +But there is a different temper--or, if you like, tempering--to the verse +in _Translations from the Chinese_. I quote "A National Frailty": + + The American people + Were put into the world + To assist foreign lecturers. + When I visited them + They filled crowded halls + To hear me tell them Great Truths + Which they might as well have read + In their own prophet Thoreau. + They paid me, for this, + Three hundred dollars a night, + And ten of their mandarins + Invited me to visit at Newport. + My agent told me + If I would wear Chinese costume on the platform + It would be five hundred. + +In speaking of the late Joyce Kilmer, the temptation is inescapable to +quote his "Trees"; after all, it is his best known and best loved poem--in +certain moments it is his best poem! But instead, I will desert his +volume, _Trees and Other Poems_, and from his other book, _Main Street and +Other Poems_, I will quote the first two stanzas of Kilmer's "Houses"--a +poem written for his wife: + + When you shall die and to the sky + Serenely, delicately go, + Saint Peter, when he sees you there, + Will clash his keys and say: + "Now talk to her, Sir Christopher! + And hurry, Michelangelo! + She wants to play at building, + And you've got to help her play!" + + Every architect will help erect + A palace on a lawn of cloud, + With rainbow beams and a sunset roof, + And a level star-tiled floor; + And at your will you may use the skill + Of this gay angelic crowd, + When a house is made you will throw it down, + And they'll build you twenty more. + +Mrs. Kilmer is the author of two volumes of verse which have sold rather +more than John Masefield usually sells--at least, until the publication of +_Reynard the Fox. Candles That Burn_ created her audience and _Vigils_ has +been that audience's renewed delight. From _Vigils_ I take the poem "The +Touch of Tears." In it "Michael" is, of course, her own son: + + Michael walks in autumn leaves, + Rustling leaves and fading grasses, + And his little music-box + Tinkles faintly as he passes. + It's a gay and jaunty tune + If the hands that play were clever: + Michael plays it like a dirge, + Moaning on and on forever. + + While his happy eyes grow big, + Big and innocent and soulful, + Wistful, halting little notes + Rise, unutterably doleful, + Telling of all childish griefs-- + Baffled babies sob forsaken, + Birds fly off and bubbles burst, + Kittens sleep and will not waken. + + Michael, it's the touch of tears. + Though you sing for very gladness, + Others will not see your mirth; + They will mourn your fancied sadness. + Though you laugh at them in scorn, + Show your happy heart for token, + Michael, you'll protest in vain-- + They will swear your heart is broken! + +I think I have said elsewhere that J. C. Squire prefers his serious poems +to those parodies of which he is such an admitted master. It seems only +decent to defer, in this place, to the author's own feeling in the matter. +Mr. Squire is the author of _The Birds and Other Poems_ and _Poems: Second +Series_. My present choice is the beginning and the close of the poem, +"Harlequin"--which is in both books: + + Moonlit woodland, veils of green, + Caves of empty dark between; + Veils of green from rounded arms + Drooping, that the moonlight charms: + Tranced the trees, grass beneath + Silent ... + Like a stealthy breath, + Mask and wand and silver skin + Sudden enters Harlequin. + + Hist! Hist! Watch him go, + Leaping limb and pointing toe, + Slender arms that float and flow, + Curving wand above, below; + Flying, gliding, changing feet; + Onset merging in retreat. + + Not a shadow of sound there is + But his motion's gentle hiss, + Till one fluent arm and hand + Suddenly circles, and the wand + Taps a bough far overhead, + "Crack," and then all noise is dead. + For he halts, and for a space + Stands erect with upward face, + Taut and tense to the white + Message of the Moon's light. + + He was listening; he was there; + Flash! he went. To the air + He a waiting ear had bent, + Silent; but before he went + Something somewhere else to seek, + He moved his lips as though to speak. + + And we wait, and in vain, + For he will not come again. + Earth, grass, wood, and air, + As we stare, and we stare, + Which that fierce life did hold, + Tired, dim, void, cold. + +Milton Raison is a young writer, known especially to readers of The +Bookman, whose verse has appeared in various magazines. A Russian, Milton +Raison went to sea as a boy--he is scarcely more than a boy now. His first +book of verse, _Spindrift_, carries a preface by William McFee. I quote: + +"There is a Latin sharpness of mentality manifested in these clearly, +sardonically etched portraits of a ship's crew. The whimsical humour +revealed in final lines is a portent, in the present writer's opinion, of +a talent which will probably come to maturity in a very different field. +Indeed it may be, though it is too early to dogmatise, that these poems +are but the early efflorescence of a gift for vigorous prose narrative. + +"Mr. Milton Raison has settled for himself, with engaging promptitude, +that a seafaring career provides the inspiration he craves. The influence +of Masefield is strong upon him, and some of his verses are plainly +derivative. As already hinted, it is too early to say definitely how this +plan will succeed. In his diary, kept while on a voyage to South America, +a document remarkable for its descriptive power and a certain crude and +virginal candour, one may discover an embryo novelist struggling with the +inevitable limitations of youth. But in his simple and naïve poems, +whether they give us some bizarre and catastrophic picture of seamen, or +depict the charming emotions of a sensitive adolescence, there is a +passion for experiment and humility of intellect which promises well +enough for a young man in his teens." + +I find it particularly difficult to choose a poem for citation from this +book. Perhaps I shall do as well as I can, with only space to quote one +poem, if I give you "Vision": + + Have I forgotten beauty, and the pang + Of sheer delight in perfect visioning? + Have I forgotten how the spirit sang + When shattered breakers sprayed their ocean-tang + To ease the blows with which the great cliffs rang? + Have I forgotten how the fond stars fling + Their naked children to the faery ring + Of some dark pool, and watch them play and sing + In silent silver chords I too could hear? + Or smile to see a starlet shake with fear + Whenever winds disturbed the lake's repose, + Or when in mocking mood they form in rows, + And stare up at their parents--so sedate-- + Then break up laughing 'neath a ripple's weight? + +It seems as if, _The First Person Singular_ having been published, more +people now know William Rose Benét as a novelist than as a poet. I cannot +help feeling that to be something of a pity. I am not going to quote one +of Mr. Benét's poems--indeed all his best work is in quite long and +semi-narrative verse--but I will give you what Don Marquis was inspired to +write after reading Benét's _Moons of Grandeur_. On looking at it again, I +see that Mr. Marquis has quoted eight lines, so you shall have your taste +of William Rose Benét, the poet, after all! + +"Some day, just to please ourself, we intend to make a compilation of +poems that we love best; the ones that we turn to again and again. There +will be in the volume the six odes of Keats, Shelley's 'Adonais'; +Wordsworth's 'Intimations of Immortality'; Milton's 'L'Allegro' and 'Il +Penseroso'; William Rose Benét's 'Man Possessed' and very little else. + +"We don't 'defend' these poems ... no doubt they are all of them quite +indefensible, in the light of certain special poetic revelations of the +last few years ... and we have no particular theories about them; we +merely yield ourself to them, and they transport us; we are careless of +reason in the matter, for they cast a spell upon us. We do not mean to say +that we are in the category with the person who says: 'I don't know +anything about art, but I know what I like'--On the contrary, we know +exactly why we like these things, although we don't intend to take the +trouble to tell you now. + +"William Rose Benét has published another book of poems, _Moons of +Grandeur_. Here is a stanza picked up at random--it happens to be the +opening stanza of 'Gaspara Stampa'--which shows the lyric quality of the +verse: + + "Like flame, like wine, across the still lagoon, + The colours of the sunset stream. + Spectral in heaven as climbs the frail veiled moon + So climbs my dream. + Out of the heart's eternal torture fire + No eastern phoenix risen-- + Only the naked soul, spent with desire, + Bursts its prison. + +"Was Benét ever in Italy? No matter ... he has Italy in him, in his heart +and brain. Italy and Egypt and every other country that was ever warmed by +the sun of beauty and shone on by the stars of romance. For the poems in +this book are woven of the stuff of sheer romance. There is nothing else +in the world as depressing as a romantic poem that doesn't 'get there.' +And to us, at least, there is nothing as thrilling as the authentic voice +of romance, the genuine utterance of the soul that walks in communion with +beauty. _Moons of Grandeur_ is a ringing bell and a glimmering tapestry +and a draught of sparkling wine. + +"A certain rich intricacy of pattern distinguishes the physical body of +Benét's art; when he chooses he can use words as if they were the jewelled +particles of a mosaic; familiar words, with his handling, become +'something rich and strange.' Of the spiritual content of his poems, we +can say nothing adequate, because there is not much that can be said of +spirit; either it is there and you feel it, and it works upon you, or it +is not there. There are very few people writing verse today who have the +power to charm us and enchant us and carry us away with them as Benét can. +He has found the horse with wings." + +_The Bookman Anthology of Verse_ (1922), edited by John Farrar, editor of +The Bookman, is an altogether extraordinary anthology to be made up from +the poets contributing to a single magazine in eighteen consecutive +months. Among those who are represented are: Franklin P. Adams, Karle +Wilson Baker, Maxwell Bodenheim, Hilda Conkling, John Dos Passos, Zona +Gale, D. H. Lawrence, Amy Lowell, David Morton, Edwin Arlington Robinson, +Carl Sandburg, Siegfried Sassoon, Sara Teasdale, Louis and Jean Starr +Untermeyer, and Elinor Wylie. + +Mr. Farrar has written short introductions to the example (or examples) of +the work of each poet. In his general preface he says: + +"Where most anthologies of poetry are collected for the purpose of giving +pleasure by means of the verses themselves, I have tried here to give you +something of the joy to be found in securing manuscripts, in attempting to +understand current poetry by a broadening of taste to match broadening +literary tendencies; and, perhaps most important of all, to present you to +the poets themselves as I know them by actual meeting or correspondence." + +I will choose what Mr. Farrar says about Hilda Conkling, prefacing her +poem "Lonely Song"; and then I will quote the poem: + +"A shy, but normal little girl, twelve years old now, nine when her first +volume of verses appeared, Hilda Conkling is not so much the infant +prodigy as a clear proof that the child mind, before the precious spark is +destroyed, possesses both vision and the ability to express it in natural +and beautiful rhythm. Grace Hazard Conkling, herself a poet, is Hilda's +mother. They live at Northampton, Massachusetts, in the academic +atmosphere of Smith College where those who know the little girl say that +she enjoys sliding down a cellar stairway quite as much as she does +talking of elves and gnomes. She was born in New York State, so that she +is distinctly of the East. The rhythms which she uses to express her ideas +are the result both of her own moods, which are often crystal-clear in +their delicate imagery, and of the fact that from time to time, when she +was first able to listen, her mother read aloud to her. In fact, her first +poems were made before she, herself, could write them down. The +speculation as to what she will do when she grows to womanhood is a common +one. Is it important? A childhood filled with beauty is something to have +achieved." + + Bend low, blue sky, + Touch my forehead; + You look cool ... bend down ... + + Flow about me in your blueness and coolness, + Be thistledown, be flowers, + Be all the songs I have not yet sung. + + Laugh at me, sky! + Put a cap of cloud on my head ... + Blow it off with your blue winds; + Give me a feeling of your laughter + Beyond cloud and wind! + I need to have you laugh at me + As though you liked me a little. + +This has been, as I meant it to be, a wholly serious chapter; but at the +end I find I cannot stop without speaking of Keith Preston. No one who +reads the Chicago Daily News fails to know Keith Preston's delightful +humour and "needle-tipped satire." And his book, _Splinters_, contains all +sorts of good things of which I can give you, alas, only some inadequate +(because solitary) sample. Yet, anyway, here is his "Ode to Common +Sense": + + Spirit or demon, Common Sense! + Seen seldom by us mortals dense, + Come, sprite, inform, inhabit me + And teach me art and poetry. + + Teach me to chuckle, sly as you, + At gods that now I truckle to, + To doubt the New Republic's bent, + And jeer each bookish Supplement. + + Now, like a thief, you come and flit, + You call so seldom, Mother Wit! + Remember? Once when you stood by + I found a Dreiser novel dry. + + One day when I was reading hard-- + What? Amy Lowell, godlike bard! + You peeped and then at what you saw + Gave one Gargantuan guffaw. + + Spirit or demon, coarse or rude, + (Sometimes I think you must be stewed) + Brute that you are, I love your powers, + But,--drop in after office hours! + + Yes, Common Sense, be mine, I ask, + But still respect my critic's task; + Molest me not when I'm employed + With psychics, sex, vers libre, or Freud. + +=ii= + +The matter of playwrights is much more difficult than that of poets! A +play cannot, as a rule, be satisfactorily quoted from. In the case of a +play which is to be staged there are terrible objections (on the part of +the producer) to any excerpts at all appearing in advance. The publication +of the text of a play is hedged about by all manner of difficulties, +copyrights, warnings and solemn notifications. As I write, it is expected +that A. H. Woods, the producer of plays, will stage at the Times Square +Theatre, New York, probably in September, 1922, the new play by W. +Somerset Maugham, _East of Suez_. Pauline Frederick is expected to assume +the principal rôle. Mr. Maugham's play will be published when it has been +produced, or, if the theatre plans suffer one of those changes to which +all theatres are subject, will be published anyhow! Shall we say that the +setting is Chinese, and that the characters are Europeans, and that Mr. +Maugham has again shown his peculiar skill in the delineation of the white +man in contact with an alien civilisation? We shall say so. And--never +mind! A sure production of the play for the Fireside Theatre is hereby +guaranteed. The Fireside Theatre, blessed institution, has certain merits. +The actors are always ideal and the performance always begins on time, as +a letter to the New York Times has pointed out. + +Arnold Bennett has written a lot of plays; _The Love Match_ is merely the +latest of them. If I cannot very well quote a scene from _The Love +Match_,--on the grounds of length and possible unintelligibility apart +from the rest of the drama--I can give you, I think, an idea of the wit of +the dialogue: + +RUSS (_with calm and disdainful resentment_). You're angry with me now. + +NINA (_hurt_). Indeed I'm not. Why should I be angry? Do you suppose I +mind who sends you flowers? + +RUSS. No, I don't. That's not the reason. You're angry with me because you +came in here tonight, after saying positively you wouldn't come, and I +didn't happen to be waiting for you. + +NINA. Hugh, you're ridiculous. + +RUSS. Of course I am. That's not the reason. You took me against my will +to that footling hospital ball last night, and I only got three hours' +sleep instead of six, and you're angry with me because I yawned after you +kissed me. + +NINA. You're too utterly absurd! + +RUSS. Of course I am. That's not the reason, either. The real reason is +(_firmly_) you're angry with me because you clean forgot it was my +birthday today. That's why you're angry with me. + +NINA. Well, I think you might have reminded me.... + +NINA. I like sitting on the carpet. + +(_She reclines at his feet._) I wonder why women nowadays are so fond of +the floor. + +RUSS. Because they're oriental, of course. + +NINA. But I'm not oriental, Hughie! (_Looking at him with loving +passion._) Am I? + +RUSS. That's the Eastern question. + +NINA. But you like it, don't you? + +RUSS. Every man has a private longing to live in the East. + +NINA. But not harems and things? + +RUSS. Well--within reason.... + +NINA. What do you think of me? I'm always dying to know, and I'm never +sure. + +RUSS. What do you think of _me_? + +NINA. I think you're magnificent and terrible and ruthless. + +RUSS (_with amicable sincerity_). Oh, no, I'm not. But you are. + +NINA. How? When? When was I ruthless last? + +RUSS. You're always ruthless in your appetite for life. You want to taste +everything, enjoy all the sensations there are. This evening you like +intensely to sit very quiet on the floor; but last night you were mad +about dancing and eating and drinking. You couldn't be still. Tomorrow +night it'll be something else. There's no end to what you want, and what +you want tremendously, and what you've jolly well got to have. You aren't +a woman. You're a hundred women. + +NINA. Oh! Hughie. How well you understand! + +RUSS. Yes, don't I? + +NINA (_tenderly_). Do I make you very unhappy? Hughie, you mustn't tell me +I make you unhappy. I couldn't bear it. + +RUSS. Then I won't. + +NINA. But do I? + +RUSS. Let's say you cause a certain amount of disturbance sometimes. + +NINA. But you like me to be as I am, don't you? + +RUSS. Yes. + +NINA. You wouldn't have me altered? + +RUSS. Can't alter a climate. + +NINA. You don't know how much I want to be perfect for you. + +RUSS. You know my ruthless rule, "The best is good enough; chuck +everything else into the street." Have I ever, on any single occasion, +chucked you into the street? + +NINA. But I want to be more perfect. + +RUSS. Why do women always hanker after the impossible? + +J. Hartley Manners is the husband of Laurette Taylor and the author of +plays in some of which she appears. His drama _The Harp of Life_ has as +its theme the love of two women, his mother and a courtesan, for a +nineteen-year-old boy, and their willing self-sacrifice that he may go +forward unbroken and unsmirched. The interesting thing, aside from the +strength of the play and its vivid study of adolescence, is the portrait +of the mother. And now his play, _The National Anthem_, which caused so +much discussion, is procurable in book form. + +Here I have been talking about _East of Suez_ and _The Love Match_ and +have said nothing about _The Circle_ or _Milestones_! But I suppose +everyone knows that _The Circle_ is by Maugham and was markedly successful +when it was produced in New York; and surely everyone must know that +_Milestones_ is by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblauch--one of the great +plays of the last quarter century. I must take a moment to speak of Sidney +Howard's four act play, _Swords_. I think the best thing to do is to give +what Kenneth Macgowan, an exceptionally able critic of the drama, said +about the play: + +"_Swords_ is as remarkable a play as America has ever produced. It is a +drama of action on a par with _The Jest_, fused with the ecstasy of +inspiration and the mysticism of the spirit and the body of woman. It sets +Ghibelline and Guelph, Pope and Emperor, two nobles and a dog of the +gutters fighting for a lady of strange and extraordinary beauty who is the +bride of one noble and the hostage of the other. With the passions, the +cruelties, and spiritual vision of the middle ages to build upon _Swords_ +sweeps upward to a scene of sudden, flashing conflict shot with the mystic +and triumphant ecstasy which emanates from this glorious woman." + +American lovers of the drama have a special interest in the two volumes of +_The Plays of Hubert Henry Davies._ At the time of his first success Mr. +Davies was working in San Francisco, whither he had come from England. It +was Frohman who made him an offer that brought him to New York and began +the series of productions which ended only with his death in 1917 in +Paris. These two volumes, very beautiful examples of fine bookmaking, +contain the successes: _Cousin Kate_, _Captain Drew on Leave_, and _The +Mollusc_. Among the other plays included are: _A Single Man_, _Doormats_, +_Outcasts_, _Mrs. Gorringe's Necklace_, and _Lady Epping's Lawsuit_. Hugh +Walpole has contributed a very touching introduction. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE BOOKMAN FOUNDATION AND THE BOOKMAN + + +"Thank you very much for the May Bookman," writes Hugh Walpole (June, +1922). "I have been reading The Bookman during the last year and I +congratulate Mr. Farrar most strongly upon it. The paper has now a +personality unlike any other that I know and it is the least dull of all +literary papers! I like especially the more serious articles, the series +of sketches of literary personalities seeming especially excellent to me." +Mr. Walpole evidently had in mind the feature of The Bookman called "The +Literary Spotlight." + +"The Bookman is alive. If there is a better quality in the long run for a +general literary magazine to try for, I do not know what it is," writes +Carl Van Doren, literary editor of The Nation. + +"Mr. Farrar has turned The Bookman into a monthly brimming with his own +creative enthusiasm," says Louis Untermeyer. "It has technically as well +as figuratively no rival." + +And Irvin S. Cobb declares: "By my way of thinking, it is the most +informative, the most entertaining, and incidentally the brightest and +most amusing publication devoted to literature and its products that I +have ever seen." + +=ii= + +The idea of The Bookman Foundation first occurred in a discussion of the +future of the magazine and the ampler purposes it was desired to have The +Bookman serve. The idea had been advanced that more than the future of the +magazine should be considered; those to whom the welfare of the magazine +was a most important consideration distinctly felt that welfare to depend +upon a healthy and thriving condition of American literature and of +American interest in American literature. The broadest possible view, as +is so often the case, seemed the only ultimately profitable view. In what +way could The Bookman serve the interests of American literature in which +it was not already serving them? How could public interest in American +literature best be stimulated? + +The idea gradually took shape as a form of foundation, naturally to be +called The Bookman Foundation, with a double purpose. Fundamentally The +Bookman Foundation is being established to stimulate the study of American +literature and its development; more immediately, and as the direct means +to that end, the purpose of the Foundation will be to afford a vehicle for +the best constructive criticism, spoken and written, on the beginnings and +development of our literature. In association with the faculty of English +at one of the larger and older American universities, Yale, the Foundation +will establish a lectureship; and annually there will be given at Yale a +lecture or a course of lectures on American literature by some +distinguished writer or critic. It is hoped that, as the Foundation grows, +other universities will be brought into co-operation with Yale so that the +lectureship may move from centre to centre, stimulating to intelligent +self-expression the varied elements that are contributing to our national +growth. + +The lectures given on The Bookman Foundation will be published in book +form by The Bookman in a handsome and uniform edition. Membership in The +Bookman Foundation will be by invitation. All members of the Foundation +will be entitled to receive the published lectures without charge and they +will also have the privilege of subscribing for certain first and limited +editions of notable American books. At the present writing, even so much +as I have suggested is largely tentative, and I offer it for its essential +idea; an executive committee of The Bookman Foundation, in co-operation +with an advisory committee, the members of which committees have +yet to be finally determined, will settle all details. By the time of this +book's publication or even sooner, I expect a full announcement will have +been made; and for the correction of what I have stated I would refer the +reader to The Bookman itself. + +=iii= + +I am not going to give a historical account of The Bookman here. The +magazine is no newcomer among American periodicals. It has a reasonably +old and highly honourable history. For long published by the house of +Dodd, Mead & Company, it was acquired by George H. Doran Company and +placed under the editorial direction of Robert Cortes Holliday. That was +the beginning of a new vitality in its pages. Mr. Holliday was succeeded +by Mr. Farrar, and now, in its fifty-sixth volume, The Bookman seems to +the thousands who read it more interesting than ever before in its +history. + +The roll call of its past and present contributors includes many of the +representative names in contemporary American and English literature. I +will give a few: + + JOSEPH HERGESHEIMER + AMY LOWELL + SIEGFRIED SASSOON + JAMES BRANCH CABELL + MARY ROBERTS RINEHART + ZONA GALE + FANNIE HURST + WILLIAM MCFEE + SHERWOOD ANDERSON + HUGH WALPOLE + FRANK SWINNERTON + ROBERT FROST + SARA TEASDALE + IRVIN S. COBB + RICHARD LE GALLIENNE + DONN BYRNE + CHRISTOPHER MORLEY + ROBERT CORTES HOLLIDAY + JOHAN BOJER + WILLIAM ROSE BENÉT + EDGAR LEE MASTERS + KATHLEEN NORRIS + FREDERICK O'BRIEN + D. H. LAWRENCE + JOHN DRINKWATER + JOSEPH C. LINCOLN + GEORGE JEAN NATHAN + WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE + CARL SANDBURG + SINCLAIR LEWIS + F. SCOTT FITZGERALD + EUGENE O'NEILL + H. L. MENCKEN + JOHN DOS PASSOS + ELINOR WYLIE + GERTRUDE ATHERTON + FLOYD DELL + +=iv= + +Among the American essayists whose work has appeared in The Bookman before +its publication in book form is Robert Cortes Holliday; among strikingly +successful books that appeared serially in The Bookman was Donald Ogden +Stewart's _A Parody Outline of History_. Among The Bookman's regular +reviewers are Louis Untermeyer, Wilson Follett, Paul Elmer More, H. L. +Mencken, Henry Seidel Canby and Maurice Francis Egan. Among writers of +distinction whose short stories have first appeared in The Bookman are +William McFee, Sherwood Anderson, Mary Austin, and Johan Bojer; while the +intimate personal portraits published under the general title "The +Literary Spotlight" have Lytton Stracheyized contemporary American +literature. Possibly it is in the department of poetry that The Bookman +now shines the brightest (see the account of The Bookman Anthology in the +previous chapter); if so, that may be because the editor, John Farrar, is +himself a poet. + +Probably no other literary magazine in the world exhibits such a degree of +personal contact between the editor, his readers, his contributors and the +magazine's friends. This note of personal contact is constantly reflected +in the magazine's pages; but anyone who has called upon the editor of The +Bookman once or twice will know explicitly just what I mean. + + + + +EPILOGUE + + +I have been surprised, on looking back over these chapters, by the variety +of the books I have talked about. That so diverse a list should be under a +single imprint and should represent, with few exceptions, the publications +of a single twelvemonth, seems to me very remarkable. I believe a majority +of the books are the production of a single publishing season, the autumn +of 1922, and the Doran imprint is but thirteen years old. + +"Of the making of books, there is no end"; but of the making of any single +book, there must come an end. Yet what is the end of a book but the +beginning of new friendships? + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +Agate, James E., 49; + _Alarums and Excursions_, 49; + dramatic critic, 50; + _Responsibility_, 50; + review by The Londoner, in The Bookman, 50 + +_Alarums and Excursions_ by James E. Agate, 49 + +_Alone in the Caribbean_, by Frederic A. Fenger, 194 + +_Altar Steps, The_, by Compton Mackenzie, 265, 266 + +_Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry, The_, + by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 108, 115, 116 + +_Amazing Interlude, The_, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 105, 115, 116 + +Andrews, C. E., _Old Morocco and the Forbidden Atlas_, 193 + +_Ann and Her Mother_, by O. Douglas, 249 + +_Anna of the Five Towns_, by Arnold Bennett, 146, 149 + +_Art of Lawn Tennis_, The, by William T. Tilden, 213 + +Asquith, Elizabeth (Princess Antoine Bibesco), + daughter of Margot Asquith, 47 + +Asquith, Margot, 89; + mother of Elizabeth, 47; + _My Impressions of America_, 122; + _The Autobiography of Margot Asquith_, 122 + +_Autobiography of Margot Asquith_, The, by Margot Asquith, 122 + +Bailey, Margaret Emerson, _Robin Hood's Barn_, 194 + +_Balloons_, by Princess Antoine Bibesco, 47 + +Banning, Margaret Culkin, _Half Loaves_, 253; + _Spellbinders_, 252; + _This Marrying_, 253 + +Barton, Olive Roberts, _Cloud Boat Stories,_ 162; + Column, 162; + review by Candace T. Stevenson, 162-164; + sister of Mary Roberts Rinehart, 161; + _Wonderful Land of Up_, 162; + work with children, 161 + +_Beauty for Ashes_, by Jean Sutherland, 262 + +Belloc, Hilaire, 23, 77 + +Benét, William Rose, _Moons of Grandeur_, 354, 355; + review by Don Marquis, 354, 355; + Benét, William Rose, _The First Person Singular_, 262, 263, 354 + +Bennett, Arnold 133, 134, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151; + A _Man from the North_, 146, 149; + _Anna of the Five Towns_, 146, 149; + article on Hugh Walpole, 22, 23; + booklet by George H. Doran Co., 150; + books by, list of, 149, 150; + _Clayhanger_, 148, 149; + comments of Frank Swinnerton's Books, 225; + comments on _The Casement_, by Frank Swinnerton, 236-242; + criticism by New York Evening Post, 148; + _Cupid and Commonsense_, 133, 150; + description of Hugh Walpole, 22; + _Friendship and Happiness_, 303; + _How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day_, 303; + _Lilian_, 133; + _Love and Life_, 146; + _Married Life_, 303; + _Mental Efficiency_, 303; + _Milestones_ (with Edward Knoblauch), 364; + _Mr. Prohack_, 133, 141, 149; + on Hugh Walpole's courage, 25; + _Polite Farces_, 146; + _Self and Self-Management_, 303; + sketch of life by John W. Cunliffe, 144-148, 150; + sources on, 150; + _The Author's Craft_, 150; + education of, 145; + _The Gates of Wrath_, 146, 149; + _The Love Match_, 361, 364; + _The Old Wives' Tale_, 133, 149; + _The Truth About an Author_, 144, 150 + +Benson, E. F., _Peter_, 261 + +_Between Two Thieves_, by Richard Dehan (Clotilde Graves), 198, 200, 210 + +Bibesco, Princess Antoine (Elizabeth Asquith), 47; + _Balloons_, 47; + _I Have Only Myself to Blame_, 47 + +_Birds and Other Poems, The_, by J. C. Squire, 351; + Quotation from, 351 + +_Black Gang, The_, by Cyril McNeile, 70 + +_Black Cæsar's Clan_, by Albert Payson Terhune, 71 + +_Black Gold_, by Albert Payson Terhune, 71; + Foreword to, by Albert Payson Terhune, 71-74 + +Blaker, Richard, _The Voice in the Wilderness_, 263 + +Bookman, The; + articles by Robert Cortes Holliday, 221; + Comment on Richard Dehan, 198, 211; + Comments on by Hugh Walpole, Carl Van Doren, Irvin S. Cobb, + Louis Untermeyer, 367; + List of contributors, 370, 371; + List of Reviewers, 371 + +_Book of Humorous Verse_, by Carolyn Wells, 99 + +_Bookman Anthology of Verse_ (1922), 356; + Contributors, 356, 357 + +_Bookman Foundation, The_, 367, 368; + lectures on, 368 + +_Books in General, Third Series_, by J. C. Squire, 44 + +Bottome, Phyllis (Mrs. A. E. Forbes Dennis), 258; + Acquaintances, 259; + _The Kingfisher_, 260 + +_Boy Journalist Series_, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, 159, 161 + +_Breaking Point, The_, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 105; + résumé of, 105-7, 117 + +_Broome Street Straws_, by Robert Cortes Holliday, 52 + +Broun, Heywood, 40; + columnist, _Pieces of Hate_ and _Other Enthusiasms_, 41; + Subjects touched, 41, 42, 43 + +Buchan, John, The Path of the King, 249; + _The Thirty-nine Steps_ + +Buckrose, J. E. (Mrs. Falconer Jameson), _A Knight Among Ladies_, 251 + +_Bulldog Drummond_, by Cyril McNeile, 70 + +Burke, Thomas, 187, 189, 190; + More Limehouse Nights, 187; + _Nights in London_, 190; + Reasons given for his characters, 187, 188, 189; + _The London Spy_, 189 + +Byron, May, _Billy Butt's Adventure_, 153; + _Jack-a-Dandy_, 153; + _Little Jumping Joan_, 153; + _Old Friends in New Frocks_, 153 + +_Candles that Burn_, by Mrs. Kilmer + +_Captives, The_, by Hugh Walpole, 24, 27, 30, 31; + won Tait Black Prize, 1920, 30 + +_Carnival_, by Compton Mackenzie, 265 + +_Casement, The_, by Frank Swinnerton, 236, 242 + +_Cathedral, The_, by Hugh Walpole, 19, 31; + at Polchester, 19; + review of, 19 + +_Century of Banking in New York, 1822-1922, A_, by Henry Wysham +Lanier, 193 + +Chambers, Robert W., article on, by Rupert Hughes, 320; + Eris, 311, 317, 320; + _In the Quarter_, 317, 318; Iole, 318, 319; + list of books by, 318, 319, 320; + Sources On, 320; Story-teller, 308; + _The Flaming Jewel_, 311, 320; + _The King in Yellow,_ 317, 318; + _The Talkers_, 317, 320; + _The Witch of Ellangowan_, 318; + _With the Band_ (poem), 317 + +_Chaste Wife, The_, by Frank Swinnerton, 226, 243 + +Chinese Metal, by E. G. Kemp, 190; + comment by Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, 191 + +_Circle, The_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 289, 292, 364 + +_Circuit Rider's Wife, A_, by Corra Harris, 257 + +_Circular Staircase, The_, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 110, 114, 116 + +_Claim Jumpers, The_, by Stewart Edward White, 55, 63, 66 + +_Clayhanger_, by Arnold Bennett, 148, 149 + +_Cloud Boat Stories_, by Olive Roberts Barton, 162 + +Cobb, Irvin S., 89, 241; + _An Occurrence up a Side Street_, 176, 180; + as a humorist, 179; + at Portsmouth Peace Conference, 177, 178; + biography by Robert H. Davis, 172-183, 186; + books by, 184; + comments on The Bookman, 367; + description of self, 182, 183; + dimensions of, 166; + editorial work, 175, 176; + Fishhead, 176, 180; + _J. Poindexter, Colored_, 169, 185; + lecture by Gelett Burgess, 179; + Plays by, 185; + report of Thaw Trial, 178; + Sources on, 186; + _Stickfuls_, 169, 185; + _The Belled Buzzard_, 176, 180; + _The Escape of Mr. Trimm_, 178, 180, 184 + +Collected Parodies, by J. C. Squire, 98; + Selections, 98, 99 + +Coming of the Peoples, The, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, 161 + +_Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman, The_, + by Stephen McKenna, 337, 344, 346; + + Quotations from London Times, 337-339; + Sample of, 344, 345 + +Conjurors House, by Stewart Edward White, 66 + +Conkling, Hilda, 356 + +Connor, Ralph, 264 + +Conrad, Joseph, A Critical Study of Walpole, 31; + experiences similar, 25; + introductory note to _Anthology_, 28 + +_Cooperative Movement_, by Dr. James B. Warbasse, 300 + +_Coquette_, by Frank Swinnerton, 226, 243 + +_Creative Spirit in Industry, The_, by Robert B. Wolf, 300 + +_Crisis of the Naval War_, by Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa, 329; + review of, in Proceedings of the United States Naval + Institute, 329, 330, 331 + +_Crome Yellow_, by Aldous Huxley, 34 + +Cummins, Col. Stevenson Lyle, in Who's Who, 156, 157; + _Plays for Children_, 157 + +_Cupid and Commonsense_, by Arnold Bennett, 133, 150 + +Dana, H. W. L., 297; _Social Forces in Literature_, 300 + +_Dancers in the Dark_, by Dorothy Speare, 255, 256 + +Daniels, Josephus, _Our Navy at War_, 321, 322 + +_Dark Forest, The_, by Hugh, Walpole, 16, 28, 31 + +Davey, Norman, 36, 37; + Guinea Girl, 36, 37; + The Gas Turbine, 37; + _The Pilgrim of a Smile_, 36 + +Davies, Hubert Henry, Plays of, _A Single Man_, 365; + _Captain Drew on Leave_, 365; + _Cousin Kate_, 365; + _Doormats_, 365; + _Lady Epping's Law Suit_, 365; + _Mrs. Gorringe's Necklace_, 365; + _Outcasts_, 365; + _The Mollusc_, 365 + +Davis, Robert H., 186; + biographer of Irvin S. Cobb, 172, 186; + Box Score of Writers, 183 + +_Days Before Yesterday_, by Lord Frederic Hamilton, 131 + +de Staël, Madame, 128 + +"Death of Lully," in Limbo, by Aldous Huxley, 36 + +_Deaves Affair_, The, by Hulbert Footner, 75 + +_December Love_, by Robert Hichins, 249 + +Dehan, Richard (Clotilde Graves), 196, 197, 199, 200, 201, 204, 209, + 210, 211; + _Between Two Thieves_, 198, 200, 210; + books by, 210; + Comment by The Bookman, 198; + sources on, 211; + _That Which Hath Wings_, 200, 210; + _The Dop Doctor_, 196, 200, 210; + _The Eve of Pascua_, 201, 210; + _The Just Steward_, 201, 202, 203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 210 + +Denham, Sir James, _Memoirs of the Memorable_, 119 + +Dennis, Mrs. A. E. Forbes, see Phyllis Bottome, 258 + +Dircks, Helen, _Passenger_, 236 + +Djemal Pasha, _Memoirs of_, 122 + +_Doors of the Night_, by Frank L. Packard, 68, 69 + +_Dop Doctor, The_, by Richard Dehan (Clotilde Graves), 196, 200, 210 + +Dos Passes, John, 356; + _A Pushcart at the Curb_, 347; + _de Unamuno, Miguel_, 39; + _Manrique, Jorge, Ode_, 39; + _Rosinante to The Road Again_, 38, 347; + _Three Soldiers_, 347 + +Douglas, O., 249; + _Ann and Her Mother_, 249; + _Penny Plain_, 249; + Sister of John Buchan, 249 + +Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 115; + _Spiritualism and Rationalism_, 302; + _The New Revelation_, 302; + _The Vital Message_, 302; + _The Wanderings of a Spiritualist_, 302 + +Dreiser, Theodore, review of Human Bondage, in New Republic, 273-277 + +_Duchess of Wrexe, The_, by Hugh Walpole, 19, 31 + +_Earth's Story, The_, by Frederic Arnold Kummer, 155 + +_East of Suez_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 284, 292, 360 + +_Education of Eric Law, The_, see _The Sensationalists_, + by Stephen McKenna, 342, 346 + +Ellis, Havelock, _Little Essays of Love and Virtue_, 302; + _Emperor Francis Joseph and His Times, The_, by Baron Margutti, 130 + +_English Literature During the Last Half Century_, + by John W. Cunliffe, 144, 150 + +_Eris_, by Robert W. Chambers, 311, 317, 320; + from extracts, 311-316, 320 + +_Escape of Mr. Trimm, The_, by Irvin S. Cobb, 178, 180, 184 + +_Essays on Religion_, by T. R. Glover, 305 + +_Eve of Pascua_, The, by Richard Dehan (Clotilde Graves), 201, 210 + +_Eyes of Love, The_, by Corra Harris, 257; + extract from, 257-8 + +_Facing Reality_, by Esme Wingfield-Stratford, 300; + Chapter titles, 300; + introduction, extracts from, 300, 301 + +_Fairies and Chimneys_, by Rose Fyleman, 158; + Quotation from, 158 + +_Fairy Flute, The_, by Rose Fyleman, 158 + +Farnsworth, Sidney, _Illumination and Its Development in the + Present Day_, 223 + +Farrar, John, Editor of The Bookman, 94, 357; + poet, 371; + Editor, see The Bookman, 371 + +Fenger, Frederic A., _Alone in the Caribbean_, 194 + +_First Days of Man, The_, by Frederic Arnold Kummer, 155, 156 + +_First Person Singular, The_, by William Rose Benét, 262, 263, 354 + +_Flaming Jewel, The_, by Robert W. Chambers, 311, 320 + +Follett, Wilson, comparisons, 52; + Reviewer The Bookman, 371; + _Some Modern Novelists_, 150 + +Footner, Hulbert, _The Deaves Affair_, 75; + _The Owl Taxi_, 74, 75 + +Forbes, Lady Angela, _Memories and Base Details_, 130; + _Memories Discreet and Indiscreet_, 130; + _More Indiscretions_, 129 + +Forbes, Rosita, _The Secret of the Sahara: Kufara_, 192 + +_Fortitude_, by Hugh Walpole, 21, 23, 27, 31; + theme of, 21, 31 + +_Forty Years On_, by Lord Ernest Hamilton, 132 + +"Frankincense and Myrrh," from _Pieces of Hate_, + by Heywood Broun, 41, 42, 43 + +_From Now On_, by Frank L. Packard, 68, 69 + +_Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The_, by Frank L. Packard, 68, 69 + +_Further Adventures of Lad_, by Albert Payson Terhune, 215; + extracts from, 216 + +Fyleman, Rose, Fairies and Chimneys, 158; + _The Fairy Flute_, 158 + +Gabriel, Gilbert W., 53; + Jiminy, novel by, 53; + music critic, N. Y. Sun, 53; + Novelist, 53; + substitute for Don Marquis, 54 + +_Gates of Wrath, The_, by Arnold Bennett, 146, 149 + +Gavit, John Palmer, account of Stewart Edward White, 65, 66, 67 + +Geister, Edna, _Ice-breakers and the Ice-Breaker Herself_, 219; + _It Is to Laugh_, 219 + +_Gist of Golf, The_, by Harry Vardon, 213 + +_Giving and Receiving_, by E. V. Lucas, 307 + +Glover, T. R., _Essays on Religion_, 305; + _Jesus in the Experience of Man_, 305; + _Poets and Pilgrims_, 305; + _Poets and Puritans,_ 305; + _The Jesus of History_, 305; + _The Nature and Purpose of a Christian Society_, 305; + _The Pilgrim_, 305 + +_Gods and Mr. Perrin, The_, by Hugh Walpole, 22, 27, 31 + +_Gold_, by Stewart Edward White, 61, 67 + +_Golden Scarecrow, The_, 15, 27, 31 + +_Gold-Killer_, by John Prosper, 75 + +_Grand Fleet, The_, by Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa, 329 + +Graves, Clotilde (Richard Dehan), 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 204, + 209, 210, 211; + _A Mother of Three_, 199, 210; + _Nitocris_, 199, 210; + _Puss in Boots_, 199 + +_Green Mirror, The_, by Hugh Walpole, 19, 27, 31 + +"Greenow, Richard," of _Limbo_, by Aldous Huxley, 36 + +_Guinea Girl_, by Norman Davey, 36, 37 + +Guest, Leslie Haden, _The Struggle for Power in Europe_ (1917-21), 323, 324 + +Haggard, Andrew C. P., _Madame de Staël; Her Trials and Triumphs_, 129 + +_Half Loaves_, by Margaret Culkin Banning, 253 + +Hambourg, Mark, _How to Play the Piano_, 219, 220 + +Hamilton, Lord Ernest, Forty Years On, 131 + +Hamilton, Lord Frederic, Days Before Yesterday, 131; + Diplomatic Services, 131; + Education, 131; + _Here, There and Everywhere_, 131; + _The Vanished Pomps of Yesterday_, 131 + +"Happy Families," in _Limbo_, by Aldous Huxley, 36 + +_Happy Family, The_, by Frank Swinnerton, 226, 238, 242 + +Harcourt, Edward Vernon, 118 + +Harcourt, Sir William, _George Granville Venables Vernon, Life of_, 118 + +"Harlequin," from _The Birds and Other Poems_, by J. C. Squire, 351, 352 + +_Harp of Life, The_, by J. Hartley Manners, 363 + +Harris, Corra, 257, 264; + _A Circuit Rider's Wife_, 257; + _The Eyes of Love_, 257 + +Harrison, Marguerite E., _Marooned in Russia_, 192 + +Hawthorne, Nathaniel, _A Wonder Book_, 165; + _The Scarlet Letter_, 327, 328 + +Hayhurst, Dr. Emery, _Labour and Health_, 209 + +Henry, Alice, _Women and the Labour Movement_, 299 + +_Here, There and Everywhere_, by Lord Frederic Hamilton, 131 + +Herford, Oliver, _Neither Here Nor There_, 95 + +Hergesheimer, Joseph, Appreciation of Hugh Walpole, 15, 29, 30, 31 + +Herm, home of Compton Mackenzie, 267 + +_Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic_, by Raymond W. Weaver, 325; + review by Carl Van Vechten, 325-328 + +_Hermit of Far End, The_, by Margaret Pedler, 256 + +Heroes of the Ruins, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, 160 + +Heterogeneous Magis of Maugham, The, 270 + +Hichins, Robert, _The Garden of Allah_, 249; + _December Love_, 249 + +_History of Sea Power, A_, by William O. Stevens and Allan Westcott, 331; + Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich, review of, in The Weekly Review, 331-333; + Extracts from, 332, 333 + +Holliday, Robert Cortes, 52; + business connections, 221; + _Broome Street Straws_, 52; + editor of The Bookman, 369; + Memoirs in _Joyce Kilmer, Poems, Essays and Letters_, 53; + _Men and Books and Cities_, 52; + _Peeps at People_, 52; + praise by James Hunecker, 52; + Study of Booth Tarkington, 53; + _Turns About Town_, 52; + _Walking Stick Papers_, 51; + _Writing as a Business; A Practical Guide for Authors_, 220 + +Houghton, Mrs. Hadwin, See Wells, Carolyn + +_House of Dreams Come True, The_, by Margaret Pedler, 256 + +House of Five Swords, The, by Tristram Tupper, 247, 248 + +"Houses" from _Main Street and other Poems_, by Joyce Kilmer, 349, 350 + +_How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day_, by Arnold Bennett, 303 + +_How to Play the Piano_, by Mark Hambourg, 219, 220 + +Howard, Sidney, Swords, 364 + +Hughes, Rupert, article on Robert W. Chambers, 320; + on Robert W. Chambers, 311 + +_Hugh Walpole Anthology, A_, by Hugh Walpole, 27, 32; + divisions of, 27; + Country Places, 27; + London, 27; + Men and Women, 27; + Russia, 27; + Some Children, 27; + Some Incidents, 27 + +_Hunting Hidden Treasure in the Andes_, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, 159 + +Huxley, Aldous, 34, 35, 36; + Beauty, 36; + Comment by Michael Sadlier, 34; + Crome Yellow, 34; + Disciple of Laforgue, 35; + L'Apres-Midi-d'un Faune, translation by, 35; + _Limbo_, 34, 36; + Mortal Coils, 34, 35; + "Permutation among the Nightingales," play by, 35; + poet and writer of prose, 35; + Quotations from _Mortal Coils,_ 35; + Splendour, by Numbers, 36; + the sensualist, 36; + Translator of Laforgue, 35; + translation of _The Walk_, 35 + +_I Have Only Myself to Blame_, by Princess Bibesco, 47; + extract from, 47, 48, 49 + +_Ice-breakers and the Ice-Breaker Herself_, by Edna Geister, 219 + +_Illumination and Its Development in the Present Day_, + by Sidney Farnsworth, 223 + +_Imprudence_, by F. E. Mills Young, 263 + +_In the Days Before Columbus_, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, 160 + +_In the Quarter_, by Robert W. Chambers, 317, 318 + +_Iole_, by Robert W. Chambers, 318, 319 + +_Irish Free State, The_, by Albert C. White, 191; Book Value, 192 + +Isn't That Just Like a Man: Oh, Well, You Know How Women Are! 89 + +_It Is to Laugh_, by Edna Geister, 219 + +Jacks, L. P., editor of Hibbert Journal, 195; + _The Legends of Smokeover_, 194 + +Jameson, Mrs. Falconer, see J. E. Buckrose + +Jellicoe, Viscount, of Scapa, _The Crisis of the Naval War_, 329; + _The Grand Fleet_, 329 + +_Jimmy Dale and the Phantom Clue_, by Frank L. Packard, 69 + +_Joining in Public Discussion_, by Alfred Dwight Sheffield, 297; + sections of, 299 + +_Judge, The_, by Rebecca West, 78; + dedication and review, 84, 85, 86; + extract from, 81, 82; + material employed, 82, 83 + +_Judgment of Charis, The_, by Mrs. Baillie Reynolds, 76 + +_Just Steward, The_, by Richard Dehan (Clotilde Graves), 201; + samples from, 201-203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 210 + +_Jungle Tales, Adventures in India_, by Howard Anderson Musser, 156 + +_K_, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, +107, 108, 116 + +Kemp, E. G., _Chinese Mettle_, 190 + +Kerr, Sophie, 244; + Autobiography, 244-246; + editor Woman's Home Companion, 245; + _One Thing is Certain_, 246; + _Painted Meadows_, 246; + quotations from letter by, 246, 247 + +Kilmer, Joyce, Main Street and Other Poems, 349; + Poems, Essays and Letters, 53; + Memoirs, by Robert Cortes Holliday, 53; + Trees and Other Poems, 349 + +Kilmer, Mrs., _Candles That Burn_, 350; Vigils, 350 + +_Kingfisher, The_, by Phyllis Bottome, 260 + +_King in Yellow, The_, by Robert W. Chambers, 317, 318 + +_Knight Among Ladies_, A, by J. E. Buckrose, 251 + +Knight, Captain, C. W. R., _Wild Life in the Tree Tops_, 214 + +Kummer, Frederic Arnold, The Earth's Story, 155; + _The First Days of Man_, 155, 156 + +_Labour and Health_, by Dr. Emery Hayhurst, 299 + +_Lad: A Dog_, by Albert Payson Terhune, 214 + +_Lady Frederick_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 289, 291 + +_Lady Lilith_, by Stephen McKenna, 342, 343, 346; + Comments by author, 342, 343, 346 + +_Lamp of Fate, The_, by Margaret Pedler, 256 + +_Land of Footprints, The_, by Stewart Edward White, 55, 67 + +Lanier, Henry Wysham, _A Century of Banking in New York: 1822-1922_, 193 + +Lardner, Ring W., appreciation of Charles E. Van Loan, 212; + Sport, 212 + +_Laughter, Ltd._, by Nina Wilcox Putnam, 90 + +_Legends of Smokeover, The_, by L. P. Jacks, 194 + +_Life and Letters_, by J. C. Squire, 46 + +_Life of Sir William Vernon Harcourt, The_, 118 + +Lilian, by Arnold Bennett, 133, 137-141, 149; + extract from, 137-141, 149 + +_Limbo_, by Aldous Huxley, 34, 36; + Death of Lully, 36; + Happy Families, 36 + +Literary Spotlight, The; The Bookman, 371 + +_Little Essays of Love and Virtue_, +by Havelock Ellis, 302 + +_Little Jumping Joan_, by May Byron, 153 + +_Liza of Lambeth_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 286, 287, 291 + +Lloyd George, critical sketch, by E. T. Raymond, 121 + +Lodge, Sir Oliver, 115, 301 + +London Mercury, edited by J. C. Squire, 44, 46 + +_London Spy, The_, by Thomas Burke, 189 + +_Long Live the King_, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 115, 116 + +_Love Match, The_, by Arnold Bennett, 361, 364; + Extracts from, 361-363 + +Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc, appreciation of Hugh Walpole, 23, 24; + _What Timmy Did_, 77 + +Lucas, E. V., _Giving and Receiving_, 307; + _Roving East and Roving West_, 307 + +Mackenzie, Compton, _Carnival_, 265; + _Plasher's Mead_, 265; + _Poor Relations_, 265; + Rich Relatives, 265; + Sinister Street, 265; + The Altar Steps, 265, 266, 269; + The Parson's Progress, 266; + visit by Simon Pure, 266-269 + +MacQuarrie, Hector, on W. Somerset Maugham, 277, 284, 290; + _Tahiti Days_, 270 + +_Madame de Staël; Her Trials and Triumphs_, + by Andrew C. P. Haggard, 124-129 + +_Main Street and Other Poems_, by Joyce Kilmer, 349 + +_Man from the North, A_, by Arnold Bennett, 146, 149 + +_Man in Lower Ten, The_, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 114, 116 + +_Man in Ratcatcher, The_, by Cyril McNeile, 70 + +Manners, J. Hartley, _The Harp of Life_, 363 + +_Maradick at Forty_, by Hugh Walpole, 26, 31 + +Margutti, Baron von, _The Emperor Francis Joseph and His Times_, 130 + +_Marooned in Moscow_, by Marguerite E. Harrison, 192 + +_Married Life_, by Arnold Bennett, 303 + +Maugham W. Somerset, article by Hector MacQuarrie, 292; + books by, 291, 292; + _Caroline_, 289, 292; + East of Suez, 284, 292, 360; + education of, 286; + father of, 286; + wife of, 286; + _Lady Frederick_, 289, 291; + _Liza of Lambeth_, 286, 287, 291; + _Mrs. Craddock_, 287, 288, 291; + _Mrs. Dot_, 289, 291; + _Of Human Bondage_, 270, 273-77, 287, 291; + _On a Chinese Screen_, 284-285, 291; + playright, 288; + sources on, 292; + _The Circle_, 289, 292; + The heterogeneous magic of, 270; + _The Moon and Sixpence_, 270, 277, 278, 279, 284, 287, 291 + +McCormick, W. B., Army and Navy Journal, Editor of, 321; + Comment on Josephus Daniels _Our Navy at War_, 321, 322, 323 + +McFee, William, 371; + Extracts from preface to _Spindrift_, by Milton Raison, 352, 353 + +McKenna, Stephen, 334, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 345, 346; + _Between Two Worlds_, 341, 346; + Books by, 345, 346; + Comments on _Lady Lilith_, 342, 343; + education of, 340; + _Lady Lilith_, 342, 343, 346; + Leopold McKenna, father of, 340; + _Midas and Son_, 341, 346; + _Ninety-Six Hours' Leave_, 341, 346; + personality, 343; + _Sheila Intervenes_, 340, 345; + _Sonia_, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 346; + _Sonia Married_, 341, 342, 346; + Sources on, 346; + _The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman_, 337, 344, 346; + _The Education of Eric Lane_, 342, 346; + _The Reluctant Lover_, 340, 345; + _The Secret Victory_, 342, 346; + _The Sensationalists_, 341, 342; + _The Sixth Sense_, 340, 345; + _Translator of Poltinus_, 339; + war service, 340; + _While I Remember_, 324, 346 + +McNeile, Cyril, Bulldog Drummond, 70; + _The Black Gang_, 70; + _The Man in Ratcatcher_, 70 + +Melville, Herman, _Mardi_, 327; + _Moby Dick_, 327, 328; + _Omoo_, 326; + _Pierre_, 327; + _Typee_, 326 + +_Memoirs of Djemal Pasha, The_, 122 + +_Memoirs of the Memorable_, by Sir James Denham, 119; + Beaconsfield, Lord, 119; + Beresford, Lord Marcus, 119; + Bishop of London, 119; + Bishop of Manchester, 119; + Browning, Robert, 119; + Byron, Lord, 119; + Carroll, Lewis, 119; + Dunedin, Lord, 119; + Gladstone, 119; + Howard, Cardinal, 119 + +_Memories and Base Details_, by Lady Angela Forbes, 130 + +_Memories Discreet and Indiscreet_, by Lady Angela Forbes, 129 + +_Men and Books and Cities_, by Robert Cortes Holliday, 52 + +_Men Who Make Our Novels, The_, by George Gordon, 55, 67, 320 + +_Merry Heart, The_, by Frank Swinnerton, 236, 242 + +_Midas and Son_, by Stephen McKenna, 341, 342, 346 + +_Milestones_, by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblauch, 364 + +Milne, A. A., _Mr. Pim_, 261 + +_Miracle Man, The_, by Frank L. Packard, 68 + +_Miscellanies--Literary and Historical_, by Lord Rosebery, 123 + +Moffatt, Dr. James, _The Approach of the New Testament_, 296; + _New Translation of the New Testament_, 293; + _New Translation of the Old Testament_, 296; + _The Parallel Testament_, 293 + +_Mollusc, The_, by Hubert Henry Davies, 365 + +Monaghan, Elizabeth A., _What to Eat and How to Prepare It_, 218 + +_Moon and Sixpence, The_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 270, 278, 279, 284, + 287, 291 + +_Moon Out of Reach, The_, by Margaret Pedler, 256 + +_Moons of Grandeur_, by William Rose Benét, 354, 355; + Don Marquis, review of, 354; + Quotation from, 355 + +Moore, Annie Carroll, _Roads to Childhood_, 152 + +_More Indiscretions_, by Lady Angela Forbes, 129 + +_More Limehouse Nights_, by Thomas Burke, 187 + +Morley, Christopher, _A Rocking Horse_, 348; + _Translations from the Chinese_, 349 + +_Mortal Coils_, by Aldous Huxley, 34, 35 + +_Mr. Lloyd George: A Biographical and Critical Sketch_, + by E. T. Raymond, 120 + +_Mr. Pim_, by A. A. Milne, 261 + +_Mr. Prohock_, by Arnold Bennett, 133, 141, 149; + extracts from, 141-144, 149 + +_Mrs. Craddock_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 287, 288, 291; + extract from, 288, 291 + +Musser, Howard Anderson, _Jungle Tales, Adventures in India_, 156 + +_My Creed: The Way to Happiness--As I Found It_, Mary Roberts Rinehart, 117 + +_My Impressions of America_, by Margot Asquith, 122 + +Myers, A. Wallis, _Twenty Years of Lawn Tennis_, 213 + +_Neither Here Nor There_, by Oliver Herford, 95 + +_Nêne_, 264; Comment by Walter +Prichard Eaton, 265; Goncourt +Prize, won by, 264 + +_New Revelation, The_, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 302 + +_New Translation of the New Testament_, by Dr. James Moffatt, 293; + extracts from, 293-296 + +_New Translation of the Old Testament_, by Dr. James Moffatt, 296 + +_Nicolette_, by Baroness Orczy, 248 + +_Night Operator, The_, by Frank L. Packard, 68 + +_Nights in London_, by Thomas Burke, 190 + +Ninety-six Hours' Leave, by Stephen McKenna, 341, 346 + +_Nocturne_, by Frank Swinnerton, 225, 233, 235, 239, 243; + Comment by H. G. Wells, 233-235 + +_Of Human Bondage_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 270; + review by Theodore Dreiser, 273-277, 287, 291 + +_Old Morocco and the Forbidden Atlas_, by C. E. Andrews, 193 + +_Old Wives' Tales, The_, by Arnold Bennett, 133, 149; + inspiration of, 147, 149 + +_On a Chinese Screen_, by W. Somerset Maugham, 284, 291; + extract from, 284-285 + +_On the Staircase_, by Frank Swinnerton, 226, 243 + +_On Tiptoe: A Romance of the Redwoods_, by Stewart Edward White, 59, 67 + +_One Thing is Certain_, by Sophie Kerr, 246 + +_Our Navy at War_, by Josephus Daniels, 321; + Comment on, by W. B. McCormick, 321, 322, 323 + +_Outcasts_, by Hubert Henry Davies, 365 + +Orczy, Baroness, _Nicolette_, 248 + +_Owl Taxi, The_, by Hulbert Footner, 74, 75 + +Packard, Frank L., _Doors of the Night_, 68; + education of, 68; + _From Now On_, 68; + _Pawned_, 68; + _The Adventures of Jimmy Dale_, 68, 69; + _The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale_, 68; + _The Miracle Man_, 68; + _The Night Operator_, 68; + _The Phantom Clue_, 69; + _The Wire Devils_, 68 + +_Painted Meadows_, by Sophie Kerr, 246 + +_Parallel New Testament, The_, by Dr. James Moffatt, 293 + +_Parody Outline of History, A,_ by Donald Ogden Stewart, 93, 94, 371; + see The Bookman, 371 + +_Parson's Progress, The_, by Compton Mackenzie, 266 + +_Passenger_, by Helen Dircks, 236 + +_Patricia Brent, Spinster_, anonymous, 261 + +_Pawned_, by Frank L. Packard, 68 + +Pedler, Margaret, _The Hermit of Far End_, 256; + _The House of Dreams Come True_, 256; + _The Lamp of Fate_, 256; + _The Moon Out of Reach_, 256; + _The Splendid Folly_, 256 + +_Peeps at People_, by Robert Cortes Holliday, 52 + +_Penny Plain_, by O. Douglas, 249 + +_Perfect Behaviour_, by Donald Ogden Stewart, 93, 94; + motive of, 94 + +Perin, Dr. George L., founder of Franklin Square House for Girls, 304; + on autosuggestion, 304; + _Self Healing Simplified_, 304 + +"Permutations Among the Nightingales," by Aldous Huxley, 35 + +_Peter_, by E. F. Benson, 261 + +_Pieces of Hate_, by Heywood Broun, 41 + +_Pilgrim of a Smile, The_, by Norman Davey, 36 + +_Plays for Children_, by Col. Stevenson Lyle Cummins, 157 + +Plays of Hubert Henry Davies, The, 365 + +_Plotting in Pirate Seas_, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, 159 + +_Poems: Second Series_, by J. C. Squire, 351 + +_Poets and Puritans_, by T. R. Glover, 305; + preface, 306 + +_Poindexter, J., Colored_, by Irvin S. Cobb, 169, 185; + extract from, 170-171, 185 + +_Pomp of Power, The_, anonymous, 119 + +Preston, Keith, _Splinters_, 358, 359 + +Prosper, John, _Gold-Killer_, 75 + +Publishing as a business, 199 + +Pure, Simon, visit to Compton Mackenzie, 266-269 + +_Pushcart at the Curb, A_, by John Dos Passos, 347; + General Headings of, 347 + +Putnam, Nina Wilcox, Laughter, Ltd., 90; + story in American Magazine, 91, 92; + style of, 90; + _Tomorrow We Diet_, 90; + _West Broadway_, 88, 90 + +"Quai de la Tournelle," from a _Pushcart at the Curb_, by John Dos Passos, + Quotation from, 348 + +_Quest of the Western World, The_, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, 160 + +Rackham, Arthur, artist, 165 + +Raison, Milton, _Spindrift_, 352, 353 + +Raymond, Ernest, _Tell England_, 250 + +Raymond, E. T., _Mr. Lloyd George: A Biographical and Critical + Sketch_, 120; + _Uncensored Celebrities_, 120 + +_Recollections and Reflections_, by A Woman of No Importance, 129 + +Reeve, Mrs. Winnifred, see Onoto Watanna, 254 + +_Responsibility_, by James E. Agate, 49 + +_Return of Alfred, The_, anonymous, 261 + +Reynolds, Mrs. Baillie, _The Judgment of Charis_, 76 + +Riddell, Lord, _Some Things That Matter_, 303 + +Rinehart, Mrs. Mary R., 89; + books by, 116; + K., 107, 108, 116; + _Long Live the King_, 115, 116; + methods of work, 111; + _My Creed: The Way to Happiness_, 117; + _My Public_, 117; + parents of, 108; + quotation from, 102-103; + Sources on, 117; + _The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry_, 108, 115, 116; + _The Amazing Interlude_, 105, 115, 116; + _The Bat_, a collaboration with Avery Hopwood, 114; + _The Breaking Point_, 105, 117; + _The Circular Staircase_, 110, 114, 116; + _The Man in Lower Ten_, 114, 116; + _Tish_, 108, 115, 116; + vitality of, 102 + +_Roads to Childhood_, by Annie Carroll Moore, 152 + +_Robin Hood's Barn_, by Margaret Emerson Bailey, 194 + +_Rocking Horse, The_, by Christopher Morley, 348; + Quotation from, 348 + +Rolt-Wheeler, Francis, "Boy Journalist Series," 159, 161; + _Heroes of the Ruins_, 160; + _Hunting Hidden Treasures in the Andes_, 159; + _In the Days Before Columbus_, 160; + _Plotting in Pirate Seas_, 159; + _The Coming of the Peoples_, 161; + _The Quest of the Western World_, 160; + wanderings of, 158 + +Rosebery, Lord, _Miscellanies--Literary and Historical_, 123 + +_Rosinante to the Road Again_, by John Dos Passos, 38, 347 + +_Roving East and Roving West_, by E. V. Lucas, Sadlier, Michael, + comment on Huxley, 34 + +Saxton, Eugene F., 67; + account of Stewart Edward White, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 + +_Secret of the Sahara: Kufara_, by Rosita Forbes, 192, 193 + +_Secret Victory, The._ See _The Sensationalists_, + by Stephen McKenna, 342, 346 + +_Self Healing Simplified_, by Dr. George L. Perin, 304 + +_Sensationalists, The_, by Stephen McKenna, 341; + _Lady Lilith_, 342; + _The Education of Eric Lane_, 342; + _The Secret Victory_, 342 + +_September_, by Frank Swinnerton, 225, 226, 243 + +"Seymour, Hugh," of _The Golden Scarecrow_, 16, 21 + +Sheffield, Alfred Dwight, _Joining in Public Discussion_, 297 + +Sheridan, C. M., _The Stag Cook Book_, 217 + +_Shops and Houses_, by Frank Swinnerton, 226, 243 + +_Sixth Sense, The_, by Stephen McKenna, 340, 345 + +"Social Amenities" in "Soles Occidere et Redire Possunt," 36 + +_Social Forces in Literature_, by Dr. H. W. L. Dana, 300 + +_Some Things that Matter_, by Lord Riddell, 303 + +_Somerset Maugham in Tahiti_, article, by Hector MacQuarrie, 292 + +"Song for a Little House," from _The Rocking Horse_ by Christopher + Morley, 348 + +_Sonia_, by Stephen McKenna, 251, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 346 + +_Sonia Married_, by Stephen McKenna, 341, 342, 346 + +Speare, Dorothy, 264; + _Dancers in the Dark_, 255, 256 + +_Spellbinders_, by Margaret Culkin Banning, 252 + +_Spindrift_, by Milton Raison, 352; + extracts from preface by William McFee, 353; + quotation from, 354 + +_Splendid Folly, The_, by Margaret Pedler, 256 + +Splendour by Numbers, Aldous Huxley, 36 + +_Splinters_, by Keith Preston, 358; + quotation from, 359 + +Squire, J. C., _Books in General_, Third Series, 44; + collected parodies, 98; + editor of the _London Mercury_, 44; + _Life and Letters_, 46; + on Anatole France, Jane Austen, Keats, Pope, Rabelais, Walt Whitman, 46; + pen name (Solomon Eagle), 46; + _Poems: Second Series_, 351; + _The Birds and Other Poems_, 351 + +_Stag Cook Book, The_, by C. M. Sheridan, 217 + +Stevens, William O., see Allan Westcott, _A History of Sea Power_, 331 + +Stevenson, Candace T., review of Olive Roberts Barton, 162 + +Stevenson, Robert Louis, description of Edinburgh, 86; + in Miscellanies, by Lord Rosebery, 123; + Swinnerton, on, 242 + +Stewart, Donald Ogden, _A Parody Outline of History_, 93, 94, 371; + _Perfect Behaviour_, 93, 94 + +_Stickfuls_, by Irvin S. Cobb, 169, 185 + +_Struggle for Power in Europe_ (1917-21), by Leslie Haden Guest, 323 + +_Sunny-San_, by Onoto Watanna, 253 + +Sutherland, Jean, _Beauty for Ashes_, 262 + +Swinnerton, Frank, Analyst of Lovers, 225; + Arnold Bennett's Comments, 225; + _Coquette_, 226, 243; + criticism of R. L. Stevenson, 242; + list of books, 242, 243; + literary critic, 241; + _Nocturne_, 225, 233, 235, 239, 243; + _On the Staircase_, 226, 243; + _Personal Sketches_ by Arnold Bennett, Grant Overton, H. G. Wells, 243; + publisher, 240; + _September_, 225, 226, 243; + _Shops and Houses_, 226, 243; + Sources on, 243; + _The Casement_, 236, 242; + _The Chaste Wife_, 226, 243; + _The Happy Family_, 226, 238, 242; + _The Merry Heart_, 236, 242; + _The Three Lovers_, 226, 227, 233, 243; + _The Young Idea_, 238 + +_Swords_, by Sidney Howard, 364; + Kenneth Macgowan's criticism, 364, 365 + +Taggart, Marion Ames, 164; + _At Greenacres_, 164; + _Poppy's Pluck_, 164; + _The Bottle Imp_, 164; + _The Queer Little Man_, 164 + +_Tahiti Days_, by Hector McQuarrie, 270 + +_Tales Told by the Gander_, by Maude Radford Warren, 153 + +_Talkers, The_, by Robert W. Chambers, 317, 320 + +Tarkington, Booth, box score, 183, 184; + study of, by Robert Cortes Holliday, 53 + +_Tell England_, by Ernest Raymond, 250; + Prologue, by Padre Monty, 250, 251 + +Terhune, Albert Payson, _Black Cæsar's Clan_, 71; + _Black Gold_, 71; + _Further Adventures of Lad_, 215; + home of, 214; + _Lad: A Dog_, 214 + +_That Which Hath Wings_, by Richard Dehan (Clotilde Graves), 200, 210 + +_They Have Only Themselves to Blame_, 118 + +_Thirty-nine Steps_, The, by John Buchan, 249 + +_This Marrying_, by Margaret Culkin Banning, 253 + +_Three Crowns_, The, by Winnifred Wells, 190 + +_Three Lovers, The_, by Frank Swinnerton, 226, 227, 233, 243; + Extracts from, 229, 243 + +_Three Men and a Maid_, by P. G. Wodehouse, 99; + extract from, 99-101 + +_Three Soldiers_, by John Dos Passos + +Tilden, William T., The Art of Lawn Tennis, 213; + tennis champion, 213 + +Timothy Tubby's Journal, extracts from, 95, 96, 97, 98 + +_Tish_, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 108, 115, 116 + +_Tomorrow We Diet_, by Nina Wilcox Putnam, 90 + +"_Touch of Tears, The_," from Vigils, by Mrs. Kilmer, 350-351 + +_Trade Union Policy_, by Dr. Leo Wolman, 299 + +_Translations from the Chinese_, by Christopher Morley, 348; + Quotation from, 349 + +_Trees and Other Poems_, by Joyce Kilmer, 349 + +_Truth About an Author, The_, by Arnold Bennett, 144, 150 + +_Turns About Town_, by Robert Cortes Holliday, 52 + +_Twenty Years of Lawn Tennis_, by A. Wallis Myers, 213 + +_Vanished Pomps of Yesterday, The_, by Lord Frederic Hamilton, 131 + +_Vanishing of Betty Varian, The_, by Carolyn Wells, 76, 77 + +Van Loan, Charles E., Buck Parvin: + _Stories of the Motion Picture Game_, 212; + _Fore! Golf Stories_, 212; + _Old Man Curry: Racetrack Stories_, 212; + _Score by Innings: Baseball Stories_, 212; + _Taking the Count: Prize Ring Stories_, 212 + +Van, Rensselaer, Alexander, 220; + bibliographies by, 223 + +Van Vechten, Carl, New York Evening Post, + review of _Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic_, 325-328 + +Vardon, Harry, _The Gist of Golf_, 213 + +_Vigils_, by Mrs. Kilmer, 350; + Quotations from, 350, 351 + +"Vision," from _Spindrift_, by Milton Raison, 354 + + _Vital Message, The_, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 302 + +_Voice in the Wilderness, The_, by Richard Blaker, 263 + +_Walking Stick Papers_, by Robert Cortes Holliday, selection from, 51, 52 + +Walpole, Hugh, 15 27, 28, 29, 31, 32; + _A Hugh Walpole Anthology_, 32; + American following of, 21; + appearance, 22; + article on, by Mrs. Belloc Loundes, 23; + birthplace, 15; + Books of, 31; + comments on The Bookman, 366; + connection with London Standard, 26; + appreciation by Joseph Hergesheimer, 15, 29, 30, 31; + courage of, 25; + description by Arnold Bennett, 22; + education of, 22; + educational experiences of, 22; + _English Literature During the Last Half Century_, 32; + father of, 15; + Fortitude, 21; + goes to England, 16; + Hugh Walpole, an appreciation, 31; + Hugh Walpole, Master Novelist, 32; + life in New York, 16; + London scenes pictured by, in _Anthology_, 28; + _Maradick at Forty_, 26; + Note by Joseph Conrad, 28; + Novels, list of, 31; + optimist, 23; + Romances, list of, 31; + Service in Great War, 16; + Selections for Anthology, 27; + Short Stories, list of, 31; + Sources on, 31; + superstitions, 24; + reader, 24; + Tait Black Prize for best novel of year, 30; + won by, 30; + _The Captives_, 24; + _The Cathedral_, 19; + _The Dark Forest_, 16; + _The Duchess of Wrexe_, 19; + _The Gods and Mr. Perrin_, 22; + _The Green Mirror_, 19; + _The Wooden Horse_, 25; + _Visits to America_, 16 + +_Wanderings of a Spiritualist, The_, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 302 + +Warren, Maude Radford, _Tales Told by the Gander_, 153 + +Watanna, Onoto (Mrs. Winnifred Reeve), 254; + _A Japanese Nightingale_, 254; + _Sunny-San_, 253 + +Warbasse, Dr. James B., _Cooperative Movement_, 300 + +Weaver, Raymond M., _Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic_, + 325, 326, 327, 328 + +Wells, Carolyn (Mrs. Hadwin Houghton), 77; + _Book of Humorous Verse_, 99; + _The Room with the Tassels_, 76; + _The Vanishing of Betty Varian_, 76, 77 + +Wells, H. G., 94; Comments on Frank Swinnerton's _Nocturne_, 233, 234, 235; + _Soviet Russia_, 192 + +Westcott, Peter, in _Fortitude_, by Hugh Walpole, 22 + +_West Broadway_, by Nina Wilcox Putnam, 88, 90 + +_Westerners, The_, by Stewart Edward White, 55, 63, 66 + +West, Rebecca, books by, 86; + article by Amy Wellington, 83; + artist, 78; + biography of, 83; + _The Judge_, 78; + _The Return of the Soldier_, 86 + +Westcott, Allan, and William O. Stevens, _A History of Sea Power_, 331 + +_What Timmy Did_, by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, 77 + +_What to Eat and How to Prepare It_, by Elizabeth A. Monaghan, 218 + +_While I Remember_, by Stephen McKenna, 324, 346 + +_Whispering Windows_, see _More Limehouse Nights_, + by Thomas Burke, 187, 188 + +White, Albert C., _The Irish Free State_, 191 + +White, Stewart Edward, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 66; + account of by Eugene F. Saxton, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65; + _Appendix, to Gold_, by Eugene F. Saxton, 67; + _The Birds of Mackinac Island_, 55, 63; + boat and books, 56, 59; + books of, 66; + by John Palmer Gavit, 67; + education of, 61; + Gold, 61, 67; + in France, 56; + military service, 61; + _On Tiptoe: A Romance of the Redwoods_, 59, 67; + parents, 60; + _Simba_, 55, 67; + sources on, 67; + _The Claim Jumpers_, 55, 63, 66; + _The Land of Footprints_, 55, 67; + _The Westerners_, 55, 63, 66 + +_Wild Life in the Tree Tops_, by Captain C. W. R. Knight, 214; + Photographs, 214 + +Wingfield-Stratford, Esme, _Facing Reality_, 300 + +_Wire Devils, The_, by Frank L. Packard, 68 + +_With the Band_, poem, by Robert W. Chambers, 317 + +Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville, 70; + lyrical writer, 99; + _Three Men and a Maid_, 99 + +Wolf, Robert, 297; + _The Creative Spirit in Industry_, 300 + +Wolman, Dr. Leo, _Trade Union Policy_, 299 + +Woman of No Importance, A, _Recollections and Reflections_, 129 + +_Women and the Labour Movement_, by Alice Henry, 299 + +_Women Who Make Our Novels, The_, by Grant Overton, 117; + chapter on Mary Roberts Rinehart, 109, 117 + +_Wonder Book, A_, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 165 + +_Wooden Horse, The_, by Hugh Walpole, 25, 26, 31; + sale of, 25 + +Workers' Bookshelf Series, 297 + +Workers' Education Bureau of America, editorial board, 297 + + _Writing as a Business: A Practical Guide for Authors_, + by Robert Cortes Holliday, 220; + Extracts from, 222, 223 + +Wylie, Elinor, 357 + +Young, F. E. Mills, 263; + _Almonds of Life_, 263; + _Imprudence_, 263; + _The Stronger Influence_, 263 + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN +STREET ***
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