LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21010, 11 November 1933, Page 15

LITERARY GOSSIP.

The novelist's use of actual persons as models is discussed by Mr Allan Monkhouse in the " Manchester Guardian."' Of course, he remarks, the extent to which they arc employed in fiction varies with the temperament and the circumstances of the writer. Such a writer as Henry James usually places situation and dramatic relation before character. He did not want many obvious types or notable figures : the type was a mask and he must get behind it. Dickens, on the other hand, did not want to go deeply into things, but to pursue the enchanting variety of life ; and ha sought for his characters high and low. He borrowed trails and he borrowed persons, giving them artistic touches. Mr Monkhouse adds an interesting comparison between Arnold Bennett's and Dickens's methods. Suppose them, he suggests, confronting the same figure. Bennett would describe him quietly, faithfully : he would try to get him into relation with his* fellows, to discover or imagine the springs o? his conduct, to perceive in what degree he conformed to his type or diverged from it. But Dickens might perceive in him the oossibilities of joyous exaggeration ; he would have him not only a figure in the picture but a portrait in the gallery. Mr Monkhouse notes that Dickens's London certainly gave him a chance for exuberances which could hardly be offered to Bennett in the Potteries.

There is a good story of George Meredith in Mr J. B. Booth's "Pink Parade." An undergradut.. _\ having published a small volume of sonnets at his own expense, timidly sent a copy to Meredith, whom he had long worshipped from afar. The famous novelist, who was then living at Box Hill, sent a long and flowery letter in reply, praising the verses to the skies and prophesying a distinguished career for the writer. Overjoyed, the undergraduate showed the letter to his friends, and was at length persuaded by one of them to write to Meredith asking for permission to publish the letter. Meanwhile, his heart brimming over with gratitude, he arranged a luncheon party at the famous inn at Box Hill, to be followed by a reverent pilgrimage to the great man's home. Meredith's second letter was devastating. He now tore the modest sonnets to shreds, damned the poor undergraduate's impudence up hill and down dale, and peremptorily forbade him to make any use of his testimonial. The undergraduate sadly called his friends together again and bi'oke the news. " Never mind," said the bright spark who was at the bottom of the whole business. "We'll have the lunch, but we'll alter the programme afterwards. Instead of announcing the pilgrimage on the cards, we'll simply say, ' Come and snit on Box Hill"

Mr Philip Brooks, in his "Notes on Rare Books" in the New York "Times," writes warmly of James Drake, the bookseller, who died in August:

There are some men in whom continual contact with old books kindles a rare kind of warmth and gentleness, a quality that smells neither of the lamp nor of commerce. Of course they are affected in this way only because of a native capacity to expand and ripen in the pursuit of the amenities that go with good literary company. Of such a humane and generous nature James F. Drake was a conspicuous example. His death last month removes from the scene one of the finest characters in the rare-book world. He is part of that tradition of grand old men who brought a charm and dignity to the profession of bookselling, a tradition which we can only hope some of the rising generation will manage to perpetuate. A delightful personality, genial and kindly, endowed with a lively sense of humour, he was one of the book trade's most interesting story tellers. It is a pity to think of the wealth of amusin. 1 ? anecdotes that die with him, stories gathered through a long association with books and bookmen. But sadder even than this is the irreparable loss of his accumulated knowledge and mellow wisdom.

Mr Laurence Binyon's name is to be perpetuated in the British Museum by a gift made to the Museum in his name by his friends. The presentation consists of a Japanese screen of Ihe Kano school and a Persian miniature of the fourteenth century, in addition to an etched portrait of Mr Binyon by Mr William Strang. Contracts have been made for the translation of Lloyd George's memoirs into nearly every important language in the world. According to the "Evening Standard," the State Publishing Department in Moscow has paid a higher figure for translation rights than that paid in any other foreign country. Before he died recently, Grand Duke Alexander of Russia completed a novel, "The Evil Empress," in which the central character is his great-grandmother, the Empress Catherine the Great.