LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 246, 17 October 1925, Page 22

LITERARY.

. I Dale Collins, the young Australian journalist of the Speejacks yacht fame, and author of "Ordeal" is now working on a second novel, and intends going to America shortly to arrange the dramatisation of "Urdeal." i Mr. Roy Bridges, literary and dra- !' matic critic of the "Age," Melbourne, j and well known throughout Australia | as a novelist of historical romances, ! has decided to give his imagination full rein, and has resigned from active; journalism in favour of fiction writing. He will leave Australia at an early date for England and America. A memorial* to the actors who lost their lives in the war was recently unveiled by Sir Johnston Forbes-Robert-son in the Church of Holy Trinity, where Shakespeare is 'buried. It is in I the form of a panel and carries the following verse specially written by Mr. Kipling:— We counterfeited once for your disport Men's joy and sorrow; but our day has passed. We pray you pardon all where we fell short, Seeing we were your servants to this last. It is doubtful if the word "novel" is ! applicable to the psychological Btudy of a self-confessed murderer. The horrible analysis of abnormal mentality, the painful study of lunacy, continued through hundreds of pages without relief, is not what is generally understood by readers to be a novel. The "Police Gazette," the "Newgate Calendar," "Studies in Criminology," "Murderere I Have Met," are the I titles we should not be surprised to see . displayed upon the library shelves of Mr. J. Maconechy, the author of "James Ballingrays Murder." Even professional alienists admit that there is a danger of mental infection in the study of lunacy, and to place before all and sundry the destructive, homicidal, atheistic mental processes of a dangerous degenerate, is ' neither the duty of a literary man nor i according to the canons of art. Readers of strong nerves and sound thought processes may derive some weird pleasure from this uncommon book, but we regard it as more repulsive than enlightening. Collins and Son publish the book, and our copy comes through. Whitcombe and Tombs. Harold Bell Wright reached the apex of his special art in Wild West story writing in "A Shepherd of the Hills," and to compare any subsequent novel of his with that popular tale is to the detriment of mc former. In "A Son 01 His Father" (Appleton and Co., through Dymock's, Sydney), the plot is written around an emigrant Irish girl, whose bold simpli- < city and untutored apprehension of life are as attractive as they are exceptional. The Arizona ranch, the cowboys, cattle stealing, and hard riding, are all here, j but there is less of the movement of i events, and the reaction of temperament upon temperament, than one expects in the lively literary measure associated with this author. However, there is a good straightforward, simple love story, with an Irish atmosphere and just that 1 quantity of American supremacy to meet with U.S.A. approval. We dislike the Mencken-Nathan school so heartily for their offensive superiority and tneir views on art and life that we welcome this little gibe, written by Willard King Bradley, and published in "Author and Journalist," a Denver journal:— The Menckens are a hard-boiled clan— Thumbing nosei at the rabble; They cay the world Is on the blink—. Lauding Dreiser, Joyce and Cabell. ' At wholesome tales the Menckens eeoff, And mother love to them'g a Joke— "Crude hokum, blah and apple eauce!" And "Jjlfe Is not like tbat!" tbey croak. Success yarns, to they yawp, are boring, Stories of open apaces worse; But hear them cheer when some rude Russian Describes a joy ride In a hearse I