DIABETIC AUTHORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 76, 30 March 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

DIABETIC AUTHORS.

A HIGH AND AUSTERE CULT. Many years ago t.lic magazine of the Auckland University College perpetrated the misprint of "Diabetic Society" for "Dialectic Society." Many a true word occurs in a printer's "break," even if truth takes a long while to arrive. ■Here is an extract from the latest literary letter to hand from the London correspondent of the "New \ork Times.": — Hitherto writer's cramp lias been regarded as the only ailment 'to which men of letters are especially subject. One begins to wonder whether its claim to this distinction is about to be challenged. For there has been formed in London a Diabetic Association, and it issues a quarterly journal, which apparently is to be written by diabetics for diabetics. The contributors to this magazine are by 110 means novices in the art of literary composition. The editor is Hugh Walpolc, and H. G. Wells and G. D. H. Cole have joined the board. Tho first number contains an article liy .Air. AA T ells, who seems to take pride in his affliction. For his own part, lie declares, he has found diabetes an invigorating diathesis, and he hails . his fellow-cliabeties as members of a high and austere cult. Their characters are strengthened by a perpetual self-control; they have learned to detest the saccharine in thought, word and deed. Formerly diabetics died, but now he intends to look for the diabetic influence ill every aspect of life—in art, in science and in conduct. He expects it to manifest itself in a new delicate strength, marked by restraint aud clearness. This suggests a useful pointer for our literary critics. Tn appraising a new book, they will henceforth recognise the desirability of estimating the degree in which it exhibits diabetic qualities—or, more precisely, the qualities which diabetes promotes and stimulates in its victims.