LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19818, 4 January 1930, Page 11

LITERARY GOSSIP.

Mr Rli»s IN'i r\. is Prolowmr of English literature ;i t Hurt.-ml. ami was for many vnirn Kditm- of the " Atlantic Monthly,'' is mil vpiv happv about tho reading ol' It in students. Thin rnnfcs nion appears in 1 !ii- "Saturday H»vii>w of I /it cr a I tire '': The college youths of to <lay arc far more widely intelligent. mid mtphiaii titled than our crowd of fifty yours ago. They read Marcel I'rouat (when J think they might be reading Balmc); •hunt's .11<\ > v ;it:.l George Mnot e (though ' I prefer and |»r«'wt-1 ibe (Swift); St rindberg and bud wig, although 1 cannot discover th:it. Ilirv are reading Lc«sing nn.l <Mii-tlii' at rill. They know Wilde and (>:i Is\vtift hy and Bernard Sluiw. They ;iii' very keen and well posted about tlic theatre. Eugene O'Neill fascinates t!h'in. Tlh-v ;hv mainly ignorant of Thomas Huxley, wlin «n* ti force; hut t hev ri a l A UlitiM Huxley, who in only ;i symptom. They Kno" a little Frost and Sandburg and Hnbinson; I w;n 11 tlicy knew more. They delight in strachey. A <■ la*tf- room hllunion to Hemingway instantly '' allude*.'' mt<l rather more surely, il seems to me, thav allusions to Preiser and 11 ei gctilioiiner and Slier w I A iiilt'i K(tit. They know next to nothing of Hnwell* ami Hcnrv .lames. Booth Tsirkington, tn them, is the aulhor of "JYiirod" and "Seven teen." Itut they have read "Babbitt" and "A Lost Lady'' and '"The Bridge of San I.nis Rev,'' They liked "John linnvn 'h lioilv." t hough tliev have never 10-aitl of Mr \ iHard '« "Life of John Brown," 1 o say nothing of the "Life of William Lloyd Harrison" by his sons. A note on the new Nobel Prize winner by the Berlin tin respondent of the "Observer": Tliiim;t« Man ti, v inner of thin year a Noli. I | 1 r i /<" fur lilorttlure tit Mttrking on lll'' now loiok IV llnlt ll r t>o|flHi hu> .1 tfate age II"' lli'MTlhr- i| a.. I lie hook Of • until wlnti.e lliotiirlit- mi-o now lurned to ward.. Ihinas >• > 111 it t it 111 .• ■. Thia i* * long !\\n vh!ui!i. work •ii■ 11 id ''.l owwjtlt mil Ht» ISretliri ii.' ll'' U making " attempt, lie mi.vs. "fit mntlcMj. 'to treat certain itub jeits from lite religion* pn>etiological mytho logical point of \io«.'' pli ' baa been progrohsing slow!.', It* nil Tltotna* Manna it in k pro., la the mf-niUiinn thin ►fit Mitt' • |uli ricHl toil it. ■> f(>ll#c| tiitt of k »e<l »p'-. • i.i • " • i.-il tlut-itiit tlin [mil tfvr i «'it t > 'lt it-i.l the liny '' i» ti r tlecp inli.|-f>t to fif j uniii' , «ho nt'it icctmtfimi'ii lit tall upon Tliomiis Mniitt (or hti opinion on M'til«' lit'li:t 1m mi I >,; rt t intirlt lift A ri»f*'r«*" Ik i'ltciNffi in fi fporltftc rvprtl. Nolhtof <• |> Ii <■tncr h I rtimt4 from Iti* Mntt tt »tu<l* tho tinai .nidmin-tit, Iho tl mpntttionttlo n •l|(hin( of »rt;t!ti.. Nt«, mnko Itittt * notuhl# in it I'ounlry " lt"> hnjlir t livil pr<tfp»«ion Mas ah-*.' - tltt' !•: fiitthofl ncidomirillf, mid not noiT' •iirtl - pra.-t i*pd. ll is t\ pi' al of Thotnit* Mnnn that In- ltel| .\i - tli.-r.. v,fi-f ntlters with prior claim* lo Ihe prize. lie, with other*, had pi essed the elainiK of the poet Mid playwright, Ai no 11017, who died sl* weeks uk". after a life of toil iitid financial hardship. Mann's only dctrnotor* are those who believe that poverty in one of the grent essentials or the complete lilerwry life. He admit* thnl he lias "always written in handsomely furnished rooms," The nhort mitobio graphv he (rives of hinwlf deifflltci his life to-day: '-1 am the itwnor «> f 11 Ittg flttt in Itif bust pot«ilion, oomplftr ivitli olort rir Ufrht Hi<t ovrrr niodorn ronvontenoti. with the fluent of furniture, ittrpel*, ond pl« tntt'B, Mv Imi tiii'liolH m run en fX|)«tn*tv* linos. I civr ordrrn to thro* h«*itm m»t4« iitid one Si-et% t'ollio. I hitvr thr hflut of rolU with my niorning ton, »n<t 1 newrty nhtiiy* wear pntottt lonthor ►hue* Wn*t pK,. ?" 1 nttilrrt»l,t. irittmphul jouri»»v». In ivy nttt.vo lowr., 1..0, Tito bt« h«ll <• th* ('• unt. \i"R«t • tnnp.otfly loltl out, I Wl* an ftrrfo.l n Unrol n irath. nnt) my f«Uow-eltl-7ons app'nudftl mr Mr lion 1 y Alfred Wadworth, #f Breinton Court, Hereford, a mombir of the North Hereford and South Hertford Ifoundg, w-ho met with a fatal aeeld#nt on August 25th l«st, aged 77 yeara. left, in hid will a remarkable ffxptMaion of belief on the Resurrection of the Dead. Thin ran : At donlh my body tliull 1.0 pi mod 1b lh» cheajioiit iloct nt rcri<iit»rlo a nil tak«n tn my otvTi trailer and ear to the mo«l coni»nf#l«l 1 roinatiiritiin. and rronni tod my gardener, Wtllinm Ctittoß and my thauffovir will aocompanv niv hotly, »nd no one clue, lakinf a small bin (deal of about 13 inch** «a*k way) to lirine back tho »iihit«, whlrh aro 10 1.0 ' broken up and aoOltorod In my wood at Brointon Conrt. an xvoro my daughter Altffiffi'a o«)tOK in 1001. 1 bflicve t*nd aomo ot tho leading «rte»tifle moil of tho dav auaur* mo that I koliove rightly) that at my daath tho orfanir ion«titnonts of my body will bo quickly eon vertod into onrhonio arid and ammonia, and that thefto ga»n* will by tho law Of illfttnion be at onto dintribilted ovor Ilia whole world and will hflji to build o!H«r plant*, and in tßoir turn airlmmla, no that in tha future overy jtlanl. and animal In tho world will contain an inflniteaiioal IMirtlon •( *7 body Tho morjanti pttru of my body, th# phoa ph a ion of Urn*, etc.. will alao be di»nol*«d, and by tho agoin y pf rain*, river*, and oeoan rurronl s will' al so be difitributed, but "lore slowly. The ciergv loft, la IBJf Snif at death, degraded to heat, will qniekly loa»« if and form part of the energy of too universe. Thin I believe to ba tmO R*»«r-l-oction of tlto Pttittl and the hlff KTifllitlucT beliovo in Hod. but.. Hka the OOH of Bt. Paul s Crcelo. it it an unknown GOD, »a in our pronont «t«t« of development w» art inea pnhle of miileratandlng Him, Hl* Otl|li, and iom# of Hit law a. The belief that it makea Bgaiaat a book for it to be acrialiacd in tho Prcwi receives no support from what hj»» happened lo '• Journey'# End." By the end of the fortnight, during which it waa appearing in the "Evening Standard,'' its sales in book form had riaen from 29,000 to ft 7,000.