MR MAUGHAM’S ELBOW

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27191, 7 November 1953, Page 3

MR MAUGHAM’S ELBOW

1 iFram the “New York Herald Tribune"] ft was high time that the importance ,*f the elbow in literary achievement Was receiving its due. Critics always talk about a writer’s heart, or brain, °r spleen; they practically never discuss his elbow, which lies at the root of the art. An orthopedic surgeon in London has now called attention to this neglected factor by advising Mr I«. Somerset Maugham, the famous novelist, to change his way of holding 6 pen and to adjust the angle at which he places his forearm upon the table, With the objective of curing a troubleSime case of writer’s cramp. - It might be said, of course, that any ®an who has written 14 novels, 17 Ways, 14 volumes of short stories, six a essays, four travel books and JJuntless other odds and ends is ento a little stiffness in the fingers, "only from thumbing royalty cheques, yet it must come as a blow to ®r Maugham to learn that he has been it all wrong these many years. jWnat a writer needs mostly to assure evidently, is speed and a right arm—just like a baseball Now that Mr Maugham has jesrned his lesson, the world can £*JJhably look forward to even greater •Jaevements from his freshly gripped And elbow benders the world ®£er can take new encouragement from scientific proof of the importance their favourite pastime. 1 BEYOND HUMAN KEN (Grayson wja Grayson. 240 pp.) is a collection of stories by various authors which rjM delight readers of fantasy and fiction. Several are about roand strange supermen of the u . others about trips to Mars or from Sagittarius, one is jout a “humanised” house. The best sgty is perhaps Stephen Vincent Sy* charming tale about a stray > captured off the New England J®Bt and offered to P. T. Barnum’s as “the biggest attraction in history.” But the whole col*aon is original and unusual, authors i as Arthur Forges, Theodore ■ and Robert Heinlein headwell chosen list of clever I