A journeyman of letters

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 10

A journeyman of letters

Confessions of a Writer. By Vincent Brome. Hutchinson. 272 pp. Earning a living as a serious writer these days is an unrewarding endurance test according to Mr Brome, the British author of novels, biographies, essays, historical works and plays. His “confessions," recording the life of a professional man of letters, begin with his childhood in a home dominated by an unhappy marriage and school—a relief from the home battlefield, followed by an unfruitful attempt to learn the tea business. Early struggles to exist on the output from his pen without lowering his high literary standards were interrupted by the 1914-18 war and a spell with the Ministry of Information. After the war the embryo sociologist and writer, would-be politician and poet, journalist and novelist, decided to concentrate on a literary career. The security of a post doing research work with the Labour Party intervened and Mr Brome, already acquainted with Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells moved into a world dominated by personalities such as Herbert Morrison, Morgan Phillips and the brilliant young M.P., Wilfred Fienburgh. The author describes his first meeting with Aneurin Bevan and his quarrels with Morgan Phillips which eventually led to his resignation. He found himself unable to accept the over-simplification of issues needed in party political thinking. A well researched biography of Bevan foundered when Bevan unexpectedly withdrew his support and the author found himself “driven” back to journalism. An appointment as Literary Correspondent of “Picture Post” led to interviews with Thomas Mann, Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Then a visit to America to cover the 1948 Presidential elections has many highlights ranging from interviews with the future President Truman and Harold Ross of the “New Yorker” to an erotic one-night encounter with Susie of the pomegranate lips. Mr Brome writes uninhibitedly of his sex life and i| his mention of his 10 common law marriages and numerous passades is a little repetitive, it is always matter-of-fact, never boastful and he is dispassionately informative about the sexual deviants he has come across. Marriage and the fathering of children have had no place in the life of this writer, who sees his struggle to survive as an author as living in a constantly crumbling fortress, a life too arduous to be shared with a woman on a permanent basis. Despite the setbacks, Mr Brome slowly gained recognition as a writer. His autobiography of H. G. Wells caused a literary controversy. It was followed by the resurrected Bevan biography and by a war history that unexpectedly became a best seller and bought him the time to write a couple of novels.

Success, however, has brought with it a distaste for the nepotistic-socialite world of the fashionable “literatti.” Mr Brome deplores the passing of power from the hands of literary men into the hands of academics who have invaded the review pages of newspapers and periodicals. The literary essayist with his appreciative ramblings, has he feels, lost to the austere academically-trained analyst. The cross fertilisation of reader, writer and critic has lost its balance and the university trained elite now reaffirms its own critical standards. Writers are given detailed attention or ignored according to whether they fulfil what the academocracy regards as the currently valid mode of creative values. To bridge the gap, Mr Brome suggests the creation of posts of Resident Writers at various universities to enable poets, novelists and biographers to become part of university life for a year, to be available for lectures or seminars. He feels too that publishing economics need a serious overhaul. Directors, editorial staff, salesmen and publicity men get a reasonable living from the book trade but most authors do not. The booksellers, he says, get 33 1-3 per cent, the authors 10 per cent. The employment by publishers of authors on a salaried basis like academics is the most promising avenue for bringing the two professions into financial line. This is a stimulating book by a man with a candid approach to the recording of his life as a journeyman of letters.