LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2618, 13 November 1915, Page 12

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

"Judas" Zangwill,

: That Frank Harris, always, at best* an irresponsible and hot-headed - fellow, should- have turned renegade and should be writing anti-British articles in the American press, was not surprising for he had to quit London very hurriedly to avoid gaol- for contempt of court, and is now a man with a personal grievance. But it is positively disgusting 'to read of Israel Zaugwill's espousal of the German cause, and of his blackguarding England—his native country—in the columns .' of Hearst's "New _ York ' American." For Zangwill belongs to a race which has found refuge in England. He was born in England, won his -way by natural brillianby and industry—hut always aided by the freedom and generosity of England's ' educational 'system—to an English university degree.. English publishers have published his novels, and tens of _ thousands of English readers, myself included, have bought and enjoyed them. ' No one better than Israel 'Zangwill, President of thel International Jewish Territorial Organisation; knows how generously, how freely, every avenue to public employment and public honour is thrown open to the Jews in : England. . And yet this ungrateful fellow turns round and vilifies his own oountry. Very .likely this renegade Englishman is being well paid for his pro-German articles 111 New York. So was Judas for his dirty work close on two thousand years ago! Perhaps Zangivill's excuse is that England is now Russia's all}'. Bat if Russia, in the past, treated the Jews very cruelly—and that she has is a matter of history, and of very ugly history—has the Jew of the Polish Jew, for instance, any hope of better treatment from the Huns? If Mr i Zangwill imagines that ho'- has, then he, in the opinion of many leading Polish and Russ'an Jews, is most 'grievously selfdeluded. And, in any case, the Russian alliance notwithstanding, his is a very dirty Same to play to turn Judas on the country which gave him birth, and in which he has gained both, fame, and, if report speaks truly, more than a merely comfortable competency. I shall never again read a Zangwill book. -Had I one.on my shelves it would go forthwith to the destructor. Tho tens, nay scores, of thousands of decent, bya-1 British Jews now either fighting for the Allies at,-the front or being trained for future fighting, must he heartily ashamed of Zahgwill, their renegade brother; Morley Roberts and His Books. I am glad to see that in the Septem ber number of "The Bookman" (Hoddor and Stoughton), full, if tardy, justice is done to a writer, Mr. Morley Roberts, whose fine talents havo not, J fear, been as widely recognised as they might and olight to have been. It is a good many years ago now—over a quarter of a century—since "Liber" purchased, at that excellent book shop of Messrs. H. I. Jones and Sons, in Waitoanui, a copy of Morley Roberts's flret book-"The Western Avernus," and as I write I can look up to a. book shelf which contains not only that particulai volume, but some half-dozen others, all bearing the same author's name, with not ono of which would 1 willngly part company. "The Bookman" article on Mr. Roberts is written by Mr. Wilkin-, son Sherren. who givos an interesting account of the author's life—a wondorfully diversified career—and pays a welldeserved tribute" to the unfailing freshness and vigour of his work, devoting, I am pleased to see, special attention to that fine, if pathetic,, story, "Time and Thomas Waring," published a couple of years or so ago, and, to my mind, one of the strongest psychological studies to be. found in latter-day English fiction. Mr. Sherren omits, however, to mention that Roberts was a great friend of the late George Gissing, of whom, it may be remembered, ho wrote that penetrating, almost cruelly, intimate study "Tho Privato History of Henry Maitland." - There" are niany other good .features 111 the September "Bookman" which, as usual, contains many interesting illustrations. To Mr. Matz's article on a curious opisodo in Dickens's life, I' made separate allusions. Dickens and CHristina Wellcr. All good Dickensians—l uolico, by the way. iii a South Island contemporary, an allusion jo "Dickensonians'," an_ expression which is as incorrect as ! it is ugly—should make a point of buying the September issue of "The Bookman" if only to possess and preserve an interesting article by Mr. B. W. Matz (editor of "The Dickensian"), entitled "Ohristitia Wellcr, a Friend of Dickens/' Tho article recalls a visit paid, in 1844, by Dickens to Liverpool, where he went to preside at tho opening of tho Mechanics' Institute, One of the artists taking part ill the concert at which Boa presided, Wa-s a pianist whoso name was Miss Christina Weller. Tho peculiarity of her namo led Dickens to seek an introduction to her family, and a life-long friendship ensued' Mr* Matz prints several interesting letters (somo very humorous in vein), written by Dickens to tho Wellers, and a facsimile of somo verses, written by "Boz" In tho young lady's album. This same Miss Wellor married a Mr, Thompson and with her husband, a painter of somo note, gathered round her, at her house in London, « distinguished pirelo of

friends whioh includod 6uoh notabilities as Mendelssohn, Millais, Ruskin, John Bright, Jenny Lind,' Grisi, Princo Lucien Bonaparte, and, of course, Dickens himself, sho and her husband being frequont guests at Gadshill. Mrs. Thompson's daughter, Elizabeth; inherited her father's artistic gifts, and achieved world-wido fame as the painter of "The Roll Call," "The Defenco of Rorke's Drift," and other famous pictures, marrying in 1877, LieutenantGeneral Sir William Francis Butler tho distinguished soldier. Her sister, Alice, is to-day equally well known in tho world of literaturo, for she is none other tliau the Alice Meynell, whose poems and essays have been so widely admired. It was Sirs. Meynell and her husband, Mr. Wilfred Meynell, who were such true and disinterested friends of the'unfortunate, 'but brilliantly, gifted, poet, Francis Thompson, the author of "The Hound of Heaven," and so much other beautiful verse. Thompson was, however, so far as I oan ascertain from -Mr. E. s "Life of the Poet," no relative of Mrs.-Meynell. Altogether Mr. Matz's article is one of special and peculiar interest to lovers of literature and art, and should not h® over, .looked, Stray Leaves,. Reviews of_ several new novels, including Mary Rineheart's "K," are held over. It is good to know that Algernon Gissing is writing a "Life" of his Tamou? brother, the lata George _ Gissing. Morley Roberts's "Private Histoiy of Henry Maitland," and the biographical studies by H. G. Wells and Austin Harrison, left muoh to be said, and no doubt, in justice to a much misrepresented man, the brother will now say it.

Another biography, of even greater importance, which should soon be published, is Mr. Edmund Gosse's "Life of Algernon Charles Swinburne." This, when it is published, should be "the biography" of the season.

Mention of Swinburne reminds one that his life-long frieiid, Theodore Watts Dunton, has had the.happy idea of collecting tho many excellent articles, mostly of a biographical and critical character, which he contributed, over a long period, to the "Athenaeum." The title of tho book will be "Tho Old Familiar Faces."

Arnold Bennett's norelj "A- Great Man," announced by Metlvuen's, is not a new story, but one which was first published, under the title of "A Great Man—A Frolic," by Cliatto and Windus, as' far back as 1904. It may be roughly described as a humorous treatment of tho psychological side of authorship. "These Twain," the long-promised sequel to "Clayhaiiger and Hilda Lessways," has been running -as' a Berial in an American magazine. But those who do not care for their fiction in serial doses—and these,. I think, are of the wiseir class of readers—will prefer to await the publication of the story, iu book form, which cannot bo long delayed. '

I must acknowledge receipt of a volume of short stories by Captain Mantling, of the Maori, and of a slender littlo volume of verse, "Star Dust and Sea Foam," by I. M. Batten. Reviews in due course.

A recent addition, to that handy, if somowliat -unequal, series, . Nesoet's "Writers of the Day," is a little volume on "Rudyard Kipling" by John Palmer. More than one appreciation and criticism of Kipling's work 'has been published recently, but so far they have been either quite negligible or too'-highly priced for th<» average New Zealand bookman's pocket. Mr. Palmer's book, however, only costs fifteen penoe, ,and, judging by the reviews in the English papers, It seems to be very well written.