LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2641, 11 December 1915, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

I must congratulate my old friend Arthur Adams upon the acceptance of his play "Mrs. Pretty and. the Premier," by an English manager, as reported- the other day. Mr.< Adams's novels, notably "Grocer Greatheart," are far above the ordinary ruck of latter-day fictiou, and his poetical output has been by no means contemptible, either in bulk or quality. '

A' good story reaches me from faraway Now York, courteously sent me by a fellow bookman in "Bagdad on the Hudson," as 0. Henry used to call his favourite city. It appears thatHarpers, the publishers of Booth Tark-' ington's "Turmoil," recently learned that an English edition of the book was to be sent to Australia, which would interfere with their own edition, already on the Australian market. They took prompt steps and cabled to their representative in Sydney, "Stopping English Turmoil," and learned a little later that the censor had held up the cable for two days until it could be investigated; So runs my friend's story, but as a matter of fact Ijho English edition was not stopped, for _ a- 1 copy of that edition was duly received by ?ne arid reviewed in these columns a fortnight or so ago.

Arnold Bennett's story "Helen. With tho High Hand," one of his weakest, so I Live always thought,, has'.-been dramatised, the play, ah!' adaptation by Richard Pryce, having recently been produced at/Liverpool with seme -success.

I see an English translation of Selma Lagerlof's remarkable novel "Jerusalem" is being, published by Doubleday, Page, and Co. Selma Lag'erlof is the only woman member of' the Swedish Academy, and is, one'of the lucky recipients of the Nobel Prize. She .is, I am glad to say, not a pro-German; indeed, the majority of the Swedish intellectuals—Sven Hedin, of course, being anotable exception—are on our side. The pro-German element in Sweden is not so much 'anti-British . as .anti-Russian. T must confess that the only stories by the great Swedish writer that'l have read seemed to me to be laoking in. any strong human interest, but the latest 6tory is said to rival Ibsen's dramatic work in its searching analysis of character. .

There is, I see, to be an official biography of the late Keir Hardie,. It will be published by the National Council of tne Independent Labour Party, and will' be .based upon Mr. Hardie's. private correspondence.-. Extremist :as he undoubtedly: was, there was much to admire—in! particular a vein of, ! deep sincerity—intihelabour,' leader's, character, and amongst his personal friends he. counted quite a number of. politicians and others to whom his views on political and, social subject-B must have / beenC anathema. .It was the same with .' Brad laugh, for whom Disraeli is said to have more than once expressed great admiration. .In both the latter men, usually so completely at variance', there was the same'strain-of audacity.

Henri Fabre, the septugenarian, French entomologist> ; 'i's : :dead,'i hut 7 an. addition to his.long list of works has! just been published, consisting of essays on various kinds of bees. ' The title is'"The Bramble Bees and Others." - -'' ■ '

' Some, at least, of the Huns are evidently, afraid, that, after the war .there will be very few British patrons of the famous health resorts of Germany. In a little shilling'book, "Ah English Girl's Adventures in Hostile Germany," one incident, recorded is that after' great celebrations of a German victory an order came "from Berlin saying the Neuheimers must show a more becoming, restraint in their over future successes, seeing that, a number of English and Russians were detained there who would-probably never again after the war recommend the bathing resort where they had been so frequent ly annoyed by, their enemy's ostentatious displays, of triumph." . After thewar the German baths should bo strictly boycotted by British people, who will look to royalty to set a good example in, this. way. -As a matter of.'-fact, it has Ion» been recognised . in. medical circles that the waters of ■' Nauheim, Baden Baden, Homhurg, and the Austrian Marienbad are by no means superior to those of, say, Harrogate. It was simply a fashionable fad to "do your euro" at a German rather than at an English spa..' '

In the October . "Fortnightly Review," the veteran _ novelist, Thomas Hardy, pays a poetical tribute to his nephew, killed at the Dardanelles. The poem contains .but- three verses. I q,uoto the last: .

When the heath wore the robe of late summer, ; , _ ; And the fuohsia bells, hot in the sun, Hung red by the door, a quick comer Brought tidings that marching was done' . . For him who had joined in that game

■ overseas, ■ Where Death stood to win, though his memory would borrow 'A brightness therefrom not to die on the morrow."'

Tho young ofiice'r, so I read, stood al'most as a son to the ■ great • novelist, and poet, who has sorely missed him. Mr. John' Buchan, tho clever Scot, whose "History of the War" I read with such unfailing regularity and interest as'the volumes appear, seems .to be a wonderfully versatile fellow. He bas written several excellent novels. "T.P.'s Weekly" has the following interesting personal paragraph: Buchan has the secret of choosing the exact phrase to stimulate •. the imagination. This gift was aptly illustrated the other day when he opened his brilliant record of the Allies' advance by the words: "On Friday a man -could have walked in a 'trench from the North Sea to the Alps." Could any_, set of mere words give a more vivid picture of the vast scale of this* confliot? The art of writing is one whioh John Buchan has followed for more • years than most men of his age. While ho'was yet an undergraduate of Brazenose he had several stories on the bookstalls, and combined in an astonishing manner tho duties of author, president of the Union, Newdigate Prize ■ winner, central figure of various literary societies, and diligent scholar. He was generally believed to manage Brazenose,;so that mere dons who were hot, like himself, in "Who's Who" walked humbly before him. After Oxford he helped Lord Milner to run South Africa for a time ,and then, returned to literature. If you desire a breathless experience, you will find it in his latest book, which is called "Thirty-nine Steps."

Tlie indefatigable Mr. G. K. Chesterton, whilo continuing "Our Note Book" -in the "Illustrated London News," has started a weekly causerio in "The New Witness" on things in general, under the title "At the World's End."

James Stephens, the Irish poet and story writer, whose "Crock of Gold" had such a; big vogue, has a new book of verses for children coming out this month. 'The title is "The Adventures of Seuma-8 Beg: The Rocky Road to .Dublia.'-k