LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 74, 28 March 1931, Page 19

LITERARY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

The fifth of April is the date chosen for the unveiling of the monument of Rupert Brooke ove,r his grave in Skyl'OS. . . l It is reported from Amsterdam that the ex-Kaiser is writing his memoirs as a counter-blast to those of the late Chancellor yon. Bulow, which are said to contain a number of mis-statements. An American book on Xenophon is praised because it "brings a hazy figureof the classics back to realism by a vivid word-picture." Any writer who thinks that he can improve on Xenophon's own vivid word-pictures may be awarded a place in the ranks of unconscious humorists. In reply to an objection to the use of the term "publisher'a blurb" by the "Week-end Be view," the editor of that journal points out that the 1929 edition of the "Concise Oxford Dictionary" defines "blurb" as "a publisher's eulogy of books, printed on tho jacket or in advertisements elsewhere. —U.S. slang." "The word is not beautiful," adds the editor, "but is expressive, and is now generally recognised . among publishers. '' Gladstone is described by Lord Bendel in his "Personal Papers" as a five-minutes' reader. Beading filled every gap of his time. The discipline of his mind was so perfect that he could apply it easily on. any subjoct and withdraw it easily and quick]}'. Any spare interval, however short, he spent with a book. "In an instant ho is deep in it,"Wrote Lord Rcndel; "in an instant he is clean out of it." Hector Munro ("Saki"), whose whimsical short stories have been published in one volumo by Lane, often mingled tragedy with his comedy, and he wrote one entirely serious .book", "The Rise of the Russian Empire." His sister has recalled thnt "Hector himself had not a great opinion of the book. Ho was charmed with' the remark of our coachman, who asked for'the loan of it. I don't know how much of it ho read, but one day he said to Hector, 'I've read your book, sir, and I must 6ay I shouldn't caro to have written it myself.' Hector said it was the biggest compliment he ever had." The Hon. BcTtrand Bussell, who has succeeded his brother as third Earl Russell, has published many volumes sinc^e 1896, when "German Social Democracy ".appeared. Earl Russell was born in May, 1872. He is a mathematician and philosopher, and he was formerly a lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge. In recent years'he has written "The Prospects of Industrial Civilisation," "The A B C of Relativity," "On Education," "The Analysis of Matter," "An Outline of Philosophy," and "Sceptical Essays." It has been said of him that" he is, essentially, an intellectual, who believes that the truth may be acquired by well-dis-ciplined ratiocination, but does not believe that the Governments of the world, whether despotic or democratic, will ever attain, to tho perception of truth. Therefore he is p. deliberately lonely figure, almost querulously criticising the world's workings, ever ready to champion unpopular causes, slow in accepting any "fait accompli.' "