FASCINATING LETTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 22

FASCINATING LETTERS

"When You Look, "Back" is an anthology of letters to children from illustrious persons, collected .by Eve | Knight and published by Cobden-Sand- j erson. In this collection, dating from 1220 to the present day, Joseph Conrad, Alexandre Dumas, Marie Corelli, Sir Walter Kaleigh, Charles I, and others stand cheek by jowl with Hans Andersen, Beethoven, J,.. G-. Whittier, Laurajice Hpusnian, : arid a rich assembly of great ones. The artist meets royalty on common ground—joyous nonsense contrasts with solemn admonition.; Wo do indeed look back. Catherine of Aragon, tho wifo of Henry VIII, for whose divorce the whole machinery of the Church of England was altered, becomes in'this book a little girl of fourteen years of age, poe-tically wooed by Prince Arthur, whom she had married when still a child. We look back to Hans Andersen, writing to tho child Mary Livingstone, rejoicing in the hope of her famous father's safety. Neither knew that Dr. Livingstone lay dead hi Africa. Those to whom the letters are addressed include many ' buds of genius noi then blossomed—Sir William Stevndale Bennett, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mrs. Naomi Mitchison, Thackeray Bitchie, David Garnett— these were only children when the letters were written, but all were destined to becomfi great men and women. > This is a fascinating collection of letters which should make a wide appeal to both parents and children of the present day.