THIS MODERN AGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1936, Page 17

THIS MODERN AGE

IF R.L.S. WERE ALIVE

LAN-HAY'S SPECULATIONS

How would Robert Louis.. Stevenson have reacted -to themodern-world, and how- would .he-have,-, met the,demands of a: modern publisher? Major lan Hay' Beith (better known as lan Hay, the author) asked and' answered both these questions at the annual, dinner, at the London branch of the Robert Louis Stevenson Club, . writes 'The Post's" London" represenTaxiye.' Lord Finlay (president) .was. in the., chair,; and he was accompanied, by. Lady Finlay. . . '..,„ ... .....■.." . . ' Everything worth saying about R.L.S. had,. already, been said, Major Beith declared, and there was a universal admiration for the man's technical equip-, ment and the diversity of his tools. No subject was too rugged nor too delicate for him to tackle with success. Major Beith said that he could not but regard R.L.S. with..some professional .jealousy when.. .he considered, the free hand which Stevenson's readers always gave him. . . . . ~..;' Nowadays in a time of big circulations, the readers of a man's books controlled his choice of .subject. They had a' passion for labels. They decided what a man could do and then they expected to watch him doing it, re-; garding him with surprise and indignation if he tried to do anything' other than what they expected of him. This pressure was brought to bear upon, literature, drama, and art, and if a man; was labelled as a dramatist he was not expected to stray from that literary allotment or he would-be in for trouble. Major.Beith, who.mentioned that he; had been writing light fiction for some 30 years, said that during the war he was called upon, like others," to face a sterner task, and so he had produced a: war narrative, "The First' Hundred Thousand." " After its publication he found that, as far as a large portion of the public were concerned, he had apparently never written ~ anything else, and when the war was over it had; "taken him five years to live that reputation down. The public had made up their mind that he was a military writer, so that when he wished to ■■ return to: the kind of book" he baa written before, many people had .- almost suggested that he was unqualified since he was a "military writer." In America, he believed, he was still referred to as."a guy who once wrote a book about the war and is now trying to get away with -straight stuff." '- .'.-.•■••■- "PERFECT LITERARY ARTIST." "But .Stevenson, would never have been fettered. with chains or a label," continued Major' Beith. "He was a Scot with a strong dash of the Covenanter, and he would always have written about what . he liked, where he liked, and how the liked. He. would never have., submitted to the requests of the publisher ,idr another best seller or another 'Treasure Island' if he did not feel like writing one. He was the perfect literarjj...artist, and, ,he, went straight into the/Jmatter. which appealed to him at the moment. His inclinations and equipment always went together.: He was a many-sided genius and he revelled in. the ..exercise of every one: of his tasks'.""' ' "'""~"ii-::t^:KX?'- ---. It was interesting to cpnjectu're -what Stevenson would have' thought of I the world today. Life was rather easier in his day. The motor-car was ... only a rumour; people stayed ''put." They cultivated \the"; soceity of their nextdoor neighbour, and that progenitor; of procrastination and the des.tr.oyer.; of the epistolary"art—ithe telephone—was still in<its' proper place, in a cupboard. America had only just been tascbyered .:—(iaughtei\)-r&nd•". music, still'-. was music. The aeroplane, the saxophone,l and..Dr.;. Freud had'riot begun tb; furnish about 90, per ..cent, of the novel. "How. would R.L.S. have fitted in with this hectic age? I think he would have revelled in it; especially in the possibilities presented by science and the Great War," said Major Beith. "He would probably have discriminated, of course, and ■he would probably have hated and iad a, Gontempt. fpf the rioise and soul-destroying hustle.- V. He' would also-have had a word to .say about modern tendencies. As-a; man who, •■ al-though;-life had not been too easy' for him, declared that the ~:v£prld was full of a- number of things.; and that; all should be as,happy aspirings,- he would have-revolted,-.against;^ the • indecent gusto'with-'-/'which..spine of our most distinguished modernists believe- in; all for the worst in the worst of all.possible worlds. ,He would .not have "followed the cult of introspection ;■ of pspcho-analysis, Imagine Alan Breck Stewart, with an inhibition, or lipng John Silver with an1 inferiority ; . .complex." ■ ' - ' •'■'-' ■'■"■■ ;■•• ;■ ; •■;--■ -r*f.