LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 27

LITERARY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

: A biography of ."King. George'"Vl" by Mr. Taylor Darbyshire, was published in London ' recently' 'by Hutchinson?. Mr. Darbyshire, it will be remembered, was one o| the journalists who accompanied his Majesty when, as Duke of York, he visited New Zealand and Australia ten year,s ago. ' . ~ 1 '■■ '■ ' ffl« - -;r ■.i

One .hunfireS years .ago, in.:;. 1837, Charles Dickens became an editor'iw « sn Richard 'Benffefy began ,fßentley's Miscellany" with^ the author, of "Pick>'ick",iri; ( the jShair. /And in the cellany's" pages "Oliver Twist" made his bow. Other literary notabilities, toora"ppeare'a~tKerei"; """~' '""•■-

Reading G. K. Chesterton's autobiography, J. B. Priestley has come to the conclusion,* that, compared with their -' rollicking elders, present-day writers are «a gloomy group. Mr. Priestley feels that Chesterton, Belloc, Wells, .-Barlngy;; andV..,pthers.., enjoyed higher spipM1 and/; higher jinks, than he-and his contemporaries do: He cannot imagine T. S, Eliot,, Richard Aldington, and Ivor Brown up to such larks. \

■'What,'will probably be ttie biggest book in the wprlcl is now being written ;iti Johannesburg, South Africa. By the time it is completed it is expected that it will contain 1,000,000 entries. The book's title, "The Golden Register of Visitors to the Empire Exhibition Held in 1936-37 in Honour of Johannes^ burg's Jubilee," is inscribed oh a plate of real gold, extracted from the Witwatersrand mine's.

Mr. John Masefield is engaged on a new and ambitious work of fiction. It is a tale of the English' countryside, and of the fortunes of a family, and it will occupy three volumes. The first deals with the 1870's, when the head of the family becomes involved in a quarrelwith the authorities because he champions a poacher whose gang has caused the death ..of a peeper..

Examples of A. E. '■• Housman's tart wit are still dropping up. Here is one culled from Mr. A. Edward Newton's "Bibliography" and Pseudo-Bibliogra-phy." An American bibliographer, seeing that a new edition of "A Shropshire Lad" was announced, wrote to Housman as follows:—"I highly value my copy of the first edition; is there anything new important in your last?" To this Housman replied: "No, only a few new blunders replacing the old ones."

Mr. Rafael Sabatini had an Italian father and an English mother. Although he was born in Italy, he has, he says] ■ "always considered English my -language, and have never thought of writing in any other language." , His birthplace was an ideal spot for. the early years of, a ; historical novelist— the little city of Jesi, in Central Italy, with its medieval walls, crumbling palaces, and ancient cathedral. He has been writing steadily since 1904, when "The Tavern Knight" appeared. He works only in the mornings, alw.ays uses a typewriter, and aims at finishing some 2000 words daily. He is tall, well built, and has reddish hair not unlike Mr. Stanley Baldwin's. ■

M. George Duhamel, waose novel cycle, "Salavin," has just appeared in English translation, has been visiting London with his wife. Before her marriage Mme. Duhamel had a distinguished career as an actress at the Comedie Fr'ancaise. M. Duhamel is in the forties. I/; 'speaks English well.. He began as a.doctor, like Mr. Maugham, Dr, Cronin, and Mr. Deeping. During the war he r/ -formgd over 2300 operations on soldiers. Later he gave up surgery and biology -for- literature. "Salavin" has sold over half a million copies in Franpe, and has been translated into tv/:lve. foreign .languages. M. Duhamel is also editor of the literary paper, "Mercure de France."