BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 18339, 28 July 1923, Page 10

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

TOSSES. LUNA, Too soon the sunset comes; too Boon Opens the night its curious eyes, Greedy to watch tho maiden moon Unloose her silver draperies And walk upon tho star-flowered fields, Her cloudy garments one by one To waiting winds she slowly yields, And now, her last disrobing done, Flashes lithe limbs across the sky, And Haunts the cold and slender grace Of unconcerned virginity. 0 now before her smiling face A ihousand rivers, hakes, and eeas • Hold up their mirrors to her gave! A thousand moonicts there she secs Float on a thousand starry ways. Beneath her footfall light and free The peeping star-flowers shake and fall; Cold as her watery mirrors, she Drinks admiration from them all. In them her nakedness she views, In love with her own limbs displayed, And through tho wondering night pursues Her strange unreasonable parade. —Gerald Miller, in tho ‘ Spectator.’ OVER DARTMOOR. ' -w M There’s a sky over Dartmoor, sapphire cannot beat— There’s a wind over Dartmoor, scented very sweet— There’s a lark over Dartmoor, dropping ns ho sings Of Heaven’s Hops and Homeland—all heart-piorciag things. Where tho drift of king-oupa flings o golden sash, Whore the jewelled kingfisher passes In a flash, Treasure-store of Devon—Land of day-*-I dream of you at Paddington, two hundred miles away I” —“G.8.5.,” in the ‘Morning Post,' SIR SIDNEY LEE. , ON MODERN WRITERS. Tho one great subject of Sir Sidney Les is, of course, Shakespeare, and when 1 called for an interview I explained that Shakespeare was tho one theme of which I did not wish him to speak (writes Mr H. M. Forbes, in the ‘ Weekly Scotsman ’). So great was his surprise, he seemed quite lost for on answer. In the long mn he made -some comments on a number of literary subjects other than those with which his name is so habitually associated. “Whatever people say of ibe ‘best ecllora ’ of the day, as they are styled,” Sir Sidney Leo declared, “it must bo ad mitted that public taste, not only in novel reading, but also in other braaches of letters, is steadily improving The up-to-date ‘light novel’ is not the only typo of story tho novel reading community eagerly peruse; reprints of famous romances of all kinds also keep thousands of readers hosv, “At the present day there is a greater reading public than there ever was before in all our history as a people. Whether this is the reason ’.hat so many people imagine they have a penchant for the scribbling of so-styled mystery stories, 1 do not profess to know; but it is amazing tho number of those who at one time or another have tried their hand, for instance, at detective stories. “Can a detective story bo sufficiently well written to merit its being regarded aa a serious contribution to tho literature of the day? Most certainly. The detective yarns of Edgar Allan Poe, for instance, are classics, while those of Conan Dovle—tho ever-popular Sherlock Holmes series—if hardly up to the wonderful standard of Poo, are unquestionably works of distinction.

“How regrettable (hit so many of the detective stories produced from time to time, to say nothing of tho scores which do not got tho length of the case-room, are so obviously second-rate. The popular novelist of one generation is, with rare exceptions, neglected by tho next. No need to say that Dickens is always with us—Scott, George Eliot. But it is surprising the bard times on which tho romance of scores of successful story writers falls, once the authors die. Many writers for whose works not so many years ago there was a persistent demand are nowadays hardly over heard of; the booksellers know them only by name. Even the literary student concerns himself very little with them. “ Despite the fact that there exists such an army of readers in this country, the literary man is perhaps faced with greater difficulties than has been the case for a generation. In many instances in these hard days literary men have difficulty in as much as making a living. The heavy cost of production is no doubt the root of tho difficulty. If an author does not strike tha popular fancy with some new idea, some novel theme, the creation oi some particularly onga-gmg character, he must necessarily look out for a hard struggle. “My experience at London University has proved to mo that the number of women writers ia rapidly increasing. Tho lady students pursue tnsir studies with the" keenest interest, apparently determined that they are going to make the most of their training. The ox-reivice men we have trained for journalistic work have also evinced the liveliest interest in their work. A curious thing to note is that the war, with all its horror and misery actually seemed to stimulate a certain typo of youthful mentality, make it more alert, more speculative, quicker in every way.

“There is a scheme on foot just now io provide' scholarships for journalists, bo that they can tour tho British Empire. The idea is splendid; a finer experience for a pressman than travel it would bo difficult to imagine. Fares are at present one of the obstacles with which tho movement is faced; but I have great hopes of it—consider it a most valuable idea-.

“Do I agree with what Dean Inge has been saying about the present standard of human genius? Yes, frankly, I do. That there is much brilliancy in the world today thoro is no denying i but In the Victorian ora I cannot help thinking there was more solid ability, more capacity of the lasting typo. Granted that many of our younger people have not yot had the opportunity of showing us tho stuff of which they are made, human genius of tho highest order seems to me very ra.ro at the present moment. "One thing, however, wo must not overlook, and that Is genius itself, if it Is to realise itself, must be disciplined. Genius by itself is not sufficient j it is trained genius for which the world is looking _ genius backed by experience, schooled in hardship, schooled lu perseverance.” NOTES, Joseph Conrad, the famous novelist, who a little while ago left for a long holiday in America, is on his way homo (writes our correspondent, June _ 14). America has been too much for him. Ho set out with his friend, Muirhead Bone, the etcher and painter, for the benefit of his health, which has been far from good for some years—he suffers from gout of tho hands, so that ho has to dictate his novels. But I am told that ho is worse rather than batter. He had not his who has been a devoted nurse, with him in States, Until his marriage in the ~nineties ho led a tremendously strenuous life at sea. But hs retired from tho merchant service a few months after the publication of ‘ Almayer’a Folly,’ his first novel —which took nine years to_ write—and never went to sea again. His marriage, retirement from the sea, and debut as a novelist, took place all within twelve months. For the last twenty years he has lived in Kent, and scarcely moved outside the country.

A LITERARY COIMES.

Miss Clemsnco Dane, the well-known authoress, selects the following list of bedbooks;—■(!) The Bible; (2) Shakespeare; (5) Chapman’s translation of ‘ The Odyssey ’ ; (4) Grimm’s Fairy Talcs; (5) ‘The Heimskringlui’; (6) ‘Tho Egoist’; (7) -‘Kim’; (8) a Jane Austen—‘ Persuasion,’ probably ; (9) ‘ Shirley ’; (10) 1 Huckleberry Finn’; (11) 'The Arabian Nights’; (12) ‘Little Women and Good Wives’; (15) * The Scholar Gipsy)’; (14) ‘ David Copperfield ’; (IS) ‘ Rob Roy ’; (16) Richard Jefferies’s ‘Bcvis’; (17) Pepys’s Diary; (18) Lamb’s Essays; (19) ouo of tho William Long book's on animals—say, 1 Beasts of the Field’; (20) the latest “shocker." “ At least,” she says, “ that’s the list as far as I can do it on the spur of the moment. I’yo probably left out half that I love best!" It is Sir James Barrie who makes his hero in ‘ When a Man’s Single ’ reply to tho editor who inquires whether he has got over tho “ shall and will” difficulty: "No, and I never will." Sir James himself has surmounted it, but many distinguished Scotsmen still cling to the locution which seems odd to English ears, observes tho ‘Daily Chronicle.’ Mr Bonar Law, writing to tho chairman of tiro Glasgow Central Division Unionist Association, says: “It is very unlikely that I will bs able to attend this session.” That was written probably out of compliment to his Scottish constituents, for the ox-P render is not a purs Scotsman, though ho had a Scottish mother and married a Scottish wife.

The Oxford Presa Is preparing an extremely interesting native history of Burma. It is known in Burmese aa the Hmannan Yazawin history, and it will appear under tho English title of 1 Tho Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma.’ It was compiled in 1829 by scholars of tho. Court _of Bodawpaya, King of Ava, and it is accepted as being based on a collection of earlier native chronicles, Bomo of which dale back as far as the eleventh century. To this fact it owes its value aa history, and, indeed, Sir Arthur Phayro made it the basis of his standard ‘History of Burma.’ “The ' New York Globe,’ the oldest daily newspaper in the United States, has been purchased by Mr Frank Mousey, wire, it is understood, will merge it with the ‘ ‘.sun in order to give the latter the benefit of its Associated Press services,” says ‘The TimesV New York correspondent. “Tho ‘Globe’ was founded 129 years ago by Noah Webster, the lexicographer, and was for many years the mouthpiece of Alexander Hamilton. One of the most noteworthy chapters in its history was when it opposed the war of 1812 with Great Britain In support of tho views of New England sececsionisU. The ‘Globe’ is strongly Republican, Its circulation in about 160,0C0.”

DB ABBAHAJI S. W. EOSENBACH, Noted book collector of Philadelphia. Pa., who recently returned to New York after a trip to Europe. He is reported to have spent 1,250,000 dollars in England and Franco in purchasing private collections and rare volumes at auction.

Addressing envelopes at 10 cents a thousand, working on a farm, on a railroad, on a construction job, and on newspapers, running a summer hotel, practising law, and soldiering— these are some of the jobs that the young American Tristram Tuppor tried before ho took to writing, lie wont to tho war as a private and went back to tho States with the rank of a major. ‘The House of Five Swords,’ recently published) by Doran, is his first novel. The best-selling Italian novelist is Guido da Verona, ono of whose recant novels is now in its 220th thousand. D'Annunzio's most popular novol ; ‘II Piacero,’ had) only (reached its seventieth thousand recently. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that Louis Homorig French masterpeico, ‘ Maria. Ohapdcdnine,’ is now in its six hundredth thousand! In ‘Some Impressions of My Elders’ Mr , St. John Ervine thus speaks of Mr H. G. Wells: “I do not know any man who can lose his temper in print with eo much effect and ao entertainingly as Mr Wells can lose his. . . . Mr Wells . . . can no more elude artistry than he can refrain from thinking. Ho is extraordinarily indifferent to literary style, ecema almost to delight in making a clumsy sentence rather than a shapely one' and so far ns ono can discover does not spend* a single second on ‘finding the right word.’ The idea is -his chief concern, and ho cares very little for tho way in width it is expressed. Nevertheless, ho remains an artist, with a gift for apt expressions and a far greater gift for selection. In his ‘ Scrap Boole ’ Professor Gcorgo Saintsbury elects on his own behalf the world’s twelve greatest writers. His list is necessarily interesting and necessarily unconvincing (says ‘John o’ London’s Weekly’). It is as follows:—Homer, ZEschylus, Lucretius, Dante, Malory, Spenser, Shakespeare, Shelley, Heine, Victor Hugo, Thackeray, Tennyson. From this list I should myself omit no fewer than seven names, and suggest: Homer, Plato, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Milton, Moliero, Goethe, Wordsworth, Dickons. An exhibition illustrating tho gradual development of tho 1 Encyclopedia Britannioa ’ from its first' appearance in 1768 to tho present day has been opened _in London. All the editions aro shown, with, tho exception of tho first, tho only copy of which in England, eo far ao the publishers aro aware, is in tiro British Museum. There aro tho blocks illustrating some of trio articles, and tho pure linen rag which, with tho addition of china Way to give it opacity, is used in tho manufacture of tho real India paper on which the Encyclopedia is printed. The strength of 'this paper is shown by an actual test, one of the volumes of the twelfth edition, weighing 21b Boz, being suspended in tho exhibition room by a single sheet. The lino blocks from winch tho Cambridge and tho handy volume size aro printed vro also jeen. When the handy volume was photographed down to half the size of tho Cambridge, optical experts wore consulted, p-nd they guaranteed that it would not strain normal right at normal reading distance. Tho set’of the eleventh edition handy volume which Sir Era cat Shackleton took with him to the Antarctic is oumingst the objects on view.

m -BOOKS. HOW TO KEEP WELL. Tliis has provided a theme for many writers during tho last twenty-fivo yoars, and more particularly tho bearing of food on health. The values of every kind of food and their effect on tho individual have been discussed by medical men and other scientific writers and by innumerable others who, having had no special qualifications for dealing with tho subject, have turned out books by the score. Every phase of the subject has been covered; the physical, tho mental, tho spiritual, and tho moral aspect have been presented by individuals, whose zeal outruns their discretion and their knowledge. After all, tho problem for tho ordinary individual is very simple; and the guiding principle is common sense. • His- inherited and personal experience will tell a man what to eat and what to avoid, and ho will know also that good health cannot bo attained without moderation and restraint. These are the chief rules laid down in 1 How to Keep Well,’ by Cecil Webb-Jolmsou, M. 8., Ch.B. (Methuen and Co., London). Tho author makes claims and assertions, however, that will not ho admitted by numbers of medical practitioners us having been proved, especially some of his remarks about alcohol, tobacco, and' milk, though certainly his condemnation of tho first two is qualified. His revolutionary ideas about milk aro not likely to find any genera! acceptance. Dr Webb Johnson breaks little now ground, and ha is in a safe and accepted position when ho pleads for simple, natural food in moderation, regular exercise, an abundanco of fresh air, rational clothes, daily bathing, the care of tho teeth, and attention generally to personal hygiene.

THE KING’S ENGLISH,

‘ Tho King's English and How to Write It,’ by John Bycott, M.A., and A. J. Lawford Jones (Jarrolds Publishers, London) is a practical text book of composition and precis writing. Tho work is based upon the comparative method, and it encourages the student to take a care-fully-selected course in standard literature. It is a practical book, brightly and clearly written, and will prove exceedingly useful to everyone tvlxo aspires to write correct and graceful English. Tho trouble with books of this kind as a rule is that they aro too technical and involved. In this case the authors have aimed at simplicity and clarity, and they have been successful. The hints on a course of a reading and the chapters on paraphrasing, essay writing, and index and precis writing will be found extremely helpful. The authors have taken for their text those wo.a'.s; “The noblest literary gift of a well-educated man is the power of wielding language well," and by precept, example, and apt illustration they proceed to show how they may bo put into practice, NOTES OH HOVELS. ' Not In Our Stars ’ (by Michael Maurice) is a first novel that stamps the author as, at any rate, a man of imagination. His title is taken from the passage in Julius Ciesar, which reads, “ Men at some time aro masters of their fates; the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” Felix Menzics, the hero of tho story, has the gift, to a limited extent, of second sight, lie is also a scientist. And one day something goes wrong with an eclipse. Tiie moon (or the sun) for once is lata for the appointment, with the curious result that every mortal on earth, without realising it, slips a cog, so to speak, and loses half an hour of his existence. Something more than this happens to Menzios, however, for during the dipped period lie is given a glimpse of the future; but, unwisely, beginning twelve months ahead and ending at the moment of his recovery. And the picture is rather a horrifying one, for in it ho suffers tho death penalty for having murdered his friend, who 'bad come between him and bis wife. Tbs result of the backward _release of tho film, so to speak, is peculiar, for tho effects come before the causes. Menzies has no clue at the time as to the reason for his hanging, for instance, nor, in turn, as to why he committed the murder. On his awakening bo experiences extraordinary suspense while the film cf his life, now restarted on its natural forward movement, unravels, and tho events as ho saw them previously slowly but surely occur in sequence. Up to a point, that is, for one of the first is bis proposal of marriage to a lady whom ho had fallen in love with prior to the ecliptical jolt. Menzies determines to cheat Fate at tho outset by not proposing, but Fate will not bo cheated thus. Tho story finishes here in characerislic stylo by leaving a good deal to the imagination, but lovo and trust is evidently the factor in stopping tho grim march of events and “ censoring ” the film. It is an unnatural yarn that Mr Maurice tells, and, for that reason, and despite certain imperfections, is one worth reading. Our copy is from the publishers (T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.).

Cassell and Co. send a copy of ' The Survivors,' tho latest novel by Lucas Malet, The accompanying announcement describes tho story as concerned with the virtues, vices, affairs of tho heart, and tho worldly fortunes of a large family as affected by over four, years of war and subsequent four years of so-called peace. That is a true description. It very fairly refrains from mention of tho action of tile story. As a fact, there is no action of any consequence. For tho space of about 200 pages the characters merely talk about themselves and do nothing. In tho later parts of the book tho author does introduce incident, jurying from the commonplace narration of a vulgar seducer receiving a thrashing and tho far-fetched occurrence of a stately widow, matron of a war hospital, manoeuvring with the surgeon to consent to further amputations on a young officer who already has lost a foot and part of a hand, her object being to have tho officer so completely maimed as to compensate for tho disparity in their ages and justify her in marrying him. Even this sensation, however, is not strong dramatically. Tho set intent of the writer, apparently, is to rely largely on fine writing and a copious vocabulary. The aim is not unworthy, Many readers of tho now romances are tired of complex plots, and it is a relief to pass from them to the serene and dignified stylo which Lucas Malet here adopts. Beit noted, also, that this is not a mere parade of words. Tho writing is full of fleeting thought. The question is whether the literary ability displayed makes up for the lack of action, and the answer must come from tho individual readers.

In ‘Tho Million Dollar Diamond,’ by J. S. Fletcher (Herbert Jenkins, Limited), excitement is blended with amusement. Daniel Vandamarke, a South African millionaire, possesses an extraordinary diamond. He carries it about with him in his waistcoat pocket, and occasionally at his club and at the golf links he takes it out and shows it to acquaintances. Of course, the inevitable happens, Vandamarke and a young friend who is with him aro kidnapped. They are taken blindfolded to a bourse, and Vandamarke is relieved of Ids diamond. The story is not so simple as it sounds, for It contains a great deal of action, mystery, and intrigue. Further, there is an unexpected denouement, which shows that Vandamarke is not tho simpleton that ho appears to bo. Vandamarke's pretty daughter and his youthful friend Gregg also contribute to the interest of the story.

The letter W is understood to be tho great last snag in tire way of the completion of that monumental work, tho “Oxford” or “Now English" Dictionary (says ‘John o’ London’s Weeffly’). X, Y, and Z have been covered by Mr Onions, who, under these letter’s, had to dbal with 2,559 words and bo show their history by 14,787 quotations. Dr Craige is about halfway through V, after defining and illustrating 6,220 words. But W is a wilderness which still stretches beyond- the horizon. Tho difficulties of Hus section are stated to be almost unprecedented-. “ Almost every word has a history of a thousand years. Nevertheless, the residue is - slowly melting.”