BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 18660, 14 June 1924, Page 11

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

VERSES. WHEN DEATH, THE WIND COMES. Death, like a wind, shall oomo some day— Come to my threshold, where I stay And work so hard at little things. Death, Like a wind, shall come some day And blow the clutter of things away.

Then across my threshold clear, I shall walk straight oat with a tear. Just one—or —two—or, maybe three For the small white house that shelters mo.

A tear for the fire and hearth and all And one for the flowers by the terrace

wall. The rest of my loves I carry with mo When Death, like a wind, sweeps the doorstone free.

Oh, Death, like a wind, shall come some

day And blow the clatter of things away. I shall walk straight out to the mountain high, To tho tallest peak, where the big clouds lie.

I shall lay my hands against the sky When Death, like a wind, has conic that day And blown tho clutter of things away. —Maeion Bullaud, in ' Harper’s Magazine,’ SILVER POPLARS. God wrote His loveliest poem on the day Ho made the first tall silver poplar tree, And set it higli upon a pale-gold hill, For all the new enchanted earth to see. I think its beauty must have made Him glad, And that Ho smiled at it—and loved it so— Then turned in sudden sheer delight, and made A dozen silver poplars in a row. Mist green and white against a tnrqnoiso sky, A-shimrner and a-shine it stood at noon; A misty silver loveliness at night, Breathless beneath tho first small wistful moon.

And then God took tho music of the

winds, And sot each leaf a-flutter and a-thrill— To-day I road His poem word by word Among the silver poplars on the hill.

—Grace N. Crowell, in ‘ Scribner’s.’

“E. HE SUIT " DEAD,

Mrs Hubert Bland, who was long known under her maiden name of E. Nesbit as poet, novelist, and writer of children’s books, lias just died at the ago of sixtyfive. Probably she will bo best remembered for bar novels, of which ‘Tho Incomplete Amorist ’ (1906) and 1 Tho Incredible Honeymoon ’ (1921) may be particularly mentioned. Her children’s stories were deservedly successful, for she put into them mors ingenuity, observation, and humor than such compositions generally display. They were stories of delicate fancy about t;w> fairies and tho enchantments of which children never tire. Mr Jiland died in 1914, leaving two sons and two daughters. THE TWO HARDYS. To talk with Thomas Hardy is to find out that there arc two men there. _ One of them is a cultured, cheerful, sociable, unassuming antiquary, richly communicative, full of the loro of Wessex and its people, and glad to discuss everything that men do or think. This is tho Hardy whom Dorchester knows as a sympathetic fellow-citizen, tho Hardy who has to chut his door to some Americans only because they would bo queuing up at Max Gate all day and every day if he did not. The other Hardv very different man. One catches "a flash of him somelimes in the still-wonderful profile—a Hardy of indomitable will power, of warring and intense passions, of profound melancholy. Tins is, one guesses, the Hardy that made all the diltcrcncs between a chatty country story-teller and tho great constructive thinker and artist to whom wo all pay homage. When one thinks of Hardy’s life merely as a career, one realises how masterful a character must have prompted the delicate humor and patient observation, Wc have to remember that, much, in common as their origins had. Hardy did not., like Burns, content himself with tuning “ wild, artless lays.” With an energy of mind which ho eyas to reflect long afterwards in ‘Judo the Olxwuro, Hardy forged his way when ho ’was still a young man to the very Iron-t rank, for his years, of a learned and difficult profession. The country bunders son was already Sir Arthur Blonifield’s brilliant assistant, and prizeman at tho Royal Institute of British Architects. He had come to London and given himself a university education at King’s College. He bad the world before him. Then, as wo know, ho turned his back upon it all. Ho went homo to those country scenes—not thou “Hardys Wesseii,” nor sought after by anyone in search of fame. They were scenes, too, which ho already know, and in which there was, apparently, little for him to learn. Horo, through years whon .vlct<xltUi was dining with duche.sscn, and Irving was making a dream of the theatre, and London drawing rooms were clamorous with tho reputations of lesser men, Hardy plodded away at his long tasK, watching dawns and sunsets upon remote farms, pondering over the love affairs of shepherds and cider-makers, “jnudstudents,” ami dairymaids.—-William Levan, in 1 T.P.’s and Gassed s Weekly.

TEE COGENT COMMA,

ELASTICITY OF RULES OF PUNCTUATION.

For those who stand between purists and rebels (savs Miss Dorothy Richardson, in tho ‘Adel phi ’), the 'ides of punctuation are neither sacred, noiy execrable, nor quite absolute. No waving of tho tablets of the law has Bren able to arrest organic adaptation. f ihe teat of irregularities is their effectiveness. Verbless phrases flanked by full-stops, tho use of and at the, beginning of a sentence, and kindred effective irregularities, are safe servants, for good, in the cause of the written word. And always there has been a certain variability in tho use of tho comma. As the shortest breaUr of

A LITERARY CORNER.

punctuation it is allowed, without controversy, to wander a Little. \ot tho importance of the comma cannot ho exaggerated. It is the angel, or the doyil, amongst the stops. In ;prose, everything tarns upon its use. Misplaced, it destroys sense more readily than cither of its fellows. For while their wanderings are Heavy-footed, either at once obvious, or easily traceable, the comma plays its pranks* unobtrusively. Used discreetly, it dears meaning and sets both tone and pace. And it possesses a charm denied to other stops. Innocence, punctuating at the bidding of a prompting from within, has tho comma for its darling. .Spontaneous commas arc as delightful in (heir way as spontaneous spelling; as delightful as the sharp breath drawn by a singing child in the middle of a word. NOTES. The life of Olivo Schreiner has just been written by her husband, and Dr Edmund Gosso says of it in tho 1 Observer ’: “ No more difficult book than Mr Oronwright’s Life of that extraordinary genkis, his wife, can come before a reviewer anxious to give a candid estimate of what ho reads. 'Dio sincerity and fervor of tho biographer are almost overwhelming, and dcllcct tbo judgment of the reader. His skill in observation is that of a patient zoologist; ho has studied every movement of Olive Schreiner, and has noted it with something of the passion of Fabrc in front of his insect specimens.” Asked to state which ho considered the best of bis books, Sir Gilbert Parker replied : “ I feel that my best l»ok is ‘When Valmond Came to Pontiac,’ and I believe that all competent critics think the same. It never had tho popularity of others of my books . . . but it contains ‘ one whole new idea/ a man impersonating himself, driven by the truth in his blood. ... It is a true picture of French-Canadian life, and I arn content to let my reputation rest upon it.” A ballot was recently taken among the readers of ‘ Los Maitrcs de la Plume,’ one of the younger French magazines, to determine tho greatest French author of the present day. As a result of tho voting Anatolo Franco led by a clear majority. Next in favor were Pan! Boiirget, Maurice Barres, Mine. Collette, and Mrae. de Noailles. From the ‘ Observer ’ of March, 1924; “ Memoirs of the celebrated Goethe, tbo admired author of ‘ Faust,’ ‘ The Sorrows of Wertcr,’ etc., are just ready for publication, and will, no doubt, be received in this country with much satisfaction. Goethe has long received tho appellation of tho “ Voltaire of Germany,” and Lord Byron, in his dedication of Bardanapalns, styles him the first of living writers, who has created the literature of his own country and illustrated that ox Europe.” A new publishing house is about to open in London, staffed and controlled entirely by women. The Women Publishers, Ltd., announces its intention of steering a middle course between the “ fertile fields of fiction and the stonier deserts of what is called serious literature.” The publishers have already issued ‘ The Woman’s Year Book,’ and arc about to launch a weekly paper entitled ‘ Every woman.’ A 1 Woman’s Who's Who ’ is in train for publication, as well as two volumes of memoirs by women. Mr C. IT. Charles has written a book on ‘ Love Letters of Great Men and Women.’ Napoleon the Great, writing to Josephine, said: 11 Josephine, your heart is excellent, and your reason feeble; you feel marvellously true, but you reasonless well. Now that is enough quarrelling; I want you to bo gay, contented with your lot, and for yon to obey, not in grumbling and shedding tears, but from gaiety of heart, and with a little happiness.” Tho centenary of Byron’s death was celebrated in Geneva, when a memorial to the poet of the Lake of Geneva was unveiled at the top of the hill of Cologny at a short distance from the Villa Diodati, whore Byron resided some time in 1816, Tho memorial is the glacier-borne boulder against which Byron used to sit while looking down at the lake. An addition of first importance to the Shakespearean collections cf Victoria has hem made recently in the form of six plays extracted from the First Folio of 1686 (states tho ‘Australasian’). The plays were purchased by Mr Edgar Pan' from Messrs Mayes Brothers, of London, and they have been handsomely bound by Sargowski and Sutcliffe, art craftsmen*, of London. ‘The Merchant of Venice' (pp 163-184) has been acquired for the library of tho Parliament of the Commonwealth, and will take pride of place in tho fine Shakespearean section of (he library. The play has been miperbiy bound in red crush morocco, marbled, and extra finished, with gilt borders. The library had prcvionlsy contained a complete facsimile of the First Folio, as well as facsimiles of the quartos nf 1598 and 1693. which preceded tho First Folio.

* Julius ( ':ry.;ir.' ‘ Richard 1!..’ ‘ The T,inline of flic Shrew,’ and ‘ Ail’s Wol! That Ends Weil,’ all extracted from the sara-o copy of (.ho First Folio, have been purchased by Air O. Sibbald Currie, of Ettrick Station, Camperdown (V.), who is a connoisseur of early English and Elizabethan literature, and has also acquired a complete first folio of Beaumont and Fletcher. ‘ Timou of Athens.’ which made, its -first appearance in print in the first Folio, has been purchased by Mr Russel Ohimsido, of Caulfield |v.), whose library' is one of the richest in the Commonwealth. Tho cost of (ho plays to the. purchasers was about ICOw npioeo. The First. Folio of hhakespearc has been described by Mr Sidney Loo as “ intrinsically the most valuable volume in the whole range of literature,” A complete copy in good order is valued at as much as £10,01)0. About 200 have been traced, of which onc-thi.rd are in America, but only about fourteen are in perfect condition. Stephen Graham's now book is called ‘ln Qnc-'ft of El Dorado.’ He event to that “peak in Darien” which Keats immortalised and found that the phrase of Keats, “a wild surmise,” came very near to naming the feeling of rapture. “Mr Gralram loves color and the tropical sunshine,” says tho ‘ Morning Rost,’ “ They give him many opportunities for writing that reflects the rich warmth and beauty of the tropics. This impression runs through tho book like a scarlet ribbon, drawing tho mind of the reader with great longing to these sun-ridden places. Mr Graham invests his story, which is sometimes a little thin in material, with genuine beauty. lie lias written a book in which history, imagination, human action, and the glories of Nature arc mingled with light philosophic thought into a delightful whole.”

Mr Rafael Sabnlini is having a {real time in America., or rather his novels are having a great time, for lie himself is in England (slates ‘John o’ London’s Weekly’). He made a hit in _ Amorira nearly a year ago with one. of his novels, and since- then ho and his other stories have gone steadily to the front, so that, now, in America, ho is almost a “-best seller.” His latest issue there, if onojnay use that word, is a story of the Monmouth rebellion entitled ‘Mistress Wild ing.’ la it a very charming gH,_ Ruth Wcstmacott, becomes Mistress Wilding, not for any love of sardonic Anthony Wilding, but to save a young fool, her brother.

Count Ilia Tolstoy, grandson of Count Leo Tolstoy, is working on a farm in lowa in order to pay his way through Penn College, at Oskaloosa, lowa. Ho has given up ills title, and intends to take American agricultural methods hack to Russia. After a year at Penn, whore ho is perfecting himself in the “ American _ Language, lie will attend }Awa State Agricultural*. ,aL Aioca,

Mr P. G. Wodcsboufio has returned to England, and intends to remain there. Ho has been in America for some years, but was never naturalised.

Replying to the toast of “Literature ” at tho annual literary fund dinner, Mr A. B. Walkley associated fashions in literature and fashions in hair. TV day, ho said, onr women writers had parted at once with all their hack hair and all their back traditions. They had not only their heads, but their stylo, “ bobbed," or clso ‘‘shingled.” Bhort hair and short sentences. They look like hoy angels without wings, and they wrote like fallen angels without asterisks. Balzac’s cynical hero, De Marsay, said that tho wickedest book in the world was what ladies whispered behind their fans. Fans were now out of fashion, and what women used to whisper behind their fans they now printed in their novels. Ho remembered when French novels were hidden from tho young; they were now pushed at them to keen them from tho English. And he foresaw a time, not far distant, when the English again would he. pushed at them to keep them from the American. Joseph llorgeshcimor lias written a book called ‘ The Presbyterian Child,’ and ho is “it.” Tho book is limited to 175 copies, and it contains word portraits of the autlror when young, of his mother, aunt, and grandfather. All copies will be signed by tho author. Heine.mann publishes this unique book at a guinea, Brcntano’s are publishing a remarkable book by tho famous German publicist, Maximilian Harden. Ho discusses the chances for future peace in Europe, taking into consideration tho individual viewpoint of each of the three loading nations involved. Ho compares the Gorman occupation of Eranco in 1871 with the pro-sont-day French occupation of tho Ruhr, and states boldly that his country’s attitude is churlish, and not calculated to secure a lasting peace. Ho claims, in addition, that Germany is not acting fairly toward tho Allies in tho matter of her payment of indebtedness to them. Nearly thirty years ago an American journalist wrote to Mr Bernard Shaw asking for the story of his life, and propounding nine particular questions, to which Mr Bernard Shaw, who was not then tho celebrity ho has become, replied at groat length (states ‘ John o' London’s Weekly’), The American journalist made sonic use of this early autobiography, but ho did not n.sci it all; and now tho whole of it has been published as a little volume, of which at least one copy has reached this country. It is extraordinarily interesting, all the more that it is, perhaps, the only autobiography of Mr Bernard Bhaw that wc shall ever get, unless he takes it—as no doubt the copyright is his —and extends it into a bigger book, .and that would be a welcome thing. Tho State schools of New South Wales are to raise £I,OOO in aid of tho Henry Lawson memorial. Tho Teachers’ Federation has Ik-oii moved by tho Henry Lawson Memorial Committee, of which Mr Hould (public librarian) is the most active member, and has arranged to issue to tho children a booklet containing a Lawson poem sot to music, a reproduction of the LongslafT portrait, articles by the Director of Education ami others. June 18 will bo a Henry Lawson day in tho schools.

Shakespeare lias been called tho poet for all time, and the recent performance of ‘ Hamlet ’ by a Malay opera company to a mixed Malay and Chinese audience gives clearer evidence than perhaps ever before that he is also the poet for all countries. It apparently nuulo no difference that the fair Ophelia was played by a dark lady with inky hair, and that such liberties were taken in connection with the ghost as to introduce a burlesque scene, in which the sleeping soldiers awake, and in the extremity of their terror call up tbo guard room on the telephone. But withal Hamlet dominated the stage, impressing indelibly tho greatness of the poet’s genius. One of the literary events of the year is the celebration of tbo bicentenary of the foundation of tho famous publishing firm of Longmans (says the ‘ Manchester Guardian ’). It was in 1721 (hat young Thomas Imngman purchased the husinros of Willin,m Taylor, who, out of tho hamtoane profits of ‘ Robinson Onsoe,’ published live years before, had amalgamated the two houses at the Sign of too h-Jup and The Black Swan into ono concern. On tho same spot in Paternoster row, 209 years later, the family of Longman is still carrying on (he business.—or is it not the profession?—of publishing, and with the record nf being the senior house in tlx l trade. Hardly any famous name in the literary history of tho last SCO years absent' from its lists. Longmans held shares in Johnson's Dict-iorm: - '*. while the name is associated with Wordsworth. Rout-hcv, Charles Lamb. Sentl. Macan’av. Fronde, Max Muller, Becky, R. L. Stevenson. William Morris, Andrew Lang, and a host of others.

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‘Fantasies and Timn'omn! mg’ bv James Agate (Collins and Co., Ltd,). The nun who writes a volume -on a subject, is like a lecturer .addressing an audience in a vast and .somewhat chiliy hull. The essayist resembles tho same man chat-ling familiarly to us by the fireside. The works of the great essayists from Fa-con downwards have been marked bv this pleasant sense of intimacy. Old Montaigne talks to us eisily-, and, a: it were, confidentially, on the many stdijwas which excited his insatiable curiosity, am! so one might go on. Air Agate has won n, certain amount of fame as a- dramatic cnlim and it is hut tiel-urf--! that most, of his matter is either directly concerned with, or influenced bv tho theatre. A man’s mind expands more freely a-nd amply in the atmosphere he is accustomed to. In defence of Ills beloved Fora Bernhardt Air Agate fears not to attack even the redoubtable G. R. Shaw with injurious words. lie also loves and understands horses, a-nd writes on the “ ring and the tan ” with relish. He admires Balzac— he and his brother saved no their pocket money to buy the edition “ nfiv volumes long ” issued by C-alman.n Levy —and ho is keenly alive to the modern spirit, which is Ihe spirit of the ancients in a dress which seems to some of us more becoming. On (die mechanical side Mi A gale’s work is a credit to the publishers, Messrs Godins and Go., to whom we owe thanks for a copy.

‘ Tbc Big Heart,’ by John O. Brandon (Methuen and Go., Ltd.), is a. really entertaining novel. It is exciting to tho last, degree, but tho author contrives to blend mativ .amusing scenes with his thrills. Tho story'is based -on tho following advertisement :—“ Wanted, for work <>{ a very dclicalo. special, and confulouti:!.! nature, a man of between thirty and forty years of age. Must bo a gentleman—of some social standing. Ex-officer preferred; one accustomed' to executive work and quick, decisive action. Handsome remunora-

tion.” It is hardly necessary to add that tho advertiser is a great financial operator in peril of his life from American crooks, directed by a master mind. Mr Patrick D’Alroy Courtenay, ex-captain R.F.A., and a light-hearted Irishman, gets tho job. John Hammerdcn, tho millionaire, is “a powerful-looking man in every way. A clean-cut face with a jaw and mouth cf tremendous determination.” Hammordon has had many adventures in America, and, falsely accused of certain crimes, the crooks come across to London to blackmail him. They are gunmen of a particularly vicious typo, and Courtenay, who is given carte blanche by his employer, finds it necessary to enlist tho services of live other ox-officers. Tho people mentioned, with two very pretty girls, aro the principal characters in the drama. Highly dramatic and sensational developments keep tho reader in a state of tension till the end is reached.

Magic attaches to tho name of Napoleon Bonaparte, tho “ incarnate god of war,” and any book or play dealing with his life is sure of a good reception. ‘A Pawn Among Kings,’ by C. S. Forrester (Methncn and Co., Ltd.), is written around a short period in the life of Napoleon. It begins shortly before his ill-fated march into Russia, and ends with the Battle of Waterloo. Tho anther pictures him after tho Grande Armec had been shattered, riding morose and silentdown the road which led to France, to Paris, to SL Helena, His head was bowed on his breast; he spoke no word; he looked neither to tho left nor to the right. Soxilt and the rest of his staff glanced at him sidelong, but dared not break in upon his reverie. They imagined that he was thinking of his ruined army, of his slaughtered friends, of his lost empire, or of the lifetime of exile that lay before him. But bo was not. Ho was thinking of a dead girl who lay buried beneath tho mud floor of a ruined hut at Ligny, whom he had loved, and through whom he had lost tho dictatorship of tho West. That is tho author’s claim, that Napoleon missed his destiny through his love for Marie Do Berzeny, who, beginning by hating him as an enemy of her country (Hungary), ends by sacrificing everything for him. This phase of the book is pure romance, but the military adventures of Napoleon arc written in a most realistic way by one who has evidently made a close study of the Napoleonic Wars, and found it unnecessary to go into tho realms of fiction for dramatic incident.

‘Old Ebbic: Detective Up To Date,’ by F. A. M. Webster, is of the Sherlock Holmes type of detective. He. even has Ids Dr Watson. The scries of problems presented to Old Ebbie, tho obscure Pimlico chemist, appear to tho lay mind to lie insoluble, but they are invariably handled with astonishing success by this amateur detective, who takas on cases that have baffled Scotland Yard. Captain Webster is able to impart variety into Ids stories through Ids intimate knowledge of the Fast, for wc haev, mingled with the simpler crimes of the West, the cunning, love, and intrigue and capacity for hate of the Oriental. Tho book contains great diversity of scene and action. As has been said, whether Captain Webster is writing of an Oxford quad or of the secrets of a travelling circus or the properties of an Eastern 1 drug, lie speaks from intimate first-hand knowledge. Our ropy is from Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.

‘ Ishmael’s Wife,’ by Roy Vickers (Herbert Jenkins, Ltd.) Yet another mystery story and a good one. The author has struck quite an original idea, which ho exploits with much skill. Martin Thayno, a barrister, loves Jacqueline tin Thayno, a barrister, loves Jacqueline, the wife of ins cousin Julian. The latter murders a blackmailer named Thurlow, and comes to his cousin for money with which, to get away. Julian (Lord Montorel first drugs Thurlow, changes clothes with him, and throws Him down a lift well. Julian is thought to he the victim and Thurlow the murderer. Marlin succeeds to the title, hut cannot marry Jacqueline, knowing Julian to be alive. Further, Marlin is placed in such nn awkward position that ho does not feel that bo can give Julian away. Then Regrove,

an “ unofficial ” detective, appears on the scene, and, amil exciting incidents, unravels the tangled skein, and disclose;. Julian’s real identity.