BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 19550, 7 May 1927, Page 15

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

VERSES VARIOUS BLOOMS. Far, far away, 1 know not where, I know not how, The skies are grey, the boughs are bare, bare boughs in llower; Long lilac silk is softly drawn from bough to bough. With (lowers of milk and buds of fawn, a broidcml shower. Beneath that tent an Empress sits, with slanted eyes, And wafts of scent from censers flit, a lilac flood; Around her throne bloom peach and plum in lacquered dyes, And many a blown chrysanthemum, and many a bud. She sits and dreams, while bonzes twain strike some rich beil, _ Whose music seems a metal rain of radiant dye; In this strange birth of various blooms, I cannot tell Which sprang from earth, which slipped from looms, which sank from sky. —Edmund Gosse. THE CHIEFTAIN. I came to the water-side At tho turn of tide, With imy broadsword broken And my broken pride. 1 cut a small boat free, I wrenched her to the sea, And the grating pebbles Grued the blood in mo. The stars were fires of bale And tho moon death-pale, But a wind of fortune Filled full my sail. Bright lances, lino on line, And their swords that shine— Ah! the foemen’s chargers Rear back from the brine. I was saved. My wasted pride Knew a making tide, There were clansmen to follow Again should I ride. . . . And then from the field of shame, Bloody, with eyes of flame, The men of the lost battle For their chieftain came. —R. J, M'Leish, in ‘ G.K.’s Weekly.’ JOSEPH GOKRAD BEGIHHIHGS m AUTHORSHIP SIR HUGH CLIFFORD’S REMINISCENCES. Sir Hugh Clifford, the Governor of Ceylon, to whom Conrad dedicated ‘Chance’ (tho dedication spoke of his “steadfast friendship’’ as “ responsible , for the existence of these pages”), recently delivered before the Ceylon branch of the English Association a very interesting address on the great novelist. Conrad’s first signed review, it is interesting to recall, dealt with a book of Sir Hugh’s. It was in 1839, after tho appearance of that review, that Sir Hughfirst met Conrad, and. at that meeting, the novelist afterwards laughingly said, Sir Hugh told hira_ firmly but kindly that he knew nothing about Malaya. That, said the lecturer x was'an exaggeration, but Conrad did unreservedly accept the' fact that his knowledge of Malaya was not very extensive. “He told me he had only visited the Malayan Archipelago and the Malay States as mate on board various sailin';- .‘>nd steam ships, and that, to my mind, adds to tho miracle of his achievement. Those of us who know the Malayan lAnds can alone appreciate how marvellously he has succeeded in painting in the difficult medium of words all tho rare color, magic, and'mystery which are peculiar to those countries.” CONRAD’S SELF-CRITICISM.

Speaking of Conrad’s straggles in the first years of the present century, Sir Hugh Clifford (as reported in the Ceylon ‘ Observer ’), said: “ Conrad had come ashore, and was then trying to live by his pen. ■ He had been recently married, and had much ado to keep tho wolf from the door, the more so because this great artist in words was his own most severe critic. Often, to my knowledge, for weeks at a time he would write only to destroy. Often, again, with pnin_ and toil beyond belief, ho was writing only some 300 words a day, and these in circumstances when everything around him was demanding him to prostitute his muse and to write cheap and trashy stuff which would have found a ready market. Yet never once did he falter in his belief that it was his duty never to give to the public anything which ho had not polished to the degree of perfection which would pass his critical judgment. During the time—in 1902 and 1903—when I saw him frequently he showed me a great deal of work ip manuscrift, incredibly scored and underlined. Sentences first written were tortured and rotortured in awful fashion before they eventually assumed the final form of which he approved.” CABIN BOY.

Relating tho story of Conrad’s -life as lie had gathered it from tho novelist himself, Sir Hugh said that his impression is that Conrad’s breakaway, while still in his teens, from his inland environment at Cracow was more in tho nature of the boyish escapade of an adventurous spirit, and owed less to the consent or acquiescence of his uncle, who was his guardian, than readers of ‘ A Personal Record ’ might suppose. “In fact, I have a shrewd suspicion that young Conrad ran away from school; and lie certainly made two voyages to the West Indies as a cabin boy, or something like it, on hoard a French ship ere ever he turned his thoughts towards tho British mercantile marine. But from the first the sea—of which he later wrote with such extraordinary power and imaginative force—exercised over him an irresistible fascination, and in spite of the adverse circumstances amiil which his earliest voyages wore undertaken ha landed from the last of them at Brest firmly determined to become a professional sailor.

“Though he knew and spoke French perfectly, and might therefore with much greater ease have qualified for the mercantile marine of France, his aspiring spirit urged him to throw in liis lot with the. greatest merchant navy of the world, and accordingly wo find him landing at Lowestoft at the age of nineteen possessed ,of not a single word of English, but with the sot purpose of becoming a British seaman under the Red Ensign. CAPTAIN COOK AND HIS COLLIER.

“At Lowestoft he made the casual acquaintance of an old fellow named Captain Cook, who for untold years had been in command of a collier which plied regularly between that port and Cardiff. He was by then well stricken in years,- but it was popularly. reported of him that during the whole, course of his sea service ho had never been out' of sight of land—-a fact which, combined with the historic name he boi’e, caused him to be commonly known as ‘the Great Circumnavigator.’ - By this old -man, was young Conrad befriended, and it was

A LITERARY CORNER

on board his collier that the latter, first' as a common hand and later as an able seaman, made a succession ( of voyages between Lowestoft and Cardiff. “ Conrad had had a sound educathough the spirit of adventure in him had put a premature period to his studies. Ho had spoken Polish and French from infancy, and also knew, I think, some Russian and German, and ho seems to have picked up a working knowledge of English with ease and rapidity. Meanwhile, during tho long, uneventful days afloat, old Captain Cook, who had taken a lancy to the lad, coached him in navigation and seamanship, and when be believed his pupil to be ripe for the experiment. sent him up to London to sit for his examination for his second mate’s certificate. ‘ALMAYER’S FOLLY’S’ BIRTH IN PIMLICO.

“ Conrad must have been not quite twenty-one years of ago when ho sailed to the East as the second mate, on board tho Judea, and thereafter, for nearly thirteen he knocked about the world, mostly on sailing ships and steam tr is. In turn ho visited all the principal parts of both hemispheres, unconsciously accumulating memories which lie subsequently put to such stupendous use; and during, all this time, he told me, though he had read voraciously in French and English, he hardly 'ever put pen to paper, and very rarely oven wrote to his uncle in Cracow. Toward the end of that time he for a space lay ill for some weeks in tho hospital at Singapore, hut even then tho inclination to write did not assert itself. “ He had worked hard, however, for many years, wrestling with the sea, i and of a sudden he felt himself to he weary and in need of rest. Ho told his friends that he had decided to give himself a holiday and to spend a year ashore—out of sight of the sen. He chose for this purpose lodgings in Bessborough Gardens, a dismal place in Pimlico off tho Vauxhall Bridge road; and he presently made the discovery that living in this unlovely locality and a wilderness of _ strangers, even though it were out of sight of the sea, was one of tho roughest jobs to which he had set his hand. Yet ha was loth to acknowledge himself defeated—to return to_ the sea in_ spite of his resolve and his proclamation of his intentions to his friends; and thus it was, as it were, in self-delence and because idleness was foreign to _ his nature, that he began, as one might say by accident, to write. '“The book which, was thus begun was, as all the world now knows, 1 Almayer’s Folly ’ And when prasent'y Conrad returned \o the sea_ the manuscript went with him; and from the days is firsi pa£e w.n written m ISB9 until it was at iast sent off to a publisher <n 1894 it was Ins constant companion. It went wita him to sea; it went with him to Poland during thefirst visit that he had paid to Ins native land for a decade and a-salf; it went with him to West Africa and up the Congo, where ho commanded lor a short time a . river steamboat; ana never once, I think, during all the time that he was engaged in working at it was anything m tho nature <u literary ambition present to his consciousness.” _____ m OIMEiT SHOOTER'S Will Mr Clement King Shorter, founder, editor, and a life member of tho ‘Sphere’ and ‘Tatler,’ founder and formerly editor of ‘ The Sketch, o-ncl for some years editor or tno iilustvated London News,’ who died on November 19 last, aged sixty-mno years, left .estate of the gross value of £54,752, with not personality £04,40i. To tho Royal University of Dublin, the MS, ‘The Return of the Native,, presented to him by Thomas Hardy “in days of early friendship, and such of his books of history and biography from Ids libary as his, wife and his friend, Thomas -J. Wise, shall select, on the condition that tho hooks shall bo officially styled by tho governing body of that University as the “ Sigerson Shorter Bequest,” in memory of his first wife. v To tho National Gallery of Ireland the picture of a ‘ Figure with Flowers, by Boueghal and Rothenamer, and three pictures hanging over the manr-le-picce in his bedroom ot Knockinoioon, Great Missenden. All other of his books and to his wife for life, with remainder to his daughter absolutely, but he gave his trustees power to sell these at auv time, in which case the proceeds of such sale are to follow tho trusts m his residuary estate. He expressed tho desire that Ins remains should bo cremated, and the ashes interred in tho_ -gaave in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, in which his first wife, Dora Sigerson Shorter, is buried. . , Mr Shorter gave his wife £I,OOO and his household and personal effects, and a life annuity of £l5O to each_ of his two sisters, and ho left the residue_nf his property to his wife for life, with remainder to his daughter.

WORLD'S BIGGEST BOOK

NEARLY SIX FEET HIGH

While the smallest hook in the world, the Bijou and London Almanack some of which could be covered by a postage stamp—were being sold at Southebys in London recently, tho world’s biggest book was being inquired for at the British Museum. This is a huge tome sft lOin high by 3ft 2in across. It was wheeled out on a trolly for a visitor to admire. He found it to be a volume of maps presented to Charles IT. by merchants at Amsterdam in 1660.

The binding is a masterpiece of morocco, four skins being used for each panel. It is decorated in gold figures of roses, roses and crowns, and Jingo brass bosses and clasps are clamped on. Tbe book, which is kept lockfed, has a special position in the King Edward Library. Tire tiny volumes at Southebys were part of tho library of Mr A. B. Walkley. A magnifying glass was attached to the smallest so that they could be read. Tho books are little more than half an inch wide only one-eighth of an inch thick. The dates range from 1789 to 1839. The admirers of Mr John Galsworthy are legion in Germany, and their number is constantly increasing (says the ‘Observer’). A contribution to the already great enthusiasm for,‘The Forsyte Saga ’ seems worthy of attention. “Why Forsyte?” is a question that Germans ask very often, feeling that Smith or Jones or Robinson would have better designated the English type Mr Galsworthy has set before the world. “Forseti.” son of tho god Baldur, who practised the calling of peacemaker between quarrelsome gods, Is given by an etymologist as the most likely explanation of the name, not ■ only because it sounds much the same, hut because Soames i Forsyte, the real “ hero ” of the Saga, was made a solicitor. German students of modern British literature, who will have none'of a punning explanation of tho name “ Forsyte,” appear delighted J with this solution. ...

HEW BOOKS SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY ‘Hours in the Scottish National Gallery,’ by James L. Caw, director of the National Galleries of Scotland (Duckworth), is. a companion volume to others that have been issued dealing with London galleries. Like its predecessors, this small book is an excellent guide to one of many notable collections in the cities of Great Britain and the Continent. The National Gallery of Scotland is generally considered one of the best and perhaps the most charming of the smaller galleries in Europe. Each collection has its distinctive feature. In commenting on the 'Scottish gallery special attention is drawn to the fine series of pic tnres illustrating the achievement or the Scottish school from the emergence of its first clearly recognisable painter in the early years of the seventeenth century to the recent past. The author considers that the room full of Baoburns stands out most prominently, The gallery is not confined to Scottish painters. It contains fine examples of the work of a number of worldfamous artists, and these are described and in several cases reproductions ap pear in the book.

In "Tho Three Taps’ Eonald A. Knox piles mystery on mystery till the reader is thoroughly bewildered hut determined to finish tho story and discover how tho mystery is solved. _it is not to say that the reader loses interest in tho story. Far from it. Father Knox is too clever a writer for that. Ho has conceived an excellent plot, and takes a delight in drawing herriims across tho trail for tho reader’s benefit. With the majority of detective or mystery stories the solution is generally obvious early ,in the book, but in ‘The Three Taps’ a complete surprise awaits the reader in the last chapter. Our copy is from' the publishers, Messrs Methuen and Co.. (Ldndon).

‘ The Traitor’s Gate,’ by Edgar Wallace (Hodder and Btoughton) is an exciting novel,- told in Mr Wallace’s best style. He _ unearths _ some pretty scoundrels, both in high life and low life, who, when they are not engaged m double-crossing each other, work together lor nefarious ends. One of the chief villains is the Prince of Kishlashtan, an Indian potentate with an inordinate love of jewels and an unsavory reputation where women are concerned. The jewels in the Tower make him green with envy, and a plot is prepared to steal them. Coincedently, a plan is made to abduct and convey to India a beautiful girl who has taken the prince’s fancy. Sir Richard Hallowell, whc is one of the soldiers charged with the safety of the' jewels, is in love with this girl, and the feeling -is mutual. On.e of the villains in the piece is Sir Richard’s younger brother, _ a ne’er-do-well who has seen the inside of a prison. A very unpleasant character who is deeply involved is Captain Eli Ross, skipper of the Pretty Anne, whilst among the opposing forces Mrs Ollerhy,Va woman detective, contributes humor to the situation. A brisk and well-told story.

‘The Third Miracle,’ by Louis Tracey (Rodder and Stoughton) relates the strange adventures which befell an American Rhodes Scholar. This is a capital story in which mystery, adventure, and humor are judiciously blended. Wo have tho hefty young American, Antony Blake, three Scotland Yard men, and a charming girl. To these characters the readers’ symout. On the other side are a hand of crooks, some of whom have invaded London from the Near East. Tho book opens with the murder of Robert Lastingham, a. wealthy financier, who had extensive business interests in Egypt and Syria. Blake, who has seen strenuous war service, has just been informed by a heart socialist that ho cannot live more than six months. From the moment that he steps out of tho Harley street consulting room he goes through a series of thrilling adventures that would have tested to the utmost the heart of a thoroughly sound man. These arise from the murder of Lastingham and tho troubles that beset his reputed niece, Iris Hamilton. Chief-detective Furneaux and his assistants, with Blake, form an effective combination, and the criminals had anything but an easy time.

‘ There’s a Laud That Is Fairer Than Day,’ by Fred H. M'Culloch (Angus and Robertson, Sydney) is tho tale of tho last years in the lives of two simple people who had been married for sixty-five years. Then Uncle Daniel died. Aunt Caroline took the parting with calmness and serenity, hut she was anxious to follow him. Sho said; “I’m w’orrying for fear Don’l won’t get along without me. Dan’] was sort of do’les's when I wasn’t by to help him.” Sho had not long to wait. They were a humble couple with childlike faith, and for them death was no tragedy. This little book is likely to have a wide appeal. TO PROTECT AUTHORS FROM BLACKMAIL BILL TO AMEND THE LAW Of LIBEL Lord Goreii introduced into the House of Lord tho Bill which has been promoted by the Incorporated Society of Authors, Playwrights, and Composers to amend the law or libel. The object of the Bill, Mr G. Herbert Timing, secretary of the society, 1 said, is to protect .authors and journalists from blackmail by persons wdio claim compensation for tho publication of some name or description similar to their own, notwithstanding that the author is quite unaware of their existence.

Several cases of this kind come before the society every year, but tbe public bear little about them because they are usually settled before they come into court. Authors associated with certain geographical districts and writers publishing accounts of their travels are particularly liable, Mr Timing said, to- this sort of blackmail. It is not even necessary to publish a name, a description from whicn friends can be called as witnesses to say they identify a person mentioned is quite sufficient for these easy proceedings for libel.

The Bill aims at extending the grounds of defence in these cases. It makes it, for example, a good defence, apart from any other ground of defence that may be open, if _ tho defendant proves that 'the writing of the alleged libel and its publication have been, done without any intention of referring to the plaintiff,- and either without knowledge or recollection of his existence or without anticipation of the possibility, that the alleged libel might he read .or understood as referring to him.

NOTES Little books have come into their own just now (says the ‘Observer’), and among the best sellers are W. H. Davies’s ‘ Autobiography of a Super Tramp’; Butler’s ‘ Way of All Flesh ’ and ‘ Erewhon ’; Ernest Bramah t ‘ Wallet of Kai Lun ’ and ‘ Eai Lung's Golden Hours’; and ‘The Dubliners,* by James Joyce (The Traveller’s Library.) In the Adelphi Library Hit favorite volumes are Chesterton's ‘ Magic ’; Ann Douglas Sedgwick’s ‘ Third Window ’ and ‘ Autumn Crocuses ’; and Flecker’s Selected Poems; while Benn’s ‘ Yellow Books ’ all go well.

Among tno passengers wiio arrived in Melbourne by tbe Ulysses on April I IS was Miss Beatrice Grimshaw, the j novelist, who is returning to her home J in Papua after having visited her pub- j lishers in London. Immediately before | her visit to Britain Miss Grimshaw made a voyage of several hundred miles up the Fly liiver into tbe country cf the head hunters. She is the first white woman to have made this journey, and while she was in London she described her adventures through 2LO broadcasting station to 8,000,000 listeners. Arrangements are now be- , ing made for one of her novels, ‘ Conn ! of the Coral Seas,’ to be acted for I moving pictures by an Australian com- | pany. i

The unabridged American edition of ; Colonel Lawrence’s ‘ Seven Pillars cf 1 Wisdom ’ is announced for publication j by George Dorah, at the price of 20,- ! 000 dollars (£4,123) a copy. The edi- [ tion is limited to twenty-two copies, of I which only ten are available to the j public. _ Tho publisher explains that the ) high price is charged for the purpose ! of ensuring the suppression of the full text of the book, in accordance with , the author’s wish. In order to prevent his English edition from being ’ pirated and published in America, the i author must obtain copyright in the ! United States by publishing a limited j edition in this country. The nn- ; abridged English edition of Colonel | Lawrence’s book, , published last year, i was issued to subscribers at thirty ‘ guineas a copy. Only 107 copies were ’ printed. Within six months of publication copies changed hands in London at from £l2O to £l5O. cm - .Leicester xaarmsworlh made a specially urgem piea to the international Association ox Antiquarian LooKseners wxien, at xts annual oinner, ne suggested to one memuers mat beloro giving to American purenasers ctio 1 opportunity or acquiring tno rarest 1 boons tncy snouid anew some or onr j great Lome ncranes to mane ofiers in I tne first piace. i rear (says ‘ Jonu o' } itondon's vv'eeidy ') that it is a couu- j sei oi penection. Antiquarian booh-. sailers nave to irve, ana uumau nature | being wnat it is, tney have to sell ' m me oest mantel, it is, however, a i reaiiy regrettaDio. thing mat Bit Lei- j .tester uepiores, ana no made a par- : aouiariy good point wneu ne observed 1 mat no great libraries are nemg 1 lormeti in mo dominions, i tinuJi ho is ngul in saying mat no biiakespearoan quarto, ror instance, has round its way to New Zealand, Bouth Africa, : or Canada,

The JU-ov. .Montague cummers, who, besides ueing one ox our greatest authorities on tue Restoration and Enzaootnan drama, Knows most tilings to ea Known about witclies, lias just hnisned ‘l’Uo Geograpny of Witchcraft.' tins is to be a companion volume to ins receutly-pubusiiea volume on the subject, aud will give in detail the evidence on which tue former thesis was based.

Messrs lilodder and Stoughton are publishing two volumes consisting of selections irom tbe writings of tbo late bu- William Itobcrtbou JNicoJl, so long editor ol me ‘ Rntish Weekly.’ They will boar tbe happy titles, ‘ People and Rooks' and ‘Tno Been and Unseen,’ covering tbe famous journalist’s interests in literature aud theology.

An interesting tunc with Dickens is recalled by the Board of Education’s proposal to establisn a scheme lor the administration ot the Dolalorco Educational Foundation in tho Parish, of bt. Georgo tho Martyr. The founder of tins charity, samuel Deialorce, leit 83,t)0U, ut which the interest was to bo applied lor uio benefit ol the poor of tue parish, including those in St. Vv orkhouse, _ Mint street, Borough. Ibis institution, then called the Poor House, as such was the home of Oliver Twist, and within its walls on a famous occasion he “ asked for more.” The coppei’ from "which the gruel was ladled into Oliver’s basin is still in the possession of tho Borough Council. The Dickens association is strengthened by tho lact that ho lived at one time in Laut street, which is within a lew yards of tho Church pi bu. uoorge the Martyr. And it was m ilio vestry of that church that he alowed Little Dornt to rest one night.

Mr John Murray, me present head of tho well-known firm of publishers which bears his name, confesses that he has often tried to trace the origin of sudden and great popularity when tho general public suddenly begins to talk about a book, and he has not been able to find a satisfactory answer. Advertising alone, he says, will nofc do it j neither will favorable reviews, though a real “ cut up ” sometimes has Jed to financial success. It used to be said that Mr Gladstone could work this wonder, and that be bad done it in tho case of “ Robert Elsmere,” but Mr Murray knows of two cases in which he used his utmost efforts in vain. They were the ‘ Life of Susan Dabney Smedes,' a member of an old family of English descent in tho Southern States of America, and the ‘ Life of Daniel O’Connell.’ This last was a book which engrossed him for a time—he wrote articles about it, made a about it, and told his friends about it, but from a pecuniary point of view it "was a failure.

Literary reviewers in Norway are earnestly discussing the problem of restricting tho publication of novels. During recent years so many novels have been issued that a new word has been coined, the “ bookflood.” It is an established tradition in Norway that novels are only published during the six weeks before Christmas, and it is consequently impossible for tho reviewers to write about them in a way which is satisfactory both to the novelist, the public, and the publisher. About two thousand novels were published in November and December last year, and the president of the Novelists’ Association declares that at least 90 per cent, of these were not worth the paper they were printed on. So far no effective solution of the restriction problem has been found. A suggestion that novels should lie published all the year round has been rejected by the booksellers, who emphatically declare that “literary books” cannot be sold except in November and December. Another suggestion that a committee of well-known novelists should bo given authority to inspect ail manuscripts and suppress “undesirable” books, has met with very limited approval.

The house of Benn is like Jonathan Swift in this respect:.that it does surprising things without the least perturbation. There is a strong rumor that Mr Arnold Bennett’s ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ is to bo reproduced in the facsimile of the original manuscript (says the ‘Observer’). Few writers could endure this test. Mr Bennett, because he was the most methodical artist since Anthony Trollope, used to be called the man with the typewriter. On tbe contrary, his calligraphy is very handsome and his corrections few and neat. If rumor is as full of truth as painted with tongues, this unique affair in two volumes will be a very limited edition, all copies to be signed by the author. As a bibliographical cjribsity this exceeds ‘ Clissold ’ in three volumes, and five guineas will not deter the selectelect.