BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 19841, 14 April 1928, Page 14

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

A LITERARY CORNER

VERSES

THE TEAM. Ho, Dobbin! Dapple, and Grey! Well have we worked to-day. Much as we’ve done, More is to do— At set of sun Do ye ache, too? Nay, then, ’tis no child’s play, Hey, Dobbin? Dapple, and Grey? Heavy the drag of the plough In the fields now. True, then, the going is slow Ere a man sow. Ay, there be clods! All, there be stones! And a man plods Feeling his bones, And the great backs of the beasts Sweat to prepare autumn’s feasts, Home, Dobbin! Dapple, and Grey! ’Tis a long way, a wet way. Av, but the seed Ol this same deed This time last year Waits ye, d’ye near? When we get home there’ll be bay, Hay, Dobbin! Dapple, and Grey! —Chimera, in ‘Time and Tide.’ THE NEST. A straw, a thread of moss, a wisp of hay, A withered leaf, a twig of last year s date — Those are his prizes, these his precious freight— All things outworn and lost and cast away: Yet, challenging the universal Nay, He finds in each a brick predestinate. And, from his innocent plunder of the State, He makes a home out of the world’s decay. Aad I, too, pick and choose with carious eye, . From out the multiplicity of things, To build a niche against Immensity, A shelter from the beating of Time’s wings: A thing of naught for others, but for me A base, a refuge, a security. —F.H., in the ‘ Observer.’

THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSOE

Few even among lovers of the literature of the sea know Woocles Rogers’s ‘ A Cruising Voyago Round the World,’ for it has been out of print for many years, but it has now been reprinted by Messrs Cassell as the first volume in their “Seafarers’ Library,” edited by Mr G. E. Manwaring, F.R.Hist.S. Woocles Rogers sailed from Bristol in the summer of LOS in command of twm privateers, the Duke and the Duchess, and returned three years later, having circumnavigated the globe, captured prizes worth £170,000, and rescued from Juan Fernandez Alexander Selkirk, the prototype of Robinson Crusoe. He tells his own story in vivid and picturesque language (says ‘ Public Opinion ’), and we quote some> passages in which he describes the life of Selkirk as the marooned sailor described it to him. belkirk had been four years and four months, on the lSl “Ho had with him his Clothes and Bedding, with a Firelock some Powder, Bullets, and Tobacco, a Hatchet, a Knife, a Kettle, a Bible, some practical Pieces, and his Mathematical Instruments aud Books. H© diverted and provided for himself as well as lie could; but for the first eight months had much ado to bear up against Melancholy and the Terror of being left alone in such a desolate place. “He built two Hutts with Piemento Trees, covered them with long Grass, and lin’d them with the Skins of Goats, which he kill’d with his Gun as he wanted, so long as his Powder lasted, which was hut a pound; and that being near spent he got fire by nibbing two sticks of Piemento Wood together upon his knee. Jn the lesser Hutt, at some distance from the other, he dress d his Victuals, and in the larger he slept, and employ’d himself in reading; singin" Psalms, and praying; so that ho said he was a better Christian while he was in this Solitude than ever he was before, or than, he was afraid, he should ever bo again. At first ho never eat aav thing till Hunger constrain’d him, partly for gner and partly for want of Bread and Salt; nor did he go to bed till he could watch no longer; the Piemento Wood, which burnt very clear, serv’d him both for Firing and Candle, and refresh d him with Us fragrant Smell. “He might have had Fish enough, but could not eat ’em for want of Salt, because they occassioned a Looseness; except Crawfish, which .are there as large as our Lobsters, and very good: These he sometimes boiled, and at other times broil’d, as he did his Goats Flesh, of which he made a very good Broth, for they are not so rank as ours- he kept an Account of SUU that he kill’d while there, and caught as many more which he mark’d on the Ear and let go. When his Powder fail d ho took them by speed of foot. . ■ ■ “Ho came at last to relish his Meat well enough without Salt or Breadj and in the Season had plenty of good Turnips, w-hich had been sow d there by Captain Dampier’s Men, and have now overspread some Acres or Ground. “He soon wore out all his Shoes and Clothes by running through the Woods; and at last being fored to shift without them, his feet became so hard, that he run every where without Annoyance; and it was some time before he could wear Shoos after we found him; for not being used to any so long, his Feet swell’d when he first came to wear ’em again. “ After he had conquer d his Melancholy, he diverted himself sometimes by cutting his Name on the Trees, and the Time of his being left and Continuance there. ... “ At his first coming on board us, he had so much forgotten his Language for want of Use, that wo could scarce understand him, for he seem’d to speak his words by halves.” . This is but a single incident from many told in equally graphic language.

0. HENRY'S GAOL

It is proposed to make an 0. Henry Memorial Library out of the gaol at Austin, Texas, in which Sydney Porter was confined for two months before he was taken to Ohio, where he served a. term in the State prison at Columbus for defalcation. A gaol as a memorial is certainly a novelty. The nearest thing to that we know of is that Bedford, in England, treasures as a memorial to John Bunyan the door of the gaol in which he wrote ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ It was in the Columbus prison, not that in Texas, that 0. Henry wrote some of his early stories, and it was thence that he sent to the ‘ Outlook ’ in the year 1900 his ‘Georgia’s Ruling,’ said by his biographer to be the second of hie magazine stories. There, also, he wrote those infinitely touching jmk. jk

daughter, who was ignorant of the cause of his absence. It is generally believed that the case against Porter was greatly prejudiced by the fact that he forfeited bail and went to Texas; when he heard that his wife was ill, he gave himself up in Texas so that he could get back to Ohio for trial. His friends have always contended that the alleged shortage in the bank where lie was an employee was due to a bad system of personal loans on memorandum, and not to any deliberate defalcation on the part of Porter. His biographer, 0. A. Smith, strenuously asserts his innocence. The Austin gaol is described as looking more like an old medieval castle than a prison. If the memorial plan does not go through it will be demolished. Whether or not this is for lack of prisoners (a reason which has lately caused some English gaols to be sold at auction) we are not told.

THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY

URGENT NEED OF SPACE The famous Bodleian Library at Oxford is in sore straits for lack of adequate buildings. It has but few open shelves; it cannot find rooms for its own staff, still less a series of studios where classes can be held, or learned work planned or developed in co-opera-tion. Worse than this, the Bodleian cannot house its own books. In less than ten years it will bo full, although it has laid hands on cellars and storehouses elsewhere (writes Mr E. L. Woodward, in the ‘ Sunday. Times ’). Yet the Bodelian is one of the greatest of English libraries. It should be (alas! it is not) the centre of much of the advanced teaching of Oxford University, and it has not a room in which two or three men can talk together with books open at a table. What is the remedy? Is the library to build a store on the outskirts of Oxford for the material which the learned of this generation may discard as useless? But who is to pass the sentence of exile? The greater the amount sent to the “dump,” the greater the difficulty of selection. Within a couple of generations there will be two libraries, several miles apart, with all the trouble and cost of a divided administration, and long dalnys in the service of books. Even so, the old library, built for another type of learning, will not serve the modern needs of students and teachers. There remains but one solution: a new library on a site—there are at least four—as near to the old centre of Oxford as the science laboratories. In this new building all modern needs could be met. The old library, with its quiet history and its beauty of form, would remain a treasure house of manuscripts or early printed books; its galleries could bo used to display its riches and to house some of the pictures now crowded in the Ashmolean; the Radcliffe Camera would continue to bo a great reading room for undergraduates. This new library needs a founder. Oxford was the child of a medimval renaissance; there were benefactors who made the new learning of the sixteenth century open to all Englishmen. Knowledge is still fostered in England by great gifts. Is it not right to hope that the renaissance of our own time will leave to Oxford names for men to tell when they speak of Duke Humphrey and Sir Thomas Bodley?

BRITISH BOOK OUTPUT

New books published in the United Kingdom during 1927 amounted to a total of 13,810, or 1,011 in advance of 1926, 608 more than in 1925, the previous record year. The bulk of the year’s increase was in new editions, which number 66G, as against 345 entirely now books. By far the greatest increases wore in juvenile literature (412) and fiction (404). Religion also showed a substantial gain as one might have expected from the interest taken during the year in theological and ecclesiastical discussions. Tho biggest drop was in technology (124). The order the principal totals ran: Fiction, juvenile literature, religion, sociology, poetry (including drama), and science. Tho domestic arts were at tho bottom of the list, but that fate was ®nly narrowly escaped by geography and works about music.’

HEW BOOKS

MYSTERY, HUMOR, AND SENTIMENT The books of lan Hay are deservedly popular. Among the qualifications possessed by him are the ability to tell a story and a sense of humor. Both are revealed in his latest novel. ‘The Poor Gentleman’ (Hoddcr and Stoughton). It is in part a mystery story, and love and patriotism are also conspicuous. These are perhaps overdone, for he has allowed them to lead him into tho cloying path of sentiment. But allowing for this, it is a good story. Captain Barry Shere, a blinded soldier, and Corrie Lyndon, a charming Canadian, are captured by revolutionaries of foreign extraction in England because, accidentally, they have learnt something about a plot to bring about the downfall of the British Empire. A third character, who is involved with the other two in the incidents that are related, is Alf Noseworthy, a Cockney full of grit and resource. The fight towards the end of tho book, in which these characters, the Bolshevists, and the police all take a hand, makes thrilling reading. It is an entertaining book.

ALL GOLD

All is not gold that glitters. But Katherine Brush’s latest novel, ‘Glitter,’ is gold through and through—in theme, technique, and style. It is true that at times the author, by means of vivid pen pictures, hurls us into a certain phase of American social life none too palatable, but the motif of the story is so good and its message is so sincere that none but clean, wholesome ideas can be absorbed by the reader. College life, with its sport, its humor, and its pathos, is faithfully portrayed, and, generally speaking, the character are those whom we like to number among our best The theme centres around one Jack F«amill, a youth with high ideals, who, although manly to a degree, hesitates in view of the levity witli which his associates treat life to allow himself the privilege of full self-expression. Jack is loved by many girls, but his own affections are not stirred until—well, that’s the story, an old one, pruned and freshened by a fine sample of modern writing. By clever and original twists the author keeps us guessing continually. ‘Glitter’ should not he"skimmed lightly; it is worthy of being studied. The publishers 'ire Messrs and Co..

ERNEST RAYMOND

‘ The Old Tree Blossomed,’ a realistic romance, is Ernest Raymond’s eighth novel, and he has regained some of his vim and craftsmanship which were lacking after ‘ Tell England' and 1 Damascus Gate.’ He has come hack, so to speak, to his previous standard in his latest hook. There are several splendid characters in ‘ The Old Tree Blossomed,’ and tho story itself,is outstanding. It tells how Stephen Gallimore, a London clerk, managed to escape from the fetters of Ina dull, every-day existence and found romance and fulfilment in danger and self-abne-gation. The hero, his father, and his sweetheart arc strung characterisations. Realism is the author’s strong point, and the characters Jive through the pages. Our copy is from the publishers, Messrs Cassell and Co. (London).

ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE

Those who have read ‘ The Tiger of Tibet,’ b.y Gerald Burrard, will be keenly interested in ‘ The Mystery of the Mekong,’ by the same author. Geoffrey Barraclough, who was a heroic figure in the first-named book, appears in the later one, and shows the same resource and intrepidity. Members of a Tibetian secret society travel to England, capture Barraclough’s wife, take her to the Continent in an aeroplane, and convey her thence to Tibet. Barraclough, with a trusty friend, goes in pursuit. Exciting travel incidents, big game shooting, and desperate encounters with natives are features of tho story. Moreover, the author has evidently an intimate knowledge of some of the strange and unpleasant races who inhabit Central Asia and describes them in a way that leaves the reader without any sense of regret when Barraclough ami those who are with them reduce their numbers by means of modern rifles and Mills bombs. Our is from the publishers (Herbert Jenkins, Limited).

THE ROUND TABLE

The first article in the March number of ‘ The Round Table ’ is devoted to ‘The Naval Problem.’ Great Britain has for centuries depended upon sea power, and anything that affects the subject concerns the whole British Empire. Tho writer tells ns how President Wilson came to start tho modern American Navy, and how naval competition, arrested b.y the war, began again after the Armistice, until tho Washington Conference stopped it in so far as capital ships were concerned. After Washington, however, all tho Powers began building big light cruisers, and this in its turn led to the Naval Conference at Geneva last year. The new Amercan naval programme was the direct result of its failure. ‘ Tho Round Table ’ sees no reason, however, why naval competition should set in again, in spite of the breakdown of tho attempt to extend the Washington principles to cruisers and auxiliaries. Tho second article, ‘ Manchuria : a Drama of Railways and Politics/ deals with a side of the Chinese problem which has been thrown into the shade by the civil war in the south, but is nevertheless, of vital importance. _ The next article is ‘ A Plea for National Economy, Public and Private/ Many people are wondering whether tho Indian boycott is a really national one, and what its motives and chances of success may be. The next article, ‘ India and the Simon Commission/ attempts to answer these questions. Some ‘ Interim Observations from tho United States/ mainly devoted to tho Pan-American Conference at Havana, where the United States, owing to Latin-American resentment at her action in Nicaragua, has occupied an unusually delicate position, follow. The article from Great Britain, although there is a section about the by-elections and the industrial and economic position, is mainly devoted to the Prayer Book crisis which has excited such unusual interest throughout tho country. It describes the course of events and tho issues at stake from a detached standpoint. The Irish article contains a lively account of tho political duel between Mr Cosgrave and Mr De Valera, in Ireland and America. Among the contributions from the dominions there is an interesting account of Canada’s new “ contacts ” with the outside world, and an Australian article on the Pacific problems. Students of the color question should read tho South African article entitled 1 Wage Regulation.’

NOTES

The novels of Stanley Weyman possibly are not read so much to-day as they were twenty years ago, but he did good work to the end. ‘The lied Cockade ’ and ‘ Under the lied Robe ’ were well-wrought romances—a little too breathless, perhaps, to make much impression on our memories, while they excited ur boyhood’s pulse, but youth has fed on worse fare. The present writer, turning back, after perhaps thirty years, to the ‘ Memoirs of a Minister of France,’ which delighted his schoolboy days, found it to consist of most ingenious tales, giving him no cause to be ashamed of that early admiration. In ‘Shrewsbury,’ an historical novel of a more serious kind, with finer shades and greater variety of character, Weyman first turned his hand to more ambitious work. It was no small success, an outstanding book of its kind for the period that has elapsed since Scott, but its failure to compare with him suggested most strongly the difficulty that must be involved in writing a historical novel. Wo laugh now at Mr G. P. Janies, first acclaimed as his successor. ‘ Westward Ho! 1 is decried in these days as bad history, ‘John Inglesant’ is less (though it is also more) than a story, and there is only one ‘Cloister and the Hearth.’ One of the last of Weyman’s stories was an historical novel, dealing with more recent historv. In ‘ Ovington’s Bank ’ he gave a sketch of the conditions following the Napoleonic wars, choosing his subject obviously for their resemblance to our post-war troubles, and it was a pleasure to note how soundly an English novel could • be written which was received with no flourish of trumpets, .as normal woik of an author not expected either to surpass or to fall short of an accustomed level. Weyman dealt conscientiously by his talent and his public. He did not overwrite himself, and bis last iiooks had move work in them, if they wore less popular than, his first. The historical novel which is more than a scurry of adventures is now quite out of vogue, but it will come again. An American criticism of H. G. Wells in a survey (in the ‘Saturday Review of Literature ’) of the books of 1927 was that he “ was still busy with rummage sales of miscellaneous ideas left over from his ‘ Outline of History.’ According to the same critic, Arnold Bennett’s new novel, ‘The Strange Vanguard,’ which has just been published here also, is “lazy

Mr J. L. Garvin’s authoritative biography of Joseph Chamberlain will appear in the English autumn. A huge mass of material had to be mastered, and this could he no easy task if the ‘ Life ’ was to be kept to a reasonable size. A new novel by Eden Phil,potts is something of a literary event. ‘The Ring Fence ’ is contained in Hutchinson’s spring list. Macmillan’s announce the publication of two books of some weight—‘The Economic Impact of America,’ by George Peel, and ‘ Tho Irish Free State, 1922-27,’ by Denis Gwynn. Several books of more than common interest are forthcoming shortly. They include ‘More Famous Trials,’ by the Earl of Birkenhead; ‘My Life,’ by the second wife of the ex-Kaiser; and Sir Harry Laudr’s long-promised reminiscences, ‘Roamin’ in tho Gloamin’.’ The Bod ley Head have just published the fourth volume of the Golden Hind series of the lives of the explorers. This is ‘Sir Walter Raleigh,’ by Milton Waldman. The previous volumes in the series were; ‘Drake’ (E. F. Benson), ‘John Smith’ (Keble Chatterton), and ‘Hudson,’ by Llewelyn Powys. “Peter Brook,” whose psychic novel, ‘ Tho House of Cheyne,’ recently published, has won the approval of Sir A. Conan Doyle, has had a remarkable career. At nineteen he was an ablebodied seaman in a coal tramp; a few years later he was having hair-breadth adventures in Brazil and the Argentine; then he soldiered as a machine gunner; and now he is the proprietor of a large London manufacturing concern, and writes novels as a recreation. ‘The House of Cheyne’ was his first, and he has now three more on the stocks, the next, soon to he published, having the title ‘Thicker Than Water.’ Jules Verne, whose centenary has just been celebrated, seems to have lost none of his vogue among English boys. The publishers of the copyright translations of his romances report that 100,000 copies were sold last year. Their sales are believed to have been greatly helped by the publicity recently given them on the film. ‘Elmer Gantry,’ by Sinclair Lewis, is to bo answered in kind. Dr Daniel A. Poling, president of the Greater New York Federation of Churches and of the International Society of Christian Endeavor, besides being editor in chief of the ‘ Christian Herald,’ is at work on a novel which will be a reply to Sinclair Lewis’s challenge to tho churches. An interesting link with Charles Lamb is afforded by the firm of R. F. White and Son, advertising agents, who recently were preparing to leave their century-old home at 33 Fleet street, for more modern premises. The James White who founded the firm in 1800, says a writer in ‘The Times,’ was “My pleasant friend, Jem White,” mentioned in the essays of Elia, in ‘Chimney Sweeps’ and ‘Old Actors.’ The poor chimney sweeps of those days regarded Jem White with affection, for once a year he gave a supper to the young sweeps of Smithficld, at which his old schoolfellow, Lamb, assisted as waiter. Lamb was a frequent caller at 33, and it is on record that lie turned his hand to advertisement copywriting in the form of State lottery puffs. Lamb’s friendship with White continued until the latter died in 1820, Dame Millicent Fawcett claims for the subject of her centenary biography of ‘ Josephine Butler ’ that she was tho most distinguished Englishwoman of tho nineteenth century. Tho book brings out very strikingly the change in the attitude of tho public to the demand for the social arid political freedom of women. ‘The Madness of Monty,’ Robert Keablo’g last novel, was completed a few weeks before his recent sudden death in Tahiti. Like his previous novels— ‘ Simon Called Peter,’ ‘ Recompense,’ etc.—this book is in tho nature of a rebellions gesture against convention. It is the story of a master of a big pubnc school, the current of whoso life is completely changed by contact wuh a book, a woman, and a philosopher. It will be published by Messrs Nisbet. . ‘New York Nights,’ by Stephen Graham, corrects some widely-held ideas about the United States. It will come, for instance, as a surprise to many to learn that general Prohibition has caused a cheapening of drink in America ; that the liquor sold is, if obtained from a “reputable bootlegger,” of excellent quality; that in “speakeasies ”•—a kind of night club—you can obtain admittance if the lady you are escorting is pretty. Plain women are regarded with suspicion, for in America they are ardent temperance reformers, and belong to purity leagues, so the doormen have orders to exclude them. 'The poet most discussed in Paris today is Paul Valery, the greatest of living French poets. Since ‘La Jeune Parqiic/ the masterpiece which signalised in 1917 Ids return to literature after a twenty-year retreat devoted to meditation, the fame of Valery has been in the ascendant, and was recognised last year by his election to the French Academy. The enthusiasm of all who count in the critical and literary world for the author of ‘Cbarmes,’ ‘ Eupalinos,’ ‘ Variete,’ and ‘Monsieur Teste’ has enraged a certain number of envious or poor writers who have never understood this marvellous, if slightly difficult, author. In Victorian days it used to bo said that every English settler in Canada or Australia carried with him into his log cabin two books—tbe Bible in King James’s version and Macaulay’s Essays. This saying is contested by Mr Augustine Birrell in the ‘Empire Review,’ Tried by tb© log cabin tost, lie says: ‘ Tho Pilgrim’s Progress ’ would emerge triumphant, for, if publishers’ and pointers’ records are to be trusted, there are at tho present moment more copies of Banyan’s romance or drama or allegory, call it by what name you choose, in existence than of any other English booh, excepting King James’s version of the Bible. With the co-operation of booksellers and news agents and the assistance of the Press, Messrs Collins, 48 Pall Mall, London, S.W.I, are taking a national vote on which aro the twelve most popular classics. Over twenty million copies of well-known books have been sold in their popular cheap series, and Messrs Collins regard tins as a sign that readers in general are growing tired of the"modern sex novel. Competitors are being asked to select twelve of the following twenty classic writers, and to arrange them in what they consider is their order of popularity;—W. H. Ainsworth, Jane Austen, 11. D. Blackmore, George Borrow, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Wilkie Collins, Mrs Craik, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, George Elliot, Mr Gaskell, Victor Hugo, Charles Kingsley, Lord Lytton, Charles Reade, Sir Walter Scott, R. L. Stevenson, W. M. Thackeray, and Mrs Henry Wood. The closing date of the competition is May 31, 1928. P.oggio Bracciolini, the Italian -humorist, wrote‘a book of jests to practise his Latin, and entitled it ‘ Facetiae,’ and so gave a name to a genre of literature. He was the chief master of a literary art, if it can be so called, which, like him, dates back to the fifteenth century. But his inspiration came from the ancients, “ who though men of great learning and wisdom, took delights in jests, witticisms,, and fables.” Poggio visited England in 1425, and was the guest of Cardinal Beaufort. That is a link with this translation by Mr Edward Storer. of the University “Facetiae” of the Italian and of other medieval story-tellers, and. Just published in London,