SIR HUGH WALPOLE

Evening Star, Issue 22709, 24 July 1937, Page 23

SIR HUGH WALPOLE

The announcement in the Coronation honours list that a knighthood had been conferred on Hugh Walpole “ for services to literature ” must have given pleasure to thousands of hook-lovers (says ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly’). The world of letters has never known a more doughty champion than Mr Walpole. The creative gusto which goes to the making of his books finds expression also in his lectures on literature, his numerous prefaces and introductions to other men’s work, his letters and conversation, and not least in his encouragement of young authors. Lesser men who cannot share his enthusiasms have not scrupled to scoff at them, but “Apple-cheek Hugh ”—as he is affectionately called in America—has urbanely declined to mend his ways. How high he will ultimately rank as a novelist is for the future to decide. Throughout his long career he has kept his integrity as a writer, and it is his good fortune that the kind of novel he feels an inner compulsion to create is the kind of novel that tens of thousands want to read. “ When I received a stupid letter from one of my renders,” he once told me, “ I used to say to myself resignedly, ‘ Hugh, this is your public; you must make the best of it.’ But then I was soon cheered up by a letter which proved that I had intelligent readers after all.” It is to his credit that he has never hesitated to stake his popularity on an experiment. His major achievement to date—the Herries books—began as an experiment, for when he published ‘ Rogue Herries ’ the historical novel was out of fashion; It is certainly fitting that Mr Walpole’s eminence as the great Cham of English letters should receive recognition. He has had two previous distinctions : he was made a C.B.E. in i9IS, and in 1919 he was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for his novel, ‘ The Secret City.’ BOOK CENSORSHIP NEW BODY IN AUSTRALIA The Federal Government has appointed a permanent Book Censorship Board and an appeal censor. Sir Robert Garran is the appeal censor, and the members of the board, which replaces the voluntary body that has done the work since 1933, are Dr L- H. Allen (chairman), Professor J. flaydon. and Mr Kenneth Binns (librarian of the Commonwealth National Library), all of Canberra. All except Mr Binns were members of the old board. They are appointed for three years. The censor will receive an honorarium of 100 guineas, and the three members 75 guineas a year each. Under the new arrangements, any importer who is dissatisfied with _an opinion given by the board and desires to obtain a review by the Appeal Censor, will have to deposit 10s, which may bo returned if his appeal is upheld. He could also still apply to the courts if he wished. The work of the new board will be confined to imported literature. Section 52 (c) of the Customs Act prohibits the importation of goods considered “ blasphemous, indecent, or obscene.” Seditious literature will be dealt with as before, by the AttorneyGeneral’s Department.