BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 21

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

A LITERARY CORNER

VERSES

THE THREEFOLD PLACE This is the place. The autumn field is bare, The row lies half-cut all the afternoon, The birds are hiding in the woods, the air Dreams fitfully, outworn with waifcinS' .. . Soon Gut of the russet woods in amber mail Heroes come walking through the yellow sheaves. Walk on and meet. And then a silent gale Scatters them on the field like autumn leaves. Yet not a feathered stalk has stirred, . and all Is still again, but for the birds that call On every warrior’s head and breast and shield. Sweet cries and horror on the field. One field. I look again and there are three: One where the heroes fell to rest, One where birds make of iron limbs a tree, Elms for a nest, And one where grain stands up like armies drest. —Edwin Muik, in ‘Journey and Places.' THANK GOD FOR THESE A statue hewn of cold grey stone, And many beauteous things I’ve known; . , .. Ships’' white sails furling in the breeze, And soft winds murmuring through the trees, White seagulls in a cloudless sky, And dipping prows across the bay, The river shimmering in the sun, The quiet hush when day is done, The moon’s beams glistening on the water, And happy sound of children’s laughter. Thank God for these. Let me forget The baser things that I have met. —Dehek B. Reade, in ‘ The Poet.’

HAROLD NICOLSON'S MEMORIES

Mr Harold Nicolson’s autobiography, which is to run into several volumes under the general Proustian title of ‘ In Search of the Past,’ is built on unusual lines. Each volume is to have as a centre some interesting, person whom the author has known. The reader of ‘ Helen’s- Tower,’ the first of these volumes, finishes the book with a feeling that it is the' right method of autobiography; that we are so nourished, provoked, exhilarated, or enclosed by other people that. their lives need only to he told in full to give the shape of ours (writes Mary Crosbie, in ‘ John o’ s London’s Weekly). In his portrait of the first Marquis of Dufferin, diplomatist, Viceroy of India, Governor-General of Canada, .born in 1826 when the traditions of the eightenth century were , still strong, Mr Nicolson shows the passing of a social order. He shows, too, though in asides and parentheses, how an impressive personality lit up the corridors of his own life. An English period was closed by the death of Queen Victoria and the Boer War that had warned us of our possible decline and made plain how glad other countries would be to see it. There, with the death of Lord Dufferin, the volume ends. 'And more than the volume. The last flicker of the eighteenth century was gone with Qut-en Victoria and the men who had paid pretty compliments in the drawing-room at Windsor, who remembered Disraeli and Palmerston and had caught the echo of Byron. It was Scott, not Byron, whom Lord Dufferin admired. His interest in his wilder ancestry, his Gothic building, his crests and coronets, his pleasure in. the romantic tribute of a golden rose and a golden spur for the property he had made over to settle an old quarrel—all bad the Scott aroma. His charm and his courtesy belong to the romantic past —no wonder Miss Plimsoll, • the governess (who seems to share with Lord Dufferin the business of impressing the youthful consciousness of the author), adored him. “Is Uncle a great man?” “He is,” Miss Plimsoll answered slowly, “ the greatest man in the world.” Not that, obviously, but a fine human being emerges from Mr Nicolson’s affectionate but judicious record. Even the political and diplomatic tale has the freshness of something less familiar than our own wearisome preoccupations with dictators; for instance; Lord Dufferin’s remark in 1890: “There is no doubt that the Italians are fully aware that in order to make Massowah pay it will be necessary to open up communications with Kassala and tap the Upper Nile and the Sudan ... it is evident that Italian and Anglo-Egyptian interests may come hereafter in collision.” The shaping of more than young 'Mr Nicolson is implicit in the tale. A good tale; balanced and quiet and dryly aware of human and social ironies. There is no space to quote more than this—an impression of Queen Victoria’s visit to Wellington when the author was at school there: — She seemed tired by her visit and sat hunched in her seat with Princess Beatrice very erect beside her. Her chin was hidden by her bonnet ribbons and by the collar of her cape. The picture I retain in my memory is of one large, penclulant, and surprisingly pink cheek; of the glint of gold spectacles above it; and of a band beneath the bonnet of beautifully brushed hair—the colour of dried straw.

HEW BOOKS '

A SPANIARD ON SPAIN Jose Ortega y Gasset is a Spanish philosopher held in high esteem, among the intelligentsia of his country. ‘lnvertebrate Spain ’ presents a collection of his essays written between 1915 and 1925, and only now translated into English. The writer’s pessimistic theory of his countrymen may be thus set forth. All great nations have their beginning in a central community which by the energy of its outlook and programmes attracts others to amalgamate with it for the sake of their general advantage. In the same way the classes and professional groups that develop within a national society learn to co-operate with one another and make compromises with one another as the condition of , common progress. They do this the ' more readily when some element within the combination gives them a programme of enterprise or development for which all can work. Their interdependence is realised, and their government is conducted through parliaments by a system of give and take between multifarious interests. Spain is pronounced to be an invertebrate nation because the Visigoths who were its first nucleus, unlike the Pranks of France, never possessed the energy or the programmes which might have bound neighbours-to their orbit. The constituent peoples of Spain, have never really combined, but think still of themselves before unity. In the same way the classes —the army, the artisans, the ’agriculturists, -and all others —are accustomed to think of nobody but themselves. Labour Parties in some countries have been foolish enough to believe that the workers represented by them are the* only useful people, ancf that no others have any true claim to be considered. In Spain that is the attitude of every ■ section. The classes, thus divided and unable to co-operate, achieve nothing for themselves or others. y'' Spain is not truly called decadent, according to this author, because that would imply that she had once been strong, and except by accident for one short century, when the greatest division, between the Spaniards and Moors, was ended, she never was. The trouble is accentuated because in Spain there is no central class ' which _ has energy enough to animate and direct the rest of the nation. Everything in Spain has been done by the common people. “But a nation cannot consist solely of the common people; it needs an eminent minority.” And again : “ The common people" can only perform the most elemental functions of life. They can neither create a science, or a higher art, or a civilisation equipped with complicated technique, nor can they organise a State with a long stability, nor distil from emotion and magic a great religion.” : _ ... So much for the argument. It will not convince those who, knowing nothing of Spanish history, find in the country’s troubles of to-day a simple struggle between Fascist; and_ Democratic theories of rule, or an issue in which one half of Spam fights desperately to improve the lot of the poor agricultural labourer. So far as can be judged from most of tb© records, no otio cares for a moment about him. But the analysis of this Spaniard is worth study; it is translated into the most lucid of English by Miss Mildred Adams, and at moments reaches a high level of poetry. Bolshevism the author regards as a purely Russian phenomenon. l as " cism and its kind administer a negative f orce —the weakness of others—which is not its own. For this reason they are essentially transitory—which does not necessarily mean that their stay will be short.” Georg© Allen and Unwin Ltd, London, publishers.

• THE MACHABS RAMPANT ’

‘The Macnabs Rampant,’ by R. JB Sellar (Herbert Jenlkms), is a novel overflowing with humour that is not strained or artificial. In this book the author has displayed a gift that is extremely rare, and that is to begin a book on a humorous note and sustain- it to the end. This work is not pure farce by any means. . The writer has. excellent descriptive P°vers and a philosophic understanding ot life that make his characters live. He works on a very old but ever-fresh theme the difference between the English and Scottish outlook on life, 'in© chief character in the story is Archie Macnab, a youth who is assistant to his elder brother, an undertaker in a small town in Scotland. Archie wins a considerable fortune in a football pool, and, taking his brother with him, he sets out on a pilgrimage to Edinburgh, London, and Paris. The subsequent events are related with much originality and humour. To those who like to bo amused this hook will be a boon. The publishers arc Herbert Jenkins Limited-

A HOVEL OF THE AIR

In ‘ Demcn Again,’ E. M. Keate tells of the further adventures of Paul Harcourt, whose earlier doings were recorded- in ‘ Demon of the Air.’ The tale is quite up to the standard of its predecessor, and deals with the return of the jewels stolen in the first book. In addition to the Demon himself, tho reader renews acquaintanceship with the two Scotland Yard men, Superintendent Margetson and Mr O’Connahan. In humorous fashion the writer gives an exciting account of the discovery of the stolen jewels on the roofs of several well-known buildings, andsets a difficult problem for the detectives. In this respect the experiences of O’Connahan, who, like the Demon, is a capable aircraft pilot, are as breath-taking as any reader could wish for. It is apparently not tho last of the series, however, as in the final chapter, after returning all the jewels he had stolen, the Demon again vanishes. The publishers are tho Eldon Press.

HUMOROUS VERSE From Messrs Herbert Jenkins Ltd, who have a discriminating taste in such things, come to us two nicely produced volumes of humorous verse. They are ‘ The Nondamsense Ballads ’ by Langford Reed, and '* Libellous Lyrics on Superior People,’ by G. W. L. Day. The first has more humour and the second more wit. Mr Reed’s manner recalls the ‘ Captain Reece ’ and ‘ Nancy Bell ’ of W. S. Gilbert, with other gems of his ‘ Bab Ballads.’ He crosses the first with ‘ The Bumboat Woman’s Story ’ in ‘ The Cruise of the Camisole,’ and whimsicalities do not fail him in his tale of the ship with a female crew. The cabin-girl, whose name was Jean, A flapper was, of seventeen. She’d run away from school, for she Desired adventures on the sea. The crew were fisher girls, from Deal, Who each possessed some sex appeal. Such were the girls who had control - Of the good ship, the Camisole. On duty they were never lax— Could hoist the anchor or their slacks; Or rather, the attractive shorts They wore to show that they were sports. Mr Day eschews the story. His concern is with types—the chief constable, the road hog, the Cabinet Minister, the hlack-coated worker, the salesman, and others, who all speak for themselves in his pages. He excels in ingenuities of rhyming, as in this small manifesto of the Babies’ Welfare League:— Better babies, better babies! We will show you how to rear them. Fill your twins with vitamins, With anti-toxins, lymph and serum. Microbes seethe when babies teethe. And canine pets are trays for rabies. _ _ , But murderous germs expire in flocks in Serum, lymph and anti-toxin. Both books are amusingly illustrated.’

NEW ZEALAND VERSE

Mr Edwin J. Tapp is a Nature-lover. ‘ A Miscellany of Verse,’ which he gives us, is made up of streams and birds and trees and reflections on them, with some more general reflections. But Mr Tapp is not yet a master of words. Often he uses them clumsily; more often tritely; the craft of verse is a hard craft and he lacks skill in it. Lines and stanzas, but few complete poems in this collection, suggest that that will come. A. H. and A. W. Reed, Dunedin and Wellington, publishers.

• PALMERSTON ’

Lord Palmerston was one of the most conspicuous of the outstanding figures who have stood on the British political stage. He was a man of many and remarkable parts. At the age of 23 he entered the House of Commons. Two years later he became Secretary at War. Strange as it may seem to-day, the post did not Carry Cabinet rank when he accepted the office, but before bo retired from it in 1828 he was a member of the Cabinet. The work in -.the department of which he was head at the time was arduous in the extreme, for the Army was honeycombed with abuses and administrative inefficiency, and he set about the task of putting matters on a better footing. A master of detail and a great worker, he remained at the War Office from 1809 to 1828, and effected many important changes and rid the Army of the abuses that were rampant at the time. Palmerston’s two achievements, however, were most notable in his post as Foreign Minister. The life and work of this remarkable man are set out in ‘ Palmerston,’ by Philip Guedalla, who has established a reputation as an historian of ability. The author explains that the life of Palmerston was the life of England and, to a large extent, of Europe in the last 16 years of the eighteenth and the first 65 of the nineteenth century. He lived to bo 15 years Foreign Secretary and was twice Prime Minister. He died at the age of 80 still in harness. He was indomitable, a man who could not be kept down. His life was set amid perilous times. - He was Secretary at War against Napoleon. In the thick of all the diplomatic intrigues for so many vears as Foreign Minister he held the honour of his country in a strong hand and made it respected everywhere. Though he was always firm, he was wise in his demands and kept the peace of Europe. Palmerston was sufficient unto himself. His' courage sometimes outran discretion,'and when in 1851 he expressed his approval of the coup d’etat of Napoleon HI. without having consulted. Queen Victoria or his colleagues, he was, at the demand of Her Majesty; dismissed from his office of Foreign Secretary by the Prime Minister (Lord John Russell). Shortly after, he had his “ tit-for-tat with Johnnie ” (as he expressed it) and overthrew the Government. Soon afterwards the country was in the throes of the Crimean War. Mismanagement and muddle were rampant. Lord Aberdeen resigned, and almost by general consent Lord Palmerston succeeded him as Prime Minister, and his vigorous actions soon brought about a more satisfactory state of affairs. Palmerston had great abilities, a sincere love of his country, much energy and determination, a _breezy personality, and a keen sense of humour not always conspicuous in prominent statesmen. Mr Guedalla has produced a very"fine hook, and it is clear that he has taken infinite trouble to place the great statesman’s life and oax’eer in their right perspective. An enormous amount of research is indicated. The publishers of ‘ Palmerston ’ are Hodder and Stoughton.

M. Roger Martin du Gard, who was awarded last year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, is best known for his tenvolume novel, ‘ Los Thibaults,' the history of n French family in pre-War days. •

MODERN SMUGGLING

AN ILLUMINATING SURVEY

The smuggler may still be regarded as a somewhat adventurous figure, but in the reality of modern times he has become a criminal nuisance. Mr W. J. Makin makes that perfectly clear in his ‘ Smugglers of To-day,’ which is an arresting study of the ramifications of this major international industry. It is surprising to learn that it costs Britain alone about £10,000,000 a year, that is a conservative estimate based on the captures made by Customs and Excise officers. Mr Makin has many other quite startling (and obviously authentic) revelations to make in this extremely interesting book. So has made a wide survey of modern smuggling, assembling his facts from the great cities and from odd corners of the world and presenting them in most entertaining fashion. Mr Makin first deals with petty smuggling, of little luxuries like cigars or laces, by otherwise respectable tourists and travellers. Then he goes on to describe the smuggling of aliens into Britain and the activities of the notorious “ escaping clubs ’’ of the Continent, organisations of wide resources which arrange for the transfer of individuals from one country (which they find expedient to leave) to another. He has an interesting commentary on the Island of Lipari and of the escapes from there, of which, incidentally, there have been only three. Lipari is the isolated settlement to which I! Dime summarily consigns those people bold enough to express an opinion incompatible with his own views. Mr Makin views the stowaway as a “ self-smuggler,’’ and speaks of many interesting affairs in this vein, mentioning cases where there were even stowaways on transatlantic airships. He goes on to review the extensive smuggling trade in diamonds that is such a problem for the South African authorities, and then passes to dealings in drugs, liquor, and guns, and, finally, the illicit transfer of cattle over the herder of the Irish Free State to Ulster for shipment to England. All in all, ‘ Smugglers of To-day ’ will unquestionably sustain the interest of its readers. Mr Makin writes clearly and forcefully, and has made an exhaustive and illuminating study of his subject. His stories carry many remarkable tributes to human ingenuity, as exercised by modern smugglers, and the accounts of the never-ending battle of wits between Customs _ investigators and the criminal fraternity hold for the reader a lively interest. Our copy comes from Messrs Herbert Jenkins Ltd.

•SIR DEVIL-MAY-CARE’

Miss Jane Lane is already known for her excellent historical novels, mostly dealing with the Stuarts and_ their cause. This time, in ‘ Sir Devil-may-care,’ she introduces the story of England from tho time when Charles I. and Cromwell fought their battles to the Restoration. The'.cenral figure is Nigel Pitzhead, a Cornish squire, who is portrayed as a typical Cavalier, and who fights through the civil wars, buccaneers with Prince Rupert to help provide funds for the exiled King, turns highwayman to plunder the Roundheads (who had stolen his estate and murdered his wife), and lives to see Charles 11. restored to the throne in 1660. The spirit of ‘ The Laughing Cavalier ’ of Franz Hals’s portrait has hardly been caught by the author— Squire Fitzhead is too serious at times, despite his devil-may-care laugh, his wrenching and drinking. Nevertheless, he is a splendid character, and rounds off his gay career in a typical and suitable manner. Miss Lane has skilfully caught the atmosphere of the times, and the story is crammed with adventure and stirring episodes of fights on land and sea. We are given a new insight into the ways and manners of Cromwell’s “ Ironsides,” which, no doubt, are historically true. It is a fascinating story and holds the reader enthralled to the very end. Messrs Methuen are the publishers.

• THE FRIGHTENED VILLAGE *

Norman Lindsay provides a gruesome, tut well-told, story in ‘ The Frightened Village,’ in which a young man who goes on a tramping holiday meets with strange adventure and with romance. In the almost forgott.en village of Lissane he discovers that there has been a pitiless maiming of animals, and joins forces with those who are endeavouring to investigate. It appears that a demented scientist is carrying ou b a ritual which he had discovered in a translation from an Egyptian priest’s papyrus, and things become much more serious when, having failed in his quest with animals, he turns his attention to human beings. Fortunately his intentions are discovered just in time to prevent murder. The smuggling of drugs also comes into the story, which is a most exciting one from beginning to end. The publishers are Messrs Herbert Jenkins Limited, London. MYSTERY ‘ Screened ’ is a mystery novel by Faith Wolsey, who had previously written quite a successful story of the same type entitled; ‘ Which Way Came lieath ? ’ Her latest yarn is handled in the same light style, a sense of humour obviously being one of Mrs Wolsey’s gifts. The character drawing) in ° Screened ’ is cleverly done, except that perhaps the loyal old Sotcn Nannio who takes a prominent part in the plot is rather too Scotch —that is to say, the accent might with advantage to the reader have been reproduced' a little less conscientiously. The plot concerns the death of an extremely unpleasant man, and the detectives who investigate the case have a puzzle to deal with which certainly takes a lot of putting together. Various relations, friends, and servants of the dead man are suspected in turn, and the solution, an ingenious one, is not found until very late in the day, and then is screened. The publisher is John Murray, and our copy is from -Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.

A literary link with Australia was broken by the death of Mrs W. Desmond Humphreys—“Rita”—which occurred at her home at Combe Down, Bath (England), recenty. Mrs Humphreys went to Australia as a child, and was educated in Sydney, later returning to England. She was a very prolific_ writer, and from 1897 onwards maintained an average of a novel a year, her works including ‘ Dame Durden,’ ‘ Peg the Rake,’ ‘ The Lie Circumspect.’ ‘ An Old Rogue's Tragedy,’ ‘ The Philanthropic Burglar,’ and other remembered titles. In addition to writing novels she was the author of several plays, and a contributor to magazines ■and newspapers, including ‘ London Opinion,’ the ‘ Daily Chronicle,’ the ‘ Daily Express,’ the ‘ Strand Magazine,’ the ‘ Bystander,’ the ‘ Weekly Dispatch,’ ‘ Hutchinson’s Magazine, and the ‘ Bookman.’ Her ‘ Recollections of a Literary Life ’ appeared in lO.'lU.

NOTES

The famous French literary_ award, the Prix Goncourt, has been given for the second year in succession to a Belgian author. In 1936 the winner was M. Maxence Van der Meersch; last year, M. Charles Plisnier, with his two books, ‘ Faux Passcports ’ and ‘ Manages.’ M. Plisnier is 40 and retired last year from the Brussels Bar after the success of his first novel, ‘ Manages.’ He was previously known only as a poet and short-story writer. Another important award, the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, will this year be presented to one of the following books: ‘ The Porch,’ by Richard Church; ‘Alas! Poor Lady,’ by Rachel Ferguson; and - Coal Miner,’ by G. A. W. Tomlinson, Miss Clemence Dane has just finished her first book—apart from her recent selection of fairy tales—since ‘ Broome Stages ’ appeared in 1933. It has been written during the last two years at her home in Kent, and is the fruit of an idea which has germinated in her mind for a long time. Miss Nora K. Smith won £I,OOO for her novel, ‘ A Stranger and a Sojourner,’ in a competition organised for members of the teaching profession. She is head mistress of the girls’ section of a school at Patricroft, Manchester. She wrote the novel for her own pleasure, finding inspiration in the people whom she met during visits to a farm between Glossop and Hayfield,_in Derbyshire. It was only the persuasion of her friends that made her enter the novel for the competition. Miss Smith has writing in her blood, for her father, a Methodist minister, was known as a religious author. M. Francis de Croisset, the French playwright, who died last month, aged 60, know England and tho English as well as do his fellow-countrymen, M. Manrois and M. Morand. He was often to be seen in London and spoke our language fluently. He travelled widely, and wrote satirically, though kindly*, about the Englishman serving his country in India and elsewhere. The English, he used to say, “ are underrated because they are not addicted to talking about themselves,” His real name was Wiener. Ho borrowed the name of Croisset from the village near (Rouen, where Flaubert, his great literary hero, lived. The opinion of the Edinburgh town clerk that the council cannot spend money in providing a memorial tablet for house in which Sir James Barrio lodged when he was a student at Edinburgh University is not likely to mean tho end of the proposal. Cr Wilson M'Laren, who sponsored it, believes he will have no difficulty in finding the necessary funds elsewhere for the tablet, which it is intended to affix to 3, Great King street. Barrie’s landlady thero was Mrs 'Edwards, who is generally believed to have inspired his play, ‘ The Old Lady Shows Her Medals.’

Books from the library of an Elder Statesman —the late Viscount Snowden —are to become the property of Keighley, the Yorkshire town near which he was born. They have been presented—along with the library furnishings—by Lady Snowden, and the room in which they are to be housed at Free Library will reproduce their _ original surroundings as nearly as possible.

SARA TEASDALE

The manuscript notebooks of Sara Teasdalc, which were recently on exhibition at the ‘ New York Times ’ National Book Fair, are the property of Margaret Conklin, of the Macmillan Company, who is acting as literary executor of Miss Teasdale’s estate. When Miss Teasdale was still in her ’teens and first felt the urge to write she bought a small red notebook, in which she set dwn her poems as they came to her. From that moment until the time of her death in January, 1933, she recorded all her poems in notebooks of the same size and colour. There were nine of them in all, but shortly before her death she destroyed the first three, containing her very early work, because she felt thait the poems in them were not representative. The other six were left ,to Margaret Conklin. Another small notebook now in possession of her literary executor contains the titles of all the books Miss Teasdale read from the time she was 15, with asterisks showing which hooks had been reread and many times. The poems which Miss Teasdale wished to have included in her ‘ Collected Poems ’ were also indicated in the manuscript notebooks and in single marked copies of her volumes;* Tho Macmillan Company has issued a 24-page booklet on Sara Teasdale containing a frontispiece portrait by Nicholas Murav, a biographical sketch, a critical article, etc. It will be sent free to anyone who requests a copy. The request should be sent to the Macmillan Company, 60 Fifth Avenue, New York City.'