NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 23113, 12 November 1938, Page 23

NOTES

Mrs Clara Watts-Dunton died recently at The Pines, Putney Hill, the famous house in which she and her husband, Theodore Watts - Dunton, lived with Swinburne for many years. The poet died there in 1909. In 1922 Mrs Watts-Dunton wrote a book called ‘ The Homo Life of Swinburne,’ and in recent years she had been at work on a biography of Dante Gabriel Rosetti, a close friend of her husband and of Swinburne.

A pilgrimage was made to Emile Zola’s house at Medan on the anniversary of his death. His daughter, 'Mme. Denise le Blond-Zola, has formed a museum there of objects associated with her father. Zola died in 1902 in rather mysterious circumstances. He was found dead in his bedroom, apparently asphyxiated by the fumes of a defective charcoal stove.

‘ Adonais.’ Dorothy Hewlett’s biography of Keats, has been awarded the Rose Mary Oawshay prize of £IOO for 1938 by, the British Academy. This prize was founded in 1888. It may be awarded annually to a woman of any nationality who in the judgment of the British Academy has written within three years a valuable historical or critical work on English literature, particularly on Byron, Shelley, or Keats,

Besides being himself a poet. and dramatist, John Drinkwater wap a student and critic of English verse, and recovered some forgotteii gems in his 1 Contributions to the English Anthology 1 and elsewhere. It was his intention to <vlace on record what poetry had meant to him, asserting that more than anything else in life it had “ stimulated the imagination and made anxiety tolerable.” Death prevented him from completing this task, but he loft sufficient material for a posthumous volume, entitled ‘ English Poetry: An Unfinished Survey.’

“ Runyan’s books in prison were few,” says the ‘ Yorkshire Post,’ commenting on the recent Runyan celebrations. “He was allowed the Rible and Foxe’s ‘ Rook of Martyrs.’ His curiqus, rich, turbulent, and elemental imagination fed upon them, and before his long period of incarceration came to an end ho had begun the strange and moving story of the ‘ Pilgrim’s Progress. Naturally the bonk angered some of his co-religionists. It was imaginative and, therefore, evil. It was an allegory, a story. It was something not far removed from the drama, which the lesser Puritans abhorred. Runyan, in fact, had to wait a long time before the cultured and the discerning recognised that what he had written was a work of genius and contained some of the best prose in the language. Their recognition would have meant little to Runyan.”

It was recently reported that the Italian Government had issued an expulsion order against Dr Paul Cremona, co-autbor with M. H. H. Macartney of ‘ Italy’s Foreign and Colonial Policy.’ Since the book has been "praised for its objectiveness by Fascist officials and permitted to be on sale in Italian bookshops, it is believed that the expulsion order was based on the assumption that Dr Cremona is Jewish and consequently undesirable according to Italy’s new antiSemitic policy. Rut Dr Cremona’s family is an old Catholic one, which settled in Malta more than 300 years ago, ami he is a Rritish subject. Dr Cremona is Rome representative of the ‘Christian Science Monitor,’ has lived in Italy for 17 years, and is dean of the American correspondents there.

Mr Christopher Hollis, who two years ago wrotje a successful book called ‘ Foreigners Aren’t Fools,’ has finished a study of the founder of the Soviet Russia under the title ‘Lenin: Portrait of a Professional Revolutionary. - The book is written in the light of Lenin’s own letters and other authentic material. It takes into account the effects of his youthful environment upon his highly individual character, the fruits of his subsequent life as a political prisoner and exile, and the golden opportunity of the war, with its inevitable results on the social and economic life of Russia. In his later chapters the author discusses Trotsky’s influence, and offers an explanation of Stalin's feud against his old colleagues.

• The name of John Byrom is practically forgotten to-day, except as the author of that famous hymn ‘Christians Awake,’ which he wrote as a Christmas present for his daughter

Dolly in 1747. Yet he played an important part in the literary, scientific, and religious life of his age, and Wesley went so far as to claim that he had all the wit and humour of Swift and much more learning. Kersaj Cell, the picturesque old house in which he was born and spent most of his life, is now threatened with destruction, and a preservation committee has launched an appeal for £5,000, the sura required to purchase and restore the house as a permanent memorial. It is one of the last surviving examples in the Manchester and Salford neighbourhood of an ancient homestead—its history goes back to the twelfth century—and it has associations with other authors besides Byrom. Harrison Ainsworth featured it as “ The Anchorites ” in ‘ Mervyn Clitheroe,’ and his family arms appear in two of the leaded windows.