A POET WHO MAKES IT PAY

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 128, 1 June 1908, Page 6

A POET WHO MAKES IT PAY

There is a little-known poet in England who, in the last eighteen months, ih^S sold 75,000 copies of his book^. His name is E. V. Barclay, and he has a Httique system of advertising and a ' Way of keeping close to Nature and tEe hearts of his peoplel that might be commended perhaps to poets in jofcher lands. In telling the secret of the poet's success, the Denver Republican says: "He knows how to write verses that please simple folk. He is his own publisher and bookseller. He is a free devotee of the simple life, and for fame he doesn't care a rap." "Up and down old England,"' far and wide, A gipsy writer, chancing much, I roam the country side." ■■

So he writes in his "Strange Tale of, a Tramp." He lives in a caravan, drawn by an old horse that he calls Caravan Josh. In the last eighteen months he has travelled almost completely round England. He may be encountered frequently trudging along merrily beside his yellow van in some verdant by-lane. But' one is more apt to run across him at a country fair, standing at the top of the" steps of his perambulating abode, selling his books by sheer force of wit and oratory. He is absolutely independent, of the critics. He cares nothing for what reviewers say of him. It is what he says of himself that goes with the crowd.

In a busy market-place on a Saturday night he frequently sells as many, as one thousand copies of his works. They are all printed at his own expense, bound in paper-back covers, and he sells them for this modest sum of one penny each. Ten of these little volumes he has published. Some" of them are j n p rose . Love, adventure, and the mercy little comedies of rural lite are the themes of which he treats. His own experiences furnish him with supply of material. Although still a. young man, he has been thrice round the world, and -he fought through the Boer War with Kitchener's Horse. His booklets passed from hand to hand and place to Place, may be found in thousands of cottage homes So far as circulation goes, among the humbler classes he ihl ni f,? 1"1 t<y, b3 yarded as the poet _ of the people than has any other living author. He has a.genuine gift of improvisation. Une oi- his devices for attract ing attention is to offer to write some verses free for any girl in the crowd who will acknowledge that she is in love. All he requires is the name of the adored one, and something; about his appearance—the colour of his eyes or hair.

"The offer," ,he says, "always starts a lot of giggling and chaffing. But &oon little slips of paper are handed up to me with the desired information. One, for instance, may read

like this : 'His name is Tom, arid his eyes are blue.' Then I write something nice about Tom, and bring in an allusion to his eyes, and hope that the wedding bells will soon be ringing. Of course, I read it to the crowd, and it puts them in a good hvmour, and then they buy my books." From which it may be inferred that the gipsy poet understands the art of jollying.