PRIVATE LIVES IN PRINT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

PRIVATE LIVES IN PRINT

Recent Autobiographies

By KOTARE

THIS is an aga of autobiographies. If everybody is not doing it, there are more people carrying round for the public bene fit the pageant of their hearts, bleeding or otherwise. The sad story of their lives has always been the favourite theme of a certain type of person, and in ordinary life no doubt we afflict others unnecessarily with our own troubles just as often p. 3 we sustain the role of listener t<s : other people's woes. There medicinal quality about confession. ~Tlto "popularity of the personal pn'>.- • graph is another symptom. We lj-ke hearing about people; a. considerable part of the new leisure seems to >l^^.. spent in collecting and retailing .gossip. It is nGfc cynicism to beiiero.thafc for practically everyone, the person ho is most genuinely interested in ia himself. And it is hard not to believe that we hold as much interest for others. That must certainly account for some autobiographies. But not for allHere is a man who thinks he is misunderstood. The public has not the facts necessary for a judgment on him and in self-defence ha things from his point of view. Or. another man may feel that be has had a full and rich life, and ha is anxious to share what he can of it with others. .Or ho may feel that he is not sure what iiis own achievement is worth, and he puts his own view of it on paper simply to clarify issues and to . gain, if he can, the objectivity thatalone makes sound judgment possible. Whatever the reason, the literary - world is full of autobiographies, and for my part I would not wish any of them away. I have read a dozen already this year, and hope to read many more. _ The Direct Stylo One of the most entertaining ' "rooks/, of this type, .charming'in ..its directness of approach and vividness of narration, is Captain Doorly's lfjh the Wake." It is ono man's .Odyssey, written for the delectation of his children, who naturally want in know "what their father did," New Zealand is the centre of much of his story; ; There is captured the swift response of an eager questing, mind to the impact of experience. The author is tremendously . alive to the wonder and adventure of ; living, to the surprises of human goodness and courage in unexpected places. He lives life fully and * ! he loves it. lie is. not given unduly to tho reflection that takes the bloom off so much of human experience. Ho accepts life and finds it on tho whole very good. Av man who has spent much of his life on. the sea,- battling with nature in her most hostile- moods develops-.,. that angle of vision if there is a sound core of faith in the heart of him. Captain Boorly has been in the Antarctic with Scott, fcap " voyaged much with men of heroic mould, playing, though he docs not Say so, 1- a man's part always. He was an - officer on the Waikare when she was wrecked in the Otago sounds. He- commanded New Jfe&land transports during the war, an&was in charge of the A pari ma when she 1 was sunk with -heavy loss by a German submarine. He brought the Navua to Tahiti from San Francisco when the influenza epidemic broke out on board. His description of those tragic weeks and; tho final arrival in New Zealand is the best I have read of the horror of those desperate days and, the splendourof the courage of so many humble men and women brought suddenly face to face with death in its most relentless,. . most insidious form. His picture of the heroic steward is a compliment to ' human nature, as Hazlitt once happily phrased it. ' Mr. IToe- Coward The last two autobiographies I have read were Mr. Noel Coward's "Present Indicative" and Mr. J. B. Priestley's "Midnight on the Desert.'-' They are much more pretentious volumes. Mr. Coward's moves on an incredibly narrow stage. It is a brilliant book, a record of spectacular success ana sometimes desolating failure,, of perately hard work in some directions and crowns plucked debonairly with apparently a minimum of effort. He. iwas determined to get on his chosen narrow track, and in spite of no formal education and a man's responsibilities .thrust on a growing' boy, with grit and courage he kept to the path of his ambition and in the end had hiaown world at his feet. All through the dominating motive seems to have been a proud-hearted boy's determination to deliver his mother from tho drudgery of a boarding house. For her be strove to advance on the stage, accepting . a - thousand rebuffs. For her he carried his early plays from manager to manager. And in her release. from a life or toil ho seems to have foum} his highest reward. , , , Mr. Coward has .been praised to the skies, has been given in the end fame and wealth; he has faced hostile audiences that have hooted his play off the stage. He has been patronised as a sort of infant prodigy, belaboured as shallow and morbid, told authoritatively that he had gono up like a rocket and corno down like the stick. And he has gone on. sure of himself and with a bitter contempt for his belittlers, to prove that at least the public believed in him. . Throughout there is a sense of hyper-tension, as of nerves too ta'utly strung. This is. in part duo to the limited range within which all his interests and energies are concentrated. Everything is, assessed in stage values. The great stream of life roari„rr past him seems .'scarcely to exist for him. His problems are problems of making a living and securing success, not of the much greater art of living. Taking Stock of Sell Only when run to a standstill by being incessantly in the crowd and on the rush, with a complete breakdown threatening, does he detach himself sufficiently to sit back and take stock. Then he asks if the critics have not some right on their side when they say he is superficial, that his mind is shallow, his characters meretricious and unreal. Is his gift after all on y a thin facility? He has won success, money: but by what criterion can he iudce his ultimate quality?' Bad his "precipitate flamboyance" influenced : critics and had it affected his work by becoming the part which he elected ■ to play before the public? there anv chance for him of ■ steady growth and ultimate maturity? Ho ,can find no answer. The old life and his temperament call him and he plunges back into the thick of things. Mv impression was that his autobio<Traphv reveals a much moro human and attractive - personality .than ono would deduce from the plays.