DAUGHTER'S TRIBUTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23339, 6 May 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

DAUGHTER'S TRIBUTE

THE LATE E. V. LUCAS Miss Audrey Lucas, the novelist, has written a charming biography of her father, "E. V. Lucas —a Portrait." She is, of course, appreciative, but she has avoided mere adulation, and although the book is not a big one it probably reveals "E.V.L." as the man better than a full-size biography by a friend and admire,r would have done. The following analysis speaks for itself: " 'E.V.' did not write of what was gross or sordid because he did not wish to. He did not write of passion because, solf-admittedly, he did not know how to. His writing was not powerful, nor was it robust. These qualities were beyond bis scope, and he was too wise to strain after them. . . He claimed to write best of the surface of life; sometimes he went deeper and then, largely because he did this so unconsciously, he was the more effective." The host of people who have a hook of E.V.L.s essays on their shelves or his famous anthology, "The Open Road." will be interested in this daughter's tribute. "E. V. l.uras—A Portrait," by Audrey Lucas (Methuon).