A Literary Corner

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12423, 17 April 1926, Page 12

A Literary Corner

(Conducted by

R.A.L)

"ARGONAUTS OF TIJE SOUTH” However you measure him up, Captain Frank Hurley is a big man. He is a born adventurer—intrepid, enduring, nev«r-to-be beaten whatever the odds against him. He, his wonderful camera, and his versatile pen have made a name for themselves throughout the civilised world. Hurley has roamed from New Guinea to Palestine, from Flanders to the Antarctic. In 1924 he broke into publication with “Pearls and Savages,” which the readers of travel stories fairly devoured. It was a narration simply but vividly told, and illustrated with striking photographs. Now comes the. “Argonauts of the South,” a book —to use the publishers’ description—which “was born amid the waste ■ icefields and jagged mountains that hedge about the mystery of the South Pole.” Hurley accompanied both Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Douglas Mawson as official photographer on their Antarctic expeditions, and he has gathered by the way a mass of fascinating copy whose textual interest is embellished with page after page of peerless halftones.

This story covers a. period of five years’ wanderings. It has the additional merit in that it is sparing in scientific detail. Hurley has set out to tell of the wonders, the dangers, and the glamour of the Antarctlo in plain • words; to picture, ah far ,as pen

and camera can picture, the incredible beauties and awesome desolation of that vast unpeopled region about the South Foie. He has succeeded beyond all question. He first travelled down with the Mawson expedition, qight through the “Roaring Forties” an<i the home of the giant penguins—into the land of , the blizzards. The tale of that offensive on the ice-girt south has been ■written in Dr. Mawson’s “Home of the Blizzard.” Hurley’s version may not be sa complete, but it is none the less enthralling: lie has the gift of narrative. Back in civilisation once more, Hurley was not long growing restless for the wide spaces. The wanderlust took hold of him, and urged him forth on a; motor-car journey across the wastes of Central civilisation toward the “sun-scorchecf snores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Mud, malaria, and mosquitoes” constituted his environment for many months. It was impossible to get cool. “Nights and days were like the breath' of a . . sweltering at nights I longed for the South again.” The South heard his cryir Here is what happened: Ope day I had occasion to run into Burketown—a small, remote outpost—for supplies. It possessed a telegraph, station, and there I was handed a sealed letter marked “Urgent Cable.” Opening and reading it, I could only express myself in spasmodic and disjointed exclamations. Good heavens 1 A surprise? Nay—a miracle! Could it be possible? It was a cable from London! A cable from Sir Ernest Shackleton, offering me the. post of official photographer in his forthcoming expedition! Would I accept I Would I ? —rather 1! He was to join the party a* Buenos Ayrea in six weeks’ time. “It meant motoring hack over some two thousand miles of bush tracks, and voyaging halfway across the world—a race against fame.” He arrived in Sydney to discover that a steamer was leaving for South America in a few days. Ho reached Buenos Ayres 48 hours after Shackleton had arrived. And so away to Antarctica again under a new leader, but with an old comrade, Frank Wild, as second in command.

Hurley sums up his two chiefs in the following terse sentence: “Shackleton grafted science on -to exploration; Mawson added exploring to science.” Of Wild, “one cannot write without

admiration.” He proved his mettle on many occasions, but never more so than when in charge of the marooned men who sheltered beneath two boats on Elephant Island for fivo months awaiting the arrival of tlieir rescuers. His publishers have backed up the author nobly. The volume, from front cover to back, is a splendid example of artistic printing. (G. B. Putnam and Sons, New York and London.) C. E. Montague’s retirement from journalism will bo followed shortly by the publication of a new novel of his, “Rough Justice*.”

A BIG AMBASSADOR When the first of the series of “The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page” appeared, it was received everywhere with acclamation. Thousands knew that Page was the American Ambassador in London from 1913 to 1918, but it is to be doubted whether a half per cent, knew the man for what he was '—a man exceedingly human, though a born diplomat; a man possessed of a rich and gracious personality and a downrightness rare in big public figures. These qualities Mr Page’s biographer, Burton J. Hendrick, made clear for all to see. • Mr Hendrick has completed his good work in a third volume by gathering and publishing the new letters of the Ambassador at St. James’s to tile then President, Woodrow Wilson. Air Wilson’s death removed the prohibition upon the publication of that correspondence, which can now be read by the world. The two men first met in Atlanta, Georgia, 43 years before the war that was to involve both so importantly. Wilson “was making a half-hearted attempt to start -a law practice, and Page was serving his apprenticeship in journalism.” Little could either have dreamed in those far-off days that nearly a lifetime later they wofild be what circumstances unparalleled in the record of the earth.

Those who were gripped by the first of this series will need fto Second liittt that the new letters are equally worth while. Mr Hendrick is the biographer par excellence. Ho'has done full justice to a very great personality, who,' as the late Bonar Law put it, “in a great crisis . . , served his country and oiirs, and civilisation, iijself, with a noble competence.” Page died at the end of 1 1918:—-(Our copy ■ comes from” Angus' and Robertson, Sydney, publishes of the Australian edition.)

F~.': NCISCAN ANTHOLOGY , Sweet things, in prose and verse, are to be found in “The Little Bruin Company”—an anthology culled from the rich fields of Franciscan literature The garnerer' warns us that he has ‘been less concerned with literary and poetic grace than finding the true expression of the Franciscan spirit.” The volume reveals that purpose; nevertheless, the' quality is present. In proof, we need only mention such names as \ achel Lindsay, Alice Meynell, John ltuskin, G. K. Chesterton, Coventry Patmore, Father Tabb, Katherino Tynan, Hinkson, and Charles L. O’Donnell, whose “Cloister” .demands quotation:— " “Show me your Cloister," asks the Lady ' Poverty. Well, that were a oloister; fbr its bars Long strips of sunset; and its roof the stars. Four walls of sky, with corridors of air Leaping to chapel, and God everywhere. Earth beauties and bare to lie upon, Lit by the little candle of the sun. ■ The wind, gone daily sweeping like a broom— For these vast, hearts it was a narrow room. No matter What faith you profess, rf your heart can glow in 7 the presence of a creed expressed in felicitous and beooming words—here is an undying flame. (Martin, Hopkinson and 00., Ltd., London.) , SOME BAD - MEN—AND OTHERS Popular interest in crinfe and criminals never wanes. Th 9 Irving hooks ■have achieved a wide popularity; those of Charles Kingston have sold, and stiil are selling, like ■ hot cakes. The latest of the Kingston series is entitled “The Bench and the Dock.” The author is an artist in this special sphere of research. He begins with several chapters about the historic Old Bailey, which has’been ‘the-' scene of many a soul-shaking drama with tho Law playing lend. From Europe he flies to the U.S.A. to find material for an intimate account of the extraordinary activities of that extraordinary organisation, the Ku Klux Klan. The “Molly Maguires,” another American secret society unequalled for coldblooded ruthlessness, is dealt with, and the Paris anarchists and the Black Hand revealed, for what they were. Personal studies Include R. F. Williamson, who did wonders in restoring the prestige of Scotland Yard; M.

Canler, a typical French detective; Georgo Blin, prison-breaker; Charles Charnbrey, of Devil’s Isle; and the world-famed Vidocq, the malefactor who became a hunter of malefactors. The book contains eight full-page illustrations. (Stanley Paul anu Co., Ltd., London.) Mr Ernest Newman has expanded and revised the text of his fine study, “Wagner ns Afan and Artist,” which was first published about 12 years ago. A number of new documents lmvo r.omo to light sineo the original edition was produced.