A POET REMEMBERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22718, 2 November 1935, Page 4

A POET REMEMBERS

HERBERT PALMER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY " The Mistletoe Child." By Herbert Palmer. Illustrated. London: Dent. 12s 6d. Of "The Mistletoe Child" it might almost be said that nothing becomes this book so well as its title. it suggests avenues of mysticism whereby one may escape from a drab and naughty world. The autobiography on the whole does not justify the title. It is documentary rather than suggestive. If the truth must be told, there is just a little too much about little Herbert's digestive processes and his insatiable need of "hankies." Herbert Palmer, one would suppose, is at some pains to avoid the manner of Walter Pater in "The Child in the House, or even of Mr A. C. Benson in "The House of Quiet." Mr Palmer, who has written a memorable book on angling and a book of poetry, "Summit and Chasm, which elicited comparisons with John Bunyan on the part of one critic, was born in the eighties of a Methodist marriage. His father was a minister, whose circuit was in the north of England. During his childhood the family moved from Leek to Preston. Herbert's mother resembled Queen Victoria in her passion for hoarding what would to-day be called "junk," so that when the periodical move from -one manse to another had to be made the Palmer chariot drove heavily. Of his father, Herbert Palmer writes: "He was moody and temperamental, liable to violent fits of depression and melancholy, but sometimes he was very buoyant, transported occasionally into a state of ebullition or disturbing joy. His physical health, which was very poor, was the cause of his frequent low spirits, and I have sometimes been surprised that he lived to be as old as 63." There are curious parallels with David Copperfield in this autobiography. Young Herbert bit his father's hand when under correction, and on the death of his sister he was aware of that same distinction which David Copperfield felt on being "bereaved." The first poet of whom young Herbert drank deeply was Mrs Hemans. He submits an interesting appraisal of the author, of " Casabianca." ''Pilgrim's Progress" inevitably played a large part in the child's spiritual or intellectual development: "The allegory was almost entirely lost in the material story. Here was a life worth living, where you got to heaven fighting and overcoming tangible adversaries." The young reader preferred stories that dealt with death. " I did not much care for stories without the shadow of death in them," he says. "Even 'The Moose Hunters,' that exciting tale of Canadian backwoods, which, I think, came next in my estimation to 'Pilgrim's Progress' was not all jolly sport; once I could put out of my soul a fear of hell, death was no longer a grim, ghastly apparition, but a lovely angel with rainbow wings." Herbert Palmer became a school teacher. At 21 he was teaching at Mexborough, and was "hideously miserable." Later he qualified further as a teacher, but after committing himself to the cen-tral-authorities at Whitehall he made a bolt to Germany and taught at Bonn. He was not physically fit for war service, and continued to teach, his last post being at St. Alban's, where he now resides. He was granted a civil list pension in recognition of his services as a poet. The latter half of this autobiography is more readable than the earlier section. Little Herbert in no way differed from other little boys with his love of soldiers, his adoration of little girls, and his appetite for exotic food. C. R. A. SHIPS AND THE SEA HISTORY, HEROISM. ADVENTURE " Ships, and How They Sailed the Seven Seas: 5000 8.C.; a.d. 1935." By Hendrlek Willem van Loon. Illustrated. London: Harrap. lGs. " Tales of the Fore and Aft." By Stanley Rofiers. Illustrated. London: Harrap. lis. " Brave Men All." By Vice-admiral Gordon Campbell, V.C., D. 5.0., M.P. Illustrated. London: Ho'dder and Stougliton. 9s. Mr Van Loon's latest work, like its predecessor, which chose even a wider sphere than the seven seas and those who sail them as its province, is large in size and scope, and of a prodigal appearance due in part to the many scratchy, expressive drawings with which he decorates it. The first impression of " Ships" is that

the book is rambling, discursive. A closer examination does not entirely contradict that view, but it reveals that there is point in the author's sketchystyle, that there is a vast amount of knowledge in its pages, and that Mr Van Loon does, in fact, assemble his materials with care and thought. His theme may be stated, for the information of that large public to which _ books about the sea are invariably fascinating, as a history of evolution in seafaring; and for those who regard man as the most interesting product of all evolutionary forms, it can be described as a book about ships, with a sub-theme that takes the whole progress and existence of man in his relation to the sea as its note. A principal hypothesis, which the author

naturally has little difficulty in upholding, is that until the modern vessel arrived —that is, until the beginning of this century—seafaring was a most uncomfortable pursuit. "Life on board ship," as Mr Van Loon vehemently expresses it, "was simply unfit for human beings, originally created after the image of God. It was indecent and filthy," and in a magnificent but rather pathetic way it shows the height of self-sacrifice to which the average citizen can rise when the needs of his immediate relatives make him forgo his own happiness and well-being that he may provide bread and butter for them, with an occasional dab of jam. His survev, as has been indicated, is comprehensive and enthusiastically informed. Chapters cover all the principal developments in ship construction, with the special circumstances that brought about modification or radical change in shipping means and methods, and always the lot of the sailor, in sickness and in health, is part of the historical review. Mr Rogers, an equally diligent searcher after information, in his ninth book on ships, sailors, and the sea confines his interest mainly to smaller vessels, and principally to those with the wind as their motive power. The 200 pages of his agreeable "Tales of the Fore and Aft may be called a saga of small ships; with ike necessary additional comment that all these small ships and their owners have done something adventurous or extraordinary to merit their mention. Some of Mr Rogers's breezy paragraphs will be of no unfamiliar content to sea-lovers— Bligh's 49-day passage in. an open boat; Shackleton's journey in a 20-foot whaler across the stormiest waters in the world; the voyage of the Grafton survivors from the Auckland Islands to Stewart Island (Mr Rogers is incorrect in his spelling of this word). Such tales are worth retelling, especially by a writer with so deep a knowledge of seafaring and a touch that makes his chronicles so acceptable to laymen. Many other incidents are not as familiar, but no less, and sometimes even more, worthy of retelling in easy narrative form. In addition to his descriptions of voyages in open boats, of the vicissitudes of rum-running craft, of exploration and circumnavigation of the globe in small craft, of shipwrecks, and so on Mr Rogers devotes a very useful chapter to the history of the America's Cup races. This book is also illustrated by line drawings. Admiral Campbell's "Brave Men All is in the nature of a journalistic task, but one quite capably performed. He also writes of shipwrecks, of rescues at sea, of the heroic work of the lifeboat crews on the English coast. He has spread his net wide, in his brief accounts of classic and little-known maritime adventures, in which life was preserved by heroism and endurance. There are several good photographic illustrations. J. M.