A LITERARY LOG.

Southland Times, Issue 18834, 29 May 1920, Page 11

A LITERARY LOG.

ABOUT BOOKS & BOOKMEN

(By “Iota.”) May 29, 1920. A New Locke.—You can pick up almost anything that comes from the pen of W. J. Locke and feel confident that enjoyment awaits you. He does not belong to the front rank novelists of the Old Country —and by that I mean the fellows who gel double-decker reviews in the most serious publications—but he crowds closely on their heels and has. a bigger audience than most of them, l.ocke is at the head of the writers of the lighter lie. ion and he excels most of the modern makers of fiction in the originality of phrasing and quaintness of characterisation. His latest novel to reach the public is “The House ot Baitazar, which has been running as a serial in the Ladies' Home Journal, and which is now published by .hj im Line, Irom whom my copy came. In this work l.ocke presents a unique character who is the product ot the war period. There is much adventure, much excitement an i a liberal helping ot wit. John Baitazar is a mathematical genius of Cambridge, but he has a quarrel with his wife, gets entangled in a love passage with a pupil an 1 then dies to I hina. Nothing is heard of him and ne is given up as dead. A -on had Peeii born to him after his departure but during the eighteen years that lie spends m I tuna he remains completely ignorant of the fact. When lie returns to England he takes with him Quong Ho. a young ( hauumiu who is his servant and pupil Quong Ho is a fine chiiracter. The two live quietly in Spendale

Farm, so quu’liy (nut they do not know that, a war ha.-. slar.ed. maidenly on tins haven of peace descends an mr raid. IHc ho use is smitten by a bomb from a Zepp and Quong Ho is .-ono'tsly hurt. Baitazar s great mathematical work is also destroyed. This rude disturbance throws him back again into the world ot atlairs anu tie learns of the existence of his son, Godfrey, who has been wounded at the trout and is being nursed by Marcello Baring, the pupil with whom John had been entangled betore the Right to China. John throws himself feverishly into war activities and his ability secures the chance of a seat in tlie ( abiuet. At this stage Godfrey get.- into sore trouble. He lias beer, making love to a married woman, Lady Edna, "whom he trusts with important military secrets. these betravs. John Baitazar delivers his son Irom the' dberaee and death which rhe betrayal would bring by saeidicing Ins miicn coteled tear in the Cabinet. Finally he goes back again to China, this time with Marcello.

"The House of Balta/.ar" is true to type and up to standard. Baltazar is a freakish sort of fellow, but. the character is well drawn and one never 10-es intere.-t in him. His criticisms of [-.ngland alter his sojourn in China are excellently done. ihe best character, however, is Quong Ho, who is drawn with great skill and will rank as one of Locke's best creations. Some of the most interesting passag* s in the novel occur when O'uong and ifallazar get to discussing things, but. the whole work is meritorious and interesting. A Complete Wells.— A complete collected edition of H. G. Wells is announced. Doubtless it will have a good sale, but I doubt- if the result will be all that the puoiishers and the author dc.-ire. One f.ung such an edition will do will be to reveal jfie various phases of the authors literary career. On." will go through the pseudoscientific and the sociological store's of the early Wells and then come on to the patch that contained such splendid things as "i'dpps," "Mr Polly," ■■ iotio-Bungay" and "Love aiivi Mr m-wisliam, aftei v.mch there will be seen the gradual swallowing up of the artist in the pamphleteer iu such works as "Mr Drilling Sees it Through, ’

"The Soul of a Bi-hop." "The Undying Tire," and "God the Invisible King, though the last one should not be read without William Archer's excellent reply. Wells has undoubtedly played an important pait iii la.-hioning tHo vo-nr oi the new si'hool of novelists in the Did Country, but I doubt whether a ivlFcP-d edition is quite justified. Or cooi-c. many writers of far less merit and of tm-re uneven output have achieved the dt-t .netton. but that is ;iul tm excuse for tin- outbreak. ♦d- ♦ -> ■> A Leacock Short Sfory. Stephen Leacock ha- been struck by the demand for Taut .-tori"-. .-tori.'.- that arc .-toiler and *:ili shorter. Setting out V; meet the demand he gives the following "i. Did Fngh.-h Novel..’ which runs to one thapmr; "tils bodikins!” exclaimed Swearword In Sa.X'Ui, wining his mailed brow with his iron hand. "A ia;r mom withal. Methmks twert lit hlier to rest in yon glade than jo forav me forth in you fray, Twert it iiot ?" Bui, there happen'd to be a real Anglo Saxon .-landing by. "Where in ht-av-u'.- name.” he said, in ciiddeu pj-oon, "diti you get that hue of i.ngi.-di "Churl!" said. Swearword, "it is AngloSaxon. "Vmir'rc a liar!" .-dionied the Saxon, "it b, ien, it i- Harvard I. olicge, sophomore y ar, option No. C Swearword, now in [dm fury, threw aside His hauberk, his inddncß and h;s needlework on the glass. "Lay on!" said Swearword. "H;t\ y at. you !" ern d I h>- Saxon. Thev laid on auu Lad at one another. Swearword was killed, Thu.- luckily tin- v. hj -ie story was cut off on the hr.-t page am: ended. William Dean Howells.—-The death of William Dean Howell- will remove from the American field of letters a man who has played a big pare in the advancement ot literature in his own country. Born iu ISbf, Howells gained most of his education in the newspaper offices of his Lather and hi.- brother. He worked as a compositor before he took up the pen and he knew all Mue- ot journalism when he went out iu ISfil as Doited Slates con-til in Venice. There he studied the Italian language and became familiar with the best of Continental literature. On returning to his own land four years later he joined the stall of the New 'fork Nation and ultimately became editor of the North Atlantic Monthly Magai-.ine. ills a.-so-nu ion wi-h Harrier's Magazine began in iNifi and it continued, ; with mi -short Lrs ik, when he wa- editor of | the Co-Fu.-.politiin, until quite recently, i Howells, began hi- ("'reer as an author with j H book Oi poems "1 he Poems of Two

I'ri'Mii!'," v. Ir.i-li was wmten in collaboration v.itii John .1. I‘latf, i>sll later ho developed into an (.'.-.'ityi-t. His plunge into fiction came Minie years alter, but his output was generous aim he .-Dim established himself as one of t he leading writers of the I lilted States. "Tile llisf of .''iltis Lapham" wa> probably his best work in fietion. but though he used graceful Kngh.-h with a remarkably light touch when the occasion demanded, his novels are distinguished fur their numerated realism, rather than for itnv originality in structure. His place in American letters, however, gave him opportunities for assisting young writers and throughout hi.- 1 uig an I honourable career he was always reauy to encourage new men. At no time die; he tin 1 it infiicult to understand and assist the progress ot new cunents in literature and he was ui the luilest sense of the term, the ••father’’ of the literary world of in.- time. A Noted Norwegian. Johan Bojer, the famous Norwegian author, is now in the United .'•lutes where he is to undertake a lecture tour that will carry him well over the country. Motiat, Yard ami Lo. have piiuitshcti tiirec of Ins novels in the .“States during the he-1 eighteen months —"The Great Hunger," “The Lace of the VVuriu,” and " treacherous Ground”-—all of which have been very successful, the lirst named having gone through several editions. It as now being prepared for motion picture presentation. .\iotflt, Yard and Co. have in train for publication shortly a new and revised edition of his novel, "The Tower of a lie,” which was crowned by the French Acaucmv. and which j a already well known

to British readers. Next autumn the same firm will bring out his biography, written by Karl Gad and translated into English by Elizabeth Jelliffe Mucintire and Howard William Cook.

Some New Publications. —“ The Fifth Army at the Second Battle of St. Quentin” has been published by John Lane. It is by W. Shaw Sparrow with a foreword by General Gough and is intended to vindicate the part played by the Fifth Army in the famous Gorman offensive of 1918. A “Life of Sir Stanley Maude” has been written by Sir G. E. Callwell and it is being published by Constable’s. A verbatim report of the debate between Sir A. Comm Doyle and Mr Joseph McCabe on “The Truth of Spiritualism” is being published by Messrs Watts, and should be extremely interesting.

The Poet Laureate recently gave the public a new volume “October and Other Poems, with occasional Verses on the War.” Most of the poems are unrhymed. HeinetmMin is the publisher. The last novel from the pen of -Mrs Humphrey Ward was “Harvest,” described as

“nothing but a novel.” Its theme is the spiritual conflict of a woman of character and sensibility who, because she loves, fears to tell the tiuth about her past hfe and finds in death the only solution of her problem. Messrs Methuen are publishing a new edition in more convenient form of their famous translations of these great novels. The first volumes are; -“Acte,” “Cecile,” “Robin Hood the Outlaw," "The Castle of Kppstein,” “The Corsican Brothers,” and

“Otho the Archer,” “The Prince of Thieves,” and “The Black Tulip.” A new collection of poems by Edwin Markham, called “Gates of Paradise,” was published in April by Douhleday. Page and Co. Mr Markham celebrated his GBth birthday on April IS,

The biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton covering tiie years of her long and busy life from IS Id to 1902 is being prepared by her son and daughter. Theodore Stanton and Mrs Harriot Stanton Blateh, and will be published by Harper and Brothers. Among its interesting features will be letters from Whittier, Garrison, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Wendell PhilifikS, Colonel Higginson, Horace Greeley, Francis Power Cobbe, W. T. Stead ami many others, as well as anecdotes and sketches of many men ami women of note on both sides of the Atlantic, including Henry - Ward Beecher, Gcrrit Smith, Browning, Theodore Tilton, John Bright, Mrs Paiikhurst.