A Literary Log

Southland Times, Issue 25306, 8 June 1935, Page 11

A Literary Log

Rolled by

Iota.

BOOKS ON THE TABLE

“Primavera” „ (Dayid Lanark). “Writing for a Living” (Murray Tonkin). “The Berlin Diaries” (Edited by Dr. Helmut Klotz).

A WIDER FIELD Australian Author’s Romance Australian writers in the last halfdecade have extended their interest beyond the shores of their own country, a development of importance and significance. While the novelists confined themselves to the Australian scene they were cooped with narrow limits, they were juniors of literature and accepted the nursery as their stamping ground. Your writer in England or any of the older countries considers that all the world, all the ages, and the universe beyond the perambulating orbit of this planet, are open to him and his imagination, and as a result he writes with the confidence of maturity, taking small notice, be it said, of the blunders into which he occasionally falls when he attempts to deal with contemporary affairs in a juvenile country. This writing of places and ages of which the writer has no personal knowledge is no new thing. However, in between words seems to have done quite a lot of it, and if you run your eye down the works of the great literary artists you will find that the imaginative effort almost invariably revealed them. And' so the appearance of so many novels in i Australia, not fixed to the Australian scene, is an indication that the Aus- I tralian novelist is throwing off his I swaddling clothes and is on his feet I ready to move to higher and nobler | levels. I was constrained to mention | these things after reading Dayid Lanark’s “Primavera,” a story which moves between Spain and England, and covers more than a generation. Gordon Routland, a young Englishman recuperating in Spain, meets Margarita La' Guardia, the daughter of an ecstatic I hour of two lovers twenty years earlier | She is living with her dead mother’s sister, her father disappeared twenty years before. Routland and Margarita love each other, but Gordon is engaged to and loves a girl in England, and it is from the conflict between these two loves that the dramatic strength of “Primavera” comes. The author is i a good hand with character, and for- | tunately he is not always direct in his j method, so that his people grow. The ; contrast between the English girl and | the half-Spanish Margarita is neatly j adjusted, so that there are certain in- I gredients common to both explaining I Routland’s attraction. Men do not fall, in love with exact opposites, and where they sway from one woman to another indecisively you will find that they have resemblances, in which are to be found the bases of his love. Lanark has dealt well with his people and he has written a romance of decided attractions. In fact among the later works of the kind there are few better than this, and in that statement I cover the whole field of light romance of Australia and all points east and i west. But the identification of Father Tomas with the long last father was ■ unnecessary, weakening. All the same I it is a novel of merit and it shows that Lanark and other Australian novelists, are growing up. I “Primavera,” by David Lanark (Messrs Angus and Robertson Ltd., Sydney). WAR PLOT DIARIES “The Berlin Diaries,” edited by Dr Helmut Klotz, are sensational, but unfortunately there is no clue to the identity of the diarist, though they are said to be the private journals of a general, in the German War Ministry. The editor, Dr Klotz, says with reference to the authorship of the diaries that a statement made by the German broadcasting station after von Schleicher’s assassination, that the action against him was necessary “because Schleicher had delivered to a former German writer official material which gravely endangered German interests,” is “in this form quite inaccurate, in so far as it alludes to myself and ‘The Berlin Diaries.’ “There is now no valid reason to dispute,” adds Dr. Klotz, however, “that Gen. von Schleicher influenced to some ; extent specific of the Diaries.” He ■ further states that Col. von Bredow, I one of Schleicher’s subordinates, who i was arrested on June 30 on account of ; the “Diaries,” and is rumoured to have ! been shot, had nothing to do with them. In an entry dated December, 1932, . the anonymous author records a visit he had made to the works of a German chemical trust, where an official, went into the possibilities and prospects of a bacteriological war. I

„ He is convinced that our resources are •now so far advanced and so perfect that, in case of need, we could risk the great throw. Of the material there is plenty available, and the effects are prompt and absolutely sure. At first I was somewhat sceptical, for we could only adopt such a course if we hqd a hundred to one chance of winning. Otherwise we should be done for in the eyes of the whole world and for all time.

There are also descriptions of a new poison gas, cynically called the “Red Cross,” which “can be produced in any quantity required without the slightest difficulty” at a low cost, and is said to be “seventeen times as effective” as the most deadly product of any other nation. The military mind may be impressed by reports of new gases, but the chemical men know what gases are available, and they may be surprised only by the methods o' production and employment. Bacteriological warfare impresses the bacteriologists least of all it. seems.

More practical is the statement in the diaries that a scheme for attacking by way of the Dutch province of South Limburg was seriously discussed, the only objection being how to “excuse it diplomatically afterwards.” Another curious feature of the “Diaries” is the nightmare picture given of German internal politics between May 1932, when von Papen became Chancellor, and January 30, 1933, when Hitler at last managed to secure this office. Only a few weeks before, the writer says, Gen. von Schleicher (one of the most important victims in the murders of June 30 last) had urged upon President Hindenburg that Hitler must be arrested and his party dissolved and outlawed. The book is sensational but it does not seem to have created the stir its contents deserved. “The Berlin Diaries,” edited by Dr Helmut Klotz (Messrs Jarrold’s Ltd., London).

HOW TO WRITE Some Technical Aids What is journalism? Sternly speaking it is the recording of the worlds history from day to day and the daily historian must be expected to ‘arrange his records so that the prominence given to items is in accord with their importance. No journalist can attain this goal because years must pass before the relative importance of facts can be judged, but there is no reason why he should not try. Unfortunately the Americans discovered that news could be exploited with commercial advantages and so public curiosity I rather than public intelligence is the aim of the bulk of the newspapers there. One or two exceptions exist to emphasize the degradation of the others. This American attitude- spread to other countries and now influences newspapers all over the world; but fortunately there are a few journals which refuse to sacrifice the old ideals of journalism and many which by making a small compromise manage to keep public favour and high purpose. Something is said of journalism in writing for a living by Murray Tonkin, whose ! advice is better than his example. He preaches the importance of facts, and I at the beginning of his third page in- | ferentially credits Lord Northcliffe with i a definition of news current before he was in the newspaper game. Tonkin is practical, ip the modern sense—he leans for the exploitation of news, placing “Battle, murder and sudden' death” as number one news, but he admits that no foot-rule (don’t call it a yardstick) for news values can be I given. Estimates are made by “news- ! sense,” a “faculty worth money,” in a newspaper man. And there we come to ’ the distinction. The exploiter is a newspaper man; the recorder of daily history is a journalist. Tonkin’s advice on newspaper writing is excellent for the tyro, and first-class stuff for a reporter, although it is surprising that i among the arbitrary signs for proof . reading are one or two which offend I against English practice. Dealing with j short story work he is practical at ! every turn, and those who wish to i undertake this branch of writing for ■ profit will find much to help them in the technical problems. To Tonkin’s i general advice concerning books to read ‘ I would add one which no one should overlook—as he does—the dictionary. Don’t treat it as a book pf reference. Read it every day—Arnold Bennett did right through his life—and you will be surprised to find how many of its words will stay with you. Another type of work Tonkin overlooks is one which is the companion of the dictionary, a book discriminating between synonyms, because it is in the preservation of the fine distinctions between words that style is obtained. And I am convinced that a careless use of words marks the difference between good English in the colonies and good English in England, resulting in the rejection of much colonial writing as “rough,” although in the colonies it would pass as faultless. With these reservations and additions, I recommend Tonkin’s little book enthusiastically. “Writing For A Living,” by Murray Tonkin. (Messrs Robertson and Mullins, Ltd., Melbourne.) A TRAIL OF CHIPS Canon H. R. L. Sheppard in his contribution to the “If I Were Dictator” series (Methven) says that the Church of England is a frightened Church playing for safety. He writes: "No charge of negligence can possibly be brought against the Anglican leaders; in devotion and attention to their work they are unsurpassed. The calamity from which the Church suffers is something far more subtle. It lies in the leaders’ conception of their office, in their belief, and it is sincere and conscientious, that, cost what it may, the Church must be preserved; even if it entails only marking time. Churchmen must be kept together in some sort of step." Dr Sheppard holds that Church may mould society from above, “but never by entangling itself with political institutions below.” He goes on to say that if it had maintained its other-worldly character it could long ago have tom out by the roots exploitation, war, slums and unemployment. He feels bitterly the lack of.guidance in high places.

"Had I my way I would walk with 100,000 virile Churchmen to Lambeth when the leaders next meet, that we might say with respect but with passion how deeply we feel their lack of explicit guidance." James Maxton, M.P., is comprehensive. “My power,” he says, “must be quite unlimited in any direction and the whole world must be my workshop.” He has no liking for the job, because it demands First the megalomaniac who Imagines himself big enough for it, and second a

population which has lost its nerve and Is prepared to accept the dictator’s estimate of his capacities. By the exercise of unquestioned worldwide power Mr Maxton would reorganize the world, providing it with a new unity, a common purpose, a common language, a common currency, education, the material necessaries of life, and an opportunity to move about freely on the earth’s surface. When his job is finished the world is rich in homes, schools, playgrounds and means of entertainment; its towns and cities have been replanned and its population redistributed. Armies and navies have been abolished. Mr Maxton would impose a simplified English on the world as its universal language. * * * Henry Crabb Robinson, friend of many literary highlights of the early and middle 19th century, speaks of the effect of Goethe on him:

"My sense of. his greatness was so intense,” he writes of his first meeting, "that had I been invited to it I should have been utterly incapable of entering into conversation with him. but I was allowed to gaze on him in silence.” This occurs in “Life and Stories of Henry Crabb Robinson” (Dent.). * * ♦ A collection of thirty letters from Leigh Hunt to Shelley and his wife between 1817 and 1822 fetched £260 in London in April They contain references to Keats and others of their circle. * * * A copy of the rare first edition of Shelley’s “Queen Mab” has been bought in Londdn by an American collector for £SOO. * * *

When Mr Adolph S. Ochs, who died in April, became owner of the New York Times in 1896, it was described as “the most picturesque old ruin among the newspapers of America.” By 1928 the number of employees had increased from about a hundred to more than 3,200. * * * Mr Ochs was seventyseven. At the age of eleven he was an office boy on the Knoxville Chronicle; when he was twenty he took over a bankrupt small-town newspaper—and now his fortune has been estimated a*£20,000,000. * • •