Stray Leaves from Book World

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 12

Stray Leaves from Book World

INTERESIINtI NEWS AND NOTES

The Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt, one of the highest literary distinctions in Germany, has this year been awarded to Dr Hans Carossa, whose first book, war memoirs under the title “Rumanian Diary,” was an outstanding success in Germany, and was published in this country shortly afterwards. Among Dr Carossa’s other books translated into English may be mentioned “Dr Gion” and “A Childhood.”

It is not often that it is given to a man to invent a phrase which passes into world currency. Cesar Ritz was such a man and his life story has been written by his widow Marie Louise Ritz and published by Harrap. Like many hotel proprietors, Ritz was a Swiss, born in 1850 of peasant stock and the thirteenth child. He started life as a waiter in which calling he did not show any marked aptitude. But as a waiter he was able to study hotels and make estimates of their needs. He developed ambitions and secured financial backing. He became associated with the great chef Escoffier. He rose and throve in a world which was full of money and in which luxury was welcome and heavily rewarded. After experience in London, he founded the Ritz Hotel in Paris. His name became famous throughout the world. He stood for something, that concentration of' expensiveness in catering which so delighted the soul of Arnold Bennett. Now the word “Ritzy” implies a condition of living or posing. The ex-Swiss peasant boy worked the miracle.

It will be many years before the world will cease to talk about the events of September, 1938, of how the shadow of war passed suddenly away from Europe only to leave further apprehension. Mr Michael Killanin has edited in “Four Days” (Heineman) a collection of accounts by seven journalists of that tremendous moment. These accounts come from London, Paris, Washington, Berlin, Rome and Prague. Almost of necessity they are coloured by national bias and, of course, they have not the authority of official documentation, but collectively' they give to the world an idea of the breathlessness of those four days. They leave little doubt in any unprejudiced mind that the flight to Munich saved the world from an immeasurable tragedy. The inner history has yet to be written and generations to come will be delving into documents and evidence. For the time being we must put up with what must be more or less outside information, but “Four Days” supplies as much as can be given with a concentrat'd and expert knowledge of seven journalists who were very close to events.

Mr David Hussey is announced as a new writer and his first book “No Sting, No Honey” (Barker) exhibits and unquestionable gift both for writing and thinking. It is clear that Mr Hussey holds anti-feminist prejudices as strongly as did Sir William Gilbert when he wrote “Princess Ida." The scene is an island inhabited by women and run on the line of a bee-hive. There are a queen and a number of workers commanded by comb-captains. To this island come three Englishman, a Colonel, a retired naval Commander and an Archdeacon. As may be imagined, the author quickly begins to draw his moral when the three shipwrecked men appear. Feminine isolation and femine rule begin to crumble. One of the comb-captains falls in love and the masculine element asserts itself in emergency. It is possible to read this book in three ways: with detachment and calm enjoyment of its thesis; with a shared masculine prejudice and so even greater enjoyment or with feminist antagonism and therefore with irritation. In whatever way the satire is approached, it affords good and entertaining reading.

Edgar Wallace was one of the most astonishing writers who ever lived. His immense output suggested to some that he must be a whole army of writers; that no one man could possibly turn out so many books. “Edgar Wallace” by Margaret Lane (Heineman) is a work of almost filial piety although the author is daughter-in-law to the famous writer. One learns of the terrible hardship of a child life, hardship which at once hardened and undermined. Edgar Wallace knew poverty as few can have known it. His early manhood was an intense struggle against circumstance. His was no early success, but when success came, it came in something like an avalanche. Millions and millions of his books were sold. The financial reward was large, but lie spent more quickly than he could earn. It is probable that the poverty of youth was the cause of the extravagances of middle age. Ho backed horses and owned them without profit. He wrote complete novels in forty-eight hours followed by forty-eight hours of sleep. He cultivated luxury lor its own sake. He wore himself out and died with £140,000. But his popularity was still so great and his copyright still so valuable that all his debts were paid off and tlie assets are still good.

Sir Hugh Walpole has written a new three-act play called “The Haxtons,” which William Armstrong produced at the Liverpool Repertory Theatre on January 19. The theme deals with the reactions of a family when the wife of a prosperous country gentleman is convicted of stealing some trivial articles from a shop. The leading parts are being played by Edward Sinclair, William Mervyn, Molly Rankin, Ethel Ramsay and Susan Richards.

Another member of the du Maurier family has turned author. She is Miss Angela du Maurier, younger sister of Miss Daphne du Maurier, and she has written a novel about a woman’s life which appeared recently. In addition to Daphne and Angela and their grandfather, George du Maurier, there was an uncle, Major Guy du Maurier, who had literary leanings. Under the pseudonym of “A Patriot,” he wrote that prophetic pre-war play, “An Englishman’s Home.” .Sir Gerald, too, used to write light verse.

The Fascist Index is to be drawn up of books to be banned from sgle in Italy on political grounds, according to an official announcement. “A list will be compiled,” the announcement states, “of all those books which are not worthy to belong to the spiritual property of Italy because they betray the great heritage of ideals which Fascism powerfully defends and renovates. The books indicated will have to be withdrawn from sale in any form.” It is stated that a first list of books to be banned is already under consideration.

Andre Malraux, whose novel “Man’s Hope” was one of the outstanding works of last year, has recently been in Barcelona directing a film based on the novel. He worked under difficulties, for equipment was scanty and imperfect, and air raids were frequent. Every time there was an air raid the electric current was automotically turned off, sometimes ruining an elaborate scene that had been almost completed, and often bombs fell near enough to remind the director and his staff that there might be worse to come. Malraux hoped to finish his picture by February.

The first complete Japanese translation of “Mein Kampf” will shortly be published in Tokio. A partial translation made from the English version was suppressed by official censors last April because they thought it likely to distort the true intentions of the author. Professor Kinro Gorai, who is preparing the complete translation, applied to Herr Hitler for the rights in 1931, but Herr Hitler then required a 10 per cent, royalty. With the development of a German-Japanese rapprochement, however, the translators have been able to obtain the rights from the Nazi Party, their present owners, at 5 per cent.

“The People’s Food” is the title of an important and timely volume by Sir William Crawford issued by Heinemann. The author indicts national dietary and stresses the urgent need for a higher standard of nutrition, to which he points the way. Sir William Crawford has undertaken a remarkable survey of the food habits and standards of food consumption in England. It covers the weekly diets and daily meals of no fewer than 18,500 individuals in all social classes. The dietaries thus revealed are compared with the minimum diets laid down by such authorities as the British Medical Association and the League of Nations. Sir William shows that many millions of our people exist on a diet gravely deficient. From this he deduces which foodstuffs will be increasing and which decreasing in demand in future years, and the urgent need for an educational campaign on the subject of nutrition.

Miss Willa Cather is one of the most distinguished of American writers. She is remarkable for the literary care which she bestows on all her pages. “The Song of the Lark” (Cassell) is a longer book than we are accustomed to anticipate from her pen, but length has not impaired her careful gift. The heroine is an American of Swedish origin born in Colorado. Her childhood and budding evidence as a musician are recounted in convincing detail and with gentle grace. We have one of those most difficult of fictional problems presented to us, the development of the artist, and we are made to feel that the author has shared the urge of the musician. It is clear that Miss Cather has loved her subject. She dwells on the little things. Wc know how the girl has grown up and how the woman comes into being. When in time the singer is full-fledged and of great repute, there is no suggestion of cheap romanticism or Hollywood glamour. The title implies the quality of the chief character. The singer sings as the lark sings because it is her metier. There is nothing deliberately exciting about the plot or the events, but none the less it lives from cover to cover. Miss Cather shows once again I that she has rightly earned her place in the first flight of contemporary novelists and that time has not. lessened her claims on the discriminating reader.