Among the Books

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21971, 24 May 1941, Page 12

Among the Books

« H ere is a great English story told by the greatest English story-teller,” wrote Philip Cuedalla in his review of John Masefield’s The Nine Days’ Wonder. John Masefield writes the noblest prose of any man alive; and when was there a nobler subject than Dunkirk?”

Then the review continues.—“lt is a simple narrative of brave men and brave ships, vividly presented in the words and through the eyes of eyewitnesses who saw ‘what seemed to be vast black shadows on the pale sands ... he could not think what they were. As it grew lighter he saw that the

blacknesses were enormous formations of men standing, waiting . . . They did not seem to change; they did not seem to sit, nor to lie down; they stood, with the patience of their race, waiting their turn.’ It is good to be reminded of these things, and it will be still better to avenge them.”

Louis MacNeice, whose book on The Poetry of W. B. Yeats was recently published by the Oxford University Press, has returned to England from America for military service. His book on Yeats is a critical study rather than a biography. He writes:—“lf I were making a general anthology of shorter English poems, I should want to include some 60 by W. B. Yeats. There is no other poet in the language from whom I should choose so many. This being so, I feel it would be merely academic for me to discuss at length whether Yeats was or was not a great poet or to spend much time trying to rank him. The poets who interest me are the poets whom I like re-reading. I like re-reading Yeats more than I like re-reading most English poets. This Is why I undertook to write a book about his poetry. I wish to find out why Yeats appealed to me so much and I hoped also to present Yeats sympathetically to others.”

The problem of the best literature for the air-raid shelter is still being debated. The Times Literary Supplement suggests that an anthology is a useful prescription for those who find it difficult to choose a book when they make their plans for the evening. Tolstoy alone may be too grave, Wodehouse too light-hearted, and a detective story absurd and unseemly when there is murder all around. But we put our fingers languidly into an anthology, and as we pull out the plums our spirits rise. It is pointed out, however, that an anthology is an aperitif, not dinner. It has no real sustenance. But in whetting the reader’s appetite it has served its purpose.

An effort on the part of American writers to help their less fortunate colleagues abroad has resulted In the formation of a unique library of first and other editions of inscribed books. The Exiled Writers Committee, which has raised thousands of dollars to help repatriate Europe’s persecuted intellectuals, has now collected some 500 books each of which has been autographed by the author. In many cases they contain long manuscript accounts relating to the genesis of the book, or autobiographical material or a statement of the writer’s views on liberty and democracy. The books are being offered as a collection to the highest bidder.

In a recent lecture. Dr H. Idris Bell. Keeper of the Manuscripts at the British Museum, gave the warning that, in the translation of poetry, fidelity to the letter might be treason to the spirit. The first and supreme duty of the translator is to produce a poem. If the poem in translation ceases to be poetry, then, even if every idea and even the very phrases in which the ideas are expressed are faithfully produced, the translator has failed in his task and maligned his authors.

Here is Kate O’Brien’s comment on Delilah Upside Down, a new novel by Bruce Marshall:—“lt’s characterisations are inane, I think, rather than insane; and its decor, of poetic quotation, philosophic allusion. Catholic liturgy and what I regretfully suppose Mr Marshall might call ‘bawdry,’ makes up a whole of pretentiousness and blush-producing ineptitude which defeats description.”

Tennyson’s prophecy in ‘Locksley Hall,’ where he spoke of “the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue," has frequently been quoted in the past year, especially since the skies have “rained a ghastly dew.” Now another remarkable bit has been translated from Thomas Gray’s Latin poem, ‘Lima Habitabilis,’ by The Times. London. Gray had just turned 21 when he penned these lines in 1737. Between the quoted stanzas the poet spoke of a day coming when the moon would be colonised, and said the British would get there first. It was a day of imperial ambition. The significance of the verse to-day. However, lies chiefly in the final reference—a situation which the gallant R. A. F. have brought about over Britian, and may yet extend to the Continent, with the aid of American-made planes:—

The first series of a new literary venture, the alm of which is to provide a new outlet for the short story and to encourage the young writer who, because of war-time conditions is finding it difficult to get his work published, was Issued recently. It is called English Story and it contains only short stories. It has as its advisory committee, who also act as readers, Edward J. O'Brien, H. E. Bates. John Davenport, Leslie Halward, L. A. Pavey, and Geoffrey West, and is edited by Woodrow and Susan Wyatt. The publishers are Messrs Collins, Publication will be in book form and at sixmonthly intervals, if the response from writers and the public justifies it.

Hamish Hamilton have undertaken to publish books in French for French authors in England and overseas until the publishers of France are once more at liberty to work unhampered by German censorship. They will be produced as Inexpensively as possible, but to conform with lending library requirements they will be bound in the English style. Hamish Hamilton also Intends to publish French translations of books originally issued in English.

In reviewing Ngaio Marshs latest detective novel Surfeit of Lampreys in a London newspaper. Robert Lynd the noted essayist, said.—

“Miss Ngaio Marsh is a brilliantly vivacious teller of detective stories. She is more than that, indeed. In Surfeit of Lampreys she shows herself to be a clever novelist who interests us as much in her characters as in the crime in which they become involved and Its consequences. Those who take their detective stories seriously may object to the thread of frivolous comedy that runs through the story. I confess I particularly enjoyed the antics of the Lampreys, apart from an occasional whiff of vulgarity. I did not quite believe in the solution of the mystery, but I read on eagerly until I had reached It. This means that for one reader at least the author has succeeded in her object.”

The time will come when thou shall lift thine eyes To watch the long-drawn battle in the skies. While aged peasants, too amazed for words, Stare at the flying fleets of wondrous birds. . . . England, so long the mistress of the sea, Where winds and waves confess her sovereignty Her ancient triumphs yet on high shall bear, And reign, the sovereign of the conquered air.

“It seems impossible that this book should not be one of the greatest novels which our troubled nge will produce,” wrote Desmond Flower, an English critic, in his review of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Naomi Royde Smith is adding her evidence to the contemporary records of the manner in which the British civilian population adapted itself to total war during the testing weeks of September and October, 1940. Her book, entitled Outside Information, was written in London in trains and air raid shelters; in a Winchester garden; in a Surrey village, and elsewhere. Including also letters from friends showing how ordinary unofficial folk were Improving their technique for defence and mutual help, as well as sensational extracts from an American provincial newspaper, the book is described as “the literary parallel of what Victorian ladies made and spoke of as Crazy Patchwork.”

Under the title The Prisoner at Laeken Emile Cammaerts tells the story of King Leopold in the light of hitherto unpublished Information about the events of May and June last The author, whose personal contacts with the King in 1938-39 afforded him exceptional opportunities of ascertaining his views, also analyses that monarch’s personality as well as the motives which determined his actions and the attitude which he has maintained since the capitulation. The book has been published by the Cresset Press.

If a modern Isaac Disraeli were collecting the curiosities of literature, he would surely note the odd fashion in which a book sometimes comes into prominence. Loma Doone, for instance, caught the attention of the British public through the accident that its appearance happened to synchronise with the wedding of the Marquess of Lome and one of Queen Victoria’s daughters. People got it into their heads that Blackmore’s novel had something to do with this marriage, and it had a big sale. Another example is just reported from the United States. The title of Ernest Hemingway’s latest work, of which half a million copies have been sold, is a quotation from one of John Donne’s sermons —"For Whom the Bell Toils.” An immediate result of the popularity of his novel has been a run on copies of Donne’s writings. The New York publisher of a one-volume edition of Donne sold out within a few days a stock of this edition that would ordinarily have sufficed for a whole year.

James Hanley has compiled an anthology of the sea — The Nautical Week-End Book—selected from an unorthodox range to give some idea of the contrasts and surprises of true seafaring literature. “This excursion off the beaten track," in the author’s words, “has yielded many discoveries." The volume is expected Irom Hurst and Blackett. Another book by James Hanley is coming from Faber and Faber—a novel, The Ocean, a tale oi five survivors of a torpedoed liner, drifting about in the hope of rescue.

The late Sir Algernon Methuen’s Anthology of Modern Verse, though it has maintained its favour for 20 years, did not carry the poets beyond 1920. More than one new movement in poetry has been made since then. Instead of attempting to bring the original anthology up-to-date —Sir Algernon's collection possessing a unity of its own which they hesitated io disturb—the publishers (Methuen’s) are supplementing it with A New Anthology of Modem Verse: 1920-1940, edited by L. A. G. Strong and Cecil Day Lewis. About a hundred poets are represented in this forthcoming selection By way of introduction the editors have contributed a dialogue in which they discuss the tendencies of the time and the policy underlying their choice.

Peter Quennell’s Byron: The Years of Fame was published in 1935. The chronicle is continued by the same author in a further study, Byron in Italy, which Collins have in preparation. Byron's footsteps are here followed from England, “with all the world and my wife at war with me,” as he wrote to Tom Moore, to Lake Geneva, where he met Shelley and renewed his liaison with Claire Clairmont; and from Switzerland to Venice, where he soon found other infatuations. Though Byron remains the chief character throughout Mr Quennell includes in his scope a fresh survey of the Romantic movement.

Sir George Abraham Grierson, the Oriental scholar and compiler of the Linguistic Survey of India, died at Camberley at the age of 90. He was acquainted with 179 languages and 554 dialects of India, and his work was to classify them. He spent 33 years on the survey. Much of his work in compiling the 20 volumes was done at his home at Camberley, while the printing was done at Calcutta. Proof sheets were lost owing to U-boat raiders during the last war. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1928 tn recognition of his work.

In an article in John o’ London's Weekly, headed "I’d Rather Be Myself Than Tolstoy or Balzac” Sir Hugh Walpole writes:—“l believe what is wanted now in the English novel is a much more robust, manlier strength, a scorn of feeble stay-ln-America defeatists who are so clever that thev can’t parse their own sentences. I hope that before I die I shall see a novelist arrive who has a great, surging, creative gift with nothing niggardly or carping about it. who creates characters as fast as his pen will move, who knows that patriotism and courage are not shameful words, who believes with all his heart that man is more than an animal. Then, oh. how eagerly and gratefully will I envy that man, and wish that I were he!”