LITERAEY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 9

LITERAEY GOSSIP.

It needs almost as mucb courage in a literary critic to-day to speak without enthusiasm of tho works of Oscar Wilde, as it did ten years ago to say a good word for them or lor their author. A writer in the "Standard, '

however, in reviewing the recentlypublished volume of "Selections from the Prose of Oscar Wilde," admits that he "cannot pretend to think Wilde a writer of any real importance in bterature. Only in "The Importance of Being Earnest' was he beginning to give evidence of originality, and that in- itself is a light baggage ior posterity. 'The Ballad of Reading uaol' and \De Profundis,' of course, stand on a differ-, ent footing; but even these utterances 'out of the deep' are still, I must confess, to my mind too sophisticated to escape the fatal taint of 'pose.' "

"Very likely," the writer continues, "I am wToug in my judgment. Very likely my judgment is biased by my own early personal recollection of Wilde the undergraduate at Oxford and Wilde tho man about town in the early 'eighties. To the good Philistine undergraduates of my own college Oscar Wilde of Magdalen was simply a figure of fun, and to a superncial acquaintance like my own the pose was even more obvious* than the brilliance. Being myself a keen Jover (with all just exceptions) of the work of Dante Rossetti, William Morris, Swinburne, Pater, and Burne-Joncs, 1 resented tbe ridicuio that Wilde first brought on the

men to whom he owed everything, and tho ill odour in which he later involved the movement which they had originated. These things may have prejudiced mc, and one often [undervalues the powers of one's contemporaries at school or college."

Thirteen newly. discovered quatrains by Omar Khayyam haye been presented to the American Oriental Society by Profeswr Abraham Yohannan, of Colombia University. The verses all or which were unknown to Edward FitsjGerald when ho translated the Rubaiyat, wero found (says the s New York correspondent) in an ancient Uluminated manuscript purchased ,a year ago from a Persian nobleman by Dr. Hagob Kevorkian, a wealthy Persian archaeologist, who wished to add tho manuscript to his collecfcion m his. Fifth avenue residence. The latter discovered Omar's verpes aftorwardm the manuscript, and took them to Professor Yohannau, who. after a long examination, pronounces them genuine. There are two duplicates, among the thirteen, of verses previously found, but all the others are now made known for tho first time. It is behovtxl that they date back to 1340, and are tho oldest "of all Khayyam's compositions.

The "New York Evening Times prints the quatrains done into English verse by Miss Joyce Kilmer. The following are four of them:— And wherefore, then, should you and I be sad Because to life no minnto wo can add?

This is true wisdom, as it ocems to mc, Grief will not change the world, therefor© be glad.

Not always shall this convent Trail us in, _ So cease to preach that wine and lovo ara«in. How long shall old creeds fetter tis ox new? When I am gone, then let tho mad world spin!

Out of the dark has been our journeying: Idfo is a bead lor no ono knows what Btriiio;! It is tbe 'darkness in man's eoul that speaks. Tho light remains » secret, silent thing.

So drink! For this blue sullen v»ult of sky Hates our white souls and waits to watch us

die. Rest on the soft grass, my love, for

Boon We shall bo dust together, you aud L

It is;-nothing unusual for a womannovelist to adopt tho name of a man as her pseudonym, but it is rarely that tho reverse process occurs. So the readers-of' the novels of "Bertha M. Clay," who died recently, will probably bo surprised to learn that this popular writer's real name was Thomas W. Hanshew. Nor was the personality of Bertha M. Clay the only disguise behind which Mr Hanshew masked his tireless literary activities. Dying at the age of 57, ho had written over 200 books, although few of these were under his own name. Another of his pseudonyms was "Charlotte Monica Braeme." Mr Hanshew began life as an actor, and was in turn playwright, business man, and writer of moving-picture scenarios. He is said to have accumulated several fortunes through his writings.and to havo lost them in unfortunate investments. At the time of his death he was under contract with a large London publishing house to write four novels a year and two short stories a month. But tho strain of this proved too much for him, and he died of over-work. One of Mr Hanshew's books, "Cleek of Scotland Yard," published only a week before his death, introduced a novel feature in modern fiction—it is illustrated with photographs from the motion-picture play of which the book is the written version.

"I havo never cead a book which has touched mc so profoundly since 'No. 5, John Street,' " said Mr Grant Richards to a "Daily Chronicle" representative recently. "I am publishing 'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists' on the 23Td of this month, and particularly wish it to be known that' not a lino of the book is faked, Robert Tressal, the, author of the novel, was a builder's labourer. Ho was often out of work, often starving, but he found time durn ing some five years to write one of tbo most arresting and remarkable stories that have ever found their way into a publisher's office. Tho writer died some years ago," Mr Richards continued, "and he left the MS. containing some 500,000 words, to his daughter, a children's nurse. One day she showed it to her mistress, who, struck by the intense reality of the story, passed it on to Miss Jessie Pope, the well-known contributor to "Punch.' She asked mc to look at it. I confess that I delayed tho reading—the length rather frightened mc. But when at last I decided to tackle it I was amazed and delighted, and deeply sorry when I came to the end of the tale. It is full of the most, intense pathos, yet rich in humour. But it is tho work*of a rebellions man—a man who rebelled against the rich, the capitalists, tho Church."