LITERARY NOTES.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19268, 24 March 1928, Page 13

LITERARY NOTES.

(Thou oub ow» commpoxdmtJ LONDON, February 9, 1925. It has become a fashion of recent years to publish short, critical sketches of living personalities—politicians, writers, anjl what not. Mr Beverley Nichols's sparkling collection of literary celebrities, "Are They tho Same at Homo," is a case'in point, and there have been others. This week we have a notable book of the kind entitled ''Tho Feet of tho Young Men." The anonymous author of this cleverlywritten volume devotes his pages mainly to the younger generation in politics. If ho strays into literature with Mr John Buchan and Mr Philip Guedalla, ho does not forgot their possible political development. A quotation from tho author's own preface will servo to illustrate tho manner in which he regards the generation now maturing in the political world: —

"They are," he writes, "tho undertaker's universal accomplices. They nro always waiting at tho door to carry out tho corpses df the older generation."

There is internal evidence that the book is written by one who is, or has been, a member of Parliament. It is apparent that he has studied his subjects at close quarters, and, if much that he tells us is already well known, he has an uncanny aptitude for "striking the right nail on the bend." His portraits arc, on tho whole, drawn with discretion and kindliness; lapses from good taste are rare; he uses only just criticism, touched with that amount of banter and satire which his subjects may fairly be said to have laid themselves open to. Of malice prepense there is no trace, and to some of them, notably Lord Irwin, Mr John Buchan, and Major AValter Elliot, ho has nothing but loyal liomago to offer.

The author's sympathies are Conservative, and lie is strongly antifeminist. "Lady Astor," he remarks, "is convinced that the Hons© ol Commons, indeed the whole world, needs lecturing. She has yet to learn that even it' it does it will not take its lectures from her." Of Mrs Hilton Philip-! son, lie asks, "Why is she in Parliament? Can anyone, can the lady herself for that matter, ; give a satisfactory auswer to that question?" Miss Ellen Wilkinson he appears to hold in something akin to contempt. "In the House she has made no particular mark. She had a moment of notoriety when Sir Frederick Hall, to the in-, dignation of some of her colleagues, addressed her as 'Miss Perky.' The lady hergeif took no offence at the silly fellow, but blushed and giggled like an ordinary woman." But "Janitor has high praise for the Duchess or Atholl and Miss Margaret PondfieW. The Duchess, lie says, "has. a good share of the gifts with which a fairy godmother would be expected to grace tlie cradle of a future politician—ail excellent platform voice; a facility of speech which, however, will never rise to eloquence; a rare mastery of detail; and {in unflagging industry," Mjs3 Bondfiejd "is probably tlie best speaker of all the woman M.P.'s. and, above all, she has courage. She is never afraid to tell her own pepple unwelcome truths, as on the occasion when she blandly informed the extremists that they 'were not fit to run a fried fish shop,' " The author considers that all tlie other women members—with the exception perhaps of Miss Lawrence — are ''spectacles of misplaced feminity .... and if we regard them as the price we have to pay for the presence of the Duchess of Atholl and Miss Bond field, we can only protest that are getting the worst of the bargain."

The modern vogue of publishing whole collections of short stories and sketches in one thick volume becomes more and more prevalent. The outstanding example, perhaps was "The (Shprt Stories of H). (J. Wells," but we are now promised a pair of vqlumes at least equal interest. Messrs Macmillan have in preparation "The Short Stories of Thomas Hardy," complete in qne volume of some eleven hundred page?. The collection, which Wfts authorised some months before Mr Hardy's death, includes all the stories originally published in the four foljqwing vqjumps:—"'Wessex Tales," "Life's Little Ironies," "A Group of Noble Dames.'' and ''A Changed Man and Other Stories," It is slsq good news to hear that Messrs F&ber and Gwyer wjjl shortly publish in ope volume a large part of the Somerville-Ross treasurj' under the title of "Tlie Irish R-M----;ind His friends."

It is not often that one hears of-two such well-known writers as Mr "Hugh Walpole and Mr J. B. Priestley collaborating in a novel. But for the past six months Mr Priestley anct Mr Walpole have been carrying an an interesting correspondence, Mr Walpole frfijrt liondon and the jjake District, Mr Priestley from his home in Oxfordshire. These letters make up the novel, ''Farthing wbicb is to be published some tin# in the spring. Mr Walpole is also represented in Messrs Mac'millan's list with a new novel entitled 'fWihtersmpon: Passages in the Lives of Tvy° Sisters, Japet and Rosalind Grandison"—a story of post-war society in which characters from "The Duchess of Wrese" reappear.

Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, who comes to London so often takes back to America the rare books and manuscripts sold by the impoverished '•great'' of this country, has written "Books and Bidders," in which he tells the story </ some of his acquisitions. Dr. Rosenbach himself has four first folios, and half the literary treasures ot Europe and America have passed through his hands, His volume contains chapters on old Bibles and on forgeries, it will be published next week by Messrs Allen and Unwin.