BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 158, 29 March 1919, Page 11

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

BOOKS OP THE DAY

Uticcnsored Celebrities. ( It is at once a duty and a pleasure to , oummeiut a collection ot ! .-tho. brilliantly- , written and critical studies of proinui- ( cut Uritish public 111011 which nppeav 111 | n volume entitled "Uncensored Celebri- ( ties," by E. T. lfnyinoiid (Fisher Uinviii). Mr. Uii'yuioml is oncusioimlly eoniowliat , cnustie. but it is clew ho lms miulo an , honest, and, on the. whole, successful nt- • tempt to he impartinl. . Amongst tlio leiuliiw men who figurn in his snllery aie 11 r. Lloyd George, of whom he sives a siiisuhiriy ])oiiotratiiiß ; study; ill'. -\scmitli, Sir. Balfour, Viscount (irey Lord Miluer. General Kinuts, Lord i\ov hclillu (ono of the best studies in the book), fair IMwnrd Cnrson, and many others, ineludin™ such comparatively '"■-«' , ILU '" f, J .'?™ Heaverbvook and Sir Aucklniul beddes. Lwidius' newspniier ediiors • niid proprietors fiKiiro in the gallery, which also includes some intercstiiii! minor celebrities such as Mr. mid Mrs. bidney \\ ebb. Sir Murk Sylces, Lord Buckmastcr, and the redoiiblnble Horatio Bottoinley. M.r Rnymond'a portrait of the imielidiscussed'Mr. "Billy"' Hpgh?* » not exactly ill-iiaturedr but- it is si onr> coloured 1 by the'author's devotion to t!ie doctrine of l'reo : lrado, and seems, f) «-■ fleet in a ccrtaiiidefrree that Little hf landism" which most of us thought the war had. killed. What' hasl evidently annoved Mr. Paymond is the capture- of "iTnu,hesbythe> T orthclitl'ea..d i ultraImperialist clique, and. tho 11 -■ discreet "butting in" of tho Austr ban. Prime Jtinisfer on-matters of puielj.. British domestic importance. .Ho wit.: The formal relations of -Australia or- ■ any of her dominion to the Mbther Ooum ■trv' "a-rc ot less-•import-auco than inany •people imttßine. It really does not matfor very much whether wo continue, to end second-rato . noblemen to; ropromnt the Klhß in the Commonwealth. AVhat docs matter is that there shaU be no seiißo of a Erievaiicoor. incompatibly lietween-.tlio two communities, that AitaSkto Swll have no feeling being .wed tor British purposes,. and. that Hi u-am -hall b'o'freo from any impression of beins hustle* or hustled by.-Australia. It would bo unfair to a'ctnso Mr. Hushes of eouscio-jsly imperilling a.good uncici■SlnidliKt. Ito has ''butted in." to adopt, Mr. Lloyd George's Americanism, with ai best-intentions. He believes "butting in, -is really appreciated, in this countiy. Jle is • indeed, a man suiftularly frco Horn irony. Do does not seem to havo suspected in. the least the suspicious .people who have "run" him 111 London; Ho does not appear, even to bo conscious of beintr run. .-. . Ho is moro tho tlavo than tho master of his qwn rholonc. Jlis ■ elooucnco has not the samo poetic duality "as Mr. Lloyd George's; he has not ho • uncrrinn instinct for. effect which makes

evon Mr. George's most commonplace : efforts distinctive. Ho seldom coim a . phrase; his figures corao from the -fill ami 'not from the mint, and mainly belong to -tho coppor currency. ...But .lie has .soiiie- ■" thing ot tho same sower of reaclimg the ordinary man, and not a little of the same habit of intoxicating himself as well as

'his audience. ~,„,,, ,„ Thero is a good deal of truth no doubt in all this, but when Mr. Kaymond declares that "tho world at largo is no more interested, in .the special Australian point of view than■ it.is ;in tho special Montenegrin point.of view" ho displays n : certain lack- of.- .proportion; and "it is equally • -clear. .that ho fails to understand the gravo importauco'' to Australia and New Zealand ■ of certain problems of the j'a;cilic. His ; " eneering referenco. to tho ■iutiire of Samoa and Now Guinea as "a •llriilo" reflects rather tho narrow-minded-ness of .Cockney journalism than a broad 'view'ofi a,subject of tho ]iighest_importance to several millions of British siib-

■jeers. : AVi'tli the exceptions I have noted Mr. Raymond s clever pen' portraits of Ennlish political celebrities aro as cleverly conceived- as they ■n.re-'crisply and- effectively 'drawn. This;is. an excellent .book for ■•ovei'stfaT'Britoiis' who wish to knew something more of the men who are maViTrglristory in the Old Country, than they- eti'u gather frojn the cablegrams.

USER'S .NOTEBOOK'

New Zealand Minister as Author,

• In'their" latest list of" forthcoming books, Messrs. Methuon and Co., tho well-kpown London publishers, announce 1 the .early publication of an allegory en'titled "A New. Heaven,".by tho Hon: George Warren Eussell, New Zealand Minister of Internal Affairs and Public Health. As. one who has been privileged to peruse Mr. ltussell's work in its manuscript form,. "Liber" . can assure his readers that Mr.. Russell. has writion a very remarkable book. Tho leading idea is one of striking originality, and' is worked out with groat ingenuity. Tho fact that tho book was at once accepted when offered to Messrs. Moth-uc-ri is in itself a high compliment lo Mr. Russell's literary gifts, lor'no firm in England .has a higher -standard of excellence in its publications. Dealing, as it does, with lifo after death, though not from tho purely spiritualist point of view as illustrated in Sir Oliver Lodgers well-known "ltnymond," . Mr. _ Eussell's book opens .up, I may say, a vista of inlinito solace and lomfort to those who have lost their dear ones during tho Great War. Originally .written some years ago, ■ the book was last year re- : "written and brought m> to date. I shall look forward with keen interest to the Home reviews of Mr. Eussell's book, many passages in which, ar0,.1 may say, of a' most striking.'verbal beauty, . Two British "Pacifists."--" Mr. Raymond's sketches- of' ."TJncenspr-, ed Sketches" (see ''Books: of. tho. Day".) appeared originally 'm the. columns Of the weekly journal "Everyman " Curiously enough, ihb".-author- has omittedfrom the collection in Volume, form two somewhat scathing -portraits of,.Messrs. Ramsay Macdonald and Philip Snowden. Mr. Kaymoiul is strongly - democratic in tho general viewpoint I'rom which ho regards the principal'actors,in the British political arena. But for that particular and peculiar brand of "Democrat of which the Ramsay Macdonalds and Philip Snowdens aro types, ho has, as tho Americans say, "no. use. His. portraits of the ex-member* for Leicester and Blackburn, both, by the way, heroes of tho New Zealand .Bolsheviks, are decidedly unflattering.- Writing as to Mr. MncdonaloVs attitude towards tho war, Mr.. Raymond says it-

Of Mr. Ma'cdonnld's attitude towards that cause I will say only one thing. A few days after hi! had -.promised support to tho Government it liclßiuw were invaded he blamed the I'oreign Ollico lor the war, and said it took place large y because tiio Admiralty was anxious to ••seize any opportunity of using tte flavj, for battle practice. " Mr. JJ.a(«on.uu really held this fraiilii) theory, his duty ns an honest man was hr oppose the wai by every means, until, like his lriend, jlerr Liebknccht, his'vo.ee was si enced m prison, Instead of taking that honest course, he has shown his, moderation by preserving a sort -of malignant, neutrality, .lie has never lifted u .linger to help: he has used liib voice to hinder and dw'oarage; yet ho has rc-l rained from liny course likely to• bring him in oisasirons conflict cither with Parliament or the (loveromont. In the House nt Coi.i--moiiß he !*3 spoken .in one way; in houth Wales or Glasgow his tone hub been very dilferont. No ma" <--ver set. it greater store on the crown of martyrdom, or avoided its pains more carefully. Ami again: lie is bent on leading a greatly enlarged liauour Parly. Whore, noes not greatly matter; the important thing is that ho fiould lend it. To thai, end he inanipulatcß everything, from the pompous respectability of Mr. Henderson to the misguided Quakerism-of Mr. Jowolt, and tlio angry spleen of Mr. Kiiowrten. His mind, bai'i'eu in every other respect, .111 immensely fertile in intrigue; ana he has just that ovarico.for power which olteu helps a mediocrity to it. Hut h'i lacks one nnalifieation that is usually necessary ill any loader, and is especially essential in a- populir leader, lie is in iiotlimir less British than in his want of pluck. He was still not only "bent'upon," hut hopefully expectant of "leading a greatly' enlarged Labour Parly up to the fateful election ■ day ol last December. Tho electors ot

(By Liber.) Give a man a pipe hi can smoke,Give a man a book he can read; And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. '

Leicester then put an end, for a time at least, to Mr. Macdonald's dream for tlicv condemned him .to parliamentary exile by over 1-1,000 votes. Wliaieve'r el.so tho British elections may liko or dislike, there is one "thing for which they have a profound contempt; And that" is a. "want of pluck." '. Mr. Kavmoiul considers Philip Snowden, whom the electors of Blackburn recently sent to the political rightabout, to.be "a well-nieaning fanatic."

Mr. Sno'i-rieii makes 110 concealment of his purnobe. He is out to siuasli. lo Him the («I.V iniponant Uiiiiß is Unit 110 present social system shall bo broken in pieces. What snail replace a is a uuito seeoudary consideration. That is tho philosophy of flic pure revolutionary, ft is at least direct and logical, and 111 certain circumstances has appealed to tho greatest ami most patriotic men. ...

Mr. Snowden happens to be a Socialist and revolutionary, and a member ot the Liquor Control Board. That is the. accident oC tunc, place, and circumstances. But he might havo been, just as appropriately, a Catholic Leaguer. 11 regicide, a (Iraki Jniiuisiior, or an cnib.illcrou French a'istourat. Bcius what ho is, no imputes tho worst motives to what lie calls the Capitalist classes. If ho had been born with forty thousand a year lie would be writing to the ".Morning Post uncharitable attacks on everybody with less than thirty-five thousand, and on most people with more. >'or tho truth is that Mr. Snowden is essentially a £Ood hater, ■with a Rift of expression. Ho saya-raep-inu and. biting things which ho may quite possibly belicvo to be true and necessary in the public interest. But primarily Ho does not apply them as medicine, to "eleanso Uie foul body- of the infected world." but to ploaßO himself. He.is pno ' of those surgeons who likes tho kmfo better ■than the patient. .. "The Bookman." • • I'ho work' of Booth Tarkington, an American novelist whose excellent stories (ire well known to New Zealand readers 01 fiction, is the subject of a highly appreciative articlo in the January issue of "The Bookman" (Hodder and litoughton). The author, Mr. Ellis Roberts, considers Tarkington's three best novels aro "The Flirt," "Turmoil," and "Tho Magnificent 'Ambersons" (tho last-nanied recently reviewed. In these column"). Amongst other contributors to tho number are George Sampson,. Frank-Swi 11nei'toiv (an excellent article on Sheila Kave-Smith's latest..novel "Little. England"), C. E. Lawrence, Henry Baerlem. J)r. James Moffat, and Dr. Wm. Barry. As usual, "The Boakjnan" contains many interesting portraits and other illustrations.

"Sonns of the Ridings." New Zcalanders who hail ; frorn tho "bV"est, bonniest, and -best" ot lm> counties, as the. Tykes proudly, ciaiin tor Yorkshire, should spend a .iiodosthat crown on Professor Moorman s .littlo book of Yorkshire dialect verse, hongs ot the Killings" (Elkin Matthews). .. I'roleSso. Moorman had previously published a collection of similar verse by other hands. His own contributions are marked, by much drv humour, and distinctly smack of the iiortherh soil. As thus, when 111 "Tho Bells of Kirkby Overbow" (heigho! 'tis a good forty years and 11 ore smco "Liber" heard them!) ho pictures an ancient shiner lamenting liis departing youth: When you hear yon church bells riiigin'. i'ou can't enjoy your sin; ... . T" bells clutch at your heart-strings 1' f alehouse ower' your gin. At pitch-an'-toss you'ro laikin Down there i' t' wood below; ■Vn' then vou damn them rowpy, bolls ' 0' Kirkby Overblow,. "Laikin," I may bo permitted to-ex-plain, is "broad Yorkshire" lor playing. Mr Moorman's verso sometimes deals with tho drama and,tragedy of bygone Yorkshire life., as, when lir his Hungry Forties" ho ■• tells how tho lads march down tho street" "\\ T V penny loaves on pikes all 6tccpca i' blooid."

Arnold Bennett's Latest Novel. •Vrnold Bennett is almost as prolific.a writer as H. G. Wolls. It seems only tho other day that ho was. shocking many; peoplo aiid amusing arid pleasing verymany others by his much-discussed story of London lifo in war time, "The Pretty Lady," and already another long story, from his pen is being reviewed in the Homo Press. In his new novel, entitled "Tho Eoll Call," Mr. Bennett has taken for his hero tho young George Cannon, who was tho fruit of Hilda Lessways first marriago with the bigamy-committing George Camion tho elder, whose acquaint, oneo wo first made in/'Clayhanger," and who crops up again in the two succeedvolumes of the "Clayhauger" trilogy. "Hilda Lcssways" and "These Twain. Several oilier character of • tho "Five Towns" stories appear again in "The Eoll Call," the principal scenes of which ore laid in London and Paris. The reviews aro highly complimentary. Apparently Mr. Bennett contemplates a new trilogy, of which George Cannon, junior, will be tho hero, for tho concluding sentences of tho story li 1111 at a sequel. A Russian Story by Hugh Walpolc,

Hugh Walpole. whose last novel, "Tho Green Mirror," had for hero an Englishman who lived for somo years in Eussia, and whose earlier novel of the war period, "The Dark Forest," had also a Uussian motif, has written a story of Russian life, "Tho Secret City," the chief scones of which are laid in Petroirrad. Should any of Mr. Waloolo's admirers, amongst whom "Liber" has long been proud to count himself, fear that the author may become affected by that curious pessimism which taints Eussinn fiction, they may note the fact, that another story, "Jeremy," by Mr. AValpnlo, which i= now running an a. serial in the "NX _Ttcok-n-.an," a.nd which in due course will appear, in volume form, is an amusing and I penetrative story of English boyhood.

"Set Down in Malice.". A recenllj'-piiblislicd book of reminis eencos, Mr. Gerald Cumberland's "Set Down in. Malice," published by Grant Eicha-rds, from, which house comes so many smartly-written and original liooks, seems to have vastly fluttered literary and. musical dovecots in tho Old Country. For Mr. Cumberland, whoso real name, by tho war, is C. F. Keiiyon, has made his narrative fit in only too well with its title, certain of. his portraits being drawn in colours tho reverse of agreeable from tho point of view of their originals. Both Hall Caine and Arnold Bennett have nislircl into print oil tho subject, and in the. second edition of the book, which has auade a decided hit, a reference lo Hip lallw has been deleted. _ Mr. Cumberland'.'; pen portraits of certain of the victims of what an Knglish reviewer calls his "aiiinziii'; and amusing impertinences," his "quite wickedly clever pen," may not ho. appreciated by the originals, just as some of "Spy's" famous caricalure's in "Vanity Fair" annoyed somo of. their originals. 'But the general verdict of HinPresi is lliat the book is one of the mcsl: nmusiiiT productions of its kind v- n ] r ,ve bad f<"' many a lour: day. It is'lo be hoped that cniiics <if '-'Set Down iii Mai ice" m.iv soon be on sale in New Zealand.

"The Happiest of the Pouts." Tn the Taniiarv "Bookman,""Mr. JohnFreeman, oil" <d' the ablest and discerning of English critics, warmly i-i-aisfM a, new 1 »'"•'; of vorse. "Forty New Poems."'bv William H. Davies,' whom he calls the "happiest, of poets." This is Hie Davies, I may add.' In whom we owe Ihbsn delightfully fresh and original bonks, "The Autobionrnpliv of a Super-Tramp" and "The Poet's Pilgrimage." to llie latter of "'hidi » spcml iirliele "'as devoted in this column last voar- Mr. Freeman is specially attracted bv Mr. Davies's devotion to the purely lyrical note. ' Tn tho beautiful first stanza of "Birds"— "When our two souls have loft this mortal clay. And. eer-liim? mine, you think that mine 1 in lost-

Look for me first- in that Eiysian glade Where Lesbia. is, for whom the birds sing most"— the critic is reminded Of Campion, -while in others Lesbia is all forgotten, and "the freshest of Clare-liko tones is henrd": "Oft have I seen in fields the little birds Go in between a bullock's legs to eat; But what irives me most joy ia when I soo Snow on -my doorstep, printed by their feet." Yet, says Mr. Freeman, the first stanza is as naturally his own as the second, and in "Lovely Dames" he repeats that note yet more exquisitely: "Of. J.LeJen. which brought Troy so many liarny: And lovely Venus, when she stood bo white Close to ier husband's forgo in its red light. ... But when I look on thee, love, thou dost give Substance to t.l'ose fine ghosts, and make them live." Mr. Freeman closes Lis article by declaring Davies "lias the spontaneity and natural music of a bird, and a bird's joy in his world, and that delight in perfection which only pure artists can experience. He is what William Morris has been, les= truly called—the happiest of tho pools."

Stray Leaves, | The English whiter and early spring 1 publishing season hos been remarkable for the number of novels that havo been issued by leading firms. Keviews of several of these will appear in this column next week. ■ Tim high prico at which Mr. H. G. Wells's last novel, ".loan and l'eter,' was published (lis. net English price) has not prevented the book having an excellent sale. Cassell's announce, 1 notice, i that lip to the end of the year they had sold nearly 32,000 copies of-this remarkable book. ■ A well-known American theologian, the iW. David ilaincs-tirifliths. minister of Edgehill Church, New York, has written an entirely new studv oE Wesley, under (he title "Wesley, tho Anglican." . Cer-tr-in aspects of American colonial development are dealt with —in their relationship to Wesley's churchmanship—but the author's chief aim has been to. treat of Wesley as having outlived both Methodist adulation and Anglican patronage. ' Alec Waugh, who, when only, eighteen, wrote that remarkable story of English public school life, "The Loom of Youth, went to the front, was captured by tho Huns, and spent eight months 111 a German prison camp. The result is a book, '■'The Prisoners of Main?.," which is well reviewed by several leading journals. Mr.' Fisher Unwin, who married a daughter of the Into Hichnrd- Cobden, announces an entirely new work on the <reat English Free-trado champion, the titlo is "Richard ColMlen, the International Man," a study of Cobden's .work in the light of modern economic developments. The author is that staunch Freo-troder and ablo writer oil economics,

J. A. Hobson, " Home papers announce, the death ot Miss Alice Birkhead, an imaginative and scholarly writer, who shone alike as a novelist'("Shifting Sands" is her bestknown storv) and as a writer of historical studies, amongst tho most succr-sstul of these latter being devoted" to Marie Antoinette." "Clmrles XII," and 'Peter the Great." She was also greatly inter-, csted in Russia and Russian literature. New Zealanders who like Mr. \V. J. Locke's stories are still impatiently waiting for supplies of Mr. Locke s last novel "Tho Rough Road/' to reach tho bookshops of the Dominion. . llie Australasian edition was to bo issued, 1 heli"ve, by a Melbourne firm which recently vent out of business. Whatever tho cause of the delay it is ing, and it is to be honed that for his owk" sake Mr. Locke will wo-to iHlißt in futuro his books are published by some firm which will exhibit a greater promptitude in getting them on to the Now Zealand book market. , That now well-established periodical, "The Dickensian," tho organ of tho Dickens Fellowship, and 5. mine of useful and interesting information for lovers of Dickens's works and-Dick-ensiana generally, is in futiire to aopeal quarterly instead of monthly. It W to bo issued in an enlarged and greatlj improved format. n. 1 .„ Not every Englishman knows that one Roman.Emperor died on 15i'B»sh soil. 'This was the Emperor Lucius Septimus Sovcrtis, described by Bacon as the ablest Emperour almost of all tho liste TJp'till recontly no account of this emperor has appeared in Eng ish. the omission, has now been made' good, Mr Maurice Platnnuer, who dates his preface'B.E.F., April 27, dicatcs his work, which is published by tho Oxford University Press, to tho memory of George Leonard Chccsman. Septimus died at York on February i, ni and a mount near Acomb still boars •tho namo Severus Hill. . Tradition .makes this hill tho emperors grave; but ; ho was not buried at York, and tho lull "is really glacial .