LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 8, 4 October 1919, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

"To-Day" and Mr. D. H. Lawrenca's ■■• Work. Holbrook Jacknon promises an early enlai'Komcnt, with more illustrations, of his I'Mi'lliMil little monthly "To-Day." The July iisitic contains poems by Sir William Watson, Edward S'hunks, Siegfried Bassoon, and others, and G.TC.O. is to be welcomed atiioiit,'!;t the essayists. Incidentally, in the course of his article, "The. Minor Poets and the Legend," Mr. Chesterton, after statin;; that "a legend is already'forming, by which' Uupert Brooke will'become a kind of .Shelley or Keats, at. least touching Hie old tide of onrly. death and Hui ttrange benediction of the gods," expresses his opinion that "ovcn.nioro promising ports l.ian l!r>okc were glorified'by death in battle; J for one should say that Thomas Michael Kettle was by far the most, proinisii)!? man of genius whoso career was so cut off." 1 am surprised, however, to see that Mr.. Jackson should have admitted bonis OoUlinji's laboured and illogical apology for .Mr. IV. 11. Lawrence's silly and offensive ernlics. When Mr. Uawrouce can free his mind of a perverse tendency to morbid dwelling upon Sex he writes fine, prose, and, somotimes, lino verse. Hut lie is neither a genius nor is ho to bo considered a martyr be-

cause the., critics, have suggested he should write with a clraner and more decent uen. \ Clemenceau as Writer, The nomc of Clemenceau is much more intimately associated in the public mind with politics than wilh literature. But "Le Tigre," as the French have called him, because of theferonty wilh'which he conducted his old-time political campaigns, has ever been an industrious author, and not all his writings have been purely political. In tho April number of- "The Edinburgh Review" Jlr. % , Edmund Gosse has ah interesting article on "The Writings of M. Clemenceau." Mr. Gesso tells us that in 1566 (in his twentyfifth year) ii. Clemenceau -went to the "United fitatoß and became French master in a- girls' school at Stamford, "a. seaside haunt of tired New Yorkers in summer. A little later Verlmne was - under-master iu a boys' school at llourncmouth. How little we guess, when we take our walks abroad, that genius, and foreign genius, too, may be lurking in the educational profession!" M. OlemGUccau married one of tho "young American misses," Ifiss Mary Hummer. The nine hooka mentioned in the article are of varied nature, including a novel, a play, a tra,vel-book, some surveys of life which are affected brvhia early scientific and medical traiuinj, and collections of newspaper articles from his noted "L'Aurore." This journal "ret sail in the story waters of the- Dreyfus affair," and published Zola' 3 condemnation of I ha enemies of Dreyfus, J'Accuse,' ... In the agitated'yeara, when he wielded a rapier-like PJii, if. (j'lsmenceau's gre.it merit, says Mr. Gosse, consisted in his fearless and disdainful audacity. "He fought in literature exactly as he ha:i always fought In politics with tho air of 0110 who had no wish to, conciliate his opponent, hut I alirays to browbeat him. to crußh him hythe weisht of hip argument, and then run him through the body with hie irony. When -we turn over the pages of his bookß, which naffer an inevitable loan from tho fugitive nature of the Iheznci i.n which they mainly expatiate, wo aro asj tonnded at tho ceaselois agility of tho lucid, restless brain of tho inaa." Stray Leaves, Compton M'ackcnssie's new story, to be i published very shortly by Martin Seeker, is entitled "Poor ltelations." it will be interesting to see whether our old friend Sylvia Scarlett who, at the close of "Sylvia and Michael," ■' was clearly distilled to change her name tn that of Sylvia Fane, will reappear. Not a. few of us would bo sui prised were her second matrimonial venture to turn out much more successfully than her liist. Home papers speak well of A. Saffruni Middleton's South Seas slory, "Gabrielle of the Lagoon." The author's previous books have been works of travel, plus' not" a'little amusing autobiography. Middleton was formerly well known in Sydney, and, so I have been told, once toured New - Zealand as a professional violinist. One English paper calls him "a second Slcvenson," which is very absurd. The Eight Hon. J. !U. Robertson has written a book on "The Problem of Hnmlet," in which all the lending theories of the character of Hnmlet, "down to tho latest German, are reviewed and shown to miss (heir aim by overlooking tho structural evolution of the play. This is one in n series of books that Mr. Robertson hns projected on "Tho Canon of Shakespeare," and will bo pub-, lished shortly by Mes.irs. George Allen | and Unwin. There is some xone of a fine outstanding quality in a little book of poems, i "Footsteps • and Fantasies," by C. J. I Druce'. Here, for instance, is the last verse of what seems to mo a quite uotablo poem, "Tho Glimpse" (dated France, June, 101S): — . 0 Breath of Life, Soal of iill things that ■live,. Whose soul is Love, whoso will ever to gife,Speed for our timorous gaze-, thy wide, white wingß Across tho tempest; bid faint faiths believe That all sad fearful things Are'but tho hlapk floor where tho bright Btars dance. 0 thou Indomitable and Undying, Tho ever enduring ai.d the all-defying, We hear, without, our trance, Thy volco that name.'. Lifo, Love, Joy, Beauty one; All else. Irrelevance. It is some oighjt or nine..years flinco we had a new book by th<> onoe-fnnioiw Mr. Docfey. A new Dooloy book is, I 6eo, liow nnnounced, and I; for one, am gtod to read that our old .friend "Mill us.-• v''. is to make his reappearance therein. Hinnessey on President. Wilson, and what no doubt Mr. Dooley's bosom friend would call "Th' Lafiie of Nayshuns" ought to provide 501110' capital fun. ■ Christopher Morlcy,. the clever young American writer' wliose "Parnassus on Wheels" and . other books I have so often commended to my readers, has collaborated with a fellow writer in a humorous romance "In' the Sweet Dry and Dry," in which the ex-Rhodes scholar pokes good-natured fun at the prohibition law now in force in America. I wonder how mar.}- rentiers of the present-day generation know Herman Melville's South Sea stories, "Typee". and "Oomoo," to say nothing of "The White Jacket" and "Moby Dick." The .Melville j centenary comes duo this month, and more thnn one interesting article on his life and work have already made their .appearance in American papers. Melville went to the Marquesas Islands as an ordinary seaman 011 an American whaler in lSt2. He and a fellow seaman deserted, and the result, some years later, was the writing of two books, which in their day had a considerable popularity. It was through. reading "Typee" that Lord Pembroke, iras induced to make the yachting trip which resulted, in that most 1 nmurung book, "South Sea Bubbles," by "The Earl and the Doctor"; and Stevenfan, who called Melville "a howling cheese," was wont to declare that it was the fame writer who first ffare him the idea of the South .Sea cruise in the Casco, which, by the way, .was wrecked the other day on the Alaskan const. A sailoi'man friend of mine'' declares Melville's "Moby Dick" and "The White Jacket" (0 be the (in-?st. sea stories ever written, Charles H. Dana's "Vive Years Before tho Mast" not excepted. Tn his later years.Melville wrote some slrange mystical stories which show the influence of.a disordered mind and which are now almost completely for?ollen. | Methuens, whoso novels can always be relied upon ns being,well above the average, announce thrca forthcoming new stories by. Anthony Hope, Richard Bngot, and H.C. Bailey, respectively. Anthony Hope'* novel is entitled "Beiiiiinaroy Home from the .Wars." Richard Bagot, who is always at his best when he chooses an Italian kirkjrround, describes, in "The Gods Decide," the plots and intrigues by which German agents endeavoured to prevent Italy joining in ihe Great War. Mr. Bailey returns to his iavourite Napoleonic period. Nelson and Honanarte both appear as lending figures In his new slory, the title of which is "Barrv ],eroy." "Sonin," Mr. Stephen M.'Konna's wonderfully siiccessfii! novel, is lo have a sound, "Sonin Marrtv!." For some, reason—perhaps because they Here prinlerl in such lat'w mimhera— the first editions of Sir Waller Scott's novels have never been greally sought, after by cnUcet.or.-t, and. with Ihe exception of "Wavei'ley" (lo bo of any value it must be in the "original boards, with the paper t'-tbels. an<l'half-litles"V "GiiyM-'i-ncring;" and one or two others, can be bmijflil, fven' to-day, for a few shillings. But if Scott's nov?!s, as published, are not t0,.t0 accounted amongst l-ilVioiihilic treasure-, the manuscripts of his stories bring high pne:s. At. 01m nf Snthcbv's rales, earlv iii An.Tpsl, the .VMS. 'of "Qurntin Durwnrd"-—to my mind one of the 'best of Scott's' novel?—brought .C7OO. , Tn IRGB it was sold for .CMS, so i-omonno ml good interest op his money. The MSS. consists of 2-13 leaves, of quarto >->z-. 'I' 1"" -IRS, ,fii j'., 1,.« important siory, "The Betrothed," realised, at the same mlo. .£215. an ndvance of ,£!BS upon its value in 18(13. A "new world" romance. "!,'Atlantide," by a French writer. Pierre B"nnit. has recently made ouite a hit in Paris. An English translation is promised very

shortly, ns also an English version of an earlier romance (of an historical character), entitled "Konigiiiinrclt," by the same author.