MODERN ARISTOCRATS IN LITERATURE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 45, 17 November 1926, Page 11

MODERN ARISTOCRATS IN LITERATURE

THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS. (To the Editor.) Sir.—For the third time iu twentyfour years the Nobel prize for literature has come to an English man of letters. An impartial Swedish bench of judges has awarded the 1925 prize to George Bernard Shaw. There cannot be two opinions on the amazing’ inteleetual activity of Shaw. A Socialist street orator in bis early days, yet he is risen to fame a< a critic of art. as a dramatist, an an essayist, and as a poet, and now this Swedish jury declares that Shaw more than any other English writer has produced works of an "idealistic tendency” that will prove « "benefit to humanity.": The j’ustico of ■this verdict may be questioned, but it cannot be upset. It is part of the irony of histprv that a Fabian Socialist should have pou.rcd into his cap .£6600 of gold as a recognition of his genius. Yeats and Kipling were Shaw’s English predecessors in winning this prize, and it is worth noticing that Shaw and Yeats were Celts, end that Kipling, on his mother’s pidc, was half a Celt, and the question may be raised: Has the Celtic race a larger endowment of genius than other cases? A fourth . prize winner may be reckoned ns within the British Empire, for the famous Indian mystic poet. Tagore, won the prize in 1913. It is interesting to notice tn the list of prize winners the several nationalities that have won distinction. Tn the United States there is a tremendous literary output bnt as regards literature no member of that great Kenublie has won a prize. Germany and France have each carried off four prizes. Two stand to the credit: of Poland. Spain shorn of her political greatness, has ne fewer than three of her sons among <hc world’s great men of letters. The most of the prizes awarded bv lbw Swedish corporation has been sent to outside nations, and that fact is a tri butc to the imnartialncss of the judges but Sweden nnd Norway have sons thn' have won distinction, and H/illnnd nnd Denmark are also on the list. < ’nlv one woman has won this laurel wreath o> "reatness. Tn 1909 the Swedish Sehnn Lagerlof, the novelist, won the prize, because nf fho nnbV* wealth of fancy, and the spiritual itv that characterise her works. The names of about a third of the prize winners are unknown to the average intelligent reader. but in the near future an English nublisher mav give to the world sample volumes of these modern aristocrats of liternl'irc.-i eio etc.. 1* Yiinp. K'arori. November 15. 1926.