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Books and the Book World of The-Su- January 11, 1920. Arnold Bennett - And Galsworthy i A Letter From Hugh Walpole Copyright 1320. All Rights Reserved. A RXOLD BENNETT'S strange ea-- -- reer has been estimated ou so many public occasions that it seems very difficult now to say - anything new about it. He has been as completely befoie the public as has 11. G. Wells, bul with a different manner, lie has stood as a dc-iia- nt symbol of revolt from the literary posings of the early '90s. That time of Yellow Book agitations, of Green Carnations and Iieardsley draw- ings all racked the young Bennett enongh for him to &ee the folly of it. His first novel, .1 Man From the Xorth, was an attempt at showing that life was no non- sense and hat romance and poetry were to.be found more often in the man in the street than in the Poetry Society. A Man From the Xorth was an agreeabia promise of what Bennett was one day to do. He continued to write promising vork for tha next twenty years. In spite of the brilliance of Whom God ITath Joined and Leonora and Anna of the Five Towns, it was not until the publica- tion of An Old Wives' Tale that any one took Bennett seriously. The history of that book is amusing. Every one who saw it in manuscript shook a head over it. It was too long. The public would find it dull. It was about nothing at all. Bennett himself had misgivings. The publisher begged that it might be cut; it was then that Ben- nett was sure that it was a fine book after all, and refused to sacrifice a word of it. It was published and fell flat. The reviewers patronized it; the public did not want it. Bennett continued to believe in it; it was transferred to another pub- lisher, and suddenly, after nearly two months of a miserable existence, the boom came. After nearly twenty years of public life it remains a great masterpiece, one of the few great novels, with Tono-Bunga- y and Lord Jim and The Lake of our twentieth century. \It is a great masterpiece because of its creative power; it created living human beings and a section of life behind them and a philosophy of life behind that. It has poetry, humor, pathos and drama: finally, it is true, owes a little to Flaubert and De Maupassant and nothing to any one else and is representative of its own time. The Clayhanger series that followed it are hardly less great in their own way, but they arc less perfect. When future gene- rations read, as they will,. the series as a whole Clayhanger, hlda Lessways, These Twain and The Boll Call they will have a wonderful sense of English middle class life, progressing, thrusting, pushing, vulgar and eager, and finally above all else alive, finding its great vent at last in the war of 1914. They will remem- ber, too, the test of a great novelist, a series of dramatic scenes most powerfully enacted the school children and the death of Edwin's father in Clayhanger; Hilda in the Brighton boarding house in Hilda Lessicays; George's spectaclesn Tlxese Twainjthc scene n the Paris flat in The Boll Call, these and many others. I am not sure whether with these books behind him Arnold Bennett is not more certain of immortality than any English novelist now alive save Hardy and Con- rad He has written, it is true, a number of disappointing books, although never one that is not more interesting than it would have been if anybody else had writ- ten it. But he does present, as no one save Hardy since Trollope has .presented it, a section of English life, there in all its detail, truthful and moving and symbolic. He is also one of the best humorists we have ever had. The Card, The Begent, A Great Man and Buried Alive are spon- taneous jests worthy of all honor. Denry is a figure genuinely added to the gallery of English drolls and is in the true suc- cession of Chaucer and Falstaff, of Squire Western and Sam Weller. That is per-- haps the final reason why Bennett is to be so highly valued by us that he presents us to the world without pose, without undue solemnity; with a real love bf his own peo- ple, with a smile for their weaknesses and praise for their value. He is still, after thirty years of writing, standing \for no Conllnued on Following Pagi 5 \The union must obey the law just as the corpo- ration mast obey the Jaw.\ THEODORE ROOSEVELT I In his reply to a delegation of Chicago sLrlkers. N the light of present industrial conditions, read ROOSEVELT Labor Letters written while he was President and voicing his position on Laborin favor of unions but against' violenceletters which \represent exactly the attitude which we followed in Massachusetts,\ says GOV. COOLIDGE THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE HOUSE, BOSTON Scribner's Magazine, New York, N. Y. My dear Mr. Bridges: Pleace accepr my thinks for sending mc,he advance copy of Col. Rooseveli's letters on labor matters. They icpresent exactly the attitude which we followed in Massachusetts. One thing that struck me with peculiai force was his letter to Senator Lodge of May IS, 1905, in which he spoke of being puzzled on questions of finance and tariff, \but when il comes to such a perfectly simple matter as keeping ordei, then you strike my long suit.\ The matter of public ordei is so cleat and so fundamental that it is difficult to see hew any one would think of compiomising or avoid- ing that issue. These letters express clearly and concisely the fundamental principles of the relation of the government to labor and industry and the necessity for an impartial execution of the law against every force gathered for an illegal purpose, whether it be in the name of the employer or the employee- - They indicate clearly that not the private will but the public will must be main- tained as the supreme authority. Very truly yours, (Signed) CALVIN COOLIDGE. a of The last \hovel of this' great writer starts in the a tale of early rich in romance and charm. It is called Dale will be found in every month in 1920. His \Guide-Po- st and in is the first of twelve delightful papers, the mature comment of this \ 'So pertinent to present are Roosevelt Letters, that when the fighting Governor of Massachusetts read the advance proofs he wrote the at the left to the of Scribner's Magazine. Now published for the first with all their vital bearing on present-da- y industrial prob- lems, appear in crPTBMrp'c for L7Jl-llii- l MJJ JANUARY The Roosevelt Labor Letters mark the beginning of new editorial triumphs for Scribner's M agazine. American January -- Scribner's rugged American settlers, \Erskine Pioneer.\ Scribner's Camp-Fire- s\ January eminent American. con-tio- ns .these Labor letter shown Editor time, they year 'JHESE are only a few of the good things In store . for Scribner's readers in 1920. Fiction of foremost writers. Articles of great import- - ance by authorities on each subject. Sumptuous reproductions of the best . v- - in contemporary art all with a back \- ground of beautv and Dhvsical .i . nenness. ine coupon is lor 9s .ry your conveniencesn or- - dering Scribner's for tfw regular deliver'. S jy-?- \ fn A nn mnnpv a . , y statement will be rendercd- - Q .a. IV.'-
