Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-04-08
WOLCOTT BALBSTIER.
Edmund GOsse's Estimate of the Young
American in the April Century.

Mr. Edmund Gosse, the well known Eng
fish literateur and critic, man who holds
a leading place in the inner circle of literary
London, contributes to the April Century
a sketch of Wolcott Balestier, in which he
briefly recounts the facts of his early life,
but devotes his article in the main to a
description of the young mans personality,
and an estimate of his character and ability
as business man in his chosen speciality
the head of large publishing house-and
as an author Mr.. Gosse first met young
Balestier three years ago at the house of
Mrs. Humphrey Ward, the author of Robert
Elsmere, who had invited Mr.. Gosse, Henry
James, and one or two other literary men,
to meet Mr.. Balestier At first sight Mr..
GOsse-
Gained an impression of Mr. Balestier as
carefully dressed yOungold man or elderly youth,
clean shaven, with smooth dark hair, thin nose,
large, sensitive ears, and whimsically mobile
mouth The singular points in this general ap-
pcarance however, were given by the extreme
pallor of the complexion, and by the fire i'm the
deeply set dark-blue eyes For the rest, spare
and STOPPING figure, atomic, ungraceful, a general
physique absurdly and even eXasperatiugly ILL
matched with the vigor of WILL the extreme rapid
ity of graceful mental motion, the PrOtean variety
and charm of intellectual vitality, that inhabited
this frail bodily dwelling To the very last after
seeing him almost daily for nearly three years,
never could entirely lose the of the capriciOus
contrast between TINS wonderful intelligence ana
the unhepful frame that did it so much wrong.
He arrived in England without possessing
the acquaintance of a single Engshman, and he
died, only three years later. leaving behind him
wider circle of literary friends than probably any
living American possesses suppose that
there was not one English novelist, from Mr.
George Meredith and MIR Thomas Hardy down to
the most obscure and 'subterranean writer Of
popular tales, with whom he did not come into
relations of one sort or another, but sympathetic
and courteous in every case. He was able to pre-
serve IN a very remarkable degree his fine native
taste in literature, while cunsCientiousy and eager
ly trading for his friends in New York in literary
goods which were not literature at all. THIS bal
ance of his mind constantly amazed me. His lofty
standard of literary merit was never lowered it
grew, if anything more eXacting; yet no touch
of prggishness, of dsdain colured his intercourse
with those who produce what the public buys in
fiction. There has been no such recent
invasion of London he was not merely, we
used to tell him. one of our conquerors, but the
most successful of them all
What was novel and so delightful in his re
lations with authors was the exquisite adrotness
with which he made his approaches He never
lost a shy conquest through awkwardness or
rOughneSS. | have never known any one
connected with the art or trade of literature who
had anything like his power of marshaling before
his memory in due order all the militant English
writers of the moment, small as well rs great.
There they stood in Seemly rows, the names that
every Englishman honors and never buys. the
names that every Englishman buys and never
honors. Balester knew them all, knew their cur
rent value, appraised them for future quotation,
keeping his own critical judgment, all the while,
unbent. but steadily suspended. Within -
| months ne knew the English boOk-market as.
probably, no Engshman knew II. Into this bust
ness of his he threw an indomtahle will, infinite
patience, a curious hunting or sporting zest, and
what may be called the industrial imagination.
His mind moved with extreme rapidity; he never
seemed to require to he told fact or given hint
twice. When you saw him a few days later, the
fact had gathered to itself cluster Of associate
supports, the hint had already ripened to action.
| may quote an instance which has pathetic in
v farm In fls ll frNaEh
reading Soldiers Three, | told him that he ought
to keep his eye on a new Indian writer, Rudyard
Kipling. 'Rudyard kipling: he answered impa,
tiently; is il man or a woman What's its real
name: A little netted. | said You will find that
you wont be allowed to go on asking questions
like those He is going to be one of the greatest
writers of the day Pooh. pooh" Balestier re-
Piled now you are shouting" And no further
reference was made to the subject But three
| DAYS later found pile of the blue Indian pam
| phlets on his desk and within week he had added
| the future collaboration in The Nauahka' to the
troop of what he used TO call his personal con
| quests
While thus generous and unreserved in
his estimate of the striking qualities which
! gave Mr.. Balestier such remarkable sue
cess in England, Mr.. Gosse writes with
| discriminating criticism, and in paragraph
next following those here quoted he says
"The most trying popularity of Wolcott
Balestier was the result of his rapidity in
decisive manpuvrng. He had cultivated
such a perfect gift of being all things to
all men, discretion and tact were so re-
quisite in his calling, that he fell, and that
increasingly, into the error of excessive
retIcence. This mysterious secrecy, how
ever, which grew on him toward the last
his profound caution and subtlety' were "a
little tortuous foible," almost too small tC
be recorded, and feature of his character
that needed to have become only little
exaggerated before he would himself have
discovered and corrected it.
In the closing part of his article Mr.
Gosse speaks of the remarkable literary
activity which marked the last year of Mr.
Balestier's life, and mentions that his post
humous writings which are to be presented
in succession to the readers of The Cen
tury, will, when they have passed through
this periodical form, fill two or three vol
umes. The first of these to appear will b.
a novel called Benefits Forgot" the result
of Mr.. Balestier's study of life in Leadvill
in 1885. Before leaving London for Der
lin and Dresden, where in the last namet
city, his death occurred on Sunday, Dec
6, he was evidently overworked, and unde
visible mental strain, and his health ma
long given his friends great anxiety. Il
the opinion of the German doctors, how
ever, there was no organic mischief an
the young man might have lived to goo
old age had not the fatal attack of typhOi
fever supervened. His body lies buried i
the American cemetery at Dresden, San
our anticipations lie with him."
1t is of interest to note that Mr.. Gosse'
, estimate of Mr.. Balestier's personal chal
acter-his great amiableness, his remarks
BILE insight and mental activity, and hi
purity of thought and motive-correspon
closely with the thought of him of his Bra
tleboro friends. His death seems to tn
human understanding to have been in
peculiar and unusual way an untimel
taking off.