Evening star., 1894-11-03
DU MAURlER AN AMERICAN.
The Career of an Artist Who Sudden
Iy Found He is a Novelist.

From Current Literature.
Years ago-in the 3Os-Du Maurer,
small American child, lived near Union
Square, New York-a child endowed with
the purest artistic sense color, form, in
sight. Pictures were his delight; each day
he pored over them, exciting as well as
peopling his imagination with their varied
lore and aspect. Punch" that famous
London weekly, which many Americans
vote consistently stupid, became his little
world. All England was centered there.
The cabmen, the costermonger, the habit
ues Of the Row, pages in buttons. seaside
revelers, impecunious Micawbers Eton stu
dents, and followers of the chase were the
figures that paraded through the city of his
brain, night and day. The little child ne
elected plays and pastimes adapted to his
years More enjoyment was found in his
little world, bounded on all sides by
Punch" and year after year found him
possessed of but one idea-that of beholding
the great city where the people he knew
and loved so well existed.
Familiarity with Punch" developed in
young Du Maurier an education as lasting
and valuable as that developed within
the mind of Thoughtful traveller, so that
when the young American, at the age of
twelve, went to London everything was
familiar, the inky woOdcuts of Leech's that
had influenced his mind took substantial
form; English life was no new story to
him. The ruling propensity was toward
art and so to the picturesque Bohemian
Latin Quarter of Paris he went.
His associations in the Latin Quarter
were remembered The army of students
went FORTH and many made names, did
Du Maurier and the pages of "Trilby" Is
now the field of action. Du Maurier's eye
sight having failed him. literary work be-
came his next attempt Little love OF land
scape has he, skill in race portraiture being
more In his line, his pre-eminent success
having been attained in deineating the
manners and customs of society, and the
endless absurdities of English country life.
and his refined sense of humor, united with
a true love of nature. is observed in the few
black and white illustra tions of outdoor
life that bear his name.
The Postlethwaite characters in Punch
added to his fame, the snobs of London, the
absurdities then prevailing, the aesthetic
craze were caricatured in turn, and his
brush laughed out many fads,- many ex-
tremes of social and political life. Thus Du
Maurier, in one sense, became reformer
Many London par ers, at the time, declared
that Gilbert's model of Bunthorne was sug-
gester by Du Maurier's caricature of Oscar
Wilde that ran through many numbers of
Punch" George Du Maurier is now q
brilliant star in the literary galaxy, and If
any one asks why, Peter Ibbetson' and
'"Trilby" have only to be produced. But
"Trilby" has done more for his fame than
"Peter Ibbetson' did. The freshness and
usual to the heroines of the present day
novel that one feels as near to her as If she
breathed spoke, moved. divineness illu-
inmates her nature-a warmth and affection
fascinating to the reader.
Although in his sixtieth year, Du Maurier
is fine example of well-preserved man.
His mental faculties are still active and in
ventive, and the geniality pervading his
nature keeps him young and exuberant.
Tie is now about to start for trip on the
continent, accompanied by his magnificent
ST. Bernard a dog of unusual proportions.
which has figured in many of Du Maurier's
drawings
Just outside Of bustling London, Du Maur-
Ter lives his house a mansion of turrets and
gables-a kind of architectural beauty made
famous by such stately residences as those
of Alma Tadema and Sir Frederick Leigh
ton. Surrounding Du Maurier's retreat Is q