New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-19
THE IDENTITY OF ELIZABETH
ROMANCE OF THE COUNTESS Won
ARNIM.
THE AUTHOR OF ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN
GARDEN" Is COMING TO THE UNITED STATES.

From The Pail Mall Magazine.
The author OF Elizabeth and Her German
Garden" and of "a Solitary Summer has re-
vealed much Of herself in those books that
ii may not be indiScreet lift another corner
OF the veil. Those books are, in truth auto
biographies photographed fragments: or,
in phrase which has become hackneyed, hu-
man documents. Her ideas, her emotions, her
relations TO other persons including her nus
band-many Of those matters which we are
wont to regard as personal and lntlmate-are
handled freely; hence the charm of the book
As Pascal says, We delighted and aston
ished to find, not only an author but a living
human being. Well, this living human being
and mother Of the April, May and June babies,
is the Countess Won Arnim. Her husband is
son that Count Arnim. once German Am
bassador in Paris. whom Prince Bismarck felt
obliged crush. He flung down a diplomatic
gauntlet TO Prince Bismarck. Too rashly that
accomplished and agreeable German measured
himself against the Iron Chancellor and in that
unequalled conflict was destroyed-as befe1l so
many others who miscalculated their strength
and his.
The wife Of this present Count Arnim is Eng
lish, and before her marriage was Miss May
Beauchamp- She was staying in Rome, and
her habit was TO go often TO one Of the Roman
churches 10 play the organ While there was no
service. Count Arnirn, passing one dav, heard
the organ ana went IN 10 listen. He loved
music, and the organ especially. and presently
came TO love the organist, whom there were
ether opportunities Of meeting. Man of
Wrath she chooses 10 call him in her
books. she makes plain enough her devotion TO
him; 1t is writ that all men NAV read Re
tween them a certain difference Of aee at
which love laughs. They We're married and the
German took his English wife TO live in Rer-
lin, in enc of those stately but sombre pal
aces, and amid stately but sombre society
which she did not like. Her heart was in the
country, with the flowers and blue skies and
fine forests. Presently it appeared that Count
Won Arnim had estate in the North. not IA
from the Baltic; palace. 10 his mind quite
uninhabitable. They joJrneyed thither to have
d look il. when To- to her mind il appeared
not only habitable, but Paradise; They went
there experiment, and stayed there final
ly as in the home both liked best
Gut OF this came the first book. which I hear
known TO her husband German counts are not
all lovers of literature nor would all OF them
care that their own wives should be producers
of literature. II not till her first book had
won public favor and piqued the public curl
osity. and taken a place Of its own think
permanent place-with the judicious as well as
ing is too often caviare. that the wife confessed
her authorship to her husband.
But Elizabeth and Her German Garden was
a success from the beginning; much more he
cause of Elizabeth than because Of the Ger
man Garden Edition followed edition. ond
presently "A Solitary Summer followed the
seouels usually have. More distinctly in the
second than in the first is seen the true critical
gift this lady possesses, and her feeling for
literature And now comes The Benefactress q"
for which. they tell you in London, the pub
fishers paid 5000 down Meantime. the April
Nav and June babies have been succeeded bN
a fourth: Of what month / know not The new
book is no longer like the others causerie
but novel II is also a study of German life
curiously minute. vivid and true. But A first
novel. whatever else II may be. is necessarily
an experiment The American reader NAV nres-
entity find occasion of saving 10 the author
II he likes, whether he thinks he experiment
which rest these few personal details, am al
lowed to say that the Count and Countess Won
Arnim will visit the United States early next
year. There can be doubt of the welcome
that awaits them.