The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-25
The Literary Roll Of 1902.
London Academy

London Academy.
With the end of the year one cannot avoid
looking round to count the vacant literary
chairs. And. as usual, If we balance those
who have gone against those who have ar
rived, the loss seems greater than the gam.
The first week of the year carried on
man who promised to exercise-perhaps
he may even yet exercise-a commanding
influence on international life by his pen.
For lean De Bloch, whose notable work
on modern warfare is said to have convert
ed the Car, was the real founder OF the
Court of Arbitration at The Hague.
But the biggest name in literature that
the year has erased from the roll of the
living is that of lola The furious contro-
yersies over his earlier works, his dramauc
plunge into the Dreyfus case, the pitiful
accident of his death all combined to i'm
France has also lost Xavier De Montepin,
the popular fiction writer. and Henri Gre
WILLIE (the pseudonym of Madame Durand),
who was scarcely less popular, though emf
nently respectable Aurelien Scholl, most
prolific of journalists, is no longer TO be
met with on the Paris boulevards. NJ De
Maulde La Claviere will be known to many
English readers through the work on the
"Women OF the Renaissance, which has
been translated Eugene Muntz, the critic
and historian of art, is also one of the lit
erary losses of France.
America has seen the passing, In Bret
Harte, of one of her most famous veterans
of literature. Another veteran who has
fallen is Frank Stockton. Both these had
labored long and done the best work of
which they were capable. But two of
Americas youngest and most promising
novelists died during 1902 Paul leicester
Ford the author of Janice Meredith" was
shot dead by his brother; Frank Norris was
carried off before he had got beyond early
manhood, and before he could finish the
hi Oh, n1tU
the brilliant first One should not omit
reference to the death of +. L. Godkin,
the founder and editor of the New York
Nation and author OF such luminous social
works as 1.-THE Problems of Democracy
Two poets OF note have been lost TO
England during the year-three, indeed. IL
we count Lionel Johnson as a poet rather
than literary critic. Philip James Bailey
had outlived the tremendous reputation he
gained with "Festus," while Aubrey De
We're never appealed TO wide audience.
The chief losses 10 fiction are by the death
of George Henty and Mrs. Alexander and
last, but certainly not least, by the prema-
ture passing of George Douglas Brown, the
author of The House with the Green Shut
ters." In Mr.. Brown and Mr.. Norris, Great
Britain and America had two young writers
who were surely marked for greatness had
they been spared. OF historians we have
lost two masters of their craft, Samuel
Rawson Gardiner and Lord Acton. Lord
Acton was rather an influence that a writer.
But he leaves behind him the splendid his
torlcal library winch mas passed through
the hands of Mr.. John Morley to Cam
bride University
The death roll of the year contains the
names of many who were writer's occa-
sion, but were notable in other ways. Sir
Richard Temple, Sir Arthur Arnold, Canon
Raylinson, G.. Keegan Paul, Samuel Butler
(the author of "Erewhon'), DIR. Chase and
j. Il. Nettleship, the painter who wrote a
well-known book on Browning, have all
passed away since we last told the tale
of our losses. But the most notable name
among those who have turned to letters
rather for pastime than for profit is that
OF Lord Dufferin. whose fame as the author
of Letters from High Latitudes'' has
never been obscured either by his splendid
reputation diplomatist, or the financial
misfortunes that clouded his latest days.