New-York tribune., 1903-02-15
SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 10, lyO3.

biographies are being run into the ground
The late George Douglass Brown Is TO pe
,relted in two, for one of which MI Ahdre"
IavC is to write an Introduction. we can uh
dersfand Mr.. Lang's complaIsance IN the mat
ter We remember how deeply he was iii
rres1ed bv 1.-The House with the Green Shut
ters' and how generously he discussed the
hook, Doubtless it seems legitimate enough TO
him to put his appreciation on record some
where between the covers Of book. Neverthe-
less this incident only serves to confirm us III
the belief that the latter day biographer is too
husy by half Mr. Brown, for example, wrote
one clever novel and might well merit maga-
zine article or two on his career-though some
of the stuff that has got itself printed about
him in periodicals has been sadly wearlsome-
but why should there be two formal biographies
of man whose achievements were so modest!
There seems to be something hypnotic ABOUT
the biographical idea nowadays. Almost any
body who has accomplished almost anything Is
seized upon, after his or her decease, as a
sufficient excuse for the making of copy" NO
time is lost The biographers realize that II
they do not hurry into the field while the name
of their subject is still less fresh in the
public mind, they will lose all opportunity to
find market for their wares. In other words,
nine-tenths of these enterprises SAVIOR far more
of commerce than of literature.
The Academic Goncourt has at last got it's
affairs Strengthened out, and is prepared, as the
saying goes to do business. 1t has had to wait
long enough to enter into the enjoyment of the
money which Edmond de Goncourt left at his
death. in 1896, for the establishment of liter
ary society to be formed of ten men Of letters,
al dedicated to scorn of the Academic Fran
caise. Relatives carried the estate of NJ Ed
mond into court. and only in the present year
has the new Academic succeeded in vanqush-
ing its opponents before the law. 1t will be
amusing to see what the Academicians will do
with their funds. They are to dine together
once month, and each of the ten is to
receive annual income of 81 $50; but if they
do not accomplish something distinctly express
Sive of their loyalty to their benefactOr and his
theories of literature Paris in all probability,
Will want TO know the reason why. The
chances of their doing anything violent or spec
tacular discounted by fact to which Mr..
Edmond Gosse has called attention. with the
exception of NJ. Leon Daudet' he says, these
gentlemen not very young Few of them, |
think, will see fifty again, although none have
vet seen sixty" 1t will be difficult for them
10 turn from the routine in which they are
Seltltu anu 10 dSlOulSn France WIN epOcn
making performances They might retort that
they have only TO go writing as they have
been writing for years in order to show that
they are in sympathy with the Goncourt ideas,
but by this time the latter have become COM
mOnplace and the whole drift of the famous
scheme was, at the outset in the direction of
strong protest against inertia and convention
If the ten Academicians, comfortable over their
monthly dinners and their pensions, fall into
Quietude even more sumberous than that Of the
much hated Forty we shall not be surprised
But it will be enough to make Edmond de Con
court turn in his grave.
In recent symposium on '"The Decay of the
Novel" some observations by Benjamin Swift
that great novelist, were commented upon by
Mr.. Thomas Hardy in these terms: The
author writes with force and insight when he
says that the immoral book is the book which
hides truth and creates fools paradise and a
mirage that miseads' The sentiment seems
unimpeachable, but somehow we find ourselves
pniOYiDI thp comment OasSad upo, tbiS copn