Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-02-21


Biographies are being run into the
ground The late George Douglass
Brown is TO be treated in two. for one
of which Mr.. Andrew Long is to write
an Introduction. We can understand
Mr.. Lans's compIaisance in the matter.
We remember how deeply he was inn
pressed by "The House with the Green
shutters and how generously he dis
cussed the book. Doubtless 1t seems
legitimate enough to him to put his
appreciation On record somewhere be-
tween the covers of Il book. Neverthe-
less this incident only serves TO con-
firm us in the belief that the latter day
bioeTapher is too busy by half. MIR.
Brown. for example. wrote one clever
novel. and might we'll merit a maga-
zinc article or two on his career
though some Of the stuff that has got
itself printed about him in periodicals
has been sadly wearisome-but why
should there be two formal biographies
of n man whose achievements were
so modest? There seems to be some
thing hypnotic about the biographical
idea nowadays. Almost anybody who
has accomplished almost anything IS
seized upon, after his or her decease. as
"A
..eopy." No time is lost. The biog-
raphers realize that if they do not
hurry into the field while the name of
their subject is still more or less fresh
in the public mind, they will lose all
opportunity to find mark for their
wares. In other words, nine-tenths of
these enterprises SAVIOR far more OF
commerce than of iiterature.-New
York Tribune.
In a recent symposium on THE De-
cay 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 mis-
leads" The sentiment seems unim-
peachable, but somehow We find our
selves enjoying the comment passed
upon this commentary by a writer IN
the London Outlook" I'VE are so old
fashioned as to believe" says this Sa-
gacious individual, that the immoral
book is the book which, under a pre-
tence of fearless honesty, hides truth
by inverting idealisfn and calling 1T
realism-or in other words, by select
ing from realities with a misleading
preference for their baser elements and
downward tendencies This, it is
10 be feared, is the kind of book which
too many modern novelists-most OF
them very young-are i'm the habit of
producing, and of bestowing upon the
world with a ,bandly condeseending air.
as though all that the world had to ito
i'm order to solve its troubles at last
wore to read their colossal truths.
We infer from real conversation"
between Lucas Malet and William
Archer which appears in the Febru-
arv issue of the Critic that some en-
terprsing dramatistg attempted to
make q stage version of 'Sir Richard
Caluatly.' and that its author
peremptorily refused her consent. She
remarks that only "a freak from
Barnum's show could play the leading
part. No one who has read the novel
can deny that she is right.
So various and so contradictory have
been the reports about Michael FAR
less. the author of 'tThe Isoadmender,
recently published in England ana
America. that more than one London
writer has taken the opportunity TO
say something about the woman her-
self and her personality. Fairless Is
one of the Christian names OF Il wo-
man who gave up a great portion of
brler life tn work among many
GRADES of poor people, and The Road
member" is devoted in the main 70 her
real experiences. Her life was too fully
oneupied to allow her to write any
thing until she was Frustrated by ILL
ness in, 1900 Her book was written dur
ing the physical disability and pain OF
hei. last Illness. and in the last two
sections it faithfully portrays the last
stages of her life. which We're spent in
Chelsea ana in Sussex. She is said to
have been a woman OF much personal
grace and distinction, Of high intel
lectual attainment, and great artistic
rover and culture. Her poverty was
Voluntarily embraced, and what
specially characterized her for those
who knew, her was her Franciscan love
for mankind, and FOR all creatures,
great and small.
Gilmore Elliott Peake. whose new
novel. The Pride of Tellfair," is just
off the Harrer press, wrote his first
story when he WAS ten years so!d. lie
sent it TO his fathers church paper en-
closing with It letter for the editor
,omnosed with infinite care and labor
aud so worded that he was conlldenI
ii would insure the acceptance of tine
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