The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-03-10
BY HECTOR FULLER.

Moral books
ESasperatiug to license genial books.
discerning from The human dignity
And merry bcoks. which SET you weeping when
The sun sliines-aye. and melancholy books.
Which make y0u laugh that any one should weep,
In tlis disj0intcd life. ior one wrong more,
Mrs. Brownlrg IN Aurora Leigh.
The recent discussions about the art Of
Mr. " d. HoweIs. the dean Of American
letters. makes timely, in some sort, a word
or two about his great confrere. MIR.
Henry James, whose recent visit 10 this
country was so illuminative Of the strides
he has made away from what might be
styled the Bostonianism" of his earlier
days. Almost thirty years ago Bayard
Taylor wrote some of Mr. James ear
Tier work: Few men have been 50 brill
liantly equipped for literary performance.
Carefully trained taste, large acquire
ments of knowledge, experience Of lands
and races. and association with the best
minds. have combined to supply him
with all the purely Intellectual require
ments which an author could desire"
This is true, for Nj James was born
under lucky star; his education was I'M
common; il began la America and was
carried on at Geneva. Paris. Boulogue-
sur-mer, and Bonn.
It is plain that from his wide view
point of men and things the works of Mr..
James which have been styled 'interna-
tional novels" were to have been expected.
In his early work he took for his theme
the contrast between American and Eng
lish manners and ideals, and he found
the disadvantage with his native land.
That. probably, is one reason why he has
preferred England a "a place Of residence,
To think of Henry James is TO recall The
American" Daisy Miller" THE Por-
trait of q Lady, THE Princess Casamas-
sima." and other of his novels; there is a
tendency on the part of all but the elders
TO forset that some of the highest exam
pies of Mr. James art are to be found
I'm his short stories. The best of his short
stories are TO be found, perhaps, In the
volume called "A Passionate Pilgrim. "
stories Of deft fancy and deep philosophy,
but the mark of the tool is deep upon
them. As the years have gone on since
the days OF "A Passionate Pilgrim" MIR.
James has learned not to make his
books less workmanlike. but TO conceal
IN a measure the art by which they were
made.
Realist in its broadest sense is Mr..
Henry James. and he takes rank in the
very forefront Of American uovelists-foT
in spite Of his so long residence abroad,
Boston still claims him as her own.
Stylist he is, too; perhaps no American
writer has paid 50 much attention TO the
mere matter of style. His writings bear
the stamp Of broad and generous culture,
his pages impress the reader with their
weil-bred ease, and there Is "a feasibility
and variety about his sentences that soon
come 70 have something Of the same sort
OF charm that is worked by Walter Patcr.
To the French he owes "a great deal; some
thing of the same thought that impelled
BalZaC has marked Mr.. James ideas Of
the functions of the novel lie has de-
Clared his debt t. Sainte-Beuve and no
one could read his beautiful essay on
alfred DE- Musset without realizing how
thoroughly MS mind has grasped the
French idea, assimilatcd it, adapted it,
and-USed it,.
VIII lie come back to these shores
Who can teII2 That he does not quite like
us. his recent Impressions" show. all
though he finds much to admire in US
Other literary men Of less culture than
Ar. James have found more well-springs
of inspiration in England than In the
United States. but whether he stays on
the other side until the end-as Bret
Harte did-0r not, he viii always be en-
titled TO his position as brilliant leader
perhaps the most brilliant Of his t.me-in
American letters.
The Macmillan Co. Of New York. has
just brought out Jack London's latest
novel, Before Adam" which has been
running as a serial in a popular maya
zine. 1t is an errauc and strange book
for which AR London owes something 70
authors who have written before him
Stanley Waterloo tried something of the
sort in "The Story Of Alb" and Kipling in
THE Finest Story in the World" gave
the hint Of the story that might be told
in seIni-drcamfUl state OF subconscious-
ness of a previous existence.
The narrator of this story IS supposed
10 be q young man who has abn0rmaIIy
acute perceptions of the lives he has lived
before, and his recollections take him
back to the Hid-Pleistocene axe when
men lived in trees. His mother he de-
scribes as like IL large orEuE-utan," and
his knowledge of her begins when she
saves him from an attack by wild boar
Now if one chooses 10 take the mental
effort To try TO recast the conditions of
fa fef fs.
rest Of the book for himself How men
in those days used their feet as We now
only use our hands; how language grew
from inarticulate sounds and pautomime
how the discovery of fire was made: The
use Of crude tools, and so on. As told by
Mr.. London, il IS not very convincing. moi
particularly interesting. and the pictures
which are supposed to illustrate the text
while they may be artistic enough, are
Nightmares.
on March IS Doubleday. Page & Co
viii publish Commander Robert T.
Pearys book. Nearest The Pole" the
first complete story of the expedition thai
carried the Stars and Stripes "farthest
north" Special interest attaches to the
work from the fact that the preface TO tht
book has been written by President
Roosevelt, for whom Peary's ship wa.
named, and who presented Peary with The
gold medal awarded him by the Nationa
Geographic Society.
Recently the ninety-ffth anniversary Of
the birth of Charles Dickens was ceIe
brated IA England, and a proposal Is nov
on foot to establish a national Dicken:
library in London. The managers of rht
Guildhall Library have offered TO set asid,
a special room for such a collection. The
nucleus of the library will probably bt
the famous Kitton collection, which Mrs
Kitton has offered for the very moderat,