The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-14
HIS WORK Frnrsnrp.

AAeS- " S1esA Ea<$Ashx Ae4Ss The recent death In . far-ofr for eisn land of r. Marion Crawford. the famous author. will be sincerely re- gretted by the many thousands who have read his books with genuine de- light. He had not yet reached what we now call old age. for he was but in the nfty-hfth year of his age. but he had written much and well during the years he had devoted to literary work.
 MT. Crawford" says The New Hsv- en Register. wrote from a liberal edu- cation, both of books and experience outside of them. He was a trained writer. In fiction he spoke with skill and in other departments he spoke with authority. He has not generally been given, by litersteurs themselves. a high place in our literary hall of fame. Perhaps it was only because they were jealous of his success and lis abundance. But the number of his admirers has been legion, and they could give reason. He has probably been one of our best modern exam pies of the true story teller. To our age he has been in way what Scott and Kingsley were to a former age. This is not said to compare Nhim with either. He may not be compared with any writer of this or former time. not because of his merit or superiority. but because of q certain puzziing quail ity which put him in a class by him. self. He wrote for those who love the ina aginative story. and as a stimulator of that healthy imagination without which our race would be weak and our life dull level. he did great work In his time. His style Is virile. if not of marked originality. and his matter is always clean. even if not so realistic as some have come to require In these days. Perhaps we must wait for the present epidemic of realism to pass before we can get proper estimate of Mir. Crawford.
 Tn one respect. Mfr. Crawford became e novelist and story writer by acci- dent, as one might say. He went to India in 1873 for the purpose of mak- ing a study of Sanscrit and other ian guages of the East. Tn Ailabahalad he added to his meagre income by work ing on the editorial staff of . news. paper. Some time after. while in the United States, he told his uncle. Sam uel Ward. who was a man of note at that time. story of a strange man he had known while in Ailabahaiad. and of a curious deal in diamonds in which the strange man and a native were concerned. His uncle thought a good book could be, made of the story and prevailed on him to write it. The result was 'sAfr. Isaacs." his first book and one of his best. though 1t lacked some of the method and finish of his later works.
 Whatever the real or the literary world. present or future, may have to say of Mir. Crawford as writer there can be no two opinions as to the pop. ularity he has enjoyed. As The Brook lyn Eagle says. .'crawford's ultimate place in literature cannot. of course, be determined. by his contemporaries. but it seems clear that he win assume a hiRlaer rank than those writers of "best sellers, who flash across the publishing Armament for season and then disappear. He is probably. not one of the inmortais. but he is at least a writer who has had no need to blush when his work was tested by. other standards than those of the counting room and whose books will be valued for their literary worth and not chiefly by the number of editions through which they ran"