Evening star., 1912-03-09
De MORGAN TALKS
Gives Star Correspondent
Facts About His Wife
IN HIS. HOME AT CHELSEA
Became Known as an Author at the
Age Of Sixty-Seven.
HIS BOOK WAS REJECTED
How "Joseph Vance, Came to Find
a Publisher-C1ose Observer
of London Life.
Foreign Correspondence of The Star.

| Foreign Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON, February "a, 1912.
Rich as it is in literary memories
the picturesque old London district OF
Chelsea has had few more remarkable
residents than William Friend De Nor.
gan, the man who startled the literary
! world by blossoming forth as an author
at the age of sixty-seven. His first
book. Joseph Vance," which he did not
begin writing until 1904 and published
| in 1906, was not a mere flash in the
pan or the ramb1ings Of an old man
| such as might have. been expected. I,
was a powerful character study such
as Charles Dickens himself might
have written. and the appreciative pub.
lie had barely started clamoring fol
more when his second work. "Alice
For Short" was launched Altogether
| in the five years ending 1911 Mr.. De
Morgan published five books. which
| emphatically confirmed the first i'm.
preston that new literary star. and
worthy successor to Dickens and
Thackeray. had appeared upon the
horizon.
| Mr.. De Morgan is modest in his man.
clines to admit that his works have
any superlative merit. When I called
upon him at his comfortable old home
127 Church street, Chelsea. he declar-
ed that his novels could hardly have
penetrated as far as the United States
and that there was really nothing fresh
that he could say.
"Au that can be said about me has
been very nicely said in various Lon.
don magazines. and I am sure that the
l.American public has little time to spare
for reading about the latest recruit to
the ranks of novelists.'
1 assured him that he was mistaken
and he courteously gave me few
impressions of his work and life.
| Despite his seventy-three years Mr.
De Morgan is tall and straight, and In
| his younger days must have been a
| fine figure of a man. Even now he is
as active as a man of fifty. and his
magnificent forehead and only mOder-
ately venerable beard make him a dis
tinctive figure. and genius who car
be picked out from a thousand present
| day writer's.
Mr. De Morgan's Home.
No. 1o7 Church street, in Chelsea. but
very near the boundaries Of the deca-
dent district Of Fulham, is a charac-
teristic dwelling of the regency and
early tlCIOIldA QCiioAS. ~$OS AdA AAOh
| the much visited home of Carlyle. the
Chelsea sage" it stands at corner
of Church street, and has carefully
laid out old world garden in front and
a larger and more secluded one be-
hind. Modern architects would never
design anything like the room In which
| 1 saw Mr.. De Morgan, but they could
not build anything more comfortable
| or homely. The pictures on the wall
| the bookcases and fiimsy tables load
ed with books-there were books
everywhere-spokei in the most unmis-
| taxable manner of the character, hab-
its and talents of the master of the
| house
| Everything was early Victorian. II
seems odd to speak of a man who
started writing only in the Edwardian
era, as an victorian, but Mr.
| De Morgan is essentially early-VIc-
torian. His books are written in the
| leisurely but always human and in
teresting Dickensy style. The explana-
tion given by Joseph Vance" for his
'Ill-written Autobiography" entirely
| hits off Mr.. De Morgan's views. 90
seph Vance" says: II know why I be-
gan this memoir. 1t was an ex
pertinent to see how much I could
really recollect IL I once began to try
| and then / got led on"
Mr.. De Morgan admitted to me that
he "got led on" and that he was lee