New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-05-03

thor's incurable passion for dscursive
ANALYSIS. Never was there a writer OF
q memoir who conld equal Mr.. James
in the art OF being voluminous without
mourning the charge of garrulity. Can
il be said. on the other hand. that ne
is not somewhat complacent? We are
not sure These four hundred and odd
pages seem a pretty generous allow
ance for a narrative carrying the rec
ord to what we can hardly take to be
tho very last of his schooldays. 1t
staggers the imagination TO think OF
what the full story of his life would he
like if il were set forth on the same
scale.
Yet we are not ungrateful for this
book. An artist is an artist, and We
must grant him his technique If we
grant him nothing else. Those admir-
ors Of Mr.. James who bethought them
selves that the best way in which 10
commemorate his SEVENTEEN birthday
would be to present him with his own
portrait, painted by Mr.. Sargent. and
with a golden bowl of Charles the Sec
ondis time, felictously recalling the
title of perhaps his most "Jacobean
work. knew thoroughly what they we're
about. 1t is in terms Of beautiful
craftsmanship that a brilliant crafts
man is best congratulated. In such
terms Mr.. James now appropriately
enough makes his appeal. He writes
of himself as he might write of char
acter in one of his novels, almost leav-
ing fact to take care of itself while he
abounds in delicate suggestion. If any
of his devotees. taking their cue from
the Browningites. have anywhere
formed themselves into Henry James
Society there is task ready TO their
hands in "A Small Boy and Others.
Let them frame an abstract and sum-
mary of the book. condensing from 1T
brief. clear page which shall explain
precisely when and where their hero
was born. the status and daily haOit
w.
the family's wanderiugs. with exact
dates and places. and. in word, the
tangible circumstances which form the
scaffoldng, as il were. of biography.
It is understood. of course, that the
material for this document is TO be
sought nowhere save in the book in
question. We do not say that the
thing is absolutely impossible, but we
are firm on the point that IT is job
for a specialist, and that in the event
OF his presenting a really satisfactory
paper he should receive some sort Of
prize. The lay reader, first feeling a
little restless over the tricksy manner
in which the concrete things that he
Graves are forever eluding him, will
presently lose himself in a strange,
qualified enjoyment of that atmosphere
in which the tale is. after all. envel-
oped. He may not learn all that he
wants TO learn about Mr.. James and
his forebears. but then, as we have In
dicated, Mr.. James has not intended
that he should do so.
Somewhere in these pages he alludes
TO the timely conviction that his eld
ers would appear TO have had. even in
his infancy. that the only form of
riot or revel' ever to be known to
him would be that Of ''the visiting
mind" That is happy phrase, fully
character and incidentally affording
us some clue TO his present purpose.
II he is chary Of what we have called
facts" IL is because he I'm a sense,
disdains them, the reaction Of facts
upon that visiting mind Of his plainly