The sun., 1918-12-15
A MEMOIR OF JOYCE KILMER,

Il
l. of JOYCE KmMER that ROBERT CoRTEs HOL-
LIDAY, his intimate friend and literary executor,
exquisite master of words and values. as he has
shown himself often last of all in WGIkingStick
PcpcrS), the person of all others to have written
his memoir. 1t will be found in the memorial edl-
ton of the poems, essays and letters of JOYCE hI-
MER, which GEORGE H. DoRAN is about to publish.
The essays and most of the poems havcbcen included
in previous volumes, some out of print but his lew
poems and prose selections from France Will DE
found here with many of his letters and those who
have not known his letters have not known the man.
"JOYCE KIIMER aid not talk poetry Mr.. HoILI-
writes, but he did talk exactly like his essays
which admirably present the brave, humorous WIS
dom of the man as his intimate friends knew him.
And so it with his letters.
Ii was the peaSanest war he had ever attended,
KuMER wrote back from France. Nice war; nice
people nice country nice everything, " and he says
in a letter to the Reverend JAMES j. DAILY, when
/ next visit Campon II teach you lin addition to
The Boston Burglar an admirable song called
Dorm IN the Heart of the Gas House District"
And to use Mr. HOLIDAY S words, with that IN
imitable, irrepressible and incompatible Kimerlan
pleasure he contemplated his ''senility.
Il picture myself at sixty, with a long white
hat, | can see my gnarled but beautifully groomed
hands as they tremblingy pour ont the glass of dry
sherry which belongs to every old mans breakfast.
| cannot think of myself at seventy Or eighty
grow hysterical with applause am lost in a
deirium of massive ebony canes, golden snuff boxes
and dainty silk hats
No Perfunctory Writing, This.
1t is the felicity of these pages that they cannot
II L,
that they cannot be sad, " Mr.. HOLIDAY modestly
announces at the beginning of his excellent work,
but we know that in unskilled hands the memoir Of
the most brilliantly starred life can be deprived OF
its rightfu dre. He gracefully acknowledges III
debtedness 10 the many persons who have con-
tributed to this appreciation, but those familiar
with his literary quality will recognize the flavor
throughout.
One of the best things about these pages is that
they are frank. He does not dehumanize his friend
as many another would have done. From the very
earliest pages it is his policy TO tell us not much
the things that are Of good report as the things
which will most interest In writing of the days
when they were both clerks at SCRBNER's s, he does
. not deny us the pleasure Of knowing that KILMER
very poor one.
''There followed brief sojourn" (aftcr the dis
astrous occasion with the editor of the Horse Jour-
nal, Of which Mr.. HOLIDAY has told us), "at a
salary of q think So week. as retail salesman in
the book store of Charles Scribncr s Sons dignity
which the young litteraeur with humorous
dignity for exactly two weeks. As a retail salesman,
however, this exceedingly interesting young man
did not make high mark. Ones general impress
sion of him on the floor is picture of happy
student, standing entranced, frequently with his
back to the door (Which theoretically he should
have been watching for incoming cistOmers), day
after day engrossed in perusing two volume edi-
ton of Haddmc BOrdry"
The Intensive Life.
JOYCE KILMER would have been thirty-twO in
December but at one and ten. as LAURENCE
CONNIE has said, he was, in the amount that he had
lived about seventy years old. AT twenty five he
was already bit of a celebrity having arrived in
the pages of Who's Who. and it was shortly after
this that he began lecturng, which in combination
with many of his poems, most conspicuous among
them Trees. and his interviews, made his name dis
tingushed 10 an exceptional extent. Mr.. HOLIDAY