The sun., 1918-07-07
By BARRETT H. CLARK.


from recent letters of NJ ROLAND to Mr..
Clark give it a timely interest.-EDIToR
Books and the Book World.
ID EFORE the manuscript of this trans
- lation was sent to press it was for
warded to NJ. ROLAND for his approval.
As neither my publisher nor / knew the
whereabouts of NJ. ROLAND, and as we
had merely heard that he had left France
not long after the publication of his war
pamphlet 4bore the Conflict and was re-
siding in sort Of exile, we were by no
means sure that the typoscript or our
letters would reach him. But we tried,
sending them in care of his Paris pub
fishers.
NJ. ROLAND was located and we began
a correspondence which has not yet ended.
The earlier letters were of purely formal
character and evinced the authors slight
annoyance at my suggestion that We
should proceed with the publication of
two plays, The Fourteenth Of July and
Danfon, and The Peoples Thedter, unless
we heard from him ard pay his publish
ers fair price. Our reason for so doing
was merely to protect ourselves, as the
books were not copyrighted in America.
Not Matter of Money.
In my first preface to the present vol
ume 1 had said something about NJ. Roll
lands having retired from public life and
being temporarily crushed, but the first
reply I received was ample proof that he
was very much alive He would never
willingly consent to the publication of a
translation of his works without first
seeing that it rendered faithfully the
spirit of the original. He did not care
even to discuss terms, and he added by
way of proof of his commercial dlsinter-
estedness that the proceeds of the Nobel
Prize, of which he was the recipient not
long ago, amounting to over $4,000, he
spent IN works of charity.
The manuscripts were therefore sent
to him to Villeneuve, In Switzerland. L
asked him to look them over, returning
only the pages on which he wished to
make corrections. A month later l re-
ceived a letter, from which / shall quote
the most notable passages. 1t contained
one page of the typoscnpt of The Peoples
Theater from my brief preface.
/ should first explain that two years
ago I spent an afternoon with friend
who had recently visited NJ. ROLAND. He
told me at the time that the author Of
ADORE the Conflict seemed crushed by the
weight of the great war. 1t was this hint,
together with the fact that after dihgent
search could find no record of anything
new from his pen, that led me to write the
short paragraph to which our author
refers in his letter. l had better first
quote a short passage from my original
preface:
"The Peoples Theater is more than the
exposition of theory; it is autobiogra-
phy of a sort. Readers and lovers of
Jean hristophe will find in this less am
bilious work certain hitherto unknown as
poets of the soul of the creator of that
monumental novel. True, this work of
combat is youthful, but there is something
attractive in the naive impetuosity with
which the young revolutionary sets to
work demolishing the idols of the past and
attempting to clear the field for saner,
more robust and healthier drama, and
theatre where the working man and his
family may seek relaxation and find food
for mird and soul.
"The years have brought maturity to
. Roman ROLAND and a touch of scepti-
cism; the weight of the great war has for
the time being crushed him; but a man
who could SO bravely combat prejudice,
tradition and hatred as he need fear moth
ing from the future"
"Crushed? Not at ALL"
The letter from NJ. ROLAND dated
Villeneuye, Nav Is, 1918, reads as fol-