The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-24
An Anonymous
Tale of the Alps

The publishers Of TN the Noun
tains" Doubleday. Page) declare that
they do not know who the author is.
The question has reused interest in
London. But anonymity IS not the
books only claim. A good idea Of its
character is found In the analysis by
Shan r. Bullock. the English critic.
1T is in diary FORM" he writes, re
vealing the drama of three women
and one man as IL develops in a
mountain chalet in Switzerland. The
opening pages, containing the confess
sions and reflections of a woman
broken by love disappointment, are
quiet, beautifully toned and phrased.
You are interested in the cultured,
sorrowful diarist: you expect mild en-
tertainment Of superior kind for
many pages then Of sudden
find your interest stirred and held.
The two widows come. The dean
comes. What was mellowed Septem-
Der weather. as the Times puts 1t, be-
comes a blaze Of heat and power, and
right down to the magnificent sunset
you go almost breathlessly. That is
what 1 hear, and with 1t much com
mendation of the story as a piece Of art
and literature. People are asking, Who
wrote it?' don't know and don't much
care"
Christopher Morley says that the
problem doesn't puzzle him at all and
names a distinguished English writer
whose work has always been glorious
fnn
Germans and dignitaries of the Eng
lish Church. OF one thing every one
is positive-the author must be a
woman, for surely no man could have
written a story so full of q graceful
whimsicality that is distinctively femi-
nine. And indeed there Is much sup
port for this belief. One can find in
Vulnerable passages that only wom-
an could have written. but very few
IL any, that would indicate masculine
origin.
| For instance, how feminine in the
authors liking for bores:
"As for bores, persons who obvious
ly are bores, they don't bore me; they
| interest me. 1t Is so wonderful to me,
their unawareness that they are bores.
Besides. they are usually very kind;
and also, shameful though 1t Is to
| confess, bores like me, and / am
touched by being liked, even by a
| bore"
And then there is the subtle in
fiuence of clothes upon conduct 1t
is a woman's swift intuition that
judges another's tastes and character
...t.< 90
What one has on underneath does
somehow ooZe through into ones be-
havior. I know once. when impelled by
heat wave in America to cast aside
the undergarments of a candid mind
and buy and put on pink chiffon, the
pink chiffon instantly got through all
my clothes into my conduct, which
became curiously dashing. Anybody
can tell what a woman has got on
underneath by merely watching her
behavior. have known just the con-
seriousness of silk stockings, worn by
one accustomed only to wool, to pro-
duce dictatorialness where all before
had been submission"
And this is never a mans creed:
II don't believe in that keeping one
self to oneself attitude. Life Is too
brief to waste any of it being slow
in making friends. have theory
that reticence Is stuffy, hampering
thing. Except about ones EXTREMIST
bitter grief. which is, like ones ex-
tremest Joy of love, too deeply hidden
away with God to be told of; one should
be without reserves. And II one makes
mistakes, and If the other person turns
out to have been unworthy of being
treated frankly and goes away and
distorts. II can't be helped-one just
takes the risk. For isn't anything
better than distrust-and the slowness
and selfish fear of caution? Isn't any
thing better than not doing ones
fellow creatures the honor of taking
1t for granted that they are. women
and all, gentlemen? Besides, how
lonely"
Jackson Gregory. author Of Judith