The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-02
ENGLISH POET HAS NEVER HEARD
 OF H. B. WRIGHT
Cecil Roberts Confessed His Ignorance to the Works
 of American Novelist.

Since the announcement was made That Cecil Roberts, the English pcet' was 10 speak at the High School on EIarch l. and the review of some or his many fine works in His NajeStyS service Tert written. F-eaE desire u h gar Ih. young man has t<'sn excited Where are many things which make MT Roberts the acme of the present day English literary man. John Drinkwater, his .feIIow-countryman,s who spoke here. recently, Said ol Roberts 'fFor a man who is still un- der thirty Cecil Roberts has exper- fenced life in a measure that can be claimed by few if any of his conteIn- poraries. And that he has the g1ff of shaping this material into poetry his later NWorks leaves me in no doubt; and I think that his adventures in 8he world and among it's peoples, and 4he poets power of interpretation should find many friends for him in America"
 While in New York MT. Roberts was the guest of the famous Cosmo Hamilton. Just before leaving the metropolis for the west he made some eurprisfng statements about his knowl edge of American great men, among me foremost being that her had never heard of Harold Bell Wright before he landed on these shores He spoke of the work of English literary men In America and of the American ht- erary men who have invaded Eng Rand with their works. American writers are finding a great audience Hn EngIand'' he said Edgar Lee Masters is much read there His Spoon River Anthology has pleased England, perhaps because 1t is sadr- Hral. Engfishmen like satire. Any 14aing unpleasantIy said of ones neighbor is all right, you know Ehree-fourths of the plays running m London today are American"
 sYour noveiists have a big follow ing, too, some of them, though as for my not knowing Harold Bell Wright, I'll wager we have an author who is just as popular over there, yet he is not known at all here His name is Charles Ga-Vice, and he writes books that sell endlessly- He has motor cars galore, but there are many in England who never read him and I know that he has no following tn this country.
 Among the new poets over there we have developed some frightfu class distinctions. It, is just as if on, class wanted to do away with thu comma and another wanted to d( sway with the dash, and the com maites didn't want to recognize tht dasI1ites. Each class has it's advo- cates and it's magazine. Altogethel 3Fs an unpleasant state of thing which imagine you cont have here
 with regard to the spiritualfs movement I think it is being run t death and made commonplace II England. The most popular spirit Calist in London now is an America1 lady named Harris. She start1e London recently by producing
 Spirit picture of MT. Gladstone wit his whiskers upside down. We'll, yo know that is the sort of people
 think of as taking a serious fntereS fin spiritualism-with their whisker upside down. Don't misunderstan n me in this regard I went into tn war an unbeEever and came or 0f it anything but an unbeiiever think the war has made the wall bt tween us what may be termed tt Invisible world much thinner. but
 don't think Sir Oliver Lodge and tt rest are on the right track"
 MT. Roberts, like ali other Eng1fsf men, is greatly interested in polite and of course knows a great de; about them. He said in his inte view that the middle class in En, Band has been entirely eliminated ar mere remaInS now only a large worl ing class and small remnant of u old aristocracy.
 MT. Roberts is sure to please h Gudience- Ills is a magnetic al 6Drcefu1 speaker and while de1fver1z a his talk performs a little stunt of II
 own which consists of entirely di Densing with notes and having a re
 man to man talk.
 I'm not going to lecture about u
 war he said, but merely on the e
 perience growing out of the experien
 Of the war This remark was rel
 five to his subject Through the Fly
 Hf Youth which he will use here.