The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-10
LORD DUNSANY|S IS IN UNIQUE SETTING
 FOR INSPIRATION
Aristocratic Author of Popular Plays Is Housed in Twelfth
 Century Irish Castle


 plays could see Lord Dunsany himself at home, they would at once understand why those plays have such an original flavor, and why the word unique has been over- worked in describing them and must still be flogged into service to describe the man. He is unique, eccentric and as for his genius, the only reservation one is Inclined to make about it is that it is an smateur genius, easy and comfortable it is, so apparently occasional and al- ways remote, so sheltered by cifcum- stances and by it's secingly unlimited and uninterrupted self-satisfaction.
 When l went to see him the other day in his twelfth century home, Castle Dun- s5ny, little over twenty miles away from Dublin, I found him sitting before chessboard, engaged in game with his fourteen-year-old son. This seemed quite normal, and even commonplace, just leaving out the fact that it was in the middle of a pleasant afternoon. But the board! No ordinary chess player satisfied with the complications of sixteen pieces and sixteen pawns ever saw such a board full. Evidently there was revolution or an invasion or a civil war in the chess piece world. Or perhaps counter revoiu- tion. For there were kings and queens in difficulties all over the place, and-no, 1t must have been plain, everyday revolution, because al 1.-the pawns seemed
 
 the other.
 Its a game I've just invented" Lord Punsany explained. 'all pieces play on oneside-two sets of them-and all payns on the other-also two sets. l have a the ory that one side ought to be absolutely stronger than the other, and l want to find out which,"
 And the trying thing is.' added Lady Dunsany, that he dant find out because whichever side he takes wins"
 He has the chess distinction of having composed a problem, perhaps the only one. which outwitted Capablanca; here 1t is for the experts: Set the board as if for the beginning of the game. but with kings on queens squares and vice versa, and mate in four moves.
 When the slaughter of the aristocrats was over Uord Dunsany was playing the pawns) we went to look around the castle, one of the feudal strongholds planted by the British in an early phase of the Irish question about 700 years ago to protect Dublin from natives outside the pale. Looking at some fine old por- traits of his ancestors, Lord Dunsany ad- mitted that not a few of them had been distinguished men in their day, but that none of them had had literary genius such as nissan eagle in the dovecotte, he described himself. His envy of his uncle, Sir Horace Plunkett, was another admis- sion. America had been mentioned
 Tt must be very pleasant for Uncle Horace to visit America" he said. T love America and the Americans. I al. ways wish I could go there simply to en- joy them and their great country; but they make such a fuss of me-
 I said something about Americas ap- preciation of his plays.
 "Yes," he said. Americans have the best dramatic taste of any people in the world, and they have gone far beyond Europe in the excellence Of tnelr the- atrical productions.
 But you mustn't get the idea that Lord Dunsany is conceted little flop or poseur. He is a big man, stands over six feet and is broad in proportion, fnoth- ing affected about his appearance; on the contrary, a rather carelessiy dressed stooping figure and person of unmls- takable sensibility; not affected. either, in sentiment or speech, but saying in a frank, manly way the things that, writ ten down, may be misread as juvenile swank or artistic mannerism. Something Rcoseveltian about his personal charm and in his love of big game, too.
 q shot all these myself he jsaid with a wave of the hand round eIhall stud ded with heads and horns of great beasts, including a formidable rhinoceros and stuffed lion crouching for the spring that was never sprung
 In the billiard room part3of an addi-
  baron built to his own great and Justi- fiable satisfaction--no sham antique, he is careful to point~ out, but really beautiful bit of modern architecture and decorated with a rich and beautiful simp1icity-a large museum table with glass cover attracts the attention. Un-. der the glass there lie what look ike a precious collection of few rare old books in exquisite leather or parch- ment covers decorated with ancient de- signs in gold.
 'Ah," said Dunsany. you would ike to see these? He unlocked the ease and carefully withdrew one of the books. This is the original manuscript of 'An Unknown Warrior.
 was going to ask about this anony- nous classic of antiquity when II dawned on me just in time that 1t was one of his own works thus preciously bound and preserved under glass. II was written in clean and bold, if ec7 centric handwriting.
 t'It's beautifully copied; l wonder you have the patience I said. ''It isn't copied. That's the original manuscript just as I wrote it.'
 "A clean copy. l suppose you mean, I said, turing the leaves.
 .'No, the original"
 s'But there doesn't seem to be any revision, any corrections"
 T never revise. I never correct. At least" he added hastily, taking the book and fluttering the leaves-"Yes. l believe there is one word changed yes, here 1t is. dusk you see, instead of evening" It's a pity; but dusk is the better word there; the right word I am very particular about getting just the right word. you see"
 And here's the original manuscript of The Gods of the. Mountain" he continued, carefully taking another richly bound book from the case. T think there are more corrections in this. You see. here is word altered; and there-there are three words crossed out"
 Then do you think it all out scene by scene and sentence by sentence be- fore you write it down." I asked
 Not at all I just sit down and write. I wrote one-act play yester- day between tea and dinner. I won't tell you what I call it. because don't want it to get about before I am ready. But The Gods of the Mountain'-I didn't know in the least how it vas going to end when I was in the middle of it. It was very puzzling. Of course, I had to recognize the fact that when the people doubted whether their vis- itors were really the gods who had left their mountain home to visit the city there would be sure to be somebody in quisitive enough to go into the hills to see if the gods were still there had 10 let that happen. I couldn't halp