The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-22
M E N, w o M E N
 A N D T H IN G s

lnls name was unknown in Birni1ng ham save to few of-the elect until il was recently placarded in the shoI windows; but I say this without prejudice to the author or as any ,reflection on the community.
 
 But known or unknown he is coming here to lecture at the Temple Emanu- . Ei. on Monday evening. October 27th being the first of the celebrities to ap- pear under the auspices of the Bir- mingham Lyceum Association.
 
 I may be taken to task for intimat- ing that John Comper Powys, the poet novelist, and essayist, Is unknown save to a small circle of literary peo- pie, yet l will save myself by adding that those who are unfamiliar with his writings have missed an opportunity to come in contact with one of the most original and unique personalities of the day.
 1 l pride myself on having been an omniyorous reader from my youth up, but 1t was only few years back that volume. Confessions of Two Broth CTS" fell into my hands. It-was for the purpose Of review. but it was the only book which ever lay on my desk for i any length of time without my at least receiving perfunctory notice. |
 | I'll admit that it rather nettled me to ipl viewing, in which literary, historical l scientific, religious, agricultural and 1 every manner of book published was grist to my will, at last one too hard to be ground on my rocks had slowed up the stones and stopped the grinding and l had to admit that I wasn't liter ary miller enough to handle it.
 
 It wasn't because I failed to give the volume my attention as it arrested me from the opening page until the, word "finis" stared me in the face. Now I never did as was my usual cus- tom, that is to dip here and there and getting general idea let it go. It isn't that kind of book. It's the most provoking volume l ever tried to read, and l thought nothing could stump me, for into my literary maw every kine, of pabulum at some time or other had found it's way
 l had innocently thought that be cause I was familiar with the confes- sions of Augustine, Rousseau, Cellini, Bashkirtseff, Wilde and others; and Pepys, Goethe, Montaigne were my familiars that I was full able to taste, relish and digest anything in the way of autobiography, memoirs or confes- SiODS. hut helieve yRe nopa If tbaca had prepared me for the dishes set be- fore me by one John Cowper Powys.
 If after saying this any one rushes to read Confessions of Two Brothers" under the impression that it will be salacious reading and cause them to blush because of it's prrrIency I'll save them the trouble for i. is not of the flesh fleshly in the sense that it will ever have to be expurgated to rid it of sensuality. In, it are no wild debauches of the senses. I have said this much to keep those whose imaginations can only be fired by sex problems and the /unravelling of the eternal triangle from buying the confessions.
 
 While in it are no sensual debauches, there are mental sprees galore and il such a thing be possible immoralities
 
 are many puerilities, and yet it glistens with wonderful gIeams of thought At times I wanted to throw the book down as a veritable bit of charlantry made plausible under the guise of being q psychological study, and then certain passages would lift me out of myself and I wanted to cry out amen! with all the fervo, of my soul, and hail Powys as a new prophet.
 For years I made a special study ot psychology, first being grounded in physiological psychology before at tempting to enter the domain of no mans land in mental and spiritual psychology. I spent much time in hos pital work abroad, and attended regu- larly the clinics in one of the most fla nous of the Parisian insane asylums It was the opening era of the psycho logical laboratories, and I became au courant with not only the theories of the leading psychiatrists. but saw them at work. g.
 I was in Paris during the great hypnotic experiments of Charcot and attended his clinics I was in close touch with some of the most renowned alienists. I attended the sessions of the learned psychological societies as well as haunted some of the seances which were not under the patronage of the schools, but interesting all the same I got engrossed in the various phases ! of the subject as I was particularly in- terested in medical Jurisprudence, and therefore anything outside of the nor nal had fascination for me, and | was getting data to spring later in some great criminal trial. Q
 I have given this much personal mat | ter to lay a basis for being in a man | ner, fit to follow sympathetically the | vagaries of such a confession. as is | made by John Cowper Powys with I, out prejudice simply because l happen l to be a preacher; for in those days ! l proudly boasted that was an agnostic. i Now there uns-through his whole book | a scorn of critics and he doesn't give | a continental whether any one approves | or disapproves what he says. It is this l which gives me such liberty in writ l ing so frankly.
 To me his confessions are highly i'm teresting, and I credit him in being | absolutely sincere in his effort to state | just how men and women and things react upon him. It's one of the boldest as we'll as closest attempts at self revelation which has ever fallen into my hands. and if it were not intensely interesting as literary feat, and it is literature of a high order, 1t would still be worth while as study of cer- tain type of culture set down in the midst of this twentieth century world |