New-York tribune., 1921-12-12
Ro1hc By
1OO'Io Percy Hammond

Mr.. Liveright, president of Boni G.
Liveright, sails for England with his
heart little heavy because one of his
pet enterprises has not done so we'll.
This disappointment is in the Intimate
Letters Series, the first two volumes
of which are "The Nietzsche~W agner
Correspondence" and sThe George
Sand-Flaubert Letters" Although there
are but 1,500 numbered copies of each
book, many remain unsold, a condition
which, Mr. Liveright says, "is anything
but flattering." Mr.. Liveright con-
fesses a perplexity in the matter "Per-
sonally," he writes, 81 have rarely read
two books which better repaid the time
1 spent on them" He feels sure that
if their truly fascinating" contents
are brought to the attention of readers
before they have completed their holi-
day purchases the limited editions will
soon, as the saying is, be exhausted.
Otherwise he fears that he will have
dropped his buckets into empty wells.
Nietzsche's adoring sister, Elizabeth
Foerster Nietzsche, complies the con-
versations between Wagner and her
brother; and Mr.. III. L. Menckeh con-
tributes an Introductory essay. The
letters reveal Wagner and Nietzsche in
the so-called instructive friendship of
great souls, confluence which, as
Richard Strauss is said to have said,
was one Of the most impressive and
significant cultural Incidents of the
nineteenth century. They sound "harsh
dissonances" on either side of the quar-
rel and seek to set in vibration only
the tenderest chords. For Instance, as
exhibiting Wagner in hand-clasping,
eye-lighting, heart-expanding mood, as
an ordinary person, rather than a titan,
this letter:
80 friend:
Why do you not come to US?
can find an excuse for everything-or
Whatever you like to call it.
Only don't hold yourself so aloof If you
persist in doing this | do nothing
Your room is ready.
However--or on the contrary
Nevertheless
or yet
Written the moment after your last
letter arrived.
More another time
Cordial greetings.
Richard Wagner
Mr.. Mencken, the most auintessentiaI
of the critics, in his foreword to this
correspondence, distills its contents in
his admirably alacritous and finished
fashion. The cause of the Nietzsche-
! Wagner quarrel, for long the subject Of
vague rumors and dark whispers, Mr..
Mencken, sleIth like, discovers in the
eloquent interstices between the lines
Wagner was, perhaps, bit jealous of
the young philolog gst-"the pedagogue"
as he once called him in smiling
sneer-and he regarded him, Mr.
Mencken says, as fading charmer
might regard flapper. Wagner had
in front of him the most salient and
! original personality seen in the groves
of learning since Goethe, yet his evaiu-
alton of this personality was middle
/ aged, selfish and incomplete. Nietzschc
cofnIorted and INSPIRED wagner Wltht
his worshipful understanding, and
Wagner used him now as a spur, then
as restful and recuperative cushion
and again as one who would do his
Christmas shopping for him. Wagner
was bit of a ,mountebank, almost as
egomaniacal, Mr.. Mencken intimates, as
an actor His association with the
opera houses had put the inevitable
smell of patchouiI in his hair and the
dab OF grease paint on his proboscis.
Therefore, he was trifle self-deluded
and yearning to be yessed. These
things, after Nietzsche discovered
them far beneath the surface of Wag-
ner's genius, revolted him reluctantly.