The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-06-02
HUGH WALPOLE

nesday night Miss Mccarthy read this
paper on one of the contemporary
British Novelists, Hugh Walpole.
Only portion of it is here printed.
Names mean much or they mean
little according to the association
which they call up. To those to whom
the name Walpole has meant musty
records Of England's past, parliament
tarv intrigue and corruption, states
manship astute and otherwise, Hugh
Walpole comes as delightful surprise.
Englishman he is through and
through, with an Unborn love of her
moldy customs and traditions even
while he holds them up, with kindly
amusement, for our inspection: But,
they are a part Of her past and to be
left behind by those who would face
the larger future and help her solve
her modern problems.
In his introduction to ""The Green
Mirror" finished just as the GreaI
War came upon the world and mol
published until three years later ne
says ,:no
Eve are now in world very differ
ont from that with which this story
deals. and it must, am afraid, appear
slow in development and uneyent1n,
in movement, belonging, in style ana
method and subject, to a day thaI
seems to us already old fashioned, :,
Rnt I will frankly confess that !
have too warm a personal attectlon
for Katherine, Philip, Henry and NIL
l;cent to be able to destroy utterly the
s;ons and traditions of their existence;
nor can I feel my book to be quite, old
fsshioned when the love of England
u,h;ch have tried to make the text OF
it. has in many of us survived SO IT,
umphantly changes and castastropnles
and victories that have shaken lnto
ruin almost every otner 'ai'n We
held .o+;vo,v
Young to have won the positlon Ie
now holds among the Engl1sh novel, s
lists. He was born in 1884 ana mas leu
rather an uneventful life. HIS 1athe5
is the Bishop of Edinburgh and hVeo
at one time in New York City WINE an
instructor in the General Iheologlcal
Seminary. Hugh Walpo!e was only
Ave wears old at this time, so t n
American CITY can have made no tell
mo impression upon him. Last sum
n,er he returned again to this country
hit seems have created little o!
st;r as no mention is made OF the WISH
IN tho leading weekly magazines. his
odncat;on was completed at cam
bridge and later he taught school 1or
a time. =; +ba
uRtokman" regarding visit ne nae nae
with him during the war says, II
Walnole is anything, he is distinguish
cd and YOU know at once that the so
o;a+v he writes of in some OF MS
hooks is known to him at first hano'
+hat he has not a veneer OF manners
hit that manners are his by lnnerl-
tance. You feel that he has lived ID
high candle-lit rooms in London an9
+he+ he has sat down with dukes ana
duchesses." -. 4,4 lis M
sition in society is assured, both as the
son of the Bishop of Edinburgh ana as
10 cousin of the Earl of Oxford, ne
has little liking for the limellght ana
snends most of the time in his simple
cpttape on wild cliff in Cornwall, or IN
10 literary atmosphere of his artistic
hacbelor anartments in London.
During the war he spent two years
with the Russian Red Cross on the
eastern front. On his return 70 E M;g
land. he took a clerkshlp nthe MIL
istrv of Information, where ms
knowledge Of Russia and MS lnslgns
into her people proved OF great vaiue
to ENGLAND in those days OF narrowing
uncertainty regarding this unstaoie
country. :, 1ooo
with the "Wooden Horse" which was
an outgrowth of his teaching exper-
. fence. Since then he has averagea a.
work of Importance each year. one
mist look beyond the mere story III
his books or he may find little to SAL
isfv. They cover comparatively
short period of time in each case ane
the events and incidences are those Oh
Tho ordinary every day life OF the m
J;vidnal characters. They move along
IN a leisurely fashion, each lnclden5
carefully developed, but very, vlVlo
and compelling, giving one 1eeling
of nersonal contact which remains
1one after the book is laid aside. There
;s nothing exciting or sensatlonaa7l IN
+bonS Init there runs through all OF
them weird and morbid fore-shad-
ou;no If events about to happen Whlch
Ieens one wondering and expecting
tragedy even though it never nap
mems His power seems to be IN ms ms
ability to penetrate to the very TOOLS
Of human existence. He is almost u u1
cannv in the way he compr1ehfe1n,ds inc
motives back Of the troubled llyes OF
his chracters, their thoughts and 1eel.
mos Charles Hanson ToWne, says:
"He digs not only around ana lneo>
the mystery of existence put R per e.,
trates beyond and beneath It, Aney
are astonishing performances OF 1u one
50 Young; and my own feeling OF wa.
nole is that he is Keats of prose-
one. who. baptized in some divine nre.
has a double vision and is almost
clairvoyantly able to see the shaoo"
of our dreams" .,,o,
" His books never end in the conven-
tional way. They stop when partlcu1-
lar incident in the life Of his charact-
ers is rounded out, and so leave one:
With a general air. Of Incompetence:
to work out the solution, happy or une
happy as the case may be: :. Many h;1 g+ Of
oyv,oor qU9In IN MIS- OCn.