The New York herald., 1922-07-09
By AMELIA ". ENDE.

personalities Georg Brandes
begins the chapter devoted to
his great countryman with the fol-
lowing reminiscence:
Young. long, awkward. bowling
so low that the long blond hair
tumbled over his forehead, he
came to me for. the first time one
day in 1859 with a book of poems.
The evening before there had been
the first performance of very
poor play at the Royal Theater-
it was the only one-and the
anonymous author was said to be
certain Jacobsen 1t was not a
far fetched inference to identify
the dramatic failure with the
poems offered They were, there
fore. not read. The critic glanced
at them and returned them with
polite note and the advice not to
write slovenly verse. The impress
sion which the author had made
and the loose construction of the
words, which were completely for
gotten until the critic was re-
minded of them three years later
with smile-the finest, most soul
full smile
This was the debut of the Danish
writer whose works are now avail
able to American readers through
the translations issued by the Scan
dinavian American Foundation and
Doubleday. Page & Co.. before the
man whose criticism was capable OF
making and unmaking literary repu-
tations. Many would have been
discouraged by such a rebuff. Not
so the author of Marie Grubbe" and
"Niels Lynne" whose dream was to
write, to create poems. stories, plays,
and who had faith in his dream.
Even when already doomed by the
disease which carried him off in the
very prime of his manhood: motives,
themes, plans crowded his active
brain, and before he had finished one
work his mind was already at work
upon another.
Jens Peter Jacobsen, the son of a
merchant of Thysted. came to Copen-
hagen at the age of 16 to pursue
his scientific studies at the Univer-
sity of Copenhagen. specializing in
botany. He was a quiet. serious
student. devoting his days to re-
search and reading and spending the
evenings in the cafes. studying the
life and the people about him. While
his artist eye seemed idly to revel in
the light and the color of the shift
ing panorama. the mind of the
psychologist was sounding the souls
It was a tumultuous period in the
intellectual world of the little coun-
try. Georg Brandes was the protag-
onist of the new era which was
dawning. Julie Norregard in an
issue of the Yellow Book gave a
vivid picture of the enthusiasm with
which he was hailed as leader by
the youth of Denmark. The subjects
he touched upon in his lectures at
~, nd hA he "a
were stirring the minds Of the youth
of other countries were more or less
dramatically discussed in the cafes.
Jacobsen sat and listened. never
made speeches, but with his imme-
date neighbors and friends could sit
until morning in quiet informal con-
versation.
The result of his academic studies
was a work on the Desmidiaci9 of
Denmark. a microscopic marsh plant
in the search for which he caught
the cold that was to become fatal.
He translated Darwin's "Origin of
Species," wrote articles for a maga-
zine which embodied the aspirations
of Young Denmark, made botanical
excursions. but all the time was
thinking. dreaming poems. When
he began to write them they were
not all in verse. For his short
stories. like "Mogens," the first pub
lished, were poems in prose. an ex-
uuisite, unusual prose. which sug-
eested the rich array of colOrs on a