New-York tribune., 1922-12-10


A Henry Moore. NJ. p. was born in
II Moore Hall. BallygiaSs. County
Mayo. ireland. in 1889. His formal
education was acquired in Catholic school
in Ireland and under a tutor in England
Trained carly for a military career he fore
went the hope Of martial glory for the more
immodest and retiring life Of an humble
cavalier Of the beaux arts in Bohemian Paris
or this brief display OF humility in his youth
though, he has never since beea guilty.
He browsed around the studios. protesting
no other gods before MAnet. and getting an
earful Of studio gossip, which he later made
use of in Impressions and Opinions" and
Modern Painting" He studied painting. bu;
either his talent or his training was made
quate: II is the only one who has ever seen
one Of his eanvases. and concerning it the
gentle mystic has ever maintained generous
silence.
Leaving Paris in the late '7Os he vent
TO London, where. reduced by temporary pow
erty 70 earning a livelihood as a critic and
a journalist, he found that though his French
was fluent his English lacked idiom. He had
to learn English all over again, but while yet
acquiring proficiency in his mother tongue
he some times rested from the painful effort
end lapsed into full pages Of the easier
French.
He tried verse and in the full bloom Of
initiative adolescence he published some shall
low and gaudy nonsense called Flowers Of
sfn.O.n nnndolofra -
the nursing bottle-and Of these he has since
been properly ashamed. In 1901 his friends,
Edward Martyr and W. B. Yeats, got him
to come 70 Dublin to take part in the Irish
literary revival. He remained there ten
years, helping TO establish a theater. eneour-
aging new men, talking interminably Of art
with II and John Eglington, and storing up
as much delightful libel against all his
friends as he could safely print in Hail
and Farewell" and still remain unassassi-
mated and out Of Jail.
DELICIOUS interference with the free
~ play Of artistic ideas drove Moore once
again TO London, where, in Ebury Street, he
has since resided. He has never marriedi
some ayow that despite the boasts in "Me-
moirs Of Ny Dead Life" and Confessions Of
a Young Man" he has never even been kissed;
but that is probably carrying hypothesis bit
too far. His novels, revealing a mixed dis
eipleship Of Flaubert and Zola, arc no ineon-
siderable part Of his achievement. as an art
ist; but It Is TO his later books, "Hail and
FAREWELL "AvoWAls." aThe Rrook Keritho
and "A story-Teller's Holiday tina. one must
go 10 find probably the purest and most ex-
quisite English prose style achieved By any
one since Newman.
How much effort the ease and naturalness
and grace Of this style costs Moore In labor
may be learned from Moore's frank eonfes-
sion in the recently published Portrait Of
George Moore in a Study Of His Work" By
John Freeman Oscar Wilde had said that
Moore had TO write for seven years before he
knew there was such a thing as grammar and
seven years more before he knew that para
graph was architectural
wilde was right" be says. aT did not
know simply did not know how TO write,
and even now, after more than forty years
diligence, I've almost as much trouble with
grammar as with spelling; IT'S Incredible, the
trouble have to take in order to produce
even the passable sentences which other men
write uuthinkingly."
In the matter Of theme. Moore's unnageing
service at the fame Of Eros Is become a para
digm Of sac-edotal zeal Saint Simeon Stv