Evening star., 1924-06-10
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
HISTORY. Cosmo Ham
ilton. Little, Brown & Company.

HISTORY. Cosmo Ham
ilton. Little, Brown & Company.
The Wise Man said: I'm all the his
tories that have yet to be written, the
only two pages that will be of any
those which will deal with the say
ings and doings of myself and you"
In frank agreement with old Ali Ben
Abou Taiebs appraisal of the ego
centric human-an appraisal as
shrewd as it is both honest and sound
Mr.. Cosmo Hamilton promptly sets
about the business of getting down
on paper his own two pages" for
the benefit of both himself and us.
An elastic two pages, since here they
stretch to the measure of four hun
dred. or thereabout. Times have
used to sit around all day with
nothing to do except to dig up
truth here and there and then to
shape it into words of wisdom
Nowadays it takes pages and pages
Of paper and print for even one
active person to record no more than
a part Of his own multitudinous
doings and sayings.
Right here we find ourselves face
to face with the outstanding effect
of this personal history. 1t is above
everything else a record Of work, an
account of many and varied adven-
lures in one special field of industry.
That this is the field OF literature
rather than, say. that Of law, politics,
finance, trade, does not in any way
affect the attitude Of this author to-
ward it. Alert to opportunity, keen
tematic, even piodding. in habits OF
production. Mr.. Hamilton behaves
toward the making of fiction much
as any other successful business man
does in capable fronting upon his
own occupation. Yet this is in nc
sense a workaday accounting. That
is it's undercurrent. Its surface ex-
Interesting people-hundreds of them
come and go here in an easy
intimacy of contact. The inside his
tory of more than one novel or play
steps out into the open for our en-.
tertainment. Incidents and episodes
jostle one another, at the center OF
each a well known character. or
-
public is habitually in a ferment OF
friendly curiosity. So while, al
heart, this history is the plain story
of hard work. upon the surface it is
a colorful shifting picture OF current
literature embodied in it's projectors
as these impinge upon this author
and his work.
A novelist and playwright. now
| moving definitely on into the NOV
ies-these are the steps along which
We follow the career of Cosmo Ham
ilton. Mr.. Hamilton began early aud
with nothing lacking of the tradi-
tional discouragement that ambition.
parents set up against the generally
| unpromising occupation of letters
| But the boy wrote and wrote, finally
| achieving Which Is Absurd" a
novel. More than this, he fount
courage. somewhere, to take it tc
Mr.. Fisher Unwin. publisher. Sen
talking. Naive. unsophisticated, flip
pant, ingenious. unconventional. Dis
| tinctly clever-and now that / Sc,
you. too clever. rather dangerousl!
clever. In fact precocious. Still
what do you want for it," In /:
| asked hundred pounds. He got ten
Robert Barr. a kindly man. went t'
jerome K. jerome, who was run
! ming a weekly of Sorts" and asked
him to say something nice about tha
boys first book. Jerome promised tc
(which Is Absurd BY Cosmo Ham
| ilton. Autonym Library, Fisher Un.
win.-Quite So The boy survived
the critical wit of Jerome. He
| writing of novels and plays. into
turning other writer's novels into
drama Today there is charged tt
| his account a long 1ist-novels, plays
films = all popular. all of socia
| charm and usually of social sub
literary quality. Amazing industr.
| and clear versatility stand here 70
everybody's encourage
| There are numberless incident
here deeply interesting 20 any on
who writes. to any one who eve
tries to write This is one such. /
| is years after that first novel Nj
Hamilton is now deep in his happ.
and fruitful friendship with Charlie
| Frohman. Mr.. Frohman has aske'
him to write a play, in hurry,
play that Seymour Hicks is to set Z
music. Il had no more notion o
what to write or how to write
than fantail pigeon wobbling on
croquet ball. A month was mine
days. 1t would be perfectly simpl
to make up a plot in the bath, on tn
golf links, riding through lionel
lanes on a bicycle. practicing hoo
shots alone, walking, walking, walk
ing. At the end of the first weel
nothing; tremors of nervousness. A
the end of the second week. nothing
insomnia and panic-the chance @
my life to be missed, money take
under false pretenses, ignominy
obliteration of the brain. tnrne
over everything that l had writer
Useless. / went over everything tina
1 had mapped out to write. Hope
less. / considered several ingeniou
methods of suicide. And then. in tn
cracking in my candles. l sat ono
more at the desk 1 hated the sigh
of and wrote on sheet Of untouche
paper. Cinderella of Berkeie
Square-and never left it, even 10
sleep and meals. until the play wa
finished" Interesting-and encourag
ing, though not an outcome to b
relied upon as dependable. Nor doe
he rely upon il. as rule.
Again, and this the more usu:
view of Cosmo Hamilton as a worker
For myself, being fundamentally
very lazy person, who would IA
rather play than work, and to whol
the freedom of the links is at a
times far more congenial than th
slavery of the pen, l confess that
rigid and regular routine, like ths
Of the banker and the bricklayer,
the only thing that saves me fro
playing truant from my desk an
from falling a victim to that ps
thetic type Of self-deception that
called waiting for an Inspiration A
every writer knows from bitter 9,
perience. inspiration is the only thin
| that 40 opof he plucked from a bus