Evening star., 1925-06-30
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEHELL.

Lorna Doone" is one OF the books
that seems eternal. A spacious ro-
nance, filled from cover to cover with
sentiment and nature In equal parts.
1t is as popular today as 1t was so
years ago.
June marked the one hundredth an
niversary OF the birth of its author,
Richard Blackmore. who holds some
what the same relation to other au-
thors of his day that Reginald de
koven does to Victor Herbert.
Both of these American light opera
composers, dead within the past five
years, wrote a score or more musical
plays. yet one opera of the former per-
haps will long outlive all the comedies
OF the other.
In robin Hood" perennially popu-
lar with the American public, de
Koven achieved something that Her
bert. with all his greater wealth of
melodic invention, does not seem to
have done.
Robin Hood" because of fascinat-
Ing music welded to the old folklore
story, must continue to entertain for
many, many years. In fact, it is diff
f1cult to see when 1t will not please
English-speaking peoples.
Blackmore was not-with the mighty
exception of Lorna Doone''-one of
generation, yet because of that fresh
masterpiece he bids fair to outlive
many who produced a larger number
Of best sellers
/. Today there Is scarcely an issue of
Classics that does not contain
Blackmore's best. 1t is printed and
reprinted in small type, in large type,
in expensive and inexpensive editions.
Almost every Christmas sees some
al q 70 n1i tf,u "a
the adventures of the gigantic John
Ridd and his strivings for the hand
Of Lorna.
am indebted to a chance copy Of
the London Observer, which came
wrapped around a magazine, for the
remembrance that this Is the one
hundredth anniversary Of Blackmore' s
birth.
]. l.. Garvin, in an interesting ar
ticle in that paper, tells the following
little-known facts concerning the way
Lorna Doone" became a success:
1.-THE odd thing Is that Blackmore
was in his 40th year before he turned
novelist in earnest. He wrote for over
half a decade without making his
name.
He might never have made it but
for an irrelevant stroke Of luck, sur
passing any improbability that mod
ern novelist dare bring into his plot.
AT the end Of the Cos he wrote
Lorna Doone.' 1t was destined to run
into scores of editions and millions of
copies. to be read throughout the
English-speaking world and to become
inseparable from the western moors
as Dunkery Beacon. No such success
Of it's kind has been achieved since
Scott. Amongst historical novels
Lorna Doone' has had more readers
than 'Esmond' or The Cloister and
the Hearth
But for IS months after 1t appeared
the book seemed dead failure. The
publishers lost money. The critics
shrugged. The chief journals damned
1t with faint praise.
Then, in the Spring Of 1871, Prin-
cess Louise married the Marquis of
Lorne, with whose title Blackmore had
Imagined his heroine connected. He
had not the faintest suspicion that
what he had meant for pure fantasy
would come to be associated by the in
comprehensive public with a national
event then altogether unforeseen.
Popular sentiment had been car
ried away by the royal wedding. As
Blackmore himself said, 1t gave his
novel golden wings so grand he
added, in his sturdy way. 'is the luck