Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-04
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
L. c. NJ.

1. C. M.
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HALF way. An Autobiography. BY
Cecil Roberts. Foreword by Philip
Gibbs, New York: d. Appleton q
Co.
An admirable plan. 1t seems to me.
70 tell the life story. 70 write the auto
biography. ct that halfway house set
by biblical forecast IN the journey OF
mans life.
Losses. a few, attend this plan. Gains.
tremendous, accrue from it. The losses
are merely of repetttiqus character.
records Of going over ana over she res
gains cover the glorious adventure OF
making an iradeternainate young thing
into . man or Of falling In this trial.
The halfway span reached, the years
Of self-creation are over. The height is
wen or lost. nat In either event hopes
and dreams and daring are giving way
to circumspections and q hest of other
tiaid advances upon the doWngrade
and that Tightening corner Of such
final and conclusive turning. In his
later years the autobiogrnpher y either
. preacher or soEne sort Of self-glorify-
Ing benefactor. Useful, maybe. Ger
tainly, not inspiFingly communicable.
Right here you are beckeni1g Mr..
Browning 20 the front with The best
Is yet TO be; the last OF life for which
the first Is made But Browning him
self didn't believe that Nor do you.
He was merely keeping his wind Up.
And so are you. Both OF you, and all OF
us, would not hesitate . second, were
the bargain q possibility. TO trade every
hard-won smolument OF maturity and
age for just Q little budget OF years.
say between 20 and Is or 30.
And here we come upon Cecil Rob-
eFts, the inspired young man who, hall
way along the road, decided right then
and there to tell all about himself. to be
his own biographeF. He was in Venice
when the bright stroke came. Lying
in O gondola In fact. or sitting In one.
as the way Of gondoias invites. The
campanile clock was striking IL.
Here's my birthday" said he. I'm
half through. With luck and the back
ing Of the Coed Book I've IS years more
OF this" HALF asleep he'd been dream
ing Of the lovely city. Looking across
the Piazza toward the bronze horses
afilcfed from Constantinople BY blind
Doge and stolen IN turn by that gran
iadrone, Napoleon" his idle mind moved
out toward Dante on his fTuitless mis-
sion from Rayenna TO the willy Venetian
court.
And he gathered into his musings
treat English sailors who had come this
way and then, back home again, had
brought to London ale houses long
nights Of yaTn-spipning about canal
streetAd Venice end its wonders.
otheilo, . Moor. figured large In these
tales, and 4 lovely Desdenaopa. And
into the reccllections slipped . lad from
Stratford -on- Avon, who, lettering and
listening, picked the brains" OF these
tale-tellers to such good eject that
years after scholars swore that he him
self must many q time have walked the
Rialto." And Roberts called TO mind
the palace pointed out on the Grand
Canal as the h0aise Of BesdemOTaa. HOf
course, it has no more to do with Des-
demona than has the tomb they show
in Verona's cattle market with Juliet. or
the mound in Marienlyst, in Denmark.
with Hamlet"
sIm s5,p Is the twelfth stroke Of
the tower clock died away. I'm hall
through. III DO t." And he did. Here
it Is, the story of q young Englishman
as he looks to himself on his strikingly
active way to where he is going. A
strenuous adventure-that is the first
effect OF the story. A restless getting
ahead from one point of advantage to
another Of greater promise. A career
exactly lifted to compositions OF one
sort ana another Yet, Withal, career
advantbge over the other fellows
chances. A character OF deep-seated
friendliness that quite spontaneously
moves sOn toward the rest Of the folks.
Lots 81 spirit, A fund Of wit. A good
writes, as well as an aii-afound ector
in the game of being altogether alive.
To 81 this there must be q force Of CO.
herency. There Is. Writing, Literature.
If you please. Poetry besides.
So, In early years, 1t Is poetry, Nat
urally. All young things with words to
think. Not easy to see this young man
as a poet an altogether poet. Ner are
we asked to see him as such. Certainly
not by him, for he is pretty sslf-effac-
ing when he stands before art Rnd
genius. So his story Of the young years
Is concerned with doing one thing and
apoti9er to make q living for his mother
and himself. Teaching schOol-no, no.
A clerk in the goyernment--not that
either. A writer for the newspapers-
more like it, that. It would be very in
OF the army Of writers that has passed
through the reporters novitiate on its
way to distinction in letters. However,
that Is another story.
! Then the World War. And Cecil
Roberts, along with Philip Gibbs and
Drinkwater and Masefield and q host
from this side of the water and others
from over there as wen, achieved that
, topnotch Of all Journalism. the brilliant
ttr.,aw A..
This part Of the story Is outsta nding
Prank and perfectly sincere in depict
ing atrocities that have since been de-
MED over and over. Yet you believe this
fellow. You always do. That is one OF
his gifts-=to be believed, He has the
art of being broadly honest. Honest to
name this truth in its exactitude Broad
enough to widen 1t to its kinship with
al human nature, under. great stress Of
spirit and event working together.
After the war, travels in the line OF
business. Throughout the United states
and into Latin America. Writing and
lectuFipg, Studying his ground at each
move to see what its yield for him may
be. For this is an ambitious man, am
bilious for means to secure ways OF
life for him and his mother that are
suitable to their desires and the fur
therance of still wider outlook and plan
Frankness on this point Is one Of the
enjoyable qualities Of Ceeii Roberts
wants to make money for the sake OF
more opportunities the world over, for
a truer leisure when leisure is needed
for his own way of life.
The way Of this book, all told, Is that
it is OF q kind that invites. and gets,
at least a second reception. Having read
it once In its robust effect of adventure,
striving. getting along In Q most in-
teresting world. the next move on the
readers part Is to read 1t again Not