Evening star., 1934-03-11

York: The viking Press.
NY biographer who attempted to write
formal Life of DR.. Johnson with concentra-
ton on his philosophical dictatorship in the
eighteenth century, and thereby made it unin-
teresting, would Immediately invite comparison
with Boswell Hugh Kingsmil has avoided this
danger by writing of johnson the man-and it
is generally admitted that the man was greater
than anything he wrote-and by freely crticiz-
ing Boswell as an unreliable reporter The re-
suit is biography which is not only inter-
esting study of famous and eccentric person.
aity but one which also adds something to ex-
isting knowledge about johnson through its new
point of view. Drawing upon Johnson's own
statements. Mr. Kingsmill points out that the
life which lasted for rs years was precondi-
tioned by tendency to mental disturbance de-
rived from his father and by "scrofulous" IN
fection contracted from his wet-nurse. These
were responsible for what his stepdaughter re-
corded as "convulsve starts and odd gesticula-
tions which tended to ones surprise and ridi-
cule," which added greatly to the unhappiness
of one naturally melancholy and very sensitive
to admiration and its opposite.
1t is in his discussion of the association of DR..
johnson and his satellite Boswell that Mr..
Kingsmill throws new light on complex
character and an extraordinary relationship.
Many of Boswells anecdotes, particularly those
which display Johnsons arrogant nl-temper,
we're the result of deliberate goading on the part
of Boswell. who knew only too well the great
mans weaknesses and through them tormented
him. Not very admirable Boswell, but Bos-
we'll has never commanded high respect as a
man. Though he marched into fame through his
ability a chronicler He continually prodded
johnson on the subjects of his low birth, his
lack of recognition from his country except for
his pension) his Toryism his strict moral
views, his fear of death. In addition to his in
Lo;t; ;,1eto
because Boswell was very obtuse, of uninten-
tional provocations, all of which give spice to
Boswells' record but have perhaps been re-
sponsible for unfair judgments regarding DR..
johnson. No such excuse is possible for the
touch of Subservience in the relation of johnson
with his wealthy brewer friend, Mr.. Thrale. nor
for his turbulence toward Mrs Thrale when she
married the italian musician Piozzi- His kind
ness and generosity to the poor and to de-
pendent friends and relatives, Of whom he had
his house full, made him vulnerable to imposl-
tions The three friends of johnson whose
carefully kept records have provided original
material for all later biographers were Boswell,
Mrs. Thrale and Sir John Hawkins.
THE VALIANT WIFE. My Margaret Wilson,
Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co.
A FTER Margaret Wilson took the Harper
prize and the Pulitzer prize for her first
novel, THE Able McLaughlins," the story OF
a Scotch community in the Middle West during
the Cos. she adopted country through
her marriage in 1923 Col G. D. Turner OF
oxford, England Her husband is a prison
commissioner and through him she has become
interested in English prisons. Browsing through
old records of Dartmoor Prison, one of Eng
lands most famous, she came across the bare
facts of an unusual romance, of a Quaker
bride of Philadelphia and her daring young
husband who was interned in Dartmoor during
the War of 1912. The story of THE Valiant
Wife is then essentially true
Belinda Baldwin was but Just married to
Mark when he had left her, affectionately but
impatient to be off to command a privateer in
which, through the generosity of his rich
father-in-law, he owned an interest. Belinda
could not quite forgive her father for making
it possible. The story opens on the day when
Belinda, dressed in her new blue silk from the
chest left by a sailor man, was sitting in her
grandmothers garden in Philadelphia, rest
lessly awaiting the return of her husband She
knew that he had lost his ship and his liberty
in fog which had concealed the enemy's fleet
but prisoners had been exchanged and the
Americans were expected in Philadelphia that
day. Then her father interrupted the quiet
anticipation of the little group in the Spring.
time garden by the news that officers had been
refused the privilege of exchange and had been
sent to England to Dartmoor Prison. Eighteen
year-old Belinda remembered that her great
grandmother had been born in a cave soon
after the landing of the first boatload of Qua
kers on the ground which was later Philadel.
phia, and that all her grandmothers had been
strong, enduring women, not fussing and fused
over on account of trifles. She would go to her
husband. Waiting only for her child to be
born-and to die-she went to England. One
day new market girl appeared at the farmers
inst fho Drig0 n
moor, one whose eyes continually wandered