Evening star., 1937-04-17
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

NlcNSl W ISdllDC dllcSIl llOW
Il rash it is to deal in general
tiles. For she has been wont to gen.
eralize most unkindly about travel
books; yet this book written in mu-
sical, wise prose- is travel book, and
there Is nothing in it to arouse any
reviewers unkindness. Oh, more
than that This is travel book
which must have reviewers and all
well-read persons praise. For it DEM
onstrates once more that no book is
its subject but only its author, that
material is not found in any place
save in mans mind and that the
hundred times repeated tasteless treat
ment Of any theme does not prevent
1t from standing forth clear and Won
derful when at last, heaven decree
ing, real writer sets his hand to
writing of it. Cruise of the Conrad"
then, is, first of all, Book. 1t is
OF travel only unimportantly.
1t is the book of a man, and that
describes it better than any other
word. 1t is the book of man who,
incidentally, loved the sea and the
tradition of spiritual suficiency which
the more difficult aspects of sea train
ing have for long bred. Prior to
writing, though not for the savage
commercial purpose of material"
he took 50-year- frigate, the last
of her kind in existence, around the
world. He carried no cargo on this
journey, he earned no money by it
and thought to earn none. He manned
his vessel, as far as possible, with
mariners who would understand his
purpose without talking of lit. His
only passengers were cadets, youths
from IA to 18, whom he undertook
to train in the profession of deep
water sailing.
They went out of Ipswich to Ma
deira and crossed the Atlantic to
Nassau. They turned north there to
New York From New York they
went to Rio and crossed the South
Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope
Then they sailed to Australia and
cruised extensively in the South Sea
Islands, coming finally to Tahiti. After
that, in the middle of Winter, they
rounded the Horn and beat back north
ward to New York. That this could
have been banal performance the
author was aware, for he says of the
whole idea when he decided on it:
TRUE, this is overdone in our day,
when, upon any morning of the week,
at least twelve small yachts are some
where battling around the world and
any one may make circumnavigation
who pushes the fare across an office
table, when cruising liners set out
in long procession upon much-adver-
tised excursions to the ends Of the
earth and back again, all in four
months, with surprising cheapness;
when airplanes span all of the con-
tinents and most of the seas. But
there was still room in the ocean for
= full-rigged ship ="
And he goes on, saying that he knew
that he would be able to make only
one voyage: Then let it be a grand
gesture, long wandering! I thought
that, having now almost the same
kind Of ship in which all the great
navigators had sailed-Cook, Wallis,
Bougainville, Carteret, Bligh, lie Marie
and all those other blazers of the
Pacific trail might try to make such
voyage as they had made, not as
planned stunt, not as programmed,
advertised excursion, but quietly as
they had gone-quietly against the sea,
without benefit Of canals or of engines
1T was biggish thing to try. But
the more thought of it, the more I
liked it. I was steadfastly opposed
to all the shams and stupidities with
which many voyages in these days
have been unduly concerned. I would
make no films, advertise nothing, per-
form no stunts, engage in no radio
programs. I was no scientist and I
would not pretend to be one There
was nothing to discover-no lands or
1slands-and l knew 1t. I had been
around the world nine times already
and there was no novelty in that. But
I could keep form of art alive upon
an earth which had grown, it thought
beyond the need of it; and I could
sail for the sailing's sake, for the sake
clean wind and all the Joy OF being
there ="
And So as he says, one day he did
sail. And his book is not record
merely Of sailing experiences or of
sights seen, but Of the action of a
mind, mind which should be clear
to any perceptive reader from any two
or three of the lines quoted above. 1t
Is the mind, obviously, Of man of
long bred taste and standards. And
it is coupled providentially, with abil-
ity to write prose of fine movement
and discrimination.
Yet it should not be thought that
the book is one of mere personal specu-
lation or meditation. 1t is the record
OF a voyage, clear and hard. But it is
that record set down by more than
merely intelligent man and good art
ist. That is the important point. AS
the author himself says, almost any
one can 60 around the world today,
and, alas, most of those who do seem
to write books about it. But the world.
even duly circumnavigated, has no
give 1t, and no story has ever been
superior to its teller.
Cruise Of the Conrad" as a book
makes the choice of the Polish writer's
name for the ship unpretentious. Is
that enough? If not. why then, Cruise
Of the Conrad" seems fit to take its
place with the work of rarely gifted
traveller, H. M. Tomlinson. This last
statement is made cautiously; it might,
on maturer reflection, be withdrawn.
But that it was considered Is a great
deal. What-travel writing being as it
ts-could one say more?
HAVE YOU ANYTHING TO DE-
CLARE? BY Maurice Barring. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf.
THIS is nothing more than Mr.. Bar
ing's notebook of favorite quota
tions-from the Greek Homer down
through the nineteenth century and
later. He records that he dreamed once