Evening star., 1945-11-26
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trace1DeH.

When you are tired, your eyes are
probably tired, too.
When you are sick, your eyes are
sick.
The thing to do then, is not to read,
no matter how much you long to.
This will strike the book-loyer as a
woeful restriction, indeed.
When one is forced to lie abed, that
is the very time one wants to read
most. In these busy times it is often
the only time for reading which some
persons have, or think they have.
Who dares say, then, that one shall
not read?
The doctor, for one
Another is the friend who may have
suffered from the peculiar sort of cold
going around this season.
Too much reading, he will tell you,
made his eyes infamed, red and blood
shot as if struck with hammer
No matter how much one loves to
read, this is heavy price to pay. Fancy
varieties of the common cold have
enough unpleasant symptoms without
this one. So If you insist on reading,
take it easy. Do not read hour after
hour as if nothing else mattered.
but SIlH! mere is UP.
If you simply must read, no matter
how much your eyes swell up, jump on
the band wagon with those happy ones
who are rediscovering the great novels
and short stories Of Henry James.
You know you are going to get a
cold. How can you help it, especially
If you ride buses2 No sooner do you
fall into your favorite seat than a
shifting fat lady falls in beside you.
So before that sad day comes when
you, too, shall be among the sniff1ers,
ere yet the hot-foot bath is undrawn,
or the hot lemonade poured, HE your
self to a reputable book store and get
the following:
"The Great Short Novels of Henry
James," edited by Philip Rhav; "The
Question of Henry James," edited by
F.. w. Dupee; "The Short Stories of
Henry James," selected by Clifton Fadi-
man; THE Bostonians," with an in
PRODUCTION by Philip Rhav; Henry
James, the Major Phase" by F.. o.
Matthiessen; "Stories of Writers and
Artists" edited by Mr.. Matthiessen, and
"The Spoils of Poynton.'
There you are! You will be all ready.
If all those fail to give you red eyes,
you are immune and probably will end
up at 104 reading without spectacles.
Henry James was the brother of Will
liam James, the psychologist. Every
literate person has heard of the latter
but not every one today has heard of
brother Henry
Henry James lived between 1843 and
1916. Most of his adult life he spent
in England. Shortly before his death
he became a naturalized British subject
He was American to the core, how
ever No one else could have written
his stories. Try "The Bostonians, ,
which has just been republished fo1
the first time since it was originally
| published in 1885. The only man writ
| ing today who could do it Is Sinclair
| Lewis.
There has been a great deal of pow.
WOW about James, why he Is one thing
why he isn't something else. You viii
find some of it in these recommended
books, all issued in the past two years
Some Of it is pure hooey. All one ha.
to do to know it is to start readins
this great writer and to be Thankful
to Prof. Matthiessen and the other
who are cooperating to bring him into
his rightful place in the minds ane
hearts of reading America. You will
have to use your mind in reading him
and this will be good thing in a da,
of stories into which the reader gener
ally slips as into a warm bath up Il
his ears, coming up only to breathe
now and then. You have to think whe1
you read Henry James because h,
thought when he wrote. Fadiman say
that James must have been aware O
more impressions and reflected upo,
more ideas in the course of a singh
waking hour than is the lot of you o
me IN the course Of q year or, In NOR,
cases q lifetime" This Is true.