Contemporary Essays - 1933 (Paperback)

CONTEMPORARY ESSAYS 1933 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SYLVA NORMAN CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION SYLVA NORMAN THE COUNTRY The Last Squire ADRIAN BELL Return in Winter KAT O.BRIAN The Earth Being Troubled PHILIP TOMUNSON BOOKS AND AUTHORS THE VISIONARY GLEAM Spirit of Death TANGYK LEAN The Triumph of Time JAMKK LAVKR Sable Goddess DKRKK HUDSON Gubbins on Love MICHAEL ROBKRH j SKETCHES FROM EXPERIENCE The Returned Traveller PETER FLEMING Fall In. Ghosts EDMUND BLUNDEN INTRODUCTION THERE are two sorts of writing, Hazlitt remarks in his Table Talk. The first, he explains, is compilation, and aims at enlightening the reader on all that is known already of a question. An author of this class is a very learned amanu ensis of other peoples thoughts. The second sort of writing assumes the reader to have a general knowledge of the subject and proceeds to fill up blanks and explore new pathways in a disjointed but adventurous way. It is thus a set of additions and corrections to other mens works, or to the common stock of human knowledge, printed separately. Whether or not such a division controls the whole ground of literature, it does apply to the editing of books. There are two sorts of editing, and Hazlitts definition can be adapted to them. The first consists in presenting already existent matter, whether by tearing scraps from their various former settings to make a pattern in a new scheme as Great Sea Stories of All Nations or A DogLovers Anthology or by serving up a single piece of work with relevant comments. An editor of this type Is at best a scholar and classicist, at worst an apprcciajor of good work. The explorative editor begins with nothing more tangible than an idea of how he may encourage new ten dencies he then looks for a sympathetic and sporting publisher who will back up the experiment. This type of editor is not necessarily an iconoclast or a rebel he is a creature who has hope and curiosity, and proposes to test them. In this figure of the explorative editor is the explanation of a book of heterogeneous new essays, where you may search vainly for a common theme, a logical sequence, or a close link between one writer and another. For the intention is not to limit the field but rather to extend it, and my rough grouping sellers, who, being concerned not only with reading matter but with a spruce shop window, have a general horror of the dust collecting properties of paper booklets. Pamphlets arc too expensive from the buyers point of view and too cheap from the sellers so that before their contents ever come to be discussed they have been rejected and condemned by both parties. Stories, we are told, might just get by in sixteen pages octavo and a wrapper, but essays never. There is almost a groan at mention of them, such is the force of prejudice that has intervened between us and our chances of enjoyment. Perhaps schooldays are to blame for our modern repugnance even to Elia and Macaulay.