THE STATE

Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.A.

13 March 1932

(page 23)

NEWS AND VIEWS.

For many years—from 1896 until his death—Arnold Bennett kept a journal of the outstanding incidents of his life. Probably more than all his novels together this account of his adventures and reactions, his experiences and contacts reveal the man himself—Arnold Bennett en pantouffles. The original journal numbered over a million words. From these a most careful selection has been made by his friend Newman Flower. The published work will consist of three independent volumes, entitled “The Journal of Arnold Bennett (1896-1910)” for publication in late April or early May, simultaneous with its publication in London. Future volumes will be issued at intervals of not more than six months.

Every aspect of the great author’s life is revealed in these intimate memoirs. He was an inveterate playgoer and lover of music and one gleans from his journal pen portraits of some of the most prominent actors and musicians of his time. He read constantly and recorded his impressions of various books as they were published. The reader is regaled with criticisms of new volumes by Barrie, by Shaw, by Conrad, by Hardy, by Moore—by many of those names which are now household words, but which were then unknown—as they came from the press. He is unsparing in his opinions of other people’s books as well as his own.

The Journal moves from London to Paris and shows a many-sided life. Arnold Bennett knew practically everyone of importance in England and describes informally and vividly contacts with such people as Shaw, Galsworthy, Frank Harris, John Lane, Yvette Guilbery, Aleister Crowley, Eden Philpotts, H. G. Wells, C. E. Montague, Ford Madox Hueffer, William Rothenstein, Somerset Maugham, Kipling, T. P. O’Connor, Mary Garden. This Journal forms not only an arresting picture of the times but an intimate and revealing portrait of one of the foremost authors of our day and of his whole circle of friends and acquaintances. This is a volume to be awaited with great interest.