THE YORKSHIRE OBSERVER

Bradford, Yorkshire, England

1 November 1951

(page 7)

The New Books.

A POET ON HIS CONTEMPRARIES.

“Some I Knew Well,” by Clifford Bax (Phoenix House, 15s.)

Gossip by a celebrity about his contemporaries is always interesting, if sometimes a little disturbing, whether it springs from a politician, a prince or a poet.

Few description of the Edwardian Age and its literary figures could be as delicately written and as charmingly sketched as “Some I Knew Well” by Clifford Bax, whose versatility—he was a poet, a critic, a playwright, a cricket enthusiast, and a good deal more—brought him into intimate touch with a remarkable variety of men and women of his time.

His brief records cover a wide field, from poets like George Russell, W.B. Yeats, A.E. Housman and Gordon Bottomley (of Keighley) to Aleister Crowley (the “Black Magician”), Arnold Bennett and C.B. Fry.

Good Stories

They are frank but kindly, though some of the references, however, well-meant, might give pain to surviving relatives—e.g. the drinking habits of Stephen Phillips, the impertinence of Crowley and the “street-romances” of Arthur Symons. That, however, is a dilemma which every honest chronicler must face.

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