Bookish men

Monday, December 17th., Chiltern Court, London.

There are bookish men whose morbid appetite demands to be titillated by an everlasting diet of new books, and I regard them as cases for brain specialists. Their malady is akin to alcoholism, which is I think the worst malady of the mind known to medical science. The morbid appetite for new books will drive the sufferer to strange caprices. One of my interlocutors told me that, despairing, he read some Kipling. With an air of astonishment he confessed that he found Kipling very good! Indeed he seemed to think that he had discovered Kipling. He had to be told that Kipling is still, after more than thirty years, the most popular serious English author alive. I am informed that the rumour of Kipling's readableness has even reached the hunting and cocktail classes.

On the other hand I am well acquainted with bookish men who day in and day out protest that too many new books are published. They gloomily assert that the majority of new books are worthless and can do no good to anyone; that the sytem is monstrous by which publishers avowedly expect to recoup themselves by their profits from one successful book the losses on half a dozen failures. Lastly, they weep, in a manner of speaking, because this is a decadent age and things are not what they were.

I have a primitive desire to assassinate these men. But I refrain, for the reason that they are misguided rather than vicious. They sin in ignorance. They are merely persons who do not know what they are talking about. This is no more a decadent age in the literary sense than any other age. On the contrary, in no previous age have so large a proportion of the population shown such discrimination among books, such intelligent interest in good books, as obtains today. Further, the success of a book is not necessarily a criterion of its worth. Even today bad books occasionally achieve large sales. 

I am myself a bookish man. The sort of bookish man who takes a broad view, is tolerant of the short-sightedness and prejudice of others, and has an infallible sense of what constitutes a 'good' book. I am also rather modest. In fact only the jury of time is able to give a verdict on the worth of a book, and this is because we who review new books are, in spite of our best efforts, unable to achieve objectivity. Kipling may fall out of favour in time; in fact I believe that he will because a reaction will set in as the Empire declines, which it inevitably will. I myself may be read only by a discerning few in years to come.

My idea of fame

Monday, October 9th., At home.

I have been re-reading some of Kipling's short stories. They are good. I particularly enjoyed "The Man Who Would Be King" which was amusing as well as being a good adventure story.

I remember reading a few years ago that whilst taking part in an entertainment on board H.M.S. Majestic he read "Soldier and Sailor Too", and was encored. Then he read "The Flag of England". At the conclusion a body of subalterns swept him off the stage, and chaired him round the quarter deck, while "For he's a Jolly Good Fellow" was played by the massed bands of the Fleet and sung by 200 officers assembled. That's my idea of fame. I was intensely envious of his success. He is only a couple of years older than me but it is as if success has fallen into his lap. How to account for this? Of course he writes well, but so do a lot of others, including myself. It must be his subject matter of India and Empire - the exoticism appeals to those whose lives are humdrum, and plays on primitive emotions such as patriotism. Buchan has a similar appeal. I am still envious!

Out walking this morning. For once I was not trying to get ideas but just walking for pure enjoyment. It is hard for me to turn my mind away from the various projects I have in hand, but essential now and then. It was a dull, rather misty morning. Not much wind. Still quite green everywhere but close inspection shows the leaves turning and grasses dying back. I walked for three hours and hardly saw a soul which suited me perfectly. Sometimes it is good to just let the mind drift. I think it is not dissimilar to being asleep and is almost as relaxing. Couldn't tell you what I was thinking about. Mostly daydreaming. Probably imagining myself as popular as Kipling!

Famous men

Saturday, October 22nd., London

This is my idea of fame:

At an entertainment on board H.M.S. Majestic, Rudyard Kipling, one of the guests, read "Soldier and Sailor Too", and was encored. He then read "The Flag of England". At the conclusion a body of subalterns swept him off the stage, and chaired him round the quarter-deck, while "For he's a jolly good fellow" was played by the massed bands of the Fleet and sung by 200 officers assembled.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in Bombay, but educated in England at the United Services College, Westward Ho, Bideford. In 1882 he returned to India, where he worked for Anglo-Indian newspapers. His literary career began with Departmental Ditties (1886), but subsequently he became chiefly known as a writer of short stories. A prolific writer, he achieved fame quickly. Kipling was the poet of the British Empire and its yeoman, the common soldier, whom he glorified in many of his works, in particular Plain Tales from the Hills(1888) and Soldiers Three (1888), collections of short stories with roughly and affectionately drawn soldier portraits. His Barrack Room Ballads (1892) were written for, as much as about, the common soldier. In 1894 appeared his Jungle Book, which became a children's classic all over the world. Kim (1901), the story of Kimball O'Hara and his adventures in the Himalayas, is perhaps his most felicitous work. Other works include The Second Jungle Book (1895), The Seven Seas (1896), Captains Courageous (1897), The Day's Work (1898), Stalky and Co. (1899), Just So Stories (1902), Trafficks and Discoveries (1904), Puck of Pook's Hill (1906), Actions and Reactions (1909), Debits and Credits (1926), Thy Servant a Dog (1930), and Limits and Renewals (1932). During the First World War Kipling wrote some propaganda books. His collected poems appeared in 1933. Kipling was the recipient of many honorary degrees and other awards. In 1926 he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature, which only Scott, Meredith, and Hardy had been awarded before him.

Yesterday I was at Helpston, near Peterborough, the birthplace of John Clare. The cottage where the poet was born has been made into a museum. Walking around the area I tried to get some sense of the inspiration Clare found there, but without success. To me it seems pleasant enough but flat and rather featureless. Perhaps it had a different 'feel' before enclosure? Big skies of course, but yesterday was rather damp, grey, dismal and cold, so I didn't see it at its best! My sensibilities are more attuned to man-made than natural landscapes - beauty may take many forms.

John Clare 1793-1864 , our most remarkable poet of the English countryside, was born in the village of Helpston, Northamptonshire and raised as an agricultural labourer. Clare’s genius was his ability to observe and record the minutiae of English nature and every aspect rural life, at a time when enclosures were transforming the landscape and sweeping away centuries of traditional custom and labour. Following great success with his first published poems (outselling even John Keats) Clare quickly became unfashionable, falling quickly into literary obscurity. The magnitude of Clare’s achievement and poetic genius was not fully appreciated until the recent publication of a first complete edition of his poetry, much of which had remained neglected in manuscript archives for 150 years. Now scholars worldwide regard him as one of our leading poets gradually affording the same status as reputed poet contemporaries such as William Wordsworth and S.T.Coleridge. Clare’s birthplace and family home for many years was acquired by the John Clare Trust in 2005. Its transformation into an education and visiting centre celebrates Clare’s life and inspires visitors to share in his creativity, his passion for nature and the countryside and his environmental engagement. The cottage restoration used traditional building methods and tells the story of Clare’s life and work, recreating a number of rooms as Clare and his family would have known them, while also providing space for workshops and practical activities. 

<http://www.clarecottage.org/pages/heritage>