Notes on Life & Letters

From the opening

Transcribed from the 1921 J. M. Dent edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

BOOKS--1905. HENRY JAMES--AN APPRECIATION--1905 ALPHONSE DAUDET--1898 GUY DE MAUPASSANT--1904 ANATOLE FRANCE--1904 TURGENEV--1917 STEPHEN CRANE--A NOTE WITHOUT DATES--1919 TALES OF THE SEA--1898 AN OBSERVER IN MALAYA--1898 A HAPPY WANDERER--1910 THE LIFE BEYOND--1910 THE ASCENDING EFFORT--1910 THE CENSOR OF PLAYS--AN APPRECIATION--1907

AUTOCRACY AND WAR--1905 THE CRIME OF PARTITION--1919 A NOTE ON THE POLISH PROBLEM--1916 POLAND REVISITED--1915 FIRST NEWS--1918 WELL DONE--1918 TRADITION--1918 CONFIDENCE--1919 FLIGHT--1917 SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE LOSS OF THE TITANIC--1912 CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE ADMIRABLE INQUIRY INTO THE LOSS OF THE TITANIC--1912 PROTECTION OF OCEAN LINERS--1914 A FRIENDLY PLACE

I don't know whether I ought to offer an apology for this collection which has more to do with life than with letters. Its appeal is made to orderly minds. This, to be frank about it, is a process of tidying up, which, from the nature of things, cannot be regarded as premature. The fact is that I wanted to do it myself because of a feeling that had nothing to do with the considerations of worthiness or unworthiness of the small (but unbroken) pieces collected within the covers of this volume. Of course it may be said that I might have taken up a broom and used it without saying anything about it. That, certainly, is one way of tidying up.

But it would have been too much to have expected me to treat all this matter as removable rubbish. All those things had a place in my life. Whether any of them deserve to have been picked up and ranged on the shelf--this shelf--I cannot say, and, frankly, I have not allowed my mind to dwell on the question. I was afraid of thinking myself into a mood that would hurt my feelings; for those pieces of writing, whatever may be the comment on their display, appertain to the character of the man.

A short sample. Read the whole book

More to read

• 'Twixt Land & Sea: TalesJoseph ConradLiterature & Fiction254 pages
• A Belated Guest (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)William Dean HowellsHistory19 pages
• A Bit of Old ChinaCharles Warren StoddardHistory17 pages
• A Book of Remarkable CriminalsH. B. IrvingHistory341 pages
• A Book of ScoundrelsCharles WhibleyHistory202 pages