"I LIKED THE LIFE I LIVED"
Sta,—In a footnote to my letter, published in your issue of September tit, your reviewer admits having made three inaccurate statements in his " notice " of my book, I Liked the Life I Lived, and now asserts that I had the " audacity " (over forty years ago) to suggest to Henry James "what kind of a novel he was to write" for the publishing house with which I was then associated as literary adviser. The facts are that Mr. James told me he was concerned about the diminishing number of his readers and his failure to serialise some of his recent novels. He asked my opinion about the possible reason; and, as stated in my book, I suggested that he should write a story in the manner of his first period like The Portrait of a Lady, or Roderick Hudson, as I thought it would make a wider appear to the public than some of the novels he had of late issued. The novel he wrote for my firm was The Wings of the Dove; but, while it was a return to the international theme of his first period (your reviewer should note this), it lacked as a story the interest of the early works men- tioned, and the beautiful Kate Croy in the minds of readers does not linger like Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady.
Your anonymous reviewer repeats his charge that I am irresponsive to "literary values," in spite of the fact that my name as a publisher was associated with the works of many eminent men of letters and novelists whose names are known wherever the English language is spoken and whose books are read today. He does not disclose his standard of literary values, but I imagine that if it were adopted by a publisher he would have no anxiety about the present shortage of paper.—Yours faithfully, EVELEIGH NASH. Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, S.W.i.
Previous page
