Some Letters front Abroad of James Elroy Fierher. with reminiseences
by He116 Hecker and an admirable introduction by Mr. J. C. Squire (Heinemann. 8s. Od.), kept this reviewer awake until the small hours, for there is something about the vivid personality of Hecker (if the reader be at all touched Ity his !Ammar) which makes it impossible to put the book. down. As Mr. Squire says, we see here " the living, ardent spirit before us, the young wandering poet with his shifting MOO& and kaleidoscopic emotions, a being passionately serious and flippantly humorous, a great hater of humbug and cant, but no cynic or extremist, an affectionate friend and a generous admirer of other men's work." Mrs. Meeker's ace t of their married life from their meeting in 1910 to his death at Davos in January. 1915, is told with startling simplicity and directness. Some of the letters, towards Hecker's end, are very pathetic. ; and the whole hook is unforgettable, not because it is great literature. hut because it is so genuine and spontaneous.
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