FURTHERMORE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—Last week I am reading a letter which a guy by the name of J. F. L. addresses to you from a spot called St. Helens, Lancashire ; and in this letter he tears off a few beefs about the great neglect shown towards Damon Runyon, the American short-story scribe, by the English critics. Why, J. F. L. says, do the English critics have to wait for Mr. Bentley to tell them, in his introduction to More than Somewhat, that this Damon Runyon is a very great artist, indeed ? This Damon Runyon's stories, J. F. L. says, are published in England in 1932 by a guy by the name of Jarrold ; and furthermore, he says, some are published in a monthly periodical in England long before this time. J. F. L. has been unable, he says, to buy himself a copy of Mr. Bentley's collection of this Damon Runyon's stories, because, he says, nobody in Lancashire has any potatoes to spare just now ; but he finds himself -wondering, he says, whether in his introduction Mr. Bentley mentions these facts.
Now I wish to say these facts are very well known to me, indeed ; in fact, the chances are I know them before J. F. L., because I well remember reading this Damon Runyon's stories in the Jarrold guy's edition when it appears, and, thinking no little of them, at that. In fact, I get all churned up about them, and if I am in the reviewing dodge at that time, which I do not happen to be, I will certainly boost this Damon Runyon quite some ; because even then I hear plenty about him from 'American guys I meet, and I know that this Damon Runyon's reputation is away up in the paints as far as America is concerned.
But I do not mention these facts in my introduction to More than Somewhat, because I figure it is a tough break for the Jarrold guy when he publishes this book, and the newspapers and the public do not give it much of a tumble ; and I do not
see where it is any of my put-in to go raking. up unhappy memories. But now various guys, including J. F. L., are raking up these memories ; so I wish to say that this J. F. L. is dead right, and that it is a great knock to the critics, indeed, that they let this Damon Runyon's work get away from them when it is handed to them on a platter, with parsley round it, five 'years ago. The chances are the critics claim the Jarrold guy's book does not appear at what judge Henry G. Blake calls the psychological moment ; but this does not seem to mean very much of anything in this world, when you figure what is supposed to be the idea of being a critic.
J. F. L. says he is not the only guy in Lancashire who laughs ha-ha when this Damon Runyon is described as a " new " humorist. In fact, to hear him tell it, St. Helens is full of such guys. Personally, I am never in St. Helens, although once I make Bolton, and quite a few times Manchester, but I take J. F. L.'s word for it ; and it seems this is a confirmation of the old saying, What Lancashire thinks today England thinks
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