RUNYON THE REALIST
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] have read some silly reviews in my day, but seldo.n one sillier than that by E. B. C. Jones of Runyon 's Furthermore. Miss Jones does not think Runyon funny. All right. That is her affair. But it is just impertinent to sneer at E. C. Bentley for implying that Runyon pre-dates as a " terse realist " Hemingway, Cain, Hammett, Tra:y and McCoy. Mr. Bentley does nothing of the kind, though if he did; he would be right. Runyon's stories have been steadily written and printed over the last nine years, and a volume of them actually appeared in this country in 1932. Of Miss Jones' competitors, not one (with the exception of Hemingway who bears no relation to Runyon whatever) published anything in Great Britain prior to 1934.—Yours, &c.,
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