J. M. BARRIE AND HIS BOOKS.
J. M. Barrie and his Books : Biographical and Critical Studies. By J. A. Hammerton. (Horace Marshall and Son. 5s.)—Mr. Hammerton, in common with an immense section of the public and all critics of sound judgment, admires warmly the literary genius of Mr. Barrie. And we do not doubt that a large section of the public will also admire Mr. Hammerton's zeal and industry in playing Boswell to Mr. Barrie, while Mr. Barrie is still—as we hope he will be for many years—in the flesh. Mr. Hammerton is quite aware that there are people who think that such books as he has produced are a mistake. But he adduces one reason for their production which is satisfying from a commercial point of view, though it may not be convincing to taste. Having quoted the remark of " a weighty critic in one of the Saturdays" to the effect that books of this sort should not be encouraged— on the ground that they imply too hastily the elevation of a man still on his trial to the rank of a classic—Mr. Hammerton says : "A sufficient answer to the charge would seem to be that in such writers as J. M. Barrie, Thomas Hardy, 'Ian Maclaren,' Rudyard Kipling, and several others, the public that reads books is vastly more interested than in the mighty dead." People not quite dis- abused of the old-fashioned idea that books are written for instruc- tion might wonder why this argument should not be turned the other way: the public being already" vastly more interested" in Mr. Barrie than in the mighty dead, why not write a book to tell them about somebody they are in danger of neglecting, instead of some one they are sure to read without Mr. Hammerton's recommenda- tion ? But books are written not for instruction, or even for reading, only for sale. And a book about Mr. Barrie will help everybody who cannot get through "The Little Minister" to talk as if he had read it, besides telling him gossipy details about the author's life and habits. For the rest, the book being written and published, we acknowledge that it has given us a pleasant hour or two of gleaning among extracts from some familiar, and some not familiar, writings of Mr. Barrie,—though we should have enjoyed the extracts better if the showman had been less assiduously omnipresent.
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