We greatly regret to record the death at the age
of sixty-one of Mr. C. E. Montague, who was for many years the principal leader writer of the Manchester Guardian. For the most part of his life he wrote anonymously, though everyone with a sensitive eye for style knew which articles were written by him and which were not. His work was unmistakable. His use of the English language, for which lie had a consuming passion, resulted in an exquisite combination of simplicity and beauty. Very few men in our time have turned familiar words into such a flashing weapon. He must have made many people who drew the popular reckless distinction between journalism and literature feel sorry for themselves ; for his journalism was literature which sent most of our literary people to school. In recent years he became well known as the author of Disenchantment, Rough Justice, Right Off the Map, and other works, but his real achievement, we feel, was to have dignified the technique of journalistic writing by means of a gracious manipula- tion of words, by irony and by a kind of urbane pungency that suggested a courteous Swift.
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