Wales England Wed. By Ernest Rhys. (Dent. 155.)
IF and when the literary history of the last fifty years comes to be written in the tranquillity of the two thousands, many of our present-day pundits will assuredly be relegated to footnotes, in favour of achievements now modestly concealed or taken for granted. One likely so to re-emerge is Mr. Ernest Rhys, who in the early years of this century suggested to J. M. Dent that what was wanted was a cheap and popular series of the world's best books—on a scale far more elaborate than that of the Camelot Series which Rhys had already edited 1-o1 the Walter Scott publishing company. So in 1906 was born Everyman's Library—probably the greatest boon to readers of all kinds in the history of printing. Today, as most people know, the series includes close on a thousand titles, and Mr. Rhys has throughout played the part of general editor. A conception so magnificently carried out naturally takes first place in one's reading of this autobiographical volume, though the whole of Mr. Rhys's life is gaily and engagingly described. Youthful work as a ccal- viewer in a Northumberland mine, the break-through into literature (apparently an easier matter in the nineties than in the overcrowded Grub Street of today), a very happy marriage, a growing circle of literary friendships—all much as one would expect, but told with considerable charm. Mr. Rhys has done the state some service, and we know it.
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