Hanover Browsing
I am pleased to present for this issue a guest writer for Hanover Browsing, Mr. Henry Miller, distinguished writer of The Wisdom of the Heart,The Cosmological Eye (New Directions), The Colossus of Maroussi (Colt Press), Tropic of Cancer,Tropic of Capricorn (Paris), and other books. Many critics both here and abroad regard Miller as a really great writer, a view with which I concur. He is an original; absolutely unique. One realizes this when one reads his recommendations. None of them will ever be "books of the month" but I for one am anxious to read every one of them. Mr. Miller's article follows.—HERBERT F. WEST '22.
OF ALL THE BOOKS which have recently come into my hands I should like to make mention of the following six: Anais Nin's Winter of Artifice, printed by herself; The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated into English by Swami Nikhilananda, published by the Ramakrishna,Vivekananda Center, N. Y.; All Change,Humanity! by Claude Houghton, Collins Publishers, London; Egan Rend)> by John Cromwell, published by The Non-Pragmatic Press, Mendham, N. J.; People ofPoros by Peter Gray, published by Whittlesey House, N. Y.; The Great Age ofGreek Literature by Edith Hamilton, published by W. W. Norton & Cos., N. Y.
The last-named should be read for the chapters on Xenophon and Thucydides. The study of the Peloponnesian War, with the Greek historian's views on war in general, will prove most illuminating. As for Xenophon, the retreat of the ten thousand becomes even more brilliant and miracu- lous in view of recent strategic retreats by our allies.
The Ramakrishna book, which is the record of a Hindu Boswell who gives simply his initial M., is most important if we consider that Ramakrishna (now dead) is regarded by his disciples as being another great exemplar, such as Krishna, Buddha, or Christ. The introduction by the translator is of great value; there is also a foreword by Aldous Huxley. Reading about Ramakrishna for the first time a year or so ago, during my trip around America, I was affected as never before in my life. I had been reading Romain Rolland's account of his life and gospel.
The book by Anais Nin, which was originally published in Paris, is a delight to the eye, something quite unique in design and composition—her first attempt at printing, too. It proves to us what can be done with little money if one really wishes to make a beautiful book. It will undoubtedly be a collector's item. The illustrations, done by Lan Hugo (line engravings on copper) take us back to a process employed by William Blake.
John Cromwell's book, for which no commercial publisher could be found, is a bizarre and baffling performance. I read it in manuscript and confessed to my inability to write a preface to it when it was given to me by a friend. But I am happy now to be able to point it out as something singular and apart.
Peter Gray's book is about a Greek island which I happened to pass on my way to Hydra. I find it very warm, sympathetic and true in its feeling for present-day Greece. The chapter on Elainie the Drunk is magnificent, and gives one an idea what amazing types are spawned among the little people of Greece. The book is a wonderful antidote to the bilge that is written about Greece of The Golden Age.
Claude Houghton's latest book, though a novel, might well be called a study in present day insanities. Published in 1942 in a country at war, fighting for its life, it is a testimony either to the great courage of English publishers or to their abysmal indifference. An American could not have had such a book accepted in war-time.'lt is a devastating picture of the English, with the hero, Christopher, emerging as a superior type, abnormally sane in a world of insane people. Christopher, who had been living on the Island of Beulah (a colony for the insane), elects to return there. Rosa, as astounding, beautiful figure, a woman such as we never see in novels, particularly English novels, rejoins him there. And finally, so does the author-narrator. And so would we all, I imagine, if we had any sense.
It is interesting that Claude Houghton named his island of repair Beulah. Beulah, as readers of Blake will recall, is the nether Paradise, the counterpart to Eden. It was Claude Houghton, I should like to say here, who called my attention to a book on Blake which I am sure is not nearly wellenough known, viz.: William Blake's Circleof Destiny by Milton O. Percival, (Columbia University Press, 1938). Those who enjoy reading Claude Houghton's books know that he is interested in the problem of an expanding consciousness. To many readers he is known only as the author of I Am Jonathan Scrivener, which seems to have won unanimous praise here and in England. But his Julian Grant Loses HisWay is an even greater book. The last section of the book is something I would give anything to have written myself. To get anything approaching it one has to revert to the works of Algernon Blackwood, particularly in the vein of The Bright Messenger.
I should like to have added a word about Alfred Perles' new book, The Renegade, of which I saw an advance copy. But, though the book has been printed, it has not, for some mysterious reason, been released yet. It was done by George Allen & Unwin of London. Perles has bad luck with his printers and publishers.
