Modern English Writers Being a Study of Imaginative Literature 1890 1914

obably present to future generations a visible dividing line in almost every sphere of human activity. No man can be unconscious of a change within himself and in his preconceptions during the past four years. If most of the writers named in the following pages are still alive, few, perhaps those only whose work is an artifice rather than a response to life, continue contentedly in the old paths , and for the majority the pursuit of art and literature, as a primary objective, is temporarily dispossessed. The scope of this survey may, therefore, fairly be regarded as covering a period con tained by natural boundaries. The introductory chapter assigns reasons for accepting the year 1890 as marking the end of a stage in literary history at d the appearance of new ideals the beginning of the great war was an abrupt break in all the affairs of men. In only one or two cases has it been thought necessary, at the time of publication, to carry the story beyond the early months of 1914, save in the matter of an added date or footnote. Exceptions to a rule will be found in the pages which treat of Rupert Brooke and James Elroy Flecker, two poets whose deaths fell in the earlier part of the war. In the case of the former, at least, to leave x unnamed the work of the last few months would be to qjftit nearly all that mattered. It has not, on the other hand, been possible to observe rigidly a line as imaginary as the equator and as useful drawn through the year 1890 and ao more than a loose adherence, in the spirit rather than in the letter, has been attempted. The author is not unconscious of the temerity of criticising in summary writers still living. Contemporary estimates need not be falsified by time, but they are sub ject to the indistinctness of near vision, to those confusions v vi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION and aberrations the critic could easily have avoided had he been removed from the scene instead of playing a part within it. Nevertheless these chapters may not be without interest and usefulness as a record of adventures among books, and possibly something more. Apart from faults to be charged to the writer it may be that slips appear which would have been corrected in better times. During the greater part of the war the author has been serving, he has enjoyed fewer advantages in passing the proofs than he could have wished, and, on this score, he can perhaps make some claim to indulgence. To the publishers thanks are especially due for helpful ness and advice at each stage of this books production acknowledgments are tendered to the editors of the Fort nightly Review and Atlantic Monthly for kind permission to reproduce, with modification, matter relating to Mr. Thomas Hardy and Sir William Watson and, further, the writer is gratefully indebted, for information readily given, to the Rev. W. H. Flecker and to Miss Munro, as well as to many of those whose work is discussed in the pages which follow. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION The original preface to the edition of 1918 I leave to explain a text which has not been materially altered. Additions and corrections I have made, and I have quali fied a few statements but, despite the invitation, my courage and goodwill, not now perhaps what once they were, failed at the thought of an-attempt to bring the last ten years within my chapters. This could mean little less than a complete rewriting of the whole... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.