Bibliography, News, and Notes

35 BIBLIOGRAPHY, NEWS. AND NOTES By H, E. Gerber and E. S. Lauterbrach All authors on whom we are currently giving annotated entries or on whom annotated bibliographies are nearing completion are listed here, whether we have found any writings about them or not. In the last number of EFT for 1961 we gave the number of items on each author published in all the preceding numbers, and we shall have such a summary again in the last number this year. While the bulk of the following annotations have been prepared by the editors, we also wish to express our gratitude to those who have contributed some of the annotations for items we did not have ready access to: Jacqueline Eisen, our graduate assistant; Edwin Nierenberg on E. M. Forster; and, again, Mr. Syed Hamid Hussein on Forster. ARNOLD 3ENNETT Since James G. Hepburn's selected annotated bibliography [EFT, 1:1 (1957-58)] included most of the important older work on Bennett, we continue to concentrate, for the time being, on items published since about 1950. We shall publish an article by James G. Kennedy on Bennett's artist-heroes (Kunst 1er or Burger?) in a future number of EFT. Hepburn, James G. "Manuscript Notes for LORD RAINGO," EFT, V: 1 (1962), 1-5. JOHN DAVYS BERESFORD SIR WALTER BESANT JOHN BUCHAN, LORD TWEEDSMUIR An annotated bibliography of secondary material on Buchan is in progress. SAMUEL BUTLER For the time being, we still concentrate on the publication of annotations of items printed since about 1953, when the Harkness bibliography stops. Bissell, Claude. "The Butlerian Inheritance of G. B. Shaw," DALHOUSIE REVIEW, XLI (Summer 1961), 159-73. Though "Butler did not have the clear, easily identifiable impact on Shaw that a writer like Morris had, he exerted a pervasive and continuous influence," and was a major part of Shaw's Victorian inheritance. The two men also had "a temperamental affinity and a basic similarity in attitudes." Shaw arranged for Grant Richards to pub EREViHON REVISITED. B, however, found Shaw puzzling, as entries in the NOTEBOOKS show. With his refs to THE WAY OF ALL FLESH [Preface, MAJOR BARBARA (1905)], Shaw played a major role in the growth of the B. cult. Earlier he had praised B. in THE QUINTESSENCE OF IBSENISM (1891). B's 36 influence on Shaw was exerted on 3 levels: (1) commensense, everyday practical considerations: (2) socialistic vision; (3) philosophical vision. Shaw and 3. achieve their closest identity on the first level, especially in point of view and attitude—"a matter-of-fact, realistic attitude towards experience." Shaw adopted B's satiric attack and 3's technique of reversing common propositions. They both hated pretentiousness, especially "professional" pretentiousness; both used a simple, direct style of writing. Throughout his life B. was almost pathologically concerned with money. In THE WAY OF ALL FLESH B. makes clear that poverty, like crime, is a disease. Shaw adopted this attitude too and most of his early refs to B. were to his attitude toward poverty and money [Intro. THE IRRATIONAL KNOT; Preface, MAJOR BARBARA]. Shaw also found a metaphysic in B's evolutionary books that gave him an answer to Marxian doctrine, and which enabled him to describe socialism in terms of gradual development rather than class warfare. In writing HEART3REAK HOUSE, BACK TO METHUSALEH, and SAINT JOAN, Shaw turned to B. as "the apostle of a new scientific religion." B. tried to redefine God in terms of his own biological theories and turned "his evolutionary process into a biological commentary on Saint Paul." Both 3. and Shaw, with their imaginative projections of evolution, try to "re-establish man in the place of centrality." Giovanni, Angelo. Teacher of English in Italian government high schools, reportedly [A REVIEW OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, III (Jan 1962), 102] working on B. .......... "Samuel Butler in SiciIy," A REVIEW OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, III (Jan I962), 47-52. Gives an account of B's fondness for Sicily, especially Trapani, and the Sicilians' admiration for B. Important for including several previously unpublished documents: (1) transcript of tape recording of Giovanni's interview with Prof. Giuseppe Pagoto, who had known B. well; (2) text of a long postcard to Pagoto, 1...