I should not presume to write this answer to numerous correspondents,
had it not been for the precedent given by Mr. Garvin, the erudite
editor of the _Observer_, who recently allotted several columns
of his own paper to the praise of his own book. Wherefore, gladly
accepting this “lead” from one who knows so much more about literary
“management” than I do, I take the opportunity of replying to several
letters demanding “Why” I wrote my last published novel, _The Young
Diana_. Why? Well, because (like Mr. Garvin on himself) I think it a
good idea! Moreover, I wanted to be one of the first in the field to
suggest a discovery which is approaching us in the near future; which
is, so to speak, “glimmering” ahead of our scientists like a brilliant
streak of sunrise in a summer sky. Following the example of Mr. Garvin,
who urgently recommends the public to read _his_ book, I, with equal
urgency recommend the public to read _mine_. I should not have dared to
do so unless Mr. Garvin had shown me the way, and he is such a noted
authority in journalism that I feel I cannot do wrong in copying him as
much as possible. Therefore, dear public!--good readers all!--I assure
you that _The Young Diana_ is a remarkable book. It is, really! Mr.
Garvin says his is a remarkable book, and I feel that mine is equally
remarkable. It is full of new ideas, happily expressed. Garvinly
speaking, it is a compendium of hope for mankind, or rather womankind,
because it shows how possibly the youth and beauty of the fairer sex
may be retained indefinitely, to say nothing of the prolongation of
life. Nobody wants to grow old, not even Garvin; as a matter of fact
nobody _does_ grow old nowadays: witness our beautiful Queen Alexandra
and the ever lithe and lissom “Tiger” Clemenceau. To read _The Young
Diana_, you need a little intelligence, of course. So you do when you
read _The Economic Foundations of Peace_ by Garvin. His book costs
12s. net--mine is only 6s. 9d. His treats of “the policy upon which
the safety, the prosperity, the very physical survival of humanity
depend.” Mine treats likewise of all these things, vested in fair
Woman, upon whom the physical existence as well as “survival” of man
depends. His, according to his friends on the press, is “a great idea
brilliantly presented.” So is mine. It is, to quote another friend’s
criticism, “a practical and passionate effort to save the world alive.”
Oh, friends! this is exactly what _my_ book is!--only it is a practical
and passionate effort to save _Woman_ alive!--beautiful and exquisite
Woman!--the Mother of all Man! It is “filled with cogent argument and
luminous illustration”--I copy Garvin critiques because I shouldn’t
know how to lay on the butter so felicitously as the friends of “this
remarkable book by a great journalist”--but I have occasionally been
called “a great novelist,” by semi-crazed folk, of course, and I
feel justified (after Garvin) in calling attention to my “remarkable
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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