Papers from LilliputPriestley, J. B. (John Boynton)
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Papers from Lilliput
Priestley, J. B. (John Boynton)
English essays -- 20th century
So I was in my innocence, and even now when I am ‘if a man speak truly,
little better than one of the wicked,’ I have not changed so much.
Though the pennies do not come so easily as of old, the dreams have not
yet faded, the magical lights have not yet been quite extinguished; the
solid pennyworths still fail to satisfy me, who have been on the very
frontiers of El Dorado. So, though the disappointments still come thick
and fast, I have my moments, perhaps you, too----?
But I fear my name will never head a subscription list or cause a
commotion in Lombard Street. I sometimes think I shall never even be
asked to open a bazaar.
GRIGSBY--A RECORD AND AN APPRECIATION
(_Being an attempt to capture an admired manner._)
It was, I think, Mr. S. P. B. Mais who told us that we live ‘in an age
of amazing geniuses.’ The observation is so profoundly true, and one
owes so much to this critic’s sane and luminous appreciations of
contemporary writers, that one cannot help feeling surprised that he
nowhere makes any mention of Grigsby. Certainly, in these fruitful
times, a man cannot criticise all his fellow-authors; there are other
omissions, notably D. S. Ballowby, Geoffrey Domsteen, Hilda Perkstone
(who wrote _Wherefore?_), and Anna Lummit; nevertheless, a lover of
contemporary letters can hardly forgive the critic’s strange neglect of
Grigsby. Therefore, although making no pretence of being specially
fitted for the task, I feel that my long admiration for the poet and my
several years’ acquaintance with the man himself, render it a duty on
my part to try and give a sketch, however slight, of his career,
personality, aims and achievements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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