George Moore on His Books

The Observer, 1 July 1934, page 23, 454 words

First Edition to Be Sold.

“A Slashing Critic.”

A particularly interesting collection of first editions of books by George Moore is to be sold by Messrs. Sotheby in the course of a sale to be held on July 16 and 17.

It is the property of Mr. John L. Balderston (of “Berkeley Square” fame, for whose play, “The Genius of the Marne,” Moore wrote an introduction. Most of the books contain presentation inscriptions, and some are accompanied by autograph letters. From these it is evident that Moore could, on occasion, be a slashing critic of his own work.

Of “Lewis Seymour and Some Women,” for example, he writes: —

After leaving you last night I looked into “Lewis Seymour and Some Women,” and am confident that the book is detestable. It is hardly fair to read a book here and there between 12 and 1, but my impression of the book is a very bad one. The re-writing was not successful and the original writing was unprintable.

This book, it may be remembered, is a re-written version of “A Modern Lover,”

On “Mike Fletcher,” the comment is only a degree less unfavourable: —

I’m afraid that it will go against the grain to sign a copy of “Mike Fletcher/” It is not a canonical work, and if ever it is printed again I hope it will be issued as apocrypha.

Moore’s early verse had evidently little place in his mature affections. On the fly-leaf of “Flowers of Passion,” in 1878, is written “with many kind regards, and much shame, for these childish verses.” And in “Martin Luther, a Tragedy,” 1876, is this inscription: —

To John Balderston this copy of a play that I have not seen for forty years, and have no curiosity to look in with the view of discovering how bad it is. The number of pages tell me that I was not deficient in resolution, for I did see the thing through. — George Moore.

Another of Moore’s early books of verse, “Pagan Poems,” 1881, is as usual without its title-page, and “It is impossible for me to tell you where you can get one.” The fact is that the author had a dispute with the printer of the book, who tore out the title-pages from nearly the whole edition and sold it as waste-paper.

Another feature of the sale is a fine collection of books by James Boswell. It includes the rare and scurrilous “Ode by Doctor Samual Johnson to Mrs. Thrale on Their Supposed Approaching Nuptials,” 1784. If the fact were not proved to the hilt, it would be hard to believe that this production is really Boswell’s.