1958-06-21 — Page 14

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JUNE 21, · 1958.

WAS SIR EDMUND IN THE RACKET?

HAVE been investigating the tantalising case of the Ghost, the Forger, and the Lady from Texas. A case involving mass fraud; thefts from the British Museum; and the snapping and snarling of elderly scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. A case which could one day over-topple one of the biggest literary reputations of the modern age.

First let us deal with the Ghost. It is a very refined and respected ghost indeed; the ghost of a little, fragile man with gluting spectacles and bird-like poise. His name: Sir Edmund Gosse.

This week, 30 years after his death, Edmund Goase would be in the news even if it wasn't for the case of forgery. For his greatest Look-FATHER AND SON (Heinemann, 128, Ed.)-in republished for the first time in this decade.

Gosse's book describes his extraordinary life with Father, L member of the Plymouth Brethren. It is utterly candid, but full of a. sad, subtle humour too.

dis-

Take the incident of the factured before 1874. They ex- Christmas pudding. Papa Gouse mined the trps. They abamined Christmas un rell-covered that certain lettèrs had gious grounts, ("The very word not been cut before 1880. Is Popish," he explained.j

He gave strict orders that no

differenes whatever

was to be

Christmas

the Glosse

fe in eals on Day. But me your servants made segret pium Budding and wheedled young Edavad in the kitchen for a bite.

Edmund got stomach ache. Smitten by cosselence he ran crylur. "Ok. Papa, Papa, I have eaten of the flesh offered to idols!"

Can conthe-

They discovered that the volume had not been printed In Rebeling, but at a printer's in the Strand.

The cholura then turned 60 other precious edition nf zauthors ranging from Tennyson to Dickens. They founel 12:12 Bicy 100 were fakes: 1 clmost all of them had been printed at the same printer's In the Strand.

fur the pathy of

inan. He had his own printing done at the place in the Strand Again and guln he claimed to have chanced up- on the bogus volumes In book-

THE EVIDENCE Who had arranged Printing Alt the evidence fed to Thomas J. Wisc.

"My Father sternly said: Where is the accumud thing? He took me by the hand, and ran with m Into the midst of the earthd servants,

mast what reindured of the purfding, and with the plate in one hand and was stih light in the other, shops. rab 13 we reached The dust- ho flunk Tha confeglimmery on lo

heart. when idolatrous

and

the middle of the ashes, then raked fi drep slowo łuka the ees."

AT HEART

But Gerse makes it plain that his father was at heart a kind and loving

ls And religion had is lighter moments.

100.

1.

ite helped to sell them to American millionaires.

And

As each rare edition went up time everyone thought, quite

Papa Gosse abominated Christmas..he stalked out and flung the

idolatrous confectionery' into the ashes.

Browning-sald Goore's essay

of the anectiote all hig iffe, And

In it,

an early edition until after his death?

Now you know...

HOW many ordinary

members of the public who relish the spectacle of A society wedding appreciate the tense problems of or ganisation behind it? From a solemn new biography I select two incidonts which; precedeil the wedding (guests invited-1,000) of Patricia, daughter of Earl and Countess Mountbatten. INCIDENT ONE:

Soon wedding presents

Chester

RECORD ROUND by RAMSDEN GREIG

Mr. WAYNE HERALDS

A NEW LINE

The boy who takos -over from Jerry Los Lewis comos riding

In without a gimmick

HE Hittle man in the

began to arrive and the Denmark Street bar

small housO in that Gosse stuck to his version Street was filled with ex-was carrying a worried ex. she pointed out a strange flawpensive gifta. One night pression and, nt a rough burglars attempted to enguens, half a bottle of gin. Browning wrote openly shout force an entry. They were He was a publicity man, cur- his most intimate affairs. Why unsuccessful, but the In-rently employed to boost the should he ask Gosse not to cldent so preyed on the sales of gramophone records mention the simple matter

mind of the butler that for and sing the praises of those flays afterwards he had who make them. violent nightmares. Wak- ing in

In the curious accent of Tia the middle of one Pan Alley, he said: "Boy, the particularly vivid dream he Gimmicks and stunts have got day of the gimmicks is over, found that he had reduced out of hond. Look what hap- his room to indescribable pens to the Jerry Lee Lewis disorder and beyond the gimmicke of having a child wile. door could be heard raised The kids were disgusted and

Sent Me Lewis packing. voices, and the trampling of

Talent feet. Peering out, he saw

Gosse had

Obylously it was a piece of mystideation which deliberately invented. Obviously Gosse was somehow trying to

help Wise with his fraud,

Such was Fannie Ratchford's powerful case. Yet when sho printed it in 1944 a load of abuse from bookish men descended on

her head.

"The situation which is about to obtain at any moment is that

full

no

TERRY WAYNE Wholesome at a bread ed.

Why? During the week Lord Louis in his pyjamas, met Miss Ratchford, who is leading a posse of policemen artists will have to forget about has taken on tour: "Crikey, I viriting Brilain for further who were tearing throughgimmicks and rely on fulent, I think Jerry Lewis Is terrific. research into the Wise affair.

the rooms. Lord Louis had tell you, boy, the teenagers are be and stayed the chow heard piercing serennis and getting wised-up and will had instantly summoned the gr pollee. When a complete search alories. of the house had been made, the police withdrew, and Lord Louls returned puzzled to hed, The butler could have told him whose sercams

he had heard, But he deemed It expedi- ent to Temalk silent INCIDENT TWO:

AN UPSTART In a South Kensington hotel we talked about the pages which Wise cut from old books at the British Museum, and which are now Incorporated in volumes he sold to America.

We talked about his motive. (Wise may have made about 100,000 dollars from the whole affair). Finally I asked her:

in price at the auctions, Wise rightly, that Elizabeth Brown- deliberately asked his friend why do you think you were worked out an original ingenious this fresh breeze.

er one of his friends

not to disclose the secret untli

this Wiig

so abused for blaming Gosse?"

Fannie Ratchford

Us

have gone to see him when the show reached Woolwich, for the phoney

It country and Western is For too long Denmark Street your kind of mukic I recom

latest On has recked of the cocked-up mend Mr Wayne's story. It is about time that the Lonesome Me (Columbia 78). recording star got his golden Ha gimmickless treatment of disc on talent and not on the the number is refreshing. On ract that his forebears were

the other side you will find Cherokee Indians or that he has There's Only One of You, This 14 run-of-the-mill rock-n-billy. a revolting anatoraleni wiggle. With his customary

Which brings atten-

Twenty-four to Terry

years 4:0 Louis Armstrong made his Rest tion to detail Lord Louis had Wayne, who comes Hding in on

European tour. When he got to scheme for the parking of the Mr Wayne, who has replaced Parts he recorded St. Louis tear of the Blues, Tiger Tag and On the sald: guests ears. So unusual was it Mr Lewis on a Winehut he woke one night realis-tark Organisation cinemas, Is Sunny Side of the Street, "You'll Young that utter chaos would ensue presente to us by the publicity find them on Louls Armstrong

the he was not an educated unless

instructions to en as good. clcun and whole- and His Orchestra (Fontana 45). man; he was an upstart. But chauffeurs

This vintage Satchmo is elcan- owner-drivers me." Gorse was Librarian of the were not immediately changed. He is 10 years old, and he as-a-whistle stuff and is a nut

The recretaries of Lords: In an essay

were aroused, e mes from Plumstead. He has for the collector of traditional the great critic, Edmund Gosser revealed a new

and the work of amendment 700 discs in his record collection, jazz. was instantly put in hand.end, dutifully, he is down about his old bully,

My Best Buy of the Week: Robert Browning. According to

Mus Ratchford sighed. She Towards dawn, when the work every morning for four hours to Trumpet Bluey (Nixo 78). What was the explanation? went on: "Now I've never was completed, Lord Louis practise his guitar.

Key Baker and essay, Browning

Orchestru exonerated thought #knight or a baronet | placed the vast stack of enve- He does not drink, he does give n spirited rendering of privately told a friend about a

Fuilt, They sug- was kely to be more honest lopes in his car and drove

not muke, he does not swear, the Harry James composition. Special limited edition of Eliza- gested that Wise had somehow than anyone else. Although"-- | off to post them himself. end he has not married any Equally energetle is the treat- beth's, sonnets; It was printed in fobbed him off with the false she waved

al I hand round

From EDWINA — The Blo-hildren recently. Reading; the date a few months neeilole.

ment given to the p-side- Kensington-"I seem to havegraphy of the Counters Mount- Our new style recording star number Bakerloo Non-Stop, a- after theke wedding in autumn. But the Lady from Texas was landed among a whole nest of halten, by Madeleine

speaks of no one, I quote Kenny Baker original. not satisfed. She pointed out them here."

(Hale, 215.).

ilm on the man whost place he

Rome. Ing's carly love sonnets were how unearthed further copies. first published itt a collected after his death..

edition in 1850. How could Wise Who

convenient But how a Edmund Goase get his bogus

1847 edition friend of Browning's who re- involved in all this?

accepted? Out of the blue the ported

It conversation which volution Decurred.

never took place about an edi- tion which never existed? In later years (long before the Wise scandal broke, of course) Gosse admittest that he was the friesch himself.

Ali, that is where the Lady from Texas comes in.

She is Miss Fonnie. Ratchford from the University of Texas. in the 1940's she took over the investigation where Carler and

Take his caequnters with the auton mais. Lonely little Ed- zaund used to watch with his Pollard left off. face prossted against the window for this tall and bony fellow from Jersey to come sirkling by Gusse. along the London streets.

She need on the role played

Tha! role was most important The man carried ropes of In the year when Wise began

onions and cried raucously;--

"Here's your rope,

To hang the Pope....

And a penturth of cheese to

choke him."

Gosse welles; -

"My Father

not ent onions, but he encouraged this terrible fellow with his wild eyes and long strips of hatr because of his godly allude towards the Papacy, and I used to watch bin dart out of the front door, present his penny, and retire, graciously waving back the proferred onion,"

AN AUTHORITY

Such was Edmund Gosse's childhood: The book ends with hls break with his father's religion at the end of adole-

scence.

But the rest of Edmund's life was very different, Assiduously he cultivated the friendship of ull the big poets and novelists of the time.

He was made Librarian of the House of Lords. His essay's made him known as the big authority on books. He enjoyed good wine and the company of aristocratic ladies,

He was knighted by George V. When he died in 1928,

noclety mourned; rich

and

tilled men and women signed an appeal for a Gosse memor- j Jal.

Which beluga wie to The Forger in the case,

For one of the men who signed that appeal was Thomas J. Wise, soap merchant and book collector. Wise and Gosse hud been bosom friends.

DISCOVERED

Together they searched Bri- Together tain for rare books. they ransacked the papers of Algernon Swinburne when the tipsy poet died: But atler Gosse's death nu unparalleled scandal broke over the broad, gold-spertneled head of Thomas Wise,

Two scholars, John Carter and Graham Foltart, discovered that for years a forger had been at work in the book world. Dozens af bogus Arst editions had been fabricated and sold to rich collectors. Typical was the case of a precious volume of sohncis by Elizabeth Browning, printed pilvately in Reading In 1847.

Carter and Pollard examined the pages of the slender 1847

analysed volume. They

the

paper. They found that paper of that cort bad not born manu-

Lecret

this

his career of faking. At at 1840.

EXONERATED

ONLE

Carter and Pollard Gosse from

VIGNETTES OF LIFE

IF SHE HAS A WILD AND ROVING EYE, THAT'S AN ATTACK OF FIDGETS COMING ON-SHES LOOKING

FOR SOMETHING TO CHANGE

PRAPES, FURNITURE OR MAYBE

YOU AND YOUR HABITS.

----

THE FIDGETY KID JUMPS UP, DOWN AND SIDEWAYS - WHEN SHE ISAT MAKING. FACES AT THE PEOPLE JA THE REAR PEW.

A MAN IS CONSIDERED

TO BE A FIDGET IF HE CAN'T LISTEN TO A' TWO HOLR

REPORT ON THE DOINGS AT THE WOMEN'S. BINGO

AND CULTURE

CLUB.

"Well, no one minded being called a forgeT.

Bee,

House knighted,"

SMOKING IN BED SOMETIMES GIVES

he

WAS

The Fidgets

A WIFE THE FIDGETS- WHO IN TURN, GIVES

HER HUSBAND THE FIRGETS — THE TREATMENT IS A

TRIPLE TRANQUILIZER

FOR THE LADY.

and

2-16

FE BY GENERAL, FELTURES *

CORP, THE WOKLU KRIGS RESERVED,

COME,

Masson

(London Express Service),

TRY MOVING –

YOU MIGHT

DEFROST Į *.

By Harry Weinert

SOMETIMES AN ATTACK OF FIDGETS COMES FROM THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THE THERMOSTAT SHOULD

BE RAISED OR LOWERED.

KNITTING IS GOOD FOR FIDGETY PEOPLE —THE MORE FIDGETY THEY ARE THE BIGGER THE AFGHAN.

MASS FIDGETS -THE DENTISTS

WAITING ROOM. N

FIDGETS ARE CONTAGIOUS — WHILE SIS. IS WAITING FOR THAT PHONE CALL, THERE IS ONLY ONE THING TO DO — DISAPPEAR