The Borzoi 1920

by Inc. Alfred A. Knopf

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY

ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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FOREWORD

Many readers have doubtless long been familiar with the catalogs issued now and again by European publishers—no bare lists of authors and titles, but such wholly charming productions as, for example, the annual almanacks of the Insel-Verlag of Leipzig. As I approached the conclusion of my first five years’ publishing it seemed to me—in view of the uncommon friendliness of so many readers—that they, at any rate, would perhaps receive with favor a more permanent record of the early activities of the Borzoi than it would be possible to present in the usual sort of American publisher’s announcement. Authors—may I say my authors?—greeted the idea with such enthusiasm (how generous their coöperation the following pages abundantly testify) that it soon took fairly definite shape. The original papers are of course the real excuse for The Borzoi 1920, while the balance of the book is intended simply to be useful—to the individual reader, the bookseller, and the librarian. I have tried to make the bibliography complete, but the Who’s Who is confined to writers who are, I hope, more or less definitely associated with my list (and from whom I could get the necessary information).

My best thanks are due many for whatever success Borzoi Books may have achieved. Those, first, who wrote them, and especially the generous contributors to this volume; the booksellers, who have been both friendly and intelligent in their coöperation; the critics who have been for the most part both understanding and encouraging; the loyal co-workers in my own office; and last, but not least, the readers who have made the whole venture possible.

Alfred A. Knopf.

CONTENTS

		PAGE
Introduction	Maxim Gorky	[ix]
PART ONE
WRITTEN ESPECIALLY FOR THE BORZOI 1920		[1]
The Movies	Claude Bragdon	[3]
Maxwell Bodenheim	Witter Bynner	[6]
On the Art of Fiction	Willa Cather	[7]
Astonishing Psychic Experience	Clarence Day, Jr.	[9]
Max Beerbohm	Floyd Dell	[12]
Joseph Hergesheimer	Wilson Follett	[15]
On Drawing	A. P. Herbert	[20]
A Note on the Chinese Poems translated by Arthur Waley	Joseph Hergesheimer	[24]
Willa Cather	H. L. Mencken	[28]
Van Vechten	Philip Moeller	[32]
On H. L. Mencken	George Jean Nathan	[34]
A Sketch	Sidney L. Nyburg	[37]
Chant of the Nurses	Eunice Tietjens	[41]
A Memory of Ypres	H. M. Tomlinson	[42]
On the Advantages of Being Born on the Seventeenth of June	Carl Van Vechten	[48]
The Master of the Five Willows	Arthur Waley	[52]
PART TWO
A BRIEF WHO’S WHO OF WRITERS PARTICULARLY IDENTIFIED WITH THE BORZOI		[53]
PART THREE
SELECTED PASSAGES FROM BORZOI BOOKS		[63]
How He Died	Conrad Aiken	[65]
From “Youth and Egolatry”	Pío Baroja	[68]
From “The Romantic Woman”	Mary Borden	[71]
October	Robert Bridges	[74]
“Letters of a Javanese Princess”	Louis Couperas	[75]
April Charms	William H. Davies	[79]
A page from “The Three Mulla Mulgars”	Walter de la Mare	[80]
Burbank with a Baedeker; Bleistein with a Cigar	T. S. Eliot	[81]
From “Where Angels Fear to Tread”	E. M. Forster	[83]
Dorothy Easton’s “The Golden Bird”	John Galsworthy	[86]
War and the Small Nations	Kahlil Gibran	[88]
A First Review	Robert Graves	[89]
Joe Ward	E. W. Howe	[90]
Doc Robinson	E. W. Howe	[92]
John Davis	E. W. Howe	[92]
Concerning “A Little Boy Lost”	W. H. Hudson	[93]
Ancient Music	Ezra Pound	[96]
Fire and the Heart of Man	J. C. Squire	[97]
Preface to “Deliverance”	E. L. Grant Watson	[101]
PART FOUR
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALL BORZOI BOOKS FROM 25 SEPTEMBER 1915 TO 25 SEPTEMBER 1920		[103]
Postscript		[133]