He Dresses Well

Joseph Hergesheimer is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular of our presentday stylists--and his accomplishments as a writer place him indisputably in the front ranks of American novelists. Presently we shall have a new novel of his to read, Balisand, his first since the impassioned Cytherca so recently celebrated in the cinema.

Mr. Hergesheimer uses words with distinction and unction. They are pleasant trophies to him, to be adroitly hung about his plot, to be celebrated, to be worshipped. There are times when I like his style immensely. There are times when I do not like it at all. Yet it is far, far better to write beautifully as Mr. Hergesheimer does, and to annoy occasionally with involved sentences or word tricks than it is not to make any pretence at fine writing at all, which is the case with a multitude of his fellow novelists. There are no finer stories in American annals than those in the collection Gold and Iron. There are few better novels than The Three Black Pennies. Those who consider some of Hergesheimer's characters passionless must seek his emotion in words. He often characterizes a screen as lovingly as a woman. Nothing is so inanimate as to be stone to this high priest of the senses.

Born at Philadelphia in 1880, Joseph was educated at a Quaker school and at the Pennsylvania Academy or Fine Arts. Most of his life has been spent either in being or in becoming a writer. He is fairly large, slightly rubicund, but, withal, impressive to look upon. He dresses well. It has often been remarked in the public prints that he dresses with something of a swagger. This is true. He has a charming wife and they live in West Chester, Pa. He is often in Manhattan and may be seen jovially present in the lunch room of the Hotel Algonquin.

I have never talked to him at length; but in correspondence have found him remarkably cordial, sane and helpful. My one effort at conversation with him, however, was a trifle disastrous--as he hummed Yankee Doodle absently through it all. This, however, I judged less of an insult to my New England ancestry than a mere matter of distraction. In short, Hergesheimer is a good fellow, with a few peculiarities of fellowship--and a fine writer with a few peculiarities of writing. J. F.