Commentary

Similar to the U. S. Book-of-the-Month Club is the Book Society of England, but its officials are frequently remiss in their labors. Without carefully reading the manuscript. Book Society officials picked for their May selection Coronation Commentary by Geoffrey Dennis, ordered 10,000 copies. The title was perfectly timed. Of the author, the officials knew that he was Editor & Chief of the Document Service of the League of Nations Secretariat, well-versed in the history and procedure of the British Crown, author of many a forceful magazine article, and husband of a great-niece of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. They knew too that Author Dennis had been at Oxford with the Duke of Windsor, presumably liked him.

Most of Coronation Commentary was written by November 1936. Two chapters, on the Abdication and the Coronation of George VI. were added later. When the book went on sale last week Book Society officials saw that they had approved the following remarks:

Of Mrs. Simpson: "For Queen of England [King Edward had chosen], an itinerant, shopsoiled twice divorcee with two ex-husbands living. . . . She came too far below, she clashed too crudely, with the nation's idea and ideal, dream and myth of feminine royalty. . . . She would not do. The comedown from Queen Mary to Queen Wally was too steep."

Of her friends: "They were as a rule no credit to the great country they had exploited and deserted, nor to the one in which they were now roistering and ruling.

. . . Their money could apparently buy everything. . . . Their accent was beginning to be an asset, even to the English themselves, in truly 'smart' circles; it was beginning--you listened in that night?--to be heard in the voice of the young tribal God himself. . . . They were cock-a-hoop, and since Edward's accession getting insolent and out-of-hand. There was but one more world to conquer. The first woman to sit in the ancient Commons was a divorced American.* why not then also--?

". . . Some of the most contemptible people alive, and that their native country had scornfully spewed forth, were closest around our King." Of the Duke of Windsor: "Without base flattery, nobody I think could have called him artistically or intellectually gifted, nor have attributed to him a subtle, remarkable or especially interesting mind. ... At the age of 40 he had not heard of the great writer who was Charlotte Bronte. . . .

He had no friends, rest he was incapable of. Violent exercise was, after his thirties, not stimulus enough. . . .

"Unfortunately . . . there were things done and said in his infatuation; his lover's prodigality; his shrill King's rage against those who denied her to him. In moments of recourse to other sources of courage as well. In hours of erratic or erotic obstinacy. Things left undone in his infatuation. Duty neglected. Papers curiously, neo-Kaiser-ishly annotated. ... Irregular hours, irregular habits, meddling."

Of his defenders: "Those who came out as King's champions were an unprepossessing company. An unstable, ambitious politician [Winston Churchill], flitter from party to party, extreme reactionary, himself the first fruit of the first famous snob-dollar marriage, 'half an alien and wholly undesirable' as long ago was said. . . . Lord Rotherbrook. Lord Beavermere. . . . Bernard Shaw, buffooning; ever since on the wrong side of 70, always on the wrong side politically."

From his Austrian exile Edward of Windsor had remained quiet under a shrewder, subtler attack from royalty-fawning Author Hector Bolitho (TIME, March 29), but last week his royal rage vented itself in no uncertain terms. The London publishers, Messrs. William Heinemann Ltd., heard from Windsor's solicitors, Allen & Overy, that if Coronation Commentary was not immediately withdrawn from sale they would bring suit for libel, and in London courts where libel suits are notoriously easy to win.

Coronation Commentary was speedily withdrawn. Publisher Heinemann and Author Dennis sent humble personal apologies.

In Manhattan, after some hesitation, Coronation Commentary was published this week by Dodd, Mead & Co. Picking his words carefully a Dodd, Mead spokesman said:

"We think much too much attention has been paid to the chapters on Edward and on the Abdication. The book is intended to be a fair presentation of British democracy in its relation to the King."

*Nancy Lady Astor was divorced in 1903 from the late Robert Gould Shaw.

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