Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year, Holden Caulfield

This is January 1st, a day of some literary significance. On this date in 1660, Samuel Pepys began keeping his diary; on this date in 1909, Marcel Proust dipped a crust of toast in his tea, unlocking a lifetime of memories that led to you-know-what; and on this date in 1919, J.D. Salinger was born.

Also born this date, in 1879, was E.M. Forster, author of, among other things, "A Passage to India," "A Room with a View" and Howard's End." But that, as Jack Wasserman used to say, is not the item. We mention Forster because it allows us to quote Katherine Mansfield's assessment of his work, which seems as succinct and perfect a piece of literary criticism as one could wish. Ms. Mansfield wrote: "Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot...Feel this teapot, is it not beautifully warm? Yes, but there ain't going to be no tea."
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1 comment:

  1. tozanJanuary 5, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    There are those who aver that one could write endless Ivory-Merchant screenplays by simply permuting and recombining Forster plots as in: "A Passage With Howard," "A View Of India," "A Room With An End" etc.

    Clearly Katherine Mansfield would not have agreed, nor would her lovely daughter, Jayne.

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