Smith's London Journal: Now First Published From The Original Manuscript PDF
Preview Smith's London Journal: Now First Published From The Original Manuscript
WHEN H. Allen Smith, author of low Man on a Totem Pole: set out for London for the first time last summer, he decided to keep a journal. Mr. Smith, who describes himself as an uncouth. boorish and bombastic man, went to England primarily to cure himself of the "faults" in bis ·-personality. He wanted "people to say: "He's nice.' " One of the people on the Queen Elizabeth whom Mr. Smith "hoped fervently that (he) would get to meet and converse with" was that paragon of English refinement" Mr. Anthony Eden, who Mr. Smith thought might show him how to tie a bow tie.
"Please," implored Mr. Eden's traveling companion, not that.” When they did meet, Mr. Smith asked Mr. Eden if he could “get him in the Guards.”
It was then that Mr. Smith .. noticed Mr. Eden's foot He was sitting next to me on a divan with his left leg cocked across his right knee, so that the foot was all but in my face.” Mr. Smith wondered if Mr. Eden thought ''Shakespeare wrote the works of Shakespeare." On Mr. Eden expressing surprise at the question: "Because he didn't" answered Mr. Smith; "the Earl of Oxford wrote all those plays and sonnets. "If'' concluded Mr. Eden to Mr. Smith, ·”you get into any trouble in London. get in touch with me.''
AS it happened, it was "Mistress Nelle” wife of Mr. Smith, who risked getting into more trouble in England than her husband. What she had to say, and did say, in public about England’s royal family caused one Englishman to warn her that he was going to be rude."
When Mistress Nelle saw Windsor Castle for the first time, she remarked: “Why don't they tear it down?" In London's National Gallery she saw a treasured painting of a “girl who looked exactly like a bit player we see occasionally on television back home." More tolerant than Mistress Nelle, Mr. Smith was also easier to please. On learning that "Rhubarb; "· a. moving picture based on one of his novels, had been described by a London critic as "this stupendous drivel“ Mr. Smith observed in his Journal that "'a person who doesn’t write could not appreciate the glow that comes with such recognition.''
It was no doubt this kind of appreciation on the part of Mr. Smith that prevented Mrs. Smith from having to take Mr. Eden at his word.
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