Part 1 (2/2)

What I have made my prime object is the description of the influences that have affected ood or evil,is not only what he is, but how he came to be what he is

The main influence of my life has been _The Spectator_, and, therefore, as will be seen, I have made _The Spectator_ the pivot ofmy story I have worked backwards and forwards But this is not all Though I pay a certain hoy and let my chapters mainly follow the years, I ahout, I obey the instinct of the journalist and take good copy wherever I can find it I follow the scent while it is hot and do not say to myself or to my readers that this or that would be out-of-place here, and must be deferred to such and such a chapter, or to so an account of later years, devoted to miscellaneous anecdotes! In a word, I an

If I aia, I shall have no difficulty in replying I desire to leave nothing unsaid whichpublic that the world has ever seen-and, to reat

J ST LOE STRACHEY

May 5, 1922

POSTSCRIPT TO AMERICAN PREFACE

_While this book and preface is going through the press, I cannot resist adding a Postscript on a point suggested bywhich eneration as to ”The Spectator's” position during the Civil War

”The Spectator” was as strong a friend of America in past years as it is at present, and in those past years its friendshi+p was thebetween all parts of the English-speaking race was not realised by nearly so many people as it is now That there was ever any essential bitterness of feeling here or in Anorance, pig-headedness, and want of vision, is beyond all doubt This want of vision was specially illustrated during the Civil War ”The Spectator,”

however, I a to note its gallantry, and its noble sacrifices even in a wrong cause, was consistently on the side of the North Moreover, it realised that the North was going to win, and ought to win, and so would abolish slavery There is a special tradition at the ”Spectator” office of which we are very proud It is that the military critic of ”The Spectator,” at that time Mr Hooper, a civilian but with an extraordinary flair for strategy, divined exactly what Sher when he started on his famous march Many years afterwards General Shere, for I cannot now verify the fact, though I am perfectly certain of it, said that when he started with the wires cut behind him, there were only two people in the world who knehat his objective was One was himself and the other, as he said, ”an anonymous writer in the London 'Spectator'” My American readers will understand why I and all connected with ”The Spectator” are intensely proud of this fact The fate, not only of A upon the success of Sher upon the fact that Sherman's objective was the sea To have divined that was a notable achievement in the art of publicity_

J ST L S

THE ADVENTURE OF LIVING

CHAPTER I

HOW I CAME TO ”THE SPECTATOR”

Sir Thoave his son an ad son had been travelling in Hungary and proposed to write an account of what he had seen His father approved the project, but urged hily not to trouble hi iron and copper from the ores, or with a multitude of facts and statistics

These were matters in which there was no need to be particular But, he added, his son ive a full description of the ”Roman alabaster to my recollections I mean to keep always before me the alabaster tomb in the barber's shop rather than a view of life which is based on high politics, or even high literature At first sight it may seem as if the life of an editor is not likely to contain very much of the alabaster tomb element In truth, however, every life is an adventure, and if a sense of this adventure cannot be communicated to the reader, one may feel sure that it is the fault of the writer, not of the facts A dull raphy even if he had lived through the French Revolution; whereas a country curate ht thrill the world with his story, provided that his htinterest in its delineation Barbellion's _Diary_ provides the proof The interest of that supre

But how is one to knoill interest one's readers? That is a difficult question Clearly it is no use to put up a man of straw, call him the Public, and then try to play down to hied and purely hypothetical opinions and tastes Those who attempt to fawn upon the puppet of their own creation are as likely as not to end by interesting nobody At any rate, try and please yourself, then at least one person's liking is engaged That is the autobiographer's simple secret

All the saious

He rites with zest will infect his readers The ues, ”This seems stupid and tedious to me, but I expect it is what the public likes,” is certain to make shi+pwreck of his endeavour

The pivot of my life has been _The Spectator_, and so _The Spectator_ must be the pivot of my book--the point upon which it and I and all that isthis book with the story of how I came to _The Spectator_

My father, a friend of both the joint editors, Mr Hutton and Mr