University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD position of the astronomer alone on his tower; not an eye to see but his own. . . . Ho! for an eye, or an ear — and for an outlet through which the world cou ' id be made beneficiary of this artistic impulse, this vision of beauty of the day! That wish had long held sweet private sessions in Henry Har- land ' s thoughts. He was himself a leader, he was himself a watcher of the skies — and he dreamed of a suitable Magazine vN-hence the fine work might be seen and be appreciated. One foggy New Year ' s afternoon a little luncheon party had gathered at the Harlands ' . It numbered among its guests Mr. Aubrey Beardsk;y, destined soon to become the modern Hogarth, but, at that time a man almost unknown. The talk fell of course upon the idea uppermost in Harland ' s mind: The founding of a new English Quarterly, where Letters, where Black and White Art might enter into their own. Aubrey Beardsley was a lad of twenty then — a poet in his work. He had the sense of design and of beautiful line to the ends of his fingers. He died, alas, at the age of twenty-four. But he died a Catholic and he lived to found a school of Black and White Art. He laughed at vice, he hated it, and like Hogarth, exposed it; maliciously, with his tongue in his cheek. But his malice was the malice of genius; bis wit found expression in the persiflage of hidden vices, in line, and in the color hidden in the juxtaposition of Black and White. Aubrey Beardsley ' s art has found many imitators but no one has ever yet approached him either in creative quality or in the beauty and fineness and wit of his execution. But to return to the incipient Quarterly. Young Beardsley responded with gusto to Harland ' s suggestions. ' ' Quand on est jeune o?i va vite en besogne, says the French proverb, and not a moment was lost. There and then, both artists plunged into the practical consideration of detail incident to the proposed publi- cation. Books from the study, brought into the gay pink drawing-room with its Persian carpets, its pictures and its old furniture, were called in consultation; new or rare editions were studied, were discarded, — for a hint, for a suggestion. As a mere piece of bookmaking the Quarterly must be on a par, too, with the quality, the artistic virtue of its pages. What title should one give to so great, so splendid a venture? A daring, fetching title! A title that should, laughing, win in the fight against oppos- ing forces; those solemn forces, those principalities and powers of suspicious dullness, in a blinking world. The frolic of the hour inspired Beardsley, who proposed: The Yellow Book. This title, its appositeness and humour, struck all the young contingent and it was decided to cling to it until a better one was found. But the next business, less easy, was to get a Publisher. Yet to his honor be it declared, Mr. John L,ane had the wisdom and enterprise to see his oppor- tunity, which a few days later came to him in the plan for the New Quarterly.

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THE REDWOOD their folly; they went to Paris and thence to London where they settled themselves. Some of the experiences of those earlier days are divertingly parodied in a play entitled: The Light Sovereign. The Light Sovereign was published in 1889 and was afterwards elaborated into a farcical Comedy in collaboration with Mr. Hubert Crackan- thorpe. But as a Comedy, it was never produced, although Balkan plays and Balkan tales it has suggested to a whole tribe of playwrights and novelists. From 1889, desultorily, in the English Reviews, began to appear stories which were collected and published afterwards by Mr. Heinemann, under the title of Mademoiselle Miss. The stories are re- markable for their humour, their tender presentment of human nature in its less usual and obvious aspects. This book attracted a good deal of attention. Grey Roses followed Madetnoiselle Miss; and after Grey Roses came Come- dies and Errors. The short story, (more ' s the pity) is rarely in book form a success in English-speaking lands. But Grey Roses and Comedies and Errors had the good fortune to capti- vate both the critics and the public. The critics recognized in them Gems of the literary art by the hand of a master, and Mr. Henry James wrote an article about them in The Fortnightly Review and Mr. William Courtney wrote another, I believe in 77 ,? Contem- porary. By this time Mr. Harland ' s house in London had become the centre of an in- teresting group of litterateurs, a brilliant coterie of men and women artists. Letters, music, black and white work, were undergoing a sea-change in Eng- land, a quiet revival; lo! the sound of the turtle was heard in the land. Through The Yellow Book, the move- ment found expression at last; it actual- ly rose to a Renaissance and thus the intrinsic spirit of Art came afresh and for a while, into its own. ' ' How I Passed Thirty-Six Hours in a Boiler! ' ' One had grown so weary of the story, of which one knows the type. As to Black and White Work! A Royal Academy picture translated into terms of photograviug would give a fair exam- ple of its commonplaceness, its banality. Yet from Oxford, from Cambridge, from London, from Glasgow, men came, men who had things to say, things to do, of an original sort; whose vision included far more of life and of its wonders than the rehearsal of the tale: How I Passed Thirty-six Hours in a Boiler, — or a rep- resentation manifold of The Cotter ' s Sat- urday Night sort of picture. It was in truth, then, I make no doubt, very much as it is now, — the Editor of the average Magazine was a timid person; he saw evil everywhere and safety only in Matrimony. Caution prompted him for the most part to print nothing with the slightest touch of individuality, unless indeed, it had pre- viously been sifted and declared wheat, by an audience outside of his dominion. In fact courage was denied him, and he was and is still, — always for the safe side. But on the other hand, those unknown artist-watchers of the skies were in the

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THE REDWOOD He was able also to enjoy the f uu of the title. Three months later, in April, 1894, the first volume of The Yellow Book made its appearance with Henry Harland as its Literary Editor, with Aubrey Beardsley as the Editor of its Black and White work. The Yellow Book ' s success was quite un- precedented; it was too, quite unforseen. The laughing quarterly, its lance raised became the fashion in fastidious London, became 2. furore. No one, old or young, no one v ith the slightest claim to artis- tic achievement, but chose to make his bow in its pages with the very best he had to offer. One should look down the list of The Yellow Book ' s contributors during the three years of its existence; one should see how old reputations were there re- vived or confirmed; and how new names sprang to notice, made fame for themselves in its pages and won there their spurs. The setting proved so dis- tinguished a one that the attention giv- en to the work because of its setting was tremendous. To be brief, Henry Harland, Aubrey Beardsley, became (to their surprise,) the very lions of the hour, while their Quarterly was to be found on every smart drawing-room table in London. Yet to the credit of both men and though each man did enjoy, hugely, his success and the success of the darling adventure, each was too thorough an artist to be drawn far from work which was his justification for being. Thus, The Yellow Book continued to be the vogue when, in January 1897, in conse- quence of the Literary Editor ' s failing health the publication cea ' -ed, having gallantly served its purpose and the needs of its day. The following incomplete list of a small portion of the literary contributors to The Yellow Book, may be of interest to those who care about such things. It is a remarkable list for any Magazine, particularly a short lived one. The Yellow Dwarf, ' ' who was Henry Harland in disguise, showing his teeth, mocking, ironic, to the foes of fine art in letters; Kenneth Grahame, William Watson, Mrs. Meynell, Cunningham Graham, John Davidson, Ella D ' Arcy, The Honourable Maurice Baring, Fran- cis Thompson, Sir Frank Swettenham, Henry Harland, Edmund Gosse, Henry James, Max Beerbohm, R. de Coutans, Henry E. Nevinson, John Oliver Robbes , Dauphin Meunier,Hammerton, Anatole France, George Moore, Mrs. Dearmer, Oswald Sickert, Evelyn Sharp, Arthur Symonds, Money Coutts, Mrs. Montague Crackanthorpe, Leila Mac- donald, E.Nesbit, Richard Le Galiienne, Stanley Makower, Arthur Waugh, Hubert Crackanthorpe, Mrs. Murray Hickson, Mrs. Clifford, E- Arnold Ben- nett, Nora Hopper, E. Saintsbury, etc., etc. The Black and White Artists were: Aubrey Beardsley, Stetr, Guthrie, Wal- ter Sickert, Paten Willson, Charles Con- der, Alfred Thornton, Anning Bell, Ethel Reed, the Glasgow School of Black and White men, Lavery, Joseph Pen- nell, etc., etc.