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Boon, The Mind of the Race,
The Wild Asses of the Devil,
_and_ The Last Trump
Being a First Selection from the
Literary Remains of George Boon,
Appropriate to the Times
Prepared for Publication by
REGINALD BLISS
AUTHOR OF "THE COUSINS OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE,"
"A CHILD'S HISTORY OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE,"
"FIRELIGHT RAMBLES," "EDIBLE FUNGI,"
"WHALES IN CAPTIVITY," AND OTHER WORKS
WITH
An Ambiguous Introduction by
H. G. WELLS
T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD.
LONDON; ADELPHI TERRACE
_First published in 1915_
(All rights reserved)
INTRODUCTION
Whenever a publisher gets a book by one author he wants an Introduction
written to it by another, and Mr. Fisher Unwin is no exception to the
rule. Nobody reads Introductions, they serve no useful purpose, and
they give no pleasure, but they appeal to the business mind, I think,
because as a rule they cost nothing. At any rate, by the pressure of a
certain inseparable intimacy between Mr. Reginald Bliss and myself,
this Introduction has been extracted from me. I will confess that I
have not read his book through, though I have a kind of first-hand
knowledge of its contents, and that it seems to me an indiscreet,
ill-advised book....
I have a very strong suspicion that this Introduction idea is designed
to entangle me in the responsibility for the book. In America, at any
rate, "The Life of George Meek, Bath Chairman," was ascribed to me
upon no better evidence. Yet any one who likes may go to Eastbourne
and find Meek with chair and all complete. But in view of the
complications of the book market and the large simplicities of the
public mind, I do hope that the reader--and by that I mean the
reviewer--will be able to see the reasonableness and the necessity of
distinguishing between me and Mr. Reginald Bliss. I do not wish to
escape the penalties of thus participating in, and endorsing, his
manifest breaches of good taste, literary decorum, and friendly
obligation, but as a writer whose reputation is already too crowded
and confused and who is for the ordinary purposes of every day known
mainly as a novelist, I should be glad if I could escape the public
identification I am now repudiating. Bliss is Bliss and Wells is
Wells. And Bliss can write all sorts of things that Wells could not
do.
This Introduction has really no more to say than that.