Buried Caesars

by Vincent Starrett

 

BURIED CAESARS

 

BURIED CAESARS

Essays in Literary
Appreciation

BY
VINCENT STARRETT

I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled.

—Edward FitzGerald

Essay Index Reprint Series

BOOKS FOR LIBRARIES PRESS, INC.
FREEPORT, NEW YORK

First Published 1923
Reprinted 1968

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG NUMBER:
68-16977

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To the Shining Memory
of Another Buried Caesar

ROBERT POLK STARRETT

My Father
September 19, 1863
November 24, 1918

CONTENTS

I.

A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

1

(1)

Of Sin

(2)

Of Ecstasy

(3)

Of Arthur Machen

II.

Ambrose Bierce ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

32

(1)

The Man

(2)

The Master

(3)

The Mystery

III.

Stephen Crane: a Wonderful Boy ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

73

IV.

The Passing of James Branch Cabell ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

87

V.

"Michael Wood" and the "Incommunicable" ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

105

VI.

The Art of W. C. Morrow ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

118

VII.

Arthur Cosslett Smith ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

126

VIII.

Two Suicides ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

133

Hubert Crackanthorpe

Richard Middleton

IX.

The Irritating Mr. Burgess ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

146

X.

Opie Read and the Great American Novel ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

153

XI.

A Bookman of the Old School ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

163

Walter Blackburn Harte

XII.

Haldane Macfall, Novelist ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

170

XIII.

Robert Neilson Stephens and the Costume Novel ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

179

XIV.

Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

189

XV.

"Black Beauty" and its Author ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

205

XVI.

"Home is the Sailor—" ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

224

In Memoriam David Ker

XVII.

"Great-Heart is Dead!" ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

239

In Memoriam William Marion Reedy