PERSONAL recollections of the great departed are always interesting, as the sales of memoirs and reminiscences constantly attest. This talk opens a series in which people qualified to make the past live again will give their recollections of the famous characters they have known. Mr. Desmond MacCarthy , who fortnightly broadcasts his criticisms of new books, begins, taking as his subject that strange, troubled, fastidious writer who was one of America's first serious contributions to the literature of the world.
Born in New York in 1843, James soon settled in England, which he regarded as his spiritual home; he became a naturalized British subject in 1915, and received the Order of Merit in the year of his death, 1916. Amongst his best-known books' are ' Roderick Hudson ,' ' The Portrait of a Lady,' and The American Scene.'