Vol. VI No. 1 - Modernist Magazines Project

LETTERS FROM ABROAD
cases). His task was stupendous and perilous and he seems to have taken
this to heart.
Professor Max Slevogt's 6oth birthday is being celebrated by three exhibitions
of his work; paintings, drawings and illustrations. Renoir is again to be
seen at Flechtheim. His exhibits are more numerous than last year. The
pastels and drawings from private collections are of particular interest and
are not usually available for public inspection. Gauguin, too, is attracting
much attention at Thannhauser's. A young German, of whom more will be
heard, XaVer Fuhr, showed some work of great promise at the Gallery
Nierendorf.
The well-known actress, Tilla Durieux, has written a novel, Eine Tiir jdllt
ins Schloss ("A door falls too!") which, to those in the know, is descriptive of
many stirring events in her own life. She and the book have been rather
adversely criticised.
The Goethe Prize has been awarded this year to one of the most interesting
men of the present age (Albert Schweitzer) best known for his wonderful
biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to this he is theologian and
preacher, doctor of medicine and founder and actual builder of a hospital in
Lambarene in Central Africa, which after going to pieces during the war, was
rebuilt and carried on with renewed strength. He is engaged on an enormous
work, of which two volumes are at present finished; Verfall und Wiedergeburt
der Kultur (Decline and Regeneration of Culture) and Kultur und Ethik
(Culture and Ethics), both written entirely in equatorial Africa!
"Der Verband deutscher Erzahler" has organised this autumn "Matinee^
of Youth," in which the works of the younger authors are given prominence.
Gertrud Epstein, a writer of originality and talent, and recipient of a coveted
literary prize introduced by George Engel, was the first woman to be honoured,
and her "Erzahlung" (short story) "Hibo," was read with feeling by an
actor of note, Theodor Loos.
DILETTANTE.
DEAR BERMONDSEY BOOK,
PARIS, November.
OCTOBER is the period which marks in Paris life the end of holidays
and the renewal of winter activities.
"La Rentree" admirably expresses this particular moment which
really forms a fifth season in the year. It has no fixed date, but
convention has decreed that the later it starts, the more chic it will be. It is
the curtain behind which our curiosity anticipates all festivities, novelties and
actualities. In truth, the year in the "Ville Lumiere" starts with "La Rentree"
and not the first of January and until the breaking-up in the summer feverish
intensity reigns supreme.
A crop of exhibitions usually spring up at this time, though at present they
seem spaced at greater intervals than last year. The Motor Show was an
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