Lastly, in this connection, he has superlatively the laugh known as the
'infectious laugh.' When he laughs everybody laughs, everybody has to
laugh. There are men who tell side-splitting tales with the face of an
undertaker--for example, Irvin Cobb. There are men who can tell
side-splitting tales and openly and candidly rollick in them from the
first word; and of these latter is Frank Swinnerton. But Frank Swinnerton
can be more cruel than Irvin Cobb. Indeed, sometimes when he is telling a
story, his face becomes exactly like the face of Mephistopheles in
excellent humour with the world's sinfulness and idiocy.

"Swinnerton's other gift is the critical. It has been said that an author
cannot be at once a first-class critic and a first-class creative artist.
To which absurdity I reply: What about William Dean Howells? And what
about Henry James, to name no other names? Anyhow, if Swinnerton excels in
fiction he also excels in literary criticism. The fact that the literary
editor of the Manchester Guardian wrote and asked him to write literary
criticism for the Manchester Guardian will perhaps convey nothing to the
American citizen. But to the Englishman of literary taste and experience
it has enormous import. The Manchester Guardian publishes the most
fastidious and judicious literary criticism in Britain.

"I recall that once when Swinnerton was in my house I had there also a
young military officer with a mad passion for letters and a terrific
ambition to be an author. The officer gave me a manuscript to read. I
handed it over to Swinnerton to read, and then called upon Swinnerton to
criticise it in the presence of both of us. 'Your friend is very kind,'
said the officer to me afterward, 'but it was a frightful ordeal.'

"The book on George Gissing I have already mentioned. But it was
Swinnerton's work on R. L. Stevenson that made the trouble in London. It
is a destructive work. It is bland and impartial, and not bereft of
laudatory passages, but since its appearance Stevenson's reputation has
never been the same."

BOOKS BY FRANK SWINNERTON

THE MERRY HEART
THE YOUNG IDEA
THE CASEMENT
THE HAPPY FAMILY
GEORGE GISSING: A CRITICAL STUDY
R. L. STEVENSON: A CRITICAL STUDY
ON THE STAIRCASE
THE CHASTE WIFE
NOCTURNE
SHOPS AND HOUSES
SEPTEMBER
COQUETTE
THE THREE LOVERS

SOURCES ON FRANK SWINNERTON

Who's Who [In England].

Frank Swinnerton: Personal Sketches by Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells,
Grant Overtor, B