A SHEAF

 

 

BY

JOHN GALSWORTHY

 

 

 

 

LONDON

WILLIAM HEINEMANN

London: William Heinemann. 1916.

This volume is but a garnering of non-creativewritings; mostly pleas of some sort or other—wildoats of a novelist, which he has been asked tobind up. He cannot say that he had any wantonpleasure in sowing any of them; and lest there beothers of the same opinion as the anonymous gentlemanwho thus joyously addressed him last July:“But there—I suppose you are getting a bit out ofit. Men of your calibre will do anything for filthylucre—you old and cunning reptile!”—he mentionsthat he has not, personally, profited a penny by anythingin this volume, and that the future proceedstherefrom will be given to St. Dunstan’s, and theNational Institute for the Blind, London.

In these days of manifold human misery, many willbe impatient reading some of the pleas written beforethe war; but the war will not last for ever, and in thepeace that follows life will be rougher, the need forthose pleas even more insistent than it was.

The writings have been pruned a little, and a fewhave not yet met the public eye.

To the many Editors of Journals and Reviewswherein the others have appeared—cordial thanks.

J. G.

August, 1916.