SOURCE: "Edward Verrall Lucas," in The Charles Lamb Bulletin, No. 8, October, 1974, pp. 157-62.

[In the following essay, Prance presents an overview of Lucas's work as a writer and editor.]

On E V Lucas as a man I cannot comment because we never met, but as a writer he seems to have been an old friend for almost as long as I can remember. We have so many interests in common: old Brighton, Sussex, London, cricket, Charles Lamb and England, to say nothing of painters and picture galleries.

After a day of difficulty and stress, or even after reading a book which requires more than usual concentration, it is a relief and a relaxation to turn to one of Lucas's many volumes of delightful essays which require no particular effort to enjoy their full flavour, or even to divert the mind with one of his stories—they are not quite novels—some he called entertainments.

It was with great pride that Lucas recorded in his autobiography his feelings on reading in a letter from Lord Grey of Fallodon to his brother-in-law that he liked Listeners' Lure so much he had resolved to buy and read all that E V Lucas had ever written or would write in the future. No small undertaking, for Lucas was responsible for considerably more than 100 books. Essays, stories, travel books, art criticism, biographies, anthologies: Lucas distinguished himself in all these, as well as being a first class editor. He was, too, a writer of verse and of children's stories.

His earliest efforts, like those of many authors, took the form of verse. Sparks from a Flint appeared in 1890, to be followed two years later by Songs of the Bat, which the author published himself at the price of one penny: as he says, after spending too much time at Lord's. The best of the cricket verse was included in 1898 in Willow and Leather, sub-titled "A Book of Praise", and issued in Arrowsmith's Bristol Library series at one shilling. The book contained both verse and prose, including a shortened version of Lucas's essay on Hambledon from Ranjitsinhji's Jubilee Book of Cricket, and even today the tiny volume has much attraction for ardent cricketers. An earlier cricket book in the same series was E B V Christian's At the Sign of the Wicket, delightfully subtitled "Essays on the Glorious Game".

Although Lucas's interests were so wide spread, he could never keep cricket out of his pages and it frequently crops up in his many volumes of essays, his stories and anthologies. In 1907 he edited The Hambledon Men which reprinted John Nyren's The Young Cricketer's Tutor and The Cricketers of My Time, with much other material of great interest, including John Mitford's review of Nyren's book, and prose and verse by James Pycroft, old Clarke, Andrew Lang and Alfred Cochrane: a most fascinating volume to a lover of cricket and the past. Nyren was a friend of the Novellos and of Charles Cowden Clarke, who helped him with his book, and it is highly probable that Lamb may have met him at some of the Novellos' parties.

In 1950, twelve years after Lucas's death, Rupert Hart-Davis collected and published the best of his writings on cricket, taking as his title Cricket all his Life, a quotation from an eighteenth century letter about Turner of East Hoathly, who wished that he could play cricket "all his life". Lucas quoted from this old Sussex letter in at least three of his books.

His interest in cricket, if not his performance, was the cause of his inclusion in J M Barrie's famous team, the Allahakbarries, which translated means "God help us" (originally the Allahakbars). Conan Doyle was the out-standing cricketer in this team, but few of the other authors were so distinguished. Barrie's humorous description of his friends is not flattering: "E V Lucas had (unfortunately) a style"—another "threw in unerringly but in the wrong direction". However, not many cricket teams can have had greater enjoyment from their efforts than Barrie's collection of rabbits.

Mr Hart-Davis says Lucas's colleagues would have been astonished to find him in his office on Test Match days, but although cricket was one of his greatest interests he thought and wrote of many other things; and quite early in his career he was persuaded to write a book on Bernard Barton and his Friends. This appeared in 1893 and was congenial to Lucas, since he also came of Quaker stock, and he was able to bring in to his volume Charles Lamb about whom he was to write so much. There was, too, the additional interest that Bernard Barton's daughter, to whom Lucas talked in the last years of her life, was also Mrs Edward Fitzgerald.

The book on the old Quaker banker's clerk led to another of Elian association, Charles Lamb and the Lloyds. Again Quaker interest was evident, for the Lloyds of Birmingham were Quakers as well as bankers, and from here Lucas was led on to his later work on the Lambs which produced his great seven volume edition of their works and the three volume edition of their letters. Methuen commissioned the new edition of the former in 1900 and it was issued between 1903 and 1905, the two volume Life following in September 1905. This edition, with the letters published in 1935, comprises Lucas's most out-standing scholarly work, and although inaccuracies in the text of the letters have been found by others, not always Lucas's fault for he could not see the originals of all the letters quoted, the lovers of Lamb—and they used to be numerous—will always want to possess these fascinating books. Lucas was remarkably successful with the Life, allowing Lamb's own words to tell much of the story. The first volume contained what is really one of his best essays, the chapter on Lamb's friend, George Dyer, the eccentric author "with a head uniformly wrong, and a heart uniformly right". In Lucas's many volumes of essays Charles Lamb frequently appears, in short passages and even in whole essays, which form some of the most attractive of his writings. In 1914 he produced an anthology entitled The Best of Lamb, a Charles Lamb Day Book in 1925, and when the Lamb centenary occurred in 1934, sixteen of Lucas's Elian essays were collected in a fascinating book At the Shrine of Saint Charles.

In 1907 Lucas edited a selection of the letters of William Cowper, a favourite poet of Elia who, copying Coleridge, wrote of his "divine chit-chat". This was for the attractive World's Classics Series, and for the edition of Jane Austen's Emma, issued in the same series in the following year, he wrote an introduction.

E V Lucas was one of the most successful of anthologists. The Open Road, a collection of prose and verse about the English countryside, subtitled "A Little Book for Wayfarers", was the earliest and is still the most popular. It first appeared in 1899 and I have an india-paper edition issued in 1948 described as the forty-fifth edition, probably there have been more since then. In 1905 came The Friendly Town: A Little Book for the Urbane, an anthology of prose and verse about London. Three years later he produced Her Infinite Variety: A Feminine Portrait Gallery, and the following year Good Company: A Rally of Men, no doubt as a companion to the earlier volume. In 1927 he published The Joy of Life containing lyrics mainly from living poets. All these anthologies are full of most attractive material, produced in pocket editions which are a joy to handle. There were, however, two other volumes, The Gentlest Art (1907) and The Second Post (1910), later issued in one volume, which contained some of the most enchanting work of English letter writers—and how good they are is evident from these volumes.

Lucas had a light touch as a writer of stories. There is little plot in them, and they are much akin to his essays. Something of their character is indicated by their subtitles: An Easy Going Chronicle, An Entertainment, A Conversation Piece, An Oblique Narrative, while some are in the form of letters. One of the earliest, Over Bemerions (1908), is sheer delight. Joseph Bemerton, the secondhand bookseller, appears in at least one other of Lucas's books and is an attractive figure, but his shop is even more so, and it was a deciding factor in making up Kent Falconer's mind to rent the rooms over it—as he says "Besides, think of the name—Bemerton—with the suggestion of holy Mr Herbert in it." Perhaps Listener's Lure takes second place, although the books with the attractive Jenny Candover in them make very pleasant reading. In one story, Mr Ingleside, Lucas quotes from the incomparable Mrs Ros, whose novels fulfil all expectations. He was so enthusiastic about her work that he founded an Amanda Ros club in London. Lucas also wrote much about travel and art, the two subjects often appearing in the same volume, as in his "Wanderer" series. Akin to these is his Highways and Byways in Sussex, undoubtedly one of the best volumes in this excellent series. This book must have been congenial to him to write, for he loved Sussex greatly and, of course, cricket could not be kept out of the volume. He also makes reference to Charles Lamb.

Painters and their work interest him much and he wrote a companion to the galleries of Europe, volumes on John Constable and Vermeer of Delft, a series of "Little Books on Great Masters", and The British School, described as "an anecdotal guide to the British Painters and Paintings in the National Gallery". He was also the author of an elaborate life of E A Abbey. In his travel books and essays there is considerable information on painters and on the picture galleries of London and continental cities. His volume of essays, French Leaves (1931) while containing much about France besides its painters, was illustrated mainly from pictures by artists of the Brabizon school.

In spite of the many other fields covered by Lucas's questing mind, it is probable that today he is still best known as an essayist. At the time he wrote it was customary to issue such works in pocket editions—so much more attractive than the paper backs or even the larger cloth bound volumes of a later period—and perhaps this may have contributed a little to their popularity. It is well to be first drawn to a book by its outside. Judging by the frequency with which his volumes appear in the second-hand bookshops they must have been popular indeed and sales large. They were certainly often reprinted.

Most of Lucas's essays were printed first in periodicals, prominent among which were Punch, of which he was assistant editor, and The Sunday Times; but it is difficult to name some among so many, which included the Pall Mall Gazette, the Globe, The Academy (he was a member of the staff), The Times, Spectator, Westminster Gazette, in fact he contributed to nearly all the important periodicals of his day. Let me add that he had edited University College magazine, The Privateer, and also wrote for The Boy's Own Paper.

Among Lucas's other gifts was an extraordinary facility in choosing titles as is shown by his volumes of essays. He had, too, a great fondness for sub-titles and few of his books lack these descriptive appendages.

One of the best of his books of essays was One Day and Another published in 1909. It contained essays on William Allen Richardson (who gave his name to a rose), the Reverend Cornelius Whur, author of the poem "The Female Friend", "The Lord of Life", one of Lucas's many pleasing essays on dogs, and two particularly attractive essays: "Winter Solace", a meditation in a cricket library, and "A Rhapsodist at Lord's", who turns out to be Francis Thompson. In one essay in this book, "On Reading Aloud", Lucas refers to that wonderful volume of short stories, Richard Garnett's The Twilight of the Gods. He wrote an article on this book in The Academy under the title of "Forgotten Books", which he claimed persuaded John Lane to publish the enlarged edition of 1903. This contained twelve additional tales from Dr Garnett's scholarly but gently satirical pen, one of which was the superb "Alexander the Ratcatcher" from The Yellow Book.

An earlier volume of Lucas's essays was Fireside and Sunshine (1906) which reprinted a number of pieces from Domesticities (1900), including the attractive essay of "The Poetry of Catalogues", and some new pieces, foremost among which was "Cricket and the Backward Look". This was followed by Character and Comedy (1907) with good essays, including one on Oliver Edwards, Dr Johnson's friend, who had tried to be a philosopher but could not keep cheerfulness from breaking in.

In 1991 came Old Lamps for New with a long essay on Vermeer, more about William Allen Richardson and the amusing piece, "The Embarassed Eliminators," in which a group of Elians find difficulty in deciding on their favourite Lamb essay. Loiterer's Harvest followed in 1913, and then during the war years several volumes which, while containing a few good essays, lack some of the interest of earlier books: perhaps because those essays often deal with the war and, being topical at the time, have since lost part of their attraction. The Phantom Journal (1919) improved on the war time books and during the next few years there were some excellent volumes, Giving and Receiving (1922), Events and Embroideries (1926), A Fronded Isle (1927) and particularly Traveller's Luck in 1930. The following year Visibility Good was published containing many interesting essays, as, too, did Lemon Verbena (1932). An out-standing volume appeared in 1933 in Saunterer's Rewards. This contained essays on the Culpepers, B R Haydon's picture of Curtius, Charles Lamb and the Measles, Whistler's lawsuit with Ruskin and on My Favourite Painter, who was Corot.

The same year Lucas published English Leaves containing essays in praise of England. This I find one of the three most attractive volumes of his essays ever published, the other two being the anthology on Charles Lamb and that on cricket. In this volume he writes on Canterbury, Winchester, Greenwich, Salisbury Cathedral, Bath, cricket, England in 1810-11, old English landmarks and on Gertrude Jekyll. This is a book to read and re-read and, in at least one house, to take its place in the bookcase reserved for favourite volumes, which already contains Over Bernerions, The Open Road and several other Lucas volumes. Here they have for companions Jane Austen, Dorothy Osborne, Thomas Love Peacock, Gilbert White and, of course, Charles Lamb.

Pleasure Trove (1935) had good essays and the subjects include Dickens in Kent and English landscape. In 1938 Adventures and Misgivings appeared, Lucas's last volume of essays, and perhaps appropriately named for he died in June that year: in fact because of illness he asked Clifford Bax to supply the cross headings for the book. It showed no falling off in quality from earlier volumes and he had essays on Next Spring (bulb catalogues), Weddings (Suckling's ballad), the D N B and on gardens. This same year he had written A Hundred Years of Trent Bridge which was published privately.

It was Lucas's practice to print an essay in more than one volume, for example when a book went out of print, he sometimes selected from it what he considered the best essays and reprinted them with new material under a different title. Thus the purchaser often found he had already read part of his new book, but the additional material usually compensated for this and the old was always worth re-reading.

When Lucas died in 1938 he left rather more than £24,000, part of which went as legacies to the Royal Literary Fund and to the Authors' Pensions Fund. During his lifetime he had paid for the upkeep of Charles Lamb's grave at Edmonton and in his Will he left a fund for the continued maintenance after his death. Thus he expressed his gratitude for the many happy hours his writings on Elia had given him.

Although, perhaps not a book collector on a large scale or even in the strict sense, for he makes his hero in Over Bernerions dismember Dr Giles's A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, "a fat volume in a yellow paper cover", into four pamphlets by cutting it, so that it could be used as a handy beside book. However, Lucas was certainly a lover of books and had frequently recorded his pleasure in browsing over London bookstalls and in bookshops, "those little terrestial heavens", and in acquiring curious and out-of-the-way volumes. His library was sold at Sothebys after his death, but realised only £130 for fiftytwo lots comprising hundreds of books. About 200 volumes of his essays and anthologies fetched £11 and more than 600 miscellaneous books, mostly modern, brought £26—while 45 books relating to Charles Lamb went for £3.12s., two of these are said to have belonged to Elia himself!

During his life of seventy years Lucas's work has frequently been described as urbane. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines this word as "courteous, suave or refined in manner" and Lucas's writing were all these. It seems he favoured the word himself for one volume of essays was titled Urbanities, while it also occurs in the sub-title of one of his anthologies. It has been remarked that nearly all his essays are in praise of something in life which had given him happiness: thus it can be said that they were mostly written with enthusiasm, which he frequently passes on to his readers.

Lucas had a keen sense of humour and an amused eye for the eccentricities of character in those around him and in the literature of his own time and of the past. This sense of fun added greatly to the charm and readability of his work. George Sampson once described him as "the future exponent of sane and humorous quietism in life" and the same writer summed up his books in that "they have one essential quality of entertainments: they entertain".

His essays and stories have given pleasure to many thousands of readers, and he is unlikely to be forgotten among cricket enthusiasts, but his memory will perhaps be best preserved as the editor of the standard edition of the works of Charles and Mary Lamb and of their letters. No one before him had devoted so much attention to Elia and Lucas's researches were detailed and resulted in the finding of much new material, while his notes are a joy to read in themselves and add enormously to one's pleasure and appreciation when reading Elia. With the Works and Letters must, of course, go the Life, surely one of the most thorough and detailed of biographies issued this century. It was criticized at the time of its appearance as too heavy in treatment for Lamb "the frolic and the gentle", and in more recent years Mr John Gross has described it as "Lucas's overgrown biography". Nevertheless when Herbert Paul made the earlier criticism in an able and amusing review which showed clearly his affection for Elia, he admitted that another Life of Lamb after this there could hardly be", and he goes on to say that Lucas's "devotion to Lamb and suppression of himself, make this book really delightful". Lovers of Elia who find almost every detail of Lamb's life of interest—and most of us do—must always be enormously in E V Lucas's debt.