The Adventure of Living | Page 3

spares us nothing. We look down endless vistas of dinners
and luncheon parties and of stories of how he met the celebrated Mr.
Jones at the house of the hardly less celebrated Mr. Smith and how they
talked about Mr. Robinson, the most celebrated of all of them. If I have
done nothing else worthy of gratitude, I have, at any rate, avoided such
predestinated dullness.
What I have made my prime object is the description of the influences
that have affected my life and, for good or evil, made me what I am.
The interesting thing about a human being is not only what he is, but
how he came to be what he is.
The main influence of my life has been _The Spectator_, and, therefore,
as will be seen, I have made The Spectator the pivot of my book, or,
shall I say, the centre from which in telling my story I have worked
backwards and forwards. But this is not all. Though I pay a certain
homage to chronology and let my chapters mainly follow the years, I
am in this matter not too strict. Throughout, I obey the instinct of the

journalist and take good copy wherever I can find it. I follow the scent
while it is hot and do not say to myself or to my readers that this or that
would be out-of-place here, and must be deferred to such and such a
chapter, or to some portion of the book giving an account of later years,
devoted to miscellaneous anecdotes! In a word, I am discursive not by
accident, but by design.
If I am asked why I make this apologia, I shall have no difficulty in
replying. I desire to leave nothing unsaid which may bring me into
intimate touch with the greatest reading public that the world has ever
seen-and, to my mind, a public as worthy as it is great.
J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
May 5, 1922
POSTSCRIPT TO AMERICAN PREFACE
_While this book and preface is going through the press, I cannot resist
adding a Postscript on a point suggested by my publisher. It is that I
should say something which may inform the new generation as to "The
Spectator's" position during the Civil War.
"The Spectator" was as strong a friend of America in past years as it is
at present, and in those past years its friendship was the more useful
because the need for a true understanding between all parts of the
English-speaking race was not realised by nearly so many people as it
is now. That there was ever any essential bitterness of feeling here or in
America I will not admit for a moment, but that there was ignorance,
pig-headedness, and want of vision, is beyond all doubt. This want of
vision was specially illustrated during the Civil War. "The Spectator,"
however, I am proud to say, without being unjust to the South, or
failing to note its gallantry, and its noble sacrifices even in a wrong
cause, was consistently on the side of the North. Moreover, it realised
that the North was going to win, and ought to win, and so would
abolish slavery. There is a special tradition at the "Spectator" office of
which we are very proud. It is that the military critic of "The
Spectator," at that time Mr. Hooper, a civilian but with an extraordinary
flair for strategy, divined exactly what Sherman was doing when he
started on his famous march. Many years afterwards General Sherman,
either in a speech or on the written page, for I cannot now verify the
fact, though I am perfectly certain of it, said that when he started with
the wires cut behind him, there were only two people in the world who

knew what his objective was. One was himself and the other, as he said,
"an anonymous writer in the London 'Spectator.'" My American readers
will understand why I and all connected with "The Spectator" are
intensely proud of this fact. The fate, not only of America but of the
whole English-speaking race, hung upon the success of Sherman's feat
of daring. In turn that success hung upon the fact that Sherman's
objective was the sea. To have divined that was a notable achievement
in the art of publicity._
J. ST. L. S.

CONTENTS
I.--HOW I CAME TO The Spectator II.--HOW I CAME TO _The
Spectator (Continued)_
III.--MY PHYSICAL HOME, MY FAMILY, AND MY GOOD
FORTUNE THEREIN
IV.--MY FATHER
V.--MY FATHER'S STORIES OF THE STRACHEY FAMILY
VI.--MY CHILDHOOD AND SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL
INCIDENTS
VII.--MY CHILDHOOD (_Continued_)
VIII.--THE FAMILY NURSE
IX.--BOYHOOD: POETRY AND METRE
X.--OXFORD
XI.--A CLASSICAL EDUCATION
XII.--AN OXFORD FRIENDSHIP
XIII.--OXFORD MEMORIES
XIV.--PRESS WORK IN LONDON
XV.--THE "CORNHILL"
XVI.--MEREDITH TOWNSEND
XVII.--MEREDITH TOWNSEND (_Continued_)
XVIII.--MY LIFE IN LONDON IN THE 'NINETIES
XIX.--MY