PLUM PUDDING
Reading edition
Of divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned
By Christopher Morley
And merrily embellished by WALTER JACK DUNCAN
Printed at GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, by DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO'Y and are to be sold by All Worthy Booksellers, together with OTHER WORKS by the Same Author, thus modestly offered to your Attention
1921
copyright, 1921, by doubleday, page & company
all rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the scandinavian
copyright, 1910, by public ledger company copyright, 1920, 1921, by the new york evening post, inc. copyright, 1920, by the outlook company copyright, 1921, by the atlantic monthly company
printed at garden city, n.y., u.s.a.
First Edition
books by CHRISTOPHER MORLEY
Parnassus on Wheels The Haunted Bookshop Shandygaff Mince Pie Pipefuls Kathleen Tales from a Rolltop Desk Songs for a Little House The Rocking Horse Hide and Seek Chimneysmoke Travels in Philadelphia Plum Pudding
this book is dedicated to
DAVID WILLIAM BONE DON MARQUIS SIMEON STRUNSKY
members of the three hours for lunch club
Almost all these sketches were originally published in the New York Evening Post and the Literary Review. One comes from The Outlook, one from The Atlantic Monthly, one from the Haverford Alumni Quarterly, and one from the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. The author is indebted to these publishers for permission to reprint.
Roslyn, Long Island July, 1921
CONTENTS
The Perfect Reader1
The Autogenesis of a Poet5
The Old Reliable19
In Memoriam, Francis Barton Gummere23
Adventures at Lunch Time30
Secret Transactions of the Three Hours for Lunch Club 36
Initiation42
Creed of the Three Hours for Lunch Club47
A Preface to the Profession of Journalism51
Fulton Street, and Walt Whitman57
McSorley's63
A Portrait69
Going to Philadelphia73
Our Tricolour Tie86
The Club of Abandoned Husbands95
West Broadway100
The Rudeness of Poets106
1100 Words110
Some Inns115
The Club in Hoboken124
The Club at Its Worst129
A Suburban Sentimentalist133
Gissing138
A Dialogue143
At the Gasthof zum Ochsen147
Mr. Conrad's New Preface151
The Little House155
Tadpoles158
Magic in Salamis162
Consider the Commuter167
The Permanence of Poetry178
Books of the Sea182
Fallacious Meditations on Criticism192
Letting Out the Furnace202
By the Fireplace206
A City Note-Book210
Thoughts in the Subway229
Dempsey vs. Carpentier234
A Letter to a Sea Captain239