Of Love And Hunger (Julian MacLaren-Ross)

I gotout my dem book to look up the old girl’s name.


    Always address the prospect by name: it pays.  Makes ‘em feel at home, see?  The personal touch.


    This one was called Miss Tuke, 49, TheCrescent.  Small house, two storeys, villa-type; small dark drawing-roomfull of knick-knacks, thick old-fashioned hangings full of dust.  No maid,no cleaner, woman in once a week.  A cert, if I played it right.

    Miss Tuke didn’t seem a bad old girleither.  Bit jumpy:  kept looking up at the ceiling as if expectingit might fall on her any moment.  Couldn’t believe her eyes when she sawwhat I got out of her carpet.


    ‘But I don’t understand. I had the carpetcleaned.  Two days ago.  I had a woman in.’


   ‘This dirt didn’taccumulate in two days, Miss Tuke,’ I told her.  ‘It’s been in your carpetfor years.  The ordinary methods of cleaning won’t remove it.’

 

    ‘Then what can I do?’


     ‘There’s only one thing,’ I said, pointing to the cleaner.  Miss Tuke looked at it andswallowed.  I wanted to let the idea sink in.  It was too soon tostart on her yet, but I felt in my pocket to make sure I’d an order-form readywhen the time came.  It was there all right.


     Miss Tuke said: ‘Andhow much did you say the price . . .’


            ‘A pound down,  a pound a month.’


     ‘Oh, I wouldn’tdream.  I don’t hold with hire-purchase.’

  

    ‘It’s much the best way, Miss Tuke.  We never advise buying one of these machines outright.  Think ofthe advantages you become eligible for under our instalment-system.  Freeservice every six months.  A thorough overhaul of your cleanertwice-yearly free of charge.  After all, you wouldn’t pay your maid ayear’s wages in advance, would you?’ 


    ‘Of course not.’


          ‘Well we look on this cleaning system as amechanical maid.  More efficient, naturally, as this dirt goes to show.'

    Always bring ‘em back to the dirt.  Iswitched on again and pushed the cleaner to-and-fro across the carpet.  Iwas a No. 1 model, the biggest sort and the one that costs the mostmoney.  Kicks up a terrific row, but you get round that by saying you canonly silence the machine at the price of efficiency.




NOTE: 



     Several years ago or more (or more, I think), my friend GerryHoward introduced me to Julian MacLaren-Ross’s writing.  Gerry hadacquired Memoirsof the Forties (I don’trecall why) and liked the book for reasons that would quickly become apparent to anyfirst-time reader.  Gerry’s enthusiasms (any ofthem) and recommendations (ditto) mean a lot to me, so I bought and read the book. 


     I think Gerry fell in shallow; I fell in deep, but at the righttime because the Julian MacLaren-Ross revival -- a series of republicationsthrough Black Spring Press, Paul Willets’ remarkable biography Fear  And Loathing InFitzrovia, internet chatterand other enthusiasms (including the attention paid by many dedicated readers to Anthony Powell's A Dance To The Music Of Time; MacLaren-Ross was the model for the novelist character, X. Trapnel) was afoot and picking up steam.


     I’ve previously postedother examples of this author’s work -- short story and memoirexcerpts, as well as a haunting snippet from his autobiographical novel, The Weeping and theLaughter, concerning a World War I zeppelin raid on Ramsgate, MacLaren-Ross's childhood home before his family decamped for a life on the Côted’Azur, an event that turned out to be a mixed blessing in terms of the author's personal and professional future.  The passage above, taken from the first chapter of Of Love And Hunger, his great novel, is new here. Set in cusp-of-World War II Brighton, the book is based on MacLaren-Ross’s experiences selling vacuums door-to-door.  As he told GrahamGreene, it was Depression-era labor, the best he could find after losing, through no fault of his own, his private, family income, fortune, i.e.,  he wasn’t just collecting material to write about in anovel.  


     Of Love And Hunger is a fully-accomplished, deeply moving work of art, the  summation and apotheosis of J M-R's great work of the 1940s, which included the publication of his best and most popular short stories.   All his subsequent writing (journalism, bookand film reviews, radio plays, memoirs, astonishing literary parodies, other novels), whether superb or somewhat less so,never matched this novel’s perfect,sustained emotional pitch and style subsumed, immersed, in every single sentence and scene.


     Re-telling Julian MacLaren-Ross anecdotes (they are as outlandish and improbable as any stories about intense, esoteric literary or artistic eccentrics maintaining  24-hour schedules until inevitably checking out too early) all night is an entertainingthing to do to delight old friendsand new companions.  One can still do so today, standing in J M-R's usual spot at the Wheatsheafbar in Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia.  What I find really difficult to fathom,however, is the degree to which my life has come to resemble aspects of Richard Fanshawe’s life in Of Love And Hunger.

“She Really Digs The Frans Hals”: Elizabeth Taylor-owned Dutch master Frans Hals Painting Coming to New York Auction

 

The early 1630s painting by Dutch master Frans Hals titled,"Portrait of a Man." The portrait that once hung over the fireplaceof Elizabeth Taylor's Bel Air home - and only recently reattributed to Hals -is expected to fetch up to $1 million at auction Wednesday, Jan 25, 2012, atChristie's in New York. AP Photo/Christie's.

 

By: Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP).-

A 17th century portrait that once hung over the fireplace ofElizabeth Taylor's Bel Air home — and only recently reattributed to the Dutchmaster Frans Hals — is expected to fetch up to $1 million at auction.

    "Portraitof a Man," painted in the early 1630s, is being offered at Christie's saleof Old Masters on Wednesday.

    A Halsscholar, Seymour Slive, had listed the painting as a "doubtful" Halsin a 1974 catalog, based on a black and white photo of the work.

    AfterTaylor hung it in her home in the 1950s, "It academically fell off theradar," said Nicholas Hall, head of Christie's Old Master paintings.

    But lastsummer, Christie's and Pieter Biesboer, the retired curator of Old Masterpaintings at the Frans Hals Museum in Holland, confirmed the work was by Hals.

    "From 20yards away one could tell that it was an utterly authentic Hals, a totallycharacteristic picture with all the bravura, brushwork ... the very expressiveface," Hall said in telephone interview.

    "On topof everything, there's a signature — 'FH' just to the right of the figureitself," he added.

    Biesboer"absolutely had no hesitation in attributing it to Hals," Hall said.

    Beforeits renewed reattribution, the painting had been estimated to sell for $70,000to $100,000 on Wednesday. Its current estimate is $700,000 to $1 million.

    Thepainting, showing a gentleman in a black coat and white collar with his handsfolded, came into Taylor's possession in the 1950s, soon after her art dealerfather, Francis Taylor, acquired and gave it to her.

    She hungit over the fireplace in the living room of her California home, near an iconiclithograph portrait of herself by Andy Warhol that sold at Christie's inDecember for $662,500.

    "Portraitof a Man" was the only Old Master she owned, said Hall.

    She wasvery fond of it. In 1956, while recuperating from back surgery at New YorkPresbyterian Medical Center, she had her hospital room decorated with"Portrait of a Man" and several other paintings, including a Renoirand Monet.

    "Shereally digs the Frans Hals," her husband, Mike Todd, told reporters at thetime.

    Otherpaintings from Taylor's collection will be sold by Christie's in London on Feb.7-8.

    InDecember, the auction house sold her collection of jewelry, fashion andmemorabilia. Among the highlights was a pearl necklace that sold for $11.8million.

    Thescreen and stage icon died in March at age 79. 

 

Elizabeth Taylor, left, with her art dealer father FrancisTaylor and mother Sara

NOTE:  Happeningupon this item this morning was a happy surprise.  The Frans Hals painting is really terrific and there-attribution story is surprising and splendid. It's rather nice to think about Elizabeth Taylor loving the painting for itself,even when its connection with Hals was considered doubtful.  Some otherimpressive works in her collection are pictured Here (link).  

I enjoyed learning of FrancisTaylor's friendship with the Welsh artist and Fitzrovian legend Augustus John andreading:  "In a missive marked 25 June 1943,  Francis Taylorwrote to Augustus John: 'We have settled down to living in California and ouryoung daughter is by way of being a moviestar, if you see a picture of Lassie Come Home which will bereleased in September, she is in that. 'Also she may get the lead part in National Velvet. Even ifyou are not a movie fan see the Lassie picture it is in colour and is beautiful.'"