Volume 21, Number 7 · May 2, 1974
Spellbinder
By Kenneth Clark
Letters of Roger Fry
edited by Denys Sutton
Random House, 1,153 (2 vols.) pp., $30.00
The first thing to say about Roger Fry, the English art critic and painter, is that he was one of the most beguiling human beings I have ever known. His quick intelligence and responsiveness to all forms of art made him an enchanting talker, but he was never a monologuist. He never squashed or snubbed, and would listen to the most preposterous suggestions with grave attention, 'Oh, do you really think so?', and he would then proceed to give these aberrations a little more plausibility than they had before. In consequence he would make the people who talked to him feel much cleverer than they really were. I have never felt clever again since Roger died.
Review, 3399 words
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