EDITOR'S FOREWORD 



As simple chronicler and amanuensis, my own part 

 in the present volume appears to ask for a few words 

 of explanation. From the beginning I have been 

 made to feel that mine was a task of some difficulty. 

 I had, of course, to fully set down all that John 

 Porter said spontaneously for himself. That was 

 easy. Although he would be the last man in the 

 world to lay claim to a literary style, he possesses 

 one of admirable lucidity. He says what he has to 

 say with directness and graphic force. But ' on their 

 own merits modest men are dumb,' and it became 

 necessary again and again, as the book was being com- 

 piled and written, to compel him to say more. The 

 arts of the interviewer had to be employed without 

 mercy, and the author's almost invincible reluctance 

 to figure prominently in the narrative had to be 

 set ruthlessly at defiance. Not that even the thus 

 completed design stands quite as it was shaped for 

 passing through the press. On the other hand — as, 

 for example, in the final chapter — I, on my own 

 part, not without a protest on the part of John 

 Porter, have presented him as I am sure those who 



