Jacob Tonson [Arnold Bennett], ‘Books and Persons’

Bennett (1867–1931) had given up the editorship of Woman in 1896 to write novels full-time. In 1910 he published Clayhanger but contributed a regular column of literary criticism to the New Age. In Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’, she associated his style with conservatism and old-fashionedness but he spoke out strongly in favour of Post-Impressionism. Bennett had spent much time in Paris and had been familiar with the painting of Cézanne and Gauguin for some years before 191o.