In addition, he frequently collected his newspaper columns for republication in such popular volumes as
Shandygaff (1918),
The Powder of Sympathy (1923),
Off the Deep End (1928), and
Streamlines (1936). Morley also served on the editorial board of the Book-of-the-Month Club; founded, along with his brothers, the society of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts known as the Baker Street Irregulars; and edited two editions of
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Morley, along with associates, made an attempt from 1928 to 1930 to turn Hoboken, New Jersey, theater into a rival of the New York City theater, and spent substantial amounts of time and energy promoting the works of other writers he admired, most notably Joseph Conrad and Walt Whitman. Morley's active career continued until 1951, when he suffered a paralyzing stroke. Only one volume of poems appeared between that time and his death in 1957.
Best remembered today as a novelist, Morley was also a poet and essayist of note, much influenced by his experience in journalism and publishing. For example, one important volume of essays, Religio Journalistici (1924), looked back on Morley's newspaper career; some of his best poetry, the Translations from the Chinese (1922), and sequels such as The Old Mandarin (1947), began as "a mild burlesque of the vers libre epidemic." Other poetry, such as that in Parsons' Pleasure (1923), The Middle Kingdom (1944), and The Ballad of New York, New York (1950), is frequently centered on literary themes.
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