SOURCE: "H. M. Tomlinson, Essayist and Traveller," in Studies in Honor of John Wilcox, edited by A. Dayle Wallace with Woodburn O. Ross, Books for Libraries Press, 1958, pp. 209-17.

In the following essay, Gay discusses Tomlinson's pre-1940 works.

In 1950 the Londoner, H. M. Tomlinson, journalist, novelist, essayist, traveller, published a collection of essays under the title The Face of the Earth. One wonders to how many of those who chanced upon it the name of its author evoked nostalgic memories of other of his books not reread in years. To most readers born between the 1914 and 1939 wars the name would probably be no more than just that—a name. But to older readers was there recollection of The Sea and the Jungle, Old Junk, London River, Tide Marks? The essays collected in The Face of the Earth themselves constitute a backward glance. They are, the author remarks, "remembrances...