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A great literary tabloid that illuminated the world literary scene from the beginning of the last century celebrated its one-hundredth birthday in January 2002. Its parent paper, the Times of London editorially wishing the journal a happy birthday affectionately named her "Ms Laetitia Supp", but among its exclusive readership it is generally known as "Litt Sup" or as TLS, the short for its original full title The Times Literary Supplement.

The first issue of the TLS was published on 17th January 1902, under the editorship of James Thursfield and shortly afterwards, Bruce Richmond, who had joined The Times a few years earlier as a sub editor, took over the TLS editorship.

He held the post until 1937 and it was his imaginative editorship that moulded the paper to its present high standard. Such great names in English writing in the last century as Henry James, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, Amises Senior and Junior, Philip Larkin, Salman Rushdie adorned her pages and her blessing has been instrumental in countless literary careers from D. H. Lawrence to Paul Muldoon.

From the early years of its publication, the TLS has devoted a sizable slice of its space to the coverage of colonial and commonwealth literature as well as research works and scholarly publications appearing in these countries. This article examines TLS coverage of books and authors relating to Sri Lanka up to the 1980's as could be gleaned by browsing through its archives accessible on the Internet.

During the first half-century of its publication most of the scholarly works of Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy were featured in lengthy and in-depth reviews published by the TLS.

On 25th March 1909 the TLS published a half page review of Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy's monumental work Medieval Sinhalese Art published by Essex House Press. Since then the journal continued to publish authoritative reviews of most of Dr. Coomaraswamy's work as and when they came out until mid 1940's, and they include Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon (1914), Rajput Painting (1916), Catalogue of the Indian Collections in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (in 5 parts) (1923-1930), History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927), Elements of Buddhist Iconography (1936), and Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought: Collected Essays on the Traditional or "Normal" View of Art (1947).

Works by writers on Sri Lanka were featured in the TLS pages on numerous occasions from its early years. Leonard Woolf's novel, "Village in the Jungle", which was based on his experiences as a colonial administrator in Hambantota district, was reviewed in the TLS in its issue of 27 February 1913 by Charles William Brodribb, a well known writer of the day. Woolf himself was a regular contributor to TLS pages as a reviewer in subsequent years specializing on mainly politics, Ceylon and Hindi literature.

His works as a liberal political thinker, and his five volume autobiography published in the sixties (the last volume coming out after his last visit to the island in 1963) which earned him a prominent place among 20th century writers, were also reviewed in the TLS and Woolf himself contributed an in depth review on Parker's Village Folk Tales of Ceylon in 1915.

A review of Woolf's Diaries of Ceylon, 1908-1911 appeared in the issue of 17 May 1963 after its publication by Hogarth Press following the local edition. In 1958, in a special article titled Future of the Serious Writer Leonard Woolf described his experiences as a writer and his start as a publisher "printing very incompetently on a small handpress on the drawing room table under the imprint of the Hogarth Press" offering useful hints to the aspiring publisher.

It is interesting to note that Leonard Woolf's sister, Bella Sidney Woolf, who was resident in Sri Lanka during and for a few years after Leonard's departure from this country, has written a small travel book on Ceylon titled "From Groves of Palm" and, in a short review TLS described it as "a small book that gives a lifelike picture of Ceylon than many a more pretentious work."

Bella Woolf's work was perhaps the first travel guide for Sri Lanka that was featured in the TLS, which was in 1925. However, in 1916 a book with the impressive title of Lost Cities of Ceylon by G. E. Mitton had been reviewed in the TLS which described it as "too practical and useful for a mere book of travels, a little too learned for a guide book, and not quite learned enough for a treatise on the ancient architecture of Ceylon." In 1927, under the heading "Traveller in Ceylon" it published a review of another interesting book titled "Ceylon" by Ali Foad Toulba who was a descendent of the followers of Arabi Pasha who was exiled in Ceylon after the rebellion of 1882 in Egypt.

After Ali Foad Toulba had received his early education at Kingswood, Kandy the family was allowed to return to Egypt, but, as the reviewer says, "his allegiance was divided between the land of his race and the land of his nativity." When opportunity came for Toulba to visit the country of his nativity again in 1926 "he seized it eagerly, almost passionately, for the dream of his life has come true." The book was the result of this second visit of Toulba to this country and "gives a tourist's impression - with a difference".

Other Sri Lanka travelogues featured in the TLS include Flowers and Elephants by Constance Sitwell (1927), Things Seen in Ceylon by Clare Rettie (1929), Ceylon by Ashley Gibson (1929), Travels in India, Ceylon and Borneo by Basil Hall (1930), and Zoo Search in Ceylon by Heinz Randow (1958).

During the last century many scholarly works on Sri Lanka's flora and fauna, the jungles, the life, culture and history of this country, authored by both Sri Lankan and foreign writers were published. Reviews of these works were done for the TLS by equally eminent writers specializing in the respective fields.

The famous work on birds of Sri Lanka, W. E. Wait's Manual of the Birds of Ceylon and the equally famous Coloured Plates of the Birds of Ceylon co-authored by G. M. Henry and W. E. Wait were reviewed in 1926 and 1929 respectively. A Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon by the famous botanist Henry Trimen (1931) and Wild Flowers of Ceylon by Dorothy Fernando (1954) were featured in short reviews.

On jungles of Sri Lanka, the TLS issue of 13th March 1930 carried a review of John Still's Jungle Tide in which the reviewer summarizes his opinion of the book with the words "Both for the expert knowledge which it contains and the care and workmanship put into it, it is a book to be read and returned to." Dr. R. L. Spittel, Sri Lanka's own specialist on the jungles and the veddhas, had his book Vanished Trails reviewed in the issue of 28 July 1950.

A review of J. Vijayatunga's popular book Grass for My Feet based on his childhood life in the southern village of Urala was done by John Chartres Molony for the TLS issue No. 1760 on 24 October 1935. Vijayatunga was hailed as an Eastern avatar of Mark Twain telling fresh tales of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and Aunt Polly and praised the author for steering clear of the pitfalls of "didacticism and priggishness", two faults commonly exhibited by "stories told by an Oriental on an Oriental childhood."

Yet another interesting review, which would be of particular interest to book lovers, is that of Remembered Yesterdays, the autobiography of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike which appeared in TLS pages on 21 March 1929 under the title "A Sinhalese Nobleman". The reviewer says "Sir Solomon appreciates equally what is good in the East and West, he passes understandingly from the Royal enclosures at Ascot to the rustic merrymakings of his Ceylonese tenantry.

History may afford some explanation to this easy cosmopolitanism. Ceylon was for a time under the domination of Dutch and Portugese settlers, who advanced much further to meet the people of the land than to break down the barriers of conservatism and secrecy on the other". Many years later, in 1986, yet another book on Bandaranaike family, Relative Merits: A personal memoir of the Bandaranaike family of Sri Lanka, written by a scion of the family Prof. Yasmine Gunaratne was featured in a lengthy review in the TLS under the title "Destiny of a Dynasty."

Among historians who had contributed significantly to the literature on Sri Lanka's past, and whose works have been featured in TLS reviews are several well know authorities on Sri Lankan History. Ceylon and Portugal, Part I: Kings and Christians, 1530-1552 by Paul E. Pieris was featured n 1927. In 1928 a short review on his book Prince Vijaya Pala of Ceylon appeared and next year appeared a lengthy review of the work he edited "Some Documents Relating to the Rise of the Dutch Power in Ceylon, 1602-1670."

Another of his works "Portugal in Ceylon: 1505-1658" was reviewed in 1938. Dr. G. C. Mendis's Ceylon Today and Yesterday (1958), Prof. E. F. C. Ludowyk's Robert Knox in the Kandyan Empire (1950) and The Story of Ceylon (1962), Prof. K. M. de Silva's History of Ceylon Vol.III and Sri Lanka: A Survey (1978), Dr. Kitsiri Malalgoda's Buddhism in Sinhala Society 1750-1900 are other works on Sri Lanka's history written by local scholars that were reviewed in the TLS.

Among the works of European authors on the same subject are A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon by Vincent A. Smith (1930), the monograph The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Vol. IV, by Archeological Commissioner A. M. Hocart (1931), Ceylon by Lord Holden (1939), Ceylon by Harry William (1950), and Ceylon by Sydney D. Bailey (1952). Although not a serious book on history, R. H. Basset's Romantic Ceylon: Its History, Legend and Story is an interesting work that was reviewed in a 1929 issue. Dutch Forts of Sri Lanka by W. A. Nelson is a more recent work that was featured in a 1984 review.

Several serious works of research and scholarly works on Sri Lankan life and culture received pride of place in TLS pages. Prof E. R. Sarathchandra's work The Sinhalese Folk Play and the Modern Stage was reviewed in 1954. It was described as "most interesting, indeed unique, account of the many phases of drama in Ceylon ...." and commended the author for "admirable English and .. wide scope that it must surely interest all who wish to trace the development of dramatic forms, even in the modern stage."

Dr. C. E. Godakumbura's Sinhalese Literature (1956), Dance and Magic Drama in Ceylon by Beryl de Zoete (1958), Pul Eliya: A Village in Ceylon by Edmund Leach (1962), and Prof. M. H. Goonatileka's Masks and Mask System of Sri Lanka (1980) are some of such books reviewed.

Several important books on Sri Lanka's politics and economics that appeared during the time of independence and thereafter were featured in TLS during mid-century. Sir Ivor Jennings's The Economy of Ceylon (1948), The Constitution of Ceylon (1950) and The Dominion of Ceylon: The Development of its Laws and Constitution (1953), co-authored with H. W. Thambiah; Ceylon by Sydney D. Bailey (1952), Parliamentary Government in Southern Asia (1953) also by Bailey, Politics in Sri Lanka 1947-1973 by Prof. A. J. Wilson (1974) and also his Electoral Politics in an Emergent State (1975) are works that were reviewed substantially while The Dominion of Ceylon by Sir Frederick J. Rees (1950), Diversions of a Diplomat (1957) by Philip K. Crowe and P. E. P. Deraniyagala, Ceylon General Election-1956 by I. D. S. Weerawardena (1960), From Dependent Currency to Central Banking in Ceylon by Prof H. A. de S. Gunasekera, and The Politics of Ceylon by Robert N. Kearney (1974) were mentioned in short reviews.

Most books on Buddhism that one comes across in TLS reviews are by western writers among whom Sir Christmas Humphries is prominent. Many authors from Far East have written on Mahayana philosophy. Sri Lankan contribution to Buddhist literature during the 20th century may be considered somewhat fair taking the number of TLS reviews on such works as a guide. In 1922 Bhikku Subadra authored a work titled The Message of Buddha but the next occurrence I have found is in 1954 when Ven. Narada Thera's edition of Dhammapada was reviewed.

In 1956 appeared a review of Anil de Silva-Vigier's The Life of the Buddha Retold from Ancient Sources and in 1962 The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyanaponika Thera was reviewed. Prof. K. N. Jayatillake's The Message of the Buddha (1962), The Thousand Petalled Lotus by Sangarakkita Maha Thera (1976) Stanley Jeyarajah Thambiah's World Conqueror and World Renouncer (1977) and his The Buddhist Saints of the Forests and the Cult of the Amulets (1985), David J. Kalupahana's Buddhist Philosophy (1977) and Buddhist Studies in Honour of Walpola Rahula (1981) edited by Somaratna Balasooriya etc. are some other works on Buddhism by Sri Lankan authors featured in the TLS. This last mentioned work was reviewed at length making reference to Ven. Rahula's own work What the Buddha Taught and other contributors to the volume such as Ettiene Lamotte and E. F. C. Ludowyke.

Apart from book reviews, there were occasions when TLS published interesting feature articles to coincide with important national events of the countries of the commonwealth and outside it. In 1981, an article it published under the title Treasure Island by J. B. Donne to coincide with an exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute in London provided an introduction to Sri Lankan history and culture to world readership. Times Literary Supplement originally appeared as a supplement to The Times newspaper of London and later (in 1914) became a separate journal by itself.

The policy of anonymous reviewing originally adopted by the journal lasted until 1974 and beginning January 7, 1975 every contribution to the journal was signed. In a recently published history of the TLS, Critical Times: The History of the Times Literary Supplement its author Derwent May describes how most vicious reviews came not from strangers but from so called friends of the authors themselves, often from their own neighbourhood in the same college and from people who have dined with the writer at high table every night.

The TLS has had eight editors from its inception: Bruce Richmond (1903-37), D. L. Murray (1937-45), Stanley Morrison (1945-47), Alan Pryce-Jones (1948-58), Arthur Crook (1959-73), John Gross (1974-82), Jeremy Treglawn (1982-90), and Ferdinand Mount (1990- ). The first editor Bruce Richmond set a high standard for the TLS and was fortunate to be at the helm when an array of high caliber writers were at work. He recruited young Virginia Woolf, Leonard's wife, to his team paying a special fee for her work. Even youthful T. S. Eliot was nurtured as a writer by Richmond.

Its present owner Rupert Murdoch is said to be far from making a fortune from the journal. It is indeed running at a loss, "moving towards washing its face" financially, as May states. The best circulation TLS has recorded was in 1950 when it hit 49,000 readers and its current readership is estimated at 35,000 after a slump in 1980's. Two other journals, though they are different in nature, compete with the TLS for readership and they are New York Review of Books and London Review of Books.

- Wasantha Loku Hapuarachchi

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