This is a further article in a series that examines F W Boreham’s literary style that is most apparent in his newspaper editorials.F W Boreham pitched his editorials at the emotional level of his readers. He highlighted the emotional transformation of his subjects that prompted a significant career, as when John Richard Green’s discovery of Edward Gibbon evoked “transports of excitement” and led him into a writing vocation.[1]
Boreham also described the impact of his subjects on the people of their time and context, as when he pictured the entry of the British politician William Cobbett into public life, by saying, “He plunged into the placidities of English life like a bull charging into a china shop.”[2] The quality of a character was often determined by the strength of the connection they forged with their contemporaries, as when the author Oliver Wendell Holmes “contrives to bind his reader to himself with hoops of steel”[3] or the philosopher Goethe was “destined to enchain half of Europe.”[4]
Frank Boreham wrote about the emotional effect in the original context, in the hope that his editorial might elicit a similar response within his own readers. The “magnetic”[5] or “electric”[6] personality of his subject and their ability to “wield magic,”[7] “mesmerise”[8] or “bewitch,”[9] are examples of the high-voltage vocabulary with which Boreham charged his editorials. He was also not averse to disclosing the impact of a subject on himself, as when he admitted, “Our nerves tingle in response to [Easter’s] stirring message.”[10]
Geoff Pound
Image: “He plunged into the placidities of English life like a bull charging into a china shop.”
[1] F W Boreham, Mercury, 6 March 1948.
[2] Boreham, Mercury, 17 June 1950.
[3] Boreham, Mercury, 29 August 1953.
[4] Boreham, Mercury, 27 August 1949.
[5] Boreham, Mercury, 7 July 1934.
[6] Boreham, Mercury, 17 June 1950.
[7] Boreham, Mercury, 21 May 1932.
[8] Boreham, Mercury, 30 April 1949.
[9] Boreham, Mercury, 6 March 1948.
[10] Boreham, Mercury, 5 April 1947.
Frank Boreham wrote about the emotional effect in the original context, in the hope that his editorial might elicit a similar response within his own readers. The “magnetic”[5] or “electric”[6] personality of his subject and their ability to “wield magic,”[7] “mesmerise”[8] or “bewitch,”[9] are examples of the high-voltage vocabulary with which Boreham charged his editorials. He was also not averse to disclosing the impact of a subject on himself, as when he admitted, “Our nerves tingle in response to [Easter’s] stirring message.”[10]
Geoff Pound
Image: “He plunged into the placidities of English life like a bull charging into a china shop.”
[1] F W Boreham, Mercury, 6 March 1948.
[2] Boreham, Mercury, 17 June 1950.
[3] Boreham, Mercury, 29 August 1953.
[4] Boreham, Mercury, 27 August 1949.
[5] Boreham, Mercury, 7 July 1934.
[6] Boreham, Mercury, 17 June 1950.
[7] Boreham, Mercury, 21 May 1932.
[8] Boreham, Mercury, 30 April 1949.
[9] Boreham, Mercury, 6 March 1948.
[10] Boreham, Mercury, 5 April 1947.
