TWENTY YEARS OF MY LIFE
THE ROOF GARDEN AND POMPEIAN FOUNTAIN AT 32 ADDISON MANSIONS.
(From the Painting by Yoshio Markino.)
INTRODUCTION
When I wrote Who’s Who, sixteen or seventeen years ago,I used to receive shoals of funny letters from people whowanted, or did not want, to be included, and now, when Ihave not edited the book for more than a dozen years, I stillreceive letters of criticism on the way in which I conduct it,and usually consign them to limbo. A few months ago,however, I received the subjoined letter, which is so out ofthe ordinary that I quote it to show what illustrious correspondentsI have. I must not attach the author’s name,though every grown-up man in the civilised world would beinterested to know it.
“Dear Sir,
“Kindly cease to omit my name from your ever-increasinglist of persons as annually placed before thepublic for sale at any price it is worth. Just put me downin place of Victoria Alice, who is an American pure andsimple, while I am left out in the cold. I am the daughter ofKing Edward VII....[1] I am the legal spouse ofNicholas II, Czar of Russia, being legally married to himin 1890, Aug. 14, a ratification of which occurrence was heldby me in hallway of British Embass