The international literary review monthly Adam, published in English and French , edited by Miron Grindea , celebrated its 21st birthday in 1953 . An important announcement in the magazine issued an invitation to a coming of age party-in fitting style-which would be held for the youngster.
The purely private gathering would be held at the Institut Francais in South Kensington on January 30 , many distinguished writers from Britain and the Continent had promised to attend .
These included T.S.Eliot, O.M., Bertrand Russell,O.M., Jean Cocteau, Cyril Connolly , John Hayward, Alan Dent, Nicolas Bentley, Ronald Searle , and others. Peter Ustinov would play the cello (with Franz Osborn at the piano ) in a sui-generis way.
Ustinov was also expected to make stirring revelations on the Forbidden Fruit and Miss Hermione Gingold would also offer her own views on the subject . So would George Mikes, author of "How to be an alien ".
And Miss Claire Bloom , of the Old Vic, would recite a poem by Walter de la Mare , entitled "Adam". Adam's health would be drunk in 10 bottles of donated champagne .
Little Darwin received a belated invitation to the party via a bound in volume of the magazine from 1952-1959 , ex University of Queensland Library , the gift of a kind benefactor clearing out her stunning book collection in North Queensland .
Taped into one issue , on the actual party invite , was a short , yellowed , torn newspaper clipping, headed Tame lions , mocking Adam's party.
It read : An entirely different lot of lions attended the 21st birthday of a small (600 subscribers) highbrow magazine. A well-dined, comfortably seated audience in evening dress goggled respectfully at Mr T. S. Eliot, O.M., and wriggled in delicious guilt at Rumanian born editor Miron Grindea who told them of "young poets and literary critics starving ."
Someone sang some Mozart . Mr Larry Adler toyed with some Bach , Bertrand Russell ,O.M., spoke with some bite. Some one described how the magazine devoted a whole issue to young Ecuadorian poets-as if to prove that editor Grindea knew a hot story when he saw one . Peter Ustinov did a turn .
Finally the sort of audience that stared longer at Rose Macaulay than at Claire Bloom fell to- on Barsac ( French wine ) , instead of bubbly .
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'Er, I am afraid you won't know me from Adam '.
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