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A conference in which the geniuses of all time ? Caesar, Francis de Valois, Bayard, Pascal, Dr. Johnson, Heine? talk about all sorts of subjects and utter grave reflections on life. F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was born in Italy, the son of the Irish-American sculptor, Thomas Crawford, and a sister of Julia Ward Howe, and was one of the most popular novelists of his day. With a cosmopolitan education (in Italy, America, England, and Germany) and extensively traveled (including a stint in India as a newspaper editor), Crawford was the living embodiment, for many, of the late 19th-century genteel tradition. His wide range as a traveler has contributed doubtless to another characteristic quality: ? his strength in unexcelled portraits of odd characters and his magical skill in seeming to make his readers witnesses of the spectacles.