The sun. [volume], October 16, 1915, SPECIAL LITERARY SECTION, Page 14, Image 14

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916

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THE SUN, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1915.
14
SOME MERITS AND DEFECTS OF THE AMERICAN NOVEL
MANY SUCCESSFUL
AMERICAN AUTHORS
GIVE THEIR VIEWS
n Continvxt from V I fit A P40f.
tldfr ntd, HptAlWg T' ill m mnr of
pernon! And In th px.i t dcfl i"
whirn the ':" nt-peal lo r! mam 1
pcrHons. th'v purr m!. In m OptMlOtl
ttw i 'hi miffeSt) pi are the popular m
ftMntt "f tii. higher :r 1 1 1 . i r la, ihosi
rtttr by mm of Intel, luetic nr1 ri.
tpprtciAtlon who wii.W' iltltbvriktvly en
tering. wl'h iOfin of ...'.i mat-rial to
What is t t IN ri t ho "low brow" ft. I III
nm time juI':h!i other matter whl h
U vnitiabin pit her fm information it eon-
tftln. or for r..tl liter Mr .iiinlitv. and
Wtllch cnuM bo got tnlo tin h;irnls of
the low bron m i," other w&y, it tm
to me that th- Nn. .;: 1 tGvvning Poet,
for one, dots t ii s thing to prefect ion(
a i vttip the low brow nothing that will
hurt him. murh that Drill do hill)
nrl all that he will Itftlld Of the VM -terla!
whirh will actually elevate ri iff
tante and maOu' him think . anil Which
th latter srii'lr of RMtarlall at thr
an me time CftUfti prr.. who are not
'low brows" tn read the t'o.it,
Bui with the novel it il different A
novel cannot he made to cater to ho
wide a Bald of readen aa a popular mag
aalne by frnvplyinn within felf various
material of altogether il ff'Ttnt nr.nU'
It must be one hind "f a novel, like the
eniamf i counterpart of one atori in a
anagaalnt
If I vfr afke-I what one thlnK aaewd
to me most 10 enrich novel i ahould
aay that tt was the background "f the
author, in making this atatemenl t am.
of couree, aaaumlng certain (logrte of
literary iklll, but I think that, upon the
whole background to be preferred
above literary skill, and ; ha! hovola In
whb-h aklll is the apparent thing ar
never so good m novela in which the
bnrkKrnuinl of the author s mind - if it
really be , fin' mind li forever Mt by
ho rentier . as for example, beautiful
tartestrVi on the wails of :i room are felt
by uh HUhrnrtMcif-njsly whrji we are in
that room and thinking of other thtngl
It is this aenae of background that
wiakos u love Meredith and Hardy. It
In the aame thing that makea the ad
mirers of Henry Jatnee rleave to him
oo paaalonately (and tn hoith i-ast-s im
itate him ao faithfully), although some '
oee Mr Janu s s background as through
a Htyle. tlarMy.
The great fxponrnt of h:t'KKrmiivl In
Great Britain to-day la Joseph Conrad,
who. atruggle as in- may with his tech-
nlque, Kivs Ul always a sns- of tlu (
philosopher behind the work, f the
vamness of the world, tin- myatery of
Ita hidden plaoM and the HWiftnesn of
the wind H Widln also rivs uh a
eenre f backgroundi but on his bark
groiind then- aeem aometlmea to be
naaty ftpOtft, One feels Mr. Conrad ItrUjg
giina like a ftreat, honeot giant In the
toils of hi. story, while Mr Wetla has,
aoniehow. th air of b ;uk greasetl, and
thereby allpptng through with cunninp
facility Arnold Benm it, on the oth. t
hand, r-eenis to ui to have less back
ground flu n Mr. W ells, bul what t here
In of it is more uniformly agreeable.
JUr Wfdis's tapeatry older thin Mr
Bennett's, it In more beautiful in some
epote. but more rotten in othera; for
Mr. Bannett'a tapestry always givei me
the impnssion of aomeihlng very good,
but also very, very new.
The American noveltata tn whom I
aeem to aenae the rlelieal backgroui I are
Mark Twain, Wllltam ie. m Howell,
and. more recently, Booth Tarktngton.
A dlatlngulahed editor -one of the few
old school, scholarly edttora w have
left once told mo it had been hi ob
aervati'ni that the ri ally able literary
men ware engaged in storing up the
richK of the mind until they reached
about the ago of !. ami that thereafter
they began to give off their heat. I' la
Intending t. observe, therefore, thai
Mr. Tarkir.Kton v 'The Turmoil," with
the impreHs'on it gives of ripeness, of
mind richly stored aid of it-,.- swr. p of
life in the United states to-day, occu
pies, roughly speaking, a orr ip mdlng
ponition in the chronology of hla worn
to "The Rise of Silas Lapham" in that
of Mr Howella and to such worl
The Tramp Abroad." "Ilu- i li berry
Finn" and ' Life on the Miastsalppi' in
the chronology "f Mark Twain.
These witters Indeed, all writer- who
have achieved In high deKrop the quality
of background differ moat from the or
dinary lot of writer, in that they have
highly developed their obaerval on. their
Intellectual powers and their faculty for
galf-critlciam They have not written
With their ears to the tfn.iiml. or to the
telephone wire at tn' other end of which
sits an editor. Nor. upon the other
hand, have they juggled with culture i-t
culture's sake, which la another popular
Arm rioan pastime. They have p dded
up th hill of in-
thev went along,
Iowiy observing ai
working their way
round and round
up and up. Untili at
hi hed ii' point that
lunt. they have r p
many never reach
thr in a "view."'
th. point at which
r
I
f
By HARRY LL0N WILSON I
Time Indeed tiiii dleouaelon f
Am rtean novel bi taken from the
lantic Monthly and made punll.
our novel "is beyoml ijueatlon in it
way" more of ua ought to know it.
i flVm-ht any erlds aoceDtanca of
.ti
ll bad
Hit
tills
verdict. 1 lltr publii '
our look revlewere and
n't take it.
the huytiiK
spubltc patently do not . so now can me
novelists themselves In- egpeoted to be
lleve It? Pereonall) I luap. I the Amerl.
.an novel to I"' ''I i in " ( ite than this
fasiilon of crltlolem n mid have II Evn
Mr. Nicholson icemii rathor too blithe
for one entirely convinced In bli pea
eimtsm He not onlj enumerates gen
emus 1st of kooiI American novels hut
mhimu iii.it w. Droduce -it: 1 1 t-.nl
ones, three or four :i year. Which I .-ul'-nlt
Is dolm ver well for n people so
young that i's artistic vo.ee ha- ll
bvun to "change." And lurely II li
jisst to measure the American novel by
the bet of its kind, Tne "quack" novel
la au Inevitable by-product, prodlgtou,
:n numhci. but negligible for purpoe -of
arttlctem N' -t the output of .1 i; -gred
Harold Bell W right i eould dim the
fine luatre of novels Ilka "The Vlr-
flnlan," "The full of Hie Wild." "The
Conqueror," even though 'hen- Ilka I,
too seldom vouchsafed us: while tli
tVits-hts are always. Willi Ul The itisr.
tntlon of our novel is not a chain depend
Ins on its weakest link.
Mi Nicholson ii"es not my o. bul I
suspect him to feel merely that our
good novels ought to he better. That la
gomethltlg else It is true that we
have no Turgenleff, no Tolstoy, no lie
Maupaaeant, no Klauberl, iu Hugo, Bul '
oriistB of th, ttatur, of thr:-c muei be
fathered and mothered by rum thai
haw learned to Ihlnk. Tin never sin in
from a olvllliatlnn ar. crude as our :
As a pcpie we ii iv i leal I'd to think. I
We only lia'.e emotions. To lie concrete
briefly, as on. here must : The law re
euires saloons In New York tn he closed
on Sunday. Thoy never have bean
dos- U. lint tin- Cltllen Cling, as le k
clously to Ills law :is he does to his I
Hun.iay highball lie would regard ..-
Ueentlolis the I. Kill Opening of tfMMM
sal.iuns that an- never oo,rd He musl
jneservc. the tanetlty of tin- Bahbath by
various Infantile eubterfugea. This,
mental )u, fling is of course noi pecul-l
lar to" New York. It marks our whole I
Mictal body. And a people atill eapa.lle hoard iiprigieutatlvea of both natlonaJt
of it la u iuide thai will produce groat I tw-o urge the rival clalme of tea and
i Hints all too rarely For the artlat
must not only be fathered and mothered :
he muat he evoked, weloonwd and given
rec lorn by his paopte,
To be again eoncrttg i The New
Yorker believes that he may eat
.n .t Kit Kut MatattMftfa In truth
aata wretchedly. In two restaurants I
,hh UlOOgh it may bf hot one at this
writing none may, after diplomatic nigo
Nations of the most dln'ate and Involve
rharacter( obtain for an enormous gun i
rtftlly
dlnne
l "'
good dinner. Hut only auon
SI may be had QUtckly on demani
at nny one Of twenty restaurants tn
Porta and for half the price. I reftr
r.f COUTM to those restaurants tn the
Pre rich quarter of Parts that hove
Survived the invasion of the AmerU an
gourmel whose Ideal is a nice steak
and hashed brown potatoes, with iee
Cream and a slab of apple pie tO come.
On the boulevard 8, tO be sure, one may
hi re and then- dine gg badly and ex
pensively as one must in tho boat res
taurant along Broadway, Attain th
matter of demand for the artist New
York reataUMuita unqueat I onably have
the talent in their kltcheni for better
I cookery. Hut there is no demand for
It. The New Yorker buys and Is sat-
lafled with- Rood food ba lly eooko
For his Action he buys and la eat tailed !
With pood material badly Written. For
better novels, then, we must have a de
mand no leaa than a clear thinking ao
clety to produce the n ve lists.
Especially muat we have clear think
inft about that phase of human as-so-tat.-n
at present notorious as 'sex."
What tho.se ( Continental urtlota would
have written about in these United
Stat' I one ran only conjecture, but cer
tatn'y they could not have (lowered tn
their full helW where our every approach
to this Vital relationship i still likely
tO be that of the bad little boy who j
scrawll thing! ha shouldn't on dead
Walla. Indeed, it is not altogether the.r
' own fault that we have a school of
writers skilled in exploiting the merely
oncuplacent made doubly nauaeoui by
Ita sentimentally punctllloua "correct
ness. So lonji as we shirk the fa
" !
; of life in its rfuitir-ty we must share
i the blame for this- .shall we call it the
novel of near adultery .' The adept of
, this school plays endlessly on the one
theme. His heroines differ from one
I another as sharply as do chocolate
eclairs among themselves. li is con
I earned aolely with their biological dtt-
fer nt :at ion from his males. That this
la uniformly simple he leaves his readers
.n no doubt. In an early chapter he
geti the K'rl Into or out of aomething
"revealing every line of her lithe young
figure." Short of clinical tests he COUld
I go no further.
Un this point, a group of women re
cently petitioned the art director of the
San Francisco exposition to withdraw
from view there a painting bv a Hun
garian artist out it led "The BgpOOUUIt
Mother.' me gathers that the title
damned the picture with these proteet
ants Had It read "Aprcs le Buln" or
"Une Pomme Inconnua' or perhaps any
thing In French, they would doubtless
have gased and paawed on shocked, per
haps, but not Indignant. And not lm
p satbly among them now are woman
who thrill conventionally to the always
legal concuptacence the t rained and
never Indw oroui lubiicl
est current gnds of
literate.
Such mental obliquity 1h of rourse not
local to the Pacific coast. Boaton would
have no dancing bacchante, and New
York did its utmost to befoul the naked
little beauty nf "September Morn." And
ai leail Ban Francisco makes no mud
dled ado about the ingestion of Sunday
cocktails.
The bettering Of the American novel
muat await on this mental clearing up
I haw faith that it will keep pace with
i ur growth in tho power of clean, clear
thinking But we must not expect it
to lead that by any great distance.
There remains only the dancer that
our bigger novelist when he tlnds him-
s 'f will el m to iie in England, as
oi.ee otie did with the most dint ivsslng
results. Yet, forever, to Henry James
the credit for landing im a little way
.i' leaai from the tule of external lncl
dent the true Victorian novel : His later
degeneration should not blind us to this
service. I :d England atlfle Ins genlual
hill h. go bec&uiu h roui.i iki longer
grow n.-ri'V m fumble with liiH blood
leaaa back parlor Intrlvuaa, his t -j i 1
Ualsons. hts stuiis f tha nHUjtlon oi
t hi- .-hiiii mind confronted with normal
human le-hery or wit): nl.MrwiitioH not)
tn more man nmtao at even oy tne i
muster of hinting? Anyway, he waa i
lost 10 nueo our novelist m itriai
it'i it 1 1 ; s Ana Hie painos oi ni rwiaiN ,
oflirlttl exit ' He had lived the
1 " .
thorn in a fussy paateboard world hUi h j
as the tlmei lei him blandly ronrelve I
B world In whleh there OOUld be no I
blood or tears, or struKle with auht
but edvephe and a na.lf imtTiufon i i
human speech. Probably nothing ies
than u world war eould have awakened 1
M i . James to reality
and no one I think i
an fully gppralaa the shock this muat
have bean to him Human balngi out
tlier.-' Acting in rude, human ways on
a vast and bloody staK-' ' hoiriK thing,
one never did in the .lames scheme of1
thing. Blood and tars and rabid
strife! Small eondei he lost his hand,
Small wonder lie did something that, ,
had he been a truer humorist, would
have heen the last ai t he eould have j
tin-unlit of at so poignant a time. In.
taking the clttaenshlp of Henry .lames I
from
U, the war has provided Ameri-
leriers with its supreme blcnrl of
the comic and the pathetic,
May our next artist of like promise
read his annals and his novels and shrink
In horror Irum his course, even it" we
would, for yel a time, cramp him to the
dephlogletlcated piffle of the rubber
stamp lien, who s;oes "out west" to huild
an Irrigation dam or to keep trees from
burning UP and nobty wins ti e love of
a pure young American 1rl '.ged 19 !
j
By BASIL KING
Worse than sentimental writing is
self-conscious writing and self-oonsclous I
writing I.- wh it s-. much writing about I
writing Is bound to produce. The Amer-I
lean novelist, with all his faults, is near- ,
I,,- th, time when he needs to be le j
.jo Tae spontaneity wdii ho Drughedl
on: of him If he pays attcnthm to the
euffi 't d pounaeli th.it are just now ho
liberally k'" him, nr. the fvnr Ih that
he may Why not let him, tr a while
ut sny iit roe pond to the van of the
peopia and the publisher in peace? roo-
p!e and ptfhlllher alike kn--w what they
waul, ; I d the nOVOltSt ih hut the work-
ad iy Journeyina n who nuppiieH it No
wore than (ilotto r I'eniiflno or Andrea
Sarin- 1 am trying tO recall a thih
save in KiiHkiii doei he take hiuoadf
as a heaven Inspired KeriuN. Accord
l t IiIh powers he Ih doing honont
Work for hoeM pay In the npirtt of tne
demand thut Pft 111 f r his effort. It ii
i-ominonlv found that wlien a nation is
uware of a need it furnlihaa tlhi' man
win i ran resportl tn It. The novel iat is
cr vi 1 by Hi' nation at peace an readily
..I. i. ....,....-i".,.e leaaJlnsa f , I...
Willi il" U"" ' "h ' " i iict. . it. i . a i i i iu
American nation hUl one taate and the
Unwllah an t her who nhall aay either
nf them nay'.' If one hai a 1 1 k I ri k for
the tupicK dealt with hy WlnatOn
( 'hut Thill and the other a preference
for the vlewi of li. i. Wella why ihould
i; I irai-h he live to follow Ha own hen.
rv ikt host being called nameaT I have
HIV t B g g ffiHBUV
; WW L ftk? I lm W
MARY JOHNSTON mKtm "B
"THE FORTUNES OF GARIN" Hf BiX
icHi w.npr . drlnki with rai anima
tion mi iwjth ildM. Th. dtacuaalon as
to the comparative merlin f th v.'uk
Hsh .i ik1 the American novel eeemi to
m on the imp leval of Intellltenci and
IkeTy to lead to mtKfi tin- Mime re
sult
Any teller of a tale telle it In relation
to Limp, nl.it'e a,!wl rin-limstarire. Qlven
the difference f condttlona between the
two ooMlnenti whal can be looked for
but uti i-nu:l dlfferetice jti aim? Tlie
tw MM of wrueiH are not dotnej the
eatne thrrej. The' nave different maten
aia to w.rk with and different iMtlncta
to appeaif Tri.f. there are Amark?ana
'ith KhRiiii t.iMteM who prefer Brur
llh ro...-t heef anil ala; and I keelef
there are BnffUahntere- though fewer he
cause the Bnffllah populatlot le rala
lively .small wh i ha re the Amerk nti
appetite for corn on the oon and douith
nute Theee tendenelee bring about an
amicable International give and take, in
which ear claaa la within it rtuhta
till it befflni 'o tiaim euperlorlty ovei
the other, as one of fcln-m threaeani lo
do now. We have heen told long,
aifl toiii ho peratatently. that corn on the
coli anil dOUffhftUta are UnWOTtby ar
ticles of d.et that the wonder beglna
to grow thai; the American can itomach
them That he din- ran only he es
plained by his deadnaaa toward a area!
iwrt of the critical wrlti: in paper!
an.i inaejaelnee.
I n;ust own to a share In this h tnl-
neaa "f heart in confeesine; that I have
not read the attlctea on the Aenerlcaii
novel by i wen Wlater and Meredith
nf these lat-i N'irhnlsoii u hieh appeared in the .It.'. inti
the partially I nor yet the English opinions of Mr.
Gflrnett tha preceded them. The omis
sion is due not to a lack of reaped for
Oese admirable writers but to the ne. es
j alty In whieh I And myaelf not to rea!
; any present day cHtlOlsKI) Whatever ror
j a writer on .1 nitii icaie and a reader
I on a large one the Hahi-I of mere in-
I dividual opinions is too distracting, On
says black and another white, and no
; one speaks with authority. It Is a Kne
; time sln.-e I have read a review of
1 one of my own unimportant books, apart
I from the very few which well rjtoanlni
friends have forced upon me. It la
rarely tha,t I read a current review of
'any book at ill. f make, however, one
I exception t this rule. On the publics-
j lion of a titfvr: 111 Which 1 am Interested
and which stress of economy forbids me
j to acquire I purchase The Nw VoK
bum "ii Saturday, tn.- xew vora ino.-t
otl Sunday and the Host Mi Tri.il. rin'
on the following Wedneeda) afternoon.
: then know the book from cover to
MVr, and have h:l the privilege Of
reading the more dramatic porttom in
iriM txt. 1 gat this ptaawure for )ut
six cent?, when otherwise l shmihi have
forced myaelf to snend 11.18 K-m this
thrifty oportUnlty my thank! are ilue I
ntlrely tn the author and the publtaher,
hn n .ke m n t,rps,-iit nf th,.;r n..rk
rpv.
reapectlve newspaper! need no
rmtltuda. ne.'itie that the i.elit all tli.-
er li tniPl from the I eil n : a V V li-. . f 1 r I
we. the memoeri or the jm..u thus
reeive, literary eritlOtim, whether In
the uanner of the giffintisf and the
flnlMftnn Dttimut nm In th tt it rHe
IfamMOMauatckei trrt u rtt. w 'UiUl annear I
to run on much the same level 'f
Utility.
At.il the tale is told as the teller sees
it. Why shouldn't it he realistic if thus
it presents itself" Or why shouldn't it
he romantic? or humorous ? or eentl-
menial '.'
didactic?
struct to
shall say
from vv hi
not Mr.
of view
or groteeq a
Who is to
1 or poetl
or
limit a free In
a school? Win
only one gngli
a purp
tli.it th
or
i to look at life" Win should
Preiser he allowed his jsilnt
as well as Mr Harold Hell
Hut then why should not Mr
Hell Wright lie allowed his is
Mr, 1 .reiser" Since neither has
Wright
Harold
well as
a '..on --poly of huimn experience why
should not each distil his own Without
cavil or Injunotton? TH, same reader
will probably not relish them both to
the same degree, though such a reader
Is conceivable, but then he Is at liberty
to take his choice. lie hag also the
choice of the wlds rarets sTlng in be-
j tween, and what he ib es not car, for he
i can let alone. Why badger the teller
I of the tab1" Why badger the listener '
Why, if I like Mr. Joseph Con rod's In
genious method of getting in backward
like a crab, shouldn't 1 be permitted lo
'"Joy It? and why, If I yearn to vary
thul Intellectual sgarols, with an hour
of Mis. Barclay's "sob stuff." should
that simple heart's e-.ise be denied me"
Who made any one a ruler and a Judge?
In the neo-RngllSh crusade against
sentimentality there is something funny.
It Is a confession of sentimentality In
i Itlllf. It is like the fear nf a nun who
I tramblei leal lie ue the wrong fork at
the tahle. and betrays a llmllar Ml of
I coniolou8i antecedent weakneaaaa it i
the practice nf ethplctte , seen ftnm
the pan try i aha! at a breach ''f the
tlxed rulea Marie Corel II is not more
I sentimental than Arnold Bennetti or any
j other wr'ter of tlu "atern KtnfT' ichOO),
Whan thl one 1h arttesn in IntthiK It out ;
j (he other Ih red In the race from holdinu
I It In, M that It Ih equally evident In '
hoth. There h fuch a thing li being ;
sentimental over not heliirf lentlmintal. I
I The only U mint I mental writer is the I
j writer to whom lentlmentaltty i not a J
hurfhear The bravado of much of mir i
current Bngllah fiction iu like that of
the youngiter who as, "gee whit
bl'aVC lltt'n tt(U 1 Hni!" at Ull tnOIIWlt
when you Know he is rrady to break
down a nd w eep
And for heaven'a, lake why rihouidnt
he break dOWfl and waep? What la there
unnatural In tearn'.' What Ik there for
bidden in oomfort or any other hHnht,
opiimiBtlo thl n f Why shouldn't the
reader be made to cry ua well as to
latiKh. If he like It? What doee the
Englishman gain by this pose, which our
a!fcin Xxaw
mm h jrmmmm mm - . mm mm i
.i ki w :mmm
GEORGE
HENRY PAYNE
AUTHOR OF
"THE CHILD
IN PROGRESS
(PUTNAMSJ
naive American cr'Hn take for genuine
British phlegm, of lining no soft spots,
ehefl we all know he is m de up of
them? I kh-s it not resemble thai ohe
pose, "she cultivated air of Inefficiency,"
as I think li. Q, Welle his oa:!ed It.
the manner of looking and speakini like
a born fool, th.it th" Englishman has so
ften put on through f.-i- of Wilis' sus
pected of intelligence, which it has taken
the war and its horrors to dtepal?
All. but you elll say that it is I who
am now Calling r i'oes 1 do not niein
o. I am onlv entering a feeble p eg
for literary loleratloni for recognition
of the v.uf legitlmata range of the
ragderi tastes and heeds for a breath
ing space of freedom from the literary
doctrinaire and for 'he of the
jsiur. harried, worried art of rh-i Amer
ican stoty teller alone it Is a bgautlful
art. and when practised rwrueen the
artist and his audience It can lie .1 pleas-
ant one; but it come- near to being
polled by the pontificating of the self
appointed middleman.
By KATHLEEN NORMS I
Th American no-i is in a bad way,
says Mr Meredith Nirhotunn. And. road
Ing whal ha haa t aay tf our novela
and our writers, one aorrowfully iiarfen
with him . :nd
HeW tr;(, ifr the
the charge
truth of it
is n
very
far
to ek.
But, with Am. r!
Ameii,.m architect
the American eoelai
WOtnen iI ''hil'lr n
n Action ;r
ire, American j
atructure, AmeH
and ichoola, equi
in a hot way." We are a nation of
spendthrifts, morall) mentally and phy
sically . why single out the writer, f. r
especial censur. ? As a mutter of fact
your popular writer has rleaner hands
than are usually brought from the busi
ness of living; i.e writes, ins publtaher
and his public approve, he enjoys his
Income and his Klmy Knowing that not
one of his hundred thousand readers
grudges him the latter or has heen de
ceived or betrayed into contributing to
the former 1- it for him to fling aside
the lion. -st work that so pleasantly solves
tin. problem of living, to hammer away
Iti hunger and obacurity for a d07.cn
ears, and Anally to perfect his real
dream for tin- hundred or less real judges
who will find it g 1? Are ho kerf
blamed because th y do not leave the
pulpy, sugared Bve renl loaves that sell
In tons for old fashioned whole wheat
hrcHd that will not sell at Iwenty-flve
.cuts a loaf" A..- silk merchants
blamed hecause tiny tn. long.-r carry
the five dollar silks that made our
grandmothers' "beat" gowns, bul con
tinue to pleas.- the public With ''almost
silk" and "part silk,"
best a few months?
An unknown writer
some years ago wrote
about a fat girl. The
Jeeied by two leading
that
ar at
whom I
km
a snort s
story was
magaalnei
3:
cause the heroin-- wis fal
friend, SUBBSOted that Ins
The writ- r's
id of s ttlng
heraalf up ai a better judge f Action
than two editors, ihl retluce In r cir!
in tiiEtire hut the writer peralatedi iht
wanted thin particular pleasant, he.pl ss,
Komi natured siri fat. sho eenl the
itory out again, and the third edit ot
Htnt fr Inr. an editor, by the way, win
w is alia a Wfltl They liked the story,
lint not thi fat Kirl "There are fal
KlrlM." proteeted my writer. "BUI not
In Met Ion V laid Ihl editor. He took
the itory, but it was altered when it
appearedt and tin iliuitrator had drawn
the usual tylph.
Now rhll II pt-rfectly typical. T cjinrvt
blame ' he wriier, I ct rtafnly do tint
Maine 'no editor. It :s .-ur reading pub
lic that must be ana!unc1. It Ih our
reading publlo t hat must eoniehovv be
h rough I to re llwie that W en America
has In r own tUthn Ilh baokground Will
pot Im- that of Prenoh or Clortnam fiction,
above all It will not be that at Qnglllll
I lotlon Try a WO may -and it iee mi
io me a deplorable fact that wmie of
our very Aral novelist are continual!)
i it r i ng 'A cannot take up the pleaeaTM
I familiar hlitorloi of landed gerftry, of
I oqulrci and ouratei and plcturaaque vii
lagen. Wa have bad too much of them I
! We are so satiated with them that our
first mad efforts at nvellalng arc HI run -
.jlen t adjugt our own nation to their
itundurd, to timi stability where ail if
rush and change, to And lervunt cias
and an Upper class where n . nuch ihlhgl
ex lit. Tiie mllllonalraa of our to-day
are paupers tO-murr W. our neWSl
are buying motor cars,
children wew white mi
demure Utile stenoKialdi
employer 'i wife looki r
our Hast Side
Uliisi. and the
r ut whom her
coldly may he
receiving weeki) chaqusa ror ntovmi
plotur, ananari that would ntak, th,
oihar lady turn pal, with snvy,
The Constant Raader will not have n
so. He knows that there ar.' fat glrll
and alvoroaa and snobs ami labor
troubles anil all the yeasty distresses ItO
wid eh so hastily bVi veil a mixture a.
tins nation of oura la heir, but he will
j mot read about them. The writer may
w a, nww- mm
mAmW
Wa z mm
see the dramatic posslhthtles of a row
uf little crude suburban houses bravely
iierch,st on a mtiddv inrvk. he may read
the tremendous tv.ry that every trail
f factory smoke writes on the April
skies, he may ache to make .mmortal
the comedy and the tragedy of the city's
boy, and girls, pal, faced and -ager. at
th.- Rim play, hut tta Constant Reader
will not see it
So he writes of a lesser theme, a
Southern girl, with a hay horse and
r"es. or arr Irreproachable young en
gineer who transforms a whole railroad
system, and of course as he writes he
pre o lies. For even his casual Inves
tigations have given him something
about which he may preach.
Vet one feels that his real day Is
coming very fast. There is dawn behind
all this groping darkness. th,re Is suc
c. ss beyond all these clumsy failures
A. id while we wait It is good to feel
that there have been those before us
to preserve the old times that are no
more. surely 1 Cranford is no truer
picture of live old England than Miss
Wilkin, and Miss Jewett have given
us of the new ; old California Is safe
,rt the pag.'S of Bret Harte, and for
the South we have Cable and Cage and
Ruth McEnery Stuart. We shall not lose
.ne delightful phase of our national de
velopment while Mr, Howell', "Boy's
T .wn is in print, nor forget th child-
i 1 that was in little country towns
when "The Hoss of Little Arcady" snd
'Rebecca of Bunnybrook Farm" and "The
Cientlentan from Indiana" were written
These are all American to the core, as
"The Call of the Wild" was American.
ind a '1'eter Stirling" was American.
And each presents its distinct and sep
arate glimpse of the cities and towns,
lie men and women, from whose his
tories the (treat American Novel will
om, day be wrought.
By ERNEST POOLE
Since readinK Mr. Nicholson's Inter
-sting article I have been thinking of
the novels modern American novels
that 1 have read In the last few years
Most were disappointing, but some Inter
ueted nie enormously -and of these last
as 1 look Decs Upon them now. It seems
'o me that almost every hook In the
lot gave me the feeling as of a window
a new window -through which a tre
mendoua vi.ua was opened for me upon
Ihla American life of ours. Kor, though
i was deeply thrilled at times in each
of tiie.se novela as I read, 1 waa, I re
metrjber, thrilled still more by th thought
'hat for me at least this was one of
Ihe Aral books, one of ihe tlrst really
blg novels dealing with this field of
our life How many others I would
read In the still richer years abroad -as
human life, all kinds and conditions,
teeming, pregnant, mult Iplylng. spreads
over this wide and generous land and
's writers glean the true tales that are
here the wonderful stories that shall
be here.
1 have read such hook as "The Octo
I i.s," "A Certain Hlch Man," "Maggie,"
A Man s World." "The Jungle," "The
Virginian." "The M Idlanders." "Old
Wives for New" and many more and j
theae novele, though they havo gripped
: c hard, have done more than that,
they have made me all the hungrier!
for the others of their kind, the still
more powerful of their kind, that will j
richly reveal to tne lives of real men
and women and children- -In New York
.nil lii Chicago and In Oklahoma City,
in BUtte and In Seattle, on our coasts i
and up our rivers to lonely little river'
towns , and in isolated bourne, or sweep-
mg field, of wheat and corn, or cattle
ranches, on plantations, in mining towns,
nil steep mountain sides, amid strikes!
like those In Colorado books revealing ;
all such struggles, all such places, all
Uch people and again and again, books
if the town, the great cities 1 meat., of;
people most amazingly rich and people'
most alarmingly poor the Intense and j
dramatic, elgnlnoanl life of the millions!
a' our immigrants- and again the rush
of young people for towns.
These are only a few of the ftelda of
our life that come up It. my mind aa
i write.
In reading 1 know that nine times!
out of tel. I shall be disappointed. I
shall take up books and drop them
aometlmea because Ihey are dry as dust,
all , ranoiieil Willi the most in, Inal n Iftno.
truth, th, most useful Information, with
lUal Ihe ghost of a story, and an artl-
flelal ghost at that, looming up for-
lornly thnnigh the pagea here and there,
nther disappointments will be books
that arc small Husslaa, ruled hy li liter -
ary czar, a chap who has a purpoeie, a
sermon r a tendency, who writes with
a pen of Iron, Jabbing his characiters In-
to line poor devils or saints us the case
nay be-- to .prove the point be Is niak-
ln, Honks that a Kusslnn friend of
mine used to call "so damn tendenclous.'
And still other disappointments will
be novels that at first lending the in
nocent reader to think he Is going to aee
some real life here, proceed later to drag
Mm head over heela Into a plot ao
I breathVeae that It will not be until the
end that with a r i--P he looks back ana
eeee what a pitiful little bag of tricks
It was that drew his nerves so taut.
But among them all I ahall llnd what
will be the great novels for me. They
will paint real life with a depth and a j
power which while sweeping me along I
In the personal narratives will at the
MM time bear me far out all over this
WMg country, books that deal first and ,
foremost with a few Individual Uvea,
but llvee not Isolated, lives bound up In
the intricate warp and woof of the mass ;
life all a.round them, as our Uvea are
Increasingly bound these days, when j
not only the affairs of our nation but 1
even those of all nations on earth have
sudden and amaslngly deep effects upon
each one of us on our Jolie, our In- ,
come, our homes, our reading, our hope
and beliefs.
Stand In the 'Irand Central at a rush 1
hour and In a few mom nti thoussnde
of people will have swept by you. peo
ple from all over the land. Watch their 1
face They all seem Intent upon get- j
ttng something for themselves money,
fame, social position "r they sewn ab- :
1 sorb-si M lovea and hates and Jealousies,
or dreams and hopes and plots and
schemes -all their own, mind you. all 1
for thenrswlves or coneerning themselvea,
their wives and children And In this
straining, groping. In all th s hrea.tbler
hurrying sonv of these people's faies
m.trk at this very moment rerermal
crises that would thrltl you If you knew
But you can't, for they won't let you.
It's none of your business. It's .therr
gejrnl Hut though eai-h of them thinks, .
"This Is my own life, my own echeme,
my own trouble," you standing there can
quite eslly see that his life Is about as
much his own as Is th life of one small
drop upon one wave In the ocean.
Well, In the big lnoks I shall read :
I think people w II he hown more like
that than ever they were In the looks
of the past. I think the tendency will
bg to depict characters, more and more In j
their vital relations to the whole, so that
following their stories you w 11 be draw n
(OO Into those vast tides of business, pol
itics. Industry, eduntlon, social move
ments, the swift spread of new .deas
Into the world of the making of money,
and all the many other worlds, of the
expending, the wa-wting, thj building, the
dreaming, the groping and the straining
on which all go to make up lb s astound
ing life we are leading these days ,ia
slowly and In spite of outwlves who are
bound closer and closer tigether for
good or for evil, bound Into a common
life.
By HENRY JAMES FORMAN j
Mr. Meredith Nicholson has put his
finger on many weak sp-.ts In the Amer
ican novel, aivi everything Mr. Nicholson
exys, so persuasive is his pen, carries
conviction. Yet to my thinking he has
not touched the vital points. "To see
life steadily and to see it whole ' Is. In
Mr. Nicholson's opinion, essential to the
writing of sound Amerb an novels There
i are at least two reasons why in ins
hurl burly of uur Present day life to
ses life steadily and to see it whole" is a
difficult trick to acquire.
For one thing, we are not a h imo
geneous M-ple. Cur Action is of nts-es-sity
chaotic beeause our nation Is cha
otic. Where else do you hear of hy
phenated citizens, unhy phenated cltlgtns
and semi-hyphenated cltuens? It may
tnke centuries to make of us a homo-
geneous people. Hut to say that a novel
ist has to reflect all of the population of
his country Is. of course, to strain .,
point. Turgenieff is credited with the
conscience of his people Hut gifting i'
down, TursenlefTs "people'' is a Verj
small laeit- -the Russian aristocracy.
What does TurKenieff know of the tii, 11
lona of Tatars. Mohammedans and
Jews living in the Russian Kmpire?
but In the United dtates, where th'
melting pot Is SUppoasd to lie always c.i-
aatced m geelMng, Ul, va ry oaldron itgali
seething on the lire, with all lis heat and
smoke, is fit i-iiouuh Rtatarlal for the
earnest novelist KnKlish novrosts.
moulded ajid safeguarded by the sharp
distinctions and detnan ations of elass.
envy Americans the mtlulte poaalbllltlas
that abound in American life Hut one
"f the chirf Indictments, perhaps, against
the American novelist. Is that after his
riist one .r two aarloua efforts money be
conies an ever growing temptation to i
him He craves all the luxuries of the I
successful business man He forgats ,
that novel writing Is the hluh calling he j
envisage! it in his early ideals. With
the pressure of the popular magazines
upon him the writing of Action becomes
a apaculatlva enterprise, like hanganir
round the ticker In Wall Street. Where
In his youth it seemed to him almost j
like Joining a religious order, requiring
preparation, puiKation 141 d initiation, ;
middle life sees him (generally, but not.
always) Judging success wholly m terms
,.f magazine and public demand. That 1
Is why novel writing with us becomes so ,
often merely a manufacturing Industry.
Generally speaking, fiction of the bed
kind does and should aim to portray life,
to paint the truth, to carry on the great I
business of the teachers of mankind,
that Is to exalt the ideal If romance !
does that It belongs among the best I
fiction. If realism doesn't do that it I
should no less certainly be excluded !
from the best fiction Well, to do your I
liest means to forsake th, maunfacturing
industry of Anion The mob of read
ers not only in tne t nit. 'it states but
throughout humanity hasn't the best of
taste. Hart of the business of the nov
elist ! to elevate U. Hut what chance
has an artist of d llns that if he knows
not how to be frugal? If he knows not
how to be frugal. Stevenson has said, he i
will very soon cease to be honest. T at!
I spectacle we see about us every day. No
country pay, 'be highest price for the
hest work. "Commonly," says C. K.I
Montague auibor of The Hind Let
' Ixiose," "It is tough work to keep a
i modern country from kicklnv away any
! quite great work of art that Is laid at
! her feet." This country is no excep
tion to that rule. That is why the nov
elist of serious purpose must learn to
la frugal 1 do not mean by this that
he must become Tlmon of At .ens Bu!
he must so blend his life that while not
Isolating himself from his kind he will
yet not have his soul ground out of him
by the whirring of the machinery, lor
in the last analysis the novelist Is Con
templative, u phlioeopher, not a mer
chant. And be who so looks upon his
(-ailing will embrace literature not to
gain but to five. And mote and more
his soul will grow, and so will our lit
erature. Romance and realism, be they
what they may. so long as thev are
based on truth and permeated by sin
cerity, are equally worthy a man'a or
woman's devotion We in America have
no lack of devotees Hut great artists
are rare the worltl over.
THE ROMANTIC CAREER
OF AMELIE RIVES.
Few readers of the Hiincess Trnubets-
koy' romantic new novel "Shadows of j
"kunaa'' v. U know how this popular au-
thor hvya claim to her gracafui rVsncft i
naenS of Amelie or the title of I'rlncess. i
i The PrlrtMM I'lerre Troubetzkoy Is the
1 igranddaughtor f William Cabell Hives.
1 a Southern gvutle.man of the old sohis.l.
1 Congrissaman and senator or Virgins I
! and. before the outbreak of the civil,
j war. Mi nister 1'lenlpotentlarv to France, i
Ouring the reign of lsnils l'hlllppe. the
! eldeat daughter of Minister Hivi-s w.u.
j Irorn, and the Krench Queen liestmwed
her own tvame ,hi the child, who in turn i
handed It down as a legacy to her niece, I
i the preent I'rlncess Troubetzkoy.
Col. Alfred London Hives, father of ,
I Amelie Hives, was also horn in Harts, and '
the Margu.e ,le l.afayotte, deeceniWtnt of
the great Lafayette of American devolu
tion fame, was his godfather at baptism.
He retiurned to America and married In
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MY CHILDHOOD
By MAXIM GORKY, author of "Twonty-Six and One," etc.
Mot In. I mate! y Russian than even Russiail Botlon. A human docu
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ESCAPE AM)
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By A
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HIGH LIGHTS ,t FRENCH REVOLl TION
By HILAIRE BELLOC.
brilliant prescntai ion of the outstanding moments of the mom dra
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MARIE TARNOWSKA
By A
Th
VIVANTI CHARTRES,
. ,cifi-slons nf the most famous
if Russian high sortel life and
sspc
fui Russian l umpire, ti e celebrated countess Mario Tarn,
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G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
I s 1 Sarah Macmurdo, a noted Southern
beauty To them was Is.rn in Richmond,
Vgi the daughter. Ann lie. who has dis
tinguished herself as a writer f notion
and poetry.
Since Col Rives s profess on ,f a civil
engineer demanded a nomadic i.t, tne
cMltfhood f Am ells Rivea was spent
chiefly with her statesman grandfather
at his aetata, Castile mil. in Albemarle
county, Virginia. The child was the con
stant companion of the grave and courtly I
gentleman until his death. ..mi Oastle
Hill is still her home, where she now
lives ami which to her is tin- most be
loved spot iii the universe. Above the
slenderly panelled mantel of her Study
where she writes per hooka there atill
hangs a clustered mass f wh le ssitln
land tattered silver tissue through w 'li. 1
is thrust a pair of Utrnlshed swords a
memento of a foreign country and splen
did scenes. The orumpled Shining mass
Is the first court dress worn by her
grandmother, and the swords once
clanked at the s..le of our former Min
ister at the gay curt of Kr.uii e
The aUthoreee'g Ural marriage was
unsuccessful and ended In divorce be
cause of iiTcompa ibil.ty of tempera
ment. She married a second time. In
lltf, at Castle Mill, a Russian noble,
matt and artist. Prince I',, ire Troubets-
koy, who ts deaoended from the an. -lent
Ruaaian Trouhetakoy family, a man of
striking physical appearance ,anl hlghl
aUOCeMfUl in Ida career as an arts.
Am ng bis most rotable portraits Is one. j
of tuie etateemeh Qladatone, wiiich is fa
vorably compared by rritlc, g'lih tho
celebrated portrait of Mlllai, Iii "Shad
owe of Flames" Amelie Rives wr ies
vividly of Lake Maggiorc, doubtleaa
drawing the picture from her own real-
lence upon ths't lake in the stimmet' of
I 1101
I
when she and her present hus
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OTHER ESSAYS
"From a eolleeo Window," etc
author of "The Devourera,
etc.
woman criminal in the
tin- nrst true account of
world An
'he is-auti-
aska. Just
si .',o nti
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Wh
III
$3.50 n
I nnrlnn
M l.fMlf.trii II
band occupied . villa at
win doubtless be many v
the Italian Count, to wh
of this last novel gave
tion, a resemhlar.ee to ii,
Amelie Rivea is now n- ii
Hhiffa T -
ho win ti- ii f
an the heron
ter deep after-
man to w I ottl
rlod.
How do you
or did you
write your
love letters ?
Eleanor, n wealthy and busy
young lady, induced her sec
retary to compose, writ-,
sign and mail love letters tn
the man to whom she was
engaged. The secret arv
wrote good letters, argued
Eleanor. Ami the secret. in
did; with surprising result'
Well worth reading is th
novel which opens with this
situation. It is "The Wooing
of Rosamond Fay re," by
Berta Ruck (Mrs. Olive
Onions), whose first novel,
"His Official Fiancee." pub
lished last Spring, is now in
the 10th edition. All bo
stores st 11 it.
DODD, MEAD & COMPAN.
New York