Charles Scribner's Sons
Copyright, 1923, 1924 by
Charles Scribner's Sons
Copyright, 1924, by McNaught's Company
Copyright, 1923, by The Atlantic Monthly Company
Copyright, 1922, by George H. Doran Co.
Copyright, 1923, by The New York Times
Copyright, 1924, by Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Copyright, 1923, by The New York Evening Post
Copyright, 1924, by The New York Tribune
Copyright, 1921, by Boni & Liveright
Printed in the United States of America
Our reason, according to certain of the cynical philosophers, is given to us less to direct our conduct than to enable us to justify it when it appears to be lacking in direction. When I ask myself how I can justify the variety of moods in this book and the mixture of pieces as elaborate as I cared to make them with skits and notes of obviously challengeable value, my reason points promptly to the conditions under which most writing of this sort is at present produced.
Our literary criticism is like the dove which emerged from the ark and, presently, with the olive leaf in her beak, returned to the ark, having found outside it no place to abide. The ark may here be taken as a symbol for a professorial chair or a desk in a publishing house or in an advertising agency or in some organization for the production of "valuable commodities." Criticism is tolerated in many quarters, encouraged in a few, but paid a "living wage" in none. Many professors, journalists, and the like practise it as an avocation or as a recreation. Nobody, almost nobody, follows it as a profession.
Having, like others of the fraternity of amateurs, taken it upon myself to think aloud, here and there, as opportunity offered, about men and books and ideas, I seem to discover a certain general tendency and loose concatenation among these scattered discourses, which perhaps I overemphasize in speaking of it at all. But I seem to discover also that I have a little audience which is willing to listen, with the single proviso that it shall be informed where the speaking is going on. It appears therefore almost a duty of courtesy towards that part of the public for which one feels a particular kindness, to collect one's self from time to time into an accessible form.
The first essay is here published for the first time. For the rest, I owe acknowledgments as follows: to McNaught's Magazine for "Forty and Upwards," "On Falling in Hate," and "On Falling in Love"; to the Atlantic Monthly for "Unprintable"; to Charles Scribner's Sons for the two pieces from the introduction to Brownell's American Prose Masters, "For the Higher Study of American Literature" and "W. C. Brownell"; to the Bookman for "American Style" and "The Disraelian Irony"; to the New York Times for "The Apology for Essayists of the Press" and "Brander Matthews and the Mohawks"; to Harcourt, Brace and Co. for "The Significance of Sinclair Lewis"; to the Literary Review for "Where There Are No Rotarians," "Mr. Tarkington on the Midland Personality," and "A Note on Gertrude Stein"; to the New York Tribune for "Oscar S. Straus"; to the New York Evening Post for "Samuel Butler"; and to Boni and Liveright for the "George Sand and Gustave Flaubert," from Mrs. Mackenzie's translation of the Sand-Flaubert correspondence.
Contents
| Page | ||
| I. | Towards an American Type | 1 |
| II. | Forty and Upwards | 29 |
| III. | Unprintable | 47 |
| IV. | For the Higher Study of American Literature | 75 |
| V. | W. C. Brownell | 87 |
| VI. | On Falling in Hate | 127 |
| VII. | On Falling in Love | 137 |
| VIII. | American Style | 151 |
| IX. | An Apology for Essayists of the Press | 171 |
| X. | The Significance of Sinclair Lewis | 187 |
| XI. | Where There Are No Rotarians | 219 |
| XII. | Mr. Tarkington on the Midland Personality | 227 |
| XIII. | Oscar S. Straus | 235 |
| XIV. | Brander Matthews and the Mohawks | 249 |
| XV. | A Note on Gertrude Stein | 261 |
| XVI. | Samuel Butler | 269 |
| XVII. | The Disraelian Irony | 291 |
| XVIII. | George Sand and Gustave Flaubert | 325 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1924, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1926, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 97 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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