The morning call., 1893-05-28
PACIFIC COAST LITERATURE.
A Prospective View of It's Growth.
HAMLIN GARLAND.

shouts The illimiiaole width and sunless depth
OF he Oregon forest.
And thought, perhaps enc OF these is the
novelist or painter of the future"
When looked upon the young lads following
the p,ow said. perhaps the future novelist of
these spaces is plowng som where like that Be-
cause 1t must be that from the splendor of such
contrast the 20 and novelist win rise he al
ways has and he always WILL His feet will be on
the soil like Whittler's and like Miller's. HIS
song will differ from theirs because he will be
an individual soul. and because his time and
his environment win not be the same.
There is wonderful field for the novelist in
the Iransplanting of Eastern farmers into this
strange land, stranger than dreams to the chill
dren. Full OF splendor rs the Arabian Nights.
The overland journey Today is just as won
derful TO the child who MAKES 1t as was the
overland journey of forty years ago to Joa qun
Miller, only 1t is different. II contains other
but 1t has It's own drama, comedy and swift
action.
man leaves his home in an Illinois town
and comes to California, for example. He
settles in some valley far from neighbors we
will say His children marvel at the hills and
peer at the cacti and the sagebrush. From car
windows their eyes see wheeling mountains.
Their ears hear strange voices. Be patient of
their endless queries; they may be your future
novelist or dramatist. They will come o love
their land and by and by that love will produce
an artist, and that artist will not look away to
other lands for subjects. The near at hand will
flood him with creative passion.
Why should the Western artist or poet look
| Europe for themes? l have met Western
artists painting the peasants of Brittany. l
have met poets who were writing blank verse
| tragedies Of the middle ages. and still consid-
cred tn mselves the makers Of the Western
| literature. do not quarrel with them; 1 am
perfectly willing to leave the question to the
arbitrament of time, but wish to get at the
reason for it all.
II is not hard to find. They have not yet
risen to the perception of the significant and
beautiful in their own environments, or they
are looking for effect without regard to their
own real conviction. They are poets of books.
moi OF life. In some cases the fault is one of
education.
| This insincerity is fatal to any great work oil
art. A man must be moved by something
higher than money, by something higher than
hope of praise; he must have sIeepless love In
his heart urging him TO recrea,e in the image
! OF life the thing he has loved. He must be bur-
dened and without rest until he has given birth
TO his conception. Such a man will not be long
| questioned when he comes. He will be known
| as product of his own time and place, voice
speaking tn intimate love OF his heart
There was much Of dross and efIectlsm IN
Millers earlier work, but 1t was filled with
an abounding love for Sierra mountains and
forests and all moving things. And that love
made him the great figure be is in the literature
of the Pacific Coast
| But the literature which Is to come in my
judgment will be intimate and human beyond
| any California prec dent IL VIII deal morr
| with the home life, with The interior life, and
less with the superficial, the spectacular and
the exceptional. 1t will not dodge nor equiv
ocate 1t will grapple with social problems "a
| they come in lfe because 1t will a literature
| OF life. II will not deal with the landscape
from the outside, as tourist Ike myself must
do; 1t will deal with 1t from the love of it, not
the wonder of il.
This literature viii not sees themes. Themes
VIII crowd upon the writer and shake him and
transform him. The lovers who wander down
the aisles OF orange or lemon or pepper trees
| will not marvel at them. Their presence and
| perfume will be familiar and lovely not
strange. The stark lines of the fir and the
b oadsword thrust Of the banana leaf will NOT
attract their surprised look. All will be as
friendly and grateful as the maple or the Lom-
ba,dy poplar tree to the boy or girl of Iowa
or Minnesota.
A new II erature is already come with the
generation just rising TO manhood and woman
hood on the coast, because their point of view
has not been represented before but is being
repre> ented. If rightly educated their eyes
will turn naturally TO the wheat fields, the for
esfs, the lanes OF orange trees the ranges OF
UNSURPASSED mountains. They Will try to ex-
press In he novel. the drama and in painting
and In song he love and interest they take In
The things close at hand-in the life they are to
live.
This literature will not deal with crime and
abnormalities, nor with diseased persons II
will deal. believe. with the wholesome love of
honest m n for honest women. with the hero
ism OF labor, the comrades hip of men and the
change and development of social conditions.
1t will embody the average type OF character
against background OF nature Infinitely
varied, but always characteristic
In this literature We may expect to see the
shadows OF mountain Islands, the sweep OF dun
plains, and the llues OF dark mounta ain ranges.
-ilhouetted against bu ming yellow, sun-se,
blue sky. Ii Will have in it mighty forests.
and mans brave with the shining ak
against the mighty forests. with their oppres.
sive gloom and sil-nce. 1t will contain types
of vanishing races and prophecies of coming
generations. 1t will have the ever present
green ana gold Of the orange and lpmon tree.
the purple daprle of spicy pepper-tree fruit
and the grace of dropping fern-like acacia
leaves and ever the stark strength of nine.
frosty and gray gree on the granite mountain
tons.
In the midst of thes sfpbte a nd sou,d, -, ~