The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-02-17
NEW
American writers who Are Talked
About.

Marion Crawford is really more OF an En-
glish writer than an American. Still, his
novels are perhaps more popular III America
| than those of any recognized American nov
elists, and Americans claim him. His early
life was spent in Italy, and he was in India
when his first novel appeared. That novel
was accepted by in English publisher, and
the English periodicals have monopollzed FAR
more OF his writing than has drifted 10 tne
| United States, The result is that he has
been very little Influenced by American lit
erary movements, though he has himself,
perhaps, been a force to mould.
He saws that the novel is an ephemeral
thing; that it is meant only to amuse, and
that it is more profitable pecuniarily to spin
a yarn in three volumes than ten pages.
But let us make a distinction: Crawford is
NOT a novelist in the technical sense OF the
word, but a story-teller. A novelist should
have ambitions; should aspire to make lltera-
ture, to produce a careful study. Mr.. Craw-
ford respects his work SO little that he says
he has nc time to revise it. He writes his
they are saleable he is satisfied. He
has tried TO make a study. OF
Roman society. But we doubt If his Amer
lean readers, at any rate, have cared Two
straws for the study if he made a readable
tale. He does amuse, above all others, even
Stockton. Stockton tells ridiculous stories,
! but Crawford tells interesting ones, which
come much nearer to the human heart, 1t
seems to me. But Crawford is not a serious
| element in the literature Of America. He
| says the novel is ephemeral. OF course he is
speaking of stories like his own; He judges
| himself frankly, and we may take him at bus
word, making him not quite SO pad as ne
| claims to be, but very nearly.
Of the others who form the bulk of our
writers the surprising thing is that they are
recognized at all. How they have managed
to slip into the places which they hold is re-
! markable, to say the least. As one OF our
| younger writers has remarked, they have
| perhaps usurped thrones which there was no
| king to sit on. Finding the high places of
| American literature t~enantless and deserted,
they have calmly walked in, chuckled at
| the easy conquest, and proceeded to rule us
as if they were the rightful monarchs in
stead OF fraudulent interlopers.
Such is the one who has perhaps the
highest critical standing as regards Ameri-
can poetry. There is another generally
recognized-whom one cannot condemn on
| any personal grounds, and who holds the
| place he does simply because it was given
him, and any man would be a fool who did
| not accept such an offer. But just think OF
American letters being represented at all
prominently by a foreigner, who at the early
| age of twenty-five or three, after he had been
in our country but two years, could have a
| serial novel published in one of our foremost
| periodicals, accepted indeed by the very chief
| himself. It is simply amazing. This
| foreigner has at present no marked popular
ity. Many a young girls books sell as
well as his nave ever lone. Nor is he him
self a pretentious man. He is very modest.
| He has taken only what was given him and
| claimed not O whit more. His good fortune
has surprised him. And yet to hin of a
foreigner, neither brilliant nor unusually
| talented. at an early age, after a residence in
| the United States of but two years, being
~. 1 e. $1,000 ,a,1~ ir ,nrio ~ lot
| tiers. It is almost difficult to imagine how it
cnnld have been possible. But Mr.. Howells
did it.
Another of the l~ieutenants who figures
| rather prominently in all the magazines is II
| young man who has done all for himself
| simply by persistence and good humor.
| Month by month, In one. of our leading
magazines. he laid down the law of criticism
| to a large public. What matter if his words
were but an echo of his better; he gave the
| echo enough character to make it pass for a
| genuine voice. Month by month he has
| published in other magazines. short
! stories concerning which the remark is often
heard. ''That was an awful story OF MS
this month";" Yet the editor took it and
| paid well for it. As a teacher in one of our
very largest institutions he may be doing
| GOOD routine work. His good humor and in
| dustry should suffice for such instruction,
provided it does not become too serious. But
| when it has come to a public test, in a play
which must draw the multitude of his fellow
men, he has distinctly failed. None of these
men have touched the popular heart. Yet
in American letters they are all authorities,
sovereigns. 1t is simply amazingi
But perhaps it is in the Authors Club that
American literature is most fairly repre-
| sented. The first notable thing concerning
that club is that not one man in it has pro-
\ badly ever published a book which sold over
\ ten thousand copies; and if the average sales
| of the books c~atalogued in their club book
| could be ascertained, probably one thousand
each of bona fde sales on which
a royalty was paid would be an
ample figure. In the first place,
r. IS distinctly not a literary club. One of
| the leading members is Andrew Carnegie,
| who has far more sympathy with pig iron
| than with American literature, worthy man
| though he may be. The great bulk of the
| members are persons who work in publishing
| houses, merely, or on newspapers, or on the
| magazines. Some few of them are special
reporters for the large magazines. A half
dozen would probably include all who are
| really known in American letters, and of
| those half live out of town.
They do not profess to be literary. They
| are merely a social club, where men of the
same class congregate to pass an evening
now and then in gossip. Literary discus
| sions are tabooed. When they haye a din
| ture. but tell funny stories, ending usually
| with the timid declaration that it is a good
thing to be a literary man.
ALPHEUs SHERwIN COPY.
Literary News and Notes.
It is a good thing to extend q hand to
| every really worthy new American writer,
| especially one from the West. Miss Lilly A.
| Long is the author of a book which has a
common sense balance, a thoughtful, accu-
l ~,+ - ~ f1af M ~ ralU fndc ocr,oosall u in