The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-27
NEW PUBLICATIONS
H.
w. ID. Howells, High-Priest of the

w, ID. Howells, High-Priest of h
Commonplace.
II seems almost cruel to say harsh things
OF Mr.. Howells, both because he has done his
| best and not a little for American literature,
and because he IS personally SO GENIAL ana
kindly a man. Far be it from ME to depre-
| ciate his worth or himself, except as the
| head and front of a. school which today
dominates American literature. He stand
first in the active ranks of American
writers. He is bound up soul and body with
the spirit of the largest and strongest maya
with that BODY called sThe Authors Club
/ though he is not one of them ia body except
| on rare occasions. He has been one of the
| stanchest enemies of -romanticism in his day,
and now he is doing nothing to aid the cause
of the idealists Ia class quite distinct from
the romanticistS). in spite of the claim on the
part of many of his friends that he is him
self becoming an idealist. In the public
mind he stands for the dedication OF the
| COMMONPLACE, and he will until he dies.
| Therefore l must plead that my cruelty, if in
deed I am cruel, is but the cruelty OF Fate,
which respects not the individual, and
| brushes all in her onward movement. For
one generation must pass and another come.
In the first place I wish to take up the adj
i missions of Mr.. Howells. But lest anyone
imagine thai all my contentious are admit
ted in the first place, | viii simply quote this
| sentence from Brander Matthews: Il am an
extreme optimist in regard to the literature
of the present. / am not sure but
we have some books current among
us today that will live and take a
place along with the best that has ever been
| done-in fiction, at least. Some of Mr..
| Hewells's 1 should not be surprised TO find as
| classics on the hook shelves of my great
grandchildren df / have any. = * To
I'll s,,+nH+S or,d ,a,r1.t,aSpc Onp Oond story IS
lust as good as another good story, and l
can't see why some of the men OF the
present Tor some of the women) may not be
writing just as good stories OF their sort as
| viii ever be written by anybody, even the
| greatest genius who may come along"
These n~tterances of MI. Matthews repre-
| sent a current impression among the follow
| ers of Mr.. Howells. But Mr.. Howells him
| self is far from sure. Says he, 1--WE literary
men are too literary nowadays. We aim at
the head rather than at the heart" Every
| body knows that he sins in that direction
just as much as anybody, In the second
| place., he admits in his Scfl6def confession
! that his books do not sell. The books OF
| Thackeray, George Eliot and Dickens sold
| by the hundred thousand. Ii MI. W
| is to be a classic on the shelves OF our great
| grand children by the suffrages OF the read
ing public, it is not yet. -
Again, in his confession, Mr.. Howells
| tacitly admits that he writes for the classes
| and not for the masses, and the classes are
not as sensitive as are the masses. What
| sort of a classic is it which ii not read by IN
| telligent people wherever they may be found?
| Was Homer read by the classes and not by
the massess Today he is perhaps appreciated
only by scholars, but in his own day he sang
his classic songs to whoever would listen.
He was a s~troliing MINSTREL If anything,
a caterer to the masses rather than the
| classes. Shakespeare was popular long be
| fore he was recognized by the critical.
Dickens wrote distinctly for the masses, and
| today MIR. Howells attacks him as being UNI
| suitable reading for the classes, just because
he bears the ear-marks of the masses.
But his f~rankness goes still farther. He
admits that the poor literature which APP
peals to the masses today, which
he does not even recognize, is in
some way necessary to 1.-THE spiritual