The morning times., 1896-07-26
CHAT OF LITERARY THINGS
Colonial RennaisSanceinAmer-
ican Literature.
FIELD WELL CULTIVATED
Women First to Seize Upon Its Pos
sibilities-Mrs. Watson's aDor-
othy and the Puritan"

TO THOSE whose pleasure it is to
study the currents OF thought and the
direction OF things, there is appre-
cable q Dew anu welldefined ten-
dency in book production. Truly
enough the straws on tiie surface have in
dicated the sequence; bur only recently,
say within the past seven or eight months,
has the new course been clear to many.
1t may count only for u passing inciina tion /.
but moro likely II will expaDu IN develop
meDt for IL is u new lead FOR our writer's.
1t is the only indivluualized bent since To-
nance superseded the problematical aud
sociological novel. In its narrative branch
1t Is direct out growth OF the ronIanticclass.
in word lit is colonial q nj revolutionary
renaissance.
THIS new field is being diligently de-
velopcd by all hands. II Is a good and
fertile field, aud as is characteristic or
contemporary writer's, all are Fastening
TO the last stoUc turned II prophecy
were ventured IL might be said that such
assiduous working as is ow being given
the new field will either exhaust II or
uauseate the market of the unvarying
siniilitude. Tue picturesque period OF our
history is a delightful prospect for the ro-
maucer. At this time ii is sufficiently
remote to have assumed tile mystic haze
that hangs over the land where swords
clash and blood flows. and with the re-
lnovai OF the error OF proximity, which
has 80 long crippled us with the iuea that
nothing is worth while except that which
must be reached for from a distance, we
now recognize the fine features OF ie-
riod rich in color incident, grace, virilfty
and inspiration.
But the possibilities OF the colonial and
revolutionary cru did not discover them
selves to the writers directly. No burst
tt.f.x-
piicabie force spei the pen. Things worked
their way out naturally, and the natural
way leads under the arch mefcenary. Causes
which lead to great effects are sometimes
so Insignificant as to render almost ridicu-
lous their association with the inopfinatc
sequence. The renaissance has devoted IT.
self to works on real and actual colonial
characters, places, incidents, persons, man.
ners and TO colonial fiction. The former
were first in the field. When art critics
rcpudiated the modern, the regular and the
conventional in the inches Of these gods
were set the antique. nick, crack,
rip, a stain, Il frayed edge. were marks
Of the exquisite. At once old china, old
furniture. old pictures, began to take their
place in the homes
The modistes followed suit and decreed
Crinone and flounces and all that our
ancestors Wore, and the draper revived
the Dolly Warden pattern with the new
stamp of Dresden. Forthwith all things
colonial Were the fad. The collectors
began their catalogues, the experts wrote
their monographs, the ma gazines recognized
the tirneliness OF colonial articles, and the
colonial renaissance was fairly on.
But what has given it more than anything
else the stamp OF permanency Is the large
number OF patriotic societies with their
vast membership, all rummaging through
the colonial garrets for ancestors and
ghosts and skeletons OF ancestors. They
developed individual magazines and pub
lshed collected addresses and essa VS. and
historical studies To that the independ-
ent publishers and recognized writer's are
now adding works of exceptional inter
est, which may be said TO. seal tie indi;