The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-05
The Future of American Literature

suspicion and prejudice, both at home and
abroad.
The Future of American Literature.
Walt Whitman is not generally known
as a literary critic, but some of his ac-
complishments in that line were neverthe-
less not TO be despised. The following
opinion on American literature, expressed
by him many years ago. has lost none of
| its truthfulness with the lapse of time
and is worthy the attention of all students
| of the subject. He said:
ITO my mind America. vast and fruitful as it
appears today is yet. for its most important
results entirely in the tentative state; its very
formaton-stir and whirling trials and essays more
splendid and picturesque, to my thinking than
the accomplished growths and shows of other
lands, through European history Greece, all
the past. Surely New World literature. worthy
| the name is not TO be, if it ever comes, some
! fiction, or fancy, or bit of sentimentalism or
polished work merely by itself, in abstraction
So long such literature is no horn branch and
| ofshoct Of the nationality, rooted and grown
| from its roots, and fbred with its fibre, it can
! never answer any deep call or perennial need
And again:
''There is certainly something unborn, yet
come FORTH different from anything formu-
any land-souiething waited for craved, hitherto
non-expressed. What it will be, and how, 80
one knows 1t will probably have TO prove itself
by itself and its readers One thing, il must run
through entire humanity (this word and
meaning solidarity has risen to moderns)
twining all lands like a divine thread, Swinging
all beads, pebbles gold, from God and the
soul. and, like Gods dynamies and sunshine, Illus
trating all and having reference to all.
This something. unborn is, as all think
mora than litaIv 10 Re
appearance in America Here We have all
races, all traditions all nations. and nearly
all forms of social life in a state of con-
trast. conflict. or fusion. In one section
differing elements exist peacefully side by
side; in another they are in fierce con-
fiict, and in still another they are grad
ually aid harmoniously drawing together
and being welded into a new and COM
posite character. Such people present
far more possibilities both as literary ma
terial and as the source of new writer's
than any compact, homogeneous nation
could. The element either of complexity
or OF contrast is necessary to literature
The Jewish and Polish peoples, pure racial
types. scattered among other races, iso-
lated. passionate. impelled to expression
of their individual and racial character,
have produced great artists. The English
people. on the contrary, have great at
erature largely because they are CT COM
positc character, involving the combination
of many widely different elements Only
in these two ways-by observation or by
experience-can the writer get that deep
insight into human nature necessary to
his work. He must either be himself a
complex character or be brought into i'm
mediate contact with many various types
and human experiences.
We have here in America both of these
conditions. Races and castles are mixed
to an infinite extent. and individuals are
often isolated from their natural kindred
and brought through many experiences
a IN to what in Europe would be thl:r
? tural lot. The man who has risen from
the ranks, passing through all grades of
society. has more knowledge of human ma
ture, other things being equal, than the
man who has never been down. Change,
the struggle of mighty forces working not
openly but under the surface, the In
cesssnt contact of different characters in
caily life, all tend to produce that breadth
and catholicity of view which are neces-
sary to the great writer. 1t is well TO
remember that no single type of literary
work can as yet be called American, and
that any attempt 10 hold to one Amer
lean standard is, at present, likely to
prove detrimental to the ultimate evolu-
ton Of our literature. Out of all the wild
erowths and experimental freaks, the fin
ished work and the crude attempt which
make up the literary output of today, the
true American literature will in time be
born.