Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-03-07
SPHERE OF LETTERS
BOOK REVIEWING HARDLY CO.
ING OUT OF FASHION.
BALTIMORE SUMS PLAN
COLLEGE, Professors TO Do the Work-
Index in British Museum Complete
After 20 Years Labor-Unpub-
lfshed Notes by Stevenson-Gener-
al Notes.

In view of the prediction that book
! reviewing is to go out OF fashion, its
! place being taken by ''snippets" from
books and by entertaining gossip
about authors, with pictures OF new
! literary celebrities, there is interest in
| the experiment Of the Baltimore Sun,
which has just established a thorough
going system of reviewing under the
direction Of Guy Carleton Lee of Johns
Hopkins, aided by contributors from
20 other colleges, large and small, in
various parts of the country, Amber t,
Brown. Yale and Maine university fur
nishing the New York representatives.
In the field of science the merits of
such method are obvious. AS the
Sun says
A department Of literary criticism
embodying the opinions of specialists
will have the weight Of authority,
and, for obvious reasons, would be of
more value than the views of a single
reviewer on the great variety Of sub
iects of which literature treats at the
present time. Books on scientific sub
iects, when analyzed by writer's whose
lives are devoted to the study OF sci
ence, take on a new interest,"
In fiction, poetry and pure literature
in general, the advantages are not so
obvious, because these things belong
in the province Of the literary writer
quite as much as in that OF the pro-
fessOr of literature. Furthermore, the
academic life, while it makes for accu-
rate knowledge, does not necessarily
imply the sort of ability required for
criticism, while the habit of daily lee
turing undergraduate is apt to breed
a sort of dull dOgmatism which is very
funny when brought out into the light
of common day. There have been
many queer instances of this, which
need not be dwelt on here. A minor
but pertinent case is to be found in the
comparison of two reviews of Mr.
Stedman's American Anthology, which
appeared simultaneously in two lead
ing reviews Tor January. One was by
HCWells; the other by professor in
Chicago university. The mere liter
airy man wrote a vital, interesting and
valuable article, with the individual
flavor of the born writer. The pro-
fessor's review was dull, pedantic and
full Of those false touches which in
stantly betrdy imperfect comprehen-
sion and sympathy. In the field of lit
cr2tuTn If ic dC1,htf11I Uhptho1, tho col
lege faculties could better the work
of the professional critics. Nor does
classroom work, especially if it is
devoted to the correction of the Eng
fish Of beginners, tend to develop a
broad and artistic sense of what Eng
lish should be. There is no pedantry
like that of your veteran teacher of
rhetoric, and as Mr. zangwiI has put
it, the true aim is to write like a mas
ter, not like a schOOlmaster. Often
this petty criticism oyersteps itself, as
in the criticism which one Of the Sun S
academic critics makes on the Eng
lish of recent novel, "EastoTer
Court House:
The window was the nearest object
on which to vent his anger. 1t reached
to the floor and was his own. He
drew back his foot and kicked out the
| lower panes one after another" Ac-
coTding to the pronoun, it was Caring
! tons anger which reached te the
floor, and was his own" and, as this
resulted in the spectacle OF a gentle
manly and "self-centered and calculat,
ing" (see page go hero indulging in
/ the relief afforded by kicking out
certain unoffending panes (of glass? y
! it is possible that the dimensions OF
1 the anger are not Overstated. Ger
/ tainly it was his own both in origi
nality and dignity of method and re,
suit"
Surely even a freshman might know
that '+the window being the subject
of the first sentence, naturally be
comes the subject Of the second, I'm
less there is evidence to the contrary
| With the psychology of the hero's ex
! pensive ebullition of wrath we have
no concern, but it is at least stated
| with fauftless (clearness-
Is would be surprising if the imper
| iaIistic movement in the Ang1o-Saxor
world had no literary consequences
! and perhaps one of them is to be
/ found in the increased disposition
| noted by more than one observer, tt
pay more attention TO English and
American huoks and less to those writ
! ten on the continent. In reviewing
| for the Baltimore Sun the craze fol
European books which he thinks is
| now declining, Guy Carleton Lee o.
Johns Hopkins university says
Not only the public was possessed
| by this strange idea that the bes1
| must perforce come of some otheI
place than Nazareth. It has been bu
a few years since an admirable critic
Of literature in general published {
collection OF literary essays, in which
he patronized Dickens, admitted tina
there were some good points ahou
Thackeray. and went into ecstatic rap
lures over Tourgueneff and Tolstoi
Now, Tourgueneff and Tolstoi have
merits. The former is unquestionabI,
| the ADLER man Of the two: he ha!
power, earnestness and a certain fe
licity in delineation Of character: bu
it may we'll be doubted if, had Tour
gueneff been plain Mr.. Smith anC
written in English, he would eve
have obtained even a moderate SIIc