The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-04

Mover" May Yet BE Achieved.
Philadelphia Press.
a generation ago the eyes Of educated
Americans were straining eagerly for the
great American novel" our ambition had
been stimulated by the worldwide success
Of Uncle Toms Cabin and the high crit
ical praise won at home and abroad by
Hawthorne, until every strong new book
was reviewed as much to decide whether
IL might not possibly be the hoped-for Won
der as 10 indicate what IL really was. The
mood passed in a few years. The critical
teachers decided that American life was
too varied. too little homogeneous. for one
book or one author TO portray the different
sections and types OF character. That idea
was taken up with avidity and each story
teller went 10 work filling his own little
garden patch and bringing forth the prod
uct which, collectively, is known as Amer
lean fiction. Some OF this work has been
Of high quality. Mr.. Howells. writing OF
Boston and New York: Mr.. Bunner. OF
little sections OF New York: Miss wilkins
and Miss Jewett. Of New England: Miss
Murfree, OF Tennessee; Mr.. Harris, OF
Georgia; Hamlin Garland. Of the prairie
farmer folk. and Owen wister of the cow
boys, have all produced work which Is rec
ognized as almOst Photographic in its re-
production OF local conditions. character
and atmosphere" a quality which has so
bounded that the word has become a
nuisance. But there was no blend 10 this
wealth Of local fiction. II composite pho
Biography could be applied TO literature il
would be impossible TO reproduce from
those books a composite type which would
be representative American citizens. as dis
tinguisned from Tennesseeans, Georgians.
Vermonters. Cape Codders, ST. Lawrence
county folk. or plainsmen. Mark Twain
comes nearer 10 representing the dominant
American spirit. although he has written
fewer novels and makes much less enort
after Photographic accuracy than do most
Of these workers in the diverse local vine
yards.
But within the last year there has become
visible a tendency to revert 10 the earlier
ideal of the great American novel" II Is
~exempliied most strongly in two books by
heretofore unknown men The octopus,
by Frank Norris. and THE Spenders." by
Harry Leon Wilson. Neither writer shows
desire to assume greatness, but each has
striven 10 portray the vital forces which
make the United States what they are to-
day. Mr.. Norris's book was the first part
of a trilogy, The Epic OF the Wheat,
which will include production, transporta-
ton and the market, including speculation,
of the staff OF life," with studies OF char
acter in all stages. THE Spenders' is less
Iltantic in outline than that and Is a much
more entertaining book than The Octo-
pus,' although its grasp is less firm or pro-
found. Mr.. Wilson studies the gold from
its digging in the mines of Montana TO its
spending in the Waldorf-Astoria and traces
his characters from their mine environment
TO the city and back again. The merit OF
both books is in the aspiration of their
writer's TO I'LL adequately a large canvas, TO
print something which shall fittingly rep
resent fundamental forces Of the United
States as "A nation, instead OF mere surface
social tripperies, rather than in the skill
Of achievement. Mr.. Norris has a fine
grip on character, but whole pages. even
chapters, OF his book are undeniably heavy.
Mr.. Wilson, with an equally keen eye for
character and much greater lightness and
viVacity, sadly lacks distinction OF style.
His characters get there but his SEN
fences have an eXasperating habit Of fall
ing To arrive, save when he lets his West
ern millionaires talk in their vernacular.
Then his use OF the slang OF the streets
is almost startling in its vividness. Nothing
better than Mr.. Higbee's dealing with his
sons social aspirations or the account
which the Kansas City millionaire gives OF
the attempts Of the scion Of an impOver-
ished New York family to pay court 10 his
Caroline has been seen outside of the Chi
cago novels of Henry b. Fuller. But when
Mr.. Wilson keeps 10 good English in his
own person he misses the Vividness and
power which he is able To reach in the YER
nacular. However, the old miner and his
grandsons are sterling characters, and with
this book. as with The Octopus" IL IS
better TO have seriously attempted a great
subject and 10 fall short Of literary perfec-
ton than TO have made a perfect miniature
Of a summer love story OF Newport or Bar
Harbor. In this country the big subjects
lie ready to the hand of the novelist. The
big stories are being lived all about US
waiting for the telling. as they must be
among very robust people hewing their way
10 a new civilization. Perhaps the example
of Messrs Norris and Wilson may turn the
tendency toward novels which are national
as distinguished from parochial and away
from the petty fummery OF historical ro-
nance. When the writer arises who shall
treat such national themes with the power
and finish which Ellen Glasgow puts into
her pictures Of Virginia during and since
the war. We shall have a fiction which
Will be as truly American as Thackeray or
Richardson are typically English. And then
The Great American Novel will no longer
be a barren ideality or a hopeless dream.