The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-22
The Literary Outlook.


Need Of a Reliable Critic-Hamlin Gar
land Occurring About Himself
The American ChurchilTs Great
Historical Series Which Shall Teach
Us Patriotism-Poe and Doyle Write
Alike-Novcls of Observation-Disclosures
Point in Literature.
(By Herbert Brewster.)
1t is with a certain sense of disap-
pointment that one picks I'D the current
number of a leading New York literary
monthly and reads, BLANK and Blank.
the publishers, are nothing if not
thrlfty,' when he recalls that this par
tlcular publishing firm failed last spring.
The reference was made to their very
unique manner of advertising one of their
books and the judgment which the liter
airy magazine had to make upon the
matter illustrates the tendency of most
'il'ics 10 loose statements and incon-
sequentlal utterances upon the literary
topics OF the time. The observation has
been made many times before, but it is
SO important that the present state of
criticism in this country be changed
~ i1pSdI tUdl we are
sadly in need Of real, impartial critics
who may perform a great service for
the reading public if they will but ESSAY
the task. Some one who call himself
BROOKS Fisher" published in the .Iuna
Atlantic Monthly an attack on nresent
DAY journalism, in which he went on tn
ueplore the passing of the old time
edltof ana the present reign Of the bust
ness o1nces OF newspapers over their
ealtoflal departments. Mr.. Fisher seems
10 nave carried his vehemence a litt1a
100 far, but there are few who viii, NOT
grant that there is much truth in bis
arralgnment In a certain sense tho
same sort of criticism might be annl;ed
10 the literary magazines. These nuh-
licatlons pretend to be above newsnaner
Journalism or the ordinary journalistic
methods, but that they are ruled by the
business Offices is scarcely to be
uouDted- With few exceptions, til. liter
"S JOURNALS OF this country are little
MY nan mouthpleces for their pub
' "ho' at the same time, are in
Ia the manufacture and sale of
- niscellaneous books, novels, etc.
II other publishers wish to have rev;ewo
nel noohs In one of these, the first
step IN the process is to include that
medium on the list for his adrorto;.-
~ hiS advertising |
appropriation. There are, OF course
honest literary periodicals, but the ton,
oehcy to "hold up" the publishers -,
DOCKS mas become so strong that tboro
are many so-called CRITICAL iourno1c
pupii9hed Tor no other purpose than
poiile Diackmall. In one or two in
"e Wlthln the writer's KNOWLEDGE
S VI OF reading matter is paid for
- iesular advertising rates. The owl,
nle lhlng is that the u~nsusnecting
puphc does not take the trouble to dis.
'i"sulsh between the true and the false
*.*
W. f1aLnlln Garland has laid himro,-
: ~ severe complaint in his lectures.
the summer school of the Chico o.
IiSnty by saying that Shakesnearo
are each an incubus on tho
"orh or the writer's of TODAY that yvh;t
was local in his poetry and 49,
'iaAnllh Garland is one of the fvo &C.,
"llters or the West. Most of 49,
would nave sounded hettor
t"ey come from some other source
~ aslde from Professor Trieos ara
rsI iin 1ariand, would dare to saw tbom
uri+oa IS RADICALLY wrong when q !,
Iar1an as lttle reputation as Mr.
q lontI Possesses takes it into his head
rhere ~ upon MS place in literature
MOOT not many of Mr.. Garland,s
,in "'ueht admirers who would r,nL
Il OF the five writer's who b.a |
~, "oe 10 express the mind ~ - {
,am west. Possibly Mr.. Edwin No.. I
w. "ouid De one of these nrovi.H
,na o'ilahd returned the comn1imas I
INSISTED that Markham wac 49,
voa. poet that ever came ont :, ~
,oot vi all American writer's whon I
+ oIan becomes positively disoustins 5
W. rlbse range, Mr.. Garland and Ne Q
" Aham take the lead. MI
n Ens,ama Winston Churchill is nou a
,ors of wr;a vacation from his 10. =
sot 1ona "lltlng and historical studu !
he nnhIio ago Mr.. Churchill confded - !,
puDllc MS plans to write . go ~ ;,
,arnai, novels. in which "piah - :
vet ana The Crisis" shall ha u
Evidently Mr.. Cbnrobu, =
40 not believe the bistan:n :.
- VIII be superseded in nonu1an. =
hlhg else for some timo 80 =
NO i' churchill is to keen ~ 49, =
~ work for at least three :
ian "hlch the author has o,t,iaa :,
,vor -. seems worthy. He bonos ~
'ne whole range of Americas
;. anu do the same time to toaoh l: q
yhneh genuine patrio+iens MS !"
'ns 10 Mr.. Churchill. "natn; !, t'
hatred of the English when be ~
to school in ST. Louis less than w
'enty years .ago. Naturally, speaking I
an English audience for Mr.. Churchill Ii