Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-01-18

| Inc writer OF The POINT or view,
in the current Scribner's, makes an in
teresting analysis Of the eight new
doctors of letters created at the Yale
bicentennial-Mr Aldrich, Mr.. Gable.
Mr.. Clemens, Mr.. Glider, Mr.. Howells,
Mr.. Brander Matthews, Mr.. Thomas
/ Nelson Page, and Mr.. Woodrow Will
lscn.
Of these eight authors, six have
written novels; three have published
poems; four have had plays per-
formed with more or less success; six
have come forward as essayists and
four as critics of literature: one is an
historian; and while two are now col
leGe professors, three are, or have
been, editors of leading magazines.
One of the eight, although he has writ
ten stories and plays and essays, is
best known as a humorist, and another
of the eight has been poet, novelist
critic, essayist, dramatst, and editor.
The variety of fields in which these
eight authors have sought to express
themselves is characteristic of the
present condition of American litera-
tUre. which is marked by a healthy
versatility among men of letters.
OF these eight authors, only one is a
| New EnSlander by birth, and only two
are New Englanders by residence; and
this in spite of the fact that the selec-
| ton of these men of letters was made
| by the officers OF a New England in
| stitution. No one of them is New
Yorker by birth, and four of them are
now living in New York city. Five of
them were born south of Mason and
Dixon's line, and no one of them is
| now a resident of any southern state.
| TWO of them We're born in the middle
west, and both of these now live in
New York. after having dwelt for
years in New England.
OF these eight authors, only three
are college graduates, and they are the
three youngest. This fact calls at
tention to singular alienation in the
history Of American literature, of
groups Of college-bred men with
groups of men without college train
| ing. The most prominent American
| authors of the present day who hap
pen to be over fifty years of age, are
| by large majority-not college, bred
| men, whereas it is from the colleges
that have come many of the most
| promising of the American men of
letters, who have not attained the dig
| nifty of half a century. Perhaps the eX-
] PLANTATION is not far to seek. In the
very beginning college education was
hard to get, and often was hardly
worth the having. Then in time, with
, the settling of the country the ad-
vance of our civilization, and the i'm
| prCvement in our educational facili-
| ties, there came to the front a group
| of men trained in the humanities and
| ready to supply to new people the
| olden culture and the classical tradi-
ton. But the land kept on expanding,
and its population having crossed the
| great river and the great plains and
| the great mountains, and pushed on to
the Pacific coast, a new generation
thrust themselves forward, in whom
native ability was abundant, and who
applied exact observation and a large
| vision to the wealth of new material
| displayed on every hand. Now at last
the conditions seem to be becoming a
| little too complicated either for the
academic artist or for the gifted stu
dent of life; and this is the reason
! why some of the best of the younger
men are seeking to combine in a
measure the qualities Of the successive
groups of their predecessors.
Anthony Hopes '"Tristram of Blent"
is now appearing serially under the
title of Der Erbe,' in the New Yorker
Stats Zeitung. 1t has been trans
lated by A. Won F,nde under arrange
ments with the S. S. Mcclure Com
pany. 1t is worth noting, too, that
'.The Prisoner of Zenda" mas just been
published in Spanish by d. Appleton
| hat go
issued by Henry Holt & Co., is the
best selling volume of the eight An
thony Hope novels now on the Ameri-
can market.
ii. u. Wells, who is now the well to
do occupant of an artistic home built
Tor him by one Of tie clevcrest of young
tEnglish architects, has found literature
a comfortable friend. He began life as
a diapers assistant-that is to say, in
Americanese, drygoods clerk-and he
often talks entertainingly about this
lepisode in his career. He is still in the
early thirties, this exceedingly success
full novelist.
The contest for the thousand dollar
prize offered by Small, Maynard & Co.,
for the, nearest solution to the author
lship of "A House Party" closed at mid
night on December 81. The winner is
Mrs. Horace Silsby of Seneca Falls, N.
T., who guessed correctly the authors
OF eleven of the twelve stories. A new
competition is now announced, ny
which prize of five hundred dollars
will be awarded to the reader who sue
cessfully assigns to each of the fol-
lowing authors the story of his which
appears in "A House Party" John
Kendrick Bangs, George w. Cable.
Paul Leicester Ford, Robert Grant.
Burton Harrison, Sarah Orne Jewett.
Charles G. d. Roberts, Bertha Runkle.
Frank r. Stockton, Ruth McEnery
Stuart, Octave Thanet, Owen Wister.
1t Is pleasant to record the fact that
the London librarians experience
shows that the best books alone COM
mand continuous succession of read
lers. The popular" novels have hasty
success. then fall absolutely dead, new
er to be revived. The Rattersea libra
We 10