The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-15


day night, Mr.. R. F. Beasley, State Sena.
tor from Union county, read an interest
ing paper on North Carolina Biblio-
graphy." 1t was as follows:
Given the subject that has been allotted
me, the first thought of the average man
would be question if North Carolina had
1t photography for 1903. or any other year.
fairly diligent newspaper reader could
probably not name two books of any kind
by North Carolinians that had been pub
lished during the current year Yet
number have been published. The point
is that they have not attracted the atten-
tion of the public, even that portion of it
that constitutes our readers. The same
was true in 1902, and on back for any
number OF years. There are a good many
people, an increasing number of peope,
III the State who read good many books
of one kind or another. But they don't
read North Carolina books to any extent
Now. these people could possible have
no objection or prejudice that would keep
them from reading home produced books.
The trouble is simply that these books
are not compelling ones. They don't make
names for themselves or for the authors
that produce them They haven't the
merit that attracts. The editions are linn
tied TO the one thousand copies guaran-
teed by the author, and second editions
are unknown. All this can mean only
that our books are lacking in quality,
even in the eyes of our own people, to
say nothing of outsiders.
Why do we not produce great writer's?
lis a question that many have undertake
en- to answer; perhaps few have done it
satisfactorily. That it is true cannot be
denied But in this particular North
Carolina is not alone. Her likeness to
most of her sister States is striking. No
literary man of the country yields a pen
of undisputed greatness. No King of let
tiers takes universal homage No half a
dozen writer's form class high above
their fellows There are great many
clever writers in America, but none of
,ordly mien. This is but aracteristic
OF the times; day by day we are becom-
ing more and more the head; the leaders
are less leaders, the followers less follow
ers, and both stand upon the platform of
the commonplace. So, if thenc are a great
many good writers, but no select best
why Is it that North Carolina is without
reasonable number of good ones devot-
ing their time to literature?
Speaking of fact, without dogmatiz-
ing about its cause, no sparsely populated
and. therefore, poor State ever produces
much OF literature with an occasional ex-
ception of poetry. True, now and then
such sections make the world their debtor
by giving birth TO great writers, but they
give them only a physical start, not the
warmth and varnishment and the atmos-
phere that make their genius grow to
lott 1f ltl,
mark the decay of men as we are tod
but it certainly marks the birth of liter
allure. Accumulated wealth gives leisure
and culture and great schools and libra
ries and learning, and these in turn loster
literary activity and genius. And so,
when Sam Johnson arises in England
lie walks to London if he cannot ride,
in France he goes to Paris and i'm Ameri-
ca he goes to New York or Boston. lii
old Greece they went to Athens A work
man goes where his services are i'll great
est demand and where they bring the
largest rewards There can be no doubt
that the centres of population and wealth
furnish the best fields for literary work
ers and are therefore naturally sought.
For instance one or two North Carolinians
are now attracting about as much atten-
ton anybody in current literature. But
they don't live in North Carolina This
is not necessarily reflection on our State;
it is certainly not an evidence of intolel-
ance on provincialism. It's merely the in
tensely practical question of supply and
demand. We can't buy the wares they
have to sell. neither can they sell to other
people so well if they open up their
stocks here as il elsewhere. Hence they
move. We can't blame them We need
not misrepresent ourselves. Sometime we
and they may get together.
No doubt many of the men who are
furnishing the country with reading mat
ter from Boston and New York sought
those places from poor and remote COM
munities, like North Carolina The peo-
pie of such communities haven't yet had
the time to sow the seeds of fancy and
gather the harvest of literature; they
haven't gotten far enough away from the
bread and butter problem. Before the
war we had an ecclesiastical and political
literature a product of the times; since
the war, The great date of recovering in
the South, we have been bound Ixion-like,
to the wheel of toll. We haven't yet been
able to give our children a primary school
education. The luxuries of life can be
thought of only after the necessities have
been attended To. But we are beginning
now to free ourselves from the ligaments
that bind us down, and so we are having
more men who write books. not the best
books to be sure, for could they write
them they would leave us the quail
ty must get better as more conducive
conditions exist.
The homemade books that we have are
significant in the subjects upon which
they are written We haven't had pas
sion enough to produce much poetry. Nine
tenths of the books being written and pub. !
ilshed by North Carolinians are OF at
historical nature, most of them OF loeal
concern. This means that our ancestors
figure pretty largely in our thoughts. We
arc willing 10 go along and find out what
they did and how they did it. In other
words we want to deal in facts-we are
conservative: gddy fancy and vaulting |
imagination have not yet caught us in
their swirl. The operation of calculating |