Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-10-17
SsNOTES.~


The people of the United States have
gained the reputation OF being the
greatest fiction readers in the world,
but now they seem to be moving on TO
higher things. The great mass OF peo-
pie which the stupendous advertising
campaigns carried out In the last half
dozen years by publishers added TO the
reading public" is ready for another
step--has already graduated In fact,
from fiction to a much more earnest
and dscernng-literary IL you will
kind OF reading.
y am encouraged" said a well known
critic Of n New York literary Journal,
IN private conversation recently. when
| see the success that more thoughtful
books are meeting with today. / have
been disguised In recent years by the
enormous popularity of swash- buckling
historical novels, and novels that sue
coed only by a spacious cleverness,
fragrant seusationalism, and in many
cases by a pure indeoency. Recently,
] was told by the publishers OF the
book that Charles Wagner's essays on
the art of living "The Simple Life"
had sold $4,000 copies in little over
year Certainly, a large number for a
book with more or less serious pur-
Way a volume similar In purpose to
the first, | was informed was rush
Ing rapidly through editions, and had
sold more than great many fiction
books considered by publishers as
among the successes of the season. |
believe that the American people are
turning to more solid literature and !
for one am glad Of It,"
The popularity of Anthony Hone was
quite evident at his recent wedding In
London with Miss Elizabeth Sheldon,
Of New York, at which there gathered
notable company of distinguished au-
thors among them Mr.. Thomas Hardy,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mr.. Edmund
Gosse. Mrs. Humphry Ward. Mrs. w,
X Clifford, and host of others equally
wlel known, Mrs, Humphry Ward was
among those who sent gifts, and there
was an elaborate testimonial from the
Society Of Authors to which Mr. Hone
Hawkins has rendered such valuable
service. TO quote from a description
OF the ceremony I'M London periodical:
The bride looked very beautiful, the
bridegroom very happy, and there were
immense crowds in Salisbury Court and
us neighhOrhood 10 witness the arrl-
vals,' Miss Ethel Barrymore was the
maid Of honor and two charming little
daughters Of Richard lie Galllenne We're
among the attendants. Mr. and Mrs.
Hone Hawkins are passing their honey
moon in Surrey
Mr.. Alden. IN discussing American
writer's expresses n belief that our
hroadeucd relations with tho world viii
have and are having an effect on our
literature.
IN the largest perspective there can
DE- hut one literature of tho English
speaking race, with no separate limbo 70
ne STYLED American" saws Mr., Aldon,
IN literature, az in commerce. NIL bar
rlers between peoples speakng tho same
language and having the same destiny
IN the worlds affairs are destined to
vanish The finest future product ~
American fiction could not In any prom
or sense, be called the great American
novel;
We cannot confidently predict that
every eminent American writer OF the
luture Will show by some ear-mark his
Americanism, We certainly have had
most excellent writer's IN the past who
mad shown no such mark Always
there viii be exceptional cases of isola-
Uon where the writer must deal with
restricted material close at hand and
nus thought be tinged with It's color,
But the material itself changes In form
and color with the general progress OF
culture, and the possibility of isloatlon
grows less and less. Dialects vanish,
traits dislimn a more
Uniform fashion prevails. There could
not be Miss Mary Wilkins In our
literature generation hence. any more
man IN American life there could be
ssuch figure as Abraham Lincoln.
Progress brings much, but II takes
away much that we regret. The per-
leetlon of classic form does not quite
reconcile us to the loss OF. homely fea-
81, Alfred Henry Lewis, the author OF
lhot novel, Peggy O'Neal" which Is
now making such a great stir, first be-
e.ane widely known whcn in Washing
IUon as correspondent OF the Kansas
-ty Times, and aftorward OF the Chi
ago Times. There also he got himself
heartily dislilfed by the folk In Congress
lnu IN Official life In Washington. who
were rudely awakened from the dream
" security from criticism into which
yney had fallen. Bitter, sarcastic and
Of the conventions, he sadly
disturbed the fossiliged old ones OF the
senate ana the crooked ones Of the
rouse. Members OF Congress partlcu-
my pegan TO regard Lewis as a mem
ICE 70 their peace and happiness.
one OF the first men Lewis had "a
nun N with as he would express II,
was Dockery OF Missouri, now gover-
'oi OF MS state. The dilhculty was a