Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1904-06-02
YANKEE BOOKS IN JAPAN.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Known Well In
the Orient.

Not long ago writer had occasion
, to speak of nations and their books
The subject returns TO his mind as he
joins in the general smile over Tone
Noguchi's recent report on what
authors. have penetrated to Japan,
and why. According to him, Long.
fellows Evangelne Tennyson's enoch
Arden and Kingsleys Three Fisher
men became familiar to the Japanese
schools about 1884 and were popular
To jump from the sublime to the
erotiC. it may be stated that Ella
Wheeler Wilcox was introduced to
Japanese readers long before Lowell
and Or. Holmes. Curiously
enough. Bret Harte became known
long before Edgar Allan Poe Anna
Katherine Green's The Leavenworth
Case made great hit under the title
Utter Darkness; all the world, how
ever. loves a detective story. Rider
Haggards King Solomon's Mines was
another winner as Mr.. Noguchi puts
it; evidently the Japanese like good
HSHllHS as "tiI as dHlOht NlSSs ISllllC
Prince is still coming out in new edi.
tons: this is Mrs. Burnett's Little
Lord Fauntleroy in its Japanese garb.
Two years ago the Japanese public
experienced the most delightful sur.
prise in its first knowledge of Sherlock
Holmes. Hardy, Caine and Meredith
are known only by name; Howells and
Cable are utterly unknown. Mark
Twain was introduced as "a promising
American humorist" and is now fairly
popular There is an intmation that
kipling has not caught the Japanese
fancy; one would suppose that his In.
dian stories would interest all Orien.
tails
Literary styles change in Japan as
elsewhere. Once there was a group of
,devotees of Rossetti and of Swine
burne. Incense was burned at the
shrine of Daudet Sienkiewicz gave
place to Maeterlinck, and vain at
tempt was made to put some of the
latters plays on the stage. A Dante
society lasted but few months Vic
tor Hugo, Dickens, Thackery, and
George Eliot are not by any means
unknown and an attempt was made to
translate Hamlet.
The Japanese knows a good deal
about the literary work of his racial
foe the Russian. He liked Turgenieff.
He went wild over Tolstoi, whose
rks we're translated a few
ago. Possibly this is because Tolstoi
is "agin the government" And like
all the rest Of the world, he was
"dumfounded" by Gorky.
Happiest of all this critics remarks
is his reference to Irying's Sketch
Book which was one OF the first books
from the outside world TO enter Japan
Il thank the gods" writes Mr.. Nogu.
Chi that he still heads the list Of
Japanese favorites today, II Gray with
his Elegy or Goldsmith with The De.
serted Village have not the first place.
There was no look like Sketch
Book in its influence over Japanese
students"
Andrew Carnegie's Empire Of Bust
ness is exceedingly popular both in the
translation and the original In this
connection Mr. Noguchi tells OF an ad.
vertisement in Japanese newspaper
of Lorimer's Letters Of Self Made
Merchant TO His Son. which reads:
There are two great figures in the
American financial world one is Mr.
Carnegie and the other is Mr., John
Graham. The letters instructively
written by Mr. Graham. which we
now offer to Japanese youth. will be a
sure compass for their whole lives"