New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-05
LITERARY MEN AND WOMEN.
Professor Burton's Views of Present Day
Tendency in Literature

II is the pant Of modern life that You get in
Kiplinr.' said Professor Richard Burton in his
lecture on Literary Men and Women" at the
Brooklyn Institute yesterday.
1T is condensed meat. 1t is the change q
audience that makes the writer write railroad
literature to-day white Ia Kiping, not with his
genius. but with his and Professor Burton
finished his sentence by painting strenUously seF-
eral times.
In the earlier days q literature every writer
was sure OF a small. thoughtful AUDIENCE lei
surely. studious audience. He wrote Tor that
audience To-day as the audience becomes more
democratic every moment the writer's change
with 81.
.Do any Of Us read epic poems? Do We not de-
rend storiettcs and quatrains? DO We ever read
q play through Do We not prefer short cut
and a sight OF it the boards? The writers must
respond 70 this demand. if they want 10 make eN-
Jenses ! myself am very humble author. Yet
! have felt the push Of the demand. A good many
times I have put out piece OF work without
proper consideration because the condition on
which I got the sob was that ii be done by April J.
F Marion Crawford puts out two or three
books a year. He is author whom sincerely
adnire one OF the very best living story tsne-s,
and vet he has fouy abused the authors gift, be
cause there was pressure from publishers and
money ahead
What can the public 90 about It? It de-
rland quality rather than quantity. II the writer
feels that his audience is there II IS constant IN
splration to DO his best 1t can wait for the best
Then writers viii not be CriFel ana noQllNtN -
they are. when often their entire output Is en-
gagged for four years before they have set pen 10
paper.
Lastly. II can pay some attention % something
BESIDES dttlor. Fiction has had long innings. and
2 rich reward Il is ;tne return 10 those Older
and more arsetocratlc forms Of literature. The
drama the essay and the poem. The men ana
women who could produce such forms. face 10
face with the necessity for s1lf-supDort common
o. humanity. are dragged into the production Of
fiction. AS consequence three-quarterb az TIE
fiction produced is had.
y can see signs in England and half dozen
foreign countries &C revival o. the literary drama
One man like STEPHEN Phillips is enough TO start
IN argument with. II has not happened before in the
history Of literature shat one Of its forms has
become go dominant as d-tion is anl has held
SIS place Tor more thau one CT TWO generations
AIr Burton dyyolt a good deal on the mercantile
r-i; that is forced into the production Of present
Cay l.tera ture by the demands Of public and pub
fishers enforced upon the authors necessities for
money earning. He emphasized the thought that
r book becomes a part OF literature only as 1t is
revelation. M expression. OF the author, which
cannot be whom L is written merely for money
There is danger" said he of the transforma-
tion n the production Of literature into trade:
YET there are many hopeful signs Of sane. sweet
and healthfll qualities in our present day htera-
ture
To what extent is a book revelation of the
authors personality" said he branching OF
other phase of his subject. 1t often seems Ike
Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde sort Of affair. There was
1lene the writer Of rare sweet verse, chained for
years 10 his mattress grave by his own vices.
There was Byron. There was ColeridSe. OF whom
lamb said that he archangel. slightly
damaged IOleri2ge. Of whose iaceSSant borrow
MSS among his friends he himself TOOK ne pesilol
that his debts were too small 20 mention ana TOO
large 70 pay There Rousseau. with his
splendid. ideas, sending his children away 20
1he founding asylum as soon as they were born
bowed lbs image ga The mirror. actually not
recognizing himself. There was M4CpGSsant. who
came down from Normandy with the physique OF
al OK. and actually killed himself with ms own eA-
cesses. There ROe-alaS' that must place
him in tie ust--with his rUiuous passion for drink
~ is pleasing that We cannot make d parallel list
writers They all wrote literature Of power and
Beauty Were they. then. tricksters2 Are their
0esatiful thoughts ali false and simulated?
/ Truly DcaeNe tiaI no great book can bc
Produced without repres emitting a. least the poten-
talitics % the writer. u is 4 great dea easier 10
be g0Cd paper than IN lie. But that quality
that fooc The soul with the sense OF the great.
The good. the beautiful. the soy and the pathos Of
lie-that only rom the heart OF the writer.
II cannot be simulated. II comes from nature
N whicn the life has not been keyed up TO the
Ideals: IN which tho poteuti3ties are greater than
Tie accomplishments a Eeartless cannot
touch the heart of tie world.
hat does tho artistic temperament imply?
The artistic temperament. which Is possessed IN
greater or less degree bv writers artists and
actOrG. exhibits certain chdra cfe1sfcs Il IS alb
normally sensitive to praise and blame. It's SEN
Eicycaess blame may lead 10 morb.duess.
gloom. suicide. It's scrsitiVeSness to praise
leac vanity. Of the besettng sins Of THIS
common sense. Il be eXterm'natcd by a
certain naTvots like that Of Dr.. Holmes who
used 70 carry his last poem around L. his pocket