The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-07-31
AUTHORS OFTEN HATED.
SaIem's Attitude Toward Hawthorne
Has Many Parallels.

Frum the Columbia Is. c. State
Salem. Mass. has hnaIly forgiven Ma
thaniel Hawthorne. At the beginning Of
his career as an author Hawthorne was
employed in the custom house al Salem.
and made good use OF his experiences and
his opportunities for observing the life
and customs in that quaint city and for
working up. for literary purposes. certain
events in it's history When he wrote
The Scarlet Letter" he saw NJ to prefix
20 II a Walter-Scottish introduction in
which he succeeded in describing Salem
so accurately as To give lasting ofense TO
that community We say community.
rather than citizens. because the hatred
/ or resentment Of salem has been handed
down as a civic tradition The muniCi-
! pality, or what may be called the cor
! porate soul of Salem, has preserved its
/ hatred OF Hawthorne as one Of its most
/ cherished assets
The Ratchet however. is buried. the
calumet is smoked. and the citizens Of
Salem Of the present generation actually
decide 10 celebrate their reconciliation
with the great New England author by
! erecting a monument 10 him TO cost
$4,000
Salem has two distinctions-one as be-
ing the birthplace OF Nathaniel Haw-
thorne. the other as being the seat of the
persecution OF persons for witchcraft.
OF course. it has other but minor dis
tinctions- These two are what give il its
historic rank Salem IS not proud Of the
witchcraft tradition. and has spent very
much time and distress in efforts 20
eradicate from the minds OF the people
the false charge that witches were burned
in that city. We believe they were sub
jected to some other terrible death-"to
encourage the others" Happily, it has
/ been established. we believe, that they
were not actually burned at the stake
But herself from Hawthorne she could
not free. Hawthorne remains as a citizen
! Of Salem. He was born there. he lived
there. he wrote his first notable book
there and. despite his offending descrlp-
ton of his native city. he is really what
made Salem famous Finding that she
could not get rid Of Hawthorne, Salem
has accepted him, and has finally come
TO the point of gloating over him. and
/ building him monuments. We hope that
she is also reading him.
The incident is one OF type. II is curl
Gus how communities. cities. and coun-
! tries cherish the hatred OF certain au-
thors. Probably the most notable case
is the hatred OF Germany. at least official
Germany. cherishes for the memory Of
| Heine. The Germans consider Hefne as
unfortunate in two respects He was
Jew. and he was. by reason Of the recent
| expansion Of the Napoleonic empire, born
a citizen OF France. These two things are
/ very difficult for a German 10 forgive.
And yet they are precisely the two things
! that made Heine the splendid genius and
| lyrist that he was His Jewish tempera-
ment and the Gallo spirit that he &C
quired during his long residence in Paris
and IN his association with the leading
/ Frenchmen of his day are what distin-
/ guished him from the other poets. and
/ what make his verse original. witty, and
/ perfect
/ The world remembers the shock with
which II received the news that the pres
ent Kaiser Of Germany had had the
statue Of Heine removed from the i'm
/ perial villa Of Corfu. Following the eN-
ample of the emperor and officialdom, the
! German people have. as body refused
( 10 Heine the recognition that his mag
nificent genius demands. But there are
abundant signs that Germany is ceasing
to despise the memory Of Heine and is
really beginning TO honor him as the
third or perhaps the second. poet in it's
3 brilliant literature.
There are many other Instances in lit
erary history in which the memory Of
some great genius has been despised-
such as Milton, by one-half OF his people;
Rousseau, by more than one-hslf Of his;