The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-30
Literary Lights And Shadows
BY s. MAYS BALL

ssThe Literature of the South,' by Mon- 2. trose J, Moses CT. Y. Crowell & Co) without q doubt ..The Literature of the south. by Montrose J. Noses IS the most complete, satisfying and distlnctlve discussion of what the south has done in the way of letters that has come to this scribe for review.
 While MT. Moses is originally of an old Montgomery family, the charm, the great weight of his book consists in the fact that he has told us southerners facts about ourselves if we wish to read them, but very few of us do, to tell the truth.
 "The title selected for this book is one wherein a policy of exclusion could be systematically adopted for, while there is A. distinctive literature of the south. there is and has been much literary ac- tivity In the south which has contrib uted little or nothing to the sectional development. Many of the southern manuals and estimates reveal too gener- ous an inclination to include within their pages the names of those whom senti- nent conjured up beyond the real meas ure of their importance. A local noto- riety, a limited influence, an occasional Inspiration, sporadic paper-all these tend to swell into misbuiding proportions a conscientious list of southern writers. . - The greatest enemies of any lit erary movement are those who carry adulation in criticism to an excess. Southern literature has, until recently, found itself handicapped through de- plorable lack of any discriminating stand ards by which to judge it.
 "+ = the south, section wherein the social forces have conserved distinct type of people upon its soil. one which, temperamentally as wei las geographic ally, claims for itself a difference from its neighbors which is deeper than da- f1ects or superficial prejudices, and which is coincident with the life that fostered It."
 MT. Moses has written such superior book, such a critical discussion of what is best in southern letters, that 1t Is difficult to select that portion of so in- structive a book as will be likely to in- terest the reader. MT. Moses, in following out just that literature to be included in the souths offer of letters to the nation, very correctly states:
 "s that certain conditions have conduced to develop species of writ ings which is born directly of these social conditions" referring to the distinct type of people mentioned above
 "The civilization of the old south, the reforming into a new south upon the basis of a large inheritance, these two civilizations, different from their neigh bors in temperament, in certain prob lems of vital moment in the structure of their social fabric. have produced an unmistakable literature, duly rehecting the mental, moral and emotional view points of time and place."
 Therefore, it is a great pleasure in- deed to state that MT. Moses in his book has succeeded in indicating the close connection existing between the southern life and it's literature. The key to the whole situation. f#
 MT. Moses has not wasted time nor space on the tomtits of letters, although he has covered in his book of 510 pages every one that should be mentioned.
 "Only those dominant figures are dwelt upon who had it within them to sound a sustained note-if they were poets; to stem or to encourage the tide of public or sectional feeling if they were public men; to create or reflect the true at- nosphere of locality If they were nov ellsts.