Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-02-18
DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS.
An Admirer Writes of His Place Among
Modern American NoveIists.

Mr.. David Graham Phillips, the au-
thor of The Husbands Story" The
Second Generation and many other
popular novels, was shot by lunatic in
Gramercy park, New York city, the
other day and died of his wounds
An article in last months Smart Set
hailed him as the greatest living
American novelist: and il so happens
that the February Bookman, which ap-
peared the same week that Mr.. Phil
lips died, contains an elaborate critical
estimate of all his books, and of his
place in the ranks of American novel
lists
The writer OF this article. which of
course was written long before Mr.
Phillips death, says. in part:
In the first place. let us frankly rec
Ognize that Mr.. Phillips is a rather i'm
portant factor in the development of
American fiction at the present day
We could name on the fingers OF one
hand the contemporary novelists who.
like Mr.. Phillips. are devoting them
selves TO depicting and studying big
ethical and social problems of their
own country and generation and doing
il i'm a big bold. comprehensive way,
tude. And among these few none striv-
ing more, patiently to do 1.-THE thing
best, most forceful. most craftsmanlike
manner a few Of his novels are of
quality which no serious student of
present-day diction can afford to ne
glect
The broad, Zllaesque sweep Of
phrase and action. the sense of jostl-
ing crowds and cease.ess activity, the
endless panorama of city streets, the
whole trick of treating humanity in the
mass-these are things which Mr..
Phillips has learned TO do as very few
American writers have done them.
He sees every human story as a
cross section of life; and by cross
section OF life he does not mean a lit
tie local slice carefully measured to fit
the dimensions of the particular story
b, is telling. on the contrary. if he is
narrating the simple love affair of a
boy and girl in some small town OF the
Middle West. lie is always conscious,
n though he has no need of brin
this out in the story, that there is be-
tween that boy and that girl and all
the other people in that town and in
evitable. an an-pervading human rela-
tionship; that that town is not an iso-
lated community, but is itself one of
the links in the vast network of social
and industrial life stretching from the
Atlantic to the Pacific with endless
miles of railroad intersecting il. with a
centralized government. president and
congress at Washington. and with
countless lines of steamers keeping il
in touch with the other world powers
All this helps in way to show what
to Mr.. Phillips is a very vivid actually
And of course the writer who always
sees each little human happening. not
as an isolated incident but as Il detail
of tremendous and universal scheme.
necessarily has a bigger outlook upon
life and necessarily communicates to
his readers similar impression of big
ness and of vitality.
Mr.. Phillips in his methods of work
reverses the usual process followed by
writers of the epic type by finding his
germ idea in single character or in
cident and building from these. Such
books as old Wives for New and
Light Fingered Gentry, and even The
Hungry Heart make us feel that there