The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-18
BOOKS IN WAR TIME
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun. es THE question of what effect the
 civil war had on American liter-
 A ature and the kindred questions of exactly what was the class of books published during the stress of war times have been interesting people of late. Henry Mills Alden, editor of liar pers Magazine, said in discussing the subject: s1
 The curious and most interesting thing to be noted is that during the war the class of books published show ed no change. The same English fic- ton was read as before and after the war, Miss Braddon, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade, Dickens and Thackeray, Trollope, Dinah Mulock, Mrs. Gaskell, George Eliot and the rest. There were few American novelists; among the new, Harriet Prescott, Mrs. R. S. Stoddard, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and the Misses Warner, and among the old, Cooper and Hawthorne and Poe. Will liam M. Baker wrote a novel relating to the war, Inside which was pub lished serially in Harper's Weekly at about the end of the conflict.
 "Periodicals were of course affected by a thing so acutely Journalistic. There were articles relating to the war and short stories based upon heroic motifs suggested by it or upon tragic situations growing out of 1t. J. w. De Forest. participant in the struggle, excelled in such fiction. Fitz James O'Brien, like Theodore Winthrop, was killed too early in the contest to avail, of 1t in fiction. O'Brien wrote one or two sketches in camp. The war. while it lasted, does not seem to have made fiction sensational.
 Poetry was inspired by the war more than fiction was. The effect upon fiction was more notable after than during the war. This is true also of the effect upon general literature.
 .'The war caused quickening of our literary life. Before the war we were more narrowly national. LowelPs first 'Biglow Papers, published at the time of the Mexican war, and his second Big low Papers, published at about the close of the civil war, were of distinctly American type, more so, perhaps. than anything that has been produced since.
 After the war we became more cos- mopolitan. The question of nationality was settled. We had leisure and thought for the appreciation of world literatures.
 ''The war appealed to the imagination of many writers, such as Grace King, Thomas Nelson Page and Miss Wilson. Through them 1t gave color and vitality to the short story. It might be said to have aided the development of the short story. During the last 10 years the war idea Is more noticeable in our plays and novels than it was formerly"
 Tn discussing the effect of the war on the publishing business member of the Harper firm said:
 ''During the first year of the struggle everything was very dull in the publish ing business. After the first year there was renewed activity owing to the new impetus that the war gave to business throughout the country.
 Money was cheap. Prices were conse- quently high. Manufacturing was stinu- lated. All sorts of industries sprang> up in connection with the war. such as the making of arms, of camp equipment, the production of woolen goods and of hos pital supplies. This created new class of wealthy people, new rich type. They bought books not so much because they read books as because they thought 1t proper to have books on their library shelves.
 "A great many old people. people who had retired, people who were worn out and who had not worked for years. found work to do in connection with the new born industries of the time. These people also had money with which to buy books and periodicals Then the soldiers wanted reading matter. All these demands had vitalizing effect on the business of mak- ing books. The special liking of the sol- dier was for magazines and newspapers. In consequence the publication of these was greatly stimulated.
 Notwithstanding the flourishing condi-