New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-10-20
London, September 20.

Anglo-American Literature. For ne
has annexed, or re-anneXed, to the
British Dominions, some of the great
authors Of America. They make an in
togral part of his book. He does II
without apology or explanation or re-
mark Of any kind. He just assumes
that they are English. True, he mas
annexed Scotchmen and Irishmen and
labelled them also English; which some
of them might resent But they, OF
course. if not English are British;
Scotland and Ireland being still parts
of the United Kingdom Of Great Brit
ain and Ireland, and of the British En-
pire: and likely long to remain so.
As for us. though we severed our po-
litical connection with Great Britain
some time ago, Mr.. Lang does not rec
ognize the Declaration of independence
as a valid instrument of separation ior
his purposes, or for the purposes or
Literature in general Whose writes
English, or perhaps even American,
must therefore he content to see his
OUTPUT, If good enough TO be considered
at all, taken over into the English
Kingdom Of Letters. 1t does not seem
IN have occurred TO Mr.. Lang that
there could be any doubt about it. He
does not even ask us to take it as a
compliment. There is no question of
commitment or the reverse. The Ameri-
can author is dealt with in the same
spirit as the English.
Here and there, incidentally or acci-
dentally, Mr.. Lang does appear to per 70
ceive that between what is English and
what is American there is a difference;
or at least a distinction. The first OF
Is Poets After Wordsworth" is Philip
=, .Treneau, Of whom he says;
He is less important for mis- work
than as the pioneer Of the poets who
in the United States, contributed to the
poetic literature Of the English Ian"
guage."
which makes It tolerably clear that
in Mr.. I.ang's critical canon, if you
write in the English language you be-
long TO English Literature. The seas
and systems Of government and politi-
cal or other ideas which divide Eng
land and the United States are Of no
account The phrase community OF
language" has got possession Of his
mind. He says further:
America, colonial or independent,
has scarcely any early literary history,
which may be mainly accounted for by
the preoccupatlon of mems minds in
tanning the waste, in dispossessing the
warlike natives, in establishing the
Puritan theocracy In New England, and
In war. whether colonial, against
France and her Indian allies, or
against the Old Country"
II must be said that Mr.. Lang has
hardly qualified himself by study 10
dogmatize on early, or even altogether
on late. American Literature. HIS
familiarity with early authors is rag
uentary. He mentions casually Will
lam Strachey and Captain John Smith,
He gives a dozen lines to Cotton
, Mather. He tells us that religion In
~spired Jonathan Edwards, Of whom II
would be truer 10 say that metaphysical
theology Of the grimmest kind inspired
him. All ne can say about Franklin
is that politics, science, and homely
Hesiodic advice occupied him" OF the
Autobiography" one Of the most
memorable. though unfinished, in any
literature. he seems never to have
heard: nor Of poor Richards Al
manac." though translated into twenty
seven languages and yearly reprinted
IN England, 1732-1757; whether with or
without profit to the British-American
author. Nor has he heard OF the
"Pusybody," which patriots rank with
the Spectator: nor of the ten volumes
of Franklins complete works, edited by
John Bigelow, dealing with political
slavery included). financial, scientific
economic and other subjects. John
Eliot, who translated the Bible into
Indian, is forgotten by the translator
Of Homer into English. Thomas Paine
is forgotten, though Common Sense
was a pamphlet to which. in its infiu-
ence on a great crisis, hardly any other
can be compared. Alexander Hamilton
has a fame in England as one Of the
authors Of an important publication
known as the Constitution OF the
United States Of America; and as the
chief author OF the "Federalist' also;
but neither of them has attracted Mr..
Iangs attention. There was an earlier
piece OF literature which made a con-
siderable noise in England at the time
and is not yet buried in oblivion; the
Declaration OF Independence, written
by one Thomas Jefferson. whose coll
lected writings run to ten big volumes.
Him also Mr.. Lang passes in silence.
He undertakes to write Of American
historians, but You will look in vain
for any mention Of Bancroft or Hill
lard or Curtis or Palfrey, or even Park
man, perhaps the greatest Of them all.
He is unaware even OF DIR. woodrow
Wilson's History Of the American
People" on which a good deal of
political limelight has lately been
thrown. Has he perchance heard that
Or. Wilson has now renowned the
principles which at the time were the
basis Of his book, and has adopted and
adapted a quite new and different set
OF views as the basis Of the history he
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