The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-04-09
DR.. SMITHS X
LECTURES IN PRINT
Die AmerikaBische Iltfratur' Is an
Interesting and lunar study {"
National Achievement.

pStlk1bI -
Berlin during the winter semester "
~Inlp-l4ll are now in print under the
title Die m,.rikanische L1teTd4uF~
Jhe volume is dedicated TO MIS-.
Smith.
Readers may perhaps dissent from
certain opinions OF Or. smith, pul
there is no question tfat lT. ofnftn
has represented his feiioW-cltizens
tactfrlly and ably. His book has the
merits. not too often found in COM
pany, of solid scholarship. clarity and
interest. The writer Of this review
took up the book without enthusiasm,
but-thankS to the book itself and 10
a most unfair review In q New fork
paper-read it with growing pleasure
and admiration.
Its Characteristic NaIue.
That which gives Or. Smiths book
its characteristic value is not so much
scholarship as humanity. The Schol-
arship is solid. but it does not spend
itself in photography, much less IN
barren aestheticism. DR.. Smith fui-
filled his duty as Roosevelt professor
OF American history and Institutions
by giving his audiences an account OF
American literature as a national ana
social activity, an expression or Amer
lean character and aims. The ma
tionaiisn which has been the great
conscious political
out world politics for some centuries
particularly during the nineteenth
as for example in Italy and Germany
has obviously had tremendous effect
in the United States even though sec
tionalism appeared during certain
decades to be- more potent than the
forces of unity. That DR.. Smith has
so finely ~grasped n SO clearly ex-
pressed the intimate relation OF
American literature to American ma
tionalism gives the Berlin lectures
very high value. AS a patriotic though
not ch~auyiniStic record OF American
literature DR.. Smiths book has done
the American people, North and
South, East n West, a most useful
and honorable service. Or. Archibald
Henderson, who terms Die Ameri-
kanischc Litersitur 'probably the most
thorough and d~ense-packed study Of
American literature ever written"
adds that from the international point
Of view it is certainly the ablest ever
written
The Author.
AS most readers of the Review al
ready know, DR.. Smith is a North
Carolinian by birth. He is a graduate
Of Davidson College CA. B. in 1884
and a. M. in 1880 and Johns Hop
Kin University Uh.D. in 1899. He
is also an LID, his honor having
been bestowed by the University OF
mississippi in 1905. DR.. Smith has
taught in John Hopkins University,
where he was instructor in English
from 1893 to 1902; in the University
Of North Carolina from 1902 to 1907,
as professor OF English language, and
part of the time Is hea Of the Eng
lish Department; and in the Univer-
sity Of Virginia from 1907 until the
present time, as Edgar Allan Poe pro-
fessor Of English. During the winter
of 1S1O-1911, however, DR.. Smith was
in Europe on leave from the Univer-
sity OF Virginia as professor Of Amer
lean history and institutions in the
University Of Berlin.
DR.. Smiths public works, exclusive
OF Die AmerikaniSche Literatur and
contributions to periodicals, are Rep
clifton and Parallelism in English
Verse. 1894; Old English Grammar
and Exercise Book. 1896: Elementary
English Grammar, 1908: Studies in
English Syntax. 1906. He was asso-
ciate editor Of Worlds Orators, 1901
and joint author of Kruger-Smith's
German Conversation Book, 1902.
Plan n Contents.
Die AmerikaniSche %Iiteratur is q
handsome volume of 3SS pages issued
Dd1l21dI1OluI
in Berlin, Is Volume II OF a Biblio.
thick der Amerikanischen Kultur
Eeschichte. This ser1es-the title O.
Which might be freely translated
History Of American Civilization
IS edited by DR.. Nicholas Murray But
Ter, president of Columbia University
New York, and Or. Wilhelm PaR
kowski. a professor in the Uniyersit,
OF Berlin.
The translated titles Of the lecture
are az follows:
1. -Four Aspects OF American Liter
ature
2. General View ("Gesa
bfck").
& Benjamin Franklin.
4. Thomas Jefferson.
3. Washington Irving.
;, 1dea1ism in American Literatur.
z. James Fenir1ore Cooper.
9. American Poetry to the Year ls3.
3. Poe's Americanis1n.
10. The Influence Of Transcendental
ism on American Literature.
oy-A