The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-12-08
WAR STOPS LITERATURE, SAYS
MR. WILLIAM DEAN HOWF]Is
1 angus american Author Does Not Believe Such Con
W = a y Iresent furnish Novelist, Poet or Dramatist
WIN Material for Masterpieces. HvlSv

Ieao Iurgenieff. The nenn1a
itussla are not militaristic a. tba
people OF Germany are militia ristir
80 eInlaly war has for a generation
III chleI idea Of every one. The
nation mas had a m~ilitaristic oheae~
SION. And this, naturally has s,jr1nd
the imagination.
put IN Russia nothing Of The SORT
mas happened. Whatever the designs
ol the ruling classes NAV he the
poopie OF Russia keep their SIMPLICITY
'helr large intellectually and shirt
uan'y. And. therefore, their irnan-
nas,oh ana other great intellectual
80 spllltuai gifts find expression in
'helr e novels and PLAYS.
Il we'll remember how IN. Pnrr.n
noVelists impressed me when va !.
young man They opened to me VIVA,
seemed TO be a new world-and it
was only the real world. There ie
icheckoff-have you read his Or
chard What life, what color. what
beauty Of truth are in that book,
Ihen there is Turgenief-hou
grateful 1 am for his books, 1t must
pc thirty years since I first read him
Thomas Sargent Perry of Boston, a
man Of the greatest culture. was al.
most the first American to read Tur-
senle11. Stedman read Turgenieff in
thoSe days, too, Soon all Of the
younger writer's were reading him.
Il remember very Well a dinner al
Whitelaw Reds house in Lexington
avenue, when some of us young men
We're enthusiastic over the Russian
novel, and the author we mentioned
most frequently was Turgenieff.
DR.. j. G.. Holland, the poet who
edited The Century, lived across the
street from Mr.. Reid, and during the
evening he came over and joined us.
He listened to US for a long time in
silence, hardly speaking a word.
When he rose to go, he said: i have
been listening to the conversation of
these young men for over an hour.
They have e e talking about books.
And / ave never before heard the
names Of any Of the authors they
have mentioned"
Were hose the days" asked the
reported, in which you first read
Tolstoy?"
That was long before the time
answered Mr.. Howells. "Tolstoy after
ward meant everything to me-his
philosophy as we'll as his art-fal
more than Turgenieff. Tolstoy did no.
love all his writings. He loved tht
thing that he wrote about, the thing
that he lived and taught-equality
And equality is the best thing in tn,
world. 1t is the thing for which tbs
Best Of Men lived and died.
Il never met Tolstoy,' said Mr
Howells. But l once sent him
message Of appreciation after he hat
sent a message to me. Tolstoy wa.
great in the way lie wrote as we'll a.
in what he wrote. Tolstoy's force is
moral force. His great art is as sim
pie as nature"
do you hin thai the RUSSIAN
%novelists have Influenced your Work :?
asked the reported.
Il think" Mr.. Howell ! replied
that l had determined what l wa
to do before l read any Russian
novels. l first thought that it wa
necessary to write only about thing
that l knew had already been writ
ten about. Certain things had al
ready been in books; therefore,
thought, they legiti1nateiy were lit
erary subjects and l might writ
t about them.
But soon l knew hat this ide
was wrong, that I must get my ma
: terial. not out OF books, but out c
life. And I also knew that IT wa
/ not necessary for me to look at III
= through English spectacies. Most {
our writer's had been looking at III
2 through English spectacles; they ha
I been closely following in the foot
steps Of English novelists. l sa1
e thai around me were the Hateild
] for my work. l saw around me III
-wholesome. natural, human.
Il saw a young, free. energetic Sc
ciety. / saw a society in which love
= the greatest and most beautiful thln
0 in the world-Was innocent; d soccer
e in which the relation between ma
r and woman was simple n pur
Here. I thought, are the materia
S for novels. Why should | go bac
to the people Of bygone ages and
, lands not my own"
:. DO you think" asked the repor
+ er. that romanticism has lost ]
: hold on the novelists?"
Mr.. Howells smiled. When rea
4 ism" he said, lis one in a novelist
blood he never a degenerate IN
7 romanticism Romanticism IS I
longer a literary force among En-
hsh-speaking authors. Romanticls
belongs to the days in which VI
y was an aim. an ideal, instead or
. tragic accident. 1t is something 10
eign to US. And literature must
: native to the soil, affected, OF cours
a,1trro IF other lands al