The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-06-09
THE CRITICS ON ARCHIBALD
HENDERSON'S NEWEST BOOK
Declare 1t Notable Work Of Literary Criticism-Tribute
From Edwin Markham Places Him In Forefront OF
Nations Writers

Moreover. there IS an Introduction to
the essay especially designed Tor
American readers.
That brilliant, erratlc 1gure OF
Swallowed Oscar Wide, Is
treated with insight and discretion
as an artist and an original genius.
who made a definite literary contribu-
ton to his age. That other brilliant
freshman. George Bernard Shaw, Is
here newly appraised. with especial
reference to his highly individual
mode of interpreting life. In the es-
| say Maurice Maeterlinck the strange
unreality of his early creations, the
later humaniZing influences and his
magic are of rejecting aspect of mind
and states of o VI are all effectively
presented. And lastly, there is an au-
thoritative study Of Granville Barker,
whose personality and unequal bu
remarkable work the au-
thor studied at first HAND.
Contemporary life is endowed with
certain qualities which prompt peo-
pie to call it modern" 1t is those
particular features which the author
has sought to reveal in the works of
Strindberg, IbSen, Maeterlinck, Wilde,
SHAY and Barker. This work is not
able in considering certain leaders Of
contemporary drama fundamentally
as interpreters of life and Of that
VNN oPAAAN 10 q "a
the age.
There are printed below character
istlc selections from recent representa-
tive reviews Of European dramatists,
or tributes to it's author.
You are a genius, because you are
somehow susceptible to the really sig
nificant and differentiating traist and
u~tterances of your subject"
Bernard Shaw.
"yo, hove rvr;ttor o,o 3 .-1
sagacious. most acute, and most pene-
trating essays in the whole modern
movement"
Maurice MaeterIinck.
Archibald Henderson stands today
as the chief literary critic of the
South. and in the very forefront Of
the critics of the nation"
Edwin Markham.
Archibald Henderson shares with
Lord Roseberry and Norman Hap
good the power of Illuminating every
subject he touches"
~Jeannctte l.. Glider.
professor HenderSOn's appraisal Of
~Strindberg is certainly the fairest,
indies and most impersonal that l
have yet seen. The author has that
rare combination of intellectual DOW
er and spiritual insight which casts
a clear, strong light upon all subjects
under his treatment"
Velma Swanson Howard, Authorized
Translator Of Strindberg's Plays.
In all that DR.. Henderson writes
there is the ring of subtle thought,
wide reading, and equally wide gen
eraliZatiOn. He prefers and has al
. ways preferred frontier themes and
frontier thinkers-those that chal-
lenge the critics power to interpret
and to correlate. AS a writer h has
, SO focused his attention upon the
, modern drama that his reach and
: g are more than national. In
spite of the remarkable achievement,
already to his credit, my own feeling
that something greater is yet to come
"a feeling that | do not have in read
: ing ChestertOn or Huneker, with
: whom one ~instinctively compares him
. AS Mr.. Barker has written nothine
since the appearance of The Madras
House in 1910, a year before DR.
J henderson published his great wort
, on Shaw, the space that would have
been given to Mr.. Barker's later play:
: is given to the 'Court Theatre Tht
: book as a whole is a distinct addition
! to our knowledge of the modern Eu
ropean dramatistS and deserves {
wide reading not only by students O
the drama. but by all those who would
approach intelligently the compile,
problems OF modern society."-Al
( phonso Smith, in the Alumni Re
view.
8 The raiSOn dletre Of this discus
q Sion of the greatest scandinavia
q dramatiStS lies in the authors inter
a probation of the .Nachgelassen,
Schriften, which have u recent,
become accessible. With them h
h opens the life of the little buttoned
S up man in a way that shows strcn,
e biographical power. 1t has long beel
tentatively recognized that to inter
nrn VhSnN ~ -, --~l
n lntentS and purposes impossible
If These intimate glimpses in the letter
O OF the man who gave to Europe. eve
n to the world. a new drama. are tn
keys to his life. The first biographe
to make use of them. Professor Hen
derson, has performed ~distinguishe
30 service.
Well done as the Ibsen essay i:
essay on Shaw exCellS it. OF the me
% teOrir IriShman. Professor