The Alaska daily empire., 1915-07-06
LrrERArURE
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(st. Louis Repubiic)

The output ol books does not seem to have been in the least affected by the great war which has drawn some thing Ike half of the hahitable globe into its relentless eddy Indeed, il may even be believed that the pub fishing business has never been at a higher tide than now, since inc wai itself has been the subpect of whole library full of books published in the United States and in Great Britain during the past nine months.
 But even the field of fiction has shown no shortage in its crop since ihe armies began to clash, and In Eng land such writers as Wells, Bennett Galsworthy, Chesterlon. Hueifer and many lesser lights are continuing the work much as f ncthins extraordin. any had happened
 Mir. Wells "Bealby' published this Spring is the jolliest thing he ever wrote, and Mir. Gaisworthy's latest volume which appeared last month, contains @ silly criticisn of American characteristics. which is obviously not the thing 6 British writer would publish # he were being influenced greatly by the war
 In the United States the presses are unprecedentldly busy Not only are the usual quantities Of merely en- tertaining works appearing, but a ma ior!ty Of our best known authors are marking capital out of the war. Rich ard Harding Davis, Irwin Cobb. Mrs. Rinehart-these are the conspicuous names which come to mind in this re- lationship, though there are many more.
 But question arises as Go what ef- feet the debacle of civilization in Eur ope will have upon the art of the nov clists throughout the Anglo-Saxon world when the aftermath comes to be garnered. Reference to bygone periods shows.that a more serious and a greater art has found It's roots in national caiamities-that great cris- es have sobered and inspired these writers who possessed great minds as well as extraordinary ingenuity And it is more than likely that new note will be found in the fiction of America and Great Britain, to say nothing of other nations. when, the deed having been achieved, the song continues to be sung.
 It is curious to reflect in this con- nection that England has fallen far away from it's best traditions in the matter of fictitionai art s..-.sS the pest two or three decades, while ihe United States has been putting Nts ear to the ground, SO to speak an3 reporting the remors 1t has caught
 Atistically British fiction today is at its zeinth At no time in the past has Great Britain had so many high ly finished writer's. But the ablest of the contemporary writers in Eng land are devoting their talents to su0- jects which are almos. if rot quite trivial and transient. There has been scarce.y a single exponent of sublime or tragic themes since Thomas Tardy abandoned the art which he perfect ed. Mr. Galsworthy is almost eIem- mate in his delicate artistry, and his themes lack Q really universal sig nificance. Mir. Wells has seen no fur ther than the whimsical side Of the feminist problem Mr. Bennett is merely a marvellous photographer Of small-town commonplaces Truly, the English novelist has been on a holi- day
 1t is in the United States that the meaning of our contemporary life has been attacked most earnestly-and in the United States, unfortunately, we have rot yet developed the one basic need where fiction is concened--a finely artistic method.
 When William Allen White wrote his "A Certain Rich Man. now some six or eight years ago, he sounded a note which was destined to assume a major place in the history Of lie at that time. IT he owed an indebted ness to D. " Howe's "The Story of Country Town" and to William Dean Howells' "Silas Lapham.p he never the less went much farther than eith. CT Of these books or authors. He tried to analyze the present tenden- cies in our national life And he in- spired other capable writers to follow his exar1ple
 Within the past year Rupert Hughes has tried to do what Mir. White did
 working from another angle; and the intention Of his "What Wiu Peo- pie Say was sound enough. even if his task proved to be rather beyond his skill Another writer-a new one gave us "The Harbor" which was distinguished by the same high ambi- tlon-to depict the social problems of our own time And more recently Winston Churchill, taking leaf from Mr- Whites book-eyen to the Bibi- cal title-has striven greatly to ex-
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