The Washington herald., 1916-10-22
AN AUTHORS DEFENSE.
u. Everett HARE Resents Attacks
on Behold the woman!"


on "BehoId the womanr
Editor The Washington Herald:
AS the author of q novel which has
been attacked in many quarters as
suggestive" and even Immoral" and
which has been the object of a sensa-
tional discussion, l feel IL is my priv
ilege to raise a question which seems
OF Importance to all earnest literary
workers and the reading public as
well Ordinarily. the novels that
achieve success in this country. and
are approved by critical guardians OF
the Hamilton Wright Msbie type, are
above all criticism on moral grounds
they are not wicked, as a clever West
ern editor has said, but merely bad
bad as art, bad as interpretations Of
life. Now and then q book bobs up,
and because men and women in IL do
more than hold hands there is a great
cackling and noisy pother. While Pol
lyanna" and The Rosary" are passed
from front porch to front porch,
Three Weeks" and The House Of
Bondage" are hid under bed pillows
to be read in surreptitious and guilty.
If delectable, secrecy. In all Of this
there is much hypocrisy. That any
book which attempts TO deal with life
as we all know it is lived is ass&iled'
while pifning Juvenile twaddle OF the
"Pollyanna" type is approved as safe
and wholesome" brings UP an issue
regarding our attitude toward letters
which, IL we are TO have any litera-
ture at all. is worth while considering.
Behold the Woman!" has met with
a generous public reception and has
been commended by many notable peo-
ple-yet IT has been banned by the
New York Public Library.
That a book may be unsafe for the
young seems the keynote OF criticism
in America. Are novelists to be guild
ed by the requirements OF immaturity?
Are they to write from the stand
point of the nursery myth that babies
are fshed from cisterns or are plucked
from cabbage beds? II is often asked
why America has produced no great
literature-why we are so inferior TO
the Russian, Polish and French. The
very reason lies in the fact that as
soon as a book which essays 20 deal
with human life appears II is assailed
as improper. Children may study hot
any. but the professional puritanists
hold up their hands in horror at the
thought. that they should learn any
thing about the origin Of life. Be
cause Of this attitude. the very cause
of life on this planet, the greatest
emotion Of human existence Is reduced
in our popular fiction to something
verging on indecency and whlcn can
be touched on only in the disguise OF
superficial and sentimental trivial
ity. To furnish entertainment to
candy-eating girls-what work Tor
men of literary talent! What earthly
GOOD. what stimulation in all this sTu-
icial. il sometimes clever, fusuan!
How much more worth while a Ma
dam Bovary," "Kreutzer Sonata" or
Resurrection"
Because I have written book dealing
with the exploitation Of woman, both IN
its lururiously voluptuous and trag1cal as
poets | have been sssailed. Is Beholo
the Woman" immoral? The purpose OF
literature TO me is TO deal with human
ne And to present a mirror in which
men and women may see their own com
edies and tragedies enacted and thereby
CLEAN some understanding. some solace,
some hope. is to me the noblest aim OF
the literary art II French srtists-Flau-
bert. Gautier. Balzac-had written along
the rule that they must pen nothing tnat
might illumine the ignorance OF the ADO
Iescent. where would French literature
be? II Shakespeare had had sweet SIX
teen in mind. what sort Of stun would
the great Elizabethan have left behind
him?
NAV have been somewhat franker
than writers in English generally are, but
I am sincerely convinced that the amer
can public is not inferior in adult int Ill
gence to the people Of France, Germany
Italy, and Poland. ! do not consider my
fellow beings moral weaklinCs who nreo
TO be protected by contribution begging
anti-vice professionalists or the qulNeF-
,ng-nostriUed wcasels out snlhlng TOT
nsstiness; nor do I even think the Young
so inherently vicious and dePraved that
thew need the fussy espionage Of the
unctiously prudish lest they follow their
predestined course to the devil. l. for
one resent the ignominiOus and nasty In
suit in all of this to men OF letters and
the moral fibre OF the American public.
T. EVERETT HARRE,
Author Of Behold the Woman
Round Top Mountain, Pa.