The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-15
RUPERT HUGHES

s'lNikHNiN W0I'H FTItaNV" IT
almost Justified by the servtle deprcca.
ton Of u native apologtsts. We stand
about the literary table like a lot OF
tips and telling one another hat we
with q very little IVY are hardly
worthy to wait on Them with a very
big '"T'')
I am sorry to see so gifted a pen as
Miss Ellen Giasgow's hastening 10 add
its ink TO the black Toe Of American
apology now splitting over all the
maya zines. for I believe that America Is
in a period OF high literary achievement
both In prose n poetry. and that tho
sooner we recognise II the better II Will
be for us and our writer's.
The fundamental error Of our apollo
gists IL this: they compare with the
vast food OF our output In books and
magazines and newspapers the selected
wares of foreign authors which reach
the dignity Of expectation. They ignore
the trash that cumbers the presses OF
foreign nations and raise their eyes to
tho great. They compare foreign Ma
poleons with native %corporals.
Did they ever rcad the typical con-
tinued story that runs in the German.
French. English and italian daily
papers? hid they ever hear Of tho
foreign popular writer's whose works
outsell tho foreign masters as certain
trash comp!lers here outsell our best
writer's? hid they ever hear who were
Queen Victoria's ~favoritc authors? or
King Edwards or King George'sr
The same mistake IL made IN com-
parison with the past. Almost all
writer's praise the Elizahethan drama,
knowing only the works OF Shakespeare
and ono ar two others. and evidently
ivpN~unt nf Nhc aVpAli,pH rlpa nppES Of
the great bulk of the popular work NJ
that period. A Hike error is made in
dealing with the classic cras Of Italy,
Rome and Greece, which had their trash
In magnitude.
Take our own golden age. when EN-
erson. whitman. Poe and Cooper were
accepted abroad as masters and here
, were regarded with awe. We could not
I see the forest for the trees. We could
not see the giant trees because we were
lost In the underhrush.
Miss Glasgow thinks that 'in England
the demand is for a direct and sincere
Interpretation OF lie. But what the
: American public seems 10 desire Is the
cheapest sort OF sham optimism" She
must realize the hopeless mixture Of this.
For England she selects the sophisticated
reading class for America the general
public.
SHE tdNs lUdt tnP F.llEi4Sn
furnish til. direct and sincere intsrTre;a-
ton of life. and our writers are eager to
supply the baser demand.
This approaches the rashness OF sian
der. There are English novelists whose
names she cannot ignore who pour forth
sham optimism. which Is Tapped up Gag
erly in England ~ here. and there arr
American novcllsts who struggle to in
,erpret life n are recognized in Eng
land as here by certain discriminating
and sympathetic critics.
Is Miss Glasgow Of the fact
that certain OF our sham optimists with
their humorous dialects have tremendous
vogue in England? Docs she know
that tho lady who writes most opti'
mistically over here and sells by thu
hundred thousand In America sells b,
tho hundred thousand in England? Dtt
she ever ear OF tho success of Mrs
Wigs Of the Cabbage Patch" In Eng
land both as book and play? Does sh'
know that Russia is flooded With Amer
lean fiction? Does she know that "Nicl
Carter" has had perhaps q greater vogu'
, in France h In America?
With all apology for the Grass dis
courtesy OF my challenge I wish to TIM
Miss 'ilaswow's diatribc guilty of rev
!, cral vital errors. In the first place boil
her major and her minor premises ar
false in the second, her deductions fron
. them are illogical. and IN tho third. he
+, conclusion IL untrue. Otherwise he
t statements are highly interesting.
One further criticism | feel compelle
, 10 make. And hat IL this TIT spirit O
the attack IL wrong. My own writing
I have been accused OF everything but
sham optimism and I Am bitterly con
t WINGED OF the cruelties and ,vanities q
= existence. But I do not believe that OF
timism is necessarily cheap sham q
I thst pcssimism is necessarily philoeoph'
cal Vr heroic.
r \ ma may bs 30 overcome with In
horrors of this world that he will XII
himself after the normal behavious G
the hero In u Russian novel. or he ma
force "A plucky laugh and tell himself tina
after all there are e~xtenuating circun
r stances in tho treason OF life and 70
Y the sake of THE other poor wretches h
g must pretend to be- happy.
There Is ~ mawkish way Of dcnyin
y evident tragedy. n there In tho beaut
ful attitude 81 "T'atience on q monumer
4 smiling at grief" Even Shakespeare, VT
h wrote Of Lear n Hamlet and Rome
@ could write Of rlando and Falstaf al
Touchstone n NAM another. He. to
d could write picturesque, whimsic,
y character and humorous dialect" AT
his public adored II. lie was a be-