The sun., 1916-11-18
BROWNELL FINDS
u.s.. FICTION LACKING
Tells Academicians We Are
suffering From Surfeit
Of Clcvcrncss.
HISTORY ON THE WING
Will II. Low Takes a Rap at
the Futurist School Of .
Painting.

Just why modern American fiction
compares 80 badly with the European
product was carefully explained yester-
day by william Crary Browneli. Mr..
Brownell. who Is literary adviser Of
Charles scribner's Sons and the author
OF several volumes Of criticism. enter
tanned the members and guests OF the
American Academy n the National In
s,itute Of Arts and Letters at the final
session Of their annual meeting at
tie Rltz-Carlton with a paper on
"Stardards."
'Ev'.y one is clever nowadays,' he
said. I'VE are perhaps suffering from a
surfe!t OF cleverness, since being merely
clever 1t is impossible to be clever
enough. Our cleverness Is apt to stop
thort OF imagination and rest contentedly
IN Invention, fo.getful OF Shelley's re-
hinder that the Muses. were daughters
Of Memory.
New discoveries In life are hardly to
be expected of those who take its por-
trayal so lightly as to neglect It's existing
maps and charts. And this N why our
current fiction seems so experimental, SO
speculative. SO amateur in its portrayal
Of lie. why II seems so immature, In one
word. compared grade for grade with
that OF Europe.
Coins q Few Aph0risms.
~ know OF no American short story
writer OF her rank who gives me the
positive delight that Miss Edna Ferber
does-or did. But why should we play
oil the time? Why should we bracket
o.. Henry's immensely clever expanded
anecdotes as Mrs. Gerould calls them,
with the incisive canoes carved out of
the very substance of life.taken seriously,
however l~imitedly. Of a consummate artist
like Maupassant?"
Mr.. Brownell conceded that such fixed
stars OF our fiction as Henry James and
Mr.. Howells are perfectly comparable
with their European ~coevals."
He flashed HIS blade right and left at
. variety Of modern literary and artistic
fads. Speaking Of the vers librists. he
said:
"The heart sinks at the image of
Arnaryllis In the shade and thrills to the
imagist In the bath" Pursuing this
topic he came upon the lady novelists:
we are constantly assisting Mt the
bath Of beauty In the company of lady
novellsts to whom h process must seem
less sensational than It Is to us. sup
pose they feel that they have to be In the
SWIM
Other observations were:
Terribly little learning IL enough 10
Incur the damnatory title OF highbrow."
"A public gets not only the news.
papers II wants but the arts and letters"
The public asks for sensation, there
Is an inordinate demand for novelty.
different Is the last word Of laudation."
telegraph Pole Historians.
William Roscoe Thayer spoke on
"History-Quick or Dead?' saying
that the historian must interpret facts
as well az seek them, he spoke Of a his
tory Of the American Revolution "in
which the facts follow one another as
do the telegraph poles over the desert
OF Gohi. We cannot penetrate into the
significance Of mans past by counting
telegraph poles" Mr.. Thayer added.
In the course OF an address on "A
Few Eternal Veritles In the Art OF De-
sign" viii II. Low. remarking that no
one had ever been able to detect the
nude in THE Nude Descending q Stair
case" commented
~ suppose movements like these serve
their purpose OF stirring UP the goldfish"
Richard Burton read a poem. 1.-The
Future Fight" The reading of Jesse
Lynch Williams's paper on american
SolemnIty" was postponed to the next
annual meeting.
Tho gold medal Of the institute for
essays or bells ~lettres. awarded to John
Burroughs on Thursday night. was pre-
sented to him by Edwin Rowland Blash-
field, president OF the institute. at the
beginning Of yesterdays exercises.
In the afternoon Archer ". Huntington
and the Hispanic Society CAV a recep-
ton at the society's museum. DR.. INT
Mrs. Walter Damrosch gave a reception
~ their home last night.