The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-07
F. u | 7 9 r | A l.
Stop This Sort of Thing!

IllSn OcnoOl, brOOklyn mas Written teAt-
book English literature just published by Long
mans, Green Co., in which he has seen fit to in
clude about seven pages of large print dealing
with American literature. There are 600 pages in
the book. The handful devoted to American liter
allure seem gratuitously insulting
"0f present American literature it is hard to
speak definitely. There is lull that may indicate
the approach Of new wind of inspiration. Poetry
seems almost dead New poets, however are ex-
perimenting along much the same lines the new
writers of England (see page 529). Fiction is vast
in quantity, declining in quality. At present 191S)
too many writers who have literary merit lack force
and of reality. There is on the other hand,
a desire to give the public what it wants and to
take for granted that the public wants merely to
be amused The greatest fault of the average
American novel of the first part Of the twentieth
century is clever superfciality. One finds no
equivalent to the English novels of Galsworthy,
Wells, De Morgan or Conrad.
"Materialism, selfshness, cynical indifference are
the real enemies Of great literature America, as
a home of great literature in English, must 60
deeper into life and human feeling and care more
about what it finds there. The future of
America in literature depends entirely upon one
thing-its ability to take life seriously to care
about something besides money making and money
spending, to learn that things are not gods, that
material success is not happiness. "
We should not care a stick about Mr.. HERBERT
BATES, his cheap little perspective his evident and
disgusting ignorance of what American writers are
, doing and have been doing for the last twenty
years. were it not that he teaches in high school
and his book will presumably be used as a text
in high schools. Almost could wish for Gen.
hat Is
of the chapter on American literature As it
is we hold up his words for the contemptuous in
spection of every American who knows better
which means almost every American but Mr.. HER
BERT BATES.
Demetra Vaka.
IT is the commendable but not always fruitful
l. practice of the publishing house of Houghton
Mlain Company, Boston, to send to all its authors
folder calling for such particulars of their lives
may properly be matter of interest to the general
public. In 1914 thereabouts one of these fact
acquisitions went to the author DEMETRA VAKA,
otherwise Mrs. KENNETH Brown. In due time it
came back to Boston bearing the following data, in
scribed in a feminine hand that no schoolmaster
could conscientiously recommend:
Name in full: DEMETRA KENNETH BROWN
Chief occupation or profession: Wife.
Residence address, Green Lane Cottage, Mount
Kisco, New York.
Place of birth: Island of Bouyouk Ada, Sea of
Marmora.
Date of birth: 1877.
Education, uhen and where received, in detail:
First privately. Then at Athens Private School.
Paris. Various converts. Courses at Sorbonne.
One year University of Athens. One year Univer-
sity of New York Various schools in CONSTANT
nople; too many to remember, using schools as
frivolous women use garments-throwing away
when not becoming
Date of marriage: 1904, April 81.
Military, political and ciuic record: No records
whatever except of bad temper
Director or trustee of the following educational
or public institutions: Never offered any, except
the self-assumed one of bringing up my husband.
Politics: For the best man who is on the ticket.
Religious denomination: Orthodox Greek
Professional associations, learned and technical
societies, decorations, de-: None.
Member of the follouing philanthropic or chari-
table institutions W holder of any office, state):