New-York tribune., 1919-10-18

"a unique and individual set OF condl-
lions IN which our own particular prob
lem is contained. Our geographical loca-
ton and the extraordinary material self
sutticlency OF our empire have isolated
us from both the intellectual develop
ment OF Europe and the technical de
velopment OF America We are beached
somewhere off both these two great
modern currents. and the goadng dis
content of our younger writer's is the
effort 20 rouse England to the changes
that have come upon the world we live in
1t has made Us, the younger noreNsts
! am afraid We shall 90 down to our
graves grouped together as the younger
novelists-irritabe and excessive You
sec, science and discovery and modern
philosophy have altered and expanded
the shape of the world, and yet in Eng
land we are required to go on living in
the same lnelastic social mould that was
cast Tor US centuries ago. Our modern
novels have been for that reason until
now not so much expressions OF life as
violent reactions from life That phase.
! think. is almost over"
What is the next one?'
something constructive. We cannot
go on being critical and defiant. We
snail have TO work out some form that
VIII take the courage and impetus of
the realistic movement and tie il in
which lies at the source of English
lite. We shall have TO go back. think
TO Smollets and Fielding, who are
practically forgotten in England
Ihackeray HHd Dickens sustained that
tradition for a time but the arc OF it.
ITS descent to us. the younger men,
vas wiped out by the stupidity and
prudery Of the Victorian era
,.o,,.s us there re- 3. group feeling among You
clique. in any sense"
"Well, perhaps not consciously. We
seldom see one another. Compton
Mackenzie lives in Capri, Hugh Wal
pole spends a good deal OF time in
Russia, SwinneIton, who is q reader in
publishing house. lives in London.
| live in the country. We are for the
most part scattered ali over England -
but we are a group, think, becaus
fundamentally we feel tho same way
about things and are trying TO EXPIRE ;
them in a good deal the same way"
Where 90 you place Gslsworthy in
tho English literary scheme r' asked
"Galsworthy is unique in that he
alone Of al! the English moderns has
held fast TO the tradition OF form He
/ has thereby done an immensely valua-
BILE service to English letters His is
the form of Turgenief, borrowed from
the French, but he has never relaps ed
from it. So much modern English writ
ing has been written under stress. I'M
der rhe pressure Of Indignation. under
the pressure OF critical things want
ing 20 be said that should have beer
expressed in journalistic form, bu'
that, for one reason or another coulC
not be. that the form OF the novel has
suffered. The texture Of X has growr
loose, its shape has grown unwieldy
You viii. for Instance. find in Well
great masses Of stuff that do no. prop
erly belong in Il novel. If English jour
nalism were elastic enough 20 give
room to critical opinion. much of wha
finds its way into the novel would be
expressed in that form. GalsworthS
alone has held the province Of tht
novel inviolable against all invasion.
you DO not, think, know in Amer
ica how much We count on the vigol
o; your critical sense. The position Q,
the writer is much clearer here than i
is in England. And you have graded
the work of English writer's more pre-
cisely than we have in England, where
there is d great deal more Indifference
to literature than there is here. A.
extraordinary amour: of our opinion
over there i a repercussion from thi;
side. The reputation OF Bennett is {
case in point He was scarcely krowr
in England. though no had then already
published thrty-seven novels, when wt
heard over there that you considered
Old Wives Tale great piece OF work
And straightaway Bennett was dug ou
of his obscurity. The same was partl,
true Of Galsworthv and Wells. anC
nearly every one OF Us has had th'
experience of finding ourselves rccog
nized in American before we wer.
known in England.
I'm the range and alertness Of YOU
critical sense there is the proof tha
you arc evolving something in the wa,
Of expression. I do not think it will
take the form of the novel. That mus
come out of more mature social or
ganism than you have here Three
quarters Of the novelist's work is il
unconscious absorption OF the scheme
in which he lives. Your scheme is still
unsettled, too much on the make, L
hold the novelist. But you are eX
pressing yourselves in the theatre AM
more completely than in your modern
poetry Masters and Frost and Sand
burg and Edna St Vincent Milla.
and host OF others are artlcula tin;
Young America as the novelists are cx
pressing the English.
, "You. too. have broken away from