The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-01-19
Nv RUSSELL DYER OWEN.

a TALK with boou larhiiS'on
n makes one realize more perfectly
vhy 50 many people like his books VI
.oms. the impersonality Of art and all
that sort of thing is sacred shibboleth;
but We have our own opinion and we
mean to stick to it.
When Mr.. Harrington stretches his
slightly stopped and tweed clad sell De-
hind a veil of smoke and begins to smile
and talk there is nothing to do but De
nerfectlv contented for two hours and a
half and then hate 10 go away. 1t doesn I
mncb matter whether he wanders to old
shin captains up in Maine, where he
snsnds nine months of the year and col
lects ship models, on which he is learning
to distinguish the crojick yard from the
main to'gan's1; his thoughts on boys, the
league of nations, or why Germany went
wrong. Tempered by the Harrington
personality it is all absorbing and ex-
oeedingly pleasant.
Inc Cdl SiAoNS'
IT was hard this day to say whether the
ship captains or the war held first place
in MIR. Tarkington's mind Let us hope
il was the captains, for he confessed that
like so many other men who have lived
mueh abroad the war came to him as
such q revealing shock that he has not
vet freed himself from his obsessIon- lie
had lived in France and Italy and travel
led often in Germany and with Owen
Wister found that his conception OF Ger
mans was wrong and his admiration Tor
them was founded on a false understand
ing.
a have found there are lot of things
I don't know anything about he SAID
soberly. "This war is such an overwhelm-
inp thing, goes so to the roots OF things.
After other wars people have quickly re-
verted to their former ways of life; but
now that this one is over its shadow seems
still on the world Mems problems now
seem to be nearly as bad as the war
itself. and most Of them are taxes.
"I sometimes manage to lock myself IN
NV room and with the aid of several cups
of coffee write something of my own; but
il has been hard to do. l couldn't write
a war story; it would be like writing
about a surgical operation In ones
family"
Most of Mr.. Tarkington's writing on
the war has been of much more practi-
cal kind, for like many other men OF let
ters who perforce have been non-com-
aatants he has done his bit In the way
he could be most useful.
The War and Writing.
"The influence of the war on literature
be repeated in answer to question that
is being hurled without mercy at every
writing man who is good natured enough
to try to answer it. swell, when that
question came to me / began to look for
historical precedents. so to say, and L
could not find that art has ever received
a stimulus from war. 1t will furnish q
great material field for writers and that, L
think, will be its chief service.
s7The most remarkable thing it has pro-
duced is its poetry. There has been SO
much of it, and much has been written
that has not been published Some of it
has been excellent, really good poetry,
and there has been much good rhythm.
A people find a rhythm before they can
write good prose; it is primitive; and
there must be something in the soldiers
life, his marching, which brings it out.
"These men, many Of them, will doubt
less continue to write, and l should think