The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-24
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

" no TeadS an American DookF 1hls
 insoient query flung out a hundred
 years ago by Swift. the bilious English i dean, still has power to vex the sou
 of some of our men of letters.
 I believe. however. that Brander
 Matthews in his "Americanisms and
 Criticisms" which was published moro l than quarter of a century ago made
 out the best case against such filings
 as was made by Swift and kept up by
 later Britishers than any one of whom
 have knowledge
 His charmingly bound little volume. which is easy 10 slip in ones coat | pocket often fginds it's way into mine, when I start on railway tourney, for | the essays are short enough and have enough sparkle in them to keep one
 awake on the train. I rarely ever at tempt to read a heavy book while trav- cling, put usually dip into those in lighter vein. and especially the ones with short stories.
 | have recently been looking into the works as well as the life of James Fen nimore Cooper. and professor Lounds- bury tells us in his admirable English | biography of Cooper, one of the first Yankee writers to catch the ear of the English reading public with a dis tinctive Amerncan note, that the atti- | tude of the Englishman towards the American fin the most favorable cases'' I . was supercilious and patroniz- l ing. an attitude which never permits the nation criticizing to understand the
 nation criticised
 | Things, of course, have changed since Cooper was almost alone in his stalwart Americanism. but it's hard for ] the average English critic to overcome | his insular prejudice when speaking of
 the merits of our literary men and l their works. In spite of all of Matthew Arnold's talks of sweetness and light" l find it hard to read the things which I he wrote about America, even after ! his visits. without a feeling of indig- nation and resentment This is no
 hasty Judgment on my part. for I dare | say I am as familiar with his life and
 writings as are his own countrymen. | I yield to no one in my love and ap- preciation of the treasures in English 1 literature, but the thing am striking
 at is what Robert Louis Stevenson was l frank enough to express when he said: Ignorance of his neighbor is the char acter of the typical John Bull" also | ~;So apart bursting with pride and arro- gance.' But some will say that this wasn't the admission of a Briton, but l the indictment Of a Scot. In any event. ! it gives me chance to hide behind the I saying of one of the best beloved au thors in the British Empire.
 1 In spite of Swift's claim, Washing | ton and Franklin were American and not Europeans. and they, with the as-
 sistance of that illustrious band of
 men. with whom they worked, kept up true to the line of our national devel- opment and for once I agree with | Henry Cabot Lodge, for he was righ. in calling Franklin's autobiography the corner stone, the first great work of American literature" make this
 statement in the face of the fact that
 many claim that there is no such thing
 as distinctive American literature. 1 I spoke of Cooper just now, and of his Americanism, but I failed to state
 that at first he was shy in letting ] it be known that he was an American
 author, for when his first novel, Pre-
 caution" came out, it was tricked out
 in an English garb as to characters ! and scenery, "Its conventional phrases
 were all English: worst and most ex- | traordinary of all, it professed to be by
 an English author; and was received
 on that theory without suspicion" l But the saddest part, according to 1 Lodge. is the fact that "the first step of an American entering upon a liter ary career was to pretend to be an ! Englishman in order that he might win the approval. not of Englishmen, but
 of his own countrymen." Unfortunate ly this has been resorted to by others
 at much later time, for they felt that
 the quickest way to get recognition in
 our own periodicals was first to appear
 in some London quarterly. On the same theory some of our nouveaux |
 ciety through their European sue 1 cesses.
 But Matthews tells us that Cooper
 was too good an American to be con- tent with the cast-off garments of British novelists; and in 1891. year after the appearance of Precautions" l tand year after Swift's diatribeD. he published The Spy" and never there- after was there any need for an Amer | lean to masquerade as an Englishman. Yet his fellow countrymen thought ro i compliment him by calling him the American Scott.' I am glad. however.
 that we are getting over naming our writers after the English who have made regulations. Let them be known
 by and for themselves.
 | But having said this much in favor | of the American note in our litera- ture. am in happy accord with, to me the most delightful of the modern | English writers. Augustine Birrell
 who, in a charming critioue of Amer | ican Englishmen.' says "It is easy to
 concede something to MT. Matthews. Englishmen. and particularly Saturday
 Reviewers. are often provoking, and not infreauently insolent. The airs | they give themselves are ridiculous, lbut nobody really minds them in these moods Then comes this justifiable 1 dig: And per contra, Americans are
 not easily laughed out of good con ceit of themselves. and have been
 known to be as disagreeable as they could"
 I