The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-03-01
R. n. JOHNSON AS
WRITER, Reviewed;
Lover OF ITALY
kansas City Timesl


When it is recalled that the Presi-
dent has named other literary men to
represent the United States at foreign
courts-notably Thomas Nelson Page.
novelist: Walter Hines Page. publish
er: Henry Van Dyke, author, and
Brand Whitlock, all around writer
the appointment OF Robert Underwood
Johnson to be ambassador to Italy &C.
casioned no surprise.
For 40 years associated with the
Century Magazine as an editor, Mr..
Johnson Is the man who persuaded
General Grant to write his memoirs,
led the movement for the establish
ment Of Yellowstone National park
and waged the war against literary
piracy which resulted in the enact
ment Of the international copyright
law.
Born on Capitol Hill in Washington,
January IL, 1853, he was reared in
Indiana, and was graduated from Earl
ham college. a Friends institution at
Richmond, Ind, in 1871 He is the
father of Owen johnson, the novelist.
Always ltaly's Friend.
Always Mr.. johnson has been the
friend OF Italy. He has been an &C
tive member of the Society Of Italian
of the Crown of Italy, which was con-
ferred on him rs years ago. has writ
ten understandingly an italian Rhap-
sody. and Other POEMS" founded and
administered the American Poets Am
bulance in Italy during the war, and
for 80 years has travelled all over Italy,
studying its people. customs and
legends. He was the first American
journalist to cross the smoldering lava
OF Vesuvius in 1906. when 800 square
miles Of towns and vineyards were
destroyed.
The collected poems Of Mr. johnson
have recently been published by the
Yale University Press, and Henry Van
Dyke. reviewing the volume in the
Boston Transcript, says:
Americanism Unmlstakabie.
"His Americanism-not OF the mar
rover, but of the broader types un-
mistakable and inexpugnable. You
may feel it in the blank verse of 'The
Voice OF Webster" in the ballads on
the Spanish War, in "The Corridors of
Congress" with its noble tribute to his
brothers memory
Pleading for honor when men sued
for gain" and in many verses full OF
righteous Indignation, militant ideal
ism and high hope, in which he has
expressed his feelings about the world
war and Americas part in 1T. He is
an American who loves his country
always, but best when she is right.
''All through his volumes we find
names and pictures of his contempt
raries: Roosevelt, Glider, John Bur.
roughs. Nikola Tesla, James Whit
comb Riley, Admiral Dewey, Colonel
Waring, E. c. Stedman, Edward Mac
Cojn o1a IF
Panama, President Wilson, Paderew.
ski. Marshal Joffre, General Pershing
such men of today seem to him not
unworthy to stand with the men of
old
He has not lived in an ivory tow
er nor in hermit's cave, this poet
of our own time, but in the current
of those events which have made this
age one of the memorable epochs Of
world history.
Attentive to his own task, pleased
with the meter assigned him by the
Muse, he has conceived 1t in a broad
spirit, as not separate from the af
fairs of men. In his ode on Saint
Gaudens he says:
AS nations greater are than all their
states,
More than the sum Of all the arts is
art.
Thus he sums up his ancient-mod-
ern ideal of the service which true
artists render to the world:
To reach full hands of bounty unto
those
Who starve for beauty in this glut
of gold.
"Yet for all these fine and lofty
sayings, am not sorry that this book
closes with the simpler and more per
sonal lyric note-the same note of
human love with which the volume
begins. There is the sure, tender, re-
vealing touch of Landor's Rose Ayl-
mer' in this farewell to 'Cecile.'
Who heard her tones carress,
Or saw her smiling eyes,
Meier spoke of happiness
As a lost paradise.
We weep, but we rejoice,
Who know her spirits spell
The angel in her voice
That told us all Is we'll"
In every tempest, calm,
Sure, when our doubt would grope;
To all our sorrow, balm.
The darling of our hope.
This is the spirit of Mr.. Johnson's
book. To enjoy it, you do not need to
belong to any school, nor to hold
any poetic theory. All you need is to
love poetry as the interpreter of the
best things in nature and life.''