The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-02-20

tell me in what way they could be i'm
proved. 1t is so with their magazine writer's,
their writer's for the quarterlies in partic-
ular. They make complete studies of their
subjects They go to infinite pains to have
every detail right
Now the American critic would stand
back of my chair and regard my picture.
In several Illuminating sentences he would
seize upon the whole trouble and would make
me see what he meant at once. / would
derive from his criticism a knowledge of
what big stroke here was needed, what
change there. He would it as a whole
and criticise il constructively, The same is
true of your literary critics They know
the criticism that is constructive, and so
they know how to make your writer's sue
cessful."
do you think" I questioned, with dread
in my heart, that our writer's are too eager
for financial success? Do you think because
they live in a country which is pros
porous and where so much money abounds
that they too get the spirit of t?" But his
answer treasured me.
NO don't think they care about being
commercially successful any more than our
writer's do. But l think they care more
about being Somebodies' With us, with
our poets and our writer's, it is enough If
the small group of literary intellectuals think
well of our work. We want to please those
whose opinions are worth Wnlle. II we nave
done good work in their opinion are
satisfied. Here I think you are all too
anxious to be successful-not financially
but with the mob. You want a great many
people to regard you as famous, to regard
you as a Somebody whereas we only care
for that very small group who know and
understand"
father with such clear and decided
views on the creation of literature must
III 7 ~ - II.
work-though it isn't safe to jump to con-
illusions in these matters. At any rate, l
asked him about his relations with his boys
This was the reply:
my son Willie says I was very strict
don't think so at all. He says / made him
study was constantly hurting a book at his
head. Don't take that literally" he pro-
tested. "A woman who had heard Willie
make the remark told me later she had not
wanted to meet me, for she dislked any man
who would throw a book at his son! But
you see 1t just what Willie needed. If
he had had no intellectual training he would
always have dreamed his poetry away. He
would have been different He would never
have produced his dreams! But there was
rever any corporal punishment in our home.
Take what ! said about being successful
Willie doesn't care about money about
fame. He strives only to do good work in
is the same with Jack too"
I could understand how a reporter of the
daily Stylus Of Rome. Italy, must have felt
in the course of talk with the mother OF
the Gracchi As he talked to me OF willie"
and of Jack" / thought how Cornela must
have enjoyed 1t when in answer to a ques-
ton on how her famous "jewes" had been
polished she explained her method Of cor
recting tendencies to childish rascality on the
~ of Tibarine mr. TINT Mr.
Yeats wasn't done with his analysis Even
a fathers pride could not turn him from his
purpose to tell the whole truth about us.
"Often American women-Easterners es-
pecially-feel too much on the defensive.
They feel they are talking to an enemy when
they are talking to an English woman or an
Irish woman. They fear they will not APP
pear WE'LL and so they dont--because they
aren't natural. They won't be themselves
Personality is the most important quail
ity in life and in art and in literature. Tenn
permanent is all very WELL but ii must not
stop at that point Temperament alone is
very trying and never gets anywhere But
temperament controlled is what we should
strive for That makes personality.
But all Of these questions you've asked
me on national questions, on American lit
erature versus English literature are in the
long run not so much national questions
as questions that have become worldwide.
Collective development takes up so much
of our attention that do not give
enough TO the neutrality-suspicious.. That
makes Il all very fine for the progress of
mankind, the general good Of the world
very good indeed But for literature IL is
fatal. And perhaps It is emphasized more
here than abroad. Your people. your writer's
tell Of everything that is going on around
them when what we want TO hear about.
what We want to know is what they're
thinking and feeling themselves.
IF we don't hear that we don't get the
finer things in writing. We get a marc
emotonalism which is different from feel
ing Feeling is so much deeper. 1t comes
from within, whereas emotionalsm comes
from without. You cannot get poignant suf-
fcring Individual feeling. deep beauty and
art unless we become less and less a coll
lcctive people and more and more indivi1-
uals That Is what literature needs-indi-
vidualism.
you know Sir Philip Sidney said. Look
in thy heart and write!' Don't go around
all day searching for what ideas you may
pick up here and there. Look into your own
heart and write what you feel Then you
get literature, Temperament controlled
that is the great secret"
lie looked at me with that genial and en-
gaging manner of his and added:
I'm sure I've told you nothing Of what
you came for But / know that tempera-
ment plus sef-control gives the personality
that makes you realize your dreams. I've
seen IL demonstrated In our own family-in
Willie and in Jack"
I left him then, surrounded by his books,
his portraits and his sketches and his pipes.
"a At.