New-York tribune., 1921-01-07
Books

1t is curious to note," writes William
Allen White, Chow generally the back
10 the farm movement in literature and
The theater has stopped at the country
town. II is az if We We're trying to
make it from Broadway 10 the earth in
Two jumps. And this first jump is mani
fest in the popularity OF the Sinclair
Lewis book Main Street, in Floyd Dell's
.Moon-Calf, in Edgar Lee Masters's poems
and in zona Gales Miss Lulu Bett, all
/ having an carneatness OF purpose and
common revulsion from the sex COM
pley that has obsesscd the world Of
letters in recent years.
"Main Street stops At Gopher
Prairie, MINI, to exhort humanity to 6
love Of beauty for its own sake: Moon
Calf cries out in Viclzery, ILL.,, passion
ately for justice and Miss Lulu Bett, Of
Portage, Wis, proclalms with poignant
comedy the JOY OF woman in her new
liberty. The old-fashioncd 'hick' farce
| of reuben melodrama, which went to the
country town to cxpound the beauties Of
the simple life and homely virtues, has
no relation to these new expressions of
small town life. Small town life is
used to-day not to lure us Back to
Mothers Knee but rather because small
town life is q plastic medium It is
used in the drama and the novel and
Tree verse to tell big, necessary things
with compelling, artistic vigor And
iona Gale in Miss Lulu Rett has led
the bacl1to-th e-earth movement. She
mas written powerful play. beauti-
ful play and joyful play, the like of
which rarely has been seen on our
! stage, and enmeshes in it the cry Of the
free woman Of the new day--the woman
who would rather be the beloved mis-
tress than the neglected wife.
dwight Deacon is the dramatized
incarnation Of Browning's Any Wife to
Any Husband-the kindly, jovial, gentle
and cruel dub who does not know and
never can know and never will under
stand He is new to the American stage,
but he is as old as Adam blaming Eve
Tor the apple-the stark naked he-ego-
list who thinks his wifc is msd about
his clothes!
Dwight Deacon had to be a small
town man, virtuous and loyal hus-
band, leading and respectable citizen.
conslderate father, in order to show
the profundity Of the feminine contempt
and the depth of the feminine love for
his stupidity and selfshness. They know
us, but they love us. Lulu Bett had to
go out Of the city, she had to get far
from all of the sex sophistication of
Broadway, to say this great thing.
Similarly, Sinclair Lewis had to leave
art galleries and architecture and SYM
phony concerts and all the aspirations
toward beauty in the American heart to
write the cry for beauty that pervades
Main Street. The small town, with its
modern exteriors Of civilizaton-plumb.
ing, lighting, transportation and what
not--imposed upon more primitive and
less sophisticated life, furnishes a new
and flexible medium in which to express
Dig. necessary things.
the drama what the modern young men
and women of the country are trying in
fiction and poetry indicates that these
modern Americans have real idea:
they may be exploring q path, the old
trail, the long trail, the hard trail, the
trail that is always newt"
Glenn Spelvin complains to F. P. A.,
VINO hands on the indictments:
"Writes Haywood Broun in the
Tribooks:
'She Wassermans heroincl seemed
curious person when we met her
first on page AZ, or thcreabouts, and
read.
1T was on December night ,
and so on. quoting verbatim for
some six or seven sticks from page