New-York tribune., 1921-03-20


CAN LITERATURE. Vols. III and Nv.
Edited by william Peterfieid Trent.
John Erskine, Stuart p. Sherman and
Carl Van Doren. Published by G. P.
Putnam's Sons
T HESE> two volumes mark the
completion of a monumental
work. The Cambridge History
presents an exhaustive survey
of American literature in every field
down to the end of the nineteenth CEN
tury. The magnitude Of the work may
be judged from the fact that the bib
biographies alone take up almost two
hundred pages, and the volumes are
a triumph of American scholarship and
criticism, The chapters on Individual
authors and literary groups are written
by experts, but they are free from YER
bosity and pedantry. The history is
not only impressive and informative,
it is also highly interesting and emf
nently readable.
Special interest in the third volume
is attached to the criticisms of three
outstanding American novelists-Mark
Twain, William Dean Howells and Henry
James. Stuart P. Sherman pays a state
~ tribute TO the genius and personality
of the author Of Huckleberry Finn.
A Tribute to Mark Twain
I'M Xxx Twain is one of our great
representative men. He is a fulfilled
promise of American life. He proves
the virtues of the land and the society
in which he was born and fostered. He
incarnates the spirit of an epoch of
American history when the nation. ter
ritorially and spiritually enlarged, en-
tered Justify upon new adventures. In
the retrospect he looms for US with
Whitman and Lincoln, recognizably his
countrymen, out of the shadows of the
Civil War, an unmistakable native son
iof an eager, westward moving people
unconventional, self-reliant, mirthful
profane, realistic, cynical, boisterous,
popular, tender-hearted, touched with
chivalry and permeated to the marrow
of his bones with the sentiment of
democratic society and with loyalty to
American institutions"
Professor Sherman gives we'll bal
anced account of Mark Twain's life and
work, emphasizing the sturdy original
ity of his creative talent.
Howells is ably discussed by Carl
Van Doren. He helped to introduce
the realistic tradition into our litera-
ture, although his realism never car
ried him to very violent or startling
lengths. Although self-educated, he
accommodated himself very readily to
the requirements of classical style. His
many novels, with their almost un-
broken succession Of happy endings,
seem perhaps too consistently sunny to
those who have fed upon the strong
fare of Dostoievsky and Zola. Yet
Howells was certainly shrewd OBJ
server of human nature; and his long
list of writings constitutes a valuable
record of American social life. DR..
Van Doren mentions the strong in
iuence. of Tolstoy upon Howells in
his latest years. The spirit of the
great Russian is reflected in Altruria,
Howells's attempt to envisage an ideal
community.
The delicate and elusive quality of
Henry James is adequately savored by
Joseph Warren Beach. Professor
Beach compares James with Pater: both
men were preeminently literary i'm
pressionists, eager to explore and de-
fine the most minutely differentiated
shades of sensation.
The development of history during
the last half of the nineteenth century
is analyzed by Professor John Spen-
GER Bassett. During this period his
tory became more scientific and less
literary in its character. 1t became
more technical and lost favor with the
general reading public. Lately men
like Beard, Robinson. Cheney and
Schapiro have done much to give his
tory new birth in humanism.
Newspapers and Magazines
The growth and popularization of
newspapers and magazines after the
Civil War is described in chapters by