New-York tribune., 1922-10-22

man always FAST mtHNsS
wosker. Having worked under pressure,
enc cunrot. = suppose. get out OF the
habit, With leisure on ones hands,
ore lat least this one) simply will not
work. Now, should have written what
| am supposed te write on, say. Satur-
day or Sunday, or at all events on
Monday night: but here 1t Ii Wedaes-
day. the closing day for composition
In my department., and I fddled around
Nil day and had to write nearly Blk
columns between S snd 12 tonight.
First, got 70 the ofice and
read my letters, dictated some cor
respondcnce, looked over the new
books, picked up Franklin r. Adams's
-0verseSp and read it until | had to
rash up town for lunch with Charlotte
Dean. She told me a lot of anecdotes
shous Booth Harrington and Meredith
Nicholson and what marvellous and
charming wife Mrs. Harrington is, and
how she sees to it that Mr.. Tarking-
tons mind Is relieved of all worries
and that he is entirely free to write;
and SHAT Mr.. Nicholson atiH looks like
the original Charles Dana Gibson man
and lis as courteous and affable as he
was when / first met him at an awful
convention oil. the American Institute
and Academy Of Arts and Letters in
Chicago, and as reporter got Mr.
Nicholson TO come to the Office and
-svrite a story Of the banGuet--arl ex
celient story, which. the city editor
ariked ard ran my dribbie instead.
Mr.. Nicholson never made the slight
ost complaint. Then Horace
.,ivsrixht came over to our table and
sssed why IL was that had never run
note, saying that he WAS henceforth
to publish the work of Mrs. Gertrude
atherton. told him 1t had kept slip
ping my mind. but that / would surely
run something about 10 next Sunday,
Ring Lardner came by ard said
ne vas getting into town about ones
every week now. usually on Wednes-
day. and would call me up eome time,
Carl Vnn Vechten, with his arm
n sling, came up to our table and
explained that he had been pushed Off
piano stool by Horace Liveright at the
dinner fer A. C. Evans and had broken
his eoI,arbone. Then Mrs. Dean
aud | went around TO the Beacon Book
shop to try to get a copy OF George
Grosz's book of drawings, and there we
ran into Edward Goidbeck and Lana
sbarbanelI. Lima wanted to know now
Hazel was. and told me she had iound
six new plays, all by American auyhors,
and that she had seen "R. U. r. anc
aadn,t found them epoch making. :.
ma so it went until o'clock or after,
nd nothing done.
Adams's book I liked. He gains, !
bink. Immensely in stature when read
+, book form. Usually the converse is
true. especially when the book Is mace
in Of short itema or paragraphs written
or a daily paper. 1t is for that rea-
.cn find futile most books made up
at. reviews and criticisms originally
aublisbed In magazines OF newspapers,
A conscience Of this futility has re.
trained me when ! have been urged
A publishers to bring together In a
COX the fugitive pieces l nave wiz
on as daily or weekly journalistic
tint: how many of them are worth
endinv twice? How few Of such books
&ro worth keeping on ones shelves
Adams, however, is capable Of self
eriticism to a remarkable degree. From
sbis book one is able to ascertain tnat,
aside from his parodic and versltylng
ingenuity, his sure sense of rhythmic
and auantitative values in poetry, his
rreatest merits are these: he is mature
minded and he has an unassaliaDle IN
bcilectual integrity. These are rare
tirtues. To say that he has these Is
20 forferd q charge that, on occasion,
4
biased. ! step into that breach. l
aon't recall that he has been, in my
knowledge, sophomoric; and his intel
lcetual Integrity has been to me a
Quality to emulate. He is, even,
Should say. Quixotic in this regard.
And for that Hike him. He Is not
without meiice or prejudice or hatred;
ne is considered, by many, to be in
tolerant, sarcastic and disdainful. But
these are his great qualities, the quail
ties the Greeks attributed to their
geds: and for them l admire him.
When be has caught me in mistakes
and stupidities (orally and In print) my
affection toward him has expanded
rather than contracted; because | have
not only known that he was right, but
have sepsed that in censuring me
for limitations do possess he was not
less mindful of the frugal merits that
are In me. In this he Is something
IAe the lost mentor TO us both, Bert
Lesion Taylor. 1t was impossible fol
me 20 share many of Taylor's opin,
ions; he was older than I, and we
parted intellectual company on numer
Gus occasions, the while we shared bee,
and skittles, he maintaining hotly tina
black was black and | maintaining will
eaua, heat that white was white, an,
both Of us were. possibly, laborin
snder the impression that the othe
Maa asserting black TO be white.
"Oversetp is not funny book; It i
critical and philosophical book wit,
amusing and humorous overtones
There are paragraphs in IL which ar
merely clever and even slightly slap
stick; but there are pieces, such a
The Art OF Fascinating" and "Nicke
Platonism" and "Huneker wrote wit
considerable malice; healthy malice
without which criticism is largel
5lnk," which have in them beauty an,
ruth; and that Is all on earth w
snow or need to know. I commend tn
book to you.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER la
My wife and Ihad luncheon to day witt
iohn Cournos. the author OF Babel
who has just returned after eigh
wears in England1, and with OFT
,4iyeright and Bernadine Sold. Cour
nos told me an amusing anecdota npou
Ezra Pound. When Pound first wen
ever to England he set about in ever
wRy TO attract attention to himself
Laseefles Abcrcrombie, it appears, wrot
an essay on Wordsworth for one of tn
serious literary magazines and Ponn
Immediately challenged Abercronsbi bi
70 duel for his effrontery in writ;n
about SO dead q poet as Wordsworth
his late in the day. Abercrombie wa
frightened out of his wits; he is
slight. shy, little fellow; and he de
ter3nined to consult w. Is. Yeats as 1
what course he should pursue In an