New-York tribune., 1922-05-21
A Bookman's Day Book
By Burton Rascoe
MAY .

ffNIHEb With EGou2fd Gofd-
heck ard wo talked of modern
German writer's, with whose
IL bizarre tendencies have much
..s he has no sympathy. He consid-
:. sDer Ted in Venedig' beautiful
vars and Neyserling's Diary OF a
srs.seliny Philosopher" the greatest
.srsrv achievement of modern times,
~. no said he vouldnt read Arno
a.s.ss ssss sDie Blechschmiede." He was in
...',skted in my reference to Stanislaws
s..,ss1ski. because his nephew, the
s.sster. Walter Dean Goldbcck, had
NED 20 him most enthusiastically of
S.nkaiski's genius. The claim
usae for Szukalski as the superior
:, sny modern sculptor whose work I
p go seer is a reasoned Judgment.
ssssd upon long acquaintance with
Ssnsalssi's work. incidentally, it is
judgment also given by numerous
snropsan art critics upon work that
SSnka!sN had accomplished when he
~,s sixteen years old in Cracow. Fan
..s,;c IN his conceptions, he is but re-
s"s,;cc the history of geniuses like
a t.o.ardo, Goya Holbein and Durcr.
Is ~ ;s ye, under thirty and he consid-
-. IN that he has done hitherto as
,.e,e apprentice work. Yet with the ey-
n.,,;on Of "The Old Courtesan," | sin
esrer believe, Rodin never achieved
the equal Of the bulk of this appren-
tjce work. We were joined
after lunch by Lima Abarbanell, the
sctress, whose personality vitalizcd the
american production of THE Grand
Duke u. Edward Bernays came
in this afternoon to inquire if many
Of the younger generation, to which he
seems to think | belong. are becoming
interested in the Greek and Roman
classics. | don't know that they arc.
bu. if they would it wouldn't hurt
them any. The vogue of specializa-
ton and vocational training which
arose as a concomitant of our economic
Development, has, L believe, made the
educated American the least
Interested of all civilized men
IN varied ideas the dullest of conversa-
tionalists and the most deficient in gen
e.al culture. 1t has made experts, but
men void of interests lying outside of
their special fields; it has made ma
ehnists who know all that is to De
known about the function Of a single
aywheel, but nothing about the ma
chine as whole; it has made men eff
tkHt, u0t tiitoOItS' w uGu luV DOY
saes to college, If he chooses to seek
axe not one subject which may be of
ny possible use to him in the financial
sense. | hope he is attracted to Greek
and Latin, and even if he is not that
he grows interested in the translatioas
Of the classics; for from them is to be
derived not only the pleasure the art
Of writing gives, but a reassuring
knowledge of human life. He will learn
that human weaknesses and vanities
persist and change not, through the
centuries; that the form of injustice
rares, but that in degree it is constant;
sbeye all, he will know that the vices,
eorruption and chicanery which many
believe are peculiar to this age and
this nation are peculiar to human
groups in all ages and all nations.
From this knowledge, perhaps, he may
ishieve poise, serenity and sense of
iamor. And then he will be
fady to appreciate Meredith's Essay
81 Comedy" and, say, "The Margin of
Hssitation." by Frank More Colby, the
Essays of Max Beerbohm, the genius Of
Anatole France, the work of James
Branch Cabell Dinner with John
Psals Bishop, the poet, and we
talked of E. E. Cummings (who, we
think, is an impatient man of great
talent who should have spent more
time upon his impressive but uneven
Stevens (to me one of the most cx-
qusite of living poets), F. Scott
Fitzgerald (whose emotional sensi-
bilty, Bishop said, is so easily tapped
that he is often unstrung by the sight
Of beautiful landscapes) and of the
revolt Of men like Cummings and Dos
Passos against the traditions of man
ners and gentility. After reading
Three Soldiers" pictured Dos Passos
accurately, as / afterward learned)
as a sensitive, diffident, studious
youth who had led a clustered life
and who was thrown into contact with
men in the army who seemed like
fabulous creatures to him-rough and
hearty fellows, with simple appetites
ana ambitions-and that he was fas-
cinated by them. Again in "Rosinante
to the Road Again" we find Dos Passos
IN Spain, observing with evident envy
the natural, uncomplex animal exist
ehce OF muleteers, wagoners, shepherds,
toreros-the fascination of man who
would give much to shed his heritage
ul culture and manners and live like
rneh, But one discovers from
LOS Passos himself that most of these
men men DO not see their lives in the same
i.ght; one and all they plan to come to
america and become millionaires.
n. Edmund Wilson jr. told me that
Jos Fassos, who once enjoyed Henry
James, now abominates him and all his
wofks as the fosterer of an esmascu-
s.eo, sterile, hypocritical tradition of
mar manners and false gentility, as de-
nist and obscurer of natural. human
a:ia.ionshlps. =. But this is un-
aerstandable repugnance. The re-
tba vass or that position is, say,
me position OF Hergesheimer and
wa was the position Of Meredith, or even
VII y. James himself: namely, that it is
o.,y tne subtleties, surfaces and man
a;a ae,s OF life that matter. i. Quite ac-
,tinentaily tonight I discovered the
tSalentlty of "Mr. ". H." to whom
sssaakespeare addressed the sonnets. I
snant publish book on the subject:
,h.. h.1e rear are enough books already proving
at ~ mr. W; H." is everybody but "Mr.
n Still, my contention is as valid
ia ~ any other, and it is more plausible
Msn most. l was reading "Epigrammes
~ tne Oldest Cut and Newest Fashion,"
oy John Viewer. This book was first
punished in 1899 and was never re-
issued until recently. Only one copy
,.sn - known to exist previous to this new
isumltion. That one is in the Bodleian
1a1,Orary. NV The modern John Weaver, Of
~. ,.n American" is immeasurably super
.us as poet, and the epigrams are
sa'.e without value except from the