New-York tribune., 1922-10-29
A Bookman's Day Book
BY Burton Rascoe

III.
Ihomas Beer, Hsnsen Bauxh, Louis
untermeyer, vinrent EtArrett and
naif Of the youngsters whose work
is Just beginning to sprout all over the
country Collins pointed out that
the very dedication OF "CYTHEREA'
is no more than paraphrase of the
dedacation Cabell inscribed to the mon
ograph he wrote on Hergesheimer and
that THE BRIGHT SHAWL" az did
Cabellian influence.
Collins is the first have encountered
who doesn't like "BABBITTa: he char.
acterized It as ''cheap book saved
only by faint glimpse Of beautv
toward the end. Ny countering that
by such reasoning "MADAME ROs
VARY and "BOuVARD Ell pECIJ-
CHET' were cheap books did not feaga
him; ne was unwilling to grant that
Lewss's and Flaubert'a achievements
were very much the same. think
shey are (and. Of course have an ad
vantage over Collins, by being able to
pu. IN q Ilnal word, SO far as these
columns go); and, allowing for the
priority Of Madame Bovary" and the
superb literary craftsmanship OF that
and the other Flaubertian realistic doc
ument, cannot see Mr.. Lewis's achieve
ment as greatly the inferior. But then
|. am one who does not Gas you may
discover from my preface to the Bor-
zoi edition Of Madame Bovary" hold
my breath and genufect when the name
Fiaubert is mentioned. More or less
privately, I prefer Flaubert's projec-
TENTATIoN DE ST. r. ANToiNEa AM 81 b 1fi1st na.
version) and "SALAMMBO." was
greatly delighted In reading Somerset
Maughan,'s excellent and, to me, pow
erful novel, MRS. CRADDOCK,h to
find that Mr.. Msugham had rewritten
Flaubert's story from Emma Bovary's
point OF view, and had thus, very neatly,
blown UP the Fiaubertian ideal of de-
| tachment.
| FRIDAY. OCTOBER 20
| II. l.. Mencken returned from abroad
To-day, but, although talked to him
over the telephone, / did not get to see
him. We were both tied up with din
har engagements and no was to call me
| later, he was drawn into a party given
by Carl Van Yechten's brother and
Joseph Hergesheimer and that party
progressed so pleasantly that by lO:SO
Mencken was sound asleep. I take 1t
as bearing out Mencken's reputa-
| tion for always observing the social
amenities, keeping his word, appearing
/ AoA CHSa&SmcHIS ana an
swering letters promptly that, accord
ing to reports, he kept muttering my
name. Lunehed with Thomas
Caldecot Chubb at Frank Cases salon
| (where the food is execrable, the serv-
! ice negligent, but the surroundings dis
| proportionately congenial), and we were
| Joined at table by Tailulah Bankhead.
Tallulah got to laughing so loud at her
own jokes (they were good, If embar-
rassing) that, as il by tacit consent,
I the whole room shusshed us. Later on
Haywood Broun admitted his guilt and
| said that he had led the shusshing be-
cause 1t didn't seem to him that any
thing Burton Rascoe could say would
be funny enough to cause such laugh
ter" The truth of it was that Tallulah
! (the clever and pretty little MINK was
BEARERS" in manner immeasurably
funnier than they are uttered on the
| stage and she was enjoying the show
| In memory rs much as we were enjoy
! ing 1t by her reminding Us Of 1t.
| Ny wife and ! went TO dinner to-
night at William and Mary Roberts's
and found there Mrs. Gertrude Ather-
ton, HiIdegarde Hawthorne and her
Indian, and Rollin Lynde Hartt. Mrs.
| Atherton told uB how, as a little girl,
she had been taken to see Walt Whit
man. She had heard that the great poet
always kissed girls and women who
were brought TO him, and as she was
led into the room, she said, she
couldn't see clean spot among all
those whiskers." Whitman's funeral,
she said, had to be postponed because
wasn't a sober person in all Philadel-
phia," she said. Except Agnes Repp-
lier.'' Later on Mrs Atherton said a
certain popular novelist had by far TOO
angelic disposition to be great
writer. 81 don't think any one can be
great writer and have an angelic dis
position, do you? The two don't go to-
Serene, self-assured, witty and amusing
woman, without pose or affectations, a
bit opinionated perhaps, but with in
teresting opinions which do not assume
the dead weight of convictions. was
reminded as I listened to her that the
| first knowledge had Of her existence
came through great newspaper spreads
and headlines and Photographic lay
outs, occasioned innocently enough Gas
1t seems now) by her having the temer-
ity TO smoke cigarette at the South
Shore Country Club in Chicago. It was
q great scandal at the time and Mrs.
Atherton, who defended her action
with vigorous and reasoned argument,
was considered by all the George and
| Myra Rabbits TO be an abandoned
woman. The world do move.
Mrs. Roberts said that 1t was unfor-
tunate that the artists, the creators Of
| beauty, have not more fraternal, toll
Grant and sympathetic attitude toward
one another, because the rest of the
world Is against them anyhow.
In "THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ETH
QUETTE" tonight learned that:
"Forgetting the number Of ones berth
and blundering into the wrong place
is serious breach of good manners
in sleeping car, and it is extremely
severe on tinnid persons who have gone
to bed with visions before their minds
/ Of the man who was murdered in lower
ten and the woman who brought her
husbands corpse from Florida in the
same berth with her"
SATURDAY, OCTOBER I'll
Harry r. Marks came in this morn
| ing and showed me his fine collection
of Arthur Machen manuscripts. They
i include the original holcgraph of "THE
| CHRONICLES OF CLEMENDY," the
holograph of the preface to "FANTAS-
| TIC TALES" corrected proof sheets,
! letters and other items, The short
| preface to Fantastic Tales" is so in
teresting, / give it entire:
.In 1888, cataloguing for Messrs.
Robson and Karslake. then of Coven-
J tsLAy