New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-09-24
A Bookman's Day Book
By Burton Rascoe
SEPTEMBER I


D that obtains in our present phase
Of development under an indus
trial democracy is but dolorous
prelude to better ordered state Of
tfTairs, then America should shortly
become q paradise Of eontented people,
. icisurely devoting their surplus ener-
siss to the cultivation of the things
III she mind and spirit. How
ever, am constrained to doubt that it
will, for I reflect that such a consum
nation has never yet been attained by
any nation in the history Of the HUI
man race. Even the small minority
which has, through the centuries. thus
utilized its energies, has not been con-
Z spicuously happy at so doing. Their
very ability to concentrate their ener-
gies for creative work which took form
in poetry, drama, music, architecture,
painting, sculpture, prose, science, re-
ligion-ali sublimated self-expression
has been but the result of frustra-
ton of the progenitiye instinct-La
s,scuie occupation de I'etre est de
reRoyer la forme don't il est revetu-
and this escape from the purely animal
function Of life has been effected at
the cost, or as the result of sorrow
and of painful sense Of inadequacy.
Read, for instance, the life of st.
Augustine or contemplate the personal
history of Leonardo da Vinci. :.
But, meanwhile, aspiration and discon-
tent are the parents-if not of para
disc, then--of change, and their
nuptials have never been attended by
better auguries of successful issue.
No serious book is written
in America nowadays which does not
carry It's implied or direct criticism of
our ideals our scheme Of life, our cul-
tural attachments People rose
UP in offended and angry reply to the
structures attributed to Rudyard Kip
ling, but those structures were but mis-
wordcd and illogical congratulations in
reference to a specific shortcoming-
the shoddiness of our national soul
which our essayists, our novelists, our
poets are every day bewailing from
the housetops. Kipling's error lay in
assuming that England's soul is any
nobler; but it does no good to shout
FYour'e another!" 1t were better to
take heed to the grumbing, satiric,
saddened, bitter and prophetic voices
among US. Read Main Street" and
"Babbitt," by Sinclair Lewis; Zone of
Ours" by villa Gather; Three Sol
diers," by John Dos Passos; "The Last
Mile" by Frank McAlister; "Gargoyies,"
by Ben Hecht; Civilization in the
United States: An Inquiry by Thirty
Americans" "Miss Lulu Bett," by IONA
Gale; "Cytherea," by Joseph Herges-
helmer; s"Beyond Life" by James
Branch Cabell; "The Road to the
World" by Webb waldron; Gold
Shod," by Newton Fuessle; "The I'm
dertaker's Garland" by John Peale
Bishop and Edmund Wilson jr.; Getty
Block" by Waldo Frank; "Winesburg,
Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson; PREF
en-; "Indelible," by Elliott II. Paul:
THE Fair Rewards" by Thomas Beer;
Introducing Irony" by Maxwell Boden-
helm; Chicago Poems" by Carl Sand
burg They are of varying
merit except in the one merit Of reflect
ing serious and poignant discomfort
with current values.
AT lunch to-day with Alfred Knopf,
who told me Of his visit last year with
w. II. Hudson, who recently died In
teous old man." said Alfred, who was
somewhat bewildered by the fame and
financial security that had come to
him IN his old age along with the
heiated recognition of his books. He,
who had keen so poor, had so much
money then he didn't know what to do
with it. AS a tribute to him | planned
and had printed special edition of
Green Mansions each copy of which
Ia
sheets were on the way over for his
signatures when he died. To carry
through the project it would now be
necessary TO resort to some such ex
|. pedent as that of getting his signature
from cancelled checks and inserting
Il them in the book
In the current issue of "The Atlantic
Monthly" there is q piece by George
Moore, "A Conversation in Ebury
Street. which is about absoIutely
nothing at ali, and yet IT Is one @'e of
the most beautiful bits of prose / have
ever read. 1t is not even converse
TON, such rs Moore gave us in
vAvowals. A young man, Joseph
Husband, from Winnetka, ILL.,, comes To
visit Moore and tells him, in effect
that his wife and his children are the
whole OF his interests; but Moore
makes OF the incident an occasion for
the most delectable and savory niece
OF word weaving that it is possible to
imagine.
1t is Moore, by the way, who has
said the last word on censorship. If
ne pointed out, the censors were con.
sistent and If they should carry their
activities to logical conclusion. sun.
pressing all things that eroticallv ex.
cite the susceptible, they would have
ultimately to suppress spring days.
In the same issue of "The Atlantic
Monthly" Katherine Fullerton Gero,,jd
makes the statement that mo woman
can keep her head about Byron" and
proceeds to demonstrate conclusivelv
that at least Mrs. Gerould can not
On the other hand let critics aaam,
with moral fervor recall Southev's
shrill and silly boast after his review
of Byron's "Don juan: 81 havf
fastened his name upon gibbet fo,
reproach and ignominy as long as Il
shall endure. Take 1t down who cant
Villa Gathers imagination saun.
s.ters; it does rot dance 1t has a visit,
! full dignity, like the dignity of ons
who would enjoy but is incapable OF
enjoyment not through physical liri,
tations. but through an innate convic.
ton. Of the appropriateness of jigs
81 obsequies.
SEPTEMBER 8
At lunch recently a very popula,
novelist was endeavoring to convince
l.