New-York tribune., 1922-08-06
A Booknlan's Day Book

IULY a6

DEuna Barnes has told me that
il meant her literary suicide; Gilbert
SeIdes says that it has messed ms
style all up; Edmund Wilson jr. has
new ideas about ii every time see
him: and to-day. i received volun-
farv contribution from Walter j..
Kingsley. which makes me think that
perhaps il is just as we'll That
s'Ulysses, is net readily proeurable.
Writes Mr.. Kingsley: James Joyce. $
'Uiysses' is the most shattering WORK
of genius done in modern times; 1t ls
literary super-dynamite; It aronses to
madness Of praise or deilr1um OF &c
runciafion II 3 filled with terrible
toxins, with divine Oscillations, de-
feeatory deposits, altar of the soul,
odor of public lavntcries: it is every
thing glorious and disgusting, soaring
and crawling, facing the sunlit SKY or
the sky of stars one moment and then
plunging like falling airplane into
the animal ooze Of human nature HIS
vast volume IS an encyclopedias OF
prose numbers in all their variety
from restatements of the hammered
masterpieces Of the lords of language
10 his own incompatible ascents and
descents on the heaven-scalIng and
understanding ladder of his rich,
earthly and imperial style. A troub-
ling, provocative, challenging book
one that will make the literary seis-
nographs trembe for years 10 come
and so on.
Clement Wood came to see me this
morning and told me that buttons will
publish his new novel, 'Nigger," next
month. We talked about poets, and he
said that ii had been his experience
that the two poets audiences most en-
10y hearing read aloud are Carl sand
urg and Robert Frost. Max
we'll Bodenheim dropped in and COM
planned against the general critical fal-
lacy OF writing of poetry in terms of
music. Poetry ne said, "is sepa-
rate art or it is nothing, and, to speak
Of it's music as the one thing by which
It stands or falls, is as bad as to speak
of the philosophy of the Fifth Sym
phony as the one thing by which IL
stands or falls. Even to approach the
varied harmonies and tones possible IN
music, by the use Of words, is impos-
sible. | can get more actual music out
of the piano with one finger than the
most musical peet in the world can GET
out of the arrangement OF words.
Bodenheim was, as usual, In
rage against editors, poets and crit
les He clicked and sucked his teeth,
suffered and beat time with his foot,
and disposed of at least twenty people
by name with poisonous epithets. The
least malicious of these was his refer
ence to Edmund Wilson Jr. as IAN sru-
dite policeman, fatuously twirllng has
critical nightstick; he ought TO take
the examination for Mayor Hylan
finest" He had good word, however,
for Carl Van Doren, of The Nation,
who, he says, is unique among EDITORS.
He looks through my manuscripts at
once and gives me an immediate deci-
sion and arranges then and there that
t-ef my check promptly. o
sunch with Henry Sell, and he told me
about the slang expressions OF the rul-
crs and subjects Of New York's under
world restaurants and cabarets. fiat
or "fat-hat" is a college boy. because
lie wears hat crushed fat at the top,
carries his own flask, orders mlnerai
water, spends little, tips economically
and likes to get obstreperous. The sole
concern OF managers and walters wnen
they spot a fiat" is to get him out,
by bad service, as soon as possible.
Building himself up means trying TO
make d favorable impression. heel
is q salesman or clerk or any small
salaried man, because this species
wears rubber heels. a 'heeF" tries to
make a night of it on ten dollars annd,
in consequence gets little attention
from walters. Will Lensie
asked me whether I had read the hith-
erto unpublished short story by Guy
de Maupassant which had been dlscoy-
cred recently in Paris and which
"Hearst's international" ran last 4nv.-.,'
in translation, / had, but / found 1t
more interesting as discovery than
as literature. Read a com
ment by 4. b. WaIl1ley upon "Civiliza-
tion in the United States: Az INQUIRY
by Thirty Americans" wherein MI
Walkley said very wisely that most OF
the criticism offered in this book ap-
plies to conditions which are not pecul-
lar to America but are common TO al
the civilizations of the world. He says:
s'One is not surprised to find him (Mr.
J. E. Spingarn) setting forth three
needs of American criticism as right
aesthetic, a sound scholarship anu q
sense of good taste. What does sur
prise me is the restrictive epithes
American Here Mr.. Spingarn seems
10 me to substitute particular for gen
eraI for the three needs specified, far
from being peculiar to America, are
the needs of criticism all the world
over. We have precisely the
same state of affairs Gas those Mr.
Spingarn describes) in England, in
France, in Italy, in Spain. .
These American gentlemen have been
talking Of common mistakes aud griev-
ances of humanity as though they were
exclusively American. They must let
US claim our Share in the burden and
efTer our fraternal sympathy"
IA JULY Il
"A Grant Overton sent me a copy of
y THE Doctrine Of Sin" by Reginald
Stewart Moxon, of which I read as
much as l was able. tonight, with 9
keen interest. 1t is probably the first
effort to give q complete history of the
concept of sin as it has been variously
eRunciated aad held in the Occident
from Old Testament times. Mixed UP
with the concept, of course, have been
the doctrines Of mans fall, original
sin and the problem of free will, about
which so many controversies have
arisen, so many battles have been
fought, and from which so many
schisms have resulted, Irenaus, il
appears. held that the Fall of Man was
blessing in disguise for it was neces.
sary to the Christian scheme Of Re.
demption. Without 1t the Messiah
would not have come to save the
world. ST.. Augustine, who invented
the phrase Original sim" believed that
man was hopelessly corrupt and that
nothing could save him but Gods
mercy; but Pelasgius held that man
had his good points and might, By
volition, avoid the errors to which
corrupt natures are disposed. This
early opposition of pessimism and Cd,
timism occasioned u1iuero1 locor,e