The New York herald., 1922-05-07

| D4l iAlCAC ID dAlOtA4Ch o4uC VI tlO
Danish character, apart from this
more serious. highly developed mem
tality. This particular branch Of
the Scandinavian race, which has
elected to settle down on a tiny bit
of fertile land, and so to order daily
life that the average man can make
a living at home, is still a race of
sea rovers, still, under it all, the
blood descendants of Lief, Ericsson.
They have become happy, prosper
Gus nation and have worked out a
national literature which might be
described as physically inert, but
mentally and spiritually very much
alive and cropping, seeking. The
physical restlessness in the blood of
this race of rovers has found
strangely little expression in their
own writings during the last century.
This possibly is why, to satisfy that
need, they have turned to writers in
the English tongue, to the many
whose work might be described as
mentally and spiritually inert, but
physically alive-and we must ac-
knowledge that until very recently
the great bulk of American novels
could be so classified. The Danes
have the international mind in mat
ters artistic, scientific and CONNER
cial, although politically they prefer
a policy of sane nationalism. 1t is
a happy combination, rather better
than the other way around.
In spite of it's limited territory
spised as a market for books. The
high level of education and material
prosperity-few big fortunes but
general comfort-means a sizable
book market per capita and per
square mile. During one year, 1919,
the Danish public purchased between
four and five million dollars worth
of books and borrowed four million
books from libraries.
".
Danish booksellers complain that
American methods of book market
ing interfere with the advantage
they might take of the popularity of
American books. which brings many
calls for works of favorite authors
in the original. The Danish public
is perfectly willing to buy paper
bound volumes. as it buys books for
the contents and does not care to
spend so much on the outside. Book
binders are kept busy on books that
preserved in libraries. And it is the
present disinclination of the Ameri-
can publisher to put out paper bound
editions which has interfered with
the sale of American books in the
original throughout the Scandina-
Wan countries.
Finally, the attitude of the best
Danish criticism toward our more
serious books is well expressed in
the following extracts from pri-
vate letter from a Danish publisher.
who is also a critic of ability. to
whom the present writer had sent a
copy of "Main Street" He says of
Sinclair Lewis:
Lord, what luxuriant talent
he has-only it is less poetic than
journalistic. 1 have fought his
long book evening after evening,
hurled it against the wall one
night and started reading it again
the next. / have not quite taken
1t all in yet, so I still hope some
thing will happen. If il doesn't,
shall burst! Not that 1 am any
special wanter of happenings in
books. In Hamsun's, for instance,
not much occurs, but you read
them in a flash, because their
| poetry takes them straight to your
heart, swift winged as dreams. But
what does Mr.. Lewis 0ire us?
''Cleverly caught and correct
ly stenciled pictures from Main
Street, U. S. A, a gallery where
characteristics are piled so heavily
upon each person that he becomes
level and silhouettish. Where is
the irony, the poetic cunning that
should give us an impression of
| the author and make us like him?
We cannot find himself for all his
dry pictures