New-York tribune., 1922-04-02

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BY Boni 3 LiS.rIssht. s.. ''""' '''''A'0
HR LEWISOHN'S prologue to
his autobiography opens with
tho sentiment that "the
world is full Of stories and
many Of the stories are true. But they
are not true enough. An artistic pat
tern comes between the teller Of the
tale and his reality, or vague fear
OF stupid and malicious comment, or,
especially in America, desire to avoid
slngularity. Yet somchow we must
master life or it will end by destroy
ing us, We can master it only by tell
ing each other the quite naked and, if
need be, the Devastating truth.
Some such perception and soma such
motive arc in the consciousness OF
every serious novelist and in that Of
every thinker. But the novelist sacri-
fees to form and the thinker to a
system. Each has an anterior vision
into which he lets his facts and even
his emotions melt. And this anterior
Tislon-of fable in one case, Of
logical structure in the other-is moth
ing but mask. For both the novelist
ana the philosopher arc only autobioc-
raphers in disguise. Each writes
confessions each is lyricist at bot
tom. I, too, could easily have written
novel or treatise. | have chosen
to drop the mask
We have quoted tn. foregoing 10 in
dicate the premise for our belief. on
which this review Of up Stream" rests,
that DR.. Lewisohn suffer. from what
The Frcudians might call justification
complex. 1t is our opinion, after
reading Of his story, that he told it
Geographically because he was unable
TO write it into novel or treatise.
His book leaves no doubt in our mind
thst he is neither on artist. save DOS
hinIE IN his criticism, nor profound
thinker. He is. we think, merely
camp follower in the realms of art
and thought. Certainly, if the two
poems he quotes are representative of
from his narrative that he has written
novels, stories and poems, but since
he does not name thcm--and quotes
only two bad verses---we cannot accept
his assumption that they are good.
All that VIC can do is to Judge him by
the present work, always conscious, to
be sure, of his rare for America
critical talent.
4 S A preface to what follows it may
prove helpful to know that DR.
Lewisohn was born in Germany. came
TO this country with his parents al an
early age, was educated in the South
and taught in mid Western universe
ties, and that in all his attempts at
naturalization as a human, as an ar
list. as a teacher he found himself to
be frustrated because he is a Jew and
because he could not accept the dog
mas, fetishes, superstitions and pref
udices Of the American society in
which he moved
Now, even in the employ ment Of the
auto ographicsl form art is possible
and DR.. Lewisohn's autobiography is,
at best, writing. The truth of which
he writes with such amazing assur-
ance usually emerges with greater
clarity when an artist kneads it into
his form than when a reporter or re-
nyS> NJ n forfJ
There is something more to a story,
true in either the biogra phical or the
hctional sense, than the facts. There
is, we suggest, the artists contribu-
tion. All that DR.. Lewisohn con-
tributes. are passage. which possibly
might have formed the bases of
treatise. Some of those passages are
illuminst ting, but most Of them are just
Had DR.. Lewisohn written a treatise
We dare say that it would have pre-
sented a familiar philosophic point o.
view; that is, the artist or thinker
against the group or herd humans.
Only none Of it, we believe, would have
been thought out by DR.. Lewisohn, but
would have been derived-uncon-
sciously perhaps from those philos-
ophers and artists, who, as a solitary,
are his special gods.
T>HlS takes us to that sentence: "But
the novelist sacrifices to form and
the thinker to d system" Yes, that
is true of many artists and thinkers.
But what of artists like to Dorothy
Richardson and James Joyce and
thinkers like to Nietzsche? These ar
fists created their forms and sys-
tems-does it follow of necessity that
they sacrificed" their fact. to those
forms and systems? Is it not perhaps
possible that they were unwilling to
Sacrifice" their facts to prevailing