New-York tribune., 1922-12-31

/ and Frank Harftsf Ai'N" N'Ng"''''H
Emma Goldman. poets. editors, royelists' lee
tpred or reei,cd there and endured afser~er'
80, spisnotic. iudierous. ridiculous heckin'
% The crowd. There was me tm'
when Margaret And,' SON stood in The cor
J ,ilor Of thc Fine Arts Building lmpatlentlj
i,ouiring when the revolution vas going q
lerin: there was the time when Ben hscht
apreesr wss pet en- BY a Little Theatel
,.,oun on The eorth Side ard the FIRST ~ord
uttered b. the central character SCI ear
atrele and tongues gabbirg for weeks
t,ete was the time ehen Boderhe.m smoked
pirc four and hslf feet long on
Michigan Avenue and asked pedestrians T.
Bght II for him; there was the time when
waldo Frank was guest Of honor at Tennes'
s,e a.t-hell's house end sat saucer eyed with
nmezcmcnt while two literary antagonists
fought Tor five hours steadily over
literature, calling each other namc'
adroitly; there was the time poet
Who has a mania for sympathy ban.
daged his arm which he said he had broken
and lived for three weeks az the house Of
another poet. having everything done for him.
until the host insisted that the bandages be
changed for fear OF gangrenc, only % dis
cover that the arm was not injured a. ali;
there was the time when Carl sandburg and
Ben Hccht framed on w. l.. George at lunch
con so that every time George asked silly
questions about the crotic propcnsitics Of
American women in Highly euphemis,ie
and technical terms they would enswer him
In such coarse and obscene words a1 they
rad not thought Of s.nee the days they saw
them chalked up on outhouses, making
George blush 70 the roots OF his hair and
choke violently with embarrassment, and
there was the time when Ben Reiiman in'
troduccd Emma Goldman at the most e@cli-
eivc soc al-literary society in Chicago with
short dissertation on sex which sent women
screcching from the room-this some Ben
who has now become an ardent Christian
and most respectable citizen: and there
was the time but these anecdotes are all
most ineyhaustible; they often sound ,nered-
iblc. and many o. the best ones cannot be
related IN a great family Newspaper.
Chcago's literary renaissance had It's comeal
and ironieal side. but II is a lively and,
think. a healthy event. II had more vigor
and independence than the one that preceded
1.-THE period OF the Whiteehopel Club and
the "Chapbook' crowd. strange cultural phc-
nomena in what was then the most material
and ugly OF cities, period Of literary aetiy-
ity which produced a short-liycd little maga-
zine which was the first one IN English 10
take notice Of the French symbolists, the
first 70 publish translatons Of Mallarme
Associated with this period were Percival
Pollard. Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Ham
lin Garland. Vance Thompson, Finley Peter
Dunno. George AIDE. Eugene Field, Herbert
stone. Henry Blake Fuller, Harrison Rhodes,
Hobart Chatfeld Chatfcld.Taylor. Ella W.
Peattie. Opie Read and that chap whose name
forget and whose admirers say Jack London
plagiarized in Before Adam" This group
was, Of course, long before my time, but
have heard much about il from Robert Burns
Peattie, John stahI and others, and hope
that some day Peattie or II. b. Fuller will
give US history OF IT,.
There are times when have doubts about
the directive utility Of criticism, but before
! leave oF this subject wish TO record my
belief that the initial stimulus to the period
which flowered in Poetry: Magazine OF
Verse; "The Little Review the Little The
eter and all those things in Chicago came
from two-page weekly review Of books in
@The Chicago Evening Post On the paper
at that time were Francis Haekett, Floyd Dell,
Julian Mason, Tiffany Blake and Percy Ham
mond. Haekett and Dell had vast enthusi-
asm for modern literature and an equally
vast enthusiasm for life. They had free
hand They made Of their section a living