The New York herald., 1922-09-17

position of a successor to his re
markably popular "Maih Street." and has
to face an~audience largely prepared to
believe that authors never repeat their
triumphs. Nothing delights more the sem
sation fed American public after raising
up new celebrity to the stars than to re-
duce him to the ranks. Both Mr.. Hutchin-
son and Mr.. Lewis face this human preju-
dice of democracies with their seasons Of
ferings. Mr.. Sinclair Lewis at least. with
his keen understanding of popular processes
of thinking. has not sought to evade the
issue. "Babbitt'' is a distinct challenge
alike to the friends and the critics of his
famous novel. Quantity the Intention Is
too apparent, but it has the merit of au-
dacity, imagination and that vital conf
dence in oneself which protects a certain
author even against his friends.
1t has become popular in certain caustic
circles to say the success of Main Street"
was made by those who could never finish
1t. and in this criticism there must be
some pertinacity, for it has not only be-
come current here but returns to us from
English sources. 1t is a criticism which
literary methods, will have to face con-
tinuously. Others have said that the popu-
larity of the book lay in its extremely fell
citous title and have asserted that once
the proposition stated the rest was i'm
material. All these criticisms can be
urged against the city method of Mr..
Lewis in the present book without. how
ever, detracting from the significance Of
Mr. Lewis in present day fiction.
You may discuss whether Mr.. Lewis is
true novelist or not, whether he is a
his depletion of Main Street." and the
larger macadamized Main Street of Bah
bitt." is true to life or, a distortion the
fact will remain that Mr. Lewis is revolu-
tionizingiy significant. In his later de-
veopment added to his realistic genius
for detailed observation, trenchant phrase
and felicitous description (part of the bag
gage of an artist, surely). he may de-
velop a vision for seeing from the bottom
up, as well as from the top down, and a
more sympathetic perception of the humble
qualities of romance: which is, simply
stated, that the lights and shadows of life
love- ambition, sacrifice and hope are just
as active, precious and real under the cloak
of vulgarity as where refinement, opportu-
nifty and education fashion a society. The
secret of the success of Dickens was not
in the pencil of the caricaturist but in his
power TO draw out of the masses charac-
ters that were often lovable and always
sympathetically understandable
Yet. if Mr.. Lewis does remain in his
present literary method he will at least
have profoundly affected not only the COM
ing generation of novelists but. more
notable achievement, have educated the
great reading public to willingness to-
ward self examination, a receptive mood
which induces a genuine literature. Many
a novel of fearless insight into American
life will succeed because Mr.. Lewis has
shocked his public with the brusqueries of
"Main Street" and "Babbitt." When we
remember the treacle hungry public of
only ten years ago and It's sacrosanct
tenets Of SNUG responsibility that were the
despair of the writer, I, for one. acknowl-
edge gratefully my debt to the riotous au-
dacity of Mr.. Lewis
II.
Considered as a novel "Babbtt" Is ex-
tremely vulnerable But first consider 1t
not as a work of fiction but an arraign-
ment of a society. which Mr.. Lewis cer-
tainly has in mind and possibly holds Of
major Importance. For after all the novel
is valuable as a literary form, chiefly bo-