New-York tribune., 1922-10-01

( x
and is very sophomofic affair. More.
over. II is not only badly conceived an,
phrased, with several weak anti
ciimaxcs; 1t contains numerous error!
OF syntax and grammar, He frequent
~ nisuses the eorrelatiees, write,
stars stab him like knives" and EN-
p!oys such clumsy constructions a.
His purpose ~. was sinpiv Il
make. something cheap and to sell it tt
somebody dear" and aWe were neither
of us ever in much danger of pettinf
killed ourselves"
These points would not loom up ST
disproportlonateiy If Wilson were no,
often capable Of writing, as he does il
the current Vanity Fair: q" tn,
people should come to life for us. bu
MISS Gathers never do. Fiaubert. by ;
single phrase, description of some
external object, could convey all The
pathos and beauty OF human desire ane
oe1eat in decent novel every
word should be in its place and every
character in its right perspective ane
every incident should be presented
with its appropriate economy of de
tall
Saw Ring Lardner to-day for the
hrst time In many months. Month By
month Ring is getting more owl-eyed
in every way. He was being led BY
John Peter Toohey into Frank Cases
salon, but Toohey dashed on ahead ant
Rings way was blocked by grour
OF actresses who were trying to crowd
past the rope. "Come on!" yelled
Toohey. -" forgot to bring my vault
ing pole" answered Ring; but Toohey
settled the difficulty in jifPy: he
brushed the ladies aside with sheat
of play manuscripts. Ring
r1n h-C
lbsen and his favorite novel, w. 3
Maxweli's "The Devils Garden"
Went to Alta May Coleman's this
afternoon to meet Roscoe w. Brink
the author of Down the River" an
extraordinary novel in free verse
which relates the story of woman who
Is sensitive to beauty and who is baf-
fled and beaten by disillusionment in
love, by poverty, by domestic cares and
yet who wins out by nobility Of charac-
ter; 1t is an experiment in concision
and rr&pidlty Of narration, and it is
something more than that; it is novel
of considerable power, with the faults
one would expect in first venture in
so unusual narrative form. And
whereas we have had innumerable re-
cent novels depicting highly sensitized
men in reaction to the Illustrations of
contemporary American life. this is one
Of the few which deals with a woman's
struggle with the adverse circum-
stances of life. 1t is a novel which, ]
should think, would appeal very strong
ly to women, for it Is an honest at
tempt to present a woman's point Of
view sympathetically and intelligently
Mr.. Brink is a slight, reticent
but salert and amiable fellow. with q
high forehead, wisp of mustache
sand black eyes.
Went with my wife to the opening
s'of "The Exciters" tonight. which /
enjoyed much more than I should have
II weren't very fond of Talluiah
Bankhead, both as an actress and as a
person. Ran into Sherwood Anderson,
resplendent in his black stock tie and
ling the intermission,, and he told me
he was working very hard on some
short stories. John v. A.
Weaver told me that when he was in
France he looked too often on the vim
when it was rouge and as a result the
doctor had put him on an egg and
spinach diet. .''.p George Jean
Nathan told mo he was expecting
Mencken back from Europe very soon.
:. Anderson, Weaver. Seward Col
,lins and Joined the .nrong back stage
y
pretty and excited in the night dress
she wears in the last act. -. To
Reuben's for a sandwich and found
there Charley Macarthur, who has just
finished play in collaboration with
Edward Sheldon and Jimmy Whitaker,
the former dramatic critic, who said:
"There is something abouts being a
critic that makes terrible hick out
Of man. l was an awful hick when
was a dramatic critic"
SATURDAY, SEPT. %
Eltnor Wylie, author of "Nets to
Catch the Wind, my wife, Seward COL
Inns and ! motored out to New Canaan
and had dinner with Stewards mother.
Elinor is, / think, one OF the three or
four leading women poets in English.
She told me that the poems in her first
volume were written over space of
only few months, two years ago; that
she wrote seldom, but very easily and
with few revisions, having written re-
Gently six poems in single night. .
Read as much of J. Middleton Murry's
"Still Life" as / could stand tonight;
it Is another novel about the amorous
difficulties Of young intellectual.
SUNDAY, SEPT. I'd
Read all day and went over to T. r..
Smiths tonight and found there Ernest
and Madelaine Boyd, Fania Marinoff
and Carl Van Vechten. Boyd and Van
Vechten both said they were inspired
by my Dead Give-Away" in to-day's
paper, to tabulate their own list of
preferences and prejudices; but Van
Vechten said that every time he made
out list it was entirely different from
the one before it. The first two vol
umes of Boyd's translation of the COM
plete and unexpurgated edition of Guy
de Maupassant have just been issued
by knopf. This is the first attempt to
publish Maupassant in a wholly salts
factory translation, with the volumes
arranged in their chronological order.
The edition of "Germinie Lacerteux," )"
by the Goncourts, translated with a
preface by Boyd, is also just off the
press, in a beautiful formal.
Smith proved too generous host, and
my, wife helped me TO get home and in
bed by 8. At 1880 F. Scott Fitzgerald
called up. He and Zelda, Mary Blair,
and Edmund Wilson jr. wanted to come
out, or have US join them, / forget
which, but | was too sleepy either To
encourage the one or consent to the
other.
MONDAY, SEPT. 25
Lunched to-day with Djuna Barnes
and we ran into Joseph Hergesheimer,
up from West Chester for the filming
OF Java Head" and looking very rosy
and happy His new novel, "The Bright
Shawl Cuban tale of the last CEN
tury, ls to be published on October Is.