New-York tribune., 1922-04-02


"Graustark," "Thc Eternal City" the
novels Of f. j. Roe and of Marie
Corclli; "The Day Of the Dog" and
"Tho Mississippi Bubble" Now only
fading memory to people who are now
as apologetic about the pleasure they
once took in them as they are about
the tintypes and portraits in their
albums.
Again there are novels which some
hcw got published and went unnoticcd
and which nosey bibliophiIcs will find
years after to be Of high literary merit
Some one viii publish an essay about
orc Of these discoveries, and soon new
cations will appear, and more essays
of appreciation, and finally defnitive
edition of the mans work, including
the manuscripts found in an old trunk,
lraRmcuts and juvcniIa. The author
itatiye biography at length Will appear
after years Of patient search and
inquiry.
Such has been the fate of writer's
like Herman Melville and Stephen
Crane. If l mistake not, it will be
also the fate of Arthur Machcn and of
Henry Harland, Ambrose Dicrce and
Henry Blake Fuller, Richard Middle
ton and n dozen or so others.
Meanwhile, young men and women
ruin their eyes and their health, starve
| themselves Of food and pleasure, writ
ing away into the night books and
poems and dramas which they are ut
terly confident will bring them fame
and fortune. And these books, many
Of them, will eventually find them
selves on the rummage sale counters
and on reviewers shelves, fanked by
! The Mormon Settlement in Arizona"
and 'Income Tax Procedure: 1922"
OBVIOUSLY there is little in the
group OF books listed above to
elicit interesting or pertinent com
ment. And, with no new books at hand,
ono is inclined to reminisce Of books
he has recently read.
should begin with "The Fair Re
wards" by Thomas Beer, and had not
Mr.. Hammond proved the exception to
tho critics who, in their haste, failed
to observe that this is an unusual and
beautiful book should dwell upon it at
| length. OF all the New York repre-
scntatives Of the prolific younger gen
Grafton, Mr.. Beer and Robert Nathan,
the author of "Autumn," are, believe,
the finest artists. These two alone give
their work grace and charm They
/ alone are distinguished by the ma
turity Of their sentiment, their serenity
and poise, their perfection of technique.
Mr.. Beers aesthetic attitude is as
definitely conscious and sustained
achievement as the aesthetic attitude
o. Henry James, or, say, of that attitude
of Galsworthy's which Mr. Beer de-
scribes so illuminatingly in another
column. The reviewers. for the most
part, have concerned themselves in q
discussion of this book with a trivial
and pointless quibbe about his using
the names Of real persons in his novel.
He has shirked the JOB of describing
these men and accounting fer thom
psych ologically, they say, by The make
shift of merely mentioning them by
names. What he should have done,
they say, is not just to throw in the
yame Of James Huneker or Clyde Fitch,
but present full length portraits of
these men so that people who never
/ ! l.
about them.
This is as opposite a criticism as
that of saying that Mr.. Beer should
not merely mention Brooklyn Bridge
or Columbus Circle, but should give
the dimensions, cost and plan of archi-
lecture of the one and the physical
appearance Of the other, so that people
who have never heard of Brooklyn
Bridge or Columbus Circle would know
all about them.
The simple answer Is that Fitch ant
Huneker are not important enough fig
ures in the hook to demand more at
tentlon than they got. They fitted into
the scheme of the novel at precise mo-
ments, not as false and easy effects OF
atmosphere" but as balance to ideas
or che building up Of a psychological
point. 1t is a first novel, but
it represents the achievement Of one
of the few men now writing in this
country who apparently work from i
sound and distinctive theory. B. r.
Lincoln Studies