Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-10-12
Z. S. AS Inspiration
To European Authors

New York, oct. II CA. P)-Whilc
stage and concert platform present
/ the culture of Europe to New York
! ers. the citV's bOokstalls are clutter
! ed with foreign books and magazines
} which bring back to it's native
! hearth the influence which Main
| Street and Broadway have had on
! the Old World.
Current publications from the
! European capitals lately arrived in
| the book shops of the city indicate
that Youthful writers and artists,
and even many of those who already
! had achieved fame before The war.
are turning to this side of tie
Atlantic for inspiration.
From France. Germany, italy,
Spain. the Scandinavian countries
and even Russia. come lists Of
translatons of books by Americans.
. Maea zines vie with each other in
TRANSACTIONS OF the American
classics" and of the work OF
younger men who have helped in the
renaissance of Anglo American let
ters which has left its mark through
out the reading world.
Poe. Whitman, Cooper, Harte,
, Hawthorne. Melville and many
other American writer's are repre-
StlllSu III lldllSldllcllo ldbNlN Sil INSt
from Paris. Stockholm and Berlin.
Younger writer's enthusiastically
proclaim their debt to America and
lyricize the power. energy and youth
of the New World; their literary
achievements reflect eager COnsump-
ton of everything American.
Books of music show that COM
posers have been using American
Indian and American negro melodies
as the basis for their work and that
the possibilities of the use of Jazz
are seriously considered. Less SER
ious publications tell Of American
variety dancers and singers whose
popularity is so great that they can
almost name their own salaries.
German and Danish architects in
sist that the jagged skyscraper sky
line of the American city is tie fore
runner of a new modern architec
ture. the beauty of which is conf
parable only to the sheer simplicity
of early classic forms.
Serious students of aesthetics
point to the United States as the
only country that has escaped from
the ruin of western European civil
zaion which, they say followed the
world war. From the fertile fields OF
the great middlewest. they assert,
will come a national culture which
will dwarf the efforts of a de-
cadent Europe.
From the colorful. concise style of
American advertising. foreig
writer's say will spring in time
new archaic literature which the
gradual influx of European tradition
alism will tone to perfection.
From the machine-like perfection
Of practical convenienceS of every
day American life. eventually there
will come an opportunity for leisure
and the creation of beauty, one
young Frenchman breathlessly ex-
claims as he somewhat incohereptly
praises New York as the dream city
of the world.
1.-THE tide has turned" says an
other: the day of the Latin Quarter
is over. Our Partisan Latin Quarter
now is a place to which we go so
that we NAV meet Americans. And
our greatest dream is to go to
America"
Older critics chide their younger
countrymen and point to what they
call the Crudity, the lack of artistic
finish Of America, only to be answer
ed: You and your culture are old
and dying America is young, strong
and alive
An Italian art magazine prints a
picture of a linotype machine which
it saws has more beauty in its
strength and perfect efficiency than
the Venus de Milo.
And to cap the argument. Amer
leans publishing art magazines in
Paris. London and Rome have aban-
doned their traditional scoffing at