The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1925-04-02
HERO Is A SCIENTIST
SAUK CENTRE AUTHORS LAT
EST BOOK PRAISED AND
Planned BY REVIEWERS

latest. The findings OF Mr.. 6oya
will be of interest to many SauK
Centre folks and are published here
with:
sTt is still the rather general be-
lief in the republic that realism IN
letters consists wholly of the minute
enumeration of the articles which the
characters whom the author writes
about carry in their pockets. When
an author, in addition to being IN
.ouisitive about the keys, the broken
lodge pins, the pad of safety matches
and so forth, sights a wart ana re"
wrinkles on the face OF his hero then
that author is called Photographic
realist. This term, let it be explained
for the enlightment of future gene
rations, once applied to an author is
sufficiently strong to keep MN Tor
ever out of the sacred doors OF the
American Academy of Art and Let
tiers, to thrust him outside the pest
society of the land and to turn the
bulk of the Authors League against
him. :,
Photographic realism, it is the be-
lief. is a method of literary express
sion that no decent writer would use.
The boys and girls who read Inc
Dial saw this manner of writing is
not Art, and the people who read the
American Magazine and Saturday
Evening Post say that it is not NOR
al. =.
GAS a matter OF fact Photographic
realism does not and never dld exist
outside the trade catalogs: For the
writer, not matter who he is, must De
selective. That is as necessary and as
involuntary as his breathing: 1t Is
his personal choice to write fully or
pithily of his subject, and his only
duty to his reader is that OF making
himself understood. He may, as dld
ANTHONY Trollope and Balzac, write
with ali the looseness he desires, all
the small detail of Dickens or he may
write with the terseness which Thom-
as Beer is attempting to master. The
outcome will be the same, depending
upon his ability as writer to whip
his material into intense reality,
"Sinclair Lewis, whose novel Ar
rowsmith' was published last Friday,
has a passion for Recommendation. In
other words he takes pains to know
every Granny of the scene which he
writes about. And thus, whether ne
is making a book that has the breadth
of "Main Street" or the stark, arch
itectural narrowness OF "Baopltt ne
creates his own world completely.
Mr.. Lewis is one of the most vehe-
ment men writing today: His energy
seems never to tire and he is inter-
ested in the why and how OF every
thing. He is thorough workman
and an unshakable idealist. All OF
these qualities working in him are
responsible for "Main Street" "Bab-
bitt," and "Arrowsmith. "
Carol Kennicott was good deal OF
a fool. George F. Rabbit was youth
with dreams who turned into frus-
trated old man with a paunch; DR..
Martin Arrowsmith is laundering
but uncomfortable soldier of science,
plagued with disillusion, doubt and
death-and the most admirable char
acter that Mr.. Lewis has ever created:
"The story begins in the mythical
state of Winnemac, in 1.-THE doWdy'
red brick village of Elk Mills" where
a bow sat cross-legged in the examln-
ing chair of Doc Vickerson's office,
reading "Gray's Anatomy" He was
an inouisitive boy from the begin
ming, and when he went to the Uni
versity of Winnelnac he asked a
great many questions. He attended
medical school which was dominated
for the many by the sleek Dean De
Silva and for Martin Arrowsmlth by
the lonely, shabby figure OF Max
Gottlieb, the scientist, the man. who
told Martin, Organic chemistry
Puzzle chemistry! Stink chemistry
Drug store chemistry! Physical chem
istryis power, it is exactness, it is
life. But organic chemistry that is
a trade for pot-washers. No. You
are too young. Come back in a year. :
Before he had finished his medical
course Martin Arrowsmith met Miss
I,eora Tozer of Wheatsylvania,
North Dakota, and married her. At
ter he was graduated he practised
medicine in the Tozer home town.
That is very simple sounding state
ment, but after you have read about
Bert Tozer, Leora's buck-toothed
brother, Norblom and the United
Rrethern minister who preached
against vaccination, its awfulness vii!
suddenly become clear. Martin lasted
for while in Wheatsylvania and then
went to Nautilus, Iowa, as assistant
to the director of the department OF
public health. Dos Pickerpaugh was
q fine professor of medical science
who, by his shouts and bits OF dog
gerel, finally worked his way into the
house of representatives as one OF the
gentlemen from Iowa. His way OF
preventing epidemics was by writing
"eYou Can't get health
By pussyfoot stealth;
So .st's every health booster
Crow just like rooster"
Martin lasted in Nautilus until ne
ordered the burning of some disease
infesting tenements which were own.
ed by defenceless woman friend o.
the town boss. From there he went
to Chicago and the well appointed ano