Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-24
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookLoUer.


tensely iconoclastic III. l.. Mencken
has recently been brief front-page
wonder because of some alleged In
decencies in the American Mercury,
of which he is editor. Having begun
newspaper work at 10 as a reporter,
he is at as editor, free.lance writer,
critic and author of numerous volumes
of essays, most Of which have been
developed from his newspaper articles.
Perhaps his most characteristic books
are the Book of Prefaces,' 'Preju-
dices" -four series) and THE American
Language" The chapter on Puritan
ism as a Literary Force" in the Book
of Prefaces" summarizes what he has
attempted to combat as a literary
critic. He believes that moral obses-
sion has diSadvantageouSly dominated
American literature and that SO long
as ethical rather than esthetic con-
siderationS are given the preference
in American criticism great art will
not be produced. He gives as an
example Of a moral boycott of great
piece of literature the treatment OF
Theodore Dreiser's 1.-THE Genius"
What he calls "comstockery" is his
pet detestation. He uses his critical
lance in behalf of the writer's whom
he looks upon as fellow iconoclasts,
such as Dresser, Sherwood Anderson,
Joseph Hergesheimer, Eugene O'Neill,
Ring LkLrdner, James Joyce. Havelock
Ellis, Lord Dunsany, Strindberg, Pho
Baroja, Hauptmann and Sudermann.
Mencken has no respect for anything
because it is established. He Is al
ways on the lookout for gaps in the
wall which he may attack with his
critical wedge and mallet. In the
fourth series of "Prejudices" he
abuses the American Government and
the American people about as vigor-
ously as Is verbally possible: ut is
one of my firmest and most
sacred beliefs that the Gov
eminent of the United States, In both
its legislative arm and its executive
arm, is ignorant, incompetent, corrupt
and disgusting 1t is another
that the foreign policy of the United
States is hypocritical, disin-
genuous, knavish and dishonorable
And it is my fourth land, to
avoid too depressing a bill, f1naD con-
viction that the American people, TAX
ing one with another, constitute the
most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish,
ignominious mob of serfs and goose
steppers ever gathered under one flag
in ChriStendom since the end of the
Middle Ages, and that they grow
more timorous, more Sniveling, more
poltroonish, more ignominious every
day." His version of the Declaration
Of Independence in 1.-THE American
Language" illustrates his humor:
When things get SO balled up that
the people of country have to cut
loose from some other country, and go
1t on their own hook, without asking
no permission from nobody, excepting
maybe God Almighty, then they ought
it, SO that everybody can see they are
on the level, and not trying to put
nothing over on nobody
In view Of the fact that Mr.. Menck-
en- has never been creative thinker
Or writer, but always a critic, living
off the writings and doings of others,
it is a curious phenomenon, perhaps
symptomatic of the age, that he, a
man of but as years, presumably
with many years Of writing before
him, should be the subject not only
or numerous articles in the literary
press but also of two books. One of
these, 1.-THE Man Mencken; a Bio
graphical and Critical Survey" by
DR.. Isaac Goldberg. runs to nearly 400
pages. 1t is minute in detail and
written as thoroughly as though its
subject had been dead long enough
so that his place in literature had
been as well established as that of,
say, James Russell Lowell. The
other book, entitled simply III. l..
Mencken," by Ernest Boyd, is only so
pages in length and furnishes quite
as much as is needed by the general
reader, who is not also member Of
the Mencken cult. By apt quotation
from Mr.. Mencken's own writings and
the criticisms leveled against him, Mr..
Boyd treats him as American, as phil
osopher and as critic. with glimpses
of his personality; he shows the
strength and weakness of his doc
trines and lays the myth of the Menck-
en- legend.
'Lolly Willowes," as a title. is sug.
gestive of Pollyanna and the sunshine
philosophy. The book is something
better than that, however In it Syl-
via Townsend Warner has drawn the
personality of quaint and not at all
obvious maiden lady of the old school.
4
Somerset, sheltered by all the tradi-
tons of family and wealth, she views
life and interprets it narrowly, be-
cause that is all she is capable of
doing. First her invalid mother dies
and Lolly becomes mistress of Lady
Place. Then her father dies, Lady
Place Is leased and Lolly goes to Lon
don to live with a married brother.
There, as Aunt Lolly," she becomes
the useful, unattached female relative,
who helps in all the family tasks, big
and little, which no one else wishes
to perform. Forts to find a husband
for her bring no result, perhaps be-
cause she does not ably second them.
But Lolly, with all her gentle reserve
and traditional outlook, is touched by
the spirit of the twentieth century
She longs to live before she dies,
Mildly she resents the fact that she
has never had a life of her own. Her
method of self-expression is not very
adventurous, but it is her own and
she insists upon it. Putting aside the
protests of her family, she leaves Lon
don, which she hates, and goes to a
small village remote from everywhere
to live by herself. Freedom from her
relatives, freedom to think, freedom
to do the simple things she likes to
do, is what she wants; and she goes
after it and gets it.. In this she is
modern; in all else she is Victorian.
Maria Edgeworth, perhaps more than
Jane Austen, seems the literary an
cestress of Sylvia Warner in "Lolly
Willowes."
X X X X
Another attempt to prove that Ger
many did not start the World War
is made by Harry Elmer Barnes in
his book 1.-The Genesis of the World
War: an Introduction to the Problem
Of War Guilt" Prof. Barnes substi-
tutes NJ. Raymond Poincare for Kaiser
Wilhelm as the arch-demon whose
Vaccinations plunged the world into
war. According to him, Germany and
Austria had no desire for general