Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-14
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. G.. NJ.

1. y. NJ.
THE FINANCIER. Theodore Drei-
ser, Boni & Liveright.
Fifteen years ago when 1.-THE Finan-
cier" was first published it's plain
bulk alone would have made it gen.
orally prohibitive if nothing else had
contributed to that end. During the
intervening years. however, in inter
walls of other writing-novels, auto
geographic records, travel sketches
and short stories-Dreiser applied a
reducing process to the sheer avOirdu-
poiS of this book. The novel as it
now appears is, therefore, thinned to
better proportions. TO excellent adj
| vantage it has worked off many
roll of fat from hip and paunch and
rounding shoulder. SO lightened it
stands straighter. cleaner. keener
Even yet the novel is too long for
these hurried and cluttered days in
which reading takes so inconSider.
able part. Too long it may be. but
| in a greater certainty it is unquali.
fiedly big which, after all, is the
prime point. Now, as in it's first ap-
pearance, it bears no marks of the
little laws of neat structure, of per-
feet symmetry of balanced parts, Of
suave rhythms and cadenced words
As If these pretty rules were the build
ing blocks of a child at play, this
man kicks them aside for the ak
and the hammer and the chisel, fit
tools for the bitterness and cruelty
and beauty of life itself.
Il * X
''The Financier' as a whole en-
bodies a vital period in American life.
1t stands fronting upon the still dis
tant but approaching vision of that
expansion which is the marvel of the
present. Since the day of this story
enormous material growth has come
to the country and incident to such
growth has developed a new kind of
mantle magnate in industry and
finance. The novel itself projects the
foreshadowing of that period. 1t also
sets q pattern of the quick seizure of
opportunity on the part of this man
or that one which results. finally, in
material leadership. Philadelphia
provides the setting of the drama. a
little city then with few squares of
fstreet car tracks, and in the whole
| East OILY SHOTL SlIclCIicS VI olCdHi
railway. Much that is today com.
monplace was then quite unknown
telephone, telegraph. city mail deliv.
cry, express companies, water works
indeed, the whole whatnot of public
utilities" in their present familiar ALI
ance and partnerships with great
banks and prodigious financiers. Yet,
this simplifed setting of a genera
ton ago contains all the potential
ties of the present--itS greatness. its
weakness, it's human folly and greed
and at the same time offers a
greatly simplified and unobstructed
view of the person of Frank Cowper.
wood. ultimate financier. and of the
situation that bred him to success and
failure and success again, according
to the common accounting of life.
| X X 4
I'm sure that fair. general reckon
ing would give to Frank Cowperwood
top rank among Dreiser's men. And,
indeed, to 1.-THE F'inancier" first place.
From boy to man, Cowperwood is in
the open. understandable in his acts
by virtue of the clear exposure Of his
nature and temperament. 1t was all
| G.
the thirst to 'get along" the prompt
seizure of small occurrences in his
early years. a clear bordering about
life in what it may do to help fell
low when he is on hand to help him
self Sturdy, courageous. defiant
even as a lad-and these qualities
served him well in his later role as
/ leader in city affairs and in city finan-
cial operations. Helped him in jail,
too. and later when. after such inter
lude. he serenely and confidently pur-
| sued his way as a conqueror among
the less resolute, perhaps the more
conscientious, men around him. In
plodding and painstaking. as If he
himself were the guardian of the city
treasure, knowing all the ms and outs
of its extent and uses. Dresser shows
here the very beginnings OF those lax
itics and even those innocencles by
way of which public funds came
gradually to serve private purposes
Here. too, that earlier day gives a
clear view of the ways OF finance IN
It's growing familiarity with public
trusts such as the greater complex
ties of succeeding years could not al
4 ford. The novel, therefore, sets out
a definite trend in the industrial prac-
tices Of that earlier day, forecasting
the greater ones to follow. In sense
ia it in part a novel of historical cast.
Not such. by definite design, one as
sumes, since it is, above all. the story
of Frank Cowperwood. the story of
the financial career of an American.
emulated since his day by many an
other of his kind. A great story by,
many think, the one really great
American writer of this day. Wheth-
err this be true or not and there is no
@ = hn frlfn
wise. since there are no 10 exclusive
mandments of criticism. it is safe
to say that in everything he has writ
ten Theodore Dresser is a great figure
in American letters.
X 4 *
Robert Duffus is an interesting
man, Listen to him minute as ne
talks about Dresser: mo other Amer
lean writer, except maybe whitman
has received so many thumps on his
obstinate head so many kicks upon
his stubborn shins. He has endured
the snobbery of campus critics. the
prudishness of publishers maiden
aunt readers, and the earnest resent
ment of multitudes of honest. God
fearing. law-abiding, right.thinking
men and women. He has even been
apologized for by his friends. who
have complained sadly about his style.
In brief. few roses have strewed his
path, and those few have been plucked
late in the season. Yet his head is not
only unbowed, it Is not even bloody.
Today he stands up like some ancient
oak or craggy mountain. austere. uh.
yielding and unmoved-at once a sort
of poet and sort of grizzly bear,
with a skin as tough as an elephant S
and a heart as soft as butter. He is a
romantic, q reasist, a mystic. a.! IN
one: man pretending no faith in the
good intentions or sanity of the uni
verse, or any feeling of responsibility
to a moral order. or any belief In re-
wards and punishments, yet one
moved by an inner compulsion as real
and strange as that which sent john