Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-04
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM

Grant Overton. D. Appleton & Co.
Evidence is open and abundant that
the writing of books and the market
ing OF these stand together as an i'm
preSSive enterprise even in this period
of great industrial undertakings.
Book shops and book clubs, libraries
and loan agencies combine as purveyors
to the public of the enormous output
Of author and publisher. Thousands
Of periodicals in parti-colored coats
compete daily at open shop fronts with
soda and sundae, with chewing gum
and cigarette, in triumphant avowal
that this is truly literate age wherein
everybody reads. Not quite true as
matter of figured fact. but so clear an
approach to truth as to prolong indefi-
nitely the life-leaSe Of that old wisdom,
"Of the making of books there Is no
end" since the body OF readers is SO
steadily and so markedly on the in
crease
Nowadays, practically everybody reads
That is, everybody reads fiction-the
story fro which the children young and
old, all over the world have cried since
the beginning for easement from the
hurts and bruises of actual existence.
Yet, in effect. almost no one actually
reads, not even in the field of fiction
toward which so brave a show is being
ner in this direction, despite the busy
Swimming of the latest novels and the
airy gestures of analysis and appraisal
despite the childish boast. "Oh yes,
I've read that" the tangible sum of
novel reading is hardly more than the
addict's feverish reach for still another
story, or another smoke, or another
drink Dissipation is as possible in the
first of these as in the others. And,
certainly, waste of mind Is not behind
waste of stomach and nerves.
In great public enterprises TODAY reg
ulation from some source Of authority
appears, so far, to be the best safe
guard against the abuses that rise as
matter of course from the unbridled
freedom of the individuals constituting
the separate elements of the combina-
ton, or, indeed, from the organization
itself acting without restraint Why
not make use of similar authority in
the case of books also? Why do we
not, we readers, stop philandering with
the novel? Why not choose wayside
guide through the magic land Of fiction
! for the sake of its finest and most en-
during Satisfactions?
X x X
Here he is. Grant Overton. The
man we need. 1.-THE Philosophy of Fic-
Z,
philosophy" is a pesky word, discon-
certing in its many meanings on the one
hand, in its no meaning at all on the
other. Here, however, 1t seems simpler,
more open, less secretive. This writer
appears to be that kind Of man. Given
to wide spread of example and illus
tration that, gradually, brings to the
surface in an easy emergence the ma
ture and quality of the roots Of the
matter and the growths to which these
particular roots give form and function
and effect.
Fiction, it turns out, is embedded in
life itself, as the plant is set in its own
soil and place, deriving from these the
purpose of its being as well as its readi-
ness to meet that purpose. Fiction
romance, the story-haS drawn itself
from the far soils of human existence.
Fiction is old. Older than truth. Sight,
sound, scent touch are its true progen-
itors. Through one or another Of these,
or through all of them together, there
came to that new man a strange stir,
feeling, thrill of emotion-wonder
delight, fear maybe-and with this
came the need, the imperative, to pass
the emotion on, to share it. to COM
municate it. Blue heaven, shining rest
less water, crash of storm, beast smell,
flower fragrance, warmth of shelter and
thousand other eXternals passed into
that new man by way Of his senses,
stirring him to emotions that demand
ed, above all else, the blessing of COM
munication, of telling it to another.
All this was we'll on its way before
truth itself had even a hearing. And so
fiction at that far day set out, as have
the other arts since-muSic, painting,
sculpture, poetry, dramatic communi-
cate the emotions, great and small, that
had, and still have, their rise in the
mind and heart of man.
~ X
Upon this foundation-very scantily
sketched here-Grant Overton takes bis
stand for a survey of the field of f1c-
ton. Roughly named, this field in
cludes three great divisions. Two Of
these are already under scrutiny. The
third one lies in the future, within the
uncertainties of conjecture.
The two periods already capable OF
examination and conclusion conform,
like any other organism in plant adap-
tation to the general life of which each
is a part. BY virtue of this law of life
there comes to view here the god fiction
and the finite fiction. The first is
part of that golden youth of feeling and
belief when mans daily life was waited
upon by innumerable gods-advising,
offering portentS of warning or encour-
agement, intervening here and there to
make life not only endurable but, at
points, quite beautiful as well. This
form from the field of pagan story
passed on into the verities Of Scripture
itself wherein Jehovah many time be-
came the immediate defense of the
destruction of the wicked. Persistent
this form has proved to be, has very
rightly proved to be. And many a mod
ern tale still bears the imprint of ease
mentS and Arrangements and succors
from sources above mere mans feeble
powers. The story of cinderella" is,
clearly, derivative from the older day
of invention. There are thousands Of
them. Happily. thousands of them.
Then came the great day-our day.
Science took the field with its orders
for exact knowledge. No such thing
to be found, Of course, but the aim is
definitely hitherward. This is the day
of examinations, measurings. count
ings, recordings. This is the day of
fact, the day Of plain designs upon
truth itself. And, of course, along with
every other part of human intent and
activity, the novel Is doing its best to
keep step. Fiction today aims to be
not only finite" but literally exact.
And it calls itself realism, or is so called
by its proud producers. And at about
this point Mr.. Overton takes into ac-
count certain signs of a reaction against
such clear unfealty toward the spirit of
fiction as art. In the works of a few
modern fictioners he discovers to the
reader a release from the drab patterns
of life that make their way into novels
under the gospel that fiction's business
Is to mirror the facts of human exist
ence from time to time So If the be-
haviors of man are unworthy and unin-
spring 1t is the duty of the novel to
make this an out-and-out matter in his