Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-22
THIS AND THAT


One Of the delights Of reading Is te
read as one pleases.
II you think this Is easy to do. You
are mistaken.
One has but to recall the numerous
agencies which are attempting to direct
the reading Of the Nation to realize
the difiiculty.
It should be admitted that the direc.
ton Is not done to be oficious, but
merely in the line Of craftsmanship.
It Is direction, nevertheless.
It Is direction which has its influence
even on the man or woman who Is
quite determined that it shall not.
All of us are in the clutches of the
great god Modernity. whose creed Is:
The Latest.
The old comic opera song, "I Love
the Last Girl the Best Of ALL" has its
everyday counterpart in the uncon-
scious reactions Of thousands Of persons
to the new.
We love the new because It Is the
new, because 1t Is the habit Of Amer
leans to believe that the new is some
how superior to the old.
II *x
Il gave us peculiar pleasure to discuss
In this column the other day the sub
stantial merits Of two such extraordi-
nary figures Of timeless literature as
Maurice Maeterlinck and James Feni-
more Cooper.
Is it not just as well to talk about
these writers, one still writing, one
whose work Is done, as to launch into
consideration Of newer writer's whose
work still has to prove itself in the
workshops Of time?
There is a certain satisfaction in
writing about and reading the books OF
established literary figures. Once they
have attained fame, their work Is done.
It does not matter whether their later
work Is UP to their first, or the other
way around. Time has placed its seal
upon their best, and there can be little
guesswork In regard to them.
An amusing contest could be gotten
up by engaging the best known critics
to hazard guesses as to the future per-
manence or the contrary OF various
recent works, particularly In the novel
line. These guesses-and they scarce
" would be more than that-could be
sealed away for IS or so years, after
which lapse Of time they could be
opened and compared with the tn1mut-
able verdicts which time had rendered.
It Is conceivable that not one critic
out Of ten would have guessed right, SO
difficult Is it to place a writer In his
true place, especially in regard to con-
tinued demand for his works over long
periods Of time.
Already certain novels which were
the talk of the hour" 20, IS and 80
years ago are unknown to the younger
generations. They have vanished, or
almost vanished, but still the school
boys take out Prescott's Conquest Of
Mexico" with regularity from the
The works of Herman Melville and
Of Stephen Crane languished for many
years after they were written, to be
revived with gusto during the past 10
years, although they always had been
known to certain discriminating readers.
"Moby Dick" the whale classic, Is to
be found in every bookstore today.
whereas O quarter Of century ago one
could find It readily only in the Every
man Library.
Cranes RED Badge Of Courage" Ia q
commonplace now, whereas 20 years
ago it occupied no such place Of pres
tige.
Then there are all the old traditional
standard American authors. such as
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Hawthorne, to
mention but two, whose works continue
to be read, not only because they re-
ceive such high Endorsement in the
schools, but because readers OF every