Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-30
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. C. M.
ROADSIDE MEETINGS. Hamlin Gar

ROADSIDE MEETINGS. Hamlin Gar
land. The Macmillan Company.
Too long and bitter and lonely, those
Dakota Winters. Too grilling the Da-
kota Summers, bent to sowing and har-
vesting mile upon mile of shining fields
Of wheat. Besides, this young man had
come under the spell of learning, had
fallen into the net Of reading, was be-
ginning to sense the power of words as
one of the great creative forces. So, in
stinctively. his mind ran away from the
present out into the future, away from
the dreary here into some brighter
there. His future, his place lay, clearly,
in the East, where existed, then, the
main body Of culture possessed by this
country.
Therefore, with a penny or so in his
pocket--literally, trifle over $100-he
Jared out upon the great adventure of
youth-an adventure that expresses it
self in an infinite variety, but one that
is sourced ever in young blood, in big
dreams and in a lust of personal en-
counter with the world, the unknown
but reckoning world.
1t was around 1884 when Hanlin
Garland turned toward the East, to-
ward Boston, seeking the fortune of
knowledge and culture, seeking oppor-
tunity and possible contacts with one
or another already well upon the road
that stretched so gloriouSly before him
as the way Of his own desire and am
bition.
A long trip 1t has turned out to be.
Almost half century long at turn in
the earth'S business when, measured by
achievement, so years count more than
millennium of former eraS. A splendid
time. A fair journey. too, 1t has been
through the domain of American letters
and in the company of American
authors.
Roadside Meetings" is, in sum, a
record of innumerable hours and
minutes of association with the writer's
of this country. It is, too, a sketchbook
that pictures, wildly, many of these.
Again, it serves, in passing, to outline
Hamlin Garland's literary theory and
practice from the standpoint of an
American writer and to identify himself
and his work with a purely American
school of authorship. This school runs
current with Mr.. Garlands own career
and owes to him an active and unalter-
able support as both writer and ardent
advocate.
Roadside Meetings" is interesting
Absorbing, I call it. Why? Well, It
is record and not beglamoured body
OF recollections These records were
made, obviously when they were warm
to the heart and close to the hand of
the writer. Therefore, this is book
of dependable information about some
thing in which readers are keenly in
terested-the immediate work, the in
innate life of this or that one who
stands as the source of pleasurable ex-
perience on our own part The ac-
counts arc cip7f1in Sfra ;ul1f t11,ofFenfoJ
We see these literary Americans just
about as Mr.. Garland himself saw
them. A kindly man who does not
dig for faults, any more than he
CLOSES them over. A fair dealing man
and a most genial companion. Not
easy for us to believe that when Mr..
Garland went to Boston William d.
Howells was the storm center of disap-
proval with all who had been content
to borrow their literary sustenance from
Europe and who were rigid against
change and innovation. 1t was with
him that realism in American ntera-
ture really stood up for the first time,
and after that 1t made its staggering
way, through public indifference or
protest, on to the present of Theodore
Dresser and many another of his kind.
Interesting to follow the line drawn
by Mr.. Garland to trace the course or
this homemade literary stuff. BY way
of it he gathers those from all parts
OF the country who were setting down
in story and poem and picture the
nearby things, the humans at home
IN their familiar beilaviors. Here are
gathered the dialect writer's, a long
procession of them, contributing rich
" and abundantly to the preservation
Of many a priceless phase Of American
life by way of their inspired, and
faithful, portraiture. You don't like
them-these vernacular stories, drawn
from the South, North, West and East?
Nevertheless, they are the first fruits
of our pioneering days, of our incom-
parably rich soil. They can carry but
one sin-that of careless work, of
overdrawn idiosyncrasy. So long as
they are faithful they are as inspired
as any other venerated document.
Hamlin Garland does yeoman service
in this field, both in his own writings
and in his advocacy of the tribe OF
local colorists, of realiSts in American
literature.
A long line of writers-from Howells
on. A great procession whose members
we see anew through this simple, almost
casual way of coming upon them, OF ex-
changing q few words and moving on to
another group, to another circumstance
involving one or more of our American
literary creditors. A fascinating book
and an informing one which, besides
sketching MIR. GarlandS own career.
gathers up broadly and brilliantly GER
tain high and vital points in the de-
velopment of an independent American
experiment in letters.
And I said to the professor, III l
we're a school teacher, I'd let the boys
and girls in on something like this
book--a wide and understanding book
of home stuff, as neighborly as the FAM
lily across the way, as delightful as most
real and nearby things are" But you
couldn't do that" mop" why not?"
well, it would upset the course and
mess things up terribly. They're having
some of Shakespeare now. You see, It
But Just why wouldn't it do!
II 4:
A TOURIST IN SPITE OF HIMSELF.
A. Edward Newton. Little, Brown 81
Co.
I've gone along with Edward Newton
in book-collecting adventures. was
in complete captivity to his Greatest
Book in the World" So another book
from the same source was an approach
ing Joy of purest ray to me. No, yes, no
but 1t is the very same person, not
another man at all. I'm no tickle friend,
SO II Edward Newton was going, even
though in spite of himself, there was
nothing for ME to do save TO join up,
and did. Well, we've been and got
back. Been TO Scandinavia and Eng
land and France, to Egypt and Jeru-
salem and the rest. In bordering the
adventure as every New England person
is bound to weigh investment, the
clear balance Is all on the side of laugh
ter and eating. l am pounds fatter,
and so is Mr.. Newton. Look at his pic