New Britain herald., 1930-12-31
Critic Says Friend Sinclair Ought to Stop Making Speeches and Return to Writing Novels - Says Prize Award Blow to TheoIogians.

Baltimore, Dec. 31 LP - It's land ho. and rainbows end for the bud ding genius of the pen. II. L. Mencken. editor, critic, sometime lambasted bad boy of Baltimore, thinks times never were better for the young American writer.
 Said Mir. Mcncken: If a new Walt Whitman should write a new Leaves Of Grass tomorrow he'd certainly not have 10 print it at his own ex- pense. l know at least dozen high toned and very solvent publishers who would leap at it.
 Would Have Real Income
 Moreover, the magazine rights would bring a pretty penny. Thus the new Walt would not have to re- sort tc mendicancy; he would have an income at least equal to that of a young lawyer, doctor or pedagogue."
 The editor of the American Mer- cury and arch bachelor of the coun- try-until he married last August was gratified that Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel prize for literature, but he hopes Mir. Lewis stops mak- ing speeches and returns 10 writing novels"
 MT. Lewis misplaced his rosy glasses when he addressed the Swed- ish Academy and avoWcd art was d hard struggle in America Mr. Menc- ken counters: Tt is possible 10 get d hearing for any sort of idea. no matter how unusual, and for most Of them there is very good pay"
 True enough" continued Mir Mcncken, young writers of genuine originality are always violently de- nounced by certain groups of old stcrs, This was the case with Poe, 1t was the case with Whitman, it was the case with Drciscr and it is still the case with Sinclair Lewis. The correct criticism of 1850, eloqucntly voiced by the Rev. Rufus Griswold, dismissed Poe as a wicked fellow.
 Warned Against Whitman
 Tn the 70's all the professors warned their charges against Whit man. and to this day he is under the ban in many American colleges. In the same way Mark Twain was read out of meeting as a mere clown; the first Christian pedagoguc to speak decent word for him was William Lyon Phelps, and that was not until 1910, when Mark was 75 ar oh n lip A II thpn1 Et i'll derde Dreiser and Lewis.
 "But this opposition is of no i'm portance If it has any effect at all, it is probably a good effect. That is, it warns multitudes of bright young men and women that academ- ic criticism is simply what Al Smith calls boloney. Such indignant meta physicians as Professor Irving Bab- bitt of Harvard can no more stop the course of national letters than pr. Robert A. Millikan and Con- pany can stop the destruction ot the ology by science.
 Blow to TheOlOgianS
 "Thc award of the Nobel prize to Lewis vas a humiliatinS blow to moral theologians, and it is no won der that they show certain amount of rancor. As q follower of the oppo- sition, 1 confess that I'd have been upset q bit if the Swcdcs had given it to Henry Van Dyke, Robert tn- derwood Johnson, Owen Mister, Owen Davis. Herman Hagedorn, Augustus Thomas, Robert w. Chambers or some other such academician. But the SWedeS were well advised. and so avoided that mistake. They seem to have far more humor in them than Dr. Babbitt
 As for Lewis harangue in stock holm, can only regret it. Though neither was intended, it probably had two bad effects The first was that 1t spread the impression m | Europe that Van Dyke. Rabbit and 1 company arc not quite honest. The | second was that 1t seemed to say that Lewis himself had q hard time ! getting a nearing. l see no sign Of i dishonesty in any of the eminent | Preshyterians he denounced. They | arc all very earnest and fcrvid fol- ! lows. It seems to me that ln general, | they are sadly wrong, but in this or that detail they arc sometimes un- i doubtcdly right, just as Torquemada, 1 Brigham Young, Lydia Finkham and l Czolgcsz were sometimes right.
 Didn't Harm Lewis
 "They certainly did no harm 10 !; Lewis. He was an immense success . before they ever heard Of him. and . after that their shrll denunciatlons only helped him. He is up today, and ]. they arc down; I think he might i have been more humane.
 Tn any case, l hate to sec an | artist flog his critics. Critics have Q hard enough time in the world as It | is They lead wretChed lives and de- | serve to be handled gently l hope . Lewis stops making speeches and | returns to writing novels He has . made masterpiece Of one Of the . Rabbits; now let him do book . about the other one"