Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-10
BY III. L. MENCKEN.

(Copyright, 1881, by The Associated Press)
BALTIMORE, June 10 (P).-At the
moment there is sort Of hiatus in
American letters. A great deal of
workmanlike and interesting stuff is
being written, but there is a dearth
Of new and arresting authors.
Certainly no careful critic would
Allege that any of the riovices of the
last few years is as important as
Miss. Gather and Lindsay in, 1918, or
Frost and Hergesheimer in 1914, or
Masters and Cabell in 1915, or Sand
burg in 1915, or Sherwood Anderson
in 1916. -
The years at the end Of the century
were very fruitful ones, and so were
those which straddled the war. There
was stimulating and even thrilling
air Of experiment and innovation. Nov
elites of great interest were popping
up on all sides and new authors of
extraordinary originality were nu-
merouS. But today We have only q
general competence.
Hopeful of Future.
Why there should be such rises and
falls in literary productivity I don't
know, and neither does any one else.
There are, Of course. plenty of theories
NAtC ~ W bklC CuCCU bLlclb Oll0 us
writing Is always done during times
of peace and plenty; another is that it
is done when blood is on the moon
I could cite many other such doublets
each member eXtinguiShing the other
All that can be said with any surety
Is that progress in letters, like any
other kind of evolution, tends to gc
in waves. For 10 years past no lit
erary debutante of any real Importance
has appeared in the United States, but
I know plenty of youngsters of large
promise, and next month or next year
one of them may turn out to be G
new Dresser.
My suspicion Is that the chances Of
such a prodigy appearing tomorrow
will be much better than they were last
year. That Is because we have just
passed out of an era of wild over.
production in the publishing business
From the end of the depression of 1921
to the beginning of the present one, the
to print books that they took almost
everything that fell into their hands.
AS q result, 1t was fatally easy fol
newcomers to get into print. and many
of them did so before they were ripe
Perhaps some potentially good one:
were thus ruined-I don't know-but il
is surely possible. Today it is very
much harder for beginner to market
his wares.
nAaN3 Crs1cax xSmes.
like to believe Cor, at all events. tx
hope) that the fact will discourage
half-baked work, and encourage many
youngsters to really learn their bust
ness. Hergesheiner wrote and rewrot
for seven years before he published hi!
first book. IF 1t had been snapped III
by a publisher In its first form, there
would have been no Hergesheimer.
The multiplicity of magazines, and es.
I ecially Of bad ones, mas also WORKED
against good work. The wood-pulp flc-
ton magazines need so much copy that
they snap up almost anything that is
Mterate, and In consequence they en-
courage shabby writing. Similarly the
cheap magazines of huge circulation
with their lavish honoraria, inclte all
the young authors to write what is safe
and lovely-and trashy. The market
for really serious stuff is curiously linn
tied. Save from the so-cailed quality
magazines, of which there are only four
and one or two of the mere ambitious
women's magazines, there Is no demand
for 1t. If q new Henry James appeared
trouble placing his manuscripts.
But the present depression Is punish
ing the pulp magazines very severely
and not a few of them are dying. Nor Is
it dealing gently with the cheap maya
zines of large circulation. The more
ambitious monthlies seem to be wealth
ering the storm rather better. Perhaps
they will have risen In Importance, and
maybe also in number, by the time it is
over. At all events, there is some ground
for hoping so. One Atlantic monthly
though its circulation mas never gon'
beyond 100000, has outlasted thou
sand true affidavits and stupendous
stories.