The Washington times., 1932-03-14
Full and Sound

hind the critical enthusiasm for Ludwig Lewisohn in
this book for the first time recognize the wisdom,
the purity of style and the prophetic tone which others
in his earlier works. I find also, certain elements
which dispease me; in book containing hundreds of
individual judgments and opinions can easily pick
out a dozen which short-sighted
prejudiced. They do not matter. Attacking Mencken
and Babbitt at the time discriminating between
the good and the bad in Sinclair Lewis, over-valung
writer's whose spiritual nature is akin to his own, adj
mirng and deplorng the art of Henry James, dssect-
ing Mark Twain, mourning the premature stoppage of
creative power in most of contemporaries Lewsohn
up and gives the essence of the LIBERAL modern,
religious outlook on life.
A Minor Error
I have one small point and one great to make
against Lewsohn The first is his remark that nothing
in (Scott) Ftzgerads work caught again an
echo of that early rapture contained in This Side of
Paradise" l can only assume that Mr.. Lewlsohn did
not read "The Great Gatsby," which is not "ard and
artificial" I mention this because "The Great Gatsby"
is of the few important novels by young American
and because it is the function of good critic to en-
courage that kind of work, not to neglect it.
The other point is that the whole book is story OF
the war between puritanism and freedom, between
Jonathan Edwards and Sigmund Freud You get the
feeling that whatever is good in American literature
comes through revolt against puritanism and that
whatever is weak and inexpensive and dead suffers
under the blight of puranism Yet fifty years before
the Revolution the religion of the Calnists the
defensive fifty years after the Revolution American
literature was dominated by men and women who had
entirely repudiated the darkness and the discipline OF
their Puritan forefathers
The gentility and sweet lifeless romanticism of
American literature is not product of Calvinism 1t
is probably closer to the freer religions to Unitaransm
and liberalism, to the religions of the good in all men,
of the universal good The reason Lewsohn praise
Hemingway and Sinclair Lewis is not that they are
rebels against the bitterness Of Jonathan Edwards but
because they rebels against sweetness and light in
cluding the part of sweetness which underlies even
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson is one of Lewisohn's
gods He calls the Essay Self Reliance" the most
revolutionary document in modern literature. But l
do not think he recognizes it part of the American
philosophy of the go-getter.
A Fine Work
Most books on literature, when they are good, have
the effect of making contempo1ary books seem flat and
unimportant. I have lot of books on my desk which
it would be shameful to mention in the same column
with Expression in America" But its great value is
that it gives Importance to people who are living
and writing at this moment 1t makes you want to
read and reread books which have been salued here
tofore in press notices and quick reviews Lewisohns
aspirations and faith inform all his judgments and
we do not share his Deep perhaps SOFT religious feel
ing, still have to reckon with him. And think
even if unwilling to accept his intellectual
qualities. l cannot think at the moment of story Of
American literature which within hundred
miles of this one in stature and in scope.