Evening star., 1937-10-23

| troll Of him. but errors OF that kind are
found in many works of genius The
value Of this work is that, while its
author has used particular locality
and types OF men limited to that
locality he has given us by the ferti-
lity OF his imagination and the fiexi-
biity of his style. a panorama OF the
essentials Of life in all localities among
all men. The mockine liehtness OF his
touch should not deceive you. Under
the guise OF an extravaganza We have
here highly significant book.
RINGSIDE SEATS. BY Katharine
Fullerton Gerould. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co.
MRS. oERoULD can' when she
wishes, write a very fne essay,
and in this present collection OF her
work, most OF the pieces happily con-
form to her best standards. The re-
suit is a volume which one must read
in this present day with something
very like astonishment For how
nearly archaic has the essay form be-
come among us today! We have be-
come accustomed, imperceptibly. to
thinking of essays as belonging to the
past. and we have come to accept the
essay as form suitable only to issues
and subjects belonging to the past.
But here Mrs. Gerould writes OF
modern matters In the classic man.
ner and it certainly will not be the
present reviewer who says that her
undertaking has not justified itself
magnificently.
She writes of this very desuetude
of the essay herself to be sure, in her
piece called An Essay On Essays, {,
and again In the selection called In
formation, Please!" in which latter
work she asks II magazine readers
really prefer the current diet of strictly
factual articles" to the older form OF
the reflective essay. She also writes
of Kipling, Lord Byron, the South,
religion, divorce, culture, patriotism,
prize fighting revealing herself in
the lsst-named piece as Dempsey
fan, though on strictly intellectual
grounds. and still other subjects. She
is delightful in all OF these pieces, ex-
cept perhaps the one on divorce, which
the reviewer found dull. Yet-should
one say "delightful?" 1t is the word
so commonly applied to the kind OF
essay which Mrs. Gerould does not
write-the gentle rambling variety.
Better to say OF her, perhaps. that she
is accomplished and persuasive. And,
of course, utterly professional. For
in the present day our gentle ramblers
seem somehow to be all amatuers. or
anyway amatuerish. One can not difs
ferentiate suficiently between their
mild little turns with the pen and Mrs.
Gerould's assured craftsmanship.
The reviewer found her own great
est pleasure in the work on Kipling.
In this Mrs. Gerould makes the point
that after his "BarrackR Room Ballad
days, Kipling never received criticism
on his contemporary work, but was
always estimated in the light of his
most youthful performance, and this
she sees As inexplicable injustice. She
SAYS, and the reviewer stood up to
cheer when she came to the passage
that during our period Kipling has
been "the greatest living master OF
English prose" And In another essay
in the collection she observes OF the
Man from Bombay, in passing. that
mo English author since Shakespeare
is so parti- -colored or so polyphonic.
She Is at some pains TO demonstrate
her contention and to the reviewer
mind her critical contribution here Is
the most valuable thing in her book.
For 1t is certainly sound, and 1t is
put with sufficient authority to make
the essay containing 1t part OF our
critical literature. And, needless to
say. 1t is something which has been
neglected. Kipling has been unbelie-
vably misread. It is time and more
than time that some gallant and in
formed writer came forward to set
the muddle surrounding him to rights.
For the rest, young writer's are ad-
vised to buy the book and read 1t
carefully. There is no better work
for fledglings than essay writing. and
nothing that will so soon wear out
-f .+la uto,tlI he
better employed in gathering statistics,
or in making surveys OF surveys for
the central co-ordinating board Of
the federated federations Of the as
sociated associations for gathering
more and more information about less
and less. And there is great field
for these entrepreneurs today. one
hears. Whereas. the essay field may
be said to be far from overcrowded
AN ARTIST IN AMERICA. BY
Thomas Benton New York:
Robert M. Mcbride d Co.
THIS handsome volume is record
OF Mr.. Bentonis travels in the
lan0 OF ms Dlrtn-lnJO lLS ClleS, lLS
mounta ins. it's rivers, its South and
West. Mr.. Benton himself being one
OF our most eminent painters and
descended from long line OF Ameri-
cans, his work can be said to be a
statement of how we look to An artist
who is one of us The answer is
not entirely fiattering. but 1t is. as an
artists answer ought TO be. dispas-
sionste and based on the evidence of
appearances
Mr.. Benton tells briefly how he
came to enter on professional career
when, in answer TO a challenge OF a
sort, he applied for a job on the Jop-
lin (Mo.) American and became staff
cartoonist at the salary of sl4 per
week. He was then II and had had
no artistic training OF any sort. He
went on from Joplin to Chicago. and
this advance from the rural to the
urban leads him into discussion OF
the position of the artist in the cities
of America. He then set out as q
traveller, lecturing and wandering
and subsequent chapters contain tho
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