Evening star., 1938-11-20
Gives Strong Convincing King Edwards sAbcao1
SCIENCE MADE LITERARY GUIDE
Human Nature Mingled With Highly Developed Art Recalled by
Reader of Admiral Byrds New Book Antarctic Affairs

ignored. And then the lady spoke.
That food" she said-and her
voice was poignant with unimagin-
ably wistful yearning. "all that food,
you know, in the sack. Why-in that
chmate-it1l keep for years and
years!"
Words, mere words, cannot even
intimate the intensity OF longing
that was in her tone.
+ 4 +
Well, Of course, 1t has been said
that it takes all kinds Of people to
make . world, and there does seem
to be general agreement about 1t.
too. Nobody, to be sure. has ever
said authoritatively why there must
be all kinds; q literary critic may
therefore be allowed her opinion per-
haps. and that Is, for this one, that
people exist so that writer's will
have something to write about. It is
likely that others besides the re-
viewer heard that good housewives
soulful outcry that afternoon, as
her whole being was shaken to its
depths by the thought Of a bag of
perfectly good groceries lying in the
eternal SHOWS Of Antarctica, beyond
any possible recovery. But it is
doubtful that any one who heard
the speech today. except the re-
viewer, remembers 1t. For in all
probability the hearers would have
noted nothing memorable in the
remark.
But what quinessential example
OF human absurdity it furnishes us!
How delightfully."- writer's could write.
indeed, If they would but write Of
men and women as men and women
are, without torturing and forcing
their poor material to fit Procrus.
team beds of theory. Shakespeare
would have loved that good and
addle-pated woman, so sure that she
was ruler of infinite space within
her nutshell that no bad dream, or
dreams of any kind could ever
trouble her. He immortalized her in
play or two. In his day, to be sure,
she was likely to be a servant, or
one so humbly placed that she had
no need of pretenses. But in our
day she comes, in earnest duty, to
the opera house-there to see the
scientific side Of it all. Why-how
lovely a thing is life and our ridicu-
lous species, to be sure!
The reviewer has read, recently In
q dreary little sheet called Direction,
a thing published chiefly in the
interest of organizations" of artists
and writer's. that literature is suffer-
ing in this day because our men and
women of letters cling to an indi-
vidualistic Interpretation of life and
fail to band themselves together to
set forth various political doctrines.
This seems to her the most weary
ing kind OF nonsense in the world.
She declares, therefore, and with
ugly plainness, that she believes that
any writer who looks to an organi-
zation to supply him with his point
OF view is either an incompetent
would-be or knows himself to be
slipping toward the gray gulf of the
has-beens. Or, of course. is
smart manipulation, who sees some
commercial gain in organizing and
is willing to prostitute his abilities
accordingly.
The accomplished Of great things
in any art has always been the
maverick, the break-away. the pio-
neer, the revolutionary, the discov-
ever, the thinker for himself and the
believer-in- his own hand above ALL
other-things-that-be. And, in Amer
jca, such ones have usually been ap-
plauded. When did our country
lose its courage and its native love
of adventuring? When did we cease
to have literary explorers? When
did we stop sending ships to the
poles of the human mind2 It is a
question for future historians to
decide.
The reviewer, with obstinate opti-
mism, refuses to regard this current
organization frenzy, this madness to
huddle together in mobs, as any,
thing but a brief symptom of brief
time. In essense, 1t comes from
this-in the 20s the business Of
writing was exalted to great new
heights, and resultantly young men
and women in large numbers de-
cided to be writer's. In the sos there
are not markets enough to take
care of the swarms of clever medic
critics who accordingly developed.
And so these mediocrities, finding
the pinch harder than they can face
individually, have banded together
to resist it collectively. 1t all has
about as much to do with literature
as stock report. No wonder that
these youths and maidens are so
preoccupied with economic" writ
ing! Their individual problem Is
economic and they are trying, dis
honestly. to claim that it is likewise
the problem of the whole literary
art-to save themselves. 1t Is very
simple. They should have taken up
farming. That Is q much healthier
life.
\ 4
Washingtonians should be pleased
to learn that their city has been
made the subject of one of Rand
McNally's Romance Maps" - and
that the historians of this map are
two local writer's, Miss Susan Baker
and Miss Roberta Tull. The artist
Is George Armand. There have been
a series of seven of these maps to
date. They are attractive and in
formative. The Washington one is
already completed and is on sale in
local book stores.