AMERICAN LITERATURE (Nov. 15, 1918, to Nov. 15, 1919) Book Production. It is probable | lishers' reports as fiction by Amerithat the production of books in the can authors is as follows: United States would have been larger 1914 1918 in 1919 than ever before had it not 1915 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 8,563 8,820 .9,237 The total for 1919 cannot be accurately estimated at the time of writing, chiefly because the printers' strike has interfered with the compilation of the figures. It may be estimated, however, at about 8,000. 689 643 703 707 594 For 1919 we estimate the figure at about 600. Aside from these rather mechanical details, the chief matter of annual interest in American fiction has been for many years the production or recognition of some novel which was 6,932 a thoroughly satisfying expression of 8,430 the real vitality and vigor of America. Unfortunately one of the best accredited authorities on the subject will not give its judgment for 1919 until long after the YEAR BOOK has gone to press. We mention, therefore, the award of the Pulitzer Prize for the year 1918, although the novel selected is not included in our survey. The award of $1,000 for "the American novel which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of American life and the highest standard of American manners and manhood" was made to Booth Tarkington for The Magnificent Ambersons (A. Y. B., 1918, p. 796), which was certainly a readable and "worth while" book. There were probably some who thought Mrs. Watts's The Boardman Family quite as good a picture of sane and wholesome American life, and some who felt that Miss Cather's My Antonia was a more beautiful piece of work than either, whatever was to be said of the life which it presented. But most novel readers will have been well pleased with the award. When it comes to 1919, it is hard to predict what the award will be. Mr. Tark Fiction. Although very vigorous, American fiction in 1919 has not been as interesting as often, partly because of the intrusion of attractions from the outside and partly because of its own failings. Joseph Conrad's The Arrow of Gold was enough to discourage many readers and writers of domestic drama, and the extraordinary popularity of the novels of Blasco Ibañez must have had a more distinct and more general effect. Even lesser matters, like the publication of the works of Leonard Merrick, issued with prefaces by other distinguished men of letters, or the choice by Mr. Galsworthy of the Cosmopolitan as a vehicle for reaching the American public, may have reduced the demand and thus affected the supply of the native product. The figures of production of books classified in the pub ington's Ramsey Milholland (Double-man, The Groper (Boni & Liveright); day, Page) may win the prize for him Josephine D. Bacon, On Our Hill again, for it is a very popular book, (Scribner); Mary H. Bradley, The and we will not suggest anything Wine of Astonishment (Appleton); else. It may be said, however, that Alice Brown, The Black Drop (Macthe year's fiction does not include any millan); Zona Gale, Peace in Friendnovels of American life by those who ship Village (Macmillan); Ellen have been thought heretofore most Glasgow, The Builders (Doubleday, competent to write them. A lot of Page); Daniel C. Goodman, The American novels that has nothing by Taker (Boni & Liveright); Will N. Mrs. Wharton, Miss Canfield (as she Harben, The Cottage of Delight (Haris still called on her title pages), or per); Joseph Hergesheimer, Linda Miss Cather cannot have the best that Condon (Knopf); Arthur Hodges, we can do, except by the happy chance The Bounder (Houghton, Mifflin); of some one's emerging who would Julie M. Lippman, Flexible Ferdinot previously have been thought of. nand (Doran); George Barr McSherwood Anderson and Theodore Cutcheon, Sherry (Dodd, Mead); Dreiser come to mind in this connec- Grace S. Mason, His Wife's Job (Aption, though neither has published pleton); Christopher Morley, The what could technically be called a Haunted Bookshop (Doubleday, novel. Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (Huebsch) has so much real feeling for American life and character that one wishes it were a real masterpiece. It lacks constructive power, however, being made up of sketches and stories some of which appeared a good while ago in The Seven Arts. It is also too much marred by boyish and sensual fancies to be thought of as a masterpiece. But it does give something which it is better to catch in the tavern than to lose outright even in the temple. It would not be long thought of by one in search of the most wholesome manners and manhood of America, but it does at least suggest that possibly the best pictures of American life and manners can not be entirely sane and wholesome. Mr. Dreiser in the past has not shown much constructive power and he too has suffered from the imputation of sensuality, but his Twelve Men (Boni & Liveright) has neither of these faults. These stories have the characteristics of his best work, being founded on wide knowledge and presented with unfailing realism. Page); Arnold Mulder, The Outward Our Such a list (even by its omissions) shows considerable material to choose from, but there are many more novels of a different character. The sane and healthful picture of American life, however desirable, is not the most popular thing just now among either the writers or the readers. The novel of "mystery, adventure, romance" is much more obvious, as always, and also more numerous. remark last year (A. Y. B., 1918, p. 786) that this passion for excitement was the result of the war was so severely discouraged by an able literary periodical that we will not repeat it but merely wish that we could suggest something better. The fact seems to be that not only are there more stories of adventure (in all sorts of places from the now commonplace wilds of the Canadian Northwest to the romantic walks of Greenwich Village), but also more detective or mystery stories, more stories of domestic emotion, more excitement, in a word, than for several years past. The critics have noted one or two streaks, as one may say, in the general tend Besides these books that have something out of the ordinary about them, there are many others that are good in the well known way that most of us like. We offer a list of what may fairly be called "studies of American life," though a number of them are too highly charged with excitement of divers kinds to allow us to rely on the view presented: Henry G. Aik As always there are a good many books which cannot be pigeonholed as realistic or romantic. Nice, more or less idyllic stories are: C. B. Kelland, The Little Moment of Happiness (Harper); Sidney McCall, Christopher Laird (Dodd, Mead); Marie C. Oehmler, A Woman Named Smith (Century); Henry van Dyke, The Broken Soldier and the Maid of France (Scribner). Among the best tales of humor or extravagance so popular and so characteristic a feature of our literature are: Montague Glass, Potash and Perlmutter Settle Things (Harper); Wallace Irwin, The Blooming Angel (Doran); Peter C. MacFarlane, The Exploits of Bilge and Ma (Doubleday, Page); Alice Duer Miller, The Charm School (Harper); Harry Leon Wilson, Ma Pettingill (Doubleday, Page). ency that seem not quite as they | Sinclair, Burned Bridges (Little, should be. It has been pointed out Brown); Charles Alden Seltzer, The (C. M. Greene, Bookman) that those Ranchman (McClurg); Robert Watwho have heard so much about the son The Girl of the O. K. Valley high imaginative and spiritual plane (Doran); Honoré Willsie, The Forto which the world would be uplifted bidden Trail (Stokes); George F. by the war have been disappointed Worts, Peter the Brazen (Century). by the material, even commercial, tone of the majority of the novels of the day. Many people beside the book reviewers have wondered at similar results in other expressions of human interest. This does not prove that high imagination and true spirituality were not among the results of the war; it is more likely that such results as these have actually occurred (who can doubt it?), but that it will take some time before they can really manifest themselves in works of art, if not elsewhere. We give a list of the more obvious of the romantic novels, noting that there is much more than usual of the "lure of the untamed West," a pretty sure sign of conventionality; every story here might be described (one of them has been) as a "story of gripping intensity and unusual happenings interwoven with a splendid romance,' or if not, it comes pretty near it: David Anderson, The Blue Moon (Bobbs, Merrill); Marion Bower and Leon M. Lion, The Chinese Puzzle (Holt); B. M. Bowers, Rim o' the World (Little, Brown); George The obvious interest of the war is A. Chamberlain, Not All the King's still important, though more in the Horses (Bobbs, Merrill); Robert W. periodical press than in books. The Chambers, In Secret (Doran); Dane magazines continue to show great inCoolidge, Silver and Gold (Dutton); terest in war topics. A curious little Ridgewell Cullom, The Law of the controversy arose in the spring on Gun (Jacobs); James Oliver Cur- "the Atlantic in war time." wood, The River's End (Houghton, viewer of DeWolfe Howe's history of Mifflin); Zane Gray, The Desert of the Atlantic mentioned elsewhere had Wheat (Harper); Emerson Hough, spoken of that magazine's "comparaThe Sagebrusher (Appleton); Eliza- tive indifference to the Civil War." beth Jordan, The Girl in the Mirror The statement was challenged, and the (Century); H. H. Knibbs, The Ridin' reviewer, although conceding verbal Kid from Powder River (Houghton, indiscretion, pointed out that alMifflin); Jeremy Lane, Yellow Men though there were in every number ' Sleep (Century); Sinclair Lewis, of the Atlantic of the Civil War sevFree Air (Harcourt, Brace & Howe); eral articles on war-topics there were Caroline Lockhart, The Fighting always many more entirely unSheperdess (Scribner); F. C. Mac- touched by it, whereas in the Atdonald, Sorcery (Century); A. Mer-lantic even of the present day there ritt, The Moon Pool (Putnam); Roy are hardly any articles absolutely unNorton, Drowned Gold, (Houghton, connected with the great struggle. Mifflin); A. B. Reeve, The Soul Scar This deep and continued interest, (Harper); Vingie Roe, Tharon of however, does not show itself so much Lost Valley (Dodd, Mead); Bertrand in the more permanent form of books. Mary Johnston, our chief writer of historical novels, may come at the end of our list with her Michael Forth (Harper), a story of Civil War Reconstruction which recalls some of her best work. A re Not only is there less of the super-short stories than novels, and though ficial interest in war topics, but there they have no constructive unity, as is less of the deeper emotion that may we may say, they are conceived pracbe supposed to have been stirred by tically as wholes and are meant to be the war. The two problems of a non-read as wholes. But quite as good economic nature, or perhaps we are several others of which the folshould say most capable of literary lowing must serve as a general note. treatment, that have been most Dorothy Canfield's The Day of Glory deeply stirred by the war are our feel- (Holt) is a volume of stories sugings about sex and about religion. gested by her experiences in France; Yet neither of these motives makes like its immediate predecessor, it much of an appearance in the litera- shows her fine devotion to a cause as ture of the day except in a superficial well as her recognized literary abilor perfunctory way. ity. Much the same thing might be said of Mrs. Deland's Small Things (Appleton); one almost regrets that these writers have been prevented by broader opportunities and the necessities of events from looking around upon their own country. E. L. White has written no novel in 1919, but his Song of the Sirens (Dutton) is excellent and has a substance and flavor of its own, like the rest of the work There have been published two treatises on fiction, Wilson Follet's The Modern Novel (Knopf) and Clayton Hamilton's Manual of the Art of Fiction (Doubleday, Page). These works have been described by a professional novelist (Henry B. Fuller) in two characteristic sentences. One "whirs and sweeps, aviator-like, through the thin, keen air of theory," and the other "burrows thoroughly of this author. Joseph Hergesheimand faithfully . . . accomplishes a good amount of serviceable earthwork and helps ventilate and rearrange the general soil." The characterization is not absolutely true to fact but points toward it. Short Stories. Of the short story we can, as usual, give but slight account. The mass of short stories published in the popular periodicals is so great that it is a life work to deal with it. Unfortunately E. J. H. O'Brien's Best Stories of 1919 (Small), like a great deal else that would be useful to the maker of summaries, does not come out in time for us to use. But as we have not mentioned his studies of the work of 1918, it will not be amiss to quote an opinion which we imagine he will repeat in his book on 1919. "There has been a marked ebb this year," he remarks, “in the quality of the American short story. Life these days is far more imaginative than any fiction can be and our writers are dazed by its forceful impact." Something of the same sort, we have thought, might be said of fiction in general. Still, there have been rather more good collections of short stories (relatively) than good novels. We have already mentioned in another connection Mr. Anderson's and Mr. Dreiser's books, which are more like collections of er's The Happy End (Knopf) is characteristic of the author's usual fine method. Henry van Dyke's The Valley of Visions (Scribner) is a collection of stories suggested by his experiences during the war. Poetry.-Poetry continues to be a challenge to the general reader, or perhaps better an invitation to come and play, even if it be only on the cellar door in the backyard. It is perhaps too scornful and imperious to be an invitation and too gay and childlike to be a challenge, but it has the elements of both. In spite of being occasionally squalid and blasphemous (O. W. Firkins, Nation) and more often noisy, it has enough in the way of stronger qualities to make us rather indifferent to its weaknesses. This year Louis Untermeyer has voiced the spirit of the time in his The New American Poetry (Holt), and the New Republic during the summer made possible a good focussing of different lines of thought by publishing at one time a review of the book by Conrad Aiken with a rejoinder by Mr. Untermyer. The two utterances presented persuasively the two tendencies which may now be observed in American poetry, as well, it may be added, as in American literature as a whole, namely, the feeling for a national and therefore a A Wil broadly sympathetic and democratic | realities of life that made him such poetry of ideas and a more definitely a sympathetic companion with grown æsthetic poetry devoted simply to the people as well as younger ones. love of beauty. It seems as if the true and unusual light is thrown on poetry of the year was more of the Roosevelt's character in Bill Sewall's latter kind than of the former. An- Story of T. R. (Harper). W. W. Seother book on American poetry is wall was a Maine guide who had New Voices (Macmillan) by Mrs. often lived with Roosevelt in the Marguerite Wilkinson, a book which woods and knew him in ways that has had much of the popularity it others were not so likely to see. deserves and shows the popular in- liam R. Thayer's Life of Theodore terest in criticism and poetry, for the Roosevelt (Houghton, Mifflin) is the book is not only an anthology, but a most worthy of mention among sev piece of criticism as well. When it eral other lives published. Among comes to mention particular books of the most characteristic of the many poetry, the task seems so difficult that lives of Americans that appear every one wishes to shut his eyes and pick year is An American Idyll: The Caout blindly. We have not followed reer of Carleton Parker ( (Atlantic this course, but another, namely, the Monthly Press) by his wife. Professelection of something representative sor Parker was a very unusual man, in as many different lines as possible, and this story of his life is not only and our order of mention is surely absorbing and stimulating by its own good, being alphabetical: Conrad Aiken, The Channel Rose (Four Seas); Stephen V. Benet, Young Adventure (Yale Univ. Press); Berton Braley, Buddy Ballads; Songs of the A. E. F. (Doran); John Jay Chapman, Songs and Poems (Scribner); John G. Fletcher has published not only The Tree of Life (Macmillan), but has given those who like theory as well as practice "A Rational Explanation of Vers Libre" in the Dial of Jan. 11; there has been published a memorial edition of the Poems, Essays, and Letters of Joyce Kilmer (Doran) who fell in the war in 1918; Amy Lowell, Pictures, of the Floating World (Macmillan); John G. Neihardt, The Song of Three Friends (Macmillan); Leonard Van Noppen, U. S. N. R. The Challenge. The best poems read before the Poetry Club of America during the season of 1918-19 were "Wooden Ships" by David Morton and "Bluestone" by Marguerite Wilkinson; the authors divided the National Arts Prize of $250. vitality, but by its suggestion of ideas concerning American education and social problems. Dr. W. T. Grenfell is enough of an American for us to include his autobiography (fortunately still unfinished) A Labrador Doctor (Houghton, Mifflin). The most important biography of the year, however, is the Life of Henry Fielding by Prof. W. L. Cross (Yale Univ. Press), a remarkable work of laborious inquiry and sympathetic scholarship such as has not appeared for a long while. Whether it come more properly under the present head or the next we are not sure, but waiving the question, we find great interest in The Early Years of the Saturday Club, 1850-1870, by E. W. Emerson (Houghton, Mifflin). Such records are very likely to degenerate into literary gossip, but even literary gossip about our own fathers is of value. Mr. Emerson rises above anything of the sort and gives us a valuable chronicle of one of the literary periods of our history. Of somewhat Biography. No one now living had similar interest, although a slighter so many biographies written during work, is M. A. DeWolfe Howe's The his lifetime as Theodore Roosevelt. Atlantic Monthly and Its Makers His death is so recent that no "final" (Atlantic Monthly Press), an account biography has yet appeared, but a of one of the most important of the sort of pendant to his own account of many factors which produced the lithis life has been published in a series erature of our country during the of Letters to His Children (Scrib- last half-century. It does not bener), full of the childlike spirit of long just here, but somewhere must real happiness and the love of the be mentioned Brand Whitlock's great |