PAGE TWELVE
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 19'4
PACE TWELVE SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 19~4
hooks and Writers 1
www
They told us
When
we were in
I
Science Applied To Artj
THE SHORT STORY'S MUTATIONS.l
Frances Newman. New York. B. W.
F zebsch, Inc. 1924 $2.50
This has been, more or less, a reve-
lation to me. I have a mild antipa-
thy for writers of the female sex. But t
I must bow to Miss Newman. I didI
not know that a woman could do as<
well.
The author has undertaken to ex-t
plain the development of the short
st(,ry since the days of Petronius.1
Her theory is original. As might he
cxpected in this twentieth century,
it is scientific. The short story, Misst
Newman believes, progresses, not by
evolution, but by mutations. Evolu-
tion is, biologically, the gradual
change of species of animals or plants
t" ro-1 successive generations.rThe
accumulation of such differences
through long periods of time may re-
sult in large changes. A mutation,
on the other hand, is a sudden mark-
ed change appearing in the offspring
of normai parents. These Iarg(
changes or variations are called mu,
tations from he Latin mutare to
change, or saltations from the Lirtin
saltare, to leap. Thus the short story
has not slowly evolved to its present
form; rather has it developed by sud-
den leaps, caused by the rise of a
genius, in a new direction. Suci on-
explained changes lead to new epochs.
The creators of such epochs are fol-
lowed by disciples who work out the
new ideas; they inherit their mas-
ters' teCli.ique and add their own.
At the b ith of a genius appears an
unforseen variation-thus it goes.
The mutation theory is explained in
ten chapters of comment which are il-
lustrated by sixteen stories. Incident-
ally twelve of these are translated by
the author-the bit of expurgation is,
deubtless,''due to the sex of the trans-
lator.
According to Miss Newman, Petron-
irs is the modern short story. The next
s' pnin the development is the French
'fablau:.x with.i"their gaiete, malice,
and polissonnehe (L'esprit gaulois).
Then came the Gesta Romanorum ann
the tales of Boccaccio, the creator of
several literary mutants. Voltaire
with his "carbolic prose," "the first
writer whose words laid a smoothly
lacquered surface over his acrimoni-
ous animus;" Hans Christian Ander-
sen, who wrote of the chimney-sweep
and the shepherdess (which gave
James Branch Cabell the title for his
book and the domestic, practical char-
acter of his women); Alfred de Mus-
set with his story of Mimi Pinson,
who was a realistic grisette; Prosper
Merimee, who gave the story its uni-
que and single effect of which Poe
wrote; Guy de Maupassant, who gave
a story the form its emotion demand-
ed, these follow. And so the suc-
ce r;n traced through Jules La-
The Romantics
Essays in the Romantic Poets. Ily
Solonicn Francis Ging'erich, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English in
the University of Michigan. Ne V
Y'k. The Macmillan company-
1924.
Every year the Romantic poets!
come in more and more for their
share of the world's print. Witness
this brief year Professor Chew's
momentous tome on Byron; Harold
Nicholson's irreverent and Stracheyes-
que study of the same; and the charm-
ing dramatization of Shelley's life by
the Frenchman Maurois.
Professor Gingerich's book is not a
star of a magnitude with these, 'rt
this apparently adverse statement s
not to be construed as criticism
rather as description. Whereas the
above mentioned works play in large
measure the inapired part of Johun
crying in the wilderness of popular
misconception the present author 11a5
undertaken to present a guidebook
to that wilderness on more conven-
tional lines.
He seeks to detail the evolution of
the deeper suibjecti ce life of the poet
as conditioned by his times. It is
Professor Gingerich's thesis thr't the
poet's relation to life is not that
special connection the niloso1-er,
psychol.ogist, or theologian has: yet
the poet conshders all these ('zcto s
n life and his reaction to them is
evident in his work. Rather, the poet
is a synthesist of all these depart-
ments in an amateur way, his chic-
and professional business being t(
center such thoughts on a suplemeI
interpretation of the immediate ex-
perience. This composite kind of
truth, the author esteems to be - the,
poet's function.
for-ue, -enry James, Anton Chekhov.
Sherwood Anderon, D. H. Lawrenrc.
James Joyce. 'he series ends with
Paul Morand's "Nordic Night," an
unusual and well-written story.
The selections share interest with
thme rem arks. With an eaten sive
- produced "other poems of distinc-
tion."
Fortunately for poetry, the title of
Poetry's Future the work belies the actual situation
and, following the great American
i i tradition, the real poets of the fu-
- - ture are really still obscure section-
The Poets of the Future. A College hands. Even Harvard, which has,
Anthology for 1922-24 Edited by supplied the minor poetry market for1
Henry T. Schnitlkind, Ph.D. Bos- the past years, comes through with
ten, Mass. The Stratford company, a work by Charles Hamburg entitled
IPubihirers. U24. "In the Sky was a Frail Dab of White."
I. was my impression that Dr. The kind of verse affected by colleget
Shnittkind that Braithwaite of the. poets is evidently the heroic genre, as
S knB wthis first verse from Allen Earl Wood-e
campuses, called the roll of collegey;
poets every year. Evidently such is all's Syracuse The Wind:
not the case. The poetry business has "I am the great eternal wind,
not looked up during the past two Through the waste of years I
years, present anthology is a com. pour;
And from pole to pole where my'
This is a depressing jog-too much great waves roll
1ike reviewing an issue of the ci-de- I am king forevermore."
vant. Whimsies. Or even more so. Or else the slight, whimsical manner
Whimsies was but one; Dr. Schnitt- of the free-versifiers. Example from
kind's mosaic is legion-the index Wind by Kathryn Shephard (Wash-
reads like an educational directory ington):
and those not positively representedn combs the long grass
i"Wind cmsteln rs
by a poem are mentioned as having On the hillside
And leaves it straight and smooth;
The examples chosen to illustrate Hair of a young boy
this theme are the four outstanding Damp after swimming."
Romantics, Coleridge, Wordsworth, A hint of the T. S. Eliot-Millay
Shelley and Byron. The various fdchool occurs in TrilogyA Spencer
points of the discussion are sufficient- Murphy (North Carolina):
ly illustrated with quotations from "Boston. City of teacups.
the works of these poets;' the foot- 1A shabby old man with fine eyes
notes are not subversive ot interest; And a soft voice
and the presentation of the theolo. Drank from a paper thin cup of
gical background is simple enough finest china.
for the layman. I The handle was broken.
A cold old lady died:
A cold doctor said 'Lack
tion.'
The old lady would not
folios.
Motionless almost.
Echoes, echoes,
Echoes in learned polysy
White Hopes
(Continued from Page E
rounds with McVey but i
enough to say that the clew
carried him along.
Another real battle Kearns had was
of nutri- against Al Kaufmann, then another
white hope favorite, in Califorenia.
sell her Kearns beat him in six rounds.
Kearns fought Stanley Ketchel in
Milwaukee and took a beating from
the great Ketchel.
yllables." After dropping out of the ring
game Kearns took up blacksmithing
until the world war broke out. Then
he re-enlisted in the army. He ha:
been a city fireman since 1920.
leven)
is frank
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knowledge to aid her, the author ex- 209-211 E. Washington St.
plains the mutations by mentioning
literary and extra-literary influences.
The writer's erudition does not, as it11
might in other hands, result in pedan- Him HHHRHHHHHHHHH
try. Clever phraseology, humor, and
touches of pale satire contribute to
this explanation of the genealogy orf
the short story. Miss Newman has efore You Leave
the courage of her convictions and the Yo
ability to express her meaning °clear-
ly and rapidly. For Home and Those-
Withal, this is a remarkable work,
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