SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 1922 THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE 5
A Review---And Some Notes
(By G. D. E.) pathos that one finds in a book by and the ripening of her literary po- roses, of, at most, building on a
"Up Stream," (Boni and Liveright) Dreiser or Hergesheimer. But it tentialities. As a culmination of her rotten foundation. In this same
Ludwig Lewisohn's autobiography, comes in flashes and these are the heavenly inspirations the Reverend analysis I found that when a person
which I read fully a month ago ands high spots in the book. For this had her writing that won-der-ful line condemned criticism for not being
which I reviewed a week ago in one reason I believe that in Waldron's "In the beauty of the lilies, Christ (constructive the criticism in question
of the Detroit papers, will have to tnovel the best drawn figure is the was born across the sea." Nothing; had collided with the opinions of that
wait for review in these pages for father. like enthusiasm, Parson, but it hap- person, that, in general, it had ques-
another week. I need a full -quota Dut, in the main, it is a good book. pens that Julia Ward Howe was the tioned certain treasured inhibitions.
of space to do it justice, andl due to; It is a little different from most author of that poetic bit of nonsense.
the interruption of vacation and to American novels in that it has a bet- Certainly, a gentleman of the cloth
receiving it first from the publish- ter study of the coward which is should be conversant with the popular I recommend the reading of "Little
ers, I must here and now review "The within most men. But aside from Ihymns. But perhaps that is wbat Ess of e and Virtue," (Doran)
Road to the World" (Century) by this I shall treasure it as a book giv- the Reverend calls constructive criti- by iyarelock Ellis. It is intelligent
Webb Waldron, But I advise every- ing the best sketch that I have so cism. mate inform tive little treasur ed
one with a sense of literary values to ,tar read of life in Ann Arbor. I wish. by the general public at the book-
get Lewisohn's book, No decent li- that the whole novel had been laid Anent constructive criticism, I find, stores for the small sum of a dollar
brary should be without it. here. from analysis of popular opinion, that and a half. How it ever escaped com-
By the above I do not wish to con- - it consists of bolstering up the bad, stockians is more than I know. In his
vey the idea'that Waldron's novel is Several weeks ago an enthusiastic of painting over worm eaten wood- introduction, Ellis leaves' it to the
not a good and realable book. In reverend, in attacking me from the work, of stuffing rags in the holes 1young people whether his book is
fact, for a first novel, it is extremely pulpit, gave a brief of the immortal where bricks have fallen out, of cov- "suitable to be placed in the hands of
good and I recommend it heartily. doings of the immortal Harriet Beech- ering a wart with a bit of court older people." I think, Mr. Ellis, that
The author graduated here in 1905 er Stowe, attempting to save her from plaster, of erecting a temple and we ought to use discretion about it. It
and over a hundred pages of his story my scurrilous typewriter. Amid much, leaving a patio for the pig-pen, of would be a dangerous volume in the
have been given over-to an Ann Arbor rhetoric and sonorousness he brought surrounding an odorous heap of gar- hands of those who had started to,set
setting. In consequence of this the her up from pantalettes to maturity bage with a bundle of American beauty (Continued on Page 7)
book has been already widely read
about the campus and I scarcely need
dwell on the story itself to any great
extent.
So far as I know, Webb Waldron is
one of the two Michigan graduates
who have written novels worth read-
ing, the other being Harold Arm-
strong (Henry G. Aikmsan) who also
graduated in 1905 and who wrote
"Zell," one of the best novels in the
past year. To compare James Oliver it h T h e se
Curwood to either of these men would
be nearly as ridiculous as to com-
pare blue to Shakespeare. Gr'anting
the vast superiority of Shakespeare,
the gulf in either of the two compari-
sons would be almost infinite.
Some day, perhaps, the Michiganen-
sian will give spaces of honor to such
men as Armstrong and Waldron in-
stead of to heavy jowled politicians comes the desire on the part
and big league baseball players. I
am creditably informed that the l of every man to dress up and
Right Honorable Edwin Denby and
George Sisler are to receive the laurel kB
wreath from the annual this year. look his best. Bursting buds,
But let us leave the Star Spangled
Banner and the plug of tobacco and green grass, balmy breezes,
go back to the book.
Waldron's protagonist is clearly a new cothes-they all go to-
human being with all the faults and
the few virtues of most human
beings. To be sure, he is a little gether.
more finely spun aesthetically than
most, but none the less, he is outt-
rightly graceless, wambling and po1- We beieve you wi e please
troonish at times. He has exalted
and poetic moments hbut he succumbs with our stock of clothes for
in the end to all the clownishess and
fears and stupidity of the averagey
Homo sapiens. Even his sexual de- your spring and summer!
sires, courageous and gallant in his
dreams, become weak-kneed when wear. I
confronted by the actuality of a ready
woman, and so he becomes a perfect
picture of the swashbucking roister- We cater especially to the young men who
er who spends an entire afternoon
over a single glass of beer, of the want to dress distinctively and yet conserva-
risque raconteur whose most highly
colored practices are attending a tively.
cheap burlesque or reading a Hearst
magazine. He has none of the sincere
swagger and active masculinity of a Ay lye Serve -VOU
Shakespeare, or a Cellini, or a Villon,
or a Balzac, or a Whitman.
I know of few novels meore real-
istically. portrayed. "Waldron gives a
better picture and atmosphere of the KM
University of Michigan in a hundred
pages than Shaw does in his whole
book on the institution. yhe chie f
trouble is that Waldron does not al-
ways get his characters in the rouns 604 EAST LIBERTY STREET
they are often little more than two
dimensional, or at most, In bas-relief "QU ALIT Y FIRST - ECONOMY ALW AYS"
As far as he has gone he has dor-
exceedingly well, but somehow o
other, the book lacks the tang o -