PAGE SIX THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY,;NOVEMBR 1, 1923
B ( k I boasts the resounding title of "Dean' couldn't if they wanted to. cine-which explains much which ap-
B O 1 of the: School of Literary Arts, Re- In spite of all this, Mr. Fagin has pears in the magazine, even unto the
search University, Washington, D. C." some hope. He feels that someday, advertisements. Why Our Newspapers
somehow the American short story are at Nadir, by Roy L. McCardell,
THE ILLINI LYRE to answer in favor of art, thereby plac- may rise as the American novel is starts out as a miniature Brass Check,
ing himself on a par with Brander rising, and that both of them will go but is better after getting under way;
Matthews and Professor Arlo Bates. far ahead. He offers some construct- it seems to be fairly well Informed.
Illini Poetry, a small crimson and Instead, he shows clearly and bitterly ive criticisms; he expresses convic- As for the stories, the verse, and the
blue volume published by Covici-c- that the production of short stories, tions;. he calls for effort and intelli- book reviews, one is kind to say that
Gee, comprises a collection of poems and particularly of short stories that gence and a little idealism He is they are second-rate.
selected from those written by mem- spir , o arta es britklaying clear, sound, forceful, and authorita-
bers of the Poetry Society of the Uni- spirit of art than does bricklaying. tive, for he knows both the field that
versity of Illinois during the five Po to ezytries the publicg he damns and the field that he praises.AA
y Post to Breezy Stories, the ublica-i He begins where most critics of the (Continued from Page Five)
Iys shinceisaizton n19, tions that pay demand not quality or short story leave off, and asks his land. When. a nation ceases to con-
It sould be said, first of all, that inspiration, but adherence to the blue- reader to go with him in search of trol, it falls apart and ceases to be a
the book has enough poetry of beauty print rules. They ar aided by something better n a check from nation
and worth to merit its publication, so-called civilization, which judges the house of Munsey It is a needed History is but the transcription of
One discovers this upon second read- a piece of work by the price it brings; plea the gradual transition from animal.
ing, if not at first glance. Poetry, af- by half-baked "critics" whose ideal is C. L. F. life to social life and thence to divine
ter all, ought to be taken in small Octavius Roy Cohen and the movie life. The idea of nations comes along
doses, like war news, to give its full writer; by college instructors whose in the middle of the scale of history.
effect. taste and ambitions are governed by MAGAINS-Man who has been an individual
The book contains the usual topical their pocketbooks, and who sing (Continued from Page Four which we call a savage has learned
verse incident to college life, and hymns of praise to O. Henry and Rob- The poem is in. Frost's conversational how to get along with a certain
some verse which must remain un- ert W. Chambers. The demand of the blank verse, and has that delightful group of men, his tribe. Society
classified, but is assuredly more maud- day is for snappy fiction, and the gods love-of-his-fellowmen flavor charac- creates nations; but as the process of
lin and less clever than colyum "po- of the day call snappy fiction good. teristic of his poetry. The Gossip development continues, tie society
etry"; this, for instance Mr. Fagin frankly admits that he' Shop has this to say of him: "Robert idea will finally destroy nations: for
"Bursting buds, careseing breezes, has done his share to produce writers Frost, come to town for a few days, a man who now gets along with one
Nice warm mud that softly squeezes, of stories that sell that's what he is is returning, he told us, to Amherst certain group of people but fights an-
Little birds and brooks and beeses, paid for doing. But be does not main- in the autumn,-a noble, quiet, splen- other group will eventually learn how
Boy! Ain't Nature Grand?" tain that such stories are worth while. did figure as always." to adjust himself to all men. We will
There is a little vers de societe which j His indictment'of O. Henryism-not iTheLiterary Spotlight exposes Wil- not have a league of nations, we will
Tarkington's Clarence could have, of poor Smith himself-is stinging; liam Rose Binet, revealing him as a have an abolition of nations.
written with little difficulty, and some his attack upon the movies is equally poet who, though narrowly escaping Whereas nations are small groups
poetry of symbolic identification ("I sharp and more significant. The cult the conservatism of Old Alf Noyes, of people mutually bound together for
am a stained glass window", etc..), of O. Henry has done its worst and manages to be an easy, if intelligent, the purpose of opposing other groups,
which has grown a little wearying has become stationary, at least;that of critic-even of the efforts of the Christianity calls for no division
since the first poems of Sara Teasdale. the movies has taken the worst of O. younger experimentalists. Genevieve whatsoever, and considers only one
So much for adverse comment. Henry and is gathering speed every Taggard in The Poems of the Month large group Christianity is in fact in-
There is much true poetry in the day. There are other evil influences, selects his Primum Mobile from The imical to nations. A Christian nation
book for a' that. "Solitaire" by Isa- too; prudery, congenital insanity New Republic, as one of the best for is a contradition in terms. It is like
dor Lipton has these lines: goody-goodiness, and a host of for- July. enclosing infinity within boundaries.
"Who can make of loneliness a bidden things that involve all these Simon Pure gossips entertainingly Every time you use the word "Amen-
song? and all sorts of special cases. There about American writers from the Lon- canism" you are thereby declaring
It has no love, no fire, are some things one must praise at don point of view, the Sketch Book that the United States is essentially
No fever of desire, certain times, like the Wilson admin- has some anonymous Confessions of pagan.
No beauty, no pain- istration and the virgin honesty of a Blurb Writer; and What's What By Newell Bebout.
One only knows the days are long France; there are other things one Among the Season's Books classifies
... and long- must praise not at all, like Bolshe- conveniently the new books. "The Jews have done the world one
Ali, who can make of loneliness a vism and the morality of the burger '-great service. They have made the
song-" of Jena. Of course, such qualifica- PEARSON'S MAGAZINE for Octo- Origin and Supporter of the Universe
It is perhaps legitimate to single tions do not exist for stories pub- ber continues its editor's fight against something invisible."-By Mark Ruth-
out for comment the poetry of Lois fished in The Pagan and The Wave-J the American Medical Association and erford, from "Last Pages from' a
Seyster Montross, co-author of that but such magazines do not pay, and for the Electronic Movement in Medi- Journal."
college best-seller of last year, "Town
and Gown," since her work occupies
fully twenty pages of the ninety-six
page volume, although there are twen-
ty-eight poets represented. All of the
poems which she has contributed are Discounting the future At Sixty! Shabby respecta-
to be enjoyed, and maintain a more D u g tr tySixty!eShabbycespecta-
even tenor of achievement than do dangerous business bity - Dependence - Re-
most of the groups of poems included. g es e olcin fb te
"**2 s'"f"3 "'"";j~;*ngrets. Recollections of better
"Tai-Hischa" and "I Wear a Crimsonfo y u
Cloak Tonight" are among the more years of positioninfluence
ambitious, and perhaps the more sig- A
nificant of her poems, but short lyrics hope. A depressing outlook
bear the strain of part-quotation best;
these lines are taken from "To Char- isn't it?
mian, Unborn":
"My laugh is dumb that fluttered But we are not pessemistic;
wild,st
My hands are bare of shining rings, nor are we sentimental. Per-
My soul goes fasting that a child
Be born for silk and songs and
wings,"future. We suggest you
Mr. Bruce Weirick, who edits the
volume, concludes his preface by re- capitalize it
marking that if the book succeeds in
arousing from silence the authors''
songless university contemporaries inea
the middle west (of which Michigan. trite and time-worn phrases
is supposed to be one), it will have
served one of its purposes. about saving, we wish rather
-Dorothy Tyler
to look to the future a little.
BLUE-PRINTS VERSUS If you are spending all now,
LITERATURE
SMOST STOSY WhITING: AN AliT you are d i s c o u n t i n g the
OR A TiTRAE? i1y N. iBrillion Fa in. future. ou are using money
Thonis Seltzer, $1.50.
Mr. Brillion Fagin opens his little you will need at sixty; for you
book on the short story with the
ouestion which forms its title. Is the will need it then.
short story, and particularly the
American short story, a form of art,
or is it merely a trade at which any
ordinary man or woman can become TWO OFFICES-DOWN TOWN-UNIVERSITY AVE.
reasonably proficient providing he or
she learns to handle the tools and LARGEST BANK IN WASHTENAW COUNTY
reads the blue-prints?
One might expect the author, who