Contemporary American Literature. John Matthews Manly
Leaders of America. 1904.
The New American Drama. 1913.
How to See a Play. 1914.
Bernard Shaw—The Man and the Mask. 1916.
Studies and Reviews
Rittenhouse.
Bookm. 47 (’18): 348.
Chaut. 38 (’03): 82 (portrait).
Lond. Times, Mar. 17, 1910: 95.
R. of Rs. 55 (’17): 214 (portrait).
Witter Bynner—poet, dramatist.
Born at Brooklyn, 1881. A. B., Harvard, 1902. Assistant editor of McClure’s Magazine, 1902–6. Literary adviser to various publishing companies. Has recently traveled in the Orient. Under the pseudonyms “Emanuel Morgan” and “Anne Knish,” Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke (q. v.) wrote Spectra, a burlesque of modern tendencies in poetry, which some critics took seriously.
Bibliography
An Ode to Harvard. 1907. (= Young Harvard, 1918.)
Tiger. 1913. (Play.)
The Little King. 1914. (Play.)
The New World. 1915.
Spectra. 1916. (Under pseudonym “Emanuel Morgan,” with Arthur Davison Ficke, q. v.)
Grenstone Poems. 1917.
A Canticle of Praise. 1919.
The Beloved Stranger. 1919.
A Canticle of Pan and Other Poems. 1920.
Pins for Wings. 1920. (Under pseudonym “Emanuel Morgan.”)
Studies and Reviews
Boynton
Untermeyer.
Acad. 86 (’14): 687.
Bookm. 47 (’18): 394.
Dial, 67 (’19): 302.
Forum, 55 (’16): 675.
Freeman, 1 (’20): 476.
Mentor, 7 (’19): supp. (portrait).
Nation, 109 (’19): 440.
New Repub. 9 (’16): supp. p. 13. (Review of Spectra, Bynner.)
Poetry, 7 (’15): 147; 12 (’18): 169; 15 (’20): 281.
See also Book Review Digest, 1914, 1920, 1921.
James Branch Cabell—novelist, critic.
Born at Richmond, Virginia, 1879, of an old Southern family. A. B., William and Mary College, 1898, where he taught French and Greek, 1896–7. Newspaper work from 1899–1901. Since then he has devoted his time almost entirely to the study and writing of literature. His study of genealogy and history has an important bearing upon his creative work.
Suggestions for Reading
1. Before reading Mr. Cabell’s stories, read his Beyond Life, which explains his theory of romance. He maintains that art should be based on the dream of life as it should be, not as it is; that enduring literature is not “reportorial work”; that there is vital falsity in being true to life because “facts out of relation to the rest of life become lies,” and that art therefore “must become more or less an allegory.”
2. Mr. Cabell’s fiction falls into two divisions:
(1) Romances of the middle ages.
(2) Comedies of present-day Virginia.
Both elements are found in The Cream of the Jest (cf. with Du Maurier’s Peter Ibbetson). The romances illustrate different aspects of his theory of chivalry; the modern comedies, his theory of gallantry (cf. Beyond Life).
3. In his romances he has created an imaginary province of France, the people of which bear names and use idioms drawn from widely diverse and incongruous sources. His effort to create mediæval atmosphere by the use of archaisms does not preclude modern idiom and slang. Through all this work, elaborate pretense of non-existent sources of the tales and frequent allusions to fictitious authors are a part of the method. After reading some of these stories, consider the following criticism from the London Times quoted by Mr. Cabell himself at the end of Beyond Life: “It requires a nicer touch than Mr. Cabell’s, to reproduce the atmosphere of the Middle Ages … the artifice is more apparent than the art. …”
4. An interesting study is to isolate the authors for whom Mr. Cabell expresses particular admiration and those for whom he expresses contempt in Beyond Life and to deduce from his attitudes his peculiar literary qualities.
5. Mr. Cabell’s style is notable for the elaboration of its rhythm, its careful avoidance of clichés, its preference for rare, archaic words and its allusiveness. Consider it from the point of view of sincerity, simplicity, clarity, and charm. Does it intensify or dull your interest in what he has to say? Study, for example, the following exposition of his theory of art:
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