History of American Literature Part 43

REFERENCES

Stanton's _A Manual of American Literature._

Alden's _Magazine Writing and the New Literature._

Perry's _A Study of Prose Fiction_, Chap. IX., _Realism_.

Howells's _Criticism and Fiction_.

Burt and Howells's _The Howells Story Book_. (Contains biographical matter.)

Henry James's _The Art of Fiction_.

Phelps's _William Dean Howells_, in _Essays on Modern Novelists_.

Brownell's _Henry James_, in _American Prose Masters_.

Canby's _The Short Story in English_. (James.)

Whitman's _Leaves of Gra.s.s_ (1897), 446 pp. (Contains all of his poems, the publication of which was authorized by himself.)

Triggs's _Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Walt Whitman_. (The best for general readers.)

Perry's _Walt Whitman, his Life, and Work_. (Excellent.)

G. R. Carpenter's _Walt Whitman_.

Platt's _Walt Whitman_. (_Beacon Biographies_)

Noyes's _An Approach to Walt Whitman_. (Excellent.)

Bucke's _Walt Whitman_. (A biography by one of his executors.)

_In Re Walt Whitman_, edited by his literary executors. (Supplements Bucke.)

Burroughs's _Whitman: A Study_.

Symonds's _Walt Whitman: A Study_.

Dowden's _The Poetry of Democracy_, in _Studies in Literature_.

Stevenson's _Familiar Studies of Men and Books_. (Whitman.)

Whitman's _Works_, edited by Triggs. (Putnam Subscription Edition.) Vol. X.

contains a bibliography and reference list of 98 pp.

SUGGESTED READINGS

THE PROSE REALISTS.--Sections II., XV., and XXVIII., from Howells's _Criticism and Fiction_. _Silas Lapham_ is the best of his novels. Those who desire to read more should consult the list on p. 373 of this book.

In Henry James, read either _The Portrait of a Lady_ or _Roderick Hudson_.

_A Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_, and _The Madonna of the Future_ are two of his best short stories.

Read any or all of these short stories by Mary Wilkins Freeman: _A New England Nun,_ _A Gala Dress_, in the volume, _A New England Nun and Other Stories_, _Evelina's Garden_, in the volume, _Silence and Other Stories_.

Her best long novel is _Pembroke_.

WALT WHITMAN.--While the majority of his poems should be left for mature years, the following, carefully edited by Triggs in his volume of _Selections_, need not be deferred:--

_Song of Myself_, Triggs, pp. 105-120. (Begin with the line on p. 105, "A child said, _What is the Gra.s.s?_"), _Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking_, pp. 154-160, _I Hear America Singing_, p. 100, _Reconciliation_ p. 175, _O Captain! My Captain_, p. 184, _When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed_, pp. 176-184, _Patrolling Barnegat_, p. 163, _With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!_ p. 232.

Selections from his prose, including _Specimen Days_, _Memoranda of the War_, and his theories of art and poetry, may be found in Triggs, pp. 3-95.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

THE PROSE REALISTS.--To what school did the best writers in American fiction belong, prior to the last quarter of the nineteenth century? What was the subject of each? What is the realistic theory advanced by Howells?

In what respects does this differ from the practice of the romantic school?

Take any chapter of _Silas Lapham_ and of either _The Portrait of a Lady_, or of _Roderick Hudson_, and show how Howells and James differ from the romanticists. What difference do you notice in the realistic method and in the style of Howells and of James?

What special qualities characterize the work of Mary Wilkins Freeman? What is the secret of her success in so employing a little realistic incident as to hold the reader's attention? Compare the two short stories, _The Madonna of the Future_ (James) and _A New England Nun_ (Wilkins Freeman) and show how James's interest lies in the subtle psychological problem, while Mrs.

Freeman's depends on the unfolding of simple emotions. It will also be found interesting to compare the method of that early English realist Jane Austen, _e.g._ in her novel _Emma_, with the work of the American realists.

In general, do you think that the romantic or the realistic school has the truer conception of the mission and art of fiction? Why is it desirable that each school should hold the other in check?

WALT WHITMAN.--How did his early life prepare him to be the poet of democracy? To what voices does he specially listen in his poem, _I Hear America Singing_? In his _Song of Myself_, point out some pa.s.sages that show the modern spirit of altruism. In _Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking_, what lines best show his lyric gift? What individual objects stand out most strongly and poetically? Could this poem have been written by one reared in the middle West? Why does he select the lilacs, evening star, and hermit thrush, as the _motifs_ of the poem, _When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd?_ In _Patrolling Barnegat_, do you notice any resemblance to Anglo-Saxon poetry of the sea, _e.g._ to _Beowulf_ or _The Seafarer?_ In _With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!_ what touches are unlike those of Anglo-Saxon poets? (See the author's _History of English Literature_, pp. 21, 25, 33, 35, 37.) Which of Whitman's references to nature do you consider the most poetic? How does _O Captain! My Captain!_ differ in form from the other poems indicated for reading? What qualities in his verse impress you most?

A GLANCE BACKWARD

Lack of originality is a frequent charge against young literatures, but the best foreign critics have testified to the originality of the Knickerbocker Legend, of Leatherstocking, of the great Puritan romances, in which the Ten Commandments are the supreme law, of the work of that southern wizard who has taught a great part of the world the art of the modern short story and who has charmed the ear of death with his melodies, of America's unique humor, so conspicuous in the service of reform and in rendering the New World philosophy doubly impressive.

American literature has not only produced original work, but it has also delivered a worthy message to humanity. Franklin has voiced an unsurpa.s.sed philosophy of the practical. Emerson is a great apostle of the ideal, an unexcelled preacher of New World self-reliance. His teachings, which have become almost as widely diffused as the air we breathe, have added a cubit to the stature of unnumbered pupils. We still respond to the half Celtic, half Saxon, song of one of these:--

"Luck hates the slow and loves the bold, Soon come the darkness and the cold."

American poets and prose writers have disclosed the glory of a new companions.h.i.+p with nature and have shown how we,

"... pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth."

After a.s.sociation with them, we also feel like exclaiming:--

"Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!

... rich apple-blossom'd earth!

Smile, for your lover comes."