Contemporary American Literature Part 6

Hymen. 1921.

Also in: Des Imagistes. 1914.

Some Imagist Poets. 1915, 1916.

The Egoist. (_Pa.s.sim._)

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Lowell.

Untermeyer.

Bookm. (Lond.) 51 ('17): 132.

Chapbook, 2 ('20): No. 9, p. 22. (Flint.) Dial, 72 ('22): 203. (May Sinclair.) Egoist, 2 ('15): 72 (Flint); 88 (May Sinclair).

Little Review, 5 ('18): Dec., p. 14. (Pound.) Lond. Times, Oct. 5, 1916: 479.

Poetry, 20 ('20): 333.

Poetry Journal, 7 ('17): 171.

+James Lane Allen+--novelist.

Born near Lexington, Kentucky, 1849, of Scotch-Irish Revolutionary ancestry. A.B., A.M., Transylvania University; and honorary higher degrees. Taught in various schools and colleges. Since 1886 has given his time entirely to writing. Nature lover. Describes the Kentucky life that he knows.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Flute and Violin and Other Kentucky Tales and Romances. 1891.

The Blue Gra.s.s Region of Kentucky and Other Kentucky Articles. 1892.

John Gray--a Novel. 1893.

*A Kentucky Cardinal. 1895.

Aftermath. 1896.

A Summer in Arcady. 1896.

The Choir Invisible. 1897. (Novel; play, 1899.) Two Gentlemen of Kentucky. 1899.

The Reign of Law. A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields. 1900.

*The Mettle of the Pasture. 1903.

The Bride of the Mistletoe. 1909.

The Doctor's Christmas Eve. 1910.

The Heroine in Bronze, or A Portrait of a Girl. 1912.

The Last Christmas Tree. 1914.

The Sword of Youth. 1915.

A Cathedral Singer. 1916.

The Kentucky Warbler. 1918.

The Emblems of Fidelity. 1919.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Harkins.

Pattee.

Toulmin.

Acad. 59 ('00): 35; 76 ('09): 800; 88 ('15): 234.

Bk. Buyer, 20 ('00): 350, 374.

Bookm. 32 ('10-11): 360, 640.

Cur. Lit. 29 ('00): 147; 35 ('03): 129 (portrait).

Lamp, 27 ('03): 117, 119 (portrait).

Mentor, 6 ('18): 2 (portrait).

Outlook, 96 ('10): 811.

+Sherwood Anderson+--short-story writer, novelist.

Born at Camden, Ohio, 1876. Of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Father a journeyman harness-maker. Public school education. At the age of sixteen or seventeen came to Chicago and worked four or five years as a laborer.

Soldier in the Spanish-American War. Later, in the advertising business.

In 1921, received the prize of $2,000 offered by _The Dial_ to further the work of the American author considered to be most promising.

SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

1. The autobiographical element in Mr. Anderson's work is marked and should never be forgotten in judging his work. The conventional element is easily discoverable as patched on, particularly in the long books.

2. To realize the qualities that make some critics regard Mr. Anderson as perhaps our most promising novelist, examples should be noted of the following qualities which he possesses to a striking degree: (1) independence of literary traditions and methods; (2) a keen eye for details; (3) a pa.s.sionate desire to interpret life; (4) a strong sense of the value of individual lives of little seeming importance.

3. Are Mr. Anderson's defects due to the limitations of his experience, or do you notice certain temperamental defects which he is not likely to outgrow?

4. Mr. Anderson's experiments in form are interesting to study. Compare the prosiness of his verse with his efforts to use poetic cadence in _The Triumph of the Egg_. Does it suggest to you the possibility of developing a form intermediate between prose and free verse?

5. Does Mr. Anderson succeed best as novelist or as short-story writer?

Why?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Windy McPherson's Son. 1916. (Novel.) Marching Men. 1917. (Novel.) Mid-American Chants. 1918. (Poems.) Winesburg, Ohio. 1919.

Poor White. 1920. (Novel.) The Triumph of the Egg. 1921.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Bookm. 45 ('17): 302 (portrait), 307.

Dial, 72 ('22): 29, 79.

Freeman, 2 ('21) 1403; 4 ('21): 281.

New Repub. 9 ('17): 333; 24 ('20): 330; 28 ('21): 383.

New Statesman, 8 ('17): 330.

Poetry, 12 ('18): 155.

See also _Book Review Digest_, 1919, 1920, 1921.