AMERICAN FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14156, 7 March 1908, Page 7

AMERICAN FICTION

i- American publishers do not expect that v t X rfJ™ 28 f<!rtile in fictio » 5 f.' but they do nob anticipate ariv e decline in' the output of other 'books. The 0 ow year has not been financially successs ful m respect of novels, and very few of--1 them will live through this year. In. ' , oy«i' the list of novels announced for 1908 it is evident that the American " ' not suffer for lack of fiction. sm v V, M ian Reici ' s novel " Princess ! Nadme, will be published by the Put- ■ nams. The heroine is the daughter of a i 1 nnce and an American mother, Mr Edward: Barron will give to the public, i through Messrs Holt and C 0.,. a work of fiction entitled "The Lost Goddess." The ; eoene is laid in Brazil, but the principal characters are Americans in search of ai lost goddess at the' headwaters of the Amazon. Messrs Page and Co., of Boston, published two novels in January—< Bahama Hills/' a wild) story by Mr T. Jenkins Hains, aild'"Qotl Save the Commonwealth," a story of current politics, bv Mr Gamaliel Bradford, jun. ' Mr David Graham Phillips, wlio has gained quite a reputation, for his Socialistic tendencies, and who recently attacked' the United' States Senate, is to publish, through Messrs Appleton and Co., a novel entitled "Old/Fives For New." It involves the divorce problem, and the authors treatment of the question' is said to bo new and radical. That it mil be radical is not at all surprising to those who have a fair knowledge of Mr Phillips s bent of mind. The same publishing)' firm will issue in a few months a novel Mr Robert W, Chambers under the title ' Some Ladies in Haste," in whichi the author dwells upon phases of New xork life, mostly an a, humorous vein. Mesmerism also plays a part in tho book, and' gets some New York clubmen in a tangle. ,i_ s . Athorton was "caught oil ■ ' ' -at New York during her flight t n»m San Francisco io Munich, and 6he forthwith linburdened her mind in regard to American fiction. Mrs Athertoii thinks [ that the main trouble with American letis due to the supremacy of Mr William Dean Howells, who has brought ' about what she describes as " The Magazine School," though she admits that lie°ia not the conscious .culprit, and' therefore is really not to be blamed. He set a standard of art which a large body of) miters has followed. It is, to her mind, a lwpdessly narrow, finicky, and common! Place standard, devoid of originality. It h™ i S m T at, "' e ;illd condemns the I tooad sweep of impressionism in literary A . t,l l eltoll mfeeaes that at' the beginning of her career she could make no bmg of this school, and could 3 wen? tn'V'T 1 < k ,nan <H '"""I so slie .. ti '. Lug and (o obtain, recognition. ''b l i ir a , Cm ; ioi,S M ,nng '" sll ° continued, nnti „ g i am ' ,nth lt6 venerable literary antecedents, has im, hard-and-fast stani aid to impose upon the writer. There is a perfect hunger for something new among both British publisliers and°public that is quite refreshing to the writer,-who has weaned-of struggling with the Howells cult. Here the critics and tho pubbshers are positively frightened at any-' Hung now. This literary snobbery i especially prevalent -here in New York i r > e S® d f re / »P tlle and saaie Howells tradition is really quite ludicrous. Indeed, Mr Howells must frequently grow very tired at seeing the : many poor reproductions of himself in the current novels and short stories. The i Harpers Bazaar is just at present get- « ting up a, composite novel—an undeTtak- 1 ing. which originated with Mr Howells, < and is to be completed in 12 parts. Each s of the par sisto be written by a different ] author, whose name is'not signed to the | part, that lie or she writes. "Besides Mr 1 Howells, the authors include Mrs Wilkins- ' Freeman, Mr John Kendrick Bangs, and' t Dr Henry van Dyke. I was asked to con- r ' "ute a part, and, for this purpose I t «as sent the first five or six instalments that had been written. I read them, and could not distinguish any difference in style. They were so beautifully alike 1 and so representative of our American '■ school. I decided that it would be safer ® for me to decline to contribute to the ( development of 'The Whole Family,' as ; tins composite novel is to be called.'" j