It has no magazines of its own worth reading; it has no
influential or popular literary groups, radical, liberal, or
progressive. Therefore it is essential that we take a look at
these newspaper critics who almost completely form the
reading tastes of the midwest public.
Since the dissolution of the old
Chicago Journal
and
Chicago Post
a few.years ago, the
Daily News
has been the
only newspaper in Chicago with an extensive book section.
The
Tribune's
literary department is not nearly so elaborate
or catholic. In the
Tribune's
columns, Fanny Butcher car-
ries the brunt of the reviewing, with occasional assistance by
Philip Kingsley, and a London dispatch from Frank Swin-
nerton. The two Hearst papers, the
A merican
and
Herald
&
Examiner,
also the tabloid
Times,
carry no reviewing.
Where can we draw the line between enthusiastic critic-
ism and obvious blurbs? Arnold Gingrich, editor of
Esquire,
approves a blurb for a full-page ad in the daily papers:
Give a gift of
E.quire
to the "forgotten man." .•.
This monthly
exposure to the brilliance of
E.quire
will make him think like Ein-
stein, talk like Noel Coward, look like Gable, dress like Wales, and
act like Casanova ....
We should call this an absurd blurb, of course. But what
does Fanny Butcher write under the guise of criticism? Miss
Butcher is quite bewildered by this moving, complex world;
she keeps away from dangerous topics; she makes little 'pre-
tension toward being a critic, but merely a reporter of in-
cidents and plots, a guide to trivial and entertaining fiction.
Miss Butcher's keen insight is revealed in her trenchant re-
view of
Butterfield
8 by John O'Hara:
Butterfield
8 shocks with lack of belief. Nothing is good or bad to
the characters. It is about a girl who has no morals ....
It is a
shocking book. . . .
She says of
Discovery
by Richard E. Byrd:
A book that you avidly read from cover to cover ••• an almost
unimaginable experience. Every line of the book fascinated me....
Sterling North of the
News
gets even more excited:
A perfect Christmas gift. Fast action, suspense, and vivid descrip-
tions. Byrd can write like nobody's business
I ...
During the vVorld's Fair of 1934, J. C. Bulliet, art critic
of the
News,
collected the more famous portraits in the Art
Institute exhibit, added a monograph on each painting, and
brought forth his book,
Famous Paintings in the World's
Fair Exhibit.
In his columns the following week, Sterling
North praised the book in no uncertain terms. But we buy
the hook, and at the foot of the title-page we find the bold
inscription: "Published by Sterling North."
When Jessica Nelson North, one of the associate editors
of
Poetry,
brought forth her anemic novel,
Arden Acres,
Sterling North took pen in hand.
Arden Acres,
he said, was
a masterly work, a finely executed and significant novel. In
an adjoining column, we see a large picture of Miss North
gracing two columns of the
Daily News.
Jessica Nelson
North is, of course, Sterling North's sister.
We know the intellectual and political calibre of
Esquire.
It has been satirized time and time ?gain by both left-
and right-wing publications. Its literary acumen can best be
demonstrated by the fact that
Esquire's
book critic, Burton
Rascoe, bravely asserts that he has forgotten more about
literature than Robert Forsythe, Kyle Crichton, and Clifton
Fadiman combined have ever known. To bolster this claim,
Rascoe, ignoring the wealth of revolutionary literature in
America today, picks
Jurgen
as the outstanding contribu-
tion to American literature!
We turn to the book-review section of
Poetry: A Maga-
zine of Verse. Poetry,
let it be known, is "refined"; it lists
24
among its wealthy subscribers, who practically subsidize the
muse, such women as Mrs. Francis Biddle, Mrs. Cyrus H.
McCormick,
and Mrs. Charles H. Swift.
We find a criticism by George Dillon, concerning "A
Poet Hitherto Neglected by
Poetry Magazine."
We glance
further down the page and we see that this poet who has
been "hitherto neglected by
Poetry Magazine"
is none other
than Harriet
Monroe,
editor of said magazine.
The book
reviewed is
Chosen Poems: A Selection from My Books of
Verse.
Now, Miss Monroe may be an astute editor, but
except for a few minor pieces, has never been anything of
a poet. George Dillon, who is an associate editor of
Poetry,
says of her
Chosen Poems:
She is a poet of unusual versatility, one who has written in both tra-
ditional and experimental forms and upon many different subjects.
•.• A keen sense of social problems is revealed, but if she ha. any
opinion. upon tJuu mailers, she ha. not cared to exprus them ...•
(Italics mine.-S.J.H.)
Try as he may, Mr. Dillon cannot do better than damn
with faint praise. He is, it seems, trying to satisfy both his
editor and his inner convictions. Evidently he satisfied his
editor, for a few issues later, Miss rvlonroe is writing about
Beauty-a not uncommon subject for her-and she quotes
a few lines of poetry, adding, "so sings George Dillon in one
of his perfect lyrics."
This mutual back-slapping is taken as a matter of course
in
Poetry's
office. Miss Monroe praises Miss Tietjens's
book, Miss Tietjens does the same for Mr. Sarrett,
and
everyone is happy. Morton D. Zabel, associate editor, alone
has preserved a measure of critical integrity, and were the
reins of
Poetry
in his hands, the policy of the magazine, I
believe, would be different.
In a later issue of
Poetry,
Ezra Pound, the gracious fascist,
sends in a fiery letter in reply to Horace Gregory's "blatant-
ly mendacious statement" in the latter's review in the August
issue. Mr. Pound, among other things, calls Mr. Gregory
"an ignorant
bol~hevik." Miss Monroe,
however,
wilth
Beauty tucked to her breast, floats serenely above this little
tempest that provides the only live spark to the issue, and
reveals her "keen sense of social problems" by introducing
Pound's letter thus:
We make room for the following protest by Mr. Pound, though we
fail to see why a
merely economic iuue
should set two amiable
poets by the ear.
This attitude, more than anything else, characterizes the
Chicago literary brahmins'
congenital
frame of mind in
regard to social and economic questions. Unlike the crude
world of Hearst journalism,
the more sophisticated orb of
belles-lettres does not so much resort to stupid red-baiting,
but dismisses those burning questions as "merely economic
issues," as in
Poetry Magazine,'
laughs them away, as in
Esquire;
ignores them,' as in Miss Butcher's columns in the
Tribune;
or indiscriminately lumps both communism and
fascism together, as in the columns of Sterling North in the
Daily News.
These editors, critics, and poets may be relatively unim-
portant (though they are by no means insignificant) in the
national literary scene; yet it is they who influence the lit-
erary tastes and opinions of millions of readers in Chicago,
the Middle 'Vest, and, as in
Esquire
and
Poetry,
the entire
country. It is they who obfuscate the real issues of the day
with their chatter of "immortality" and "intelligent patriot-
ism" and "beauty" and "latter-day sophistication."
SYDNEY JUSTIN
HARRIS
MA Y
J
I
9 3 6
