SEYEN QUESTIONS
37
medium; my respect for this medium and the masters of it-no two of
them alike-is very great. My search was all for .the clearest and most
arresting way to tell the things I wished to tell. I still do not write for
any definite audience, though perhaps I have in mind a kind of composite
reader.
It appears to me that the audience for serious American writing has
grown in the past ten years. This opinion is based on my own observation
of an extended reputation, a widening sphere of influence, an increasing
number of readers, among poets, novelists, and critics of our first rank.
It is true that I place great value on certain kinds of perceptive criti–
cism
but neither praise nor blame affects my actual work, for I am under
a compulsion to write as I do; when I am working I forget who approved
and who dispraised, and why. The. worker in an art is dyed in his own
color, it is useless to ask him to change his faults or his virtues; he must,
rather more literally than most men, work out his own salvation. No nov–
elist or poet could possibly aSk himself, while working: "What will a cer–
tain critic think of this? Will this be acceptable to my publisher? Will
this
do for a certain magazine? Will my family and friends approve of
this?" Imagine what that would lead to.... And how much worse, if h.e
must
be
thinking, "What will my political cell or block think of this? Am
lhewing to the party line? Do I stand to lose my job, or head, on this?"
This
is really the road by which the artist perishes.
3. As to criticism being an isolated cult, for the causes you suggest or
any other, serious literary criticism was never a crowded field; it cannot
be
produced by a formula or in bulk any more than can good poetry or
&ction. It is not, any more than it ever was, the impassioned concern of
ahuge public. Proportionately to number, both of readers and publishers,
there
are as many good critics who have a normal audience, as ever. We
are discussing the art of literature and the art of criticism, and this has
nothing to do with the vast industry of copious publishing, and hasty
reviewing, under pressure from the advertising departments, or political
pressure. It is a pernicious system: but I surmise the same kind of threat
to
freedom in a recently organized group of revolutionary artists who are
oat
to fight and suppress if they can, all "reactionary" artists--that is, all
artists who do not subscribe to their particular political faith.
4. No, there has not been a living in it, so far. The history of literature,
musical composition, painting shows there has never been a living in art,
except by flukes of fortune; by weight of long, cumulative reputation, or
pnerosity of a patron; a prize, a subsidy, a commission of some kind; or
(in the American style) anonymous and shamefaced hackwork; in the
English style, a tradition of hackwork, openly acknowledged if deplored.
'l1le
grand old English hack is a melancholy spectacle perhaps, but a
&pre
not without dignity. He is a man who sticks by his trade, does the
best
he can with it on its own terms, and abides by the consequences of
