VARIETY
It has all been a vivid and in–
structive lesson in the application
of sound business methods to that
inherently very unsound affair, the
life of the mind. There has been
little or no starry-eyed nonsense
about it. The teachers of American
literature in the colleges have or–
ganized a "group"-a subsidiary
corporation-in one of the large
holding-companies of the profes–
sion, the Modern Language Asso–
ciation, and this group itself they
have proceeded to organize into
highly efficient committees. At pres–
ent these consist of an executive
committee, a nominating commit–
tee, a "committee to assist the bib–
liographer," a "committee on re–
sources for research," a "commit–
tee on a bibliography of printed ma–
terials for the study of American
literature," a "committee on cur–
ricula in American civilization,"
and a "committee on revision of
articles of organization." These
committees are not yet known
as C TAT B, C 0 C I A C, etc.,
but doubtless they soon will be.
Meanwhile, day by day, they are
reducing the element of risk in
the intellectual life, eliminating
the wasteful intangibles, and put–
ting the whole enterprise of study–
ing, understanding, and communi–
cating our literary heritage on a
firm fiduciary basis.
True learning in the old sense–
in the sense of wide-ranging, cu–
rious, adventurous, and humane
study-has gone into eclipse: you
cannot be learned in that sense and
· manage your own office effectively
at the same time. You must get
results; and it is well known that
277
you cannot get results quickly if
you dissipate your activities in a
thousand directions. You must
"specialize," and knmv more than
anyone else could hope--or indeed
wish-to know about Milton or
Melville D. Landon.
"Put all·your egg' in one basket,''
as Andrew Carnegie said, "and
then watch that basket." This
astute maxim has been given ap–
plication by
mo~t
of the contribu–
tors to a series of text-boob-in–
tended, ostensibly, for the use of
immature students-published by
the American Book Company and
known as the American Writers
Series. The interested outsider
might do well to dip into some of
these portentous volumes. A few of
them-those devoted to Melville,
to Hawthorne, to Whitman-are
excellent; but the majority arc lit–
tle more than dismal monuments
to unlearned specialization, biblio–
graphical diligence, and ponderous
insensitiveness to the real needs of
the youthful mind. They bristle
with "selected bibliographies,"
"chronological tables," and somber
"introductions"
introductions
which discuss "So-and-so's Literary
Theory," So-and-so's Economic
Views," "So-and-so's Political Ideal–
ism," "So-and-so's 'Place'," etc.,
and which abound in footnote ref–
erences to special studies, "pri–
mary sources," and
soi-disant
learned articles. Of the illumina–
tion of genuine learninG there is
nothing--or precious little. Fancy
-and suppress, if you can, a shud–
der-what a thorough course of
sprouts in such a series would do
