606
PARTISAN REVIEW
met
him
once and I have met his brother but I don't know where he is
now." I said "He had an article in
The Republic
on Mrs. Gerould that
delighted me. I was disappointed that you liked her so much (his "Vain
Oblations"), and Francis Hackett said in
The Republic
just about what I
should have liked to say." "He didn't like her you say-I haven't seen
Hackett's article," Mr. Kerfoot remarked. "0," I said "he roasted her."
"Roasted her, did he?" Mr. Kerfoot looked extremely delighted. "Well," he
said, "in those stories Mrs. Gerould has succeeded in arousing a genuine
sense of fear-a creepy feeling. Now in Poe's tales I am always conscious of
the fact that the machinery is going round. I am interested but I am con–
scious of the fact that I am being horrified to order. In producing that
sensation of horror Mrs. G. has done a notable thing." I said, "I am com–
pelled to agree with you
Mr.
Kerfoot. It is Mrs. Gerould's attitude of
intellectual superiority that I object to. Mr. Hackett was satirizing her point
of attitude in her article on the "Decay of Culture" in
The Atlantic Monthly,
not her ability as writer of short stories. On the ground of craftsmanship,
she can't be taken exception to." "Well," Mr. Kerfoot said, "that may be but
you mustn't let that enter in to your estimate [of] a book. I try to know as
little as possible about the people I am reviewing, so that I won't be influ–
enced. It's distracting." I then quoted "Hackett" saying how he "grieved to
see the sharp visaged New English spinster encounter the bustling crowds
of the subway and lose a few beads of jet from her reticule" and so on. I
then explained that he had had to reply to a complaint brought against
him-and that he has said he was sorry to have been so clumsy that his
remarks should have been taken personally. It was the lady's mind not her
self he had seen in imagination, in N. York. I spoke of the Kreymborgs and
said how lovely I thought them and how delighted I was to find them, not
literary monstrosities, long haired, speaking a lingo etc. Mr. Kerfoot said he
had only met Mrs. Kreymborg once or twice but that
Mr.
Kreymborg was
a fine fellow, "very fine" or something, I forget what, that he had always
liked
him.
I said "he looked as if he had been chastened and ground down
by illness and that you felt conscience-stricken for having been so noisy,
after talking to
him."
Mr.
Kerfoot look[ed] appreciative. I asked him if he
knew Mr. Richardson
&
EG. Cooper. He said yes. About Mr. R. he said, "I
know him well. He's the only advertising man I have ever known, that I
like." I said, "Mr. Conover, a friend of my brother's, is a great friend of
Mr.
R's and he thinks everything of him. He says, the longer you know
him
the
better you like him." "True" said Mr. Kerfoot. "I've known him a long time
and what you say is true"; "he grows on you" or "he wears well." I forget
what he said. (I have concocted painfully and w. prayer, a letter to Mr.
Conover apropos of the above.) Have no fear. Mr. Stieglitz bore away Mr.
Kerfoot to the front room, to tell him something,
"So
rich that he absolute-
