Twentieth Century Writers – Page 3 – Old Magazine Articles

Jules Romains and THE DEATH OF NOBODY
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

This very brief column appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine during the winter of 1915 as one element in the publicity campaign supporting the distribution of The Death of Nobody, Jules Romains’ (1885 – 1972) 1911 novel.

Prior to the First World War Romains was primarily known as a poet and founder (along with fellow poet Georges Chennevière) of Unanimisme, a movement that combined concept of international brotherhood with the psychological ideal involving a shared group consciousness. At the time of this printing, the novelist was serving in the French Army.

P.G. Wodehouse: Master of American Slang
(American Legion Weekly, 1919)

At the time this profile first appeared in 1919, P.G Wodehouse (1904 – 1975) had recently resigned his post as the drama critic for Vanity Fair in order to realize his ambitions as a novelist and playwright. This article revealed to all Wodehouse’s keen interest in American slang and American comic strips.

Karl Shapiro, Poet
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

In 1944, Karl Jay Shapiro (1913 – 2000) was pulling in the big-bucks as a U.S. Army Private stationed in New Guinea, but unlike most of the khaki-clad Joes in at least a ten mile radius, Shapiro had two volumes of poetry under his belt (Person Place and Thing and Place of Love) in addition to the memory of having been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In this short interview, he explains what a poet’s concerns should be and offers some fine tips for younger poets to bare in mind.

A year latter, while he was still in uniform, Shapiro would be awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for poetry

Karl Shapiro, Poet
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

A year latter, while he was still in uniform, Shapiro would be awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for poetry

Rebecca West: The Last Birth of Time
(Current Opinion, 1921)

Rebecca West
(born Regina Miriam Bloch: 1892 – 1983) became a fixture on the literary landscape just prior to the First World War when she was recognized as a young, thought-provoking writer with much to say on many matters. The article serves as an interesting profile of the woman by compiling various remarks made during the course of her early career.

The Letters and Cartoons of O. Henry
(Literary Digest, 1922)

Today, the name of O. Henry (1862 – 1910) has a far stronger association with New York City than with North Carolina, (his birth place) or Texas, where he spent much of his youth; however when you come to read the attached letters, and see his cartoons, you will hear a very distinct Western voice that is far removed from the New York that he wrote about.

Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon
(Saturday Review of Literature, 1932)

In 1932, one of the few English speaking fans of bull-fighting was given the task of reviewing Ernest Hemingway’s (1899 – 1961) Death in the Afternoon, and came away thinking:

Ernest Hemingway, in the handling of words as an interpretation of life, is not a brilliant and ephemeral novillero, but a matador possessed of solid and even classic virtues.

Click here to read about Hemingway, the war correspondent.

Reviewed: The Waste Land
(The Nation, 1922)

Attached is one of the first American reviews of T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, it was penned by literary critic Gilbert Seldes (1893 – 1970):

In essence The Waste Land says something which is not new: that life has become barren and sterile, that man is withering, impotent, and without assurance that the waters which made the land fruitful will ever rise again.

A Review of Memorial by Christopher Isherwood
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1947)

A review of Christopher Isherwood’s (1906 – 1986) semi-autobiographical novel, Memorial, which was placed in post-World War I Britain:

The plot of Memorial can be discussed very briefly: it doesn’t have one. It doesn’t need one. It is entirely fascinating, not a dramatic sequence of events, but an increasingly intimate understanding of a state of affairs…The book proceeds, not forward in time, but inward by layers. Isherwood has a wonderful gift of getting inside people.

Famous Edith Sitwell
(Literary Digest, 1927)

Edith Sitwell (1887 – 1964) had appeared on the literary horizon some fourteen years before this profile was read in the American press and by 1927 all concerned seemed to have decided that she had attained a respectable level of notoriety and was worthy of being labeled famous:

Miss Sitwell is described by THE SKETCH (London) as ‘an author who dislikes simplicity, morris-dancing, a sense of humor, and every kind of sport except reviewer-baiting.’

A 1947 Review of THE BUTTERFLY by James M. Cain
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1947)

Appearing in the Beverly Hills literary rag, Rob Wagner’s Script was the 1947 review of The Butterfly by James M. Cain (1892 – 1977):

I have not read Cain’s older books to confirm this impression, but offhand I would say that ‘The Butterfly’ is second to ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, among his longer things, as an exhibition of his peculiar talents…This work concerns itself with incest. Technically, no incest is committed, but a marriage is made and consummated between two people, one of whom supposes that she is the other’s daughter…

From Amazon: The Butterfly

COMMAND DECISION Book Review
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1947)

Command Decision, the World War II novel by William Wister Haines (1908 – 1989), was written from the point of view of a general officer and the Allied effort to destroy the Nazi jet fighters before the Luftwaffe could muster the initiative and get the upper hand; the novel was based upon the author’s own wartime experiences serving with the American 8th Air Force in Europe during the Second World War. Haines enjoyed much critical and popular success when the book was released; a 1947 Broadway production ran for 409 performances and a film adaptation premiered in 1948 starring Clark Gable (who also served in the 8th Air Force).

Click here to read the 1947 book review of a William Saroyan war novel.

Reviewed: The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill
(Literary Digest,1913)

The 1913 book review of The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill (the other one) was so fraught with questions concerning the revolt of the Suffragettes and their disillusion with Christianity that the review was printed on the Religion Page of THE LITERARY DIGEST.

In Defense of Literary Rebels
(Vanity Fair, 1920)

Literary critic Edmund Wilson (1895 – 1972) was a big part of the intellectual world that existed in New York throughout much of the Twenties through the Fifties. His reviews could be found in a number of magazines such as VANITY FAIR, THE DIAL and THE NEW REPUBLIC. Wilson is remembered for championing many of the younger poets that we still read to this day and in this review, Bunny Wilson celebrated the new poetic form that the modern era had created: free verse. Good words can be read on behalf of the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Amy Lowell.

NY Public Library Exhibits Dime Novels
(The New Republic, 1922)

Time is the satirist in its recompense as in its revenge. Who of that youthful generation who read Dime Novels stealthily and by night, with expense of spirit and waste of shame, imagined that he would one day review his sins by broad daylight in the exhibition room of the New York Public Library? The thin volumes which were wont to lie so flat under pillows or slip so readily into pockets are now enshrined in glass case, and the yellow covers and inky pages which suffered such persistent search and seizure and were burnt so freely as literary garbage are now gathered and appraised as prizes of the bibliophile.

Library of Congress Salutes the Dime Novel
(Literary Digest, 1937)

In 1937 the Rare Book Department at the Library of Congress launched a surprising exhibit of what they called, ephemeral literature – these works were popularly known as Dime Novels and they were not simply the father of the modern comic book but also the father of one other form of popular literature:

The roots of the American historical novel are sunk in the so-called dime novel – the first effort at popular fiction. It began with the stories based on the Revolutionary War, then historical fiction of incidents in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the struggle for Cuban independence, which stated about that period.

‘Rise and Fall of the Dime Novel”
(Literary Digest, 1900)

Although the dime novel was in full swing as a popular form of mass literature in 1900, the journalist titled this article as he did because the genre was undergoing so many changes at the time, departing from it’s original format. A short history of the dime novel is provided with an emphasis on it’s classic period spanning the years 1860 through 1870:

Some references are also made to the work of the Beadle and Adams bookkeeper, George Munro, who completely changed the direction of the dime novel when he took up the pen in 1865.

E.E. Cummings on T.S. Eliot
(The Dial Magazine, 1920)

A review of T.S. Eliot‘s (1888 – 1965) second collection, Poems (1919), as reviewed by E.E. Cummings (1894 – 1962) in the well respected magazine of the arts, THE DIAL. It was in this volume that Eliot’s well remembered series of quatrains first appeared: Sweeney Among the Nightingales, Sweeney Erect The Hippopotamus and Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service.

Cummings at that time was living in Paris and writing his first book, The Enormous Room, which would be published in 1922. The review of that work can be read here.