Twentieth Century Writers – Page 4 – Old Magazine Articles

Rudyard Kipling Condemned (Current Opinion, 1919)

The author of The White Man’s Burden gets the back-hand for all of his narrow-minded jingoism by Robert Wilson Lynd (1879 – 1949), who penned this angry review of Rudyard Kipling’s (1865 – 1936) body of work, finding the author to be too much the Victorian imperialist.

An article about the Muslim opinion concerning colonialism can be read here…

Reviewed: ‘The Garden Party and Other Stories’ (Life Magazine, 1922)

The Life Magazine review of The Garden Party and Other Stories
by the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield (1888 – 1923) is attached here for your enjoyment. Mansfield lived a short but productive life before tuberculosis got the best of her in 1923. This was one of any number of favorable reviews that she enjoyed in her lifetime and she is today often considered one of the best short story writers of her period.

Reviewed: ‘The Garden Party and Other Stories’ (Life Magazine, 1922)

A Review of ”Beautiful and the Damned” (The Independent, 1922)

One of the first reviews of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned
(1922). The reviewer was impressed:

The Beautiful and the Damned is a real story, but a story greatly damaged by wit.

The Tragedy of Eugene O’Neill (Look Magazine, 1959)

In 1946, a literary statistician ascertained that, in the world of O’Neill plays, there had been 12 murders, eight suicides, 22 other deaths and seven cases of insanity

To read the attached biographical essay is to understand that O’Neill did not become America’s premiere tragedian by simply reading about the disasters in the lives of others; his entire life was a tragedy. In his wake were alcoholic, suicidal children and numerous unloved wives.

The Extraordinary Story of Eugene O’Neill (The American Magazine, 1922)

A marvelous interview with the thirty-four year old playwright, Eugene O’Neill (1888 – 1953) -coincidentally published just as it seemed his stock was on the rise.

Click here to read a 1930s article about Eugene O’Neill.

What’s Next for Eugene O’Neill? (Stage Magazine, 1935)

Stage editor Hiram Motherwell (1888 – 1945) examined the meteoric rise of playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888 – 1953) and asked, What can he do next?

Eugene O’Neill is now forty-seven. His plays have just been enshrined in the definitive edition, handsome, ingratiating, expensive. They are probably more widely discussed than those of any other living playwright. They have been produced in almost every city from Moscow west to Tokyo. They have been translated into more languages. And yet it is evident that O’Neil, standing on the crest of this superb eminence, has completed a cycle; come to a momentous turning in the path his creative genius has followed. Where will the path lead?

Harsh Words for Eugene O’Neill (Theatre Arts Magazine, 1920)

In celebration of being awarded a Pulitzer Prize for having written the best American play of 1920 (Beyond the Horizon), theater critic Walter Prichard Eaton (1878 – 1957) saw fit to slip playwright Eugene O’Neill his back hand with a double-dose of venomous criticism:

…O’Neill’s work to date remains intellectually and spiritually thin.

W.B. Yeats Gripes About the Theater-Going Bourgeoisie (Theatre Arts Magazine, 1919)

Poet and playwright W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939) had his say on the matter of theater-subscriber-book-of-the-month-club types who are more likely to attend performances because they feel they should, rather than attending for their own reasons of personal enjoyment:

And the worst of it is that I could not pay my players, or the seamstresses, or the owner of the building, unless I could draw to my plays those who prefer light amusement, or who have no ear for verse and literature, and fortunately they are all very polite.

‘W. B. Yeats and Those He Has Influenced” (Vanity Fair,1915)

With the publishing of the first part of his autobiography, Reveries Over Childhood and Youth, W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939) got some attention in the American press. This small column first appeared in VANITY FAIR magazine praising his ability as a genuine artist.