Twentieth Century Writers

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.

William Butler Yeats Interviewed (Theatre Arts Magazine, 1924)

When the writer and editor Montrose J. Moses (1878 – 1934) got some quality time with the fifty-four year old poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) they discussed Irish theater, contemporary poetry, the collective literary merits of their generation and a good deal more. Unlike their visits in earlier days, Yeats was by then a respected icon in the republic of letters (having been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature a year earlier).

Conrad Reviewed by H.L. Mencken (The Smart Set, 1921)

H.L. Mencken’s (1880 – 1956) short review of Joseph Conrad’s (1882 – 1941) collection of essays, entitled Notes on Life and Letters . The book contained Conrad’s thoughts on such subjects as the sinking of ‘Titanic’ to the writings of Henry James, Guy de Maupassant, Daudet and Ivan Turgenev were all touched upon in this collection of essays.

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 Thingstyle=border:none 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)

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 Thingstyle=border:none 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

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

Rebecca Weststyle=border:none
(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.

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