Poole's "The Harbor" (which served both college and city), Owen
Johnson's "Stover at Yale," Norris's "Salt," Fitzgerald's "This
Side of Paradise," Stephen Benet's "The Beginning of Wisdom"--
these books and many others have, like the opening chapters of
Compton Mackenzie's English "Sinister Street," given depth, color,
and significance to the college, which may not increase its
immediate and measurable efficiency but certainly strengthen its
grip upon the imagination, and therefore upon life.
Planners, builders, laborers, schemers, executives make a city, a
county, a university habitable, give them their bones and their
blood. Poets and novelists make us appreciate the life we live in
them, give them their souls. The best "boosters" are artists,
because their boosting lasts.
TO-DAY IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: ADDRESSED TO THE BRITISH
[Footnote: This lecture was, in fact, delivered in the summer of
1918 at Cambridge University as part of a summer session devoted
to the United States of America. It is reprinted in lecture form
in order that the point of view may carry its own explanation.]
The analysis of conditions and tendencies in contemporary American
literature which I wish to present in this lecture, requires
historical background, detailed criticism, and a study of
development.
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