When _The New Republic_ is humorous, it is a social-liberal
humor. When _The Freeman_ is ironic there is usually an indirect
reference to the Single Tax. And _The Dial_ will be modern or perish.
As a result of all this the space given to books at large in the
social-political journals was small. And in that space one could
prophesy with some exactness the reviewing to be expected. Books
of social philosophy, novels with a thesis, poetry of radical
emotion, documented history, and the criticism of politics or
economic theory have had such expert reviewing as America has
never before provided in such quantity. But there was a certain
monotony in the conclusions reached. "Advanced" books had
"advanced" reviewers who approved of the author's ideas even if
they did not like his book. Conservative books were sure to be
attacked in one paragraph even if they were praised in another.
What was much more deplorable, good, old-fashioned books, that
were neither conservative nor radical, but just human, had an
excellent chance of interesting no one of these philosophical
editors and so of never being reviewed at all. Irving, Cooper of
the Leatherstocking Series, possibly Hawthorne, and quite
certainly the author of "Huckleberry Finn" would have turned over
pages for many a day without seeing their names at all.
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