Opening material

_American Nights Entertainment_

BY GRANT OVERTON

_This Book_

IS DEDICATED TO BOOKSELLERS AND BOOKREADERS EVERYWHERE BY THE AUTHOR AND THE PUBLISHERS WHO HAVE JOINED IN ITS PRODUCTION

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_Preface_

This book is written because of the rapid spread of the habit of reading books, developing in its march an interest in the personalities of authors. Indeed, the existence of this book is an evidence of the quick contagion of the book-reading habit, since four publishing houses have joined to make possible the pages that follow.

Few developments of the early part of this century are more encouraging than the new attention to books. The increase in book stores, the very large increase in the number of books sold, the multiplication of libraries and their great patronage, the success of new book review pages and periodicals--all are signs of the change that has come about in recent years, and perhaps especially during and since the war of 1914-18.

And in a narrower department, no development of recent years has borne a more cheerful promise than the resolution of four publishers to associate themselves in an enterprise the disinterestedness of which the reader is invited to assess for himself.

The entire responsibility for the estimates and opinions offered (where they are not directly attributed) is mine. I have tried to tell the truth, use my imagination legitimately, and observe good taste without the sacrifice of valuable insights into character and work.

For example, in addition to biographical facts, in themselves often unenlightening, I have usually tried, as in the account of Mr. Galsworthy, to disclose the personality so carefully (albeit high-mindedly) withheld from the writer’s books. Again, as in the chapter on Joseph Conrad, aside from the effort at novelty and freshness of interest by the device of adopting Conrad’s own Marlow as the narrator, I have made bold to set down some facts never before printed and not in the least generally known, because they seem to me a side of the picture that it is wrong to obscure.

The wealth of material spread before me has made the task of selection exceedingly difficult, and I cannot pretend to be satisfied with what I have chosen in the light of my knowledge of what has had to be left out. I owe a grateful acknowledgment to the publishers and to individuals in the several publishing houses for their generous assistance.

_1 August, 1923._

GRANT OVERTON.

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_Contents_

_1_ MR. GALSWORTHY’S SECRET LOYALTIES, _13_

_2_ THE MAGIC CARPET, _34_

_3_ A BREATHLESS CHAPTER, _51_

_4_ IN THE KINGDOM OF CONRAD, _64_

_5_ THE DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE OF ARTHUR TRAIN, _91_

_6_ THE LADY OF A TRADITION, MISS SACKVILLE-WEST, _102_

_7_ HAROLD BELL WRIGHT, _119_

_8_ “AH, DID YOU ONCE SEE SHELLEY PLAIN?” _139_

_9_ ALICE IN AUTHORLAND AND PENROD’S FIVE-FOOT SHELF, _157_

_10_ THE MAN CALLED RALPH CONNOR, _178_

_11_ HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE, _189_

_12_ TOTALLING MR. TARKINGTON, _217_

_13_ A PARODY OUTLINE OF STEWART, _239_

_14_ MISS ZONA GALE, _248_

_15_ FOR THE LITERARY INVESTOR, _255_

_16_ NATURALIST VS. NOVELIST: GENE STRATTON-PORTER, _270_

_17_ POETRY AND PLAYS, _293_

_18_ LOST PATTERNS, _313_

_19_ JOSEPH C. LINCOLN DISCOVERS CAPE COD, _321_

_20_ EDITH WHARTON AND THE TIME SPIRIT, _345_

_21_ THE UNCLASSIFIED CASE OF CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, _363_

_22_ THE PROPHECIES OF LOTHROP STODDARD, _380_

INDEX, _387_

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_Portraits_

JOHN GALSWORTHY, _15_ JOSEPH CONRAD, _65_ ARTHUR TRAIN, _93_ V. SACKVILLE-WEST, _103_ HAROLD BELL WRIGHT, _121_ BOOTH TARKINGTON, _219_ DONALD OGDEN STEWART, _241_ JOSEPH C. LINCOLN, _323_ EDITH WHARTON, _347_ CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, _365_

_American Nights Entertainment_

_American Nights_ ENTERTAINMENT

_1. Mr. Galsworthy’s Secret Loyalties_