Contemporary American Literature Part 45

Bookm. 28 ('08): 301 (portrait), 324.

Critic, 42 ('03): 233 (portrait).

Harp. W. 48 ('04): 1995 (portrait).

Outlook, 90 ('08): 707 (portrait).

+George Madden Martin (Mrs. Attwood R. Martin)+--story writer.

Born at Louisville, Kentucky, 1866. Educated in the Louisville public schools, finis.h.i.+ng at home on account of ill health. Made her reputation by her study of a little Kentucky girl in _Emmy Lou--Her Book and Heart_, 1902. For complete bibliography, see _Who's Who in America_.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Outlook, 78 ('04): 287 (portrait).

See also _Book Review Digest_, 1916, 1920.

+Helen Reimensnyder Martin+ (Pennsylvania, 1868)--novelist.

Writes about the Pennsylvania Dutch. For bibliography, see _Who's Who in America_.

+Edgar Lee Masters+--poet.

Born at Garnett, Kansas, 1868, but brought up in Illinois. His schooling was desultory, but he read widely. Studied one year at Knox College; learned Greek, which influenced him strongly.

Studied law in his father's office at Lewiston, and practiced there for a year. Then went to Chicago where he became a successful attorney and also took an active part in politics.

Mr. Masters' fame was established by the _Spoon River Anthology_, which was suggested by _The Greek Anthology_. With this Mr. Masters had become familiar as early as 1909, through Mr. William Marion Reedy. _The Spoon River Anthology_ first appeared in _Reedy's Mirror_, under the significant pseudonym, "Webster Ford."

SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

1. Begin with _The Spoon River Anthology_. (Cf. the preface to _Toward the Gulf_.) How much does it owe to its model? to other literary sources?

to the central Illinois environment in which the author grew up? What are its most conspicuous merits and defects? How do you explain each?

2. Test the sketches by your own experience of small town life. Which seem to you truest to individual character and most universal in type?

3. Compare similar sketches of personalities by Edwin Arlington Robinson, which Mr. Masters had not read until after his book was published.

4. Consider how far Mr. Masters has achieved his avowed purpose "to a.n.a.lyze society, to satirise society, to tell a story, to expose the machinery of life, to present a working model of the big world"; to create beauty, and to depict "our sorrows and hopes, our religious failures, successes and visions, our poor little lives, rounded by a sleep, in language and figures emotionally tuned to bring all of us closer together in understanding and affection."

5. How do you explain the sudden popularity of the _Anthology_? What are its chances of becoming a cla.s.sic?

6. Read one of Mr. Masters' later volumes and compare it with the _Anthology_ as to merits and defects.

7. Mr. Masters has always been a great reader. Trace, as far as you can, the influence of the following authors: Homer; the Bible; Poe; Keats; Sh.e.l.ley; Swinburne; Browning.

8. Draw parallels between his work and the work of (1) Edwin Arlington Robinson, q.v., (2) of Robert Frost, q.v., (3) of Vachel Lindsay, q.v., and (4) of Carl Sandburg, q.v.

9. An interesting study might be made of the effects of Mr. Masters'

legal training upon his poetry.

10. Compare _Children of the Market Place_ with the _Anthology_ or _Domesday Book_. Is Mr. Masters more successful as poet or as novelist?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Book of Verses. 1898.

Maximilian. 1902. (Drama in blank verse.) The New Star Chamber and Other Essays. 1904.

Blood of the Prophets. 1905.

Althea. 1907. (Play.) The Trifler. 1908. (Play.) *The Spoon River Anthology. 1915.

Songs and Satires. 1916.

The Great Valley. 1916.

Toward the Gulf. 1918.

Starved Rock. 1919.

Domesday Book. 1920.

Mitch Miller. 1920. (Boy's story.) The Open Sea. 1921.

Children of the Market Place. 1922. (Novel.)

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Boynton.

Lowell.

Untermeyer.

Ath. 1916, 2: 323, 520.

Bookm. 41 ('15): 355, 432; 44 ('16): 264 (Kilmer); 47 ('18): 262.

(Phelps.) Bookm. (Lond.) 49 ('16): 187; 52 ('17): 153.

Chapbook, 1-2, May, 1920: 11.

Cur. Op. 58 ('15): 356; 60 ('16): 127.

Dial, 60 ('16): 415, 498; 61 ('16): 528.

Forum, 55 ('16): 109, 118, 121.

Ind. 88 ('16): 533 (portrait).

Lit. Digest, 52 ('16): 564 (portrait).

Lond. Times, Apr. 13, 1917: 173; May 19, 1921: 318.

New Repub. 20 ('19): supp. 10.

New Statesman, 6 ('16): 332; 7 ('16): 593.

Poetry, 6 ('15): 145; 8 ('16): 148; 9 ('17): 202; 12 ('18): 150; 16 ('20): 151.

R. of Rs. 51 ('15): 758 (portrait).

So. Atlan. Q. 16 ('17): 155.

Touchstone, 3 ('18): 172.

+(James) Brander Matthews+--critic, man of letters.