“On the whole, I think Sinclair Lewis is the scourge of God—a calamity in some respects like the Great Fire of London. I do not believe that Mr. Lewis has enough sympathy with the Middle West people of whom he writes, nor has he the right slant on the people of Main Street—as I have observed them during my sojourn in America. I think it about time somebody made fun of the greasy optimism prevalent in recent novels. Lewis has a good deal of righteous indignation, but what he lacks is the positive moral idea which should be found in the representative literature of every nation. I like Lewis when he is simply humorous like in “The Man Who Knew Coolidge,” but in general the bestowal of the prize is like giving a medal to a great scavenger.”
When he arrived in Washington, D. C. to lecture at Trinity College, Chesterton gave Miss Syd Walsh an interesting and picturesque description of Notre Dame,
“I think the faculty and students awfully jolly people and the campus itself a bit of medievalism with its constant stream of youths in bright colors pouring in and out of old stone buildings with gilded domes. As long as I live I will never forget their way of letting off fireworks before a big game and generally playing the goat in a cheery way.”
FACSIMILE WRITING
of
MR. AND MRS. G. K. CHESTERTON
CHAPTER TEN
CHESTERTON AND AMERICAN AUTHORS.
Recently there appeared a statement to the effect that although Chesterton had considerable popularity with the average American reader, our authors cared but little for the man and his work. Doubting such a sweeping statement, I wrote to various men of letters who would serve as a good cross-section of American literature, and their replies proved unusually illuminating.
“Of course you may put me down as an admirer of Chesterton,” declares Channing Pollock, “though I recall surprisingly little of his work. I have read so much that, after fifty-six years, I begin to find recollections blurred. My admiration of Chesterton is founded on my impression of the man—of what he was and stood for; of his sincerity, courage, forthrightness and general altruism.”