"The poet must be influenced by the demand. There is inspiration in the demand. Besides the material reward, the poet who is influenced by the demand has the encouraging, inspiring knowledge that he is writing something that people want to read." I asked Mr. Guiterman to give me a list of negative commandments for the guidance of aspiring poets. Here it is: "Don't think of yourself as a poet, and don't dress the part. "Don't classify yourself as a member of any special school or group. "Don't call your quarters a garret or a studio. "Don't frequent exclusively the company of writers. "Don't think of any class of work that you feel moved to do as either beneath you or above you. "Don't complain of lack of appreciation. (In the long run no really good published work can escape appreciation.) "Don't think you are entitled to any special rights, privileges, and immunities as a literary person, or have any more reason to consider your possible lack of fame a grievance against the world than has any shipping-clerk or traveling-salesman. "Don't speak of poetic license or believe that there is any such thing. "Don't tolerate in your own work any flaws in rhythm, rhyme, melody, or grammar. "Don't use 'e'er' for 'ever,' 'o'er' for 'over,' 'whenas' or 'what time' for 'when,' or any of the 'poetical' commonplaces of the past. "Don't say 'did go' for 'went,' even if you need an extra syllable. "Don't omit articles or prepositions for the sake of the rhythm. "Don't have your book published at your own expense by any house that makes a practice of publishing at the author's expense. "Don't write poems about unborn babies. "Don't--don't write hymns to the great god Pan. He is dead; let him rest in peace! "Don't write what everybody else is writing." _MAGAZINES CHEAPEN FICTION_ GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON Why is the modern American novel inferior to the modern English novel? Of course, there are some patriotic critics who believe that it is not inferior. But most readers of fiction speak of H. G. Wells and Compton Mackenzie, for example, with a respect and admiration which they do not extend to living American novelists. Why is this? Is it because of snobbishness or literary colonialism on the part of the American public? George Barr McCutcheon does not think so. The author of _Beverly of Graustark_ and many another popular romance believes that there is in America a force definitely harmful to the novel. And that force is the magazine. "The development of the magazine," he said to me, "has affected fiction in two ways. It has made it cheap and yet expensive, if you know what I mean. "Novels written solely with the view to sensationalism are more than likely to bring discredit, not upon the magazine, but upon the writer. He gets his price, however, and the public gets its fiction.