MISINFORMING A NATION BOOKS BY MR. WRIGHT MISINFORMING A NATION MODERN PAINTING: Its Tendency and Meaning WHAT NIETZSCHE TAUGHT THE MAN OF PROMISE THE CREATIVE WILL IN PREPARATION MODERN LITERATURE PRINCIPLES OF ÆSTHETIC FORM AND ORGANIZATION _Misinforming a Nation_ _by Willard Huntington Wright_ [Illustration] _New York_ _B. W. Huebsch_ _MCMXVII_ COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY B. W. HUEBSCH PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I COLONIZING AMERICA 1 II THE NOVEL 24 III THE DRAMA 52 IV POETRY 68 V BRITISH PAINTING 85 VI NON-BRITISH PAINTING 102 VII MUSIC 122 VIII SCIENCE 148 IX INVENTIONS, PHOTOGRAPHY, ÆSTHETICS 160 X PHILOSOPHY 174 XI RELIGION 195 XII TWO HUNDRED OMISSIONS 218 MISINFORMING A NATION I COLONIZING AMERICA The intellectual colonization of America by England has been going on for generations. Taking advantage of her position of authority—a position built on centuries of æsthetic tradition—England has let pass few opportunities to ridicule and disparage our activities in all lines of creative effort, and to impress upon us her own assumed cultural superiority. Americans, lacking that sense of security which long-established institutions would give them, have been influenced by the insular judgments of England, and, in an effort to pose as _au courant_ of the achievements of the older world, have adopted in large degree the viewpoint of Great Britain. The result has been that for decades the superstition of England’s pre-eminence in the world of art and letters has spread and gained power in this country. Our native snobbery, both social and intellectual, has kept the fires of this superstition well supplied with fuel; and in our slavish imitation of England—the only country in Europe of which we have any intimate knowledge—we have de-Americanized ourselves to such an extent that there has grown up in us a typical British contempt for our own native achievements.