Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips)
History
Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922
Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips)
Essays; Literature -- History and criticism; Periodicals
Professionalism must not enter into the workings of the
association, nor should the professionalized amateur take advantage of
amateur connexions to create a market for writings otherwise unsalable.
This applies to the now happily extinct tribe of "ten-cents-a-year"
publishers, who coolly expected all amateur journalists to subscribe to
their worthless misprints as a matter of fraternal obligation. Mr.
Macauley is an extremist on the subject of amateur rating, a fact which
explains many otherwise puzzling allusions in his current editorials.
* * * * *
THE UNITED AMATEUR for February is the final number of the Daas regime,
and constitutes a noble valedictory indeed. We find it impossible to
express with sufficient force our regret at the withdrawal of Mr. Daas
from the United, and we can but hope that the retirement may prove
merely temporary. The February official organ is wholly literary in
contents, and in quality sustains the best traditions of amateur
journalism. Miss Olive G. Owen's poem, "Give us Peace!", which opens
the issue, is tasteful in imagery and phraseology, and correct in rhyme
and metre, but contains the customary unrealities and substitutions of
emotion for reasoning which are common to all pacific propaganda. "The
Little Old Lady's Dream", by M. Almedia Bretholl, is a short story of
the almost unpleasantly "realistic" type, whose development and
atmosphere exhibit much narrative talent and literary skill. "The
Teuton's Battle-Song" is an attempt of the present critic to view the
principles of human warfare without the hypocritical spectacles of
sentimentality. "Nature in Literature", by Arthur W. Ashby, is an essay
of unusual quality, revealing a depth of well assimilated scholarship
and a faculty for acute observation and impartial analysis, of which few
amateur writers may justly boast. "His All", is an excellent poem by
Mrs. Ella Colby Eckert, distinguished equally for its noble thought and
facile rhythm. "'Twixt the Red and the White", a short story by Miss
Coralie Austin, displays marked skill in construction and phraseology,
though its development is not without a few of the typical crudities of
youthful work. There is a trifling suspicion of triteness and banality
in plot and dialogue; which is, however, compensated for in the artistic
passages so frequently encountered. "Romance, Mystery, and Art", an
essay by Edgar Ralph Cheyney, reflects the learning and thoughtfulness
of its author. The poetical fragments entitled "Songs from Walpi", by
Mrs. Winifred V. Jordan, describe the hopeless affection of a
Southwestern Indian prince for a maiden of the conquering white race.
The atmosphere and images are cleverly wrought, whilst the rhythm is in
every detail satisfactory. "Nescio Quo", by Kathleen Baldwin, is a poem
of great attractiveness both in structure and sentiment. "A Crisis", by
Eleanor J. Barnhart, is a short story of distinctly modern type, whose
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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