The Bookman anthology of essays [1923]

"The Bookman anthology of essays [1923]" by John Chipman Farrar is a collection of literary essays and sketches written in the early 20th century. Drawn from The Bookman magazine, it assembles lively portraits, debates, and reflections that map contemporary American literary attitudes. Topics range from reading habits and theatrical lore to criticism, bestseller culture, and transatlantic quarrels, with contributions by figures such as Heywood Broun, H. L. Mencken, Hugh Walpole, William McFee, and others.

The opening of this anthology sets the stage with Farrar’s candid preface: the volume is not a pure essay anthology but a miscellany intended to sketch current American literary tendencies, followed by acknowledgments and detailed indices. Brief editor’s portraits introduce contributors before the first run of pieces: Heywood Broun on Jack Dempsey’s unliterary reading and the gap between life and letters; William McFee’s shipboard talk that skewers a fad for South Seas romances and muses on the island’s perennial allure; and John Erskine’s contrast between fleeting journalistic “spotlight” and enduring fame. Thomas L. Masson defines “surrender books” that wholly absorb readers; Hugh Walpole publicly challenges Mencken’s charges about English criticism while urging Anglo‑American literary kinship; and Mencken answers crisply with review statistics and a jab at log‑rolling. Further pieces include Charles Henry Meltzer’s affectionate tribute to Sarah Bernhardt, Abbie Farwell Brown’s account of Josephine Peabody’s Stratford triumph with The Piper, and Keith Preston’s witty Dickens‑tinged critique of H. G. Wells’s Outline of History; the section closes as Mary Roberts Rinehart begins arguing for the human value of idealism over modern realism.