04247cam a22003253u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003701000130007804000110009104100170010205000070011910000370012624500430016326400510020630000470025733600260030433700260033033800360035650000310039250512350042350801840165852018590184253400670370165300360376885600740380485600430387878290UtSlPG20260610134820.0mcr n260607r20261923utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  a23017208  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aPS1 aFarrar, John Chipman,d1896-197414aThe Bookman anthology of essays [1923] 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2026  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier  aRelease date is 2026-03-240 aMr. Dempsey's five-foot shelf, by Heywood Broun -- The gentle Argonauts, by William McFee -- Spotlight or fame? by John Erskine -- Surrender books, by Thomas L. Masson -- An open letter to H. L. Mencken, by Hugh Walpole -- Mr. Mencken replies, by H. L. Mencken -- Sarah Bernhardt, by Charles Henry Meltzer -- Josephine Peabody, "The piper," by Abbie Farwell Brown -- The Dickens of it, by Keith Preston -- The unreality of modern realism, by Mary Roberts Rinehart -- The Wright American, by Hildegarde Hawthorne -- A landmark passes, by Arthur Bartlett Maurice -- The church and the library, by Arthur E. Bostwick -- On works of reference, by Aline Kilmer -- Criticism and bad manners, by Floyd Dell -- The new word in play producing, by Zona Gale -- The why of the best seller, by William Lyon Phelps -- Religion and the theater, by Kenneth Macgowan -- Murray Hill's recollections of James Huneker, by Robert Cortes Holliday -- O. Henry, playwright, by Alexander Woollcott -- Women as audience, by Mary Austin -- George Santayana's "Life of reason," by Burton Rascoe -- Nietzschean Pilgrim Fathers, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher -- The Hundredth Amendment, by Oliver Herford -- The Negro in American literature, by Benjamin Brawley.  aTim Miller, Paul Fatula and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)  a"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. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cNew York: George H. Doran Company, 1923  aAmerican essays -- 20th century4 uhttps://archive.org/details/bookmananthology0000farr/page/n5/mode/2up40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78290