| | 66 | Author: | Cooper, Frederic Taber | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Representative American Story Tellers: Ellen Glasgow.  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Decorative W
WHILE there is not the slightest doubt of Miss Glasgow's title to a place of honour
in a series of papers on the leading story-tellers of America, it must at the same time
be recognised that this particular aspect of her work, if too rigidly adhered to, is
likely to do scant justice to her rather unusual powers. It is, of course, axiomatic
that without some sort of a story we cannot make any sort of a novel; and we cannot
make a strong, big novel without a rather big, strong story as a foundation. And yet
the story alone cannot be used as a measure of bigness, because many other factors
enter in to make up the sum total of any novel destined to live. Some novelists,
however, choose deliberately to subordinate other interests to that of the narrative
they have to tell. Their mastery of technique may be of the best; their philosophy of
life sane and earnest and helpful—yet if they insist upon regarding themselves
primarily as entertainers, and their books as little pocket theatres, then they remain
of their own choice in the ranks of the story-tellers. Miss Glasgow is one of the
small number of American novelists who have chosen to take a higher and finer
attitude toward their work. And that is why it is impracticable, even in a series
bearing the present title, to discuss her place in modern fiction simply from the
stand-point of story-telling. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 77 | Author: | Crane, Stephen, 1871-1900 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Lone Charge of William B. Perkins | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Ornamental H
HE could not distinguish between a five-inch quick-firing gun and
a nickel-plated ice-pick, and so, naturally, he had been elected to
fill the position of war correspondent. The responsible party was
the editor of the "Minnesota Herald." Perkins had no information
of war, and no particular rapidity of mind for acquiring it, but he
had that rank and fibrous quality of courage which springs from the
thick soil of Western America. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 80 | Author: | Crane, Stephen, 1871-1900 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Marines Signaling Under Fire at Guantanamo | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THEY were four Guantanamo marines, officially known for the time as
signalmen, and it was their duty to lie in the trenches of Camp
McCalla, that faced the water, and, by day, signal the "Marblehead"
with a flag and, by night, signal the "Marblehead" with lanterns.
It was my good fortune—at that time I considered it my bad
fortune, indeed—to be with them on two of the nights when a wild
storm of fighting was pealing about the hill; and, of all the
actions of the war, none were so hard on the nerves, none strained
courage so near the panic point, as those swift nights in Camp
McCalla. With a thousand rifles rattling; with the field-guns
booming in your ears; with the diabolic Colt automatics clacking;
with the roar of the "Marblehead" coming from the bay, and, last,
with Mauser bullets sneering always in the air a few inches over
one's head, and with this enduring from dusk to dawn, it is
extremely doubtful if any one who was there will be able to forget
it easily. The noise; the impenetrable darkness; the knowledge
from the sound of the bullets that the enemy was on three sides of
the camp; the infrequent bloody stumbling and death of some man
with whom, perhaps, one had messed two hours previous; the
weariness of the body, and the more terrible weariness of the mind,
at the endlessness of the thing, made it wonderful that at least
some of the men did not come out of it with their nerves hopelessly
in shreds. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
