Anderson, Hemingway, Dos Passos,
Faulkner

Three of these writers have given us their measure--a
satisfying measure we admit it to be. The fourth and
youngest, Faulkner, has already revealed more creative
energy than any of his contemporaries, but the time has
not yet arrived to cast his horoscope. He is still intelli-
gently but violently experimenting. There is much crashing
in the underbrush, but he is hewing our a recognizable
path. Where it will lead him is the debatable question.
His full strength he has put out only in one book The
Sound and the Fury, and its almost incredible difficulty is
not an initial recommendation. The ordinary intelligent
reader does not relish such apparent contemptuous treat-
ment from an author. But with the difficulties overcome
we are inclined to admit that they may have been necessary
to the plan, and that a simple approach would have de-
prived the book of the impressiveness it gains from its
very complexity. While we admit the virtue of clarity
we are not prepared to insist that a profound treatment
of life shall reveal itself at a glance. The others do not
strike so deep to the root of things. In Anderson and
Hemingway difficulties do not exist, and in Dos Passos
they are unnecessary and irritating.

Anderson's superior age, though he was late in starting,
marks him out as an ancestor. I cannot detect his traces in

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