Abstract

This Week. Ghosts

The patron has vanished--at least as an institution in the world of letters. The civilization that has grown up around the factory town and the trading center has neither space nor time for him or his protege. And the social attitudes which have emerged from this civilization tend both to raise and depress the status of the artist; he is on a plane of equality with the rest of the community, neither to be condescended to nor, on the other hand, to be cherished and endowed. Writers, in fact, are supposed to "make good" along with their contemporaries in other fields. If they can do so by producing works of art, so much the better for their souls; if they can break into the "The Saturday Evening Post," so much the better for their bodies; and if they can do neither, they may find lodging in a publicity bureau or an advertising agency.