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Abstract

First Glance

van Doren, Mark | October 29, 1924 issue

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The thing called Nature has been responsible during the past century or so for some of the best English prose and for some of the worst. The classics are lamentably few. There is Gilbert White, and some others, but in addition there have been writers by the dozen who, playing with what seemed an easy subject, made it contemptible to self-respecting minds. The subject as a matter of fact is one of the most difficult ever invented by the imagination, calling as it does for a combination of knowledge, modesty, and tact which must necessarily be rare.

See Also:

NATURE; PROSE literature; CANON (Literature); AUTHORS; IMAGINATION; WHITE, Gilbert

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1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s

H.L. Mencken, "An Eminent American," July 11, 1923.

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