AMERICANS DO NOT HAVE MONOPOLY OF BABBITTS

"You Americans and we "Englishmen try too much to distinguish between American literature and English literature" Francis Brett Young, noted English novelist who spoke at the Harvard Union last night, stated in an interview yesterday afternoon. "Actually, there can be little distinction. We are of the same blood and speak and think alike. To expect that the mere signing of the Declaration of Independence would change the whole spirit of a nation is foolish. The literature of the two nations is one. Sherwood Anderson, for instance, I consider just as much an English novelist as I do myself an American. I have just as many readers on this side of the Atlantic as abroad.

"There is not so much difference between the two countries as many people like to believe. Why, you even try to maintain that your Babbitts to be an exclusively American product. They are not. We have them, too, lots of them.

"'Elmer Gantry'", he said in reply to a question, which the mention of Babbitt naturally brought up, "is not so good a work, to my mind, as Lewis' 'Arrowsmith'. I like his 'Arrowsmith' the best of all his works. I think, though 'Babbitt' necessarily forces itself into any consideration of the novels of Sinclair Lewis."

Contemporaries Cause Doubt

Young hesitated to pass judgment on his contemporaries.

"Perspective is necessary, furthermore, for literature is such an endless thing. Only a very distorted view can be had from up close. To view it from a distance, however, is very difficult. In other words, I do not believe in taking contemporary literature criticism too seriously. Were I asked to name five modern novels which I might expect to be remembered fifty years from now, I should reply quite candidly that I could not do it.

"So many, many writers who were great in their own time have been absolutely forgotten after their death. And, vice versa, many gained their fame years after their own time. Consider Keats and Shelley, even they found but small places among their contemporaries. Time is an uncertain thing. It is impossible to tell what it will do."