From the first Mrs. Wharton’s power has lain in the ability to reproduce in fiction the circumstances of a compact community in a way that illustrates the various oppressions which such communities put upon individual vagaries, whether viewed as sin, or ignorance, or folly, or merely as social impossibility.

She has always been singularly unpartisan, as if she recognized it as no duty of hers to do more for the herd or its members than to play over the spectacle of their clashes the long, cold light of her magnificent irony.

It is only in these moments of satire that Mrs. Wharton reveals much about her disposition: her impatience of stupidity and affectation and muddy confusion of mind and purpose; her dislike of dinginess; her toleration of arrogance when it is high-bred. Such qualities do not help her, for all her spare, clean movement, to achieve the march or rush of narrative; such qualities, for all her satiric pungency, do not bring her into sympathy with the sturdy or burly or homely, or with the broader aspects of comedy.... So great is her self-possession that she holds criticism at arm’s length, somewhat as her chosen circles hold the barbarians. If she had a little less of this pride of dignity she might perhaps avoid her tendency to assign to decorum a larger power than it actually exercises, even in the societies about which she writes.... The illusion of reality in her work, however, almost never fails her, so alertly is her mind on the lookout to avoid vulgar or shoddy romantic elements.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

John Hall Wheelock—poet.

Born at Far Rockaway, Long Island, 1886. A. B., Harvard, 1908; studied at the University of Göttingen, 1909; University of Berlin, 1910. With Charles Scribner’s Sons since 1911.

Strongly influenced by Whitman and Henley.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

Stewart Edward White—novelist, short story writer.

Born at Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1873, of pioneer ancestry. At the age of twelve, went with his father to California and for four years lived mostly in the saddle. At the age of sixteen, went to high school in Michigan but spent much time in the woods, studying the birds and making a large collection of specimens. Ph. B., University of Michigan, 1895; A. M., 1903. Went to the Black Hills in a gold rush, but returned poor and went to Columbia to study law, 1896-7. He was influenced by Brander Matthews to write. Made his way into literature via book-selling and reviewing. Explored in the Hudson Bay wilderness and in Africa, spent a winter as a lumberman in a lumber camp, and finally went to the Sierras of California to live. He is a thorough woodsman.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

Brand Whitlock—novelist, short story writer.

Born at Urbana, Ohio, 1869. Educated in public schools and privately. Honorary higher degrees. Newspaper experience in Toledo and Chicago, 1887-93. Clerk in office of Secretary of State, Springfield, Illinois, 1893-7. Studied law and was admitted to the bar, (Illinois, 1894; Ohio, 1897). Practiced in Toledo, Ohio, 1897-1905. Elected mayor as Independent candidate, 1905, 1907, 1909, 1911; declined fifth nomination. Minister (1913) and ambassador (1919) to Belgium and did distinguished war service there.

Mr. Whitlock has made his political experience the basis of his most interesting contributions to literature.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

Margaret Widdemer (Mrs. Robert Haven Schauffler)—poet, novelist.

Born at Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Educated at home. Graduate of the Drexel Institute Library School, 1909. Her first published poem, “Factories,” attracted wide attention for its humanitarian interest. In 1918, she shared with Carl Sandburg (q. v.) the prize of the Poetry Society of America. Her verse reflects the attitudes and interests of the modern woman.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

Kate Douglas Wiggin (Mrs. George C. Riggs)—Story-writer.

Born at Philadelphia, 1859. As a child, lived in New England and was educated at home, and at Abbott Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. Honorary Litt. D., Bowdoin, 1906. Studied to be a kindergarten teacher. Later, her family moved to Southern California and she organized the first free kindergarten for poor children on the Pacific coast. Her kindergarten experience is seen in her first two books. She has continued her interest in kindergarten work. Musician (piano and vocal); composer.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

Percival Wilde—dramatist.

Born in New York City, 1887. B. S., Columbia, 1906. Banker, inventor, reviewer. Has been writing plays since 1912, and has had many produced in Little Theatres.

Bibliography

For Bibliography of unpublished plays, see Who’s Who in America.

For Reviews, see the Book Review Digest, 1915-17.

Marguerite (Ogden Bigelow) Wilkinson (Mrs. James G. Wilkinson, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1883)—poet.

Compiler of Golden Songs of the Golden State (California anthology), 1917, and of New Voices, (studies in modern poetry with extensive quotations), 1919. Has also published several volumes of poetry.

Ben Ames Williams—novelist.

Born at Macon, Mississippi, 1889. A. B., Dartmouth, 1910. Newspaper writer until 1916.

Bibliography

For reviews, see Book Review Digest, 1919, 1920, 1921.

Jesse Lynch Williams (Illinois, 1871)—novelist, short-story writer.

First attracted attention with his stories of college life. For bibliography, see Who’s Who in America.

William Carlos Williams—poet.

Born in 1883. Physician. Lives in Rutherford, New Jersey, where his first book was privately printed. Co-editor of Contract.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

Harry Leon Wilson (Illinois, 1867)—novelist, dramatist.

His best-known novel is Ruggles of Red Gap, 1915. Collaborated with Booth Tarkington (q. v.) in the plays, The Man from Home, 1908, and Bunker Bean, 1912. For bibliography, see Who’s Who in America.

Owen Wister—novelist.

Born at Philadelphia, 1860. A. B., Harvard, 1882; A. M., LL. B., 1888; honorary LL. D., University of Pennsylvania, 1907. Admitted to the Philadelphia bar, 1889. In literary work since 1891.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

Charles Erskine Scott Wood—poet.

Born at Erie, Pennsylvania, 1852. Graduate of U. S. Military Academy, 1874; Ph. B., LL. B., Columbia, 1883. Served in the U. S. Army, 1874-84, in various campaigns against the Indians. Admitted to the bar, 1884, in Portland, Oregon, and practiced until he retired, 1919. Painting, as well as writing, an avocation.

His knowledge of the Indians and of the desert appears in his principal work, a long poem in the manner of Whitman, The Poet in the Desert.

Bibliography

Studies and Reviews

George Edward Woodberry—poet, critic.

Born at Beverly, Massachusetts, 1855. A. B., Harvard, 1877. Honorary higher degrees. Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, 1877-8, 1880-2, and of comparative literature, Columbia, 1891-1904.

Mr. Woodberry has published many volumes of poetry and criticism. His critical writings were brought together in his Collected Essays (six volumes) in 1921. His most recent volume of poetry is The Roamer and Other Poems, 1920.

Studies and Reviews

CLASSIFIED INDEXES

(Since the authors appear in the body of the book in alphabetical order, page references have been omitted in these indexes.)

I. POETS

SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF POETS

(Not included in this volume, but included in Untermeyer’s Modern American Poetry, Monroe and Henderson’s The New Poetry, or Others for 1916, 1917, 1919.)

II. DRAMATISTS

III. NOVELISTS

IV. SHORT-STORY WRITERS

V. ESSAYISTS

VI. CRITICS