Books: Laurence Stallings

Laurence Stallings America Should Be Proud

How Laurence Stallings will dislike the title I have written on this column! He is not the sort of person who indulges in mock sentiment— yet he need not accuse me of mock sentiment. His Plumes* is as fine a novel of the War as has been written, and why should anyone who thinks so not say so as plainly as possible?

Mr. Stallings is a critic of no mean power. When you first meet him you gain an impression of bulk, and of a winning smile. He is a Southerner with a soft Southern voice, and he has many of the ingratiating qualities which are often associated with gentlemen of the lower part of the U. S. His attitude of mind is eager, even penetrating. So alert a mentality is apt to be a trifle impatient of the slowness of others’ minds. Mr. Stallings is not characterized by literary or intellectual patience, although, as a man, I imagine, he has unusual understanding and tolerance of other folk and an immense amount of personal bravery.

Since he has been writing the book columns of The New York World he has developed a large personal following, and for a good reason. His reviews are brilliant, carefully conceived, and show a background of reading which is unusual in one of the young— or so-called “young”—school of criticism. I suspect him of being impatient with daily journalism, yet I wonder if he is not too nervous, too eager a mentality ever to be contented to confine his abilities to the writing of novels and plays. He is one of those persons whose nervous energy drives them to constant work. There is something about a frequent copy date for a writer of this type that is as necessary as an opiate. I am convinced that journalism is an essential stimulus for this type of person.

Presently Laurence Stallings’ War play, Glory, will be seen on Broadway. It, too, will be sardonic, perhaps even more so than the novel; but if it possesses the same driving quality of passionate understanding that is manifest in Plumes, it should prove to be a drama worth seeing.

Mr. Stallings, like most of those young men who were active in the War, does not care to have his War experiences discussed. In this instance, they were heroic ones. That he has been able to see them with detachment, and to view the War with fairness, is one of the things that make him the very unusual person, the very fine writer that he is. J. F.

*PLUMES — Laurence Stallings — Harcourt, Brace ($2.00).