THUMBS, UP AND DOWN

When the Bookman protested that "a direct and open critical attack on any well advertised and well established literary figure in whom a great deal of capital has been invested in publishing and publicity by great publishers is all but impossible in the United States" it overlooked the very pointed arguments concerning the situation which might be made and which have been made by Mr. Harry Hansen, himself a professional reviewer possessed of no great trepidation in denunciatory comments. Mr. Hansen, in the New York Wore' succinctly mentions the names of such critics as Edmond Wilson, Ernest Boyd, Robert Littell, Waldo Frank and--it must be included--H. L. Mencken.

Both the Bookman and Mr. Hansen have made their points. One may find honest criticism, uninfluenced by anything except genuine value in several magazines and a few newspapers. Certain of them, in fact, make a specialty of unfavorable reviews. On the other hand there are magazines, and it must be said that the Bookman with its columns laden with publishers' advertisements is one of them, who are guided chiefly by a sense of respect for what has received the seal of popular approval. That the Bookman manages to guage the merit of this approval before it joins in the chorus of praise is to the credit of its intelligence but detracts from its present thesis. What it is demanding is an American Academy of Literary infamy, and, while there would doubtless be many candidates for admission, such eighteenth century tactics are no longer a la mode.