Coteries

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

THERE is gossip in literature as well as in politics. If it is no more reliable, it is usually less malicious; but there has been edge to recent discussion of those mutual admiration societies unlimited, called coteries, that specialize in publicity and have been sometimes successful in making men and women famous by the simple device of mentioning them at least three times a day. It sounds like the Buddhist's attempt to secure the attention of his god by numerous twists of his prayer wheel. Yet, whereas the Buddhist's success is perhaps open to speculation, abundant instances prove (so it is said) that if a group of friends shout each the other's name at the great god Public he will turn his hairy ear, listen, and believe.

In London two coteries are said to dominate the field of current literature. If you write for fame it is well to belong to one or the other of them—praise your friends and be praised by them, damn and be damned by (a kind of reverse publicity) your enemies. But as the rival magazines around which the two coteries centre are published in the same street, and the editors thereof frequently lunch together, there is always the possibility of trading votes, or of a union against the outsider.

Are there literary coteries organized for mutual puffery in America? If so, the worse for American literature. Are there groups of friends and admirers who appreciate good work done obscurely and endeavor to obtain recognition for it? If not, the fact would be surprising. Let those who believe that literature needs no advertisement consider how sound literature which happens not to be popular is to be brought before its best readers if not by its friends.

The publishers, speaking generally, do not do it. They are forced by what are believed to be the rules for success to praise all their books with a completeness that detracts from emphasis; and if there is any difference to be made, then they must praise most highly the books that will sell most readily. They dare not (here is the vicious circle) advertise a newcomer whose sole virtue is the excellence of his art until he has already been so much advertised that it pays to advertise him.

The general magazines will not do it. They must play for circulation, because without circulation they cannot print as many and as expensive copies as our magazines must print nowadays to be regarded as respectable. They will play up their own coterie of established reputations, but new writers must pay an entrance fee in the shape of a "story" that will please everybody or have it paid for them in reputation made by their friends.

Critical reviews can do something for sound literature by obscure writers (whether new or old), but in a world of shrill advertisement and raucous claims of everything for everybody they can do relatively little. Editors are fallible; there are many books; reviewers are no more trustworthy than editors; space is at a premium; and the obscure by its very obscurity is hard to distinguish and dangerous to praise. The duty and the privilege of such reviews are clear. The performance will always be lagging.

We should therefore be charitable, at the least, toward the coterie here in America.

The poet who stops his public reading to speak well of another's poems may conceivably be paying a debt, but more probably is moved by enthusiasm for good poetry that he knows and his hearers do not. The novelist who praises his friend's novel may be hoping for a return of the consideration, but more probably is stirred by a sense of merit unrewarded. There is a loyalty to the profession among authors as among journalists. Both classes must labor against a proprietary public that will accept the in-different in preference to the best, the cheap instead of the expensive. There are books, now justly famous in American literature, that would never have been published if the friends of the authors had not urged their publication, which would have been little read if some group of admirers (a coterie) had not publicly praised them. Something should be said for the coterie. It is deplorable when it is used to exploit publicity. It is good when it is honest.