Munsey's Magazine, February 1905

Munsey's Magazine, February 1905 Richard Le Gallienne's critical essay surveys contemporary American literature, celebrating the nation's revived literary exports and decentralized literary culture. Le Gallienne identifies ten established authors—Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Lew Wallace, James Lane Allen, Marion Crawford, Silas Weir Mitchell, Joaquin Miller, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and John Burroughs—whose reputations are secure, alongside emerging writers like Ambrose Bierce, Charles Warren Stoddard, and Henry Van Dyke. Le Gallienne traces American literary movements: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's New England regionalism, Winston Churchill's historical novels, and the business novel tradition of David Graham Phillips and Samuel Merwin. He notes America's distinctive appetite for magazine short stories, praises emerging animal stories by C.G.D. Roberts and Jack London, and surveys contemporary poets including Edwin Markham, Bliss Carman, and William Vaughn Moody. The essay emphasizes American humor, mentioning Mark Twain's continued prominence among humorists. Photographic portraits of featured authors accompany the text.