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Studies in American Fiction125 Wilson, Christopher P. The Labor of Words: Literary Professionalism in the Progressive Era. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 1985. 239 pp. Cloth: $24.00 Apart from the apparently unrelenting demand for new varieties of critical theory, the direction of recent research in American literature—or even its most useful forms— may be difficult to determine. Yet it does seem clear that one outstanding development is the growing interest in publishing, particularly as its practices and problems affect the work of American authors. In combination with increased sophistication in textual scholarship, this on-going investigation of "literary professionalism" (to borrow from Christopher Wilson's title) has already helped us to appreciate such major figures as Henry James in a largely different way. Indeed, Michael Anesko's Friction With the Market: Henry James and the Profession of Authorship comes to mind immediately as a fit companion to Wilson's less unified volume. Unlike Anesko, Wilson attempts to account for a quartet of writers: Jack London, Upton Sinclair, David Graham Phillips, and Lincoln Steffens. Each writer rates a chapter to himself; while all four are "framed" within an ambitious discussion of "progressive" publishing in newspapers, magazines, and books. In his "Epilogue" Wilson considers "The Legacy of Literary Professionalism," as he refines the mass of earlier commentary into a set of basic generalizations. In an instance or two, the result will provide no surprise: "Finally, purely naturalist ideals, however noble they were, were often countermanded or deflected by the demands of professional practice" (p. 199). Elsewhere, however, the reader will need to test the validity of Wilson's conclusion against a larger slice of experience than the author provides here: "In short, these writers aimed to journalize literature without diminishing its cultural status and power" (p. 198). Yet by turning to study the marketplace, in addition to some of the authors, Wilson has surely helped to chart the larger course of naturalism on the American scene. His division between the writers and the industry is fundamental to Wilson's purpose , but it carries a heavy cost. His account of the "Metropolitan Newspapers and the Rise of the Reporter" (Chapter One) remains inadequate to explain the deep fascination with newspaper work that has long characterized American life. By comparison, Wilson 's chapters on magazines and "Progressive Publishing" might be judged to belong to a different (and far more convincing) book. But, despite this unevenness, valuable speculations concerning the long-neglected roles of editors and publishers appear on almost every page. What one misses in the chapters devoted to writers is the comfort of biographical continuity—the pattern of longer term changes in human attitude—that can be conveniently traced only in a book-length biography. Thus, the short-lived Phillips outshines Sinclair or Steffens, for whom the biographical burden weighs heavy in both text and notes. Given the dual nature of Wilson's interest, a chapter on some representative publisher (such as S. S. McClure) would have helped to balance the strongly authorial point of view in these narrative chapters of the book. In his "Notes" Wilson provides an ample range of possibilities for the further application of his ideas, both to the specific authors and titles he discusses and to the fundamental scholarship on naturalism. As I have already suggested, only such a testing over time will validate the most general of his conclusions, but by turning his attention to the impact of a changing definition of American publishing on a series of self-selected "men of letters," Wilson has added new dimensions to our appreciation of the period. Northeastern UniversityEarl N. Herbert ...

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