Word: babbittism
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...reviews A Man from Maine, biography (TIME, April 14) of Cyrus H. K. Curtis by Mr. Curtis' son-in-law, Edward W. Bok. After speaking of Mr. Curtis as "the Philadelphia Barabbas" and of Mr. Bok (whom he insists on calling Edwin W. Bok) as " a quite unusual Babbitt," Mr. Mencken concludes with this indictment: " A bad, bad book. An incredibly mushy, banal, tedious and preposterous book...
...good deal more numerous than the population of the United States? And among them by the sheer force of chance-must have been at least a dozen Hardings, Wilsons, Fords, Rockefellers, potentates, poets, parasites, paragons, pagans, peers, plebeians. It is surely an art to show that George F. Babbitt has the blood of the Caesars in his veins. What is more, it contributes to Mr. Babbitt's importance. All of which is prelude to the announcement of a great literary and artistic event. A. N. Marquis Co. of Chicago, publishers of Who's Who In America, "after...
...there's the problem, too, for what of Babbitt, Moon Calf, Eric Dorn? Who can enjoy the mirrors of his mediocrity? Who can revel in the garbage of his prurience ? It is human nature, moralists to the contrary, to enjoy a good s duction with Tom Jones or Roderick Random. It is human nature to picture yourself a glorious Ivanhoe or a clever Pendennis. It is not human nature to imagine yourself a nobody Babbitt doing any no-account and nasty business in any Middle Western babbitt warren. There is no vanity in futility and filth...
...then, does this modern realism sell? The public pays to be castigated. It prefers castor oil to Coca-Cola. Perhaps this realism is a sort of invert flattery. Everyone sees Babbitt in his neighbor. Nobody sees Babbitt in himself. That is highly satisfactory...
...points-94% perfect. (P. 6.) The Tusitala-which will enable the Sophisticates to escape from a Babbitt world. (P. 15.) Breakfast confidences such as Colonel House receives...