assertions. This gentleman may have been right in his conclusion, though the evidence on which he bases it is amusingly unsound. But I think there is evidence against him. Georgian Poetry, the success of which, as long ago as 1912, was the first symptom of the boom, has been more popular this year, in spite of an almost uniformly hostile press, than ever before. Poets, even new and obscure poets, continue to get their books published without cost to themselves—an extremely rare occurrence before the war. Publishers go looking for young poets and ask them out to lunch in the hope of getting books from them—which, five years ago, would have caused a sensation. Poets, to conclude, are mentioned familiarly by name in the "chatter" columns of frivolous papers with large circulations.
I note these facts in support of my contention that the boom continues. They are true only of the poets who can be said to have shared to a greater or lesser degree in the boom; and they have nothing whatever to do with the value of the poetry which is being produced by these poets or by others. To this difficult question I shall not at present refer, so far as poetry is concerned, since it is inadvisable to confuse issues. But when we look in another direction to survey different forms of literature, criticism must be allowed a certain place in the argument. One strong impression that the past year has left in my mind is that with the younger generation the novel is receding in importance. The flow of novels is, of course, as full as ever; but it is not so inevitable as it was that the marked young men whom discerning opinion selects for brilliant careers should pour their talents into that stream. Before the war, the generation of Mr. Conrad, Mr. Wells, and Mr. Bennett rose to a plane at least beyond casual questioning. Behind them came a varied band, Mr. Compton Mackenzie, Mr. Hugh Walpole, Mr. Gilbert Cannan, Mr. F. M. Hueffer, Mr. Frank Swinnerton, Mr. V. D. Beresford, Mr. Francis Brett Young, and others. These are writers of differing merits and they have had differing fortunes; but five years ago they seemed like a fleet coming up over the horizon of literature and filling most of it. Now we ask who is to succeed them in their own department? Even quite recently it was impossible to see past them into the gap that followed; but during 1919 that gap has become increasingly apparent. The distinguished young man beginning his career does not do so with a novel
