AN AMERICAN NOVELIST.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 864, 9 July 1910, Page 11

AN AMERICAN NOVELIST.

■iir. Winston" Churchill," the wellknown. American novelist, .whose latest a,nd finest book, "A Modern Chronicle, " was published the. other day, has •been in London, .where he 'was.interV .viewed by the "Daily Chronicle.''. ■ : ' After ■ giving Mr. Churchill's...views, on the American political situation, tho -"Chronicle" proceeds: — Now. to' Mr. Winston Churchill the novelist, only, we shall find that Ms writings are associated ivith his activities in American public life. He is,, as Mr. Anthony-Hope said tho other even.-, ing, the first of that company of American story writers who have been revealing to America.the greatness and drama of her own history. He has also been revealing them to us, for Mt. Winston Churchill has won a sure and. enduring place in the esteem of English readers. ;"I believe-it to bo tho function, of ihe novelist," he said, ."to hold up the mirror to Ms countrymen, and I have tried to do that—yes, I' havo tried to do it. Moreover, it seems to mo that the aim of the Anglo-Saxon novel has always been, character,' the . presentation and, if you like, tho glorification of/character. . Character;'is the basis of. •Anglo-Saxon .success,; and naturally Anglo-Saxon novelists", have constantly . dwelt on it. What I set out to do "was to write a series of books which should present as many phases as possible' of ''American/life,, rightup to the'present day'. That was and: is my mission, and the novel, 'A Modern Chronicle,' which 1 have just published, fell'logically into this.series;,for-'in America we are undergoing a " tremendous intellectual awakening,' what,might fairly be called a renaissanco. 'It is a very remarkable phenomenon, of which the political question is 'only\ one' quickening, one aspect, one evidence. You may see it in our literature, in ' our architecture, and we havo even begun. to see it on, the stage; in fine,, it. is showing itself in a dozen ways.' It is a. national ripeningy a leap, not in'- tho' dark but in.the fight— yes, a renaissance. Well, if I may-say so, I have always felt very close to my' countrymen, thought iiii parallel lines with them, and I have in my novels endeavoured to give a yoice to all that." .