[Letter] 1906 July 5 [to] Edwin Markham
Title
[Letter] 1906 July 5 [to] Edwin Markham
Subject
Lemon, Courtenay, For the Good of the Community.
Freedom of expression.
Drama.
Description
Lemon thanks Markham for reading his play and asks permission to use his quotes for publicity. Lemon also writes a great deal about freedom of expression in the United States as compared to other countries and other time periods in history.
Creator
Lemon, Courtenay
Source
Edwin Markham Archive, Horrmann Library
Date
7/5/1906
Contributor
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Rights
Please contact the Horrmann Library at Wagner College for rights to use this digital image.
Format
image/jpeg
Language
eng
Type
Text
Identifier
TheWorker
Text
July 5th, 1906.
Dear Edwin Markham-
I thank you very much for your kind letter about my play. You say:”There are some things we are all compelled to say nothing about in our plays and novels. I am stating a fact, not arguing a case.” I take it that this last sentence implies that it is simply the hard fact that authors are compelled to say nothing about some things (whether it would be better to say these things or not) because if they do they cannot get a hearing. If this is so, I am just foolish enough to refuse to recognize the hard fact. I refuse to submit. In France and Germany there is nothing that authors cannot say (except about the person of the Emperor in Germany) and sooner or later literature will have the same liberty in this country, but we will have to fight for it. My hearing may be postponed, but it will come. I can wait, but I cannot conform. The poets have always been allowed freedom everywhere, the novelists pretty much so. There is nothing, however gross, that Zola did not deal with—and think of Hugo’s philosophizing over the reply of the French guard who was asked to surrender! I speak here only of the moderns—in English, of authors since the Puritan revolution. Of course, the ancients and the Elizabethans were uniformly what would be called “obscene” today. The stage is the one form of expression that, by reason of its public nature, is most restricted in this respect, but as for myself I believe that short of the actual representation of certain physical acts there is nothing which is not a fit subject for dramatic presentation and which will not ultimately be treated on the stage. I believe, to give Terence a new twist, that nothing that is human is alien to art—even dramatic art. I have found it impossible to write without stating my position on this question, but what I really am writing for is to thank you for your warm appreciation of my play and to ask you if I may make use of some of your expressions which might help me in getting a publisher and advertising the book. Of course, I would use these expressions only in regard to the book, and your other opinion as to the fitness of certain scenes for stage production would not be involved. The sentences which I would like to use, taken from the first and last paragraphs of your letter are as follows: “I have read “For the Good of the Community” with keen interest. The first and last acts are a masterly revelation of the hypocrisy of our industrial order. The satire thruout is fine and searching. The play is interesting, humorous in parts, and crammed with terrible truth. It is moreover a well-knit creation, no wasted word, no overdone emotion, no preaching—all parts of the play moving steadily on to the climax.” Am I at liberty to use this part of your letter? It may be of great value to me. My greetings and best wishes to Mrs. Markham. I hope you are both well and enjoying your summering.
Sincerely yours,
Courtenay Lemon
Dear Edwin Markham-
I thank you very much for your kind letter about my play. You say:”There are some things we are all compelled to say nothing about in our plays and novels. I am stating a fact, not arguing a case.” I take it that this last sentence implies that it is simply the hard fact that authors are compelled to say nothing about some things (whether it would be better to say these things or not) because if they do they cannot get a hearing. If this is so, I am just foolish enough to refuse to recognize the hard fact. I refuse to submit. In France and Germany there is nothing that authors cannot say (except about the person of the Emperor in Germany) and sooner or later literature will have the same liberty in this country, but we will have to fight for it. My hearing may be postponed, but it will come. I can wait, but I cannot conform. The poets have always been allowed freedom everywhere, the novelists pretty much so. There is nothing, however gross, that Zola did not deal with—and think of Hugo’s philosophizing over the reply of the French guard who was asked to surrender! I speak here only of the moderns—in English, of authors since the Puritan revolution. Of course, the ancients and the Elizabethans were uniformly what would be called “obscene” today. The stage is the one form of expression that, by reason of its public nature, is most restricted in this respect, but as for myself I believe that short of the actual representation of certain physical acts there is nothing which is not a fit subject for dramatic presentation and which will not ultimately be treated on the stage. I believe, to give Terence a new twist, that nothing that is human is alien to art—even dramatic art. I have found it impossible to write without stating my position on this question, but what I really am writing for is to thank you for your warm appreciation of my play and to ask you if I may make use of some of your expressions which might help me in getting a publisher and advertising the book. Of course, I would use these expressions only in regard to the book, and your other opinion as to the fitness of certain scenes for stage production would not be involved. The sentences which I would like to use, taken from the first and last paragraphs of your letter are as follows: “I have read “For the Good of the Community” with keen interest. The first and last acts are a masterly revelation of the hypocrisy of our industrial order. The satire thruout is fine and searching. The play is interesting, humorous in parts, and crammed with terrible truth. It is moreover a well-knit creation, no wasted word, no overdone emotion, no preaching—all parts of the play moving steadily on to the climax.” Am I at liberty to use this part of your letter? It may be of great value to me. My greetings and best wishes to Mrs. Markham. I hope you are both well and enjoying your summering.
Sincerely yours,
Courtenay Lemon
Data Digital
2009
Digitization Specifications
IBM ThinkCentre Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz running Windows XP Professional Version 2 Service Pack 2; Epson Expression 10000XL scanner; Master Scanner Settings: 24-bit RGB, 400 dpi resolution; File Format: TIFF; Compression: none; Reference Images resized and converted with Adobe Photoshop CS2 version 9.0.2: 8-bit RGB; 400 ppi resolution; Compressed jpeg.
Collection
Citation
Lemon, Courtenay , “[Letter] 1906 July 5 [to] Edwin Markham,” Edwin Markham Digital Archive, accessed April 24, 2024, https://markham.omeka.net/items/show/590.