ABSTRACT
In a 1931 issue of The Nation left-wing critic Isidor Schneider lambasted what he called the "Hemingway" school of fiction writers for their "over-accent on simplicity." By "simplicity," Schneider meant, as he himself indicated: "to suppress literary personality or 'style,' to substitute actual colloquial speech for conventional literary conversation, and to rule out all effects designed to stimulate emotion." (184) Of the writers he included in this "school," Schneider singled out Josephine Herbst for special disapproval. Because Schneider gives such an incisive foreshadowing of the development of Herbst's narrative style--against her own acknowledgment--I will quote the full section on Herbst:
I will take advantage of a personal friendship to give what I think is a very good example of the unnaturalness of the new technique. One of the better-known novelists of the new school is Josephine Herbst, author of "Nothing Is Sacred" and "Money for Love." Miss Herbst believes that in her writing she is natural and realistic because she avoids literary effects and reproduces what she considers authentic speech. Miss Herbst is a writer with definite narrative gifts. But to know how genuine and abundant are these gifts one should hear her tell a story. It may be a casual meeting with a shopkeeper or a neighbor that she tells about, but at once it becomes an important occasion; it stirs in us that warm glow of acceptance which fine narrative makes us feel for all its characters.
