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Uses of a Liberal Education

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@ University of Arkansas

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-15- more significant, therefore, is what followed the Bible. The next book on the list was Forever Amber, which had a long lead over the third, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Dean Nott of the Missouri School of Journalism has recently reminded us of the name of 'the most popular author in the annals of American publishing.' What would be your guess as to that name? Not Hawthorne or Melville, or Henry James, of course, but perhaps Mark Twain or Margaret Mitchell? No, I think it would take you several guesses more. It is Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, nearly all of whose fifty novels sold more than 100,000 copies, and two of them more than 2,000,000 each. I do not wish to pretend to scholarly achievements to which I have no claim, and I ought to confess that I have read neither Forever Amber nor Mrs. Southworth. But granting that they are very much better than the critics say they are, what, one wonders, are the standards of a reading public that would place them on so towering a pedestal? Do not sentimentality, sex, and excitement too easily palm themselves off as artistic worth? Nor is it only in art and literature that counterfeits are common. President Davidson of Union College spoke wisely, I think, when he said: 'Americans need to be warned about...words and ideas which look much alike, but have different effect. For example, Americans often confuse size with importance... speed with progress.. .money with wealth...authority...

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Commence and Go Forth - University of Arkansas Commencement Speeches

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University of Arkansas

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