Month: June 2021
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Thirty Years of International Copyright
The Chace Act of 1891 gave copyright to non-U.S. works in return for international copyright protections for American authors. On the law’s 30th anniversray, Brander Matthews wrote that he considered the law a smashing success. It remains the least adequate [such law] now in force of any of the civilized nations; but, improvable as it […]
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Psychiatric First Aid for Fiction Writers
Walter B. Pitkin, a professor of feature and short-story writing at Columbia University School of Journalism in 1921, had an unusual piece of advice for how to write better love and romance stories: don’t fall in love yourself. One young man, for instance, began by writing love stories as class exercises, and did them with […]
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The Germans of Tomorrow
A 1921 article by Charles J. Rosebault predicted German youth would depart from their “obedience and reverence” of the past and could very well pave the pathway to world peace. Hate to break it to you… The German youth, trained and drilled in obedience and reverence, has finally revolted against the mismanagement of the seignors. As might […]
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The Prohibition of Laughter
Despite the Roaring Twenties nickname, journalist James C. Young diagnosed a phenomenon sweeping the country in 1921, in his article “The Prohibition of Laughter”: people intentionally seeking out sad forms of entertainment. Returning players gather in little knots on the Rialto and repeat the same theme — people decline to laugh any more. Victor Herbert […]
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