THE GREAT VALLEY

By EDGAR LEE MASTERS AUTHOR OF “SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY”, “SONGS AND SATIRES,” ETC. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1916 All rights reserved [iv]

Copyright, 1916, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. ——— Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1916. Reprinted November, 1916. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. [v] TO THE MEMORY OF SQUIRE DAVIS and LUCINDA MASTERS WHO, CLOSE TO NATURE, ONE IN DEEP RELIGIOUS FAITH, THE OTHER IN PANTHEISTIC RAPTURE AND HEROISM, LIVED NEARLY A HUNDRED YEARS IN THIS LAND OF ILLINOIS I INSCRIBE THE GREAT VALLEY IN ADMIRATION OF THEIR GREAT STRENGTH, MASTERY OF LIFE, HOPEFULNESS, CLEAR AND BEAUTIFUL DEMOCRACY Edgar Lee Masters [vii][vi]

II CAPTAIN JOHN WHISTLER

(Captain John Whistler built Fort Dearborn in 1803. His son, George Washington, who was an engineer and built a railroad in Russia for the Czar in 1842, was the father of the artist, James Abbott McNeill Whistler.)

III EMILY BROSSEAU: IN CHURCH

Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni, et de profundo lacu.

IV THE OUIJA BOARD

(David Kennison died in Chicago February 24th, 1852, aged 115 years, 3 months and 17 days. Veteran of the Revolution.)

MAN OF OUR STREET

[93]

WILL BOYDEN LECTURES

[129]

THE FURIES

I

II

III

A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

THE SEARCH

Printed in the United States of America.[281]

THE following pages contain advertisements of books by the same author or on kindred subjects.[283][282]

NEW MACMILLAN POETRY

Spoon River Anthology

By EDGAR LEE MASTERS

New edition with new poems, With illustrations and decorations by Oliver Herford

$2.00

“The first successful novel in verse we have had in American literature ... it more vividly paints a community than any other work in prose or verse in American literature ... it at once takes its place among those masterpieces which are not for a time or a locality.”—Boston Transcript.

“Once possessing the book, one is unwilling to part with it. It is too notable a piece of American literature to omit from one’s library.”—Chicago Tribune.

“An interesting and notable work.”—.New York Post

“A wonderfully vivid series of transcripts from real life.”—Current Opinion.

“A big book and deserves all the success it is having.”—Los Angeles Graphic.

“One of the most remarkable of recent publications from the point of view of originality ... the work is striking.”—Springfield Republican.

“It is a book which, whether one likes it or not, one must respect.”—New Republic.

“The natural child of Walt Whitman ... the only poet with true Americanism in his bones.”—John Cowper Powys in New York Times.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York

[284]

NEW MACMILLAN POETRY

By RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Author of “Sadhana,” “The King of the Dark Chamber,” etc.

Fruit Gathering

Perhaps of all Tagore’s poetry the most popular volume is “Gitanjali.” It was on this work that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. These facts lend special interest to the announcement of this book, which is a sequel to that collection of religious “Song Offerings.” Since the issue of his first book, some four years ago, Tagore has rapidly grown in popularity in this country, until now he must be counted among the most widely read of modern poets. Another volume of the merit, the originality, the fine spiritual feeling of “Gitanjali” would even further endear him to his thousands of American admirers.

The Hungry Stones and Other Stories

Some of the more notable of Mr. Tagore’s short stories are here presented in translations by the author and with illustrations by native Indian artists. Ernest Rhys, in his biography of Tagore, devotes much space to a consideration of him as a short story writer, advancing the opinion that this particular form of literature is one of the most important expressions of Tagore’s genius. Now for the first time English readers are given the opportunity of acquainting themselves with the new Tagore and of forming their own estimate of him. None of the material in this volume has ever appeared before in English.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York

[285]

NEW MACMILLAN POETRY

The New Poetry. An Anthology

Edited by HARRIET MONROE and ALICE CORBIN HENDERSON, Editors of Poetry

Probably few people are following as closely the poetry of to-day as are the editors of the Poetry Magazine of Chicago. They are eminently fitted, therefore, to prepare such a volume as this, which is intended to represent the work that is being done by the leading poets of the land. Here, between the covers of one book, are brought together poems by a great many different writers, all of whom may be said to be responsible in a measure for the revival of interest in poetry in this country. The volume is unusual, not only in the number of names which it contains, but in the splendid insight which it gives into a literature which seems to be coming once more into its own.

Poems of the Great War

By J. W. CUNLIFFE

Here are brought together under the editorship of Dr. Cunliffe some of the more notable poems which have dealt with the great war. Among the writers represented are Rupert Brooke, John Masefield, Lincoln Colcord, William Benet, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Hermann Hagedorn, Alfred Noyes, Rabindranath Tagore, Walter De La Mare, Vachel Lindsay and Owen Seaman.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York

[286]

NEW MACMILLAN POETRY

Californians

By ROBINSON JEFFERS

$1.25

California is now to have its part in the poetry revival. Robinson Jeffers is a new poet, a man whose name is as yet unknown but whose work is of such outstanding character that once it is read he is sure of acceptance by those who have admired the writings of such men as John G. Neihardt, Edgar Lee Masters, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Thomas Walsh. Virtually all of the poems in this first collection have their setting in California, most of them in the Monterey peninsula, and they realize the scenery of the great State with vividness and richness of detail. The author’s main source of inspiration has been the varying aspects of nature.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS’S POEMS

Responsibilities

By WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Author of “The Cutting of an Agate,” “The Hour Glass and Other Plays,” etc.

Under the title of Responsibilities William Butler Yeats brings together some of his recent poems. It is, after all, as a poet that the majority of people like to think of Mr. Yeats, and this newest collection, the first in a number of years, is assured of a warm welcome.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York