Forgotten Treasures: A Symposium

The writings of John Jay Chapman deserve a place in public esteem and have not received it, even though Edmund Wilson proclaimed that he is a figure of importance. From “Practical Agitation” in 1900, which deals astutely with American politics, to the volumes of collected essays about American culture and world literature, Chapman contributed a vision of life and letters not found elsewhere. That in 1912 he went to the scene of a lynching in Pennsylvania to hold, alone on the spot and at the risk of his life, what he called a prayer meeting in atonement should have drawn attention to the existence of an uncommon mind. As a critic, his studies, ranging from the Greeks to Shakespeare, Shaw and William James, show what learning free of professionalism, either academic or journalistic, can do to make literature something other than propaganda or a pastime.