THORNE SMITH: A STUDY IN POPULAR FICTION

206 Pages·09.3 MB·English

by  BLOTNER, JOSEPH LEO

COPYRIGHTED
by
JOSEPH LEO BLOTNER
19-51
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THORNE SMITHj
A STUDY IN POPULAR FICTION
BY
Joseph Leo Blotner
A Dissertation in English Presented to
the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Pennsylvania
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
1951
.obert E. Spiller, Supervisor
Matthias-Arr-Shaaber, Graduate Chairman
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page.
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1
CHAPTER I - HIS LIFE............................................................................. 7
CHAPTER II- HIS TALENTS AND POTENTIALITIES............................... 45
CHAPTER III- THE FORMULA FOR THE COMIC NOVELS, WITH VARIATIONS
AND DEVICES . , ........................................................ 66
CHAPTER IV- OBSCENITY AND IMMORALITY..................................................101
CHAPTER V- SOCIAL CRITICISM AND SATIRE .............................122
CHAPTER VI- HIS POPULARITY AND APPEAL..............................................1?5
SUMMARY.................................................................................................................192
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................199
APPENDIX A- HIS SALES ....................................... 204
APPENDIX B- USE OF THE COMIC FORMULA.................................................205
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INTRODUCTION
This is not a study of one of the giants cf American literature*
It is the study of a writer who was less than great, and through him, the
study of a phenomenon. Novelists like Thorne Smith appear from time to
time on the literary scene, writers who enjoy tremendous popularity without
being brilliant or highly distinguished. A study of Smith, solely for
his own intrinsic merit, would not be unrewarding, but we shall examine
two things at once: a conspicuous literary phenomenon and a gifted and
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heretofore ignored writer.
Popular fiction is here interpreted to mean fiction capable of
being enjoyed by both the average man in the street and the individual
with more highly developed literary tastes and interests. It has the
appeal of popular music as contrasted to the appeal of the classical or
semi-classical. But it is not limited to a popular audience, just as
some who enjoy Berlin can also enjoy Berlioz. Another characteristic of
popular fiction is its salesj it is fiction whose popularity is evinced
by consistently breaking into the best-seller column.
Thorne Smith is an ideal subject, for his works are all these
things. Although many intelligent and cultured people have enjoyed his
books, he has never been a darling of the intellectuals. It is to the
average reader that he owes his popularity, the person whose tastes lead
him to the middle ground of literature, the expanse bounded on one side
by the great and often difficult and on the other side by the very bad.
His books meet the best-seller criterion since over thirteen million copies
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of them have been sold in the United States alone* They have also been
sold in Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, France, Finland, Greece,
India, Israel, Italy, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, and Yugoslavia, They
are s till being sold in most of these countries, and his foreign sales
probably bring his total sales well above twenty million volumes.
Another reason for studying Smith is the fact that although the
reviews of his books in the nation’s leading newspapers and magazines
total over fifteen thousand words, he has always been neglected by almost
all the important .critics. As Carl Van Dorensaid:
The brash comedy of Thorne Smith’s The Stray Iamb was
little noted in a year resounding with Hemingway’s A
Farewell to Arms, Evelyn Scott’s The Wave, William
Faulkner’s The Sound and the Furv, Thomas Wolfe’s
Look Homeward,. Angel,^
One can substitute any of Smith's books for The Stray Iamb, changing the
other authors and titles accordingly, for, in Van Doren's words again:
Criticism regularly overlooked Thorne Smith,,,though he had a dis­
tinctive talent and an engaging vein,^
The present writer was also led to the s election of Smith as a
subject by acquaintance with his daughters and, through them, access to
the notes and manuscripts he left. They include the manuscripts of Topper,
Did She Fall?, The Night Life of the Gods, Rain in the Doorway, and Yonder's
Henry, Except for one, possibly two, copies of Topper, these are the only
manuscripts known to be extant. They represent various stages in the cre­
ative process, for a ll of them are marked with erasures, cross-tuts, and
interlineations. The manuscript of Yonder*s Henry represents a very early
form of the dbory while that of Topper is fairly close to the printed ver­
sion, There are also manuscript fragments of Turnabout and The Bishop’s
Jaegers.
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There are typed copies of Topperf Turnabout,. Did She Fall? T
The Night Life of the Godsr Lazy Bear Laner and Topper Takes A Trip.
Many manuscript deletions have been made in these versions, and though
there are occasional interlineations, they are very close to the printed
text.
Also made available for study were Smith's notebook and various
jottings, as well as letters and pictures, while Roland Young gave the
writer access to ten letters received by him from Smith.
Smith is also of interest to the student of literature for in
some ways he is unique. He was a fantasist as well as a humorist, and
while these qualities had been combined in American letters before -
notably in James Branch Cabell - Smith's writing had an original, dis­
tinctive quality that was recognized by both the reviewers and the general
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public. The changing of men into animals goes back to Ovid and Lucian,
and the transmigration of souls and talk of it can be found in sources
from ancient Hindu writings to Volponer but Smith's touch made his material
into something completely his own.
Smith was peculiarly a part of his times and yet not a part of
them. With one hand, as it were, he wrote about the contemporary scene
with its foibles, vices, and follies, while with the other he wrote about
a land that, like Cabell's Poictesme, existed only in his imagination and
the books that it created.
Through the study of Thorne Smith one can also examine another
literary phenomenon - the stereotype. To the average person, Kipling was
a man who wrote Gunga Pin, some poems about the British Tommy in India,
1I|
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and a few other things. To this same person or one just like him,
Thorne Smith was a man who wrote Topper and other books which are dis­
tinguished chiefly by an abundance of liquor, sex, and nakedness, with
comedy added to keep the books from being merely dirty. One has but to
mention Smith*s name and wait for the snicker to see the existence of
the itereotype, A detailed examination of his work will show the extent
to which it is correct or erroneous.
We shall first consider Smith's life with a view to giving an
intimate picture of the man and his development as an artist. After an
inventory of his literary abilities and potentialities, as seen from his
work in more than eight different forms, we shall try to determine whether
or not he forfeited an opportunity to do serious writing by devoting his
energies to the light novels which sold so well. The formula which he
evolved for them - his blueprint for commercial success - with its
standard ingredients and occasional variations will then be examined. The
frequency with which charges of immorality and obscenity are leveled at
Smith make it necessary to scrutinize the books for these elements. The
satire and social commentary in Smith's work, noted by s>me of the more dis­
cerning reviewers and by ardent Smith fans, will be considered in detail
as they are seen in the dozen or so topics which a re their subject. After
an analysis of the mainfhctors contributing to his appeal to such a large
segment of the reading public, we shall give an over-all estimate of the
man and his work.
No exaggerated claims w ill be made for Smith or his books, but
it is hoped that from these pages will emerge not only the picture of a
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man who was a literary phenomenon, hut also the portrait of a highly
competent and many-sided artist who, in his own way, stands apart in
American letters.
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FOOTNOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. Carl Van Doren, The American Novel, (Rev. and enl. ed., New York
The Macmillan Company, 194.0), p. 325.
2. Ibid., p. 331.
3. Sixteen years after Smith’s death, the following appeared in Time
August 7, 1950, p. 32;
’’For Spring publication by Prentice-Hall: a
novel 'with a Thorne Smith touch1...w ritten
by,...David Niven."
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CHAPTER I
HIS LIFE
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