1920: The Emperor Jones to Smoke and Steel

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Eugene O’Neill. American. 1920. Play. The Emperor Jones. West Indies Former Pullman porter sets himself up as emperor. Flees native revolution. Aboriginal fears.

Edna St. Vincent Millay. American. 1920. Poetry. Few Figs from Thistles. Sophisticated flippancy; youthful Bohemianism.

Ezra Pound. American. 1920. Poetry. “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley.” Denunciation of civilization marked by war, commercialization of the arts and sexual sterility.

Sinclair Lewis. American. 1920. Novel. Main Street. Gopher Prairie. Heroine chafes at dullness, sterility of existence as the wife of a local doctor. Tries to make townspeople conscious of culture, refinement. Leaves, but returns to make peace with the culture of the small town.

Carl Sandburg. American. 1920. Poetry. Smoke and Steel. Attempt to find some kind of beauty in modern industrialism.