IN 1924 “Cutie” appeared in different issues of the Chicago Literary Times which Ben Hecht and I edited. We issued this paper in tabloid form, with streamers and scareheads; with poetry, prose and the other arts treated in a breezy, jovial, unassuming or unpretentiously serious way. If a creation was in our opinion exceedingly minor, we dismissed it quietly and avoided the poor joke of demolishing a small target with a broadside. We were never patronizing, dry, lofty, irascible or pontifical. Again, when creations were, quite frankly, meant to be only commercial or surfacely entertaining, we did not scoff at them for failing to be esthetic. In other words, we violated all of the sacred rules of the United Professional Highbrow Critics Union.

Similar Bookshelves 5645v