If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy is melodrama.

Babbitt's Literature and the American College (1908) caused a stir but it was assembled from writings already circulated. Blackmur Oscar Cargill Ernest Hemingway Harold Laski Sinclair Lewis H. Then he took a master's degree at Harvard including Sanskrit.

Irving Babbitt (August 2 1865 – July 15 1933) was an American academic and literary critic noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative thought in the period between 1910 to 1930. He was an advocate of classical humanism but also offered an ecumenical defense of religion.