A Plea for Old Cap Collier

Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 44K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Plea for Old Cap Collier by Irvin S. CobbAuthor: Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 1999

Editor's review

A Plea for Old Cap Collier is a short essayistic piece by the American writer Irvin S. Cobb, brief in length and humorous with a nostalgic tone. Writing in the manner of a popular newspaperman, Cobb defends an old-fashioned character from popular fiction, reflecting his thinking on popular reading tastes and the divide between high and low literature. Its value lies not in intricate plotting but in preserving the voice and flavor of early twentieth-century American popular culture, letting readers see how readers of the time talked about fiction and how they claimed a place for "lowbrow" reading. The original is in English, with language bearing some period marks and colloquial expressions, making it a light read for understanding the atmosphere of American popular literary criticism. As for reading setting, it suits slow reading as a literary essay rather than chasing plot as a story; for readers studying Cobb himself or the tradition of American magazine writing, it also carries some documentary interest.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early twentieth-century American popular literature and newspaper essays
Literature enthusiasts curious about how the early debate over high versus low culture was conducted
English learners needing short English essays as extensive reading material
Researchers studying Cobb's work or the tradition of American magazine writing

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a full novel's plot and character development
Readers impatient with English essays and period colloquial expression
General casual readers who only want a Chinese translation

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the author's position, then go back to the key sentences defending popular reading.
Read it alongside American newspaper essays of the same period, noting differences in tone and rhetoric.
When encountering period slang, skip it first and look it up after finishing the whole text, so as not to interrupt the reading rhythm.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or an essay?

Judging from the material, it is a short piece by Cobb that discusses and defends an old-fashioned popular fiction character in an argumentative, defensive tone, closer to an essay than a complete novel. Readers should not expect a long story but should read it as a short literary piece with nostalgic and argumentative color.

Can I read it if my English is not good?

The original is in English and not long, but it carries early twentieth-century colloquial and newspaper style, and some expressions feel unfamiliar to today's readers. Those with intermediate English reading ability can read it through with notes; beginners are better off treating it as extensive reading material and need not understand every word.

Is it important in literary history?

The material provides no information on awards or sales. Its significance lies mainly in presenting a voice from the time when American popular writers defended mass reading, making it suitable as marginal material for understanding the atmosphere of popular literary criticism rather than a core text of literary history.

Comments

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About the author

Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944 Author

Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944) was an American humorist and war correspondent. The library holds twenty-five of his works, which fall roughly into two groups. One is set in a fictional Kentucky town, including Old Judge Priest, Back Home and Fibble, D.D., where characters such as Judge Priest bring Southern local life and manners to the page in a humorous yet warm tone. The other consists of reports and sketches from the First World War, such as The Glory of the Coming, Paths of Glory and Europe Revised, marked by close observation and unhurried narration. His prose stands between the humorous sketch and news reportage, often using colloquial dialogue and exaggerated detail for effect. Public information is limited, so this note describes his writing only as reflected in the works held here.