Chapter VII

And how about letters? Has Pittsburgh a literature? Those rolling clouds of smoke, those mighty industries, those men of brawn, those men of energy, that ceaseless calculation of wages and dividends--can these produce an atmosphere for letters? It seems unthinkable. Yet hold! Only the other day on the train a man who has been a resident of New York for thirty-five years remarked in this author's presence that "Pittsburgh is the most intellectual city in America." He had never visited Pittsburgh and the author did not and does not know his name. "How about Boston?" asked another traveler. "Boston used to be, but is not now," he answered. Then I, in my timid and artless way, ventured to ask him why he spoke thus of Pittsburgh. "Because," said he, "distant as I am from Pittsburgh, more inspiration in artistic and intellectual things has come to me from that city than from any other place in America." But that may have been his dinner or the cigar.

Literature I once attempted to define as the written record of thought and action. If this be an adequate definition, then Pittsburgh writers have substantially enriched the field of literature in every department, and given our city permanent fame as a place of letters. As we begin our survey of the local field, the wonder grows that the literary production is so large, and that the character of much of it is so very high. Let Pegasus champ his golden bit as he may, and beat his hoof upon the empty air, Pittsburgh men and Pittsburgh women have ridden the classic steed with grace and skill through all the flowered deviations of his bridal paths. This is scarcely the place to attempt a critical estimate, and it would be an ungracious and a presumptuous task for me to appraise the literary value of that work with any great degree of detail. The occasion will hardly permit more than a list of names and titles; and while pains have been taken to make this list complete, it is possible that some books may have been overlooked, but truly by inadvertence only.