Lasting Friendship

I am happy to state that with that meeting began a friendship which has lasted for many years. When Mr. Harding was nominated for the presidency, I wrote at once, enclosing a copy of “The Advance of the English Novel” which I had published in 1916. On the title-page I wrote, “To the Hero of a Much More Spectacular Advance”, meaning that the progress made by the English novel was as nothing compared to Mr. Harding’s rapid and well-deserved rise. In reply I received the following:

                                      6 July, 1920. MY DEAR
PROFESSOR PHELPS:

Many thanks to you for your congratulations and your kindness in
sending me your brilliant, searching essays which I hope to be
able to read in the near future.                                 
WARREN G. HARDING.
Just as I am always glad that I am an American, so I think we should all believe whole-heartedly in the glorious future which lies ahead of us. We should all pay high tribute to the ideals and sincerity of those great leaders Woodrow Wilson and Warren Harding. What a pity that some people believe that there is any antagonism or essential difference in the aims of those two worthy men. Both are absolutely sincere—both try to make the world a better, more happy place. And to the critic of history— as to the critic of art and literature—those are the essential things. Viewing the past and glimpsing the future of American history I cannot help feeling that Browning had us perhaps unconsciously in mind when he wrote:

     God’s in his heaven:      All’s right with the world!