BH. John Gould Fletcher

27. Stephens, Edna Buell. ‘The Oriental Influence in John Gould Fletcher’. PhD thesis, University of Arkansas, 1961.

Stephens defines ‘oriental influence’ so broadly that it includes whatever is convenient, finding, for example, that the ‘Zen principles’ of ‘love of nature’ and ‘pantheism’ appear in Fletcher’s work from the first volume to the last. A chapter on the influence of haiku relies heavily on quotations from R. H. Blyth (Ap) and D. T. Suzuki (D28) and finds ‘the spirit of haiku’ throughout Japanese Prints (7). Includes the implausible suggestion that Breakers and Granite (8) demonstrates an influence from the nô, and several misstatements of fact. Kamakura was not an aesthetic movement and Yone Noguchi (D15) not a woman, for example. Partly incorporated into 28.