In the first decade of the 20th century, Benjamin De Casseres began to build his reputation as a literary figure, to some success. De Casseres’ friend and fellow columnist Don Marquis wrote in 1919, “Walt [Whitman] was a Brooklynite; Ben De Casseres was born there,” meaning of course that his distinction began while living in that borough (since Ben was physically born in Philadelphia). Having moved to New York City in 1899, he was working as a proofreader for the The Sun for the first three years of the decade, then moved to The New York Herald, where he remained until 1916.
The first half of the decade is characterized by broad, highly philosophical and quasi-mystical essays and opinions on a variety of topics, though primarily on literature and drama. The first piece De Casseres published in the new century was about the female characters of Thomas Hardy, which was received well and likely spurred him to style other pieces like it. He followed it up with an opinion piece on “The Comic View” of art and two essays in separate publications commemorating the 100th anniversary of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s birth.
About the middle of the decade, De Casseres’ published work took a decidedly philosophical and surrealist turn. He wrote a series of pieces for Mind, a “New Thought” journal that produced works about various forms of spiritualism (not to be confused with the British peer-reviewed philosophical journal of the same name). These essays showed the breadth of De Casseres’ ability to write powerful, epigrammatic sentences that delivered highly speculative ideas in a concise and pleasing way. They also exhibit his status as someone who was dabbling in Dada-style literary imagery well before the Dada movement itself was established in New York. Later in the decade, De Casseres produced toned-down short pieces that retained some of this flavor for mainstream magazines like Cosmopolitan with titles like “Prayer” and “What is Dust?“
However, even during his most metaphysical period, De Casseres never lost sight of his desire to be taken seriously as a true literary figure. He wrote pieces on drama for The Theatre, and in 1909 De Casseres started writing about visual media for the quarterly Camera Work. He also resumed having letters published in The New York Times Saturday Review of Books (including a reformulated version of his essay on Hardy’s women), and had several letters printed in The Sun‘s book review section as well.
Publications
| Title | Periodical(s) | Date | Page(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Hardy’s Women | The Bookman | 131-133 | |
| The Bribery of Society | Wilshire’s Magazine | Dec. 1902 | 34-36 |
| The Comic View | The Critic | 170-171 | |
| Emerson the Individualist | The Bookman | 300-302 | |
| Emerson: Sceptic and Pessimist | The Critic | 437-440 | |
| Hermann Sudermann | The Reader | May 1903 | 507-510 |
| Absorption: A Universal Law | Mind | Aug. 1903 | 369-374 |
| Arthur Symons: An Interpretation | The Critic | 353-356 | |
| Stevenson’s Confession of Faith | The Critic | 414-416 | |
| The Production of “Parsifal”: Is It, After All, a Comedy? | The Sun The Indianapolis Journal |
Dec. 22, 1903 Dec. 27, 1903 |
6 |
| The Drama and the Critic | Metropolitan Magazine | 492-493 | |
| Hawthorne: Emperor of Shadows | The Critic | 37-44 | |
| Cosmic Marionettes | The Critic | 159-161 | |
| The Dramatic Devil’s Advocate and Cynicism | Metropolitan Magazine | 617-620 | |
| Silence: Beyond the Saturnalias | Mind | 517-522 | |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson | The Philistine | 1-10 | |
| The Great Wonder | Mind | 58-64 | |
| Gorky: Hamlet Awakened | The Critic | 318-320 | |
| The Great White Negation | Mind | 579-584 | |
| Skepticism Extolled by a Skeptic | The Sun | 8 | |
| The Unrepentant—An Affirmation | Mind | 939-946 | |
| The God in the Glass | Mind | 1034-1038 | |
| Encoritis: A Protest | The Theatre Magazine | 303, x | |
| The Multiple Ibsen | New York Times Saturday Review of Books | 374 | |
| Caricature, and Max Beerbohm | Metropolitan Magazine | 197-201 | |
| Marcel Schwob | New York Times Saturday Review of Books | 803 | |
| Life and Character | Cosmopolitan Magazine | 357 | |
| The Borrowed Mirror | Cosmopolitan Magazine | 479 | |
| Ermete Novelli Coming to America | Theatre Magazine | 67-68, v | |
| The Two Tolstoys | Putnam’s Magazine | 728-730 | |
| Novelli as the Moor of Venice | Theatre Magazine | 96, vi | |
| What Is Dust? | Cosmopolitan Magazine | 233 | |
| Posterity: The New Superstition | The Sun | 8 | |
| Woman the Supreme Illusion | The New York Times Saturday Review of Books | 468 | |
| The Stage-Instinct | The Theatre The Papyrus |
Jan. 1909 |
234-245 14-15 |
| Prayer | Cosmopolitan Magazine | Oct. 1907 | ?? |
| William Blake | The Sun | Oct. 22, 1907 | 8 |
| Enter Walt Whitman | The Philistine | Nov. 1907 | 161-172 |
| Momus Toujours! | The Theatre |
Dec. 1907 | 348 |
| Posterity: The New Superstition (Expanded) | Liberty | 5-6, 11-15 | |
| Verlaine | The Papyrus | Jan. 1908 | 16-17 |
| Hawthorne and the Intangible Life | The New York Times Saturday Review of Books | Jan. 4, 1908 | 8 |
| Is New York Civilized? | The Philistine | 161-166 | |
| Nietzsche in Valhalla | The Papyrus | June 1908 | 12-14 |
| Lafcadio Hearn | The Sun | June 16, 1908 | 6 |
| The Malady of Maupassant | The Papyrus | July–Aug. 1908 | 16-18 |
| Tolstoy the Artist | The New York Times Saturday Review of Books | 405 | |
| True Fables | The Papyrus | Oct. 1908 | 29 |
| Walt Whitman | The Fra | 93-94 | |
| Caricature and New York | Camera Work | April 1909 | 17-18 |
| The Jew | The Papyrus | April 1909 | 11-12 |
| Gabriele D’Annunzio | The Papyrus | June 1909 | 16-19 |
| Pamela Colman Smith | Camera Work | July 1909 | 18-20 |
| American Indifference | Camera Work | July 1909 | 24-25 |
| [Henri Frédéric Amiel] | The New York Times Saturday Review of Books | July 31, 1909 | 469 |
| Sucklings of Aphrodite and the Soul of the Middle Classes | The Sun | Aug. 14, 1909 | 4 |
| The Art “Puffer” | Camera Work | Oct. 1909 | 31-32 |
| The Dream of Socialism | The Sun | Oct. 27, 1909 | 6 |