There are four essays in the volume. The first, on "The New Criticism," is a statement of the New Freedom in the criticism of literature and art. The second, "Dramatic Criticism and the Theatre," applies this body of theory to the drama; and in the essay on "Prose and Verse" its application to vers libres and to the whole question of metre is made clear. The last essay, on "Creative Connoisseurship," deals with the fine arts, and with the new ideal of "creative collecting." The author's works on criticism have been widely accepted abroad, and in one of Eden Phillpott's novels, "The Joy of Youth," the hero quotes with enthusiasm * the theories of "an honest critic, Spingarn, the American." –Seven Arts, Vol. 1 [1916]