yi] ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA yi 



least a high school education, and only forty- four per cent 

 of the women of one field only, received that amount of 

 schooling/ 



The four tables just discussed indicate that a good edu- 

 cation was almost a prerequisite to literary success, even in 

 fields where its influence has been considered of little ac- 

 count, and that it was also distinctly favorable to the de- 

 velopment of literary skill and versatility.^ After all, as 

 Dr. Davies well says : " In unconventional America, if there 

 were a shorter and easier way to fame than the way of 

 higher education, energetic young men would have foimd 

 it and beaten it into a highway." 



The fifth of the environmental influences to be considered 

 is that of the economic status of the parents of American 

 literati (Table XIX). This table shows the proportion of 

 men and women of letters born to parents in the various 

 economic classes. Of the parents of writers whose eco- 

 nomic status could be discovered, one hundred and twenty 

 were poor and four hundred and ninety-two were not poor. 

 The fact that many literati came from poor families seems 

 conclusive evidence that poverty of parents is by no means 

 evidence of lack of ability on the part of their children. 

 Even if for the moment the sometimes untrue assumption 

 is made that the poor are indigent because of lack of energy 

 and ability, it by no means follows that all of their children 

 are deficient in these qualities. Children are often unlike 

 their parents, and sometimes are far superior to them. 

 Since this is the case, and since the analysis of educational 

 environment has shown that factor to be of great import- 

 ance, it is reasonable to suppose that when the children of 



* Figures derived by combining the percentages in the columns H. S., 

 A. B. P., and A. B. 



' This conclusion is exactly the same as that of Odin in regard to 

 French men of letters. Odin, op. cit., pp. 516 et seq. 



