"A Riot of Obscene Wit"                          11

divulged in these memoirs. "I am neither. Nor a poet. Nor a novel¬
ist, actor, playwright. I have written many things from architec¬
ture to zoology without grasping their inner substance. I am Jack
of the Seven Arts, master of none." Throughout his life, Huneker
 

James Huneker, ca. 1895.

had proudly called himself a "man-of-letters," a phrase once cm-
ployed to describe the kind of roving literary journali.sm he prac¬
ticed. As academics and specialists started taking over much of
this literary writing, "men-of-letters" began to lose their influence
and the phrase itself became pejorati\e. As Huneker approached