Life, 1926-03-18 · page 27 of 44
Life — March 18, 1926 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This illustration satirizes author **Michael Arlen**, who wrote the popular 1924 novel *The Green Hat*. The cartoon depicts him literally speaking through an oversized green hat, a visual pun mocking the novel and its pretensions. The surrounding article discusses how contemporary women authors tackle "the woman problem" — whether married women should pursue careers. The text praises Storm Jameson's novel *Three Kingdoms* for addressing this intelligently. The joke targets Arlen's work as superficial or affected: he's "talking through his hat" (meaning speaking nonsense) while promoting a book focused on fashionable surface concerns. This reflects *Life* magazine's satirical stance toward literary trends — mocking Arlen's popular but perhaps overhyped novel as shallow compared to more serious women's fiction examining real social questions. The image appears in an article section called "Life and Letters," emphasizing the magazine's critical take on contemporary literature.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
——- APE: tributic a teres unger ether a married vw ly and ave side her own home It been the that a ma career if it comes handily to rock the ¢ been equ: a mystery per establishment dren should want to uit competitive marts handicap imag ry to at their own gan I have reac the subject su far has solved the pr Miss Jame attempt to solve it merely tells what happened to one girl who tried to rul three provinces. Enough appened to make a good story, which is excellently told. Miss J a triumph tion of Lauren that she allows ly horrid an reader f symp upon her seem due nce’s sheer clever ness that she refrained from 1 using her sex in business thereby rose.to the directorate fa great adve but ng agency, is almost beyond the ds of human belief that 1 twenty-eight-year-old female with the most damning evi. ainst the H. dence no-fury-like variety of woman her should not use it when haled by: the who is persec latter into open court has long this department woman with a good hus! id lovely in under * LIFE - Life rtions devoted to L handled, It might be added, eded to ad: to let her career slic ANOTHER type of woman de 15 é : myste to me is the t they tell me th f Manhattan and the EXCLUSIVE PORTRAITS MICHAEL ARLEN TALKING THROUGH HIS