The Nation for April 17, 1935, contained an exchange of letters between Hutchins Hapgood and Theodore Dreiser entitled “Is Dreiser Anti-Semitic?” In a brief introductory note, Hapgood, who put the exchange in the Nation, explained that the question arose when he read a symposium entitled “Editorial Conference (With Wine)” in the American Spectator for September, 1933. It consisted of the record of a conversation among members of the magazine's distinguished editorial staff: drama critic George Jean Nathan, literary critic Ernest Boyd, novelist James Branch Cabell, playwright Eugene O'Neill, and Dreiser. The symposium and the controversy following it form a minor but nonetheless important chapter in American literary and cultural history.
