title: What Is a Man?: 3,000 Years of Wisdom on the Art of Manly Virtue
author:  Waller R. Newell 
description: "Newell's anthology covers an astonishing range and is a constant source of ideas about a neglected, almost a suppressed, virtue." -- <i>--Kenneth Minogue, London School of Economics</i><br /><br />"Newell's anthology covers an astonishing range and is a constant source of ideas about a neglected, almost a suppressed, virtue." -- <i>--Kenneth Minogue, London School of Economics</i><br /><br /><I>"What Is a Man?</I> violates all of the norms of political correctness by reminding us that men have specific virtues -- virtues that are neither the watered-down qualities of niceness and compassion nor aimless and violent aggression. This rich anthology will be an eye-opener for many, but particularly for the young men who are most confused about how they are to act in life." -- <i> --Francis Fukuyama, George Mason University</i>
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  # The Man of Letters as a Man of Business
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### William Dean Howells
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### I.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  I think that every man ought to work for his living, without
  
  
  exception, and that when he has once avouched his willingness to
  
  
  work, society should provide him with work and warrant him a
  
  
  living. I do not think any man ought to live by an art. A man's
  
  
  art should be his privilege, when he has proven his fitness to
  
  
  exercise it, and has otherwise earned his daily bread; and its
  
  
  results should be free to all. There is an instinctive sense of
  
  
  this, even in the midst of the grotesque confusion of our
  
  
  economic being; people feel that there is something profane,
  
  
  something impious, in taking money for a picture, or a poem, or a
  
  
  statue. Most of all, the artist himself feels this. He puts on
  
  
  a bold front with the world, to be sure, and brazens it out as
  
  
  Business; but he knows very well that there is something