Arthur Bartlett Maurice

“ Then in 1901 with “Cardigan” and other books he gave expression in fiction to the spirit of the American Revolution. It has not been simply as an historical or a semi-historical novelist, however, that Mr. Chambers has made his widest appeal. In the foibles, extravagances, superficialities and eccentricities of contemporary American society, he has found his richest vein. It does not matter whether the background of a particular tale be New York, or Washington, or Palm Beach. The underlying social and ethical problems are of real importance. ”

“ He was born in San Francisco on January 12, 1876. When he was eleven years old he left his ranch in the Livermore Valley and set out to satisfy his longing for a knowledge of the world and an expression of himself. He first went to Oakland, where, in the public library, he came under the romantic influence of such fiction writers as Washington Irving, Ouida and others. Out of Irving’s “Alhambra” he built castles in the air for himself, and launched upon a great literary career with a strong under-current of romance and an irresistible longing for adventure. ”

“ The writing men of today, the men with whom this article has to do, are for the most part those that have not traveled beyond late youth or early middle age. Their hats were flung into the ring in the present century; or, at the earliest, in the nineties of the last century. Finding the field of the novelist a broader one than it was in their fathers’ time, they have blithely ventured, in their search for themes and material, to the four corners of the real or the imaginary earth. The following pages present a general review of the work of our well known fiction writers of the day. ”

“ LITERATURE
VOLUME 6
NUMBER 14 TWENTY CENTS A COPY
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FICTION There is a popular notion that anyone can write a story. A good novel is easy reading, and it seems, on that account, to be easy writing. Many a reader, in the comfortable enjoyment of good fiction, misses the genius of it altogether. He is like the skeptical young man who could see nothing difficult in the art of sculpture. ”

“ London was a worker, and labored hard among the rougher elements of life—with longshoremen and shovellers in San Francisco; in factories and on the decks of coastwise vessels. He was as good a tramp, too, as he was a laboring man. ”

“ Lacking style and literary distinction, frequently bordering on the ridiculous, he nevertheless, by a rigid devotion to a certain kind of realism that omits no details, has built up a following that chooses to regard him as something of a great man. His first book, written a dozen years or more ago, was “Sister Carrie.” It introduced a soiled, unsentimental, rather sordid, but pathetic and very human heroine. After a career in Chicago, Sister Carrie made her way to New York, and eventually climbed to comfortable heights of worldly success. ”

“ Fiction of Adventure
There is no questioning the force that Hamlin Garland has been in the literature of our time. He has told his story of his [Pg 23] own life and literary activities in “A Son of the Middle Border” (1917) , a volume that was at once accepted as one of the foremost of American literary autobiographies. In no way detracting from the quality of Mr. Garland’s later work is the ventured opinion that he has never surpassed some of his earlier stories. His writing career began about 1890, when the first of the tales of “Main-Traveled Roads” struck a fresh note in fiction. ”

“ Norris’ Realism and McCutcheon’s Romanticism
More than fifteen years have passed since Frank Norris died, yet no one has yet come to take quite his place as an apostle of American realism. Before he fell under the spell of Émile Zola, with “McTeague,” and began his Trilogy of the Wheat, he had been the most ardent of romanticists. His earliest ventures in literature were tales of love and chivalry, written when he was a boy in his teens in Paris. ”

“ Both found inspiration in the same theme—the struggle of man with primeval forces. In their technique we find the difference. There is a sharp contrast between the fire of Jack London and the held-in strength of Stewart Edward White. White was once asked if it was not possible to lay hold of the heart and imagination of the public through a novel which had no human love interest in it—whether man matched against nature was not, after all, the eternal drama. ”

“ Chambers returns to a favorite setting of the earlier years, upper New York of the Colonial period.
On a basis of solid fact, it would seem impossible for one man to do all this work. Where does he ever find time to do it? The answer lies in the fact that Mr. Chambers keeps regular hours—office hours, almost—for his writing, all of which is done in long hand. At that he is not a rapid writer, frequent revision is essential, and a passion for the verification of details consumes much time. Yet the bulk and excellence of the accomplished performance remains an established fact ”

“ When they have tried out several of the productions that they have dashed off so readily, they sometimes discover that what was easy writing for them was hard reading for others, and the wise ones then come to realize that the good fiction that makes such easy reading is often the finished and refined product of double and re-doubled labor. ”

“ The man can only move as he is swayed internally by his emotions; and the movement can only be seen externally in its effect on his surroundings, his background. These four form the positive elements or content of the novel, and they must be presented under the limitations set by man’s experience of life or verisimilitude, and by his modes of conveying ideas, his style of speech. ”

“ Thrilling accounts of this life appeared under the title of “Tales of a Fish Patrol.” In them is a wild buccaneer spirit, and the savor of the sea. Those of us that read the “Sea Wolf” can find there a passionate expression of the author’s own experiences before the mast while seal hunting in Behring Sea or along the coast of Japan. It is full of strong appealing character and strange sea lore. The same wild breath of adventure is to be found in “The Mutiny of the Elsinore,” in which London describes thrilling experiences in a trip around the Horn. ”

“ His first tale to be sold was “Cherry,” a whimsical romance of the country about Princeton and undergraduate life at the College of New Jersey in pre-Revolutionary days. Accepted by Harper’s, it was not published until long after. Then, suddenly, success came. Almost simultaneously “The Gentleman from Indiana” and “Monsieur Beaucaire” appeared, the first a full-length novel of mid-western life, the second a charming little romance of eighteenth-century manners at Bath when Beau Nash reigned and a Prince of the Blood came over from France in the guise of a barber in the French Minister’s train. ”

“ Joseph Hergesheimer has won a place among writers by reason of his picturesque style and original invention. A comprehensive list of American-born novelists must also include the names of Leroy Scott, Henry B. Fuller, Frank H. Spearman, Earl Derr Biggers and Arthur Reeve, all of whom have within late years produced popular successes.
The roll of the makers of modern American fiction is a long one, yet none can gainsay that the average of achievement is high. ”

“ As a new volume is added each year, this constitutes one of the most valuable educational sets that you could possibly own, and at a small cost.
The beautiful numbers of the unique Mentor Library will never be out of date, as every Mentor is built on an important subject of enduring interest. The concise form in which scores of subjects are covered makes it of the greatest practical value to the business man, to the active woman who appreciates the importance of knowledge, and to children, who will find it of untold value in their school work. ”

“ He studied art in Paris at Julien’s Studio from 1886 to 1893, then returned to New York, and for a while contributed illustrations to the current publications. Then one day a novel, “In the Quarter,” appeared with his name as author. From that time on his life was given largely to writing fiction, and the record of the years has been a brilliant one. In 1893 he published the haunting, uncanny, but fascinating “The King in Yellow,” a collection of stories of art life. He turned to France first as a background for romance. ”

“ Beach played through the season, taking part in the games by which his team won the championship of America. Then, being desirous of eating regularly, he attached himself to the athletic association’s swimming team and broke an indoor record at water polo. That was in 1897, when the Klondike excitement broke out. He stampeded with the rest. It was the spirit of adventure and no thought of finding material for fiction that took him to the Yukon.
With two partners from Chicago, Beach was dumped off the boat at Rampart, on the Yukon, one rainy night. ”

“ Only I should say that the one great drama is that of the individual man’s struggles toward perfect adjustment with his environment. According as he comes into correspondence and harmony with his environment, by that much does he succeed. That is what an environment is for. ”

“ So he became a wanderer in New York, and he saw and noted many things in the life of that city that no other writer had taken account of. New York is better known to the world since O. Henry lived there. His stories were written under pressure and with great rapidity. He contracted to furnish the New York World one story a week for a year, and his product was so good that the contract was renewed. During the same period he was contributing to magazines. ”

“ In those days the athletic associations of several of the large cities maintained football teams of giant gladiators to entertain the multitude. Young Beach had seen just one game of football, but when he presented himself, his physical architecture was so imposing that he was engaged without hesitation, as tackle, by the athletic association football manager. The college teams used to play an annual series with these huge professionals. ”

“ In a helpful, informing book on the technique of fiction, Professor Charles F. Horne makes clear the essential elements of the novel—which he finds to be six in number: (1) Plot, (2) Motive or Verisimilitude, truth to life, (3) Character Portrayal, (4) Emotional Quality—Sentiment, Passion, (5) Background, (6) Style. “A novel,” Professor Horne writes, “cannot consist simply of a fixed picture, a description of a man in repose. It must show him acting and acted upon. In other words, it deals with man in his relation to his environment. Hence it must have two essentials: the man and his movements ”

“ Edward W. Townsend in writing of Chimmie Fadden did not forfeit the place as a novelist to which he is entitled by reason of such books as “A Daughter of the Tenements,” “Days Like These” and “Lees and Leaven”; and Harry Leon Wilson, who years ago made a definite impression with “The Seeker” and “The Spenders,” and who of late has been moving a continent to laughter by the dexterity with which he confronted the very British Ruggles with the complicated problems of social life in the town of Red Gap—somewhere in America.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY
Moffett studios, Chicago ”

“ It was held at once as one of the best newspaper tales ever printed. When the name of the author, Richard Harding Davis, was mentioned, the reading public recognized him as the son of Rebecca Harding Davis, a fiction writer of established reputation. Davis’ fifty-two years of life were full of color and manly achievement. He was a novelist, short story writer, war correspondent, editor and playwright. He began as newspaper reporter, a pursuit most natural, for his father, L. Clarke Davis, was a brilliant journalist and editor. ”

“ THE MEN WHO MAKE OUR NOVELS.
By Burton Rascoe, Literary Editor, Chicago Tribune.
SOME AMERICAN STORY-TELLERS.
By F. T. Cooper.
[Pg 26]
THE OPEN LETTER
As you finish the foregoing review of fiction writers, you may ask, “Why do you make no mention of one of the best known and most widely read of all our modern story-tellers—O. Henry?” We have reserved a special place for him on this page. O. Henry occupied a position of unique distinction among fiction makers, and it is only fitting that he should have a place of his own in this number of The Mentor. ”

“ For tales breathing the spirit of the West and intricate mystery stories, Zane Grey and Burton Egbert Stevenson are known respectively. Mr. Grey’s best known books are “The Heritage of the Desert,” “The Light of Western Stars,” “The Lone Star Ranger,” “The Heart of the Desert” and “The U. P. Trail.” Wherever a well-told yarn of intricate mystery is appreciated, such books as Mr. Stevenson’s “The Marathon Mystery,” “The Destroyer” and “The Boule Cabinet” have found generous welcome. ”

“ Davis will always be remembered as one of the most buoyant, brave, heroic and industrious workers in the field of American literature, a man who saw life fully and clearly, and who reflected it truly, in healthy, ringing, inspiring tones.
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JACK LONDON Jack London
FOUR Jack London’s stories were written largely out of his own life. If they were not actual experiences cast in fiction form, they were narratives spun out of the fiber of his own experiences. Life was never certain for London. ”

“ Among these the most famous were the Van Bibber stories, in which Davis presented types of New York society. In 1891 Davis went to Harper’s Weekly and remained there for three years as managing editor. Then he became a free lance. It was not necessary for him to “hold down a job.” All magazines and book publishers were eager for his work. His first engagement as war correspondent was on the battlefields of the Greco-Turkish War. He was a prominent figure among newspaper correspondents in all the great wars that followed. ”