The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-06-21

yesterday morning J0nn Neal passed. away
at the ripe age of 50 years. For over half
century he has been prominent figure in
the ranks of American men of letters, and
has stood for many years almost the only sur
vivor of those ardent and enthusiastic men
who in the hey6ay of their youth, when
flushed with high hopes and aspirations, en-
tered upon the task of creating national
literature. His associates have long been
dead, and for many years John Neal has
stood, a solitary shaft amid many broken
columns.
John Neal was born in Portland, August
25, 1893. His life has been, to use his own
descriptive phrase, "strange, busy, and some
what adventurous.p He first saw the light
in two story yellow frame house, still stand
ing, on the westerly side of Cotton street.
His father and mother were ofthe Society of
Friends, and the boy was brought up among
the demure and drab-coated Quakers. His
limited schooling was got in the Quaker
boarding school at Windham, in the town
school and in the old Portland Academy.
His schooling" was soon completed, for at
the age of twelve he became a shop-boy
in Portland haberdashery store, and
from that time forward was thrown en-
tirely upon his own resources. But he never
ceased to be a student. He had always book
at hand at leisure moments. When he was at
his busiest, ten years later, dashing off novels,
poems and sketches with facility which as
tonished his associates, he read law at the
rate of two hundred pages day, studied four
or five languages together with history, polit-
ical economy, and metaphysics. This habit
of study he maintained to the last of his life,
aud has often been heard to say that he
never suffered day to pass during which he
did not acquire some new fact in some de-
partment of knowledge.
A boy of his indomitabe energy did not
sweep floors and deliver parcels long. He
was soon behind the counter-indeed fire.
quently over it, for his unconquerable pug
nacity would not permit him to endure in
suit from querulous or complaining custo-
mers. Soon firing of even the merely nomi-
nal dependence of employment in the SER
vice. of others he resolved, after the manner
of the genuine Yankee boy, to blaze a trail
for himself His first essay was as teacher of
penmanship, an art of which he seems to
have known nothing. Absense of knowl-
edge did not however deter him from teach
ing, nor did it cause him any want of pupils.
After year or two in travelling about the
towns of Maine, he went back to trade, clerk
in q If at Portsmouth and Poctop o,,d 6nour
drifted to Baltimore in 1915, where, having
saved some money, he associated himself in
business with John Pierpont, at later day
author of "The Airs of Palestine" The
firm met with varying success, and after
year of existence went into bankruptcy.
Neal then turned his attention to the law,
and at the same time began his long literary
career by contributing to The Portico,
monthly magazine published in Baltimore.
A knot of young fellows, including Neal,
Pierpont, Paul Allen, William Winder and
others of lesser note, formed mutual ad-
miration society, christened themselves Del
phians, and met and read their screeds to
each other, each reader being generously ap-
plaCded by his listeners. The result of their
labors was The Portico. Mr.. Neal did not
find contributing to The Portico very remu-
nerative work. and in 1916 determined to
write novel. The next year "Keep Coop
was published, and was followed in rapid
succession by 'The American Revolution, -
history long credited to Paul Allen, 'Nia-
gara," "Goldau," and other poems, "Otho,"
a tragedy, volume of magazine essays, and
the tales, "LogaD," "Seventy-Six," cram
dolph" and ''Errata." The astonishing rapid
ity with which he wrote was a wonder to his
friends and the public. "Logan" was writ
ten in six weeks, 'Seventy-Sx" in twenty
seven days. Between October 1921 and
March 1922 he wrote and published eight
large duodecimos. His tales took the public
by storm, and he was soon in receipt of a
com Portable income. But he had oyerworked
himself, and one day fell from his chair in a
Iainting fit, the first and only one of his life.
Admonished by this he entered upon a course
of physical exercise, walking, riding, fencing
and sparring, Of which last he became pas
sionately fond, much to the discomfort in af.
leS tlneS ol his personal enemies. Almost to
the last of his life he retained his athletic
habits, and TO them was indebted for the
length of his days.
He soon recovered his health, and the in
solent inquiry of an English reviewer, "Who
reads an American book ?" sent bim Off with
his usual impetuosity, to England to answer
that question, He was not unknown there,
for "Logan" and ''Seventy-Six' had been
republished over the sea. In 1926 ne reached
London, and soon after began to contribute
to Blackwood, the Westminster and other
British magazines, his entertaining sketches
of American history and American authors,
and his tale "Brother Jonathan" In 1927.
after trip to the continent, he returned to
this country ard took I'm his Tesidance II, tb;e