The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-23
THREE NOVELS.
win vIsscher. in Omaha Republican.

VIII NIsscner, sn Omaha Republican.
 CHICAGO, May 2s, 188S.-Three members of the Chicago Press club have just published each a book and all are novels, which have immediate ly taken high place in literary fic- tion. These books are "Len Gansett, i" by Opie P. Read, editor of THE AR KANsAw TRAvELER, "The Gambler, 9 by Franc Wilkie, who was many years leading man on the staff of the Chi cago Times, and "The Man Behind, ]" by T. s. Denison, prominent Chica- go publisher, who is also the author Of "An Iron Crown"
 The three authors have wisely chos- en to write about people and regions of whom they know the most, and each has pitched his scene in the locale with which he is most familiar.
 Read has drawn a remarkable pict- ure, in "Len Gansett," of life in the backwoods of Arkansas. He has po- etized scraggy woods and thin soiled fields, sluggish streams and their un- romantic banks, poor log cabin and an obscure village; has made charm ing heroine.of an ignorant little coun- try lass and unmasks the pretenses of an elegant parvenue of the same sex {; he turns highly intelligent man, who has the confidence of his neighbors, into stage-robber, depicts the life of a country editor of such a region with a faithfulness that is wonderful, and withal, weaves romance among homely scenes and "ro' white trash" which is delightful from title to fnis, and yet as natural as one of the fence rails split out by one of his rugged characters.
 In the story the dialect and pdtois of the natives are given with a perfec- tion which evinces thorough &C., quaintance and well-saved observa- tion. Yet in the work there are in- disputab'e evidences that the author is reader of the best literature and that he has deep insight into human nature and it's springs. "Len Gansett" has been received with a hearty well come by the literary people of the east, as we'll as Chicago, and it is al- ready success at the book stores. Reads friends are very proud of his book, and the critics are saying he promises to be the American novelist of the day.
 MT. Wilkie, who has been so many years citizen and close observer in Chicago, and who has been able to see so much of the ins and outs of a great city by his unceasing work On one of it's greatest newspapers-being brought hourly and daily in contact with the happenings of a modern Babel-has told, in "The Gambler" of the dangers which beset young man, who with brilliant start in life, drifts into the maelstrom of vice, which in its never ceasing whirl is sucking down and sinking weak hu- manity, in q nineteeth century me- tropolis. In the story, which is beau- tifully told, and with all the strength of forceful writer, MT. Wilkie has clothed mighty moral in attractive garments, and while reading the book one hears the buzz and rattle of the streets, the roar of the city's mighty current; the glare of electric lights, the flash and glitter of the city are in his eyes he is led through the lab- yrinths and mazes where both vice and virtue go, and, altogether, Mir. | Wilkie has written a book which will be fortune to many yodng man from the country who goes to the city to win his way. He has drawn faithful picture from the scene which has long been before him.
 MT. Denison's book, "The Man Be- hind," is sketched amid the climber set" of the "Paw Paw state," and his characters, as they advance in life, in virtue and vice, in success and failure, are removed to Marionopolis, the capital of the commonwealth. When one reads the book and then meets the author he is sure to say, inquiring ly, "Iou must have known these peo- | ple?" and he will receive the reply, "I was born and raised among them" The book is remarkably like "Len Gansett" at first, and yet remarkably unlike it all the way through. It is alike in that it takes its characters from among plain natives, some low and some good geople, and in that it is strong in its dialect and is strik- ingly true as backwoods picture. It is written, however, in more matter of fact vein and yet with great strength and in a style decidedly scholarly. It is intensely interesting and the author has a way of fre- quently moralizing in such a manner that the reader has no inclination to skip the moralizing passages, as he does in many novels.
 All three of the books are pro- nounced successes, and they mark the beginning of a literary new departure in the west which the cultured east recognizes as brilliant and which the general public receives as refreshing.