The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-18
attain recognition,


with her what is usually done with those
who leap at bound into popular favor
Having wearied of the Browning fad, and
the Ibsen fad beinga momentary delusion,
while the Rudyard Kipling fad failed to
take any root at all, of sudden Boston
discovered Miss Wilkins, and is now max
ing fad of her and her writings. Some
body told her a few days ago that they
were making a fad of her. and it amused
her greatly. 81 hope not" she said, "be-
cause / do not want to have the experience
which Ibsen and Browning have had with
the fad makers"
Miss Wilkins is younger than Miss
Jewett, but whether she is to be regarded
as prettier or not depends upon individual
opinions regarding feminine beauty. She
is merry faced, bright eyed woman, pos
sessed of the keenest sense of humor, and
of constant disposition to crafty it. She
was bred in village a few miles away
from Boston, and yet far enough away to
preserve without contamination with city
manners the quaint and individual charac-
teristics to be found in New England
country village From her earliest child
hood Miss Wilkins found the greatest de-
light in associating with the odd and orig
inal persons whom she met, and it is from
these early experiences that she is now
drawing her material for her inimitable
sketches. She began to write in a timid
sort of way a few years ago. Her sketches
were very short, not running over column
and half of ordinary Sewspaper matter,
and they were prirte,. with small profit,
no fame, and with hardly any other salts
faction to her than her own delight at see
ing her compositions in print
All the sketches had some little plot to
turn upon, but the plot was secondary and
the value of the sketches was in their
Photographic and yet romantic delineation
of the odd characters she knew Humor
and pathos were combined in them, and at
last literary judges noticing these articles
printed here and there were struck with
their wonderful fidelity, remarkable real
ism and yet with the charm of romance
which revealed literary grace and the subtle
flavor which makes a sketch from nature
a delight. At last they found out who the
writer was, and in a day almost Miss Will
kins found herself favorite of the public.
OF course the usual result followed The
long lane was turned, and with fame is
coming fortune, for she has all that she
can do, and could do much more for large
prices if she had time and strength
Miss Jewett would probably have always
remained a sort of idol of the exclusive
cult of Boston had she continued to con-
fine her work to publication in exclusive
periodicals. But for the last year or two
she seems to have realized that there. is a
wider world than that living on the shores
of Massachusetts bay, and she has written
for 1t. The result proves the seundness of
her Judgment, for she is becoming widely
known, and is finding a market at high
prices for all that she can write. Her
stories have not the broad, aggressive
humor that is to be found in Miss Wilkins
sketches, and she sometimes makes the
mistake of attempting the analytical. That.
however, was fault of her earlier days.
and she has learned of late that the charm
of a story is to be found in the story itself.
and not in the fine writing of the author
or the manifest skill with which the liter
airy dissecting knife is used Her stories
are longer, too, than Miss wilkins, al
though she is to be classed with the short
story writers.
Miss Jewett is the daughter CT q country
doctor, born and brought up within sight
OF the sea as it makes up near the Isle of
Shoals. The impressions of her childhood
obtained by contact with seafaring people
and the salty favored persons who make
an humble living on the Maine coast, are
the great store house from which she now
draws for her stories. The scent of salt
air, Of summer seas and winter tempests
is in her stories, and she has been able to
convey in them some sense of the pathos
and solemnity which accompany lone
dwelling by the oceans side
There is difference of opinion between
those who have seen Miss Jewett respect
ing her personal appearance. Some regard
her as the most interesting and remarkable
type of intellectual beauty of countenance
to be found anywhere; others regard her
as an attractive woman, but not beautiful
and scarcely pretty; but all admit, however,
a charm of personality which can hardly be
expressed in words. E. j. EDWARDS.