Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-03
BOOK TALK.
(By W. h. Al

after periodical, exclusively devoted TO
books and their makers. read of good
books and bad books and Indifferent
books-Oh, go many Indifferent books
and there was no end of gossip about
this, that or the other writer who hap
pened, for the moment, to be in the eye
OF the public.
Altogether the most interesting thing,
however, that ran across in my cursory
review OF the reviewers was little
article by Arlo Bates in the June Book
Buyer. 1t was The Story of Short
Story, a pathetic little history of
woman whose first short story was such
q success as to turn her head literary
wards, and she never turned it in the
common sense direction again. She
continued, through long life of perpet-
ual disappointment, to flood the peri
odicals with her subsequent efforts, not
one Of which was anything but miser-
able failure. All this serves to give
verisimilitude to Mr.. Bates's assertion,
that "a good first novel does not neces-
sarily prove anything more than that
the writer has been fortunate in associ-
atiDg with original persons, and good
Mr.. Bates then remarks that almost
any body of average intelligence can
write one good short story, but it does
not follow that he can write two. DR..
Holmes has somewhere expressed the
same idea as regards the writing of
novels. 1t is his opinion, that anyone
of average ability ought to be able to
write one good novel out of the fullness
of personal experience-the second
would be the test of his creative genius.
Mr.. Bates and the Autocrat may be
Correct in theory but experience
proves, that most of the present-day
writers who are attempting to put the
theory into practice neglect to write the
"first" good story. Perhaps they only
publish their subsequent productions
at any rate, what they do publish abun-
dainty proves the correctness of part
at least of the theory.
Now the ultimate object that Mr..
Bates had in view, and that which led
him to formulate this theory and tell
this story, was to ridicule the question
as to whether or not the short story is
likely to usurp the province of the
novel, and in the end drive it's lengthy
rival from the field This he considers
utterly idiotic," and assures us that
sit would be just as sensible to ask
whether the prevalence of shrubs in a
given pasture did not prove
that the state of the
earth's growth and development which
produces trees was past ard a deca-
dence had set in, go that hereafter there
were to be only shrubs in the world"
He ia right. In the great woodland
of fiction there is room for both the
shrub and the forest tree; and there
will be always those who admire the
one for its grace, the other for its gran
deur. intermediate growths and grada-
tions will ever find some one to give
them preference; and the clumps and
groves of divers kinds, segregated from
each other and the rest by peculi-
arities OF growth and verdure, will have
no lack of advocates. But the idea that
any one class will triumph to the exclu-
sion of the rest is not 10 be entertained.
The multivarious discussions of the
possible supremacy OF the short story
over the novel are the natural result Of
the recent demand for that Glars of fic.
ton. Kipling perhaps started the fash
ion when his Plain Tales from the Hills
were gathered into a book and people
began talking about the precocious
young man from India. Since then
the demand for short stories has
been steadily increasing, and con-
sequent supply bas sprung up to meet
it. Old stories have been collected from
the magazines and republished in book
form, and many new ones, some of great
excellence, have been written. Ameri-
ca, never behindhand in ANYTHING, has
taken the lead here. Mary E. wilkins,
James Lane Allen, Hamlin Garland,
Richard Harding Davis and Thomas
Nelson Page are all names to conjure
with, and the list is growing apace.
But for all this unwonted activity in
the production of the short story. the
publishers lists chow no material fall
ing in the novel line; on the contrary,
novel writers seem to be on the In
crease, and not one of the successful
writer's of short stories will consider
that he or she has established claim
to the recognition of future generations,
until his or her name appears upon the
title page of some work of more endur-
ing length. The short story may pre-
vail for an hour or a day but to the
novel is accorded immortality.
x*x
The club men of New York are evi-
IDENTIFY racy set of jolly good fellows
and a light literature to suit their es-
pecial taste must be furnished them.
This Town Topics, a Journal of Society,
undertakes to do.
Town Topics has merrily meandered
through some twenty. seven volumes,
and it has now taken to rescuing from
the oblivion of the office file many oi
the good things in which it's pages
abound good, that is, from the stand
point of those for whom they were es.
pecially prepared. They are issued IL,
an attractive-looking paper bound
series, entitled, Tales from Town Topics,
and the number thereof is four, with
more to follow.
Iconfess myself rather unfamiliar with
the Town Topics" class OF literature
and so when / was introduced to No.
of the "Tales," made my initial bow
to new acquaintance.
just how to characterize theee tales
am at loss; but the fact remains that
many of them drift dangerously neal
the verge of decency, and though never
grossly vulgar, their high flavor of ultra
suggestiveness would bring the blush tc
the cheek OF more hardened sin
ners than the average member
of the Y. M. @. A.; nor,
ween, are the Sunday school libraries
the only ones that will deny them shell
room. Ii they have a redeeming tea
fure, it lies in their keen, witty, satirica
attacks upon the ssfads, foibleH and
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